send their children to him to be taught in the church. There is not much
evidence of the carrying out of this rule, but here and there we find
allusions to this part of a clerk's duties. Inasmuch as this may have
been regarded as an occupation somewhat separate from his ordinary
duties as regards the church, perhaps we should not expect to find
constant allusion to it. However, Archbishop Peckham ordered, in 1280,
that in the church of Bakewell and the chapels annexed to it there
should be _duos clericos scholasticos_ carefully chosen by the
parishioners, from whose alms they would have to live, who should carry
holy water round in the parish and chapels on Lord's Days and
festivals, and minister _in divinis officiis_, and on weekdays should
keep school[29]. It is said that Alexander, Bishop of Coventry, in 1237,
directed that there should be in country villages parish clerks who
should be schoolmasters.

[Footnote 29: If that is the correct translation of _profestis diebus
disciplinis scolasticis indulgentes_. Dr. Legg thinks that it may refer
to their own education.]

It is certain--for the churchwarden accounts bear witness to the
fact--that in several parishes the clerks performed this duty of
teaching. Thus in the accounts of the church of St. Giles, Reading,
occurs the following:

Pay'd to Whitborne the clerk towards his wages and he to be
bound to teach ij children for the choir ... xij s.

At Faversham, in 1506, it was ordered that "the clerks or one of them,
as much as in them is, shall endeavour themselves to teach children to
read and sing in the choir, and to do service in the church as of old