the great houses, but for the smaller ones, unable to maintain so large a
staff, and then both "scriptorium" and cloister became a ceaseless centre
of labour. Books were often lent from one monastery to another to be
copied, and besides the actual staff, hired writers were also employed,
thus rapidly developing the learning of those early times. Special grants
of money were made to support this constant occupation--tithes and other
aids procured the vellum, the ink, and the colours for the artist; thus,
by degrees, came into existence those grand volumes which, despite time
and decay, have survived to our day. The abbey chronicle and the abbot's
letters became one great monastic diary, each containing a record of
events and customs which shadowed forth many a noted incident or rare
tradition.
In the Christ Church letters, at Canterbury, we hear of Prior Chillenden's
love of building, and mention of the grey old walls of that city, portions
of which are now standing, is found in this correspondence.
Truly can it be said, that the abbey and its literature grew together,
that the annals of the one were the foundation stones of the other. The
"Chronicle," perhaps the most typical form of monastic work, gave
expression to endless literary fragments, some, undoubted forgeries, as
one scribe often copied the errors of a preceding writer. The lives of
saints, and their legends, were lightly interwoven in this day-book of the
religious house, and the famous miracles of Thomas a Becket, repeated in
all their varying allurements, formed the staple theme for many a
credulous monk.
On the other hand, the "Chronicle" recorded important events, especially
the building of a noted minster, oratory, or shrine. Ingulphus treated of
Croyland; William of Malmesbury, of Glastonbury; Gervase, the burning of
Canterbury, and many like instances. In these volumes we often find
allusions to the means used to raise money for building, and the curious
customs arising out of this effort. When a cathedral wanted repair, the
bishop selected from among his clergy a few preachers, and along with them
a saint's shrine, in which relics were enclosed and carried by young
clerks in procession. On reaching a town, these relics were taken to the
church and left on one of the altars, and those who could afford, threw
their offerings on the same.
Processions to some noted spot formed another source of revenue, and the
picturesque though fanciful custom of strewing the churchyard cross with
boughs on Palm Sunday, may have been another of the quaint usages to
attract the devotee to make his offerings.
Fairs, too, were held, sometimes in the very cathedral precincts, and
mystery and miracle plays also combined to increase the funds required for
a grand fabric, or village church. A leading feature in the archivist's
work were the bishop's registers, to be found in every diocese, and
varying greatly in their interest and contents. Those of Canterbury and
York form a unique collection of church history, while others are models
of exactness or statesmanlike precision.
As we turn over their pages, we recall the names of William of Wykeham
(Bishop of Winchester), Bishop Alcock (Ely), Chichele, the munificent
founder of All Souls', Oxford, while among lesser dignitaries may be
classed Abbot Islip, of Westminster, and John of Whethampstead, for St.
Alban's, whose registers and minute books betoken their care and
knowledge, as "Supervisors" of the noble buildings under their charge.
Perhaps the register of St. Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury (1078-1107), may
fairly be taken to represent the idea of what is usually found to
illustrate the growth, maintenance, and customs connected with those
stately fabrics and minsters of our land. As St. Osmund was one of the
prelate-architects, so to speak, and having much to do with the building
of that cathedral, there are, naturally, endless allusions to antiquarian
lore, indeed, his register can well be likened to a storehouse of local
customs, and ecclesiological learning.
On one page is an account of the maintenance of Savernake forest, over
which the Dean and chapter of Sarum had certain rights. On another, we
find a description of the stones and ornaments for the church, while
elsewhere are the charters for the bestowal of land, towards the endowment
of canonries and other preferments, and to these last were attached seals
of deep historical value.
This register may be taken then as the keystone to the annals of Sarum
diocese, and what the keen inquirer finds in this as a typical book, may
equally be said of several other episcopal archives. In their silent,
though not less expressive, language, they have handed down those
incidents on which hang the story of many an effort to build a costly
shrine, a sculptured porch, or greater still, the minsters and abbeys
which have made England of the past so rich an inheritance for us of
to-day.
The fullest scope for the mediaeval artist was found in the pictured
chronicle, or the illuminated missal, that task on which painter and
scribe devoted their best talents, and with this embellishment is
interwoven many an old usage or fanciful legend.
