Sedley Lynch Ware

“ We have viewed church courts at work, compelling wardens to levy church rates; we have now to see how the judges forced recalcitrant ratepayers to pay the sums assessed upon them to the wardens or other collectors.
Among the earliest vestry minutes of the parish of St. Christopher-le-Stocks, London, is one which, after ordering that an assessment be made for the clerk's wages and for pews, decreed that any rebellious persons should be summoned before themselves, the vestry, to be reformed. ”

“ Not only did the Church regulate many acts of a parishioner's life, and preside over his moral conduct, making him pay in great measure the costs of this disciplinary administration, but it also was entrusted with his education, through which it sought to control his ideas and convictions, and to direct and form public opinion. The education and training of a nation depend, of course, in greatest measure on its primary schools and its press. ”

“ It is difficult even to imagine a state of society in which, on the bare suggestion of some miserable domestic spy, any man or woman whatever might be convened before an archdeacon or his surrogate and put upon his or her oath as to all the most private affairs of life ”

“ Foremost among the requirements exacted by the ordinaries from all alike was the duty of attending church. Every one had to frequent service on Sundays and on feast-days, and to be present at evening as well as at morning prayer. [108] Nor might a man repair to a church in another parish because it was nearer than his own. [109] Should his own minister be unlicenced to preach—and only about one incumbent out of four or five was licenced [110] —he was not permitted, except under special authorization, [111] to hear a sermon in another church while service was going on in his own. ”

“ They could in all cases command the doing, as well as the giving [181] of a thing—powers far more extensive than those possessed by any court of equity of today. Lastly, it was their custom to require that a return be made in court, or in other words, a certification, that their commands had been duly performed—thus stamping them as true administrative bodies. It was inevitable from the nature of their jurisdiction and procedure that abuses should be committed both by ecclesiastical judges and by their officers, such as registrars, proctors and apparitors. ”

“ All kinds of units or rules of assessment were resorted to from parish to parish, and (apparently) sometimes no fixed unit at all was taken, men's ability to pay being roughly gauged, or a man being permitted to rate himself, [315] or give his "benevolence."
In the wardens' accounts are frequently seen long lists of names, each being taxed at a sum varying from 1/2d. to three or four shillings. Such lists may represent an attempt to tax each man at 1/2d. or 1d. in the pound, or, likely as not, it may merely mean a crude sizing up of the ability of each to contribute. ”

“ After a churchwarden had been chosen or elected, he took the oath of office before the archdeacon. In this he swore to observe the Queen's and the bishop's injunctions, and to cause others to observe them; to present violators of the same to the sworn men (or sidemen) , or to the ordinary's chancellor or official, or to the Queen's high commissioners; finally, he swore to yield up a faithful accounting to the parish of all sums that had passed through his hands during his term of office. ”

“ Leaving the topic of general endowments to take up those sources of revenue destined to defray particular forms of expenditure, we find that Permanent Parish Endowments in lands, goods or money devoted to the defraying of Specific Parish Administrative Burdens or Utilities were very numerous in the local documents of the 16th century. Sometimes a land or fund was set apart by the donor, or by the parish itself, for the support of a parish servant or officer ”

“ Again, secular and ecclesiastical judges had concurrent jurisdiction over church attendance, and—at any rate between 1572 and 1597 [3] —over the care of the parish poor. Finally, it must not be supposed that the men who actually sat as judges in the archdeacon's or the bishop's court were necessarily in orders. In point of fact a large proportion, perhaps a large majority of them, were laymen, since the act of Henry VIII in 1545 permitted married civilians to exercise ecclesiastical jurisdiction. ”

“ As food for the more advanced minds of the congregations, ordinaries saw to it that volumes dealing with the interpretation of the Scriptures, the polity of Church and State, and the defence of that polity were provided for every parish church. Such works were Erasmus' Paraphrases, Bullinger's Decades, Bishop Jewel's works, and other writings of an apologetic nature. ”

