minstrels’ gilds in various English cities, the Beverley one being
perhaps the most famous (none, however, possessing documentary
proofs of its existence so old as the French ones, the Paris gild,
for example, which was reformed in 1321 and lasted till 1776),
see Chambers, “Mediæval Stage,” ii. 258. Having known various
vicissitudes, the royal or London gild “still exists as the
Corporation of the Master, Wardens and Commonalty of the Art and
Science of the Musicians of London.” Ibid. ii. 261.
[281] “Rolls of Parliament,” iii. p. 508, A.D. 1402.
[282] See Appendix XII, p. 437.
[283] The songs about him were collected by J. Ritson; “Robin Hood
Ballads,” London, second edition, 1832. Most of them are only of the
sixteenth century, but a few are of an earlier date. Robin Hood’s
popularity was, however, well established in the fourteenth century,
as shown by a line in “Piers Plowman,” Skeat’s edition, Text B,
passus v., l. 79. On Robin Hood as the hero of popular songs, of many
games and of plays, see Chambers, “Mediæval Stage,” i. 174.
[284] “The Wyf of Bathes Tale” (sixty-eight lines on the equality
of men and on nobility); again, in the “Parson’s Tale”: “Eek for to
pryde him of his gentrye is ful greet folye . . . we ben alle of o
fader and of o moder; and alle we been of o nature roten and corrupt,
both riche and poure” (Skeat’s edition of the “Canterbury Tales,”
vol. iv. p. 596). Not less striking, these lines of a French poem of
the same century, quoted in the Discourse upon the state of letters
in the fourteenth century, “Histoire Littéraire de la France,” vol.
xxiv. p. 236:
“Nus qui bien face n’est vilains,
Mès de vilonie est toz plains
Hauz hom qui laide vie maine:
Nus n’est vilains s’il ne vilaine.”
[285] “Sicut lex justissima, provida circumspectione sacrorum
principum stabilita, hortatur et statuit ut quod omnes tangit ab
omnibus approbetur, sic.,” etc. Rymer’s “Fœdera,” year 1295, vol. ii.
p. 689.
[286] “Fœdera,” year 1297, vol. ii. p. 783.
[287] Isambert’s “Recueil,” vol. iii, pp. 102, 104.
[288] A not at all rare occurrence. See in the _fabliau_, “Le povre
Clerc,” how the itinerant verse teller is asked by the peasant who
receives him to say, while the supper is cooking: “Some of those
things that are in writing, either a song or a story of adventure.”
Bédier, “Les Fabliaux,” 2nd ed., 1895, p. 391.
[289] Performing animals or wild ones in cages enjoyed a popularity
which proved more constant than that of minstrels, since it has
continued unabated from the early middle ages to the present time.
_Ursinarii_ frequently appear in the accounts of the Shrewsbury
corporation quoted by Chambers who gives, e.g. this noteworthy entry:
“In regardo dato ursinario domini Regis pro agitacione bestiarum
suarum ultra denarios tunc ibidem collectos. . . .” (Mediæval Stage,
ii. 251; year 1517). The English kings, as is well known, had their
ménagerie in the Tower, as the French ones had theirs in Paris.
St. Louis sent, “as a great gift,” in 1255, an elephant to Henry
III; “and we do not believe any had been seen before in England,”
wrote Matthew Paris who, good draughtsman as he was, painted the
portrait of the wondrous beast. The miniature in MS. Nero D I, in the
British Museum, fol. 169, is by him, according to Madden, “Historia
Anglorum,” Rolls, Preface.
[290]
“There saugh I pleyen jugelours,
Magiciens and tregetours,
And phitonisses, charmeresses,
Olde wiches, sorceresses
That use exorsisaciouns
And eke thes fumygaciouns.”
(Chaucer’s “House of Fame,” l. 169.)
[291] Chambers, “Mediæval Stage,” i. 58, quoting, the “Summa
Theologiæ”: “Sicut dictum est, ludus est necessarius ad
conservationem vitæ humanæ,” etc. On the distinction between the
higher and lower minstrelsy, see ibid. pp. 59 ff.
[292] Lib. i. chap. viii.
[293] “Historical Papers from the Northern Registers,” ed. Raine,
Rolls Series, p. 398. Cf. Bodleian MS. 264, fos. 21, 51, 56, 91, etc.
[294]
“Ich can nat tabre ne trompe · ne telle faire gestes,
Farten ne fithelen · at festes, ne harpen,
Japen ne jogelen · ne gentelliche pipe,
Nother sailen ne sautrien · ne singe with the giterne.”
(“Piers Plowman,” ed. Skeat, Text C, passus xvi. l. 205.)
[295] “_Loci e libro veritatum_; Passages selected from Gascoigne’s
Theological Dictionary” (1403–48), ed. Thorold Rogers, Oxford, 1881,
p. 144.
[296] For instance, MS. Add. 29704, fol. 11. This particular
illumination seems to be of the fourteenth century.
[297] Devon’s “Issues of the Exchequer,” p. 212.
[298] Phillip Stubbes’ “Anatomy of Abuses,” ed. F. J. Furnivall, New
Shakspere Society, 1877–79, pp. 171, 172. Stubbes’ opinion was shared
by all the religious writers or moralists of the sixteenth century.
[299] All the extracts here are from the “House of Fame,” book iii.
“Complete Works,” ed. Skeat, Oxford, 1894, vol. iii. pp. 33 ff.
[300] “A suit respecting civil matter was commenced in this reign
(Ed. I), as in earlier or subsequent reigns, by the purchase of
a writ and sometimes by bill. . . . The writs were committed to
messengers who had to travel into the different parts of the kingdom
and deliver them to the sheriffs or other proper officers to be
served on the defendants.” Horwood, “Year-books of Edward I,” years
30–31, p. xxv. Against the _purchase_ of the writs the Commons
protested, claiming (35 Ed. III, year 1351–2) that this was contrary
to Magna Charta, according to which the king “ne vendra ne deleiera
droit à nulli.” The king refused to give up what he considered as a
legitimate profit, but promised that the tariff would be lowered.
“Rolls of Parliament,” ii., 241.
[301] See the representation of lords and ladies dictating their
letters to scribes, and of messengers carrying them to their
destinations in the MSS. at the British Museum, Royal 10 Ed. IV, fol.
305, 306, etc., and Add. 12228 fol. 238.
[302] “King Edward II’s Household and Wardrobe Ordinances,” 1323, ed.
Furnivall, 1876, p. 46. The French kings had a much larger number:
“Les riches personnages entretenaient des messagers de pied et des
chevaucheurs: de ces derniers le roi de France en avait une centaine
. . . de moindres seigneurs se contentaient de deux ou trois. Les
chevaucheurs étaient payés à forfait: au XIV^e siécle, 18 francs
par jour (present value) pour un parcours de 55 kilomètres environ.
. . . Les messagers de pied, par journée de 30 kilomètres en moyenne,
touchaient 9 francs chez le Roi (1380); à la solde des particuliers
ou des villes leur salaire variait de 5 à 10 francs. Un voyage de
nuit valait le double: 20 francs: de même les courses périlleuses.”
D’Avenel, “L’évolution des moyens de transport,” Paris, 1919, p. 142.
Cf. Thorold Rogers, “History of Agriculture and Prices,” i. 665, iv.
712.
[303] Anne of Bohemia, first wife of Richard II, born at Prague in
1366, grand-daughter of blind King John of Bohemia killed at Crécy,
herself dying of the plague at Shene, 1394, leaving her husband
almost crazy with grief. “Issue roll of Thomas de Brantingham,”
ed. F. Devon, London, 1835, pp. xxxii, xxxvii, xliv, 408; “Issues
of the Exchequer,” 1837, pp. 220, 255. Whole pages of Thomas de
Brantingham’s roll (e.g. pp. 154–155) are filled with payments
received by messengers, which show the frequent use made of their
services.
[304] 32 Ed. III, “Issues of the Exchequer,” p. 169.
[305] 2 Rich. II, year 1378, “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. iii. p. 36.
[306] Rymer’s “Fœdera,” April 3, 1396 (19 Rich. II).
[307] “Issues of the Exchequer,” p. 202.
[308] “Rolls of Parliament,” i. p. 48 (18 Ed. I).
[309] “Wardrobe Accounts of Edward II,” Archæologia, xxvi. 321, 336.
[310] Extract from a letter to the author: “Yesterday I was reading
your ‘Vie Nomade,’ and that portion of it which speaks of the rewards
given in fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to messengers who brought
good tidings to the king. It may interest you to know that a remnant
of this custom still survives. The officer sent by a general after
a victory to convey the despatch to the Queen, receives besides a
promotion in rank (or a decoration), a pecuniary reward. The officer
who brought the news of the fall of Sebastopol to the Queen received
the rank of Colonel, and a present of 500 guineas.
“My brother A.D.C., Major Anson, who carried home from China the
despatch announcing the fall of Pekin, was promoted Colonel, and
received a present of 500 guineas.—St. James’ Club, May 30, 1890.—F.
Grant.”
What happened, in our less ceremonious days, when the news was
brought of the Marne, of Ypres, of Messines? Doubtless it was not
brought; it came.
[311] “Item, be it prohibited everywhere that any alien send letters
beyond the sea, or receive letters which come thence; unless he shew
them to the chancellor or to some other lord of the Privy Council, or
at least to the chief wardens of the ports or their lieutenants, who
shall further show them to the said Council.” “Rolls of Parliament,”
vol. ii. p. 163, 20 Fd. III.
[312] Text C, pas. xiv. ll. 33–59.
[313] 5 and 6 Ed. VI, ch. 21. Statutes, vol. iv. part i. p. 155.
[314] 14 Eliz. ch. v. “Statutes,” vol. iv. part i. pp. 590 ff.
[315] 8 and 9 Will. III, ch. 25.
[316] Cf the contents of the pack of a French “porte-balle” of the
eighteenth century: “ . . . Un de ces merciers ambulants qu’on
appelle porte-balles et qui lui crie: Monsieur le chevalier,
jarretières, ceintures, cordons de montre, tabatières du dernier
goût, vraies jaback, bagues, cachets de montre. . . .” Diderot,
“Jacques le Fataliste.” Ed. Asseline, p. 30.
[317] Text B, pas. v. l. 257.
[318] The English coaling trade had greatly increased in the
fourteenth century; large quantities of coal were brought by water
from Newcastle and other places to London and partly consumed on the
spot, partly exported. The importance of coal mines did not escape
the notice of the Commons, who stated in the year 1376–7 that, “en
diverses parties deinz le Roialme d’Engleterre sont diverses miners
de carbons, dont les communes du dit partie ont lour sustenantz
en grande partie.” 51 Ed. III, “Rolls of Parliament,” ii. 370. Cf
Salzmann, “English Industries of the Middle Ages,” 1913, ch. I, and
H. Hall, “A select Bibliography for the study, sources and literature
of English Political Economy,” London, 1914.
[319] The trade in wines was enormous, especially with Gascony, and
subjected to the most minute regulations. Not only the importation of
it was the occasion of ceaseless interfering, but the retail sale in
towns was perpetually regulated anew by local ordinances. Woe to the
vintner who was detected meddling in any unfair way with his liquor;
he might experience the chastisement inflicted upon John Penrose,
who for such an offence was sent to the pillory in 1364, was made
to drink publicly there his own stuff, had what he could not drink
poured over his head, and was besides sentenced to renounce his trade
for ever. Riley, “Memorials of London,” 1868, p. 318.
[320] Same rules in France: “Que nul billon, vaissellemente, joyaux
d’or et d’argent ne soint traits hors dudit royaume par personne
quelle que ce soit, si ce n’estoit vaissellemente de prélats ou de
nobles ou d’autres gens d’église pour lour service.” Ordinance of
Jean le Bon, dated from London, 1358; Isambert, vol. v. p. 39.
[321] “Rolls of Parliament,” 45 Ed. III, year 1371, vol. ii. p. 306.
While this legislation was strictly enforced in England, the royal
government, according to petitions of the Commons and with remarkable
_naïveté_, often wrote to princes on the continent, recommending them
to allow their own subjects to bring to England money, bullion, and
plate.
[322] Statute 5 Rich. II st. i. ch. 3, and 6 Rich. II, year 1381–2.
[323] “Rolls of Parliament,” 46 Ed. III, year 1372, vol. ii. p. 311.
