Parish life in mediæval England

by Francis Aidan Gasquet

The age when the candidate for Orders could be promoted to the various steps leading to the priesthood was settled by law and custom. A boy of seven, if he showed signs of having a vocation to the sacred ministry, might be made a cleric by receiving the tonsure. In “rare instances” and under special circumstances he might then receive an ecclesiastical benefice, and so get the wherewith to live while he was studying to fulfil the duties attached to his office. In the course of the next seven years the youth could be given the minor Orders of “doorkeeper,” “lector,” “exorcist,” and “acolyte.” He would then be at least fourteen years of age, and thus at the time of life at which in those days students were supposed to begin their University course. At eighteen the candidate to the priesthood might be ordained Subdeacon; at twenty he could take the diaconate, and at twenty-five be ordained Priest. It will be noticed that these ages in some way generally correspond to the academic degrees. Going to the University at fourteen, a clerical student might have, and no doubt frequently had, received the various steps of minor Orders. Four years of the liberal arts enabled him at eighteen to take his degree of Bachelor of Arts. It was at this age that he could be ordained Subdeacon. Then seven years of theological study enabled him to become a Bachelor of Divinity at twenty-five, at which time he was of the right age to receive the priesthood. This was the regular course; but without doubt the greater number of candidates for the ministry did not pass through all the schools. Some, no doubt, after entering sacred Orders, became attached to cathedrals, colleges of priests, and even parochial churches, where, in the midst of a more or less active life, they prepared themselves for further ecclesiastical advancement. Wherever they were, however, they would have to prove themselves to be sufficiently lettered and of good life before they would be accepted for Ordination, and their examination and proof was put as a conscientious duty upon the bishop before he determined upon accepting and ordaining them. For a candidate to become a cleric there was not much difficulty, if he showed sufficient diligence and good-will, and the various minor Orders were also bestowed without any serious question as to the likelihood of failure, etc., in the ecclesiastical career. With the subdiaconate, however, this was in no sense the case, and no one was allowed to be ordained without what was called a “title,” that is, he was required to show that he had been nominated to a benefice sufficient for his proper maintenance, or had been given a responsible guarantee of adequate support for one in sacred Orders. In the case of sons of well-to-do parents the bishop might accept the possession of sufficient property as guarantee under the title of “patrimony.” Moreover, the Episcopal Registers show for what large numbers of clergy the religious houses became surety for a fitting maintenance in the event of failure of health or withdrawal of ecclesiastical resources. A certificate of Orders received was to be furnished by the bishop’s official, the fee for each of which was settled in the English Church by Archbishop Stratford at 6d.

SACRAMENT OF ORDINATION

The entry into the clerical state, with its duties and privileges, was outwardly manifested by the tonsure and corona. The former, as the gloss upon the Constitution of Cardinal Otho declares, was the shaving of a circle on the crown of the cleric as a sign of the laying aside all desire for temporal advantages and avaricious thoughts. “And,” says the author, “in the proper tonsure of clerics, I believe, is included the shaving of beards, which, contrary to the law, many modern clerks grow with great care.” The corona, although apparently in time it became synonymous with the “tonsure,” in its original English meaning certainly signified the close crop of the hair, on the upper part of the head, as “a sign that clerics sought only the Kingdom of God.” One curious instance of a bishop giving the tonsure in a parish church may be mentioned. In 1336, Bishop Grandisson, of Exeter, went to St. Buryan to terminate a serious quarrel between the inhabitants and himself, in which they had practically rejected his jurisdiction. He was attended by many of the gentry and the clergy, one of whom translated the bishop’s address into Cornish, for those who only understood that language. The parish then renewed their obedience “in English, French, and Cornish,” and the bishop absolved them from the penalties of their disobedience. After which, says the record, “he gave the first tonsure, or sign of the clerical character, to many who were natives of that parish.”

The dress of clerics was legislated for by the Constitutions of Cardinal Ottoboni, to which subsequent reference was constantly made by the English bishops. Thus the same Bishop Grandisson, in 1342, issued a monition to his clergy on the subject, in which he speaks of the sensible legislation of the cardinal. All clerics were directed to follow this law as to their dress; it was not to be so long or so short as to be an object of ridicule or remark. The cassock or clerical coat in length was to be well above the ankles (ultra tibiarum medium attingentes), and the hair was to be cut so that it could not be parted and showed the ears plainly. In this way, by their corona and tonsure, and by the exterior form of their dress, they might be clearly known and distinguished from laymen. Cardinal Otho likewise enforced the regulation about clerical dress, and declared that some of the English clergy looked rather like soldiers than priests, an opinion which the author of the gloss endorsed with the saying that it is not only in their dress that some offend, but in their open-mouthed laugh (risus dentium) and their general gait. The cardinal directs that all clerics shall use their outer dress closed, and not open like a cloak, and this in particular in churches, in meetings of the clergy, and by all parish priests, always and everywhere in their parishes.

