Many of the deeds of mortgage are sad and silent witnesses of the gradual decay and downfall of old families. The squire raised money to pay off trusts, legacies, and dowers. He pledged his mansion; and in the inventory of his household effects we can study many queer facts. Our ancestors’ homes were scantily furnished; such lists surprise us, for they show what a very small amount of furniture was formerly considered necessary to render a house habitable. Among family papers there is often another class of deeds altogether: one is a small square piece of parchment, with a huge seal attached; this is often enclosed in a rough tin case or box. These are advowson deeds, or presentation of Church preferment. The gifts of many Church livings are in private hands. It was originally an hereditary property, and there are cases of it of very great antiquity; but private family deeds referring to church property are seldom found earlier than the Jacobean period, and very seldom as old as that. The earliest presentations or appointments to parochial duty were no doubt purely ecclesiastical, but with the Norman accession the secular and ecclesiastical affairs merged into closer proximity; it was considered a religious privilege to rebuild or erect a church. This the lord of the manor generally undertook, perhaps originally as a private chapel or chantry. The appointment of an officiating priest became an ecclesiastical matter, being often granted to the monasteries by the patrons. To avoid the encroachment of lay interference, Thomas à Beckett was the first to order that no clergyman should be instituted to a living without a bishop’s approval and permission; but there were often disputes on this subject. Few neighbourhoods existed without a monastery somewhere in the locality, and from the nearest religious house a candidate was probably selected; finally, the right of presentation was claimed by the monastery, with whom it may have, by custom or by deed of gift, previously rested. Some education and a knowledge of Latin was essential for a priest, and education was almost entirely confined to the monks or their pupils. Thomas à Beckett, as Archbishop, issued his mandate on the subject of parochial presentations as a means of retaining such institutions in episcopal hands, and so avoiding any appeals to the Pope which might be made by his legates or the abbots. With the monasteries the chantries also passed away, soon being forgotten; numberless small unbeneficed chapels were then allowed to fall into ruins, the sites even of these now having been lost. Deeds recounting the appointment of chantry priests are rare, and always possess some points of interest; often chantry priests were appointed by bequest, and sums of money left for their maintenance. These appear, however, to have been entirely distinct from the parish priest, although perhaps the office may eventually have merged into one and the same.