So, too, the Aldermen of the Guild of the Holy Ghost in Beccles held lands to supply a priest to assist in the parish for ninety-nine years, to find money to pay the tenths, fifteenths, and other taxes, and for other charitable purposes. The property brought in £10, 9s. 4d., and each year the poor received forty shillings; thirty shillings went to pay for the taxes, and the rest--some £6--to the priest. In order to induce the king to leave this fund untouched, the commissioners of 1547 are asked to note “that Beccles is a great and populous town,” there being eight hundred houselings, “and the said priest is aiding unto the curate there, who without help is not able to discharge the said cure.”[380]
The case of Bury St. Edmunds is particularly distressing. Amongst other charities, lands had been left by will or given by various benefactors to find priests to serve St. Mary’s, to sing “the Jesus Mass,” and to act as chaplain at the Lady altar. Property also was given in charge of St. Nicholas Guild of the annual value of 25s. 4d., of which sum 22s. was to be distributed to the poor of the town, and the rest was to go to the annual anniversary services for members of the guild. More property, too, had been left by one Margaret Oldham for a priest to say Mass in the church of St. James on the week days, and in the jail on the Sundays, and to find the poor prisoners in wood for a fire during winter months. There were several other similar benefactions of the same kind, and the parishioners of St. James’s church “gathered weekly of their devotion” the stipend of a priest paid to say “the morrow Mass”--that is, the Mass at daybreak intended for those who had to go early to their daily work. When the royal commissioners came on behalf of the said Edward VI. to gather in these spoils at Bury, they were asked to forward to the authorities in London the following plea for pity: “It is to be considered that the said town of Bury is a great and populous town, having in it two parish churches, and in the parishes of the same above the number of 3000 houseling persons, and a great number of youth. And the king’s majesty hath all the tithes and all the profits yearly coming and growing within the same parishes,[381] finding two parish priests there. And the said two parish priests are not able to serve and discharge the said cures without aid and help of other priests. And further, there is no school, nor other like foundation, within the said town, nor within twenty miles of it, for the virtuous education and bringing up of youth, nor any hospital or other like foundation for the comfort and relief of the poor, of which there is an exceeding great number within the said town other than what are before mentioned, of which the said incumbents do now take the whole[382] yearly revenues and profits, and distribute no part thereof to the aid and comfort or relief of the said poor people.