The status of the English clergy, generally from a legal standpoint, is thus described in Pollock and Maitland’s History of English Law—

“Taken individually, every ordained clerk has as such a peculiar legal status; he is subject to special rules of ecclesiastical law and to special rules of temporal law.... Every layman, unless he were a Jew, was subject to ecclesiastical law; it regulated many affairs of his life, marriages, divorces, testaments, intestate succession; it would try him and punish him for various offences, for adultery, fornication, defamation; it would constrain him to pay tithes and other similar dues; in the last resort it could excommunicate him, and then the State would come to its aid.... The ordained clerk was within many rules of ecclesiastical law which did not affect the layman, and it had a tighter hold over him, since it could suspend him from office, deprive him of benefice, and degrade him from his Orders.”

So much about the clergy generally and about the way in which they entered the clerical state and mounted the various steps of the minor and sacred Orders, until their reception of the sacred priesthood brought them into the close relations which existed between the clergyman and his flock. It is now time to turn to the consideration of the various kinds of parochial clergy. And first (1) The Rector or Parson was appointed to his benefice by the patron of the living, with the approval of the bishop, by whose order he was also inducted or instituted. Among the Harleian Charters in the British Museum is an original deed of induction to a living, which sets out the ceremony and prescribes the feast to follow. The benefice after his induction became the rector’s freehold. In the language of Bracton, the position of a rector differed legally from that of a vicar, inasmuch as he could sue and be sued for the property or benefice he held, which he did in the name of the Church. And to this “only rectors of parochial churches are entitled, who have been instituted as parsons by bishops and by ordinaries.” It was the duty of the archdeacon, either personally or by his official, on the certificate of the bishop, to put the rector into possession of his benefice. The fee to be paid, according to the Constitution of Archbishop Stratford, was not to exceed 40d. when the archdeacon came in person, “which sum is sufficient for the expenses of four persons and their horses;” or two shillings when the official came with two or three horses.

Previously to this, however, and before issuing his letters of induction, the bishop was bound to satisfy himself that the priest presented to fill the rectory had the necessary qualities of a good pastor of souls. In the Constitution of Cardinal Otho on this point, after recalling the saying of St. Gregory that “the guidance of souls is the art of arts,” the cardinal goes on to say that “our Catholic art” requires that there “should be one priest in one church,” and that he should be a fitting teacher, “by his holy life, his learning, and his teaching,” and upon this last quality Lyndwood notes that he should be able to adapt his instructions to his audience. “Whilst to the wise and learned he may speak of high and profound things, to the simple and those of lesser mental capacity he should preach plainly about few things, and those that are useful.” As to these qualifications the bishop had to satisfy himself within two months after the presentation, in order that the parish should not be kept vacant longer than was necessary. Besides the above-named qualities, by ordinary law of the English Church, any one presented as a rector was bound to be a cleric; to be at least five and twenty years old; to be commendable in his life and knowledge; and if not a priest, he was at least to be fit to receive the priesthood within a year. As a rule each rectory, or benefice for a rector, had but a single rector; but there are instances where in one place, at Leverton, for example, there were two parsons appointed to one church, with two houses, with the tithes divided, and, of course, with the obligations distinct. In a few cases, as at Darley Dale, Derbyshire, there were three or even more rectors for the one parish.

In the first chapter it has been pointed out what were the tithes payable to the rector of a parish, and that they frequently brought in a considerable sum of money. On the other hand, there were many and constant claims made upon the revenues of the parochial church, and this not accidentally or casually, but by custom and almost by law. The repair of the chancel and the upkeep of choir-books and other things necessary for the services, which were not found by the people, had to be met out of the “fourth part” of the tithe, which was supposed to be devoted to such purposes. Another constant claim was the relief of the poor, strangers, and wayfarers, called “hospitality.” This, according to Lyndwood, was well understood and practised in England, where the churches, to meet those calls, were better endowed than they were abroad.