ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



number of graduates that appear among the persons instituted show that his 

 charge of illiteracy was .somewhat sweeping. 



Although the institution of those in minor orders to benefices was per- 

 missible, it remained the exception, and the best of the bishops endeavoured 

 to reduce it to a minimum. But the Black Death upset all usual ecclesiasti- 

 cal procedure. The years 1349-51 are remarkable for the extraordinary 

 number, not merely of persons who were ordained, but of persons whether in 

 minor orders or otherwise, who were ordained straight to benefices. The 

 striking difference begins with the ordination held at the prebendal church 

 of Liddington, in March, 1348-9, when fourteen sub-deacons were ordained 

 to benefices, five of which were in Northamptonshire, viz. : Ashley, Blakes- 

 ley, Creaton, Litchborough, and Middleton Cheney. On 6 June, 1349, at 

 Grantham, thirteen acolytes, eleven sub-deacons, and nine deacons were 

 ordained to benefices, of which those in Northamptonshire were Armston, 

 Ashby St. Ledgers, Elkington, Pytchley, Wadenhoe and WoUaston. On 

 18 September Lincoln witnessed the ordination of forty acolytes, twenty- 

 three sub-deacons, and twelve deacons. A great ordination was held at the 

 Carmelite church, Stamford, on 19 December, when the benejiciati included 

 thirteen acolytes, sixty sub-deacons and seventy-six deacons, many of them 

 destined for parishes in Northamptonshire. At an ordination in the church 

 of Rothwell, on 20 February, 1349-50, eleven acolytes were ordained to 

 benefices. There was another ordination on 13 March, when those 

 appointed to benefices included five acolytes, thirteen sub-deacons, and forty- 

 three deacons. It was much the same with the four other ordinations of 

 that year, and with those of 1351 and 1352, which were held at scattered 

 centres, such as Bedford, Huntingdon, Oxford, Sleaford, and Stowe, and it 

 was not until after the May ordination of 1353 that matters resumed a nor- 

 mal condition. 



These beneficed clerks were for the most part speedily passed on to the 

 priesthood, but what must have been the condition of their parishes mean- 

 while, so far as sacraments and sacramentals were concerned ? A few in- 

 stances, occurring in this county, may be given here of the rapidity, contrary 

 to all usual custom, with which many of these clerks progressed in orders. 

 Richard de Cranesley was ordained sub-deacon, and instituted to Ashley in 

 March, i 349, and was priested in the following June. The case of John de 

 Wrangle and the vicarage of Blakesley was exactly similar. John Spelyng, 

 instituted to Little Billing in September, was ordained acolyte and sub-deacon 

 at the time, deacon in December, and priest in the following March. Philip 

 Weland, William Danet, and Elias de Brympton were instituted in December, 

 1349, to the respective livings of Grendon, Hargrave, and Newnham ; at the 

 same date they were all three ordained to the degrees of acolyte and sub- 

 deacon, and were admitted to the diaconate and the priesthood at the follow- 

 ing Easter. But protracted and far-reaching as were the effects produced 

 upon the Church by the Great Pestilence and recurrences of the plague in 

 1361 and 1366, she maintained, with little diminution, the dignity of her 

 corporate life. 



In 1380 Northampton was the scene of an important meeting of Parlia- 

 ment. In connexion with the not infrequent summoning of Parliament to this 

 town, the statement has been made (first by Bridges and then repeated by sub- 



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