[49] See Coulton's Chaucer and his England, where miracle-plays and dances are added to the list.
[50] Calendar Patent Rolls, 4 Richard II., p. 1.
[51] Browne MSS.
[52] Rydal Hall MSS.
[53] Rydal Hall MSS.
[54] Annales Caermoelensis.
[55] From Mr. George Browne, one of the Twenty-four.
[56] At Holme Cultram, Cumberland, a like body—chosen, however, by the people themselves—were responsible for the care of the bridges and common wood, besides providing for the upkeep of the sea-dyke. See "The Sixteen Men of Holme Cultram," Transactions, Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian Society, N.S., 3. The Eighteen of Aston, Oxfordshire, were found in 1583 to have control over the common field and meadow, with the yearly allotments made within them. See "Survival of Archaic Communities," Prof. F. W. Maitland (Law Quarterly Review, vol. 9). Prof. Maitland regards the existence of this body as an exceptional case, and thinks it dangerous to assume it to have been a survival of ancient times. Mr. G. G. Coulton in Chaucer and his England considers that the Black Death of 1348-9 and the consequent diminution of the clergy may have thrown the people on their own resources, and caused the lay control over parish finances which appears to have dated (he says) from the fifteenth century.
[57] Calendar of Papal Registers, vol. ii., p. 294.
[58] Tax. Eccle. P. Nicholai, iv.