The British nation a history / by George MWrong . English Civilization in the Thirteenth Century The age presents one chief contrast with the presentday; for trade, which furnishes a chief stimulus in mod-The importance ^m life, plavs a Small, if a growing, part inof the Church in mediaeval England. Interests connected withmediaeval life, ^.j^^ Church pervaded and dominated tithe—the enforced payment by all classes for theChurchs support of a fixed proportion, usually one tenth, of the produce ofthe soil—gave theChurch an abun-dant revenue. Bish-ops were, besides,great landed pro-p
The British nation a history / by George MWrong . English Civilization in the Thirteenth Century The age presents one chief contrast with the presentday; for trade, which furnishes a chief stimulus in mod-The importance ^m life, plavs a Small, if a growing, part inof the Church in mediaeval England. Interests connected withmediaeval life, ^.j^^ Church pervaded and dominated tithe—the enforced payment by all classes for theChurchs support of a fixed proportion, usually one tenth, of the produce ofthe soil—gave theChurch an abun-dant revenue. Bish-ops were, besides,great landed pro-prietors, and mon-asteries like St. Al-bans held numer-ous manors and hadthousands of labour-ers in tlieir the higherclergy ranked with IHiESTs, Centuky. ^^^^ barons and often played a great partin public life, the position of the parish priest was lessdignified than we might imagine. He was usually ap-pointed by the lord of the manor, and was not entirelysupreme in the parish, for tlie people had a real voice in133. CIVILIZATION m THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY 133 its administration. The church Avas generally built at their expense, they chose the churchwardens charged with its finances, and in the annual parish The pansh nieeting were free to discuss its affairs. The pnest, ° priests duty was to sing mass, to baptize,confess, marry, and bury his parishioners. He preachedrarely and might never deliver a sermon in the wholecourse of his ministry. Occasionally a priest had a wife,but as the Church condemned this, a married priest lostrespect. If permitted to say grace for and to dine withthe lord of the manor, the priest was often treated as aninferior, sitting with the dependents below a great salt-cellar placed on the table, while those of higher rank—thelord, his family, and friends—sat above it. Often, in-Tie Churcii deed, the priest was of servile origin. A vil-promotes leins SOU, oncc ordained by a bishop, was freedom. ^^,^^, jj^.^j-^y ^ yiHein S
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