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Series  xxvi 


Nos.  7-8 


JOHNS  HOPKINS  UNIVERSITY  STUDIES 

IN 

Historical  and  Political  Science 

Under  the  Direction  of  the 

Departments  of  History,  Political  Economy,  and 
Political  Science 


THE  ELIZABETHAN  PARISH  IN  ITS 
ECCLESIASTICAL  AND  FINAN- 
CIAL ASPECTS 


BY 


SEDLEY  LYNCH  WARE,  A.B.,  LLB. 

Fellow  in  History. 


BALTIMORE 
THE  JOHNS  HOPKINS  PRESS 

PUBLISHED  MONTHLY 

July— August,  1908 


Copyright  1908  by 
THE  JOHNS  HOPKINS  PRESS 


Priss  or 

The  HtW  En*  PRINTIHS  COMPANY 
LANCASTER.   PA. 


PREFACE. 

These  chapters  are  but  part  of  a  larger  work  on  the 
Elizabethan  jparish  designed  to  cover  all  the  aspects  of 
parish  government.  There  is  need  of  a  comprehensive 
study  of  the  parish  institutions  of  this  period,  owing  to  the 
fact  that  no  modem  work  exists  that  in  any  thorough  way 
pretends  to  discuss  the  subject.  The  work  of  Toulmin 
Smith  was  written  to  defend  a  theory,  while  the  recent  his- 
tory of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Webb  deals  in  the  main  with  the 
parish  subsequent  to  the  year  1688.  The  material  already 
in  print  for  such  a  study  is  very  voluminous,  the  accumula- 
tion of  texts  having  progressed  more  rapidly  than  the  use 
of  them  by  scholars. 

My  subject  was  suggested  to  me  by  Professor  Vincent, 
to  whom  as  well  as  to  Professor  Andrews  I  am  indebted 
for  advice  and  assistance  throughout  this  work.  In  Eng- 
land I  have  to  thank  Messrs.  Sidney  Webb,  Hubert  Hall 
and  George  Unwin,  of  the  London  School  of  Economics, 
for  reading  manuscript  and  suggesting  improvements.  For 
similar  help  and  for  reference  to  new  material  my  acknowl- 
edgments are  due  to  Mr.  C.  H.  Firth,  Regius  Professor  of 
Modern  History,  Oxford,  and  to  Mr.  C.  R.  L.  Fletcher, 
of  Magdalen  College.  At  the  British  Museum  I  found  the 
officials  most  courteous,  while  the  librarians  of  the  Pea- 
body  Institute,  Baltimore,  have  given  me  every  aid  in  their 
power. 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   I. 
The  Ecclesiastical  Government  of  the  Parish. 

PAGE 

Its  Importance  in  Local  Government 9 

Archdeacons'  Courts  11 

Illustrations  from  Act  Books  of  Judicial  Administration...  17 

Churchwardens'  Duties  23 

Ministers'  Duties   :  •  •  30 

Obligations  Exacted  from  All  Alike 34 

Control  of  Church  over  Education  and  Opinion 43 

How  Courts  Christian  Enforced  their  Decrees 46 

Effectiveness  of  Excommunication 47 

Evils  and  Abuses  of  the  System 52 

Jurisdiction  of  Queen's  Judges  in  Ecclesiastical  Matters  ...  57 

CHAPTER   II. 

Parish  Finance. 

Endowed   Parishes    59 

Expedients  for  Raising  Money. 

Church-ales,  Plays,  Games,  Etc 70 

Offerings  and  Gatherings 77 

Communion  Dues   78 

Sale  of  Seats,  Pew  Rents 80 

Parish  Tariffs  for  Burials,  Marriages,  Etc 81 

Income  from  Fines  and  Miscellaneous  Receipts 83 

Rates  and  Assessments 88 

Independence  of  Parish  as  a  Financial  Unit 90 

Significance  of  this  in  County  Government 91 


THE  ELIZABETHAN  PARISH    IN   ITS  ECCLE- 
SIASTICAL AND  FINANCIAL  ASPECTS. 


CHAPTER   I. 
The  Ecclesiastical  Government  of  the  Parish. 

The  ecclesiastical  administration  of  the  English  parish 
from  the  period  of  the  Reformation  down  to  the  outbreak 
of  the  great  Civil  War  is  a  subject  which  has  been  much 
neglected  by  historians  of  local  institutions.  Yet  during 
the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  at  least,  the  church  courts  took  as 
large  a  share  in  parish  government  as  did  the  justices  of 
the  peace.  Not  only  were  there  many  obligations  enforced 
by  the  ordinaries  which  today  would  be  purely  civil  in  char- 
acter, but  to  contemporaries  the  maintenance  of  the  church 
fabric  and  furniture  appeared  every  whit  as  important  as 
the  repairing  of  roads  and  bridges;  while  the  obligation  to 
attend  church  and  receive  communion  was  on  a  par  with 
that  to  attend  musters,  but  with  this  difference,  that  the 
former  requirement  aflfected  all  alike,  while  the  latter  ap- 
plied to  comparatively  few  of  the  parishioners. 

In  the  theory  of  the  times,  indeed,  every  member  of  the 
commonwealth  was  also  a  member  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, and  conversely.  Allegiance  to  both  was,  according 
to  the  simile  of  the  Elizabethan  divine,  in  its  nature  as  in- 
distinguishable as  are  the  sides  of  a  triangle,  of  which  any 
line  indifferently  may  form  a  side  or  a  base  according  to 
the  angle  of  approach  of  the  observer.^  The  Queen  was 
head  of  the  commonwealth  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  of  the 
commonwealth  civil,  and  as  well  apprized  of  her  spiritual 
as  of  her  temporal  judges.^     For  both  sets  of  judges  equally 

'Richard  Hooker,  Ecclesiastical  Polity,  Bk.  viii,  448-9  (ed.  1666). 
'Coke,  4  Inst.,  320  (ed.  1797). 

9 


10  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [312 

Parliament  legislated,  or  sanctioned  legislation.  Some- 
times, in  fact,  it  became  a  mere  matter  of  expediency 
whether  a  court  Christian  or  a  common  law  tribunal  should 
be  charged  with  the  enforcement  of  legislation  on  parochial 
matters.  Thus  the  provisions  of  the  Rubric  of  the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer  were  enforced  by  the  justices  as  well  as 
by- the  ordinaries.  Again,  secular  and  ecclesiastical  judges 
had  concurrent  jurisdiction  over  church  attendance,  and — 
at  any  rate  between  1572  and  1597^ — over  the  care  of  the 
parish  poor.  Finally,  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  men 
who  actually  sat  as  judges  in  the  archdeacon's  or  the 
bishop's  court  were  necessarily  in  orders.  In  point  of  fact 
a  large  proportion,  perhaps  a  large  majority  of  them,  were 
laymen,  since  the  act  of  Henry  VIII  in  1545  permitted  mar- 
ried civilians  to  exercise  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction.* 

In  the  treatment  of  our  subject  the  plan  we  shall  follow 
is,  first,  to  make  some  preliminary  observations  as  to  the 
times,  places  and  modes  of  holding  the  church  courts ;  sec- 
ond, with  the  aid  of  illustrations  drawn  from  the  act-books 
of  these  courts,  to  show  how  their  judicial  administration 
was  exercised  over  the  parish,  either  through  the  medium 
of  the  parish  officers  or  directly  upon  the  parishioners  them- 
selves ;  third,  to  analyze  the  means  at  the  command  of  the 
ecclesiastical  judges  to  enforce  their  decrees;  and,  finally, 

*  See  14  Eliz.  c.  5,  sec.  16,  and  39  Eliz.  c.  3. 

*2>7  Hen.  VIII,  c.  17,  re-enacted  i  Eliz.  c.  i.  "The  real  effect 
of  the  statute  was  this — that  lay  lawyers  were  substituted  for  the 
clerical  canonists  of  pre-Reformation  times."  Lewis  T.  Dibden, 
An  Historical  Inquiry  into  the  Status  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Courts 
(1882),  59,  By  canon  cxxvii  of  the  Canons  of  1604  in  order  to  be 
a  chancellor,  a  commissary,  or  an  official  in  the  courts  Christian,  a 
man  must  be  "ad  minimum  magister  artium,  aut  in  jure  bacalareus, 
ac  in  praxi  et  causis  forensibus  laudabiliter  exercitatus."  E.  Card- 
well,  Synodalia  (etc.),  i,  236.  Cf.  Blomefield,  Hist,  of  Norfolk,  iii, 
655-6  (Parker's  report,  1563.  Officials  of  the  archdeacons  not  re- 
quired to  be  in  orders).  E.  Cardwell,  Documentary  Annals  of  the 
Reformed  Church  of  England,  i,  426  (Complaint  in  a  document  of 
circa  1584  [or  later]  that  excommunication  is  executed  by  laymen. 
In  the  answer  by  the  bishops  it  is  stated  [ibid.,  428]  inter  alia,  "  that 
in  later  times,  divines  have  wholly  employed  themselves  to  divinity 
and  not  to  the  proceedings  and  study  of  the  law").  To  the  same 
effect,  but  for  a  later  period,  see  White  Kennett,  Parochial  An- 
tiquities (Oxon.  ed.  1695),  642. 


313]        Ecclesiastical  Government  of  the  Parish.  1 1 

to  point  out  that  from  its  very  nature  the  exercise  of  spirit- 
ual jurisdiction  was  liable  to  abuses,  and  must  at  all  times 
have  proved  unpopular. 

Speaking  generally  (for  the  jurisdictions  called  "pecu- 
liars" formed  exceptions),  England  was  divided  for  the 
purposes  of  local  ecclesiastical  administration  and  discipline 
into  archdeaconries,  each  comprising  a  varying  number  of 
parishes.  Twice  a  year  as  a  rule  the  archdeacon,  or  his 
official  in  his  place,  held  a  visitation  or  kept  a  general  court 
(the  two  terms  being  synonymous)  in  the  church  of  some 
market  town — not  always  the  same — of  the  archdeaconry. 
The  usual  times  for  these  visitations  were  Easter  and 
Michaelmas.  The  bishops  also  commonly  held  visitations 
in  person,  or  by  vicars-general  or  chancellors,  once  every 
third  year  throughout  their  dioceses.  Yet  at  the  semi- 
annual visitations  of  the  archdeacon  as  well  as  at  the  tri- 
ennial visitations  of  the  bishop,  the  mode  of  procedure,  the 
class  of  offences,  the  parish  officers  summoned,  the  disci- 
pline exercised — all  were  the  same,  the  bishop's  court  being 
simply  substituted  for  the  time  being  for  that  of  the  arch- 
deacon. 

There  were  other  visitations :  those  of  the  Queen's  High 
Commissioners,  and  those  of  the  Metropolitan.  There  were 
a  very  great  number  of  other  courts,  but  for  the  purposes 
of  the  every-day  ecclesiastical  governance  of  the  parish  the 
two  classes  of  courts  or  visitations  above  mentioned  are  all 
that  need  concern  us.  It  is,  however,  important  to  state, 
that  while  churchwardens  and  sidemen  were  compelled  to 
attend  the  two  general  courts  of  the  archdeacon  (and  of 
course  the  bishop's  court)  and  to  write  out  on  each  occa- 
sion formal  lists  of  offenders  and  offences  ("  presentments  " 
or  "detections")  these  parish  officers  might  also  at  any 
time  make  voluntary  presentments  to  the  archdeacons. 
Those  functionaries,  in  fact,  seem  to  have  held  sittings  for 
the  transaction  of  current  business,  or  of  matters  which 
could  not  be  terminated  at  the  visitation,  every  month,  or 
even  every  three   weeks.     Others   may  have   sat    (as   we 


12  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [314 

should  say  of  a  common-law  judge)  in  chambers.'*  Before 
each  general  visitation  an  apparitor  or  summoner  of  the 
court  went  about  and  gave  warning  to  the  churchwardens 
of  some  half-dozen  parishes,  more  or  less,  to  be  in  attend- 
ance with  other  parish  officers  on  a  day  fixed  in  some  church 
centrally  located  in  respect  of  the  parishes  selected  for  that 
day's  visitation. 

The  church  of  each  parish  was,  indeed,  not  only  its  place 
for  worship,  but  also  the  seat  and  centre  for  the  transaction 
of  all  business  concerning  the  parish.  In  it,  according  to 
law,  the  minister  had  to  read  aloud  from  time  to  time  ar- 
ticles of  inquiry  founded  on  the  Queen's  or  the  diocesan's 
injunctions,  and  to  admonish  wardens  and  sidemen  to  pre- 
sent offences  under  these  articles  at  the  next  visitation.®  In 
it  also  he  gave  monition  for  the  annual  choice  of  collectors 
for  the  poor ;''  warning  for  the  yearly  perambulation  of  the 
parish  bounds  f  and  public  announcement  of  the  six  certain 
days  on  which  each  year  every  parishioner  had  to  attend  in 

*  Harrison,  writing  in  1577,  says  that  archdeacons  keep,  beside  two 
visitations  or  synods  yearly,  "  their  ordinarie  courts  which  are  holden 
within  so  manie  or  more  of  their  several  deaneries  by  themselues 
or  their  officials  once  in  a  moneth  at  the  least."  Harrison,  Descrip- 
tion of  England,  Bk.  ii,  New  Shakespeare  Soc.  for  1877  (ed.  Dr. 
Furnivall),  p.  17.  Between  27th  Nov.,  1639,  and  28th  Nov.,  1640, 
there  were  thirty  sittings  in  the  court  of  the  Archdeacon  of  London. 
Hale,  Crim.  Prec,  introd.  p.  liii.  Any  casual  inspection  of  the  visi- 
tation act-books  reveals  the  fact  that  the  judge  sits  either  in  court 
or  in  chambers  between  visitations,  for  offenders  are  constantly 
ordered  to  appear  again  in  a  few  days  or  in  a  few  weeks.  Com- . 
pulsory  presentments  were,  however,  limited  by  law  and  custom  to 
two  courts  a  year.  See  canons  116  and  117  of  the  Canons  of  1604. 
Also  Gibson,  Codex,  ii,  looi. 

'See  p.  18  and  p.  20  infra.  For  the  duty  to  read  the  injunctions 
or  the  articles  based  on  them  see  p.  32  infra. 

^See  5  Eliz.  c.  3.  Stats,  of  the  Realm,  iv,  Pt.  i,  411.  Also  Visi- 
tation of  Warrington  Deanery  in  1592  by  the  Bishop  of  Chester  in 
Lancashire  and  Cheshire  Historic  Soc.  Trans.,  n.  s.,  x  (1895),  186 
et  passim.  Hereinafter  cited  as  Warrington  Deanery  Visit.  Cf.  also 
Grindal's  Injunc.  for  the  Province  of  York  (1571),  art.  17,  Remains 
of  Grindal,  Parker  Soc,  132  ff. 

•  See  Visitations  of  the  Archdeacon  of  Canterbury,  Archaeologia 
Cantiana,  xxvi  (1904),  24  (1602).  Mr.  Arthur  Hussey  has  pub- 
lished copious  extracts  from  the  act-books  of  these  visitations  ex- 
tending over  a  considerable  period  in  vols,  xxv-xxvii  of  the  Arch. 
Cant.    Hereinafter  cited  as  Canterbury  Visit.,  xxv  (etc.). 

For  perambulations  see  p.  27  infra. 


315]        Ecclesiastical  Government  of  the  Parish.  13 

person  or  send  wain  and  men  for  the  repair  of  highways." 
In  the  parish  church  also  proclamation  had  to  be  made  of 
estrays  before  the  beasts  could  be  legally  seized  and  im- 
pounded.^** Here,  too,  school-masters  often  taught  their 
pupils^^ — unless,  indeed,  the  parish  possessed  a  separate 
school-house.  Here,  in  the  vestry,  the  parish  armor  was 
frequently  kept,  and  sometimes  the  parish  powder  barrels 
were  deposited  ;^^  here  too,  occasionally,  country  parsons 
stored  their  wool  or  grain.^^ 

Finally,  in  the  parish  church  assembled  vestries  for  the 
holding  of  accounts,  the  making  of  rates  and  the  election 
of  officers.  Overseers  of  the  poor  held  their  monthly  meet- 
ings here.  Occasionally  the  neighboring  justices  of  the 
peace  met  here  to  take  the  overseers'  accounts  or  to  trans- 
act other  business;^*  and  in  the  church  also  might  be  held 
coroners'  inquests  over  dead  bodies.^'  Last,  but  not  least 
in  importance,  in  the  churches  of  the  market  towns  the  arch- 
deacon made  his  visitations  and  held  his  court ;  and  on  these 
occasions  the  sacred  edifice  rang  with-  the  unseemly  squab- 
bles of  the  proctors,  the  accusations  of  the  wardens  and 

'J.  Cordy  Jeaffreson,  Middlesex  County  Records,  i,  loo-i  (Indict- 
ment reciting  that  John  Johnson  had  had  due  notice  in  his  parish 
church,  yet  had  not  sent  his  wain,  etc.,  1576).  Cf.  provisions  of  the 
statutes  5  Eliz.  c.  13,  and  18  Eliz.  c.  10,  Stats,  of  Realm,  iv,  Pt.  i, 
441-3,  and  620-1  respectively. 

"  Brownlow  v.  Lambert,  C.  B.,  41  Eliz.,  i  Croke  Elis.  Rep., 
Leache's  ed.  (1790),  Pt.  ii,  716. 

"^Canterbury  Visit.,  xxvi,  23  (1599);  ibid.,  20  (1591).  W.  H. 
Hale,  A  Series  of  Precedents  in  Criminal  Causes  from  the  Act 
Books  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Courts  of  London,  1475-1640  (pub.  in 
1847),  190  (Schoolmaster  of  Stock  presented  in  court  for  defacing 
the  church  "in  makinge  a  fire  for  his  schollers,"  1587).  This  work 
hereinafter  cited  as  Hale,  Crim.  Prec. 

"  Constables  Acc'ts  of  Melton  in  Leicester  Architec.  and  Archcsol. 
Soc.  Trans.,  iii  (1874),  72-3.  Chelmsford  Churchwardens  Acc'ts 
in  Essex  Archceol.  Soc.  Trans.,  ii  (1863),  225  flf. 

"  Stratton  (Cornwall)  Churchwardens  Acc'ts,  Archceologia,  xlvi, 
200  ff.  s.  a.  1565  and  editor's  note. 

"  "  Sir  W. .  A. .  and  I  with  divers  other  justices,  being  met  together 
at  Sondon  church"  (1582).  Strype,  Annals  of  the  Reformation, 
iii,  Pt.  ii,  214.    This  meeting  here  may  have  been  in  the  churchyard. 

"See  in  the  Antiquary,  xxxii  (1896),  147-8,  the  inquest  held  at 
St.  Botolph  Extra  Aldgate  (1590),  and  the  coroner's  judgment  de- 
livered in  the  church  that  a  suicide  should  be  buried  at  cross-roads 
with  a  stake  through  her  breast. 


14  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [316 

sidemen  or  of  the  apparitor,  and  the  recriminations  of  the 
accused — in  short,  the  church  was  turned  for  the  time  being 
into  a  moral  police  court,  where  all  the  parish  scandal  was 
carefully  gone  over  and  ventilated,^^ 

The  ecclesiastical  courts  carried  on  their  judicial  admin- 
istration of  the  parish  largely,  of  course,  through  the  me- 
dium of  the  officers  of  the  parish.  These  were  the  church- 
wardens, the  sidemen  and  the  incumbent,  whether  rector, 
vicar  or  curate,^^ 

First  in  importance  were  the  churchwardens.  Though 
legislation  throughout  the  time  of  Elizabeth  was  ever  add- 
ing to  their  functions  duties  purely  civil  in  their  nature,  and 
though  they  themselves  were  more  and  more  subjected  to 
the  control  of  the  justices  of  the  peace,  nevertheless  it  is 
true  to  say  that  to  the  end  of  the  reign  the  office  of  church- 
warden is  one  mainly  appertaining  to  the  jurisdiction  and 
supervision  of  the  courts  Christian. 

The  doctrine  of  the  courts  that  churchwardens  were 
merely  civil  officers  belongs  to  a  later  period.^^ 

"  For  the  noisy  proceedings  in  Bow  Church  and  in  St.  Paul's, 
London,  see  The  Spiritual  Courts  epitomised  [etc.],  a  satire  printed 
in  1641  at  London.  For  this  and  similar  satires  see  Mr.  Stephen's 
Catalogue  of  Political  and  Personal  Satires  in  Brit.  Mus.  (1870). 
Cf.  Strype,  Life  of  Grindal  (Oxon.  ed.  1821),  83  ff.  (Proclamation 
of  1561  for  reverent  use  of  churches).  Also  Augustus  Jessop, 
One  Generation  of  a  Norfolk  House,  15.  Sir  J.  F.  Stephen,  Hist, 
of  Criminal  Law,  ii.  404. 

"In  the  Canons  of  1571  the  churchwardens  are  called  " ceditui," 
in  those  of  1604  "  ceconomi."  In  the  older  churchwardens  accounts 
their  Latin  designations  are  "  gardiani "  and  "  custodes,"  some- 
times " prepositi"  (or  'reeves').  English  equivalents  are  church- 
men, highwardens,  stockwardens  (alewardens  even),  kirkmasters, 
church  masters,  proctors,  etc.  Sidemen  are  called  also  questmen, 
assistants  and  (apparently)  sworn  men  or  j urates.  They  do  not 
always  appear  in  small  country  parishes,  neither  are  they  generally 
found  before  the  latter  half  of  Elizabeth's  reign.  Their  Latin  ap- 
pelation  was  "fide  digni,"  and  they  were  chosen  from  among  the 
parishioners  to  the  number  of  two,  four,  six  or  more  to  present 
offences  along  with  the  churchwardens,  or  offences  which  the  ward- 
ens would  not  present  (Gibson,  Codex,  ii,  1000).  The  sidemen 
went  about  the  parish  during  service  time  with  the  wardens  and 
warned  persons  to  come  to  church  (See  p.  2^  infra).  For  rector, 
etc.,  see  p.  30  infra.    ■ 

/*Toulmin  Smith,  The  Parish  (2d  ed.,  1857),  69  ff.,  strongly  in- 
sists that  churchwardens  "  never  were  ecclesiastical  officers."  But 
the  authorities  he  cites  are  post-Elizabethan.    The  courts  in  Eliza- 


317]        Ecclesiastical  Government  of  the  Parish.  15 

After  a  churchwarden  had  been  chosen  or  elected,  he 
took  the  oath  of  office  before  the  archdeacon.  In  this  he 
swore  to  observe  the  Queen's  and  the  bishop's  injunctions, 
and  to  cause  others  to  observe  them;  to  present  violators 
of  the  same  to  the  sworn  men  (or  sidemen),  or  to  the  ordi- 
nary's chancellor  or  official,  or  to  the  Queen's  high  commis- 
sioners ;  finally,  he  swore  to  yield  up  a  faithful  accounting 
to  the  parish  of  all  sums  that  had  passed  through  his  hands 
during  his  term  of  office.^® 

Before  each  visitation  day,  as  has  been  said,  the  arch- 
deacon's or  the  bishop's  summoner  went  to  each  parish  and 
gave  warning  that  a  court  would  be  held  in  such  and  such 
a  church  on  such  and  such  a  day.  Pending  that  day  war- 
dens and  sidemen  drew  up  their  bills  of  presentment. 
These  bills  were  definite  answers  to  a  series  of  articles  of 
inquiry  founded  on  the  diocesan's  injunctions,  themselves 
based  on  the  Queen's  Injunctions  of  1559  and  on  the  Can- 
ons.2**  Failure  to  present  offences  was  promptly  punished 
by  the  judge.^^     Failure  to  attend  court  when  duly  warned 

beth's  time  held  that  the  execution  of  the  office  "  doth  belong  to 
the  Spiritual]  jurisdiction"  (See  Brown  v.  Lother,  40  Eliz.,  in  /. 
Gouldsborough's  Rep.,  ed.  1653,  p.  113).  Lambard  (The  Duties  of 
Constables,  etc.,  ed.  1619,  p.  70)  says  that  wardens  are  taken  in 
favor  of  the  church  to  be  a  corporation  at  common  law  for  some 
purposes,  viz.,  to  be  trustees  for  the  church  goods  and  chattels. 

"  See  "  The  Othe  which  the  Parsons  .  .  .  shall  minister  to  the 
Churche  Wardens,"  of  which  the  text  is  given  in  Bishop  Barnes*  In- 
junctions and  other  Ecclesiastical  Proceedings,  Surtees  Soc.,  xxii 
(1850),  26  (Hereinafter  cited  as  Barnes'  Eccles.  Proc.).  The 
wording  of  this  oath  is  evidently  very  similar  to,  if  not  identical 
with,  that  of  the  oath  administered  to  the  wardens  by  the  arch- 
deacon. 

*°For  a  number  of  examples  clearly  illustrating  this  point  see 
Visitations  of  the  Dean  of  York's  Peculiar,  Yorkshire  Archaeolog- 
ical Journal,  xviii  (1905),  202,  221,  222,  224,  et  passim.  Hereinafter 
cited  as  Dean  of  York's  Visit.  We  have  a  number  of  these  articles 
of  inquiry  formulated  by  archbishops  or  bishops.  E.  g.,  see  in  T. 
Nash,  Hist,  and  Antiq.  of  Worcestershire,  i,  472  (Wardens  of 
Grimley  make  answer  to  the  5th  and  6th  articles  inquired  of  by 
the  bishop  in  1585).  Cf.  Cardwell,  Doc.  Ann.,  ii,  13-16  (Whitgift's 
Articles  of  15^). 

"£.  g.,  Canterbury  Visit.,  xxv,  12  (Birchington  wardens  arraigned 
in  court  "  for  that  they  have  not  presented  divers  faults  Committed 
within  the  parish."  1591).  Act-Books  in  Barnes^  Eccles.  Proc,  118 
(A  warden  of  Long  Newton  detected  to  the  official  because  "he 
refused    to    present    faltes    with    his    fellowe    churchwardone,    et 


1 6  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [318 

was  no  less  promptly  followed  by  excommunication,  and 
then  it  was  an  expensive  matter  for  the  wardens  to  get  out 
of  the  official's  book  again.^^  But  of  fees  and  fines  more 
hereafter. 

Among  the  churchwardens'  principal  obligations,  as  laid 
down  in  the  injunctions  and  articles  they  were  sworn  to 
observe,  was  the  keeping  in  repair  of  the  church  fabric  and 
its  appurtenances,  as  well  as  the  procuring  and  the  main- 
taining in  good  condition  of  the  church  "  furniture,"  a  term 
which  in  the  language  of  the  time  included  all  the  neces- 
saries for  worship  and  the  celebration  of  the  sacraments: 
church  linen,  surplices,  the  communion  cup,  the  elements 
themselves,  bibles,  prayer  books,  the  writings  of  authorized 
commentators  on  the  Scriptures,  or  the  works  of  apologists 
for  the  Anglican  Church ;  tables  of  consanguinity  and  other 
official  documents  enjoined  to  be  kept  in  every  parish  by 
the  diocesan. 2^ 

The  visitation  act-books  of  the  period  abundantly  show 

fatebatur  delationetn,  viz.,  that  he  wolde  not  present  his  owne  wief." 
1579)-  Ibid.,  129  (1580).  See  also  Warrington  Deanery  Visit., 
i^  ("Departing  and  not  exhibitinge  there  presentments").  W. 
H.  Hale,  Precedents  in  Causes  of  Office  against  Churchwardens 
and  Others  (1841),  81  (Wardens  of  Sarratt  [Herts]  excommuni- 
cated for  not  exhibiting  their  "  billas  deteciionum."  1577) .  The  last 
named  work  hereinafter  cited  as  Hale,  Churchwardens'  Prec. 

^For  numerous  examples  of  excommunication  for  non-appear- 
ance, see  Barnes'  Eccles.  Proc,  29  ff.  Under  the  heading  of  each 
parish  we  see  "aegrotat,"  or  "  excusatur,"  or  "  nullo  modo "  {sc. 
comparuit)  placed  after  the  name  of  each  person  cited  to  attend 
from  that  parish.  Incumbents,  wardens  and  sidemen  were  almost 
always  in  attendance.  Schoolmasters  usually  so  when  there  were 
such.  Delinquent  parishioners  were  of  course  cited  in  person,  or 
remanded  to  appear  at  the  next  court  day  holden  elsewhere.  Upon 
non-appearance  the  formula  usually  entered  by  the  registrar  or 
scribe  in  the  act-book  was  "  et  otnnes  et  singulos  hujusmodi  non 
comparentes  [judex]  pronuntiavit  contumaces  et  eos  excommunicavit 
in  scriptis."  At  Alnwick  in  1578  fifteen  persons  were  excommuni- 
cated for  non-attendance.  Barnes'  Eccles.  Proc,  41.  Cf.  Hale, 
Critn.  Prec,  passim. 

**  Lists  of  "  furniture,"  implements  and  books  will  be  found  in 
the  metropolitan  or  diocesan  injunctions  of  the  time.  A  typical  one 
is  given  in  Barnes'  Eccles.  Proc,  25,  entitled  "  The  furnitures,  imple- 
ments and  bookes  requisite  to  be  had  in  every  churche,  and  so 
commaunded  by  publique  aucthoritie  "  (1577).  Cf.  Cardwell,  Doc. 
Ann.,  i,  287  ff.  ("Advertisements  partly  for  due  order  in  the 
publique  administration  of  common  prayers  [etc.]  ..."  Jan., 
1564). 


319]        Ecclesiastical  Government  of  the  Parish.  17 

the  processes  employed  by  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  in 
enforcing  these  and  other  duties  (which  will  be  detailed 
in  their  turn),  and  prove  that  the  courts  Christian  were 
emphatically  administrative  as  well  as  judicial  bodies.  To 
show  these  courts  at  work  it  will  be  necessary  to  give  a 
number  of  illustrative  examples  taken  from  the  visitation 
entries.  Thus  the  wardens  of  Childwall,  having  been  pre- 
sented at  the  visitation  of  the  bishop  of  Chester,  9th  Octo- 
ber, 1592,  because  their  church  "  wanteth  reparac[i]on,"  are 
excommunicated  for  not  appearing.  On  a  subsequent  day 
John  Whittle,  who  represents  the  wardens,  informs  the 
court  that  the  repairs  have  been  executed.  Thereupon  the 
wardens  are  absolved  and  the  registrar  erases  the  word 
"  excommunicated  "  from  the  act-book.^*  At  the  same  visi- 
tation the  wardens  of  Aughton  are  presented  because 
"  there  bible  is  not  sufficient,  they  want  the  first  tome  of  the 
homilies,  Mr.  Juells  Replie  and  Apologie^'  [etc.]  .  .  .  ." 
The  two  wardens  are  enjoined  by  the  judge  to  buy  a  suffi- 
cient bible  and  to  certify  to  him  that  they  have  done  so. 

But — so  careful  is  the  supervision  over  parish  affairs — 
mere  certification  by  vicar  or  wardens  that  a  certain  article 
has  been  procured  in  obedience  to  a  court  order  will  not 
always  suffice.  If  the  thing  can  be  produced  in  court  the 
judge  often  orders  it  to  be  brought  before  him  for  personal 
inspection.  Accordingly,  when  at  the  visitation  of  the 
chancellor  of  the  bishop  of  Durham,  the  13th  March,  157%, 
the  wardens  of  Coniscliflfe  are  found  to  "  lacke  2  Salter 
bookes  [and]  one  booke  of  the  Homelies,"  they  are  admon- 
ished to  certify  "  that  they  have  the  books  detected  4th 
April  and  to  bringe  their  boks  hither."^®  Thus,  too,  the 
wardens  of  St.  Michael's,  Bishop  Stortford,  record  in  1585 
that  they  have  paid  8d.  "  when  we  brought  in  to  the  court 
the  byble  and  comunion  booke  to  shewe  before  the  comy- 

"  Warrington  Deanery  Visit.,  184. 

''That  is,  Bishop  John  Jewel's  Apologia  Ecclesiae  Anglicanae, 
published  in  1560,  and  his  Defence  of  the  Apology,  published  in  1567, 
sometimes  called  in.  the  act-books  and  wardens  accounts  (where 
both  works  are  frequently  mentioned)   The  Reply  to  Mr.  Harding. 

'^Barnes'  Eccles.  Proc,  116. 


1 8  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [320 

sary."27  There  is  a  curious  entry  in  the  same  accounts  some 
years  earlier,  viz.:  "  pd  for  showing  [shoeing]  of  an  horse 
when  mr  Jardfield  went  to  london  to  se  wether  it  was  our 
byble  that  was  lost  or  no  and  for  his  charges  .  .  .  ."^^ 

At  the  visitation  held  at  Romford  Chapel,  Essex  Arch- 
deaconry, 5th  September,  1578,  the  wardens  of  Dengie 
"  broughte  in  theire  surplice,  which  surplice  is  torne  &  verie 
indecent  &  uncomly,  as  appereth ;  whereupon  the  judge,  for 
that  theie  neglected  their  othes,  [ordered  them  to  confess 
their  fault  and  prepare]  a  newe  surplice  of  holland  cloth  of 
V  s.  thele  [the  ell],  conteyninge  viii  elles,  citra  festum  ani- 
marum  prox."  Remembering  that  money  was  then  worth 
ten  to  twelve  times  what  it  is  today,  this  was  probably  con- 
sidered too  great  a  burden  by  the  parishioners  of  Dengie. 
A  petition  must  have  been  presented  to  be  allowed  to  pro- 
cure a  cheaper  surplice,  for  on  the  6th  October  following  the 
wardens  were  permitted  to  prepare  a  surplice  containing 
six  ells  only  at  the  reduced  price  of  2s,  8d,  per  ell.^^ 

It  seems  to  have  been  the  practice  in  the  Dean  of  York's 
Peculiar  for  the  judge  to  threaten  the  churchwardens  occa- 
sionally with  a  fine  for  failure  to  repair  their  church  or 
supply  missing  requisites  for  service  by  a  fixed  day.  Thus 
at  Dean  Matthew  Hutton's  visitation,  July,  1568,  the  church- 
yards of  Hay  ton  and  of  Belby  were  found  to  be  insuffi- 
ciently fenced.  The  order  of  the  court  was:  " Habent  ad 
reparanda  premissa  citra  festum  sancti  Michaelis  proximum 
sub  pena  XX  j."^" 

So,  too,  the  Thornton  wardens  at  the  same  visitation  are 
warned  to  repair  the  body  of  their  church  "  betwixt  this 
and  Michlmes  next  upon  paine  of  X  s."^^     But  as  spiritual 

^  J.  L.  Glasscock,  The  Records  of  St.  Michael's,  Bishop  Stortford 
(1882),  63.  See  also  Minchinhampton  (Gloucester)  Acc'ts, 
Archceologia,  xxxv,  422  ff.  ("  Allowynge  the  regester  booke." 
1575) •  Shrop.  Arch,  and  Nat.  Hist.  Soc.  Tr.,  2d  Ser.,  i,  Ludlow 
Acc'ts,  s.  a.  1585-6  (Record  of  the  new  bible  and  other  books). 

^Glasscock,  op.  cit.,  59  (1578). 

^Hale,  Crim.  Prec,  170-1. 

'"Visitations  of  the  Dean  of  York's  Peculiar,  Yorkshire  Archao- 
logical  Journal,  xviii  (1905),  209. 

'^Ibid.,  210. 


32 1 J        Ecclesiastical  Government  of  the  Pctrish.  19 

tribunals  had  no  legal  power  to  fine^^  or  to  imprison,  ap- 
parently the  usual  penalty  prescribed  by  the  judges  in  case 
of  disobedience  to,  or  neglect  of,  their  orders  to  repair  or 
replace  by  a  certain  day,  was,  in  the  words  of  Bishop  Barnes 
addressed  to  the  churchwardens  in  Durham  diocese,  the 
"  paynes  of  interdiction  and  suspencion  [i,  e.,  temporary 
excommunication]  to  be  pronounced  against  themselves."'' 
Yet  here,  too,  the  wardens  did  not  escape  indirect  amerce- 
ment, for  absolution  from  interdiction  or  excommunication 
often  meant  a  payment  of  various  court  fees,  which  in  many 
cases  were  by  no  means  light.  These  fines  the  wardens 
put  to  their  credit  in  the  expense  items  of  their  accounts  if 
they  could  possibly  do  so,  and  it  is  probable  that  the  parish 
always  paid  them  except  in  cases  of  very  gross  individual 
delinquency  in  office.  Thus  the  wardens  of  St.  Martin's, 
Leicester,  record:  "  Payd  to  Mr.  Comyssarye  whe[n]  we 
was  suspendyd  for  Lackynge  a  Byble  &  to  hys  offycers 
xxiij  d."'*  The  wardens  of  Melton  Mowbray  register: 
"  Ff or  our  chargs  &  marsements  at  Lecest  [e]  r  .  .  .  for  yt 

*■  With  the  exception  of  the  High  Commission  by  the  terms  of  its 
commission.  See  the  writ  of  1559  in  Gee,  The  Elizabethan  Clergy 
and  the  Settlement  of  Religion,  150.  Also  Cardwell,  Doc.  Ann., 
i,  220,  for  the  Commission  for  York  in  1559.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
as  will  appear  from  the  illustrations  cited,  fines  were  virtually  in- 
flicted by  way  of  court  or  absolution  fees.  Again,  while  the  canons 
or  injunctions  forbade  the  commutation  of  penance  for  money, 
an  exception  was  made  for  money  taken  in  pios  usus,  such  as  church 
repair  or  the  relief  of  the  poor.  Examples  of  the  practice  will  be 
found  in  Hale,  Crim.  Prec.,  232  (Repair  of  St.  Paul's,  London)  ; 
Warrington  Deanery  Visit.,  189  (Poor)  ;  Chelmsford  Acc'ts,  Essex 
Arch.  Soc,  ii,  212  (Paving  of  church).  For  fines  inflicted  for  the 
benefit  of  the  poor  see  Barnes^  Eccles.  Proc,  122  ("For  that  he 
gave  evill  words"  an  offender  was  enjoined  by  the  judge  to  pay 
2s.  to  the  poor  and  to  certify)  ;  Hale,  op.  cit.,  198  (An  offender 
to  pay  a  rate  of  4d.,  and  i2d.  more  "pro  negligentia."  isH)- 
Cf.  Canons  of  1585  in  Cardwell,  Synodalia,  i,  142. 

