CHAPTER VI
PAROCHIAL FINANCE
In view of the many expenses which devolved upon the wardens in the working of a mediæval parish, it is important to try to understand how they were able to raise the necessary funds. In the first place, of course, it must be understood that the churchwardens had nothing to do with the tithes—that is, with the regular charge on the produce of the land, which was from the first intended for the support of the clergy, for the poor, and for the maintenance of the chancel portion of the church’s fabric. These were received in due course, according to the law, by the parson, or vicar, or by their agent, without any reference to the popular representatives of the parish as such, and except for an occasional donation from the priest to the common fund for some special purpose, the parish exchequer took nothing whatever from the tithe due to the clergyman.
The methods by which the people of a parish raised money for their works were many and various, and some of them curious; some few of them must needs be touched upon briefly in any account of the life of a mediæval parish. In the first place, then, may be mentioned the occasional voluntary assessment of the people of a parish, according to their possessions, sometimes called “setts,” or “cess.” This, however, was not a very common way of raising money, and recourse was had to it, apparently, only in the case of extraordinary repairs upon the church becoming necessary. From the many examples that are to be found in the extant accounts, the voluntary rate was evidently difficult to enforce, especially when the amount claimed had, more or less, to be proportioned to the property of individuals. Still, in some places, it was clearly very successful as a means of raising money; as, for instance, at Wigtoft, in Lincolnshire, where, in 1525, the accounts show that the church was completely repaired by money obtained by a voluntary rate. Here a list of eighty-six inhabitants is given, who are assessed at sums varying from 1d. to 3s. 4d. Although the unequal incidence of the tax was evidently admitted by all, it was apparently held that when the parish had made the rate, its vote was binding upon every one. At St. Dunstan’s, Canterbury, in 1485, a church rate, or “cess,” produced £4 5s. 1½d., in sums varying from John Roper’s 6s. 8d. to Richard Crane’s 4d.; whilst at the same time extra “gifts of devotion” are recorded of sums varying from ½d. to 4d. Between 1504 and 1508 another parish “cess,” in the same place, produced nearly £6.
Closely allied to a parochial rate, although not so universal, nor, of course, possessing the binding force of a public assessment, were joint voluntary gifts for special purposes. Something in the way of decoration, or of a bell, a window, a vestment, or a piece of plate was wanted, and the people, as one account expresses it, immediately “drew themselves together” to pay for it, or to purchase it. For instance, at Morebath, a small uplandish parish in Somerset, on the borders of Devon, in 1538-9, some of the inhabitants bought a new cope for their church at the cost of £3 6s. 8d. From 1528, also, in the same place, the vicar gave up his rights over certain tithes of wool to add to the sum then being collected to purchase a “new suit of black vestments.” It is perhaps worth noting that these were only obtained for £6 5s. in 1547, just before the alterations in religion made them useless.
Towards the end of the fifteenth century a change is noticeable in the accounts of the churchwardens. It evidently became more and more common for them to possess lands, and to have houses left to them, as trustees of the parish; the revenues of these were used only for parochial purposes, and mainly, perhaps, for the upkeep of lights and the celebration of anniversaries. Running through all the wills of this period, too, is a manifestation of the same spirit of devotion to the parochial churches, with which the donors had been connected during life, and the same eager desire to leave something in money or in kind to them is everywhere seen. These naturally, if not by express desire, came into the charge and guardianship, not of the parson of the place, but of the people’s wardens, who were responsible for the Church goods.
Instances of such gifts are so numerous that the selection of examples is rendered almost impossible, and they are taken here almost at haphazard. At Woodchurch, in Cheshire, in 1525, one James Godyker left to the wardens of his parish church 20 marks to buy twenty bullocks to be let for the purpose of bringing sufficient revenue to find an extra priest. In Nottingham, a shop in “Shoemakers row” was left to sustain a lamp; in other places in that county there are “divers lands to pay an extra priest, who has also a house;” “money is bequeathed to be distributed unto the poore yerly;” “arable land was given for a light;” “medow land for a lamp;” a “stock of 5 sheep, valued at 2s. 8d. each, and one cow valued at 8s.;” “two stocks of money 10s. and 26s. 8d. in the tenure of Robert Braunesby, Edward Dawson,” etc., and “20s. in the tenure of Richard Blank—the interest being 4d. on every noble,” etc.
