Parish Priests and Their People in the Middle Ages in England

by Edward Lewes Cutts

The Synod of Oxford, in 1223, enjoins the clergy “not to be dumb dogs, but with salutary bark to drive away the disease of spiritual wolves from the flock.” A canon of Alexander of Stavenby, Bishop of Coventry (1224-1240), requires all clergy to address to their people assembled on the Lord’s Day or other festival the following words:—the words constitute a rhetorical sermon on the seven deadly sins. Another canon gives directions as to the mode of receiving penitents, and dealing with souls. Grostete (1235-1254) gave directions to his clergy to preach on Sundays, and gave them the heads of their teaching. In Exeter, Bishop Quivil (1280-1292) drew up a similar book for the clergy, of which he required every parish to have a copy under penalty of a fine. Bishop Brentingham, of Exeter (1370-1395), issued a mandate against intruding priests who would say low masses in parish churches on Sundays and holy days, which parishioners attended instead of the Magna Missa, and so lost the benefit of the sermon: this assumes that a sermon is preached in all parish churches on Sundays and holy days. Other diocesan bishops adopted similar methods.

Archbishop Peckham, in the Constitutions of 1281, put forth a manual of teaching on the Articles of Faith, the Ten Commandments, the Seven[211] Deadly Sins, the Seven Principal Virtues, and the Seven Sacraments, so fully and ably done that it continued to form a standard of teaching, and is constantly referred to in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It seems worth while to give it in extenso as an authentic record of the teaching of the Mediæval Church. It appears as Canon X. of the Provincial Synod of Lambeth, 1281, and begins with this preamble—

The ignorance of priests precipitates the people into the pit of error, and the foolishness or rudeness of clerks, who ought to instruct the minds of the faithful in the Catholic faith, sometimes tends rather to error than to doctrine. Also some blind preachers[212] do not always visit the places which most need the light of truth, as the prophet witnesses, who says, “The children seek for bread, and there is no one to break it to them;” and another prophet cries, “The poor and needy ask for water, and their tongue is parched.” For the remedy of such mischiefs we ordain that every priest who presides over a people do four times a year, that is, once in each quarter of the year, on one or more festival days, either by himself or by another, expound to the people in popular language without any fanciful subtlety, the 14 Articles of Faith, the 10 Commandments of the Lord, the 2 Evangelical Precepts of Charity, the 7 Works of Mercy, the 7 Deadly Sins with their progeny, the 7 Principal Virtues, and the 7 Sacraments of Grace. And in order that no one may excuse himself from this on account of ignorance, though all ministers of the Church ought to know them, we have here with great brevity summed them up.

Of the Articles of Faith.—Seven of them concern the mystery of the Trinity; four of these belong to the essence of the Godhead, and the other three relate to His works. The first is the unity of the Divine Essence in three Persons of the Indivisible Trinity agreeably to this part of the Creed, “I believe in one God.” The second is to believe God the Father, begotten of none. The third is to believe the Son the only begotten, and God. The fourth is to believe the Holy Ghost to be God, neither begotten nor unbegotten, but proceeding both from the Father and the Son. The fifth article is to believe in the creation of Heaven and Earth (that is, of every visible and invisible creature) by the whole and undivided Trinity.

The sixth is the Sanctification of the Church by the Holy Ghost, and by the Sacraments of Grace, and by all those things in which the Christian Church communicates. By which is understood that the Church, with its Sacraments and discipline, is, through the Holy Ghost, sufficient for the salvation of every sinner; and that outside the Church there is no salvation. The seventh article is the consummation of the Church in eternal glory by a true resurrection of body and soul; and on the contrary is understood the eternal damnation of the lost.

Of the Seven Articles relating to the Humanity of Christ.—The first is His Incarnation, or His true assumption of human flesh of the Blessed Virgin, by the Holy Ghost. The second is the real birth of God Incarnate from the immaculate Virgin. The third is the true passion of Christ and His death upon the Cross under Pontius Pilate. The fourth is the descent of Christ in the Spirit into hell, while His body remained in the grave, for the despoiling of Tartarus. The fifth is the true Resurrection of Christ. The sixth is His Ascension to heaven. And the seventh is the most confident expectation of His coming to judgment.

