VOL. II.
THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
FROM RICHARD K ' BOOK OF HOURS
M9 COTTON. DOMIT. XVII BRIT MUSEUM
CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
AS SEEN IN ST. OSMUND'S EITE FOE
THE CATHEDRAL OF SALISBURY
WITH DISSERTATIONS ON THE BELIEF AND RITUAL
IN ENGLAND BEFORE AND AFTER THE
COMING OF THE NORMANS
BY DANIEL ROCK, D.D.
o
CANON OP THE ENGLISH CHAPTER
A NEW EDITION IN FOUR VOLUMES
EDITED BY G. W. HART AND W. H. FRERE
OF THE COMMUNITY OF THE RESURRECTION
LIBRARY ST. MARY'S COLLEGE
VOLUME II
91806
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
1905
urn
CONTENTS OF VOLUME II
PART THE FIRST CONTINUED
CHAPTER VI
The Surplice, i. The Rochet, 14. The Cassock or Pelisse,
16. The Cope, 20. The " tassellus " for the Cope, 27; for
gloves, 28 ; for dalmatics, &c., 29. Orphreys of the cope, 30.
The Morse, 31. Copes, how kept and adorned, 36. The
Canon's Cope, 41. The furred Almuce, 43. The clerical cap,
51. The skull-cup or birettum, 53. Doctors of Divinity wore
scarlet cassocks, 17 ; scarlet hoods and caps, 57. Garlands
of flowers worn by the clergy, 59. Vesture of the clergy in
choir, 63. Canons and their origin, 64. Canon's black cope,
69. Canon's silk cope, 70. Furred Almuce worn with the
cope, 71. The Mitre, 75. Bishops wore golden crowns at the
Divine Service, 76. The white kerchief. 80. The Mitre and
its shape, 82. Materials and colour of the mitre, 86. The
colour of the old mitre, 91. The mitre allowed to Cardinals,
93 ; to a few cathedral canons, ib. ; to some abbots and
priors, 95. The Pontifical Tiara, 99. The Comb, 101. The
Pall, 104; its origin from the Roman Toga, 107. On whom
the Pall was bestowed, 112; its shape, 114; its crosses and
pins, 1 1 6. Way of putting on the Pall, 122. Ceremonies at
receiving the Pall, 124. When and where the Pall was worn,
127. The Rational, 131. The Gloves, 132. Metal balls for
warming the hands, 134. Loose sleeves or brachialia, 136.
The Bishop's ponser, 137. The candle-holder, 139. The
Pontifical ring, 140. The pectoral cross, 143. Reliquary
worn around the neck by all English Bishops whenever they
sang Mass, 145. The pastoral staff, 149 ; its materials and
beauty, 155. The Cambutta, 157. The pastoral staff allowed
viii CONTENTS
to abbots and abbesses, 158. The prior's staff or "bordon,"
163. The ruler of the choir's staff, 164. The Roman Pontiff
does not on any occasion make use of the pastoral staff, 168.
Manner of holding the pastoral staff, 169. The napkin
hanging from the staff, 173. The place and position of the
staff on the bier of the dead prelate, 176. The Papal cross
with three transoms, and the patriarchal cross with two
such bars, 178. The archiepiscopal cross, 184. Ancient
manner of receiving the cross, 186. The cross always carried
before the Archbishop, 189. The Archbishop's cross, how
fashioned, 192. The sandals, 194. Clerical shoes and stock-
ings, 20 1. The stocking or footed legging now used, 204.
The Bishop's stockings, 206. The faldstool, 209. The Anglo-
Saxon, like the Salisbury Ritual, varied the colour of the
vestments, 213. Blessing vestments, and saying a prayer
while putting on each of them, 218. Splendour and beauty,
at all periods, of this country's vestments, 221. Zeal in
beautifying the house of God, 225.
CHAPTER VII
OX PURGATORY
The Anglo-Saxons held with so much steadfastness by the
doctrine of Purgatory, 237. The Anglo-Saxons followed many
religious practices grounded on the doctrine of Purgatory, 241.
The dying asked to be prayed for, ibid. The living prayed
for the dead, 242. The death-knell, 244. How the Anglo-
Saxon was prepared for death, 246. Burial rites of the
Anglo-Saxons, 248. Anglo-Saxons besought to be prayed
for after death, 261. Churchyard Yew-trees, ibid. Gifts
and endowments made in behalf of the dead, 265. The
Anglo-Saxons' ritual shows their belief in Purgatory, 271.
Lay-folks' brotherhood with religious houses, 272. The Love-
cup after dinner, 273. St. Margaret's draught, 274. The
" indulgenced " mazer-bowl, 277. The " Book of life," or list
of souls to be prayed for, 279. Bidding the beads, 286. The
pious fellowship in behalf of the dead which one Anglo-Saxon
CONTENTS ix
minster often formed with another, 306. The death-bill, 308.
