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diff --git a/42824-0.txt b/42824-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1cb88f7 --- /dev/null +++ b/42824-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,18728 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42824 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original 182 illustrations. + See 42824-h.htm or 42824-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42824/42824-h/42824-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42824/42824-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive. See + https://archive.org/details/scenescharacters00cuttuoft + + +Transcriber's note: + + Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). + + Text enclosed by curly brackets is superscripted + (example: o{r} Lady). + + + + + +SCENES AND CHARACTERS OF THE MIDDLE AGES + + +[Illustration: _King Henry the Eighth's Army._] + + +SCENES & CHARACTERS OF THE MIDDLE AGES + +by + +THE REV. EDWARD L. CUTTS, B.A. + +Late Hon. Sec. of the Essex Archæolocical Society + +With One Hundred and Eighty-Two Illustrations + +THIRD EDITION + + + + + + + +London: Alexander Moring Limited +The De La More Press 32 George Street +Hanover Square W 1911 + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + THE MONKS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. + + CHAP. PAGE + + I. THE ORIGIN OF MONACHISM 1 + + II. THE BENEDICTINE ORDERS 6 + + III. THE AUGUSTINIAN ORDER 18 + + IV. THE MILITARY ORDERS 26 + + V. THE ORDERS OF FRIARS 36 + + VI. THE CONVENT 54 + + VII. THE MONASTERY 70 + + + THE HERMITS AND RECLUSES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. + + I. THE HERMITS 93 + + II. ANCHORESSES, OR FEMALE RECLUSES 120 + + III. ANCHORAGES 132 + + IV. CONSECRATED WIDOWS 152 + + + THE PILGRIMS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. + + I. PILGRIMS 157 + + II. OUR LADY OF WALSINGHAM AND ST. THOMAS OF CANTERBURY 176 + + + THE SECULAR CLERGY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. + + I. THE PAROCHIAL CLERGY 195 + + II. CLERKS IN MINOR ORDERS 214 + + III. THE PARISH PRIEST 222 + + IV. CLERICAL COSTUME 232 + + V. PARSONAGE HOUSES 252 + + + THE MINSTRELS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. + + I. 267 + + II. SACRED MUSIC 284 + + III. GUILDS OF MINSTRELS 298 + + + THE KNIGHTS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. + + I. SAXON ARMS AND ARMOUR 311 + + II. ARMS AND ARMOUR, FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST DOWNWARDS 326 + + III. ARMOUR OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 338 + + IV. THE DAYS OF CHIVALRY 353 + + V. KNIGHTS-ERRANT 369 + + VI. MILITARY ENGINES 380 + + VII. ARMOUR OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY 394 + + VIII. THE KNIGHT'S EDUCATION 406 + + IX. ON TOURNAMENTS 423 + + X. MEDIÆVAL BOWMEN 439 + + XI. FIFTEENTH CENTURY AND LATER ARMOUR 452 + + + THE MERCHANTS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. + + I. BEGINNINGS OF BRITISH COMMERCE 461 + + II. THE NAVY 475 + + III. THE SOCIAL POSITION OF THE MEDIÆVAL MERCHANTS 487 + + IV. MEDIÆVAL TRADE 503 + + V. COSTUME 518 + + VI. MEDIÆVAL TOWNS 529 + + + + +THE MONKS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE ORIGIN OF MONACHISM. + + +We do not aim in these chapters at writing general history, or systematic +treatises. Our business is to give a series of sketches of mediæval life +and mediæval characters, looked at especially from the artist's point of +view. And first we have to do with the monks of the Middle Ages. One +branch of this subject has already been treated in Mrs. Jameson's "Legends +of the Monastic Orders." This accomplished lady has very pleasingly +narrated the traditionary histories of the founders and saints of the +orders, which have furnished subjects for the greatest works of mediæval +art; and she has placed monachism before her readers in its noblest and +most poetical aspect. Our humbler task is to give a view of the familiar +daily life of ordinary monks in their monasteries, and of the way in which +they enter into the general life without the cloister;--such a sketch as +an art-student might wish to have who is about to study that picturesque +mediæval period of English history for subjects for his pencil. The +religious orders occupied so important a position in mediæval society, +that they cannot be overlooked by the historical student; and the flowing +black robe and severe intellectual features of the Benedictine monk, or +the coarse frock and sandalled feet of the mendicant friar, are too +characteristic and too effective, in contrast with the gleaming armour +and richly-coloured and embroidered robes of the sumptuous civil costumes +of the period, to be neglected by the artist. Such an art-student would +desire first to have a general sketch of the whole history of monachism, +as a necessary preliminary to the fuller study of any particular portion +of it. He would wish for a sketch of the internal economy of the cloister; +how the various buildings of a monastery were arranged; and what was the +daily routine of the life of its inmates. He would seek to know under what +circumstances these recluses mingled with the outer world. He would +require accurate particulars of costumes and the like antiquarian details, +that the accessories of his picture might be correct. And, if his monks +are to be anything better than representations of monkish habits hung upon +"lay figures," he must know what kind of men the Middle Age monks were +intellectually and morally. These particulars we proceed to supply as +fully as the space at our command will permit. + +Monachism arose in Egypt. As early as the second century we read of men +and women who, attracted by the charms of a peaceful, contemplative life, +far away from the fierce, sensual, persecuting heathen world, betook +themselves to a life of solitary asceticism. The mountainous desert on the +east of the Nile valley was their favourite resort; there they lived in +little hermitages, rudely piled up of stones, or hollowed out of the +mountain side, or in the cells of the ancient Egyptian sepulchres, feeding +on pulse and herbs, and water from the neighbouring spring. + +One of the frescoes in the Campo Santo, at Pisa, by Pietro Laurati, +engraved in Mrs. Jameson's "Legendary Art," gives a curious illustration +of this phase of the eremitical life. It gives us a panorama of the +desert, with the Nile in the foreground, and the rock caverns, and the +little hermitages built among the date-palms, and the hermits at their +ordinary occupations: here is one angling in the Nile, and another +dragging out a net; there is one sitting at the door of his cell shaping +wooden spoons. Here, again, we see them engaged in those mystical scenes +in which an over-wrought imagination pictured to them the temptations of +their senses in visible demon-shapes--beautiful to tempt or terrible to +affright; or materialised the spiritual joys of their minds in angelic or +divine visions: Anthony driving out with his staff the beautiful demon +from his cell, or rapt in ecstasy beneath the Divine apparition.[1] Such +pictures of the early hermits are not infrequent in mediæval art--one, +from a fifteenth century MS. Psalter in the British Museum (Domit. A. +xvii. f. 4 v), will be found in a subsequent chapter of this book. + +We can picture to ourselves how it must have startled the refined +Græco-Egyptian world of Alexandria when occasionally some man, long lost +to society and forgotten by his friends, reappeared in the streets and +squares of the city, with attenuated limbs and mortified countenance, with +a dark hair-cloth tunic for his only clothing, with a reputation for +exalted sanctity and spiritual wisdom, and vague rumours of supernatural +revelations of the unseen world; like another John Baptist sent to preach +repentance to the luxurious citizens; or fetched, perhaps, by the +Alexandrian bishop to give to the church the weight of his testimony to +the ancient truth of some doctrine which began to be questioned in the +schools. + +Such men, when they returned to the desert, were frequently accompanied by +numbers of others, whom the fame of their sanctity and the persuasion of +their preaching had induced to adopt the eremitical life. It is not to be +wondered at that these new converts should frequently build, or select, +their cells in the neighbourhood of that of the teacher whom they had +followed into the desert, and should continue to look up to him as their +spiritual guide. Gradually, this arrangement became systematised; a number +of separate cells, grouped round a common oratory, contained a community +of recluses who agreed to certain rules and to the guidance of a chosen +head; an enclosure wall was generally built around this group, and the +establishment was called a _laura_. + +The transition from this arrangement of a group of anchorites occupying +the anchorages of a laura under a spiritual head, to that of a community +living together in one building under the rule of an abbot, was natural +and easy. The authorship of this coenobite system is attributed to St. +Anthony, who occupied a ruined castle in the Nile desert, with a community +of disciples, in the former half of the fourth century. The coenobitical +institution did not supersede the eremitical; both continued to flourish +together in every country of Christendom.[2] + +The first written code of laws for the regulation of the lives of these +communities was drawn up by Pachomius, a disciple of Anthony's. Pachomius +is said to have peopled the island of Tabenne, in the Nile, with +coenobites, divided into monasteries, each of which had a superior, and a +dean to every ten monks; Pachomius himself being the general director of +the whole group of monasteries, which are said to have contained eleven +hundred monks. The monks of St. Anthony are represented in ancient Greek +pictures with a black or brown robe, and often with a tau cross of blue +upon the shoulder or breast. + +St. Basil, afterwards bishop of Cesaræa, who died A.D. 378, introduced +monachism into Asia Minor, whence it spread over the East. He drew up a +code of laws founded upon the rule of Pachomius, which was the foundation +of all succeeding monastic institutions, and which is still the rule +followed by all the monasteries of the Greek Church. The rule of St. Basil +enjoins poverty, obedience, and chastity, and self-mortification. The +habit both of monks and nuns was, and still is, universally in the Greek +Church, a plain, coarse, black frock with a cowl, and a girdle of leather, +or cord. The monks went barefooted and barelegged, and wore the Eastern +tonsure, in which the hair is shaved in a crescent off the fore part of +the head, instead of the Western tonsure, in which it is shaved in a +circle off the crown. Hilarion is reputed to have introduced the Basilican +institution into Syria; St. Augustine into Africa; St. Martin of Tours +into France; St. Patrick into Ireland, in the fifth century. + +The early history of the British Church is enveloped in thick obscurity, +but it seems to have derived its Christianity (indirectly perhaps) from an +Eastern source, and its monastic system was probably derived from that +established in France by St. Martin, the abbot-bishop of Tours. One +remarkable feature in it is the constant union of the abbatical and +episcopal offices; this conjunction, which was foreign to the usage of the +church in general, seems to have obtained all but universally in the +British, and subsequently in the English Church. The British monasteries +appear to have been very large; Bede tells us that there were no less than +two thousand one hundred monks in the monastic establishment of Bangor in +the sixth century, and there is reason to believe that the number is not +overstated. They appear to have been schools of learning. The vows do not +appear to have been perpetual; in the legends of the British saints we +constantly find that the monks quitted the cloister without scruple. The +legends lead us to imagine that a provost, steward, and deans, were the +officers under the abbot; answering, perhaps, to the prior, cellarer, and +deans of Benedictine institutions. The abbot-bishop, at least, was +sometimes a married man. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE BENEDICTINE ORDERS. + + +In the year 529 A.D., St. Benedict, an Italian of noble birth and great +reputation, introduced into his new monastery on Monte Cassino--a hill +between Rome and Naples--a new monastic rule. To the three vows of +obedience, poverty, and chastity, which formed the foundation of most of +the old rules, he added another, that of manual labour (for seven hours a +day), not only for self-support, but also as a duty to God and man. +Another important feature of his rule was that its vows were perpetual. +And his rule lays down a daily routine of monastic life in much greater +detail than the preceding rules appear to have done. The rule of St. +Benedict speedily became popular, the majority of the existing monasteries +embraced it; nearly all new monasteries for centuries afterwards adopted +it; and we are told, in proof of the universality of its acceptation, that +when Charlemagne caused inquiries to be made about the beginning of the +eighth century, no other monastic rule was found existing throughout his +wide dominions. The monasteries of the British Church, however, do not +appear to have embraced the new rule. + +St. Augustine, the apostle of the Anglo-Saxons, was prior of the +Benedictine monastery which Gregory the Great had founded upon the Celian +Hill, and his forty missionaries were monks of the same house. It cannot +be doubted that they would introduce their order into those parts of +England over which their influence extended. But a large part of Saxon +England owed its Christianity to missionaries of the native church sent +forth from the great monastic institution at Iona and afterwards at +Lindisfarne, and these would doubtless introduce their own monastic +system. We find, in fact, that no uniform rule was observed by the Saxon +monasteries; some seem to have kept the rule of Basil, some the rule of +Benedict, and others seem to have modified the ancient rules, so as to +adapt them to their own circumstances and wishes. We are not surprised to +learn that under such circumstances some of the monasteries were lax in +their discipline; from Bede's accounts we gather that some of them were +only convents of secular clerks, bound by certain rules, and performing +divine offices daily, but enjoying all the privileges of other clerks, and +even sometimes being married. Indeed, in the eighth century the primitive +monastic discipline appears to have become very much relaxed, both in the +East and West, though the popular admiration and veneration of the monks +was not diminished. + +In the illuminations of Anglo-Saxon MSS. of the ninth and tenth centuries, +we find the habits of the Saxon monks represented of different colours, +viz., white, black, dark brown, and grey.[3] In the early MS. Nero C. iv., +in the British Museum, at f. 37, occurs a very clearly drawn group of +monks in white habits; another group occurs at f. 34, rather more stiffly +drawn, in which the margin of the hood and the sleeves is bordered with a +narrow edge of ornamental work. + +About the middle of the ninth century, however, Archbishop Dunstan reduced +all the Saxon monasteries to the rule of St. Benedict; not without +opposition on the part of some of them, and not without rather peremptory +treatment on his part; and thus the Benedictine rule became universal in +the West. The habit of the Benedictines consisted of a white woollen +cassock, and over that an ample black gown and a black hood. We give here +an excellent representation of a Benedictine monk, from a book which +formerly belonged to St. Alban's Abbey, and now is preserved in the +British Museum (Nero D. vii. f. 81). The book is the official catalogue +which each monastery kept of those who had been benefactors to the house, +and who were thereby entitled to their grateful remembrance and their +prayers. In many cases the record of a benefaction is accompanied by an +illuminated portrait of the benefactor. In the present case, he is +represented as holding a golden tankard in one hand and an embroidered +cloth in the other, gifts which he made to the abbey, and for which he is +thus immortalised in their _Catalogus Benefactorum_. Other illustrations +of Benedictine monks, of early fourteenth century date, may be found in +the Add. MS. 17,687, at f. 3; again at f. 6, where a Benedictine is +preaching; and again at f. 34, where one is preaching to a group of nuns +of the same order; and at f. 41, where one is sitting writing at a desk +(as in the scriptorium, probably). Yet again in the MS. Royal 20 D. vii., +is a picture of St. Benedict preaching to a group of his monks. A +considerable number of pictures of Benedictine monks, illustrating a +mediæval legend of which they are the subject, occur in the lower margin +of the MS. Royal 10 E. iv., which is of late thirteenth or early +fourteenth century date. A drawing of Abbot Islip of Westminster, who died +A.D. 1532, is given in the "Vetusta Monumenta," vol. iv. Pl. xvi. In +working and travelling they wore over the cossack a black sleeveless tunic +of shorter and less ample dimensions. + +[Illustration: _Benedictine Monk._] + +The female houses of the order had the same regulations as those of the +monks; their costume too was the same, a white under garment, a black gown +and black veil, with a white wimple around the face and neck. They had in +England, at the dissolution of the monasteries, one hundred and twelve +monasteries and seventy-four nunneries.[4] For illustration of an abbess +see the fifteenth century MS. Royal 16 F. ii. at f. 137. + +The Benedictine rule was all but universal in the West for four centuries; +but during this period its observance gradually became relaxed. We cannot +be surprised if it was found that the seven hours of manual labour which +the rule required occupied time which might better be devoted to the +learned studies for which the Benedictines were then, as they have always +been, distinguished. We should have anticipated that the excessive +abstinence, and many other of the mechanical observances of the rule, +would soon be found to have little real utility when simply enforced by a +rule, and not practised willingly for the sake of self-discipline. We are +not therefore surprised, nor should we in these days attribute it as a +fault, that the obligation to labour appears to have been very generally +dispensed with, and some humane and sensible relaxations of the severe +ascetic discipline and dietary of the primitive rule to have been very +generally adopted. Nor will any one who has any experience of human nature +expect otherwise than that among so large a body of men--many of them +educated from childhood[5] to the monastic profession--there would be some +who were wholly unsuited for it, and some whose vices brought disgrace +upon it. The Benedictine monasteries, then, at the time of which we are +speaking, had become different from the poor retired communities of +self-denying ascetics which they were originally. Their general character +was, and continued throughout the Middle Ages to be, that of wealthy and +learned bodies; influential from their broad possessions, but still more +influential from the fact that nearly all the literature, and art, and +science of the period was to be found in their body. They were good +landlords to their tenants, good cultivators of their demesnes; great +patrons of architecture, and sculpture, and painting; educators of the +people in their schools; healers of the sick in their hospitals; great +almsgivers to the poor; freely hospitable to travellers; they continued +regular and constant in their religious services; but in housing, +clothing, and diet, they lived the life of temperate gentlemen rather than +of self-mortifying ascetics. Doubtless, as we have said, in some +monasteries there were evil men, whose vices brought disgrace upon their +calling; and there were some monasteries in which weak or wicked rulers +had allowed the evil to prevail. The quiet, unostentatious, every-day +virtues of such monastics as these were not such as to satisfy the +enthusiastical seeker after monastical perfection. Nor were they such as +to command the admiration of the unthinking and illiterate, who are always +more prone to reverence fanaticism than to appreciate the more sober +virtues, who are ever inclined to sneer at religious men and religious +bodies who have wealth, and are accustomed to attribute to a whole class +the vices of its disreputable members. + +The popular disrepute into which the monastics had fallen through their +increased wealth, and their departure from primitive monastical austerity, +led, during the next two centuries, viz., from the beginning of the tenth +to the end of the eleventh, to a series of endeavours to revive the +primitive discipline. The history of all these attempts is very nearly +alike. Some young monk of enthusiastic disposition, disgusted with the +laxity or the vices of his brother monks, flies from the monastery, and +betakes himself to an eremitical life in a neighbouring forest or wild +mountain valley. Gradually a few men of like earnestness assemble round +him. He is at length induced to permit himself to be placed at their head +as their abbot, requires his followers to observe strictly the ancient +rule, and gives them a few other directions of still stricter life. The +new community gradually becomes famous for its virtues; the Pope's +sanction is obtained for it; its followers assume a distinctive dress and +name; and take their place as a new religious order. This is in brief the +history of the successive rise of the Clugniacs, the Carthusians, the +Cistercians, and the orders of Camaldoli and Vallombrosa and Grandmont; +they all sprang thus out of the Benedictine order, retaining the rule of +Benedict as the groundwork of their several systems. Their departures from +the Benedictine rule were comparatively few and trifling, and need not be +enumerated in such a sketch as this: they were in fact only reformed +Benedictines, and in a general classification may be included with the +parent order, to which these rivals imparted new tone and vigour. + +The following account of the foundation of Clairvaux by St. Bernard will +illustrate these general remarks. It is true that the founding of +Clairvaux was not technically the founding of a new order, for it had been +founded fifteen years before in Citeaux; but St. Bernard was rightly +esteemed a second founder of the Cistercians, and his going forth from the +parent house to found the new establishment at Clairvaux was under +circumstances which make the narrative an excellent illustration of the +subject. + +"Twelve monks and their abbot," says his life in the "Acta Sanctorum," +"representing our Lord and his apostles, were assembled in the church. +Stephen placed a cross in Bernard's hands, who solemnly, at the head of +his small band, walked forth from Citeaux.... Bernard struck away to the +northward. For a distance of nearly ninety miles he kept this course, +passing up by the source of the Seine, by Chatillon, of school-day +memories, till he arrived at La Ferté, about equally distant between +Troyes and Chaumont, in the diocese of Langres, and situated on the river +Aube. About four miles beyond La Ferté was a deep valley opening to the +east. Thick umbrageous forests gave it a character of gloom and wildness; +but a gushing stream of limpid water which ran through it was sufficient +to redeem every disadvantage. In June, A.D. 1115, Bernard took up his +abode in the valley of Wormwood, as it was called, and began to look for +means of shelter and sustenance against the approaching winter. The rude +fabric which he and his monks raised with their own hands was long +preserved by the pious veneration of the Cistercians. It consisted of a +building covered by a single roof, under which chapel, dormitory, and +refectory were all included. Neither stone nor wood hid the bare earth, +which served for floor. Windows scarcely wider than a man's hand admitted +a feeble light. In this room the monks took their frugal meals of herbs +and water. Immediately above the refectory was the sleeping apartment. It +was reached by a ladder, and was, in truth, a sort of loft. Here were the +monks' beds, which were peculiar. They were made in the form of boxes or +bins of wooden planks, long and wide enough for a man to lie down in. A +small space, hewn out with an axe, allowed room for the sleeper to get in +or out. The inside was strewn with chaff, or dried leaves, which, with the +woodwork, seem to have been the only covering permitted.... The monks had +thus got a house over their heads; but they had very little else. They had +left Citeaux in June. Their journey had probably occupied them a +fortnight, their clearing, preparations, and building, perhaps two months; +and thus they would be near September when this portion of their labour +was accomplished. Autumn and winter were approaching, and they had no +store laid by. Their food during the summer had been a compound of leaves +intermixed with coarse grain. Beech-nuts and roots were to be their main +support during the winter. And now to the privations of insufficient food +was added the wearing out of their shoes and clothes. Their necessities +grew with the severity of the season, till at last even salt failed them; +and presently Bernard heard murmurs. He argued and exhorted; he spoke to +them of the fear and love of God, and strove to rouse their drooping +spirits by dwelling on the hopes of eternal life and Divine recompense. +Their sufferings made them deaf and indifferent to their abbot's words. +They would not remain in this valley of bitterness; they would return to +Citeaux. Bernard, seeing they had lost their trust in God, reproved them +no more; but himself sought in earnest prayer for release from their +difficulties. Presently a voice from heaven said, 'Arise, Bernard, thy +prayer is granted thee.' Upon which the monks said, 'What didst thou ask +of the Lord?' 'Wait, and ye shall see, ye of little faith,' was the reply; +and presently came a stranger who gave the abbot ten livres." + +William of St. Thierry, the friend and biographer of St. Bernard, +describes the external aspect and the internal life of Clairvaux. We +extract it as a sketch of the highest type of monastic life, and as a +corrective of the revelations of corrupter life among the monks which find +illustration in these pages. + +"At the first glance as you entered Clairvaux by descending the hill you +could see it was a temple of God; and the still, silent valley bespoke, in +the modest simplicity of its buildings, the unfeigned humility of Christ's +poor. Moreover, in this valley full of men, where no one was permitted to +be idle, where one and all were occupied with their allotted tasks, a +silence deep as that of night prevailed. The sounds of labour, or the +chants of the brethren in the choral service, were the only exceptions. +The order of this silence, and the fame that went forth of it, struck such +a reverence even into secular persons that they dreaded breaking it--I +will not say by idle or wicked conversation, but even by pertinent +remarks. The solitude, also, of the place--between dense forests in a +narrow gorge of neighbouring hills--in a certain sense recalled the cave +of our father St. Benedict, so that while they strove to imitate his life, +they also had some similarity to him in their habitation and +loneliness.... Although the monastery is situated in a valley, it has its +foundations on the holy hills, whose gates the Lord loveth more than all +the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of it, because the +glorious and wonderful God therein worketh great marvels. There the insane +recover their reason, and although their outward man is worn away, +inwardly they are born again. There the proud are humbled, the rich are +made poor, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them, and the darkness +of sinners is changed into light. A large multitude of blessed poor from +the ends of the earth have there assembled, yet have they one heart and +one mind; justly, therefore, do all who dwell there rejoice with no empty +joy. They have the certain hope of perennial joy, of their ascension +heavenward already commenced. In Clairvaux they have found Jacob's ladder, +with angels upon it; some descending, who so provide for their bodies that +they faint not on the way; others ascending, who so rule their souls that +their bodies hereafter may be glorified with them. + +"For my part, the more attentively I watch them day by day, the more do I +believe that they are perfect followers of Christ in all things. When they +pray and speak to God in spirit and in truth, by their friendly and quiet +speech to Him, as well as by their humbleness of demeanour, they are +plainly seen to be God's companions and friends. When, on the other hand, +they openly praise God with psalmody, how pure and fervent are their +minds, is shown by their posture of body in holy fear and reverence, while +by their careful pronunciation and modulation of the psalms, is shown how +sweet to their lips are the words of God--sweeter than honey to their +mouths. As I watch them, therefore, singing without fatigue from before +midnight to the dawn of day, with only a brief interval, they appear a +little less than the angels, but much more than men.... + +"As regards their manual labour, so patiently and placidly, with such +quiet countenances, in such sweet and holy order, do they perform all +things, that although they exercise themselves at many works, they never +seem moved or burdened in anything, whatever the labour may be. Whence it +is manifest that that Holy Spirit worketh in them who disposeth of all +things with sweetness, in whom they are refreshed, so that they rest even +in their toil. Many of them, I hear, are bishops and earls, and many +illustrious through their birth or knowledge; but now, by God's grace, all +acceptation of persons being dead among them, the greater any one thought +himself in the world, the more in this flock does he regard himself as +less than the least. I see them in the garden with hoes, in the meadows +with forks or rakes, in the fields with scythes, in the forest with axes. +To judge from their outward appearance, their tools, their bad and +disordered clothes, they appear a race of fools, without speech or sense. +But a true thought in my mind tells me that their life in Christ is hidden +in the heavens. Among them I see Godfrey of Peronne, Raynald of Picardy, +William of St. Omer, Walter of Lisle, all of whom I knew formerly in the +old man, whereof I now see no trace, by God's favour. I knew them proud +and puffed up; I see them walking humbly under the merciful hand of God." + +The first of these reformed orders was the CLUGNIAC, so called because it +was founded, in the year 927, at Clugny, in Burgundy, by Odo the Abbot. +The Clugniacs formally abrogated the requirement of manual labour required +in the Benedictine rule, and professed to devote themselves more +sedulously to the cultivation of the mind. The order was first introduced +into England in the year 1077 A.D., at Lewes, in Sussex; but it never +became popular in England, and never had more than twenty houses here, and +they small ones, and nearly all of them founded before the reign of Henry +II. Until the fourteenth century they were all priories dependent on the +parent house of Clugny; though the prior of Lewes was the High +Chamberlain, and often the Vicar-general, of the Abbot of Clugny, and +exercised a supervision over the English houses of the order. The English +houses were all governed by foreigners, and contained more foreign than +English monks, and sent large portions of their surplus revenues to +Clugny. Hence they were often seized, during war between England and +France, as alien priories. But in the fourteenth century many of them were +made denizen, and Bermondsey was made an abbey, and they were all +discharged from subjection to the foreign abbeys. The Clugniacs retained +the Benedictine habit. At Cowfold Church, Sussex, still remains a +monumental brass of Thomas Nelond, who was prior of Lewes at his death, in +1433 A.D., in which he is represented in the habit of his order.[6] + +[Illustration: _Carthusian Monk._] + +In the year 1084 A.D., the CARTHUSIAN order was founded by St. Bruno, a +monk of Cologne, at Chartreux, near Grenoble. This was the most severe of +all the reformed Benedictine orders. To the strictest observance of the +rule of Benedict they added almost perpetual silence; flesh was forbidden +even to the sick; their food was confined to one meal of pulse, bread, and +water, daily. It is remarkable that this the strictest of all monastic +rules has, even to the present day, been but slightly modified; and that +the monks have never been accused of personally deviating from it. The +order was numerous on the Continent, but only nine houses of the order +were ever established in England. The principal of these was the +Charterhouse (Chartreux), in London, which, at the dissolution, was +rescued by Thomas Sutton to serve one at least of the purposes of its +original foundation--the training of youth in sound religious learning. +There were few nunneries of the order--none in England. The Carthusian +habit consisted of a white cassock and hood, over that a white +scapulary--a long piece of cloth which hangs down before and behind, and +is joined at the sides by a band of the same colour, about six inches +wide; unlike the other orders, they shaved the head entirely. + +The representation of a Carthusian monk, on previous page, is reduced from +one of Hollar's well-known series of prints of monastic costumes. Another +illustration may be referred to in a fifteenth century book of Hours +(Add.), at f. 10, where one occurs in a group of religious, which includes +also a Benedictine and a Cistercian abbot, and others. + +[Illustration: _Cistercian Monk._] + +In 1098 A.D., arose the CISTERCIAN order. It took the name from Citeaux +(Latinised into Cistercium), the house in which the new order was founded +by Robert de Thierry. Stephen Harding, an Englishman, the third abbot, +brought the new order into some repute; but it is to the fame of St. +Bernard, who joined it in 1113 A.D., that the speedy and widespread +popularity of the new order is to be attributed. The order was introduced +into England at Waverly, in Surrey, in 1128 A.D. The Cistercians professed +to observe the rule of St. Benedict with rigid exactness, only that some +of the hours which were devoted by the Benedictines to reading and study, +the Cistercians devoted to manual labour. They affected a severe +simplicity; their houses were to be simple, with no lofty towers, no +carvings or representation of saints, except the crucifix; the furniture +and ornaments of their establishments were to be in keeping--chasubles of +fustian, candlesticks of iron, napkins of coarse cloth, the cross of wood, +and only the chalice might be of precious metal. The amount of manual +labour prevented the Cistercians from becoming a learned order, though +they did produce a few men distinguished in literature; they were +excellent farmers and horticulturists, and are said in early times to have +almost monopolised the wool trade of the kingdom. They changed the colour +of the Benedictine habit, wearing a white gown and hood over a white +cassock; when they went beyond the walls of the monastery they also wore a +black cloak. St. Bernard of Clairvaux is the great saint of the order. +They had seventy-five monasteries and twenty-six nunneries in England, +including some of the largest and finest in the kingdom. + +The cut represents a group of Cistercian monks, from a MS. (Vitellius A. +13) in the British Museum. It shows some of them sitting with hands +crossed and concealed in their sleeves--an attitude which was considered +modest and respectful in the presence of superiors; some with the cowl +over the head. It will be observed that some are and some are not bearded. + +[Illustration: _Group of Cistercian Monks._] + +The Cistercian monk, whom we give in the opposite woodcut, is taken from +Hollar's plate. + +Other reformed Benedictine orders which arose in the eleventh century, +viz., the order of CAMALDOLI, in 1027 A.D., and that of VALLOMBROSA, in +1073 A.D., did not extend to England. The order of the GRANDMONTINES had +one or two alien priories here. + +The preceding orders differ among themselves, but the rule of Benedict is +the foundation of their discipline, and they are so far impressed with a +common character, and actuated by a common spirit, that we may consider +them all as forming the Benedictine family. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE AUGUSTINIAN ORDERS. + + +We come next to another great monastic family which is included under the +generic name of Augustinians. The Augustinians claim the great St. +Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, as their founder, and relate that he +established the monastic communities in Africa, and gave them a rule. That +he did patronise monachism in Africa we gather from his writings, but it +is not clear that he founded any distinct order; nor was any order called +after his name until the middle of the ninth century. About that time all +the various denominations of clergy who had not entered the ranks of +monachism--priests, canons, clerks, &c.--were incorporated by a decree of +Pope Leo III. and the Emperor Lothaire into one great order, and were +enjoined to observe the rule which was then known under the name of St. +Augustine, but which is said to have been really compiled by Ivo de +Chartres from the writings of St. Augustine. It was a much milder rule +than the Benedictine. The Augustinians were divided into Canons Secular +and Canons Regular. + +The CANONS SECULAR OF ST. AUGUSTINE were in fact the clergy of cathedral +and collegiate churches, who lived in community on the monastic model; +their habit was a long black cassock (the parochial clergy did not then +universally wear black); over which, during divine service, they wore a +surplice and a fur tippet, called an _almuce_, and a four-square black +cap, called a _baret_; and at other times a black cloak and hood with a +leather girdle. According to their rule they might wear their beards, but +from the thirteenth century downwards we find them usually shaven. In the +Canon's Yeoman's tale, from which the following extract is taken, Chaucer +gives us a pen-and-ink sketch of a canon, from which it would seem that +even on a journey he wore the surplice and fur hood under the black +cloak:-- + + "Ere we had ridden fully five mile, + At Brighton under Blee us gan atake [overtake] + A man that clothed was in clothes blake, + And underneath he wered a surplice. + + * * * * * + + And in my hearte wondren I began + What that he was, till that I understood + How that his cloak was sewed to his hood,[7] + For which when I had long avised me, + I deemed him some chanon for to be. + His hat hung at his back down by a lace." + +The hat which hung behind may have been like that of the abbot in a +subsequent woodcut; but he wore his hood; and Chaucer, with his usual +humour and life-like portraiture, tells us how he had put a burdock leaf +under his hood because of the heat:-- + + "A clote-leaf he had laid under his hood + For sweat, and for to keep his head from heat." + +Chaucer rightly classes the canons rather with priests than monks:-- + + "All be he monk or frere, + Priest or chanon, or any other wight." + +The canon whom we give in the wood-cut over-leaf, from one of Hollar's +plates, is in ordinary costume. An engraving of a semi-choir of canons in +their furred tippets from the MS. Domitian xvii, will be found in a +subsequent chapter on the Secular Clergy. + +There are numerous existing monumental brasses in which the effigies of +canons are represented in choir costume, viz., surplice and amice, and +often with a cope over all; they are all bareheaded and shaven. We may +mention specially that of William Tannere, first master of Cobham College +(died 1418 A.D.), in Cobham Church, Kent, in which the almuce, with its +fringe of bell-shaped ornaments, over the surplice, is very distinctly +shown; it is fastened at the throat with a jewel. The effigy of Sir John +Stodeley, canon, in Over Winchendon Church, Bucks (died 1505), is in +ordinary costume, an under garment reaching to the heels, over that a +shorter black cassock, girded with a leather girdle, and over all a long +cloak and hood. + +The CANONS REGULAR OF ST. AUGUSTINE were perhaps the least ascetic of the +monastic orders. Enyol de Provins, a minstrel (and afterwards a monk) of +the thirteenth century, says of them: "Among them one is well shod, well +clothed, and well fed. They go out when they like, mix with the world, and +talk at table." They were little known till the tenth or eleventh century, +and the general opinion is, that they were first introduced into England, +at Colchester, in the reign of Henry I., where the ruins of their church, +of Norman style, built of Roman bricks, still remain. Their habit was like +that of the secular canons--a long black cassock, cloak and hood, and +leather girdle, and four-square cap; they are distinguished from the +secular canons by not wearing the beard. According to Tanner, they had one +hundred and seventy-four houses in England--one hundred and fifty-eight +for monks, and sixteen for nuns; but the editors of the last edition of +the "Monasticon" have recovered the names of additional small houses, +which make up a total of two hundred and sixteen houses of the order. + +[Illustration: _Canon of St. Augustine._] + +The Augustinian order branches out into a number of denominations; indeed, +it is considered as the parent rule of all the monastic orders and +religious communities which are not included under the Benedictine order; +and retrospectively it is made to include all the distinguished recluses +and clerics before the institution of St. Benedict, from the fourth to the +sixth century. + +The most important branch of the Regular Canons is the PREMONSTRATENSIAN, +founded by St. Norbert, a German nobleman, who died in 1134 A.D.; his +first house, in a barren spot in the valley of Coucy, in Picardy, called +Pré-montre, gave its name to the order. The rule was that of Augustine, +with a severe discipline superadded; the habit was a coarse black cassock, +with a white woollen cloak and a white four-square cap. Their abbots were +not to use any episcopal insignia. The Premonstratensian nuns were not to +sing in choir or church, and to pray in silence. They had only thirty-six +houses in England, of which Welbeck was the chief; but the order was very +popular on the Continent, and at length numbered one thousand abbeys and +five hundred nunneries. + +Under this rule are also included the GILBERTINES, who were founded by a +Lincolnshire priest, Gilbert of Sempringham, in the year 1139 A.D. There +were twenty-six houses of the order, most of them in Lincolnshire and +Yorkshire; they were all priories dependent upon the house of Sempringham, +whose head, as prior-general, appointed the priors of the other houses, +and ruled absolutely the whole order. All the houses of this order were +double houses, that is, monks and nuns lived in the same enclosure, though +with a rigid separation between their two divisions. The monks followed +the Augustinian rule; the nuns followed the rule of the Cistercian nuns. +The habit was a black cassock, a white cloak, and hood lined with +lambskin. The "Monasticon" gives very effective representations (after +Hollar) of the Gilbertine monk and nun. + +The NUNS OF FONTEVRAUD was another female order of Augustinians, of which +little is known. It was founded at Fontevraud in France, and three houses +of the order were established in England in the time of Henry II.; they +had monks and nuns within the same enclosure, and all subject to the rule +of an abbess. + +The BONHOMMES were another small order of the Augustinian rule, of little +repute in England; they had only two houses here, which, however, were +reckoned among the greater abbeys, viz., Esserug in Bucks, and Edindon in +Wilts. + +The female ORDER OF OUR SAVIOUR, or, as they are usually called, the +BRIGITTINES, were founded by St. Bridget of Sweden, in 1363 A.D. They +were introduced into England by Henry V., who built for them the once +glorious nunnery of Sion House. At the dissolution, the nuns fled to +Lisbon, where their successors still exist. Some of the relics and +vestments which they carried from Sion House have been carefully preserved +ever since, and are now in the possession of the Earl of Shrewsbury.[8] +Their habit was like that of the Benedictine nuns--a black tunic, white +wimple and veil, but is distinguished by a black band on the veil across +the forehead. + +Other small offshoots of the great Augustinian tree were those which +observed the rule of St. Austin according to the regulations of St. +Nicholas of Arroasia, which had four houses here; and those which observed +the order of St. Victor, which had three houses. + +We may refer the reader to two MS. illuminations of groups of religious +for further illustration of their costumes. One is in the beautiful +fourteenth century MS. of Froissart in the British Museum (Harl. 4,380, at +f. 18 v). It represents a dying pope surrounded by a group of +representative religious, cardinals, &c. Among them are one in a brown +beard, and with no appearance of tonsure (? a hermit); another in a white +scapular and hood (? a Carthusian); another in a black cloak and hood over +a white frock (? a Cistercian); another in a brown robe and hood, +tonsured. Again, in the MS. Tiberius B iii. article 3, f. 6, the text +speaks of "Convens of monkys, chanons and chartreus, celestynes, freres +and prestes, palmers, pylgreymys, hermytes, and reclus," and the +illuminator has illustrated it with a row of religious--first a +Benedictine abbot; then a canon with red cassock and almuce over surplice; +then a monk with white frock and white scapular banded at the sides, as in +Hollar's cut given above, is clearly the Carthusian; then comes a man in +brown, with a knotted girdle, holding a cross staff and a book, who is +perhaps a friar; then one in white surplice over red cassock, who is the +priest; then a hermit, in brown cloak over dark grey gown; and in the +background are partly seen two pilgrims and a monk. Other illustrations of +monks are frequent in the illuminated MSS. + +The HOSPITALS of the Middle Ages deserve a more extended notice than we +can afford them here. Some were founded at places of pilgrimage and along +the high roads, for the entertainment of poor pilgrims and travellers. +Thus at St. Edmund's Bury there was St. John's Hospital, or God's House, +without the south gate; and St. Nicholas Hospital, without the east gate; +and St. Peter's Hospital, without the Risley gate; and St. Saviour's +Hospital, without the north gate--all founded and endowed by abbots of St. +Edmund. At Reading there was the Hospital of St. Mary Magdalene, for +twelve leprous persons and chaplains; and the Hospital of St. Lawrence, +for twenty-six poor people and for the entertainment of strangers and +pilgrims--both founded by abbots of Reading; one at the gate of Fountains +Abbey, for poor persons and travellers; one at Glastonbury, under the care +of the almoner, for poor and infirm persons; &c., &c. Indeed, they were +scattered so profusely up and down the country that the last edition of +the "Monasticon" enumerates no less than three hundred and seventy of +them. Those for the poor had usually a little chamber for each person, a +common hall in which they took their meals, a chapel in which they +attended daily service. They usually were under the care and government of +one or more clergymen; sometimes in large hospitals of a prior and +bretheren, who were Augustinian canons. The canons of some of these +hospitals had special statutes in addition to the general rules, and were +distinguished by some peculiarity of habit; for example, the canons of the +Hospital of St. John Baptist at Coventry wore a cross on the breast of +their black cassock, and a similar one on the shoulder of their cloak. The +poor people were also under a simple rule, and were regarded as part of +the community. The accompanying woodcut enables us to place a group of +them before the eye of the reader. It is from one of the initial letters +of the deed (Harl. 1,498) by which Henry VII. founded a fraternity of +thirteen poor men (thirteen was a favourite number for such hospitals) in +Westminster Abbey, who were to be under the governance of the monks, and +to repay the king's bounty by their prayers. The group represents the +abbot and some of the monks, and behind them some of the bedesmen, each of +whom has the royal badge--the rose and crown--on the shoulder of his +habit, and holds in his hand his rosary, the symbol of his prayers. +Happily some of these ancient foundations have continued to the present +day, and the brethren may be seen yet in coats of antique fashion, with a +cross or other badge on the sleeve. Examples of the architecture of the +buildings may be seen in the Bede Houses in Higham Ferrers Churchyard, +built by Archbishop Chechele in 1422; St. Thomas's Hospital, Northampton; +Wyston's Hospital, Leicester; Ford's Hospital, Coventry; the Alms Houses +at Sherborne; the Leicester Hospital at Warwick, &c. Mr. Turner, in the +"Domestic Architecture," says that there exists a complete chronological +series from the twelfth century downwards. + +[Illustration: _Bedesmen. Temp. Hen. VII._] + +Hospitals were also established for the treatment of the sick, of which +St. Bartholomew's Hospital is perhaps our most illustrious instance. It +was founded to be an infirmary for the sick and infirm poor, a lying-in +hospital for women--there were sisters on the hospital staff, and if the +women happened to die in hospital their children were taken care of till +seven years of age. The staff usually consisted of a community living +under monastic vows and rule, viz., a prior and a number of brethren who +were educated and trained to the treatment of sickness and disease, and +one or more of whom were also priests; a college, in short, of clerical +physicians and surgeons and hospital dressers, who devoted themselves to +the service of the sick poor as an act of religion, and had always in mind +our Lord's words, "Inasmuch as ye do it to one of the least of these my +brethren, ye do it unto me." In the still existing church of St. +Bartholomew's Hospital, in Smithfield, is a monument of the founder +"Rahere, first canon and prior," which is, however, of much later date, +probably of about 1410 A.D.; his recumbent effigy, and the kneeling +figures of two of his canons beside him, afford good authorities for +costume. They have been engraved in the "Vetusta Monumenta," vol. ii. Pl. +xxxvi. + +The building usually consisted of a great hall in which the sick lay, a +chapel for their worship, apartments for the hospital staff, and other +apartments for guests. We are not aware of any examples in England so +perfect as some which exist in other countries, and we shall therefore +borrow some foreign examples in illustration of the subject. The commonest +form of these hospitals seems to have been a great hall divided by pillars +into a centre and aisles, in which rows of beds were arranged; with a +chapel in a separate building at one end of the hall, and other buildings +irregularly disposed in a courtyard; as at the Hôtel Dieu of Chartres, a +building of 1153 A.D.,[9] and the Salle des Morts at Ourscamp.[10] At +Tonerre we find a modification of the above plan. The hospital is still a +vast hall, but is divided by timber partitions along the side walls into +little separate cells. Above these cells, against the side walls, and +projecting partly over the cells, are two galleries, along which the +attendants might walk and look down into the cells. At the east end of +this hall two bays were screened off for the chapel, so that they who were +able might go up into the chapel, and they who could not rise from their +beds could still take part in the service.[11] At Tartoine, near Laon la +Fère, is a hospital on a different plan: a hall, with cells on one side of +it, is placed on one side of a square courtyard, and the chapel and +lodgings for the brethren on another side of the court.[12] + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE MILITARY ORDERS. + + +We have already sketched the history of the rise of monachism in the +fourth century out of the groups of Egyptian eremites, and the rapid +spread of the institution, under the rule of Basil, over Christendom; the +adoption in the west of the new rule of Benedict in the sixth century; the +rise of the reformed orders of Benedictines in the tenth and eleventh +centuries; and the institution in the eleventh and twelfth centuries of a +new group of orders under the milder discipline of the Augustinian rule. +We come now to a class of monastics who are included under the Augustinian +rule, since that rule formed the basis of their discipline, but whose +striking features of difference from all other religious orders entitle +them to be reckoned as a distinct class, under the designation of the +Military Orders. When the history of the mendicant orders which arose in +the thirteenth century has been read, it will be seen that these military +orders had anticipated the active religious spirit which formed the +characteristic of the friars, as opposed to the contemplative religious +spirit of the monks. But that which peculiarly characterises the military +orders, is their adoption of the chivalrous crusading spirit of the age in +which they arose: they were half friars, half crusaders. + +The order of the KNIGHTS OF THE TEMPLE was founded at Jerusalem in 1118 +A.D., during the interval between the first and second crusades, and in +the reign of Baldwin I. Hugh de Payens, and eight other brave knights, in +the presence of the king and his barons, and in the hands of the +Patriarch, bound themselves into a fraternity which embraced the +fundamental monastic vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity; and, in +addition, as the special object of the fraternity, they undertook the task +of escorting the companies of pilgrims from the coast up to Jerusalem, and +thence on the usual tour to the Holy Places. For the open country was +perpetually exposed to the incursions of irregular bands of Saracen and +Turkish horsemen, and death or slavery was the fate which awaited any +caravan of helpless pilgrims whom the infidel descried as they swept over +the plains, or whom they could waylay in the mountain passes. The new +knights undertook besides to wage a continual war in defence of the Cross +against the infidel. The canons of the Temple at Jerusalem gave the new +fraternity a piece of ground adjoining the Temple for the site of their +home, and hence they took their name of Knights of the Temple; and they +gradually acquired dependent houses, which were in fact strong castles, +whose ruins may still be seen, in many a strong place in Palestine. Ten +years after, when Baldwin II. sent envoys to Europe to implore the aid of +the Christian powers in support of his kingdom against the Saracens, Hugh +de Payens was sent as one of the envoys. His order received the approval +of the Council of Troyes, and of Pope Eugene III., and the patronage of +St. Bernard, who became the great preacher of the second crusade; and when +Hugh de Payens returned to Palestine, he was at the head of three hundred +knights of the noblest houses of Europe, who had become members of the +order. Endowments, too, for their support flowed in abundantly; and +gradually the order established dependent houses on its estates in nearly +every country of Europe. The order was introduced into England in the +reign of King Stephen; at first its chief house, "the Temple,"[13] was on +the south side of Holborn, London, near Southampton Buildings; afterwards +it was removed to Fleet Street, where the establishment still remains, +long since converted to other uses; but the original church, with its +round nave, after the form of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at +Jerusalem,[14] still continues a monument of the wealth and grandeur of +the ancient knights. They had only five other houses in England, which +were called Preceptories, and were dependent upon the Temple in London. + +The knights wore the usual armour of the period; but while other knights +wore the flowing surcoat of the twelfth or thirteenth centuries, or the +tight-fitting jupon of the fourteenth, or the tabard of the fifteenth, of +any colour which pleased their taste, and often embroidered with their +armorial bearings, the Knights of the Temple were distinguished by wearing +this portion of their equipment of white, with a red cross over the +breast; and over all a long flowing white mantle, with a red cross on the +shoulder; they also wore the monastic tonsure. In the early fourteenth +century MS. in the British Museum, Royal 1,696, at f. 335, is a +representation of Eracles, Prior at Jerusalem, the Prior of the Hospital, +and the Master of the Temple, sent to France to ask for succour. The +illumination shows us the King of France sitting on his throne, and before +him is standing a religious in mitre and crozier, who is no doubt Eracles, +and another in a peculiarly shaped black robe, with a cross patee on the +left shoulder, who is either Hugh de Payens the Templar, or Raymond de Puy +the Hospitaller, but which it is difficult to determine. Again, in the +fine fourteenth century MS., Nero E. 2, at f. 345 v, is a representation +of the trial of the Templars: there are three of them standing before the +Pope and the King of France, dressed in a grey tunic, and over that a +black mantle with a red cross on the left breast, and a pointed hood over +the shoulders. Folio 350 represents the Master of the Temple being burnt +to death in presence of the king and nobles. Again, in the fine MS. Royal +20, c. viii., of the time of our Richard II., at f. 42 and f. 48, are +representations of the same scenes. Folio 42 is a group of Templars +habited in long black coat, fitting close up to the neck, like the +ordinary civil robes of the time, with a pointed hood (like that with +which we are familiar in the portraits of Dante), with a cross patee on +the right shoulder; the hair is tonsured. At f. 45 is the burning of a +group of Templars (not tonsured), and at f. 48 the burning of the Master +of the Temple and another (tonsured). Their banner was of a black and +white striped cloth, called _beauseant_, which word they adopted as a +war-cry. The rule allowed three horses and a servant to each knight. +Married knights were admitted, but there were no sisters of the order. The +order was suppressed with circumstances of gross injustice and cruelty in +the fourteenth century, and the bulk of their estates was given to the +Hospitallers. The knight here given, from Hollar's plate, is a prior of +the order, in armour of the thirteenth century. + +[Illustration: _A Knight Templar._] + +The KNIGHTS OF ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM, or the Knights Hospitallers, +originally were not a military order; they were founded about 1092 by the +merchants of Amalfi, in Italy, for the purpose of affording hospitality to +pilgrims in the Holy Land. Their chief house, which was called the +Hospital, was situated at Jerusalem, over against the Church of the Holy +Sepulchre; and they had independent hospitals in other places in the Holy +Land, which were frequented by the pilgrims. Their kindness to the sick +and wounded soldiers of the first crusade made them popular, and several +of the crusading princes endowed them with estates; while many of the +crusaders, instead of returning home, laid down their arms, and joined the +brotherhood of the Hospital. During this period of their history their +habit was a plain black robe, with a linen cross upon the left breast. + +At length their endowments having become greater than the needs of their +hospitals required, and incited by the example of the Templars, a little +before established, Raymond de Puy, the then master of the hospital, +offered to King Baldwin II. to reconstruct the order on the model of the +Templars. From this time the two military orders formed a powerful +standing army for the defence of the kingdom of Jerusalem. + +When Palestine was finally lost to the Christians, the Knights of St. John +passed into the Isle of Cyprus, afterwards to the Isle of Rhodes, and, +finally, to the Isle of Malta,[15] maintaining a constant warfare against +the infidel, and doing good service in checking the westward progress of +the Mohammedan arms. In the latter part of their history, and down to a +recent period, they conferred great benefits by checking the ravages of +the corsairs of North Africa on the commerce of the Mediterranean and the +coast towns of Southern Europe. They patrolled the sea in war-galleys, +rowed by galley-slaves, each of which carried a force of armed +soldiers--inferior brethren of the order, officered by its knights. They +are not even now extinct. + +The order was first introduced into England in the reign of Henry I., at +Clerkenwell; which continued the principal house of the order in England, +and was styled the Hospital. The Hospitallers had also dependent houses, +called Commanderies, on many of their English estates, to the number of +fifty-three in all. The houses of the military knights in England were +only cells, erected on the estates with which they had been endowed, in +order to cultivate those estates for the support of the order, and to form +depôts for recruits; _i.e._ for novices, where they might be trained, not +in learning like Benedictines, or agriculture like Cistercians, or +preaching like Dominicans, but in piety and in military exercises. A plan +and elevation of the Commandery of Chabburn, Northumberland, are engraved +in Turner's "Domestic Architecture," vol. iii. p. 197. The superior of the +order in England sat in Parliament, and was accounted the first lay +baron. When on military duty the knights wore the ordinary armour of the +period, with a red surcoat marked with a white cross on the breast, and a +red mantle with a white cross on the shoulder. Some of their churches in +England possibly had circular naves, like the church of the Temple in +Jerusalem; out of the four "round churches," which remain, one belonged to +the Knights of the Hospital. The chapel at Chabburn is a rectangular +building. There were many sisters of the order, but only one house of them +in England. + +One of two earlier representations of knights of the order may be noted +here. In a MS. in the Library at Ghent, of the date of our Edward IV., is +a picture of John Lonstrother, prior of the order; he wears a long +sleeveless gown over armour. It is engraved in the "Archælogia," xiii. 14. +The MS. Add. 18,143 in the British Museum is said in a note at the +beginning of the volume to have been the missal of Phillippe de Villiers +de l'Isle Adam, the famous Grand Master of the Order of St. John of +Jerusalem from 1521 to 1534. In the frontispiece is a portrait of the +Grand Master in a black robe lined with fur, and a cross patee on the +breast. On the opposite page is another portrait of him in a robe of +different fashion, with a cross rather differently shaped. The monument of +the last English Prior, Sir Thomas Tresham, in his robes as prior of the +order, still remains in Rushton Church, Northants. A fine portrait of a +Knight of Malta is in the National Gallery. The Hospitaller given on the +preceding page, from Hollar's plate, is a (not very good) representation +of one in the armour of the early part of the fourteenth century, with the +usual knight's _chapeau_, instead of the mail hood or the basinet, on his +head. + +[Illustration: _A Knight Hospitaller._] + +It will be gathered from the authorities of the costume of the Knights of +the Temple and of the Hospital here noted, that when we picture to +ourselves the knights on duty in the Holy Land or elsewhere, it should be +in the armour of their period with the uniform surcoat of their order; but +when we desire to realise their appearance as they were to be ordinarily +seen, in chapel or refectory, or about their estates, or forming part of +any ordinary scene of English life, it must be in the long cassock-like +gown, with the cross on the shoulder, and the tonsured head, described in +the above authorities, which would make their appearance resemble that of +other religious persons. + +Other military orders, which never extended to England, were the order of +TEUTONIC KNIGHTS, a fraternity similar to that of the Templars, but +consisting entirely of Germans; and the order of OUR LADY OF MERCY, a +Spanish knightly order in imitation of that of the Trinitarians. + +One other order of religious--the TRINITARIANS--we have reserved for this +place, because while by their rule they are classed among the Augustinian +orders, the object of their foundation gives them an affinity with the +military orders, and their mode of pursuing that object makes their +organisation and life resemble that of friars. The moral interest of their +work, and its picturesque scenes and associations, lead us to give a +little larger space to them than we have been able to do to most of the +other orders. It is difficult for us to realise that the Mohammedan power +seemed at one time not unlikely to subjugate all Europe; and that after +their career of conquest had been arrested, the Mohammedan states of North +Africa continued for centuries to be a scourge to the commerce of Europe, +and a terror to the inhabitants of the coasts of the Mediterranean. They +scoured the Great Sea with their galleys, and captured ships; they made +descents on the coasts, and plundered towns and villages; and carried off +the captives into slavery, and retreated in safety with their booty, to +their African harbours. It is only within quite recent times that the last +of these strongholds was destroyed by an English fleet, and that the Greek +and Italian feluccas have ceased to fear the Algerine pirates. We have +already briefly stated how the Hospitallers, after their original service +was ended by the expulsion of the Christians from the Holy Land, settled +first at Cyprus, then at Rhodes, and did good service as a bulwark against +the Mohammedan progress; and lastly, as Knights of Malta, acted as the +police of the Mediterranean, and did their best to oppose the piracies of +the Corsairs. But in spite of the vigilance and prowess of the knights, +many a merchant ship was captured, many a fishing village was sacked, and +many captives, men, women, and children of all ranks of society, were +carried off into slavery; and their slavery was a cruel one, exaggerated +by the scorn and hatred bred of antagonism in race and religion, and made +ruthless by the recollection of ages of mutual injuries. The relations and +friends of the unhappy captives, where they were people of wealth and +influence, used every exertion to rescue those who were dear to them, and +their captors were ordinarily willing to set them to ransom; but hopeless +indeed was the lot of those--and they, of course, were the great +majority--who had no friends rich enough to help them. + +The miserable fate of these helpless ones moved the compassion of some +Christ-like souls. John de Matha, born, in 1154, of noble parents in +Provence, with Felix de Valois, retired to a desert place, where, at the +foot of a little hill, a fountain of cold water issued forth; a white hart +was accustomed to resort to this fountain, and hence it had received the +name of Cervus Frigidus, represented in French by (or representing the +French?) Cerfroy. There, about A.D. 1197, these two good men--the Clarkson +and Wilberforce of their time--arranged the institution of a new Order for +the Redemption of Captives. The new order received the approval of the +Pope Innocent III., and took its place among the recognised orders of the +church. This Papal approval of their institution constituted an +authorisation from the head of the church to seek alms from all +Christendom in furtherance of their object. Their rules directed that +one-third of their income only should be reserved for their own +maintenance, one-third should be given to the poor, and one-third for the +special object of redeeming captives. The two philanthropists preached +throughout France, collecting alms, and recruiting men who were willing to +join them in their good work. In the first year they were able to send two +brethren to Africa, to negotiate the redemption of a hundred and +eighty-six Christian captives; next year, John himself went, and brought +back a thankful company of a hundred and ten; and on a third voyage, a +hundred and twenty more; and the order continued to flourish,[16] and +established a house of the order in Africa, as its agent with the infidel. +They were introduced into England by Sir William Lucy of Charlecote, on +his return from the Crusade; who built and endowed for them Thellesford +Priory in Warwickshire; and subsequently they had eleven other houses in +England. St. Rhadegunda was their tutelary saint. Their habit was white, +with a Greek cross of red and blue on the breast--the three colours being +taken to signify the three persons of the Holy Trinity, viz., the white, +the Eternal Father; the blue, which was the transverse limb of the cross, +the Son; and the red, the charity of the Holy Spirit. + +The order were called TRINITARIANS, from their devotion to the Blessed +Trinity, all their houses being so dedicated, and hence the significance +of their badge; they were commonly called MATHURINS, after the name of +their founder; and BRETHREN OF THE ORDER OF THE HOLY TRINITY FOR THE +REDEMPTION OF CAPTIVES, from their object. + + * * * * * + +Before turning from the monks to the friars, we must devote a brief +sentence to the ALIEN PRIORIES. These were cells of foreign abbeys, +founded upon estates which English proprietors had given to the foreign +houses. After the expenses of the establishment had been defrayed, the +surplus revenue, or a fixed sum in lieu of it, was remitted to the parent +house abroad. There were over one hundred and twenty of them when Edward +I., on the breaking out of the war with France, seized upon them, in +1285, as belonging to the enemy. Edward II. appears to have pursued the +same course; and, again, Edward III., in 1337. Henry IV. only reserved to +himself, in time of war, what these houses had been accustomed to pay to +the foreign abbeys in time of peace. But at length they were all dissolved +by act of Parliament in the second year of Henry V., and their possessions +were devoted for the most part to religious and charitable uses. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE ORDERS OF FRIARS. + + +We have seen how for three centuries, from the beginning of the tenth to +the end of the twelfth, a series of religious orders arose, each aiming at +a more successful reproduction of the monastic ideal. The thirteenth +century saw the rise of a new class of religious orders, actuated by a +different principle from that of monachism. The principle of monachism, we +have said, was seclusion from mankind, and abstraction from worldly +affairs, for the sake of religious contemplation. To this end monasteries +were founded in the wilds, far from the abodes of men; and he who least +often suffered his feet or his thoughts to wander beyond the cloister was +so far the best monk. The principle which inspired the FRIARS was that of +devotion to the performance of active religious duties among mankind. +Their houses were built in or near the great towns; and to the majority of +the brethren the houses of the order were mere temporary resting-places, +from which they issued to make their journeys through town and country, +preaching in the parish churches, or from the steps of the market-crosses, +and carrying their ministrations to every castle and every cottage. + + "I speke of many hundred years ago, + For now can no man see non elves mo; + For now the great charity and prayers + Of lymytours and other holy freres + That serchen every land and every stream + As thick as motis in the sunne-beam, + Blessing halls, chambers, kitchens, and bowers, + Cities and burghs, castles high and towers, + Thorps and barns, shippons and dairies, + This maketh that there been no fairies. + For there as wont to walken was an elf, + There walketh now the lymytour himself + In undermeles and in morwenings,[17] + And sayeth his matins and his holy things, + As he goeth in his lymytacioun."--_Wife of Bath's Tale._ + +They were, in fact, home missionaries; and the zeal and earnestness of +their early efforts, falling upon times when such an agency was greatly +needed, produced very striking results. "Till the days of Martin Luther," +says Sir James Stephen, "the church had never seen so great and effectual +a reform as theirs.... Nothing in the histories of Wesley or of Whitefield +can be compared with the enthusiasm which everywhere welcomed them, or +with the immediate visible result of their labours." In the character of +St. Francis, notwithstanding its superstition and exaggerated asceticism, +there is something specially attractive: in his intense sympathy with the +sorrows and sufferings of the poor, his tender and respectful love for +them as members of Christ, his heroic self-devotion to their service for +Christ's sake, in his vivid realisation of the truth that birds, beasts, +and fishes are God's creatures, and our fellow-creatures. In the work of +both Francis and Dominic there is much which is worth careful study at the +present day. Now, too, there is a mass of misery in our large towns huge +and horrible enough to kindle the Christ-like pity of another Francis; in +country as well as town there are ignorance and irreligion enough to call +forth the zeal of another Dominic. In our Sisters of Mercy we see among +women a wonderful rekindling of the old spirit of self-sacrifice, in a +shape adapted to our time; we need not despair of seeing the same spirit +rekindled among men, freed from the old superstitions and avoiding the old +blunders, and setting itself to combat the gigantic evils which threaten +to overwhelm both religion and social order. + +Both these reformers took great pains to fit their followers for the +office of preachers and teachers, sending them in large numbers to the +universities, and founding colleges there for the reception of their +students. With an admirable largeness of view, they did not confine their +studies to theology, but cultivated the whole range of Science and Art, +and so successful were they, that in a short time the professional chairs +of the universities of Europe were almost monopolised by the learned +members of the mendicant orders.[18] The constitutions required that no +one should be licensed as a general preacher until he had studied theology +for three years; then a provincial or general chapter examined into his +character and learning; and, if these were satisfactory, gave him his +commission, either limiting his ministry to a certain district (whence he +was called in English a _limitour_, like Chaucer's Friar Hubert), or +allowing him to exercise it where he listed (when he was called a +_lister_). This authority to preach, and exercise other spiritual +functions, necessarily brought the friars into collision with the +parochial clergy;[19] and while a learned and good friar would do much +good in parishes which were cursed with an ignorant, or slothful, or +wicked pastor, on the other hand, the inferior class of friars are accused +of abusing their position by setting the people against their pastors +whose pulpits they usurped, and interfering injuriously with the +discipline of the parishes into which they intruded. For it was not very +long before the primitive purity and zeal of the mendicant orders began to +deteriorate. This was inevitable; zeal and goodness cannot be perpetuated +by a system; all human societies of superior pretensions gradually +deteriorate, even as the Apostolic Church itself did. But there were +peculiar circumstances in the system of the mendicant orders which tended +to induce rapid deterioration. The profession of mendicancy tended to +encourage the use of all those little paltry arts of popularity-hunting +which injure the usefulness of a minister of religion, and lower his moral +tone: the fact that an increased number of friars was a source of +additional wealth to a convent, since it gave an increased number of +collectors of alms for it, tended to make the convents less scrupulous as +to the fitness of the men whom they admitted. So that we can believe the +truth of the accusations of the old satirists, that dissolute, +good-for-nothing fellows sought the friar's frock and cowl, for the +license which it gave to lead a vagabond life, and levy contributions on +the charitable. Such men could easily appropriate to themselves a portion +of what was given them for the convent; and they had ample opportunity, +away from the control of their ecclesiastical superiors, to spend their +peculations in dissolute living.[20] We may take, therefore, Chaucer's +Friar John, of the Sompnour's Tale, as a type of a certain class of +friars; but we must remember that at the same time there were many +earnest, learned, and excellent men in the mendicant orders; even as +Mawworm and John Wesley might flourish together in the same body. + +[Illustration: _Costumes of the Four Orders of Friars._] + +The convents of friars were not independent bodies, like the Benedictine +and Augustinian abbeys; each order was an organised body, governed by the +general of the order, and under him, by provincial priors, priors of the +convents, and their subordinate officials. There are usually reckoned four +orders of friars--the Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites, and +Augustines. + + "I found there freres, + All the foure orders, + Techynge the peple + To profit of themselves." + _Piers Ploughman_, l. 115. + +The four orders are pictured together in the woodcut on the preceding page +from the thirteenth century MS. Harl. 1,527. + +They were called _Friars_ because, out of humility, their founders would +not have them called _Father_ and _Dominus_, like the monks, but simply +_Brother_ (_Frater, Frère, Friar_). + +The DOMINICANS and FRANCISCANS arose simultaneously at the beginning of +the thirteenth century. Dominic, an Augustinian canon, a Spaniard of noble +birth, was seized with a zeal for converting heretics, and having +gradually associated a few ecclesiastics with himself, he at length +conceived the idea of founding an order of men who should spend their +lives in preaching. Simultaneously, Francis, the son of a rich Italian +merchant, was inspired with a design to establish a new order of men, who +should spend their lives in preaching the Gospel and doing works of +charity among the people. These two men met in Rome in the year 1216 A.D., +and some attempt was made to induce them to unite their institutions in +one; but Francis was unwilling, and the Pope sanctioned both. Both adopted +the Augustinian rule, and both required not only that their followers +personally should have no property, but also that they should not possess +any property collectively as a body; their followers were to work for a +livelihood, or to live on alms. The two orders retained something of the +character of their founders: the Dominicans that of the learned, +energetic, dogmatic, and stern controversialist; they were defenders of +the orthodox faith, not only by argument, but by the terrors of the +Inquisition, which was in their hands; even as their master is, rightly +or wrongly, said to have sanctioned the cruelties which were used against +the Albigenses when his preaching had failed to convince them. The +Franciscans retained something of the character of the pious, ardent, +fanciful enthusiast from whom they took their name. + +[Illustration: _S. Dominic and S. Francis._] + +Dominic gave to his order the name of Preaching Friars; more commonly they +were styled Dominicans, or, from the colour of their habits, Black +Friars[21]--their habit consisting of a white tunic, fastened with a white +girdle, over that a white scapulary, and over all a black mantle and hood, +and shoes; the lay brethren wore a black scapulary. + +The woodcut which we give on the preceding page of two friars, with their +names, DOMINIC and FRANCIS, inscribed over them, is taken from a +representation in a MS. of the end of the thirteenth century (Sloan 346), +of a legend of a vision of Dominic related in the "Legenda Aurea," in +which the Virgin Mary is deprecating the wrath of Christ, about to destroy +the world for its iniquity, and presenting to him Dominic and Francis, +with a promise that they will convert the world from its wickedness. The +next woodcut is from Hollar's print in the "Monasticon." An early +fifteenth century illustration of a Dominican friar, in black mantle and +brown hood over a white tunic, may be found on the last page of the +Harleian MS., 1,527. A fine picture of St. Dominic, by Mario Zoppo +(1471-98), in the National Gallery, shows the costume admirably; he stands +preaching, with book and rosary in his left hand. The Dominican nuns wore +the same dress with a white veil. They had, according to the last edition +of the "Monasticon," fifty-eight houses in England. + +[Illustration: _A Dominican Friar._] + +The Franciscans were styled by their founder Fratri Minori--lesser +brothers, Friars Minors; they were more usually called Grey Friars, from +the colour of their habits, or Cordeliers, from the knotted cord which +formed their characteristic girdle. Their habit was originally a grey +tunic with long loose sleeves (but not quite so loose as those of the +Benedictines), a knotted cord for a girdle, and a black hood; the feet +always bare, or only protected by sandals. In the fifteenth century the +colour of the habit was altered to a dark brown. The woodcut is from +Hollar's print. A picture of St. Francis, by Felippino Lippi (1460-1505), +in the National Gallery shows the costume very clearly. Piers Ploughman +describes the irregular indulgences in habit worn by less strict members +of the order:-- + + "In cutting of his cope + Is more cloth y-folden + Than was in Frauncis' froc, + When he them first made. + And yet under that cope + A coat hath he, furred + With foyns or with fichews + Or fur of beaver, + And that is cut to the knee, + And quaintly y-buttoned + Lest any spiritual man + Espie that guile. + Fraunceys bad his brethren + Barefoot to wenden. + Now have they buckled shoon + For blenying [blistering] of ther heels, + And hosen in harde weather + Y-hamled [tied] by the ancle." + +A beautiful little picture of St. Francis receiving the stigmata may be +found in a Book of Offices of the end of the fourteenth century (Harl. +2,897, f. 407 v.). Another fifteenth-century picture of the same subject +is in a Book of Hours (Harl. 5,328, f. 123). Some fine sixteenth-century +authorities for Franciscan costumes are in the MS. life of St. Francis +(Harl. 3,229, f. 26). The principal picture represents St. Bonaventura, a +saint of the order, in a gorgeous cope over his brown frock and hood, +seated writing in his cell; through the open door is seen a corridor with +doors opening off it to other cells. In the corners of the page are other +pictures of St. Anthony of Padua, and St. Bernardine, and another saint, +and St. Clare, foundress of the female order of Franciscans. A very good +illumination of two Franciscans in grey frocks and hoods, girded with rope +and barefooted, will be found in the MS. Add. 17,687 of date 1498. The +Franciscan nuns, or Minoresses, or Poor Clares, as they were sometimes +called, from St. Clare, the patron saint and first nun of the order, wore +the same habit as the monks, only with a black veil instead of a hood. For +another illustration of minoresses see MS. Royal 1,696, f. 111, v. The +Franciscans were first introduced into England, at Canterbury, in the year +1223 A.D., and there were sixty-five houses of the order in England, +besides four of minoresses. + +[Illustration: _A Franciscan Friar._] + +While the Dominicans retained their unity of organisation to the last, the +Franciscans divided into several branches, under the names of Minorites, +Capuchins, Minims, Observants, Recollets, &c. + +The CARMELITE FRIARS had their origin, as their name indicates, in the +East. According to their own traditions, ever since the days of Elijah, +whom they claim as their founder, the rocks of Carmel have been inhabited +by a succession of hermits, who have lived after the pattern of the great +prophet. Their institution as an order of friars, however, dates from the +beginning of the thirteenth century, when Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem, +gave them a rule, founded upon, but more severe than, that of St. Basil; +and gave them a habit of white and red stripes, which, according to +tradition, was the fashion of the wonder-working mantle of their +prophet-founder. The order immediately spread into the West, and Pope +Honorius III. sanctioned it, and changed the habit to a white frock over a +dark brown tunic; and very soon after, the third general of the order, an +Englishman, Simon Stock, added the scapulary, of the same colour as the +tunic, by which they are to be distinguished from the Premonstratensian +canons, whose habit is the same, except that it wants the scapulary. From +the colour of the habit the popular English name for the Carmelites was +the White Friars. Sir John de Vesci, an English crusader, in the early +part of the thirteenth century, made the ascent of Mount Carmel, and +found these religious living there, claiming to be the successors of +Elijah. The romantic incident seems to have interested him, and he brought +back some of them to England, and thus introduced the order here, where it +became more popular than elsewhere in Europe, but it was never an +influential order. They had ultimately fifty houses in England. + +[Illustration: _A Carmelite Friar._] + +The AUSTIN FRIARS were founded in the middle of the thirteenth century. +There were still at that time some small communities which were not +enrolled among any of the great recognised orders, and a great number of +hermits and solitaries, who lived under no rule at all. Pope Innocent IV. +decreed that all these hermits, solitaries, and separate communities, +should be incorporated into a new order, under the rule of St. Augustine, +with some stricter clauses added, under the name of Ermiti Augustini, +Hermits of St. Augustine, or, as they were popularly called, Austin +Friars. Their exterior habit was a black gown with broad sleeves, girded +with a leather belt, and black cloth hood. There were forty-five houses of +them in England. + +There were also some minor orders of friars, who do not need a detailed +description. The Crutched (crossed) Friars, so called because they had a +red cross on the back and breast of their blue habit, were introduced into +England in the middle of the thirteenth century, and had ten houses here. +The Friars de Poenitentiâ, or the Friars of the Sack, were introduced a +little later, and had nine houses. And there were six other friaries of +obscure orders. But all these minor mendicant orders--all except the four +great orders, the Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, and +Carmelites--were suppressed by the Council of Lyons, A.D. 1370. + +Chaucer lived in the latter half of the fourteenth century, when, after a +hundred and forty years' existence, the orders of friars, or at least many +individuals of the orders, had lost much of their primitive holiness and +zeal. His avowed purpose is to satirise their abuses; so that, while we +quote him largely for the life-like pictures of ancient customs and +manners which he gives us, we must make allowance for the exaggerations of +a satirist, and especially we must not take the faulty or vicious +individuals, whom it suits his purpose to depict, as fair samples of the +whole class. We have a nineteenth-century satirist of the failings and +foibles of the clergy, to whom future generations will turn for +illustrations of the life of cathedral towns and country parishes. We know +how wrongly they would suppose that Dr. Proudie was a fair sample of +nineteenth-century bishops, or Dr. Grantley of archdeacons "of the +period," or Mr. Smylie of the evangelical clergy; we know there is no real +bishop, archdeacon, or incumbent among us of whom those characters, so +cleverly and amusingly, and in one sense so truthfully, drawn, are +anything but exaggerated likenesses. With this caution, we do not hesitate +to borrow illustrations of our subject from Chaucer and other contemporary +writers. + +In his description of Friar Hubert, who was one of the Canterbury +pilgrims, he tells us how-- + + "Full well beloved and familiar was he + With frankelins over all in his countrie; + And eke with worthy women of the town,[22] + For he had power of confession, + As said himself, more than a curate, + For of his order he was licenciate. + Full sweetely heard he confession, + And pleasant was his absolution. + He was an easy man to give penance + There as he wist to have a good pittance, + For unto a poor order for to give, + Is signe that a man is well y-shrive. + + * * * * * + + His tippet was aye farsed[23] full of knives + And pinnés for to give to fairé wives. + And certainly he had a merry note, + Well could he sing and playen on a rote.[24] + + * * * * * + + And over all there as profit should arise, + Courteous he was, and lowly of service. + There was no man no where so virtuous, + He was the beste beggar in all his house, + And gave a certain ferme for the grant + None of his brethren came in his haunt." + +As to his costume:-- + + "For there was he not like a cloisterer, + With threadbare cope, as is a poor scholar, + But he was like a master or a pope, + Of double worsted was his semi-cope,[25] + That round was as a bell out of the press." + +In the Sompnour's tale the character, here merely sketched, is worked out +in detail, and gives such a wonderfully life-like picture of a friar, and +of his occupation, and his intercourse with the people, that we cannot do +better than lay considerable extracts from it before our readers:-- + + "Lordings there is in Yorkshire, as I guess, + A marsh country y-called Holderness, + In which there went a limitour[26] about + To preach, and eke to beg, it is no doubt. + And so befel that on a day this frere + Had preached at a church in his mannére, + And specially aboven every thing + Excited he the people in his preaching + To trentals,[27] and to give for Goddé's sake, + Wherewith men mighten holy houses make, + There as divine service is honoured, + Not there as it is wasted and devoured.[28] + 'Trentals,' said he, 'deliver from penance + Ther friendés' soules, as well old as young, + Yea, when that they are speedily y-sung. + Not for to hold a priest jolly and gay, + He singeth not but one mass[29] of a day, + Deliver out,' quoth he, 'anon[30] the souls. + Full hard it is, with flesh-hook or with owles + To be y-clawed, or to burn or bake: + Now speed you heartily, for Christé's sake.' + And when this frere had said all his intent, + With _qui cum patre_[31] forth his way he went; + When folk in church had given him what they lest + He went his way, no longer would he rest." + +Then he takes his way through the village with his brother friar (it seems +to have been the rule for them to go in couples) and a servant after them +to carry their sack, begging at every house. + + "With scrippe and tipped staff, y-tucked high, + In every house he gan to pore and pry; + And begged meal or cheese, or ellés corn. + His fellow had a staff tipped with horn, + A pair of tables all of ivory, + And a pointel y-polished fetisly, + And wrote always the namés, as he stood, + Of allé folk that gave them any good, + As though that he woulde for them pray. + 'Give us a bushel of wheat, or malt, or rye, + A Goddé's kichel,[32] or a trippe of cheese; + Or ellés what you list, we may not chese;[33] + A Godde's halfpenny, or a mass penny, + Or give us of your bran, if ye have any, + A dagon[34] of your blanket, dearé dame, + Our sister dear (lo! here I write your name): + Bacon or beef, or such thing as you find.' + A sturdy harlot[35] went them aye behind, + That was their hosté's man, and bare a sack, + And what men gave them laid it on his back. + And when that he was out at door, anon + He planed away the names every one, + That he before had written on his tables; + He served them with triffles[36] and with fables." + +At length he comes to a house in which, the goodwife being _devôte_, he +has been accustomed to be hospitably received:-- + + "So along he went, from house to house, till he + Came to a house where he was wont to be + Refreshed more than in a hundred places. + Sick lay the husbandman whose that the place is; + Bedrid upon a couché low he lay: + '_Deus hic_,' quoth he, 'O Thomas, friend, good day' + Said this frere, all courteously and soft. + 'Thomas,' quoth he, 'God yield[37] it you, full oft + Have I upon this bench fared full well, + Here have I eaten many a merry meal.' + And from the bench he drove away the cat, + And laid adown his potent[38] and his hat, + And eke his scrip, and set himself adown: + His fellow was y-walked into town + Forth with his knave, into that hostlery + Where as he shope him thilké night to lie + 'O deré master,' quoth this sické man, + 'How have ye fared since that March began? + I saw you not this fourteen night and more.' + 'God wot,' quoth he, 'laboured have I full sore; + And specially for thy salvation + Have I sayd many a precious orison, + And for our other friendes, God them bless. + I have this day been at your church at messe, + And said a sermon to my simple wit. + + * * * * * + + And there I saw our dame. Ah! where is she?' + 'Yonder I trow that in the yard she be,' + Saidé this man, 'and she will come anon.' + 'Eh master, welcome be ye, by St. John!' + Saide this wife; 'how fare ye heartily?' + This friar ariseth up full courteously, + And her embraceth in his armés narwe,[39] + And kisseth her sweet, and chirketh as a sparrow + With his lippes: 'Dame,' quoth he, 'right well. + As he that is your servant every deal.[40] + Thanked be God that you gave soul and life, + Yet saw I not this day so fair a wife + In all the churché, God so save me.' + 'Yea, God amendé defaults, sire,' quoth she: + 'Algates welcome be ye, by my fay.' + '_Graunt mercy_, dame; that have I found alway. + But of your great goodness, by your leve, + I wouldé pray you that ye not you grieve, + I will with Thomas speak a little throw; + These curates be so negligent and slow + To searchen tenderly a conscience. + In shrift, in preaching, is my diligence, + And study, on Peter's words and on Paul's, + I walk and fishen Christian menne's souls, + To yield our Lord Jesu his proper rent; + To spread his word is set all mine intent.' + 'Now, by your faith, dere sir,' quoth she, + 'Chide him well for Seinté Charitee. + He is as angry as a pissemire,'" &c. + +Whereupon the friar begins at once to scold the goodman:-- + + "'O Thomas, _je vous die_, Thomas, Thomas, + This maketh the fiend, this must be amended. + Ire is a thing that high God hath defended,[41] + And therefore will I speak a word or two.' + 'Now, master,' quoth the wife, 'ere that I go, + What will ye dine? I will go thereabout.' + 'Now, dame,' quoth he, '_je vous dis sans doubte_, + Have I not of a capon but the liver, + And of your white bread but a shiver, + And after that a roasted piggé's head + (But I ne would for me no beast were dead), + Then had I with you homely suffisance; + I am a man of little sustenance, + My spirit hath his fostering in the Bible. + My body is aye so ready and so penible + To waken, that my stomach is destroyed. + I pray you, dame, that ye be not annoyed, + Though I so friendly you my counsel shew. + By God! I n'old[42] have told it but a few.' + 'Now, sir,' quoth she, 'but one word ere I go. + My child is dead within these weekés two, + Soon after that ye went out of this town.'[43] + 'His death saw I by revelation,' + Said this frere, 'at home in our dortour.[44] + I dare well say that ere that half an hour + After his death, I saw him borne to blisse + In mine vision, so God me wisse. + So did our sexton and our fermerere,[45] + That have been trué friars fifty year; + They may now, God be thanked of his loan, + Make their jubilee and walke alone.'"[46] + +We do not care to continue the blasphemous lies with which he plays upon +the mother's tenderness for her dead babe. At length, addressing the sick +goodman, he continues:-- + + "'Thomas, Thomas, so might I ride or go, + And by that lord that cleped is St. Ive, + N'ere[47] thou our brother, shouldest thou not thrive, + In our chapter pray we[48] day and night + To Christ that he thee send hele and might[49] + Thy body for to welden hastily.' + 'God wot,' quoth he, 'I nothing thereof feel, + So help me Christ, as I in fewé years + Have spended upon divers manner freres + Full many a pound, yet fare I never the bet.' + The frere answered, 'O Thomas, dost thou so? + What need have you diverse friars to seche? + What needeth him that hath a perfect leech[50] + To seeken other leches in the town? + Your inconstancy is your confusion. + Hold ye then me, or elles our convent, + To pray for you is insufficient? + Thomas, that jape is not worth a mite; + Your malady is for we have too lite.[51] + Ah! give that convent half a quarter of oates; + And give that convent four and twenty groats; + And give that friar a penny and let him go; + Nay, nay, Thomas, it may nothing be so; + What is a farthing worth parted in twelve?" + +And so he takes up the cue the wife had given him, and reads him a long +sermon on anger, quoting Seneca, and giving, for instances, Cambyses and +Cyrus, and at length urges him to confession. To this-- + + "'Nay,' quoth the sick man, 'by Saint Simon, + I have been shriven this day by my curate.' + + * * * * * + + 'Give me then of thy gold to make our cloister,'" + +and again he proclaims the virtues and morals of his order. + + "'For if ye lack our predication,[52] + Then goth this world all to destruction. + For whoso from this world would us bereave, + So God me save, Thomas, by your leave, + He would bereave out of this world the sun,'" &c. + +And so ends with the ever-recurring burden:-- + + "'Now, Thomas, help for Sainte Charitee.' + This sicke man wax well nigh wood for ire,[53] + He woulde that the frere had been a fire, + With his false dissimulation;" + +and proceeds to play a practical joke upon him, which will not bear even +hinting at, but which sufficiently shows that superstition did not prevent +men from taking great liberties, expressing the utmost contempt of these +men. Moreover,-- + + "His mennie which had hearden this affray, + Came leaping in and chased out the frere." + +Thus ignominiously turned out of the goodman's house, the friar goes to +the court-house of the lord of the village:-- + + "A sturdy pace down to the court he goth, + Whereat there woned[54] a man of great honour, + To whom this friar was alway confessour; + This worthy man was lord of that village. + This frere came, as he were in a rage, + Whereas this lord sat eating at his board. + + * * * * * + + This lord gan look, and saide, '_Benedicite!_ + What, frere John! what manner of world is this? + I see well that something there is amiss.'" + +We need only complete the picture by adding the then actors in it:-- + + "The lady of the house aye stille sat, + Till she had herde what the friar said." + +And + + "Now stood the lorde's squire at the board, + That carved his meat, and hearde every word + Of all the things of which I have you said." + +And it needs little help of the imagination to complete this contemporary +picture of an English fourteenth-century village, with its lord and its +well-to-do farmer, and its villagers, its village inn, its parish church +and priest, and the fortnightly visit of the itinerant friars. + + * * * * * + +We have now completed our sketch of the rise of the religious orders, and +of their general character; we have only to conclude this portion of our +task with a brief history of their suppression in England. Henry VIII. had +resolved to break with the pope; the religious orders were great upholders +of the papal supremacy; the friars especially were called "the pope's +militia;" the king resolved, therefore, upon the destruction of the +friars. The pretext was a reform of the religious orders. At the end of +the year 1535 a royal commission undertook the visitation of all the +religious houses, above one thousand three hundred in number, including +their cells and hospitals. They performed their task with incredible +celerity--"the king's command was exceeding urgent;" and in ten weeks they +presented their report. The small houses they reported to be full of +irregularity and vice; while "in the great solemne monasteries, thanks be +to God, religion was right well observed and kept up." So the king's +decree went forth, and parliament ratified it, that all the religious +houses of less than £200 annual value should be suppressed. This just +caught all the friaries, and a few of the less powerful monasteries for +the sake of impartiality. Perhaps the monks were not greatly moved at the +destruction which had come upon their rivals; but their turn very speedily +came. They were not suppressed forcibly; but they were induced to +surrender. The patronage of most of the abbacies was in the king's hands, +or under his control. He induced some of the abbots by threats or +cajolery, and the offer of place and pension, to surrender their +monasteries into his hand; others he induced to surrender their abbatial +offices only, into which he placed creatures of his own, who completed the +surrender. Some few intractable abbots--like those of Reading, +Glastonbury, and St. John's, Colchester, who would do neither one nor the +other--were found guilty of high treason--no difficult matter when it had +been made high treason by act of Parliament to "publish in words" that the +king was an "heretic, schismatic, or tyrant"--and they were disposed of by +hanging, drawing, and quartering. The Hospitallers of Clerkenwell were +still more difficult to deal with, and required a special act of +Parliament to suppress them. Those who gave no trouble were rewarded with +bishoprics, livings, and pensions; the rest were turned adrift on the wide +world, to dig, or beg, or starve. We are not defending the principle of +monasticism; it may be that, with the altered circumstances of the church +and nation, the day of usefulness of the monasteries had passed. But we +cannot restrain an expression of indignation at the shameless, reckless +manner of the suppression. The commissioners suggested, and Bishop Latimer +entreated in vain, that two or three monasteries should be left in every +shire for religious, and learned, and charitable uses; they were all +shared among the king and his courtiers. The magnificent churches were +pulled down; the libraries, of inestimable value, were destroyed; the alms +which the monks gave to the poor, the hospitals which they maintained for +the old and impotent, the infirmaries for the sick, the schools for the +people--all went in the wreck; and the tithes of parishes which were in +the hands of the monasteries, were swallowed up indiscriminately--they +were not men to strain at such gnats while they were swallowing +camels--some three thousand parishes, including those of the most populous +and important towns, were left impoverished to this day. No wonder that +the fountains of religious endowment in England have been dried up ever +since;--and the course of modern legislation is not calculated to set them +again a-flowing. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE CONVENT. + + +Having thus given a sketch of the history of the various monastic orders +in England, we proceed to give some account of the constitution of a +convent, taking that of a Benedictine monastery as a type, from which the +other orders departed only in minor particulars. + +The _convent_ is the name especially appropriate to the body of +individuals who composed a religious community. These were the body of +cloister monks, lay and clerical; the professed brethren, who were also +lay and clerical; the clerks; the novices; and the servants and +artificers. The servants and artificers were of course taken from the +lower ranks of society; all the rest were originally of the most various +degrees of rank and social position. We constantly meet with instances of +noble men and women, knights and ladies, minstrels and merchants, quitting +their secular occupations at various periods of their life, and taking the +religious habit; some of them continuing simply professed brethren, others +rising to high offices in their order. Scions of noble houses were not +infrequently entered at an early age as novices, either devoted to the +religious life by the piety of their parents, or, with more worldly +motives, thus provided with a calling and a maintenance; and sometimes +considerable interest was used to procure the admittance of novices into +the great monasteries. Again, the children of the poor were received into +the monastic schools, and such as showed peculiar aptitude were sometimes +at length admitted as monks,[55] and were eligible, and were often chosen, +to the highest ecclesiastical dignities. + +The whole convent was under the government of the _abbot_, who, however, +was bound to govern according to the rule of the order. Sometimes he was +elected by the convent; sometimes the king or some patron had a share in +the election. Frequently there were estates attached to the office, +distinct from those of the convent; sometimes the abbot had only an +allowance out of the convent estates; but always he had great power over +the property of the convent, and bad abbots are frequently accused of +wasting the property of the house, and enriching their relatives and +friends out of it. The abbots of some of the more important houses were +mitred abbots, and were summoned to Parliament. In the time of Henry VIII. +twenty-four abbots and the prior of Coventry had seats in the House of +Peers.[56] + +The abbot did not live in common with his monks; he had a separate +establishment of his own within the precincts of the house, sometimes over +the entrance gate, called the Abbot's Lodgings.[57] He ate in his own +hall, slept in his own chamber, had a chapel, or oratory, for his private +devotions, and accommodation for a retinue of chaplains and servants. His +duty was to set to his monks an example of observance of the rule, to keep +them to its observance, to punish breaches of it, to attend the services +in church when not hindered by his other duties, to preach on holy days to +the people, to attend chapter and preach on the rule, to act as confessor +to the monks. But an abbot was also involved in many secular duties; there +were manors of his own, and of the convent's, far and near, which required +visiting; and these manors involved the abbot in all the numerous duties +which the feudal system devolved upon a lord towards his tenants, and +towards his feudal superior. The greater abbots were barons, and sometimes +were thus involved in such duties as those of justices in eyre, military +leaders of their vassals, peers of Parliament. Hospitality was one of the +great monastic virtues. The usual regulation in convents was that the +abbot should entertain all guests of gentle degree, while the convent +entertained all others. This again found abundance of occupation for my +lord abbot in performing all the offices of a courteous host, which seems +to have been done in a way becoming his character as a lord of wealth and +dignity; his table was bountifully spread, even if he chose to confine +himself to pulse and water; a band of wandering minstrels was always +welcome to the abbot's hall to entertain his gentle and fair guests; and +his falconer could furnish a cast of hawks, and his forester a leash of +hounds, and the lord abbot would not decline to ride by the river or into +his manor parks to witness and to share in the sport. In the Harl. MS. +1,527, at fol. 108 (?), is a picture of an abbot on horseback casting off +a hawk from his fist. A pretty little illustration of this abbatial +hospitality occurs in Marie's "Lay of Ywonec."[58] A baron and his family +are travelling in obedience to the royal summons, to keep one of the high +festivals at Caerleon. In the course of their journey they stop for a +night at a spacious abbey, where they are received with the greatest +hospitality. "The good abbot, for the sake of detaining his guests during +another day, exhibited to them the whole of the apartments, the dormitory, +the refectory, and the chapter-house, in which last they beheld a +splendid tomb covered with a superb pall fringed with gold, surrounded by +twenty waxen tapers in golden candlesticks, while a vast silver censer, +constantly burning, filled the air with fumes of incense." + +[Illustration: _A Benedictine Abbot._] + +An abbot's ordinary habit was the same as that of his monks. In the +processions which were made on certain great feasts he held his crosier, +and, if he were a mitred abbot, he wore his mitre: this was also his +parliamentary costume. We give on the opposite page a beautiful drawing of +a Benedictine abbot of St. Alban's, thus habited, from the _Catalogus +Benefactorum_ of that abbey. When the abbot celebrated high mass on +certain great festivals he wore the full episcopal costume. Thomas +Delamere, abbot of St. Alban's, is so represented in his magnificent +sepulchral brass in that abbey, executed in his lifetime, circa 1375 A.D. +Richard Bewferest, abbot of the Augustine canons of Dorchester, +Oxfordshire, has a brass in that church, date circa 1520 A.D., +representing him in episcopal costume, bareheaded, with his staff; and in +the same church is an incised gravestone, representing Abbot Roger, circa +1510 A.D., in full episcopal vestments. Abbesses bore the crosier in +addition to the ordinal costume of their order; the sepulchral brass of +Elizabeth Harvey, abbess of the Benedictine Abbey of Elstow, Bedfordshire, +circa 1530 A.D., thus represents her, in the church of that place. Our +representation of a Benedictine abbess on the previous page is from the +fourteenth century MS. Royal, 2 B. vii. + +[Illustration: _Benedictine Abbess and Nun._] + +Under the abbot were a number of officials (_obedientiarii_), the chief of +whom were the Prior, Precentor, Cellarer, Sacrist, Hospitaller, +Infirmarer, Almoner, Master of the Novices, Porter, Kitchener, Seneschal, +&c. It was only in large monasteries that all these officers were to be +found; in the smaller houses one monk would perform the duties of several +offices. The officers seem to have been elected by the convent, subject to +the approval of the abbot, by whom they might be deposed. Some brief notes +of the duties of these obedientiaries will serve to give a considerable +insight into the economy of a convent. And first for the _Prior_:-- + +In some orders there was only one abbey, and all the other houses were +priories, as in the Clugniac, the Gilbertine, and in the Military and the +Mendicant orders. In all the orders there were abbeys, which had had +distant estates granted to them, on which either the donor had built a +house, and made it subject to the abbey; or the abbey had built a house +for the management of the estates, and the celebration of divine and +charitable offices upon them. These priories varied in size, from a mere +cell containing a prior and two monks, to an establishment as large as an +abbey; and the dignity and power of the prior varied from that of a mere +steward of the distant estate of the parent house, to that of an +autocratic head, only nominally dependent on the parent house, and himself +in everything but name an abbot. + +The majority of the female houses of the various orders (except those +which were especially female orders, like the Brigittines, &c.) were kept +subject to some monastery, so that the superiors of these houses usually +bore only the title of prioress, though they had the power of an abbess in +the internal discipline of the house. One cannot forbear to quote at least +a portion of Chaucer's very beautiful description of his prioress, among +the Canterbury pilgrims:-- + + "That of her smiling ful simple was and coy." + +She sang the divine service sweetly; she spoke French correctly, though +with an accent which savoured of the Benedictine convent at +Stratford-le-Bow, where she had been educated, rather than of Paris; she +behaved with lady-like delicacy at table; she was cheerful of mood, and +amiable; with a pretty affectation of courtly breeding, and a care to +exhibit a reverend stateliness becoming her office:-- + + "But for to speken of her conscience, + She was so charitable and so piteous, + She would wepe if that she saw a mouse + Caught in a trappe, if it were dead or bled; + Of smalé houndés had she that she fed + With rosted flesh, and milk, and wastel bread; + But sore wept she if one of them were dead, + Or if men smote it with a yerdé smerte; + And all was conscience and tendre herte. + Ful semély her wimple y-pinched was; + Her nose tretis,[59] her eyen grey as glass, + Her mouth full small, and thereto soft and red, + And sickerly she had a fayre forehed-- + It was almost a spanné broad I trow, + And hardily she was not undergrow."[60] + +Her habit was becoming; her beads were of red coral gauded with green, to +which was hung a jewel of gold, on which was-- + + "Written a crowned A, + And after, _Amor vincit omnia_. + Another nun also with her had she, + That was her chapelleine, and priestés three." + +But in abbeys the chief of the obedientiaries was styled prior; and we +cannot, perhaps, give a better idea of his functions than by borrowing a +naval analogy, and calling him the abbot's first lieutenant; for, like +that officer in a ship, the prior at all times carried on the internal +discipline of the convent, and in the abbot's absence he was his +vicegerent; wielding all the abbot's powers, except those of making or +deposing obedientiaries and consecrating novices. He had a suite of +apartments of his own, called the prior's chamber, or the prior's lodging; +he could leave the house for a day or two on the business of the house, +and had horses and servants appropriated to his use; whenever he entered +the monks present rose out of respect; some little license in diet was +allowed him in refectory, and he might also have refreshment in his own +apartments; sometimes he entertained guests of a certain condition in his +prior's chamber. Neither the prior, nor any of the obedientiaries, wore +any distinctive dress or badge of office. In large convents he was +assisted by a sub-prior. + +The _Sub-prior_ was the prior's deputy, sharing his duties in his +residence, and fulfilling them in his absences. The especial functions +appropriated to him seem to have been to say grace at dinner and supper, +to see that all the doors were locked at five in the evening, and keep the +keys until five next morning; and, by sleeping near the dormitory door, +and by making private search, to prevent wandering about at night. In +large monasteries there were additional sub-priors. + +The _Chantor_, or _Precentor_, appears to come next in order and dignity, +since we are told that he was censed after the abbot and prior. He was +choir-master; taught music to the monks and novices; and arranged and +ruled everything which related to the conduct of divine service. His place +in church was in the middle of the choir on the right side; he held an +instrument in his hand, as modern leaders use a bâton; and his side of the +choir commenced the chant. He was besides librarian, and keeper of the +archives, and keeper of the abbey seal. + +He was assisted by a _Succentor_, who sat on the left side of the choir, +and led that half of the choir in service. He assisted the chantor, and in +his absence undertook his duties. + +The _Cellarer_ was in fact the steward of the house; his modern +representative is the bursar of a college. He had the care of everything +relating to the provision of the food and vessels of the convent. He was +exempt from the observance of some of the services in church; he had the +use of horses and servants for the fulfilment of his duties, and sometimes +he appears to have had separate apartments. The cellarer, as we have +said, wore no distinctive dress or badge; but in the _Catalogus +Benefactorum_ of St. Alban's there occurs a portrait of one "Adam +Cellarius," who for his distinguished merit had been buried among the +abbots in the chapter-house, and had his name and effigy recorded in the +_Catalogus_; he is holding two keys in one hand and a purse in the other, +the symbols of his office; and in his quaint features--so different from +those of the dignified abbot whom we have given from the same book--the +limner seems to have given us the type of a business-like and not ungenial +cellarer. + +[Illustration: _Adam the Cellarer._] + +The _Sacrist_, or _Sacristan_ (whence our word sexton), had the care and +charge of the fabric, and furniture, and ornaments of the church, and +generally of all the material appliances of divine service. He, or some +one in his stead, slept in a chamber built for him in the church, in order +to protect it during the night. There is such a chamber in St. Alban's +Abbey Church, engraved in the _Builder_ for August, 1856. There was often +a sub-sacrist to assist the sacrist in his duties. + +The duty of the _Hospitaller_ was, as his name implies, to perform the +duties of hospitality on behalf of the convent. The monasteries received +all travellers to food and lodging for a day and a night as of right, and +for a longer period if the prior saw reason to grant it.[61] A special +hall was provided for the entertainment of these guests, and chambers for +their accommodation. The hospitaller performed the part of host on behalf +of the convent, saw to the accommodation of the guests who belonged to the +convent, introduced into the refectory strange priests or others who +desired and had leave to dine there, and ushered guests of degree to the +abbot to be entertained by him. He showed the church and house at suitable +times to guests whose curiosity prompted the desire. + +Every abbey had an infirmary, which was usually a detached building with +its own kitchen and chapel, besides suitable apartments for the sick, and +for aged monks, who sometimes took up their permanent residence in the +infirmary, and were excused irksome duties, and allowed indulgences in +food and social intercourse. Not only the sick monks, but other sick folk +were received into the infirmary; it is a very common incident in mediæval +romances to find a wounded knight carried to a neighbouring monastery to +be healed. The officer who had charge of everything relating to this +department was styled the _Infirmarer_. He slept in the infirmary, was +excused from some of the "hours;" in the great houses had two brethren to +assist him besides the necessary servants, and often a clerk learned in +pharmacy as physician. + +The _Almoner_ had charge of the distribution of the alms of the house. +Sometimes money was left by benefactors to be distributed to the poor +annually at their obits; the distribution of this was confided to the +almoner. One of his men attended in the abbot's chamber when he had +guests, to receive what alms they chose to give to the poor. Moneys +belonging to the convent were also devoted to this purpose; besides food +and drink, the surplus of the convent meals. He had assistants allowed him +to go and visit the sick and infirm folk of the neighbourhood. And at +Christmas he provided cloth and shoes for widows, orphans, poor clerks, +and others whom he thought to need it most. + +The _Master of the Novices_ was a grave and learned monk, who +superintended the education of the youths in the schools of the abbey, and +taught the rule to those who were candidates for the monastic profession. + +The _Porter_ was an officer of some importance; he was chosen for his age +and gravity; he had an apartment in the gate lodge, an assistant, and a +lad to run on his messages. But sometimes the porter seems to have been a +layman. And, in small houses and in nunneries, his office involved other +duties, which we have seen in great abbeys distributed among a number of +officials. Thus, in Marie's "Lay le Fraine," we read of the porter of an +abbey of nuns:-- + + "The porter of the abbey arose, + And did his office in the close; + Rung the bells, and tapers light, + Laid forth books and all ready dight. + The church door he undid," &c.; + +and in the sequel it appears that he had a daughter, and therefore in all +probability was a layman. + +The _Kitchener_, or _Cook_, was usually a monk, and, as his name implies, +he ruled in the kitchen, went to market, provided the meals of the house, +&c. + +[Illustration: _Alan Middleton._] + +The _Seneschal_ in great abbeys was often a layman of rank, who did the +secular business which the tenure of large estates, and consequently of +secular offices, devolved upon abbots and convents; such as holding +manorial courts, and the like. But there was, Fosbroke tells us, another +officer with the same name, but of inferior dignity, who did the convent +business of the prior and cellarer which was to be done out of the house; +and, when at home, carried a rod and acted as marshal of the guest-hall. +He had horses and servants allowed for the duties of his office; and at +the Benedictine Abbey of Winchcombe he had a robe of clerk's cloth once a +year, with lamb's fur for a supertunic, and for a hood of budge fur; he +had the same commons in hall as the cellarer, and £2 every year at +Michaelmas. Probably an officer of this kind was Alan Middleton, who is +recorded in the _Catalogus_ of St. Alban's as "collector of rents of the +obedientiaries of that monastery, and especially of those of the bursar." +_Prudenter in omnibus se agebat_, and so, deserving well of the house, +they put a portrait of him among their benefactors, clothed in a blue +robe, of "clerk's cloth" perhaps, furred at the wrists and throat with +"lamb's fur" or "budge fur;" a small tonsure shows that he had taken some +minor order, the penner and inkhorn at his girdle denote the nature of his +office; and he is just opening the door of one of the abbey tenants to +perform his unwelcome function. They were grateful men, these Benedictines +of St. Alban's; they have immortalised another of their inferior officers, +_Walterus de Hamuntesham, fidelis minister hujus ecclesiæ_, because on one +occasion he received a beating at the hands of the rabble of St. +Alban's--_inter villanos Sci Albani_--while standing up for the rights and +liberties of the church. + +[Illustration: _Walter of Hamuntesham attacked by a Mob._] + +Next in dignity after the obedientiaries come the _Cloister Monks_; of +these some had received holy orders at the hands of the bishop, some not. +Their number was limited. A cloister monk in a rich abbey seems to have +been something like in dignity to the fellow of a modern college, and a +good deal of interest was sometimes employed to obtain the admission of a +youth as a novice, with a view to his ultimately arriving at this +dignified degree. Next in order come the _Professed Brethren_. These seem +to be monks who had not been elected to the dignity of cloister monks; +some of them were admitted late in life. Those monks who had been brought +up in the house were called _nutriti_, those who came later in life +_conversi_; the lay brothers were also sometimes called _conversi_. There +were again the _Novices_, who were not all necessarily young, for a +_conversus_ passed through a noviciate; and even a monk of another order, +or of another house of their own order, and even a monk from a cell of +their own house, was reckoned among the novices. There were also the +_Chaplains_ of the abbot and other high officials; and frequently there +were other clerics living in the monastery, who served the chantries in +the abbey church, and the churches and chapels which belonged to the +monastery and were in its neighbourhood. Again, there were the _Artificers +and Servants_ of the monastery: millers, bakers, tailors, shoemakers, +smiths, and similar artificers, were often a part of a monastic +establishment. And there were numerous men-servants, grooms, and the like: +these were all under certain vows, and were kept under discipline. In the +Cistercian abbey of Waverley there were in 1187 A.D. seventy monks and one +hundred and twenty _conversi_, besides priests, clerks, servants, &c. In +the great Benedictine abbey of St. Edmund's Bury, in the time of Edward +I., there were eighty monks; fifteen chaplains attendant on the abbot and +chief officers; about one hundred and eleven servants in the various +offices, chiefly residing within the walls of the monastery; forty +priests, officiating in the several chapels, chantries, and monastic +appendages in the town; and an indefinite number of professed brethren. +The following notes will give an idea of the occupations of the servants. +In the time of William Rufus the servants at Evesham numbered--five in the +church, two in the infirmary, two in the cellar, five in the kitchen, +seven in the bakehouse, four brewers, four menders, two in the bath, two +shoemakers, two in the orchard, three gardeners, one at the cloister gate, +two at the great gate, five at the vineyard, four who served the monks +when they went out, four fishermen, four in the abbot's chamber, three in +the hall. At Salley Abbey, at the end of the fourteenth century, there +were about thirty-five servants, among whom are mentioned the shoemaker +and barber, the prior's chamberlain, the abbot's cook, the convent cook +and baker's mate, the baker, brewers, tailor, cowherd, waggoners, pages of +the kitchen, poultry-keeper, labourers, a keeper of animals and birds, +bailiffs, foresters, shepherds, smiths: there are others mentioned by +name, without a note of their office. But it was only a few of the larger +houses which had such numerous establishments as these; the majority of +the monasteries contained from five to twenty cloister monks. Some of the +monasteries were famous as places of education, and we must add to their +establishment a number of children of good family, and the learned clerks +or ladies who acted as tutors; thus the abbey of St. Mary, Winchester, in +1536, contained twenty-six nuns, five priests, thirteen lay sisters, +thirty-two officers and servants, and twenty-six children, daughters of +lords and knights, who were brought up in the house. + +Lastly, there were a number of persons of all ranks and conditions who +were admitted to "fraternity." Among the Hospitallers (and probably it was +the same with the other orders) they took oath to love the house and +brethren, to defend the house from ill-doers, to enter that house if they +did enter any, and to make an annual present to the house. In return, they +were enrolled in the register of the house, they received the prayers of +the brethren, and at death were buried in the cemetery. Chaucer's +Dominican friar (p. 48), writes the names of those who gave him donations +in his "tables." In the following extract from Piers Ploughman's Creed, an +Austin friar promises more definitely to have his donors enrolled in the +fraternity of his house:-- + + "And gyf thou hast any good, + And will thyself helpen, + Help us herblich therewith. + And here I undertake, + Thou shalt ben brother of oure hous, + And a book habben, + At the next chapetre, + Clerliche enseled. + And then our provincial + Hath power to assoylen + Alle sustren and brethren + That beth of our ordre." + _Piers Ploughman's Creed_, p. 645. + +In the book of St. Alban's, which we have before quoted, there is a list +of many persons, knights and merchants, ladies and children, vicars and +rectors, received _ad fraternitatem hujus monasterii_. In many cases +portraits of them are given: they are in the ordinary costume of their +time and class, without any badge of their monastic fraternisation. + +Chaucer gives several sketches which enable us to fill out our realisation +of the monks, as they appeared outside the cloister associating with their +fellow-men. He includes one among the merry company of his Canterbury +pilgrims; and first in the Monk's Prologue, makes the Host address the +monk thus:-- + + "'My lord, the monk,' quod he ... + 'By my trothe I can not tell youre name. + Whether shall I call you my Lord Dan John, + Or Dan Thomas, or elles Dan Albon? + Of what house be ye by your father kin? + I vow to God thou hast a full fair skin; + It is a gentle pasture ther thou goest, + Thou art not like a penaunt[62] or a ghost. + Upon my faith thou art some officer, + Some worthy sextern or some celerer. + For by my father's soul, as to my dome, + Thou art a maister when thou art at home; + No poure cloisterer, ne non novice, + But a governor both ware and wise.'" + +Chaucer himself describes the same monk in his Prologue thus:-- + + "A monk there was, a fayre for the maisterie, + An out-rider that lovered venerie,[63] + A manly man to be an abbot able. + Ful many a dainty horse had he in stable; + And when he rode men might his bridle hear + Gingling in a whistling wind as clear, + And eke as loud as doth the chapel bell, + Whereas this lord was keeper of the cell. + The rule of Saint Maur and of Saint Benet, + Because that it was old and somedeal strait, + This ilke monk let olde thinges pace, + And held after the newe world the trace. + He gave not of the text a pulled hen, + That saith, that hunters been not holy men; + Ne that a monk, when he is regneless,[64] + Is like a fish that is waterless; + That is to say, a monk out of his cloister: + This ilke text he held not worth an oyster. + And I say his pinion was good. + Why should he study, and make himselven wood, + Upon a book in cloister alway to pore, + Or swinkin with his handis, and labour, + As Austin bid? How shall the world be served? + Therefore he was a prickasoure aright: + Greyhounds he had as swift as fowls of flight; + Of pricking and of hunting for the hare + Was all his lust, for no cost would he spare. + I saw his sleeves purfled at the hand + With gris, and that the finest of the land. + And for to fasten his hood under his chin + He had of gold y-wrought a curious pin: + A love-knot in the greater end there was. + + * * * * * + + His bootis supple, his horse in great estate; + Now certainly he was a fair prelate." + +Again, in the "Shipman's Tale" we learn that such an officer had +considerable freedom, so that he was able to pay very frequent visits to +his friends. The whole passage is worth giving:-- + + "A marchant whilom dwelled at St. Denise, + That riche was, for which men held him wise. + + * * * * * + + This noble marchant held a worthy house, + For which he had all day so great repair + For his largesse, and for his wife was fair. + What wonder is? but hearken to my tale. + Amonges all these guestes great and small + There was a monk, a fair man and a bold, + I trow a thirty winters he was old, + That ever anon was drawing to that place. + This youngé monk that was so fair of face, + Acquainted was so with this goodé man, + Sithen that their firste knowledge began, + That in his house as familiar was he + As it possible is any friend to be. + And for as mochel as this goodé man, + And eke this monk, of which that I began, + Were bothé two y-born in one village, + The monk him claimeth as for cosinage; + And he again him said not onés nay, + But was as glad thereof, as fowl of day; + For to his heart it was a great plesaunce; + Thus ben they knit with eterne alliance, + And eche of them gan other for to ensure + Of brotherhood, while that life may endure." + +Notwithstanding his vow of poverty, he was also able to make presents to +his friends, for the tale continues:-- + + "Free was Dan John, and namely of despence + As in that house, and full of diligence + To don plesaunce, and also great costage; + He not forgat to give the leaste page + In all that house, but, after their degree, + He gave the lord, and sithen his mennie, + When that he came, some manner honest thing; + For which they were as glad of his coming + As fowl is fain when that the sun upriseth." + +Chaucer does not forget to let us know how it was that this monk came to +have such liberty and such command of means:-- + + "This noble monk, of which I you devise, + Hath of his abbot, as him list, licence + (Because he was a man of high prudence, + And eke an officer), out for to ride + To see their granges and their barnés wide." