CHAPTER X
THE PARISH PULPIT
The influence on parochial life of the Sunday sermon and what went with it can hardly be exaggerated. It was not only that it was at this time that the priest instructed his people in their faith and in the practice of their religion; but the pulpit was the means, and in those days the sole means, by which the official or quasi-official business of the place was announced to the inhabitants of a district. The great variety of matters that had necessarily to be brought to the notice of the parishioners would have all tended to make the pulpit utterances on the Sunday, in a pre-Reformation parish, both interesting and instructive. In this chapter it is proposed to illustrate some of the many features presented at the time of the Sunday sermon; and first as to the regular religious teaching of faith and morals.
The first duty of the Church, after seeing to the administration of the Sacraments and the offering of the Sacrifice of the Altar, was obviously to teach and direct its children in all matters of belief and practice. This was done from the pulpit, which was in all probability an unpretentious wooden erection, perhaps in the screen, or at the chancel arch. In one case there is given the cost of the erection of a pulpit of wood; another churchwardens’ account speaks of “clasps for” the pulpit (?), possibly hinges for the door; a third tells of “a green silk veil for the pulpit”; and a fourth of “cloth and a pillow” for it. The chief interest, however, is not in the thing itself, but in its use.
PULPIT, 1475, ST. PAUL’S, TRURO
It is impossible to think that Chaucer’s typical priest was a mere creation of his imagination. The picture must have had its counterpart in numberless parishes in England in the fourteenth century. This is how the poet’s priest is described:—
“A good man was ther of religioun,
And was a poure parsoun of a town;
But riche he was of holy thought and werk.
He was also a lerned man, a clerk,
That Christe’s Gospel trewely wolde preche,
His parischens devoutly wolde he teche.
But Christe’s lore and His Apostles twelve
He taughte, but first he folwede it himselve.”
It will be remembered, too, that the story Chaucer makes his priest contribute to the Canterbury Tales is nothing else than an excellent and complete tract, almost certainly a translation of a Latin theological treatise, upon the Sacrament of Penance.
As a sample, however, of what is popularly believed on this subject at the present day, it is well to take the opinion of by no means an extreme party writer, Bishop Hobhouse. “Preaching,” he says, “was not a regular part of the Sunday observances as now. It was rare, but we must not conclude from the silence of our MSS. (i.e. churchwardens’ accounts) that it was never practised.” In another place he states, upon what he thinks sufficient evidence, “that there was a total absence of any system of clerical training, and that the cultivation of the conscience as the directing power of man’s soul, and the implanting of holy affections in the heart seem to have been no part of the Church’s system of guidance.” That this is certainly not a correct view as to the way in which the pastors of the parochial churches in pre-Reformation days discharged—or rather neglected—their duties, in view of the facts, appears to be certain. The grounds for this opinion are the following: for practical purposes we may divide the religious teaching, given by the clergy, into the two classes of sermons and instructions. The distinction is obvious. By the first are meant those set discourses to prove some definite theme, or expound some definite passage of Holy Scripture, or deduce the lessons to be learnt from the life of some saint. In other words, putting aside the controversial aspect, which, of course, was rare in those days, a sermon in mediæval times was much what a sermon is to-day. There was this difference, however, that in pre-Reformation days the sermon was not probably so frequent as in these modern times. Now, whatever instruction is given to the people at large is conveyed to them almost entirely in the form of set sermons, which, however admirable in themselves, seldom convey to their hearers consecutive and systematic, dogmatic and moral teaching. Mediæval methods of imparting religious knowledge were different. For the most part the priest fulfilled the duty of instructing his flock by plain, unadorned, and familiar instructions upon matters of faith and practice. These must have much more resembled our present catechetical instructions than our modern pulpit discourses. To the subject of set sermons I shall have occasion to return presently, but as vastly more important, at any rate in the opinion of our Catholic forefathers, let us first consider the question of familiar instructions. For the sake of clearness we will confine our attention to the two centuries (the fourteenth and fifteenth) previous to the great religious revolution under Henry VIII.
Before the close of the thirteenth century, namely, in A.D. 1281, Archbishop Peckham issued the celebrated Constitutions of the Synod of Oxford which are called by his name. There we find the instruction of the people legislated for minutely.