The monastery garden supplied endless designs for the exquisite
plant-forms and scrolls which mingled so gracefully with the written text
or the printed page. In the gifted words of the late Lady Eastlake, who
said, "Here on these solid and well-nigh indestructible parchment folios,
where text and picture alternately take up the sacred tale--the text
itself a picture, the picture a homily--the skill of the artist has
exhausted itself in setting forth the great scheme of salvation."[21]
Flowers also supplied an un-ending theme for symbolism which always
allied itself to sacred and legendary art, and tradition asserts that the
monks reared an appropriate flower for each holy-day, and that certain
flowers were dedicated to saints. The ivy a type of immortality, the oak
of virtue and majesty, the lily, and the rose, all had their significance
on the vellum book.
Mingled with the border designs were satirical allusions in the form of
grotesques and other drolleries, evidently aimed at the jealousies of the
secular and regular clergy, one against the other, or both against the
mendicant friars. What was found on the illuminated page, was echoed in
the architectural carvings of the time, and the fantastic wood work in
some of our cathedrals and many churches, especially in the stalls of
Christ Church, Hants, repeat the teachings of the caustic monk in his
cloistered seclusion.
It was reserved for the architect-artist to perpetuate in stone the
beauties of the floral world, and nothing speaks a stronger though mute
language than the foliage sculptured on the arches, doorways, and nooks of
our minsters, churches, and abbey ruins.
"Ivy, and vine, and many a sculptured rose,
The tenderest image of mortality,
Binding the slender columns, whose light shafts
Cluster like stems in corn-sheaves."
Not only was symbolism embodied in these carvings, but as an exercise and
offering of devotion to the Unseen, the best efforts were lavished on it
by the skilled master-workmen of the time.
Thus the scribe, the illuminator, the architect were all striving in a
kind of companion rivalry, each illustrating by his efforts some phase of
artistic labour, or reviving a long-forgotten custom.
However much we may dissociate legend with truth, we cannot always ignore
it, mingled though it may be with monkish ignorance and superstition.
The tale of many a noble structure has been veiled under the guise of the
chronicle or the monastic ledger book, and the foundation of Waltham Abbey
is said to have originated from a 12th century MS., entitled, "De
inventione Sancte Crucis." Around the grand church of Minister in Thanet,
gathers a pretty story, in that Dompneva, wife of Penda, King of Mercia,
asked Ethelbert to grant her land in Thanet, on which she might build a
monastery. In answer to how much she required, "Only as much as my deer
can run over at one course." The King gave her the wide tract of land run
over by the deer, and she founded the cloister on the spot where now
stands Minister church. Local names have sometimes been associated with
the story of the cloister. The Bell-rock with its lighthouse was so called
from the bell which the monks tolled, to warn the mariner of his danger.
The smallest item on the parchment page can have an extended meaning; the
sign of the cross was found in many old deeds, which often contained an
invocation to the Trinity, and the famous story of St. Helena, and the
finding of the cross, has its incidents oft repeated in the MS., the
printed book, the panel or fresco painting, as well as in the marvellous
pieces of the sacred wood, so greatly venerated by the faithful! Of St.
Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, there is a drawing, said to be by his
own hand, in the illumination of a manuscript in the Bodleian Library, and
of dedication of churches to saints, the name is legion. St. Barnabas Day
is specially linked with English life and manners, it was the longest day
according to the old style, and the old rhyme,
"Barnaby bright, Barnaby light,
The longest day and the shortest night."
Every form of chronicled lore, be it register, fabric roll, charter, or
brief, teems with some peculiar custom which is a moving history, an
heirloom from the old world, helping to connect the past and the present.
Architectural items enter largely into the varied forms of church
documents; the Indulgence often gave full particulars as to the repairs of
a building, a fact most valuable for supplying the date at which any
portion was built or renewed. Cathedral archives of whatever class, are
sure to abound in allusions to the fabric or its annals, sometimes going
so far as to sketch some portion in the marginal pages, of which an
example is found in a drawing of old St. Paul's in the 14th century,
occurring in a MS. called the "Flores historiarum." The statutes of our
minsters are rich in ecclesiastical lore, the mediaeval fraternities or
guilds are often mentioned in them, and in the statutes of St. Paul's a
most curious custom is mentioned of waits parading the streets of London,
to give notice of the feast of the Transfiguration, and carrying with them
a picture or banners of that event.