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE MONASTERY. + + +We proceed next to give some account of the buildings which compose the +fabric of a monastery. And first as to the site. The orders of the +Benedictine family preferred sites as secluded and remote from towns and +villages as possible. The Augustinian orders did not cultivate seclusion +so strictly; their houses are not unfrequently near towns and villages, +and sometimes a portion of their conventual church--the nave, +generally--formed the parish church. The Friaries, Colleges of secular +canons, and Hospitals, were generally in or near the towns. There is a +popular idea that the monks chose out the most beautiful and fertile spots +in the kingdom for their abodes. A little reflection would show that the +choice of the site of a new monastery must be confined within the limits +of the lands which the founder was pleased to bestow upon the convent. +Sometimes the founder gave a good manor, and gave money besides, to help +to build the house upon it; sometimes what was given was a tract of +unreclaimed land, upon which the first handful of monks squatted like +settlers in a new country. Even the settled land, in those days, was only +half cultivated; and on good land, unreclaimed or only half reclaimed, the +skill and energy of a company of first-rate farmers would soon produce +great results; barren commons would be dotted over with sheep, and rushy +valleys would become rich pastures covered with cattle, and great +clearings in the forest would grow green with rye and barley. The revenues +of the monastic estates would rapidly augment; little of them would be +required for the coarse dress and frugal fare of the monks; they did not, +like the lay landowners, spend them on gilded armour and jewelled robes, +and troops of armed retainers, and tournaments, and journeys to court; +and so they had enough for plentiful charity and unrestricted hospitality, +and the surplus they spent upon those magnificent buildings whose very +ruins are among the architectural glories of the land. The Cistercians had +an especial rule that their houses should be built on the lowest possible +sites, in token of humility; but it was the general custom in the Middle +Ages to choose low and sheltered sites for houses which were not +especially intended as strongholds, and therefore it is that we find +nearly all monasteries in sheltered spots. To the monks the neighbourhood +of a stream was of especial importance: when headed up it supplied a pond +for their fish, and water-power for their corn-mill. If, therefore, there +were within the limits of their domain a quiet valley with a rivulet +running through it, that was the site which the monks would select for +their house. And here, beside the rivulet, in the midst of the green +pasture land of the valley dotted with sheep and kine, shut in from the +world by the hills, whose tops were fringed with the forest which +stretched for miles around, the stately buildings of the monastery would +rise year after year; the cloister court, and the great church, and the +abbot's lodge, and the numerous offices, all surrounded by a stone wall +with a stately gate-tower, like a goodly walled town, and a suburban +hamlet of labourers' and servants' cottages sheltering beneath its walls. + +There was a certain plan for the arrangement of the principal buildings of +a monastery, which, with minor variations, was followed by nearly all the +monastic orders, except the Carthusians. These latter differed from the +other orders in this, that each monk had his separate cell, in which he +lived, and ate, and slept apart from the rest, the whole community meeting +only in church and chapter.[65] Our limits will not permit us to enter +into exceptional arrangements. + +The nucleus of a monastery was the cloister court. It was a quadrangular +space of green sward, around which were arranged the cloister buildings, +viz., the church, the chapter-house, the refectory, and the dormitory.[66] +The court was called the Paradise--the blessed garden in which the inmates +passed their lives of holy peace. A porter was often placed at the +cloister-gate, and the monks might not quit its seclusion, nor strangers +enter to disturb its quiet, save under exceptional circumstances. + +The cloister-court had generally, though it is doubtful whether it was +always the case, a covered ambulatory round its four sides. The +ambulatories of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries have usually an open +arcade on the side facing the court, which supports the groined roof. In +the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, instead of an open arcade, we +usually find a series of large traceried windows, tolerably close +together; in many cases they were glazed, sometimes with painted glass, +and formed doubtless a grand series of scriptural or historical paintings. +The blank wall opposite was also sometimes painted. This covered +ambulatory was not merely a promenade for the monks; it was the place in +which the convent assembled regularly every day, at certain hours, for +study and meditation; and in some instances (_e.g._, at Durham) a portion +of it was fitted up with little wooden closets for studies for the elder +monks, with book-cupboards in the wall opposite for books. The monks were +sometimes buried in the cloister, either under the turf in the open +square, or beneath the pavement of the ambulatory. There was sometimes a +fountain at the corner of the cloister, or on its south side near the +entrance to the refectory, at which the monks washed before meals. + +The church was always the principal building of a monastery. Many of them +remain entire, though despoiled of their shrines, and tombs, and altars, +and costly furniture, and many more remain in ruins, and they fill us with +astonishment at their magnitude and splendour. Our existing cathedrals +were, in fact, abbey churches; nine or ten of them were the churches of +Benedictine monasteries, the remainder of secular Augustines. But these, +the reader may imagine, had the wealth of bishops and the offerings of +dioceses lavished upon them, and may not be therefore fair examples of +ordinary abbey churches. But some of them originally were ordinary abbey +churches, and were subsequently made Episcopal sees, such as Beverley, +Gloucester, Christ Church Oxford, and Peterborough, which were originally +Benedictine abbey churches; Bristol was the church of a house of regular +canons; Ripon was the church of a college of secular canons. The +Benedictine churches of Westminster and St. Alban's, and the collegiate +church of Southwell, are equal in magnitude and splendour to any of the +cathedrals; and the ruins of Fountains, and Tintern, and Netley, show that +the Cistercians equalled any of the other orders in the magnitude and +beauty of their churches. + +It is indeed hard to conceive that communities of a score or two of monks +should have built such edifices as Westminster and Southwell as private +chapels attached to their monasteries. And this, though it is one aspect +of the fact, is not the true one. They did not build them for private +chapels to say their daily prayers in; they built them for temples in +which they believed that the Eternal and Almighty condescended to dwell; +to whose contemplation and worship they devoted their lives. They did not +think of the church as an appendage to their monastery, but of their +monastery as an appendage to the church. The cloister, under the shadow +and protection of the church, was the court of the Temple, in which its +priests and Levites dwelt. + +The church of a monastery was almost always a cross church, with a nave +and aisles; a central tower (in Cistercian churches the tower was only to +rise one story above the roof); transepts, which usually have three +chapels on the north side of each transept, or an aisle divided into three +chapels by parclose screens; a choir with or without aisles; a +retro-choir or presbytery; and often a Lady chapel, east of the +presbytery, or in some instances parallel with the choir. + +The entrance for the monks was usually on the south side opposite to the +eastern alley of the cloisters; there was also in Cistercian churches, and +in some others, a newel stair in the south transept, by means of which the +monks could descend from their dormitory (which was in the upper story of +the east side of the cloister court) into the church for the night +services, without going into the open air. The principal entrance for the +laity was on the north side, and was usually provided with a porch. The +great western entrance was chiefly used for processions; the great +entrance gate in the enclosure wall of the abbey being usually opposite to +it or nearly so. In several instances stones have been found, set in the +pavements of the naves of conventual churches, to mark the places where +the different members of the convent were to stand before they issued +forth in procession, amidst the tolling of the great bell, with cross and +banner, and chanted psalms, to meet the abbot at the abbey-gate, on his +return from an absence, or any person to whom it was fitting that the +convent should show such honour. + +[Illustration: _A Semi-choir of Franciscan Friars._] + +The internal arrangements of an abbey-church were very nearly like those +of our cathedrals. The convent occupied the stalls in the choir; the place +of the abbot was in the first stall on the right-hand (south) side to one +entering from the west--it is still appropriated to the dean in +cathedrals; in the corresponding stall on the other side sat the prior; +the precentor sat in the middle stall on the right or south side; the +succentor in the middle stall on the north side. + +The beautiful little picture of a semi-choir of Franciscan friars on the +opposite page is from a fourteenth-century psalter in the British Museum +(Domitian, A. 17). It is from a large picture, which gives a beautiful +representation of the interior of the choir of the church. The picture is +worth careful examination for the costume of the friars--grey frock and +cowl, with knotted cord girdle and sandalled feet; some wearing the hood +drawn over the head, some leaving it thrown back on the neck and +shoulders; one with his hands folded under his sleeves like the +Cistercians at p. 17. The precentor may be easily distinguished in the +middle stall beating time, with an air of leadership. There is much +character in all the faces and attitudes--_e.g._, in the withered old face +on the left, with his cowl pulled over his ears to keep off the draughts, +or the one on the precentor's left, a rather burly friar, evidently +singing bass.[67] On the next page is an engraving from the same MS. of a +similar semi-choir of minoresses, which also is only a portion of a large +church interior. + +[Illustration: _A Semi-choir of Minoresses._] + +When there was a shrine of a noted saint[68] it was placed in the +presbytery, behind the high-altar; and here, and in the choir aisles, were +frequently placed the monuments of the abbots, and of founders and +distinguished benefactors of the house; sometimes heads of the house and +founders were buried in the chapter-house. + +It would require a more elaborate description than our plan will admit to +endeavour to bring before the mind's-eye of the reader one of these abbey +churches before its spoliation;--when the sculptures were unmutilated and +the paintings fresh, and the windows filled with their stained glass, and +the choir hung with hangings, and banners and tapestries waved from the +arches of the triforium, and the altar shone gloriously with jewelled +plate, and the monuments[69] of abbots and nobles were still perfect, and +the wax tapers burned night and day[70] in the hearses, throwing a +flickering light on the solemn effigies below, and glancing upon the +tarnished armour and the dusty banners[71] which hung over the tombs, +while the cowled monks sat in their stalls and prayed. Or when, on some +high festival, the convent walked round the lofty aisles in procession, +two and two, clad in rich copes over their coarse frocks, preceded by +cross and banner, with swinging censers pouring forth clouds of incense, +while one of those angelic boy's voices which we still sometimes hear in +cathedrals chanted the solemn litany--the pure sweet ringing voice +floating along the vaulted aisles, until it was lost in the swell of the +chorus of the whole procession--_Ora! Ora! Ora! pro nobis!_ + + * * * * * + +The Cloister was usually situated on the south side of the nave of the +church, so that the nave formed its north side, and the south transept a +part of its eastern side; but sometimes, from reasons of local +convenience, the cloister was on the north side of the nave, and then the +relative positions of the other buildings were similarly transposed. + +The Chapter-house was always on the east side of the court. In +establishments of secular canons it seems to have been always +multi-sided[72] with a central pillar to support its groining, and a +lofty, conical, lead-covered roof. In these instances it is placed in the +open space eastward of the cloister, and is usually approached by a +passage from the east side of the cloister court. In the houses of all the +other orders[73] the chapter-house is rectangular, even where the church +is a cathedral. Usually, then, the chapter-house is a rectangular building +on the east side of the cloister, and its longest axis is east and west; +at Durham it has an eastern apse.[74] It was a large and handsome room, +with a good deal of architectural ornament;[75] often the western end of +it is divided off as a vestibule or ante-room; and generally it is so +large as to be divided into two or three aisles by rows of pillars. +Internally, rows of stalls or benches were arranged round the walls for +the convent; there was a higher seat at the east end for the abbot or +prior, and a desk in the middle from which certain things were read. Every +day after the service called Terce, the convent walked in procession from +the choir to the chapter-house, and took their proper places. When the +abbot had taken his place, the monks descended one step and bowed; he +returned their salutation, and all took their seats. A sentence of the +rule of the order was read by one of the novices from the desk, and the +abbot, or in his absence the prior, delivered an explanatory or hortatory +sermon upon it; then from another portion of the book was read the names +of brethren, and benefactors, and persons who had been received into +fraternity, whose decease had happened on that day of the year; and the +convent prayed a _requiescant in pace_ for their souls, and the souls of +all the faithful departed this life. Then members of the convent who had +been guilty of slight breaches of discipline confessed them, kneeling upon +a low stool in the middle, and on a bow from the abbot, intimating his +remission of the breach, they resumed their seats. If any had a complaint +to make against any brother, it was here made and adjudged.[76] Convent +business was also transacted. The woodcut gives an example of the kind. +Henry VII. had made grants to Westminster Abbey, on condition that the +convent should perform certain religious services on his behalf;[77] and +in order that the services should not fall into disuse, he directed that +yearly, at a certain period, the chief-justice, or the king's attorney, or +the recorder of London, should attend in chapter, and the abstract of the +grant and agreement between the king and the convent should be read. The +grant which was thus to be read still exists in the British Museum; it is +written in a volume superbly bound, with the royal seals attached in +silver cases; it is from the illuminated letter at the head of one of the +deeds in this book[78] that our woodcut is taken. It rudely represents the +chapter-house, with the chief-justice and a group of lawyers on one side, +the abbot and convent on the other, and a monk reading the grant from the +desk in the middle. + +[Illustration: _Monks and Lawyers in Chapter-house._] + +Lydgate's "Life of St. Edmund" (Harl. 2,278) was written A.D. 1433, by +command of his abbot--he was a monk of St. Edmund's Bury--on the occasion +of King Henry VI. being received-- + + "Of their chapter a brother for to be;" + +that is, to the fraternity of the house. An illumination on f. 6 seems to +represent the king sitting in the abbot's place in the chapter-house, with +royal officers behind him, monks in their places on each side of the +chapter-house, the lectern in the middle, and a group of clerks at the +west end. It is probably intended as a picture of the scene of the king's +being received to fraternity. + +Adjoining the south transept is usually a narrow apartment; the +description of Durham, drawn up soon after the Dissolution, says that it +was the "Locutory." Another conjecture is that it may have been the +vestry. At Netley it has a door at the west, with a trefoil light over it, +a two-light window at the east, two niches, like monumental niches, in its +north and south walls, and a piscina at the east end of its south wall. + +Again, between this and the chapter-house is often found a small +apartment, which some have conjectured to be the penitential cell. In +other cases it seems to be merely a passage from the cloister-court to the +space beyond; in which space the abbot's lodging is often situated, so +that it may have been the abbot's entrance to the church and chapter. + +In Cistercian houses there is usually another long building south of the +chapter-house, its axis running north and south. This was perhaps in its +lower story the Frater-house, a room to which the monks retired after +refection to converse, and to take their allowance of wine, or other +indulgences in diet which were allowed to them; and some quotations in +Fosbroke would lead us to imagine that the monks dined here on feast days. +It would answer to the great chamber of mediæval houses, and in some +respects to the Combination-room[79] of modern colleges. The upper story +of this building was probably the Dormitory. This was a long room, with a +vaulted or open timber roof, in which the pallets were arranged in rows on +each side against the wall. The prior or sub-prior usually slept in the +dormitory, with a light burning near him, in order to maintain order. The +monks slept in the same habits[80] which they wore in the day-time. + +About the middle of the south side of the court, in Cistercian houses, +there is a long room, whose longer axis lies north and south, with a +smaller room on each side of it, which was probably the Refectory. In +other houses, the refectory forms the south side of the cloister court, +lying parallel with the nave of the church. Very commonly it has a row of +pillars down the centre, to support the groined roof. It was arranged, +like all mediæval halls, with a dais at the upper end and a screen at the +lower. In place of the oriel window of mediæval halls, there was a pulpit, +which was often in the embrasure of a quasi-oriel window, in which one of +the brethren read some edifying book during meals. + +The remaining apartments of the cloister-court it is more difficult to +appropriate. In some of the great Cistercian houses whose ground-plan can +be traced--as Fountains, Salley, Netley, &c.--possibly the long apartment +which is found on the west side of the cloister was the hall of the +Hospitium, with chambers over it. Another conjecture is, that it was the +house of the lay brethren. + +In the uncertainty which at present exists on these points of monastic +arrangement, we cannot speak with any degree of certainty; but we throw +together some data on the subject in the subjoined note.[81] + +The Scriptorium is said to have been usually over the chapter-house. It +was therefore a large apartment, capable of containing many persons, and, +in fact, many persons did work together in it in a very business-like +manner at the transcription of books. For example, William, Abbot of +Herschau, in the eleventh century, as stated by his biographer: "Knowing, +what he had learned by laudable experience, that sacred reading is the +necessary food of the mind, made twelve of his monks very excellent +writers, to whom he committed the office of transcribing the holy +Scriptures, and the treatises of the Fathers. Besides these, there were an +indefinite number of other scribes, who wrought with equal diligence on +the transcription of other books. Over them was a monk well versed in all +kinds of knowledge, whose business it was to appoint some good work as a +task for each, and to correct the mistakes of those who wrote +negligently."[82] The general chapter of the Cistercian order, held in +A.D. 1134, directs that the same silence should be maintained in the +scriptorium as in the cloister. Sometimes perhaps little separate studies +of wainscot were made round this large apartment, in which the writers sat +at their desks. Sometimes this literary work was carried on in the +cloister, which, being glazed, would be a not uncomfortable place in +temperate weather, and a very comfortable place in summer, with its +coolness and quiet, and the peep through its windows on the green court +and the fountain in the centre, and the grey walls of the monastic +buildings beyond; the slow footfall of a brother going to and fro, and the +cawing of the rooks in the minster tower, would add to the dreamy charm of +such a library.[83] + +Odo, Abbot of St. Martin's, at Tournay, about 1093, "used to exult in the +number of writers the Lord had given him; for if you had gone into the +cloister you might in general have seen a dozen young monks sitting on +chairs in perfect silence, writing at tables carefully and artificially +constructed. All Jerome's commentaries on the Prophets, all the works of +St. Gregory, and everything that he could find of St. Augustine, Ambrose, +Isodore, Bede, and the Lord Anselm, then Abbot of Bec, and afterwards +Archbishop of Canterbury, he caused to be transcribed. So that you would +scarcely have found such a monastery in that part of the country, and +everybody was begging for our copies to correct their own." Sometimes +little studies of wainscot were erected in the cloisters for the monks to +study or transcribe in. At Gloucester Cathedral, at Beaulieu, and at +Melrose, for example, there are traces of the way in which the windows of +the cloisters were enclosed and turned into such studies.[84] + +[Illustration: _Monk in Scriptorium._] + +There are numerous illuminations representing monks and ecclesiastics +writing; they sit in chairs of various kinds, some faldstools, some armed +chairs, some armed backed; and they have desks and bookstands before them +of various shapes, commonly a stand with sloping desk like a Bible +lectern, not unfrequently a kind of dumb-waiter besides on which are +several books. We see also in these illuminations the forms of the pens, +knives, inkstands, &c., which were used. We will only mention two of +unusual interest. One is in a late fourteenth-century Psalter, Harl. +2,897, at p. 186, v., where St. Jude sits writing his Epistle in a +canopied chair, with a shelf across the front of the chair to serve as a +desk; a string with a weight at the end holds his parchment down, and +there is a bench beside, on which lies a book. A chair with a similar +shelf is at f. 12 of the MS. Egerton, 1,070. Our woodcut on the preceding +page is from a MS. in the Library of Soissons. We also find +representations of ecclesiastics writing in a small cell which may +represent the enclosed scriptoria--_e.g._ St. Bonaventine writing, in the +MS. Harl. 3,229; St. John painting, in the late fifteenth-century MS. Add. +15,677, f. 35. + +The Abbot's Lodging sometimes formed a portion of one of the monastic +courts, as at St. Mary, Bridlington, where it formed the western side of +the cloister-court; but more usually it was a detached house, precisely +similar to the contemporary unfortified houses of laymen of similar rank +and wealth. No particular site relative to the monastic buildings was +appropriated to it; it was erected wherever was most convenient within the +abbey enclosure. The principal rooms of an abbot's house are the Hall, the +Great Chamber, the Kitchen, Buttery, Cellars, &c., the Chambers, and the +Chapel. We must remember that the abbots of the greater houses were +powerful noblemen; the abbots of the smaller houses were equal in rank and +wealth to country gentlemen. They had a very constant succession of noble +and gentle guests, whose entertainment was such as their rank and habits +required. This involved a suitable habitation and establishment; and all +this must be borne in mind when we endeavour to picture to ourselves an +abbot's lodging. To give an idea of the magnitude of some of the abbots' +houses, we may record that the hall of the Abbot of Fountains was divided +by two rows of pillars into a centre and aisles, and that it was 170 feet +long by 70 feet wide.[85] Half a dozen noble guests, with their retinues +of knights and squires, and men-at-arms and lacqueys, and all the abbot's +men to boot, would be lost in such a hall. On the great feast-days it +might, perhaps, be comfortably filled. But even such a hall would hardly +contain the companies who were sometimes entertained, on such great days +for instance as an abbot's installation-day, when it is on record that an +abbot of one of the greater houses would give a feast to three or four +thousand people. + +Of the lodgings of the superiors of smaller houses, we may take that of +the Prior of St. Mary's, Bridlington, as an example. It is very accurately +described by King Henry's commissioners; it formed the west side of the +cloister-court; it contained a hall with an undercroft, eighteen paces +long from the screen to the dais,[86] and ten paces wide; on its north +side a great chamber, twenty paces long and nineteen wide; at the west end +of the great chamber the prior's sleeping-chamber, and over that a garret; +on the east side of the same chamber a little chamber and a closet; at the +south end of the hall the buttery and pantry, and a chamber called the +Auditor's Chamber; at the same end of the hall a fair parlour, called the +Low Summer Parlour; and over it another fair chamber; and adjoining that +three little chambers for servants; at the south end of the hall the +Prior's Kitchen, with three houses covered with lead, and adjoining it a +chamber called the South Cellarer's Chamber.[87] + +[Illustration: _A Present of Fish._] + +There were several other buildings of a monastery, which were sometimes +detached, and placed as convenience dictated. The Infirmary especially +seems to have been more commonly detached; in many cases it had its own +kitchen, and refectory, and chapel, and chambers, which sometimes were +arranged round a court, and formed a complete little separate +establishment. + +The Hospitium, or Guest-house, was sometimes detached; but more usually +it seems to have formed a portion of an outer court, westward of the +cloister-court, which court was entered from the great gates, or from one +of the outer gates of the abbey. In Cistercian houses, as we have said, +the guest-house, with its hall below and its chambers above, perhaps +occupied the west side of the cloister-court, and would therefore form the +eastern range of buildings of this outer court. At St. Mary's, +Bridlington, where the prior's lodging occupied this position, the +"lodgings and stables for strangers" were on the north side of this outer +court. The guest-houses were often of great extent and magnificence. The +Guesten-hall of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, still remains, and is a very +noble building, 150 feet long by 50 broad, of Norman date, raised on an +undercroft. The Guesten-hall of Worcester also remains, a very noble +building on an undercroft, with a fine carved timber roof, and portions of +the painting which decorated the wall behind the dais still visible.[88] +Besides the hall, the guest-house contained often a great-chamber +(answering to our modern drawing-room) and sleeping-chambers, and a +chapel, in which service was performed for guests--for in those days it +was the custom always to hear prayers before dinner and supper. + +Thus, at Durham, we are told that "a famous house of hospitality was kept +within the abbey garth, called the Guest-hall, and was situate in the west +side, towards the water. The sub-prior of the house was the master +thereof, as one appointed to give entertainment to all estates, noble, +gentle, or what other degree soever, came thither as strangers. Their +entertainment was not inferior to that of any place in England, both for +the goodness of their diet, the clean and neat furniture of their +lodgings, and generally all things necessary for travellers; and, with +this entertainment, no man was required to depart while he continued +honest and of good behaviour. This hall was a stately place, not unlike +the body of a church, supported on each side by very fine pillars, and in +the midst of the hall a long range for the fire. The chambers and lodgings +belonging to it were kept very clean and richly furnished." At St. Albans, +the Guest-house was an enormous range of rooms, with stabling for three +hundred horses. + +There is a passage in the correspondence of Coldingham Priory (published +by the Surties Society, 1841, p. 52) which gives us a graphic sketch of +the arrival of guests at a monastery:--"On St. Alban's-day, June 17 [year +not given--it was towards the end of Edward III.], two monks, with a +company of certain secular persons, came riding into the gateway of the +monastery about nine o'clock in the morning. This day happened to be +Sunday, but they were hospitably and reverently received, had lodgings +assigned them, a special mass service performed for them, and after a +refection and washing their feet, it being supposed that they were about +to pursue their journey to London the next morning, they were left at an +early hour to take repose. While the bell was summoning the rest of the +brotherhood to vespers, the monk who had been in attendance upon them (the +hospitaller) having gone with the rest to sing his chant in the choir, the +secular persons appear to have asked the two monks to take a walk with +them to look at the Castle of Durham," &c.[89] + +There could hardly have been any place in the Middle Ages which could have +presented such a constant succession of picturesque scenes as the +Hospitium of a monastery. And what a contrast must often have existed +between the Hospitium and the Cloister. Here a crowd of people of every +degree--nobles and ladies, knights and dames, traders with their wares, +minstrels with their songs and juggling tricks, monks and clerks, palmers, +friars, beggars--bustling about the court or crowding the long tables of +the hall; and, a few paces off, the dark-frocked monks, with faces buried +in their cowls, pacing the ambulatory in silent meditation, or sitting at +their meagre refection, enlivened only by the monotonous sound of the +novice's voice reading a homily from the pulpit! + +Many of the remaining buildings of the monastery were arranged around this +outer court. Ingulphus tells us that the second court of the Saxon +monastery of Croyland (about 875 A.D.) had the gate on the north, and the +almonry near it--a very usual position for it; the shops of the tailors +and shoe-makers, the hall of the novices, and the abbot's lodgings on the +east; the guest-hall and its chambers on the south; and the stable-house, +and granary, and bake-house on the west. The Gate-house was usually a +large and handsome tower, with the porter's lodge on one side of the +arched entrance; and often a strong room on the other, which served as the +prison of the manor-court of the convent; and often a handsome room over +the entrance, in which the manorial court was held. In the middle of the +court was often a stone cross, round which markets and fairs were often +held. + +In the "Vision of Piers Ploughman" an interesting description is given of +a Dominican convent of the fourteenth century. We will not trouble the +reader with the very archaic original, but will give him a paraphrase of +it. The writer says that, on approaching, he was so bewildered by their +magnitude and beauty, that for a long time he could distinguish nothing +certainly but stately buildings of stone, pillars carved and painted, and +great windows well wrought. In the quadrangle he notices the cross +standing in the centre, surrounded with tabernacle-work: he enters the +minster (church), and describes the arches carved and gilded, the wide +windows full of shields of arms and merchants' marks on stained glass, the +high tombs under canopies, with armed effigies in alabaster, and lovely +ladies lying by their sides in many gay garments. He passes into the +cloister and sees it pillared and painted, and covered with lead and paved +with tiles, and conduits of white metal pouring their water into latten +(bronze) lavatories beautifully wrought. The chapter-house he says was +wrought like a great church, carved and painted like a parliament-house. +Then he went into the fratry, and found it a hall fit for a knight and his +household, with broad boards (tables) and clean benches, and windows +wrought as in a church. Then he wandered all about-- + + "And seigh halles ful heigh, and houses ful noble, + Chambres with chymneys, and chapeles gaye, + And kychenes for an high kynge in castels to holden, + And their dortoure ydight with dores ful stronge, + Fermerye, and fraitur, with fele more houses, + And all strong stone wall, sterne opon heithe, + With gay garites and grete, and ich whole yglazed, + And other houses ynowe to herberwe the queene." + +The churches of the friars differed from those of monks. They were +frequently composed either of a nave only or a nave and two (often very +narrow) aisles, without transepts, or chapels, or towers; they were +adapted especially for preaching to large congregations--_e.g._ the Austin +Friars' Church in the City of London, lately restored; St. Andrew's Hall, +Norwich. In Viollet le Duc's "Dictionary of Architecture" is given a +bird's-eye view of the monastery of the Augustine Friars of St. Marie des +Vaux Verts, near Brussels, which is a complete example of one of these +houses.[90] + +Every monastery had a number of dependent establishments of greater or +less size: cells on its distant estates; granges on its manors; chapels in +places where the abbey tenants were at a distance from a church; and often +hermitages under its protection. A ground-plan and view of one of these +cells, the Priory of St. Jean-les-Bons-hommes, of the end of the twelfth +century, still remaining in a tolerably perfect state, is given by Viollet +le Duc (Dict Arch., i. 276, 277). It is a miniature monastery, with a +little cloistered court, surrounded by the usual buildings: an oratory on +the north side; on the east a sacristy, and chapter-house, and long range +of buildings, with dormitory over; on the south side the refectory and +kitchen; and another exterior court, with stables and offices. The +preceptory of Hospitallers at Chibburn, Northumberland, which remains +almost as the knights left it, is another example of these small rural +houses. It is engraved in Turner's "Domestic Architecture," vol. ii. p. +197. It also consists of a small court, with a chapel about forty-five +feet long, on the west side; and other buildings, which we cannot +appropriate, on the remaining sides. Of the monastic cells we have already +spoken in describing the office of prior. The one or two brethren who were +placed in a cell to manage the distant estates of the monastery would +probably be chosen rather for their qualities as prudent stewards than +for their piety. The command of money which their office gave them, and +their distance from the supervision of their ecclesiastical superiors, +brought them under temptation, and it is probably in these cells, and +among the brethren who superintended the granges, and the officials who +could leave the monastery at pleasure on the plea of convent business, +that we are to look for the irregularities of which the Middle-Age +satirists speak. The monk among Chaucer's "Canterbury Pilgrims" was prior +of a cell, for we read that-- + + "When he rode, men might his bridel here + Gingeling in a whistling sound, as clere + And eke as loud _as doth the chapelle belle, + Ther as this lord was keeper of the celle_." + +The monk on whose intrigue "The Shipman's Tale" is founded, was probably +the cellarer of his convent:-- + + "This noble monk of which I you devise, + Had of his abbot, as him list, licence; + Because he was a man of high prudence, + And eke an officer, out for to ride + To seen his granges and his bernes wide." + +[Illustration: _An Abbot travelling._] + +The abbot, too, sometimes gave license to the monks to go and see their +friends, or to pass two or three days at one or other of the manors of +the house for recreation; and sometimes he took a monk with him on his +own journeys. In a MS. romance, in the British Museum (Add. 10,293, f. +11), is a representation of a monk with his hood on, journeying on +horseback. We give here, from the St. Alban's Book (Nero, D. vii.), a +woodcut of an abbot on horseback, with a hat over his hood--"an abbot on +an ambling pad;" he is giving his benediction in return to the salute of +some passing traveller. + +Hermitages or anchorages sometimes depended on a monastery, and were not +necessarily occupied by brethren of the monastery, but by any one desirous +to embrace this mode of life whom the convent might choose. The hermit, +however, probably, usually wore the habit of the order. The monastery +often supplied the hermit with his food. In a picture in the MS. romance, +before quoted (Add. 10,292, f. 98), is a representation of a knight-errant +on horseback, conversing by the way with a clerk, who is carrying bread +and wine to a hermitage. + +The woodcut with which we conclude, from the Harleian MS., 1,527, +represents the characteristic costume of three orders of religious with +whom we have been concerned--a bishop, an abbot, and a clerk. + +[Illustration: _Bishop, Abbot, and Clerk._] + + + + +THE HERMITS AND RECLUSES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE HERMITS. + + +We have already related, in a former chapter (p. 3), that the ascetics who +abandoned the stirring world of the Ægypto-Greek cities, and resorted to +the Theban desert to lead a life of self-mortification and contemplation, +frequently associated themselves into communities, and thus gave rise to +the coenobitical orders of Christendom. But there were others who still +preferred the solitary life; and they had their imitators in every age and +country of the Christian world. We have not the same fulness of +information respecting these solitaries that we have respecting the great +orders of monks and friars; but the scattered notices which remain of +them, when brought together, form a very curious chapter in the history of +human nature, well worthy of being written out in full. The business of +the present paper, however, is not to write the whole chapter, but only to +select that page of it which relates to the English solitaries, and to +give as distinct a picture as we can of the part which the Hermits and +Recluses played on the picturesque stage of the England of the Middle +Ages. + +We have to remember, at the outset, that it was not all who bore the name +of Eremite who lived a solitary life. We have already had occasion to +mention that Innocent IV., in the middle of the thirteenth century, found +a number of small religious communities and solitaries, who were not in +any of the recognised religious orders, and observed no authorised rule; +and that he enrolled them all into a new order, with the rule of St. +Augustine, under the name of Eremiti Augustini. The new order took root, +and flourished, and gave rise to a considerable number of large +communities, very similar in every respect to the communities of friars of +the three orders previously existing. The members of these new communities +did not affect seclusion, but went about among the people, as the +Dominicans, and Franciscans, and Carmelites did. The popular tongue seems +to have divided the formal title of the new order, and to have applied the +name of _Augustine_, or, popularly, _Austin Friars_, to these new +communities of friars; while it reserved the distinctive name of +_Eremites_, or Hermits, for the religious, who, whether they lived +absolutely alone, or in little aggregations of solitaries, still professed +the old eremitical principle of seclusion from the world. These hermits +may again be subdivided into Hermits proper, and Recluses. The difference +between them was this: that the hermit, though he professed a general +seclusion from the world, yet, in fact, held communication with his +fellow-men as freely as he pleased, and might go in and out of his +hermitage as inclination prompted, or need required; the recluse was +understood to maintain a more strict abstinence from unnecessary +intercourse with others, and had entered into a formal obligation not to +go outside the doors of his hermitage. In the imperfect notices which we +have of them, it is often impossible to determine whether a particular +individual was a hermit or a recluse; but we incline to the opinion that +of the male solitaries few had taken the vows of reclusion; while the +female solitaries appear to have been all recluses. So that, practically, +the distinction almost amounts to this--that the male solitaries were +hermits, and the females recluses. + +Very much of what we have to say of the mediæval solitaries, of their +abodes, and of their domestic economy, applies both to those who had, and +to those who had not, made the further vow of reclusion. We shall, +therefore, treat first of those points which are common to them, and then +devote a further paper to those things which are peculiar to the recluses. + + * * * * * + +The popular idea of a hermit is that of a man who was either a half-crazed +enthusiast, or a misanthrope--a kind of Christian Timon--who abandoned the +abodes of men, and scooped out for himself a cave in the rocks, or built +himself a rude hut in the forest; and lived there a half-savage life, clad +in sackcloth or skins,[91] eating roots and wild fruits, and drinking of +the neighbouring spring; visited occasionally by superstitious people, who +gazed and listened in fear at the mystic ravings, or wild denunciations, +of the gaunt and haggard prophet. This ideal has probably been derived +from the traditional histories, once so popular,[92] of the early +hermit-saints; and there may have been, perhaps, always an individual or +two of whom this traditional picture was a more or less exaggerated +representation. But the ordinary English hermit of the Middle Ages was a +totally different type of man. He was a sober-minded and civilised person, +who dressed in a robe very much like the robes of the other religious +orders; lived in a comfortable little house of stone or timber; often had +estates, or a pension, for his maintenance, besides what charitable people +were pleased to leave him in their wills, or to offer in their lifetime; +he lived on bread and meat, and beer and wine, and had a chaplain to say +daily prayers for him, and a servant or two to wait upon him; his +hermitage was not always up in the lonely hills, or deep-buried in the +shady forests--very often it was by the great high roads, and sometimes in +the heart of great towns and cities. + +This summary description is so utterly opposed to all the popular notions, +that we shall take pains to fortify our assertions with sufficient proofs; +indeed, the whole subject is so little known that we shall illustrate it +freely from all the sources at our command. And first, as it is one of our +especial objects to furnish authorities for the pictorial representation +of these old hermits, we shall inquire what kind of dress they did +actually wear in place of the skins, or the sackcloth, with which the +popular imagination has clothed them. + +We should be inclined to assume _a priori_ that the hermits would wear the +habit prescribed by Papal authority for the Eremiti Augustini, which, +according to Stevens, consisted of "a white garment, and a white scapular +over it, when they are in the house; but in the choir, and when they go +abroad, they put on, over all, a sort of cowl and a large hood, both +black, the hood round before, and hanging down to the waist in a point, +being girt with a black leather thong." And in the rude woodcuts which +adorn Caxton's "Vitas Patrum," or "Lives of the Hermits," we do find some +of the religious men in a habit which looks like a gown, with the arms +coming through slits, which may be intended to represent a scapular, and +with hoods and cowls of the fashion described; while others, in the same +book, are in a loose gown, in shape more like that of a Benedictine. +Again, in Albert Durer's "St. Christopher," as engraved by Mrs. Jameson, +in her "Sacred and Legendary Art," p. 445, the hermit is represented in a +frock and scapular, with a cowl and hood. But in the majority of the +representations of hermits which we meet with in mediæval paintings and +illuminated manuscripts, the costume consists of a frock, sometimes +girded, sometimes not, and over it an ample gown, like a cloak, with a +hood; and in the cases where the colour of the robe is indicated, it is +almost always indicated by a light brown tint.[93] It is not unlikely that +there were varieties of costume among the hermits. Perhaps those who were +attached to the monasteries of monks and friars, and who seem to have been +usually admitted to the fraternity of the house,[94] may have worn the +costume of the order to which they were attached; while priest-hermits +serving chantries may have worn the usual costume of a secular priest. +Bishop Poore, who died 1237, in his "Ancren Riewle," speaks of the fashion +of the dress to be worn, at least by female recluses, as indifferent. +Bilney, speaking especially of the recluses in his day, just before the +Reformation, says, "their apparell is indifferent, so it be dissonant from +the laity." In the woodcuts, from various sources, which illustrate this +paper, the reader will see for himself how the hermits are represented by +the mediæval artists, who had them constantly under their observation, and +who at least tried their best to represent faithfully what they saw. The +best and clearest illustration which we have been able to find of the +usual costume in which the hermits are represented, we here give to the +reader. It is from the figure of St. Damasus, one of the group in the fine +picture of "St. Jerome," by Cosimo Roselli (who lived from 1439 to 1506), +now in the National Gallery. The hermit-saint wears a light-brown frock, +and scapular, with no girdle, and, over all, a cloak and hood of the same +colour, and his naked feet are protected by wooden clogs. + +[Illustration: _St. Damasus, Hermit._] + +Other illustrations of hermits may be found in the early fourteenth +century MS. Romances Additional 10,293 f. 335, and 10,294 f. 95. In the +latter case there are two hermits in one hermitage; also in Royal 16 G. +vi. Illustrations of St. Anthony, which give authorities for hermit +costume, and indications of what hermitages were, abound in the later +MSS.; for example, in King René's "Book of Hours" (Egerton 1,070), at f. +108, the hermit-saint is habited in a grey frock and black cloak with a +T-cross on the breast; he holds bell and book and staff in his hands. In +Egerton 1,149, of the middle of the fifteenth century. In Add. 15,677, of +the latter part of the fifteenth century, at f. 150, is St. Anthony in +brown frock and narrow scapulary, with a grey cloak and hood and a red +skull cap; he holds a staff and book; his hermitage, in the background, is +a building like a little chapel with a bell-cot on the gable, within a +grassy enclosure fenced with a low wattled fence. Add. 18,854, of date +1525 A.D., f. 146, represents St. Anthony in a blue-grey gown and hood, +holding bell, rosary, and staff, entering his hermitage, a little building +with a bell-cot on the gable. + +A man could not take upon himself the character of a hermit at his own +pleasure. It was a regular order of religion, into which a man could not +enter without the consent of the bishop of the diocese, and into which he +was admitted by a formal religious service. And just as bishops do not +ordain men to holy orders until they have obtained a "title," a place in +which to exercise their ministry, so bishops did not admit men to the +order of Hermits until they had obtained a hermitage in which to exercise +their vocation. + +The form of the vow made by a hermit is here given, from the Institution +Books of Norwich, lib. xiv. fo. 27a ("East Anglian," No. 9, p. 107). "I, +John Fferys, nott maridd, promyt and avowe to God, o{r} Lady Sent Mary, +and to all the seynts in heven, in the p'sence of you reverend fadre in +God, Richard bishop of Norwich, the wowe of chastite, after the rule of +sent paule the heremite. In the name of the fadre, sone, and holy gost. +JOHN FFERERE. xiij. meii, anno dni. MLVCIIIJ. in capella de Thorpe." + +We summarize the service for habiting and blessing a hermit[95] from the +pontifical of Bishop Lacy of Exeter, of the fourteenth century.[96] It +begins with several psalms; then several short prayers for the incepting +hermit, mentioning him by name.[97] Then follow two prayers for the +benediction of his vestments, apparently for different parts of his habit; +the first mentioning "hec indumenta humilitatem cordis et mundi contemptum +significancia,"--these garments signifying humility of heart, and contempt +of the world; the second blesses "hanc vestem pro conservande castitatis +signo,"--this vestment the sign of chastity. The priest then delivers the +vestments to the hermit kneeling before him, with these words, "Brother, +behold we give to thee the eremitical habit (_habitum heremiticum_), with +which we admonish thee to live henceforth chastely, soberly, and holily; +in holy watchings, in fastings, in labours, in prayers, in works of mercy, +that thou mayest have eternal life, and live for ever and ever." And he +receives them saying, "Behold, I receive them in the name of the Lord; and +promise myself so to do according to my power, the grace of God, and of +the saints, helping me." Then he puts off his secular habit, the priest +saying to him, "The Lord put off from thee the old man with his deeds;" +and while he puts on his hermit's habit, the priest says, "The Lord put on +thee the new man, which, after God, is created in righteousness and true +holiness." Then follow a collect and certain psalms, and finally the +priest sprinkles him with holy water, and blesses him. + +Men of all ranks took upon them the hermit life, and we find the popular +writers of the time sometimes distinguishing among them; one is a +"hermit-priest,"[98] another is a "gentle hermit," not in the sense of +the "gentle hermit of the dale," but meaning that he was a man of gentle +birth. The hermit in whose hermitage Sir Launcelot passed long time is +described as a "gentle hermit, which sometime was a noble knight and a +great lord of possessions, and for great goodness he hath taken him unto +wilful poverty, and hath forsaken his possessions, and his name is Sir +Baldwin of Britain, and he is a full noble surgeon, and a right good +leech." This was the type of hermit who was venerated by the popular +superstition of the day: a great and rich man who had taken to wilful +poverty, or a man who lived wild in the woods--a St. Julian, or a St. +Anthony. A poor man who turned hermit, and lived a prosaic, pious, useful +life, showing travellers the way through a forest, or over a bog, or +across a ferry, and humbly taking their alms in return, presented nothing +dramatic and striking to the popular mind; very likely, too, many men +adopted the hermit life for the sake of the idleness and the alms,[99] and +deserved the small repute they had. + +It is _àpropos_ of Sir Launcelot's hermit above-mentioned that the +romancer complains "for in those days it was not with the guise of hermits +as it now is in these days. For there were no hermits in those days, but +that they have been men of worship and prowess, and those hermits held +great households, and refreshed people that were in distress." We find the +author of "Piers Ploughman" making the same complaint. We have, as in +other cases, a little modernised his language:-- + + "But eremites that inhabit them by the highways, + And in boroughs among brewers, and beg in churches, + All that holy eremites hated and despised, + (As riches, and reverences, and rich men's alms), + These lollers,[100] latche drawers,[101] lewd eremites, + Covet on the contrary. Nor live holy as eremites, + That lived wild in woods, with bears and lions. + Some had livelihood from their lineage[102] and of no life else; + And some lived by their learning, and the labour of their hands. + Some had foreigners for friends, that their food sent; + And birds brought to some bread, whereby they lived. + All these holy eremites were of high kin, + Forsook land and lordship, and likings of the body. + But these eremites that edify by the highways + Whilome were workmen--webbers, and tailors, + And carter's knaves, and clerks without grace. + They held a hungry house. And had much want, + Long labour, and light winnings. And at last espied + That lazy fellows in friar's clothing had fat cheeks. + Forthwith left they their labour, these lewd knaves, + And clothed them in copes as they were clerks, + Or one of some order [of monks or friars], or else prophets [eremites]." + +This curious extract from "Piers Ploughman" leads us to notice the +localities in which hermitages were situated. Sometimes, no doubt, they +were in lonely and retired places among the hills, or hidden in the depths +of the forests which then covered so large a portion of the land. On the +next page is a very interesting little picture of hermit life, from a MS. +Book of Hours, executed for Richard II. (British Museum, Domitian, A. +xvii., folio 4 v.) The artist probably intended to represent the old +hermits of the Egyptian desert, Piers Ploughman's-- + + "Holy eremites, + That lived wild in woods + With bears and lions;" + +but, after the custom of mediæval art, he has introduced the scenery, +costume, and architecture of his own time. Erase the bears, which stand +for the whole tribe of outlandish beasts, and we have a very pretty bit of +English mountain scenery. The stags are characteristic enough of the +scenery of mediæval England. The hermitage on the right seems to be of the +ruder sort, made in part of wattled work. On the left we have the more +usual hermitage of stone, with its little chapel bell in a bell-cot on the +gable. The venerable old hermit, coming out of the doorway, is a +charming illustration of the typical hermit, with his venerable beard, +and his form bowed by age, leaning with one hand on his cross-staff, and +carrying his rosary in the other. The hermit in the illustration hereafter +given from the "History of Launcelot," on page 114, leans on a similar +staff; it would seem as if such a staff was a usual part of the hermit's +equipment.[103] The hermit in Albert Dürer's "St. Christopher." already +mentioned, also leans on a staff, but of rather different shape. Here is a +companion-picture, in pen and ink, from the "Morte d'Arthur:"--"Then he +departed from the cross [a stone cross which parted two ways in waste +land, under which he had been sleeping], on foot, into a wild forest. And +so by prime he came unto an high mountain, and there he found an +hermitage, and an hermit therein, which was going to mass. And then Sir +Launcelot kneeled down upon both his knees, and cried out, 'Lord, mercy!' +for his wicked works that he had done. So when mass was done, Sir +Launcelot called the hermit to him, and prayed him for charity to hear his +confession. 'With a good will,' said the good man." + +[Illustration: _Hermits and Hermitages._] + +But many of the hermitages were erected along the great highways of the +country, and especially at bridges and fords,[104] apparently with the +express view of their being serviceable to travellers. One of the +hermit-saints set up as a pattern for their imitation was St. Julian, who, +with his wife, devoted his property and life to showing hospitality to +travellers; and the hermit who is always associated in the legends and +pictures with St. Christopher, is represented as holding out his torch or +lantern to light the giant ferryman, as he transports his passengers +across the dangerous ford by which the hermitage was built. When +hostelries, where the traveller could command entertainment for hire, were +to be found only in the great towns, the religious houses were the chief +resting-places of the traveller; not only the conventual establishments, +but the country clergy also were expected to be given to hospitality.[105] +But both monasteries and country parsonages often lay at a distance of +miles of miry and intricate by-road off the highway. We must picture this +state of the country and of society to ourselves, before we can appreciate +the intentions of those who founded these hospitable establishments; we +must try to imagine ourselves travellers, getting belated in a dreary part +of the road, where it ran over a bleak wold, or dived through a dark +forest, or approached an unknown ford, before we can appreciate the +gratitude of those who suddenly caught the light from the hermit's +window, or heard the faint tinkle of his chapel bell ringing for vespers. + +Such incidents occur frequently in the romances. Here is an example:--"Sir +Launcelot rode all that day and all that night in a forest; and at the +last, he was ware of an hermitage and a chapel that stood between two +cliffs; and then he heard a little bell ring to mass, and thither he rode, +and alighted, and tied his horse to the gate, and heard mass." Again: "Sir +Gawayne rode till he came to an hermitage, and there he found the good man +saying his even-song of our Lady. And there Sir Gawayne asked harbour for +charity, and the good man granted it him gladly." + +We shall, perhaps, most outrage the popular idea of a hermit, when we +assert that hermits sometimes lived in towns. The extract from "Piers +Ploughman's Vision," already quoted, tells us of-- + + "Eremites that inhabit them + In boroughs among brewers." + +The difficulty of distinguishing between hermits proper and recluses +becomes very perplexing in this part of our subject. There is abundant +proof, which we shall have occasion to give later, that recluses, both +male and female, usually lived in towns and villages, and these recluses +are sometimes called hermits, as well as by their more usual and peculiar +name of anchorites and anchoresses. But we are inclined to the opinion, +that not all the male solitaries who lived in towns were recluses. The +author of "Piers Ploughman's Vision" speaks of the eremites who inhabited +in boroughs as if they were of the same class as those who lived by the +highways, and who ought to have lived in the wildernesses, like St. +Anthony. The theory under which it was made possible for a solitary, an +eremite, a man of the desert, to live in a town, was, that a churchyard +formed a solitary place--a desert--within the town. The curious history +which we are going to relate, seems to refer to hermits, not to recluses. +The Mayor of Sudbury, under date January 28, 1433, petitioned the Bishop +of Norwich, setting forth that the bishop had refused to admit "Richard +Appleby, of Sudbury, conversant with John Levynton, of the same town, +heremyte, to the order of Hermits, unless he was sure to be inhabited in a +solitary place where virtues might be increased, and vice exiled;" and +that therefore "we have granted hym, be the assent of all the sayd parish +and cherch reves, to be inhabited with the sayd John Levynton in his +solitary place and hermytage, whych y{t} is made at the cost of the +parysh, in the cherchyard of St. Gregory Cherche, to dwellen togedyr as +(long as) yey liven, or whiche of them longest liveth;" and thereupon the +mayor prays the bishop to admit Richard Appleby to the order. + +This curious incident of two solitaries living together has a parallel in +the romance of "King Arthur." When the bold Sir Bedivere had lost his lord +King Arthur, he rode away, and, after some adventures, came to a chapel +and an hermitage between two hills, "and he prayed the hermit that he +might abide there still with him, to live with fasting and prayers. So Sir +Bedivere abode there still with the hermit; and there Sir Bedivere put +upon him poor clothes, and served the hermit full lowly in fasting and in +prayers." And afterwards (as we have already related) Sir Launcelot "rode +all that day and all that night in a forest. And at the last he was ware +of an hermitage and a chapel that stood between two cliffs, and then he +heard a little bell ring to mass; and thither he rode, and alighted, and +tied his horse to the gate and heard mass." He had stumbled upon the +hermitage in which Sir Bedivere was living. And when Sir Bedivere had made +himself known, and had "told him his tale all whole," "Sir Launcelot's +heart almost burst for sorrow, and Sir Launcelot threw abroad his armour, +and said,--'Alas! who may trust this world?' And then he kneeled down on +his knees, and prayed the hermit for to shrive him and assoil him. And +then he besought the hermit that he might be his brother. And he put an +habit upon Sir Launcelot, and there he served God day and night with +prayers and fastings." And afterwards Sir Bors came in the same way. And +within half a year there was come Sir Galahad, Sir Galiodin, Sir +Bleoberis, Sir Villiers, Sir Clarus, and Sir Gahalatine. "So these seven +noble knights abode there still: and when they saw that Sir Launcelot had +taken him unto such perfection, they had no list to depart, but took such +an habit as he had. Thus they endured in great penance six years, and then +Sir Launcelot took the habit of priesthood, and twelve months he sung the +mass; and there was none of these other knights but that they read in +books, and helped for to sing mass, and ring bells, and did lowly all +manner of service. And so their horses went where they would, for they +took no regard in worldly riches." And after a little time Sir Launcelot +died at the hermitage: "then was there weeping and wringing of hands, and +the greatest dole they made that ever made man. And on the morrow the +bishop-hermit sung his mass of requiem." The accompanying wood-cut, from +one of the small compartments at the bottom of Cosimo Roselli's picture of +St. Jerome, from which we have already taken the figure of St. Damasus, +may serve to illustrate this incident. It represents a number of hermits +mourning over one of their brethren, while a priest in the robes proper to +his office, stands at the head of the bier and says prayers, and his +deacon stands at the foot, holding a processional cross. The contrast +between the robes of the priest and those of the hermits is lost in the +woodcut; in the original the priest's cope and amys are coloured red, +while those of the hermits are tinted with light brown. + +[Illustration: _Funeral Service of a Hermit._] + +If the reader has wondered how the one hermitage could accommodate these +seven additional habitants, the romancer does not forget to satisfy his +curiosity: a few pages farther we read--"So at the season of the night +they went all to their beds, for they all lay in one chamber." It was not +very unusual for hermitages to be built for more than one occupant; but +probably, in all such cases, each hermit had his own cell, adjoining their +common chapel. This was the original arrangement of the hermits of the +Thebais in their laura. The great difference between a hermitage with more +than one hermit, and a small cell of one of the other religious orders, +was that in such a cell one monk or friar would have been the prior, and +the others subject to him; but each hermit was independent of any +authority on the part of the other; he was subject only to the obligation +of his rule, and the visitation of his bishop. + +The life[106] of the famous hermit, Richard of Hampole, which has lately +been published for the first time by the Early English Text Society, will +enable us to realise in some detail the character and life of a mediæval +hermit of the highest type. Saint Richard was born[107] in the village of +Thornton, in Yorkshire. At a suitable age he was sent to school by the +care of his parents, and afterwards was sent by Richard Neville, +Archdeacon of Durham, to Oxford, where he gave himself specially to +theological study. At the age of nineteen, considering the uncertainty of +life and the awfulness of judgment, especially to those who waste life in +pleasure or spend it in acquiring wealth, and fearing lest he should fall +into such courses, he left Oxford and returned to his father's house. One +day he asked of his sister two of her gowns (tunicas), one white, the +other grey, and a cloak and hood of his father's. He cut up the two gowns, +and fashioned out of them and of the hooded cloak an imitation of a +hermit's habit, and next day he went off into a neighbouring wood bent +upon living a hermit life. Soon after, on the vigil of the Assumption of +the Blessed Virgin, he went to a certain church, and knelt down to pray in +the place which the wife of a certain worthy knight, John de Dalton, was +accustomed to occupy. When the lady came to church, her servants would +have turned out the intruder, but she would not permit it. When vespers +were over and he rose from his knees, the sons of Sir John, who were +students at Oxford, recognised him as the son of William Rolle, whom they +had known at Oxford. Next day Richard again went to the same church, and +without any bidding put on a surplice and sang mattins and the office of +the mass with the rest. And when the gospel was to be read at mass, he +sought the blessing of the priest, and then entered the pulpit and +preached a sermon to the people of such wonderful edification that many +were touched with compunction even to tears, and all said they had never +heard before a sermon of such power and efficacy. After mass Sir John +Dalton invited him to dinner. When he entered into the manor he took his +place in a ruined building, and would not enter the hall, according to the +evangelical precept, "When thou art bidden to a wedding sit down in the +lowest room, and when he that hath bidden thee shall see it he will say to +thee, Friend, go up higher;" which was fulfilled in him, for the knight +made him sit at table with his own sons. But he kept such silence at +dinner that he did not speak one word; and when he had eaten sufficiently +he rose before they took away the table and would have departed, but the +knight told him this was contrary to custom, and made him sit down again. +After dinner the knight had some private conversation with him, and being +satisfied that he was not a madman, but really seemed to have the vocation +to a hermit's life, he clothed him at his own cost in a hermit's habit, +and retained him a long time in his own house, giving him a solitary +chamber (_locum mansionis solitariæ_)[108] and providing him with all +necessaries. Our hermit then gave himself up to ascetic discipline and a +contemplative life. He wrote books; he counselled those who came to him. +He did both at the same time; for one afternoon the lady of the house +came to him with many other persons and found him writing very rapidly, +and begged him to stop writing and speak some words of edification to +them; and he began at once and continued to address them for two hours +with admirable exhortations to cultivate virtue and to put away worldly +vanities, and to increase the love of their hearts for God; but at the +same time he went on writing as fast as before. He used to be so absorbed +in prayer that his friends took off his torn cloak, and when it had been +mended put it on him again, without his knowing it. Soon we hear of his +having temptations like those which assailed St. Anthony, the devil +tempting him in the form of a beautiful woman. He was specially desirous +to help recluses and those who required spiritual consolation, and who +were vexed by evil spirits. + +At length Lady Dalton died, and (whether as a result of this is not +stated) the hermit left his cell and began to move from place to place. +One time he came near the cell of Dame Margaret, the recluse of Anderby in +Richmondshire, and was told that she was dumb and suffering from some +strange disease, and went to her. And he sat down at the window of the +house of the recluse,[109] and when they had eaten, the recluse felt a +desire to sleep; and being oppressed with sleep her head fell towards the +window at which St. Richard was reclined. And when she had slept a little, +leaning somewhat on Richard, suddenly she was seized with a convulsion, +and awoke with her power of speech restored. + +He wrote many works of ascetic and mystical divinity which were greatly +esteemed. The Early English Text Society has published some specimens in +the work from which these notices are gathered, which show that his +reputation as a devotional writer was not undeserved. At length he settled +at Hampole, where was a Cistercian nunnery. Here he died, and in the +church of the nunnery he was buried. We are indebted for the Officium and +Legenda from which we have gathered this outline of his life to the pious +care of the nuns of Hampole, to whom the fame of Richard's sanctity was a +source of great profit and honour. That he had a line of successors in +his anchorage is indicated by the fact hereafter stated (p. 128), that in +1415 A.D., Lord Scrope left by will a bequest to Elizabeth, late servant +to the anchoret of Hampole. + +[Illustration: _Sir Launcelot and a Hermit._] + +There are indications that these hermitages were sometimes mere bothies of +branches; there is a representation of one, from which we here give a +woodcut, in an illuminated MS. romance of Sir Launcelot, of early +fourteenth-century date (British Museum, Add. 10,293, folio 118 v., date +1316): we have already noticed another of wattled work.[110] There are +also caves[111] here and there in the country which are said by tradition +to have been hermitages: one is described in the _Archæological Journal_, +vol. iv., p. 150. It is a small cave, not easy of access, in the side of a +hill called Carcliff Tor, near Rowsley, a little miserable village not far +from Haddon Hall. In a recess, on the right side as you enter the cave, is +a crucifix about four feet high, sculptured in bold relief in the red grit +rock out of which the cave is hollowed; and close to it, on the right, is +a rude niche, perhaps to hold a lamp. + +St. Robert's Chapel, at Knaresborough, Yorkshire, is a very excellent +example of a hermitage.[112] It is hewn out of the rock, at the bottom of +a cliff, in the corner of a sequestered dell. The exterior, a view of +which is given below, presents us with a simply arched doorway at the +bottom of the rough cliff, with an arched window on the left, and a little +square opening between, which looks like the little square window of a +recluse. Internally we find the cell sculptured into the fashion of a +little chapel, with a groined ceiling, the groining shafts and ribs well +enough designed, but rather rudely executed. There is a semi-octagonal +apsidal recess at the east end, in which the altar stands; a piscina and a +credence and stone seat in the north wall; a row of sculptured heads in +the south wall, and a grave-stone in the middle of the floor. This chapel +appears to have been also the hermit's living room. The view of the +exterior, and of the interior and ground-plan, are from Carter's "Ancient +Architecture," pl. lxvii. Another hermitage, whose chapel is very similar +to this, is at Warkworth. It is half-way up the cliff, on one side of a +deep, romantic valley, through which runs the river Coquet, overhung with +woods. The chapel is hewn out of the rock, 18 feet long by 7-1/2 wide, +with a little entrance-porch on the south, also hewn in the rock; and, on +the farther side, a long, narrow apartment, with a small altar at the east +end, and a window looking upon the chapel altar. This long apartment was +probably the hermit's living room; but when the Earls of Northumberland +endowed the hermitage for a chantry priest, the priest seems to have lived +in a small house, with a garden attached, at the foot of the cliff. The +chapel is groined, and has Gothic windows, very like that of +Knaresborough. A minute description of this hermitage, and of the legend +connected with it, is given in a poem called "The History of Warkworth" +(4to, 1775), and in a letter in Grose's "Antiquities," vol. iii., is a +ground-plan of the chapel and its appurtenances. A view of the exterior, +showing its picturesque situation, will be found in Herne's "Antiquities +of Great Britain," pl. 9. + +[Illustration: _Exterior View of St. Robert's Chapel, Knaresborough._] + +[Illustration: _Interior View of St. Robert's Chapel._] + +There is a little cell, or oratory, called the hermitage, cut out of the +face of a rock near Dale Abbey, Derbyshire. On the south side are the door +and three windows; at the east end, an altar standing upon a raised +platform, both cut out of the rock; there are little niches in the walls, +and a stone seat all round.[113] + +There is another hermitage of three cells at Wetheral, near Carlisle, +called Wetheral Safeguard, or St. Constantine's Cells--Wetheral Priory was +dedicated to St. Constantine, and this hermitage seems to have belonged to +the priory. It is not far from Wetheral Priory, in the face of a rock +standing 100 feet perpendicularly out of the river Eden, which washes its +base; the hill rising several hundred feet higher still above this rocky +escarpment. The hermitage is at a height of 40 feet from the river, and +can only be approached from above by a narrow and difficult path down the +face of the precipice. It consists of three square cells, close together, +about 10 feet square and 8 feet high; each with a short passage leading to +it, which increases its total length to about 20 feet. These passages +communicate with a little platform of rock in front of the cells. At a +lower level than this platform, by about 7 feet, there is a narrow gallery +built up of masonry; the door to the hermitage is at one end of it, so +that access to the cells can only be obtained by means of a ladder from +this gallery to the platform of rock 7 feet above it. In the front of the +gallery are three windows, opposite to the three cells, to give them +light, and one chimney. An engraving will be found in Hutchinson's +"History of Cumberland," vol. i. p. 160, which shows the picturesque +scene--the rocky hill-side, with the river washing round its base, and the +three windows of the hermitage, half-way up, peeping through the foliage; +there is also a careful plan of the cells in the letterpress. + +[Illustration: _Ground-Plan of St. Robert's Chapel._] + +A chapel, and a range of rooms--which communicate with one another, and +form a tolerably commodious house of two floors, are excavated out of a +rocky hill-side, called Blackstone Rock, which forms the bank of the +Severn, near Bewdley, Worcestershire. A view of the exterior of the rock, +and a plan and section of the chambers, are given both in Stukeley's +"Itinerarium Curiosum," pls. 13 and 14, and in Nash's "History of +Worcestershire," vol. ii. p. 48. + +[Illustration] + +At Lenton, near Nottingham, there is a chapel and a range of cells +excavated out of the face of a semicircular sweep of rock, which crops out +on the bank of the river Leen. The river winds round the other semicircle, +leaving a space of greensward between the rock and the river, upon which +the cells open. Now, the whole place is enclosed, and used as a public +garden and bowling-green, its original features being, however, preserved +with a praiseworthy appreciation of their interest. In former days this +hermitage was just within the verge of the park of the royal castle of +Nottingham; it was doubtless screened by the trees of the park; and its +inmates might pace to and fro on their secluded grass-plot, fenced in by +the rock and the river from every intruding foot, and yet in full view of +the walls and towers of the castle, with the royal banner waving from its +keep, and catch a glimpse of the populous borough, and see the parties of +knights and ladies prance over the level meadows which stretched out to +the neighbouring Trent like a green carpet, embroidered in spring and +autumn by the purple crocus, which grows wild there in myriads. Stukeley, +in his "Itinerarium Curiosum," pl. 39, gives a view and ground-plan of +these curious cells. Carter also figures them in his "Ancient +Architecture," pl. 12, and gives details of a Norman shaft and arch in the +chapel. + +But nearly all the hermitages which we read of in the romances, or see +depicted in the illuminations and paintings, or find noticed in ancient +historical documents, are substantial buildings of stone or timber. Here +is one from folio 56 of the "History of Launcelot" (Add. 10,293): the +hermit stands at the door of his house, giving his parting benediction to +Sir Launcelot, who, with his attendant physician, is taking his leave +after a night's sojourn at the hermitage. In the paintings of the Campo +Santo, at Pisa (engraved in Mrs. Jameson's "Sacred and Legendary Art"), +which represent the hermits of the Egyptian desert, some of the hermitages +are caves, some are little houses of stone. In Caxton's "Vitas Patrum" the +hermitages are little houses; one has a stepped gable; another is like a +gateway, with a room over it.[114] They were founded and built, and often +endowed, by the same men who founded chantries, and built churches, and +endowed monasteries; and from the same motives of piety, charity, or +superstition. And the founders seem often to have retained the patronage +of the hermitages, as of valuable benefices, in their own hands.[115] A +hermitage was, in fact, a miniature monastery, inhabited by one +religious, who was abbot, and prior, and convent, all in one: sometimes +also by a chaplain,[116] where the hermit was not a priest, and by several +lay brethren, _i.e._ servants. It had a chapel of its own, in which divine +service was performed daily. It had also the apartments necessary for the +accommodation of the hermit, and his chaplain--when one lived in the +hermitage--and his servants, and the necessary accommodation for +travellers besides; and it had often, perhaps generally, its court-yard +and garden. + +The chapel of the hermitage seems not to have been appropriated solely to +the performance of divine offices, but to have been made useful for other +more secular purposes also. Indeed, the churches and chapels in the Middle +Ages seem often to have been used for great occasions of a semi-religious +character, when a large apartment was requisite, _e.g._ for holding +councils, for judicial proceedings, and the like. Godric of Finchale, a +hermit who lived about the time of Henry II.,[117] had two chapels +adjoining his cell; one he called by the name of St. John Baptist, the +other after the Blessed Virgin. He had a kind of common room, "communis +domus," in which he cooked his food and saw visitors; but he lived +chiefly, day and night, in the chapel of St. John, removing his bed to the +chapel of St. Mary at times of more solemn devotion. + +In an illumination on folio 153 of the "History of Launcelot," already +quoted (British Mus., Add. 10,293), is a picture of King Arthur taking +counsel with a hermit in his hermitage. The building in which they are +seated has a nave and aisles, a rose-window in its gable, and a +bell-turret, and seems intended to represent the chapel of the hermitage. +Again, at folio 107 of the same MS. is a picture of a hermit talking to a +man, with the title,--"Ensi y come une hermites prole en une chapele de +son hermitage,"--"How a hermit conversed in the chapel of his hermitage." +It may, perhaps, have been in the chapel that the hermit received those +who sought his counsel on spiritual or on secular affairs. + +In addition to the references which have already been given to +illustrations of the subject in the illuminations of MSS., we call the +special attention of the student to a series of pictures illustrating a +mediæval story of which a hermit is the hero, in the late thirteenth +century MS. Royal 10 E IV.; it begins at folio 113 v., and runs on for +many pages, and is full of interesting passages. + +We also add a few lines from Lydgate's unpublished "Life of St Edmund," as +a typical picture of a hermit, drawn in the second quarter of the +fifteenth century:-- + + "--holy Ffremund though he were yonge of age, + And ther he bilte a litel hermitage + Be side a ryver with al his besy peyne, + He and his fellawis that were in nombre tweyne. + + "A litel chapel he dide ther edifie, + Day be day to make in his praiere, + In the reverence only off Marie + And in the worshipe of her Sone deere, + And the space fully off sevene yeere + Hooly Ffremund, lik as it is founde, + Leved be frut and rootes off the grounde. + + "Off frutes wilde, his story doth us telle, + Was his repast penance for t' endure, + To stanch his thurst drank water off the welle + And eet acorns to sustene his nature, + Kernelles off notis [nuts] when he myhte hem recure. + To God alway doying reverence, + What ever he sent took it in patience." + +And in concluding this chapter let us call to mind Spenser's description +of a typical hermit and hermitage, while the originals still lingered in +the living memory of the people:-- + + "At length they chaunst to meet upon the way + An aged sire, in long blacke weedes yclad, + His feet all bare, his head all hoarie gray, + And by his belt his booke he hanging had; + Sober he seemde, and very sagely sad, + And to the ground his eyes were lowly bent, + Simple in shew, and voide of malice bad; + And all the way he prayed as he went, + And often knockt his brest as one that did repent. + + "He faire the knight saluted, louting low, + Who faire him quited, as that courteous was; + And after asked him if he did know + Of strange adventures which abroad did pas. + 'Ah! my dear sonne,' quoth he, 'how should, alas! + Silly[118] old man, that lives in hidden cell, + Bidding his beades all day for his trespas, + Tidings of war and worldly trouble tell? + With holy father sits not with such things to mell.'[119] + + * * * * * + + Quoth then that aged man, 'The way to win + Is wisely to advise. Now day is spent, + Therefore with me ye may take up your in + For this same night.' The knight was well content; + So with that godly father to his home he went. + + "A little lowly hermitage it was, + Down in a dale, hard by a forest's side, + Far from resort of people that did pass + In traveill to and froe; a little wyde + There was an holy chappell edifyde, + Wherein the hermite dewly wont to say + His holy things, each morne and eventyde; + Hereby a chrystall streame did gently play, + Which from a sacred fountaine welled forth alway. + + "Arrived there, the little house they fill; + Ne look for entertainment where none was; + Rest is their feast, and all things at their will: + The noblest mind the best contentment has. + With fair discourse the evening so they pas; + For that old man of pleasing words had store, + And well could file his tongue as smooth as glas; + He told of saintes and popes, and evermore + He strowd an Ave-Mary after and before."[120] + _Faery Queen_, i. 1, 29, 33, 34, 35. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +ANCHORESSES, OR FEMALE RECLUSES. + + +And now we proceed to speak more particularly of the recluses. The old +legend tells us that John the Hermit, the contemporary of St. Anthony, +would hold communication with no man except through the window of his +cell.[121] But the recluses of more modern days were not content to quote +John the Egyptian as their founder. As the Carmelite friars claimed +Elijah, so the recluses, at least the female recluses, looked up to Judith +as the foundress of their mode of life, and patroness of their order. + +Mabillon tells us that the first who made any formal rule for recluses was +one Grimlac, who lived about 900 A.D. The principal regulations of his +rule are, that the candidate for reclusion, if a monk, should signify his +intention a year beforehand, and during the interval should continue to +live among his brethren. If not already a monk, the period of probation +was doubled. The leave of the bishop of the diocese was to be first +obtained, and if the candidate were a monk, the leave of his abbot and +convent also. When he had entered his cell, the bishop was to put his seal +upon the door, which was never again to be opened,[122] unless for the +help of the recluse in time of sickness or on the approach of death. +Successive councils published canons to regulate this kind of life. That +of Millo, in 692, repeats in substance the rule of Grimlac. That of +Frankfort, in 787, refers to the recluses. The synod of Richard de la +Wich, Bishop of Chichester, A.D. 1246, makes some canons concerning them: +"Also we ordain to recluses that they shall not receive or keep any person +in their houses concerning whom any sinister suspicion might arise. Also +that they have narrow and proper windows; and we permit them to have +secret communication with those persons only whose gravity and honesty do +not admit of suspicion."[123] + +Towards the end of the twelfth century a rule for anchorites was written +by Bishop Richard Poore[124] of Chichester, and afterwards of Salisbury, +who died A.D. 1237, which throws abundant light upon their mode of life; +for it is not merely a brief code of the regulations obligatory upon them, +but it is a book of paternal counsels, which enters at great length, and +in minute detail, into the circumstances of the recluse life, and will be +of great use to us in the subsequent part of this chapter. + +There were doubtless different degrees of austerity among the recluses; +but, on the whole, we must banish from our minds the popular[125] idea +that they inhabited a living grave, and lived a life of the extremest +mortification. Doubtless there were instances in which religious +enthusiasm led the recluse into frightful and inhuman self-torture, like +that of Thaysis, in the "Golden Legend:" "She went to the place whiche th' +abbot had assygned to her, and there was a monasterye of vyrgyns; and +there he closed her in a celle, and sealed the door with led. And the +celle was lytyll and strayte, and but one lytell wyndowe open, by whyche +was mynistred to her poor lyvinge; for the abbot commanded that they shold +gyve to her a lytell brede and water."[126] Thaysis submitted to it at the +command of Abbot Pafnucius, as penance for a sinful life, in the early +days of Egyptian austerity; and now and then throughout the subsequent +ages the self-hatred of an earnest, impassioned nature, suddenly roused to +a feeling of exceeding sinfulness; the remorse of a wild, strong spirit, +conscious of great crimes; or the enthusiasm of a weak mind and morbid +conscience, might urge men and women to such self-revenges, to such +penances, as these. Bishop Poore gives us episodically a pathetic example, +which our readers will thank us for repeating here. "Nothing is ever so +hard that love doth not make tender, and soft, and sweet. Love maketh all +things easy. What do men and women endure for false love, and would endure +more! And what is more to be wondered at is, that love which is faithful +and true, and sweeter than any other love, doth not overmaster us as doth +sinful love! Yet I know a man who weareth at the same time both a heavy +cuirass[127] and haircloth, bound with iron round the middle too, and his +arms with broad and thick bands, so that to bear the sweat of it is severe +suffering. He fasteth, he watcheth, he laboureth, and, Christ knoweth, he +complaineth, and saith that it doth not oppress him; and often asks me to +teach him something wherewith he might give his body pain. God knoweth +that he, the most sorrowful of men, weepeth to me, and saith that God hath +quite forgotten him, because He sendeth him no great sickness; whatever is +bitter seems sweet to him for our Lord's sake. God knoweth love doth this, +because, as he often saith to me, he could never love God the less for any +evil thing that He might do to him, even were He to cast him into hell +with those that perish. And if any believe any such thing of him, he is +more confounded than a thief taken with his theft. I know also a woman of +like mind that suffereth little less. And what remaineth but to thank God +for the strength that He giveth them; and let us humbly acknowledge our +own weakness, and love their merit, and thus it becomes our own. For as +St. Gregory says, love is of so great power that it maketh the merit of +others our own, without labour." But though powerful motives and great +force of character might enable an individual here and there to persevere +with such austerities, when the severities of the recluse life had to be +reduced to rule and system, and when a succession of occupants had to be +found for the vacant anchorholds, ordinary human nature revolted from +these unnatural austerities, and the common sense of mankind easily +granted a tacit dispensation from them; and the recluse life was speedily +toned down in practice to a life which a religiously-minded person, +especially one who had been wounded and worsted in the battle of life, +might gladly embrace and easily endure. + +Usually, even where the cell consisted of a single room, it was large +enough for the comfortable abode of a single inmate, and it was not +destitute of such furnishing as comfort required. But it was not unusual +for the cell to be in fact a house of several apartments, with a garden +attached: and it would seem that the technical "cell" within which the +recluse was immured, included house and garden, and everything within the +boundary wall.[128] It is true that many of the recluses lived entirely, +and perhaps all partly, upon the alms of pious and charitable people. An +alms-box was hung up to receive contributions, as appears from "Piers +Ploughman,"-- + + "In ancres there a box hangeth." + +And in the extracts hereafter given from the "Ancren Riewle," we shall +find several allusions to the giving of alms to recluses as a usual +custom. But it was the bishop's duty, before giving license for the +building of a reclusorium, to satisfy himself that there would be, either +from alms or from an endowment, a sufficient maintenance for the recluse. +Practically, they do not seem often to have been in want; they were +restricted as to the times when they might eat flesh-meat, but otherwise +their abstemiousness depended upon their own religious feeling on the +subject; and the only check upon excess was in their own moderation. They +occupied themselves, besides their frequent devotions, in reading, +writing, illuminating, and needlework; and though the recluses attached to +some monasteries seem to have been under an obligation of silence, yet in +the usual case the recluse held a perpetual levee at the open window, and +gossiping and scandal appear to have been among her besetting sins. It +will be our business to verify and further to illustrate this general +sketch of the recluse life. + +[Illustration: _Sir Percival at the Reclusorium._] + +And, first, let us speak more in detail of their habitations. The +reclusorium, or anchorhold, seems sometimes to have been, like the +hermitage, a house of timber or stone, or a grotto in a solitary place. In +Sir T. Mallory's "Prince Arthur" we are introduced to one of these, which +afforded all the appliances for lodging and entertaining even male guests. +We read:--"Sir Percival returned again unto the recluse, where he deemed +to have tidings of that knight which Sir Launcelot followed. And so he +kneeled at her window, and anon the recluse opened it, and asked Sir +Percival what he would. 'Madam,' said he, 'I am a knight of King Arthur's +court, and my name is Sir Percival de Galis.' So when the recluse heard +his name, she made passing great joy of him, for greatly she loved him +before all other knights of the world; and so of right she ought to do, +for she was his aunt. And then she commanded that the gates should be +opened to him, and then Sir Percival had all the cheer that she might make +him, and all that was in her power was at his commandment." But it does +not seem that she entertained him in person; for the story continues that +"on the morrow Sir Percival went unto the recluse," _i.e._, to her little +audience-window, to propound his question, "if she knew that knight with +the white shield." Opposite is a woodcut of a picture in the MS. "History +of Sir Launcelot" (Royal 14, E. III. folio 101 v.), entitled, "Ensi q +Percheva retourna à la rencluse qui estait en son hermitage."[129] + +In the case of these large remote anchorholds, the recluse must have had a +chaplain to come and say mass for her every day in the chapel of her +hermitage.[130] But in the vast majority of cases, anchorholds were +attached to a church either of a religious house, or of a town, or of a +village; and in these situations they appear to have been much more +numerous than is at all suspected by those who have not inquired into this +little-known portion of our mediæval antiquities. Very many of our village +churches had a recluse living within or beside them, and it will, perhaps, +especially surprise the majority of our readers to learn that these +recluses were specially numerous in the mediæval towns.[131] The proofs of +this fact are abundant; here are some. Henry, Lord Scrope, of Masham, by +will, dated 23rd June, 1415, bequeathed to every anchoret[132] and recluse +dwelling in London or its suburbs 6_s._ 8_d._; also to every anchoret and +recluse dwelling in York and its suburbs 6_s._ 8_d._ From other sources we +learn more about these York anchorets and recluses. The will of Adam +Wigan, rector of St. Saviour, York (April 20, 1433, A.D.)[133], leaves +3_s._ 4_d._ to Dan John, who dwelt in the Chapel of St. Martin, within the +parish of St. Saviour. The female recluses of York were three in number in +the year 1433, as we learn from the will of Margaret, relict of Nicholas +Blackburne:[134] "Lego tribus reclusis Ebor.," ij_s._ Where their cells +were situated we learn from the will of Richard Rupell (A.D. 1435[135]), +who bequeaths to the recluse in the cemetery of the Church of St. +Margaret, York, five marks; and to the recluse in the cemetery of St. +Helen, in Fishergate, five marks; and to the recluse in the cemetery of +All Saints, in North Street, York, five marks. They are also all three +mentioned in the will of Adam Wigan, who leaves to the anchorite enclosed +in Fishergate 2_s._; to her enclosed near the church of St. Margaret +2_s._; to her enclosed in North Street, near the Church of All Saints, +2_s._ The will of Lady Margaret Stapelton, 1465 A.D.,[136] mentions +anchorites in Watergate and Fishergate, in the suburbs of York, and in +another place the anchorite of the nunnery of St. Clement, York. At +Lincoln, also, we are able to trace a similar succession of anchoresses. +In 1383 A.D., William de Belay, of Lincoln, left to an anchoress named +Isabella, who dwelt in the Church of the Holy Trinity, in Wigford, within +the city of Lincoln, 13_s._ 4_d._ In 1391, John de Sutton left her 20_s._; +in 1374, John de Ramsay left her 12_d._ Besides these she had numerous +other legacies from citizens. In 1453, an anchoress named Matilda supplied +the place of Isabella, who we may suppose had long since gone to her +reward. In that year John Tilney--one of the Tilneys of Boston--left +"Domine Matilde incluse infra ecclesiam sanctæ Trinitatis ad gressus in +civitate Lincoln, vj_s._ viij_d._" In 1502, Master John Watson, a chaplain +in Master Robert Flemyng's chantry, left xij_d._ to the "ankers" at the +Greese foot. This Church of the Holy Trinity "ad gressus" seems to have +been for a long period the abode of a female recluse.[137] The will of +Roger Eston, rector of Richmond, Yorkshire, A.D. 1446, also mentions the +recluses in the city of York and its suburbs. The will of Adam Wilson +also mentions Lady Agnes, enclosed at (_apud_) the parish church of +Thorganby, and anchorites (female) at Beston and Pontefract. Sir Hugh +Willoughby, of Wollaton, in 1463 bequeathed 6_s._ 5_d._ to the anchoress +of Nottingham.[138] The will of Lady Joan Wombewell, A.D. 1454,[139] also +mentions the anchoress of Beyston. The will of John Brompton, of Beverley, +A.D. 1444,[140] bequeaths 3_s._ 4_d._ to the recluse by the Church of St. +Giles, and 1_s._ 6_d._ to anchorite at the friary of St. Nicholas of +Beverley. Roger Eston also leaves a bequest to the anchorite of his parish +of Richmond, respecting whom the editor gives a note whose substance is +given elsewhere. In a will of the fifteenth century[141] we have a bequest +"to the ancher in the wall beside Bishopsgate, London."[142] In the will +of St. Richard, Bishop of Chichester,[143] we have bequests to Friar +Humphrey, the recluse of Pageham, to the recluse of Hogton, to the recluse +of Stopeham, to the recluse of Herringham; and in the will of Walter de +Suffield, Bishop of Norwich, bequests to "anchers" and recluses in his +diocese, and especially to his niece Ela, _in reclusorio_ at +Massingham.[144] + +Among the other notices which we have of solitaries living in towns, +Lydgate mentions one in the town of Wakefield. Morant says there was one +in Holy Trinity churchyard, Colchester. The episcopal registers of +Lichfield show that there was an anchorage for several female recluses in +the churchyard of St. George's Chapel, Shrewsbury. The will of Henry, Lord +Scrope, already quoted, leaves 100_s._ and the pair of beads which the +testator was accustomed to use to the anchorite of Westminster: it was his +predecessor, doubtless, who is mentioned in the time of Richard II.: when +the young king was going to meet Wat Tyler in Smithfield, he went to +Westminster Abbey, "then to the church, and so to the high altar, where he +devoutedly prayed and offered; after which he spake with the anchore, to +whom he confessed himself."[145] Lord Scrope's will goes on to bequeath +40_s._ to Robert, the recluse of Beverley; 13_s._ 4_d._ each to the +anchorets of Stafford, of Kurkebeck, of Wath, of Peasholme, near York, of +Kirby, Thorganby, near Colingworth, of Leek, near Upsale, of Gainsburgh, +of Kneesall, near South Well, of Dartford, of Stamford, living in the +parish church there; to Thomas, the chaplain dwelling continually in the +church of St. Nicholas, Gloucester; to Elizabeth, late servant to the +anchoret of Hamphole; and to the recluse in the house of the Dominicans at +Newcastle; and also 6_s._ 8_d._ to every other anchorite and anchoritess +that could be easily found within three months of his decease. + +We have already had occasion to mention that there were several female +recluses, in addition to the male solitaries, in the churchyards of the +then great city of Norwich. The particulars which that laborious +antiquary, Blomfield, has collected together respecting several of them +will throw a little additional light upon our subject, and fill up still +further the outlines of the picture which we are engaged in painting. + +There was a hermitage in the churchyard of St. Julian, Norwich, which was +inhabited by a succession of anchoresses, some of whose names Blomfield +records:--Dame Agnes, in 1472; Dame Elizabeth Scot, in 1481; Lady +Elizabeth, in 1510; Dame Agnes Edrigge, in 1524. The Lady Julian, who was +the anchoress in 1393, is said to have had two servants to attend her in +her old age. "She was esteemed of great holiness. Mr. Francis Peck had a +vellum MS. containing an account of her visions." Blomfield says that the +foundations of the anchorage might still be seen in his time, on the east +side of St. Julian's churchyard. There was also an anchorage in St. +Ethelred's churchyard, which was rebuilt in 1305, and an anchor +continually dwelt there till the Reformation, when it was pulled down, and +the grange, or tithe-barn, at Brakendale was built with its timber; so +that it must have been a timber house of some magnitude. Also in St. +Edward's churchyard, joining to the church on the north side, was a cell, +whose ruins were still visible in Blomfield's time, and most persons who +died in Norwich left small sums towards its maintenance. In 1428 Lady +Joan was anchoress here, to whom Walter Ledman left 20_s._, and 40_d._ to +each of her servants. In 1458, Dame Anneys Kite was the recluse here; in +1516, Margaret Norman, widow, was buried here, and gave a legacy to the +lady anchoress by the church. St. John the Evangelist's Church, in +Southgate, was, about A.D. 1300, annexed to the parish of St. Peter per +Montergate, and the Grey Friars bought the site; they pulled down the +whole building, except a small part left for an anchorage, in which they +placed an anchor, to whom they assigned part of the churchyard for his +garden. Also there used anciently to be a recluse dwelling in a little +cell joining to the north side of the tower of St. John the Baptist's +Church, Timber Hill, but it was down before the Dissolution. Also there +was an anchor, or hermit, who had an anchorage in or adjoining to All +Saints' Church. Also in Henry III.'s time a recluse dwelt in the +churchyard of St. John the Baptist, and the Holy Sepulchre, in Ber Street. +In the monastery of the Carmelites, or White Friars, at Norwich, there +were two anchorages--one for a man, who was admitted brother of the house, +and another for a woman, who was admitted sister thereof. The latter was +under the chapel of the Holy Cross, which was still standing in +Blomfield's time, though converted into dwelling-houses. The former stood +by St. Martin's Bridge, on the east side of the street, and had a small +garden to it, which ran down to the river. In 1442, December 2nd, the Lady +Emma, recluse, or anchoress, and religious sister of the Carmelite order, +was buried in their church. In 1443, Thomas Scroope was anchorite in this +house. In 1465, Brother John Castleacre, a priest, was anchorite. In 1494 +there were legacies given to the anchor of the White Friars. This Thomas +Scroope was originally a Benedictine monk; in 1430 he became anchorite +here (being received a brother of the Carmelite order), and led an +anchorite's life for many years, seldom going out of his cell but when he +preached; about 1446 Pope Eugenius made him Bishop of Down, which see he +afterwards resigned, and came again to his convent, and became suffragan +to the Bishop of Norwich. He died, and was buried at Lowestoft, being near +a hundred years old. + +The document which we are about to quote from Whittaker's "History of +Whalley" (pp. 72 and 77), illustrates many points in the history of their +anchorholds. The anchorage therein mentioned was built in a parish +churchyard, it depended upon a monastery, and was endowed with an +allowance in money and kind from the monastery; it was founded for two +recluses; they had a chaplain and servants; and the patronage was retained +by the founder. The document will also give us some very curious and +minute details of the domestic economy of the recluse life; and, lastly, +it will give us an historical proof that the assertions of the +contemporary satirists, of the laxity[146] with which the vows were +sometimes kept, were not without foundation. + +"In 1349, Henry, Duke of Lancaster, granted in trust to the abbot and +convent of Whalley rather large endowments to support two recluses (women) +in a certain place within the churchyard of the parish church of Whalley, +and two women servants to attend them, there to pray for the soul of the +duke, &c.; to find them seventeen ordinary loaves, and seven inferior +loaves, eight gallons of better beer, and 3_d._ per week; and yearly ten +large stock-fish, one bushel of oatmeal, one of rye, two gallons of oil +for lamps, one pound of tallow for candles, six loads of turf, and one +load of faggots; also to repair their habitations; and to find a chaplain +to say mass in the chapel of these recluses daily; their successors to be +nominated by the duke and his heirs. On July 6, 15th Henry VI., the king +nominated Isole de Heton, widow, to be an _anachorita_ for life, _in loco +ad hoc ordinato juxta ecclesiam parochialem de Whalley_. Isole, however, +grew tired of the solitary life, and quitted it; for afterwards a +representation was made to the king that 'divers that had been anchores +and recluses in the seyd place aforetyme, have broken oute of the seyd +place wherein they were reclusyd, and departyd therefrom wythout any +reconsilyation;' and that Isole de Heton had broken out two years before, +and was not willing to return; and that divers of the women that had been +servants there had been with child. So Henry VI. dissolved the hermitage, +and appointed instead two chaplains to say mass daily, &c." Whittaker +thinks that the hermitage occupied the site of some cottages on the west +side of the churchyard, which opened into the churchyard until he had the +doors walled up. + +There was a similar hermitage for several female recluses in the +churchyard of St. Romauld, Shrewsbury, as we learn from a document among +the Bishop of Lichfield's registers,[147] in which he directs the Dean of +St. Chadd, or his procurator, to enclose Isolda de Hungerford an anchorite +in the houses of the churchyard of St. Romauld, where the other anchorites +dwell. Also in the same registry there is a precept, dated Feb. 1, 1310, +from Walter de Langton, Bishop, to Emma Sprenghose, admitting her an +anchorite in the houses of the churchyard of St. George's Chapel, Salop, +and he appoints the archdeacon to enclose her. Another license from Roger, +Bishop of Lichfield, dated 1362, to Robert de Worthin, permitting him, on +the nomination of Queen Isabella, to serve God in the reclusorium built +adjoining (_juxta_) the chapel of St. John Baptist in the city of +Coventry, has been published _in extenso_ by Dugdale, and we transcribe it +for the benefit of the curious.[148] Thomas Hearne has printed an +Episcopal Commission, dated 1402, for enclosing John Cherde, a monk of +Ford Abbey. Burnett's "History of Bristol" mentions a commission opened by +Bishop William of Wykham, in August, 1403, for enclosing Lucy de +Newchurch, an anchoritess in the hermitage of St. Brendon in Bristol. +Richard Francis, an ankret, is spoken of as _inter quatuor parietes pro +christi inclusus_ in Langtoft's "Chronicle," ij. 625. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +ANCHORAGES. + + +Just as in a monastery, though it might be large or small in magnitude, +simple or gorgeous in style, with more or fewer offices and appendages, +according to the number and wealth of the establishment, yet there was +always a certain suite of conventual buildings, church, chapter refectory, +dormitory, &c., arranged in a certain order, which formed the cloister; +and this cloister was the nucleus of all the rest of the buildings of the +establishment; so, in a reclusorium, or anchorhold, there was always a +"cell" of a certain construction, to which all things else, parlours or +chapels, apartments for servants and guests, yards and gardens, were +accidental appendages. Bader's rule for recluses in Bavaria[149] describes +the dimensions and plan of the cell minutely; the _domus inclusi_ was to +be 12 feet long by as many broad, and was to have three windows--one +towards the choir (of the church to which it was attached), through which +he might receive the Holy Sacrament; another on the opposite side, through +which he might receive his victuals; and a third to give light, which last +ought always to be closed with glass or horn. + +The reader will have already gathered from the preceding extracts that the +reclusorium was sometimes a house of timber or stone within the +churchyard, and most usually adjoining the church itself. At the west end +of Laindon Church, Essex, there is a unique erection of timber, of which +we here give a representation. It has been modernised in appearance by +the insertion of windows and doors; and there are no architectural details +of a character to reveal with certainty its date, but in its mode of +construction--the massive timbers being placed close together--and in its +general appearance, there is an air of considerable antiquity. It is +improbable that a house would be erected in such a situation after the +Reformation, and it accords generally with the descriptions of a recluse +house. Probably, however, many of the anchorholds attached to churches +were of smaller dimensions; sometimes, perhaps, only a single little +timber apartment on the ground floor, or sometimes probably raised upon an +under croft, according to a common custom in mediæval domestic buildings. +Very probably some of those little windows which occur in many of our +churches, in various situations, at various heights, and which, under the +name of "low side windows," have formed the subject of so much discussion +among ecclesiologists, may have been the windows of such anchorholds. The +peculiarity of these windows is that they are sometimes merely a square +opening, which originally was not glazed, but closed with a shutter; +sometimes a small glazed window, in a position where it was clearly not +intended to light the church generally; sometimes a window has a stone +transom across, and the upper part is glazed, while the lower part is +closed only by a shutter. It is clear that some of these may have served +to enable the anchorite, living in a cell _outside_ the church, to see the +altar. It seems to have been such a window which is alluded to in the +following incident from Mallory's "Prince Arthur:"--"Then Sir Launcelot +armed him and took his horse, and as he rode that way he saw a chapel +where was a recluse, which had a window that she might see up to the +altar; and all aloud she called Sir Launcelot, because he seemed a knight +arrant.... And (after a long conversation) she commanded Launcelot to +dinner." In the late thirteenth-century MS., Royal 10 E. IV. at f. 181, is +a representation of a recluse-house, in which, besides two two-light +arched windows high up in the wall, there is a smaller square "low side +window" very distinctly shown. Others of these low side windows may have +been for the use of wooden anchorholds built _within_ the church, +combining two of the usual three windows of the cell, viz., the one to +give light, and the one through which to receive food and communicate +with the outer world. There is an anchorhold still remaining in a +tolerably unmutilated state at Rettenden, Essex. It is a stone building of +fifteenth-century date, of two stories, adjoining the north side of the +chancel. It is entered by a rather elaborately moulded doorway from the +chancel. The lower story is now used as a vestry, and is lighted by a +modern window broken through its east wall; but it is described as having +been a dark room, and there is no trace of any original window. In the +north wall, and towards the east, is a bracket, such as would hold a small +statue or a lamp. In the west side of this room, on the left immediately +on entering it from the chancel, is the door of a stone winding stair +(built up in the nave aisle, but now screened towards the aisle by a very +large monument), which gives access to the upper story. This story +consists of a room which very exactly agrees with the description of a +recluse's cell (see opposite woodcut). On the south side are two arched +niches, in which are stone benches, and the back of the easternmost of +these niches is pierced by a small arched window, now blocked up, which +looked down upon the altar. On the north side is a chimney, now filled +with a modern fireplace, but the chimney is a part of the original +building; and westward of the chimney is a small square opening, now +filled with modern glazing, but the hook upon which the original shutter +hung still remains. This window is not splayed in the usual mediæval +manner, but is recessed in such a way as to allow the head of a person to +look out, and especially down, with facility. On the exterior this window +is about 10 feet from the ground. In this respect it resembles the +situation of a low side window in Prior Crawden's Chapel, Ely +Cathedral,[150] which is on the first floor, having a room, lighted only +by narrow slits, beneath it; and at the Sainte Chapelle, in Paris, which +also has an undercroft, there is a similar example of a side window, at a +still greater height from the ground. The east side of the Rettenden +reclusorium has now a modern window, probably occupying the place of the +original window which gave light to the cell. The stair-turret at the top +of the winding staircase, seems to have been intended to serve for a +little closet: it obtained some light through a small loop which looked +out into the north aisle of the church; the wall on the north side of it +is recessed so as to form a shelf, and a square slab of stone, which looks +like a portion of a thirteenth-century coffin-stone, is laid upon the top +of the newel, and fitted into the wall, so as to form another shelf or +little table. + +[Illustration: _Laindon Church, Essex._] + +[Illustration: _Reclusorium, or Anchorhold, at Rettenden, Essex._] + +At East Horndon Church, Essex, there are two transept-like projections +from the nave. In the one on the south there is a monumental niche in the +south wall, upon the back of which are the indents of the brasses of a man +and wife and several children; and there is a tradition, with which these +indents are altogether inconsistent, that the heart of the unfortunate +Queen Anne Bullen is interred therein. Over this is a chamber, open to the +nave, and now used as a gallery, approached by a modern wooden stair; and +there is a projection outside which looks like a chimney, carried out from +this floor upwards. The transeptal projection on the north side is very +similar in plan. On the ground floor there is a wide, shallow, cinque-foil +headed niche (partly blocked) in the east wall; and there is a wainscot +ceiling, very neatly divided into rectangular panels by moulded ribs of +the date of about Henry VIII. The existence of the chamber above was +unknown until the present rector discovered a doorway in the east wall of +the ground floor, which, on being opened, gave access to a stone staircase +behind the east wall, which led up into a first-floor chamber, about 12 +feet from east to west, and 8 feet from north to south: the birds had had +access to it through an unglazed window in the north wall for an unknown +period, and it was half filled with their nests; the floor planks were +quite decayed. There is no trace of a chimney here. It is now opened out +to the nave to form a gallery. Though we do not find in these two +first-floor chambers the arrangements which could satisfy us that they +were recluse cells, yet it is very probable that they were habitable +chambers, inhabited, if not by recluses, perhaps by chantry priests, +serving chantry chapels of the Tyrrells. + +Mr. M. H. Bloxam, in an interesting paper in the Transactions of the +Lincoln Diocesan Architectural Society, mentions several other +anchorholds:--"Adjoining the little mountain church of S. Patricio, about +five miles from Crickhowel, South Wales, is an attached building or cell. +It contains on the east side a stone altar, above which is a small +window, now blocked up, which looked towards the altar of the church; but +there was no other internal communication between this cell and the +church, to the west end of which it is annexed; it appears as if destined +for a recluse who was also a priest." Mr. Bloxam mentions some other +examples, very much resembling the one described at Rettenden. The north +transept of Clifton Campville Church, Staffordshire, a structure of the +fourteenth century, is vaulted and groined with stone; it measures 17 feet +from north to south, and 12 feet from east to west. Over this is a loft or +chamber, apparently an anchorhold or _domus inclusi_, access to which is +obtained by means of a newell staircase in the south-east angle, from a +doorway at the north-east angle of the chancel. A small window on the +south side of this chamber, now blocked up, afforded a view into the +interior of the church. The roof of this chamber has been lowered, and all +the windows blocked up. + +"On the north side of the chancel of Chipping Norton Church, Oxfordshire, +is a revestry which still contains an ancient stone altar, with its +appurtenances, viz., a piscina in the wall on the north side, and a +bracket for an image projecting from the east wall, north of the altar. +Over this revestry is a loft or chamber, to which access is obtained by +means of a staircase in the north-west angle. Apertures in the wall +enabled the recluse, probably a priest, here dwelling, to overlook the +chancel and north aisle of the church. + +"Adjoining the north side of the chancel of Warmington Church, +Warwickshire, is a revestry, entered through an ogee-headed doorway in the +north wall of the chancel, down a descent of three steps. This revestry +contains an ancient stone altar, projecting from a square-headed window in +the east wall, and near the altar, in the same wall, is a piscina. In the +south-west angle of this revestry is a flight of stone steps, leading up +to a chamber or loft. This chamber contains, in the west wall, a +fire-place, in the north-west angle a retiring-closet, or jakes, and in +the south wall a small pointed window, of decorated character, through +which the high-altar in the chancel might be viewed. In the north wall +there appears to have been a pointed window, filled with decorated +tracery, and in the east wall is another decorated window. This is one of +the most interesting and complete specimens of the _domus inclusi_ I have +met with."[151] + +The chamber which is so frequently found over the porch of our churches, +often with a fireplace, and sometimes with a closet within it, may +probably have sometimes been inhabited by a recluse. Chambers are also +sometimes found in the towers of churches.[152] Mr. Bloxam mentions a +room, with a fire-place, in the tower of Upton Church, Nottinghamshire. +Again, at Boyton Church, Wiltshire, the tower is on the north side of the +church, "and adjoining the tower on the west side, and communicating with +it, is a room which appears to have been once permanently inhabited, and +in the north-east angle of this room is a fire-place." At Newport, Salop, +the first floor of the tower seems to have been a habitable chamber, and +has a little inner chamber corbelled out at the north-west angle of the +tower. + +We have already hinted that it is not improbable that timber anchorholds +were sometimes erected inside our churches. Or perhaps the recluse lived +in the church itself, or, more definitely, in a par-closed chantry chapel, +without any chamber being purposely built for him. The indications which +lead us to this supposition are these: there is sometimes an ordinary +domestic fire-place to be found inside the church. For instance, in the +north aisle of Layer Marney Church, Essex, the western part of the aisle +is screened off for the chantry of Lord Marney, whose tomb has the chantry +altar still remaining, set crosswise at the west end of the tomb; in the +eastern division of the aisle there is an ordinary domestic fire-place in +the north wall. There is a similar fire-place, of about the same date, in +Sir Thomas Bullen's church of Hever, in Kent. + +Again, we sometimes find beside the low side-windows already spoken of, an +arrangement which shows that it was intended for some one habitually to +sit there. Thus, at Somerton, Oxfordshire, on the north side of the +chancel, is a long and narrow window, with decorated tracery in the head; +the lower part is divided by a thick transom, and does not appear to have +been glazed. In the interior the wall is recessed beside the window, with +a sort of shoulder, exactly adapted to give room for a seat, in such a +position that its occupant would get the full benefit of the light through +the glazed upper part of the little window, and would be in a convenient +position for conversing through the unglazed lower portion of it. + +At Elsfield Church, Oxfordshire, there is an early English lancet window, +similarly divided by a transom, the lower part, now blocked up, having +been originally unglazed, and the sill of the window in the interior has +been formed into a stone seat and desk. We reproduce here a view of the +latter from the "Oxford Architectural Society's Guide to the Neighbourhood +of Oxford." Perhaps in such instances as these, the recluse may have been +a priest serving a chantry altar, and licensed, perhaps, to hear +confessions,[153] for which the seat beside the little open window would +be a convenient arrangement. Lord Scrope's will has already told us of a +chaplain dwelling continually (_commoranti continuo_) in the Church of St. +Nicholas, Gloucester, and of an anchorite living in the parish church of +Stamford. There is a low side-window at Mawgan Church, Cornwall. In the +south-east angle between the south transept and the chancel, the inner +angle at the junction of the transept and chancel walls is cut away, from +the floor upwards, to the height of six feet, and laterally about five +feet in south and east directions from the angle. A short octagonal +pillar, six feet high, supports all that remains of the angle of these +walls, whilst the walls themselves rest on two flat segmental arches of +three feet span. A low diagonal wall is built across the angle thus +exposed, and a small lean-to roof is run up from it into the external +angle enclosing a triangular space within. In this wall the low +side-window is inserted. The sill of the window is four feet from the +pavement. Further eastward a priest's door seems to have formed part of +the arrangement. The west jamb of the doorway is cut away so that from +this triangular space and from the transept beyond a view is obtained of +the east window. + +[Illustration: _Window, Elsfield Church._] + +The position of the low side-windows at Grade, Cury, and Landewednack is +the same as that of Mawgan, but the window itself is different in form, +those at Grade and at Cury being small oblong openings, the former 1 ft. 9 +in. by 1 ft. 4 in., the sill only 1 ft. 9 in. from the ground; the latter +is 1 ft. by 11 in., the sill 3 ft. 4 in. from ground. At Landewednack the +window has two lights, square headed, 2 ft. 6 in. by 1 ft. 4 in., sill 4 +ft. 3-1/2 in. from ground. A large block of serpentine rock is fixed in +the ground beneath the window in a position convenient for a person +standing but not kneeling at the window.[154] + +Knighton gives us some particulars of a recluse priest who lived at +Leicester. "There was," he says, "in those days at Leicester, a certain +priest, hight William of Swynderby, whom they commonly called William the +Hermit, because, for a long time, he had lived the hermitical life there; +they received him into a certain chamber within the church, because of the +holiness they believed to be in him, and they procured for him victuals +and a pension, after the manner of other priests."[155] + +In the "Test. Ebor.," p. 244, we find a testator leaving "to the chantry +chapel of Kenby my red vestment, ... also the great missal and the great +portifer, which I bought of Dominus Thomas Cope, priest and anchorite in +that chapel." Blomfield also (ii. 75) tells us of a hermit, who lived in +St. Cuthbert's Church, Thetford, and performed divine service therein. + +Who has not, at some time, been deeply impressed by the solemn stillness, +the holy calm, of an empty church? Earthly passions, and cares, and +ambitions, seemed to have died away; one's soul was filled with a +spiritual peace. One stood and listened to the wind surging against the +walls outside, as the waves of the sea may beat against the walls of an +ingulfed temple; and one felt as effectually secluded from the surge and +roar of the worldly life outside the sacred walls, as if in such a temple +at the bottom of the sea. One gazed upon the monumental effigies, with +their hands clasped in an endless prayer, and their passionless marble +faces turned for ages heavenward, and read their mouldering epitaphs, and +moralized on the royal preacher's text--"All is vanity and vexation of +spirit." And then one felt the disposition--and, perhaps, indulged it--to +kneel before the altar, all alone with God, in that still and solemn +church, and pour out one's high-wrought thoughts before Him. At such times +one has probably tasted something of the transcendental charm of the life +of a recluse priest. One could not sustain the tension long. Perhaps the +old recluse, with his experience and his aids, could maintain it for a +longer period. But to him, too, the natural reaction must have come in +time; and then he had his mechanical occupations to fell back +upon--trimming the lamps before the shrines, copying his manuscript, or +illuminating its initial letters; perhaps, for health's sake, he took a +daily walk up and down the aisle of the church, whose walls re-echoed his +measured footfalls; then he had his oft-recurring "hours" to sing, and his +books to read; and, to prevent the long hours which were still left him in +his little par-closed chapel from growing too wearily monotonous, there +came, now and then, a tap at the shutter of his "parlour" window, which +heralded the visit of some poor soul, seeking counsel or comfort in his +difficulties of this world or the next, or some pilgrim bringing news of +distant lands, or some errant knight seeking news of adventures, or some +parishioner come honestly to have a dish of gossip with the holy man, +about the good and evil doings of his neighbours. + +There is a pathetic anecdote in Blomfield's "Norfolk," which will show +that the spirit and the tradition of the old recluse priests survived the +Reformation. The Rev. Mr. John Gibbs, formerly rector of Gessing, in that +county, was ejected from his rectory in 1690 as a non-juror. "He was an +odd but harmless man, both in life and conversation. After his ejection he +dwelt in the north porch chamber, and laid on the stairs that led up to +the rood-loft, between the church and chancel, having a window at his +head, so that he could lie in his couch, and see the altar. He lived to be +very old, and was buried at Frenze." + + * * * * * + +Let us turn again to the female recluse, in her anchor-house outside the +church. How was her cell furnished? It had always a little altar at the +east end, before which the recluse paid her frequent devotions, hearing, +besides, the daily mass in church through her window, and receiving the +Holy Sacrament at stated times. Bishop Poore advises his recluses to +receive it only fifteen times a year. The little square unglazed window +was closed with a shutter, and a black curtain with a white cross upon it +also hung before the opening, through which the recluse could converse +without being seen. The walls appear to have been sometimes painted--of +course with devotional subjects. To complete the scene add a comfortable +carved oak chair, and a little table, an embroidery frame, and such like +appliances for needlework; a book of prayers, and another of saintly +legends, not forgetting Bishop Poore's "Ancren Riewle;" a fire on the +hearth in cold weather, and the cat, which Bishop Poore expressly allows, +purring beside it; and lastly paint in the recluse, in her black habit and +veil, seated in her chair; or prostrate before her little altar; or on her +knees beside her church window listening to the chanted mass; or receiving +her basket of food from her servant, through the open parlour window; or +standing before its black curtain, conversing with a stray knight-errant; +or putting her white hand through it, to give an alms to some village +crone or wandering beggar. + +A few extracts from Bishop Poore's "Ancren Riewle," already several times +alluded to, will give life to the picture we have painted. Though intended +for the general use of recluses, it seems to have been specially +addressed, in the first instance, to three sisters, who, in the bloom of +youth, forsook the world, and became the tenants of a reclusorium. It +would seem that in such cases each recluse had a separate cell, and did +not communicate, except on rare occasions, with her fellow inmates; and +each had her own separate servant to wait upon her. Here are some +particulars as to their communication with the outer world. "Hold no +conversation with any man out of a church window, but respect it for the +sake of the Holy Sacrament which ye see there through;[156] and at other +times (other whiles) take your women to the window of the house (huses +thurle), other men and women to the parlour-window to speak when +necessary; nor ought ye (to converse) but at these two windows." Here we +have three windows; we have no difficulty in understanding which was the +church-window, and the parlour-window--the window _pour parler_; but what +was the house-window, through which the recluse might speak to her +servant? Was it merely the third glazed window, through which she might, +if it were convenient, talk with her maid, but not with strangers, because +she would be seen through it? or was it a window in the larger +anchorholds, between the recluse cell, and the other apartment in which +her maid lived, and in which, perhaps, guests were entertained? The latter +seems the more probable explanation, and will receive further confirmation +when we come to the directions about the entertainment of guests. The +recluse was not to give way to the very natural temptation to put her head +out of the open window, to get sometimes a wider view of the world about +her. "A peering anchoress, who is always thrusting her head outward," he +compares to "an untamed bird in a cage"--poor human bird! In another place +he gives a more serious exhortation on the same subject "Is not she too +forward and foolhardy who holds her head boldly forth on the open +battlements while men with crossbow bolts without assail the castle? +Surely our foe, the warrior of hell, shoots, as I ween, more bolts at one +anchoress than at seventy and seven secular ladies. The battlements of the +castle are the windows of their houses; let her not look out at them, lest +she have the devil's bolts between her eyes before she even thinks of +it." Here are directions how to carry on her "parlements":--"First of all, +when you have to go to your parlour-window, learn from your maid who it is +that is come; ... and when you must needs go forth, go forth in the fear +of God to a priest, ... and sit and listen, and not cackle." They were to +be on their guard even with religious men, and not even confess, except in +presence of a witness. "If any man requests to see you (_i.e._ to have the +black curtain drawn aside), ask him what good might come of it.... If any +one become so mad and unreasonable that he puts forth his hand toward the +window-cloth (curtain), shut the window (_i.e._ close the shutter) +quickly, and leave him; ... and as soon as any man falls into evil +discourse, close the window, and go away with this verse, that he may hear +it, 'The wicked have told me foolish tales, but not according to thy law;' +and go forth before your altar, and say the 'Miserere.'" Again, "Keep your +hands within your windows, for handling or touching between a man and an +anchoress is a thing unnatural, shameful, wicked," &c. + +The bishop adds a characteristic piece of detail to our picture when he +speaks of the fair complexions of the recluses because not sunburnt, and +their white hands through not working, both set in strong relief by the +black colour of the habit and veil. He says, indeed, that "since no man +seeth you, nor ye see any man, ye may be content with your clothes white +or black." But in practice they seem usually to have worn black habits, +unless, when attached to the church of any monastery, they may have worn +the habit of the order. They were not to wear rings, brooches, ornamented +girdles, or gloves. "An anchoress," he says, "ought to take sparingly (of +alms), only that which is necessary (_i.e._ she ought not to take alms to +give away again). If she can spare any fragments of her food, let her send +them away (to some poor person) privately out of her dwelling. For the +devil," he says elsewhere, "tempts anchoresses, through their charity, to +collect to give to the poor, then to a friend, then to make a feast." +"There are anchoresses," he says, "who make their meals with their friends +without; that is too much friendship." The editor thinks this to mean that +some anchoresses left their cells, and went to dine at the houses of their +friends; but the word is _gistes_ (guests), and, more probably, it only +means that the recluse ate her dinner in her cell while a guest ate hers +in the guest-room of the reclusorium, with an open window between, so that +they could see and converse with one another. For we find in another place +that she was to maintain "silence always at meals; ... and if any one hath +a guest whom she holds dear, she may cause her maid, as in her stead, to +entertain her friend with glad cheer, and she shall have leave to open her +window once or twice, and make signs to her of gladness." But "let no +_man_ eat in your presence, except he be in great need." The narrative +already given at p. 109, of the visit of St. Richard the hermit to Dame +Margaret the recluse of Anderby, also shows that in exceptional cases a +recluse ate with men. The incident of the head of the recluse, in her +convulsive sleep, falling at the window at which the hermit was reclining, +and leaning partly upon him,[157] is explained by the theory that they +were sitting in separate apartments, each close by this house window, +which was open between them. As we have already seen, in the case of Sir +Percival, a man might even sleep in the reclusorium; and so the Rule says, +"let no man sleep within your walls" as a general rule; "if, however, +great necessity should cause your house to be used" by travellers, "see +that ye have a woman of unspotted life with you day and night." + +As to their occupations, he advises them to make "no purses and blodbendes +of silk, but shape and sew and mend church vestments, and poor people's +clothes, and help to clothe yourselves and your domestics." "An anchoress +must not become a school-mistress, nor turn her house into a school for +children. Her maiden may, however, teach any little girl concerning whom +it might be doubtful whether she should learn among the boys."