The fellowship of prayer kept up by the Normans, 317. Gilds
among the Anglo-Saxons, 319 ; among the Normans and Eng-
lish, 323. Gilds' prayers for the dead, 327. Gilds' almsmen
prayed for the living and the dead, 331. Each Gild had a
livery, 333. Gild processions, 336. Gild pageants, 342. Gilds
gave religious interludes, 344. Gild halls, 351. Gild feasts,
352. Gilds loved the beauty of God's house, ibid. Gilds
upheld the majesty of the Church service, 355. Civic gilds
earnest in praying for the dead, 358. The Anglo-Saxon and
the Salisbury ritual each enjoined the same sacraments to be
given to the dying, 365. The funeral service according to
our old English ritual, 377. Old English funerals, carrying
the body to the church, 391. Hearse-lights in the church,
399. Funeral services, 404. The offering of the war-horse
and armour, 407. Old English royal funerals, 409. Ritual
meaning of these grand burial services, 413. The burial
of the poor becomingly provided for, 415. The month's
mind, 417.
LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS
The plates marked with an asterisk (16) appear now for the first
time in the book ; those marked with a dagger (5) were in the
previous edition, but have been more accurately made for this
edition.
PAGE
Conventual Church (canons stalled and singing office in
choir) ....... Frontispiece
From Brit. Mus. MS. Cotton, Domitian xvii.
*The Mediaeval Surplice . . .... 8
From the Giunta Pontifical, f. io6 v .
*The Chasuble-shaped Surplice . . . . .10
From the Sacerdotale Romanum (Venice, 1564), f. i83 v and 63 V .
* Brass of Thomas Leman . . . . . .14
From Cotman, Sepulchral Brasses.
*Effigy from St. Martin's Church, Birmingham . . 16
From Hollis, Monumental Effigies.
^Coloured Cassocks . . . . . . .18
From Brit. Mus. MS., Tiberius B. viii., f. 41.
f An Anglo-Saxon Bishop in a Cope ' . . . .21
From the [Alet] Pontifical, in Archseologia, XXV., pi. xxx.
An Enamelled Morse, in Dr. Rock's Collection . . 34
A Canon's Choir-Cope . . . . . . - 41
A Canon in his Furred Almuce . . . . . 43
Cumbent figure of William Canyngcs [a person un-
identified] vested in his Furred Almuce . . 48
xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
*Brass of John Strete .... 53
From Waller, A Series of Monumental Brasses.
*Brass of Dr. William Hautryne . 54
From Waller, A Series of Monumental Brasses.
*Effigy of Dean Borew [John de Swinfield] . . -55
From Hollis, Monumental Effigies.
Brass of Christopher Urswick (in silk cope) . . -72
*The Almuce ....... 73
From the Giunta Pontifical, f. 86 and f. 194.
A Priest Blessing Water, attended by an Acolyte wear-
ing a Scarlet Hood over his Surplice . . -75
From a MS. Salisbury Missal.
An Anglo-Saxon Illumination of the Liturgical Golden
Crown ......... 78
From The Ethelwold Benedictional, as edited by J. Gage Roke-
wood in Archfeologia XXIV., pi. xxx.
A Crowned Figure from St. John Lateran's . . .79
|A Group of English Bishops in Pontificals . . .82
From Brit. Mus. MS., Nero C. iv., fol. 37.
St. Cuthberht in Pontificals 84
From the Lawson MS. See Raiue, St. Cuthbert.
|A Group of Ecclesiastics 100
From Brit. Mus. MS., 2 B. vii., f. 308.
A Classic Statue showing the Roman Toga . . .108
A late Roman Consul robed in the Toga Picta . .109
A Roman Magistrate in the Narrowed Toga . . 1 1 o
|A Group of English Bishops in Pontificals . . 130
From Brit. Mus. MS., Nero C. iv., f. 34.
*Brass of Elizabeth Harvey, Abbess of Elstow . .160
From Waller, A Series of Monumental Brasses.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii
PAGE
* Brass of Richard Bewfforest, Prior of Dorchester . 171
From "Waller, A Series of Monumental Brasses.
^Monument of John de Sheppy . . . . .174
From Archteologia XXV., pi. viii.
* Archbishop, with Archiepiscopal Cross . . .192
From Brit. Mus. MS., 2 A. xxii., f. 221.
Various Forms of old open-worked Shoes . . .198
Bishop Waynflete's Episcopal Stocking . . 206
Bishop Waynflete's Episcopal Sandal .... 207
f Enthronement of an Archbishop . . . .210
From Brit. Mus. MS., 2 B. vii., f. 291.
*The Minstrels' Pillar Choir Figures in St. Mary's
at Beveiiey ........ 337
Hearse at the Dirge in Westminster Abbey for Abbot
Islip . . 393
Cf. Alcuin Club, Collections, vol. i. pi. xiii.
* Funeral Mass . . . . . . . .394
From Bodleian MS., Gough Liturg. 3, f. 72 V .
*A Hearse ......... 399
From Bodleian MS., Auct. D inf. 2, n., f. i45 v .
PAET THE FIRST
(Continued)
CHAPTER VI
SECTION I
DURING the first thousand years after the estab-
lishment of Christianity, what we now call the
alb, or long, wide, sleeved tunic, generally of linen,
reaching down to the feet and fastened round the
loins by a girdle, was of the sacred garments that
one most in requisition, for it was always worn
in the celebration of the divine service by every
order of the clergy, whatever might be their other
respective liturgical ornaments, from the lowest
singing-boy up to the Eoman Pontiff himself.
To the under rank of clerks, it was sometimes
indeed the only kind of vestment allowed in their
ministrations at the public worship.