“We order,” runs the Constitution, “that every priest having the charge of a flock do, four times in each year (that is, once each quarter), on one or more solemn feast days, either himself or by some one else, instruct the people in the vulgar language, simply and without any fantastical admixture of subtle distinctions, in the articles of the Creed, the Ten Commandments, the Evangelical Precepts, the seven works of mercy, the seven deadly sins with their offshoots, the seven principal virtues, and the Seven Sacraments.”
The Synod then proceeded to set out in considerable detail each of the points upon which the people must be instructed. Now, it is obvious that if four times a year this law was complied with in the spirit in which it was given, the people were very thoroughly instructed indeed in their faith. But was this law faithfully carried out by the clergy, and rigorously enforced by the bishops in the succeeding centuries? That is the real question. I think that there is ample evidence that it was. In the first place, the Constitutions of Peckham are referred to constantly in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries as the foundation of the existing practices in the English Church. Thus, to take a few specific instances in the middle of the fourteenth century, the decree of a diocesan Synod orders—
“That all rectors, vicars, or chaplains holding ecclesiastical offices shall expound clearly and plainly to their people, on all Sundays and feast days, the Word of God and the Catholic faith of the Apostles; and that they shall diligently instruct their subjects in the articles of faith, and teach them in their native language the Apostles’ Creed, and urge them to expound it and teach the same faith to their children.”
STONE PULPIT BRACKET, WALPOLE ST. ANDREW, NORFOLK
Again, in A.D. 1357, Archbishop Thoresby, of York, anxious for the better instruction of his people, commissioned a monk of St. Mary’s, York, named Gatryke, to draw out in English an exposition of the Creed, the Commandments, the seven deadly sins, etc. This tract the archbishop, as he says in his preface, through the counsel of his clergy, sent to all his priests—
“So that each and every one, who under him had the charge of souls, do openly in English, upon Sundays teach and preach them, that they have cure of the law and the way to know God Almighty. And he commands and bids, in all that he may, that all who have keeping or cure under him, enjoin their parishioners and their subjects, that they hear and learn all these things, and oft, either rehearse them till they know them, and so teach them to their children, if they any have, when they are old enough to learn them; and that parsons and vicars and all parish priests inquire diligently of their subjects at Lent-time, when they come to shrift, whether they know these things, and if it be found that they know them not, that they enjoin them upon his behalf, and on pain of penance, to know them. And so there be none to excuse themselves through ignorance of them, our father, the Archbishop, of his goodness has ordained and bidden that they be showed openly in English amongst the flock.”
ARCHIDIACONAL VISITATION
SACRAMENT OF MATRIMONY
To take another example: the Acts of the Synod, held by Simon Langham at Ely in A.D. 1364, order that every parish priest frequently preach and expound the Ten Commandments, etc., in English (in idiomate communi), and all priests are urged to devote themselves to the study of the Sacred Scriptures, so as to be ready “to give an account of the hope and faith” that are in them. Further, they are to see that the children are taught their prayers; and even adults, when coming to confession, are to be examined as to their religious knowledge.
Even when the rise of the Lollard heretics rendered it important that some check should be given to general and unauthorized preaching, this did not interfere with the ordinary work of instruction. The orders of Archbishop Arundel in A.D. 1408, forbidding all preaching without an episcopal licence, set forth in distinct terms, that this prohibition did not apply “to the parish priests,” etc., who by the Constitutions of Archbishop Peckham were bound to instruct their people, in simple language, on all matters concerning their faith and observance. And further, in order to check the practice of treating people to such formal and set discourses, these simple and practical instructions were ordered to be adopted without delay in all parish churches.
To this testimony of the English Church as to the value attached to popular instruction may be added the authority of the Provincial Council of York, held in A.D. 1466 by Archbishop Nevill. By its decrees not only is the order as to systematic quarterly and simple instructions reiterated, but the points of the teaching are again set out by the Synod in great detail.