[158] + +Doubtless, we are right in inferring from the bishop's advice not to do +certain things, that anchoresses were in the habit of doing them. From +this kind of evidence we glean still further traits. He suggests to them +that in confession they will perhaps have to mention such faults as +these, "I played or spoke thus in the church; went to the play in the +churchyard;[159] looked on at this, or at the wrestling, or other foolish +sports; spoke thus, or played, in the presence of secular men, or of +religious men, in a house of anchorites, and at a different window than I +ought; or, being alone in the church, I thought thus." Again he mentions, +"Sitting too long at the parlour-window, spilling ale, dropping crumbs." +Again we find, "Make no banquetings, nor encourage any strange vagabonds +about the gate." But of all their failings, gossiping seems to have been +the besetting sin of anchoresses. "People say of anchoresses that almost +every one hath an old woman to feed her ears, a prating gossip, who tells +her all the tales of the land, a magpie that chatters to her of everything +that she sees or hears; so that it is a common saying, from mill and from +market, from smithy and from anchor-house, men bring tidings." + +Let us add the sketch drawn of them by the unfavourable hand of Bilney the +Reformer, in his "Reliques of Rome," published in 1563, and we have +done:--"As touching the monastical sect of recluses, and such as be shutte +up within walls, there unto death continuall to remayne, giving themselves +to the mortification of carnal effects, to the contemplation of heavenly +and spirituall thinges, to abstinence, to prayer, and to such other +ghostly exercises, as men dead to the world, and havyng their lyfe hidden +with Christ, I have not to write. Forasmuch as I cannot fynde probably in +any author whence the profession of anckers and anckresses had the +beginning and foundation, although in this behalf I have talked with men +of that profession which could very little or nothing say of the matter. +Notwithstanding, as the Whyte Fryers father that order on Helias the +prophet (but falsely), so likewise do the ankers and ankresses make that +holy and virtuous matrone Judith their patroness and foundress; but how +unaptly who seeth not? Their profession and religion differeth as far +from the manners of Judith as light from darknesse, or God from the +devill, as shall manifestly appere to them that will diligentlye conferre +the history of Judith with their life and conversation. Judith made +herself a privy chamber where she dwelt (sayth the scripture), being +closed in with her maydens. Our recluses also close themselves within the +walls, but they suffer no man to be there with them. Judith ware a smoche +of heare, but our recluses are both softly and finely apparalled. Judith +fasted all the days of her lyfe, few excepted. Our recluses eate and +drinke at all tymes of the beste, being of the number of them _qui curios +simulant et Bacchanalia vivunt_. Judith was a woman of a very good report. +Our recluses are reported to be superstitious and idolatrous persons, and +such as all good men flye their company. Judith feared the Lord greatly, +and lyved according to His holy word. Our recluses fear the pope, and +gladly doe what his pleasure is to command them. Judith lyved of her own +substance and goods, putting no man to charge. Our recluses, as persons +only borne to consume the good fruits of the erth, lyve idely of the +labour of other men's handes. Judith, when tyme required, came out of her +closet, to do good unto other. Our recluses never come out of their +lobbies, sincke or swimme the people. Judith put herself in jeopardy for +to do good to the common countrye. Our recluses are unprofitable clods of +the earth, doing good to no man. Who seeth not how farre our ankers and +ankresses differe from the manners and life of this vertuous and godly +woman Judith, so that they cannot justly claime her to be their +patronesse? Of some idle and superstitious heremite borrowed they their +idle and superstitious religion. For who knoweth not that our recluses +have grates of yron in theyr spelunckes, and dennes out of the which they +looke, as owles out of an yvye todde, when they will vouchsafe to speake +with any man at whose hand they hope for advantage? So reade we in 'Vitis +Patrum,' that John the Heremite so enclosed himself in his hermitage that +no person came in unto him; to them that came to visite him he spoke +through a window onely. Our ankers and ankresses professe nothing but a +solitary lyfe in their hallowed house, wherein they are inclosed wyth the +vowe of obedience to the pope, and to their ordinary bishop. Their apparel +is indifferent, so it be dissonant from the laity. No kind of meates they +are forbidden to eat. At midnight they are bound to say certain prayers. +Their profession is counted to be among other professions so hardye and so +streight that they may by no means be suffered to come out of their houses +except it be to take on them an harder and streighter, which is to be made +a bishop." + +It is not to be expected that mediæval paintings should give illustrations +of persons who were thus never visible in the world. In the pictures of +the hermits of the Egyptian desert, on the walls of the Campo Santo at +Pisa, we see a representation of St. Anthony holding a conversation with +St. John the Hermit, who is just visible through his grated window, "like +an owl in an ivy tod," as Bilney says; and we have already given a picture +of Sir Percival knocking at the door of a female recluse. Bilney says, +that they wore any costume, "so it were dissonant from the laity;" but in +all probability they commonly wore a costume similar in colour to that of +the male hermits. The picture which we here give of an anchoress, is taken +from a figure of St. Paula, one of the anchorite saints of the desert, in +the same picture of St. Jerome, which has already supplied us, in the +figure of St. Damasus, with our best picture of the hermit's costume. + +[Illustration: _St. Paula._] + +The service for enclosing a recluse[160] may be found in some of the old +Service Books. We derive the following account of it from an old +black-letter _Manuale ad usum percelebris ecclesie Sarisburiensis_ +(London, 1554), in the British Museum. The rubric before the service +orders that no one shall be enclosed without the bishop's leave; that the +candidate shall be closely questioned as to his motives; that he shall be +taught not to entertain proud thoughts, as if he merited to be set apart +from intercourse with common men, but rather on account of his own +infirmity it was good that he should be removed from contact with others, +that he might be kept out of sin himself, and not contaminate them. So +that the recluse should esteem himself to be condemned for his sins, and +shut up in his solitary cell as in a prison, and unworthy, for his sins, +of the society of men. There is a note, that this office shall serve for +both sexes. On the day before the ceremony of inclusion, the +_Includendus_--the person about to be inclosed--was to confess, and to +fast that day on bread and water; and all that night he was to watch and +pray, having his wax taper burning, in the monastery,[161] near his +inclusorium. On the morrow, all being assembled in church, the bishop, or +priest appointed by him, first addressed an exhortation to the people who +had come to see the ceremony, and to the includendus himself, and then +began the service with a response, and several appropriate psalms and +collects. After that, the priest put on his chasuble, and began mass, a +special prayer being introduced for the includendus. After the reading of +the gospel, the includendus stood before the altar, and offered his taper, +which was to remain burning on the altar throughout the mass; and then, +standing before the altar-step, he read his profession, or if he were a +layman (and unable to read), one of the chorister boys read it for him. +And this was the form of his profession:--"I, brother (or sister) N, offer +and present myself to serve the Divine Goodness in the order of +Anchorites, and I promise to remain, according to the rule of that order, +in the service of God, from henceforth, by the grace of God, and the +counsel of the Church." Then he signed the document in which his +profession was written with the sign of the cross, and laid it upon the +altar on bended knees. Then the bishop or priest said a prayer, and +asperged with holy water the habit of the includendus; and he put on the +habit, and prostrated himself before the altar, and so remained, while +the priest and choir sang over him the hymn _Veni Creator Spiritus_, and +then proceeded with the mass. First the priest communicated, then the +includendus, and then the rest of the congregation; and the mass was +concluded. Next his wax taper, which had all this time been burning on the +altar, was given to the includendus, and a procession was formed; first +the choir; then the includendus, clad in his proper habit, and carrying +his lighted taper; then the bishop or priest, in his mass robes; and then +the people following; and so they proceeded, singing a solemn litany, to +the cell. And first the priest entered alone into the cell, and asperged +it with holy water, saying appropriate sentences; then he consecrated and +blessed the cell, with prayers offered before the altar of its chapel. The +third of these short prayers may be transcribed: "Benedic domine domum +istam et locum istum, ut sit in eo sanitas, sanctitas, castitas, virtus, +victoria, sanctimonia, humilitas, lenitas, mansuetudo, plenitudo, legis et +obedientæ Deo Patre et Filio et Spiritui Sancto et sit super locum istum +et super omnes habitantes in eo tua larga benedictio, ut in his manufactis +habitaculis cum solemtate manentes ipsi tuum sit semper habitaculum. Per +dominum," &c. Then the bishop or priest came out, and led in the +includendus, still carrying his lighted taper, and solemnly blessed him. +And then--a mere change in the tense of the rubric has an effect which is +quite pathetic; it is no longer the _includendus_, the person to be +enclosed, but the _inclusus_, the enclosed one, he or she upon whom the +doors of the cell have closed for ever in this life--then the enclosed is +to maintain total and solemn silence throughout, while the doors are +securely closed, the choir chanting appropriate psalms. Then the celebrant +causes all the people to pray for the inclusus privately, in solemn +silence, to God, for whose love he has left the world, and caused himself +to be inclosed in that strait prison. And after some concluding prayers, +the procession left the inclusus to his solitary life, and returned, +chanting, to the church, finishing at the step of the choir. + +One cannot read this solemn--albeit superstitious--service, in the quaint +old mediæval character, out of the very book which has, perhaps, been used +in the actual enclosing of some recluse, without being moved. Was it some +frail woman, with all the affections of her heart and the hopes of her +earthly life shattered, who sought the refuge of this living tomb? was it +some man of strong passions, wild and fierce in his crimes, as wild and +fierce in his penitence? or was it some enthusiast, with the over-excited +religious sensibility, of which we have instances enough in these days? We +can see them still, in imagination, prostrate, "in total and solemn +silence," before the wax taper placed upon the altar of the little chapel, +and listening while the chant of the returning procession grows fainter +and fainter in the distance. Ah! we may scornfully smile at it all as a +wild superstition, or treat it coldly as a question of mere antiquarian +interest; but what broken hearts, what burning passions, have been +shrouded under that recluse's robe, and what wild cries of human agony +have been stifled under that "total and solemn silence!" When the +processional chant had died away in the distance, and the recluse's taper +had burnt out on his little altar, was that the end of the tragedy, or +only the end of the first act? Did the broken heart find repose? Did the +wild spirit grow tame? Or did the one pine away and die like a flower in a +dungeon, and the other beat itself to death against the bars of its +self-made cage? + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +CONSECRATED WIDOWS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. + + +Besides all other religious people living under vows, in community in +monasteries, or as solitaries in their anchorages, there were also a +number of Widows vowed to that life and devoted to the service of God, who +lived at home in their own houses or with their families. This was +manifestly a continuation, or imitation, of the primitive Order of Widows, +of whom St. Paul speaks in his first Epistle to Timothy (ch. v.). For +although religious women, from an early period (fourth century), were +usually nuns, the primitive Orders of Deaconesses and Widows did not +altogether cease to exist in the Church. The Service Books[162] contain +offices for their benediction; and though it is probable that in fact a +deaconess was very rarely consecrated in the Western Church, yet the +number of allusions to widows throughout the Middle Ages leads us to +suspect that there may have been no inconsiderable number of them. A +common form of commission[163] to a suffragan bishop includes the +consecrating of widows. From the Pontifical of Edmund Lacey, Bishop of +Exeter, of the fourteenth century, we give a sketch of the service.[164] +It is the same in substance as those in the earlier books. First, a rubric +states that though a widow may be blessed on any day, it is more fitting +that she be blessed on a holy day, and especially on the Lord's day. +Between the Epistle and the Gospel, the bishop sitting on a faldstool +facing the people, the widow kneeling before the bishop is to be +interrogated if she desires, putting away all carnal affections, to be +joined as a spouse to Christ. Then she shall publicly in the vulgar tongue +profess herself, in the bishop's hands, resolved to observe perpetual +continence. Then the bishop blesses her habit (clamidem), saying a +collect. Then the bishop, genuflecting, begins the hymn _Veni Creator +Spiritus_; the widow puts on the habit and veil, and the bishop blesses +and gives her the ring; and with a final prayer for appropriate virtues +and blessings, the ordinary service of Holy Communion is resumed, special +mention of the widow being made therein. + +These collects are of venerable age, and have much beauty of thought and +expression. The reader may be glad to see one of them as an example, and +as an indication of the spirit in which people entered into these +religious vows: "O God, the gracious inhabiter of chaste bodies and lover +of uncorrupt souls, look we pray Thee, O Lord, upon this Thy servant, who +humbly offers her devotion to Thee. May there be in her, O Lord, the gift +of Thy spirit, a prudent modesty, a wise graciousness, a grave gentleness, +a chaste freedom; may she be fervent in charity and love nothing beside +Thee (_extra te_); may she live praiseworthy and not desire praise; may +she fear Thee and serve Thee with a chaste love; be Thou to her, O Lord, +honour, Thou delight; be Thou in sorrow her comfort, in doubt her +counsellor; be Thou to her defence in injury, in tribulation patience, in +poverty abundance, in fasting food, in sickness medicine. By Thee, whom +she desires to love above all things, may she keep what she has vowed; so +that by Thy help she may conquer the old enemy, and cast out the +defilements of sin; that she may be decorated with the gift of fruit sixty +fold,[165] and adorned with the lamps of all virtues, and by Thy grace may +be worthy to join the company of the elect widows. This we humbly ask +through Jesus Christ our Lord." + +In a paper in the "Surrey Transactions," vol. iii. p. 208, Mr. Baigent, +the writer of it, finds two, and only two, entries of the consecration of +widows in the Episcopal Registers of Winchester, which go back to the +early part of the reign of Edward I. The first of these is on May 4, 1348, +of the Lady Aleanor Giffard, probably, says Mr. Baigent, the widow of John +Giffard, of Bowers Giffard, in Essex. The other entry, on October 18, +1379, is of the Benediction of Isabella Burgh, the widow of a citizen of +London (whose will is given by Mr. Baigent), and of Isabella Golafre, +widow of Sir John Golafre. + +The profession of the widow is given in old French, and a translation of +it in old English, as follows: "In ye name of God, Fader and Sone and Holy +Ghost. Iche Isabelle Burghe, that was sometyme wyfe of Thomas Burghe, +wyche that is God be taught helpynge the grace of God [the parallel French +is, Quest à Dieu commande ottriaunte la grace de Dieu] behote [promise] +conversione of myn maners, and make myn avows to God, and to is swete +moder Seynte Marie and to alle seintz, into youre handes leve [dear] fader +in God, William be ye grace of God Bisshope of Wynchestre, that fro this +day forward I schal ben chaste of myn body and in holy chastite kepe me +treweliche and devouteliche all ye dayes of myn life." Another form of +profession is written on the lower margin of the Exeter Pontifical, and +probably in the handwriting of Bishop Lacy: "I, N., wedowe, avowe to God +perpetuall chastite of my body from henceforward, and in the presence of +the honorable fadyr in God, my Lord N., by the grace of God, Bishop of N., +I promyth sabilly to leve in the Church, a wedowe. And this to do, of myne +own hand I subscribe this writing: _Et postea faciat signum crucis_." + +Another example of a widow in the Winchester registers is that of +Elizabeth de Julien, widow of John Plantagenet, Earl of Kent, who made +that vow to Bishop William de Edyndon, but afterwards married Sir Eustache +Dabrichecourt, September 29, 1360, whereupon proceedings were commenced +against her by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who imposed on her a severe +and life-long penance. She survived her second husband many years, and +dying in 1411, was buried in the choir of the Friars Minor at Winchester, +near the tomb of her first husband. + +The epitaph on the monumental brass of Joanna Braham, A.D. 1519, at +Frenze, in Norfolk, describes her as "Vidua ac Deo devota." + +In the Book of the Knight of La Tour-Landry is a description of a lady +who, if she had not actually taken the vows of widowhood, lived the life +we should suppose to be that of a vowess. "It is of a good lady whiche +longe tyme was in wydowhode. She was of a holy lyf, and moste humble and +honourable, as the whiche every yere kepte and held a feste upon +Crystemasse-day of her neyghbours bothe farre and nere, tyll her halle was +ful of them. She served and honoured eche one after his degree, and +specially she bare grete reverence to the good and trewe wymmen, and to +them whiche has deservyd to be worshipped. Also she was of suche customme +that yf she knewe any poure gentyll woman that shold be wedded she arayed +her with her jewels. Also she wente to the obsequye of the poure gentyll +wymmen, and gaf there torches, and all such other lumynary as it neded +thereto. Her dayly ordenaunce was that she rose erly ynough, and had ever +freres, and two or three chappellayns whiche sayd matyns before her within +her oratorye; and after she herd a hyhe masse and two lowe, and sayd her +servyse full devoutely; and after this she wente and arayed herself, and +walked in her gardyn, or else aboute her plase, sayenge her other +devocions and prayers. And as tyme was she wente to dyner; and after +dyner, if she wyste and knewe ony seke folke or wymmen in theyr +childbedde, she went to see and vysited them, and made to be brought to +them of her best mete. And then, as she myght not go herself, she had a +servant propyer therefore, whiche rode upon a lytell hors, and bare with +him grete plente of good mete and drynke for to gyve to the poure and seke +folk there as they were. And after she had herd evensonge she went to her +souper, yf she fasted not. And tymely she wente to bedde; made her styward +to come to her to wete what mete sholde be had the next daye, and lyved by +good ordenaunce, and wold be purveyed byfore of alle such thynge that was +nedefull for her household. She made grete abstynence, and wered the +hayre[166] upon the Wednesday and upon the Fryday.... And she rose everye +night thre tymes, and kneled downe to the ground by her bedde, and redryd +thankynges to God, and prayd for al Crysten soules, and dyd grete almes to +the poure. This good lady, that wel is worthy to be named and preysed, had +to name my lady Cecyle of Ballavylle.... She was the most good and curtoys +lady that ever I knewe or wyste in ony countrey, and that lesse was +envious, and never she wold here say ony evyll of no body, but excused +them, and prayd to God that they myght amende them, and that none was that +knewe what to hym shold happe.... She had a ryhte noble ende, and as I +wene ryht agreable to God; and as men say commonely, of honest and good +lyf cometh ever a good ende." + +In post-Reformation times there are biographies of holy women which show +that the idea of consecrated widowhood was still living in the minds of +the people. Probably the dress commonly worn by widows throughout their +widowhood is a remnant of the mediæval custom. + + + + +THE PILGRIMS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +The fashion of going on pilgrimage seems to have sprung up in the fourth +century. The first object of pilgrimage was the Holy Land. Jerome said, at +the outset, the most powerful thing which can be said against it; viz., +that the way to heaven is as short from Britain as from Jerusalem--a +consolatory reflection to those who were obliged, or who preferred, to +stay at home; but it did not succeed in quenching the zeal of those many +thousands who desired to see, with their own eyes, the places which had +been hallowed by the presence and the deeds of their Lord--to tread, with +their own footsteps, + + "Those holy fields + Over whose acres walked those blessed feet, + Which "eighteen" hundred years ago were nailed + For our advantage on the bitter cross;"[167] + +to kneel down and pray for pardon for their sins upon that very spot where +the Great Sacrifice for sin was actually offered up; to stand upon the +summit of Mount Olivet, and gaze up into that very pathway through the sky +by which He ascended to His kingdom in Heaven. + +We should, however, open up too wide a field if we were to enter into the +subject of the early pilgrims to the Holy Land;[168] to trace their route +from Britain, usually _viâ_ Rome, by sea and land; to describe how a +pilgrim passenger-traffic sprung up, of which adventurous ship-owners took +advantage; how hospitals[169] were founded here and there along the road, +to give refuge to the weary pilgrims, until they reached the Hospital _par +excellence_, which stood beside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; how +Saxon kings made treaties to secure their safe conduct through foreign +countries;[170] how the Order of the Knights of the Temple was founded to +escort the caravans of pilgrims from one to another of the holy places, +and protect them from marauding Saracens and Arabs; how the Crusades were +organised partly, no doubt, to stem the course of Mahommedan conquest, but +ostensibly to wrest the holy places from the hands of the infidel: this +part of the subject of pilgrimage would occupy too much of our space here. +Our design is to give a sketch of the less known portion of the subject, +which relates to the pilgrimages which sprung up in after-times, when the +veneration for the holy places had extended to the shrines of saints; and +when, still later, veneration had run wild into the grossest superstition, +and crowds of sane men and women flocked to relic-worships, which would be +ludicrous if they were not so pitiable and humiliating. This part of the +subject forms a chapter in the history of the manners of the Middle Ages, +which is little known to any but the antiquarian student; but it is an +important chapter to all who desire thoroughly to understand what were the +modes of thought and habits of life of our English forefathers in the +Middle Ages. + +[Illustration: _Thirteenth Century Pilgrims (the two Disciples at +Emmaus)._] + +The most usual foreign pilgrimages were to the Holy Land, the scene of our +Lord's earthly life; to Rome, the centre of western Christianity; and to +the shrine of St. James at Compostella.[171] + +The number of pilgrims to these places must have been comparatively +limited; for a man who had any regular business or profession could not +well undertake so long an absence from home. The rich of no occupation +could afford the leisure and the cost; and the poor who chose to abandon +their lawful occupation could make these pilgrimages at the cost of +others; for the pilgrim was sure of entertainment at every hospital, or +monastery, or priory, probably at every parish priest's rectory and every +gentleman's hall,[172] on his way; and there were not a few poor men and +women who indulged a vagabond humour in a pilgrim's life. The poor pilgrim +repaid his entertainer's hospitality by bringing the news of the +countries[173] through which he had passed, and by amusing the household +after supper with marvellous saintly legends, and traveller's tales. He +raised a little money for his inevitable travelling expenses by retailing +holy trifles and curiosities, such as were sold wholesale at all the +shrines frequented by pilgrims, and which were usually supposed to have +some saintly efficacy attached to them. Sometimes the pilgrim would take a +bolder flight, and carry with him some fragment of a relic--a joint of a +bone, or a pinch of dust, or a nail-paring, or a couple of hairs of the +saint, or a rag of his clothing; and the people gladly paid the pilgrim +for thus bringing to their doors some of the advantages of the holy +shrines which he had visited. Thus Chaucer's Pardoner--"That strait was +comen from the Court of Rome"-- + + "In his mail[174] he had a pilwebere,[175] + Which as he saidé was oure Lady's veil; + He said he had a gobbet of the sail + Thatte St. Peter had whan that he went + Upon the sea, till Jesu Christ him hent.[176] + He had a cross of laton full of stones;[177] + And in a glass he haddé piggés bones.[178] + But with these relics whanné that he fond + A poure parson dwelling upon lond, + Upon a day he gat him more monie + Than that the parson gat in monthes tweie. + And thus with feined flattering and japes, + He made the parson and the people his apes." + +In a subsequent chapter, on the Merchants of the Middle Ages, will be +found some illustrations of mediæval shipping, which also illustrate the +present subject. One is a representation of Sir John Mandeville and his +companions in mantle, hat, and staff, just landed at a foreign town on +their pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Another represents Richard Beauchamp, +Earl of Warwick, in mantle, hat, and staff, embarking in his own ship on +his departure for a similar pilgrimage. Another illustration in the +subsequent chapter on Secular Clergy represents Earl Richard at Rome, +being presented to the Pope. + +But those who could not spare time or money to go to Jerusalem, or Rome, +or Compostella, could spare both for a shorter expedition; and pilgrimages +to English shrines appear to have been very common. By far the most +popular of our English pilgrimages was to the shrine of St. +Thomas-à-Becket, at Canterbury, and it was popular not only in England, +but all over Europe. The one which stood next in popular estimation, was +the pilgrimage to Our Lady of Walsingham. But nearly every cathedral and +great monastery, and many a parish church besides, had its famous saint to +whom the people resorted. There was St. Cuthbert at Durham, and St. +William at York, and little St. William at Norwich, and St. Hugh at +Lincoln, and St. Edward Confessor at Westminster, and St. Erkenwald in the +cathedral of London, and St. Wulstan at Worcester, and St. Swithin at +Winchester, and St. Edmund at Bury, and SS. Etheldreda and Withburga at +Ely, and many more, whose remains were esteemed holy relics, and whose +shrines were frequented by the devout. Some came to pray at the tomb for +the intercession of the saint in their behalf; or to seek the cure of +disease by the touch of the relic; or to offer up thanks for deliverance +believed to have been vouchsafed in time of peril through the saint's +prayers; or to obtain the number of days' pardon--_i.e._ of remission of +their time in purgatory--offered by Papal bulls to those who should pray +at the tomb. Then there were famous roods, the Rood of Chester and of +Bromholme; and statues of the Virgin, as Our Lady of Wilsden, and of +Boxley, and of this, that, and the other place. There were scores of holy +wells besides, under saintly invocations, of which St. Winifred's well +with her chapel over it still remains an excellent example.[179] Some of +these were springs of medicinal water, and were doubtless of some efficacy +in the cures for which they were noted; in others a saint had baptized his +converts; others had simply afforded water to a saint in his neighbouring +cell.[180] + +Before any man[181] went on pilgrimage, he first went to his church, and +received the Church's blessing on his pious enterprise, and her prayers +for his good success and safe return. The office of pilgrims (_officium +peregrinorum_) may be found in the old service-books. We give a few notes +of it from a Sarum missal, date 1554, in the British Museum.[182] The +pilgrim is previously to have confessed. At the opening of the service he +lies prostrate before the altar, while the priest and choir sing over him +certain appropriate psalms, viz. the 24th, 50th, and 90th. Then follow +some versicles, and three collects, for safety, &c., in which the pilgrim +is mentioned by name, "thy servant, N." Then he rises, and there follows +the benediction of his scrip and staff; and the priest sprinkles the scrip +with holy water, and places it on the neck of the pilgrim, saying, "In the +name of, &c., take this scrip, the habit of your pilgrimage, that, +corrected and saved, you may be worthy to reach the thresholds of the +saints to which you desire to go, and, your journey done, may return to us +in safety." Then the priest delivers the staff, saying, "Take this staff, +the support of your journey, and of the labour of your pilgrimage, that +you may be able to conquer all the bands of the enemy, and to come safely +to the threshold of the saints to which you desire to go, and, your +journey obediently performed, return to us with joy." If any one of the +pilgrims present is going to Jerusalem, he is to bring a habit signed with +the cross, and the priest blesses it:--"... we pray that Thou wilt +vouchsafe to bless this cross, that the banner of the sacred cross, whose +figure is signed upon him, may be to Thy servant an invincible strength +against the evil temptations of the old enemy, a defence by the way, a +protection in Thy house, and may be to us everywhere a guard, through our +Lord, &c." Then he sprinkles the habit with holy water, and gives it to +the pilgrim, saying, "Take this habit, signed with the cross of the Lord +our Saviour, that by it you may come safely to his sepulchre, who, with +the Father," &c. Then follows mass; and after mass, certain prayers over +the pilgrims, prostrate at the altar; then, "let them communicate, and so +depart in the name of the Lord." The service runs in the plural, as if +there were usually a number of pilgrims to be dispatched together. + +[Illustration: _Lydgate's Pilgrim._] + +There was a certain costume appropriate to the pilgrim, which old writers +speak of under the title of pilgrims' weeds; the illustrations of this +paper will give examples of it. It consisted of a robe and hat, a staff +and scrip. The robe called _sclavina_ by Du Cange, and other writers, is +said to have been always of wool, and sometimes of shaggy stuff, like that +represented in the accompanying woodcut of the latter part of the +fourteenth century, from the Harleian MS., 4,826. It seems intended to +represent St. John Baptist's robe of camel's hair. Its colour does not +appear in the illuminations, but old writers speak of it as grey. The hat +seems to be commonly a round hat, of felt, and, apparently, does not +differ from the hats which travellers not uncommonly wore over their hoods +in those days.[183] + +The pilgrim who was sent on pilgrimage as a penance seems usually to have +been ordered to go barefoot, and probably many others voluntarily +inflicted this hardship upon themselves in order to heighten the merit and +efficacy of their good deed. They often also made a vow not to cut the +hair or beard until the pilgrimage had been accomplished. But the special +insignia of a pilgrim were the staff and scrip. In the religious service +with which the pilgrims initiated their journey, we have seen that the +staff and scrip are the only insignia mentioned, except in the case of one +going to the Holy Land, who has a robe signed with the cross; the staff +and the scrip were specially blessed by the priest, and the pilgrim +formally invested with them by his hands. + +The staff, or bourdon, was not of an invariable shape. On a +fourteenth-century grave-stone at Haltwhistle, Northumberland, it is like +a rather long walking-stick, with a natural knob at the top. In the cut +from Erasmus's "Praise of Folly," which forms the frontispiece of Mr. +Nichols's "Pilgrimages of Canterbury and Walsingham," it is a similar +walking-stick; but, usually, it was a long staff, some five, six, or +seven feet long, turned in the lathe, with a knob at the top, and another +about a foot lower down. Sometimes a little below the lower knob there is +a hook, or a staple, to which we occasionally find a water-bottle or a +small bundle attached. The hook is seen on the staff of Lydgate's pilgrim +(p. 163). Sir John Hawkins tells us[184] that the staff was sometimes +hollowed out into a kind of flute, on which the pilgrim could play. The +same kind of staff we find in illuminated MSS. in the hands of beggars and +shepherds, as well as pilgrims. + +The scrip was a small bag, slung at the side by a cord over the shoulder, +to contain the pilgrim's food and his few necessaries.[185] Sometimes it +was made of leather; but probably the material varied according to the +taste and wealth of the pilgrim. We find it of different shape and size in +different examples. In the monumental effigy of a pilgrim of rank at +Ashby-de-la-Zouch, the scrip is rather long, widest at bottom, and is +ornamented with three tassels at the bottom, something like the bag in +which the Lord Chancellor carries the great seal, and it has scallop +shells fixed upon its front. In the grave-stone of a knight at +Haltwhistle, already alluded to, the knight's arms, sculptured upon the +shield on one side of his grave cross, are a _fess_ between three _garbs_ +(_i.e._ wheat-sheaves); and a _garb_ is represented upon his scrip, which +is square and otherwise plain. The tomb of Abbot Chillenham, at +Tewkesbury, has the pilgrim's staff and scrip sculptured upon it as an +architectural ornament; the scrip is like the mediæval purse, with a +scallop shell on the front of it, very like that on p. 163.[186] The +pilgrim is sometimes represented with a bottle, often with a rosary, and +sometimes with other conveniences for travelling or helps to devotion. +There is a very good example in Hans Burgmaier's "Images de Saints, &c., +of the Familly of the Emp. Maximilian I." fol. 112. + +[Illustration: _Pilgrim, from Erasmus's "Praise of Folly."_] + +But though the conventional pilgrim is always represented with robe, and +hat, and staff, and scrip, the actual pilgrim seems sometimes to have +dispensed with some, if not with all, of these insignia. For example, +Chaucer minutely describes the costume of the principal personages in his +company of Canterbury Pilgrims, and he not only does not describe what +would have been so marked and picturesque features in their appearance, +but his description seems to preclude the pilgrim's robe and hat. His +knight is described in the ordinary jupon, + + "Of fustian he wered a jupon." + +And the squire-- + + "Short was his gowne with sleves long and wide." + +And the yeoman-- + + "Was clad in cote and hood of green." + +And the serjeant of the law-- + + "Rode but homely in a medlee cote, + Girt with a seint[187] of silk with barres small." + +The merchant was in motley-- + + "And on his hed a Flaundrish bever hat." + +And so with all the rest, they are clearly described in the ordinary dress +of their class, which the pilgrim's robe would have concealed. It seems +very doubtful whether they even bore the especial insignia of staff and +scrip. Perhaps when men and women went their pilgrimage on horseback, they +did not go through the mere form of carrying a long walking-staff. The +equestrian pilgrim, of whom we shall give a woodcut hereafter, though he +is very correctly habited in robe and hat, with pilgrim signs on each, and +his rosary round his neck, does not carry the bourdon. The only trace of +pilgrim costume about Chaucer's Pilgrims, is in the Pardoner-- + + "A vernicle hadde he sewed in his cappe"-- + +but that was a sign of a former pilgrimage to Rome; and it is enough to +prove--if proof were needed--that Chaucer did not forget to clothe his +personages in pilgrim weeds, but that they did not wear them. + +But besides the ordinary insignia of pilgrimage, every pilgrimage had its +special signs, which the pilgrim on his return wore conspicuously upon his +hat or his scrip, or hanging round his neck, in token that he had +accomplished that particular pilgrimage. The pilgrim who had made a long +pilgrimage, paying his devotions at every shrine in his way, might come +back as thickly decorated with signs as a modern soldier, who has been +through a stirring campaign, with medals and clasps. + +The pilgrim to the Holy Land had this distinction above all others, that +he wore a special sign from the very hour that he took the vow upon him to +make that most honourable pilgrimage. This sign was a cross, formed of two +strips of coloured cloth sewn upon the shoulder of the robe; the English +pilgrim wore the cross of white, the French of red, the Flemish of green. +Some, in their fierce earnestness, had the sacred sign cut into their +flesh; in the romance of "Sir Isumbras," we read-- + + "With a sharpe knyfe he share + A cross upon his shoulder bare." + +Others had it branded upon them with a hot iron; one pilgrim in the +"Mirac. de S. Thomæ" of Abbot Benedict gives the obvious reason, that +though his clothes should be torn away, no one should be able to tear the +cross from his breast. At the end of the _Officium peregrinorum_, which we +have described, we find a rubric calling attention to the fact, that +burning the cross in the flesh is forbidden by the canon law on pain of +the greater excommunication; the prohibition is proof enough that at one +time it was a not uncommon practice. But when the pilgrim reached the Holy +Land, and had visited the usual round of the holy places, he became +entitled to wear the palm in token of his accomplishment of that great +pilgrimage; and from this badge he derived the name of Palmer. How the +palm was borne does not quite certainly appear; some say that it was a +branch of palm, which the returning pilgrim bore in his hand or affixed +to the top of his staff;[188] but probably in the general case it was in +the shape of sprigs of palm sewn crosswise upon the hat and scrip. + +The Roman pilgrimage seems always to have ranked next in popular +estimation to that of the Holy Land;[189] and with reason, for Rome was +then the great centre of the religion and the civilization of Western +Christendom. The plenary indulgence which Boniface VIII. published in +1300, to all who should make the Jubilee pilgrimage to Rome, no doubt had +its effect in popularizing this pilgrimage _ad limina apostolorum_. Two +hundred thousand pilgrims, it is said, visited Rome in one month during +the first Jubilee; and succeeding popes shortened the interval between +these great spiritual fairs, first to fifty, then to thirty-three, and +lastly to twenty-five years. The pilgrim to Rome doubtless visited many +shrines in that great Christian capital, and was entitled to wear as many +signs; but the chief signs of the Roman pilgrimage were a badge with the +effigies of St. Peter and St. Paul, the cross-keys, and the vernicle. +Concerning the first, there is a grant from Innocent III. to the +arch-priest and canons of St. Peter's at Rome,[190] which confirms to them +(or to those to whom they shall concede it) the right to cast and to sell +the lead or pewter signs, bearing the effigies of the Apostles Peter and +Paul, with which those who have visited their threshold decorate +themselves for the increase of their devotion and a testimony of their +pilgrimage. Dr. Rock says[191] "that a friend of his has one of these +Roman pilgrim signs, which was dug up at Launde Abbey, Leicestershire. It +is of copper, in the shape of a quatrefoil, one and three-quarter inches +in diameter, and has the cross-keys on one side, the other side being +plain." An equestrian pilgrim represented in Hans Burgmaier's "Der Weise +Koenige," seems to bear on his cloak and his hat the cross-keys. The +vernicle was the kerchief of Veronica, with which, said a very popular +legend, she wiped the brow of the Saviour, when he fainted under His cross +in the Via Dolorosa, and which was found to have had miraculously +transferred to it an imprint of the sacred countenance. Chaucer's +Pardoner, as we have already seen-- + + "Strait was comen from the Court of Rome," + +and, therefore, + + "A vernicle had he sewed upon his cap." + +The sign of the Compostella pilgrimage was the scallop shell.[192] The +legend which the old Spanish writers give in explanation of the badge is +this:--When the body of the saint was being miraculously conveyed in a +ship without sails or oars, from Joppa to Galicia, it passed the village +of Bonzas, on the coast of Portugal, on the day that a marriage had been +celebrated there. The bridegroom with his friends were amusing themselves +on horseback on the sands, when his horse became unmanageable and plunged +into the sea; whereupon the miraculous ship stopped in its voyage, and +presently the bridegroom emerged, horse and man, close beside it. A +conversation ensued between the knight and the saint's disciples on board, +in which they apprised him that it was the saint who had saved him from a +watery grave, and explained the Christian religion to him. He believed, +and was baptized there and then. And immediately the ship resumed its +voyage, and the knight came galloping back over the sea to rejoin his +astonished friends. He told them all that had happened, and they too were +converted, and the knight baptized his bride with his own hand. Now, when +the knight emerged from the sea, both his dress and the trappings of his +horse were covered with scallop shells; and, therefore, the Galicians took +the scallop shell as the sign of St. James. The legend is found +represented in churches dedicated to St. James, and in ancient illuminated +MSS.[193] The scallop shell is not unfrequently found in armorial +bearings. It is hardly probable that it would be given to a man merely +because he had made the common pilgrimage to Compostella; perhaps it was +earned by service under the banner of Santiago, against the Moors in the +Spanish crusades. The Popes Alexander III., Gregory IX., and Clement V., +granted a faculty to the Archbishops of Compostella, to excommunicate +those who sell these shells to pilgrims anywhere except in the city of +Santiago, and they assign this reason, because the shells are the badge of +the Apostle Santiago.[194] The badge was not always an actual shell, but +sometimes a jewel made in the shape of a scallop shell. In the "Journal of +the Archæological Association," iii. 126, is a woodcut of a scallop shell +of silver gilt, with a circular piece of jet set in the middle, on which +is carved an equestrian figure of Santiago. + +The chief sign of the Canterbury pilgrimage was an ampul (_ampulla_, a +flask); we are told all about its origin and meaning by Abbot Benedict, +who wrote a book on the miracles of St. Thomas.[195] The monks had +carefully collected from the pavement the blood of the martyr which had +been shed upon it, and preserved it as one of the precious relics. A sick +lady who visited the shrine, begged for a drop of this blood as a +medicine; it worked a miraculous cure, and the fame of the miracle spread +far and wide, and future pilgrims were not satisfied unless they too might +be permitted the same high privilege. A drop of it used to be mixed with a +chalice full of water, that the colour and flavour might not offend the +senses, and they were allowed to taste of it. It wrought, says the abbot, +miraculous cures; and so, not only vast crowds came to take this strange +and unheard-of medicine, but those who came were anxious to take some of +it home for their sick friends and neighbours. At first they put it into +wooden vessels, but these were split by the liquid; and many of the +fragments of these vessels were hung up about the martyr's tomb in token +of this wonder. At last it came into the head of a certain young man to +cast little flasks--_ampullæ_--of lead and pewter. And then the miracle of +the breaking ceased, and they knew that it was the Divine will that the +Canterbury medicine should be carried in these ampullæ throughout the +world, and that these ampullæ should be recognised by all the world as +the sign of this pilgrimage and these wonderful cures. At first the +pilgrims had carried the wooden vases concealed under their clothes; but +these ampullæ were carried suspended round the neck; and when the pilgrims +reached home, says another authority,[196] they hung these ampullæ in +their churches for sacred relics, that the glory of the blessed martyr +might be known throughout the world. Some of these curious relics still +exist. They are thin, flat on one side, and slightly rounded on the other, +with two little ears or loops through which a cord might be passed to +suspend them. The mouth might have been closed by solder, or even by +folding over the edges of the metal. There is a little flask figured in +Gardner's "History of Dunwich," pl. iii., which has a T upon the side of +it, and which may very probably have been one of these ampullæ. But one of +a much more elaborate and interesting type is here engraved, from an +example preserved in the museum at York. The principal figure is a +somewhat stern representation of the blessed archbishop; above is a rude +representation of his shrine; and round the margin is the rhyming +legend--"Optimus egrorum: Medicus fit Thoma bonorum" ("Thomas is the best +physician for the pious sick"). On the reverse of the ampul is a design +whose intention is not very clear; two monks or priests are apparently +saying some service out of a book, and one of them is laying down a +pastoral staff; perhaps it represents the shrine with its attendants. From +the style of art, this design may be of the early part of the thirteenth +century. But though this ampul is clearly designated by the monkish +writers, whom we have quoted, as the special sign of the Canterbury +pilgrimage, there was another sign which seems to have been peculiar to +it, and that is a bell. Whether these bells were hand-bells, which the +pilgrims carried in their hands, and rang from time to time, or whether +they were little bells, like hawks' bells, fastened to their dress--as +such bells sometimes were to a canon's cope--does not certainly appear. W. +Thorpe, in the passage hereafter quoted at length from Fox, speaks of "the +noise of their singing and the sound of their piping, and the jangling of +their Canterbury bells," as a body of pilgrims passed through a town. One +of the prettiest of our wild-flowers, the _Campanula rotundifolia_, which +has clusters of blue, bell-like flowers, has obtained the common name of +Canterbury Bells.[197] There were other religious trinkets also sold and +used by pilgrims as mementoes of their visit to the famous shrine. The +most common of them seems to have been the head of St. Thomas,[198] cast +in various ornamental devices, in silver or pewter; sometimes it was +adapted to hang to a rosary,[199] more usually, in the examples which +remain to us, it was made into a brooch to be fastened upon the cap or +hood, or dress. In Mr. C. R. Smith's "Collectanea Antiqua," vol. i. pl. +31, 32, 33, and vol. ii. pl. 16, 17, 18, there are representations of no +less than fifty-one English and foreign pilgrims' signs, of which a +considerable proportion are heads of St. Thomas. The whole collection is +very curious and interesting.[200] + +[Illustration: _The Canterbury Ampulla._] + +The ampul was not confined to St. Thomas of Canterbury. When his ampuls +became so very popular, the guardians of the other famous shrines adopted +it, and manufactured "waters," "aquæ reliquiarum," of their own. The relic +of the saint, which they were so fortunate as to possess, was washed with +or dipped in holy water, which was thereupon supposed to +possess--diluted--the virtues of the relic itself. Thus there was a +"Durham water," being the water in which the incorruptible body of St. +Cuthbert had been washed at its last exposure; and Reginald of Durham, in +his book on the admirable virtues of the blessed Cuthbert,[201] tells us +how it used to be carried away in ampuls, and mentions a special example +in which a little of this pleasant medicine poured into the mouth of a +sick man, cured him on the spot. The same old writer tells us how the +water held in a bowl that once belonged to Editha, queen and saint, in +which a little bit of rag, which had once formed part of St. Cuthbert's +garments, was soaked, acquired from these two relics so much virtue that +it brought back health and strength to a dying clerk who drank it. In +Gardner's "History of Dunwich" (pl. iii.) we find drawings of ampullæ like +those of St. Thomas, one of which has upon its front a W surmounted by a +crown, which it is conjectured may be the pilgrim sign of Our Lady of +Walsingham, and contained, perhaps, water from the holy wells at +Walsingham, hereinafter described. Another has an R surmounted by one of +the symbols of the Blessed Virgin, a lily in a pot; the author hazards a +conjecture that it may be the sign of St. Richard of Chichester. The +pilgrim who brought away one of these flasks of medicine, or one of these +blessed relics, we may suppose, did not always hang it up in church as an +_ex voto_, but sometimes preserved it carefully in his house for use in +time of sickness, and would often be applied to by a sick neighbour for +the gift of a portion of the precious fluid out of his ampul, or for a +touch of the trinket which had touched the saint. In the "Collectanea +Antiqua," is a facsimile of a piece of paper bearing a rude woodcut of +the adoration of the Magi, and an inscription setting forth that "Ces +billets ont touché aux troi testes de saints Rois a Cologne: ils sont pour +les voyageurs contre les malheurs des chemins, maux de teste, mal caduque, +fièures, sorcellerie, toute sorte de malefice, et morte soubite." It was +found upon the person of one William Jackson, who having been sentenced +for murder in June, 1748-9, was found dead in prison a few hours before +the time of his execution. It was the charmed billet, doubtless, which +preserved him from the more ignominious death. + +We find a description of a pilgrim in full costume, and decorated with +signs, in "Piers Ploughman's Vision." He was apparelled-- + + "In pilgrym's wise. + He bare a burdoun[202] y-bounde with a broad list, + In a withwinde-wise y-wounden about; + A bolle[203] and a bagge he bare by his side, + An hundred of ampulles; on his hat seten + Signes of Synay[204] and shells of Galice,[205] + And many a crouche[206] on his cloke and keys of Rome, + And the vernicle before, for men sholde knowe, + And se bi his signes, whom he sought hadde. + These folk prayed[207] hym first fro whence he came? + 'From Synay,' he seide, 'and from our Lordes Sepulcre: + In Bethlem and in Babiloyne I have ben in bothe; + In Armonye[208] and Alesaundre, in many other places. + Ye may se by my signes, that sitten in my hat, + That I have walked ful wide in weet and in drye, + And sought good seintes for my soules helthe.'" + +The little bit of satire, for the sake of which this model pilgrim is +introduced, is too telling--especially after the wretched superstitions +which we have been noticing--to be omitted here. "Knowest thou?" asks the +Ploughman-- + + "'Kondest thou aught a cor-saint[209] that men calle Truthe? + Canst thou aught weten[210] us the way where that wight dwelleth?'" + +"Nay," replies the much-travelled pilgrim-- + + "'Nay, so me God helpe, + I saw nevere palmere with pyke and with scrippe + Ask after hym, ever til now in this place.'" + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +OUR LADY OF WALSINGHAM AND ST. THOMAS OF CANTERBURY. + + +We shall not wonder that these various pilgrimages were so popular as they +were, when we learn that there were not only physical panaceas to be +obtained, and spiritual pardons and immunities to be procured at the +shrines of the saints, but that moreover the journey to them was often +made a very pleasant holiday excursion. + +Far be it from us to deny that there was many a pilgrim who undertook his +pilgrimage in anything but a holiday spirit, and who made it anything but +a gay excursion; many a man who sought, howbeit mistakenly, to atone for +wrong done, by making himself an outcast upon earth, and submitting to the +privations of mendicant pilgrimage; many a one who sought thus to escape +out of reach of the stings of remorse; many a one who tore himself from +home and the knowledge of friends, and went to foreign countries to hide +his shame from the eyes of those who knew him. Certainly, here and there, +might have been met a man or a woman, whose coarse sackcloth robe, girded +to the naked skin, and unshod feet, were signs of real if mistaken +penitence; and who carried grievous memories and a sad heart through every +mile of his weary way. We give here, from Hans Burgmaier's "Images de +Saints, &c., de la Famille de l'Empereur Maximilian I.," a very excellent +illustration of a pilgrim of this class. But this was not the general +character of the home pilgrimages of which we are especially speaking. In +the great majority of cases they seem to have been little more than a +pleasant religious holiday.[211] No doubt the general intention was +devotional; very likely it was often in a moment of religious fervour that +the vow was taken; the religious ceremony with which the journey was +begun, must have had a solemnising effect; and doubtless when the pilgrim +knelt at the shrine, an unquestioning faith in all the tales which he had +heard of its sanctity and occasional miraculous power, and the imposing +effect of the scene, would affect his mind with an unusual religious +warmth and exaltation. But between the beginning and the end of the +pilgrimage there was a long interval, which we say--not in a censorious +spirit--was usually occupied by a very pleasant excursion. The same fine +work which has supplied us with so excellent an illustration of an ascetic +pilgrim, affords another equally valuable companion-picture of a pilgrim +of the more usual class. He travels on foot, indeed, staff in hand, but he +is comfortably shod and clad; and while the one girds his sackcloth shirt +to his bare body with an iron chain, the other has his belt well furnished +with little conveniences of travel. It is quite clear that the journey was +not necessarily on foot, the voluntary pilgrims might ride if they +preferred it.[212] Nor did they beg their bread as penitential pilgrims +did; but put good store of money in their purse at starting, and ambled +easily along the green roads, and lived well at the comfortable inns along +their way. + +[Illustration: _Pilgrim in Hair Shirt and Cloak._] + +In many instances when the time of pilgrimage is mentioned, we find that +it was the spring; Chaucer's pilgrims started-- + + "When that April with his showerés sote + The drouth of March had perced to the root;" + +and Fosbroke "apprehends that Lent was the usual time for these +pilgrimages." + +It was the custom for the pilgrims to associate in companies; indeed, +since they travelled the same roads, about the same time of year, and +stopped at the same inns and hospitals, it was inevitable; and they seem +to have taken pains to make the journey agreeable to one another. +Chaucer's "hoste of the Tabard" says to his guests:-- + + "Ye go to Canterbury: God you speed, + The blisful martyr quité you your mede; + And well I wot, as ye go by the way, + Ye shapen you to talken and to play; + For trewely comfort and worthe is none, + To riden by the way dumb as a stone." + +Even the poor penitential pilgrim who travelled barefoot did not travel, +all the way at least, on the hard and rough highway. Special roads seem to +have been made to the great shrines. Thus the "Pilgrim's Road" may still +be traced across Kent, almost from London to Canterbury; and if the +Londoner wishes for a pleasant and interesting home excursion, he may put +a scrip on his back, and take a bourdon in his hand, and make a summer's +pilgrimage on the track of Chaucer's pilgrims. The pilgrim's road to +Walsingham is still known as the "Palmer's Way" and the "Walsingham Green +Way." It may be traced along the principal part of its course for sixty +miles in the diocese of Norwich. The common people used to call the Milky +Way the Walsingham Way. + +Dr. Rock tells us[213] that "besides its badge, each pilgrimage had also +its gathering cry, which the pilgrims shouted out as, at the grey of morn, +they slowly crept through the town or hamlet where they had slept that +night." By calling aloud upon God for help, and begging the intercession +of that saint to whose shrine they were wending, they bade all their +fellow pilgrims to come forth upon their road and begin another day's +march.[214] + +After having said their prayers and told their beads, occasionally did +they strive to shorten the weary length of the way by song and music. As +often as a crowd of pilgrims started together from one place, they seem +always to have hired a few singers and one or two musicians to go with +them. Just before reaching any town, they drew themselves up into a line, +and thus walked through its streets in procession, singing and ringing +their little hand-bells, with a player on the bagpipes at their head. They +ought in strictness, perhaps, to have been psalms which they sung, and the +tales with which they were accustomed to lighten the way ought to have +been saintly legends and godly discourses; but in truth they were of very +varied character, according to the character of the individual pilgrims. +The songs were often love-songs; and though Chaucer's poor parson of a +town preached a sermon and was listened to, yet the romances of chivalry +or the loose faiblieux which were current probably formed the majority of +the real "Canterbury tales." In Foxe's "Acts and Monuments," we have a +very graphic and amusing little sketch of a company of pilgrims passing +through a town:-- + +W. Thorpe tells Archbishop Arundel, "When diverse men and women will go +thus after their own willes, and finding out one pilgrimage, they will +order with them before to have with them both men and women that can well +synge wanton songs; and some other pilgrims will have with them +bagge-pipes, so that every towne they come throwe, what with the noyse of +their singing and with the sound of their pipyng, and with the jingling of +their Canterbury belles, and with barking out of dogges after them, that +they make more noise than if the kinge came there awaye with all his +clarions, and many other minstrelles. And if these men and women be a +moneth on their pilgrimage, many of them shall be an half year after +great janglers, tale-tellers, and liars." The archbishop defends the +fashion, and gives us further information on the subject, saying "that +pilgremys have with them both syngers and also pipers, that when one of +them that goeth barefoote striketh his toe upon a stone, and hurteth him +sore, and maketh him to blede, it is well done that he or his fellow begyn +than a songe, or else take out of his bosom a bagge-pipe, for to drive +away with such myrthe the hurte of his fellow; for with soche solace the +travell and weriness of pylgremes is lightly and merily broughte forth." + +Erasmus's colloquy entitled "Peregrinatio Religionis ergo," enables us to +accompany the pilgrim to the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, and to join +him in his devotions at the shrine. We shall throw together the most +interesting portions of the narrative from Mr. J. G. Nichols's translation +of it. "It is," he says, "the most celebrated place throughout all +England,[215] nor could you easily find in that island the man who +ventures to reckon on prosperity unless he yearly salute her with some +small offering according to his ability." "The town of Walsingham," he +says, "is maintained by scarcely anything else but the number of its +visitors." The shrine of Our Lady was not within the priory church; but on +the north side was the wooden chapel dedicated to "Our Lady," about +twenty-three feet by thirteen, enclosed within a chapel of stone +forty-eight feet by thirty, which Erasmus describes as unfinished. On the +west of the church was another wooden building, in which were two holy +wells also dedicated to the Virgin. Erasmus describes these "holy places." +"Within the church, which I have called unfinished, is a small chapel made +of wainscot, and admitting the devotees on each side by a narrow little +door. The light is small, indeed scarcely any but from the wax lights. A +most grateful fragrance meets the nostrils. When you look in, you would +say it was the mansion of the saints, so much does it glitter on all sides +with jewels, gold, and silver. In the inner chapel one canon attends to +receive and take charge of the offerings," which the pilgrims placed upon +the altar. "To the east of this is a chapel full of wonders. Thither I go. +Another guide receives me. There we worshipped for a short time. Presently +the joint of a man's finger is exhibited to us, the largest of three; I +kiss it; and then I ask whose relics were these? He says, St. Peter's. The +Apostle? I ask. He said, Yes. Then observing the size of the joint, which +might have been that of a giant, I remarked, Peter must have been a man of +very large size. At this, one of my companions burst into a laugh; which I +certainly took ill, for if he had been quiet the attendant would have +shown us all the relics. However, we pacified him by offering a few pence. +Before the chapel was a shed, which they say was suddenly, in the winter +season, when everything was covered with snow, brought thither from a +great distance. Under this shed are two wells full to the brink; they say +the spring is sacred to the Holy Virgin. The water is wonderfully cold, +and efficacious in curing the pains of the head and stomach. We next +turned towards the heavenly milk of the Blessed Virgin" (kept apparently +in another chapel); "that milk is kept on the high-altar; in the centre of +which is Christ; at his right hand for honour's sake, his mother; for the +milk personifies the mother. As soon as the canon in attendance saw us, he +rose, put on his surplice, added the stole to his neck, prostrated himself +with due ceremony, and worshipped; anon he stretched forth the thrice-holy +milk to be kissed by us. On this, we also, on the lowest step of the +altar, religiously fell prostrate; and having first called upon Christ, we +addressed the Virgin with a little prayer like this, which I had prepared +for the purpose.... + +"'A very pious prayer; what reply did she make?' + +"Each appeared to assent, if my eyes were not deceived. For the holy milk +seemed to leap a little, and the Eucharist shone somewhat brighter. +Meanwhile the ministering canon approached us, saying nothing, but holding +out a little box, such as are presented by the toll collectors on the +bridges in Germany. I gave a few pence, which he offered to the Virgin." + +The visitor on this occasion being a distinguished person, and performing +a trifling service for the canons, was presented by the sub-prior with a +relic. "He then drew from a bag a fragment of wood, cut from a beam on +which the Virgin Mother had been seen to rest. A wonderful fragrance at +once proved it to be a thing extremely sacred. For my part, having +received so distinguished a present, prostrate and with uncovered head, I +kissed it three or four times with the highest veneration, and placed it +in my purse. I would not exchange that fragment, small as it is, for all +the gold in the Tagus. I will enclose it in gold, but so that it may shine +through crystal." + +He is also shown some relics not shown to ordinary visitors. "Several wax +candles are lighted, and a small image is produced, neither excelling in +material nor workmanship; but in virtue most efficacious. He then +exhibited the golden and silver statues. 'This one,' says he, 'is entirely +of gold; this is silver gilt; he added the weight of each, its value, and +the name of the donor.[216] Then he drew forth from the altar itself, a +world of admirable things, the individual articles of which, if I were to +proceed to describe, this day would not suffice for the relation. So that +pilgrimage terminated most fortunately for me. I was abundantly gratified +with sights; and I bring away this inestimable gift, a token bestowed by +the Virgin herself. + +"'Have you made no trial of the powers of your wood?' + +"I have: in an inn, before the end of three days, I found a man afflicted +in mind, for whom charms were then in preparation. This piece of wood was +placed under his pillow, unknown to himself; he fell into a sleep equally +deep and prolonged; in the morning he rose of whole mind." + + * * * * * + +Chaucer left his account of the Canterbury Pilgrimage incomplete; but +another author, soon after Chaucer's death, wrote a supplement to his +great work, which, however inferior in genius to the work of the great +master, yet admirably serves our purpose of giving a graphic contemporary +picture of the doings of a company of pilgrims to St. Thomas, when arrived +at their destination. Erasmus, too, in the colloquy already so largely +quoted, enables us to add some details to the picture. The pilgrims of +Chaucer's continuator arrived in Canterbury at "mydmorowe." Erasmus tells +us what they saw as they approached the city. "The church dedicated to St. +Thomas, erects itself to heaven with such majesty, that even from a +distance it strikes religious awe into the beholders.... There are two +vast towers that seem to salute the visitor from afar, and make the +surrounding country far and wide resound with the wonderful booming of +their brazen bells." Being arrived, they took up their lodgings at the +"Chequers."[217] + + "They toke their In and loggit them at midmorowe I trowe + Atte Cheker of the hope, that many a man doth know." + +And mine host of the "Tabard," in Southwark, their guide, having given the +necessary orders for their dinner, they all proceeded to the cathedral to +make their offerings at the shrine of St. Thomas. At the church door they +were sprinkled with holy water as they entered. The knight and the better +sort of the company went straight to their devotions; but some of the +pilgrims of a less educated class, began to wander about the nave of the +church, curiously admiring all the objects around them. The miller and his +companions entered into a warm discussion concerning the arms in the +painted glass windows. At length the host of the "Tabard" called them +together and reproved them for their negligence, whereupon they hastened +to make their offerings:-- + + "Then passed they forth boystly gogling with their hedds + Kneeled down to-fore the shrine, and hertily their beads + They prayed to St. Thomas, in such wise as they couth; + And sith the holy relikes each man with his mouth + Kissed, as a goodly monk the names told and taught. + And sith to other places of holyness they raught, + And were in their devocioune tyl service were al done." + +Erasmus gives a very detailed account of these "holy relikes," and of the +"other places of holiness":-- + +"On your entrance [by the south porch] the edifice at once displays itself +in all its spaciousness and majesty. To that part any one is admitted. +There are some books fixed to the pillars, and the monument of I know not +whom. The iron screens stop further progress, but yet admit a view of the +whole space, from the choir to the end of the church. To the choir you +mount by many steps, under which is a passage leading to the north. At +that spot is shown a wooden altar, dedicated to the Virgin, but mean, nor +remarkable in any respect, unless as a monument of antiquity, putting to +shame the extravagance of these times. There the pious old man is said to +have breathed his last farewell to the Virgin when his death was at hand. +On the altar is the point of the sword with which the head of the most +excellent prelate was cleft, and his brain stirred, that he might be the +more instantly despatched. The sacred rust of this iron, through love of +the martyr, we religiously kissed. Leaving this spot, we descended to the +crypt. It has its own priests. There was first exhibited the perforated +skull of the martyr, the forehead is left bare to be kissed, while the +other parts are covered with silver. At the same time is shown a slip of +lead, engraved with his name _Thomas Acrensis_.[218] There also hang in +the dark the hair shirts, the girdles and bandages with which that prelate +subdued his flesh; striking horror with their very appearance, and +reproaching us with our indulgence and our luxuries. From hence we +returned into the choir. On the north side the aumbrics were unlocked. It +is wonderful to tell what a quantity of bones was there brought out: +skulls, jaw-bones, teeth, hands, fingers, entire arms; on all which we +devoutly bestowed our kisses; and the exhibition seemed likely to last +for ever, if my somewhat unmanageable companion in that pilgrimage had not +interrupted the zeal of the showman. + +"'Did he offend the priest?' + +"When an arm was brought forward which had still the bloody flesh +adhering, he drew back from kissing it, and even betrayed some weariness. +The priest presently shut up his treasures. We next viewed the table of +the altar, and its ornaments, and then the articles which are kept under +the altar, all most sumptuous; you would say Midas and Croesus were +beggars if you saw that vast assemblage of gold and silver. After this we +were led into the sacristy. What a display was there of silken vestments, +what an array of golden candlesticks!... From this place we were conducted +back to the upper floor, for behind the high-altar you ascend again as +into a new church. There, in a little chapel, is shown the whole figure of +the excellent man, gilt and adorned with many jewels. Then the head priest +(prior) came forward. He opened to us the shrine in which what is left of +the body of the holy man is said to rest. A wooden canopy covers the +shrine, and when that is drawn up with ropes, inestimable treasures are +opened to view. The least valuable part was gold; every part glistened, +shone, and sparkled with rare and very large jewels, some of them +exceeding the size of a goose's egg. There some monks stood around with +much veneration; the cover being raised we all worshipped. The prior with +a white rod pointed out each jewel, telling its name in French, its value, +and the name of its donor, for the principal of them were offerings sent +by sovereign princes.... From hence we returned to the crypt, where the +Virgin Mother has her abode, but a somewhat dark one, being edged in by +more than one screen. + +"'What was she afraid of?' + +"Nothing, I imagine, but thieves; for I have never seen anything more +burdened with riches. When lamps were brought, we beheld a more than royal +spectacle.... Lastly we were conducted back to the sacristy; there was +brought out a box covered with black leather; it was laid upon the table +and opened; immediately all knelt and worshipped. + +"'What was in it?' + +"Some torn fragments of linen, and most of them retaining marks of +dirt.... After offering us a cup of wine, the prior courteously dismissed +us." + +When Chaucer's pilgrims had seen such of this magnificence as existed in +their earlier time, noon approaching, they gathered together and went to +their dinner. Before they left the church, however, they bought signs "as +the manner was," to show to all men that they had performed this +meritorious act. + + "There as manere and custom is, signes there they bought + For men of contre' should know whom they had sought. + Each man set his silver in such thing as they liked, + And in the meen while the miller had y-piked + His bosom full of signys of Canterbury broches. + Others set their signys upon their hedes, and some upon their cap, + And sith to dinner-ward they gan for to stapp." + +The appearance of these shrines and their surroundings is brought before +our eyes by the pictures in a beautiful volume of Lydgate's "History of +St. Edmund" in the British Museum (Harl. 2,278). At f. 40 is a +representation of the shrine of St. Edmund in the abbey church of St. +Edmund's Bury. At f. 9 a still better representation of it, showing the +iron grille which enclosed it, a monk worshipping at it, and a clerk with +a wand, probably the custodian whose duty it was to show the various +jewels and relics--as the prior did to Erasmus at Canterbury. At f. 47 is +another shrine, with some people about it who have come in the hope of +receiving miraculous cures; still another at f. 100 v., with pilgrims +praying round it. At f. 109 a shrine, with two monks in a stall beside it +saying an office, a clerk and others present. At f. 10 v. a shrine with a +group of monks. Other representations of shrines (all no doubt intended to +represent the one shrine of St. Edmund, but differing in details) are to +be found at f. 108 v., 117, &c. In the MS. Roman "D'Alexandre," of the +latter half of the fourteenth century, in the Bodleian Library, at f. +2,660, is a very good representation of the shrine of St. Thomas the +Apostle, with several people about it, and in front are two pilgrims in +rough habits, a broad hat slung over the shoulder, and a staff. + +We have hitherto spoken of male pilgrims; but it must be borne in mind +that women of all ranks were frequently to be found on pilgrimage;[219] +and all that has been said of the costume and habits of the one sex +applies equally to the other. We give here a cut of a female pilgrim with +scrip, staff, and hat, from Pl. 134 of Strutt's "Dresses and Habits of the +People of England," who professes to take it from the Harleian MS. 621. We +also give a picture of a pilgrim monk (Cotton. MS. Tiberius, A. 7.) who +bears the staff and scrip, but is otherwise habited in the proper costume +of his order. + +[Illustration: _Female Pilgrim._ (Strutt, pl. 134.)] + +[Illustration: _Pilgrim Monk._] + +When the pilgrim had returned safely home, it was but natural and proper +that as he had been sent forth with the blessing and prayers of the +church, he should present himself again in church to give thanks for the +accomplishment of his pilgrimage and his safe return. We do not find in +the service-books--as we might have expected--any special service for this +occasion, but we find sufficient indications that it was the practice. +Knighton tells us, for example, of the famous Guy, Earl of Warwick, that +on his return from his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, before he took any +refreshment, he went to all the churches in the city to return thanks. Du +Cange tells us that palmers were received on their return home with +ecclesiastical processions; but perhaps this was only in the case of men +of some social importance. We have the details of one such occasion on +record:[220] William de Mandeville, Earl of Essex, assumed the cross, and +after procuring suitable necessaries, took with him a retinue, and among +them a chaplain to perform divine offices, for all of whom he kept a daily +table. Before he set out he went to Gilbert, Bishop of London, for his +license and benediction. He travelled by land as far as Rome, over France, +Burgundy, and the Alps, leaving his horse at Mantua. He visited every holy +place in Jerusalem and on his route; made his prayers and offerings at +each; and so returned. Upon his arrival, he made presents of silk cloths +to all the churches of his see, for copes or coverings of the altars. The +monks of Walden met him in procession, in albes and copes, singing, +"Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord;" and the earl coming +to the high-altar, and there prostrating himself, the prior gave him the +benediction. After this he rose, and kneeling, offered some precious +relics in an ivory box, which he had obtained in Jerusalem and elsewhere. +This offering concluded, he rose, and stood before the altar; the prior +and convent singing the _Te Deum_. Leaving the church he went to the +chapter, to give and receive the kiss of peace from the prior and monks. A +sumptuous entertainment followed for himself and his suite; and the +succeeding days were passed in visits to relatives and friends, who +congratulated him on his safe return. + +[Illustration: From "Le Pélerinage de la Vie Humaine" (French National +Library).] + +Du Cange says that palmers used to present their scrips and staves to +their parish churches. And Coryatt[221] says that he saw cockle and mussel +shells, and beads, and other religious relics, hung up over the door of a +little chapel in a nunnery, which, says Fosbroke, were offerings made by +pilgrims on their return from Compostella. + +The illuminated MS., Julius E. VI., illustrates, among other events of the +life of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, various scenes of his +pilgrimage to Rome and to Jerusalem. In an illumination (subsequently +engraved in the chapter on Merchants) he is seen embarking in his own +ship; in another, he is presented to the Pope and cardinals at Rome[222] +(subsequently engraved in the chapter on Secular Clergy); in another, he +is worshipping at the Holy Sepulchre, where he hung up his shield in +remembrance of his accomplished vow. + +The additional MS. 24,189, is part of St. John Mandeville's history of his +travels, and its illuminations in some respects illustrate the voyage of a +pilgrim of rank. + +Hans Burgmaier's "Images de Saints," &c.,--from which we take the figure +on the next page,--affords us a very excellent contemporary illustration +of a pilgrim of high rank, with his attendants, all in pilgrim costume, +and wearing the signs which show us that their pilgrimage has been +successfully accomplished. + +Those who had taken any of the greater pilgrimages would probably be +regarded with a certain respect and reverence by their untravelled +neighbours, and the agnomen of Palmer or Pilgrim, which would naturally be +added to their Christian name--as William the Palmer, or John the +Pilgrim--is doubtless the origin of two sufficiently common surnames. The +tokens of pilgrimage sometimes even accompanied a man to his grave, and +were sculptured on his monument. Shells have not unfrequently been found +in stone coffins, and are taken with great probability to be relics of the +pilgrimage, which the deceased had once taken to Compostella, and which as +sacred things, and having a certain religious virtue, were strewed over +him as he was carried upon his bier in the funeral procession, and were +placed with him in his grave. For example, when the grave of Bishop +Mayhew, who died in 1516, in Hereford Cathedral, was opened some years +ago, there was found lying by his side, a common, rough, hazel wand, +between four and five feet long, and about as thick as a man's finger; and +with it a mussel and a few oyster-shells. Four other instances of such +hazel rods, without accompanying shells, buried with ecclesiastics, had +previously been observed in the same cathedral.[223] The tomb of Abbot +Cheltenham, at Tewkesbury, has the spandrels ornamented with shields +charged with scallop shells, and the pilgrim staff and scrip are +sculptured on the bosses of the groining of the canopy over the tomb. +There is a gravestone at Haltwhistle, Northumberland, to which we have +already more than once had occasion to refer,[224] on which is the usual +device of a cross sculptured in relief, and on one side of the shaft of +the cross are laid a sword and shield, charged with the arms of +Blenkinsop, a fess between three garbs, indicating, we presume, that the +deceased was a knight; on the other side of the shaft of the cross are +laid a palmer's staff, and a scrip, bearing also garbs, and indicating +that the knight had been a pilgrim. + +[Illustration: _Pilgrim on Horseback._] + +In the church of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, there is, under a +monumental arch in the wall of the north aisle, a recumbent effigy, a good +deal defaced, of a man in pilgrim weeds. A tunic or gown reaches half-way +down between the knee and ankle, and he has short pointed laced boots; a +hat with its margin decorated with scallop-shells lies under his head, his +scrip tasselled and charged with scallop-shells is at his right side, and +his rosary on his left, and his staff is laid diagonally across the body. +The costly style of the monument,[225] the lion at his feet, and above all +a collar of SS. round his neck, prove that the person thus commemorated +was a person of distinction. + +In the churchyard of Llanfihangel-Aber-Cowen, Carmarthenshire, there are +three graves,[226] which are assigned by the local tradition to three +holy palmers, "who wandered thither in poverty and distress, and being +about to perish for want, slew each other: the last survivor buried his +fellows and then himself in one of the graves which they had prepared, and +pulling the stone over him, left it, as it is, ill adjusted." Two of the +headstones have very rude demi-effigies, with a cross patée sculptured +upon them. In one of the graves were found, some years ago, the bones of a +female or youth, and half-a-dozen scallop-shells. There are also, among +the curious symbols which appear on mediæval coffin-stones, some which are +very likely intended for pilgrim staves. There is one at Woodhorn, +Northumberland, engraved in the "Manual of Sepulchral Slabs and Crosses," +and another at Alnwick-le-Street, Yorkshire, is engraved in Gough's +"Sepulchral Monuments," vol. i. It may be that these were men who had made +a vow of perpetual pilgrimage, or who died in the midst of an unfinished +pilgrimage, and therefore the pilgrim insignia were placed upon their +monuments. If every man and woman who had made a pilgrimage had had its +badges carved upon their tombs, we should surely have found many other +tombs thus designated; but, indeed, we have the tombs of men who we know +had accomplished pilgrimages to Jerusalem, but have no pilgrim insignia +upon their tombs. + +Other illustrations of pilgrim costume may be found scattered throughout +the illuminated MSS. References to some of the best of them are here +added. In the Royal, 1,696, at f. 163, is a good drawing of St. James as a +pilgrim. In the Add. MS. 17,687, at f. 33, another of the pilgrim saints +with scrip and staff; in the MS. Nero E 2, a half-length of the saint with +a scallop-shell in his hat; in the MS. 18,143, of early sixteenth-century +date, at f. 57 v., another. In Lydgate's "History of St. Edmund," already +quoted for its pictures of shrines, there are also several good pictures +of pilgrims. On f. 79 is a group of three pilgrims, who appear again in +different parts of the history, twice on page 80, and again at 84 and 85. +At f. 81 the three pilgrims have built themselves a hermitage and chapel, +surrounded by a fence of wicker-work. In Henry VII.'s chapel, Westminster, +the figure of a pilgrim is frequently introduced in the ornamental +sculpture of the side chapels and on the reredos, in allusion, no doubt, +to the pilgrims who figure in the legendary history of St. Edmund the +Confessor. + +Having followed the pilgrim to his very tomb, there we pause. We cannot +but satirise the troops of mere religious holiday-makers, who rode a +pleasant summer's holiday through the green roads of merry England, +feasting at the inns, singing amorous songs, and telling loose stories by +the way; going through a round of sight-seeing at the end of it; and +drinking foul water in which a dead man's blood had been mingled, or a +dead man's bones had been washed. But let us be allowed to indulge the +hope that every act of real, honest, self-denial--however mistaken--in +remorse for sin, for the sake of purity, or for the honour of religion, +did benefit the honest, though mistaken devotee. Is _our_ religion so +perfect and so pure, and is _our_ practice so exactly accordant with it, +that we can afford to sit in severe judgment upon honest, self-denying +error? + + + + +THE SECULAR CLERGY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE PAROCHIAL CLERGY. + + +The present organisation of the Church of England dates from the Council +of Hertford, A.D. 673. Before that time the Saxon people were the object +of missionary operations, carried on by two independent bodies, the +Italian mission, having its centre at Canterbury, and the Celtic mission, +in Iona. The bishops who had been sent from one or other of these sources +into the several kingdoms of the Heptarchy, gathered a body of clergy +about them, with whom they lived in common at the cathedral town; thence +they made missionary progresses through the towns and villages of the +Saxon "bush;" returning always to the cathedral as their head-quarters and +home. The national churches which sprang from these two sources were kept +asunder by some differences of discipline and ceremonial rather than of +doctrine. These differences were reconciled at the Council of Hertford, +and all the churches there and then recognised Theodore, Archbishop of +Canterbury, as the Metropolitan of all England. + +To the same archbishop we owe the establishment of the parochial +organisation of the Church of England, which has ever since continued. He +pointed out to the people the advantage of having the constant +ministrations of a regular pastor, instead of the occasional visits of a +missionary. He encouraged the thanes to provide a dwelling-house and a +parcel of glebe for the clergyman's residence; and permitted that the +tithe of each manor--which the thane had hitherto paid into the common +church-fund of the bishop--should henceforth be paid to the resident +pastor, for his own maintenance and the support of his local hospitalities +and charities; and lastly, he permitted each thane to select the pastor +for his own manor out of the general body of the clergy. Thus naturally +grew the whole establishment of the Church of England; thus each kingdom +of the Heptarchy became, in ecclesiastical language, a diocese, each manor +a parish; and thus the patronage of the benefices of England became vested +in the lords of the manors. + +At the same time that a rector was thus gradually settled in every parish, +with rights and duties which soon became defined, and sanctioned by law, +the bishop continued to keep a body of clergy about him in the cathedral, +whose position also gradually became defined and settled. The number of +clergy in the cathedral establishment became settled, and they acquired +the name of canons; they were organised into a collegiate body, with a +dean and other officers. The estates of the bishops were distinguished +from those of the body of canons. Each canon had his own house within the +walled space about the cathedral, which was called the Close, and a share +in the common property of the Chapter. Besides the canons, thus limited in +number, there gradually arose a necessity for other clergymen to fulfil +the various duties of a cathedral. These received stipends, and lodged +where they could in the town; but in time these additional clergy also +were organised into a corporation, and generally some benefactor was found +to build them a quadrangle of little houses within, or hard by, the Close, +and often to endow their corporation with lands and livings. The Vicars' +Close at Wells is a very good and well-known example of these +supplementary establishments. It is a long quadrangle, with little houses +on each side, a hall at one end, and a library at the other, and a direct +communication with the cathedral. There also arose in process of time many +collegiate churches in the kingdom, which, resembled the cathedral +establishments of secular canons in every respect, except that no bishop +had his see within their church. Some of the churches of these colleges of +secular canons were architecturally equal to the cathedrals. Southwell +Minster, for example, is not even equalled by many of the cathedral +churches. It would occupy too much space to enter into any details of the +constitution of these establishments. + +These canons may usually be recognised in pictures by their costume. The +most characteristic features were the square cap and the furred amys. The +amys was a fur cape worn over the shoulders, with a hood attached, and +usually has a fringe of the tails of the fur or sometimes of little bells, +and two long ends in front. In the accompanying very beautiful woodcut we +have a semi-choir of secular canons, seated in their stalls in the +cathedral, with the bishop in his stall at the west end. They are habited +in surplices, ornamented with needlework, beneath which may be seen their +robes, some pink, some blue in colour.[227] One in the subsellæ seems to +have his furred amys thrown over the arm of his stall; his right-hand +neighbour seems to have his hanging over his shoulder. He, and one in the +upper stalls, have round skull caps (birettas); others have the hood on +their heads, where it assumes a horned shape, which may be seen in other +pictures of canons. The woodcut is part of a full-page illumination of the +interior of a church, in the Book of Hours of Richard II., in the British +Museum (Domit. xvii.). + +[Illustration] + +These powerful ecclesiastical establishments continued to flourish +throughout the Middle Ages; their histories must be sought in Dugdale's +"Monasticon," or Britton's or Murray's "Cathedrals," or the monographs of +the several cathedrals. In the registers of the cathedrals there exists +also a vast amount of unpublished matter, which would supply all the +little life-like details that historians usually pass by, but which we +need to enable us really to enter into the cathedral life of the Middle +Ages. The world is indebted to Mr. Raine for the publication of some such +details from the registry of York, in the very interesting "York Fabric +Rolls," which he edited for the Surtees Society. + +To return to the Saxon rectors. By the end of the Saxon period of our +history we find the whole kingdom divided into parishes, and in each a +rector resident. Probably the rectors were often related to the lords of +the manors, as is natural in the case of family livings; they were not a +learned clergy; speaking generally they were a married clergy; in other +respects, too, they did not affect the ascetic spirit of monasticism; they +ate and drank like other people; farmed their own glebes; spent a good +deal of their leisure in hawking and hunting, like their brothers, and +cousins, and neighbours; but all their interests were in the people and +things of their own parishes; they seem to have performed their clerical +functions fairly well; and they were bountiful to the poor; in short, they +seem to have had the virtues and failings of the country rectors of a +hundred years ago. + +After the Norman conquest several causes concurred to deprive a large +majority of the parishes of the advantage of the cure of well-born, +well-endowed rectors, and to supply their places by ill-paid vicars and +parochial chaplains. First among these causes we may mention the evil of +impropriations, from which so many of our parishes are yet suffering, and +of which this is a brief explanation. Just before the Norman conquest +there was a great revival of the monastic principle; several new orders of +monks had been founded; and the religious feeling of the age set in +strongly in favour of these religious communities which then, at least, +were learned, industrious, and self-denying. The Normans founded many new +monasteries in England, and not only endowed them with lands and manors, +but introduced the custom of endowing them also with the rectories of +which they were patrons. They gave the benefice to the convent, and the +convent, as a religious corporation, took upon itself the office of +rector, and provided a vicar to perform the spiritual duties of the cure. +The apportionment of the temporalities of the benefice usually was, that +the convent took the great tithe, which formed the far larger portion of +the benefice, and gave the vicar the small tithe, and (if it were not too +large) the rectory-house and glebe for his maintenance. The position of a +poor vicar, it is easy to see, was very different in dignity and +emolument, and in prestige in the eyes of his parishioners, and the means +of conferring temporal benefits upon them, from that of the old rectors +his predecessors in the cure. By the time of the Reformation, about half +of the livings of England and Wales had thus become impropriate to +monasteries, cathedral chapters, corporations, guilds, &c.; and since the +great tithe was not restored to the parishes at the dissolution of the +religious houses, but granted to laymen together with the abbey-lands, +about half the parishes of England are still suffering from this +perversion of the ancient Saxon endowments. + +Another cause of the change in the condition of the parochial clergy was +the custom of papal provisors. The popes, in the thirteenth century, +gradually assumed a power of nominating to vacant benefices. Gregory IX. +and Innocent IV., who ruled the church in the middle of this century, are +said to have presented Italian priests to all the best benefices in +England. Many of these foreigners, having preferment in their own country, +never came near their cures, but employed parish chaplains to fulfil their +duties, and sometimes neglected to do even that. Edward III. resisted +this invasion of the rights of the patrons of English livings, and in the +time of Richard II. it was finally stopped by the famous statute of +Præmunire (A.D. 1392). + +The custom of allowing one man to hold several livings was another means +of depriving parishes of a resident rector, and handing them over to the +care of a curate. The extent to which this system of Pluralities was +carried in the Middle Ages seems almost incredible; we even read of one +man having from four to five hundred benefices. + +Another less known abuse was the custom of presenting to benefices men who +had taken only the minor clerical orders. A glance at the lists of +incumbents of benefices in any good county history will reveal the fact +that rectors of parishes were often only deacons, sub-deacons, or +acolytes.[228] It is clear that in many of these cases--probably in the +majority of them--the men had taken a minor order only to qualify +themselves for holding the temporalities of a benefice, and never +proceeded to the priesthood at all; they employed a chaplain to perform +their spiritual functions for them, while they enjoyed the fruits of the +benefice as if it were a lay fee, the minor order which they had taken +imposing no restraint upon their living an entirely secular life.[229] It +is clear that a considerable number of priests were required to perform +the duties of the numerous parishes whose rectors were absent or in minor +orders, who seem to have been called parochial chaplains. The emolument +and social position of these parochial chaplains were not such as to make +the office a desirable one; and it would seem that the candidates for it +were, to a great extent, drawn from the lower classes of the people. +Chaucer tells us of his poor parson of a town, whose description we give +below, that + + "With him there was a _ploughman_ was his brother." + +In the Norwich corporation records of the time of Henry VIII. (1521 A.D.), +there is a copy of the examination of "Sir William Green," in whose sketch +of his own life, though he was only a pretended priest, we have a curious +history of the way in which many a poor man's son did really attain the +priesthood. He was the son of a labouring man, learned grammar at the +village grammar school for two years, and then went to day labour with his +father. Afterwards removing to Boston, he lived with his aunt, partly +labouring for his living, and going to school as he had opportunity. Being +evidently a clerkly lad, he was admitted to the minor orders, up to that +of acolyte, at the hands of "Friar Graunt," who was a suffragan bishop in +the diocese of Lincoln. After that he went to Cambridge, where, as at +Boston, he partly earned a livelihood by his labour, and partly availed +himself of the opportunities of learning which the university offered, +getting his meat and drink of alms. At length, having an opportunity of +going to Rome, with two monks of Whitby Abbey (perhaps in the capacity of +attendant, one Edward Prentis being of the company, who was, perhaps, his +fellow-servant to the two monks), he there endeavoured to obtain the order +of the priesthood, which seems to have been conferred rather +indiscriminately at Rome, and without a "title;" but in this he was +unsuccessful. After his return to England he laboured for his living, +first with his brother in Essex, then at Cambridge, then at Boston, then +in London. At last he went to Cambridge again, and, by the influence of +Mr. Coney, obtained of the Vice-Chancellor a licence under seal to collect +subscriptions for one year towards an exhibition to complete his +education in the schools, as was often done by poor scholars.[230] Had he +obtained money enough, completed his education, and obtained ordination in +due course, it would have completed the story in a regular way. But here +he fell into bad hands, forged first a new poor scholar's licence, and +then letters of orders, and then wandered about begging alms as an +unfortunate, destitute priest; he may furnish us with a type of the idle +and vagabond priests, of whom there were only too many in the country, and +of whom Sir Thomas More says, "the order is rebuked by the priests' +begging and lewd living, which either is fain to walk at rovers and live +upon trentals (thirty days' masses), or worse, or to serve in a secular +man's house."[231] The original of this sketch is given at length in the +note below.[232] + +This custom of poor scholars gaining their livelihood and the means of +prosecuting their studies by seeking alms was very common. It should be +noticed here that the Church in the Middle Ages was the chief ladder by +which men of the lower ranks were able to climb up--and vast numbers did +climb up--into the upper ranks of society, to be clergymen, and monks, and +abbots, and bishops, statesmen, and popes. Piers Ploughman, in a very +illiberal strain, makes it a subject of reproach-- + + "Now might each sowter[233] his son setten to schole, + And each beggar's brat in the book learne, + And worth to a writer and with a lorde dwelle, + Or falsly to a frere the fiend for to serven. + So of that beggar's brat a Bishop that worthen, + Among the peers of the land prese to sythen; + And lordes sons lowly to the lorde's loute, + Knyghtes crooketh hem to, and coucheth ful lowe; + And his sire a sowter y-soiled with grees,[234] + His teeth with toyling of lether battered as a sawe." + +The Church was the great protector and friend of the lower classes of +society, and that on the highest grounds. In this very matter of educating +the children of the poor, and opening to such as were specially gifted a +suitable career, we find so late as the date of the Reformation, Cranmer +maintaining the rights of the poor on high grounds. For among the Royal +Commissioners for reorganising the cathedral establishment at Canterbury +"were more than one or two who would have none admitted to the Grammar +School but sons or younger brothers of gentlemen. As for others, +husbandmen's children, they were more used, they said, for the plough and +to be artificers than to occupy the place of the learned sort. Whereto the +Archbishop said that poor men's children are many times endowed with more +singular gifts of nature, which are also the gifts of God, as eloquence, +memory, apt pronunciation, sobriety, and such like; and also commonly more +apt to study than is the gentleman's son, more delicately educated. +Hereunto it was, on the other part, replied that it was for the +ploughman's son to go to plough, and the artificer's son to apply to the +trade of his parent's vocation; and the gentleman's children are used to +have the knowledge of government and rule of the commonwealth. 'I grant,' +replied the Archbishop, 'much of your meaning herein as needful in a +commonwealth; but yet utterly to exclude the ploughman's son and the poor +man's son from the benefit of learning, as though they were unworthy to +have the gifts of the Holy Ghost bestowed upon them as well as upon +others, was much as to say as that Almighty God should not be at liberty +to bestow his great gifts of grace upon any person, but as we and other +men shall appoint them to be employed according to our fancy, and not +according to his most goodly will and pleasure, who giveth his gifts of +learning and other perfections in all sciences unto all kinds and states +of people indifferently." + + * * * * * + +Besides the rectors and vicars of parishes, there was another class of +beneficed clergymen in the middle ages, who gradually became very +numerous, viz., the chantry priests. By the end of the ante-Reformation +period there was hardly a church in the kingdom which had not one or more +chantries founded in it, and endowed for the perpetual maintenance of a +chantry priest, to say mass daily for ever for the soul's health of the +founder and his family. The churches of the large and wealthy towns had +sometimes ten or twelve such chantries. The chantry chapel was sometimes +built on to the parish church, and opening into it; sometimes it was only +a corner of the church screened off from the rest of the area by openwork +wooden screens. The chantry priest had sometimes a chantry-house to live +in, and estates for his maintenance, sometimes he had only an annual +income, charged on the estate of the founder. The chantries were +suppressed, and their endowments confiscated, in the reign of Edward VI., +but the chantry chapels still remain as part of our parish churches, and +where the parclose screens have long since been removed, the traces of the +chantry altar are still very frequently apparent to the eye of the +ecclesiastical antiquary. Sometimes more than one priest was provided for +by wealthy people. Richard III. commenced the foundation of a chantry of +one hundred chaplains, to sing masses in the cathedral church of York; the +chantry-house was begun, and six altars were erected in York Minster, when +the king's death at Bosworth Field interrupted the completion of the +magnificent design.[235] + +We have next to add to our enumeration of the various classes of the +mediæval clergy another class of chaplains, whose duties were very nearly +akin to those of the chantry priests. These were the guild priests. It was +the custom throughout the middle ages for men and women to associate +themselves in religious guilds, partly for mutual assistance in temporal +matters, but chiefly for mutual prayers for their welfare while living, +and for their soul's health when dead. These guilds usually maintained a +chaplain, whose duty it was to celebrate mass daily for the brethren and +sisters of the guild. These guild priests must have been numerous, _e.g._, +we learn from Blomfield's "Norfolk," that there were at the Reformation +ten guilds in Windham Church, Norfolk, seven at Hingham, seven at +Swaffham, seventeen at Yarmouth, &c. Moreover, a guild, like a chantry, +had sometimes more than one guild priest. Leland tells us the guild of St. +John's, in St. Botolph's Church, Boston, had ten priests, "living in a +fayre house at the west end of the parish church yard." In St. Mary's +Church, Lichfield, was a guild which had five priests.[236] + +The rules of some of these religious guilds may be found in Stow's "Survey +of London," _e.g._, of St. Barbara's guild in the church of St. Katherine, +next the Tower of London (in book ii. p. 7 of Hughes's edition.) + +We find bequests to the guild priests, in common with other chaplains, in +the ancient wills, _e.g._, in 1541, Henry Waller, of Richmond, leaves "to +every gyld prest of thys town, vi{d}. y{t} ar at my beryall."[237] + +Dr. Rock says,[238] "Besides this, every guild priest had to go on Sundays +and holy days, and help the priests in the parochial services of the +church in which his guild kept their altar. All chantry priests were +bidden by our old English canons to do the same." The brotherhood priest +of the guild of the Holy Trinity, at St. Botolph's, in London, was +required to be "meke and obedient unto the qu'er in alle divine servyces +duryng hys time, as custome is in the citye amonge alle other p'sts." +Sometimes a chantry priest was specially required by his foundation deed +to help in the cure of souls in the parish, as in the case of a chantry +founded in St. Mary's, Maldon, and Little Bentley, Essex;[239] sometimes +the chantry chapel was built in a hamlet at a distance from the parish +church, and was intended to serve as a chapel of ease, and the priest as +an assistant curate, as at Foulness Island and Billericay, both in Essex. + +But it is very doubtful whether the chantry priests generally considered +themselves bound to take any share in the parochial work of the +parish.[240] In the absence of any cure of souls, the office of chantry or +guild priest was easy, and often lucrative; and we find it a common +subject of complaint, from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries, that +it was preferred to a cure of souls; and that even parochial incumbents +were apt to leave their parishes in the hands of a parochial chaplain, and +seek for themselves a chantry or guild, or one of the temporary +engagements to celebrate annals, of which there were so many provided by +the wills of which we shall shortly have to speak. Thus Chaucer reckons, +among the virtues of his poore parson, that-- + + "He set not his benefice to hire, + And let his shepe accomber in the mire, + And runne to London to Saint Poule's, + To seken him a chauntrie for soules, + Or with a brotherhood to be with-held, + But dwelt at home, and kepte well his fold." + +So also Piers Ploughman-- + + "Parsons and parisshe preistes, pleyned hem to the bisshope, + That hire parishes weren povere sith the pestilence tyme, + To have a licence and leve at London to dwelle + And syngen ther for symonie, for silver is swete." + +Besides the chantry priests and guild priests, there was a great crowd of +priests who gained a livelihood by taking temporary engagements to say +masses for the souls of the departed. Nearly every will of the period we +are considering provides for the saying of masses for the soul of the +testator. Sometimes it is only by ordering a fee to be paid to every +priest who shall be present at the funeral, sometimes by ordering the +executors to have a number of masses, varying from ten to ten thousand, +said as speedily as may be; sometimes by directing that a priest shall be +engaged to say mass for a certain period, varying from thirty days to +forty or fifty years. These casual masses formed an irregular provision +for a large number of priests, many of whom performed no other clerical +function, and too often led a dissolute as well as an idle life. +Archbishop Islip says in his "Constitutions:"[241]--"We are certainly +informed, by common fame and experience, that modern priests, through +covetousness and love of ease, not content with reasonable salaries, +demand excessive pay for their labours, and receive it; and do so despise +labour and study pleasure, that they wholly refuse, as parish priests, to +serve in churches or chapels, or to attend the cure of souls, though +fitting salaries are offered them, that they may live in a leisurely +manner, by celebrating annals for the quick and dead; and so parish +churches and chapels remain unofficiated, destitute of parochial +chaplains, and even proper curates, to the grievous danger of souls." +Chaucer has introduced one of this class into the Canon's Yeoman's +tale:-- + + "In London was a priest, an annueller,[242] + That therein dwelled hadde many a year, + Which was so pleasant and so serviceable + Unto the wife there as he was at table + That she would suffer him no thing to pay + For board ne clothing, went he never so gay, + And spending silver had he right ynoit."[243] + +Another numerous class of the clergy were the domestic chaplains. Every +nobleman and gentleman had a private chapel in his own house, and an +ecclesiastical establishment attached, proportionate to his own rank and +wealth. In royal houses and those of the great nobles, this private +establishment was not unfrequently a collegiate establishment, with a dean +and canons, clerks, and singing men and boys, who had their church and +quadrangle within the precincts of the castle, and were maintained by +ample endowments. The establishment of the royal chapel of St. George, in +Windsor Castle, is, perhaps, the only remaining example. The household +book of the Earl of Northumberland gives us very full details of his +chapel establishment, and of their duties, and of the emoluments which +they received in money and kind. They consisted of a dean, who was to be a +D.D. or LL.D. or B.D., and ten other priests, and eleven gentlemen and six +children, who composed the choir.[244] But country gentlemen of wealth +often maintained a considerable chapel establishment. Henry Machyn, in +his diary,[245] tells us, in noticing the death of Sir Thomas Jarmyn, of +Rushbrooke Hall, Suffolk, in 1552, that "he was the best housekeeper in +the county of Suffolk, and kept a goodly chapel of singing men." Knights +and gentlemen of less means, or less love of goodly singing men, were +content with a single priest as chaplain.[246] Even wealthy yeomen and +tradesmen had their domestic chaplain. Sir Thomas More says,[247] there +was "such a rabel [of priests], that every mean man must have a priest in +his house to wait upon his wife, which no man almost lacketh now." The +chapels of the great lords were often sumptuous buildings, erected within +the precincts, of which St. George's, Windsor, and the chapel within the +Tower of London may supply examples. Smaller chapels erected within the +house were still handsome and ecclesiastically-designed buildings, of +which examples may be found in nearly every old castle and manor house +which still exists; _e.g._, the chapel of Colchester Castle of the twelfth +century, of Ormsbro Castle of late twelfth century, of Beverstone Castle +of the fourteenth century, engraved in Parker's "Domestic Architecture," +III. p. 177; that at Igtham Castle of the fifteenth century, engraved in +the same work, III. p. 173; that at Haddon Hall of the fifteenth century. +In great houses, besides the general chapel, there was often a small +oratory besides for the private use of the lord of the castle, in later +times called a closet; sometimes another oratory for the lady, as in the +case of the Earl of Northumberland.[248] In some of these domestic chapels +we find a curious internal arrangement; the western part of the apartment +is divided into two stories by a wooden floor. This is the case also with +the chapel of the preceptory of Chobham, Northumberland, of the Coyston +Almshouses at Leicester (Parker's "Dom. Arch."). It is the case in one of +the chapels in Tewkesbury Abbey Church, and in the case of a priory church +in Norway. In some cases it was probably to accommodate the tenants of +different stories of the house. The frequency with which in later times +the lord of the house had a private gallery in the chapel (a similar +arrangement occasionally occurs in parish churches) leads us to conjecture +that in these cases of two floors the upper floor was for the members of +the family, and the lower for the servants of the house. These chapels +were thoroughly furnished with vessels, books, robes, and every usual +ornament, and every object and appliance necessary for the performance of +the offices of the church, with a splendour proportioned to the means of +the master of the house. From the Household Book of the Earl of +Northumberland, we gather that the chapel had three altars, and that my +lord and my lady had each a closet, _i.e._, an oratory, in which there +were other altars. The chapel was furnished with hangings, and had a pair +of organs. There were four antiphoners and four grails--service +books--which were so famous for their beauty, that, at the earl's death, +Wolsey intimated his wish to have them. We find mention, too, of the suits +of vestments and single vestments, and copes and surplices, and +altar-cloths for the five altars. All these things were under the care of +the yeoman of the vestry, and were carried about with the earl at his +removals from one to another of his houses. Minute catalogues and +descriptions of the furniture of these domestic chapels may also be found +in the inventories attached to ancient wills.[249] + +We shall give hereafter a picture of one of these domestic chaplains, +viz., of Sir Roger, chaplain of the chapel of the Earl of Warwick at +Flamstead. There is a picture of another chaplain of the Earl of Warwick +in the MS. Life of R. Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick (Julius E. IV.), where +the earl and his chaplain are represented sitting together at dinner. + +Besides the clergy who were occupied in these various kinds of spiritual +work, there were also a great number of priests engaged in secular +occupations. Bishops were statesmen, generals, and ambassadors, employing +suffragan bishops[250] in the work of their dioceses. Priests were engaged +in many ways in the king's service, and in that of noblemen and others. +Piers Ploughman says:-- + + "Somme serven the kyng, and his silver tellen, + In cheker and in chauncelrie, chalangen his dettes, + Of wardes and of wardemotes, weyves and theyves. + And some serven as servantz, lordes and ladies, + And in stede of stywardes, sitten and demen." + +The domestic chaplains were usually employed more or less in secular +duties. Thus such services are regularly allotted to the eleven priests in +the chapel of the Earls of Northumberland; one was surveyor of my lord's +lands, and another my lord's secretary. Mr. Christopher Pickering, in his +will (A.D. 1542), leaves to "my sarvands John Dobson and Frances, xx{s}. +a-pece, besydes ther wages; allso I gyve unto Sir James Edwarde my +sarvand," &c.; and one of the witnesses to the will is "Sir James Edwarde, +preste," who was probably Mr. Pickering's chaplain.[251] Sir Thomas More +says, every man has a priest to wait upon his wife; and in truth the +chaplain seems to have often performed the duties of a superior gentleman +usher. Nicholas Blackburn, a wealthy citizen of York, and twice Lord +Mayor, leaves (A.D. 1431-2) a special bequest to his wife "to find her a +gentlewoman, and a priest, and a servant."[252] Lady Elizabeth Hay leaves +bequests in this order, to her son, her chaplain, her servant, and her +maid.[253] + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +CLERKS IN MINOR ORDERS. + + +It is necessary, to a complete sketch of the subject of the secular +clergy, to notice, however briefly, the minor orders, which have so long +been abolished in the reformed Church of England, that we have forgotten +their very names. There were seven orders through which the clerk had to +go, from the lowest to the highest step in the hierarchy. The Pontifical +of Archbishop Ecgbert gives us the form of ordination for each order; and +the ordination ceremonies and exhortations show us very fully what were +the duties of the various orders, and by what costume and symbols of +office we may recognise them. But these particulars are brought together +more concisely in a document of much later date, viz., in the account of +the degradation from the priesthood of Sir William Sawtre, the first of +the Lollards who died for heresy, in the year 1400 A.D., and a transcript +of it will suffice for our present purpose. The archbishop, assisted by +several bishops, sitting on the bishop's throne in St. Paul's--Sir William +Sawtre standing before him in priestly robes--proceeded to the degradation +as follows:--"In the name, &c., we, Thomas, &c., degrade and depose you +from the order of priests, and in token thereof we take from you the paten +and the chalice, and deprive you of all power of celebrating mass; we also +strip you of the chasuble, take from you the sacerdotal vestment, and +deprive you altogether of the dignity of the priesthood. Thee also, the +said William, dressed in the habit of a deacon, and having the book of the +gospels in thy hands, do we degrade and depose from the order of deacons, +as a condemned and relapsed heretic; and in token hereof we take from +thee the book of the gospels, and the stole, and deprive thee of the power +of reading the gospels. We degrade thee from the order of subdeacons, and +in token thereof take from thee the albe and maniple. We degrade thee from +the order of an acolyte, taking from thee in token thereof this small +pitcher and taper staff. We degrade thee from the order of an exorcist, +and take from thee in token thereof the book of exorcisms. We degrade thee +from the order of reader, and take from thee in token thereof the book of +divine lessons. Thee also, the said William Sawtre, vested in a surplice +as an ostiary,[254] do we degrade from that order, taking from thee the +surplice and the keys of the church. Furthermore, as a sign of actual +degradation, we have caused the crown and clerical tonsure to be shaved +off in our presence, and to be entirely obliterated like a layman; we have +also caused a woollen cap to be put upon thy head, as a secular layman." + +The word _clericus_--clerk--was one of very wide and rather vague +significance, and included not only the various grades of clerks in +orders, of whom we have spoken, but also all men who followed any kind of +occupation which involved the use of reading and writing; finally, every +man who could read might claim the "benefit of clergy," _i.e._, the legal +immunities of a clerk. The word is still used with the same +comprehensiveness and vagueness of meaning. Clerk in Orders is still the +legal description of a clergyman; and men whose occupation is to use the +pen are still called clerks, as lawyers' clerks, merchants' clerks, &c. +Clerks were often employed in secular occupations; for example, Alan +Middleton, who was employed by the convent of St. Alban's to collect +their rents, and who is represented on page 63 ante in the picture from +their "Catalogus Benefactorum" (Nero D. vii., British Museum), is +tonsured, and therefore was a clerk. Chaucer gives us a charming picture +of a poor clerk of Oxford, who seems to have been a candidate for holy +orders, and is therefore germane to our subject:-- + + "A clerke there was of Oxenforde also, + That unto logike hadde long ygo, + As lene was his horse as is a rake, + And he was not right fat, I undertake, + But looked holwe and thereto soberly. + Ful thredbare was his overest courtepy,[255] + For he hadde getten him yet no benefice, + Ne was nought worldly to have an office.[256] + For him was lever han at his beddes hed + A twenty bokes, clothed in black or red, + Of Aristotle and his philosophie, + Than robes riche, or fidel or sautrie. + But all be that he was a philosophre, + Yet hadde he but little gold in cofre, + But all that he might of his frendes hente,[257] + On bokes and on lerning he it spente; + And besely gan for the soules praye + Of hem that yave him wherewith to scholaie,[258] + Of studie toke he moste cure and hede. + Not a word spake he more than was nede, + And that was said in forme and reverence, + And short and quike, and ful of high sentence. + Souning in moral vertue was his speche, + And gladly wolde he lerne and gladly teche." + +In the Miller's Tale Chaucer gives us a sketch of another poor scholar of +Oxford. He lodged with a carpenter, and + + "A chambre had he in that hostelerie, + Alone withouten any compaynie, + Ful fetisly 'ydight with herbés sweet." + +His books great and small, and his astrological apparatus + + "On shelvés couched at his beddé's head, + His press ycovered with a falding red, + And all about there lay a gay sautrie + On which he made on nightés melodie + So swetély that all the chamber rung, + And _Angelus ad Virginem_ he sung." + +We give a typical illustration of the class from one of the characters in +a Dance of Death at the end of a Book of the Hours of the Blessed Virgin +Mary, in the British Museum. It is described beneath as "Un Clerc."[259] + +[Illustration: _A Clerk._] + +One of this class was employed by every parish to perform certain duties +on behalf of the parishioners, and to assist the clergyman in certain +functions of his office. The Parish Clerk has survived the revolution +which swept away the other minor ecclesiastical officials of the middle +ages, and still has his legal status in the parish church. Probably many +of our readers will be surprised to hear that the office is an ancient +one, and will take interest in a few original extracts which throw light +on the subject. + +In the wills he frequently has a legacy left, together with the +clergy--_e.g._, "Item I leave to my parish vicar iij{s.} iiij{d.} Item I +leave to my parish clerk xij{d.} Item I leave to every chaplain present at +my obsequies and mass iiij{d.}" (Will of John Brompton, of Beverley, +merchant, 1443.)[260] Elizabeth del Hay, in 1434, leaves to "every priest +ministering at my obsequies vi{d.}; to every parish clerk iiij{d.}; to +minor clerks to each one ij{d.}"[261] Hawisia Aske, of York, in 1450-1 +A.D., leaves to the "parish chaplain of St. Michael iij{s.} iiij{d.}; to +every chaplain of the said church xx{d.}; to the parish clerk of the said +church xx{d.}; to the sub-clerk of the same church x{d.}"[262] John Clerk, +formerly chaplain of the chapel of the Blessed Mary Magdalen, near York, +in 1449, leaves to "the parish clerk of St. Olave, in the suburbs of York, +xij{d.}; to each of the two chaplains of the said church being present at +my funeral and mass iiij{d.}; to the parish clerk of the said church +iiij{d.}; to the sub-clerk of the said church ij{d.}; among the little +boys of the said church wearing surplices iiij{d.}, to be distributed +equally."[263] These extracts serve to indicate the clerical staff of the +several churches mentioned. + +From other sources we learn what his duties were. In 1540 the parish of +Milend, near Colchester, was presented to the archdeacon by the rector, +because in the said church there was "nother clerke nor sexten to go withe +him in tyme of visitacion [of the sick], nor to helpe him say masses, nor +to rynge to servyce."[264] And in 1543 the Vicar of Kelveden, Essex, +complains that there is not "caryed holy water,[265] nor ryngyng to +evensonge accordyng as the clerke shuld do, with other dutees to him +belongyng."[266] In the York presentations we find a similar complaint at +Wyghton in 1472; they present that the parish clerk does not perform his +services as he ought, because when he ought to go with the vicar to visit +the sick, the clerk absents himself, and sends a boy with the vicar.[267] +The clerk might be a married man, for in 1416 Thomas Curtas, parish clerk +of the parish of St. Thomas the Martyr, is presented, because with his +wife he has hindered, and still hinders, the parish clerk of St. Mary +Bishophill, York [in which parish he seems to have lived] from entering +his house on the Lord's days with holy water, as is the custom of the +city. Also it is complained that the said Thomas and his wife refuse to +come to hear divine service at their parish church, and withdraw their +oblations.[268] In the Royal MS., 10, E iv., is a series of illustrations +of a mediæval tale, which turns on the adventures of a parish clerk, as +he goes through the parish aspersing the people with holy water. Two of +the pictures will suffice to show the costume and the holy water-pot and +aspersoir, and to indicate how he went into all the rooms of the +house--now into the kitchen sprinkling the cook, now into the hall +sprinkling the lord and lady who are at breakfast. In the woodcut on p. +241, will be seen how he precedes an ecclesiastical procession, sprinkling +the people on each side as he goes. The subsequent description (p. 221) of +the parish clerk Absolon, by Chaucer, indicates that sometimes--perhaps on +some special festivals--the clerk went about censing the people instead of +sprinkling them. + +[Illustration: _The Parish Clerk sprinkling the Cook._] + +[Illustration: _The Parish Clerk sprinkling the Knight and Lady._] + +To continue the notes of a parish clerk's duties, gathered from the +churchwardens' presentations: at Wyghton, in 1510, they find "a faut with +our parish clerk yt he hath not done his dewtee to ye kirk, yt is to say, +ryngyng of ye morne bell and ye evyn bell; and also another fawt [which +may explain the former one], he fyndes yt pour mene pays hym not his +wages."[269] At Cawood, in 1510 A.D., we find it the duty of the parish +clerk "to keepe ye clok and ryng corfer [curfew] at dew tymes appointed by +ye parrish, and also to ryng ye day bell."[270] He had his desk in church +near the clergyman, perhaps on the opposite side of the chancel, as we +gather from a presentation from St. Maurice, York, in 1416, that the desks +in the choir on both sides, especially where the parish chaplain and +parish clerk are accustomed to sit, need repair.[271] A story in Matthew +Paris[272] tells us what his office was worth: "It happened that an agent +of the pope met a petty clerk of a village carrying water in a little +vessel, with a sprinkler and some bits of bread given him for having +sprinkled some holy water, and to him the deceitful Roman thus addressed +himself: 'How much does the profit yielded to you by this church amount to +in a year?' To which the clerk, ignorant of the Roman's cunning, replied, +'To twenty shillings I think;' whereupon the agent demanded the +per-centage the pope had just demanded on all ecclesiastical benefices. +And to pay that small sum this poor man was compelled to hold schools for +many days, and by selling his books in the precincts, to drag on a +half-starved life." The parish clerks of London formed a guild, which used +to exhibit miracle plays at its annual feast, on the green, in the parish +of St. James, Clerkenwell. The parish clerks always took an important part +in the conduct of the miracle plays; and it was natural that when they +united their forces in such an exhibition on behalf of their guild the +result should be an exhibition of unusual excellence. Stow tells us that +in 1391 the guild performed before the king and queen and whole court +three days successively, and that in 1409 they produced a play of the +creation of the world, whose representation occupied eight successive +days. The Passion-play, still exhibited every ten years at Ober-Ammergau, +has made all the world acquainted with the kind of exhibition in which our +forefathers delighted. These miracle-plays still survive also in Spain, +and probably in other Roman Catholic countries. + +Chaucer has not failed to give us, in his wonderful gallery of +contemporary characters (in the Miller's Tale), a portrait of the parish +clerk:-- + + "Now was ther of that churche a parish clerk, + The which that was ycleped Absolon. + Crulle was his here,[273] and as the gold it shon, + And strouted as a fanne large and brode; + Ful streight and even lay his jolly shode. + His rode[274] was red, his eyen grey as goos, + With Poules windowes carven on his shoos, + In hosen red he went ful fetisly,[275] + Yclad he was ful smal and proprely, + All in a kirtle of a light waget,[276] + Ful faire and thicke ben the pointes set. + An' therupon he had a gay surplise, + As white as is the blossome upon the rise.[277] + A mery child he was, so God me save, + Wel coud he leten blod, and clippe, and shave, + And make a chartre of lond and a quitance; + In twenty manere could he trip and dance, + (After the scole of Oxenforde tho) + And playen songes on a smal ribible.[278] + Therto he song, sometime a loud quinible.[278] + And as wel could he play on a giterne. + In all the toun n'as brewhouse ne taverne + That he ne visited with his solas, + Ther as that any galliard tapstere was. + This Absolon, that joly was and gay, + Goth with a censor on the holy day, + Censing the wives of the parish faste,[279] + And many a lovely loke he on hem caste. + + * * * * * + + Sometime to shew his lightnesse and maistrie, + He plaieth Herode on a skaffold hie." