CHESTERFIELD CHURCH CUSTOMS. 165 



our Lord's death. The earliest documentary evidence of this cus- 

 tom is in the days of Pope Innocent I., about the year 450, but the 

 habit was certainly of much greater antiquity ; and as it prevailed 

 in the days of St. Augustine, probably represents the practice of 

 the Apostolic Church. This tradition is attested as an accepted 

 fact by the sixteenth canon of the Council of Toledo, in the year 

 693, which ordains that there shall be daily mass for the King 

 of Spain and his family, save on Good Friday, "which is a day 

 upon which it is not permitted to anyone to celebrate the Sacred 

 Mysteries." In the Eastern Church, there is no recognition of 

 the Eucharist at all on this day. Though there is not con- 

 clusive evidence that it was ever intended by our Re- 

 formers to set this long established custom of the Church 

 at defiance, it would seem that a sheer spirit of perversity 

 caused a certain portion of the Puritan and Genevan element 

 within the Church of England, who disobeyed the whole spirit 

 and letter of the Prayer-book in the number of their celebrations, 

 to select Good Friday for "a Sacrament day." Some, indeed, 

 went so far as to abandon an Easter Day celebration in favour of 

 one on tlie death-day of our Lord. Chesterfield is one of the 

 only instances that we have found wherein a continuous and 

 largely attended Good Friday celebration can be proved right 

 through the eighteenth century. 



The total of the sum collected at these sacramental offertories 

 in 1733-4 was p^i3 8s. 3jd.; in 1734-5 it amounted to ;^i4 3S- 6d. 

 It remained at this latter average for some years, but by the end 

 of the century had more than doubled in amount, the yearly 

 average exceeding ;^3o. 



As a rule the payments are tersely entered without any descrip- 

 tion, and varied in amount from 4d. to 2s. In 1745, 2s. 6d. was 

 given to " Soldyer Bowes motherless children ; " in 1751, 6d. was 

 given to " a soldier's wife in y^ Glumangate." Payment was 

 occasionally made out of the sacramental fund in kind instead of 

 money. Thus, in 1745, 4s. 6d. was given " for a pare of shoose ; " 

 and on another occasion, 7s. 8d. "for 2 shirts & stocks." On 

 another occasion, a " campernow " was bestowed upon a widow 



