Religious Life
The conventionally phrased wills of the earlier 16th century reveal little about
the religious attitudes of the townspeople. (fn. 71) The friaries continued to be seen as
worthy of bequests and as fit places for the obits of testators from the town and a
wide area around it. (fn. 72) The wills also suggest the ample means of some parishioners
of St. Mary's. Bequests and other gifts enabled the church to be completed c. 1500
and then partially rebuilt a mere 20 years later. (fn. 73) A guild of the young men of
St. Mary's parish evidently existed before the 16th century, but its objects, the
maintenance of a light in the church and the provision of two torches for the
Corpus Christi procession, were neglected c. 1500; accordingly, in 1503 the
administration of the guild was confirmed to four 'yeomen', to be elected annually. (fn. 74)
A similar guild for the minster parish was founded or confirmed in 1508. (fn. 75)
The religious and ceremonial activities of the guilds evidently continued until
the Reformation. (fn. 76) The chaplain paid by the mercers to celebrate before the Holy
Trinity light in St. Mary's church was mentioned in 1502, when contributions to
his salary were set at 25. a year from the alderman, 1s. 8d. from each steward, and
8d. from each brother. (fn. 77) On Rogation or Cross Monday 1502 the governors watched
the procession of St. John from their castle, and on Corpus Christi Day the castle
was again in use when they watched the town's play cycle. (fn. 78) In 1519-20 the plays
were refashioned by a poet and priest, William Pyers, who travelled to Beverley
from Wressle and was presumably one of the earl of Northumberland's chaplains. (fn. 79)
The plays were again performed in 1520, when the alderman of the painters was
fined for a badly produced play 'in contempt of the whole commonalty and in the
presence of many visitors'. (fn. 80) The plays were not mentioned again, but the
Rogationtide festivities apparently survived until the 1570s. (fn. 81)
The special right of sanctuary belonging to St. John's college survived until the
extinction of all such privileges by the Act of 1540. (fn. 82) Between 1500 and October
1539, when the last sanctuary man was received, 365 sanctuary-seekers were
registered. (fn. 83) They included 162 from Yorkshire, 42 from Lincolnshire, 32 from
London, 24 from East Anglia, 18 from Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, and 14
from north-east England; a few were from as far afield as Devonshire and Wales.
Debt was the reason for 192 applicants seeking sanctuary, homicide for 87, and
other felonies for 59; the rest are unknown. From 1540 the minster was entitled
only to the temporary right of sanctuary belonging to a parish church. (fn. 84)
The religious changes in Beverley were initiated in 1534 with the visitation of
the two friaries; the inmates acknowledged the royal supremacy but a Franciscan
found to have libelled the king was sent to Cromwell for examination. (fn. 85) In 1538,
however, the archbishop's suffragan was found to have breached the king's
injunctions in a sermon in the town, and most of those examined claimed to be
ignorant of them. (fn. 86) The offending preacher was presumably the chancellor of the
college who, as Dr. Sherwood 'of naughty judgement', was being sought at Beverley
later the same year by Cromwell. (fn. 87) Robert Sherwood was, nevertheless, still
chancellor at the suppression. (fn. 88) The removal of religious houses began in 1536
with the dissolution of St. Giles's hospital; the two friaries were surrendered in
1539, and Holy Trinity preceptory disappeared with the suppression of the
Hospitallers in 1540. (fn. 89) The process of reformation culminated in 1548 with the
suppression of St. John's college and the many chantries there and elsewhere in
the town under the Chantries Act of the previous year. (fn. 90) Also evidently lost at that
time were St. Thomas's chapel and the hermitage of St. Theobald (Tebbitt). (fn. 91)
Just before its suppression the college had a total staff of 75, including 14 chantry
chaplains. (fn. 92) They mostly seem to have been resident and all of those described
were regarded as satisfactory in character and learning. Most of them were
discharged in 1548, but two of the vicars, Thomas Mitchell and Thomas Dring,
were retained to serve the minster as curate and assistant, and two of the chantry
priests were also appointed assistants. (fn. 93) The town also lost the services of four
chantry priests in St. Mary's church, one at St. Nicholas's, and three others
celebrating in town hospitals, while three chantry chapels in the outlying townships
were removed as well. (fn. 94) Most of the 1,200 ounces of plate belonging to the college
was confiscated and some buildings adjoining the minster were demolished. (fn. 95) The
small amount of plate left to the minster and the other churches was probably
further depleted by the Edwardian confiscation of the 1550s; the minster later had
only one piece, of brass, made before the mid 16th century and St. Mary's none. (fn. 96)
The process by which the grantees of former Church property in the town, who
were mostly courtiers or Crown officers, sold it to local men is obscure. (fn. 97) Early
purchasers included Sir Ralph Ellerker, who briefly owned the former Franciscan
friary. (fn. 98) The Constables of Burton Constable and Halsham overcame their religious
conservatism (fn. 99) to buy the site of the former preceptory of the Holy Trinity in
1546 (fn. 1) and other Church property direct from the Crown in 1554. (fn. 2) The former
preceptory was bought later in the century by the corporation, which by purchase
and Crown grant eventually succeeded to many of the former Church possessions.