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE PARISH PRIEST. + + +We shall obtain further help to a comprehension of the character, and +position, and popular estimation of the mediæval seculars--the parish +priests--if we compare them first with the regulars--the monks and +friars--and then with their modern representatives the parochial clergy. +One great point of difference between the regulars and the seculars was +that the monks and friars affected asceticism, and the parish priests did +not. The monks and friars had taken the three vows of absolute poverty, +voluntary celibacy, and implicit obedience to the superior of the convent. +The parish priests, on the contrary, had their benefices and their private +property; they long resisted the obligations of celibacy, which popes and +councils tried to lay upon them; they were themselves spiritual rulers in +their own parishes, subject only to the constitutional rule of the bishop. +The monks professed to shut themselves up from the world, and to mortify +their bodily appetites in order the better, as they considered, to work +out their own salvation. The friars professed to be the schools of the +prophets, to have the spirit of Nazariteship, to be followers of Elijah +and John Baptist, to wear sackcloth, and live hardly, and go about as +preachers of repentance. The secular clergy had no desire and felt no need +to shut themselves up from the world like monks; they did not feel called +upon, with the friars, to imitate John Baptist, "neither eating nor +drinking," seeing that a greater than he came "eating and drinking" and +living the common life of men. They rather looked upon Christian priests +and clerks as occupying the place of the priests and Levites of the +ancient church, set apart to minister in holy things like them, but not +condemned to poverty or asceticism any more than they were. The difference +told unfavourably for the parish clergy in the popular estimation; for the +unreasoning crowd is always impressed by the dramatic exhibition of +austerity of life and the profession of extraordinary sanctity, and +undervalues the virtue which is only seen in the godly regulation of a +life of ordinary every-day occupations. The lord monks were the +aristocratic order of the clergy. Their convents were wealthy and +powerful, their minsters and houses were the glory of the land, their +officials ranked with the nobles, and the greatness of the whole house +reflected dignity upon each of its monks. + +The friars were the popular order of the clergy. The Four Orders were +great organizations of itinerant preachers; powerful through their +learning and eloquence, their organization, and the Papal support; +cultivating the favour of the people by which they lived by popular +eloquence and demagogic arts. + +Between these two great classes stood the secular clergy, upon whom the +practical pastoral work of the country fell. A numerous body, but +disorganized; diocesan bishops acting as statesmen, and devolving their +ecclesiastical duties on suffragans; rectors refusing to take priests' +orders, and living like laymen; the majority of the parishes practically +served by parochial chaplains; every gentleman having his own chaplain +dependent on his own pleasure; hundreds of priests engaged in secular +occupations. + +Between the secular priests and the friars, as we have seen, pp. 46 _et +seq._, there was a direct rivalry and a great deal of bitter feeling. The +friars accused the parish priests of neglect of duty and ignorance in +spiritual things and worldliness of life, and came into their parishes +whenever they pleased, preaching and visiting from house to house, hearing +confessions and prescribing penances, and carrying away the offerings of +the people. The parish priests looked upon the friars as intruders in +their parishes, and accused them of setting their people against them and +undermining their spiritual influence; of corrupting discipline, by +receiving the confessions of those who were ashamed to confess to their +pastor who knew them, and enjoining light penances in order to encourage +people to come to them; and lastly, of using all the arts of low +popularity-seeking in order to extract gifts and offerings from their +people. + +We have already given one contemporary illustration of this from Chaucer, +at p. 46 _ante_. We add one or two extracts from Piers Ploughman's Vision. +In one place of his elaborate allegory he introduces Wrath, saying:-- + + "I am Wrath, quod he, I was sum tyme a frere, + And the convent's gardyner for to graff impes[280] + On limitoures and listers lesyngs I imped + Till they bere leaves of low speech lordes to please + And sithen thier blossomed abrode in bower to hear shriftes. + And now is fallen therof a fruite, that folk have well liever + Shewen her shriftes to hem than shryve hem to ther parsones. + And now, parsons have perceyved that freres part with hem, + These possessioners preache and deprave freres, + And freres find hem in default, as folk beareth witness."--v. 143. + +And again on the same grievance of the friars gaining the confidence of +the people away from their parish priests-- + + "And well is this y-holde: in parisches of Engelonde, + For persones and parish prestes: that shulde the peple shryve, + Ben curatoures called: to know and to hele. + Alle that ben her parishens: penaunce to enjoine, + And shulden be ashamed in her shrifte: an shame maketh hem wende, + And fleen to the freres: as fals folke to Westmynstere, + That borwith and bereth it thider."[281] + +When we compare the mediæval seculars with the modern clergy, we find that +the modern clergy form a much more homogeneous body. In the mediæval +seculars the bishop was often one who had been a monk or friar; the +cathedral clergy in many dioceses were regulars. Then, besides the parsons +and parochial chaplains, who answer to our incumbents and curates, there +were the chantry and gild priests, and priests who "lived at rovers on +trentals;" the great number of domestic chaplains must have considerably +affected the relations of the parochial clergy to the gentry. Of the +inferior ecclesiastical people, deacons, sub-deacons, acolytes, readers, +exorcists, and ostiaries it is probable that in an ordinary parish there +would be only a parish clerk and a boy-acolyte; in larger churches an +ostiary besides, answering to our verger, and in cathedrals a larger staff +of minor officials; but it is doubtful whether there was any real working +staff of sub-deacons, readers, exorcists, any more than we in these days +have a working order of deacons; men passed through those orders on their +way upwards to the priesthood, but made no stay in them. + +But a still greater difference between the mediæval secular clergy and the +modern parochial clergy is in their relative position with respect to +society generally. The homogeneous body of "the bishops and clergy" are +the only representatives of a clergy in the eyes of modern English +society; the relative position of the secular clergy in the eyes of the +mediæval world was less exclusive and far inferior. The seculars were only +one order of the clergy, sharing the title with monks and friars, and they +were commonly held as inferior to the one in wealth and learning, and to +the other in holiness and zeal. + +Another difference between the mediæval seculars and the modern clergy is +in the superior independence of the latter. The poor parochial chaplain +was largely dependent for his means of living on the fees and offerings of +his parishioners. The domestic chaplain was only an upper servant. Even +the country incumbent, in those feudal days when the lord of the manor was +a petty sovereign, was very much under the influence of the local magnate. + +In some primitive little villages, where the lord of the manor continues +to be the sovereign of his village, it is still the fashion for the +clergyman not to begin service till the squire comes. The Book of the +Knight of La Tour Landry gives two stories which serve to show that the +deference of the clergyman to the squire was sometimes carried to very +excessive lengths in the old days of which we are writing. "I have herde +of a knight and of a lady that in her youthe delited hem to rise late. And +so they used longe, tille many tymes that thei lost her masse, and made +other of her parisshe to lese it, for the knight was lorde and patron of +the chirche, and therfor the priest durst not disobeye hym. And so it +happed that on a Sunday the knight sent unto the chirche that thei shulde +abide hym. And whane he come, it was passed none, wherfor thir might not +that day have no masse, for every man saide it was passed tyme of the +day, and therfor thei durst not singe. And so that Sunday the knight, the +lady, and alle the parisshe was without masse, of the whiche the pepelle +were sori, but thir must needs suffre." And on a night there came a vision +to the parson, and the same night the knight and lady dreamed a dream. And +the parson came to the knight's house, and he told him his vision, and the +priest his, of which they greatly marvelled, for their dreams were like. +"And the priest said unto the knight, 'There is hereby in a forest an holy +ermyte that canne telle us what this avision menithe.' And than thei yede +to hym, and tolde it hym fro point to point, and as it was. And the wise +holi man, the which was of blessed lyff, expounded and declared her +avision." + +The other story is of "a ladi that dwelled faste by the chirche, that toke +every day so long time to make her redy that it made every Sunday the +person of the chirche and the parisshenes to abide after her. And she +happed to abide so longe on a Sunday that it was fer dayes, and every man +said to other, 'This day we trow shall not this lady be kemed and +arraied.'" + + * * * * * + +The condition of the parochial clergy being such as we have sketched, it +might seem as if the people stood but a poor chance of being Christianly +and virtuously brought up. But when we come to inquire into that part of +the question the results are unexpectedly satisfactory. The priests in +charge of parishes seem, on the whole, to have done their duty better than +we should have anticipated; and the people generally had a knowledge of +the great truths of religion, greater probably than is now generally +possessed--it was taught to them by the eye in sculptures, paintings, +stained glass, miracle plays; these religious truths were probably more +constantly in their minds and on their lips than is the case now--they +occur much more frequently in popular literature; and though the people +were rude and coarse and violent and sensual enough, yet it is probable +that religion was a greater power among them generally than it is now; +there was probably more crime, but less vice; above all, an elevated +sanctity in individuals was probably more common in those times than in +these. + +One interesting evidence of the actual mode of pastoral ministrations in +those days is the handbooks, which were common enough, teaching the parish +priest his duties. The Early English Text Society has lately done us a +service by publishing one of these manuals of "Instructions for Parish +Priests," which will enable us to give some notes on the subject. "Great +numbers," says the editor, "of independent works of this nature were +produced in the Middle Ages. There is probably not a language or dialect +in Europe that has not now, or had not once, several treatises of this +nature among its early literature. The growth of languages, the +Reformation, and the alteration in clerical education consequent on that +great revolution, have caused a great part of them to perish or become +forgotten. A relic of this sort fished up from the forgotten past is very +useful to us as a help towards understanding the sort of life our fathers +lived. To many it will seem strange that these directions, written without +the least thought of hostile criticism, when there was no danger in plain +speaking, and no inducements to hide or soften down, should be so free +from superstition. We have scarcely any of the nonsense which some people +still think made up the greater part of the religion of the Middle Ages, +but instead thereof good sound morality, such as it would be pleasant to +hear preached at the present day." + +The book in question is by John Myrk, a canon regular of St. Austin, of +Lilleshall, in Shropshire; the beautiful ruins of his monastery may still +be seen in the grounds of the Duke of Sutherland's shooting-box at +Lilleshall. He tells us that he translated it from a Latin book called +"Pars Oculi." It is worthy of note that a former prior of Lilleshall, +Johannes Miræus, had written a work on the same subject, called "Manuale +Sacerdotis," to which John Myrk's bears much resemblance, both in subject +and treatment. The editor's sketch of the argument of the "Instructions to +Parish Priests" will help us to give a sufficient idea of its contents for +our present purpose. + +The author begins by telling the parish priest what sort of man he himself +should be. Not ignorant, because + + "Whenne the blynde ledeth the blynde + Into the dyche they fallen both." + +He must himself be an example to his people:-- + + "What thee nedeth hem to teche + And whyche thou muste thy self be, + For lytel is worth thy prechynge + If thou be of evyle lyvynge." + +He must be chaste, eschew lies and oaths, drunkenness, gluttony, pride, +sloth, and envy. Must keep from taverns, trading, wrestling, and shooting, +and the like manly sports; from hunting, hawking, and dancing. Must not +wear cutted clothes or pyked shoes, or dagger, but wear becoming clothes, +and shave his crown and beard. Must be given to hospitality, both to poor +and rich, read his psalter, and remember doomsday; return good for evil, +eschew jesting and ribaldry, despise the world, and follow after virtue. + +The priest must not be content with knowing his own duties. He must be +prepared to teach those under his charge all that Christian men and women +should do and believe. We are told that when any one has done a sin he +must not continue long with it on his conscience, but go straight to the +priest and confess it, lest he should forget before the great shriving +time at Eastertide. Pregnant women, especially, are to go to their shrift, +and receive the Holy Communion at once. Our instructor is very strict on +the duties of midwives--women they were really in those days, and properly +licensed to their office by the ecclesiastical authorities. They are on no +account to permit children to die unbaptized. If there be no priest at +hand, they are to administer that sacrament themselves if they see danger +of death. They must be especially careful to use the right form of words, +such as our Lord taught; but it does not matter whether they say them in +Latin or English, or whether the Latin be good or bad, so that the +intention be to use the proper words. The water, and the vessel that +contained it, are not to be again employed in domestic use, but to be +burned or carried to the church and cast into the font. If no one else be +at hand, the parents themselves may baptize their children. All infants +are to be christened at Easter and Whitsuntide in the newly-blessed fonts, +if there have not been necessity to administer the Sacrament before. +Godparents are to be careful to teach their godchildren the _Pater +Noster_, _Ave Maria_, and _Credo_; and are not to be sponsors to their +godchildren at their Confirmation, for they have already contracted a +spiritual relationship. Before weddings banns are to be asked on three +holidays, and all persons who contract irregular marriages, and the +priests, clerks, and others that help thereat, are cursed for the same. +The real presence of the body and blood of our Saviour in the Sacrament of +the Altar is to be fully held; but the people are to bear in mind that the +wine and water given them after they have received Communion is not a part +of the Sacrament. It is an important thing to behave reverently in church, +for the church is God's house, not a place for idle prattle. When people +go there they are not to jest, or loll against the pillars and walls, but +kneel down on the floor and pray to their Lord for mercy and grace. When +the Gospel is read they are to stand up, and sign themselves with the +cross; and when they hear the Sanctus bell ring, they are to kneel and +worship their Maker in the Blessed Sacrament. All men are to show +reverence when they see the priest carrying the Host to the sick. He is to +teach them the "Our Father," and "Hail, Mary," and "I believe," of which +metrical versions are given, with a short exposition of the Creed. + +The author gives some very interesting instructions about churchyards, +which show that they were sometimes treated with shameful irreverence. It +was not for want of good instructions that our ancestors, in the days of +the Plantagenets, played at rustic games, and that the gentry held their +manorial courts, over the sleeping-places of the dead. + +Of witchcraft we hear surprisingly little. Myrk's words are such that one +might almost think he had some sceptical doubts on the subject. Not so +with usury: the taking interest for money, or lending anything to get +profit thereby, is, we are shown, "a synne full grevus." + +After these and several more general instructions of a similar character, +the author gives a very good commentary on the Creed, the Sacraments, the +Commandments, and the deadly sins. The little tract ends with a few words +of instruction to priests as to the "manner of saying mass, and of giving +Holy Communion to the sick." On several subjects the author gives very +detailed instructions and advice as to the best way of dealing with +people, and his counsels are so right and sensible, that they might well +be read now, not out of mere curiosity, but for profit. Here is his +conclusion, as a specimen of the English and versification:-- + + "Hyt ys I-made hem[282] to schonne + That have no bokes of here[283] owne, + And other that beth of mene lore + That wolde fayn conne[284] more, + And those that here-in learnest most, + Thonke yerne the Holy Gost, + That geveth wyt to eche mon + To do the gode that he con, + And by hys travayle and hys dede + Geveth hym heven to hys mede; + The mede and the joye of heven lyht + God us graunte for hys myht. Amen." + +That these instructions were not thrown away upon the mediæval parish +priests we may infer from Chaucer's beautiful description of the poor +parson of a town, who was one of his immortal band of Canterbury Pilgrims, +which we here give as a fitting conclusion of this first part of our +subject:-- + + "A good man there was of religioun, + That was a poure persone of a toun; + But riche he was of holy thought and werk. + He was also a lerned man, a clerk, + That Criste's gospel trewely wolde preche, + His parishens devoutly wolde he teche. + Benigne he was and wonder diligent, + And in adversite ful patient; + And such he was yproved often sithes. + Full loth were he to cursen for his tithes, + But rather wolde he given out of doubte + Unto his poure parishens about, + Of his offering and eke of his substance. + He could in litel thing have suffisance. + Wide was his parish, and houses fer asunder, + But he ne left nought for no rain ne thunder, + In sikenesse and in mischief to visite + The farthest in his parish much and lite,[285] + Upon his fete, and in his hand a staff. + This noble ensample to his sheep he gaf[286] + That first he wrought, and afterward he taught. + Out of the gospel he the wordes caught, + And this figure he added yet thereto, + That if gold rusté what should iren do? + For if a priest be foul, on whom we trust, + No wonder is a léwéd man to rust; + Well ought a preest ensample for to give, + By his clenenesse how his shepe shulde live. + He sette not his benefice to hire, + And lefte his sheep accumbered in the mire, + And ran unto London, unto Seint Poules, + To seeken him a chanterie for souls, + Or with a brotherhede to be withold, + But dwelt at home and kepté well his fold. + He was a shepherd and no mercenare; + And though he holy were and vertuous, + He was to sinful men not despitous,[287] + Ne of his speché dangerous ne digne,[288] + But in his teaching discrete and benigne. + To drawen folk to heaven with fairénesse, + By good ensample was his businesse. + But it were any persone obstinat, + What so he were of highe or low estate, + Him wolde he snibben[289] sharply for the nones, + A better preest I trow that nowhere none is. + He waited after no pomp ne reverence, + Ne maked him no spiced[290] conscience, + But Christés lore, and his apostles twelve, + He taught, but first he followed it himselve." + +Thus, monk, and friar, and hermit, and recluse, and rector, and chantry +priest, played their several parts in mediæval society, until the +Reformation came and swept away the religious orders and their houses, the +chantry priests and their superstitions, and the colleges of seculars, +with all their good and evil, and left only the parish churches and the +parish priests remaining, stripped of half their tithe, and insufficient +in number, in learning, and in social _status_ to fulfil the office of the +ministry of God among the people. Since then, for three centuries the +people have multiplied, and the insufficiency of the ministry has been +proportionately aggravated. It has been left to our day to complete the +work of the Reformation by multiplying bishops and priests, and creating +an order of deacons, re-distributing the ancient revenues and supplying +what more is needed, and by effecting a general reorganization of the +ecclesiastical establishment to adapt it to the actual spiritual needs of +the people. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +CLERICAL COSTUME. + + +We proceed to give some notes on the costume of the secular clergy; first +the official costume which they wore when performing the public functions +of their order, and next the ordinary costume in which they walked about +their parishes and took part in the daily affairs of the mediæval society +of which they formed so large and important a part. The first branch of +this subject is one of considerable magnitude; it can hardly be altogether +omitted in such a series of papers as this, but our limited space requires +that we should deal with it as briefly as may be. + +Representations of the pope occur not infrequently in ancient paintings. +His costume is that of an archbishop, only that instead of the usual mitre +he wears a conical tiara. In later times a cross with three crossbars has +been used by artists as a symbol of the pope, with two crossbars of a +patriarch, and with one crossbar of an archbishop; but Dr. Rock assures us +that the pope never had a pastoral staff of this shape, but of one +crossbar only; that patriarchs of the Eastern Church used the cross of two +bars, but never those of the Western Church; and that the example of +Thomas-à-Becket with a cross of two bars, in Queen Mary's Psalter (Royal, +2 B. vii.) is a unique example (and possibly an error of the artist's). A +representation of Pope Leo III. from a contemporary picture is engraved in +the "Annales Archæologique," vol. viii. p. 257; another very complete and +clear representation of the pontifical costume of the time of Innocent +III. is engraved by Dr. Rock ("Church of our Fathers," p. 467) from a +fresco painting at Subiaco, near Rome. Another representation, of late +thirteenth-century date, is given in the famous MS. called the "Psalter of +Queen Mary," in the British Museum (Royal, 2 B. vii.); there the pope is +in nothing more than ordinary episcopal costume--alb, tunic, chasuble, +without the pall--and holds his cross-staff of only one bar in his right +hand, and his canonical tiara has one crown round the base. Beside him +stands a bishop in the same costume, except that he wears the mitre and +holds a crook. A good fourteenth-century representation of a pope and +cardinals is in the MS. August. V. f. 459. We give a woodcut of the +fifteenth century, from a MS. life of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, +in the British Museum (Julius E. iv. f. 207); the subject is the +presentation of the pilgrim earl to the pope, and it enables us to bring +into one view the costumes of pope, cardinal, and bishop. A later picture +of considerable artistic merit may be found in Hans Burgmair's "Der Weise +König," where the pope, officiating at a royal marriage, is habited in a +chasuble, and has the three crowns on his tiara. + +[Illustration: _Pope, Cardinal, and Bishop._] + +The cardinalate is not an ecclesiastical "order." Originally the name was +applied to the priests of the chief churches of Rome, who formed the +chapter of the Bishop of Rome. In later times they were the princes of the +papal sovereignty, and the dignity was conferred not only upon the highest +order of the hierarchy, but upon priests, deacons,[291] and even upon men +who had only taken minor orders to qualify themselves for holding office +in the papal kingdom. The red hat, which became their distinctive symbol, +is said to have been given them first by Innocent VI. at the Council of +Lyons in 1245; and De Curbio says they first wore it in 1246, at the +interview between the pope and Louis IX. of France. A representation of it +may be seen in the MS. Royal, 16 G. vi., which is engraved in the +"Pictorial History of England," vol. i. 869. Another very clear and good +representation of the costume of a cardinal is in the plate in Hans +Burgmair's "Der Weise König," already mentioned; a group of them is on the +right side of the drawing, each with a fur-lined hood on his head, and his +hat over the hood. It is not the hat which is peculiar to cardinals, but +the colour of it, and the number of its tassels. Other ecclesiastics wore +the hat of the same shape, but only a cardinal wears it of scarlet. +Moreover, a priest wore only one tassel to each string, a bishop three, a +cardinal seven. It was not the hat only which was scarlet. Wolsey, we +read, was in the habit of dressing entirely in scarlet for his ordinary +costume. In the Decretals of Pope Gregory, Royal, 10 E. iv. f. 3 v., are +representations of cardinals in red gown and hood and hat. On the +following page they are represented, in _pontificalibus_. + +The archbishop wore the habit of a bishop, his differences being in the +crosier and pall.[292] His crozier had a cross head instead of a curved +head like the bishop's. Over the chasuble he wore the pall, which was a +flat circular band, or collar, placed loosely round the shoulders, with +long ends hanging down behind and before, made of lambs' wool, and marked +with a number of crosses. Dr. Rock has engraved[293] two remarkably +interesting early representations of archbishops of Ravenna, in which a +very early form of the pontifical garments is given, viz., the sandals, +alb, stole, tunic, chasuble, pall, and tonsure. They are not represented +with either mitre or staff. Other representations of archbishops may be +found of the eleventh century in the Bayeux tapestry, and of the +thirteenth in the Royal MS., 2 B. vii. In the Froissart MS., Harl. 4,380, +at f. 170, is a fifteenth-century representation of the Archbishop of +Canterbury in ordinary dress--a lavender-coloured gown and red liripipe. + +The bishop wore the same habit as the priest, with the addition of +sandals, gloves, a ring, the pastoral staff with a curved head, and the +mitre. The chasuble was only worn when celebrating the Holy Communion; on +any other ceremonial occasion the cope was worn, _e.g._, when in choir, as +in the woodcut on p. 197: or when preaching, as in a picture in the Harl. +MS. 1319, engraved in the "Pictorial History of England," vol. i. 806; or +when attending parliament. In illuminated MSS. bishops are very commonly +represented dressed in alb and cope only, and this seems to have been +their most usual habit. If the bishop were a monk or friar he wore the +cope over the robe proper to his order. We might multiply indefinitely +references to representations of bishops and other ecclesiastics in the +illuminated MS. We will content ourselves with one reference to a +beautifully drawn figure in the psalter of the close of the 14th century +(Harl. 2,897, f. 380). In the early fourteenth-century MS. (Royal, 14 E. +iii. at ff. 16 and 25), we find two representations of a bishop in what we +may suppose was his ordinary unofficial costume; he wears a blue-grey robe +and hood with empty falling sleeves, through which appear the blue sleeves +of his under robe; it is the ordinary civil and clerical costume of the +period, but he is marked out as a bishop by a white mitre. In the +Pontifical of the middle of the fifteenth century, already referred to +(Egerton, 1067) at f. 186 in the representation of the ceremony of the +feet-washing, the bishop in a long black sleeveless robe[294] over a white +alb, and a biretta. + +The earliest form of the mitre was that of a simple cap, like a skull-cap, +of which there is a representation, giving in many respects a clear and +elaborate picture of the episcopal robes, in a woodcut of St. Dunstan in +the MS. Cotton, Claudius A. iii.[295] In this early shape it has already +the infulæ--two narrow bands hanging down behind. In the twelfth century +it is in the form of a large cap, with a depression in the middle, which +produces two blunt horns at the sides. There is a good representation of +this in the MS. Cotton, Nero C. iv. f. 34, which has been engraved by +Strutt, Shaw, and Dr. Rock. + +In the Harl. MS. 5,102, f. 17, is a picture of the entombment of an +archbishop, in which is well shown the transition shape of the mitre from +the twelfth century, already described, to the cleft and pointed shape +which was used in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The depression +is here deepened into a partial cleft, and the mitre is put on so that the +horns come before and behind, instead of at the sides, but the horns are +still blunt and rounded. The archbishop's gloves in this picture are +white, like the mitre, and in shape are like mittens, _i.e._, not divided +into fingers. + +The shape in the thirteenth and fourteenth century presented a stiff low +triangle in front and behind, with a gap between them. It is well shown in +a MS. of the close of the twelfth century, Harl. 2,800, f. 6, and, in a +shape a little further developed, in the pictures in the Royal MS., 2 B. +vii., already noticed. In the fifteenth century the mitre began to be made +taller, and with curved sides, as seen in the beautiful woodcut of a +bishop and his canons in choir given in our last chapter, p. 197. The +latest example in the English Church is in the brass of Archbishop +Harsnett, in Chigwell Church, in which also occur the latest examples of +the alb, stole, dalmatic, and cope. + +The pastoral staff also varied in shape at different times. The earliest +examples of it are in the representations of St. Mark and St. Luke,[296] +in the "Gospels of MacDurnan," in the Lambeth Library, a work of the +middle of the ninth century. St. Luke's staff is short, St. Mark's longer +than himself; in both cases the staff terminates with a plain, slightly +reflexed curve of about three-fourths of a circle. Some actual examples of +the metal heads of these Celtic pastoral staves remain; one is engraved in +the "Archæologia Scotica," vol. ii., another is in the British Museum; +that of the abbots of Clonmacnoise, and that of the ancient bishops of +Waterford, are in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire. They were all +brought together in 1863 in the Loan Exhibition at South Kensington. One +of the earliest English representations of the staff is in the picture of +the consecration of a church, in a MS. of the ninth century, in the Rouen +Library, engraved in the "Archæologia," vol xxv. p. 17, in the "Pictorial +History of England," and by Dr. Rock, ii. p. 24. Here the staff is about +the length of an ordinary walking-stick, and is terminated by a round +knob. + +Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, is represented on his great seal with a short +staff, with a tau-cross or crutch head. An actually existing staff of this +shape, which belonged to Gerard, Bishop of Limoges, who died in 1022, is +engraved in the "Annales Archæologique," vol. x. p. 176. The staves +represented in illuminations of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries have +usually a plain spiral curve of rather more than a circle;[297] in later +times they were ornamented with foliage, and sometimes with statuettes, +and were enamelled and jewelled. Numerous representations and actual +examples exist; some may be seen in the South Kensington Museum. From +early in the fourteenth century downward, a napkin of linen or silk is +often found attached by one corner to the head of the staff, whose origin +and meaning seem to be undetermined. + +The official costume of the remaining orders, together with the symbols +significant of their several offices, are well brought out in the +degradation of W. Sawtre, already given at p. 214. + +Some of the vestments there mentioned may need a few words of +explanation. The alb was a kind of long coat with close fitting sleeves +made of white[298] linen, and usually, at least during the celebration of +divine service, ornamented with four to six square pieces of cloth of +gold, or other rich stuff, or of goldsmith's work, which were placed on +the skirt before and behind, on the wrist of each sleeve, and on the back +and breast. The dalmatic of the deacon was a kind of tunic, reaching +generally a little below the knees, and slit some way up the sides, and +with short, broad sleeves; it was usually ornamented with a broad hem, +which passed round the side slits. The sub-deacon's tunicle was like the +dalmatic, but rather shorter, and less ornamented. The cope was a kind of +cloak, usually of rich material, fastened across the chest by a large +brooch; it was worn by priests in choir and in processions, and on other +occasions of state and ceremony. The chasuble was the Eucharistic +vestment; originally it was a circle of rich cloth with a slit in the +middle, through which the head was passed, and then it fell in ample folds +all round the figure. Gradually it was made oval in shape, continually +decreasing in width, so as to leave less of the garment to encumber the +arms. In its modern shape it consists of two stiff rectangular pieces of +cloth, one piece falling before, the other behind, and fastened together +at the shoulders of the wearer. The ancient inventories of cathedrals, +abbeys, and churches show us that the cope and chasuble were made in every +colour, of every rich material, and sometimes embroidered and jewelled. +Indeed, all the official robes of the clergy were of the costliest +material and most beautiful workmanship which could be obtained. England +was celebrated for its skill in the arts employed in their production, and +an anecdote of the time of Henry III. shows us that the English +ecclesiastical vestments excited admiration and cupidity even at Rome. +Their richness had nothing to do with personal pride or luxury on the part +of the priests. They were not the property of the clergy, but were +generally presented to the churches, to which they belonged in perpetuity; +and they were made thus costly on the principle of honouring the divine +worship. As men gave their costliest material and noblest Art for the +erection of the place in which it was offered, so also for the appliances +used in its ministration, and the robes of the ministrants. + +In full sacerdotal habit the priests wore the apparelled alb, and stole, +and over that the dalmatic, and either the cope or the chasuble over all, +with the amys thrown back like a hood over the cope or chasuble. +Representations of priests _in pontificalibus_ abound in illuminated MSS., +and in their monumental effigies, to such an extent that we need hardly +quote any particular examples. Representations of the inferior orders are +comparatively rare. Examples of deacons may be found engraved in Dr. +Rock's "Church of our Fathers," i. 376, 378, 379, 443, and 444. Two others +of early fourteenth-century date may be found in the Add. MS. 10,294, f. +72, one wearing a dalmatic of cloth of gold, the other of scarlet, over +the alb. Two others of the latter part of the fourteenth century are seen +in King Richard II.'s Book of Hours (Dom. A. xvii. f. 176), one in blue +dalmatic embroidered with gold, the other red embroidered with gold. A +monumental effigy of a deacon under a mural arch at Avon Dassett, +Warwickshire, was referred to by Mr. M. H. Bloxam, in a recent lecture at +the Architectural Museum, South Kensington. The effigy, which is of the +thirteenth century, is in alb, stole, and dalmatic. We are indebted to Mr. +Bloxam for a note of another mutilated effigy of a deacon of the +fourteenth century among the ruins of Furness Abbey; he is habited in the +alb only, with a girdle round the middle, whose tasselled knobs hang down +in front. The stole is passed across the body from the left shoulder, and +is fastened together at the right hip. + +Dr. Rock, vol. i. p. 384, engraves a very good representation of a +ninth-century sub-deacon in his tunicle, holding a pitcher in one hand and +an empty chalice in the other; and in vol. ii. p. 89, an acolyte, in what +seems to be a surplice, with a scarlet hood--part of his ordinary +costume--over it, the date of the drawing being _cir._ 1395 A.D. We have +already noted the costume of an ostiary at p. 215. In the illuminations we +frequently find an inferior minister attending upon a priest when engaged +in his office, but in many cases it is difficult to determine whether he +is deacon, sub-deacon, or acolyte, _e.g._--in the early fourteenth-century +MS., Add. 10,294, at f. 72, is a priest officiating at a funeral, attended +by a minister, who is habited in a pink under robe--his ordinary +dress--and over it a short white garment with wide loose sleeves, which +may be either a deacon's dalmatic, or a sub-deacon's tunic, or an +acolyte's surplice. In the Add. MS. 10,293, at f. 154, is a representation +of a priest celebrating mass in a hermitage, with a minister kneeling +behind him, habited in a white alb only, holding a lighted taper. Again, +in the MS. Royal, 14 E. iii. f. 86, is a picture of a prior dressed like +some of the canons in our woodcut from Richard II.'s Book of Hours, in a +blue under robe, white surplice, and red stole crossed over the breast, +and his furred hood on his head; he is baptizing a heathen king, and an +attendant minister, who is dressed in the ordinary secular habit of the +time, stands beside, holding the chrismatory. In the same history of +Richard Earl of Warwick which we have already quoted, there is at f. 213 +v., a boy in a short surplice with a censer. In the early +fourteenth-century MS., Royal, 14 E. iii. at f. 84 v., is a picture of a +bishop anointing a king; an attendant minister, who carries a holy water +vessel and aspersoir, is dressed in a surplice over a pink tunic. The +surplice is found in almost as many and as different shapes in the Middle +Ages as now; sometimes with narrow sleeves and tight up to the neck; +sometimes with shorter and wider sleeves and falling low at the neck; +sometimes longer and sometimes shorter in the skirt; never, however, so +long as altogether to hide the cassock beneath. In addition to the +references already given, it may be sufficient to name as further +authorities for ecclesiastical costumes generally:--for Saxon times, the +Benedictional of St. Ethelwold, engraved in the Archæologia; for the +thirteenth century, Queen Mary's Psalter, Royal, 2 B. vii.; for the +fourteenth, Royal, 20, c. vii.; for the fifteenth century, Lydgate's "Life +of St. Edmund;" for the sixteenth century, Hans Burgmaier's "Der Weise +König," and the various works on sepulchral monuments and monumental +brasses. + +[Illustration: _Coronation Procession of Charles V. of France._] + +The accompanying woodcut from Col. Johnes's Froissart, vol. i. p. 635, +representing the coronation procession of Charles V. of France, will help +us to exhibit some of the orders of the clergy with their proper costume +and symbols. First goes the aquabajalus, in alb, sprinkling holy water; +then a cross-bearer in cassock and surplice; then two priests, in cassock, +surplice, and cope; then follows a canon in his cap (biretta), with his +furred amys over his arm.[299] + + * * * * * + +But the clergy wore these robes only when actually engaged in some +official act. What was their ordinary costume is generally little known, +and it is a part of the subject in which we are especially interested in +these papers. From the earliest times of the English Church downwards it +was considered by the rulers of the Church that clergymen ought to be +distinguished from laymen not only by the tonsure, but also by their +dress. We do not find that any uniform habit was prescribed to them, such +as distinguished the regular orders of monks and friars from the laity, +and from one another; but we gather from the canons of synods, and the +injunctions of bishops, that the clergy were expected to wear their +clothes not too gay in colour, and not too fashionably cut; that they +were to abstain from wearing ornaments or carrying arms; and that their +horse furniture was to be in the same severe style. We also gather from +the frequent repetition of canons on the subject, and the growing +earnestness of their tone, that these injunctions were very generally +disregarded. We need not take the reader through the whole series of +authorities which may be found in the various collections of councils; a +single quotation from the injunctions of John (Stratford) Archbishop of +Canterbury, A.D. 1342, will suffice to give us a comprehensive sketch of +the general contents of the whole series. + +"The external costume often shows the internal character and condition of +persons; and though the behaviour of clerks ought to be an example and +pattern of the laity, yet the abuse of clerks, which has gained ground +more than usually in these days in tonsures, in garments, in horse +trappings, and other things, has now generated an abominable scandal among +the people, while persons holding ecclesiastical dignities, rectories, +honourable prebends, and benefices with cure of souls, even when ordained +to holy orders, scorn to wear the crown (which is the token of the +heavenly kingdom and of perfection), and, using the distinction of hair +extended almost to the shoulders like effeminate persons, walk about +clothed in a military rather than a clerical outer habit, viz., short, or +notably scant, and with excessively wide sleeves, which do not cover the +elbows, but hang down, lined, or, as they say, turned up with fur or silk, +and hoods with tippets of wonderful length, and with long beards; and +rashly dare, contrary to the canonical sanctions, to use rings +indifferently on their fingers; and to be girt with zones, studded with +precious stones of wonderful size, with purses engraved with various +figures, enamelled and gilt, and attached to them (_i.e._ to the girdle), +with knives, hanging after the fashion of swords, also with buskins red +and even checked, green shoes and peaked and cut[300] in many ways, with +cruppers (_croperiis_) to their saddles, and horns hanging to their necks, +capes and cloaks furred openly at the edges to such an extent, that little +or no distinction appears of clerks from laymen, whereby they render +themselves, through their demerits, unworthy of the privilege of their +order and profession. + +"We therefore, wishing henceforward to prevent such errors, &c., command +and ordain, that whoever obtain ecclesiastical benefices in our province, +especially if ordained to holy orders, wear clerical garments and tonsure +suitable to their status; but if any clerks of our province go publicly in +an outer garment short, or notably scant, or in one with long or +excessively wide sleeves, not touching the elbow round about, but hanging, +with untonsured hair and long beard, or publicly wear their rings on their +fingers, &c., if, on admonition, they do not reform within six months, +they shall be suspended, and shall only be absolved by their diocesan, and +then only on condition that they pay one-fifth of a year's income to the +poor of the place through the diocesan," &c., &c. + +The authorities tried to get these canons observed. Grostête sent back a +curate who came to him for ordination "dressed in rings and scarlet like a +courtier."[301] Some of the vicars of York Cathedral[302] were presented +in 1362 A.D. for being in the habit of going through the city in short +tunics, ornamentally trimmed, with knives and baselards[303] hanging at +their girdles. But the evidence before us seems to prove that it was not +only the acolyte-rectors, and worldly-minded clerics, who indulged in such +fashions, but that the secular clergy generally resisted these endeavours +to impose upon them anything approaching to a regular habit like those +worn by the monks and friars, and persisted in refusing to wear sad +colours, or to cut their coats differently from other people, or to +abstain from wearing a gold ring or an ornamented girdle. In the drawings +of the secular clergy in the illuminated MSS., we constantly find them in +the ordinary civil costume. Even in representations of the different +orders and ranks of the secular clergy drawn by friendly hands, and +intended to represent them _comme il faut_, we find them dressed in +violation of the canons. + +We have already had occasion to notice a bishop in a blue-grey gown and +hood, over a blue under-robe; and a prior performing a royal baptism, and +canons performing service under the presidency of their bishop, with the +blue and red robes of every-day life under their ritual surplices. The +MSS. furnish us with an abundance of other examples, _e.g._--In the early +fourteenth-century MS., Add. 10,293, at f. 131 v., is a picture showing +"how the priests read before the barony the letter which the false queen +sent to Arthur." One of the persons thus described as priests has a blue +gown and hood and black shoes, the other a claret-coloured gown and hood +and red shoes. + +[Illustration: _Dns. Ricardus de Threton, Sacerdos._] + +But our best examples are those in the book (Cott. Nero D. vii.) before +quoted, in which the grateful monks of St. Alban's have recorded the names +and good deeds of those who had presented gifts or done services to the +convent. In many cases the scribe has given us a portrait of the +benefactor in the margin of the record; and these portraits supply us with +an authentic gallery of typical portraits of the various orders of society +of the time at which they were executed. From these we have taken the +three examples we here present to the reader. On f. 100 v. is a portrait +of one Lawrence, a clerk, who is dressed in a brown robe; another clerk, +William by name, is in a scarlet robe and hood; on f. 93 v., Leofric, a +deacon, is in a blue robe and hood. The accompanying woodcut, from folio +105, is Dns. Ricardus de Threton, sacerdos,--Sir Richard de Threton, +priest,--who was executor of Sir Robert de Thorp, knight, formerly +chancellor of the king, and who gave twenty marks to the convent. Our +woodcut gives only the outlines of the full-length portrait. In the +original the robe and hood are of full bright blue, lined with white; the +under sleeves, which appear at the wrists, are of the same colour; and +the shoes are red. At f. 106 v. is Dns. Bartholomeus de Wendone, rector of +the church of Thakreston, and the character of the face leads us to think +that it may have been intended for a portrait. His robe and hood and +sleeves are scarlet, with black shoes. Another rector, Dns. Johannes +Rodland (at f. 105), rector of the church of Todyngton, has a green robe +and scarlet hood. Still another rector, of the church of Little Waltham, +is represented half-length in pink gown and purple hood. On f. 108 v. is +the full-length portrait which is here represented. It is of Dns. Rogerus, +chaplain of the chapel of the Earl of Warwick, at Flamsted. Over a scarlet +gown, of the same fashion as those in the preceding pictures, is a pink +cloak lined with blue; the hood is scarlet, of the same suit as the gown; +the buttons at the shoulder of the cloak are white, the shoes red. It will +be seen also that all three of these clergymen wear the moustache and +beard. + +[Illustration: _Dns. Barth. de Wendone, Rector._] + +[Illustration: _Dns. Rogerus, Capellanus._] + +Dominus Robertus de Walsham, precentor of Sarum (f. 100 v.), is in his +choir habit, a white surplice, and over it a fur amys fastened at the +throat with a brooch. Dns. Robertus de Hereforde, Dean of Sarum (f. 101), +has a lilac robe and hood fastened by a gold brooch. There is another +dean, Magister Johnnes Appleby, Dean of St. Paul's, at f. 105, whose +costume is not very distinctly drawn. It may be necessary to assure some +of our readers, that the colours here described were not given at the +caprice of a limner wishing to make his page look gay. The portraits were +perhaps imaginary, but the personages are habited in the costume proper to +their rank and order. The series of Benedictine abbots and monks in the +same book are in black robes; other monks introduced are in the proper +habit of their order; a king in his royal robes; a knight sometimes in +armour, sometimes in the civil costume of his rank, with a sword by his +side, and a chaplet round his flowing hair; a lady in the fashionable +dress of the time; a burgher in his proper habit, with his hair cut short. +And so the clergy are represented in the dress which they usually wore; +and, for our purpose, the pictures are more valuable than if they were +actual portraits of individual peculiarities of costume, because we are +the more sure that they give us the usual and recognised costume of the +several characters. Indeed, it is a rule, which has very rare exceptions, +that the mediæval illuminators represented contemporary subjects with +scrupulous accuracy. We give another representation from the picture of +John Ball, the priest who was concerned in Wat Tyler's rebellion, taken +from a MS. of Froissart's Chronicle, in the Bibliothèque Impériale at +Paris. The whole picture is interesting; the background is a church, in +whose churchyard are three tall crosses. Ball is preaching from the pulpit +of his saddle to the crowd of insurgents who occupy the left side of the +picture. In the Froissart MS. Harl. 4,380, at f. 20, is a picture of _un +vaillant homme et clerque nommé Maistre Johan Warennes_, preaching against +Pope Boniface; he is in a pulpit panelled in green and gold, with a pall +hung over the front, and the people sit on benches before him; he is +habited in a blue robe and hood lined with white. + +[Illustration: _John Ball, Priest._] + +The author of Piers Ploughman, carping at the clergy in the latter half of +the fourteenth century, says it would be better + + "If many a priest bare for their baselards and their brooches, + A pair of beads in their hand, and a book under their arm. + Sire[304] John and Sire Geffrey hath a girdle of silver, + A baselard and a knife, with botons overgilt." + +A little later, he speaks of proud priests habited in patlocks,--a short +jacket worn by laymen,--with peaked shoes and large knives or daggers. And +in the poems of John Audelay, in the fifteenth century, a parish priest is +described in + + "His girdle harnesched with silver, his baselard hangs by." + +In the wills of the clergy they themselves describe their "togas" of gay +colours, trimmed with various furs, and their ornamented girdles and +purses, and make no secret of the objectionable knives and baselards. In +the Bury St. Edmunds Wills, Adam de Stanton, a chaplain, A.D. 1370, +bequeaths one girdle, with purse and knife, valued at 5_s._--a rather +large sum of money in those days. In the York wills, John Wynd-hill, +Rector of Arnecliffe, A.D. 1431, bequeaths a pair of amber beads, such as +Piers Ploughman says a priest ought "to bear in his hand, and a book under +his arm;" and, curiously enough, in the next sentence he leaves "an +English book of Piers Ploughman;" but he does not seem to have been much +influenced by the popular poet's invectives, for he goes on to bequeath +two green gowns and one of murrey and one of sanguine colour, besides two +of black, all trimmed with various furs; also, one girdle of sanguine +silk, ornamented with silver, and gilded, and another zone of green and +white, ornamented with silver and gilded; and he also leaves behind +him--_proh pudor_--his best silver girdle, and a baselard with ivory and +silver handle. John Gilby, Rector of Knesale, 1434-5, leaves a red toga, +furred with byce, a black zone of silk with gilt bars, and a zone +ornamented with silver. J. Bagule, Rector of All Saints, York, A.D. 1438, +leaves a little baselard, with a zone harnessed with silver, to Sir T. +Astell, a chaplain. W. Duffield, a chantry priest at York, A.D. 1443, +leaves a black zone silvered, a purse called a "gypsire," and a white +purse of "Burdeux." W. Siverd, chaplain, leaves to H. Hobshot a hawk-bag; +and to W. Day, parochial chaplain of Calton, a pair of hawk-bag rings; and +to J. Sarle, chaplain, "my ruby zone, silvered, and my toga, furred with +'bevers;'" and to the wife of J. Bridlington, "a ruby purse of satin." R. +Rolleston, provost of the church of Beverley, A.D. 1450, leaves a "toga +lunata" with a red hood, a toga and hood of violet, a long toga and hood +of black, trimmed with martrons, and a toga and hood of violet. J. Clyft, +chaplain, A.D. 1455, leaves a zone of silk, ornamented with silver. J. +Tidman, chaplain, A.D. 1458, a toga of violet and one of meld. C. Lassels, +chaplain, A.D. 1461, a green toga and a white zone, silvered. T. Horneby, +rector of Stokesley, A.D. 1464, a red toga and hood; and, among the +Richmondshire Wills, we find that of Sir Henry Halled, Lady-priest of the +parish of Kirby-in-Kendal, in 1542 A.D. (four years before the suppression +of the chantries), who leaves a short gown and a long gown, whose colour +is not specified, but was probably black, which seems by this time to have +been the most usual clerical wear. + +The accompanying woodcut will admirably illustrate the ornamented girdle, +purse, and knife, of which we have been reading. It is from a MS. of +Chaucer's poem of the Romaunt of the Rose (Harl. 4,425, f. 143), and +represents a priest confessing a lady in a church. The characters in the +scene are, like the poem, allegorical; the priest is Genius, and the lady +is Dame Nature; but it is not the less an accurate picture of a +confessional scene of the latter part of the fourteenth century. The +priest is habited in a robe of purple, with a black cap and a black +liripipe attached to it, brought over the shoulder to the front, and +falling over the arm. The tab, peeping from beneath the cap above the ear, +is red; the girdle, purse, and knife, are, in the original illumination, +very clearly represented. In another picture of the same person, at f. +106, the black girdle is represented as ornamented with little circles of +gold. + +[Illustration: _A Priest Confessing a Lady._] + +Many of these clergymen had one black toga with hood _en suite_--not for +constant use in divine service, for, as we have already seen, they are +generally represented in the illuminations with coloured "togas" under +their surplices,--but perhaps, for wear on mourning occasions. Thus, in +the presentations of York Cathedral, A.D. 1519, "We thynke it were +convenient that whene we fetche a corse to the churche, that we shulde be +in our blak abbettes [habits] mornyngly, w{t} our hodes of the same of our +hedes, as is used in many other places."[305] + +At the time of the Reformation, when the English clergy abandoned the +mediæval official robes, they also desisted from wearing the tonsure, +which had for many centuries been the distinguishing mark of a cleric, and +they seem generally to have adopted the academical dress, for the model +both of their official and their ordinary dress. The Puritan clergy +adopted a costume which differed little, if at all, from that of the laity +of the same school. But it is curious that this question of clerical dress +continued to be one of complaint on one side, and resistance on the other, +down to the end of our ecclesiastical legislation. The 74th canon of 1603 +is as rhetorical in form, and as querulous in tone, and as minute in its +description of the way in which ecclesiastical persons should, and the way +in which they should not, dress, as is the Injunction of 1342, which we +have already quoted. "The true, ancient, and flourishing churches of +Christ, being ever desirous that their prelacy and clergy might be had as +well in outward reverence, as otherwise regarded for the worthiness of +their ministry, did think it fit, by a prescript form of decent and comely +apparel, to have them known to the people, and thereby to receive the +honour and estimation due to the special messengers and ministers of +Almighty God: we, therefore, following their grave judgment and the +ancient custom of the Church of England, and hoping that in time new +fangleness of apparel in some factious persons will die of itself, do +constitute and appoint, that the archbishops and bishops shall not +intermit to use the accustomed apparel of their degree. Likewise, all +deans, masters of colleges, archdeacons, and prebendaries, in cathedrals +and collegiate churches (being priests or deacons), doctors in divinity, +law, and physic, bachelors in divinity, masters of arts, and bachelors of +law, having any ecclesiastical living, shall wear gowns with standing +collars, and sleeves straight at the hands, or wide sleeves, as is used in +the universities, with hoods or tippets of silk or sarcenet, and square +caps; and that all other ministers admitted, or to be admitted, into that +function, shall also usually wear the like apparel as is aforesaid, except +tippets only. We do further in like manner ordain, that all the said +ecclesiastical persons above mentioned shall usually wear on their +journeys cloaks with sleeves, commonly called Priests' Cloaks, without +guards, welts, long buttons, or cuts. And no ecclesiastical person shall +wear any coif, or wrought night-cap, but only plain night caps of black +silk, satin, or velvet. In all which particulars concerning the apparel +here prescribed, our meaning is not to attribute any holiness or special +worthiness to the said garments, but for decency, gravity, and order, as +is before specified. In private houses and in their studies the said +persons ecclesiastical may use any comely and scholarlike apparel, +provided that it be not cut or pinkt; and that in public they go not in +their doublet and hose without coats or cassocks; and that they wear not +any light-coloured stockings. Likewise, poor beneficed men and curates +(not being able to provide themselves long gowns) may go in short gowns of +the fashion aforesaid." + +The portraits prefixed to the folio works of the great divines of the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have made us familiar with the fact, +that at the time of the Reformation the clergy wore the beard and +moustache. They continued to wear the cassock and gown as their ordinary +out-door costume until as late as the time of George II.; but in the +fashion of doublet and hose, hats, shoes, and hair, they followed the +custom of other gentlemen. Mr. Fairholt, in his "Costume in England," p. +327, gives us a woodcut from a print of 1680 A.D., which admirably +illustrates the ordinary out-door dress of a clergyman of the time of +William and Mary. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +PARSONAGE HOUSES. + + +When, in our endeavour to realise the life of these secular clergymen of +the Middle Ages, we come to inquire, What sort of houses did they live in? +how were these furnished? what sort of life did their occupants lead? what +kind of men were they? it is curious how little seems to be generally +known on the subject, compared with what we know about the houses and life +and character of the regular orders. Instead of gathering together what +others have said, we find ourselves engaged in an original investigation +of a new and obscure subject. The case of the cathedral and collegiate +clergy, and that of the isolated parochial clergy, form two distinct +branches of the subject. The limited space at our disposal will not permit +us to do justice to both; the latter branch of the subject is less known, +and perhaps the more generally interesting, and we shall therefore devote +the bulk of our space to it. We will only premise a few words on the +former branch. + +The bishop of a cathedral of secular canons had his house near his +cathedral, in which he maintained a household equal in numbers and expense +to that of the secular barons among whom he took rank; the chief +difference being, that the spiritual lord's family consisted rather of +chaplains and clerks than of squires and men-at-arms. The bishop's palace +at Wells is a very interesting example in an unusually perfect condition. +Britton gives an engraving of it as it appeared before the reign of Edward +VI. The bishop besides had other residences on his manors, some of which +were castles like those of the other nobility. Farnham, the present +residence of the see of Winchester, is a noble example, which still +serves its original purpose. Of the cathedral closes many still remain +sufficiently unchanged to enable us to understand their original +condition. Take Lincoln for example. On the north side of the church, in +the angle between the nave and transept, was the cloister, with the +polygonal chapter-house on the east side. The lofty wall which enclosed +the precincts yet remains, with its main entrance in the middle of the +west wall, opposite the great doors of the cathedral. This gate, called +the Exchequer Gate, has chambers over it, devoted probably to the official +business of the diocese. There are two other smaller gates at the +north-east and south-east corners of the close, and there is a postern on +the south side. The bishop's palace, whose beautiful and interesting ruins +and charming grounds still remain, occupied the slope of the southern hill +outside the close. The vicar's court is in the corner of the close near +the gateway to the palace grounds. A fourteenth-century house, which was +the official residence of the chaplain of one of the endowed chantries, +still remains on the south side of the close, nearly opposite the choir +door. On the east side of the close the fifteenth-century houses of +several of the canons still remain, and are interesting examples of the +domestic architecture of the time. It is not difficult from these data to +picture to ourselves the original condition of this noble establishment +when the cathedral, with its cloister and chapter-house, stood isolated in +the middle of the green sward, and the houses of the canons and chaplains +formed a great irregular quadrangle round it, and the close walls shut +them all in from the outer world, and the halls and towers of the bishop's +palace were still perfect amidst its hanging gardens enclosed within their +own walls, the quadrangle of houses which had been built for the cathedral +vicars occupying a corner cut out of the bishop's grounds beside his +gateway. And we can repeople the restored close. Let it be on the morning +of one of the great festivals; let the great bells be ringing out their +summons to high mass; and we shall see the dignified canons in amice and +cap crossing the green singly on their way from their houses to their +stalls in the choir; the vicars conversing in a little group as they come +across from their court; the surpliced chorister boys under the charge of +their schoolmaster; a band of minstrels with flutes, and hautboys, and +viols, and harps, and organs, coming in from the city, to use their +instruments in the rood-loft to aid the voices of the choir; scattered +clerks and country clergy, and townspeople, are all converging to the +great south door; and last of all the lord bishop, in cope and mitre, +emerges from his gateway, preceded by his cross-bearer, attended by noble +or royal guests, and followed by a suite of officials and clerks; while +over all the great bells ring out their joyous peal to summon the people +to the solemn worship of God in the mother church of the vast diocese. + + * * * * * + +But we must turn to our researches into the humbler life of the country +rectors and vicars. And first, what sort of houses did they live in? We +have not been able to find one of the parsonage houses of an earlier date +than the Reformation still remaining in a condition sufficiently unaltered +to enable us to understand what they originally were. There is an ancient +rectory house of the fourteenth century at West Deane, Sussex,[306] of +which we give a ground-plan and north-east view on the following page; but +the rectory belonged to the prior and convent of Benedictine Monks of +Wilmington, and this house was probably their grange, or cell, and may +have been inhabited by two of their monks, or by their tenant, and not by +the parish priest. Again, there is a very picturesque rectory house, of +the fifteenth century, at Little Chesterton, near Cambridge,[307] but this +again is believed to have been a grange, or cell, of a monastic house. + +In the absence of actual examples, we are driven to glean what information +we can from other sources. There remain to us a good many of the deeds of +the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, by which, on the impropriation of +the benefices, provision was made for the permanent endowment of vicarages +in them. In the majority of cases the old rectory house was assigned as +the future vicarage house, and no detailed description of it was +necessary; but in the deed by which the rectories of Sawbridgeworth, in +Herts, and Kelvedon, in Essex, were appropriated to the convent of +Westminster, we are so fortunate as to find descriptions of the +fourteenth-century parsonage houses, one of which is so detailed as to +enable any one who is acquainted with the domestic architecture of the +time to form a very definite picture of the whole building. In the case of +Sawbridgeworth, the old rectory house was assigned as the vicarage house, +and is thus described--"All the messuage which is called the priest's +messuage, with the houses thereon built, that is to say, one hall with two +chambers, with a buttery, cellar, kitchen, stable, and other fitting and +decent houses, with all the garden as it is enclosed with walls to the +said messuage belonging." The description of the parsonage house at +Kelvedon is much more definite and intelligible. For this the deed tells +us the convent assigned--"One hall situate in the manor of the said abbot +and convent near the said church, with a chamber and soler at one end of +the hall and with a buttery and cellar at the other. Also one other house +in three parts, that is to say, for a kitchen with a convenient chamber in +the end of the said house for guests, and a bakehouse. Also one other +house in two parts, next the gate at the entrance of the manor, for a +stable and cowhouse. He (the vicar) shall also have a convenient grange, +to be built within a year at the expense of the prior and convent. He +shall also have the curtilage with the garden adjoining to the hall on the +north side, as it is enclosed with hedges and ditches." The date of the +deed is 1356 A.D., and it speaks of these houses as already existing. Now +the common arrangement of a small house at that date, and for near a +century before and after, was this, "a hall in the centre, with a soler at +one end and offices at the other."[308] A description which exactly agrees +with the account of the Kelvedon house, and enables us to say with great +probability that in the Sawbridgeworth "priest's messuage" also, the two +chambers were at one end of the hall, and the buttery, cellar, and kitchen +at the other, the stable and other fitting and decent houses being +detached from and not forming any portion of the dwelling house. + +[Illustration: _Rectory House, West Deane, Sussex._] + +[Illustration: + + A Entrance door. + B Windows. + C Cellar window. + D Entrance to stair. + E A recess. + F Fire-place. + + ft. in. + Length of exterior 35 6 + Width of interior 14 10 + Thickness of wall 2 6 + Height of rooms 8 0] + +Confining ourselves, however, to the Kelvedon house, a little study will +enable us to reconstruct it conjecturally with a very high probability of +being minutely accurate in our conjectures. First of all, a house of this +character in the county of Essex would, beyond question, be a timber +house. To make our description clearer we have given a rough diagram of +our conjectural arrangement. Its principal feature was, of course, the +"one hall" (A). We know at once what the hall of a timber house of this +period of architecture would be. It would be a rather spacious and lofty +apartment, with an open timber roof; the principal door of the house would +open into the "screens" (D), at the lower end of the hall, and the back +door of the house would be at the other end of the screens. At the upper +end of the hall would be the raised dais (B), at which the master of the +house sat with his family. The fireplace would either be an open hearth in +the middle of the hall, like that which still exists in the +fourteenth-century hall at Penshurst Place, Kent, or it would be an open +fireplace, under a projecting chimney, at the further side of the hall, +such as is frequently seen in MS. illuminations of the small houses of the +period. There was next "a chamber and soler at one end of the hall." The +soler of a mediæval house was the chief apartment after the hall, it +answered to the "great chamber" of the sixteenth century, and to the +parlour or drawing-room of more modern times. It was usually adjacent to +the upper end of the hall, and built on transversely to it, with a window +at each end. It was usually raised on an undercroft, which was used as a +storeroom or cellar, so that it was reached by a stair from the upper end +of the hall. Sometimes, instead of a mere undercroft, there was a chamber +under the soler, which was the case here, so that we have added these +features to our plan (C). Next there was "a buttery and cellar at the +other" end of the hall. In the buttery in those days were kept wine and +beer, table linen, cups, pots, &c.: and in the cellar the stores of +eatables which, it must be remembered, were not bought in weekly from the +village shop, or the next market town, but were partly the produce of the +glebe and tithe, and partly were laid in yearly or half-yearly at some +neighbouring fair. The buttery and cellar--they who are familiar with old +houses, or with our colleges, will remember--are always at the lower end +of the hall, and open upon the screens, with two whole or half doors side +by side; we may therefore add them thus upon our plan (H, I). + +[Illustration: _Conjectural Plan of Rectory-House at Kelvedon, Essex._] + +The deed adds, "Also one other house in three parts." In those days the +rooms of a house were not massed compactly together under one roof, but +were built in separate buildings more or less detached, and each building +was called a house; "One other house in three parts, that is to say, a +kitchen with a convenient chamber at one end of the said house for guests, +and a bakehouse." "The kitchen," says Mr. Parker, in his "Domestic +Architecture," "was frequently a detached building, often connected with +the hall by a passage or alley leading from the screens;" and it was often +of greater relative size and importance than modern usage would lead us to +suppose; the kitchens of old monasteries, mansion houses, and colleges +often have almost the size and architectural character of a second hall. +In the case before us it was a section of the "other house," and probably +occupied its whole height, with an open timber roof (G). In the +disposition of the bakehouse and convenient chamber for guests which were +also in this other house, we meet with our first difficulty; the "chamber" +might possibly be over the bakehouse, which took the usual form of an +undercroft beneath the guest chamber; but the definition that the house +was divided "in three parts" suggests that it was divided from top to +bottom into three distinct sections. Inclining to the latter opinion, we +have so disposed these apartments in our plan (F, E). + +The elevation of the house may be conjectured with as much probability as +its plan. Standing in front of it we should have the side of the hall +towards us, with the arched door at its lower end, and perhaps two windows +in the side with carved wood tracery[309] in their heads. To the right +would be the gable end of the chamber with soler over it; the soler would +probably have a rather large arched and traceried window in the end, the +chamber a smaller and perhaps square-headed light. On the left would be +the building, perhaps a lean-to, containing the buttery and cellar, with +only a small square-headed light in front. The accompanying wood-cut of a +fourteenth-century house, from the Add. MSS. 10,292, will help to +illustrate our conjectural elevation of Kelvedon Rectory. It has the hall +with its great door and arched traceried window, and at the one end a +chamber and soler over it. It only wants the offices at the other end to +make the resemblance complete.[310] + +[Illustration: _A Fourteenth Century House._] + +Of later date probably and greater size, resembling a moated manor house, +was the rectory of Great Bromley, Essex, which is thus described in the +terrier of 1610 A.D.: "A large parsonage house compass'd with a Mote, a +Gate-house, with a large chamber, and a substantial bridge of timber +adjoining to it, a little yard, an orchard, and a little garden, all +within the Mote, which, together with the Circuit of the House, contains +about half an Acre of Ground; and without the Mote there is a Yard, in +which there is another Gate-house and a stable, and a hay house adjoining; +also a barn of 25 yards long and 9 yards wide, and about 79 Acres and +a-half of glebeland."[311] The outbuildings were perhaps arranged as a +courtyard outside the moat to which the gate-house formed an entrance, so +that the visitor would pass through this outer gate, through the court of +offices, over the bridge, and through the second gate-house into the base +court of the house. This is the arrangement at Ightham Mote, Kent. + +The parish chaplains seem to have had houses of residence provided for +them. The parish of St. Michael-le-Belfry, York, complained in its +visitation presentment, in the year 1409, that there was no house assigned +for the parish chaplain or for the parish clerk. That they were small +houses we gather from the fact that in some of the settlements of +vicarages it is required that a competent house shall be built for the +vicar where the parish chaplain has been used to live; _e.g._ at Great +Bentley, Essex, it was ordered in 1323, that the vicars "shall have one +competent dwelling-house with a sufficient curtilage, where the parish +chaplain did use to abide, to be prepared at the cost of the said prior +and convent."[312] And at the settlement of the vicarage of St. Peter's, +Colchester, A.D. 1319, it was required that "the convent of St. Botolph's, +the impropriators, should prepare a competent house for the vicar in the +ground of the churchyard where a house was built for the parish chaplain +of the said church." At Radwinter, Essex, we find by the terrier of 1610 +A.D., that there were two mansions belonging to the benefice, "on the +south side of the church, towards the west end, one called the great +vicarage, and in ancient time the Domus Capellanorum, and the other the +less vicarage," which latter "formerly served for the ease of the Parson, +and, as appears by evidence, first given to the end that if any of the +parish were sick, the party might be sure to find the Parson or his curate +near the church ready to go and visit him." At the south-west corner of +the churchyard of Doddinghurst, Essex, there still exists a little house +of fifteenth-century date, which may have been such a curate's house. + +From a comparison of these parsonages with the usual plan and arrangement +of the houses of laymen of the fourteenth century, may be made the +important deduction that the houses of the parochial clergy had no +ecclesiastical peculiarities of arrangement; they were not little +monasteries or great recluse houses, they were like the houses of the +laity; and this agrees with the conclusions to which we have arrived +already by other roads, that the secular clergy lived in very much the +same style as laymen of a similar degree of wealth and social standing. +The poor clerk lived in a single chamber of a citizen's house; the town +priest had a house like those of the citizens; the country rector or vicar +a house like the manor houses of the smaller gentry. + +As to the furniture of the parsonage, the wills of the clergy supply us +with ample authorities. We will select one of about the date of the +Kelvedon parsonage house which we have been studying, to help us to +conjecturally furnish the house which we have conjecturally built. Here is +an inventory of the goods of Adam de Stanton, a chaplain, date 1370 A.D., +taken from Mr. Tymms's collection of Bury wills. "Imprimis, in money +vi{s.} viii{d.} and i seal of silver worth ijs." The money will seem a +fair sum to have in hand when we consider the greater value of money then +and especially the comparative scarcity of actual coin. The seal was +probably his official seal as chaplain of an endowed chantry; we have +extant examples of such seals of the beneficed clergy. "Item, iij brass +pots and i posnet worth xj{s.} vj{d.} Item, in plate, xxij{d.} Item, a +round pot with a laver, j{s.} vj{d.,}" probably an ewer and basin for +washing the hands, like those still used in Germany, &c. "Item, in iron +instruments, vj{s.} viiij{d.} and vj{d.,}" perhaps fire-dogs and poker, +spit, and pothook. "Item, in pewter vessels, iiij{s.} ij{d.,}" probably +plates, dishes, and spoons. "Item, of wooden utensils," which, from +comparison with other inventories of about the same period, we suppose +may be boards and trestles for tables, and benches, and a chair, and +perhaps may include trenchers and bowls. "Item, i portiforum, x{s.,}" a +book of church service so called, which must have been a handsome one to +be worth ten shillings, perhaps it was illuminated. "Item, j book de Lege +and j Par Statutorum, and j Book of Romances.[313] Item, j girdle with +purse and knife, v{s.}" on which we have already commented in our last +chapter. "Item, j pair of knives for the table, xij{d.} Item, j saddle +with bridle and spurs, iij{s.} Item, of linen and woollen garments, +xxviij{s.} and xij{d.} Item, of chests and caskets, vj{s.} ij{d.,}" Chests +and caskets then served for cupboards and drawers.[314] + +If we compare these clerical inventories with those of contemporary laymen +of the same degree, we shall find that a country parson's house was +furnished like a small manor house, and that his domestic economy was very +like that of the gentry of a like income. Matthew Paris tells us an +anecdote of a certain handsome clerk, the rector of a rich church, who +surpassed all the knights living around him in giving repeated +entertainments and acts of hospitality.[315] But usually it was a rude +kind of life which the country squire or parson led, very like that which +was led by the substantial farmers of a few generations ago, when it was +the fashion for the unmarried farm labourers to live in the farm-house, +and for the farmer and his household all to sit down to meals together. +These were their hours:-- + + "Rise at five, dine at nine, + Sup at five, and bed at nine, + Will make a man live to ninety-and-nine." + +The master of the house sat in the sole arm-chair, in the middle of the +high table on the dais, with his family on either side of him; and his men +sat at the movable tables of boards and trestles, with a bench on each +side, which we find mentioned in the inventories: or the master sat at the +same table with his men, only he sat above the salt and they below; he +drank his ale out of a silver cup while they drank it out of horn; he ate +white bread while they ate brown, and he a capon out of his curtilage +while they had pork or mutton ham; he retired to his great chamber when he +desired privacy, which was not often perhaps; and he slept in a tester bed +in the great chamber, while they slept on truckle beds in the hall. + +One item in the description of the Kelvedon parsonage requires special +consideration, and opens up a rather important question as to the domestic +economy of the parochial clergy over and above what we have hitherto +gleaned. "The convenient chamber for guests" there mentioned was not a +best bedroom for any friend who might pay him a visit. It was a provision +for the efficient exercise of the hospitality to which the beneficed +parochial clergy were bound. It is a subject which perhaps needs a little +explanation. In England there were no inns where travellers could obtain +food and lodging until the middle of the fourteenth century; and for long +after that period they could only be found in the largest and most +important towns; and it was held to be a part of the duty of the clergy to +"entertain strangers," and be "given to hospitality." It was a charity not +very likely to be abused; for, thanks to bad roads, unbridged fords, no +inns, wild moors, and vast forests haunted by lawless men, very few +travelled, except for serious business; and it was a real act of Christian +charity to afford to such travellers the food and shelter which they +needed, and would have been hard put to it to have obtained otherwise. The +monasteries, we all know, exercised this hospitality on so large a scale, +that in order to avoid the interruption a constant succession of guests +would have made in the seclusion and regularity of conventual life, they +provided special buildings for it, called the hospitium or guest house, a +kind of inn within the walls, and they appointed one of the monks, under +the name of the hospitaller or guest master, to represent the convent in +entertaining the guests. Hermitages also, we have seen, were frequently +built along the high roads, especially near bridges and fords, for the +purpose of aiding travellers. Along the road which led towards some +famous place of pilgrimage hospitals, which were always religious +foundations, were founded especially for the entertainment of poor +pilgrims. And the parochial clergy were expected to exercise a similar +hospitality. Thus in the replies of the rectors of Berkshire to the papal +legate, in 1240 A.D., they say that "their churches were endowed and +enriched by their patrons with lands and revenues for the especial purpose +that the rectors of them should receive guests, rich as well as poor, and +show hospitality to laity as well as clergy, according to their means, as +the custom of the place required."[316] Again, in 1246, the clergy, on a +similar occasion, stated that "a custom has hitherto prevailed, and been +observed in England, that the rectors of parochial churches have always +been remarkable for hospitality, and have made a practice of supplying +food to their parishioners who were in want, ... and if a portion of their +benefices be taken away from them, they will be under the necessity of +refusing their hospitality, and abandoning their accustomed offices of +piety. And if these be withdrawn, they will incur the hatred of those +subject to them [their parishioners], and will lose the favour of +passers-by [travellers] and their neighbours."[317] Again, in 1253 A.D., +Bishop Grostête, in his remonstrance to the Pope, says of the foreigners +who were intruded into English benefices, that they "could not even take +up their residence, to administer to the wants of the poor, and to receive +travellers."[318] + +There is an interesting passage illustrative of the subject quoted in +Parker's "Domestic Architecture," i. p. 123. Æneus Sylvius, afterwards +Pope Pius II., describing his journey from Scotland into England, in the +year 1448, says that he entered a large village in a wild and barbarous +part of the country, about sunset, and "alighted at a rustic's house, and +supped there with the priest of the place and the host." The special +mention of the priest in the first place almost leads us to conjecture +that the foreign ecclesiastic had first gone to the priest of the place +for the usual hospitality, and had been taken on by him to the manor +house--for the "rustic" seems to have been a squire--as better able to +afford him a suitable hospitality. Sundry pottages, and fowls, and geese, +were placed on the table, but there was neither bread nor wine. He had, +however, brought with him a few loaves and a roundel of wine, which he had +received at a certain monastery. Either a stranger was a great novelty, or +the Italian ecclesiastic had something remarkable in his appearance, for +he says all "the people of the place ran to the house to stare at him." + +Kelvedon being on one of the great high roads of the country, its parson +would often be called upon to exercise his duty of hospitality, hence the +provision of a special guest chamber in the parsonage house. And so in our +picture of the domestic economy and ordinary life of a mediæval country +parson we must furnish his guest chamber, and add a little to the contents +of buttery and cellar, to provide for his duty of hospitality; and we must +picture him not always sitting in solitary dignity at his high table on +the dais, but often playing the courteous host to knight and lady, +merchant, minstrel, or pilgrim; and after dinner giving the broken meat to +the poor, who in the days when there was no poor law were the regular +dependants on his bounty. + + + + +THE MINSTRELS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +It would carry us too far a-field to attempt to give a sketch of the early +music of the principal nations of antiquity, such as might be deduced from +the monuments of Egypt and Nineveh and Greece. We may, however, briefly +glance at the most ancient minstrelsy of the Israelites; partly for the +sake of the peculiar interest of the subject itself, partly because the +early history of music is nearly the same in all nations, and this +earliest history will illustrate and receive illustration from a +comparison with the history of music in mediæval England. + +Musical instruments, we are told by the highest of all authorities, were +invented in the eighth generation of the world--that is in the third +generation before the flood--by Tubal, "the Father of all such as handle +the harp and organ, both stringed and wind instruments." The ancient +Israelites used musical instruments on the same occasions as the mediæval +Europeans--in battle; in their feasts and dances; in processions, whether +of religious or civil ceremony; and in the solemnising of divine worship. +The trumpet and the horn were then, as always, the instruments of warlike +music--"If ye go to war then shall ye blow an alarm with the silver +trumpets."[319] The trumpet regulated the march of the hosts of Israel +through the wilderness. When Joshua compassed Jericho, the seven priests +blew trumpets of rams' horns. Gideon and his three hundred discomfited the +host of the Midianites with the sound of their trumpets. + +The Tabret was the common accompaniment of the troops of female dancers, +whether the occasion were religious or festive. Miriam the prophetess took +a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels +and with dances, singing a solemn chorus to the triumphant song of Moses +and of the Children of Israel over the destruction of Pharaoh in the Red +Sea,-- + + "Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; + The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea."[320] + +Jephthah's daughter went to meet her victorious father with timbrels and +dances:-- + + "The daughter of the warrior Gileadite, + From Mizpeh's tower'd gate with welcome light, + With timbrel and with song." + +And so, when King Saul returned from the slaughter of the Philistines, +after the shepherd David had killed their giant champion in the valley of +Elah, the women came out of all the cities to meet the returning warriors +"singing and dancing to meet King Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with +instruments of music;" and the women answered one another in dramatic +chorus-- + + "Saul hath slain his thousands, + And David his ten thousands."[321] + +Laban says that he would have sent away Jacob and his wives and children, +"with mirth and with songs, with tabret and with harp." And Jeremiah +prophesying that times of ease and prosperity shall come again for Israel, +says: "O Virgin of Israel, thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, +and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry."[322] + +In their feasts these and many other instruments were used. Isaiah tells +us[323] that they had "the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and +wine in their feasts;" and Amos tells us of the luxurious people who lie +upon beds of ivory, and "chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to +themselves instruments of music like David," and drink wine in bowls, and +anoint themselves with the costliest perfumes. + +Instruments of music were used in the colleges of Prophets, which Samuel +established in the land, to accompany and inspire the delivery of their +prophetical utterances. As Saul, newly anointed, went up the hill of God +towards the city, he met a company of prophets coming down, with a +psaltery, and a tabret, and a pipe, and a harp before them, prophesying; +and the spirit of the Lord came upon Saul when he heard, and he also +prophesied.[324] When Elisha was requested by Jehoram to prophesy the fate +of the battle with the Moabites, he said: "Bring me a minstrel; and when +the minstrel played, the hand of the Lord came upon him, and he +prophesied." + +When David brought up the ark from Gibeah, he and all the house of Israel +played before the Lord on all manner of instruments made of firwood, even +on harps, psalteries, timbrels, cornets, and cymbals.[325] And in the song +which he himself composed to be sung on that occasion,[326] he thus +describes the musical part of the procession:-- + + "It is well seen how thou goest, + How thou, my God and King, goest to the sanctuary; + The singers go before, the minstrels follow after, + In the midst are the damsels playing with the timbrels." + +The instruments appointed for the regular daily service of the Temple "by +David, and Gad the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet, for so was the +commandment of the Lord by his prophets," were cymbals, psalteries, and +harps, which David made for the purpose, and which were played by four +thousand Levites. + +Besides the instruments already mentioned,--the harp, tabret, timbrel, +psaltery, trumpet, cornet, cymbal, pipe, and viol,--they had also the +lyre, bag-pipes, and bells; and probably they carried back with them from +Babylon further additions, from the instruments of "all peoples, nations, +and languages" with which they would become familiarised in that capital +of the world. But from the time of Tubal down to the time when the royal +minstrel of Israel sang those glorious songs which are still the daily +solace of thousands of mankind, and further down to the time when the +captive Israelites hanged their unstrung harps upon the willows of +Babylon, and could not sing the songs of Zion in a strange land, the harp +continued still the fitting accompaniment of the voice in all poetical +utterance of a dignified and solemn character:--the recitation of the +poetical portions of historical and prophetical Scripture, for instance, +would be sustained by it, and the songs of the psalmists of Zion were +accompanied by its strains. And thus this sketch of the history of the +earliest music closes, with the minstrel harp still in the foreground; +while in the distance we hear the sound of the fanfare of cornet, flute, +harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music, which were +concerted on great occasions; such as that on which they resounded over +the plain of Dura, to bow that bending crowd of heads, as the ripe corn +bends before the wind, to the great Image of Gold:--an idolatry, alas! +which the peoples, nations, and languages still perform almost as +fervently as of old. + + * * * * * + +The northern Bard, or Scald, was the father of the minstrels of mediæval +Europe. Our own early traditions afford some picturesque anecdotes, +proving the high estimation in which the character was held by the Saxons +and their kindred Danes; and showing that they were accustomed to wander +about to court, and camp, and hall; and were hospitably received, even +though the Bard were of a race against which his hosts were at that very +time encamped in hostile array. We will only remind the reader of the +Royal Alfred's assumption of the character of a minstrel, and his visit in +that disguise to the Danish camp (A.D. 878); and of the similar visit, ten +years after, of Anlaff the Danish king to the camp of Saxon Athelstane. +But the earliest anecdote of the kind we shall have hereafter to refer to, +and may therefore here detail at length. It is told us by Geoffrey of +Monmouth, that Colgrin, the son of Ella, who succeeded Hengist in the +leadership of the invading Saxons, was shut up in York, and closely +besieged by King Arthur and his Britons. Baldulf, the brother of Colgrin, +wanted to gain access to him, to apprise him of a reinforcement which was +coming from Germany. In order to accomplish this design, he assumed the +character of a minstrel. He shaved his head and beard; and dressing +himself in the habit of that profession, took his harp in his hand. In +this disguise he walked up and down the trenches without suspicion, +playing all the while upon his instrument as a harper. By little and +little he approached the walls of the city; and, making himself known to +the sentinels, was in the night drawn up by a rope. + +The harper continued throughout the Middle Ages to be the most dignified +of the minstrel craft, the reciter, and often the composer, of heroic +legend and historical tale, of wild romance and amorous song. Frequently, +and perhaps especially in the case of the higher class of harpers, he +travelled alone, as in the cases which we have already seen of Baldulf, +and Alfred, and Anlaff. But he also often associated himself with a band +of minstrels, who filled up the intervals of his recitations and songs +with their music, much as vocal and instrumental pieces are alternated in +our modern concerts. With a band of minstrels there was also very usually +associated a mime, who amused the audience with his feats of agility and +leger-de-main. The association appears at first sight somewhat +undignified--the heroic harper and the tumbler--but the incongruity was +not peculiar to the Middle Ages; the author of the "Iliad" wrote the +"Battle of the Frogs,"--the Greeks were not satisfied without a satiric +drama after their grand heroic tragedy; and in these days we have a farce +or a pantomime after Shakspeare. We are not all Heraclituses, to see only +the tragic side of life, or Democrituses, to laugh at everything; the +majority of men have faculties to appreciate both classes of emotion; and +it would seem, from universal experience, that, as the Russian finds a +physical delight in leaping from a vapour-bath into the frozen Neva, so +there is some mental delight in the sudden alternate excitation of the +opposite emotions of tragedy and farce. If we had time to philosophise, we +might find the source of the delight deeply seated in our +nature:--alternate tears and laughter--it is an epitome of human life! + +In the accompanying woodcut from a Late Saxon MS. in the British Museum +(Cott. Tiberius C. vi.) we have a curious evidence of the way in which +custom blinded men to any incongruity there may be in the association of +the harper and the juggler, for here we have David singing his Psalms and +accompanying himself on the harp, the dove reminding us that he sang and +harped under the influence of inspiration. He is accompanied by performers +who must be Levites; and yet the Saxon illuminator was so used to see a +mime form one of a minstrel band, that he has introduced one playing the +common feat of tossing three knives and three balls. + +[Illustration: _Saxon Band of Minstrels._] + +The Saxons were a musical people. We learn from Bede's anecdote of the +poet Cædmon, that it was usual at their feasts to pass the harp round from +hand to hand, and every man was supposed to be able to sing in his turn, +and accompany himself on the instrument. They had a considerable number +of musical instruments. In a MS. in the British Museum, Tiberius C. vi., +folios 16 v., 17 v., 18, are a few leaves of a formal treatise on the +subject, which give us very carefully drawn pictures of different +instruments, with their names and descriptions. There are also +illustrations of them in the Add. 11,695, folios 86, 86 v., 164, 170 v., +229, and in Cleopatra E. viii. Among them are the Psaltery of various +shapes, the Sambuca or sackbut, the single and double Chorus, &c. Other +instruments we find in Saxon MSS. are the lyre, viol, flute, cymbals, +organ, &c. A set of hand-bells (carillons) which the player struck with +two hammers, was a favourite instrument. We often find different +instruments played together. At folio 93 v. of the MS. Claudius B iv. +there is a group of twelve female harpists playing together; one has a +small instrument, probably a kind of lyre, the rest have great harps of +the same pattern. They probably represent Miriam and the women of Israel +joining in the triumphal song of Moses over the destruction of the +Egyptians in the Red Sea. + +[Illustration: _Saxon Organ._] + +The organ, already introduced into divine service, became, under the hands +of St. Dunstan, a large and important instrument. William of Malmesbury +says that Dunstan gave many to churches which had pipes of brass and were +inflated with bellows. In a MS. psalter in Trinity College, Cambridge, is +a picture of one of considerable size, which has no less than four bellows +played by four men. It is represented in the accompanying wood-cut. + +The Northmen who invaded and gave their name to Normandy, took their +minstrels with them; and the learned assert that it was from them that the +troubadours of Provence learned their art, which ripened in their sunny +clime into _la joyeuse science_, and thence was carried into Italy, +France, and Spain. It is quite certain that minstrelsy was in high repute +among the Normans at the period of the Conquest. Every one will remember +how Taillefer, the minstrel-knight, commenced the great battle of +Hastings. Advancing in front of the Norman host, he animated himself and +them to a chivalric daring by chanting the heroic tale of Charlemagne and +his Paladins, at the same time showing feats of skill in tossing his sword +into the air; and then rushed into the Saxon ranks, like a divinely-mad +hero of old, giving in his own self-sacrifice an augury of victory to his +people. + +From the period of the Conquest, authorities on the subject of which we +are treating, though still not so numerous as could be desired, become too +numerous to be all included within the limits to which our space restricts +us. The reader may refer to Wharton's "History of English Poetry," to +Bishop Percy's introductory essay to the "Reliques of Early English +Poetry," and to the introductory essay to Ellis's "Early English Metrical +Romances," for the principal published authorities. For a series of +learned essays on mediæval musical instruments he may consult M. Didron's +"Annales Archæologiques," vol. iii. pp. 76, 142, 260; vol. iv. pp. 25, 94; +vol. vi. p. 315; vol. vii. pp. 92, 157, 244, 325; vol. viii. p. 242; vol. +ix. pp. 289, 329.[327] We propose only from these and other published and +unpublished materials to give a popular sketch of the subject. + +Throughout this period minstrelsy was in high estimation with all classes +of society. The king himself, like his Saxon[328] predecessors, had a +king's minstrel, or king of the minstrels, who probably from the first was +at the head of a band of royal minstrels.[329] + +This fashion of the royal court, doubtless, like all its other fashions, +obtained also in the courts of the great nobility (several instances will +be observed in the sequel), and in their measure in the households of the +lesser nobility. Every gentleman of estate had probably his one, two, or +more minstrels as a regular part of his household. It is not difficult to +discover their duties. In the representations of dinners, which occur +plentifully in the mediæval MSS., we constantly find musicians introduced; +sometimes we see them preceding the servants, who are bearing the dishes +to table--a custom of classic usage, and which still lingers to this day +at Queen's College, Oxford, in the song with which the choristers usher in +the boar's head on Christmas-day, and at our modern public dinners, when +the band strikes up "Oh the Roast Beef of Old England," as that national +dish is brought to table. + +We give here an illustration of such a scene from a very fine MS. of the +early part of the fourteenth century, in the British Museum (marked Royal +2 B vii., f. 184 v. and 185). A very fine representation of a similar +scene occurs at the foot of the large Flemish Brass of Robert Braunche and +his two wives in St. Margaret's Church, Lynn; the scene is intended as a +delineation of a feast given by the corporation of Lynn to King Edward +III. Servants from both sides of the picture are bringing in that famous +dish of chivalry, the peacock with his tail displayed; and two bands of +minstrels are ushering in the banquet with their strains: the date of the +brass is about 1364 A.D. In the fourteenth-century romance of "Richard +Coeur de Lion," we read of some knights who have arrived in presence of +the romance king whom they are in quest of; dinner is immediately prepared +for them; "trestles," says Ellis in his abstract of it, "were immediately +set; a table covered with a silken cloth was laid; a rich repast, ushered +in by the sound of trumpets and shalms, was served up."[330] + +[Illustration: _A Royal Dinner._] + +Having introduced the feast, the minstrels continued to play during its +progress. We find numerous representations of dinners in the +illuminations, in which one or two minstrels are standing beside the +table, playing their instruments during the progress of the meal. In a MS. +volume of romances of the early part of the fourteenth century in the +British Museum (Royal 14 E iii.), the title-page of the romance of the +"Quête du St. Graal" (at folio 89 of the MS.) is adorned with an +illumination of a royal banquet; a squire on his knee (as in the +illustration given on opposite page) is carving, and a minstrel stands +beside the table playing the violin; he is dressed in a parti-coloured +tunic of red and blue, and wears his hat. In the Royal MS. 2 B vii., at +folio 168, is a similar representation of a dinner, in which a minstrel +stands playing the violin; he is habited in a red tunic, and is +bareheaded. At folio 203 of the same MS. (Royal 2 B vii.), is another +representation of a dinner, in which two minstrels are introduced; one +(wearing his hood) is playing a cittern, the other (bareheaded) is playing +a violin: and these references might be multiplied. + +[Illustration: _Royal Dinner of the time of Edward IV._] + +We reproduce here, in further illustration of the subject, engravings of a +royal dinner of about the time of our Edward IV., "taken from an +illumination of the romance of the Compte d'Artois, in the possession of +M. Barrois, a distinguished and well-known collector in Paris."[331] The +other is an exceedingly interesting representation of a grand imperial +banquet, from one of the plates of Hans Burgmair, in the volume dedicated +to the exploits of the Emperor Maximilian, contemporary with our Henry +VIII. It represents the entrance of a masque, one of those strange +entertainments, of which our ancestors, in the time of Henry and +Elizabeth, were so fond, and of which Mr. C. Kean some years ago gave the +play-going world of London so accurate a representation in his _mise en +scene_ of Henry VIII. at the Princess's Theatre. The band of minstrels who +have been performing during the banquet, are seen in the left corner of +the picture. + +[Illustration: _Imperial Banquet._] + +So in "The Squier's Tale" of Chaucer, where Cambuscan is "holding his +feste so solempne and so riche." + + "It so befel, that after the thridde cours, + While that this king sat thus in his nobley,[332] + Harking his ministralles her[333] thinges play, + Beforne him at his bord deliciously," &c. + +The custom of having instrumental music as an accompaniment of dinner is +still retained by her Majesty and by some of the greater nobility, by +military messes, and at great public dinners. But the musical +accompaniment of a mediæval dinner was not confined to instrumental +performances. We frequently find a harper introduced, who is doubtless +reciting some romance or history, or singing chansons of a lighter +character. He is often represented as sitting upon the floor, as in the +accompanying illustration, from the Royal MS., 2 B vii., folio 71 b. +Another similar representation occurs at folio 203 b of the same MS. In +the following very charming picture, from a MS. volume of romances of +early fourteenth century date in the British Museum (Additional MS., +10,292, folio 200), the harper is sitting upon the table. + +[Illustration: _Harper._] + +Gower, in his "Confessio Amantis," gives us a description of a scene of +the kind. Appolinus is dining in the hall of King Pentapolin, with the +king and queen and their fair daughter, and all his "lordes in estate." +Appolinus was reminded by the scene of the royal estate from which he is +fallen, and sorrowed and took no meat; therefore the king bade his +daughter take her harp and do all that she can to enliven that "sorry +man." + + "And she to dou her fader's hest, + Her harpe fette, and in the feste + Upon a chaire which thei fette, + Her selve next to this man she sette." + +[Illustration: _Royal Harper._] + +Appolinus in turn takes the harp, and proves himself a wonderful +proficient, and + + "When he hath harped all his fille, + The kingis hest to fulfille, + A waie goth dishe, a waie goth cup, + Doun goth the borde, the cloth was up, + Thei risen and gone out of the halle." + +In the sequel, the interesting stranger was made tutor to the princess, +and among other teachings, + + "He taught hir till she was certeyne + Of harpe, citole, and of riote, + With many a tewne and many a note, + Upon musike, upon measure, + And of her harpe the temprure, + He taught her eke, as he well couth." + +Another occasion on which their services would be required would be for +the dance. Thus we read in the sequel of "The Squire's Tale," how the king +and his "nobley," when dinner was ended, rose from table, and, preceded by +the minstrels, went to the great chamber for the dance:-- + + "Wan that this Tartar king, this Cambuscán, + Rose from his bord ther as he sat ful hie; + Beforne him goth the loudé minstralcie, + Til he come to his chambre of parements,[334] + Theras they sounden divers instruments, + That it is like an Heaven for to here. + Now dauncen lusty Venus children dere," &c. + +In the tale of Dido and Æneas, in the legend of "Good Women," he calls it +especially the dancing chamber:-- + + "To dauncing chambers full of paraments, + Of riché bedés[335] and of pavements, + This Eneas is ledde after the meat." + +[Illustration: _Mediæval Dance._] + +But the dance was not always in the great chamber. Very commonly it took +place in the hall. The tables were only movable boards laid upon trestles, +and at the signal from the master of the house, "A hall! a hall!" they +were quickly put aside; while the minstrels tuned their instruments anew, +and the merry folly at once commenced. In the illustration, of early +fourteenth-century date, which we give on the preceding page, from folio +174 of the Royal MS., 2 B vii., the scene of the dance is not indicated; +the minstrels themselves appear to be joining in the saltitation which +they inspire. + +In the next illustration, reproduced from Mr. Wright's "Domestic Manners +of the English," we have a curious picture of a dance, possibly in the +gallery, which occupied the whole length of the roof of most +fifteenth-century houses; it is from M. Barrois's MS. of the "Compte +D'Artois," of fifteenth-century date. In all these instances the minstrels +are on the floor with the dancers, but in the latter part of the Middle +Ages they were probably--especially on festal occasions--placed in the +music gallery over the screens, or entrance-passage, of the hall. + +[Illustration: _A Dance in the Gallery._] + +Marriage processions were, beyond doubt, attended by minstrels. An +illustration of a band consisting of tabor, bagpipes, regal, and violin, +heading a marriage procession, may be seen in the Roman d'Alexandre +(Bodleian Library) at folio 173; and at folios 173 and 174 the wedding +feast is enlivened by a more numerous band of harp, gittern, violin, +regal, tabor, bagpipes, hand-bells, cymbals, and kettle-drums--which are +carried on a boy's back.[336] + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +SACRED MUSIC. + + +Every nobleman and gentleman in the Middle Ages, we have seen, had one or +more minstrels as part of his household, and among their other duties they +were required to assist at the celebration of divine worship. Allusions +occur perpetually in the old romances, showing that it was the universal +custom to hear mass before dinner, and even-song before supper, _e.g._: +"And so they went home and unarmed them, and so to even-song and +supper.... And on the morrow they heard mass, and after went to dinner, +and to their counsel, and made many arguments what were best to do."[337] +"The Young Children's Book," a kind of mediæval "Chesterfield's Letters to +his Son," published by the Early English Text Society, from a MS. of +about 1500 A.D., in the Bodleian Library, bids its pupils-- + + "Aryse be tyme oute of thi bedde, + And blysse[338] thi brest and thi forhede, + Then wasche thi handes and thi face, + Keme thi hede and ask God grace + The to helpe in all thi workes; + Thou schalt spede better what so thou carpes. + Then go to the chyrche and here a massé, + There aske mersy for thi trespasse. + When thou hast done go breke thy faste + With mete and drynk a gode repast." + +In great houses the service was performed by the chaplain in the chapel of +the hall or castle, and it seems probable that the lord's minstrels +assisted in the musical part of the service. + +The organ doubtless continued to be, as we have seen it in Saxon times, +the most usual church instrument. Thus the King of Hungary in "The Squire +of Low Degree," tells his daughter:-- + + "Then shal ye go to your even song, + With tenours and trebles among; + + * * * * + + Your quere nor organ song shal want + With countre note and dyscant; + The other half on organs playing, + With young children ful fayn synging." + +And in inventories of church furniture in the Middle Ages we find organs +enumerated:[339] Not only the organ, but all instruments in common use, +were probably also used in the celebration of divine worship. We meet with +repeated instances in which David singing the psalms is accompanied by a +band of musicians, as in the Saxon illumination on p. 272, and again in +the initial letter of this chapter, which is taken from a psalter of +early thirteenth-century date in the British Museum (Harl. 5,102). The men +of those days were in some respects much more real and practical, less +sentimental and transcendental, than we in religious matters. We must have +everything relating to divine worship of different form and fashion from +ordinary domestic appliances, and think it irreverent to use things of +ordinary domestic fashion for religious uses, or to have domestic things +in the shapes of what we call religious art. They had only one art, the +best they knew, for all purposes; and they were content to apply the best +of that to the service of God. Thus to their minds it would not appear at +all unseemly that the minstrels who had accompanied the divine service in +chapel should walk straight out of chapel into the hall, and tune their +instruments anew to play symphonies, or accompany chansons during dinner, +or enliven the dance in the great chamber in the evening--no more unseemly +than that their master and his family should dine and dance as well as +pray. The chapel royal establishment of Edward IV. consisted of trumpets, +shalms, and pipes, as well as voices; and we may be quite sure that the +custom of the royal chapel was imitated by noblemen and gentlemen of +estate. A good fifteenth-century picture of the interior of a church, +showing the organ in a gallery, is engraved in the "Annales +Archæologiques," vol. xii., p. 349. A very good representation of an organ +of the latter part of the sixteenth century (1582) is in the fine MS. +Plut. 3,469, folio 27.[340] An organ of about this date is still preserved +in that most interesting old Manor House, Igtham Mote, in Kent. They were +sometimes placed at the side of the chancel, sometimes in the rood-loft, +which occupied the same relative position in the choir which the music +gallery did in the hall. + +In the MSS. we not unfrequently find the ordinary musical instruments +placed in the hands of the angels; _e.g._, in the early fourteenth-century +MS. Royal 2 B. vii., in a representation of the creation, with the morning +stars singing together, and all the sons of God shouting for joy, an +angelic choir are making melody on the trumpet, violin, cittern, shalm (or +psaltery), and harp. There is another choir of angels at p. 168 of the +same MS., two citterns and two shalms, a violin and trumpet. Similar +representations occur very significantly in churches. On the arch of the +Porta Della Gloria of Saragossa Cathedral, of the eleventh century, from +which there is a cast at the entrance to the South Kensington Museum, are +a set of angel minstrels with musical instruments. In the bosses of the +ceiling of Tewkesbury Abbey Church we find angels playing the cittern +(with a plectrum), the harp (with its cover seen enveloping the lower half +of the instrument)[341] and the cymbals. A set of angel musicians is +sculptured on the rood loft of York Minster. In the triforum of the nave +of Exeter Cathedral is a projecting gallery for the minstrels, with +sculptures of them on the front playing instruments.[342] In the choir of +Lincoln Cathedral, some of the noble series of angels which fill the +spandrels of its arcades, and which have given to it the name of the Angel +Choir, are playing instruments, viz., the trumpet, double pipe, pipe and +tabret, dulcimer, viol and harp. They represent the heavenly choir +attuning their praises in harmony with the human choir below: "Therefore +with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud +and magnify thy glorious name." There is a band of musicians sculptured on +the grand portal of the Cathedral at Rheims; a sculptured capital from the +church of St. Georges de Bocherville, now in the Museum at Rouen, +represents eleven crowned figures playing different instruments.[343] On +the chasse of St. Ursula at Bruges are angels playing instruments +beautifully painted by Hemling.[344] We cannot resist the temptation to +introduce here another charming little drawing of an angelic minstrel, +playing a psaltery, from the Royal MS. 14 E iii.; others occur at folio 1 +of the same MS. The band of village musicians with flute, violin, +clarinet, and bass-viol, whom most of us have seen occupying the +singing-gallery of some country church, are the representatives of the +band of minstrels who occupied the rood-lofts in mediæval times. + +[Illustration: _The Morning Stars singing together._] + +[Illustration: _An Angel Minstrel._] + +Clerical censors of manners during the Middle Ages frequently denounce the +dissoluteness of minstrels, and the minstrels take their revenge by +lampooning the vices of the clergy. Like all sweeping censures of whole +classes of men, the accusations on both sides must be received cautiously. +However, it is certain that the minstrels were patronised by the clergy. +We shall presently find a record of the minstrels of the Bishop of +Winchester in the fourteenth century; and the Ordinance of Edward II., +quoted at p. 296, tells us that minstrels flocked to the houses of +prelates as well as of nobles and gentlemen. In the thirteenth century, +that fine sample of an English bishop, Grostête of Lincoln, was a great +patron of minstrel science: he himself composed an allegorical romance, +the Chasteau d'Amour. Robert de Brunne, in his English paraphrase of +Grostête's Manuel de Peches (begun in 1303), gives us a charming anecdote +of the Bishop's love of minstrelsy. + + "Y shall yow telle as y have herde, + Of the bysshope seyut Robérde, + Hys to-name ys Grostet. + Of Lynkolne, so seyth the gest + He loved moche to here the harpe, + For mannys witte hyt makyth sharpe. + Next hys chaumber, besyde his stody, + Hys harpers chaumbre was fast therby. + Many tymes be nyght and dayys, + He had solace of notes and layys. + One askede hym onys resun why + He hadde delyte in mynstralsy? + He answered hym on thys manere + Why he helde the harper so dere. + The vertu of the harpe, thurghe skylle and ryght, + Wyl destroy the fendes myght; + And to the croys by gode skylle + Ys the harpe lykened weyle. + Tharfor gode men, ye shul lere + Whan ye any gleman here, + To wurschep Gode al youre powére, + As Dauyde seyth yn the sautére." + +We know that the abbots lived in many respects as other great people did; +they exercised hospitality to guests of gentle birth in their own halls, +treated them to the diversions of hunting and hawking over their manors +and in their forests, and did not scruple themselves to partake in those +amusements; possibly they may have retained minstrels wherewith to solace +their guests and themselves. It is quite certain at least that the +wandering minstrels were welcome guests at the religious houses; and +Warton records many instances of the rewards given to them on those +occasions. We may record two or three examples. + +The monasteries had great annual feasts, on the ecclesiastical festivals, +and often also in commemoration of some saint or founder; there was a +grand service in church, and a grand dinner afterwards in the refectory. +The convent of St. Swithin, in Winchester, used thus to keep the +anniversary of Alwyne the Bishop; and in the year A.D. 1374 we find that +six minstrels, accompanied by four harpers, performed their minstrelsies +at dinner, in the hall of the convent, and during supper sang the same +gest in the great arched chamber of the prior, on which occasion the +chamber was adorned, according to custom on great occasions, with the +prior's great dorsal (a hanging for the wall behind the table), having on +it a picture of the three kings of Cologne. These minstrels and harpers +belonged partly to the Royal household in Winchester Castle, partly to the +Bishop of Winchester. Similarly at the priory of Bicester, in Oxfordshire, +in the year A.D. 1432, the treasurer of the monastery gave four shillings +to six minstrels from Buckingham, for singing in the refectory, on the +Feast of the Epiphany, a legend of the Seven Sleepers. In A.D. 1430 the +brethren of the Holie Crosse at Abingdon celebrated their annual feast; +twelve priests were hired for the occasion to help to sing the dirge with +becoming solemnity, for which they received four pence each; and twelve +minstrels, some of whom came from the neighbouring town of Maidenhead, +were rewarded with two shillings and four pence each, besides their share +of the feast and food for their horses. At Mantoke Priory, near Coventry, +there was a yearly obit; and in the year A.D. 1441, we find that eight +priests were hired from Coventry to assist in the service, and the six +minstrels of their neighbour, Lord Clinton, of Mantoke Castle, were +engaged to sing, harp, and play, in the hall of the monastery, at the +grand refection allowed to the monks on the occasion of that anniversary. +The minstrels amused the monks and their guests during dinner, and then +dined themselves in the painted chamber (_camera picta_) of the monastery +with the sub-prior, on which occasion the chamberlain furnished eight +massy tapers of wax to light their table. + +These are instances of minstrels formally invited by abbots and convents +to take part in certain great festivities; but there are proofs that the +wandering minstrel, who, like all other classes of society, would find +hospitality in the guest-house of the monastery, was also welcomed for his +minstrel skill, and rewarded for it with guerdon of money, besides his +food and lodging. Warton gives instances of entries in monastic accounts +for disbursements on such occasions; and there is an anecdote quoted by +Percy of some dissolute monks who one evening admitted two poor priests +whom they took to be minstrels, and ill-treated and turned them out again +when they were disappointed of their anticipated gratification. + +On the next page is a curious illumination from the Royal MS. 2 B vii., +representing a friar and a nun themselves making minstrelsy. + +[Illustration: _Nun and Friar with Musical Instruments._] + +At tournaments the scene was enlivened by the strains of minstrels, and +horses and men inspirited to the charge by the loud fanfare of their +instruments. Thus in "The Knight's Tale," at the tournament of Palamon and +Arcite, as the king and his company rode to the lists:-- + + "Up gon the trumpets and the melodie, + And to the listés ride the companie." + +And again:-- + + "Then were the gates shut, and cried was loude + Now do your devoir youngé knightés proud. + The heralds left their pricking up and down, + Now ringen trumpets loud and clarioun. + There is no more to say, but East and West + In go the spearés sadly in the rest; + In goeth the sharpé spur into the side; + There see men who can just and who can ride. + Men shiveren shaftés upon shieldés thick, + He feeleth thro the hearte-spoon the prick." + +In actual war only the trumpet and horn and tabor seem to have been used. +In "The Romance of Merlin" we read of + + "Trumpés beting, tambours classing" + +in the midst of a battle; and again, in Chaucer's "Knight's Tale"-- + + "Pipes, trumpets, nakeres,[345] and clariouns + That in the battle blowen bloody sounds;" + +and again, on another occasion-- + + "The trumping and the tabouring, + Did together the knights fling." + +There are several instances in the Royal MS., 2 B vii., in which +trumpeters are sounding their instruments in the rear of a company of +charging chevaliers. + +Again, when a country knight and his neighbour wished to keep their spears +in practice against the next tournament, or when a couple of errant +knights happened to meet at a manor-house, the lists were rudely staked +out in the base-court of the castle, or in the meadow under the +castle-walls; and, while the ladies looked on and waved their scarfs from +the windows or the battlements, and the vassals flocked round the ropes, +the minstrels gave animation to the scene. In the illustration on p. 414 +from the title-page of the Royal MS., 14 E iii., a fine volume of romances +of early fourteenth-century date, we are made spectators of a scene of the +kind; the herald is arranging the preliminaries between the two knights +who are about to joust, while a band of minstrels inspire them with their +strains. + +Not only at these stated periods, but at all times, the minstrels were +liable to be called upon to enliven the tedium of their lord or lady with +music and song; the King of Hungary (in "The Squire of Low Degree"), +trying to comfort his daughter for the loss of her lowly lover by the +promise of all kinds of pleasures, says that in the morning-- + + "Ye shall have harpe, sautry, and songe, + And other myrthes you among." + +And again a little further on, after dinner-- + + "When you come home your menie amonge, + Ye shall have revell, daunces, and songe; + Lytle children, great and smale, + Shall syng as doth the nightingale." + +And yet again, when she is gone to bed-- + + "And yf ye no rest can take, + All night mynstrels for you shall wake." + +Doubtless many of the long winter evenings, when the whole household was +assembled round the blazing wood fire in the middle of the hall, would be +passed in listening to those interminable tales of chivalry which my +lord's chief harper would chant to his harp, while his fellows would play +a symphony between the "fyttes." Of other occasions on which the minstrels +would have appropriate services to render, an entry in the Household Book +of the Percy family in A.D. 1512 gives us an indication: There were three +of them at their castle in the north, a tabret, a lute, and a rebec; and +we find that they had a new-year's gift, "xx_s._ for playing at my lordes +chamber doure on new yeares day in the mornynge; and for playing at my +lordes sone and heire's chamber doure, the lord Percy, ii_s._; and for +playing at the chamber dours of my lord's yonger sonnes, my yonge masters, +after viii. the piece for every of them." + + * * * * * + +But besides the official minstrels of kings, nobles, and gentlemen, +bishops, and abbots, and corporate towns, there were a great number of +"minstrels unattached," and of various grades of society, who roamed +abroad singly or in company, from town to town, from court to camp, from +castle to monastery, flocking in great numbers to tournaments and +festivals and fairs, and welcomed everywhere. + +The summer-time was especially the season for the wanderings of these +children of song,[346] as it was of the knight-errant[347] and of the +pilgrim[348] also. No wonder that the works of the minstrels abound as +they do with charming outbursts of song on the return of the spring and +summer, and the delights which they bring. All winter long the minstrel +had lain in some town, chafing at its miry and unsavoury streets, and its +churlish, money-getting citizens; or in some hospitable castle or +manor-house, perhaps, listening to the wind roaring through the broad +forests, and howling among the turrets overhead, until he pined for +freedom and green fields; his host, perchance, grown tired of his ditties, +and his only occupation to con new ones; this, from the "Percy Reliques," +sounds like a verse composed at such a time:-- + + "In time of winter alange[349] it is! + The foules lesen[350] her bliss! + The leves fallen off the tree; + Rain alangeth[351] the countree." + +No wonder they welcomed the return of the bright, warm days, when they +could resume their gay, adventurous, open-air life, in the fresh, flowery +meadows, and the wide, green forest glades; roaming to town and village, +castle and monastery, feast and tournament; alone, or in company with a +band of brother minstrels; meeting by the way with gay knights +adventurous, or pilgrims not less gay--if they were like those of +Chaucer's company; welcomed everywhere by priest and abbot, lord and loon. +These are the sort of strains which they carolled as they rested under the +white hawthorn, and carelessly tinkled an accompaniment on their harps:-- + + "Merry is th' enté of May; + The fowles maketh merry play; + The time is hot, and long the day. + The joyful nightingale singeth, + In the grene mede flowers springeth. + + * * * * + + "Merry it is in somer's tide; + Fowles sing in forest wide; + Swaines gin on justing ride, + Maidens liffen hem in pride." + +The minstrels were often men of position and wealth. Rayer, or Raherus, +the first of the king's minstrels whom we meet with after the Conquest, +founded the Priory and Hospital of St. Bartholomew, in Smithfield, London, +in the third year of Henry I., A.D. 1102, and became the first prior of +his own foundation. He was not the only minstrel who turned religious. +Foulquet de Marseille, first a merchant, then a minstrel of note--some of +his songs have descended to these days--at length turned monk, and was +made abbot of Tournet, and at length Archbishop of Toulouse, and is known +in history as the persecutor of the Albigenses: he died in 1231 A.D. It +seems to have been no unusual thing for men of family to take up the +wandering, adventurous life of the minstrel, much as others of the same +class took up the part of knight adventurous; they frequently travelled on +horseback, with a servant to carry their harp; flocking to courts and +tournaments, where the graceful and accomplished singer of chivalrous +deeds was perhaps more caressed than the large-limbed warrior who achieved +them; and obtained large rewards, instead of huge blows, for his guerdon. + +There are some curious anecdotes showing the kind of people who became +minstrels, their wandering habits, their facility of access to all +companies and places, and the uses which were sometimes made of their +privileges. All our readers will remember how Blondel de Nesle, the +minstrel of Richard Coeur de Lion, wandered over Europe in search of his +master. There is a less known instance of a similar kind and of the same +period. Ela, the heiress of D'Evereux, Earl of Salisbury, had been carried +abroad and secreted by her French relations in Normandy. To discover the +place of her concealment, a knight of the Talbot family spent two years in +exploring that province; at first under the disguise of a pilgrim; then, +having found where she was confined, in order to gain admittance, he +assumed the dress and character of a harper; and being a jocose person, +exceedingly skilled in the Gests of the ancients, he was gladly received +into the family. He succeeded in carrying off the lady, whom he restored +to her liege lord the king, who bestowed her in marriage, not upon the +adventurous knight-minstrel, as ought to have been the ending of so pretty +a novelet, but upon his own natural brother, William Longespée, to whom +she brought her earldom of Salisbury in dower. + +Many similar instances, not less valuable evidences of the manners of the +times because they are fiction, might be selected from the romances of the +Middle Ages; proving that it was not unusual for men of birth and +station[352] to assume, for a longer or shorter time, the character and +life of the wandering minstrel. + +But besides these gentle minstrels, there were a multitude of others of +the lower classes of society, professors of the joyous science; descending +through all grades of musical skill, and of respectability of character. +We find regulations from time to time intended to check their +irregularities. In 1315 King Edward II. issued an ordinance addressed to +sheriffs, &c., as follows: "Forasmuch as ... many idle persons under +colour of mynstrelsie, and going in messages[353] and other faigned +busines, have been and yet be receaved in other men's houses to meate and +drynke, and be not therwith contented yf they be not largely considered +with gyftes of the Lordes of the Houses, &c.... We wyllyng to restrayne +such outrageous enterprises and idlenes, &c., have ordeyned ... that to +the houses of Prelates, Earls, and Barons, none resort to meate and drynke +unless he be a mynstrell, and of these mynstrels that there come none +except it be three or four mynstrels of honour at most in one day unless +he be desired of the Lorde of the House. And to the houses of meaner men, +that none come unlesse he be desired; and that such as shall come so holde +themselves contented with meate and drynke, and with such curtesie as the +Master of the House wyl shewe unto them of his owne good wyll, without +their askyng of any thyng. And yf any one do against this ordinaunce at +the first tyme he to lose his minstrelsie, and at the second tyme to +forsweare his craft, and never to be received for a minstrell in any +house." This curious ordinance gives additional proof of several facts +which we have before noted, viz., that minstrels were well received +everywhere, and had even become exacting in their expectations; that they +used to wander about in bands; and the penalties seem to indicate that the +minstrels were already incorporated in a guild. The first positive +evidence of such a guild is in the charter (already alluded to) of 9th +King Edward IV., A.D. 1469, in which he grants to Walter Haliday, +_Marshall_, and seven others, his own minstrels, a charter by which he +restores a Fraternity or perpetual Guild (such as he understands the +brothers and sisters of the Fraternity of Minstrels had in times past), to +be governed by a marshall, appointed for life, and by two wardens, to be +chosen annually, who are empowered to admit brothers and sisters into the +guild, and are authorised to examine the pretensions of all such as affect +to exercise the minstrel profession; and to regulate, govern, and punish +them throughout the realm--those of Chester excepted. It seems probable +that the King's Minstrel, or the King of the Minstrels, had long +previously possessed an authority of this kind over all the members of the +profession, and that the organization very much resembled that of the +heralds. The two are mentioned together in the Statute of Arms for +Tournaments, passed in the reign of Edward I., A.D. 1295. "E qe nul Roy de +Harraunz ne Menestrals[354] portent privez armez:" that no King of the +Heralds or of the Minstrels shall carry secret weapons. That the minstrels +attended all tournaments we have already mentioned. The heralds and +minstrels are often coupled in the same sentence; thus Froissart tells us +that at a Christmas entertainment given by the Earl of Foix, there were +many minstrels, as well his own as strangers, "and the Earl gave to +Heraulds and Minstrelles the sum of fyve hundred frankes; and gave to the +Duke of Tourayne's mynstreles gowns of cloth of gold furred with ermine, +valued at 200 frankes."