[324] Ibid., 11 Rich II, A.D. 1387, vol. iii. p. 253. The penalties
are removed for the Hanse merchants but not for the Prussians, “Et en
le mesne temps soient lettre du privé seal envoié al Mestre de Pruys
de repaier et due redresse faire as merchantz Engleis des arestes et
autres tortz et damages à eux fait deinz la seigneurie de Pruys, come
reson demande.”
[325] Statute 27 Ed. III st. ii. ch. 2.
[326] 25 Ed. III stat. iii. ch. 2.
[327] See, for particulars about the “Gildhalda Teutonicorum” in
Dowgate Ward, Thames Street, and afterwards in the Steel-house,
Herbert’s “Livery Companies,” London, 1837, vol. i. pp. 10–16. The
importance of Italian settlements of money-changers and money-lenders
(whence the “Lombard streets” or “rues des Lombards” surviving in
many towns) are well known.
[328] These and many other particulars about English trade with
Venice are to be found in Rawdon Brown’s “Calendars of State Papers
. . . in the Archives of Venice,” London, 1864 (Rolls); see also J.
Delaville le Roulx, “La France en Orient au XIV^e siècle,” Paris,
1886, vol. i. p. 199.
[329] For the first time in 1397–98. He was a liberal lender of money
to Kings Henry IV and Henry V.
[330] Th. Wright, “Political Poems,” Rolls Series, ii. 202; also
edited by Herzberg and Pauli, Leipzig, 1878.
[331] Bk. xx, chap. 7: “Esprit de l’Angleterre sur le Commerce.”
[332] “Rolls of Parliament,” 25 Ed. III, year 1350, and Ed. I or II
_anno incerto_, vol. ii. p. 232 and vol i. p. 475.
[333] Text B, pas. v. l. 232.
[334] Statute 2 of 27 Ed. III, A.D. 1353. Canterbury was made a
staple town “en l’onur de Saint Thomas,” “Rolls of Parliament,” vol.
ii. p. 253, same year. As an example of the changes affecting the
staple system, see the statute 2 Ed. III, chap. 9 (A.D. 1328), by
which all staples were abolished—for a time.
[335] “_Pedis pulverisati curia._ Ea est quæ in nundinis constituitur,
ad nundinalium rixas litesque celerrime componendas. . . . Dictum
præcipue de mercatoribus vagabundis, qui nundinas pagatim insectantes
omnes discurrunt provincias, nec sistendi locum agnoscunt, sed de his
etiam qui ex omni parte ad nundinas confluunt.” H. Spelman, “Glossarium
archaiologicum,” ed. tertia, Londini, 1687, p. 455.
[336] These and other particulars about the way in which fairs
were managed at Westminster and Winchester are to be found in a
petition with an inquest of the year 1302, 30 Ed. I, in the “Rolls of
Parliament,” vol. i. p. 150. The Winchester Fair on St. Giles’ hill,
“Montem sancti Egidii,” was one of the most famous English fairs.
Langland mentions it, and gives a graphic account of the cheating
that went on among unscrupulous merchants. “Visions,” Text C, pas.
vii. l. 211.
[337] See “Charter of Edward III [as to] St. Giles’ Fair,
Winchester,” ed. G. W. Kitchin, London, 1886.
[338] This fair, immortalized by Ben Jonson, disappeared only in
1855. See H. Morley’s “Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair” (2nd ed. 1874).
[339] Mentioned as “Wy,” text C, passus vii. l. 211. Weyhill fair,
near Andover, Hampshire, “is a famous one to this day, and lasts
eight days. The fair for horses and sheep is on October 10th, that
for cheese, hops, and general wares, on October 11th and the six days
following.” W. W. Skeat, “Vision concerning Piers the Plowman,” ii,
83. See a list of English fairs in Mr. Elton’s Report, Market Rights
Commission, 1889, vol. i. 5. There were fairs established especially
for herrings and other fishing produce at Yarmouth, Scarborough, and
other towns on the sea-coast. The rigours of Lent and the number of
fasting days throughout the year gave particular importance to these
articles of consumption. Hence, too, the attention paid to fisheries
and the regulations to prevent the catching of small fish, the
destruction of spawn and bait, etc. Great complaints are made against
the use of the net called “wondyrchoun,” which drags from the bottom
of the sea all the bait “that used to be the food of great fish.”
Through means of this instrument fishermen catch “such great plenty
of small fish that they do not know what to do with them, but fatten
their pigs with them.” “Rolls of Parliament,” 1376–7, vol. ii. p.
369. As to salmon fishing in the Thames, see ibid., vol. ii. p. 331,
A.D. 1376.
[340] Harrison’s “Description of England,” ed. Furnivall, 1877, first
published 1577, part i. book ii. chap xviii. pp. 295, 302.
[341] “History of Agriculture and Prices in England,” vol. iv. chap.
iv. p. 155. As to Stourbridge fair, ibid. vol. i. chap. vii. p. 141.
[342] “Winter’s Tale,” iv. 3. Cf. “The foure Ps,” by John Heywood,
London, 1545, one of the “Ps” is a pedlar, whose wares are enumerated
in full.
[343] Wordsworth, “The Excursion,” Bk. viii.
[344] “The Nut Brown Maid,” in Skeat’s “Specimens of English
Literature,” Clarendon Press, 1887, p. 96.
[345] Statute of Winchester, 13 Edward I, chap. iv., confirmed by
Edward III. See before p. 156.
[346] “Item videtur nulla esse utlagaria si factum, pro quo
interrogatus est, civile sit et non criminale.” Bracton, Rolls
Series, vol. ii. p. 330.
[347] “Year Books of Edward I.” Rolls Series, years 30–31, p. 533.
[348] “Year Books of Edward I,” Rolls Series, years 30–31, pp.
537–538. In the case of this woman, freedom was granted “propter
parvitatem delicti,” and because she had been one year in prison;
and no confiscation took place, because her husband was absent in
Paris, and it would have been inappropriate to, maybe, wrong that man
who was, like every husband, the owner of his wife’s chattels. “Et
nota,” beautifully adds the judge (or the reporter), “quod melius est
nocentem relinquere impunitum quam innocentem punire.” But the court,
at the same time, fines an innocent, known to it as such, for fear
of displeasing the king; a circumstance that the recorder is bold
enough to note down: “Et nota quod fecerunt hoc Justiciarii magis ad
appruyamentum (profit, for the king got the money) Regis faciendum
quam ad legem manutenendum, quia hoc dixerunt in terrorem.” Ibid. pp.
503–507.
[349] “Fleta,” lib. i. chap. xxvii.
[350] “Bracton,” vol. ii. pp. 340–342.
[351] “Year Books of Edward I,” year 30–31, p. 515. Sometimes a man
would profit by the absence of an enemy on the continent and affirm
to a magistrate that he was in flight, and cause him to be declared
an outlaw; thus the priest, John Crochille, complains to parliament
of having been unjustly outlawed during a journey which he had made
to the Court of Rome, in 1347 (“Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p.
178); the priest, Robert of Thresk, is also declared outlaw during
his absence from the kingdom, “by the malice of his accusers” (ibid.,
1347, vol. ii. p. 183). John of Gaunt orders the restitution of his
goods to “nostre tenant neif, Johan Piers,” whose belongings had been
seized, “à cause q’il deust estre utlagé, à ce q’est dit, et ore il
nous est certifié par recorde, q’il n’est pas utlagé.” Oct. 12, 1374.
“John of Gaunt’s Register,” ed. S. Armitage Smith, document 1544.
[352] “Cecidit in foveam quam fecit.” Psalm vii. 16: “cecidit” should
be “incidit.” “Year Books,” Edward I, year 21–22, p. 447. In another
case, counsel delighted at a statement of the judge, exclaims in his
joy: “Beatus venter qui te portavit.” Ibid. p. 437. Judges sometimes
indulged in familiar speech, bets and witticisms: “I will wager a
cask of wine on it.” “If you find it, I will give you my hood.” “Year
Books of Edward II,” ed. G. J. Turner, Selden Society, 1914, years
1310–1311, pp. 44, 168.
[353] Late thirteenth century, in Madox, “Formulare Anglicanum,”
London, 1702, fol., p. 416.
[354] “Sciant presentes et futuri quod ego Johannes filius Thome
vendidi et quietum clamavi de me et heredibus meis domino Hugoni
abbati Sancti Edmundi et successoribus suis inprimum Servalum filium
Willielmi de Wurtham cum tota sequela sua et omnibus catallis suis et
cum toto tenemento quod de me tenuit in Wurtham sine ullo retenemento
pro sexdecim solidis argenti quos idem abbas michi dedit. Et ut hec
mea vendicio . . . firma sit . . . presentem cartam meam feci . . .”
_Temp._ Ed. I, MS. Addit. 14850, in the British Museum fol. 59. “The
existing evidence,” says Vinogradoff, “entitles one to maintain that
a villain could be lawfully sold, with all his family, his _sequela_,
but that in practice such transactions were uncommon.” “Villainage in
England,” Oxford, 1892, p. 151.
[355] “Chronica Monasterii de Melsa,” Rolls, ii. 97 ff., the case
being of the second half of the thirteenth century. The duel was, of
course, one _cum fuste et scuto_, the fighters clubbing each other to
their best, as in the case of the before mentioned Thomas de Bruges.
Above, p. 117.
[356] The year books of Edward I show a marked tendency in the judge
to interpret the laws and customs in a sense favourable to the
freeing of the villein. One of the harsh theories of former days
is declared by him “pejus quam falsum pur ce qe ce est heresie.”
“Year Books of Ed. I,” years 30–31, A.D. 1302, ed. Horwood, Rolls,
p. 167. See also, in the vol. for the years 34–35, the suit p. 13.
But the judge could act thus only in doubtful cases: a man having
acknowledged, in the presence of his master, that he was a villein,
the judge says to the master: “Prenez le par le cou, comme votre
vilain, lui et sa descendance à toujours.” Vol. for the years 30–31,
p. 201.
[357] See an example of such commutation, with a tariff established,
“ex antiqua et usitata consuetudine,” for various services according
to the season, for oats to be supplied to the lord (the abbot of
Bury), etc., in MS. Addit. 14850, British Museum, fol. 143; year 1438.
[358] This was a last resort, more and more frequently adopted
however, especially after the plague. As Mr. Oman has justly
observed, by natural disposition the villeins “were reluctant to
abscond and throw up their share of the manorial acres, for only in
extremity will the peasant, who has once got a grip on the soil,
consent to let it go.” “The Great Revolt of 1381,” Oxford 1906, p. 9.
[359] “A . . . n. S^r le Roi et Seigneurs de Parlement monstrent
les chivalers des countees en ycest present Parlement, que come les
Seigneurs parmy le Roialme d’Engleterre eient plusours vileins queux
s’enfuont de lour Seigneurs et de lour terres en diverses citees et
burghs enfranchisez, de jour en autre, et la demuront tout lour vies,
par cause desqueux franchises les ditz Seigneurs ne pount aprocher
lour ditz vileins. . . .” They want to be enabled to forcibly take
them back. Their petition is rejected: “Le Roi s’advisera.” 15 Rich.
II, “Rolls of Parliament,” iii. p. 296.
[360] “Ad similitudinem cervorum domesticorum.”—“Henrici de Bracton,
De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliæ Libri V,” ed. Travers Twiss,
London, 1878, i. p. 48.
[361] According to Seebohm (“The Black Death and its place in English
History,” two articles in the _Fortnightly Review_ in 1865), more
than half of the population died during the epidemic which had begun
in July 1348 and lasted till the end of 1349. Three archbishops
of Canterbury died in one year. Knyghton, a contemporary, gives a
striking picture of the plague at Leicester. “There were scarcely any
who took heed of riches or cared for anything. . . . And sheep and
oxen wandered through the fields and among the crops; there was no
one to go after and collect them; but there perished an untold number
in out of the way ditches and under hedges.” In the autumn the price
of labour was so exorbitant that a large part of the crops were left
on the ground (Twysden’s “Decem Scriptores,” col. 2599). “Through
this pestilence,” say the Commons in Parliament, “cities, boroughs
and other towns and hamlets throughout the land have decayed, and
from day to day are decaying and several are entirely depopulated.”
