“Nay,” replied Sir Thomas, smiling, “your grace may not think that the King, your master and mine, will be offended with me for serving his Master, or thereby account his service any way dishonoured.”

We will endeavour to sketch the daily and Sunday duties of a parish clerk, follow in his footsteps, and observe his manners and customs, as they are set forth in mediaeval documents.

He lived in a house near the church which was specially assigned to him, and often called the clerk’s house.  He had a garden and glebe.  In the churchwardens’ accounts of St. Giles’s Church, Reading, there is an item in 1542-3:—­“Paid for a latice to the clerkes hous ii s. x d.”  There was a clerk’s house in St. Mary’s parish, in the same town, which is frequently mentioned in the accounts (A.D. 1558-9).

“RESOLUTES for the guyet Rent of the Clerkes Howse xii d. 1559-60.

“RENTES to farme and at will.  Of the tenement at Cornyshe Crosse called the clerkes howse by the yere vi s. viii d.”

It appears that the house was let, and the sum received for rent was part of the clerk’s stipend.  This is borne out by the following entry:—­

“Md’ that yt ys aggreed that the clerke most have for the office of the sexten But xx s.  That ys for Ringing of the Bell vs for the quarter and the clerkes wayges by the howse[22].”

[Footnote 22:  Churchwardens’ Accounts of St. Mary’s, Reading, by F.N.A. and A.G.  Garry, p. 42.]

Doubtless there still remain many such houses attached to the clerkship, as in the Act of 7 & 8 Victoria, c. 59, sect. 6, it is expressly stated that any clerk dismissed from his office shall give up any house, building, land, or premises held or occupied by virtue or in respect of such office, and that if he fail to do so the bishop can take steps for his ejection therefrom.  Mr. Wickham Legg has collected several other instances of the existence of clerks’ houses.  At St. Michael’s Worcester, there was one, as in 1590 a sum was paid for mending it.  At St. Edmund’s, Salisbury, the clerk had a house and garden in 1653.  At Barton Turf, Norfolk, three acres are known as “dog-whipper’s land,” the task of whipping dogs out of churches being part of the clerk’s duties, as we shall notice more particularly later on.  The rent of this land was given to the clerk.  At Saltwood, Kent, the clerk had a house and garden, which have recently been sold[23].

[Footnote 23:  The Clerk’s Book of 1549, edited by J. Wickham Legg, lvi.]

Archbishop Sancroft, at Fressingfield, caused a comfortable cottage to be built for the parish clerk, and also a kind of hostelry for the shelter and accommodation of persons who came from a distant part of that large scattered parish to attend the church, so that they might bring their cold provisions there, and take their luncheon in the interval between the morning and the afternoon service.