[234]Ed. Luce, i., 213, 214; cf. 312.
[235]Mrs. Green,l. c., i., 131.
[236]This point is treated more fully in the next chapter.
[237]Denifle,l. c., pp. 497, 504.
[238]“More than three thousand men, women, and children were beheaded that day. God have mercy on their souls, for I trow they were martyrs.” Froissart (Globe), 201.
[239]Ed. Luce, pp. 214, 249, 337.
[240]Trevelyan, “England in the Age of Wycliffe,” 1st Edn., p. 195.
[241]“Conseil” (in Appendix to Ducange’s “Joinville”), chap. xxi., art. 8. The writer insists strongly, at the same time, on the lord’s responsibility to God for his treatment of a creature so helpless.
[242]C., iii., 177. For the Reeve’s duties, see Smyth, “Berkeleys,” vol. ii., pp. 5, 22.
[243]“Those who demand such mortuaries are like worms preying on a corpse” (Cardinal Jacques de Vitry, quoted in Lecoy de La Marche, “Chaire Française,” p. 388). Having already, in my “Medieval Studies” and my “Priests and People,” dealt more fully with this and several points occurring in the succeeding chapters, I can often dispense with further references here.
[244]This is admirably discussed by Mr. Corbett in chap. vii. of “Social England.”
[245]Froissart, Buchon, ii., 150. Leadam, “Star Chamber” (Selden Soc.), p. cxxviii. Trevelyan,l. c., p. 185.
[246]Vitry, “Exempla,” pp. 62, 64; “P. P.,” A., iv., 34 (cf. Lecoy.,l. c., 387); Jusserand, “Epopée Mystique,” 114; and “Vie Nomade,” 81, 261, 269.
[247]Walsingham, an. 1381; cf. the record in Powell, “Rising in East Anglia,” p. 130. The rioters compelled the constable of the hundred of Hoxne to contribute ten conscripted archers to their party.
[248]It must be remembered that the loyal soldiers also had shown in this matter a pusillanimity which contrasted remarkably with their behaviour in the French wars; Walsingham notes this with great astonishment. The quotations are from the “Chronicle of St. Mary’s, York,” in Oman, Appendix V., pp. 188-200.
[249]An. 1381; cf. “Eulog. Hist.,” iii., 353. The original of both these descriptions seems to be Gower, “Vox Clam.” i., 853 ff.
[250]L. c., p. 255.
[251]The first general Sanitation Act for England was that of the Parliament held at Cambridge in 1388, and is generally ascribed to the filth of that ancient borough.
[252]“Chronicles of London” (4to., 1827), p. 65. “Eulog. Hist.” iii., 353.
[253]C., ix., 304; B., v., 549. It will be noted how nearly this diet accords with that of the widow and her daughter in Chaucer’s “Nuns’ Priest’s Tale”; cf. Langlois, “La Vie en France au M-A.,” p. 122.
[254]“Rot. Parl.” ii., 340.
[255]L. c., C., ix., 331.
[256]L. c., C., x., 71 ff. “Papelots” = porridge; “ruel” = bedside; “woneth” = dwell; “witterly” = surely; “and fele to fong,” etc. = “and many [children] to clutch at the few pence they earn; under those circumstances, bread and small beer is held an unusual luxury.” “Pittance” is a monastic word, meaning extra food beyond the daily fare.
[257]An Act of 1495 provided that “from the middle of March to the middle of September work was to go on from 5 a.m. till between 7 and 8 p.m., with half an hour for breakfast, and an hour and a half for dinner and for the midday sleep. In winter work was to be during daylight. These legal ordinances were not perhaps always kept, but they at least show the standard at which employers aimed” (“Social England,” vol. ii., chap. vii.).
[258]Bishop Grosseteste asserted that honest labour on holy days would be far less sinful than the sports which often took their place. “Epp.” (R.S.), p. 74.
[259]“La France pendant la Guerre de Cent Ans” (1890), 95 ff. The essay describes a state of things very similar to what we may gather from English records.
[260]“Universities of Europe,” ii., 669 ff.
[261]Cooper, “Annals of Cambridge,” an. 1410; “Munim. Acad.” (R.S.), 602; Riley, 571; Strutt (1898), p. 49.
[262]“Shillingford Letters,” p. 101.Quekewas probably a kind of hopscotch, andpenny-pricka tossing game; both enjoyed an evil repute, according to Strutt.
[263]“Rot. Parl.” ii., 64; Myrc., E.E.T.S., i., 334.
[264]“Northumberland Assize Rolls,” p. 323. There is another fatal wrestling-bout in the same roll (p. 348), another in the similar Norfolk roll analysed by Mr. Walter Rye in theArchæological Review(1888), and another exactly answering to John and Willie’s case in Prof. Maitland’s “Crown Pleas for the County of Gloucester,” No. 452.
[265]“C. T.,” A., 3328. Etienne de Bourbon has no doubt that “the Devil invented dancing, and is governor and procurator of dancers”; and he explains the popular proverb, that God’s thunderbolt falls oftener on the church than on the tavern, by the notorious profanations to which churches were subjected. (“Anecdotes,” pp. 269, 397.)
[266]L. c.ii., 672.
[267]Wilkins, “Concilia,” i., 600; iii., 61, 68, 365; “York Fabric Rolls,” 269 ff; Grosseteste, “Epp.” (R.S.), pp. 75, 118, 161; Giffard’s “Register” (Worcester), p. 422; and Cutts, “Parish Priests,” p. 122.
