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Church Plays, Games and Dances were allied in a measure with church-ales, partly because they were sometimes held concurrently with them, partly because they served as a substitute for the ales when these fell into disrepute.
He would like to stop the wakes, guilds, paternities, church-ales, and brides-ales, with all their rioting, and he thinks they could get on very well without the feasts of apostles, evangelists, martyrs, the holy-days after Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide, and those of the Virgin Mary, with the rest.
The names of many of the domestic festivities of Sweden remind us very much of those of our own old festivities; as church-ales, christening-ales, etc.: thus, barnsöl, the christening-feast; graföl, burial-feast; arföl, the feast given by the heir on descent of property, etc.
While ale was brewed and drunk in the church-house for the benefit of the parish, and that apparently on other occasions than church-ales, it does not seem probable that the place was often allowed to degenerate into a common ale-house, even though in some parishes it may have borne the name of "church tavern."
So important were they at Chagford, Devon, that the churchwardens were sometimes called alewardens. At Mere, Wilts, out of a total wardens' receipts of £21 5s. 7-1/2d. for the two years 1559-61, the two church-ales netted £17 3s. 1-1/2d., thus leaving only £5 2s. 6d. as receipts from other sources for these two years.
This was the scene of many social gatherings, and is thus described by an old writer Whether the learned writer was right in his conjecture we cannot be quite certain, but church-ales subsequently degenerated into something quite different from New Testament injunctions, and were altogether prohibited on account of the excess to which they gave rise.
When not required for parish purposes the church-house was rented out, and rooms in an upper story were used for lodging. As church-ales fell into disfavor Offerings or Gatherings in church or at the church door became more frequent and more systematized.
He would like to stop the wakes, guilds, paternities, church-ales, and brides-ales, with all their rioting, and he thinks they could get on very well without the feasts of apostles, evangelists, martyrs, the holy-days after Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide, and those of the Virgin Mary, with the rest.
Of all means ever devised for obtaining large sums of money for parish uses, the most popular, as certainly the most efficacious, was the Church-ale. Widespread during the first years of Elizabeth's reign, church-ales, for reasons hereafter to be mentioned, ceased to be held in many parishes towards the end of the reign.
Church-ales were usually held at or near Whitsuntide, hence they were also called Whitsun-ales or May-ales in the accounts.
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