A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



strong churchman, who sent in yearly reports of their repair and general 

 condition to the archdeacon. 1 



One or two inventories of this time show the churches were very 

 poorly furnished. 3 A vivid picture of their general appearance may be 

 gathered from a visitation of 1636, of which an account will be given in 

 its right place ; and as there is no evidence of any sudden change, but 

 only of a general declension, it is probable that they possessed very much 

 the same furniture in 1600. The only articles of value seem to have 

 been a silver ' communion cup ' and cover : the flagon, if it existed, 

 being very often of pewter. 3 



The state of things described in this visitation of 1612 serves to 

 illustrate the sermons of a preacher of the day, Thomas Adams, who 

 was vicar of Wingrave at about this time. He complains that the people 

 ' grudged at every penny ' they were taxed for at levies for church 

 expenses (the justice of this charge is manifested by the gradual decay of 

 the churches), and that they seemed to think it was enough to have bare 

 walls and a cover to keep them from rain ; ' aliquid ornatus is but super- 

 fluous, except it be a cushion and a wainscot seat for a gentleman's better 

 ease,' while ' the greatest preparation usually against some solemn feast 

 is but a little fresh straw under the feet ; the ordinary allowance for hogs 

 in the stye and horses in the stable.' 4 In another place he complains of 

 the unfaithfulness of the churchwardens, who were of course largely 

 responsible for this neglect : ' drunkenness, uncleanness, swearing, 

 profanation of the Sabbath go abroad all the year, and when the visitation 

 comes they are locked up with an omnia bene.'" A similar complaint 

 was made a few years later by Dr. John Andrewes, vicar of Beaconsfield, 

 in a letter to the chancellor of Lincoln, where he says that unless church- 

 wardens and sworn men be severely proceeded against according to the 

 canons for their ' wilful, common and execrable perjury,' there would 

 never be any reformation of their misdemeanours. For they usually 



1 MS. Records of the Archdeaconry of St. Albans. 



> There is one for Wing in the Churchwardens' Book, f. 115, comprising, besides books, only a silver 

 cup and cover, two surplices, two ' communion carpets ' and linen for the altar with a ' font cloth.' At 

 Amersham in 1603 they had besides the communion cup a great pewter pot and a quart pot, a hearse 

 cloth, a cloth for the pulpit, two carpets for the communion table, and two linen cloths, besides books, 

 chest and small articles (Records of Bucks, vii. 50). At Winslow in 1638, when all was in good order, they 

 had very little more than this. It is natural to wonder what had become of the ornaments which most 

 churches possessed in 1558. They were probably nothing like so numerous or valuable at any time dur- 

 ing Mary's reign as before 1552 ; yet there was never any official confiscation afterwards, and it is hard 

 to account for their mysterious disappearance in the course of the century. The vestments might moulder 

 away on the damp shelves of ill-kept sacristies, or be made up into ' communion carpets ' at Beach- 

 ampton even in the eighteenth century there were two copes, of which one served as an altar the other 

 as a pulpit-cloth : but what had become of the crosses, the candlesticks, the censers ? The same book at 

 Wing which shows their existence in 1553-8 witnesses to their absence in 1600. 



There are items in the Amersham Book just quoted which suggest the love-feasts of the primitive 

 Church rather than the Holy Communion. In 1603 two or even three ' rundletts ' of wine, each con- 

 taining ten gallons, were ordered for the church on three different occasions (Records of Bucks, vii. 50). 



3 In the visitation articles of 1635 f r this archdeaconry it was appointed to be inquired whether 

 each church had a flagon of ' pewter or better metal ' (S. P. Dom. Chas. I. cccviii. 50). In the visitation 

 report of 1637 it was stated that several churches had no flagon at all. Ibid, ccclxvi. 79, and ccclxix. 59. 



* Thomas Adams, Sermons, p. 627. 



e Ibid. 938. 



320 