The antiquarian enthusiast on these subjects cannot do better than consult
the work on "English Guilds" published by the Early English Text Society,
and that of the "Statutes of St. Paul's," by Dr. Sparrow Simpson, 1873.
Fabric rolls and inventories are an endless source of detailed
information, in both of these, most minute descriptions are given; the
painting and drawing of images, the materials, even to the pencils and
brushes, being mentioned. Perhaps the most elaborate is that of the
expense rolls for St. Stephen's chapel, in the old palace of Westminster,
a bill of charges that helps to identify the kind of work done at that
time, and the general artistic treatment in the reign of Edward III.
The following entries may be given as a typical illustration:--
William de Padryngton, mason, for making twenty
angels to stand in the tabernacles, by task work
at 6/8 per each image L6 13s. 4d.
For seven hundred leaves of gold, bought for the
painting of the tabernacles in the Chapel L1 8s. 0d.
The following item shows that there were artists who designed the work
afterwards carried out by inferior craftsmen.
Hugh de St. Alban's and John de Cotton, painters,
working on the drawings of several images. L0 9s. 0d.
An examination of this expense roll, of which this is not a tithe of the
entries, printed in Smith's history of Westminister, will well repay
attention.
With those graceful chantries, which adorn most of our minsters, are
closely connected the service books of the middle ages, for it was usual
to insert in the blank spaces of the collects the names of the founders of
the chantry chapels.
Indeed, the subtle way in which our old documents, of whatever class,
interweave themselves with the annals of our mediaeval buildings, whether
as regards the general plan, the design of some sculptured porch, the
pictured images on walls, or the many-coloured votive chapel, each and all
illustrating a quaint legend or significant custom, is too numerous to
indicate.
"Nor was all this labour spent in vain; their homes for centuries were in
the silence of the sanctuary; their authors have mingled with the dust of
the convent cemetery; over them have passed the rise and fall of the
kingdoms of this world; but through them history has been transmitted with
a continuity and fulness not to be found in any other form of art, or, it
may be said in any form of literature."[22]
"Mid all the light a happier age has brought,
We work not yet as our forefathers wrought."
Shorthand in Church.
BY WILLIAM E. A. AXON, F.R.S.L.
When Job Everardt published in the year 1658, his "Epitome of
Stenographie," he had certainly no intention of minimising the value of
his art, but, on the contrary, was quite ready to magnify the office of
the shorthand writer. The engraved title-page is ornamented by eleven
emblematical pictures, and stenography is declared to be "Swifter than the
swift of foot" (Amos ii. 15); "Swifter than a post" (Job ix. 25); "Swifter
than a weaver's shuttle" (Job vii. 20); "Swifter than waters" (Job xxiv.
18); "Swifter than clouds" (Isaiah xix. 1); "Swifter than ships" (Job ix.
26); "Swifter than horses" (Jer. iv. 13); "Swifter than dromedaries" (Jer.
ii. 23); "Swifter than roes" (1 Chron. xii. 8); "Swifter than leopards"
(Heb. i. 8); "Swifter than eagles" (2 Sam. i. 23). It may be remarked in
passing that the worthy Everardt consistently spells than _then_ in the
text to each of these emblems. We have left to the last the picture which
holds the place of honour. Here we see a worthy divine, robed in a black
gown, set off with white collars and cuffs, and with his head covered by a
furred skull cap. He stands in a low pulpit, his hands rest on the
comfortable cushion, which is unencumbered either by book or MS. Opposite
to him, and occupying the whole of a comfortable form or very wide chair,
is a stenographer. He wears his hat, as was often customary in church
during the seventeenth century; he has impressive white hands; he has not
taken off his cloak, but on a fold of it allows a book to rest, in which,
with an impossible pen, he is taking down the sermon, and stares with
fixed gaze as the divine asserts "My tongue is as the pen of a swift
writer," and seems almost inclined to dispute the assertion that any
tongue could keep pace with his nimble stylus.
