strong churchman, who sent in yearly reports of their repair and general condition to the archdeacon. [1]
One or two inventories of this time show the churches were very poorly furnished.[2] A vivid picture of their general appearance may be gathered from a visitation of 1636, of which an account will be given in its right place ; and as there is no evidence of any sudden change, but only of a general declension, it is probable that they possessed very much the same furniture in 1600. The only articles of value seem to have been a silver ' communion cup ' and cover : the flagon, if it existed, being very often of pewter.[3]
The state of things described in this visitation of 1612 serves to illustrate the sermons of a preacher of the day, Thomas Adams, who was vicar of Wingrave at about this time. He complains that the people ' grudged at every penny ' they were taxed for at levies for church expenses (the justice of this charge is manifested by the gradual decay of the churches), and that they seemed to think it was enough to have bare walls and a cover to keep them from rain ; ' aliquid ornatus is but super- fluous, except it be a cushion and a wainscot seat for a gentleman's better ease,' while ' the greatest preparation usually against some solemn feast is but a little fresh straw under the feet ; the ordinary allowance for hogs in the stye and horses in the stable.'[4] In another place he complains of the unfaithfulness of the churchwardens, who were of course largely responsible for this neglect : ' drunkenness, uncleanness, swearing, profanation of the Sabbath go abroad all the year, and when the visitation comes they are locked up with an omnia bene.'[5] A similar complaint was made a few years later by Dr. John Andrewes, vicar of Beaconsfield, in a letter to the chancellor of Lincoln, where he says that unless church- wardens and sworn men be severely proceeded against according to the canons for their ' wilful, common and execrable perjury,' there would never be any reformation of their misdemeanours. For they usually
- ↑ MS. Records of the Archdeaconry of St. Albans.
- ↑ There is one for Wing in the Churchwardens' Book, f. 115, comprising, besides books, only a silver cup and cover, two surplices, two ' communion carpets ' and linen for the altar with a ' font cloth.' At Amersham in 1603 they had besides the communion cup a great pewter pot and a quart pot, a hearse cloth, a cloth for the pulpit, two carpets for the communion table, and two linen cloths, besides books, chest and small articles (Records of Bucks, vii. 50). At Winslow in 1638, when all was in good order, they had very little more than this. It is natural to wonder what had become of the ornaments which most churches possessed in 1558. They were probably nothing like so numerous or valuable at any time during Mary's reign as before 1552 ; yet there was never any official confiscation afterwards, and it is hard to account for their mysterious disappearance in the course of the century. The vestments might moulder away on the damp shelves of ill-kept sacristies, or be made up into ' communion carpets ' at Beachampton even in the eighteenth century there were two copes, of which one served as an altar the other as a pulpit-cloth : but what had become of the crosses, the candlesticks, the censers ? The same book at Wing which shows their existence in 1553-8 witnesses to their absence in 1600. There are items in the Amersham Book just quoted which suggest the love-feasts of the primitive Church rather than the Holy Communion. In 1603 two or even three ' rundletts ' of wine, each con- taining ten gallons, were ordered for the church on three different occasions (Records of Bucks, vii. 50).
- ↑ In the visitation articles of 1635 f r this archdeaconry it was appointed to be inquired whether each church had a flagon of ' pewter or better metal ' (S. P. Dom. Chas. I. cccviii. 50). In the visitation report of 1637 it was stated that several churches had no flagon at all. Ibid, ccclxvi. 79, and ccclxix. 59.
- ↑ Thomas Adams, Sermons, p. 627.
- ↑ Ibid. 938.
320
