Drunkenness amongst the clergy was probably at this period too common for much mention of it to be made in the various records of ecclesiastical offences. An occasional prosecution, however, seems to have been instituted before the Ordinary. One such may be found in the Records of the Ecclesiastical Court of Chester, 1575, where the Vicar of Whalley is charged with being “a common dronker and ale-knight.”
The time has happily gone by when a Swift could write of
“Three or four parsons full of October, Three or four squires between drunk and sober,”
or a Pope of “a parson much bemused with beer,” or when the following old Ballad could be supposed to give a true picture of the habits of village clergymen:—
THE PARSON.
A parson who had the remarkable foible Of minding the bottle much more than the Bible, Was deemed by his neighbours to be less perplex’d In handling a tankard than handling a text.
Perch’d up in his pulpit, one Sunday, he cry’d, “Make patience, my dearly beloved, your guide, And in your distresses, your troubles, your crosses, Remember the patience of Job in his losses.”
The parson had got a stout cask of beer, By way of a present—no matter from where— Suffice it to know, it was toothsome and good, And he lov’d it as well as he did his own blood. {288}
While he the church service in haste rambled o’er, The hogs found a way thro’ his old cellar door, And by the strong scent to the beer barrel led Had knock’d out the spiggot or cock from its head.
Out spurted the liquor abroad on the ground, The unbidden guests quaffed it merrily round, Nor from their diversion and merriment ceas’d Till ev’ry hog there was as drunk as a beast.