FAIRS HELD IN CHURCHES.

Bruce Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 1735, 26 March 1886, Page 5

FAIRS HELD IN CHURCHES.

j On what were proclaimed as fair | days pedlars, with permission of the i church wardens, would set up their j stalks in the open space of the church, | against the walk or wherever they I found it convenient, and people would j repair to these stalls for all kinds of I fancy merchandise, as they would nowj a-days go to a bazaar. It may seem strange to us that there should have been fairs in churches, or in any of the sacred enclosures around churches. The word fair, however, is derived from \feria, which originally meant festival, and here is the way in which a modern author, zealous as any Anglican or j Scotch Episcopalian can be for the | honour of the ancient Catholic Church, accounts for the origin of fairs. " Monasteries," he Bays, " were places of such general resort that they were often the stage of mercantile as wellfas sacred transactions. The great concourse of people that generally assembled around religious houses on holy days required refreshment. This suggested the idea of gainful trade to traffickers who repaired thither not only with victuals and drink, but different other articles of merchandise, j which thoy disposed of amongst tho crowd " The same author, in describing the priory of St Andrews, says that to the west of the prior's house was the cloister, and ia it was held the j Senzie Fair, ou the second week of I Easter. The stalls of the merchants } had thus the advantage of being | covered in, and it does not require a great stretch of imagination to suppose that if stalls were once allowed in the cloisters, and the cloisters were found insufficient to accommodate the traders, either charitable or pecuuiary con* siderations would pormit still further encroachment ou the holy ground.—* From- Old Church Life in Scotland.