These splendid funerals were a fruitful source of income to the Clerks’ Company.  We see Masters William Holland and John Aungell, clerks of the Brotherhood of St. Nicholas, with twenty-four persons and three children singing the Masses of Our Lady, the Trinity and Requiem at the interment of Sir Thomas Lovell, the sage and witty counsellor of King Henry VIII and Constable of the Tower, while sixty-four more clerks met the body on its way and conducted it to its last resting-place at Holywell, Shoreditch.  Perhaps it was not without some satisfaction that the clerks took a prominent part in the burial of the Duke of Somerset, the iniquitous spoiler of their goods.  In the ordinances of the companies issued in 1553, very minute regulations are laid down with regard to the fees for funerals and the order in which each clerk should serve.  At the burials of “noble honourable, worshipful men or women or citizens of the City of London,” the attendance of the clerks was limited to the number asked for by the friends of the deceased.  No person was to receive more than eight-pence.  The beadle might charge fourpence for the use of the hearse cloth.  An extra charge of fourpence could be made if the clerks were wanted both in the afternoon and in the forenoon for the sermon or other service.  The bearers might have twopence more than the usual wage.  Each clerk was to have his turn in attending funerals, so that no one man might be taken for favour or left out for displeasure.

The records of these gorgeous funerals, which are preserved in Machyn’s diary and other chronicles, reveal the changes wrought by the spread of Reformation principles and Puritan notions.  In Mary’s reign they were very magnificent, “priests and clerks chanting in Latin, the priest having a cope and the clerk the holy water sprinkle in his hand.”  The accession of Elizabeth seems at first to have wrought little change, and the services of the Clerks’ Company were in great request.  On 21 October, 1559, “the Countess of Rutland was brought from Halewell to Shoreditch Church with thirty priests and clarkes singing,” and “Sir Thomas Pope was buried at Clerkenwell with two services of pryke song[53], and two masses of requiem and all clerkes of London.”  “Poules Choir and the Clarkes of London” united their services on some occasions.  Funeral sermons began to be considered an important part of the function, and Machyn records the names of the preachers.  Even though such keen Protestants as Coverdale, Bishop Pilkington, Robert Crowley, and Veron preached the sermons, twenty clerks of the company were usually present singing.  Machyn much disliked the innovations made by the Puritan party, their singing “Geneva wise” or “the tune of Genevay,” men, women, and children all singing together, without any clerk.  Here is a description of such a funeral on 7 March, 1559:  “And there was a great company of people two and two together, and neither priest nor clarke, the new preachers in their gowns