Parish life in mediæval England

by Francis Aidan Gasquet

Very similar to this bede-roll was what was known as the “Quethe-word,” for which fees are recorded so often as having been paid. Apparently this was the announcement of the death of a parishioner made for the first time after his decease. The fee for the speaking of this “Quethe-word” was usually paid by the wardens of the parish, but possibly only when bequests had been made by the deceased to the “common stock” of the parish.

Besides this kind of Sunday notice, the pulpit was the means by which all manner of ecclesiastical or quasi-ecclesiastical business was notified. In the first place, of course, the banns of intended marriages were published on three successive Sundays and feast days. Then such warnings to parents were given as reminding them of the necessity of seeing that their children receive Confirmation, with the information that the bishop would either be in the church or in the neighbourhood at such a time. The Council of Oxford ordered that parish priests were frequently to warn parents from the pulpit about this duty of not delaying to bring up their children to the bishop.

Then there were constant appeals being made for assistance of some kind or other, generally of a public or semi-public character, supported by an indulgence, or grant of spiritual favours from the bishop. To take an example: some time about 1270, Walter Langton, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, wrote a letter on behalf of a work, for which one John Perty was collecting. John Perty was the procurator and collector of the bridge at or near Colwich, and he was trying to get money to repair, or rather to rebuild, the bridge and its chapel, and at the same time to gather sufficient endowment to maintain a priest. The bishop asks all his priests to explain the matter from their pulpits, to show that it was a work of charity, and to say that to all who contribute in any way he grants forty days of indulgence under the usual conditions.

The same bishop at another time orders all rectors and parish priests to publish “at the time of their sermons and exhortations” his indulgence to all who would visit the cathedral church of Lichfield and contribute to the building of the spires of his cathedral. Other episcopal letters, which were all to be read in the parish churches, were of a more private character. One man, for instance, had suffered great losses through a fire, which had destroyed his house; another had had his barns burned; a third had been left almost destitute by having his crops destroyed by floods; a fourth had been plundered by robbers; a fifth had suffered the loss of an arm, etc. In all such cases, if those who asked could prove that their needs were genuine, the bishop had not apparently much hesitation in granting letters of indulgence to those who would help in these Christian charities; and all such letters became matter for the Sunday parish pulpit.

Then, it was in the church that all laws, civil as well as ecclesiastical, were published. Here, too, notice of all manner of civil proceedings was made. A, for instance, had died and been laid to rest in the churchyard; it is from the pulpit of his parish church that the fact is announced that he has left B and E the executors of his will, and people are notified to send in their claims, or pay what is owing to the estate to these two. Or it may be that A has died intestate, or that those he has appointed to carry out his wishes will not do so, in which cases people are to be warned that the bishop’s official will administer the estate, and all claims are to be sent in to him.

Then all questions of social order and well-being, as well as infraction of law in the district, came before the people in some form or other in the church and from the pulpit.

“When Agnes Paston,” for example, “built a wall (across a property to which the people claimed access), it was thrown down before it was half completed, and threats of heavy amercements (says Dr. Gairdner) were addressed to her in church, and the men of Paston spoke of showing their displeasure when they went in public procession on St. Mark’s day.”

So, also, the parish priest of Standon, at the beginning of the fifteenth century, was ordered to publish an excommunication under the following circumstances: Margaret Basun, a parishioner, was charged by some people with having stolen a silver ring belonging to Alice Braymer, and with having sold it to Anne Boghley. Margaret Basun denied the truth, and was called to make canonical purgation before the bishop. She did so, and the bishop, having heard the case, declared her innocent of the charge, and ordered her innocence to be proclaimed, and an excommunication to be pronounced against those who had defamed her.

To take another sample case: a man spread false stories about the apprentices of his father, saying that they had been the thieves of some goods, etc., which had been stolen. An examination by the bishop revealed the fact that it was the accuser who was in reality the robber, and it was proved that he had made a false key, had opened his father’s chest, and taken from it money and jewels. The bishop directed that this should be told the people on the following Sunday.

Once more: a person has been much defamed in his parish by people saying he had buried a child in his back garden. He denied this charge utterly, and the denial was published to the people from the pulpit, whilst his accusers were warned to come before the bishop and oppose his purgation. Or, lastly: John Spencer, the official of the Archdeacon of Lincoln, issued a letter to be read in the parish church, in which he declares that he has had before him Alice B. and Matilda S. The former had defamed the latter by calling her a meretrix. On examination this was found to be untrue, and Matilda S. was declared innocent. Alice B. is to be compelled to cease these injuries, and to pay all the expenses.