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Careers and Disappointments in the Late-Medieval Church: Some English Evidence1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

A. K. McHardy
A. K. McHardy*
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham
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Extract

‘He looked up at the pleasant plate-glass in the windows of the house of his friend the dean, and told himself how, in their college days, he and the dean had been quite equal—quite equal, except that by the voices of all qualified judges in the university he, Mr. Crawley, had been acknowledged to be the riper scholar. And now the Mr. Arabin of those days was the Dean of Barchester … while he, Crawley, was the perpetual curate of Hogglestock.’ The Last Chronicle of Barset is the story of a model clergyman, ‘a hard-working conscientious pastor’ and ‘still a scholar’ long after he had left university, who had never gained lucrative preferment. Yet this novel, as all those in the Barchester sequence, abounds with clerics of modest intellect and minimal spirituality whose benefices afforded extremely comfortable livelihoods. In short, the novel reminds us forcibly that a career in the Church was, in the nineteenth century, a gamble; the greatest rewards did not always go to the most deserving, but to those with the right connections through which they obtained the most lucrative positions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 26: The Ministry: Clerical and Lay , 1989 , pp. 111 - 130
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1989

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Footnotes

1

Thanks are due to the Social Science Research Council and its successor, the Economic and Social Research Council for grants, and to Professor P. L Payne for advice and encourage ment.

References

2 Trollope, Anthony, The Last Chronicle of Barset (London, 1867 Google Scholar), chap. 17.

3 Jessopp, Augustus, The Coming of the Friars was first published in book form in 1888; this reference is to the 21st impression (London, 1930), p. 83.Google Scholar

4 Moorman, J. R. H., Church Life in England in the Thirteenth Century (Cambridge, 1945), p. 53.Google Scholar

5 McHardy, A. K., The Church in London 1375—1392 (London Record Society 13, 1977), pp. ix–xiii.Google Scholar

6 This will be dealt with in The Clerical Poll-Taxes of the Diocese of Lincoln, 1377—1381 (Lincoln Record Society, forthcoming).

7 Kirby, J. L., ‘Two Tax Accounts of the Diocese of Carlisle 1379ȁ480’, Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, 52 n.s. (1953), pp. 74–81.Google Scholar

8 Bennett, M.J., ‘The Lancashire and Cheshire Clergy 1379’, Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 124 (1973), pp. 3 Google Scholar, 5.

9 Hair, P. E., ‘Chaplains, Chantries and Chapels of N. W. Herefordshire c.1400’, Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club Google Scholar (forthcoming) appendix C. I am grateful to Professor Hair for showing me a copy of his article in advance of publication.

10 This and the next two notes are based on the particulars of account of the abbot of Barlings (Lincs.) collector of the poll tax in 1377 in the archdeaconries of Lincoln, Stow, Leicester and the deanery of Rutland. This is now separated into two documents, PRO, E179/33/5, and E179/35/7. References to these documents will be given to the section numbers in my forthcoming LRS volume: LRS nos. 776-883.

11 The deaneries sampled were Holland, LRS nos. 126-36, 743-75; Ness, nos. 137-51; Aveland, nos. 682-707; Bolingbroke, nos. 475—94.

12 Deaneries of Framland, LRS, nos. 170-209; Akeley, nos. 210—230; Goodlaxton, nos. 253-91; Gartree, nos. 292-327.

13 PRO E 179/3 5/24. The deaneries sampled were Clapham, LRS nos. 929-47; Eaton Socon, nos. 948-66; Shefford, nos. 967-95; Dunstable, nos. 996—1017.

14 The Church in London, nos. 217-395.

15 LRS nos. 152-67.

16 Ibid., nos. 9-40.

17 The Church in London, nos. 1-117.

18 Bennett, ‘Lanes, and Cheshire Clergy, p. 3.

19 Kirby, J. L., ‘Two Carlisle Accounts’, p. 79.Google Scholar

20 Townley, Simon C., ‘Patronage, Pastoral Provision and the Secular Clergy in the Dioceses of Worcester and Hereford during the Thirteenth Century’ (D.Phil, thesis, Oxford, 1985), chap. 4, esp. pp. 222–6 Google Scholar and notes.