25 Ed. III, A.D. 1351, “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 227.
[362] See a concrete example of such reports being brought from the
north to the south by pilgrims, further, p. 279.
[363] As shown by the surnames of the members, at that period; in
numerous cases, a mere indication of profession: Johannes le Baker,
Galfridus le Fisshere, Johannes le Carpenter, Robertus Chaundeler,
Ricardus Orfevre, Radulphus le Taverner, etc. “Return of the names of
every member returned to serve in every Parliament,” London, 1878, a
blue book, pp. 18, 31, 146 and _passim_; on p. 229, duly appears, as
a knight of the shire, for Kent, “Galfridus Chauceres.”
[364] Both documents, the first in Latin, the second in French, in
“Statutes of the Realm”; a text, revised on the originals, is in the
Appendix to Miss Bertha H. Putnam’s “Enforcement of the Statutes of
Labourers during the first Decade after the Black Death,” New York,
1908, pp. 8* and 12*.
[365] The taking of money out of the realm was especially feared:
“Quamplures ejusdem regni nostri cum pecunia quam in eodem regno
habere poterunt, ad partes exteras in dies se transferunt et
transferre proponunt.” Dec. 1, 1349, Rymer’s “Fœdera,” vol. v. p. 668.
[366] “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 233. Compare the French
ordinances; that of John the Good, January 30, 1350 (Isambert,
“Recueil général des anciennes lois françaises,” iv. p. 576), orders
the idle people of Paris, picturesquely described as “gens oiseux
ou joueurs de dez ou enchanteurs (singers) es rues ou truandans ou
mandians, de quelque estat ou condition qu’ils soient, ayans mestier
ou non, soient hommes ou femmes,” to either work or go away, which
was less radical and still less to the point than the English rules.
Another order of the same king (Nov. 1354, ibid. p. 700) was directed
against the workmen who since the plague were exacting exorbitant
wages, and, in addition to that, “wine, meat and other unwonted
things.” If denied, they preferred to do nothing but would go to
taverns and there had been heard to say that, “owing to the great
price they are accustomed to take, they will work only two days a
week,” a kind of difficulty which, dating back six centuries, is not
entirely of the past.
[367] “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 261, parliament of 1354.
[368] Statute 34 Ed. III, chap. 10, A.D. 1360–1.
[369] “Rolls of Parliament,” ii. p. 312.
[370] “Rolls of Parliament,” ii. p. 340, A.D. 1376. To have them
outlawed brings no relief to their masters, for they manage not to be
caught and carefully avoid the places where they are known: “Et si
les ditz servantz corores soient utlagez à la sute de la partie, il
n’est profit al sutour, ne damage ne chastiement al servant futyf,
par cause q’ils ne poont estre trovez ne jà ne pensent repeirir en
pays là cù ils ont ensi servi.” Same petition.
[371] Langland shows, in the same way, the shameless beggar who goes,
bag on shoulder, asking from door to door, who may very well if he
pleases gain his bread and beer by work; he knows a trade, but he
prefers not to exercise it:
“And can som manere craft · in cas he wolde hit use,
Thorgh whiche craft he couthe · come to bred and to ale.”
“Piers Plowman,” Text C, pass. x. l. 155; see also ibid., pass. i. l.
40.
[372] “ . . . Par colour de certains exemplificacions faitz hors
de livre de Domesday des manoirs et villes deinz queux ils sont
demurantz, et par vertue d’icelles exemplificacions et lour male
interpretacion d’icelles, ils s’aferment (affirm) d’estre quites et
outrement deschargez de tout manere de servage due sibien de lour
corps come de lour tenures. . . . Et qe plus est, ils se coillient
ensembles à grantz routes et s’entrelient par tiel confederacie qe
chescun aidra autre à contester lours seignurs à fort mayn.” Rich.
II, chap 6, year 1377; “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. iii. pp. 17, 46,
65.
[373] Statute 7 Rich. II, cap. 5.
[374] Statute 12 Rich. II, cap. 3.
[375] “Gleanings from the Public Records,” by Mr. H. Hewlett, in the
“Antiquary,” March, 1882, vol. v. p. 99. Concerning ill-treatment
inflicted on prisoners, see a petition of the Commons, 1 Ed. III,
A.D. 1326–7, “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. pp. 9, 12.
[376] See, besides the plates here, representations of these
instruments of punishment in, e.g. Foxe’s “Actes and Monuments.”
London, 1563, fol. pp. 390, 1272, etc., and in Butler’s “Hudibras,
adorned with cutts designed and engraved by Mr. Hogarth,” London
1761; at p. 140, the knight and his squire, “check by joul,” says the
poet, in the stocks.
[377] 12 Rich. II, cap. 7.
[378] 12 Rich. II, cap. 7. Cf. above, p. 236.
[379] On which see, e.g. André Réville and Ch. Petit-Dutaillis, “Le
soulèvement des travailleurs d’Angleterre en 1381,” Paris, 1898; G.
M. Trevelyan, “England in the age of Wycliffe,” chapters vi and vii;
“The Peasants’ rising and the Lollards, a collection of unpublished
documents,” edited by E. Powell and G. M. Trevelyan, London 1899,
with data not only on the great rising, but on some later troubles
(1392, 1398) of lesser magnitude, but important as signs; C. Oman,
“The Great Revolt of 1381,” Oxford, 1906.
[380] Statute 3 Ed. I, stat. 1, cap. 34, A.D. 1275.
[381] Statute 2 Rich. II, chap. 5.
[382] Document published (but only in an English translation) by
W. E. Flaherty: “Sequel to the great rebellion in Kent, of 1381,”
“Archæologia Cantiana,” vol. iv. pp. 67 ff. The author interprets
_peregrini_, at one place by strangers, at another by pilgrims; the
latter is the real meaning.
Some traces of kindness to his tenants, on the part of John of Gaunt
are found in his Registers. He orders wood and charcoal to be carried
to the castle of Tutbury where his wife was to spend the winter, and
insists that the work be done in summer, so that his tenants and
bondmen be not grieved by the carrying thereof in the bad season. . .
“Si voullons et vous mandons que vous faces faire et carier à nostre
dit chastel ccc quarters de carbons, et aussint vous faces carier
tout la boys abatuz par vent que vous bonement pourrez en nostre dit
chastel pur fuaille, et que ce soit fait toute voies en ceste saison
d’estée, issint que noz tenantz et bondes ne soient pas tariez ne
grevez ove la cariage d’ycelle en temps de yver.” “John of Gaunt’s
Register,” ed. S. A. Smith, 1911, vol. ii. p. 203, year 1373.
[383] And they said it in the most peremptory language, highly
approving of the king’s breaking his word and revoking the sweeping
manumissions (“manumisimus universos ligeos et singulos subditos
nostros,” Walsingham, ii. 467, Rolls) he had granted out of fear;
the lords and the commons answer: “à une voice qe cele repele fuist
ben faite, adjoustant que tiele manumission ou franchise des neifs
ne poast estre fait sanz lour assent q’ont le greindre interesse:
a quoy ils n’assentèrent unques de lour bone grée, n’autrement, ne
jamais ne ferroient pur vivre et murrir touz en un jour.” “Rolls of
Parliament,” iii. p. 100; year 1381. So they would rather die, all of
them in a day, than assent to a freedom granted “without the assent
of those most interested”: and it never occurred to them that those
most interested could possibly be the villeins themselves and not the
villeins’ masters.
PART III — RELIGIOUS WAYFARERS
[384] “Item priont les communes . . . de ordeiner et commander que
null neif ou vileyn mette ses enfantz de cy en avant à Escoles
pur eux avancer par clergie, et ce en maintenance et salvation de
l’honour de toutz Franks du Roialme.” “Rolls of Parliament,” vol.
iii. p. 294, 15 Rich. II, 1391.
[385] Beginning at an uncertain date: before the papal schism, i.e.
1378, according to Shirley, Introduction to “Fasciculi Zizaniorum,”
1858, Rolls series; “several months before the revolt of 1381 broke
out,” according to Oman, “The Great Revolt,” 1906, p. 19.
[386] Their activity as wandering preachers is well shown by “The
tenor of the complaint made to the Kinge and his councell against
John Fox, Maior of Northampton, and others exhibited in French by
Richard Stermersworthe, a wolman,” year 1392–3. According to the
deponent the Mayor who welcomes every “errant Lollard,” has caused
“the whole towne in manner to become Lollardes. . . . All ribauds
infected with Lollardry, that come to the said towne are all
courteously received and maintayned as yf they were prophetts before
all others.” The day after Christmas, the Mayor “brought with him
. . . an errant Lollard to preach within All Saints Church.” He did
the same later, bringing the “parson of the church of Wynkpole, an
errant Lollarde, to preach.” Powell and Trevelyan, “The Peasants’
risings and the Lollards,” London, 1899, pp. 45 ff.
[387] G. M. Trevelyan, “England in the age of Wycliffe,” 1899, p. 199.
[388] Statute 5 Rich. II, 2, cap 5.
[389] He has often been considered as an adherent of Wyclif, for no
reason save that both, at the same time, wanted radical reforms, not
a few however of a different kind. Ball had some religious ideas
peculiar to himself; thus, according to him, natural children could
not go to heaven.
[390] “Chronicon Angliæ,” 1328–1388, ed. E. Maunde Thompson, 1874,
Rolls Series, p. 321.
[391] Lord Berners’ “Froissart,” cap. ccclxxxi.
[392] “Chronicon Angliæ,” 1328–1388, Thompson’s edition, 1874, p. 322.
[393] “English Prose Treatises of Richard Rolle of Hampole,” edited
by Rev. George Perry, 1866, Early English Text Society, Preface, pp.
ix, xv–xix. See before, p. 141.
[394] The Dominicans in 1221; the Franciscans in 1224. See Dr.
Jessopp, “The Coming of the Friars,” London, 1888, pp. 32–34, a work
in which shine the ample knowledge and wide sympathies of the late
rector of East Dereham, the “Arcady for better for worse” where he
spent so many years. When Taine made his last visit to England I
wanted, if I may be permitted to recall a personal souvenir, to give
him a lunch where each of those invited would be a representative
Englishman. Robert Browning represented poetry; Augustus Jessopp, who
deeply impressed the chief guest, the country clergy.
[395] “Vision,” Text C, pas. xi. l. 14.
[396] Prologue to “Canterbury Tales.”
[397] Jack Straw, according to the confession which his contemporary
the monk Thomas Walsingham relates of him, would have liked to keep
no other ecclesiastics on earth but the mendicant friars: “Soli
mendicantes vixissent super terram qui suffecissent pro sacris
celebrandis aut conferendis universæ terræ.” “Historia Anglicana,”
vol. ii. p. 10, Rolls Series.
[398] “Piers Plowman,” Skeat’s edition, Text C, pass. xxiii. l. 274.
[399]
“Ac it is ferre agoo · in seynt Fraunceys tyme.”
Text B, pass. xv. l. 226.
[400] “The Rule and Life of the Friars Minors,” in Dugdale’s
“Monasticon Anglicanum,” London, 1817, vol. vi. p. 1504.
[401] “Liber de adventu Minorum in Angliam,” in “Monumenta
Franciscana,” ed. Brewer, Rolls Series, 1858, p. 28. The author,
Thomas of Eccleston, himself a Franciscan, saw the most flourishing
period of the mendicant orders; his book, of extreme _naïveté_,
abounds in visions and tales of wonders.
[402] Matthew Paris, “Historia Anglorum,” London, 1866, vol. iii. p.
145, Rolls Series.
[403] “Monumenta Franciscana,” Rolls, p. xxix.
[404] “Speculum Vitæ B. Francisi et sociorum ejus, opera fratris
Guil. Spoelberch,” Antwerp, 1620, part i. cap. 4.
[405] Thirty-two years after the friars had appeared in England,
they already possessed forty-nine convents (“Monumenta Franciscana,”
ed. Brewer, 1858, p. 10). In Matthew Paris will be found a good
description of the behaviour of the friars minor in England on their
arrival, of the poor, humble, and useful life that they first led.
“Historia Anglorum,” ed. Madden, 1866, vol. ii. p. 109.
[406] See “Defensionem curatorum contra eos qui privilegiatos se
dicunt” (4to, undated), a speech made in 1357, by Richard Fitz-Ralph,
Archbishop of Armagh, in which are denounced the successive
encroachments of the mendicant friars to the detriment of the secular
clergy.