There is, moreover, ample evidence to convince any one who may desire to study the subject, that this duty of giving plain instructions to the people was not neglected up to the era of the Reformation itself. During the fifteenth century, manuals to assist the clergy in the performance of this obligation were multiplied in considerable numbers; which would not have been the case had the practice of frequently giving these familiar expositions fallen into abeyance. To some of these manuals it will be necessary to refer presently, but here should be noted specially the fact that one of the earliest books ever issued from an English press by Caxton, probably at the same time (A.D. 1483) as the Liber Festivalis (or book of sermons for Sundays and feast days), was a set of four lengthy discourses, published, as they expressly declare, to enable priests to fulfil the obligation imposed on them by the Constitutions of Peckham. As these were intended to take at least four Sundays, and as the whole set of instructions had to be given four times each year, it follows that at least sixteen Sundays, or a quarter of the year, were devoted to this simple and straightforward teaching of what every Christian was bound to believe and to do.
That the parish priests really did their duty in instructing their people there is evidence of another, and that an official character. The Episcopal, or Chapter Registers fortunately in some few cases contain documents recording the results of the regular Visitations of parishes. It is almost by chance, of course, that papers of this kind have been preserved. Most of them would have been destroyed as possessing little importance in the opinion of those who ransacked the archives at the time of the change of religion. The testimony of these Visitation papers as to the performance of this duty of instruction on the part of the clergy is most valuable. Hardly less important is the proof they afford of the intelligent interest taken by the lay-folk of the parish in the work, and of their capability of rationally and religiously appreciating these instructions given them by their clergy. The process of these Visitations must be understood to fully appreciate the significance of their testimony. First of all, certain of the parishioners were chosen and were examined upon oath as to the state of the parish, and as to the way in which the pastor performed his duties. As samples of these sworn depositions, what are to be found in a “Visitation of Capitular manors and estates of the Exeter diocese” may be taken; extracts from these have been printed not long ago by Prebendary Hingeston Randolph, in the Register of Bishop Stapeldon. The record of these Visitations comprises the first fifteen years of the fourteenth century; at one place, Colaton, we find the jurati depose that their parson preaches in his own way, and on the Sundays expounds the Gospels, as well as he can (quatenus novit)! He does not give them much instruction (non multum eos informat), they think, in “the articles of faith, the Ten Commandments, and the deadly sins.” At another place, the priest, one Robert Blond, “preaches, but,” as appears to the witnesses, “not sufficiently clearly;” but they add, as if conscious of some hypercriticism, that they had long been accustomed to pastors who instructed them most carefully in all that pertained to the salvation of their souls. But these are perhaps the least satisfactory cases. In most instances the priest is said to instruct his people “well” (bene), and “excellently” (optime), and the truth of the testimony appears more clearly in places where, in other things, the parish-folk do not consider that their priest was quite perfection; as, for instance, at Culmstock, where the vicar, Walter, is said to be too long over the Matins and Mass on feasts; or still more at St. Mary Church, where the people think that in looking after his worldly interests, their priest was somewhat too hard on them in matters of tithe.
The Register from which these details are taken is a mere accidental survival, but the point which it is of importance to remember is this: that during Catholic times, in the course of every few years the clergy were thus personally reported upon, so to say, to the chief pastor or his delegates, and the oaths of the witnesses is a proof of how gravely this duty was regarded. And here may be noted, in passing, a fact not realized nor even understood, namely, that one of the great differences between ecclesiastical life in the Middle Ages and modern times lies in the fact that then people had no chance “of going to sleep.” There was a regular system of periodical Visitations, and everything was brought to the test of inquiry of a most elaborate and searching kind, in which every corner, so to speak, was swept out.
In this special instance, before passing on, attention may be called to the manifest intelligence, in spiritual things, shown by these jurors—peasants and farmers—in out-of-the-way parishes of clod-hopping Devon, in the early years of the fourteenth century.
To assist priests in the preparation of these familiar discourses, manuals of all kinds were drawn up in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It is impossible here to do more than give the names of a few of the best known. They are (1) The Pars Oculi Sacerdotis, by William Pagula, or Parker. (2) The Papilla Oculi, by John de Burgo, Rector of Collingham in A.D. 1385. (3) The Regimen Animarum, compiled about 1343. (4) The Speculum Christiani, by John Walton. (5) The Flos Florum, etc. All these, and many others like them, may be called popular books of instruction. Besides these, of course, there are a multitude of theological text-books, all calculated to aid the clergy in what the great Grosseteste calls “as much a part of the cura pastoralis as the administration of the Sacraments.”
