VIGILIÆ MORTUORUM.
XV. CENT. MS., EGERTON, 1070, f. 54 v.
Ralph Lord Cromwell, making his will in 1457, desired that his body should be buried in Tattershall Church, which he had rebuilt and made Collegiate,[524] and that three thousand masses should be said for his soul.
John Prestecote, 1411-1412 [seems to be a clergyman], leaves stock to churchwardens of several parishes to maintain his anniversary for ever, and anniversaries of others; leaves his best silver-covered cup to the Prioress of Polslo Convent, to remain in that house for ever, and be called by his name “Prestcote” in his memory.[525]
1503. Agnes Walworth leaves to the Church of St. Peter a cup of silver gilt, and to be prayed for in the Bead Roll for one whole year.[526]
1508. Wm. Harcote leaves his body to be buried in St. Peter’s Churchyard, and money to purchase a cross, according to the cross of St. Nicholas in the churchyard, to stand over his grave.[527]
1509. Wm. Plesyngton orders his body to be buried in St. Peter’s Churchyard; a barrel of beer, with bread,[528] to be given in the church at his cost to the poor of the parish; Sir Jeffrey, his ghostly father, to say a trental of masses for his soul in St. Peter’s Church, and to be paid 5s.[529]
Here are some curiosities on the subject—
Dame Eliz. Bourchier, in 1499, leaves “xx marcs for a yearly obit, at St. Dunstan’s in the East, if the parson and parishioners will have it; if not, at some other church; and each of her servants, men and women, dwelling with her at the time of death, to have a convenient black gown to pray for her soul.”[530]
In 1452, Thomas of Beckington, Bishop of Bath and Wells, consecrated a tomb which he had made for himself, and said mass, in full pontificals, for his own soul, for the souls of his parents, and all the faithful departed, in the presence of a vast congregation.[531]
The Commonalty of Oxford was required to found an anniversary for the souls of the clerks and others, about forty in number, killed in a Town and Gown riot on St. Scholastica’s Day, 1354, and to make an offering, to be distributed 1d. to each of forty poor scholars, and the rest to St. Mary’s Church. It was continued down to the Reformation.[532]