“Thou,
Had thy presiding star propitious shone,
Should’st Wildman be.”
When a tall youth, he was removed from hence to a distant village, where he died, as I understand, before he arrived at manhood.
Poor’s-Box in Cawston Church, Norfolk.
Poor’s-Box in Cawston Church, Norfolk.
Before the Reformation, says Anthony à Wood, “in every church was a poor man’s box, but I never remembered the use of it; nay, there was one at great inns, as I remember it was, before the wars.”
Poor-boxes are often mentioned in the twelfth century. At that period pope Innocent III. extended papal power to an inordinate height; absolved subjects from allegiance to their sovereigns; raised crusades throughout Europe for the recovery of the holy sepulchre; laid France under an interdict; promised paradise to all who would slaughter the Albigenses; excommunicated John, king of England; and ordered hollow trunks to be placed in all the churches, to receive alms for the remission of the sins of the donors.[214]
A communication to the Antiquarian Society, accompanied by drawings of the poor-boxes on [this] and the [opposite page], briefly describes them.[215] The common poor-box in the churches appears to have been a shaft of oak, hollowed out at the top, covered by a hinged lid of iron, with a slit in it, for the money to fall through into the cavity, and secured by one or two iron locks.