injoined such penances as made to the prejudice of the sinners purse but their own profit Of the Exorbitances of these cloister'd Monks and Fryers many examples might be produced as of their Ribauldry Lechery Quarelling Fighting Idleness Cheating Thieving Debauchery Gluttony c. all maintain'd by the People's money but we will here content our selves with one instance only Cook 4 Insti c. 11. fo 112. King Edward the first about the latter end of his raign having collected a vast summ of money to carry on his warr against the Scots and layd it up in his Treasury at Westminster his Treasury was broken up in the night and one hundred thousand pounds in money besides Plate and Jewels stol'n out of it by the Abbot and Monks of Westminster and their confederates whereof eight and forty Monks with the Abbot were apprehended and sent Prisoners to the Tower and by Inquisition and examination of witnesses it appeared that divers of the Monks and other persons in the night time were seen often passing to and fro the Kings treasury Pat. 31 Ed. 1. m. 23. dors De inquirend de thesaurar Regis fracto and the Abby carrying bundles in their arms and laps and that they conveyed away by water great hampers that were very heavy and some part of the King's Plate and Jewels were found and seised in London and other places upon which the Monks were long detained in prison till afterwards released by the King 's special command when he repaired to Westminster to give thanks to God for his Victories over the Scots Matthew Westminster Matt. Westm An. 1303. a Monk of that Abby minceth this story of the Robbery of the Kings Treasury in favour of the Monks and sayes that only Ten of them were imprisoned when it appears by the Record that 48 of them Cook ut Supra with the Abbot were imprisoned and Indited for it And upon this occasion it was that the Court of Exchequer sometimes called the Novel Exchequer was new built Chanterys Free-Chappels and Colledges as they were instituted and employed spent and exhausted huge summs of money and revenues the purposes of which expence will appear in the brief description of the nature of those Foundations A Chantery so called à Cantando was a Chappel commonly annexed to some Parochial Chantery Collegiate or Chathedral Church endowed with Lands or some other yearly revenues for the maintenance of one or more Priests daily to sing Masse Vid. Stat. 37 H. 8. ca. 4. 1 Ed. 6. ca. 14. for the souls of the Donors or Founders and such others as they did appoint Now the exact number of all these in England cannot be known for they were very numerous but if at Mathematician measured Hercules by his foot a probable conjecture may be made of them from those which were founded in the Chathedral of St. Paul in London for in the second year of King Ed. the sixth a certificate was returned by the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's to the King's Commissioners affirming that they had seven and forty Chanterys in that Church according to which proportion there was certainly a vast revenue swallowed up by them throughout the whole Kingdom For there was not a Cathedral or Collegiate Church in England but some number of Chanterys were founded in them and in many Parochial Churches also And if the modell of the Country Churches be observed very often some additional building or excrescence appears differing from the old or first Fabrick erected and used for these Chanterys And that the nature and use of these may be the better apprehended we will here specifie the Foundation and Ordination of one of them viz. Thomas de Pakinton in the year 1348. W. Duadale Amiq. Warw. in Chelmscote An. 22. Edward the third founded a Chantery at Chelmescote in Warwickshire and setled Lands and Tenements of a good value to maintain four Priests to sing Mass for his Lord the Earl of Warwick his Countess Children and Ancestors as also for himself his Parents Kinsfolks and their posterity and for the Souls of all faithful people deceased in manner following viz. Two of them which were to inhabite near the Chappel at Chelmscote every day to sing the Mattens of the day and of the blessed Lady with all Canonical hours distinctly and openly and to sing Mass daily viz. one of them every Sonday and on the great Festivals and on Monday the Mass of the holy Trinity Tuesday of St. Thomas the Martyr on Wednesday of St. Katherine and St. Margaret Thursday of Corpus Christi Friday of the holy Cross and Saturday of the Annunciation of our Lady The other Priest to celebrate every day the Mass of Requiem for the Souls of all faithful departed this life and in every Mass to say 7 Collects one of the celebration of the Mass the second for him the said Thomas de Pukinton viz. Deus qui Caritatis c. the third also for him after his death Deus cujus misericordiae c. the fourth of St. Thomas the Martyr the fifth of the Annunciation of