^Barnes'  Eccles.  Proc,  24  (1577).  In  the  case  of  individuals 
interdiction  or  suspension  (t.  e.,  from  service  and  sacraments)  does 
not  differ  in  effect  from  excommunication,  except  that  the  former 
are  temporary  penalties  and  to  terminate  upon  compliance  with 
the  judge's  order.  See  Burn,  Eccles.  Law  (ed.  1763),  i,  616  (Inter- 
diction) and  ii,  362-3  (Suspension). 

^Thomas  North,  A  Chronicle  of  the  Church  of  St.  Martin's  in 
Leicester  (1866),  116  (1568-9). 


20  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [322 

ye  Rood  loft  whas  not  takyn  down  &  deafasyed  iiij  s. 
iiij  d."8' 

In  the  same  accounts  we  find  some  years  later :  "  Payde 
to  ...  at  the  vicitacion  houlden  at  Melton  for  dismissinge 
us  oute  of  there  bookes  for  not  reparinge  the  churche  iij  s. 
ij  d."^*  So,  also,  we  read  in  the  St.  Ethelburga-within- 
Bishopsgate  Accounts:  "Paid  in  D[octor]  Stanhope's 
courte  beinge  p[re]sented  by  p[ar]son  Bull  aboute  the 
glasse  windowes  xvj  d."  And  nine  years  later :  "  Paid  for 
Mr  Gannett  and  myself e  ['  Humfery  Jeames  ']  for  absolu- 
tion iiij  s.  viij  d."  Also :  "  Paid  for  our  discharge  at  the 
courte  for  [from]  our  excomm[uni]cacon  xvj  d."^'^ 

The  act-books  abundantly  show  that  ecclesiastical  courts 
were  very  far  from  being  limited  to  mere  moral  suasion 
or  to  spiritual  censures.  They  could  never  have  accom- 
plished their  work  so  thoroughly  if  they  had  been.  This 
point  will  be  brought  out  much  more  clearly,  it  is  hoped, 
when  we  come  to  consider  excommunication  as  a  weapon 
of  coercion.^®  The  courts  fined  parishioners  individually^® 
and  they  fined  them  collectively.  What  matters  it  that  these 
fines  were  called  court  fees,  absolution  fees,  commutation 
of  penance,  or  by  any  other  name?  What  signifies  it  that 
the  proceeds  could  be  applied  only  in  pios  ususf  The  mulct- 
ing was  none  the  less  real.  On  the  score  of  bringing  stub- 
born or  careless  wardens  to  terms  through  their  purses,  the 
following  extract  from  a  letter  written  in  1572  to  the  official 
of  the  archdeacon  of  the  bishop  of  London  is  in  point.  The 
letter  informs  the  judge  that  Jasper  Anderkyn,  a  church- 
warden, "  hathe  done  nothing  of  that  which  he  was 
apoinnted  by  your  worshipp  at  Mydsomer  to  do,  for  the 
churche  yarde  lyeth  to  commons  and  all  other  thynkes  in 
the  churche  is  ondonne.  ...  I  praye  you  dele  w[i]t[h] 

"Leicester  Archit.  and  Archaol.  Soc.  Tr.,  iii  (1874),  192  (1567). 

^Ibid.,  197  (1594-5)- 
W.  F.  Cobb,  Churchwardens  Accounts  of  St.  Ethelburga-imthin- 
Bishopsgate   (1905),  p.   10   (1595)    and  p.   12    (1604),   respectively. 
Stanhope  was  chancellor  to  the  bishop  of  London. 

^  See  p.  46  ff.  infra. 

**  See  infra  p.  40,  p.  48  (note  169),  p.  131,  etc.  Also  Ch.  ii,  infra. 
Cf.  note  2)2  supra  (p.  19). 


323]        Ecclesiastical  Government  of  the  Parish.  21 

hym  so  yt  he  maye  be  a  presydent  for  them  that  shall  have 
the  offyce ;  for  they  wyll  but  jess  att  itt,  and  saye  it  is  butt 
a  mony  matter :  therefore  lett  them  paye  well  for  the  penal- 
tie  whiche  was  sett  on  theire  heads."  Continuing,  the 
writer  states  that  his  reason  for  writing  is  "that  you  be 
not  abewseid  in  youre  office  by  there  muche  intreatyng  for 
themselffes,  for  Jesper  Anderkyn  stands  excommunicated."*" 
Sometimes  for  failure  to  perform  the  ordinary's*^  injunc- 
tions a  whole  parish  was  excommunicated  or  a  church  inter- 
dicted.*^  Thus  in  the  Abbey  Parish  Church"  Accounts  we 
read  under  the  year  1592  how  troublesome  and  how  costly 
it  was  "  when  the  church  was  interdicted  "  to  ride  to  Lich- 
field and  there  tarry  several  days  seeking  absolution.  For 
this  20  shillings  was  paid,  a  very  large  sum  for  the  time,  not 
to  mention  a  fee  to  the  summoner,  travelling  expenses  and 
the  writing  of  letters  on  the  parish's  behalf.**  The  war- 
dens of  Stratton,  Cornwall,  had  a  similar  experience  "  when 
the  churche  wardyns  &  the  hole  p[ar]ysch  was  exco[mu]ny- 

**Ha]e,  Crim.  Prec,  155. 

"Ordinary  is  that  ecclesiastical  magistrate  who  has  regular  juris- 
diction over  a  district,  in  opposition  to  judges  extraordinarily  ap- 
pointed. At  common  law  a  bishop  was  taken  to  be  the  ordinary 
in  his  diocese,  and  so  he  was  designated  in  some  acts  of  Parliament. 
But  as  a  matter  of  fact  'ordinary'  signifies  any  judge  authorized 
to  take  cognizance  of  causes  by  virtue  of  his  office  or  by  custom. 
Such  were  pre-eminently  the  archdeacons.  These  officers,  at  first 
merely  attendant  on  the  bishops  at  public  services,  were  gradually 
entrusted  by  the  latter  with  their  own  jurisdictional  powers,  owing 
to  the  vast  extent  of  dioceses,  so  that  "  the  holding  of  General 
Synods  or  Visitations  when  the  Bishop  did  not  visit,  came  by  de- 
grees to  be  known  and  established  Branches  of  the  Archidiaconal 
Office,  as  such,  which  by  this  means  attained  to  the  dignity  of 
Ordinary  instead  of  delegated  jurisdiction."  Edmund  Gibson, 
Codex  Juris  Ecclesiastici  Anglicani,  or  the  Statutes,  Constitutions 
(etc.)  of  the  Church  of  England,  ii  (1713),  998.  Cf.  Richard  Bum, 
Eccles.  Law,  ii,  101-2.  As  the  ordinary  in  practice  entrusted  his 
office  of  judge  to  an  official,  I  have  used  the  two  terms  interchange- 
ably. In  some  places  exempted  from  the  archdeacon's  jurisdiction 
commissaries  acted  as  judges,  Bum,  i,  391. 

"That  is,  services  and  sacraments  (except  baptism)  were  sus- 
pended in  it.  The  words  of  Bum  (Eccles.  Law,  i,  616,  quoting 
Gibson,  1047)  are  misleading.  He  says :  "  But  this  censure  hath 
been  long  disused;  and  nothing  of  it  appeareth  in  the  laws  of 
church  or  state  since  the  reformation."  Of  course  interdiction 
temp.  Elizabeth  was  no  longer  the  terrible  punishment  it  used  to  be. 

**At  Shrewsbury. 

**Shrop.  Arch,  and  Nat.  Hist.  Soc.  Tr.,  i  (1878),  62. 


22  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [324 

catt "  in  1565.  Among  the  expense  items  relating  to  that 
occasion  is  a  significant  one :  "  ffor  wyne  &  goodchere  ffor 
the  buschuppe  ys  s[er]vantt[s]  ij  s.  viij  d."*^ 

So  close  is  the  supervision  of  the  ordinary  over  the 
churchwardens,  so  eflFective  the  discipline  of  the  church 
courts,  that  we  seem  to  hear  occasionally  a  sort  of  dialogue 
going  on  between  judges  and  wardens,  the  former  directing 
certain  things  to  be  executed,  the  latter  replying  and  report- 
ing from  time  to  time  that  progress  is  being  made  on  the 
work  to  be  performed,  or  that  the  missing  objects  will  be 
soon  supplied.  Accordingly,  at  the  archdeacon  of  Canter- 
bury's visitation  in  1595,  we  find  the  wardens  of  St.  John 
in  Thanet  (Margate)  reporting:  "The  chancel*^  is  out  of 
repairs,  for  the  repairing  whereof  some  things  are  pro- 
vided."*^ Two  years  later  they  state  to  the  court :  "  For 
repairing  of  the  churchyard  we  desire  a  day."**  At  the 
same  visitation  the  wardens  of  St.  Lawrence  in  Thanet 
(Ramsgate)  present :  "  Our  Church  is  repaired,  saving  that 
some  glass  by  reason  of  the  last  wind  be  broken,  the  which 
are  [sic]  shortly  to  be  amended."*® 

As  a  final  illustration  on  this  score  may  be  adduced  the 
report  of  the  conscientious  wardens  of  Kilham,  Yorkshire, 
who  certify  to  the  judge  of  that  peculiar,  August,  1602, 
"  that  there  churche  walles  ar  in  suche  repaire  as  heretofore 
they  have  beyne.     But  not  in  suche  sufficient  repaire  as  is  re- 

^'R.  W.  Goulding,  Records  of  the  Charity  known  as  Blanch- 
minster's  Charity  (1898),  Stockwardens  Acc'ts,  68.  For  other 
examples  of  interdiction  of  churches  or  excommunication  see  Hale, 
Churchwardens'  Prec,  111-12  (Shoreham  Vetera  interdicted.  tM^)» 
et  passim. 

**  Except  in  the  city  of  London  and  some  few  other  places,  the 
chancel  was  at  the  charge  of  the  rector  or  other  recipient  of  the 
great  tithes.  Sidney  and  Beatrice  Webb,  English  Local  Govern- 
ment (1906),  20,  note.  Also  W.  G.  Clark- Maxwell  in  Wilts  Arch. 
etc.  Mag.,  xxxiii  (1904),  358.  H.  B.  Wilson,  History  of  St. 
Laurence  Pountney  (London,  1831),  7Z- 

"Canterbury  Visit.,  xxvi,  21. 

**  Ibid.,  32.  In  1599  the  wardens  of  this  parish  inform  the  arch- 
deacon that  both  church  and  churchyard  need  repairs  "  which  we 
mean  shortly  to  do."  The  next  year,  too,  they  make  a  report  in 
almost  identical  words.     Ibid.,  22- 


325]        Ecclesiastical  Government  of  the  Parish.  23 

quired  by  the  Article'**'  for  that  effect  ministred  vnto  us."'^ 
But  the  upkeep  of  the  church  and  its  requisites'^  was  only 
one  of  the  churchwardens'  many  tasks.  They  had  to  look 
to  it  that  the  people  attended  church  regularly;  that  the 
victuallers  and  ale-houses  received  no  one  while  service  was 
being  held  or  a  sermon  was  preached ;  that  each  person  was 
seated  in  his  or  her  proper  place,  that  each  conducted  him- 
self with  decorum  and  remained  throughout  the  service. 
Accordingly  the  act-books  tell  their  interesting  story  of 
ministers  on  beginning  service  sending  wardens  and  side- 
men  abroad  to  command  men  to  come  to  church.  The 
churchwardens  and  their  allies  have  all  sorts  of  experiences : 
they  break  in  upon  "  exercises "  or  conventicles ;"'  they 
peep  in  at  victuallers'  houses  or  at  inns  where  irate  hosts 
slam  doors  in  their  faces  and  give  them  bad  words  on  being 
caught  offending;'*  they  come  across  merrymakers  dancing 
the  morris-dance  on  the  village  green  during  Sunday  after- 
noon service,''  or  they  surprise  men  at  a  quiet  game  of  cards 
at  a  neighbor's  house  during  evening  prayer.'* 

When  admonished  by  the  wardens  to  enter  church,  some 
merely  gave  contemptuous  replies,  such  as  "  what  prates 
thou  ?  "  ;'^  others,  when  the  wardens  approached,  took  to 

■^  See  p.  15  supra. 

"^  Dean  of  York's  Visit.,  341. 

'^  Numerous  other  presentments  at  visitations  for  failure  to  supply 
the  requisites  for  worship  besides  those  adduced  in  the  text  will  be 
found  in  Hale,  Critn.  Prec,  173  (A  warden  failing  to  supply  the 
elements  for  communion.  15H).  Ibid.,  154  ("The  rode  lofte 
beame,  the  staieres  of  the  rode  loft  standinge,  the  churche  lacketh 
whittinge  to  deface  the  monuments."  1572),  etc.  Barnes^  Eccles. 
Proc,  115  ("The  Degrees  of  Manage"  and  "the  Pofetils  "  lacking. 
157!) •  Warrington  Deanery  Visit.,  189  ("Cloth  for  the  communion 
table."  1592).  Visitation  of  Manchester  Deanery  in  1592  by  the 
Bishop  of  Chester  in  Lancashire  and  Cheshire  Antiquarian  Soc.  Tr., 
xiii,  58  (Communion  cup  lacking).  Ibid.,  62  ("  Noe  fonte,"  and 
christenings  in  "a  bason  or  dish").  This  source  hereinafter  cited 
as  Manchester  Deanery  Visit. 

■"Hale,  Crim.  Prec,  s.  a.  1587  (21st  June). 

'^Manchester  Deanery  Visit.,  66  (1592)-  Cf.  Canterbury  Visit., 
XXV,  23  (1600). 

*»Hall,  Critn.  Prec,  13  (iSQS). 

"  Warrington  Deanery  Visit.,  189. 

"  Manchester  Deanery  Visit.,  69. 


24  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [326 

their  heels  and  ran  away.^^  Once  inside  the  church  the 
wardens'  task  was  by  no  means  ended.  They  had  the  care 
of  placing  each  one  in  his  or  her  seat  according  to  degree  f^ 
according  to  sex  ;*•*  and,  in  case  of  women,  according  as  they 
were  old  or  young,  married  or  unmarried."^  Finally,  as 
has  been  said,  the  wardens  were  expected  to  keep  watch 
lest  some  one  slip  out  before  the  service  was  over  or  the 
sermon  ended.*^ 

But  while  they  have  one  eye  on  the  congregation  lest  they 
offend,  wardens  and  sidemen  must  keep  another  on  the 
minister  while  service  proceeds  or  the  sacraments  are  ad- 
ministered, in  order  that  the  rites  be  duly  observed  and  the 
Rubric  followed.  The  curate  of  Theydon  Gernon  (Essex) 
is  presented  by  wardens  and  sidemen  "  quia  non  fecit  suam 
diligentiam  in  dicendo  preces,  viz.  the  communion  and  Lit- 
any "  f^  while  the  rector  of  East  Hanningfield  in  the  same 
archdeaconry  is  not  only  complained  of  to  the  ordinary  for 
not  maintaining  the  book  of  articles,  and  not  using  the  cross 

'^  Ibid.  Then  as  now  the  ale-house  was  the  strongest  rival  of 
the  House  of  God.  A  very  common  class  of  offenders  were  those 
who  would  not  leave  their  ale  cups  to  go  to  service  (see  authorities 
cited,  passim).  Men  were  also  great  gossipers  ("common  talkers") 
in  the  churchsrard,  as  a  number  of  presentments  show. 

"Order  of  the  archdeacon,  Essex  Archdeaconry,  to  the  wardens 
of  St.  Peter's  and  of  All  Saints,  Maldon,  in  1577,  Hale,  Crim.  Prec, 
158.  For  refusing  to  keep  her  seat  in  church  according  to  this 
order  Elizabeth  Harris  was  presented  the  next  year,  Hale,  loc.  cit.,  171. 

•*The  vestry  of  St.  Alphage's  (G.  B.  Hall,  Records  of  St.  Alphage, 
London  Wall,  31)  grew  highly  indignant  in  Aug.,  1620,  when  the 
business  of  seating  the  parishioners  came  up  for  discussion,  that  a 
Mr.  Loveday  and  his  wife  should  presume  to  sit  "togeather  in  one 
pewe  and  that  in  the  He  where  men  vsually  doe  &  ere  did  sitt;  we 
hould  it  most  ynconvenyent  and  most  vnseemely,  And  doe  thinke 
it  fitt  that  Mr  Chancellor  of  London  be  made  acquainted  wfilth  it 
[etc].." 

"Hale,  Crim.  Prec,  241-2:  "Contra  Hayward,  puellam.  Presen- 
tatur,  for  that  she  beinge  but  a  yonge  mayde,  sat  in  the  pewe  with 
her  mother,  to  the  greate  offence  of  many  reverend  women. . "  The 
child  (as  the  vicar  who  made  the  presentment  continues  should 
have  sat  at  her  mother's  "pewe  dore."  1617).  Cf.  Barnes'  Eccles. 
Proc,  122-3  (Janet  Foggfard  cited  for  that  "  she  beinge  a  yonge 
woman,  unmarried,  will  not  sit  in  the  stall  wher  she  is  appointed  .  .  ."). 
Cf.  Hale,  op.  cit.,  210  (One  Clay  and  his  wife  "will  not  be  ordered 
in  church  by  us  the  church  wardens  [etc.]..".     1595). 

"  Examples  will  be  found  in  the  act-books  cited  supra. 

"Hale,  Crim.  Prec,  149  (1566).  Cf.  ibid.,  163  (The  divine  ser- 
vice not  "reverently,  plainelye  and  distinctlye  saide  ..."  1576). 


327]        Ecclesiastical  Government  of  the  Parish.  25 

in  baptism,  but  he  is  also  indicted  on  the  same  occasion  for 
not  praying  for  the  Queen  "  accordinge  to  hir  injunctions, 
viz.  he  leaveth  out  of  hir  stile  the  kingdome  of  Fraunce.""* 
The  court's  order  was  that  the  rector  should  acknowledge 
his  error  on  the  following  Sunday  "  coram  gardianis." 
The  wardens  of  Wilton,  Yorkshire,  report  to  the  commis- 
sary of  the  Dean  of  York  that  their  curate  recites  divine 
service  "  very  orderlie,"  but  not  at  a  fit  time,  for  he  holds 
service  at  eight  in  the  morning  and  two  in  the  afternoon.'' 
Finally,  the  rector  of  Pitsea  is  complained  against  to  the 
archdeacon  of  Essex  for  "  that  he  is  unsufficient  to  serve 
the  cure  ine  that  theie  are  not  edified  by  him  .  .  .  ."*' 

If  the  parson  neglected  his  duties  it  was  incumbent  upon 
the  wardens  to  exhort  him  to  perform  them.®^  When  at 
the  visitation  of  the  bishop  of  Chester  in  1592  it  was  found 
that  there  was  no  surplice  at  Bolton  Church,  Manchester 
Deanery,  not  only  did  the  judge  admonish  one  of  the  Bol- 
ton wardens  to  buy  the  surplice,  but  he  was  instructed  "  to 
offer  hit  to  thee  Vicar  at  the  time  of  ministering  the  sacra- 
ments, and  to  certify  of  his  wearing  or  refusing  of  hit 
before  the  Feast  of  the  Nativity  of  our  Lord  next."'' 

By  virtue  of  searching  articles  of  inquiry  administered  to 
them,'*  such  as.  Is  your  vicar  a  double-beneficed  man,  and, 
if  so,  is  he  lawfully  dispensated?    Does  he  keep  hospitality? 

"Hale,  op.  cit,  182  (1584).  Cf.  Whitgift[s  Articles  for  Sarum 
diocese  in  1588,  art.  viii :  "  Whether  your  ministers  used  to  pray  for 
the  quenes  majestie  ...  by  the  title  and  style  due  to  her  majestie." 
Cardwell,  Doc.  Ann.,  ii,  14. 

^Dean  of  York's  Visit.,  320  (1596). 

"Hale,  op.  cit.,  159  (i57S). 

"3  Rep.  Hist.  MSS.  Com.,  275  (A  vicar  presented  by  church- 
wardens in  the  commissary's  court  at  Poddington-apud-Ampthill 
for  not  catechising  the  youth,  etc.,  though  required  to  do  so  by  one 
of  the  wardens.  1616).  For  not  presenting  their  minister  when  he 
neglected  to  catechise  on  the  Sabbath,  the  wardens  of  St.  Mary 
Woolchurch  Haw,  London,  had  to  pay  divers  fees  to  the  chancellor. 
Brooke  and  Hallen,  Registers  of  St.  Mary  Woolchurch  Haw  (1886), 
Wardens  Acc'ts,  s.  a.    1593. 

**  Accordingly,  by  a  later  entry  in  the  book  we  see  that  the  warden 
brought  in  court  a  certificate  that  the  surplice  had  been  bought  and 
worn  by  the  vicar.  Manchester  Deanery  Visit.,  59.  For  a  precisely 
similar  injunction  see  ibid.,  62  (Wardens  of  Eccles). 

°*  See  p.  15  supra. 


26  The  Elizabetlian  Parish.  [328 

If  non-resident  does  he  give  the  fortieth  part  to  the  poor? 
Does  your  minister  wear  a  surplice  at  the  appointed  times, 
yea  or  no?  Does  he  use  the  cross  in  baptism  and  the  ring 
in  marriage  ?^'^  Does  your  schoolmaster  teach  without  li- 
cence of  his  ordinary  under  seal,  or  no  ?  Do  you  know  any 
person  excommunicate  in  your  parish  who  repairs  to  church  ? 
Do  you  know  anyone  ordered  by  law  to  do  penance,  or 
excommunicate  for  not  doing  the  same,  who  still  continues 
unreformed? — ^by  virtue  of  this  strict  questioning  by  the 
ordinary  put  to  them  in  written  articles  before  each  visita- 
tion, church  wardens,  and  their  coadjutors,  the  sworn  men  or 
sidemen,  were  compelled  to  exercise  a  continual  supervision 
over  their  minister's  conduct  as  well  as  over  that  of  the 
parishioners  generally.  This  fact,  coupled  with  the  circum- 
stance that  they  were  themselves  liable  to  be  reported  to 
the  court  and  punished  if  they  failed  to  indict,  accounts  for 
the  cautious  presentments  made  by  these  Elizabethan  war- 
dens. 

Those  of  Great  Witchingham,  Norfolk,  for  instance,  in- 
form the  chancellor  that  their  parson  "  holdeth  two  benefi- 
ces, but  whether  lawfully  dispensated  they  know  not,"  and 
they  add  that  a  schoolmaster  in  their  parish  "  teacheth  pub- 
licly, but  whether  licenced  or  not  they  know  not."^^  The 
wardens  of  EUerburn,  Yorkshire,  present  Jane  Gryme  for 
fornication,  and  add  "  but  whether  the  curate  did  churche 
hir  or  no  they  cannot  say."^^  And  the  following  year  they 
bring  to  the  court's  knowledge  "  that  their  vicar  ...  is  not 
resident  upon  his  vicaredg,  but  what  he  bestoweth  upon  the 
poore  they  know  not."''  Lastly,  the  very  prudent  wardens 
of  Pickering  in  the  same  peculiar  bring  in  their  presentment 
in  this  fashion :  "  Qui  dicunt  et  presentant  there  vicar  for 
that  he  for  the  moste  parte,  but  not  alwaies  dothe  weare  a 
surplesse  in  tyme  of  dyvyne  service.  They  present  there 
vicar  for  that  they  ar  vncerteyne  whether  his  wif[e]  was 

^"For  presentments  of  vicar's   (etc.)   oflfences  see  pp.  31   flf.  infra. 
"L.  G.  Bolingbroke;  The  Reformation  in  a  Norfolk  Parish,  Norf. 
and  Norw.  Arch.  Soc,  xiii,  207-8  (1593). 
^^  Dean  of  York's  Visit,  231  (1594). 
^  Ibid.,  315.     See  also  ibid.,  225  and  229. 


329]        Ecclesiastical  Government  of  the  Parish.  27 

commended  vnto  him  by  justices  of  peace,  nor  whether  he 
was  licenced  to  marrye  hir  according  to  hir  Maiestie's  in- 
iuncions."^*  The  almost  unseemly  interest  here  displayed 
by  the  wardens  in  their  vicar's  matrimonial  relations  is  ex- 
plained by  the  provisions  of  article  xxix  of  the  Queen's 
Injunctions  of  1559,  which  ordain  that  no  priest  or  deacon 
shall  wed  any  woman  without  the  bishop's  licence  and  the 
advice  and  allowance  of  two  neighboring  justices  of  the 
peace  first  obtained. 

Other  parish  obligations  enforced  by  the  courts  Christian 
through  the  churchwardens  were  the  keeping  of  annual  per- 
ambulations (or,  as  we  should  say  today,  beating  the  bounds 
of  the  parish)  by  parson,  wardens  and  certain  of  the  sub- 
stantial men  of  the  parish,  in  the  second  week  before  Whit- 
Sunday  ("  Rogation  Week  ")  ;^'  the  exhibiting  to  the  offi- 
cial of  the  parish  register,  or  the  putting  in  of  copies  of 
it  once  a  year  at  Easter;^*  the  choosing  in  conjunction 
with  the  parson  of  collectors  for  the  poor  up  to  1597,  in 
most  parishes  at  any  rate  ;^^  the  levying  of  the  I2d.  fine  on 

^*  Ibid.,  339  (1602). 

"  See  Queen's  Inj.  of  1559,  art.  xviii.  Also  art.  xviii  of  Archbp. 
(of  York)  Grindal's  Inj.  of  1571,  Parker  Soc,  Remains  of  Grindal, 
132.  Also  Cardwell,  Doc.  Ann.,  i,  337,  etc.  For  the  enforcing  of 
the  obligation  by  the  ordinary,  see  numerous  examples  in  Canter- 
bury Visit.,  XXV,  22  (1585)  ;  32  (Controversy  in  1584  between  two 
parishes  as  to  bounds)  ;  27  (i594)-  Also  ibid.,  xxvi,  24,  25,  et 
passim.  Other  examples  in  Hale,  Crim.  Prec,  162,  where  a  parish- 
ioner of  Burstead  Parva  (Essex)  is  cited  at  a  visitation  for  plough- 
ing up  a  dole  (a  balk  or  unploughed  ridge),  which  marked  the 
boundary  line  between  Burstead  and  Dunton  parishes.  Cf.  Canter- 
bury Visit.,  XXV,  15,  where  three  parishioners  are  presented  for  cover- 
ing up  a  parish  procession  linch  (1617). 

"See,  e.  g.,  A.  G.  Legge,  North  Elmham  (Norfolk)  Acc'ts  (1891), 
jS  (1562),  82  (1566  and  1567).  Melton  Acc'ts  in  Leicest.  Archit. 
and  Arch.  Soc,  iii,  192  (1566).  Ludlow  Acc'ts  in  Shrop.  Arch.  Soc, 
2nd  sen,  i,  s.  a.  i6or-2,  etc. 

"  In  this  year  the  39  EHz.  c.  3  was  enacted  which  instituted  over- 
seers of  the  poor  nominated  by  the  licence  of  the  justices,  and 
placed  wholly  under  their  supervision.  In  spite  of  the  provisions 
of  an  earlier  act  (14  Eliz.  c.  5)  giving  the  justices  power  to  appoint, 
or  see  collectors  appointed,  the  ecclesiastical  courts  rather  than  the 
j  ustices,  as  the  act-books  show,  seem  to  have  looked  after  the  matter. 
See,  e.  g.,  Manchester  Deanery  Visit.,  57,  59,  60,  62,  63,  64,  68,  etc. 
Also  Warrington  Deanery  Visit.,  184,  186,  187,  191,  etc.  Cf.  the 
item  in  the  Ludlow  Acc'ts,  Shrop.  Arch.  Soc,  i,  s.  a.  1586-7,  where 
is  recorded  an  expense  item  for  a  payment  to  "  Mr.  Chauncelor " 
for  entering  a  presentment  for  collections  for  the  poor. 


28  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [330 

all  those  who  absented  themselves  from  service;''^  the  put- 
ting down  of  all  "  superstitious  "  rites  in  the  parish,  such 
as  the  carrying  of  banners  in  perambulation  week  or  the 
wearing  of  surplices  on  such  occasions  •^'^  the  ringing  of  the 
church  bells  on  Hallowe'en,  or  on  the  eve  of  All  Souls; 
excessive  tolling  of  bells  at  funerals,^**  etc. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  their  fellow-parishioners,  no 
doubt,  the  most  important  function  of  the  wardens  was  that 
of  administering  the  parish  finances.  This  subject  will  be 
considered  at  length  in  the  chapter  which  follows,  but  the 
fact  that  the  spiritual  courts  enforced  the  levying  of  rates 
for  church  repair,  etc.,  through  the  wardens,  as  well  as  an 
accounting  to  the  parish  of  all  monies  received  or  disbursed, 
concerns  us  here.  When  the  Ealing  wardens  were  "  de- 
tected "  to  the  chancellor  of  the  bishop  of  London  because 
they  had  no  pulpit-cloth,  no  poor-box,  nor  the  Paraphrases 
of  Erasmus,  they  appeared  and  declared  in  court  that  they 
had  not  provided  these  things  "  nor  can  do  it,  for  that  there 
is  no  churche  stock  wherewith  to  do  it."  Hereupon  they 
were  admonished  that  the  judge's  pleasure  was  that  they 
should  procure  Mr.  Fleetwood  and  Mr.  Knight  (evidently 
two  prominent  parishioners)  to  make  an  assessment  on  the 
parish  in  order  to  purchase  these  articles,  and  further  that 
they  (the  wardens)  should  certify  to  the  court  at  a  later 
day  fixed  that  the  rate  had  been  laid  and  the  missing  requis- 
ites bought,  unless,  indeed,  some  refused  to  pay,  in  which 

"  See  act-books  above  cited.  Also  Hale,  Crim.  Free,  165,  ei 
passim.  Barnes'  Eccles.  Proc,  118,  et  passim.  Norf.  and  Norw. 
Arch.  Soc,  xiii,  207-8  (Great  Witchingham  wardens). 

"Stanford  (Berks)  Accounts,  Antiquary,  xvii  (1888),  169  (Ex- 
penses to  Oxford  "  to  speke  with  [the]  . . .  Archedyacon  for  caryeng 
a  strem[e]r  in  Rogacion  weke."  1564).  Hale,  Crim.  Prec,  150 
(Wearing  of  surplice  on  same  occasion.  1567)  ;  152  {Do.  1572). 
Cf.  Grindal's  Inj.  at  York,  1571,  in  Cardwell,  Doc.  Ann.,  i,  337. 

**  Melton  Acc'ts,  uhi  supra,  192  ("  Beyng  somonyd  ffor  Ryngng 
off  all  Hallodaye  att  nyght."  1566).  Halesowen  Acc'ts  in  T.  R. 
Nash,  History  and  Antiq.  of  Worcestershire,  ii,  App.,  p.  xxx  (1578). 
Stanford  Acc'ts,  ubi  supra,  169  (1566).  Manchester  Deanery  Visit., 
64  (Wardens  of  Manchester  "  ringe  more  than  is  necessarie  at 
Burialls  .  .  .").  Cf.  Canons  of  1571,  Cardwell,  Syn.,  i,  124  (Or- 
dained that  wardens  must  not  suffer  "  campanas  superstitiose  pulsari, 
vel  in  vigilia  Animarum,  vel  postridie  Omnium  Sanctorum  ...   "). 


33 1]        Ecclesiastical  Government  of  the  Parish.  29 

case  their  names  should  be  handed  into  court.®^  So,  again, 
when  rector  and  wardens  of  Sutton  were  presented  in  the 
same  court  for  letting  their  church  go  to  ruin,  they  protested 
that  the  reason  was  that  £40  "  will  skant  repayre  it,  and 
that  so  mutch  cannot  be  levied  of  all  the  land  in  the 
p[ar]ishe."  But  this  excuse  was  not  for  a  moment  ad- 
mitted, and  they  were  warned  to  appear  in  the  next  con- 
sistory court  to  take  out  a  warrant  for  the  assessment  of 
the  lands.*2 

Though  the  wardens  did  not  themselves  in  practice  al- 
ways make  the  rate  directed  by  the  archdeacon,  yet  they 
were  held  responsible  for  its  making.  So  true  was  this 
that  if,  after  a  duly  called  parish  meeting  for  the  purpose 
of  laying  the  rate  in  obedience  to  the  archdeacon's  orders, 
no  parishioners  appear,  then,  in  the  words  of  the  archdea- 
con's official  to  the  wardens  of  Ramsden  Bellhouse  (Essex)  : 
"if  the  inhabitants  of  the  said  p[ar]ish  will  not  join  with 
the  said  church  wardens  &c.,  that  then  the  said  churchwar- 
dens shall  themselves  make  a  rate  for  the  leveinge  of  the 
said  charges  [etc.]  .  .  .  ."*' 

"  Accordingly  some  seven  weeks  later  the  wardens  (or  rather 
their  successors)  appeared  again  and  reported  that  the  rate  had 
been  laid,  but  not  gathered.  The  court  granted  them  a  further  space 
to  buy  the  implements.  Hale,  Churchwardens'  Prec,  2-3  (158}). 
Similar  examples  abound  in  Archdeacon  Hale's  work,  just  cited, 
which  covers  the  period  1557  to  1736. 

"/&jrf.,  4   (1584).    For  other  cases  see  passim. 

"Hale,  Churchwardens'  Prec,  98  (1601).  Bum,  Eccles.  Law, 
I,  268  (citing  Gibson,  Codex,  196,  and  i  Bacon,  Abridg.,  373),  says 
that  if  no  parishioners  appear  at  a  meeting  duly  called  for  the  pur- 
pose of  assessment,  "  the  churchwardens  alone  may  make  the  rate, 
because  they  and  not  the  parishioners  are  to  be  cited  and  punished 
in  defect  of  repairs."  To  these  words  should  be  added  the  quali- 
fication that  the  parishioners  were  sometimes  collectively  punished, 
viz.,  by  interdiction  of  their  church.  Thus  in  St.  Alban's  arch- 
deaconry the  parishioners  of  Redboum  were  directed  through  the 
wardens  to  make  a  rate  to  levy  £60  "sub  pena  interdictionis 
eccl[es]ie  sue  a  dwinoru[m]  celebratione  et  sacratnentaru[fn]  et 
sacramentaliu[m]  .  .  .  [etc]."  Hale,  op.  cit.,  89  (iS99)-.  In 
Jan.,  xfM-  we  find  Shoreham  Vetera  in  Lewes  archdeaconry  inter- 
dicted, and  one  of  its  wardens  appearing,  " hutnil[ite]r  petijt  inter- 
dicc[i]o[n]etn  .  .  .  emissam  pro  defect[u]  eccle[s]ie  ruinos[e] 
.  .  .  revocari  .  .  ."  in  order  that  time  might  be  given  him  to 
call  together  the  tenants  and  owners  of  land  in  the  parish  and  out- 
lying districts  as  well  as  "  strangers  "  wtio  held  lands  in  the  parish. 
Ibid.,  111-12.  In  1603  the  wardens  of  Northawe  are  to  see  a  levy 
made  "sub  pena  interdicti."     Ibid.,  90.     Cf.  pp.  36-7- 


30  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [332 

Finally,  the  archdeacons  or  their  officials  always  stood 
ready  to  enforce  an  accounting  by  the  outgoing  wardens 
to  the  parishioners  or  their  representatives.  If  the  account- 
ing was  delayed  too  long,  or  if  the  surplus  was  not  promptly 
handed  over  to  the  incoming  (or  newly  elected)  wardens, 
then  the  delinquent  officers  were  cited  before  the  court. 
Numerous  instances  are  found  in  the  court  records  of  the 
enforcing  of  this  duty.** 

A  permanent  parish  officer  and  one  over  whose  appoint- 
ment the  parishioners  had  usually  no  control*^  was  the 
parish  minister,  whether  officiating  rector,  vicar  or  curate.** 
Elizabethan  statutes  and  canons  sought  to  increase  the  dig- 
nity of  the  incumbents  of  cures,*^  but  royal  greed  did  yet 
more  to  lower  it.** 

The  minister  was  usually  addressed  by  his  parishioners 
as  "  Sir  "  John,  or  "  Sir  "  George,  etc.,  quite  irrespective  of 

"Examples  are:  Hale,  Crim.  Prec,  189  (Mucking,  Essex, 
wardens.  I58f).  Ibid.,  199  (East  Horndon,  Essex,  wardens  con- 
fess they  have  not  accounted  "  by  reason  the  parishioners  will  not 
come  to  recken  with  them."  They  are  warned  to  make  their 
account  and  if  the  parishioners  will  not  audit  it,  to  exhibit  it  at  the 
next  court.  1590).  Ibid.,  222  (Several  parishioners  presented 
for  "  not  receiving "  a  warden's  account.  They  plead  that  he  was 
not  chosen  to  be  warden  bv  their  parson.  1600).  See  also  Canter- 
bury Visit.,  xxvi,  20,  21,  also  ibid.,  xxvii,  220,  et  passim..  Dean  of 
York's  Visit.,  335. 