[355] + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +GUILDS OF MINSTRELS. + + +It is not unlikely that the principal minstrel of every great noble +exercised some kind of authority over all minstrels within his lord's +jurisdiction. There are several famous instances of something of this kind +on record. The earliest is that of the authority granted by Ranulph, Earl +of Chester, to the Duttons over all minstrels of his jurisdiction; for the +romantic origin of the grant the curious reader may see the Introductory +Essay to Percy's "Reliques," or the original authorities in Dugdale's +"Monasticon," and D. Powel's "History of Cambria." The ceremonies +attending the exercise of this authority are thus described by Dugdale, as +handed down to his time:--viz., "That at Midsummer fair there, all the +minstrels of that countrey resorting to Chester, do attend the heir of +Dutton from his lodging to St. John's Church (he being then accompanied +by many gentlemen of the countrey), one of the minstrels walking before +him in a surcoat of his arms, depicted on taffeta; the rest of his fellows +proceeding two and two, and playing on their several sorts of musical +instruments. And after divine service ended, gave the like attendance on +him back to his lodging; where a court being kept by his (Mr. Dutton's) +steward, and all the minstrels formally called, certain orders and laws +are usually made for the better government of that society, with penalties +on those that transgress." This court, we have seen, was exempted from the +jurisdiction of the King of the Minstrels by Edward IV., as it was also +from the operation of all Acts of Parliament on the subject down to so +late a period as the seventeenth year of George II., the last of them. In +the fourth year of King Richard II., John[356] of Gaunt created a court of +minstrels at Tutbury, in Staffordshire, similar to that at Chester; in the +charter (which is quoted in Dr. Plott's "History of Staffordshire," p. +436) he gives them a King of the Minstrels and four officers, with a legal +authority over the men of their craft in the five adjoining counties of +Stafford, Derby, Notts, Leicester, and Warwick. The form of election, as +it existed at a comparatively late period, is fully detailed by Dr. Plott. + +[Illustration: _The Beverley Minstrels._] + +Another of these guilds was the ancient company or fraternity of minstrels +in Beverley, of which an account is given in Poulson's "Beverlac" (p. +302). When the fraternity originated we do not know; but they were of some +consideration and wealth in the reign of Henry VI., when the Church of St. +Mary's, Beverley, was built; for they gave a pillar to it, on the capital +of which a band of minstrels are sculptured, of whom we here re-produce a +drawing from Carter's "Ancient Painting and Sculpture," to which we shall +have presently to ask the reader's further attention. The oldest existing +document of the fraternity is a copy of laws of the time of Philip and +Mary. They are similar to those by which all trade guilds were governed: +their officers were an alderman and two stewards or sears (_i.e._ seers, +searchers); the only items in their laws which throw much additional light +upon our subject are the one already partly quoted, that they should not +take "any new brother except he be mynstrell to some man of honour or +worship (proving that men of honour and worship still had minstrels), or +waite[357] of some towne corporate or other ancient town, or else of such +honestye and conyng as shall be thought laudable and pleasant to the +hearers there." And again, "no myler, shepherd, or of other occupation, or +husbandman, or husbandman servant, playing upon pype or other instrument, +shall sue any wedding, or other thing that pertaineth to the said science, +except in his own parish." We may here digress for a moment to say that +the shepherds, throughout the Middle Ages, seem to have been as musical as +the swains of Theocritus or Virgil; in the MS. illuminations we constantly +find them represented playing upon instruments; we give a couple of +goatherds from the MS. Royal 2 B vii. folio 83, of early +fourteenth-century date. + +[Illustration: _Goatherds playing Musical Instruments._] + +[Illustration: _Shepherd with Bagpipes._] + +Besides the pipe and horn, the bagpipe was also a rustic instrument. There +is a shepherd playing upon one in folio 112 of the same MS.; and again, in +the early fourteenth-century MS. Royal 2 B vi., on the reverse of folio 8, +is a group of shepherds, one of whom plays a small pipe, and another the +bagpipes. Chaucer (3rd Book of the "House of Fame") mentions-- + + "Pipes made of greené corne, + As have these little herd gromes, + That keepen beastés in the bromes." + +It is curious to find that even at so late a period as the time of Queen +Mary, the shepherds still officiated at weddings and other merrymakings in +their villages, so as to excite the jealousy of the professors of the +joyous science. + +The accompanying wood-cut, from a MS. in the French National library, may +represent such a rustic merry-making. + +[Illustration: _Rustic Merry-making._] + +One might, perhaps, have been disposed to think that the good minstrels of +Beverley were only endeavouring to revive usages which had fallen into +desuetude; but we find that in the time of Elizabeth the profession of +minstrelsy was sufficiently universal to call for the inquiry, in the +Injunctions of 1559, "Whether any minstrells, or any other persons, do use +to sing any songs or ditties that be vile or unclean." + +Ben Jonson gives us numerous allusions to them: _e.g._, in the "Tale of a +Tub," old Turve talks of "old Father Rosin, the chief minstrel here--chief +minstrel, too, of Highgate; she has hired him, and all his two boys, for a +day and a half." They were to be dressed in bays, rosemary, and ribands, +to precede the bridal party across the fields to church and back, and to +play at dinner. And so in "Epicoene," act iii. sc. 1:-- + + "Well, there be guests to meat now; how shall we do for music?" [for + Morose's wedding.] + + _Clerimont._--The smell of the venison going thro' the street will + invite one noise of fiddlers or other. + + _Dauphine._--I would it would call the trumpeters hither! + + _Clerimont._--Faith, there is hope: they have intelligence of all + feasts. There's a good correspondence betwixt them and the London + cooks: 'tis twenty to one but we have them. + +And Dryden, so late as the time of William III., speaks of them-- + + "These fellows + Were once the minstrels of a country show, + Followed the prizes through each paltry town, + By trumpet cheeks and bloated faces known." + +There were also female minstrels throughout the Middle Ages; but, as might +be anticipated from their irregular wandering life, they bore an +indifferent reputation. The romance of "Richard Coeur de Lion" says that +it was a female minstrel, and, still worse, an Englishwoman, who +recognised and betrayed the knight-errant king and his companions, on +their return from the Holy Land, to his enemy, the "King of Almain." The +passage is worth quoting, as it illustrates several of the traits of +minstrel habits which we have already recorded. After Richard and his +companions had dined on a goose, which they cooked for themselves at a +tavern-- + + "When they had drunken well afin, + A minstralle com therin, + And said 'Gentlemen, wittily, + Will ye have any minstrelsey?' + Richard bade that she should go. + That turned him to mickle woe! + The minstralle took in mind,[358] + And saith, 'Ye are men unkind; + And if I may, ye shall for-think[359] + Ye gave neither meat nor drink. + For gentlemen should bede[360] + To minstrels that abouten yede[361] + Of their meat, wine, and ale; + For los[362] rises of minstrale.' + She was English, and well true + By speech, and sight, and hide, and hue." + +Stow tells that in 1316, while Edward II. was solemnizing his Feast of +Pentecost in his hall at Westminster, sitting royally at table, with his +peers about him, there entered a woman adorned like a minstrel, sitting on +a great horse, trapped as minstrels then used, who rode round about the +tables showing her pastime. The reader will remember the use which Sir E. +B. Lytton has made of a troop of tymbesteres in "The Last of the Barons," +bringing them in at the epochs of his tale with all the dramatic effect of +the Greek chorus: the description which he gives of their habits is too +sadly truthful. The daughter of Herodias dancing before Herod is +scornfully represented by the mediæval artists as a female minstrel +performing the tumbling tricks which were part of their craft. We give a +representation of a female minstrel playing the tambourine from the MS. +Royal, 2 B vii. folio 182. + +[Illustration: _Female Minstrel._] + +A question of considerable interest to artists, no less than to +antiquaries, is whether the minstrels were or not distinguished by any +peculiar costume or habit. Bishop Percy[363] and his followers say that +they were, and the assertion is grounded on the following evidences: +Baldulph, the Saxon, in the anecdote already related, when assuming the +disguise of a minstrel, is described as shaving his head and beard, and +dressing himself in the habit of that profession. Alfred and Aulaff were +known at once to be minstrels. The two poor priests who were turned out of +the monastery by the dissolute monks were at first mistaken for minstrels. +The woman who entered Westminster Hall at King Edward the Second's +Pentecost feast was adorned like a minstrel, sitting on a great horse, +trapped as minstrels then used. + +The Knight of La Tour-Landry (chap. xvii) tells a story which shows that +the costume of minstrels was often conspicuous for richness and fashion: +"As y have herde telle, Sir Piere de Luge was atte the feste where as were +gret foyson of lordes, ladies, knightes, and squieres, and gentilwomen, +and so there came in a yonge squier before hem that was sette atte dyner +and salued the companie, and he was clothed in a cote-hardy[364] upon the +guyse of Almayne, and in this wise he come further before the lordes and +ladies, and made hem goodly reverence. And so the said Sir Piere called +this yonge squier with his voys before alle the statis, and saide unto hym +and axed hym, where was his fedylle or hys ribible, or suche an instrument +as longethe unto a mynstralle. 'Syr,' saide the squier, 'I canne not +medille me of such thinge, it is not my craft nor science.' 'Sir,' saide +the knight, 'I canne not trowe that ye saye, for ye be counterfait in +youre araye and lyke unto a mynstralle; for I have knowe herebefore alle +youre aunsetours, and the knightes and squiers of youre kin, which were +alle worthie men; but I sawe never none of hem that were [wore] +counterfait, nor that clothed hem in such array.' And thanne the yonge +squier answered the knight and saide, 'Sir, by as moche as it mislykithe +you it shalle be amended,' and cleped a pursevant and gave him the +cote-hardy. And he abled hym selff in an other gowne, and come agen into +the halle, and thanne the anncyen knight saide openly, 'This yonge squier +shalle have worshipe for he hath trowed and do bi the counsaile of the +elder withoute ani contraryenge.'" + +In the time of Henry VII. we read of nine ells of _tawny_ cloth for three +minstrels; and in the "History of Jack of Newbury," of "a noise [_i.e._ +band] of musicians in _townie_ coats, who, putting off their caps, asked +if they would have music." And lastly, there is a description of the +person who personated "an ancient mynstrell" in one of the pageants which +were played before Queen Elizabeth at her famous visit to Kenilworth, +which is curious enough to be quoted. "A person, very meet seemed he for +the purpose, of a forty-five years old, apparalled partly as he would +himself. His cap off; his head seemly rounded tonsterwise;[365] fair +kembed, that with a sponge daintily dipped in a little capon's grease was +finely smoothen, to make it shine like a mallard's wing. His beard smugly +shaven; and yet his shirt after the new trick, with ruffs fair starched, +sleeked and glistering like a paire of new shoes, marshalled in good order +with a setting stick and strut, that every ruff stood up like a wafer. A +side (_i.e._ long) gown of Kendal Green, after the freshness of the year +now, gathered at the neck with a narrow gorget, fastened afore with white +clasp and keeper close up to the chin; but easily, for heat to undo when +he list. Seemly begirt in a red caddis girdle: from that a pair of capped +Sheffield knives hanging a' two sides. Out of his bosom drawn forth a +lappel of his napkin (_i.e._ handkerchief) edged with a blue lace, and +marked with a true love, a heart, and a D. for Damian, for he was but a +batchelor yet. His gown had side (_i.e._ long) sleeves down to midleg, +slit from the shoulder to the hand, and lined with white cotton. His +doublet sleeves of black worsted: upon them a pair of paynets (perhaps +points) of tawny chamlet laced along the wrist with blue threaden points, +a weall towards the hand of fustian-a-napes. A pair of red neather socks. +A pair of pumps on his feet, with a cross cut at the toes for corns: not +new, indeed, yet cleanly blackt with soot, and shining as a shoeing horn. +About his neck a red ribband suitable to his girdle. His harp in good +grace dependant before him. His wrest tyed to a green lace, and hanging +by; under the gorget of his gown a fair flaggon chain (pewter for) +silver, as a squire-minstrel[366] of Middlesex that travelled the country +this summer season, unto fairs and worshipful men's houses. From this +chain hung a scutcheon, with metal and colour resplendant upon his breast, +of the ancient arms of Islington," to which place he is represented as +belonging. + +From these authorities Percy would deduce that the minstrels were tonsured +and apparelled very much after the same fashion as priests. The pictorial +authorities do not bear out any such conclusion. There are abundant +authorities for the belief that the dress of the minstrels was remarkable +for a very unclerical sumptuousness; but in looking through the numerous +ancient representations of minstrels we find no trace of the tonsure, and +no peculiarity of dress; they are represented in the ordinary costume of +their time; in colours blue, red, grey, particoloured, like other +civilians; with hoods, or hats, or without either; frequently the +different members of the same band of minstrels present all these +differences of costume, as in the instance here given, from the +title-page of the fourteenth century MS. Add., 10,293; proving that the +minstrels did not affect any uniformity of costume whatever. + +[Illustration: _A Band of Minstrels._] + +The household minstrels probably wore their master's badge[367] (liveries +were not usual until a late period); others the badge of their guild. Thus +in the Morte Arthur, Sir Dinadan makes a reproachful lay against King +Arthur, and teaches it an harper, that hight Elyot, and sends him to sing +it before King Mark and his nobles at a great feast. The king asked, "Thou +harper, how durst thou be so bold to sing this song before me?" "Sir," +said Elyot, "wit you well I am a minstrell, and I must doe as I am +commanded of these lords that _I bear the armes of_;" and in proof of the +privileged character of the minstrel we find the outraged king replying, +"Thou saiest well, I charge thee that thou hie thee fast out of my sight." +So the squire-minstrel of Middlesex, who belonged to Islington, had a +chain round his neck, with a scutcheon upon it, upon which were blazoned +the arms of Islington. And in the effigies of the Beverley minstrels, +which we have given on page 298, we find that their costume is the +ordinary costume of the period, and is not alike in all; but that each of +them has a chain round his neck, to which is suspended what is probably a +scutcheon, like that of the Islington minstrel. In short, a careful +examination of a number of illustrations in illuminated MSS. of various +dates, from Saxon downwards, leaves the impression that minstrels wore the +ordinary costume of their period, more or less rich in material, or +fashionable in cut, according to their means and taste; and that the only +distinctive mark of their profession was the instrument which each bore, +or, as in the case of the Kenilworth minstrel, the tuning wrest hung by a +riband to his girdle; and in the case of a household minstrel the badge of +the lord whom he served. + +[Illustration: _Cymbals and Trumpets._] + +[Illustration: _Regals and Double Pipe_ (Royal 2 B vii).] + +[Illustration: _Regals or Organ_ (Royal, 14 E iii).] + +The forms of the most usual musical instruments of various periods may be +gathered from the illustrations which have already been given. The most +common are the harp, fiddle, cittern or lute, hand-organ, the shalm or +psaltery, the pipe and tabor, pipes of various sizes played like +clarionets, but called flutes, the double pipe, hand-bells, trumpets and +horns, bagpipes, tambourine, tabret, drum, and cymbals. Of the greater +number of these we have already incidentally given illustrations; we add, +on the last page, other illustrations, from the Royal MS., 2 B vii., and +Royal MS. 14 E iii. In the fourteenth century new instruments were +invented. Guillaume de Marhault in his poem of "Le Temps Pastour," gives +us an idea of the multitude of instruments which composed a grand concert +of the fifteenth century; he says[368]-- + + "Là je vis tout en un cerne + Viole, rubebe, guiterne, + L'enmorache, le micamon, + Citole et Psalterion, + Harpes, tabours, trompes, nacaires, + Orgues, cornes plus de dix paires, + Cornemuse, flajos et chevrettes + Douceines, simbales, clochettes, + Tymbre, la flauste lorehaigne, + Et le grand cornet d'Allemayne, + Flacos de sans, fistule, pipe, + Muse d'Aussay, trompe petite, + Buisine, eles, monochorde, + Ou il n'y a qu'une corde; + Et muse de blet tout ensemble. + Et certainment il me semble + Qu' oncques mais tèle mélodie + Ne feust oncques vene ne oye; + Car chascun d'eux, selon l'accort + De son instrument sans descort, + Vitole, guiterne, citole, + Harpe, trompe, corne, flajole, + Pipe, souffle, muse, naquaire, + Taboure et qu cunque ou put faire + De dois, de peune et à l'archet, + Ois et vis en ce porchet." + +In conclusion we give a group of musical instruments from one of the +illustrations of "Der Weise König," a work of the close of the fifteenth +century. + +[Illustration: _Musical Instruments of the 15th Century._] + + + + +THE KNIGHTS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +SAXON ARMS AND ARMOUR. + + +We proceed, in this division of our work, to select out of the +inexhaustible series of pictures of mediæval life and manners contained in +illuminated MSS., a gallery of subjects which will illustrate the armour +and costume, the military life and chivalric adventures, of the Knights of +the Middle Ages; and to append to the pictures such explanations as they +may seem to need, and such discursive remarks as the subjects may suggest. + +For the military costume of the Anglo-Saxon period we have the authority +of the descriptions in their literature, illustrated by drawings in their +illuminated MSS.; and if these leave anything wanting in definiteness, the +minutest details of form and ornamentation may often be recovered from the +rusted and broken relics of armour and weapons which have been recovered +from their graves, and are now preserved in our museums. + +Saxon freemen seem to have universally borne arms. Tacitus tells us of +their German ancestors, that swords were rare among them, and the majority +did not use lances, but that spears, with a narrow, sharp and short head, +were the common and universal weapon, used either in distant or close +fight; and that even the cavalry were satisfied with a shield and one of +these spears. + +The law in later times seems to have required freemen to bear arms for +the common defence; the laws of Gula, which are said to have been +originally established by Hacon the Good in the middle of the eighth +century, required every man who possessed six marks besides his clothes to +furnish himself with a red shield and a spear, an axe or a sword; he who +was worth twelve marks was to have a steel cap also; and he who was worth +eighteen marks a byrnie, or shirt of mail, in addition. Accordingly, in +the exploration of Saxon graves we find in those of men "spears and +javelins are extremely numerous," says Mr. C. Roach Smith, "and of a +variety of shapes and sizes."... "So constantly do we find them in the +Saxon graves, that it would appear no man above the condition of a serf +was buried without one. Some are of large size, but the majority come +under the term of javelin or dart." The rusty spear-head lies beside the +skull, and the iron boss of the shield on his breast; the long, broad, +heavy, rusted sword is comparatively seldom found beside the skeleton; +sometimes, but rarely, the iron frame of a skull-cap or helmet is found +about the head. + +[Illustration: _Saxon Soldiers._] + +An examination of the pictures in the Saxon illuminated MSS. confirms the +conclusion that the shield and spear were the common weapons. Their +bearers are generally in the usual civil costume, and not infrequently are +bare-headed. The spear-shaft is almost always spoken of as being of +ash-wood; indeed, the word _æsc_ (ash) is used by metonymy for a spear; +and the common poetic name for a soldier is _æsc-berend_, or _æsc-born_, a +spear-bearer; just as, in later times, we speak of him as a swordsman. + +We learn from the poets that the shield--"the broad war disk"--was made of +linden-wood, as in Beowulf:-- + + "He could not then refrain, + but grasped his shield + the yellow linden, + drew his ancient sword." + +From the actual remains of shields, we find that the central boss was of +iron, of conical shape, and that a handle was fixed across its concavity +by which it was held in the hand. + +The helmet is of various shapes; the commonest are the three represented +in our first four wood-cuts. The most common is the conical shape seen in +the large wood-cut on p. 316. + +[Illustration: _Saxon Horse Soldiers._] + +The Phrygian-shaped helmet, seen in the single figure on p. 314 is also a +very common form; and the curious crested helmet worn by all the warriors +in our first two wood-cuts of Saxon soldiers is also common. In some cases +the conical helmet was of iron, but perhaps more frequently it was of +leather, strengthened with a frame of iron. + +In the group of four foot soldiers in our first wood-cut, it will be +observed that the men wear tunics, hose, and shoes; the multiplicity of +folds and fluttering ends in the drapery is a characteristic of Saxon art, +but the spirit and elegance of the heads is very unusual and very +admirable. + +Our first three illustrations are taken from a beautiful little MS. of +Prudentius in the Cottonian Library, known under the press mark, Cleopatra +C. IV. The illuminations in this MS. are very clearly and skilfully drawn +with the pen; indeed, many of them are designed with so much spirit and +skill and grace, as to make them not only of antiquarian interest, but +also of high artistic merit. The subjects are chiefly illustrations of +Scripture history or of allegorical fable; but, thanks to the custom which +prevailed throughout the Middle Ages of representing all such subjects in +contemporary costume, and according to contemporary manners and customs, +the Jewish patriarchs and their servants afford us perfectly correct +representations of Saxon thanes and their _cheorls_; Goliath, a perfect +picture of a Saxon warrior, armed _cap-à-pied_; and Pharaoh and his nobles +of a Saxon Basileus and his witan. Thus, our second wood-cut is an +illustration of the incident of Lot and his family being carried away +captives by the Canaanitish kings after their successful raid against the +cities of the plain; but it puts before our eyes a group of the armed +retainers of a Saxon king on a military expedition. It will be seen that +they wear the ordinary Saxon civil costume, a tunic and cloak; that they +are all armed with the spear, all wear crested helmets; and the last of +the group carries a round shield suspended at his back. The variety of +attitude, the spirit and life of the figures, and the skill and +gracefulness of the drawing, are admirable. + +Another very valuable series of illustrations of Saxon military costume +will be found in a MS. of Ælfric's Paraphrase of the Pentateuch and +Joshua, in the British Museum (Cleopatra B. IV.); at folio 25, for +example, we have a representation of Abraham pursuing the five kings in +order to rescue Lot: in the version of the Saxon artist the patriarch and +his Arab servants are translated into a Saxon thane and his house carles, +who are represented marching in a long array which takes up two bands of +drawing across the vellum page. + +[Illustration: _Saxon Soldier, in Leather Armour._] + +The Anglo-Saxon poets let us know that chieftains and warriors wore a body +defence, which they call a byrnie or a battle-sark. In the illuminations +we find this sometimes of leather, as in the wood-cut here given from the +Prudentius which has already supplied us with two illustrations. It is +very usually Vandyked at the edges, as here represented. But the +epithets, "iron byrnie," and "ringed byrnie," and "twisted battle-sark," +show that the hauberk was often made of iron mail. In some of the +illuminations it is represented as if detached rings of iron were sewn +flat upon it: this may be really a representation of a kind of jazerant +work, such as was frequently used in later times, or it may be only an +unskilful way of representing the ordinary linked mail. + +A document of the early part of the eighth century, given in Mr. Thorpe's +Anglo-Saxon Laws, seems to indicate that at that period the mail hauberk +was usually worn only by the higher ranks. In distinguishing between the +eorl and the cheorl it says, if the latter thrive so well that he have a +helmet and byrnie and sword ornamented with gold, yet if he have not five +hydes of land, he is only a cheorl. By the time of the end of the Saxon +era, however, it would seem that the men-at-arms were usually furnished +with a coat of fence, for the warriors in the battle of Hastings are +nearly all so represented in the Bayeux tapestry. + +In Ælfric's Paraphrase, already mentioned (Cleopatra B. IV.), at folio 64, +there is a representation of a king clothed in such a mail shirt, armed +with sword and shield, attended by an armour-bearer, who carries a second +shield but no offensive weapon, his business being to ward off the blows +aimed at his lord. We should have given a wood-cut of this interesting +group, but that it has already been engraved in the "Pictorial History of +England" (vol. i.) and in Hewitt's "Ancient Armour" (vol. i. p. 60). This +king with his shield-bearer does not occur in an illustration of Goliath +and the man bearing a shield who went before him, nor of Saul and his +armour-bearer, where it would be suggested by the text; but is one of the +three kings engaged in battle against the cities of the plain; it seems +therefore to indicate a Saxon usage. Another of the kings in the same +picture has no hauberk, but only the same costume as the warrior in the +wood-cut on the next page. + +In the Additional MS. 11,695, in the British Museum, a work of the +eleventh century, there are several representations of warriors thus fully +armed, very rude and coarse in drawing, but valuable for the clearness +with which they represent the military equipment of the time. At folio 194 +there is a large figure of a warrior in a mail shirt, a conical helmet, +strengthened with iron ribs converging to the apex, the front rib +extending downwards, into what is called a nasal, _i.e._, a piece of iron +extending downwards over the nose, so as to protect the face from a +sword-cut across the upper part of it. At folio 233 of the same MS. is a +group of six warriors, two on horseback and four on foot. We find them all +with hauberk, iron helmets, round shields, and various kinds of leg +defences; they have spears, swords, and one of the horsemen bears a banner +of characteristic shape, _i.e._, it is a right-angled triangle, with the +shortest side applied to the spear-shaft, so that the right angle is at +the bottom. + +[Illustration: No. 4.] + +A few extracts from the poem of Beowulf, a curious Saxon fragment, which +the best scholars concur in assigning to the end of the eighth century, +will help still further to bring these ancient warriors before our mind's +eye. + +Here is a scene in King Hrothgar's hall: + + "After evening came + and Hrothgar had departed + to his court, + guarded the mansion + countless warriors, + as they oft ere had done, + they bared the bench-floor + it was overspread + with beds and bolsters, + they set at their heads + their disks of war, + their shield-wood bright; + there on the bench was + over the noble, + easy to be seen, + his high martial helm, + his ringed byrnie + and war-wood stout." + +Beowulf's funeral pole is said to be-- + + "with helmets, war brands, + and bright byrnies behung." + +And in this oldest of Scandinavian romances we have the natural +reflections-- + + "the hard helm shall + adorned with gold + from the fated fall; + mortally wounded sleep + those who war to rage + by trumpet should announce; + in like manner the war shirt + which in battle stood + over the crash of shields + the bite of swords + shall moulder after the warrior; + the byrnie's ring may not + after the martial leader + go far on the side of heroes; + there is no joy of harp + no glee-wood's mirth, + no good hawk + swings through the hall, + nor the swift steed + tramps the city place. + Baleful death + has many living kinds + sent forth." + +Reflections which Coleridge summed up in the brief lines-- + + "Their swords are rust, + Their bones are dust, + Their souls are with the saints, we trust." + +The wood-cut on page 316 is taken from a collection of various Saxon +pictures in the British Museum, bound together in the volume marked +Tiberius C. VI., at folio 9. Our wood-cut is a reduced copy. In the +original the warrior is seven or eight inches high, and there is, +therefore, ample room for the delineation of every part of his costume. +From the embroidery of the tunic, and the ornamentation of the shield and +helmet, we conclude that we have before us a person of consideration, and +he is represented as in the act of combat; but we see his armour and arms +are only those to which we have already affirmed that the usual equipment +was limited. The helmet seems to be strengthened with an iron rim and +converging ribs, and is furnished with a short nasal. + +The figure is without the usual cloak, and therefore the better shows the +fashion of the tunic. The banding of the legs was not for defence, it is +common in civil costume. The quasi-banding of the forearm is also +sometimes found in civil costume; it seems not to be an actual banding, +still less a spiral armlet, but merely a fashion of wearing the tunic +sleeve. We see how the sword is, rather inartificially, slung by a belt +over the shoulder; how the shield is held by the iron handle across its +hollow spiked umbo; and how the barbed javelin is cast. + +On the preceding page of this MS. is a similar figure, but without the +sword. + +There were some other weapons frequently used by the Saxons which we have +not yet had occasion to mention. The most important of these is the axe. +It is not often represented in illuminations, and is very rarely found in +graves, but it certainly was extensively in use in the latter part of the +Anglo-Saxon period, and was perhaps introduced by the Danes. The house +carles of Canute, we are expressly told, were armed with axes, halberds, +and swords, ornamented with gold. In the ship which Godwin presented to +Hardicanute, William of Malmesbury tells us the soldiers wore two +bracelets of gold on each arm, each bracelet weighing sixteen ounces; they +had gilt helmets; in the right hand they carried a spear of iron, and in +the left a Danish axe, and they wore swords hilted with gold. The axe was +also in common use by the Saxons at the battle of Hastings. There are +pictorial examples of the single axe in the Cottonian MS., Cleopatra C. +VIII.; of the double axe--the bipennis--in the Harleian MS., 603; and of +various forms of the weapon, including the pole-axe, in the Bayeux +tapestry. + +The knife or dagger was also a Saxon weapon. There is a picture in the +Anglo-Saxon MS. in the Paris Library, called the Duke de Berri's Psalter, +in which a combatant is armed with what appears to be a large double-edged +knife and a shield, and actual examples of it occur in Saxon graves. The +_seax_, which is popularly believed to have been a dagger and a +characteristic Saxon weapon, seems to have been a short single-edged +slightly curved weapon, and is rarely found in England. It is mentioned in +Beowulf:--he-- + + "drew his deadly seax, + bitter and battle sharp, + that he on his byrnie bore." + +The sword was usually about three feet long, two-edged and heavy in the +blade. Sometimes, especially in earlier examples, it is without a guard. +Its hilt was sometimes of the ivory of the walrus, occasionally of gold, +the blade was sometimes inlaid with gold ornaments and runic verses. Thus +in Beowulf-- + + "So was on the surface + of the bright gold + with runic letters + rightly marked, + set and said, for whom that sword, + costliest of irons, + was first made, + with twisted hilt and + serpent shaped." + +The Saxons indulged in many romantic fancies about their swords. Some +swordsmiths chanted magical verses as they welded them, and tempered them +with mystical ingredients. Beowulf's sword was a-- + + "tempered falchion + that had before been one + of the old treasures; + its edge was iron + tainted with poisonous things + hardened with warrior blood; + never had it deceived any man + of those who brandished it with hands." + +Favourite swords had names given them, and were handed down from father to +son, or passed from champion to champion, and became famous. Thus, again, +in Beowulf, we read-- + + "He could not then refrain, + but grasped his shield, + the yellow linden, + drew his ancient sword + that among men was + a relic of Eanmund, + Ohthere's son, + of whom in conflict was, + when a friendless exile, + Weohstan the slayer + with falchions edges, + and from his kinsmen bore away + the brown-hued helm, + the ringed byrnie, + the old Eotenish[369] sword + which him Onela had given." + +There is a fine and very perfect example of a Saxon sword in the British +Museum, which was found in the bed of the river Witham, at Lincoln. The +sheath was usually of wood, covered with leather, and tipped, and +sometimes otherwise ornamented with metal. + +The spear was used javelin-wise, and the warrior going into battle +sometimes carried several of them. They are long-bladed, often barbed, as +represented in the woodcut on p. 316, and very generally have one or two +little cross-bars below the head, as in cuts on pp. 313 and 314. The Saxon +artillery, besides the javelin, was the bow and arrows. The bow is usually +a small one, of the old classical shape, not the long bow for which the +English yeomen afterwards became so famous, and which seems to have been +introduced by the Normans. + +In the latest period of the Saxon monarchy, the armour and weapons were +almost identical with those used on the Continent. We have abundant +illustrations of them in the Bayeux tapestry. In that invaluable +historical monument, the minutest differences between the Saxon and Norman +knights and men-at-arms seem to be carefully observed, even to the +national fashions of cutting the hair; and we are therefore justified in +assuming that there were no material differences in the military +equipment, since we find none indicated, except that the Normans used the +long bow and the Saxons did not. We have abstained from taking any +illustrations from the tapestry, because the whole series has been several +times engraved, and is well known, or, at least, is easily accessible, to +those who are interested in the subject. We have preferred to take an +illustration from a MS. in the British Museum, marked Harleian 2,895, from +folio 82 v. The warrior, who is no less a person than Goliath of Gath, has +a hooded hauberk, with sleeves down to the elbow, over a green tunic. The +legs are tinted blue in the drawing, but seem to be unarmed, except for +the green boots, which reach half way to the knee. He wears an iron helmet +with a nasal, and the hood appears to be fastened to the nasal, so as to +protect the lower part of the face. The large shield is red, with a yellow +border, and is hung from the neck by a chain. The belt round his waist is +red. The well-armed giant leans upon his spear, looking down +contemptuously on David, whom it has not been thought necessary to include +in our copy of the picture. The group forms a very appropriate filling-in +of the great initial letter B of the Psalm _Benedictus Dns. Ds. Ms. qui +docet manus meas ad prælium et digitos meos ad bellum_ (Blessed be the +Lord my God, who teacheth my hands to war and my fingers to fight). In the +same MS., at folio 70, there are two men armed with helmet and sword, and +at folio 81 v. a group of armed men on horseback, in sword, shield, and +spurs. + +It may be convenient to some of our readers, if we indicate here where a +few other examples of Saxon military costume may be found which we have +noted down, but have not had occasion to refer to in the above remarks. + +[Illustration] + +In the MS. of Prudentius (Cleopatra C. VIII.), from which we have taken +our first three woodcuts, are many other pictures well worth study. On the +same page (folio 1 v.) as that which contains our wood-cut p. 312, there +is another very similar group on the lower part of the page; on folio 2 is +still another group, in which some of the faces are most charming in +drawing and expression. At folio 15 v. there is a spirited combat of two +footmen, armed with sword and round shield, and clad in short leather +coats of fence, vandyked at the edges. At folio 24 v. is an allegorical +female figure in a short leather tunic, with shading on it which seems to +indicate that the hair of the leather has been left on, and is worn +outside, which we know from other sources was one of the fashions of the +time. In the MS. of Ælfric's Paraphrase (Claud. B. iv.) already quoted, +there are, besides the battle scene at folio 24 v., in which occurs the +king and his armour-bearer, at folio 25 two long lines of Saxon horsemen +marching across the page, behind Abraham, who wears a crested Phrygian +helm. On the reverse of folio 25 there is another group, and also on +folios 62 and 64. On folio 52 is another troop, of Esau's horsemen, +marching across the page in ranks of four abreast, all bareheaded and +armed with spears. At folio 96 v. is another example of a warrior, with a +shield-bearer. The pictures in the latter part of this MS. are not nearly +so clearly delineated as in the former part, owing to their having been +tinted with colour; the colour, however, enables us still more completely +to fill in to the mind's eye the distinct forms which we have gathered +from the former part of the book. The large troops of soldiers are +valuable, as showing us the style of equipment which was common in the +Saxon militia. + +There is another MS. of Prudentius in the British Museum of about the same +date, and of the same school of art, though not quite so finely executed, +which is well worth the study of the artist in search of authorities for +Saxon military (and other) costume, and full of interest for the amateur +of art and archæology. Its press mark is Cottonian, Titus D. XVI. On the +reverse of folio 2 is a group of three armed horsemen, representing the +confederate kings of Canaan carrying off Lot, while Abraham, at the head +of another group of armed men, is pursuing them. On folio 3 is another +group of armed horsemen. After these Scripture histories come some +allegorical subjects, conceived and drawn with great spirit. At folio 6 +v., "_Pudicitia pugnat contra Libidinem_," Pudicitia being a woman armed +with hauberk, helmet, spear, and shield. On the opposite page +Pudicitia--in a very spirited attitude--is driving her spear through the +throat of Libido. On folio 26 v., "_Discordia vulnerat occulte +Concordium_." Concord is represented as a woman armed with a loose-sleeved +hauberk, helmet, and sword. Discord is lifting up the skirt of Concord's +hauberk, and thrusting a sword into her side. In the Harleian MS. 2,803, +is a Vulgate Bible, of date about 1170 A.D.; there are no pictures, only +the initial letters of the various books are illuminated. But while the +illuminator was engaged upon the initial of the Second Book of Kings, his +eye seems to have been caught by the story of Saul's death in the last +chapter of the First Book, which happens to come close by in the parallel +column of the great folio page:--_Arripuit itaqu, gladium et erruit sup. +eum_ (Therefore Saul took a sword, and fell upon it); and he has sketched +in the scene with pen-and-ink on the margin of the page, thus affording us +another authority for the armour of a Saxon king when actually engaged in +battle. He wears a hauberk, with an ornamented border, has his crown on +his head, and spurs on his heels; has placed his sword-hilt on the ground, +and fallen upon it. + +In the Additional MS. 11,695, on folio 102 v., are four armed men on +horseback, habited in hauberks without hoods. Two of them have the sleeves +extending to the wrist, two have loose sleeves to the elbow only, showing +that the two fashions were worn contemporaneously. They all have mail +hose; one of them is armed with a bow, the rest with the sword. There are +four men in similar armour on folio 136 v. of the same MS. Also at folio +143, armed with spear, sword, and round ornamented shield. At folio 222 v. +are soldiers manning a gate-tower. + +When the soldiers so very generally wore the ordinary citizen costume, it +becomes necessary, in order to give a complete picture of the military +costume, to say a few words on the dress which the soldier wore in common +with the citizen. The tunic and mantle composed the national costume of +the Saxons. The tunic reached about to the knee: sometimes it was slit up +a little way at the sides, and it often had a rich ornamented border round +the hem, extending round the side slits, making the garment almost exactly +resemble the ecclesiastical tunic or Dalmatic. It had also very generally +a narrower ornamental border round the opening for the neck. The tunic was +sometimes girded round the waist. + +The Saxons were famous for their skill in embroidery, and also in +metal-work; and there are sufficient proofs that the tunic was often +richly embroidered. There are indications of it in the wood-cut on p. 316; +and in the relics of costume found in the Saxon graves are often buckles +of elegant workmanship, which fastened the belt with which the tunic was +girt. + +The mantle was in the form of a short cloak, and was usually fastened at +the shoulder, as in the wood-cuts on pp. 312, 313, 314, so as to leave the +right arm unencumbered by its folds. The brooch with which this cloak was +fastened formed a very conspicuous item of costume. They were of large +size, some of them of bronze gilt, others of gold, beautifully ornamented +with enamels; and there is this interesting fact about them, they seem to +corroborate the old story, that the Saxon invaders were of three different +tribes--the Jutes, Angles, and Saxons--who subdued and inhabited different +portions of Britain. For in Kent and the Isle of Wight, the settlements +of the Jutes, brooches are found of circular form, often of gold and +enamelled. In the counties of Yorkshire, Derby, Leicester, Nottingham, +Northampton, and in the eastern counties, a large gilt bronze brooch of +peculiar form is very commonly found, and seems to denote a peculiar +fashion of the Angles, who inhabited East Anglia, Mercia, and Northumbria. +Still another variety of fashion, shaped like a saucer, has been +discovered in the counties of Gloucester, Oxford, and Buckingham, on the +border between the Mercians and West Saxons. It is curious to find these +peculiar fashions thus confirming the ancient and obscure tradition about +the original Saxon settlements. The artist will bear in mind that the +Saxons seem generally to have settled in the open country, not in the +towns, and to have built timber halls and cottages after their own custom, +and to have avoided the sites of the Romano-British villas, whose +blackened ruins must have thickly dotted at least the southern and +south-eastern parts of the island. They appear to have built no +fortresses, if we except a few erected at a late period, to check the +incursions of the Danes. But they had the old Roman towns left, in many +cases with their walls and gates tolerably entire. In the Saxon MS. +Psalter, Harleian 603, are several illuminations in which walled towns and +gates are represented. But we do not gather that they were very skilful +either in the attack or defence of fortified places. Indeed, their weapons +and armour were of a very primitive kind, and their warfare seems to have +been conducted after a very unscientific fashion. Little chance had their +rude Saxon hardihood against the military genius of William the Norman and +the disciplined valour of his bands of mercenaries. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +ARMS AND ARMOUR, FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST DOWNWARDS. + + +The Conquest and subsequent confiscations put the land of England so +entirely into the hands of William the Conqueror, that he was able to +introduce the feudal system into England in a more simple and symmetrical +shape than that in which it obtained in any other country of Europe. The +system was a very intelligible one. The king was supposed to be the lord +of all the land of the kingdom. He retained large estates in his own +hands, and from these estates chiefly he derived his personal followers +and his royal revenues. The rest of the land he let in large lordships to +his principal nobles, on condition that they should maintain for the +defence of the kingdom a certain number of men armed after a stipulated +fashion, and should besides aid him on certain occasions with money +payments, with which we have at present no concern. + +These chief tenants of the crown followed the example of the sovereign. +Each retained a portion of the land in his own hands, and sub-let the rest +in estates of larger or smaller size, on condition that each noble or +knight who held of him should supply a proportion of the armed force he +was required to furnish to the royal standard, and contribute a proportion +of the money payments for which he was liable to be called upon. Each +knight let the farms on his manor to his copyholders, on condition that +they provided themselves with the requisite arms, and assembled under his +banner when called upon for military suit and service; and they rendered +certain personal services, and made certain payments in money or in kind +besides, in lieu of rent. Each manor, therefore, furnished its troop of +soldiers; the small farmers, perhaps, and the knight's personal retainers +fighting on foot, clad in leather jerkins, and armed with pike or bow; +two or three of his greater copyholders in skull caps and coats of +fence; his younger brothers or grown-up sons acting as men-at-arms +and esquires, on horseback, in armour almost or quite as complete as +his own; while the knight himself, on his war horse, armed from top to +toe--_cap-à-pied_--with shield on arm and lance in hand, with its knight's +pennon fluttering from the point, was the captain of the little troop. The +troops thus furnished by his several manors made up the force which the +feudal lord was bound to furnish the king, and the united divisions made +up the army of the kingdom. + +Besides this feudal army bound to render suit and service at the call of +its sovereign, the laws of the kingdom also required all men of fit +age--between sixteen and sixty--to keep themselves furnished with arms, +and made them liable to be called out _en masse_ in great emergencies. +This was the _Posse Comitatus_, the force of the county, and was under the +command of the sheriff. We learn some particulars on the subject from an +assize of arms of Henry II., made in 1181, which required all his subjects +being free men to be ready in defence of the realm. Whosoever holds one +knight's fee, shall have a hauberk, helmet, shield and lance, and every +knight as many such equipments as he has knight's fees in his domain. +Every free layman having ten marks in chattels shall have a habergeon, +iron cap, and lance. All burgesses and the whole community of freemen +shall have each a coat of fence (padded and quilted, a _wambeys_), iron +cap, and lance. Any one having more arms than those required by the +statute, was to sell or otherwise dispose of them, so that they might be +utilised for the king's service, and no one was to carry arms out of the +kingdom. + +There were two great points of difference between the feudal system as +introduced into England and as established on the Continent. William made +all landowners owe fealty to himself, and not only the tenants _in +capite_. And next, though he gave his chief nobles immense possessions, +these possessions were scattered about in different parts of the kingdom. +The great provinces which had once been separate kingdoms of the Saxon +heptarchy, still retained, down to the time of the Confessor, much of +their old political feeling. Kentish men, for example, looked on one +another as brothers, but Essex men, or East Anglians, or Mercians, or +Northumbrians, were foreigners to them. If the Conqueror had committed the +blunder of giving his great nobles all their possessions together, Rufus +might have found the earls of Mercia or Northumbria semi-independent, as +the kings of France found their great vassals of Burgundy, and Champagne, +and Normandy, and Bretagne. But, by the actual arrangement, every county +was divided; one powerful noble had a lordship here, and another had +half-a-dozen manors there, and some religious community had one or two +manors between. The result was, that though a combination of great barons +was powerful enough to coerce John or Henry III., or a single baron like +Warwick was powerful enough, when the nobility were divided into two +factions, to turn the scale to one side or the other, no one was ever able +to set the power of the crown at defiance, or to establish a +semi-independence; the crown was always powerful enough to enforce a +sufficiently arbitrary authority over them all. The consequence was that +there was little of the clannish spirit among Englishmen. They rallied +round their feudal superior, but the sentiment of loyalty was warmly and +directly towards the crown. + +We must not, however, pursue the general subject further than we have +done, in order to obtain some apprehension of the position in the body +politic occupied by the class of persons with whom we are specially +concerned. Of their social position we may perhaps briefly arrive at a +correct estimate, if we call to mind that nearly all our rural parishes +are divided into several manors, which date from the Middle Ages, some +more, some less remotely; for as population increased and land increased +in value, there was a tendency to the subdivision of old manors and the +creation of new ones out of them. Each of these manors, in the times to +which our researches are directed, maintained a family of gentle birth and +knightly rank. The head of the family was usually a knight, and his sons +were eligible for, and some of them aspirants to, the same rank in +chivalry. So that the great body of the knightly order consisted of the +country gentlemen--the country _squires_ we call them now, then they were +the country _knights_--whose wealth and social importance gave them a +claim to the rank; and to these we must add such of their younger +brothers and grown-up sons as had ambitiously sought for and happily +achieved the chivalric distinction by deeds of arms. The rest of the +brothers and sons who had not entered the service of the Church as priest +or canon, monk or friar, or into trade, continued in the lower chivalric +and social rank of squires. + +When we come to look for authorities for the costume and manners of the +knights of the Middle Ages, we find a great scarcity of them for the +period between the Norman Conquest and the beginning of the Edwardian era. +The literary authorities are not many; there are as yet few of the +illuminated MSS., from which we derive such abundant material in the +fourteenth and fifteenth centuries;[370] the sepulchral monuments are not +numerous; the valuable series of monumental brasses has not begun; the +Bayeux tapestry, which affords abundant material for the special time to +which it relates, we have abstained from drawing upon; and there are few +subjects in any other class of pictorial art to help us out. + +The figure of Goliath, which we gave in our last chapter (p. 322), will +serve very well for a general representation of a knight of the twelfth +century. In truth, from the Norman Conquest down to the introduction of +plate armour at the close of the thirteenth century, there was wonderfully +little alteration in the knightly armour and costume. It would seem that +the body armour consisted of garments of the ordinary fashion, either +quilted in their substance to deaden the force of a blow, or covered with +_mailles_ (rings) on the exterior, to resist the edge of sword or point of +lance. The ingenuity of the armourer showed itself in various ways of +quilting, and various methods of applying the external defence of metal. +Of the quilted armours we know very little. In the illuminations is often +seen armour covered over with lines arranged in a lozenge pattern, which +perhaps represents garments stuffed and sewn in this commonest of all +patterns of quilting; but it has been suggested that it may represent +lozenged-shaped scales, of horn or metal, fastened upon the face of the +garments. In the wood-cut here given from the MS. Caligula A. vii., we +have one of the clearest and best extant illustrations of this quilted +armour. + +In the mail armour there seem to have been different ways of applying the +_mailles_. Sometimes it is represented as if the rings were sewn by one +edge only, and at such a distance that each overlapped the other in the +same row, but the rows do not overlap one another. Sometimes they look as +if each row of rings had been sewn upon a strip of linen or leather and +then the strips applied to the garment. Sometimes the rings were +interlinked, as in a common steel purse, so that the garment was entirely +of steel rings. Very frequently we find a surcoat or chausses represented, +as if rings or little discs of metal were sewn flat all over the garment. +It is possible that this is only an artistic way of indicating that the +garment was covered with rings, after one of the methods above described; +but it is also possible that a light armour was composed of rings thus +sparely sewn upon a linen or leather garment. It is possible also that +little round plates of metal or horn were used in this way for defence, +for we have next to mention that _scale_ armour is sometimes, though +rarely, found; it consisted of small scales, usually rectangular, and +probably usually of horn, though sometimes of metal, attached to a linen +or leather garment. + +[Illustration: _Quilted Armour._] + +The shield and helmet varied somewhat in shape at various times. The +shield in the Bayeux tapestry was kite-shaped, concave, and tolerably +large, like that of Goliath on p. 322. The tendency of its fashion was +continually to grow shorter in proportion to its width, and flatter. The +round Saxon target continued in use throughout the Middle Ages, more +especially for foot-soldiers. + +The helmet, at the beginning of the period, was like the old Saxon conical +helmet, with a nasal; and this continued in occasional use far into the +fourteenth century. About the end of the twelfth century, the cylindrical +helmet of iron enclosing the whole head, with horizontal slits for vision, +came into fashion. Richard I. is represented in one on his second great +seal. A still later fashion is seen in the next woodcut, p. 334. William +Longespée, A.D. 1227, has a flat-topped helmet. + +The only two inventions of the time seem to be, first, the surcoat, which +began to be worn over the hauberk about the end of the twelfth century. +The seal of King John is the first of the series of great seals in which +we see it introduced. It seems to have been of linen or silk. + +The other great invention of this period was that of armorial bearings, +properly so called. Devices painted upon the shield were common in +classical times. They are found ordinarily on the shields in the Bayeux +tapestry, and were habitually used by the Norman knights. In the Bayeux +tapestry they seem to be fanciful or merely decorative; later they were +symbolical or significant. But it was only towards the close of the +twelfth century that each knight assumed a fixed device, which was +exclusively appropriated to him, by which he was known, and which became +hereditary in his family. + +The offensive weapons used by the knights were most commonly the sword and +spear. The axe and mace are found, but rarely. The artillery consisted of +the crossbow, which was the most formidable missile in use, and the long +bow, which, however, was not yet the great arm of the English yeomanry +which it became at a later period; but these were hardly the weapons of +knights and gentlemen, though men-at-arms were frequently armed with the +crossbow, and archers were occasionally mounted. The sling was sometimes +used, as were other very rude weapons, by the half-armed crowd who were +often included in the ranks of mediæval armies. + +We have said that there is a great scarcity of pictorial representations +of the military costume of the thirteenth century, and of the few which +exist the majority are so vague in their definition of details, that they +add nothing to our knowledge of costume, and have so little of dramatic +character, as to throw no light on manners and customs. Among the best +are some knightly figures in the Harleian Roll, folio 6, which contains a +life of St. Guthlac of about the end of the twelfth century. The figures +are armed in short-sleeved and hooded hauberk; flat-topped iron helmet, +some with, some without, the nasal; heater-shaped shield and spear; the +legs undefended, except by boots like those of the Goliath on p. 322. + +The Harleian MS. 4,751, a MS. of the beginning of the thirteenth century, +shows at folio 8 a group of soldiers attacking a fortification; it +contains hints enough to make one earnestly desire that the subject had +been more fully and artistically worked out. The fortification is +represented by a timber projection carried on brackets from the face of +the wall. Its garrison is represented by a single knight, whose +demi-figure only is seen; he is represented in a short-sleeved hauberk, +with a surcoat over it having a cross on the breast. He wears a +flat-topped cylindrical helmet, and is armed with a crossbow. The +assailants would seem to be a rabble of half-armed men; one is bareheaded, +and armed only with a sling; others have round hats, whether of felt or +iron does not appear; one is armed in a hooded hauberk and carries an axe, +and a cylindrical helmet also appears amidst the crowd. + +In the Harleian MS. 5,102, of the beginning of the thirteenth century, at +folio 32, there is a representation of the martyrdom of St. Thomas of +Canterbury, which gives us the effigies of the three murderers in knightly +costume. They all wear long-sleeved hauberks, which have the peculiarity +of being slightly slit up the sides, and the tunic flows from beneath +them. Fitzurse (known by the bear on his shield) has leg defences fastened +behind, like those in our next woodcut, p. 334, and a circular iron +helmet. One of the others wears a flat-topped helmet, and the third has +the hood of mail fastened on the cheek, like that in the same woodcut. The +drawing is inartistic, and the picture of little value for our present +purposes. + +The Harleian MS. 3,244 contains several MSS. bound together. The second of +these works is a Penitential, which has a knightly figure on horseback for +its frontispiece. It has an allegorical meaning, and is rather curious. +The inscription over the figure is _Milicia est vita hominis super +terram_. (The life of man upon the earth is a warfare.) The knightly +figure represents the Christian man in the spiritual panoply of this +warfare; and the various items of armour and arms have inscriptions +affixed to tell us what they are. Thus over the helmet is _Spes futuri +gaudii_ (For a helmet the hope of salvation); his sword is inscribed, +_Verbum di_; his spear, _Persevancia_; its pennon, _Regni cælesti +desiderium_, &c. &c. The shield is charged with the well-known triangular +device, with the enunciation of the doctrine of the Trinity, _Pater est +Deus_, &c., _Pater non est Filius_, &c. The knight is clad in hauberk, +with a rather long flowing surcoat; a helmet, in general shape like that +in the next woodcut, but not so ornamental; he has chausses of mail; +shield, sword, and spear with pennon, and prick spurs; but there is not +sufficient definiteness in the details, or character in the drawing, to +make it worth while to reproduce it. But there is one MS. picture which +fully atones for the absence of others by its very great merit. It occurs +in a small quarto of the last quarter of the thirteenth century, which +contains the Psalter and Ecclesiastical Hymns. Towards the end of the book +are several remarkably fine full-page drawings, done in outline with a +pen, and partially tinted with colour; large, distinct, and done with +great spirit and artistic skill. The first on the verso of folio 218 is a +king; on the opposite page is the knight, who is here given on a reduced +scale; on the opposite side of the page is St. Christopher, and on the +next page an archbishop. + +The figure of the knight before us shows very clearly the various details +of a suit of thirteenth-century armour. In the hauberk will be noticed the +mode in which the hood is fastened at the side of the head, and the way in +which the sleeves are continued into gauntlets, whose palms are left free +from rings, so as to give a firmer grasp. The thighs, it will be seen, are +protected by haut-de-chausses, which are mailed only in the exposed parts, +and not on the seat. The legs have chausses of a different kind of armour. +In the MS. drawings we often find various parts of the armour thus +represented in different ways, and, as we have already said, we are +sometimes tempted to think the unskilful artist has only used different +modes of representing the same kind of mail. But here the drawing is so +careful, and skilful, and self-evidently accurate, that we cannot doubt +that the defence of the legs is really of a different kind of armour from +the mail of the hauberk and haut-de-chausses. The surcoat is of graceful +fashion, and embroidered with crosses, which appear also on the pennon, +and one of them is used as an ornamental genouillière on the shoulder. The +helmet is elaborately and very elegantly ornamented. The attitude of the +figure is spirited and dignified, and the drawing unusually good. +Altogether we do not know a finer representation of a knight of this +century. + +[Illustration: _Knight of the latter part of the Thirteenth Century._] + +A few, but very valuable, authorities are to be found in the sculptural +monumental effigies of this period. The best of them will be found in +Stothard's "Monumental Effigies," and his work not only brings these +examples together, and makes them easily accessible to the student, but it +has this great advantage, that Stothard well understood his subject, and +gives every detail with the most minute accuracy, and also elucidates +obscure points of detail. Those in the Temple Church, that of William +Longespée in Salisbury Cathedral, and that of Aymer de Valence in +Westminster Abbey, are the most important of the series. Perhaps, after +all, the only important light they add to that already obtained from the +MSS. is, they help us to understand the fabrication of the mail-armour, by +giving it in fac-simile relief. There are also a few foreign MSS., easily +accessible, in the library of the British Museum, which the artist student +will do well to consult; but he must remember that some of the +peculiarities of costume which he will find there are foreign fashions, +and are not to be introduced in English subjects. For example, the MS. +Cotton, Nero, c. iv., is a French MS. of about 1125 A.D., which contains +some rather good drawings of military subjects. The Additional MS. 14,789, +of German execution, written in 1128 A.D., contains military subjects; +among them is a figure of Goliath, in which the Philistine has a hauberk +of chain mail, and chausses of jazerant work, like the knight in the last +woodcut. The Royal MS. 20 D. i., is a French MS., very full of valuable +military drawings, executed probably at the close of the thirteenth +century, belonging, however, in the style of its Art and costume, rather +to the early part of the next period than to that under consideration. The +MS. Addit. 17,687, contains fine and valuable German drawings, full of +military authorities, of about the same period as the French MS. last +mentioned. + +[Illustration: _Knight and Men-at-Arms of the end of the Thirteenth +Century._] + +The accompanying wood-cut represents various peculiarities of the armour +in use towards the close of the thirteenth century. It is taken from the +Sloane MS. 346, which is a metrical Bible. In the original drawing a +female figure is kneeling before the warrior, and there is an inscription +over the picture, _Abygail placet iram regis David_ (Abigail appeases the +anger of King David). So that this group of a thirteenth-century knight +and his men-at-arms is intended by the mediæval artist to represent David +and his followers on the march to revenge the churlishness of Nabal. The +reader will notice the round plates at the elbows and knees, which are the +first _visible_ introduction of plate armour--breastplates, worn under the +hauberk, had been occasionally used from Saxon times. He will observe, +too, the leather gauntlets which David wears, and the curious defences for +the shoulders called _ailettes_: also that the shield is hung round the +neck by its strap (_guige_), and the sword-belt round the hips, while the +surcoat is girded round the waist by a silken cord. The group is also +valuable for giving us at a glance three different fashions of helmet. +David has a conical bascinet, with a movable visor. The man immediately +behind him wears an iron hat, with a wide rim and a raised crest, which is +not at all unusual at this period. The other two men wear the globular +helmet, the most common head-defence of the time. + +[Illustration: _Knight of the end of the Thirteenth Century._] + +The next cut is a spirited little sketch of a mounted knight, from the +same MS. The horse, it may be admitted, is very like those which children +draw nowadays, but it has more life in it than most of the drawings of +that day; and the way in which the knight sits his horse is much more +artistic. The picture shows the equipment of the knight very clearly, and +it is specially valuable as an early example of horse trappings, and as an +authority for the shape of the saddle, with its high pommel and croupe. +The inscription over the picture is, _Tharbis defendit urbem Sabea ab +impugnanti Moysi_; and over the head of this cavalier is his name +_Moyses_--Moses, as a knight of the end of the thirteenth century! + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +ARMOUR OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. + + +In arriving at the fourteenth century, we have reached the very heart of +our subject. For this century was the period of the great national wars +with France and Scotland; it was the time when the mercenaries raised in +the Italian wars first learnt, and then taught the world, the trade of +soldier and trained their captains in the art of war; it was the period +when the romantic exploits and picturesque trappings of chivalry were in +their greatest vogue; the period when Gothic art was at its highest point +of excellence. It was a period, too, of which we have ample knowledge from +public records and serious histories, from romance writers in poetry and +prose, from Chaucer and Froissart, from MS. illuminations and monumental +effigies. Our difficulty amid such a profusion of material is to select +that which will be most serviceable to our special purpose. + +Let us begin with some detailed account of the different kinds and +fashions of armour and equipment. In the preceding period, it has been +seen, the most approved knightly armour was of mail. The characteristic +feature of the armour of the fourteenth century is the intermixture of +mail and plate. We see it first in small supplementary defences of plate +introduced to protect the elbow and knee-joints. Probably it was found +that the rather heavy and unpliable sleeve and hose of mail pressed +inconveniently upon these joints; therefore the armourer adopted the +expedient which proved to be the "thin end of the wedge" which gradually +brought plate armour into fashion. He cut the mail hose in two; the lower +part, which was then like a modern stocking, protected the leg, and the +upper part protected the thigh, each being independently fastened below +and above the knee, leaving the knee unprotected. Then he hollowed a piece +of plate iron so as to form a cap for the knee, called technically a +_genouillière_, within which the joint could work freely without chafing +or pressure; perhaps it was padded or stuffed so as to deaden the effect +of a blow; and it was fashioned so as effectually to cover all the part +left undefended by the mail. The sleeve of the hauberk was cut in the same +way, and the elbow was defended by a cap of plate-iron called a +_coudière_. Early examples of these two pieces of plate armour will be +seen in the later illustrations of our last chapter, for they were +introduced a little before the end of the thirteenth century. The two +pieces of plate were introduced simultaneously, and they appear together +in the woodcut of David and his men in our last chapter; but we often find +the genouillière used while the arm is still defended only by the sleeve +of the hauberk, as in the first woodcut in the present chapter, and again +in the cut on p. 348. It is easy to see that the pressure of the chausses +of mail upon the knee in riding would be constant and considerable, and a +much more serious inconvenience than the pressure upon the elbow in the +usual attitude of the arm. + +[Illustration: _Men-at-Arms, Fourteenth Century._] + +Next, round plates of metal, called _placates_ or _roundels_, were applied +to shield the armpits from a thrust; and sometimes they were used also at +the elbow to protect the inner side of the joint where, for the +convenience of motion, it was destitute of armour. An example of a roundel +at the shoulder will be seen in one of the men-at-arms in the woodcut on +p. 339. Another curious fashion which very generally prevailed at this +time--that is, at the close of the thirteenth and beginning of the +fourteenth century--was the _ailette_. It was a thin, oblong plate of +metal, which was attached behind the shoulder. It would to some extent +deaden the force of a blow directed at the neck, but it would afford so +inartificial and ineffective a defence, that it is difficult to believe it +was intended for anything more than an ornament. It is worn by the +foremost knight in the cut on p. 335. + +Perhaps the next great improvement was to protect the foot by a shoe made +of plates of iron overlapping, like the shell of a lobster, the sole being +still of leather. Then plates of iron, made to fit the limb, were applied +to the shin and the upper part of the forearm, and sometimes a small plate +is applied to the upper part of the arm in the place most exposed to a +blow. Then the shin and forearm defences were enlarged so as to enclose +the limb completely, opening at the side with a hinge, and closing with +straps or rivets. Then the thigh and the upper arm were similarly enclosed +in plate. + +It is a little difficult to trace exactly the changes which took place in +the body defences, because all through this period it was the fashion to +wear a surcoat of some kind, which usually conceals all that was worn +beneath it. It is however probable that at an early period of the +introduction of plate a breastplate was introduced, which was worn over +the hauberk, and perhaps fastened to it. Then, it would seem, a back plate +was added also, worn over the hauberk. Next, the breast and back plate +were made to enclose the whole of the upper part of the body, while only a +skirt of mail remained; _i.e._ a garment of the same shape as the hauberk +was worn, unprotected with mail, where the breast and back plate would +come upon it, but still having its skirt covered with rings. In an +illumination in the MS., is a picture of a knight putting off his jupon, +in which the "pair of plates," as Chaucer calls them in a quotation +hereafter given, is seen, tinted blue (steel colour), with a skirt of +mail. At this time the helmet had a fringe of mail, called the _camail_, +attached to its lower margin, which fell over the body armour, and +defended the neck. It is clearly seen in the hindermost knight of the +group in the woodcut on p. 339, and in the effigy of John of Eltham, on p. +342. + +It is not difficult to see the superiority of defence which plate afforded +over mail. The edge of sword or axe would bite upon the mail; if the rings +were unbroken, still the blow would be likely to bruise; and in romances +it is common enough to hear of huge cantles of mail being hewn out by +their blows, and the doughty champions being spent with loss of blood. But +many a blow would glance off quite harmless from the curved and polished, +and well-tempered surface of plate; so that it would probably require not +only a more dexterous blow to make the edge of the weapon bite at all on +the plate, but also a harder blow to cut into it so as to wound. In +"Prince Arthur" we read of Sir Tristram and Sir Governale--"they avoided +their horses, and put their shields before them, and they strake together +with bright swords like men that were of might, and either wounded other +wondrous sore, so that the blood ran upon the grass, and of their harness +they had hewed off many pieces." And again, in a combat between Sir +Tristram and Sir Elias, after a course in which "either smote other so +hard that both horses and knights went to the earth," "they both lightly +rose up and dressed their shields on their shoulders, with naked swords in +their hands, and they dashed together like as there had been a flaming +fire about them. Thus they traced and traversed, and hewed on helms and +hauberks, and cut away many pieces and cantles of their shields, and +either wounded other passingly sore, so that the hot blood fell fresh upon +the earth." + +We have said that a surcoat of some kind was worn throughout this period, +but it differed in shape at different times, and had different names +applied to it. In the early part of the time of which we are now speaking, +_i.e._ when the innovation of plate armour was beginning, the loose and +flowing surcoat of the thirteenth century was still used, and is very +clearly seen in the nearest of the group of knights in woodcut on p. 339. +It was usually of linen or silk, sleeveless, reached halfway between the +knee and ankle, was left unstiffened to fall in loose folds, except that +it was girt by a silk cord round the waist, and its skirts flutter behind +as the wearer gallops on through the air. The change of taste was in the +direction of shortening the skirts of the surcoat, and making it scantier +about the body, and stiffening it so as to make it fit the person without +folds; at last it was tightly fitted to the breast and back plate, and +showed their outline; and it was not uncommonly covered with embroidery, +often of the armorial bearings of the wearer. The former garment is +properly called a surcoat, and the latter a jupon; the one is +characteristic of the greater part of the thirteenth century, the latter +of the greater part of the fourteenth. But the fashion did not change +suddenly from the one to the other; there was a transitional phase called +the _cyclas_, which may be briefly described. The cyclas opened up the +sides instead of in front, and it had this curious peculiarity, that the +front skirt was cut much shorter than the hind skirt--behind it reached to +the knees, but in front not very much below the hips. The fashion has this +advantage for antiquarians, that the shortness of the front skirt allows +us to see a whole series of military garments beneath, which are hidden by +the long surcoat and even by the shorter jupon, A suit of armour of this +period is represented in the Roman d'Alexandre (Bodleian Library), at +folio 143 v., and elsewhere in the MS. The remainder of the few examples +of the cyclas which remain, and which, so far as our observation extends, +are all in sepulchral monuments, range between the years 1325 and 1335, +the shortening of the cyclas enables us to see. We have chosen for our +illustration the sepulchral effigy in Westminster Abbey of John of Eltham, +the second son of King Edward II., who died in 1334. Here we see first and +lowest the hacqueton; then the hauberk of chain mail, slightly pointed in +front, which was one of the fashions of the time, as we see it also in the +monumental brasses of Sir John de Creke, at Westley-Waterless, +Cambridgeshire, and of Sir J. D'Aubernoun, the younger, at Stoke +D'Abernon, Surrey; over the hauberk we see the ornamented gambeson; and +over all the cyclas. It is a question whether knights generally wore this +whole series of defences, but the monumental effigies are usually so +accurate in their representations of actual costume, that we must conclude +that at least on occasions of state solemnity they were all worn. In the +illustration it will be seen that the cyclas is confined, not by a silk +cord, but by a narrow belt, while the sword-belt of the thirteenth century +is still worn in addition. The jupon is seen in the two knights tilting, +in the woodcut on p. 348. In the knight on the left will be seen how it +fits tightly, and takes the globular shape of the breastplate. It will be +noticed that on this knight the skirt of the jupon is scalloped, on the +other it is plain. The jupon was not girded with a silk cord or a narrow +belt; it was made to fit tight without any such fastening. The sword-belt +worn with it differs in two important respects from that worn previously. +It does not fall diagonally across the person, but horizontally over the +hips; and it is not merely a leather belt ornamented, but the leather +foundation is completely concealed by plates of metal in high relief, +chased, gilt, and filled with enamels, forming a gorgeous decoration. The +general form will be seen in the woodcut on p. 350, but its elaboration +and splendour are better understood on an examination of some of the +sculptured effigies, in which the forms of the metal plates are preserved +in facsimile, with traces of their gilding and colour still remaining. + +[Illustration: _John of Eltham._] + +It would be easy, from the series of sculptured effigies in relief and +monumental brasses, to give a complete chronological view of these various +changes which were continually progressing throughout the fourteenth +century. But this has already been done in the very accessible works by +Stothard, the Messrs. Waller, Mr. Boutell, and Mr. Haines, especially +devoted to monumental effigies and brasses. It will be more in accordance +with the plan we have laid down for ourselves, if we take from the less +known illuminations of MSS. some subjects which will perhaps be less clear +and fine in detail, but will have more life and character than the formal +monumental effigies. + +We must, however, pause to mention some other kinds of armour which were +sometimes used in place of armour of steel. And first we may mention +leather. Leather was always more or less used as a cheap kind of defence, +from the Saxon leather tunic with the hair left on it, down to the buff +jerkin of the time of the Commonwealth, and even to the thick leather +gauntlets and jack boots of the present Life Guardsman. But at the time of +which we are speaking pieces of armour of the same shape as those we have +been describing were sometimes made, for the sake of lightness, of _cuir +bouilli_ instead of metal. Cuir bouilli was, as its name implies, leather +which was treated with hot water, in such a way as to make it assume a +required shape; and often it was also impressed, while soft, with +ornamental devices. It is easy to see that in this way armour might be +made possessing great comparative lightness, and yet a certain degree of +strength, and capable, by stamping, colouring, and gilding, of a high +degree of ornamentation. It was a kind of armour very suitable for +occasions of mere ceremonial, and it was adopted in actual combat for +parts of the body less exposed to injury; for instance, it seems to be +especially used for the defence of the lower half of the legs. We shall +find presently, in the description of Chaucer's Sire Thopas, the knight +adventurous, that "his jambeux were of cuirbouly." In external form and +appearance it would be so exactly like metal armour that it may be +represented in some of the ornamental effigies and MSS. drawings, where it +has the appearance of, and is usually assumed to be, metal armour. Another +form of armour, of which we often meet with examples in drawings and +effigies, is one in which the piece of armour appears to be studded, at +more or less distant regular intervals, with small round plates. There are +two suggestions as to the kind of armour intended. One is, that the armour +thus represented was a garment of cloth, silk, velvet, or other textile +material, lined with plates of metal, which are fastened to the garment +with metal rivets, and that the heads of these rivets, gilt and +ornamented, were allowed to be seen powdering the coloured face of the +garment by way of ornament. Another suggestion is that the garment was +merely one of the padded and quilted armours which we shall have next to +describe, in which, as an additional precaution, metal studs were +introduced, much as an oak door is studded with iron bolts. An example of +it will be seen in the armour of the forearms of King Meliadus in the +woodcut on p. 350. Chaucer seems to speak of this kind of defence, in his +description of Lycurgus at the great tournament in the "Knight's Tale," +under the name of coat armour:-- + + "Instede of cote-armure on his harnais, + With nayles yelwe and bryght as any gold, + He had a bere's skin cole-blake for old." + +Next we come to the rather large and important series of quilted defences. +We find the names of the _gambeson_, _hacqueton_, and _pourpoint_, and +sometimes the _jacke_. It is a little difficult to distinguish one from +the other in the descriptions; and in fact they appear to have greatly +resembled one another, and the names seem often to have been used +interchangeably. The gambeson was a sleeved tunic of stout coarse linen, +stuffed with flax and other common material, and sewn longitudinally. The +hacqueton was a similar garment, only made of buckram, and stuffed with +cotton; stiff from its material, but not so thick and clumsy as the +gambeson. The pourpoint was very like the hacqueton, only that it was made +of finer material, faced with silk, and stitched in ornamental patterns. +The gambeson and hacqueton were worn under the armour, partly to relieve +its pressure upon the body, partly to afford an additional defence. +Sometimes they were worn, especially by the common soldiers, without any +other armour. The pourpoint was worn over the hauberk, but sometimes it +was worn alone, the hauberk being omitted for the sake of lightness. The +jacke, or jacque, was a tunic of stuffed leather, and was usually worn by +the common soldiers without other armour, but sometimes as light armour by +knights. + +In the first wood-cut on the next page, from the Romance of King +Meliadus, we have a figure which appears to be habited in one of these +quilted armours, perhaps the hacqueton. There is another figure in the +same group, in a similar dress, with this difference--in the first the +skirt seems to fall loose and light, in the second the skirt seems to be +stuffed and quilted like the body of the garment. At folio 214 of the same +Romance is a squire, attendant upon a knight-errant, who is habited in a +similar hacqueton to that we have represented; the squires throughout the +MS. are usually quite unarmed. In the monumental effigy of Sir Robert +Shurland, who was made a knight-banneret in 1300, we seem to have a +curious and probably unique effigy of a knight in the gameson. We give a +woodcut of it, reduced from Stothard's engraving. The smaller figure of +the man placed at the feet of the effigy is in the same costume, and +affords us an additional example. Stothard conjectures that the garment in +the effigy of John of Eltham (1334 A.D.), whose vandyked border appears +beneath his hauberk, is the buckram of the hacqueton left unstuffed, and +ornamentally scalloped round the border. In the MS. of King Meliadus, at +f. 21, and again on the other side of the leaf, is a knight, whose red +jupon, slit up at the sides, is thrown open by his attitude, so that we +see the skirt of mail beneath, which is silvered to represent metal; and +beneath that is a scalloped border of an under habit, which is left white, +and, if Stothard's conjecture be correct, is another example of the +hacqueton under the hauberk. But the best representation which we have met +with of the quilted armours is in the MS. of the Romance of the Rose +(Harleian, 4,425), at folio 133, where, in a battle scene, one knight is +conspicuous among the blue steel and red and green jupons of the other +knights by a white body armour quilted in small squares, with which he +wears a steel bascinet and ringed camail. He is engraved on p. 389. + +[Illustration: _Squire in Hacqueton._] + +[Illustration: _Sir Robert Shurland._] + +And now to turn to a description of some of the MS. illuminations which +illustrate this chapter. That on p. 339 is a charming little subject from +a famous MS. (Royal 2 B. VII.) of the beginning of the Edwardian period, +which will illustrate half-a-dozen objects besides the mere suit of +knightly armour. First of all there is the suit of armour on the knight in +the foreground, the hooded hauberk and chausses of mail and genouillières, +the chapeau de fer, or war helm, and the surcoat, and the shield. But we +get also a variety of helmets, different kinds of weapons, falchion and +axe, as well as sword and spear, and the pennon attached to the spear; +and, in addition, the complete horse trappings, with the ornamental crest +which was used to set off the arching neck and tossing head. Moreover, we +learn that this variety of arms and armour was to be found in a single +troop of men-at-arms; and we see the irregular but picturesque effect +which such a group presented to the eyes of the monkish illuminator as it +pranced beneath the gateway into the outer court of the abbey, to seek the +hospitality which the hospitaller would hasten to offer on behalf of the +convent. + +This mixture of armour and weapons is brought before us by Chaucer in his +description of Palamon's party in the great tournament in the "Knight's +Tale:"-- + + "And right so ferden they with Palamon, + With him ther wenten knights many one, + Som wol ben armed in an habergeon, + And in a brestplate and in a gipon; + And some wol have a pair of plates large; + And some wol have a Pruce shield or a targe; + And some wol ben armed on his legge's wele, + And have an axe, and some a mace of stele, + Ther was no newe guise that it was old, + Armed they weren, as I have you told, + Everich after his opinion." + +The illustration here given and that on p. 350 are from a MS. which we +cannot quote for the first time without calling special attention to it. +It is a MS. of one of the numerous romances of the King Arthur cycle, the +Romance of the King Meliadus, who was one of the Companions of the Round +Table. The book is profusely illustrated with pictures which are +invaluable to the student of military costume and chivalric customs. They +are by different hands, and not all of the same date, the earlier series +being probably about 1350, the later perhaps as late as near the end of +the century. In both these dates the MS. gives page after page of +large-sized pictures drawn with great spirit, and illustrating every +variety of incident which could take place in single combat and in +tournament, with many scenes of civil and domestic life besides. +Especially there is page after page in which, along the lower portion of +the pages, across the whole width of the book, there are pictures of +tournaments. There is a gallery of spectators along the top, and in some +of these--especially in those at folio 151 v. and 152, which are sketched +in with pen and ink, and left uncoloured--there are more of character and +artistic drawing than the artists of the time are usually believed to have +possessed. Beneath this gallery is a confused mêlée of knights in the very +thickest throng and most energetic action of a tournament. The wood-cut on +p. 348 represents one out of many incidents of a single combat. It does +not do justice to the drawing, and looks tame for want of the colouring of +the original; but it will serve to show the armour and equipment of the +time. The victor knight is habited in a hauberk of banded mail, with +gauntlets of plate, and the legs are cased entirely in plate. The body +armour is covered by a jupon; the tilting helmet has a knight's chapeau +and drapery carrying the lion crest. The armour in the illumination is +silvered to represent metal. The knight's jupon is red, and the trappings +of his helmet red, with a golden lion; his shield bears gules, a lion +rampant argent; the conquered knight's jupon is blue, his shield argent, +two bandlets gules. We see here the way in which the shield was carried, +and the long slender spear couched, in the charge. + +[Illustration: _Jousting._] + +The next wood-cut hardly does credit to the charming original. It +represents the royal knight-errant himself sitting by a fountain, talking +with his squire. The suit of armour is beautiful, and the face of the +knight has much character, but very different from the modern conventional +type of a mediæval knight-errant. His armour deserves particular +examination. He wears a hauberk of banded mail; whether he wears a +breastplate, or pair of plates, we are unable to see for the jupon, but we +can see the hauberk which protects the throat above the jupon, and the +skirt of it where the attitude of the wearer throws the skirt of the jupon +open at the side. It will be seen that the sleeves of the hauberk are not +continued, as in most examples, over the hands, or even down to the wrist; +but the forearm is defended by studded armour, and the hands by gauntlets +which are probably of plate. The leg defences are admirably exhibited; the +hose of banded mail, the knee cap, and shin pieces of plate, and the +boots of overlapping plates. The helmet also, with its royal crown and +curious double crest, is worth notice. In the original drawing the whole +suit of armour is brilliantly executed. The armour is all silvered to +represent steel, the jupon is green, the military belt gold, the helmet +silvered, with its drapery blue powdered with gold fleurs-de-lis, and its +crown, and the fleur-de-lis which terminate its crest, gold. The whole +dress and armour of a knight of the latter half of the fourteenth century +are described for us by Chaucer in a few stanzas of his Rime of Sire +Thopas:-- + + "He didde[371] next his white lere + Of cloth of lake fine and clere + A breche and eke a sherte; + And next his shert an haketon, + And over that an habergeon, + For percing of his herte. + + And over that a fine hauberk, + Was all ye wrought of Jewes werk, + Full strong it was of plate; + And over that his coat armoure, + As white as is the lily floure, + In which he could debate.[372] + + His jambeux were of cuirbouly,[373] + His swerde's sheth of ivory, + His helm of latoun[374] bright, + His sadel was of rewel bone, + His bridle as the sonne shone, + Or as the mone-light[375] + + His sheld was all of gold so red, + And therein was a bore's hed, + A charboncle beside; + And then he swore on ale and bred, + How that the geaunt shuld be ded, + Betide what so betide. + + His spere was of fine cypres, + That bodeth warre and nothing pees, + The hed ful sharpe yground. + His stede was all of dapper gray. + It goth an amble in the way, + Ful softely in londe." + +[Illustration: _A Knight-Errant._] + +There is so much of character in his squire's face in the same picture, +and that character so different from our conventional idea of a squire, +that we are tempted to give a sketch of it on p. 352, as he leans over the +horse's back talking to his master. This MS. affords us a whole gallery of +squires attendant upon their knights. At folio 66 v. is one carrying his +master's spear and shield, who has a round cap with a long feather, like +that in the woodcut. In several other instances the squire rides +bareheaded, but has his hood hanging behind on his shoulders ready for a +cold day or a shower of rain. In another place the knight is attended by +two squires, one bearing his master's tilting helmet on his shoulder, the +other carrying his spear and shield. In all cases the squires are unarmed, +and mature men of rather heavy type, different from the gay and gallant +youths whom we are apt to picture to ourselves as the squires of the days +of chivalry attendant on noble knights adventurous. In other cases we see +the squires looking on very phlegmatically while their masters are in the +height of a single combat; perhaps a knight adventurous was not a hero to +his squire. But again we see the squire starting into activity to catch +his master's steed, from which he has been unhorsed by an antagonist of +greater strength or skill, or good fortune. We see him also in the lists +at a tournament, handing his master a new spear when he has splintered his +own on an opponent's shield; or helping him to his feet when he has been +overthrown, horse and man, under the hoofs of prancing horses. + +[Illustration: _The Knight-Errant's Squire._] + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE DAYS OF CHIVALRY. + + +We have no inclination to deny that life is more safe and easy in these +days than it was in the Middle Ages, but it certainly is less picturesque, +and adventurous, and joyous. This country then presented the features of +interest which those among us who have wealth and leisure now travel to +foreign lands to find. There were vast tracts of primeval forest, and wild +unenclosed moors and commons, and marshes and meres. The towns were +surrounded by walls and towers, and the narrow streets of picturesque, +gabled, timber houses were divided by wide spaces of garden and grove, +above which rose numerous steeples of churches full of artistic wealth. +The villages consisted of a group of cottages scattered round a wide +green, with a village cross in the middle, and a maypole beside it. And +there were stately monasteries in the rich valleys; and castles crowned +the hills; and moated manor-houses lay buried in their woods; and +hermitages stood by the dangerous fords. The high roads were little more +than green lanes with a narrow beaten track in the middle, poached into +deep mud in winter; and the by-roads were bridle-paths winding from +village to village; and the costumes of the people were picturesque in +fashion, bright in colour, and characteristic. The gentleman pranced along +in silks and velvets, in plumed hat, and enamelled belt, and gold-hilted +sword and spurs, with a troop of armed servants behind him; the abbot, in +the robe of his order, with a couple of chaplains, all on ambling +palfreys; the friar paced along in serge frock and sandals; the minstrel, +in gay coat, sang snatches of lays as he wandered along from hall to +castle, with a lad at his back carrying his harp or gittern; the traders +went from fair to fair, taking their goods on strings of pack horses; a +pilgrim, passed now and then, with staff and scrip and cloak; and, now and +then, a knight-errant in full armour rode by on his war-horse, with a +squire carrying his helm and spear. It was a wild land, and the people +were rude, and the times lawless; but every mile furnished pictures for +the artist, and every day offered the chance of adventures. The reader +must picture to himself the aspect of the country and the manners of the +times, before he can appreciate the spirit of knight-errantry, to which it +is necessary that we should devote one of these chapters on the Knights of +the Middle Ages. + +The knight-errant was usually some young knight who had been lately +dubbed, and who, full of courage and tired of the monotony of his father's +manor-house, set out in search of adventures. We could envy him as, on +some bright spring morning, he rode across the sounding drawbridge, +followed by a squire in the person of some young forester as full of +animal spirits and reckless courage as himself; or, perhaps, by some +steady old warrior practised in the last French war, whom his father had +chosen to take care of him. We sigh for our own lost youth as we think of +him, with all the world before him--the mediæval world, with all its +possibilities of wild adventure and romantic fortune; with caitiff knights +to overthrow at spear-point, and distressed damsels to succour; and +princesses to win as the prize of some great tournament; and rank and fame +to gain by prowess and daring, under the eye of kings, in some great +stricken field. + +The old romances enable us to follow such an errant knight through all his +travels and adventures; and the illuminations leave hardly a point in the +history unillustrated by their quaint but naïve and charming pictures. +Tennyson has taken some of the episodes out of these old romances, and +filled up the artless but suggestive stories with the rich detail and +artistic finish which adapt them to our modern taste, and has made them +the favourite subjects of modern poetry. But he has left a hundred others +behind; stories as beautiful, with words and sentences here and there full +of poetry, destined to supply material for future poems and new subjects +for our painters. + +It is our business to quote from these romances some of the scenes which +will illustrate our subject, and to introduce some of the illuminations +that will present them to the eye. In selecting the literary sketches, we +shall use almost exclusively the translation which Sir Thomas Mallory +made, and Caxton printed, of the cycle of Prince Arthur romances, because +it comprises a sufficient number for our purpose, and because the +language, while perfectly intelligible and in the best and most vigorous +English, has enough of antique style to give the charm which would be +wanting if we were to translate the older romances into modern +phraseology. In the same way we shall content ourselves with selecting +pictorial illustrations chiefly from MSS. of the fourteenth century, the +date at which many of these romances were brought into the form in which +they have descended to us. + +[Illustration: _A Squire._] + +A knight was known to be a knight-errant by his riding through the +peaceful country in full armour, with a single squire at his back, as +surely as a man is now recognised as a fox-hunter who is seen riding +easily along the strip of green sward by the roadside in a pink coat and +velvet cap. "Fair knight," says Sir Tristram, to one whom he had found +sitting by a fountain, "ye seem for to be a knight-errant by your arms and +your harness, therefore dress ye to just with one of us:" for this was of +course inevitable when knights-errant met; the whole passage is worth +transcribing:--"Sir Tristram and Sir Kay rode within the forest a mile or +more. And at the last Sir Tristram saw before him a likely knight and a +well-made man, all armed, sitting by a clear fountain, and a mighty horse +near unto him tied to a great oak, and a man [his squire] riding by him, +leading an horse that was laden with spears. Then Sir Tristram rode near +him, and said, 'Fair knight, why sit ye so drooping, for ye seem to be an +errant knight by your arms and harness, and therefore dress ye to just +with one of us or with both.' Therewith that knight made no words, but +took his shield and buckled it about his neck, and lightly he took his +horse and leaped upon him, and then he took a great spear of his squire, +and departed his way a furlong." + +And so we read in another place:--"Sir Dinadan spake on high and said, +'Sir Knight, make thee ready to just with me, for it is the custom of all +arrant knights one for to just with another.' 'Sir,' said Sir Epinogris, +'is that the rule of your arrant knights, for to make a knight to just +whether he will or not?' 'As for that, make thee ready, for here is for +me.' And therewith they spurred their horses, and met together so hard +that Sir Epinogris smote down Sir Dinadan"--and so taught him the truth of +the adage "that it is wise to let sleeping dogs lie." + +But they did not merely take the chance of meeting one another as they +journeyed. A knight in quest of adventures would sometimes station himself +at a ford or bridge, and mount guard all day long, and let no +knight-errant pass until he had jousted with him. Thus we read "then they +rode forth all together, King Mark, Sir Lamorake, and Sir Dinadan, till +that they came unto a bridge, and at the end of that bridge stood a fair +tower. Then saw they a knight on horseback, well armed, brandishing a +spear, crying and proffering himself to just." And again, "When King Mark +and Sir Dinadan had ridden about four miles, they came unto a bridge, +whereas hoved a knight on horseback, and ready to just. 'So,' said Sir +Dinadan unto King Mark, 'yonder hoveth a knight that will just, for there +shall none pass this bridge but he must just with that knight.'" + +And again: "They rode through the forest, and at the last they were ware +of two pavilions by a priory with two shields, and the one shield was +renewed with white and the other shield was red. 'Thou shalt not pass this +way,' said the dwarf, 'but first thou must just with yonder knights that +abide in yonder pavilions that thou seest.' Then was Sir Tor ware where +two pavilions were, and great spears stood out, and two shields hung on +two trees by the pavilions." In the same way a knight would take up his +abode for a few days at a wayside cross where four ways met, in order to +meet adventures from east, west, north, and south. Notice of adventures +was sometimes affixed upon such a cross, as we read in "Prince Arthur": +"And so Sir Galahad and he rode forth all that week ere they found any +adventure. And then upon a Sunday, in the morning, as they were departed +from an abbey, they came unto a cross which departed two ways. And on that +cross were letters written which said thus: _Now ye knights-errant that +goeth forth for to seek adventures, see here two ways_," &c. + +Wherever they went, they made diligent inquiry for adventures. Thus "Sir +Launcelot departed, and by adventure he came into a forest. And in the +midst of a highway he met with a damsel riding on a white palfrey, and +either saluted other: 'Fair damsel,' said Sir Launcelot, 'know ye in this +country any adventures?' 'Sir Knight,' said the damsel, 'here are +adventures near at hand, an thou durst prove them.' 'Why should I not +prove adventures,' said Sir Launcelot, 'as for that cause came I hither?'" +And on another occasion, we read, Sir Launcelot passed out of the (King +Arthur's) court to seek adventures, and Sir Ector made him ready to meet +Sir Launcelot, and as he had ridden long in a great forest, he met with a +man that was like a forester.--These frequent notices of "riding long +through a great forest" are noticeable as evidences of the condition of +the country in those days.--"Fair fellow," said Sir Ector, "knowest thou +in this country any adventures which be here nigh at hand?" "Sir," said +the forester, "this country know I well, and here within this mile is a +strong manor and well ditched"--not well walled; it was the fashion of the +Middle Ages to choose low sites for their manor-houses, and to surround +them with moats--such moats are still common round old manor-houses in +Essex--"and by that manor on the left hand is a fair ford for horses to +drink, and over that ford there groweth a fair tree, and thereon hangeth +many fair shields that belonged some time unto good knights; and at the +hole of the tree hangeth a bason of copper and laten; and strike upon that +bason with the end of the spear thrice, and soon after thou shalt hear +good tidings, and else hast thou the fairest grace that many a year any +knight had that passed through this forest." + +[Illustration: _Preliminaries of Combat in Green Court of Castle._] + +Every castle offered hope, not only of hospitality, but also of a trial of +arms; for in every castle there would be likely to be knights and squires +glad of the opportunity of running a course with bated spears with a new +and skilful antagonist. Here is a picture from an old MS. which represents +the preliminaries of such a combat on the green between the castle walls +and the moat. In many castles there was a special tilting-ground. Thus we +read, "Sir Percivale passed the water, and when he came unto the castle +gate, he said to the porter, 'Go thou unto the good knight within the +castle, and tell him that here is came an errant knight to just with him.' +'Sir,' said the porter, 'ride ye within the castle, and there shall ye +find a common place for justing, that lords and ladies may behold you.'" +At Carisbrook Castle, in the Isle of Wight, the tilting-ground remains to +this day; a plot of level green sward, with raised turfed banks round it, +that at the same time served as the enclosure of the lists, and a +vantage-ground from which the spectators might see the sport. At +Gawsworth, also, the ancient tilting-ground still remains. But in most +castles of any size, the outer court afforded room enough for a course, +and at the worst there was the green meadow outside the castle walls. In +some castles they had special customs; just as in old-fashioned +country-houses one used to be told it was "the custom of the house" to do +this and that; so it was "the custom of the castle" for every knight to +break three lances, for instance, or exchange three strokes of sword with +the lord--a quondam errant knight be sure, thus creating adventures for +himself at home when marriage and cares of property forbade him to roam in +search of them. Thus, in the Romance:--"Sir Tristram and Sir Dinadan rode +forth their way till they came to some shepherds and herdsmen, and there +they asked if they knew any lodging or harbour thereabout." "Forsooth, +fair lords," said the herdsmen, "nigh hereby is a good lodging in a +castle, but such a custom there is that there shall no knight be lodged +but if he first just with two knights, and if ye be beaten, and have the +worse, ye shall not be lodged there, and if ye beat them, ye shall be well +lodged." The Knights of the Round Table easily vanquished the two knights +of the castle, and were hospitably received; but while they were at table +came Sir Palomides, and Sir Gaheris, "requiring to have the custom of the +castle." "And now," said Sir Tristram, "must we defend the custom of the +castle, inasmuch as we have the better of the lord of the castle." + +Here is the kind of invitation they were sure to receive from gentlemen +living peaceably on their estates, but sympathising with the high spirit +and love of adventure which sent young knights a-wandering through their +woods and meadows, and under their castle walls:--Sir Tristram and Sir +Gareth "were ware of a knight that came riding against [towards] them +unarmed, and nothing about him but a sword; and when this knight came nigh +them he saluted them, and they him again. 'Fair knights,' said that +knight, 'I pray you, inasmuch as ye are knights errant, that ye will come +and see my castle, and take such as ye find there, I pray you heartily.' +And so they rode with him to his castle, and there they were brought to +the hall that was well appareled, and so they were unarmed and set at a +board." + +We have already heard in these brief extracts of knights lodging at +castles and abbeys: we often find them received at manor-houses. Here is +one of the most graphic pictures:--"Then Sir Launcelot mounted upon his +horse and rode into many strange and wild countries, and through many +waters and valleys, and evil was he lodged. And at the last, by fortune, +it happened him against a night to come to a poor courtilage, and therein +he found an old gentleman, which lodged him with a good will, and there he +and his horse were well cheered. And when time was, his host brought him +to a fair garret over a gate to his bed. There Sir Launcelot unarmed him, +and set his harness by him, and went to bed, and anon he fell in sleep. +So, soon after, there came one on horseback, and knocked at the gate in +great haste. And when Sir Launcelot heard this, he arose up and looked out +at the window, and saw by the moonlight three knights that came riding +after that one man, and all three lashed upon him at once with their +swords, and that one knight turned on them knightly again, and defended +himself." And Sir Launcelot, like an errant knight, "took his harness and +went out at the window by a sheet," and made them yield, and commanded +them at Whit Sunday to go to King Arthur's court, and there yield them +unto Queen Guenever's grace and mercy; for so errant knights gave to their +lady-loves the evidences of their prowess, and did them honour, by sending +them a constant succession of vanquished knights, and putting them "unto +her grace and mercy." + +Very often the good knight in the midst of forest or wild found a night's +shelter in a friendly hermitage, for hermitages, indeed, were established +partly to afford shelter to belated travellers. Here is an example. Sir +Tor asks the dwarf who is his guide, "'Know ye any lodging?' 'I know +none,' said the dwarf; 'but here beside is an hermitage, and there ye +must take such lodging as ye find.' And within a while they came to the +hermitage and took lodging, and there was grass and oats and bread for +their horses. Soon it was spread, and full hard was their supper; but +there they rested them all the night till on the morrow, and heard a mass +devoutly, and took their leave of the hermit, and Sir Tor prayed the +hermit to pray for him, and he said he would, and betook him to God; and +so he mounted on horseback, and rode towards Camelot." + +But sometimes not even a friendly hermitage came in sight at the hour of +twilight, when the forest glades darkened, and the horse track across the +moor could no longer be seen, and the knight had to betake himself to a +soldier's bivouac. It is an incident often met with in the Romances. Here +is a more poetical description than usual:--"And anon these knights made +them ready, and rode over holts and hills, through forests and woods, till +they came to a fair meadow full of fair flowers and grass, and there they +rested them and their horses all that night." Again, "Sir Launcelot rode +into a forest, and there he met with a gentlewoman riding upon a white +palfrey, and she asked him, 'Sir Knight, whither ride ye?' 'Certainly, +damsel,' said Sir Launcelot, 'I wot not whither I ride, but as fortune +leadeth me.'... Then Sir Launcelot asked her where he might be harboured +that night. 'Ye shall none find this day nor night, but to-morrow ye shall +find good harbour.' And then he commended her unto God. Then he rode till +he came to a cross, and took that for his host as for that night. And he +put his horse to pasture, and took off his helm and shield, and made his +prayers to the cross, that he might never again fall into deadly sin, and +so he laid him down to sleep, and anon as he slept it befel him that he +had a vision," with which we will not trouble the reader; but we commend +the incident to any young artist in want of a subject for a picture: the +wayside cross where the four roads meet in the forest, the gnarled +tree-trunks with their foliage touched with autumn tints, and the green +bracken withering into brown and yellow and red, under the level rays of +the sun which fling alternate bars of light and shade across the scene; +and the noble war-horse peacefully grazing on the short sweet forest +grass, and the peerless knight in glorious gilded arms, with his helmet at +his feet, and his great spear leaned against a tree-trunk, kneeling +before the cross, with his grave noble face, and his golden hair gleaming +in the sun-light, "making his prayers that he might never again fall into +deadly sin." + +In the old monumental brasses in which pictures of the knightly costume +are preserved to us with such wonderful accuracy and freshness, it is very +common to find the knight represented as lying with his tilting helm under +his head by way of pillow. One would take it for a mere artistic +arrangement for raising the head of the recumbent figure, and for +introducing this important portion of his costume, but that the Romances +tell us that knights did actually make use of their helm for a pillow; a +hard pillow, no doubt--but we have all heard of the veteran who kicked +from under his son's head the snowball which he had rolled together for a +pillow at his bivouac in the winter snow, indignant at his degenerate +effeminacy. Thus we read of Sir Tristram and Sir Palomides, "They mounted +upon their horses, and rode together into the forest, and there they found +a fair well with clear water burbelling. 'Fair Sir,' said Sir Tristram, +'to drink of that water have I a lust.' And then they alighted from their +horses, and then were they ware by them where stood a great horse tied to +a tree, and ever he neighed, and then were they ware of a fair knight +armed under a tree, lacking no piece of harness, save his helm lay under +his head. Said Sir Tristram, 'Yonder lieth a fair knight, what is best to +do?' 'Awake him,' said Sir Palomides. So Sir Tristram waked him with the +end of his spear." They had better have let him be, for the knight, thus +roused, got him to horse and overthrew them both. Again, we read how "Sir +Launcelot bad his brother, Sir Lionel, to make him ready, for we two, said +he, will seek adventures. So they mounted upon their horses, armed at all +points, and rode into a deep forest, and after they came into a great +plain, and then the weather was hot about noon, and Sir Launcelot had +great lust to sleep. Then Sir Lionel espied a great apple-tree that stood +by a hedge, and said, 'Brother, yonder is a fair shadow; there may we rest +us, and our horses.' 'It is well said, fair brother,' said Sir Launcelot, +'for all the seven year I was not so sleepy as I am now.' And so they +alighted there, and tied their horses unto sundry trees, and so Sir +Launcelot laid him down under an apple-tree, and laid his helm under his +head. And Sir Lionel waked while he slept." + +[Illustration: _Knights, Damsel, and Squire._] + +The knight did not, however, always trust to chance for shelter, and risk +a night in the open air. Sometimes we find he took the field in this mimic +warfare with a baggage train, and had his tent pitched for the night +wherever night overtook him, or camped for a few days wherever a pleasant +glade, or a fine prospect, or an agreeable neighbour, tempted him to +prolong his stay. And he would picket his horse hard by, and thrust his +spear into the ground beside the tent door, and hang his shield upon it. +Thus we read:--"Now turn we unto Sir Launcelot, that had long been riding +in a great forest, and at last came into a low country, full of fair +rivers and meadows, and afore him he saw a long bridge, and three +pavilions stood thereon of silk and sendal of divers hue, and without the +pavilions hung three white shields on truncheons of spears, and great long +spears stood upright by the pavilions, and at every pavilion's door stood +three fresh squires, and so Sir Launcelot passed by them, and spake not a +word." We may say here that it was not unusual for people in fine weather +to pitch a tent in the courtyard or garden of the castle, and live there +instead of indoors, or to go a-field and pitch a little camp in some +pleasant place, and spend the time in justing and feasting, and mirth and +minstrelsy. We read in one of the Romances how "the king and queen--King +Arthur and Queen Guenever, to wit--made their pavilions and their tents to +be pitched in the forest, beside a river, and there was daily hunting, for +there were ever twenty knights ready for to just with all them that came +in at that time." And here, in the woodcut below, is a picture of the +scene. + +Usually, perhaps, there was not much danger in these adventures of a +knight-errant. There was a fair prospect of bruises, and a risk of broken +bones if he got an awkward fall, but not more risk perhaps than in the +modern hunting-field. Even if the combat went further than the usual three +courses with bated spears, if they did draw swords and continue the combat +on foot, there was usually no more real danger than in a duel of German +students. But sometimes cause of anger would accidentally rise between two +errant knights, or the combat begun in courtesy would fire their hot +blood, and they would resolve "worshipfully to win worship, or die +knightly on the field," and a serious encounter would take place. There +were even some knights of evil disposition enough to take delight in +making every combat a serious one; and some of the adventures in which we +take most interest relate how these bloodthirsty bullies, attacking in +ignorance some Knight of the Round Table, got a well-deserved bloodletting +for their pains. + +[Illustration: _King, &c., in Pavilion before Castle._] + +We must give one example of a combat--rather a long one, but it combines +many different points of interest. "So as they (Merlin and King Arthur) +went thus talking, they came to a fountain, and a rich pavilion by it. +Then was King Arthur aware where a knight sat all armed in a chair. 'Sir +Knight,' said King Arthur, 'for what cause abidest thou here, that there +may no knight ride this way, but if he do just with thee; leave that +custom.' 'This custom,' said the knight, 'have I used, and will use maugre +who saith nay, and who is grieved with my custom, let him amend it that +will.' 'I will amend it,' saith King Arthur. 'And I shall defend it,' +saith the knight. Anon he took his horse, and dressed his shield, and took +a spear; and they met so hard either on other's shield, that they shivered +their spears. Therewith King Arthur drew his sword. 'Nay, not so,' saith +the knight, 'it is fairer that we twain run more together with sharp +spears.' 'I will well,' said King Arthur, 'an I had any more spears.' 'I +have spears enough,' said the knight. So there came a squire, and brought +two good spears, and King Arthur took one, and he another; so they spurred +their horses, and came together with all their might, that either break +their spears in their hands. Then King Arthur set hand to his sword. +'Nay,' said the knight, 'ye shall do better; ye are a passing good juster +as ever I met withal; for the love of the high order of knighthood let us +just it once again.' 'I assent me,' said King Arthur. Anon there were +brought two good spears, and each knight got a spear, and therewith they +ran together, that King Arthur's spear broke to shivers. But the knight +hit him so hard in the middle of the shield, that horse and man fell to +the earth, wherewith King Arthur was sore angered, and drew out his sword, +and said, 'I will assay thee, Sir Knight, on foot, for I have lost the +honour on horseback.' 'I will be on horseback,' said the knight. Then was +King Arthur wrath, and dressed his shield towards him with his sword +drawn. When the knight saw that, he alighted for him, for he thought it +was no worship to have a knight at such advantage, he to be on horseback, +and the other on foot, and so alighted, and dressed himself to King +Arthur. Then there began a strong battle with many great strokes, and so +hewed with their swords that the cantels flew on the field, and much blood +they bled both, so that all the place where they fought was all bloody; +and thus they fought long and rested them, and then they went to battle +again, and so hurtled together like two wild boars, that either of them +fell to the earth. So at the last they smote together, that both their +swords met even together. But the sword of the knight smote King Arthur's +sword in two pieces, wherefore he was heavy. Then said the knight to the +king, 'Thou art in my danger, whether me list to slay thee or save thee; +and but thou yield thee as overcome and recreant, thou shalt die.' 'As for +death,' said King Arthur, 'welcome be it when it cometh, but as to yield +me to thee as recreant, I had liever die than be so shamed.' And +therewithal the king leapt upon Pelinore, and took him by the middle, and +threw him down, and rased off his helmet. When the knight felt that he was +a dread, for he was a passing big man of might; and anon he brought King +Arthur under him, and rased off his helmet, and would have smitten off his +head. Therewithal came Merlin, and said, 'Knight, hold thy hand.'" + +[Illustration: _Knights Justing._] + +Happy for the wounded knight if there were a religious house at hand, for +there he was sure to find kind hospitality and such surgical skill as the +times afforded. King Bagdemagus had this good fortune when he had been +wounded by Sir Galahad. "I am sore wounded," said he, "and full hardly +shall I escape from the death. Then the squire fet [fetched] his horse, +and brought him with great pain to an abbey. Then was he taken down softly +and unarmed, and laid in a bed, and his wound was looked into, for he lay +there long and escaped hard with his life." So Sir Tristram, in his combat +with Sir Marhaus, was so sorely wounded, "that unneath he might recover, +and lay at a nunnery half a year." Such adventures sometimes, no doubt, +ended fatally, as in the case of the unfortunate Sir Marhaus, and there +was a summary conclusion to his adventures; and there was nothing left but +to take him home and bury him in his parish church, and hang his sword and +helmet over his tomb.[376] Many a knight would be satisfied with the +series of adventures which finished by laying him on a sick bed for six +months, with only an ancient nun for his nurse; and as soon as he was well +enough he would get himself conveyed home on a horse litter, a sadder and +a wiser man. The modern romances have good mediæval authority, too, for +making marriage a natural conclusion of their three volumes of adventures; +we have no less authority for it than that of Sir Launcelot:--"Now, +damsel," said he, at the conclusion of an adventure, "will ye any more +service of me?" "Nay, sir," said she at this time, "but God preserve you, +wherever ye go or ride, for the courtliest knight thou art, and meekest to +all ladies and gentlewomen that now liveth. But, Sir Knight, one thing me +thinketh that ye lack, ye that are a knight wifeless, that ye will not +love some maiden or gentlewoman, for I could never hear say that ye loved +any of no manner degree, wherefore many in this country of high estate and +low make great sorrow." "Fair damsel," said Sir Launcelot, "to be a wedded +man I think never to be, for if I were, then should I be bound to tarry +with my wife, and leave arms and tournaments, battles and adventures." + +We have only space left for a few examples of the quaint and poetical +phrases that, as we have said, frequently occur in these Romances, some of +which Tennyson has culled, and set like uncut mediæval gems in his circlet +of "Idyls of the King." In the account of the great battle between King +Arthur and his knights against the eleven kings "and their chivalry," we +read "they were so courageous, that many knights shook and trembled for +eagerness," and "they fought together, that the sound rang by the water +and the wood," and "there was slain that morrow-tide ten thousand of good +men's bodies." The second of these expressions is a favourite one; we meet +with it again: "when King Ban came into the battle, he came in so +fiercely, that the stroke resounded again from the water and the wood." +Again we read, King Arthur "commanded his trumpets to blow the bloody +sounds in such wise that the earth trembled and dindled." He was "a mighty +man of men;" and "all men of worship said it was merry to be under such a +chieftain, that would put his person in adventure as other poor knights +did." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +KNIGHTS-ERRANT. + + +In the British Museum are two volumes containing a rather large number of +illuminated pictures which have been cut out of MSS., chiefly of the early +fourteenth century, by some collector who did not understand how much more +valuable they would have been, even as pictures, if left each by itself in +the appropriate setting of its black letter page, than when pasted +half-a-dozen together in a scrap-book. That they are severed from the +letterpress which they were intended to illustrate is of the less +importance, because they seem all to be illustrations of scenes in +romances, and it is not difficult to one who is well versed in those early +writings either to identify the subjects or to invent histories for them. +Each isolated picture affords a subject in which an expert, turning the +book over and explaining it to an amateur, would find material for a +little lecture on mediæval art and architecture, costume, and manners. + +In presenting to the reader the subjects which illustrate this chapter, we +find ourselves placed by circumstances in the position of being obliged to +treat them like those scrap-book pictures of which we have spoken, viz., +as isolated pictures, illustrating generally our subject of the Knights of +the Middle Ages, needing each its independent explanation. + +The first subject represents a scene from some romance, in which the good +knight, attended by his squire, is guided by a damsel on some adventure. +As in the scene which we find in Caxton's "Prince Arthur": "And the good +knight, Sir Galahad, rode so long, till that he came that night to the +castle of Carberecke; and it befel him that he was benighted in an +hermitage. And when they were at rest there came a gentlewoman knocking +at the door, and called Sir Galahad, and so the hermit came to the door to +ask what she would. Then she called the hermit, Sir Ulfric, 'I am a +gentlewoman that would speak with the knight that is with you.' Then the +good man awaked Sir Galahad, and bade him rise and speak 'with a +gentlewoman which seemeth hath great need of you.' Then Sir Galahad went +to her, and asked what she would. 'Sir Galahad,' said she, 'I will that +you arm you and mount upon your horse and follow me, for I will show you +within these three days the highest adventure that ever knight saw.' Anon, +Sir Galahad armed him, and took his horse and commended him to God, and +bade the gentlewoman go, and he would follow her there as she liked. So +the damsel rode as fast as her palfrey might gallop till that she came to +the sea." + +[Illustration: _Lady, Knight, and Squire._] + +Here then we see the lady ambling through the forest, and she rides as +ladies rode in the middle ages, and as they still ride, like female +centaurs, in the Sandwich Islands. She turns easily in her saddle, though +going at a good pace, to carry on an animated conversation with the +knight. He, it will be seen, is in hauberk and hood of banded mail, with +the curious ornaments called _ailettes_--little wings--at his shoulders. +He seems to have _genouillières_--knee-pieces of plate; but it is doubtful +whether he has also plate armour about the leg, or whether the artist has +omitted the lines which would indicate that the legs were, as is more +probably the case, also protected by banded mail. He wears the prick spur; +and his body-armour is protected from sun and rain by the surcoat. Behind +him prances his squire. The reader will not fail to notice the character +which the artist has thrown into his attitude and the expression of his +features. It will be seen that he is not armed, but wears the ordinary +civil costume, with a hood and hat; he carries his master's spear, and the +shield is suspended at his back by its guige or strap; its hollow shape +and the rampant lion emblazoned on it will not be overlooked. + +Romance writers are sometimes accused of forgetting that their heroes are +human, and need to eat and drink and sleep. But this is hardly true of the +old romancers, who, in relating knightly adventures, did not draw upon +their imagination, but described the things which were continually +happening about them; and the illuminators in illustrating the romances +drew from the life--the life of their own day--and this it is which makes +their pictures so naive and truthful in spite of their artistic defects, +and so valuable as historical authorities. In the engraving above is a +subject which would hardly have occurred to modern romancer or +illustrator. The crowd of tents tells us that the scene is cast in the +"tented field," either of real war or of the mimic war of some great +tournament. The combat of the day is over. The modern romancer would have +dropped the curtain for the day, to be drawn up again next morning when +the trumpets of the heralds called the combatants once more to the field. +Our mediæval illuminator has given us a charming episode in the story. He +has followed the good knight to his pavilion pitched in the meadow hard +by. The knight has doffed his armour, and taken his bath, and put on his +robes of peace, and heard vespers, and gone to supper. The lighted candles +show that it is getting dusk. It is only by an artistic license that the +curtains of the tent are drawn aside to display the whole interior; in +reality they were close drawn; these curtains are striped of alternate +breadths of gay colours--gold and red and green and blue. Any one who has +seen how picturesque a common bell tent, pitched on the lawn, looks from +the outside, when one has been tempted by a fine summer evening to stay +out late and "have candles," will be able to perceive how picturesque the +striped curtains of this pavilion would be, how eminently picturesque the +group of such pavilions here indicated, with the foliage of trees overhead +and the grey walls and towers of a mediæval town in the background, with +the stars coming out one by one among the turrets and spires sharply +defined against the fading sky. + +[Illustration: _Knight at Supper._] + +The knight, like a good chevalier and humane master, has first seen his +war-horse groomed and fed. And what a sure evidence that the picture is +from the life is this introduction of the noble animal sharing the shelter +of the tent of his master, who waits for supper to be served. The +furniture of the table is worth looking at--the ample white table-cloth, +though the table is, doubtless, only a board on trestles; and the two +candlesticks of massive and elegant shape, show that the candlesticks now +called altar-candlesticks are only of the ordinary domestic mediæval type, +obsolete now in domestic use, but still retained, like so many other +ancient fashions, in ecclesiastical use. There, too, are the wine flagon +and cup, and the salt between them; the knife is at the knight's right +hand. We almost expect to see the squire of the last picture enter from +behind, bearing aloft in both hands a fat capon on an ample pewter +platter. + +The little subject which is next engraved will enable us to introduce from +the Romance of Prince Arthur a description of an adventure and a graphic +account of the different turns and incidents of a single combat, told in +language which is rich in picturesque obsolete words. "And so they rode +forth a great while till they came to the borders of that country, and +there they found a full fair village, with a strong bridge like a +fortress.