the blessed Virgin the sixth for the Souls of the deceased beginning with Inclina the seventh the general Collect which beginneth Sanctissima Dei genetrix Maria especially naming therein the said Earl his Countess and Children and him the said Thomas de Pakinton and all his kindred and upon all Holy dayes to say a Placebo and Dirige with special commendation of the Souls of the Persons before spoken of and the souls of all the faithful deceased Likewise he ordained that the other two Priests should live together near the Church and be daily present therein at Mattens and all other Canonical hours to joyn with the other Priests except just cause and hinderance happened and daily sing Mass at the Altar near his Fathers grave And that all these Priests before their admission to these Chanterys should take their corporal Oaths to observe all the Orders to their utmost power And this Ordination containing several other particulars was confirm'd by the Canons of Kenilworth Rectors of the Church by John de Chelmescote Vicar the Earl of Warwick and Bishop of Worcester Free-Chappels were such as were founded Free-Chappels and endowed and had no relation unto or dependance on a Mother-Church saving only the right of Sepulture and these were greater than Chanterys having greater Revenues and more room for Priests and more Priests for that room to fing Mass and pray for the souls of the Founders and others according to the institution Colledges were Foundations of like nature Colledges and though fewer in number yet were richer than both the former amongst which the Colledge of Fotheringhay Speed Catal. in Northampt. in Northamptonshire was yearly valued at four hundred nineteen pounds eleven shillings ten pence half-penny For the Offices and imployments of the Priests in these and the Free-Chappels maintained they were much of the nature of Chanterys of
the two and twentieth An. D. 1316. among whom Walsingham speaking of that Pope saith thus Tho Walsingh in Ed 2. fo 84. Summus Pontifex reservavit Camerae fuae primos fructus beneficiorum omnium in Anglia per triennium vacantium And Ranulph Cestrensis thus Johannes 22. Lib. 7. cap. 42. in H. Knighton Coll. fo 2534. Beneficiorum per mortem seu resignationem vacantium sive per translationem primos fructus reservavit But howsoever or by whomsoever these became first impos'd after the Popes had been absolutely and throughly seized of them then they claimed them Jure Divino by example of the High Priest amongst the Jews Numb 18.6 who had Tenths from the Levites But Pol. Vergil sings another note in the place above referr'd to insinuating the maintenance of the Pope's grandeur to be the first rise of them and that this was one of the fairest flowers in the Triple Crown but when the payment of them had been continued some competent time it was politickly done upon any questioning to assign them a Divine Original which was sure to satisfie such as used to take the Pope's word for far greater matters The payment of these with other great summs of which more anon so strangely impoverish'd the Kingdom that notwithstanding that allegation or pretence of Divine Right the Kings of England made no scruple sometimes to forbid the payment of them 2 Ed. 3. Claus Rot. m. 4. 25 Ed. 3. 47 Ed. 3. as K. Ed. 3. once discharged the Pope's Nuntio from collecting the First Fruits c. and many Prohibitions were granted against the Popes Collectors on complaint made by the grieved Commons in Parliament as appears by the several Collections thereof made by the Lord Coke Coke Jurisd of Courts cap. 14 Stat. 2 H. 4. cap. 1. 1 Ric. 2. and in one Statute made to remedy that grievance it was termed a Horrible Mischief and Damnable Custome and at another Parliament it was call'd a Very Novelty But herein did the policy of the Court of Rome notably appear that sometimes when the Kingdom complain'd of its burdens and the Kings in some exigency calling for the Subjects Aids and thereupon the Pope's revenue in danger of a temporary if not a total stop the Popes would in such a juncture and perhaps in a frolick of bounty concede or assign the First Fruits c. for some time to the King as for one year or more as the occasion seem'd to require and in particular Pol. Vergil Hist lib. 20. fo 405. Pope Vrban gave them to King Richard the second to aid him against Charls the French King And this project serv'd excellently well both to habituate the People to payment and to win the Kings for their continuance to whom they might be thus useful in any case of extremity But the policy of after Parliaments went a reach beyond that of the Popes for as a perpetual addition to the revenues of the Crown they were by a Statute in the time of King Henry the eighth given to the King his Heirs Stat 26 Hen. 8. cap. 3. and Successors for ever And then for the ordering of these First Fruits and Tenths there was a Court