" "  The  cases  in  which  the  advowson  of  the  parish  belonged  to 
the  inhabitants,  though  more  numerous  than  is  often  supposed, 
were  distinctly  exceptional."  Beatrice  and  Sidney  Webb,  Local 
Government,  the  County  and  the  Parish  (1906),  34  note. 

"  On  the  distinction  between  rector,  vicar,  curate,  etc.,  see  Felix 
Makower,  The  Constitutional  History  and  Constitution  of  the 
Church  of  England  (Engl,  trans.  1895),  334-7.  Also  Rev.  W.  G. 
Clark-Maxwell  in  Wilts  Arch,   (etc.)   Mag.,  xxxiii   (1904),  358-^. 

^  E.  g.,  the  Canons  of  1571,  sec.  De  Episcopis,  required  that  the 
bishops  ordain  no  one  except  such  as  had  a  good  education  and 
were  versed  in  Latin  and  the  Holy  Scriptures.  Nor  was  a  candi- 
date to  be  admitted  to  orders  "si  in  agricultura  vel  in  vili  aliquo  et 
sedentario  artificio  fuerit  educatus." 

^  Of  some  8,800  parish  churches  in  England  in  1601  only  600,  it 
was  computed,  afforded  a  competent  living  for  a  minister.  Dr. 
James  in  debate  in  Parliament  November  i6th,  1601.  Heywood 
Townshend,  Historical  Collections  or  Proceedings  in  the  last  Four 
Parliaments  of  Elizabeth  (ed.  1680),  218-19.  Sir  S.  D'Ewes,  The 
Journals  of  all  the  Parliaments  during  the  Reign  of  Elizabeth  (ed. 
1682),  640.  How  this  came  about  see  White  Kennett,  Parochial 
Antiquities  (ed.  1695),  433-45- 


333]        Ecclesiastical  Government  of  the  Parish.  31 

his  actual  rank,*®  and  this  in  an  age  of  punctilious  distinc- 
tions in  forms  of  address.  In  the  small  country  parishes 
the  incumbent  was  often  the  only,  or  almost  the  only,  edu- 
cated man  in  the  community.  His  advice  had  naturally 
considerable  weight  in  parish  affairs,  and  his  pen  was  often 
required  in  the  drawing  up  of  official  or  legal  documents, 
certifications  or  testimonials,  the  casting  up  of  parish  ac- 
counts and  the  like.®** 

We  find  in  the  act-books  officiating  rectors  or  vicars  pre- 
sented for  non-residence  upon  their  cures  ;®^  while  rectors 
and  other  recipients  of  great  tithes  are  "  detected  "  at  visi- 
tations for  not  repairing  the  chancels  in  their  churches;  or 
not  maintaining  their  vicarage  buildings  with  barns  and 
dove-cotes;®^  or  for  not  providing  quarter  sermons  where 
the  clergyman  serving  the  cure  was  not  himself  licenced  to 
preach  ;®'  beneficed  men  not  resident  are  arraigned  for  not 

**  Examples  will  be  found  in  the  churchwardens'  accounts  of  the 
period,  the  Morebath,  (Devon)  Acc'ts  for  instance,  which  have  been 
transcribed  in  extenso  up  to  1573  by  Rev.  J.  Erskine  Binney  (Exeter, 
1904).  The  garrulous  old  vicar  here,  Christopher  Trychay,  who 
wrote  the  parish  accounts  himself  for  more  than  a  generation,  and 
always  punctiliously  styled  himself  "  Sir,"  is  a  fascinating  figure. 
Thanks  to  his  chatty  explanations  on  all  subjects,  bits  of  the  daily 
life  of  this  little  Devonshire  parish  from  Henry  VIII's,  from 
Edward  VI's,  from  Mary's,  and  from  Elizabeth's  reigns  are  brought 
down  to  us  with  great  vividness.  Cf.  James  Stockdale,  Annals  of 
Cartmel  (1872),  58-9  (Custom  of  addressing  minister  as  "Sir" 
lingering  down  to  nineteenth  century  in  Lancashire). 

Lambard,  Duties  of  Constables,  Borsholders,  etc.  (ed.  1619  fre- 
quently made  an  appendix  to  his  Eirenarcha),  67,  says:  "The  .... 
Lawes,  hauing  imployment  of  many  to  make,  hath  borrowed  some 
use  in  a  few  easie  matters  of  spirituall  Ministers,  chiefly  for  the 
heipe  and  readinesse  of  their  pen,  which  in  many  Parishes  few, 
or  none  (besides  they)  can  serue  withall." 

'^Canterbury  Visit.,  xxv,  22  (1590);  23  (1593).  Dean  of  York's 
Visit.,  22>i  (1594);  315  (1595)- 

'' Warrington  Deanery  l/isit.,  184  (Farmer  of  advowson  not  re- 
pairing chancel)  ;  186  ("  Wm.  Brereton  of  Hareford,  Esquire," 
ditto)  ;  188  (Executors  of  will  of  the  late  rector,  ditto) ;  191 
(Rector  of  Warrington)  ;  192  (Rector  of  Wigan).  Canterbury 
Visit.,  xxv,  32  (Dean  and  Chapter  of  Christ  Church.  1583)  ;  26 
("Mr.  John  Smyth,  Esquire").  For  not  keeping  in  repair  vicar- 
ages, barns,  dove-houses,  etc.,  see  ibid.,  xxvi,  20,  32.  Also  ibid., 
xxvii,  222,  etc. 

"Hale,  Crim.  Prec,  160  ("  Do  minus  injunxit  dicto  Simpson  [rec- 
tor of  Pitsea,  Essex]  that  he  shall  procure  iiij"""  sermons  in  the 
ytare  ..."  157I).  Canterbury  Visit.,  xxvi,  44  (Wardens  pres- 
ent  "they  have   no   quarter   sermons").      Ibid.,   213    (1569);    214 


32  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [334 

giving  the  fortieth  part  of  their  revenue  to  the  parish  poor  f^ 
resident  ministers  indicted  for  not  keeping  hospitaHty,®**  or 
for  not  visiting  the  sick.^^ 

Just  as  the  wardens  were  to  look  after  the  conduct  of 
their  minister,  so  the  minister  was  required  to  fill  the  office 
of  a  censor  upon  the  behavior  of  the  wardens  and  to  report 
to  the  ordinary  their  delinquencies — as,  indeed,  the  tres- 
passes of  any  among  his  congregation,  though  the  latter 
task  was  more  particularly  assigned  to  the  wardens  and 
sidemen.*'^  Furthermore  the  minister  was  the  vehicle 
through  which  the  commands  of  the  authorities,  lay  or 
ecclesiastical,  were  conveyed  to  the  parishioners.  He  was 
compelled  to  read  these  commands  or  injunctions  at  stated 
times  and  exhort  his  hearers  to  obey  them.  For  failure  to 
comply  with  this  duty,  he  might  be  cited  before  the  official,^* 
and  punished  by  that  officer.*^^ 

The  curate  of  East  Hanningfield,  Essex,  is  presented  in 
1587  for  "  that  he  hathe  not  geven  warninge  to  the  church- 
wardens to  looke  to  there  dutie  in  service  tyme,  for  such  as 

(1574)  ;  222  (1600).  Dean  of  York's  Visit.,  222  (Wardens  present 
"Mr.  Deane  for  want  of  the  quarter  sermons.",  1592).  Canter- 
bury Visit.,  XXV,  43  ("  Sir  Wm.  Baldock  our  Vicar,  himself  un- 
licenced  to  preach,  doth  not  provide  a  preacher  for  the  sermons 
appointed  by  her  Majesty's  Injunctions."  1593).  The  Queen's 
Injunctions  of  1559,  art.  iv,  provided  that  parsons  should  preach  in 
their  own  persons  at  least  one  sermon  in  every  quarter  of  the  year. 

'^Canterbury  Visit.,  xxv,  22,  23  (two  examples).  Ibid.,  vol. 
xxvi,  31,  44,  222,  319,  etc.     See  Queen's  Injunc.  of  1559,  art.  xi. 

"  See  authorities  above  cited.  Whether  the  incumbent  kept 
hospitality  was  a  standing  article  of  inquiry  in  the  visitations  of 
the  period;  e.  g.,  Grindal's  Metrop.  Visit.  Art.  of  1576,  Remains  of 
Grindal,  Parker  Soc,  157  flf. 

'^Manchester  Deanery  Visit.,  63  ("They  [ministers  of  Man- 
chester] be  nott  dutifull  in  visitinge  the  sicke"). 

"  "  And  if  the  churchwardens  and  swornmen  be  negligent,  or  shall 
refuse  to  do  their  duty  ...  ye  shall  present  to  the  ordinary  both 
them  and  all  such  others  of  your  parish  as  shall  offend  ..."  Archbp. 
Grindal's  Inj.  at  York,  1571,  Remains  of  Grindal,  Parker  Soc,  129. 

"^Or  judge  acting  by  delegation  from  the  ordinary. 

••"Against  the  Reader  [of  Denton  Chapel]  .  .  .,  doth  not  Reade 
the  Injunctions  ..."  Manchester  Deanery  Visit.,  60.  "Qui 
[wardens  of  Belby]  dicunt,  the  Articles  being  diligentlie  redd  unto 
them  [etc.]  ..."  Dean  of  York's  Visit.,  221  (1591).  Ibid., 
341.     Cf.  Queen's  Inj.  of  1559,  Art.  xiv. 


335]        Ecclesiastical  Government  of  the  Parish.  33 

are  absent  from  service."^""  The  curate  of  Monkton,  Kent, 
is  brought  before  the  court  in  1569  for  that  he  "doth  not 
call  upon  fathers  and  mothers  and  masters  of  youths  to 
bring  them  up  in  the  fear  of  God.""^  When  the  arch- 
deacon sent  down  an  excommunication  against  any  one  of 
the  parish,  it  was  delivered  to  the  minister  to  be  solemnly 
proclaimed  by  him  from  the  pulpit,^''^  and  thereafter  he  had 
to  see  that  the  excommunicate  person  remained  away  from 
service  until  absolution  was  granted"^  by  the  ordinary, 
which  absolution  was  then  publicly  pronounced  from  the 
pulpit.^"*  When  penance  had  to  be  done  in  church  by  an 
offender,  it  was  the  duty  of  the  parson  to  superintend  the 
performance;  to  say,  if  necessary,  before  the  congregation 
the  formula  of  confession  prescribed  for  the  offence,  in 
order  that  the  guilty  person  might  repeat  it  after  him;^"' 
to  exhort  the  persons  present  to  refrain  from  similar  trans- 
gressions; to  read,  on  occasion,  some  homily  bearing  upon 
the  subject  ;^***  and  finally  to  make  out  a  certificate  (together 

'""Hale^  Crim.  Prec,  193.  Cf.  Grindal's  Inj.  at  York,  1571 :  "Ye 
[the  ministers]  shall  openly  every  Sunday  .  .  .  monish  .  .  .  the 
churchwardens  and  sworn  men  of  your  parish  to  look  to  their  oaths 
[etc.]  ..."  Remains  of  Grindal,  129.  Also  Whitgift's  Articles 
of  1583,  Cardwell,  Doc.  Ann.,  i,  406  (Ministers  to  warn  parishioners 
once  a  month  to  repair  to  church). 

""  Canterbury  Visit.,  xxv,  36. 

"^Cf.  Canons  of  1597:  "  De  recusantibus  et  aliis  excommunicatis 
publice  denunciandis."  Cardwell,  Syn.,  i,  156.  Also  Croke's  Elis. 
Rep.,  Leache's  ed.  (1790),  i,  Pt.  ii,  838,  where  a  plaintiff  sues  for 
damages  because  defendant,  a  curate,  maliciously  erased  the  orig- 
inal name  in  an  instrument  of  excommunication  and  inserted 
plaintiff's  name,  "  and  read  it  in  the  church,  whereupon  he  was 
inforced  to  be  absent  from  divine  service,  and  to  be  at  the  expence 
to  procure  a  discharge  for  himself"  (1599).  Canterbury  Visit., 
xxvii,  219  (Rector  of  Swalecliffe  presented  for  keeping  back  and 
not  announcing  excommunications  "sent  out  of  this  court."     1596). 

^'^  Canterbury  Visit.,  xxvii,  219  (Rector  suffering  excommunicates 
to  come  to  his  church  during  service).     See  also  infra,  p.  47. 

^"Canons  of  1585  and  1597,  Cardwell,  Syn.,  i,  144  and  155-6  re- 
spectively. 

'°*See  in  Hale,  Crim.  Prec,  206-7,  the  elaborate  formula  of  con- 
fession prescribed  for  Wm.  Peacock  of  Leighton,  Essex,  in  1592. 
He  was  to  "  publiquely  after  the  minister  .  .  .  confesse  [etc.]  ..." 

'"Hale,  op.  cit.,  160  (Margaret  Orton's  penance  for  adultery. 
"  And  ther  was  redd  the  firste  parte  of  the  homilie  againste 
whoredome  &  adulterie,  the  people  ther  present  exorted  to  refraine 
from  soche  wickedness   .   .   ."). 


34  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [33^ 

with  the  wardens,  if  necessary)  that  the  penance  had  been 
carried  out  as  enjoined  by  the  judge. 

Besides  the  celebration  of  the  rites  pertaining  to  his 
priestly  office,  which  need  not  detain  us  here,  there  were 
many  other  duties  which  the  ecclesiastical  courts  enjoined 
on  the  parish  incumbent.  Some  of  these  have  already  been 
referred  to.^°^  Others  will  appear  as  we  view  the  disci- 
pline of  the  courts  Christian  when  exercised  over  the  parish- 
ioners at  large,  to  which  subject  we  shall  now  address  our- 
selves. 

Foremost  among  the  requirements  exacted  by  the  ordi- 
naries from  all  alike  was  the  duty  of  attending  church. 
Every  one  had  to  frequent  service  on  Sundays  and  on  feast- 
days,  and  to  be  present  at  evening  as  well  as  at  morning 
prayer.^**®  Nor  might  a  man  repair  to  a  church  in  another 
parish  because  it  was  nearer  than  his  own.^^*  Should  his 
own  minister  be  unlicenced  to  preach — and  only  about  one 
incumbent  out  of  four  or  five  was  licenced^^" — he  was  not 
permitted,  except  under  special  authorization,"^  to  hear  a 
sermon  in  another  church  while  service  was  going  on  in  his 

^"  See  pp.  12-13,  and  p.  27,  supra. 

^'^  Barnes'  Eccles.  Proc,  114  (Parishioner  in  a  Durham  parish 
presented  for  absenting  himself  "  twice  at  morning  prayer,  and 
verrey  often  at  eveninge  prayer."  1579) .  Houghton-le-Spring  Acc'ts, 
s.  a.,  1596,  Surtees  Soc,  Ixxxiv  (1888),  271  (Giving  in  a  bill  of 
presentment  for  those  absent  from  morning  and  from  evening 
prayer). 

^'^ Canterbury  Visit.,  xxvii,  221  (Four  persons  cited  "for  that 
they  dwell  so  far  from  their  own  Church  come  now  to  the  Parish 
Church  of  Westbere."  1569).  Ibid.,  xxv,  21  (Two  men  presented 
for  not  attending  their  parish  church  "  being  two  miles  off,  but  go 
to  the  next  Parish  Church."  1569).  Ibid.,  23  (1600).  Op.  cit., 
xxvi,  46  (Presentment  of  one  who  had  often  to  be  absent  from 
his  parish  on  business.  1593).  Dean  of  York's  Visit.,  227  (Attend- 
ing another  church  for  fear  of  arrest  for  debt  in  his  own.     1594). 

"°  See  in  Daniel  Neal,  History  of  the  Puritans  (J.  Toulmin's 
ed.,  Bath,  1793-7),  i-  413-17,  contemporary  (1585-6)  statistics  for 
the  licenced  preachers  of  nine  counties.  See  also  J.  C.  Cox,  Three 
Centuries  of  Derbyshire  Annals,  i,  245  (Only  82  clergymen  licenced 
to  preach  out  of  a  total  in  the  diocese  of  Lichfield  of  433,  according 
to  a  document  circa  1602). 

^"  For  such  a  permit  to  hear  preaching  elsewhere,  see  Hale,  Crim. 
Prec,  189  (Six  parishioners  of  Shopland  (Essex)  authorized  by 
the  archdeacon  to  repair  to  a  neighboring  church  for  a  sermon  when 
there  is  no  preaching  in  their  own,  but  only  two  permitted  to  leave 
their  own  services  at  any  one  time.     I58f). 


337]        Ecclesiastical  Government  of  the  Parish.  35 

own.^^^  If,  however,  a  man  were  able  to  pay  the  statu- 
tory^^^  fine  of  I2d.  for  each  absence  on  holy  days  he  could, 
it  would  seem,  in  practice  resort  to  his  parish  church  only 
on  occasions,  say  once  a  month,  and  yet  not  get  himself 
written  down  as  a  recusant.^ ^* 

Heads  of  families  were  made  responsible  for  the  attend- 
ance of  their  children  and  servants ;  innkeepers  or  victual- 
lers for  their  guests."" 

If  it  was  not  permissible  to  frequent  service  in  another 
place  of  worship,  neither  was  it  optional  with  a  parishioner 
to  get  married  elsewhere  than  in  his  own  church."*  There, 
too,  his  marriage  banns  had  to  be  published — and  it  was 
a  presentable  offence  to  marry  without  banns  ;^"  there  he 
had    to    have    his    children    christened"*    and    his    wife 

'"Hale,  ibid.,  187-8. 

"*  I  Eliz.,  c.  2,  sec.  iii,  ad  finem. 

"*  See  23  Eliz.  c.  i,  sec.  iv  (Forfeiture  of  £20  for  every  month's 
forbearance  from  church  attendance).  Cardwell,  Doc.  Ann.,  i,  406 
(Whitgift's  Articles  of  1583;  minister  and  wardens  to  diligently 
observe  those  absenting  themselves  for  the  space  of  a  month,  accord- 
ing to  21  Eliz.  [supra]  in  order  that  they  may  be  presented  as 
recusants  to  the  justices  at  quarter  sessions).  See  also  in  Rox- 
burghe  Ballads  (1871),  i,  118,  a  ballad  written  circa  1620  which 
tells  us :  "  There  be  diuers  Papists,  That  to  saue  their  Fine,  Come 
to  Church  once  a  moneth.  To  heare  Seruice  Diuine.  The  Pope  giues 
them  power.  As  they  say,  to  doe  so;  They  saue  money  by't  too. 
But  I  know  what  I  know."  Cf.  Canterbury  Visit.,  xxv,  27  (Pre- 
sentment "  that  he  is  a  negligent  comer  to  our  Parish  Church,  being 
not  able  to  pay  the  forfeiture."  1597).  Ibid.,  xxvii,  223  ("John 
Wilkins  be  slothful  in  coming  to  the  Church,  and  because  he  is 
a  poor  man  we  cannot  take  the  fine  of  twelve  pence."  1578).  Also 
ibid.,  xxvi,  46  (Humphrey  Watts  coming  sometimes  but  once  a 
month  to  church). 

"'  Catiterbury  Visit.,  xxvi,  18  (One  Deal  presented  for  keeping  a 
schoolmaster,  "  and  also  bemg  a  victualler,  suffereth  him  to  remain 
in  his  house  and  not  frequent  Divine  Service  on  the  Sabbath  Day." 
1580). 

^^*  Warrington  Deanery  Visit.,  191  (One  Motley  "married  not 
known  where").     See  other  visitations,  passim. 

"'  Warrington  Deanery  Visit.,  192  (Four  persons  presented  from 
Wigan  for  marrying  without  banns)  ;  189,  et  passim. 

^' Ibid.  184  (A  child  not  baptized  at  the  parish  church);  189 
("A  child  christened,  and  not  known  where")  ;  190  (Same).  Hale, 
trim.  Prec,  216  ("  Keeping  her  child  unbaptized  a  whole  moneth." 
1597)-  Ibid.,  183  (Curate  of  Blackmore,  Essex,  suspended  from  the 
celebration  of  the  rites  because  "  there  was  tow  children  .  .  . 
which  died  unchristened  by  his  necligence."     1584)- 


36  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [338 

churched  ;^^^  there  he  was  compelled  to  send  sons,  daughters 
or  apprentices  to  be  catechized/-"  and  there  himself  learn 
the  principles  of  religion  (if  he  were  ignorant  of  them), 
for  without  a  knowledge  of  the  Catechism  and  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments he  could  not  receive  communion.^-^ 

All  persons  over  fourteen  had  to  receive  communion  at 
Easter,  and  at  least  on  two  other  occasions  during  the 
year.^'^^  In  fact  readiness  to  receive  according  to  the 
Anglican  rites  became  the  test  of  a  loyal  subject.^^^ 

The  strict  requirement  to  report  all  non-communicants  to 
the  official  resulted  in  the  keeping  of  books  in  which  were 
written  the  names  of  the  parish  communicants.^^* 

Next  in  importance  to  church  attendance  and  the  observ- 
ance of  the  sacraments  came  the  duty  of  all  parishioners 
to  contribute  to  the  parish  expenses.  We  have  viewed 
church  courts  at  work,  compelling  wardens  to  levy  church 

^^^  W arrington  Deanery  Visit.,  189;  190  ("His  wife  churched  not 
known  where").      Hale,  uhi  sup.,  167. 

^  Warrington  Deanery  Visit.,  185  (Office  of  judge  against  James 
Woswall:  "His  children  come  not  to  bee  catechised").  See  Canons 
of  1571  (Parents  and  masters  to  be  presented  for  not  regularly 
sending  children  or  apprentices  to  learn  the  catechism),  Cardwell, 
Syn.,  i,  120. 

*^  See  Queen's  Visit.  Art.  of  1559  in  Cardwell,  Doc.  Ann.,  i,  211. 
Hale,  Crim.  Prec.,  226  (One  Robinson  presented  for  not  going  to  his 
minister  to  be  examined  in  the  principles  of  religion  of  which  he 
was  ignorant).  Barnes'  Eccles.  Proc.,  122-3  (An  offender 
"  lackeinge  the  catechism  dyde  thrust  in  amongest  others  and 
receyvid  ..."  Another  was  "  repulsed  from  the  Communion 
because  he  coulde  not  saye  the  10  commaundements,  in  whome  we 
can  perceyve  no  towardnes  to  learne  them  ").  Also  Hale,  m6j  JM/Jra, 
146,  159,  etc. 

^^  Presentments  for  not  receiving  are  numerous  in  the  act-books. 
A  few  references  are,  Dean  of  York's  Visit.,  219  ff.  E.  g.,  at  Goath- 
land  20  persons  are  presented  by  name.  See  also  Hale,  Crim.  Prec, 
163,  171,  176,  etc.,  and  the  other  act-books  heretofore  cited.  Also 
canons,  injunctions  and  visitation  articles  of  the  time,  e.  g.,  Canons 
of  1571  (Vicars,  etc.,  to  present  all  over  fourteen  who  have  not 
received)  in  Cardwell,  Syn.,  i,  120.  Grindal's  Inj.  for  York,  1571 
(All  above  fourteen  to  receive  in  their  own  churches  at  least  three 
times  a  year),  Cardwell,  Doc.  Ann.,  i,  336. 

"^  See  Heywood  Townshend,  Proc.  in  the  Last  Four  Pari,  of  Elis., 
Debates,  passim. 

"*  J.  E.  Foster:  Ch'wd'ns  Acc'ts  of  St.  Mary  the  Great,  Cambridge 
(1905),  225  (Item  for  paper  book  to  write  in  all  names  of  the 
parish  at  Easter.  1590-1).  Ibid.,  202  (Item  to  a  scribe  for  writing 
nanies  of  communicants).  Thos.  North,  Chronicle  of  St.  Martin, 
Leicester,  Ch'wd'ns  Acc'ts,  171   (Item  same  as  above.     1568-9). 


339]        Ecclesiastical  Government  of  the  Parish.  37 

rates;  we  have  now  to  see  how  the  judges  forced  recalci- 
trant ratepayers  to  pay  the  sums  assessed  upon  them  to  the 
wardens  or  other  collectors. 

Among  the  earliest  vestry  minutes  of  the  parish  of 
St.  Christopher-le-Stocks,  London,  is  one  which,  after  order- 
ing that  an  assessment  be  made  for  the  clerk's  wages  and 
for  pews,  decreed  that  any  rebellious  persons  should  be 
summoned  before  themselves,  the  vestry,  to  be  reformed. 
But  if  the  rebel  would  not  appear,  or,  on  appearance,  remain 
stubborn  to  reason,  then  the  churchwardens  should  sue  him 
before  the  ordinary  at  the  parish  costs  "  vntill  suche  tyme 
as  he  be  reduced  vnto  a  good  order,  and  hath  paid  bothe  the 
costys  of  the  sute  and  the  chargs  that  he  owith  vnto  the 
church  .  .  .  .""''  Fifty  years  later  we  find  this  vestry 
ordaining  the  same  procedure  to  be  followed  against  parish 
debtors,  and  referring  to  its  former  order.^^^ 

It  seems,  in  fact,  to  have  been  the  well-understood  thing 
that  just  as  parish  rates  to  defray  the  costs  of  those  matters 
of  parish  administration,  falling  within  the  province  of  the 
ecclesiastical  courts,  were  to  be  assessed  by  the  authority, 
and  under  the  direction,  of  those  courts,  so,  too,  the  recovery 
of  these  rates  was  to  be  had  before  the  same  tribunals.  It 
is  not  denied  that  recourse  may  occasionally  have  been  made 
in  these  matters  to  the  courts  of  common  law,  but  it  is  be- 
lieved that  the  proper  remedy  was  at  ecclesiastical  law."' 
Furthermore,  we  believe  that  the  means  at  the  disposal  of 
the  ecclesiastical  courts  for  putting  their  judgments  into 
effect  were  quite  sufficient  and  in  practice  effective. 

What  these  means  were  will  be  taken  up  and  discussed 
a  little  further  on.  Returning  to  the  matter  of  suing  parish 
debtors  in  courts  Christian,  it  is  interesting  to  find  that  in 

""E.  Freshfield,  Vestry  Minutes  of  St.  Christopher-le-Stocks, 
Append.,  71. 

Ibid,  7.  For  similar  vestry  orders  see  Vestry  Minutes  of  St. 
Margaret,  Lothbury,  London  (also  edited  by  Dr.  Freshfield),  pp.  i 
(1571)  and  15  (1583).  Also  G.  W.  Hill  and  W.  F.  Frere,  Memorials 
of  Stepney  Parish,  42  (1602),  and  51  (i6o|). 

"^Bum,  Eccles.  Law,  i  (ed.  1763),  274,  sub  voce  Church,  says: 
"And  if  any  of  the  parishioners  refuse  to  pay  their  rates,  being  de- 
manded by  the  churchwardens,  they  are  to  be  sued  for,  and  to  be 
recovered  in,  the  ecclesiastical  courts,  and  not  elsewhere." 


38  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [340 

the  language  of  the  period  a  suit  "  at  law  "  did  not  always 
mean  at  common  law.  An  order  of  the  vestry  of  Stepney, 
London,  in  February,  i6o|,  after  determining  the  manner 
in  which  £50  should  be  raised  to  pay  off  parish  debts  due 
to  the  bell  founder,  adds  that  persons  refusing  to  pay  their 
shares,  or  neglecting  to  do  so,  should  not  find  themselves 
aggrieved  "  if  the  same  be  recouered  against  them  by 
Lawe."  And  the  meaning  of  this  term  is  fully  explained 
by  these  subsequent  words  in  the  same  order,  that  the 
churchwardens  shall  "at  the  chardg  of  the  p[ar]ish  ap- 
pointe  and  entertayne  one  doctor  and  a  proctor  to  sue  and 
recouer  the  same  by  lawe  of  any  p[er]son  [etc.]."^^*  Now 
doctors  and  proctors  practiced  before  ecclesiastical  tribu- 
nals only.^^* 

That  presentment  to  the  ordinary  was  the  common  and 
usual  way,  not  only  of  recovering  church  rates,  but  any 
thing  of  value  that  belonged  to  the  parish  and  was  unjustly 
detained,  the  act-books  and  other  documents  of  the  time 
plentifully  show.  Thus  in  Archbishop  Parker's  Visitation 
Articles  for  the  diocese  of  Canterbury  in  the  year  1569,  he 
requires  all  churchwardens  to  report  to  their  ordinaries 
"  whether  there  be  any  money  or  stoke,  appertaininge  to 
any  paryshe  churche,  in  anye  manne's  handes,  that  refuse 
or  diifereth  to  paye  the  same  [etc.]."^^^  The  wardens  of 
Melton  Mowbray  record  under  the  year  1602  an  item  for 
charges  at  the  court  at  Leicester  against  a  parishioner  "  for 
not  payinge  his  levi  for  the  churche."^^^    Those  of  Ash- 

^^  Memorials  of  Stepney,  51.  Cf.  Acts  of  the  Privy  Council  (ed. 
Dasent),  xxii,  482-3  (A  tenant  refusing  a  customary  payment  for 
church  repair,  presented  by  "  the  generall  consent "  of  the  parish- 
ioners of  Lewesham  to  the  commissary's  court.  He  removes  the 
cause  to  Star  Chamber  "to  the  extreame  chardgis,  trouble  and 
hinderance "  of  one  of  the  wardens,  to  the  encouragement  of  like 
oflFenders,  and  to  the  "utter  ruin  and  decaie  "  of  the  church.  1592). 
The  source  last  quoted  hereinafter  cited  as  A.  P.  C,  xxii  (etc.). 

"*  Besides  the  order  just  mentioned,  the  Stepney  vestry  had  three 
years  before  ordained  concerning  their  wardens  that  these  were  "to 
shew  how  they  haue  p[re]sented  them  [old  dues  in  their  books], 
Otherwise  the  said  churchwardens  shalbe  charged  to  pay  those 
Arrearages  as  shall  remayne  so  vnpaid  and  not  p[re]sented  by 
them."     Op.   cit.,  43. 

""  Art.  xxi,  Cardwell,  Doc.  Ann.,  i,  326. 

^^Leicest.  Archit.  (etc.)  Soc,  iii,  204. 


34 1  ]        Ecclesiastical  Government  of  the  Parish.  39 

burton,  Devon,  itemize  in  1 568-1 569  two  shillings  "  for  a 
zytation  to  those  that  wold  nott  pay  to  the  power."*'^ 

As  the  wardens  of  East  Tilbury  were  going  about  among 
the  parishioners  demanding  money  of  each  one  according 
to  the  rating  inscribed  on  an  assessment  roll  which  they 
carried  with  them,  one  Garrett,  a  constable,  discontented 
that  he  himself  should  be  rated  as  high  as  four  shillings, 
seized  the  roll  and  refused  to  produce  it.  This,  of  course, 
put  an  end  to  further  collections.  For  this  he  was  pre- 
sented by  the  vicar  before  the  consistory  court  at  Stratford 
Bow  Chapel.  Here  he  alleged  that  the  rating  "  was  very 
unequally  made."  But  the  judge  warned  Garrett  to  appear 
in  court  the  following  Tuesday  to  answer  for  his  contempt. 
Further  he  was  to  pay  his  four  shillings  to  the  wardens 
and  bring  to  the  judge  the  wardens'  certificate  that  he  had 
done  so.  On  the  day  appointed  Garrett  was  present  in  court 
with  the  vicar  and  wardens.  The  decree  of  the  court  is 
headed:  " Negotiu[m]  reparac[i]o[n]is  eccl[esi]e  de  East 
Tilburie,"  and  is  so  characteristic  of  the  thoroughgoing  and 
searching  manner  in  which  ordinaries  supervised  the  ad- 
ministration of  parish  affairs  that  we  cannot  forbear  to 
quote  a  large  part  of  it  in  full.  "  Touchinge  the  same  W° 
Garrett,"  the  registrar  inscribes  in  the  act-book,  "  the 
churchwardens  do  here  testifie  that  he  hathe  payd  his  iiij  s. 
w[hi]ch  he  was  rated  at  ...  &  they  saye  they  have  re- 
ceyved  it.  Towching  the  churchwardens  &  the  repayre  [of] 
the  church,"  the  scribe  continues,  "  the  Judge  doth  order 
that  the  minister,  Mr  Howdsworth,  [and  seven  others 
named,  including  wardens,  sidemen  and  constables]  .  .  . 
p[ro]cure  workmen  of  all  trad[es],  &  then  sett  downe  under 
their  hand  in  writing  what  chardg  it  will  be  to  repayer  the 
church  sufficiently  in  all  thing [s]  wharein  it  is  decayd,  as 
namely,  tyling,  paving,  masonns  worke,  carpenters  worke  & 
glasing  .  .  .  and  when  they  have  under  the  workmens  hand 
founde  what  will  repayer  the  churche  in  every  p[ar]ticuler, 

'"J.  H.  Butcher,  The  Parish  of  Ashburton  in  the  15th  and  i6th 
Centuries  (1870),  42.  See  also  ibid.,  40  and  49.  Also  H.  J.  F. 
Swayne,  Acc'ts  of  St.  Edmund  and  St.  Thomas,  Sarum  (Wilts  Rec. 
See.  1896),  introd.,  p.  xxv,  and  p.  317. 

LIBRARY 


40  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [342 

then  shall  they  all  nyne  assemple  themselves  in  the  church 
[on  a  day  named]  .  .  .  and  make  a  rate  to  that  proportion 
w[hi]ch  shall  remayne  above  the  rate  already  allowed  of 
.  .  .  and  they  shall  certify  in  Stratford  bowe  Chappell 
bothe  of  the  vew  making  by  the  workmen,  of  the  gathering 
of  the  rate  already  made,  of  their  making  a  new  rate  .  .  . 
and  of  the  gathering  thereof ;  and  likewise  how  farr  they 
have  p[ro]ceeded  in  the  repayer  of  the  church  the  ix***  of 
Aprill  next:  and  for  the  punish  [men]  t  of  him,  the  said  W™ 
Garrett,  for  his  contemptuous  taking  away  of  the  rate,  as 
is  complayned  of,  it  is  respited  untill  this  p [resent]  order  be 
p[er] formed;  &  he  is  now  monished  to  appeare  in  the  Con- 
sistorie  the  first  court  day  [etc]  .  .  .  ."^^^  So,  too,  when 
Richard  Fynsett  of  Clayton,  Sussex,  was  "  detected  "  to  the 
official  for  not  paying  his  rate  for  church  repairs,  November, 
I595>  he  appeared  and  claimed  that  not  only  was  his  rating 
excessive,  but  that  the  assessment  had  not  been  according 
to  custom,  to  wit,  made  by  the  majority  of  the  parishioners. 
He  was  summoned  by  the  judge  to  prove  his  allegation  at 
the  next  court  day,  and  to  pay  his  court  and  other  fees. 
He  was  probably  unable  to  prove  his  point,  for  under  the 
9th  December  following  the  record  simply  states  "  Com- 
paruit  et  solvit  feoda  dehita."^^* 

The  wardens  of  Swalecliffe,  Kent,  complain  to  the  arch- 
deacon of  Canterbury  in  1565  that  their  church  is  near  utter 
decay,  but  the  parish  is  so  poor  that  they  cannot  repair  it 
unless  an  assessment  be  made  on  the  lands  within  the  parish, 
for  the  making  of  which  assessment  they  ask  for  an  au- 
thorization.^^'*   Two   years   later  they  appear  and   say   in 

"^Hale,  Churchwardens'  Free,  4-10,  5th  to  8th  March,  160I.  Cf. 
ibid.,  16. 

^'^Hale,  op.  cit.,  109-110. 

^'^  Canterbury  Visit.,  xxvii,  218.  Authorization  to  tax  the  land  is 
not  asked  for  in  express  terms,  but  seems  to  be  implied.  In  other 
cases  it  is  clear  that  a  warrant  was  given  for  the  assessment  of 
lands,  e.  g.,  Hale,  Churchzvardens'  Prec,  4  (A  warden  of  Chelms- 
ford, Essex,  to  appear  in  court  "  for  a  warrant  for  seassment  of  the 
landes."  1584).  Sometimes  the  rates  made  were  offered  in  court 
to  be  confirmed,  Hale,  ibid.,  8  (A  rate  "offered"  to  the  judge  at 
Stratford  at  Bow.  1607).  Canterbury  Visit.,  xxv,  14  (A  rate, 
subscribed  by  the  boards  of  the  parishioners,  "  and  certified  under 
Mr.  Doctor  Newman's  own  hand."     1613). 


