Medieval panorama : the English scene from conquest to Reformation / by G.G. Coulton.

  • George Gordon Coulton
Date:
1947
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Medieval panorama : the English scene from conquest to Reformation / by G.G. Coulton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    771/842 (page 737)
    CHAPTER XIV (pp. 171—178) continued and expansiveness which he seldom showed to any book, in The English Historical Review. The misrepresentation has lately taken such proportions (especially in the third and fourth volumes of the co-operative History of European Civilisation edited by Mr E. Eyre and sold, though not controlled, by the Oxford University Press) that I have dealt with it in a separate monograph, under the title of Sectarian History (72 Kimberley Road, Cambridge, 2s. 6d. post-free). It is evident that two of the contributors to that history, undertaking to correct Lea on a crucial point of religious history, had not even read the first page of the document to which they professedly appeal. The fact is that Lea’s bulky work has never been corrected except on an almost negligible minority of details; and, if he had lived twice as long and been able to read twice as much, he could have doubled the mass of his already overwhelming evidence. (2) A. L. Smith, Church and State in M.A. 13. (3) Ten Medieval Studies, 141-6. (4) E.H.R. XLIV. 444-5, 451, 453; xlv. 93-4, 100, 447, 458. (5) The greatest evidential force of these visitations lies in their cumulative effect, so long as we do not forget to discount them as we discount all evidence from police reports. I therefore add here a selection of details omitted from my text lest they should be wearisome, yet necessary for any full comprehension of parish life in a rather wild district. (A) The visitors report as follows upon Clunbury. The parishioners say that Sir Edward, chaplain [in modem parlance, curate] of the parish, doth not serve the parishioners duly, as he should; nay, rather, he stirreth quarrels and con¬ tentions among the parishioners, and doth other detestable things, to the scandal of the church. Item, that the said Sir Edward was called upon to administer extreme unction to Richard Crowe on his deathbed; yet he expressly refused to do this, and thus the said Richard died without that sacrament by default of the said chaplain. Item, that the said Sir Edward absented himself from the church on the feast of Corpus Christi, so that the parishioners had no divine service, by default of the said Sir Edward. Item, that William, son of John Phyppes, lately deceased, was buried without Mass and burial service, by default of the said chaplain. Item, William Webbe’s son was buried without Mass and service, as above. Item, that Sir Edward refused to receive to her purification Maiota, wife to John Crowe [corner of leaf torn off] unless she would offer [a fee] at his will. Item the said Sir Edward is incontinent with Alice, daughter of Thomas Eynones, and even baptized his own son begotten on her, and afterwards knew her carnally and begat on her another child [corner torn off]. Byllyng obtained letters from the lord archbishop of Canterbury and the lord bishop of Hereford containing an indulgence for benefactors of the bridge of Parsloe, in virtue whereof he collected in [these] parts 2os., which he spendeth to his own uses, paying nought for the repair of the said bridge [torn corner] common usurer. [Torn corner] is a common usurer. Item, that the prior of Wenlock refuseth to have the cure of souls here, saying that this pertaineth to the vicar, wherefore he saith he himself hath no cure of souls there. Item, that the vicar is bound to find a deacon to serve in the Church, which he doth not. Item, that the rector [i.e. the prior and convent of Wenlock] is bound to find a set of vestments for ordinary days. Item, that the rector is bound to find an ordinal-book, and doth not. Itemy that Richard Davys of Churton is a common worker on Sundays and holy-days [added in another hand: “He was dismissed.”]. (B) Selections from other parishes. At Kilpeck (p. 287) “Sir John, their chaplain of the place, haunteth the taverns and chattereth indecently there, to the great scandal etc. [sic]. Item, he is incontinent with one Margaret, surname unknown.” At the next village of Garwy “ the sidesmen say that Sir Thomas Folyot haunteth taverns inordinately and excessively, to the great scandal of the clergy, and that he revealed publicly the confessions of Robert Scheppert his parishioner.... Richard, the chaplain, is unfit for cure of souls there, for he knoweth not the Welsh tongue, and many parishioners there COE 47