THE SURPLICE
in its present shape was not then known ; nor
can even that word be found in any of the docu-
ments (2) either in this country or abroad belong-
VOL. n. A
2 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
ing to those ages. 32 We ought not to wonder at
this, since, in truth, the surplice is nothing else
but the alb somewhat modified in shape, a change
it underwent in accommodating itself to the every-
day dress which was introduced about the eleventh
century. Then it was that various kinds of fur
were adopted for clothing, if not for the first time,
at least very generally, especially among the Anglo-
Saxon clergy. 33 Having to spend many hours at
church, day and night throughout the year, in
performing the divine office, it was thought well
in a cold country like ours to allow the secular
clergy, at least, to wear (3) raiment lined with
furs. Now, as the outermost garment was the one
so made, immediately over his furred robe the
minor clerk, when he arrayed himself for his
ministry in the church, put the long linen tunic
or alb, the only sort of vestment permitted him
during the late Anglo-Saxon epoch to assume, for
32 A most eminent English canonist, Lyndwood, while speaking
of the surplice, tells us : De qua tamen veste non memini me legisse
in toto corpore juris canonici vel civilis, nee etiam in Sacra Scrip-
tura : fit tamen de ea mentio infra. Provinciate, p. 53, note c.
33 The use as an article of dress of fur among the Anglo-Saxons
of the lower period, as well as its great variety, are both well
marked in the following passage from the life of St. Wulstan:
Cum enim interrogasset, cur agninas pelles haberet (S. Wulstanus)
qui sabelinas vel castorinas vel vulpinas habere posset et deberet ;
eleganter respondit : eum et homines prudentise ssecularis gnaros
versutorum animalium pellibus uti debere ; se nullius tergiversa-
tionis conscium pelliculis agninis contention esse. Cumque ille
instaret referretque ut vel saltern cattos indue ret : Crede mihi,
respondit Wulstanus, ssepius cantatur Agnus Dei quam cattus Dei.
Will. Malmesberiensis, De Vita S. Wulstani, iii. i, in Wharton,
Anglia Sacra, ii. 259.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 3
the use to him had been withdrawn of the chasuble,
which, though of less costly stuffs than those of
the priests, was used no doubt here in Saxon
England by all orders of the clergy, as we know
it was on the Continent in early times. Hence
as it was worn next to the clerk's furred gown, the
alb began to be called " superpelliceum," short-
ened in English into surplice : certain it is that
the word is to be found for the first time among
the laws of our St. Edward the Confessor, 34 (4) so
that we would fain believe that not only the name
but the form of this church robe itself took their
rise in England. It is probable, the more readily
to slip on the alb, especially over a large winter
furred gown, it began to be widened particularly
about the sleeves ; and as " superpelliceum " aptly
expressed the difference between the alb assigned
to the younger churchmen, and the same vestment
worn by their elders, that word crept into currency,
34 Et postea justicia episcopi faciat venire processionem cum
sacerdote induto alba et manipulo et stola et elericis in suppelliciis
cum aqua benedicta et cruce et candelabris et thuribulo cum igne
et incenso. Leges Regis Edwardi Confessoris, De Latron., Thorpe,
Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, i. 460.
Towards the end of the eleventh century, the alb was ordered
to be used at those functions in the performance of which a sur-
plice would now be worn. The council of Rouen (A.D. 1072) enacted
that the holy oils should be distributed by the deans arrayed in
albs ; and that the priest who administered baptism must have
on an alb and stole : Chrismatis et olei distributio a decanis
summa diligentia et honestate fiat ; ita ut interim dum distribuerint,
albis sint induti. \Goncil. Rotom., Can. iii., Harduin, Cone., vi. 1 188],
[P.L. clxxxviii. 341].
Nullus sacerdos baptizet infantem nisi ieiunus et indutus alba
et stola nisi necessitate. Ibid. [Can. v.].
4 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
till at length the alb, from going sometimes under
a new name, and assuming broader skirts and
wider sleeves, and being worn without a girdle,
took its place towards the beginning of the twelfth
century as a distinct vesture for her ministers
throughout the Latin bounds of the Church.
Perhaps it was a peculiarity known in England
alone for the surplice to have, as it had in some
parts of this country, attached to it a hood which
might be drawn up and worn over the head. 35
The surplice, however, was not allowed so
(5) thoroughly to supersede the use among the
lower clergy of its prototype the alb, but what
that latter garment, at the more solemn services,
such as High Mass, and in great processions, 36 was
35 Ministris altaris fiant superpellicea cum caputiis, quee caput
et colli nuda protegant, quum sacerdotal ibus vestimentis induendi
fuerint. Such was one of the regulations drawn up by St. Gilbert
of Sempringham for his order (A.D. 1131). Cap. pro Oanonicis,
in Munast. Anglic., vii. *1.
36 John Brompton, who was abbot of Jervaux, in Yorkshire
(A.D. 1193), in his description of the coronation of our Richard
with the Lion-heart, tells us : In prima f ronte prsecedebant clerici
albis induti portantes aquam benedictam, crucem et cereos et
thuribulos. Hist. Anglic. Scriptores, ed. Twysden, p. 1158.
Till the second half of the twelfth century, not a surplice but
an alb was worn by the sacristan, who, in our cathedrals, had to-
show the relics. Of the practice followed at Durham, about the
year 1 1 70, we are told by one of its monks : Ecclesiae Dunelmensis
ei ostendere voluit reliquiarum sanctuaria sanctiora. Itaque B.