21 Ibid., esp. p. 230; Robinson, David, Beneficed Clergy in Cleveland and the East Riding 1306-1340 (Borthwick Papers no. 37, 1969), p. 8.Google Scholar

22 Storey, R. L., ‘Recruitment of English Clergy in the Period of the Conciliar Movement’, Annuarium Historiae Contiliorum, 7 (1975), pp. 290—313.Google Scholar

23 Hoepner Moran, Jo Ann, ‘Clerical Recruitment in the Diocese of York, 1340-1530: Data and Commentary’, JEH 34 (1983), pp. 19–54 Google Scholar. Storey, ‘Recruitment’, pp. 130-313; The Register of Thomas Langton Bishop of Salisbury 1465-93, ed. D. P. Wright (CYS, 74, 1985), pp. xii—xiii.

24 Bennett, ‘Lanes, and Cheshire Clergy’, p. 6.

25 A Subsidy Collected in the Diocese of Lincoln in 1526, ed. H. E. Salter (Oxford Historical Society 63, 1909), pp. 30-40; 3-6, 56-60, 62-8;95-103, 110-13, 115-19; 197-200, 202-5, 207-12; 60-1; 80-2.

26 Owen, Dorothy M., ‘Medieval Chapels in Lincolnshire’, Lincolnshire History and Archaeology, 10(1975). pp. 15–22;Google Scholar.

27 Bennett, M. J., ‘Lanes, and Cheshire Clergy’, p. 5.Google Scholar

28 LRS nos. 126-36, 743-75; Subsidy Collected in the Diocese of Lincoln, pp. 62-8.

29 Clun (Salop) contained eight chapels, Bibury (Gloucs.) and Bromsgrove (Worcs.) three each, Townley, ‘Patronage’, pp. 229, 232; Eaton Socon (Beds.) contained eight vills besides the main settlement, and probably some contained chapels, for the church was situated in the southeast corner of the parish.

30 For the frequency with which churches were burdened with pensions, compare Kathleen Major, ‘Resignation Deeds in the Diocese of Lincoln’, BIHR 19 (1942-3), pp. 57-65, and Peter Heath, The English Parish Clergy on the Eve of the Reformation (London, 1969), pp. 146-7, 183, with The Register of Thomas Langlon, pp. xx—xxi.

31 Bowker, Margaret, The Secular Clergy in the Diocese of Lincoln (Cambridge, 1968), p. 90 Google Scholar, for the highest estimate. The lowest arrived at by looking at the non-residence licences relating to the archdeaconries of Lincoln and Stow for the year 1370 recorded in the memoranda of Bishop Buckingham, Lincolnshire Archives Office Register 12.

32 Bennett, , ‘Lanes, and Ches. Clergy’, p. 5 Google Scholar; Bowker, Margaret, Lincoln Clergy, p. 92.Google Scholar

33 LRS no. 884-928; 967-93; 776-807; 103-24.

34 The number of chaplains given among the totals were always larger than the numbers listed parish by parish, The Church in London, nos. 217, 395.

35 The most celebrated domestic chaplain, letter-writer and confidant was the Pastons'James Gloys, for over 24 years a member of their household; he obtained a rectory in 1472, the year before his death, Norman Davis, ed., The Pastan Letters (Oxford World’s Classics edn., 1983), p. 10 n. 2.

36 For examples of doctors and astrologers in aristocratic households, see Richmond, Colin, ‘Religion and the Fifteenth-Century English Gentleman’, in Dobson, R. B., ed., The Church, Politics and Patronage in the Fifteenth Century (Gloucester, 1984), p. 200 Google Scholar; for John Audley, chaplain and secular musician in Lord Lestrange’s household, see below, n. 87.

