property. They exchanged them, lent them, and sold themalways, of course, for the benefit of the church. In the wardens' accounts of St. Mary the Great, Cambridge, there are several examples of this open dealing with church goods. One instance of this kind of dealing is worth recording. In the parish of Yatton, Somerset, on the eve of the Reformationabout 1520, say—a difficulty, to which reference has already been made, arose as to the repair of certain sluices to keep back the winter floods. To make a long story short-in the end, the parishioners were ordered to make good the defect. It meant money; and the wardens' accounts show that they had been spending money generously on the church. It was consequently decided that to raise the necessary cash they should sell a piece of silver church plate, which had been purchased some years before by the common contributions of the faithful. The instance furnishes a supreme example of the way in which the people of a mediæval parish regarded the property of God's house as their own.

Parish Clerk, or Holy-water Bearer (Aquabajularius).— Second only in importance to the churchwardens was the parish clerk, or, as he was frequently called from one of his chief duties, the "water-bearer." Originally, as the

name "clerk" implies, he was a cleric, and his office was considered to be a regular ecclesiastical benefice. In the fourteenth century the clerk was married, but one such was fined for the offence in a visitation in that century in the Salisbury diocese. In process of time, however, owing to the scarcity of clerics, the office was often held by a married layman.

The English law as to this official was laid down in

the Constitution of Archbishop Boniface of Savoy, in the thirteenth century. The benefice was, according to this, to be bestowed "upon poor clerks." And as there had been many disputes about the bestowal

of the office, the archbishop decreed that henceforward "the rectors and vicars (of parish churches), who know better than parishioners those that are fit for the office, shall institute such clerics in these benefices as they know in their hearts can and will properly serve in the Divine offices (of the church) and will obey their directions." Upon which law Lyndwood remarks, that it is always the privilege of the Ecclesiastical Superior to appoint his inferiors in his own church, and that it is no part of the right of any patron; which, in this instance, may be taken to include the parishioners, who were supposed to find the salary. In the manuscript accounts of the wardens of St. Botulph's, Aldersgate Street, a payment of £4 a year was made to the clerk, and this sum was specially collected for the purpose.

HOLY WATER CLERK

A note "of clerke wage owing" in the accounts of St. Michael's in Bedwardine, Worcestershire, makes it appear that there, ordinarily, each householder paid id. a quarter for the clerk, although one person, to whom is prefixed the title of "Mr.", evidently pointing to a man of "class," paid a shilling each time. St. Mary-at-Hill, in London, paid its clerk at the rate of £6 13s. 4d. a year, and he also received

I

certain offerings at obits, etc., kept in the church. The regular wage was specially, although apparently not very regularly, collected by the wardens.

The actual payment of the clerk was sometimes a difficulty; and Archbishop Boniface anticipates this possibility by asserting the English custom of the parish paying for his services. It was in consequence of this, he says, that parishioners had asserted their right to make the appointment.

He directs that, should there be objection made to

BLESSING OF FOOD BY HOLY WATER CLERK

this payment by any parish, the people should be compelled to do their plain duty by ecclesiastical censures. On the other hand, Archbishop Peckham seems to have thought it reasonable that those who paid the money should elect to the office, and held that the parishioners ought to appoint the parish clerks to their offices.

Lyndwood speaks of a praiseworthy English custom, according to which every father of a family made an offering on the Sundays to the cleric who brought the holy water to him; and that at Christmas the officer should have from

each household a loaf, at Easter a certain number of eggs, and in the autumn so much of the harvesting. It may also be taken as an established custom that each quarter of the year the clerk received a sum of money for his support levied upon the entire parish. A curious entry in the accounts of the church of St. Mary the Great at Cambridge, shows a payment made by the parish "in reward to a yong man that should have bene parish clerk," suggesting that the churchwardens wanted him, but the rector made another appointment.

The Synod of Exeter, in 1287, so frequently referred to in regard to the laws and customs of the English Church, declares that, according to tradition, "the benefice of the Blessed Water" was at first instituted to help poor clerks, whilst they were studying and thus fitting themselves for higher dignities. To this end Bishop Quevil directs, as already pointed out, that in all churches not more than ten miles. distant from any school of a city or town, this purpose should be borne in mind, and the office given to a poor scholar to help him whilst at his studies. For this reason, no doubt, there are instances in which the bishop insisted upon the removal of a parish clerk who had married, and upon the appointment of another, whose intention it was to proceed to the reception of Holy Orders. At the same time it is quite clear that the bishop did not lightly interfere in the appointment or removal of any parish clerk. In one case, on November 13, 1386, Bishop Brantyngham refused to take cognisance of the appeal of the parishioners of Pont, in Cornwall, who, not being content with the appointment made by their rector, had caused the churchwardens to elect another. This the bishop

altogether condemned, declaring that by law the appointment was in the hands of the rector.

Besides attending to carry the Holy Water on the Sundays, the clerk, according to the directions given in the tract called "Cilium Oculi Sacerdotis," was to assist the priest at the altar, and to read the Epistle at Mass, when there was no deacon or subdeacon. He might be vested in an alb when he performed this service. It was part of his duty also to teach the children of the parish, not only their prayers, creed, and religion, but also their letters and "whatever singing they ought to know."

A curious document relating to the "Offesse of dekyn" in Trinity Church, Coventry, in 1462, has been printed more than once, and lately for the Henry Bradshaw Society, by Dr. Wickham Legg. Some of the duties there set forth for the "deacon" show that in this case he acted as parish clerk, and his duties are most minutely described. He was to open the door of the church at six o'clock, and have the chalice and missal ready for the priest who said "the Trinity Mass:" on all feasts he was to ring for Matins, and bring in the books for the south side of the choir: he was to ring for the High Mass, and then sing in the choir, and again at three o'clock for Evensong. He shall be rector in the choir on the south side: he is to see that there is a deacon to read the Gospel at every High Mass.

Beside this he has the general care of the church to see that the floor be swept when it needs it, and that the snow is taken off the roof and from out the gutters: that the font be ready for the blessing on Holy Saturday, and palms before Palm Sunday, and that palms be burned for ashes before