Then collections were made by the assent of the parish at various times and in different ways. Thus The Early History of the Town and Port of Hedon, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, shows the wardens of St. James’ making collections in the town for church purposes three times a year. At the feast of St. Mary Magdalene they themselves collected both through the town and in the fair, like the wardens of St. Augustine’s. On the feast of St. John, during Christmas week, boys were sent round with collecting bags, and each boy received 1d. for his pains. In the parish of St. Augustine’s, in the same place, there were many receipts from these collections, such as: “collections in the city, 5s.;” “in the church on the feast of the Circumcision, 10s.;” “on St. Mary Magdalene’s day, with relics in the city, 15s.;” “on all Sundays with the tabula, 8s.” This last form of collecting seems to have been very popular at Hedon and elsewhere, and probably refers to the method of carrying round some holy picture to excite the devotion and generosity of the people. In the same way, and with the same end, in numberless places relics of the saints were taken about by the collectors for the reverence of the faithful. At St. Dunstan’s, Canterbury, the outdoor collections were made by members of the various brotherhoods, which, to the number of eight or nine, were attached to the church. In the same way the parish cross, which may be considered to be the corporation banner of the parishioners, was carried round the city or district to remind the people of their duty to assist in the corporate work and to stimulate their devotion.
The times for making regular collections naturally varied in different places. In the church of St. Helen’s, Worcester, for instance, there seem to have been three yearly collections for general church purposes, namely: Lux fulgebit Sunday (Christmas), Paschaltide, and the “standing afore the church at the Fayre.” These regular days did not, of course, interfere with other special collections in the same parish, as “for St. Katherine’s light,” “our Lady light,” “the Clerke’s money,” “Peter’s farthings,” etc. At St. Edmund and St. Thomas, Salisbury, special collections were made for the fabric on every Good Friday and Easter day. On the latter day, in one year in this parish, £2 10s. 1½d. were contributed to the “font taper,” which would appear from other accounts to be the name for the penny given by each man, and the halfpenny given by each woman, who communicated on Easter day—a contribution which was prohibited by some bishops, as likely to be misunderstood. With this view, the payment was ordered to be transferred till the Sunday following the Easter Communion.
Collections for specific objects are, perhaps, the most common in all parochial accounts. In one, the holy water vat for the asperges and the thurible are said to have been purchased by collections “made by boys of the parish.” In another, that of St. Mary-at-Hill, such collections were very constant; money for “candlesilver” was regular, and for such objects as the new “Rood loft,” etc., frequent. At St. Petrock’s, Exeter, in 1427, there was an agreement made as to the candle money, which in those days was obviously a constant and a heavy expense in every parish. It was to this effect—
“Ordinans made by the eight men for gatheryn to the waxe sylver kep to the lighte beforr the high-cross, whyche saye is, that every man and hys wyffe to the waxe shall paye yerely one peny, and every hired servant that taketh wages a hallfe peny, and every other persons at Ester, takyn no wage, a farthyng.”
Sometimes the wardens placed a collecting-box in the church to receive general offerings towards parochial expenses. This seems to have led at times to difficulties with the parson, and at one time it was prohibited. Bishop Quevil, of Exeter, for example, says that the practice introduced into some parishes of putting a box, either into the church or outside, to gather alms, has led “to contentions between the rector and his parishioners.” Some of the latter have further declared that “it was a better almsdeed to put money into the common box than to give it to the priest,” and in this way the priests do not get their accustomed offerings. They do not, for instance, get from the laity their donations towards the candles on the Feast of the Purification and other feasts of the year, “according to laudable custom,” but these gifts go into the hands of the wardens “for a light before the great crucifix, etc.” The bishop consequently orders that all such collecting-boxes be removed from the churches or cemeteries of his diocese at once.