[407] “Monumenta Franciscana,” _ut supra_, pp. 514, etc. This library
had been founded by the celebrated Richard Whittington, who was Mayor
of London in 1397–98, 1406–07, and 1419–20.
[408] “More canum cadaveribus assistentium, ubi quisque suam
particulam avide consumendam expectat.” Rolls Series, vol. i. 38;
_sub anno_ 1291–92.
[409] Wyclif’s “Select English Works,” ed. Thos. Arnold, 1869, vol.
iii. pp. 348, 380.
[410] “Monumenta Franciscana,” p. 541. Hence the reproaches the
satirists:
“Of these frer mynours me thenkes moch wonder,
That waxen are thus hauteyn, that som tyme weren under.”
Thomas Wright’s “Political Poems and Songs,” 1859, vol. i. p. 268,
Rolls Series.
[411] “Pierce the Ploughman’s Crede,” ed. Skeat, 1867, Early English
Text Society, pp. 7–9; written about 1394; author unknown, the
same possibly who composed “The Plowman’s Tale,” e.g. in Wright’s
“Political Poems,” both works strongly influenced by Langland’s
“Visions.”
[412] “Liber de adventu Minorum,” in “Monumenta Franciscana,” p. 52.
[413] Grammar, logic, rhetoric—Arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy.
[414] “Select English Works,” vol. iii. p. 382. A satire of the
fourteenth century states in the same way:
“Isti fratres prædicant per villas et forum
Quod si mortem gustet quis in habitu minorum
Non intrabit postea locum tormentorum,
Sed statim perducitur ad regna cœlorum.”
But if burial is requested for a pauper in one of their privileged
churches, “the keeper is absent,” is the answer, and admittance is
refused:
“Gardianus absens est, statim respondetur
Et sic satis breviter pauper excludetur.”
Wright’s “Political Poems,” Rolls Series, vol. i. pp. 256–57.
[415] The complaints of the University of Oxford against the
friars, stating how they wrongfully attracted with fruit and
drink mere children, and taught them how to beg and to ingratiate
themselves with the great, were among the severest: “Nam pomis et
potu, ut populus fabulatur, puerulos ad religionem attrahunt et
instigant, quos professos non instruunt sicut exigit ætas illa,
sed mendicationis discursibus permittunt intendere; atque tempus,
quo possint addiscere, captandis favoribus amicorum, dominarum
et dominorum, sinunt consumere, in offensam parentium, puerorum
periculum et ordinis detrimentum.” Year 1358, “Munimenta Academica,”
Rolls Series, i. p. 207.
[416] “Hic est frater, ergo mendax.” “Historia Anglicana,” 1867–69,
vol. ii. p. 13, Rolls Series.
[417] Brit. Mus. MS. Roy. 10 E. IV, fol. 100, ff. See also in MS. 17
C. xv. in the British Museum a satirical picture of a “ffryer.”
[418] Wright’s “Political Poems,” vol. i. p. 263.
[419] 20 Ed. II., “Croniques de London,” ed. Aungier, Camden Society,
p. 54.
[420] Proclamation of Richard II, year 1385; Rymer’s “Foedera,” ed.
1704, vol. vii. p. 458.
[421] “Rolls of Parliament,” 20 E. III, vol. ii. p. 162, A.D. 1346.
[422] Labbe, “Sacrosancta Concilia,” Florence, vol. xxvi. col. 729.
[423] “Select English Works,” vol. iii. p. 396.
[424] “The English Works of Wyclif, hitherto unprinted,” edited by
F. D. Matthew, Early English Text Society, 1880, p. 13. Most of the
pieces in this collection are only attributed to Wyclif, this one
among them. See also Gower’s “Vox Clamantis,” Roxburghe Club, 1850,
p. 228.
[425] “English Works of Wyclif hitherto unprinted,” p. 12.
[426] So also in Chaucer’s “Prologue”:
“His typet was ay farsud ful of knyfes
And pynnes, for to yive faire wyfes.”
[427] Wright’s “Political Poems and Songs,” 1859, vol. i. pp. 264 and
268.
[428] “Select English Works,” vol. i. p. 381. See also Wright’s
“Political Poems and Songs,” 1859, vol. i. p. 257.
[429] “Eulogium historiarum,” ed. Haydon, Rolls Series, London, 1858,
vol. iii. p. 392. What the condemned friars were accused of was thus
explained to them: “Similiter vos in hypocrisi, adulatione et falsa
vita audivistis falsas confessiones in quibus injunxistis populo
pro pœnitentia ut quærerent regem Ricardum in Wallia. Vos etiam in
hypocrisi, adulatione et falsa vita collegistis magnam summam pecuniæ
mendicando et misistis ad Audeonum (Owen) Glendour proditorem, ut
veniat et destruat totam linguam Anglicanam,” a language which Henry
prided himself in speaking and which he had used in parliament to
claim the crown. “Rolls of Parliament,” iii. 422.
[430] Year 1533, Holinshed, “Chronicles,” London, 1587, vol. iii. p.
945. Friar Forest had refused the oath of supremacy.
[431] “Libellus vere aureus . . . de optimo reipublicæ statu deque
noua Insula Vtopia . . . cura P. Ægidii . . . nunc primum . . .
editus,” Louvain, 1516, lib. i.
[432] Hardy, “Registrum palatinum Dunelmense,” vol. iii. p. cxxxiv.
[433] “Theodori archiepiscopi Cantuariensis pœnitentiale,” in Migne’s
“Patrologia,” vol. xcix. col. 938 and 940.
[434] “Halitgarii episcopi Cameracensis liber pœnitentialis,” in
Migne’s “Patrologia,” vol. cv. col. 706.
[435] See Appendix XIII, p. 438.
[436] The two words were used as interchangeable. Du Cange quotes a
text of 1389, reading: “Come il fust venu en la ville de Necie près
Faloise un questeur ou porteur de pardons.” _Sub verbo_ “Perdonantia.”
[437] In England as elsewhere forgers were busy. One is captured at
great expense in the year 51 Ed. III: “To John Compton, one of the
king’s archers of his crown. In money paid to him for the expenses
of himself and other archers in his retinue, coming from Gloucester
to London, to conduct and deliver up Thomas Pardoner and Reginald
Clerc, forgers of the seal of the Lord the Pope . . . also for hire
of horses for the same Thomas and Reginald and for divers other
costs occurred in their safe conduct, £6.” Devon, “Issues of the
Exchequer,” 1837, p. 203.
[438] “Archæologia,” vol. xx. p. 53, John Webb’s translation. See
Appendix XIV, p. 439.
[439] Prologue to the “Canterbury Tales,” and Prologue to the
“Pardoner’s Tale.”
[440] “The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio” . . . done into English
. . . by John Payne, London, 1886, vol. ii. p. 278, tenth Tale, sixth
Day.
[441] See Appendix, XV p. 440.
[442] Same Appendix.
[443] “Excommunicatis gratiam absolutionis impendit. Vota
peregrinationis ad apostolorum limina, ad Terram Sanctam, ad Sanctum
Jacobum non prius remisit quam tantam pecuniam recepisset, quantam,
juxta veram æstimationem, in eisdem peregrinationibus expendere
debuissent, et ut cuncta concludam brevibus, nihil omnino petendum
erat, quod non censuit, intercedente pecunia, concedendum.” “Historia
Anglicana”; Rolls Series, vol. i. p. 452.
[444] See Appendix XV, p. 444.
[445] Lyndsay, “Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits” performed at
Linlithgow, 1540; Early English Text Society, 1869; John Heywood,
“The Pardoner and the Frere, the Curate and Neybour Pratte,” 1533;
“The foure Ps,” 1545.
[446] Payne’s “Boccaccio,” vol. ii. pp. 280, 287.
[447] “The Leofric Missal” (1050–1072), edited by F. E. Warren, 1883,
Clarendon Press, pp. lxi, 3, 4.
[448] “Historia Anglorum” (Historia minor), ed. Sir F. Madden,
London, 1866; vol. iii. p. 60, Rolls Series.
[449] Devon’s “Issues of the Exchequer,” 1837, p. 176.
[450] “Le livre des fais et bonnes mœurs du sage roy Charles,”
by Christine de Pisan, chap. xxxiii. vol. i. p. 633; “Nouvelle
Collection de Mémoires,” ed. Michaud and Poujoulat, Paris, 1836.
[451] “Pantagruel,” book ii. chap. xvii., “Comment Panurge gagnoit
les pardons.”
[452] “Farce d’un pardonneur, d’un triacleur et d’une tavernière,”
Viollet le Duc, “Ancien théâtre français,” Paris, 1854–57, vol. ii.
p. 50.
[453] “The Pleasaunt Historie of Lazarillo de Tormes, . . . drawen
out of Spanish by David Rouland, of Angelsey.” London, 1586, Sig. G.
iii.
[454] A favourite subject among miniaturists, and to be found in
several manuscripts (2 B. vii; 10 E. IV) in the British Museum. See
the headpiece of the present chapter.
[455] Labbe, “Sacrosancta concilia,” Florence edition, vol. xxv. col.
1177, and vol. xxvi. col. 462. In 1419, Henry Chicheley, Archbishop
of Canterbury, ordered public prayers, litanies, and processions,
to protect the King of England and his army against the wicked
operations of magicians. Wilkins, “Concilia Magnæ Britanniæ,” vol.
iii. p. 392.
[456] “Si vero masculus quisquam voluerit, ut est moris, ejusdem
defuncti vel defuncte nocturnis vigiliis interesse, hoc fieri
permittatur, dumtamen nec monstra larvarum inducere, nec corporis vel
fame sue ludibria, nec ludos alios inhonestos, presumat aliqualiter
attemptare.” Toulmin Smith, “English Gilds,” p. 194.
[457] “Araneis et aliis vermibus nigris ad modum scorpionum, cum
quadam herba quæ dicitur millefolium et aliis herbis et vermibus
detestabilibus.” Thos. Wright, “Proceedings against Dame Alice
Kyteler, 1324,” Camden Society, 1843, p. 32.
[458] “The Canons Yeomans Tale.”
[459] The whole of book vii of his “Confessio Amantis” is devoted to
the exposition of a system of the world and to the description of the
inner nature of beings and substances. The “Roman de la Rose” is not
less explicit on these matters (confession of Nature to Genius).
[460] “De Proprietatibus Rerum,” lib. xvi, a work of immense repute,
translated into English by Trevisa in 1398, into French, Spanish,
Dutch.
[461] “Les Amants magnifiques.”
[462] “Conciliorum generalium Ecclesiæ Catholicæ,” vol. iv. p. 261,
“Pauli V. Pont. max. auctoritate editus,” Rome, 1623. See Appendix
XV, p. 444.
[463] Winter of 1435; he was coming on a mission to James I of
Scotland. “Romance of a King’s Life,” pp. 52, 97.
[464] First cousin to Edward II, executed in 1322. Froissart had
no doubt as to the authenticity of his miracles. “Thomas erle of
Lancastre, who was a noble and a wyse holy knyght, and hath done syth
many fayre myracles in Pomfret, where he was beheeded” (vol. i. chap.
vi. in Lord Berners’ translation). The body of Charles de Blois,
killed at the battle of Auray in 1364, but this one an undoubtedly
pious warrior, also worked miracles, and Froissart imagined that
Urban V had canonized him: “His body [was] after sanctifyed by the
grace of God and called Saynt Charles, and canonized by Pope Urban
the V; for he dyde, and yet dothe many fayre miracles dayly.” Vol. i.
cap. 226 of Lord Berners’ translation.
[465] “Non absque homicidiis aliisque lætalibus verberibus . . .
et de majoribus periculis verisimiliter imminentibus multipliciter
formidatur . . .” A.D. 1323, “Historical Papers from the Northern
Registers,” ed. Raine, 1873, p. 324, Rolls Series.
[466] The archbishop did write to this effect to the Pope (John XXII)
on February 24, 1327, asking him to make inquiry with a view to
canonization. “Historical Papers from the Northern Registers,” p. 340.
[467] Petition to Parliament, 1 Ed. III, 1326–7. “Rolls of
Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 7.
[468] “Memorials of London,” Riley, 1868, p. 203. The miracles worked
by the same are also noted in the contemporary “Croniques de London”
(Camden Society, ed. G. J. Aungier, p. 46), and by many others.