[377] And when Sir Launcelot and they were at the bridge, there +start forth before them many gentlemen and yeomen, which said, 'Fair lord, +ye may not pass over this bridge and this fortress but one of you at once, +therefore choose which of you shall enter within this bridge first.' Then +Sir Launcelot proffered himself first to enter within this bridge. 'Sir,' +said Sir La Cote Male Taile, 'I beseech you let me enter first within this +fortress, and if I speed well I will send for you, and if it happen that I +be slain there it goeth; and if so be that I am taken prisoner then may ye +come and rescue me.' 'I am loath,' said Sir Launcelot, 'to let you take +this passage.' 'Sir,' said he, 'I pray you let me put my body in this +adventure.' 'Now go your way,' said Sir Launcelot, 'and God be your +speed.' So he entered, and anon there met with him two brethren, the one +hight Sir Pleine de Force and that other hight Sir Pleine de Amours; and +anon they met with Sir La Cote Male Taile, and first Sir La Cote Male +Taile smote down Sir Pleine de Force, and soon after he smote down Sir +Pleine de Amours; and then they dressed themselves to their shields and +swords, and so they bade Sir La Cote Male Taile alight, and so he did, and +there was dashing and foining with swords. And so they began full hard to +assay Sir La Cote Male Taile, and many great wounds they gave him upon his +head and upon his breast and upon his shoulders. And as he might ever +among he gave sad strokes again. And then the two brethren traced and +traversed for to be on both hands of Sir La Cote Male Taile. But by fine +force and knightly prowess he got them afore him. And so then when he felt +himself so wounded he doubled his strokes, and gave them so many wounds +that he felled them to the earth, and would have slain them had they not +yielded them. And right so Sir La Cote Male Taile took the best horse that +there was of them two, and so rode forth his way to that other fortress +and bridge, and there he met with the third brother, whose name was Sir +Plenorius, a full noble knight, and there they justed together, and either +smote other down, horse and man, to the earth. And then they two avoided +their horses and dressed their shields and drew their swords and gave many +sad strokes, and one while the one knight was afore on the bridge and +another while the other. And thus they fought two hours and more and never +rested. Then Sir La Cote Male Taile sunk down upon the earth, for what for +wounds and what for blood he might not stand. Then the other knight had +pity of him, and said, 'Fair young knight, dismay you not, for if ye had +been fresh when ye met with me, as I was, I know well I should not have +endured so long as ye have done, and therefore for your noble deeds and +valiantness I shall show you great kindness and gentleness in all that +ever I may.' And forthwith the noble knight, Sir Plenorius, took him up in +his arms and led him into his tower. And then he commended him the more +and made him for to search him and for to stop his bleeding wounds. 'Sir,' +said Sir La Cote Male Taile, 'withdraw you from me, and hie you to yonder +bridge again, for there will meet you another manner knight than ever I +was.' Then Sir Plenorius gat his horse and came with a great spear in his +hand galloping as the hurl wind had borne him towards Sir Launcelot, and +then they began to feutre[378] their spears, and came together like +thunder, and smote either other so mightily that their horses fell down +under them; and then they avoided their horses and drew out their swords, +and like two bulls they lashed together with great strokes and foins; but +ever Sir Launcelot recovered ground upon him, and Sir Plenorius traced to +have from about him, and Sir Launcelot would not suffer that, but bore him +backer and backer, till he came nigh the gate tower, and then said Sir +Launcelot, 'I know thee well for a good knight, but wot thou well thy life +and death is in my hands, and therefore yield thou to me and thy +prisoners.' The other answered not a word, but struck mightily upon Sir +Launcelot's helm that fire sprang out of his eyes; then Sir Launcelot +doubled his strokes so thick and smote at him so mightily that he made him +to kneel upon his knees, and therewith Sir Launcelot lept upon him, and +pulled him down grovelling; then Sir Plenorius yielded him and his tower +and all his prisoners at his will, and Sir Launcelot received him and took +his troth." We must tell briefly the chivalrous sequel. Sir Launcelot +offered to Sir La Cote Male Taile all the possessions of the conquered +knight, but he refused to receive them, and begged Sir Launcelot to let +Sir Plenorius retain his livelihood on condition he would be King Arthur's +knight,--"'Full well,' said Sir Launcelot, 'so that he will come to the +court of King Arthur and become his man and his three brethren. And as for +you, Sir Plenorius, I will undertake, at the next feast, so there be a +place void, that ye shall be Knight of the Round Table.' Then Sir +Launcelot and Sir La Cote Male Taile rested them there, and then they had +merry cheer and good rest and many good games, and there were many fair +ladies." In the woodcut we see Sir La Cote Male Taile, who has just +overthrown Sir Pleine de Force at the foot of the bridge, and the +gentlemen and yeomen are looking on out of the windows and over the +battlements of the gate tower. + +[Illustration: _Defending the Bridge._] + +The illuminators are never tired of representing battles and sieges; and +the general impression which we gather from them is that a mediæval combat +must have presented to the lookers-on a confused _melée_ of rushing horses +and armoured men in violent action, with a forest of weapons +overhead--great swords, and falchions, and axes, and spears, with pennons +fluttering aloft here and there in the breeze of the combat. We almost +fancy we can see the dust caused by the prancing horses, and hear the +clash of weapons and the hoarse war-cries, and sometimes can almost hear +the shriek which bursts from the maddened horse, or the groan of the man +who is wounded and helpless under the trampling hoofs. The woodcut +introduced represents such a scene in a very spirited way. But it is +noticeable among a hundred similar scenes for one incident, which is very +unusual, and which gives us a glimpse of another aspect of mediæval war. +It will be seen that the combat is taking place outside a castle or +fortified town; and that, on a sudden, in the confusion of the combat, a +side gate has been opened, and the bridge lowered, and a solid column of +men-at-arms, on foot, is marching in military array across the bridge, in +order to turn the flank of the assailant chivalry. We do not happen to +know a representation of this early age of anything so thoroughly +soldierly in its aspect as this sally. The incident itself indicates +something more like regular war than the usual confused mingling of +knights so well represented on the left side of the picture. The fact of +men-at-arms, armed _cap-a-pied_, acting on foot, is not very usual at +this period; their unmistakable military order, as they march two and two +with shields held in the same attitude and spears sloped at the same +angle, speaks of accurate drill. The armorial bearings on the shield of +one of the foremost rank perhaps point out the officer in command. + +[Illustration: _A Sally across the Drawbridge._] + +It seems to be commonly assumed that the soldiers of the Middle Ages had +little, if anything, like our modern drill and tactics; that the men were +simply put into the field in masses, according to some rude initial plan +of the general, but that after the first charge the battle broke up into a +series of chance-medley combats, in which the leaders took a personal +share; and that the only further piece of generalship consisted in +bringing up a body of reserve to strengthen a corps which was giving +ground, or to throw an overwhelming force upon some corps of the enemy +which seemed to waver. + +It is true that we find very little information about the mediæval drill +or tactics, but it is very possible that there was more of both than is +commonly supposed. Any man whose duty it was to marshal and handle a body +of troops would very soon, even if left to his own wit, invent enough of +drill to enable him to move his men about from place to place, and to put +them into the different formations necessary to enable them effectively to +act on the offensive or defensive under different circumstances. A leader +whose duty it was to command several bodies of troops would invent the +elements of tactics, enough to enable him to combine them in a general +plan of battle, and to take advantage of the different turns of the fight. +Experience would rapidly ripen the knowledge of military men, and of +experience they had only too much. It is true that the armies of mediæval +England consisted chiefly of levies of men who were not professional +soldiers, and the officers and commanders were marked out for leadership +by their territorial possessions, not by their military skill. But the men +were not unaccustomed to their weapons, and were occasionally mustered for +feudal display; and the country gentlemen who officered them were trained +to military exercises as a regular part of their education, and, we may +assume, to so much of military skill as was necessary to fulfil their part +as knights. Then there were mercenary captains, who by continuous devotion +to war acquired great knowledge and experience in all military affairs; +and the men who had to do with them, either as friends or foes, learnt +from them. We need only glance down the line of our kings to find +abundance of great captains among them--William the Conqueror, and +Stephen, and Richard I., and Edward I. and III., and Henry IV. and V., and +Edward IV., and Richard III. And military skill equal to the direction of +armies was no less common among the nobility; and ability to take command +of his own contingent was expected of every one who held his lands on +condition of being always ready and able to follow his lord's banner to +the field. + +In the Saxon days the strength of the army seems to have consisted of +footmen, and their formation was generally in close and deep ranks, who, +joining their shoulders together, formed an impenetrable defence; wielding +long heavy swords and battle-axes, they made a terrible assault. Some +insight into the tactics of the age is given by William of Malmesbury's +assertion that at Hastings the Normans made a feigned flight, which drew +the Saxons from their close array, and then turning upon them, took them +at advantage; and repeated this manoeuvre more than once at the word of +command. + +The strength of the Norman armies, on the other hand, consisted of knights +and mounted men-at-arms. The military engines were placed in front, and +commenced the engagement with their missiles; the archers and slingers +were placed on the wings. The crowd of half-armed footmen usually formed +the first line; the mounted troops were drawn up behind them in three +lines, whose successive charges formed the main attack of the engagement. +Occasionally, however, dismounted men-at-arms seem to have been used by +some skilful generals with great effect. In several of the battles of +Stephen's reign, this unusual mode appears to have been followed, under +the influence of the foreign mercenary captains in the king's pay. + +Generals took pains to secure any possible advantage from the nature of +the ground, and it follows that the plan of the battle must have turned +sometimes on the defence or seizure of some commanding point which formed +the key of the position. Ambuscades were a favourite device of which we +not unfrequently read, and night surprises were equally common. We read +also occasionally of stratagems, especially in the capture of fortresses, +which savour rather of romance than of the stem realities of war. In +short, perhaps the warfare of that day was not so very inferior in +military skill to that of our own times as some suppose. In our last war +the charge at Balaklava was as chivalrous a deed as ever was done in the +Middle Ages, and Inkerman a fight of heroes; but neither of them displayed +more military science than was displayed by the Norman chivalry who +charged at Hastings, or the Saxon billmen whose sturdy courage all but won +the fatal day. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +MILITARY ENGINES. + + +To attempt to represent the knights in their manor-houses and castles +would be to enter upon an essay on the domestic and military architecture +of the Middle Ages, which would be beyond the plan of these sketches of +the mediæval chivalry. The student may find information on the subject in +Mr. Parker's "Domestic Architecture," in Grose's "Military Antiquities," +in Viollet le Duc's "Architecture du Moyen Age," and scattered over the +publications of the various antiquarian and architectural societies. We +must, however, say a few words as to the way in which the knight defended +his castle when attacked in it, and how he attacked his neighbour's castle +or his enemy's town, in private feud or public war. + +It seems to be a common impression that the most formidable aspect of +mediæval war was a charge of knights with vizor down and lance in rest; +and that these gallant cavaliers only pranced their horses round and round +the outer margin of the moat of a mediæval castle, or if they did dismount +and try to take the fortress by assault, would rage in vain against its +thick walls and barred portcullis; as in the accompanying woodcut from a +MS. romance of the early part of the 14th century (Add. 10,292, f. v., +date A.D. 1316), where the king on his curveting charger couches his lance +against the castle wall, and has only his shield to oppose to the great +stone which is about to be hurled down upon his head. The impression is, +no doubt, due to the fact that many people have read romances, ancient and +modern, which concern themselves with the personal adventures of their +heroes, but have not read mediæval history, which tells--even more than +enough--of battles and sieges. They have only had the knight put before +them--as in the early pages of these chapters--in the pomp and pageantry +of chivalry. They have not seen him as the captain and soldier, directing +and wielding the engines of war. + +Suppose the king and his chivalry in the following woodcut to be only +summoning the castle; and suppose them, on receiving a refusal to +surrender, to resolve upon an assault. They retire a few hundred yards and +dismount, and put their horses under the care of a guard. Presently they +return supported by a strong body of archers, who ply the mail-clad +defenders with such a hail of arrows that they are driven to seek shelter +behind the battlements. Seizing that moment, a party of camp followers run +forward with a couple of planks, which they throw over the moat to make a +temporary bridge. They are across in an instant, and place scaling-ladders +against the walls. The knights, following close at their heels, mount +rapidly, each man carrying his shield over his head, so that the bare +ladder is converted into a covered stair, from whose shield-roof arrows +glint and stones roll off innocuous. It is easy to see that a body of the +enemy might thus, in a few minutes, effect a lodgment on the castle-wall, +and open a way for the whole party of assailants into the interior. + +[Illustration: _Summoning the Castle._] + +But the assailed may succeed in throwing down the ladders; or in beating +the enemy off them by hurling down great stones ready stored against such +an emergency, or heaving the coping-stones off the battlements; or they +may succeed in preventing the assailants from effecting a lodgment on the +wall by a hand to hand encounter; and thus the assault may be foiled and +beaten off. Still our mediæval captain has other resources; he will next +order up his "gyns," _i.e._ engines of war. + +The name applies chiefly to machines constructed for the purpose of +hurling heavy missiles. The ancient nations of antiquity possessed such +machines, and the knowledge of them descended to mediæval times. There +seems, however, to be this great difference between the classical and the +mediæval engines, that the former were constructed on the principle of the +bow, the latter on the principle of the sling. The classical _ballista_ +was, in fact, a huge cross-bow, made in a complicated way and worked by +machinery. The mediæval _trebuchet_ was a sling wielded by a gigantic arm +of wood. In mediæval Latin the ancient name of the ballista is sometimes +found, but in the mediæval pictures the principle of the engines +illustrated is always that which we have described. We meet also in +mediæval writings with the names of the _mangona_ and _mangonella_ and the +_catapult_, but they were either different names for the same engine, or +names for different species of the same genus. The woodcut here +introduced from the MS. Add. 10,294, f. 81 V., gives a representation of a +trebuchet. A still earlier representation--viz., of the thirteenth +century--of machines of the same kind is to be found in the Arabic MS. +quoted in a treatise, "Du feu Grégois," by MM. Favé and Reinaud, and leads +to the supposition that the sling principle in these machines may have +been introduced from the East. There are other representations of a little +later date than that in the text (viz., about A.D. 1330) in the Royal MS. +16 G. VI., which are engraved in Shaw's "Dresses and Decorations." We also +possess a contemporary description of the machine in the work of Gilles +Colonne (who died A.D. 1316), written for Philip the Fair of France.[379] +"Of _perriers_," he says, "there are four kinds, and in all these machines +there is a beam which is raised and lowered by means of a counterpoise, a +sling being attached to the end of the beam to discharge the stone. +Sometimes the counterpoise is not sufficient, and then they attach ropes +to it to move the beam." This appears to be the case in our illustration. +The rope seems to be passed through a ring in the platform of the engine, +so that the force applied to the rope acts to the greater advantage in aid +of the weight of the beam. "The counterpoise may either be fixed or +movable, or both at once. In the fixed counterpoise a box is fastened to +the end of the beam, and filled with stones or sand, or any heavy body." +One would not, perhaps, expect such a machine to possess any precision of +action, but according to our author the case was far otherwise. "These +machines," he continues, "anciently called _trabutium_, cast their +missiles with the utmost exactness, because the weight acts in a uniform +manner. Their aim is so sure, that one may, so to say, hit a needle. If +the gyn carries too far, it must be drawn back or loaded with a heavier +stone; if the contrary, then it must be advanced or a smaller stone +supplied; for without attention to the weight of the stone, one cannot +hope to reach the given mark." "Others of these machines have a movable +counterpoise attached to the beam, turning upon an axis. This variety the +Romans called _biffa_. The third kind, which is called _tripantum_, has +two weights, one fixed to the beam and the other movable round it. By this +means it throws with more exactness than the _biffa_, and to a greater +distance than the trebuchet. The fourth sort, in lieu of weights fixed to +the beam, has a number of ropes, and is discharged by means of men pulling +simultaneously at the cords. This last kind does not cast such large +stones as the others, but it has the advantage that it may be more rapidly +loaded and discharged than they. In using the perriers by night it is +necessary to attach a lighted body to the projectile. By this means one +may discover the force of the machine, and regulate the weight of the +stone accordingly."[380] This, then, is the engine which our captain, +repulsed in his attempt to take the place by a _coup de main_, has ordered +up, adjusting it, no doubt, like a good captain, with his own eye and +hand, until he has got it, "so to say, to hit a needle," on the weak +points of the place. It was usual in great sieges to have several of them, +so that a whole battery might be set to work to overmaster the defence. + +[Illustration: _The Assault._] + +We must bear in mind that similar engines were, it is probable, usually +mounted on the towers of the castle. We should judge from the roundness of +the stones which the defenders in both the preceding woodcuts are throwing +down by hand upon the enemy immediately beneath, that they are the stones +provided for the military engines. We find that, as in modern times cannon +is set to silence the cannon of the enemy, so that a battle becomes, for a +time at least, an artillery duel, so engine was set to silence engine. In +the account which Guillaume des Ormes gives of his defence of the French +town of Carcasonne in 1240 A.D., he says: "They set up a mangonel before +our barbican, when we lost no time in opposing to it from within an +excellent Turkish petrary, which played upon the mangonel and those about +it, so that when they essayed to cast upon us, and saw the beam of our +petrary in motion, they fled, utterly abandoning their mangonel." + +There was also an engine called an _arbalast_, or _spurgardon_, or +_espringale_, which was a huge cross-bow mounted on wheels, so as to be +movable like a field-piece; it threw great pointed bolts with such force +as to pass successively through several men. + +If the engines of the besiegers were silenced, or failed to produce any +decisive impression on the place, the captain of the assailants might try +the effect of the ram. We seldom, indeed, hear of its use in the Middle +Ages, but one instance, at least, is recorded by Richard of Devizes, who +says that Richard I., at the siege of Messina, forced in the gates of the +city by the application of the battering-ram, and so won his way into the +place, and captured it. The walls of mediæval fortifications were so +immensely thick, that a ram would be little likely to break them. The +gates, too, of a castle or fortified gate-tower were very strong. If the +reader will look at the picture of a siege of a castle, given on page 373, +he will see a representation of a castle-gate, which will help him to +understand its defences. First he will see that the drawbridge is raised, +so that the assailant has to bridge the moat before he can bring his +battering-ram to bear. Suppose the yawning gulf bridged with planks or +filled in with fascines, and the ram brought into position, under fire +from the loops of the projecting towers of the gate as well as from the +neighbouring battlements, then the bridge itself forms an outer door which +must first be battered down. Behind it will be found the real outer-door, +made as strong as oak timber and iron bolts can make it. That down, there +is next the grated portcullis seen in two previous woodcuts, against which +the ram would rattle with a great clang of iron; but the grating, with its +wide spaces, and having plenty of "play" in its stone groove, would baffle +the blows by the absence of a solid resistance, and withstand them by the +tenacity of wrought-iron. Even if the bars were bent and torn till they +afforded a passage, the assailants would find themselves in the narrow +space within the gate-tower confronted by another door, and exposed to +missiles poured upon them from above. It is, perhaps, no wonder that we +hear little of the use of the ram in mediæval times; though it might be +useful occasionally to drive in some ill-defended postern. + +The use of the regular mine for effecting a breach in the wall of a +fortified place was well known, and often brought to bear. The miners +began their work at some distance, and drove a shaft underground towards +the part of the fortifications which seemed most assailable; they +excavated beneath the foundations of the wall, supporting the substructure +with wooden props until they had finished their work. Then they set fire +to the props, and retired to see the unsupported weight of the wall +bringing it down in a heap of ruins. The operation of mining was usually +effected under the protection of a temporary pent-house, called a _cat_ or +_sow_. William of Malmesbury describes the machine as used in the siege of +Jerusalem, at the end of the eleventh century. "It is constructed," he +says, "of slight timbers, the roof covered with boards and wicker-work, +and the sides protected with undressed hides, to protect those who are +within, who proceed to undermine the foundations of the walls." Our next +woodcut gives a very clear illustration of one of these machines, which +has been moved on its wheels up to the outer wall of a castle, and beneath +its protection a party of men-at-arms are energetically plying their +miner's tools, to pick away the foundation, and so allow a portion of the +wall to settle down and leave an entrance. The methods in which this mode +of attack was met were various. We all remember the Border heroine, who, +when her castle was thus attacked, declared she would make the sow farrow, +viz., by casting down a huge fragment of stone upon it. That this was one +way of defence is shown in the woodcut, where one of the defenders, with +energetic action, is casting down a huge stone upon the sow. That the roof +was made strong enough to resist such a natural means of offence is shown +by the stones which are represented as lodged all along it. Another more +subtle counteraction, shown in the woodcut, was to pour boiling water or +boiling oil upon it, that it might fall through the interstices of the +roof, and make the interior untenable. No doubt means were taken to make +the roof liquid-tight, for the illustration represents another mode of +counteraction (of which we have met with no other suggestion), by driving +sharp-pointed piles into the roof, so as to make holes and cracks through +which the boiling liquid might find an entrance. If these means of +counteracting the work of the cat seemed likely to be unavailing, it still +remained to throw up an inner line of wall, which, when the breach was +made, should extend from one side to the other of the unbroken wall, and +so complete the circumvallation. This, we have evidence, was sometimes +done with timber and planks, and a sort of scaffolding was erected on the +inner side, which maintained the communication along the top of the walls, +and enabled the soldiers to man the top of this wooden wall and offer a +new resistance to the besiegers as they poured into the breach. The mine +was also, in ancient as in modern times, met by a counter-mine. + +[Illustration: _The Cat._ (Royal, 16 G VI.)] + +Another usual machine for facilitating the siege of fortified places was a +movable tower. Such an engine was commonly prepared beforehand, and taken +to pieces and transported with the army as a normal part of the +siege-train. When arrived at the scene of operations, it was put together +at a distance, and then pushed forward on wheels, until it confronted the +walls of the place against which it was to operate. It was intended to put +the besiegers on a level and equality with the besieged. From the roof the +assailants could command the battlements and the interior of the place, +and by their archers could annoy the defence. A movable part of the front +of the tower suddenly let fall upon the opposite battlements, at once +opened a door and formed a bridge, by which the besiegers could make a +rush upon the walls and effect a lodgment if successful, or retreat if +unsuccessful to their own party. + +Such a tower was constructed by Richard I. in Cyprus, as part of his +preparation for his Crusade. An illustration of a tower thus opposed to a +castle--not a very good illustration--is to be found in the Royal MS., 16 +G. VI., at folio 278 v. Another, a great square tower, just level with the +opposing battlements, with a kind of sloping roof to ward off missiles, is +shown in the MS. _Chroniques d'Angleterres_ (Royal 16, E. IV.), which was +illuminated for Edward IV. Again, at f. 201 of the same MS., is another +representation of wooden towers opposed to a city. + +If the besieged could form a probable conjecture as to the point of the +walls towards which the movable tower, whose threatening height they saw +gradually growing at a bow-shot from their walls, would be ultimately +directed, they sometimes sent out under cover of night and dug pitfalls, +into which, as its huge bulk was rolled creaking forward, its fore wheels +might suddenly sink, and so the machine fall forward, and remain fixed and +useless. As it approached, they also tried to set it on fire by missiles +tipped with combustibles. If it fairly attained its position, they +assailed every loop and crevice in it with arrows and crossbow bolts, and +planted a strong body of men-at-arms on the walls opposite to it, and in +the neighbouring towers, to repel the "boarders" in personal combat. A +bold and enterprising captain did not always wait for the approach of +these engines of assault, but would counter-work them as he best could +from the shelter of his walls. He would sometimes lower the drawbridge, +and make a sudden sally upon the unfinished tower or the advancing sow, +beat off the handful of men who were engaged about it, pile up the +fragments and chips lying about, pour a few pots of oil or tar over the +mass, and set fire to it, and return in triumph to watch from his +battlements how his fiery ally would, in half an hour, destroy his enemy's +work of half a month. In the early fourteenth century MS. Add. 10,294, at +fol. 740, we have a small picture of a fight before a castle or town, in +which we see a column of men-at-arms crossing the drawbridge on such an +expedition. And again, in the plates in which Hans Burgmaier immortalised +the events of the reign of the Emperor Maximilian, a very artistic +representation of a body of men-at-arms, with their long lances, crowding +through the picturesque gate and over the drawbridge, brings such an +incident vividly before us. + +The besiegers on their part did not neglect to avail themselves of such +shelter as they could find or make from the shot and from the sallies of +the enemy, so as to equalise as much as practicable the conditions of the +contest. The archers of the castle found shelter behind the merlons of the +battlements, and had the windows from which they shot screened by movable +shutters; as may be seen in the next woodcut of the assault on a castle. +It would have put the archers of the assailants at a great disadvantage if +they had had to stand out in the open space, exposed defenceless to the +aim of the foe; all neighbouring trees which could give shelter were, of +course, cut down, in order to reduce them to this defenceless condition, +and works were erected so as to command every possible coigne of vantage +which the nooks and angles of the walls might have afforded. But the +archers of the besiegers sought to put themselves on more equal terms with +their opponents by using the _pavis_ or _mantelet_. The pavis was a tall +shield, curved so as partly to envelop the person of the bearer, broad at +the top and tapering to the feet. We sometimes see cross-bowmen carrying +it slung at their backs (as in Harl. 4,379, and Julius E. IV., f. 219, +engraved on p. 294), so that after discharging a shot they could turn +round and be sheltered by the great shield while they wound up their +instrument for another shot. Sometimes this shield seems to have been +simply three planks of wood nailed together, which stood upright on the +ground, and protected the soldier effectively on three sides. There are +illustrations of it in the MS. Royal 20 C vii. (temp. Rich. II.), at f. +19, f. 24 v., and f. 29 v., and in the MS. Harl. 4,382, f. 133 v. and f. +154 v. The mantelet was a shield still more ample, and capable of being +fixed upright by a prop, so that it formed a kind of little movable fort +which the bowman, or man-at-arms, could carry out and plant before the +walls, and thence discharge his missiles, or pursue any other operation, +in comparative safety from the smaller artillery of the enemy. The most +interesting example which we have met of the employment of the pavis and +mantelet, is in a picture in the Harl. MS. 4,425, at f. 133. The woodcut +on the previous page represents only a portion of the picture, the whole +of which is well worth study. The reader will see at once that we have +here the work of a draughtsman of far superior skill to that of the +limners of the rude illuminations which we have previously given. The +background really gives us some adequate idea of the appearance of an +Edwardian castle with its barbican and drawbridge, its great tower with +the heads of the defenders just peeping over the battlements. We must call +attention to the right-hand figure in the foreground, who is clad in a +_pourpoint_, one of the quilted armours which we have formerly described, +because it is the best illustration of this species of armour we have met +with. But the special point for which we give the woodcut here, is to +illustrate the use of the mantelet. It will be seen--though somewhat +imperfectly, from the fragment of the engraving introduced--that these +defences have been brought up to the front of the attacking party in such +numbers as to form an almost continuous wall, behind which the men-at-arms +are sheltered; on the right are great fixed mantelets, with a hole in the +middle of each, through which the muzzle of a gun is thrust; while the +cannoniers work their guns as behind the walls of a fort. + +[Illustration: _Use of the Pavis, etc._] + +[Illustration: _Cannon and Mortar._] + +Similar movable defences, variously constructed, continued to be used down +to a very late period. For example, in some large plans of the array of +the army of Henry VIII., preserved in the British Museum (Cottonian MS., +Augustus III., f. 1 v.), the cannon are flanked by huge mantelets of +timber, which protect the cannoniers. In the one engraved between pp. 454 +and 455, we see a representation of the commencement of the battle, +showing some of the mantelets overthrown by the assault of soldiers armed +with poleaxes. In modern warfare the sharpshooter runs out into the open, +carrying a sand-bag by way of pavis, behind which he lies and picks off +the enemy, and the artillery throw up a little breastwork, or mantelet, of +sand-bags. + +Sometimes the besieging army protected itself by works of a still more +permanent kind. It threw up embankments with a pallisade at top, or +sometimes constructed a breastwork, or erected a fort, of timber. For +example, in the Royal MS. 14 E. IV., at f. 14, we have a picture of an +assault upon a fortified place, in which the besiegers have strengthened +their position by a timber breastwork. It is engraved at p. 443; the whole +picture is well worth study. Again, in the Cottonian MS., Augustus V., at +folio 266, is a camp with a wooden fence round it. + +An army in the field often protected its position in a similar way. So far +back as the eleventh century the historians tell us that William the +Conqueror brought over a timber fort with him to aid his operations. The +plan of surrounding the camp with the waggons and baggage of the army is +perhaps one of the most primitive devices of warfare, and we find it used +down to the end of the period which is under our consideration. In the MS. +already mentioned, Augustus III., on the reverse of folio 4, is a picture +of an army of the time of Henry VIII. encamped by a river, and enclosed on +the open sides by the baggage, and by flat-bottomed boats on their +carriages, which we suppose have been provided for the passage of the +stream. + +The siege of Bedford Castle, as described by Roger Wendover, in the year +1224, gives a good historical instance of the employment of these various +modes of attacking a stronghold at that period. The castle was being held +against the king, who invested it in person. Two towers of wood were +raised against the walls, and filled with archers; seven mangonels cast +ponderous stones from morning to night; sappers approached the walls under +the cover of the cat. First the barbican, then the outer bailey was taken. +A breach in the second wall soon after gave the besiegers admission to the +inner bailey. The donjon still held out, and the royalists proceeded to +approach it by means of their sappers. A sufficient portion of the +foundations having been removed, the stancheons were set on fire, one of +the angles sank deep into the ground, and a wide rent laid open the +interior of the keep. The garrison now planted the royal standard on the +walls, and sent the women to implore mercy. But a severe example was made +of the defenders, in order to strike terror among the disaffected in other +parts of the realm.[381] + +[Illustration: _Cannon._] + +Among the occasional warlike contrivances, stinkpots were employed to +repel the enemy, and the Greek fire was also occasionally used. A +representation of the use of stinkpots, and also of the mode of using the +Greek fire, may be seen in the Royal MS. 18 E. V., at f. 207 (date 1473 +A.D.). + +Those more terrible engines of war which ultimately revolutionised the +whole art of warfare, which made the knight's armour useless, and the +trebuchet and arbalest the huge toys of an unscientific age, were already +introduced; though they were yet themselves so immature, that for a time +military men disputed whether the old long bow or the new fire-arm was the +better weapon, and the trebuchet still held its place beside the cannon. +In the old illuminations we find mediæval armour and fire-arms together in +incongruous conjunction. The subject of the use of gunpowder is one of so +much interest, that it deserves to be treated in a separate chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +ARMOUR OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. + + +In former papers we have seen the characteristic feature of the armour of +Saxon, Norman, and Early English times, down to the latter part of the +thirteenth century, was that of mail armour--_i.e._ composed of rings sewn +upon garments of something like the ordinary shape--tunic, hose, and +hood--or linked together into the shape of such garments. The fourteenth +century was a period of transition from mail armour to plate. First it was +found convenient to protect the elbow and knee with conical caps made out +of a plate of steel; then the upper arm and fore arm, the thigh and leg, +were encased in separate pieces of armour made to fit to the limbs; in +place of the old helmet worn over the mail hood, a globular bascinet of +plate was used, with a fringe of mail attached to it, falling over the +shoulders; in place of the hauberk of mail, a globular plate to protect +the breast, and another the back, connected at the sides, with a deep +skirt of mail attached to them, falling over the hips. In the old days of +mail armour a flowing surcoat was worn over it, to protect it from wet, +dust, and the heat of the sun; in the fourteenth century the body-armour +was covered with a close-fitting jupon of rich material and colour, +embroidered with the arms of the wearer, and girded by a rich enamelled +horizontal belt. + +The characteristic of the armour of the fifteenth century was that it +consisted of a complete suit of plate; the fringe of the bascinet being +replaced by a gorget of plate, the skirt of mail by horizontal overlapping +plates; and for some time no covering was worn over the armour, but the +knightly vanity of the time delighted in the glittering splendour of the +burnished steel. Later in the century, however, mail came again into +considerable use, in short sleeves for the protection of the upper arm, +and in skirts, which were doubtless found more convenient to the horseman +than the solid plates of overlapping steel. It also seems to have been +found practically inconvenient to dispense with some textile covering over +the armour; and a considerable variety of such coverings was used, +according to the caprice of the wearer. Numerous diversified experiments +in the construction of armour were tried, and we commonly find in pictures +of the time a great variety of fashions, both of armour and weapons, +brought together in the same troop of warriors. It is a matter of interest +to the antiquary to trace out the rise of all these various fashions and +to determine when they went out of fashion again; but for our present +purpose it is enough to point out the salient features of the military +costume of the century, and, as varieties are brought before us in the +illustrations from ancient MSS. which we proceed to introduce to our +readers, to point out their meaning and interest. Let us begin, then, with +a picture which will afford us, in the left-hand figure, a typical +illustration of the complete plate-armour of the century, and proceed to +describe the various pieces of which it is composed. His head is protected +by a bascinet of steel, without visor to protect the face, though the +picture represents him as actually engaged in the thick of a battle; but +the steel gorget is brought up so as to protect the lower part of the +face. It is not unfrequent to find the knights of this period with the +face similarly exposed. Probably the heat and the difficulty of breathing +caused by the visor were considered to outweigh the additional safety +which it afforded. The neck is protected by a gorget of plate; and instead +of the globular breastplate and skirt of mail worn under the gay jupon of +the fourteenth century, the body is cased in two pairs of plates, which +open with hinges at the sides, the lower plates coming to a point at the +back and breast. In this illustration the whole suit of armour presents an +unrelieved surface of burnished steel, the outlines of the various pieces +of armour being marked by a narrow line of gold. But it was very usual for +one of the two breastplates to be covered with silk or velvet embroidered. +This will be seen in the armour of the archer from the same picture, in +which the upper plate is covered with blue, powdered with gold spots +arranged in trefoils. So in the woodcut on p. 399 the upper breastplate of +the knight nearest to the spectator is blue with gold spots, while in the +further knight the upper plate is red. Turning again to the knight before +us, his shoulders are protected by pauldrons. These portions of the armour +differ much in different examples; they were often ridged, so as to +prevent a blow from glancing off to the neck, and sometimes they have a +kind of standing collar to protect the neck from a direct stroke. +Sometimes the pauldron of the left shoulder is elaborately enlarged and +strengthened to resist a blow, while the right shoulder is more simply and +lightly armed, so as to offer as little hindrance as possible to the +action of the sword arm. The upper arm is protected by brassarts, and the +fore arm by vambraces, the elbows by coudières, while the gussets at the +armpit and elbow are further guarded by roundels of plate. It will be seen +that the gauntlets are not divided into fingers, but three or four plates +are attached, like the plates of a lobster, to the outside of a leathern +gauntlet, to protect the hand without interfering with the tenacity of +its grasp of the weapon. The lower part of the body is protected by a +series of overlapping plates, called taces. In most of the examples which +we give of this period, the taces have a mail skirt or fringe attached to +the lowest plate. Sometimes the taces came lower down over the thighs and +rendered any further defence unnecessary; sometimes, as in the example +before us, separate plates, called tuilles, were attached by straps to the +lowest tace, so as to protect the front of the thigh without interfering +with the freedom of motion. The legs are cased in cuissarts and jambarts, +and the knee protected by genouillières; and as the tuilles strengthen the +defence of the thigh, the shin has an extra plate for its more efficient +defence. The feet seem in this example to be simply clothed with shoes, +like those of the archer, instead of being defended by pointed sollerets +of overlapping plates, like those seen in our other illustrations. + +[Illustration: _Man-at-Arms and Archer of the Fifteenth Century._] + +It will be noticed that in place of the broad military belt of the +fourteenth century, enriched with enamelled plates, the sword is now +suspended by a narrow strap, which hangs diagonally across the body. + +The knight is taken from a large picture in the MS. _Chroniques +d'Angleterre_ (Royal 14, E. IV., f. 192 v.), which represents a party of +French routed by a body of Portuguese and English. In front of the knight +lies his horse pierced with several arrows, and the dismounted rider is +preparing to continue the combat on foot with his formidable axe. The +archer is introduced from the same picture, to show the difference between +his half armour and the complete panoply of the knight. In the archer's +equipment the body is protected by plates of steel and a skirt of mail, +the upper arm by a half-sleeve of mail, and the head by a visored helmet; +but the rest of the body is unarmed. + +Our next illustration is from a fine picture in the same MS. (at f. +ccxv.), which represents how the Duke of Lancaster and his people attacked +the forts that defended the harbour of Brest. The background represents a +walled and moated town--Brest--with the sea and ships in the distance; on +the left of the picture the camp of the duke, defended by cannon; and in +the foreground a skirmish of knights. It is a curious illustration of the +absence of rigid uniformity in the military equipment of these times, +that each suit of armour in this picture differs from every other; so that +this one picture supplies the artist with fourteen or fifteen different +examples of military costume, all clearly delineated with a gorgeous +effect of colouring. Some of these suits are sufficiently represented in +others of our illustrations. We have again selected one which stands in +contrast with all the rest from the absence of colour; most of the others +have the upper breastplate coloured, and the helmet unvisored, or with the +visor raised. This gives us a full suit of armour unrelieved by colour, +except in the helmet-feather, sword-belt, and sheath, which are all gilt. +The unusual shape of the helmet will be noticed, and it will be seen that +there is a skirt or fringe of mail below the taces. The horse is a grey, +with trappings of red and gold, his head protected by a steel plate. In +the cut on p. 403 one of the horses will be found to have the neck also +defended by overlapping plates of steel. The shape of the deep military +saddle is also well seen in this illustration. + +[Illustration: _Knight of the Fifteenth Century._] + +The next woodcut is also only a part of a large picture which forms the +frontispiece of the second book of the same MS. (f. lxii.). It represents +a sally of the garrison of Nantes on the English, who are besieging it. +Like the preceding picture, it is full of interesting examples of +different armours. Our illustration selects several of them. The knight +nearest to us has the upper plate of his breastplate covered with a blue +covering powdered with gold spots, and riveted to the steel plate beneath +by the two steel studs on the shoulder-blades. Between the series of +narrow taces and the vandyked fringe of mail is a skirt of blue drapery, +which perhaps partially hides the skirt of mail, allowing only its edge to +appear. The gorget is also of mail; and the gusset of mail at the armpit +is left very visible by the action of the arm. The further knight has his +upper breastplate and skirt red. The horses are also contrasted in colour; +the nearer horse is grey, with red and gold trappings; the further horse +black, with blue and gold trappings. The man-at-arms who lies prostrate +under the horse-hoofs is one of the garrison, who has been pierced by the +spear whose truncheon lies on the ground beside him. His equipment marks +him out as a man of the same military grade as the archer on p. 396, +though the axe which he wields indicates that he is a man-at-arms. His +body-armour is covered by a surcoat of blue, laced down the front; he +wears a gorget and skirt of mail. His feet, like those of the men on p. +396, seem not to be covered with armour, and his hands are undefended by +gloves. + +[Illustration: _Group of English Knights and French Men-at-Arms._] + +The unarmed man on the left is one of the English party, in ordinary civil +costume, apparently only a spectator of the attack. His hose are red, his +long-pointed shoes brown, his short-skirted but long-sleeved gown is blue, +worn over a vest of embroidered green and gold, which is seen at the +sleeves and the neck; the cuffs are red, and he wears a gold chain and +gilded sword-belt and sheath, and carries a walking staff. The contrast +which he affords to the other figures adds interest and picturesqueness to +the group. + +The illustration on the next page from the Royal MS., 18 E. V., f. 310 v., +forms the frontispiece to a chapter of Roman History, and is a mediæval +representation of no less a personage than Julius Cæsar crossing the +Rubicon. The foremost figure is Cæsar. He is in a complete suit of +plate-armour; over his armour he wears a very curious drapery like a short +tabard without sleeves; it is of a yellow brown colour, but of what +material it is not possible to determine. There is great diversity in the +fashion of the surcoat worn over the armour at this time. One variety is +seen in the fallen man-at-arms in the preceding woodcut; and a similar +surcoat, loosely fastened by three or four buttons down the front, instead +of tightly laced all the way down, is not uncommon. In another picture, a +knight in full plate-armour wears a short gown, with hanging sleeves, of +the ordinary civilian fashion, like that worn by the gentleman on the +left-hand side of the preceding cut. Out of a whole troop of Roman +soldiers who follow Cæsar, we have taken only two as sufficient for our +purpose of showing varieties of equipment. The first has the fore arm +protected by a vambrace, but instead of pauldrons and brassarts the +shoulders and arms are protected by sleeves of mail. The taces also are +short, with a deep skirt of mail below them. The head defence looks in the +woodcut like one of the felt hats that knights frequently wore when +travelling, to relieve the head of the weight of the helmet, which was +borne behind by a squire; but it is coloured blue, and seems to be of +steel, with a white bandeau round it. The reader will notice the "rest" in +which the lance was laid to steady it in the charge, screwed to the right +breast of the breastplate; he will notice also the long-pointed solleret, +the long neck of the spur, and the triangular stirrup, and the fashion of +riding with a long stirrup, the foot thrust home into the stirrup, and the +toe pointed downwards. The third figure wears a gorget with a chin-piece, +and a visored bascinet; the whole of his body armour is covered by a +handsome pourpoint, which is red, powdered with gold spots; the pauldrons +are of a different fashion from those of Cæsar, and the coudière is +finished with a spike. + +[Illustration: _Julius Cæsar crossing the Rubicon._] + +The next woodcut does less justice than usual to the artistic merits of +the illumination from which it is taken. It is from a fine MS. of the +Romance of the Rose (Harl. 4,925, folio cxxx. v.); the figures are +allegorical. The great value of the painting is in the rounded form of the +breastplates and helmets, and the play of light and shade, and variety of +tint, upon them; the solid heavy folds of the mail skirts and sleeves are +also admirably represented; and altogether the illuminations of this MS +give an unusually life-like idea of the actual pictorial effect of steel +armour and the accompanying trappings. The arms and legs of these two +figures are unarmed; those of the figure in the foreground are painted +red, those of the other figure blue; the shield is red, with gold letters. +The deep mail skirts, with taces and tuilles, were in common wear at the +close of the fifteenth century, and on into the sixteenth. + +[Illustration: _Allegorical Figures._] + +[Illustration: _A Knight at the hall-door._] + +The little woodcut of a knight at the hall-door illustrates another +variety of skirt; in place of taces and mail skirt, we have a skirt +covered with overlapping plates, probably of horn or metal. This knight +wears gloves of leather, undefended by armour. + +The last illustration in this chapter is from the valuable MS. Life and +Acts of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick (Julius E. IV.), from which we +shall hereafter give some other more important subjects. The present is +part of a fight before Calais, in which Philip Duke of Burgundy was +concerned on one side, and Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, Richard Earl of +Warwick, and Humphrey Earl of Stafford on the other. In the background of +the picture is a view of Calais, with its houses, walls, and towers, +washed by the sea. The two figures are taken from the foreground of the +battle-scene, which occupies the major part of the picture. The helmets, +it will be seen, are iron hats with a wide brim which partially protects +the face; they have a considerable amount of ornament about them. Both +warriors are armed in a single globular breastplate (the combination of +two plates went out of fashion towards the end of the fifteenth century); +one has short taces and a deep mail skirt, the other has deeper taces and +tuilles besides. The knight on the left side has his left shoulder +protected by a pauldron, which covers the shoulder and partially overlaps +the breastplate, and has a high collar to protect the neck and face from a +sweeping horizontal blow. It will be seen that the sollerets have lost the +long-pointed form, though they have not yet reached the broad-toed shape +which became fashionable with Henry VIII. The equipment of the horses +deserves special examination. They are fully caparisoned, and armed on the +face and neck, with plumes of feathers and magnificent bridles; it will be +seen, also, that the point of the saddle comes up very high, and is +rounded so as partly to enclose the thigh, and form a valuable additional +defence. At a period a little later, this was developed still further in +the construction of the tilting saddles, so as to make them a very +important part of the system of defence. + +[Illustration: _The Duke of Gloucester and the Earl of Warwick._] + +How perfect the armour at length became may be judged from the fact that +in many battles very few of the completely armed knights were +killed--sometimes not one; their great danger was in getting unhorsed and +ridden over and stifled in the press. Another danger to the unhorsed +knight is pointed out in a graphic passage of the History of Philip de +Comines, with which we will conclude this chapter. After one of the +battles at which he was himself present, he says: "We had a great number +of stragglers and servants following us, all of which flocked about the +men-of-arms being overthrown, and slew the most of them. For the greatest +part of the said stragglers had their hatchets in their hands, wherewith +they used to cut wood to make our lodgings, with the which hatchets they +brake the vizards of their head-pieces and then clave their heads; for +otherwise they could hardly have been slain, they were so surely armed, so +that there were ever three or four about one of them." + +It is not necessary to infer that these unfortunate men-at-arms who were +thus cracked, as if they were huge crustaceans, were helpless from +wounds, or insensible from their fall. It was among the great +disadvantages of plate-armour, that when a man was once in it he could not +get out again without help; nay, he was sometimes so securely fastened in +it that the aid must come in the shape of an armourer's tools; and the +armour was sometimes so cumbrous that when he was once down he could not +get up again--a castle of steel on his war-horse, a helpless log when +overthrown. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE KNIGHT'S EDUCATION. + + +The manner of bringing up a youth of good family in the Middle Ages was +not to send him to a public school and the university, nor to keep him at +home under a private tutor, but to put him into the household of some +nobleman or knight of reputation to be trained up in the principles and +practices of chivalry.[382] First, as a page, he attended on the ladies of +the household, and imbibed the first principles of that high-bred courtesy +and transcendental devotion to the sex which are characteristic of the +knight. From the chaplain of the castle he gained such knowledge of +book-learning as he was destined to acquire--which was probably more +extensive than is popularly supposed. He learnt also to sing a romance, +and accompany himself on the harp, from the chief of the band of minstrels +who wore his lord's livery. As a squire he came under the more immediate +supervision of his lord; was taught by some experienced old knight or +squire to back a horse and use his weapons; and was stirred to emulation +by constant practice with his fellow-squires. He attended upon his lord in +time of peace, carved his meat and filled his cup, carried his shield or +helmet on a journey, gave him a fresh lance in the tournament, raised him +up and remounted him when unhorsed, or dragged him out of the press if +wounded; followed him to battle, and acted as subaltern officer of the +troop of men-at-arms who followed their lord's banner. + +It is interesting to see how the pictures in the illuminated MSS. enable +us to follow the knight's history step by step. In the following woodcut +we see him as a child in long clothes, between the knight his father, and +his lady mother, who sit on a bench with an embroidered _banker_[383] +thrown over its seat, making an interesting family group. + +[Illustration] + +The woodcut on the next page shows us a group of pages imbibing chivalrous +usages even in their childish sports, for they are "playing at jousting." +It is easy to see the nature of the toy. A slip of wood forms the +foundation, and represents the lists; the two wooden knights are movable +on their horses by a pin through the hips and saddle; when pushed together +in mimic joust, either the spears miss, and the course must be run again, +or each strikes the other's breast, and one or other gives way at the +shock, and is forced back upon his horse's back, and is vanquished. This +illustration is from Hans Burgmair's famous illustrations of the life of +the Emperor Maximilian. A similar illustration is given in Strutt's +"Sports and Pastimes." A third picture, engraved in the _Archæological +Journal_, vol. ii. p. 173, represents a squire carving before his lord at +a high feast, and illustrates a passage in Chaucer's description of his +squire among the Canterbury Pilgrims, which we here extract (with a few +verbal alterations, to make it more intelligible to modern ears) as a +typical picture of a squire, even more full of life and interest than the +pictorial illustrations:-- + + "With him ther was his son, a younge squire, + A lover and a lusty bacheler; + His lockes crull as they were laide in presse, + Of twenty yere of age he was I guess. + Of his stature he was of even lengthe, + And wonderly deliver, and grete of strengthe. + He hadde be some time in chevachie, + In Flanders, in Artois, and in Picardie, + And borne him wel, as of so litel space, + In hope to standen in his ladies grace. + Embroidered was he, as it were a mede + Alle ful of freshe flowres, white and rede. + Singing he was or floyting alle the day, + He was as freshe as is the moneth of May. + Short was his gowne, with sleves long and wide, + Wel coude he sitte on hors, and fayre ride. + He coude songes make, and wel endite, + Juste and eke dance, and wel poutraie and write. + So hot he loved that by nightertale + He slep no more than doth a nightingale. + Curteis he was, lowly and servisable, + And carf before his fader at the table." + +[Illustration] + +Young noblemen and eldest sons of landed gentlemen were made knights, as a +matter of course, when they had attained the proper age. Many others won +for themselves this chivalric distinction by their deeds of arms in the +field, and sometimes in the lists. The ceremony was essentially a +religious one, and the clergy used sometimes to make a knight. In the +Royal 14. E. IV. f. 89, we see a picture of Lancelot being made a knight, +in which an abbess even is giving him the accolade by a stroke of the +hand. But usually, though religious ceremonies accompanied the initiation, +and the office for making a knight still remains in the Roman Office Book, +some knight of fame actually conferred "the high order of knighthood." It +was not unusual for young men of property who were entitled to the honour +by birth and heirship to be required by the king to assume it, for the +sake of the fine which was paid to the crown on the occasion. Let us here +introduce, as a pendant to Chaucer's portrait of the squire already given, +his equally beautiful portrait of a knight; not a young knight-errant, +indeed, but a grave and middle-aged warrior, who has seen hard service, +and is valued in council as well as in field:-- + + "A knight ther was, and that a worthy man, + That from the time that he firste began + To riden out, he loved chivalry, + Trouthe and honour, fredom and curtesie. + Ful worthie was he in his lorde's werre, + And thereto hadde he ridden, no man ferre, + As wel in Christendom as in Hethenesse, + And ever honoured for his worthinesse. + At Alesandre he was when it was wonne, + Ful oftentime he hadde the bord begonne, + Aboven all nations in Pruce. + + * * * * * + + At many a noble army hadde he be, + At mortal batailles had he been fiftene, + And foughten for our faith in Tramisene + In listes thries, and ever slaine his fo. + + * * * * * + + And tho that he was worthy he was wise, + And of his port as meke as is a mayde: + He never yet no vilanie had sayde + In alle his lif unto any manere wyht. + He was a very parfit gentle knight. + But for to tellen you of his arraie, + His hors was good, but he was not gaie; + Of fustian he wered a jupon, + All besmotred with his habergeon. + For he was late ycom fro his viage, + And wente for to don his pilgrimage." + +Men who are in the constant habit of bearing arms are certain to engage in +friendly contests with each other; it is the only mode in which they can +acquire skill in the use of their weapons, and it affords a manly pastime. +That such men should turn encounters with an enemy into trials of skill, +subject to certain rules of fairness and courtesy, though conducted with +sharp weapons and in deadly earnest, is also natural.[384] And thus we are +introduced to a whole series of military exercises and encounters, from +the mere holiday pageant in which the swords are of parchment and the +spears headless, to the wager of battle, in which the combatants are clad +in linen, while their weapons are such as will lop off a limb, and the +gallows awaits the vanquished. + +Homer shows us how the Greek battles were little else than a series of +single combats, and Roman history furnishes us with sufficient examples +of such combats preluding the serious movements of opposing armies, and +affording an augury, it was believed, of their issue. Sacred history +supplies us with examples of a similar kind. In the story of Goliath we +have the combat of two champions in the face of the hosts drawn up in +battle array. A still more striking incident is that where Abner and the +servants of Ishbosheth, and Joab and the servants of David, met +accidentally at the pool of Gibeon. "And they sat down the one on the one +side of the pool, and the other on the other. And Abner said to Joab, Let +the young men now arise and play before us. And Joab said, Let them +arise." So twelve men on each side met, "and they caught every one his +fellow by the head, and thrust his sword in his fellow's side, so they +fell down together." And afterwards the lookers-on took to their arms, and +"there was a very sore battle that day; and Abner was beaten, and the men +of Israel, before the servants of David."[385] + +Our own history contains incidents enough of the same kind, from Tailefer +the minstrel-warrior, who rode ahead of the army of Duke William at +Hastings, singing the song of Roland and performing feats of dexterity in +the use of horse and weapons, and then charging alone into the ranks of +the Saxon men, down to the last young aide-de-camp who has pranced up to +the muzzle of the guns to "show the way" to a regiment to which he had +brought an order to carry a battery. + +In the Middle Ages these combats, whether they were mere pageants[386] or +sportive contests with more or less of the element of danger, or were +waged in deadly earnest, were, in one shape or other, of very common +occurrence, and were reduced to system and regulated by legislation. + +When only two combatants contended, it was called jousting. If only a +friendly trial of skill was contemplated, the lances were headed with a +small coronal instead of a sharp point; if the sword were used at all it +was with the edge only, which would very likely inflict no wound at all +on a well-armed man, or at most only a flesh wound, not with the point, +which might penetrate the opening of the helmet or the joints of the +armour, and inflict a fatal hurt. This was the _joute à plaisance_. If the +combatants were allowed to use sharp weapons, and to put forth all their +force and skill against one another, this was the _joute à l'outrance_, +and was of common enough occurrence. + +When many combatants fought on each side, it was called a tournament. Such +sports were sometimes played in gorgeous costumes, but with weapons of +lath, to make a spectacle in honour of a festal occasion. Sometimes the +tournament was with bated weapons, but was a serious trial of skill and +strength. And sometimes the tournament was even a mimic battle, and then +usually between the adherents of hostile factions which sought thus to +gratify their mutual hatreds, or it was a chivalrous incident in a war +between two nations. + +With these general introductory remarks, we shall best fulfil our purpose +by at once proceeding to bring together a few illustrations from ancient +sources, literary and pictorial, of these warlike scenes. + +A MS. in the Egerton Collection, in the British Museum, gives us a +contemporary account of the mode in which it was made known to knights +ambitious of honour and their ladies' praise when and where opportunities +of winning them were to be found. The heralds-at-arms of the king, or +lord, or noble, or knight, or lady who designed to give a joust, went +forth on horseback to castle and town, and sometimes from court to court +of foreign countries, clad in their gay insignia of office, attended by a +trumpeter; and in every castle court they came to, and at every market +cross, first the trumpeter blew his blast and then the herald-at-arms made +his proclamation as follows:--"Wee herawldes of armes beryng shields of +devise, here we yeve in knowledge unto all gentilmen of name and of armys, +that there bee VI gentilmen of name and of armes that for the gret desire +and woorship that the seide VI gentilmen have, have taken upon them to bee +the third day of May next coomyng before the high and mighty redowtid +ladyes and gentilwoomen in this high and most honourable court. And in +their presence the seide six gentilmen there to appear at IX of the clock +before noone, and to juste aginst all coomers without, the seide day unto +VI of the clok at aftir noone, and then, by the advyse of the seide ladyes +and gentel women, to give unto the best juster withoute[387] a dyamaunde +of xl{li}, and unto the nexte beste juster a rubie of xx{li}, and to the +third well juster a saufir of x{li}. And on the seide day there beyng +officers of armys shewyng their mesure of theire speris garneste, that is, +cornal, vamplate, and grapers all of acise, that they shall just with. And +that the comers may take the length of the seide speirs with the avise of +the seide officers of armes that shall be indifferent unto all parties +unto the seide day."[388] + +Then we have a description of the habiliments required for a knight's +equipment for such an occasion, which includes a suit of armour and a +horse with his trappings; an armourer with hammer and pincers to fasten +the armour; two servants on horseback well beseen, who are his two +squires; and six servants on foot all in one suit. + +As the day approaches knights and ladies begin to flock in from all points +of the compass. Some are lodged in the castle, some find chambers in the +neighbouring town, and some bring tents with them and pitch them under the +trees in the meadows without the castle. At length the day has arrived, +and the knights are up with sunrise and bathe, and then are carefully +armed by their squires and armourers. This is so important a matter that +it is no wonder we find several minute descriptions of the way in which +every article of clothing and armour is to be put on and fastened, +illustrated with pictures of the knight in the several stages of the +process. Two such descriptions with engravings are given in the +twenty-ninth volume of the "Archæologia," taken from the work of a master +of fence, of date 1400. Another description, "How a man shall be armyed at +his ease when he shall fight on foot," is given in the Lansdowne MS. under +our notice. The same description is given in the tenth volume of the +_Archæological Journal_, p. 226, from a MS. in the possession of Lord +Hastings of the date of Henry VI., accompanied by an engraving from an +illumination in the MS. showing the knight with his legs fully armed, his +body clothed in the undergarment on which the gussets of mail are +sewed, while the rest of his armour and his weapons are arranged on a +bench beside him. The weapons are a glaive and a pole-axe, which were the +usual weapons assigned to the combatants in serious duels on foot. When +all is ready, and the company are assembled, the MS. tells us what next +takes place:--"The VI gentilmen must come into the felde unharnsyd, and +their helmys borne before them, and their servants on horseback berying +either of them a spere garneste, that is the VI speres which the seide VI +servaunts shall ride before them into the felde, and as the seide VI +gentilmen be coomyn before the ladyes and gentilwoomen. Then shall be sent +an herowde of armys up unto the ladyes and gentilwoomen, saying on this +wise: High and mighty, redowtyd, and right worchyfull ladyes and +gentilwoomen, theis VI gentilmen hav coome into your presence and +recommende them all unto your gode grace in as lowly wise as they can, +besechyng you for to geve unto the iii best justers without a diamonde, +and a rubie, and a saufir unto them that ye think best can deserve it. +Then this message is doone. Then the VI gentilmen goth into the +tellwys[389] and doth on their helmys." + +[Illustration: _Preliminaries of a Combat._] + +[Illustration: _Termination of the Combat._] + +Then comes the jousting. Probably, first of all, each of the six champions +in turn runs one or more courses with a stranger knight; then, perhaps, +they finish by a miniature tournament, all six together against six of the +strangers. Each strange knight who comes into the field has to satisfy the +officer-at-arms that he is a "gentilman of name and of arms," and to take +oath that he has no secret weapons or unfair advantage. The woodcut +represents this moment of the story. This being ascertained, they take +their places at the opposite ends of the lists, the presiding herald cries +to let go, and they hurl together in the midst, with a clang of armour, +and a crash of broken spears, amidst the shouts of the spectators and the +waving of kerchiefs and caps. If the course be successfully run, each +breaks his lance full on the breastplate or helm of his adversary, but +neither is unhorsed; they recover their steeds with rein and spur, and +prance away amidst applause. If one knight is unhorsed, or loose his +stirrup, he is vanquished, and retires from the game. If the jousting were +not the mere sport which the MS. puts before us, but were a _joute à +l'outrance_, the next woodcut represents a very probable variation in this +point of the game. + +At length, when all have run their courses, the MS. resumes its +directions: "And when the heraldes cry _à lóstel! à lóstel!_ then shall +all the VI. gentlemen within unhelme them before the seide ladies, and +make their obeisaunce, and goo home unto their lodgings and change them." +Then, continues the MS.: "The gentilmen[390] without comyn into the +presence of the ladies. Then comys foorth a lady by the advise of all the +ladyes and gentilwomen, and gives the diamounde unto the best juster +withoute, saying in this wise:--'Sir, theis ladyes and gentilwomen thank +you for your disporte and grete labour that ye have this day in their +presence. And the saide ladyes and gentilwomen seyn that ye have best just +this day; therefore the seide ladyes and gentilwomen geven you this +diamounde, and send you much joy and worship of your lady.' Thus shall be +doone with the rubie and with the saufre unto the other two next the best +justers. This doon, then shall the heralde of armys stande up all on hygh, +and shall sey withall in high voice:--'John hath well justed, Ric. hath +justed better, and Thomas hath justed best of all.' Then shall he that the +diamound is geve unto take a lady by the hande and bygene the daunce, and +when the ladyes have dauncid as long as them liketh, then spyce wyne and +drynk, and then avoide."[391] + +[Illustration: _Spectators of a Tournament._] + +The last woodcut, greatly reduced from one of the fine tournament scenes +in the MS. history of the Roi Meliadus, already several times quoted in +this work, shows the temporary gallery erected for the convenience of the +ladies and other spectators to witness the sports. The tent of one of the +knights is seen in the background, and an indication of the hurly-burly of +the combat below. A larger illustration of a similar scene from this fine +MS. will be given hereafter. + +The next woodcut is from the MS. Life and Acts of Richard Beauchamp, Earl +of Warwick (Julius E. IV., folio 217). It represents "howe a mighty Duke +chalenged Erle Richard for his lady sake, and in justyng slewe the Duke +and then the Empresse toke the Erle's staff and bear from a knight +shouldre, and for great love and fauv{r} she sette it on her shouldre. +Then Erle Richard made one of perle and p'cious stones, and offered her +that, and she gladly and lovynglee reseaved it." The picture shows the +Duke and Earl in the crisis of the battle. It would seem from the pieces +of splintered spears, which already lie on the ground, that a previous +course had been run with equal fortune; but in this second course the +doughty Earl has just driven his lance half a yard through his +unfortunate challenger's breast. In the background we see the Emperor +Sigismund, and the Empress taking the Earl's badge from the neck of the +Earl's knight. The whole incident, so briefly told and so naïvely +illustrated, is very characteristic of the spirit of chivalry. As we close +the page the poor nameless Duke's life-blood seems to be smeared, not only +over his own magnificent armour, but over the hand of the Empress and the +Emperor's purple who presided over the scene; and while we seem to hear +the fanfaronade with which the trumpeters are cracking their cheeks, we +hear mingling with it the groan of the mighty Duke thus slain "for his +lady sake." + +[Illustration: _How a mighty Duke fought Earl Richard for his Lady's +sake._] + +A whole chapter might be well dedicated to the special subject of judicial +combats. We must, however, content ourselves with referring the reader to +authorities both literary and artistic, and to some anecdotes illustrative +of the subject. In the Lansdowne MS. 285, copied for Sir John Paxton, will +be found directions for the complete arming of a man who is to engage on +foot in a judicial combat, with a list of the things, such as tent, table, +chair, &c., which he should take into the field with him. The same MS. +contains (article 8) the laws of the combat--"the ordinance and forme of +fighting within listes," as settled by Thomas Duke of Gloucester, +Constable of England, in the time of Richard II. Also in Tiberius E. VIII. +there are directions for making a duel before the king. There are other +similar documents in the same book, _e.g._ Of the order of knighthood, +justs and prizes to be given thereat: The Earl of Worcester's orders for +jousts and triumphs: Declaration of a combat within lists. The MS. +Tiberius B. VIII. contains the form of benediction of a man about to +fight, and of his shield, club, and sword. For a picture of a combat on +foot in lists see Royal 16 E. IV. (MS. "Chronique d'Angleterre," written +for King Edward IV.) at f. 264.[392] In the "Archæologia," vol. xxix., p. +348-361, will be found a paper on Judicial Duels in Germany, with a series +of curious drawings of about the year 1400 A.D., representing the various +phases of the combat. Plate 31, fig. 5, shows the combatant in the act of +being armed; fig. 6, receiving Holy Communion in church before the combat. +Plate 32, fig. 2, the oath in the lists, the combatant seated armed in an +arm-chair with his attendants about him, his weapons around, +and--ominously enough--a bier standing by, covered with a pall, ready to +carry him off the ground if slain. Plate 34, fig. 2, shows the vanquished +actually being laid in his coffin; and fig. 3 shows the victor returning +thanks in church for his victory. Plate 37 is another series of subjects +showing the different positions of attack and defence with the pole-axe. +Several very good and spirited representations of these duels of the time +of our Henry VIII. may be found in the plates of Hans Burgmaier's Der +Weise Könige. + +As an example of the wager of battle we will take an account of one +related by Froissart between a squire called Jaques de Grys and a knight, +Sir John of Carougne. It is necessary to the understanding of some of the +incidents of the narrative to state what was the origin of the duel. The +knight and the squire were friends, both of the household of the Earl of +Alençon. Sir John de Carougne went over sea for the advancement of his +honour, leaving his lady in his castle. On his return his lady informed +him that one day soon after his departure his friend Jaques de Grys paid a +visit to her, and made excuses to be alone with her, and then by force +dishonoured her. The knight called his and her friends together, and asked +their counsel what he should do. They advised that he should make his +complaint to the Earl. The Earl called the parties before him, when the +lady repeated her accusation; but the squire denied it, and called +witnesses to prove that at four o'clock on the morning of the day on which +the offence was stated to have been committed he was at his lord the +Earl's house, while the Earl himself testified that at nine o'clock he was +with himself at his levée. It was impossible for him between those two +hours--that is, four hours and a half--to have ridden twenty-three +leagues. "Whereupon the Erl sayd to the lady that she dyd but dreame it, +wherefore he wolde maynteyne his squyre, and commanded the lady to speke +noe more of the matter. But the knyght, who was of great courage, and well +trusted and byleved his wife, would not agree to that opinion, but he +wente to Parys and shewed the matter there to the parlyament, and there +appeled Jaques de Grys, who appered and answered to his appele." The plea +between them endured more than a year and a half. At length "the +parlyament determined that there shold be batayle at utterance between +them.... And the Kynge sent to Parys, commandynge that the journey and +batayle bytwene the squyer and the knight sholde be relonged tyl his +comynge to Parys: and so his commaundement was obeyed.... + +"Then the lystes were made in a place called Saynt Katheryne, behynde the +Temple. There was so moche people that it was mervayle to beholde; and on +the one syde of the lystes there was made grete scaffoldes, that the +lordes myght the better se the battayle of the ij champions; and so they +bothe came to the felde, armed at all places, and there eche of them was +set in theyr chayre."[393] + +"The Erie of Saynt Poule governed John of Carougne, and the Erle of +Alanson's company with Jaques de Guys. And when the knyght entered into +the felde, he came to his wyfe who was there syttinge in a chayre, covered +in blacke, and he seyd to her thus,--Dame, by your enformacyon and in your +quarele I do put my lyfe in adventure as to fyght with Jaques le Grys; ye +knowe if the cause be just and true. Syr, sayd the lady, it is as I have +sayd; wherfore ye may fyght surely, the cause is good and true. With those +wordes the knyghte kyssed the lady and toke her by the hande, and then +blessyd her, and so entered into the felde. The lady sate styll in the +blacke chayre in her prayers to God and to the Vyrgyne Mary, humbly +prayenge them, by theyr specyall grace, to sende her husbande the vyctory +accordynge to the ryght he was in. The lady was in grete hevynes, for she +was not sure of her lyfe; for yf her husbande sholde have been discomfyted +she was judged without remedy to be brente and her husbande hanged. I +cannot say whether she repented her or not yt the matter was so forwarde, +that bothe she and her husbande were in grete peryle; howbeit fynally she +must as then abyde the adventure. Then these two champyons were set one +agaynst another, and so mounted on theyr horses and behaved them nobly, +for they knew what pertayned to deades of armes. There were many lordes +and knyghtes of France that were come thyder to se that batayle: ye two +champyons parted at theyr first metyng, but none of them dyd hurte other; +and upon the justes they lyghted on foote to performe their batayle, and +soe fought valyauntly; and fyrst John of Carougne was hurt in the thyghe, +whereby al his friendes were in grete fear; but after that he fought so +valyauntly that he bette down his adversary to the erthe, and thruste +his sworde in his body, and so slew hym on the felde; and then he +demaunded yf he had done his devoyre or not; and they answered that he had +valyauntly acheved his batayle. Then Jaques le Grys was delyvered to the +hangman of Parys, and he drew him to the gybet of Mount Faucon and there +hanged hym up. Then John of Carougne came before the Kynge and kneeled +downe and ye Kynge made hym to stand up before hym, and the same day the +kynge caused to be delyvered to hym a thousand frankes, and reteyned hym +to be of his chambre with a pencyon of ij hundred poundes by the yere +durynge the term of his lyfe; then he thanked the Kynge and the lordes, +and wente to his wyfe and kyssed her, and then they wente togyder to the +churche of Our Lady in Parys, and made theyr offerynge and then retourned +to theyr lodgynges. Then this Syr John of Carougne taryed not long in +France, but wente to vysyte the Holy Sepulture." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +ON TOURNAMENTS. + + +The romances, confirmed as they are by such documents as we have referred +to in our last paper, may be taken as perfectly safe authorities on all +that relates to the subject of tournaments, and they seize upon their +salient features, and offer them in a picturesque form very suitable to +our purpose. We will take all our illustrations, as in former chapters, +from Malory's "History of Prince Arthur." + +Here is a statement of the way in which a tournament was arranged and +published: "So it befel, that Sir Galahalt the haughty Prince was lord of +the country of Surluse, whereof came many good knights. And this noble +prince was a passing good man of arms, and ever he held a noble fellowship +together. And he came unto King Arthur's court, and told him all his +intent, how he would let do cry a justs in the country of Surluse, the +which country was within the lands of King Arthur, and that he asked leave +for to let cry a justs. 'I will well give you leave,' said King Arthur, +'but wot you well that I may not be there.' So in every good town and +castle of this land was made a cry, that in the country of Surluse Sir +Galahalt the haughty prince should make justs that should last eight days, +and how the haughty prince, with the help of Queen Guenever's knights, +should just against all manner of men that would come. When the cry was +known kings, princes, dukes, and earls, barons, and many noble knights +made them ready to be at that justs." + +So we read in another place how as Sir Tristram was riding through the +country in search of adventures, "he met with pursevants, and they told +him that there was made a great cry of a tournament between King Carados +of Scotland and the King of Northgales, and either should just against +other at the Castle of Maidens. And these pursevants sought all the +country for the good knights, and in especial King Carados let seek for +Sir Launcelot, and the King of Northgales let seek for Sir Tristram." Then +we find how all the reckless knights-errant suddenly become prudent, in +order to keep themselves fresh and sound for this great tournament. Thus: +"Sir Kay required Sir Tristram to just; and Sir Tristram in a manner +refused him, because he would not go hurt nor bruised to the Castle of +Maidens; and therefore he thought to have kept him fresh and to rest him." +But his prudence was not proof against provocation, for when Sir Kay +persisted, he rode upon him and "smote down Sir Kay, and so rode on his +way." So Sir Palomides said, "Sir, I am loth to do with that knight, and +the cause why for as to-morrow the great tournament shall be, and +therefore I will keep me fresh, by my will." But being urged he consented: +"Sir, I will just at your request, and require that knight to just with +me, and often I have seen a man have a fall at his own request;" a sage +reflection which was prophetic. It was Sir Launcelot in disguise whom he +was moved thus to encounter; and Sir Launcelot "smote him so mightily that +he made him to avoid his saddle, and the stroke brake his shield and +hawberk, and had he not fallen he had been slain." + +No doubt a great company would be gathered on the eve of the tournament, +and there would be much feasting and merriment, and inquiry what knights +were come to just, and what prospects had this man and the other of honour +and lady's grace, or of shame and a fall. Here is such an incident:--"Then +Sir Palomides prayed Queen Guenever and Sir Galahalt the haughty prince to +sup with him, and so did both Sir Launcelot and Sir Lamorake and many good +knights; and in the midst of their supper in came Sir Dinadan, and he +began to rail. 'Well,' said Sir Dinadan unto Sir Launcelot, 'what the +devil do you in this country, for here may no mean knights win no worship +for thee; and I ensure thee that I shall never meet thee no more, nor thy +great spear, for I may not sit in my saddle when that spear meet me; I +shall beware of that boisterous spear that thou bearest.' Then laughed +Queen Guenever and the haughty prince that they might not sit at table. +Thus they made great joy till the morrow; and then they heard mass, and +blew to the field. And Queen Guenever and all their estates were set, and +judges armed clean with their shields for to keep the right." + +[Illustration: _State Carriage of the Fourteenth Century._] + +It would take up too much space to transcribe the account of the +tournament; the romancers and chroniclers dwell on every stroke, and +prolong the narrative through page after page. We leave the reader to +imagine to himself the crowd of meaner knights "hurtling together like +wild boars," and "lashing at each other with great strokes"; and can only +tell one or two unusual deeds which caused most talk among the knights and +ladies, and supplied new matter for the heralds and minstrels to record. +How Sir Launcelot rushed against Sir Dinadan with the "boisterous spear" +he had deprecated, and bore him back on his horse croup, that he lay there +as dead, and had to be lifted off by his squires; and how Sir Lamorake +struck Sir Kay on the helm with his sword, that he swooned in the saddle; +and how Sir Tristram avoided Sir Palomides' spear, and got him by the neck +with both his hands, and pulled him clean out of his saddle, and so bore +him before him the length of ten spears, and then, in the presence of them +all, let him fall at his adventure; "until at last the haughty prince +cried 'Hoo!' and then they blew to lodging, and every knight unarmed him +and went to the great feast." We may, however, quote one brief summary of +a tournament which gives us several pictures worth adding to our +story:--"Sir Launcelot mounted his horse and rode into a forest and held +no high way. And as he looked afore him he saw a fair plain, and beside +that plain stood a fair castle, and before that castle were many pavilions +of silk and of divers hue; and him seemed that he saw there five hundred +knights riding on horseback; and there was two parties; they that were of +the castle were all in black, their horses and their trappings black; and +they that were without were all upon white horses with white trappours. +And every each hurled to other, whereof Sir Launcelot marvelled greatly. +And at the last him thought that they of the castle were put unto the +worst; and then thought Sir Launcelot for to help the weaker part in +increasing of his chivalry. And so Sir Launcelot thrust in among the +parties of the castle, and smote down a knight, both horse and man, to the +earth: and then he rushed here and there and did marvellous deeds of arms; +but always the white knights held them nigh about Sir Launcelot, for to +weary him and win him. And at the last, as a man may not ever endure, Sir +Launcelot waxed so faint of fighting, and was so weary of great deeds, +that he might not lift up his arms for to give one stroke." + +[Illustration: _Cabriolet of the Fourteenth Century._] + +Now for some extracts to illustrate the prize of the tournament: "Turn we +unto Ewaine, which rode westward with his damsel, and she brought him +there as was a tournament nigh the march of Wales. And at that tournament +Sir Ewaine smote down thirty knights, wherefore the prize was given him, +and the prize was a jerfawcon and a white steed trapped with a cloth of +gold." Sir Marhaus was equally fortunate under similar circumstances:--"He +departed, and within two days his damsel brought him to where as was a +great tournament, that the Lady de Vaux had cried; and who that did best +should have a rich circlet of gold worth a thousand besants. And then Sir +Marhaus did so nobly that he was renowned to have smitten down forty +knights, and so the circlet of gold was rewarded to him." + +Again:--"There was cried in this country a great just three days. And all +the knights of this country were there, and also the gentlewomen. And who +that proved him the best knight should have a passing good sword and a +circlet of gold, and the circlet the knight should give to the fairest +lady that was at those justs. And this knight Sir Pelleas was the best +knight that was there, and there were five hundred knights, but there was +never man that Sir Pelleas met withal but that he struck him down or else +from his horse. And every day of the three days he struck down twenty +knights; therefore they gave him the prize. And forthwithal he went there +as the Lady Ettarde was, and gave her the circlet, and said openly that +she was the fairest lady that was there, and that he would prove upon any +knight that would say nay." + +[Illustration: _A Tournament._] + +The accompanying woodcut is a reduced copy of the half of one of the many +tournament scenes which run along the lower part of the double page of the +MS. romance of "Le Roi Meliadus," already so often alluded to. They are, +perhaps, the most spirited of all the contemporary pictures of such +scenes, and give every variety of incident, not out of the imagination of +a modern novelist, but out of the memory of one who had frequented deeds +of arms and noted their incidents with an artist's eye. + +For an actual historical example of the tournament in which a number of +knights challengers undertake to hold the field against all comers, we +will take the passage of arms at St. Inglebert's, near Calais, in the days +of Edward III., because it is very fully narrated by Froissart, and +because the splendid MS. of Froissart in the British Museum (Harl. 4,379) +supplies us with a magnificent picture of the scene. Froissart tells that +it happened in this wise:--"In ye dayes of King Charles there was an +Englisshe knyght called Sir Peter Courteney, a valyaunt knight in armes, +came out of Englande into Fraunce to Paris, and demanded to do armes with +Sir Guy of Tremoyle[394] in the presence of the king or of suche as wolde +se them. Sir Guy wolde not refuce his offre, and in the presence of the +kyng and of other lordes they were armed on a daye and ran togeyder one +course; and then the kyng wolde not suffre them to ryn agayne togeyther, +wherwith the English knyght was ryt evyl content, for, as he shewed, he +wolde have furnysshed his chalenge to the uttrance; but he was apeased +with fayre wordes, and it was sayde to hym that he had done ynough and +ought to be content therewith. The kyng and the duke of Burgoyne gave hym +fayre gyftes and presentes. Than he returned agayne towardes Calays, and +the lorde of Clary, who was a friscay and a lusty knyght, was charged to +convey hym." One night they lodged at Lucen, where lived the Countess of +St. Paul, sister to King Richard of England, whose first wife had been a +cousin of Sir Peter's, and who therefore received them gladly. In the +course of the evening the countess asked Sir Peter whether he was content +with the entertainment he had met with in France. Whereupon the knight +complained of the interruption of his combat, swore he should say wherever +he went that he could find none in France to do armes with him; that had a +French knight, for example the Lord of Clary then present, come into +England and desired to do armes, he would have found enough to answer his +challenge. The Lord of Clary having Sir Peter then placed under his safe +conduct by the king, held his tongue till he had brought him within the +English territory about Calais; then he challenged Sir Peter, and next day +they met. "Then they toke their speares with sharpe heades wel fyled, and +spurred their horses and rune togeyder. The fyrst course fayled, wherwith +they were bothe sore displeased. At the seconde juste they mette so +togeyder, that the Lord of Clary struke the Englysshe knyght throughe the +targe and throughe the shoulder a handfull, and therwith he fell from his +horse to the erthe.... Then the Lord of Clary departed with his company, +and the Englysshemen led Sir Peter Courtney to Calays to be healed of his +hurtes." + +This incident stirred up several young French knights to undertake some +feat of arms. "There was thre gentylmen of highe enterprise and of great +valure, and that they well shewed as ye shall here. Fyrst there was the +yonge Sir Bouciquaut, the other Sir Raynold of Roy, and the thirde the +Lorde of Saynt Pye. These thre knyghtes were chamberleyns with the kyng, +and well-beloved of hym. These thre being at Mountpellier among the ladyes +and damosels, they toke on them to do armes on the fronter beside Calais +the next somer after ... abyding all knyghtes and squiers straungers the +terme of xxx dayes whosoever wolde juste with them in justes of peace or +of warre. And because the enterprise of these thre knyghtes seemed to the +French kyng and his counsalye to be an high enterprice, then it was said +to them that they shulde putte it into writyng, because the kyng wolde se +the artycles thereof, that if they were to high or to outraygous that the +kyng might amende them; bycause the kyng nor his counsalye wolde not +sustayne any thynge that shoulde be unresonable. These thre knyghtes +answered and said, 'It is but reson that we do this; it shall be done.' +Then they toke a clerk and caused him to write as forthwith:--'For the +great desyre that we have to come to the knowledge of noble gentlemen, +knights and squires, straungers as well of the realme of France, as +elsewhere of farre countreys, we shall be at Saynt Inglebertes, in the +marches of Calays, the twenty day of the month of May next commying, and +there contynewe thirtye dayes complete, the Frydayes onely excepte; and to +delyver all manner of knyghtes and squyers, gentlemen, straungers of any +manner of nacyon whatsoever they be, that wyll come thyder for the +breakynge of fiyve speares, outher sharpe or rokettes at their pleasure,'" +&c. + +The challenge was "openly declared and publyshed, and especially in the +realme of Englande," for it was in truth specially intended at English +knights, and they alone appear to have accepted the challenge. "For in +England knyghtes and squiers were quyckened to the mater, and ware in gret +imagynacions to know what they might best do. Some said it shulde be +greatly to their blame and reproche such an enterprise taken so nere to +Calays without they passed the see and loke on those knyghtes that shulde +do arms there. Such as spake most of the mater was, first, Syr Johan of +Holande Erle of Huntyngdon, who had great desyre to go thyder, also Sir +Johan Courtney ... and dyvers others, more than a hundred knyghtes and +squiers, all then sayed, 'Let us provyde to go to Calays, for the knyghtes +of Fraunce hath not ordayned that sporte so nere our marches but to the +entent to see us there; and surely they have done well and do lyke good +companions, and we shall not fayle them at their busynes.' This mater was +so publisshed abrode in Englande, that many such as had no desyn to do +dedes of armes ther on self, yet they sayd they wolde be there to loke on +them that shulde. So at the entryng in of ye joly fresshe month of May +these thre young knyghtes of Fraunce come to the Abbay of Saynt +Ingilbertes, and they ordayned in a fayre playne between Calays and Saynt +Ingilbertes thre fresh grene pavilyons to be pyght up, and at the entre of +every pavylyon there hanged two sheldes with the armes of the knyghtes, +one shelde of peace, another of warre; and it was ordayned that such as +shulde ryn and do dedes of armes shulde touche one of the sheldes or cause +it to be touched. And on the xxi day of the moneth of May, accordyng as it +had been publisshed, there the French knyghtes were redy in the place to +furnish their enterprise. And the same day knyghtes and squiers issued +out of Calays, suche as wolde just, and also such other as had pleasure to +regarde that sporte; and they came to the place appoynted and drew all on +the one parte: the place to juste in was fayre green and playne. Sir Johan +Hollande first sent to touche the shelde of warre of Syr Bociquaut, who +incontinent issued out of his pavylyon redy mounted, with shelde and +speare: these two knyghtes drew fro other a certayne space, and when each +of them had well advysed other, they spurred their horses and came +together rudely, and Bociquaut struke the Erle of Huntingdon through the +shelde, and the speare head glente over his arme and dyd hym no hurt; and +so they passed further and turned and rested at their pease. This course +was greatly praysed. The second course they met without any hurt doygne; +and the third course their horses refused and wolde not cope." And so +Froissart goes on to describe, in page after page, how the English +knights, one after another, encountered the three challengers with various +fortune, till at last "they ran no more that day, for it was nere night. +Then the Englysshmen drew togeder and departed, and rode to Calays, and +there devysed that night of that had been done that day; in likewyse the +Frenchmen rode to Saint Ingilbertes and communed and devysed of yt had +been done ye same day." "The Tuesday, after masse, all suche as shulde +just that day or wolde gyve the lookyng on, rode out of Calis and came to +the place appoynted, and the Frenchmen were redy there to recyve them: the +day was fayre and hot." And so for four days the sports continued. In many +cases the course failed through fault of horse or man; the commonest +result of a fair course was that one or both the justers were unhelmed; a +few knights were unhorsed; one knight was wounded, the spear passing +through the shield and piercing the arm, where "the spere brake, and the +trunchon stucke styll in the shelde and in the knyhte's arme; yet for all +yt the knyght made his turn and came to his place fresshly." + +The illuminator has bestowed two large and beautiful pictures on this +famous deed of arms. One at folio 230 represents the knights parading +round the lists to show themselves before the commencement of the sports. +Our woodcut on page 434 is reduced from another picture at folio 43, +which represents the actual combat. There are the three handsome pavilions +of the knights challengers, each with its two shields--the shield of peace +and the shield of war--by touching which each juster might indicate +whether he chose to fight "in love or in wrath." There are the galleries +hung with tapestries, in which sit the knights and ladies "as had pleasure +to regard that sporte." There are the groups of knights, and the judges of +the field; and there in the foreground are two of the gallant knights in +full career, attended by their squires. + +It will be interesting to the artist to know something of the colours of +the knightly costumes. The knight on this side the barrier has his horse +trapped in housings of blue and gold, lined with red, and the bridle to +match; the saddle is red. The knight is in armour of steel, his shield is +emblazoned _or_, three hearts _gules_; he bears as a crest upon his helmet +two streamers of some transparent material like lawn. His antagonist's +horse is trapped with red and gold housings, and bridle to match. He wears +a kind of cape on his shoulders of cloth of gold; his shield is blue. Of +the knights on the (spectator's) left of the picture, one has horse +trappings of gold and red embroidery lined with plain red, his shield +yellow (not gold) with black bearings; another has blue and gold +trappings, with shield red, with white bearings. Of the knights on the +right, one has horse-trappings blue and gold laced with red, and shield +red and white; the other trappings red and gold, shield yellow. The +squires are dressed thus: the limbs encased in armour, the body clothed in +a jupon, which is either green embroidery on red ground or red embroidery +on green ground. The pavilions are tinted red, with stripes of a darker +red. The shields of the challengers are--on the left tent, _azure_, three +hearts _argent_; on the middle, _vert_, three hearts _or_; on the right, +_or_, three hearts _gules_. + +[Illustration: _The Feat of Arms at St. Inglebert's._] + +We have drawn upon the romancer and the historian to illustrate the +subject; we have cited ancient documents, and copied contemporary +pictures; we will call upon the poet to complete our labour. Chaucer, in +the Knight's Tale, gives a long account of a just _à l'outrance_ between +Palamon and Arcite and a hundred knights a-side, which came to pass thus: +Palamon and Arcite, two cousins and sworn brothers-in-arms, had the +misfortune both to fall in love with Emily, the younger sister of Ipolyta, +the Queen of Theseus Duke-regnant of Athens. Theseus found the two young +men, one May morning, in the wood engaged in a single combat. + + "This Duke his courser with his spurres smote, + And at a start he was betwixt them two, + And pulled out his sword and cried Ho! + No more, up pain of losing of your head." + +After discovering the cause of their enmity, the Duke ordained that that +day fifty weeks each should bring a hundred knights ready to fight in the +lists on his behalf-- + + "And whether he or thou + Shall with his hundred as I speak of now + Slay his contrary or out of listes drive, + Him shall I given Emilie to wive." + +Each of the rivals rode through the country far and near during the fifty +weeks, to enlist valiant knights to make up his hundred; and on the eve of +the appointed day each party rode into Athens; and, says Chaucer, "never +did so small a band comprise so noble a company of knights":-- + + "For every wight that loved chevalrie, + And wolde, his thankes, have a lasting name, + Hath praied that he might ben of that game, + And well was he that thereto chosen was." + +And the poet goes on with this testimony to the chivalrous feeling of his +own time:-- + + "For if there fell to-morrow such a case, + Ye knowen well that every lusty knyght + That loveth par amour, and hath his might, + Were it in Engleland or elleswhere, + They wolde, hir thankes, willen to be there." + +At length the day arrives:-- + + "Gret was the feste in Athens thilke day. + + * * * * * + + And on the morrow when the day gan spring, + Of horse and harness, noise and clattering + There was in all the hostelries about: + And to the palace rode there many a rout + Of lordes upon stedes and palfries. + There mayst thou see devising of harness + So uncouth and so riche, and wrought so well, + Of goldsmithry, of brouding, and of steel; + The shieldes bright, testeres, and trappours; + Gold-hewen helms, hawberks, cote-armures; + Lordes in parements on their coursers, + Knyghts of retenue and eke squires, + Nailing the speares and helms buckeling, + Gniding of shields with lainers lacing; + There, as need is, they were nothing idle. + The foaming steedes on the golden bridle + Gnawing, and fast the armourers also + With file and hammer pricking to and fro; + Yeomen on foot, and commons many a one, + With shorte staves thick as they may gon; + Pipes, trompes, nakeres, and clariouns, + That in the battaille blowen bloody sounes. + The palais full of people up and down. + + * * * * * + + Duke Theseus is at a window sette, + Arraied right as he were a god in throne; + The people presseth thitherward full soon + Him for to see, and do him reverence, + And eke to hearken his heste and his sentence. + An herauld on a scaffold made an O[395] + Till that the noise of the people was ydo; + And when he saw the people of noise all still, + Thus shewed he the mighty Dukes will." + +The Duke's will was, that none of the combatants should use any shot +(_i.e._ any missile), or poleaxe, or short knife, or short pointed sword, +but they were to run one course with sharp spears and then-- + + "With long sword or with mace to fight their fill." + +However, any one who was forcibly drawn to a stake--of which one was +planted at each end of the lists--should be _hors de combat_; and if +either of the leaders was slain or disabled or drawn to the stake, the +combat should cease. + + "Up goe the trumpets and the melodie + And to the listes rode the compaynie. + By ordinance throughout the city large + Hanged with cloth of gold, and not with serge. + + * * * * * + + And thus they passen through the citie + And to the listes comen they be-time + It was not of the day yet fully prime, + When set was Theseus full rich and high, + Ipolita the queen and Emilie, + And other ladies in degrees about, + Unto the seates presseth all the rest." + +Then Arcite and his hundred knights enter through the western side of the +lists under a red banner, and Palamon and his company at the same moment, +under a white banner, enter by the eastern gates. + + "And in two ranges fayre they hem dresse, + When that their names read were every one, + That in their number guile were there none. + Then were the gates shut, and cried was loud, + 'Do now your devoir, young knyghtes proud.' + The herauldes left there pricking up and down; + Then ringen trompes loud and clarioun; + There is no more to say, but east and west, + In go the speres quickly into rest, + In goeth the sharpe spur into the side; + There see men who can juste and who can ride; + There shiver shafts upon sheldes thick, + He feeleth through the herte-spoon the prick. + Up springen speres, twenty foot in hyhte, + Out go the swords as the silver bright + The helmes they to-hewen and to-shred; + Out bursts the blood with sterne streames red. + With mighty maces the bones they to-brest. + He through the thickest of the throng gan thrust, + There stumble steedes strong, and down goth all. + He rolleth under foot as doth a ball! + He foineth on his foe with a truncheon, + And he him hurteth, with his horse adown; + He through the body is hurt and sith ytake, + Maugre his head, and brought unto the stake." + +At last it happened to Palamon-- + + "That by the force of twenty is he take + Unyolden, and drawen to the stake. + And when that Theseus had seen that sight, + Unto the folk that foughten thus eche one + He cried 'Ho! no more, for it is done!' + The troumpors with the loud minstralcie, + The herauldes that so loude yell and crie, + Been in their joy for wele of Don Arcite. + + * * * * * + + This fierce Arcite hath off his helm ydone, + And on a courser, for to show his face, + He pusheth endilong the large place, + Looking upward upon this Emilie, + And she towards him cast a friendly eye;" + +when, alas! his horse started, fell, and crushed the exulting victor, so +that he lay bruised to death in the listes which had seen his victory. +After a decent time of mourning, by Theseus's good offices, Emily accepts +her surviving lover: + + "And thus with alle blisse and melodie + Hath Palamon ywedded Emelie." + +The two curious woodcuts[396] on pages 425 and 426 show the style of +carriage associated--grotesquely associated, it seems to our eyes--with +the armour and costume of the Middle Ages. No. 1 might represent Duke +Theseus going in state through the streets of Athens, hung with tapestry +and cloth of gold, to the solemn deed of arms of Palamon and Arcite. No. 2 +may represent to us the merry Sir Dinadan driving to the tournament of the +Castle of Maidens. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +MEDIÆVAL BOWMEN. + + +The archers of England were so famous during the Middle Ages that we feel +special interest in knowing something about them. As early as the Conquest +we find the Norman archers giving the invader a great advantage over the +Saxons, who had not cultivated this arm with success. Their equipment and +appearance may be seen in the Bayeux tapestry; most of them are evidently +unarmed, but some are in armour like that of the men-at-arms. Usually the +quiver hangs at the side; yet occasionally at the back, so that the arrows +are drawn out over the shoulder; both fashions continued in later times. +In one case, at least, an archer, in pursuit of the flying Saxons, is seen +on horseback; but it may be doubted whether at this period, as was the +case subsequently, some of the archers were mounted, or whether an archer +has leaped upon a riderless horse to pursue the routed enemy. The bow was +of the simplest construction, not so long as it afterwards became; the +arrows were barbed and feathered. Each archer--in later times, at +least--commonly carried two dozen arrows "under his belt." He also +frequently bore a stake sharpened at both ends, so that in the field, when +the front ranks fixed their stakes in the ground with their points sloping +outward, and the rear rank fixed theirs in the intermediate spaces, they +formed a _cheval de frise_ against cavalry, and, with the flanks properly +cared for, they could hold their ground even against the steel-clad +chivalry. Latterly also the archers were sometimes protected by a great +movable shield; this they fixed upright by a rest, and behind it were +sheltered from the adverse bowmen. The archer also carried a sword, so +that he could defend himself, if attacked, hand to hand; or act on the +offensive with the main body of foot when his artillery was expended. By +the twelfth century there are stories on record which show that the +English bowmen had acquired such skill as to make their weapon a very +formidable one. Richard of Devizes tells us that at the siege of Messina +the Sicilians were obliged to leave their walls unmanned, "because no one +could look abroad but he would have an arrow in his eye before he could +shut it." + +In the thirteenth century the archer became more and more important. He +always began the battle at a distance, as the artillery do in modern +warfare, before the main bodies came up to actual hand-to-hand fighting. +We find in this century a regular use of mounted corps of bowmen and +cross-bowmen; and the knights did not scorn to practise the use of this +weapon, and occasionally to resort to it on a special occasion in the +field. Some of the bowmen continue to be found, in the MS. illustrations, +more or less fully armed, but the majority seem to have worn only a helmet +of iron, and perhaps half armour of leather, or often nothing more than a +woollen jerkin. + +The cross-bow, or arbalest, does not appear to have been used in war until +the close of the twelfth century. It was not equal to the long-bow in +strong and skilful hands, because a powerful and skilful bowman, while he +could probably send his shaft with as much force as a cross-bow, could +shoot half-a-dozen arrows while the cross-bow was being wound up to +discharge a second bolt; but still, once introduced, the mechanical +advantage which the cross-bow gave to men of ordinary strength and of +inferior skill caused it to keep its ground, until the invention of +fire-arms gradually superseded both long-bow and arbalest. The bow of the +cross-bow seems to have been usually of steel; some of them were strung by +putting the foot into a loop at the end of the stock, and pulling the cord +up to its notch by main force: an illustration of this early form appears +in the arbalester shooting from the battlement of the castle in the early +fourteenth-century illumination on p. 381, and another at p. 382; but the +more powerful bows required some mechanical assistance to bring the string +to its place. In a picture in the National Gallery of the Martyrdom of St. +Sebastian, by Antonio Pollajuolo, of Florence, A.D. 1475, an arbalester +has a cord attached to his belt, and a pulley running on it, with a hook +to catch the bow-string, so that, putting his foot into the loop at the +end of the stock, looping the end of the cord on to a hook at its butt, +and catching the bow-string by the pulley, he could, by straightening +himself, apply the whole force of his body to the stringing of his weapon. +More frequently, however, a little winch was used, by which the string was +wound into its place with little expenditure of strength. One of the men +in the cut on the next page is thus stringing his bow, and it is seen +again in the cut on p. 449. The arrow shot by the cross-bow was called a +bolt or quarrel; it was shorter and stouter than an ordinary arrow, with a +heavier head. The arbalester seems to have carried fifty bolts into the +field with him; the store of bolts was carried by waggons which followed +the army. + +We have already said that there were, from the thirteenth century, bodies +of mounted arbalesters. But the far larger proportion of archers, of both +arms, were footmen, who were usually placed in front of the array to +commence the engagement. + +The arbalest, however, was more used on the Continent than in England; and +hence the long-bow came to be especially considered the national arm of +the English, while the Genoese became famous as arbalesters. The superior +rapidity of fire gave the English archer the same advantage over his +foemen that the needle-gun gave to the Prussians in the late war. + +Later on, in the fourteenth century, the battle seems to have been usually +begun by the great machines for throwing stones and darts which then +played the part of modern cannon, while the bowmen were placed on the +flanks. Frequently, also, archers were intermixed with the horsemen, so +that a body of spearmen with archers among them would play the part which +a body of dragoons did in more modern warfare, throwing the opposing ranks +into confusion with missiles, before charging upon them hand to hand. + +In the fourteenth century the bow had attained the climax of its +reputation as a weapon, and in the French wars many a battle was decided +by the strength and skill and sturdy courage of the English bowmen. Edward +III. conferred honour on the craft by raising a corps of archers of the +King's Guard, consisting of 120 men, the most expert who could be found in +the kingdom. About the same period the French kings enrolled from their +allies of Scotland the corps of Scottish Archers of the Guard, who were +afterwards so famous. + +We have already given a good illustration of the long-bowman from the +Royal MS. 14, E. IV., a folio volume illustrated with very fine pictures +executed for our King Edward IV. From the same MS. we now take an +illustration of the cross-bow. The accompanying cut is part of a larger +picture which represents several interesting points in a siege. On the +right is a town surrounded by a moat; the approach to the bridge over the +moat is defended by an outwork, and the arbalesters in the cut are +skirmishing with some bowmen on the battlements and angle-turrets of this +outwork. On the left of the picture are the besiegers. They have erected a +wooden castle with towers, surrounded by a timber breast-work. In front of +this breast-work is an elaborate cannon of the type of that represented in +the cut on page 392. At a little distance is a battery of one cannon +elevated on a wooden platform, and screened by a breast-work of +basket-work, which was a very usual way of concealing cannon down to the +time of Henry VIII. + +[Illustration: _Bowmen and Arbalesters._] + +The man on the right of the cut wears a visored helmet, but it has no +amail; his body is protected by a skirt of mail, which appears at the +shoulders and hips, and at the openings of his blue surcoat; the legs are +in brown hose, and the feet in brown shoes. The centre figure has a helmet +and camail, sleeves of mail, and iron breastplate of overlapping plates; +the upper plate and the skirt are of red spotted with gold; his hose and +shoes are of dark grey. The third man has a helmet with camail, and the +body protected by mail, which shows under the arm, but he has also +shoulder-pieces and elbow-pieces of plate; his surcoat is yellow, and his +hose red. The artist has here admirably illustrated the use of the +crossbow. In one case we see the archer stringing it by help of a little +winch; in the next he is taking a bolt out of the quiver at his side with +which to load his weapon; in the third we have the attitude in which it +was discharged. + +[Illustration: _Arbalesters._] + +The illustration above, from a fourteenth-century MS. (Cott. Julius, E. +IV. f. 219), represents a siege. A walled town is on the right, and in +front of the wall, acting on the part of the town, are the cross-bowmen in +the cut, protected by great shields which are kept upright by a rest. The +men seem to be preparing to fire, and the uniformity of their attitude, +compared with the studied variety of attitude of groups of bowmen in other +illustrations, suggests that they are preparing to fire a volley. On the +left of the picture is sketched a group of tents representing the camp of +the besiegers, and in front of the camp is a palisade which screens a +cannon of considerable length. The whole picture is only sketched in with +pen and ink. + +The woodcut here given (Royal 14, E. IV. f. xiv.) forms part of a large +and very interesting picture. In the middle of the picture is a castle +with a bridge, protected by an advanced tower, and a postern with a +drawbridge drawn up. Archers, cross-bowmen, and men-at-arms man the +battlements. In front is a group of men-at-arms and tents, with archers +and cross-bowmen shooting up at the defenders. On the right is a group of +men-at-arms who seem to be meditating an attack by surprise upon the +postern. On the left, opposed to the principal gate, is the timber fort +shown in the woodcut. Its construction, of great posts and thick slabs of +timber strengthened with stays and cross-beams, is well indicated. There +seem to be two separate works: one is a battery of two cannon, the cannon +having wheeled carriages; the other is manned by archers. It is curious to +see the mixture of arms--long-bow, cross-bow, portable fire-arm, and +wheeled cannon, all used at the same time; indeed, it may be questioned +whether the earlier fire-arms were very much superior in effect to the +more ancient weapons which they supplanted. No doubt many an archer +preferred the long-bow, with which he could shoot with truer aim than with +a clumsy hand-gun; and perhaps a good catapult was only inferior to one of +the early cannon in being a larger and heavier engine. + +[Illustration: _Timber Fort._] + +At fol. l v. of the same MS., a wooden tower and lofty breast-work have +been thrown up in front of a town by the defenders as an additional +protection to the usual stone tower which defends the approach to the +bridge. The assailants are making an assault on this breast-work, and need +ladders to scale it; so that it is evident the defenders stand on a raised +platform behind their timber defence. See a similar work at f. xlviij., +which is mounted with cannon. + +The practice of archery by the commonalty of England was protected and +encouraged by a long series of legislation. As early as Henry I. we find +an enactment--which indicates that such accidents happened then as do +unhappily in these days, when rifle-shooting is become a national +practice--that if any one practising with arrows or with darts should by +accident slay another, it was not to be punished as a crime. In the +fourteenth century, when the archer had reached the height of his +importance in the warfare of the time, many enactments were passed on the +subject. Some were intended to encourage, and more than encourage, the +practice by the commonalty of what had become the national arm. In 1363, +and again in 1388, statutes were passed calling upon the people to leave +their popular amusements of ball and coits and casting the stone and the +like, on their festivals and Sundays, and to practise archery instead. +"Servants and labourers shall have bows and arrows, and use the same the +Sundays and holidays, and leave all playing at tennis or foot-ball, and +other games called coits, dice, casting the stone, kailes, and other such +inopportune games." + +In 1482 a statute says that the dearness of bows has driven the people to +leave shooting, and practise unlawful games, though the king's subjects +are perfectly disposed to shoot; and it therefore regulates the price of +bows. This crude legislation, of course, failed to remedy the evil, for if +the bowyers could not sell them at a profit, they would cease to make +them, or rather to import the wood of which they were made, since the best +yew for bows came from abroad, English yew not supplying pieces +sufficiently long without knots. Accordingly, in 1483, another statute +required all merchants sending merchandise to England from any place from +which bow-staves were usually exported, to send four bow-staves for every +ton of merchandise, and two persons were appointed at each port to inspect +the staves so sent, and mark and reject those which were not good and +sufficient. + +Still later the erection of butts was encouraged in every parish to +prevent the accidents which the statute of Henry I. had directed justice +to wink at; and traces of them still remain in the names of places, as in +Newington Butts; and still more frequently in the names of fields, as the +"butt-field." + +Our history of ancient artillery would be imperfect without a few words on +the modern artillery of metal balls propelled from hollow tubes by the +explosive force of gunpowder, which superseded the slings and bows and +darts, the catapults and trebuchets and mangonels and battering-rams, +which had been used from the beginning of warfare in the world, and also +drove out of use the armour, whether of leather, bone, or steel, which +failed to pay in security of person against shot and cannon-ball for its +weight and encumbrance to the wearer. A good deal of curious inquiry has +been bestowed upon the origin of this great agent in the revolution of +modern warfare. The Chinese and Arabs are generally regarded as the first +inventors of gunpowder; among Europeans its invention has been attributed +to Marcus Graecus, Albertus Magnus, Barthold Schwaletz, and Roger Bacon. + +The first written evidence relating to the existence of cannon is in the +ordinances of Florence, in the year 1326, wherein authority is given to +the Priors Gonfalionieri and twelve good men to appoint persons to +superintend the manufacture of cannons and iron balls for the defence of +the Commune Camp and territory of the Republic. J. Barbour, the poet, is +usually quoted as an authority for the use of cannon "crakeys of war," by +Edward III., in his Scottish campaign, in the year 1327. But since Barbour +was not born till about that year, and did not write till 1375, his +authority was not contemporary and may be doubted, especially since there +is strong negative evidence to the contrary: _e.g._ that all the army +accounts of this campaign still remain, and no mention of guns or +gunpowder is to be found in them. In 1338, however, there is +unquestionable evidence that cannon of both iron and brass were employed +on board English ships of war. In an inventory of things delivered that +year by John Starling, formerly clerk of the king's vessels, to Helmyng, +keeper of the same, are noted "un canon de fer ov ii chambers, un autre de +bras ove une chamber, iii canons de fer of v chambres, un handgonne," &c. +In explanation of the two and five chambers, it appears that these +earliest cannon were breechloaders, and each cannon had several movable +chambers to contain the charges. The same year, 1338, gives the first +French document relating to cannon. It is doubly interesting; first +because it relates to the provision made for an expedition against +Southampton in that year, and secondly because it was a curious attempt to +combine the cannon and the arbalest, in other words, to make use of the +force of gunpowder for propelling the old short quarrel. It was an iron +fire-arm provided with forty-eight bolts (carreaux) made of iron and +feathered with brass. We learn that a tube received the arrow, which was +wrapped round with leather at the butt to make it fit closely, and this +tube fitted to a box, or chamber, which contained the charge and was kept +in its place by a wedge.[397] In 1339 it is recorded that the English used +cannon at the siege of Cambray. In 1346 experiments on improved cannon +were made by Peter of Bruges, a famous maker, before the consuls of +Tournay. At the siege of Calais, in 1347, the English built a castle of +wood, and armed it with bombards. In the household expenses of Edward +III., commencing 1344, are payments to "engyners lvii., artillers vi., +gunners vi.," who each received sixpence a day. + +The date of the first appearance of cannon in the field is still +disputed; some say they were used at Crecy in the year 1346. Certainly, +in 1382, the men of Ghent carried guns into the field against the +Brugeois; and at the combat of Pont-de-Comines, in the same year, we read +_bombardes portatives_ were used. + +[Illustration: _Long-bow, Arquebus, Cannon, and Greek Fire._] + +We have already given several illustrations of cannon. Siege cannon for +throwing heavy balls which did not need very great accuracy of aim, soon +superseded entirely the more cumbrous military engines which were formerly +used for the same purpose. But hand-guns were not at first so greatly +superior to bows, and did not so rapidly come into exclusive use. And yet +a good deal of inventive ingenuity was bestowed upon their improvement and +development. The "Brown Bess" of our great continental war was a clumsy +weapon after all, and it may fairly be doubted whether a regiment armed +with it could have stood against a row of Robin Hood's men with their +long-bows. It was really left to our day to produce a portable fire-arm +which would fire as rapidly, as far, and with as accurate an aim as Robin +Hood's men could shoot their cloth-yard shafts six hundred years ago; and +yet it is curious to find some of the most ingenious inventions of the +present day anticipated long since: there are still preserved in the Tower +armoury breech-loaders and revolving chambers and conical shot of the time +of Henry VIII. + +The woodcut on the preceding page, which is from the MS. Royal 14, E. IV., +contains several figures taken from one of the large illuminations that +adorn the MS.; it affords another curious illustration of the simultaneous +use of various forms of projectiles. On the right side is an archer, with +his sheaf at his belt and his sword by his side. On the left is a +man-at-arms in a very picturesque suit of complete armour, firing a +hand-gun of much more modern form than those in the former woodcut. A +small wheeled cannon on the ground shows the contemporary form of that +arm, while the pikes beside it help to illustrate the great variety of +weapons in use. The cross-bowman here introduced is from the same +illumination; he is winding up his weapon with a winch, like the +cross-bowman on p. 442; his shield is slung at his back. + +[Illustration: _Cross-bow._] + +But we have specially to call attention to the two men who are throwing +shells, which are probably charged with Greek fire. This invention, which +inspired such terror in the Middle Ages, seems to have been discovered in +the east of Europe, and to have been employed as early as the seventh +century. We hear much of its use in the Crusades, by the Greeks, who early +possessed the secret of its fabrication. They used it either by ejecting +it through pipes to set fire to the shipping or military engines, or to +annoy and kill the soldiers of the enemy; or they cast it to a distance by +means of vessels charged with it affixed to javelins; or they hurled +larger vessels by means of the great engines for casting stones; or they +threw the fire by hand in a hand-to-hand conflict; or used hollow maces +charged with it, which were broken over the person of the enemy, and the +liquid fire poured down, finding its way through the crevices of his +armour. It was, no doubt, a terrible sight to see a man-at-arms or a ship +wrapped in an instant in liquid flames; and what added to the terror it +inspired was that the flames could not be extinguished by water or any +other available appliance. On the introduction of the use of gunpowder in +European warfare, Greek fire seems also to have been experimented upon, +and we find several representations of its use in the MS. drawings where +it is chiefly thrown by hand to set fire to shipping; in the present +example, however, it is used in the field. + +[Illustration: _Battering-ram._] + +Lastly, in the above cut we give a representation of the battering-ram +from an interesting work which illustrates all the usual military +engines.