In the same way that the work of instruction proper took a fixed form, so that of preaching was fashioned on a well-understood and well-recognized model. A short exordium, following upon the chosen text of Scripture, led almost invariably to a prayer for Divine guidance and assistance, which concluded with the Pater and Ave, and only then did the preacher address himself to the development of his subject. For the most part, until comparatively recent times, which have introduced somewhat strange themes into the sacred pulpit, the sermon was based almost entirely upon the Bible, and generally upon the Gospel or other Scripture proper for the day. This practice, whilst it imbued the minds of those who listened with a thorough knowledge of the sacred writings, gives the sermons, as we read them now, so great a similarity that we are apt to regard them as generally dull and uninteresting. With rare exceptions it is clear that, in England at least, brilliant, startling, and sensational sermonizing was not regarded with favour, but, on the contrary, was looked on with suspicion, as savouring of the “treatise” or method of the schools, and founded on the practice of heretics.
Surveying the ground of parochial preaching, one or two facts seem to stand out from the background of much that is still vague and uncertain. First, it is certain that popular and vernacular teaching was by no means neglected by the parish priests in pre-Reformation pulpits. Next to this is the prominence given to homely and familiar instruction, as distinct from formal sermons, and the importance which in those days was attached to the constant reiteration of the same old, yet ever new, lessons of faith and practice. On the part of the people hearing of sermons was taught as a duty, and they had to examine their consciences as to whether they had tried to shirk the obligation. As Myrc puts it—
“Has thou wythowte devocyone
I-herde any predicacyon?
Hast thou gon or setten else where
When thou myghtest have ben there?”
Besides the sermon, which followed upon the reading or singing of the Gospel in the Mass, there were several other Sunday practices connected with the pulpit. First may be mentioned the reading of the Bede-roll. This was of two kinds, general and particular, and Dr. Rock has printed an interesting specimen of the first and several examples of the second. From the first a few quotations will make the nature and intention of the Church in the “Bidding of Bedes” quite clear. It begins—
“Masters and frendes, as for holy dayes and fasting days ye shall have none thys weke” (of course, when there were any they were named), “but ye maye doe all manner of good workes, that shall bee to the honoure of God and the profyt of your own soules. And therefore, after a laudable consuetude and lawfull custome of our mother holy Churche, ye shall knele down movyng your heartes unto Almightye God, and makyng your speciall prayers for the three estates, concerning all christian people, that is to say for the spiritualtye and temporaltie and the soules being in the paynes of purgatory.”
SACRAMENT OF CONFIRMATION
YOUTHS RECEIVING HOLY COMMUNION
Then after mentioning the Pope, the metropolitan, the bishop, and parish priests “having cure of mannes soule,” and in the “temporalty” the king, queen, and royal family, with the lords, etc., the priest from the pulpit recommended to the people’s prayers all those “that have honoured the church wyth light, lamp, vestment, or bell, or any ornaments, by the whyche the service of Almighty God is the better maintained and kept.”
After this, prayers were asked for all workers and tillers of the earth; for the fruits and for proper weather for them; for those in “debt or deadly sin,” that God may free them; for the sick and for all pilgrims; and “for women that be in our ladyes bondes, that Almighty God may send them grace, the child to receive the sacrament of baptism, and the mother purification. Also ye shall praye for the good man or woman, that this daye geveth bread to make the holy lofe, and for all those that fyrste began it, and them that longest continue.”
The priest then turned towards the altar for the Pater and Ave with the psalm Deus misereatur, etc., and these being finished, he turned once more towards the people and said—
“Thirdly, ye shall pray for your frends’ soules, as your father’s soule, your mother’s soule, your brethren’s soule, your sister’s soul, your godfather’s soule, your godmother’s soul, and for all those souls whose bones rest in this church and churchyard, ... and above all, for those soules whose names be accustomed to be rehearsed in the bederoll as I shall rehearse them unto you by the grace of God.”
