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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of Life in a Mediæval City, by Edwin Benson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: Life in a Mediæval City
+       York in the XVth Century
+
+Author: Edwin Benson
+
+Release Date: February 24, 2006 [eBook #17848]
+[Most recently updated: July 18, 2021]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+Produced by: R. Cedron, gvb, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE IN A MEDIÆVAL CITY ***
+
+
+Transcriber's notes:
+
+   All material added by the transcriber is surrounded by braces {}.
+
+   The original has a number of inconsistent spellings and punctuation.
+   Three corrections have been made for obvious typographical errors;
+   they have been noted individually in the text.
+
+   Text in italics in the original is shown between _underlines_.
+   Superscript (three instances in this book) is marked by a caret (^).
+
+
+
+
+
+LIFE IN A MEDIÆVAL CITY
+
+Illustrated by York in the XVth Century
+
+by
+
+EDWIN BENSON, B.A.
+
+With Eight Illustrations
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+London:
+Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
+New York: The MacMillan Co.
+1920
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+IMPORTANT FACTORS AFFECTING THE HISTORY OF YORK
+
+(_a_) Geographical position; (_b_) Military value of its position;
+(_c_) Political importance
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+APPEARANCE
+
+A. _General appearance_
+
+Church, State, people; outside the city; population; area-divisions
+
+B. _Streets_
+
+Highways, traffic, open-spaces; Ouse Bridge
+
+C. _Buildings_
+
+Dwelling-houses, shops, inns; civic buildings (guildhalls);
+fortifications (castle, city walls, bars); religious buildings
+(Minster; St. William's College; St. Mary's Abbey; Friaries; St.
+Clement's Nunnery; Hospitals; Parish Churches)
+
+D. _York as a Port_
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+LIFE
+
+A. _Civic Life_
+
+City government, the parishes; extra municipal rights; a royal city;
+charter; sheriffs; mayor; city councils; civic spirit; city and trade
+rule; royal government; punishments; sanctuary
+
+B. _Parliamentary and National Life_
+
+Leasing of royal power; Parliament; visits of Henry IV.; Wars of
+Roses; Duke of Gloucester; judges of assize; royal larder
+
+C. _Business Life_
+
+Middle class of merchant employers; Jews and Italians; professions;
+wool trade; trade-guilds; their government; strangers; phases of guild
+life; merchants; apprentices; working hours; trades; artist craftsmen;
+markets and fairs; overseas trade; money; extracts from ordinances
+
+D. _Religious Life_
+
+The Church in the Middle Ages; the Church and daily life; merchants
+and religion; the Church and education; work of hospitals; priests (at
+Minster; parish churches; Archbishop); pluralism; religious orders;
+monastic life; St. Mary's Abbey; Anchorites; other types of religious
+(pardoner, palmer, pilgrim {original had "pligrim"}); Church services
+
+E. _Education_
+
+Higher education; grammar schools; elementary education; educational
+welfare work; instruction; the ways in which the citizen got news and
+information; vocations; literacy in fifteenth century; mediæval
+learning; Revival of Learning
+
+F. _Entertainments_
+
+Holidays, travelling; mediæval plays; York plays; Corpus Christi Day
+Processions; production of pageants; other forms of entertainment;
+archery
+
+G. _Classes_
+
+Fashions and dress; nobles; religious; townspeople; women; the
+freemen; soldiers; men in royal service; lepers; visitors (kings,
+lords, commoners; judges; sailors) serfs
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+York a city of destruction and a "storehouse of the past"
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+YORK IN THE XVTH CENTURY
+_(From a drawing by E. Ridsdale Tate)_
+
+COOKING WITH THE SPIT
+_(From the Louttrell Psalter)_
+
+BISHOP AND CANONS
+_(From Richard II.'s "Book of Hours")_
+
+KNIGHTS DOING PENANCE AT A SHRINE
+_(From a XVth Century MS.)_
+
+ADMINISTRATION OF HOLY COMMUNION WITH HOUSEL CLOTH
+_(From a XIVth Century MS.)_
+
+SEMI-CHOIR OF FRANCISCANS
+_(From a XVth Century MS.)_
+
+ARCHERY
+_(From the Louttrell Psalter)_
+
+AN ABBOT
+
+[Illustration: YORK IN THE XVTH CENTURY FROM A DRAWING BY E.
+RIDSDALE TATE]
+
+
+
+
+A MEDIÆVAL CITY
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+In English history the fifteenth century is the last of the centuries
+that form the Middle Ages, which were preceded by the age of racial
+settlement and followed by that of the great Renaissance. Although the
+active beginnings of this new era are to be observed in the fifteenth
+century, yet this century belongs essentially to the Middle Ages.
+
+Perhaps the most attractive feature of the Middle Ages is that they
+were so intensely human. A naïve spirit appears in their formal
+literature, as in Chaucer's account of the Canterbury pilgrims, in
+their decorated religious manuscripts, in their thought, and very
+characteristically, in their architecture, which combines a simple
+naturalness with a bold and daring ingenuity. From columns, the
+constructional motive of which is so simple and natural, and walls
+pierced with windows, they erected systems of lofty arches and high
+stone-vaulted roofs, the stability of which depended on very skilled
+balancing of thrust and counter-thrust.
+
+To-day mediæval buildings are to be found all over England. The
+majority of them are examples of an architecture that has not been
+surpassed for majesty, beauty, size, and constructional skill. Such
+buildings, without the help of the literary and other memorials,
+testify by themselves to the greatness of the Middle Ages.
+
+Through the fifteenth century England continued to be in a state of
+political unrest. There were wars and risings both abroad and at home,
+for besides the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) and the Wars of the
+Roses (1455-1485) there were wars with the Welsh and the Scots, as
+well as disorders made by powerful, intriguing barons. The barons and
+great landowners took advantage of the weak royal rule to increase
+their own power. Parliament, especially the House of Commons,
+succeeded in the first half of the century in strengthening its
+constitutional position, but during the Wars of the Roses it became
+less truly representative of the solid part of the nation, the middle
+class, and more and more a party machine worked by the baronial
+factions. The proportion of people wanting peace and firm government
+steadily increased, and, when the internecine Wars of the Roses, which
+affected the lords and kings far more than the people, were followed
+by the protection and order provided without excessive cost by the
+Tudors, it was the people who most welcomed the change.
+
+The towns were, however, comparatively little disturbed by these
+perpetual disorders. The mayors and corporations as a rule guided
+their cities through difficult times with politic shrewdness. Town
+life developed through flourishing trade and an increasing sense of
+municipal unity, and municipal importance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+IMPORTANT FACTORS AFFECTING THE HISTORY OF YORK
+
+
+A. GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION
+
+Among the factors affecting this particular city geographical position
+is evidently the most important. It is to this, combined with the
+consequent military value of the site, that York owes its origin as a
+city, its importance in the Middle Ages, and its practical importance
+to-day. York, which is the natural centre for the North of England, is
+the halfway house between London and Edinburgh, and is on the shortest
+and quickest land or air route, however the journey is made, between
+these two capitals. The Ouse and Humber have enabled it always to be
+within navigable distance of the North-East coast. The city itself is
+situated on an advantageous site in the centre of a great plain, the
+north and south ends of which are open. The surrounding hills and
+valleys are so disposed that a large number of rivers radiate towards
+the centre of the plain. Civilisation--if we must rank the ultra-fierce
+Norsemen, for instance, among its exponents--proceeded westwards from
+the coast, and wave after wave of the invading peoples crossed with
+ease the eastern and north-eastern hills, which are far less
+formidable than those on the west. York was already an important place
+in the days of Britain's making, the days when the land was in the
+melting-pot as far as race and nationality are concerned.
+
+
+B. MILITARY VALUE OF ITS POSITION
+
+York is situated on the higher ground, in the angle made by the rivers
+Ouse and Foss at their junction; a little to the south, the east and
+the west there are low ridges of mound. The outer, main series of
+hills which border the central plain, are some dozen miles away, their
+outer faces being more or less parallel and running very roughly north
+and south. It seems clear that the site was chosen from the first for
+its immediate defensive value, the direct result of its geographical
+features. The position was of both tactical and strategic importance.
+In Roman times, however, its tactical value decreased when the great
+wall was built that stretched with its lines of mound, ditch,
+stone-rampart, and road, and its series of camps and forts, from near
+the mouth of the Tyne to Solway Firth. Henceforth the wall marked the
+debatable frontier, but York never lost its strategic value. It was
+thus used by the Romans, William I., Edward I., Edward II., and Edward
+III. in their occupation of and their expeditions against the North.
+It has served as a base depôt and military headquarters for centuries.
+
+
+C. POLITICAL IMPORTANCE
+
+York, then, whatever its name (for it had many names) or condition,
+inevitably became an occupied place, a stronghold or a town from
+earliest times. When the Church attained great importance in the
+north, York, in addition to its natural and military values became, in
+735, an ecclesiastical metropolis, for from this date the Archbishop
+of York was not only the ruler of the diocese of York, but in addition
+spiritual head of the Church in the North of England. Further, there
+were established in the city branches of the civil government.
+Business of the state, both civil and military, and of the Church was
+regularly conducted at York from early times. This political
+importance lasted long and is intimately connected with many events in
+the city's history. The fort and military defences were renewed from
+time to time, and staff-work and general administration, whether Roman
+or Edwardian, were conducted from York. The king, from whom York was
+rented by the citizens, had his official representatives with their
+offices permanently established here. The siege of 1644 after the
+royalist defeat at Marston Moor, was due mainly to the political
+importance of the city. In Danish times there were kings of York. The
+Archbishops, besides owning large areas of land in and around the
+city, had their palace in the city. Monasteries grew up and flourished
+till the Dissolution; churches and other religious buildings were
+everywhere. Further, from century to century, York was the home of
+important nobles of the realm.
+
+This political importance has persisted through the centuries. York
+still claims its traditional rank of second city in the kingdom.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+APPEARANCE
+
+
+A. GENERAL APPEARANCE
+
+A general view of fifteenth-century York ("Everwyk" in Anglo-French
+and "Eboracum" in Latin) would give the impression of a very compact
+city within fortifications. Almost immediately it would be noticed how
+the three great elements of national society were very clearly
+reflected in the general appearance. First, the _Church_, the
+tremendous and ubiquitous power of which is emphasised by the
+strikingly beautiful and wonderfully constructed massive Minster, but
+so recently completed, standing, with its more than five hundred feet
+of length, its central tower two hundred feet high, most of its roofs
+a hundred feet or more above the ground, dwarfing the petty, storied
+dwellings. This is but one great church. In brilliant contrast in
+another quarter, adjoining the city, is the great abbey church of St.
+Mary, crowned by a lofty and magnificent spire rising above the
+equally fine conventual buildings. All over the city are seen the
+churches and buildings of other monastic and religious houses. The
+background of dwellings and shops, built in a similar style, is cut by
+a few winding streets, and studded with the towers, spires, and roofs
+of the multitude of parish churches. The intense and far-reaching
+influence of the Church in all phases of life is indelibly marked on
+this city.
+
+The great influence of the royal _State_, second only to that of the
+Church, appears in the enclosing fortifications and especially in the
+solid stance of the Castle, where the keep stands out stoutly on its
+fortified mound. The whole castle, self-supporting within its own
+defences, its massive walls, broad moats, outer and inner wards,
+protected gateways, drawbridges and other tactical devices, conveys an
+impression of power. On the Bishop-hill side of the river there
+remains the mound (Baile Hill) on which the other castle was erected
+by order of William the Conqueror. The whole city is enclosed by
+defensive works consisting of an embattled wall on a mound, with a
+moat or protecting ditch running parallel to it. At intervals along
+the walls there are towers. Where the four main roads enter the city
+there are the four gateways, or Bars, high enough to act as
+watch-towers and fit by their solid construction to offer a stout
+defence. The royal State keeps its stern watch around and within.
+
+The third great element, the _People_, are represented by the few
+narrow, winding streets and the crowded houses, sending up blue smoke
+from their hearths, clustering round the great buildings of Church and
+State. The town itself is almost entirely in the eastern section of
+the city. On the western side the houses are grouped along the river
+bank and between Micklegate Bar and Ouse Bridge; there are several
+monasteries and churches in this section also. The third estate, the
+closely living masses, the people, has its outstanding buildings, but
+these are of comparatively local and small importance. Although the
+_city_ and _guild_ halls stand out utilitarian yet beautiful above the
+dwelling-houses, yet they are not at all so prominent as the great
+erections of the Church and the State.
+
+A glance over the city to-day from the Walls or the top of a church
+tower emphasises the dominance of the cathedral over the whole city.
+The castle keep (Clifford's Tower) is still an important feature in
+the view. There were as rivals neither factories nor great commercial
+offices in the fifteenth-century city.
+
+St. Clement's Nunnery and six churches, of which three were not far
+from Walmgate Bar and one was near Monk Bar, were actually outside the
+city walls.
+
+Without the city and the cultivated land near by most of the country
+consisted of great stretches of forest,[1] _i.e._ wood, marsh, moor,
+waste-land. This surrounding forest-land was crossed by the few
+high-roads leading to and from the city, which they entered through
+the Bars. The country was not all wild and tenantless, for here and
+there, scattered about, were baronial castles and estates, and
+monastic houses and lands, all of which had their farming. In the
+forests there were villages each consisting of a few houses grouped
+together for common security, where lived minor officials and men
+working in the forest. The great Forest of Galtres, to the north of
+York, was a royal domain.
+
+In the fifteenth century the population of York, the greatest city of
+the north, was about 14,000. Newcastle was the next greatest, being
+one of the ten or twelve leading cities of mediæval England which had
+a total population of about 2-1/2 millions. The inhabitants of York
+registered in 1911 numbered 83,802.
+
+Within the city there was a number of sub-entities, each
+self-contained and definitely marked off, often by enclosing,
+embattled walls. Such was the Minster, which stood within its close.
+The Liberty of the Minster of St. Peter included the parts of the city
+immediately round the Minster, the Archbishop's Palace, and the Bedern
+(a small district in the city where some of the Minster clergy lived
+collegiately), and groups of houses and odd dwellings scattered
+throughout other parts of the city and the county and elsewhere.
+Individual monasteries formed further such sub-entities; for instance
+St. Mary's Abbey, which was actually outside the city walls, but
+within its own defensive walls; the Franciscan Friary near the Castle;
+Holy Trinity Priory; the royal Hospital of St. Leonard. The Castle,
+which obviously had to be enclosed and capable of maintaining and
+enduring isolation, was independent of the city. Each of these
+ecclesiastical institutions enjoyed a large measure of freedom from
+the rule of the municipal authorities. The city was also subdivided
+into parishes, which, of course, were not enclosed by walls. The
+parish boundaries, although less well defined than those of the areas
+above mentioned, were none the less distinctly marked.
+
+
+B. STREETS
+
+Streets, as we use the word to-day, were quite few in number. They
+were usually called gates and were mostly continuations of the great
+high-roads that came into and through the city, after crossing the
+wild country that covered most of northern England, a desert in which
+a city was an oasis and a sanctuary. In the lofty and graceful open
+lantern-tower of All Saints, Pavement, a lamp was hung to guide
+belated travellers to the safety and hospitality that obtained within
+the city walls. For the same purpose a bell was rung at St. Michael's,
+Ouse Bridge.
+
+There were a few buildings along the high-roads just outside the great
+entrances, the Bars. Besides the few hovels and huts there were
+hospitals for travellers. There were four hospitals for lepers, the
+most wretched of all the sufferers from mediæval lack of cleanliness.
+
+Most of the streets were mere alleys, passages between houses and
+groups of buildings. They were very narrow and often the sky could
+hardly be seen from them because of the overhanging upper storeys of
+the buildings along each side. Goods in the Middle Ages and right down
+to the nineteenth century were carried in towns by hand. Carriages and
+waggons and carts were not very numerous and would have no need to
+proceed beyond the main streets and the open squares. If men must
+journey off their own feet, they rode horses. Pack-horses were used
+regularly to carry goods, where nowadays a horse or, more probably, a
+steam or motor engine would easily pull the goods conveniently placed
+on a cart or lorry.
+
+The paving of rough cobbles and ample mud was distinctly poor. There
+was no adequate drainage; in fact there was very little attempt at any
+beyond the provision of gutters down the middle or at the sides of the
+streets. There were no regular street lights, and pavements, when they
+existed, were too meagre to be of much use to pedestrians.
+
+Streets led to the two open market-places of this mediæval city. Both
+of them (Thursday Market, now called St. Sampson's Square, and
+Pavement, which was a broad street with a market cross near one end)
+were used as markets, but for different kinds of produce. Some
+markets, such as the cattle market, were held in the streets. These
+two market-places were the principal public open spaces, parts of a
+town that are given such importance in modern town-planning schemes.
+Other open spaces were the cloisters and gardens of the monasteries,
+the courts of the Castle, the graveyards of the churches, and private
+gardens. In spite of these and the passage of a tidal river through
+the city, it cannot be denied that the inhabitants of our mediæval
+city lived in rather dirty and badly ventilated surroundings.
+
+The River Ouse was crossed by one bridge, which was of stone, with
+houses and shops of wood built up from the body of the bridge. The
+arches were small, and afford a striking contrast to the later
+constructions, in which a wide central arch replaced the two central
+small arches. The quays were just below the bridge. At one end of Ouse
+Bridge was St. William's Chapel, a beautiful little church,[2] as we
+know from the fragments of it that remain. Adjoining the chapel was
+the sheriffs' court; on the next storey was the Exchequer court; then
+there was the common prison called the Kidcote, while above these were
+other prisons which continued round the back of the chapel. Next to
+the prisons were the Council Chamber and Muniment Room. Opposite the
+chapel were the court-house, called the Tollbooth,[3] the Debtors'
+Prison, and a Maison Dieu, that is, a kind of almshouse.
+
+The present streets called Shambles (formerly Mangergate),[4] Finkle
+Street, Jubbergate, Petergate, and especially Shambles, Little
+Shambles, and the passages leading from them, help one to realise the
+appearance of mediæval streets and ways.
+
+
+C. BUILDINGS
+
+[Illustration: COOKING WITH THE SPIT.]
+
+_Dwelling-houses_ ranged from big town residences of noble or
+distinguished families, by way of the beautifully decorated, costly
+houses of the rich middle-class merchants, to the humble dwellings of
+the poorest inhabitants. Every type of house from the palace to the
+hovel was well represented. The Archbishop's Palace, consisting of
+hall, chapel, quadrangle, mint, and gateway with prison, was near the
+Minster. Beyond the fine thirteenth-century chapel (now part of the
+Minster library buildings) hardly a trace of this undoubtedly splendid
+residence is left. The Percies had a great mansion in Walmgate. In
+other parts were the mansions of the Scropes and the Vavasours. It is,
+however, the houses of the prosperous traders that are the most
+interesting, for in them we see the kind of house a man built from the
+results of successful business. Most houses were of timber; those of
+the more wealthy were of stone and timber.{original had ","} The use
+of half-timbering, when the face of a building consisted of woodwork
+and plaster, made houses and streets very picturesque. The woodwork
+was often artistically carved. Each storey was made to overhang the
+one below it, so that an umbrella, if umbrellas had been in use then,
+would have been almost a superfluity, if not a needless luxury,
+besides being impossible to manipulate in the narrow streets and ways
+of a mediæval city. The upper storeys of two houses facing each other
+across a street were often very close. Usually there were no more than
+three storeys. The roofs were very steep and covered generally with
+tiles, but in the case of the smaller dwellings with thatch. From a
+house-top the view across the neighbourhood would be of a huddled
+medley of red-tiled roofs, all broken up with gables and tiny dormer
+windows; there would be no regularity, just a jumble of patches of
+red-tiled roofing.
+
+The present streets called Shambles, Pavement, Petergate and
+Stonegate, contain excellent examples of mediæval domestic
+architecture.
+
+Shops were distinguished by having the front of the ground floor
+arranged as a show-room, warehouse, or business room which was open
+to the street. The trader lived at his shop. In the case of a
+butcher's, for example, the front part of the shutters that covered
+the unglazed window at night, was let down in business hours so that
+it hung over the footway. On it were exhibited the joints of meat.
+Butchers' slaughter-houses were then, as now, private premises and
+right in the heart of the city.
+
+The rooms in the houses were quite small, with low ceilings. The small
+windows, whether they were merely fitted with wooden shutters or
+glazed with many small panes kept together with strips of lead,
+lighted the rooms but poorly. The closeness of the houses made
+internal lighting still less effective. The interior walls were of
+timbering and plaster, often white- or colour-washed.[5] Panelling was
+used occasionally. The ventilation and hygienic conditions generally
+were far from good, as may be imagined from a consideration of the
+smallness of the houses, the compactness of the city, particularly the
+parts occupied by the people, and especially of the primitive system
+of sanitation, which was content to use the front street as a main
+sewer. There were, of course, no drains; at most there was a gutter
+along the middle of a street, or at each side of the roadway. It was
+the traditional practice to dump house and workshop refuse into the
+streets. Some of it was carried along by rainwater, but generally it
+remained: in any case it was noxious and dangerous. There was
+legislation on the subject, for the evil was already notorious in the
+fourteenth century. The first parliamentary attempt to restrain people
+in towns generally from thus corrupting and infecting the air is dated
+1388. The many visits of distinguished people and public processions
+always conferred an incidental boon on the city, for one of the
+essentials of preparation was giving the main streets a good cleaning.
+There is no wonder that plagues perpetually harassed the people of
+mediæval times and reduced the population miserably. The plague never
+disappeared till towns were largely rebuilt on a more commodious scale
+in the next great building era, which began in 1666 in London and in
+the early years of the eighteenth century elsewhere. No advance was
+made in sanitation till the Victorian Age, when town sanitation was
+completely revolutionised and, for the first time, efficiently
+organised.
+
+The house fire was of wood and peat, though coal was also used. For
+artificial lighting oil-lamps (wicks in oil) and candles were used. A
+light was obtained from flint and tinder, the latter being ignited by
+a spark got from striking the flint with a piece of metal.
+
+Rooms were furnished with chairs, tables, benches, chests, bedsteads,
+and, in some cases, tub-shaped baths. Carpets were to be found only in
+the houses of the very wealthy. The floors of ordinary houses, like
+those of churches, were covered with rushes and straw, among which it
+was the useful custom to scatter fragrant herbs. This rough carpet was
+pressed by the clogs of working people and the shoes of the
+fashionable. The spit was a much used cooking utensil. Table-cloths,
+knives, and spoons were in general use, but not the fork before the
+fifteenth century. At one time food was manipulated by the fingers.
+York was advanced in table manners, for it is known that a fork was
+used in the house of a citizen family here in 1443. The richer members
+of the middle class owned a large number of silver tankards, goblets,
+mazer-bowls, salt-cellars and similar utensils and ornaments of
+silver, for this was a common form in which they held their wealth.
+
+Beer, which was largely brewed at home, was the general beverage, but
+French and other wines were plentiful. The water supply came from
+wells, the water being drawn up by bucket and windlass, or from the
+river when the wells were low. The drinking water of the
+twentieth-century city is taken entirely from the River Ouse, but now
+the water is carefully treated and purified before reaching the
+consumer.
+
+There were not many inns, as is shown in records by the number of
+innholders, who formed a trade company. There were also wine-dealers.
+Typical inn-signs were The Bull in Coney Street, and The Dragon. There
+is no reason to believe that in this century there was a really large
+amount of drinking and drunkenness, such as there was in the
+eighteenth century. An ordinance of the Marshals of 1409--"No man of
+the craft shall go to inns but if he is sent after, under pain of
+4d."--may be quoted.
+
+The houses of the wealthy and the great lords were, of course, the
+better furnished. They had walls adorned with tapestries and hung with
+arras or hangings; occasionally their walls were panelled. Their
+furniture was rich, well constructed, and carved by skilled craftsmen.
+Their mansions were large, for they had to house, beside the owner's
+family and personal household, retainers and dependents attached to
+his service in diverse capacities.
+
+_Civic Buildings_ consisted chiefly of the halls connected with the
+trade guilds. The rulers of the city and of the guilds were often the
+same men, in any case usually men of the same set. These secular
+buildings were really distinguished in appearance, but not monumental.
+They reflected something of the wealth that accrued from trade. They
+were of good size and proportions, built to be worthy of the practical
+use for which they were intended. The lower stages were of stone, the
+upper for the most part of wood and plaster (half-timbering). The
+structural framework was composed of stout beams and posts of timber.
+The timber roofs were covered with tiles. Examples may be seen in the
+Merchants' Hall, Fossgate, and St. Anthony's Hall in Peaseholm Green.
+The wooden roof of the Guild Hall, which was the Common Hall, erected
+in the fifteenth century, is supported by wooden columns. The walls of
+this hall and the entire basement are of stone.
+
+Of Davy Hall, the King's administrative offices and prison for the
+Royal Forest of Galtres, not a trace remains to show the kind of
+buildings they were.
+
+_The Fortifications_ consisted of the Castle and the city Walls with
+their gateways. The massive stone Keep of the Castle was on a high
+artificial mound at the city end of the enclosed area occupied by the
+Castle. Around this mound there was a moat, or deep, broad ditch
+filled with water. The Keep, which is in plan like a quatrefoil,
+consisted of two storeys. Within, near the entrance, there is a well,
+the memory of which is for ever stained by the unhappy part it played
+in one of the most bitter persecutions of the Jews. Beyond the Keep
+there were inner and outer wards, official buildings including the
+King's great hall, the Royal Mint, and barracks for the King's
+soldiers. The entire Castle, which was the residence of the royal
+governor, and a military depôt, was surrounded by walls, outside which
+were moats, or the river, or swamps, according to the position of each
+side. These moats, or defensive ditches, were crossed by drawbridges.
+To enter a fortified place in the Middle Ages one had to pass a
+barbican (_i.e._ an outwork consisting of a fortified wall along each
+side of the one way); a drawbridge across the moat; a portcullis or
+gate of stoutly inter-crossing timbers (set horizontally and
+vertically with only a small space between any two beams, giving the
+whole gate the appearance of a large number of small square holes,
+each surrounded by solid wood) that could be lowered or raised at will
+in grooves at the sides of the entrance opening. The ends of the
+vertical posts at the bottom formed a row of spikes which were shod
+with iron. The points of these spikes entered the ground when the
+portcullis was lowered. Beyond, there were the wooden gates of the
+inner opening.
+
+The city Walls, of which the present remains date from the reign of
+Edward III., were broad, crenellated walls of limestone, on a high
+mound which was protected without by a parallel deep moat. At the
+north, east, south, and west corners there were massive bastions, and
+between these, at short intervals, smaller towers. Besides being
+crenellated the raised front of the wall itself was often pierced with
+slits shaped for the use of long or cross-bows. The bowmen were very
+well protected by these skilful arrangements. Some of these slits,
+shaped like crosses, were of exquisite design architecturally.
+
+The continuity of these mural fortifications was broken only where
+swamps and the rivers made them unnecessary and where roads passed
+through them. The four principal entrances along the main high-roads
+were defended by the four Bars, or fortified gateways. These, with
+their Barbicans, three of which were so needlessly and callously
+destroyed in the last century, were magnificent examples of noble
+permanent military architecture. The outer façade of Monk Bar to-day,
+spoiled as it is, expresses a noble strength. There was formerly only
+the single way, both for ingress and egress.[6] The Bar was supported
+on each side by the mound and wall, which latter led right into the
+Bar and so to the corresponding wall on the other side. Each of these
+entrances to the city was protected by barbican, portcullis, and gate.
+Each evening the Bars were closed and the city shut in for the night.
+Defenders used a Bar as a watch-tower or a fort. They could walk along
+the high crenellated walls of the Barbican and shoot thence, and stop
+the way by lowering the portcullis.[7]
+
+Near the Castle there were the Castle mills, where the machinery was
+driven by water-power.
+
+Outside the walls there were strays, or common lands. Some of the land
+immediately around the city was cultivated or used as pasture. There
+were, besides dwellings, several churches and hospitals, just outside
+the city. Beyond this suburban area was the forest.
+
+The most notable of the _Religious Buildings_ is the Minster, which
+was practically completed in the fifteenth century, when the work of
+erecting the three towers was finished. The architectural splendour of
+this mighty church must have appealed very strongly to the people of
+the fifteenth century, for did they not see the great work that had
+gone on for centuries at last brought to this glorious conclusion? It
+rose up in the midst of the city, always visible from near and far.
+The inside was even more magnificent than the exterior. The fittings
+and furniture were of the richest. The light mellow tone of the white
+stonework was enhanced by the fleeting visions of colour that spread
+across from the sunlit stained-glass windows, which still, in spite of
+time and restoration, add enormously to the beauty of the interior.
+
+The Minster stood within its Close, one of the four gateways of which,
+College Street Arch, remains. This part of the city around the Minster
+was enclosed because it was under the jurisdiction of the Liberty of
+St. Peter.
+
+[Illustration: BISHOP AND CANONS.
+_From Richard II.'s "Book of Hours."_]
+
+Originally founded in 627 by Edwin, King of Northumbria, the Minster
+had been rebuilt and enlarged from time to time. It received its final
+and present form in the fifteenth century. At one time the Nave was
+rebuilt: at the same time there was built, near but separate from the
+main building, the Chapter House, a magnificent octagonal parliament
+house of one immense chamber: later the Chapter House was connected
+with the main building by the Vestibule. Then the Choir was replaced
+by a larger and finer building in the then latest architectural
+fashion. The new choir contained the east window, which in the eyes of
+contemporaries was wonderful and unrivalled for its size and painted
+glass. It occupies nearly all the central space of the east wall from
+a few feet above the ground to almost the apex of the gable. Gothic
+architecture was so marvellously adaptable that all these parts, built
+at widely different times, at various and strongly-contrasted stages
+of the development of this English mediæval architecture, together
+make a single building that appears to possess the most felicitous
+unity of general design and a perfectly wonderful diversity of
+sectional design, for every part is in complete sympathy with the
+scheme as a whole.
+
+To the east of the Central Tower is the Choir, which was kept
+exclusively for the services; to the west, the Nave, the popular part.
+The entrance to the Choir from the west is made through the stone
+screen of Kings, which, with the lofty organ which rests on it,
+prevents people in the Nave from getting anything more than a glimpse
+of what is taking place in the Choir. Over the western ends of the
+Nave aisles are the twin west towers, which contain the bells. The
+high altar and reredos stood in the middle of the Choir between the
+two choir transepts, the huge windows of which present in picture the
+life stories of St. Cuthbert and St. William respectively. The Lady
+Chapel, the part of the choir to the east of the reredos, was very
+important in pre-Reformation days when the cult of the Virgin was very
+popular. To the north and south of the Central Tower are the
+Transepts. From the North Transept the Vestibule leads to the Chapter
+House. The church is, therefore, of the shape of a cross (the centre
+of which is marked by the Central Tower) with an octagonal building
+standing near and connected with the northern arm.
+
+The furniture was of wood and elaborately carved. In the Choir were
+the fixed stalls with towering canopies, and other seats, which were
+ranged along the north and south sides and at the west end. Chapels
+were marked off by wooden screens, often of elaborate tracery.
+
+The cost of erecting this huge and splendid church must have been
+enormous. The Minster contained the shrine of St. William of York,
+which, like those of St. Cuthbert at Durham and St. Thomas at
+Canterbury of European fame, attracted streams of pilgrims, whose
+donations helped the funds of erection and maintenance. This was an
+established means of raising funds for church purposes. There was,
+also, the money from penances and indulgences. The Archbishops were
+keenly interested in their cathedral church. Citizens gave and
+bequeathed sums of money to the Minster funds. In addition, the
+Minster authorities received gifts from wealthy nobles of the north of
+England. The house of Vavasour, for instance, supplied stone; that of
+Percy gave wood to be used in building the great metropolitical
+church. If the money cost was enormous, the completed building, for
+design, engineering, and decorative work--in stone, wood, cloth,
+stained glass--was far beyond monetary value.
+
+The Nave, the part open to the public, was used for processions; some
+started from the great west door, entrance through which was a rare
+privilege granted only to the highest. The Choir was the scene of the
+daily services of the seven offices of the day. All around, in the
+aisles and transepts, were altars in side-chapels, chantry-chapels,[8]
+where throughout the early part of the day priests were saying masses
+for the souls of the departed. There were thirty chantries in the
+Minster.
+
+The Minster has from its foundation been a cathedral. The Chapter of
+canons with the Dean at their head has always been its Governing Body.
+As a church it was served by prebendaries or canons, who had definite
+periods of duty annually, and two residential bodies of priests, of
+whom some, the chantry priests, lived at St. William's College. This
+College was erected shortly after the middle of the fifteenth century:
+on the site there had been Salton House, the prebendal residence of
+the Prior of Hexham, who was canon of Salton. This picturesque
+building of stone, wood, half-timber work, and tiled roofs is a little
+to the east of the Minster. It consists of a series of rooms ranged
+round a central courtyard. It is of much historical interest, and
+since it was restored recently to be the home of the Convocation of
+the Northern Province, it has returned to the service of the church.
+The minor-canons, or vicars-choral, who were employed by the canons as
+their deputies, also lived in community. They had their hall, chapel,
+and other buildings in an enclosed part called the Bedern not far from
+the Minster.
+
+As a counterpart to the Minster, in appearance as in use, was the
+great, rich Benedictine Abbey of St. Mary, of royal foundation. With a
+mitred abbot who sat among the lords spiritual in Parliament, St.
+Mary's was perhaps the most important of the northern monasteries. The
+buildings were proportionally large and fine. The church, dating
+mostly from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, was particularly
+long and had a tall spire. It was only a little inferior to the
+Minster in magnificence. On the south side were the Cloisters, the
+open-air work-place and recreation place of the monks, while beyond
+were the conventual buildings--such as the calefactory or
+warming-house, the dormitories, and the refectory or room where meals
+were taken. The cloisters were square in plan and consisted of a
+central grass plot, along the sides of which there was a continuous
+covered walk with unglazed windows facing the central open space.
+Benedictine abbeys usually conformed to a common scheme as regards the
+planning of the church and the conventual buildings. The cloisters
+were only one of the courts or open squares, which separated groups of
+conventual buildings. Further, there were gardens and orchards. Nearer
+the river there was the Hospitium, or guest-house, where visitors were
+lodged. The abbey was within its own walls, and on one side its
+grounds extended to the river. The gateway, comprising gate, lodge,
+and chapel, was on the north side.
+
+Near the Castle there was an extensive Franciscan Friary. On the other
+side of the river there was the priory of the Holy Trinity, the home
+of an alien Benedictine order. A Carmelite Friary in Hungate, opposite
+the Castle, seems, from the few odd fragments of stone that remain, to
+have had fine buildings. The Augustinian Friary was between Lendal and
+the river. The Dominican house, which was burnt down in 1455, was on
+the site of the old railway station.
+
+The only nunnery in the city was the Benedictine Priory of St.
+Clement. There were sisterhoods in St. Leonard's and other hospitals.
+It should, however, be noted there were many nunneries in the
+districts round York.
+
+Some of the religious institutions were called Hospitals. The care of
+the sick was only one of the functions of this type of religious
+house. Such was the large and famous St. Leonard's Hospital, a royal
+institution that was not under the control of a bishop. The beautiful
+ruins of St. Leonard's, which adjoined St. Mary's Abbey, prove how
+well this hospital had been built. These hospitals, of which there
+were fifteen in York, were in close touch with the people. While St.
+Mary's, for instance, was one of the great abbeys, where the monks, by
+the time when the fifteenth century was advanced, were living
+luxuriously, easily, and generally unproductively, the religious of
+the hospitals and lesser houses, were still engaged in feeding the
+poor, tending the sick, and educating the children of the people.
+
+Each of these religious institutions, whether monastery or hospital,
+was within its own grounds, bounded by its own walls. Altogether they
+occupied a large part of the total area of the mediæval city which
+their buildings adorned, and of which they were so characteristic a
+feature: St. Mary's Abbey, which with its buildings and grounds
+covered a large area, was actually outside the city proper, but it was
+immediately adjoining it. There were nearly sixty monasteries,
+priories, hospitals, maisons-dieu, and chapels. The maisons-dieu, of
+which there were sixteen, were smaller hospitals. They combined
+generally the duties of almshouse and chantry.
+
+_Parish Churches_, which were the centres of the religious life of the
+laity, were everywhere. In the fifteenth century there were forty-five
+churches and ten chapels, so that there was always a place in church
+for every citizen.
+
+A church was always in use. Besides the regular public services which
+took place frequently during the day, and the special services for
+festivals, there were services in chantries. Both the high altar in
+the chancel and altars in other parts of a church were used. Several
+altars were necessary because the number of masses, for the
+celebration of which money was liberally bequeathed, was very large.
+The parish church was used for other than purely religious purposes.
+It was the central meeting-place of the parish, and might be described
+as the seat of parochial government. Meetings were held in the Nave.
+Parts of the church were used as schools. The parish church was also
+the depôt for the equipment of those members who became soldiers.
+Moreover, fire-buckets (generally of leather) were often kept in the
+church, since, being of stone, it was perhaps the safest building in
+the parish. There were also long poles with hooks at the end used to
+pull thatch away from burning houses.
+
+Most, if not all, of these churches were fine specimens of the
+architecture of the Middle Ages, the so-called Gothic architecture,
+which is characterised by pointed arches, ribbed vaulting, and the
+constant use of the buttress. These churches were, in contrast to the
+present condition of most of those that remain, complete with chancel,
+nave and aisles, towers or spires, bells, stained-glass windows, and
+furniture, many of them being particularly rich in one or more of
+these features. The painted windows[9] are especially interesting, for
+they show the standard of this branch of fifteenth-century art and are
+valuable historical documents. The rich, mellow tones of colour should
+be noted, also the incidental pictures of mediæval dress and
+furniture. It is interesting to compare the fifteenth-century work
+with that done, for instance, by the William Morris firm to the
+designs of Burne-Jones (1833-1898), at a time when the revived art,
+with other forms of decoration, was enjoying a period of great
+success. In the fifteenth century the church was flourishing
+materially, at least, and money and gifts were freely given.
+
+The offices and services in churches were recited and sung. Organs
+were used, but were not very large and were capable of being carried
+about: although working on similar principles to the modern organ they
+lacked its size, power, and varied capacity. At the Minster there were
+several organs, for instance "the great organs," "the organs in the
+Choir," "the organs at the Altar B.V.M."
+
+The Chancel was the most sacred part of the church, for there was the
+principal or high altar. In the Chancel were the stalls or seats of
+the clergy and officials. The actual seats could be turned up when the
+occupants wished to stand. Standing for long periods was made less
+irksome in that the underside of each seat was made with a projecting
+ledge, which gave some support. It is thoroughly characteristic of the
+age that this very human device should have existed, and, secondly,
+that these ledges were carved and ornamented. These misericords, as
+they are called, were usually curiously, even grotesquely carved. Some
+of these carvings were founded on natural objects, some were grotesque
+heads, others represented subjects with man and animals. There were
+pews for the nobility, but, apart from the few old and weak people who
+used the rough bench or two in the body of the church, or the stone
+bench that ran along the walls, the general public stood during the
+services.
+
+Wealthy parishioners left money to the parochial clergy and for the
+fabric of the church: they generally wished to be buried at some
+particular place within their parish church. Such distinguished men as
+Nicholas Blackburn, merchant of York, were commemorated at times in
+their parish churches by means of stained-glass windows. The portraits
+of Nicholas and his son and their wives appear in the east window of
+All Saints', North Street; his arms also are to be seen in this
+window.
+
+
+D. YORK AS A PORT
+
+The Ouse was tidal and navigable right up to York. Trade, especially
+in woollen goods, was carried on in the fifteenth century by river and
+sea directly between York and ports on the west coasts of the
+continent and, especially, Baltic ports. On arriving at York the boats
+stopped at the quays, adjacent to which were warehouses, just below
+Ouse Bridge.
+
+The sea-going boats were not large. They were usually one-masted
+sailing ships, built of wood; they had high prows and sterns, with a
+capacious hold between. Some of them were built in York.
+
+Their trade was such that some of the York merchants, for example the
+wealthy Howme family, had establishments in foreign ports. The Howmes
+had property in Calais.
+
+The regulation of the waterways in and near the city was vested in the
+Corporation. Matters pertaining to navigation and shipping were
+adjudged by an Admiralty Court under the King's Admiral, whose
+jurisdiction extended from the Thames to the northern ports.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Derived from Latin foris=outside, without (the city).
+
+[2] A "church" that was in a parish, but was not the parish church,
+was called a chapel. The parish church was the principal and parent
+church of all within the parish.
+
+[3] Compare the Tollbooth, Edinburgh, and the Tolhouse, Yarmouth.
+
+[4] Cf. French _manger_.
+
+[5] Wall-paper, which still bears the influence of the hangings that
+it replaced, came into general use early in the nineteenth century.
+
+[6] The view to-day from Petergate towards Bootham Bar gives a good
+impression of a narrow main street, with gabled houses, leading to the
+single fortified opening provided by the Bar.
+
+[7] The winch and portcullis are still in existence in Monk Bar, and
+in working order.
+
+[8] The Leschman Chantry Chapel in Hexham Abbey is a typical example
+in excellent preservation. A small erection of stone and wood, it
+stands between two of the piers of the north Choir arcade. In small
+compass there are a stone altar with five crosses, an aumbry beneath
+the altar, and the tomb with recumbent effigy of the founder. A priest
+would have just sufficient room to move about in the performance of
+his service. Part of Archbishop Bowet's tomb in York Minster was a
+chantry chapel.
+
+[9] Besides the exceptional display of fifteenth-century glass in the
+Minster, notable examples occur in St. Martin's, Coney Street, All
+Saints', North Street, and Holy Trinity, Goodramgate.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+LIFE
+
+
+A. CIVIC LIFE
+
+"Parish government formed the unit in the government of the city. Each
+parish was a self-governing community, electing its own officers with
+the exception of its rector, making its own bye-laws, and, to meet
+expenses, levying and collecting its own rates. Its constables served
+as policemen, attended the Sessions, and acted as the fire brigade.
+They looked after the parish-trained soldiers, acted as recruiters,
+and had the care of the parish armour, which was kept in a chest in
+the church. They distributed money among lame soldiers, gathered
+trophy money, relieved cripples and passengers, but unfeelingly
+conveyed beggars and vagabonds to prison. The parish soldiers kept
+watch and ward over the parish defences. The parish stocks, in which
+offenders were placed, stood near the churchyard stile. The constables
+were also responsible for such lighting as the parish required, and
+kept the parish lanthorn.
+
+"The officials looked after the parish poor, dispensing charity by
+gifts of bread and money. The parish boundaries were perambulated
+every Ascension Day. Parish dinners were held on the choosing of the
+churchwardens, the visitation of the Archdeacon, etc. The parish
+officials invoked the aid of the law when parochial rights were
+infringed, especially by neighbours. The church was the centre of
+parochial life and in it the business of the parish was transacted.
+
+"Parishes were grouped as wards. The wards chose city Councillors, and
+these elected their Aldermen. The six wards formed the municipality
+over which presided the Mayor. The Corporation exercised a general
+supervision over the whole of the parishes of which there were
+forty-five.
+
+"Gradually the duties and powers of the various parish officials have
+been transferred to the City Council. The united parish soldiers
+became the city trained bands. In 1900 the last remnant of parochial
+officialdom passed into the power of the Corporation when parish
+overseers ceased to exist, and, for rating purposes, the City of York
+became one parish instead of the original forty-five separately rated
+areas."[1]
+
+The Cathedral, _i.e._ the Liberty of St. Peter, and the Royal Castle
+were outside municipal control. The Archbishops also had their
+privileges. They had once owned all the city on the right bank of the
+Ouse. In the fifteenth century they still retained many of their
+privileges and possessions in this quarter, as, for example, the right
+of holding a fair here in what was formerly their shire. These
+archiepiscopal rights have not all lapsed, for in 1807 the Archbishop
+of the time, successfully asserting his legal rights, saved from
+demolition the city walls on the west side of the river.
+
+York was a royal borough, that is, the freemen of the city had to pay
+rent to the king, from whom it was farmed directly. It was not owned
+by any knight or lord, that is, apart from the Archbishop's
+possessions, which belonged to the western section of the city; the
+city proper was almost entirely on the opposite side of the river. The
+King retained possession of certain properties, such as Galtres
+Forest, lying in the valley stretching northwards from York. He had a
+larder and a fish pond at York; also a court, offices, and a prison
+(Davy Hall, of which the name alone remains) for the administration of
+the forest. These town-properties were, of course, entirely
+extra-parochial.
+
+York received a long succession of royal charters. Henry I. granted
+the city certain customs, laws and liberties, and the right to have a
+merchant guild. The possession of these rights was confirmed by King
+John in the first year of his reign. In 1396 Richard II., at York,
+made the city a county in itself. In consequence the office of bailiff
+was replaced by that of sheriff.
+
+The King's official representative in the city was called the sheriff,
+whose office in York has been continuous down to the present day. The
+sheriffs--there were usually two--were responsible for the
+maintenance of order, for the local soldiery, and the collection of
+the royal taxes and dues. The sheriff was a busy and important
+mediæval official.
+
+The Mayor was the real governor of the city. He was a powerful
+official and literally ruler of the city. In practice he was most
+often a wealthy and important merchant; and, like the Aldermen,
+belonged to the group of men who governed the trade guilds as well as
+the municipality. Various symbols were attached to his office. The
+chief objects among the corporation regalia at the present time are
+the sword, mace, and cap of maintenance.
+
+There were three city councils, "the twelve," "the twenty-four," and
+"the forty-eight," as they were called. There were the Aldermen and
+Councillors--the "lords" and "commons" of the municipal parliament.
+The ordinary council-chamber was at Ouse Bridge: the other was the
+Common Hall, the present Guildhall. Sometimes the whole community of
+citizens met, when for the moment the government of the city became
+essentially and practically democratic. This was only done on
+important occasions to decide broad questions of policy, or when
+numbers were needed to enforce a decision. The commons really
+possessed no administrative power. The form of civic government was
+supposed to be representative, but as a matter of fact it was not only
+not founded on popular election (a procedure enforced in 1835 by the
+Municipal Reform Act), but was kept exclusively in the hands of the
+wealthy merchant and trading class, the middle class. Men of this
+class became Aldermen. When a vacancy occurred in the upper house of
+civic government, they chose a man like themselves. The Mayor was
+elected by the Aldermen, who naturally chose one of themselves. In
+fact the government of the city was in the hold of a "close
+self-elected Corporation."
+
+The civic spirit developed a good deal during the fifteenth century,
+no doubt in connection with the simultaneous increase in the wealth
+and social pretension of the rising merchant middle class. It appeared
+in the greater respect bestowed on the office of Mayor and the pomp
+and reverence attached to his position. The "right worshipful" the
+Mayor and the Aldermen wore rich state robes edged with fur. In
+addition, contemporary city records reflect the new spirit in such
+expressions as "the worshupful cite," "the said full honourabill
+cite," "this full nobill city." This spirit, however, developed more
+fully in the sixteenth century.
+
+The Mayor held his court in the Common Hall, where he heard pleas
+about apprentices and mysteries (_i.e._ the rules of the crafts);
+offences against the customs of the city; breaches of the King's
+peace. It was his duty to administer the statute merchant. The
+Recorder was the official civic lawyer.
+
+The governors of the city were intimately connected with the control
+of trade, and the rule of the pageants. These phases of city life
+overlapped considerably and were interdependent. Weaving was the
+principal trade. The Mayor and Aldermen were the masters of the
+mysteries of the weavers. Power to enforce the ordinances of the other
+mysteries was granted by the Mayor and Corporation.
+
+There were times when the King took the government into his own hands.
+This was done during the rebellion of the Percies, a northern family
+skilled and experienced in rebelling. Henry IV. withdrew the right of
+government from the city in 1405, but he restored it in 1406 after the
+execution of Archbishop Scrope, who had been so popular with the
+people of York.
+
+Of mediæval punishments the most obvious were the stocks, a
+contemporary picture of which is to be seen in one of the
+stained-glass windows of All Saints', North Street. Examples of stocks
+survive in the churchyards of Holy Trinity, Micklegate, and St.
+Lawrence's. They were near the entrance to the churchyard and
+commanded full public attention. The petty offender, condemned to
+spend so many hours in the public gaze and subject to whatever
+treatment the public chose to inflict on him, sat on the ground or on
+a low seat, while his feet were secured at the ankles by two vertical
+boards. The upper was raised for the insertion of the ankles in the
+specially cut-out half-round holes in each board, so that when the
+boards were touching and in the same vertical plane, the ankles were
+completely surrounded by wood.
+
+To its political importance York owed the ghastly exhibition of heads
+and odd quarters of traitors and others who had gained punishment of
+national importance, which usually consisted of "hanging, drawing and
+quartering," when the quarters and the head were sent to London and
+the principal towns of the kingdom to be exhibited on gateways,
+towers, and bridges. This practice served to provide the public with
+convincing proof that a traitor was actually dead, and was very
+necessary in an age when Rumour, "stuffing the ears of men with false
+reports" held sway over "the blunt monster with uncounted heads, the
+still discordant wavering multitude." Micklegate Bar was so used. In
+Shakespeare's _Henry VI._ Queen Margaret makes, with reference to the
+Duke of York, this bitter play of words:--
+
+    "Off with his head and set it on York gates;
+    So York may overlook the town of York."
+
+One very interesting practice in connection with the mediæval system
+of law and policing was the use of the right of sanctuary. The
+monasteries, the Minster, and all churches had this right of giving a
+sacrosanct safety to criminals and others flying from their pursuers,
+whether officers of the law or the general mob, whose right, be it
+noted, it was to join in the chase after offenders (the "hue and cry")
+and help to arrest them. Provided the pursued reached the prescribed
+area, which, in some cases, as at the nationally famous sanctuary of
+St. John of Beverley, prevailed for some distance from the church
+itself, he was safe from his pursuers. Hexham Abbey and Beverley
+Minster still exhibit their sanctuary chairs or frith-stools. In the
+north door of Durham Cathedral there is an ancient, massive knocker,
+the rapper, of the form of a ring, being held in the mouth of a
+grotesque head. The frith-stool, to which the seeker went at once,
+stood near the high altar at which he made his declarations on oath.
+His case was carefully investigated and often sanctuary-seekers were
+allowed to exile themselves from the kingdom. The coroner was the
+public officer of inquiry. The Church took every care that the crime
+of breaking the sanctuary so granted was regarded not at all lightly.
+The right of sanctuary, after being changed to apply to certain towns
+only--among them York--continued till it was ended by law in the reign
+of James I.
+
+Condemned heretics were burnt[2] at Tyburn, the site of local
+executions, some way from Micklegate Bar along the main south road.
+
+
+B. PARLIAMENTARY AND NATIONAL LIFE
+
+According to the general principle, the King was the ultimate and
+absolute owner and ruler of the land and people. The rights,
+liberties, customs, and powers possessed by individuals and corporate
+bodies were specified parts of the royal power which the King had
+granted on some consideration or other. Thus, knights, archbishops,
+and nobles received lands and rights in return for the provision, when
+required, of military service by themselves and a certain force of
+their retainers, except that no personal military service was required
+from the archbishop from the very nature of his calling. The
+monasteries and other Church institutions had many possessions and
+rights. The Church, which was established in the realm before
+Parliament, was a very great owner of land. The authorities of cities,
+with their trade-guilds, received the right of trading, or holding
+markets, and of levying tolls or municipal taxes. They received also
+the right of making their own local laws or bye-laws. These
+authorities, whether individuals or corporate bodies, to whom rights
+and liberties were granted, had their own officers and laws
+controlling their liberties. Besides the King's peace, there were,
+therefore, the jurisdictions of these various rights granted from the
+supreme royal authority.
+
+[Illustration: KNIGHTS DOING PENANCE AT A SHRINE.
+_From a Fifteenth-Century Manuscript._]
+
+From York there went to the national Parliament the lord Archbishop of
+York, the lord Abbot of St. Mary's Abbey, those nobles who resided in
+the city and were Lords Temporal, and the two representatives of the
+commonalty of the city. The body of Lords Spiritual was of great
+importance in the Middle Ages. The Convocation of the lords of the
+Church had itself a share in the governing of the nation as well as of
+the Church, its own particular sphere. The Church was one of the most
+powerful and richest factors in national affairs. The clear division
+of the Parliament of the Middle Ages into three groups reflects the
+sharp divisions that there were between the three great classes of the
+nation--the nobles, the clergy, the people.
+
+In the fifteenth century, as in other centuries, York was frequently
+visited by the King. From time to time, as when the King and Court
+proceeded north during the wars with Scotland, Parliament was moved to
+York, where it was held in the Chapter House of the Minster. Six of
+the seven windows of the Chapter House contain their original stained
+glass, in which appear shields of King Edward I. and members of the
+Court. The Chapter House was used as a Parliament house during the
+reigns of the first three Edwards. The King, in mediæval times, was
+actual commander-in-chief, and it suited him well for Parliament to
+meet in the political capital of the north, so that he could continue
+the civil administration while conducting warfare in the north.
+
+Henry IV. was in York on several occasions, chiefly because of
+rebellions. The house of Percy, which engaged frequently in revolt and
+faction, led the rebellion of 1403 in which Henry Percy, called
+Hotspur, was killed at the battle of Shrewsbury. Harry Hotspur, whom
+Shakespeare made in accordance with tradition the fiery and valorous
+counterpart of Prince Hal, Henry IV.'s heir and Falstaff's companion,
+was buried in the Minster. When Archbishop Scrope headed a revolt,
+also not unconnected with the Percies, from York and was arrested,
+Henry IV. hastened to York, and the popular archbishop was executed
+forthwith, a royal and sacrilegious deed that caused intense
+indignation especially among the people of York, who for some months
+lost the right of local government as a result of this affair.
+
+The Wars of the Roses (1455-1485), a long internecine feud between
+kings, lords, and landed gentry, affected the towns but little. The
+baronage suffered heavily, the middle class lightly. No town ever
+stood a siege, while Towton was the only battle in which the common
+soldiers had heavy losses. Warwick made it a practice to spare the
+commoners, whereby he conciliated the people. Under Yorkist rule,
+after the decisive battle of Towton (1461) England can be described as
+not unprosperous. One very notable feature was the immense amount of
+building that was done, and that not so much of castles, as of country
+houses, churches, and cathedrals, so many of which splendidly adorn
+the land to-day. The only people seriously affected by the Wars of the
+Roses were the main participants. Compared with modern warfare, which
+is unabated scientific extermination, mediæval warfare was often of
+the nature of a mild adventure. The size of the opposing forces was
+very small even compared with the scanty population. The chief weapons
+were lances, swords, long-bows, and cross-bows, but protective armour
+was worn. The fighting was generally sporadic and desultory and the
+casualties were very few.
+
+It was at York that Henry VI. awaited the news of the result of the
+battle of Towton. Edward IV. entered York as victor after the battle.
+York, like other cities at the time, took care to maintain the good
+graces of both sets of combatants. Although through the Wars of the
+Roses national parliamentary government ultimately broke down and gave
+way to the strong personal kingship of Henry VII., the towns, which
+actually suffered little, increased their local powers. Civic
+government developed much and trade flourished during the century.
+
+York had a good friend in Richard, Duke of Gloucester. The city was
+very loyal to him and helped him by raising troops in his support.
+When he visited York he was received with immense festivity and
+magnificence. The Mayor and Corporation in their correspondence with
+him addressed him as "our full tender and especial good lord." They
+had to thank him "for his great labour now late made unto ye king's
+good grace for the confirmation of the liberties of this city." But
+for his death at Bosworth, York would have benefited greatly by his
+munificence.
+
+Henry VII. was in York in 1487. After Bosworth (1485) the city had
+assured him of its loyalty. The marriage of Henry of Richmond, who
+represented the House of Lancaster, and Elizabeth, daughter of Edward
+IV. Duke of York, fittingly followed the conclusion of the Wars of the
+Roses. With Henry VII.'s reign a new era began in English history.
+
+Throughout the century the city could not avoid contact with rival
+parties and powers. In spite, however, of rebellions and the Wars of
+the Roses, the capital of the north managed generally to steer a safe
+course through many storms.
+
+Other links with national affairs were the periodic visits of the
+King's judges who travelled on circuit over the country, stopping at
+important centres to hold assize there. Their duties consisted not
+only in settling matters of litigation, but also in reviewing the way
+in which all the King's affairs were being conducted in each locality.
+They supervised the work of the sheriffs.
+
+Galtres Forest and the Fish Pond, both royal property, helped to
+furnish the king's table with food. From the royal Larder at York such
+foodstuffs as venison, game, and fish were despatched salted to
+wherever the King required them.
+
+
+C. BUSINESS LIFE
+
+Business, in one form or another, was the occupation of the majority
+of the citizens. There were a few capitalist merchants, many traders,
+and thousands of employed workpeople, skilled and unskilled. Such
+street names as Spurriergate, Fishergate, Girdlergate, Hosier Lane,
+and Colliergate would suggest that men in the same trade had their
+premises in the same quarter, possibly in the same street.
+
+The English middle class, which had taken form in the fourteenth
+century, was well established in the fifteenth century, when it became
+so important as to be an appreciable factor in the national life. The
+middle class arose through currency, the use of money to bring in more
+money by trading. Trade became the monopoly of the middle class, the
+successful master-traders. It was men of this class, the capitalist
+employers, the merchants and traders who were the mayors and aldermen,
+who ruled the city. The exclusiveness, which was eminently
+characteristic of this class, appeared especially in their attitude
+towards national taxation and in that towards trade organisations.
+With regard to taxation the towns persistently avoided the assessment
+of individual traders, who did not wish to disclose the amount of
+their wealth, by agreeing that the whole town should pay to the
+Exchequer a sum to be raised by the Mayor and Corporation. The middle
+class achieved its aims politically by transformation from within.
+Instead of making a direct assertive attack, these master-traders
+usually so developed their own interests within the established
+institutions (such as the guilds) that they ultimately gained their
+object quietly and shrewdly. This class established itself against the
+King and the nobles on the one hand, and during the century in
+effective fashion against the workers on the other. This appears in
+the more definite distinctions of class among the citizens that arose.
+The masters had got the control of the guilds into their own power.
+While maintaining the original outward appearance of the guilds as
+societies of men affected by the same interests in daily life, the
+employers had actually become a powerful vested class that ruled both
+city and guild life. In the fifteenth century the workmen were
+founding fraternities of their own.
+
+Memory of the Jews, the money-dealers of other times, survived if only
+from the harrowing stories of the various persecutions that had taken
+place all over England, and not least in York. The Jews had been
+expelled from the country by Edward I., with the encouragement of the
+Church, in 1290, partly for economic, partly for religious reasons.
+Their supplanters, the Italian bankers, whom Edward favoured, soon
+acquired from their trading an unpopularity equal to that of the Jews
+as traders. The rise of the middle class had coincided with the
+release of money in coin from the hoards of the Jews, and from the
+coffers of the Knights Templars, whose order was abolished in 1312.