[469] J. Nichol’s “Wills of the Kings and Queens of England,” 1780,
p. 54. A chapel had been built on the hill where the earl had been
beheaded. The offerings brought there by the pilgrims were, in
1334, the subject of a curious debate between the prior and the
convent of Pontefract on the one hand, and the Lord of Wake on the
other; this lord had “taken possession of the said chapel and the
offerings brought there, and had taken the keys with him.” The prior
and the convent in a petition to Parliament requested to have the
“administration of these offerings,” as “spiritual things within
their parish and belonging to their church,” “Rolls of Parliament,”
vol. ii. p. 84.
[470] “Ne . . . pro sancto vel justo reputetur, cum in excommunicatione
sit defunctus, sicut sancta tenet Ecclesia.” “Dictum de Kenilworth,” §
viii., in “Select Charters,” ed. Stubbs, 1870, p. 410.
[471]
Salve Symon Montis Fortis
tocius flos militie,
Duras penas passus mortis,
protector gentis Angliæ.
“Ora pro nobis, beate Symon, ut digni efficiamur promissionibus
Christi.” Hymn composed shortly after the death of Simon; Warton,
“History of English Poetry,” ed. Hazlitt, 1871, vol. ii. p. 48.
[472] Rymer’s “Fœdera,” edit. 1704, vol. iv. p. 20.
[473] Ibid., vol. iii. p. 1033.
[474] See Appendix XVI, p. 445.
[475] On the _advertising_ of certain pilgrimages by means,
sometimes, of the most famous of mediæval romances, see the capital
work of Joseph Bédier, “Les Légendes épiques, Recherches sur la
formation des Chansons de Geste,” Paris, 1908, 4 vols. On the
especial veneration of saints who had been road and bridge builders,
see III, p. 72, where, speaking of the immense popularity of the
pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostela in the eleventh century,
Bédier says: “Ce fut l’époque héroïque du pèlerinage. C’est alors que
la route romaine commence à se peupler d’asiles pour les voyageurs;
c’est alors qu’exercent leur activité les saints que l’Eglise vénère
parce qu’ils furent de bons ingénieurs, réparant les chaussées,
desséchant les marécages, jetant des ponts sur les rivières et les
torrents, saint Dominique de la Calzada, et ce Français, saint
Aleaume de Burgos, ancien moine de la Chaise-Dieu.”
[476] “Sane nuper ad aures nostras pervenit quod ad quandam imaginem
beatæ Virginis in ecclesia parochiali de Foston noviter collocatam
magnus simplicium est concursus, acsi in eadem plus quam in aliis
similibus imaginibus aliquid numinis appareret.” Year 1313, Wilkins’
“Concilia,” vol. ii. p. 423.
[477] See e.g. MS. 2 B. vii. in the British Museum, fol. 211, and
10 E. IV., fol. 209. The story of this miracle has been told by
numberless authors in the Middle Ages; the text of one version of the
tale, with references to the others, will be found in G. F. Warner,
“Miracles de Nostre Dame,” Roxburghe Club, 1885, pp. xxxiv and 63.
[478] “_Loci e libro veritatum_, passages selected from Gascoigne’s
Theological Dictionary” (1403–1458), edit. Thorold Rogers, Oxford,
1881, p. 206. This Fullar is known to have come to England, where he
saw Gascoigne. Eugene IV was Pope during the second quarter of the
fifteenth century.
[479] “No fewer than thirty-eight of these pilgrims’ Meccas in the
County of Norfolk alone.” Sidney Heath, “Pilgrim Life in the Middle
Ages,” London, 1911, p. 30.
[480] To Edw. Raven, Jan. 20, 1551. “Whole Works,” Giles, 1865, p.
252.
[481] “Henry III, Edward I, Edward III, David Bruce, Q. Catherine
after Flodden, Henry VII and Henry VIII visited the famous shrine.”
Walcott, “English Minsters,” 1879, II, 229.
[482] The “Image of Darvell Gathern,” greatly venerated by the Welsh,
was burnt with him. Ellis, “Original Letters,” 1st series, II, 82 ff.
[483] Ellis, _ibid._, pp. 79, 80, Sept. 1537 (?).
[484] Patent of 19 Richard II in the appendix to Mr. Karkeek’s essay,
“Chaucer’s Schipman and his Barge, ‘The Maudelayne,’” Chaucer Society
“Essays,” 1884.
[485] Becquet or Becchet, of Norman blood, both on his father’s side,
who was from Thierceville, as on his mother’s, who was from Caen.
[486]
Desuz le frunt li bullit la cervelle.
A real Turpin, but who long survived the event, was Archbishop of
Reims at the time of the Roncevaux disaster.
[487] Moved in July, 1220 to Trinity Chapel, behind the high altar.
[488] A beautifully illustrated fragment of a life of the saint,
in French verse of the thirteenth century, has been published with
facsimiles by Paul Meyer: “Fragments d’une vie de saint Thomas de
Cantorbéry,” Paris, 1885. A remarkable thirteenth-century picture of
the murder, with obvious attention to historical exactitude, is in
one of the MSS. of the Yates Thompson Collection, reproduced in the
Catalogue of the sale (March 23, 1920), lot xxxiv.
[489] Something yet remains of the bas relief representing his life
above the portal of the southern transept of the cathedral at Bayeux.
[490] “Historical Memorials of Canterbury,” chap. iv.
[491]
Felix locus, felix ecclesia,
In qua Thomæ vivit memoria,
Felix terra quæ dedit præsulem,
Felix illa quæ fovit exulem.
[492] “La vie de Saint Thomas le Martyr, par Garnier de
Pont-Sainte-Maxence, poète du XII^e siècle,” ed. C. Hippeau, Paris,
1859.
[493] Epilogue, p. 205.
[494] On which see, e.g. “The Old Road,” by H. Belloc, London, 1904;
Sidney Heath, “Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages,” London, 1911, chap.
viii. A characteristic decree of the Venetian Senate, showing the
popularity of this pilgrimage abroad, authorizes on Aug. 3, 1402,
Lorenzo Contarini, captain of the Venetian galleys setting sail
for Flanders, to visit St. Thomas’s shrine, in accomplishment of a
vow, to go thither and return in one day while the galleys would be
at Sandwich, but not to sleep away from his vessel. “Calendar of
Venetian State papers relating to English Affairs,” ed. Rawdon Brown,
Rolls series, 1864, I, 42.
[495] Garnier, ibid. pp. 210 ff.
[496] The original charter of Louis VII has disappeared, but the
confirmation by his son still exists. It reads: “Noverint igitur
universi, presentes pariter et futuri, quod intuitu beati martiris
quondam Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi, ad cujus tumulum pro salute
anime et sanitate corporis impetranda, pater noster in multa
devotione fuerat profectus, conventui monachorum Sancte Trinitatis
ibidem Deo servientium centum modios vini, ad mensuram Parisiensem,
singulis annis tempore vendemiarum, in castellaria Pissiaci
accipiendos, in elemosynam concessit . . . quod factum patris
nostri ne aliqua possit oblivione deleri et aliqua malignantium
invidia violari, manu nostre confirmationis apposita, precipimus
immutabiliter custodiri.” Given at Nantes, year 1180. Text, facsimile
and comment in “Archæologia Cantiana,” vol. IV, 1861, p. 127.
“Muids” (modii) were of a different sort, according to places; those
“of the Paris measurement” contained 270 of our litres and were
therefore quite goodly casks.
[497] Berners’ Froissart, ed. Ker, I, p. 393.
[498] On the extraordinary voyage of the “basileus and autocrator”
and his stay of four years away from his besieged capital, see
Schlumberger, “Un Empereur de Byzance à Paris et à Londres,” “Revue
des Deux Mondes,” Dec. 15, 1915.
[499] Wilkins, “Concilia Magnæ Britanniæ,” vol. iii, 1737, p. 847.
On the discovery in 1888 of bones supposed to be those of the
archbishop, see Canon A. J. Mason’s “What became of the Bones of St.
Thomas? A contribution to his fifteenth Jubilee,” London, 1920.
[500] 2 Ed. VI, “Miscellaneous Writings of Thomas Cranmer,” Parker
Society, Cambridge, 1846, p. 147.
[501] “Piers Plowman,” ed. Skeat, Text C, pass. 1, l. 51.
[502] Printed in “The Academy,” Nov. 17, 1883, p. 331.
[503] “The Examination of Master William Thorpe,” 1407, Arber’s
“Engl. Garner,” vi, 84. Cf. “Anecdotes . . . tirées . . . d’Etienne
de Bourbon, XIII^e siècle,” ed. Lecoy de la Marche, “Sextus titulus,
De Peregrinatione.”
[504] See Appendix XVII, p. 446. On Reynard, the date, composition
and sources of this work, see Léon Foulet, “Le Roman de Renard,”
Paris, 1914.
[505] “A Dialoge or communication of two persons, deuysyd and set
forthe in the laten tonge, by the noble and famose clarke, Desiderius
Erasmus, intituled ye pylgremage of pure deuotyon. Newly translatyd
into Englishe.” London (1540?), 16º.
[506] “A Dyaloge of syr Thomas More knyghte . . . wherin be treatyd
dyuers maters, as of the veneration and worshyp of ymagys and
relyques, praying to sayntys, and goyng on pylgrymage, wyth many
othere thyngys touchyng the pestylent sect of Luther and Tyndale.”
London, 1529, 4º.
[507] “The sermon . . . made . . . to the conuocation of the clergy”
(28 Henry VIII), in “Frutefvll sermons preached by the right reverend
father and constant martyr of Jesus Christ, M. Hugh Latymer.” London,
1571, p. 10.
[508] Ordinance for the state of the wardrobe and the account of
the household, June, 1323. “King Edward II’s Household and Wardrobe
Ordinances,” ed. Furnivall, Chaucer Society, 1876, p. 62.
[509] In the continuation of Chaucer’s tales, the Knight is
represented interpreting to his son the strong and weak points in the
continuous wall at Canterbury, and discussing whether it was proof
against gunshot:
“And a-poyntid to his sone the perell and the dout,
Ffor shot of arbalast and of bowe, and eke for shot of gonne.”
“The Tale of Beryn,” ed. Furnivall and Stone, E.E.T.S., 1909, p. 9.
[510] C. Roach Smith has described a number of them in his
“Collectanea Antiqua,” London, 1848, vol. i. p. 81, and vol. ii. p.
43. He has given drawings of many which had been “discovered chiefly
in the bed of the Thames, and in making the approaches to new London
Bridge.” See also “Guide to mediæval room, British Museum,” 1907, p.
69; Heath, “Pilgrim Life,” 1911, ch. VI. A specimen is given below,
p. 418.
[511] “Tale of Beryn,” _ibid._ p. 7.
[512] Among the ornaments worn by Chaucer’s pardoner was a “vernicle”
on his cap, as may be seen above in the plate, p. 336. Sir Thomas
More, in his “Dialogue,” describes as follows the vernicle
represented on pilgrims’ medals: How, says he, can it be maintained
that Christ blames images, “where he lykyd to leve the holy vernacle,
thexpresse ymage also of hys blessid vysage, as a token to remain in
honour among such as lovyd hym from ye tyme of hys bytter passyon
hytherto, whych as it was by the myracle of hys blessid holy hand
expressed and lefte in ye sudari: so hath yt bene by lyke myracle in
that thyn corruptyble cloth kepte and preservyd uncorrupted thys xv.
C. yere freshe and well perceyved, to ye inwarde cumforte, spyrytuall
reioysyng and grete encreace of fervoure and devocyon in the harts of
good crysten people” (Sig. B. iii.).
[513] Most of them mentioned by Garnier in his “Vie de Saint Thomas,”
where, after stating that men of all sorts flocked to Canterbury, he
adds (ed. Hippeau, p. 205):
“Et anpules raportent en signe del veiage,
Mès de Jerusalem en est la croix portée,
Et de Rochemadur Marie en plum getée,
De Saint Jame la scale, qui en plun est muée;
Or à Deus saint Thomas cele ampule donée,
Qui est par tut le mund chérie et honorée.”
[514] “Guide du pélerin à Rocamadour,” by M. le Chanoine Laporte,
Rocamadour, 1862, chap. viii.
