London was a city of churches: one could not escape the sight of the green churchyard, the trees standing over the graves, and the little church among them. Nor could one get away from the sound of the church bells. All day long, from daybreak until night, the bells were ringing, not only from the churches, but also from the monastic houses. High above the stroke of anvil, and the multitudinous roar of the industrial city, rolled and clanged and resounded the continual clash of the bells. What the boy Whittington heard at Highgate was not the chime of Bow Church alone; it was the sound of the bells of all the churches and all the convents of London ringing together.
I have estimated roughly that, with the parish churches and their property, a full quarter of the City was occupied by the religious houses and the places they owned. As for the proportion of the population which was supported by the Church, we may form an idea by taking the case of St. Paul’s Cathedral alone:—
In the year 1450 the Society, a Cathedral body, included the following: the Bishop, the Dean, the four Archdeacons, the Treasurer, the Precentor, the Chancellor, thirty greater Canons, twelve lesser Canons, about fifty Chaplains or chantry Priests, and thirty Vicars. Of inferior rank to these were the Sacrist and three Vergers, the Succentor, the Master of the Singing-school, the Master of the Grammar-school, the Almoner and his four Vergers, the Servitors, the Surveyor, the twelve Scribes, the Book Transcriber, the Book-binder, the Chamberlain, the Rent-Collector, the Baker, the Brewer, the Lavenders (washermen), the Singing-men and Choir Boys, of whom priests were made, the Bedesmen, and the poor folk. To these must be added the servants of all these officers—the brewer, who brewed, in the year 1286, 67,814 gallons, must have employed a good many; the baker, who ovened every year 40,000 loaves, or every day more than a hundred large and small; the sextons, grave-diggers, gardeners, bell-ringers, makers and menders of the ecclesiastical robes, cleaners and sweepers, carpenters, masons, painters, carvers, and gilders—one can very well understand that the Church of St. Paul’s found a livelihood for a thousand at least.
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ST. ETHELBURGA’S CHURCH, BISHOPSGATE STREET
The same equipment was necessary in every other religious foundation. Not a monastery but had its great and lesser officers and their servants. In every one there were the bell-ringers, the singing-men and boys, the vergers, the gardeners, the brewers, bakers, cooks, messengers, scribes, rent-collectors, and all of them were complete in themselves, as was St. Paul’s, though on a smaller scale. Then if we consider the Parish Churches. In some cases two priests were attached to each Church for the daily services: if there were, say, fifteen chantries, and in some there were many more, belonging to each, we have over 2000 priests for the parish churches alone; there were, next, the people belonging to each church: the choir, the sacrist, the organist, the beadle, the sexton, the anchorite or ankress, say an average, in all, of a hundred, including the families of those who were married. This makes some 12,000 souls living upon the endowments and revenues of the City Churches.
If there were eighty monks at St. Peter’s, Westminster, there were at least a hundred people, all of them married and with families, in their service. Now there were, large and small, about twenty-five Religious Houses in and outside London. If we take an average of seventy people of various trades attached to and living by each House, and an average of thirty brethren and sisters, we have nearly 7000 people belonging to them. To sum up, therefore, there were nearly 20,000 people in the City of London and its suburbs engaged in working for, and living by, the Churches and the Religious Houses. About one-fifth of the population of London lived by the Church. This is a moderate estimate. The proportion of ecclesiastics and their servants to the general population was probably much higher.
The Bishop, in the eyes of London, was the greatest person in the country next to the King: he lived among the people and was their natural protector: he had his Palace within the precinct, in the north-west of the Cathedral; he attended the Church on all the great Festivals—Christmas, Easter, Ascension, Whitsunday, the Festivals of St. Paul and St. Erkenwald, and also on Maundy Thursday and Ash Wednesday (see Appendix VI.). He observed the greatest state possible when he rode forth: there went with him, as he journeyed from one to the other of his country houses, forty persons at least, including his squires, his chaplains, the young monks entrusted to his care, and his servants: he was profuse in charity: he was stately in his carriage and splendid in his dress. As in the days of William the Conqueror, so in those of Edward the Third, the Bishop of London, with the Mayor, stood for the City, but the Mayor stood behind the Bishop.