343]        Ecclesiastical  Government  of  the  Parish.  41 

court  that  their  church  still  lacks  windows,  "  and  the  parish 
is  not  able  to  mend  the  same,  without  it  may  please  you  that 
the  rest  of  the  cess  that  was  made  may  be  levied,  which  we 
cannot  get  unless  we  have  your  aid.""* 

In  the  same  way  the  wardens  of  St.  Alban's  "  implored 
the  aid  of  the  judge,"  because  they  wished  divers  persons 
who  refused  to  pay  their  rates  "co[m]pelled  therunto  by 
aucthoritye  of  this  court,"  otherwise  the  unpaid  workmen 
on  their  ruinous  church  would  leave,  and  the  half -finished 
structure  sustain  damage  by  winter  weather.^'''  The  act- 
books  teem  with  such  presentments  as  the  following:  one 
Holaway  refuses  to  give  to  the  poor-box,  "  and  is  found  able 
by  the  parish.""^  Thomas  Arter  will  give  but  a  half-penny 
to  the  poor.  Arter  appears  and  "  saithe  that  he  is  not  of 
the  wealthe  that  men  takithe  him  to  be."  The  judge  com- 
mands him  to  pay  a  half-penny  every  week,  and  dismisses 
him.^*'  "  John  Wilson  haithe  not  paide  his  clerke  wages 
by  the  report  of  the  clerke."""  "  Here  follow  the  names 
of  such,  as  being  able,  refuse  notwithstanding  to  pay  to  the 
poor  man's  box  [eight  names  follow]";"*  or  "  The  present- 
ment made  by  the  churchwardens  and  sidemen  ...  of  all 
such  as  are  behind  for  a  cess  made  for  the  Church  and 
refuse  to  pay  [five  names]. ""^  John  Baldwin  presented 
for  that  "  the  fame  and  report  goeth  "  that  he  keeps  back 
£10,  a  legacy  given  seven  years  previously  for  church 
repairs  and  the  poor-box,  "  and  the  Church  and  the  poor 
have  wanted  the  same,  having  no  benefit  thereof,  as  we 

"*  Canterbury  Visit.,  ubi  supra. 

^  Hale,  Churchwardens'  Prec,  90-1   ( 1603) . 

^Canterbury  Visit.,  xxvii,  223  (1569).  Cf.  ibid.,  214.  Also  ibid., 
xxvi,  18  (Three  persons  presented  who  will  not  "pay  to  the  poor 
mens'  box."     1574). 

'"Hale,  Crim.  Prec,  149  (1566).  Cf.  ibid.,  176  ("Detected  for 
beinge  an  uncharitable  person  &  for  not  gevenge  to  the  poore  & 
impotent  ..."  1583).  Ibid.,  208  (One  Crisp  detected  for  not  pay- 
ing his  accustomed  "offering"  for  himself  and  wife  to  the  minister 
at  Easter.     1593). 

^^^ Dean  of  York's  Visit.,  229  (1595).  Ibid.,  214  (Similar  present- 
ment, 1570).  Ibid.,  335  (Same.  1600).  Ibid.,  223  (Bellman's 
wages). 

^*^  Canterbury  Visit.,  xxvi,  22  (1598). 

'*' Ibid.,  20  (1592). 


42  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [344 

know.'"^*^  One  Consant  received  a  cow  belonging  to  the 
parish  "  and  hath  not  made  an  account  to  the  parish  for 
her."^**  Jeremy  Robson  is  cited  "  for  detaining  our  Clerk's 
wages  from  the  land  which  he  occupieth  in  our  parish  after 
6  s.  8  d.  for  a  plough  land  of  140  acres."^*^  Two  lessees 
of  the  parish  are  presented  "  for  withholding  the  farm  of 
two  acres  and  a  half  of  church  land  one  year  and  a  half 
unpaid."^*®  John  Smithe  presented  for  felling  and  selling 
a  great  oak  which  stood  upon  church  land,  "  whereas  now 
we  stand  in  lack  of  the  same  to  repair  our  Church."^*"'  A 
parishioner  is  cited  before  the  ordinary  because  he  with- 
holds church  goods  and  refuses  both  to  enter  into  bond  for 
them  and  to  make  an  accounting.^*®  So  men  are  presented 
for  not  paying  the  parish  fees  due  for  the  burial  of  mem- 
bers of  their  family,  or  for  the  ringing  of  knells  ;^*®  for  suf- 
fering a  church  tenement  or  a  part  of  the  church  fence, 
which  they  are  bound  to  repair,  to  fall  into  decay,^°"  and 
so  forth.  In  short,  any  one  at  all,  whether  in  the  capac- 
ity of  parish  officer;  rate  payer;  trustee;  administrator  or 
executor;  lessee  of  the  parish  cattle  or  its  lands  or  tene- 
ments— any  one,  in  fact,  standing  in  the  relation  of  debtor 
to  the  parish  in  a  matter  falling  within  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  spiritual  courts,  could  be,  and  was,  compelled  by  these 
to  pay  or  to  account  to  the  parishioners. 

Not  only  did  the  Church  regulate  many  acts  of  a  parish- 
ioner's life,  and  preside  over  his  moral  conduct,  making  him 
pay  in  great  measure  the  costs  of  this  disciplinary  adminis- 
tration, but  it  also  was  entrusted  with  his  education,  through 

^"^ Ibid.,  21  (1596),  44-  Op.  cit.,  xxv,  32  ("We  do  suppose  that 
[name]  .  .  .  doth  keep  back  from  us  a  certain  sum  .  .  .  given  by- 
will  to  the  use  of  the  Church  .  .  .  and  we  know  not  how  we  may- 
come  by  the  same,  unless  your  Worship's  aid  be  ministered  unto  us 
in  that  behalf."     1581).    Ibid.,  22,  23,  26  etc. 

'"0/>.  cit.,  xxvii,  219  (1569).  Op.  cit.,  xxv,  14  (Keeping  church 
ewes  and  not  paying  rent  for  them.     1613). 

"'O/).  cit.,  xxvi,  33  (1605). 

"'Ibid.,  39  (1600).    Ibid.,  31. 

"'  Op.  cit.,  xxvii,  224  (1584). 

*"0/>.  cit.,  xxv,  13  (1600). 

***£.  g..  Hale,  Crim.  Prec,  221  (1599). 

"^Dean  of  York's  Visit.,  333  (Church  house.  i6oi).  Ibid.,  214 
(Churchyard  fence.     1570). 


345]        Ecclesiastical  Government  of  the  Parish.  43 

which  it  sought  to  control  his  ideas  and  convictions,  and  to 
direct  and  form  public  opinion.  The  education  and  train- 
ing of  a  nation  depend,  of  course,  in  greatest  measure  on 
its  primary  schools  and  its  press.  As  for  its  universities, 
these  are  but  the  apex  on  the  educational  pyramid,  for  a 
very  select  few  only.  Now  the  primary  schools  were  rep- 
resented in  the  times  whereof  we  write  by  the  parish  school- 
master, the  familiar  "  ludimagister  "  of  the  canons  and  act- 
books,  and  by  the  incumbent  himself.  For  the  people  at 
large  the  press  was  represented  almost  entirely  by  the  li- 
cenced preacher,  and,  in  the  larger  towns,  the  licenced 
lecturer. 

The  Canons  of  1571  ordain  that  no  one  shall  teach  the 
humanities  nor  instruct  boys,  whether  in  school  or  in  private 
families,^"^  unless  the  diocesan  licence  him  under  his  seal. 
Nor  are  schoolmasters  to  use  other  grammars  or  catechisms 
than  those  officially  prescribed.  Every  year  schoolmasters 
are  to  commend  to  the  bishop  of  the  diocese  the  best  read 
among  their  pupils,  and  those  that  by  their  achievements 
give  promise  that  they  may  usefully  serve  the  State  or  the 
Church,  so  that  their  parents  may  be  induced  to  educate 
them  further  to  that  end.^'^^  Bishop  Barnes  in  his  Injunc- 
tions of  1577  commands  that  all  incumbents  of  cures  in 
Durham  diocese  not  licenced  to  preach  shall  "  duly,  payne- 
fully  and  frely  "  teach  the  children  of  their  several  parishes 
to  read  and  write.  Furthermore,  teachers  shall  exhort  the 
parents  of  those  boys  who  have  proved  themselves  apt  at 
learning  and  of  "  pregnant  capacitie  "  to  cause  their  sons 
to  continue  their  studies  and  to  acquire  the  good  and  liberal 
sciences.  On  the  other  hand  they  shall  induce  fathers  of 
sons  of  little  wit  or  capacity  to  put  them  to  husbandry,  or 
some  other  suitable  craft,  that  they  may  grow  to  be  useful 
members  of  the  commonwealth."'  In  this  diocese  we  find 
schoolmasters  by  profession  ("  ludimagistri ")  summoned 
at  the  visitations  very  regularly,  and  there  seem  to  have 

"*  The  higher  nobility  excepted. 
""Cardwell,  Syn.,  i,  128. 
*"  Barnes'  Eccles.  Proc,  19. 


44  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [346 

been  a  considerable  number  of  them  in  the  towns,  though 
not  in  the  country  parishes,  where  the  curates  doubtless 
officiated  as  instructors  of  the  youth  according  to  the 
bishop's  monitions.^^*  Everywhere  in  the  proceedings  of 
the  ecclesiastical  courts  schoolmasters  are  "  detected "  to 
the  judges  from  time  to  time  for  having  no  licence  to 
teach.^" 

As  for  the  pulpit,  that  great  instrument  of  political  guid- 
ance at  a  period  when  politics  consisted  chiefly  of  religious 
contentions,^^®  it  is  well  known  that  Elizabeth  and  her  ad- 
visors grasped  at  once  its  paramount  importance,  and  that 
she  had  been  on  the  throne  but  little  over  a  month  when 
she  issued  her  proclamation  inhibiting  all  preaching  and 
teaching  for  the  time  being.  This  command  was  followed 
by  her  Injunctions  of  the  next  year,  forbidding  any  to 
preach  unless  licenced  by  herself,  her  two  archbishops,  the 
diocesan,  or  her  visitors.^'^  As  is  well  known  also,  no  com- 
mand was  more  universally  enforced.  It  is  constantly  men- 
tioned in  the  metropolitan  or  diocesan  injunctions  or  articles 
of  the  period,^*^  and  the  proceedings  before  the  ordinaries 
bear  witness  to  its  enforcement.^''® 

^"  See,  e.  g.,  op.  cit.,  42-45  (5  schoolmasters  mentioned  by  name  at 
Allhallows,  Newcastle;  4  at  St.  Nicholas).  In  Durham  city  " sub- 
pedagogi"  are  also  spoken  of  in  the  various  wards. 

"'Op.  cit.,  passim.  Other  examples  will  be  found  in  Dean  of 
York's  Visit.,  225,  229  etc.  Hale,  Crint.  Prec,  154,  184-8  (John 
Leache's  case.  1584-6),  190,  198  (One  Dawe's  wife  teaches  with- 
out a  licence.  Warned  not  to  teach  any  "man  child  above  the  age 
of  X  yeres,  untyll  she  shall  be  lawfully  licenced."  I5|ff).  Canter- 
bury Visit.,  xxvi,  20,  21,  25,  31,  etc. 

'    See  J.  Cordy  Jeaffreson,  A  Book  about  the  Clergy,  ii,  58. 

'"  Cardwell,  Doc.  Ann.,  i,  176  and  182. 

™  See  also  Archbishop  Parker's  and  other  commissioners'  precept 
to  churchwardens  and  others  in  June,  1571  ("And  that  in  no  wise 
ye  suffer  any  person  publicly,  or  privately  to  teach,  read  or  preach 
.  .  .  unless  such  be  licenced  [etc.]  ...  as  you  and  every  one  of 
you  will  answer  to  the  contrary").  Corresp.  of  Archbp.  Parker, 
Parker  Soc,  382-3.  Cf.  also  Archbp.  Whitgift's  '  Commission '  to 
the  ministers  and  churchwardens  of  London,  Aug.,  1587,  forbidding 
"that  they  ...  do  suffer  any  to  preach  in  their  churches  or  to 
read  any  lectures  [etc.]  ..."  Neal,  History  of  the  Puritans, 
(Toulmin's  ed.  1793),  i,  428. 

"*E.  g..  Hale,  Crint.  Prec,  188  ff.  (Leach,  a  schoolmaster,  was 
cited  for  catechizing  and  preaching,  being  unlicenced.  He  was 
strictly  warned  by  the  judge  not  to  "use  any  private  lecture  or  ex- 


347]        Ecclesiastical  Government  of  the  Parish.  45 

Parish  opinion  was  further  sought  to  be  moulded  by  the 
reading  in  church  of  various  tracts,  homiUes,  monitions, 
forms  of  special  prayers,  etc.,  etc.,  which  the  wardens  were 
ordered  to  procure  from  time  to  time,  and  which  are  very 
often  met  with  in  their  accounts.  These  official  mediums 
of  information  or  edification  conveyed  to  the  good  people 
of  the  parishes  some  knowledge  of  the  events  and  politics 
of  the  realm  and  of  the  world  beyond  it.  Thus  they  heard 
of  the  overthrow  of  the  rebels  in  the  North  of  England 
(1569),  the  ravages  of  the  great  earthquake  of  1579;  the 
progress  of  the  plague;  or,  again,  of  the  struggle  of  the 
French  Protestants  led  by  Henry  of  Navarre,  the  defeat  of 
the  Turks  at  Lepanto,  and  so  forth.^®** 

As  food  for  the  more  advanced  minds  of  the  congrega- 
tions, ordinaries  saw  to  it  that  volumes  dealing  with  the 
interpretation  of  the  Scriptures,  the  polity  of  Church  and 
State,  and  the  defence  of  that  polity  were  provided  for 
every  parish  church.  Such  works  were  Erasmus'  Para- 
phrases, BuUinger's  Decades,  Bishop  Jewel's  works,  and 
other  writings  of  an  apologetic  nature.  To  a  certain  extent 
news  was  also  spread,  and  grievances  were  aired,  in  unoffi- 
cial broadsides  or  ballads.  These  treated  of  such  subjects 
as  the  untimely  end  of  traitors  great  or  small;  the  adven- 

positions  of  Scripture  or  catechisinge  of  his  schollers  in  the  pres- 
ence of  anye  .  .  .  not  ...  of  his  owne  howse-hold  [etc.]."  1586-7). 
Ibid.,  202  (A  curate  detected  for  preaching  without  a  licence.  He 
confessed  "  that  he  hathe  expounded "  a  little  on  the  text,  "  but 
wold  that  Mr  Archdeacon  would  appoint  some  time  that  he  might 
preache  before  his  wor[ship],  and  yf  he  should  accepte  of  him,  he 
would  request  his  wor[ship]  to  be  meanes  unto  my  Lord  of  London 
that  he  may  be  licenced  to  preache."  1591).  W.  H.  Overall  and  A. 
J.  Waterlow,  St.  Michael's,  Cornhill,  (London)  Acc'ts  (1869),  176 
("  Paide  to  Mr.  Sadlor  for  avoidinge  one  excommunication  for 
suffering  a  Preacher  to  preache  in  o[u]r  Churche,  being  unlycenced, 
iij  s.  viij  d."     1587-8). 

***In  1585  the  wardens  of  Pittington  (Durham)  are  "commanded 
to  bye  for  everie  person  in  our  parish  a  booke  ..."  Surtees  Soc, 
Ixxxiv,  19.  Examples  taken  promiscuously  from  the  wardens  ac- 
counts of  the  day  are :  "  paid  for  three  prayer  books  for  the  good 
successe  of  the  French  Kinge ; "  "  paid  for  a  prayer  of  thankes 
gevinge  for  ye  over  throwe  of  the  Rebelles  in  the  North."  In  many 
accounts  occur  items  for  books  of  prayers  "  for  the  Earthquake," 
or  "against  the  Turke,"  or  "  Omelies  against  the  rebells,"  or  "  in 
plague  tyme,"  etc. 


46  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [348 

tures  of  her  Majesty's  soldiers  and  sailors;  the  rapacity  of 
landlords  and  the  evils  of  the  enclosure  movement.^®^ 

But  these  publications  and  all  other  printed  matter  were 
subject  to  the  strict  censorship  of  Church  and  State.  Ex- 
tremely few  presses  were  permitted  in  England,  and  these 
few  under  the  jealous  supervision  of  the  high  ecclesiastical 
authorities,  as  is  evidenced  by  the  numerous  orders  or  de- 
crees issued  by  them  to  the  Master  and  Wardens  of  the 
London  Stationers  Company,  which,  with  a  very  few  spe- 
cial patentees,  enjoyed  the  monopoly  of  printing.^®^ 

Having  now  reviewed  the  chief  administrative  functions 
of  the  spiritual  courts  and  their  mode  of  exercise,  the  ques- 
tion presents  itself.  What  were  the  means  at  the  disposal  of 
the  ordinaries  for  enforcing  their  decrees?  The  principal 
one  of  these  has  already  been  mentioned  incidentally,  viz., 
excommunication.  Excommunication  was  the  most  usual, 
as  it  was  by  far  the  most  effective,  weapon  for  compelling 
obedience  to  the  mandate  of  the  judge  in  any  matter  what- 
ever. Indeed  without  this  instrument  of  coercion  the  eccle- 
siastical judges  would  have  been  impotent. 

Excommunication  was  of  two  kinds,  the  lesser  and  the 
greater.  The  former  was  in  constant  use  (to  employ  the 
words  of  a  contemporary  document)  "  for  manifest  and  wil- 
ful contumacy  or  disobedience  in  not  appearing  when  .  .  . 
summoned  for  a  cause  ecclesiastical,  or  when  any  sentence  or 
decree  of  the  bishop  or  his  officer,  being  deliberately  made, 
was  wilfully  disobeyed  .  .  .  ."^®^  Even  under  the  lesser 
excommunication  a  man  could  not  attend  service,  and  he 

""A  number  of  ballads  dating  from  the  reigns  of  Elizabeth  and 
James  have  been  very  recently  (Oxon.  1907)  published  by  Mr. 
Andrew  Clark  under  the  title  of  Shirburn  Ballads. 

**■  One  of  the  earliest  orders  of  the  High  Commissioners  preserved 
dates  from  1560  and  directs  the  Wardens  of  the  Stationers  to  stay 
certain  persons  from  the  printing  of  primers  and  psalters  in  Eng- 
lish and  Latin,  for  which  printing  one  Seres  had  obtained  a  mo- 
nopoly. C.  R.  Rivington,  The  Records  of  the  Worshipful  Company 
of  Stationers  in  London  and  Middlesex  Archceol.  Soc.  Tr.,  vi,  302. 

^'^"  A  writing  of  the  bishops  in  answer  to  the  book  of  articles 
offered  the  last  session  of  parliament  anno  regince  xxvii  [etc.]."  So 
called  by  Strype,  but  assigned  by  Dr.  Cardwell  to  a  date  later  than 
1584.  Cardwell.,  Doc.  Ann.,  i,  426.  "  Excommunication  "  in  the  act- 
books  and  elsewhere  almost  invariably  refers  to  the  lesser  excom- 
munication. 


349]        Ecclesiastical  Government  of  the  Parish.  47 

was  deprived  of  the  use  of  the  sacraments.^'*  If  an  ex- 
communicate sought  to  enter  church  with  the  congregation, 
either  he  had  to  be  forcibly  expelled  or  the  service  could  not 
proceed.^®'  If  he  continued  in  his  contempt  of  court  he 
made  himself  liable  to  the  greater  excommunication/®*  and 
then  he  was  virtually  an  outcast  from  the  society  of  his 
fellow  parishioners.^®^  That  excommunication  was  feared 
by  the  great  majority  of  parish  folk  there  is  no  reason  to 
doubt.  Certainly  the  greater  excommunication  might  seri- 
ously injure  a  man  in  his  business  as  well  as  his  social  in- 
terests, not  to  mention  the  trouble  and  expense  of  getting 
an  absolution.^®*    That  excommunication  reduced  most  of- 

***Thus  he  could  not  receive  communion,  be  married,  stand  as 
godfather,  etc.  Burn,  Eccles.  Law,  i,  252-3.  Compare  Antiquary, 
xxxii  (1896),  143  (Penance  and  heavy  costs  for  a  man  who  "being 
excominecated  .  .  .  ded  preseume  to  marye  before  ...  he  was  ab- 
solved." 1583).  Also  Hale,  Crim.  Prcc,  223  (Presentment  of  an 
excommunicate  for  marrying.      1600). 

^*'  See  Hale.,  op.  cit.,  198  (Archdeacon's  instructions  to  a  curate 
in  1589).  Ibid.,  200  (Minister  stopping  service  as  an  excom- 
municate would  not  leave.  1590).  Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep.  Var. 
Coll.  (1901),  78  (Complaint  by  a  vicar  to  Wilts  quarter  sessions 
that  an  excommunicate  tried  to  remain  at  service.  1606).  Asso- 
ciated Architectural  Sac.  Rep.,  (etc.),  xxxiii,  Pt.  ii  (1897),  373-4 
(Device  of  procuring  an  excommunicate  to  enter  church  and  inter- 
rupt service  so  certain  youths  could  continue  their  morris-dancing. 
1617).  Chelmsford  Acc'ts,  Essex  Arch.  Soc,  ii,  213  (Item  for 
"carrying  Roger  Price  out  of  the  Church,  he  being  exco[mmuni- 
catedl    ..."     1632). 

'**  See  Canons  of  1597,  Cardwell,  Syn.,  i,  156.  Bum,  op.  cit.,  457- 
8.  For  such  a  sentence  see  E.  H.  Chadwyck  Healey,  Hist,  of  West 
Somerset  (1901),  184  (Archdeacon  of  Taunton  requiring  a  min- 
ister to  denounce  solemnly  three  obstinate  excommunicates,  and 
to  warn  all  good  Christians  not  to  eat  or  drink,  buy  or  sell,  or 
otherwise  communicate  with  them  under  the  pains  of  being  them- 
selves excommunicated.     1628). 

^"Thus  those  who  talked  with  him,  ate  at  the  same  table  with 
him,  saluted  him,  or  gave  anything  to  him  were  themselves  ipso 
facto  excommunicate.  See  Reeve,  Hist,  of  English  Lazv  (Finlay- 
son's  ed.),  iii,  68.  If  such  an  excommunicate  brought  an  action  at 
law,  the  defendant  could  plead  in  bar  the  excommunication.  The 
testimony  of  such  a  man  was  not  admissible  in  court.  Finally,  he 
could  not  be  buried  in  the  parish  churchyard  nor  could  services  be 
performed  over  his  body.     Burn,  loc.  cit,  supra. 

^•^  See  the  case  of  Kenton  v.  Wallinger,  41  Eliz.,  Croke's  Elis. 
Rep.,  Leache's  ed.,  Pt.  ii,  838.  This  has  already  been  mentioned  on 
P-  3Z,  note  T02.  In  the  Leverton,  Lincoln,  Overseers  for  the  Poor 
Acc'ts,  there  occurs,  s.  a.  1574  an  item  of  7s.  given  to  John  Tow- 
tynge  "  for  the  discharge  of  ...  his  excomjmacion,"  and  the  next 
year  a  sum  of  2s.  6d.  given  to  a  woman  for  a  like  discharge. 
Archaologia,  xli,  369-70. 


48  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [350 

fenders  to  order  the  church  court  proceedings  demonstrate. 
If,  however,  a  man  were  obdurate  and  hardened  he  was 
turned  over  to  the  Queen's  High  Commissioners,  and  these, 
while  making  the  fullest  use  of  ecclesiastical  procedure  and 
the  oath  ex  officio, ^^^  also  freely  employed  the  penalties  of 
the  temporal  courts,  viz.,  fines  and  imprisonments.  As  no 
ecclesiastical  offence  was  too  small  for  the  Commissioners 
to  deal  with,  and  as  their  jurisdiction  was  not  limited  (like 
that  of  the  ordinaries)  to  a  district  or  a  diocese,  courts  of 
High  Commission  may  be  called  universal  ordinaries.^'^" 
Finally,  if  a  person  stood  excommunicate  over  forty  days, 
an  ecclesiastical  judge,  on  application  to  the  diocesan,  might 
procure  against  him  out  of  Chancery  the  writ  De  excom- 
municato capiendo.  This  writ  was  probably  not  very  often 
resorted  to  in  practice,  partly  because  of  the  great  expense 
involved,  and  partly  perhaps,  too,  because  of  the  slack  exe- 
cution of  the  writ  by  certain  undersherijffs  or  bailiffs,  en- 
couraged as  they  were  by  the  rather  hostile  attitude  some- 
times assumed  against  the  courts  Christian  by  the  Queen's 
temporal  judges.^^^  The  writ  was,  however,  certainly  no 
dead  letter,  and  served  also  in  terrorem  to  reduce  stubborn 
offenders."^     Indeed  Archbishop  Bancroft  in   1605  called 

**  Whereby  any  but  a  perj  ured  man  would  be  forced  to  incrimi- 
nate himself. 

""  Cf .  Maitland,  Canon  Law  in  the  Church  of  England,  chapter, 
"  The  Pope  the  Universal  Ordinary."  For  proceedings  by  High  Com- 
missioners see  Stubbs  in  Eccles.  Courts  Com.  Rep.  to  Parliament 
(1883),  i,  Hist.  Append.,  50. 

'"As  to  the  expense  in  suing  out  the  writ,  and  also  the  slackness 
of  bailiffs,  etc.,  in  executing  it,  see  [R.  Cosen],  An  Apologie  of  and 
for  Sundrie  proceedings  by  Jurisdiction  Ecclesiasticall  (ist  ed., 
London,  1591),  64-5.  Speaking  of  the  great  charges  incurred  in 
suing  out  the  writ  Cosen  writes :  "  So  that  I  dare  auowe  in  Sundrie 
Diocesses  in  the  Realme,  the  whole  yeerly  reuenue  of  the  seuerall 
Bishops  there  woulde  not  reach  to  the  iustifying  of  all  contem- 
nours  ...  by  the  course  of  this  writte."  That  temporal  judges 
sometimes  set  prisoners  under  the  writ  free  at  their  own  discretion 
without  notice  to  the  spiritual  judges,  see  Bancroft's  Petition  to 
the  Privy  Council  in  1605,  Cardwell,  Doc.  Ann.  ii,  100.  For  hostility 
of  temporal  judges  for  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction,  see  Bancroft,  op. 
cit.,  85.  He  counts  up  488  prohibitions  during  Elizabeth's  reign, 
many  of  them  awarded  without  good  cause  and  "  upon  frivolous 
suggestions"  of  defendants  (0/>.  cit.,  89). 

"^  Hale,  Crim.  Prec,  145  ("  Dominus  decrevit  scribendum  fore 
regie  majestate  pro  corporis  capcione  [etc.]."    The  threat  subdued 


35 1]        Ecclesiastical  Government  of  the  Parish.  49 

it  "  the  chiefest  temporal  strength  of  ecclesiastical  juris- 
diction.""^ 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  "  standing  excommunicate  "  was 
in  itself  a  presentable  offence  before  the  ordinary,  and  an 
offence  often  presented,^^*  and  in  view  of  the  further  fact 
that  the  excommunicate  might,  according  to  a  contemporary 
who  writes  with  authority,  "  be  punished  for  absence  from 

the  excommunicate,  for  15  days  later  "  solutis  xxxiiis.  .  .  .  pro  ex- 
penses contumacie,"  absolution  was  given,  and  penance  enjoined. 
1562).  Ibid.,  172  (Similar  threat,  we  do  not  hear  of  the  out- 
come). Cf.  R.  W.  Merriam,  Extracts  from  Wilts  Quarter  Sess. 
in  Wilts  Arch,  and  Nat.  Hist.  Mag.,  xxii  (1885),  20  (Affray  be- 
cause of  an  arrest  under  the  writ.  1604).  See  also  Whitgift's 
note  to  his  bishops  in  1583,  Cardwell,  Doc.  Ann.,  i,  404-6  ("  If 
the  ordinarie  shall  perceave  that,  either  by  slackness  of  the  justices 
or  waywardness  of  juries,"  recusants  cannot  be  indicated  at  quarter 
sessions,  then  the  ordinary  shall,  after  first  trying  persuasion,  ex- 
communicate the  culprits,  and  after  forty  days  procure  the  writ 
against  them).  Bancroft  writes,  March,  1605,  that  he  will  use  his 
"  uttermost  endeavour "  to  aid  his  suffragans  in  procuring  the  writ, 
and  in  having  it  faithfully  and  speedily  served.  Cardwell,  Doc. 
Ann.,  ii,  80.  Cf.  also  the  satirical  single-sheet,  published  June, 
1641,  entitled  The  Pimpes  Prerogative  ...  a  Dialogue  between 
Pimp-Major  Pig  and  Ancient  Whiskin,  in  Brit.  Mus.  Coll.  of  Polit. 
and  Personal  Satires.  Pig :  "  Tush,  their  Excommunications  fright 
not  us;  but  our  Land-ladies  (poore  soules)  lie  in  most  danger; 
for  them  they  serve  after  with  Excommunicato  capiendo,  and  then 
our  Forts  are  beleaguer'd  with  Under-Sheriffs,  Bum-Bayliffs, 
Shoulder-clappers,  etc.,  whom  we  sometimes  beat  back  by  violence." 

"'Cardwell,  loc.  cit.,  100.  Ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  derived  also 
much  temporal  strength  from  the  fact  that  practically  every  bishop 
was  also  a  justice  of  the  peace.  For  proof  of  this  see  Strype, 
Annals  of  the  Reformation  (Oxon.  ed.),  iii,  Pt.  ii,  451  (Bishop  of 
Peterboro'  complaining  that  he  alone  was  left  out  of  the  commis- 
sion. 1587).  Cardwell,  Doc.  Ann.,  ii,  80  (Bancroft's  letter,  1605: 
"We  that  are  bishops,  being  all  of  us  (as  is  supposed)  justices  of 
the  peace").  When  commissioning  justices  Burghley  referred  to 
the  bishops  for  lists  of  orthodox  men.  See  such  lists  in  Strype, 
op.  cit.,  453-60.  Also  in  Strype,  Life  of  Whitgift,  i,  187-8. 
Victoria  County  History  of  Cumberland,  ii,  73-4.  Sussex  Arch. 
Soc.  Coll.,  ii  (1849),  58-62.  Mary  Bateson,  Letters  from  the  Bishops 
to  the  Privy  Council,  1564,  with  Returns  of  the  Justices  of  the 
Peace,  etc.,  in  Camden  Miscellany,  ix  (1895).  By  i  Eliz.  c.  2, 
bishops  could  at  pleasure  associate  themselves  to  justices  of  oyer 
and  terminer  or  of  assize.     Cf.  Strype,  Whitgift,  329. 

"*  Presentments  on  this  score  are  frequent.  Take  only  a  single 
jurisdiction,  that  of  the  Dean  of  York's  Peculiar,  between  the  years 
1592-1601,  and  a  number  will  be  found.  See  Dean  of  York's  Visit., 
222  (5  persons)  ;  226,  229,  315,  326,  329  (Remaining  excommunicate 
for  a  month)  ;  334  (Over  40  days.  Also  a  person  presented  for 
harboring  an  excommunicate)  ;  335  (Over  a  year)  ;  341  (14  days). 

4 


50  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [352 

diuine  praier,  neither  shall  his  excommunication  excuse  him, 
for  it  is  in  his  owne  default,"^'^^  it  is  queried  whether  such 
an  involuntary  absentee  from  church  did  not  make  himself 
just  as  liable  to  presentment  at  quarter  sessions  for  recu- 
sancy^''^ as  any  voluntary  recusant.  Perhaps  it  is  for  this 
reason  that  grand  juries  are  sometimes  complained  of  for 
discriminating  among  the  names  sent  in  to  them  on  the 
bishops'  certificates  for  indictment  at  quarter  sessions,  and 
for  certifying  some  and  throwing  out  others  "  at  their 
pleasure.""'^ 

But  be  this  as  it  may — and  it  is  conjecture  unsupported 
by  positive  proof — enough  has  been  said,  it  is  hoped,  to 
show  that  ordinaries  were  quite  capable  of  making  their 
decrees  obeyed,  and  that  excommunication  (contrary  to  the 
commonly  received  opinion)  was  a  most  effective  means  of 
coercion.  Many,  indeed,  were  its  uses.  It  might  (or  its 
equivalent  interdiction  or  suspension^''®),  as  has  been 
seen,^''®  be  used  to  compel  a  parish  officer  to  perform  the 
duties  of  his  office.  It  might  also  be  employed,  when  per- 
suasion failed,  to  induce  a  parishioner  to  accept  office  when 
chosen  by  his  fellows.^®''  But,  it  would  seem,  one  single 
definition  would  comprise  all  cases:  excommunication  was 
employed  against  all  those  who  disobeyed  some  order  of  the 
spiritual  judge,  express  or  implied — it  was  a  summary  proc- 
ess for  contempt  of  court,  in  fact,  and  was  daily  used  as 
such. 

To  recapitulate:    a  very  large  part  of  the  parishioner's 

'"Cosen,  An  Apologie,  etc.,  64.  As  has  been  above  stated,  an 
excommunicate  could  not  attend  service.     P.  47  supra. 

"*  According  to  23  Eliz.  c.  i,  sec.  4  and  sec.  6. 

"'See  A.  P.  C,  xiii,  271-2  (1581).  Cardwell,  Doc.  Ann.,  i,  406 
(Whitgift  alludes  to  the  " waywardnes "  of  juries). 

^"  Not  suspension  from  office  (as  might  be  supposed)  but  from 
service  and  sacraments. 

"°  P.  19,  note  33,  supra. 

^*°Hale,  Crim.  Prec,  150  {"Contra  .  .  .  Because  he  will  not 
be  churchwarden  accordinge  to  the  archdeacon's  judgment."  Ex- 
communicated. 1566).  Ibid.,  162  {"Contra  .  .  .  Defectum  that 
he  obstinately  refuseth  to  be  churchwarden,  notwithstanding  he 
was  chosen  by  the  consent  of  the  parson  and  parishioners."  Ex- 
communicated. 1576).  Cf.  ibid.,  183  (Presentment  for  refusing 
to  be  sideman),  and  ibid.,  207  (Refusing  churchwardenship). 


353]        Ecclesiastical  Government  of  the  Parish.  51 

life  and  activity  fell  under  the  surveillance  and  regulation 
of  the  ecclesiastical  courts.  They  compelled  him  to  attend 
on  specified  days  his  parish  church,  and  no  other;  to  be 
married  there;  to  have  his  children  baptized  and  his  wife 
churched  there;  to  receive  a  certain  number  of  times  com- 
munion there ;  to  contribute  to  the  maintenance  of  church 
and  churchyard,  as  well  as  to  the  finding  of  the  requisites 
for  service  or  the  church  ornaments  or  utensils.  In  his 
parish  church  he  and  his  children  were  catechized  and  in- 
structed, and,  if  the  latter  were  taught  in  a  neighboring 
school-house,  it  was  under  the  strict  supervision  of  the  ordi- 
nary and  by  his  or  the  bishop's  licence  and  allowance.  So 
true  was  this  that  the  schoolmaster  was,  like  the  parson,  a 
church  officer.  For  the  parishioner  his  church  was  the 
place  of  business  where  all  local  affairs,  civil  or  ecclesias- 
tical, were  transacted,  as  well  as  the  centre  of  social  life  in 
the  village.  Here  the  mandates  of  the  authorities  in  Church 
and  State  were  read  to  him;  here  he  was  admonished  of 
his  duty  to  contribute  to,  or  to  perform,  the  burdens  of 
parish  administration  and  warned  of  the  penalties  for  ne- 
glect; here  he  met  with  his  fellows  to  settle  parish  affairs 
and  audit  parish  accounts,  or  to  choose  parish  officers  under 
the  auspices  of  the  ordinary,  being  himself  compelled,  if 
necessary,  by  that  official  to  serve  when  his  own  turn  for 
office  came  round.  As  churchwarden  it  was  his  duty  to 
collect  the  rents  from  parish  lands  and  tenements,  and  to 
see  that  parish  offerings  were  gathered  and  the  parish  rates 
assessed  and  paid,  or  recovered  by  means  of  the  ecclesias- 
tical courts.  If  the  church  was  ruinous ;  if  bread  and  wine 
were  lacking  for  the  communion ;  if  any  of  the  books,  fur- 
niture, utensils  or  ornaments  enjoined  by  the  diocesan's 
articles  or  by  the  canons  were  missing;  if  the  curate  did 
not  follow  the  Rubric,  or  retained  "  superstitious  "  rites ; 
if  the  yearly  perambulation  was  omitted;  if  faults  of  the 
minister  or  of  the  parishioners  were  not  presented :  he  and 
his  fellow-warden  were  held  responsible  by  the  official. 

The  machinery  which  the  canon  and  the  civil  law  placed 
at  the  disposal  of  the  ordinary  for  his  judicial  administra- 


52  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [354 

tion  of  the  parish  was  extraordinarily  flexible.  Courts 
Christian  were  unencumbered  by  the  formalities  of  the  com- 
mon law  or  by  the  cooperation  of  juries.  They  could  pro- 
ceed ex  officio,  i.  e.,  without  formal  presentment  and  upon 
hearsay  only,  and  they  were  armed  with  the  formidable 
power  of  administering  the  oath  ex  officio  by  which  a 
parishioner  was  forced  to  disclose  all  he  knew  against  him- 
self. They  could  in  all  cases  command  the  doing,  as  well 
as  the  giving^^^  of  a  thing — powers  far  more  extensive  than 
those  possessed  by  any  court  of  equity  of  today.  Lastly,  it 
was  their  custom  to  require  that  a  return  be  made  in  court, 
or  in  other  words,  a  certification,  that  their  commands  had 
been  duly  performed — thus  stamping  them  as  true  adminis- 
trative bodies.  It  was  inevitable  from  the  nature  of  their 
jurisdiction  and  procedure  that  abuses  should  be  committed 
both  by  ecclesiastical  judges  and  by  their  officers,  such  as 
registrars,  proctors  and  apparitors.  These  judges  wielded 
an  admirable  instrument  of  administration  and  discipline, 
one  that  could  be  bent  to  meet  any  emergency,  but  this 
efficiency  had  been  attained  at  the  sacrifice  of  some  indis- 
pensable safeguards  for  the  carrying  out  of  impartial  jus- 
tice. First,  no  parishioner's  acts,  whether  done  in  an  offi- 
cial or  a  private  capacity,  were  ever  quite  safe  from  mis- 
representation, or  downright  falsification  by  his  enemies, 
for  secret  denunciation  to  wardens  or  sidemen  (or  to  the 
ordinary  himself)  by  any  one^^^  might  start  a  proceeding 

"'  In  equity  specific  performance  is  nothing  more  than  the  giving 
of  an  instrument  transferring  title  after  all  has  previously  been 
done  on  both  sides,  but  this,  to  complete  the  transaction. 