[398] It contains curious contrivances for throwing up +scaling-ladders and affixing them to the battlements, from which the +inventors of our fire-escapes may have borrowed suggestions; and others +for bridging wide moats and rivers with light scaffolding, which could be +handled and fixed as easily and quickly as the scaling-ladders. The +drawing of the ram only indicates that the machine consists of a heavy +square beam of timber, provided, probably, with a metal head, which is +suspended by a rope from a tall frame, and worked by manual strength. The +cut is especially interesting as an illustration of the style of armour of +the latter part of the fifteenth century. It gives the back as well as the +front of the figure, and also several varieties of helmet. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +FIFTEENTH CENTURY ARMOUR. + + +As the fifteenth century advanced the wars of the Roses gave urgent reason +for attention to the subject of defensive armour; and we find, +accordingly, that the fashions of armour underwent many modifications, in +the attempt to give the wearer more perfect protection for life and limb. +It would be tedious to enter into the minute details of these changes, and +the exact date of their introduction; we must limit ourselves to a brief +history of the general character of the new fashions. The horizontal bands +of armour called _taces_, depending from the corslet, became gradually +narrower; while the pieces which hung down in front of the thighs, called +_tuilles_, became proportionately larger. In the reigns of Richard III. +and Henry VII. the knightly equipment reached its strangest forms. Besides +the usual close-fitting pieces which protected the arms, the elbow-piece +was enlarged into an enormous fan-like shape that not only protected the +elbow itself, but overlapped the fore arm, and by its peculiar shape +protected the upper arm up to the shoulder. The shoulder-pieces also were +strengthened, sometimes by several super-imposed overlapping plates, +sometimes by hammering it out into ridges, sometimes by the addition of a +_passe garde_--a kind of high collar which protected the neck from a +sweeping side blow. The breastplate is globular in shape, and often narrow +at the waist; from it depend narrow _taces_ and _tuilles_, and under the +_tuilles_ we often find a deep skirt of mail. When broad-toed shoes came +into fashion, the iron shoes of the knight followed the fashion; and at +the same time, in place of the old gauntlet in which the fingers were +divided, and each finger protected by several small plates of metal, the +leather glove was now furnished at the back of the hand with three or four +broad over-lapping plates, like those of a lobster, each of which +stretched across the whole hand. These alterations may have added to the +strength of the armour, but it was at the cost of elegance of appearance. +A suit of armour embossed with ornamental patterns, partially covered with +a blue mantle, may be seen in the fifteenth-century Book of Hours, Harl. +5,328, f. 77. + +In the time of Henry VIII., in place of the _taces_ and _tuilles_ for the +defence of the body and thighs, a kind of skirt of steel, called +_lamboys_, was introduced, which was fluted and ribbed vertically, so as +to give it very much the appearance of a short petticoat. Henry VIII. is +represented in this costume in the equestrian figure on his great seal. +And a suit of armour of this kind, a very magnificent one, which was +presented to the king by the Emperor Maximilian on the occasion of his +marriage to Katharine of Arragon, is preserved in the Tower armoury. A +good sketch of a suit of this kind will be seen in one of the pikemen--the +fifth from the right hand--in the nearest rank of the army in the +engraving of King Henry VIII.'s army, which faces page 455. The armour of +this reign was sometimes fashioned in exact imitation of the shape of the +ordinary garments of a gentleman of the time, and engraved and inlaid in +imitation of their woven or embroidered ornamentation. + +In the tournament armour of the time the defences were most complete, but +unwieldy and inelegant. The front of the saddle had a large piece of +armour attached, which came up to protect the trunk, and was bent round to +encase each thigh. A clearly drawn representation of this will be found in +a tilting scene in the illumination on f. 15 v. of the MS. Add. 24,189, +date _circa_ 1400 A.D. There are several examples of it in the Tower +armoury. The shield was also elaborately shaped and curved, to form an +outer armour for the defence of the whole of the left side. Instead of the +shield there was sometimes an additional piece of armour, called the +_grand garde_, screwed to the breastplate, to protect the left side and +shoulder; while the great spear had also a piece of armour affixed in +front of the grasp, which not only protected the hand, but was made large +enough to make a kind of shield for the right arm and breast. There was +also sometimes a secondary defence affixed to the upper part of the +breastplate, which stood out in front of the face. These defences for +thigh and breast will be observed in the woodcut of the "playing at +tournament," on p. 408; and in the combat of the Earl of Warwick, p. 418, +will be seen how the _grande garde_ is combined with the _volante_ piece +which came in front of the face. Behind such defences the tilter must have +been almost invulnerable. On the other hand, his defences were so unwieldy +that he must have got into his saddle first, and then have been packed +securely into his armour; and when there, he could do nothing but sit +still and hold his spear in rest--it seems impossible for him even to have +struck a single sword stroke. James I.'s remark on armour was especially +true of such a suit: "It was an admirable invention which preserved a man +from being injured, and made him incapable of injuring any one else." + +[Illustration: _Combat on Foot._] + +There are several very good authorities for the military costume of the +reign of Henry VIII. easily accessible to the student and artist. The +roll preserved in the College of Arms which represents the tournament held +at Westminster, A.D. 1510, in honour of the birth of the son of Henry and +Katharine of Arragon, has been engraved in the "Vetusta Monumenta." The +painting of the Field of the Cloth of Gold at Hampton Court is another +contemporary authority full of costumes of all kinds. The engravings of +Hans Burgmaier, in the _Triumphs of Maximilian_ and the _Weise Könige_ +contain numerous authorities very valuable for the clearness and artistic +skill with which the armour is depicted. We have given an illustration, on +the preceding page, reduced from one of the plates of the latter work, +which represents a combat of two knights, on foot. The armour is partly +covered by a surcoat; in the left-hand figure it will be seen that it is +fluted. The shields will be noticed as illustrating one of the shapes then +in use. + +But our best illustration is from a contemporary drawing in the British +Museum (Aug. III., f. 4), which represents Henry VIII.'s army, and gives +us, on a small scale, and in very sketchy but intelligible style, a +curious and valuable picture of the military equipment of the period. We +have two armies drawn up in battle array, and the assault is just +commenced. The nearer army has its main body of pikemen, who, we know from +contemporary writers, formed the main strength of an army at this time, +and for long after. In front of them are two lines of arquebusiers. Their +front is protected by artillery, screened by great _mantelets_ of timber. +The opposing army has similarly its main body of pikemen, and its two +lines of arquebusiers; the first line engaged in an assault upon the +enemy's artillery. On the left flank of its main body is the cavalry; and +there seems to be a reserve of pikemen a little distance in the rear, +behind a rising ground. Tents pitched about a village represent the +head-quarters of the army, and baggage waggons on the left of the picture +show that the artist has overlooked nothing. A fortress in the distance +seems to be taking part in the engagement with its guns. + +There are other similar pictures in the same volume, some of which supply +details not here given, or not so clearly expressed. At folio 1 are two +armies, each with a van of musketeers three deep, a main body of pikemen +eleven deep, and a third line of musketeers three deep. The cavalry are +more distinctly shown than in the picture before us, as being men-at-arms +in full armour, with lances. At folio 3 the drummers, fifers, and baggage +and camp followers are shown. + +In the _Weise Könige_,[399] on plate 44, is a representation of a camp +surrounded by the baggage waggons; on plates 91 and 96 a square fort of +timber in the field of battle; on plates 57, 84, &c., are cannons +surrounded by mantelets, some of wicker probably filled with earth; on +plate 60 is a good representation of a column of troops defiling out of +the gate of a city. + +The following account, from Grafton's Chronicle, of the array in which +Henry VIII. took the field when he marched to the siege of Boulogne, will +illustrate the picture:-- + +"The xxj. day of July (1513), when all thinges by counsayle had bene +ordered concernyng the order of battaile, the king passed out of the town +of Calice in goodly array of battaile, and toke the field. And +notwithstandyng that the forewarde and the rerewarde of the kinges great +armye were before Tyrwin, as you have heard, yet the king of his own +battaile made three battailes after the fassion of the warre. The Lord +Lisle, marshall of the hoste, was captain of the foreward, and under him +three thousand men; Sir Rychard Carew, with three hundred men, was the +right-hand wing to the foreward; and the Lord Darcy, with three hundred +men, was wing on the left hande; the scowrers and fore-ryders of this +battaile were the Northumberland men on light geldings. The Erle of Essex +was lieutenaunt-generall of the speres, and Sir John Pechy was +vice-governour of the horsemen. Before the king went viij. hundred +Almaynes, all in a plump by themselves. After them came the standard with +the red dragon, next the banner of our ladie, and next after the banner of +the Trinitie: under the same were all the kinges housholde servauntes. +Then went the banner of the armes of Englande, borne by Sir Henry +Guilforde, under which banner was the king himselfe, with divers noblemen +and others, to the number of three thousand men. The Duke of Buckyngham, +with sixe hundred men, was on the kinges left hande, egall with the +Almaynes; in like wise on the right hande was Sir Edward Pournynges, with +other sixe hundred men egall with the Almaynes. The Lord of Burgoynie, +with viij. hundred men, was wing on the right hande; Sir William Compton, +with the retinue of the Bishop of Winchester, and Master Wolsey, the +king's almoner,[400] to the number of viij. hundred, was in manner of a +rereward. Sir Anthony Oughtred and Sir John Nevell, with the kinges speres +that followed, were foure hundred; and so the whole armie were xj. +thousand and iij. hundred men. The Mayster of the Ordinaunce set forth the +kinges artillerie, as fawcons, slinges, bombardes, cartes with powder, +stones, bowes, arrowes, and suche other thinges necessary for the fielde; +the whole number of the carriages were xiij. hundreth; the leaders and +dryvers of the same were xix hundreth men; and all these were rekened in +the battaile, but of good fightyng men there were not full ix. thousande. +Thus in order of battayle the king rode to Sentreyla." + +[Illustration: _Pikeman._] + +A little after we have a description of the king's camp, which will +illustrate the other pictures above noted. + +"Thursedaie, the fourth daye of Auguste, the king, in good order of +battaile, came before the city of Tyrwyn, and planted his siege in most +warlike wise; his camp was environed with artillerie, as fawcons, +serpentines, crakys, hagbushes, and tryed harowes, spien trestyles, and +other warlike defence for the savegard of the campe. The king for himselfe +had a house of timber, with a chimney of iron; and for his other lodgings +he had great and goodlye tents of blewe waterworke, garnished with yellow +and white, and divers romes within the same for all officers necessarie. +On the top of the pavalions stoode the kinges bestes, holding fanes, as +the lion, the dragon, the greyhound, the antelope, the Done Kowe.[401] +Within, all the lodginge was paynted full of the sunnes rising: the +lodginge was a hundred xxv. foote in length." + +At folio 5 of the MS. already referred to (Aug. III.) is a connected +arrangement of numerous tents, as if to form some such royal quarters. But +at folio 8 are two gorgeous _suites_ of tents, which can hardly have been +constructed for any other than a very great personage. One _suite_ is of +red, watered, with gold ornamentation; the other is of green and white +stripes (or rather gores), with a gilded cresting along the ridge, and red +and blue fringe at the eaves. + +Our next engravings are from coloured drawings at f. 9, in the same MS., +and respectively represent very clearly the half-armour worn by the +pikeman and the arquebusier, and the weapons from which they took their +name. + +In the reign of Elizabeth and James I. armour was probably very little +worn; but every country knight and esquire possessed a suit of armour, +which usually hung in his hall over his chair of state, surrounded by +corslets and iron hats, pikes and halberts, cross-bows and long-bows, +wherewith to arm his serving-men and tenants, if civil troubles or foreign +invasion should call the fighting-men of the country into the field.[402] +The knights and esquires of these times are also commonly represented in +armour, kneeling at the prayer-desk, in their monumental effigies. The +fashion of the armour differs from that of preceding reigns. The elaborate +ingenuities of the latter part of the fifteenth century have been +dispensed with, and the extravagant caprices also by which the armour of +Henry VIII.'s time imitated in steel the fashion of the ordinary costume +of the day are equally abandoned. The armour is simply made to fit the +breast, body, arms, and legs; the thighs being protected by a modification +of the _tuilles_ in the form of a succession of overlapping plates +(_tassets_ or _cuisses_) which reach from the corslet to the knee. + +[Illustration: _Arquebusier._] + +The civil war of the Great Rebellion offers a tempting theme, but we must +limit ourselves to the notice that few, except great noblemen when acting +as military leaders, ever wore anything like a complete suit of armour. A +beautiful suit, inlaid with gold, which belonged to Charles I., is in the +Tower armoury. But knights are still sometimes represented in armour in +their monumental effigies. A breast and back-plate over a leather coat, +and a round iron cap, were commonly worn both by cavalry and infantry. + +In the time of Charles II. and James II., and William and Mary, officers +still wore breastplates, and military leaders were sometimes painted in +full armour, though it may be doubted whether they ever actually wore it. +As late as the present century, officers, in some regiments at least, wore +a little steel gorget, rather as a distinction than a defence. But even +yet our horse-guards remain with their breast and back-plates and helmets, +and their thick leather boots, to show us how bright steel and scarlet, +waving plumes and embroidered banners, trained chargers and gay trappings, +give outward bravery and chivalric grace to the holiday aspect of the +sanguinary trade of war. + + + + +THE MERCHANTS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE BEGINNINGS OF BRITISH COMMERCE. + + +In the remotest antiquity, before European civilisation dawned in Greece, +Britain was already of some commercial importance. In those days, before +the art of tempering iron was discovered, copper occupied the place which +iron now fills. But an alloy of tin was requisite to give to copper the +hardness and edge needed to fit it for useful tools for the artisan, for +arrow and spear heads for the hunter, and for the warrior's sword and +shield; and there were only two places known in the world where this +valuable metal could be obtained--Spain and Britain. For ages the +Phoenician merchants and their Carthaginian colonists had a monopoly of +this commerce, as they only had the secret of the whereabouts of the +"Isles of Tin." It is very difficult for us to realise to ourselves how +heroic was the daring of those early adventurers. We, who have explored +the whole earth, and by steam and telegraph brought every corner of it +within such easy reach; we, to whom it is a very small matter to make a +voyage with women and children to the other side of the world; we, who +walk down to the pier to see the ships return from the under world, +keeping their time as regularly as the Minster clock--we cannot comprehend +what it was to them, to whom the tideless sunny Mediterranean was "The +Great Sea," about which they groped cautiously from one rocky headland to +another in fine weather, and laid up in harbour for the winter; to whom +the Pillars of Hercules were the western boundary of the world, beyond +which the weird ocean with its great tides and mountain-waves stretched +without limit towards the sunset; we cannot comprehend the heroic daring +of the men who, in those little ships, without compass, came from the +easternmost shores of the Great Sea, ventured through its western portal +into this outer waste, and steered boldly northwards towards the unknown +regions of ice and darkness. + +Our readers will remember that Strabo tells us how, when Rome became the +rival of Carthage, the Romans tried to discover the route to these +mysterious islands. He relates how the master of a Carthaginian vessel, +finding himself pursued by one whom the Romans had appointed to watch him, +purposely ran his vessel aground, and thus sacrificing ship and cargo to +the preservation of the national secret, was repaid on his return out of +the public treasury. + +The trade, which included lead and hides as well as tin, when it left the +hands of the Phoenicians, did not, however, fall into those of the Romans, +but took quite a different channel. The Greek colony of Marseilles became +then the emporium from which the world was supplied; but the scanty +accounts we have received imply that it was not conveyed there direct on +ship-board, but that the native ships and traders of the Gallic towns on +the coasts of the Continent conveyed the British commerce across the +Channel, and thence transported it overland to Marseilles. + +The Britons, however, had ships, and it is interesting to know of what +kind were the prototypes of the vast and magnificent vessels which in +later days have composed the mercantile navy of Great Britain. They were a +kind of large basket of wickerwork, in shape like a walnut shell, +strengthened by ribs of wood, covered on the outside with hides.[403] Such +constructions seem very frail, but they were capable of undertaking +considerable voyages. Pliny quotes the old Greek historian Timæus as +affirming that the Britons used to make their way to an island at the +distance of six days' sail in boats made of osiers and covered with +skins. Solinus states that in his time the communication between Britain +and Ireland was kept up on both sides by means of these vessels. Two +passages in Adamson, quoted by Macpherson,[404] tell us that the people +sailed in them from Ireland as far as Orkney, and on one occasion we hear +of one of these frail vessels advancing as far into the Northern Ocean as +fourteen days with full sail before a south wind. The common use of such +vessels, and the fact of this intercommunication between England and +Ireland and the islands farther north, seem to imply, at least, some +coasting and inter-insular traffic: ships are the instruments either of +war or commerce. + +The invasion of Julius Cæsar opened up the island to the knowledge of the +civilised world, and there are indications that in the interval of a +hundred years between his brief campaign and the actual conquest under +Claudius, a commerce sprang up between the south and south-east of Britain +and the opposite coasts of the Continent. In this interval the first +British coinage was struck, and London became the chief emporium of +Britain. When the island became a province of the Roman empire, active +commercial intercourse was carried on between it and the rest of the +empire. Its chief production was corn, of which large quantities were +exported, so that Britain was to the northern part of the empire what +Sicily was to the southern. Besides, the island exported cattle, hides, +and slaves; British hunting dogs were famous, and British oysters and +pearls. The imports would include all the articles of convenience and +luxury used by the civilised inhabitants. We do not know with certainty +whether this foreign commerce was carried on by British vessels or not. +History has only preserved the record of the military navy. But when we +know that the British fleet, which had been raised to control the +piratical enterprises of the Saxons and Northmen, was so powerful that its +admiral, Carausius, was able to seize upon a share of the empire, and that +his successor in command, Allectus, was able, though for a shorter period, +to repeat the exploit, we may conclude that the natives of the island must +have acquired considerable knowledge and experience of maritime affairs, +and were very likely to turn their acquirements in the direction of +commerce. Many of the representations of Roman ships, to be found in works +on Roman antiquities, would illustrate this part of the subject; we may +content ourselves with referring the reader to a representation, in +Witsen's "Sheeps Bouw," of a Roman ship being laden with merchandise: a +half-naked porter is just putting on board a sack, probably of corn, which +is being received by a man in Roman armour; it brings the salient features +of the trade at once before our eyes. + +The Saxon invasion overwhelmed the civilisation which was then widely +spread over Britain; and of the history of the country for a long time +after that great event we are profoundly ignorant. + +It appears that the Saxons after their settlement in England completely +neglected the sea, and it was not until the reign of Alfred, towards the +end of the ninth century, that they again began to build ships, and not +until some years later that foreign commerce was carried on in English +vessels. In these later Saxon times, however, considerable intercourse +took place with the Continent. There was a rage among Saxon men, and women +too, for foreign pilgrimages; and thousands of persons were continually +going and coming between England and the most famous shrines of Europe, +especially those of Rome, the capital city of Western Christendom. Among +these travellers were some whose object was traffic, probably in the +portable articles of jewellery for which the Saxon goldsmiths were famous +throughout Europe. It seems probable that some of these merchants were +accustomed to adopt the pilgrims' character and habit in order to avail +themselves of the immunities and hospitalities accorded to them; and, +perhaps, on the other hand, some of those whose first object was religion, +carried a few articles for sale to eke out their expenses. This, probably, +is the explanation of the earliest extant document bearing on Saxon +commerce, which is a letter from the Emperor Charlemagne to Offa, King of +the Mercians, in which he says: "Concerning the strangers, who, for the +love of God and the salvation of their souls, wish to repair to the +thresholds of the blessed Apostles, let them travel in peace without any +trouble; nevertheless, if any are found among them not in the service of +religion, but in the pursuit of gain, let them pay the established duties +at the proper places. We also will that merchants shall have lawful +protection in our kingdom; and if they are in any place unjustly +aggrieved, let them apply to us or our judges, and we shall take care that +ample justice be done them." The latter clause seems clearly to imply that +English merchants in their acknowledged character were also to be found in +the dominions of the great Emperor. + +The next notice we find of Saxon foreign commerce is equally picturesque, +and far more important. It is a law passed in the reign of King Athelstan, +between 925 and 950, which enacts that every merchant who shall have made +three voyages over the sea in a ship and cargo of his own should have the +rank of a thane, or nobleman. It will throw light upon this law, if we +mention that it stands side by side with another which gives equally +generous recognition to success in agricultural pursuits: every one who +had so prospered that he possessed five hides of land, a hall, and a +church, was also to rank as a thane. + +The law indicates the usual way in which foreign commerce was carried on +by native merchants. The merchant owned his own ship, and laded it with +his own cargo, and was his own captain, though he might, perhaps, employ +some skilful mariner as his ship-master; and, no doubt, his crew was well +armed for protection from pirates. In these days a ship is often chartered +to carry a cargo to a particular port, and there the captain obtains +another cargo, such as the market affords him, to some other port, and so +he may wander over the world in the most unforeseen manner before he finds +a profitable opportunity of returning to his starting-place. So, probably, +in those times the spirited merchant would not merely oscillate between +home and a given foreign point, but would carry on a traffic of an +adventurous and hazardous but exciting kind, from one of the great +European ports to another. + +From a volume of Saxon dialogues in the British Museum (Tiberius, A. +III.), apparently intended for a school-book, which gives information of +various kinds in the form of question and answer, Mr. S. Turner quotes a +passage that illustrates our subject in a very interesting way. The +merchant is introduced as one of the characters, to give an account of his +occupation and way of life. "I am useful," he says, "to the king and to +ealdormen, and to the rich, and to all people. I ascend my ship with my +merchandise, and sail over the sea-like places, and sell my things, and +buy dear things which are not produced in this land, and I bring them to +you here with great danger over the sea; and sometimes I suffer shipwreck +with the loss of all my things, scarcely escaping myself." The question, +"What do you bring us?" demands an account of the imports, to which he +answers, "Skins, silks, costly gems, and gold; various garments, pigment, +wine, oil, ivory, and onchalcus (perhaps brass); copper, tin, silver, +glass, and such like." The author has omitted to make his merchant tell us +what things he exported, but from other sources we gather that they were +chiefly wool, slaves, probably some of the metals, viz., tin and lead, and +the goldsmith's work and embroidery for which the Saxons were then famous +throughout Europe. The dialogue brings out the principle which lies at the +bottom of commerce by the next question, "Will you sell your things here +as you bought them there?" "I will not, because what would my labour +profit me? I will sell them here, dearer than I bought them there, that I +may get some profit to feed me, my wife, and children." For the silks and +ivory, our merchant would perhaps have to push his adventurous voyage as +far as Marseilles or Italy. Corn, which used to be the chief export in +British and Roman times, appears never to have been exported by the +Saxons; they were a pastoral, rather than an agricultural, people. The +traffic in slaves seems to have been regular and considerable. The reader +will remember how the sight of a number of fair English children exposed +for sale in the Roman market-place excited Gregory's interest, and led +ultimately to Augustine's mission. The contemporary account of Wolfstan, +Bishop of Worcester, at the time of the Conquest, speaks of similar scenes +to be witnessed in Bristol, from which port slaves were exported to +Ireland--probably to the Danes, who were then masters of the east coast. +"You might have seen with sorrow long ranks of young people of both sexes, +and of the greatest beauty, tied together with ropes, and daily exposed to +sale: nor were these men ashamed--O horrid wickedness--to give up their +nearest relations, nay their own children, to slavery." The good bishop +induced them to abandon the trade, "and set an example to all the rest of +England to do the same." Nevertheless, William of Malmesbury, who wrote +nearly a century later, says that the practice of selling even their +nearest relations into slavery had not been altogether abandoned by the +people of Northumberland in his own memory. + +Already, on the death of Ethelbert, in 1016, the citizens of London had +arrived at such importance, that, in conjunction with the nobles who were +in the city, they chose a king for the whole English nation, viz., Edmund +Ironside; and again on the death of Canute, in 1036, they took a +considerable part in the election of Harold. At the battle of Hastings the +burgesses of London formed Harold's body-guard. A few years previously, +Canute, on his pilgrimage to Rome, met the Emperor Conrade and other +princes, from whom he obtained for all his subjects, whether merchants or +pilgrims, exemption from the heavy tolls usually exacted on the journey to +Rome. + +During the peaceful reign of Edward the Confessor a much larger general +intercourse seems to have sprung up with the Continent, and the commerce +of England to have greatly increased. For this we have the testimony of +William of Poictiers, William the Conqueror's chaplain, who says, speaking +of the time immediately preceding the Conquest, "The English merchants to +the opulence of their country, rich in its own fertility, added still +greater riches and more valuable treasures. The articles imported by them, +notable both for their quantity and their quality, were to have been +hoarded up for the gratification of their avarice, or to have been +dissipated in the indulgence of their luxurious inclinations. But William +seized them, and bestowed part on his victorious army, and part on the +churches and monasteries, while to the Pope and the Church of Rome he sent +an incredible mass of money in gold and silver, and many ornaments that +would have been admired even in Constantinople." + +We are not able to give any authentic contemporary illustration of the +shipping of this period. Those which are given by Strutt are not really +representations of the ships of the period: Byzantine Art still exercised +a powerful influence over Saxon Art, and the illuminators frequently gave +traditional forms; and the ships introduced by Strutt, though executed by +a Saxon artist, are probably copied from Byzantine authorities. The Bayeux +tapestry is probably our earliest trustworthy authority for a British +ship, and it gives a considerable number of illustrations of them, +intended to represent in one place the numerous fleet which William the +Conqueror gathered for the transport of his army across the Channel; in +another place the considerable fleet with which Harold hoped to bar the +way. The one we have chosen is the duke's own ship; it displays at its +mast-head the banner which the Pope had blessed, and the trumpeter on the +high poop is also an evidence that it is the commander's ship. In the +present case the trumpeter is known, from contemporary authority, to have +been only wood gilded; but in many of the subsequent illustrations we +shall also find a trumpeter, or usually two, who were part of the staff of +the commander, and perhaps were employed in signalling to other ships of +the fleet. + +[Illustration: _William the Conqueror's Ship._] + +The Conquest checked this thriving commerce. William's plunder of the +Saxon merchants, which was probably not confined to London, must have +gone far to ruin those who were then engaged in it; the general depression +of Saxon men for a long time after would prevent them or others from +reviving it; and the Normans themselves were averse from mercantile +pursuits. In the half-century after the Conquest we really know little or +nothing of the history of commerce. The charters of the first Norman kings +make no mention of it. Stephen's troubled reign must have been very +unfavourable to it. Still foreign merchants would seek a market where they +could dispose of their goods, and the long and wise reign of Henry II. +enabled English commerce, not only to recover, but to surpass its ancient +prosperity. An interesting account of London, given by William +FitzStephen, about 1174, in the introduction to a Life of à Becket, gives +much information on our subject: he says that "no city in the world sent +out its wealth and merchandise to so great a distance," but he does not +enumerate the exports. Among the articles brought to London by foreign +merchants he mentions gold, spices, and frankincense from Arabia; precious +stones from Egypt; purple cloths from Bagdad; furs and ermines from Norway +and Russia; arms from Scythia; and wines from France. The citizens he +describes as distinguished above all others in England for the elegance of +their manners and dress, and the magnificence of their tables. There were +in the city and suburbs thirteen large conventual establishments and 120 +parish churches. He adds that the dealers in the various sorts of +commodities, and the labourers and artizans of every kind, were to be +found every day stationed in their several distinct places throughout the +city, and that a market was held every Friday in Smithfield for the sale +of horses, cows, hogs, &c.; the citizens were distinguished from those of +other towns by the appellation of barons; and Malmesbury, an author of the +same age, also tells us that from their superior opulence, and the +greatness of the city, they were considered as ranking with the chief +people or nobility of the kingdom. + +The great charter of King John provided that all merchants should have +protection in going out of England and in coming back to it, as well as +while residing in the kingdom or travelling about in it, without any +impositions or payments such as to cause the destruction of their trade. +During the thirteenth century, it seems probable that much of the foreign +commerce of the country was carried on by foreign merchants, who imported +chiefly articles of luxury, and carried back chiefly wool, hides, and +leather, and the metals found in England. But there were various +enactments to prevent foreign merchants from engaging in the domestic +trade of the country. In the fourteenth century commerce received much +attention from government, and many regulations were made in the endeavour +to encourage it, or rather to secure as much of its profits as possible to +English, and leave as little as possible to foreign, merchants. Our limits +do not allow us to enter into details on the subject, and our plan aims +only at giving broad outside views of the life of the merchants of the +Middle Ages. + +Let us introduce here an illustration of the ships in which the commerce +was conducted. Perhaps the only illustration to be derived from the MS. +illuminations of the thirteenth century is one in the Roll of St. Guthlac, +which is early in the century, and gives a large and clear picture of St. +Guthlac in a ship with a single mast and sail, steered by a paddle +consisting of a pole with a short cross handle at the top, like the poles +with which barges are still punted along, and expanding at bottom into a +short spade-like blade. Some of the seals of this century also give rude +representations of ships: one of H. de Neville gives a perfectly +crescent-shaped hull with a single mast supported by two stays; that of +Hugo de Burgh has a very high prow and stern, which reminds us of the +build of modern _prahus_. Another, of the town of Monmouth, has a more +artistic representation of a ship of similar shape, but the high prow and +stern are both ornamented with animals' heads, like the prow of William +the Conqueror's ship. The Psalter of Queen Mary, which is of early +fourteenth-century date, gives an illustration of the building of Noah's +ark, which is a ship of the shape found in the Bayeux tapestry, with a +sort of house within it. The illustration we give opposite from the Add. +MS. 3,983, f. 6, was also executed early in the fourteenth century, and +though rude it is valuable as one of the earliest examples of a ship with +a rudder of the modern construction; it also clearly indicates the fact +that these early vessels used oars as well as sails. The usual mode of +steering previous to, and for some time subsequent to, this time was with +a large broad oar at the ship's counter, worked in a noose of rope (a +_gummet_) or through a hole in a piece of wood attached to the vessel's +side. The first mode will be found illustrated in the Add. MS. 24,189, at +f. 30, and the second at f. 5 in the same MS. The men of this period were +not insensible to the value of a means of propelling a vessel +independently of the wind; and employed human muscle as their motive +power. Some of the great trading cities of the Mediterranean used galleys +worked by oars, not only for warfare, but for commercial purposes: _e.g._ +in 1409 A.D., King Henry granted to the merchants of Venice permission to +bring their carracks, galleys, and other vessels, laden with merchandise, +to pass over to Flanders, return and sell their cargoes without +impediment, and sail again with English merchandise and go back to their +own country. + +[Illustration: _A Ship, Early Fourteenth Century._] + +A very curious and interesting MS. (Add. 27,695) recently acquired by +the British Museum, which appears to be of Genoese Art, and of date +about A.D. 1420, enables us to give a valuable illustration of our +subject. It occupies the whole page of the MS.; we have only given the +lower half, of the size of the original. It appears to represent the +siege of Tripoli. The city is in the upper part of the page; our cut +represents the harbour and a suburb of the town. It is clearly indicated +that it is low water, and the high-water mark is shown in the drawing by a +different colour. Moreover, a timber pier will be noticed, stretching out +between high and low-water mark, and a boat left high and dry by the +receding tide. In the harbour are ships of various kinds, and especially +several of the galleys of which we have spoken. The war-galley may be +found fully illustrated in Witsen's "Sheep's Bouw," p. 186. + +[Illustration: _A Harbour in the Fourteenth Century._] + +[Illustration: _An Early Representation of the Whale Fishery._] + +The same MS., in the lower margin of folio 9 v., has an exceedingly +interesting picture of a whaling scene, which we are very glad to +introduce as a further illustration of the commerce and shipping of this +early period. It will be seen that the whale has been killed, and the +successful adventurers are "cutting out" the blubber very much after the +modern fashion. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE MERCHANT NAVY. + + +The history of the merchant navy in the Middle Ages is very much mixed up +with that of the military navy. + +In the time of the earlier Norman kings we seem not to have had any +war-ships. The king had one or two ships for his own uses, and hired or +impressed others when he needed them; but they were only ships of burden, +transports by which soldiers and munitions of war were conveyed to the +Continent and back, as occasion required. If hostile vessels encountered +one another at sea, and a fight ensued, it seems to have been a very +simple business: the sailors had nothing to do with the fighting, they +only navigated the ships; the soldiers on board discharged their missiles +at one another as the ships approached, and when the vessels were laid +alongside, they fought hand to hand. The first ships of war were a revival +of the classical war-galleys. We get the first clear description of them +in the time of Richard I., from Vinesauf, the historian of the second +Crusade. He compares them with the ancient galleys, and says the modern +ones were long, low in the water, and slightly built, rarely had more than +two banks of oars, and were armed with a "spear" at the prow for +"ramming." Gallernes were a smaller kind of galleys with only one bank of +oars. + +From this reign the sovereign seems to have always maintained something +approaching to a regular naval establishment, and to have aimed at keeping +the command of the narrow seas. In the reign of John we find the king had +galleys and galliases, and another kind of vessels which were probably +also a sort of galley, called "long ships," used to guard the coasts, +protect the ports, and maintain the police of the seas. + +The accompanying drawing, from one of the illuminations in the famous +MS. of Froissart's Chronicle, in the British Museum (Harl. 4,379), is +perhaps one of the clearest and best contemporary illustrations we have of +these mediæval galleys. It will be seen that it consists of a long low +open boat, with outrigger galleries for the rowers, while the hold is +left free for merchandise, or, as in the present instance, for +men-at-arms. It has a forecastle like an ordinary ship; the shields of the +men-at-arms who occupy it are hung over the bulwarks; the commander stands +at the stern under a pent-house covered with tapestry, bearing his shield, +and holding his leader's truncheon. A close examination of the drawing +seems to show that there are two men to each oar; we know from other +sources that several men were sometimes put to each oar. The difference in +costume between the soldiers and the sailors is conspicuous. The former +are men-at-arms in full armour--one on the forecastle is very distinctly +shown; the sailors are entirely unarmed, except the man at the stroke-oar, +probably an officer, who wears an ordinary hat of the period, the rest +wear the hood drawn over the head. The ship in the same illustration is an +ordinary ship of burden, filled with knights and men-at-arms; the +trumpeters at the stern indicate that the commander of the fleet is on +board this ship; he will be seen amidships, with his visor raised and his +face towards the spectator, with shield on arm and truncheon in hand. + +[Illustration: _Ship and Galley._] + +If the reader is curious to see illustrations of the details of a naval +combat, there are a considerable number to be found in the illuminated +MSS.; as in MS. Nero, D. iv., at folio 214, of the latter part of the +thirteenth century; in some tolerably clearly drawn in the "Chronique de +S. Denis" (Royal, 20, cvii.), of the time of our Richard II., at folio 18, +and again at folio 189 v. Other representations of ships occur at folios +25, 26 v., 83, 136 v. (a bridge of boats), 189 v., and 214 of the same MS. + +These ships continued to a late period to be small compared with our +notion of a ship, and most rude in their arrangements. They were great +undecked boats, with a cabin only in the bows, beneath the raised platform +which formed the forecastle; and the crew of the largest ships was usually +from twenty-five to thirty men. An illumination in the MS. of Froissart's +Chronicle (Harl. 4,379), folio 104 v., shows a ship, in which a king and +his suite are about to embark, from such a point of view that we see the +interior of the ship in the perspective, and find that there is a cabin +only in the prow. The earliest notice of cabins occurs in the year A.D. +1228, when a ship was sent to Gascony with some effects of the king's, +and 4_s._ 6_d._ was paid for making a chamber in the same ship for the +king's wardrobe, &c. In A.D. 1242 the king and queen went to Gascony; and +convenient chambers were ordered to be built in the ship for their +majesties' use, which were to be wainscoted--like that probably in Earl +Richard of Warwick's ship in the present woodcut. This engraving, taken +from Rouse's MS. Life of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick (British +Museum, Julius, E. IV.), of the latter part of the fourteenth century, +gives a very clear representation of a ship and its boat. The earl is +setting out on his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In the foreground we see +him with his pilgrim's staff in hand, stepping into the boat which is to +carry him to his ship lying at anchor in the harbour. The costume of the +sailors is illustrated by the men in the boat. The vessel is a ship of +burden, but such a one as kings and great personages had equipped for +their own uses; resembling an ordinary merchant-ship in all essentials, +but fitted and furnished with more than usual convenience and +sumptuousness. In Earl Richard's ship the sail is emblazoned with his +arms, and the pennon, besides the red cross of England, has his badges of +the bear and ragged staff; the ragged staff also appears on the castle at +the mast-head. The castle, which all ships of this age have at the stern, +is in this case roofed in and handsomely ornamented, and no doubt formed +the state apartment of the earl. There is also a castle at the head of the +ship, though it is not very plainly shown in the drawing. It consists of a +raised platform, the round-headed entrance to the cabin beneath it is seen +in the picture; the two bulwarks also which protect it at the sides are +visible, though their meaning is not at first sight obvious. A glance at +the forecastle of the other ships in our illustrations will enable the +reader to understand its construction and use. Besides the boat which is +to convey the earl on board, another boat will be seen hanging at the +ship's quarter. + +[Illustration: _Ship of Richard Earl of Warwick._] + +The next woodcut is taken from the interesting MS. in the British Museum +(Add. 24,189, f. 3 v.), from which we have borrowed other illustrations, +containing pictures of subjects from the travels of Sir John Mandeville. +We have introduced it to illustrate two peculiarities: the first is the +way of steering by a paddle passed through a gummet of rope, still, we +see, in use in the latter part of the fourteenth century, long after the +rudder had been introduced; and the use of lee-boards to obviate the +lee-way of the ship, and make it hold its course nearer to the wind. The +high, small, raised castle in the stern is here empty, and the forecastle +is curiously defended by a palisade, instead of the ordinary bulwarks. +Another representation of the use of lee-boards occurs at folio 5 of the +same MS. + +[Illustration: _Sir J. Mandeville on his Voyage to Palestine._] + +But though the royal navy was small, as we have said, in case of need +there was a further naval force available. The ancient ports of Kent and +Sussex, called the Cinque Ports, with their members (twelve neighbouring +ports incorporated with them), were bound by their tenure, upon forty +days' notice, to supply the king with fifty-seven ships, containing +twenty-one men and a boy in each ship, for fifteen days, once in the year, +at their own expense, if their service was required. Thus _e.g._ a mandate +of the 18th Rich. II., addressed to John de Beauchamp, Constable of Dover +Castle, and Warden of the Cinque Ports, after reciting this obligation, +requires fifty-seven ships, each having a master and twenty men well armed +and arrayed to meet him at Bristol; stating further, that at the +expiration of the fifteen days the ships and men should be at the king's +own charges and pay, so long as he should have the use of them, viz., the +master of each ship to have 6_d._, the constable 6_d._, and each of the +other men 3_d._, per day. + +In the year A.D. 1205 we have a list of royal galleys and vessels of war +ready for service; and it is instructive to see where they were stationed: +there were at London 5, Newhaven 2, Sandwich 3, Romney 4, Rye 2, +Winchelsea 2, Shoreham 5, Southampton 2, Exeter 2, Bristol 3, Ipswich 2, +Dunwich 5, Lyme 5, Yarmouth 3, in Ireland 5, at Gloucester 1--total 51; +and the Cinque Ports furnished 52; so that there were ready for sea more +than 100 galleys or "men-of-war." + +If the occasion required a greater force than that which the Cinque Ports +were required to furnish, the king was at liberty to issue his royal +mandate, and impress merchant ships. Thus, in May, 1206 A.D., the Barons +of the Cinque Ports were commanded to be at Portsmouth by a certain date +with all the service they owed; and writs were also issued to all such +merchants, masters, and seamen, as might meet the king's messengers on the +sea, to repair to Portsmouth, and enter the king's service; and the royal +galleys were sent to cruise at sea to arrest ships and send them in. +Again, in A.D. 1442, the Commons in Parliament stated the necessity of +having an armed force upon the sea, and pointed out the number of ships +and men that it would be proper to employ: viz., eight ships with +fore-stages carrying 150 men each, and that there should be attendant upon +each ship a barge carrying eighty men, and a balynfer carrying forty men; +and that four spynes, or pinnaces, carrying twenty-five men each, would be +necessary. The Commons also pointed out the individual ships which it +recommended to be obtained to compose this force: viz., at Bristol the +_Nicholas of the Tower_, and _Katherine of Burtons_; at Dartmouth the +Spanish ship that was the Lord Poyntz's, and Sir Philip Courtenay's great +ship. In the port of London two great ships, one called _Trinity_, and the +other _Thomas_. At Hull a great ship called Taverner's, the name +_Grace-dieu_. At Newcastle a great ship called _The George_. They also +state where the barges, balynfers, and pinnaces may be obtained. Some of +these may have been royal ships, but not all of them. Of the _Grace-dieu_ +of Hull, we know from Rymer (xi., 258) that John Taverner of Hull, +mariner, having made a ship as large as a great carrack, or larger, had +granted to him that the said ship, by reason of her unusual magnitude, +should be named the _Grace-dieu_ carrack, and enjoy certain privileges in +trade. + +On a great emergency, a still more sweeping impressment of the mercantile +fleet was made: _e.g._, Henry V., in his third year, directed Nicholas +Manslyt, his sergeant-at-arms, to arrest all ships and vessels in every +port in the kingdom, of the burden of twenty tons and upwards, for the +king's service; and Edward IV., in his fourteenth year, made a similar +seizure of all ships of over sixteen tons burden. On the other hand, the +king hired out his ships to merchants when they were not in use. Thus, in +1232 A.D., John Blancboilly had the custody of King Henry III.'s great +ship called the _Queen_, for his life, to trade wherever he pleased, +paying an annual rent of eighty marks; and all his lands in England were +charged with the fulfilment of the contract. In 1242 directions were given +to surrender the custody of the king's galleys in Ireland to the sailors +of Waterford, Drogheda, and Dungaroon, to trade with in what way they +could, taking security for their rent and restoration. + +The royal ships, however, maintained the police of the seas very +inefficiently, and a _petite guerre_ seems to have been carried on +continually between the ships of different countries, and even between the +ships of different seaports; while downright piracy was not at all +uncommon. When these injuries were inflicted by the ships of another +nation, the injured men often sought redress through their own government +from the government of the people who had injured them, and the mediæval +governments generally took up warmly any such complaints. But the +merchants not unfrequently took the law into their own hands. In the +twelfth century, _e.g._, it happened to a merchant of Berwick, Cnut by +name, that one of his ships, having his wife on board, was seized by a +piratical Earl of Orkney, and burnt. Cnut spent 100 marks in having +fourteen stout vessels suitably equipped to go out and punish the +offender. And so late as 1378 a sort of private naval war was carried on +between John Mercer, a merchant of Perth, and John Philpott of London. +Mercer's father had for some time given assistance to the French by +harassing the merchant ships of England; and in 1377, being driven by foul +weather on the Yorkshire coast, he was caught, and imprisoned in +Scarborough Castle. Thereupon the son carried on the strife. Collecting a +little fleet of Scottish, French, and Spanish ships, he captured several +English merchantmen off Scarborough, slaying their commanders, putting +their crews in chains, and appropriating their cargoes. Philpott, the +mayor of London, at his own cost, collected a number of vessels, put in +them 1,000 armed men, and sailed for the north. Within a few weeks he had +retaken the captured vessels, had effectually beaten their captors, and, +in his turn, had seized fifteen Spanish ships laden with wine, which came +in his way. On his return to London he was summoned before the council to +answer for his conduct in taking an armed force to sea without the king's +leave. But he boldly told the council: "I did not expose myself, my money, +and my men to the dangers of the sea that I might deprive you and your +colleagues of your knightly fame, nor that I might win any for myself, but +in pity for the misery of the people and the country, which from being a +noble realm with dominion over other nations, has through your supineness +become exposed to the ravages of the vilest race, and since you would not +lift a hand in its defence, I exposed myself and my property for the +safety and deliverance of our country." + +The ships of the Cinque Ports seem to have been at frequent feud with +those of the other ports of the kingdom (see Matthew Paris under A.D. +1242). For example, in 1321 Edward II. complained of the great dissension +and discord which existed between the people of the privileged Cinque +Ports and the men and mariners of the western towns of Poole, Weymouth, +Melcombe, Lyme, Southampton, &c.; and of the homicide, depredation, +ship-burning, and other evil acts resulting therefrom. But in place of +taking vigorous measures to repress these disorders, the king did not +apparently find himself able to do more than issue a proclamation against +them. + +When so loose a morality prevailed among seafaring men, and the police of +the seas was so badly maintained, it follows almost as a matter of course +that piracy should flourish. The people of Brittany, and especially the +men of St. Malo, at one time were accustomed to roam the sea as the old +sea-kings did, plundering merchant-ships, making descents on the coasts of +England, exacting contributions and ransoms from the towns. In the time of +Alfred it would seem by one of his laws as if English vessels sometimes +pillaged their own coasts.[405] + +About the year 1242 a Sir William de Marish, who was accused of murder and +treason, took refuge in the Isle of Lundy, whence he robbed the +merchantmen passing to and fro, and made descents on the coast. He was +building a galley in which to carry on his piracies when he was taken and +hanged. + +The spirit that lingered to very recent times among the "wreckers" of +remote spots on our coast seems to have prevailed largely in the days of +which we are writing. A foreigner was regarded as a "natural enemy," and +his ships and goods as a legitimate prize, when they could be seized with +impunity. So in 1227 A.D. we find a mariner named Dennis committed to +Newgate for being present when a Spanish ship was plundered and her crew +slain at Sandwich. In the same year the inhabitants of some towns in +Norfolk were accused of robbing a Norwegian ship. And, to give a later +example, in 1470 some Spanish merchants applied to King Edward IV. for +compensation for the loss of seven vessels, alleged to have been +piratically taken from them by the people of Sandwich, Dartmouth, +Plymouth, and Jersey. Yet there is a Saxon law as early as King Ethelred, +which gives immunities to merchant ships, even in time of war, which the +Council of Paris a few years ago hardly equalled:--"If a merchant ship, +even if it belonged to an enemy, entered any port in England, she was to +have 'frith,' that is peace, and freedom from molestation, provided it was +not driven or chased into port; but even if it were chased, and it reached +any frith burgh, and the crew escaped into the burgh, then the crew and +whatever they brought with them were to have 'frith.'" + +The shipping of the time of Henry VIII. is admirably illustrated in +Holbein's famous painting at Hampton Court. The great vessel of his reign, +the _Henri Grace à Dieu_, is also illustrated in the _Archæologia_. Both +these subjects are so well-known, or so easily accessible, that we do not +think it necessary to reproduce them here. In the MS. Aug. 1, will be +found a large size drawing of a galley intended to be built for King Henry +VIII. + +The discovery of the sea-passage to India, and of the new world, opened up +to commerce a new career of heroic adventure and the prospect of fabulous +wealth. England was not backward in entering upon this course. In truth, +although Sebastian Cabot was not an Englishman by birth, we claim the +honour of his discoveries for England, inasmuch as he was resident among +us, and was fitted out from Bristol, at the cost of English merchants, on +his voyages of discovery. It was in this career--which was part discover, +part conquest, part commerce--that our Hawkinses, and Drakes, and +Frobishers, and Raleighs were trained. And besides those historic names, +there were scores of men who fitted out ships and entered upon the roads +these pioneers had opened up, and completed their discoveries, and created +the commerce whose possibility they had indicated. + +The limitation of our subject to the mediæval period forbids us to enter +further upon this tempting theme. But we may complete our brief series of +illustrations of merchant shipping by giving a picture of one of the +gallant little ships--little, indeed, compared with the ships which are +now employed in our great lines of sea-traffic--in which those heroes +accomplished their daring voyages. The woodcut is a reproduction from the +frontispiece of one of Hulsius' curious tracts on naval affairs, and +represents the ship _Victoria_, in which Magellan sailed round the world, +passing through the straits to which he gave his name. The epitaph that +the author has subjoined to the engraving tells briefly the story of the +famous ship:-- + + "Prima ego velivolvis ambivi cursibus orbem + Magellane novo te duce ducta freto. + Ambivi meritoque dicor _Victoria_: Sunt mihi + Vela, alæ, precium, gloria, pugna, mare." + +The ship, it will be seen, is not very different in general features from +those of the Middle Ages which we have been considering. It has the high +prow and stern with their castles, it has shields outside the bulwarks, in +imitation of the way in which, as we have seen in former illustrations, +the mediæval men-at-arms hung their shields over the bulwark of the ship +in which they sailed. But it has decks (apparently two), and is armed with +cannon at the bows and stern. + +[Illustration: _The Ship Victoria._] + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE SOCIAL POSITION OF THE MEDIÆVAL MERCHANTS. + + +Though the commerce of England has now attained to such vast dimensions, +and forms so much larger a proportion of the national wealth and greatness +than at any former period, yet we are inclined to think that, in the times +of which we write, the pursuit of commerce held a higher and more +honourable place in the esteem of all classes than it does with us. + +It is true that one class was then more distinctly separated from another, +by costume and some external habits of life; the knight and the franklin, +the monk and the priest, the trader and the peasant, always carried the +badges of their position upon them; and we, with our modern notions, are +apt to think that the man who was marked out by his very costume as a +trader must have been "looked down upon" by what we call the higher +classes of society. No doubt something of this feeling existed; but not, +we think, to the same extent as now. Trade itself was not then so meanly +considered. Throughout the Middle Ages the upper classes were themselves +engaged in trade in various ways. In the disposal of the produce of his +estates the manorial lord engaged in trade, and purchased at fairs and +markets the stores he needed for himself and his numerous dependants. +Noblemen and bishops, abbots and convents, nay kings themselves, in the +fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, had ships which, commanded and manned +by their servants, traded for their profit with foreign countries. In the +thirteenth century the Cistercian monks had become the greatest +wool-merchants in the kingdom. In the fifteenth century Edward IV. carried +on a considerable commerce for his own profit. Just as now, when noblemen +and gentlemen commonly engage in agriculture, and thus farming comes to be +considered less vulgar than trade, so, then, when dignified ecclesiastics, +noblemen, and kings engaged in trade, it must have helped to soften caste +prejudices against the professional pursuit of commerce.[406] + +A considerable number of the traders of the fourteenth and fifteenth +centuries were cadets of good families. Where there were half a dozen sons +in a knightly family, the eldest succeeded to the family estate and +honours: of the rest, one might become a lawyer; another might have a +religious vocation, and, as a secular priest, take the family living, or +obtain a stall in the choir of the neighbouring monastery; a third might +prefer the profession of arms, and enter into the service of some great +lord or of the king, or find employment for his sword and lance, and pay +for himself and the dozen men who formed the "following of his lance," in +the wars which seldom ceased in one part of Europe or another; another son +might engage in trade, either in a neighbouring town or in one of the +great commercial cities of the time, as Bristol, Norwich, or London.[407] + +The leading men of the trading class stood side by side with the leading +men of the other classes. They were consulted by the king on the affairs +of the kingdom, were employed with bishops and nobles on foreign +embassies, were themselves ennobled. And the greatness which men attain in +any class reflects honour on the whole class. The Archbishop of +Canterbury's high position gives social consideration to the poor curate, +who may one day also be archbishop; and the Lord Chancellor's to the now +briefless barrister who may attain to the woolsack. The great free towns +of the German Empire reflected honour on every town of Europe; and the +merchant princes of Venice and Florence and the Low Countries on the +humblest member of their calling. + +But what, perhaps, more than anything else tended to maintain the social +consideration of traders, was their incorporation into wealthy and +powerful guilds; and the civil freedom and political weight of the towns. +The rather common-looking man, in a plain cloth gown and flat cap, jogging +along the high road on a hack, with great saddle-bags, is not to be +compared in appearance with the knight who prances past him on a spirited +charger, with a couple of armed servants at his heels; and the trader +pulls his horse to the side of the road, and touches his bonnet as the +cavalcade passes him in a cloud of dust; but the knight glances at his +fellow-traveller's hood as he passes, and recognises in him a member of +the great Guild of Merchants of the Staple, and returns his courtesy. The +nobleman, jostling at court against a portly citizen in a furred gown with +a short dagger and inkhorn at his belt, sees in him an alderman of one of +those great towns by whose help the king maintains the balance of power +against the feudal aristocracy. Yet, after all, why should the merchant be +"a rather common-looking man," and the alderman a "portly citizen"? We are +all apt to let our sober sense be fooled by our imagination. Thus we are +apt to have in our minds abstract types of classes of men: our ideal +knight is gallant in bearing, gay in apparel, chivalrous in character; +while our ideal merchant is prosaic and closefisted in character, plain +and uncourtly in manner and speech. A moment's thought would be enough to +remind us that Nature does not anticipate or adapt herself to class +distinctions: the knight and the merchant, we have seen, might be +brothers, reared up in the same old manor-house; and the elder son might +be naturally a clown, though fortune made him Sir Hugh; while the cadet +might be full of intelligence and spirit, dignified and courteous, though +fortune had put a flat cap instead of a helmet on his head, and a pen +instead of a lance into his hand. + +Our plan limits us to mere glances at the picturesque outside aspect of +things. Let us travel across England, and see what we can learn on our +subject from the experiences of our journey. A right pleasant journey, +too, in the genial spring-time or early summer. It must be taken on +horseback; for, though sometimes we shall find ourselves on a highway +between one great town and another, yet, for the most part, our road is +along bridle-paths, across heath and moor; through miles of "greenwood;" +across fords; over wide unenclosed wolds and downs dotted with sheep; +through valleys where oxen feed in the deep meadowland; with comparatively +little arable, covered with the green blades of rye and barley, oats, and +a little wheat-- + + "Long fields of barley and of rye, + That clothe the wold and meet the sky." + +Now and then we ride through a village of cottages scattered about the +village-green; and see, perhaps, the parish-priest, in cassock and +biretta, coming out of the village-church from his mass. Further on we +pass the moated manor-house of a country knight, or the substantial old +timber-built house of a franklin, with the blue wood-smoke puffing in a +volume out of the louvre of the hall, and curling away among the great +oak-trees which overshadow it. We may stay there and ask for luncheon, and +be sure of a hearty welcome: Chaucer tells us, + + "His table dormant in the hall alway + Stands ready covered, all the longe day." + +Then a strong castle comes in sight on a rising ground, with its +picturesque group of walls and towers, and the donjon-tower rising high in +the midst, surmounted by the banner of its lord. We seek out the +monasteries for their hospitable shelter at nights: they are the inns of +mediæval England; and we gaze in admiration as we approach them and enter +their courts. From outside we see a great enclosure-wall, over which rise +the clerestories and towers of a noble minster-church; and when we have +entered through the gate-house we find the cloister court, with its +convent buildings for the monks, and another court of offices, and the +guest-house for the entertainment of travellers, and the abbot's-house--a +separate establishment, with a great hall and chambers and chapel, like +the manor-house of a noble; so that, surrounded by its wall, with strong +entrance-towers, the monastery looks like a great castle or a little town; +and we doff our hats to the dignified-looking monk who is ambling out of +the great gate on his mule, as to the representative of the noble +community which has erected so grand a house, and maintains there its +hospitalities and charities, schools and hospitals, and offers up, seven +times a day in the choir, a glorious service of praise to Almighty God, +and of prayer for the welfare of His church and people. But from time to +time, also, we approach and ride through the towns, which are studded as +thickly over the land as castles or monasteries. Each surrounded by a fair +margin of common meadowland, out of which rise the long line of strong +walls with angle towers, with picturesque machicolations and overhanging +pent-houses; and the great gate-towers with moat, drawbridge, and +barbican. Over the wall numerous church-towers and spires are seen rising +from a forest of gables, making a goodly show. We enter, and find wide +streets of handsome picturesque houses, with abundance of garden and +orchard ground behind them, and guildhalls and chapels, the head-quarters +of the various guilds and companies. The traders are wealthy, and indulge +in conveniences which are rare in the franklin's house, and even the +lord's castle; and live a more refined mode of life than the old rude, if +magnificent, feudal life. Look at the extent of the town, at its strong +defences; estimate the wealth it contains; think of the clannish spirit of +its guilds; see the sturdy burghers, who turn out at the sound of the +town-bell, in half armour, with pike and bow, to man the walls; consider +the chiefs of the community, men of better education, wider experience of +the world, deeper knowledge of political affairs, than most of their +countrymen, many of them of the "gentleman" class by birth and breeding, +men of perfect self-respect, and of high public spirit. If our journey +terminates at one of the seaports, as Hull, or Lynn, or Dover, or Hythe, +or Bristol, we find--in addition to the usual well-walled town, with +houses and noble churches and guildhalls--a harbour full of +merchant-ships, and exchanges full of foreign merchants; and we soon learn +that these are the links which join England to the rest of the world in a +period of peace, and enable her in time of war to make her power felt +beyond the seas. Many of these towns have inherited their walls and their +civic freedom from Roman times: they stood like islands amid the flood of +the Saxon invasion; they received their charters from Norman kings, and +maintained them against Norman barons. Each of them is a little republic +amidst the surrounding feudalism; each citizen is a freeman, when +everybody else is the sworn liege-man of some feudal lord. + +These experiences of our ride across England will have left their strong +impressions on our minds. The castles will have impressed our minds with a +sense of the feudal power and chivalric state of the territorial class; +and the monasteries with admiration of the grandeur and learning and +munificence and sanctity of the religious orders; and the towns with a +feeling of solid respect for the wealth and power and freedom and +civilisation of the trader class of the people. + +[Illustration: _Entry of Queen Isabel of Bavaria into Paris_, A.D. 1389.] + +Our first illustration forms part of a large picture in the great Harleian +MS. of Froissart's Chronicle (Harl. 2,397, f. 3), and represents Isabel +of Bavaria, Queen of Charles VII., making her entry into Paris attended +by noble dames and lords of France, on Sunday, 20th of August, in the year +of our Lord 1389. There was a great crowd of spectators, Froissart tells +us, and the _bourgeois_ of Paris, twelve hundred, all on horseback, were +ranged in pairs on each side of the road, and clothed in a livery of gowns +of baudekyn green and red. The Queen, seated in her canopied litter, +occupies the middle of the picture, in robe and mantle of blue powdered +with _fleur-de-lis_, three noblemen walking on each side in their robes +and coronets. The page and ladies, who follow on horseback, are not given +in our woodcut. The Queen has just arrived at the gate of the city; +through the open door may be seen a bishop (? the Archbishop of Paris) in +a cope of blue powdered with gold _fleur-de-lis_, holding a gold and +jewelled box, which perhaps contains the chrism for her coronation. On the +wall overlooking the entrance is the king with ladies of the court, and +perched on the angle of the wall is the court jester in his cap and +bauble. On the left of the picture are the burgesses of Paris; their short +gowns are of green and red as described; the hats, which hang over their +shoulders, are black. On the opposite side of the road (not represented in +the cut) is another party of burgesses, who wear their hats, the bands +falling on each side of the face. In the background are the towers and +spires of the city, and the west front of Notre-Dame, rising picturesquely +above the city-wall. + +Some of the merchant-princes of the Middle Ages have left a name which is +still known in history, or popular in legend. First, there is the De la +Pole family, whose name is connected with the history of Hull. +Wyke-upon-Hull was a little town belonging to the convent of Selby, when +Edward III. saw its capabilities and bought it of the monks, called it +Kingston-upon-Hull, and, by granting trading and civil privileges to it, +induced merchants to settle there. De la Pole, a merchant of the +neighbouring port of Ravensern, was one of the earliest of these +immigrants; and Hull owes much of its greatness to his commercial genius +and public spirit. Under his inspiration bricks were introduced from the +Low Countries to build its walls and the great church: much of the latter +yet remains. He rose to be esteemed the greatest merchant in England. +Edward III. honoured him by visiting him at his house in Hull, and in +time made him Chief Baron of his Exchequer, and a Knight Banneret. In the +following reign we find him engaged, together with the most distinguished +men in the kingdom, in affairs of state and foreign embassies. His son, +who also began life as a merchant at Hull, was made by Richard II. Earl of +Suffolk and Lord Chancellor. In the end a royal alliance raised the +merchant's children to the height of power; and designs of a still more +daring ambition at length brought about their headlong fall and ruin. + +William Cannynges, of Bristol, was another of these great merchants. On +his monument in the magnificent church of St. Mary Redcliffe, of which he +was the founder, it is recorded that on one occasion Edward IV. seized +shipping of his to the amount of 2,470 tons, which included ships of 400, +500, and even 900 tons. + +Richard Whittington, the hero of the popular legend, was a London +merchant, thrice Lord Mayor. He was not, however, of the humble origin +stated by the legend, but a cadet of the landed family of Whittington, in +Gloucestershire. What is the explanation of the story of his cat has not +been satisfactorily made out by antiquaries. Munificence was one of the +characteristics of these great merchants. De la Pole, we have seen, built +the church at Hull; Cannynges founded one of the grandest parish churches +yet remaining in all England; Whittington founded the College of the Holy +Spirit and St. Mary, a charitable foundation which has long ceased to +exist. Sir John Crosby was an alderman of London in the reign of Edward +IV., and allied his family with the highest nobility. His house still +remains in Bishopsgate, the only one left of the great city merchants' +houses: Stowe describes it as very large and beautiful, and the highest at +that time in London. Richard III. took up his residence and received his +adherents there, when preparing for his usurpation of the crown. + +Monuments remaining to this day keep alive the memory of other great +merchants, which would otherwise have perished. In the series of +monumental brasses, several of the earliest and most sumptuous are +memorials of merchants. There was an engraver of these monuments living in +England in the middle of the fourteenth century, whose works in that +style of art have not been subsequently surpassed: Gough calls him the +"Cellini of the fourteenth century." He executed a grand effigy for Thomas +Delamere, abbot of St. Alban's Abbey; and the same artist executed two +designs, no less sumptuous and meritorious as works of art, for two +merchants of the then flourishing town of Lynn, in Norfolk. One is to Adam +de Walsokne, "formerly burgess of Lynn," who died in 1349 A.D., and +Margaret his wife; it contains very artistically drawn effigies of the two +persons commemorated, surmounted by an ornamental canopy on a diapered +field. The other monumental brass represents Robert Braunche, A.D. 1364, +and his two wives. A feature of peculiar interest in this design is a +representation, running along the bottom, of an entertainment which +Braunche, when mayor of Lynn, gave to King Edward III. There was still a +third brass at Lynn, of similar character, of Robert Attelathe--now, alas! +lost. Another monument, apparently by the same artist, exists at Newark, +to the memory of Alan Fleming, a merchant, who died in 1361 A.D. + +Hundreds of churches yet bear traces of the munificence of these mediæval +traders. The noble churches which still exist in what are now +comparatively small places, in Lincolnshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk, are +monuments of the merchants of the staple who lived in those eastern +counties; and monuments, and merchants' marks, and sometimes inscriptions +cut in stone or worked in flint-work in the fabrics themselves, afford +data from which the local antiquary may glean something of their history. +Many interesting traces of mediæval traders' houses remain too in +out-of-the-way places, where they seem quite overlooked. The little town +of Coggeshall, for example, is full of interesting bits of domestic +architecture--the traces of the houses of the "Peacockes" and other +families, merchants of the staple and clothmakers, who made it a +flourishing town in the fifteenth century; the monumental brasses of some +of them remain in the fine perpendicular church, which they probably +rebuilt. Or, to go to the other side of the kingdom, at the little town of +Northleach, among the Cotswold Hills, is a grand church, with evidences in +the sculpture and monuments that the wool-merchants there contributed +largely to its building. It contains an interesting series of small +monumental brasses, which preserve their names and costumes, and those of +their wives and children; and the merchants' marks which were painted on +their woolpacks appear here as honourable badges on their monuments. There +are traces of their old houses in the town. + +A general survey of all these historical facts and all these antiquarian +remains will confirm the assertion with which we began this chapter, that +at least from the early part of the fourteenth century downwards, the +mediæval traders earned great wealth and spent it munificently, possessed +considerable political influence, and occupied an honourable social +position beside the military and ecclesiastical orders. + +We must not omit to notice the illustrations which our subject may derive +from Chaucer's ever-famous gallery of characters. Here is the merchant of +the Canterbury cavalcade of merry pilgrims:-- + + "A merchant was there with a forked beard, + In mottély, and high on horse he sat, + And on his head a Flaundrish beaver hat, + His bote's clapsed fayre and fetisly,[408] + His reasons spake he full solempnely, + Sounding alway the increase of his winning, + He would the sea were kept, for any thing, + Betwixen Middleburgh and Orewell. + Well could he in exchanges sheldes[409] sell, + This worthy man full well his wit beset; + There weste no wight that he was in debt, + So steadfastly didde he his governance + With his bargeines and with his chevisance,[410] + Forsooth he was a worthy man withal; + But, sooth to say, I n'ot how men him call."[411] + +Of the trader class our great author gives us also some examples:-- + + "An haberdasher and a carpenter, + A webber, a dyer, and a tapiser, + Were all yclothed in one livery, + Of a solempne and great fraternitie, + Full fresh and new their gear y-piked was + Their knives were ychaped, not with brass. + But all with silver wrought full clene and well, + Their girdles and their pouches every deal. + Well seemed each of them a fair burgess + To sitten in a gild-hall on the dais. + Each one for the wisdom that he can, + Was likely for to be an alderman. + For chattles hadden they enough and rent, + And eke their wives would it well assent, + And elles certainly they were to blame, + It is full fair to be ycleped madame, + And for to go to vigils all before, + And have a mantle royally upbore." + +The figures on the next page from a monument to John Field, Alderman of +London, and his son, are interesting and characteristic. Mr. Waller, from +whose work on monumental brasses the woodcut is taken, has been able to +discover something of the history of Alderman Field. John Field, senior, +was born about the beginning of the fifteenth century, but nothing is +known of his early life. In 1449 he had clearly risen to commercial +eminence in London, since he was in that year appointed one of fifteen +commissioners to treat with those of the Duke of Burgundy concerning the +commercial interests of the two countries in general, and specially to +frame regulations for the traffic in wool and wool-fells brought to the +staple at Calais. Of these commissioners five were of London, three of +Boston, three of Hull, and one of Ipswich. These names, says Mr. Waller, +probably comprise the chief mercantile wealth and intelligence in the +eastern ports of the kingdom at this period. In 1454 he was made sheriff, +and subsequently was elected alderman, but never served the office of +mayor; which, says the writer, may be accounted for by the fact that in +the latter part of his life he was afflicted with bodily sickness, and on +that ground in 1463 obtained a grant from the then lord mayor, releasing +him from all civic services. The alderman acquired large landed estates in +Kent and Hertfordshire, in which he was succeeded by his eldest son John, +the original of the second effigy, who only survived his father the short +term of three years. + +The brasses have been inlaid with colour; the alderman's gown of the +father with red enamel, and its fur-lining indicated by white metal; the +tabard of arms of the son is also coloured according to its proper +heraldic blazoning--_gules_, between three eagles displayed _argent_, +_guetté de sangue_, a fesse _or_. The unfinished inscription runs, "Here +lyeth John Feld, sometyme alderman of London, a merchant of the stapull of +Caleys, the which deceased the xvj day of August, in the yere of our Lord +God mcccclxxiiij. Also her' lyeth John his son, squire, y{e} which +deceased y{e} iiij day of May y{e} yere of".... The monumental slab is +ornamented with four shields of arms: the first of the city of London, the +second of the merchants of the staple, the third bears the alderman's +merchant's-mark, and the fourth the arms which appear on the tabard of his +son, the esquire, to whom, perhaps, they had been specially granted by the +College of Arms. The father's costume is a long gown edged with fur, a +leather girdle from which hang his gypcire (or purse) and rosary, over +which is worn his alderman's gown. The son wears a full suit of armour of +the time of Edward IV., with a tabard of his arms. The execution of the +brass is unusually careful and excellent. + +[Illustration: _Monumental Brass of Alderman Field and his Son_, A.D. +1474.] + +The third woodcut, from the Harleian MS. 4,379, f. 64, represents the +execution, in Paris, of a famous captain of robbers, Aymerigol Macel. The +scaffold is enclosed by a hoarding; at the nearer corners are two friars, +one in brown and one in black, probably a Franciscan and a Dominican; the +official, who stands with his hands resting on his staff superintending +the executioner, has a gown of red with sleeves lined with white fur, his +bonnet is black turned up also with white fur. In the background are the +timber houses on one side of the place, with the people looking out of +their windows; a signboard will be seen standing forth from one of the +houses. The groups of people in the distance and those in the foreground +give the costumes of the ordinary dwellers in a fourteenth-century city. +The man on the left has a pink short gown, trimmed with white fur; his +hat, the two ends of a liripipe hanging over his shoulders, and his purse +and his hose, are black. The man on his right has a long blue gown and red +hat and liripipe; the man between them and a little in front, a brown long +gown and black hat. The man on horseback on the left wears a very short +green gown, red hose, and black hat; the footman on his left, a short +green gown and red hat and liripipe; and the man on his left, a black +jacket and black hat fringed. The man on horseback, with a foot-boy behind +holding on by the horse's tail, has a pink long gown, black hat and +liripipe, purse, and girdle; the one on the right of the picture, a long +blue gown with red hat, liripipe, and purse. Just behind him (unhappily +not included in the woodcut) is a touch of humour on the part of the +artist. His foot-boy is stealing an apple out of the basket of an +apple-woman, who wears a blue gown and red hood, with the liripipe tucked +under her girdle; she has a basket of apples on each arm, and another on +her head. Still further to the right is a horse whose rider has +dismounted, and the foot-boy is sitting on the crupper behind the saddle +holding the reins. + +[Illustration: _An Execution in Paris._] + +The last cut is taken from the painted glass at Tournay of the fifteenth +century, and represents _marchands en gros_. This illustration of a +warehouse with the merchant and his clerk, and the men and the casks and +bales, and the great scales, in full tide of business, is curious and +interesting. + +Chaucer once more, in the "Shipman's Tale," gives us an illustration of +our subject. Speaking of a merchant of St. Denys, he says:-- + + "Up into his countour house goth he, + To reken with himselvin, wel may be, + Of thilke yere how that it with him stood, + And how that he dispended had his good, + And if that he encreased were or non. + His bookes and his bagges many one + He layeth before him on his counting bord. + Ful riche was his tresor and his hord; + For which ful fast his countour done he shet, + And eke he n'olde no man shuld him let + Of his accountes for the mene time; + And thus he sat till it was passed prime." + +[Illustration: _Marchands en Gros, Fifteenth Century._] + +The counting-board was a board marked with squares, on which counters were +placed in such a way as to facilitate arithmetical operations. + +We have also a picture of him setting out on a business journey attended +by his apprentice:-- + + "But so bifell this marchant on a day + Shope him to maken ready his array + Toward the town of Brugges for to fare + To byen there a portion of ware. + + * * * * * + + The morrow came, and forth this marchant rideth + To Flaundersward, his prentis wel him gideth. + Til he came into Brugges merily. + Now goth this marchant fast and bisily + About his nede, and bieth and creanceth; + He neither playeth at the dis ne danceth, + But as a marchant shortly for to tell + He ledeth his lif, and ther I let him dwell." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +MEDIÆVAL TRADE. + + +It is difficult at first to believe it possible that the internal trade of +mediæval England was carried on chiefly at great annual fairs for the +wholesale business, at weekly markets for the chief towns, and by means of +itinerant traders, of whom the modern pedlar is the degenerate +representative, for the length and breadth of the country. In order to +understand the possibility, we must recall to our minds how small +comparatively was the population of the country. It was about two millions +at the Norman Conquest, it had hardly increased to four millions by the +end of the fifteenth century, it was only five millions in the time of +William III. Nearly every one of our towns and villages then existed; but +the London, and Bristol, and Norwich, and York of the fourteenth century, +though they were relatively important places in the nation, were not +one-tenth of the size of the towns into which they have grown. Manchester, +and Leeds, and Liverpool, and a score of other towns, existed then, but +they were mere villages; and the country population was thinly scattered +over a half-reclaimed, unenclosed, pastoral country. + +To begin with the fairs. The king exercised the sole power of granting the +right to hold a fair. It was sought by corporations, monasteries, and +manorial lords, in order that they might profit, first by the letting of +ground to the traders who came to dispose of their wares, next by the +tolls which were levied on all merchandise brought for sale, and on the +sales themselves; and then indirectly by the convenience of getting a near +market for the produce the neighbourhood had to sell, and for the goods it +desired to buy. + +The annexed woodcut, from the MS. Add. 24,189, represents passengers +paying toll on landing at a foreign port, and perhaps belongs in +strictness to an earlier part of our subject. The reader will notice the +picturesque custom-house officers, the landing-places, and the indications +of town architecture. The next illustration, from painted glass at Tournay +(from La Croix and Seré's "Moyen Age et la Renaissance") shows a group of +people crossing the bridge into a town, and the collector levying the +toll. The oxen and pigs, the country-wife on horseback, with a lamb laid +over the front of her saddle, represent the country-people and their +farm-produce; the pack-horse and mule on the left, with their flat-capped +attendant, are an interesting illustration of the itinerant trader +bringing in his goods. The toll-collector seems to be, from his dress and +bearing, a rather dignified official, and the countryman recognises it by +touching his hat to him. The river and its wharves, and the boats moored +alongside, and the indication of the town gates and houses, make up a very +interesting sketch of mediæval life. + +[Illustration: _Passengers paying Toll._] + +[Illustration: _Traders entering a Town._] + +There were certain great fairs to which traders resorted from all parts of +the country. The great fair at Nijni Novgorod, and in a lesser degree the +fair of Leipsic, remain to help us to realise such gatherings as +Bartholomew Fair used to be. Even now the great horse-fair at Horncastle, +and the stock-fair at Barnet, may help us to understand how it answered +the purpose of buyers and sellers to meet annually at one general +rendezvous. The gathering into one centre of the whole stock on sale and +the whole demand for it, was not only in other ways a convenience to +buyers and sellers, but especially it regulated the general prices current +of all vendibles, and checked the capricious variations which a +fluctuating local supply and demand would have created in the then +condition of the country and of commerce. The king sometimes, by +capricious exercises of his authority in the subject of fairs, seriously +interfered with the interests of those who frequented them--_e.g._ by +granting license to hold a new fair which interfered with one already +established; by licensing a temporary fair, and forbidding trade to be +carried on elsewhere during its continuance. Thus in 1245 A.D. Henry II. +proclaimed a fair at Westminster to be held for fifteen days, and required +all the London traders to shut up their shops and bring their goods to the +fair. It happened that the season was wet; few consequently came to the +fair, and the traders' goods were injured by the rain which penetrated +into their temporary tents and stalls. He repeated the attempt to benefit +Westminster four years afterwards, with a similar result. + +Of course when great crowds were gathered together for days in succession, +and money was circulating abundantly, there would be others who would seek +a profitable market besides the great dealers in woolfels and foreign +produce. The sellers of ribbands and cakes would be there, purveyors of +food and drink for the hungry and thirsty multitude, caterers for the +amusement of the people, minstrels and jugglers, exhibitors of +morality-plays and morrice-dancers, and still less reputable people. And +so, besides the men who came for serious business, there would be a mob +of pleasure-seekers also. The crowd of people of all ranks and classes +from every part of the country, with the consequent variety of costume in +material, fashion, and colour--the knight's helm and coat of mail, or +embroidered _jupon_ and plumed bonnet, the lady's furred gown and jewels, +the merchant's sober suit of cloth, the minstrel's gay costume and the +jester's motley, the monk's robe and cowl, and the peasant's smockfrock, +continually in motion up and down the streets of the temporary canvas +town, the music of the minstrels, the cries of the traders, the loud talk +and laughter of the crowd--must have made up a picturesque scene, full of +animation. + +When the real business of the country had found other channels, the fairs +still continued--and in many places still continue--as mere +"pleasure-fairs;" still the temporary stalls lining the streets, and the +drinking-booths and shows, preserve something of the old usages and +outward aspect, though, it must be confessed, they are dreary, desolate +relics of what the mediæval fairs used to be. The fair was usually +proclaimed by sound of trumpet, before which ceremony it was unlawful to +begin traffic, or after the conclusion of the legal term for which the +fair was granted. A court of _pie-poudre_ held its sittings for the +cognizance of offences committed in the fair. Many of our readers will +remember the spirited description of such a fair in Sir Walter Scott's +novel of "The Betrothed." + +In the great towns were shops in which retail trade was daily carried on, +but under very different conditions from those of modern times. The +various trades seem to have been congregated together, and the trading +parts of the town were more concentrated than is now the case; in both +respects resembling the bazaars of Eastern towns. Thus in London the +tradesmen had shops in the Cheap, which resembled sheds, and many of them +were simply stalls. But they did not limit themselves to their dealings +there; they travelled about the country also. The mercers dealt in toys, +drugs, spices, and small wares generally; their stocks being of the same +miscellaneous description as that of a village-shop of the present day. +The station of the mercers of London was between Bow Church and Friday +Street, and here round the old cross of Cheap they sold their goods at +little standings or stalls, surrounded by those belonging to other trades. +The trade of the modern grocer was preceded by that of the pepperer, +which was often in the hands of Lombards and Italians, who dealt also in +drugs and spices. The drapers were originally manufacturers of cloth; to +drape meaning to make cloth. The trade of the fishmonger was divided into +two branches, one of which dealt exclusively in dried fish, then a very +common article of food. The goldsmiths had their shops in the street of +Cheap; but fraudulent traders of their craft, and not members of their +guild, set up shops in obscure lanes, where they sold goods of inferior +metal. A list of the various trades and handicrafts will afford a general +idea of the trade of the town. Before the 50th of Edward III. (1376 A.D.) +the "mysteries" or trades of London, who elected the Common Council of the +city, were thirty-two in number; but they were increased by an ordinance +of that year to forty-eight, which were as follows:--grocers, masons, +ironmongers, mercers, brewers, leather-dressers, drapers, fletchers, +armourers, fishmongers, bakers, butchers, goldsmiths, skinners, cutlers, +vintners, girdlers, spurriers, tailors, stainers, plumbers, saddlers, +cloth-measurers, wax-chandlers, webbers, haberdashers, barbers, +tapestry-weavers, braziers, painters, leather-sellers, salters, tanners, +joiners, cappers, pouch-makers, pewterers, chandlers, hatters, +woodmongers, fullers, smiths, pinners, curriers, horners. + +As a specimen of a provincial town we may take Colchester. A detailed +description of this town in the reign of Edward III. shows that it +contained only 359 houses, some built of mud, others of timber. None of +the houses had any but latticed windows. The town-hall was of stone, with +handsome Norman doorway. It had also a royal castle, three or more +religious houses--one a great and wealthy abbey--several churches, and was +surrounded by the old Roman wall. The number of inhabitants was about +three thousand. Yet Colchester was the capital of a large district of +country, and there were only about nine towns in England of greater +importance. In the year 1301 all the movable property of the town, +including the furniture and clothing of the inhabitants, was estimated, +for the purpose of a taxation, to be worth £518, and the details give us a +curious picture of the times. The tools of a carpenter consisted of a +broad axe, value 5_d._, another 3_d._, an adze 2_d._, a square 1_d._, a +_noveyn_ (probably a spokeshave) 1_d._, making the total value of his +tools 1_s._ The tools and stock of a blacksmith were valued at only a few +shillings, the highest being 12_s._ The stock-in-trade and household goods +of a tanner were estimated at £9 17_s._ 10_d._ A mercer's stock was valued +at £3, his household property at £2 9_s._ The trades carried on there were +the twenty-nine following:--Baker, barber, blacksmith, bowyer, brewer, +butcher, carpenter, carter, cobbler, cook, dyer, fisherman, fuller, +furrier, girdler, glass-seller, glover, linen-draper, mercer and +spice-seller, miller, mustard and vinegar seller, old clothes-seller, +tailor, tanner, tiler, weaver, wood-cutter, and wool-comber. Our woodcut, +from the MS. Add. 27,695, which has already supplied us with several +valuable illustrations, represents a mediæval shop of a high class, +probably a goldsmith's. The shopkeeper eagerly bargaining with his +customer is easily recognised, the shopkeeper's clerk is making an entry +of the transaction, and the customer's servant stands behind him, holding +some of his purchases; flagons and cups and dishes seem to be the +principal wares; heaps of money lie on the table, which is covered with a +handsome tablecloth, and in the background are hung on a "perch," for +sale, girdles, a hand-mirror, a cup, a purse, and sword. + +[Illustration: _A Goldsmith's Shop._] + +Here, from "Le Pélerinage de la Vie Humaine," in the French National +Library,[412] is another illustration of a mediæval shop. This is a +mercer's, and the merceress describes her wares in the following lines:-- + + "Quod sche, 'Gene[413] I schal the telle + Mercerye I have to selle + In boystes,[414] soote oynementes,[415] + Therewith to don allegementes[416] + To ffolkes which be not gladde, + But discorded and malade. + I have kyves, phylletys, callys, + At ffestes to hang upon walles; + Kombes no mo than nyne or ten, + Bothe for horse and eke ffor men; + Mirrours also, large and brode, + And ffor the syght wonder gode; + Off hem I have ffull greet plenté, + For ffolke that haven volunté + Byholde himselffe therynne.'" + +In some provincial towns, as Nottingham, the names of several of the +streets bear witness to an aggregation of traders of the same calling. +Bridlesmith Gate was clearly the street in which the knights and yeomen of +the shire resorted for their horse-furniture and trappings, and in the +open stalls of Fletcher Gate sheaves of arrows were hung up for sale to +the green-coated foresters of neighbouring Sherwood. The only trace of +the custom we have left is in the butcheries and shambles which exist in +many of our towns, where the butchers' stalls are still gathered together +in one street or building. + +[Illustration: _French National Library._] + +But the greater part of the trade of the towns was transacted on +market-days. Then the whole neighbourhood flocked in, the farmers to sell +their farm produce, their wives and daughters with their poultry and +butter and eggs for the week's consumption of the citizens, and to carry +back with them their town-purchases. In every market-town there was +usually a wide open space--the market-place--for the accommodation of this +weekly traffic; in the principal towns were several market-places, +appropriated to different kinds of produce: _e.g._ at Nottingham, besides +the principal market-place--a vast open space in the middle of the town, +surrounded by overhanging houses supported on pillars, making open +colonnades like those of an Italian town--there was a "poultry" adjoining +the great market, and a "butter-cross" in the middle of a small square, in +which it is assumed the women displayed their butter. In an old-fashioned +provincial market-town, the market-day is still the one day in the week on +which the streets are full of bustle and the shops of business, while on +the other days of the week the town stagnates; it must have been still +more the case in the old times of which we write. In some instances there +seems reason to think a weekly market was held in places which had hardly +any claim to be called towns--mere villages, on whose green the +neighbourhood assembled for the weekly market. Round the green, perhaps, a +few stalls and booths were erected for the day; pedlars probably supplied +the shop element; and artificers from neighbouring towns came in for the +day, as in some of our villages now the saddler and the shoemaker and the +watchmaker attend once a week to do the makings and mendings which are +required. There are still to be seen in a few old-fashioned towns and +remote country places market-crosses in the market-place or on the +village-green. They usually consist of a tall cross of stone, round the +lower part of whose shaft a penthouse of stone or wood has been erected to +shelter the market-folks from rain and sun. There is such a cross at +Salisbury; a good example of a village market-cross at Castle Combe, in +Gloucestershire, one of wood at Shelford, in Cambridgeshire, and many +others up and down the country, well worthy of being collected and +illustrated by the antiquary before they are swept away. Our illustration, +from the painted glass at Tournay, represents a market scene, the women +sitting on their low stools, with their baskets of goods displayed on the +ground before them. The female on the left seems to be filling up her time +by knitting; the woman on the right is paying her market dues to the +collector, who, as in the cut on p. 505, is habited as a clerk. The +background appears to represent a warehouse, where transactions of a +larger kind are going on. + +[Illustration: _A Market Scene._] + +But the inhabitants of rural districts were not altogether dependent on a +visit to the nearest market for their purchases. The pursuit of gain +enlisted the services of numerous itinerant traders, who traversed the +land in all directions, calling at castle and manor house, monastery, +grange, and cottage; and by the tempting display of pretty objects, and +the handy supply of little wants, brought into healthy circulation many a +silver penny which would otherwise have jingled longer in the owner's +_gypcire_, or rested in the hoard in the homely stocking-foot. An entry in +that mine of curious information, the York Fabric Rolls, reveals an +incident in the pedlar's mode of dealing. It is a presentation, that is, a +complaint, made to the Archbishop by the churchwardens of the parish of +Riccall, in Yorkshire, under the date 1519 A.D. They represent, in the +dog-Latin of the time: "_Item, quod Calatharii_ (_Anglice_ Pedlars), +_veniunt diebus festis in porticum ecclesiæ et ibidem vendunt mercimonium +suum_." That _Calatharii_--that is to say, Pedlars--come into the +church-porch on feast-days, and there sell their merchandise. From another +entry in the same records it seems that sometimes the chapmen congregated +in such numbers that the gathering assumed the proportions of an irregular +weekly market. Thus among the presentations in 1416, is one from St. +Michael de Berefredo, St. Michael-le-Belfry, in the city of York, which +states, "The parishioners say that a common market of vendibles is held in +the churchyard on Sundays and holidays, and divers things and goods and +rushes are exposed there for sale." The complaint is as early as the +fourth century; for we find St. Basil mentioning as one abuse of the great +church-festivals, that men kept markets at these times and places under +colour of making better provision for the feasts which were kept thereat. + +The presentation from Riccall carries us back into the old times, and +enables us to realise a picturesque and curious incident in their +primitive mode of life. A little consideration will enable us to see how +such a practice arose, and how it could be tolerated by people who had at +least so much respect for religion as to come to church on Sundays and +holidays. When we call to mind the state of the country districts, half +reclaimed, half covered with forest and marsh and common, traversed +chiefly by footpaths and bridle-roads, we shall understand how isolated a +life was led by the inhabitants of the country villages and hamlets, and +farmhouses and out-lying cottages. It was only on Sundays and holidays +that neighbours met together. On those days the goodman mounted one of his +farm-horses, put his dame behind him on a pillion, and jogged through deep +and miry ways to church, while the younger and poorer came sauntering +along the footpaths. One may now stand in country churchyards on a Sunday +afternoon, and watch the people coming in all directions, across the +fields, under copse, and over common, climbing the rustic styles, crossing +the rude bridge formed by a tree-trunk thrown over the sparkling +trout-stream, till all the lines converge at the church porch. And one has +felt that those paths--many of them ploughed up every year and made every +year afresh by the feet of the wayfarer--are among the most venerable +relics of ancient times. And here among the ancient laws of Wales is one +which assures us that our conjecture is true: "Every habitation," it says, +"ought to have two good paths (convenient right of road), one to its +church, and one to its watering-place." Very pleasant in summer these +church-paths to the young folks who saunter along them in couples or in +groups, but very disagreeable in wet wintery weather, and in difficult at +all times to the old and infirm. Another presentation out of the York +Fabric Rolls, gives us a contemporary picture of these church paths, seen +under a gloomy aspect: In A.D. 1472, the people of Haxley complain to the +Archdeacon that they "inhabit so unresonablie fer from ther parisch +cherche that the substaunce (majority) of the said inhabitauntes for +impotensaye and feblenes, farrenes (farness == distance) of the way, and +also for grete abundance of waters and perlouse passages at small brigges +for peple in age and unweldye, between them and ther next parische +cherche, they may not come with ese or in seasonable tyme at ther saide +parische cherche as Cristen people should, and as they wold," and so they +pray for leave and help for a chaplain of their own. + +We must remember, too, that our ante-Reformation forefathers did not hold +modern doctrines concerning the proper mode of observing Sundays and +holydays. They observed them more in the way which makes us still call a +day of leisure and recreation a "holiday;" they observed them all in much +the same spirit as we still observe some of them, such as Christmas-day +and Whitsuntide. When they had duly served God at _matins_ and mass, they +thought it no sin to spend the rest of the day in lawful occupations, and +rather laudable than otherwise to spend it in innocent recreations. The +Riccall presentation gives us a picture which, no doubt, might have been +seen in many another country-place on a Sunday or saint-day. The pedlar +lays down his pack in the church-porch--and we will charitably suppose +assists at the service--and then after service he is ready to spread out +his wares on the bench of the porch before the eyes of the assembled +villagers and make his traffickings, ecclesiastical canons to the contrary +notwithstanding, and so save himself many a weary journey along the +devious ways by which his customers have to return in the evening to their +scattered homes. The complaint of the churchwardens does not seem to be +directed against the traffic so much as against its being conducted in the +consecrated precincts. Let the pedlar transfer his wares to the steps of +the village-cross, and probably no one would have complained; but then, +though they who wanted anything might have sought him there, he would have +lost the chance of catching the eye of those who did not want anything, +and tempting them to want and buy--a course for which we must not blame +our pedlar too much, since we are told it is the essence of commerce, on a +large as on a small scale, to create artificial wants and supply them. + +In the late thirteenth-century MS. Royal, 10 Ed. IV., are some +illuminations of a mediæval story, which afford us very curious +illustrations of a pedlar and his pack. At f. 149, the pedlar is asleep +under a tree, and monkeys are stealing his pack, which is a large bundle, +bound across and across with rope, with a red strap attached to the rope +by which it is slung over the shoulder. On the next page the monkeys have +opened the wrapper, showing that it covered a kind of box, and the +mischievous creatures are running off with the contents, among which we +can distinguish a shirt and some circular mirrors. On f. 150, the monkeys +have conveyed their spoil up into the tree, and we make out a purse and +belt, a musical pipe, a belt and dagger, a pair of slippers, a hood and +gloves, and a mirror. On the next page, a continuation of the same +subject, we see a pair of gloves, a man's hat, a woman's head-kerchief; +and again, on p. 151, we have, in addition, hose, a mirror, a woman's +head-dress, and a man's hood. These curious illuminations sufficiently +indicate the usual contents of a pedlar's pack. + +[Illustration: _Pack-horses._] + +In the Egerton MS., 1,070, of the fourteenth century, at f. 380, is a +representation of the flight into Egypt, in which Joseph is represented +carrying a round pack by a stick over the shoulder, which probably +illustrates the usual mode of carrying a pack or a pedestrian's personal +luggage. Other illustrations of the pedlar of the latter part of the +fifteenth and sixteenth centuries will be found in the series of the Dance +of Death. + +A former illustration has shown us a pack-horse and mule, the means by +which those itinerant traders chiefly carried their merchandise over the +country. But some kinds of goods would not bear packing into ordinary +bundles of the kind there shown; for such goods, boxes or trunks, slung on +each side of a pack-saddle, were used. We are able to give an illustration +of them from an ancient tapestry figured in the fine work on "Anciennes +Tapisseries" by Achille Jubinal. It is only a minor incident in the +background of the picture, but is represented with sufficient clearness. +Another mode of carrying personal baggage is represented in the +fifteenth-century MS. Royal, 15 E. V., where a gentleman travelling on +horseback is followed by two servants, each with a large roll of baggage +strapped to the croupe of his saddle. The use of pack-horses has not even +yet (or had not a few years ago) utterly died out of England. The writer +saw a string of them in the Peak of Derbyshire, employed in carrying ore +from the mines. The occasional occurrence of the pack-horse as the sign of +a roadside inn also helps to keep alive the remembrance of this primitive +form of "luggage-train." Many of our readers may have travelled with a +valise at their saddle-bow and a cloak strapped to the croupe; the +fashion, even now, is not quite out of date. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +COSTUME. + + +We have, in a former chapter, given some pictures from illuminated MSS., +in illustration of the costume and personal appearance of the merchants of +the Middle Ages; but they are on such a scale as not to give much +characteristic portraiture--except in the example of the bourgeoise of +Paris, in the illumination from Froissart, on page 492--and they +inadequately represent the minute details of costume. We shall endeavour +in this chapter to bring our men more vividly before the eye of the reader +in dress and feature. + +The "Catalogus Benefactorum" of St. Alban's Abbey, to which we have been +so often indebted, will again help us with some pictures of unusual +character. They are of the fourteenth century, and illustrate people of +the burgess class who were donors to the abbey; the peculiarity of the +representation is, that they are half-length portraits on an unusually +large scale for MS. illuminations. When we call them portraits, we do not +mean absolutely to assert that the originals sat for their pictures, and +that the artist tried to make as accurate a portrait as he could; but it +is probable that the donations were recorded and the pictures executed +soon after the gifts were made, therefore, presumedly, in the lifetime of +the donors. It is, moreover, probable that the artist was resident in the +monastery or in the dependent town, and was, consequently, acquainted with +the personal appearance of his originals; and in that case, even if the +artist had not his subjects actually before his eyes at the time he +painted these memorials, it is likely that he would, at least from +recollection, give a general _vraisemblance_ to his portrait. The faces +are very dissimilar, and all have a characteristic expression, which +confirms us in the idea that they are not mere conventional portraits. + +They seem to be chiefly tradespeople rather than merchants of the higher +class, and of the latter half of the fourteenth century. Here, for +example, are William Cheupaign and his wife Johanna, who gave to the +Abbey-church two tenements in the Halliwelle Street. One of the tenements +is represented in the picture, a single-storied house of timber, thatched, +with a carved stag's head as a finial to its gable. This William also +gave, for the adornment of the church, several frontals, with gold, roses +embroidered on a black ground; also he gave a belt to make a _morse_ +(fastening or brooch) for the principal copes, with a figure of a swan in +the _morse_, beautifully made of goldsmith's work; also he gave to the +refectory a wooden drinking-bowl or cup, handsomely ornamented with +silver, with a cover of the same wood. He wears a green hood lined with +red; his wife is habited in a white hood. + +[Illustration: _William and Johanna Cheupaign._] + +The next picture represents Johanna de Warn, who also gave what is +described as a well-built house, with a louvre, in St. Alban's town. This +house, again, is of timber, with traceried windows, an arched doorway with +ornamental hinges to the door, and an unusually large and handsome louvre. +This louvre was doubtless in the roof of the hall, and probably over a +fire-hearth in the middle of the hall, such as that which still exists in +the fourteenth-century hall at Pevensey, Kent. The lady's face is strong +corroboration of the theory that these are portraits. + +[Illustration: _Johanna de Warn._] + +Next is the portrait of a man in a robe, fastened in front with great +buttons, and a hood drawn round a strongly marked face, reminding us +altogether of the portraits of Dante. + +[Illustration: _A Gentleman in Civilian Dress._] + +The last which we take from this curious series is the picture of William +de Langley, who gave to the monastery a well-built house in Dagnale +Street, in the town of St. Alban's, for which the monastery received sixty +shillings per annum, which Geoffrey Stukeley held at the time of writing. +William de Langley is a man of regular features, partly bald, with pointed +beard and moustache, the kind of face that might so easily have been +merely conventional, but which has really much individuality of +expression. The house--his benefaction--represented beside him, is a +two-storied house; three of the square compartments just under the eaves +are seen, by the colouring of the illumination, to be windows; it is +timber-built and tiled, and the upper story overhangs the lower. The gable +is finished with a weather-vane, which, in the original, is carried beyond +the limits of the picture. The dots in the empty spaces of all these +pictures are the diapering of the coloured background. + +[Illustration: _William de Langley._] + +But curious as these early portraits are, and interesting for their +character and for their costume, as far as they go, they still fail to +give us complete illustrations of the dresses of the people. For these we +shall have to resort to a class of illustrations which we have hitherto, +for the most part, avoided--that of monumental brasses. Now we recur to +them because they give us what we want--the _minutiæ_ of costume--in far +higher perfection than we can find it elsewhere. Again, instead of +selecting one from one part of the country and another from another, we +have thought that it would add interest to the series of illustrations to +take as many as possible from one church, whose grave-stones happen to +furnish us with a continuous series at short intervals of the effigies of +the men who once inhabited the old houses of the town of Northleach, in +Gloucestershire. This series, however, does not go back so far as the +earliest extant monumental brass of a merchant; we therefore take a first +example from another source. We have already mentioned the three grand +effigies of Robert Braunche and Adam Walsokne of Lynne, and Alan Fleming +of Newark; we select from them the effigy of Robert Braunche, merchant of +Lynn, of date 1367 A.D. We have taken his single figure out of the grand +composition which forms, perhaps, the finest monumental brass in +existence. The costume is elegantly simple. A tunic reaches to the ankle, +with a narrow line of embroidery at the edges; the sleeves do not reach to +the elbow, but fall in two hanging lappets, while the arm is seen to be +covered by the tight sleeves of an under garment, ornamented rather than +fastened by a close row of buttons from the elbow to the wrist. Over the +tunic is a hood, which covers the upper part of the person, while the head +part falls behind. The hood in this example fits so tightly to the figure +that the reader might, perhaps, think it doubtful whether it is really a +second garment over the tunic; but in the contemporary and very similar +effigy of Adam de Walsokne, it is quite clear that it is a hood. The plain +leather shoes laced across the instep will also be noticed. If the reader +should happen to compare this woodcut with the engraving of the same +figure in Boutell's "Monumental Brasses," he will, perhaps, be perplexed +by finding that the head here given is different from that which he will +find there. We beg to assure him that our woodcut is correct. Mr. +Boutell's artist, by some curious error, has given to his drawing of +Braunche the head of Alan Fleming of Newark; and to Fleming he has given +Braunche's head. + +We feel quite sure that every one of artistic feeling will be thankful +for being made acquainted with the accompanying effigy of a merchant of +Northleach, whose inscription is lost, and his name, therefore, unknown. +The brass is of the highest merit as a work of art, and has been very +carefully and accurately engraved, and is worthy of minute examination. +The costume, which is of about the year 1400 A.D., it will be seen, +consists of a long robe buttoned down the front, girded with a +highly-ornamented belt; the enlarged plate at the end of the strap is +ornamented with a T, probably the initial of the wearer's Christian name. +By his side hangs the _anlace_, or dagger, which was worn by all men of +the middle class who did not wear a sword, even by the secular clergy. +Over all is a cloak, which opens at the right side, so as to give as much +freedom as possible to the right arm, and to this cloak is attached a +hood, which falls over the shoulders. The hands are covered with half +gloves. The wool-pack at his feet shows his trade of wool-merchant. Over +the effigy is an elegant canopy, which it is not necessary for our purpose +to give, but it adds very much to the beauty and sumptuousness of the +monument. + +[Illustration: _Robert Braunche, of Lynn._] + +[Illustration: _Wool Merchant from Northleach Church._] + +Next in the series is John Fortey, A.D. 1458, whose costume is not so +elegant as that of the last figure, but it is as distinctly represented. +The tunic is essentially the same, but shorter, reaching only to the +mid-leg; with sleeves of a peculiar shape which, we know from other +contemporary monuments, was fashionable at that date. It is fastened with +a girdle, though a less ornamental one than that of the preceding figure, +and is lined and trimmed at the wrists with fur. Very similar figures of +Hugo Bostock and his wife, in Wheathamstead Church, Herts, are of date +1435; these latter effigies are specially interesting as the parents of +John de Wheathamstede, the thirty-third abbot of St. Alban's. + +[Illustration: _John Fortey, from Northleach Church._] + +The next is an interesting figure, though far inferior in artistic merit +and beauty to those which have gone before. The name here again is lost, +but a fragment remaining of the inscription gives the date MCCCC., with a +blank for the completion of the date; the same is the case with the date +of his wife's death, so that both effigies may have been executed in the +lifetime of the persons. The date is probably a little later than 1400. +The face is so different from the previous ones that it may not be +unnecessary to say that great pains have been taken to make it an accurate +copy of the original, and it has been drawn and engraved by the same hand +as the others. The manifest endeavour to indicate that the deceased was an +elderly man, induces us to suspect that some of its peculiarity may arise +from its being not a mere conventional brass, such as the monumental brass +artists doubtless "kept to order," but one specially executed with a +desire to make it more nearly resemble the features of the deceased. If, +as we have conjectured, it was executed in his lifetime, this, perhaps, +may account for its differing from the conventional type. His dress is the +gown worn by civilians at the period, with a _gypcire_, or purse, hung at +one side of his girdle, and his rosary at the other. + +[Illustration: _Wool Merchants from Northleach Church._] + +Lastly, we give the effigy of another nameless wool-merchant of +Northleach, who is habited in a gown of rather stiffer material than the +robes of his predecessors, trimmed with fur at the neck and feet and +wrists. The inscription recording his name and date of death is lost, but +a curious epitaph, also engraved on the brass, remains, as follows:-- + + "Farewell my frends, the tyde abideth no man, + I am departed from hence, and so shall ye; + But in this passage the best songe that I can + Is requiem eternam. Now then graunte it me, + When I have ended all myn adversitie, + Graunte me in Puradise to have a mansion, + That shed thy blode for my redemption." + +The mention of fur in these effigies suggests the restrictions in this +matter imposed by the sumptuary laws by which the king and his advisers +sought from time to time to restrain the extravagance of the lieges. By +the most important of these acts, passed in 1362, the Lord Mayor of London +and his wife were respectively allowed to wear the array of knights +bachelors and their wives; the aldermen and recorder of London, and the +mayors of other cities and towns, that of esquires and gentlemen having +property to the yearly value of £40. No man having less than this, or his +wife or daughter, shall wear any fur of martrons (martin's?) letuse, pure +grey, or pure miniver. Merchants, citizens, and burgesses, artificers and +people of handicraft, as well within the City of London as elsewhere, +having goods and chattels of the clear value of £500, are allowed to dress +like esquires and gentlemen of £100 a year; and those possessing property +to the amount of £1,000, like landed proprietors of £200 a year. + +There are some further features in these monumental brasses worth notice. +Knightly effigies often have represented at their feet lions, the symbols +of their martial courage. Some of our wool-merchants have a sheep at their +feet, as the symbol of their calling: one is given in the woodcut +accompanying. In another, in the same church, the merchant has one foot on +a sheep and the other on a wool-pack; here the two significant symbols are +combined--the sheep stands on the wool-pack. In both examples the +wool-pack has a mark upon it; in the former case it is something like the +usual "merchant's mark," in the latter it is two shepherds' crooks, which +seem to be his badge, for another crook is laid beside the wool-pack. At +the feet of the effigy of John Fortey, p. 523, is also his merchant's mark +enclosed in an elegant wreath, here represented. The initials I and F are +the initials of his name; the remainder of the device is his trade-mark. +We give two other merchants' marks of the two last of our series of +effigies. If the reader cares to see other examples of these marks, and to +learn all the little that is known about them, he may refer to a paper by +Mr. Ewing, in vol. iii. of "Norfolk Archæology." + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +We have in a former chapter (p. 498) given from his monumental brass a +figure of Alderman Field, of the date 1574, habited in a tunic edged with +fur, girded at the waist, with a _gypcire_ and rosary at the girdle, and +over all an alderman's gown. In St. Paul's Church, Bedford, is another +brass of Sir William Harper, Knight, Alderman, and Lord Mayor of +London,[417] who died in A.D. 1573; he wears a suit of armour of that +date, with an alderman's robe forming a drapery about the figure, but +thrown back so as to conceal as little of the figure as possible. In the +Abbey Church at Shrewsbury is an effigy of a mayor of that town in armour, +with a mayor's gown of still more modern shape. The brasses of Sir M. +Rowe, Lord Mayor of London, 1567, and Sir H. Rowe, Lord Mayor 1607, both +kneeling figures, formerly in Hackney Church, are engraved in Robinson's +history of that parish. And in many of the churches in and about London, +and other of the great commercial towns of the Middle Ages, monumental +effigies exist, with which, were it necessary, we might extend these notes +of illustrations of civic costume. + +In further explanation of civil costume from MSS. illuminations we refer +the artist to the Harleian "Romance of the Rose" (Harl. 4,425, f. 47), +where he will find a beautiful drawing, in which appears a man in a long +blue gown, open a little at the breast and showing a pink under-robe, a +black hat, and a liripipe of the kind already given in the citizens of +Paris p. 54; he wears his purse by his side, and is presenting money to a +beggar. At f. 98 is another in similar costume, with a "penner" at his +belt in addition to his purse. There is nothing to prove that these men +are merchants, except that they are represented in the streets of a town, +and that their costume is such as was worn by merchants of the time. + +With these costumes of civilians before our eyes we wish to use them in +illustration of a subject which was touched upon in a former section of +this work, viz., the Secular Clergy of the Middle Ages. We there devoted +some pages to a discussion of the ordinary every-day costume of the +clergy, and stated that there was no professional peculiarity about it, +but that it was in shape like that worn by contemporary civilians of the +better class, and in colour blue and red and other colours, but seldom +black. If the reader will turn back to pp. 244, 245, and 246, he will find +some woodcuts of the clergy in ordinary costume; let him compare them now +with these costumes of merchants. For example, take the woodcut of Roger +the Chaplain, on p. 245, and compare it with the brass from Northleach, p. +522. The style of art is very different, but in spite of this the +resemblance in costume will be readily seen; the gown reaching to the +ankle, and over it the cloak fastened with three buttons at the right +shoulder, with the hood falling back over the shoulders; the half-gloves +are the same in both, and the shoes with their latchet over the instep. +Then turn to the priest on p. 246, and it will be seen that he wears the +gown girded at the waist, with a purse hung at the girdle, and the flat +cap with long liripipe, which we have described in the costumes of these +merchants. Lastly, let the reader look at these brasses of wool-staplers, +and compare the gown they wore with the cassock now adopted by the clergy, +and it will be seen that they are identical--_i.e._ the clergy continue to +wear the gown which all civilians wore three or four hundred years ago; +and in the same manner the academic gown which the clergy wear, in common +with all university men, is only the gown which all respectable citizens +wore in the time of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +MEDIÆVAL TOWNS. + + +Mediæval towns in England had one of four origins; some were those of +ancient Roman foundation, which had lived through the Saxon invasion, like +Lincoln, Chester, and Colchester. Others again grew up gradually in the +neighbourhood of a monastery. The monastery was founded in a wilderness, +but it had a number of artisans employed about it; travellers resorted to +its _hospitium_ as to an inn; it was perhaps a place of pilgrimage; the +affairs of the Lord Abbot, and the business of the large estates of the +convent, brought people constantly thither; and so gradually a town grew +up, as at St. Alban's, St. Edmundsbury, &c. In other cases it was not a +religious house, but a castle of some powerful and wealthy lord, which +drew a population together under the shelter of its walls--as at Norwich, +where the lines of the old streets follow the line of the castle-moat; or +Ludlow, on the other side of the kingdom, which gathered round the Norman +Castle of Ludlow. But there is a third category of mediæval towns which +did not descend from ancient times, or grow by accidental accretion in +course of time, but were deliberately founded and built in the mediæval +period for specific purposes; and in these we have a special interest from +our present point of view. + +There was a period, beginning in the latter part of the eleventh and +extending to the close of the fourteenth century, when kings and feudal +lords, from motives of high policy, fostered trade with anxious care; +encouraged traders with countenance, protection, and grants of privileges; +and founded commercial towns, and gave them charters which made them +little independent, self-governing republics, in the midst of the feudal +lords and ecclesiastical communities which surrounded them. + +In England we do not find so many of these newly founded towns as on the +Continent; here towns were already scattered abundantly over the land, and +what was needed was to foster their growth; but our English kings founded +such towns in their continental dominions. Edward I. planted numerous free +towns, especially in Guienne and Aquitaine, in order to raise up a power +in his own interest antagonistic to that of the feudal lords. Other +continental sovereigns did the same, _e.g._ Alphonse of Poitiers, the +brother of St. Louis, in his dominion of Toulouse. But in England we have +a few such cases. The history of the foundation of Hull will afford us an +example. When Edward I. was returning from Scotland after the battle of +Dunbar, he visited Lord Wakes of Barnard Castle. While hunting one day, he +was led by the chase to the hamlet of Wyke-upon-Hull, belonging to the +convent of Meaux. The king perceived at once the capabilities of the site +for a fortress for the security of the kingdom, and a port for the +extension of commerce. He left the hunt to take its course, questioned the +shepherds who were on the spot about the depth of the river, the height to +which the tides rose, the owner of the place, and the like. He sent for +the Abbot of Meaux, and exchanged with him other lands for Wyke. Then he +issued a proclamation offering freedom and great commercial privileges to +all merchants who would build and inhabit