[515] “Les louenges du roy Louys xij^e. de ce nom, nouvellement
composées par maistre Claude de Seyssel, docteur en tous droits.”
Paris, 1508, sign. f. iii.
[516] Skeat’s edition, Text C, pass. i. l. 47.
[517] See the drawing of this ring in vol. viii. of the
“Archæological Journal,” p. 360. The long stick, or pilgrim’s staff,
and the bag or “scrip” were the characteristic signs of pilgrims. In
the romance of King Horn, the hero meets on his road a _palmer_, and
to disguise himself changes clothes with him; in this transformation
the author only points out the chief particulars, that is to say,
the staff and the bag. “Horn took burdon and scrippe.” (“King Horn,
with fragments of Floris and Blauncheflur,” ed. by J. H. Lumby, Early
English Text Society, 1866.) We have seen above, p. 362, that Reynard
on his way to Rome took just the same implements.
[518] Statute 12 Rich. II, cap 7.
[519] Statute 5 Rich. II, st. 1, c. 2. Restrictions on pilgrimage-making
existed also in France. See an ordinance of Charles VI, February 27,
1399, prohibiting pilgrimages to Rome. “Recueil d’Isambert,” vol. vi. p.
843.
[520] “Rolls of Parliament,” 13 Rich. II, vol. iii. p. 275, and
statute 1, cap. 20 of 13 Rich. II.
[521] As to the number of pilgrimages, their origin, and history, see
the “Dictionnaire géographique, historique, descriptif, archéologique
des pélerinages anciens et modernes,” by L. de Sivry and M. de
Champagnac, Paris, 1850, 2 vols. 8vo, forming vols. xliii. and xliv.
of Migne’s “Encyclopédie théologique.”
[522] Ripert-Monclar, “Bullaire du Pont d’Avignon,” 1912.
[523] Statute 4 Ed. III, c. 8.
[524] Petition of the Calais burgesses, “Rolls of Parliament,” vol.
iii. p. 500, 4 Henry IV, A.D. 1402. In Dover too, on the opposite
shore, there was such a house, the inventory of which has been
printed: Walcott, “Inventories of St. Mary’s Hospital or Maison-Dieu,
Dover,” London, 1869. In the diary of his travels, during the
sixteenth century, the Greek Nicander Nucius observes that the town
of Dover seemed to be made almost entirely of inns and hotels. “The
Travels of Nicander Nucius of Corcyra,” Camden Society, 1841.
[525] See Prof. J. W. Hales’ letter to _The Academy_ of April 22,
1882, p. 287. A view of the old church, of which very little now
remains, could be seen, Mr. Enlart writes me, in a picture by Van der
Meulen, but it was destroyed by the Germans in one of their air raids
during the late Great War, when they shelled the Museum.
[526] This relic so greatly attracted the English that they had
founded in the cathedral a chapel of “Notre Dame Englesque” (Sancta
Maria Anglica), and the leopards of England, writes Prof. Enlart, are
still to be seen in the stained glass.
[527] Halliwell’s edition, 1866, p. 108.
[528] See the remarkable articles by Emile Male, on “L’Art du Moyen
Age et les Pélerinages,” in the “Revue de Paris,” 1920; in the number
of Feb. 15, an article on “Les Routes de France et d’Espagne.”
[529] Text B, p. xii. l. 37.
[530] A. B. Caillau, “Histoire critique et religieuse de Notre Dame
de Roc-Amadour,” Paris, 1834, pp. 73 ff.
[531] Berners’ Froissart, vol. i. ch. cclviii.
[532] William Wey, in the fifteenth century, notices the large number
of English ships at “Grwne” (Coruña), the usual port of landing for
Compostela: “In porto Grwne erant de Anglicis, Wallicis, Hibernicis,
Normannis, Francis, Britonnibus et aliis LXXX^{ta} naves cum
topcastellis et quatuor sine topcastellis; numerus navium Anglicarum
erat XXX^{ij}.” He notes the words and music of a song sung by little
Spanish boys, dancing before pilgrims and offering good wishes, in
exchange for which they hoped to get some small coin. “Itineraries,”
Roxburghe Club, 1857, pp. 154, 156.
[533] “Fœdera,” ed. 1704, vol. vii. p. 468, 17 Rich. II.
[534] “Fœdera,” 12 Hen. VI, 1434, vol. x. pp. 567–569.
[535] “The Stacions of Rome and the Pilgrim’s Sea Voyage,” ed.
Furnivall, Early English Text Society, 1867, p. 47. This complaint
on the Compostela pilgrimage is of the fifteenth century. On the
Compostela sanctuary and on the propagation of certain artistic
notions through the influx of pilgrims, see the before quoted article
by E. Male, “Revue de Paris,” Feb. 1920.
[536] “The Paston Letters,” ed. Jas. Gairdner, vol. i. p. 48. Letter
of Margaret Paston of September 28, 1443.
[537] Especially noteworthy in this respect at the present day is the
Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, near Mantua (in which the famous
author of the “Cortegiano,” Baldassare Castiglione, is buried),
where life-size, realistic wax figures, wearing real garments or
armour, form a continuous series above the arches on both sides of
the nave. Each scene commemorates a miraculous intervention of the
Virgin: innocents saved at the moment of their execution, the halter
breaking, the axe stopped, etc. The “custode” also directs attention
to a stuffed animal, dangling from the roof, and which he describes
as a “crocodilo” which used to desolate the country.
[538] “The Book of the Knight of La Tour Landry,” translated from the
French, ed. Thomas Wright, Early English Text Society, 1868, p. 70.
The original French is of the fourteenth century.
[539] “Miracles de Nostre Dame,” collected by Jean Miélot, ed. G. F.
Warner, Roxburghe Club, 1885, p. 58. This version of the tale is of
the fifteenth century, but the story itself is much older.
[540] i.e. St. Catherine of Mount Sinai.
[541] William Wey, in the fifteenth century, thus mentions the
catacombs: “Item ibi est una spelunca nuncupata Sancti Kalixti
cimiterium, et qui eam pertransit cum devocione, illi indulgentur
omnia sua peccata. Et ibi multa corpora sanctorum sunt, que nullus
hominum numerare nequit nisi solus Deus,” “The Itineraries of William
Wey,” Roxburghe Club, 1857, p. 146. Wey, like the author of the poem,
sometimes mentions prodigious numbers of bodies of martyrs; at the
church called Scala Celi, “sunt ossa sanctorum decem millia militum;”
in one single part of St. Peter’s at Rome, are “Petronella et xiii
millia sanctorum martyrum.”
[542] William Wey said of the church of the Holy Cross: “Item, ibi
sunt duo ciphi, unus plenus sanguine Ihesu Cristi, and alter plenus
lacte beate Marie Virginis,” “Itineraries,” p. 146. Those who drink
at the three fountains which gushed out at the death of St. Paul are
cured of all maladies; those who visit the church of St. Mary of the
Annunciation will never be struck by lightning; at the church of St.
Vivian there is “herba crescens quam ipsa plantavit et valet contra
caducum morbum.” At the church of St. Sebastian is shown a foot-print
of Jesus; and it is, in fact, still to be seen there at the present
day. Ibid. pp. 143–148.
[543] In the Borghese chapel.
[544] “The Stacions of Rome,” fourteenth century, ed. F. J.
Furnivall, Early English Text Society, 1867. Another version of the
“Stacions,” with variants, was printed by the same in “Political,
Religious, and Love Poems,” Early English Text Society, 1866, p. 113.
See in this last volume notes by W. M. Rossetti on the “Stacions,”
pp. xxi–xlviii, paralleling the information furnished by the English
author with that given by the Italian Francino, who wrote on the same
subject in 1600, and whose numbers are much less exaggerated. Mr.
Rossetti states also what is still shown at Rome of the relics named
in the “Stacions.”
The Saint Luke legend appears in a somewhat different form in William
Wey, according to whom the saint was about to paint when he fell
asleep, and the angels made the picture for him, “Itineraries,” p.
143. A similar legend is attached to the great wooden crucifix of
Byzantine workmanship, called in the middle ages the “Saint Vou”
(the Holy Face, _vultus_), at Lucca, begun by Nicodemus after the
Ascension, and miraculously finished during his sleep. Bédier,
“Légendes épiques,” 1908, II. 210.
[545] “Ye Solace of Pilgrimes, a description of Rome _circa_ A.D.
1450, by John Capgrave,” ed. Mills and Bannister, Oxford, 1911, 4º.
[546] As well as that of the author of the poem. This immensely
popular work of unknown date was in existence anyhow in the XIIth
century. See “Mirabilia Urbis Romæ, the Marvels of Rome,” with notes
by F. M. Nichols, London, 1889.
[547] “Le Saint Voyage de Jhérusalem du Seigneur d’Anglure,” ed.
Bonnardot and Longnon, “Société des Anciens Textes Français,” 1878,
pp. 3, 4.
[548] On the normal cost of such journeys (from Rouen to St. James
of Compostela, in 1377, 343 fr. of our present money), see d’Avenel,
“Histoire économique,” vi. 621.
[549] Toulmin Smith, “English Gilds,” pp. 157, 177, 180, 182, 231.
[550] Devon’s “Issues of the Exchequer,” 1837, p. 159.
[551] Mandate from the Archbishop of York, Feb. 1, 1351–2, in Raine,
“Historical Papers from the Northern Registers,” p. 402.
[552] “Chronica monasterii de Melsa,” ed. E. A. Bond, 1868, vol. iii.
p. 88, Rolls Series. The Abbot declares that Clement VI replied to
the reproaches of his confessor as to his bad life: “Quod facimus
modo facimus consilio medicorum.” About his theory of the “treasury,”
see _supra_, p. 314. The Pontiff, Pierre Rogier, a Frenchman, of
great learning and extraordinary memory, of knightly manners, fond
of festivities and amusements, had been an opponent of Edward III in
the matter of benefices, which may have still increased the Abbot’s
animosity. His decision as to the angels was inserted in his bull
on jubilees, which were to recur every fifty years instead of every
century; it concerns pilgrims coming to the jubilee.
[553] “In which year (1350) there came into England certain
penitents, noblemen and foreigners, who beat their bare bodies very
sharply, to the effusion of blood, now weeping, now singing; yet, as
was said, they did this too unadvisedly, being without licence from
the apostolic see.” Walsingham, “Historia Anglicana,” Rolls Series,
vol. 1. p. 275. See also Robert de Avesbury, “Hist. Edwardi Tertii,”
ed. Hearne, Oxford, 1720, p. 179. The flagellants whipped themselves
with knotted cords furnished with nails, they prostrated themselves
to the ground singing, with their arms extended cross-wise.
[554] The flagellants were condemned by Clement VI in 1349; he
ordered the archbishops, bishops, &c., to have them imprisoned.
Labbe, “Sacrosancta Concilia,” Florence ed., vol. xxv. col. 1153.
[555] Letter of the Archbishop of York to his official, “Historical
Papers from the Northern Registers,” ed. Raine, pp. 397–399. The
guilty were not worthless vagabonds; one has the title of _magister_,
another is professor of civil law.
[556] “Nam quidam illorum credebant, ut asseritur, nullum Deum esse,
nihil esse sacramentum altaris, nullam post mortem resurrectionem,
sed ut jumentum moritur, ita et hominem finire.” “Historia
Anglicana,” vol. ii. p. 12. Langland also complains of the scepticism
of the nobles, who question the mysteries, and make these grave
matters the subject of light conversation after meals. “Piers
Plowman,” Text C, pass. xii. l. 35.
[557] “Les louenges du roy Louys xij.,” by Claude de Seyssel, Paris,
1508.
[558] “A Collection of the Wills of the Kings and Queens of England,”
&c., printed by J. Nichols, London, 1780. Will of Humphrey Bohun,
Earl of Hereford and Essex, who died 1361, p. 54.
[559] She died November 4, 1360. Nichols, ibid. p. 29.
[560] From Bethleem, last quarter of the fourth century. Migne,
“Patrologiæ Latinæ tomus XXII,” col. 582.
[561] “Epistola XLVI Paulæ et Eustochii (one of her daughters)
ad Marcellam, De Sanctis Locis.” Migne, ibid., col. 483 ff. From
Bethleem, same period.
[562] From Bethleem, same period. Migne, ibid. To Paulinus col. 580
ff.; to Desiderius, col. 493 ff.
