deposited in safety in the vestry.  He had to ring all the people in to Matins, together with his fellow-clerk, at every commemoration and feast of IX lessons, and see that the books were ready for the priest.  Again for High Mass he rang and sang in the choir.  At 3 p.m. he rang for Evensong, and sang the service in the south side of the choir, his assistant occupying the north side.  On weekdays they sang the Psalms and responses antiphonally, and on Sundays and holy-days acted as rectores chori, each one beginning the verses of the Psalms for his own side.  He had to be very careful that the books were all securely locked up in the vestry, and the church locked at a convenient hour, having searched the building to see lest any one was lying in any seat or corner.  On Sundays and holidays he had to provide a clerk or “dekyn” to read the gospel at High Mass.  The sweeping of the floor of the church, the cleaning of the leaden roofs, and sweeping away the snow from the gutters “leste they be stoppyd,” also came under his care.  The bells he also kept in order, examining the clappers and bawdricks and ropes, and reporting to the churchwardens if they required mending.  His assistant had to grease the bells when necessary, and find the materials.  He had to tend the lamp and to fetch oil and rychys (rushes), and fix banners on holidays, fold up the albs and vestments.  On Saturdays and on the eve of saints’ days he had to ring the noon-tide bell, and to ring the sanctus bell every Sunday and holy-day, and during processions.

Special seasons brought their special duties, and directions are minutely given with regard to every point to be observed.  On Palm Sunday he was ordered to set a form at the priory door for the stations of the Cross, so that a crucifix or rood should be set there for the priest to sing Ave rex.  He had to provide palms for that Sunday, watch the Easter sepulchre “till the resurrecion be don,” and then take down the “lenten clothys” about the altar and the rood.  In Easter week, when a procession was made, he bore the chrismatory.  At the beginning of Lent he was ordered to help the churchwardens to cover the altar and rood with “lentyn clothys” and to hang the vail in the choir.  The pulley which worked this vail is still to be seen in some churches, as at Uffington, Berks.  For this labour the churchwardens were to give money to the clerk for drink.  The great bell had to be rung for compline every Saturday in Lent.  At Easter and Whit-Sunday the clerk was required to hang a towel about the font, and see that three “copys” (copes) be brought down to the font for the priests to sing Rex sanctorum.

It was evidently considered the duty of the churchwardens to deck the high altar for great festivals, but they were to have the assistance of the clerk at the third peel of the first Evensong “to aray the hye awter with clothys necessary for it.”  Perhaps this duty of the churchwardens might with advantage be revived.