A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



year, while no less than twenty-nine died during this period." At Michael- 

 mas 1347 there were twenty-five prisoners, twelve were received in the 

 course of the year and nine died." It appears possible that here there was 

 some such free prison as that attached to certain of the civil gaols." It seems, 

 moreover, that extra liberty was occasionally allowed to clerics imprisoned in 

 Hertford Castle, for in 1363-4 Walter, a criminous priest, was given into 

 the charge of the rector of St, Nicholas, Hertford ; he escaped, much to the 

 annoyance of the gaoler, who promptly clapped the rector into gaol.'* 

 Besides these misdemeanours occasional instances are found among the 

 parochial clergy of what was known as apostasy — the deliberate desertion of 

 the life of a cleric for that of a layman. In the 13th century the military 

 orders opened a life of adventure to the churchman, and it was perhaps as a 

 Templar that the parson of Bygrave in 12 19 assumed the knightly sword." 

 In the 15th century there was no such way of escape, and several instances 

 of apostasy may be found. Roger Caldecott, vicar of Norton, deserted his 

 cure about 1478 and was deprived'' ; at Sarratt in 1485 Thomas Hemyng- 

 ford, who had held the living since 1476, was similarly dealt with." 

 Deprivation does not, however, seem to have been frequent, and the lists of 

 prisoners at Stortford '* suggest that the majority of criminous clerks 

 imprisoned there were not in full orders. Some of them were probably 

 drawn from the class of chaplains and chantry priests which was becoming 

 important at this date. The impulse towards founding monastic establish- 

 ments had almost failed by the beginning of the 14th century, even as the 

 sacrificial aspect of the mass had grown in popularity. The chantry was 

 of course no new thing ; as far back as 1247 the rector of Eastwick had 

 obtained papal confirmation of an ordinance directing that in Eastwick Church 

 there should be three priests — the rector, a priest to say daily the office of the 

 Blessed Virgin, and a priest to say daily that of the dead." Chantries were 

 founded in almost every church in Hertfordshire and were frequently associated 

 with the cult of our Lady.*° 



According to modern ideas one of the greatest scandals of the Church 

 ot the I 2th and 13th centuries was the holding of benefices by persons totally 

 incapable of fulfilling the duty of their office and incapable from voluntary 

 causes. The deacon, the sub-deacon, the acolyte, would seek and obtain 

 benefices with no intention of taking full orders, for the mediaeval mind had 

 an inveterate tendency to consider the rector, as it has well been put, rather 

 as 'the tenant of the church property than the pastor of the people.'" In 

 practice this idea was adopted by the papacy, the Crown, and occasionally 

 by the episcopate. In theory the church required every beneficed person 

 to be in priest's orders, and a constitution to this effect was issued by the 

 Council of Lyons in 1292.*^ 



'^ Mins. Accts. (Gen. Ser.), bdle. 1 140, no. I. '^ Ibid. no. 3. 



2' For the escape of clerks from the gaol of St. Albans see Anct. Indictments, K.B. 9, file 38, m. 13. 

 '* Ibid, file 37, m. 15. For outlawries of clerks see Chan. Misc. bdle. 6z, passim. 

 ^' Rot. Hugonis de Welles (Cant, and York Soc), lii, 35. 



26 Reg. Abbatum Mm. S. Jlbani (Rolls Ser.), ii, 188. " Ibid. p. xlv. 



^ Mins. Accts. (Gen. Ser.), bdle. 1 140, no. 1-3. One ' priest ' was received there in each of the yean 

 1344.-S and 13+7-8. 



3^ Cal. Papal Letters, i, 235. *o See Topographical section, /<»/;/»). 



^1 Stocks and Bragg, Market Harborough Rec. 2 1 . 



'- Fleury, Inst, du droit canonique, cap. iii, viii ; Line. Epis. Reg. Sutton, Memo. fol. 55. 



298 



