The Status of the Elizabethan Parochial Clergy

Philip Tyler

doi:10.1017/S0424208400005015

The Status of the Elizabethan Parochial Clergy

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016

Philip Tyler

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Philip Tyler*: Affiliation:
Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford

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The continuity of English ecclesiastical history is so strong that one is always faced with the problem of when to begin. Paradoxically enough, so far as the diocese of York is concerned, 1499 seems to be a good choice to begin any examination of the Elizabethan clergy. In that year one of the last appropriations of a benefice by a monastic house took place. After this only three more similar appropriations are recorded. This concluded a process which had lasted more than two centuries and was to influence the status of the parish clergy in local society until Queen Anne’s Bounty and after. In 1710 the commissioners found that 5,597 benefices out of a total of nearly 10,000 livings in England and Wales were not worth more than £ 50 a year. A further examination revealed that of these 5,597 livings 2,122 had a yearly value of less than £30, and a further 1,200 were valued at less than £ 20 a year.

Type: Research Article
Information: Studies in Church History , Volume 4: The Province of York , 1967 , pp. 76 - 97

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0424208400005015 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1967

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^{Page 76 of note 1} A. Hamilton Thompson, The English Clergy and their organisation in the Later Middle Ages, 1947, 115.

^{Page 76 of note 2} Notman Sykes, Church and State in England in the Eighteenth Century, 1933, 212.

^{Page 77 of note 1} A. Hamilton Thompson, op. cit., 115.

^{Page 77 of note 2} Valor Ecclesiasticus Temp. Henr. VIII Auctoritate Regia Institutus, Record Commission (1814-21), V, passim. (Henceforward abbreviated to V.E.).

^{Page 79 of note 1} V.E., IV, 30-344.

^{Page 79 of note 2} It seems that in 1603 just over 41% of the benefices in England and Wales were traceable as having been impropriated by the laity. See D. M. Barratt, ‘The condition of the parish clergy between the Reformation and 1660, with special reference to the dioceses of Oxford, Worcester, and Gloucester’ (Oxford Univ. D. Phil, thesis, 1949), 180.

^{Page 79 of note 3} A. Hamilton Thompson, op. cit., 116.

^{Page 80 of note 1} A. Hamilton Thompson, op. cit., 123.

^{Page 80 of note 2} V.E.,V,38.

^{Page 80 of note 3} The Chantry Certificates, ed. Rose, Graham, Oxford Record Series, I (1919), 42–43 Google Scholar.

^{Page 80 of note 1} Cf.Walker, R. B. , ‘Reformation and Reaction in the county of Lincoln 1547-1558’, Lincolnshire Architectural and Archaeological Society, 9, pt. I (1961), 50 Google Scholar.

^{Page 80 of note 2} Lawrence, Stone, ‘Social Mobility in England, 1500-1700’, Past and Present, no. 33 (April 1966), 24 Google Scholar.

^{Page 80 of note 3} The Registers of Cuthbert Tunstall, bishop of Durham 1530-59 and James Pilkington, bishop of Durham 1561-76, ed. Gladys, Hinde, (Surtees Society, 1952), xviii Google Scholar.

^{Page 82 of note 1} Cf. A. Hamilton Thompson, op. cit., 177.

^{Page 82 of note 2} ‘Visitations in the Diocese of Lincoln 1517-1531’, ed. Hamilton- Thompson, A., Lincoln Record Society, 33 (1940), xxxviii Google Scholar.

^{Page 82 of note 3} Ibid., pp. xxxii-xxxvii.

^{Page 82 of note 4} Barratt, D. M., loc. cit., 6,55 Google Scholar. I am most grateful to Dr Barratt for placing at my disposal her unrivalled knowledge of the dioceses of Oxford, Worcester, and Gloucester from late medieval times to the 18th century. I owe her a great debt for her help and advice on many points.

^{Page 83 of note 1} Tyler, P., ‘The Ecclesiastical Commission for the province of York 1561-1641’ (Oxford Univ. D. Phil, thesis, 1965), 329, 330Google Scholar. This is on open access in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and will be published by the Clarendon Press, Oxford, in 1968.

^{Page 84 of note 1} inter alia Margaret, Aston Cf., ‘Lollardy and the Reformation: survival ot revival?’, History, XLIX (1964), 149–170 Google Scholar.

^{Page 84 of note 2} Heath, P., ‘Parish clergy in England, 1450-1530’ (London Univ. M.A. thesis, 1961), 50–56 Google Scholar.

^{Page 84 of note 3} Borthwick Institute, R. VI. A. 18, ff. 212v-213v (Henceforth abbreviated to B.I.).

^{Page 84 of note 4} Lawrence Stone, loc. cit., 24.

^{Page 85 of note 1} D. M. Barratt, loc. cit., 10-12.

^{Page 85 of note 2} For the Oxfordshire figures see D.M. Barrati, loc. cit., 18.

^{Page 85 of note 3} For a Yorkshire example see P. Tyler, loc. cit., 187-188.

