L4 10s. 4d. from their ale, while proceeds from other sources
amounted to L17 9s. 7d.[252]

In the thirty-one years from 1556-7 to 1587-8 in this parish the
recorded wardens' expenditures had more than doubled. In the
first-named year they had been but L8 I2s. 5d.;[253] in the latter
year they had swelled to L18 14s 3-1/2d.[254] This characteristic is
true of all Elizabethan church budgets, and the writer has seen a
number of them.[255] The Wootton churchwardens enter under the year
1600 the following: "Rec. by our Kingale, all things discharged, xij
li. xiiij[s]. jd. ob.," an important sum for the day.[256]

Besides the churchwardens other wardens or gilds sometimes busied
themselves with the selling of ale for the benefit of the church. One
of these gilds at South Tawton, Devon, records in its accounts for
1564: "We made of our alle and gathering xl l. viijs. viijd."[257]

So important a source of parish income had to be carefully looked
after. A church-ale with its attendant festivities for drawing
visitors was an important business matter. Accordingly we find the
parishioners of St. John's, Glastonbury, making an order in 1589 "that
the churchwardens shall yearly keape ale to the comodeti of the
parishe upon payne of xxs. a yere."[258]

In Ashburton, Devon, in 1567 Christopher Wydecomb had to pay 20s. to
the wardens "because he refused the office of the drawer of the church
ale."[259] At Wing, Bucks, those refusing "to be lorde at Whitsuntyde
for the behofe of the church" were fined 35. 4d. apiece.[260] In some
places these masters of the revels were called Cuckoo Kings, and the
office seems to have gone in rotation like other parish offices.[261]

When invitations had been sent out to surrounding parishes,
interparochial courtesy seems to have required the attendance either
of the churchwardens or of some other more or less official
representatives of the neighboring communities. These representatives
carried with them some small contribution made at the expense of their
respective parishes ('ale-scot').[262]

Because of the alleged drunkenness and disorderly conduct attendant
upon some of these ales, the justices of assize and the justices of
the peace attempted in some shires to put them down on various
occasions.[263] More effective, perhaps, in doing away with them was
the gradual growth of Puritanism.

In conclusion it should be remarked that church-ales seem to have
obtained only in Central and Southe