[268]Wilkins, i., 530, 719; iii., 61 andpassim;Archæological Journal, vol. xl., pp. 1 ff; “Somerset Record Society,” vol. iv.
[269]Eight men died in Northampton gaol between Aug. 1322 and Nov. 1323 (Gross, p. 79). The jury casually record: “He died of hunger, thirst, and want.”... “Want of food and drink, and cold.”... “Natural death.”... “Hunger and thirst and natural death.” One is really glad to think that so small a proportion of criminals ever found their way into prison.
[270]Gross, “Office of Coroner,” p. 69.
[271]“Eng. Hist. Rev.,” vol. 50.
[272]This still allowed him to migrate to another part of the King’s dominions—e.g.Ireland, Scotland, Normandy.
[273]Worcestershire Record Society.
[274]Gower, “Mirour,” 20125, 20653.
[275]Riley, 567; cf. Preface to “Liber Albus,” p. cvii., and Walsingham, an. 1382.
[276]Cf. Mr. Walter Rye’s articles in “Norf. Antq. Misc.,” vol ii., p. 194, andArchæological Reviewfor 1888, p. 201.
[277]The complaints which meet us in Gower and “Piers Plowman” on this score are more than borne out by the “Shillingford Letters” (Camden Soc., 1871). The worthy Mayor of Exeter reports faithfully to his fellow-citizens what bribes he gives, and to whom.
[278]Chaucer’s pupil Hoccleve speaks almost equally strongly on the mischief of such pardons (“Works,” E.E.T.S., vol. iii., pp. 113 ff).
[279]Clergyis of course here used in the common medieval sense oflearning; it does not refer to any body of men.
[280]I.e.the type of perfect religion, “the Christ that is to be.”
[281]Be “found” or provided for, so that they need no longer to live by begging and flattery.
[282]This was very commonly the case even in the greatest cathedrals: typical reports may be found in the easily accessible “York Fabric Rolls” (Surtees Soc.). With regard to Canterbury, a strange legend is current to the effect that Lord Badlesmere was executed in 1322 for his irreverent behaviour in that cathedral. Apart from the extraordinary inherent improbability of any such story, the execution of Lord Badlesmere is one of the best known events in the reign. He was hanged for joining the Earl of Lancaster in open rebellion against Edward, against whom he had fought at Boroughbridge.
[283]Wilkins, iii., 360 ff; “Rot. Parl.” ii., 313. I have given fuller details and references in the 8th of my “Medieval Studies,” “Priests and People” (Simpkins, 1s.).
[284]Taking eight test-periods, which cover four dioceses and a space of nearly forty-five years, I find that, before the Black Death, scarcely more than one-third of the livings in lay gift were presented to men in priest’s orders—the exact proportion is 262 priests to 452 non-priests.
[285]Rashdall, “Universities of Europe,” ii., 613, 701. Merely to reckon the number of years theoretically required for the different degrees, and to argue from this to the solid education of the medieval priest (as has sometimes been done), is to ignore the mass of unimpeachable evidence collected by Dr. Rashdall. Only an extremely small fraction of the students took any theological degree whatever.
[286]The list of indictments for grave offences in “Munim. Acad.” (R.S.), vol. ii., contains a very large proportion of graduates, chaplains, and masters of Halls; and Gerson frequently speaks with bitter indignation of the number of Parisian scholars who were debauched by their masters.
[287]In Chaucer’s words—
The Archbishop’s decree may be found in the “Register of Bp. de Salopia,” p. 639; cf. 694 (Somerset Record Society).
[288]Quoted from a MS. collection of 14th-century sermons by Ch. Petit-Dutaillis in “Etudes Dédiées à G. Monod.,” p. 385.
[289]Knighton (R.S.), ii., 191; at still greater length on p. 183. Walsingham, ann. 1387, 1392; cf. “Eulog. Hist.,” iii., 351, 355.
[290]Kingsford, “Chronicles of London,” p. 64; Walsingham, an. 1410.
[291]“P. Plowman,” B., xv., 383: Jusserand, “Epop. Myst.,” p. 217. See especially the remarkable words of Chaucer’s contemporary, the banker Rulman Merswin of Strassburg, quoted by C. Schmidt, “Johannes Tauler,” p. 218. After setting forth his conviction that Christendom is now (1351) in a worse state than it has been for many hundred years past, and that evil Christians stand less in God’s love than good Jews or heathens who know nothing better than the faith in which they were born, and would accept a better creed if they could see it, Merswin then proceeds to reconcile this with the Catholic doctrine that none can be saved without baptism. “I will tell thee; this cometh to pass in manifold hidden ways unknown to the most part of Christendom in these days; but I will tell thee of one way.... When one of these good heathens or Jews draweth near to his end, then cometh God to his help and enlighteneth him so far in Christian faith, that with all his heart he desireth baptism. Then, even though there be no present baptism for him, yet from the bottom of his heart he yearneth for it: so I tell thee how God doth: He goeth and baptiseth him in the baptism of his good yearning will and his painful death. Know therefore that many of these good heathens and Jews are in the life eternal, who all came thither in this wise.”
[292]“P. Plowman,” B., x., p. 51; cf. Langlois,l. c., pp. 211, 264-5.
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