A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



There were also to be eight vicars and two 

 vipper clerks sworn to continual residence, and 

 instructed in plain song and part-song (in piano 

 cantu et dhcantu) ; five chorister boys of good 

 life to help in singing and to serve in quire, each 

 to receive five marks a year, or at least food and 

 clothing and all necessaries ; vicars or choristers 

 absent from mattins, mass, or evensong to be fined 

 one penny, from the other hours a farthing, the 

 fines to be used for buying church ornaments. 

 There were to be, in addition, two under clerks, 

 perpetually resident, to act as keepers of the 

 vestments, bellringers, lamp-trimmers, door- 

 keepers, clock-winders, &c. The mattins bell 

 was to be rung at five and the last stroke at six ; 

 high mass to be finished at 1 1 a.m. and evensong 

 at 5 p.m. All services were to follow the use 

 of Sarum. The mass of Our Lady to be sung 

 daily as well as the mass of the day, save when 

 the mass of the dav was of the Blessed Virgin, 

 and then the second mass was to be of Requiem. 

 Mattins and evensong were to be sung daily 

 immediately after the ringing of the bell, save in 

 Lent, when evensong of Our Lady was to follow 

 evensong of the day. The canons were to wear 

 grey almuces and the vicars black, and both 

 were to wear black copes and white surplices at 

 mattins, mass, and the other hours, after the 

 manner of other colleges. A master was to be 

 appointed at 40J. salary to teach the boys reading, 

 plain song, part-song, &c, and to give his ex- 

 clusive time to them, seeing after their clothes, 

 beds, and other necessaries. 



Every evening at eight the curfew bell was to 

 be rung for a sufficient time to admit of walking 

 from the chapel of St. Mary to the college, and 

 when the bell finished every outer door was to 

 be fastened, and no one of the household of the 

 college, from canon to chorister, was to be per- 

 mitted to be outside the house save by special 

 permission of the dean or vice-dean. No canon, 

 vicar, or clerk was to frequent taverns at Stoke 

 or Ash ; a canon thus offending to be suspended 

 for a year, and other minister to be expelled. 

 No canon (except he had an income of £40 a 

 year), nor vicar, nor clerk was to hunt ; nor were 

 greyhounds or any kind of hunting dogs to be 

 kept within the college save by the dean, whose 

 dogs were not to exceed four. No canon nor 

 minister of the college was to carry arms of any 

 kind, either defensive or offensive, within the 

 college, under pain, if a canon, of forfeiting the 

 arms to the dean for the first offence, and paying 

 a fine of 20j. to the church fabric for a second 

 offence ; a vicar or clerk thus acting was to be ex- 

 pelled. Other statutes dealt with striking blows, 

 incontinency, slander, and debts ; the attaining 

 to a thorough knowledge of vocal and instru- 

 mental music ; the offices of verger and janitor, 

 with their respective duties and emoluments ; 

 the division and cultivation of the vicars' garden ; 

 the common seal, and its custody ; the rendering 

 of annual accounts ; the arrangement of the 



146 



masses ; the dining in common hall, and the 

 reading of the Bible at meals ; leave of absence 

 for eight weeks for a vicar, and six weeks for a 

 clerk ; the use of special antiphons ; the ringing 

 or causing to be rung of a bell on the chancel 

 gable (of such sound that it would carry half a 

 mile) by each priest when about to celebrate 

 mass ; the giving of a cope of 40;. value by 

 each canon within the year of his appointment ; 

 the election of dean and canons on a vacancy, 

 and the election of vicars, clerks, and choristers ; 

 the assigning of the churches of Gazeley, 

 Crimplesham, and Bures, and various pensions, 

 &c. for the sustenance of the vicars ; the giving 

 to the college by each vicar within a year of his 

 appointment of six silver spoons, or 13*. 4^. to 

 purchase them ; and the oath to be taken by 

 each member of the college. 



The last of all these numerous statutes provided 

 that daily, immediately after compline, there shall 

 be sung in the Lady chapel, by all the ministers 

 present, the antiphon of the Blessed Virgin, 

 namely, Saint Regina, &c. It is noted that this 

 one statute was added at the special petition of 

 Richard Flemyng, bishop of Lincoln, who pro- 

 cured the confirmation of the statutes by Pope 

 Martin. 1 



These statutes were slightly amended from 

 time to time, and the number of the prebends 

 augmented as benefactions increased. 2 



The clear annual value of the college of St. 

 John Baptist, Stoke, was shown by the Valor of 

 1535 to be ^324 4*. \\d. The temporalities 

 in Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk, and Hertfordshire 

 brought in an income of ^99 lis. ~j\d. The 

 spiritualities produced ^268 4;., and included 

 the Essex rectories of Great Dunmow, Thaxted, 

 Bardfield Magna, Bardfield Saling, Wetherfield, 

 Finchingfield, and Bures ; the Gloucestershire 

 rectory of Bisley ; the Norfolk rectory of 

 Crimplesham, and the Suffolk rectories of Gaze- 

 ley, Cavenham, Hundon, and Stoke ; together 

 with a great number of pensions or portions from 

 other churches. The offerings at the image of 

 the Blessed Virgin within her chapel in Carte- 

 strete, Stoke, averaged 40$. a year. 3 



The church of Great Dunmow had been 

 appropriated to the college in 148 1, and that of 

 Wetherfield in 1503. 4 



1 These elaborate statutes are set forth in full in 

 Latin in Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1417-23. There is an 

 English translation of them. Add. MS. 19103,87-95. 



2 The institutions in the Norwich diocesan register 

 of some fifty years later record admission to the sixth 

 stall on the dean's side (the dean taking the first), 

 and to the fifth stall on the north side, so there must 

 have been at one time ten prebendaries. 



3 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), 469-71. There were 

 then six prebendaries and a canon. 



' Parker MSS. C. C. C. Camb. cviii, 2-3. There 

 is much pertaining to the endowments and statutes 

 of Stoke College in Parker's noble collection of MSS. 

 They are numbered cviii, 2-4, 16-18, 22-40 

 clxx, 137. See Nasmyth's Catalogue (1777). 



