ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY souls and ought not to confess parishioners without the leave of the rectors. No record has been found of any answer to this petition or of any steps being taken to remedy the abuses complained of with regard to the friars. But more is heard concerning the usurpation of the capellani non stipendiarii, who must have been the chantry priests, at this period rapidly increasing in numbers. In 13 15 another petition was presented by the rectors of the City to the archdeacon or his deputy, complaining that malicious and unwise chantry priests stirred up strife in churches, and asking that they should be made to swear to celebrate faithfully according to their ordinances, to be present at matins and other hours in the church, not to take oblations or in any way to defraud the rector or stir up strife between him and the parishioners, and not to move from one rector to another without a certificate showing the cause. In the remaining clauses the petitioners asked for facilities for transacting business with the archdeacon and inspecting wills of parishioners, and complained of the conduct of the ' apparitors ' and the citations of rectors and parishioners to the archdeacon's court. This petition was granted ; °°* indeed, so far as the chantry priests were concerned, the oaths which the rectors wished them to take had already been made obligatory throughout the province of Canterbury by the archbishop in 1305.^** Steps seem also to have been taken to stop the encroachments of the hermits, for in 131 1 one who was found to be guilty of the practices described above was forced to desist, and the people of the diocese were forbidden on pain of excommuni- cation to leave their churches for his hermitage.^" With regard to residence there is very little evidence. In 1 302 leave of absence for study was granted by the bishop to the rector of St. Bride's." In this case no doubt a proper substitute was provided. An oath taken by a capellanus parochialis who appears to have been such a substitute to the rector of St. Martin Vintry has been preserved. The transaction begins ' Idem Rector eundem dominum N. capellanum custodem et curatorem ecclesiae suae Sancti Martini predictae et parochiae suae sive parochianorum eiusdem loco sui sibi substituit.' The rector delivers to the capellanus the burden of the cure of the souls of the parishioners from Michaelmas 1304 for a year, or longer if the rector pleases. The same N. swears to serve the rector faithfully, to keep his secrets, not to stir up discord between the rector and parishioners nor in any way to procure his loss, not to appropriate oblations, &c. belong- ing to the rector, and to collect 'wax-money"'^ for him twice a year; to incite the parishioners in their confessions and last wills to devotion towards the church and to procure the advantage of the rector in all ways possible ; to do his pastoral work honestly and well, being in the church day and night, and never to miss the accustomed hours. He is to obey all canonical mandates of the ordinary and take the place of the rector at all citations, &c. of the clergy of the archdeaconry of London. His salary was to be 10s. a year* together with the casual legacies of parishioners.^^^ In 1309 Robert Burel, vicar of the church of St. Margaret Moses, of which the convent of St. Faith, Horsham, was rector, was summoned before the bishop to answer why '" Camb. Univ. Lib. GG. 4, 32. '" Wilkins, ConciRa, ii, z8o. '" Lond. Epis. Reg. Baldock and Gravesend, fol. 29. "' Ibid. fol. 6. '" ' Ceragium ' ; Du Cange quotes from Spelman ' ceragia vulgariter vocata waxscotts. '** The value of St. Martin's was returned in 1291 as 30/. after deducting a pension of 40/. Camb. Univ. Lib. GG. 4, 32. I 201 26