^{Page 85 of note 4} Hoskins, W. G. Cf., ‘The Leicestershire country parson in the sixteenth century’, Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological Society, XXI (1940-41), 89–114 Google Scholar.

^{Page 86 of note 1} P. Tyler, loc. cit., 412.

^{Page 86 of note 2} Philip, Hughes, The Reformation in England, III, 135 Google Scholar.

^{Page 86 of note 3} P. Tyler, loc. cit., 388.

^{Page 86 of note 4} , B. I., Archbishop’s Registers, vol. 30, f. 174 Google Scholar.

^{Page 86 of note 5} , B. I., Archbishop’s Registers, vol. 31, f. 140 Google Scholar.

^{Page 86 of note 6} Bodleian Library, Oxon, MS. Wills, 183, ff. 60v–62v Google Scholar.

^{Page 87 of note 1} I am grateful to Mr John Addy, M.A., for transcripts of Richmondshire clergy wills from the Archives Department, Leeds Public Library.

^{Page 87 of note 2} Brooks, F. W. Cf., ‘The social position of the parson in the sixteenth century’, Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 3rd series, X (1945-47), 24 Google Scholar.

^{Page 87 of note 3} Cf. P. Tyler, ‘The Pattern of Christian Belief in Sekhukuniland, II’, Church Quarterly Review (July 1966), 347.

^{Page 87 of note 4} Tyler, P., ‘The Administrative Character of the Ecclesiastical Commission for the province of York 1561-1585’ (Oxford Univ. B. Litt, thesis, 1960), 342–343, 274, 276Google Scholar. This is on open access in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

^{Page 88 of note 1} For the position in parts of rural Africa see P. Tyler, ‘The Pattern of Christian Belief in Sehukuniland, I and II’, Church Quarterly Review, April- July 1966), passim.

^{Page 88 of note 2} Gladys Hinde ed., loc. cit., xxiv-xxv.

^{Page 88 of note 3} Tyler, P., loc. cit., (Oxford Univ. D. Phil, thesis, 1965), 384Google Scholar.

^{Page No 89 Note} Cited in C. Hill, Economic Problems of the Church from Archbishop Whitgift to the Long Parliament, 1956, 93.

^{Page 89 of note 2} Cf. W. G. Hoskins, loc. cit., 102.

^{Page 89 of note 3} Cf. Hill, op. cit., 93. Between 1480 and 1618 grain prices rose on the average by nearly 600%. Hoskins, W. G. Cf., ‘Harvest Fluctuations and English Economic History, 1480-1619’, The Agricultural History Review, XII (1964), 44–46 Google Scholar.

^{Page 89 of note 4} Ibid., 95.

^{Page 89 of note 5} I am grateful for MrGransby, D. for several conversations on this point, and for allowing me to consultsections of his forthcoming Manchester Univ. Ph. D. thesis: ‘The significance of Tithe disputes in the northern province, 1540-1641’Google Scholar.

^{Page 90 of note 1} Victoria County History of Oxfordshire, II (1907), 22.

^{Page 90 of note 2} Usher, R.G., The Reconstruction of the English Church, 1910, I, 211 Google Scholar.

^{Page 90 of note 3} F.W. Brooks, loc. cit., 35-37.

^{Page 90 of note 4} Dickens, A. G. Cf., ‘Aspects of Intellectual Transition amongst the English Parish Clergy of the Reformation Period: A Regional Example’, Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, Jahrgang 43 (1952), 61 Google Scholar.

^{Page 91 of note 1} Cf.C. Hill, op. cit., 99.

^{Page 91 of note 2} Cf.W. G. Hoskins, loc. cit., 107.

^{Page 91 of note 3} D. M. Barratt, loc. cit., 197.

^{Page 91 of note 4} Cf.Ibid., 193.

^{Page 91 of note 5} Foster, C. W., ed., ‘The State of the Church in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I,’ I, Lincoln Record Society, 23 (1926), lxii–lxiii Google Scholar.

^{Page 91 of note 6} Queen Elizabeth disposed of, by sale or grant, some tithes in 2, 216 parishes, and James I lost another 1,453 by similar means. Cf. H. Grove, Alienated Tithes, 1896, pt. III, passim.

^{Page 92 of note 1} Usher, R.G., op. cit., I, 25 Google Scholar.

^{Page 92 of note 2} Foster, C.W., ed., op. cit., 23, lvii Google Scholar.

^{Page 92 of note 3} Usher, R. G., op. cit., I, 241 Google Scholar.

^{Page 92 of note 4} Tyler, P., loc. cit., (Oxford Univ. D. Phil, thesis, 1965), 391 Google Scholar.

^{Page 92 of note 5} Dickens, A. G., loc. cit., Archiv für Reformationsgescbichte, Jahrgang 43 (1952), passimGoogle Scholar.

^{Page 93 of note 1} Quoted in D. M. Barratt, loe. cit., 12.

^{Page 93 of note 2} Ibid., 36.

^{Page 94 of note 1} John Peter, Complaint and Satire in early English Literature, 1956, 83-84.

^{Page 95 of note 1} Lawrence Stone, loc. cit., 29.

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