Then followed the reading of the names from the bede-roll, one specimen of which has been preserved by the antiquary Hearne, and which, he says, is drawn up on a large octavo leaf of vellum, and contains merely a series of names, at the end of which is the formula: “God have mercy on these souls and of all Crystyn soules.”
This catalogue of names, sometimes called the “Dominical Roll,” was the shortened form for ordinary occasions, but on certain days, such as “All Saints’ day,” there was in the case of benefactors a longer form, which set forth the individual reasons why the people should specially remember these dead in their prayers. For entering the names on this roll, a fee was paid to the parson by the parish; thus at Laverton, in 1521, there is the entry in the churchwardens’ accounts: “Fee to William Wright, the parish priest, for entering the names of Thomas Greste, Agnes his wife, and John and William their children, on the bede-roll.”
As examples of the longer form of proclamation may be given an entry already cited on the bede-roll of St. Michael’s, Cornhill, which runs thus—
“You must pray—for Richard Atfield, sometime parish parson of this church, for he with the consent of the Bishop ordained and established Matins, High Mass, and Even-song, to be sung daily in the year 1375.”
Or the following from the Laverton account—
“The suit of red purple velvet vestments were given by Sir John Wright, parson, son of William Wright and Elizabeth, for the which you shall specially pray for the souls” of the above, etc., “and for all benefactors as well as them that be off lyve as be departed to the mercy of God, for whose lives and soules is given heyr to the honour of God, His most blessed mother our Lady Saynt Mare and all His saints being in Heaven and the blessed matron Saynte Helene—and they to be usyd at such principal feasts and times as it shall please ye curates, as long as they shall last—for all these souls and all Christian souls ye shall say one Pater noster.”
In many instances it was apparently the curate’s duty to read the parish bede-roll, and the stipend he received for performing this service was part of his benefice. In other cases, a fee was paid to the parson on the day when the roll was read. Thus at St. Mary-at-Hill, in 1490, there is a payment by the wardens, entered as follows: “Item. To Mr. John Redy for rehersyng of the bederoll, 8d.” One purpose served by thus keeping the memory of the good deeds of parishioners who had passed away, before the memory of their successors, was that it stimulated the latter to emulate the example of these benefactors. Bishop Hobhouse is obviously right when he says that popular bounty was undoubtedly elicited by hearing the names of the doers of past generous deeds read out in church on great days. All, in pre-Reformation days, appear to have been anxious, according to their means, to find a place on this roll of honour.
Very similar to this bede-roll was what was known as the “Quethe-word,” for which fees are recorded so often as having been paid. Apparently this was the announcement of the death of a parishioner made for the first time after his decease. The fee for the speaking of this “Quethe-word” was usually paid by the wardens of the parish, but possibly only when bequests had been made by the deceased to the “common stock” of the parish.
Besides this kind of Sunday notice, the pulpit was the means by which all manner of ecclesiastical or quasi-ecclesiastical business was notified. In the first place, of course, the banns of intended marriages were published on three successive Sundays and feast days. Then such warnings to parents were given as reminding them of the necessity of seeing that their children receive Confirmation, with the information that the bishop would either be in the church or in the neighbourhood at such a time. The Council of Oxford ordered that parish priests were frequently to warn parents from the pulpit about this duty of not delaying to bring up their children to the bishop.
Then there were constant appeals being made for assistance of some kind or other, generally of a public or semi-public character, supported by an indulgence, or grant of spiritual favours from the bishop. To take an example: some time about 1270, Walter Langton, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, wrote a letter on behalf of a work, for which one John Perty was collecting. John Perty was the procurator and collector of the bridge at or near Colwich, and he was trying to get money to repair, or rather to rebuild, the bridge and its chapel, and at the same time to gather sufficient endowment to maintain a priest. The bishop asks all his priests to explain the matter from their pulpits, to show that it was a work of charity, and to say that to all who contribute in any way he grants forty days of indulgence under the usual conditions.
