A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



daily board, either in the frater or in the prior's chamber, as he preferred, 

 his servant boarding in like manner with the prior's upper servants. He 

 received as stipend 30/. a year, and td. at each of the four principal feasts. 

 He was also allowed the residuum of the blessed bread every Sunday, half of 

 every second legacy, and a penny whenever he celebrated mass at a funeral or 

 a marriage. Moreover, the monks not only sustained all parochial charges, 

 but found two chaplains with their two clerks to assist the vicar. The vicar 

 of St. Sepulchre's was on a like footing with his brother of All Saints', save 

 that he had a stipend of two marks, and did not receive any clerical assistance. 

 The vicars of St. Edmund, St. Giles, and St. Michael received the full value 

 of their churches, save that they had to render to the priory the respective 

 sums of twenty shillings, twelve marks, and four marks. The vicar of 

 St. Bartholomew's retained all the income of that church by rendering 

 annually to the monks a pound of white incense. 



With regard to the country vicarages, one or two of the more 

 exceptional features may be named. The vicar of Little Addington received 

 part of his stipend in kind, the abbot of Sulby supplying him with six 

 quarters of wheat and six of barley, half the quantity at Easter and the other 

 half at Michaelmas. The abbey of St. Lucien exempted from the dues of 

 the vicar of Weedon Lois the oblations offered to relics in the church of 

 Weedon, as well as the candles on the day of the Purification. One of the 

 most interesting obligations that we have met with in regard to vicarage 

 ordinations is that which rested upon the canons of the Austin houses of both 

 Chalcombe and Canons Ashby with regard to the vicars of those parishes, 

 namely, the providing them each with a palfrey to attend synods or chapters, 

 or to visit the sick whenever necessary. 



During the last half of the thirteenth and the first half of the fourteenth 

 century the ordination of vicarages in this county went on apace, though after 

 an intermittent fashion, until the number enrolled by Bishop Wells was 

 nearly doubled. The proportion of vicarages to rectories in Northampton- 

 shire was far in excess of the average proportion in England generally. 

 At the end of the pre-Reformation period there were in this county 105 

 vicarages to 176 rectories, whereas the general proportion throughout England 

 stood at 3,845 to 9,284.^ It is difficult to offer any adequate reason or 

 reasons for this exceptional feature of Northamptonshire church life, but it 

 was probably chiefly due to the powerful influence of the great abbey of 

 Peterborough in the north of the county, and of the priory of St. Andrew in 

 Northampton and the adjoining districts. There would, too, be less disposition 

 on the part of bishops to put a check on appropriations when so many of the 

 Northamptonshire parishes were of comparatively small area and population. 



The amount of tithes, glebes, and advowsons held throughout the shire 

 by religious houses does not, of course, by any means represent the extent of 

 territorial influence which the religious orders possessed. They had tenants 

 almost everywhere up and down the county, some of these tenants occupying 

 small farms or holdings let at a definite rental and under no special control ; 

 others being found on the large farms or granges where the monks or 

 canons had a definite agricultural establishment and a chapel, the latter in no 

 way connected with the parochial system. 



' Cutts, Parish Priests and their People (1893), caps, xxv, xxvi. 



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