"When thou shalt to seke[30] _gon_ Hye thee fast and _go_ a-non; For if thou tarry thou dost amiss, Thou shalt guyte[31] that soul I wys. When thou shalt to seke gon, A clene surples caste thee on; Take thy stole with thee ry't,[32] And put thy hod ouer thy sy't[33] Bere thyne ost[34] a-nout thy breste In a box that is honeste; Make thy clerk before thee synge, To bere light and belle ringe." [Footnote 30: Sick.] [Footnote 31: Quiet.] [Footnote 32: Right.] [Footnote 33: Sight.] [Footnote 34: Host.] It was customary, therefore, for the clerk to accompany the priest to the house of the sick person, when the clergyman went to administer the Last Sacrament or to visit the suffering. The clerk was required to carry a lighted candle and ring a bell, and an ancient MS. of the fourteenth century represents him marching before the priest bearing his light and his bell. In some town parishes he was ordered always to be at hand ready to accompany the priest on his errands of mercy. It was a grievous offence for a clerk to be absent from this duty. In the parish of St. Stephen's, Coleman Street, the clerks were not allowed "to go or ride out of the town without special licence had of the vicar and churchwardens, and at no time were they to be out of the way, but one of them had always to be ready to minister sacraments and sacramentals, and to wait upon the Curate and to give him warning." This custom of the clerk accompanying the priest when visiting the sick was not abolished at the Reformation. _The Parish Clerk's Guide_, published by the Worshipful Company of Parish Clerks in 1731, the history of which it will be our privilege to investigate, states that the holders of the office "are always conversant in Holy Places and Holy Things, such as are the Holy Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper; yea and in the most serious Things too, such as the Visitation of the Sick, when we do often attend, and at the Burial of the Dead." [Illustration: THE CLERK ACCOMPANYING THE PRIEST WHEN VISITING THE SICK] [Illustration: THE CLERK ATTENDING THE PRIEST, WHO IS ADMINISTERING THE LAST SACRAMENT] Occupied with these numerous duties, engaged in a service which delighted him, his time could never have hung heavy on his hands. Faithful in his dutiful services to his rector, beloved by the parishioners, a welcome guest in cot and hall, and serving God with all his heart, according to his lights, he could doubtless exclaim with David, _Laetus sorte mea_. CHAPTER IV THE DUTIES OF READING AND SINGING