In a
period of dreadful mortality, if the parsons died off in large
numbers, it would be inevitable that the impoverished livings would
"go a begging." It might be difficult to get the most valuable pieces
of preferment filled--it would be impossible to fill such as could
not offer a bare maintenance. Hence the Institution Books can only be
accepted as giving a part of the evidence with regard to the clerical
mortality. However startling the number of deaths of clergy within a
certain area during a given period may appear to be, they certainly
will not represent the whole number--only the number of such
incumbents as were forthwith replaced by their successors; and,
taking one year with another, it is fair to say that within any
diocese the _larger the number of institutions_ recorded in a
given time, the _more incomplete_ will be the record of the
deaths among the clergy during that time. When there are more men
than places the places are soon filled. When there are more places
than men there must needs be vacancies--square holes and round ones.
So much for the Institution Books. With regard to the Court Rolls,
there the evidence is even much less exhaustive; for here we have the
registers of the deaths of the landholders within the manor, great
and small--_i.e._, of the heads of families; but, except in rare
instances, we have no notice of any other member of the household, or
of what happened to them.
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