University of Virginia Library

10. § X

Many other churches, some of them small and unimportant, owned books, and received them as gifts or bequests. In the time of Richard II the Royal collegiate chapel of Windsor Castle had, besides service books, thirty-four volumes on different subjects chained in the church, among them a Bible and a Concordance, and two books of French romance, one of which was the Liber de Rose.[5.49]

The library of St. Mary's Church, Warwick, was first formed by the celebrated antiquary, John Rous. Before his time we hear only of one or two books. In 1407 there was a collection of fifty service books, and a Catholicon, the latter being perhaps the nucleus of a library.[5.50] "At my lorde's auter," that is, at the Earl of Warwick's altar, were to be found among other goods and books, the Bible, the fourth book of the Sentenccs, Pupilla Oculi, a work by Reymond de Pennaforte, Isidore, and some canon law.[5.51] John Rous seems to have inherited the bookish tastes of his relative, William Kous. William had bequeathed his books to the Dean, charging him to allow John to read them when he came of age and had received priest's orders.

Among the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum is a small volume written on parchment by Humphrey Wanley, which includes a copy of a curious inventory of vestments, plate, books, and other goods made in the time of John Rous, 1464. A portion of this inventory has been printed in Notices of the Churches of Warwickshire, i. 15—16. "It. v bokes beynge in the handes of Maister John Rous now priest whuche were Sir William Rous and bequath hem to the Dean and Chapitre of the forseide Chirche Collegiall under condicōn that the seid maister John beynge priest shulde have hem for his special edificacon duryng his fief. And after his decees to remayne and to be for ever to the seide Dean and Chapitre as it appereth by endentures thereof made whereof one party leveth with the Dean and Chapitre. That is to say i book quem composuit ffrater Antoninus Rampologus de Janis 2 fo Chorinth 14. It. 1 book cald pars dextera et pars sinistra 2 fo non carere. It. 1 bible versefied cald patris in Aurora 2 fo huic opifox. It. 1 book of powles epistoles glosed 2 fo de Jhu qui dr

Xtus. It. 1 book cald pharetra 2 fo hora est jam nos de sompno surgere. It. 1 quayer in the whuche is conteyned the exposicon of the masse 2 fo cods offerim."

John also seems to have given books as well as a room to house them.[5.52] An old view of the church, taken before the great fire which destroyed the town in 1694, shows the south porch surmounted with his library, as then standing; but this room was destroyed in the fire, and it seems certain the books were burnt. The present library was founded in 1701, and includes no part of the original collection.[5.53]

Bequests to churches of service books, such as that to the church of St. Mary, Castle-gate, York (1394), were numerous; they may be set apart with bequests of vestments, plate, and money. Some bequests have a different character. A chancellor of York, Thomas de Farnylaw, leaves books, bound and unbound, to the Vicar of Waghen; a volume of sermons and a "quire" to the church of Embleton; and a Bible and Concordance to be chained in the north porch of St. Nicholas' Church, Newcastle, "for common use, for the good of the soul of his lord William of Middleton" (1378). A chaplain leaves service books, Speculum Ecclesiae, and the Gospels in English to Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate, York (1394). A Bristol merchant bequeaths two books on canon law to St. Mary Redcliffe Church, there to be preserved for the use of the vicar and chaplains (1416). In the same year a Canon of York enriches Beverley Church with all his books of canon

and civil law. Books were also chained in the church of St. Mary of Oxford. Bishop Lyndwood of St. David's bequeaths a copy of his digest of the synodal constitutions of the province of Canterbury for chaining in St. Stephen's Chapel, "to serve as a standard for future editions" (1443). Richard Browne, or Cordone, who has left books to Wells, reserves for the parish church of Naas in Ireland a Catholicon and other manuscripts (1452). To Boston Church a rector of Kirkby Ravensworth bequeaths several books, but one named John Bosbery was to have the use of them for life: among the gifts was Polichronicon (1457). Canon Nicholas Holme leaves Pupilla Oculi to the parish church of Redmarshall (1458). A chaplain bequeaths one book to St. Mary's Church, Bolton, another to St. Wilfrid's Church, Brensall in Craven, and a third to All Saints' Church, Peseholme, York (1466). Sir Richard Willoughby orders church books and a Crede mihi to be given to Woollaton Parish Church (1469). Robert Est, possibly a chantry-priest in York Minster, enriches the parish church of his native Lincoln village, Brigsley, with a copy of Legends of the Saints, Speculum Christiani, Gesta Romanorum cum aliis fabulis Isopi et mutis narrationibus, and a Psalter (1474-75). To the church of St. Mary's, Nottingham, the vicar leaves a Golden Legend, a Polichronicon, besides Pupilla Oculi, and a portiforium to Wragby Church, and a missal to Snenton Church (1476). Sir Thomas Lyttleton befriends King's Norton Church by leaving it a Latin-English dictionary, and that of Halesowen in Worcestershire by leaving a Catholicon, the Constitutiones Provinciales (possibly Lyndwood's digest, the Provinciale), and the Gesta Romanorum (1481). A man of Leicester was sued by the church wardens of the parish church of Welford, in the county of Leicester, on a charge of having taken away certain books belonging to the church and sold them (1490). The vicar of Ruddington bequeaths three books, "ad tenendum et ligandum cum cathena ferrea in quadam sede in capella B. M. de Rodington" (1491). Thomas Rotherham, benefactor of Cambridge University Library, gave to the church of Rochester ten pounds for building a library (1500). To Wetheringsett Church a chaplain of Bury carefully reserves "a book called Fasiculus Mors [Fasciculus morum], to lye in the chauncell, for priests to occupye ther tyme when it shall please them, praying them to have my soule in remembraunce as it shall please them of their charite" (1519). [5.54]