Of the Ten Commandments.—Of the ten commandments of the Old Testament three relate to God, and constitute the first table; the remaining seven concern our neighbour, and are called the Commandments of the Second Table. The First Commandment is,[213] Thou shalt have no other gods before Me; by which all idolatrous worship is forbidden; and by inference all lots and incantations and superstitions[214] of letters, and such-like figments are forbidden. In the Second, where it is said, Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain, all heresy is principally condemned; and, in a secondary sense, all blasphemy, irreverent mention of the Name of God, and especially perjury. The Third Commandment, where it is said, Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day, commands Christian worship, to which clergy and laity are alike bound. But we are to understand that the obligation of rest upon the Jewish Sabbath came to an end together with the other legal ceremonies; and that under the New Testament came in the practice of Divine worship on the Lord’s day and other holy days appointed by the authority of the Church, and the manner of keeping those days is to be governed by the laws of the Church, and not by any Jewish usage.

The First Commandment of the Second Table is, Honour thy Father and Mother, in which we are explicitly commanded to honour our parents, both in temporal and in spiritual matters; but implicitly, and in a secondary sense, every man is by this commandment to be honoured according to his proper degree; not only our natural father and mother are intended, but our spiritual parents, the Bishop of the Diocese and the Priest of the Parish, may be said to be our fathers; and the Church is our Mother, who is the Mother of all the faithful. The Second precept in this division is, Thou shalt not kill; by which the unauthorized taking away any person’s life, either by consent, act, word, or encouragement, is explicitly forbidden, and implicitly every unrighteous injury to the person. They likewise who do not support the poor, they who murder a man’s reputation, are guilty of the breach of this Commandment; and so are all such as harass and distress the innocent. The Third Commandment says, Thou shalt not commit adultery. Adultery is explicitly condemned, and implicitly fornication, which is likewise explicitly forbidden in Deuteronomy xxiii., where it is said, “There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel.” But, further, the command extends by way of reduction to all instances of impurity. The Fourth Commandment declares Thou shall not steal, which explicitly condemns the clandestine conveying away another man’s property without his consent, implicitly it forbids taking what belongs to our neighbour either by fraud or violence. The Fifth Commandment is, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. This precept explicitly forbids false testimony to the damage of our neighbour; and in a secondary sense it disallows undue commendation in order to the promotion of an unworthy person. Lastly, under this command, all sort of lies, but especially those which are injurious, are condemned. The Sixth Commandment is, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house—i.e. to his injury. By this command we are implicitly forbidden to desire the real estate of our neighbour, and especially if he is a Catholic. The Seventh and last Commandment of the Table is, Thou shalt not covet his wife, nor his servant, nor his maid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is his, where the coveting of our neighbour’s stock or personal estate is forbidden.

But to these Ten Commandments the Gospel superadds two, viz. The Love of God and of our neighbour. He loves God who obeys the aforesaid Commandments more out of love than out of fear of punishment; and every one ought to love his neighbour as himself; where the particle “as” does not signify equality but similarity. So that, for example, you may love your neighbour to the same extent as you love yourself, that is for good and not for evil; and in the same way that is spiritually and not carnally; and as much as yourself, in regard to time, that is in prosperity and adversity, in health and sickness; as also as much as yourself in respect of degree, insomuch as you love each and every man more than riches; also insomuch as you love the soul of your neighbour, or his eternal salvation, more than your own earthly life, as you ought to put the life of your soul before the life of your body; also in the same kind as yourself, so that you succour all others in need as you wish to be helped in like necessity. All these things are meant when it is said “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”

Of the Seven Works of Mercy.—Six of the Seven Works of Mercy may be learned from St. Matthew’s Gospel: To feed the hungry; to give drink to the thirsty; to entertain the stranger; to clothe the naked; to visit the sick; to comfort those in prison; the seventh is gathered from Tobit—to bury the dead.