If proof were wanted how little is now known of those saints whose names
were once in everybody's mouth, although they never figured in any
calendar, it might be found in the fact that my friend, Mr. Payne Collier,
whose intimate knowledge of the phrases and allusions scattered through our
early writers is so well known and admitted, should, in his valuable
_Extracts from the Registers of the Stationers' Company_ (1557-1570), have
illustrated this entry,--
"1569-70. Rd. of Thomas Colwell, for his lycense for the pryntinge of a
ballett intituled 'Newes to Northumberlande yt skylles not where, to
Syr John Shorne, a churche rebell there' ... iiij^d."
by a note, from which the following is an extract:--
"Sir John Shorne no doubt is to be taken as a generic name for a shaven
Roman Catholic priest."
Reasonable, however, as is Mr. Collier's conjecture, it is not borne out by
the facts of the case. The name Sir John Shorne is not a generic name, but
the name of a personage frequently alluded to, but whose history is
involved in considerable obscurity. Perhaps the following notes may be the
means, by drawing forth others, of throwing some light upon it. In Michael
Wodde's _Dialogue_, quoted by Brand, we read--
"If we were sycke of the pestylence we ran to Sainte Rooke; if of the
ague, to Sainte Pernel or Master John Shorne."
Latimer, in his _Second Sermon preached in Lincolnshire_, p. 475. (Parker
Society ed.), says,--
"But ye shall not think that I will speak of the popish pilgrimages,
which we were wont to use in times past, in running hither and thither
to Mr. John Shorn or to our Lady of Walsingham."