Chronicle and Romance: Froissart, Malory, Holinshed: (The Harvard Classics Series)
History
Chronicle and Romance: Froissart, Malory, Holinshed: (The Harvard Classics Series)
England -- Social life and customs -- 16th century; Great Britain -- History -- Edward III, 1327-1377
More I could say, and more I would say, of these and other things,
were it not that in mine own judgment I have said enough already for
the advertisement of such as be wise. Nevertheless, before I finish
this chapter, I will add a word or two (so briefly as I can) of the
old estate of cathedral churches, which I have collected together here
and there among the writers, and whereby it shall easily be seen what
they were, and how near the government of ours do in these days
approach unto them; for that there is an irreconcilable odds between
them and those of the Papists. I hope there is no learned man indeed
but will acknowledge and yield unto it.
We find therefore in the time of the primitive church that there was
in every see or jurisdiction one school at the least, whereunto such
as were catechists in Christian religion did resort. And hereof, as we
may find great testimony for Alexandria, Antioch, Rome, and Jerusalem,
so no small notice is left of the like in the inferior sort, if the
names of such as taught in them be called to mind, and the histories
well read which make report of the same. These schools were under the
jurisdiction of the bishops, and from thence did they and the rest of
the elders choose out such as were the ripest scholars, and willing to
serve in the ministry, whom they placed also in their cathedral
churches, there not only to be further instructed in the knowledge of
the world, but also to inure them to the delivery of the same unto the
people in sound manner, to minister the sacraments, to visit the sick
and brethren imprisoned, and to perform such other duties as then
belonged to their charges. The bishop himself and elders of the church
were also hearers and examiners of their doctrine; and, being in
process of time found meet workmen for the Lord's harvest, they were
forthwith sent abroad (after imposition of hands and prayer generally
made for their good proceeding) to some place or other then destitute
of her pastor, and other taken from the school also placed in their
rooms. What number of such clerks belonged now and then to some one
see, the Chronology following shall easily declare; and, in like sort,
what officers, widows, and other persons were daily maintained in
those seasons by the offerings and oblations of the faithful it is
incredible to be reported, if we compare the same with the decays and
oblations seen and practised at this present. But what is that in all
the world which avarice and negligence will not corrupt and impair?
And, as this is a pattern of the estate of the cathedral churches in
those times, so I wish that the like order of government might once
again be restored unto the same, which may be done with ease, sith the
schools are already builded in every diocese, the universities, places
of their preferment unto further knowledge, and the cathedral churches
great enough to receive so many as shall come from thence to be
instructed unto doctrine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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