erected An. 32 Hen. 8. Stat. 32 Hen. 8. cap. 45. but this Court was dissolv'd again An. 1 Mariae but King Philip and Queen Mary gave them not again to the Pope but by Authority of Parliament discharged the Clergy thereof Afterwards by a Statute Stat. 1 Elâ—z 4. in the first year of Queen Elizabeth they were revived and reduced again to the Crown yet was the Court never restored but the First Fruits and Tenths were ordered to be within the Rule Survey and Government of the Court of Exchequer and a new Office and Officer created viz. a Remembrancer of the First Fruits and Tenths of the Clergy who taketh all compositions for them and maketh out Process against such as pay not the same And now they are to be paid in such manner as is directed and appointed in and by the said Statutes oâ— 26 Hen. 8. and 1 Eliz. The Stat. 26 Hen. 8. appointing that every Spiritual person shall pay or secure by Bond his First Fruits before his actual possession of his Benâ—fice and that an Obligation for First Fruits shall be of like force as a Statute Staple and that no more shall be taken for such an Obligation than eight pence and for an Acquittance four pence and if any person shall be convict by Presentment Verdict Confession or Witness before the Lord Chancellor or other Commissioners to have entred upon any Spiritual Living before composition or payment he shall forfeit the double value of the First Fruits Stat. 3 Ed. 6. cap. 20. And if Tenths being due shall not be paid within forty dayes after demand thereof made by the Bishop or his Officers and thereupon certificate made under Seal of the Bishop or Collector the party making default shall be deprived ipso facto of that one Dignity or Benefice Besides it is to be remembred Stâ—t 1 Eâ—iz 4. that Vicarages not exceeding Ten Pounds per annum and Parsonages not exceeding Ten Marks per annum shall not pay First Fruits but all are to pay Tenths Then for the valuation of Ecclesiastical Livings we are to know that antiently they were valued by a Taxation Book made An. 20 Ed. 1. Coke 4 Instir fo 120. which still remaineth in the Exchequer But then another Book of Taxation was made An. 26 Hen. 8. kept in that Court also and according to this latter Taxation are the values of Ecclesiastical Livings computed for the payment of the First Fruits and Tenths And so much as every Living is there valued so much it is said to be in the Kings Books and so much must be paid for First Fruits Yet every Spiritual person at his Composition and entring into Specialties to pay the same shall have deduction of the Tenth part thereof and that in respect of the Tenth as shall be by him paid that year for by the Stat. 27 Hen. 8. Stat. 27 Hen. 8. cap. 8. none shall pay Tenths the same year that they pay First Fruits therefore they are deducted as aforesaid The way now of Composition for First Fruits is for the Parson Presented Admitted c. with sufficient Sureties to enter into Four Bonds each conditioned for the payment of the Fourth part of the First Fruits deducting the Tenth as aforesaid the first Bond payable at half a years end the second Bond at a Twelve-moneths end the third at a year and halfs end and the fourth at two years end and so the party hath two years time to pay the First Fruits And then by the Statute of 1 Eliz. cap. 4. it is appointed That if an Incumbent continue in his Benefice half a year after the last avoidance and then dye or be legally outed before the end of the year then he his Executors Administrators or
were not only promised everlasting life but made capable of delivering the souls of others out of Purgatory considering also that in employing the money raised by these Indulgences there was no regard had to the end for which they were given but frequently Centum gravam Germar by way of anticipation it was assigned to some other purpose as to carry on the Popes revenge to pay his debts to gratifie a friend to inrich a Nephew to marry a Neece to wage a War to subdue an Anti-pope or the like that all immaginable shifts sharking Hen. de Knighton Coll. fo 2671. and tricks were used to make the most of them in regard they were generally farmed out to the most cunning snaps and such as would give most for them So that in time people began to be a little wary in laying out their money that way and the Markets and sales for Indulgences began to be very cold but then the Collectors and Factors would sell the cheaper penny-worths and play at small games before they would give out as once in Germany An. Dom. 1520. when these wares began to be a little out of credit the Pope's Officers would sell them for a very small price Cuicciard Hist lib. 13. fo 629. or play at Tables for them in Taverns and Gaming-Houses wherein money was staked against Pardons esteemed of such a value Vid. Hist Concil Trident And so from the discoveries of the cheats and rapine hereby practised the