“ VIII c. 5, where it cannot be known who ought of right to repair a bridge, the justices of the district shall call before them the constables of the parishes of the surrounding hundreds, or of the whole shire, and "with the assent of the ... constables or [chief] inhabitants," tax every inhabitant of the towns and parishes of the shire (if necessary) . This looks like a county bridge tax, but in practice the justices either threw a lump sum on a hundred, or on a parish, and left each parish to raise this sum according to local rating. ”

“ These sheep, as well as the parish cows, were often hired out to parishioners, who gave security for their return. Sometimes they were given to poor men at a reduced rent, and thus they served to support the poor. [223]
That the keeping of cattle was a well-recognized source of parish income is seen by the Queen's Injunctions of 1559 in which she alludes to "the profit of cattle" among other sources of parish revenue to be devoted to the poor, "and if they be provided for, then to the reparation of highways next adjoining," or to the repair of the church. ”

“ In short, any one at all, whether in the capacity of parish officer; rate payer; trustee; administrator or executor; lessee of the parish cattle or its lands or tenements—any one, in fact, standing in the relation of debtor to the parish in a matter falling within the jurisdiction of the spiritual courts, could be, and was, compelled by these to pay or to account to the parishioners. ”

“ What a man customarily gave, or what he had promised to give, or, again, what the parish thought he ought to give, that the ordinary might compel him to give. [202] From an offering or a voluntary assessment to a rate is often but a short step, and the two former shade off into the latter almost imperceptibly. The justices of the peace and the ecclesiastical authorities usually cast lump sums upon the parishes, leaving ways and means to the parishioners themselves. ”

“ The sale of costly vestments, embroideries, hangings, images, chalices, pyxes and other church furnishings and ornaments condemned as superstitious by the Anglican church, brought some income to the wardens of most parishes during the first years of Elizabeth. Examples will be found in all the accounts. Now and then, too, a parish would make a large sum from the sale of the wood or other products of parish lands. [302] A fairly common item in city parishes especially were fees paid for licences to eat flesh during Lent and on other legal fast days. ”

“ In some wardens' accounts the proceeds of these ales form a yearly recurring and an ordinary receipt item; in others ales were resorted to when some unusually large sum had to be raised, or some heavy expense was to be met, such as the rebuilding of the church tower, the recasting of the bells, the raising of a stock to set the poor to work, or the buying of a silver communion cup. [247] Frequently, also, funds were raised by means of ales called clerk-ales, sexton-ales, etc., to pay the wages of clerks, sextons and other servants of the parish. ”

“ In conclusion, a few observations on the parish as a financial unit in connection with county government may be made. There seems to have been no general treasury at the disposal of the hundred or of the county, but merely certain treasurers charged with the disbursement of this or that special collection for this or that special purpose. A collection is made by order of the justices, for instance, in certain hundreds, or throughout the shire, for the support of the prisoners in the county gaol, and a treasurer for the fund is appointed. ”

“ The usual times for these visitations were Easter and Michaelmas. The bishops also commonly held visitations in person, or by vicars-general or chancellors, once every third year throughout their dioceses. Yet at the semiannual visitations of the archdeacon as well as at the triennial visitations of the bishop, the mode of procedure, the class of offences, the parish officers summoned, the discipline exercised—all were the same, the bishop's court being simply substituted for the time being for that of the archdeacon. ”

“ Finally, most parishes derived some income from fining men various sums for refusing parish offices; for neglect of duty when in office; and for not attending duly called vestry meetings. Sometimes a parishioner would pay down a large lump sum for exemption forever from all offices served by the parishioners. [300]
Yet another irregular but appreciable means of revenue might be classed under the heading of Miscellaneous Receipts.
As the parishioners were always eager to turn an honest penny for their own benefit, no possible source of receipts was neglected. ”

“ Every year schoolmasters are to commend to the bishop of the diocese the best read among their pupils, and those that by their achievements give promise that they may usefully serve the State or the Church, so that their parents may be induced to educate them further to that end. [152] Bishop Barnes in his Injunctions of 1577 commands that all incumbents of cures in Durham diocese not licenced to preach shall "duly, paynefully and frely" teach the children of their several parishes to read and write. ”