there. He erected there a +manor-house for himself; incorporated the town as a free borough in 1299 +A.D.; by 1312 the great church was built; by 1322 the town was fortified +with a wall and towers; and the king visited it from time to time on his +journeys to the north. The family of De la Pole, who settled there from +the first, ably seconded the king's intentions. Kingston-upon-Hull became +one of the great commercial towns of the kingdom. The De la Poles rose +rapidly to wealth and the highest rank. Michael de la Pole "builded a +goodly-house of brick, against the west end of St. Mary's Church, like a +palace, with a goodly orchard and garden at large, enclosed with brick. He +builded also three houses in the town besides, whereof every one hath a +tower of brick." Leland the antiquary, of the time of Queen Elizabeth, has +left us a description and bird's-eye plan of the town in his day, which +is highly interesting. Of our English towns, those which are of Roman +origin were laid out at first on a comprehensive plan, and they have the +principal streets tolerably straight, and crossing at right angles. The +great majority of the towns which grew as above described are exceedingly +irregular; but this irregularity, so important an element in the +picturesqueness of mediæval towns, is quite an accidental one. When the +mediæval builders laid out a town _de novo_, they did it in the most +methodical manner; laying out the streets wide, straight, at equal +distances, and crossing rectangularly; appropriating proper sites for +churches, town-halls, and other public purposes, and regulating the size +and plan of the houses. It is to the continental towns we must especially +look for examples; but we find when Edward I. was building his free towns +there, he sent for Englishmen to lay them out for him. A similar +opportunity occurred at Winchelsea, where the same plan was pursued. The +old town of Winchelsea was destroyed by the sea in 1287, and the king +determined to rebuild this cinque-port. The chief owners of the new site +were a knight, Sir J. Tregoz, one Maurice, and the owners of Battle Abbey. +The king compounded with them for their rights over seventy acres of land, +and sent down the Bishop of Ely, who was Lord Treasurer, to lay out the +new town. The monarch accorded the usual privileges to settlers, and gave +help towards the fortifications. The town was laid out in streets which +divided the area into rectangular blocks; two blocks were set apart for +churches, and there were two colleges of friars within the town. Somehow +the place did not flourish; it was harried by incursions of the French +before the fortifications were completed, people were not attracted to it, +the whole area was never taken up, and it continues to this day shrunk up +into one corner of its walled area. Three of the old gates, and part of +the walls, and portions of three or four houses, are all that remain of +King Edward's town. + +[Illustration: _View of Jerusalem._] + +[Illustration: _The Canterbury Pilgrims._] + +The woodcut on the preceding page, from a MS. of Lydgate's "Storie of +Thebes" (Royal 18 D. II.), gives a general view of a town. The travellers +in the foreground are a group of Canterbury pilgrims. + +In these mediæval times the population of these towns was not so diverse +as it afterwards became; the houses were of various classes, from that of +the wealthy merchant, which was a palace--like that of Michael de la Pole +at Hull, or that of Sir John Crosby in London--down to the cottage of the +humble craftsman, but the mediæval town possessed no such squalid quarters +as are to be found in most of our modern towns. The inhabitants were +chiefly merchants, manufacturers, and craftsmen of the various guilds. +Just as in the military order, all who were permanently attached to the +service of a feudal lord were lodged in his castle or manor and its +dependencies; as all who were attached to a religious community were +lodged in and about the monastery; as in farm-houses, a century ago, the +labouring men lived in the house; so in towns all the clerks, apprentices, +and work-people lodged in the house of their master; the apprentices of +every craftsman formed part of his family; there were no lodgings in the +usual sense of the word. In the great towns, and especially in the +suburbs, were hostelries which received travellers, adventurers, +minstrels, and all the people who had no fixed establishment; and often in +the outskirts of the town without the walls, houses of inferior kind +sprang up like parasites, and harboured the poor and dangerous classes. + +The bird's-eye views of the county towns in the corners of Speed's _Maps +of the most famous Places of the World_, are well worth study. They give +representations of the condition of many of our towns in the time of +Elizabeth, while they were still for the most part in their ancient +condition, with walls and gates, crosses, pillories, and maypoles still +standing, and indicated in the engravings. Perhaps one of the most perfect +examples we have left of a small mediæval town is Conway; it is true, no +very old houses appear to be left in it, but the streets are probably on +their old lines, and the walls and gates are perfect--the latter, +especially, giving us some picturesque features which we do not find +remaining in the gates of other towns. Taken in combination with the +adjoining castle it is architecturally one of the most unchanged corners +of England. + +We have also a few old houses still left here and there, sufficient to +form a series of examples of various dates, from the twelfth century +downwards. We must refer the reader to Turner's "Domestic Architecture" +for notices of them. A much greater number of examples, and in much more +perfect condition, exist in the towns of the Continent, for which +reference should be made to Viollet le Duc's "Dictionary of Architecture." +All that our plan requires, and our space admits, is to give a general +notion of what a citizen's house in a mediæval town was like. The houses +of wealthy citizens were no doubt mansions comparable with the unembattled +manor-houses of the country gentry. We have already quoted Leland's +description of that of Michael de la Pole at Hull, of the fourteenth +century, and Crosby Hall in Bishopsgate Street. St. Mary's Hall, at +Coventry, is a very perfect example of the middle of the fifteenth +century. Norwich also possesses one or more houses of this character. The +house of an ordinary citizen had a narrow frontage, and usually presented +its gable to the street; it had very frequently a basement story, groined, +which formed a cellar, and elevated the first floor of the house three or +four feet above the level of the street. At Winchelsea the vaulted +basements of three or four of the old houses remain, and show that the +entrance to the house was by a short stone stair alongside the wall; under +these stairs was the entrance into the cellar, beside the steps a window +to the cellar, and over that the window of the first floor. Here, as was +usually the case, the upper part of the house was probably of wood, and it +was roofed with tiles. On the first floor was the shop, and beside it an +alley leading to the back of the house, and to a straight stair which gave +access to the building over the shop, which was a hall or common +living-room occupying the whole of the first floor. The kitchen was at the +back, near the hall, or sometimes the cooking was done in the hall itself. +A private stair mounted to the upper floor, which was the sleeping +apartment, and probably was often left in one undivided garret; the great +roof of the house was a wareroom or storeroom, goods being lifted to it by +a crane which projected from a door in the gable. The town of Cluny +possesses some examples, very little modernised, of houses of this +description of the twelfth century. Others of the thirteenth century are +at St. Antonin, and in the Rue St. Martin, Amiens. Others of subsequent +date will be found in the Dictionary of Viollet le Duc, vol. vi., pp. +222-271, who gives plans, elevations, and perspective sketches which +enable us thoroughly to understand and realise these picturesque old +edifices. Our own country will supply us with abundance of examples of +houses, both of timber and stone, of the fifteenth century. Nowhere, +perhaps, are there better examples than at Shrewsbury, where they are so +numerous, in some parts (_e.g._ in the High Street and in Butcher Row), as +to give a very good notion of the picturesque effect of a whole street--of +a whole town of them. But it must be admitted that the continental towns +very far exceed ours in their antiquarian and artistic interest. In the +first place, the period of great commercial prosperity occurred in these +countries in the Middle Ages, and their mediæval towns were in consequence +larger and handsomer than ours. In the second place, there has been no +great outburst of prosperity in these countries since to encourage the +pulling down the mediæval houses to make way for modern improvements; +while in England our commercial growth, which came later, has had the +result of clearing away nearly all of our old town-houses, except in a few +old-fashioned places which were left outside the tide of commercial +innovations. In consequence, a walk through some of the towns of Normandy +will enable the student and the artist better to realise the picturesque +effect of an old English town, than any amount of diligence in putting +together the fragments of old towns which remain to us. In some of the +German towns, also, we find the old houses still remaining, apparently +untouched, and the ancient walls, mural towers, and gateways still +surrounding them. The illuminations in MSS. show that English towns were +equally picturesque, and that the mediæval artists appreciated them. The +illustrations in our last chapter on pp. 519, 520, give an idea of the +houses inhabited by citizens in such a town as St. Alban's. In the "Roman +d'Alexandre," in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, a whole street of such +houses is rudely represented, some with the gable to the street, some with +the side, all with the door approached by an exterior stair, most of them +with the windows apparently unglazed, and closed at will by a shutter. We +might quote one MS. after another, and page after page. We will content +ourselves with noting, for exterior views, the Royal MS. 18 E. V. (dated +1473 A.D.), at 3 E. V., f. 117 v., a town with bridge and barbican, and +the same still better represented at f. 179; and we refer also to Hans +Burgmaier's "Der Weise Könige," which abounds in picturesque bits of towns +in the backgrounds of the pictures. For exteriors the view of Venice in +the "Roman d'Alexandre" is full of interest, especially as we recognise +that it gives some of the remaining features--the Doge's Palace, the +Cathedral, the columns in the Piazzeta--and it is therefore not merely a +fancy picture, as many of the town-views in the MS. are, which are +supposed to represent Jerusalem,[418] Constantinople, and other cities +mentioned in the text. This Venice view shows us that at that time the +city was lighted by lanterns hung at the end of poles extended over the +doors of the houses. It gives us a representation of a butcher's shop and +other interesting features. + +[Illustration: _A Mediæval Street and Town Hall._] + +The illustration on the preceding page is also a very interesting +street-view of the fifteenth century, from a plate in Le Croix and Seré's +"Moyen Age," vol. Corporations et Metiers, Plate 8. Take first the +right-hand side of the engraving, remove the forest of picturesque towers +and turrets with their spirelets and vanes which appear over the roofs of +the houses (in which the artist has probably indulged his imagination as +to the effect of the other buildings of the town beyond), and we have left +a sober representation of part of a mediæval street--a row of lofty timber +houses with their gables turned to the street. We see indications of the +usual way of arranging the timber frame-work in patterns; there are also +indications of pargeting (_e.g._ raised plaster ornamentation) and of +painting in some of the panels. On the ground-floor we have a row of shops +protected by a projecting pent-house; the shop-fronts are open unglazed +arches, with a bench across the lower part of the arch for a counter, +while the goods are exposed above. In the first shop the tradesman is seen +behind his counter ready to cry "what d'ye lack" to every likely +purchaser; at the second shop is a customer in conversation with the +shopkeeper; at the third the shopkeeper and his apprentice seem to be busy +displaying their goods. Some of the old houses in Shrewsbury, as those in +Butcher Row, are not unlike these, and especially their shops are exactly +of this character. When we turn to the rest of the engraving we find +apparently some fine building in which, perhaps, again the artist has +drawn a little upon vague recollections of civic magnificence, and his +perspective is not quite satisfactory. Perhaps it is some market-house or +guildhall, or some such building, which is represented; with shops on the +ground-floor, and halls and chambers above. The entrance-door is +ornamented with sculpture, the panels of the building are filled with +figures, which are either painted or executed in plaster, in relief. The +upper part of the building is still unfinished, and we see the scaffolds, +and the cranes conveying mortar and timber, and the masons yet at work. In +the shop on the right of the building, we note the usual open shop-front +with its counter, and the tradesman with a pair of scales; in the interior +of the shop is an assistant who seems to be, with vigorous action, +pounding something in a mortar, and so we conjecture the shop to be that +of an apothecary. The costume of the man crossing the street, in long gown +girded at the waist, may be compared with the merchants given in our last +chapter, and with those in an engraving of a market-place at p. 499. The +figure at a bench in the left-hand corner of the engraving may perhaps be +one of the workmen engaged upon the building; not far off another will be +seen hauling up a bucket of mortar, by means of a pulley, to the upper +part of the building; the first mason seems to wear trousers, probably +overalls to protect his ordinary dress from the dirt of his occupation. Of +later date are the pair of views given opposite from the margin of one of +the pictures in "The Alchemy Book" (Plut. 3,469) a MS. in the British +Museum of early sixteenth-century date. The nearest house in the +left-hand picture shows that the shops were still of the mediæval +character; several of the houses have signs on projecting poles. There are +other examples of shops in the nearest house of the right-hand picture, a +public fountain opposite, and a town-gate at the end of the street. We see +in the two pictures, a waggon, horsemen, and carts, a considerable number +of people standing at the shops, at the doors of their houses, and passing +along the street, which has no foot pavement. + +[Illustration: _Mediæval Streets._] + +The accompanying cut from Barclay's "Shippe of Fools," gives a view in the +interior of a mediæval town. The lower story of the houses is of stone, +the upper stories of timber, projecting. The lower stories have only +small, apparently unglazed windows, while the living rooms with their +oriels and glazed lattices are in the first floor. The next cut, from a +MS. in the French National Library, gives the interior of the courtyard of +a great house. We notice the portion of one of the towers on the left, the +draw-well, the external stair to the principal rooms on the first floor, +the covered unglazed gallery which formed the mode of communication from +the different apartments of the first floor, and the dormer windows. + +[Illustration: _A Town, from Barclay's Shippe of Fools._] + +A whole chapter might be written on the inns of mediæval England. We must +content ourselves with giving references to pictures of the exterior of +two country ale-houses--one in the Royal MS. 10 E. IV., at f. 114 v., +which has a broom projecting over the door by way of sign; and another in +the "Roman d'Alexandre" in the Bodleian--and with reproducing here two +pictures of the interiors of hostelries from Mr. Wright's "Domestic +Manners and Customs of the Middle Ages." They represent the sleeping +accommodation of these ancient inns. In the first, from the "Quatre Fils +d'Aymon," a MS. romance of the latter part of the fourteenth century, in +the French National Library, the beds are arranged at the side of the +apartment in separate berths, like those of a ship's cabin, or like the +box beds of the Highlands of Scotland. It is necessary, perhaps, to +explain that the artist has imagined one side of the room removed, so as +to introduce into his illustration both the mounted traveller outside and +the interior of the inn. + +[Illustration: _Courtyard of a House._ (French National Library.)] + +In the next woodcut, from Royal MS. 18 D. II., the side of the hostelry +next to the spectator is supposed to be removed, so as to bring under view +both the party of travellers approaching through the corn-fields, and the +same travellers tucked into their truckle beds and fast asleep. The sign +of the inn will be noticed projecting over the door, with a brush hung +from it. Many houses displayed signs in the Middle Ages; the brush was the +general sign of a house of public entertainment. On the bench in the +common dormitory will be seen the staves and scrips of the travellers, who +are pilgrims. + +[Illustration: _An Inn._ (French National Library.)] + +A fragment of a romance of "Floyre and Blanchefleur," published by the +Early English Text Society, illustrates the mediæval inn. We have a little +modernised the very ancient original. Floris is travelling with a retinue +of servants, in the hope of finding his Blanchefleur:-- + + "To a riche city they bothe ycome, + Whaire they have their inn ynome[419] + At a palais soothe riche; + The lord of their inn has non his liche,[420] + Him fell gold enough to honde, + Bothe in water and in lande, + He hadde yled his life ful wide." + +_i.e._ he had travelled much, had great experience of life, and had gained +gold both by sea and land. Besides houses entirely devoted to the +entertainment of travellers, it was usual for citizens to take travellers +into their houses, and give them entertainment for profit; it would seem +that Floris and his servants had "taken up their inn" at the house of a +burgess; he is called subsequently, "a burgess that was wel kind and +curteis:"-- + + "This Child he sette next his side, + Glad and blithe they weren alle + So many as were in the halle; + But Floris not ne drank naught, + Of Blanchefleur was all his thought." + +[Illustration: _An Inn._] + +The lady of the inn perceiving his melancholy, speaks to her husband about +him:-- + + "Sire takest thou no care + How this child mourning sit + Mete ne drink he nabit, + He net[421] mete ne he ne drinketh + Nis[422] he no marchaunt as me thinketh." + +From which we gather that their usual guests were merchants. The host +afterwards tells Floris that Blanchefleur had been at his house a little +time before, and that-- + + "Thus therein this other day + Sat Blanchefleur that faire may, + In halle, ne in bower, ne at board + Of her ne herde we never a word + But of Floris was her mone + He hadde in herte joie none." + +Floris was so rejoiced at the news, that he caused to be brought a cup of +silver and a robe of minever, which he offered to his host for his news. +In the morning-- + + "He took his leave and wende his way, + And for his nighte's gesting + He gaf his host an hundred schillinge." + +One feature of a town which requires special mention is the town-hall. As +soon as a town was incorporated, it needed a large hall in which to +transact business and hold feasts. The wealth and magnificence of the +corporation were shown partly in the size and magnificence of its hall. +Trade-guilds similarly had their guildhalls; when there was one great +guild in a town, its hall was often the town-hall; when there were +several, the guilds vied with one another in the splendour of their halls, +feasts, pageants, &c. The town-halls on the Continent exceed ours in size +and architectural beauty. That at St. Antoine, in France, is an elegant +little structure of the thirteenth century. The Belgian town-halls at +Bruges, &c., are well known from engravings. We are not aware of the +existence of any town-halls in England of a date earlier than the +fifteenth century. That at Leicester is of the middle of the fifteenth +century. The town-hall at Lincoln, over the south gate, is of the latter +half of the century; that at Southampton, over the north gate, about the +same date: it was not unusual for the town-hall to be over one of the +gates. Of the early part of the sixteenth century we have many examples. +They are all of the same type--a large oblong hall, of stone or timber, +supported on pillars, the open colonnade beneath being the market-place. +That at Salisbury is of stone; at Wenlock (which has been lately +restored), of timber. There are others at Hereford, Ross, Leominster, +Ashburton, Guildford, &c. The late Gothic Bourse at Antwerp is an early +example of the cloistered, or covered courts, which, at the end of the +fifteenth century, began to be built for the convenience of the merchants +assembling at a certain hour to transact business. The covered bridge of +the Rialto was used as the Exchange at Venice. + +None of our towns have the same relative importance which belonged to them +in the Middle Ages. In the latter part of the period of which we write it +was very usual for the county families to have town-houses in the county +town, or some other good neighbouring town, and there they came to live in +the winter months. When the fashion began we hardly know. Some of the fine +old timber houses remaining in Shrewsbury are said to have been built by +Shropshire families for their town-houses. The gentry did not in those +times go to London for "the season." The great nobility only used to go to +court, which was held three times a year; then parliament sat, the king's +courts of law were open, and the business of the nation was transacted. +They had houses at the capital for their convenience on these occasions, +which were called inns, as Lincoln's Inn, &c. But it is only from a very +recent period, since increased facilities of locomotion made it +practicable, that it has been the fashion for all people in a certain +class of society to spend "the season" in London. As a consequence the +country gentry no longer have houses in the provincial towns; even the +better classes of those whose occupation lies in them live in their +suburbs, and the towns are rapidly changing their character, physically, +socially, and morally, for the worse. London is becoming rapidly the one +great town in England. The great manufacturers have agencies in London; if +people are going to furnish a house or to buy a wedding outfit they come +up to London; the very artisans and rustics in search of a day's holiday +are whirled up to London in an excursion train. While London in +consequence is extending so widely as to threaten to convert all England +into a mere suburb of the metropolis of the British empire. + + + + +INDEX. + + + Abbesses, costume of, 57 + + Abbey, infirmary of, 61 + + Abbey-church, internal arrangement of, 75 + + Abbot, duties of, 55; + his habit, 57 + + Abbot-bishop, 5 + + Abbot's lodgings, 55, 84 + + Alien Priories, 34 + + Ampulla, the Canterbury, 171-73 + + Anchorages, 132 + + Anchoresses, bequests to, 129; + Judith the foundress and patroness of the order of, 120; + sketch of, 146 + + Anchorholds, 130, 134, 138 + + Anchorites, bequests to, 125-27; + rule for, 121; + their mode of life, 121 + + Angel minstrels, 286-88 + + Anglo-Saxons, St. Augustine the Apostle of the, 6 + + Arbalesters, the Genoese famous as, 441 + + Archers, 438; + corps of enrolled as body guards by Edward III. and French kings, 412; + importance of in battle, 440; + mounted corps of, _ib._; + Norman, equipment of at time of Conquest, 438; + skill of English, 440 + + Archery, practice of by commonality of England protected and encouraged + by legislation, 445, 446 + + Armorial bearings, date of invention of, 331 + + Armour, details of a suit of thirteenth century, 333; + differences in suits of mediæval, 398, 399; + little worn in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., 458; + many modifications of in fifteenth century, 452; + of King Henry VIII.'s reign, 453; + of the fourteenth century, 338 _et seq._; + of the fifteenth century, 394 _et seq._; + various kinds of early, 329, 330, 335, 336 + + Arquebusier, 458 + + Artillery, ancient, 446; + date of first appearance in field disputed, 447; + first evidence as to the existence of, 440, 447 + + Augustinians, order of the, 18 + + Austin friars, order of, 44, 94 + + + Banker, the mediæval, 407 + + Bard, anecdotes concerning the, 271-73; + the father of the minstrels of mediæval Europe, 270 + + Basilican Institution, introduction of into Africa by St. Augustine, 4; + into France by St. Martin of Tours, _ib._; + into Ireland by St. Patrick, _ib._; + into Syria by Hilarion, _ib._ + + Battering-ram, 385, 450, 451 + + Bede houses, 24 + + Benedictine monks, habit of, 1-7; + orders, 17 + + Benefices, abuses in connection with, 200 + + Bonhommes, the, 21 + + Brigittines (female Order of Our Saviour), 21 + + Britain, exports of when a Roman province, 463 + + British Church, early history of the, 4 + coinage, date of fast, 463 + commerce, the beginnings of, 461 + + + Camaldoli, order of, 17 + + Canons, Secular, cathedral establishments of, 196; + their costume, 197, 198 + + Canterbury pilgrimage, chief sign of the, its origin and meaning, 170 + _et seq._ + + Carmelite friars, order of, 43 + + Carthusian order, founded by St. Bruno, 15; + Charterhouse (Chartreux) principal house of in England, 15 + + Carthusians, Cistercians, Clugniacs, and the orders of Camaldoli and + Vallambrosa and Grandmont, history of the successive rise of the, + 10 + + Castle, mode of assaulting a, 381; + various methods of attacking a, 392 + + Castles, counter-mines used by defenders of mediæval, 387; + Greek fire and stinkpots employed in repelling assailants of, 392; + mines used for effecting breaches in walls of, 385; + places of hospitality as well as of trials of arms, 358 + + Cells, monastic, 89 + + Chantry chapels, bequests to, 140 + priests, 136, 204, 206 + + Chapels, private, curious internal arrangement of, 211; + establishments of, 208-10 + + Chaplains, domestic, 208, 210, 212 + + Christendom, coenobitical orders of, 93 + + Church of England, date of present organization of, 195 + + Cinque Ports, 480; + ships of the, frequently at war with those of other ports of the + kingdom, 483 + + Cistercian order, founded by Robert de Thierry, 16; + introduced into England A.D. 1128, _ib._; + St. Bernard of Clairvaux the great saint of the, 17 + + Clairvaux, external aspect and internal life of, 12; + founded by St. Bernard, 11 + + Clergy, comparison between mediæval seculars and modern, 224, 225; + extracts from injunctions of John, Archbishop of Canterbury, on robes + of the, 242, 243, 250, 251; + form of degradation for heresy, 214, 215; + friars a popular order of, 223; + parochial, cause of change in condition of the, 193; + rivalry between friars and secular, 223; + secular, 214; + stories illustrating deference of for squire in olden days, 225, 226; + wills of the, 248, 249 + + Clerical costume of archbishop, 234-236; + of bishop, 235; + of cardinal, 234; + of minor orders, 214, 215; + of pope, 232, 233 + + _Clericus_, meaning of the word, 215 + + Clugniac, order of, 14 + + Coffin-stones, mediæval, curious symbols on, 193 + + Combat, a mediæval, 375, 376 + + Commerce, checked by the Conquest, 468; + discovery of sea-passage to India opens up to a career of adventure, + 485; + earliest extant document bearing on Saxon, 464; + of England greatly increased during reign of Edward the Confessor, 467; + receives much attention from Government during fourteenth century, 470; + recovers and surpasses its ancient prosperity in reign of Henry II., + 469; + the pioneers of, 485 + + Compostella pilgrimage, legend in connection with badge of the, 169; + offerings made by pilgrims on return from, 190 + + Convent, the, officials of: + abbot, 55; + almoner, 62; + artificers and servants, 65; + cellarer, 60; + chantor, _ib._; + chaplains, 65; + cloister monks, 64; + hospitaller, 61; + infirmarer, 62; + kitchener, 63; + master of the novices, 62; + novices, 65; + porter, 62; + precentor, 58; + prior, 58; + Professed Brethren, 65; + sacrist, 61; + seneschal, 63; + subprior, 60; + succentor, _ib._ + + Council of Hertford, 195; + differences affecting parochial clergy reconciled at, _ib._ + + Council of Lyons, suppression of minor mendicant orders by, 44; + red hat of cardinal first given by Innocent VI. at, 234 + + Counting-board, the, 501 + + Cross-bow, not used in war till close of twelfth century, 440; + various forms of, _ib._ + + Croyland, monastery of, 87 + + Crusades, objects for which they were organised, 159 + + Crutched friars, order of, 44 + + + Deaconesses, order of, 152 + + De Poenetentia friars, order of, 44 + + Dominican friar, Chaucer's, 46 + friars, order of, 40 + + Dunstan, Archbishop, reduces all Saxon monasteries to rule of St. + Benedict, 7 + + + Education, monasteries famous places of, 66 + + Edwardian period, armour and arms of the, 347 + + Egyptian Desert, hermits of the, 148 + + Eremeti Augustini, order of, 94, 96; + their habit, 96 + + Eremetical life, curious illustration of, 2 + + + Fairs, sole power of granting right to hold exercised by king, 503; + great, 506 + + Feudal system, introduction of into England by William the Conqueror, + 326; + points of difference between Continental and English, 327 + + Fontevraud, nuns of, 21 + + Franciscan friars, order of, 40; + the several branches of, 43 + nuns, habit of the, 43 + + Free towns, mediæval, 530; + Hull an example of one of the, _ib._; + manner of laying out, 531-38 + + Friars, orders of: + Austin, 44; + Carmelites, 43; + Crutched, 44; + de Poenetentia, 44; + Dominicans, 40; + Franciscans, 40 + Chaucer's type of a certain class of, 39; + convents of, _ib._; + pictures of ancient customs and manners of, 45; + the principle which inspired them, 36 + + + Gilbertines, founded by Gilbert of Sempringham, 21 + + Godrie of Finchale, 116 + + Grandmontines, order of, 17 + + Greek Church, costume of monks and nuns in the, 4; + rule of St. Basil followed by all monasteries of, _ib._ + fire, 449; + used in the Crusades, _ib._ + + Grimlac, rule of, 120, 121 + + Guesten-halls, 86, 87 + + Guild priests, 205; + bequests to, 206; + duties of, _ib._ + + Guilds of minstrels, 298; + laws regulating them, 299, 300 + + + Hampton Court, shipping of time of Henry VIII. illustrated at, 484 + + Harper, the mediæval, 271 _et seq._ + + Henry VIII.'s army, 455; + account of its taking the field, 456; + description of the king's camp, 458 + + Heresy, form of degradation for, 214, 215 + + Hermit, a modern, 119; + form of vow made by mediæval, 98; + popular idea of a, 95; + service for habiting and blessing a, 99; + superstition with regard to a, 100; + typical pictures of a, 117-19 + + Hermitages, localities of, 101; + descriptions of, 111-17 + + Hermit-saints, traditional histories of the early, 95 n.; + their costume, 98 + + Hermits, curious history relating to, 104 + + Holy Land, early pilgrims to the, 158; + pilgrim entitled to wear palm on accomplishment of pilgrimage to, 167; + special sign worn by pilgrims to, _ib._ + + "Holy Reliques," an account of, 185-87 + + Horses, equipment of in fifteenth century, 404; + trappings of at tournaments, 433 + + Hospitals of the Middle Ages, 23, 24; + foreign examples of, 25 + + Hospitium, contrast between the Cloister and the, 87; + resorted to by travellers, 529 + + Houses, description of, given by mediæval traders to various churches + and monasteries, 519 + + + Impropriation, evil of, 199 + + Iona, monastic institution at, 6 + + Inventories, clerical, 261, 262; + of church furniture, 285 + + "Isles of Tin," 461 + + + Jewellery, portable, Saxon goldsmiths famous for, 464 + + Jousting, 348, 349, 365, 411, 415 + + Judicial combats, anecdotes illustrative of, 419; + various authorities on the subject of, _ib._ + + + Kelvedon Parsonage, 261, 263, 265 + + Knight, manner of bringing up a, 406; + Chaucer's portrait of a, 409, 410 + + Knight-errant, armour and costume of a royal, 349, 350; + graphic account of incidents in single combat of a, 373-75; + squire of a, 352 + + Knight-errantry, romances of, 354 _et seq._ + + Knighthood, won by deeds of arms in the field and in the lists, 409 + + Knight Hospitaller, a, 31 + + Knights of Malta, 33 + of St. John of Jerusalem, order of, 29-32 + of the Temple, order of, 26, 29, 159 + + Knights, noblemen and eldest sons of landed gentry made, 408; + ceremony of making essentially a religious one, 409; + equipment of reached its strangest form in reigns of Richard III. and + Henry VII. 452 + + Knights-errant, 369 _et seq._ + + Knights of the Middle Ages, armour, arms, and costume of the, 311 _et + seq._; + scarcity of authorities for costume and manners of the, 329; + quaint and poetic phrases in romances of the, 367, 368 + + + Laura, the, 3; + original arrangement of the hermits in their, 107 + + Lindisfarne, monastic institution at, 6 + + Long-bow, the national arm of the English, 441; + attains climax of its reputation during fourteenth century, 441 + + London, burgesses of at battle of Hastings, 467; + date of its becoming chief emporium of Britain, 463; + importance of its citizens previous to Conquest, 467; + interesting account of mediæval, 469; + "mysteries," or trades of, 508; + regulations as to dress of merchants, citizens, and burgesses of the + city of, 525 + + Lord-monks, 223 + + + Marseilles, as a Greek colony, the chief emporium of the world, 462 + + Mediæval dance, a, 281, 282 + England, inns of and their signs, 540-44; + picturesque aspect of, 489-92; + population of, 503; + town-halls of, 545; + town houses of county families of, _ib._ + life and characters, sketches of, from an artist's point of view, 1 + shops, descriptions of, 509, 510 + towns, 529; + best specimens of to be found in Normandy and Germany, 535; + Conway a perfect example of one of the, 534; + gradual growth of, 529; + houses of, 534, 535; + inhabitants of, 533; + mode of lodging of population of, _ib._; + numerous on the Continent from eleventh to fourteenth centuries, 530; + picturesque views of streets and shops of, 537-40; + some built for specific purposes, 529 + trade, 503 _et seq._ + + Merchant, mediæval, an account of his occupation and way of life, 465, + 466; + curious epitaph on a brass relating to a, 525; + effigy of a at Northleach, 523 + + Merchant guilds, 489 + navy, the, 475 + ships, early, 470, 471; + king at liberty to impress, 481, 482 + + Merchants, commerce of England, during thirteenth century, carried on by + foreign, 470; + details of dresses worn by mediæval, 521; + early English, 465; + law conferring rank on, 465; + munificence of the mediæval, 495; + private naval wars carried on between, 482, 483; + provision in charter of King John as to, 469; + social position of the mediæval, 487, 488; + various classes of distinguished by costume, 487 + + Middle Ages, armour of the, 329-36; + archers of England famous during the, 439; + combats of the, 411; + consecrated widows of the, 152; + costume of tradespeople of the, 519; + description of the combat between King Arthur and a knight of the, + 365, 366; + drill and tactics of the soldiers of the, 377-79; + engines of war of the, 382, 383; + habitations of secular clergy in the, 252-54; + harper the most dignified of the minstrel craft throughout the, 271; + hermits and recluses of the, 93 _et seq._; + hospitals of the, 23-25; + hospitium of a monastery in the, 87; + houses of the, 519, 520; + itinerant traders of the, 513, 517; + manner of bringing up a youth of good family in the, 406; + merchant navy of the, 475; + merchant princes of the, 493, 494; + merchants of the, 461 _et seq._; + minstrels part of regular establishment of nobles and gentry of the, + 275; + monks of the, 1 _et seq._; + primitive mode of life of rural English population of the, 513; + ships of the, 470-71; + sketch of life led by a country parson in the, 262, 263; + sumptuary laws regulating dress of merchants of the, 525; + system of Pluralities in the, 200 + + Military engines, 382 _et seq._ + exercises and encounters, 410 _et seq._ + orders: + Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, 29; + Knights of the Temple, 26; + Our Lady of Mercy, 32; + Teutonic Knights, _ib._; + Trinitarians, 32-34 + + Minstrels, mediæval, assist in musical part of divine service, 285; + costume of, 304-309; + curious anecdotes concerning, 294, 295; + duties of, 275 _et seq._; + female, 302, 303; + incorporated in a guild, 297; + marriage processions attended by, 282, 283; + often men of position and worth, 294, 295; + part of regular establishment of nobles and gentry, 275-77; + patronised by the clergy, 288; + singular ordinance relating to, 296; + tournaments enlivened by the strains of, 291, 292; + welcome guests at the religious houses, 289, 290 + + "Minstrels unattached," 293, 294 + + Miracle-plays, parish clerks took an important part in, 220; + survival of in Spain, 221 + + Minstrelsy, in high repute among the Normans, 274; + Grostête of Lincoln a great patron of, 288; + Israelitish compared with music of mediæval England, 267 + + Mitre, earliest form of the, 236; + transition shape of the from twelfth century, _ib._ + + Monachism, origin of, 1-5 + + Monasteries, Benedictine, 9; + British, 5; + Saxon, 7; + suppression of, 52 + + Monastery, arrangement of a Carthusian, 71; + description of a, 72 _et seq._; + graphic sketch of the arrival of guests at a, 87 + + Monastic orders, traditionary histories of the founders and saints of, + 1 _et seq._; + their suppression in England, 52 + + Monk, cell of a Carthusian, 123; + pilgrim, 188 + + Monks, abodes of, 70; + lord, 223 + + Monumental brasses, 19, 57, 276, 494, 495, 497, 521, 527; + _minutiæ_ of costume of middle ages supplied from, 521; + peculiar features in, 526 + + Movable tower, a, 387 + + Music, sketch of the earliest history of, 267-70 + + Musical instruments, date of invention of, 267; + occasions when used, _ib._; + names of, _ib._ _et seq._; + used in the colleges of the prophets, 269; + Saxon, 273; + learned essays on mediæval, 274; + used in celebration of divine worship, 285; + forms of, 309, 310 + + + Order for the Redemption of Captives, 33, 34; + their habit, 34; + their rules, _ib._ + + Ostiary, costume of an, 215 n. + + Our Lady of Mercy, order of, 32 + + Our Lady of Walsingham, shrine of, 180, 181; + a relic from, _ib._ + + + Pachomius, written code of laws by, 4 + + Palmers, 189, 190; + graves of three holy, 193 + + Parish clerk, frequently the recipient of a legacy, 217; + his duties, 218, 220; + office of an ancient, _ib._; + worth of his office, 220 + priests, early handbooks for, 227; + instructions for, 162 n.; + points of difference between monks and friars and the, 222 + + Parochial clergy, 195, 196; + domestic economy of the early, 263-65; + organization of the established by Archbishop of Canterbury, 195 + + Parsonage houses, early, 254 _et seq._; + description of, 259; + furniture of, 261, 262 + + Pastoral staff, earliest examples of the, 237 + + Pedlars, their mode of dealing in mediæval times, 513, 515, 517 + + Pilgrim, an equestrian, 168; + the female, 188; + the penitential, 178 + + Pilgrimage, chief sign of the Canterbury, 170; + chief signs of the Roman, 168; + Holy Land first object of, 175; + mendicant, 176; + palmers, on return from, received with ecclesiastical processions, 189; + practice to return thanks on returning from, 189; + relics of, 191, 192; + saying of Jerome as to, 157; + special roads to the great shrines of, 178; + sign of the Compostella, 169; + usual places for, 159 + + Pilgrimages, a pleasant religious holiday, 176; + gathering cry of, 178; + popular English, 161, 162 + + Pilgrims, 159, 160; + costume of, 164, 177; + description of staff and scrip of, 164-66; + graphic sketch of a company of passing through a town, 179; + insignia of, 164, 192, 193; + office of, 162-64; + special signs of, 167; + singers and musicians employed by, 179; + vow made by, 164 + + Pioneers of commerce, the, 485 + + Piracy, prevalence of in mediæval times, 483, 484 + + Plate armour, first introduction of, 336 + + "Pleasure fairs," 507 + + Priest-hermits, costume of, 97 + + Priesthood, curious history of way in which many poor men's sons + attained to the, 201 + + Prior, functions of, 59 + + Prioress, Chaucer's description of a, 58 + + + Recluse, service for enclosing a, 148, 150 + + Recluses, bequests to, 128, 129; + canons concerning, 121; + cells of female, 142; + curious details of the life of, 130; + dress of female, 97; + giving of alms to, 123; + hermitages for female, 130, 131; + popular idea as to the life of, 121; + sketch of, 146-48 + + Reclusorium, the, 124, 125, 132 + + Rectors, Saxon, 198, 199 + + Reformed Benedictine orders, 17 + + Regular Canons, Premonstratensian branch of, founded by St. Norbert, 21 + + Rettenden, reclusorium at, 135, 137 + + Richard of Hampole, life of, 107-10 + + Rome, pilgrimage to, 168; + number of pilgrims visiting, 168; + description of relics at, 182, 183 n. + + + Sacred music, 284 + + Salby abbey, staff of servants at, 66 + + Saxon soldiers, costume of, 312-18, 322-24; + ornaments of, 324, 325; + romantic fancies in connection with swords of, 320; + weapons used by, 316, 318, 319, 321 + + Saxons, the, a musical people, 272; + a pastoral rather than an agricultural race, 466; + corn not exported by the, _ib._; + famous throughout Europe for goldsmiths' work and embroidery, _ib._; + rage among the for foreign pilgrimages, 464; + traffic in slaves considerable during time of the, 466 + + Scottish Archers of the Guard, enrolment of the, 442 + + Secular clergy, comparison between costume of and that of mediæval + merchants, 528; + costume of the, 232 _et seq._ + + Shrines, pictures of, 187 + + Siege, interesting points in a mediæval, 442 + + Solitaries, mediæval, 94; + curious incident relating to two, 105 + + Spenser's description of a typical hermit and hermitage, 118, 119 + + Squires, duties of, 352 + + St. Anthony, coenobite system attributed to, 4; + monks of, _ib._ + + St. Augustine, Canons Secular of, 18; + their costume, _ib._; + Canons Regular of, 20; + Chaucer's pen-and-ink sketch of one of the order, 19 + + St. Basil, abuse of great church festivals mentioned by, 513; + introduction of Monachism into Asia Minor by, 4; + rule of, _ib._ + + St. Benedict, his rule, 6, 7; + Archbishop Dunstan reduces all Saxon monasteries to rule of, 7 + + St. Clare, foundress of the female order of Franciscans, 43 + + St. Edmund's Bury, abbey of, 65 + + St. Francis, character of, 37 + + St. Jean-les-Bons-hommes, priory of, 89 + + St. John the Hermit, 148 + + St. Mary, Winchester, abbey of, 66 + + Sumptuary laws, 525; + civil costume regulated by, 527, 528 + + + Teutonic Knights, order of, 32 + + Tilting-ground, remains of, to be seen at Carisbrook Castle, 359 + + Timber fort, 444; + used by William the Conqueror, 391 + + Tournament, 412; + a miniature, 415; + an historical example of the, 429, 430; + description of encounter between French and English knights at a, 432; + directions for the, 415-17; + form of challenge for a, 431; + form of proclamation inviting to a, 412, 413; + habiliments required by knights at a, _ib._; + incidents relating to a, 424, 430; + manner of arranging a, 423; + mode of arming knights for the, 413; + pictures illustrating various scenes of the, 432, 433; + prizes of the, 427; + the _joute à outrance_, 412; + the _joute à plaisance_, _ib._; + weapons used at a, 415 + + Tournaments, feasting and merriment usual at, 424; + the mediæval romances safe authorities on all relating to the subject + of, 423; + unusual deeds performed at, 426, 427 + + Town-halls, architectural beauty of continental, 544; + date of earliest English, 545 + + Towns, provincial, market-days in mediæval, 511, 572; + specimens of various in time of Edward III., 508-10 + + Traveller, religious houses chiefly the resting-places of the, 103, 490 + + Trinitarians, order of, 32-34 + + + Vallombrosa, order of, 17 + + Vestments, mediæval official, description of, 237-241; + abandoned at time of Reformation, 250 + + + Wager of Battle, account of a mediæval, 420-22 + + Walter of Hamuntesham, beating of by rabble, 64 + + War-ships, cannon of both iron and brass employed on board English, A.D. + 1338, 447; + costume of sailors and soldiers of mediæval, 477; + description of early, 475 _et seq._; + list of English, A.D. 1205, and where stationed, 481 + + Waverley, Cistercian abbey of, 65 + + Westminster Abbey, grants made by Henry VIII. to, 79 + + Whale fishing, early, 474 + + Widowhood, description of a lady who took the vows of, 155, 156 + + Widows, order of, 152; + dress worn by, 156; + profession or vow of, 154; + service for consecration of, 152, 153 + + William of Swynderby, 140 + + Wills, inventories attached to ancient, 211, 212 n. + + Wool merchants, costume of mediæval, 523, 525 + + +THE END. + +THE RIVERSIDE PRESS LIMITED, EDINBURGH + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] We cannot put down all these supernatural tales as fables or +impostures; similar tales abound in the lives of the religious people of +the Middle Ages, and they are not unknown in modern days: _e.g._, Luther's +conflict with Satan in the Wartzburg, and Colonel Gardiner's vision of the +Saviour. Which of them (if any) are to be considered true supernatural +visions, which may be put down as the natural results of spiritual +excitement on the imagination, which are mere baseless legends, he would +be a very self-confident critic who professed in all cases to decide. + +[2] Besides consulting the standard authorities on the archæology of the +subject, the student will do well to read Mr. Kingsley's charming book, +"The Hermits of the Desert." + +[3] Strutt's "Dress and Habits of the People of England." + +[4] This is the computation of Tanner in his "Notitia Monastica;" but the +editors of the last edition of Dugdale's "Monasticon," adding the smaller +houses or cells, swell the number of Benedictine establishments in England +to a total of two hundred and fifty-seven. + +[5] If a child was to be received his hand was wrapped in the hanging of +the altar, "and then," says the rule of St. Benedict, "let them offer +him." The words are "Si quas forte de nobilibus offert filium suum Deo in +monasterio, si ipse puer minore ætate est, parentes ejus faciant +petitionem et manum pueri involvant in pallu altaris, et sic eum offerunt" +(c. 59). The Abbot Herman tells us that in the year 1055 his mother took +him and his brothers to the monastery of which he was afterwards abbot. +"She went to St. Martin's (at Tournay), and delivered over her sons to +God, placing the little one in his cradle upon the altar, amidst the tears +of many bystanders" (Maitland's "Dark Ages," p. 78). The precedents for +such a dedication of an infant to an ascetic life are, of course, the case +of Samuel dedicated by his mother from infancy, and of Samson and John +Baptist, who were directed by God to be consecrated as Nazarites from +birth. A law was made prohibiting the dedication of children at an earlier +age than fourteen. At f. 209 of the MS. Nero D. vii., is a picture of St. +Benedict, to whom a boy in monk's habit is holding a book, and he is +reading or preaching to a group of monks. + +[6] Engraved in Boutell's "Monumental Brasses." + +[7] Probably this means that he had "clocks"--little bell-shaped +ornaments--sewn to the lower margin of his tippet or hood. + +[8] Mrs. Jameson, "Legends of the Monastic Orders," p. 137. + +[9] Viollet le Duc's "Dictionary of Architecture," vol. vi. p. 104. + +[10] Ibid. vi. 107. + +[11] Ibid. vi. 112. + +[12] Ibid. vi. 112. + +[13] All its houses were called Temples, as all the Carthusian houses were +called Chartereux (corrupted in England into Charterhouse). + +[14] Of the four round churches in England, popularly supposed to have +been built by the Templars, the Temple Church in London was built by them; +that of Maplestead, in Essex, by the Hospitallers; that of Northampton by +Simon de St. Liz, first Norman Earl of Northampton, twice a pilgrim to the +Holy Land; and that of Cambridge by some unknown individual. + +[15] The order was divided into nations--the English knights, the French +knights, &c.--each nation having a separate house, situated at different +points of the island, for its defence. These houses, large and fine +buildings, still remain, and many unedited records of the order are said +to be still preserved on the island. + +[16] An order, called our Lady of Mercy, was founded in Spain in 1258, by +Peter Nolasco, for a similar object, including in its scope not only +Christian captives to the infidel, but also all slaves, captives, and +prisoners for debt. + +[17] Afternoons and mornings. + +[18] As an indication of their zeal in the pursuit of science it is only +necessary to mention the names of Friar Roger Bacon, the Franciscan, and +Friar Albert-le-Grand (Albertus Magnus), the Dominican. The Arts were +cultivated with equal zeal--some of the finest paintings in the world were +executed for the friars, and their own orders produced artists of the +highest excellence. Fra Giacopo da Turrita, a celebrated artist in mosaic +of the thirteenth century, was a Franciscan, as was Fra Antonio da +Negroponti, the painter; Fra Fillippo Lippi, the painter, was a Carmelite; +Fra Bartolomeo, and Fra Angelico da Fiesole--than whom no man ever +conceived more heavenly visions of spiritual loveliness and purity--were +Dominicans. + +[19] + + "By his (_i.e._ Satan's) queyntise they comen in, + The curates to helpen, + But that harmed hem hard + And help them ful littel."--_Piers Ploughman's Creed._ + +[20] The extract from Chaucer on p. 46, lines 4, 5, 6, seem to indicate +that an individual friar sometimes "farmed" the alms of a district, paying +the convent a stipulated sum, and taking the surplus for himself. + +[21] In France, Jacobins. + +[22] Wives of burgesses. + +[23] Stuffed. + +[24] Musical instrument so called. + +[25] Piers Ploughman (creed 3, line 434), describing a burly Dominican +friar, describes his cloak or cope in the same terms, and describes the +under gown, or kirtle, also:-- + + "His cope that beclypped him + Wel clean was it folden, + Of double worsted y-dyght + Down to the heel. + His kirtle of clean white, + Cleanly y-served, + It was good enough ground + Grain for to beren." + +[26] A limitour, as has been explained above, was a friar whose functions +were limited to a certain district of country; a lister might exercise his +office wherever he listed. + +[27] Thirty masses for the repose of a deceased person. + +[28] Viz., in convents of friars, not in monasteries of monks and by the +secular clergy. + +[29] He was forbidden to say more. + +[30] A convent of friars used to undertake masses for the dead, and each +friar saying one the whole number of masses was speedily completed, +whereas a single priest saying his one mass a day would be very long +completing the number, and meantime the souls were supposed to be in +torment. + +[31] The usual way of concluding a sermon, in those days as in these, was +with an ascription of praise, "Who with the Father," &c. + +[32] Cake. + +[33] Choose. + +[34] Slip or piece. + +[35] Hired man. + +[36] Trifles. + +[37] Requite. + +[38] Staff. + +[39] Closely. + +[40] Part. + +[41] Forbidden. + +[42] Would not. + +[43] The good man also said he had not seen the friar "this fourteen +nights:"--Did a limitour go round once a fortnight? + +[44] The dormitory of the convent. + +[45] Infirmarer. + +[46] Aged monks and friars lived in the Infirmary, and had certain +privileges. + +[47] Wert thou not. + +[48] Implying, whether truly or not, that he had been enrolled in the +fraternity of the house, and was prayed for, with other benefactors, in +chapter. + +[49] Health and strength. + +[50] Doctor. + +[51] Little. + +[52] Preaching; he was probably a preaching friar--_i.e._, a Dominican. + +[53] Waxed nearly mad. + +[54] Lived. + +[55] "On the foundation," as we say now of colleges and endowed schools. + +[56] + + "Maysters of divinite + Her matynes to leve, + And cherliche [richly] as a cheveteyn + His chaumbre to holden, + With chymene and chaple, + And chosen whom him list, + And served as a sovereyn, + And as a lord sytten." + _Piers Ploughman_, l. 1,157. + +[57] Just as heads of colleges now have their Master's, or Provost's, or +Principal's Lodge. The constitution of our existing colleges will assist +those who are acquainted with them in understanding many points of +monastic economy. + +[58] Ellis's "Early English Romances." + +[59] Long and well proportioned. + +[60] She was of tall stature. + +[61] "And as touching the almesse that they (the monks) delt, and the +hospitality that they kept, every man knoweth that many thousands were +well received of them, and might have been better, if they had not so many +great men's horse to fede, and had not bin overcharged with such idle +gentlemen as were never out of the abaies (abbeys)."--_A complaint made to +Parliament not long after the dissolution, quoted in Coke's Institutes._ + +[62] A person doing penance. + +[63] Hunting. + +[64] Without state. + +[65] A plan of the Chartreuse of Clermont is given by Viollet le Duc +(Dict. of Architec., vol. i. pp. 308, 309), and the arrangements of a +Carthusian monastery were nearly the same in all parts of Europe. It +consists of a cloister-court surrounded by about twenty square enclosures. +Each enclosure, technically called a "cell," is in fact a little house and +garden, the little house is in a corner of the enclosure, and consists of +three apartments. In the middle of the west side of the cloister-court is +the oratory, whose five-sided apsidal sanctuary projects into the court. +In a small outer court on the west is the prior's lodgings, which is a +"cell" like the others, and a building for the entertainment of guests. +See also a paper on the Carthusian priory of Mount Grace, near Thirsk, +read by Archdeacon Churton before the Yorkshire Architectural Society, in +the year 1850. + +[66] A bird's-eye view of Citeaux, given in Viollet le Duc's "Dictionary +of Architecture," vol. i. p. 271, will give a very good notion of a +thirteenth-century monastery. Of the English monasteries Fountains was +perhaps one of the finest, and its existing remains are the most extensive +of any which are left in England. A plan of it will be found in Mr. +Walbran's "Guide to Ripon." See also plan of Furness, _Journal of the +Archæological Association_, vi. 309; of Newstead (an Augustinian house), +ibid. ix. p. 30; and of Durham (Benedictine), ibid. xxii. 201. + +[67] A double choir of the fifteenth century is in King René's Book of +Hours (Egerton, 1,070), at folio 54. Another semi-choir of Religious of +late fifteenth and early sixteenth century date, very well drawn, may be +found in Egerton, 2,125, f. 117, v. + +[68] Lydgate's Life of St. Edmund, a MS. executed in 1473 A.D., preserved +in the British Museum (Harl. 2,278), gives several very good +representations of the shrine of that saint at St. Edmund's Bury, with the +attendant monks, pilgrims worshipping, &c. + +[69] + + "Tombes upon tabernacles, tiled aloft, + + * * * * * + + Made of marble in many manner wise, + Knights in their conisantes clad for the nonce, + All it seemed saints y-sacred upon earth, + And lovely ladies y-wrought lyen by their sides + In many gay garments that were gold-beaten." + _Piers Ploughman's Creed._ + +[70] Henry VII. agreed with the Abbot and Convent of Westminster that +there should be four tapers burning continually at his tomb--two at the +sides, and two at the ends, each eleven feet long, and twelve pounds in +weight; thirty tapers, &c., in the hearse; and four torches to be held +about it at his weekly obit; and one hundred tapers nine feet long, and +twenty-four torches of twice the weight, to be lighted at his anniversary. + +[71] + + "For though a man in their mynster a masse wolde heren, + His sight shal so be set on sundrye werkes, + The penons and the pornels and poyntes of sheldes + Withdrawen his devotion and dusken his heart." + _Piers Ploughman's Vision._ + +[72] The chapter-houses attached to the cathedrals of York, Salisbury, and +Wells, are octagonal; those of Hereford and Lincoln, decagonal; Lichfield, +polygonal; Worcester is circular. All these were built by secular canons. + +[73] There are only two exceptions hitherto observed: that of the +Benedictine Abbey of Westminster, which is polygonal, and that of Thornton +Abbey, of regular canons, which is octagonal. + +[74] And at Norwich it appears to have had an eastern apse. See +ground-plan in Mr. Mackenzie E. C. Walcott's "Church and Conventual +Arrangement," p. 85. + +[75] Piers Ploughman describes the chapter-house of a Benedictine +convent:-- + + "There was the chapter-house, wrought as a great church, + Carved and covered and quaintly entayled [sculptured]; + With seemly selure [ceiling] y-set aloft, + As a parliament house y-painted about." + +[76] In the "Vision of Piers Ploughman" one of the characters complains +that if he commits any fault-- + + "They do me fast fridays to bread and water, + And am challenged in the chapitel-house as I a child were;" + +and he is punished in a childish way, which is too plainly spoken to bear +quotation. + +[77] See note on p. 76. + +[78] The woodcut on a preceding page (23) is from another initial letter +of the same book. + +[79] A room adjoining the hall, to which the fellows retire after dinner +to take their wine and converse. + +[80] The ordinary fashion of the time was to sleep without any clothing +whatever. + +[81] In the plan of the ninth-century Benedictine monastery of St. Gall, +published in the _Archæological Journal_ for June, 1848, the dormitory is +on the east, with the calefactory under it; the refectory on the south, +with the clothes-store above; the cellar on the west, with the larders +above. In the plan of Canterbury Cathedral, a Benedictine house, as it +existed in the latter half of the twelfth century, the church was on the +south, the chapter-house and dormitory on the east, the refectory, +parallel with the church, on the north, and the cellar on the west. At the +Benedictine monastery at Durham, the church was on the north, the +chapter-house and locutory on the east, the refectory on the south, and +the dormitory on the west. At the Augustinian Regular Priory of +Bridlington, the church was on the north, the fratry (refectory) on the +south, the chapter-house on the east, the dortor also on the east, up a +stair twenty steps high, and the west side was occupied by the prior's +lodgings. + +At the Premonstratensian Abbey of Easby, the church is on the north, the +transept, passage, chapter-house, and small apartments on the east, the +refectory on the south, and on the west two large apartments, with a +passage between them. The Rev. J. F. Turner, Chaplain of Bishop Cozin's +Hall, Durham, describes these as the common house and kitchen, and places +the dormitory in a building west of them, at a very inconvenient distance +from the church. + +[82] Maitland's "Dark Ages." + +[83] At Winchester School, until a comparatively recent period, the +scholars in the summer time studied in the cloisters. + +[84] For much curious information about scriptoria and monastic libraries, +see Maitland's "Dark Ages," quoted above. + +[85] The hall of the Royal Palace of Winchester, erected at the same +period, was 111 feet by 55 feet 9 inches. + +[86] Its total length would perhaps be about twenty-four paces. + +[87] The above woodcut, from the Harleian MS. 1,527, represents, probably, +the cellarer of a Dominican convent receiving a donation of a fish. It +curiously suggests the scene depicted in Sir Edwin Landseer's "Bolton +Abbey in the Olden Time." + +[88] See an account of this hall, with pen-and-ink sketches by Mr. Street, +in the volume of the Worcester Architectural Society for 1854. + +[89] Quoted by Archdeacon Churton in a paper read before the Yorkshire +Architectural Society in 1853. + +[90] Ground-plans of the Dominican Friary at Norwich, the Carmelite Friary +at Hulne and the Franciscan Friary at Kilconnel, may be found in Walcott's +"Church and Conventual Arrangement." + +[91] In the National Gallery is a painting by Fra Angelico, in which is a +hermit clad in a dress woven of rushes or flags. + +[92] "The Wonderful and Godly History of the Holy Fathers Hermits," is +among Caxton's earliest-printed books. Piers Ploughman ("Vision") speaks +of-- + + "Anthony and Egidius and other holy fathers + Woneden in wilderness amonge wilde bestes + In spekes and in spelonkes, seldom spoke together. + Ac nobler Antony ne Egedy ne hermit of that time + Of lions ne of leopards no livelihood ne took, + But of fowles that fly, thus find men in books." + +And again-- + + "In prayers and in penance putten them many, + All for love of our Lord liveden full strait, + In hope for to have heavenly blisse + As ancres and heremites that holden them in their cells + And coveten not in country to kairen [walk] about + For no likerous lifelihood, their liking to please." + +And yet again-- + + "Ac ancres and heremites that eaten not but at nones + And no more ere morrow, mine almesse shall they have, + And of my cattle to keep them with, that have cloisters and churches, + Ac Robert Run-about shall nought have of mine." + _Piers Ploughman's Vision._ + +[93] Piers Ploughman ("Vision") describes himself at the beginning of the +poem as assuming the habit of a hermit-- + + "In a summer season when soft was the sun + In habit as a hermit unholy of works, + Went wild in this world, wonders to hear, + All on a May morning on Malvern Hills," &c. + +And at the beginning of the eighth part he says-- + + "Thus robed in _russet_ I roamed about + All a summer season." + +[94] For the custom of admitting to the fraternity of a religious house, +see p. 66. + +[95] "Officium induendi et benedicendi heremitam." + +[96] We are indebted to Mr. M. H. Bloxam for a copy of it. + +[97] "_Famulus tuus N._" It is noticable that the masculine gender is used +all through, without any such note as we find in the Service for Inclosing +(which we shall have to notice hereafter), that this service shall serve +for both sexes. + +[98] The hermit who interposed between Sir Lionel and Sir Bors, and who +was killed by Sir Lionel for his interference (Malory's "Prince Arthur," +III, lxxix.), is called a "hermit-priest." Also, in the Episcopal Registry +of Lichfield, we find the bishop, date 10th February, 1409, giving to +Brother Richard Goldeston, late Canon of Wombrugge, now recluse at Prior's +Lee, near Shiffenall, license to hear confessions. + +[99] + + "Great loobies and long, that loath were to swink [work], + Clothed them in copes to be known from others, + And shaped them hermits their ease to have." + +[100] Wanderers. + +[101] Breakers out of their cells. + +[102] Kindred. + +[103] In "Piers Ploughman" we read that-- + + "Hermits with hoked staves + Wenden to Walsingham;" + +These hooked staves may, however, have been pilgrim staves, not hermit +staves. The pastoral staff on the official seal of Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, +was of the same shape as the staff above represented. A staff of similar +shape occurs on an early grave-stone at Welbeck Priory, engraved in the +Rev. E. L. Cutts's "Manual of Sepulchral Slabs and Crosses," plate xxxv. + +[104] Blomfield, in his "History of Norfolk," 1532, says, "It is to be +observed that hermitages were erected, for the most part, near great +bridges (see _Mag. Brit._, On Warwickshire, p. 597, Dugdale, &c., and +Badwell's 'Description of Tottenham') and high roads, as appears from +this, and those at Brandon, Downham, Stow Bardolph, in Norfolk, and Erith, +in the Isle of Ely, &c." + +[105] In the settlement of the vicarage of Kelvedon, Essex, when the +rectory was impropriated to the abbot and convent of Westminster, in the +fourteenth century, it was expressly ordered that the convent, besides +providing the vicar a suitable house, should also provide a hall for +receiving guests. See subsequent chapter on the Secular Clergy. + +[106] From the "Officium et Legenda de Vita Ricardi Rolle." + +[107] When is not stated; he died in 1349. + +[108] Afterwards it is described as a cell at a distance from the family, +where he was accustomed to sit solitary and to pass his time in +contemplation. In doing this Sir John Dalton and his wife were, according +to the sentiment of the time, following the example of the Shunammite and +her husband, who made for Elisha a little chamber on the wall, and set for +him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick (2 Kings iv. +10). The Knight of La Tour Landry illustrates this when in one of his +tales (ch. xcv.) he describes the Shunammite's act in the language of +mediæval custom: "This good woman had gret devocion unto this holy man, +and required and praied hym for to come to her burghe and loged in her +hous, and her husbonde and she made a chambre solitaire for this holy man, +where as he might use his devocions and serve God." + +[109] Either the little window through which she communicated with the +outer world, or perhaps (as suggested further on) a window between her +cell and a guest-chamber in which she received visitors. + +[110] A hermitage, partly of stone, partly of timber, may be seen in the +beautiful MS. Egerton 1,147, f. 218 v. + +[111] A very good representation of a cave hermitage may be found in the +late MS. Egerton, 2,125, f. 206 v. Also in the Harl. MS. 1,527, at f. 14 +v., is a hermit in a cave; and in Royal 10 E IV. f. 130, here a man is +bringing the hermit food and drink. + +[112] Eugene Aram's famous murder was perpetrated within it. See Sir E. L. +Bulwer's description of the scene in his "Eugene Aram." + +[113] See view in Stukeley's "Itin. Curios.," pl. 14. + +[114] Suggesting the room so often found over a church porch. + +[115] In the year 1490, a dispute having arisen between the abbot and +convent of Easby and the Grey Friars of Richmond, on the one part, and the +burgesses of Richmond, on the other part, respecting the disposition of +the goods of Margaret Richmond, late anchoress of the same town, it was at +length settled that the goods should remain with the warden and brethren +of the friars, after that her debts and the repair of the anchorage were +defrayed, "because the said anchoress took her habit of the said friars," +and that the abbot and convent should have the disposition of the then +anchoress, Alison Comeston, after her decease; and so to continue for +evermore between the said abbot and warden, as it happens that the +anchoress took her habit of religion. And that the burgesses shall have +the nomination and free election of the said anchoress for evermore from +time to time when it happens to be void, as they have had without time of +mind. (Test. Ebor. ii. 115.) + +[116] In June 5, 1356, Edward III. granted to brother Regnier, hermit of +the Chapel of St. Mary Magdalen, without Salop, a certain plot of waste +called Shelcrosse, contiguous to the chapel, containing one acre, to hold +the same to him and his successors, hermits there, for their habitation, +and to find a chaplain to pray in the chapel for the king's soul, &c. +(Owen and Blakeway's "History of Shrewsbury," vol. ii. p. 165). "Perhaps," +say our authors, "this was the eremitical habitation in the wood of +Suttona (Sutton being a village just without Salop), which is recorded +elsewhere to have been given by Richard, the Dapifer of Chester, to the +monks of Salop." + +[117] "Vita S. Godrici," published by the Surtees Society. + +[118] Simple. + +[119] Meddle. + +[120] Since the above was written, the writer has had an opportunity of +visiting a hermitage very like those at Warkworth, Wetheral, Bewdley, and +Lenton, still in use and habitation. It is in the parish of Limay, near +Mantes, a pretty little town on the railway between Rouen and Paris. +Nearly at the top of a vine-clad hill, on the north of the valley of the +Seine, in which Mantes is situated, a low face of rock crops out. In this +rock have been excavated a chapel, a sacristy, and a living-room for the +hermit; and the present hermit has had a long refectory added to his +establishment, in which to give his annual dinner to the people who come +here, one day in the year, in considerable numbers, on pilgrimage. The +chapel differs from those which we have described in the text in being +larger and ruder; it is so wide that its rocky roof is supported by two +rows of rude pillars, left standing for that purpose by the excavators. +There is an altar at the east end. At the west end is a representation of +the Entombment; the figure of our Lord, lying as if it had become rigid in +the midst of the writhing of his agony, is not without a rude force of +expression. One of the group of figures standing about the tomb has a late +thirteenth-century head of a saint placed upon the body of a Roman soldier +of the Renaissance period. There is a grave-stone with an incised cross +and inscription beside the tomb; and in the niche on the north side is a +recumbent monumental effigy of stone, with the head and hands in white +glazed pottery. But whether these things were originally placed in the +hermitage, or whether they are waifs and strays from neighbouring +churches, brought here as to an ecclesiastical peep-show, it is hard to +determine; the profusion of other incongruous odds and ends of +ecclesiastical relics and fineries, with which the whole place is +furnished, inclines one to the latter conjecture. There is a bell-turret +built on the rock over the chapel, and a chimney peeps through the +hill-side, over the sacristy fireplace. The platform in front of the +hermitage is walled in, and there is a little garden on the hill above. +The curé of Limay performs service here on certain days in the year. The +hermit will disappoint those who desire to see a modern example of + + "An aged sire, in long black weedes yclad, + His feet all bare, his beard all hoarie gray." + +He is an aged sire, seventy-four years old; but for the rest, he is simply +a little, withered, old French peasant, in a blue blouse and wooden +sabots. He passes his days here in solitude, unless when a rare party of +visitors ring at his little bell, and, after due inspection through his +_grille_, are admitted to peep about his chapel and his grotto, and to +share his fine view of the valley shut in by vine-clad hills, and the +Seine winding through the flat meadows, and the clean, pretty town of +Mantes _le jolie_ in the middle, with its long bridge and its +cathedral-like church. Whether he spends his time + + "Bidding his beades all day for his trespas," + +we did not inquire; but he finds the hours lonely. The good curé of Limay +wishes him to sleep in his hermitage, but, like the hermit-priest of +Warkworth, he prefers sleeping in the village at the foot of the hill. + +[121] One of the little hermitages represented in the Campo Santo series +of paintings of the old Egyptian hermit-saints (engraved in Mrs. Jameson's +"Legends of the Monastic Orders") has a little grated window, through +which the hermit within (probably this John) is talking with another +outside. + +[122] That recluses did, however, sometimes quit their cells on a great +emergency, we learn from the Legenda of Richard of Hampole already quoted, +where we are told that at his death Dame Margaret Kyrkley, the recluse of +Anderby, on hearing of the saint's death, hastened to Hampole to be +present at his funeral. + +[123] Wilkins's "Concilia," i. 693. + +[124] Several MSS. of this rule are known under different names. Fosbroke +quotes one as the rule of Simon de Gandavo (or Simon of Ghent), in Cott. +MS. Nero A xiv.; another in Bennet College, Cambridge; and another under +the name of Alfred Reevesley. See Fosbroke's "British Monachism," pp. +374-5. The various copies, indeed, seem to differ considerably, but to be +all derived from the work ascribed to Bishop Poore. All these books are +addressed to female recluses, which is a confirmation of the opinion which +we have before expressed, that the majority of the recluses were women. + +[125] Thus the player-queen in _Hamlet_, iii. 2:-- + + "Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven light! + Sport and repose lock from me, day, and night! + To desperation turn my trust and hope! + An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope! + Each opposite, that blanks the face of joy, + Meet what I would have well, and it destroy," &c. + +[126] A cell in the north-west angle of Edington Abbey Church, Wilts, +seems to be of this kind. + +[127] The wearing a cuirass, or hauberk of chain mail, next the skin +became a noted form of self-torture; those who undertook it were called +_Loricati_. + +[128] The cell of a Carthusian monk, as we have stated, consisted of a +little house of three apartments and a little garden within an inclosure +wall. + +[129] This very same picture is given also in another MS. of about the +same date, marked Add. 10,294, at folio 14. + +[130] As was probably the case at Warkworth, the hermit living in the +hermitage, while the chantry priest lived in the house at the foot of the +hill. + +[131] + + "Eremites that inhabiten + By the highways, + And in boroughs among brewers." + _Piers Ploughman's Vision._ + +[132] Probably "anchoret" means male, and "recluse" female recluse. + +[133] Test. Vetust., ii. 25. + +[134] Ibid. ii. 47. + +[135] Ibid. ii. 56. + +[136] Ibid. ii. 271. + +[137] Note p. 87 to "Instructions for Parish Priests," Early English Text +Society. + +[138] Test. Vetust., ii. 131. + +[139] Ibid. 178. + +[140] Ibid. ii. 98. + +[141] Ibid. 356. + +[142] Other bequests to recluses occur in the will of Henry II., to the +recluses (_incluses_) of Jerusalem, England, and Normandy. + +[143] Sussex Archæol. Coll., i. p. 174. + +[144] Blomfield's "Norfolk," ii. pp. 347-8. See also the bequests to the +Norwich recluses, _infra_. + +[145] Stow's Chronicle, p. 559. + +[146] In the "Ancren Riewle," p. 129, we read, "Who can with more facility +commit sin than the false recluse?" + +[147] Owen and Blakeway's "History of Shrewsbury." + +[148] "Rogerus, &c., delecto in Christo filio Roberto de Worthin, cap. +salutem, &c. Precipue devotionis affectum, quem ad serviendum Deo in +reclusorio juxta capellam Sancti Joh. Babtiste in civitate Coventriensi +constructo, et spretis mundi deliciis et ipsius vagis discurribus +contemptis, habere te asseres, propensius intuentes, ac volentes te, +consideratione nobilis domine, domine Isabelle Regine Anglie nobis pro te +supplicante in hujus laudabili proposito confovere, ut in prefato +reclusorio morari possis, et recludi et vitam tuam in eodam ducere in tui +laudibus Redemptoris, licentiam tibi quantum in nobis est concedi per +presentes, quibus sigillum nostrum duximus apponendum. Dat apud Heywood, 5 +Kal. Dec. M.D. A.D. MCCCLXII, et consecrationis nostræ tricessimo +sexto."--DUGDALE'S _Warwickshire_, 2nd Edit., p. 193. + +[149] Fosbroke's "British Monachism," p. 372. + +[150] Engraved in the _Archæological Journal_, iv. p. 320. + +[151] Reports of the Lincoln Diocesan Archæological Society for 1853, pp. +359-60. + +[152] Peter, Abbot of Clugny, tells us of a monk and priest of that abbey +who had for a cell an oratory in a very high and remote steeple-tower, +consecrated to the honour of St. Michael the archangel. "Here, devoting +himself to divine meditation night and day, he mounted high above mortal +things, and seemed with the angels to be present at the nearer vision of +his Maker." + +[153] In the Lichfield Registers we find that, on February 10, 1409, the +bishop granted to Brother Richard Goldestone, late canon of Wombrugge, now +recluse at Prior's Lee, near Shiffenale, license to hear confessions. +(History of Whalley, p. 55.) + +[154] Paper by J. J. Rogers, _Archæological Journal_, xi. 33. + +[155] Twysden's "Henry de Knighton," vol. ii. p. 2665. + +[156] The translator of this book for the Camden Society's edition of it, +says "therein," but the word in the original Saxon English is "ther +thurgh." It refers to the window looking into the church, through which +the recluse looked down daily upon the celebration of the mass. + +[157] "Caput suum decidit ad fenestram ad quam se reclinabit sanctus Dei +Ricardus." + +[158] In one of the stories of Reginald of Durham we learn that a school, +according to a custom then "common enough," was kept in the church of +Norham on Tweed, the parish priest being the teacher. (Wright's "Domestic +Manners of the Middle Ages," p. 117.) + +[159] These two expressions seem to imply that recluses sometimes went out +of their cell, not only into the church, but also into the churchyard. We +have already noticed that the technical word "cell" seems to have included +everything within the enclosure wall of the whole establishment. Is it +possible that in the case of anchorages adjoining churches, the churchyard +wall represented this enclosure, and the "cell" included both church and +churchyard? + +[160] A commission given by William of Wykham, Bishop of Winchester, for +enclosing Lucy de Newchurch as an anchoritess in the hermitage of St. +Brendun, at Bristol, is given in Burnett's "History and Antiquities of +Bristol," p. 61. + +[161] "In monasterio inclusorio suo vicino;" it seems as if the writer of +the rubric were specially thinking of the inclusoria within monasteries. + +[162] The Ordo Romanus. The Pontifical of Egbert. The Pontifical of Bishop +Lacey. + +[163] _Guardian_ newspaper, Feb. 7, 1870. + +[164] Surrey Society's Transactions, vol. iii. p. 218. + +[165] The same collect, with a few variations, was used also in the +consecration of nuns. Virgin chastity was held to bring forth fruit a +hundred fold; widowed chastity, sixty fold; married chastity, thirty fold. + +[166] Hair-cloth garment worn next the skin for mortification. + +[167] King Henry IV., Pt. I., Act i. Sc. 1. + +[168] There have come down to us a series of narratives of pilgrimages to +the Holy Land. One of a Christian of Bordeaux as early as 333 A.D.; that +of S. Paula and her daughter, about 386 A.D., given by St. Jerome; of +Bishop Arculf, 700 A.D.; of Willebald, 725 A.D.; of Sæwulf, 1102 A.D.; of +Sigurd the Crusader, 1107 A.D.; of Sir John de Mandeville, +1322-1356.--_Early Travels in Palestine_ (Bohn's Antiq. Lib.). + +[169] At the present day, the Hospital of the Pellegrini at Rome is +capable of entertaining seven thousand guests, women as well as men; to be +entitled to the hospitality of the institution, they must have walked at +least sixty miles, and be provided with a certificate from a bishop or +priest to the effect that they are _bonâ-fide_ pilgrims. (Wild's "Last +Winter in Rome." Longmans: 1865.) + +[170] In the latter part of the Saxon period of our history there was a +great rage for foreign pilgrimage; thousands of persons were continually +coming and going between England and the principal shrines of Europe, +especially the threshold of the Apostles at Rome. They were the subject of +a letter from Charlemagne to King Offa:--"Concerning the strangers who, +for the love of God and the salvation of their souls, wish to repair to +the thresholds of the blessed Apostles, let them travel in peace without +any trouble." Again, in the year 1031 A.D., King Canute made a pilgrimage +to Rome (as other Saxon kings had done before him) and met the Emperor +Conrad and other princes, from whom he obtained for all his subjects, +whether merchants or pilgrims, exemptions from the heavy tolls usually +exacted on the journey to Rome. + +[171] At the marriage of our Edward I., in 1254, with Leonora, sister of +Alonzo of Castile, a protection to English pilgrims was stipulated for; +but they came in such numbers as to alarm the French, and difficulties +were thrown in the way. In the fifteenth century, Rymer mentions 916 +licences to make the pilgrimage to Santiago granted in 1428, and 2,460 in +1434. + +[172] King Horn, having taken the disguise of a palmer--"Horn took bourden +and scrip"--went to the palace of Athulf and into the hall, and took his +place among the beggars "in beggar's row," and sat on the +ground.--_Thirteenth Century Romance of King Horn_ (Early English Text +Society). That beggars and such persons did usually sit on the ground in +the hall and wait for a share of the food, we learn also from the "Vision +of Piers Ploughman," xii. 198-- + + "Right as sum man gave me meat, and set me amid the floor, + I have meat more than enough, and not so much worship + As they that sit at side table, or with the sovereigns of the hall, + But sit as a beggar boardless by myself on the ground." + +[173] In the romance of King Horn, the hero meets a palmer and asks his +news-- + + "A palmere he there met + And fair him grette [greeted]: + Palmer, thou shalt me tell + All of thine spell." + +[174] Wallet. + +[175] Pillow covering. + +[176] Called or took. + +[177] _i.e._ Latten (a kind of bronze) set with (mock) precious stones. + +[178] Pretending them to be relics of some saint. + +[179] See "Archæological Journal," vol. iii. p. 149. + +[180] Mr. Taylor, in his edition of "Blomfield's Norfolk," enumerates no +less than seventy places of pilgrimage in Norfolk alone. + +[181] A man might not go without his wife's consent, nor a wife without +her husband's:-- + + "To preche them also thou might not wonde [fear, hesitate], + Both to wyf and eke husbande, + That nowther of hem no penance take, + Ny non a vow to chastity make, + Ny no pylgrimage take to do + But if bothe assente thereto. + + * * * * * + + Save the vow to Jherusalem, + That is lawful to ether of them." + _Instructions for Parish Priests._ (Early English Text Society.) + +[182] Marked 3,395 d. 4to. The footnote on a previous page (p. 158) leads +us to conjecture that in ancient as in modern times the pilgrim may have +received a certificate of his having been blessed as a pilgrim, as now we +give certificates of baptism, marriage, and holy orders. + +[183] See woodcut on p. 90. + +[184] "History of Music." + +[185] + + "Conscience then with Patience passed, Pilgrims as it were, + Then had Patience, as pilgrims have, in his poke vittailes." + _Piers Ploughman's Vision_, xiii. 215. + +[186] Grose's "Gloucestershire," pl. lvii. + +[187] Girdle. + +[188] One of the two pilgrims in our first cut, p. 158, carries a palm +branch in his hand; they represent the two disciples at Emmaus, who were +returning from Jerusalem. + +[189] The existence of several accounts of the stations of Rome in English +prose and poetry as early as the thirteenth century (published by the +Early English Text Society), indicates the popularity of this pilgrimage. + +[190] Innocente III., Epist. 536, lib. i., t. c., p. 305, ed. Baluzio. +(Dr. Rock's "Church of our Fathers.") + +[191] "Church of our Fathers," vol. iii. p. 438, note. + +[192] It is seen on the scrip of Lydgate's Pilgrim in the woodcut on p. +163. See a paper on the Pilgrim's Shell, by Mr. J. E. Tennant, in the _St. +James's Magazine_, No. 10, for Jan., 1862. + +[193] "Anales de Galicia," vol. i. p. 95. Southey's "Pilgrim to +Compostella." + +[194] "Anales de Galicia," vol. i. p. 96, quoted by Southey, "Pilgrim to +Compostella." + +[195] Dr. Rock's "Church of our Fathers," iii. 424. + +[196] "Vita S. Thomæ apud Willebald," folio Stephani, ed. Giles, i. 312. + +[197] The lily of the valley was another Canterbury flower. It is still +plentiful in the gardens in the precincts of the cathedral. + +[198] The veneration of the times was concentrated upon the blessed head +which suffered the stroke of martyrdom; it was exhibited at the shrine and +kissed by the pilgrims; there was an abbey in Derbyshire dedicated to the +Beauchef (beautiful head), and still called Beauchief Abbey. + +[199] The late T. Caldecot, Esq., of Dartford, possessed one of these. + +[200] A very beautiful little pilgrim sign of lead found at Winchester is +engraved in the "Journal of the British Archæological Association," No. +32, p. 363. + +[201] Dr. Rock's "Church of our Fathers," vol. iii. p. 430. + +[202] Fosbroke has fallen into the error of calling this a burden bound to +the pilgrim's back with a list: it is the bourdon, the pilgrim's staff, +round which a list, a long narrow strip of cloth, was wound cross-wise. We +do not elsewhere meet with this list round the staff, and it does not +appear what was its use or meaning. We may call to mind the list wound +cross-wise round a barber's pole, and imagine that this list was attached +to the pilgrim's staff for use, or we may remember that a vexillum, or +banner, is attached to a bishop's staff, and that a long, narrow riband is +often affixed to the cross-headed staff which is placed in our Saviour's +hand in mediæval representations of the Resurrection. The staff in our +cut, p. 163, looks as if it might have such a list wound round it. + +[203] Fosbrooke, and Wright, and Dr. Rock, all understand this to be a +bowl. Was it a bottle to carry drink, shaped something like a gourd, such +as we not unfrequently find hung on the hook of a shepherd's staff in +pictures of the annunciation to the shepherds, and such as the pilgrim +from Erasmus's "Praise of Folly," bears on his back? + +[204] Sinai. + +[205] Galice--Compostella in Galicia. + +[206] Cross. + +[207] Asked: people ask him first of all from whence he is come. + +[208] Armenia. + +[209] Holy body, object of pilgrimage. + +[210] Tell us. + +[211] The Knight of La Tour Landry, in one of his stories, tells us: +"There was a young lady that had her herte moche on the worlde. And there +was a squier that loved her and she hym. And for because that she might +have better leiser to speke with hym, she made her husbande to understande +that she had vowed in diverse pilgrimages; and her husband, as he that +thought none evelle and wolde not displese her, suffered and held hym +content that she should go wherin her lust.... Alle thei that gone on +pilgrimage to a place for foul plesaunce more than devocion of the place +that thei go to, and covereth thaire goinge with service of God, fowlethe +and scornethe God and our Ladie, and the place that thei goo to."--_Book +of La Tour Landry_, chap. xxxiv. + +[212] "I was a poor pilgrim," says one ("History of the Troubadours," p. +300), "when I came to your court; and have lived honestly and respectably +in it on the wages you have given me; restore to me my mule, my wallet, +and my staff, and I will return in the same manner as I came." + +[213] "Church of our Fathers," vol. iii. p. 442. + +[214] Thus Pope Calixtus tells us ("Sermones Bib. Pat.," ed. Bignio, xv. +330) that the pilgrims to Santiago were accustomed before dawn, at the top +of each town, to cry with a loud voice, "Deus Adjuva!" "Sancte Jacobe!" +"God Help!" "Santiago!" + +[215] Surely he should have excepted St. Thomas's shrine? + +[216] In the _Guardian_ newspaper of Sept. 5, 1860, a visitor to Rome +gives a description of the exhibition of relics there, which forms an +interesting parallel with the account in the text: "Shortly before +Ash-Wednesday a public notice ('Invito Sagro') is issued by authority, +setting forth that inasmuch as certain of the principal relics and 'sacra +immagini' are to be exposed during the ensuing season of Lent, in certain +churches specified, the confraternities of Rome are exhorted by the pope +to resort in procession to those churches.... The ceremony is soon +described. The procession entered slowly at the west door, moved up +towards the altar, and when the foremost were within a few yards of it, +all knelt down for a few minutes on the pavement of the church to worship. +At a signal given by one of the party, they rose, and slowly defiled off +in the direction of the chapel wherein is preserved the column of the +flagellation (?). By the way, no one of the other sex may ever enter that +chapel, except on one day in the year--the very day of which I am +speaking; and on _that_ day men are as rigorously excluded. Well, all +knelt again for a few minutes, then rose, and moved slowly towards the +door, departing as they came, and making way for another procession to +enter. It was altogether a most interesting and agreeable spectacle. +Utterly alien to our English tastes and habits certainly; but the +institution evidently suited the tastes of the people exactly, and I dare +say may be conducive to piety, and recommend itself to their religious +instincts. Coming from their several parishes, and returning, they chant +psalms. + +"It follows naturally to speak a little more particularly about the +adoration of relics, for this is just another of those many definite +religious acts which make up the sum of popular devotion, and supply the +void occasioned by the entire discontinuance of the old breviary offices. +In the 'Diario Romano' (a little book describing what is publicly +transacted, of a religious character, during every day in the year), daily +throughout Lent, and indeed on every occasion of unusual solemnity (of +which, I think, there are eighty-five in all), you read 'Stazione' at such +a church. This (whatever it may imply beside) denotes that relics are +displayed for adoration in that church on the day indicated. The pavement +is accordingly strewed with box, lights burn on the altar, and there is a +constant influx of visitors to that church throughout the day. For +example, at St. Prisca's, a little church on the Aventine, there was a +'Stazione,' 3rd April. In the Romish Missal you will perceive that on the +Feria tertia Majoris hebdomadæ (this year April 3), there is _Statio ad S. +Priscam_. A very interesting church, by the way, it proved, being +evidently built on a site of immense antiquity--traditionally said to be +the house of Prisca. You descend by thirty-one steps into the subterranean +edifice. At this little out-of-the-way church, there were strangers +arriving all the time we were there. Thirty young Dominicans from S. +Sabina, hard by, streamed down into the crypt, knelt for a time, and then +repaired to perform a similar act of worship above, at the altar. The +friend who conducted me to the spot, showed me, in the vineyard +immediately opposite, some extraordinary remains of the wall of Servius +Tullius. On our return we observed fresh parties straggling towards the +church, bent on performing their 'visits.' It should, perhaps, be +mentioned that prayers have been put forth by authority, to be used on +such occasions. + +"I must not pass by this subject of relics so slightly, for it evidently +occupies a considerable place in the public devotions of a Roman Catholic. +Thus the 'Invito Sagro,' already adverted to, specifies _which_ relics +will be displayed in each of the six churches enumerated--(_e.g._ the +heads of SS. Peter and Paul, their chains, some wood of the cross, +&c.)--granting seven years of indulgence for every visit, by whomsoever +paid; and promising plenary indulgence to every person who, after +confessing and communicating, shall thrice visit each of the aforesaid +churches, and pray for awhile on behalf of holy church. There are besides, +on nine chief festivals, as many great displays of relics at Rome, the +particulars of which may be seen in the 'Année Liturgique,' pp. 189-206. I +witnessed _one_, somewhat leisurely, at the Church of the Twelve Apostles, +on the afternoon of the 1st of May. There was a congregation of about two +or three hundred in church, while somebody in a lofty gallery displayed +the relics, his companion proclaiming with a loud voice what each was: +'Questo e il braccio,' &c., &c., which such an one gave to this 'alma +basilica,'--the formula being in every instance very sonorously intoned. +There was part of the arm of S. Bartholomew and of S. James the Less; part +of S. Andrew's leg, arm, and cross; part of one of S. Paul's fingers; one +of the nails with which S. Peter was crucified; S. Philip's right foot; +liquid blood of S. James; some of the remains of S. John the Evangelist, +of the Baptist, of Joseph, and of the Blessed Virgin; together with part +of the manger, cradle, cross, and tomb of our Lord, &c., &c.... I have +dwelt somewhat disproportionally on relics, but they play so conspicuous a +part in the religious system of the country, that in enumerating the +several substitutes which have been invented for the old breviary +services, it would not be nearly enough to have discussed the subject in a +few lines. A visit paid to a church where such objects are exposed, is a +distinct as well as popular religious exercise; and it always seemed to me +to be performed with great reverence and devotion." + +[217] From Mr. Wright's "Archæological Album," p. 19. + +[218] This slip of lead had probably been put into his coffin. He is +sometimes called Thomas of Acre. + +[219] Of Chaucer's Wife of Bath we read:-- + + "Thrice had she been at Jerusalem, + And haddé passed many a strangé stream; + At Rome she haddé been, and at Boloyne, + In Galice, at St. James, and at Coloyne." + +[220] Dugdale's "Monasticon." + +[221] "Crudities," p. 18. + +[222] In Lydgate's "Life of St. Edmund" (Harl. 2,278) is a picture of King +Alkmund on his pilgrimage, at Rome, receiving the Pope's blessing, in +which the treatment of the subject is very like that of the illumination +in the text. + +[223] The shells indicate a pilgrimage accomplished, but the rod may not +have been intended to represent the pilgrim's bourdon. In the Harl. MS. +5,102, fol. 68, a MS. of the beginning of the thirteenth century, is a +bishop holding a slender rod (not a pastoral staff), and at fol. 17 of the +same MS. one is putting a similar rod into a bishop's coffin. The priors +of small cathedrals bore a staff without crook, and had the privilege of +being arrayed in pontificals for mass; choir-rulers often bore staves. Dr. +Rock, in the "Church of our Fathers," vol. iii., pt. II, p. 224, gives a +cut from a late Flemish Book of Hours, in which a priest, sitting at +confession, bears a long rod. + +[224] It is engraved in Mr. Boutell's "Christian Monuments in England and +Wales," p. 79. + +[225] Engraved in Nichols's "Leicestershire," vol. iii., pl. ii., p. 623. + +[226] Engraved in the "Manual of Sepulchral Slabs and Crosses," by the +Rev. E. L. Cutts, pl. lxxiii. + +[227] It will be shown hereafter that secular priests ordinarily wore +dresses of these gay colours, all the ecclesiastical canons to the +contrary notwithstanding. + +[228] Here is a good example from Baker's "Northamptonshire:"--"Broughton +Rectory: Richard Meyreul, sub-deacon, presented in 1243. Peter de +Vieleston, deacon, presented in 1346-7. Though still only a deacon, he had +previously been rector of Cottisbrook from 1342 to 1345." + +Matthew Paris tells us that, in 1252, the beneficed clergy in the diocese +of Lincoln were urgently persuaded and admonished by their bishop to allow +themselves to be promoted to the grade of priesthood, but many of them +refused. + +The thirteenth Constitution of the second General Council of Lyons, held +in 1274, ordered curates to reside and to take priests' orders within a +year of their promotion; the lists above quoted show how inoperative was +this attempt to remedy the practice against which it was directed. + +[229] A writer in the _Christian Remembrancer_ for July, 1856, +says:--"During the fourteenth century it would seem that half the number +of rectories throughout England were held by acolytes unable to administer +the sacrament of the altar, to hear confessions, or even to baptise. +Presented to a benefice often before of age to be ordained, the rector +preferred to marry and to remain a layman, or at best a clerk in minor +orders.... In short, during the time to which we refer, rectories were +looked upon and treated as lay fees." + +[230] See Chaucer's poor scholar, hereinafter quoted, who-- + + "busily gan for the soulis pray + Of them that gave him wherewith to scholaie." + +[231] "Dialogue on Heresies," book iii. c. 12. + +[232] "Norwich Corporation Records." Sessions Book of 12th Henry VII. +Memorand.--That on Thursday, Holyrood Eve, in the xijth of King Henry the +VIIJ., Sir William Grene, being accused of being a spy, was examined +before the mayor's deputy and others, and gave the following account of +himself:--"The same Sir William saieth that he was borne in Boston, in the +countie of Lincoln, and about xviij yeres nowe paste or there about, he +dwellyd with Stephen at Grene, his father at Wantlet, in the saide countie +of Lincolne, and lerned gramer by the space of ij yeres; after that by v +or vj yeres used labour with his said father, sometyme in husbandrie and +other wiles with the longe sawe; and after that dwelling in Boston at one +Genet a Grene, his aunte, used labour and other wiles goyng to scole by +the space of ij years, and in that time receyved benet and accolet [the +first tonsure and acolytate] in the freres Austens in Boston of one frere +Graunt, then beying suffragan of the diocese of Lincoln ["Frere Graunt" +was William Grant, titular Bishop of Pavada, in the province of +Constantinople. He was Vicar of Redgewell, in Essex, and Suffragan of Ely, +from 1516 to 1525.--_Stubbs's Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum_]; after that +dwelling within Boston wt. one Mr. Williamson, merchaunt, half a yere, and +after that dwellinge in Cambridge by the space of half a yere, used labour +by the day beryng of ale and pekynge of saffron, and sometyme going to the +colleges, and gate his mete and drynke of almes; and aft that the same Sir +William, with ij monks of Whitby Abbey, and one Edward Prentis, went to +Rome, to thentent for to have ben made p'st, to which order he could not +be admitted; and after abiding in Larkington, in the countie of Essex, +used labour for his levyng wt. one Thom. Grene his broder; and after that +the same Sr. Will. cam to Cambridge, and ther teried iiij or v wekes, and +gate his levynge of almes; and after, dwelling in Boston, agen laboured +with dyvs persones by vij or viij wekes; and after that dwelling in +London, in Holborn, with one Rickerby, a fustian dyer, about iij wekes, +and after that the same William resorted to Cambridge, and ther met agen +wt. the said Edward Prentise; and at instance and labour of one Mr. Cony, +of Cambridge, the same Will. Grene and Edward Prentise obteyned a licence +for one year of Mr. Cappes, than being deputee to the Chancellor of the +said univ'sitie, under his seal of office, wherby the same Will. and +Edward gathered toguether in Cambridgeshire releaff toward their exhibicon +to scole by the space of viij weks, and after that the said Edward +departed from the company of the same William. And shortly after that, one +Robert Draper, scoler, borne at Feltham, in the countee of Lincoln, +accompanyed wt. the same Willm., and they forged and made a newe licence, +and putte therin ther bothe names, and the same sealed wt. the seale of +the other licence granted to the same Will. and Edward as is aforeseid, by +which forged licence the same Will. and Robt. gathered in Cambridgeshire +and other shires. At Coventre the same Will. and Robt. caused one Knolles, +a tynker, dwelling in Coventre, to make for them a case of tynne mete for +a seale of a title which the same Robt. Draper holdde of Makby Abbey. And +after that the same Willm. and Robt. cam to Cambridge, and ther met wt. +one Sr. John Manthorp, the which hadde ben lately before at Rome, and ther +was made a prest; and the same Robert Draper copied out the bulle of +orders of deken, subdeken, and p'stehod for the same Willm.; and the same +Willm. toke waxe, and leyed and p'st it to the prynte of the seale of the +title that the said Robert had a Makby aforeseid, and led the same forged +seale in the casse of tynne aforeseid, and with labels fastned ye same to +his said forged bull. And sithen the same Willm. hath gathered in dyvers +shires, as Northampton, Cambridge, Suffolk, and Norfolk, alway shewyng and +feyning hymself that he hadde ben at Rome, and ther was made preste, by +means whereof he hath receyved almes of dyvers and many +persones."--_Norfolk Archæology_, vol. iv. p. 342. + +[233] Cobbler. + +[234] Grease. + +[235] York Fabric Rolls, p. 87, note. + +[236] "Church of our Fathers," ii. 441. + +[237] Richmond Wills. + +[238] "Church of our Fathers," ii. 408, note. + +[239] Newcourt's "Repertorium." + +[240] Johnson's "Canons," ii. 421. Ang. Cath. Lib. Edition. + +[241] Johnson's "Canons," ii. 421. + +[242] One who sang annual or yearly masses for the dead. + +[243] Enough. + +[244] Chapel of Earl of Northumberland, from the Household Book of Henry +Algernon, fifth Earl of Northumberland, born 1477, and died 1527. ("Antiq. +Repertory," iv. 242.); + +First, a preist, a doctour of divinity, a doctor of law, or a bachelor of +divinitie, to be dean of my lord's chapell. + +_It._ A preist for to be surveyour of my lorde's landes. + +_It._ A preist for to be secretary to my lorde. + +_It._ A preist for to be amner to my lorde. + +_It._ A preist for to be sub-dean for ordering and keaping the queir in my +lorde's chappell daily. + +_It._ A preist for a riding chaplein for my lorde. + +_It._ A preist for a chaplein for my lorde's eldest son, to waite uppon +him daily. + +_It._ A preist for my lorde's clark of the closet. + +_It._ A preist for a maister of gramer in my lorde's hous. + +_It._ A preist for reading the Gospell in the chapel daily. + +_It._ A preist for singing of our Ladies' mass in the chapell daily. + +The number of these persons as chapleins and preists in houshould are xi. + +The gentlemen and children of my lorde's chappell which be not appointed +to attend at no time, but only in exercising of Godde's service in the +chapell daily at matteins, Lady-mass, hyhe-mass, evensong, and +compeynge:-- + + First, a bass. + + _It._ A second bass. + + Third bass. + + A maister of the childer, or counter-tenor. + + Second and third counter-tenor. + + A standing tenour. + + A second, third, and fourth standing tenor. + +The number of theis persons, as gentlemen of my lorde's chapell, xi. + +Children of my lorde's chappell:-- + + Three trebles and three second trebles. + +In all six. + +A table of what the Earl and Lady were accustomed to offer at mass on all +holydays "if he keep chappell," of offering and annual lights paid for at +Holy Blood of Haillis (Hales, in Gloucestershire), our Lady of Walsingham, +St. Margaret in Lincolnshire, our Lady in the Whitefriars, Doncaster, of +my lord's foundation:-- + + Presents at Xmas to Barne, Bishop of Beverley and York, when he comes, + as he is accustomed, yearly. + + Rewards to the children of his chapell when they do sing the responde + called Exaudivi at the mattynstime for xi. in vespers upon Allhallow + Day, 6_s._ 8_d._ + + On St. Nicholas Eve, 6_s._ 8_d._ + + To them of his lordshipe's chappell if they doe play the play of the + Nativitie upon Xmas Day in the mornynge in my lorde's chapell before + his lordship, xx_s._ + + For singing "Gloria in Excelsis" at the mattens time upon Xmas Day in + the mg. To the Abbot of Miserewle (Misrule) on Xmas. + + To the yeoman or groom of the vestry for bringing him the hallowed + taper on Candlemas Day. + + To his lordship's chaplains and other servts. that play the Play + before his lordship on Shrofetewsday at night, xx_s._ + + That play the Play of Resurrection upon Estur Daye in the mg. in my + lorde's chapell before his lordship. + + To the yeoman or groom of the vestry on Allhallows Day for syngynge + for all Cristynne soles the saide nyhte to it be past mydnyght, 3_s._ + 4_d._ + + The Earl and Lady were brother and sister of St. Christopher Gilde of + Yorke, and pd. 6_s._ 8_d._ each yearly, and when the Master of the + Gild brought my lord and my lady for their lyverays a yard of narrow + violette cloth and a yard of narrow rayed cloth, 13_s._ 4_d._ (_i.e._, + a yard of each to each). + + And to Procter of St. Robert's of Knasbrughe, when my lord and lady + were brother and sister, 6_s._ 8_d._ each. + +At pp. 272-278, is an elaborate programme of the ordering of my lord's +chapel for the various services, from which it appears that there were +organs, and several of the singing men played them in turn. + +At p. 292 is an order about the washing of the linen for the chapel for a +year. Surplices washed sixteen times a year against the great +feasts--eighteen surplices for men, and six for children--and seven albs +to be washed sixteen times a year, and "five aulter-cloths for covering of +the alters" to be washed sixteen times a year. + +Page 285 ordered that the vestry stuff shall have at every removal (from +house to house) one cart for the carrying the nine antiphoners, the four +grailles, the hangings of the three altars in the chapel, the surplices, +the altar-cloths in my lord's closet and my ladie's, and the sort (suit) +of vestments and single vestments and copes "accopeed" daily, and all +other my lord's chapell stuff to be sent afore my lord's chariot before +his lordship remove. + +[Cardinal Wolsey, after the Earl's death, intimated his wish to have the +books of the Earl's chapel, which a note speaks of as fine service +books.--P. 314.] + +[245] Edited by Mr. Gough Nichols for the Camden Society. + +[246] Richard Burré, a wealthy yeoman and "ffarmer of the parsonage of +Sowntyng, called the Temple, which I holde of the howse of St. Jonys," in +19 Henry VIII. wills that Sir Robert Bechton, "my chaplen, syng ffor my +soule by the span of ix. yers;" and further requires an obit for his soul +for eleven years in Sompting Church.--("Notes on Wills," by M. A. Lower, +"Sussex Archæological Collections," iii. p. 112.) + +[247] "Dialogue of Heresies," iii. c. 12. + +[248] See note on previous page, "the altar-cloths in my lord's closet and +my ladie's." + +[249] Of the inventories to be found in wills, we will give only two, of +the chapels of country gentlemen. Rudulph Adirlay, Esq. of Colwick +("Testamenta Eboracensia," p. 30), Nottinghamshire, A.D. 1429, leaves to +Alan de Cranwill, his chaplain, a little missal and another book, and to +Elizabeth his wife "the chalice, vestment, with two candelabra of laton, +and the little missal, with all other ornaments belonging to my chapel." +In the inventories of the will of John Smith, Esq., of Blackmore, Essex, +A.D. 1543, occur: "In the chappell chamber--Item a long setle yoyned. In +the chappell--Item one aulter of yoyner's worke. Item a table with two +leaves of the passion gilt. Item a long setle of waynscott. Item a bell +hanging over the chapel. Chappell stuff: Copes and vestments thre. Aulter +fronts foure. Corporall case one; and dyvers peces of silk necessary for +cusshyons v. Thomas Smith (to have) as moche as wyll serve his chappell, +the resydue to be solde by myn executours." The plate and candlesticks of +the chapel are not specially mentioned; they are probably included among +the plate which is otherwise disposed of, and "the xiiiij latyn +candlestyckes of dyvers sorts," elsewhere mentioned.--_Essex Archæological +Society's Transactions_, vol. iii. p. 60. + +[250] See the Rev. W. Stubbs's learned and laborious "Registrum Sacrum +Anglicanum," which gives lists of the suffragan (as well as the diocesan) +bishops of the Church of England. + +[251] "Richmondshire Wills," p. 34. + +[252] "Test. Ebor.," 220. + +[253] Ibid., p. 39. + +[254] In a pontifical of the middle of the fifteenth century, in the +British Museum, (Egerton, 1067) at f. 19, is an illumination at the +beginning of the service for ordering an ostiary, in which the act is +represented. The bishop, habited in a green chasuble and white mitre, is +delivering the keys to the clerk, who is habited in a surplice over a +black cassock, and is tonsured. At f. 35 of the same MS. is a pretty +little picture, showing the ordination of priests; and at f. 44 v., of the +consecration of bishops. Other episcopal acts are illustrated in the same +MS.: confirmation at f. 12; dedication of a church, f. 100; consecration +of an altar, f. 120; benediction of a cemetery, f. 149 v.; consecration of +chalice and paten, f. 163; reconciling penitents, f. 182 and f. 186 v.; +the "feet-washing," f. 186. + +[255] Outer short cloak. + +[256] Was not sufficiently a man of the world to be fit for a secular +occupation. + +[257] Obtain. + +[258] To pursue his studies. + +[259] For another good illustration of a clerk of time of Richard II. see +the illumination of that king's coronation in the frontispiece of the MS. +Royal, 14, E iv., where he seems to be in attendance on one of the +bishops. He is habited in blue cassock, red liripipe, black purse, with +penner and inkhorn. + +[260] "Test. Ebor.," vol. ii. p. 98. + +[261] Ibid., vol. ii. p. 38. + +[262] "Test. Ebor.," vol. ii. p. 143. + +[263] Ibid., vol. ii. p. 149. + +[264] Archdeacon Hale's "Precedents in Criminal Causes," p. 113. + +[265] From the duty of carrying holy water, mentioned here and in other +extracts, the clerk derived the name of _aqua bajulus_, by which he is +often called, _e.g._, in many of the places in Archdeacon Hale's +"Precedents in Criminal Causes." + +[266] Ibid., p. 122. + +[267] York Fabric Rolls, p. 257. + +[268] Ibid., p. 248. + +[269] York Fabric Rolls, p. 265. + +[270] Ibid., p. 266. + +[271] Ibid., p. 248. + +[272] Bohn's Edition, ii. 388. + +[273] Hair. + +[274] Complexion. + +[275] Neatly. + +[276] _Watchet_, a kind of cloth. + +[277] Small twigs or trees. + +[278] Musical instruments. + +[279] As the parish clerk of St. Mary, York, used to go to the people's +houses with holy water on Sundays. + +[280] Grafted lies. + +[281] As debtors flee to sanctuary at Westminster, and live on what they +have borrowed, and set their creditors at defiance. + +[282] Them. + +[283] Their. + +[284] Know. + +[285] Great and little. + +[286] Gave. + +[287] Angry. + +[288] Difficult nor proud. + +[289] Smite, rebuke. + +[290] Scrupulous. + +[291] Cardinal Otho, the Papal legate in England in the time of Henry +III., was a deacon (Matthew Paris, Sub. Ann. 1237); Cardinal Pandulph, in +King John's time, was a sub-deacon (R. Wendover, Sub. Ann. 1212). + +[292] There is a very fine drawing of an archbishop in _pontificalibus_ of +the latter part of the thirteenth century in the MS. Royal, 2 A. f. 219 v. + +[293] "Church of our Fathers," i. 319. + +[294] In a Spanish Book of Hours (Add. 1819-3), at f. 86 v., is a +representation of an ecclesiastic in a similar robe of dark purple with a +hood, he wears a cardinal's hat and holds a papal tiara in his hand. + +[295] Engraved by Dr. Rock, ii. 97. + +[296] Engraved in the _Archæological Journal_, vii. 17 and 19. + +[297] A plain straight staff is sometimes seen in illuminations being put +into a bishop's grave; such staves have been actually found in the coffins +of bishops. + +[298] The alb was often of coloured materials. We find coloured albs in +the mediæval inventories. In Louandre's "Arts Somptuaires," vol. i. xi. +siecle, is a picture of the canons of St. Martin of Tours in blue albs. +Their costume is altogether worth notice. + +[299] For another ecclesiastical procession which shows very clearly the +costume of the various orders of clergy, see Achille Jubinal's "Anciennes +Tapisseries," plate ii. + +[300] _Incisis_, cut and slashed so as to show the lining. + +[301] Monumenta Franciscana, lxxxix. Master of the Rolls' publications. + +[302] York Fabric Rolls, p. 243. + +[303] This word, which will frequently occur, means a kind of ornamental +dagger, which was worn hanging at the girdle in front by civilians, and +knights when out of armour. The instructions to parish priests, already +quoted, says-- + + In honeste clothes thow muste gon + Baselard ny bawdryke were thou non. + +[304] The honorary title of Sir was given to priests down to a late +period. A law of Canute declared a priest to rank with the second order of +thanes--_i.e._, with the landed gentry. "By the laws, armorial, civil, and +of arms, a priest in his place in civil conversation is always before any +esquire, as being a knight's fellow by his holy orders, and the third of +the three Sirs which only were in request of old (no baron, viscount, +earl, nor marquis being then in use), to wit, Sir King, Sir Knight, and +Sir Priest.... But afterwards Sir in English was restrained to these +four,--Sir Knight, Sir Priest, and Sir Graduate, and, in common speech, +Sir Esquire; so always, since distinction of titles were, Sir Priest was +ever the second."--A Decacordon of Quodlibetical Questions concerning +Religion and State, quoted in Knight's Shakespeare, Vol. I. of Comedies, +note to Sc. I, Act i. of "Merry Wives of Windsor." In Shakespeare's +characters we have _Sir Hugh Evans_ and _Sir Oliver Martext_, and, at a +later period still, "Sir John" was the popular name for a priest. Piers +Ploughman (Vision XI. 304) calls them "God's knights," + + And also in the Psalter says David to overskippers, + _Psallite Deo nostro, psallite; quoniam rex terre + Deus Israel; psallite sapienter_. + The Bishop shall be blamed before God, as I leve [believe] + That crowneth such goddes knightes that conneth nought _sapienter_ + Synge ne psalmes rede ne segge a masse of the day. + Ac never neyther is blameless the bisshop ne the chapleyne, + For her either is endited; and that of _ignorancia + Non excusat episcopos, nec idiotes prestes_. + +[305] York Fabric Rolls, p. 268. + +[306] Described and engraved in the Sussex Archæological Collections, vii. +f. 13. + +[307] Described and engraved in Mr. Parker's "Domestic Architecture." + +[308] Parker's "Domestic Architecture," ii. p. 87. + +[309] There are numerous curious examples of fifteenth-century timber +window-tracery in the Essex churches. + +[310] The deed of settlement of the vicarage of Bulmer, in the year 1425, +gives us the description of a parsonage house of similar character. It +consisted of one hall with two chambers annexed, the bakehouse, kitchen, +and larder-house, one chamber for the vicar's servant, a stable, and a +hay-soller (_Soler_, loft), with a competent garden. Ingrave rectory house +was a similar house; it is described, in a terrier of 1610, as "a house +containing a hall, a parlour, a buttery, two lofts, and a study, also a +kitchen, a milk-house, and a house for poultry, a barn, a stable and a +hay-house."--_Newcourt_, ii. p. 281. + +Ingatestone rectory, in the terrier of 1610, was "a dwelling-house with a +hall, a parlour, and a chamber within it; a study newly built by the then +parson; a chamber over the parlour, and another within that with a closet; +without the dwelling-house a kitchen and two little rooms adjoining to it, +and a chamber over them; two little butteries over against the hall, and +next them a chamber, and one other chamber over the same; without the +kitchen there is a dove-house, and another house built by the then parson; +a barn and a stable very ruinous."--_Newcourt_, ii. 348. Here, too, we +seem to have an old house with hall in the middle, parlour and chamber at +one end and two butteries at the other, in the midst of successive +additions. + +There is also a description of the rectory house of West Haningfield, +Essex, in Newcourt, ii. 309, and of North Bemfleet, ii. 46. + +[311] Newcourt's "Repertorum," ii. 97. + +[312] Newcourt, ii. 49. + +[313] George Darell, A.D. 1432, leaves one book of statutes, containing +the statutes of Kings Edward III., Richard II., and Henry IV.; one book of +law, called "Natura Brevium;" one Portus, and one Par Statutorum +Veterum.--_Testamenta Eboracensia_, ii. p. 27. + +[314] There are other inventories of the goods of clerics, which will help +to throw light upon their domestic economy at different periods, _e.g._, +of the vicar of Waghen, A.D. 1462, in the York Wills, ii. 261, and of a +chantry priest, A.D. 1542, in the Sussex Archæological Collections, iii. +p. 115. + +[315] Bohn's Edition, vol. ii. p. 278. + +[316] Matthew Paris, vol. i. p. 285 (Bohn's edition). + +[317] Ibid., vol. ii. p. 193. + +[318] Ibid., vol iii. p. 48. + +[319] Numb. x. 9. + +[320] Exod. xv. 21. + +[321] 1 Sam. xviii. 7. + +[322] Jer. xxxi. 4. + +[323] Is. v. 12. + +[324] 1 Sam. x. 5. + +[325] 2 Sam. vi. 5. + +[326] Psalm lxviii. + +[327] Also a paper read before the London and Middlesex Architectural +Society in June, 1871. + +[328] The king's minstrel of the last Saxon king is mentioned in Domesday +Book as holding lands in Gloucestershire. + +[329] In the reign of Henry I., Rayer was the King's Minstrel. Temp. Henry +II., it was Galfrid, or Jeffrey. Temp. Richard I., Blondel, of romantic +memory. Temp. Henry III., Master Ricard. It was the Harper of Prince +Edward (afterwards King Edward I.) who brained the assassin who attempted +the Prince's life, when his noble wife Eleanor risked hers to extract the +poison from the wound. In Edward I.'s reign we have mention of a King +Robert, who may be the impetuous minstrel of the Prince. Temp. Edward II., +there occur two: a grant of houses was made to William de Morley, the +King's Minstrel, which had been held by his predecessor, John de Boteler. +At St. Bride's, Glamorganshire, is the insculpt effigy of a knightly +figure, of the date of Edward I., with an inscription to John le Boteler; +but there is nothing to identify him with the king of the minstrels. Temp. +Richard II., John Camuz was the king of his minstrels. When Henry V. went +to France, he took his fifteen minstrels, and Walter Haliday, their +Marshal, with him. After this time the chief of the royal minstrels seems +to have been styled _Marshal_ instead of King; and in the next reign but +one we find a _Sergeant_ of the Minstrels. Temp. Henry VI., Walter Haliday +was still Marshal of the Minstrels; and this king issued a commission for +_impressing_ boys to supply vacancies in their number. King Edward IV. +granted to the said long-lived Walter Haliday, Marshal, and to seven +others, a charter for the restoration of a Fraternity or Gild, to be +governed by a marshal and two wardens, to regulate the minstrels +throughout the realm (except those of Chester). The minstrels of the royal +chapel establishment of this king were thirteen in number; some trumpets, +some shalms, some small pipes, and other singers. The charter of Edward +IV. was renewed by Henry VIII. in 1520, to John Gilman, his then marshal, +on whose death Hugh Wodehouse was promoted to the office. + +[330] Ellis's "Early English Metrical Romances" (Bohn's edition), p. 287. + +[331] From Mr. T. Wright's "Domestic Manners of the English." + +[332] Among his nobles. + +[333] Their. + +[334] Great chamber, answering to our modern drawing-room. + +[335] Couches. + +[336] For other illustrations of musical instruments see a good +representation of Venus playing a rote, with a plectrum in the right hand, +pressing the strings with the left, in the Sloane MS. 3,985, f. 44 v. Also +a band, consisting of violin, organistrum (like the modern hurdy-gurdy), +harp, and dulcimer, in the Harl. MS. 1,527; it represents the feast on the +return of the prodigal son. In the Arundel MS. 83, f. 155, is David with a +band of instruments of early fourteenth-century date, and other +instruments at f. 630. In the early fourteenth-century MS. 28,162, at f. 6 +v., David is tuning his harp with a key; at f. 10 v. is Dives faring +sumptuously, with carver and cup-bearer, and musicians with lute and pipe. + +[337] Mallory's "History of Prince Arthur," vol. i. p. 44. + +[338] Viz., by making the sign of the cross upon them. + +[339] Edward VI.'s commissioners return a pair of organs in the church of +St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich, which they value at 40_s._, and in the church +of St. Peter, Parmentergate, in the same city, a pair of organs which they +value at £10 (which would be equal to about £70 or £80 in these days), and +soon after we find that 8_d._ were "paied to a carpenter for makyng of a +plaunche (a platform of planks) to sette the organs on." + +[340] Another, with kettle-drums and trumpets, in the MS. Add. 27,675, f. +13. + +[341] A harp with its case about the lower part is in the Add. MS. 18,854, +f. 91. + +[342] There are casts of these in the Mediæval Court of the Crystal +Palace. + +[343] "Annales Archæologiques," vol. vi. p. 315. + +[344] Ibid., vol. ix. p. 329. + +[345] Kettle-drums. + +[346] In the account of the minstrel at Kenilworth, subsequently given, he +is described as "a squiere minstrel of Middlesex, that travelled the +country this summer time." + +[347] + + "Miri it is in somer's tide + Swainés gin on justing ride." + +[348] + + "Whanne that April with his shourés sote," &c. + "Than longen folk to gon on pilgrimages." + +[349] Tedious, irksome. + +[350] Lose their. + +[351] Renders tedious. + +[352] Fontenelle ("Histoire du Théâtre," quoted by Percy) tells us that in +France, men, who by the division of the family property had only the half +or the fourth part of an old seignorial castle, sometimes went rhyming +about the world, and returned to acquire the remainder of their ancestral +castle. + +[353] In the MS. illuminations of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, +the messenger is denoted by peculiarities of equipment. He generally bears +a spear, and has a very small, round target (or, perhaps, a badge of his +lord's arms) at his girdle--_e.g._, in the MS. Add. 11,639 of the close of +the thirteenth century, folio 203 v. In the fifteenth century we see +messengers carrying letters openly, fastened in the cleft of a split wand, +in the MS. of about the same date, Harl. 1,527, folio 1,080, and in the +fourteenth century MS. Add. 10,293, folio 25; and in Hans Burgmaier's Der +Weise Könige. + +[354] It is right to state that one MS. of this statute gives Mareschans +instead of Menestrals; but the reading in the text is that preferred by +the Record Commission, who have published the whole of the interesting +document. + +[355] In the romance of Richard Coeur de Lion we read that, after the +capture of Acre, he distributed among the "heralds, disours, tabourers, +and trompours," who accompanied him, the greater part of the money, +jewels, horses, and fine robes which had fallen to his share. We have many +accounts of the lavish generosity with which chivalrous lords propitiated +the favourable report of the heralds and minstrels, whose good report was +fame. + +[356] May we infer from the exemption of the jurisdiction of the Duttons, +and not of that of the court of Tutbury and the guild of Beverley, that +the jurisdiction of the King of the Minstrels over the whole realm was +established after the former, and before the latter? The French minstrels +were incorporated by charter, and had a king in the year 1330, forty-seven +years before Tutbury. In the ordonnance of Edward II., 1315, there is no +allusion to such a general jurisdiction. + +[357] One of the minstrels of King Edward the Fourth's household (there +were thirteen others) was called the _wayte_; it was his duty to "pipe +watch." In the romance of "Richard Coeur de Lion," when Richard, with his +fleet, has come silently in the night under the walls of Jaffa, which was +besieged on the land side by the Saracen army:-- + + "They looked up to the castel, + They heard no pipe, ne flagel,[A] + They drew em nigh to land, + If they mighten understand, + And they could ne nought espie, + Ne by no voice of minstralcie, + That quick man in the castle were." + +And so they continued in uncertainty until the spring of the day, then + + "A wait there came, in a kernel,[B] + And piped a nott in a flagel." + +And when he recognised King Richard's galleys, + + "Then a merrier note he blew, + And piped, 'Seigneurs or sus! or sus! + King Richard is comen to us!'" + + [A] Flageolet. + + [B] Battlement. + +[358] Was offended. + +[359] Repent. + +[360] Give. + +[361] Travel. + +[362] Praise. + +[363] Introduction to his "Reliques of Early English Poetry." + +[364] The close-fitting outer garment worn in the fourteenth century, +shown in the engravings on p. 350. + +[365] Which Percy supposes to mean "tonsure-wise," like priests and monks. + +[366] Percy supposes from this expression that there were inferior orders, +as yeomen-minstrels. May we not also infer that there were superior +orders, as knight-minstrels, over whom was the king-minstrel? for we are +told "he was but a batchelor (whose chivalric signification has no +reference to matrimony) yet." We are disposed to believe that this was a +real minstrel. Langham tells us that he was dressed "partly as he would +himself:" probably, the only things which were not according to his wont, +were that my Lord of Leicester may have given him a new coat; that he had +a little more capon's grease than usual in his hair; and that he was set +to sing "a solemn song, warranted for story, out of King Arthur's Acts," +instead of more modern minstrel ware. + +[367] Heralds in the fourteenth century bore the arms of their lord on a +small scutcheon fastened at the side of their girdle. + +[368] "Annales Archæologiques," vii. p. 323. + +[369] "Eoten," a giant; "Eotenish," made by or descended from the giants. + +[370] The Harl. MS. 603, of the close of the eleventh century, contains a +number of military subjects rudely drawn, but conveying suggestions which +the artist will be able to interpret and profit by. In the Add. MS. +28,107, of date A.D. 1096, at f. 25 v., is a Goliath; and at f. 1,630 v., +a group of soldiers. + +[371] _Didde_--did on next his white skin. + +[372] _Debate_--contend. + +[373] _Cuirbouly_--stamped leather. + +[374] _Latoun_--brass. + +[375] Compare Tennyson's description of Sir Lancelot, in the "Lady of +Shalot." + + "His gemmy bridle glittered free, + Like to some branch of stars we see; + Hung in the golden galaxy, + As he rode down to Camelot." + +[376] In the MS. Royal, 1,699, is a picture in which are represented a +sword and hunting-horn hung over a tomb. The helmet, sword, and shield of +Edward the Black Prince still hang over his tomb in Canterbury Cathedral; +Henry IV.'s saddle and helmet over his tomb in Westminster Abbey; and in +hundreds of parish churches helmets, swords, gauntlets, spurs, &c., still +hang over the tombs of mediæval knights. + +[377] Probably a bridge with a tower to defend the approach to it. + +[378] Couch. + +[379] Hewitt's "Ancient Armour," i. p. 349. + +[380] The album of Villars de Honnecourt, of the thirteenth century, +contains directions for constructing the trebuchet. + +[381] Hewitt's "Ancient Armour," i. 361. + +[382] For much curious detail on this subject see "The Babee's Book," +published by the Early English Text Society. + +[383] A cover for a bench. + +[384] In illustration of the way in which actual warfare was sometimes +treated as if it were a chivalrous trial of skill, take the following +anecdote from Froissart; on the occasion when the French had bribed Amery +de Puy, the governor, to betray Calais, and fell into the ambush which +Edward III. set for them, and the king himself fought under the banner of +Sir Walter Murray:--"The Kyng lyht on the Lord Eustace of Rybemount, who +was a strong and a hardy knyht; there was a long fyht bytwene hym and the +kyng that it was joy to beholde them.... The knight strake the kyng the +same day two tymes on his knees; but finally the kynge himself toke hym +prisoner, and so he yelded his sword to the kyng and sayd, Sir Knyght, I +yeled me as your prisoner, he knewe not as then that it was the kyng." In +the evening the king gave a supper in the castle, at which the French +prisoners sat as guests; and, "when supper was done and the tables take +away, the kyng taryed styll in the hall with his knyghtes and with the +Frenchmen, and he was bare-heeded, savyng a chapelet of fyne perles that +he ware on his heed. Than the kyng went fro one to another of the +Frenchmen.... Than the kyng come to Sir Eustace of Rybamont, and joyously +to hym he said, 'Sir Eustace, ye are the knyht in the worlde that I have +sene moost valyant assayle his ennemyes and defende hymselfe, nor I never +founde knyght that ever gave me so moche ado, body to body, as ye have +done this day; wherefore I give you the price above all the knyghtes of my +court by ryht sentence.' Then the kyng took the chapelet that was upon his +heed, beying bothe faire, goodly, and ryche, and sayd, 'Sir Eustace, I +gyve you this chapelet for the best doar in armes in this journey past of +either party, and I desire you to bere it this yere for the love of me; +say whersover ye come that I dyd give it you; and I quyte you your prison +and ransom, and ye shall depart to-morowe if it please you.'" + +[385] 2 Samuel ii. + +[386] Such as that which took place at Windsor Park in the sixth year of +Edward I., for which, according to a document in the Record Office at the +Tower (printed in the "Archælogia," vol. xvii. p. 297), it appears that +the knights were armed in a tunic and surcoat, a helmet of leather gilt or +silvered, with crests of parchment, a wooden shield, and a sword of +parchment, silvered and strengthened with whalebone, with gilded hilts. + +[387] _i.e._, of the strangers. The challengers are afterwards called the +gentlemen within. + +[388] For other forms of challenge, and some very romantic challenges at +full length, see the Lansdowne MS. 285. + +[389] Probably the tilt-house (the shed or tent which they have in the +field at one end of the lists). + +[390] The Lansdowne MS. says "gentlewomen," an obvious error; it is +correctly given as above in the Hastings MS. + +[391] Dugdale, in his "History of Warwickshire," gives a curious series of +pictures of the famous combat between John Astle and Piers de Massie in +the year 1438, showing the various incidents of the combat. + +[392] The Harleian MS. No. 69, is a book of certain triumphs, containing +proclamations of tournaments, statutes of arms for their regulation, and +numerous other documents relating to the subject. From folio 20 and +onwards are given pictures of combats; folio 22 v. represents spear-play +at the barriers; folio 23, sword-play at the barriers, &c. + +[393] In the picture given by Dugdale of the combat between John Astle and +Piers de Massie, the combatants are represented each sitting in his +chair--a great carvad chair, something like the coronation chair in +Westminster Abbey. + +[394] Tremouille. + +[395] "Oyez!" or perhaps "Ho!" + +[396] From Mr. Wright's "Domestic Manners and Customs of the Middle Ages." + +[397] "Ancient Cannon in Europe," by Lieut. Brackenbury. + +[398] See also Viollet le Duc's "Dictionary of Architecture." + +[399] The British Museum does not possess this fine work, but a copy of it +is accessible to the public in the Library of the South Kensington Museum. + +[400] Afterwards cardinal. + +[401] Dun Cow. + +[402] "He is so hung round," says Truewit, in Ben Jonson's _Epicoene_, +"with pikes, halberds, petronels, calivers, and muskets, that he looks +like a justice of peace's hall." Clement Sysley, of Eastbury House, near +Barking, bequeathed in his will the "gonnes, pikes, cross-bows, and other +weapons, to Thomas Sysley, to go with the house, and remain as standards +for ever in Eastbury Hall." + +[403] A sketch illustrating their construction may be found in Witsen's +"Sheeps Bouw." Appendix, Plate 10. + +[404] "History of Commerce." + +[405] Sir Harris Nicholas' "History of the British Navy," vol. i. p. 21. + +[406] In our own day we see the scorn of trade being rapidly softened +down. Many of our commercial houses are almost as important as a +department of State, and are conducted in much the same way. The +principals of these houses are often considerable landholders besides, +have been educated at the public schools and universities, and are frankly +received as equals in all societies. On the other hand, the nobility are +putting their younger sons into trade. At this moment, we believe, the +brother-in-law of a princess of England is in a mercantile house. + +[407] _Avarice_, in "Piers Ploughman's Vision," v. 255, says:-- + + "I have ymade many a knyht both mercer and draper + That payed nevere for his prentishode not a paire of gloves." + +[408] Neatly, properly. + +[409] Shields, _i.e._ _écus_, French crowns. + +[410] Agreement for borrowing money. + +[411] Know not his name. + +[412] From Mr. Wright's "Domestic Manners and Customs of the Middle Ages." + +[413] If. + +[414] Boxes. + +[415] Sweet ointments. + +[416] To give relief. + +[417] Engraved in Fisher's Bedfordshire Collections, and in the London and +Middlesex Archæological Society's Proceedings for 1870, p. 66. + +[418] Take the woodcut on p. 531, from MS. Royal, 15 E. I., f. 436. + +[419] Taken. + +[420] Like. + +[421] N'et, _i.e._ does not eat. + +[422] N'is, _i.e._ is not. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42824 *** |