MARIGMERII—MELINGLERII—BEREFELLARII.
(Vol. vii., p. 207.)
P. C. S. S. has ascertained that all the barbarous terms mediævally applied to certain classes of the inferior clergy, and referred to by Mr. Jebb (antè, p. 207.), are explained in the Glossarium of Ducange. They are identical in meaning and derivation, though slightly differing in point of spelling, with "Marigmerii" and "Melinglerii" (cited by Mr. Jebb), "Marellarii," "Meragalarii," and "Malingrerii," and are all to be found in the learned work to which reference is now made. Of the last of these words, Pirri himself (who is quoted by Mr. Jebb) gives the explanation, which is equally applicable to them all. He says (in Archiepisc. Messan., sub an. 1347):
"Malingrerium, olim dictum qui hodie Sacrista est."
Ducange also thus explains the cognate word Marrellarius:
"Ædituus, custos ædis sacræ, vulgo Marguillier," &c.
Mr. Jebb is therefore undoubtedly right in identifying the signification of these terms with that of the French "Marguillier," the Latin phrase for which is Matricularius, so called because those officers were selected from the paupers who were admitted into the Matricula, or hospice adjoining the church or convent:
"Ex Matriculariis pauperibus quidam seligebantur ad viliora Ecclesiarum adjacentium munia, v.g. qui campanas pulsarent, ecclesiarum custodiæ invigilarent [church-wardens in the true sense of the word], eas scoparent ac mundarent. Atque inde Matriculariorum (nostris Marguillier) in ecclesiis parochialibus origo."
Of another singular word, Berefellarii, and of the adoption of Personæ instead of it, the history is very amusing, though, perhaps, scarcely fit for the pages of "N. & Q." It would seem that these inferior servitors of the church were not very cleanly in their person or habits. The English populace, by a not very delicate pun on their name, were wont to call them bewrayed fellows, the meaning of which it is not necessary farther to explain. In a letter of Thomas, Archbishop of York (preserved in Dugdale's Monasticon, tom. III. p. ii. p. 5.), the good prelate says:
"Scilicet Præcentoris, Cancellarii, et Sacristæ, ac Septem Personarum qui olim Berefellarii fuerunt nuncupati.... Sed quia eorum turpe nomen Berefellariorum, patens risui remanebat, dictos Septem de cætero non Berefellarios sed Personas volumus nuncupari."
The glossarist adds, with some naïveté:
"Cur autem ita obscæna hujusmodi iis indita appellatio, dicant Angli ipsi!"
P. C. S. S.
Mr. Jebb, in his Query respecting the exoticæ voces "Marigmerii" and "Melinglerii," seems to be right in his conjecture that they are both of them corruptions of some word answering to the French Marguillier, a churchwarden. The word in question is probably Meragularius. It appears to be a term but rarely used, and to occur but once in Martene, De Antiq. Eccl. Ritibus, tom. i. p. 233., Venice, 1783, in the conclusion of his extract "de ordinario MS. ecclesiæ Cabilonensis;" where the officer in question performs the duty of the Vestararius:
"Diaconus et Subdiaconus inter se plicant vestimenta sua, Meragularius præstat auxilium sacerdoti."
Though elsewhere Martene explains the term by "Ædituus, custos ædis."
With regard to the latter word, the meaning of which Mr. Jebb inquires, Berefellarii, I may suggest that he will find, on reading somewhat further in the archbishop's Statuta for Beverley, a further account of these same Berefellarii; which almost precludes the likelihood of a blunder in the original document, or at least of Beneficiarii being the correct word. For the archbishop, having occasion to mention them again, gives the origin of their institution:
"Quos quidem Berefellarios recolendæ memoriæ Dom. Johannes de Thoresby dudum Eborum Archiepiscopus ad honorem dictæ Ecclesiæ Beverlaci, et majorem decentiam ministrantium in eadem provincia ordinabat."
He then proceeds:
"Sed quia eorum turpe nomen Berefellariorum, patens risui remanebat, dictos Septem de cætero non Berefellarios sed Personas volumus nuncupari."
And accordingly we find them called hereafter in this document by the very indefinite appellation, Septem Personæ.
The word Berefellarii seems obviously to be of Anglo-Saxon origin; as well from the extract I have given above, as from the absence of the term in works on the continental rituals, as Martene for instance. And I would suggest, in default of a better derivation, that the word may have been Latinised from the Anglo-Saxon bere fellan or sellan. The office would then be that of almoner, and the Berefellarii would be the "persons" who doled out victuals to the poor; literally, barley-givers. Such an original would make the term liable to the objection to which the archbishop alluded; and the office does not altogether disagree with what was stated as the object of its institution, viz.:
"Ad honorem ecclesiæ Beverlaci, et majorem decentiam ministrantium in eadem."
H. C. K.
—— Rectory, Hereford.