the parishes in the archdeaconry of Buckingham between the years 1705 and 1723 : they give the population of each, the number of ser- vices usually held, the number of Eucharists celebrated throughout the year, and other details of interest. It appears from these returns that not in one church of the archdeaconry, even where as at Amersham and Bletchley, the incumbents were pronounced High Churchmen, were mattins and evensong daily recited in public,[1] though nearly everywhere there were services on Wednesdays, Fridays, and holy days throughout the year. Only three churches—Buckingham, Hambleden, and New- port Pagnel had a celebration of the Holy Eucharist as often as once a month [2] ; at Waddesdon there were ten celebrations during the year, at Olney, Whaddon, Steeple Claydon, Denham, Great Brickhill, as many as eight (at least during part of the period specified), at Aylesbury seven. The rest had only three or four ; a few small and sparsely populated villages like Horsenden, Chenies, Chicheley, Buckland, only one or two in the year.[3] The practice of catechizing on Sunday afternoons seems however to have been well kept up during this period, though doubtless the explanations given of the Catechism were not always very satis- factory.[4] Yet there were even in this county a few excellent churchmen, among the laity as well as among the clergy, whose devotion to the interests of the Church was as real and practical as that of the first disciples of the Oxford movement. Browne Willis[5] of Whaddon Hall deserves an honourable mention in any history of the Church in Buck- inghamshire. He spent his whole energy on researches prompted by the love of Catholic antiquity, and a great part of his wealth in beauti- fying the churches of his neighbourhood. In periods of history when all goes smoothly, when the standard of life is low, when there is no strong call for self-devotion and nothing specially picturesque in sacrifice, there are generally but few men who can boast of being the poorer for their love of the Church. Willis therefore deserves all the more credit that he not only did what he could himself but tried to inspire others with the same enthusiasm. This made him no doubt something of a tyrant in his exercise of patronage—his friend Cole, the rector of
- ↑ Mattins and evensong were said daily in many London churches at the beginning of the Restoration period, and the same may have been done in some country churches also (Overton, Life in the English Church, 1660-1714, p. 167.
- ↑ The entry ' once a month ' is only found in connection with Hambleden ; at Buckingham and Newport it is ' ten or twelve times a year,' which does not necessarily imply a monthly celebration.
- ↑ There are three entries in connection with each parish, showing changes between 1705 and 1723 : e.g. ' 4 . . . 5 vel 6 . . . 6 plerumque 3.' Decrease is commoner than increase. ' Six communions in the year ' is further explained (at Turville) to be ' i.e. bis in tribus festis ' ; that is to say, only three times a year after all. In some churches there may have been a general communion at Michaelmas or All Saints to break the long gap between Whitsunday and Christmas : there is an allusion to a ' sacrament ' on St. Michael's Day in the Wing Churchwardens' Book for 1716. A little earlier the celebrations at Wing were somewhat more frequent. In 1684-5 there was one on the Coronation Day, as well as in November ; and on Easter Monday and Tuesday, as well as Easter Day (the entry being ' Bread for the Communion for three days at Easter ').
- ↑ At Aston and Clinton and Boarstall it was stated that the people were invited to the catechizing, but would not come.
- ↑ His grandfather, Thomas Willis, had been physician in ordinary to King Charles II. and a devout Churchman. Overton, Life in the English Church, 1660-1714, pp. 111-3.
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