+
+The merchant and trading class, apart from the nobility and the
+Church, formed the bulk of the people of the nation. They were the
+solid part of the nation, that paid taxes, that supplied clerks,
+monks, and priests, that liberally supported the Church, that kept the
+nation progressive and solvent by commercial undertakings.
+
+The professions, as we use the term to-day, had not as yet attained
+sufficient importance for them to form a distinct class division.
+There were a few capable physicians, but generally the practice of
+medicine was shared by the Church and the barber-surgeons. Priests and
+officers of the Church had the privilege peculiar to the Church by
+which even a poor but intellectually capable man could rise to high
+office and become the social equal of nobles. Architecture was
+practised by master-masons under the patronage of leading
+ecclesiastics and nobles. Teaching was nearly all the work of the
+Church. The lawyers, however, were already to be distinguished from
+those who gained profit by dealing in goods, for they made profit from
+transactions on paper, from managing the interests of others, from
+trading in their own acute mental powers.
+
+The wool trade was by far the most extensive and flourishing trade of
+England in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. This was the trade
+that made England great commercially. Wool was England's raw material
+and the source of most of her wealth. The numerous monasteries had
+huge sheep-farms. Edward III. had encouraged foreign clothworkers to
+settle in England (in York, as in other places). The first York
+craftsmen to be incorporated were the weavers, who received a charter
+from Henry II., in return for which they paid a tax to the King for
+the customs and liberties he granted them. The weavers were the
+largest and wealthiest body of traders.
+
+Guilds had developed from societies of masters and men engaged in the
+same trade, to the trade-guilds, which in the fourteenth century were
+trade corporations, the lower ranks of members being the workers, the
+higher ranks, including the office-holders, the richer merchants, the
+capitalist employers. The ruling committees of the trade-guilds made
+regulations and generally governed their particular trades. Despite
+the power of the guilds the municipal authority maintained its
+supremacy in civic government because it enforced the ordinances of
+the trades. Moreover, disputes between the guilds themselves gave the
+city authority opportunities of increasing its power, of which it
+availed itself.
+
+The system of serfdom, by which serfs were bound to a particular
+domain and owned by their overlord, had not yet ceased. Nearly all the
+workmen of York, however, were freemen, _i.e._ they had full and
+complete citizenship. The members of the councils of aldermen and
+councillors, the mayors and city officials, the members of the
+trade-guilds, were all freemen.
+
+In the fifteenth century the wealthy and important employers and
+traders governed the guilds. They were in the position and had the
+power to regulate the conduct in every way of their own trades. Thus,
+rules were laid down as to the terms of admission of men to the
+practice of a trade; the government of the guild and the meetings of
+the members and ruling committees; the moral standard of the members
+in their work and trafficking; the payments of masters to workers; the
+prices of goods to be sold to the public or other traders; the rates
+of fines and the amount of confiscations inflicted on those who broke
+the rules of their guild; the terms on which strangers, English and
+foreign, were to be allowed to pursue their trade in the city; whether
+Sunday trading was to be permitted or not; the duties of the
+searchers; everything incident to the share of the guild in the city's
+production of pageant plays.
+
+The question of the terms of the residence and trading of strangers
+received constant consideration. The city had, in many respects,
+complete local autonomy and rules were made with regard to strangers
+who came to carry on their trades in the city. From 1459 aliens had,
+by municipal law, to live in one place only, at the sign of the Bull
+in Coney Street, unless they received special permission from the
+Mayor to reside elsewhere. The guilds were ruled by masters and
+wardens. They had their various officials. The searchers were officers
+appointed to observe that the rules of the trade were being carried
+out properly. They took care that only authorised members pursued the
+trade of the guild of which they were the officers. They vigilantly
+watched the conduct of the members, and it was their duty to take
+action in case of infringement of the rules and to bring offenders
+before the Mayor in his court.
+
+The wealthy trading class all over the country did great and lasting
+work in founding grammar schools and building or rebuilding cathedrals
+and churches or parts of them. There was a social side to the guilds.
+This appeared in the public processions and the performances of plays,
+the morality and mystery plays of mediæval England. There was also a
+strong religious side to the guilds. The processions and plays were
+fundamentally religious. The Church's festivals were recognised as
+holidays. Much money was given and bequeathed for the foundation of
+chantries, which with their priests have their place also in the
+educational life of the city.
+
+The merchants lived well. They were rich from trade, and through the
+corporate guilds governed their own trades both legislatively and
+executively; the highest offices in civic life were theirs; they lived
+in houses as splendid as they cared to have them; they furnished their
+homes with quantities of silver plate, both for use and for ornament,
+for this was the most suitable outlet for superfluous wealth in days
+when modern facilities for investment did not exist; they wore clothes
+of fine material, richly trimmed; they were honoured citizens; they
+were earnest in religion and their benevolence to the Church is very
+remarkable. They were forming a lesser aristocracy now that they were
+becoming owners of agricultural land as well as town property. They
+had the benefits of wealth and comfort, while they were shrewd enough
+to avoid the penalties of advertised riches. A typical instance of a
+successful merchant who rose to high positions was that of Sir Richard
+Yorke, who was Mayor of the staple of Calais and Lord Mayor of York in
+1469 and 1482, and member of Parliament. A window in St. John's
+Church, Micklegate, in commemoration of him is still to be seen. A
+shield bearing his arms (azure, saltire argent) appears in the glass;
+another bears the arms of the Merchants of the Wool staple of Calais.
+He was knighted by Henry VII. when that king was in York in 1487.
+
+Masters took apprentices, who themselves generally became masters in
+their turn. The conditions of apprenticeship were ruled in detail by
+the guilds.
+
+When a workman became a skilled artisan he was called a journeyman,[3]
+that is, a man who earned a full day's pay for his work. The legal
+hours of work were, from March to September, from 5 a.m. to 7.30 p.m.,
+with half an hour for breakfast, and an hour and a half for dinner.
+Saturday was universally a half-holiday. There were 44 working weeks
+in a year and, consequently, a total of holidays and non-working times
+of eight weeks. The burden of the very long hours was increased by the
+great physical exertion required from men who had to do much that is
+now done with the help of machinery. The strain was not always
+unrecognised, for the Minster workmen were allowed a period of rest
+during the working day.
+
+Some of the men engaged in the construction of the Minster were not
+York men. The men employed there were by exception under
+ecclesiastical control. They were not governed by any of the city
+trade guilds. The master-mason was in charge of the whole of the
+building operations.
+
+A list of trades in the city will suggest the kinds of business there
+were. Some of the names will go far to explain some modern surnames.
+
+_Wool Trades_:--
+  Mercers.
+  Tapiters and couchers (makers of tapestry, hangings, carpets, and
+  coverlets).
+  Fullers.
+  Cardmakers.
+  Littesters (dyers, listers).
+  Shermen (shearmen).
+  Sledmen.
+  Dyers.
+  Weavers of woollen.
+
+_Leather Trades_:--
+  Barkers (tanners).
+  Curriers.
+
+_Building Trades_:--
+  Carpenters, wrights and joiners.
+  Plasterers.
+  Tilers.
+  Ironmongers.
+  Painters.
+  Glaziers.
+
+_Food Trades_:--
+  Spicers (grocers--_Cf._ French _épicier_).
+  Cooks and waterleaders.
+  Baxters (bakers).
+  Vintners and taverners.
+  Bouchers (butchers).
+  Pulters (poultry-dealers).
+  Wine-drawers (carters of wine).
+  Sauce-makers.[4]
+
+_Outfitting Trades_:--
+  Tailors.
+  Skinners (vestment makers).
+  Glovers.
+  Hosiers.
+  Hatmakers.
+  Capmakers.
+  Cordwainers (cobblers).
+  Saddlers.
+  Girdlers and nailers.
+  Spuriers and lorimers (makers of spurs, bits for bridles, etc.).
+
+_Armour Trades_:--
+  Armourers.
+  Smiths.
+  Bowers and flecchers (fletchers)--(makers of bows and arrows. _Cf._
+  French _flèche_).
+
+_Household Trades_:--
+  Coopers.
+  Pewterers and founders.
+  Chaundlers (makers of candles and wax images).
+  Potters.
+  Culters.
+  Bucklemakers, sheathers, bladesmiths.
+  Drapers.
+  Linenweavers.
+
+_Miscellaneous Trades_:--
+  Goldsmiths.
+  Latoners (workers in the metal called latten).
+  Barber-surgeons (the mediæval medical practitioners).
+  Parchemeners and bookbinders.
+  Scriveners.
+  Writers of texts.
+  Ostlers (inn-holders).
+  Shipwrights.
+  Fishers and mariners.
+
+Artist craftsmen of York supplied most of the churches of the north of
+England with their beautiful vessels, furniture, and ornaments. In the
+workshops of the city, the metropolis of the north, there were worked
+and made embroidered vestments of all kinds, engraved chalices and
+vessels of silver and of gold, and carved work, including statues and
+images in stone, wood, and wax. Bells were cast with beautiful
+lettering. Brasses for grave-slabs were made bearing finely designed
+effigies.
+
+Marketing, _i.e._ trading, was done mostly at the frequent and regular
+markets and at the fairs. The right to hold a market or a fair was
+among the rights obtained by means of royal charters. While markets
+were held once or several times a week or every day, fairs took place
+more rarely and at some of the most important and popular holiday
+seasons of the year, like Whitsuntide. Fairs attracted a much larger
+public than the markets.
+
+In the city there were markets in different places for different kinds
+of produce on certain days. For instance, in the fifteenth century
+there was a market of live-stock at Toft Green every Friday. The
+public squares, called Thursday Market and Pavement, were used as
+market-places. Some markets were held in the streets. Stalls were set
+up on which to exhibit the wares. The ordinary foodstuffs and
+materials, just as in the open market held at the present time in the
+long and broad Parliament Street, formed of Thursday Market and
+Pavement and the space formerly occupied by a compact mass of old
+houses between the two originally distinct squares, were the things
+sold and bought at the mediæval markets: such as butter, meat, fish,
+linen, leather, corn, poultry, herbs. Some, for example butchers'
+shops, kept open market every day. Craftsmen worked goods at the
+premises of their merchant employers, which usually combined the
+latters' home and workshop; it was chiefly at the markets and fairs
+that these goods were sold.
+
+Markets and fairs were controlled by the authority, whether municipal
+or archiepiscopal, that possessed the right of holding them. Again,
+particular care was taken to ensure preference being obtained by the
+citizens over strangers. The Lammas fairs were held under the
+authority of the Archbishops, who assumed the rule of the city and
+suburbs for the period of the fair. The sheriffs' authority, in
+consequence, was suspended for that period. The Archbishop, meanwhile,
+took tolls, and all cases that arose during the holding of the fair
+were judged by a court set up by him.
+
+Fairs combined both trading and entertainments, for they were held on
+public holidays. They fostered trade and served to provide a change
+from the ordinary routine of life. It was perhaps at fairs that
+mediæval people were at their noisiest, for these were occasions when
+they gave themselves up unrestrainedly to merry-making, wild and
+clamorous. Strolling players and the whole variety of mediæval
+entertainers set up their stands and booths, and amused the dense
+surging crowds that thronged the squares and streets.
+
+York had a large overseas trade, especially in wool and manufactured
+cloth. Some of its merchants owned property abroad. Some went abroad
+and encountered perils by sea and perils from foreigners on the
+continent. York traded with the Low Countries, where Veere (near
+Middleburg) and Dordrecht were ports that ships entered to discharge
+cargoes loaded on the York quays. The trade between York and the
+Baltic ports was much greater than that done with them from any other
+English port.
+
+Foreign sailors were to be seen in the streets of fifteenth-century
+York; foreign goods were handled in the city. Wines were imported from
+France, fine cloths from Flemish towns, silks, velvet, and glass from
+Italy, while from the Baltic came timber and fur. From the North sea
+came fish, much of which was brought to York from the coast by
+pack-horse across the moors. The herring was an important article of
+food.
+
+Money was measured in marks, shillings, and pence. Of the current
+coins those in gold were called the angel, half-angel, the noble,
+half-noble, and quarter-noble; in silver there were the groat,
+half-groat, the penny, and half-penny. The local branch of the royal
+Mint was housed within the Castle. The building containing it was
+rebuilt in accordance with an order of 1423. The coins from this mint,
+which was at work during a large part of the fifteenth century, bore
+distinctive marks to show the place of minting. Silver coins bore the
+inscription CIVITAS EBORACI. The archbishops continued to use their
+privilege of coining money.
+
+The following extracts, interesting for the substance and the literary
+form, are taken from the city records as published by the Surtees
+Society, vols. 120, 125, "The York Memorandum Book."
+
+From the ordinances of the Pewterers, 1416.
+
+"Ordinaciones pewderariorum.
+
+"Ceux sont les articles de lez pewderers de Lounders, les queux les
+genz de mesme lartifice dyceste citee Deverwyk ount agrees pur agarder
+et ordeiner entre eux par deux ans passez, devant Johan Moreton,
+maire."
+
+Others of the earlier ordinances are in Anglo-French; many are in
+Latin. Later ordinances are in English as in the case of those of the
+Carpenters, 1482, of which the following are the opening paragraphs:--
+
+"In the honour of God, and for the weile of this full honourabill cite
+of York, and of the carpenters inhabit in the same at the special
+instaunce and praier of" ... (here follows a list of names) ...
+"carpenters of this full nobill cite, ar ordeyned the xxij^ti day of
+Novembyr in the xxij^ti yere of the reing of king Edward the iv. in
+the secund tym of the mairalte of the ryght honorabill Richard York
+mair of the said cite, by the authorite of the holl counsell of the
+said full honourable cite, for ewyr to be kept thez ordinaunces
+filluyg,
+
+"Furst, for asmoch as here afore ther hath beyn of old tym a
+broderhode had and usyd emong the occupacion and craft above said, the
+wich of long continuaunce have usid, and as yit yerly usis to fynd of
+thar propir costes a lyght of diwyrs torchis in the fest of Corpus
+Christi day, or of the morn aftir, in the honour and worship of God
+and all saintes, and to go in procession with the same torchis with
+the blessid sacrament from the abbey foundyd of the Holy Trenite in
+Mykylgate in the said cite on to the cathedrall chyrch of Saint Petir
+in the same cite; and also have done and usyd diwyrs odir right full
+good and honourabill deides, as her aftir it shall more playnly apeir.
+It is ordenyd and esyablyshid be the said mair, aldermen, and all the
+holl counsell of the said full nobill cite, be the consent and assent
+of all tham of the said occupacion in the said cite, that the said
+fraternite and bredirhode shalbe here after for ewyr kept and
+continend as it has beyn in tymis passid, and that every brodir thar
+of shall pay yerly for the sustentacion thar of vjd, that is to say,
+at every halff yer iij^d, providyng allway that every man of the said
+occupacion within the said cite shalnot be compellid ne boundeyn to be
+of the said fraternite ne brodirhood, ne noyn to be thar of bot soch
+as will of thar free will."
+
+
+D. RELIGIOUS LIFE
+
+[Illustration: ADMINISTERING HOLY COMMUNION WITH THE HOUSEL CLOTH.
+_From a Fourteenth-Century Manuscript._]
+
+Insistence can hardly be too great on the tremendous and wide-spread
+influence of the Church in the Middle Ages. The greatness of the
+Church continued during the fifteenth century; it derived from the
+traditions of an age when absolute power prevailed, from the
+undisputed usage of centuries, from a logical system of dogmas, and
+from international sanctions. The ornate services, allegiance to the
+distant Pope, the immense hold of the priests on the laity, the large
+territorial possessions of ecclesiastical bodies, impressed the people
+with the power of the Church. These things came to the fifteenth
+century as established facts. The spirit of revolt indeed had appeared
+with Wiclif and his followers in the fourteenth century, but Lollardy
+met with severe repressive opposition. It was not till Tudor times
+that the new spirit, stimulated by the Revival of Learning, the
+Reformation, the invention of printing from type, geographical
+discovery, the suppression of long years of internecine warfare, and
+the establishment of a strong government, had accumulated enough
+energy to burst the bonds of mediævalism. The fifteenth century was at
+the end of an age.
+
+It is interesting to note that Wiclif (_d._ 1384), one of England's
+greatest men, was ordained in York. He stands out as a "daring and
+inspired pioneer" who strove to provide the land with priests who were
+true and earnest shepherds. He attempted the superhuman task of
+reviving true religion among a people that had become to a certain
+extent dull, irreverent, ignorant, and thoroughly superstitious.
+
+By the fifteenth century the Church was suffering from those ills
+which needed and later gained drastic treatment. The Church had done
+almost miraculous work in the first few centuries of its existence, if
+we think only of the success with which it substituted its system of
+morality for that of pagan Rome. The fifteenth century followed those
+centuries when the Church of England, under the direction of great and
+earnest men, was doing its work with conspicuous success. Yet, the
+very forces that enabled the Church to make itself a living power in
+the Dark Ages, the early centuries embracing the Fall of Rome, the
+Empire of Charlemagne, and the kingship of Alfred the Great, became
+harmful to its continued activity beneficially in many directions. The
+inadequacy of its work in these centuries appears in the lack of
+spiritual activity and in the predominance of the material side of
+religion. The mediæval Church suffered badly from excessive
+conservatism, which led towards sloth and a complacent inactivity. The
+morbid element showed itself during the fifteenth century mainly in
+lack of real earnestness, in the enjoyment of luxurious laziness, and
+in the steady neglect of the age to revise its Christianity. The
+Church moreover, with its complete segregation from other estates of
+the realm had become unpopular socially, while in its political and
+temporal aspects it had become an immense corporation with strong
+vested interests. Kings found it necessary to fight it; religious
+reformers had to rise up and overcome every form of repression used
+against them. The decadence is exemplified incidentally in the
+increasing poverty in material and expression of the monastic
+chronicles, which practically died out by 1485. The period of turmoil
+and change was yet to come.
+
+Such was the general state of affairs. Nevertheless the forms and
+practices of the Church continued. The granting of indulgences and
+pardons, the inexhaustible demand for Peter's pence, went on
+vigorously. A recognised means of publicly raising funds was employed
+in February 1455-6, when the Archbishop proclaimed an indulgence of
+forty days to those who would help the Friars Preachers, whose
+cloister and buildings including 34 cells together with their books,
+vestments, jewels, and sacred vessels, had been destroyed by fire.
+
+The faith of the ordinary citizen was, however, intact. The Church
+came into the people's life daily. The citizen could not walk away
+from his home without seeing a church, and meeting a priest or a
+friar. He attended the Church services and fulfilled his religious
+duties. Baptism, marriage, death, illness, public rejoicing,
+soldiering, dramatic entertainments, the language of daily life--all
+these bore the stamp of the Church. The very days of relief from work
+were holy-days, feast days in the Church's calendar. Taking part in
+the public processions on Corpus Christi Day, a great annual holiday,
+was a religious exercise; at the same time this day was devoted
+especially to entertainment. Wills of the century show that the
+citizens lived as religiously as formerly. This spirit is seen perhaps
+most characteristically in the numbers of candles that wealthy
+citizens bequeathed for use in church, and in the sums of money they
+left to specified clergy and other "religious" for the provision of
+masses for the souls of themselves, their wives and families, and for
+those for whom they ought to pray. Masses were thus provided for by
+hundreds, and in some cases by thousands. The following extracts from
+the will[5] of a rich citizen and merchant of York, who had been
+sheriff and mayor of the city, show admirably the spirit of a member
+of the middle class in the fifteenth century:--
+
+"In the name of God Amen. The 4th day of September in the year of our
+Lord 1436, I Thomas Bracebrig, Citizen and merchant, York, sound of
+mind and having health of body, establish and dispose my Will in this
+manner. First, I command and bequeath my soul to God Almighty, to the
+blessed Mary, Mother of God and ever Virgin, and to All Saints, and my
+body to be buried in the parish church of St. Saviour in York, before
+the image of the Crucifix of our Lord Jesus Christ, next to the bodies
+of my wives and children lately buried there, for having which burial
+in that place I bequeath to the fabric of the same parish church 20s.
+Also I bequeath for my mortuary my best garment with hood appropriate
+for my body. Also I bequeath to Master John Amall, Rector of the said
+parish church for my tithes and oblations forgotten, and that he may
+more specially pray for my soul, 20s. Also I bequeath for two candles
+to burn at my exequies 30 lbs. of wax. Also 10 torches to burn around
+my body on the said day of my burial, and that each torch shall
+contain in itself 14 lbs. of pure wax.... Also I bequeath to 10 men
+carrying or holding the said 10 Torches in my exequies 10 Gowns, so
+that each of the said 10 poor men shall have in his gown and hood
+3-1/2 ells of russet or black cloth, and that the aforesaid gowns
+shall be lined with white woollen cloth. And I will that my Executors
+shall pay for the making of the same gowns with hoods.... Also I will
+and ordain that two fit and proper chaplains shall be found to
+celebrate for my soul, and the souls of my parents, wives, children,
+benefactors, and for the souls of those for whom I am bound or am
+debtor, as God shall know in that respect, and for the souls of all
+the faithful departed, for one whole year, immediately after my
+decease, in my parish church...."
+
+The will is a very long one. Altogether 470 lbs. of wax, to last 15
+years, would be necessary to satisfy the requirements of the will. 765
+masses are specially arranged for; besides, provision was made for
+masses to be said by more than 21 chaplains, the religious of 5
+priories for women, and by every friar and priest of the four orders
+of friars in York. There were also bequests to 2 anchoresses, 1
+anchorite, and 1 hermit, to pray for the soul of the testator and the
+souls aforesaid. Bequests were made to the poor of St. Saviour's; to
+lepers "in the 4 houses for lepers in the suburbs," to the poor in
+maisons-dieu; to the prisoners in the Castle, in the Archbishop's
+prison, and in the Kidcote. The testator ordered gifts of coal, wood,
+and shoes, and 1000 white loaves of bread, to be made among the poor
+and needy. The bequests to relatives and directions to the Executors
+occupy a large part of the Will, which is that of a particularly
+wealthy and important citizen. Charity, however, was a marked
+characteristic of these men who had become rich through trade. With a
+generous spirit they put into practice the teachings about giving to
+the poor and to prisoners. The amount of money spent in founding
+chantries, in paying priests for masses for the departed, testifies to
+their faith.
+
+It was part of the policy of the Church to keep the instruction of the
+people, young and old, in its own control. Practically all the
+educational work in York during the century was the work of the
+Church.
+
+Through the monasteries and hospitals the Church did valuable work in
+feeding the poor, helping the needy, and in educating the poorer
+citizens' boys. The royal Hospital of St. Leonard did such work. It
+was a peculiar institution, being under the authority of the King, and
+containing a sisterhood as well as a brotherhood. It included a
+grammar school and a song-school. As an institution it was
+self-supporting; food was made on the premises, and the carpenters'
+and similar work was done by brethren in the Hospital's own workshops.
+
+The large number of priests were variously employed. There were
+priests who officiated in the monastic churches, in the parish
+churches (as rectors and chaplains, of whom there were 300 in York in
+1436), in the cathedral where the number of chantry-chapels was very
+great and where services were held simultaneously as well as
+frequently. Some priests were vicars, that is, while the living or
+"cure" of souls was held by the rector, the vicar was the actual
+priest in charge, for the rector probably held more than one benefice
+and could not serve personally in more than one. Generally it was a
+corporate body, like the Dean and Chapter, or a monastery, that was
+the rector of a number of livings at the same time.
+
+Of the many clergy serving the Minster the Dean, who was the
+incumbent, ranked first. Much of the revenue of the Dean and Chapter,
+the Governing Body, came from landed possessions in York and various
+parts of the surrounding country. These possessions, divided into
+prebends, provided livings for the thirty-six prebendaries or canons,
+who collectively formed the Chapter. Each canon served at the Minster
+during a specified portion of the year, when he lived at his residence
+at York. The residences of the prebendaries were mostly round the
+Minster Close. While his own parish was served vicariously while he
+was at York, each canon had a minor-canon or vicar-choral to act as
+his deputy at York when he was absent. These vicars-choral formed a
+corporate body and lived collegiately in the Bedern. The numerous
+chantries in the Minster were served by priests who also lived
+collegiately but at St. William's College. The College, at the head of
+which was a Provost, was founded about the middle of the century.
+Previously these priests had lived in private houses.
+
+The parish priest was occupied in performing the services in his
+church, in hearing confessions, in teaching the children, in visiting,
+interrogating, consoling, and ministering the Sacraments to the sick
+and dying, and in guiding and sharing the life of his parish
+generally. Each parish church had a number of clergy besides the
+parish priest attached to it: the number varied from one to ten or
+more according to the number of chantries at the church. Each priest
+was helped a great deal in parochial affairs by the parish clerk. The
+latter was the chief lay official for business in connection with the
+parish church. His duties required him to be a man of some education.
+
+The Archbishop was both bishop of the diocese of York, and head of all
+the dioceses which together formed the Northern Province of the two
+provinces into which England was divided for the purpose of Church
+rule. His diocese formerly extended so far south as to include
+Nottingham and Southwell.
+
+The Archbishop was a Primate and occupied a high position in the
+State. Besides being supreme head of the Church in the northern
+province, he was a great landowner. He possessed, besides his palace
+near the Minster, a number of seats (like Cawood Castle) in the
+country. When he was in London he resided at his fine official palace,
+York House. The Archbishops were great lords of the realm in every
+way. Archbishop Neville, brother of Warwick "the king-maker,"
+celebrated his installation in 1465 with a very famous feast. The huge
+amount and delicacy of the dishes prepared, the number of retainers
+employed, the splendour of the scene, which was honoured by the
+presence of the Duke of Gloucester and members of some of the most
+noble families in the kingdom, all the details of this sumptuous
+feast, were intended to impress King Edward IV. with the might of the
+Nevilles.
+
+Ecclesiastical preferment was often a reward for services in other
+branches of the service of the State. Sometimes great offices in the
+Church and the State were held simultaneously. Thus, Archbishop
+Rotherham was also Chancellor of England for a time. Both Richard
+Scrope and William Booth, archbishops of the century, had been
+lawyers. The appointment of George Neville, who had been nominated
+when only twenty-three to the see of Exeter, was a purely political
+one, the bestowing of a high and lucrative office on a member of a
+noble family that was enjoying the full sunshine of popularity and
+power. The King could also benefit from Church positions otherwise
+than by presenting them to partisans. During the two and a half years
+that the see of York was kept vacant between the time of the execution
+of Archbishop Scrope and the appointment of Henry Bowett (in 1407),
+the revenues went, in accordance with the established practice, to the
+royal purse.
+
+There were also "clerks," educated men, but not priests, who were in
+"minor orders." Many a man, asserting that he was a clerk, made
+application for trial by an ecclesiastical court, so as to get the
+benefit of the less stringent judgment of the Church courts, to which
+belonged the right of dealing with ecclesiastical offenders.
+
+One abuse within the Church was pluralism, that is, the holding of
+more than one office at the same time with the result that the holder
+was drawing revenue for work he could not himself do. William Sever,
+for instance, while Abbot of St. Mary's, York, became Bishop of
+Carlisle. These two high offices, one monastic and the other secular,
+he held simultaneously from 1495 to 1502.
+
+The religious orders were of two kinds, viz. monks (and nuns) who
+lived in seclusion in monasteries, abbeys, or convents, and friars,
+who lived under a rule but came out into the world to preach and work.
+Both kinds took the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience to the
+rule (_e.g._, Cistercian or Benedictine, Franciscan or Dominican). Some,
+but not all, monks and friars were priests. There were four well-known
+orders of mendicant friars, viz. Franciscan (Grey friars, friars
+minor), Dominican (Black friars, friars preachers), Carmelite (White
+friars), Augustinian (Austin canons). Monks and friars wore sandals,
+and long, loose gowns with hoods or cowls which they could pull over
+their heads to serve as hats. The alternative titles of some of the
+orders of friars came from the colour of their friars' gowns. The
+Carmelites used undyed cloth, which was white in comparison with the
+black of the Dominicans. The Benedictine monks of St. Mary's Abbey
+wore black garments. Their heads were shaved on the crown, the
+technical term for which was the tonsure.
+
+[Illustration: SEMI-CHOIR OF FRANCISCANS.
+_From a Fifteenth-Century Manuscript._]
+
+Monks spent their time in attending the frequent services in the
+monastery church, which they entered at the night and early morning
+services directly from the dormitories; in copying manuscripts, which
+occupied a large part of their day; in contemplation and in study; in
+manual work; in recreation. The cloister where work was carried on and
+the church were the essential buildings of the monastery. Monastic
+life centred in these two places. Its arrangements were dictated by
+the purpose of making a religious atmosphere pervade everything; thus
+a religious book was read at meals.
+
+The luxury and laxity that obtained in monastic life were not confined
+to the fifteenth century. The Archbishop had frequent occasion in the
+fourteenth century to complain, for instance, of the use by monks and
+nuns of ornaments, and of clothes of finer material than the
+traditional rule permitted. He condemned the wearing of clothes cut to
+a worldly pattern. The religious had to be admonished from time to
+time not to admit strangers within the cloister, and to conform in all
+respects strictly to their rule.
+
+During the century St. Mary's Abbey contained about sixty monks,
+including the Abbot, the supreme head, and the Prior, who held the
+second highest office; besides, there was a very large number of
+lay-brethren, servants and officers, for in addition to the internal
+work at the abbey, there was the management of the abbey estates and
+business. Abbots and monks were always keen traders. Altogether the
+personnel of St. Mary's might have numbered about two hundred.
+
+The influence of such a monastery as St. Mary's was very far from
+being restricted to affairs within the abbey walls. Through its Abbot
+it had a spokesman in the House of Lords. There were cells dependant
+on the abbey and often at a distance. The Abbot had a number of
+residences in the country and one in London. The abbey itself had
+numerous possessions of land and manors in many parts of the country.
+This was a principal source of revenue. St. Mary's Abbey also had
+jurisdiction over many churches, not only in York and Yorkshire, but
+in other counties as well. The other monastic institutions and the
+Minster and some of the hospitals, for example St. Leonard's, had
+similar rights of jurisdiction and the ownership of land, property,
+and churches.
+
+In some of the churchyards there lived anchorites, anchoresses, and
+hermits. These were individuals who chose to live a solitary life
+spent in prayer and religious work. Anchorites led a life of strict
+seclusion, for they were literally shut in their cells, from the
+world. They did not, however, eschew all intercourse with others, for
+their solitary lives of devotion, and in some cases of study, gave
+them a reputation for wisdom that led people to seek them for their
+advice. Permission was given by the Church authorities to those who
+took up this mode of life, the assumption of which formed part of a
+special service. The Pontifical of Archbishop Bainbridge, who held the
+see from 1508 to 1514, contains an office for the Enclosing of an
+Anchorite. Hermits lived in less strict seclusion. Their aims were
+similar, but they went about in the world doing good works.
+
+One of the worst features of the religious decadence of the Middle
+Ages was the craftiness of such spurious types of men as those whom
+Chaucer painted in the Pardoner and the Somonour, and Charles Reade
+depicted in the peripatetic "cripples" of "The Cloister and the
+Hearth." Chaucer wrote in the true spirit of comedy _mores corrigere
+ridendo_, but Langland, his contemporary, who described similar types
+of men of State as well as of Church, did so from the point of view of
+a moral reformer whose satire is a trenchant weapon.
+
+There were many other types of religious men, but it must suffice to
+refer to Pardoners, who by virtue of papal bulls gave pardons,
+expecting, exacting if necessary, a reward in return, and to mention
+only palmers and pilgrims, who were seen in York when they came to
+visit the shrine of St. William in the Minster. The palmers were
+pilgrims who had visited the Holy Land. They liked to wear a
+scallop-shell in their broad-brimmed hats as a sign of their extensive
+travels. Journeying from shrine to shrine was a favourite occupation,
+a professional one, of those pilgrims who loved a wandering and easy
+life, seeing the sights and living at the expense of the monastic
+hospitality. Some pilgrimages were done by proxy, through the
+employment of professional pilgrims. A pilgrimage to a shrine
+celebrated for miraculous cures or the efficacy of the spiritual
+benefit derived from worshipping at it and invoking the help of the
+saint, was for many an exercise of deep religious devotion. There is
+no doubt, moreover, that at the shrines of the saints the Church
+proved itself a great healer. It was in fact the popular physician.
+Apart from surgery, the medical practice of the twentieth century is
+in some ways the successor of that of the Church of the fifteenth.
+
+When very popular religious men died, or when, if they were already
+dead as in the case of William, Archbishop of York (who died in 1153
+and was canonised in 1227), popularity sprang up, it was quite usual
+for it to be discovered that miracles were being wrought at their
+tombs. The case of the popular Archbishop Scrape who was executed is a
+typical one. In this way the calendar of saints was enlarged, the
+devout had a new interest, the Church maintained its position in the
+popular eye and mind, and its funds increased.
+
+The mediæval Church, however, appeared perhaps at its best in its
+Church services, which drew their effect from the sanctity of the
+magnificent building (whether cathedral or parish church), the awe
+inspired by the Church politic, the use of Latin and the learned
+atmosphere, the religious teaching, and, not least, the imposing
+ceremonies, and the ornate ritual performed amid a profusion of
+lighted wax candles by priests and dignitaries in resplendent
+vestments.
+
+
+E. EDUCATION
+
+The only school engaged in higher education in York in the century was
+St. Peter's School, a very old foundation, where Alcuin, who (in 782)
+had carried educational reform to the land of the Franks, had been
+master. At this school, which was attached to the cathedral, were
+educated those who were to spend their lives in scholarship,
+especially, as now, after residence at Oxford or Cambridge; future
+priests and clerks; the sons of the nobility and of the more wealthy
+members of the merchant class in the city. Other regular schools were
+the Grammar School at the royal Hospital of St. Leonard and the one at
+Fossgate Hospital. This educational work was one of the most valuable
+kinds of public work done by these hospitals.
+
+A more elementary and less well organised education was given by the
+parish priests and the chantry priests, from whom the children of the
+city generally, boys and girls, received at least oral instruction.
+
+Girls usually received a practical upbringing at home. The only
+schools for girls were those attached to women's monasteries, of which
+there was St. Clement's Nunnery alone in York.
+
+Educational welfare work, as distinct from direct and organised
+class-teaching, was carried on by the friars, the religious men who
+lived under a rule but who went out to work in the world, instead of
+spending their lives in seclusion as the monks did. The Dominican and
+Franciscan Friars played an important part in education by teaching,
+especially at the Universities. Education was also a foremost interest
+of the Augustinians, who supported a college at Oxford.
+
+Books, which had all to be written by hand, were scarce. The copying
+of manuscripts, which was done mostly in the monasteries, was
+laborious work. Instruction was given as a rule orally, but also by
+means of pictorial art and drama. The stained-glass windows were more
+than ornamental additions to the church building: they were part of
+the means of instruction. Mediæval drama had originated in the
+Church's effort to make events described in the gospel more real
+through their representation dramatically.
+
+The teaching of manual skill and craftsmanship was entirely the work
+of the masters of the crafts under the general supervision of the
+guilds. The work of the age was made beautiful, and being handwork
+each piece of work gained the interest of individuality. The details
+of architectural ornament, in consequence, show wonderful diversity of
+form. The naïve spirit of the ordinary handicraft workman was often
+reflected in his work. The arts of the goldsmith, silversmith,
+bell-founder, vestment-maker (which required elaborate embroidery),
+and the sculptor, were practised in York with excellent results.
+
+There has never been a university of York, although under Alcuin the
+school of York was doing work of high quality, work that gained
+European fame. Even within the last hundred years, when so many
+provincial universities and university colleges have been established,
+York, one of the most appropriate places, has not obtained a
+university.
+
+News and information reached the citizens mainly from personal
+intercourse. Merchants visiting other cities discussed with fellow
+merchants not only their immediate business but also past and current
+events. Pilgrims, palmers, and sailors recited their adventures on
+distant seas and lands, and told of the wonders of the world. The
+ordinary citizen, who read little, depended on conversations with
+better-informed citizens and strangers. The city council was
+continually in communication with the King and the great officers of
+State: information filtered down from the council to the citizens. The
+messengers often supplied the latest semi-official news. Officials and
+servants attached to the royal service or to that of nobles or of
+ecclesiastics (like the Archbishop of York), were the source of much
+political gossip. The news of the country passed to and fro between
+the city and the monastic lands, the castles, the manors, and the
+forests by means of the visits of men who lived at those places.
+Markets and fairs and public assemblies, whether the holding of
+assizes or on State visits, were occasions for the dissemination of
+news. The ordinary citizen gathered news and information also from the
+pulpit and from guild and parochial meetings, and from the bellman.
+The only authoritative news he received at first hand he got by
+listening to the public reading of proclamations.
+
+In the Middle Ages educated men who had no inclination for the life of
+the Church, monastic or secular, nor for landed proprietorship, with
+which was combined hunting and soldiering, became clerks. The clerks
+in the royal service helped in the work of administration of national
+affairs. Tradesmen's sons of ability and opportunity succeeded in
+gaining good positions in this service. Nobles also employed clerks.
+
+Altogether there seems to have been in the fifteenth century good
+provision for higher education. The people of the Middle Ages were not
+illiterate. The outstanding age of illiteracy (not to mention a host
+of other evils) in England was the age that began with the Industrial
+Revolution, when statesmen failed to make the public services keep
+pace with the rapidly increasing population and the rapid development
+of new conditions. That there was as large a public ready and eager to
+buy the books that printing from type made possible has been regarded
+as a disproof of general illiteracy. The books were published in the
+vernacular: the people read them. It was in 1476 that Caxton set up
+his press at Westminster. The first printing press established in York
+was set up in 1509.
+
+Nevertheless the general state of education and scholarship in England
+in the fifteenth century was at a low level, mainly owing to lack of
+enthusiasm and to the limited subjects of study. Natural science was
+unable yet to flourish. Mediæval education was humanistic, but the old
+springs of this form of study were nearly dried up. The Greek classics
+were entirely lost. Even the few Latin classics that the mediævals
+possessed, they did not understand aright. To Virgil's Æneid they gave
+a Christian interpretation! Grammar was the basis of study, which
+dealt mainly with such works as those of Cicero, Virgil, Boethius.
+
+The fifteenth century, the last century of an age, was a backwater in
+education as in literature. The great revival was to come. The
+fifteenth century was indeed a century of revolution in so far as
+under the almost placid surface of continuity and conformity, there
+were forces of revolt at work, probing, accumulating knowledge and
+experience, perhaps unconsciously, for the day of liberation and
+change. The Bible was not yet popularly available. Wiclif had been a
+pioneer in the work of translation and publication, but Tyndale and
+Coverdale in the sixteenth century supplied what he had aimed at doing
+in the fourteenth. The fifteenth century was the quiet dark hour
+before the dawn. As Coleridge expressed it: No sooner had the Revival
+of learning "sounded through Europe like the blast of an archangel's
+trumpet than from king to peasant there arose an enthusiasm for
+knowledge, the discovery of a manuscript became the subject of an
+embassy: Erasmus read by moonlight because he could not afford a
+torch, and begged a penny, not for the love of charity, but for the
+love of learning." But even then, when the enthusiasm and the will
+were there, such was the dearth of material for learning that, as in
+the case of Erasmus, the pioneers had practically nothing to work at
+but the classical texts and a few meagre vocabularies with etymologies
+of mediæval scholarship. In 1491 Grocyn began to teach Greek at
+Oxford. In 1499 Erasmus first visited England. Referring to his visit
+to this country in 1505-6 he wrote: "There are in London five or six
+men who are thorough masters of both Latin and Greek; even in Italy I
+doubt that you would find their equals." England's position was,
+therefore, in this respect a good one.
+
+[Illustration: ARCHERY.]
+
+
+F. ENTERTAINMENTS
+
+In the Middle Ages holidays were taken at festivals marked in the
+Church calendar. Some feasts, like that of Whitsuntide, were
+universally observed. The ordinary length of a festival was eight
+days, that is, the full week--the octave. Apart from pilgrimages, the
+ordinary people travelled little. Moreover the life and property of
+travellers were not altogether secure in the forest land, with the
+result that treasure and distinguished people travelled under the care
+of an armed escort. A large city like York was practically
+self-supporting in public amusements. The fifteenth century saw the
+full development of the religious mystery plays, and the allegorical
+morality plays, which with their comic interludes had become popular
+from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The feast of Corpus
+Christi (instituted about 1263) was the most important time in the
+year for the playing of these typically mediæval dramas. Begun more
+than three centuries earlier within the Church and performed by the
+clergy, as a dramatic reinforcement of the services and preaching, the
+mediæval drama owed its origin mainly to the Church which maintained
+its influence as long as this drama continued. It soon came into the
+care of laymen, who took part in the productions. In the fifteenth
+century, these plays, which were produced almost entirely by laymen,
+were so numerous that they were formed in cycles or groups. The texts
+of some of the most famous cycles, those of York, Chester, Wakefield,
+and Coventry, have survived. The various trade-guilds made themselves
+responsible for the production of one pageant of the local cycle, or
+two or three guilds joined to produce a pageant, so that the whole
+city produced a large number of plays to celebrate the feast of Corpus
+Christi. Among its officers a guild had its pageant-master, whose duty
+it was to supervise the guild's dramatic work.
+
+The York plays, the texts dating from the middle of the fourteenth
+century, are extant. In 1415 fifty-seven pageant plays were produced.
+Productions were made in York down to 1579. The following are examples
+taken from among the fifty-seven plays and guilds:--
+
+The Shipwrights          produced the Building of the Ark,
+the Fishers and Mariners     "        Noah and the Flood,
+the Spicers                  "     "  Annunciation,
+the Tilers                   "     "  Birth of Christ,
+the Goldsmiths               "     "  Adoration,
+the Vintners                 "     "  Wedding in Cana,
+the Skinners                 "     "  entry into Jerusalem,
+the Baxters                  "     "  Last Supper,
+the Tapiters and Couchers    "        Christ before Pilate,
+the Saucemakers              "     "  Death of Judas,
+the Bouchers                 "     "  Death of Christ,
+the Carpenters               "     "  Resurrection,
+the Scriveners               "     "  Incredulity of Thomas,
+the Tailors                  "     "  Ascension,
+the Mercers                  "     "  Day of Judgment.
+
+The full cycle gave in dramatic form the leading episodes of the
+Scriptures from the Creation to the Last Day.
+
+While the trade-guilds were thus responsible for individual pageants,
+help and control were given by the Guild of Corpus Christi
+(inaugurated in 1408 and incorporated in 1459), and the city council.
+The guild had a very large number of members, among whom were the
+Archbishop, many bishops and abbots and nobles. These dramatic
+productions belonged to the religious and social sides of the guilds.
+The plays, however, did not always provoke pleasure, for sometimes
+members of some of the guilds complained of the financial burden they
+were forced to bear in order to produce the plays allotted to them.
+
+The guilds also took part in public processions with torches on Corpus
+Christi Day in celebration of this popular festival. In the
+processions, which were closely connected with the religious and
+guild-phases of city life, there walked city clergy wearing their
+surplices, the master of the Guild of Corpus Christi, the guild
+officials, the bearers of the shrine of the guild, the mayor, aldermen
+and corporation, and officers and members of the Guild of Corpus
+Christi and of the city trade-guilds. As the procession went on its
+way litanies and chants were sung by the clergy. The shrine, the
+central feature of the procession, was presented in 1449. It was
+itself of gilt and had many images some of which were gilded, while
+the main ones under the "steeple" were in mother-of-pearl, silver, and
+gold: to it were attached rings, brooches, girdles, buckles, beads,
+gawds and crucifixes, in gold and silver, and adorned with coral and
+jewels.
+
+On the occasion of the processions and performances of pageants, as at
+fairs, the city was filled with a boisterous multitude which turned
+what was by tradition a religious exercise and entertainment, to a
+time of riotous merry-making, and uncouth disorder. In 1426 a kind of
+crusade was preached by a friar minor, William Melton, against the
+riotous and drunken conduct of the people at the Corpus Christi
+festival. He denounced the disgracing of the festival and affirmed
+that the people were forfeiting by their conduct the indulgences
+granted for the festival. The result of the friar's crusade was the
+holding of a special meeting of the city council, which decided that
+the processions and pageants were to be held on separate days, the
+pageants on the eve of Corpus Christi, and the procession on the feast
+itself. Formerly both had taken place on the same day.
+
+The pageants were produced in suitable parts of the city. Stages on
+wheels were brought to these places, some of them open spaces, others
+main streets. The stages, which were the work of citizen workmen, were
+of three storeys, the central and principal one, the stage proper,
+representing the earth. Demons, in gaudy attire, came up from the
+flame-region of the lowest storey; divine messengers and personages
+came down from the star and cloud adorned upper storey. The
+tiring-room was below and behind the stage. The acting was by members
+of the guilds. They, no doubt, practised here, as elsewhere, the
+ranting delivery of their speeches so denounced by Hamlet in his
+critical address to the Players, whom he admonished to speak
+"trippingly on the tongue" and not to "out-Herod Herod." There are
+several references in Shakespeare to these plays of the Middle Ages.
+For instance, in _Twelfth Night_:
+
+    "Like to the old Vice
+    ......
+    Who with dagger of lath
+    In his rage and his wrath,
+    Cries, Ah, ah! to the devil."
+
+and in _Henry V._:
+
+             "... this roaring devil i' the old play
+    that every one may pare his nails with a wooden dagger."
+
+Stands for spectators were erected by private enterprise for profit in
+many places in the city. The general assembly, preparatory to the
+beginning of the performances {original had "performanes"}, took place
+on Pageant Green, now called Toft Green (which lies behind that side
+of Micklegate which is opposite Holy Trinity). The first performances
+were made at the gates of Holy Trinity Priory (on the west side of the
+river); there were four performances in Micklegate (a street near the
+Priory); four in Coney Street (the main street on the east side of the
+river)--and likewise performances in other parts of the city. The last
+three performances took place at the gates of the Minster; in Low
+Petergate, and in Pavement, which was one of the city market squares.
+
+When Richard III. came to York in 1483, part of his entertainment
+consisted of performances of pageants.
+
+The only other public dramatic entertainments were crude, coarse,
+popular plays, done by strolling players. A mediæval crowd at fair
+time was entertained by mountebanks, tumblers, and similar rough
+makers of unrefined mirth.
+
+The Corporation had a band of minstrels in its service.
+
+Of physical games archery was the most practised. This was the
+national physical exercise, one which had helped the English soldiers
+to gain a great reputation for themselves, as at Agincourt (1415). At
+York the "butts," where men practised archery, were outside the city
+walls.
+
+
+G. CLASSES
+
+Class divisions were well marked. They appeared in manners, in dress,
+and in occupation.
+
+Fashions varied considerably as the century progressed. There were
+close-fitting dresses and loose ones, small head-dresses like the caul
+(a jewelled net to bind in the hair) and high and broad erections that
+went to the other extreme. Men now wore their hair long; later they
+had it close-cropped. Perhaps the most wonderful fashion was that
+which men followed in wearing hose of different colours. With all the
+vagaries of fashion the most striking feature of dress was the use of
+rich and a manifold variety of colours. Excepting the case of the
+dress of the religious, which was generally of a sombre hue, colour
+characterised men's clothes as much as it did the dresses of women.
+The doublet was the coat of the time. Sleeves were generally big. Long
+and pointed shoes were characteristic, but it was the cloak that
+proved so effective a piece of dress, the cloak that has such scenic
+possibilities, that can so nicely express character. There were only
+few kinds of personal ornament. The most usual were brooches, belts,
+chains, and pendants, and especially finger-rings, of which the signet
+ring was a popular form.
+
+The nobles, great landowners, in many cases of Norman origin, were
+lords over a considerable number of people. York, being a royal city,
+escaped many of the troubles consequent on rule by an immediate
+overlord. Besides himself, his family, and personal servants, a lord
+provided for a retinue of armed retainers, who formed a kind of
+body-guard and a force to serve the king as occasion demanded; in
+addition, important household officials, such as secretaries and
+treasurers. Among noblemen's followers there were many dependents,
+some, no doubt, parasites, but a number, especially if literary men,
+in need of patronage to help them to live as well as to pursue their
+vocation.
+
+[Illustration: AN ABBOT.]
+
+The different kinds of religious men have already been mentioned from
+archbishops and abbots to the scurrilous impostors who used a
+religious exterior to rob poor people, at whose expense they lived
+well a wandering, loose, hypocritical life. In York, there were monks
+and friars, cathedral, parochial, and chantry priests, and clerks. The
+monastic life was a recognised profession. In the monasteries there
+were, besides regular monks, novices or those who aspired to take the
+full monastic vows, and, especially in the fifteenth century, by which
+time the importance of lowly, arduous service for the brethren and
+personal labour had lapsed, a very large number of semi-religious and
+lay brethren, who were really servants to the regular monks. In the
+fifteenth century the religious houses were extremely wealthy. Some of
+the monks were of noble birth. Nobles, when travelling, usually lodged
+at the monastic houses, which were dotted all over England. The kings
+resided often at abbeys when visiting the provinces. Richard III.,
+when Duke of Gloucester, resided at the Austin Friary in York.
+
+The one monastic house for women was St. Clement's Nunnery. There
+were, moreover, sisterhoods in the hospitals of, for example, St.
+Leonard and St. Nicholas.
+
+St. Leonard's Hospital, among its many functions, was a home of royal
+pensioners.
+
+The townspeople were chiefly merchants and tradesmen and those they
+employed, and the wives and families of all of them. Men of this type,
+both rich and poor, rose to important positions in trade and city
+life, and in the King's service. Some entered the service of nobles.
+Great dignity was attached to the higher positions of authority in
+city and guild life. Trade led to wealth and increased comfort and a
+higher social state. Men in the King's service received preferment
+more often than direct monetary reward.
+
+Women had only the monastic life to enter as a profession. They could
+become full members of a number of the York trade-guilds. The social
+position of women in the retrograde fifteenth century fully agrees
+with the absence of women from among those who achieved notability in
+the city during the century.
+
+The most interesting type of citizens was that composed of the
+freemen, who formed the vast majority of the inhabitants. As the name
+implies, they were historically the descendants of the men who in
+earlier times were freed from serfdom. It was the freemen who, through
+the Mayor and Corporation, paid rent to the King for the city, its
+rights and possessions. There are still, it may be noted, freemen of
+the city, distinct from those distinguished men who have received its
+honorary freedom. The main privileges of the mediæval freemen included
+the right of trading in the city, and of voting. They also had rights
+over the common lands attached to the city, and they were eligible to
+fill the offices of local civic government if thought wealthy enough
+to be elected into such a "close self-elected corporation."
+
+Soldiers of the royal army were stationed in York at the Castle. The
+Wars of the Roses, wars of kings and nobles, lasted from 1455 to 1485
+and, although York itself hardly experienced the warfare, it saw
+contingents of the forces of both sides, as well as the leaders and
+royal heads of both parties.
+
+There lived in the city a number of men in the royal service. Some
+worked at the administrative offices of the royal forest of Galtres,
+Davy Hall, where the chief officer himself dwelt. There were also the
+men who worked at the royal Fish Pond near which was Fishergate in
+which street most of these men lived.
+
+Those afflicted with leprosy, a disease which in England disappeared
+toward the end of the fifteenth century, dwelt apart for fear of
+infecting the healthy. The four hospitals outside the four main
+entrances to the city served to keep the disease isolated.
+
+York received from time to time a large number and a great diversity
+of visitors. Distinguished visitors usually received gifts from the
+Corporation. Kings, queens, and full court and retinue came, and
+sometimes the entire houses of Parliament. At such times great crowds
+of nobles, spiritual lords, commoners, officers, military and civil,
+thronged the city and taxed its accommodation. On such an occasion as
+Richard III.'s attendance at the Minster for mass, or the visit of
+Henry V., the narrow streets were packed to suffocation with people
+assembled to watch the processions of gorgeously arrayed sovereigns,
+princes, peers, ecclesiastics, soldiers, and distinguished commoners.
+The Duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard III., was very popular in
+the North, especially in York, where he was received (as in 1483) with
+magnificence and festivity. The north was loyal to him and gave him
+much support in his political schemes.
+
+The visits of the royal judges of assize, of sailors and pilgrims,
+have already been mentioned. Pedlars, who were active nomad tradesmen,
+were always to be found in town and country dealing in their small
+wares.
+
+Last, and some of the unhappiest, among the types of people to be
+found in a mediæval city were serfs who had absconded from the lands
+or the service to which they were bound. They sometimes fled to a city
+for the security it afforded. Serfdom, however, was rapidly
+disappearing.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] G. Benson: "Parish of Holy Trinity, Goodramgate, York."
+
+[2] _De heretico comburendo_, 1401. In 1539 Valentine Freez, a
+freeman, and his wife, were burnt at the stake on Knavesmire for
+heresy. Frederick Freez, Valentine's father, was a book-printer and a
+freeman (1497).
+
+[3] Cf. French _journée_.
+
+[4] Sauce was much used. The people of the Middle Ages had an especial
+liking for spices and highly-seasoned foods.
+
+[5] As translated from the Latin by the late Mr. R.B. Cook and found
+among his valuable contributions to the publications of The Yorkshire
+Architectural Society.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+Life in York in the fifteenth century was active. Trade, home and
+continental, was flourishing. Building operations were in hand; work
+was always proceeding at the Minster or at one or other of the
+religious houses and churches. There were so many social elements
+established in and visiting York that something of interest was always
+taking place. Entertainments were plentiful and pageants were as well
+produced in York as anywhere in the kingdom. The city enjoyed a
+particularly large measure of local government. Its reputation was
+great. According to contemporary standards it was a fine prosperous
+city, one that contained resplendent ecclesiastical buildings that
+were second to none. In short, it was a "full nobill cite."
+
+Although the present city looks, in parts, more typically mediæval
+than modern, York to-day forms a very great contrast with the
+fifteenth-century city. We are separated from the fifteenth century by
+the Renaissance, the Reformation, and Tudor England, by the Civil War
+and the Restoration, by the "age of prose and reason," the keen-minded
+and rough-mannered eighteenth century, by the Industrial Revolution,
+and by that second Renaissance, the Victorian Age, during which the
+amenities of daily life were revolutionised. Radical changes are to be
+seen, for example, in the style of architecture, the mode of
+transmission of news, the methods of transport, the form of municipal
+government, the maintenance of the public peace, and in social
+relationships, more particularly with regard to industry and commerce
+and the parts played by employer and employed. The number of
+inhabitants to-day is about six times that of the mediæval city. The
+contrast, which is so great in most ways as to be quite obvious, is an
+interesting and profitable study, but it might have been founded on
+more precise data, for, great as is the amount of valuable material
+that York can supply concerning its history, investigation shows how
+much greater that amount would have been had the city and its rulers
+during the last century or two realised the value of the accumulated
+original historical riches that it contained.
+
+Whereas the moderns obliterated practically all they came against,
+fortunately the earlier people were content to make no change beyond
+what was immediately necessary. Hence the survival of material most
+valuable to the historian and archæologist. York, as it is to-day, is
+a city marvellously rich in survivals of past ages. It is also, as a
+result especially of the nineteenth century, a city of destruction.
+While we may regret but not repine at the disappearance of much of
+interest and value as the result of progress, yet wanton, ruthless
+destruction, such as has taken place within the last century, deserves
+the sternest denunciation. In spite of its being, in consequence, a
+"city of destruction," York is a store-house of original material for
+the history of England. Its records are in earth, stone, brick, wood,
+plaster, bone, and coin-metal; on parchment, paper, and glass; above
+the ground and below it--everywhere and in every form. This wealth of
+historical material, connected with practically every period of our
+national history, is a priceless possession and one that is not yet
+exhausted.
+
+
+
+
+Printed by William Clowes and Sons, Ltd., London and Beccles.
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE IN A MEDIÆVAL CITY ***
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+<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Life in a Mediæval City, by Edwin Benson</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
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+country where you are located before using this eBook.
+</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Life in a Mediæval City<br />
+York in the XVth Century</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Edwin Benson</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: February 24, 2006 [eBook #17848]<br />
+[Most recently updated: July 18, 2021]</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: R. Cedron, gvb, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</div>
+<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE IN A MEDIÆVAL CITY ***</div>
+
+<div class="tr">
+<h3>Transcriber&rsquo;s note:</h3>
+
+<p>The original has a number of inconsistent spellings and punctuation.
+Three corrections have been made for obvious typographical errors;
+they have been <a class="correction" title="Like this">noted individually</a> in the text.</p>
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1>LIFE IN<br />
+A MEDIÆVAL CITY</h1>
+
+<h4>ILLUSTRATED BY</h4>
+<h3>YORK IN THE XV<span class="smcap">th</span> CENTURY</h3>
+
+
+<h3 style="margin-top: 2em">BY</h3>
+<h2>EDWIN BENSON, <span class="smcap">B.A.</span></h2>
+
+
+
+
+<h4 style="margin-top: 6em"><i>WITH EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS</i></h4>
+
+
+
+
+<h3 style="margin-top: 6em">LONDON:<br />
+SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING<br />
+CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE<br />
+NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO.<br />
+1920</h3>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+
+<p><a href="#CHAPTER_I"><b>CHAPTER I</b></a></p>
+
+<div class="ind1">
+<p><span class="smcap">INTRODUCTION</span></p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p><a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b>CHAPTER II</b></a></p>
+
+<div class="ind1">
+<p><span class="smcap">IMPORTANT FACTORS AFFECTING THE HISTORY OF YORK</span></p>
+
+<p>(<i>a</i>) Geographical position; (<i>b</i>) Military value of its position;
+(<i>c</i>) Political importance</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p><a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b>CHAPTER III</b></a></p>
+
+<div class="ind1">
+<p><span class="smcap">APPEARANCE</span></p>
+
+<p>A. <a href="#General_Appearance"><i>General appearance</i></a></p>
+
+<p>Church, State, people; outside the city; population; area-divisions</p>
+
+<p>B. <a href="#Streets"><i>Streets</i></a></p>
+
+<p>Highways, traffic, open-spaces; Ouse Bridge</p>
+
+<p>C.  <a href="#Buildings"><i>Buildings</i></a></p>
+
+<p>Dwelling-houses, shops, inns; civic buildings (guildhalls);
+fortifications (castle, city walls, bars); religious buildings
+(Minster; St. William's College; St. Mary's Abbey; Friaries; St.
