Part 3 (2/2)

[11] _Canterbury Visit_., xxvi, 23 (1599); _ibid_., 20 (1591). W.H.

Hale, _A Series of Precedents in Criminal Causes from the Act Books of the Ecclesiastical Courts of London_, 1475-1640 (pub. in 1847), 190 (Schoolmaster of Stock presented in court for defacing the church ”in makinge a fire for his schollers,” 1587). This work hereinafter cited as Hale, _Crim. Prec_.

[12] Constables Acc'ts of Melton in _Leicester Architec. and Archaeol.

Soc. Trans_., iii (1874), 72-3. Chelmsford Churchwardens Acc'ts in _Ess.e.x Archaeol. Soc. Trans_., ii (1863), 225 ff.

[13] Stratton (Cornwall) Churchwardens Acc'ts, _Archaeologia_, xlvi, 200 ff. _s. a_. 1565 and editor's note.

[14] ”Sir W.. A.. and I with divers other justices, being met together at Sondon church” (1582). Strype, _Annals of the Reformation_, iii, Pt. ii, 214. This meeting here may have been in the churchyard.

[15] See in the _Antiquary_, x.x.xii (1896), 147-8, the inquest held at St. Botolph Extra Aldgate (1590), and the coroner's judgment delivered in the church that a suicide should be buried at cross-roads with a stake through her breast.

[16] For the noisy proceedings in Bow Church and in St. Paul's, London, see _The Spiritual Courts epitomised_ [etc.], a satire printed in 1641 at London. For this and similar satires see Mr. Stephen's _Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires_ in Brit. Mus. (1870).

Cf. Strype, _Life of Grindal_ (Oxon. ed. 1821), 83 ff. (Proclamation of 1561 for reverent use of churches). Also Augustus Jessop, _One Generation of a Norfolk House_, 15. Sir J.F. Stephen, _Hist. of Criminal Law_, ii. 404.

[17] In the Canons of 1571 the churchwardens are called ”_aeditui_,”

in those of 1604 ”_oeconomi_.” In the older churchwardens accounts their Latin designations are ”_gardiani_” and ”_custodes_,” sometimes ”_prepositi_” (or 'reeves'). English equivalents are churchmen, highwardens, stockwardens (alewardens even), kirkmasters, church masters, proctors, etc. Sidemen are called also questmen, a.s.sistants 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 paris.h.i.+oners 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_). For rector, etc., see p. 30 _infra_.

[18] Toulmin Smith, _The Parish_ (2d ed., 1857), 69 ff., strongly insists that churchwardens ”never were ecclesiastical officers.” But the authorities he cites are post-Elizabethan. The courts in Elizabeth's time held that the execution of the office ”doth belong to the Spirituall jurisdiction” (See Brown v. Lother, 40 Eliz., in _J.

Gouldsborough's Rep_., ed. 1653, p. 113). Lambard (_The Duties of Constables_, etc., ed. 1619, p. 70) says that wardens are taken in favor of the church to be a corporation at common law for some purposes, viz., to be trustees for the church goods and chattels.

[19] See ”The Othe which the Parsons ... shall minister to the Churche Wardens,” of which the text is given in Bishop Barnes' Injunctions and other Ecclesiastical Proceedings, _Surtees Soc_., xxii (1850), 26 (Hereinafter cited as _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_.). The wording of this oath is evidently very similar to, if not identical with, that of the oath administered to the wardens by the archdeacon.

[20] For a number of examples clearly ill.u.s.trating this point see Visitations of the Dean of York's Peculiar, _Yorks.h.i.+re Archaeological Journal_. xviii (1905), 202, 221, 222, 224, _et pa.s.sim_. Hereinafter cited as _Dean of York's Visit_. We have a number of these articles of inquiry formulated by archbishops or bishops. _E.g._, see in T. Nash, _Hist. and Antiq. of Worcesters.h.i.+re_, i, 472 (Wardens of Grimley make answer to the 5th and 6th articles inquired of by the bishop in 1585).

Cf. Cardwell, _Doc. Ann._, ii, 13-16 (Whitgift's Articles of 1588).

[21] _E.g., Canterbury Visit_., xxv, 12 (Birchington wardens arraigned in court ”for that they have not presented divers faults Committed within the parish.” 1591). Act-Books in _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 118 (A warden of Long Newton detected to the official because ”he refused to present faltes with his fellowe churchwardone, _et fatebatur delationem_, viz., that he wolde not present his owne wief.” 1579).

_Ibid_., 129 (1580). See also _Warrington Deanery Visit_., 188 (”Departing and not exhibitinge there presentments”). W.H. Hale, _Precedents in Causes of Office against Churchwardens and Others_ (1841), 81 (Wardens of Sarratt [Herts] excommunicated for not exhibiting their ”_billas detectionum_.” 1577). The last named work hereinafter cited as Hale, _Churchwardens' Prec_.

[22] For numerous examples of excommunication for non-appearance, see _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 29 ff. Under the heading of each parish we see ”_aegrotat_” or ”_excusatur_,” or ”_nullo modo_” (_sc. comparuit_) placed after the name of each person cited to attend from that parish.

Inc.u.mbents, wardens and sidemen were almost always in attendance.

Schoolmasters usually so when there were such. Delinquent paris.h.i.+oners were of course cited in person, or remanded to appear at the next court day holden elsewhere. Upon non-appearance the formula usually entered by the registrar or scribe in the act-book was ”_et omnes et singulos hujusmodi non comparentes [judex] p.r.o.nuntiavit contumaces et eos excommunicavit in scriptis_.” At Alnwick in 1578 fifteen persons were excommunicated for non-attendance. _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 41.

Cf. Hale, _Crim. Prec., pa.s.sim_.

[23] Lists of ”furniture,” implements and books will be found in the metropolitan or diocesan injunctions of the time. A typical one is given in _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 25, ent.i.tled ”The furnitures, implements and bookes requisite to be had in every churche, and so commaunded by publique aucthoritie” (1577). Cf. Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., i, 287 ff. (”Advertis.e.m.e.nts partly for due order in the publique administration of common prayers [etc.] ...” Jan., 1564).

[24] _Warrington Deanery Visit_., 184.

[25] That is, Bishop John Jewel's _Apologia Ecclesiae Anglicanae_, published in 1560, and his _Defence of the Apology_, published in 1567, sometimes called in the act-books and wardens accounts (where both works are frequently mentioned) _The Reply to Mr. Harding_.

[26] _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 116.

[27] J.L. Gla.s.scoek, _The Records of St. Michael's, Bishop Stortford_ (1882), 63. See also Minchinhampton (Gloucester) Acc'ts, _Archaeologia_, x.x.xv, 422 ff. (”Allowynge the regester booke.” 1575).

_Shrop. Arch, and Nat. Hist. Soc. Tr_., 2d Ser., i, Ludlow Acc'ts, _s.

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