London (England) -- History; London (England) -- Social life and customs
As for the vast numbers actually maintained by the Church, the single
example of St. Paul's Cathedral--of course, the largest foundation in
the City--will furnish an illustration. In the year 1450 the Society, a
Cathedral body, included the following: the Bishop, the Dean, the four
Archdeacons, the Treasurer, the Precentor, the Chancellor, thirty
greater Canons, twelve lesser Canons, about fifty Chaplains or chantry
priests, and thirty Vicars. Of inferior rank to these were the Sacrist
and three Vergers, the Succentor, the Master of the Singing-school, the
Master of the Grammar-school, the Almoner and his four Vergers, the
Servitors, the Surveyor, the twelve Scribes, the Book Transcriber, the
Book-binder, the Chamberlain, the Rent-collector, the Baker, the Brewer,
the singing-men and choir-boys, of whom priests were made, the Bedesmen,
and the poor folk. In addition to these must be added the servants of
all these officers--the brewer, who brewed in the year 1286, 67,814
gallons, must have employed a good many; the baker, who ovened every
year 40,000 loaves, or every day more than a hundred, large and small;
the sextons, grave-diggers, gardeners, bell-ringers, makers and menders
of the ecclesiastical robes, cleaners and sweepers, carpenters, masons,
painters, carvers and gilders--one can very well understand that the
Church of St. Paul's alone found a livelihood for thousands.
[Illustration: RUINS (1790) OF THE NUNNERY OF ST. HELEN, BISHOPSGATE
STREET]
The same equipment was necessary in every other religious foundation.
Not a monastery but had its great and lesser officers and their
servants. In every one there were the bell-ringers, the singing-men and
boys, the vergers, the gardeners, the brewers, bakers, cooks,
messengers, scribes, rent-collectors, and all complete as was St.
Paul's, though on a smaller scale. It does not seem too much to estimate
the ecclesiastical establishments as including a fourth part of the
whole population of the City.
The London monasteries lay for the most part either just within or just
without the City Wall. The reason is obvious. They were founded when the
City was already populous, and were therefore built upon the places
where houses were less numerous and ground was of less value.
Let us, in order to visit them all, make a circuit within the City Wall,
beginning from the Tower on the East.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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