'**  Denunciation  "  in  many  poyntes  resembleth  a  Presentment," 
Cosen,  An  Apologie  (etc.),  70.  See  his  book  for  the  modes  of 
proceeding.  Cf.  also  Hale,  Critn.  Prec,  Introd.,  p.  Iviii.  In  com- 
menting on  Archdeacon  Hale's  book,  A/hich  we  have  so  often  here 
cited  {A  Series  of  Precedents  in  Criminal  Causes  from  the  Act 
Books  of  Ecclesiastical  Courts  of  London,  1475-1640  [pub.  in  1847]), 
Sir  J.  F.  Stephen  in  his  History  of  Crim.  Lazv  in  England,  ii,  413, 
makes  these  observations :  "  It  is  difficult  even  to  imagine  a  state 
of  society  in  which,  on  the  bare  suggestion  of  some  miserable 
domestic  spy,  any  man  or  woman  whatever  might  be  convened 
before  an  archdeacon  or  his  surrogate  and  put  upon  his  or  her 
oath  as  to  all  the  most  private  affairs  of  life ;  as  to  relations  between 
husband  and  wife;  as  to  relations  between  either  and  any  woman 


355]        Ecclesiastical  Government  of  the  Parish.  53 

against  the  person  denounced  and  force  him  upon  oath  to 
disclose  the  most  private,  the  most  confidential,  matters. 
Again,  proctors,  apparitors,  registrars,  and  other  scribes 
whose  fees  depended  on  citations  and  the  drawing  up  of 
court  proceedings,  documents,  or  certificates,  had  every 
interest  in  haling  persons  before  the  official,  because  court 
fees  had  to  be  paid  whether  a  man  were  found  innocent  or 
guilty.^®^     Hence   the   system   tended   to   create   spies,   of 

or  man  with  whom  the  name  of  either  might  be  associated  by 
scandal;  as  to  contracts  to  marry,  as  to  idle  words,  as  to  personal 
habits,  and,  in  fact,  as  to  anything  whatever  which  happened  to 
strike  the  ecclesiastical  lawyer  as  immoral  or  irrehgious." 

""The  case  of  John  Johnson  in  the  official's  court  in  Durham  city 
forms  an  excellent  commentary  on  the  whole  system.  He  was 
presented  as  suspected  of  incontinency.  After  repeated  citations 
and  a  threat  of  excommunication,  he  appeared,  denying  the  charge 
and  alleging  that  a  churchwarden  with  others  had  falsely  concocted 
it.  At  the  petition  of  an  apparitor,  who  acted  as  public  prosecutor, 
seven  of  Johnson's  fellow-parishioners  were  cited  to  swear  not  to 
the  fact  of  his  guilt,  but  to  the  general  belief  in  it.  Articles  were 
then  drawn  up  upon  which  depositions  were  taken  and  published. 
The  case  was  adjourned  repeatedly  so  that  the  many  formalities 
of  procedure  might  drag  out  their  weary  length.  The  oath  ex 
officio  was  forced  on  Johnson,  but  he  denied  all  guilt.  Finally, 
he  was  enjoined  to  procure  three  compurgators.  These  swore  that 
they  believed  "in  animis  suis"  that  Johnson  had  sworn  to  the  truth. 
Though  pronounced  innocent,  Johnson  was  condemned  to  pay  the 
costs  of  all  the  formalities  that  the  apparitor  had  set  in  motion 
against  him,  and  a  last  time  was  dragged  into  court  in  order  to 
be  admonished  under  pain  of  excommunication  to  pay  these  fees, 
amounting  to  £1.  3s.  46.,  within  a  month !  The  case  had  extended 
from  nth  June,  1600,  to  22nd  May,  1601.  Surtees  Soc,  Ixxxiv 
(1888),  359-362.  Cf.  also  the  following:  "payed  for  annswerynge 
dyuerse  faulse  vntrothes  suggested  by  [five  names]  to  the  sayd 
Commyssyoneres  vj  s.  viij  d."  Minchinhampton,  Gloucester,  Acc'ts, 
s.  a.  1576  (archbishop's  visitation),  Archeeologia,  xxxv.  "  pd.  for 
our  charges  to  lycoln  when  we  were  p[re]sented  by  the  apparytor 
uniustly  for  that  our  church  should  by  [be]  mysvsed  vs.  vjd." 
Leverton,  Lincoln,  Acc'ts,  s.  a.  1579,  Archeeologia,  xli,  365.  Under 
1595  the  Leverton  wardens  have  the  entries :  "  pd.  to  the  apparitor 
for  fallts  in  the  churche  ijs.  viijd.,"  and :  "  for  playing  in  the  churche 
iijs.  viijd."  The  last  is  explained  by  a  third  entry:  "to  the  ap- 
parator  for  suffering  a  plaie  in  the  church."  (Op.  cit.,  367.)  This 
looks  like  bribery,  or  blackmail,  or  both.  For  examples  of  bribery 
see  Wing  Acc'ts,  s.  a.  1561,  Archaologia,  xxxvi  ("to  ye  S[um]- 
m[o]ner  to  kepe  us  ffrom  Lincoln  for  slacknes  of  o[u]r  auters"). 
Abbey  Parish  Acc'ts,  s.  a.  1600,  Shrop.  Arch.  Soc,  i.  65  ("paid  to 
Cleaton,  the  Chauncelor's  man  for  keeping  us  from  Lichfield"). 
Great  Witchingham  Acc'ts,  Norfolk  and  Norwich  Arch.  Soc,  xiii, 
207  ("Simp  the  sumner  for  his  fees  for  excusing  us  from  Nor- 
wich").   St.  Mary   IVoolchurch  Haw,  London,   Acc'ts,  s.   a.   1594 


54  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [35^ 

whom  the  chief  were  the  apparitors,  or  summoners,  and 
their  underlings.  There  is  a  very  interesting  contemporary 
ballad  entitled  "A  new  Ballad  of  the  Parrator  and  the 
Divell,"  attributed  by  its  modern  editor  to  not  later  than 
1616,  which  throws  much  light  on  the  proceedings  of  cer- 
tain unscrupulous  apparitors,  and  reflects  also  the  strong 
dislike  entertained  for  the  whole  tribe  of  apparitors  by 
people  of  the  time.^^*  The  devil  going  a  hunting  one  Sun- 
day and  beating  the  bushes,  up  starts  a  proud  apparitor. 
During  several  stanzas  the  apparitor  narrates  to  the  devil, 
as  one  consummately  wicked  man  to  another,  all  the  tricks 
of  his  trade  to  drum  up  cases  for  himself  and  his  court. 
He  spies  on  lovers  as  they  pass  unsuspecting;  he  haunts 
the  ale-houses  and  overhears  men's  tales  over  their  cups ; 
if  business  be  dull  he  even  devises  scandal  among  neighbors, 
and  sets  them  at  enmity.  Thus  he  concocts  his  accusations 
of  immorality,  or  drunkenness,  or  profanity,  or  uncharity 
towards  neighbors,  and  writes  them  busily  down  in  his 
quorum  nomijia,  or  formulas  of  citations  to  appear  before 
the  official's  court.  "  My  corum  nomine  beares  such 
swaye,"  he  boasts,  "  They'le  sell  their  clothes  my  fees  to 
pay."  But,  remarks  the  devil  after  listening  to  all  this, 
surely  the  innocent  pay  no  court  fees,  "  But  answere  and 
discharged  bee."  "  My  corum  nomine  sayth  not  so,"  re- 
joins the  apparitor,  "  For  all  pay  fees  before  they  goe. — 
The  lawier's  fees  must  needs  be  payd, — And  every  clarke 

("more  unto  the  paratour  and  Doctor  Stanhopes  man  for  their 
favours").  Hale,  Crim.  Prec,  202  C' Fassus  est  that  he  gave  xs.  to 
.  .  .  the  apparitor  to  thend  that  he  might  not  be  called  into  this 
corte."  1590).  For  examples  of  fees  paid  for  absolution  from  an 
unjust  excommunication  see  Minchinhampton  Acc'ts,  s.  a.  1606 
("layd  out  [at]  Gloucester  when  we  wer  excommunicated  for  our 
not  appearinge  when  wee  were  not  warned  to  appeere,  vj  s.  viij  d")- 
St.  Clement's,  Ipswich,  Acc'ts,  East  Anglian,  iii  (1890),  304 
("  Payed  for  owr  Absolution  to  the  Commissary,  being  reprimanded 
for  that  we  did  not  give  in  our  Verdict,  where  as  we  nether  had 
warning  nor  notice  given  us  of  his  Corte  houlden,  ij[s.]  x[d.] :  " 
and:  "Payed  more  ffor  the  discharg  of  his  boocke,  viijd."  1610). 
Churchwardens  accounts  are  pretty  reliable  evidence,  for  they  were 
subject  to  the  scrutiny  of  those  who  had  to  foot  the  bills. 

^"See  Mr.  Andrew  Clark's  Sliirburn  Ballads  (Oxon.  1907),  306  ff. 
Mr.  Clark's  notes  and  illustrations  drawn  from  other  contemporary 
sources  are  most  valuable. 


357]        Ecclesiastical  Government  of  the  Parish.  55 

in  his  degree — Or  els  the  lawe  cannot  be  stayd — But  excom- 
municate must  they  bee."  The  devil,  amazed  and  disgusted 
at  laws  which  "  excell  the  paines  of  hell,"  turns  to  go,  where- 
upon the  apparitor  seeks  to  arrest  and  fine  him  for  traveling 
on  the  Sabbath.  Exclaiming  "  Thou  art  no  constable !  "  the 
devil  pounces  upon  the  unworthy  officer  and  carries  him  off 
to  hell.^^''  Thirdly,  even  when  at  their  best  and  conducted 
by  upright  judges  and  officers,  the  modes  of  proof  in  force 
in  the  courts  Christian  were  sometimes  utterly  inadequate 
as  means  for  getting  at  the  truth.  The  inquest,  or  trial  by 
jury,  had  never  been  introduced  into  these  courts,  where 
the  archaic  system  of  compurgation^*"  still  lingered. 

*"  A  number  of  broadsides  and  pamphlets  were  published  in  1641 
upon  the  abolition  of  the  spiritual  courts.  Consult  Mr.  Stephen's 
Catalogue  (1870)  for  those  in  the  British  Museum.  One  of  them 
is  entitled  The  Proctor  and  Parator  their  Mourning  .  .  .  Beinge  a 
true  Dialogue,  Relating  the  fearfull  abuses  and  exorbitances  of 
those  spirituall  Courts,  under  the  names  of  Sponge  the  Proctor  and 
Hunter  the  Parator.  In  the  spirited  dialogue  between  the  two 
Hunter  tells  of  his  ways  of  extorting  money  from  recusants,  semi- 
nary priests  and  neophytes,  "  whose  starting  holes  I  knew  as  well 
as  themselves  " ;  also,  he  adds,  "  I  got  no  small  trading  by  the  Brown- 
ists.  Anabaptists  and  Familists  who  love  a  Bame  better  than  a 
Church."  "  Poor  Curates,  Lecturers  and  Schoolmasters  .  .  .  that 
have  been  willing  to  officiate  their  places  without  licences  "  are  also 
his  special  prey.  As  for  minor  offenders  "against  our  terrible 
Canons  and  Jurisdiction  .  .  .  had  I  but  given^  them  a  severe 
looke,  I  could  .  .  .  have  made  them  draw  their  purses  ..." 
"  I  tell  you,"  he  concludes,  "  the  name  of  Doctors  Commons 
was  as  terrible  to  these  as  Argier  [Algiers]  is  to  Gally-slaves." 
Sponge  admits  that  he  has  made  many  a  fat  fee  by  Hunter's  pro- 
curement. For  more  serious  documents  in  corroboration  see  Whit- 
gift's  circular  to  his  suffragans  in  May,  1601,  and  also  his  address  to 
his  bishops  a  few  months  later  in  Strype,  IVhitgift,  it,  447  flf. 
Among  many  other  and  grave  abuses  he  refers  to  "  the  infinite 
number "  of  apparitors  and  "  petty  Sumners "  hanging  upon  every 
court,  "two  or  three  of  them  at  once  most  commonly  seizing  upon 
the  subject  for  every  trifling  offence  to  make  work  to  their  courts." 
Cf.  Canons  of  1597,  can.  xi  (Multitude  of  apparitors  and  their 
excesses)  in  Card  well,  Syn.,  i,  159.  Also  Canons  of  160J,  ibid. 
Most  of  the  Elizabethan  and  Stuart  metropolitan  and  diocesan 
injunctions  call  for  the  presentment  of  the  abuse  of  apparitors  and 
other  court  officials.  See  Cardwell,  Doc.  Ann.,  ii,  passim.  Also 
Appendix  to  2nd  Rep.  of  the  Com.  on  Ritual  to  Parliament  (1870), 
where  a  large  number  of  injunctions  from  Parker  to  Juxon  (1640) 
are  gathered  together. 

'''By  this  system,  if  the  accused  could  get  together  a  certain  num. 
ber  of  his  neighbors  (3,  4,  6  or  more)  to  act  as  oath-helpers,  ».  e., 
who   would   swear   that   they   believed   him   on   oath,   he    was   ac- 


56  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [358 

If  a  man  for  want  of  friends,  or  for  want  of  good  repu- 
tation, were  unable  to  procure  compurgators  to  attend  him 
at  visitations  or  courts,  held  sometimes  twenty  miles  and 
more  away,^^^  he  might  be  condemned  as  guilty  of  specific 
acts  which  he  had  never  committed.^^^  He  might  even  fail 
in  his  proof  because  he  was  poor.  When  the  judge  ar- 
raigned Lewis  Billings  of  Barking,  Essex  archdeaconry,  for 
"  that  he  hath  failed  in  his  purgacion,"  Billings  pleaded 
"  that  he  is  a  very  poore  man  and  not  able  to  procure  his 
neighbours  to  come  to  the  cort,  and  beare  their  charges."^*' 
But,  as  is  well  known,  contemporaries  attacked  not  only  the 
inferior  officers,  but  the  judges  themselves.  Complaints  of 
great  abuses  were  loud  and  long,^'"  and  when  the  ecclesias- 

quitted.     It  seems  to  have  been  no  concern  of  the  judge  to  weigh 
the  evidence  on  the  facts  themselves. 

^"The  churchwardens  accounts  are  full  of  items  for  horse  hire 
and  other  expenses  for  long  journeys,  for  ecclesiastical  courts  were 
held  at  all  kinds  of  places  at  the  pleasure  of  the  judges.  See  Mr. 
Bruce's  remarks  on  the  Minchinhampton  Acc'ts,  Archaologia,  xxxv, 
419  ff.  Cf.  the  Ludlow  Acc'ts,  Shrop.  Arch.  Soc.  2nd.  ser.,  i,  235 
ff. — in  fact  any  of  the  accounts  of  the  period  that  have  been  printed 
in  detail. 

^**  Archdeacon  Hale  in  Crim.  Prec,  introd.,  p.  Ix. 
/''Hale,  Crim.  Prec,  205  (1591).  In  Warrington  deanery,  at  the 
bishop's  visitation  in  1592,  one  Grimsford  is  cited  for  not  living 
with  his  wife.  On  a  later  occasion  he  appeared  and  affirmed  that 
his  wife  had  run  away  with  another  m^n,  "  whereupon  the  Judge, 
having  regard  to  the  poverty  of  the  man,"  absolved  him.  Warring- 
ton Deanery  Visit.,  190.  An  ecclesiastical  judge  in  Durham  city 
made  this  decree  in  1580 :  "  Dominus  .  .  .  decrevit  scribendum  fore 
Aldermanno  ...  to  whip  and  cart  the  said  Rowle  and  Tuggell  in 
all  open  places  within  the  city  of  Durham,  for  that  they  faled  in 
their  purgacion,  and  therefore  convicted  of  the  crime  detected." 
Barnes'  Eccles.  Proc,   126. 

^"A  most  important  piece  of  evidence — because  coming  from  such 
a  source — is  Whitgift's  circular  and  (later)  his  address  to  his 
bishops,  already  alluded  to  (note  185)  given  in  Strype's  life  of 
him.  Whitgift  mentions  the  frequent  keeping  of  officials'  or  com- 
missaries' courts  and  the  multitude  of  apparitors  serving  under 
them,  so  that  "the  subject  was  almost  vexed  weekly  with  attend- 
ance on  their  several  courts."  He  adds  that  "  vvhat  with  Church- 
wardens' continual  attendance  in  these  courts,  which  in  many  places 
came  to  more  than  was  by  a  whole  parish  for  any  one  cessment 
made  to  her  Majesty,  the  poor  men  who  were  chosen  Church 
wardens  .  .  .  were  in  their  estates  hindered  greatly  in  leaving  their 
day  labor  for  attendance  there."  These  and  like  complaints,  the 
metropolitan  continued,  were  daily  brought  to  him  "  with  a  general 
exclamation  against  Commissaries'  and  Officials'  courts."  In  pro- 
phetic  language  he   warned  his   suffragans  that  if   they  were  not 


359]        Ecclesiastical  Government  of  the  Parish.  57 

tical  courts  were  abolished  by  the  Long  Parliament  in 
1641,^®^  the  satirical  literature  of  the  day  celebrated  their 
downfall  with  a  verve,  a  gusto,  and  an  exultation  amazing 
to  one  not  familiar  with  the  procedure  of  these  courts.^®- 

As  was  mentioned  at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter,  the 
secular  judges  were  given  statutory  authority  to  take  cog- 
nizance of  breaches  of  the  order  prescribed  by  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer,  of  the  offence  of  not  attending  church,  and 
other  delinquencies  against  the  legal  settlement  of  religion. 
Hence  in  these  matters  they  exercised  what  might  be  called 
a  sort  of  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  in  aid  of  the  ordinary 
and  concurrently  with  him,  though  their  mode  of  procedure, 
of  course,  was  that  of  the  common  law,  possessing  nothing 
in  common  with  the  practice  adopted  in  courts  Christian. 
Men  who  were  "  hinderers  "  and  "  contemners  "  of  religion ; 
who  refrained  from  going  to  church  without  lawful  cause ; 

more  zealous  for  reform  all  their  courts  might  be  swept  away. 
We  have  further  the  unceasing  complaints  and  the  numberless  peti- 
tions that  were  presented  in  every  Elizabethan  parliament  from  1572 
onwards.  Some  of  these  are  given  in  Strype,  Annals,  etc.,  some  in 
his  Whitgift.  Mr.  Prothero  has  conveniently  gathered  some,  with 
references  to  others,  in  his  Statutes  and  Constitutional  Documents 
(ist  ed.),  pp.  209,  210,  215  and  221.  See  also  Heywood  Townshend, 
no,  et  passim;  D'Ewes,  302,  et  passim,  and  the  canons  and  injunc- 
tions of  the  time.  Peculiars  were  doubtless  most  subject  to  abuses, 
as  being  often  exempt  from  the  oversight  and  corrective  discipline 
of  the  diocesan.  Offenders  sometimes  fled  to  these  for  protec- 
tion. See  Strype,  Ann.,  iii,  Pt.  ii,  211-12  (Bishop  of  Coventry  and 
Lichfield  complaining  in  1582  of  peculiars,  some  of  which  belonged 
to  laymen,  as  holders  of  abbey  lands,  in  the  matter  of  recusants). 
Cf.  Blomefield,  Hist,  of  Norfolk,  iii,  557.  Camden  Miscellany,  ix 
(1895),  41  (Letters  from  bishops  to  Privy  Council  in  1564.  Re- 
cusants flying  to  exempt  places).  On  the  scandalous  neglect  of 
duty  of  some  holders  of  peculiars  see  Dean  of  York's  Visit.,  199, 
201  ff.,  324,  et  passim.  See  also  Mr.  W.  E.  B.  Whittaker's  article 
"  On  Peculiars  with  special  reference  to  the  Peculiar  of  Hawarden," 
in  Archit.  Arch,  and  Hist.  Soc.  for  Chester  and  N.  Wales,  n.  s.  xi 
(1905).  66  ff.  and  records  there  given.  See  also  Eccles.  Courts 
Com.  Rep.,  1830-2,  printed  as  appendix  to  Vol.  i  of  Eccles.  Courts 
Com.  Rep.  of  1883,  p.  198.  Lists  of  peculiars  will  be  found  in  the 
above  authorities. 

*"  Though  they  were  reestablished  in  1660  they  were  forever  shorn 
of  their  ancient  glory. 

***The  names  of  some  of  these  broadsides,  pamphlets,  etc.,  have 
already  been  given.  To  these  may  be  added.  The  Spiritual  Courts 
epitomised  in  a  Dialogue  betwixt  two  Proctors,  Busie  Body  and 
Scrape-all,  and  their  discourse  of  the  want  of  their  former  imploy- 
mcnt.    Others  will  be  found  in  Mr.  Stephen's  Catalogue. 


58  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [360 

who  had  mass-books  or  super-altars^®^  in  their  possession  ;^®* 
who  spoke  in  contempt  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer 
and  its  rites  ;"^  who  caused  their  children  to  be  baptized 
with  forms  other  than  those  prescribed;^®®  ministers  who 
omitted  the  cross  in  baptism  •,^^''  who  left  off  the  surplice  ;^'* 
who  refused  to  church  women  ;^®®  who  called  purification 
"  a  Jewish  ceremony,"  or  who  in  their  sermons  preached 
seditious  doctrine^"" — all  these  and  other  like  offenders  were 
indicted  at  quarter  sessions  or  at  the  assizes. 

"'  That  is,  a  portable  stone  altar  which  had  been  consecrated  and 
could  be  set  up  anywhere  for  mass. 

^**  See  order  of  the  Wilts  justices  issued  against  such  offenders, 
Oct.,  1577.    Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep.  on  MSS.  in  Var.  Coll.,  i  ( 1901 ) ,  68. 

""See  indictment  of  an  Essex  jury  at  quarter  sessions  in  1585 
against  one  Glasscock  who  spoke  lightly  of  the  ceremony  of  bap- 
tism, and  rent  out  of  a  prayer  book  certain  leaves  where  the  mini- 
stration of  baptism  was  set  forth.  Hist  MSS.  Com.  Rep.,  x,  Pt. 
iv,  480. 

^".Presentment  to  the  Wilts  justices,  lac.  cit.  supra,  69  (1588). 
For  excessive  zeal  of  the  justices  of  assize  in  Suffolk  see  State 
Papers  Dom.  Eliz.,  1591-4,  p.  275  (Address  of  Suffolk  gentry 
to  Privy  Council  in  1592.  They  complain  of  indictments  against 
ministers  on  very  trivial  pretexts).  For  the  answer  of  the  Council 
to  this  petition  see  Strype,  Ann.,  ii,  Pt.  i,  268-9  (Lords  write 
to  judges  to  consult  the  spirit  not  the  letter  of  law,  and  add  their 
own  suspicions  that  informers  are  mainly  to  be  blamed  if  justice 
has  miscarried). 

^  State  Pap.,  loc.  cit. 

'"Indictment  of  Essex  jury.  Hist.  MSS.  Rep.,  loc.  cit.  supra. 

'''Ibid. 

*^  Information  of  the  Wilts  justices  against  one  Dearling,  parson 
of  Upton  Lowell,  loc.  cit.  supra,  68  (1585).  Cf.  Chelmsford  Acc'ts, 
Essex  Arch.  Soc,  ii,  212  (An  item  paid  the  clerk  of  assizes  for 
framing  the  indictment  of  Chelmsford  Hundred  "against  Puri- 
tisme."     1592). 


CHAPTER   II. 
Parish  Finance. 

Speaking  generally  of  the  average  parish,  Elizabethan 
churchwardens  accounts  and  vestry  minutes  show  that  for 
the  purposes  of  raising  money  amongst  themselves  to  meet 
ever>'-day  parish  expenditures,^  the  parishioners  of  the  pe- 
riod did  not  commonly  resort  to  rates,  if  by  "  rate "  be 
understood  a  general  assessment  of  all  lands  or  all  goods 
alike  at  a  fixed  percentage  of  their  revenue  or  value  above 
a  minimum  exempted. 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  in  the  case  of 
offerings  or  gatherings,  or  of  levies  to  raise  a  certain  sum 
where  each  man  assessed  himself,  it  was  entirely  optional 
for  each  to  give  or  to  refuse.  What  a  man  customarily 
gave,  or  what  he  had  promised  to  give,  or,  again,  what  the 
parish  thought  he  ought  to  give,  that  the  ordinary  might 
compel  him  to  give.^  From  an  offering  or  a  voluntary 
assessment  to  a  rate  is  often  but  a  short  step,  and  the  two 
former  shade  off  into  the  latter  almost  imperceptibly.  The 
justices  of  the  peace  and  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  usu- 
ally cast  lump  sums  upon  the  parishes,  leaving  ways  and 
means  to  the  parishioners  themselves.  But  it  was,  of  course, 
optional  with  the  justices  to  rate  each  individual  separately 
when  it  seemed  good  to  them,  and  for  this  they  had  the 
Queen's  subsidy  books  to  guide  them.     Here,  however,  we 

*  These  would  be — to  cite  the  principal — the  ordinary  upkeep  of 
the  church  with  its  services  and  all  its  appurtenances  whatsoever 
(see  previous  chapter);  the  finding  of  clerk  and  sexton;  the  care 
of  the  poor;  maintaining  of  the  local  roads  and  bridges;  purchas- 
ing and  repair  of  parish  armor,  and  mustering  of  parish  contingents ; 
contributions  for  prisoners  and  maimed  soldiers ;  the  keeping  of 
the  parish  butts  and  the  stocks ;  the  destruction  of  f  rug^vorous  birds 
and  animals  (the  statutory  "vermin"),  etc. 

*  The  act-books  are  full  of  "  detections  "  for  being  an  "  unchari- 
table person,"  for  "  not  giving  to  the  poor,"  etc.  See  pp.  41  ff., 
supra. 

59 


6o  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [362 

are  chiefly  concerned  with  the  raising  of  money  amongst 
the  parishioners  themselves.  How  manifold,  how  ingeni- 
ous were  the  parochial  devices  for  creating  resources,  it  is 
the  purpose  of  this  chapter  to  set  forth. 

But  before  proceeding  to  the  parish  expedients,  properly 
so  called,  for  raising  money,  it  will  be  well  to  say  some- 
thing of  parish  endowments,  whether  in  lands,  houses  or 
funds.  According  as  the  revenue  from  these  was  available 
for  general,  or  at  least  for  various  purposes,  or,  on  the 
other  hand,  was  impressed  with  a  trust  for  some  specific 
object,  these  endowments  may  be  divided  into  general  and 
special.  Parishes  well  endowed  might  be  able  to  dispense 
with  some  of  the  devices  for  money-getting  which  we  shall 
have  occasion  to  enumerate,  but  then,  after  all,  endowments 
might  come  and  they  might  go;^  moreover,  the  financial 

^  Reference  is  here  made  to  the  occasional  seizure  of  parish  lands 
or  funds  by  the  Queen's  commissioners  for  concealed  lands.  See 
Strype's  strong  language  in  his  Ann.  of  the  Ref.  (Oxon.  ed.),  ii. 
Pt.  i,  310.  He  speaks  of  the  unjust  oppressions  of  courtiers  and 
other  griping  men,  '  harpies '  and  '  hell-hounds,'  who,  under  the 
pretense  of  commissions,  "  did  intermeddle  and  challenge  land  of 
long  times  possessed  by  churchwardens,  and  such  like,  upon  the 
charitable  gifts  of  predecessors  .  .  .  yea  and  certain  stocks  of  money, 
plate,  cattle  and  the  like.  They  made  pretence  to  bells,  lead  [etc.] 
..."  Strype's  words  are  none  too  strong,  being  amply  confirmed  by 
much  evidence  aliunde.  See,  e.  g.,  the  determined  attacks  in  1567 
and  subsequently  on  the  Melton  Mowbray  school  lands  in  Leicest. 
Archit.  (etc.)  Soc,  iii  (1874),  4o6  ff.  Thanks  to  powerful  neighbors 
the  Meltonians  won  their  case.  Less  fortunate  were  the  parish- 
ioners of  St.  Mary's,  Shrewsbury,  the  revenue  from  whose  lands 
supported  church  fabric,  the  poor,  etc.  For  proceedings  against 
them,  and  the  vain  appeal  by  the  parish  to  the  lord  chief  justice 
in  1572  flf.,  see  Owen  and  Blakeway's  Hist,  of  Shrewsbury,  ii,  350-2. 
For  confiscation  of  parish  gild  property  and  parish  lands  on  a 
large  scale,  see  examples  given  in  Cambridge  and  Hunts  Arch.  Soc, 
i  (1904),  330  ff.  We  are  here  told  that  during  Elizabeth's  reign  at 
least  twelve  commissions  for  concealed  lands  were  sent  down  into 
Cambridgeshire  (p.  332).  See  also  ibid.,  370  ff.  for  a  sale  of  for- 
feited lands  to  Jones  and  Grey  in  1569.  The  list  of  lands  is  very 
long  and  only  a  sample  of  many  such.  For  attacks  (1587)  on 
All  Saints,  Derby,  lands,  whose  revenues  went  to  church  repairs,  etc., 
see  J.  C.  Cox  and  W.  H.  St.  J.  Hope,  Chronicles  of  All  Saints, 
Derby  (1881).  For  informers  involving  Lapworth,  Warwick,  in 
a  suit  about  its  parish  lands  see  Robt.  Hudson,  Memorials  of  a 
Warwickshire  Parish  (1904),  104.  The  churchwardens  acc'ts  occa- 
sionally allude  to  the  Queen's  commissioners,  e.  g.,  the  Great  Witch- 
ingham  Acc'ts,  where  they  are  dubbed  by  the  right  name :  "  for  my 
expenses  when  I  was  before  the  quenes  inquisitors  for  lands  and 
goods"  (1559).    Norf.  and  Norw.  Arch.  Soc,  xiii,  207. 


363]  Parish  Finance.  61 

policy  of  any  one  parish  would,  of  course,  differ  according 
to  the  disposition  or  the  ability  of  those  who  shaped  it. 

Of  Loddon,  Norfolk,  we  are  told  that  "  no  complaint 
appears  about  Church  Rates,  for  there  were  none,  as  the 
revenue  of  the  Town  Farm  .  .  .  rendered  a  tax  of  that 
description  unnecessary."* 

Of  St.  Petrock's,  Exeter,  we  are  informed  that  "  the 
parish  became  so  well  endowed  by  donations  of  land  and 
houses  as  to  enable  the  wardens  to  dispense  almost  entirely 
with  the  quarterly  collections  entered  in  the  earlier  ac- 
counts."' The  editor  of  the  Thatcham,  Berks,  Accounts, 
writes :  "  In  the  early  years  of  these  churchwardens  accounts 
the  available  funds  were  derived  chiefly  from  the  two  oldest 
charities,  one  called  *  Lowndye's  Almshouses,'  the  first  ac- 
count of  which  is  for  the  year  .  .  .  1561  ...  to  1562;  the 
other  known  as  '  the  Church  Estate,'  the  first  account  of 
which  begins  in  1566."*  Summoned  by  the  Bodmin,  Corn- 
wall, justices  in  January,  159%,  to  make  a  report  as  to  the 
parish  stock,  the  representatives  of  Stratton  certify  at  ses- 
sions that  their  stock  "am[oun]ts  to  the  now  some  of 
Sixteene  poundes,  some  yeares  it  is  more  &  some  yeares 
lesse.  ..."  And,  they  continue,  "  the  vsinge  of  our  sayde 
stocke  is  by  the  two  wardens  &  the  rest  of  the  eight  men 
w[hi]ch  for  the  same  stande  sworne.  And  it  is  bestowed 
aboute  her  ma[jes]ties  service,  for  buyenge  of  armor, 
settinge  forth  of  souldiers  w[i]th  powder  &  shott.  .  .  .  And 
likewise  for  the  relievinge  &  mainetayning  of  the  poore. 
..."  They  thereupon  give  the  names  of  the  impotent  and 
decrepit  persons  and  orphan  children  "  wholly  relieved  "  by 
the  parish,  ten  in  number,  and  add  that  there  are  upwards 
of  a  hundred  poor  "w[h]ich  are  not  able  to  Hue  of  them- 

*Jas.  Copeman  in  Norf.  and  Norw.  Arch.  Soc,  ii  (1849),  64. 
The  Loddon  Acc'ts  cover  the  period  1 554-1847,  some  of  the  dona- 
tions, or  endowments,  being  made  in  the  i6th  and  some  in  the  17th 
centuries. 

'Robt.  DjTTiond  in  Devon  Assoc,  for  Advanc.  of  Science  (etc.) 
Tr.,  xiv  (1882),  407.  These  acc'ts  run  from  1425-1590.  For  a  list 
of  parish  properties  in  1565,  see  pp.  460-1.  Their  yearly  rent  then 
amounted  to  £g  14s.  2d. 

*Sam'l  Barfield,  Thatcham,  Berks,  and  its  Manors  (1901),  i.  121. 


62  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [364 

selues,  but  haue  reliefe  dayly  one  thinge  or  another  of  the 
seide  p[ar]ish."^  The  little  parish  of  St.  Michael's  in  Bed- 
wardine,  Worcestershire,^  possessed  lands  and  tenements  in 
various  parishes,  and  in  1599  invested  iio  in  buying  two 
more  tenements  in  Worcester  city."  Its  wardens  accounts, 
we  are  told  by  their  editor,  disclose  that  there  was  never 
any  lack  of  money  for  parish  purposes  "  in  spite  of  a  rather 
lavish  expenditure  at  times  in  the  luxury  of  law  [suits]  ."^'' 
Lapworth,  Warwickshire,  had  many  acres  of  parish  land,^^ 
The  churchwardens  of  St.  John's,  Glastonbury,  Somerset, 
return  in  their  accounts  the  rent  of  the  parish  lands  in  1588 
at  ^9  13  s.  10  d.,^^  and,  as  these  accounts  show,  they  occasion- 
ally received  important  sums  for  fines  on  changes  of  tenants. 
The  various  properties  managed  by  the  wardens  of  St. 
Michael's,  Bath,  numbered  thirty-seven  in  1527,  yielding  a 
revenue  of  £11  8s.  ;^^  and  even  in  1572  the  rent  amounted 
to  £11  8s.i* 

Indeed,  though  parish  lands  and  houses  were  generally 
vested  as  to  title  in  trustees  (often  a  numerous  and  cumber- 

^R.  W.  Goulding,  Records  of  the  Charity  known  as  Blanch- 
minster's  Charity,  Stratton  (1898),  64-5. 

*  In  1562  it  is  said  to  have  contained  only  48  families.  John 
Amphlett,  Churchwardens  Acc'ts  of  St.  Michael's  in  Bedwardine 
fed.  for  Worcester  Hist.  Soc,  1898),  introd.,  p.  iii. 

*  Op.  cit.,  142-3.  See  ibid.,  and  for  the  year  named,  the  receipts 
from  these  properties.  Thus  £4  is  paid  for  one  and  a  half  years' 
rental  of  parish  land  lying  in  Severn  Stoke  parish;  44s.  for  two 
years'  rent  of  parish  houses  in  St.  Peter's  parish,  Worcester  city,  etc. 

"  Op.  cit.,  pp.  xxx-i. 

"  Hudson,  Memorials,  etc.,  85  ff.  Consult  Mr.  Hudson's  map  of 
the  parish  lands. 

"Notes  and  Queries  for  Somer.  and  Dorset,  v  (1897),  94. 

^'Somerset  Arch,  and  Nat.  Hist.  Soc.  Tr.,  xxiii,  Mr.  Pearson's 
introd.,  p.  iii,  and  op.  cit.,  vol.  xxvi,  106-9.  Cf.  A.  G.  Legge,  North 
Elmham,  Norfolk,  Acc'ts  (1891),  5-6  (Long  list  of  lands  managed 
by  wardens  in  1549).  Also  J.  H.  Butcher,  The  Parish  of  Ashburton 
(Devon),  49  (1580).  Owen  and  Blakeway,  Hist,  of  Shrewsbury, 
ii,  342  (St.  Mary's  parish  lands  with  32  tenants  and  rental  of 
£6. 7s.  8d.  in  1544.  The  churchwardens  were  here  called  "  Lady 
Wardens"  as  managing  the  "  Rentall  of  our  Lady"). 

^*  St.  Michael's  Acc'ts,  op.  cit.,  vol.  xxvi,  129.  The  wardens  of 
this  parish  record  among  their  expenditures  many  items  for  the 
repair  of  the  parish  tenements  and  other  property.  In  early  times 
they  received  I2d.  as  a  salary  for  management.  Later  this  was 
changed  into  an  honorarium  of  varying  amount  "pro  bono  servicio 
suo."    Op.  cit.,  vol.  xxiii,  intro.,  p.  ii. 


