Froude draws a sad picture of the
halls of country houses hung with altar cloths, tables and beds quilted
with copes, and knights and squires drinking their claret out of
chalices and watering their horses in marble coffins. No wonder there
was discontent among the people. No wonder they disliked the despoiling
of their heritage for the enrichment of the Dudleys and the _nouveaux
riches_ who fattened on the spoils of the monasteries, and left the
church bare of brass and ornament, chalice and vestment, the
accumulation of years of the pious offerings of the faithful. No wonder
there were risings and riots, quelled only by the stern and powerful
hand of a Tudor despot.
But in spite of all the changes that were wrought in that tumultuous
time, the parish clerk remained, and continued to discharge many of the
functions which had fallen to his lot before the Reformation had begun.
As I have already stated, his duties with regard to bearing holy water
and the holy loaf were discontinued, although the collecting of money
from the parishioners was conducted in much the same way as before, and
the "holy loaf" corrupted into various forms--such as "holy looff,"
"holie loffe," "holy cake," etc.--appears in churchwardens' account
books as late as the beginning of the seventeenth century.
As regards his main duties of reading and singing we find that they were
by no means discontinued.
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