The same bishop at another time orders all rectors and parish priests to publish “at the time of their sermons and exhortations” his indulgence to all who would visit the cathedral church of Lichfield and contribute to the building of the spires of his cathedral. Other episcopal letters, which were all to be read in the parish churches, were of a more private character. One man, for instance, had suffered great losses through a fire, which had destroyed his house; another had had his barns burned; a third had been left almost destitute by having his crops destroyed by floods; a fourth had been plundered by robbers; a fifth had suffered the loss of an arm, etc. In all such cases, if those who asked could prove that their needs were genuine, the bishop had not apparently much hesitation in granting letters of indulgence to those who would help in these Christian charities; and all such letters became matter for the Sunday parish pulpit.
Then, it was in the church that all laws, civil as well as ecclesiastical, were published. Here, too, notice of all manner of civil proceedings was made. A, for instance, had died and been laid to rest in the churchyard; it is from the pulpit of his parish church that the fact is announced that he has left B and E the executors of his will, and people are notified to send in their claims, or pay what is owing to the estate to these two. Or it may be that A has died intestate, or that those he has appointed to carry out his wishes will not do so, in which cases people are to be warned that the bishop’s official will administer the estate, and all claims are to be sent in to him.
Then all questions of social order and well-being, as well as infraction of law in the district, came before the people in some form or other in the church and from the pulpit.
“When Agnes Paston,” for example, “built a wall (across a property to which the people claimed access), it was thrown down before it was half completed, and threats of heavy amercements (says Dr. Gairdner) were addressed to her in church, and the men of Paston spoke of showing their displeasure when they went in public procession on St. Mark’s day.”
So, also, the parish priest of Standon, at the beginning of the fifteenth century, was ordered to publish an excommunication under the following circumstances: Margaret Basun, a parishioner, was charged by some people with having stolen a silver ring belonging to Alice Braymer, and with having sold it to Anne Boghley. Margaret Basun denied the truth, and was called to make canonical purgation before the bishop. She did so, and the bishop, having heard the case, declared her innocent of the charge, and ordered her innocence to be proclaimed, and an excommunication to be pronounced against those who had defamed her.
To take another sample case: a man spread false stories about the apprentices of his father, saying that they had been the thieves of some goods, etc., which had been stolen. An examination by the bishop revealed the fact that it was the accuser who was in reality the robber, and it was proved that he had made a false key, had opened his father’s chest, and taken from it money and jewels. The bishop directed that this should be told the people on the following Sunday.
Once more: a person has been much defamed in his parish by people saying he had buried a child in his back garden. He denied this charge utterly, and the denial was published to the people from the pulpit, whilst his accusers were warned to come before the bishop and oppose his purgation. Or, lastly: John Spencer, the official of the Archdeacon of Lincoln, issued a letter to be read in the parish church, in which he declares that he has had before him Alice B. and Matilda S. The former had defamed the latter by calling her a meretrix. On examination this was found to be untrue, and Matilda S. was declared innocent. Alice B. is to be compelled to cease these injuries, and to pay all the expenses.
Another set of proclamations which had to be made on the Sunday from the parish pulpit were the excommunications pronounced by the bishop or by some other authority. In the Register of Bishop Bronescombe is a document, dated November 24, 1277, pronouncing two people of good family excommunicated for living together without being rightly married. The fact is notorious, and “the keys of the Church are vilely despised,” and this contempt may be hurtful to ecclesiastical authority if allowed to continue. For this reason the bishop’s sentence of excommunication is ordered to be published in every church and chapel. A second instance may be taken from Bishop Grandisson’s Register for 1335. It appears that one John Hayward, the bailiff of Plympton Priory, for some reason not apparent, took sanctuary in the church of Sutton. Despising the sanctity of the place, some people unknown broke down the doors of the church, and, dragging the unfortunate man from his place of safety, wounded him, and even broke both his thighs. The bishop consequently orders the sentence of greater excommunication to be pronounced upon the unknown criminals, “with bell and candle,” in all churches.
Other instances of excommunications published from the church pulpit are: (1) For detaining “charters, rolls, indentures, bills, evidences, and other muniments,” which had to do with the right of a man’s succession to the estate of his father. The persons holding the documents are unknown, and so all who have them, or are assisting in concealing them, are excommunicated after fifteen days. (2) For stealing a trap to catch eels, set in a pool called in English “a leap,” and throwing it into a pool in the town of C, belonging to the Prior of O. (3) For laying violent hands on a priest, who was known to be one by his dress and tonsure. (4) For breaking into the room of Thomas, rector of a London parish. The room was, by the way, in the Campanile, and the thieves took clothes, gold, and silver to the value of 40s., etc.
