he vicar, rector, or beneficed clergyman of the
mother church, and such curates were generally removable at the pleasure
of the said vicar or rector. Willenhall, doubtless, was served by a
"curate" sent from the Wolverhampton collegiate establishment.

In the reign of Edward IV. local ecclesiastical matters became further
complicated by the collegiate church of Wolverhampton being permanently
united with the Deanery of Windsor, the two deaneries being always
subsequently held together. It appears that King Edward, desirous of
doing his Chaplain a favour, annexed the "Free Royal Church of
Wolverhampton" to the said Deanery of Windsor, which royal act was soon
afterwards confirmed by Parliament (1480).

The Chantry of Willenhall, in common with all others, disappeared at the
Reformation (this one probably in 1545), when prayers for the dead were
no longer tolerated. But it is interesting to observe that under the new
Protestant regime attendance at church every Sunday was still regarded as
a duty no good citizen and loyal subject could be excused.

Attendance at church was compulsory in the early days of the Anglican
establishment. By statute (I, Elizabeth c. I., 23 Elizabeth c. I., and
3, James I. c. 4) every person was to repair to his parish church every
Sunday on pain of forfeiting 1s. for every offence; and being present at
any form of prayer contrary to the Book of Common Prayer was punished
with six months' imprisonment. Persons above sixteen years of age who
absented themselves from church above a month had to pay a forfeit of 20
pounds a month.

Protestant dissenters who did not deny the doctrine of the Trinity were
(it is interesting to note) exempted from these penalties in 1689; and
the Roman Catholics were similarly emancipated by law in 1792. This by
the way.

It was in Elizabeth's reign, and, of course, under the authority of the
newly-established Protestant Church of England, that Willenhall was
enabled to make a distinct advance in the status of its church. The
charge of this church became an independent one, and was no longer
subordinated to the canons of Wolverhampton; the incumbent was
thenceforward to be in fact, as well as in name, "Chaplain of
Willenhall." But although the incumbent thus obtained his personal
freedom from the domination of the mother church, the Wolverhampton
establishment still retained all the old parochial rights in the shape of
fees and ecclesiastical emoluments. B