Item 18th charges them with grievously burthening the said Priory by means ot sales, and grants ot liveries* and corrodies.†
The bishop, in Item 19th, accuses the canons of neglect and omission with respect to their perpetual chantry-services.
Item 20th. The visitor here conjures the prior and canons not to withhold their original alms, "eleemosynas;" nor those that they were enjoined to distribute for the good of the souls of founders and benefactors; he also strictly orders that the fragments and broken victuals, both from the hall of their prior and their common refectory, should be carefully collected together by their eleemosynarius, and given to the poor without any diminution; the officer to be suspended for neglect or omission.
Item 23rd. He bids them distribute their pittances, "pitancias"‡ regularly on obits, anniversaries, festivals, etc.
Item 25th. All and every one of the canons are hereby inhibited from standing godfather to any boy for the future, "ne compatres alicujus pueri de cetero fieri presumatis,” unless by express license from the bishop obtained; because from such relationship favour and affection, nepotism, and undue influence, arise, to the injury and detriment of religious institutions.§
* “Liberationes, or liberaturæ, allowances of corn, etc., to servants delivered at certain times, and in certain quantities, as clothes were among the allowances from religious houses to their dependents. See the corrodies granted by Croyland Abbey.—Hist, of Croyland, Appendix No. XXXIV.
“It is not improbable that the word in after-ages came to be confined to the uniform of the retainers or servants of the great, who were hence called livery servants.”—Sir John Cullum’S Hist. of Hawsted.
† A corrody is an allowance to a servant living in an abbey or priory.
‡ Pitancia, an allowance of bread and beer, or other provision to any pious use, “especially to the religious in a monastery, &c., for augmentation of their commons.”—Gloss, to Kennet’s Par. Ant.
§ The relationship between sponsors and their god-children, who were called spiritual sons and daughters, was formerly esteemed much more sacred than at present. The presents at christenings were sometimes very considerable: the connexion lasted through life, and was closed with a legacy. This last mark of attention seems to have been thought almost indispensable: for, in a will from whence no extracts have been given, the testator left every one of his god-children a bushel of barley.”—Sir John Cullum’s Hist. of Hawsted.
“De Margaretæ filiæ regis primogenitæ, quam filiolam, quia ejus in bap-