+Clement's Nunnery; Hospitals; Parish Churches)</p>
+
+<p>D. <a href="#York_as_a_Port"><i>York as a Port</i></a></p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p><a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b>CHAPTER IV</b></a></p>
+
+<div class="ind1">
+<p><span class="smcap">LIFE</span></p>
+
+<p>A. <a href="#Civic_Life"><i>Civic Life</i></a></p>
+
+<p>City government, the parishes; extra municipal rights; a royal city;
+charter; sheriffs; mayor; city councils; civic spirit; city and trade
+rule; royal government; punishments; sanctuary</p>
+
+<p>B. <a href="#Parliamentary_and_National_Life"><i>Parliamentary and National Life</i></a></p>
+
+<p>Leasing of royal power; Parliament; visits of Henry IV.; Wars of
+Roses; Duke of Gloucester; judges of assize; royal larder</p>
+
+<p>C. <a href="#Business_Life"><i>Business Life</i></a></p>
+
+<p>Middle class of merchant employers; Jews and Italians; professions;
+wool trade; trade-guilds; their government; strangers; phases of guild
+life; merchants; apprentices; working hours; trades; artist craftsmen;
+markets and fairs; overseas trade; money; extracts from ordinances</p>
+
+<p>D. <a href="#Religious_Life"><i>Religious Life</i></a></p>
+
+<p>The Church in the Middle Ages; the Church and daily life; merchants
+and religion; the Church and education; work of hospitals; priests (at
+Minster; parish churches; Archbishop); pluralism; religious orders;
+monastic life; St. Mary's Abbey; Anchorites; other types of religious
+(pardoner, palmer, <a class="correction" title="original had 'pligrim'">pilgrim</a>); Church services</p>
+
+<p>E. <a href="#Education"><i>Education</i></a></p>
+
+<p>Higher education; grammar schools; elementary education; educational
+welfare work; instruction; the ways in which the citizen got news and
+information; vocations; literacy in fifteenth century; mediæval
+learning; Revival of Learning</p>
+
+<p>F. <a href="#Entertainments"><i>Entertainments</i></a></p>
+
+<p>Holidays, travelling; mediæval plays; York plays; Corpus Christi Day
+Processions; production of pageants; other forms of entertainment;
+archery</p>
+
+<p>G. <a href="#Classes"><i>Classes</i></a></p>
+
+<p>Fashions and dress; nobles; religious; townspeople; women; the
+freemen; soldiers; men in royal service; lepers; visitors (kings,
+lords, commoners; judges; sailors) serfs</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p><a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b>CHAPTER V</b></a></p>
+
+<div class="ind1">
+<p><span class="smcap">CONCLUSION</span></p>
+
+<p>York a city of destruction and a "storehouse of the past"</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS" id="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap"><a href="#illo1.jpg">YORK IN THE XVTH CENTURY</a></span><br />
+<i>(From a drawing by E. Ridsdale Tate)</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap"><a href="#illo3.jpg">COOKING WITH THE SPIT</a></span><br />
+<i>(From the Louttrell Psalter)</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap"><a href="#illo4.jpg">BISHOP AND CANONS</a></span><br />
+<i>(From Richard II.'s "Book of Hours")</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap"><a href="#illo5.jpg">KNIGHTS DOING PENANCE AT A SHRINE</a></span><br />
+<i>(From a XVth Century MS.)</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap"><a href="#illo6.jpg">ADMINISTRATION OF HOLY COMMUNION WITH HOUSEL CLOTH</a></span><br />
+<i>(From a XIVth Century MS.)</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap"><a href="#illo7.jpg">SEMI-CHOIR OF FRANCISCANS</a></span><br />
+<i>(From a XVth Century MS.)</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap"><a href="#illo8.jpg">ARCHERY</a></span><br />
+<i>(From the Louttrell Psalter)</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap"><a href="#illo9.jpg">AN ABBOT</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>YORK</h2>
+<h3>IN THE XVth CENTURY</h3>
+<h4>FROM A DRAWING BY</h4>
+<h3>E. RIDSDALE TATE</h3>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a id="illo1.jpg" name="illo1.jpg"></a>
+<a href="images/illo1.jpg">
+<img src="images/illo1-th.jpg" width="40%" alt="YORK IN THE XVth CENTURY FROM A DRAWING BY E.
+RIDSDALE TATE - part 1" />
+</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a href="images/illo2.jpg">
+<img src="images/illo2-th.jpg" width="40%" alt="YORK IN THE XVth CENTURY FROM A DRAWING BY E.
+RIDSDALE TATE - part 2" />
+</a>
+<span class="totoi"><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">ToList</a></span>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>A MEDIÆVAL CITY</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I
+<span class="totoc"><a href="#CONTENTS">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3>INTRODUCTION</h3>
+
+
+<p>In English history the fifteenth century is the last of the centuries
+that form the Middle Ages, which were preceded by the age of racial
+settlement and followed by that of the great Renaissance. Although the
+active beginnings of this new era are to be observed in the fifteenth
+century, yet this century belongs essentially to the Middle Ages.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the most attractive feature of the Middle Ages is that they
+were so intensely human. A na&iuml;ve spirit appears in their formal
+literature, as in Chaucer's account of the Canterbury pilgrims, in
+their decorated religious manuscripts, in their thought, and very
+characteristically, in their architecture, which combines a simple
+naturalness with a bold and daring ingenuity. From columns, the
+constructional motive of which is so simple and natural, and walls
+pierced with windows, they erected systems of lofty arches and high
+stone-vaulted roofs, the stability of which depended on very skilled
+balancing of thrust and counter-thrust.</p>
+
+<p>To-day mediæval buildings are to be found all over England. The
+majority of them are examples of an architecture that has not been
+surpassed for majesty, beauty, size, and constructional skill. Such
+buildings, without the help of the literary and other memorials,
+testify by themselves to the greatness of the Middle Ages.</p>
+
+<p>Through the fifteenth century England continued to be in a state of
+political unrest. There were wars and risings both abroad and at home,
+for besides the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) and the Wars of the
+Roses (1455-1485) there were wars with the Welsh and the Scots, as
+well as disorders made by powerful, intriguing barons. The barons and
+great landowners took advantage of the weak royal rule to increase
+their own power. Parliament, especially the House of Commons,
+succeeded in the first half of the century in strengthening its
+constitutional position, but during the Wars of the Roses it became
+less truly representative of the solid part of the nation, the middle
+class, and more and more a party machine worked by the baronial
+factions. The proportion of people wanting peace and firm government
+steadily increased, and, when the internecine Wars of the Roses, which
+affected the lords and kings far more than the people, were followed
+by the protection and order provided without excessive cost by the
+Tudors, it was the people who most welcomed the change.</p>
+
+<p>The towns were, however, comparatively little disturbed by these
+perpetual disorders. The mayors and corporations as a rule guided
+their cities through difficult times with politic shrewdness. Town
+life developed through flourishing trade and an increasing sense of
+municipal unity, and municipal importance.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II
+<span class="totoc"><a href="#CONTENTS">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3>IMPORTANT FACTORS AFFECTING THE HISTORY OF YORK</h3>
+
+
+<h3>A. <span class="smcap">Geographical Position</span></h3>
+
+<p>Among the factors affecting this particular city geographical position
+is evidently the most important. It is to this, combined with the
+consequent military value of the site, that York owes its origin as a
+city, its importance in the Middle Ages, and its practical importance
+to-day. York, which is the natural centre for the North of England, is
+the halfway house between London and Edinburgh, and is on the shortest
+and quickest land or air route, however the journey is made, between
+these two capitals. The Ouse and Humber have enabled it always to be
+within navigable distance of the North-East coast. The city itself is
+situated on an advantageous site in the centre of a great plain, the
+north and south ends of which are open. The surrounding hills and
+valleys are so disposed that a large number of rivers radiate towards
+the centre of the plain. Civilisation&mdash;if we must rank the ultra-fierce
+Norsemen, for instance, among its exponents&mdash;proceeded westwards from
+the coast, and wave after wave of the invading peoples crossed with
+ease the eastern and north-eastern hills, which are far less
+formidable than those on the west. York was already an important place
+in the days of Britain's making, the days when the land was in the
+melting-pot as far as race and nationality are concerned.</p>
+
+
+<h3 style="margin-top: 2em">B. <span class="smcap">Military Value of its Position</span></h3>
+
+<p>York is situated on the higher ground, in the angle made by the rivers
+Ouse and Foss at their junction; a little to the south, the east and
+the west there are low ridges of mound. The outer, main series of
+hills which border the central plain, are some dozen miles away, their
+outer faces being more or less parallel and running very roughly north
+and south. It seems clear that the site was chosen from the first for
+its immediate defensive value, the direct result of its geographical
+features. The position was of both tactical and strategic importance.
+In Roman times, however, its tactical value decreased when the great
+wall was built that stretched with its lines of mound, ditch,
+stone-rampart, and road, and its series of camps and forts, from near
+the mouth of the Tyne to Solway Firth. Henceforth the wall marked the
+debatable frontier, but York never lost its strategic value. It was
+thus used by the Romans, William I., Edward I., Edward II., and Edward
+III. in their occupation of and their expeditions against the North.
+It has served as a base dep&ocirc;t and military headquarters for centuries.</p>
+
+
+<h3 style="margin-top: 2em">C. <span class="smcap">Political Importance</span></h3>
+
+<p>York, then, whatever its name (for it had many names) or condition,
+inevitably became an occupied place, a stronghold or a town from
+earliest times. When the Church attained great importance in the
+north, York, in addition to its natural and military values became, in
+735, an ecclesiastical metropolis, for from this date the Archbishop
+of York was not only the ruler of the diocese of York, but in addition
+spiritual head of the Church in the North of England. Further, there
+were established in the city branches of the civil government.
+Business of the state, both civil and military, and of the Church was
+regularly conducted at York from early times. This political
+importance lasted long and is intimately connected with many events in
+the city's history. The fort and military defences were renewed from
+time to time, and staff-work and general administration, whether Roman
+or Edwardian, were conducted from York. The king, from whom York was
+rented by the citizens, had his official representatives with their
+offices permanently established here. The siege of 1644 after the
+royalist defeat at Marston Moor, was due mainly to the political
+importance of the city. In Danish times there were kings of York. The
+Archbishops, besides owning large areas of land in and around the
+city, had their palace in the city. Monasteries grew up and flourished
+till the Dissolution; churches and other religious buildings were
+everywhere. Further, from century to century, York was the home of
+important nobles of the realm.</p>
+
+<p>This political importance has persisted through the centuries. York
+still claims its traditional rank of second city in the kingdom.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III
+<span class="totoc"><a href="#CONTENTS">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">APPEARANCE</span></h3>
+
+
+<h3>A. <a name="General_Appearance" id="General_Appearance"></a>
+<span class="smcap">General Appearance</span>
+<span class="totoc"><a href="#CONTENTS">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<p>A general view of fifteenth-century York ("Everwyk" in Anglo-French
+and "Eboracum" in Latin) would give the impression of a very compact
+city within fortifications. Almost immediately it would be noticed how
+the three great elements of national society were very clearly
+reflected in the general appearance. First, the <i>Church</i>, the
+tremendous and ubiquitous power of which is emphasised by the
+strikingly beautiful and wonderfully constructed massive Minster, but
+so recently completed, standing, with its more than five hundred feet
+of length, its central tower two hundred feet high, most of its roofs
+a hundred feet or more above the ground, dwarfing the petty, storied
+dwellings. This is but one great church. In brilliant contrast in
+another quarter, adjoining the city, is the great abbey church of St.
+Mary, crowned by a lofty and magnificent spire rising above the
+equally fine conventual buildings. All over the city are seen the
+churches and buildings of other monastic and religious houses. The
+background of dwellings and shops, built in a similar style, is cut by
+a few winding streets, and studded with the towers, spires, and roofs
+of the multitude of parish churches. The intense and far-reaching
+influence of the Church in all phases of life is indelibly marked on
+this city.</p>
+
+<p>The great influence of the royal <i>State</i>, second only to that of the
+Church, appears in the enclosing fortifications and especially in the
+solid stance of the Castle, where the keep stands out stoutly on its
+fortified mound. The whole castle, self-supporting within its own
+defences, its massive walls, broad moats, outer and inner wards,
+protected gateways, drawbridges and other tactical devices, conveys an
+impression of power. On the Bishop-hill side of the river there
+remains the mound (Baile Hill) on which the other castle was erected
+by order of William the Conqueror. The whole city is enclosed by
+defensive works consisting of an embattled wall on a mound, with a
+moat or protecting ditch running parallel to it. At intervals along
+the walls there are towers. Where the four main roads enter the city
+there are the four gateways, or Bars, high enough to act as
+watch-towers and fit by their solid construction to offer a stout
+defence. The royal State keeps its stern watch around and within.</p>
+
+<p>The third great element, the <i>People</i>, are represented by the few
+narrow, winding streets and the crowded houses, sending up blue smoke
+from their hearths, clustering round the great buildings of Church and
+State. The town itself is almost entirely in the eastern section of
+the city. On the western side the houses are grouped along the river
+bank and between Micklegate Bar and Ouse Bridge; there are several
+monasteries and churches in this section also. The third estate, the
+closely living masses, the people, has its outstanding buildings, but
+these are of comparatively local and small importance. Although the
+<i>city</i> and <i>guild</i> halls stand out utilitarian yet beautiful above the
+dwelling-houses, yet they are not at all so prominent as the great
+erections of the Church and the State.</p>
+
+<p>A glance over the city to-day from the Walls or the top of a church
+tower emphasises the dominance of the cathedral over the whole city.
+The castle keep (Clifford's Tower) is still an important feature in
+the view. There were as rivals neither factories nor great commercial
+offices in the fifteenth-century city.</p>
+
+<p>St. Clement's Nunnery and six churches, of which three were not far
+from Walmgate Bar and one was near Monk Bar, were actually outside the
+city walls.</p>
+
+<p>Without the city and the cultivated land near by most of the country
+consisted of great stretches of forest,<a id="FNanchor_3_1" name="FNanchor_3_1"></a>
+<a class="fnanchor" href="#Footnote_3_1">[1]</a> <i>i.e.</i> wood, marsh, moor,
+waste-land. This surrounding forest-land was crossed by the few
+high-roads leading to and from the city, which they entered through
+the Bars. The country was not all wild and tenantless, for here and
+there, scattered about, were baronial castles and estates, and
+monastic houses and lands, all of which had their farming. In the
+forests there were villages each consisting of a few houses grouped
+together for common security, where lived minor officials and men
+working in the forest. The great Forest of Galtres, to the north of
+York, was a royal domain.</p>
+
+<p>In the fifteenth century the population of York, the greatest city of
+the north, was about 14,000. Newcastle was the next greatest, being
+one of the ten or twelve leading cities of mediæval England which had
+a total population of about 2&frac12; millions. The inhabitants of York
+registered in 1911 numbered 83,802.</p>
+
+<p>Within the city there was a number of sub-entities, each
+self-contained and definitely marked off, often by enclosing,
+embattled walls. Such was the Minster, which stood within its close.
+The Liberty of the Minster of St. Peter included the parts of the city
+immediately round the Minster, the Archbishop's Palace, and the Bedern
+(a small district in the city where some of the Minster clergy lived
+collegiately), and groups of houses and odd dwellings scattered
+throughout other parts of the city and the county and elsewhere.
+Individual monasteries formed further such sub-entities; for instance
+St. Mary's Abbey, which was actually outside the city walls, but
+within its own defensive walls; the Franciscan Friary near the Castle;
+Holy Trinity Priory; the royal Hospital of St. Leonard. The Castle,
+which obviously had to be enclosed and capable of maintaining and
+enduring isolation, was independent of the city. Each of these
+ecclesiastical institutions enjoyed a large measure of freedom from
+the rule of the municipal authorities. The city was also subdivided
+into parishes, which, of course, were not enclosed by walls. The
+parish boundaries, although less well defined than those of the areas
+above mentioned, were none the less distinctly marked.</p>
+
+
+<h3 style="margin-top: 2em">B. <a name="Streets" id="Streets"></a>
+<span class="smcap">Streets</span>
+<span class="totoc"><a href="#CONTENTS">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<p>Streets, as we use the word to-day, were quite few in number. They
+were usually called gates and were mostly continuations of the great
+high-roads that came into and through the city, after crossing the
+wild country that covered most of northern England, a desert in which
+a city was an oasis and a sanctuary. In the lofty and graceful open
+lantern-tower of All Saints, Pavement, a lamp was hung to guide
+belated travellers to the safety and hospitality that obtained within
+the city walls. For the same purpose a bell was rung at St. Michael's,
+Ouse Bridge.</p>
+
+<p>There were a few buildings along the high-roads just outside the great
+entrances, the Bars. Besides the few hovels and huts there were
+hospitals for travellers. There were four hospitals for lepers, the
+most wretched of all the sufferers from mediæval lack of cleanliness.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the streets were mere alleys, passages between houses and
+groups of buildings. They were very narrow and often the sky could
+hardly be seen from them because of the overhanging upper storeys of
+the buildings along each side. Goods in the Middle Ages and right down
+to the nineteenth century were carried in towns by hand. Carriages and
+waggons and carts were not very numerous and would have no need to
+proceed beyond the main streets and the open squares. If men must
+journey off their own feet, they rode horses. Pack-horses were used
+regularly to carry goods, where nowadays a horse or, more probably, a
+steam or motor engine would easily pull the goods conveniently placed
+on a cart or lorry.</p>
+
+<p>The paving of rough cobbles and ample mud was distinctly poor. There
+was no adequate drainage; in fact there was very little attempt at any
+beyond the provision of gutters down the middle or at the sides of the
+streets. There were no regular street lights, and pavements, when they
+existed, were too meagre to be of much use to pedestrians.</p>
+
+<p>Streets led to the two open market-places of this mediæval city. Both
+of them (Thursday Market, now called St. Sampson's Square, and
+Pavement, which was a broad street with a market cross near one end)
+were used as markets, but for different kinds of produce. Some
+markets, such as the cattle market, were held in the streets. These
+two market-places were the principal public open spaces, parts of a
+town that are given such importance in modern town-planning schemes.
+Other open spaces were the cloisters and gardens of the monasteries,
+the courts of the Castle, the graveyards of the churches, and private
+gardens. In spite of these and the passage of a tidal river through
+the city, it cannot be denied that the inhabitants of our mediæval
+city lived in rather dirty and badly ventilated surroundings.</p>
+
+<p>The River Ouse was crossed by one bridge, which was of stone, with
+houses and shops of wood built up from the body of the bridge. The
+arches were small, and afford a striking contrast to the later
+constructions, in which a wide central arch replaced the two central
+small arches. The quays were just below the bridge. At one end of Ouse
+Bridge was St. William's Chapel, a beautiful little church,<a id="FNanchor_3_2" name="FNanchor_3_2"></a>
+<a class="fnanchor" href="#Footnote_3_2">[2]</a> as we
+know from the fragments of it that remain. Adjoining the chapel was
+the sheriffs' court; on the next storey was the Exchequer court; then
+there was the common prison called the Kidcote, while above these were
+other prisons which continued round the back of the chapel. Next to
+the prisons were the Council Chamber and Muniment Room. Opposite the
+chapel were the court-house, called the Tollbooth,<a id="FNanchor_3_3" name="FNanchor_3_3"></a>
+<a class="fnanchor" href="#Footnote_3_3">[3]</a> the Debtors'
+Prison, and a Maison Dieu, that is, a kind of almshouse.</p>
+
+<p>The present streets called Shambles (formerly Mangergate),<a id="FNanchor_3_4" name="FNanchor_3_4"></a>
+<a class="fnanchor" href="#Footnote_3_4">[4]</a> Finkle
+Street, Jubbergate, Petergate, and especially Shambles, Little
+Shambles, and the passages leading from them, help one to realise the
+appearance of mediæval streets and ways.</p>
+
+
+<h3 style="margin-top: 2em">C. <a name="Buildings" id="Buildings"></a>
+<span class="smcap">Buildings</span>
+<span class="totoc"><a href="#CONTENTS">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a id="illo3.jpg" name="illo3.jpg"></a>
+<a href="images/illo3.jpg">
+<img src="images/illo3-th.jpg" width="40%" alt="COOKING WITH THE SPIT." />
+</a><br />
+<span class="smcap">COOKING WITH THE SPIT.</span>
+<span class="totoi"><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">ToList</a></span>
+</div>
+
+<p><i>Dwelling-houses</i> ranged from big town residences of noble or
+distinguished families, by way of the beautifully decorated, costly
+houses of the rich middle-class merchants, to the humble dwellings of
+the poorest inhabitants. Every type of house from the palace to the
+hovel was well represented. The Archbishop's Palace, consisting of
+hall, chapel, quadrangle, mint, and gateway with prison, was near the
+Minster. Beyond the fine thirteenth-century chapel (now part of the
+Minster library buildings) hardly a trace of this undoubtedly splendid
+residence is left. The Percies had a great mansion in Walmgate. In
+other parts were the mansions of the Scropes and the Vavasours. It is,
+however, the houses of the prosperous traders that are the most
+interesting, for in them we see the kind of house a man built from the
+results of successful business. Most houses were of timber; those of
+the more wealthy were of stone and <a class="correction" title="original had 'timber,'">timber.</a> The use of half-timbering,
+when the face of a building consisted of woodwork and plaster, made
+houses and streets very picturesque. The woodwork was often
+artistically carved. Each storey was made to overhang the one below
+it, so that an umbrella, if umbrellas had been in use then, would have
+been almost a superfluity, if not a needless luxury, besides being
+impossible to manipulate in the narrow streets and ways of a mediæval
+city. The upper storeys of two houses facing each other across a
+street were often very close. Usually there were no more than three
+storeys. The roofs were very steep and covered generally with tiles,
+but in the case of the smaller dwellings with thatch. From a house-top
+the view across the neighbourhood would be of a huddled medley of
+red-tiled roofs, all broken up with gables and tiny dormer windows;
+there would be no regularity, just a jumble of patches of red-tiled
+roofing.</p>
+
+<p>The present streets called Shambles, Pavement, Petergate and
+Stonegate, contain excellent examples of mediæval domestic
+architecture.</p>
+
+<p>Shops were distinguished by having the front of the ground floor
+arranged as a show-room, warehouse, or business room which was open
+to the street. The trader lived at his shop. In the case of a
+butcher's, for example, the front part of the shutters that covered
+the unglazed window at night, was let down in business hours so that
+it hung over the footway. On it were exhibited the joints of meat.
+Butchers' slaughter-houses were then, as now, private premises and
+right in the heart of the city.</p>
+
+<p>The rooms in the houses were quite small, with low ceilings. The small
+windows, whether they were merely fitted with wooden shutters or
+glazed with many small panes kept together with strips of lead,
+lighted the rooms but poorly. The closeness of the houses made
+internal lighting still less effective. The interior walls were of
+timbering and plaster, often white- or colour-washed.<a id="FNanchor_3_5" name="FNanchor_3_5"></a>
+<a class="fnanchor" href="#Footnote_3_5">[5]</a> Panelling was
+used occasionally. The ventilation and hygienic conditions generally
+were far from good, as may be imagined from a consideration of the
+smallness of the houses, the compactness of the city, particularly the
+parts occupied by the people, and especially of the primitive system
+of sanitation, which was content to use the front street as a main
+sewer. There were, of course, no drains; at most there was a gutter
+along the middle of a street, or at each side of the roadway. It was
+the traditional practice to dump house and workshop refuse into the
+streets. Some of it was carried along by rainwater, but generally it
+remained: in any case it was noxious and dangerous. There was
+legislation on the subject, for the evil was already notorious in the
+fourteenth century. The first parliamentary attempt to restrain people
+in towns generally from thus corrupting and infecting the air is dated
+1388. The many visits of distinguished people and public processions
+always conferred an incidental boon on the city, for one of the
+essentials of preparation was giving the main streets a good cleaning.
+There is no wonder that plagues perpetually harassed the people of
+mediæval times and reduced the population miserably. The plague never
+disappeared till towns were largely rebuilt on a more commodious scale
+in the next great building era, which began in 1666 in London and in
+the early years of the eighteenth century elsewhere. No advance was
+made in sanitation till the Victorian Age, when town sanitation was
+completely revolutionised and, for the first time, efficiently
+organised.</p>
+
+<p>The house fire was of wood and peat, though coal was also used. For
+artificial lighting oil-lamps (wicks in oil) and candles were used. A
+light was obtained from flint and tinder, the latter being ignited by
+a spark got from striking the flint with a piece of metal.</p>
+
+<p>Rooms were furnished with chairs, tables, benches, chests, bedsteads,
+and, in some cases, tub-shaped baths. Carpets were to be found only in
+the houses of the very wealthy. The floors of ordinary houses, like
+those of churches, were covered with rushes and straw, among which it
+was the useful custom to scatter fragrant herbs. This rough carpet was
+pressed by the clogs of working people and the shoes of the
+fashionable. The spit was a much used cooking utensil. Table-cloths,
+knives, and spoons were in general use, but not the fork before the
+fifteenth century. At one time food was manipulated by the fingers.
+York was advanced in table manners, for it is known that a fork was
+used in the house of a citizen family here in 1443. The richer members
+of the middle class owned a large number of silver tankards, goblets,
+mazer-bowls, salt-cellars and similar utensils and ornaments of
+silver, for this was a common form in which they held their wealth.</p>
+
+<p>Beer, which was largely brewed at home, was the general beverage, but
+French and other wines were plentiful. The water supply came from
+wells, the water being drawn up by bucket and windlass, or from the
+river when the wells were low. The drinking water of the
+twentieth-century city is taken entirely from the River Ouse, but now
+the water is carefully treated and purified before reaching the
+consumer.</p>
+
+<p>There were not many inns, as is shown in records by the number of
+innholders, who formed a trade company. There were also wine-dealers.
+Typical inn-signs were The Bull in Coney Street, and The Dragon. There
+is no reason to believe that in this century there was a really large
+amount of drinking and drunkenness, such as there was in the
+eighteenth century. An ordinance of the Marshals of 1409&mdash;"No man of
+the craft shall go to inns but if he is sent after, under pain of
+4d."&mdash;may be quoted.</p>
+
+<p>The houses of the wealthy and the great lords were, of course, the
+better furnished. They had walls adorned with tapestries and hung with
+arras or hangings; occasionally their walls were panelled. Their
+furniture was rich, well constructed, and carved by skilled craftsmen.
+Their mansions were large, for they had to house, beside the owner's
+family and personal household, retainers and dependents attached to
+his service in diverse capacities.</p>
+
+<p><i>Civic Buildings</i> consisted chiefly of the halls connected with the
+trade guilds. The rulers of the city and of the guilds were often the
+same men, in any case usually men of the same set. These secular
+buildings were really distinguished in appearance, but not monumental.
+They reflected something of the wealth that accrued from trade. They
+were of good size and proportions, built to be worthy of the practical
+use for which they were intended. The lower stages were of stone, the
+upper for the most part of wood and plaster (half-timbering). The
+structural framework was composed of stout beams and posts of timber.
+The timber roofs were covered with tiles. Examples may be seen in the
+Merchants' Hall, Fossgate, and St. Anthony's Hall in Peaseholm Green.
+The wooden roof of the Guild Hall, which was the Common Hall, erected
+in the fifteenth century, is supported by wooden columns. The walls of
+this hall and the entire basement are of stone.</p>
+
+<p>Of Davy Hall, the King's administrative offices and prison for the
+Royal Forest of Galtres, not a trace remains to show the kind of
+buildings they were.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Fortifications</i> consisted of the Castle and the city Walls with
+their gateways. The massive stone Keep of the Castle was on a high
+artificial mound at the city end of the enclosed area occupied by the
+Castle. Around this mound there was a moat, or deep, broad ditch
+filled with water. The Keep, which is in plan like a quatrefoil,
+consisted of two storeys. Within, near the entrance, there is a well,
+the memory of which is for ever stained by the unhappy part it played
+in one of the most bitter persecutions of the Jews. Beyond the Keep
+there were inner and outer wards, official buildings including the
+King's great hall, the Royal Mint, and barracks for the King's
+soldiers. The entire Castle, which was the residence of the royal
+governor, and a military dep&ocirc;t, was surrounded by walls, outside which
+were moats, or the river, or swamps, according to the position of each
+side. These moats, or defensive ditches, were crossed by drawbridges.
+To enter a fortified place in the Middle Ages one had to pass a
+barbican (<i>i.e.</i> an outwork consisting of a fortified wall along each
+side of the one way); a drawbridge across the moat; a portcullis or
+gate of stoutly inter-crossing timbers (set horizontally and
+vertically with only a small space between any two beams, giving the
+whole gate the appearance of a large number of small square holes,
+each surrounded by solid wood) that could be lowered or raised at will
+in grooves at the sides of the entrance opening. The ends of the
+vertical posts at the bottom formed a row of spikes which were shod
+with iron. The points of these spikes entered the ground when the
+portcullis was lowered. Beyond, there were the wooden gates of the
+inner opening.</p>
+
+<p>The city Walls, of which the present remains date from the reign of
+Edward III., were broad, crenellated walls of limestone, on a high
+mound which was protected without by a parallel deep moat. At the
+north, east, south, and west corners there were massive bastions, and
+between these, at short intervals, smaller towers. Besides being
+crenellated the raised front of the wall itself was often pierced with
+slits shaped for the use of long or cross-bows. The bowmen were very
+well protected by these skilful arrangements. Some of these slits,
+shaped like crosses, were of exquisite design architecturally.</p>
+
+<p>The continuity of these mural fortifications was broken only where
+swamps and the rivers made them unnecessary and where roads passed
+through them. The four principal entrances along the main high-roads
+were defended by the four Bars, or fortified gateways. These, with
+their Barbicans, three of which were so needlessly and callously
+destroyed in the last century, were magnificent examples of noble
+permanent military architecture. The outer fa&ccedil;ade of Monk Bar to-day,
+spoiled as it is, expresses a noble strength. There was formerly only
+the single way, both for ingress and egress.<a id="FNanchor_3_6" name="FNanchor_3_6"></a>
+<a class="fnanchor" href="#Footnote_3_6">[6]</a> The Bar was supported
+on each side by the mound and wall, which latter led right into the
+Bar and so to the corresponding wall on the other side. Each of these
+entrances to the city was protected by barbican, portcullis, and gate.
+Each evening the Bars were closed and the city shut in for the night.
+Defenders used a Bar as a watch-tower or a fort. They could walk along
+the high crenellated walls of the Barbican and shoot thence, and stop
+the way by lowering the portcullis.<a id="FNanchor_3_7" name="FNanchor_3_7"></a>
+<a class="fnanchor" href="#Footnote_3_7">[7]</a></p>
+
+<p>Near the Castle there were the Castle mills, where the machinery was
+driven by water-power.</p>
+
+<p>Outside the walls there were strays, or common lands. Some of the land
+immediately around the city was cultivated or used as pasture. There
+were, besides dwellings, several churches and hospitals, just outside
+the city. Beyond this suburban area was the forest.</p>
+
+<p>The most notable of the <i>Religious Buildings</i> is the Minster, which
+was practically completed in the fifteenth century, when the work of
+erecting the three towers was finished. The architectural splendour of
+this mighty church must have appealed very strongly to the people of
+the fifteenth century, for did they not see the great work that had
+gone on for centuries at last brought to this glorious conclusion? It
+rose up in the midst of the city, always visible from near and far.
+The inside was even more magnificent than the exterior. The fittings
+and furniture were of the richest. The light mellow tone of the white
+stonework was enhanced by the fleeting visions of colour that spread
+across from the sunlit stained-glass windows, which still, in spite of
+time and restoration, add enormously to the beauty of the interior.</p>
+
+<p>The Minster stood within its Close, one of the four gateways of which,
+College Street Arch, remains. This part of the city around the Minster
+was enclosed because it was under the jurisdiction of the Liberty of
+St. Peter.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a id="illo4.jpg" name="illo4.jpg"></a>
+<a href="images/illo4.jpg">
+<img src="images/illo4-th.jpg" width="40%" alt="BISHOP AND CANONS.
+From Richard II.&#39;s &quot;Book of Hours.&quot;" />
+</a><br />
+<span class="smcap">BISHOP AND CANONS.</span><br />
+<span><i>From Richard II.&#39;s &quot;Book of Hours.&quot;</i></span>
+<span class="totoi"><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">ToList</a></span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Originally founded in 627 by Edwin, King of Northumbria, the Minster
+had been rebuilt and enlarged from time to time. It received its final
+and present form in the fifteenth century. At one time the Nave was
+rebuilt: at the same time there was built, near but separate from the
+main building, the Chapter House, a magnificent octagonal parliament
+house of one immense chamber: later the Chapter House was connected
+with the main building by the Vestibule. Then the Choir was replaced
+by a larger and finer building in the then latest architectural
+fashion. The new choir contained the east window, which in the eyes of
+contemporaries was wonderful and unrivalled for its size and painted
+glass. It occupies nearly all the central space of the east wall from
+a few feet above the ground to almost the apex of the gable. Gothic
+architecture was so marvellously adaptable that all these parts, built
+at widely different times, at various and strongly-contrasted stages
+of the development of this English mediæval architecture, together
+make a single building that appears to possess the most felicitous
+unity of general design and a perfectly wonderful diversity of
+sectional design, for every part is in complete sympathy with the
+scheme as a whole.</p>
+
+<p>To the east of the Central Tower is the Choir, which was kept
+exclusively for the services; to the west, the Nave, the popular part.
+The entrance to the Choir from the west is made through the stone
+screen of Kings, which, with the lofty organ which rests on it,
+prevents people in the Nave from getting anything more than a glimpse
+of what is taking place in the Choir. Over the western ends of the
+Nave aisles are the twin west towers, which contain the bells. The
+high altar and reredos stood in the middle of the Choir between the
+two choir transepts, the huge windows of which present in picture the
+life stories of St. Cuthbert and St. William respectively. The Lady
+Chapel, the part of the choir to the east of the reredos, was very
+important in pre-Reformation days when the cult of the Virgin was very
+popular. To the north and south of the Central Tower are the
+Transepts. From the North Transept the Vestibule leads to the Chapter
+House. The church is, therefore, of the shape of a cross (the centre
+of which is marked by the Central Tower) with an octagonal building
+standing near and connected with the northern arm.</p>
+
+<p>The furniture was of wood and elaborately carved. In the Choir were
+the fixed stalls with towering canopies, and other seats, which were
+ranged along the north and south sides and at the west end. Chapels
+were marked off by wooden screens, often of elaborate tracery.</p>
+
+<p>The cost of erecting this huge and splendid church must have been
+enormous. The Minster contained the shrine of St. William of York,
+which, like those of St. Cuthbert at Durham and St. Thomas at
+Canterbury of European fame, attracted streams of pilgrims, whose
+donations helped the funds of erection and maintenance. This was an
+established means of raising funds for church purposes. There was,
+also, the money from penances and indulgences. The Archbishops were
+keenly interested in their cathedral church. Citizens gave and
+bequeathed sums of money to the Minster funds. In addition, the
+Minster authorities received gifts from wealthy nobles of the north of
+England. The house of Vavasour, for instance, supplied stone; that of
+Percy gave wood to be used in building the great metropolitical
+church. If the money cost was enormous, the completed building, for
+design, engineering, and decorative work&mdash;in stone, wood, cloth,
+stained glass&mdash;was far beyond monetary value.</p>
+
+<p>The Nave, the part open to the public, was used for processions; some
+started from the great west door, entrance through which was a rare
+privilege granted only to the highest. The Choir was the scene of the
+daily services of the seven offices of the day. All around, in the
+aisles and transepts, were altars in side-chapels, chantry-chapels,<a id="FNanchor_3_8" name="FNanchor_3_8"></a>
+<a class="fnanchor" href="#Footnote_3_8">[8]</a>
+where throughout the early part of the day priests were saying masses
+for the souls of the departed. There were thirty chantries in the
+Minster.</p>
+
+<p>The Minster has from its foundation been a cathedral. The Chapter of
+canons with the Dean at their head has always been its Governing Body.
+As a church it was served by prebendaries or canons, who had definite
+periods of duty annually, and two residential bodies of priests, of
+whom some, the chantry priests, lived at St. William's College. This
+College was erected shortly after the middle of the fifteenth century:
+on the site there had been Salton House, the prebendal residence of
+the Prior of Hexham, who was canon of Salton. This picturesque
+building of stone, wood, half-timber work, and tiled roofs is a little
+to the east of the Minster. It consists of a series of rooms ranged
+round a central courtyard. It is of much historical interest, and
+since it was restored recently to be the home of the Convocation of
+the Northern Province, it has returned to the service of the church.
+The minor-canons, or vicars-choral, who were employed by the canons as
+their deputies, also lived in community. They had their hall, chapel,
+and other buildings in an enclosed part called the Bedern not far from
+the Minster.</p>
+
+<p>As a counterpart to the Minster, in appearance as in use, was the
+great, rich Benedictine Abbey of St. Mary, of royal foundation. With a
+mitred abbot who sat among the lords spiritual in Parliament, St.
+Mary's was perhaps the most important of the northern monasteries. The
+buildings were proportionally large and fine. The church, dating
+mostly from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, was particularly
+long and had a tall spire. It was only a little inferior to the
+Minster in magnificence. On the south side were the Cloisters, the
+open-air work-place and recreation place of the monks, while beyond
+were the conventual buildings&mdash;such as the calefactory or
+warming-house, the dormitories, and the refectory or room where meals
+were taken. The cloisters were square in plan and consisted of a
+central grass plot, along the sides of which there was a continuous
+covered walk with unglazed windows facing the central open space.
+Benedictine abbeys usually conformed to a common scheme as regards the
+planning of the church and the conventual buildings. The cloisters
+were only one of the courts or open squares, which separated groups of
+conventual buildings. Further, there were gardens and orchards. Nearer
+the river there was the Hospitium, or guest-house, where visitors were
+lodged. The abbey was within its own walls, and on one side its
+grounds extended to the river. The gateway, comprising gate, lodge,
+and chapel, was on the north side.</p>
+
+<p>Near the Castle there was an extensive Franciscan Friary. On the other
+side of the river there was the priory of the Holy Trinity, the home
+of an alien Benedictine order. A Carmelite Friary in Hungate, opposite
+the Castle, seems, from the few odd fragments of stone that remain, to
+have had fine buildings. The Augustinian Friary was between Lendal and
+the river. The Dominican house, which was burnt down in 1455, was on
+the site of the old railway station.</p>
+
+<p>The only nunnery in the city was the Benedictine Priory of St.
+Clement. There were sisterhoods in St. Leonard's and other hospitals.
+It should, however, be noted there were many nunneries in the
+districts round York.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the religious institutions were called Hospitals. The care of
+the sick was only one of the functions of this type of religious
+house. Such was the large and famous St. Leonard's Hospital, a royal
+institution that was not under the control of a bishop. The beautiful
+ruins of St. Leonard's, which adjoined St. Mary's Abbey, prove how
+well this hospital had been built. These hospitals, of which there
+were fifteen in York, were in close touch with the people. While St.
+Mary's, for instance, was one of the great abbeys, where the monks, by
+the time when the fifteenth century was advanced, were living
+luxuriously, easily, and generally unproductively, the religious of
+the hospitals and lesser houses, were still engaged in feeding the
+poor, tending the sick, and educating the children of the people.</p>
+
+<p>Each of these religious institutions, whether monastery or hospital,
+was within its own grounds, bounded by its own walls. Altogether they
+occupied a large part of the total area of the mediæval city which
+their buildings adorned, and of which they were so characteristic a
+feature: St. Mary's Abbey, which with its buildings and grounds
+covered a large area, was actually outside the city proper, but it was
+immediately adjoining it. There were nearly sixty monasteries,
+priories, hospitals, maisons-dieu, and chapels. The maisons-dieu, of
+which there were sixteen, were smaller hospitals. They combined
+generally the duties of almshouse and chantry.</p>
+
+<p><i>Parish Churches</i>, which were the centres of the religious life of the
+laity, were everywhere. In the fifteenth century there were forty-five
+churches and ten chapels, so that there was always a place in church
+for every citizen.</p>
+
+<p>A church was always in use. Besides the regular public services which
+took place frequently during the day, and the special services for
+festivals, there were services in chantries. Both the high altar in
+the chancel and altars in other parts of a church were used. Several
+altars were necessary because the number of masses, for the
+celebration of which money was liberally bequeathed, was very large.
+The parish church was used for other than purely religious purposes.
+It was the central meeting-place of the parish, and might be described
+as the seat of parochial government. Meetings were held in the Nave.
+Parts of the church were used as schools. The parish church was also
+the dep&ocirc;t for the equipment of those members who became soldiers.
+Moreover, fire-buckets (generally of leather) were often kept in the
+church, since, being of stone, it was perhaps the safest building in
+the parish. There were also long poles with hooks at the end used to
+pull thatch away from burning houses.</p>
+
+<p>Most, if not all, of these churches were fine specimens of the
+architecture of the Middle Ages, the so-called Gothic architecture,
+which is characterised by pointed arches, ribbed vaulting, and the
+constant use of the buttress. These churches were, in contrast to the
+present condition of most of those that remain, complete with chancel,
+nave and aisles, towers or spires, bells, stained-glass windows, and
+furniture, many of them being particularly rich in one or more of
+these features. The painted windows<a id="FNanchor_3_9" name="FNanchor_3_9"></a>
+<a class="fnanchor" href="#Footnote_3_9">[9]</a> are especially interesting, for
+they show the standard of this branch of fifteenth-century art and are
+valuable historical documents. The rich, mellow tones of colour should
+be noted, also the incidental pictures of mediæval dress and
+furniture. It is interesting to compare the fifteenth-century work
+with that done, for instance, by the William Morris firm to the
+designs of Burne-Jones (1833-1898), at a time when the revived art,
+with other forms of decoration, was enjoying a period of great
+success. In the fifteenth century the church was flourishing
+materially, at least, and money and gifts were freely given.</p>
+
+<p>The offices and services in churches were recited and sung. Organs
+were used, but were not very large and were capable of being carried
+about: although working on similar principles to the modern organ they
+lacked its size, power, and varied capacity. At the Minster there were
+several organs, for instance "the great organs," "the organs in the
+Choir," "the organs at the Altar B.V.M."</p>
+
+<p>The Chancel was the most sacred part of the church, for there was the
+principal or high altar. In the Chancel were the stalls or seats of
+the clergy and officials. The actual seats could be turned up when the
+occupants wished to stand. Standing for long periods was made less
+irksome in that the underside of each seat was made with a projecting
+ledge, which gave some support. It is thoroughly characteristic of the
+age that this very human device should have existed, and, secondly,
+that these ledges were carved and ornamented. These misericords, as
+they are called, were usually curiously, even grotesquely carved. Some
+of these carvings were founded on natural objects, some were grotesque
+heads, others represented subjects with man and animals. There were
+pews for the nobility, but, apart from the few old and weak people who
+used the rough bench or two in the body of the church, or the stone
+bench that ran along the walls, the general public stood during the
+services.</p>
+
+<p>Wealthy parishioners left money to the parochial clergy and for the
+fabric of the church: they generally wished to be buried at some
+particular place within their parish church. Such distinguished men as
+Nicholas Blackburn, merchant of York, were commemorated at times in
+their parish churches by means of stained-glass windows. The portraits
+of Nicholas and his son and their wives appear in the east window of
+All Saints', North Street; his arms also are to be seen in this
+window.</p>
+
+
+<h3 style="margin-top: 2em">D. <a name="York_as_a_Port" id="York_as_a_Port"></a>
+<span class="smcap">York as a Port</span>
+<span class="totoc"><a href="#CONTENTS">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<p>The Ouse was tidal and navigable right up to York. Trade, especially
+in woollen goods, was carried on in the fifteenth century by river and
+sea directly between York and ports on the west coasts of the
+continent and, especially, Baltic ports. On arriving at York the boats
+stopped at the quays, adjacent to which were warehouses, just below
+Ouse Bridge.</p>
+
+<p>The sea-going boats were not large. They were usually one-masted
+sailing ships, built of wood; they had high prows and sterns, with a
+capacious hold between. Some of them were built in York.</p>
+
+<p>Their trade was such that some of the York merchants, for example the
+wealthy Howme family, had establishments in foreign ports. The Howmes
+had property in Calais.</p>
+
+<p>The regulation of the waterways in and near the city was vested in the
+Corporation. Matters pertaining to navigation and shipping were
+adjudged by an Admiralty Court under the King's Admiral, whose
+jurisdiction extended from the Thames to the northern ports.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a id="Footnote_3_1" name="Footnote_3_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_1">
+<span class="label">[1]</span></a> Derived from Latin foris=outside, without (the city).</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a id="Footnote_3_2" name="Footnote_3_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_2">
+<span class="label">[2]</span></a> A "church" that was in a parish, but was not the parish church,
+was called a chapel. The parish church was the principal and parent
+church of all within the parish.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a id="Footnote_3_3" name="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3">
+<span class="label">[3]</span></a> Compare the Tollbooth, Edinburgh, and the Tolhouse, Yarmouth.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a id="Footnote_3_4" name="Footnote_3_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_4">
+<span class="label">[4]</span></a> Cf. French <i>manger</i>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a id="Footnote_3_5" name="Footnote_3_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_5">
+<span class="label">[5]</span></a> Wall-paper, which still bears the influence of the hangings that
+it replaced, came into general use early in the nineteenth century.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a id="Footnote_3_6" name="Footnote_3_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_6">
+<span class="label">[6]</span></a> The view to-day from Petergate towards Bootham Bar gives a good
+impression of a narrow main street, with gabled houses, leading to the
+single fortified opening provided by the Bar.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a id="Footnote_3_7" name="Footnote_3_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_7">
+<span class="label">[7]</span></a> The winch and portcullis are still in existence in Monk Bar, and
+in working order.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a id="Footnote_3_8" name="Footnote_3_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_8">
+<span class="label">[8]</span></a> The Leschman Chantry Chapel in Hexham Abbey is a typical example
+in excellent preservation. A small erection of stone and wood, it
+stands between two of the piers of the north Choir arcade. In small
+compass there are a stone altar with five crosses, an aumbry beneath
+the altar, and the tomb with recumbent effigy of the founder. A priest
+would have just sufficient room to move about in the performance of
+his service. Part of Archbishop Bowet's tomb in York Minster was a
+chantry chapel.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a id="Footnote_3_9" name="Footnote_3_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_9">
+<span class="label">[9]</span></a> Besides the exceptional display of fifteenth-century glass in the
+Minster, notable examples occur in St. Martin's, Coney Street, All
+Saints', North Street, and Holy Trinity, Goodramgate.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV
+<span class="totoc"><a href="#CONTENTS">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">LIFE</span></h3>
+
+
+<h3>A. <a name="Civic_Life" id="Civic_Life"></a>
+<span class="smcap">Civic Life</span>
+<span class="totoc"><a href="#CONTENTS">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<p>"Parish government formed the unit in the government of the city. Each
+parish was a self-governing community, electing its own officers with
+the exception of its rector, making its own bye-laws, and, to meet
+expenses, levying and collecting its own rates. Its constables served
+as policemen, attended the Sessions, and acted as the fire brigade.
+They looked after the parish-trained soldiers, acted as recruiters,
+and had the care of the parish armour, which was kept in a chest in
+the church. They distributed money among lame soldiers, gathered
+trophy money, relieved cripples and passengers, but unfeelingly
+conveyed beggars and vagabonds to prison. The parish soldiers kept
+watch and ward over the parish defences. The parish stocks, in which
+offenders were placed, stood near the churchyard stile. The constables
+were also responsible for such lighting as the parish required, and
+kept the parish lanthorn.</p>
+
+<p>"The officials looked after the parish poor, dispensing charity by
+gifts of bread and money. The parish boundaries were perambulated
+every Ascension Day. Parish dinners were held on the choosing of the
+churchwardens, the visitation of the Archdeacon, etc. The parish
+officials invoked the aid of the law when parochial rights were
+infringed, especially by neighbours. The church was the centre of
+parochial life and in it the business of the parish was transacted.</p>
+
+<p>"Parishes were grouped as wards. The wards chose city Councillors, and
+these elected their Aldermen. The six wards formed the municipality
+over which presided the Mayor. The Corporation exercised a general
+supervision over the whole of the parishes of which there were
+forty-five.</p>
+
+<p>"Gradually the duties and powers of the various parish officials have
+been transferred to the City Council. The united parish soldiers
+became the city trained bands. In 1900 the last remnant of parochial
+officialdom passed into the power of the Corporation when parish
+overseers ceased to exist, and, for rating purposes, the City of York
+became one parish instead of the original forty-five separately rated
+areas."<a id="FNanchor_4_1" name="FNanchor_4_1"></a>
+<a class="fnanchor" href="#Footnote_4_1">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>The Cathedral, <i>i.e.</i> the Liberty of St. Peter, and the Royal Castle
+were outside municipal control. The Archbishops also had their
+privileges. They had once owned all the city on the right bank of the
+Ouse. In the fifteenth century they still retained many of their
+privileges and possessions in this quarter, as, for example, the right
+of holding a fair here in what was formerly their shire. These
+archiepiscopal rights have not all lapsed, for in 1807 the Archbishop
+of the time, successfully asserting his legal rights, saved from
+demolition the city walls on the west side of the river.</p>
+
+<p>York was a royal borough, that is, the freemen of the city had to pay
+rent to the king, from whom it was farmed directly. It was not owned
+by any knight or lord, that is, apart from the Archbishop's
+possessions, which belonged to the western section of the city; the
+city proper was almost entirely on the opposite side of the river. The
+King retained possession of certain properties, such as Galtres
+Forest, lying in the valley stretching northwards from York. He had a
+larder and a fish pond at York; also a court, offices, and a prison
+(Davy Hall, of which the name alone remains) for the administration of
+the forest. These town-properties were, of course, entirely
+extra-parochial.</p>
+
+<p>York received a long succession of royal charters. Henry I. granted
+the city certain customs, laws and liberties, and the right to have a
+merchant guild. The possession of these rights was confirmed by King
+John in the first year of his reign. In 1396 Richard II., at York,
+made the city a county in itself. In consequence the office of bailiff
+was replaced by that of sheriff.</p>
+
+<p>The King's official representative in the city was called the sheriff,
+whose office in York has been continuous down to the present day. The
+sheriffs&mdash;there were usually two&mdash;were responsible for the
+maintenance of order, for the local soldiery, and the collection of
+the royal taxes and dues. The sheriff was a busy and important
+mediæval official.</p>
+
+<p>The Mayor was the real governor of the city. He was a powerful
+official and literally ruler of the city. In practice he was most
+often a wealthy and important merchant; and, like the Aldermen,
+belonged to the group of men who governed the trade guilds as well as
+the municipality. Various symbols were attached to his office. The
+chief objects among the corporation regalia at the present time are
+the sword, mace, and cap of maintenance.</p>
+
+<p>There were three city councils, "the twelve," "the twenty-four," and
+"the forty-eight," as they were called. There were the Aldermen and
+Councillors&mdash;the "lords" and "commons" of the municipal parliament.
+The ordinary council-chamber was at Ouse Bridge: the other was the
+Common Hall, the present Guildhall. Sometimes the whole community of
+citizens met, when for the moment the government of the city became
+essentially and practically democratic. This was only done on
+important occasions to decide broad questions of policy, or when
+numbers were needed to enforce a decision. The commons really
+possessed no administrative power. The form of civic government was
+supposed to be representative, but as a matter of fact it was not only
+not founded on popular election (a procedure enforced in 1835 by the
+Municipal Reform Act), but was kept exclusively in the hands of the
+wealthy merchant and trading class, the middle class. Men of this
+class became Aldermen. When a vacancy occurred in the upper house of
+civic government, they chose a man like themselves. The Mayor was
+elected by the Aldermen, who naturally chose one of themselves. In
+fact the government of the city was in the hold of a "close
+self-elected Corporation."</p>
+
+<p>The civic spirit developed a good deal during the fifteenth century,
+no doubt in connection with the simultaneous increase in the wealth
+and social pretension of the rising merchant middle class. It appeared
+in the greater respect bestowed on the office of Mayor and the pomp
+and reverence attached to his position. The "right worshipful" the
+Mayor and the Aldermen wore rich state robes edged with fur. In
+addition, contemporary city records reflect the new spirit in such
+expressions as "the worshupful cite," "the said full honourabill
+cite," "this full nobill city." This spirit, however, developed more
+fully in the sixteenth century.</p>
+
+<p>The Mayor held his court in the Common Hall, where he heard pleas
+about apprentices and mysteries (<i>i.e.</i> the rules of the crafts);
+offences against the customs of the city; breaches of the King's
+peace. It was his duty to administer the statute merchant. The
+Recorder was the official civic lawyer.</p>
+
+<p>The governors of the city were intimately connected with the control
+of trade, and the rule of the pageants. These phases of city life
+overlapped considerably and were interdependent. Weaving was the
+principal trade. The Mayor and Aldermen were the masters of the
+mysteries of the weavers. Power to enforce the ordinances of the other
+mysteries was granted by the Mayor and Corporation.</p>
+
+<p>There were times when the King took the government into his own hands.
+This was done during the rebellion of the Percies, a northern family
+skilled and experienced in rebelling. Henry IV. withdrew the right of
+government from the city in 1405, but he restored it in 1406 after the
+execution of Archbishop Scrope, who had been so popular with the
+people of York.</p>
+
+<p>Of mediæval punishments the most obvious were the stocks, a
+contemporary picture of which is to be seen in one of the
+stained-glass windows of All Saints', North Street. Examples of stocks
+survive in the churchyards of Holy Trinity, Micklegate, and St.
+Lawrence's. They were near the entrance to the churchyard and
+commanded full public attention. The petty offender, condemned to
+spend so many hours in the public gaze and subject to whatever
+treatment the public chose to inflict on him, sat on the ground or on
+a low seat, while his feet were secured at the ankles by two vertical
+boards. The upper was raised for the insertion of the ankles in the
+specially cut-out half-round holes in each board, so that when the
+boards were touching and in the same vertical plane, the ankles were
+completely surrounded by wood.</p>
+
+<p>To its political importance York owed the ghastly exhibition of heads
+and odd quarters of traitors and others who had gained punishment of
+national importance, which usually consisted of "hanging, drawing and
+quartering," when the quarters and the head were sent to London and
+the principal towns of the kingdom to be exhibited on gateways,
+towers, and bridges. This practice served to provide the public with
+convincing proof that a traitor was actually dead, and was very
+necessary in an age when Rumour, "stuffing the ears of men with false
+reports" held sway over "the blunt monster with uncounted heads, the
+still discordant wavering multitude." Micklegate Bar was so used. In
+Shakespeare's <i>Henry VI.</i> Queen Margaret makes, with reference to the
+Duke of York, this bitter play of words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Off with his head and set it on York gates;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So York may overlook the town of York."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>One very interesting practice in connection with the mediæval system
+of law and policing was the use of the right of sanctuary. The
+monasteries, the Minster, and all churches had this right of giving a
+sacrosanct safety to criminals and others flying from their pursuers,
+whether officers of the law or the general mob, whose right, be it
+noted, it was to join in the chase after offenders (the "hue and cry")
+and help to arrest them. Provided the pursued reached the prescribed
+area, which, in some cases, as at the nationally famous sanctuary of
+St. John of Beverley, prevailed for some distance from the church
+itself, he was safe from his pursuers. Hexham Abbey and Beverley
+Minster still exhibit their sanctuary chairs or frith-stools. In the
+north door of Durham Cathedral there is an ancient, massive knocker,
+the rapper, of the form of a ring, being held in the mouth of a
+grotesque head. The frith-stool, to which the seeker went at once,
+stood near the high altar at which he made his declarations on oath.
+His case was carefully investigated and often sanctuary-seekers were
+allowed to exile themselves from the kingdom. The coroner was the
+public officer of inquiry. The Church took every care that the crime
+of breaking the sanctuary so granted was regarded not at all lightly.
+The right of sanctuary, after being changed to apply to certain towns
+only&mdash;among them York&mdash;continued till it was ended by law in the reign
+of James I.</p>
+
+<p>Condemned heretics were burnt<a id="FNanchor_4_2" name="FNanchor_4_2"></a>
+<a class="fnanchor" href="#Footnote_4_2">[2]</a> at Tyburn, the site of local
+executions, some way from Micklegate Bar along the main south road.</p>
+
+
+<h3 style="margin-top: 2em">B. <a name="Parliamentary_and_National_Life" id="Parliamentary_and_National_Life"></a>
+<span class="smcap">Parliamentary and National Life</span>
+<span class="totoc"><a href="#CONTENTS">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<p>According to the general principle, the King was the ultimate and
+absolute owner and ruler of the land and people. The rights,
+liberties, customs, and powers possessed by individuals and corporate
+bodies were specified parts of the royal power which the King had
+granted on some consideration or other. Thus, knights, archbishops,
+and nobles received lands and rights in return for the provision, when
+required, of military service by themselves and a certain force of
+their retainers, except that no personal military service was required
+from the archbishop from the very nature of his calling. The
+monasteries and other Church institutions had many possessions and
+rights. The Church, which was established in the realm before
+Parliament, was a very great owner of land. The authorities of cities,
+with their trade-guilds, received the right of trading, or holding
+markets, and of levying tolls or municipal taxes. They received also
+the right of making their own local laws or bye-laws. These
+authorities, whether individuals or corporate bodies, to whom rights
+and liberties were granted, had their own officers and laws
+controlling their liberties. Besides the King's peace, there were,
+therefore, the jurisdictions of these various rights granted from the
+supreme royal authority.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a id="illo5.jpg" name="illo5.jpg"></a>
+<a href="images/illo5.jpg">
+<img src="images/illo5-th.jpg" width="40%" alt="KNIGHTS DOING PENANCE AT A SHRINE.
+From a Fifteenth-Century Manuscript." />
+</a><br />
+<span class="smcap">KNIGHTS DOING PENANCE AT A SHRINE.</span><br />
+<span><i>From a Fifteenth-Century Manuscript.</i></span>
+<span class="totoi"><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">ToList</a></span>
+</div>
+
+<p>From York there went to the national Parliament the lord Archbishop of
+York, the lord Abbot of St. Mary's Abbey, those nobles who resided in
+the city and were Lords Temporal, and the two representatives of the
+commonalty of the city. The body of Lords Spiritual was of great
+importance in the Middle Ages. The Convocation of the lords of the
+Church had itself a share in the governing of the nation as well as of
+the Church, its own particular sphere. The Church was one of the most
+powerful and richest factors in national affairs. The clear division
+of the Parliament of the Middle Ages into three groups reflects the
+sharp divisions that there were between the three great classes of the
+nation&mdash;the nobles, the clergy, the people.</p>
+
+<p>In the fifteenth century, as in other centuries, York was frequently
+visited by the King. From time to time, as when the King and Court
+proceeded north during the wars with Scotland, Parliament was moved to
+York, where it was held in the Chapter House of the Minster. Six of
+the seven windows of the Chapter House contain their original stained
+glass, in which appear shields of King Edward I. and members of the
+Court. The Chapter House was used as a Parliament house during the
+reigns of the first three Edwards. The King, in mediæval times, was
+actual commander-in-chief, and it suited him well for Parliament to
+meet in the political capital of the north, so that he could continue
+the civil administration while conducting warfare in the north.</p>
+
+<p>Henry IV. was in York on several occasions, chiefly because of
+rebellions. The house of Percy, which engaged frequently in revolt and
+faction, led the rebellion of 1403 in which Henry Percy, called
+Hotspur, was killed at the battle of Shrewsbury. Harry Hotspur, whom
+Shakespeare made in accordance with tradition the fiery and valorous
+counterpart of Prince Hal, Henry IV.'s heir and Falstaff's companion,
+was buried in the Minster. When Archbishop Scrope headed a revolt,
+also not unconnected with the Percies, from York and was arrested,
+Henry IV. hastened to York, and the popular archbishop was executed
+forthwith, a royal and sacrilegious deed that caused intense
+indignation especially among the people of York, who for some months
+lost the right of local government as a result of this affair.</p>
+
+<p>The Wars of the Roses (1455-1485), a long internecine feud between
+kings, lords, and landed gentry, affected the towns but little. The
+baronage suffered heavily, the middle class lightly. No town ever
+stood a siege, while Towton was the only battle in which the common
+soldiers had heavy losses. Warwick made it a practice to spare the
+commoners, whereby he conciliated the people. Under Yorkist rule,
+after the decisive battle of Towton (1461) England can be described as
+not unprosperous. One very notable feature was the immense amount of
+building that was done, and that not so much of castles, as of country
+houses, churches, and cathedrals, so many of which splendidly adorn
+the land to-day. The only people seriously affected by the Wars of the
+Roses were the main participants. Compared with modern warfare, which
+is unabated scientific extermination, mediæval warfare was often of
+the nature of a mild adventure. The size of the opposing forces was
+very small even compared with the scanty population. The chief weapons
+were lances, swords, long-bows, and cross-bows, but protective armour
+was worn. The fighting was generally sporadic and desultory and the
+casualties were very few.</p>
+
+<p>It was at York that Henry VI. awaited the news of the result of the
+battle of Towton. Edward IV. entered York as victor after the battle.
