334 LOW PRICES OF 



CHAP. XII. 



ox, 20*. ; a fat sheep, %s. ; a fat goose, 6d. ; a 

 young pig, 3d. ; and six pigeons, 3d. 



The wages of labour, or the rates allowed for 

 the subsistence of different classes of persons, 

 may both be usefully employed to elucidate the 

 value of the precious metals. 



We find in the Chronicon Preciosum, that in 

 the year 1237 there were three chaplains who 

 did daily duty in the church of the Templars, 

 each of whom were paid a yearly salary of four 

 marcs, each marc being eight ounces of silver, 

 thus making their pay equal to 8 of our cur- 

 rency. 



By an act of 36th of Edward III. cap. 8., in 

 the year 1414, it is ordered that no man shall 

 give to a parish priest more than ten pounds a 

 year, or else his board and four pounds a year. 

 In 1414, by the act of 5th Henry V. cap. 8., it 

 is enacted that the yearly salary of chaplains shall 

 be nine pounds six shillings and eightpence, and 

 that of parish priests twelve pounds. In 1421, 

 the archbishop of Canterbury, in convocation, 

 confirmed a former order, by which each parish 

 priest was to content himself with eight marcs a 

 year, or with four marcs and his diet. 



Fleetwood, speaking of the year 1439, ob- 

 serves, that a clergyman could maintain himself 

 respectably for ten pounds a year. 



We find in the Chronicon, that workmen took 

 their wages in wheat at the price of sixteen- 



