[194] T. Belson and J. Fowler, c. 1570, were sentenced to do penance in church for working on a Sunday (“Ecclesiastical Proceedings of the Courts of Durham” (Surtees Society), p. 105). Again, c. 1450, several persons accused of working on Sundays and saints’ days were sentenced to precede the procession as penitents, to receive two “fustigations,” and to abstain from so offending in future under a penalty of 6s. 8d. (pp. 28-30). In 1451, Isabella Hunter and Katherine Pykering were sentenced, for washing linen on the festival of St. Mary Magdalene, to receive two fustigations cum manipulo lini (p. 30).
Francis Gray was admonished to come to church on Sunday under penalty of 4d., and on the festivals under penalty of 2d., to be applied to the fabric of the church of Durham (p. 27).
The same year Thomas Kirkham and Thomas Hunter, accused of mowing a certain meadow on the festival of St. Oswald and receiving payment for it, were sentenced to precede the procession, carrying in hand a bottle of hay, to receive four fustigations, and not to offend again under penalty of 10s. (p. 32).
[195] Lyndwode says, “It maybe gathered that mass was always preceded by matins or primes” (iii. 23).
[196] This was the normal hour in the time of Gregory of Tours and of Gregory the Great.
[197] Bishop Poore, in his “Rule for Anchoresses,” advises them not to be communicated oftener than twelve times a year. The Lateran Council of 1215 ordered that every one should communicate at least once a year at Easter, and should confess at least once a year before Easter.
[198] Common.
[199] From Whitaker’s text of “Piers Ploughman’s Vision,” part ii. p. 529.
[200] Ibid. i. 104.
[201] Early English Text Society.