+York, like other cities at the time, took care to maintain the good
+graces of both sets of combatants. Although through the Wars of the
+Roses national parliamentary government ultimately broke down and gave
+way to the strong personal kingship of Henry VII., the towns, which
+actually suffered little, increased their local powers. Civic
+government developed much and trade flourished during the century.</p>
+
+<p>York had a good friend in Richard, Duke of Gloucester. The city was
+very loyal to him and helped him by raising troops in his support.
+When he visited York he was received with immense festivity and
+magnificence. The Mayor and Corporation in their correspondence with
+him addressed him as "our full tender and especial good lord." They
+had to thank him "for his great labour now late made unto ye king's
+good grace for the confirmation of the liberties of this city." But
+for his death at Bosworth, York would have benefited greatly by his
+munificence.</p>
+
+<p>Henry VII. was in York in 1487. After Bosworth (1485) the city had
+assured him of its loyalty. The marriage of Henry of Richmond, who
+represented the House of Lancaster, and Elizabeth, daughter of Edward
+IV. Duke of York, fittingly followed the conclusion of the Wars of the
+Roses. With Henry VII.'s reign a new era began in English history.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout the century the city could not avoid contact with rival
+parties and powers. In spite, however, of rebellions and the Wars of
+the Roses, the capital of the north managed generally to steer a safe
+course through many storms.</p>
+
+<p>Other links with national affairs were the periodic visits of the
+King's judges who travelled on circuit over the country, stopping at
+important centres to hold assize there. Their duties consisted not
+only in settling matters of litigation, but also in reviewing the way
+in which all the King's affairs were being conducted in each locality.
+They supervised the work of the sheriffs.</p>
+
+<p>Galtres Forest and the Fish Pond, both royal property, helped to
+furnish the king's table with food. From the royal Larder at York such
+foodstuffs as venison, game, and fish were despatched salted to
+wherever the King required them.</p>
+
+
+<h3 style="margin-top: 2em">C. <a name="Business_Life" id="Business_Life"></a>
+<span class="smcap">Business Life</span>
+<span class="totoc"><a href="#CONTENTS">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<p>Business, in one form or another, was the occupation of the majority
+of the citizens. There were a few capitalist merchants, many traders,
+and thousands of employed workpeople, skilled and unskilled. Such
+street names as Spurriergate, Fishergate, Girdlergate, Hosier Lane,
+and Colliergate would suggest that men in the same trade had their
+premises in the same quarter, possibly in the same street.</p>
+
+<p>The English middle class, which had taken form in the fourteenth
+century, was well established in the fifteenth century, when it became
+so important as to be an appreciable factor in the national life. The
+middle class arose through currency, the use of money to bring in more
+money by trading. Trade became the monopoly of the middle class, the
+successful master-traders. It was men of this class, the capitalist
+employers, the merchants and traders who were the mayors and aldermen,
+who ruled the city. The exclusiveness, which was eminently
+characteristic of this class, appeared especially in their attitude
+towards national taxation and in that towards trade organisations.
+With regard to taxation the towns persistently avoided the assessment
+of individual traders, who did not wish to disclose the amount of
+their wealth, by agreeing that the whole town should pay to the
+Exchequer a sum to be raised by the Mayor and Corporation. The middle
+class achieved its aims politically by transformation from within.
+Instead of making a direct assertive attack, these master-traders
+usually so developed their own interests within the established
+institutions (such as the guilds) that they ultimately gained their
+object quietly and shrewdly. This class established itself against the
+King and the nobles on the one hand, and during the century in
+effective fashion against the workers on the other. This appears in
+the more definite distinctions of class among the citizens that arose.
+The masters had got the control of the guilds into their own power.
+While maintaining the original outward appearance of the guilds as
+societies of men affected by the same interests in daily life, the
+employers had actually become a powerful vested class that ruled both
+city and guild life. In the fifteenth century the workmen were
+founding fraternities of their own.</p>
+
+<p>Memory of the Jews, the money-dealers of other times, survived if only
+from the harrowing stories of the various persecutions that had taken
+place all over England, and not least in York. The Jews had been
+expelled from the country by Edward I., with the encouragement of the
+Church, in 1290, partly for economic, partly for religious reasons.
+Their supplanters, the Italian bankers, whom Edward favoured, soon
+acquired from their trading an unpopularity equal to that of the Jews
+as traders. The rise of the middle class had coincided with the
+release of money in coin from the hoards of the Jews, and from the
+coffers of the Knights Templars, whose order was abolished in 1312.</p>
+
+<p>The merchant and trading class, apart from the nobility and the
+Church, formed the bulk of the people of the nation. They were the
+solid part of the nation, that paid taxes, that supplied clerks,
+monks, and priests, that liberally supported the Church, that kept the
+nation progressive and solvent by commercial undertakings.</p>
+
+<p>The professions, as we use the term to-day, had not as yet attained
+sufficient importance for them to form a distinct class division.
+There were a few capable physicians, but generally the practice of
+medicine was shared by the Church and the barber-surgeons. Priests and
+officers of the Church had the privilege peculiar to the Church by
+which even a poor but intellectually capable man could rise to high
+office and become the social equal of nobles. Architecture was
+practised by master-masons under the patronage of leading
+ecclesiastics and nobles. Teaching was nearly all the work of the
+Church. The lawyers, however, were already to be distinguished from
+those who gained profit by dealing in goods, for they made profit from
+transactions on paper, from managing the interests of others, from
+trading in their own acute mental powers.</p>
+
+<p>The wool trade was by far the most extensive and flourishing trade of
+England in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. This was the trade
+that made England great commercially. Wool was England's raw material
+and the source of most of her wealth. The numerous monasteries had
+huge sheep-farms. Edward III. had encouraged foreign clothworkers to
+settle in England (in York, as in other places). The first York
+craftsmen to be incorporated were the weavers, who received a charter
+from Henry II., in return for which they paid a tax to the King for
+the customs and liberties he granted them. The weavers were the
+largest and wealthiest body of traders.</p>
+
+<p>Guilds had developed from societies of masters and men engaged in the
+same trade, to the trade-guilds, which in the fourteenth century were
+trade corporations, the lower ranks of members being the workers, the
+higher ranks, including the office-holders, the richer merchants, the
+capitalist employers. The ruling committees of the trade-guilds made
+regulations and generally governed their particular trades. Despite
+the power of the guilds the municipal authority maintained its
+supremacy in civic government because it enforced the ordinances of
+the trades. Moreover, disputes between the guilds themselves gave the
+city authority opportunities of increasing its power, of which it
+availed itself.</p>
+
+<p>The system of serfdom, by which serfs were bound to a particular
+domain and owned by their overlord, had not yet ceased. Nearly all the
+workmen of York, however, were freemen, <i>i.e.</i> they had full and
+complete citizenship. The members of the councils of aldermen and
+councillors, the mayors and city officials, the members of the
+trade-guilds, were all freemen.</p>
+
+<p>In the fifteenth century the wealthy and important employers and
+traders governed the guilds. They were in the position and had the
+power to regulate the conduct in every way of their own trades. Thus,
+rules were laid down as to the terms of admission of men to the
+practice of a trade; the government of the guild and the meetings of
+the members and ruling committees; the moral standard of the members
+in their work and trafficking; the payments of masters to workers; the
+prices of goods to be sold to the public or other traders; the rates
+of fines and the amount of confiscations inflicted on those who broke
+the rules of their guild; the terms on which strangers, English and
+foreign, were to be allowed to pursue their trade in the city; whether
+Sunday trading was to be permitted or not; the duties of the
+searchers; everything incident to the share of the guild in the city's
+production of pageant plays.</p>
+
+<p>The question of the terms of the residence and trading of strangers
+received constant consideration. The city had, in many respects,
+complete local autonomy and rules were made with regard to strangers
+who came to carry on their trades in the city. From 1459 aliens had,
+by municipal law, to live in one place only, at the sign of the Bull
+in Coney Street, unless they received special permission from the
+Mayor to reside elsewhere. The guilds were ruled by masters and
+wardens. They had their various officials. The searchers were officers
+appointed to observe that the rules of the trade were being carried
+out properly. They took care that only authorised members pursued the
+trade of the guild of which they were the officers. They vigilantly
+watched the conduct of the members, and it was their duty to take
+action in case of infringement of the rules and to bring offenders
+before the Mayor in his court.</p>
+
+<p>The wealthy trading class all over the country did great and lasting
+work in founding grammar schools and building or rebuilding cathedrals
+and churches or parts of them. There was a social side to the guilds.
+This appeared in the public processions and the performances of plays,
+the morality and mystery plays of mediæval England. There was also a
+strong religious side to the guilds. The processions and plays were
+fundamentally religious. The Church's festivals were recognised as
+holidays. Much money was given and bequeathed for the foundation of
+chantries, which with their priests have their place also in the
+educational life of the city.</p>
+
+<p>The merchants lived well. They were rich from trade, and through the
+corporate guilds governed their own trades both legislatively and
+executively; the highest offices in civic life were theirs; they lived
+in houses as splendid as they cared to have them; they furnished their
+homes with quantities of silver plate, both for use and for ornament,
+for this was the most suitable outlet for superfluous wealth in days
+when modern facilities for investment did not exist; they wore clothes
+of fine material, richly trimmed; they were honoured citizens; they
+were earnest in religion and their benevolence to the Church is very
+remarkable. They were forming a lesser aristocracy now that they were
+becoming owners of agricultural land as well as town property. They
+had the benefits of wealth and comfort, while they were shrewd enough
+to avoid the penalties of advertised riches. A typical instance of a
+successful merchant who rose to high positions was that of Sir Richard
+Yorke, who was Mayor of the staple of Calais and Lord Mayor of York in
+1469 and 1482, and member of Parliament. A window in St. John's
+Church, Micklegate, in commemoration of him is still to be seen. A
+shield bearing his arms (azure, saltire argent) appears in the glass;
+another bears the arms of the Merchants of the Wool staple of Calais.
+He was knighted by Henry VII. when that king was in York in 1487.</p>
+
+<p>Masters took apprentices, who themselves generally became masters in
+their turn. The conditions of apprenticeship were ruled in detail by
+the guilds.</p>
+
+<p>When a workman became a skilled artisan he was called a journeyman,
+<a id="FNanchor_4_3" name="FNanchor_4_3"></a>
+<a class="fnanchor" href="#Footnote_4_3">[3]</a>
+that is, a man who earned a full day's pay for his work. The legal
+hours of work were, from March to September, from 5 a.m. to 7.30 p.m.,
+with half an hour for breakfast, and an hour and a half for dinner.
+Saturday was universally a half-holiday. There were 44 working weeks
+in a year and, consequently, a total of holidays and non-working times
+of eight weeks. The burden of the very long hours was increased by the
+great physical exertion required from men who had to do much that is
+now done with the help of machinery. The strain was not always
+unrecognised, for the Minster workmen were allowed a period of rest
+during the working day.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the men engaged in the construction of the Minster were not
+York men. The men employed there were by exception under
+ecclesiastical control. They were not governed by any of the city
+trade guilds. The master-mason was in charge of the whole of the
+building operations.</p>
+
+<p>A list of trades in the city will suggest the kinds of business there
+were. Some of the names will go far to explain some modern surnames.</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Wool Trades</i>:&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mercers.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tapiters and couchers (makers of tapestry, hangings, carpets, and coverlets).</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fullers.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cardmakers.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Littesters (dyers, listers).</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shermen (shearmen).</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sledmen.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dyers.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Weavers of woollen.</span><br />
+<br />
+<i>Leather Trades</i>:&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Barkers (tanners).</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Curriers.</span><br />
+<br />
+<i>Building Trades</i>:&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Carpenters, wrights and joiners.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Plasterers.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tilers.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ironmongers.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Painters.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Glaziers.</span><br />
+<br />
+<i>Food Trades</i>:&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Spicers (grocers&mdash;<i>Cf.</i> French <i>&eacute;picier</i>).</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cooks and waterleaders.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Baxters (bakers).</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Vintners and taverners.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bouchers (butchers).</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pulters (poultry-dealers).</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wine-drawers (carters of wine).</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sauce-makers.<a id="FNanchor_4_4" name="FNanchor_4_4"></a>
+<a class="fnanchor" href="#Footnote_4_4">[4]</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<i>Outfitting Trades</i>:&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tailors.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Skinners (vestment makers).</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Glovers.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hosiers.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hatmakers.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Capmakers.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cordwainers (cobblers).</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Saddlers.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Girdlers and nailers.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Spuriers and lorimers (makers of spurs, bits for bridles, etc.).</span><br />
+<br />
+<i>Armour Trades</i>:&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Armourers.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Smiths.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bowers and flecchers (fletchers)&mdash;(makers of bows and arrows. <i>Cf.</i> French <i>fl&egrave;che</i>).</span><br />
+<br />
+<i>Household Trades</i>:&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Coopers.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pewterers and founders.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chaundlers (makers of candles and wax images).</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Potters.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Culters.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bucklemakers, sheathers, bladesmiths.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Drapers.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Linenweavers.</span><br />
+<br />
+<i>Miscellaneous Trades</i>:&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Goldsmiths.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Latoners (workers in the metal called latten).</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Barber-surgeons (the mediæval medical practitioners).</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Parchemeners and bookbinders.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Scriveners.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Writers of texts.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ostlers (inn-holders).</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shipwrights.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fishers and mariners.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Artist craftsmen of York supplied most of the churches of the north of
+England with their beautiful vessels, furniture, and ornaments. In the
+workshops of the city, the metropolis of the north, there were worked
+and made embroidered vestments of all kinds, engraved chalices and
+vessels of silver and of gold, and carved work, including statues and
+images in stone, wood, and wax. Bells were cast with beautiful
+lettering. Brasses for grave-slabs were made bearing finely designed
+effigies.</p>
+
+<p>Marketing, <i>i.e.</i> trading, was done mostly at the frequent and regular
+markets and at the fairs. The right to hold a market or a fair was
+among the rights obtained by means of royal charters. While markets
+were held once or several times a week or every day, fairs took place
+more rarely and at some of the most important and popular holiday
+seasons of the year, like Whitsuntide. Fairs attracted a much larger
+public than the markets.</p>
+
+<p>In the city there were markets in different places for different kinds
+of produce on certain days. For instance, in the fifteenth century
+there was a market of live-stock at Toft Green every Friday. The
+public squares, called Thursday Market and Pavement, were used as
+market-places. Some markets were held in the streets. Stalls were set
+up on which to exhibit the wares. The ordinary foodstuffs and
+materials, just as in the open market held at the present time in the
+long and broad Parliament Street, formed of Thursday Market and
+Pavement and the space formerly occupied by a compact mass of old
+houses between the two originally distinct squares, were the things
+sold and bought at the mediæval markets: such as butter, meat, fish,
+linen, leather, corn, poultry, herbs. Some, for example butchers'
+shops, kept open market every day. Craftsmen worked goods at the
+premises of their merchant employers, which usually combined the
+latters' home and workshop; it was chiefly at the markets and fairs
+that these goods were sold.</p>
+
+<p>Markets and fairs were controlled by the authority, whether municipal
+or archiepiscopal, that possessed the right of holding them. Again,
+particular care was taken to ensure preference being obtained by the
+citizens over strangers. The Lammas fairs were held under the
+authority of the Archbishops, who assumed the rule of the city and
+suburbs for the period of the fair. The sheriffs' authority, in
+consequence, was suspended for that period. The Archbishop, meanwhile,
+took tolls, and all cases that arose during the holding of the fair
+were judged by a court set up by him.</p>
+
+<p>Fairs combined both trading and entertainments, for they were held on
+public holidays. They fostered trade and served to provide a change
+from the ordinary routine of life. It was perhaps at fairs that
+mediæval people were at their noisiest, for these were occasions when
+they gave themselves up unrestrainedly to merry-making, wild and
+clamorous. Strolling players and the whole variety of mediæval
+entertainers set up their stands and booths, and amused the dense
+surging crowds that thronged the squares and streets.</p>
+
+<p>York had a large overseas trade, especially in wool and manufactured
+cloth. Some of its merchants owned property abroad. Some went abroad
+and encountered perils by sea and perils from foreigners on the
+continent. York traded with the Low Countries, where Veere (near
+Middleburg) and Dordrecht were ports that ships entered to discharge
+cargoes loaded on the York quays. The trade between York and the
+Baltic ports was much greater than that done with them from any other
+English port.</p>
+
+<p>Foreign sailors were to be seen in the streets of fifteenth-century
+York; foreign goods were handled in the city. Wines were imported from
+France, fine cloths from Flemish towns, silks, velvet, and glass from
+Italy, while from the Baltic came timber and fur. From the North sea
+came fish, much of which was brought to York from the coast by
+pack-horse across the moors. The herring was an important article of
+food.</p>
+
+<p>Money was measured in marks, shillings, and pence. Of the current
+coins those in gold were called the angel, half-angel, the noble,
+half-noble, and quarter-noble; in silver there were the groat,
+half-groat, the penny, and half-penny. The local branch of the royal
+Mint was housed within the Castle. The building containing it was
+rebuilt in accordance with an order of 1423. The coins from this mint,
+which was at work during a large part of the fifteenth century, bore
+distinctive marks to show the place of minting. Silver coins bore the
+inscription CIVITAS EBORACI. The archbishops continued to use their
+privilege of coining money.</p>
+
+<p>The following extracts, interesting for the substance and the literary
+form, are taken from the city records as published by the Surtees
+Society, vols. 120, 125, "The York Memorandum Book."</p>
+
+<p>From the ordinances of the Pewterers, 1416.</p>
+
+<p>"Ordinaciones pewderariorum.</p>
+
+<p>"Ceux sont les articles de lez pewderers de Lounders, les queux les
+genz de mesme lartifice dyceste citee Deverwyk ount agrees pur agarder
+et ordeiner entre eux par deux ans passez, devant Johan Moreton,
+maire."</p>
+
+<p>Others of the earlier ordinances are in Anglo-French; many are in
+Latin. Later ordinances are in English as in the case of those of the
+Carpenters, 1482, of which the following are the opening paragraphs:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"In the honour of God, and for the weile of this full honourabill cite
+of York, and of the carpenters inhabit in the same at the special
+instaunce and praier of" ... (here follows a list of names) ...
+"carpenters of this full nobill cite, ar ordeyned the xxij<sup>ti</sup> day of
+Novembyr in the xxij<sup>ti</sup> yere of the reing of king Edward the iv. in
+the secund tym of the mairalte of the ryght honorabill Richard York
+mair of the said cite, by the authorite of the holl counsell of the
+said full honourable cite, for ewyr to be kept thez ordinaunces
+filluyg,</p>
+
+<p>"Furst, for asmoch as here afore ther hath beyn of old tym a
+broderhode had and usyd emong the occupacion and craft above said, the
+wich of long continuaunce have usid, and as yit yerly usis to fynd of
+thar propir costes a lyght of diwyrs torchis in the fest of Corpus
+Christi day, or of the morn aftir, in the honour and worship of God
+and all saintes, and to go in procession with the same torchis with
+the blessid sacrament from the abbey foundyd of the Holy Trenite in
+Mykylgate in the said cite on to the cathedrall chyrch of Saint Petir
+in the same cite; and also have done and usyd diwyrs odir right full
+good and honourabill deides, as her aftir it shall more playnly apeir.
+It is ordenyd and esyablyshid be the said mair, aldermen, and all the
+holl counsell of the said full nobill cite, be the consent and assent
+of all tham of the said occupacion in the said cite, that the said
+fraternite and bredirhode shalbe here after for ewyr kept and
+continend as it has beyn in tymis passid, and that every brodir thar
+of shall pay yerly for the sustentacion thar of vjd, that is to say,
+at every halff yer iij<sup>d</sup>, providyng allway that every man of the said
+occupacion within the said cite shalnot be compellid ne boundeyn to be
+of the said fraternite ne brodirhood, ne noyn to be thar of bot soch
+as will of thar free will."</p>
+
+
+<h3 style="margin-top: 2em">D. <a name="Religious_Life" id="Religious_Life"></a>
+<span class="smcap">Religious Life</span>
+<span class="totoc"><a href="#CONTENTS">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a id="illo6.jpg" name="illo6.jpg"></a>
+<a href="images/illo6.jpg">
+<img src="images/illo6-th.jpg" width="40%" alt="ADMINISTERING HOLY COMMUNION WITH THE HOUSEL CLOTH.
+From a Fourteenth-Century Manuscript." />
+</a><br />
+<span class="smcap">ADMINISTERING HOLY COMMUNION WITH THE HOUSEL CLOTH.</span><br />
+<span><i>From a Fourteenth-Century Manuscript.</i></span>
+<span class="totoi"><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">ToList</a></span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Insistence can hardly be too great on the tremendous and wide-spread
+influence of the Church in the Middle Ages. The greatness of the
+Church continued during the fifteenth century; it derived from the
+traditions of an age when absolute power prevailed, from the
+undisputed usage of centuries, from a logical system of dogmas, and
+from international sanctions. The ornate services, allegiance to the
+distant Pope, the immense hold of the priests on the laity, the large
+territorial possessions of ecclesiastical bodies, impressed the people
+with the power of the Church. These things came to the fifteenth
+century as established facts. The spirit of revolt indeed had appeared
+with Wiclif and his followers in the fourteenth century, but Lollardy
+met with severe repressive opposition. It was not till Tudor times
+that the new spirit, stimulated by the Revival of Learning, the
+Reformation, the invention of printing from type, geographical
+discovery, the suppression of long years of internecine warfare, and
+the establishment of a strong government, had accumulated enough
+energy to burst the bonds of mediævalism. The fifteenth century was at
+the end of an age.</p>
+
+<p>It is interesting to note that Wiclif (<i>d.</i> 1384), one of England's
+greatest men, was ordained in York. He stands out as a "daring and
+inspired pioneer" who strove to provide the land with priests who were
+true and earnest shepherds. He attempted the superhuman task of
+reviving true religion among a people that had become to a certain
+extent dull, irreverent, ignorant, and thoroughly superstitious.</p>
+
+<p>By the fifteenth century the Church was suffering from those ills
+which needed and later gained drastic treatment. The Church had done
+almost miraculous work in the first few centuries of its existence, if
+we think only of the success with which it substituted its system of
+morality for that of pagan Rome. The fifteenth century followed those
+centuries when the Church of England, under the direction of great and
+earnest men, was doing its work with conspicuous success. Yet, the
+very forces that enabled the Church to make itself a living power in
+the Dark Ages, the early centuries embracing the Fall of Rome, the
+Empire of Charlemagne, and the kingship of Alfred the Great, became
+harmful to its continued activity beneficially in many directions. The
+inadequacy of its work in these centuries appears in the lack of
+spiritual activity and in the predominance of the material side of
+religion. The mediæval Church suffered badly from excessive
+conservatism, which led towards sloth and a complacent inactivity. The
+morbid element showed itself during the fifteenth century mainly in
+lack of real earnestness, in the enjoyment of luxurious laziness, and
+in the steady neglect of the age to revise its Christianity. The
+Church moreover, with its complete segregation from other estates of
+the realm had become unpopular socially, while in its political and
+temporal aspects it had become an immense corporation with strong
+vested interests. Kings found it necessary to fight it; religious
+reformers had to rise up and overcome every form of repression used
+against them. The decadence is exemplified incidentally in the
+increasing poverty in material and expression of the monastic
+chronicles, which practically died out by 1485. The period of turmoil
+and change was yet to come.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the general state of affairs. Nevertheless the forms and
+practices of the Church continued. The granting of indulgences and
+pardons, the inexhaustible demand for Peter's pence, went on
+vigorously. A recognised means of publicly raising funds was employed
+in February 1455-6, when the Archbishop proclaimed an indulgence of
+forty days to those who would help the Friars Preachers, whose
+cloister and buildings including 34 cells together with their books,
+vestments, jewels, and sacred vessels, had been destroyed by fire.</p>
+
+<p>The faith of the ordinary citizen was, however, intact. The Church
+came into the people's life daily. The citizen could not walk away
+from his home without seeing a church, and meeting a priest or a
+friar. He attended the Church services and fulfilled his religious
+duties. Baptism, marriage, death, illness, public rejoicing,
+soldiering, dramatic entertainments, the language of daily life&mdash;all
+these bore the stamp of the Church. The very days of relief from work
+were holy-days, feast days in the Church's calendar. Taking part in
+the public processions on Corpus Christi Day, a great annual holiday,
+was a religious exercise; at the same time this day was devoted
+especially to entertainment. Wills of the century show that the
+citizens lived as religiously as formerly. This spirit is seen perhaps
+most characteristically in the numbers of candles that wealthy
+citizens bequeathed for use in church, and in the sums of money they
+left to specified clergy and other "religious" for the provision of
+masses for the souls of themselves, their wives and families, and for
+those for whom they ought to pray. Masses were thus provided for by
+hundreds, and in some cases by thousands. The following extracts from
+the will<a id="FNanchor_4_5" name="FNanchor_4_5"></a>
+<a class="fnanchor" href="#Footnote_4_5">[5]</a> of a rich citizen and merchant of York, who had been
+sheriff and mayor of the city, show admirably the spirit of a member
+of the middle class in the fifteenth century:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"In the name of God Amen. The 4th day of September in the year of our
+Lord 1436, I Thomas Bracebrig, Citizen and merchant, York, sound of
+mind and having health of body, establish and dispose my Will in this
+manner. First, I command and bequeath my soul to God Almighty, to the
+blessed Mary, Mother of God and ever Virgin, and to All Saints, and my
+body to be buried in the parish church of St. Saviour in York, before
+the image of the Crucifix of our Lord Jesus Christ, next to the bodies
+of my wives and children lately buried there, for having which burial
+in that place I bequeath to the fabric of the same parish church 20s.
+Also I bequeath for my mortuary my best garment with hood appropriate
+for my body. Also I bequeath to Master John Amall, Rector of the said
+parish church for my tithes and oblations forgotten, and that he may
+more specially pray for my soul, 20s. Also I bequeath for two candles
+to burn at my exequies 30 lbs. of wax. Also 10 torches to burn around
+my body on the said day of my burial, and that each torch shall
+contain in itself 14 lbs. of pure wax.... Also I bequeath to 10 men
+carrying or holding the said 10 Torches in my exequies 10 Gowns, so
+that each of the said 10 poor men shall have in his gown and hood
+3&frac12; ells of russet or black cloth, and that the aforesaid gowns
+shall be lined with white woollen cloth. And I will that my Executors
+shall pay for the making of the same gowns with hoods.... Also I will
+and ordain that two fit and proper chaplains shall be found to
+celebrate for my soul, and the souls of my parents, wives, children,
+benefactors, and for the souls of those for whom I am bound or am
+debtor, as God shall know in that respect, and for the souls of all
+the faithful departed, for one whole year, immediately after my
+decease, in my parish church...."</p>
+
+<p>The will is a very long one. Altogether 470 lbs. of wax, to last 15
+years, would be necessary to satisfy the requirements of the will. 765
+masses are specially arranged for; besides, provision was made for
+masses to be said by more than 21 chaplains, the religious of 5
+priories for women, and by every friar and priest of the four orders
+of friars in York. There were also bequests to 2 anchoresses, 1
+anchorite, and 1 hermit, to pray for the soul of the testator and the
+souls aforesaid. Bequests were made to the poor of St. Saviour's; to
+lepers "in the 4 houses for lepers in the suburbs," to the poor in
+maisons-dieu; to the prisoners in the Castle, in the Archbishop's
+prison, and in the Kidcote. The testator ordered gifts of coal, wood,
+and shoes, and 1000 white loaves of bread, to be made among the poor
+and needy. The bequests to relatives and directions to the Executors
+occupy a large part of the Will, which is that of a particularly
+wealthy and important citizen. Charity, however, was a marked
+characteristic of these men who had become rich through trade. With a
+generous spirit they put into practice the teachings about giving to
+the poor and to prisoners. The amount of money spent in founding
+chantries, in paying priests for masses for the departed, testifies to
+their faith.</p>
+
+<p>It was part of the policy of the Church to keep the instruction of the
+people, young and old, in its own control. Practically all the
+educational work in York during the century was the work of the
+Church.</p>
+
+<p>Through the monasteries and hospitals the Church did valuable work in
+feeding the poor, helping the needy, and in educating the poorer
+citizens' boys. The royal Hospital of St. Leonard did such work. It
+was a peculiar institution, being under the authority of the King, and
+containing a sisterhood as well as a brotherhood. It included a
+grammar school and a song-school. As an institution it was
+self-supporting; food was made on the premises, and the carpenters'
+and similar work was done by brethren in the Hospital's own workshops.</p>
+
+<p>The large number of priests were variously employed. There were
+priests who officiated in the monastic churches, in the parish
+churches (as rectors and chaplains, of whom there were 300 in York in
+1436), in the cathedral where the number of chantry-chapels was very
+great and where services were held simultaneously as well as
+frequently. Some priests were vicars, that is, while the living or
+"cure" of souls was held by the rector, the vicar was the actual
+priest in charge, for the rector probably held more than one benefice
+and could not serve personally in more than one. Generally it was a
+corporate body, like the Dean and Chapter, or a monastery, that was
+the rector of a number of livings at the same time.</p>
+
+<p>Of the many clergy serving the Minster the Dean, who was the
+incumbent, ranked first. Much of the revenue of the Dean and Chapter,
+the Governing Body, came from landed possessions in York and various
+parts of the surrounding country. These possessions, divided into
+prebends, provided livings for the thirty-six prebendaries or canons,
+who collectively formed the Chapter. Each canon served at the Minster
+during a specified portion of the year, when he lived at his residence
+at York. The residences of the prebendaries were mostly round the
+Minster Close. While his own parish was served vicariously while he
+was at York, each canon had a minor-canon or vicar-choral to act as
+his deputy at York when he was absent. These vicars-choral formed a
+corporate body and lived collegiately in the Bedern. The numerous
+chantries in the Minster were served by priests who also lived
+collegiately but at St. William's College. The College, at the head of
+which was a Provost, was founded about the middle of the century.
+Previously these priests had lived in private houses.</p>
+
+<p>The parish priest was occupied in performing the services in his
+church, in hearing confessions, in teaching the children, in visiting,
+interrogating, consoling, and ministering the Sacraments to the sick
+and dying, and in guiding and sharing the life of his parish
+generally. Each parish church had a number of clergy besides the
+parish priest attached to it: the number varied from one to ten or
+more according to the number of chantries at the church. Each priest
+was helped a great deal in parochial affairs by the parish clerk. The
+latter was the chief lay official for business in connection with the
+parish church. His duties required him to be a man of some education.</p>
+
+<p>The Archbishop was both bishop of the diocese of York, and head of all
+the dioceses which together formed the Northern Province of the two
+provinces into which England was divided for the purpose of Church
+rule. His diocese formerly extended so far south as to include
+Nottingham and Southwell.</p>
+
+<p>The Archbishop was a Primate and occupied a high position in the
+State. Besides being supreme head of the Church in the northern
+province, he was a great landowner. He possessed, besides his palace
+near the Minster, a number of seats (like Cawood Castle) in the
+country. When he was in London he resided at his fine official palace,
+York House. The Archbishops were great lords of the realm in every
+way. Archbishop Neville, brother of Warwick "the king-maker,"
+celebrated his installation in 1465 with a very famous feast. The huge
+amount and delicacy of the dishes prepared, the number of retainers
+employed, the splendour of the scene, which was honoured by the
+presence of the Duke of Gloucester and members of some of the most
+noble families in the kingdom, all the details of this sumptuous
+feast, were intended to impress King Edward IV. with the might of the
+Nevilles.</p>
+
+<p>Ecclesiastical preferment was often a reward for services in other
+branches of the service of the State. Sometimes great offices in the
+Church and the State were held simultaneously. Thus, Archbishop
+Rotherham was also Chancellor of England for a time. Both Richard
+Scrope and William Booth, archbishops of the century, had been
+lawyers. The appointment of George Neville, who had been nominated
+when only twenty-three to the see of Exeter, was a purely political
+one, the bestowing of a high and lucrative office on a member of a
+noble family that was enjoying the full sunshine of popularity and
+power. The King could also benefit from Church positions otherwise
+than by presenting them to partisans. During the two and a half years
+that the see of York was kept vacant between the time of the execution
+of Archbishop Scrope and the appointment of Henry Bowett (in 1407),
+the revenues went, in accordance with the established practice, to the
+royal purse.</p>
+
+<p>There were also "clerks," educated men, but not priests, who were in
+"minor orders." Many a man, asserting that he was a clerk, made
+application for trial by an ecclesiastical court, so as to get the
+benefit of the less stringent judgment of the Church courts, to which
+belonged the right of dealing with ecclesiastical offenders.</p>
+
+<p>One abuse within the Church was pluralism, that is, the holding of
+more than one office at the same time with the result that the holder
+was drawing revenue for work he could not himself do. William Sever,
+for instance, while Abbot of St. Mary's, York, became Bishop of
+Carlisle. These two high offices, one monastic and the other secular,
+he held simultaneously from 1495 to 1502.</p>
+
+<p>The religious orders were of two kinds, viz. monks (and nuns) who
+lived in seclusion in monasteries, abbeys, or convents, and friars,
+who lived under a rule but came out into the world to preach and work.
+Both kinds took the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience to the
+rule (<i>e.g.</i>, Cistercian or Benedictine, Franciscan or Dominican). Some,
+but not all, monks and friars were priests. There were four well-known
+orders of mendicant friars, viz. Franciscan (Grey friars, friars
+minor), Dominican (Black friars, friars preachers), Carmelite (White
+friars), Augustinian (Austin canons). Monks and friars wore sandals,
+and long, loose gowns with hoods or cowls which they could pull over
+their heads to serve as hats. The alternative titles of some of the
+orders of friars came from the colour of their friars' gowns. The
+Carmelites used undyed cloth, which was white in comparison with the
+black of the Dominicans. The Benedictine monks of St. Mary's Abbey
+wore black garments. Their heads were shaved on the crown, the
+technical term for which was the tonsure.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a id="illo7.jpg" name="illo7.jpg"></a>
+<a href="images/illo7.jpg">
+<img src="images/illo7-th.jpg" width="40%" alt="SEMI-CHOIR OF FRANCISCANS.
+From a Fifteenth-Century Manuscript." />
+</a><br />
+<span class="smcap">SEMI-CHOIR OF FRANCISCANS.</span><br />
+<span><i>From a Fifteenth-Century Manuscript.</i></span>
+<span class="totoi"><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">ToList</a></span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Monks spent their time in attending the frequent services in the
+monastery church, which they entered at the night and early morning
+services directly from the dormitories; in copying manuscripts, which
+occupied a large part of their day; in contemplation and in study; in
+manual work; in recreation. The cloister where work was carried on and
+the church were the essential buildings of the monastery. Monastic
+life centred in these two places. Its arrangements were dictated by
+the purpose of making a religious atmosphere pervade everything; thus
+a religious book was read at meals.</p>
+
+<p>The luxury and laxity that obtained in monastic life were not confined
+to the fifteenth century. The Archbishop had frequent occasion in the
+fourteenth century to complain, for instance, of the use by monks and
+nuns of ornaments, and of clothes of finer material than the
+traditional rule permitted. He condemned the wearing of clothes cut to
+a worldly pattern. The religious had to be admonished from time to
+time not to admit strangers within the cloister, and to conform in all
+respects strictly to their rule.</p>
+
+<p>During the century St. Mary's Abbey contained about sixty monks,
+including the Abbot, the supreme head, and the Prior, who held the
+second highest office; besides, there was a very large number of
+lay-brethren, servants and officers, for in addition to the internal
+work at the abbey, there was the management of the abbey estates and
+business. Abbots and monks were always keen traders. Altogether the
+personnel of St. Mary's might have numbered about two hundred.</p>
+
+<p>The influence of such a monastery as St. Mary's was very far from
+being restricted to affairs within the abbey walls. Through its Abbot
+it had a spokesman in the House of Lords. There were cells dependant
+on the abbey and often at a distance. The Abbot had a number of
+residences in the country and one in London. The abbey itself had
+numerous possessions of land and manors in many parts of the country.
+This was a principal source of revenue. St. Mary's Abbey also had
+jurisdiction over many churches, not only in York and Yorkshire, but
+in other counties as well. The other monastic institutions and the
+Minster and some of the hospitals, for example St. Leonard's, had
+similar rights of jurisdiction and the ownership of land, property,
+and churches.</p>
+
+<p>In some of the churchyards there lived anchorites, anchoresses, and
+hermits. These were individuals who chose to live a solitary life
+spent in prayer and religious work. Anchorites led a life of strict
+seclusion, for they were literally shut in their cells, from the
+world. They did not, however, eschew all intercourse with others, for
+their solitary lives of devotion, and in some cases of study, gave
+them a reputation for wisdom that led people to seek them for their
+advice. Permission was given by the Church authorities to those who
+took up this mode of life, the assumption of which formed part of a
+special service. The Pontifical of Archbishop Bainbridge, who held the
+see from 1508 to 1514, contains an office for the Enclosing of an
+Anchorite. Hermits lived in less strict seclusion. Their aims were
+similar, but they went about in the world doing good works.</p>
+
+<p>One of the worst features of the religious decadence of the Middle
+Ages was the craftiness of such spurious types of men as those whom
+Chaucer painted in the Pardoner and the Somonour, and Charles Reade
+depicted in the peripatetic "cripples" of "The Cloister and the
+Hearth." Chaucer wrote in the true spirit of comedy <i>mores corrigere
+ridendo</i>, but Langland, his contemporary, who described similar types
+of men of State as well as of Church, did so from the point of view of
+a moral reformer whose satire is a trenchant weapon.</p>
+
+<p>There were many other types of religious men, but it must suffice to
+refer to Pardoners, who by virtue of papal bulls gave pardons,
+expecting, exacting if necessary, a reward in return, and to mention
+only palmers and pilgrims, who were seen in York when they came to
+visit the shrine of St. William in the Minster. The palmers were
+pilgrims who had visited the Holy Land. They liked to wear a
+scallop-shell in their broad-brimmed hats as a sign of their extensive
+travels. Journeying from shrine to shrine was a favourite occupation,
+a professional one, of those pilgrims who loved a wandering and easy
+life, seeing the sights and living at the expense of the monastic
+hospitality. Some pilgrimages were done by proxy, through the
+employment of professional pilgrims. A pilgrimage to a shrine
+celebrated for miraculous cures or the efficacy of the spiritual
+benefit derived from worshipping at it and invoking the help of the
+saint, was for many an exercise of deep religious devotion. There is
+no doubt, moreover, that at the shrines of the saints the Church
+proved itself a great healer. It was in fact the popular physician.
+Apart from surgery, the medical practice of the twentieth century is
+in some ways the successor of that of the Church of the fifteenth.</p>
+
+<p>When very popular religious men died, or when, if they were already
+dead as in the case of William, Archbishop of York (who died in 1153
+and was canonised in 1227), popularity sprang up, it was quite usual
+for it to be discovered that miracles were being wrought at their
+tombs. The case of the popular Archbishop Scrape who was executed is a
+typical one. In this way the calendar of saints was enlarged, the
+devout had a new interest, the Church maintained its position in the
+popular eye and mind, and its funds increased.</p>
+
+<p>The mediæval Church, however, appeared perhaps at its best in its
+Church services, which drew their effect from the sanctity of the
+magnificent building (whether cathedral or parish church), the awe
+inspired by the Church politic, the use of Latin and the learned
+atmosphere, the religious teaching, and, not least, the imposing
+ceremonies, and the ornate ritual performed amid a profusion of
+lighted wax candles by priests and dignitaries in resplendent
+vestments.</p>
+
+
+<h3 style="margin-top: 2em">E. <a name="Education" id="Education"></a>
+<span class="smcap">Education</span>
+<span class="totoc"><a href="#CONTENTS">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<p>The only school engaged in higher education in York in the century was
+St. Peter's School, a very old foundation, where Alcuin, who (in 782)
+had carried educational reform to the land of the Franks, had been
+master. At this school, which was attached to the cathedral, were
+educated those who were to spend their lives in scholarship,
+especially, as now, after residence at Oxford or Cambridge; future
+priests and clerks; the sons of the nobility and of the more wealthy
+members of the merchant class in the city. Other regular schools were
+the Grammar School at the royal Hospital of St. Leonard and the one at
+Fossgate Hospital. This educational work was one of the most valuable
+kinds of public work done by these hospitals.</p>
+
+<p>A more elementary and less well organised education was given by the
+parish priests and the chantry priests, from whom the children of the
+city generally, boys and girls, received at least oral instruction.</p>
+
+<p>Girls usually received a practical upbringing at home. The only
+schools for girls were those attached to women's monasteries, of which
+there was St. Clement's Nunnery alone in York.</p>
+
+<p>Educational welfare work, as distinct from direct and organised
+class-teaching, was carried on by the friars, the religious men who
+lived under a rule but who went out to work in the world, instead of
+spending their lives in seclusion as the monks did. The Dominican and
+Franciscan Friars played an important part in education by teaching,
+especially at the Universities. Education was also a foremost interest
+of the Augustinians, who supported a college at Oxford.</p>
+
+<p>Books, which had all to be written by hand, were scarce. The copying
+of manuscripts, which was done mostly in the monasteries, was
+laborious work. Instruction was given as a rule orally, but also by
+means of pictorial art and drama. The stained-glass windows were more
+than ornamental additions to the church building: they were part of
+the means of instruction. Mediæval drama had originated in the
+Church's effort to make events described in the gospel more real
+through their representation dramatically.</p>
+
+<p>The teaching of manual skill and craftsmanship was entirely the work
+of the masters of the crafts under the general supervision of the
+guilds. The work of the age was made beautiful, and being handwork
+each piece of work gained the interest of individuality. The details
+of architectural ornament, in consequence, show wonderful diversity of
+form. The na&iuml;ve spirit of the ordinary handicraft workman was often
+reflected in his work. The arts of the goldsmith, silversmith,
+bell-founder, vestment-maker (which required elaborate embroidery),
+and the sculptor, were practised in York with excellent results.</p>
+
+<p>There has never been a university of York, although under Alcuin the
+school of York was doing work of high quality, work that gained
+European fame. Even within the last hundred years, when so many
+provincial universities and university colleges have been established,
+York, one of the most appropriate places, has not obtained a
+university.</p>
+
+<p>News and information reached the citizens mainly from personal
+intercourse. Merchants visiting other cities discussed with fellow
+merchants not only their immediate business but also past and current
+events. Pilgrims, palmers, and sailors recited their adventures on
+distant seas and lands, and told of the wonders of the world. The
+ordinary citizen, who read little, depended on conversations with
+better-informed citizens and strangers. The city council was
+continually in communication with the King and the great officers of
+State: information filtered down from the council to the citizens. The
+messengers often supplied the latest semi-official news. Officials and
+servants attached to the royal service or to that of nobles or of
+ecclesiastics (like the Archbishop of York), were the source of much
+political gossip. The news of the country passed to and fro between
+the city and the monastic lands, the castles, the manors, and the
+forests by means of the visits of men who lived at those places.
+Markets and fairs and public assemblies, whether the holding of
+assizes or on State visits, were occasions for the dissemination of
+news. The ordinary citizen gathered news and information also from the
+pulpit and from guild and parochial meetings, and from the bellman.
+The only authoritative news he received at first hand he got by
+listening to the public reading of proclamations.</p>
+
+<p>In the Middle Ages educated men who had no inclination for the life of
+the Church, monastic or secular, nor for landed proprietorship, with
+which was combined hunting and soldiering, became clerks. The clerks
+in the royal service helped in the work of administration of national
+affairs. Tradesmen's sons of ability and opportunity succeeded in
+gaining good positions in this service. Nobles also employed clerks.</p>
+
+<p>Altogether there seems to have been in the fifteenth century good
+provision for higher education. The people of the Middle Ages were not
+illiterate. The outstanding age of illiteracy (not to mention a host
+of other evils) in England was the age that began with the Industrial
+Revolution, when statesmen failed to make the public services keep
+pace with the rapidly increasing population and the rapid development
+of new conditions. That there was as large a public ready and eager to
+buy the books that printing from type made possible has been regarded
+as a disproof of general illiteracy. The books were published in the
+vernacular: the people read them. It was in 1476 that Caxton set up
+his press at Westminster. The first printing press established in York
+was set up in 1509.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless the general state of education and scholarship in England
+in the fifteenth century was at a low level, mainly owing to lack of
+enthusiasm and to the limited subjects of study. Natural science was
+unable yet to flourish. Mediæval education was humanistic, but the old
+springs of this form of study were nearly dried up. The Greek classics
+were entirely lost. Even the few Latin classics that the mediævals
+possessed, they did not understand aright. To Virgil's æneid they gave
+a Christian interpretation! Grammar was the basis of study, which
+dealt mainly with such works as those of Cicero, Virgil, Boethius.</p>
+
+<p>The fifteenth century, the last century of an age, was a backwater in
+education as in literature. The great revival was to come. The
+fifteenth century was indeed a century of revolution in so far as
+under the almost placid surface of continuity and conformity, there
+were forces of revolt at work, probing, accumulating knowledge and
+experience, perhaps unconsciously, for the day of liberation and
+change. The Bible was not yet popularly available. Wiclif had been a
+pioneer in the work of translation and publication, but Tyndale and
+Coverdale in the sixteenth century supplied what he had aimed at doing
+in the fourteenth. The fifteenth century was the quiet dark hour
+before the dawn. As Coleridge expressed it: No sooner had the Revival
+of learning "sounded through Europe like the blast of an archangel's
+trumpet than from king to peasant there arose an enthusiasm for
+knowledge, the discovery of a manuscript became the subject of an
+embassy: Erasmus read by moonlight because he could not afford a
+torch, and begged a penny, not for the love of charity, but for the
+love of learning." But even then, when the enthusiasm and the will
+were there, such was the dearth of material for learning that, as in
+the case of Erasmus, the pioneers had practically nothing to work at
+but the classical texts and a few meagre vocabularies with etymologies
+of mediæval scholarship. In 1491 Grocyn began to teach Greek at
+Oxford. In 1499 Erasmus first visited England. Referring to his visit
+to this country in 1505-6 he wrote: "There are in London five or six
+men who are thorough masters of both Latin and Greek; even in Italy I
+doubt that you would find their equals." England's position was,
+therefore, in this respect a good one.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a id="illo8.jpg" name="illo8.jpg"></a>
+<a href="images/illo8.jpg">
+<img src="images/illo8-th.jpg" width="40%" alt="ARCHERY." />
+</a><br />
+<span class="smcap">ARCHERY.</span>
+<span class="totoi"><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">ToList</a></span>
+</div>
+
+
+<h3 style="margin-top: 2em">F. <a name="Entertainments" id="Entertainments"></a>
+<span class="smcap">Entertainments</span>
+<span class="totoc"><a href="#CONTENTS">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<p>In the Middle Ages holidays were taken at festivals marked in the
+Church calendar. Some feasts, like that of Whitsuntide, were
+universally observed. The ordinary length of a festival was eight
+days, that is, the full week&mdash;the octave. Apart from pilgrimages, the
+ordinary people travelled little. Moreover the life and property of
+travellers were not altogether secure in the forest land, with the
+result that treasure and distinguished people travelled under the care
+of an armed escort. A large city like York was practically
+self-supporting in public amusements. The fifteenth century saw the
+full development of the religious mystery plays, and the allegorical
+morality plays, which with their comic interludes had become popular
+from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The feast of Corpus
+Christi (instituted about 1263) was the most important time in the
+year for the playing of these typically mediæval dramas. Begun more
+than three centuries earlier within the Church and performed by the
+clergy, as a dramatic reinforcement of the services and preaching, the
+mediæval drama owed its origin mainly to the Church which maintained
+its influence as long as this drama continued. It soon came into the
+care of laymen, who took part in the productions. In the fifteenth
+century, these plays, which were produced almost entirely by laymen,
+were so numerous that they were formed in cycles or groups. The texts
+of some of the most famous cycles, those of York, Chester, Wakefield,
+and Coventry, have survived. The various trade-guilds made themselves
+responsible for the production of one pageant of the local cycle, or
+two or three guilds joined to produce a pageant, so that the whole
+city produced a large number of plays to celebrate the feast of Corpus
+Christi. Among its officers a guild had its pageant-master, whose duty
+it was to supervise the guild's dramatic work.</p>
+
+<p>The York plays, the texts dating from the middle of the fourteenth
+century, are extant. In 1415 fifty-seven pageant plays were produced.
+Productions were made in York down to 1579. The following are examples
+taken from among the fifty-seven plays and guilds:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'>The Shipwrights</td><td align='left'>produced</td><td align='left'>the</td><td align='left'>Building of the Ark,</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>the Fishers and Mariners</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='center'></td><td align='left'>Noah and the Flood,</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>the Spicers</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>Annunciation,</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>the Tilers</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>Birth of Christ,</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>the Goldsmiths</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>Adoration,</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>the Vintners</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>Wedding in Cana,</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>the Skinners</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>entry into Jerusalem,</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>the Baxters</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>Last Supper,</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>the Tapiters and Couchers</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='center'></td><td align='left'>Christ before Pilate,</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>the Saucemakers</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>Death of Judas,</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>the Bouchers</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>Death of Christ,</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>the Carpenters</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>Resurrection,</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>the Scriveners</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>Incredulity of Thomas,</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>the Tailors</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>Ascension,</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>the Mercers</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>Day of Judgment.</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The full cycle gave in dramatic form the leading episodes of the
+Scriptures from the Creation to the Last Day.</p>
+
+<p>While the trade-guilds were thus responsible for individual pageants,
+help and control were given by the Guild of Corpus Christi
+(inaugurated in 1408 and incorporated in 1459), and the city council.
+The guild had a very large number of members, among whom were the
+Archbishop, many bishops and abbots and nobles. These dramatic
+productions belonged to the religious and social sides of the guilds.
+The plays, however, did not always provoke pleasure, for sometimes
+members of some of the guilds complained of the financial burden they
+were forced to bear in order to produce the plays allotted to them.</p>
+
+<p>The guilds also took part in public processions with torches on Corpus
+Christi Day in celebration of this popular festival. In the
+processions, which were closely connected with the religious and
+guild-phases of city life, there walked city clergy wearing their
+surplices, the master of the Guild of Corpus Christi, the guild
+officials, the bearers of the shrine of the guild, the mayor, aldermen
+and corporation, and officers and members of the Guild of Corpus
+Christi and of the city trade-guilds. As the procession went on its
+way litanies and chants were sung by the clergy. The shrine, the
+central feature of the procession, was presented in 1449. It was
+itself of gilt and had many images some of which were gilded, while
+the main ones under the "steeple" were in mother-of-pearl, silver, and
+gold: to it were attached rings, brooches, girdles, buckles, beads,
+gawds and crucifixes, in gold and silver, and adorned with coral and
+jewels.</p>
+
+<p>On the occasion of the processions and performances of pageants, as at
+fairs, the city was filled with a boisterous multitude which turned
+what was by tradition a religious exercise and entertainment, to a
+time of riotous merry-making, and uncouth disorder. In 1426 a kind of
+crusade was preached by a friar minor, William Melton, against the
+riotous and drunken conduct of the people at the Corpus Christi
+festival. He denounced the disgracing of the festival and affirmed
+that the people were forfeiting by their conduct the indulgences
+granted for the festival. The result of the friar's crusade was the
+holding of a special meeting of the city council, which decided that
+the processions and pageants were to be held on separate days, the
+pageants on the eve of Corpus Christi, and the procession on the feast
+itself. Formerly both had taken place on the same day.</p>
+
+<p>The pageants were produced in suitable parts of the city. Stages on
+wheels were brought to these places, some of them open spaces, others
+main streets. The stages, which were the work of citizen workmen, were
+of three storeys, the central and principal one, the stage proper,
+representing the earth. Demons, in gaudy attire, came up from the
+flame-region of the lowest storey; divine messengers and personages
+came down from the star and cloud adorned upper storey. The
+tiring-room was below and behind the stage. The acting was by members
+of the guilds. They, no doubt, practised here, as elsewhere, the
+ranting delivery of their speeches so denounced by Hamlet in his
+critical address to the Players, whom he admonished to speak
+"trippingly on the tongue" and not to "out-Herod Herod." There are
+several references in Shakespeare to these plays of the Middle Ages.
+For instance, in <i>Twelfth Night</i>:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Like to the old Vice<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">......<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who with dagger of lath<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In his rage and his wrath,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Cries, Ah, ah! to the devil."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>and in <i>Henry V.</i>:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="c0">"... this roaring devil i' the old play<br /></span>
+<span class="c0">that every one may pare his nails with a wooden dagger."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Stands for spectators were erected by private enterprise for profit in
+many places in the city. The general assembly, preparatory to the
+beginning of the <a class="correction" title="original had 'performanes'">performances</a>, took place on Pageant Green, now called
+Toft Green (which lies behind that side of Micklegate which is
+opposite Holy Trinity). The first performances were made at the gates
+of Holy Trinity Priory (on the west side of the river); there were
+four performances in Micklegate (a street near the Priory); four in
+Coney Street (the main street on the east side of the river)&mdash;and
+likewise performances in other parts of the city. The last three
+performances took place at the gates of the Minster; in Low Petergate,
+and in Pavement, which was one of the city market squares.</p>
+
+<p>When Richard III. came to York in 1483, part of his entertainment
+consisted of performances of pageants.</p>
+
+<p>The only other public dramatic entertainments were crude, coarse,
+popular plays, done by strolling players. A mediæval crowd at fair
+time was entertained by mountebanks, tumblers, and similar rough
+makers of unrefined mirth.</p>
+
+<p>The Corporation had a band of minstrels in its service.</p>
+
+<p>Of physical games archery was the most practised. This was the
+national physical exercise, one which had helped the English soldiers
+to gain a great reputation for themselves, as at Agincourt (1415). At
+York the "butts," where men practised archery, were outside the city
+walls.</p>
+
+
+<h3 style="margin-top: 2em">G. <a name="Classes" id="Classes"></a>
+<span class="smcap">Classes</span>
+<span class="totoc"><a href="#CONTENTS">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<p>Class divisions were well marked. They appeared in manners, in dress,
+and in occupation.</p>
+
+<p>Fashions varied considerably as the century progressed. There were
+close-fitting dresses and loose ones, small head-dresses like the caul
+(a jewelled net to bind in the hair) and high and broad erections that
+went to the other extreme. Men now wore their hair long; later they
+had it close-cropped. Perhaps the most wonderful fashion was that
+which men followed in wearing hose of different colours. With all the
+vagaries of fashion the most striking feature of dress was the use of
+rich and a manifold variety of colours. Excepting the case of the
+dress of the religious, which was generally of a sombre hue, colour
+characterised men's clothes as much as it did the dresses of women.
+The doublet was the coat of the time. Sleeves were generally big. Long
+and pointed shoes were characteristic, but it was the cloak that
+proved so effective a piece of dress, the cloak that has such scenic
+possibilities, that can so nicely express character. There were only
+few kinds of personal ornament. The most usual were brooches, belts,
+chains, and pendants, and especially finger-rings, of which the signet
+ring was a popular form.</p>
+
+<p>The nobles, great landowners, in many cases of Norman origin, were
+lords over a considerable number of people. York, being a royal city,
+escaped many of the troubles consequent on rule by an immediate
+overlord. Besides himself, his family, and personal servants, a lord
+provided for a retinue of armed retainers, who formed a kind of
+body-guard and a force to serve the king as occasion demanded; in
+addition, important household officials, such as secretaries and
+treasurers. Among noblemen's followers there were many dependents,
+some, no doubt, parasites, but a number, especially if literary men,
+in need of patronage to help them to live as well as to pursue their
+vocation.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a id="illo9.jpg" name="illo9.jpg"></a>
+<a href="images/illo9.jpg">
+<img src="images/illo9-th.jpg" width="18%" alt="AN ABBOT." />
+</a><br />
+<span class="smcap">AN ABBOT.</span>
+<span class="totoi"><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">ToList</a></span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The different kinds of religious men have already been mentioned from
+archbishops and abbots to the scurrilous impostors who used a
+religious exterior to rob poor people, at whose expense they lived
+well a wandering, loose, hypocritical life. In York, there were monks
+and friars, cathedral, parochial, and chantry priests, and clerks. The
+monastic life was a recognised profession. In the monasteries there
+were, besides regular monks, novices or those who aspired to take the
+full monastic vows, and, especially in the fifteenth century, by which
+time the importance of lowly, arduous service for the brethren and
+personal labour had lapsed, a very large number of semi-religious and
+lay brethren, who were really servants to the regular monks. In the
+fifteenth century the religious houses were extremely wealthy. Some of
+the monks were of noble birth. Nobles, when travelling, usually lodged
+at the monastic houses, which were dotted all over England. The kings
+resided often at abbeys when visiting the provinces. Richard III.,
+when Duke of Gloucester, resided at the Austin Friary in York.</p>
+
+<p>The one monastic house for women was St. Clement's Nunnery. There
+were, moreover, sisterhoods in the hospitals of, for example, St.
+Leonard and St. Nicholas.</p>
+
+<p>St. Leonard's Hospital, among its many functions, was a home of royal
+pensioners.</p>
+
+<p>The townspeople were chiefly merchants and tradesmen and those they
+employed, and the wives and families of all of them. Men of this type,
+both rich and poor, rose to important positions in trade and city
+life, and in the King's service. Some entered the service of nobles.
