In the church the gentle and munificent wisdom of men like
Chichele and Waynflete had to yield the first place in power to
the politic skill and the unscrupulous partisanship of men like
Bourchier, who persecuted the assailants of truths which had
little or no moral influence upon the persecutor.

405. The social importance of the clergy in England during
the middle ages rested on a wider basis than was afforded by
their constitutional position. The clergy, as a body, were very
rich ; the proportion of direct taxation born by them amounted
to nearly a third of the whole direct taxation of the nation;
they possessed in the constitution of parliament and convocation
a great amount of political power, a majority in the house of
lords, a recognised organisation as an estate of parliament, and
two taxing and legislating assemblies in the provincial con-
vocations ; they had on their great estates jurisdictions and
franchises equal to those of the great nobles, and in the
spiritual courts a whole system of judicature parallel to the
temporal judicature but more inquisitorial, more deeply pene-
trating, and taking cognisance of every act and every relation
of men’s lives. They had great immunities also, and a cor-
porate cohesion which gave strength and dignity to the meanest
member of the class.

One result of these advantages was the existence of an ex-
ceedingly large number of clergymen, or men in holy orders.
The lists of persons ordained during the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries are still extant in the registers of the bishops ; the
ordinations were held at least four times a year, and the
number admitted on each occasion was rarely below a hundred.
In 1370, bishop Courtenay, acting for the bishop of Exeter,
ordained at Tiverton 374 persons; 163 had the first tonsure,
120 were ordained acolytes, thirty subdeacons, thirty-one
deacons, and thirty priests¹. The ordination lists of the bishops

Thomas, in the Survey of Worcester, gives

Acolytes. Subdeacons. Deacons.     Priests. Total.

105    14°    ¹33      85    463

50    ɪʧ    *36     109    310

43    ≠     91    230

120    102     JO      6θ    332

of Durham¹ furnish numbers smaller than these, but still so
large as to make it a difficult question how so large a body of
candidates for preferment could be provided for. To these lists
the mendicant orders contribute but a small percentage; the
persons who supplied the place of non-resident pluralɪsts, or Large priyi-
who acted under the incumbents as parish priests, were not -
numerous, the whole number of parish churches being not much
over 8ooo ; a large proportion of candidates were ordained on
the title of chaplaincies, or rather on the proof that they were
entitled to small pensions fιom private persons who thus
qualified them for a position in which, by saying masses for the
dead, they could eke out a subsistence². Tlie persons so or-
dained were the stipendiary priests, who in the reign of
Henry IV were so numerous that a poll tax of six and eight-
pence upon them formed an important branch of the revenue³.
They were not represented in convocation, but they had every
clerical immunity, and they brought a clerical interest into
every family. A slight acquaintance with medieval wills is
enough to show how large a proportion of those who were in
such circumstances as made it necessary for them to make a

will, had sons or near kinsmen in orders. Sometimes they were Drawn from
friars ; more generally, in the yeoman class, chantry priests ; society,
the country knights had kinsmen in their livings and among the

In 1341 at Pentecost         86

in September         ι6

in December         11

² Thus ⁱ Willelmus de Blenkow, ad

Porestario, de quo reputat se contentum;’ Reg. Pal. iii. 137. The
mischiefs arising from this system are forcibly stated by archbishop Islip ;
⁽curas animarum geɪiere negligunt, et onera curatorum caritate mutua
Supportare ; quin imino eis penitus derelictis ad celebranda annualia et
ad alia peculiaria se conférant obsequia,’ &c. Wilkins, Cone. iii. ɪ ; cf.
pp. 50, 51, 213. The same archbishop fixed a maximum amount of
stipend ; ib. p. 135.

³ See above, p. 48.

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