into their separate houses, where, in spite of Elizabeth, they maintained their families. The unmarried 'tabled abroad at the ale-houses.' The singing-men of the choirs became the prebends' private servants, 'having the Church stipend for their wages.' The cathedral plate adorned the prebendal side-boards and dinner-tables. The organ-pipes were melted into dishes for their kitchens; the organ-frames were carved into bedsteads, where the wives reposed beside their reverend lords; while the copes and vestments were coveted for their gilded embroidery, and were slit into gowns and bodices. Having children to provide for, and only a life-interest in their revenues, the chapters like the bishops cut down their woods, and worked their fines, their leases, their escheats and wardships, for the benefit of their own generation. Sharing their annual plunder, they ate and drank and enjoyed themselves while their opportunity remained; for the times were dangerous, 'and none could tell what should be after them.' They decked their wives so finely for the stuff and fashion of their garments as none were so fine and trim.' By her dress and 'her gait' in the street'the priest's wife was known from a hundred other women;' while in the congregations and in the cathedrals they were distinguished 'by placing themselves above all other the most ancient and honourable in their cities;' 'being the Church-as the priests' wives termed it-their own Church; and the said wives did call and take all things belonging to their church and corporation as their own;' as 'their houses,' 'their gates,' 'their porters,' 'their servants,' their tenants,' their manors,'' their lordships,' their woods,' their corn.' 1 1561. Celibacy had been found an unwholesome restriction; married clergymen might have been expected to do their duties the better rather than the worse for the companionship; and such complaints as these might be regarded as the inevitable but worthless strictures of malice and superstition. But it was not wholly so. While the shepherds were thus dividing the fleeces the sheep were perishing. In many dioceses in England a third of the parishes were left without a clergyman, resident or non-resident. In 1561 there were in the Archdeaconry of Norwich eighty parishes where there was no resident incumbent; in the Archdeaconry of Norfolk a hundred and eighty parishes; in the Archdeaconry of Suffolk a hundred and thirty parishes were almost or entirely in the same condition.2 In some of these churches a curate attended on Sundays. In most of them the voices of the priests were silent in the desolate aisles. The children grew up unbaptized; the dead buried their dead. At St Helen's in the Isle of Wight the parish church had been built upon the shore for the convenience of vessels lying at the anchorage. The Provost and Fellows of Eton were the patrons, and the benefice was among the wealthiest in their gift; but the church was a ruin through which the wind and the rain made free passage. The parish 1 Complaints against the Dean and Chapter of Worcester: Domestic MSS., Elizabeth, vol. xxviii. 2 STRYPE'S Annals of the Reformation, vol. i. ioners were fain to bury their corpses themselves.' And joining as it did hard to one of the chief roads of England, where all sorts of nations were compelled to take succour and touch, the shameful using of the same church caused the Queen's council and the whole realm to run in slander." 'It breedeth,' said Elizabeth in a remonstrance which she addressed to Archbishop Parker, 'no small offence and scandal to see and consider upon the one part the curiosity and cost bestowed by all sorts of men upon their private houses; and on the other part the unclean and negligent order and spare keeping of the houses of prayer, by permitting open decays and ruins of coverings of walls and windows, and by appointing unmeet and unseemly tables with foul cloths, for the communion of the sacrament; and generally leaving the place of prayer desolate of all cleanliness and of meet ornament for such a place, whereby it might be known a place provided for divine service.' ' Nor again were the Protestant foreigners who had taken refuge in England any special credit to the Reformation. These exiled saints were described by the Bishop of London as a marvellous colluvies of evil persons, for the most part facinorosi, ebriosi, et sectarii.' Between prelates reprimanded by the council for fraudulent administration of their estates, chapters bent on 1 Presentation of George Oglander: Domestic MSS., Elizabeth, Rolls House. 2 The Queen to the Archbishop of Canterbury, 1560 (Cecil's hand): Domestic MSS., vol. xv. VOL. VII. 2 servants,' their tenants,' their manors,' their lord ships,' their woods,' 'their corn.' 91 Celibacy had been found an unwholesome restriction; married clergymen might have been expected to do their duties the better rather than the worse for the companionship; and such complaints as these might be regarded as the inevitable but worthless strictures of malice and superstition. But it was not wholly so. While the shepherds were thus dividing the fleeces the sheep were perishing. In many dioceses in England a third of the parishes were left without a clergyman, resident or non-resident. In 1561 there were 1561. in the Archdeaconry of Norwich eighty parishes where there was no resident incumbent; in the Archdeaconry of Norfolk a hundred and eighty parishes; in the Archdeaconry of Suffolk a hundred and thirty parishes were almost or entirely in the same condition.2 In some of these churches a curate attended on Sundays. In most of them the voices of the priests were silent in the desolate aisles. The children grew up unbaptized; the dead buried their dead. At St Helen's in the Isle of Wight the parish church had been built upon the shore for the convenience of vessels lying at the anchorage. The Provost and Fellows of Eton were the patrons, and the benefice was among the wealthiest in their gift; but the church was a ruin through which the wind and the rain made free passage. The parish 1 Complaints against the Dean and Chapter of Worcester: Domestic MSS., Elizabeth, vol. xxviii. 2 STRYPE'S Annals of the Reformation, vol. i. ioners were fain to bury their corpses themselves.' And 'joining as it did hard to one of the chief roads of England, where all sorts of nations were compelled to take succour and touch, the shameful using of the same church caused the Queen's council and the whole realm to run in slander.'1 'It breedeth,' said Elizabeth in a remonstrance which she addressed to Archbishop Parker, 'no small offence and scandal to see and consider upon the one part the curiosity and cost bestowed by all sorts of men upon their private houses; and on the other part the unclean and negligent order and spare keeping of the houses of prayer, by permitting open decays and ruins of coverings of walls and windows, and by appointing unmeet and unseemly tables with foul cloths, for the communion of the sacrament; and generally leaving the place of prayer desolate of all cleanliness and of meet ornament for such a place, whereby it might be known a place provided for divine service." " Nor again were the Protestant foreigners who had taken refuge in England any special credit to the Reformation. These exiled saints were described by the Bishop of London as a marvellous colluvies of evil persons, for the most part facinorosi, ebriosi, et sectarii.' Between prelates reprimanded by the council for fraudulent administration of their estates, chapters bent on 1 Presentation of George Oglander: Domestic MSS., Elizabeth, Rolls House. 2 The Queen to the Archbishop of Canterbury, 1560 (Cecil's hand): Domestic MSS., vol. xv. VOL. VII. 2 |