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FABRIC FUND OF MINSTER. 159
its completion. Great efforts were made from time to
time to secure funds for the great undertaking. The
fabric derived a considerable yearly sum from the
penancers of the church. Offenders were often
punished by the infliction of a fine, on payment of
.vhich absolution was given-. It was the business of
the penancers to determine the amount of the fine
and hand it over to the keeper of the fabric. There
was also another source which, in the aggregate, did
much to swell the fabric fund— namely, the bequests
which we find in the wills of the period. These
were very numerous, and in their varying amounts,
and the different status of those who bequeathed
them, they show how deep and widespread was the
interest taken, from one century to another, in the
rearing of that magnificent structure. The great baron
and the wealthy churchman leave their ^40 or their
;^2o, a clerk of lesser degree his half-mark, whilst a
husbandman bequeaths his shilling, and it is somewhat
affecting to find a poor leper in the hospital at Monkbridge
leaving his sixpence to the works which were
going on at the great mother-church of York.i Briefs
for the same object were issued, to be published by
the parochial clergy in their churches, the bearers of
these briefs being duly authorised by a formal license.
Large sums of money were gathered by these means.
There is no documentary evidence fixing the precise
date of the singularly beautiful and graceful
work of the chapter-house, but it must have gone on
simultaneously with the nave, yet from the character
of its magnificent geometrical tracery it is obvious
'
If we multiply by 15 we shall arrive at something like the
value of these bequests in modern currency.