365]  Parish  Finance.  63 

some  body)/'  the  churchwardens  themselves  and  sometimes 
other  accountants/®  who  like  the  wardens  were  appointed 
from  year  to  year,  usually  exercised  the  actual  management. 
The  feoffees  existed  chiefly  for  the  purpose  of  making  it 
difficult  to  alienate  the  parish  properties,  "  and  the  larger 
the  trust  body  the  more  difficult  such  alienation  was  sup- 
posed to  be."" 

Contenting  ourselves  with  the  above  examples,  which 
could  easily  be  multiplied,  we  pass  on  under  this  same  head 
of  general  endowments  to  an  interesting  form  of  personal 
property,  viz.,  cattle,  for  not  only  did  the  wardens  derive 
receipts  from  parish  holdings  of  real  estate,  but  also  from 
Endowments  of  Cows  or  Sheep.  The  Pittington,  Durham, 
Twelve  Men,  a  sort  of  parish  executive  and  administrative 
body,  enact  in  1584  "  that  everie  iiij  pounde  rent"  within 
this  parrishe,  as  well  of  hamlets  as  townshippes,  shall  gras^' 
winter  and  somer  one  shepe  for  the  behoufe  of  this 
church  ;"^°  and  we  are  told  that  these  "  Church  Shepe," 
as  they  were  called,  were  here  one  of  the  chief  means  of 
raising  funds  for  parochial  purposes.^^  It  was  the  custom 
of  pious  donors,  especially  among  the  lowly,  to  leave  one  or 
more  sheep  or  cows  to  their  parish.  In  the  year  1559  twelve 
sheep  were  thus  given  or  bequeathed  to  Wootton  Church, 
Hants,  by  ten  donors.^^    These  sheep,  as  well  as  the  parish 

"  Thus  at  Lapworth,  Warwickshire,  a  trust  of  parish  lands  was 
re-created  in  1563  with  twenty-two  feoflFees;  and  one  Collet  in  15^ 
enfeoffed  seventeen  men  of  a  field  of  only  three  acres,  fourteen 
perches,  to  parish  uses.     Hudson,  Memorials  (etc.),  85-6. 

"£.  g.,  the  Grasswardens  of  St.  Giles,  Durham,  who  managed 
the  common  lands  of  the  parish,  and  accounted  yearly  for  them. 
They  made  disbursements  for  many  parish  expenses  which  else- 
where churchwardens  usually  paid  out  (e.  g.,  for  bridges,  houses 
of  correction,  poor  prisoners,  armor  and  musters),  yet  were  them- 
selves distinct  from  the  churchwardens.  See  Surtees  Soc,  xcv,  I  ff. 
Cf.  the  bridge  wardens  of  Loughborough,  Leicester  (W.  G.  D. 
Fletcher,  Hist,  of  L.,  1883,  pp.  40  flf).  Also  the  townwardens  of 
Melton  Mowbray,  Leicester  Archit.  (etc.)  Sac,  iii,  61-2,  note. 

"  Hudson,  Memorials,  etc.,  88. 

"  That  is  (apparently)  holdings  returning  £4  of  rent  annually. 

"  Pasture. 

"  Surtees  Soc.,  Ixxxiv,  15. 

^  Editor's  (Mr.  Barmby's)  introd.,  ibid.,  4. 

°  (Dean)  G.  W.  Kitchen,  The  Manor  of  Manydown,  Hants  Rec. 
Soc,  1895,  171.     For  other  examples  both  of  parish  cows  and  sheep 


64  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [366 

cows,  were  often  hired  out  to  parishioners,  who  gave  security 
for  their  return.  Sometimes  they  were  given  to  poor  men 
at  a  reduced  rent,  and  thus  they  served  to  support  the 
poor.2* 

That  the  keeping  of  cattle  was  a  well-recognized  source  of 
parish  income  is  seen  by  the  Queen's  Injunctions  of  1559 
in  which  she  alludes  to  "  the  profit  of  cattle  "  among  other 
sources  of  parish  revenue  to  be  devoted  to  the  poor,  "  and  if 
they  be  provided  for,  then  to  the  reparation  of  highways 
next  adjoining,"  or  to  the  repair  of  the  church.^* 

Leaving  the  topic  of  general  endowments  to  take  up  those 
sources  of  revenue  destined  to  defray  particular  forms  of 
expenditure,  we  find  that  Permanent  Parish  Endowments  in 
lands,  goods  or  money  devoted  to  the  defraying  of  Specific 
Parish  Administratiz^e  Burdens  or  Utilities  were  very  nu- 
merous in  the  local  documents  of  the  i6th  century.  Some- 
times a  land  or  fund  was  set  apart  by  the  donor,  or  by  the 
parish  itself,  for  the  support  of  a  parish  servant  or  officer  f^ 

see  Hale,  Crim.  Prec,  221  (40  parish  sheep  of  Billericay,  Essex, 
for  the  relief  of  the  poor.  1599).  Littleton,  Worcestersh.  Acc'ts, 
Midland  Antiquary,  i  (1883),  107  (Purchase  of  cow  for  parish 
in  1556).  Ibid.,  108  (Wintering  of  a  church  heifer).  Morton, 
Derbysh.,  Acc'ts,  The  Reliquary,  xxv,  17  (Same  as  above.  1593). 
Owen  &  Blakeway,  Hist,  of  Shrewsbury,  ii,  342  (St.  Mary's  had  in 
1544  ten  cows  and  three  sheep  renting  for  £1  is.  8d.  yearly). 
Rotherfield  Acc'ts,  Sussex  Arch.  Coll.,  xH,  26,  46.  St.  Michael's, 
Bath,  Acc'ts,  Somerset  Arch,  (etc.)  Soc,  xxiii,  introd.,  ct  passim. 
Great  Witchingham,  Norf.  and  Norw.  Arch.  Soc,  xiii,  207  (CJows  in 
1604).  Hartland,  Devon,  Acc'ts,  Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep.,  v,  Pt.  i 
(1876),  573  a  (Custom  circa  1601  for  poor  to  leave  sheep  to  church 
by  will).  Hudson,  Memorials,  etc.,  106-10  (Parish  meeting  about 
renting  out  of  cows.  Surety  bonds  given  by  hirers  in  1580  flf.). 
Many  other  examples  will  be  found  in  the  wardens  acc'ts  and  else- 
where. 

^  See  Hudson,  op.  cit.,  supra,  106.  In  1595  two  cows  were  be- 
queathed to  Lapworth  to  be  rented  out  at  20  d.  yearly.  The  pro- 
ceeds of  one  to  mend  a  certain  parish  road,  of  the  other  to  support 
the  poor  {ibid.,  109) . 

"Art.  xxv,  Cardwell,  Doc.  Ann.,  i,  189  ff.  So  in  the  Visitation 
Articles  of  the  same  year  {ibid.,  213)  we  read:  "Item,  whether  the 
money  coming  and  rising  of  any  cattle  or  other  movable  stocks 
of  the  church  [etc.]  .  .  .  have  not  been  employed  to  the  poor  men's 
chest." 

"  In  North  Elmham  the  term  "  office  land "  seems  to  have  been 
used  for  lands  set  apart  for  the  remuneration  of  parish  servants. 
See  A.  G.  Legge,  North  Elmham  Acc'ts,  81,  s.  a.  1566:  "It[e]m  for 
office  Land  of  the  ten[emen]te  fost[er]  .  .  .  vij  d."    Cf.  Mr.  Legge's 


367]  Parish  Finance.  65 

sometimes  its  revenue  maintained  this  or  that  cripple  or 
blind  man,-®  or  a  number  of  them;  sometimes  it  was  used 
for  feeding  the  poor,^^  or  for  buying  wearing  apparel  for 
them;^*  for  setting  them  at  work  in  houses  of  correction,'*" 
or  for  parish  education.^*' 

In  particular,  lands  or  funds  were  frequently  set  apart  as 
special  and  permanent  endowments  for  the  repair  of 
bridges.^^  In  fact,  the  proceeds  of  parish  lands  or  other 
endowments  might  be  appropriated  to  alleviate  any  tax 
burden  whatsoever.  In  1549  it  was  stated  by  the  wardens 
of  North  Elmham,  Norfolk,  that  the  net  proceeds  of  the 
five  and  thirty  or  forty  acres  which  they  rented  out  were 

note  (p.  129).  He  cites  other  examples  in  Norfolk  parishes,  viz., 
"  Constable  Acre  "  in  Stuston,  "  Constable  Pasture  "  in  Fralingham, 
"  Dog  Whipper's  Land "  in  Barton  Turf.  Cf .  J.  L.  Glasscock, 
Records  of  Bishop  Stortford,  55  ("  sexten's  meade,"  1563).  In  an 
early  year  temp.  Henry  VHI  one  Jesop  left  two  tenements  to  Men- 
dlesham,  Suffolk,  "to  y'  fyndyng  of  a  clarke  to  pley  att  ye 
organys  for  a  p[er]petuite."  Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep.,  v,  Pt.  i  (1876), 
596  a.  See  also  Shrop.  Arch,  and  Nat.  Hist.  Sac,  iii,  3rd  ser.  (1903), 
315  (26s.  and  8d.  and  12  bushels  of  rye  issuing  annually  out  of 
Idsal  rectory  for  the  poor  and  the  maintenance  of  a  clerk).  E. 
Freshfield,  St.  Christopher-le-Stocks'  Acc'ts,  38  (Bequest  of  a  per- 
petuity of  20s.  annually  for  clerk  and  sexton.    1602). 

"  Swyre,  Dorset,  Parish  Acc't  Book  in  Notes  and  Quer.  for  Somer. 
and  Dorset,  iii  (1893),  293  (Lands  allotted  by  parish  for  support 
of  a  blind  man). 

"£.  g.,  St.  Christopher-le-Stocks'  Acc'ts,  38  (Yearly  perpetuity  of 
£3  4s.  in  bread  and  money  to  poor.  1602).  St.  Michael's  in  Bed- 
wardine  Acc'ts,  99  (House  left  to  parish,  12s.  of  whose  rental  to 
go  to  poor,  and  is.  to  the  churchwardens.     iSQo). 

*  Butcher,  Parish  of  Ashburton,  46  (Land  given  to  buy  shirts  and 
smocks  for  the  poor.     1575)- 

"T.  P.  Wadley,  Notes  on  Bristol  Wills  (1886),  230  (£20  for  a 
stock  of  money  to  remain  for  ever  "in  the  howse  of  correction" 
for  the  maintenance  and  "  settinge  on  work  of  such  people  as  shalbe 
therevnto   co[m]mitted   for   their   mysdemeanors."      Thos.   Kelke's 

will.        1583)-  ...      „         ,rr 

**  Wills  and  Inventories,  Pt.  ii,  Surtees  Soc,  xxxvni,  83  (Keyper 
school  of  Houghton  and  its  endowment  of  £240.     1582). 

"  Examples  among  many  are  the  Edenbndge,  Kent,  lands.  These 
bridgewardens  held  lands  in  three  parishes.  Arch.  Cant.,  xxi 
(1895)  no  ff.  Also  Burton's  Charity  lands  at  Loughborough.  Ihe 
"bridgmasteres"  here  in  1570  collected  £33  i8s.  6d.,  and  disbursed 
£16  i2s.  I  Id.  Fletcher,  Hist,  of  Loughborough,  41-2.  Also  Hay- 
ward  bridge  lands,  Notes  and  Quer.  for  Somer.  and  Dorset,  iv 
(i895),205-7- 
5 


66  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [368 

devoted  exclusively  towards  the  paying  of  the  fifteenths  due 
from  time  to  time  to  the  king  and  his  successors.^- 

To  illustrate  the  variety  of  purposes  for  which  parish 
trusts  were  created,  I  cannot  do  better  than  quote  part  of 
the  preamble  of  the  43  Eliz.  c.  4,  known  as  the  Statute  of 
Charitable  Uses :  "  Whereas  Landes,  Tenements,  Rentes 
.  .  .  Money  and  Stockes  of  Money,"  it  is  there  rehearsed, 
"  have  bene  heretofore  given,  limitted  .  .  .  and  assigned 
.  .  .  some  for  Releife  of  aged,  impotent  and  poore  people, 
some  for  Maintenaunce  of  sicke  and  maymed  Souldiers  and 
Marriners,  Schooles  of  Learninge  .  .  .  some  for  Repaire 
of  Bridges,  Fortes,  Havens,  Causwaies,  Churches,  Sea- 
bankes  and  Highewaies,  some  for  Educac[i]on  and 
p[re]fermente  of  Orphans,  some  for  or  towardes  Reliefe, 
Stocke  or  Maintenaunce  for  Howses  of  Correcc[i]on,  some 
for  Manages  of  poore  Maides,  some  for  Supportac[i]on, 
Ayde  and  Helpe  of  younge  Tradesmen,  Handiecraftesmen 
and  p[er]sons  decayed,  and  others  .  .  .  for  aide  or  ease  of 
any  poore  Inhabitants  conc[er]ninge  paymente  of  Fif- 
teenes,  settinge  out  of  Souldiers  and  other  Taxes    [etc.] 

"33 

As  for  money  and  goods  left  by  testators  or  given  inter 
vivos  for  Temporary  Expenses  or  Special  Occasions  (as 
opposed  to  the  creation  of  permanent  trusts  and  endow- 
ments), we  find  a  constant  stream  of  such  benefactions 
throughout  the  Elizabethan  period. 

By  the  Queen's  Injunctions  of  1559  parsons  are  diligently 
to  exhort  their  parishioners,  "  and  especially  when  men 
make  their  testaments,"  to  give  to  the  poor-box,  the  surplus 
of  which,  after  provision  for  the  needy,  might  be  devoted 
to  church  and  highway  repair.^* 

Bequests  made  to  the  highways  or  bridges  were  consid- 
ered as  donated  in  pios  usus.  "  I  thinke,"  wrote  a  prebend- 
ary of  Durham  Cathedral  in  1599,  "  it  also  a  deade  of  chari- 

**Legge,  North  Eltnham  Acc'ts,  87-90.  So  too  at  Eltham,  Kent, 
where  the  "  Fifetene  peny  Lands  "  have  special  wardens  who  account 
for  their  revenue.    Archceologia,  xxxiv,  51  ff, 

"Statutes  of  the  Realm,  iv,  Pt.  ii,  96^. 

**Cardwell,  Doc.  Ann.,  i,  189  fif. 


369]  Parish  Finance.  67 

tie  and  a  comendable  worke  before  God  to  repaire  the  high- 
wayes,  that  the  people  may  travaille  saifely  without  daunger. 
I  therefore  will  to  the  mending  of  the  highwayes   [etc.] 

"85 

Noblemen  and  wealthy  men  were  expected  to  help  main- 
tain the  local  poor  in  particular.  Elizabethan  ballads  cele- 
brate the  liberality  to  the  destitute  of  an  Earl  of  Hunting- 
don,^* of  an  Earl  of  Southampton,*^  or  of  an  Earl  of  Bed- 
ford.^® At  the  funeral  of  George,  Earl  of  Shrewsbury,  in 
1 591,  eight  thousand  got  the  dole  served  to  them,  and  it 
was  thought  that  at  least  twice  that  number  were  in  waiting, 
but  could  not  approach  because  of  the  tumult.'*  The 
churchwardens  and  overseers  of  the  poor  accounts,  espe- 
cially in  London  and  the  larger  cities,  abound  with  receipt 
items  of  gifts  from  great  personages  or  wealthy  mer- 
chants.*" 

"Dr.  Pilkington's  will,  Surtees  Soc,  xxii.  Append.,  p.  cxxxviii. 
For  a  few  other  examples  of  bequests  for  parish  utilities  see  ibid.,  p. 
ciii  (George  Reyd's  will,  1559).  Ibid.,  p.  ex  ff.  (William  Birche's  will 
of  1575  in  which  are  many  bequests  to  poor  artificers,  to  prisoners — 
a  very  frequent  bequest — to  "needfull  briggs  or  highe  waies,"  etc.). 
See  also  Benefactions  to  Dorset  Parishes,  Churches,  etc.,  in  Notes 
and  Quer.  for  Somer.  and  Dorset,  x,  164  ff.  Also  T.  P.  Wadley,  Notes 
on  Bristol  Wills,  passim  (e.  g.,  Thos.  Kelke's  will  of  1583,  on  p.  230. 
He  leaves  £13  to  Newgate  prisoners,  a  frieze  gown  to  12  women 
and  12  men — a  frequent  bequest — 6s.  8d.  each  to  52  poor  maidens 
for  their  marriage,  etc.).  Also  Wills  and  Inventories,  Surtees 
Soc,  xxxviii.  Ft.  ii,  passim.  Surrey  Wills  in  Surrey  Arch.  Coll., 
X  (1891),  passim. 

"  The  crie  of  the  poore  for  the  death  of  the  right  Honourable 
Earle  of  Huntington  (printed  1596),  Joseph  Lilly,  A  Collection  of 
Seventy-Nine  Black-Letter  Ballads  and  Broadsides,  1559-1597 
(1870),  230. 

"Ibid.,  263. 

"  The  poore  people's  complaynt,  Bewayling  the  death  of  their 
famous  benefactor,  the  worthy  Earle  of  Bedford  (Died  1585)-  Bed- 
ford was  described  as  "a  person  of  such  great  hospitality  that 
Queen  Elizabeth  was  wont  to  say  of  him  that  he  made  all  the 
beggars."    Clark,  Shirburn  Ballads,  256. 

^J.  C.  Cox,  Three  Centuries  of  Derbyshire  Annals,  i,  136. 

*•£.  Freshfield,  St.  Bartholomew,  Exchange,  Acc'ts,  s.  a.  1598, 
et  passim.  Freshfield,  St.  Margaret,  Lothbury,  Vestry  Book,  32 
(1595).  St.  Margaret's,  Westminster,  Overseers'  Acc'ts  in  The 
Westminster  Tobacco  Box,  Ft.  ii  (1887),  e.  g.,  s.  a.  1572-3,  where 
we  find  donations  from  Lord  Burghley,  the  Lord  Chief  Justice, 
the  Dean  of  Westminster,  the  Earl  of  Derby,  the  Earl  of  Hert- 
ford, etc. 


68  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [370 

Owing  to  the  difficulty  of  investing  money  because  pres- 
ent-day intermediaries  were  absent  between  capital  seeking 
employment  and  would-be  borrowers ;  and  because  the  me- 
dieval stigma  attaching  to  money  loaned  at  interest  had  by 
no  means  wholly  disappeared,*^  there  grew  up  in  Eliza- 
bethan parishes  a  system  of  laying  out  money,  raised  by 
the  parish  or  donated  by  benefactors,  in  various  trades, 
such  as  wool-spinning,  linen-weaving,  the  buying  of  wood 
or  coal  to  sell  again  at  a  profit,*^  etc.  Sometimes  well-to-do 
parishioners  with  good  credit  would  themselves  borrow 
parish  money,  returning  ten  per  cent,  for  its  use.*^     Usu- 

"  Though  by  37  Hen.  VIII  c.  9,  sec.  3  (Stats,  of  Realm,  iii,  996) 
interest  up  to  10  per  cent,  per  annum  was  permitted,  all  interest 
was  prohibited  by  the  5  &  6  Ed.  VI,  c.  20,  sec.  2  {Stats,  of  Realm, 
iv,  Pt.  i,  15s).  Interest  is  here  dubbed  usury,  "a  vice  most  odyous 
and  detestable."  Interest  up  to  10  per  cent,  was,  however,  again 
made  lawful  by  the  13  Eliz.  c.  8,  sec.  4  (Stats,  of  Realm,  iv,  Pt. 
i,  542)  which,  however,  stigmatizes  usury  as  sinful. 

*'  Examples  are.  Vestry  Minutes  of  St.  Margaret,  Lothbury,  32 
(Gift  of  £20  in  159s  to  be  employed  in  wood  and  coal  for  the  use 
of  the  poor.  A  committee  of  four  was  appointed  to  invest  and 
make  sales.  See  their  account  for  1596,  p.  34).  The  Westminster 
Tobacco  Box,  Pt.  ii,  22  (One  of  the  overseers  of  St.  Margaret's 
to  keep  a  gift  of  £42  "  untill  the  same  may  be  bestowed  upon  somme 
good  bargaine  as  a  lease  or  somme  other  such  like  commoditie 
w[hi]ch  may  yeelde  a  yerely  rente  to  the  pore."  1578).  Cf.  St. 
Bartholomew,  Exchange,  Acc'ts  Books,  3  ft.,  where  in  1598,  and 
regularly  in  subsequent  years,  appears  the  item :  "  Alowed  to  this 
account  for  the  geft  of  the  Lady  Wilfordes  xx  li  for  the  pore 
XX [s]."  Also  another  item,  likewise  of  20s.  yearly,  on  Mr.  Nut- 
maker's  £20 — in  other  words,  10  per  cent,  in  each  case  every  year. 
Cf.  Jas.  Stockdale,  Anna's  of  Cartmel  (Lancashire,  pub.  1872), 
37-8  (£65  6s.,  money  belonging  to  Cartmel  grammar  school 
"  placed "  in  the  hands  of  various  persons,  some  of  whom  give 
pledges,  others  mortgages,  for  repayment.  The  revenue  from  this 
is  £6  IDS.  7d.,  i.  e.,  10  per  cent,  in  1598).  In  1613,  in  allowing  the 
overseer's  accounts  of  Swyre,  Dorset,  the  local  justices  indorse: 
"  Upon  this  condition  that  from  henceforth  the  overseers  and 
Churchwardens  do  yearlie  charge  themselves  with  the  some  of  xxs. 
for  thuse  of  a  stocke  of  xli  [i.  e.,  10  per  cent.]  giuen  to  the  poore 
by  the  testam[en]t  of  James  Rawlinge."  The  practice  above  illus- 
trated is  simply  that  enjoined  by  18  Eliz.  c.  3,  amended  and  com- 
pleted by  39  Eliz.  c.  3  and  43  Eliz.  c.  2,  with  an  object  of  making 
the  poor  administration  self-supporting  as  far  as  might  be.  The 
fact  that  Elizabethan  poor  laws  were  based  on  the  best-approved 
parish  customs  made  them  perdurable.  For  a  model  adminis- 
tration of  parish  stock  according  to  the  poor  laws  see  the  Cowden 
Overseers  Acc'ts,  Sussex  Arch.  Coll.,  xx,  95  ff.  (1599  ff.). 

**E.  g.,  in  St.  Michael's  in  Bedwardine  (Acc'ts  ed.  John  Amph- 
lett)   one  Stanton  left  50s.  to  the  poor  in  1588   (Acc'ts,  p.  97-^). 


37 1 ]  Parish  Finance.  69 

ally,  however,  parish  money  was  loaned  gratis,  the  parish 
taking  sureties  for  its  repayment  and  sometimes  articles  of 
value,  being,  apparently,  not  always  above  doing  a  little 
pawnbroking  business.**  On  the  other  hand,  when  the 
parish  itself  had  occasion  to  borrow  money  it  would  occa- 
sionally give  its  own  valuables  as  security.  Thus  the  Mere, 
Wiltshire,  wardens  record  in  1556  that  they  have  redeemed 
on  the  repayment  of  40s.  to  one  Cowherd,  "  borowed  of 
hym  to  thuse  of  the  Churche,"  "  certeyn  sylver  Spones  of 
the  Churche  stocke."*"  Finally,  parishes  would  now  and 
then  make  some  cautious  speculation  in  real  estate,  such  as 
the  buying  of  a  local  market  or  fair  with  a  view  to  profit.** 

Robt.  Chadboume  paid  ss.  for  the  use  of  this  money  for  several 
years  {Acc'ts,  p.  108,  etc.).  It  then  was  loaned  to  John  Brayne, 
an  entry  being  made  from  time  to  time  that  the  principal  was 
owing  as  well  as  the  interest  {Acc'ts  p.  108).  Brayne  paid  the 
50s.  to  the  wardens  in  Sept.,  1595,  Cf.  preceding  note  (Cartmel 
school  money). 

**  St.  Michael's  in  Bedivardine  Acc'ts,  supra,  96  (One  Fletcher 
loaned  30s.  in  1586,  he  depositing  with  the  wardens  "  a  gilt  salt 
with  a  cover").  For  numerous  gratuitous  loans  of  parish  money, 
see  the  Mere  Acc'ts,  Wilts  Arch,  and  Nat.  Hist.  Mag.,  xxxv  (1907), 
passim.  Cf.  also  the  document  of  1586  relating  to  the  parish  of 
Heavitree,  in  Devon  Notes  and  Quer.,  i  (1901),  61,  where  it  is  stipu- 
lated (inter  alia)  that  if  any  parishioner  of  good  character  upon 
reasonable  cause  shall  desire  to  borrow  from  any  surplus  funds  of 
the  church  for  a  season,  "  such  a  one  shall  not  be  denyed." 

"See  Wilts  Arch.  Mag.,  xxxv.  Cf.  J.  E.  Foster,  St.  Mary  the 
Great   (Cambridge)   Acc'ts  (1905),  208. 

**In  1564  the  parishioners  of  Chagford,  Devon,  bought  from  the 
lord  of  the  manor  for  £10  the  local  markets  and  fairs,  subject  to  a 
yearly  rent  of  i6s.,  which  they  had  always  paid  as  tenants.  Th^ 
then  repaired  and  enlarged  the  market  house.  Presumably  their 
venture  was  a  profitable  one,  for  in  1595  the  revenue  from  these 
markets  and  fairs  was  £3  los.  G.  W.  (Drmerod  in  Devon  Assoc, 
for  Adv.  of  Science,  etc.,  viii  (1876),  72.  Same,  Local  Informa- 
tion reprinted  from  the  Chagford  Parish  Mag.  (1867)  in  Topo- 
graphical Tracts  in  Brit.  Mus.  As  it  was  sometimes  hard  for  the 
authorities  to  prevent  the  churchwardens  from  utilizing  the  church 
for  plays,  so  it  was  hard  for  them  to  keep  the  wardens  from  giving 
up  the  churchyard  or  outlying  portions  of  the  church  structure  for 
fairs  and  stall-holders.  In  Herts  Co.  Rec.  Quarter  Sess.  Rolls 
(ed.  W.  J.  Hardy,  1905),  p.  13,  we  read,  s.  a.  1591-2,  that  a  pre- 
sentment was  made  that  some  part  of  the  "  fayer  of  Starford  has 
usually  been  kept  within  the  compase  of  the  churchyard."  See 
also  St.  Edmund  and  St.  Thomas,  Sarum,  Acc'ts  (ed.  H.  J,  F. 
Svvayne,  Wilts  Rec.  Soc.  1896),  introd.,  p.  xxiii  (St.  Edmund's 
fair  held  within  and  without  the  churchyard.  Wardens  receipts 
from  cheesesellers,  butchers,  etc.,  for  stalls  and  standings). 


70  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [372 

Leaving  the  subject  of  endowments  we  shall  now  take  up 
in  order  the  measures  which  may  be  called  Parish  Expedi- 
ents for  raising  money. 

Of  all  means  ever  devised  for  obtaining  large  sums  of 
money  for  parish  uses,  the  most  popular,  as  certainly  the 
most  efficacious,  was  the  Church-ale.  Widespread  during 
the  first  years  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  church-ales,  for  reasons 
hereafter  to  be  mentioned,  ceased  to  be  held  in  many 
parishes  towards  the  end  of  the  reign.  They  constitute, 
nevertheless,  at  all  times  during  the  i6th  century  an  impor- 
tant chapter  in  the  history  of  parochial  finance.  In  some 
wardens'  accounts  the  proceeds  of"  these  ales  form  a  yearly 
recurring  and  an  ordinary  receipt  item ;  in  others  ales  were 
resorted  to  when  some  unusually  large  sum  had  to  be 
raised,  or  some  heavy  expense  was  to  be  met,  such  as  the 
rebuilding  of  the  church  tower,  the  recasting  of  the  bells, 
the  raising  of  a  stock  to  set  the  poor  to  work,  or  the  buying 
of  a  silver  communion  cup.*'^  Frequently,  also,  funds  were 
raised  by  means  of  ales  called  clerk-ales,  sexton-ales,  etc., 
to  pay  the  wages  of  clerks,  sextons  and  other  servants  of 
the  parish.  "  For  in  poore  Countrey  Parishes,"  writes  an 
early  17th  century  bishop,  "  where  the  wages  of  the  Gierke 
is  very  small,  the  people  .  .  .  were  wont  to  send  him  in 
Provision,  and  then  feast  with  him,  and  give  him  more 
liberality  then  their  quarterly  payments  [or  offerings] 
would  amount  unto  in  many  years."  Indeed,  he  continues, 
since  these  ales  have  been  abolished  "  some  ministers  have 


As  late  as  1633  the  bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells  could  write  to 
Archbishop  Laud :  "  I  finde  that  by  Church-ales  hertofore  many 
poore  Parishes  have  cast  their  Bells,  repaired  their  Towers,  beauti- 
fied their  Churches,  and  raised  stocks  for  the  poore."  Wm.  Pr3mne, 
Canterburies'  Doome,  etc.  (1646),  151.  Cf.  Philip  Stubbes, 
Anatomic  of  Abuses  (4th  ed.,  1595),  iio-ii.  Spudeus:  "But,  I 
pray  you,  how  do  they  bestow  that  money  which  is  got  thereby?" 
[i.  €.,  by  church-ales].  Philopomus:  "Oh  well,  I  warrant  you,  if 
all  be  true  which  they  say;  for  they  repaire  their  Churches  and 
Chappels  with  it;  they  buy  bookes  for  service,  Cuppes  for  the 
celebration  of  the  Sacrament,  Surplesses  for  Sir  John  [t.  e.,  the 
parson],  and  such  other  necessaries.  And  they  maintaine  other 
extraordinarie  charges  in  their  Parishes  besides." 


373]  Parish  Finance.  yi 

complained  unto  me,  that  they  are  afrayd  they  shall  have 
no  Parish  Clerks  for  want  of  maintenance  for  them."** 

Church-ales  were  usually  held  at  or  near  Whitsuntide, 
hence  they  were  also  called  Whitsun-ales  or  May-ales  in  the 
accounts.  If  the  occasion  were  an  extraordinary  one,  and  it 
was  sought  to  realize  a  large  sum,  notices  were  sent  to  the 
surrounding  parishes,  say  to  ten,  fifteen,  or  more,  to  be  read 
aloud  from  the  pulpits  of  their  respective  churches  after 
service,  which  notices  contained  invitations  to  any  and  all 
to  come  and  spend  their  money  in  feasting  and  drinking  for 
the  benefit  of  the  parish  giving  the  ale.  As  the  day  ap- 
proached for  the  opening  of  the  ale,  which,  if  it  were  a  great 
one,  would  be  kept  for  four  or  five  days  or  more,  all  was 
bustle  in  the  parish  to  prepare  for  a  feasting  which  often 
assumed  truly  Gargantuan  proportions.  Cuckoo  kings  and 
princes  were  chosen,  or  lords  and  ladies  of  the  games ;  ale- 
drawers  were  appointed.  For  the  brewing  of  the  ale  the 
wardens  bought  many  quarters  of  malt  out  of  the  church 
stock,  but  much,  too,  was  donated  by  the  parishioners  for 
the  occasion.  Breasts  of  veal,  quarters  of  fat  lambs,  fowls, 
eggs,  butter,  cheese,  as  well  as  fruit  and  spices,  were  also 
purchased.  Minstrels,  drum  players  and  morris-dancers 
were  engaged  or  volunteered  their  services.  In  the  church- 
house,  or  church  tavern,  a  general-utility  building  found  in 
many  parishes,  the  great  brewing  crocks  were  furbished,  and 
the  roasting  spits  cleaned.  Church  trenchers  and  platters, 
pewter  or  earthen  cups  and  mugs  were  brought  out  for  use ; 
but  it  was  the  exception  that  a  parish  owned  a  stock  of  these 
sufficient  for  a  great  ale.  Many  vessels  were  borrowed  or 
hired  from  the  neighbors  or  from  the  wardens  of  near-by 
parishes,  for,  as  will  presently  be  seen,  provident  church- 

**  Bath  and  Wells  to  Canterbury,  Prjmne,  supra,  loc.  cit.  In  1536 
at  Morebath,  Devon,  the  parish  agreed  that  the  clerk  should  gather 
his  "hire  meat"  (»'.  e.,  so  much  corn  of  each  one)  at  Easter,  "& 
then  y*  p[a]rysse  schall  helpe  to  drenke  him  a  coste  of  ale  yn  ye 
churche  howse."  J.  E.  Binney,  Morebath  Acc'ts  (1904),  86.  When 
in  1651  at  St.  Thomas',  Salisbury,  clerk-ales  were  abolished,  "both 
the  clerk  and  sexton  claimed  compensation  for  the  loss  of  income 
sustained."  The  same  was  true  of  St.  Edmunds'  (in  the  same  city) 
in  1697.  Swayne,  St.  Edmund  and  St.  Thomas  Acc'ts,  introd., 
p.  xvii. 


72  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [374 

wardens  derived  some  income  from  the  hiring  of  the  parish 
pewter  as  well  as  money  from  the  loan  of  parish  costumes 
and  stage  properties.  When  the  opening  day  arrived  people 
streamed  in  from  far  and  wide.  If  any  important  personage 
or  delegation  from  another  village  were  expected,  the  parish 
went  forth  in  a  body  with  bag-pipes  to  greet  them,  and  (with 
permission  from  the  ecclesiastical  authorities)  the  church 
bells  were  merrily  rung  out.  At  the  long  tables,  when  the 
ale  was  set  abroach,  "  well  is  he,"  writes  a  contemporary, 
"  that  can  get  the  soonest  to  it,  and  spend  the  most  at  it, 
for  he  that  sitteth  the  closest  to  it,  and  spendes  the  most  at  it, 
hee  is  counted  the  godliest  man  of  all  the  rest  .  .  .  because  it 
is  spent  uppon  his  Church  forsooth."*^  The  receipts  from 
these  ales  were  sometimes  very  large.  So  important  were 
they  at  Chagford,  Devon,  that  the  churchwardens  were 
sometimes  called  alewardens.°°  At  Mere,  Wilts,  out  of  a 
total  wardens'  receipts  of  i2i  5s.  7^/26.  for  the  two  years 
1559-61,  the  two  church-ales  netted  £17  3s.  ij^d.,"^  thus 
leaving  only  £5  2s.  6d.  as  receipts  from  other  sources  for 
these  two  years.  At  a  later  period,  on  the  other  hand,  this 
relation  of  receipts  was  entirely  reversed.  For  instance,  in 
1582-3  the  wardens  secured  only  £4  los.  4d.  from  their  ale, 
while  proceeds  from  other  sources  amounted  to  £17  9s.  7d.'^* 

"Stubbes,  Anatomie,  etc.,  no.  The  above  account  of  church-ales 
has  been  derived  partly  from  Stubbes  and  from  a  curious  little 
pamphlet,  edited  by  Rev.  Fredk.  Brown  in  1883,  entitled  On  some 
Star  Chamber  Proceedings,  34  Eliz.  isg2;  partly,  also,  from  many 
churchwardens  acc'ts,  in  particular  the  Seal  Acc'ts  in  Surrey  Arch. 
Coll.,  n  (1864),  34-6  (See  items  in  detail  for  the  ale  of  1592,  and 
especially  the  ale  of  161 1.  Expenses  for  all  manner  of  provisions 
and  delicacies,  for  minstrels  and  evidently,  too,  for  a  play  occur. 
In  161 1  the  festivities  lasted  at  least  5  days).  Cf.,  too,  the  Ex- 
penses of  the  Maye  Feast  at  Dunmow  in  1538  (Cooks,  minstrels 
and  players  mentioned),  Essex  Arch.  Soc,  ii,  230.  Also  Kitchen, 
Manor  of  Manydown,  172-3  (Lists  of  delicacies  provided  at  the 
Wootton  ale  in  1600.  Expense  items  for  lords'  and  ladies'  liveries, 
players,  etc.) 

The  Parish  of  Chagford  in  Devon  Ass.  for  Adv.  of  Science, 
viii,  74. 

'^^  Wilts  Arch.  Mag.,  xxxv  (1907),  Mere  Acc'ts,  30.  These  have 
been  transcribed  verbatim  by  Mr.  T.  H.  Baker. 

"  Op.  cit.  Because  of  greatly  increased  expenses  the  wardens 
here  thenceforth  resorted  to  collections  according  to  a  book  of  rates. 
They  also  devised  other  means  of  income,  such  as  parish  burial 


375]  Parish  Finance.  73 

In  the  thirty-one  years  from  1556-7  to  1587-8  in  this  parish 
the  recorded  wardens'  expenditures  had  more  than  doubled. 
In  the  first-named  year  they  had  been  but  £S  12s.  5d. ;"'  in 
the  latter  year  they  had  swelled  to  £18  14s.  3j^d,"  This 
characteristic  is  true  of  all  Elizabethan  church  budgets,  and 
the  writer  has  seen  a  number  of  them.'*''  The  Wootton 
churchwardens  enter  under  the  year  1600  the  following: 
"  Rec.  by  our  Kingale,  all  things  discharged,  xij  li.  xiiij[s]. 
jd.  ob.,"  an  important  sum  for  the  day.**' 

Besides  the  churchwardens  other  wardens  or  gilds  some- 
times busied  themselves  with  the  selling  of  ale  for  the  benefit 
of  the  church.  One  of  these  gilds  at  South  Tawton,  Devon, 
records  in  its  accounts  for  1564:  "  We  made  of  our  alle  and 
gathering  xl  1.  viijs.  viijd."'^ 

So  important  a  source  of  parish  income  had  to  be  care- 
fully looked  after.  A  church-ale  with  its  attendant  festivi- 
ties for  drawing  visitors  was  an  important  business  matter. 
Accordingly  we  find  the  parishioners  of  St.  John's,  Glaston- 
bury, making  an  order  in  1589  "that  the  churchwardens 
shall  yearly  keape  ale  to  the  comodeti  of  the  parishe  upon 
payne  of  xxs.  a  yere.""' 

fees,  collections  for  the  holy  loaf  (i.  e.,  blessed  but  not  consecrated 
bread),  etc.  This  casting  about  for  new  sources  of  revenue  was 
characteristic  of  all  parishes  as  the  reign  advanced. 