Cuthberti libellus prsecipui honoris exstitit, quern a Benedicto
sacrista albis induto, honorifice ad altare ma jus delatum cum
suspendiculo, archiprsesulis collo circumposuit. Reginaldus Dunel-
mensis, De Admir. S. Cuthberti [Surtees Soc.], p. 198.
That in the thirteenth century it was somewhat new for priests
to wear the surplice, may be gathered from an observation of our
John Garland, a writer of that time, who remarks : Moderni sacer-
PART I. CHAP. VI. 5
required, up to the last day of its being, in the
Use which St. Osmund framed for Salisbury, to
be worn by the younger clerks who had to wait
more immediately (6) around the altar, and minis-
tered as acolytes and incense-bearers at the holy
Sacrifice. 37
dotes habent . . . superlicia vel ut quidam dicunt superpelicia,
quare sacerdotes solebant habere pellicia et desuper ilia ornamenta
in publico mundiciam protendo. Comni entarius Liber, MS. in the
library of Caius College, Cambridge, fol. 209.
37 That the acolytes, according to the Sarum rite, were to serve
at High Mass " albis induti," is clear from chapter xxxiii. (67), De
modo benedicendi aquam, &c. [Use of Sarum, i. 52, as well as from
cap. xxxix. (66)], where it is ordered : Diacono et subdiacono casulis
indutis .... ceteris ministris in albis existentibus (ib., p. 62). Such
a rite was kept here in England up to the last day that the Use of
Salisbury was followed, as may be seen in the Processionale (printed
in London, in Mary's reign, A.D. 1555), where we find this rubric :
Omnibus dominicis diebus per annum post primam et capitulum :
nisi in duplicibus festis et in dominica in ramispalmarum a sacer-
dote ebdomadario alba et cappa serica induto cum diacono et sub-
diacono qui textum deferant, et cum thuribulario et duobus
ceroferariis, et accolito crucem deferente, omnibus albis cum
amictibus indutis, &c. (Kenedictio salis et aquse dominicis ditbus, ib.,
fol. ij). Again : In die Nativitatis . . . Precedat minister virgam
manu gestans, locum faciens processioni : deinde aqua benedicta :
deinde tres cruces a tribus accolitis albis et tunicis deferentibus,
deinde ceroferarii ij albis cum amictibus induti tantum : deinde
duo thuribularii in simili habitu, &c. Quod in omnibus duplicibus
festis observetur in quibus it processio (ib., fol. ix). [Cp. Proces-
sionale, Ed. Henderson (Leeds, 1882), pp. i, n.] Albs for the
clerks who carried the tapers and bore the thuribles on Maundy
Thursday, are specified by St. Osmund. [Use of Sarum, cxiv. (103)
p. 202.]
On the Continent also, the alb still continued, notwithstanding
the introduction of the surplice, to be worn by all minor clerks ;
and Honorius of Autun (A.D. 1130), writing but a few years after
St. Osmund, tells us : Ministris inferioris ordinis, scilicet ostiariis,
lectoribus, exorcistis, acolythis, tres sacrse vestes conceduntur. . . .
Portant namque superhumerale. . . . Tunicam talarem, id est albam
portant . . . Balteo, id est zona jubentur renes prsecingere, &c.
6 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(7) The spirit of St. Osmund's rubrics clearly is,
that though the surplice might be worn by those
(8) of the clergy who sat in the choir, or had to move
(Gemma Animaz, i. 226), [P.L. clxxii. 612] ; and a few years before,
Rupert, abbot of Deutz on the Rhine (A.D. mi), observed that,
as a sign of joy on the higher festivals, the youths belonging to a
church walked clad in albs and carried maniples in their hands, along
with their elders, in the procession : Solemus enim in huiusmodi
festis omnes in albis stare vel procedere. . . . Convenienter ergo
in albis procedentes, simul etiam omnes a senibus usque ad in-
fantes manipulos portamus. Rupertus Tuitiensis, De Divin. Offic.,
ii. 23 [P.L. clxx. 54]. [The reference is to Psalm cxxv. (Vulgate).]
According to the usages drawn up for the Cluniacs by St.
Udalric (A.D. mo), all the monks of that order who could sing
had to wear albs in the choir at High Mass : Ad majorem Missam
omnes qui cantare sciunt sunt in albis (Antiq. Consuet. Cluniacensis
Monast. collect. S. Udalrico, in DAchery Spicilegium, i. 649).
Concerning such a practice, there is a curious notice in that
interesting work Dialogus inter Cluniacensem et Cisterciensem Mona-
clium. Among other reproofs the over-stern Cistercian throws
out against the Cluniacs : In hoc etiam valde reprehensibilis est
consuetude vestra, quod laici monachi albas induunt contra pne-
ceptum canonum, quas in nostro ordine nee tangere 'audent. To
this the meeker Cluniac answers with mildness : Propterea
qusedam monasteria nostra habent albas non consecratas, quas
laici monachi induunt. Martene, Thes. Anecd., v. 1627.