37 e.g., Tanner, N. P., The Church in Late Medieval Norwich 1370-1532 (PIMS, Toronto, 1984)Google Scholar; Heath, Peter, ‘Urban Piety in the Later Middle Ages: the Evidence of Hull Wills’, in Oobson, ed., The Church, Politics and Patronage, pp. 209–29 Google Scholar; Burgess, Clive, ‘“For the lncreas of Divine Service”: Chantries in the Parish in late Medieval Bristol’. JEH 36 (1985), pp. 46–65.Google Scholar

38 McHardy, A. K., ‘Ecclesiastics and Economies’, SCH 24 (1987), p. 135 and n. 24.Google Scholar

39 N. P. Tanner, Church in Norwich, pp. 96-7.

40 LRS nos. 134, 1399.

41 In 1377 Calcewaith and Corringham deaneries (both Lines.) each had one beneficed chaplain; by 1526 each had nine. In Holland there were three beneficed chaplains in 1377; the number had risen to 34 by 1526.

42 For the costs of founding perpetual chantries see K. L. Wood-Legh, Perpetual Chantries in Britain (Cambridge, 1965), chap. 3, esp. pp. 45-6.

43 Burgess, ‘Bristol Chantries’, esp. pp. 54-5.

44 Richmond, ‘Religion and the Gendeman’, p. 196.

45 There is information about London and Bristol; Burgess, ‘Bristol Chantries’, passim for Bristol, and p. 55 n. 50 for references to London material.

46 This is the judgement of Dr Roger Bowers in a recent letter to me. The argument in this and the next two paragraphs is based on the work of Dr Bowers published in articles and to be elaborated in his forthcoming book on English choral institutions in the later middle ages. I am most grateful to Dr Bowers for sharing his ideas with me in a long, informative and enter taining letter. Thanks are also due to my colleague Dr Barry Cooper for directing my attention to Dr Bowers’ work.

47 Bowers, Roger, ‘The Performing ensemble for English church polyphony, c1320-c.1390’, in Boorman, Stanley, ed., Studies in the Performance of Late Medieval Music (Cambridge, 1983), pp. 161–87 Google Scholar; the foundation charter of the Epworth chantry is calendared in Foster, C. W. and Thompson, A. Hamilton, eds, ‘The Chantry Certificates for Lincoln and Lincolnshire’, Asso ciated Architectural and Archaeological Societies’ Reports and Papers, 36 (1921), pp. 246–53.Google Scholar

48 Bowers, Roger, ‘Obligation, Agency, and Laissez-Faire: The Promotion of Polyphonic Com position for the Church in Fifteenth-Century England’, in Fenlon, I., ed., Music in Medieval and Early Modem Europe (Cambridge, 1981), pp. 1–19 Google Scholar. Grattan Flood, W. H., ‘The Beginnings of the Chapel royal’. Music and Letters, 5 (1924), pp. 85–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

49 Bowers, Roger, ‘The Performing Pitch of English 15th-Century church Polyphony’, Early Music, 8 (1980), pp. 21–8 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; the comment on choirboys’ duties is on p. 22.

50 Granan Flood, W. H., ‘Entries Relating to Music in the English Patent Rolls of the Fifteenth Century’, The Music Antiquary, 4 (1912-13), p. 235.Google Scholar

51 Grattan Flood in Music and Letters, 5 (1924), p. 86.

52 Quoted by Burgess, ‘Bristol Chantries’, p. 39.

53 The Register of Henry Chichele archbishop of Canterbury 1414-1443, ed. E. F. Jacob (CYS 47, 1947). 4. ppl. 136-7.

54 Roger Bowers, in Boorman, ed., Medieval Music, p. 177 nn. 35, 36.

55 There was an ancient liturgical custom of dressing one of the deacons as an angel on the Feast of the Annunciation in order that he might enter and take the part of Gabriel in the Gospel’, Richard Foster and Pamela Tudor-Craig, The Secret Life of Paintings (Woodbridge, 1986), p. 97 n. 12.