+Great dignity was attached to the higher positions of authority in
+city and guild life. Trade led to wealth and increased comfort and a
+higher social state. Men in the King's service received preferment
+more often than direct monetary reward.</p>
+
+<p>Women had only the monastic life to enter as a profession. They could
+become full members of a number of the York trade-guilds. The social
+position of women in the retrograde fifteenth century fully agrees
+with the absence of women from among those who achieved notability in
+the city during the century.</p>
+
+<p>The most interesting type of citizens was that composed of the
+freemen, who formed the vast majority of the inhabitants. As the name
+implies, they were historically the descendants of the men who in
+earlier times were freed from serfdom. It was the freemen who, through
+the Mayor and Corporation, paid rent to the King for the city, its
+rights and possessions. There are still, it may be noted, freemen of
+the city, distinct from those distinguished men who have received its
+honorary freedom. The main privileges of the mediæval freemen included
+the right of trading in the city, and of voting. They also had rights
+over the common lands attached to the city, and they were eligible to
+fill the offices of local civic government if thought wealthy enough
+to be elected into such a "close self-elected corporation."</p>
+
+<p>Soldiers of the royal army were stationed in York at the Castle. The
+Wars of the Roses, wars of kings and nobles, lasted from 1455 to 1485
+and, although York itself hardly experienced the warfare, it saw
+contingents of the forces of both sides, as well as the leaders and
+royal heads of both parties.</p>
+
+<p>There lived in the city a number of men in the royal service. Some
+worked at the administrative offices of the royal forest of Galtres,
+Davy Hall, where the chief officer himself dwelt. There were also the
+men who worked at the royal Fish Pond near which was Fishergate in
+which street most of these men lived.</p>
+
+<p>Those afflicted with leprosy, a disease which in England disappeared
+toward the end of the fifteenth century, dwelt apart for fear of
+infecting the healthy. The four hospitals outside the four main
+entrances to the city served to keep the disease isolated.</p>
+
+<p>York received from time to time a large number and a great diversity
+of visitors. Distinguished visitors usually received gifts from the
+Corporation. Kings, queens, and full court and retinue came, and
+sometimes the entire houses of Parliament. At such times great crowds
+of nobles, spiritual lords, commoners, officers, military and civil,
+thronged the city and taxed its accommodation. On such an occasion as
+Richard III.'s attendance at the Minster for mass, or the visit of
+Henry V., the narrow streets were packed to suffocation with people
+assembled to watch the processions of gorgeously arrayed sovereigns,
+princes, peers, ecclesiastics, soldiers, and distinguished commoners.
+The Duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard III., was very popular in
+the North, especially in York, where he was received (as in 1483) with
+magnificence and festivity. The north was loyal to him and gave him
+much support in his political schemes.</p>
+
+<p>The visits of the royal judges of assize, of sailors and pilgrims,
+have already been mentioned. Pedlars, who were active nomad tradesmen,
+were always to be found in town and country dealing in their small
+wares.</p>
+
+<p>Last, and some of the unhappiest, among the types of people to be
+found in a mediæval city were serfs who had absconded from the lands
+or the service to which they were bound. They sometimes fled to a city
+for the security it afforded. Serfdom, however, was rapidly
+disappearing.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a id="Footnote_4_1" name="Footnote_4_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_1">
+<span class="label">[1]</span></a> G. Benson: "Parish of Holy Trinity, Goodramgate, York."</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a id="Footnote_4_2" name="Footnote_4_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_2">
+<span class="label">[2]</span></a> <i>De heretico comburendo</i>, 1401. In 1539 Valentine Freez, a
+freeman, and his wife, were burnt at the stake on Knavesmire for
+heresy. Frederick Freez, Valentine's father, was a book-printer and a
+freeman (1497).</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a id="Footnote_4_3" name="Footnote_4_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_3">
+<span class="label">[3]</span></a> Cf. French <i>journ&eacute;e</i>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a id="Footnote_4_4" name="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4">
+<span class="label">[4]</span></a> Sauce was much used. The people of the Middle Ages had an especial
+liking for spices and highly-seasoned foods.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a id="Footnote_4_5" name="Footnote_4_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_5">
+<span class="label">[5]</span></a> As translated from the Latin by the late Mr. R.B. Cook and found
+among his valuable contributions to the publications of The Yorkshire
+Architectural Society.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V
+<span class="totoc"><a href="#CONTENTS">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">CONCLUSION</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Life in York in the fifteenth century was active. Trade, home and
+continental, was flourishing. Building operations were in hand; work
+was always proceeding at the Minster or at one or other of the
+religious houses and churches. There were so many social elements
+established in and visiting York that something of interest was always
+taking place. Entertainments were plentiful and pageants were as well
+produced in York as anywhere in the kingdom. The city enjoyed a
+particularly large measure of local government. Its reputation was
+great. According to contemporary standards it was a fine prosperous
+city, one that contained resplendent ecclesiastical buildings that
+were second to none. In short, it was a "full nobill cite."</p>
+
+<p>Although the present city looks, in parts, more typically mediæval
+than modern, York to-day forms a very great contrast with the
+fifteenth-century city. We are separated from the fifteenth century by
+the Renaissance, the Reformation, and Tudor England, by the Civil War
+and the Restoration, by the "age of prose and reason," the keen-minded
+and rough-mannered eighteenth century, by the Industrial Revolution,
+and by that second Renaissance, the Victorian Age, during which the
+amenities of daily life were revolutionised. Radical changes are to be
+seen, for example, in the style of architecture, the mode of
+transmission of news, the methods of transport, the form of municipal
+government, the maintenance of the public peace, and in social
+relationships, more particularly with regard to industry and commerce
+and the parts played by employer and employed. The number of
+inhabitants to-day is about six times that of the mediæval city. The
+contrast, which is so great in most ways as to be quite obvious, is an
+interesting and profitable study, but it might have been founded on
+more precise data, for, great as is the amount of valuable material
+that York can supply concerning its history, investigation shows how
+much greater that amount would have been had the city and its rulers
+during the last century or two realised the value of the accumulated
+original historical riches that it contained.</p>
+
+<p>Whereas the moderns obliterated practically all they came against,
+fortunately the earlier people were content to make no change beyond
+what was immediately necessary. Hence the survival of material most
+valuable to the historian and archæologist. York, as it is to-day, is
+a city marvellously rich in survivals of past ages. It is also, as a
+result especially of the nineteenth century, a city of destruction.
+While we may regret but not repine at the disappearance of much of
+interest and value as the result of progress, yet wanton, ruthless
+destruction, such as has taken place within the last century, deserves
+the sternest denunciation. In spite of its being, in consequence, a
+"city of destruction," York is a store-house of original material for
+the history of England. Its records are in earth, stone, brick, wood,
+plaster, bone, and coin-metal; on parchment, paper, and glass; above
+the ground and below it&mdash;everywhere and in every form. This wealth of
+historical material, connected with practically every period of our
+national history, is a priceless possession and one that is not yet
+exhausted.</p>
+
+<h3 style="margin-top: 4em"><span class="smcap">THE END</span></h3>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h4>PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LTD., LONDON AND BECCLES.</h4>
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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #17848 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17848)
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Life in a Mediæval City, by Edwin Benson
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Life in a Mediæval City
+       Illustrated by York in the XVth Century
+
+
+Author: Edwin Benson
+
+
+
+Release Date: February 24, 2006  [eBook #17848]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE IN A MEDIæVAL CITY***
+
+
+E-text prepared by R. Cedron, gvb, and the Project Gutenberg Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 17848-h.htm or 17848-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/8/4/17848/17848-h/17848-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/8/4/17848/17848-h.zip)
+
+
+Transcriber's notes:
+
+   All material added by the transcriber is surrounded by braces {}.
+
+   The original has a number of inconsistent spellings and punctuation.
+   Three corrections have been made for obvious typographical errors;
+   they have been noted individually in the text.
+
+   Text in italics in the original is shown between _underlines_.
+   Superscript (three instances in this book) is marked by a caret (^).
+
+
+
+
+
+LIFE IN A MEDIÆVAL CITY
+
+Illustrated by York in the XVth Century
+
+by
+
+EDWIN BENSON, B.A.
+
+With Eight Illustrations
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+London:
+Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
+New York: The MacMillan Co.
+1920
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+IMPORTANT FACTORS AFFECTING THE HISTORY OF YORK
+
+(_a_) Geographical position; (_b_) Military value of its position;
+(_c_) Political importance
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+APPEARANCE
+
+A. _General appearance_
+
+Church, State, people; outside the city; population; area-divisions
+
+B. _Streets_
+
+Highways, traffic, open-spaces; Ouse Bridge
+
+C. _Buildings_
+
+Dwelling-houses, shops, inns; civic buildings (guildhalls);
+fortifications (castle, city walls, bars); religious buildings
+(Minster; St. William's College; St. Mary's Abbey; Friaries; St.
+Clement's Nunnery; Hospitals; Parish Churches)
+
+D. _York as a Port_
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+LIFE
+
+A. _Civic Life_
+
+City government, the parishes; extra municipal rights; a royal city;
+charter; sheriffs; mayor; city councils; civic spirit; city and trade
+rule; royal government; punishments; sanctuary
+
+B. _Parliamentary and National Life_
+
+Leasing of royal power; Parliament; visits of Henry IV.; Wars of
+Roses; Duke of Gloucester; judges of assize; royal larder
+
+C. _Business Life_
+
+Middle class of merchant employers; Jews and Italians; professions;
+wool trade; trade-guilds; their government; strangers; phases of guild
+life; merchants; apprentices; working hours; trades; artist craftsmen;
+markets and fairs; overseas trade; money; extracts from ordinances
+
+D. _Religious Life_
+
+The Church in the Middle Ages; the Church and daily life; merchants
+and religion; the Church and education; work of hospitals; priests (at
+Minster; parish churches; Archbishop); pluralism; religious orders;
+monastic life; St. Mary's Abbey; Anchorites; other types of religious
+(pardoner, palmer, pilgrim {original had "pligrim"}); Church services
+
+E. _Education_
+
+Higher education; grammar schools; elementary education; educational
+welfare work; instruction; the ways in which the citizen got news and
+information; vocations; literacy in fifteenth century; mediæval
+learning; Revival of Learning
+
+F. _Entertainments_
+
+Holidays, travelling; mediæval plays; York plays; Corpus Christi Day
+Processions; production of pageants; other forms of entertainment;
+archery
+
+G. _Classes_
+
+Fashions and dress; nobles; religious; townspeople; women; the
+freemen; soldiers; men in royal service; lepers; visitors (kings,
+lords, commoners; judges; sailors) serfs
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+York a city of destruction and a "storehouse of the past"
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+YORK IN THE XVTH CENTURY
+_(From a drawing by E. Ridsdale Tate)_
+
+COOKING WITH THE SPIT
+_(From the Louttrell Psalter)_
+
+BISHOP AND CANONS
+_(From Richard II.'s "Book of Hours")_
+
+KNIGHTS DOING PENANCE AT A SHRINE
+_(From a XVth Century MS.)_
+
+ADMINISTRATION OF HOLY COMMUNION WITH HOUSEL CLOTH
+_(From a XIVth Century MS.)_
+
+SEMI-CHOIR OF FRANCISCANS
+_(From a XVth Century MS.)_
+
+ARCHERY
+_(From the Louttrell Psalter)_
+
+AN ABBOT
+
+[Illustration: YORK IN THE XVTH CENTURY FROM A DRAWING BY E.
+RIDSDALE TATE]
+
+
+
+
+A MEDIÆVAL CITY
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+In English history the fifteenth century is the last of the centuries
+that form the Middle Ages, which were preceded by the age of racial
+settlement and followed by that of the great Renaissance. Although the
+active beginnings of this new era are to be observed in the fifteenth
+century, yet this century belongs essentially to the Middle Ages.
+
+Perhaps the most attractive feature of the Middle Ages is that they
+were so intensely human. A naïve spirit appears in their formal
+literature, as in Chaucer's account of the Canterbury pilgrims, in
+their decorated religious manuscripts, in their thought, and very
+characteristically, in their architecture, which combines a simple
+naturalness with a bold and daring ingenuity. From columns, the
+constructional motive of which is so simple and natural, and walls
+pierced with windows, they erected systems of lofty arches and high
+stone-vaulted roofs, the stability of which depended on very skilled
+balancing of thrust and counter-thrust.
+
+To-day mediæval buildings are to be found all over England. The
+majority of them are examples of an architecture that has not been
+surpassed for majesty, beauty, size, and constructional skill. Such
+buildings, without the help of the literary and other memorials,
+testify by themselves to the greatness of the Middle Ages.
+
+Through the fifteenth century England continued to be in a state of
+political unrest. There were wars and risings both abroad and at home,
+for besides the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) and the Wars of the
+Roses (1455-1485) there were wars with the Welsh and the Scots, as
+well as disorders made by powerful, intriguing barons. The barons and
+great landowners took advantage of the weak royal rule to increase
+their own power. Parliament, especially the House of Commons,
+succeeded in the first half of the century in strengthening its
+constitutional position, but during the Wars of the Roses it became
+less truly representative of the solid part of the nation, the middle
+class, and more and more a party machine worked by the baronial
+factions. The proportion of people wanting peace and firm government
+steadily increased, and, when the internecine Wars of the Roses, which
+affected the lords and kings far more than the people, were followed
+by the protection and order provided without excessive cost by the
+Tudors, it was the people who most welcomed the change.
+
+The towns were, however, comparatively little disturbed by these
+perpetual disorders. The mayors and corporations as a rule guided
+their cities through difficult times with politic shrewdness. Town
+life developed through flourishing trade and an increasing sense of
+municipal unity, and municipal importance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+IMPORTANT FACTORS AFFECTING THE HISTORY OF YORK
+
+
+A. GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION
+
+Among the factors affecting this particular city geographical position
+is evidently the most important. It is to this, combined with the
+consequent military value of the site, that York owes its origin as a
+city, its importance in the Middle Ages, and its practical importance
+to-day. York, which is the natural centre for the North of England, is
+the halfway house between London and Edinburgh, and is on the shortest
+and quickest land or air route, however the journey is made, between
+these two capitals. The Ouse and Humber have enabled it always to be
+within navigable distance of the North-East coast. The city itself is
+situated on an advantageous site in the centre of a great plain, the
+north and south ends of which are open. The surrounding hills and
+valleys are so disposed that a large number of rivers radiate towards
+the centre of the plain. Civilisation--if we must rank the ultra-fierce
+Norsemen, for instance, among its exponents--proceeded westwards from
+the coast, and wave after wave of the invading peoples crossed with
+ease the eastern and north-eastern hills, which are far less
+formidable than those on the west. York was already an important place
+in the days of Britain's making, the days when the land was in the
+melting-pot as far as race and nationality are concerned.
+
+
+B. MILITARY VALUE OF ITS POSITION
+
+York is situated on the higher ground, in the angle made by the rivers
+Ouse and Foss at their junction; a little to the south, the east and
+the west there are low ridges of mound. The outer, main series of
+hills which border the central plain, are some dozen miles away, their
+outer faces being more or less parallel and running very roughly north
+and south. It seems clear that the site was chosen from the first for
+its immediate defensive value, the direct result of its geographical
+features. The position was of both tactical and strategic importance.
+In Roman times, however, its tactical value decreased when the great
+wall was built that stretched with its lines of mound, ditch,
+stone-rampart, and road, and its series of camps and forts, from near
+the mouth of the Tyne to Solway Firth. Henceforth the wall marked the
+debatable frontier, but York never lost its strategic value. It was
+thus used by the Romans, William I., Edward I., Edward II., and Edward
+III. in their occupation of and their expeditions against the North.
+It has served as a base depôt and military headquarters for centuries.
+
+
+C. POLITICAL IMPORTANCE
+
+York, then, whatever its name (for it had many names) or condition,
+inevitably became an occupied place, a stronghold or a town from
+earliest times. When the Church attained great importance in the
+north, York, in addition to its natural and military values became, in
+735, an ecclesiastical metropolis, for from this date the Archbishop
+of York was not only the ruler of the diocese of York, but in addition
+spiritual head of the Church in the North of England. Further, there
+were established in the city branches of the civil government.
+Business of the state, both civil and military, and of the Church was
+regularly conducted at York from early times. This political
+importance lasted long and is intimately connected with many events in
+the city's history. The fort and military defences were renewed from
+time to time, and staff-work and general administration, whether Roman
+or Edwardian, were conducted from York. The king, from whom York was
+rented by the citizens, had his official representatives with their
+offices permanently established here. The siege of 1644 after the
+royalist defeat at Marston Moor, was due mainly to the political
+importance of the city. In Danish times there were kings of York. The
+Archbishops, besides owning large areas of land in and around the
+city, had their palace in the city. Monasteries grew up and flourished
+till the Dissolution; churches and other religious buildings were
+everywhere. Further, from century to century, York was the home of
+important nobles of the realm.
+
+This political importance has persisted through the centuries. York
+still claims its traditional rank of second city in the kingdom.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+APPEARANCE
+
+
+A. GENERAL APPEARANCE
+
+A general view of fifteenth-century York ("Everwyk" in Anglo-French
+and "Eboracum" in Latin) would give the impression of a very compact
+city within fortifications. Almost immediately it would be noticed how
+the three great elements of national society were very clearly
+reflected in the general appearance. First, the _Church_, the
+tremendous and ubiquitous power of which is emphasised by the
+strikingly beautiful and wonderfully constructed massive Minster, but
+so recently completed, standing, with its more than five hundred feet
+of length, its central tower two hundred feet high, most of its roofs
+a hundred feet or more above the ground, dwarfing the petty, storied
+dwellings. This is but one great church. In brilliant contrast in
+another quarter, adjoining the city, is the great abbey church of St.
+Mary, crowned by a lofty and magnificent spire rising above the
+equally fine conventual buildings. All over the city are seen the
+churches and buildings of other monastic and religious houses. The
+background of dwellings and shops, built in a similar style, is cut by
+a few winding streets, and studded with the towers, spires, and roofs
+of the multitude of parish churches. The intense and far-reaching
+influence of the Church in all phases of life is indelibly marked on
+this city.
+
+The great influence of the royal _State_, second only to that of the
+Church, appears in the enclosing fortifications and especially in the
+solid stance of the Castle, where the keep stands out stoutly on its
+fortified mound. The whole castle, self-supporting within its own
+defences, its massive walls, broad moats, outer and inner wards,
+protected gateways, drawbridges and other tactical devices, conveys an
+impression of power. On the Bishop-hill side of the river there
+remains the mound (Baile Hill) on which the other castle was erected
+by order of William the Conqueror. The whole city is enclosed by
+defensive works consisting of an embattled wall on a mound, with a
+moat or protecting ditch running parallel to it. At intervals along
+the walls there are towers. Where the four main roads enter the city
+there are the four gateways, or Bars, high enough to act as
+watch-towers and fit by their solid construction to offer a stout
+defence. The royal State keeps its stern watch around and within.
+
+The third great element, the _People_, are represented by the few
+narrow, winding streets and the crowded houses, sending up blue smoke
+from their hearths, clustering round the great buildings of Church and
+State. The town itself is almost entirely in the eastern section of
+the city. On the western side the houses are grouped along the river
+bank and between Micklegate Bar and Ouse Bridge; there are several
+monasteries and churches in this section also. The third estate, the
+closely living masses, the people, has its outstanding buildings, but
+these are of comparatively local and small importance. Although the
+_city_ and _guild_ halls stand out utilitarian yet beautiful above the
+dwelling-houses, yet they are not at all so prominent as the great
+erections of the Church and the State.
+
+A glance over the city to-day from the Walls or the top of a church
+tower emphasises the dominance of the cathedral over the whole city.
+The castle keep (Clifford's Tower) is still an important feature in
+the view. There were as rivals neither factories nor great commercial
+offices in the fifteenth-century city.
+
+St. Clement's Nunnery and six churches, of which three were not far
+from Walmgate Bar and one was near Monk Bar, were actually outside the
+city walls.
+
+Without the city and the cultivated land near by most of the country
+consisted of great stretches of forest,[1] _i.e._ wood, marsh, moor,
+waste-land. This surrounding forest-land was crossed by the few
+high-roads leading to and from the city, which they entered through
+the Bars. The country was not all wild and tenantless, for here and
+there, scattered about, were baronial castles and estates, and
+monastic houses and lands, all of which had their farming. In the
+forests there were villages each consisting of a few houses grouped
+together for common security, where lived minor officials and men
+working in the forest. The great Forest of Galtres, to the north of
+York, was a royal domain.
+
+In the fifteenth century the population of York, the greatest city of
+the north, was about 14,000. Newcastle was the next greatest, being
+one of the ten or twelve leading cities of mediæval England which had
+a total population of about 2-1/2 millions. The inhabitants of York
+registered in 1911 numbered 83,802.
+
+Within the city there was a number of sub-entities, each
+self-contained and definitely marked off, often by enclosing,
+embattled walls. Such was the Minster, which stood within its close.
+The Liberty of the Minster of St. Peter included the parts of the city
+immediately round the Minster, the Archbishop's Palace, and the Bedern
+(a small district in the city where some of the Minster clergy lived
+collegiately), and groups of houses and odd dwellings scattered
+throughout other parts of the city and the county and elsewhere.
+Individual monasteries formed further such sub-entities; for instance
+St. Mary's Abbey, which was actually outside the city walls, but
+within its own defensive walls; the Franciscan Friary near the Castle;
+Holy Trinity Priory; the royal Hospital of St. Leonard. The Castle,
+which obviously had to be enclosed and capable of maintaining and
+enduring isolation, was independent of the city. Each of these
+ecclesiastical institutions enjoyed a large measure of freedom from
+the rule of the municipal authorities. The city was also subdivided
+into parishes, which, of course, were not enclosed by walls. The
+parish boundaries, although less well defined than those of the areas
+above mentioned, were none the less distinctly marked.
+
+
+B. STREETS
+
+Streets, as we use the word to-day, were quite few in number. They
+were usually called gates and were mostly continuations of the great
+high-roads that came into and through the city, after crossing the
+wild country that covered most of northern England, a desert in which
+a city was an oasis and a sanctuary. In the lofty and graceful open
+lantern-tower of All Saints, Pavement, a lamp was hung to guide
+belated travellers to the safety and hospitality that obtained within
+the city walls. For the same purpose a bell was rung at St. Michael's,
+Ouse Bridge.
+
+There were a few buildings along the high-roads just outside the great
+entrances, the Bars. Besides the few hovels and huts there were
+hospitals for travellers. There were four hospitals for lepers, the
+most wretched of all the sufferers from mediæval lack of cleanliness.
+
+Most of the streets were mere alleys, passages between houses and
+groups of buildings. They were very narrow and often the sky could
+hardly be seen from them because of the overhanging upper storeys of
+the buildings along each side. Goods in the Middle Ages and right down
+to the nineteenth century were carried in towns by hand. Carriages and
+waggons and carts were not very numerous and would have no need to
+proceed beyond the main streets and the open squares. If men must
+journey off their own feet, they rode horses. Pack-horses were used
+regularly to carry goods, where nowadays a horse or, more probably, a
+steam or motor engine would easily pull the goods conveniently placed
+on a cart or lorry.
+
+The paving of rough cobbles and ample mud was distinctly poor. There
+was no adequate drainage; in fact there was very little attempt at any
+beyond the provision of gutters down the middle or at the sides of the
+streets. There were no regular street lights, and pavements, when they
+existed, were too meagre to be of much use to pedestrians.
+
+Streets led to the two open market-places of this mediæval city. Both
+of them (Thursday Market, now called St. Sampson's Square, and
+Pavement, which was a broad street with a market cross near one end)
+were used as markets, but for different kinds of produce. Some
+markets, such as the cattle market, were held in the streets. These
+two market-places were the principal public open spaces, parts of a
+town that are given such importance in modern town-planning schemes.
+Other open spaces were the cloisters and gardens of the monasteries,
+the courts of the Castle, the graveyards of the churches, and private
+gardens. In spite of these and the passage of a tidal river through
+the city, it cannot be denied that the inhabitants of our mediæval
+city lived in rather dirty and badly ventilated surroundings.
+
+The River Ouse was crossed by one bridge, which was of stone, with
+houses and shops of wood built up from the body of the bridge. The
+arches were small, and afford a striking contrast to the later
+constructions, in which a wide central arch replaced the two central
+small arches. The quays were just below the bridge. At one end of Ouse
+Bridge was St. William's Chapel, a beautiful little church,[2] as we
+know from the fragments of it that remain. Adjoining the chapel was
+the sheriffs' court; on the next storey was the Exchequer court; then
+there was the common prison called the Kidcote, while above these were
+other prisons which continued round the back of the chapel. Next to
+the prisons were the Council Chamber and Muniment Room. Opposite the
+chapel were the court-house, called the Tollbooth,[3] the Debtors'
+Prison, and a Maison Dieu, that is, a kind of almshouse.
+
+The present streets called Shambles (formerly Mangergate),[4] Finkle
+Street, Jubbergate, Petergate, and especially Shambles, Little
+Shambles, and the passages leading from them, help one to realise the
+appearance of mediæval streets and ways.
+
+
+C. BUILDINGS
+
+[Illustration: COOKING WITH THE SPIT.]
+
+_Dwelling-houses_ ranged from big town residences of noble or
+distinguished families, by way of the beautifully decorated, costly
+houses of the rich middle-class merchants, to the humble dwellings of
+the poorest inhabitants. Every type of house from the palace to the
+hovel was well represented. The Archbishop's Palace, consisting of
+hall, chapel, quadrangle, mint, and gateway with prison, was near the
+Minster. Beyond the fine thirteenth-century chapel (now part of the
+Minster library buildings) hardly a trace of this undoubtedly splendid
+residence is left. The Percies had a great mansion in Walmgate. In
+other parts were the mansions of the Scropes and the Vavasours. It is,
+however, the houses of the prosperous traders that are the most
+interesting, for in them we see the kind of house a man built from the
+results of successful business. Most houses were of timber; those of
+the more wealthy were of stone and timber.{original had ","} The use
+of half-timbering, when the face of a building consisted of woodwork
+and plaster, made houses and streets very picturesque. The woodwork
+was often artistically carved. Each storey was made to overhang the
+one below it, so that an umbrella, if umbrellas had been in use then,
+would have been almost a superfluity, if not a needless luxury,
+besides being impossible to manipulate in the narrow streets and ways
+of a mediæval city. The upper storeys of two houses facing each other
+across a street were often very close. Usually there were no more than
+three storeys. The roofs were very steep and covered generally with
+tiles, but in the case of the smaller dwellings with thatch. From a
+house-top the view across the neighbourhood would be of a huddled
+medley of red-tiled roofs, all broken up with gables and tiny dormer
+windows; there would be no regularity, just a jumble of patches of
+red-tiled roofing.
+
+The present streets called Shambles, Pavement, Petergate and
+Stonegate, contain excellent examples of mediæval domestic
+architecture.
+
+Shops were distinguished by having the front of the ground floor
+arranged as a show-room, warehouse, or business room which was open
+to the street. The trader lived at his shop. In the case of a
+butcher's, for example, the front part of the shutters that covered
+the unglazed window at night, was let down in business hours so that
+it hung over the footway. On it were exhibited the joints of meat.
+Butchers' slaughter-houses were then, as now, private premises and
+right in the heart of the city.
+
+The rooms in the houses were quite small, with low ceilings. The small
+windows, whether they were merely fitted with wooden shutters or
+glazed with many small panes kept together with strips of lead,
+lighted the rooms but poorly. The closeness of the houses made
+internal lighting still less effective. The interior walls were of
+timbering and plaster, often white- or colour-washed.[5] Panelling was
+used occasionally. The ventilation and hygienic conditions generally
+were far from good, as may be imagined from a consideration of the
+smallness of the houses, the compactness of the city, particularly the
+parts occupied by the people, and especially of the primitive system
+of sanitation, which was content to use the front street as a main
+sewer. There were, of course, no drains; at most there was a gutter
+along the middle of a street, or at each side of the roadway. It was
+the traditional practice to dump house and workshop refuse into the
+streets. Some of it was carried along by rainwater, but generally it
+remained: in any case it was noxious and dangerous. There was
+legislation on the subject, for the evil was already notorious in the
+fourteenth century. The first parliamentary attempt to restrain people
+in towns generally from thus corrupting and infecting the air is dated
+1388. The many visits of distinguished people and public processions
+always conferred an incidental boon on the city, for one of the
+essentials of preparation was giving the main streets a good cleaning.
+There is no wonder that plagues perpetually harassed the people of
+mediæval times and reduced the population miserably. The plague never
+disappeared till towns were largely rebuilt on a more commodious scale
+in the next great building era, which began in 1666 in London and in
+the early years of the eighteenth century elsewhere. No advance was
+made in sanitation till the Victorian Age, when town sanitation was
+completely revolutionised and, for the first time, efficiently
+organised.
+
+The house fire was of wood and peat, though coal was also used. For
+artificial lighting oil-lamps (wicks in oil) and candles were used. A
+light was obtained from flint and tinder, the latter being ignited by
+a spark got from striking the flint with a piece of metal.
+
+Rooms were furnished with chairs, tables, benches, chests, bedsteads,
+and, in some cases, tub-shaped baths. Carpets were to be found only in
+the houses of the very wealthy. The floors of ordinary houses, like
+those of churches, were covered with rushes and straw, among which it
+was the useful custom to scatter fragrant herbs. This rough carpet was
+pressed by the clogs of working people and the shoes of the
+fashionable. The spit was a much used cooking utensil. Table-cloths,
+knives, and spoons were in general use, but not the fork before the
+fifteenth century. At one time food was manipulated by the fingers.
+York was advanced in table manners, for it is known that a fork was
+used in the house of a citizen family here in 1443. The richer members
+of the middle class owned a large number of silver tankards, goblets,
+mazer-bowls, salt-cellars and similar utensils and ornaments of
+silver, for this was a common form in which they held their wealth.
+
+Beer, which was largely brewed at home, was the general beverage, but
+French and other wines were plentiful. The water supply came from
+wells, the water being drawn up by bucket and windlass, or from the
+river when the wells were low. The drinking water of the
+twentieth-century city is taken entirely from the River Ouse, but now
+the water is carefully treated and purified before reaching the
+consumer.
+
+There were not many inns, as is shown in records by the number of
+innholders, who formed a trade company. There were also wine-dealers.
+Typical inn-signs were The Bull in Coney Street, and The Dragon. There
+is no reason to believe that in this century there was a really large
+amount of drinking and drunkenness, such as there was in the
+eighteenth century. An ordinance of the Marshals of 1409--"No man of
+the craft shall go to inns but if he is sent after, under pain of
+4d."--may be quoted.
+
+The houses of the wealthy and the great lords were, of course, the
+better furnished. They had walls adorned with tapestries and hung with
+arras or hangings; occasionally their walls were panelled. Their
+furniture was rich, well constructed, and carved by skilled craftsmen.
+Their mansions were large, for they had to house, beside the owner's
+family and personal household, retainers and dependents attached to
+his service in diverse capacities.
+
+_Civic Buildings_ consisted chiefly of the halls connected with the
+trade guilds. The rulers of the city and of the guilds were often the
+same men, in any case usually men of the same set. These secular
+buildings were really distinguished in appearance, but not monumental.
+They reflected something of the wealth that accrued from trade. They
+were of good size and proportions, built to be worthy of the practical
+use for which they were intended. The lower stages were of stone, the
+upper for the most part of wood and plaster (half-timbering). The
+structural framework was composed of stout beams and posts of timber.
+The timber roofs were covered with tiles. Examples may be seen in the
+Merchants' Hall, Fossgate, and St. Anthony's Hall in Peaseholm Green.
+The wooden roof of the Guild Hall, which was the Common Hall, erected
+in the fifteenth century, is supported by wooden columns. The walls of
+this hall and the entire basement are of stone.
+
+Of Davy Hall, the King's administrative offices and prison for the
+Royal Forest of Galtres, not a trace remains to show the kind of
+buildings they were.
+
+_The Fortifications_ consisted of the Castle and the city Walls with
+their gateways. The massive stone Keep of the Castle was on a high
+artificial mound at the city end of the enclosed area occupied by the
+Castle. Around this mound there was a moat, or deep, broad ditch
+filled with water. The Keep, which is in plan like a quatrefoil,
+consisted of two storeys. Within, near the entrance, there is a well,
+the memory of which is for ever stained by the unhappy part it played
+in one of the most bitter persecutions of the Jews. Beyond the Keep
+there were inner and outer wards, official buildings including the
+King's great hall, the Royal Mint, and barracks for the King's
+soldiers. The entire Castle, which was the residence of the royal
+governor, and a military depôt, was surrounded by walls, outside which
+were moats, or the river, or swamps, according to the position of each
+side. These moats, or defensive ditches, were crossed by drawbridges.
+To enter a fortified place in the Middle Ages one had to pass a
+barbican (_i.e._ an outwork consisting of a fortified wall along each
+side of the one way); a drawbridge across the moat; a portcullis or
+gate of stoutly inter-crossing timbers (set horizontally and
+vertically with only a small space between any two beams, giving the
+whole gate the appearance of a large number of small square holes,
+each surrounded by solid wood) that could be lowered or raised at will
+in grooves at the sides of the entrance opening. The ends of the
+vertical posts at the bottom formed a row of spikes which were shod
+with iron. The points of these spikes entered the ground when the
+portcullis was lowered. Beyond, there were the wooden gates of the
+inner opening.
+
+The city Walls, of which the present remains date from the reign of
+Edward III., were broad, crenellated walls of limestone, on a high
+mound which was protected without by a parallel deep moat. At the
+north, east, south, and west corners there were massive bastions, and
+between these, at short intervals, smaller towers. Besides being
+crenellated the raised front of the wall itself was often pierced with
+slits shaped for the use of long or cross-bows. The bowmen were very
+well protected by these skilful arrangements. Some of these slits,
+shaped like crosses, were of exquisite design architecturally.
+
+The continuity of these mural fortifications was broken only where
+swamps and the rivers made them unnecessary and where roads passed
+through them. The four principal entrances along the main high-roads
+were defended by the four Bars, or fortified gateways. These, with
+their Barbicans, three of which were so needlessly and callously
+destroyed in the last century, were magnificent examples of noble
+permanent military architecture. The outer façade of Monk Bar to-day,
+spoiled as it is, expresses a noble strength. There was formerly only
+the single way, both for ingress and egress.[6] The Bar was supported
+on each side by the mound and wall, which latter led right into the
+Bar and so to the corresponding wall on the other side. Each of these
+entrances to the city was protected by barbican, portcullis, and gate.
+Each evening the Bars were closed and the city shut in for the night.
+Defenders used a Bar as a watch-tower or a fort. They could walk along
+the high crenellated walls of the Barbican and shoot thence, and stop
+the way by lowering the portcullis.[7]
+
+Near the Castle there were the Castle mills, where the machinery was
+driven by water-power.
+
+Outside the walls there were strays, or common lands. Some of the land
+immediately around the city was cultivated or used as pasture. There
+were, besides dwellings, several churches and hospitals, just outside
+the city. Beyond this suburban area was the forest.
+
+The most notable of the _Religious Buildings_ is the Minster, which
+was practically completed in the fifteenth century, when the work of
+erecting the three towers was finished. The architectural splendour of
+this mighty church must have appealed very strongly to the people of
+the fifteenth century, for did they not see the great work that had
+gone on for centuries at last brought to this glorious conclusion? It
+rose up in the midst of the city, always visible from near and far.
+The inside was even more magnificent than the exterior. The fittings
+and furniture were of the richest. The light mellow tone of the white
+stonework was enhanced by the fleeting visions of colour that spread
+across from the sunlit stained-glass windows, which still, in spite of
+time and restoration, add enormously to the beauty of the interior.
+
+The Minster stood within its Close, one of the four gateways of which,
+College Street Arch, remains. This part of the city around the Minster
+was enclosed because it was under the jurisdiction of the Liberty of
+St. Peter.
+
+[Illustration: BISHOP AND CANONS.
+_From Richard II.'s "Book of Hours."_]
+
+Originally founded in 627 by Edwin, King of Northumbria, the Minster
+had been rebuilt and enlarged from time to time. It received its final
+and present form in the fifteenth century. At one time the Nave was
+rebuilt: at the same time there was built, near but separate from the
+main building, the Chapter House, a magnificent octagonal parliament
+house of one immense chamber: later the Chapter House was connected
+with the main building by the Vestibule. Then the Choir was replaced
+by a larger and finer building in the then latest architectural
+fashion. The new choir contained the east window, which in the eyes of
+contemporaries was wonderful and unrivalled for its size and painted
+glass. It occupies nearly all the central space of the east wall from
+a few feet above the ground to almost the apex of the gable. Gothic
+architecture was so marvellously adaptable that all these parts, built
+at widely different times, at various and strongly-contrasted stages
+of the development of this English mediæval architecture, together
+make a single building that appears to possess the most felicitous
+unity of general design and a perfectly wonderful diversity of
+sectional design, for every part is in complete sympathy with the
+scheme as a whole.
+
+To the east of the Central Tower is the Choir, which was kept
+exclusively for the services; to the west, the Nave, the popular part.
+The entrance to the Choir from the west is made through the stone
+screen of Kings, which, with the lofty organ which rests on it,
+prevents people in the Nave from getting anything more than a glimpse
+of what is taking place in the Choir. Over the western ends of the
+Nave aisles are the twin west towers, which contain the bells. The
+high altar and reredos stood in the middle of the Choir between the
+two choir transepts, the huge windows of which present in picture the
+life stories of St. Cuthbert and St. William respectively. The Lady
+Chapel, the part of the choir to the east of the reredos, was very
+important in pre-Reformation days when the cult of the Virgin was very
+popular. To the north and south of the Central Tower are the
+Transepts. From the North Transept the Vestibule leads to the Chapter
+House. The church is, therefore, of the shape of a cross (the centre
+of which is marked by the Central Tower) with an octagonal building
+standing near and connected with the northern arm.
+
+The furniture was of wood and elaborately carved. In the Choir were
+the fixed stalls with towering canopies, and other seats, which were
+ranged along the north and south sides and at the west end. Chapels
+were marked off by wooden screens, often of elaborate tracery.
+
+The cost of erecting this huge and splendid church must have been
+enormous. The Minster contained the shrine of St. William of York,
+which, like those of St. Cuthbert at Durham and St. Thomas at
+Canterbury of European fame, attracted streams of pilgrims, whose
+donations helped the funds of erection and maintenance. This was an
+established means of raising funds for church purposes. There was,
+also, the money from penances and indulgences. The Archbishops were
+keenly interested in their cathedral church. Citizens gave and
+bequeathed sums of money to the Minster funds. In addition, the
+Minster authorities received gifts from wealthy nobles of the north of
+England. The house of Vavasour, for instance, supplied stone; that of
+Percy gave wood to be used in building the great metropolitical
+church. If the money cost was enormous, the completed building, for
+design, engineering, and decorative work--in stone, wood, cloth,
+stained glass--was far beyond monetary value.
+
+The Nave, the part open to the public, was used for processions; some
+started from the great west door, entrance through which was a rare
+privilege granted only to the highest. The Choir was the scene of the
+daily services of the seven offices of the day. All around, in the
+aisles and transepts, were altars in side-chapels, chantry-chapels,[8]
+where throughout the early part of the day priests were saying masses
+for the souls of the departed. There were thirty chantries in the
+Minster.
+
+The Minster has from its foundation been a cathedral. The Chapter of
+canons with the Dean at their head has always been its Governing Body.
+As a church it was served by prebendaries or canons, who had definite
+periods of duty annually, and two residential bodies of priests, of
+whom some, the chantry priests, lived at St. William's College. This
+College was erected shortly after the middle of the fifteenth century:
+on the site there had been Salton House, the prebendal residence of
+the Prior of Hexham, who was canon of Salton. This picturesque
+building of stone, wood, half-timber work, and tiled roofs is a little
+to the east of the Minster. It consists of a series of rooms ranged
+round a central courtyard. It is of much historical interest, and
+since it was restored recently to be the home of the Convocation of
+the Northern Province, it has returned to the service of the church.
+The minor-canons, or vicars-choral, who were employed by the canons as
+their deputies, also lived in community. They had their hall, chapel,
+and other buildings in an enclosed part called the Bedern not far from
+the Minster.
+
+As a counterpart to the Minster, in appearance as in use, was the
+great, rich Benedictine Abbey of St. Mary, of royal foundation. With a
+mitred abbot who sat among the lords spiritual in Parliament, St.
+Mary's was perhaps the most important of the northern monasteries. The
+buildings were proportionally large and fine. The church, dating
+mostly from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, was particularly
+long and had a tall spire. It was only a little inferior to the
+Minster in magnificence. On the south side were the Cloisters, the
+open-air work-place and recreation place of the monks, while beyond
+were the conventual buildings--such as the calefactory or
+warming-house, the dormitories, and the refectory or room where meals
+were taken. The cloisters were square in plan and consisted of a
+central grass plot, along the sides of which there was a continuous
+covered walk with unglazed windows facing the central open space.
+Benedictine abbeys usually conformed to a common scheme as regards the
+planning of the church and the conventual buildings. The cloisters
+were only one of the courts or open squares, which separated groups of
+conventual buildings. Further, there were gardens and orchards. Nearer
+the river there was the Hospitium, or guest-house, where visitors were
+lodged. The abbey was within its own walls, and on one side its
+grounds extended to the river. The gateway, comprising gate, lodge,
+and chapel, was on the north side.
+
+Near the Castle there was an extensive Franciscan Friary. On the other
+side of the river there was the priory of the Holy Trinity, the home
+of an alien Benedictine order. A Carmelite Friary in Hungate, opposite
+the Castle, seems, from the few odd fragments of stone that remain, to
+have had fine buildings. The Augustinian Friary was between Lendal and
+the river. The Dominican house, which was burnt down in 1455, was on
+the site of the old railway station.
+
+The only nunnery in the city was the Benedictine Priory of St.
+Clement. There were sisterhoods in St. Leonard's and other hospitals.
+It should, however, be noted there were many nunneries in the
+districts round York.
+
+Some of the religious institutions were called Hospitals. The care of
+the sick was only one of the functions of this type of religious
+house. Such was the large and famous St. Leonard's Hospital, a royal
+institution that was not under the control of a bishop. The beautiful
+ruins of St. Leonard's, which adjoined St. Mary's Abbey, prove how
+well this hospital had been built. These hospitals, of which there
+were fifteen in York, were in close touch with the people. While St.
+Mary's, for instance, was one of the great abbeys, where the monks, by
+the time when the fifteenth century was advanced, were living
+luxuriously, easily, and generally unproductively, the religious of
+the hospitals and lesser houses, were still engaged in feeding the
+poor, tending the sick, and educating the children of the people.
+
+Each of these religious institutions, whether monastery or hospital,
+was within its own grounds, bounded by its own walls. Altogether they
+occupied a large part of the total area of the mediæval city which
+their buildings adorned, and of which they were so characteristic a
+feature: St. Mary's Abbey, which with its buildings and grounds
+covered a large area, was actually outside the city proper, but it was
+immediately adjoining it. There were nearly sixty monasteries,
+priories, hospitals, maisons-dieu, and chapels. The maisons-dieu, of
+which there were sixteen, were smaller hospitals. They combined
+generally the duties of almshouse and chantry.
+
+_Parish Churches_, which were the centres of the religious life of the
+laity, were everywhere. In the fifteenth century there were forty-five
+churches and ten chapels, so that there was always a place in church
+for every citizen.
+
+A church was always in use. Besides the regular public services which
+took place frequently during the day, and the special services for
+festivals, there were services in chantries. Both the high altar in
+the chancel and altars in other parts of a church were used. Several
+altars were necessary because the number of masses, for the
+celebration of which money was liberally bequeathed, was very large.
+The parish church was used for other than purely religious purposes.
+It was the central meeting-place of the parish, and might be described
+as the seat of parochial government. Meetings were held in the Nave.
+Parts of the church were used as schools. The parish church was also
+the depôt for the equipment of those members who became soldiers.
+Moreover, fire-buckets (generally of leather) were often kept in the
+church, since, being of stone, it was perhaps the safest building in
+the parish. There were also long poles with hooks at the end used to
+pull thatch away from burning houses.
+
+Most, if not all, of these churches were fine specimens of the
+architecture of the Middle Ages, the so-called Gothic architecture,
+which is characterised by pointed arches, ribbed vaulting, and the
+constant use of the buttress. These churches were, in contrast to the
+present condition of most of those that remain, complete with chancel,
+nave and aisles, towers or spires, bells, stained-glass windows, and
+furniture, many of them being particularly rich in one or more of
+these features. The painted windows[9] are especially interesting, for
+they show the standard of this branch of fifteenth-century art and are
+valuable historical documents. The rich, mellow tones of colour should
+be noted, also the incidental pictures of mediæval dress and
+furniture. It is interesting to compare the fifteenth-century work
+with that done, for instance, by the William Morris firm to the
+designs of Burne-Jones (1833-1898), at a time when the revived art,
+with other forms of decoration, was enjoying a period of great
+success. In the fifteenth century the church was flourishing
+materially, at least, and money and gifts were freely given.
+
+The offices and services in churches were recited and sung. Organs
+were used, but were not very large and were capable of being carried
+about: although working on similar principles to the modern organ they
+lacked its size, power, and varied capacity. At the Minster there were
+several organs, for instance "the great organs," "the organs in the
+Choir," "the organs at the Altar B.V.M."
+
+The Chancel was the most sacred part of the church, for there was the
+principal or high altar. In the Chancel were the stalls or seats of
+the clergy and officials. The actual seats could be turned up when the
+occupants wished to stand. Standing for long periods was made less
+irksome in that the underside of each seat was made with a projecting
+ledge, which gave some support. It is thoroughly characteristic of the
+age that this very human device should have existed, and, secondly,
+that these ledges were carved and ornamented. These misericords, as
+they are called, were usually curiously, even grotesquely carved. Some
+of these carvings were founded on natural objects, some were grotesque
+heads, others represented subjects with man and animals. There were
+pews for the nobility, but, apart from the few old and weak people who
+used the rough bench or two in the body of the church, or the stone
+bench that ran along the walls, the general public stood during the
+services.
+
+Wealthy parishioners left money to the parochial clergy and for the
+fabric of the church: they generally wished to be buried at some
+particular place within their parish church. Such distinguished men as
+Nicholas Blackburn, merchant of York, were commemorated at times in
+their parish churches by means of stained-glass windows. The portraits
+of Nicholas and his son and their wives appear in the east window of
+All Saints', North Street; his arms also are to be seen in this
+window.
+
+
+D. YORK AS A PORT
+
+The Ouse was tidal and navigable right up to York. Trade, especially
+in woollen goods, was carried on in the fifteenth century by river and
+sea directly between York and ports on the west coasts of the
+continent and, especially, Baltic ports. On arriving at York the boats
+stopped at the quays, adjacent to which were warehouses, just below
+Ouse Bridge.
+
+The sea-going boats were not large. They were usually one-masted
+sailing ships, built of wood; they had high prows and sterns, with a
+capacious hold between. Some of them were built in York.
+
+Their trade was such that some of the York merchants, for example the
+wealthy Howme family, had establishments in foreign ports. The Howmes
+had property in Calais.
+
+The regulation of the waterways in and near the city was vested in the
+Corporation. Matters pertaining to navigation and shipping were
+adjudged by an Admiralty Court under the King's Admiral, whose
+jurisdiction extended from the Thames to the northern ports.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Derived from Latin foris=outside, without (the city).
+
+[2] A "church" that was in a parish, but was not the parish church,
+was called a chapel. The parish church was the principal and parent
+church of all within the parish.
+
+[3] Compare the Tollbooth, Edinburgh, and the Tolhouse, Yarmouth.
+
+[4] Cf. French _manger_.
+
+[5] Wall-paper, which still bears the influence of the hangings that
+it replaced, came into general use early in the nineteenth century.
+
+[6] The view to-day from Petergate towards Bootham Bar gives a good
+impression of a narrow main street, with gabled houses, leading to the
+single fortified opening provided by the Bar.
+
+[7] The winch and portcullis are still in existence in Monk Bar, and
+in working order.
+
+[8] The Leschman Chantry Chapel in Hexham Abbey is a typical example
+in excellent preservation. A small erection of stone and wood, it
+stands between two of the piers of the north Choir arcade. In small
+compass there are a stone altar with five crosses, an aumbry beneath
+the altar, and the tomb with recumbent effigy of the founder. A priest
+would have just sufficient room to move about in the performance of
+his service. Part of Archbishop Bowet's tomb in York Minster was a
+chantry chapel.
+
+[9] Besides the exceptional display of fifteenth-century glass in the
+Minster, notable examples occur in St. Martin's, Coney Street, All
+Saints', North Street, and Holy Trinity, Goodramgate.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+LIFE
+
+
+A. CIVIC LIFE
+
+"Parish government formed the unit in the government of the city. Each
+parish was a self-governing community, electing its own officers with
+the exception of its rector, making its own bye-laws, and, to meet
+expenses, levying and collecting its own rates. Its constables served
+as policemen, attended the Sessions, and acted as the fire brigade.
+They looked after the parish-trained soldiers, acted as recruiters,
+and had the care of the parish armour, which was kept in a chest in
+the church. They distributed money among lame soldiers, gathered
+trophy money, relieved cripples and passengers, but unfeelingly
+conveyed beggars and vagabonds to prison. The parish soldiers kept
+watch and ward over the parish defences. The parish stocks, in which
+offenders were placed, stood near the churchyard stile. The constables
+were also responsible for such lighting as the parish required, and
+kept the parish lanthorn.
+
+"The officials looked after the parish poor, dispensing charity by
+gifts of bread and money. The parish boundaries were perambulated
+every Ascension Day. Parish dinners were held on the choosing of the
+churchwardens, the visitation of the Archdeacon, etc. The parish
+officials invoked the aid of the law when parochial rights were
+infringed, especially by neighbours. The church was the centre of
+parochial life and in it the business of the parish was transacted.
+
+"Parishes were grouped as wards. The wards chose city Councillors, and
+these elected their Aldermen. The six wards formed the municipality
+over which presided the Mayor. The Corporation exercised a general
+supervision over the whole of the parishes of which there were
+forty-five.
+
+"Gradually the duties and powers of the various parish officials have
+been transferred to the City Council. The united parish soldiers
+became the city trained bands. In 1900 the last remnant of parochial
+officialdom passed into the power of the Corporation when parish
+overseers ceased to exist, and, for rating purposes, the City of York
+became one parish instead of the original forty-five separately rated
+areas."[1]
+
+The Cathedral, _i.e._ the Liberty of St. Peter, and the Royal Castle
+were outside municipal control. The Archbishops also had their
+privileges. They had once owned all the city on the right bank of the
+Ouse. In the fifteenth century they still retained many of their
+privileges and possessions in this quarter, as, for example, the right
+of holding a fair here in what was formerly their shire. These
+archiepiscopal rights have not all lapsed, for in 1807 the Archbishop
+of the time, successfully asserting his legal rights, saved from
+demolition the city walls on the west side of the river.
+
+York was a royal borough, that is, the freemen of the city had to pay
+rent to the king, from whom it was farmed directly. It was not owned
+by any knight or lord, that is, apart from the Archbishop's
+possessions, which belonged to the western section of the city; the
+city proper was almost entirely on the opposite side of the river. The
+King retained possession of certain properties, such as Galtres
+Forest, lying in the valley stretching northwards from York. He had a
+larder and a fish pond at York; also a court, offices, and a prison
+(Davy Hall, of which the name alone remains) for the administration of
+the forest. These town-properties were, of course, entirely
+extra-parochial.
+
+York received a long succession of royal charters. Henry I. granted
+the city certain customs, laws and liberties, and the right to have a
+merchant guild. The possession of these rights was confirmed by King
+John in the first year of his reign. In 1396 Richard II., at York,
+made the city a county in itself. In consequence the office of bailiff
+was replaced by that of sheriff.
+
+The King's official representative in the city was called the sheriff,
+whose office in York has been continuous down to the present day. The
+sheriffs--there were usually two--were responsible for the
+maintenance of order, for the local soldiery, and the collection of
+the royal taxes and dues. The sheriff was a busy and important
+mediæval official.
+
+The Mayor was the real governor of the city. He was a powerful
+official and literally ruler of the city. In practice he was most
+often a wealthy and important merchant; and, like the Aldermen,
+belonged to the group of men who governed the trade guilds as well as
+the municipality. Various symbols were attached to his office. The
+chief objects among the corporation regalia at the present time are
+the sword, mace, and cap of maintenance.
+
+There were three city councils, "the twelve," "the twenty-four," and
+"the forty-eight," as they were called. There were the Aldermen and
+Councillors--the "lords" and "commons" of the municipal parliament.
+The ordinary council-chamber was at Ouse Bridge: the other was the
+Common Hall, the present Guildhall. Sometimes the whole community of
+citizens met, when for the moment the government of the city became
+essentially and practically democratic. This was only done on
+important occasions to decide broad questions of policy, or when
+numbers were needed to enforce a decision. The commons really
+possessed no administrative power. The form of civic government was
+supposed to be representative, but as a matter of fact it was not only
+not founded on popular election (a procedure enforced in 1835 by the
+Municipal Reform Act), but was kept exclusively in the hands of the
+wealthy merchant and trading class, the middle class. Men of this
+class became Aldermen. When a vacancy occurred in the upper house of
+civic government, they chose a man like themselves. The Mayor was
+elected by the Aldermen, who naturally chose one of themselves. In
+fact the government of the city was in the hold of a "close
+self-elected Corporation."
+
+The civic spirit developed a good deal during the fifteenth century,
+no doubt in connection with the simultaneous increase in the wealth
+and social pretension of the rising merchant middle class. It appeared
+in the greater respect bestowed on the office of Mayor and the pomp
+and reverence attached to his position. The "right worshipful" the
+Mayor and the Aldermen wore rich state robes edged with fur. In
+addition, contemporary city records reflect the new spirit in such
+expressions as "the worshupful cite," "the said full honourabill
+cite," "this full nobill city." This spirit, however, developed more
+fully in the sixteenth century.
+
+The Mayor held his court in the Common Hall, where he heard pleas
+about apprentices and mysteries (_i.e._ the rules of the crafts);
+offences against the customs of the city; breaches of the King's
+peace. It was his duty to administer the statute merchant. The
+Recorder was the official civic lawyer.
+
+The governors of the city were intimately connected with the control
+of trade, and the rule of the pageants. These phases of city life
+overlapped considerably and were interdependent. Weaving was the
+principal trade. The Mayor and Aldermen were the masters of the
+mysteries of the weavers. Power to enforce the ordinances of the other
+mysteries was granted by the Mayor and Corporation.
+
+There were times when the King took the government into his own hands.
+This was done during the rebellion of the Percies, a northern family
+skilled and experienced in rebelling. Henry IV. withdrew the right of
+government from the city in 1405, but he restored it in 1406 after the
+execution of Archbishop Scrope, who had been so popular with the
+people of York.
+
+Of mediæval punishments the most obvious were the stocks, a
+contemporary picture of which is to be seen in one of the
+stained-glass windows of All Saints', North Street. Examples of stocks
+survive in the churchyards of Holy Trinity, Micklegate, and St.
+Lawrence's. They were near the entrance to the churchyard and
+commanded full public attention. The petty offender, condemned to
+spend so many hours in the public gaze and subject to whatever
+treatment the public chose to inflict on him, sat on the ground or on
+a low seat, while his feet were secured at the ankles by two vertical
+boards. The upper was raised for the insertion of the ankles in the
+specially cut-out half-round holes in each board, so that when the
+boards were touching and in the same vertical plane, the ankles were
+completely surrounded by wood.
+
+To its political importance York owed the ghastly exhibition of heads
+and odd quarters of traitors and others who had gained punishment of
+national importance, which usually consisted of "hanging, drawing and
+quartering," when the quarters and the head were sent to London and
+the principal towns of the kingdom to be exhibited on gateways,
+towers, and bridges. This practice served to provide the public with
+convincing proof that a traitor was actually dead, and was very
+necessary in an age when Rumour, "stuffing the ears of men with false
+reports" held sway over "the blunt monster with uncounted heads, the
+still discordant wavering multitude." Micklegate Bar was so used. In
+Shakespeare's _Henry VI._ Queen Margaret makes, with reference to the
+Duke of York, this bitter play of words:--
+
+    "Off with his head and set it on York gates;
+    So York may overlook the town of York."
+
+One very interesting practice in connection with the mediæval system
+of law and policing was the use of the right of sanctuary. The
+monasteries, the Minster, and all churches had this right of giving a
+sacrosanct safety to criminals and others flying from their pursuers,
+whether officers of the law or the general mob, whose right, be it
+noted, it was to join in the chase after offenders (the "hue and cry")
+and help to arrest them. Provided the pursued reached the prescribed
+area, which, in some cases, as at the nationally famous sanctuary of
+St. John of Beverley, prevailed for some distance from the church
+itself, he was safe from his pursuers. Hexham Abbey and Beverley
+Minster still exhibit their sanctuary chairs or frith-stools. In the
+north door of Durham Cathedral there is an ancient, massive knocker,
+the rapper, of the form of a ring, being held in the mouth of a
+grotesque head. The frith-stool, to which the seeker went at once,
+stood near the high altar at which he made his declarations on oath.
+His case was carefully investigated and often sanctuary-seekers were
+allowed to exile themselves from the kingdom. The coroner was the
+public officer of inquiry. The Church took every care that the crime
+of breaking the sanctuary so granted was regarded not at all lightly.
+The right of sanctuary, after being changed to apply to certain towns
+only--among them York--continued till it was ended by law in the reign
+of James I.
+
+Condemned heretics were burnt[2] at Tyburn, the site of local
+executions, some way from Micklegate Bar along the main south road.
+
+
+B. PARLIAMENTARY AND NATIONAL LIFE
+
+According to the general principle, the King was the ultimate and
+absolute owner and ruler of the land and people. The rights,
+liberties, customs, and powers possessed by individuals and corporate
+bodies were specified parts of the royal power which the King had
+granted on some consideration or other. Thus, knights, archbishops,
+and nobles received lands and rights in return for the provision, when
+required, of military service by themselves and a certain force of
+their retainers, except that no personal military service was required
+from the archbishop from the very nature of his calling. The
+monasteries and other Church institutions had many possessions and
+rights. The Church, which was established in the realm before
+Parliament, was a very great owner of land. The authorities of cities,
+with their trade-guilds, received the right of trading, or holding
+markets, and of levying tolls or municipal taxes. They received also
+the right of making their own local laws or bye-laws. These
+authorities, whether individuals or corporate bodies, to whom rights
+and liberties were granted, had their own officers and laws
+controlling their liberties. Besides the King's peace, there were,
+therefore, the jurisdictions of these various rights granted from the
+supreme royal authority.
+
+[Illustration: KNIGHTS DOING PENANCE AT A SHRINE.
+_From a Fifteenth-Century Manuscript._]
+
+From York there went to the national Parliament the lord Archbishop of
+York, the lord Abbot of St. Mary's Abbey, those nobles who resided in
+the city and were Lords Temporal, and the two representatives of the
+commonalty of the city. The body of Lords Spiritual was of great
+importance in the Middle Ages. The Convocation of the lords of the
+Church had itself a share in the governing of the nation as well as of
+the Church, its own particular sphere. The Church was one of the most
+powerful and richest factors in national affairs. The clear division
+of the Parliament of the Middle Ages into three groups reflects the
+sharp divisions that there were between the three great classes of the
+nation--the nobles, the clergy, the people.
