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diff --git a/42824-8.txt b/42824-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 90426e8..0000000 --- a/42824-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,19123 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook, Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages, by -Edward Lewes Cutts - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - - - - -Title: Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages - Third Edition - - -Author: Edward Lewes Cutts - - - -Release Date: May 27, 2013 [eBook #42824] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SCENES AND CHARACTERS OF THE -MIDDLE AGES*** - - -E-text prepared by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team -(http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by -Internet Archive (https://archive.org) - - - -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 SCENES AND CHARACTERS OF THE MIDDLE -AGES*** - - -******* This file should be named 42824-8.txt or 42824-8.zip ******* - - -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: -http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/4/2/8/2/42824 - - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, -set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to -copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to -protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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