[294] See p. 27 supra. Also p. 35 supra.
[295] Provision for the poore now in penurie Out of the Store-House of Gods plentie, Explained by H. A[rth], London, 1597 (No pagination). "Wednesday suppers" refers to fasting nights appointed by proclamation or by statute. A not uncommon entry in the act-books is "no levy of the fyne of 12d." See, e.g., Manchester Deanery Visit., 57, et passim. Barnes' Eccles. Proc., 119, et passim. Hale, Crim. Prec., passim. Cf. in Bishop Stortford Acc'ts (J.L. Glasscock, Rec. of St. Michael, B. S.), 64, the rubric: "Rec. of defaultes for absence" (9 names follow, each for 12d., except one for 3s.). Dean of York's Visit., 215 (Hayton wardens report to commissary that they have a small sum from absentees yet undistributed to the poor: "But it shalbe shortlie". 1570).
[296] See examples in note 32, pp. 19 supra.
[297] Warrington Deanery Visit., 189 (Penance of three days standing in white sheet for fornication commuted—the offender "humiliter petens"—to 13s. 4d. to be paid to vicar and wardens of Ormschurch to be distributed to poor, etc.). Hale, Crim. Prec., 232-3 (Commutation of a penance for having a bastard into £5 to be paid for the repair of St. Paul's, London, and also into 34s. 4d. to be paid to wardens of Horndon-on-the-Hill for the poor. 1606). See also Chelmsford Acc'ts, 212 (20s. received in 1560 "toward the pavynge of oure churche for part of his penance"). Abbey Parish Church Estate Acc'ts, s. a. 1578 (20s. received for a "purgation" to go to parish poor and to church).
[298] For some interesting receipt items see The Westminster Tobacco Box, Pt. ii, Overseers Acc'ts, 18 ff. (Fines in 1569 from a player beating a drum in service time; for selling coals on Candlemas day; for selling wood on Sunday; for driving a cart on that day, etc. In 1570 fines are received for retailing during service time, from proceeds of forfeitures of pots and dishes, etc., etc.). Wandsworth Acc'ts, Surrey Arch. Coll., xviii, 146 (Receipts for 1599 from fines for bricklaying on Sunday; for being in ale-house at service time—a number).
[299] See John Hawarde, Les Reportes del Cases in Camera Stellata. 1593-1609 ed. W.P. Baildon (1894), passim. E.g., p. 91 (Offender fined £10 to use of poor for not laying sufficient ground to his cottages). Ibid. (Ed. Framingham, of Norfolk, fined £40 to use of poor for same offence. Oct. 14th, 1597). Ibid., 71 (Council commend a justice of the peace for condemning a Wilts engrosser to sell his corn to the poor 8d. under the price he paid for it).
[300] Some examples taken from many are North, St. Martin, Leicester, Acc'ts, 119 (Agreement in 1571 by mayor and brethren to fine one refusing to be warden for the first year 10s. to the use of the church). Ibid., 142 (This fine raised in 1600 to 20s.). St. Edmund and St. Thomas, Sarum, Acc'ts, Introd., p. xi, and St. Edmund's Acc'ts, 121, 129. Mere Acc'ts, 26 (Parish order of 1556-7). St. Margaret, Lothbury, Minutes, 33 (An offer from a parishioner in 1595 of £10 for church repair, "condicynellie that the parish wowld dispence with him for the church warden, Officers and cunstable…"). Ibid., 36 and 45 (Two parishioners each pay £10, being exempted thereafter "from all services as Constableshipp, Churchwarden, syde men and any other offices whatsoever that the parish myght … hereafter Impose uppon them…". 1607). Memorials of Stepney, 44 (Fine for not attending vestry. 1602). Clifton Antiq. Club, i (1888), 198 (40d. fine for absence from St. Stephen's, Bristol, vestry, 1524. For other fines, see ibid.). Clifton Antiq. Club, i, 195 (Same fine for absence from St. Thomas', Bristol, vestry. 1579). St. Margaret, Lothbury, Minutes, passim (Fines for not accounting on a certain day, and for not auditing accounts).
[301] Examples are found in W.F. Cobb, St. Ethelburga-within-Bishopsgate, London, Acc'ts, 5 (10s. received of a schoolmaster allowed to keep school in the belfry. 1589). Ibid., same p. ("Receaved of the owte cryar for a quarters rente for settynge of goodes at the churche doore … iiis. iiijd…" 1585). The canons of 1571 forbid this practice: "Non patientur [sc. the wardens] ut quisquam ex … istis … sordidis mercatoribus … quos … pedularios [peddlars] appellant, proponant merces suas vel in coemeteriis vel in porticibus ecclesiarum [etc.]…", Cardwell, Syn., i, 124. St. Michael's, Lewes, Acc'ts, Sussex Arch. Coll., xlv (1902), 40, 60 ("Recd for sarttayn standyngs agaynst the cherche at Whytson fayar xvd." 1588). Similar items to the last are found in many accounts. See also St. Mary the Great, Cambridge, Acc'ts, 215 (Receipt items "for the chirch style before his house"; for the rent of the "p[ar]ishe ground wherevpon his chymney standythe". 1588). Ibid., 203 ("Yt ys also agreyd that goodman Tomson shall from hence forthe paye vnto the p[ar]yshe for hys byldynge into the Churche yarde 12d. by the yeare." 1584).
[302] Thus in 1561 Kingston-upon-Thames church sold brushwood growing upon its land for £14 7s. 8d.: Surrey Arch. Coll., viii, 77. In 1573 the wardens of St. Michael's in Bedwardine (Acc'ts ed. John Amphlett, p. 74) brought a suit for the value of eight trees sold to one Lode, alleging that the defendant had promised to pay the price "for the reparacions of the … church and reliff of the pore…"
[303] For the form and wording of such a licence see Parish Registers and Documents of Kingston-upon-Thames, etc.: Surrey Arch. Coll., ii (1864), 92 (1591). The fee according to royal proclamation was 6s. 8d.: St. Margaret, Lothbury, Vestry Minutes, 9. For receipts from this source see St. Ethelburga-within-Bishopsgate Acc'ts, 5, et passim, as well as the other London acc'ts already cited. Cf. Cardwell, Doc. Ann., i, 370-2, for Council's letter to the archbishop of Canterbury on the observance of Ember Days and Lent.