The Elizabethan Parish in its Ecclesiastical and Financial Aspects Part 4

a_. 1585-6 (Record of the new bible and other books).

[28] Gla.s.sc.o.c.k, _op. cit_., 59 (1578).

[29] Hale, _Crim. Free_., 170-1.

[30] Visitations of the Dean of York's Peculiar, _Yorks.h.i.+re Archaeological Journal_, xviii (1905), 209.

[31] _Ibid_., 210.

[32] With the exception of the High Commission by the terms of its commission. See the writ of 1559 in Gee, _The Elizabethan Clergy and the Settlement of Religion_, 150. Also Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., i, 220, for the Commission for York in 1559. As a matter of fact, as will appear from the ill.u.s.trations cited, fines were virtually inflicted by way of court or absolution fees. Again, while the canons or injunctions forbade the commutation of penance for money, an exception was made for money taken _in pios usus_, such as church repair or the relief of the poor. Examples of the practice will be found in Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 232 (Repair of St. Paul's, London); _Warrington Deanery Visit_., 189 (Poor); Chelmsfofd Acc'ts, _Ess.e.x Arch. Soc., ii_, 212 (Paving of church). For fines inflicted for the benefit of the poor see _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 122 ("For that he gave evill words" an offender was enjoined by the judge to pay 2s. to the poor and to certify); Hale, _op. cit_., 198 (An offender to pay a rate of 4d., and 12d. more _"pro negligentia_." 1589/1590) _Cf_. Canons of 1585 in Cardwell, _Synodalia_, i, 142.

[33] _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 24 (1577). In the case of individuals interdiction or suspension _(i.e_., from service and sacraments) does not differ in effect from excommunication, except that the former are temporary penalties and to terminate upon compliance with the judge's order. See Burn, _Eccles. Law_ (ed. 1763), i, 616 (Interdiction) and ii, 362-3 (Suspension).

[34] Thomas North, _A Chronicle of the Church of St. Martin's in Leicester_ (1866), 116 (1568-9).

[35] _Leicester Archit. and Archaeol. Soc. Tr_., iii (1874), 192 (1567).

[36] _Ibid_., 197 (1594-5).

[37] W.F. Cobb, _Churchwardens Accounts of St.

Ethelburga-within-Bishopsgate_ (1905), p. 10 (1595) and p. 12 (1604), respectively. Stanhope was chancellor to the bishop of London.

[38] See p. 46 ff. _infra_.

[39] See _infra_ p. 40, p. 48 (note 169), p. 131, etc. Also Ch. ii, _infra_. _Cf_. note 32 _supra_ (p. 19).

[40] Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 155.

[41] Ordinary is that ecclesiastical magistrate who has regular jurisdiction over a district, in opposition to judges extraordinarily appointed. At common law a bishop was taken to be the ordinary in his diocese, and so he was designated in some acts of Parliament. But as a matter of fact 'ordinary' signifies any judge authorized to take cognizance of causes by virtue of his office or by custom. Such were pre-eminently the archdeacons. These officers, at first merely attendant on the bishops at public services, were gradually entrusted by the latter with their own jurisdictional powers, owing to the vast extent of dioceses, so that "the holding of General Synods or Visitations when the Bishop did not visit, came by degrees to be known and established Branches of the Archidiaconal Office, as such, which by this means attained to the dignity of Ordinary instead of delegated jurisdiction." Edmund Gibson, _Codex Juris Ecclesiastici Anglicani_, or the _Statutes, Const.i.tutions_ (etc.) _of the Church of England_, ii (1713), 998. Cf. Richard Burn, _Eccles. Law_, ii, 101-2. As the ordinary in practice entrusted his office of judge to an official, I have used the two terms interchangeably. In some places exempted from the archdeacon's jurisdiction commissaries acted as judges, Burn, i, 391.

[42] That is, services and sacraments (except baptism) were suspended in it. The words of Burn (_Eccles. Law_, i, 616, quoting Gibson, 1047) are misleading. He says: "But this censure hath been long disused; and nothing of it appeareth in the laws of church or state since the reformation." Of course interdiction _temp_. Elizabeth was no longer the terrible punishment it used to be.

[43] At Shrewsbury.

[44] _Shrop. Arch, and Nat. Hist. Soc. Tr_., i (1878), 62.

[45] R.W. Goulding, _Records of the Charity known as Blanchminster's Charity_ (1898), Stockwardens Acc'ts, 68. For other examples of interdiction of churches or excommunication see Hale, _Churchwardens'

Prec_., 111-12 (Sh.o.r.eham Vetera interdicted. 1599/1600), _et pa.s.sim_.

[46] Except in the city of London and some few other places, the chancel was at the charge of the rector or other recipient of the great t.i.thes. Sidney and Beatrice Webb, _English Local Government_ (1906), 20, _note_. Also W.G. Clark-Maxwell in _Wilts Arch_. etc.

_Mag_., x.x.xiii (1904), 358. H.B. Wilson, _History of St. Laurence Pountney_ (London, 1831), 73.