+
+In the fifteenth century, as in other centuries, York was frequently
+visited by the King. From time to time, as when the King and Court
+proceeded north during the wars with Scotland, Parliament was moved to
+York, where it was held in the Chapter House of the Minster. Six of
+the seven windows of the Chapter House contain their original stained
+glass, in which appear shields of King Edward I. and members of the
+Court. The Chapter House was used as a Parliament house during the
+reigns of the first three Edwards. The King, in mediæval times, was
+actual commander-in-chief, and it suited him well for Parliament to
+meet in the political capital of the north, so that he could continue
+the civil administration while conducting warfare in the north.
+
+Henry IV. was in York on several occasions, chiefly because of
+rebellions. The house of Percy, which engaged frequently in revolt and
+faction, led the rebellion of 1403 in which Henry Percy, called
+Hotspur, was killed at the battle of Shrewsbury. Harry Hotspur, whom
+Shakespeare made in accordance with tradition the fiery and valorous
+counterpart of Prince Hal, Henry IV.'s heir and Falstaff's companion,
+was buried in the Minster. When Archbishop Scrope headed a revolt,
+also not unconnected with the Percies, from York and was arrested,
+Henry IV. hastened to York, and the popular archbishop was executed
+forthwith, a royal and sacrilegious deed that caused intense
+indignation especially among the people of York, who for some months
+lost the right of local government as a result of this affair.
+
+The Wars of the Roses (1455-1485), a long internecine feud between
+kings, lords, and landed gentry, affected the towns but little. The
+baronage suffered heavily, the middle class lightly. No town ever
+stood a siege, while Towton was the only battle in which the common
+soldiers had heavy losses. Warwick made it a practice to spare the
+commoners, whereby he conciliated the people. Under Yorkist rule,
+after the decisive battle of Towton (1461) England can be described as
+not unprosperous. One very notable feature was the immense amount of
+building that was done, and that not so much of castles, as of country
+houses, churches, and cathedrals, so many of which splendidly adorn
+the land to-day. The only people seriously affected by the Wars of the
+Roses were the main participants. Compared with modern warfare, which
+is unabated scientific extermination, mediæval warfare was often of
+the nature of a mild adventure. The size of the opposing forces was
+very small even compared with the scanty population. The chief weapons
+were lances, swords, long-bows, and cross-bows, but protective armour
+was worn. The fighting was generally sporadic and desultory and the
+casualties were very few.
+
+It was at York that Henry VI. awaited the news of the result of the
+battle of Towton. Edward IV. entered York as victor after the battle.
+York, like other cities at the time, took care to maintain the good
+graces of both sets of combatants. Although through the Wars of the
+Roses national parliamentary government ultimately broke down and gave
+way to the strong personal kingship of Henry VII., the towns, which
+actually suffered little, increased their local powers. Civic
+government developed much and trade flourished during the century.
+
+York had a good friend in Richard, Duke of Gloucester. The city was
+very loyal to him and helped him by raising troops in his support.
+When he visited York he was received with immense festivity and
+magnificence. The Mayor and Corporation in their correspondence with
+him addressed him as "our full tender and especial good lord." They
+had to thank him "for his great labour now late made unto ye king's
+good grace for the confirmation of the liberties of this city." But
+for his death at Bosworth, York would have benefited greatly by his
+munificence.
+
+Henry VII. was in York in 1487. After Bosworth (1485) the city had
+assured him of its loyalty. The marriage of Henry of Richmond, who
+represented the House of Lancaster, and Elizabeth, daughter of Edward
+IV. Duke of York, fittingly followed the conclusion of the Wars of the
+Roses. With Henry VII.'s reign a new era began in English history.
+
+Throughout the century the city could not avoid contact with rival
+parties and powers. In spite, however, of rebellions and the Wars of
+the Roses, the capital of the north managed generally to steer a safe
+course through many storms.
+
+Other links with national affairs were the periodic visits of the
+King's judges who travelled on circuit over the country, stopping at
+important centres to hold assize there. Their duties consisted not
+only in settling matters of litigation, but also in reviewing the way
+in which all the King's affairs were being conducted in each locality.
+They supervised the work of the sheriffs.
+
+Galtres Forest and the Fish Pond, both royal property, helped to
+furnish the king's table with food. From the royal Larder at York such
+foodstuffs as venison, game, and fish were despatched salted to
+wherever the King required them.
+
+
+C. BUSINESS LIFE
+
+Business, in one form or another, was the occupation of the majority
+of the citizens. There were a few capitalist merchants, many traders,
+and thousands of employed workpeople, skilled and unskilled. Such
+street names as Spurriergate, Fishergate, Girdlergate, Hosier Lane,
+and Colliergate would suggest that men in the same trade had their
+premises in the same quarter, possibly in the same street.
+
+The English middle class, which had taken form in the fourteenth
+century, was well established in the fifteenth century, when it became
+so important as to be an appreciable factor in the national life. The
+middle class arose through currency, the use of money to bring in more
+money by trading. Trade became the monopoly of the middle class, the
+successful master-traders. It was men of this class, the capitalist
+employers, the merchants and traders who were the mayors and aldermen,
+who ruled the city. The exclusiveness, which was eminently
+characteristic of this class, appeared especially in their attitude
+towards national taxation and in that towards trade organisations.
+With regard to taxation the towns persistently avoided the assessment
+of individual traders, who did not wish to disclose the amount of
+their wealth, by agreeing that the whole town should pay to the
+Exchequer a sum to be raised by the Mayor and Corporation. The middle
+class achieved its aims politically by transformation from within.
+Instead of making a direct assertive attack, these master-traders
+usually so developed their own interests within the established
+institutions (such as the guilds) that they ultimately gained their
+object quietly and shrewdly. This class established itself against the
+King and the nobles on the one hand, and during the century in
+effective fashion against the workers on the other. This appears in
+the more definite distinctions of class among the citizens that arose.
+The masters had got the control of the guilds into their own power.
+While maintaining the original outward appearance of the guilds as
+societies of men affected by the same interests in daily life, the
+employers had actually become a powerful vested class that ruled both
+city and guild life. In the fifteenth century the workmen were
+founding fraternities of their own.
+
+Memory of the Jews, the money-dealers of other times, survived if only
+from the harrowing stories of the various persecutions that had taken
+place all over England, and not least in York. The Jews had been
+expelled from the country by Edward I., with the encouragement of the
+Church, in 1290, partly for economic, partly for religious reasons.
+Their supplanters, the Italian bankers, whom Edward favoured, soon
+acquired from their trading an unpopularity equal to that of the Jews
+as traders. The rise of the middle class had coincided with the
+release of money in coin from the hoards of the Jews, and from the
+coffers of the Knights Templars, whose order was abolished in 1312.
+
+The merchant and trading class, apart from the nobility and the
+Church, formed the bulk of the people of the nation. They were the
+solid part of the nation, that paid taxes, that supplied clerks,
+monks, and priests, that liberally supported the Church, that kept the
+nation progressive and solvent by commercial undertakings.
+
+The professions, as we use the term to-day, had not as yet attained
+sufficient importance for them to form a distinct class division.
+There were a few capable physicians, but generally the practice of
+medicine was shared by the Church and the barber-surgeons. Priests and
+officers of the Church had the privilege peculiar to the Church by
+which even a poor but intellectually capable man could rise to high
+office and become the social equal of nobles. Architecture was
+practised by master-masons under the patronage of leading
+ecclesiastics and nobles. Teaching was nearly all the work of the
+Church. The lawyers, however, were already to be distinguished from
+those who gained profit by dealing in goods, for they made profit from
+transactions on paper, from managing the interests of others, from
+trading in their own acute mental powers.
+
+The wool trade was by far the most extensive and flourishing trade of
+England in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. This was the trade
+that made England great commercially. Wool was England's raw material
+and the source of most of her wealth. The numerous monasteries had
+huge sheep-farms. Edward III. had encouraged foreign clothworkers to
+settle in England (in York, as in other places). The first York
+craftsmen to be incorporated were the weavers, who received a charter
+from Henry II., in return for which they paid a tax to the King for
+the customs and liberties he granted them. The weavers were the
+largest and wealthiest body of traders.
+
+Guilds had developed from societies of masters and men engaged in the
+same trade, to the trade-guilds, which in the fourteenth century were
+trade corporations, the lower ranks of members being the workers, the
+higher ranks, including the office-holders, the richer merchants, the
+capitalist employers. The ruling committees of the trade-guilds made
+regulations and generally governed their particular trades. Despite
+the power of the guilds the municipal authority maintained its
+supremacy in civic government because it enforced the ordinances of
+the trades. Moreover, disputes between the guilds themselves gave the
+city authority opportunities of increasing its power, of which it
+availed itself.
+
+The system of serfdom, by which serfs were bound to a particular
+domain and owned by their overlord, had not yet ceased. Nearly all the
+workmen of York, however, were freemen, _i.e._ they had full and
+complete citizenship. The members of the councils of aldermen and
+councillors, the mayors and city officials, the members of the
+trade-guilds, were all freemen.
+
+In the fifteenth century the wealthy and important employers and
+traders governed the guilds. They were in the position and had the
+power to regulate the conduct in every way of their own trades. Thus,
+rules were laid down as to the terms of admission of men to the
+practice of a trade; the government of the guild and the meetings of
+the members and ruling committees; the moral standard of the members
+in their work and trafficking; the payments of masters to workers; the
+prices of goods to be sold to the public or other traders; the rates
+of fines and the amount of confiscations inflicted on those who broke
+the rules of their guild; the terms on which strangers, English and
+foreign, were to be allowed to pursue their trade in the city; whether
+Sunday trading was to be permitted or not; the duties of the
+searchers; everything incident to the share of the guild in the city's
+production of pageant plays.
+
+The question of the terms of the residence and trading of strangers
+received constant consideration. The city had, in many respects,
+complete local autonomy and rules were made with regard to strangers
+who came to carry on their trades in the city. From 1459 aliens had,
+by municipal law, to live in one place only, at the sign of the Bull
+in Coney Street, unless they received special permission from the
+Mayor to reside elsewhere. The guilds were ruled by masters and
+wardens. They had their various officials. The searchers were officers
+appointed to observe that the rules of the trade were being carried
+out properly. They took care that only authorised members pursued the
+trade of the guild of which they were the officers. They vigilantly
+watched the conduct of the members, and it was their duty to take
+action in case of infringement of the rules and to bring offenders
+before the Mayor in his court.
+
+The wealthy trading class all over the country did great and lasting
+work in founding grammar schools and building or rebuilding cathedrals
+and churches or parts of them. There was a social side to the guilds.
+This appeared in the public processions and the performances of plays,
+the morality and mystery plays of mediæval England. There was also a
+strong religious side to the guilds. The processions and plays were
+fundamentally religious. The Church's festivals were recognised as
+holidays. Much money was given and bequeathed for the foundation of
+chantries, which with their priests have their place also in the
+educational life of the city.
+
+The merchants lived well. They were rich from trade, and through the
+corporate guilds governed their own trades both legislatively and
+executively; the highest offices in civic life were theirs; they lived
+in houses as splendid as they cared to have them; they furnished their
+homes with quantities of silver plate, both for use and for ornament,
+for this was the most suitable outlet for superfluous wealth in days
+when modern facilities for investment did not exist; they wore clothes
+of fine material, richly trimmed; they were honoured citizens; they
+were earnest in religion and their benevolence to the Church is very
+remarkable. They were forming a lesser aristocracy now that they were
+becoming owners of agricultural land as well as town property. They
+had the benefits of wealth and comfort, while they were shrewd enough
+to avoid the penalties of advertised riches. A typical instance of a
+successful merchant who rose to high positions was that of Sir Richard
+Yorke, who was Mayor of the staple of Calais and Lord Mayor of York in
+1469 and 1482, and member of Parliament. A window in St. John's
+Church, Micklegate, in commemoration of him is still to be seen. A
+shield bearing his arms (azure, saltire argent) appears in the glass;
+another bears the arms of the Merchants of the Wool staple of Calais.
+He was knighted by Henry VII. when that king was in York in 1487.
+
+Masters took apprentices, who themselves generally became masters in
+their turn. The conditions of apprenticeship were ruled in detail by
+the guilds.
+
+When a workman became a skilled artisan he was called a journeyman,[3]
+that is, a man who earned a full day's pay for his work. The legal
+hours of work were, from March to September, from 5 a.m. to 7.30 p.m.,
+with half an hour for breakfast, and an hour and a half for dinner.
+Saturday was universally a half-holiday. There were 44 working weeks
+in a year and, consequently, a total of holidays and non-working times
+of eight weeks. The burden of the very long hours was increased by the
+great physical exertion required from men who had to do much that is
+now done with the help of machinery. The strain was not always
+unrecognised, for the Minster workmen were allowed a period of rest
+during the working day.
+
+Some of the men engaged in the construction of the Minster were not
+York men. The men employed there were by exception under
+ecclesiastical control. They were not governed by any of the city
+trade guilds. The master-mason was in charge of the whole of the
+building operations.
+
+A list of trades in the city will suggest the kinds of business there
+were. Some of the names will go far to explain some modern surnames.
+
+_Wool Trades_:--
+  Mercers.
+  Tapiters and couchers (makers of tapestry, hangings, carpets, and
+  coverlets).
+  Fullers.
+  Cardmakers.
+  Littesters (dyers, listers).
+  Shermen (shearmen).
+  Sledmen.
+  Dyers.
+  Weavers of woollen.
+
+_Leather Trades_:--
+  Barkers (tanners).
+  Curriers.
+
+_Building Trades_:--
+  Carpenters, wrights and joiners.
+  Plasterers.
+  Tilers.
+  Ironmongers.
+  Painters.
+  Glaziers.
+
+_Food Trades_:--
+  Spicers (grocers--_Cf._ French _épicier_).
+  Cooks and waterleaders.
+  Baxters (bakers).
+  Vintners and taverners.
+  Bouchers (butchers).
+  Pulters (poultry-dealers).
+  Wine-drawers (carters of wine).
+  Sauce-makers.[4]
+
+_Outfitting Trades_:--
+  Tailors.
+  Skinners (vestment makers).
+  Glovers.
+  Hosiers.
+  Hatmakers.
+  Capmakers.
+  Cordwainers (cobblers).
+  Saddlers.
+  Girdlers and nailers.
+  Spuriers and lorimers (makers of spurs, bits for bridles, etc.).
+
+_Armour Trades_:--
+  Armourers.
+  Smiths.
+  Bowers and flecchers (fletchers)--(makers of bows and arrows. _Cf._
+  French _flèche_).
+
+_Household Trades_:--
+  Coopers.
+  Pewterers and founders.
+  Chaundlers (makers of candles and wax images).
+  Potters.
+  Culters.
+  Bucklemakers, sheathers, bladesmiths.
+  Drapers.
+  Linenweavers.
+
+_Miscellaneous Trades_:--
+  Goldsmiths.
+  Latoners (workers in the metal called latten).
+  Barber-surgeons (the mediæval medical practitioners).
+  Parchemeners and bookbinders.
+  Scriveners.
+  Writers of texts.
+  Ostlers (inn-holders).
+  Shipwrights.
+  Fishers and mariners.
+
+Artist craftsmen of York supplied most of the churches of the north of
+England with their beautiful vessels, furniture, and ornaments. In the
+workshops of the city, the metropolis of the north, there were worked
+and made embroidered vestments of all kinds, engraved chalices and
+vessels of silver and of gold, and carved work, including statues and
+images in stone, wood, and wax. Bells were cast with beautiful
+lettering. Brasses for grave-slabs were made bearing finely designed
+effigies.
+
+Marketing, _i.e._ trading, was done mostly at the frequent and regular
+markets and at the fairs. The right to hold a market or a fair was
+among the rights obtained by means of royal charters. While markets
+were held once or several times a week or every day, fairs took place
+more rarely and at some of the most important and popular holiday
+seasons of the year, like Whitsuntide. Fairs attracted a much larger
+public than the markets.
+
+In the city there were markets in different places for different kinds
+of produce on certain days. For instance, in the fifteenth century
+there was a market of live-stock at Toft Green every Friday. The
+public squares, called Thursday Market and Pavement, were used as
+market-places. Some markets were held in the streets. Stalls were set
+up on which to exhibit the wares. The ordinary foodstuffs and
+materials, just as in the open market held at the present time in the
+long and broad Parliament Street, formed of Thursday Market and
+Pavement and the space formerly occupied by a compact mass of old
+houses between the two originally distinct squares, were the things
+sold and bought at the mediæval markets: such as butter, meat, fish,
+linen, leather, corn, poultry, herbs. Some, for example butchers'
+shops, kept open market every day. Craftsmen worked goods at the
+premises of their merchant employers, which usually combined the
+latters' home and workshop; it was chiefly at the markets and fairs
+that these goods were sold.
+
+Markets and fairs were controlled by the authority, whether municipal
+or archiepiscopal, that possessed the right of holding them. Again,
+particular care was taken to ensure preference being obtained by the
+citizens over strangers. The Lammas fairs were held under the
+authority of the Archbishops, who assumed the rule of the city and
+suburbs for the period of the fair. The sheriffs' authority, in
+consequence, was suspended for that period. The Archbishop, meanwhile,
+took tolls, and all cases that arose during the holding of the fair
+were judged by a court set up by him.
+
+Fairs combined both trading and entertainments, for they were held on
+public holidays. They fostered trade and served to provide a change
+from the ordinary routine of life. It was perhaps at fairs that
+mediæval people were at their noisiest, for these were occasions when
+they gave themselves up unrestrainedly to merry-making, wild and
+clamorous. Strolling players and the whole variety of mediæval
+entertainers set up their stands and booths, and amused the dense
+surging crowds that thronged the squares and streets.
+
+York had a large overseas trade, especially in wool and manufactured
+cloth. Some of its merchants owned property abroad. Some went abroad
+and encountered perils by sea and perils from foreigners on the
+continent. York traded with the Low Countries, where Veere (near
+Middleburg) and Dordrecht were ports that ships entered to discharge
+cargoes loaded on the York quays. The trade between York and the
+Baltic ports was much greater than that done with them from any other
+English port.
+
+Foreign sailors were to be seen in the streets of fifteenth-century
+York; foreign goods were handled in the city. Wines were imported from
+France, fine cloths from Flemish towns, silks, velvet, and glass from
+Italy, while from the Baltic came timber and fur. From the North sea
+came fish, much of which was brought to York from the coast by
+pack-horse across the moors. The herring was an important article of
+food.
+
+Money was measured in marks, shillings, and pence. Of the current
+coins those in gold were called the angel, half-angel, the noble,
+half-noble, and quarter-noble; in silver there were the groat,
+half-groat, the penny, and half-penny. The local branch of the royal
+Mint was housed within the Castle. The building containing it was
+rebuilt in accordance with an order of 1423. The coins from this mint,
+which was at work during a large part of the fifteenth century, bore
+distinctive marks to show the place of minting. Silver coins bore the
+inscription CIVITAS EBORACI. The archbishops continued to use their
+privilege of coining money.
+
+The following extracts, interesting for the substance and the literary
+form, are taken from the city records as published by the Surtees
+Society, vols. 120, 125, "The York Memorandum Book."
+
+From the ordinances of the Pewterers, 1416.
+
+"Ordinaciones pewderariorum.
+
+"Ceux sont les articles de lez pewderers de Lounders, les queux les
+genz de mesme lartifice dyceste citee Deverwyk ount agrees pur agarder
+et ordeiner entre eux par deux ans passez, devant Johan Moreton,
+maire."
+
+Others of the earlier ordinances are in Anglo-French; many are in
+Latin. Later ordinances are in English as in the case of those of the
+Carpenters, 1482, of which the following are the opening paragraphs:--
+
+"In the honour of God, and for the weile of this full honourabill cite
+of York, and of the carpenters inhabit in the same at the special
+instaunce and praier of" ... (here follows a list of names) ...
+"carpenters of this full nobill cite, ar ordeyned the xxij^ti day of
+Novembyr in the xxij^ti yere of the reing of king Edward the iv. in
+the secund tym of the mairalte of the ryght honorabill Richard York
+mair of the said cite, by the authorite of the holl counsell of the
+said full honourable cite, for ewyr to be kept thez ordinaunces
+filluyg,
+
+"Furst, for asmoch as here afore ther hath beyn of old tym a
+broderhode had and usyd emong the occupacion and craft above said, the
+wich of long continuaunce have usid, and as yit yerly usis to fynd of
+thar propir costes a lyght of diwyrs torchis in the fest of Corpus
+Christi day, or of the morn aftir, in the honour and worship of God
+and all saintes, and to go in procession with the same torchis with
+the blessid sacrament from the abbey foundyd of the Holy Trenite in
+Mykylgate in the said cite on to the cathedrall chyrch of Saint Petir
+in the same cite; and also have done and usyd diwyrs odir right full
+good and honourabill deides, as her aftir it shall more playnly apeir.
+It is ordenyd and esyablyshid be the said mair, aldermen, and all the
+holl counsell of the said full nobill cite, be the consent and assent
+of all tham of the said occupacion in the said cite, that the said
+fraternite and bredirhode shalbe here after for ewyr kept and
+continend as it has beyn in tymis passid, and that every brodir thar
+of shall pay yerly for the sustentacion thar of vjd, that is to say,
+at every halff yer iij^d, providyng allway that every man of the said
+occupacion within the said cite shalnot be compellid ne boundeyn to be
+of the said fraternite ne brodirhood, ne noyn to be thar of bot soch
+as will of thar free will."
+
+
+D. RELIGIOUS LIFE
+
+[Illustration: ADMINISTERING HOLY COMMUNION WITH THE HOUSEL CLOTH.
+_From a Fourteenth-Century Manuscript._]
+
+Insistence can hardly be too great on the tremendous and wide-spread
+influence of the Church in the Middle Ages. The greatness of the
+Church continued during the fifteenth century; it derived from the
+traditions of an age when absolute power prevailed, from the
+undisputed usage of centuries, from a logical system of dogmas, and
+from international sanctions. The ornate services, allegiance to the
+distant Pope, the immense hold of the priests on the laity, the large
+territorial possessions of ecclesiastical bodies, impressed the people
+with the power of the Church. These things came to the fifteenth
+century as established facts. The spirit of revolt indeed had appeared
+with Wiclif and his followers in the fourteenth century, but Lollardy
+met with severe repressive opposition. It was not till Tudor times
+that the new spirit, stimulated by the Revival of Learning, the
+Reformation, the invention of printing from type, geographical
+discovery, the suppression of long years of internecine warfare, and
+the establishment of a strong government, had accumulated enough
+energy to burst the bonds of mediævalism. The fifteenth century was at
+the end of an age.
+
+It is interesting to note that Wiclif (_d._ 1384), one of England's
+greatest men, was ordained in York. He stands out as a "daring and
+inspired pioneer" who strove to provide the land with priests who were
+true and earnest shepherds. He attempted the superhuman task of
+reviving true religion among a people that had become to a certain
+extent dull, irreverent, ignorant, and thoroughly superstitious.
+
+By the fifteenth century the Church was suffering from those ills
+which needed and later gained drastic treatment. The Church had done
+almost miraculous work in the first few centuries of its existence, if
+we think only of the success with which it substituted its system of
+morality for that of pagan Rome. The fifteenth century followed those
+centuries when the Church of England, under the direction of great and
+earnest men, was doing its work with conspicuous success. Yet, the
+very forces that enabled the Church to make itself a living power in
+the Dark Ages, the early centuries embracing the Fall of Rome, the
+Empire of Charlemagne, and the kingship of Alfred the Great, became
+harmful to its continued activity beneficially in many directions. The
+inadequacy of its work in these centuries appears in the lack of
+spiritual activity and in the predominance of the material side of
+religion. The mediæval Church suffered badly from excessive
+conservatism, which led towards sloth and a complacent inactivity. The
+morbid element showed itself during the fifteenth century mainly in
+lack of real earnestness, in the enjoyment of luxurious laziness, and
+in the steady neglect of the age to revise its Christianity. The
+Church moreover, with its complete segregation from other estates of
+the realm had become unpopular socially, while in its political and
+temporal aspects it had become an immense corporation with strong
+vested interests. Kings found it necessary to fight it; religious
+reformers had to rise up and overcome every form of repression used
+against them. The decadence is exemplified incidentally in the
+increasing poverty in material and expression of the monastic
+chronicles, which practically died out by 1485. The period of turmoil
+and change was yet to come.
+
+Such was the general state of affairs. Nevertheless the forms and
+practices of the Church continued. The granting of indulgences and
+pardons, the inexhaustible demand for Peter's pence, went on
+vigorously. A recognised means of publicly raising funds was employed
+in February 1455-6, when the Archbishop proclaimed an indulgence of
+forty days to those who would help the Friars Preachers, whose
+cloister and buildings including 34 cells together with their books,
+vestments, jewels, and sacred vessels, had been destroyed by fire.
+
+The faith of the ordinary citizen was, however, intact. The Church
+came into the people's life daily. The citizen could not walk away
+from his home without seeing a church, and meeting a priest or a
+friar. He attended the Church services and fulfilled his religious
+duties. Baptism, marriage, death, illness, public rejoicing,
+soldiering, dramatic entertainments, the language of daily life--all
+these bore the stamp of the Church. The very days of relief from work
+were holy-days, feast days in the Church's calendar. Taking part in
+the public processions on Corpus Christi Day, a great annual holiday,
+was a religious exercise; at the same time this day was devoted
+especially to entertainment. Wills of the century show that the
+citizens lived as religiously as formerly. This spirit is seen perhaps
+most characteristically in the numbers of candles that wealthy
+citizens bequeathed for use in church, and in the sums of money they
+left to specified clergy and other "religious" for the provision of
+masses for the souls of themselves, their wives and families, and for
+those for whom they ought to pray. Masses were thus provided for by
+hundreds, and in some cases by thousands. The following extracts from
+the will[5] of a rich citizen and merchant of York, who had been
+sheriff and mayor of the city, show admirably the spirit of a member
+of the middle class in the fifteenth century:--
+
+"In the name of God Amen. The 4th day of September in the year of our
+Lord 1436, I Thomas Bracebrig, Citizen and merchant, York, sound of
+mind and having health of body, establish and dispose my Will in this
+manner. First, I command and bequeath my soul to God Almighty, to the
+blessed Mary, Mother of God and ever Virgin, and to All Saints, and my
+body to be buried in the parish church of St. Saviour in York, before
+the image of the Crucifix of our Lord Jesus Christ, next to the bodies
+of my wives and children lately buried there, for having which burial
+in that place I bequeath to the fabric of the same parish church 20s.
+Also I bequeath for my mortuary my best garment with hood appropriate
+for my body. Also I bequeath to Master John Amall, Rector of the said
+parish church for my tithes and oblations forgotten, and that he may
+more specially pray for my soul, 20s. Also I bequeath for two candles
+to burn at my exequies 30 lbs. of wax. Also 10 torches to burn around
+my body on the said day of my burial, and that each torch shall
+contain in itself 14 lbs. of pure wax.... Also I bequeath to 10 men
+carrying or holding the said 10 Torches in my exequies 10 Gowns, so
+that each of the said 10 poor men shall have in his gown and hood
+3-1/2 ells of russet or black cloth, and that the aforesaid gowns
+shall be lined with white woollen cloth. And I will that my Executors
+shall pay for the making of the same gowns with hoods.... Also I will
+and ordain that two fit and proper chaplains shall be found to
+celebrate for my soul, and the souls of my parents, wives, children,
+benefactors, and for the souls of those for whom I am bound or am
+debtor, as God shall know in that respect, and for the souls of all
+the faithful departed, for one whole year, immediately after my
+decease, in my parish church...."
+
+The will is a very long one. Altogether 470 lbs. of wax, to last 15
+years, would be necessary to satisfy the requirements of the will. 765
+masses are specially arranged for; besides, provision was made for
+masses to be said by more than 21 chaplains, the religious of 5
+priories for women, and by every friar and priest of the four orders
+of friars in York. There were also bequests to 2 anchoresses, 1
+anchorite, and 1 hermit, to pray for the soul of the testator and the
+souls aforesaid. Bequests were made to the poor of St. Saviour's; to
+lepers "in the 4 houses for lepers in the suburbs," to the poor in
+maisons-dieu; to the prisoners in the Castle, in the Archbishop's
+prison, and in the Kidcote. The testator ordered gifts of coal, wood,
+and shoes, and 1000 white loaves of bread, to be made among the poor
+and needy. The bequests to relatives and directions to the Executors
+occupy a large part of the Will, which is that of a particularly
+wealthy and important citizen. Charity, however, was a marked
+characteristic of these men who had become rich through trade. With a
+generous spirit they put into practice the teachings about giving to
+the poor and to prisoners. The amount of money spent in founding
+chantries, in paying priests for masses for the departed, testifies to
+their faith.
+
+It was part of the policy of the Church to keep the instruction of the
+people, young and old, in its own control. Practically all the
+educational work in York during the century was the work of the
+Church.
+
+Through the monasteries and hospitals the Church did valuable work in
+feeding the poor, helping the needy, and in educating the poorer
+citizens' boys. The royal Hospital of St. Leonard did such work. It
+was a peculiar institution, being under the authority of the King, and
+containing a sisterhood as well as a brotherhood. It included a
+grammar school and a song-school. As an institution it was
+self-supporting; food was made on the premises, and the carpenters'
+and similar work was done by brethren in the Hospital's own workshops.
+
+The large number of priests were variously employed. There were
+priests who officiated in the monastic churches, in the parish
+churches (as rectors and chaplains, of whom there were 300 in York in
+1436), in the cathedral where the number of chantry-chapels was very
+great and where services were held simultaneously as well as
+frequently. Some priests were vicars, that is, while the living or
+"cure" of souls was held by the rector, the vicar was the actual
+priest in charge, for the rector probably held more than one benefice
+and could not serve personally in more than one. Generally it was a
+corporate body, like the Dean and Chapter, or a monastery, that was
+the rector of a number of livings at the same time.
+
+Of the many clergy serving the Minster the Dean, who was the
+incumbent, ranked first. Much of the revenue of the Dean and Chapter,
+the Governing Body, came from landed possessions in York and various
+parts of the surrounding country. These possessions, divided into
+prebends, provided livings for the thirty-six prebendaries or canons,
+who collectively formed the Chapter. Each canon served at the Minster
+during a specified portion of the year, when he lived at his residence
+at York. The residences of the prebendaries were mostly round the
+Minster Close. While his own parish was served vicariously while he
+was at York, each canon had a minor-canon or vicar-choral to act as
+his deputy at York when he was absent. These vicars-choral formed a
+corporate body and lived collegiately in the Bedern. The numerous
+chantries in the Minster were served by priests who also lived
+collegiately but at St. William's College. The College, at the head of
+which was a Provost, was founded about the middle of the century.
+Previously these priests had lived in private houses.
+
+The parish priest was occupied in performing the services in his
+church, in hearing confessions, in teaching the children, in visiting,
+interrogating, consoling, and ministering the Sacraments to the sick
+and dying, and in guiding and sharing the life of his parish
+generally. Each parish church had a number of clergy besides the
+parish priest attached to it: the number varied from one to ten or
+more according to the number of chantries at the church. Each priest
+was helped a great deal in parochial affairs by the parish clerk. The
+latter was the chief lay official for business in connection with the
+parish church. His duties required him to be a man of some education.
+
+The Archbishop was both bishop of the diocese of York, and head of all
+the dioceses which together formed the Northern Province of the two
+provinces into which England was divided for the purpose of Church
+rule. His diocese formerly extended so far south as to include
+Nottingham and Southwell.
+
+The Archbishop was a Primate and occupied a high position in the
+State. Besides being supreme head of the Church in the northern
+province, he was a great landowner. He possessed, besides his palace
+near the Minster, a number of seats (like Cawood Castle) in the
+country. When he was in London he resided at his fine official palace,
+York House. The Archbishops were great lords of the realm in every
+way. Archbishop Neville, brother of Warwick "the king-maker,"
+celebrated his installation in 1465 with a very famous feast. The huge
+amount and delicacy of the dishes prepared, the number of retainers
+employed, the splendour of the scene, which was honoured by the
+presence of the Duke of Gloucester and members of some of the most
+noble families in the kingdom, all the details of this sumptuous
+feast, were intended to impress King Edward IV. with the might of the
+Nevilles.
+
+Ecclesiastical preferment was often a reward for services in other
+branches of the service of the State. Sometimes great offices in the
+Church and the State were held simultaneously. Thus, Archbishop
+Rotherham was also Chancellor of England for a time. Both Richard
+Scrope and William Booth, archbishops of the century, had been
+lawyers. The appointment of George Neville, who had been nominated
+when only twenty-three to the see of Exeter, was a purely political
+one, the bestowing of a high and lucrative office on a member of a
+noble family that was enjoying the full sunshine of popularity and
+power. The King could also benefit from Church positions otherwise
+than by presenting them to partisans. During the two and a half years
+that the see of York was kept vacant between the time of the execution
+of Archbishop Scrope and the appointment of Henry Bowett (in 1407),
+the revenues went, in accordance with the established practice, to the
+royal purse.
+
+There were also "clerks," educated men, but not priests, who were in
+"minor orders." Many a man, asserting that he was a clerk, made
+application for trial by an ecclesiastical court, so as to get the
+benefit of the less stringent judgment of the Church courts, to which
+belonged the right of dealing with ecclesiastical offenders.
+
+One abuse within the Church was pluralism, that is, the holding of
+more than one office at the same time with the result that the holder
+was drawing revenue for work he could not himself do. William Sever,
+for instance, while Abbot of St. Mary's, York, became Bishop of
+Carlisle. These two high offices, one monastic and the other secular,
+he held simultaneously from 1495 to 1502.
+
+The religious orders were of two kinds, viz. monks (and nuns) who
+lived in seclusion in monasteries, abbeys, or convents, and friars,
+who lived under a rule but came out into the world to preach and work.
+Both kinds took the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience to the
+rule (_e.g._, Cistercian or Benedictine, Franciscan or Dominican). Some,
+but not all, monks and friars were priests. There were four well-known
+orders of mendicant friars, viz. Franciscan (Grey friars, friars
+minor), Dominican (Black friars, friars preachers), Carmelite (White
+friars), Augustinian (Austin canons). Monks and friars wore sandals,
+and long, loose gowns with hoods or cowls which they could pull over
+their heads to serve as hats. The alternative titles of some of the
+orders of friars came from the colour of their friars' gowns. The
+Carmelites used undyed cloth, which was white in comparison with the
+black of the Dominicans. The Benedictine monks of St. Mary's Abbey
+wore black garments. Their heads were shaved on the crown, the
+technical term for which was the tonsure.
+
+[Illustration: SEMI-CHOIR OF FRANCISCANS.
+_From a Fifteenth-Century Manuscript._]
+
+Monks spent their time in attending the frequent services in the
+monastery church, which they entered at the night and early morning
+services directly from the dormitories; in copying manuscripts, which
+occupied a large part of their day; in contemplation and in study; in
+manual work; in recreation. The cloister where work was carried on and
+the church were the essential buildings of the monastery. Monastic
+life centred in these two places. Its arrangements were dictated by
+the purpose of making a religious atmosphere pervade everything; thus
+a religious book was read at meals.
+
+The luxury and laxity that obtained in monastic life were not confined
+to the fifteenth century. The Archbishop had frequent occasion in the
+fourteenth century to complain, for instance, of the use by monks and
+nuns of ornaments, and of clothes of finer material than the
+traditional rule permitted. He condemned the wearing of clothes cut to
+a worldly pattern. The religious had to be admonished from time to
+time not to admit strangers within the cloister, and to conform in all
+respects strictly to their rule.
+
+During the century St. Mary's Abbey contained about sixty monks,
+including the Abbot, the supreme head, and the Prior, who held the
+second highest office; besides, there was a very large number of
+lay-brethren, servants and officers, for in addition to the internal
+work at the abbey, there was the management of the abbey estates and
+business. Abbots and monks were always keen traders. Altogether the
+personnel of St. Mary's might have numbered about two hundred.
+
+The influence of such a monastery as St. Mary's was very far from
+being restricted to affairs within the abbey walls. Through its Abbot
+it had a spokesman in the House of Lords. There were cells dependant
+on the abbey and often at a distance. The Abbot had a number of
+residences in the country and one in London. The abbey itself had
+numerous possessions of land and manors in many parts of the country.
+This was a principal source of revenue. St. Mary's Abbey also had
+jurisdiction over many churches, not only in York and Yorkshire, but
+in other counties as well. The other monastic institutions and the
+Minster and some of the hospitals, for example St. Leonard's, had
+similar rights of jurisdiction and the ownership of land, property,
+and churches.
+
+In some of the churchyards there lived anchorites, anchoresses, and
+hermits. These were individuals who chose to live a solitary life
+spent in prayer and religious work. Anchorites led a life of strict
+seclusion, for they were literally shut in their cells, from the
+world. They did not, however, eschew all intercourse with others, for
+their solitary lives of devotion, and in some cases of study, gave
+them a reputation for wisdom that led people to seek them for their
+advice. Permission was given by the Church authorities to those who
+took up this mode of life, the assumption of which formed part of a
+special service. The Pontifical of Archbishop Bainbridge, who held the
+see from 1508 to 1514, contains an office for the Enclosing of an
+Anchorite. Hermits lived in less strict seclusion. Their aims were
+similar, but they went about in the world doing good works.
+
+One of the worst features of the religious decadence of the Middle
+Ages was the craftiness of such spurious types of men as those whom
+Chaucer painted in the Pardoner and the Somonour, and Charles Reade
+depicted in the peripatetic "cripples" of "The Cloister and the
+Hearth." Chaucer wrote in the true spirit of comedy _mores corrigere
+ridendo_, but Langland, his contemporary, who described similar types
+of men of State as well as of Church, did so from the point of view of
+a moral reformer whose satire is a trenchant weapon.
+
+There were many other types of religious men, but it must suffice to
+refer to Pardoners, who by virtue of papal bulls gave pardons,
+expecting, exacting if necessary, a reward in return, and to mention
+only palmers and pilgrims, who were seen in York when they came to
+visit the shrine of St. William in the Minster. The palmers were
+pilgrims who had visited the Holy Land. They liked to wear a
+scallop-shell in their broad-brimmed hats as a sign of their extensive
+travels. Journeying from shrine to shrine was a favourite occupation,
+a professional one, of those pilgrims who loved a wandering and easy
+life, seeing the sights and living at the expense of the monastic
+hospitality. Some pilgrimages were done by proxy, through the
+employment of professional pilgrims. A pilgrimage to a shrine
+celebrated for miraculous cures or the efficacy of the spiritual
+benefit derived from worshipping at it and invoking the help of the
+saint, was for many an exercise of deep religious devotion. There is
+no doubt, moreover, that at the shrines of the saints the Church
+proved itself a great healer. It was in fact the popular physician.
+Apart from surgery, the medical practice of the twentieth century is
+in some ways the successor of that of the Church of the fifteenth.
+
+When very popular religious men died, or when, if they were already
+dead as in the case of William, Archbishop of York (who died in 1153
+and was canonised in 1227), popularity sprang up, it was quite usual
+for it to be discovered that miracles were being wrought at their
+tombs. The case of the popular Archbishop Scrape who was executed is a
+typical one. In this way the calendar of saints was enlarged, the
+devout had a new interest, the Church maintained its position in the
+popular eye and mind, and its funds increased.
+
+The mediæval Church, however, appeared perhaps at its best in its
+Church services, which drew their effect from the sanctity of the
+magnificent building (whether cathedral or parish church), the awe
+inspired by the Church politic, the use of Latin and the learned
+atmosphere, the religious teaching, and, not least, the imposing
+ceremonies, and the ornate ritual performed amid a profusion of
+lighted wax candles by priests and dignitaries in resplendent
+vestments.
+
+
+E. EDUCATION
+
+The only school engaged in higher education in York in the century was
+St. Peter's School, a very old foundation, where Alcuin, who (in 782)
+had carried educational reform to the land of the Franks, had been
+master. At this school, which was attached to the cathedral, were
+educated those who were to spend their lives in scholarship,
+especially, as now, after residence at Oxford or Cambridge; future
+priests and clerks; the sons of the nobility and of the more wealthy
+members of the merchant class in the city. Other regular schools were
+the Grammar School at the royal Hospital of St. Leonard and the one at
+Fossgate Hospital. This educational work was one of the most valuable
+kinds of public work done by these hospitals.
+
+A more elementary and less well organised education was given by the
+parish priests and the chantry priests, from whom the children of the
+city generally, boys and girls, received at least oral instruction.
+
+Girls usually received a practical upbringing at home. The only
+schools for girls were those attached to women's monasteries, of which
+there was St. Clement's Nunnery alone in York.
+
+Educational welfare work, as distinct from direct and organised
+class-teaching, was carried on by the friars, the religious men who
+lived under a rule but who went out to work in the world, instead of
+spending their lives in seclusion as the monks did. The Dominican and
+Franciscan Friars played an important part in education by teaching,
+especially at the Universities. Education was also a foremost interest
+of the Augustinians, who supported a college at Oxford.
+
+Books, which had all to be written by hand, were scarce. The copying
+of manuscripts, which was done mostly in the monasteries, was
+laborious work. Instruction was given as a rule orally, but also by
+means of pictorial art and drama. The stained-glass windows were more
+than ornamental additions to the church building: they were part of
+the means of instruction. Mediæval drama had originated in the
+Church's effort to make events described in the gospel more real
+through their representation dramatically.
+
+The teaching of manual skill and craftsmanship was entirely the work
+of the masters of the crafts under the general supervision of the
+guilds. The work of the age was made beautiful, and being handwork
+each piece of work gained the interest of individuality. The details
+of architectural ornament, in consequence, show wonderful diversity of
+form. The naïve spirit of the ordinary handicraft workman was often
+reflected in his work. The arts of the goldsmith, silversmith,
+bell-founder, vestment-maker (which required elaborate embroidery),
+and the sculptor, were practised in York with excellent results.
+
+There has never been a university of York, although under Alcuin the
+school of York was doing work of high quality, work that gained
+European fame. Even within the last hundred years, when so many
+provincial universities and university colleges have been established,
+York, one of the most appropriate places, has not obtained a
+university.
+
+News and information reached the citizens mainly from personal
+intercourse. Merchants visiting other cities discussed with fellow
+merchants not only their immediate business but also past and current
+events. Pilgrims, palmers, and sailors recited their adventures on
+distant seas and lands, and told of the wonders of the world. The
+ordinary citizen, who read little, depended on conversations with
+better-informed citizens and strangers. The city council was
+continually in communication with the King and the great officers of
+State: information filtered down from the council to the citizens. The
+messengers often supplied the latest semi-official news. Officials and
+servants attached to the royal service or to that of nobles or of
+ecclesiastics (like the Archbishop of York), were the source of much
+political gossip. The news of the country passed to and fro between
+the city and the monastic lands, the castles, the manors, and the
+forests by means of the visits of men who lived at those places.
+Markets and fairs and public assemblies, whether the holding of
+assizes or on State visits, were occasions for the dissemination of
+news. The ordinary citizen gathered news and information also from the
+pulpit and from guild and parochial meetings, and from the bellman.
+The only authoritative news he received at first hand he got by
+listening to the public reading of proclamations.
+
+In the Middle Ages educated men who had no inclination for the life of
+the Church, monastic or secular, nor for landed proprietorship, with
+which was combined hunting and soldiering, became clerks. The clerks
+in the royal service helped in the work of administration of national
+affairs. Tradesmen's sons of ability and opportunity succeeded in
+gaining good positions in this service. Nobles also employed clerks.
+
+Altogether there seems to have been in the fifteenth century good
+provision for higher education. The people of the Middle Ages were not
+illiterate. The outstanding age of illiteracy (not to mention a host
+of other evils) in England was the age that began with the Industrial
+Revolution, when statesmen failed to make the public services keep
+pace with the rapidly increasing population and the rapid development
+of new conditions. That there was as large a public ready and eager to
+buy the books that printing from type made possible has been regarded
+as a disproof of general illiteracy. The books were published in the
+vernacular: the people read them. It was in 1476 that Caxton set up
+his press at Westminster. The first printing press established in York
+was set up in 1509.
+
+Nevertheless the general state of education and scholarship in England
+in the fifteenth century was at a low level, mainly owing to lack of
+enthusiasm and to the limited subjects of study. Natural science was
+unable yet to flourish. Mediæval education was humanistic, but the old
+springs of this form of study were nearly dried up. The Greek classics
+were entirely lost. Even the few Latin classics that the mediævals
+possessed, they did not understand aright. To Virgil's Æneid they gave
+a Christian interpretation! Grammar was the basis of study, which
+dealt mainly with such works as those of Cicero, Virgil, Boethius.
+
+The fifteenth century, the last century of an age, was a backwater in
+education as in literature. The great revival was to come. The
+fifteenth century was indeed a century of revolution in so far as
+under the almost placid surface of continuity and conformity, there
+were forces of revolt at work, probing, accumulating knowledge and
+experience, perhaps unconsciously, for the day of liberation and
+change. The Bible was not yet popularly available. Wiclif had been a
+pioneer in the work of translation and publication, but Tyndale and
+Coverdale in the sixteenth century supplied what he had aimed at doing
+in the fourteenth. The fifteenth century was the quiet dark hour
+before the dawn. As Coleridge expressed it: No sooner had the Revival
+of learning "sounded through Europe like the blast of an archangel's
+trumpet than from king to peasant there arose an enthusiasm for
+knowledge, the discovery of a manuscript became the subject of an
+embassy: Erasmus read by moonlight because he could not afford a
+torch, and begged a penny, not for the love of charity, but for the
+love of learning." But even then, when the enthusiasm and the will
+were there, such was the dearth of material for learning that, as in
+the case of Erasmus, the pioneers had practically nothing to work at
+but the classical texts and a few meagre vocabularies with etymologies
+of mediæval scholarship. In 1491 Grocyn began to teach Greek at
+Oxford. In 1499 Erasmus first visited England. Referring to his visit
+to this country in 1505-6 he wrote: "There are in London five or six
+men who are thorough masters of both Latin and Greek; even in Italy I
+doubt that you would find their equals." England's position was,
+therefore, in this respect a good one.
+
+[Illustration: ARCHERY.]
+
+
+F. ENTERTAINMENTS
+
+In the Middle Ages holidays were taken at festivals marked in the
+Church calendar. Some feasts, like that of Whitsuntide, were
+universally observed. The ordinary length of a festival was eight
+days, that is, the full week--the octave. Apart from pilgrimages, the
+ordinary people travelled little. Moreover the life and property of
+travellers were not altogether secure in the forest land, with the
+result that treasure and distinguished people travelled under the care
+of an armed escort. A large city like York was practically
+self-supporting in public amusements. The fifteenth century saw the
+full development of the religious mystery plays, and the allegorical
+morality plays, which with their comic interludes had become popular
+from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The feast of Corpus
+Christi (instituted about 1263) was the most important time in the
+year for the playing of these typically mediæval dramas. Begun more
+than three centuries earlier within the Church and performed by the
+clergy, as a dramatic reinforcement of the services and preaching, the
+mediæval drama owed its origin mainly to the Church which maintained
+its influence as long as this drama continued. It soon came into the
+care of laymen, who took part in the productions. In the fifteenth
+century, these plays, which were produced almost entirely by laymen,
+were so numerous that they were formed in cycles or groups. The texts
+of some of the most famous cycles, those of York, Chester, Wakefield,
+and Coventry, have survived. The various trade-guilds made themselves
+responsible for the production of one pageant of the local cycle, or
+two or three guilds joined to produce a pageant, so that the whole
+city produced a large number of plays to celebrate the feast of Corpus
+Christi. Among its officers a guild had its pageant-master, whose duty
+it was to supervise the guild's dramatic work.
+
+The York plays, the texts dating from the middle of the fourteenth
+century, are extant. In 1415 fifty-seven pageant plays were produced.
+Productions were made in York down to 1579. The following are examples
+taken from among the fifty-seven plays and guilds:--
+
+The Shipwrights          produced the Building of the Ark,
+the Fishers and Mariners     "        Noah and the Flood,
+the Spicers                  "     "  Annunciation,
+the Tilers                   "     "  Birth of Christ,
+the Goldsmiths               "     "  Adoration,
+the Vintners                 "     "  Wedding in Cana,
+the Skinners                 "     "  entry into Jerusalem,
+the Baxters                  "     "  Last Supper,
+the Tapiters and Couchers    "        Christ before Pilate,
+the Saucemakers              "     "  Death of Judas,
+the Bouchers                 "     "  Death of Christ,
+the Carpenters               "     "  Resurrection,
+the Scriveners               "     "  Incredulity of Thomas,
+the Tailors                  "     "  Ascension,
+the Mercers                  "     "  Day of Judgment.
+
+The full cycle gave in dramatic form the leading episodes of the
+Scriptures from the Creation to the Last Day.
+
+While the trade-guilds were thus responsible for individual pageants,
+help and control were given by the Guild of Corpus Christi
+(inaugurated in 1408 and incorporated in 1459), and the city council.
+The guild had a very large number of members, among whom were the
+Archbishop, many bishops and abbots and nobles. These dramatic
+productions belonged to the religious and social sides of the guilds.
+The plays, however, did not always provoke pleasure, for sometimes
+members of some of the guilds complained of the financial burden they
+were forced to bear in order to produce the plays allotted to them.
+
+The guilds also took part in public processions with torches on Corpus
+Christi Day in celebration of this popular festival. In the
+processions, which were closely connected with the religious and
+guild-phases of city life, there walked city clergy wearing their
+surplices, the master of the Guild of Corpus Christi, the guild
+officials, the bearers of the shrine of the guild, the mayor, aldermen
+and corporation, and officers and members of the Guild of Corpus
+Christi and of the city trade-guilds. As the procession went on its
+way litanies and chants were sung by the clergy. The shrine, the
+central feature of the procession, was presented in 1449. It was
+itself of gilt and had many images some of which were gilded, while
+the main ones under the "steeple" were in mother-of-pearl, silver, and
+gold: to it were attached rings, brooches, girdles, buckles, beads,
+gawds and crucifixes, in gold and silver, and adorned with coral and
+jewels.
+
+On the occasion of the processions and performances of pageants, as at
+fairs, the city was filled with a boisterous multitude which turned
+what was by tradition a religious exercise and entertainment, to a
+time of riotous merry-making, and uncouth disorder. In 1426 a kind of
+crusade was preached by a friar minor, William Melton, against the
+riotous and drunken conduct of the people at the Corpus Christi
+festival. He denounced the disgracing of the festival and affirmed
+that the people were forfeiting by their conduct the indulgences
+granted for the festival. The result of the friar's crusade was the
+holding of a special meeting of the city council, which decided that
+the processions and pageants were to be held on separate days, the
+pageants on the eve of Corpus Christi, and the procession on the feast
+itself. Formerly both had taken place on the same day.
+
+The pageants were produced in suitable parts of the city. Stages on
+wheels were brought to these places, some of them open spaces, others
+main streets. The stages, which were the work of citizen workmen, were
+of three storeys, the central and principal one, the stage proper,
+representing the earth. Demons, in gaudy attire, came up from the
+flame-region of the lowest storey; divine messengers and personages
+came down from the star and cloud adorned tipper storey. The
+tiring-room was below and behind the stage. The acting was by members
+of the guilds. They, no doubt, practised here, as elsewhere, the
+ranting delivery of their speeches so denounced by Hamlet in his
+critical address to the Players, whom he admonished to speak
+"trippingly on the tongue" and not to "out-Herod Herod." There are
+several references in Shakespeare to these plays of the Middle Ages.
+For instance, in _Twelfth Night_:
+
+    "Like to the old Vice
+    ......
+    Who with dagger of lath
+    In his rage and his wrath,
+    Cries, Ah, ah! to the devil."
+
+and in _Henry V._:
+
+             "... this roaring devil i' the old play
+    that every one may pare his nails with a wooden dagger."
+
+Stands for spectators were erected by private enterprise for profit in
+many places in the city. The general assembly, preparatory to the
+beginning of the performances {original had "performanes"}, took place
+on Pageant Green, now called Toft Green (which lies behind that side
+of Micklegate which is opposite Holy Trinity). The first performances
+were made at the gates of Holy Trinity Priory (on the west side of the
+river); there were four performances in Micklegate (a street near the
+Priory); four in Coney Street (the main street on the east side of the
+river)--and likewise performances in other parts of the city. The last
+three performances took place at the gates of the Minster; in Low
+Petergate, and in Pavement, which was one of the city market squares.
+
+When Richard III. came to York in 1483, part of his entertainment
+consisted of performances of pageants.
+
+The only other public dramatic entertainments were crude, coarse,
+popular plays, done by strolling players. A mediæval crowd at fair
+time was entertained by mountebanks, tumblers, and similar rough
+makers of unrefined mirth.
+
+The Corporation had a band of minstrels in its service.
+
+Of physical games archery was the most practised. This was the
+national physical exercise, one which had helped the English soldiers
+to gain a great reputation for themselves, as at Agincourt (1415). At
+York the "butts," where men practised archery, were outside the city
+walls.
+
+
+G. CLASSES
+
+Class divisions were well marked. They appeared in manners, in dress,
+and in occupation.
+
+Fashions varied considerably as the century progressed. There were
+close-fitting dresses and loose ones, small head-dresses like the caul
+(a jewelled net to bind in the hair) and high and broad erections that
+went to the other extreme. Men now wore their hair long; later they
+had it close-cropped. Perhaps the most wonderful fashion was that
+which men followed in wearing hose of different colours. With all the
+vagaries of fashion the most striking feature of dress was the use of
+rich and a manifold variety of colours. Excepting the case of the
+dress of the religious, which was generally of a sombre hue, colour
+characterised men's clothes as much as it did the dresses of women.
+The doublet was the coat of the time. Sleeves were generally big. Long
+and pointed shoes were characteristic, but it was the cloak that
+proved so effective a piece of dress, the cloak that has such scenic
+possibilities, that can so nicely express character. There were only
+few kinds of personal ornament. The most usual were brooches, belts,
+chains, and pendants, and especially finger-rings, of which the signet
+ring was a popular form.
+
+The nobles, great landowners, in many cases of Norman origin, were
+lords over a considerable number of people. York, being a royal city,
+escaped many of the troubles consequent on rule by an immediate
+overlord. Besides himself, his family, and personal servants, a lord
+provided for a retinue of armed retainers, who formed a kind of
+body-guard and a force to serve the king as occasion demanded; in
+addition, important household officials, such as secretaries and
+treasurers. Among noblemen's followers there were many dependents,
+some, no doubt, parasites, but a number, especially if literary men,
+in need of patronage to help them to live as well as to pursue their
+vocation.
+
+[Illustration: AN ABBOT.]
+
+The different kinds of religious men have already been mentioned from
+archbishops and abbots to the scurrilous impostors who used a
+religious exterior to rob poor people, at whose expense they lived
+well a wandering, loose, hypocritical life. In York, there were monks
+and friars, cathedral, parochial, and chantry priests, and clerks. The
+monastic life was a recognised profession. In the monasteries there
+were, besides regular monks, novices or those who aspired to take the
+full monastic vows, and, especially in the fifteenth century, by which
+time the importance of lowly, arduous service for the brethren and
+personal labour had lapsed, a very large number of semi-religious and
+lay brethren, who were really servants to the regular monks. In the
+fifteenth century the religious houses were extremely wealthy. Some of
+the monks were of noble birth. Nobles, when travelling, usually lodged
+at the monastic houses, which were dotted all over England. The kings
+resided often at abbeys when visiting the provinces. Richard III.,
+when Duke of Gloucester, resided at the Austin Friary in York.
+
+The one monastic house for women was St. Clement's Nunnery. There
+were, moreover, sisterhoods in the hospitals of, for example, St.
+Leonard and St. Nicholas.
+
+St. Leonard's Hospital, among its many functions, was a home of royal
+pensioners.
+
+The townspeople were chiefly merchants and tradesmen and those they
+employed, and the wives and families of all of them. Men of this type,
+both rich and poor, rose to important positions in trade and city
+life, and in the King's service. Some entered the service of nobles.
+Great dignity was attached to the higher positions of authority in
+city and guild life. Trade led to wealth and increased comfort and a
+higher social state. Men in the King's service received preferment
+more often than direct monetary reward.
+
+Women had only the monastic life to enter as a profession. They could
+become full members of a number of the York trade-guilds. The social
+position of women in the retrograde fifteenth century fully agrees
+with the absence of women from among those who achieved notability in
+the city during the century.
+
+The most interesting type of citizens was that composed of the
+freemen, who formed the vast majority of the inhabitants. As the name
+implies, they were historically the descendants of the men who in
+earlier times were freed from serfdom. It was the freemen who, through
+the Mayor and Corporation, paid rent to the King for the city, its
+rights and possessions. There are still, it may be noted, freemen of
+the city, distinct from those distinguished men who have received its
+honorary freedom. The main privileges of the mediæval freemen included
+the right of trading in the city, and of voting. They also had rights
+over the common lands attached to the city, and they were eligible to
+fill the offices of local civic government if thought wealthy enough
+to be elected into such a "close self-elected corporation."
+
+Soldiers of the royal army were stationed in York at the Castle. The
+Wars of the Roses, wars of kings and nobles, lasted from 1455 to 1485
+and, although York itself hardly experienced the warfare, it saw
+contingents of the forces of both sides, as well as the leaders and
+royal heads of both parties.
+
+There lived in the city a number of men in the royal service. Some
+worked at the administrative offices of the royal forest of Galtres,
+Davy Hall, where the chief officer himself dwelt. There were also the
+men who worked at the royal Fish Pond near which was Fishergate in
+which street most of these men lived.
+
+Those afflicted with leprosy, a disease which in England disappeared
+toward the end of the fifteenth century, dwelt apart for fear of
+infecting the healthy. The four hospitals outside the four main
+entrances to the city served to keep the disease isolated.
+
+York received from time to time a large number and a great diversity
+of visitors. Distinguished visitors usually received gifts from the
+Corporation. Kings, queens, and full court and retinue came, and
+sometimes the entire houses of Parliament. At such times great crowds
+of nobles, spiritual lords, commoners, officers, military and civil,
+thronged the city and taxed its accommodation. On such an occasion as
+Richard III.'s attendance at the Minster for mass, or the visit of
+Henry V., the narrow streets were packed to suffocation with people
+assembled to watch the processions of gorgeously arrayed sovereigns,
+princes, peers, ecclesiastics, soldiers, and distinguished commoners.
+The Duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard III., was very popular in
+the North, especially in York, where he was received (as in 1483) with
+magnificence and festivity. The north was loyal to him and gave him
+much support in his political schemes.
+
+The visits of the royal judges of assize, of sailors and pilgrims,
+have already been mentioned. Pedlars, who were active nomad tradesmen,
+were always to be found in town and country dealing in their small
+wares.
+
+Last, and some of the unhappiest, among the types of people to be
+found in a mediæval city were serfs who had absconded from the lands
+or the service to which they were bound. They sometimes fled to a city
+for the security it afforded. Serfdom, however, was rapidly
+disappearing.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] G. Benson: "Parish of Holy Trinity, Goodramgate, York."