To the very last, the Benedictines in England always wore albs
on grand and solemn processions : at the coronation of Henry
VII. 's queen, "byfor the Prelats went the Monks of Westminster
al in Albes" (Leland, Collect., iii. 223). But the secular clergy of
this kingdom always sought to carry out St. Osmund's rubrics : in
the statutes for his new foundation of St. Mary's, at Ottery,
Bishop Grandison (A.D. 1339) ordained : Quod omni anno in festo
S. Michaelis sacrista faciat fieri ad minus duas albas cum amictibus
pro sacerdote et diacono vel subdiacono, et alias duas pro pueris
thuribulariis (Statuta Col. S. Marie de Otery. Oliver, Man. Dioc.
Exon., p. 271). Our choristers here in England were often pro-
vided with albs. That such was the usage at the king's chapel at
Windsor Castle, we know from the inventory of its vestments,
&c. (taken A.D. 1358), in which are put down : Sexdecim albse pro
choristis, cum duodecim amictibus. These albs for the singers
seem never to have had sewed on them any apparel, for the above
PAET I. CHAP. VI. 7
to another quarter of the church to sing any por-
tion (9) of the office, still for every one employed
about the altar, no matter at what distance from
it, and though even he were not more than an
acolyte, the alb was the allotted garment : if we
may so say, the surplice was the choral, the alb
the sacrificial ministering robe. Such a principle
was nothing new ; it existed in this country as
well as everywhere else, when St. Osmund and
the Normans came over here. Thus then upon
this, as well as upon every other point not merely
of belief but of ritual, there was a perfect agree-
ment between the Anglo-Saxons and their suc-
cessors the Normans, so that from the earliest
times, up to the better half of the sixteenth cen-
tury, the alb was always worn, at the more solemn
services, 38 by (10) every one about the altar even
sixteen are enumerated among the albse et amictus sine paruris.
Dugdale, Mon. Anglic., viii. 1366.
Among the things that "longith (A.D. 1473) unto oure Lady
chirche Sandewiche," were : ij awbys for children (Boys, Sandwich,
P- 375) ; an d in the regulations for the family of the Earl of
Northumberland, in the reign of Henry VIII., we find : It is
Ordynyde by my Lorde and his Counseill that . . . Four Albes for
Children for bering of Candilstiks and Censoures, to be weshid xij
tymes in the yere, &c. TJie Northumberland Household Book, p. 243.
These albs worn by the boys who served at High Mass, were,
like the priest's, the deacon's and sub-deacon's, ornamented with
apparels. In the churchwardens' accompts of St. Mary's, Sand-
wich, there is an entry " for y e makyng of y e paruris of y e childryn
awbys, and for y e settyng on yeroff vij d for iij quarters of a
zerd of rede bokeram for the same paruris " (Boys, Hist, of Sand-
wich, p. 364). Three albys for children and 6 ameses with parells,
and 3 albys and amesis without parells. Illustrations, &c., p. 115.
38 At no time might any clerk minister about the altar unless he
had on at least a surplice, for it was enacted that : Nullus clericus
8 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
by the acolytes. Such a venerable liturgical
custom is still kept up in many places in France
and Belgium.
The shape of our old English surplice is admir-
ably shown on many of our sepulchral monuments,
the brasses especially. 39 Reaching well nigh to
permittatur ministrare in officio altaris, nisi indutus sit super-
pellicio (Constitutiones Walteri Raynold, Cantuar. Archiep. A.D. 1322,
in Wilkins, ii. 5 1 3). On week days, then, or at low Mass, it is likely
that the clerk who waited on the priest wore not an alb, but surplice.
In a grand procession made to welcome Richard II. when he came
back to London (A.D. 1392) there walked more than five hundred
boys clad in surplices, along with the bishop and the clergy : Fertur
in ilia processione plusquam quingentos pueros in superpelliciis
extitisse ; as we are told by Knyghton. Twysden, ii. 2740.
39 The pictures to be found further on (pp. 48, 75) in illus-
tration of the furred almuce one of William Canynges, the other
of the acolyte waiting on the priest blessing the holy water
besides another in Hierurgia (ii. 254, edit. 3), from the beautiful
codex marked 2 B. vn. in the British Museum, will show what was
the flowing graceful shape of our old English surplice ; which, as
may be seen by the accompanying woodcut, did not yield in fulness
From the Roman Pontifical, Giunta, Venice, 1520, f. io6.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 9
the (11) feet, it was very full, and had large broad
sleeves widening as they outstretched themselves
all down the arms to the hands, from which they
hung drooping in masses of beautiful folds. With
a round hole at top, large enough to let the head
go through with ease, it had no kind of opening
in front, not even a short slit above the breast,
thus needing neither tie nor button to fasten it at
the neck. Immediately it was thrown on the
shoulders, it fitted itself in becoming drapery
about the wearer's person, so that this garment
became one of the most graceful and majestic of
those employed in the sacred ministry. 40
and majesty, to the garment of the same kind worn in Italy at the
beginning of the sixteenth century.
40 At first the surplice in this country reached quite down to
the feet, as may be seen in those worn under their copes by the
two singers, shown in the picture given later (p. 41), from a
Psalter written and beautifully illuminated in England in the
thirteenth century, which I possess. Abroad, too, it was made
equally long, as we learn from Stephen of Orleans, Bishop of
Tornay (A.D. 1192), who, speaking of it, says: Superpelliceum
novum, candidum, talare. [P.//., ccxi. 375.]