56 Chambers, E. K., The Medieval Stage (Oxford, 1903), 2, chap, xxiGoogle Scholar; Hassall, W. O., ‘Plays at Clerkenwell’, Modem Language Review, 33 (1938), pp. 564–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

57 Burgess, ‘Bristol Chantries’, p. 54 n. 44.

58 Roger Bowers in a letter of January 1989; examples of legacies to provide antiphons and anthems may be seen in C. J. Kitching, London and Middlesex Cliantry Certificate 1548 (London Record Society 16, 1980), nos. 4, 16, 57, 98.

59 PRO E179/42/12. LRS nos. 1105-46.

60 Bennett, ‘Lanes, and Cheshire Clergy’, pp. 16-17; P. E. H. Hair, ‘Mobility of Parochial Clergy in Hereford Diocese c.1400’, Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club, 43 (1980), pt. II, pp. 170-1.

61 Bowker, Lincoln Clergy, pp. 70, 73.

62 Church in London, nos. 18—111; for Bedfordshire PROE 179/3s/24: LRS nos. 929-1041.

63 This was the case with the parish of St Margaret in Wigford, Lincoln, in 1526, Subsidy Collected in the Diocese of Lincoln, p. 80.

64 e.g., of grant of annuals to Lincolnshire vicars, LAO Reg. 12 fols 98v (2), 100; and to chaplains of perpetual chantries ibid., fols 96, 100; Rosalind Hill, ‘A Chaunterie for Soules’, in The Reign of Richard II, eds CM. Barron and F. R. H. Du Boulay (London, 1971),

65 Burgess, ‘Bristol Chantries’, p. 50.

66 The two moieties of Bag Enderby, Lincolns., were joined in 1385, LAO Reg. 12, fols 301-2.

67 See ref. to Hill, n. 64 above.

68 Burgess, ‘Bristol Chantries’, p. 60 n. 76.

69 Interesting comparisons can be made between the location of beneficed chaplains in 1377 and the existence of chantries as revealed in the chantry certificates of 1548. The printed certificates may be located by reference to Alan Kreider, English Chantries: The Road to Dissolution (Cambridge, Mass., 1979), pp. 266-68.

70 Peter Heath, The English Parish Cleigy, p. 25.

71 Bowker, Lincoln Cleigy, p. 72.

72 LAO Reg. 12, fol. 95.

73 Peter Heath, The English Parish Clergy, p. 25.

74 For ‘chop-churches’, see A. Hamilton Thompson, The English Clergy and their Organisation in the Later Middle Ages (Oxford, 1947), pp. 107-108.

75 LAO Reg. 12, fol. 119.

76 The case is translated in Edith Rickert, ed., Chaucer’s World (New York, 1948), p. 381.

77 Storey, ‘Recruitment’, pp. 302-3.

78 e.g., Patricia Basing, Parish Fraternity Register (London Record Society 18, 1982), pp. x-xiii, charts the fluctuating fortunes of fraternities in the parish of St Botolph without Aldersgate, London.

79 There were 30 parishes in Lincoln diocese where family connections seemed to be strong, including Manlake (Lines.) with three Crakes and Carlton (Beds.) with three Attemors, LRS nos. 8 s s, 943; in Melton Mowbray (Leics.) William and John de Sixtenby were balanced by Walter and Philip Payne, and in Roxton (Beds.) there were William and Richard Golde as well as John and Robert Olyver, Ibid., nos. 170, 950.

80 e.g., Thomas Warde senior and junior in Lockingham, and William Horslay and John Horslay his brother in Long Wharton (both Leics.), ibid., nos. 210, 212.

81 eg., in 1381 Threekingham (Lines.) was served by Thomas Croke the vicar and John his brother the chaplain, ibid., no. 1338.

