“Another way thou might to yet
In a vessel to cryston hyt,
And when scho hath do ryght so
Watere and vessel brenne hem bo,
Other brynge hyt to the chyrche anon
And cast hyt to the font ston.”
Bishop Quevil, in the same Synod, also states the law of the Church as to god-parents. For a boy, two men and one woman were permissible; and similarly for a girl, two women and one man. All others could only be regarded as witnesses, and did not incur the bond of spiritual relationship as true god-parents and their god-children did.
Before passing on, a few words must be said as to the Font. According to the Constitutions of the English Church, it was to be made of stone, and to be covered. It was on no account to be used for any other purpose, even ecclesiastical. For this reason, like the Holy Oils, it was to be kept under lock and key. It was the privilege of a parochial church alone to have a font, and the construction of one, even in a Chapel of Ease, required the leave not only of the bishop, but also of the rector of the parish. Thus, to take an instance, about the middle of the fourteenth century Lord Beauchamp desired to have a font in his chapel at Beauchamp. The bishop gave his consent, but on condition that the approval of the rector was first obtained.
Churching of Women.—Immediately connected with the question of baptism is that old Catholic practice of the churching of women. The rite was probably suggested by the prescriptions of the law in Leviticus, and it was used in the Greek as well as in the Latin Church. The priest leads the woman into the church, saying, “Come into the temple of God. Adore the Son of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who has given thee fruitfulness in childbearing.” For churchings, as for marriages and burials, the general fee was supposed to be 1d.; but most people who could afford it made a larger offering. The fee for churching is specially named by Bishop Grandisson amongst those which a parson should not demand, but which all who could, ought to give willingly. Amongst the goods of St. Mary the Great, Cambridge, in the churchwardens’ accounts is one: “Item. A clothe of tappestry werk for chirching of wifes, lyned with canvas, in ecclesia.” This, no doubt, would be a carpet upon which the woman knelt before the altar.
Confirmation was, as Myrc says, “in lewde mennes menynge is i-called the bys(h)opynge,” because it is and can be given only by bishops. Strong pressure was brought to bear upon the clergy to see that all were rightly confirmed, and Archbishop Peckham, in 1280, forbade “any one to be admitted to the Sacrament of our Lord’s body and blood unless he had been confirmed, except when in danger of death.”