The sleeve of the old English surplice was so full and long, that
the clergy could muffle their hands within its ample folds, and
thus hinder the service-books which they held from being soiled
by the heat of their fingers. Bishop Grandison says : Mandamus
quod clerici tenendo libros, quantum possunt, manicas superpellicii
inter librum et manum interponant (Statuta Coll. S. Marie de
Otery, Oliver, Mon. Dioc. Exon., p. 270). An " Ordo Missae Pontifi-
calis," printed by Georgi from a Vatican manuscript of the four-
teenth century, gives a like rubric : Unus acolitorum recipiens
ampullas parvas, quas cooperire debet cum manicis superpellicei
sui, &c. Liturgia Rom. Pontif., iii. 577.
The reader may easily imagine the great fulness of the old
English surplice, when among other pious bequests dame Eliza-
beth Andrews (A.D. 1474) says: "I will, that Stoke church shall
have a surplice made of a piece of linen cloth containing twenty-
IO
THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(12) That this fine old English surplice, for
whomsoever it happened to be made for the
SACERDOTALE, Venice, 1564, f. 63*.
SACERDOTALE, Venice, 1564, f. 183*.
six yards " (Nicholas, Testamenta Vetusta, i. 329) ; " to the church
of Weston, twenty yards of linen cloth to make a surplice. "-
(B>., 330).
Even now, if the surplice be made according to the dimensions
laid down by Gavanti, who, however, merely copies, word for word,
PART I. CHAP. VI. ii
rector of the (13) church or his poorest clerk was
always of the same proportionate size and shape,
the directions of St. Charles Borromeo for this garment, it ought
to be seven yards wide, by no means slit open in front on the
breast, and fall down below the knees half way on the legs ; it
should have sleeves reaching to the fingers' ends, and more than
two yards in width. [Thesaurus Sac. fiit., pars v.] De Mensuris
propriis sacrse supelledilis, &c. [Ed. Merati, Venice, 1723, ii. 274].
In the north of Italy and other places, the surplice for minor
clerks was often made quite round, without having any sleeves,
but only a circular opening in the middle to let the head go
through, and was worn gathered up over the arms like a full old
chasuble, which it was exactly like in shape, as may be seen from
the woodcuts in the Sacerdotale ad consuetudinem S. Roman&
Ecdesise, Venetiis, 1564, at pp. 17, 63 b , io5 b , i83 b . The learned
Italian prelate Sarnelli tells us, that when he was a young clerk,
and served the church of the " Incoronata " at Naples, he used to
wear one of these old chasuble-shaped surplices : Ne solamente la
Pianeta era della detta forma, ma le cotte chericali eziandio benche
pill corte, le quali non avean maniche, e si cacciavan le braccia con
alzare i lembi laterali, e questo, dice il Ferrari ho io osservato in
Padova : ed io soggiungo, che anche oggi in Venezia si costuma
cosi, ed io medesimo essendo cherico nella chiesa delP Incoronata
di Napoli, le usai simiglianti (Lettere Ecclesiastiche, ii. 64). This is
a work which, though so full of ritual and ecclesiastical learning,
is entirely unknown in England. It does not seem that the sur-
plice cut after such a fashion was ever used in this country. Can
the above round shape of the surplice be a memorial of the
chasuble which, in olden times, even the acolytes wore ?
That acolytes in the early ages of the Church were vested in
chasubles, is shown by some of the oldest liturgical documents.
The earliest of the sixteen Roman Ordoes published by Mabillon
(Mus. Ital. ii.) directs : Parat evangelium qui lecturus est, reserato
sigillo ex prsecepto archidiaconi super planetam acolythi (Ordo
Romanus i ; ib., p. 6). Again, in Ordo v., in the chapter on the
various vestments of those who officiate, such as were assigned to
acolytes are thus enumerated : Acolythi cam. (camisia) et cing.
(cingulum) sestace in sinistra latera ad cing. pendens, tonica alba,
et orarium ad collum, et planeta ; et quando in gradu psallitur,
planeta abstollitur, et orarium portat in manu ('&., p. 65). More-
over, it is expressly said that, at his ordination, the acolyte was
to be clothed in the chasuble : Quomodo in sancta Romana ecclesia
acolythi ordinentur. Dum Missa celebrata fuerit, induunt clericum
12 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
there is no (14) room for doubting : not so, how-
ever, with regard to the material and the orna-
mental accessories bestowed upon it. To the
higher clergy were allotted surplices of the finest
linen, often of the kinds now known as lawn and
cambric ; 41 and judging (15) from works of art still
ilium planetam et orarium (ib., p. 85). But as well as acolytes,
all those who sang in the ambo or pulpit, and those who were in
the choir, were so arrayed : Reliqui vero inferiores gradus ecclesise,
qui in gradu psallunt, sicut et acolythi. Illi vero qui in ambone
non psallunt, si habuerint, similiter induantur (ib., p. 65). In-
deed, Amalarius says : Casula pertinet generaliter ad omnes
clericos (I)e JEccles. 0$c.. ii. 19 [P.L. cv. 1098]). For the "ambo,"
see picture and text, i. 169, 170.
41 A D. 1534. Paid for a surpless for the curate . los. od.
for the clerk . 3 o
for the sexton . 3 o
Illustrations, &c., from the Accompts of the Churchwardens, p. 10.
