Various “oblations,” moreover, were apparently made to the parson regularly. At Folkestone, for example, according to the _Valor Ecclesiasticus_, an oblation of 5_d._ was made to the priest each Sunday. Lyndwood lays down, as the law regarding regular oblations “made on Sundays and Festivals, etc.,” that they belong to the priest who had the cure of souls, “whose duty it was to pray for the sins of the people.” Other priests, who might be attached to the church, had no claims upon them except by agreement, as those who make the offering are not their parishioners. Oblations of this kind were not always voluntary, and they could be recovered for the clergyman by the bishop, as, for instance, when they were made according to a previous agreement, or promise, or in any special need of the Church, as when the minister had not sufficient to support himself properly; or when such offering was made according to established custom. Bishop Quevil, in the Synod of Exeter, states what were the long-established customs in the English Church as to regular oblations. Every adult parishioner above the age of fourteen years had to make an offering four times a year, at Christmas and Easter, on the patronal feast, and on the dedication feast of his parish church, or, according to custom, on All Saints’ day. The bishop also desired that the people of his diocese should be persuaded to bring Pentecost offerings also to their parish churches, or at least to send them to their parsons. To induce them so to do, special indulgences granted to all benefactors of churches were to be published on each of the three Sundays before the feast, and all such offerings were to be taken to the place where the Whit-Sunday processions assemble. Bishop Rigaud de Asserio, of Winchester, in 1321, makes the same claim as to the regular four payments, but puts the age at eighteen, and even then only claims the oblation as a right in the case of those possessing some movables of their own. In some instances, apparently, a portion of the offerings made for any special object was by custom given to the priest for his own use, as a well-understood tax. This, for example, was the case at St. Augustine’s church at Hedon, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, where in the fifteenth century “a third of the oblations to the Holy Cross was given to the Vicar.” The rectory house, which was situated near to the church, would no doubt in these days be considered very poor. A living-room and a bedroom, with perhaps a room in which to exercise “hospitality,” with some necessary offices and a kitchen, were all that, as far as can be ascertained, constituted the dwelling-place of the parochial priest. “Religious feelings,” says Dr. Rock, “sweetened the homeliness of everyday life.” Over the parlour chimneypiece in the vicarage house at Besthorpe, Norfolk, built by Sir Thomas Downyng, priest, are these lines-- “All you that sitt by thys fire warmyng Pray for the sowle of Sir Jhon Downyng.”