“ The wardens of Swalecliffe, Kent, complain to the archdeacon of Canterbury in 1565 that their church is near utter decay, but the parish is so poor that they cannot repair it unless an assessment be made on the lands within the parish, for the making of which assessment they ask for an authorization. ”

“ If the parson neglected his duties it was incumbent upon the wardens to exhort him to perform them. [67] When at the visitation of the bishop of Chester in 1592 it was found that there was no surplice at Bolton Church, Manchester Deanery, not only did the judge admonish one of the Bolton wardens to buy the surplice, but he was instructed "to offer hit to thee Vicar at the time of ministering the sacraments, and to certify of his wearing or refusing of hit before the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord next." ”

“ Though the wardens did not themselves in practice always make the rate directed by the archdeacon, yet they were held responsible for its making. So true was this that if, after a duly called parish meeting for the purpose of laying the rate in obedience to the archdeacon's orders, no parishioners appear, then, in the words of the archdeacon's official to the wardens of Ramsden Bellhouse (Essex) : "if the inhabitants of the said p [ar] ish will not join with the said church wardens &c., that then the said churchwardens shall themselves make a rate for the leveinge of the said charges [etc.] ”

“ In the small country parishes the incumbent was often the only, or almost the only, educated man in the community. His advice had naturally considerable weight in parish affairs, and his pen was often required in the drawing up of official or legal documents, certifications or testimonials, the casting up of parish accounts and the like. ”

“ We find in the act-books officiating rectors or vicars presented for non-residence upon their cures; [91] while rectors and other recipients of great tithes are "detected" at visitations for not repairing the chancels in their churches; or not maintaining their vicarage buildings with barns and dove-cotes; [92] or for not providing quarter sermons where the clergyman serving the cure was not himself licenced to preach; [93] beneficed men not resident are arraigned for not giving the fortieth part of their revenue to the parish poor ”

“ Sidemen are called also questmen, assistants and (apparently) sworn men or jurates. They do not always appear in small country parishes, neither are they generally found before the latter half of Elizabeth's reign. Their Latin appelation was "fide digni" and they were chosen from among the parishioners to the number of two, four, six or more to present offences along with the churchwardens, or offences which the wardens would not present (Gibson, Codex, ii, 1000) . The sidemen went about the parish during service time with the wardens and warned persons to come to church (See p. 23 infra) . ”

“ Ecclesiastical courts sometimes condemned offenders to pay a fine for the use of the poor. [296] Sometimes they commuted a penance for money to go to church-repair or to the parish poor. [297] The churchwardens or overseers of the poor accounts also mention fines received for profanation of the Sabbath and for offences during service time. [298] The Star Chamber often condemned offenders, especially enclosers of cottage land and engrossers of corn, to fines for the benefit of the poor. ”

“ We come now to Communion Dues, or Collections taken up at the time of communion.
"Paschall money" is defined in a vestry order of Stepney parish, London, in 1581 as a duty of 1d. paid by each communicant at Easter "toward the charge of breade and wine over and besides theyre offering mony due unto the vicar." These paschal dues, the order further informs us, had long been farmed by the vicar for 40s. yearly. ”

“ Sometimes also certain houses or lands are spoken of as yielding so much a year for the repair of the church and the support of the poor. [306] Incidentally we might mention—though hardly connected with parish finance—certain payments for church repair, etc., claimed of old by some cathedral churches from the parishes of the diocese. Originally a tax varying from a farthing to a penny for each household (hence the names "smoke farthings," "hearth penny," "smoke silver") , the payments were commuted for a small lump sum exacted yearly. ”

“ Already that "organized hypocrisy," so characteristic of parish life in later reigns, shows itself in the many presentments of, and petitions against, persons supposedly immoral—especially single women. Not zeal for morality prompts these indictments, but fear that the community may have to support illegitimate children. [325] Quite typical of the times is the language held by the inhabitants of Castle Combe in appealing to the Wiltshire justices against a townwoman in 1606. ”