ALMS BOX, BLYTHBURGH, SUFFOLK
Regular Sunday collections were made in certain places for the wants of the parish. The Hythe churchwardens, although depending mainly upon gifts and legacies for the money necessary to satisfy their obligations, had public collections on twenty-six Sundays in the year. The people were apparently few, and the collections did not produce much; the total being only 34s. 4d. for the six months, and the individual collection varying from 6d. to 1s. 6d.; except on Easter Sunday, when the collectors seem to have gathered 10s. 6d. In 1498 the parochial needs at Leverton, in Lincolnshire, became so great that the two wardens, Christopher Pyckyll and Robert Tayler, made an appeal at “ye gathering of the townschyp and in the kyrke,” with the result that they collected the sum of £4 13s. 10d. for the building of the steeple.
One of the most regular sources of parochial receipt was the fee for burial in the church or churchyard. To judge from several entries in various accounts, the cost of opening a grave in the nave of the church was 6s. 8d., which belonged to the parish. Thus at St. Mary’s, Cambridge, in 1515, in the churchwardens’ receipts there are two such items, one for the burial of Calo Fremeston, and the other for that of a “Mr. Wise.” In London, as we might perhaps expect, the fee was greater; in fact, in the accounts of St. Mary-at-Hill, in 1522-3, among the “Casuell Resceites” are entered those “for the buryall of John Colers in the chirche, 13s.; for the buryall of William Holyngworthi’s child, 2s.; for the buryall of a stranger in the great churchyard, 12d.; for the buryall of a priest in the pardon churchyard, 2s.; for the buryall of Robert Hikman in St. Ann’s Chapel, 13s. 4d.” This same year a regular table of “fees to be paid” to the parish for burials in the church, churchyard, or pardon-churchyard attached to the church of St. Mary’s was drawn up. From this we learn that for every grave opened, in either of the two chapels of St. Stephen and St. Katherine, 13s. 4d. was to be paid: for every man, woman, and child buried “without the choir door of any of the said chapels ... unto the west door of the aisle going south or north,” 10s. was to be paid; and for any burial “from the cross aisle to the west end of the church,” 6s. 8d. The price of the ground thus varied according to the position, and similarly the clerk’s fee varied for breaking the ground: it was 3s. 8d. in the first case, 2s. 6d. in the second, and 1s. 8d. in the third. These payments, of course, had nothing to do with the fee of the clergyman: this was fixed at 1d. as a minimum, but generally more was given according to the means of the family. The smallness of the fee may perhaps be explained by the English custom of “mortuaries,” that is, the gift of the best or second best possession of the deceased to the church.
“In some places (says Bracton) the church has the best beast, or the second or the third best, and in some places nothing; and therefore the custom of the place is to be considered ... and although no one is bound to give anything to the church for burial, nevertheless, where the laudable custom exists the Lord the Pope does not wish to break through it.”
Immediately connected with the subject of burials were two practices, which brought some additions to the parochial exchequer. The first was the custom of special payments made for the use of the best cross, etc., if the parish was possessed of one. It would seem that generally, besides the processional cross, every parish had a second cross used at funerals, but occasionally they had either purchased or in some way become possessed of a more magnificent and elaborate crucifix. For the use of this last the wardens as a rule made a charge, and this payment brought some money into the common purse. Thus the churchwardens’ accounts of St. Ewen’s, Bristol, show that, about the middle of the fifteenth century, the parish made a precious crucifix of this kind. People contributed all manner of broken silver and jewels for the work, and all sorts and conditions of men and women gave of their riches or their poverty to it. Alice Sylkwoman, for instance, gave a ring, and Thomas Fisher an old spoon, etc. When the work of art was finished it was weighed before the parson and the parishioners, and, not counting the bar of iron in its centre, it was found to be 116 ounces of “clere sylver and gold.” No sooner was it made than it was arranged to charge a special fee for its use, and in 1459-60 one of the parishioners, “Thomas Phelyp, barber,” paid the fee “for the best cross at his Wyf’s buryeng.”
In the same way the churchwardens appear to have let out the bier and lights to be used at funerals for the payment of a fee. The parish lights especially are very frequently named in the accounts of the churchwardens; although not infrequently the torches were furnished by the various guilds, the members of which had sometimes the right of hiring them for the burials of friends. In this way, to take but one example, the wardens of the parish of Ashburton in 1523-24 let out “the best cross and parish tapers” to a neighbouring parish, and received 21s. 8d. for the transaction; a very notable addition to the parochial income. Parishioners also paid for the use of the parish cross and candlesticks at funerals in their own church. In the same way, the vestments and plate and hangings were lent for a payment to other parishes for a great funeral or festival. In the accounts of St. Mary-at-Hill, for instance, 4s. 8d. were paid by “the churchwardens of All Hallows in Lombard Street for hyryng of the church stuffe.”