[563] He and numerous companions had received the Cross at the hands
of the Patriarch of Jerusalem in 1316, and the plan seemed for a
time so near realization that nobles and villeins sold their lands
and houses, to take part in the crusade. A plan thereof and a draft
of the contract with the Marseilles shipowners has been published
with excellent notes, by A. de Boislisle, “Annuaire-Bulletin de la
Société de l’histoire de France,” 1872, pp. 230 and 246. The latest
date suitable for the start is stated to be the middle of April. Full
details are given as to the supplies of every sort, to be provided
for the galleys, food and the rest: “panis biscoctus,” i.e. biscuit.
[564] Robert of Avesbury, “Historia Edwardi Tertii,” ed. Hearne,
Oxford, 1720, pp. 63, 115.
[565] The single and last attempt on a grand scale was the
ill-starred campaign against Sultan Bajazet which ended in the
disaster and massacre of Nicopolis, September, 1396; on which and on
all those latter-day attempts, see Delaville le Roulx, “La France en
Orient au XIV^e Siècle,” Paris, 1886, 2 vols.
[566] Built on Cape Africa, hence her name in the chronicles of the
time.
[567] Berners’ Froissart (Ker, v. 361), where, however, the following
passage does not appear: “Et autres ménestrels faire leur mestier de
pipes et de chalemelles et de naquaires, tant que du son et de la
voix qui en yssoient la mer en retentissoit toute.”
[568] Berners’ Froissart, ed. Ker, 1902, vol. v, chap. 165, 167,
170. Cf. Delaville le Roulx, “La France en Orient au XIV^e Siècle,”
Paris, 1886, chap. iv. At p. 14, vol. ii, a list of all the chief
participants in this crusade.
[569] Langland speaks of the Saracens without cursing them; they
might be saved, but for Mahomet who deceived them in anger at not
being made pope; Christians ought to convert them; the pope makes
indeed bishops of Nazareth, Nineveh, etc., but they take care never
to visit their indocile flocks; let us not forget that “Jews,
Gentiles and Saracens” are sincere in their beliefs. “Piers Plowman,”
Text C, pass. xviii. ll. 123 ff.
[570] In his book is written (in French): “And know you that I would
have put this little book into Latin for brevity, but because many
understand Romance better than Latin, I have put it into Romance,
that it be understood, and that the lords and knights and other
noblemen who do not know Latin, or but little, and who have been
beyond seas, may know and understand whether I speak truth or not.”
Sloane MS. 1464, fol. 3, at the British Museum, a French MS. of the
beginning of the fifteenth century.
[571] In his translation of Ralph Higden’s “Polychronicon,” ed. C.
Babington, vol. ii. p. 161, Rolls Series.
[572] “La Manière de Langage,” ed. Paul Meyer, “Revue Critique,” vol.
x., 1870, pp. 373, 382; dedication dated May 29, 1396.
[573] “Confessio Amantis,” “Complete Works,” ed. G. C. Macaulay,
Oxford, 1899, ff. four vols., vol. iii. p. 253.
[574] According to him, the English, who, as history shows, have
certainly improved, are wanting in perseverance, “Et hinc secundum
astronomos lunam habent planetam propriam, quæ in motu et lumine est
magis instabilis.” “Fasciculi Zizaniorum,” ed. Shirley, p. 270, Rolls
Series. Caxton later also considers the moon as _par excellence_
the planet of the English: “For we englysshe men ben born under
the domynacyon of the mone, whiche is never stedfaste but ever
waverynge.” Prologue to his “Boke of Eneydos compyled by Vyrgyle,”
1490.
[575] “Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden,” edited by C. Babington, 1869,
vol. ii. pp. 166, 168, Rolls Series.
[576] He appears in John of Gaunt’s accounts: “Item à Esmon de Wyght
esquier à monsire Johan de Haukewode, de nostre doun, lxvj s. viij.”
“John of Gaunt’s Register,” ed. Armitage Smith, 1911, vol. ii. p.
299; no date, but of 1372, or shortly after.
[577] Rawdon Brown, “Calendar of State Papers relating to English
Affairs . . . at Venice,” London, 1864, vol. i. pp. 24, 29; original
in Latin.
[578] Rymer’s “Fœdera,” vol. v. p. 777; in Latin. As to Boucicaut
and his more famous son, both marshals of France, see Delaville le
Roulx, “La France en Orient, au XIV^e Siècle,” Paris, 1886, vol. i.
pp. 160 ff. Such letters being delivered pretty frequently, were
drawn up after a common form like our passports. See the one given
by Rymer in vol. vii. p. 337, A.D. 1381. In November, 1392, the Earl
of Derby, future Henry IV, was at Venice, and set out thence to go
to the Holy Land. He had letters for the Republic from Albert IV,
Duke of Austria, and the Great Council lent him a galley for his
voyage. Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, also set out from Venice for
Palestine, in February, 1398–9. He was the bearer of a letter from
Richard II to the Venetian Senate. “Calendar of State Papers . . . at
Venice,” ed. Rawdon Brown, p. lxxxi.
[579] “Historical Papers from the Northern Registers,” ed. Raine,
Rolls Series, p. 425.
[580] “En celle malle fortune perdy nostre nafve l’un de ses tymons
dont elle estoit gouvernée en partie, et fut renversée nostre voille
par plusieurs fois en la marine, malgré tous les mariniers.” The
darkness was complete, and they thought their end had come; but they
were saved, reaching Cyprus where they had not intended to go. “Le
Saint Voyage de Jérusalem du Seigneur d’Anglure,” ed. Bonnardot and
Longnon, “Société des Anciens Textes Français,” Paris, 1878.
[581] “Chronique de Monstrelet,” bk. i. chap. viii.
[582] The voyages called “Mandeville’s Voiage and Travaile” were
assuredly written in the fourteenth century in French, then were
translated e.g. into Latin and English. Only the portion relating
to Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, _may_ have been founded on a real
journey. The article “Mandeville,” by Mr. E. B. Nicholson and Colonel
Yule in “The Encyclopædia Britannica”; a paper, “Untersuchungen über
Johann von Mandeville und die Quelle seiner Reiseschreibung,” Berlin,
1888 (printed in “Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde,” bd.
xxiii. p. 177), and Mr. G. F. Warner’s “The Buke of John Maundevil,”
being the travels of Sir John Mandeville, Kt. 1322–56, Roxb. Club,
1889, fol., with the French and English texts; the notice by the same
on Mandeville in the “Dictionary of National Biography,” notices
by H. Cordier in his “Bibliotheca Sinica” and in “Revue Critique,”
Oct. 26, 1891, represent the actual state of the question. English
text in modern spelling, ed. Pollard, London, 1900. Earliest dated
MS., a French one in the National Library, Paris, A.D. 1371; the
identification of Mandeville with Jean de Bourgogne, _alias_ “à la
Barbe,” or “ad Barbam,” a physician of Liège, who died there in 1372,
seems certain.
[583] “A Survey of Egypt and Syria undertaken in the year 1422, by
Sir Gilbert de Lannoy, Kt., translated from a MS. in the Bodleian
Library,” “Archæologia,” vol. xxi. pp. 281, 319, giving also the
French original. Born in 1386, employed by the Duke of Burgundy, then
by the King of England, Lannoy died in 1462.
[584] Sloane MS. 1464, fo. 3, British Museum.
[585] And a very large quantity, beginning as early as the fourth
century (to which century belongs the “Itinerarium Burdigala
Hierosolymam”), had preceded those. See, among others, “Itinera
Hierosolymitana et Descriptiones Terræ Sancta,” ed. Tobler and
Molinier, 1879, ff.; “Itinéraires à Jérusalem, rédigés en français
aux XI^e, XII^e et XIII^e Siècles,” ed. Michelant and Raynaud, 1882,
both works forming part of the publications of the “Société de
l’Orient Latin.” One of the best among the older guide-books was due
to the French monk Bernard in the year 870. The monk, who went by way
of Egypt, is brief, accurate, matter of fact, as little emotional
as possible, discards all wonders, and is often careful to add:
“asseritur,” “dicitur.”
[586] “Le Saint Voyage de Jérusalem du Seigneur d’Anglure,” ed.
Bonnardot and Longnon, 1878, p. 99.
[587] “The Itineraries of William Wey, Fellow of Eton College, to
Jerusalem, A.D. 1458 and A.D. 1462, and to Saint James of Compostela,
A.D. 1456.” London, 1857, Roxburghe Club, pp. 5, 6. In his first
journey to Palestine, duly “consecratus ad modum peregrinorum,” Wey
started from Venice with a band of 197 pilgrims embarked on two
galleys. Born about 1407, a graduate of Oxford, Wey became after the
last of his journeys an Augustinian monk at Edington, Wiltshire,
and died there in 1476. He wrote his Itineraries “rogatus a devotis
viris” (p. 56); the text in Latin, the “prevysyoun” for travellers in
English.
[588] Pages 102–116. Such a map is exhibited in one of the glass
cases of the Bodleian Library at Oxford. It is probable, but
not quite sure, that this is really the map of William Wey, the
one he calls “mappa mea” in his book. It has been reproduced in
_fac-simile_: “Map of the Holy Land, illustrating the Itineraries
of W. Wey, Roxburghe Club, 1867.” It is seven feet in length and
sixteen and a half inches in breadth. See also: “De passagiis in
Terram Sanctam,” edit. G. M. Thomas, Venice, 1879, folio, “Société
de l’Orient Latin.” This work contains extracts from a “Chronologia
magna,” compiled in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, with
maps and plans, one especially of Jerusalem and adjoining places.
[589] P. 95.
[590] “A good preuysyoun,” “Itineraries,” p. 4.
[591] “A good preuysyoun,” “Itineraries,” pp. 5, 6.
[592] Ibid. The same scramble for asses is going on even now in
Palestine and Egypt, and modern “Saracens” are careful to ingratiate
themselves with the traveller by addressing to him a few words in the
language of his supposed nationality; one such at the foot of the
Pyramids some years ago, would keep repeating to us, as a sesame for
our purses, these three magic words: “Bonaparte, quarante siècles.”
We had not, however, to deplore the disappearance of any “knyves and
other smal thynges.”
[593] William Wey and his companions pay to the “Saracen lords”
fifteen ducats: “Et sic in Terra Sancta fuimus xiij diebus, pro
quibus solvimus pro conductu nostro dominis Saracenis xv ducatus.”
But there were two rival sultans at war with each other, each
claiming the Holy Land; and just as the pilgrims were about to
leave, the one of those potentates whom they had not paid got the
upper hand, and they had to give fifty ducats to his new governor of
Jerusalem. “Itineraries,” p. 99. The second Boucicaut going around
the holy places for the second time within a few months in 1389, is
made by the Saracens to pay again. Delaville le Roulx, “La France en
Orient,” i. 165.
[594] Ogier VIII, lord of Anglure, part of whose castle on the Aube
river still remains, died about 1402. One of his companions held
the pen for the troop during the journey and wrote the account of
it entitled, in the MS. at the National Library, Paris: “Cy après
s’ensuit le contenu du saint voyage de Jherusalem et le chemin pour
aller à Saincte Catherine du Mont Synay et ainsi à Saint Anthoine et
Saint Pol ès loingtains desers de Egipte,” 1395; best ed. the above
quoted one by Bonnardot and Longnon.
[595] “Voiage and Travaile of Sir John Maundeville,” ed. Halliwell,
1866, p. 52.
APPENDIX
[596] The famous Hubert Walter (or Walter Hubert) who had accompanied
King Richard to Palestine and crowned King John; archbishop from
1193 to 1205; for a number of years, as much the ruler of England as
those kings themselves. His tomb in Canterbury Cathedral has been
identified in our days.
[597] _Creteyne_, increase, rising flood; in French, _crue_
[598] A “movable” part, just for the passage of masts.
{449}
INDEX
Aaron’s rod, 386
Aberystwith, 77
Abingdon fair, 250
Abinger, 273
_Abjuratio Regni_, 168, ff.
Acre, 408
Adam and Eve, 287, 289
_Adscriptio Glebæ_, 261
Adventure seekers, 181, 200, 406, 419
Agincourt, 244
Alchemists, 335
Aldenby, Agnes of, 155
Aleaume, St., of Burgos, 344
Ale, of various sorts, 251
Alehouses, 17, 133 ff., 136 ff.
