It is well known that -in the early Middle Ages
the. tithes of many, parishes. were . ppropriated, by local magnates and, with Papal sanction, to monastic houses. Bishops made it their business to see that the parish churches were duly served, and that the " vicars," acting in place of the original " rectors," were suitably remunerated. Mr. R. A. R. Hartridge'S history of Vicarages in the Middle Ages (Cambridge University Press, 15s.), in Dr. Coulton's series of " Cambridge Studies," gives a lucid survey, with much illustrative detail, of this difficult subject. We could wish that the author did not share his editor's bias against monasticism. Such a bias . is unhistorical. Our mediaeval forefathers evidently liked to found and endow monasteries, and evidently believed that Church revenues were rightly devoted to a few religious houses instead of being all spent in the many parisheS on the celibate priests and the poor. It is idle for us to say that they were all wrong—from the Popes downwards. The system was no doubt full of abuses, though from the thirteenth century onwards reforming bishops did their best. But our many fine mediaeval parish churches show that the parochial clergy, with or without the tithes, fulfilled their duties and enjoyed the support of their flocks. There is no need to assume that the great abbeys and the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge prospered at the expense of down- trodden vicars in-the rural districts..
* • * * *
Previous page
