Vicarages Ecclesiæ not founded exceeding Vicarages Ecclesiæ. in them. Chapels. 10 marks. ditto.
Canterbury 221 58 15 47 28 Rochester 108 31 0 50 39 London 459 86 13 150 33 Lincoln 1738 353 76 467 279 Norwich 1165 80 17 354 35 Chichester 286 112 3 91 81 Exeter 529 139 49 344 158 Hereford 291 94 48 155 82 Sarum 493 104 50 222 80 Bath and Wells 262 42 19 113 29 Winton 338 53 41 84 34 Worcester 335 34 60 136 26 Coventry and Lichfield 382 28 27 154 27 Ely 135 37 3 15 35 St. David's 223 0 4 124 0 Llandaff 131 9 9 72 6 St. Asaph's 109 63 13 47 55 Bangor 34 0 1 26 1 York 625 113 4 93 61 Durham 117 43 4 15 25 Carlisle 94 25 1 2 14 ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- 8085 1487 457 2711 1125 457 1125 ---- ---- 8542 3836
The next question which naturally excites interest is the incomes of the benefices, by which the services of the mediæval parish clergy were remunerated. The general idea is that the mediæval clergy were richly endowed. The truth which is revealed by the figures of this official document is that, when we take away the livings assigned by their patrons as the prebends of cathedrals, and those appropriated to religious houses, the benefices of the "working clergy," the rectors and vicars, were mostly of small value.
Before we go into a detailed examination of them, it is desirable to make two preliminary remarks. The first is as to the value of money at that period. The question will be more fully considered in the next chapter in connection with the new valuation which was made in the time of Henry VIII., but it will be convenient to anticipate here the estimate there accepted that the purchasing power of money at the end of the thirteenth century was about twenty-four times as great as now, so that a pound was then equivalent to about £24 now. The other remark is in reply to the question which will naturally arise in every reader's mind: were not the benefices much undervalued? On the contrary, it was the object of pope and king to estimate them as highly as possible, so as to increase the amount of the tenth to be demanded from them. Every source of income was taken into the account; and the general complaint at the time was that they were overestimated.
Turning now to a little study of the value of the ordinary parochial benefices, the writer has shrunk from the laborious task of anything like a complete analysis; for a few general facts are sufficient for the present purpose. First of all, many of the benefices were so small that both pope and king[421] were ashamed to demand a tenth of their poor income; a limit of ten marks (= £6 13_s._ 4_d._) was fixed, and all livings not over that sum were exempted. No wonder, when we reckon that the present value of a benefice of ten marks would be about £160 a year. But there were 2711 rectories and 1129 vicarages, making a total of 3840, nearly half the number of parochial benefices under the limit of ten marks.