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fashion, even now, is not quite out of date.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.