It must be confessed that the early stenographers--to confine our
attention to them--were not at all in the habit of under-valuing their
art. Here is what this same Everardt, "dropping into poetry" like Silas
Wegg, has to say in a triple acrostic:--
Secret, short, swift this Writer iS, the Sun's course seemes but slow to hiS
The Teacher's nimble tongue comes shorT this Writer waits his nexT reporT
Eagles arE swift, his pen doth fleE his quill an Eagle's seems to bE
Noe clouds can flee, Nor waters ruN swifter theN his quick strokes have doN
One postin g Swiftly TO and frO his Oft-turn'd quill doth even SO
Galley or ship with Sailes and FlagG the Weavers shuttle, Leopard, StagG
Roe, Dromedary, Horse oR Ha'R: oR the swift swiming Dolphin ra'R
And the quick Scribes, As ShemajA Baruch, EzrA, E L I S H A M A
Paint forth, as Patterns in a maP this ARTS true Portrature and shaP
Haste Haste to learn what it doth teacH Swiftness and Shortness botH to reacH
Yea both in StenographyLY much more in this EPITOMY
After this ingenious torturing of the Queen's English, it is not
surprising to find,
"In steed [sic] of Tenne command{ts.} Lords Pray'r, Creed:
Heer's Three and Thirty Languages to Reade,"
that is to say, the sentence "But the just shall live by his faith," in
that number of tongues, first in his stenographic characters, and then
transliterated into longhand. His dedication is written in the style of a
sermon, and in an introductory verse he does not fail to claim that by his
art are
"... Sermons writ even from the lip,
And sudden thoughts before they slip."
His good opinion of his own stenography, and powers of versification,
sustains him to the end of his book, and he bids us adieu in this wise:--
"Herewith Farewell; If you can tell
What yet more fair, short, swift maybee,
Let the world know it, candedly [sic] show it
Or if not, Follow this with mee."
William Hopkins "Flying Penman" (1695), has the following commendation
signed by one whose surname has since become famous in divinity:--
"Virgil, who largely wrot about the Gnat
That saveing Man's life his own ruine gat,
Might have emploi'd his pen about this Fly
With greater pleasure and Utility,
A Fly this is, but of more noble kind
Than in the winged crue you ere did find:
A Flying Man; the Flying-Pen-man 'tis
Whose wing the fleeing game doth never miss.
The Eagle strikes down and eats up his prey
Destroying all that he doth bear away,
But what this Pen-man takes he doth preserve,
And makes it better to all uses serve,
When fleeting words would vanish with their sound
He doth them stay, and them deliver bound,
By Lines of Characters wherein they rest
As in a dwelling that doth please them best.
The Art of Spelling at first was thought
Strange, and they deem'd immortal who it taught,
Spelling by Characters excelleth all
That under any other Art doth fall.
Some Charactors creep, some go, these do Fly
Showing their authors great agility,
And this ability he doth impart
By certain rules of a defusive Art."
EDWARD BEECHER.
Hopkins gives a long list of theological words, and of abbreviations of
such phrases as "the blood of the saints," "the breath of the Almighty,"
"the candle of the Lord," etc. In reporting the words of preachers, he
advises the use of a book, with a margin ruled off, in which to "set down
the numbers and names of all the heads contained in the sermon. All these
heads," he says, "with parts of the Inlargements used upon them may be
taken by such who hardly ever wrote before." This statement must be
received _cum grano salis_.
The system best known as that of Jeremiah Rich, who appears to have copied
it from his uncle, William Cartwright, was one that seems to have been
favoured by the divines of the seventeenth century. It was modified by Dr.
Doddridge, and taught in his academy for the training of Nonconformist
ministers, and then came into use in most of the older dissenting
colleges, so that twenty years ago there were many who had thus been
trained and conned the dumpty little bibles and psalm books that were
engraved in Rich's system. That system has had many names attached to it.
Let us take that which bears the impress of "Botley's learned hand." One
of his eulogists tells us
"Sermons this art transfers, its oft known
The countrey reaps what's in the City sowne;
The sacred pulpit is not its confine
The general good is this art's main designe."
Botley's "Maximum in Minimo," which appeared in 1659, is avowedly Jeremiah
Rich's "Pen's dexterity compleated." The theological uses of the system
are further asserted by ingenious devices for indicating such phrases as
"to be joyned in love to those that are not of the people of God," "to
embrace the cross of Christ," etc. This character = [symbol] signifies "to
be miserable as the world is miserable," whilst [symbol] meant "a saint is
a 1000 times better than the world." So in Noah Bridge's "Stenographie,"
issued in the same year, there are phraseograms for "in the name of the
Lord," "wherefore said the psalmist," etc.