■^  Op.  cit.,  26. 

"  Op.  cit.,  92. 

°*  In  1605  and  1606,  doubtless  to  meet  some  extraordinary  ex- 
penses, the  Mere  wardens  roused  themselves  to  great  efforts  at 
their  church-ale,  and  netted  iis  6s.,  and  i20  respectively.  Sir  Rich. 
Colt  Hoare,  Hist,  of  Modern  Wiltshire  (1822),  i,  21. 

*•  Kitchen,  Manor  of  Manydown,  174.  At  this  ale  there  were  six 
tables  and  the  receipts  from  each  were  tabulated  separately.  For 
other  large  receipts  see  the  Wing,  Bucks,  Acc'ts,  Archceologia, 
xxxvi,  219  ff.  In  1598  the  ale  here  yielded  £9  i6s.  4d.  At  More- 
bath,  a  small  and  poor  parish,  an  ale  had  produced  iio  13s.  sd.  in 
1529.  but  the  receipts  from  this  source  fell  off  here  in  Elizabeth's 
time.  At  Stratton,  Cornwall,  up  to  1547,  at  any  rate,  if  not  later, 
ales  were  the  chief  source  of  income.    Archceologia,  xlvi,  195-6. 

'"Devon  Notes  and  Quer.,  iii  (1905),  224.  Cf.  the  Young  Men 
Wardens'  ales  at  Morebath  (Binney,  Morebath  Acc'ts,  213  Ti573l. 
et  passim).  Also  St.  Anthony's  Gild  ales  at  Chagford.  Devon 
Ass.  for  Adv.  of  Science,  viii,  74  (1599).  Various  persons  at 
Milton  Abbot  sold  ale  and  bread.     Op.  cit.,  vol.  xi  (1879),  218. 

"Notes  and  Quer.  for  Somer.  and  Dorset,  v  (1897), 48.  The  same 
year  in  these  acc'ts  we  find  three  conduit  wardens  mentioned.    These 


74  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [376 

In  Ashburton,  Devon,  in  1567  Christopher  Wydecomb  had 
to  pay  20s.  to  the  wardens  "  because  he  refused  the  office 
of  the  drawer  of  the  church  ale."^*  At  Wing,  Bucks,  those 
refusing  "  to  be  lorde  at  Whitsuntyde  for  the  behofe  of  the 
church  "  were  fined  3s.  4d.  apiece.®**  In  some  places  these 
masters  of  the  revels  were  called  Cuckoo  Kings,  and  the 
office  seems  to  have  gone  in  rotation  like  other  parish 
offices."^ 

When  invitations  had  been  sent  out  to  surrounding  par- 
ishes, interparochial  courtesy  seems  to  have  required  the 
attendance  either  of  the  churchwardens  or  of  some  other 
more  or  less  official  representatives  of  the  neighboring  com- 
munities. These  representatives  carried  with  them  some 
small  contribution  made  at  the  expense  of  their  respective 
parishes  ('  ale-scot ')  ."^ 

Because  of  the  alleged  drunkenness  and  disorderly  con- 
duct attendant  upon  some  of  these  ales,  the  justices  of  assize 
and  the  justices  of  the  peace  attempted  in  some  shires  to 

are  to  have  "the  assistance  of  William  Ellis  ploraer  [plumber]." 
Of  them  it  is  also  determined  that  they  "do  kepe  an  alle  for  the 
comodetie  of  the  condytts  in  the  sayd  Towne  to  be  kept  abowts  the 
tyme  of  Shrofftyde,"  i.  e.,  just  before  Lent. 

"'Butcher,  The  Parish  of  Ashburton,  41.  It  would  seem  that 
there  were  special  wardens  here  for  ale  drawing.  (See  p.  44 
[1570-1].) 

Archceologia,  xxxvi,  235. 

" "  And  because  John  Watts  hath  ben  long  sick,  hit  is  agreed 
that  if  hee  be  not  able  to  s[e]rve  at  the  tyme  of  the  Church  ale, 
That  then  John  Coward  .  .  .  shall  s[e]rve  and  be  king  in  his  place 
for  this  yeare."  Mere  Acc'ts  {Wilts  Arch.  Mag.,  I.  c,  34)  s.  a. 
1561.  Cf.  J.  H.  Matthews,  History  of  St.  Ives  (1892),  144,  et 
passim. 

*"  Bishop  Hobhouse,  Churchivdn's  Acc'ts  of  Croscombe,  Pilton,  etc.. 
Somerset  Rec.  Soc,  iv  (1890),  80,  where  he  says:  "The  [Yatton] 
wardens  attended  these  festivals  at  Ken,  Kingston,  Wrington,  Con- 
gresbury,  etc.,  with  more  or  less  regularity,  making  their  contribu- 
tions, commonly  xijd.  in  the  name  of  the  parish  and  at  the  cost 
of  the  parish  ..."  Cf.  Morebath  Acc'ts  (ed.  Binney),  224:  "It 
there  was  payd  a  trinite  Sonday  at  the  Churche  ale  at  Bawnton 
[Bampton]  for  John  Skynner  .  .  .  xjd."  (1565).  Mere  Acc'ts 
{Wilts  Arch.  Mag.),  60:  "Item  paied  for  bread  and  drink  to  make 
the  Sum[m]er  Lord  of  Gillingham  Drink  .  .  .  ijs.  vjd."  (1578-9). 
T.  Nash,  Hist,  and  Antiq.  of  Worcestershire,  ii,  appen.,  p.  xxix 
(Halesowen  Acc'ts:  "  Paid  when  we  went  to  Frankley  to  the  church 
ale  2od."). 


377]  Parish  Finance.  75 

put  them  down  on  various  occasions.*^  More  effective,  per- 
haps, in  doing  away  with  them  was  the  gradual  growth  of 
Puritanism. 

In  conclusion  it  should  be  remarked  that  church-ales  seem 
to  have  obtained  only  in  Central  and  Southern  England. 
The  huge  and  thinly  populated  parishes  of  the  North  did 
not  favor  the  development  of  an  institution  so  essentially 
social  in  its  character. 

Church  Plays,  Games  and  Dances  were  allied  in  a  measure 
with  church-ales,  partly  because  they  were  sometimes  held 
concurrently  with  them,  partly  because  they  served  as  a 
substitute  for  the  ales  when  these  fell  into  disrepute. 
Miracle  plays  and  other  pageants  were  given  by  certain 
parishes  from  time  to  time,  too  frequently  in  the  churches 
themselves,  in  which  case  the  wrath  of  the  ordinary  was 
called  down  upon  the  parish  if  he  heard  of  them."*  Some 
parishes  kept  various  costumes  and  stage  properties,  which 
were  hired  out  to  other  parishes  when  not  in  use."  May 
games,  Robin  Hood  plays  or  bowers,  Hocktide  sports  and 

"See  the  precedents  given  for  the  Western  Circuit  in  Prynne, 
Canterburies'  Doome,  152.  Cf.  also,  ibid.,  128  ff.  That  these  ales 
died  hard  in  Devon  and  Somerset  is  seen  by  the  repeated  judicial 
orders.  See  also  J.  W.  Willis  Bund,  Social  Life  in  Worcestershire 
illustrated  by  the  Quarter  Sess.  Rec.  in  Assoc.  Archit.  Soc,  xxiii, 
Pt.  ii  (1897),  373-4  (1617).  A.  H.  Hamilton,  Quarter  Sessions 
from  Elisabeth  to  Anne  (1878),  28-9.  Harrison,  Descrip.  of  Engl., 
Bk.  ii,  New  Shak.  Soc,  32.  Saml.  Barfield,  Thatcham,  Berks,  and 
its  Manors,  ii,  105  (Wardens  Acc'ts  15^-9:  "Item  wee  were 
bounde  over  by  Mr.  Dolman,  Justice,  to  appeare  at  Reading  Assizes, 
where  it  cost  T. .  L. .  and  R. .  C. .  conseming  our  business  wee 
kept  at  Whitsuntide  xvs.  apece,  somme  xxxs."). 

'*Hale,  Crim.  Prec,  149  (Homchurch  wardens  bringing  players 
into  church.  1566).  Ibid.,  156  ("Tromperie"  and  "paynted  stuff 
for  playes  in  the  chefe  parte  of  the  [Rayleigh]  church."  1574). 
Ibid.,  158  (Two  plays  in  Romford  Chapel  by  "  comon  players." 
Wardens  plead  in  extenuation  that  proceeds  went  to  "  a  poore  man 
in  decay."  1577).  Leverton,  Lincolnshire,  Acc'ts,  Archaologia,  xli, 
333  ff.  (Several  examples  of  plays  in  the  church.     1579-95)- 

"In  the  Chelmsford  Acc'ts,  Essex  Arch.  Soc,  ii,  225-6  (1562), 
is  a  most  interesting  inventory  showing  an  elaborate  stage  outfit. 
That  it  was  used  for  miracle  plays  is  seen  on  p.  227  ("  Cotte  of 
lether  for  Christe,"  and  "  lyne  for  the  clowdes,"  etc.).  From 
various  towns  the  Chelmsford  men  received  in  1563,  and  subse- 
quently, large  sums  for  the  hire  of  these  properties,  e.  g.,  £3  6s.  8d. 
from  "Starford"   (Bishop  Stortford?)  ;  43s.  4d.   from  Colchester. 


76  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [378 

forfeits,  morris-dances  and  children's  dances  were  all  turned 
to  the  profit  of  the  church,  collections  being  taken  up  at 
them.***  Morris  coats,  caps,  bells  and  feathers  were  fre- 
quently loaned  out  for  a  consideration  by  wardens  to  other 
parishes.®'' 

Church-house.  Here  were  the  brewing  kettles  and  the 
spits,  and  here  was  stored  church  grain  or  malt  for  beer 
making.®*  Here,  too,  presumably,  the  pewter  ale  pots, 
trenchers,  spoons,  etc.,  which  figure  in  the  accounts,  were 
kept.  These  were  hired  out  to  other  parishes  for  their  ales.®® 
While  ale  was  brewed  and  drunk  in  the  church-house  for  the 
benefit  of  the  parish,  and  that  apparently  on  other  occasions 
than  church-ales,  it  does  not  seem  probable  that  the  place 
was  often  allowed  to  degenerate  into  a  common  ale-house, 
even  though  in  some  parishes  it  may  have  borne  the  name 
of  "  church  tavern."^"    When  not  required  for  parish  pur- 

*•  Examples  are  Thos.  North,  St.  Martin's,  Leicester,  Acc'ts  (18S4.), 
80  (Children's  morris-dance.  1558-9).  Ibid.,  85  (Robin  Hood 
play).  St.  Helen,  Abingdon,  Acc'ts,  Archceologia,  i  (2d  ed.),  15 
(1560).  J.  H.  Baker,  Notes  on  St.  Martin's  (Salisbury)  Church 
and  Parish  (1906),  Wardens  Acc'ts,  153  (Whitsun  dance  in  15^ 
yielding  13s.  4d.).  St.  Edmund  and  St.  Thomas,  Sarum,  Acc'ts, 
introd.,  p.  xvii.  Also  both  acc'ts,  passim  ("Feast  of  Hokkes," 
"  Childrens  daunse."  At  St.  Edmund's  £3  12s.  collected  in  1581 
[p-  131];  at  St.  Thomas'  same  year  £3  6s.  8d.  [p.  291]).  T.  N. 
&  A.  S.  Garry,  St.  Mary,  Reading,  Acc'ts  (1893),  28^,  et  passim 
(Whitsuntide  and  Hocktide  money  here  drop  out  as  early  as  1575. 
There  was  also  here  a  Christmas  gathering). 

"  Examples :  Wandsworth  Acc'ts  in  Surrey  Arch.  Coll.,  xvii 
(1902),  158  (1567-8).  John  Nichols,  Illustrations  of  the  Manners 
etc.  of  Antient  Times  (1797')  (Great  Marlow,  Bucks,  Acc'ts,  135. 
1612),  etc. 

'^  Wilts  Arch,  (etc.)  Mag.,  loc.  cit.  (Mere  Acc'ts:  brass  crocks  in 
inventory  of  15&4.).  Chagford  Acc'ts  in  Devon  Ass.  (etc.),  74. 
Binney,  Morebath  Acc'ts,  132.  A.  E.  W.  Marsh,  History  of  Calne, 
368  (Church  furnace,  1529.  Wardens  expenditures  for  sowing 
church  lands,  mowing  them,  and  carrying  the  corn  and  storing  it 
in  the  church-house).  The  Antiquary,  xvii,  169  (Stanford,  Berks, 
Acc'ts,  s.  a.  1569:  laying  corn  in  church-house,  and  making  malt 
there).     Morebath  Acc'ts,  132  (Spits  put  up  in  the  church-house). 

"•Morebath  Acc'ts,  142  (Church  stock-taking).  Mere  Acc'ts  (Wilts 
Arch,  (etc.)  Mag.  loc.  cit.),  32,  37,  54,  etc.  Chelmsford  Acc'ts,  217 
("xv  dosen  pewter  &  ix  peces,"  and  rent  of  it  owing  to  church. 
1560). 

"  St.  John's,  Glastonbury,  Acc'ts,  A'^.  and  Q.  for  Som.  and  Dor.,  v, 
94,  s.  a.  1588  (Selling  ale  in  church-house).  Tintinhull  Acc'ts, 
Somer.  Rec.  Soc,  iv,  p.  xxii  ("The  chief  source  of  income  [church- 


379]  Parish  Finance.  jy 

poses  the  church-house  was  rented  out,  and  rooms  in  an 
upper  story  were  used  for  lodgingJ^ 

As  church-ales  fell  into  disfavor  Offerings  or  Gatherings 
in  church  or  at  the  church  door  became  more  frequent^* 
and  more  systematized.  As  time  went  on  these  collections 
were  regularly  taken  up  in  many  parishes  every  quarter,  usu- 
ally at  Easter,  Midsummer,  Michaelmas  and  ChristmasJ' 
Hence  the  name  quarterage/*  When  the  proceeds  went  to 
general  church  furnishing  and  repairing,  the  gatherings  were 
sometimes  called  in  the  accounts  "  church  works.""  As 
the  sum  given  by  each  was  often  noted  down  in  "  quarter 
books  "  or  "  Easter  books, "^®  and  was,  on  denial,  occasion- 
ally sued  for  before  the  official  (together  with  dues  for  other 
purposes — clerk's  wages,  pew  rents,  etc.,  presently  to  be 
noticed),  an  "offering"  might  become  virtually  an  assess- 
ment or  rate.^'' 

house]  at  T[intinhull]  and  elsewhere  to  the  end  of  the  i6th  Cen- 
tury."). Stratton  Acc'ts,  Arch.,  xlvi,  198.  Bristol  and  Glouc. 
Arch.  Soc.  Tr.,  vii  (1882-3),  108  (Tenement  donated  1532  to 
Northleach  known  as  "  the  Churche  Taverne."  It  was  rented  out, 
but  on  the  condition  that  the  lessee  should  "  permit  the  towne  to 
have  the  use  of  the  same  one  month  at  Whitsontyde").  Of  the 
Stratton  church-house  we  are  told  that  men  were  fined  (in  1541) 
for  drinking  ale  there,  because  the  drinking  was  not  for  the  profit 
of  the  parish.    Arch.,  loc.  cit.,  supra. 

"  Stanford  Acc'ts,  loc.  cit.,  s.  a.  1595.    Stratton  Acc'ts,  loc.  cit.,  198. 

"Thus  at  Calne  (Wilts)  in  1574-S  no  church-ale  was  had,  but 
a  gathering  in  lieu  of  it  was  made  from  the  parishioners.  Ales  and 
collections  thenceforward  alternated  here,  until  church  rates  were 
established.     Marsh,  History  of  Calne,  372. 

"  See,  e.  g.,  Thos.  North,  5"/.  Martin's  Leicester,  Acc'ts,  98,  where 
the  times  of  collection  are  named. 

"See,  among  others,  Ludlow  Acc'ts,  Shrop.  Archit.  (etc.)  Soc.,\\i, 
127  (1567),  where  the  name  occurs.  Also  St.  Edmund's,  Sarum, 
Acc'ts,  Wilts  Rec.  Soc.  for  1896,  p.  141  (1592). 

"£.  g.,  at  St.  Edmund's,  Sarum,  or  at  St.  Martin's,  Leicester. 

"  See,  e.  g.,  J.  E.  Foster,  St.  Mary  the  Great  (Cambridge)  Acc'ts, 
148  ff.  Offerings  of  the  masters  of  arts  and  of  the  bachelors  form 
a  distinct  feature  here. 

"  See  pp.  41  ff.  and  59  supra.  In  the  Morebath  Acc'ts  (ed.  J.  E. 
Binney,  p.  178)  we  read,  s.  a.  1553-4,  as  a  heading  to  the  receipt 
items :  "  Now  to  pay  y"  f orsayd  dettis  &  demawndis  y*  schall  hyre 
of  all  our  resettis  y*  we  have  resseuyed,  &  how  gentylly  for  y*  moste 
p[ar]te  men  have  payd  of  there  owne  devoc[i]on  w[i]t[h]  out  ony 
taxyn  or  ratyng  as  y'  schall  hyre  here  after."  Then  follows  a  list 
of  30  names.  There  is  evidently  some  sort  of  rough  assessment 
here,  e.  g.,  Nicholas  at  Hayne  pays  4s.  9d..  "  consyderyng  hys  bothe 
bargayns"  (».  e.,  small  farms).  Cf.  St.  Edmund  and  St.  Thomas, 
Sarum,  Acc'ts,  p.  xviii  and  p.  317. 


yS  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [380 

We  come  now  to  Communion  Dues,  or  Collections  taken 
up  at  the  time  of  communion. 

"  Paschall  money  "  is  defined  in  a  vestry  order  of  Stepney 
parish,  London,  in  1581  as  a  duty  of  id.  paid  by  each  com- 
municant at  Easter  "  toward  the  charge  of  breade  and  wine 
over  and  besides  theyre  offering  mony  due  unto  the  vicar." 
These  paschal  dues,  the  order  further  informs  us,  had  long 
been  farmed  by  the  vicar  for  40s.  yearly.  But  now  the 
yield  of  a  penny  from  each  communicant  was  "  thought  a 
thing  so  profitable  and  beneficiall,"  that  only  as  a  special 
mark  of  favor  was  the  vicar  to  continue  to  farm  it,  but  at 
i4  thenceforth  instead  of  at  405.^^  "Easter  money,"  an 
expression  found  not  infrequently  in  the  accounts,  may  have 
referred  to  the  same  payment,  or  it  may  have  designated 
the  offering  which  generally  followed  the  celebration  of 
communion,^**  taken  up,  doubtless,  from  all  those  present, 
whether  communicating  or  not,  the  proceeds  of  which  might 
go  to  the  minister  or  to  the  parish  according  to  agreement 
or  custom. 

Though  the  Second  Edwardine  Prayer  Book  (1552)  pro- 
vided that  the  elements  were  to  be  found  by  the  curate  and 
the  wardens  at  the  expense  of  the  parish,  which  was  then 
to  be  discharged  of  fees,  or  levies  on  each  household,  never- 
theless, we  meet  with  Communion  Fees  or  with  house-to- 
house  levies  to  defray  the  cost  of  bread  and  wine  in  many 
parishes  during  Elizabeth's  reign.^"    In  order  to  ensure  pay- 

"Five  years  later,  the  vicar  dead,  the  clerk  was  ordered  to  assist 
the  wardens  in  receiving  the  '  paskall  pence '  whether  paid  at  Easter 
or  at  any  other  time  of  communion.  Hill  and  Frere,  Memorials  of 
Stepney  Parish,  4-5  and  13-14. 

'•Ordered  by  St.  Edmund's,  Sarum,  vestry  in  1628:  "that  the 
bread  and  wyne  for  the  Communion  shalbe  paid  for  by  the  auncyennt 
paymentt  of  the  halfepence,  and  yf  it  shall  com[e]  to  more  .  .  .  Jt 
shalbe  supplied  out  of  the  rest  of  the  mony  given  after  the  Co[m]- 
munion."  St.  Edmund  and  St.  Thomas  Acc'ts  {Wilts  Rec.  Soc), 
187. 

*"  These  levies  were  2jd.  on  each  householder  at  St.  Margaret, 
Lothbury,  London;  3d.  a  house  at  St.  Lawrence  Pountney,  London 
{History  of  St.  Laurence  Pountney,  by  H.  B.  Wilson  [1831],  125  flF.). 
Etc.  At  Salehurst,  Sussex,  the  fee  was  id.  a  poll  yearly,  heads  of 
households  being  empowered  in  1585  to  abate  that  sum  from  their 
servants'  wages:  Sussex  Arch.  Coll.,  xxv,  154.  At  Pittington,  Dur- 
ham, landlords  were  to  answer  for  their  cottagers  for  a  yearly  fee 
of  2d.:  Surtees  Soc,  Ixxxiv,  29   (1590).    Cf.  ibid.,  Houghton-Le- 


38 1 J  Parish  Finance.  79 

ment  of  the  communion  fee,  tokens  (or  as  we  would  say 
today,  tickets)  were  provided  in  some  parishes  which  were 
first  to  be  handed  in  before  the  ministrant  admitted  the  ap- 
pHcant  to  reception,®^ 

In  a  number  of  parishes  a  fine  wine  such  as  muscatel  or 
malmsey  was  provided  for  the  better  sort,  or  the  masters  and 
mistresses,  while  the  servants,  or  poorer  folk,  were  served 
with  claret.*^  Indeed  where  all  were  compelled  to  com- 
municate thrice  yearly  the  cost  of  wine  was  a  very  serious 
item. 

Collections  for  the  Holy  Loaf,  that  is,  blessed  but  not 
consecrated  bread,  which  went  to  defray  the  costs  of  admin- 
istering the  Eucharist,  occur  in  some  of  the  earlier  Eliza- 
bethan accounts.*'  Surplus  communion  fee  money,  or  com- 
munion offerings  were  devoted  to  the  care  of  the  poor  and 
other  expenses.** 

The  heading  Clerk's  Wages,  which  is  so  often  met  with 
in  the  wardens'  receipt  items,  frequently  serves  (as  do  sev- 
eral other  special  headings)  as  a  mere  peg  on  which  to  hang 
a  collection  for  various  or  even  for  general  parish  ex- 
penses.*' 

Spring  Acc'ts,  269.  Leverton,  Lincoln,  Acc'ts,  Archaologia,  xH,  368 
(A  penny  a  poll  for  the  elements.  1612).  In  the  Abbey  Parish 
Church  Estate  Acc'ts,  Shrewsbury,  every  "  gentleman  "  is  to  pay  6d. 
yearly  to  the  wardens  for  bread  and  wine ;  "  the  second  sorte  "  of 
the  parishioners  4d.  each ;  "  the  third  or  weaker  sorte,"  each  2d. : 
Shrop.  Arch.  Soc,  i,  65   (1603). 

"See  Great  Yarmouth  Acc'ts,  East  Anglian,  iv  (1892),  67  ff. 
(An  item  for  purchase  of  1000  tokens.  1613-14).  Also  St.  Mar- 
garet, Lothbury,  Vestry  Minute  Books,  14  (1584).  Also  Archee- 
ologia  Eeliana,  xix  (1898),  44  (Rjrton,  Durham,  Book  of  Easter 
offerings.     I59S)- 

"^St.  Edmund  and  St.  Thomas,  Sarum,  Acc'ts,  288  (Muscatel  and 
claret).  Abbey  Parish  Church  Estate  Acc'ts,  62  (same).  St.  Mar- 
tin's, Leicester,  Acc'ts  (ed.  Thos.  North),  100  (Malmsey  and  claret). 

"  Rubric  §  144  of  the  First  Edwardine  Prayer  Book  directs  that 
as  ministers  are  to  find  the  elements,  the  congregations  are  to  con- 
tribute every  Sunday  at  the  time  of  the  offertory  the  just  value  of 
the  holy  loaf.  See  E.  Freshfield,  St.  Christopher-le-Stocks  Vestry 
Minute  Book,  p.  vii,  et  passim.  Stanford,  Berks,  Acc'ts,  Antiquary, 
xvii,  s.  a.  1582  (2d.  collected  every  Sunday  for  holy  loaf).  Mere 
Acc'ts  (IVilts  Arch,  (etc.)  Mag.,  xxxv,  38),  s.  a.  1568,  et  passim. 

**J.  V.  Kitto,  St.  Martin's-in-thc-Ficlds  (London)  Acc'ts.  append. 
D.,  Vestry  Order  of  1590.  Parish  order  of  Salehurst  (1582),  Sus- 
sex Arch.  Coll.,  XXV,  153.  St.  Margaret's,  Westminster,  Overseers 
Acc'ts  in  Westminster  Tobacco  Box,  Pt.  ii,  18  (1566). 

**  E.  g.,  at  St.  Laurence  Pountney,  London,  the  "  clerk's  wages " 


8o  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [382 

Pews  and  Seats  in  Church  were  often  made  a  source  of 
revenue.  Thus  at  St.  Mary's,  Reading,  it  was  agreed  in 
1 58 1  by  the  chief  men  of  the  parish,  in  order  to  augment 
the  parish  stock  and  to  maintain  the  church,  because  "  the 
rentes  ar  very  smale,"  that  those  sitting  in  front  seats  in 
the  church  should  pay  8d.,  those  behind  them  6d.,  the  third 
row  4d.,  and  so  on,*^ 

At  St.  Dunstan's,  Stepney  parish,  London,  a  book  was 
made  by  the  wardens  "  whearein  was  expressed  the  pewes 
in  the  whole  Church,"  distinguished  by  numbers.  "  Also 
there  was  noted  against  everie  pewe  the  price  that  was 
thought  reasonable  it  shoulde  yeeld  by  the  yeare.  .  .  .  The 
w[hi]ch  rates  by  this  vestrie  is  allowed  and  confirmed  to 
be  imploied  to  the  use  of  the  parish  Church."  When  a  few 
months  later  it  was  determined  to  build  a  gallery  because 
the  congregation  needed  more  seats,  it  was  also  settled  that 
the  cost  should  be  met  by  a  year's  pew  rent  in  one  payment 
down,  over  and  besides  the  usual  quarterly  payments  for 
seats.*'  Sometimes  the  seats  were  sold  outright  and  for 
life  only.** 

amounted  in  1598  to  nearly  £30  in  the  wardens  receipt  items,  but 
in  the  expense  items  to  £8  plus  various  dues  for  lighting,  bell-ringing 
and  church-linen  washing,  in  all  £12  12s.  Wilson,  History  of  St. 
Laurence,  125.  In  the  St.  Christopher-le^tocks  Acc'ts  (ed.  E. 
Freshfield),  p.  4,  the  receipts  in  1576  for  "Clarices  wagis "  are  £9 
6s.  sd.,  but  we  read :  "  Pd.  to  J. .  M. .  Clarke  his  whole  yeares  wagis 
[etc.]  .  .  .  iij  li."  In  St.  Margaret,  Lothbury,  Vestry  Minutes  (p. 
13)  it  was  decided  in  1581  to  raise  the  "  clarkes  rolle  "  to  £8  a  year, 
but  expressly  stated  that  the  clerk  is  to  be  paid  as  before,  "but 
That  [the]  overplus  Shall  remayn  For  astocke  to  the  churche  to 
beare  owtt  such  charges  as  shalbe  nessesarye  for  the  same."  In  St. 
Bartholomew,  Exchange,  Vestry  Minutes  (ed.  E.  Freshfield)  in  1583 
it  is  agreed  (p.  27)  that  the  clerk  is  to  pay  out  of  his  wages  the 
statutory  assessment  of  2d.  weekly  on  the  parish  for  maimed  soldiers 
and  mariners.  Same  stipulation  at  St.  Alphage's,  London  Wall : 
G.  B.  Hall,  Records  of  St.  Alphage  (1882),  25  (iS94). 

^St.  Mary,  Reading,  Acc'ts  (ed.  F.  N.  &  A.  G.  C^rry),  p.  56. 

"Hill  and  Frere,  Memorials  of  Stepney,  1-3  (1580).  Later,  1606 
(P-  so),  the  same  method  was  employed  to  pay  debts  for  casting 
the  bells.  Those  not  paying  their  assessments  were  to  be  deprived 
of  their  seats  (p.  4).  Other  examples  of  raising  money  by  pew 
rents  are  Butcher,  Parish  of  Ashburton,  49  (£6  4s.  collected  "  for  the 
seat  rent".  1579-80).  St.  Christopher-le-Stocks  Vestry  Minutes,  71 
(Clerk's  wages  to    be  "  sessed  by  the  pyews"). 

*  Baker,  Mere  Acc'ts  {Wilts  Arch,  [etc.]  Mag.),  33  (i2d.  for  seats 
for  a  man  and  his  wife,  "which  before  were  his  ffather's."     1561). 


383]  Parish  Finance.  81 

Mortuary  Fees  were  a  source  of  revenue  in  almost  all 
parishes,  and  sometimes  an  important  one.^^  Consequently 
tariffs  of  fees  were  drawn  up  in  various  places.  So  much 
is  charged  for  interment  within,  so  much  for  burial  without 
the  church ;  so  much  for  a  knell  according  to  duration  and 
according  to  size  of  the  bell ;  so  much  for  the  herse — a  sort 
of  catafalque — so  much  for  the  pall,  the  fee  varying  from 
that  charged  for  "  the  best  "  to  that  charged  for  "  the  worst 
cloth  " ;  so  much  if  the  body  is  coffined  or  uncoffined,  most 
of  the  dead  being  buried  in  winding  sheets  only,  though 
the  parish  provided  a  coffin  for  the  body  to  lie  in  during 
service  in  church  and  for  removal  to  the  graveside.'"  So, 
too,  one  fee  was  charged  for  interring  a  "  great  corse,"  an- 
other for  a  "  chrisom  child. "®^    All,  in  fact,  is  tabulated 

In  a  sale  to  a  parishioner  in  1556-7  it  is  expressly  stated  that  she 
is  to  hold  the  seat  during  "here  lyfe  Accord)mge  to  the  old  usage 
of  the  parishe  " :  ibid.,  24.  At  St.  Edmund's,  Sarum,  the  sale  was 
sometimes  for  life,  sometimes  for  a  lesser  period.  A  fine  was  paid 
for  changing  a  pew,  Introd.,  p.  xxi.  Cf.  order  made  at  Chelms- 
ford in  1592,  £j.y^;r^rc/f.  5'oc.,ii,  219-20.  See  in  St.  John's,  Glaston- 
bury, Acc'ts,  Notes  and  Quer.  for  Somer.  and  Dor.,  iv,  384,  s.  a.  1574, 
and  op.  cit.,  v,  s.  a.  1588,  many  receipts  from  the  sale  of  seats.  Cf. 
Pittington  Vestry  order,  1584,  Surtees  Sac,  Ixxxiv,  13.  St.  Michael's 
in  Bedivardine  Acc'ts,  Introd.,  p.  xvi.  Fletcher,  History  of  Lough- 
borough, Acc'ts,  24  ff. 

**See,  e.  g.,  in  St.  Martin-in-the-Fields  Acc'ts,  214,  the  long  list 
of  receipts  "  for  burialls,  knylles  and  Suche  Lyke,"  s.  aa.  1563-5.  At 
St.  Edmund,  Sarum,  burials  with  christenings  and  banns  netted  £8 
5s.  2d.  in  1592-3  {Acc'ts,  141).  At  Kingston-upon-Thames  in  1579 
burials  totalled  39s.  8d. :  Surrey  Arch.  Coll.,  viii,  75.  In  St.  Michael's, 
Cornhill,  London,  Acc'ts  (ed.  W.  H.  Overall  &  A.  J.  Waterlow), 
178-9,  the  receipts  from  knells  and  peals  alone  were  44s.  8d.  in 
1589-90. 

"*J.   V.   Kitto,  St.  Martin-in-the-Fields  Acc'ts   (1901),   106,  note. 

"  One  of  the  most  systematic  tariffs  I  know  of  is  that  of  St. 
Alphage,  London  Wall  (G.  B.  Hall,  Records  of  St.  A.,  28-30)  drawn 
up  in  1613.  First  there  are  The  Parson's  dutyes  for  Parishioners, 
for  bann-askings,  weddings,  churchings,  etc.,  as  well  as  a  per- 
centage on  offerings.  Then  the  burial  fees  due  him,  without  or 
with  a  coffin,  in  churchyard  or  in  church,  etc.  Then  comes  the 
heading.  The  dutyes  belonging  to  the  Parrish  for  Parrishioners,  a 
catalogue  of  fees  for  burial  under  various  conditions.  Then  follow 
The  Parrishe's  dutyes  for  the  Bells  (knells,  peals,  with  small  or 
large  bells).  Finally,  The  Clarke  his  dutyes  for  Parishioners 
(Bann-askings,  weddings,  churchings,  grave  digging,  tolling  the 
bells  for  funerals  in  various  ways,  and  on  specified  occasions,  etc.). 
All  the  above  fees  are  doubled  in  case  of  non-parishioners.  See 
also  the  Salehurst  tariff  of  1597,  most  comprehensive  and  minute 
6 


82  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [3^4 

with  minute  precision,  the  minister  getting  certain  fees  for 
himself  alone,  and  sharing  others  with  the  parish;  and  so 
of  the  clerk  and  of  the  sexton,  if  any.  Among  other  rea- 
sons alleged  by  the  vestry  of  Stepney  parish  for  dismissing 
their  sexton  in  1601  was  because  he  made  "  composic[i]on 
with  diu[er]s  &  sundry  p  [ar]  ishoners  for  the  duties  of  the 
church  to  the  hinderannce  &  great  damage  of  the  bennefitt 
of  the  church  &  p[ar]ishoners."'*=^ 

Fees  for  Weddings,  Christenings  and  Churchdngs,  and 
for  the  ringing  of  the  bells  (at  marriages),  together  with  the 
Offerings  taken  up  on  these  occasions,  might  form  a  source 
of  revenue  to  the  parish,  either  going  directly  into  the  parish 
coffers,  or  being  paid  in  whole  or  in  part  to  minister,  clerk  or 
sexton,  who,  after  all,  had  to  be  supported  by  the  parish 
(or  otherwise),  being  essential  officers  or  servants.^' 

also :  Sussex  Arch.  Coll.,  xxv,  154-5.  Also  parish  order  in  St. 
Martin's,  Leicester,  Acc'ts  (ed.  Thos.  North),  19  and  128,  s.  aa. 
1570-1  and  1584-5,  as  to  duties  for  bells.  These  are  regulated 
according  to  the  rank  of  the  person.  St.  Margaret,  Lothbury, 
Vestry  Min.,  2  (Order  regulating  fees  for  "weddinges,  cristeings, 
churchinges  and  berrialls "  of  1571).  See  also  the  tariff  of  St 
Edmund,  Sarum  {Acc'ts,  194),  of  1608. 

For  receipt  items  for  palls  in  the  acc'ts,  see  St.  Martin's-in-the- 
Fields  Acc'ts,  317  (1580),  where  "best  cloth"  nets  2od.  on  each 
occasion,  the  "  worst "  but  2d.  See  also  Stepney  vestry  regulation 
of  1602  concerning  fees  to  be  paid  for  palls:  Memorials  of  Stepney, 
41-2. 

For  expenses  for  making  parish  coffins  see  St.  Martin's-in-the- 
Fields  Acc'ts,  s.  a.  1546.  Cf.  St.  Edmund  and  St.  Thomas.  Sarum, 
Acc'ts,  introd.,  p.  xx.  St.  Helen,  Bishopsgate,  Acc'ts  (ed.  J.  E. 
Cox),  103  (Ordinance  of  1564  that  those  buried  within  the  church 
are  to  be  confined).  Also  the  other  acc'ts  supra.  At  St.  Edmund, 
Sarum,  the  wardens  sold  tombstones  for  the  benefit  of  the  parish 
(Acc'ts,  125.     1587-8). 

"Memorials  of  Stepney,  39-40. 

■"See  W.  G.  D.  Fletcher,  Hist,  of  Loughborough  (Acc'ts").  24: 
an  order  regulating  fees  for  marriage  peals  in  1588.  In  St.  Edmund, 
Sarum,  Acc'ts,  127,  are  receipt  items,  being  money  turned  over  to 
the  wardens  by  the  sexton,  for  banns,  christenings,  etc.  Cf.  Introd. 
to  St.  Edmund  and  St.  Thomas,  Sarum,  Acc'ts,  p.  xix.  Cf.  also  St. 
Laurence  Pountney  Acc'ts  (Wilson,  Hist,  of  St.  L.),  124  (A  mar- 
riage offering  going  to  the  parish.  1582).  Usually  marriage  and 
churching  dues  went  to  minister  and  clerk  (see  tariffs,  p.  221 
supra).  Chrisoms,  1.  e.,  white  robes  put  on  children  when  baptized, 
and  given  as  an  offering  at  churching,  occasionally  figure  in  the 
wardens'  receipt  items.  See,  e.  g.,  J.  E.  Foster,  St.  Mary  the  Great 
(Cambridge)  Acc'ts,  156  (1565-7),  et  passim.  St.  Thomas,  Sarum,, 
Acc'ts,  282  (Chrisoms  farmed  out  by  the  parish  in  1562-3.    In  1567-8 


385]  Parish  Finance.  83 

The  parish  poor  and  the  parish  church  derived  an  uncer- 
tain, but  by  no  means  negligible,  income  from  the  product 
of  Fines  for  various  Delinquencies. 