Nine ells of Hollande clothe for a surplyse and rochet. For
6 ells of Normandy clothe for the clark's surplice (ib.,pp. 100, 102).
The difference noticed above between the price of a surplice for
the curate and those for the clerk and sexton, arose not from the
quantity but the quality of the linen employed for the one and
the other ; for like those mentioned after, the priest's surplice
may have been made of the best linen then known Holland the
clerk's of coarser and cheaper Normandy.
In the same highly valuable work, we find other curious entries :
Eight surplyces for the quere, of the which two have no slevys.
Three rochets for children. p. 115.
A fyne ryben surplis in a lynnyn bag. p. 1 16.
Playne surplices for men aftir chappell gyse.
Reveld surplices for men. p. 117.
These two surplices without sleeves may have been for the
" rulers of the choir " to wear under their silk copes. The " playne
surplices" only show that others in general were ornamented.
The " fyne ryben " one, kept with such care in its own " lynnyn
bag," must have been of some costly material, for it was given as
a token of loving respect by the parish to the parish priest. Ibid.
In connection with this linen vesture, there was a curious usage.
The statutes which Bishop Grandison drew up in the fourteenth
century for the collegiate church of his endowment, Ottery St.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 13
remaining, the part of that garment going about
the throat was curiously and elegantly wrought
with needlework, done sometimes in scarlet, but
more frequently in dark blue thread. 42
(16) By the Roman Missal it is ordered that,
before he vests himself for Mass, the secular
priest should put on a surplice if it can be
conveniently had, 43 and then robe himself with
the amice, the alb, and the other vestments. The
very earliest traces of such a rubric can be found
among the Anglo-Saxons, for a canon enacted
under King Edgar, A.D. 967, says : " we enjoin,
that every priest have a corporal when he cele-
brates Mass, and a ' subucula ' under his alb, and
all his mass - vestments worthily appointed." 44
Mary's, Devon, show that at the time a custom was in some places
in England for the clergy of a church not only to dine together
on one of the great holidays, but to sit down to table each in his
surplice : Statuimus quod omni anno die Assumpcionis gloriose
Virginis totum collegium in claustro si habeatur, vel in aliqua
domo magis competenti simul comedant et in signum candide
virginitatis paradisi care columbe, superpelliciis in prandiis utantur
sine quibus nullus penitus nisi religiosus ibidem comedere per-
mittatur (Statuta Coll. S. Marie de Otery; Oliver, Mon. Dioc. Exon.,
p. 271). Bishop Grandison, the founder, gave these statutes,
A.D. 1339.
42 Ornamental needlework round the neck of the surplice is
shown on the figure of Thomas Leman, rector of South Acre, Nor-
folk (A.D. 1534), given overleaf (from Cotman) ; as also upon those
worn by the canons who are sitting in their stalls, figured in the
frontispiece to the present volume of this work, from a manuscript
in the British Museum of a book of Hours which once belonged
to, and most likely was expressly done for, our Richard II. The
colour of the needlework in this illumination is red.
43 Induit se . . . sacerdos ssecularis, super superpelliceum, si
commode haberi possit, &c. De Pr&p. Sacerd. celebraturi.
44 See note 98, i. 374, for the " Subucula."
THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
This Anglo-Saxon " subucula " was, no doubt,
shorter and tighter than the alb, and made of
linen in shape, perhaps, not much unlike a
fat p m i tar mm JOE m
to
modern sleeved rochet as it is made for our pre-
lates, and especially for so many congregations of
canons regular. 45 But again,
(17) THE ROCHET
is only a modification of the surplice, as the sur-
plice is of the alb. In some places, like the short
45 Besides Bonanni's fine work the Catalogo degli Ordini Religiosi,
the curious reader should look into the earlier one, from which the
industrious Jesuit borrowed so much, by Molinet, Figures des
Differ enis Habits des Chanoines Rfyuliers, where the rochet is well
shown.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 15
fine linen tunic called by the same appellation,
and so often employed by bishops, the rochet,
instead of those wide hanging sleeves of the sur-
plice, had narrow ones ; in other places, it was
formed without any sleeves at all, having slits
at the sides to put the arms through. Of this
last kind seems to have been the garment spoken
of by our English ecclesiastical ordinances, for
the use of parochial churches, and the less
dignified among the clergy. 46 (18) This did not
hinder the rochet, properly so called, from being
looked upon as a garment especially belonging
to the episcopal vesture ; for while but a priest,
our countryman, Richard de Bury, who afterwards
46 In the notes, still kept in the library at Salisbury Cathedral,
of the visitations which William, Dean of Salisbury, performed
(c. A.D. 1220), probably from being also Archdeacon of Berks,
mention is made of the rochet. At Ruscomb he noticed : Unum
superpellicium et unum rochettum ; and of that of Horningham
he remarks : Non est ibi superpellicium nee rochettum [Reg. Osm.,
i. 278, 314].
The visitation of St. Paul's, London, A.D. 1295, takes accompt
of the rochets belonging to some of the chapels. Dugdale, Hist,
of St. Paul's, new ed., pp. 331, 333, 334.
