Part 2 (2/2)

As church-ales fell into disfavor _Offerings_ or _Gatherings_ in church or at the church door became more frequent[272] and more systematized. As time went on these collections were regularly taken up in many parishes every quarter, usually at Easter, Midsummer, Michaelmas and Christmas.[273] Hence the name quarterage.[274] When the proceeds went to general church furnis.h.i.+ng and repairing, the gatherings wrere sometimes called in the accounts ”church works.”[275]

As the sum given by each was often noted down in ”quarter books” or ”Easter books,”[276] and was, on denial, occasionally sued for before the official (together with dues for other purposes--clerk's wages, pew rents, etc., presently to be noticed), an ”offering” might become virtually an a.s.sessment or rate.[277]

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. But now the yield of a penny from each communicant was ”thought a thing so profitable and beneficiall,” that only as a special mark of favor was the vicar to continue to farm it, but at 4 thenceforth instead of at 40s.[278] ”_Easter money_,” an expression found not infrequently in the accounts, may have referred to the same payment, or it may have designated the offering which generally followed the celebration of communion,[279] taken up, doubtless, from all those present, whether communicating or not, the proceeds of which might go to the minister or to the parish according to agreement or custom.

Though the Second Edwardine Prayer Book (1552) provided that the elements were to be found by the curate and the wardens at the expense of the parish, which was then to be discharged of fees, or levies on each household, nevertheless, we meet with _Communion Fees_ or with house-to-house levies to defray the cost of bread and wine in many parishes during Elizabeth's reign.[280] In order to ensure payment of the communion fee, tokens (or as we would say today, tickets) were provided in some parishes which were first to be handed in before the ministrant admitted the applicant to reception.[281]

In a number of parishes a fine wine such as muscatel or malmsey was provided for the better sort, or the masters and mistresses, while the servants, or poorer folk, were served with claret.[282] Indeed where all were compelled to communicate thrice yearly the cost of wine was a very serious item.

_Collections for the Holy Loaf_, that is, blessed but not consecrated bread, which went to defray the costs of administering the Eucharist, occur in some of the earlier Elizabethan accounts.[283] Surplus communion fee money, or communion offerings were devoted to the care of the poor and other expenses.[284]

The heading _Clerk's Wages_, which is so often met with in the wardens' receipt items, frequently serves (as do several other special headings) as a mere peg on which to hang a collection for various or even for general parish expenses.[285]

_Pews_ and _Seats in Church_ were often made a source of revenue. Thus at St. Mary's, Reading, it was agreed in 1581 by the chief men of the parish, in order to augment the parish stock and to maintain the church, because ”the rentes ar very smale,” that those sitting in front seats in the church should pay 8d., those behind them 6d., the third row 4d., and so on.[286]

At St. Dunstan's, Stepney parish, London, a book was made by the wardens ”whearein was expressed the pewes in the whole Church,”

distinguished by numbers. ”Also there was noted against everie pewe the price that was thought reasonable it shoulde yeeld by the yeare.... The w[hi]ch rates by this vestrie is allowed and confirmed to be imploied to the use of the parish Church.” When a few months later it was determined to build a gallery because the congregation needed more seats, it was also settled that the cost should be met by a year's pew rent in one payment down, over and besides the usual quarterly payments for seats.[287] Sometimes the seats were sold outright and for life only.[288]

_Mortuary Fees_ were a source of revenue in almost all parishes, and sometimes an important one.[289] Consequently tariffs of fees were drawn up in various places. So much is charged for interment within, so much for burial without the church; so much for a knell according to duration and according to size of the bell; so much for the herse--a sort of catafalque--so much for the pall, the fee varying from that charged for ”the best” to that charged for ”the worst cloth”; so much if the body is coffined or uncoffined, most of the dead being buried in winding sheets only, though the parish provided a coffin for the body to lie in during service in church and for removal to the graveside.[290] So, too, one fee was charged for interring a ”

great corse,” another for a ”chrisom child.”[291] All, in fact, is tabulated with minute precision, the minister getting certain fees for himself alone, and sharing others with the parish; and so of the clerk and of the s.e.xton, if any. Among other reasons alleged by the vestry of Stepney parish for dismissing their s.e.xton in 1601 was because he made ”composic[i]on with diu[er]s & sundry p[ar]ishoners for the duties of the church to the hinderannce & great damage of the bennefitt of the church & p[ar]ishoners.”[292]

_Fees_ for _Weddings, Christenings_ and _Churchings_, and for the ringing of the bells (at marriages), together with the _Offerings_ taken up on these occasions, might form a source of revenue to the parish, either going directly into the parish coffers, or being paid in whole or in part to minister, clerk or s.e.xton, who, after all, had to be supported by the parish (or otherwise), being essential officers or servants.[293]

The parish poor and the parish church derived an uncertain, but by no means negligible, income from the product of _Fines for various Delinquencies_.

In the previous chapter fines for non-attendance at church have been alluded to.[294] A contemporary, writing in 1597, refers to these as an important fund for the support of the poor if duly levied. He writes: ”Whereunto [he is speaking of various means to alleviate poverty] if we adde the forfaiture of 12 pence for euerie householders absence from Church (man and woman) forenoone and after, Sunday and holiday (according to the statute without sufficient cause alledged) to be duely collected by Churchwardens and other appointed to that end, with the like regard for Wednesday suppers: there would be sufficient releefe for the poore in all places ....”[295]

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.[299] 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 paris.h.i.+oner would pay down a large lump sum for exemption forever from all offices served by the paris.h.i.+oners.[300]

Yet another irregular but appreciable means of revenue might be cla.s.sed under the heading of _Miscellaneous Receipts_.

As the paris.h.i.+oners were always eager to turn an honest penny for their own benefit, no possible source of receipts was neglected. If, for instance, any part of the church or the church premises might, temporarily or permanently, be rented out without drawing upon the community the censure of the ordinary, the paris.h.i.+oners were happy to do so. Owners of structures of any kind encroaching upon the churchyard, or other church land, were promptly made to pay for the privilege.[301] Occasionally parishes derived more or less large sums from the sale of parish valuables. The sale of costly vestments, embroideries, hangings, images, chalices, pyxes and other church furnis.h.i.+ngs and ornaments condemned as superst.i.tious 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.[303]

When an Elizabethan parish undertook some work on a great scale, such as the rebuilding of its church, or of the church steeple; or, again, when it had suffered great losses by fire or flood, it solicited through _Begging Proctors_ the _Contributions of Outsiders_, sometimes from all parts of England.[304]

To terminate our enumeration of means of raising money, or of contributions of all sorts on which the wardens could count (as apart from rates, properly so-called), we might mention _Fixed Contributions_, of money or of labor, issuing out of certain tenements; and _Annual Payments to Mother Churches_. Certain lands or houses, generally ab.u.t.ting on the church grounds, had fixed upon them the obligation to repair a certain portion of the churchyard enclosure, Tenement X, so many feet of fence, Tenement Y, such a portion of brick or stone wall, and so forth.[305]

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. Thus we find in the Elizabethan accounts mention of ”St. Swithin farthings;”[307] of ”Ely farthings;”[308] of ”Lincoln farthings,”[309]

etc., according to the _name_ of the cathedral to which they were paid; or, again, of ”Whitsun farthings;” of ”Pentecost farthings,”

etc., according to the _time_ of the year at which the payments were made.[310] These payments must not be confused with ”Peter's pence,”

which had before the Reformation been paid by English parishes to Rome.[311]

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