Alexander, romance of, 195, 199
Aliand, W., 434
Alreton, 126
Amadas, romance of, 196
“Amants Magnifiques,” Molière’s les, 336
Amiens, 118, relics at, 365, 371
Amundeville, John d’, 166
Ampilforde, Th., a mason, 54 ff.
Anchorites, 142
“Ancient Mariner,” 148
Andover, 250
Angerville, Richard d’, or de Bury, 324, 440
Anglure, Ogier VIII, lord of, his journey to Palestine, 389, 405,
409, 413 ff., to Egypt, 415
Anglure-sur-Aube, 415, 417, 418
Animals, performing, 217
Anne of Bohemia, Queen, 229
Anson, major, 233
Anthony, St., 415
Appleton, friar W. de, a physician, 187
Apprentices, in sanctuary, 170 ff.
Apulia, 184
Archers, the King’s, 104
Ardennes, forest of, 184
Arewe, J. S., a crossbowman, 65
Aristotle, 10
Armenians, 395
Arthur, King, 195, 197, 224
Articles of the Eyre, 120
Articles of the View, 112
_Articuli Cleri_, 120, 168
Arundel, Archbishop Thos., 20, 134, 321, on pilgrimages, 359 ff.;
439
Arundel, Earl of, 150, 205
Ascham, Roger, 347
Asses, the usual mount in Palestine, 413
Assisi, 293
Aswardeby, 429
Athelstan, King, 165, 328
Atkinson, J. C., 14, 77
Aufrike, i.e. Mahdia, 398 ff.
Aumbresbury, 197
Auray, battle of, 339
Austria, Albert IV, Duke of, 405
Autolycus, 193, 235, 252 ff.
Avenel, Viscount d’, on travelling in France, 86, 126, 202, 229,
389
Avesbury, Rob. d’, 392, 398
Avignon, 32, 33, 36, 371
Avon, bridges on the, 53 ff., 79
Avranches, 352
Aylesbury, 81
Ayremynne, Rich. de, 118
Bacon, Francis, 173, on friars, 311
Bacon, Roger, 295
Bailiff, 111, 151, 431
Bajazet, 398
Baker, John le, M.P., 264
Baker, Oliver, 14
Ball, John, 19, 20, 212, 215, 285, his views, 286 ff., Froissart
and 289; 290, 293
Ball, W. W. R., 129
Barbers, company of, 189
Barclay, Alexander, 123
{450}
Bardi, the, 232
Barking, Abbess of, 40
Barncastle, 54
Bartholomew fair, 250, 251
Barton, 426, 433
Bateman, S., 122
Bath, 30
Battle Abbey, 121
Bears and bearwards, 18, 206, 216, 222, 236
Beauty powder, 192
Becket, Thos., 349 ff.; _see_ Thomas, St.
Bedford Bridge, 60
Bédier, Joseph, 202, on pilgrimages, 344; 387
Beds, 125 ff.
Beer, 133, 251
Beggars, blind, 18, 182; 19, 20, 181, students as, 236, 276; 252,
labourers as, 269 ff., to cease wandering, 275, friars as, 294,
302
Beirut, 408, 409
Belleforest, F. de, 49
Belloc, Hilaire, 352
Bernard, a Fr. monk, 409
Berri, Duke de, 231
Berwick, 65 ff.
Bethleem, 386, 395, 396, 416
Beverley, sanctuary at, 159, 163 ff., its minstrels, 206, 211;
347, 426
Billingham, 36
Billings, R. W., 159
Birch, de Gray, 60
Birmingham, 39
Bishops, travelling, 115
Blackburn, 39
Blackheath, 212
Blignières, A. de, 17
Blois, Charles de, 232, 339
Blythebury, 151
Boccaccio, his fralipolla, 322, 327 ff.
Bodenho, John de, 60
Bohemia, 252
Bohun, Humphrey, Earl of Hereford, 340, 394
Boislisle, A. de, 397
“Boke of Nurture,” the, 17
Bonaparte, 408, 413
Boniface, Pope, 386
Boniface IX, on pardoners, 316 ff., 324, 443
Bonnardot, 389
Books, sold at fairs, 252
Boston, 370
Boswell, James, 252
Botiller, Ralph le, 155
Boucicaut, Jean le Meingre, Marshall de, 404 ff., 407
Boucicaut, the younger, 414
Boulogne, 371
Bourbon, Louis, 1st Duke of, 397; Louis, 3rd Duke, his crusade,
398 ff.
Bourbon, Etienne de, 359
Bourgogne, Jean de, alias Mandeville, 406 ff.
Bourne, Sir Roger, 301
Bouvines, 354
Bow Bridge, 40 ff., 43
Brabant, 229
Bracton, Henry de, 257, 258, 262
Bradamante, 256
Bradeley Bridge, 429
Bradshaw, 99
Brant Broughton, 138
Brantingham, Thos. de, 142, 202, 204, 229
Braunton, Philip de, 441
_Bravi_, 152, 175
Bray, Master John, a physician, 187
Brest, 230
Breul, Karl, 200
Bridges, at Crowland, 13, 21, London, 13, 14 (_see_ London
Bridge), Avignon, 13, 32, 33, 36, Cahors, 13, 37, 69,
Stratford-at-Bow, 13, 14, 41, Wakefield, 14, 67, with defensive
towers, 14, 71 ff., 75; at Monmouth, 14, 75, on the Esk, 14,
30 ff., Pont St. Esprit, 32, Roman, 32, 69, Orthez, Limoges,
Lancaster, 35 ff., Botyton, 36; pious character of, 36 ff., how
repaired, 36 ff., 42 ff., 57 ff.; Bow, 40 ff.; bad state of, 41
ff., chapels on, 43 ff., Fleet, Holborn, Saintes, La Rochelle,
43, 44; houses on, 47 ff., 74 ff., at Paris, Poissy, Florence,
49 ff., wooden, 53, Hugh of Clopton’s, 53, Catterick, 54, built
by Englishmen, 54, at Yarm, 58, Huntingdon, 59, tolls and gifts
for the maintenance of, 58 ff., at Rochester, 60, 62, Bedford,
60, dangerous, 60 ff., 65, Moneford, 60, Heybethebridge, 61,
and the Justices in Eyre, 63, at Shoreham, 64, Berwick, 65 ff.,
revenues of, 66; at Chester, 66, remodelled, 69, at Rotherham,
St. Ives, 70, Bath, 74, Norwich Castle, 77, near Danby Castle,
77, at Durham, Hereford, Bedford, Llangollen, Dumfries,
Huntingdon, {451} Potter Heigham, Tewkesbury, 78; the Great
Charter and, 83; hermits and the, 143, consisting in a plank,
429, at Chesford, Bradeley, Exhorne, etc., 429; too low, 426;
who should repair, 429 ff.
Bristol, 206, 244, staple, 247, fair, 251; 370
Broker, Nicholas, a coppersmith, 14
Brompton, Wm. and Margery, 206
Brotherton, 39
Browning, Robert, 291
Bruce, David, 347
Brudtholl, 57
Bruges, 238, 243
Bruges, Thos. de, a champion, 117
Brutus, the Trojan, 196
Brynchesley, Thos. of, a messenger, 232
Bucker, J. C. and C. A., 70
Budet, Durand, 232
Buffoons, 217 ff.
Bull, Wm., a priest, 70
Bullion, export of, forbidden, 239 ff., 241 ff., 265, 376
Bulls, papal, 20, 319 ff., 439, against pardoners, 443 ff.
Burgundy, Duke of, 408
Burton, Thos., 343, 391 ff., 445
Bury, Isabel of, a murderess, 171
Bury, Richard de, on pardoners, 324, 440
Butler, Samuel, 273
Cade, Jack, 167, 438
Caen, 351
Cæsar, 254, 297
Cahors, 13, 35, 37, 69
Cairo, 408, 415
Calabria, 184
Calais, 230, staple, 248; 371
Caldecote, Wm., 281
Calder, bridge on the, 70
Cambridge, 129, 236, 251
Cambynskan, 203 ff.
Cana, 389
Cannock Wood, 150
Canterbury, 20, 34, 60, 133, 134, has minstrels, 206, staple,
247, 248; 263, 279, 312, 319, 321, 322, 347, chief English
pilgrimage, 348 ff.; fortified, 364; 425
“Canterbury Tales,” 15, 16, 20, 103, 115, 214, 227, 292, 315,
supplement to the, 364
Cantilupo, Walter de, 166
Canynge, Wm., 244, 245
Capgrave, John, a pilgrim to Rome, 387 ff.
Carpenter, John le, M.P., 264
Carretto, Ilaria del, 315
Carriages, 15, 84, for the wealthy, 95 ff., etruscan, 95, for the
queen, 99
Carriers, common, 149
Carrol, Sir Rob., 375
Carts, 15, 84, London tax on, 85, common, 90, hired, 91, reaper’s,
90
Castiglione, Baldassare, 380
Castles, their halls, 122, hospitality, in, 122, become mansions,
150
Catacombs, 385
Catherine, chapel of Saint, 43; Queen, 347
Cats, 237
Catterick Bridge, 54, 79
Caumz, John, a minstrel, 204
Causeways, 39, 64, 80, 138
Caversham, Our Lady of, 348
Caxton, 402
Cenis, Mount, 396
Chaise-Dieu, 344
Chamberlain, the royal, 117 ff.
Chambernoun, Oto, 375
Chambers, E. K., 205, 206, 211, 213, 217, 218
“Champertors,” 153
Champions, for duels, 117
Chandos, Sir John, 375
Chantries, 39, 40
Chapels on bridges, 43 ff., 57, at Wakefield, 67 ff., at
Rotherham, Bradford-on-Avon, St. Ives, 70
Chapmen, 181, 236, 246
Charcoal, 279
Charer, John le, a carriage-maker, 99
Charlatans, 182 ff.
Charlemagne, 195, 196, 216, 296
Charles St. Borromeo, 362
Charles V, Emperor, a pilgrim to Canterbury, 355
Charles V, King of France, 329
Charles VI, King of France, 85
Charlton, John of, 298
Chartres, 350, relics at, 372
Chatterton, Thos., 244
Chaucer, 9, 15, 16, 18, 20, 25, 40, 41, 100, 103, 105, 125, 133,
187, 195 ff., 201, 203, on nobility, 213; 217, fond of news,
223; 246, M.P., 264; 283, on friars, 291 ff., 301, 303, 307,
310, his pardoner, 315 ff., 322, 327, 330, 333, 336; 339, 348,
357, 358, 359, 365, decries pilgrims, 368; 371
{452}
Chaundeler, Rob., M.P., 264
“Cheker of the Hope,” 134
Cherbourg, 230, 232
Chesford Bridge, 429
Chester, bridge at, 66; 69, 73, 78, its minstrels, 206; 408
“Chevalier au Barisel,” le, 138
Chicheley, Archbishop H., 334
Chichester, staple at, 247; 346
Child, F. J., 437
Childebert, 177
Chimneys, in greater use, 124
China, 408
Cicero, 323
Cirencester, 428
Citeaux, 125, 344
_Clamor Patriæ_, 177
Clare, Elizabeth de Burgh, Lady, her carriage, 96; her crusade by
proxy, 394
Claypole, bridge at, 429
Clement VI, 36, on indulgences, 314, 391 ff., 438
Clerc, Reginald, 318
Clergy, non-residence of, 121, foreign, 121
Clerk, Roger, a quack, 188
Clerk, William, a messenger, 391
Clerkenwell, 119
Clerks, diffusion of ideas through, 283 ff.
Clermont-Ferrand, 219
Cliff, John, 436
Clopton, Hugh of, 14, 53 ff.
Clyf, William de, 342
Coal, 238
Codrington, T., 31
Coggeshall, Abbot of, 64, 429
Cok, John, a messenger, 232
Cok, Peter, a ship master, 375
Cokatrices, in the Nile, 415
Cole, John, a mason, 278
Colechurch, Peter, bridge-builder, 44
Cologne, 347, 372
Commons, their illiberal tendencies, 264 ff., 283
Communism, propagated by John Ball, 289, by the friars, 293
Compiegne, 353
Compostela, St. James of, 21, 24, 323, 344, 352, 362, 365, 370,
licences for pilgrims to, 375; 381, 389, 390, 404, 406, 443
Compton, John, an archer, 318