A further source of income was found towards the beginning of the sixteenth century when the letting of pews or seats in the church became a custom. The revenue from this was always successfully claimed by the wardens in behalf of the parishioners, on the ground, no doubt, that the nave of the church where these seats had been erected was their property, and that the fee for the exclusive right of any special portion belonged to them, on the same principle as the money for the sale of any particular part for a grave. This practice of letting pews for the use of individuals has already been sufficiently illustrated by examples.
The practice of leaving sums of money by will to the wardens for definite purposes was almost universal in the last half of the fifteenth century and at the beginning of the sixteenth. In the accounts of St. Mary-at-Hill, in London, are to be found such entries as: “Received of William Blase, Barbowrez (i.e. the barber’s) wife, for painting of an image of Our Lady within the Church—20d.,” and many other examples have previously been given of sums left by deceased parishioners for special work in their parish churches, such as the erection or adornment of the rood or its loft. Bishop Hobhouse has noticed in the Somerset churchwardens’ accounts that there was hardly any conceivable kind of property that was not handed over to the wardens for church purposes, either to produce income by being leased out, or to be sold for the benefit of the common exchequer. Live stock of every sort is represented—cows, oxen for ploughing, rams, sheep, lambs, bees, cocks and hens, geese, and even pigs are named. At Morebath almost every altar had its endowment of sheep, and at St. Mary’s, in the city of Bath, there was a little flock managed by the wardens. In the former small parish there were no fewer than eight different accounts kept, and “a supernumerary body” of from three to nine parishioners were added to the wardens “as controllers of the parish stock.” At Bromley, Margaret White, widow, who died in June, 1538, by her will gave to the church one hive of bees to support the light of All Hallows, one hive to support the light of the Sepulchre, and a third to the light of St. Anthony. Also to the keeping of her obit she gave two kine, and directed that the obit should be kept “out of the increase of the said kine,” and her name placed on the bede-roll, and that Mass be said and bread and cheese and drink given to four poor people.
In other places gifts in kind appropriate to the locality, such as malt, barley, wheat, etc., appear on the roll of accounts. At Walberswick, in Suffolk, in 1451, one Thomas Comber handed over to the people’s wardens 2500 herrings; another gave a set of fishing-nets. At Wigtoft, a village near Boston, “a long-ladder” was given to the church; whilst in the same place a parishioner, named Peter Saltweller, paid a yearly rent of 1s. 4d. for a “salt pan,” or pit for making salt, which had been given to the church.
Many of the gifts in kind were, of course, sold. Thus, for the Walberswick herrings the wardens obtained 1s., and the set of fishing-nets brought in no less than 8s. 6d. In the same parish, in 1500, one John Almyngham left by will, dated October 7, a sum, large in those days, of £20 to his parish church. Ten pounds were to be expended by the wardens in purchasing “a peyer of organys.” “Item with the residue,” he says, “I will a canopy over the High Auter well done with Our Lady and four angels, and the Holy Ghost (probably a dove to contain the Blessed Sacrament) going up and down with a chain.”
In 1483-4 the parishioners of St. Edmund’s and St. Thomas’s, Salisbury, contributed all kinds of articles to be the common goods of the parish, or else to be sold for what they would fetch. From the wife of a barber in the city there is recorded the present of “a brass dish and a plate.” At another time, “for writing the names in the book,” or bede-roll, one William Dyngyn gave to the wardens “a red girdle” ornamented “with silver and gold.” One of the favourite gifts at this time for people to make to their churches was “a set of beads,” or, to call it by the modern name, “a rosary.” Again and again this kind of gift is recorded, and so also is the sale of the same for the benefit of the common purse. For example, in the accounts of St. Mary the Great, Cambridge, may be seen numerous instances of this. In 1540, for example, there is entered the following—“memorandum: that at the feast of St. John the Baptist ... a pair of silver beads and two other pair of corall, gauded with silver, were sold by the churchwardens to James, goldsmith of Saint Benet’s parish ... by the consent of most part of the parishioners.” “Item the collar of baudryk of gold, having 9 links enamelled of gold, with the ouche of St. Nicholas and little monstre or Relic of St. Nicholas’ oil, is taken from the custody of the churchwardens to be sold at Stourbridge fair by agreement and consent also of the parishioners.” At Walberswick, to turn again to that parish for an example, in 1498 the wardens acknowledge the receipt of 4s. 4d. for “a pair of beads that were Margaret Middleton’s.” So, too, at Pilton, in Somerset, in 1515, one of the parishioners paid the churchwardens 10d. for a set of beads, which had been given them to dispose of; and at Yatton another pair “of amber” were sold for 7d., which was credited to the common stock.
