ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY sincerely anxious to fulfil tlie pious intentions of their predecessors, at least until the end of the 15th century. The wills after the 14th century contain almost more bequests in aid of existing chantries than foundations of new ones. Comparatively few ordinances for the conduct of chantries in London remain, but all that exist strongly resemble one another, and therefore may probably be taken as typical. The ordinance of the chantry of Robert Newcomen, founded in 1324 at the altar of St. Mary in the church of St. Michael le Querne, was as follows : the chaplain was to celebrate every day in the church with Placebo and Dirige and other prayers for the living and dead ; he was to find all necessaries such as books, vestments, and furni- ture for the altar, and these were to pass on to his successors and might not be alienated ; he was to say Mattins and Vespers and all canonical hours with the rector in the church daily unless he were occupied with the celebration of his mass ; finally, he might be removed by the bishop on well-proved misconduct or incompetency, and on admission was to swear to keep the ordinances."' Part II. — From 1348 to 1521 In I 345 the mayor complained to the dean and chapter that there were few priests to sing at St. Paul's in proportion to the chantries, and some of those few held benefices or chantries elsewhere.^ This indicates that even before the Black Death the demand for priests was greater than the supply. The salaries of chantry priests often exceeded those of the assistant parochial clergy and the incomes of the holders of poor benefices, and between 1350 and 1 42 1 several attempts were made to limit the amount which might be paid to them, and to compel them to undertake work involving the cure of souls if required.^ A constitution of 1351 states that in London there were very many such priests, some of whom were said to have been elsewhere ex- communicated or suspended, or accused of various crimes, and to have come thither because, sub populi multitudine, they were the more free to behave badly.' The writer of Piers the Plowman, like Chaucer, refers to country clergymen who deserted their cures to become chantry priests in London:* Parsons and parish priests plaineth to their bishops That their parish hath been poor sith the pestilence time, And asketh leave and licence at London to dwell To sing there for simony : for silver is sweet. From another passage in Piers the Plowman ^ it seems that later even a clerk in minor orders could live in the City by singing prayers and psalms for the souls of those who helped him. Many chantries were founded in London during 1349 and 1350, and during the next outbreak of plague in 1361 ; this, however, was due rather "« D. and C. St. Paul's, A. box 76, no. 2014. ' Letter from the mayor to the dean and chapter in Riley, Mem. of Lond. 224. ' Wilkins, Concilia, iii, 1-2, 15 (1350-1), 29 (1353), 50 (1362 ; cf. Walsingham, Hist. Angl. [Rolls Ser.], i, 297), 135 (1378), 402 (1421); cf Sharpe, Cal. Letter Bk. G, 151. ' Wilkins, Concilia, iii, 15.
- Piers the Plowman, A, Prol. 11. 80-3 ; Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, 11. 507-11 ; cf Cal. of Papal
Pet. i, 365, 385, 388 ; Cal. of Papal Letters, iii, 367. ' Piers the Plowman, C, vi, 11. 44 et seq. 207