As a final instance of this kind of denunciation, an incident recorded in Bishop Grandisson’s Register for 1348 may be given. There had been, the bishop says, much talk, and many complaints had reached his ears about a woman named Margery Kytel, who exercised magic arts, and was regarded as a witch. He (the bishop) had cited her to appear to answer the charge; but she had not done so. The major excommunication is ordered to be pronounced against her, and all people in every church and chapel are to be warned, under the same penalty, not to have anything to do with her, still less to consult this “phitonessa demonica.”
A further class of parish notices were the citations of principles and witnesses to ecclesiastical courts. For instance, on February 19, 1426, an order was given to the chaplain who served the chapel of Baddesley to cite those who had acted as executors of the wills of John Barkeby and Juliana Power, for having done so without the leave of the Bishop of Coventry. In answer to this, John West, Vicar of Pollesworth, certifies that he has published the citation, and that Nicholas Power, the son of the above-named Juliana, had acted as her executor and that of John Barkeby. As a second example may be given the case of a rector of a parish church in Staffordshire, who was ordered to cite two of his parishioners, Thomas Grenegore and his wife, for keeping a bad house in the parish, to appear at the prebendal church of Eccleshall on August 10, 1426, “to receive correction for the good of their souls.” Of much the same kind is the letter of William, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, in 1441, which recites that Thomas, son of Richard Tomlynson, of Marchington, in the county of Stafford, on September 6, 1420, broke into Sudbury church and stole three chalices, two vestments worth £10, one breviary, a surplice, and two curtains, the property of the churchwardens. The said Thomas, having been captured by the secular power, had been handed over to the ecclesiastical authorities, and this letter was to be published in the church of Sudbury, to summon witnesses to appear at the bishop’s court.
Connected with this phase of parochial life were the public penances which had to be performed in the parish churches. In the comparatively rare instances of people convicted as heretics, the punishment was so severe that, in these days, it must cause astonishment that they were submitted to so quietly. For such a cause the penitent had to walk barefooted and dressed only in underclothing, bearing a bundle of faggots, in the Sunday procession for three successive Sundays. During the course of the passage of the clergy and people through the churchyard, the priest was to give certain disciplines (fustigaciones), and the penitent was then to kneel at the entrance of the chancel during Mass, with the faggot in front, and holding a candle in one hand. Other public ecclesiastical punishments were hardly less severe. I. de B., for example, in the fourteenth century, was condemned to undergo six public whippings (fustigaciones) on six Sundays before the procession in his parish church, for having violently beaten a cleric. In the fifteenth century, for a grave offence a person was enjoined to go round the market-place of Marlborough on two market days nudus usque ad camisiam et braccas, and to be whipped by a priest at each corner. This kind of penance, however, was not confined to the laity. There are instances of clergy being made to do public penances even in their own parish churches. For instance, the rector of the church of O., being convicted before the bishop of a crime, was sentenced to stand bareheaded at the font for three Sundays during High Mass. He was to be vested in surplice and stole, and to read his Psalter. He was then to go as a penitential pilgrim to Lincoln, Canterbury, and Beverley, and at each to offer a candle, and to bring back a testimonial letter that this had been faithfully done.
To take one or two further examples of these public penances in church, (1) A man convicted of the sin of incontinence, which has been a scandal, is condemned to walk with bare feet and bareheaded before his parish priest in the procession on two solemn feast days. (2) A woman convicted of unchastity, publicly known, is sentenced to three fustigacions round the parish church in the usual penitential way, sola camisia duntaxat induta. She is to hold a wax candle of half a pound in weight from the beginning of Mass till the Offertory, when it is to be offered to the image in the chancel. This is to be done on three Sundays, and if the condemned refuse to undergo the punishment, she is then to be excommunicated, and is to be publicly proclaimed as such on each feast day till she repent and undergo her penance.