The Parish Clerk. P. H. Ditchfield
impression of a somewhat large establishment. The dear old rector used to disturb the vision of a large retinue by saying, "They are all one--old Corby, the clerk."
One of the chief characteristics of old parish clerks, whether in ancient or modern times, is their faithfulness to their church and to their clergyman. We notice this again and again in the biographies of many of these worthy men which it has been a privilege to study. The motto of the city of Exeter, Semper fidelis, might with truth have been recorded as the legend of their class. This fidelity must have been sorely tried in the sad days of the Commonwealth period, when the sufferings of the clergy began, and the poor clerk had to bid farewell to his beloved pastor and welcome and "sit under" some hard-visaged Presbyterian or Puritan preacher.
Isaac Walton tells the pathetic story of the faithful clerk of the parish of Borne, near Canterbury, where the "Judicious" Hooker was incumbent. The vicar and clerk were on terms of great affection, and Hooker was of "so mild and humble a nature that his poor clerk and he did never talk but with both their hats on, or both off, at the same time."
This same clerk lived on in the quiet village until the third or fourth year of the Long Parliament. Hooker died and was buried at Borne, and many people used to visit his monument, and the clerk had many rewards for showing his grave-place, and often heard his praises sung by the visitors, and used to add his own recollections of his holiness and humility. But evil days came; the parson of Borne was sequestered, and a Genevan minister put into his good living. The old clerk, seeing so many clergymen driven from their homes and churches, used to say, "They have sequestered so many good men, that I doubt if my good Master Hooker had lived till now, they would have sequestered him too."
Walton then describes the conversion of the church into a Genevan conventicle. He wrote: "It was not long before this intruding minister had made a party in and about the said parish that was desirous to receive the sacrament as at Geneva: to which end, the day was appointed for a select company, and forms and stools set about the altar or communion table for them to sit and eat and drink; but when they went about this work, there was a want of some joint-stools which the minister sent the clerk to fetch, and then to fetch cushions. When the clerk saw them begin to sit down, he began to wonder; but the minister bade him cease wondering and lock the church door: to whom he replied, 'Pray take you the keys, and lock me out: I will never more come into this church; for men will say my Master Hooker was a good man and a great scholar; and I am sure it was not used to be thus in his days': and report says this old man went presently home and died; I do not say died immediately, but within a few days after. But let us leave this grateful clerk in his quiet grave."
Another faithful clerk was William Hobbes, who served in the church and parish of St. Andrew, Plymouth. Walker, in his Sufferings of the Clergy, records the sad story of his death. During the troubles of the Civil War period, when presumably there was no clergyman to perform the last rites of the Church on the body of a parishioner, the good clerk himself undertook the office, and buried a corpse, using the service for the Burial of the Dead contained in the Book of Common Prayer. The Puritans were enraged, and threatened to throw him into the same grave if he came there again with his "Mass-book" to bury any body: which "worked so much upon his Spirits, that partly with Fear and partly with Grief, he Died soon after." He died in 1643, and the accounts of the church show that the balance of his salary was paid to his widow.
Many such faithful clerks have devoted their years of active life to the service of God in His sanctuary, both in ancient and modern times; and it will be our pleasurable duty to record some of the biographies of these earnest servants of the Church, whose services are too often disregarded.
I have mentioned the continuity of the clerk's office, unbroken by either Reformation changes or by the confusion of the Puritan regime. We will now endeavour to sketch the appearance of the mediæval clerk, and the numerous duties which fell to his lot.
Chaucer's gallery of ancient portraits contains a very life-like presentment of a mediæval clerk in the person of "Jolly Absolon," a somewhat frivolous specimen of his class, who figures largely in The Miller's Tale.
"Now was ther of that churche a parish clerk
The which that was y-cleped [6] Absolon. Curl'd was his hair, and as the gold it shone, And strutted [7] as a fannë large and broad; Full straight and even lay his folly shode. [8] His rode [9] was red, his eyen grey as goose, With Paulë's windows carven on his shoes. [10] In hosen red he went full febishly. [11] Y-clad he was full small and properly, All in a kirtle of a light waget; [12] Full fair and thickë be the pointës set. And thereupon he had a gay surplice, As white as is the blossom on the rise. [13] A merry child he was, so God me save; Well could he letten blood, and clip, and shave, And make a charter of land and a quittance. In twenty manners could he trip and dance, After the school of Oxenfordë tho', [14] And with his leggës castë to and fro; And playen songës or a small ribible; [15] Thereto he sung sometimes a loud quinible. [16] And as well could he play on a gitern. [17] In all the town was brewhouse nor tavern That he not visited with his solas, [18] There as that any gaillard tapstere [19] was. This Absolon, that jolly was and gay Went with a censor on the holy day, Censing the wivës of the parish fast: And many a lovely look he on them cast, Sometimes to show his lightness and mast'ry He playeth Herod on a scaffold high."
[6] Called.
[7] Stretched.
[8] Head of hair.
[9] Complexion.
[10] His shoes were decked with an ornament like a rose-window in old St. Paul's.
[11] Daintily.
[12] A kind of cloth.
[13] A bush.
[14] The Oxford school of dancing is satirised by the poet.
[15] A kind of fiddle.
[16] Treble.
[17] Guitar.
[18] Sport, mirth.