In the Miller’s Tale Chaucer gives us a sketch of another poor scholar of Oxford. He lodged with a carpenter, and
“A chambre had he in that hostelerie,
Alone withouten any compaynie,
Ful fetisly ’ydight with herbés sweet.”
His books great and small, and his astrological apparatus
“On shelvés couched at his beddé’s head,
His press ycovered with a falding red,
And all about there lay a gay sautrie
On which he made on nightés melodie
So swetély that all the chamber rung,
And Angelus ad Virginem he sung.”
We give a typical illustration of the class from one of the characters in a Dance of Death at the end of a Book of the Hours of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the British Museum. It is described beneath as “Un Clerc.”[259]
A Clerk.
One of this class was employed by every parish to perform certain duties on behalf of the parishioners, and to assist the clergyman in certain functions of his office. The Parish Clerk has survived the revolution which swept away the other minor ecclesiastical officials of the middle ages, and still has his legal status in the parish church. Probably many of our readers will be surprised to hear that the office is an ancient one, and will take interest in a few original extracts which throw light on the subject.
In the wills he frequently has a legacy left, together with the clergy—e.g., “Item I leave to my parish vicar iijs. iiijd. Item I leave to my parish clerk xijd. Item I leave to every chaplain present at my obsequies and mass iiijd.” (Will of John Brompton, of Beverley, merchant, 1443.)[260] Elizabeth del Hay, in 1434, leaves to “every priest ministering at my obsequies vid.; to every parish clerk iiijd.; to minor clerks to each one ijd.”[261] Hawisia Aske, of York, in 1450-1 A.D., leaves to the “parish chaplain of St. Michael iijs. iiijd.; to every chaplain of the said church xxd.; to the parish clerk of the said church xxd.; to the sub-clerk of the same church xd.”[262] John Clerk, formerly chaplain of the chapel of the Blessed Mary Magdalen, near York, in 1449, leaves to “the parish clerk of St. Olave, in the suburbs of York, xijd.; to each of the two chaplains of the said church being present at my funeral and mass iiijd.; to the parish clerk of the said church iiijd.; to the sub-clerk of the said church ijd.; among the little boys of the said church wearing surplices iiijd., to be distributed equally.”[263] These extracts serve to indicate the clerical staff of the several churches mentioned.
From other sources we learn what his duties were. In 1540 the parish of Milend, near Colchester, was presented to the archdeacon by the rector, because in the said church there was “nother clerke nor sexten to go withe him in tyme of visitacion [of the sick], nor to helpe him say masses, nor to rynge to servyce.”[264] And in 1543 the Vicar of Kelveden, Essex, complains that there is not “caryed holy water,[265] nor ryngyng to evensonge accordyng as the clerke shuld do, with other dutees to him belongyng.”[266] In the York presentations we find a similar complaint at Wyghton in 1472; they present that the parish clerk does not perform his services as he ought, because when he ought to go with the vicar to visit the sick, the clerk absents himself, and sends a boy with the vicar.[267] The clerk might be a married man, for in 1416 Thomas Curtas, parish clerk of the parish of St. Thomas the Martyr, is presented, because with his wife he has hindered, and still hinders, the parish clerk of St. Mary Bishophill, York [in which parish he seems to have lived] from entering his house on the Lord’s days with holy water, as is the custom of the city. Also it is complained that the said Thomas and his wife refuse to come to hear divine service at their parish church, and withdraw their oblations.[268] In the Royal MS., 10, E iv., is a series of illustrations of a mediæval tale, which turns on the adventures of a parish clerk, as he goes through the parish aspersing the people with holy water. Two of the pictures will suffice to show the costume and the holy water-pot and aspersoir, and to indicate how he went into all the rooms of the house—now into the kitchen sprinkling the cook, now into the hall sprinkling the lord and lady who are at breakfast. In the woodcut on p. 241, will be seen how he precedes an ecclesiastical procession, sprinkling the people on each side as he goes. The subsequent description (p. 221) of the parish clerk Absolon, by Chaucer, indicates that sometimes—perhaps on some special festivals—the clerk went about censing the people instead of sprinkling them.