The smaller
livings were forsaken, the curate market rose, the chaplains would
neither take the country vicarages nor engage themselves as
regular helpers to the parish priests. London swarmed with
itinerants who preferred picking up a livelihood by occasional
duty, when they could make their own terms, to binding themselves to
a cure of souls. [Footnote: Compare Chaucer's words--"He sette not
his benefice to hire, And lette his sheep accombred in the mire,
_And ran unto London, into Seint Paules To seken him a chanterie
for Soules_"---with Wilkins' "Concilia," vol. iii. I.] The primate
denounced these greedy ones again and again, but it was all in vain;
the bishops found it impossible to draw the reins of discipline as
tightly as they wished, and found it equally impossible to prevent
the extortionate demands of such curates as could be got. The evil
grew to such a height that the faithful Commons took the matter up
and petitioned the King to interfere, inasmuch as "les chappeleins
sont devenuz si chers" that they actually demanded ten or even twelve
marks a year as their stipend--"a grant grevance & oppression du
poeple." The usual methods were resorted to, and if people could be
made good by Act of Parliament the evils complained of would have
disappeared. They did not disappear, and the evil grew. Unhappily the
increased stipends did not serve to produce a better article, and it
is only too plain that the religious convictions and the religious
life of the people suffered seriously.
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