Parish Priests and Their People in the Middle Ages in England

by Edward Lewes Cutts

[557] Whitaker, “Whalley,” p. 155.

[558] Whitaker, “Craven,” p. 438.

[559] For example, the chantry chapel of Billericay, Essex, continued in this condition until Bishop Blomfield induced the trustees to surrender the chapel and the right of presentation to it to the bishop, on condition of a stipend of £120 being settled upon it from Queen Anne’s Bounty Fund.

[560] The rule of the Ludlow Gild was that, “if any of the brethren or sisters be brought to such want that they have not enough to live upon, then, once, twice, thrice, but not a fourth time, as much help shall be given them, out of the goods of the gild, as the rectors and stewards, having regard to their deserts, and to the means of the gild, shall order.... If any brother or sister be wrongfully cast into prison, the gild shall do its utmost, and spend money, to get him out.... If any fall into grievous sickness, they shall be helped, both as to their bodily needs and other wants, out of the common fund of the gild, until their health is renewed as before. If any one becomes a leper, or blind, or maimed, or smitten with any incurable disorder (which God forbid), we will that the goods of the gild shall be largely bestowed on him.... If any good girl of the gild cannot have the means found her by her father, either to go into a religious house or to marry, whichever she wishes to do, friendly and right help shall be given her out of our means, and our common chest, towards enabling her do whichever of the two she wishes.” The rules of one of the gilds in Hull enact that “inasmuch as the gild was founded to cherish kindness and love, the alderman, steward, and two helpmen in case of a quarrel between two members shall deal with the matter, and shall earnestly strive to make them agree together without any suit or delay, and so that no damage either to body or goods shall in any wise happen through the quarrel.” If the officials neglect to interpose their good offices, they are fined four pounds of wax among them; and if the disputants will not listen to them, they shall pay four pounds of wax; and, finally, all the members of the gild shall be summoned to meet, and the difficulty shall be referred to them for settlement.

[561] By the rules of the Lancaster Gild, “on the death of a member of the gild all the brethren then in the town shall come to placebo and dirge, if summoned by the bellman, or pay 2d.” “All shall go to the mass held for a dead brother or sister; each brother or sister so dying shall have at the mass on the day of burial six torches and eighteen wax-lights, and at other services two torches and four wax-lights.” “If any of the gild die outside Lancaster, within twenty miles, twelve brethren shall wind and deck the body at the cost of the gild, and if the brother or sister so dying wished to be buried where he died, the same twelve shall see that he has fitting burial there where he died.” Some of the gilds had a hearse and embroidered pall which were used at funerals of members of the gild, and sometimes let out to others.

[562] A return was made into Chancery, in the twelfth year of Richard II. (1387), of the original objects, endowments, and extent of gilds generally, and the masters and wardens; the records of more than 500 exist and form the substance of Toulmin Smith’s book on English gilds.

[563] Page’s “Yorkshire Chantries,” p. 83.

[564] See chap. xxiv. p. 417.

[565] S.P.C.K., “Worcester Diocese,” p. 138.

[566] From the “Valor Eccl.,” iii. 315, we learn that at Thetford, in Norfolk, there was a Gild of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a certain chapel in the Bayly end, with a master whose income was £6 13s. 4d., two priests with £5 6s. 8d. each, and two clerks with 20s. each.