This “jus pauperum,” which is set forth in such a textbook of English law as Lyndwood’s _Provinciale_, is naturally put forth more clearly and forcibly in a work intended for popular instruction, such as _Dives et Pauper_. “To them that have the benefices and goods of Holy Church,” writes the author, “it belonged principally to give alms and to have the cure of poor people.” To him who squanders the alms of the altar on luxury and useless show the poor man may justly point and say, “It is ours that you so spend in pomp and vanity!... That thou keepest for thyself of the altar passing the honest needful living, it is raveny, it is theft, it is sacrilege.” From the earliest days of English Christianity the care of the helpless poor was regarded as an obligation incumbent on all; and in 1342 Archbishop Stratford, dealing with _appropriations_, or the assignment of ecclesiastical revenue to the support of some religious house or college, ordered that a portion of the tithe should always be set apart for the relief of the poor, because, as Bishop Stubbs has pointed out, in England, from the days of King Ethelred, “a third part of the tithe” which belonged to the Church was the acknowledged birthright of the poorer members of Christ’s flock. All the old diocesan registers of English sees afford like instances of specific injunctions as to bestowing part of the income of the benefice on the poor when appropriations were granted. Besides the regular revenues from parochial tithes, the rector had other sources of income. Such, for instance, were the offerings made for various services rendered to individuals, as baptisms, marriages, churching of women, and funerals. An offering, also, for a special Mass said or sung for a particular person or intention, was made to the rector if he officiated, which by the Constitution of Lambeth he could only do when the special service did not interfere with the regular duties of his cure. In 1259-60 Bishop Bronescombe settled the Mass fee at “one penny;” and in the churchwardens’ accounts of Dover there is an entry, in 1536, of a payment “for ten Masses with their offeryng pens, which was for Grace’s obit,” 4_s._ 4_d._ In law these offerings were known as “memorial pence” (_denarii memoriales_), or “earnest pence” (_denarii perquisiti_), because, on account of this “retaining fee,” the priest engaged to offer Mass on a special day.