+
+[2] _De heretico comburendo_, 1401. In 1539 Valentine Freez, a
+freeman, and his wife, were burnt at the stake on Knavesmire for
+heresy. Frederick Freez, Valentine's father, was a book-printer and a
+freeman (1497).
+
+[3] Cf. French _journée_.
+
+[4] Sauce was much used. The people of the Middle Ages had an especial
+liking for spices and highly-seasoned foods.
+
+[5] As translated from the Latin by the late Mr. R.B. Cook and found
+among his valuable contributions to the publications of The Yorkshire
+Architectural Society.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+Life in York in the fifteenth century was active. Trade, home and
+continental, was flourishing. Building operations were in hand; work
+was always proceeding at the Minster or at one or other of the
+religious houses and churches. There were so many social elements
+established in and visiting York that something of interest was always
+taking place. Entertainments were plentiful and pageants were as well
+produced in York as anywhere in the kingdom. The city enjoyed a
+particularly large measure of local government. Its reputation was
+great. According to contemporary standards it was a fine prosperous
+city, one that contained resplendent ecclesiastical buildings that
+were second to none. In short, it was a "full nobill cite."
+
+Although the present city looks, in parts, more typically mediæval
+than modern, York to-day forms a very great contrast with the
+fifteenth-century city. We are separated from the fifteenth century by
+the Renaissance, the Reformation, and Tudor England, by the Civil War
+and the Restoration, by the "age of prose and reason," the keen-minded
+and rough-mannered eighteenth century, by the Industrial Revolution,
+and by that second Renaissance, the Victorian Age, during which the
+amenities of daily life were revolutionised. Radical changes are to be
+seen, for example, in the style of architecture, the mode of
+transmission of news, the methods of transport, the form of municipal
+government, the maintenance of the public peace, and in social
+relationships, more particularly with regard to industry and commerce
+and the parts played by employer and employed. The number of
+inhabitants to-day is about six times that of the mediæval city. The
+contrast, which is so great in most ways as to be quite obvious, is an
+interesting and profitable study, but it might have been founded on
+more precise data, for, great as is the amount of valuable material
+that York can supply concerning its history, investigation shows how
+much greater that amount would have been had the city and its rulers
+during the last century or two realised the value of the accumulated
+original historical riches that it contained.
+
+Whereas the moderns obliterated practically all they came against,
+fortunately the earlier people were content to make no change beyond
+what was immediately necessary. Hence the survival of material most
+valuable to the historian and archæologist. York, as it is to-day, is
+a city marvellously rich in survivals of past ages. It is also, as a
+result especially of the nineteenth century, a city of destruction.
+While we may regret but not repine at the disappearance of much of
+interest and value as the result of progress, yet wanton, ruthless
+destruction, such as has taken place within the last century, deserves
+the sternest denunciation. In spite of its being, in consequence, a
+"city of destruction," York is a store-house of original material for
+the history of England. Its records are in earth, stone, brick, wood,
+plaster, bone, and coin-metal; on parchment, paper, and glass; above
+the ground and below it--everywhere and in every form. This wealth of
+historical material, connected with practically every period of our
+national history, is a priceless possession and one that is not yet
+exhausted.
+
+
+
+
+Printed by William Clowes and Sons, Ltd., London and Beccles.
+
+
+
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Life in a Mediæval City, by Edwin Benson
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Life in a Mediæval City
+       Illustrated by York in the XVth Century
+
+
+Author: Edwin Benson
+
+
+
+Release Date: February 24, 2006  [eBook #17848]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE IN A MEDIæVAL CITY***
+
+
+E-text prepared by R. Cedron, gvb, and the Project Gutenberg Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 17848-h.htm or 17848-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/8/4/17848/17848-h/17848-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/8/4/17848/17848-h.zip)
+
+
+Transcriber's notes:
+
+   All material added by the transcriber is surrounded by braces {}.
+
+   The original has a number of inconsistent spellings and punctuation.
+   Three corrections have been made for obvious typographical errors;
+   they have been noted individually in the text.
+
+   Text in italics in the original is shown between _underlines_.
+   Superscript (three instances in this book) is marked by a caret (^).
+
+
+
+
+
+LIFE IN A MEDIAEVAL CITY
+
+Illustrated by York in the XVth Century
+
+by
+
+EDWIN BENSON, B.A.
+
+With Eight Illustrations
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+London:
+Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
+New York: The MacMillan Co.
+1920
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+IMPORTANT FACTORS AFFECTING THE HISTORY OF YORK
+
+(_a_) Geographical position; (_b_) Military value of its position;
+(_c_) Political importance
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+APPEARANCE
+
+A. _General appearance_
+
+Church, State, people; outside the city; population; area-divisions
+
+B. _Streets_
+
+Highways, traffic, open-spaces; Ouse Bridge
+
+C. _Buildings_
+
+Dwelling-houses, shops, inns; civic buildings (guildhalls);
+fortifications (castle, city walls, bars); religious buildings
+(Minster; St. William's College; St. Mary's Abbey; Friaries; St.
+Clement's Nunnery; Hospitals; Parish Churches)
+
+D. _York as a Port_
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+LIFE
+
+A. _Civic Life_
+
+City government, the parishes; extra municipal rights; a royal city;
+charter; sheriffs; mayor; city councils; civic spirit; city and trade
+rule; royal government; punishments; sanctuary
+
+B. _Parliamentary and National Life_
+
+Leasing of royal power; Parliament; visits of Henry IV.; Wars of
+Roses; Duke of Gloucester; judges of assize; royal larder
+
+C. _Business Life_
+
+Middle class of merchant employers; Jews and Italians; professions;
+wool trade; trade-guilds; their government; strangers; phases of guild
+life; merchants; apprentices; working hours; trades; artist craftsmen;
+markets and fairs; overseas trade; money; extracts from ordinances
+
+D. _Religious Life_
+
+The Church in the Middle Ages; the Church and daily life; merchants
+and religion; the Church and education; work of hospitals; priests (at
+Minster; parish churches; Archbishop); pluralism; religious orders;
+monastic life; St. Mary's Abbey; Anchorites; other types of religious
+(pardoner, palmer, pilgrim {original had "pligrim"}); Church services
+
+E. _Education_
+
+Higher education; grammar schools; elementary education; educational
+welfare work; instruction; the ways in which the citizen got news and
+information; vocations; literacy in fifteenth century; mediaeval
+learning; Revival of Learning
+
+F. _Entertainments_
+
+Holidays, travelling; mediaeval plays; York plays; Corpus Christi Day
+Processions; production of pageants; other forms of entertainment;
+archery
+
+G. _Classes_
+
+Fashions and dress; nobles; religious; townspeople; women; the
+freemen; soldiers; men in royal service; lepers; visitors (kings,
+lords, commoners; judges; sailors) serfs
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+York a city of destruction and a "storehouse of the past"
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+YORK IN THE XVTH CENTURY
+_(From a drawing by E. Ridsdale Tate)_
+
+COOKING WITH THE SPIT
+_(From the Louttrell Psalter)_
+
+BISHOP AND CANONS
+_(From Richard II.'s "Book of Hours")_
+
+KNIGHTS DOING PENANCE AT A SHRINE
+_(From a XVth Century MS.)_
+
+ADMINISTRATION OF HOLY COMMUNION WITH HOUSEL CLOTH
+_(From a XIVth Century MS.)_
+
+SEMI-CHOIR OF FRANCISCANS
+_(From a XVth Century MS.)_
+
+ARCHERY
+_(From the Louttrell Psalter)_
+
+AN ABBOT
+
+[Illustration: YORK IN THE XVTH CENTURY FROM A DRAWING BY E.
+RIDSDALE TATE]
+
+
+
+
+A MEDIAEVAL CITY
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+In English history the fifteenth century is the last of the centuries
+that form the Middle Ages, which were preceded by the age of racial
+settlement and followed by that of the great Renaissance. Although the
+active beginnings of this new era are to be observed in the fifteenth
+century, yet this century belongs essentially to the Middle Ages.
+
+Perhaps the most attractive feature of the Middle Ages is that they
+were so intensely human. A naive spirit appears in their formal
+literature, as in Chaucer's account of the Canterbury pilgrims, in
+their decorated religious manuscripts, in their thought, and very
+characteristically, in their architecture, which combines a simple
+naturalness with a bold and daring ingenuity. From columns, the
+constructional motive of which is so simple and natural, and walls
+pierced with windows, they erected systems of lofty arches and high
+stone-vaulted roofs, the stability of which depended on very skilled
+balancing of thrust and counter-thrust.
+
+To-day mediaeval buildings are to be found all over England. The
+majority of them are examples of an architecture that has not been
+surpassed for majesty, beauty, size, and constructional skill. Such
+buildings, without the help of the literary and other memorials,
+testify by themselves to the greatness of the Middle Ages.
+
+Through the fifteenth century England continued to be in a state of
+political unrest. There were wars and risings both abroad and at home,
+for besides the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) and the Wars of the
+Roses (1455-1485) there were wars with the Welsh and the Scots, as
+well as disorders made by powerful, intriguing barons. The barons and
+great landowners took advantage of the weak royal rule to increase
+their own power. Parliament, especially the House of Commons,
+succeeded in the first half of the century in strengthening its
+constitutional position, but during the Wars of the Roses it became
+less truly representative of the solid part of the nation, the middle
+class, and more and more a party machine worked by the baronial
+factions. The proportion of people wanting peace and firm government
+steadily increased, and, when the internecine Wars of the Roses, which
+affected the lords and kings far more than the people, were followed
+by the protection and order provided without excessive cost by the
+Tudors, it was the people who most welcomed the change.
+
+The towns were, however, comparatively little disturbed by these
+perpetual disorders. The mayors and corporations as a rule guided
+their cities through difficult times with politic shrewdness. Town
+life developed through flourishing trade and an increasing sense of
+municipal unity, and municipal importance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+IMPORTANT FACTORS AFFECTING THE HISTORY OF YORK
+
+
+A. GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION
+
+Among the factors affecting this particular city geographical position
+is evidently the most important. It is to this, combined with the
+consequent military value of the site, that York owes its origin as a
+city, its importance in the Middle Ages, and its practical importance
+to-day. York, which is the natural centre for the North of England, is
+the halfway house between London and Edinburgh, and is on the shortest
+and quickest land or air route, however the journey is made, between
+these two capitals. The Ouse and Humber have enabled it always to be
+within navigable distance of the North-East coast. The city itself is
+situated on an advantageous site in the centre of a great plain, the
+north and south ends of which are open. The surrounding hills and
+valleys are so disposed that a large number of rivers radiate towards
+the centre of the plain. Civilisation--if we must rank the ultra-fierce
+Norsemen, for instance, among its exponents--proceeded westwards from
+the coast, and wave after wave of the invading peoples crossed with
+ease the eastern and north-eastern hills, which are far less
+formidable than those on the west. York was already an important place
+in the days of Britain's making, the days when the land was in the
+melting-pot as far as race and nationality are concerned.
+
+
+B. MILITARY VALUE OF ITS POSITION
+
+York is situated on the higher ground, in the angle made by the rivers
+Ouse and Foss at their junction; a little to the south, the east and
+the west there are low ridges of mound. The outer, main series of
+hills which border the central plain, are some dozen miles away, their
+outer faces being more or less parallel and running very roughly north
+and south. It seems clear that the site was chosen from the first for
+its immediate defensive value, the direct result of its geographical
+features. The position was of both tactical and strategic importance.
+In Roman times, however, its tactical value decreased when the great
+wall was built that stretched with its lines of mound, ditch,
+stone-rampart, and road, and its series of camps and forts, from near
+the mouth of the Tyne to Solway Firth. Henceforth the wall marked the
+debatable frontier, but York never lost its strategic value. It was
+thus used by the Romans, William I., Edward I., Edward II., and Edward
+III. in their occupation of and their expeditions against the North.
+It has served as a base depot and military headquarters for centuries.
+
+
+C. POLITICAL IMPORTANCE
+
+York, then, whatever its name (for it had many names) or condition,
+inevitably became an occupied place, a stronghold or a town from
+earliest times. When the Church attained great importance in the
+north, York, in addition to its natural and military values became, in
+735, an ecclesiastical metropolis, for from this date the Archbishop
+of York was not only the ruler of the diocese of York, but in addition
+spiritual head of the Church in the North of England. Further, there
+were established in the city branches of the civil government.
+Business of the state, both civil and military, and of the Church was
+regularly conducted at York from early times. This political
+importance lasted long and is intimately connected with many events in
+the city's history. The fort and military defences were renewed from
+time to time, and staff-work and general administration, whether Roman
+or Edwardian, were conducted from York. The king, from whom York was
+rented by the citizens, had his official representatives with their
+offices permanently established here. The siege of 1644 after the
+royalist defeat at Marston Moor, was due mainly to the political
+importance of the city. In Danish times there were kings of York. The
+Archbishops, besides owning large areas of land in and around the
+city, had their palace in the city. Monasteries grew up and flourished
+till the Dissolution; churches and other religious buildings were
+everywhere. Further, from century to century, York was the home of
+important nobles of the realm.
+
+This political importance has persisted through the centuries. York
+still claims its traditional rank of second city in the kingdom.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+APPEARANCE
+
+
+A. GENERAL APPEARANCE
+
+A general view of fifteenth-century York ("Everwyk" in Anglo-French
+and "Eboracum" in Latin) would give the impression of a very compact
+city within fortifications. Almost immediately it would be noticed how
+the three great elements of national society were very clearly
+reflected in the general appearance. First, the _Church_, the
+tremendous and ubiquitous power of which is emphasised by the
+strikingly beautiful and wonderfully constructed massive Minster, but
+so recently completed, standing, with its more than five hundred feet
+of length, its central tower two hundred feet high, most of its roofs
+a hundred feet or more above the ground, dwarfing the petty, storied
+dwellings. This is but one great church. In brilliant contrast in
+another quarter, adjoining the city, is the great abbey church of St.
+Mary, crowned by a lofty and magnificent spire rising above the
+equally fine conventual buildings. All over the city are seen the
+churches and buildings of other monastic and religious houses. The
+background of dwellings and shops, built in a similar style, is cut by
+a few winding streets, and studded with the towers, spires, and roofs
+of the multitude of parish churches. The intense and far-reaching
+influence of the Church in all phases of life is indelibly marked on
+this city.
+
+The great influence of the royal _State_, second only to that of the
+Church, appears in the enclosing fortifications and especially in the
+solid stance of the Castle, where the keep stands out stoutly on its
+fortified mound. The whole castle, self-supporting within its own
+defences, its massive walls, broad moats, outer and inner wards,
+protected gateways, drawbridges and other tactical devices, conveys an
+impression of power. On the Bishop-hill side of the river there
+remains the mound (Baile Hill) on which the other castle was erected
+by order of William the Conqueror. The whole city is enclosed by
+defensive works consisting of an embattled wall on a mound, with a
+moat or protecting ditch running parallel to it. At intervals along
+the walls there are towers. Where the four main roads enter the city
+there are the four gateways, or Bars, high enough to act as
+watch-towers and fit by their solid construction to offer a stout
+defence. The royal State keeps its stern watch around and within.
+
+The third great element, the _People_, are represented by the few
+narrow, winding streets and the crowded houses, sending up blue smoke
+from their hearths, clustering round the great buildings of Church and
+State. The town itself is almost entirely in the eastern section of
+the city. On the western side the houses are grouped along the river
+bank and between Micklegate Bar and Ouse Bridge; there are several
+monasteries and churches in this section also. The third estate, the
+closely living masses, the people, has its outstanding buildings, but
+these are of comparatively local and small importance. Although the
+_city_ and _guild_ halls stand out utilitarian yet beautiful above the
+dwelling-houses, yet they are not at all so prominent as the great
+erections of the Church and the State.
+
+A glance over the city to-day from the Walls or the top of a church
+tower emphasises the dominance of the cathedral over the whole city.
+The castle keep (Clifford's Tower) is still an important feature in
+the view. There were as rivals neither factories nor great commercial
+offices in the fifteenth-century city.
+
+St. Clement's Nunnery and six churches, of which three were not far
+from Walmgate Bar and one was near Monk Bar, were actually outside the
+city walls.
+
+Without the city and the cultivated land near by most of the country
+consisted of great stretches of forest,[1] _i.e._ wood, marsh, moor,
+waste-land. This surrounding forest-land was crossed by the few
+high-roads leading to and from the city, which they entered through
+the Bars. The country was not all wild and tenantless, for here and
+there, scattered about, were baronial castles and estates, and
+monastic houses and lands, all of which had their farming. In the
+forests there were villages each consisting of a few houses grouped
+together for common security, where lived minor officials and men
+working in the forest. The great Forest of Galtres, to the north of
+York, was a royal domain.
+
+In the fifteenth century the population of York, the greatest city of
+the north, was about 14,000. Newcastle was the next greatest, being
+one of the ten or twelve leading cities of mediaeval England which had
+a total population of about 2-1/2 millions. The inhabitants of York
+registered in 1911 numbered 83,802.
+
+Within the city there was a number of sub-entities, each
+self-contained and definitely marked off, often by enclosing,
+embattled walls. Such was the Minster, which stood within its close.
+The Liberty of the Minster of St. Peter included the parts of the city
+immediately round the Minster, the Archbishop's Palace, and the Bedern
+(a small district in the city where some of the Minster clergy lived
+collegiately), and groups of houses and odd dwellings scattered
+throughout other parts of the city and the county and elsewhere.
+Individual monasteries formed further such sub-entities; for instance
+St. Mary's Abbey, which was actually outside the city walls, but
+within its own defensive walls; the Franciscan Friary near the Castle;
+Holy Trinity Priory; the royal Hospital of St. Leonard. The Castle,
+which obviously had to be enclosed and capable of maintaining and
+enduring isolation, was independent of the city. Each of these
+ecclesiastical institutions enjoyed a large measure of freedom from
+the rule of the municipal authorities. The city was also subdivided
+into parishes, which, of course, were not enclosed by walls. The
+parish boundaries, although less well defined than those of the areas
+above mentioned, were none the less distinctly marked.
+
+
+B. STREETS
+
+Streets, as we use the word to-day, were quite few in number. They
+were usually called gates and were mostly continuations of the great
+high-roads that came into and through the city, after crossing the
+wild country that covered most of northern England, a desert in which
+a city was an oasis and a sanctuary. In the lofty and graceful open
+lantern-tower of All Saints, Pavement, a lamp was hung to guide
+belated travellers to the safety and hospitality that obtained within
+the city walls. For the same purpose a bell was rung at St. Michael's,
+Ouse Bridge.
+
+There were a few buildings along the high-roads just outside the great
+entrances, the Bars. Besides the few hovels and huts there were
+hospitals for travellers. There were four hospitals for lepers, the
+most wretched of all the sufferers from mediaeval lack of cleanliness.
+
+Most of the streets were mere alleys, passages between houses and
+groups of buildings. They were very narrow and often the sky could
+hardly be seen from them because of the overhanging upper storeys of
+the buildings along each side. Goods in the Middle Ages and right down
+to the nineteenth century were carried in towns by hand. Carriages and
+waggons and carts were not very numerous and would have no need to
+proceed beyond the main streets and the open squares. If men must
+journey off their own feet, they rode horses. Pack-horses were used
+regularly to carry goods, where nowadays a horse or, more probably, a
+steam or motor engine would easily pull the goods conveniently placed
+on a cart or lorry.
+
+The paving of rough cobbles and ample mud was distinctly poor. There
+was no adequate drainage; in fact there was very little attempt at any
+beyond the provision of gutters down the middle or at the sides of the
+streets. There were no regular street lights, and pavements, when they
+existed, were too meagre to be of much use to pedestrians.
+
+Streets led to the two open market-places of this mediaeval city. Both
+of them (Thursday Market, now called St. Sampson's Square, and
+Pavement, which was a broad street with a market cross near one end)
+were used as markets, but for different kinds of produce. Some
+markets, such as the cattle market, were held in the streets. These
+two market-places were the principal public open spaces, parts of a
+town that are given such importance in modern town-planning schemes.
+Other open spaces were the cloisters and gardens of the monasteries,
+the courts of the Castle, the graveyards of the churches, and private
+gardens. In spite of these and the passage of a tidal river through
+the city, it cannot be denied that the inhabitants of our mediaeval
+city lived in rather dirty and badly ventilated surroundings.
+
+The River Ouse was crossed by one bridge, which was of stone, with
+houses and shops of wood built up from the body of the bridge. The
+arches were small, and afford a striking contrast to the later
+constructions, in which a wide central arch replaced the two central
+small arches. The quays were just below the bridge. At one end of Ouse
+Bridge was St. William's Chapel, a beautiful little church,[2] as we
+know from the fragments of it that remain. Adjoining the chapel was
+the sheriffs' court; on the next storey was the Exchequer court; then
+there was the common prison called the Kidcote, while above these were
+other prisons which continued round the back of the chapel. Next to
+the prisons were the Council Chamber and Muniment Room. Opposite the
+chapel were the court-house, called the Tollbooth,[3] the Debtors'
+Prison, and a Maison Dieu, that is, a kind of almshouse.
+
+The present streets called Shambles (formerly Mangergate),[4] Finkle
+Street, Jubbergate, Petergate, and especially Shambles, Little
+Shambles, and the passages leading from them, help one to realise the
+appearance of mediaeval streets and ways.
+
+
+C. BUILDINGS
+
+[Illustration: COOKING WITH THE SPIT.]
+
+_Dwelling-houses_ ranged from big town residences of noble or
+distinguished families, by way of the beautifully decorated, costly
+houses of the rich middle-class merchants, to the humble dwellings of
+the poorest inhabitants. Every type of house from the palace to the
+hovel was well represented. The Archbishop's Palace, consisting of
+hall, chapel, quadrangle, mint, and gateway with prison, was near the
+Minster. Beyond the fine thirteenth-century chapel (now part of the
+Minster library buildings) hardly a trace of this undoubtedly splendid
+residence is left. The Percies had a great mansion in Walmgate. In
+other parts were the mansions of the Scropes and the Vavasours. It is,
+however, the houses of the prosperous traders that are the most
+interesting, for in them we see the kind of house a man built from the
+results of successful business. Most houses were of timber; those of
+the more wealthy were of stone and timber.{original had ","} The use
+of half-timbering, when the face of a building consisted of woodwork
+and plaster, made houses and streets very picturesque. The woodwork
+was often artistically carved. Each storey was made to overhang the
+one below it, so that an umbrella, if umbrellas had been in use then,
+would have been almost a superfluity, if not a needless luxury,
+besides being impossible to manipulate in the narrow streets and ways
+of a mediaeval city. The upper storeys of two houses facing each other
+across a street were often very close. Usually there were no more than
+three storeys. The roofs were very steep and covered generally with
+tiles, but in the case of the smaller dwellings with thatch. From a
+house-top the view across the neighbourhood would be of a huddled
+medley of red-tiled roofs, all broken up with gables and tiny dormer
+windows; there would be no regularity, just a jumble of patches of
+red-tiled roofing.
+
+The present streets called Shambles, Pavement, Petergate and
+Stonegate, contain excellent examples of mediaeval domestic
+architecture.
+
+Shops were distinguished by having the front of the ground floor
+arranged as a show-room, warehouse, or business room which was open
+to the street. The trader lived at his shop. In the case of a
+butcher's, for example, the front part of the shutters that covered
+the unglazed window at night, was let down in business hours so that
+it hung over the footway. On it were exhibited the joints of meat.
+Butchers' slaughter-houses were then, as now, private premises and
+right in the heart of the city.
+
+The rooms in the houses were quite small, with low ceilings. The small
+windows, whether they were merely fitted with wooden shutters or
+glazed with many small panes kept together with strips of lead,
+lighted the rooms but poorly. The closeness of the houses made
+internal lighting still less effective. The interior walls were of
+timbering and plaster, often white- or colour-washed.[5] Panelling was
+used occasionally. The ventilation and hygienic conditions generally
+were far from good, as may be imagined from a consideration of the
+smallness of the houses, the compactness of the city, particularly the
+parts occupied by the people, and especially of the primitive system
+of sanitation, which was content to use the front street as a main
+sewer. There were, of course, no drains; at most there was a gutter
+along the middle of a street, or at each side of the roadway. It was
+the traditional practice to dump house and workshop refuse into the
+streets. Some of it was carried along by rainwater, but generally it
+remained: in any case it was noxious and dangerous. There was
+legislation on the subject, for the evil was already notorious in the
+fourteenth century. The first parliamentary attempt to restrain people
+in towns generally from thus corrupting and infecting the air is dated
+1388. The many visits of distinguished people and public processions
+always conferred an incidental boon on the city, for one of the
+essentials of preparation was giving the main streets a good cleaning.
+There is no wonder that plagues perpetually harassed the people of
+mediaeval times and reduced the population miserably. The plague never
+disappeared till towns were largely rebuilt on a more commodious scale
+in the next great building era, which began in 1666 in London and in
+the early years of the eighteenth century elsewhere. No advance was
+made in sanitation till the Victorian Age, when town sanitation was
+completely revolutionised and, for the first time, efficiently
+organised.
+
+The house fire was of wood and peat, though coal was also used. For
+artificial lighting oil-lamps (wicks in oil) and candles were used. A
+light was obtained from flint and tinder, the latter being ignited by
+a spark got from striking the flint with a piece of metal.
+
+Rooms were furnished with chairs, tables, benches, chests, bedsteads,
+and, in some cases, tub-shaped baths. Carpets were to be found only in
+the houses of the very wealthy. The floors of ordinary houses, like
+those of churches, were covered with rushes and straw, among which it
+was the useful custom to scatter fragrant herbs. This rough carpet was
+pressed by the clogs of working people and the shoes of the
+fashionable. The spit was a much used cooking utensil. Table-cloths,
+knives, and spoons were in general use, but not the fork before the
+fifteenth century. At one time food was manipulated by the fingers.
+York was advanced in table manners, for it is known that a fork was
+used in the house of a citizen family here in 1443. The richer members
+of the middle class owned a large number of silver tankards, goblets,
+mazer-bowls, salt-cellars and similar utensils and ornaments of
+silver, for this was a common form in which they held their wealth.
+
+Beer, which was largely brewed at home, was the general beverage, but
+French and other wines were plentiful. The water supply came from
+wells, the water being drawn up by bucket and windlass, or from the
+river when the wells were low. The drinking water of the
+twentieth-century city is taken entirely from the River Ouse, but now
+the water is carefully treated and purified before reaching the
+consumer.
+
+There were not many inns, as is shown in records by the number of
+innholders, who formed a trade company. There were also wine-dealers.
+Typical inn-signs were The Bull in Coney Street, and The Dragon. There
+is no reason to believe that in this century there was a really large
+amount of drinking and drunkenness, such as there was in the
+eighteenth century. An ordinance of the Marshals of 1409--"No man of
+the craft shall go to inns but if he is sent after, under pain of
+4d."--may be quoted.
+
+The houses of the wealthy and the great lords were, of course, the
+better furnished. They had walls adorned with tapestries and hung with
+arras or hangings; occasionally their walls were panelled. Their
+furniture was rich, well constructed, and carved by skilled craftsmen.
+Their mansions were large, for they had to house, beside the owner's
+family and personal household, retainers and dependents attached to
+his service in diverse capacities.
+
+_Civic Buildings_ consisted chiefly of the halls connected with the
+trade guilds. The rulers of the city and of the guilds were often the
+same men, in any case usually men of the same set. These secular
+buildings were really distinguished in appearance, but not monumental.
+They reflected something of the wealth that accrued from trade. They
+were of good size and proportions, built to be worthy of the practical
+use for which they were intended. The lower stages were of stone, the
+upper for the most part of wood and plaster (half-timbering). The
+structural framework was composed of stout beams and posts of timber.
+The timber roofs were covered with tiles. Examples may be seen in the
+Merchants' Hall, Fossgate, and St. Anthony's Hall in Peaseholm Green.
+The wooden roof of the Guild Hall, which was the Common Hall, erected
+in the fifteenth century, is supported by wooden columns. The walls of
+this hall and the entire basement are of stone.
+
+Of Davy Hall, the King's administrative offices and prison for the
+Royal Forest of Galtres, not a trace remains to show the kind of
+buildings they were.
+
+_The Fortifications_ consisted of the Castle and the city Walls with
+their gateways. The massive stone Keep of the Castle was on a high
+artificial mound at the city end of the enclosed area occupied by the
+Castle. Around this mound there was a moat, or deep, broad ditch
+filled with water. The Keep, which is in plan like a quatrefoil,
+consisted of two storeys. Within, near the entrance, there is a well,
+the memory of which is for ever stained by the unhappy part it played
+in one of the most bitter persecutions of the Jews. Beyond the Keep
+there were inner and outer wards, official buildings including the
+King's great hall, the Royal Mint, and barracks for the King's
+soldiers. The entire Castle, which was the residence of the royal
+governor, and a military depot, was surrounded by walls, outside which
+were moats, or the river, or swamps, according to the position of each
+side. These moats, or defensive ditches, were crossed by drawbridges.
+To enter a fortified place in the Middle Ages one had to pass a
+barbican (_i.e._ an outwork consisting of a fortified wall along each
+side of the one way); a drawbridge across the moat; a portcullis or
+gate of stoutly inter-crossing timbers (set horizontally and
+vertically with only a small space between any two beams, giving the
+whole gate the appearance of a large number of small square holes,
+each surrounded by solid wood) that could be lowered or raised at will
+in grooves at the sides of the entrance opening. The ends of the
+vertical posts at the bottom formed a row of spikes which were shod
+with iron. The points of these spikes entered the ground when the
+portcullis was lowered. Beyond, there were the wooden gates of the
+inner opening.
+
+The city Walls, of which the present remains date from the reign of
+Edward III., were broad, crenellated walls of limestone, on a high
+mound which was protected without by a parallel deep moat. At the
+north, east, south, and west corners there were massive bastions, and
+between these, at short intervals, smaller towers. Besides being
+crenellated the raised front of the wall itself was often pierced with
+slits shaped for the use of long or cross-bows. The bowmen were very
+well protected by these skilful arrangements. Some of these slits,
+shaped like crosses, were of exquisite design architecturally.
+
+The continuity of these mural fortifications was broken only where
+swamps and the rivers made them unnecessary and where roads passed
+through them. The four principal entrances along the main high-roads
+were defended by the four Bars, or fortified gateways. These, with
+their Barbicans, three of which were so needlessly and callously
+destroyed in the last century, were magnificent examples of noble
+permanent military architecture. The outer facade of Monk Bar to-day,
+spoiled as it is, expresses a noble strength. There was formerly only
+the single way, both for ingress and egress.[6] The Bar was supported
+on each side by the mound and wall, which latter led right into the
+Bar and so to the corresponding wall on the other side. Each of these
+entrances to the city was protected by barbican, portcullis, and gate.
+Each evening the Bars were closed and the city shut in for the night.
+Defenders used a Bar as a watch-tower or a fort. They could walk along
+the high crenellated walls of the Barbican and shoot thence, and stop
+the way by lowering the portcullis.[7]
+
+Near the Castle there were the Castle mills, where the machinery was
+driven by water-power.
+
+Outside the walls there were strays, or common lands. Some of the land
+immediately around the city was cultivated or used as pasture. There
+were, besides dwellings, several churches and hospitals, just outside
+the city. Beyond this suburban area was the forest.
+
+The most notable of the _Religious Buildings_ is the Minster, which
+was practically completed in the fifteenth century, when the work of
+erecting the three towers was finished. The architectural splendour of
+this mighty church must have appealed very strongly to the people of
+the fifteenth century, for did they not see the great work that had
+gone on for centuries at last brought to this glorious conclusion? It
+rose up in the midst of the city, always visible from near and far.
+The inside was even more magnificent than the exterior. The fittings
+and furniture were of the richest. The light mellow tone of the white
+stonework was enhanced by the fleeting visions of colour that spread
+across from the sunlit stained-glass windows, which still, in spite of
+time and restoration, add enormously to the beauty of the interior.
+
+The Minster stood within its Close, one of the four gateways of which,
+College Street Arch, remains. This part of the city around the Minster
+was enclosed because it was under the jurisdiction of the Liberty of
+St. Peter.
+
+[Illustration: BISHOP AND CANONS.
+_From Richard II.'s "Book of Hours."_]
+
+Originally founded in 627 by Edwin, King of Northumbria, the Minster
+had been rebuilt and enlarged from time to time. It received its final
+and present form in the fifteenth century. At one time the Nave was
+rebuilt: at the same time there was built, near but separate from the
+main building, the Chapter House, a magnificent octagonal parliament
+house of one immense chamber: later the Chapter House was connected
+with the main building by the Vestibule. Then the Choir was replaced
+by a larger and finer building in the then latest architectural
+fashion. The new choir contained the east window, which in the eyes of
+contemporaries was wonderful and unrivalled for its size and painted
+glass. It occupies nearly all the central space of the east wall from
+a few feet above the ground to almost the apex of the gable. Gothic
+architecture was so marvellously adaptable that all these parts, built
+at widely different times, at various and strongly-contrasted stages
+of the development of this English mediaeval architecture, together
+make a single building that appears to possess the most felicitous
+unity of general design and a perfectly wonderful diversity of
+sectional design, for every part is in complete sympathy with the
+scheme as a whole.
+
+To the east of the Central Tower is the Choir, which was kept
+exclusively for the services; to the west, the Nave, the popular part.
+The entrance to the Choir from the west is made through the stone
+screen of Kings, which, with the lofty organ which rests on it,
+prevents people in the Nave from getting anything more than a glimpse
+of what is taking place in the Choir. Over the western ends of the
+Nave aisles are the twin west towers, which contain the bells. The
+high altar and reredos stood in the middle of the Choir between the
+two choir transepts, the huge windows of which present in picture the
+life stories of St. Cuthbert and St. William respectively. The Lady
+Chapel, the part of the choir to the east of the reredos, was very
+important in pre-Reformation days when the cult of the Virgin was very
+popular. To the north and south of the Central Tower are the
+Transepts. From the North Transept the Vestibule leads to the Chapter
+House. The church is, therefore, of the shape of a cross (the centre
+of which is marked by the Central Tower) with an octagonal building
+standing near and connected with the northern arm.
+
+The furniture was of wood and elaborately carved. In the Choir were
+the fixed stalls with towering canopies, and other seats, which were
+ranged along the north and south sides and at the west end. Chapels
+were marked off by wooden screens, often of elaborate tracery.
+
+The cost of erecting this huge and splendid church must have been
+enormous. The Minster contained the shrine of St. William of York,
+which, like those of St. Cuthbert at Durham and St. Thomas at
+Canterbury of European fame, attracted streams of pilgrims, whose
+donations helped the funds of erection and maintenance. This was an
+established means of raising funds for church purposes. There was,
+also, the money from penances and indulgences. The Archbishops were
+keenly interested in their cathedral church. Citizens gave and
+bequeathed sums of money to the Minster funds. In addition, the
+Minster authorities received gifts from wealthy nobles of the north of
+England. The house of Vavasour, for instance, supplied stone; that of
+Percy gave wood to be used in building the great metropolitical
+church. If the money cost was enormous, the completed building, for
+design, engineering, and decorative work--in stone, wood, cloth,
+stained glass--was far beyond monetary value.
+
+The Nave, the part open to the public, was used for processions; some
+started from the great west door, entrance through which was a rare
+privilege granted only to the highest. The Choir was the scene of the
+daily services of the seven offices of the day. All around, in the
+aisles and transepts, were altars in side-chapels, chantry-chapels,[8]
+where throughout the early part of the day priests were saying masses
+for the souls of the departed. There were thirty chantries in the
+Minster.
+
+The Minster has from its foundation been a cathedral. The Chapter of
+canons with the Dean at their head has always been its Governing Body.
+As a church it was served by prebendaries or canons, who had definite
+periods of duty annually, and two residential bodies of priests, of
+whom some, the chantry priests, lived at St. William's College. This
+College was erected shortly after the middle of the fifteenth century:
+on the site there had been Salton House, the prebendal residence of
+the Prior of Hexham, who was canon of Salton. This picturesque
+building of stone, wood, half-timber work, and tiled roofs is a little
+to the east of the Minster. It consists of a series of rooms ranged
+round a central courtyard. It is of much historical interest, and
+since it was restored recently to be the home of the Convocation of
+the Northern Province, it has returned to the service of the church.
+The minor-canons, or vicars-choral, who were employed by the canons as
+their deputies, also lived in community. They had their hall, chapel,
+and other buildings in an enclosed part called the Bedern not far from
+the Minster.
+
+As a counterpart to the Minster, in appearance as in use, was the
+great, rich Benedictine Abbey of St. Mary, of royal foundation. With a
+mitred abbot who sat among the lords spiritual in Parliament, St.
+Mary's was perhaps the most important of the northern monasteries. The
+buildings were proportionally large and fine. The church, dating
+mostly from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, was particularly
+long and had a tall spire. It was only a little inferior to the
+Minster in magnificence. On the south side were the Cloisters, the
+open-air work-place and recreation place of the monks, while beyond
+were the conventual buildings--such as the calefactory or
+warming-house, the dormitories, and the refectory or room where meals
+were taken. The cloisters were square in plan and consisted of a
+central grass plot, along the sides of which there was a continuous
+covered walk with unglazed windows facing the central open space.
+Benedictine abbeys usually conformed to a common scheme as regards the
+planning of the church and the conventual buildings. The cloisters
+were only one of the courts or open squares, which separated groups of
+conventual buildings. Further, there were gardens and orchards. Nearer
+the river there was the Hospitium, or guest-house, where visitors were
+lodged. The abbey was within its own walls, and on one side its
+grounds extended to the river. The gateway, comprising gate, lodge,
+and chapel, was on the north side.
+
+Near the Castle there was an extensive Franciscan Friary. On the other
+side of the river there was the priory of the Holy Trinity, the home
+of an alien Benedictine order. A Carmelite Friary in Hungate, opposite
+the Castle, seems, from the few odd fragments of stone that remain, to
+have had fine buildings. The Augustinian Friary was between Lendal and
+the river. The Dominican house, which was burnt down in 1455, was on
+the site of the old railway station.
+
+The only nunnery in the city was the Benedictine Priory of St.
+Clement. There were sisterhoods in St. Leonard's and other hospitals.
+It should, however, be noted there were many nunneries in the
+districts round York.
+
+Some of the religious institutions were called Hospitals. The care of
+the sick was only one of the functions of this type of religious
+house. Such was the large and famous St. Leonard's Hospital, a royal
+institution that was not under the control of a bishop. The beautiful
+ruins of St. Leonard's, which adjoined St. Mary's Abbey, prove how
+well this hospital had been built. These hospitals, of which there
+were fifteen in York, were in close touch with the people. While St.
+Mary's, for instance, was one of the great abbeys, where the monks, by
+the time when the fifteenth century was advanced, were living
+luxuriously, easily, and generally unproductively, the religious of
+the hospitals and lesser houses, were still engaged in feeding the
+poor, tending the sick, and educating the children of the people.
+
+Each of these religious institutions, whether monastery or hospital,
+was within its own grounds, bounded by its own walls. Altogether they
+occupied a large part of the total area of the mediaeval city which
+their buildings adorned, and of which they were so characteristic a
+feature: St. Mary's Abbey, which with its buildings and grounds
+covered a large area, was actually outside the city proper, but it was
+immediately adjoining it. There were nearly sixty monasteries,
+priories, hospitals, maisons-dieu, and chapels. The maisons-dieu, of
+which there were sixteen, were smaller hospitals. They combined
+generally the duties of almshouse and chantry.
+
+_Parish Churches_, which were the centres of the religious life of the
+laity, were everywhere. In the fifteenth century there were forty-five
+churches and ten chapels, so that there was always a place in church
+for every citizen.
+
+A church was always in use. Besides the regular public services which
+took place frequently during the day, and the special services for
+festivals, there were services in chantries. Both the high altar in
+the chancel and altars in other parts of a church were used. Several
+altars were necessary because the number of masses, for the
+celebration of which money was liberally bequeathed, was very large.
+The parish church was used for other than purely religious purposes.
+It was the central meeting-place of the parish, and might be described
+as the seat of parochial government. Meetings were held in the Nave.
+Parts of the church were used as schools. The parish church was also
+the depot for the equipment of those members who became soldiers.
+Moreover, fire-buckets (generally of leather) were often kept in the
+church, since, being of stone, it was perhaps the safest building in
+the parish. There were also long poles with hooks at the end used to
+pull thatch away from burning houses.
+
+Most, if not all, of these churches were fine specimens of the
+architecture of the Middle Ages, the so-called Gothic architecture,
+which is characterised by pointed arches, ribbed vaulting, and the
+constant use of the buttress. These churches were, in contrast to the
+present condition of most of those that remain, complete with chancel,
+nave and aisles, towers or spires, bells, stained-glass windows, and
+furniture, many of them being particularly rich in one or more of
+these features. The painted windows[9] are especially interesting, for
+they show the standard of this branch of fifteenth-century art and are
+valuable historical documents. The rich, mellow tones of colour should
+be noted, also the incidental pictures of mediaeval dress and
+furniture. It is interesting to compare the fifteenth-century work
+with that done, for instance, by the William Morris firm to the
+designs of Burne-Jones (1833-1898), at a time when the revived art,
+with other forms of decoration, was enjoying a period of great
+success. In the fifteenth century the church was flourishing
+materially, at least, and money and gifts were freely given.
+
+The offices and services in churches were recited and sung. Organs
+were used, but were not very large and were capable of being carried
+about: although working on similar principles to the modern organ they
+lacked its size, power, and varied capacity. At the Minster there were
+several organs, for instance "the great organs," "the organs in the
+Choir," "the organs at the Altar B.V.M."
+
+The Chancel was the most sacred part of the church, for there was the
+principal or high altar. In the Chancel were the stalls or seats of
+the clergy and officials. The actual seats could be turned up when the
+occupants wished to stand. Standing for long periods was made less
+irksome in that the underside of each seat was made with a projecting
+ledge, which gave some support. It is thoroughly characteristic of the
+age that this very human device should have existed, and, secondly,
+that these ledges were carved and ornamented. These misericords, as
+they are called, were usually curiously, even grotesquely carved. Some
+of these carvings were founded on natural objects, some were grotesque
+heads, others represented subjects with man and animals. There were
+pews for the nobility, but, apart from the few old and weak people who
+used the rough bench or two in the body of the church, or the stone
+bench that ran along the walls, the general public stood during the
+services.
+
+Wealthy parishioners left money to the parochial clergy and for the
+fabric of the church: they generally wished to be buried at some
+particular place within their parish church. Such distinguished men as
+Nicholas Blackburn, merchant of York, were commemorated at times in
+their parish churches by means of stained-glass windows. The portraits
+of Nicholas and his son and their wives appear in the east window of
+All Saints', North Street; his arms also are to be seen in this
+window.
+
+
+D. YORK AS A PORT
+
+The Ouse was tidal and navigable right up to York. Trade, especially
+in woollen goods, was carried on in the fifteenth century by river and
+sea directly between York and ports on the west coasts of the
+continent and, especially, Baltic ports. On arriving at York the boats
+stopped at the quays, adjacent to which were warehouses, just below
+Ouse Bridge.
+
+The sea-going boats were not large. They were usually one-masted
+sailing ships, built of wood; they had high prows and sterns, with a
+capacious hold between. Some of them were built in York.
+
+Their trade was such that some of the York merchants, for example the
+wealthy Howme family, had establishments in foreign ports. The Howmes
+had property in Calais.
+
+The regulation of the waterways in and near the city was vested in the
+Corporation. Matters pertaining to navigation and shipping were
+adjudged by an Admiralty Court under the King's Admiral, whose
+jurisdiction extended from the Thames to the northern ports.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Derived from Latin foris=outside, without (the city).
+
+[2] A "church" that was in a parish, but was not the parish church,
+was called a chapel. The parish church was the principal and parent
+church of all within the parish.
+
+[3] Compare the Tollbooth, Edinburgh, and the Tolhouse, Yarmouth.
+
+[4] Cf. French _manger_.
+
+[5] Wall-paper, which still bears the influence of the hangings that
+it replaced, came into general use early in the nineteenth century.
+
+[6] The view to-day from Petergate towards Bootham Bar gives a good
+impression of a narrow main street, with gabled houses, leading to the
+single fortified opening provided by the Bar.
+
+[7] The winch and portcullis are still in existence in Monk Bar, and
+in working order.
+
+[8] The Leschman Chantry Chapel in Hexham Abbey is a typical example
+in excellent preservation. A small erection of stone and wood, it
+stands between two of the piers of the north Choir arcade. In small
+compass there are a stone altar with five crosses, an aumbry beneath
+the altar, and the tomb with recumbent effigy of the founder. A priest
+would have just sufficient room to move about in the performance of
+his service. Part of Archbishop Bowet's tomb in York Minster was a
+chantry chapel.
+
+[9] Besides the exceptional display of fifteenth-century glass in the
+Minster, notable examples occur in St. Martin's, Coney Street, All
+Saints', North Street, and Holy Trinity, Goodramgate.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+LIFE
+
+
+A. CIVIC LIFE
+
+"Parish government formed the unit in the government of the city. Each
+parish was a self-governing community, electing its own officers with
+the exception of its rector, making its own bye-laws, and, to meet
+expenses, levying and collecting its own rates. Its constables served
+as policemen, attended the Sessions, and acted as the fire brigade.
+They looked after the parish-trained soldiers, acted as recruiters,
+and had the care of the parish armour, which was kept in a chest in
+the church. They distributed money among lame soldiers, gathered
+trophy money, relieved cripples and passengers, but unfeelingly
+conveyed beggars and vagabonds to prison. The parish soldiers kept
+watch and ward over the parish defences. The parish stocks, in which
+offenders were placed, stood near the churchyard stile. The constables
+were also responsible for such lighting as the parish required, and
+kept the parish lanthorn.
+
+"The officials looked after the parish poor, dispensing charity by
+gifts of bread and money. The parish boundaries were perambulated
+every Ascension Day. Parish dinners were held on the choosing of the
+churchwardens, the visitation of the Archdeacon, etc. The parish
+officials invoked the aid of the law when parochial rights were
+infringed, especially by neighbours. The church was the centre of
+parochial life and in it the business of the parish was transacted.
+
+"Parishes were grouped as wards. The wards chose city Councillors, and
+these elected their Aldermen. The six wards formed the municipality
+over which presided the Mayor. The Corporation exercised a general
+supervision over the whole of the parishes of which there were
+forty-five.
+
+"Gradually the duties and powers of the various parish officials have
+been transferred to the City Council. The united parish soldiers
+became the city trained bands. In 1900 the last remnant of parochial
+officialdom passed into the power of the Corporation when parish
+overseers ceased to exist, and, for rating purposes, the City of York
+became one parish instead of the original forty-five separately rated
+areas."[1]
+
+The Cathedral, _i.e._ the Liberty of St. Peter, and the Royal Castle
+were outside municipal control. The Archbishops also had their
+privileges. They had once owned all the city on the right bank of the
+Ouse. In the fifteenth century they still retained many of their
+privileges and possessions in this quarter, as, for example, the right
+of holding a fair here in what was formerly their shire. These
+archiepiscopal rights have not all lapsed, for in 1807 the Archbishop
+of the time, successfully asserting his legal rights, saved from
+demolition the city walls on the west side of the river.
+
+York was a royal borough, that is, the freemen of the city had to pay
+rent to the king, from whom it was farmed directly. It was not owned
+by any knight or lord, that is, apart from the Archbishop's
+possessions, which belonged to the western section of the city; the
+city proper was almost entirely on the opposite side of the river. The
+King retained possession of certain properties, such as Galtres
+Forest, lying in the valley stretching northwards from York. He had a
+larder and a fish pond at York; also a court, offices, and a prison
+(Davy Hall, of which the name alone remains) for the administration of
+the forest. These town-properties were, of course, entirely
+extra-parochial.
+
+York received a long succession of royal charters. Henry I. granted
+the city certain customs, laws and liberties, and the right to have a
+merchant guild. The possession of these rights was confirmed by King
+John in the first year of his reign. In 1396 Richard II., at York,
+made the city a county in itself. In consequence the office of bailiff
+was replaced by that of sheriff.
+
+The King's official representative in the city was called the sheriff,
+whose office in York has been continuous down to the present day. The
+sheriffs--there were usually two--were responsible for the
+maintenance of order, for the local soldiery, and the collection of
+the royal taxes and dues. The sheriff was a busy and important
+mediaeval official.
+
+The Mayor was the real governor of the city. He was a powerful
+official and literally ruler of the city. In practice he was most
+often a wealthy and important merchant; and, like the Aldermen,
+belonged to the group of men who governed the trade guilds as well as
+the municipality. Various symbols were attached to his office. The
+chief objects among the corporation regalia at the present time are
+the sword, mace, and cap of maintenance.
+
+There were three city councils, "the twelve," "the twenty-four," and
+"the forty-eight," as they were called. There were the Aldermen and
+Councillors--the "lords" and "commons" of the municipal parliament.
+The ordinary council-chamber was at Ouse Bridge: the other was the
+Common Hall, the present Guildhall. Sometimes the whole community of
+citizens met, when for the moment the government of the city became
+essentially and practically democratic. This was only done on
+important occasions to decide broad questions of policy, or when
+numbers were needed to enforce a decision. The commons really
+possessed no administrative power. The form of civic government was
+supposed to be representative, but as a matter of fact it was not only
+not founded on popular election (a procedure enforced in 1835 by the
+Municipal Reform Act), but was kept exclusively in the hands of the
+wealthy merchant and trading class, the middle class. Men of this
+class became Aldermen. When a vacancy occurred in the upper house of
+civic government, they chose a man like themselves. The Mayor was
+elected by the Aldermen, who naturally chose one of themselves. In
+fact the government of the city was in the hold of a "close
+self-elected Corporation."
+
+The civic spirit developed a good deal during the fifteenth century,
+no doubt in connection with the simultaneous increase in the wealth
+and social pretension of the rising merchant middle class. It appeared
+in the greater respect bestowed on the office of Mayor and the pomp
+and reverence attached to his position. The "right worshipful" the
+Mayor and the Aldermen wore rich state robes edged with fur. In
+addition, contemporary city records reflect the new spirit in such
+expressions as "the worshupful cite," "the said full honourabill
+cite," "this full nobill city." This spirit, however, developed more
+fully in the sixteenth century.
+
+The Mayor held his court in the Common Hall, where he heard pleas
+about apprentices and mysteries (_i.e._ the rules of the crafts);
+offences against the customs of the city; breaches of the King's
+peace. It was his duty to administer the statute merchant. The
+Recorder was the official civic lawyer.
+
+The governors of the city were intimately connected with the control
+of trade, and the rule of the pageants. These phases of city life
+overlapped considerably and were interdependent. Weaving was the
+principal trade. The Mayor and Aldermen were the masters of the
+mysteries of the weavers. Power to enforce the ordinances of the other
+mysteries was granted by the Mayor and Corporation.
+
+There were times when the King took the government into his own hands.
+This was done during the rebellion of the Percies, a northern family
+skilled and experienced in rebelling. Henry IV. withdrew the right of
+government from the city in 1405, but he restored it in 1406 after the
+execution of Archbishop Scrope, who had been so popular with the
+people of York.
+
+Of mediaeval punishments the most obvious were the stocks, a
+contemporary picture of which is to be seen in one of the
+stained-glass windows of All Saints', North Street. Examples of stocks
+survive in the churchyards of Holy Trinity, Micklegate, and St.
+Lawrence's. They were near the entrance to the churchyard and
+commanded full public attention. The petty offender, condemned to
+spend so many hours in the public gaze and subject to whatever
+treatment the public chose to inflict on him, sat on the ground or on
+a low seat, while his feet were secured at the ankles by two vertical
+boards. The upper was raised for the insertion of the ankles in the
+specially cut-out half-round holes in each board, so that when the
+boards were touching and in the same vertical plane, the ankles were
+completely surrounded by wood.
+
+To its political importance York owed the ghastly exhibition of heads
+and odd quarters of traitors and others who had gained punishment of
+national importance, which usually consisted of "hanging, drawing and
+quartering," when the quarters and the head were sent to London and
+the principal towns of the kingdom to be exhibited on gateways,
+towers, and bridges. This practice served to provide the public with
+convincing proof that a traitor was actually dead, and was very
+necessary in an age when Rumour, "stuffing the ears of men with false
+reports" held sway over "the blunt monster with uncounted heads, the
+still discordant wavering multitude." Micklegate Bar was so used. In
+Shakespeare's _Henry VI._ Queen Margaret makes, with reference to the
+Duke of York, this bitter play of words:--
+
+    "Off with his head and set it on York gates;
+    So York may overlook the town of York."
+
+One very interesting practice in connection with the mediaeval system
+of law and policing was the use of the right of sanctuary. The
+monasteries, the Minster, and all churches had this right of giving a
+sacrosanct safety to criminals and others flying from their pursuers,
+whether officers of the law or the general mob, whose right, be it
+noted, it was to join in the chase after offenders (the "hue and cry")
+and help to arrest them. Provided the pursued reached the prescribed
+area, which, in some cases, as at the nationally famous sanctuary of
+St. John of Beverley, prevailed for some distance from the church
+itself, he was safe from his pursuers. Hexham Abbey and Beverley
+Minster still exhibit their sanctuary chairs or frith-stools. In the
+north door of Durham Cathedral there is an ancient, massive knocker,
+the rapper, of the form of a ring, being held in the mouth of a
+grotesque head. The frith-stool, to which the seeker went at once,
+stood near the high altar at which he made his declarations on oath.
+His case was carefully investigated and often sanctuary-seekers were
+allowed to exile themselves from the kingdom. The coroner was the
+public officer of inquiry. The Church took every care that the crime
+of breaking the sanctuary so granted was regarded not at all lightly.
+The right of sanctuary, after being changed to apply to certain towns
+only--among them York--continued till it was ended by law in the reign
+of James I.
+
+Condemned heretics were burnt[2] at Tyburn, the site of local
+executions, some way from Micklegate Bar along the main south road.
+
+
+B. PARLIAMENTARY AND NATIONAL LIFE
+
+According to the general principle, the King was the ultimate and
+absolute owner and ruler of the land and people. The rights,
+liberties, customs, and powers possessed by individuals and corporate
+bodies were specified parts of the royal power which the King had
+granted on some consideration or other. Thus, knights, archbishops,
+and nobles received lands and rights in return for the provision, when
+required, of military service by themselves and a certain force of
+their retainers, except that no personal military service was required
+from the archbishop from the very nature of his calling. The
+monasteries and other Church institutions had many possessions and
+rights. The Church, which was established in the realm before
+Parliament, was a very great owner of land. The authorities of cities,
+with their trade-guilds, received the right of trading, or holding
+markets, and of levying tolls or municipal taxes. They received also
+the right of making their own local laws or bye-laws. These
+authorities, whether individuals or corporate bodies, to whom rights
+and liberties were granted, had their own officers and laws
+controlling their liberties. Besides the King's peace, there were,
+therefore, the jurisdictions of these various rights granted from the
+supreme royal authority.
+
+[Illustration: KNIGHTS DOING PENANCE AT A SHRINE.
+_From a Fifteenth-Century Manuscript._]
+
+From York there went to the national Parliament the lord Archbishop of
+York, the lord Abbot of St. Mary's Abbey, those nobles who resided in
+the city and were Lords Temporal, and the two representatives of the
+commonalty of the city. The body of Lords Spiritual was of great
+importance in the Middle Ages. The Convocation of the lords of the
+Church had itself a share in the governing of the nation as well as of
+the Church, its own particular sphere. The Church was one of the most
+powerful and richest factors in national affairs. The clear division
+of the Parliament of the Middle Ages into three groups reflects the
+sharp divisions that there were between the three great classes of the
+nation--the nobles, the clergy, the people.
+
+In the fifteenth century, as in other centuries, York was frequently
+visited by the King. From time to time, as when the King and Court
+proceeded north during the wars with Scotland, Parliament was moved to
+York, where it was held in the Chapter House of the Minster. Six of
+the seven windows of the Chapter House contain their original stained
+glass, in which appear shields of King Edward I. and members of the
+Court. The Chapter House was used as a Parliament house during the
+reigns of the first three Edwards. The King, in mediaeval times, was
+actual commander-in-chief, and it suited him well for Parliament to
+meet in the political capital of the north, so that he could continue
+the civil administration while conducting warfare in the north.
+
+Henry IV. was in York on several occasions, chiefly because of
+rebellions. The house of Percy, which engaged frequently in revolt and
+faction, led the rebellion of 1403 in which Henry Percy, called
+Hotspur, was killed at the battle of Shrewsbury. Harry Hotspur, whom
+Shakespeare made in accordance with tradition the fiery and valorous
+counterpart of Prince Hal, Henry IV.'s heir and Falstaff's companion,
+was buried in the Minster. When Archbishop Scrope headed a revolt,
+also not unconnected with the Percies, from York and was arrested,
+Henry IV. hastened to York, and the popular archbishop was executed
+forthwith, a royal and sacrilegious deed that caused intense
+indignation especially among the people of York, who for some months
+lost the right of local government as a result of this affair.
+
+The Wars of the Roses (1455-1485), a long internecine feud between
+kings, lords, and landed gentry, affected the towns but little. The
+baronage suffered heavily, the middle class lightly. No town ever
+stood a siege, while Towton was the only battle in which the common
+soldiers had heavy losses. Warwick made it a practice to spare the
+commoners, whereby he conciliated the people. Under Yorkist rule,
+after the decisive battle of Towton (1461) England can be described as
+not unprosperous. One very notable feature was the immense amount of
+building that was done, and that not so much of castles, as of country
+houses, churches, and cathedrals, so many of which splendidly adorn
+the land to-day. The only people seriously affected by the Wars of the
+Roses were the main participants. Compared with modern warfare, which
+is unabated scientific extermination, mediaeval warfare was often of
+the nature of a mild adventure. The size of the opposing forces was
+very small even compared with the scanty population. The chief weapons
+were lances, swords, long-bows, and cross-bows, but protective armour
+was worn. The fighting was generally sporadic and desultory and the
+casualties were very few.
+
+It was at York that Henry VI. awaited the news of the result of the
+battle of Towton. Edward IV. entered York as victor after the battle.
+York, like other cities at the time, took care to maintain the good
+graces of both sets of combatants. Although through the Wars of the
+Roses national parliamentary government ultimately broke down and gave
+way to the strong personal kingship of Henry VII., the towns, which
+actually suffered little, increased their local powers. Civic
+government developed much and trade flourished during the century.
+
+York had a good friend in Richard, Duke of Gloucester. The city was
+very loyal to him and helped him by raising troops in his support.
+When he visited York he was received with immense festivity and
+magnificence. The Mayor and Corporation in their correspondence with
+him addressed him as "our full tender and especial good lord." They
+had to thank him "for his great labour now late made unto ye king's
+good grace for the confirmation of the liberties of this city." But
+for his death at Bosworth, York would have benefited greatly by his
+munificence.