82 Townley, ‘Patronage’, pp. 230—2.

83 The Burgh Court Book of Selkirk 1503-45, eds j. Imrie, T. 1. Rae, W. D. Ritchie (Scottish Record Society 89, 1960, 1969), gives examples of chaplains acting as blacksmiths, John Michelhill, 1531, and ale-conners, Ninian Bryden, 1529, 1, pp. 111-12, 104, as well as notaries and schoolmasters. Inventories of chaplains’ goods sometimes mention weapons, e.g. James Jonsone’s ‘swerd and buklar’, 1534, 2, p. 144. I am indebted to Dr Peter Symmons for these references. He also tells me that the priests resident in Selkirk 1503-45 ‘seemed to have taken part in ridings of the common, and would almost certainly have ridden out armed, in the same way as everyone else'.

84 John Pekok was contracted to serve as an archer in John Leycestre’s company, 23 June 1375, Cheshire Record Office DLT/Ai 1/85. He was described as a chaplain in the will of William Mainwaring 4 Oct. 1393, Manchester, John Rylands Library, Mainwaring charter 173.1 am grateful to Dr Philip Morgan for these references and for the gift of xeroxes of the documents.

85 The ‘autobiographical’ passage of Piers Ploughman comes from the C-Text, perhaps composed c. 1390.

86 Thomas Hoccleve, The Minor Poems, ed. F.J. Furnivall (EETS, Extra Series 61, 1892), pp. xiv-xv and references.

87 For Audley’s life see Michael Bennett, ‘John Audley: Some New Evidence on his Life and Work’, Chaucer Review, 16 (1982), pp. 344-55. I owe thanks to Dr Philip Morgan for this reference; The Poems of John Audlay, ed. E. K. Whiting (EETS, Original Series 184, 1931), p. 15 (Poem 2, 1. 148).

88 Ibid., p. 224. In this last poem (Poem 55, 1. 52) Audlay describes himself as deaf, sick, blind and bed-ridden.

89 Ibid., p. 30 (Poem 2, 11. 560-72).

90 Church in London, nos. 203—15.

91 Pensioners are identified as such in Subsidy Collected in the Diocese of Lincoln, passim.

92 The problem was not confined to the medieval church; the officers of the Georgian navy were a similarly entrenched class, Michael Lewis, The Navy of Britain (London, 1949), pp. 264-77. I owe ‘his reference and helpful comment to Miss P. K. Crimmin.

93 Bowker, Lincoln Clergy, pp. 145—7.

94 Zeli, Michael, ‘Economic Problems of the Parochial Clergy in the Sixteenth Century’, in O’Day, R. and Heal, F., eds., Princes and Paupers in the English Church 1500-1800 (Leicester, 1981), pp. 21–8.Google Scholar

95 LAO Reg. 12, fol. 312v

96 Bowker, Lincoln Clergy, pp. 106-8. A list of those taken in adultery in London between 1401 and 1439 shows the great majority of men being described as ‘chaplain’, but does not distinguish between the beneficed and unbeneficed, Calendar of Letter Books of the City of London; Letter Book 1, ed. R. R. Sharpe (London, 1909), pp. 173—87.1 owe this reference to Dr C. M. Barron.

97 Hudson, Anne, The Premature Reformation (Oxford, 1988), p. 553 Google Scholar for references to Smith (of Leicester) and Swinderby.

98 See article by D. B. Foss, below, pp. 00-00.

99 This is the overwhelming impression to be gained from reading wills. See above n. 37.

100 Pfaff, R. W., New Liturgical Feasts in Later Medieval England (Oxford, 1970)Google Scholar.

101 From the lollards, from poets, and from the ranks of the clergy, especially from conscien tious prelates.

102 Hughes, Jonathan, Pastors and Visionaries. Religion and Secular Life in Late Medieval Yorkshire (Woodbridge, 1988)Google Scholar.