The "New Method of Short and Swift Writing," which was given away to
purchasers of Dr. Chamberlen's "anodyne necklace for children's teeth," is
declared to be "necessary for all Ministers of State, Members of
Parliament, Lawyers, Divines, Students, Tradesmen, Shopkeepers,
Travellers, and in fine, all sorts of persons from the highest to the
lowest quality, degree, rank, station, and condition whatsoever, and write
down presently whatever they hear or see done." The theologian here is
somewhat lost in an indiscriminate crowd.
That shorthand was used for the purpose of obtaining copies both of plays
and of sermons in the seventeenth century is sufficiently well-known.
There is a curious tract which professes to be a shorthand report of a
discourse, by no less a person than our "Cromwell, chief of men," and
although it is but a satire, its curious titlepage is nevertheless
evidence of the common belief,--founded doubtless on the common
practice,--that stenography could secure verbatim reports of the
exhortations of preachers, whether clerical or lay. The tract professes to
be,--
"A most Learned, Conscientious and Devout Exercise or Sermon of
Self-Denyal, (Preached or) Held forth the last Lords-day of April, in
the year of Freedom the 1st, 1649. At Sir P. T.'s House in
Lincolns-Inn-Fields. By Lieutenant General Oliver Cromwell,
Immediately before his going for Ireland, as it was then faithfully
taken in Characters, By Aaron Gueredo. And now published for the
Benefit of the New Polonian Association, and late Famed Ignoramus
furies of this city. Humbly Dedicated to the Worthy
Protestant-Hop-Merchants, and the rest of the Ignoramus-Brethren.
London: Printed in the Year of Freedom 43."
The sermons of Tobias Crisp, which gave rise to a long controversy, were
printed from "shortwriting," in 1642-43, and also those of Stephen Crisp,
the Quaker, in 1694.
The quarrel between the preacher and the reporter was not long in breaking
out. Here is the indignant complaint of Dr. Calamy in the preface of one
of his discourses.--
"The iniquity of the times hath necessitated the printing of the
ensuing Sermon. There is a Fellow, (who he is I know not) who hath for
his own private advantage, published it very imperfectly and
corruptly. And herein hath not only sinned against the 8th Commandment
in taking away another man's goods without his leave, but also against
the 9th Commandment, in bearing false witness against his neighbour.
For he makes me to say not only such things which I never said, but
which are very absurd and irrational. As for example: That the Body is
the worse part of the Soul. That the party deceased had not only dona
sanaia, but selutifera. That I should tell a story of one good Pell, a
Minister, born without doubt in Utopia, for of such a man I never
either read or heard. To make some satisfaction to the living and the
dead, here you have the same sermon in a truer edition with some few
additions then omitted for want of time. If this unhappy necessity may
contribute anything to thy good, or to the perpetuating of the Memory
of the Reverend, Learned, and godly Minister (at whose Funeral it was
preached), I shall not much repent for what I have done, though I am
assured, that he that brought me into this necessity, hath cause to
repent of this, his irregular and unwarrantable practice. ("The
Saint's Transfiguration," a Sermon preached at the Funeral of Dr.
Samuel Bolton, by Edmund Calamy, B.D., October 19, 1654. London,
1655)."
The preacher had of course alluded to Conradus Pellicanus, the German
theologian, whose name the stenographer had but partially caught, and set
down as "Pell!" _Hinc illae lachrymae_--of angry indignation.
The stenographers of the last century followed closely in the footsteps of
their predecessors. James Weston's "Stenography" of which various editions
appeared between 1727 and 1740, has an engraving showing a cathedral, in
which a bewigged divine is preaching to a crowd of fashionably dressed
ladies and gentlemen, many of whom are busy with pen and notebook.
Underneath the picture is the motto,--
"Be perfect in this useful art, and then
No word from pulpit can escape your pen."
This idea was conveyed by Aulay Macaulay, whose "Polygraphy" has for a
frontispiece a pretty engraving, in which two gentlemen and a lady are
seen taking down the words which, from the preacher's gestures, we may
suppose to be both impressive and profitable.