"[142] John Baldwin
presented for that "the fame and report goeth" that he keeps back L10,
a legacy given seven years previously for church repairs and the
poor-box, "and the Church and the poor have wanted the same, having no
benefit thereof, as we know."[143] One Consant received a cow
belonging to the parish "and hath not made an account to the parish
for her."[144] Jeremy Robson is cited "for detaining our Clerk's wages
from the land which he occupieth in our parish after 6 s. 8 d. for a
plough land of 140 acres."[145] Two lessees of the parish are
presented "for withholding the farm of two acres and a half of church
land one year and a half unpaid."[146] John Smithe presented for
felling and selling a great oak which stood upon church land, "whereas
now we stand in lack of the same to repair our Church."[147] A
parishioner is cited before the ordinary because he withholds church
goods and refuses both to enter into bond for them and to make an
accounting.[148] So men are presented for not paying the parish fees
due for the burial of members of their family, or for the ringing of
knells;[149] for suffering a church tenement or a part of the church
fence, which they are bound to repair, to fall into decay,[150] and so
forth. In short, any one at all, whether in the capacity of parish
officer; rate payer; trustee; administrator or executor; lessee of the
parish cattle or its lands or tenements--any one, in fact, standing in
the relation of debtor to the parish in a matter falling within the
jurisdiction of the spiritual courts, could be, and was, compelled by
these to pay or to account to the parishioners.
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