[373] Ibid., 26 Ed. III., m. 25.
[374] Ed. Twysden, col. 2699.
[375] B. Mus. Cott. MS., Faust, B. v, fol. 98b.
[376] R. O., Q. R. Mins. Accts., Bundle 801, No. 1.
[377] Introduction, p. ix.
[378] Of course, several of these would be ordained for other dioceses, but in the same way Winchester priests would be ordained by letters dimissory elsewhere, so that taking the whole of England we may assume a practical equalisation. In the diocese of London, as already stated ([p. 175] ante), the proportion of non-beneficed to beneficed clergy ordained during 12 years, from 1362 to 1374, was nearly six to one.
[379] Pope, Essay on Man, lines 107–8.
[380] Mr. Thorold Rogers' supposition that the population in 1348 was only about 2,500,000 would, on the assumption that the two sexes were about equal in number, lead to the conclusion that one man in every 25 was a priest; a suggestion which seems to bear, on the face of it, its own refutation.
[381] Amyot (Archæologia, xx, p. 531) notes that even soldiers appear to have been better paid than the clergy. A foot soldier had 3d. a day, or 7 marks a year; a horse soldier 10d. or 12d. a day. Chaucer's good parson, who was only "rich of holy thought and werk," might not be remarkable.
[382] Ed. Twysden, col. 2699.