The Elizabethan Parish in its Ecclesiastical and Financial Aspects | Page 3

the peace met here to take the overseers'
accounts or to transact other business;[14] and in the church also might
be held coroners' inquests over dead bodies.[15] Last, but not least in
importance, in the churches of the market towns the archdeacon made
his visitations and held his court; and on these occasions the sacred
edifice rang with the unseemly squabbles of the proctors, the
accusations of the wardens and sidemen or of the apparitor, and the
recriminations of the accused--in short, the church was turned for the
time being into a moral police court, where all the parish scandal was
carefully gone over and ventilated.[16]
The ecclesiastical courts carried on their judicial administration of the

parish largely, of course, through the medium of the officers of the
parish. These were the churchwardens, the sidemen and the incumbent,
whether rector, vicar or curate.[17]
First in importance were the churchwardens. Though legislation
throughout the time of Elizabeth was ever adding to their functions
duties purely civil in their nature, and though they themselves were
more and more subjected to the control of the justices of the peace,
nevertheless it is true to say that to the end of the reign the office of
churchwarden is one mainly appertaining to the jurisdiction and
supervision of the courts Christian.
The doctrine of the courts that churchwardens were merely civil
officers belongs to a later period.[18]
After a churchwarden had been chosen or elected, he took the oath of
office before the archdeacon. In this he swore to observe the Queen's
and the bishop's injunctions, and to cause others to observe them; to
present violators of the same to the sworn men (or sidemen), or to the
ordinary's chancellor or official, or to the Queen's high commissioners;
finally, he swore to yield up a faithful accounting to the parish of all
sums that had passed through his hands during his term of office.[19]
Before each visitation day, as has been said, the archdeacon's or the
bishop's summoner went to each parish and gave warning that a court
would be held in such and such a church on such and such a day.
Pending that day wardens and sidemen drew up their bills of
presentment. These bills were definite answers to a series of articles of
inquiry founded on the diocesan's injunctions, themselves based on the
Queen's Injunctions of 1559 and on the Canons.[20] Failure to present
offences was promptly punished by the judge.[21] Failure to attend
court when duly warned was no less promptly followed by
excommunication, and then it was an expensive matter for the wardens
to get out of the official's book again.[22] But of fees and fines more
hereafter.
Among the churchwardens' principal obligations, as laid down in the
injunctions and articles they were sworn to observe, was the keeping in
repair of the church fabric and its appurtenances, as well as the
procuring and the maintaining in good condition of the church
"furniture," a term which in the language of the time included all the
necessaries for worship and the celebration of the sacraments: church

linen, surplices, the communion cup, the elements themselves, bibles,
prayer books, the writings of authorized commentators on the
Scriptures, or the works of apologists for the Anglican Church; tables
of consanguinity and other official documents enjoined to be kept in
every parish by the diocesan.[23]
The visitation act-books of the period abundantly show the processes
employed by the ecclesiastical authorities in enforcing these and other
duties (which will be detailed in their turn), and prove that the courts
Christian were emphatically administrative as well as judicial bodies.
To show these courts at work it will be necessary to give a number of
illustrative examples taken from the visitation entries. Thus the
wardens of Childwall, having been presented at the visitation of the
bishop of Chester, 9th October, 1592, because their church "wanteth
reparac[i]on," are excommunicated for not appearing. On a subsequent
day John Whittle, who represents the wardens, informs the court that
the repairs have been executed. Thereupon the wardens are absolved
and the registrar erases the word "excommunicated" from the
act-book.[24] At the same visitation the wardens of Aughton are
presented because "there bible is not sufficient, they want the first tome
of the homilies, Mr. Juells Replie and Apologie[25] [etc.]...." The two
wardens are enjoined by the judge to buy a sufficient bible and to
certify to him that they have done so.
But--so careful is the supervision over parish affairs--mere certification
by vicar or wardens that a certain article has been procured in
obedience to a court order will not always suffice. If the thing can be
produced in court the judge often orders it to be brought before him for
personal inspection. Accordingly, when at the visitation of the
chancellor of the bishop