medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
There’s a very full list of obligations for “clerks” (who seem to be a sort of combination parish clerk/church warden) from c. 1442-83 and sextons (1540s) for the church of St. Stephen, Coleman Street in Edwin Freshfield, “Some Remarks upon the Book of records and History of St. Stephen, Coleman Street in the City of London,” *Archaeologia* 50 (1887), 17-57. Their duties include opening the church in the morning, tending to candles, sweeping, dusting the images biannually, etc. I have a modernized version of it I can send you or it's available in *Pastors and the Care of Souls in Medieval England*, pp. 109-112.
I can think of accounts from records of miracles collected at saints’ shrines where pilgrims spent the night sleeping on or around saints’ tombs. This would suggest that they were either locked in the church alone for the night, which doesn’t seem prudent, or else custodians kept watch over the shrine overnight. If I recall, there is mention of such custodians at St. Cuthbert’s shrine at Durham.
Best wishes,
John
----- Original Message -----
From: "Pat McIntosh-Spinnler" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Saturday, October 23, 2010 4:41:37 AM
Subject: [M-R] Evening tasks
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I wonder if I might ask for enlightenment.
What sort of routine would exist for putting a big church or particularly a cathedral to bed for the night in the late Middle Ages? As a Presbyterian Scot I have no idea of how the task would be carried out now, let alone six hundred years ago, but my own speculations have produced:
-extinguish all candles, on altars and on stands before particular saints
-check altar cloths and hangings for dirt, wax, whatever
-empty and clean censers
-put the songbooks away
-sweeping, dusting
-folding and stowing vestments
-er... there must be more.
The snag is that I have no idea how many of these would be daily tasks, or which would be morning rather than evening duties, or who would carry them out (clergy, choir, vergers?) or who would be in charge of seeing they were done (is that part of the sacristan's duties?)
Is anything known about this kind of routine matter? Do we have any written sources? I'd be very grateful for any pointers.
Pat McIntosh-Spinnler
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John Shinners
Professor, Schlesinger Chair in Humanistic Studies
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
Phone: 574-284-4494 or 574-284-4534
Fax: 284-4855
www.saintmarys.edu/~hust
"Learn everything. Later you will see that nothing is superfluous." -- Hugh of St. Victor (d. 1141)
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