[413] Neander’s “Church History,” vii. 403 and 399.
[414] Lynwoode’s “Provinciale,” p. 133.
[415] e.g. the valuation, in the “Valor Ecclesiasticus,” of the Carmelites of Lynn is a clear income of 35s. 8d.; of the Dominicans, 18s.; of the Austin Friars, 24s. 6d. (“Valor Eccl.,” iii. 397, 398). At Northampton the rent fetched by the whole friary, with the friar’s house and garden, is £10 10s.; of the Franciscans, £6 17s. 4d.; of the Dominicans, £5 7s. 10d. (“Valor Eccl.,” v. 318).
[416] Except the trinoda necessitas.
[417] As a consequence of the Scottish Wars, the northern province was so harried and impoverished that the clergy were unable to pay the tenths demanded, and a new taxation of part of the Province was made in 1318.
[418] St. Botolph, Colchester.
[419] See [Appendix II.]
[420] The Bishop of Oxford says the whole number of parish churches in the Middle Ages was not much over 8000 (“Const. Hist.,” iii. p. 396). There have been very erroneous estimates current. The Parliament of 1371 granted to the king a sum of £50,000, to be raised by contribution of 22s. 3d. from each parish, there being, according to the common opinion, 40,000 parishes in England. On this the Bishop of Oxford makes a note (“Const. Hist.,” ii. 459) that it is an illustration of the absolute untrustworthiness of mediæval figures, which, even when most circumstantially minute, cannot be accepted, except where as in the public accounts vouchers can be quoted. The returns to a writ issued by the king to the local authorities of each shire to certify the number of parishes in it, showed that there were only 8669. Stow, in his “Annals,” p. 268, gives the returns in extenso. The anonymous author of the famous libel, “A Supplication for Beggars,” says there are within the realm of England 52,000 parish churches. Maskell, in his “Monumenta Ritualia,” I. ccij, mentions several MSS. in the British Museum which contain memoranda on the subject, Royal 8 B xv., Royal 8 D iv., Titus D 3. In the first, in a fifteenth-century handwriting, is a note sunt in Regno Angliæ Ecclesiæ parochiales, 46,100.
[421] In 1371 the smaller benefices and chantries were taxed by the king (Stowe, “Annales,” p. 268).
[422] The following are the details for the several dioceses (except Durham and Chester):—