church-ales

If he is a moral censor, then he is too like those who keep trying to close down the London theatres, and were also hostile to maypoles, village fairs, and the church-ales or festive gatherings at churches that Toby may be referring to.

Shakespeare Bevington, David 2002

This was somewhat new to me, this dinner in a church, and I thought of the church-ales of the Middle Ages; but I said nothing, and presently we came out into the road which ran through the village.

News from Nowhere 1892

The people of Lancashire in the time of James I. were as devoted to sports and amusement as they are now; and when the king was making a progress through Lancashire, "he received a petition from some servants, labourers, mechanics, and other vulgar persons, complaining that they were debarred from dancing, playing, church-ales -- in a word, from all recreations on Sundays after Divine service."

Old English Sports 1892

The proceeds of these church-ales were often considerable.

Old English Sports 1892

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.

Old English Sports 1892

This was somewhat new to me, this dinner in a church, and I thought of the church-ales of the Middle Ages; but I said nothing, and presently we came out into the road which ran through the village.

News From Nowhere, or, An Epoch of Rest [a machine-readable transcription] 1890

This was somewhat new to me, this dinner in a church, and I thought of the church-ales of the Middle Ages; but I said nothing, and presently we came out into the road which ran through the village.

News from Nowhere, or, an Epoch of Rest : being some chapters from a utopian romance William Morris 1865

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.

The Home Fredrika Bremer 1833

"Touching clerke-ales (which are lesser church-ales) for the better maintenance of Parish-clerks they have been used

The Parish Clerk 1892