A very little research would add considerably to our list; while, apart from records of gifts and bequests, are numberless references to books in churches. For example: in the churchwarden's account book (c. 1525) of All Saints, Derby, occurs an entry beginning: "These be the bokes in our lady Chapell tyed with chenes yt were gyffen to Alhaloes church in Derby—

In primis one Boke called summa summarum.

• Item A boke called Summa Raumundi [Summa poenitentia et matrimonio of Reymond de Pennaforte of Barcelona].
• Item Anoyer called pupilla occult [Pupilla oculi, by J. de Burgo].
• Item Anoyer called the Sexte [Liber Sextus Decretalium].
• Item A boke called Hugucyon [see pp. 223-4].
• Item A boke called Vitas Patrum.
• Item Anoyer boke called pauls pistols.
• Item A boke called Januensis super evangeliis dominicalibus [Sermons of Jacobus de Voragine, Abp. of Genoa, on the Gospels for the Sundays throughout the year].
• Item a grette portuose [a large breviary].

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• Item Anoyer boke called Legenda Aurea [Legenda sanctorum aurea of Jacobus de Voragine].[5.55]

This is a respectable list for such a church. Some sixty years before there were apparently only service books (1465). [5.56]

From 1456 to 1475 charges occur in the accounts of St. Michael's Church, Cornhill, for chains to fix psalters, and for writing. [5.57] At St. Peter's upon Cornhill there would appear to have been a good library. "True it is," writes Stow, "that a library there was pertaining to this Parrish Church, of olde time builded of stone, and of late repayred with bricke by the executors of Sir John Crosby Alderman, as his Armes on the south end doth witnes. This library hath beene of late time, to wit, within these fifty yeares, well furnished of bookes: John Leyland viewed and commended them, but now those bookes be gone, and the place is occupied by a schoolemaister."[5.58] In 1483 the Church of St. Christopher-le-Stocks, London, seems to have had a collection only of service books; but five years later mention is made of "a grete librarie." "On the south side of the vestrarie standeth a grete librarie with ii longe lecturnalles thereon to lay on the bookes." [5.59] About the middle of the sixteenth century certain inhabitants of Rayleigh held a meeting one Sunday, after service, and, without the consent of the churchwardens, sold fifteen service books, and "four other manuscript volumes," as well as some other church goods, for forty shillings. [5.60]

But we might continue for a long time to bring together

facts of this kind. Enough has been written to suggest the character and extent of the work done by the churches. Many of these small collections were for use in connexion with the schools; they were formed for the benefit of clergy and the increase of clergy. The few books chained up in the churches for the use of the people were displayed for various reasons. The Catholicon, a Latin grammar and a dictionary, was a large book, obtainable only at great cost, yet for reference purposes all students and scholars constantly needed it. Wealthy ecclesiastics and benefactors would therefore naturally leave such a book for chaining up in the church, which was then the real centre of communal life. The Catholicon was chained up for reference in French churches, and the practice was imitated here, possibly in nearly all the large churches.[5.61] The Medulla grammatice, left to King's Norton Church by Sir Thomas Lyttleton, was a book of similar character, and would be deposited in church for a like purpose. Books of canon law would also be useful for reference purposes when chained in the church. Some other shackled books were homiletical in character. Should we be accused of excess of imagination if we conjured up a picture of a little cluster of people standing by a clerk who reads to them a sermon or a passage of Holy Writ? The collection of tales, each with a moral, known as the Gesta Romanorum, would make especially attractive reading. Some books often found in churches and frequently mentioned in this book, as the Summa Praedicantium of John de Bromyarde, Pupilla Oculi, by John de Burgo, and the Speculum Christiani, by John Walton, were manuals for the instruction of priests.