It is well to note, however, that gifts made for some special purpose, for a particular altar, or statue, etc., were not disposed of in the way described above, but were preserved, and the names of the donors were kept alive by means of the bede-rolls, which will be subsequently spoken about. What apparently the parishioners held that they had a right to sell for the common good of the parish, were gifts made with the donor’s expressed or implied intention that this should be done; and goods, plate, or vestments, which had been previously purchased by the parish, and which, as was held in those days, certainly could be sold to purchase other goods or ornaments, or to carry out some necessary parochial work.
Goods of all kinds, given for a special purpose and held by the churchwardens as trustees, were protected by ecclesiastical legislation. The Synod of Exeter, for example, in 1287, orders the wardens to keep all such presents in careful custody, to produce them when called upon by authority, and not to turn them to any other use than that for which they were originally given. This applies, the Constitution declares, to the revenues of chantries and altars, and even to the lights provided for them, and this property may never be alienated, except in case of some great necessity, when the leave of the archdeacon, or at any rate of the rector, must be first obtained.
The names of some few other parish collections may here be usefully recorded. Dowelling, or dwelling-house money, was a tax or rate levied for parochial purposes on each household—a church rate, in fact. This assessment was sometimes known as smoke-money, or smoke-farthing, meaning the contribution made from each family hearth or house. Sometimes this was evidently known as Pentecostal, and it then referred to the offerings made by the parishioners at Whitsuntide to the parish priest. “Pentecostal oblations,” varying in amount from 1s. to 1s. 4d., are entered for many years in the churchwardens’ accounts of Aldworth, Berks. “Smoke-money,” or “smoke-silver,” is said also to have been a money payment made to the parson in lieu of a tithe of wood; but the name certainly appears in some churchwardens’ accounts as a contribution to the parish, and not to the priest. For instance, at Bromley, in 1527-8, “smoke-farthings” produced 14s. for the common parochial purse, and “dowelling-money” 9s. 3d. At Laverton, in Lincolnshire, each householder apparently gave 1½d. as his share of “smoke-money;” and at St. Edmund’s and St. Thomas’s, Salisbury, the tax was known as “smoke-silver,” or “smoke-farthings.”
At Easter time the churchwardens had to collect “Peter’s pence,” “Rome fardynges,” “Rome’s scot,” or “Peter farthings,” the contribution from each household to the Pope. It is well to remark, however, that it is obvious, from the accounts of this contribution to be found, that not more than 50 per cent. of the amount collected ever found its way into the papal coffers. The wardens collected the money and paid it to the archdeacon at the time of visitation. At St. Mary the Great, Cambridge, for example, they paid “at ye visytacion, for Rome Fardynges 22½d.” Great care was taken to secure the punctual payment of these dues to the Holy See, and warnings were issued when the parish was in arrears. For continual neglect to pay it was punished with interdict.
Lastly, there was another very general form of collection made by the churchwardens, called variously “wax-silver,” “candle-silver,” “Easter money,” or “Paschal money.” These were payments made in many parishes towards the annual expenses of the parish in finding candles and lamps to burn in the churches. In some places the amount paid by each parishioner was ½d. Besides the above, there were various forms of contribution in different places; as, for example, special payments for “the holy loaf,” or blessed bread. An examination of the various extant churchwardens’ accounts will show that these officials were never at a loss to obtain money from their fellow-parishioners when they needed it for any special purpose. One great resource, which apparently never failed them, took the form of social meetings at the Church House, or elsewhere; but as to these gatherings more will have to be said in a subsequent chapter.