At
the long tables, when the ale was set abroach, "well is he," writes a
contemporary, "that can get the soonest to it, and spend the most at
it, for he that sitteth the closest to it, and spendes the most at it,
hee is counted the godliest man of all the rest ... because it is
spent uppon his Church forsooth."[249] The receipts from these ales
were sometimes very large. So important were they at Chagford, Devon,
that the churchwardens were sometimes called alewardens.[250] At Mere,
Wilts, out of a total wardens' receipts of L21 5s. 7-1/2d. for the two
years 1559-61, the two church-ales netted L17 3s. 1-1/2d.,[251] thus
leaving only L5 2s. 6d. as receipts from other sources for these two
years. At a later period, on the other hand, this relation of receipts
was entirely reversed. For instance, in 1582-3 the wardens secured
only L4 10s. 4d. from their ale, while proceeds from other sources
amounted to L17 9s. 7d.[252]
In the thirty-one years from 1556-7 to 1587-8 in this parish the
recorded wardens' expenditures had more than doubled. In the
first-named year they had been but L8 I2s. 5d.;[253] in the latter
year they had swelled to L18 14s 3-1/2d.[254] This characteristic is
true of all Elizabethan church budgets, and the writer has seen a
number of them.[255] The Wootton churchwardens enter under the year
1600 the following: "Rec.
Pages:
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72