Land remaining with the Crown was let, the Dominican friary site, for instance,
to Richard Faircliff and many houses to the corporation for a 60-year term in
1587. (fn. 3) The availability of Church property may have helped the rise to prominence
of the Wartons, who leased the Trinities from the town in the 1580s and owned
the Dominican friary site and former college property by the end of the century,
besides leasing the manor of Beverley. (fn. 4) Ralph Hansby similarly added Church
property to his estate in and around the town, where he bought the former hospital
of St. Giles in 1582 and later leased most of St. Giles's crofts from the corporation. (fn. 5)
Four of the medieval hospitals, including that of the Trinity, were obtained by
the town after the suppression and were continued as maisons dieu. (fn. 6) Robert Hill,
who served the chantry at the Trinity hospital until its suppression and was paid
by the town until his death in 1558, may have been the former prior of the
Dominican friary. (fn. 7) The town also secured grants of profits and former Church
property in 1552, 1579, and 1585 for the support of the minster, St. Mary's, and
the grammar school. (fn. 8) In 1575-6, when the net value of the minster rents was just
over £60 a year, the town spent about £40 on the church and the school, (fn. 9) but later
in the century no more than £20 a year was apparently spent on the church, (fn. 10)
which was repeatedly described as decayed. (fn. 11) The only other neglect recorded was
the mayor's failure to provide for services in 1595. (fn. 12)
By the mid century protestant ideas had won converts in the town. (fn. 13) In 1554,
1556, and 1557 a dozen townsmen were in trouble with the authorities for allegedly
speaking against the sacrament. They included an innkeeper, Robert Bigott, a
former member of the college, John Bonsaye, (fn. 14) and a man who did penance for
keeping Bonsaye's protestant books, which were then burnt. (fn. 15) It was perhaps for
his part in disciplining protestants that Thomas Mitchell was called a 'crafty priest'
and otherwise slandered by one of his parishioners at the minster early in Mary's
reign. (fn. 16) John Atkinson, a former chantry priest who later served the minster
successively as assistant (fn. 17) and curate, had apparently adopted puritan ideas by
1566, when he was reported for not wearing a surplice. His religious views were,
however, satisfactory in 1575. (fn. 18)
Low church views were later fostered by the corporation with encouragement
from the puritan Henry Hastings, earl of Huntingdon, Lord President of the
Council in the North from 1572 to 1595. (fn. 19) The corporation nominated the
churchwardens at the minster (fn. 20) and from 1581 the curate, and both of its appointees
as curate in the last decades of the century, Thomas Whincop (1583-99) and
William Crashaw (1599-1605), were puritans. Another institution governed by the
corporation, the grammar school, was also to become a centre of puritanism. (fn. 21) It
may be significant that the appointment of Hastings coincided with the cessation
of the Rogationtide festivities. As early as 1566 the presence of minstrels in
parochial perambulations was forbidden by the Church authorities. (fn. 22) Rewards
were, however, regularly given to the town waits for playing before the governors
on Cross Monday, (fn. 23) and the celebrations in 1568 extended to other days in
Rogationtide and also involved performances by the waits of York. (fn. 24) The last such
payment was made for Rogation Monday 1572. (fn. 25)
Social behaviour was controlled by both the ecclesiastical and the town authorities. In 1586, for instance, nearly 70 presentments were made at the visitation of
the three parish churches, many of them for irreverence at service time. (fn. 26) A whore
was carted round the streets in 1565-6, (fn. 27) occasional breaches of guild ordinances
forbidding work on Sunday were punished, (fn. 28) and in the 1570s town courts dealt
with a handful of cases involving drunkeness, the playing of unlawful games, and
disorderly conduct in church. (fn. 29)
Among those holding traditional beliefs were three of the clergy at the minster,
who were charged with popish practices in 1567; John Levet was a former member
of the college and Richard Levet was presumably his brother. Both Levets were
suspended from the priesthood for keeping prohibited equipment and books and
when restored were ordered not to minister in Beverley or its neighbourhood. (fn. 30)
There were few other instances of religious conservatism in the town, but some
townsmen used Roman Catholic expressions in their wills in the 1560s, a Catholic
font survived in St. Mary's church until the 1570s, and Catholic books were sold
in the town in the 1580s. The guildhall was used for extraordinary sessions of the
York Court of High Commission in its prosecution of local Catholics in the early
1580s, and William Lacy, a missioner executed in York in 1582, was of a Beverley
family frequently recorded for religious offences. (fn. 31) In 1585-6, after the outbreak
of war with Spain, a night-time search was conducted in the belief that the beacons
had been fired, and a Catholic townswoman was arrested and sent to York with
other prisoners. The town celebrated with bonfires and bellringing the safety of
the queen, presumably after Babington's plot of 1586. (fn. 32) In 1587 another Beverley
woman was accused of receiving papal pardons from relatives imprisoned in York
castle and of hearing mass at Hemingbrough. (fn. 33) There is, however, little to suggest
that recusancy was strong in Beverley. During the 1580s no more than 10, besides
dependents, were presented for evasion of their religious duties, (fn. 34) although the
suspects included members of leading local families, notably Michael Warton, (fn. 35)
and several other recusants were town office-holders. (fn. 36)