In  the  previous  chapter  fines  for  non-attendance  at 
church  have  been  alluded  to.'*  A  contemporary,  writing  in 
1597,  refers  to  these  as  an  important  fund  for  the  support 
of  the  poor  if  duly  levied.  He  writes :  "  Whereunto  [he 
is  speaking  of  various  means  to  alleviate  poverty]  if  we 
adde  the  forfaiture  of  12  pence  for  euerie  householders 
absence  from  Church  (man  and  woman)  forenoone  and 
after,  Sunday  and  holiday  (according  to  the  statute  without 
sufficient  cause  alledged)  to  be  duely  collected  by  Church- 
wardens and  other  appointed  to  that  end,  with  the  like  re- 
gard for  Wednesday  suppers:  there  would  be  sufficient 
releefe  for  the  poore  in  all  places.  .  .  ."" 

Ecclesiastical  courts  sometimes  condemned  offenders  to 
pay  a  fine  for  the  use  of  the  poor.**  Sometimes  they  com- 
muted a  penance  for  money  to  go  to  church-repair  or  to  the 
parish   poor,®^     The    churchwardens   or   overseers   of   the 

the  value  of  the  chrisom  oflferings  is  40s.).  See  Introd.  to  St. 
Edmund  and  St.  Thomas,  Sarum,  Acc'ts,  p.  xix. 

"  See  p.  27  supra.    Also  p.  35  supra. 

*  Provision  for  the  poore  now  in  penurie  Out  of  the  Store- 
House  of  Gods  plentie,  Explained  by  H.  A[rth],  London,  1597  (No 
pagination).  "Wednesday  suppers"  refers  to  fasting  nights  ap- 
pointed by  proclamation  or  by  statute.  A  not  uncommon  entry 
in  the  act-books  is  "  no  levy  of  the  fyne  of  I2d."  See,  e.  g.,  Man- 
chester Deanery  Visit.,  57,  et  passim.  Barnes'  Eccles.  Proc,  119, 
et  passim.  Hale,  Crim.  Prec,  passim.  Cf.  in  Bishop  Stortford 
Acc'ts  (J.  L.  Glasscock,  Rec.  of  St.  Michael,  B.  S.),  64,  the  rubric: 
"  Rec.  of  defaultes  for  absence "  (9  names  follow,  each  for  I2d., 
except  one  for  3s.).  Dean  of  York's  Visit.,  215  (Hayton  wardens 
report  to  commissary  that  they  have  a  small  sum  from  absentees  yet 
undistributed  to  the  poor:  "But  it  shalbe  shortlie  ".     1570). 

"^  See  examples  in  note  32,  pp.  19  supra. 

"Warrington  Deanery  Visit.,  189  (Penance  of  three  days 
standing  in  white  sheet  for  fornication  commuted — the  offender 
"  humiliter  petens " — to  13s.  4d.  to  be  paid  to  vicar  and  wardens 
of  Ormschurch  to  be  distributed  to  poor,  etc.).  Hale,  Crim.  Prec, 
232-3  (Commutation  of  a  penance  for  having  a  bastard  into  £5 
to  be  paid  for  the  repair  of  St.  Paul's,  London,  and  also  into 
34s.  4d.  to  be  paid  to  wardens  of  Horndon-on-the-Hill  for  the 
poor.  1606).  See  also  Chelmsford  Acc'ts,  212  (20s.  received 
in  1560  "toward  the  pavynge  of  oure  churche  for  part  of  his 
penance").  Abbey  Parish  Church  Estate  Acc'ts,  s.  a.  1578  (20s. 
received  for  a  "purgation"  to  go  to  parish  poor  and  to  church). 


84  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [386 

poor  accounts  also  mention  fines  received  for  profanation 
of  the  Sabbath  and  for  offences  during  service  time.^^  The 
Star  Chamber  often  condemned  offenders,  especially  en- 
closers  of  cottage  land  and  engrossers  of  corn,  to  fines  for 
the  benefit  of  the  poor.^^  Finally,  most  parishes  derived 
some  income  from  fining  men  various  sums  for  refusing 
parish  offices ;  for  neglect  of  duty  when  in  office ;  and  for 
not  attending  duly  called  vestry  meetings.  Sometimes  a 
parishioner  would  pay  down  a  large  lump  sum  for  exemp- 
tion forever  from  all  offices  served  by  the  parishioners.^"** 

For  regulation  of  the  practice  see  Canons  of  1585,  Cardwell,  Syn., 
i,  142.  Same,  Doc.  Ann.,  i,  415  (Whitgift's  Articles  of  1584).  The 
practice  roused  the  ire  of  Puritanical  contemporaries.  E.  g.,  Hale, 
op.  cit.,  184  (An  offender  says  to  the  court  "  that  he  is  molested 
and  called  only  for  money  &  that  the  word  of  God  doth  allowe 
noe  money  for  absolution  [etc.]  .  .  . ".  1584).  Ibid.,  187  (An 
offender  says  to  the  archdeacon's  registrar :  "  Yo\i  daube  upp  ad- 
dultories  and  whoredomes  for  monye".  1585).  Stubbes,  Anatomic 
of  Abuses  (ed.  1595),  66  (Ecclesiastical  hierarchy  should  beware 
of  maintaining  stews,  etc.). 

"  For  some  interesting  receipt  items  see  The  Westminster 
Tobacco  Box,  Pt.  ii.  Overseers  Acc'ts,  18  ff.  (Fines  in  1569  from 
a  player  beating  a  drum  in  service  time;  for  selling  coals  on 
Candlemas  day;  for  selling  wood  on  Sunday;  for  driving  a  cart 
on  that  day,  etc.  In  1570  fines  are  received  for  retailing  during 
service  time,  from  proceeds  of  forfeitures  of  pots  and  dishes,  etc., 
etc.).  Wandsworth  Acc'ts,  Surrey  Arch.  Coll.,  xviii,  146  (Receipts 
for  1599  from  fines  for  bricklaying  on  Sunday;  for  being  in  ale- 
house at  service  time — a  number). 

"See  John  Hawarde,  Les  Reportes  del  Cases  in  Camera  Stellata, 
1593-1609  ed.  W.  P.  Baildon  (1894),  passim.  E.  g.,  p.  91 
(Offender  fined  £10  to  use  of  poor  for  not  laying  sufficient  ground 
to  his  cottages).  Ibid.  (Ed.  Framingham,  of  Norfolk,  fined  £4.0 
to  use  of  poor  for  same  offence.  Oct.  14th,  1597).  Ibid.,  71 
(Council  commend  a  justice  of  the  peace  for  condemning  a 
Wilts  engrosser  to  sell  his  corn  to  the  poor  8d.  under  the  price 
he  paid  for  it). 

^°*  Some  examples  taken  from  many  are  North,  St.  Martin,  Lei- 
cester, Acc'ts,  119  (Agreement  in  1571  by  mayor  and  brethren  to 
fine  one  refusing  to  be  warden  for  the  first  year  los.  to  the  use 
of  the  church).  Ibid.,  142  (This  fine  raised  in  1600  to  20s.).  St. 
Edmund  and  St.  Thomas,  Sarum,  Acc'ts,  Introd.,  p.  xi,  and  St. 
Edmund's  Acc'ts,  121,  129.  Mere  Acc'ts,  26  (Parish  order  of  1556- 
7).  St.  Margaret,  Lothbury,  Minutes,  33  (An  offer  from  a  pa- 
rishioner in  1595  of  £10  for  church  repair,  "  condicynellie  that  the 
parish  wowld  dispence  with  him  for  the  church  warden.  Officers 
and  cunstable  ...").  Ibid.,  36  and  45  (Two  parishioners  each 
pay  £10,  being  exempted  thereafter  "from  all  services  as  Con- 
stableshipp,  Churchwarden,  syde  men  and  any  other  offices  what- 
soever that  the  parish  myght  .  .  .  hereafter  Impose  uppon  them 
.  .  .  ".     1607).    Memorials   of  Stepney,  44    (Fine   for   not  attend- 


387]  Parish  Finance.  85 

Yet  another  irregular  but  appreciable  means  of  revenue 
might  be  classed  under  the  heading  of  Miscellaneous 
Receipts. 

As  the  parishioners  were  always  eager  to  turn  an  honest 
penny  for  their  own  benefit,  no  possible  source  of  receipts 
was  neglected.  If,  for  instance,  any  part  of  the  church  or 
the  church  premises  might,  temporarily  or  permanently,  be 
rented  out  without  drawing  upon  the  community  the  cen- 
sure of  the  ordinary,  the  parishioners  were  happy  to  do  so. 
Owners  of  structures  of  any  kind  encroaching  upon  the 
churchyard,  or  other  church  land,  were  promptly  made  to 
pay  for  the  privilege.^"^  Occasionally  parishes  derived 
more  or  less  large  sums  from  the  sale  of  parish  valuables. 
The  sale  of  costly  vestments,  embroideries,  hangings,  im- 
ages, chalices,  pyxes  and  other  church  furnishings  and 
ornaments  condemned  as  superstitious  by  the  Anglican 
church,  brought  some  income  to  the  wardens  of  most  pa- 
rishes during  the  first  years  of  Elizabeth.  Examples  will 
be  found  in  all  the  accounts.  Now  and  then,  too,  a  parish 
would  make  a  large  sum  from  the  sale  of  the  wood  or  other 

ing  vestry.  1602).  Clifton  Antiq.  Club,  i  (1888),  198  (4od.  fine  for 
absence  from  St.  Stephen's,  Bristol,  vestry,  1524.  For  other  fines, 
see  ibid.).  Clifton  Antiq.  Club,  i,  195  (Same  fine  for  absence  from 
St.  Thomas',  Bristol,  vestry.  1579).  St.  Margaret,  Lothbury,  Min- 
utes, passim  (Fines  for  not  accounting  on  a  certain  day,  and  for  not 
auditing  accounts). 

"'Examples  are  found  in  W.  F.  Cobb,  St.  Ethelburga-zvithin- 
Bishopsgate,  London,  Acc'ts,  5  (los.  received  of  a  schoolmaster 
allowed  to  keep  school  in  the  belfry.  1589).  Ibid.,  same  p. 
("Receaved  of  the  owte  cryar  for  a  quarters  rente  for  settynge 
of  goodes  at  the  churche  doore  .  .  .  iiis.  iiijd  ..."  1585). 
The  canons  of  1571  forbid  this  practice:  " Non  patientur  [sc.  the 
wardens]  ut  quisquam  ex  .  .  .  istis  .  .  .  sordidis  mcrcatoribus 
.  .  .  quos  .  .  .  pcdularios  [peddlars]  appellant,  proponant  mcrces 
suas  vet  in  coemeteriis  vel  in  porticibus  ecclesiarum  [etc.]  .  .  .", 
Cardwell,  Syn.,  i,  124.  St.  Michael's,  Lewes,  Acc'ts,  Susscv  Arch. 
Coll.,  xlv  (1902),  40,  60  ("Reed  for  sarttayn  standyngs  agaynst 
the  cherche  at  Whytson  fayar  xvd."  1588).  Similar  items  to  the 
last  are  found  in  many  accounts.  See  also  St.  Mary  the  Great, 
Cambridge,  Acc'ts,  215  (Receipt  items  "  for  the  chirch  style  before 
his  house";  for  the  rent  of  the  "p[ar]ishe  ground  wherevpon  his 
chymney  standythe".  1588).  Ibid.,  203  ("Yt  ys  also  agreyd  that 
goodman  Tomson  shall  from  hence  forthe  paye  vnto  the  p[ar]yshe 
for  hys  byldynge  into  the  Churche  yarde  I2d.  by  the  yeare."     1584). 


86  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [388 

products  of  parish  lands.^**^  A  fairly  common  item  in  city- 
parishes  especially  were  fees  paid  for  licences  to  eat  flesh 
during  Lent  and  on  other  legal  fast  days.^°^ 

Wlien  an  Elizabethan  parish  undertook  some  work  on  a 
great  scale,  such  as  the  rebuilding  of  its  church,  or  of  the 
church  steeple ;  or,  again,  when  it  had  suffered  great  losses 
by  fire  or  flood,  it  solicited  through  Begging  Proctors  the 
Contributions  of  Outsiders,  sometimes  from  all  parts  of 
England."* 

To  terminate  our  enumeration  of  means  of  raising  money, 
or  of  contributions  of  all  sorts  on  which  the  wardens  could 
count  (as  apart  from  rates,  properly  so-called),  we  might 
mention  Fixed  Contributions,  of  money  or  of  labor,  issuing 
out  of  certain  tenements ;  and  Annual  Payments  to  Mother 
Churches.  Certain  lands  or  houses,  generally  abutting  on 
the  church  grounds,  had  fixed  upon  them  the  obligation  to 
repair  a  certain  portion  of  the  churchyard  enclosure,  Tene- 

^"Thus  in  1561  Kingston-upon-Thames  church  sold  brushwood 
growing  upon  its  land  for  £14  7s.  8d. :  Surrey  Arch.  Coll.,  viii,  77. 
In  1573  the  wardens  of  St.  Michael's  in  Bedwardine  (Acc'ts  ed. 
John  Amphlett,  p.  74)  brought  a  suit  for  the  value  of  eight  trees 
sold  to  one  Lode,  alleging  that  the  defendant  had  promised  to  pay 
the  price  "  for  the  reparacions  of  the  .  .  .  church  and  reliff  of  the 
pore  ..." 

"*  For  the  form  and  wording  of  such  a  licence  see  Parish  Registers 
and  Documents  of  Kingston-upon-Thames,  etc. :  Surrey  Arch.  Coll., 
ii  (1864),  92  (1591).  The  fee  according  to  royal  proclamation  was 
6s.  8d. :  St.  Margaret,  Lothbury,  Vestry  Minutes,  9.  For  receipts 
from  this  source  see  St.  Ethelburga-within-Bishopsgate  Acc'ts,  S, 
et  passim,  as  well  as  the  other  London  acc'ts  already  cited.  Cf. 
Cardwell,  Doc.  Ann.,  i,  370-2,  for  Council's  letter  to  the  archbishop 
of  Canterbury  on  the  observance  of  Ember  Days  and  Lent. 

^"£.  g.,  see  in  St.  Mary  the  Great,  Cambridge,  Acc'ts,  227-9  and 
240-2,  long  lists  of  persons  from  all  parts  of  England  who  con- 
tributed in  the  years  1592-4  towards  the  rebuilding  of  St.  Mary's 
steeple.  A  host  of  proctors  licenced  under  the  broad  seal,  or  by 
the  justices  of  the  peace,  or  otherwise,  went  from  parish  to  parish 
soliciting  contributions  for  churches,  alms-houses,  hospitals,  etc. 
They  seem  to  have  entered  parish  churches  at  service  time  and 
disturbed  or  annoyed  the  congregations.  This  probably  led  to  the 
parish  order  of  Mere,  Wilts  {Mere  Acc'ts,  p.  80,  in  Wilts  Arch. 
[etc.]  Mag.),  which  in  1585  forbade  such  persons  going  about  the 
parish  or  entering  the  church,  but  enjoined  them  all  to  repair  to  the 
Mere  churchwardens  for  contributions  to  be  given  at  the  expense 
of  the  parish. 


389]  Parish  Finance.  87 

ment  X,  so  many  feet  of  fence,  Tenement  Y,  such  a  portion 
of  brick  or  stone  wall,  and  so  forth.^"' 

Sometimes  also  certain  houses  or  lands  are  spoken  of  as 
yielding  so  much  a  year  for  the  repair  of  the  church  and 
the  support  of  the  poor/*"  Incidentally  we  might  mention 
— though  hardly  connected  with  parish  finance — certain 
payments  for  church  repair,  etc.,  claimed  of  old  by  some 
cathedral  churches  from  the  parishes  of  the  diocese.  Orig- 
inally a  tax  varying  from  a  farthing  to  a  penny  for  each 
household  (hence  the  names  "  smoke  farthings,"  "  hearth 
penny,"  "  smoke  silver  "),  the  payments  were  commuted  for 
a  small  lump  sum  exacted  yearly.  Thus  we  find  in  the 
Elizabethan  accounts  mention  of  "  St.  Swithin  farthings  ;"^**^ 
of  "Ely  farthings ;"^08  ^f  "Lincoln  farthings,"^°»  etc., 
according  to  the  name  of  the  cathedral  to  which  they  were 
paid ;  or,  again,  of  "  Whitsun  farthings ;"  of  "  Pentecost 
farthings,"  etc.,  according  to  the  time  of  the  year  at  which 
the  payments  were  made.""  These  payments  must  not  be 
confused  with  "  Peter's  pence,"  which  had  before  the  Ref- 
ormation been  paid  by  English  parishes  to  Rome.^^^ 

'"'At  Winshatn,  Somerset,  a  document  was  drawn  up  in  1581, 
apportioning  among  certain  parishioners  (by  virtue  of  their  hold- 
ings), the  vicar,  and  finally  the  whole  parish,  how  many  feet  of 
wattled  fence  each  should  keep  in  repair,  or  what  stiles  each  was 
to  maintain :  Notes  and  Quer.  for  Somer.  and  Dor.,  v,  538.  See  a 
sirnilar  agreement  in  Morebath  (Devon)  Acc'ts,  38.  Also  in  Marsh, 
Hist,  of  Calne,  372,  the  list  at  Calne.  Here  are  25  groups  of  houses 
and  certain  individuals  charged  with  making  and  keeping  the  church- 
yard bounds.  See  also  Canterbury  Visit.,  xxv,  34  (Suit  brought 
before  the  archdeacon  against  the  tenant  of  a  holdmg  whose  former 
owners  had  for  40  years  repaired  a  portion  of  the  church  fence. 
1611).  For  presentments  to  the  courts  Christian  for  non-repair  of 
church  fence  by  individuals,  see  Dean  of  York's  Visit.,  214,  228, 
325  (1570-1599). 

''*•  Canterbury  Visit.,  xxv,  26  (A  parishioner  of  Heme  presented 
for  withholding  9s.,  "  which  hath  always  been  accustomed  to  be  paid 
out  of  a  certain  house  and  lands."    1592). 

"'  Early  History  of  Kingston-upon-Thames,  Surrey  Arch.  Coll., 
viii,  74. 

'"*  St.  Mary  the  Great  Acc'ts,  148. 

^"^  Hist,  and  Antiq.  of  Leicestershire,  by  John  Nichols  (1815),  i, 
Pt.  ii,  569  ff. 

""  See  in  T.  Nash,  Hist,  and  Antiq.  of  Worcestershire,  i,  pp.  lii-lvi, 
a  long  list  of  Pentecost,  etc.,  farthings  paid  by  each  parish  of  the 
diocese  in  lump  sums  varying  from  3d.  to  3s. 

^^ Morebath  Acc'ts  (ed.  Binney),  34,  s.  a.  1531,  seem  to  offer  a 


88  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [390 

Lastly  the  mother  parish  church,  in  large  parishes  requir- 
ing chapels  of  ease,  would  exact  (when  it  could)  contribu- 
tions from  those  congregations  who  frequented  for  ordi- 
nary divine  worship  these  chapels  of  ease  within  the  parish. 
And  these  exactions  would  be  made  irrespective  of  the  fact 
that  these  congregations  were  bound  to  repair  their  own 
chapels  and  possessed  their  own  churchwardens.^^^ 

When  the  means  or  expedients  we  have  hitherto  set  forth 
were  found  insufficient,  or  impracticable,  or  too  tardy  for 
an  emergency,  the  parish  was  compelled  to  resort  to  Rates 
or  Assessments. 

Assessments  were  levied  in  all  sorts  of  ways  and  for  all 
sorts  of  purposes.  In  an  emergency,  or  if  the  sum  to  be 
raised  was  not  large,  a  levy  might  be  made  by  the  principal 
men  of  the  parish  upon  themselves  only.^^^  A  "  rate " 
might,  however,  be  made  to  collect  a  very  small  sum,  as 
well  as  a  very  large  one."*  All  kinds  of  units  or  rules  of 
assessment  were  resorted  to  from  parish  to  parish,  and 
(apparently)    sometimes  no  fixed  unit  at  all  was  taken, 

genuine  example  of  such  a  payment  of  Peter's  pence.  But  the 
Minchinhampton  wardens  (Acc'ts  in  Archceologia,  xxxv,  422  ff.), 
confuse  their  payments  to  the  mother  church,  made  in  1575  ff., 
with  Peter's  pence.  See,  e.  g.,  s.  a.  1575,  the  entry :  "  to  the  sumner 
[or  apparitor]  for  peterpence  or  smoke  farthynges  sometyme  due 
to  the  Anthecriste  of  roome  .  .  .  xd." 

"^  See,  e.  g.,  Sam'l.  Barfield,  Thatcham,  Berks,  and  its  Manors,  ii, 
122  (Midgham  and  Greenham  called  upon  against  their  will  for 
contributions  to  mother  church).  Surtees  Soc,  Ixxxiv,  123  (Dis- 
pute ending  in  a  suit  between  St.  Oswald  and  St.  Margaret.  1595 
flF.).  Memorials  of  Stepney,  1-2  (Parishioners  of  Stratford  Bow 
forced  to  contribute  to  St.  Dunstan's,  the  mother  church). 

"'£.  g.,  the  vestry  of  St.  Christopher-le-Stocks,  London  {Minutes, 
ed  E.  Freshfield) ,  agree  to  cess  "  the  parishioners  "  for  money  to 
prosecute  a  suit  for  certain  parish  lands  in  158!.  When  the  lands 
were  recovered  each  was  to  have  his  money  back  {Minutes,  p.  12). 
But  those  assessed  numbered  only  38  (p.  13),  whereas  we  see  by  a 
list  (p.  12)  that  43  persons  were  here  assessed  for  the  Queen's  sub- 
sidy; and  subsidy  men  were  the  wealthier  men  of  the  parishes.  Cf. 
assessment  at  Lapworth  for  Barford  bridge  levied  on  26  tenements, 
cottagers  not  being  assessed.  Hudson,  Memorials  of  a  Warwick- 
shire Parish,   115. 

"*  Hale,  Crim.  Prec.,  198  (One  Spencer  presented  for  not  paying 
his  proportion  for  the  ringing  on  the  Queen's  anniversary,  "  being 
rated  at  iiijd.").  Hudson,  op.  cit.  supra  (Barford  bridge  assessment 
of  4s.  4d.  spread  out  over  26  tenements). 


39 1  ]  Parish  Finance.  89 

men's  ability  to  pay  being  roughly  gauged,  or  a  man  being 
permitted  to  rate  himself,^"  or  give  his  "  benevolence." 

In  the  wardens'  accounts  are  frequently  seen  long  lists 
of  names,  each  being  taxed  at  a  sum  varying  from  J^d.  to 
three  or  four  shillings.  Such  lists  may  represent  an  at- 
tempt to  tax  each  man  at  j^d.  or  id.  in  the  pound,  or, 
likely  as  not,  it  may  merely  mean  a  crude  sizing  up  of  the 
ability  of  each  to  contribute. 

Furthermore,  a  "  rate  "  might  consist  in  a  fixed  sum,  the 
same  for  all,  and  levied  by  polls  or  by  households,^^'  say  id. 
or  2d.  each.  Or,  again,  it  might  be  levied  by  pews  at  vary- 
ing sums.^^^  Assessments  to  pay  the  parish  clerk  or  sexton 
might  sometimes  be  made  in  kind,  and  issue  from  house- 
holds, from  cottages,  or  from  ploughlands:  so  much  com 
at  Easter,  so  much  bread,  so  many  eggs."* 

When  it  came  to  the  more  accurate  basing  of  rates  upon 
lands,  or  goods  at  a  valuation,  the  inhabitants  of  the  various 
communities  observed  no  uniform  ratio  of  taxation  from 
parish  to  parish,  nor  even  in  the  same  parish,  and  disputes 
were  always  recurring.*^® 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  parish  financiering  was 
largely  of  the  hand-to-mouth  variety.    Indeed,  it  was  diffi- 

^"  Canterbury  Visit.,  xxvii,  214  (John  Basset  "cessed"  at  2d.  a 
quarter,  but  thought  well  able  to  pay  3d.  for  the  clerk's  wages. 
Robert  Sawyer,  ditto.  1577).  St.  Margaret,  Lothhury,  Minutes, 
16  (ed.  E.  Freshfield),  where  in  1584  thirty-four  parishioners  make 
a  "  free  oflFer "  of  sums  from  2d.  to  6s.  8d.  to  pay  a  lecturer. 
Ibid.,  10  (18  parishioners  give  from  id.  to  £2  towards  the  erecting 
of  a  clock.     1577). 

"'Rates  for  bread  and  wine  were  commonly  so  levied.  See 
supra,  p.  78  and  note  80. 

"'  See  p.  80  supra  and  note  87. 

"* Houghton-le- Spring  Acc'ts,  Surtees  Sac,  Ixxxiv,  271  (1596). 
Binney,  Morebath  Acc'ts,  34  (1531).    Ibid.,  85  (1536). 

^"£.  g..  See  Hale,  Churchwardens'  Prec,  passim,  e.  g.,  where  the 
parishioners  of  Elstree  ("  Idlestrye"),  Herts,  cannot  agree  in  1588, 
some  contending  for  assessment  "  by  their  welthe  and  goods  only, 
and  some  others  do  require  that  the  taxation  might  be  made  by 
the  acres  of  grounde  only."  Canterbury  Visit.,  xxvii,  218  (2d.  an 
acre).  Ibid.,  xxv,  42  (4d.  an  acre).  Ibid.,  xxvi,  33  (Ploughland 
of  140  acres  paying  6s.  8d.  for  clerk's  wages).  Ibid.,  xxv,  Zi  (Two 
"cesses"  at  Minster  church,  one  at  20d.  the  score  [of  pounds?], 
the  other  at  I2d.).  The  Reliquary,  xxv,  18  (Levy  made  in  Morton, 
Derbysh.,  of  8d.  the  oxgang  of  15  acres). 


go  The  Elizabethan  Parish.  [392 

cult  it  should  be  otherwise,  for  the  exigencies  of  the  civil 
or  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  were  constantly  shifting, 
now  a  petty  lump  sum  being  required  (and  to  be  spent  as 
soon  as  raised),  now  a  great  one  to  be  disbursed  in  the  same 
manner. 

In  conclusion,  a  few  observations  on  the  parish  as  a  finan- 
cial unit  in  connection  with  county  government  may  be 
made.  There  seems  to  have  been  no  general  treasury  at  the 
disposal  of  the  hundred  or  of  the  county,  but  merely  certain 
treasurers  charged  with  the  disbursement  of  this  or  that 
special  collection  for  this  or  that  special  purpose.  A  collec- 
tion is  made  by  order  of  the  justices,  for  instance,  in  certain 
hundreds,  or  throughout  the  shire,  for  the  support  of  the 
prisoners  in  the  county  gaol,  and  a  treasurer  for  the  fund  is 
appointed.  Or  it  may  be  that  this  treasurer  is  a  more  or  less 
permanent  official.  And  so  with  collections  for  hospitals, 
for  houses  of  correction,  for  great  bridges,  etc.  If  the 
constables  levied  more  than  was  sufficient  for  a  parish,  or  if 
the  contemplated  disbursement  turned  out  to  be  less  than 
originally  estimated,  the  surplus,  if  the  justices  had  no  im- 
mediate use  for  it,  might  be  returned  to  that  parish  to  go 
back  into  the  pockets  of  the  rate  payers.^^"  Furthermore,  it 
seems  scarcely  accurate  in  Elizabethan  times  to  speak  of  any 
county  rate,^^^  for  there  was  no  recognized  basis  of  assess- 

"^  Order  of  Wiltshire  justices,  Michaelmas,  1600,  that  three  of 
their  number  shall  call  certain  constables  and  others  before  them, 
"  and  examine  them  what  overplus  of  money  is  remaining  in  their 
hands  w[hi]ch  they  have  collected  of  their  hundredes  for  anie 
service  whatsoever,  and  if  there  be  anie  founde  remayning  the  said 
Justice  to  distribute  the  same  amongst  the  inhabitants  of  the  same 
hundredes  according  to  their  discretion." '  Rec.  of  Wilts  Quarter 
Sess.  in  Wilts  Arch,  (etc.)  Mag.,  xxi,  85. 

"^According  to  the  22  Hen.  VIII  c.  5,  where  it  cannot  be  known 
who  ought  of  right  to  repair  a  bridge,  the  justices  of  the  district 
shall  call  before  them  the  constables  of  the  parishes  of  the  sur- 
rounding hundreds,  or  of  the  whole  shire,  and  "  with  the  assent 
of  the  .  .  .  constables  or  [chief]  inhabitants,"  tax  every  inhabitant 
of  the  towns  and  parishes  of  the  shire  (if  necessary).  This  looks 
like  a  county  bridge  tax,  but  in  practice  the  justices  either  threw 
a  lump  sum  on  a  hundred,  or  on  a  parish,  and  left  each  parish  to 
raise  this  sum  according  to  local  rating.  Such,  at  least,  would 
seem  to  be  the  usual  practice  according  to  the  churchwardens  ac- 
counts, which  contain  many  lump  payments  made  to  constables  for 
bridges. 


393]  Parish  Finance.  91 

ment  common  to  all  parishes,  unless  it  were  at  any  given 
time  the  then  prevailing  subsidy  rate,  and  a  rating  according 
to  the  subsidy  books  by  the  justices  would  fail  to  reach  many 
whom  a  parish  rating  might  attain.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
the  justices,  when  they  had  a  large  sum  to  levy  on  the  county 
at  large,  almost  always  apportioned  it  in  lump  sums  among 
the  hundreds,  or  among  the  parishes  of  their  respective 
divisions,  according  to  "  the  bygnes  or  smallnes  of  their 
parishes."^^^  It  comes,  then,  to  all  practical  intents  and 
purposes  to  this :  that  each  parish  is  left  to  produce  accord- 
ing to  its  own  local  methods,  or  rating,  the  wherewithal  for 
carrying  on  county  government. 

While  in  local  government  itself  the  parishioners  have 
practically  no  voice,  the  large  measure  of  freedom  they  en- 
joy for  the  devising  of  ways  and  means  to  meet  the  de- 
mands made  upon  them  (though  they  have  no  option  what- 
ever in  granting  or  withholding  supplies)  g^ves  to  the  parish 
a  vigorous  entity  and  a  certain  autonomous  life  of  its  own, 
which  otherwise  it  never  could  have  possessed  over  against 
the  all-regulating  and  inquisitorial  Tudor  machinery  of 
Church  and  State. 

As  the  reign  advanced  the  parish  developed  a  selfish, 
jealous  and  exclusive  gild  life  of  its  own,  especially  under 
the  operation  of  the  poor  laws. 

Non-parishioners,  or  "  foreigners,"  were  viewed  with  the 
strongest  suspicion.  Generally  they  were  discriminated 
against  if  they  happened  to  have  dealings  with  the  parish. 
Wedding  or  funeral  fees  were  doubled  in  their  cases.^*'  If 
the  parishioners  could  have  had  their  will  no  alien  poor  could 
have  gained  a  settlement  amongst  them — no,  not  even  after 
twenty  years'  residence.  In  1598  the  West  Riding,  York- 
shire, justices  were  compelled  to  interfere  in  favor  of  divers 

""See  Wilts  justices  order,  20  Eliz.,  Wilts  Arch,  (etc.)  Mag.,  xxi, 
80-1.  Cf.  ibid.,  16,  the  appeal  of  Hilprington  and  Whaddon  that 
they  have  been  compelled  by  the  inhabitants  of  Melkesham  to  pay  a 
third  part  with  the  last  named  parish  of  these  lump  assessments, 
though  the  acreage  of  Melkesham  is  much  greater  than  either  of 
theirs,  "  and  far  better  ground." 

'^  See  p.  8r,  note  91  supra. 


92  The  Elisahethan  Parish.  [394 

poor  persons  in  various  parishes,  where  officers  were  seek- 
ing to  expel  them  as  vagrants  bom  elsewhere,  though  they 
had  been  domiciled  in  their  adopted  communities  for  twenty 
years  and  upwards.^^* 

Already  that  "  organized  hypocrisy,"  so  characteristic  of 
parish  life  in  later  reigns,  shows  itself  in  the  many  present- 
ments of,  and  petitions  against,  persons  supposedly  immoral 
— especially  single  women.  Not  zeal  for  morality  prompts 
these  indictments,  but  fear  that  the  community  may  have  to 
support  illegitimate  children.^-®  Quite  typical  of  the  times 
is  the  language  held  by  the  inhabitants  of  Castle  Combe  in 
appealing  to  the  Wiltshire  justices  against  a  townwoman  in 
1606.  They  are  apprehensive,  they  say,  lest  "  by  this  licen- 
tious life  of  hers  not  only  God's  wrath  may  be  powered 
downe  uppon  us  .  .  .  but  also  hir  evill  example  may  so 
greatly  corrupt  others  than  great  and  extraordinary  charge 
.  .  .  may  be  imposed  uppon  us."^-^ 

Few  laws  on  the  statute  book  were  so  frequently  enforced 
as  the  31  Eliz.  c.  7,  which  required  four  acres  to  be  laid  to 
every  cottage  to  be  constructed,  for  there  was  a  powerful 
local  backing  behind  the  law.  When  John  Fletcher,  "  a 
meere  stranger  lately  come  into  this  Parish  with  his  wife 
and  children,"  took  certain  parcels  of  land  in  Severn  Stoke 
in  1593,  and  was  suspected  of  the  intention  to  build  a  cottage 
without  laying  to  it  the  requisite  number  of  acres,  the 
parishioners  immediately  complained  to  the  Worcester  jus- 

^John  Lister,  West  Riding  Session  Rolls,  85.  As  early  as  14 
Eliz.  c.  5,  sec.  17,  city  or  parish  officers  might  remove  alien  poor 
to  their  places  of  birth,  if  such  aliens  had  resided  in  their  adopted 
parishes  not  longer  than  three  years. 

"*!.  W.  Willis  Bund.  Cal.  Worcester  Quar.  Sess.  Rec,  i,  p. 
clxxxii.  The  appearance  of  a  bastard  was  a  portentous  event.  See 
the  many  ridings  to  and  fro  across  country  to  ecclesiastical  and 
civil  magistrates  in  the  Ashburton  Acc'ts  (Butcher,  The  Parish 
of  Ashburton),  p.  47  (1576-7).  The  Devonshire  justices  order, 
Easter  1598,  that  every  woman  who  shall  have  a  bastard  child  shall 
be  whipped :  Hamilton,  Quarter  Session  from  Eliz.  to  Anne,  32.  CI. 
the  item :  "  paide  for  carriage  of  an  Irish  woman  into  Fynsburie 
feildes  who  was  delivered  of  a  childe  under  the  stockes."  Brooke 
and  Hallen,  St.  Mary  Woolnoth  and  St.' Mary  Woolchurch  Haw 
(London)  Acc'ts,  s.  a.  1587. 

"•Wilts  Quart.  Sess.  in  Wilts  Arch,  (etc.)  Mag.,  xxii,  17. 


395]  Parish  Finance.  93 

tices,  for  they  wanted  to  provide  against  the  contingent  lia- 
bility of  having  to  support  the  inmates.^-^  Four  acres  was 
then  the  quantity  considered  necessary  to  maintain  a  man 
and  his  family.  It  was  an  indictable  offence  to  sublet,  for 
then  there  would  be  two  families  where  only  one  was  before. 
Nor  could  lodgers  be  taken,  for  such  increase  of  the  inmates 
of  the  house  would  surcharge  the  land.^-* 

In  short,  that  feeling  of  distrust  and  discrimination 
against  the  outside  world,  which,  in  the  i8th  century,  led  a 
Lancashire  vestry  to  dub  all  outsiders  "  foreig^ers,"^^"  is  al- 
ready fully  developed  by  the  end  of  the  i6th  century.  But 
we  must  also  recognize  that  this  feeling  engendered  in  the 
parish  itself  solidarity  of  interests,  close  fellowship  and 
local  spirit. 

"*  Willis  Bund,  he.  cit.  supra,  p.  8.  From  1599  to  1642  there  were 
twenty-four  indictments  for  not  laying  four  acres  to  a  cottage  at  the 
Worcester  sessions.  Ibid.,  Table  of  indictments  for  all  offences, 
p.  Ivii  ff.  Cf.  Wilts  Quarter  Sess.  Rec.  in  Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep. 
on  Var.  Coll.,  i  (1901),  66.  W.  J.  Hardy,  Herts  Co.  Rec.  Sess.  Rolls 
(1905),  i,  5,  et  passim.  Norfolk  Archaology,  x  (1888),  159.  Les 
Re  partes  del  Cases  in  Camera  Stellata  (ed.  W.  P.  Baildon),  passim. 

'^  Bund,  loe.  eit.,  p.  clxxxiii. 

"'Geo.  A.  Wade,  An  English  Town  that  is  still  ruled  by  an 
Oligarchy  (Dalton-in-Fumess),  Engl.  Illust.  Mag.,  xxv  (1901). 


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ADMINISTBATION E.  T.  Millw 

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Political   Economy   and   Business   Economy:    Com- 
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