Indulgences were not only contemned and exploded but way made for Reformation of other Corruptions in the Church Now as well to shew the liberality of the Popes in granting these Indulgences as also somewhat further to explicate the nature of them we will here take a view of such Indulgences and Pardons as formerly have been granted to some of the Churches in Rome as they are specified in an old Book called The Customes of London as follows The hoole Pardon of Rome graunted by divers Popes Customes of London IN the City of Rome been four Chirches Vid. Onuphr de 7. sanctioribus urbis Rom. Ecclesiis in which is Masse daily don but there been six of the same privileged above all the oder with gret holinesse and pardon as is hereaftir shewid The Furst is called St. Peter 's Chirch th' Apostell and is set upon the foot of an Hill and men go upward thereto a stair of xxix steppys high and as often as a man gooth up and doun that steyer he is relesid of the seventh part of penaunce injoin'd and grauntyd by Pope Alysander Item As ye com before the Chirch ther the Well springeth so may ye see above the dore an Image of our Lord and between his feete stondeth one of the pence that God was sold for and as oft as ye look on that peny ye have xiv hundred yer is of pardon Item In the same Chirch on the ryht side ther is a pilour that was somtyme of Salamon 's Temple at which pilour our Lord was wont to reste whan he preched to the peeple at which pilour if there any bee frantyk or madd or trobled with spyrits they be deliveryd and made hool And in that Chirch be xi Aulters and at every of the Aulter is xlviij yeris of pardone and as many Lenters or Karynes and vii of thoe Aulters been severally privelegyd with grace and pardone At the Furst Aulter is the Vysage of our Lord who loketh on that hath vij C yere of pardone Item At the same Aulter is the spere that Cryst was pierced with whych was broght fro Constantynopl sent fro the gret Turk to Pope Innocent the viij The Second Aulter is of Seint Andrew and their ye have vij C yere of pardone The Fourth is of our Lady ther is vij C yeres pardone The v Aulter is of St. Leo ther he recevyd the absolucyon in his masse fro Hevyn and ther is pardon of vij C yeres The vj Aulter of All Soles and ther is v C yeres of pardon and every hyh fest one Sole out of Purgatory The vij Aulter is of Seynt Symon and Jude and ther is vj C yeris of pardone And before the Quyer dore stond two yriven Crosses and who so kysseth thoo two Crosses he hath v C yer is of pardone Item Vpon our Lady day in Lente is hanged afore the Qyer a cloth as our Lady made her self and it hangeth till our Lady day Assumpcion and as many times as one beholdith it he hath iv C yere of pardon Allsoo as many times as a man goothe thorogh the crowds at St. Peters Chirch he hath iv C yere of pardon And as often as one followith the Host to the sycke bodys he hath xiv C yeres of pardon Allso Pope Sylvester grauntid to all thoe as daily gothe to the Chirch of St. Peter the iij part of all his sins relesid and all advows and promyse relesyd and all sins forgeten relesyd and forgeven except leying honds on Fader and Moder vyolently and above this is graunted xxviij C yere of pardon and the meritys of as many Lentes or Karyns The knowledge of a Karyn ye shall find in the end of this boke And in the feste of Seynt Peter a M yere of pardon and as many karyns and the * Third part threddendell of penaunce enjoyned relesyd And fro the Assencyon day of our Lord unto the Assumpcyon of our Lady ye have xiv yere of pardone and as many karyns and foryefenes of the iij part of all synnes And upon the one syde of Seynt Peter 's Chirch a Chirchyard lyeth and that is called Goddys felde and there be beryed pore pylgryms and none other and it is the land that was bought with xxx pens that our Lord was sold for as oft as one goeth upon that ground he hath xv C yere of pardon Item In the Chirch of Seynt Poule wythout the walls ye have xlvij M yere of pardon Item In the day of his convercyon i C yere of pardon Item On Childermasse day iij M yere of pardon Item On the * Eight day Vtas of Seynt Martin whan as the Chirch was hallowed xiv M years of pardon and as many karyns and the iij part of all sins relesyd Allso whoo that visite the Chirch of Seynt Poule two Sondays dothe as moche as if he went to St. James of Compostella in Spain St. James and dyd come ageyn Item In the Chirch of St. Laurence wythout the walls ther lyeth the body of St. Laurence and of St. Stephen and at the hyh aulter ye have xciij M yere of pardon And whoe that visite the other aulters hath at eche aulter vij M yeres of pardon and as many karyns Allso The Pope Pelagius grauntid there at the iv festys of the yere at eche feste vij C yere of pardon and as many karyns and who that gothe thether every Wednesday he deliverith a sole out of Purgatory and hymself quyt of all