+
+Henry VII. was in York in 1487. After Bosworth (1485) the city had
+assured him of its loyalty. The marriage of Henry of Richmond, who
+represented the House of Lancaster, and Elizabeth, daughter of Edward
+IV. Duke of York, fittingly followed the conclusion of the Wars of the
+Roses. With Henry VII.'s reign a new era began in English history.
+
+Throughout the century the city could not avoid contact with rival
+parties and powers. In spite, however, of rebellions and the Wars of
+the Roses, the capital of the north managed generally to steer a safe
+course through many storms.
+
+Other links with national affairs were the periodic visits of the
+King's judges who travelled on circuit over the country, stopping at
+important centres to hold assize there. Their duties consisted not
+only in settling matters of litigation, but also in reviewing the way
+in which all the King's affairs were being conducted in each locality.
+They supervised the work of the sheriffs.
+
+Galtres Forest and the Fish Pond, both royal property, helped to
+furnish the king's table with food. From the royal Larder at York such
+foodstuffs as venison, game, and fish were despatched salted to
+wherever the King required them.
+
+
+C. BUSINESS LIFE
+
+Business, in one form or another, was the occupation of the majority
+of the citizens. There were a few capitalist merchants, many traders,
+and thousands of employed workpeople, skilled and unskilled. Such
+street names as Spurriergate, Fishergate, Girdlergate, Hosier Lane,
+and Colliergate would suggest that men in the same trade had their
+premises in the same quarter, possibly in the same street.
+
+The English middle class, which had taken form in the fourteenth
+century, was well established in the fifteenth century, when it became
+so important as to be an appreciable factor in the national life. The
+middle class arose through currency, the use of money to bring in more
+money by trading. Trade became the monopoly of the middle class, the
+successful master-traders. It was men of this class, the capitalist
+employers, the merchants and traders who were the mayors and aldermen,
+who ruled the city. The exclusiveness, which was eminently
+characteristic of this class, appeared especially in their attitude
+towards national taxation and in that towards trade organisations.
+With regard to taxation the towns persistently avoided the assessment
+of individual traders, who did not wish to disclose the amount of
+their wealth, by agreeing that the whole town should pay to the
+Exchequer a sum to be raised by the Mayor and Corporation. The middle
+class achieved its aims politically by transformation from within.
+Instead of making a direct assertive attack, these master-traders
+usually so developed their own interests within the established
+institutions (such as the guilds) that they ultimately gained their
+object quietly and shrewdly. This class established itself against the
+King and the nobles on the one hand, and during the century in
+effective fashion against the workers on the other. This appears in
+the more definite distinctions of class among the citizens that arose.
+The masters had got the control of the guilds into their own power.
+While maintaining the original outward appearance of the guilds as
+societies of men affected by the same interests in daily life, the
+employers had actually become a powerful vested class that ruled both
+city and guild life. In the fifteenth century the workmen were
+founding fraternities of their own.
+
+Memory of the Jews, the money-dealers of other times, survived if only
+from the harrowing stories of the various persecutions that had taken
+place all over England, and not least in York. The Jews had been
+expelled from the country by Edward I., with the encouragement of the
+Church, in 1290, partly for economic, partly for religious reasons.
+Their supplanters, the Italian bankers, whom Edward favoured, soon
+acquired from their trading an unpopularity equal to that of the Jews
+as traders. The rise of the middle class had coincided with the
+release of money in coin from the hoards of the Jews, and from the
+coffers of the Knights Templars, whose order was abolished in 1312.
+
+The merchant and trading class, apart from the nobility and the
+Church, formed the bulk of the people of the nation. They were the
+solid part of the nation, that paid taxes, that supplied clerks,
+monks, and priests, that liberally supported the Church, that kept the
+nation progressive and solvent by commercial undertakings.
+
+The professions, as we use the term to-day, had not as yet attained
+sufficient importance for them to form a distinct class division.
+There were a few capable physicians, but generally the practice of
+medicine was shared by the Church and the barber-surgeons. Priests and
+officers of the Church had the privilege peculiar to the Church by
+which even a poor but intellectually capable man could rise to high
+office and become the social equal of nobles. Architecture was
+practised by master-masons under the patronage of leading
+ecclesiastics and nobles. Teaching was nearly all the work of the
+Church. The lawyers, however, were already to be distinguished from
+those who gained profit by dealing in goods, for they made profit from
+transactions on paper, from managing the interests of others, from
+trading in their own acute mental powers.
+
+The wool trade was by far the most extensive and flourishing trade of
+England in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. This was the trade
+that made England great commercially. Wool was England's raw material
+and the source of most of her wealth. The numerous monasteries had
+huge sheep-farms. Edward III. had encouraged foreign clothworkers to
+settle in England (in York, as in other places). The first York
+craftsmen to be incorporated were the weavers, who received a charter
+from Henry II., in return for which they paid a tax to the King for
+the customs and liberties he granted them. The weavers were the
+largest and wealthiest body of traders.
+
+Guilds had developed from societies of masters and men engaged in the
+same trade, to the trade-guilds, which in the fourteenth century were
+trade corporations, the lower ranks of members being the workers, the
+higher ranks, including the office-holders, the richer merchants, the
+capitalist employers. The ruling committees of the trade-guilds made
+regulations and generally governed their particular trades. Despite
+the power of the guilds the municipal authority maintained its
+supremacy in civic government because it enforced the ordinances of
+the trades. Moreover, disputes between the guilds themselves gave the
+city authority opportunities of increasing its power, of which it
+availed itself.
+
+The system of serfdom, by which serfs were bound to a particular
+domain and owned by their overlord, had not yet ceased. Nearly all the
+workmen of York, however, were freemen, _i.e._ they had full and
+complete citizenship. The members of the councils of aldermen and
+councillors, the mayors and city officials, the members of the
+trade-guilds, were all freemen.
+
+In the fifteenth century the wealthy and important employers and
+traders governed the guilds. They were in the position and had the
+power to regulate the conduct in every way of their own trades. Thus,
+rules were laid down as to the terms of admission of men to the
+practice of a trade; the government of the guild and the meetings of
+the members and ruling committees; the moral standard of the members
+in their work and trafficking; the payments of masters to workers; the
+prices of goods to be sold to the public or other traders; the rates
+of fines and the amount of confiscations inflicted on those who broke
+the rules of their guild; the terms on which strangers, English and
+foreign, were to be allowed to pursue their trade in the city; whether
+Sunday trading was to be permitted or not; the duties of the
+searchers; everything incident to the share of the guild in the city's
+production of pageant plays.
+
+The question of the terms of the residence and trading of strangers
+received constant consideration. The city had, in many respects,
+complete local autonomy and rules were made with regard to strangers
+who came to carry on their trades in the city. From 1459 aliens had,
+by municipal law, to live in one place only, at the sign of the Bull
+in Coney Street, unless they received special permission from the
+Mayor to reside elsewhere. The guilds were ruled by masters and
+wardens. They had their various officials. The searchers were officers
+appointed to observe that the rules of the trade were being carried
+out properly. They took care that only authorised members pursued the
+trade of the guild of which they were the officers. They vigilantly
+watched the conduct of the members, and it was their duty to take
+action in case of infringement of the rules and to bring offenders
+before the Mayor in his court.
+
+The wealthy trading class all over the country did great and lasting
+work in founding grammar schools and building or rebuilding cathedrals
+and churches or parts of them. There was a social side to the guilds.
+This appeared in the public processions and the performances of plays,
+the morality and mystery plays of mediaeval England. There was also a
+strong religious side to the guilds. The processions and plays were
+fundamentally religious. The Church's festivals were recognised as
+holidays. Much money was given and bequeathed for the foundation of
+chantries, which with their priests have their place also in the
+educational life of the city.
+
+The merchants lived well. They were rich from trade, and through the
+corporate guilds governed their own trades both legislatively and
+executively; the highest offices in civic life were theirs; they lived
+in houses as splendid as they cared to have them; they furnished their
+homes with quantities of silver plate, both for use and for ornament,
+for this was the most suitable outlet for superfluous wealth in days
+when modern facilities for investment did not exist; they wore clothes
+of fine material, richly trimmed; they were honoured citizens; they
+were earnest in religion and their benevolence to the Church is very
+remarkable. They were forming a lesser aristocracy now that they were
+becoming owners of agricultural land as well as town property. They
+had the benefits of wealth and comfort, while they were shrewd enough
+to avoid the penalties of advertised riches. A typical instance of a
+successful merchant who rose to high positions was that of Sir Richard
+Yorke, who was Mayor of the staple of Calais and Lord Mayor of York in
+1469 and 1482, and member of Parliament. A window in St. John's
+Church, Micklegate, in commemoration of him is still to be seen. A
+shield bearing his arms (azure, saltire argent) appears in the glass;
+another bears the arms of the Merchants of the Wool staple of Calais.
+He was knighted by Henry VII. when that king was in York in 1487.
+
+Masters took apprentices, who themselves generally became masters in
+their turn. The conditions of apprenticeship were ruled in detail by
+the guilds.
+
+When a workman became a skilled artisan he was called a journeyman,[3]
+that is, a man who earned a full day's pay for his work. The legal
+hours of work were, from March to September, from 5 a.m. to 7.30 p.m.,
+with half an hour for breakfast, and an hour and a half for dinner.
+Saturday was universally a half-holiday. There were 44 working weeks
+in a year and, consequently, a total of holidays and non-working times
+of eight weeks. The burden of the very long hours was increased by the
+great physical exertion required from men who had to do much that is
+now done with the help of machinery. The strain was not always
+unrecognised, for the Minster workmen were allowed a period of rest
+during the working day.
+
+Some of the men engaged in the construction of the Minster were not
+York men. The men employed there were by exception under
+ecclesiastical control. They were not governed by any of the city
+trade guilds. The master-mason was in charge of the whole of the
+building operations.
+
+A list of trades in the city will suggest the kinds of business there
+were. Some of the names will go far to explain some modern surnames.
+
+_Wool Trades_:--
+  Mercers.
+  Tapiters and couchers (makers of tapestry, hangings, carpets, and
+  coverlets).
+  Fullers.
+  Cardmakers.
+  Littesters (dyers, listers).
+  Shermen (shearmen).
+  Sledmen.
+  Dyers.
+  Weavers of woollen.
+
+_Leather Trades_:--
+  Barkers (tanners).
+  Curriers.
+
+_Building Trades_:--
+  Carpenters, wrights and joiners.
+  Plasterers.
+  Tilers.
+  Ironmongers.
+  Painters.
+  Glaziers.
+
+_Food Trades_:--
+  Spicers (grocers--_Cf._ French _epicier_).
+  Cooks and waterleaders.
+  Baxters (bakers).
+  Vintners and taverners.
+  Bouchers (butchers).
+  Pulters (poultry-dealers).
+  Wine-drawers (carters of wine).
+  Sauce-makers.[4]
+
+_Outfitting Trades_:--
+  Tailors.
+  Skinners (vestment makers).
+  Glovers.
+  Hosiers.
+  Hatmakers.
+  Capmakers.
+  Cordwainers (cobblers).
+  Saddlers.
+  Girdlers and nailers.
+  Spuriers and lorimers (makers of spurs, bits for bridles, etc.).
+
+_Armour Trades_:--
+  Armourers.
+  Smiths.
+  Bowers and flecchers (fletchers)--(makers of bows and arrows. _Cf._
+  French _fleche_).
+
+_Household Trades_:--
+  Coopers.
+  Pewterers and founders.
+  Chaundlers (makers of candles and wax images).
+  Potters.
+  Culters.
+  Bucklemakers, sheathers, bladesmiths.
+  Drapers.
+  Linenweavers.
+
+_Miscellaneous Trades_:--
+  Goldsmiths.
+  Latoners (workers in the metal called latten).
+  Barber-surgeons (the mediaeval medical practitioners).
+  Parchemeners and bookbinders.
+  Scriveners.
+  Writers of texts.
+  Ostlers (inn-holders).
+  Shipwrights.
+  Fishers and mariners.
+
+Artist craftsmen of York supplied most of the churches of the north of
+England with their beautiful vessels, furniture, and ornaments. In the
+workshops of the city, the metropolis of the north, there were worked
+and made embroidered vestments of all kinds, engraved chalices and
+vessels of silver and of gold, and carved work, including statues and
+images in stone, wood, and wax. Bells were cast with beautiful
+lettering. Brasses for grave-slabs were made bearing finely designed
+effigies.
+
+Marketing, _i.e._ trading, was done mostly at the frequent and regular
+markets and at the fairs. The right to hold a market or a fair was
+among the rights obtained by means of royal charters. While markets
+were held once or several times a week or every day, fairs took place
+more rarely and at some of the most important and popular holiday
+seasons of the year, like Whitsuntide. Fairs attracted a much larger
+public than the markets.
+
+In the city there were markets in different places for different kinds
+of produce on certain days. For instance, in the fifteenth century
+there was a market of live-stock at Toft Green every Friday. The
+public squares, called Thursday Market and Pavement, were used as
+market-places. Some markets were held in the streets. Stalls were set
+up on which to exhibit the wares. The ordinary foodstuffs and
+materials, just as in the open market held at the present time in the
+long and broad Parliament Street, formed of Thursday Market and
+Pavement and the space formerly occupied by a compact mass of old
+houses between the two originally distinct squares, were the things
+sold and bought at the mediaeval markets: such as butter, meat, fish,
+linen, leather, corn, poultry, herbs. Some, for example butchers'
+shops, kept open market every day. Craftsmen worked goods at the
+premises of their merchant employers, which usually combined the
+latters' home and workshop; it was chiefly at the markets and fairs
+that these goods were sold.
+
+Markets and fairs were controlled by the authority, whether municipal
+or archiepiscopal, that possessed the right of holding them. Again,
+particular care was taken to ensure preference being obtained by the
+citizens over strangers. The Lammas fairs were held under the
+authority of the Archbishops, who assumed the rule of the city and
+suburbs for the period of the fair. The sheriffs' authority, in
+consequence, was suspended for that period. The Archbishop, meanwhile,
+took tolls, and all cases that arose during the holding of the fair
+were judged by a court set up by him.
+
+Fairs combined both trading and entertainments, for they were held on
+public holidays. They fostered trade and served to provide a change
+from the ordinary routine of life. It was perhaps at fairs that
+mediaeval people were at their noisiest, for these were occasions when
+they gave themselves up unrestrainedly to merry-making, wild and
+clamorous. Strolling players and the whole variety of mediaeval
+entertainers set up their stands and booths, and amused the dense
+surging crowds that thronged the squares and streets.
+
+York had a large overseas trade, especially in wool and manufactured
+cloth. Some of its merchants owned property abroad. Some went abroad
+and encountered perils by sea and perils from foreigners on the
+continent. York traded with the Low Countries, where Veere (near
+Middleburg) and Dordrecht were ports that ships entered to discharge
+cargoes loaded on the York quays. The trade between York and the
+Baltic ports was much greater than that done with them from any other
+English port.
+
+Foreign sailors were to be seen in the streets of fifteenth-century
+York; foreign goods were handled in the city. Wines were imported from
+France, fine cloths from Flemish towns, silks, velvet, and glass from
+Italy, while from the Baltic came timber and fur. From the North sea
+came fish, much of which was brought to York from the coast by
+pack-horse across the moors. The herring was an important article of
+food.
+
+Money was measured in marks, shillings, and pence. Of the current
+coins those in gold were called the angel, half-angel, the noble,
+half-noble, and quarter-noble; in silver there were the groat,
+half-groat, the penny, and half-penny. The local branch of the royal
+Mint was housed within the Castle. The building containing it was
+rebuilt in accordance with an order of 1423. The coins from this mint,
+which was at work during a large part of the fifteenth century, bore
+distinctive marks to show the place of minting. Silver coins bore the
+inscription CIVITAS EBORACI. The archbishops continued to use their
+privilege of coining money.
+
+The following extracts, interesting for the substance and the literary
+form, are taken from the city records as published by the Surtees
+Society, vols. 120, 125, "The York Memorandum Book."
+
+From the ordinances of the Pewterers, 1416.
+
+"Ordinaciones pewderariorum.
+
+"Ceux sont les articles de lez pewderers de Lounders, les queux les
+genz de mesme lartifice dyceste citee Deverwyk ount agrees pur agarder
+et ordeiner entre eux par deux ans passez, devant Johan Moreton,
+maire."
+
+Others of the earlier ordinances are in Anglo-French; many are in
+Latin. Later ordinances are in English as in the case of those of the
+Carpenters, 1482, of which the following are the opening paragraphs:--
+
+"In the honour of God, and for the weile of this full honourabill cite
+of York, and of the carpenters inhabit in the same at the special
+instaunce and praier of" ... (here follows a list of names) ...
+"carpenters of this full nobill cite, ar ordeyned the xxij^ti day of
+Novembyr in the xxij^ti yere of the reing of king Edward the iv. in
+the secund tym of the mairalte of the ryght honorabill Richard York
+mair of the said cite, by the authorite of the holl counsell of the
+said full honourable cite, for ewyr to be kept thez ordinaunces
+filluyg,
+
+"Furst, for asmoch as here afore ther hath beyn of old tym a
+broderhode had and usyd emong the occupacion and craft above said, the
+wich of long continuaunce have usid, and as yit yerly usis to fynd of
+thar propir costes a lyght of diwyrs torchis in the fest of Corpus
+Christi day, or of the morn aftir, in the honour and worship of God
+and all saintes, and to go in procession with the same torchis with
+the blessid sacrament from the abbey foundyd of the Holy Trenite in
+Mykylgate in the said cite on to the cathedrall chyrch of Saint Petir
+in the same cite; and also have done and usyd diwyrs odir right full
+good and honourabill deides, as her aftir it shall more playnly apeir.
+It is ordenyd and esyablyshid be the said mair, aldermen, and all the
+holl counsell of the said full nobill cite, be the consent and assent
+of all tham of the said occupacion in the said cite, that the said
+fraternite and bredirhode shalbe here after for ewyr kept and
+continend as it has beyn in tymis passid, and that every brodir thar
+of shall pay yerly for the sustentacion thar of vjd, that is to say,
+at every halff yer iij^d, providyng allway that every man of the said
+occupacion within the said cite shalnot be compellid ne boundeyn to be
+of the said fraternite ne brodirhood, ne noyn to be thar of bot soch
+as will of thar free will."
+
+
+D. RELIGIOUS LIFE
+
+[Illustration: ADMINISTERING HOLY COMMUNION WITH THE HOUSEL CLOTH.
+_From a Fourteenth-Century Manuscript._]
+
+Insistence can hardly be too great on the tremendous and wide-spread
+influence of the Church in the Middle Ages. The greatness of the
+Church continued during the fifteenth century; it derived from the
+traditions of an age when absolute power prevailed, from the
+undisputed usage of centuries, from a logical system of dogmas, and
+from international sanctions. The ornate services, allegiance to the
+distant Pope, the immense hold of the priests on the laity, the large
+territorial possessions of ecclesiastical bodies, impressed the people
+with the power of the Church. These things came to the fifteenth
+century as established facts. The spirit of revolt indeed had appeared
+with Wiclif and his followers in the fourteenth century, but Lollardy
+met with severe repressive opposition. It was not till Tudor times
+that the new spirit, stimulated by the Revival of Learning, the
+Reformation, the invention of printing from type, geographical
+discovery, the suppression of long years of internecine warfare, and
+the establishment of a strong government, had accumulated enough
+energy to burst the bonds of mediaevalism. The fifteenth century was at
+the end of an age.
+
+It is interesting to note that Wiclif (_d._ 1384), one of England's
+greatest men, was ordained in York. He stands out as a "daring and
+inspired pioneer" who strove to provide the land with priests who were
+true and earnest shepherds. He attempted the superhuman task of
+reviving true religion among a people that had become to a certain
+extent dull, irreverent, ignorant, and thoroughly superstitious.
+
+By the fifteenth century the Church was suffering from those ills
+which needed and later gained drastic treatment. The Church had done
+almost miraculous work in the first few centuries of its existence, if
+we think only of the success with which it substituted its system of
+morality for that of pagan Rome. The fifteenth century followed those
+centuries when the Church of England, under the direction of great and
+earnest men, was doing its work with conspicuous success. Yet, the
+very forces that enabled the Church to make itself a living power in
+the Dark Ages, the early centuries embracing the Fall of Rome, the
+Empire of Charlemagne, and the kingship of Alfred the Great, became
+harmful to its continued activity beneficially in many directions. The
+inadequacy of its work in these centuries appears in the lack of
+spiritual activity and in the predominance of the material side of
+religion. The mediaeval Church suffered badly from excessive
+conservatism, which led towards sloth and a complacent inactivity. The
+morbid element showed itself during the fifteenth century mainly in
+lack of real earnestness, in the enjoyment of luxurious laziness, and
+in the steady neglect of the age to revise its Christianity. The
+Church moreover, with its complete segregation from other estates of
+the realm had become unpopular socially, while in its political and
+temporal aspects it had become an immense corporation with strong
+vested interests. Kings found it necessary to fight it; religious
+reformers had to rise up and overcome every form of repression used
+against them. The decadence is exemplified incidentally in the
+increasing poverty in material and expression of the monastic
+chronicles, which practically died out by 1485. The period of turmoil
+and change was yet to come.
+
+Such was the general state of affairs. Nevertheless the forms and
+practices of the Church continued. The granting of indulgences and
+pardons, the inexhaustible demand for Peter's pence, went on
+vigorously. A recognised means of publicly raising funds was employed
+in February 1455-6, when the Archbishop proclaimed an indulgence of
+forty days to those who would help the Friars Preachers, whose
+cloister and buildings including 34 cells together with their books,
+vestments, jewels, and sacred vessels, had been destroyed by fire.
+
+The faith of the ordinary citizen was, however, intact. The Church
+came into the people's life daily. The citizen could not walk away
+from his home without seeing a church, and meeting a priest or a
+friar. He attended the Church services and fulfilled his religious
+duties. Baptism, marriage, death, illness, public rejoicing,
+soldiering, dramatic entertainments, the language of daily life--all
+these bore the stamp of the Church. The very days of relief from work
+were holy-days, feast days in the Church's calendar. Taking part in
+the public processions on Corpus Christi Day, a great annual holiday,
+was a religious exercise; at the same time this day was devoted
+especially to entertainment. Wills of the century show that the
+citizens lived as religiously as formerly. This spirit is seen perhaps
+most characteristically in the numbers of candles that wealthy
+citizens bequeathed for use in church, and in the sums of money they
+left to specified clergy and other "religious" for the provision of
+masses for the souls of themselves, their wives and families, and for
+those for whom they ought to pray. Masses were thus provided for by
+hundreds, and in some cases by thousands. The following extracts from
+the will[5] of a rich citizen and merchant of York, who had been
+sheriff and mayor of the city, show admirably the spirit of a member
+of the middle class in the fifteenth century:--
+
+"In the name of God Amen. The 4th day of September in the year of our
+Lord 1436, I Thomas Bracebrig, Citizen and merchant, York, sound of
+mind and having health of body, establish and dispose my Will in this
+manner. First, I command and bequeath my soul to God Almighty, to the
+blessed Mary, Mother of God and ever Virgin, and to All Saints, and my
+body to be buried in the parish church of St. Saviour in York, before
+the image of the Crucifix of our Lord Jesus Christ, next to the bodies
+of my wives and children lately buried there, for having which burial
+in that place I bequeath to the fabric of the same parish church 20s.
+Also I bequeath for my mortuary my best garment with hood appropriate
+for my body. Also I bequeath to Master John Amall, Rector of the said
+parish church for my tithes and oblations forgotten, and that he may
+more specially pray for my soul, 20s. Also I bequeath for two candles
+to burn at my exequies 30 lbs. of wax. Also 10 torches to burn around
+my body on the said day of my burial, and that each torch shall
+contain in itself 14 lbs. of pure wax.... Also I bequeath to 10 men
+carrying or holding the said 10 Torches in my exequies 10 Gowns, so
+that each of the said 10 poor men shall have in his gown and hood
+3-1/2 ells of russet or black cloth, and that the aforesaid gowns
+shall be lined with white woollen cloth. And I will that my Executors
+shall pay for the making of the same gowns with hoods.... Also I will
+and ordain that two fit and proper chaplains shall be found to
+celebrate for my soul, and the souls of my parents, wives, children,
+benefactors, and for the souls of those for whom I am bound or am
+debtor, as God shall know in that respect, and for the souls of all
+the faithful departed, for one whole year, immediately after my
+decease, in my parish church...."
+
+The will is a very long one. Altogether 470 lbs. of wax, to last 15
+years, would be necessary to satisfy the requirements of the will. 765
+masses are specially arranged for; besides, provision was made for
+masses to be said by more than 21 chaplains, the religious of 5
+priories for women, and by every friar and priest of the four orders
+of friars in York. There were also bequests to 2 anchoresses, 1
+anchorite, and 1 hermit, to pray for the soul of the testator and the
+souls aforesaid. Bequests were made to the poor of St. Saviour's; to
+lepers "in the 4 houses for lepers in the suburbs," to the poor in
+maisons-dieu; to the prisoners in the Castle, in the Archbishop's
+prison, and in the Kidcote. The testator ordered gifts of coal, wood,
+and shoes, and 1000 white loaves of bread, to be made among the poor
+and needy. The bequests to relatives and directions to the Executors
+occupy a large part of the Will, which is that of a particularly
+wealthy and important citizen. Charity, however, was a marked
+characteristic of these men who had become rich through trade. With a
+generous spirit they put into practice the teachings about giving to
+the poor and to prisoners. The amount of money spent in founding
+chantries, in paying priests for masses for the departed, testifies to
+their faith.
+
+It was part of the policy of the Church to keep the instruction of the
+people, young and old, in its own control. Practically all the
+educational work in York during the century was the work of the
+Church.
+
+Through the monasteries and hospitals the Church did valuable work in
+feeding the poor, helping the needy, and in educating the poorer
+citizens' boys. The royal Hospital of St. Leonard did such work. It
+was a peculiar institution, being under the authority of the King, and
+containing a sisterhood as well as a brotherhood. It included a
+grammar school and a song-school. As an institution it was
+self-supporting; food was made on the premises, and the carpenters'
+and similar work was done by brethren in the Hospital's own workshops.
+
+The large number of priests were variously employed. There were
+priests who officiated in the monastic churches, in the parish
+churches (as rectors and chaplains, of whom there were 300 in York in
+1436), in the cathedral where the number of chantry-chapels was very
+great and where services were held simultaneously as well as
+frequently. Some priests were vicars, that is, while the living or
+"cure" of souls was held by the rector, the vicar was the actual
+priest in charge, for the rector probably held more than one benefice
+and could not serve personally in more than one. Generally it was a
+corporate body, like the Dean and Chapter, or a monastery, that was
+the rector of a number of livings at the same time.
+
+Of the many clergy serving the Minster the Dean, who was the
+incumbent, ranked first. Much of the revenue of the Dean and Chapter,
+the Governing Body, came from landed possessions in York and various
+parts of the surrounding country. These possessions, divided into
+prebends, provided livings for the thirty-six prebendaries or canons,
+who collectively formed the Chapter. Each canon served at the Minster
+during a specified portion of the year, when he lived at his residence
+at York. The residences of the prebendaries were mostly round the
+Minster Close. While his own parish was served vicariously while he
+was at York, each canon had a minor-canon or vicar-choral to act as
+his deputy at York when he was absent. These vicars-choral formed a
+corporate body and lived collegiately in the Bedern. The numerous
+chantries in the Minster were served by priests who also lived
+collegiately but at St. William's College. The College, at the head of
+which was a Provost, was founded about the middle of the century.
+Previously these priests had lived in private houses.
+
+The parish priest was occupied in performing the services in his
+church, in hearing confessions, in teaching the children, in visiting,
+interrogating, consoling, and ministering the Sacraments to the sick
+and dying, and in guiding and sharing the life of his parish
+generally. Each parish church had a number of clergy besides the
+parish priest attached to it: the number varied from one to ten or
+more according to the number of chantries at the church. Each priest
+was helped a great deal in parochial affairs by the parish clerk. The
+latter was the chief lay official for business in connection with the
+parish church. His duties required him to be a man of some education.
+
+The Archbishop was both bishop of the diocese of York, and head of all
+the dioceses which together formed the Northern Province of the two
+provinces into which England was divided for the purpose of Church
+rule. His diocese formerly extended so far south as to include
+Nottingham and Southwell.
+
+The Archbishop was a Primate and occupied a high position in the
+State. Besides being supreme head of the Church in the northern
+province, he was a great landowner. He possessed, besides his palace
+near the Minster, a number of seats (like Cawood Castle) in the
+country. When he was in London he resided at his fine official palace,
+York House. The Archbishops were great lords of the realm in every
+way. Archbishop Neville, brother of Warwick "the king-maker,"
+celebrated his installation in 1465 with a very famous feast. The huge
+amount and delicacy of the dishes prepared, the number of retainers
+employed, the splendour of the scene, which was honoured by the
+presence of the Duke of Gloucester and members of some of the most
+noble families in the kingdom, all the details of this sumptuous
+feast, were intended to impress King Edward IV. with the might of the
+Nevilles.
+
+Ecclesiastical preferment was often a reward for services in other
+branches of the service of the State. Sometimes great offices in the
+Church and the State were held simultaneously. Thus, Archbishop
+Rotherham was also Chancellor of England for a time. Both Richard
+Scrope and William Booth, archbishops of the century, had been
+lawyers. The appointment of George Neville, who had been nominated
+when only twenty-three to the see of Exeter, was a purely political
+one, the bestowing of a high and lucrative office on a member of a
+noble family that was enjoying the full sunshine of popularity and
+power. The King could also benefit from Church positions otherwise
+than by presenting them to partisans. During the two and a half years
+that the see of York was kept vacant between the time of the execution
+of Archbishop Scrope and the appointment of Henry Bowett (in 1407),
+the revenues went, in accordance with the established practice, to the
+royal purse.
+
+There were also "clerks," educated men, but not priests, who were in
+"minor orders." Many a man, asserting that he was a clerk, made
+application for trial by an ecclesiastical court, so as to get the
+benefit of the less stringent judgment of the Church courts, to which
+belonged the right of dealing with ecclesiastical offenders.
+
+One abuse within the Church was pluralism, that is, the holding of
+more than one office at the same time with the result that the holder
+was drawing revenue for work he could not himself do. William Sever,
+for instance, while Abbot of St. Mary's, York, became Bishop of
+Carlisle. These two high offices, one monastic and the other secular,
+he held simultaneously from 1495 to 1502.
+
+The religious orders were of two kinds, viz. monks (and nuns) who
+lived in seclusion in monasteries, abbeys, or convents, and friars,
+who lived under a rule but came out into the world to preach and work.
+Both kinds took the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience to the
+rule (_e.g._, Cistercian or Benedictine, Franciscan or Dominican). Some,
+but not all, monks and friars were priests. There were four well-known
+orders of mendicant friars, viz. Franciscan (Grey friars, friars
+minor), Dominican (Black friars, friars preachers), Carmelite (White
+friars), Augustinian (Austin canons). Monks and friars wore sandals,
+and long, loose gowns with hoods or cowls which they could pull over
+their heads to serve as hats. The alternative titles of some of the
+orders of friars came from the colour of their friars' gowns. The
+Carmelites used undyed cloth, which was white in comparison with the
+black of the Dominicans. The Benedictine monks of St. Mary's Abbey
+wore black garments. Their heads were shaved on the crown, the
+technical term for which was the tonsure.
+
+[Illustration: SEMI-CHOIR OF FRANCISCANS.
+_From a Fifteenth-Century Manuscript._]
+
+Monks spent their time in attending the frequent services in the
+monastery church, which they entered at the night and early morning
+services directly from the dormitories; in copying manuscripts, which
+occupied a large part of their day; in contemplation and in study; in
+manual work; in recreation. The cloister where work was carried on and
+the church were the essential buildings of the monastery. Monastic
+life centred in these two places. Its arrangements were dictated by
+the purpose of making a religious atmosphere pervade everything; thus
+a religious book was read at meals.
+
+The luxury and laxity that obtained in monastic life were not confined
+to the fifteenth century. The Archbishop had frequent occasion in the
+fourteenth century to complain, for instance, of the use by monks and
+nuns of ornaments, and of clothes of finer material than the
+traditional rule permitted. He condemned the wearing of clothes cut to
+a worldly pattern. The religious had to be admonished from time to
+time not to admit strangers within the cloister, and to conform in all
+respects strictly to their rule.
+
+During the century St. Mary's Abbey contained about sixty monks,
+including the Abbot, the supreme head, and the Prior, who held the
+second highest office; besides, there was a very large number of
+lay-brethren, servants and officers, for in addition to the internal
+work at the abbey, there was the management of the abbey estates and
+business. Abbots and monks were always keen traders. Altogether the
+personnel of St. Mary's might have numbered about two hundred.
+
+The influence of such a monastery as St. Mary's was very far from
+being restricted to affairs within the abbey walls. Through its Abbot
+it had a spokesman in the House of Lords. There were cells dependant
+on the abbey and often at a distance. The Abbot had a number of
+residences in the country and one in London. The abbey itself had
+numerous possessions of land and manors in many parts of the country.
+This was a principal source of revenue. St. Mary's Abbey also had
+jurisdiction over many churches, not only in York and Yorkshire, but
+in other counties as well. The other monastic institutions and the
+Minster and some of the hospitals, for example St. Leonard's, had
+similar rights of jurisdiction and the ownership of land, property,
+and churches.
+
+In some of the churchyards there lived anchorites, anchoresses, and
+hermits. These were individuals who chose to live a solitary life
+spent in prayer and religious work. Anchorites led a life of strict
+seclusion, for they were literally shut in their cells, from the
+world. They did not, however, eschew all intercourse with others, for
+their solitary lives of devotion, and in some cases of study, gave
+them a reputation for wisdom that led people to seek them for their
+advice. Permission was given by the Church authorities to those who
+took up this mode of life, the assumption of which formed part of a
+special service. The Pontifical of Archbishop Bainbridge, who held the
+see from 1508 to 1514, contains an office for the Enclosing of an
+Anchorite. Hermits lived in less strict seclusion. Their aims were
+similar, but they went about in the world doing good works.
+
+One of the worst features of the religious decadence of the Middle
+Ages was the craftiness of such spurious types of men as those whom
+Chaucer painted in the Pardoner and the Somonour, and Charles Reade
+depicted in the peripatetic "cripples" of "The Cloister and the
+Hearth." Chaucer wrote in the true spirit of comedy _mores corrigere
+ridendo_, but Langland, his contemporary, who described similar types
+of men of State as well as of Church, did so from the point of view of
+a moral reformer whose satire is a trenchant weapon.
+
+There were many other types of religious men, but it must suffice to
+refer to Pardoners, who by virtue of papal bulls gave pardons,
+expecting, exacting if necessary, a reward in return, and to mention
+only palmers and pilgrims, who were seen in York when they came to
+visit the shrine of St. William in the Minster. The palmers were
+pilgrims who had visited the Holy Land. They liked to wear a
+scallop-shell in their broad-brimmed hats as a sign of their extensive
+travels. Journeying from shrine to shrine was a favourite occupation,
+a professional one, of those pilgrims who loved a wandering and easy
+life, seeing the sights and living at the expense of the monastic
+hospitality. Some pilgrimages were done by proxy, through the
+employment of professional pilgrims. A pilgrimage to a shrine
+celebrated for miraculous cures or the efficacy of the spiritual
+benefit derived from worshipping at it and invoking the help of the
+saint, was for many an exercise of deep religious devotion. There is
+no doubt, moreover, that at the shrines of the saints the Church
+proved itself a great healer. It was in fact the popular physician.
+Apart from surgery, the medical practice of the twentieth century is
+in some ways the successor of that of the Church of the fifteenth.
+
+When very popular religious men died, or when, if they were already
+dead as in the case of William, Archbishop of York (who died in 1153
+and was canonised in 1227), popularity sprang up, it was quite usual
+for it to be discovered that miracles were being wrought at their
+tombs. The case of the popular Archbishop Scrape who was executed is a
+typical one. In this way the calendar of saints was enlarged, the
+devout had a new interest, the Church maintained its position in the
+popular eye and mind, and its funds increased.
+
+The mediaeval Church, however, appeared perhaps at its best in its
+Church services, which drew their effect from the sanctity of the
+magnificent building (whether cathedral or parish church), the awe
+inspired by the Church politic, the use of Latin and the learned
+atmosphere, the religious teaching, and, not least, the imposing
+ceremonies, and the ornate ritual performed amid a profusion of
+lighted wax candles by priests and dignitaries in resplendent
+vestments.
+
+
+E. EDUCATION
+
+The only school engaged in higher education in York in the century was
+St. Peter's School, a very old foundation, where Alcuin, who (in 782)
+had carried educational reform to the land of the Franks, had been
+master. At this school, which was attached to the cathedral, were
+educated those who were to spend their lives in scholarship,
+especially, as now, after residence at Oxford or Cambridge; future
+priests and clerks; the sons of the nobility and of the more wealthy
+members of the merchant class in the city. Other regular schools were
+the Grammar School at the royal Hospital of St. Leonard and the one at
+Fossgate Hospital. This educational work was one of the most valuable
+kinds of public work done by these hospitals.
+
+A more elementary and less well organised education was given by the
+parish priests and the chantry priests, from whom the children of the
+city generally, boys and girls, received at least oral instruction.
+
+Girls usually received a practical upbringing at home. The only
+schools for girls were those attached to women's monasteries, of which
+there was St. Clement's Nunnery alone in York.
+
+Educational welfare work, as distinct from direct and organised
+class-teaching, was carried on by the friars, the religious men who
+lived under a rule but who went out to work in the world, instead of
+spending their lives in seclusion as the monks did. The Dominican and
+Franciscan Friars played an important part in education by teaching,
+especially at the Universities. Education was also a foremost interest
+of the Augustinians, who supported a college at Oxford.
+
+Books, which had all to be written by hand, were scarce. The copying
+of manuscripts, which was done mostly in the monasteries, was
+laborious work. Instruction was given as a rule orally, but also by
+means of pictorial art and drama. The stained-glass windows were more
+than ornamental additions to the church building: they were part of
+the means of instruction. Mediaeval drama had originated in the
+Church's effort to make events described in the gospel more real
+through their representation dramatically.
+
+The teaching of manual skill and craftsmanship was entirely the work
+of the masters of the crafts under the general supervision of the
+guilds. The work of the age was made beautiful, and being handwork
+each piece of work gained the interest of individuality. The details
+of architectural ornament, in consequence, show wonderful diversity of
+form. The naive spirit of the ordinary handicraft workman was often
+reflected in his work. The arts of the goldsmith, silversmith,
+bell-founder, vestment-maker (which required elaborate embroidery),
+and the sculptor, were practised in York with excellent results.
+
+There has never been a university of York, although under Alcuin the
+school of York was doing work of high quality, work that gained
+European fame. Even within the last hundred years, when so many
+provincial universities and university colleges have been established,
+York, one of the most appropriate places, has not obtained a
+university.
+
+News and information reached the citizens mainly from personal
+intercourse. Merchants visiting other cities discussed with fellow
+merchants not only their immediate business but also past and current
+events. Pilgrims, palmers, and sailors recited their adventures on
+distant seas and lands, and told of the wonders of the world. The
+ordinary citizen, who read little, depended on conversations with
+better-informed citizens and strangers. The city council was
+continually in communication with the King and the great officers of
+State: information filtered down from the council to the citizens. The
+messengers often supplied the latest semi-official news. Officials and
+servants attached to the royal service or to that of nobles or of
+ecclesiastics (like the Archbishop of York), were the source of much
+political gossip. The news of the country passed to and fro between
+the city and the monastic lands, the castles, the manors, and the
+forests by means of the visits of men who lived at those places.
+Markets and fairs and public assemblies, whether the holding of
+assizes or on State visits, were occasions for the dissemination of
+news. The ordinary citizen gathered news and information also from the
+pulpit and from guild and parochial meetings, and from the bellman.
+The only authoritative news he received at first hand he got by
+listening to the public reading of proclamations.
+
+In the Middle Ages educated men who had no inclination for the life of
+the Church, monastic or secular, nor for landed proprietorship, with
+which was combined hunting and soldiering, became clerks. The clerks
+in the royal service helped in the work of administration of national
+affairs. Tradesmen's sons of ability and opportunity succeeded in
+gaining good positions in this service. Nobles also employed clerks.
+
+Altogether there seems to have been in the fifteenth century good
+provision for higher education. The people of the Middle Ages were not
+illiterate. The outstanding age of illiteracy (not to mention a host
+of other evils) in England was the age that began with the Industrial
+Revolution, when statesmen failed to make the public services keep
+pace with the rapidly increasing population and the rapid development
+of new conditions. That there was as large a public ready and eager to
+buy the books that printing from type made possible has been regarded
+as a disproof of general illiteracy. The books were published in the
+vernacular: the people read them. It was in 1476 that Caxton set up
+his press at Westminster. The first printing press established in York
+was set up in 1509.
+
+Nevertheless the general state of education and scholarship in England
+in the fifteenth century was at a low level, mainly owing to lack of
+enthusiasm and to the limited subjects of study. Natural science was
+unable yet to flourish. Mediaeval education was humanistic, but the old
+springs of this form of study were nearly dried up. The Greek classics
+were entirely lost. Even the few Latin classics that the mediaevals
+possessed, they did not understand aright. To Virgil's AEneid they gave
+a Christian interpretation! Grammar was the basis of study, which
+dealt mainly with such works as those of Cicero, Virgil, Boethius.
+
+The fifteenth century, the last century of an age, was a backwater in
+education as in literature. The great revival was to come. The
+fifteenth century was indeed a century of revolution in so far as
+under the almost placid surface of continuity and conformity, there
+were forces of revolt at work, probing, accumulating knowledge and
+experience, perhaps unconsciously, for the day of liberation and
+change. The Bible was not yet popularly available. Wiclif had been a
+pioneer in the work of translation and publication, but Tyndale and
+Coverdale in the sixteenth century supplied what he had aimed at doing
+in the fourteenth. The fifteenth century was the quiet dark hour
+before the dawn. As Coleridge expressed it: No sooner had the Revival
+of learning "sounded through Europe like the blast of an archangel's
+trumpet than from king to peasant there arose an enthusiasm for
+knowledge, the discovery of a manuscript became the subject of an
+embassy: Erasmus read by moonlight because he could not afford a
+torch, and begged a penny, not for the love of charity, but for the
+love of learning." But even then, when the enthusiasm and the will
+were there, such was the dearth of material for learning that, as in
+the case of Erasmus, the pioneers had practically nothing to work at
+but the classical texts and a few meagre vocabularies with etymologies
+of mediaeval scholarship. In 1491 Grocyn began to teach Greek at
+Oxford. In 1499 Erasmus first visited England. Referring to his visit
+to this country in 1505-6 he wrote: "There are in London five or six
+men who are thorough masters of both Latin and Greek; even in Italy I
+doubt that you would find their equals." England's position was,
+therefore, in this respect a good one.
+
+[Illustration: ARCHERY.]
+
+
+F. ENTERTAINMENTS
+
+In the Middle Ages holidays were taken at festivals marked in the
+Church calendar. Some feasts, like that of Whitsuntide, were
+universally observed. The ordinary length of a festival was eight
+days, that is, the full week--the octave. Apart from pilgrimages, the
+ordinary people travelled little. Moreover the life and property of
+travellers were not altogether secure in the forest land, with the
+result that treasure and distinguished people travelled under the care
+of an armed escort. A large city like York was practically
+self-supporting in public amusements. The fifteenth century saw the
+full development of the religious mystery plays, and the allegorical
+morality plays, which with their comic interludes had become popular
+from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The feast of Corpus
+Christi (instituted about 1263) was the most important time in the
+year for the playing of these typically mediaeval dramas. Begun more
+than three centuries earlier within the Church and performed by the
+clergy, as a dramatic reinforcement of the services and preaching, the
+mediaeval drama owed its origin mainly to the Church which maintained
+its influence as long as this drama continued. It soon came into the
+care of laymen, who took part in the productions. In the fifteenth
+century, these plays, which were produced almost entirely by laymen,
+were so numerous that they were formed in cycles or groups. The texts
+of some of the most famous cycles, those of York, Chester, Wakefield,
+and Coventry, have survived. The various trade-guilds made themselves
+responsible for the production of one pageant of the local cycle, or
+two or three guilds joined to produce a pageant, so that the whole
+city produced a large number of plays to celebrate the feast of Corpus
+Christi. Among its officers a guild had its pageant-master, whose duty
+it was to supervise the guild's dramatic work.
+
+The York plays, the texts dating from the middle of the fourteenth
+century, are extant. In 1415 fifty-seven pageant plays were produced.
+Productions were made in York down to 1579. The following are examples
+taken from among the fifty-seven plays and guilds:--
+
+The Shipwrights          produced the Building of the Ark,
+the Fishers and Mariners     "        Noah and the Flood,
+the Spicers                  "     "  Annunciation,
+the Tilers                   "     "  Birth of Christ,
+the Goldsmiths               "     "  Adoration,
+the Vintners                 "     "  Wedding in Cana,
+the Skinners                 "     "  entry into Jerusalem,
+the Baxters                  "     "  Last Supper,
+the Tapiters and Couchers    "        Christ before Pilate,
+the Saucemakers              "     "  Death of Judas,
+the Bouchers                 "     "  Death of Christ,
+the Carpenters               "     "  Resurrection,
+the Scriveners               "     "  Incredulity of Thomas,
+the Tailors                  "     "  Ascension,
+the Mercers                  "     "  Day of Judgment.
+
+The full cycle gave in dramatic form the leading episodes of the
+Scriptures from the Creation to the Last Day.
+
+While the trade-guilds were thus responsible for individual pageants,
+help and control were given by the Guild of Corpus Christi
+(inaugurated in 1408 and incorporated in 1459), and the city council.
+The guild had a very large number of members, among whom were the
+Archbishop, many bishops and abbots and nobles. These dramatic
+productions belonged to the religious and social sides of the guilds.
+The plays, however, did not always provoke pleasure, for sometimes
+members of some of the guilds complained of the financial burden they
+were forced to bear in order to produce the plays allotted to them.
+
+The guilds also took part in public processions with torches on Corpus
+Christi Day in celebration of this popular festival. In the
+processions, which were closely connected with the religious and
+guild-phases of city life, there walked city clergy wearing their
+surplices, the master of the Guild of Corpus Christi, the guild
+officials, the bearers of the shrine of the guild, the mayor, aldermen
+and corporation, and officers and members of the Guild of Corpus
+Christi and of the city trade-guilds. As the procession went on its
+way litanies and chants were sung by the clergy. The shrine, the
+central feature of the procession, was presented in 1449. It was
+itself of gilt and had many images some of which were gilded, while
+the main ones under the "steeple" were in mother-of-pearl, silver, and
+gold: to it were attached rings, brooches, girdles, buckles, beads,
+gawds and crucifixes, in gold and silver, and adorned with coral and
+jewels.
+
+On the occasion of the processions and performances of pageants, as at
+fairs, the city was filled with a boisterous multitude which turned
+what was by tradition a religious exercise and entertainment, to a
+time of riotous merry-making, and uncouth disorder. In 1426 a kind of
+crusade was preached by a friar minor, William Melton, against the
+riotous and drunken conduct of the people at the Corpus Christi
+festival. He denounced the disgracing of the festival and affirmed
+that the people were forfeiting by their conduct the indulgences
+granted for the festival. The result of the friar's crusade was the
+holding of a special meeting of the city council, which decided that
+the processions and pageants were to be held on separate days, the
+pageants on the eve of Corpus Christi, and the procession on the feast
+itself. Formerly both had taken place on the same day.
+
+The pageants were produced in suitable parts of the city. Stages on
+wheels were brought to these places, some of them open spaces, others
+main streets. The stages, which were the work of citizen workmen, were
+of three storeys, the central and principal one, the stage proper,
+representing the earth. Demons, in gaudy attire, came up from the
+flame-region of the lowest storey; divine messengers and personages
+came down from the star and cloud adorned tipper storey. The
+tiring-room was below and behind the stage. The acting was by members
+of the guilds. They, no doubt, practised here, as elsewhere, the
+ranting delivery of their speeches so denounced by Hamlet in his
+critical address to the Players, whom he admonished to speak
+"trippingly on the tongue" and not to "out-Herod Herod." There are
+several references in Shakespeare to these plays of the Middle Ages.
+For instance, in _Twelfth Night_:
+
+    "Like to the old Vice
+    ......
+    Who with dagger of lath
+    In his rage and his wrath,
+    Cries, Ah, ah! to the devil."
+
+and in _Henry V._:
+
+             "... this roaring devil i' the old play
+    that every one may pare his nails with a wooden dagger."
+
+Stands for spectators were erected by private enterprise for profit in
+many places in the city. The general assembly, preparatory to the
+beginning of the performances {original had "performanes"}, took place
+on Pageant Green, now called Toft Green (which lies behind that side
+of Micklegate which is opposite Holy Trinity). The first performances
+were made at the gates of Holy Trinity Priory (on the west side of the
+river); there were four performances in Micklegate (a street near the
+Priory); four in Coney Street (the main street on the east side of the
+river)--and likewise performances in other parts of the city. The last
+three performances took place at the gates of the Minster; in Low
+Petergate, and in Pavement, which was one of the city market squares.
+
+When Richard III. came to York in 1483, part of his entertainment
+consisted of performances of pageants.
+
+The only other public dramatic entertainments were crude, coarse,
+popular plays, done by strolling players. A mediaeval crowd at fair
+time was entertained by mountebanks, tumblers, and similar rough
+makers of unrefined mirth.
+
+The Corporation had a band of minstrels in its service.
+
+Of physical games archery was the most practised. This was the
+national physical exercise, one which had helped the English soldiers
+to gain a great reputation for themselves, as at Agincourt (1415). At
+York the "butts," where men practised archery, were outside the city
+walls.
+
+
+G. CLASSES
+
+Class divisions were well marked. They appeared in manners, in dress,
+and in occupation.
+
+Fashions varied considerably as the century progressed. There were
+close-fitting dresses and loose ones, small head-dresses like the caul
+(a jewelled net to bind in the hair) and high and broad erections that
+went to the other extreme. Men now wore their hair long; later they
+had it close-cropped. Perhaps the most wonderful fashion was that
+which men followed in wearing hose of different colours. With all the
+vagaries of fashion the most striking feature of dress was the use of
+rich and a manifold variety of colours. Excepting the case of the
+dress of the religious, which was generally of a sombre hue, colour
+characterised men's clothes as much as it did the dresses of women.
+The doublet was the coat of the time. Sleeves were generally big. Long
+and pointed shoes were characteristic, but it was the cloak that
+proved so effective a piece of dress, the cloak that has such scenic
+possibilities, that can so nicely express character. There were only
+few kinds of personal ornament. The most usual were brooches, belts,
+chains, and pendants, and especially finger-rings, of which the signet
+ring was a popular form.
+
+The nobles, great landowners, in many cases of Norman origin, were
+lords over a considerable number of people. York, being a royal city,
+escaped many of the troubles consequent on rule by an immediate
+overlord. Besides himself, his family, and personal servants, a lord
+provided for a retinue of armed retainers, who formed a kind of
+body-guard and a force to serve the king as occasion demanded; in
+addition, important household officials, such as secretaries and
+treasurers. Among noblemen's followers there were many dependents,
+some, no doubt, parasites, but a number, especially if literary men,
+in need of patronage to help them to live as well as to pursue their
+vocation.
+
+[Illustration: AN ABBOT.]
+
+The different kinds of religious men have already been mentioned from
+archbishops and abbots to the scurrilous impostors who used a
+religious exterior to rob poor people, at whose expense they lived
+well a wandering, loose, hypocritical life. In York, there were monks
+and friars, cathedral, parochial, and chantry priests, and clerks. The
+monastic life was a recognised profession. In the monasteries there
+were, besides regular monks, novices or those who aspired to take the
+full monastic vows, and, especially in the fifteenth century, by which
+time the importance of lowly, arduous service for the brethren and
+personal labour had lapsed, a very large number of semi-religious and
+lay brethren, who were really servants to the regular monks. In the
+fifteenth century the religious houses were extremely wealthy. Some of
+the monks were of noble birth. Nobles, when travelling, usually lodged
+at the monastic houses, which were dotted all over England. The kings
+resided often at abbeys when visiting the provinces. Richard III.,
+when Duke of Gloucester, resided at the Austin Friary in York.
+
+The one monastic house for women was St. Clement's Nunnery. There
+were, moreover, sisterhoods in the hospitals of, for example, St.
+Leonard and St. Nicholas.
+
+St. Leonard's Hospital, among its many functions, was a home of royal
+pensioners.
+
+The townspeople were chiefly merchants and tradesmen and those they
+employed, and the wives and families of all of them. Men of this type,
+both rich and poor, rose to important positions in trade and city
+life, and in the King's service. Some entered the service of nobles.
+Great dignity was attached to the higher positions of authority in
+city and guild life. Trade led to wealth and increased comfort and a
+higher social state. Men in the King's service received preferment
+more often than direct monetary reward.
+
+Women had only the monastic life to enter as a profession. They could
+become full members of a number of the York trade-guilds. The social
+position of women in the retrograde fifteenth century fully agrees
+with the absence of women from among those who achieved notability in
+the city during the century.
+
+The most interesting type of citizens was that composed of the
+freemen, who formed the vast majority of the inhabitants. As the name
+implies, they were historically the descendants of the men who in
+earlier times were freed from serfdom. It was the freemen who, through
+the Mayor and Corporation, paid rent to the King for the city, its
+rights and possessions. There are still, it may be noted, freemen of
+the city, distinct from those distinguished men who have received its
+honorary freedom. The main privileges of the mediaeval freemen included
+the right of trading in the city, and of voting. They also had rights
+over the common lands attached to the city, and they were eligible to
+fill the offices of local civic government if thought wealthy enough
+to be elected into such a "close self-elected corporation."
+
+Soldiers of the royal army were stationed in York at the Castle. The
+Wars of the Roses, wars of kings and nobles, lasted from 1455 to 1485
+and, although York itself hardly experienced the warfare, it saw
+contingents of the forces of both sides, as well as the leaders and
+royal heads of both parties.
+
+There lived in the city a number of men in the royal service. Some
+worked at the administrative offices of the royal forest of Galtres,
+Davy Hall, where the chief officer himself dwelt. There were also the
+men who worked at the royal Fish Pond near which was Fishergate in
+which street most of these men lived.
+
+Those afflicted with leprosy, a disease which in England disappeared
+toward the end of the fifteenth century, dwelt apart for fear of
+infecting the healthy. The four hospitals outside the four main
+entrances to the city served to keep the disease isolated.
+
+York received from time to time a large number and a great diversity
+of visitors. Distinguished visitors usually received gifts from the
+Corporation. Kings, queens, and full court and retinue came, and
+sometimes the entire houses of Parliament. At such times great crowds
+of nobles, spiritual lords, commoners, officers, military and civil,
+thronged the city and taxed its accommodation. On such an occasion as
+Richard III.'s attendance at the Minster for mass, or the visit of
+Henry V., the narrow streets were packed to suffocation with people
+assembled to watch the processions of gorgeously arrayed sovereigns,
+princes, peers, ecclesiastics, soldiers, and distinguished commoners.
+The Duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard III., was very popular in
+the North, especially in York, where he was received (as in 1483) with
+magnificence and festivity. The north was loyal to him and gave him
+much support in his political schemes.
+
+The visits of the royal judges of assize, of sailors and pilgrims,
+have already been mentioned. Pedlars, who were active nomad tradesmen,
+were always to be found in town and country dealing in their small
+wares.
+
+Last, and some of the unhappiest, among the types of people to be
+found in a mediaeval city were serfs who had absconded from the lands
+or the service to which they were bound. They sometimes fled to a city
+for the security it afforded. Serfdom, however, was rapidly
+disappearing.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] G. Benson: "Parish of Holy Trinity, Goodramgate, York."
+
+[2] _De heretico comburendo_, 1401. In 1539 Valentine Freez, a
+freeman, and his wife, were burnt at the stake on Knavesmire for
+heresy. Frederick Freez, Valentine's father, was a book-printer and a
+freeman (1497).
+
+[3] Cf. French _journee_.
+
+[4] Sauce was much used. The people of the Middle Ages had an especial
+liking for spices and highly-seasoned foods.
+
+[5] As translated from the Latin by the late Mr. R.B. Cook and found
+among his valuable contributions to the publications of The Yorkshire
+Architectural Society.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+Life in York in the fifteenth century was active. Trade, home and
+continental, was flourishing. Building operations were in hand; work
+was always proceeding at the Minster or at one or other of the
+religious houses and churches. There were so many social elements
+established in and visiting York that something of interest was always
+taking place. Entertainments were plentiful and pageants were as well
+produced in York as anywhere in the kingdom. The city enjoyed a
+particularly large measure of local government. Its reputation was
+great. According to contemporary standards it was a fine prosperous
+city, one that contained resplendent ecclesiastical buildings that
+were second to none. In short, it was a "full nobill cite."
+
+Although the present city looks, in parts, more typically mediaeval
+than modern, York to-day forms a very great contrast with the
+fifteenth-century city. We are separated from the fifteenth century by
+the Renaissance, the Reformation, and Tudor England, by the Civil War
+and the Restoration, by the "age of prose and reason," the keen-minded
+and rough-mannered eighteenth century, by the Industrial Revolution,
+and by that second Renaissance, the Victorian Age, during which the
+amenities of daily life were revolutionised. Radical changes are to be
+seen, for example, in the style of architecture, the mode of
+transmission of news, the methods of transport, the form of municipal
+government, the maintenance of the public peace, and in social
+relationships, more particularly with regard to industry and commerce
+and the parts played by employer and employed. The number of
+inhabitants to-day is about six times that of the mediaeval city. The
+contrast, which is so great in most ways as to be quite obvious, is an
+interesting and profitable study, but it might have been founded on
+more precise data, for, great as is the amount of valuable material
+that York can supply concerning its history, investigation shows how
+much greater that amount would have been had the city and its rulers
+during the last century or two realised the value of the accumulated
+original historical riches that it contained.
+
+Whereas the moderns obliterated practically all they came against,
+fortunately the earlier people were content to make no change beyond
+what was immediately necessary. Hence the survival of material most
+valuable to the historian and archaeologist. York, as it is to-day, is
+a city marvellously rich in survivals of past ages. It is also, as a
+result especially of the nineteenth century, a city of destruction.
+While we may regret but not repine at the disappearance of much of
+interest and value as the result of progress, yet wanton, ruthless
+destruction, such as has taken place within the last century, deserves
+the sternest denunciation. In spite of its being, in consequence, a
+"city of destruction," York is a store-house of original material for
+the history of England. Its records are in earth, stone, brick, wood,
+plaster, bone, and coin-metal; on parchment, paper, and glass; above
+the ground and below it--everywhere and in every form. This wealth of
+historical material, connected with practically every period of our
+national history, is a priceless possession and one that is not yet
+exhausted.
+
+
+
+
+Printed by William Clowes and Sons, Ltd., London and Beccles.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE IN A MEDIæVAL CITY***
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