[47] _Canterbury Visit_., xxvi, 21.

[48] _Ibid_.

[49] _Ibid_., 32. In 1599 the wardens of this parish inform the archdeacon that both church and churchyard need repairs "which we mean shortly to do." The next year, too, they make a report in almost identical words. _Ibid_., 33.

[50] See p. 15 _supra_.

[51] _Dean of York's Visit_., 341.

[52] Numerous other presentments at visitations for failure to supply the requisites for wors.h.i.+p besides those adduced in the text will be found in Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 173 (A warden failing to supply the elements for communion, 1579-1580) _Ibid_., 154 ("The rode lofte beame, the staieres of the rode loft standinge, the churche lacketh whittinge to deface the monuments." 1572), etc. _Barnes' Eccles.

Proc_._, 115 ("The Degrees of Mariage" and "the Postils" lacking.

1578-1579). _Warrington Deanery Visit_., 189 ("Cloth for the communion table." 1592). Visitation of Manchester Deanery in 1592 by the Bishop of Chester in _Lancas.h.i.+re and Ches.h.i.+re Antiquarian Soc. Tr_., xiii, 58. (Communion cup lacking). _Ibid_., 62 ("Noe fonte," and christenings in "a bason or dish"). This source hereinafter cited as _Manchester Deanery Visit_.

[53] Hale, _Crim. Prec_., _s. a_. 1587 (21st June).

[54] _Manchester Deanery Visit_., 66 (1592). Cf. _Canterbury Visit_., xxv, 23 (1600).

[55] Hall, _Crim. Prec_., 13 (1598).

[56] _Warrington Deanery Visit_., 189.

[57] _Manchester Deanery Visit_., 69.

[58] _Ibid_. Then as now the ale-house was the strongest rival of the House of G.o.d. A very common cla.s.s of offenders were those who would not leave their ale cups to go to service (see authorities cited, _pa.s.sim_). Men were also great gossipers ("common talkers") in the churchyard, as a number of presentments show.

[59] Order of the archdeacon, Ess.e.x Archdeaconry, to the wardens of St. Peter's and of All Saints. Maldon, in 1577, Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 158. For refusing to keep her seat in church according to this order Elizabeth Harris was presented the next year, Hale, _loc. cit_., 171.

[60] The vestry of St. Alphage's (G.B. Hall, _Records of St. Alphage, London Wall_, 31) grew highly indignant in Aug., 1620, when the business of seating the paris.h.i.+oners came up for discussion, that a Mr. Loveday and his wife should presume to sit "togeather in one pewe and that in the Ile where men vsually doe & ere did sitt; we hould it most ynconvenyent and most vnseemely, And doe thinke it fitt that Mr Chancellor of London be made acquainted w[i]th it [etc]..."

[61] Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 241-2: "_Contra Hayward, puellam.

Presentatur_, for that she beinge but a yonge mayde, sat in the pewe with her mother, to the greate offence of many reverend women." The child (as the vicar who made the presentment continues should have sat at her mother's "pewe dore." 1617). Cf. _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 122-3 (Janet Foggard cited for that "she beinge a yonge woman, unmarried, will not sit in the stall wher she is appointed ..."). Cf. Hale, _op.

cit_., 210 (One Clay and his wife "will not be ordered in church by us the church wardens [etc.]..". 1595).

[62] Examples will be found in the act-books cited _supra_.

[63] Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 149 (1566). Cf. _ibid_., 163 (The divine service not "reverently, plainelye and distinctlye saide..." 1576).

[64] Hale, _op. cit_., 182 (1584). Cf. Whitgift's _Articles for Sarum diocese_ in 1588, art. viii: "Whether your ministers used to pray for the quenes majestie ... by the t.i.tle and style due to her majestie."

Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., ii, 14.

[65] _Dean of York's Visit_., 320 (1596).

[66] Hale, _op. cit_., 159 (1575).

[67] 3 _Rep. Hist. MSS. Com_., 275 (A vicar presented by churchwardens in the commissary's court at Poddington-apud-Ampthill for not catechising the youth, etc., though required to do so by one of the wardens. 1616). For not presenting their minister when he neglected to catechise on the Sabbath, the wardens of St. Mary Woolchurch Haw, London, had to pay divers fees to the chancellor. Brooke and Hallen, _Registers of St. Mary Woolchurch Haw_ (1886), Wardens Acc'ts, _s.a._ 1593.

[68] Accordingly, by a later entry in the book we see that the warden brought in court a certificate that the surplice had been bought and worn by the vicar. _Manchester Deanery Visit_., 59. For a precisely similar injunction see _ibid_., 62 (Wardens of Eccles).

[69] See p. 15 _supra_.

[70] For presentments of vicar's (etc.) offences see pp. 31 ff.

_infra_.

[71] L.G. Bolingbroke; _The Reformation in a Norfolk Parish, Norf. and Norw. Arch. Soc_., xiii, 207-8 (1593).

[72] _Dean of York's Visit_, 231 (1594).