among other questions, "Whether the presbyter has a clerk who can keep
school, or read the epistle, or is able to sing as far as may seem
needful to him?"

A canon of the Council of Nantes, embodied in the Decretals of Pope
Gregory IX, settled definitely that every presbyter who has charge of a
parish should have a clerk, who should sing with him and read the
epistle and lesson, and who should be able to keep school and admonish
the parishioners to send their children to church to learn the
faith[35]. This ordinance was binding upon the Church in this country as
in other parts of Western Christendom, and William Lyndewoode, Official
Principal of the Archbishop of Canterbury, when laying down the law with
regard to the marriage of clerks, states that the clerk has "to wait on
the priest at the altar, to sing with him, and to read the epistle." A
notable quarrel between two clerks, which is recorded by John of Athon
writing in the years 1333-1348, gives much information upon various
points of ecclesiastical usage and custom. The account says:

[Footnote 35: Decr. Greg. IX. Lib. III. tit. i. cap. iii., quoted by Dr.
Cuthbert Atchley in _Alcuin Club Tracts_, IV.]

"Lately, when two clerks were contending about the carrying of holy
water, the clerk appointed by the parishioners against the command of
the priest, wrenched the book from the hands of the clerk who had been
appointed by the rector, and who had been ordered to read the epistle by
the priest, and hurled him violently to the ground, drawing blood[36]."

[Footnote 36: John of Athon, _Constit. Dom. Othoboni_, tit. _De
residentia archipreb. et episc._: cap. _Pastor bonus_: verb _sanctae
obedientiae_.]

A very unseemly disturbance truly! Two clerks righting for the book in
the midst of the sanctuary during the Eucharistic service! Still their
quarrel teaches us something about the appointment and election of
clerks in the Middle Ages, and of the duty of the parish clerk with
regard to the reading of the epistle.

In 1411 the vicar of Elmstead was enjoined by Clifford, Bishop of
London, to find a clerk to help him at private Masses on weekdays, and
on holy days to read the epistle.

In the rules laid down for the guidance of clerks at the various
churches we find many references to the duties of reading and singing.
At Coventry he is required to sing in the choir at the Mass, and to sing
Evensong on the south side of the choir; on feast days the first clerk
wa