The story of the ring is also depicted in the miniatures of a beautiful
illuminated Norman-French MS. Life of St. Edward the King, dating
from the thirteenth century, and now in the University Library at
Cambridge.[222] The single miniature reproduced here (Plate XXXIX)
shows seven blind men, restored to sight, kneeling at the shrine,
while a priest reads the _Te Deum_. At the sides of the shrine are
figures on pillars of St. John as the palmer (left), and St. Edward
with his ring (right). No cure of epilepsy, so-called cramp, is
depicted among the many miraculous cures recorded in the MS. The
earliest extant records of the use of the ring for this purpose date
from the reign of Edward II.
Anstis[223] cites the following entry from the last chapter of the
_Constitutions of the Household of Edward II_: ‘Item le Roi doit offrer
de certein le jour de grant vendredi a crouce. v _s._ queux il est
acustumez receivre devers lui a la mene le chapelein afair ent anulx
a donner pur medicine az divers gentz’: the language, however, of
the entry leaves little room to doubt that the custom was already an
established one. At his coronation, too, Edward II offered a pound of
gold wrought into a figure representing St. Edward holding a ring, and
a mark of gold, or eight ounces, worked into the figure of a pilgrim
putting forth his hand to receive the ring: and the presumption is that
this gold was to be converted into cramp-rings.
We have detailed accounts of the manner of this ceremony of hallowing
cramp-rings dating from early Tudor times, and there is sufficient
evidence in the brief notices of earlier date to show that the
ceremonial observed by the Plantagenet kings was essentially similar.
On Good Friday, when the king went to adore the cross, he used to
make an offering of money, which was redeemed by a sum of equivalent
value: the money so received was converted into rings, which were
subsequently hallowed by the king. In Tudor times the hallowing of the
rings took place on Good Friday, so that the offering of the money must
have been made at some previous time, or this part of the ritual may
have actually become obsolete. The change of custom was effected some
time between 9 Edward IV (1470-1) and 13 Henry VIII (1521-2), and was
probably therefore the work of Henry VII, who, as we know, materially
altered the kindred ceremonial of Touching for the Evil.
A MS. copy of the Orders of the King of England’s Household, 13 Henry
VIII, preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris,[224] contains,
‘The Order of the Kynge, on Good Friday, touching the cominge to
Service, Hallowinge of the Crampe Rings, and Offeringe and Creepinge to
the Crosse’. It is quoted _in extenso_ in the Northumberland Household
Book,[225] and also by Mansell in his _Monumenta Ritualia_.[226] It
runs as follows:
‘First the king to come to the closett or to the chappell with the
lords and noblemen wayting on him, without any sword to bee borne
before him on that day, and there to tarry in his travers till
the bishop and deane have brought forth the crucifix out of the
vestry (the almoner reading the service of the cramp rings) layd
upon a cushion before the high altar, and then the huishers shall
lay a carpet before y^t for ye king to creepe to the crosse upon:
and y^t done, there shall be a fourme set upon the carpet before
the crucifix, and a cushion layd before it for the king to kneele
on; and the Master of the jewell house shal be ther ready with the
crampe rings in a basin or basins of silver: the king shall kneele
upon the sayd cushion before the fourme, and then must the clerke
of the closett bee ready with the booke conteyninge ye service of
the hallowing of the said rings, and the almoner must kneel upon
the right hand of the king, holding of the sayd booke, and when
y^t is done the king shall rise and go to the high altar, where
an huisher must be ready with a cushion to lay for his grace to
kneele upon, and the greatest Lord or Lords being then present
shall take the basin or basins with the rings and bear them after
the king, and then deliver them to the king to offer; and this done
the queen shall come down out of her closett or travers into the
chappell with ladies and gentlewomen wayters on her, and creepe to
the crosse; and that done she shall returne againe into her closett
or travers, and then the ladies shall come downe and creepe to the
crosse, and when they have done, the Lords and noblemen shall in
likewise.’
Creeping to the Cross seems to have been practised in noble households
as well as in that of the king. The following entry is found in the
Northumberland Household Book[227] (_temp._ Henry VIII):
‘Item my Lord useth and accustometh yerely when his Lordship is at
home to cause to be delyveride for the Offerings of my Lordis Sone
and Heire the Lord Percy upon the said Good Friday When he crepith
the Crosse ij_d_. Ande for every of my Yonge Maisters my Lords
Yonger Sonnes after j_d_. to every of them for their Offerings when
they Crepe the Cross the said Good Friday iiij_d_.’
Many of the entries in the accounts of the Plantagenet kings show
that the homage was paid to the Gneyth Cross. This cross was held in
great veneration, and, according to tradition, was made of wood from
the true Cross presented by a pilgrim to Richard Cœur de Lion: no
satisfactory explanation of its name is forthcoming. It seems to have
been transferred from place to place. Under Edward I we find it in the
royal chapel of the Priory of Plympton: under Edward II in the royal
chapel within the Tower: under Edward III in the private chapel of the
royal Manor of Clipstone, and later in the same reign in St. George’s
Chapel at Windsor, where it was in the time of Henry VII. The purpose
of the ceremony is set forth in a Proclamation of February 26, 30 Henry
VIII, now in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries: ‘On Good
Friday it shall be declared howe creepyng of the Crosse signifyeth an
humblynge of ourselfe to Christe before the Crosse, and the kyssynge of
it a memorie of our redemption made upon the Crosse.’ When Convocation,
in A.D. 1536, abolished some of the old ceremonies, on the ground that
they were superstitious, this of Creeping to the Cross was retained as
a laudable and edifying custom.
The following records, taken from the Household Books and Account Rolls
of the times, serve to establish the continuity of the ceremonial
subsequent to its first mention in the time of Edward II.
In the Eleemosyna Roll of 9 Edward III[228] occurs the following entry:
‘In oblacione domini Regis ad crucem de Gneythe die parasceues in
capella sua, infra mannerium suum de Clipstone, in precium duorum
florencium de Florencia, xiiii die Aprilis, vi_s._ viij_d._, et in
denariis quos posuit pro dictis florenciis reassumptis pro annulis
medicinalibus inde faciendis, eodem die, vi_s._: summa xii_s._
viii_d._’ [For the offering of the lord King to the Gneythe Cross
on Good Friday in his chapel, in his manor of Clipstone, to the
value of two florins, on the 14th day of April, vi_s._ viii_d._,
and for the pence bestowed in redemption of the said florins for
the making of medicinal rings, on the same day, vi_s._: total
xii_s._ viii_d._]