FOURTEENTH CENTURY LIFE IN BRlbPORT. 105 



officiated in the town, whose names, preceded by the knightly 

 title of " Sir," instead of " Reverend," figure as legatees in 

 many of the wills, whilst St. Mary's, the parish church, had at 

 least seven altars dedicated respectively in honour of Our Lady, 

 All Saints, St. Leonard, St. Katharine, St. Nicholas, St. George, 

 and the Holy Trinity. Guilds and brotherhoods flourished in 

 profusion ; the confraternity of St. Nicholas, of the Holy Cross, 

 of the Holy Trinity, the brotherhood of the lamp of St. Mary, and 

 various other bodies corresponding in a certain degree to our 

 friendly societies are mentioned in these wills ; nor was church 

 life in those days so insular or so exclusively parochial as 

 it is nowadays. Very few thought of making a will without 

 bequeathing a legacy to the Cathedral, " to the fabric of the 

 Cathedral of St. Mary of Sarum, one ring of silver," says Agnes 

 Talant in 1371, whilst the Dorset abbeys, priories, hospitals, 

 and many of the local churches, even as far as Dorchester and 

 Weymouth, figure in the bequests of liberal Bridport merchants. 

 "To the Rector for tithes forgotten," was a regular phrase of 

 legacy, and such an assortment of cattle, sheep, lambs, bull 

 calves, bushels of wheat, and "Six and eightpences" fell to his 

 share as must have made the living a valuable piece of prefer- 

 ment. The parish clerk and the bedeman too received legacies, 

 whilst from the number of endowed anniversaries or obits com- 

 memorating deceased testators it would seem that not a day 

 in the calendar was free from some bell tolling function. It is 

 easy to see the tendency of events towards the Reformation ; 

 hardly a landed estate in the place, but the Church had some 

 claim out of it in payment for masses, candles, obits, or 

 anniversaries. One cannot, however, but admire the zeal and 

 devotion of the good sisters of the St. John's Hospital and the 

 Magdalen leper house, whose pious work was often recognised 

 by the testators. Much of the pre-Reformation hospital work 

 of the Church has been over-looked or under-valued in books 

 dealing with the subject. No words can exaggerate what a loss 

 to the country the dissolution of these institutions was at the 

 Reformation. 