By a constitution of Archbishop Winchelsey, sent out A.D. 1305,
among other things that the parishioners were to find their church
in, were : Tria superpellicia, unum rocheturn (Lyndwood, Provinciate,
p. 252). In his gloss upon the text, this learned English canonist
tells us that the difference between these two linen garments
was, that the surplice had, the rochet had not, sleeves : Rochetum
. . . diiFert a superpellicio quia superpellicium habet manicas pendu-
las, sed rochetum est sine manicis, et ordinatur pro clerico minis-
traturo sacerdoti, vel forsan ad opus ipsius sacerdotis in bapti-
zando pueros ne per manicas ipsius brachia impediantur. Ibid.,
in nota n.
From our note 41, it is clear that the boys employed in the
Church-services wore rochets sometimes.
1 6 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
filled the see of Durham so worthily, had given
him by the hands of the Roman Pontiff a rochet,
for a pledge that the Holy See would name him
to the very first bishopric which might become
vacant in England. 46 "
SECTION II
The next clerical garment which asks our notice,
is the one now commonly known as
(19) THE CASSOCK,
but in ancient times called " pellicea," or
THE PELISSE,
which latter name was given to it, not because of
any difference of form, but on account of its being
lined with fur, according to a usage which pre-
vailed amid all ranks, both of men and women, in
those days of yore.
From the ecclesiastical monuments of art that
have been left us in this country, it would seem
the old English cassock differed in its shape but
very little, if anything, from the same kind of
robe still worn by the Catholic priesthood. Varie-
460 Bis adiit (Richardus de Bury) summum pontificem Johannem
. . . et recepit ab eo rochetam in loco bullse, pro proximo episcopatu
vacante ex post in Anglia (Williel. de Chambre, Continuatio Hist.
Dunelmensis, Surtees Soc., p. 127). Among the relics of St. Paul's,
London (A.D. 1295) was: Rochetum S. Edmundi Archiepiscopi
Cantuariensis. Dugdale, Hist, of St. Paul's, p. 339.
1
From St. Martin's Church, Birmingham
page 1 6
PART I. CHAP. VI. 17
ties it had, but they were unimportant : at some
periods we find it made to button all down the
front ; at others, it must have been kept close by
being tied about the waist by a belt or girdle.
For the great body of the clergy its colour no
doubt was black ; in illuminated manuscripts,
however, and on sepulchral effigies, many ex-
amples occur which show it to have been some-
times of other hues : doctors of divinity, for in-
stance, are usually represented in a scarlet-dyed
cassock, 47 and (20) acolytes are to be seen with
theirs sometimes of a purple, sometimes of a
crimson tint. 48
Beginning at an early period and lasting many
47 In the west window of Cirencester Abbey Church may be seen
a doctor of divinity figured in a scarlet cassock under his surplice ;
and in St. Martin's Church, Birmingham, lies the effigy of a doctor
of divinity clothed in his furred almuce, surplice, and cassock, upon
which the few spots of colour still remaining show that this garment
was once painted scarlet.
At the feast after High Mass, when Bishop Alcock was translated
(A.D. 1476) from Rochester to Worcester, "ther came in oon like
a doctour clothyd in scarlet," &c. (MS. C. C. C. Oxford, quoted by
Green, Append., p. xxxv., Hist, of Worcester, t. ii.). According to
Piazza, in his very curious work L 1 Iride Sagra, p. 1 98, Pope Benedict
XII. granted the use of scarlet to the University of Paris for
doctors in theology, and canon law. Very likely the same Pontiff
gave, or confirmed, the same privilege to Oxford.
48 In one of the Cotton manuscripts, Tiberius, B. viii., the minor
clerks are figured some in purple, some in scarlet cassocks, but
all wearing surplices of a texture so thin as to let the colour of
the garment beneath them be clearly seen. The boy who ministers
to the priest blessing the holy water, figured in the Buckland
Missal described just now (note 64, vol. i., p. 344), is clad in a
scarlet cassock, and wears, hanging all round his shoulders, a
scarlet hood over his surplice [see below, p. 75]. Another instance
of scarlet cassocks is noted later.
VOL. II. B
1 8 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
ages, the custom was, both here and in the other
northern parts of Christendom, for all clergymen,
whether secular, or of a religious order, to have
the gown we now call a cassock, lined, like the
garments of the laity, throughout with furs, in
(21) Latin, pelles: hence this vesture got its name,
"pellicea" or pelisse. 49 A line was drawn, how-
49 By the rule which our countryman, St. Gilbert of Sempring-
ham, drew up (c. A.D. 1139), for the religious order which he
founded, it is directed that each Canon of the brotherhood should
have, besides other garments : Una pellicea de adultis agnis
(Regula, &c., iii., De Vestibus, in Dugdale, Mon. Anyl, vii. p.
*xliv.) ; and in another part of the same rule, the saint enjoins
that : Fratres pelliparii congruo tempore . . . habeant unde pellicese
et pennse sanctimonialibus et sororibus, canonicis et fratribus fiant
de optimis agninis pellibus (ib., p. *xli.). From Matthew Paris
we learn that the old pelisses or fur-lined cassocks, of the monks
at St. Alban's, were bestowed in charity on poor women every
year. Vitse S. Albani Abbat., p. 63.
This sheep-skin fur for clerks' use in England is accidentally
noticed in Reginald's description of the dress in which St. Thomas
of Canterbury, who was martyred but a year only before that
monk wrote, appeared clad in a vision to a young knight : Nocte
forte soporatus, gloriosum Christi martyrem S. Thomam Archie-
piscopum Cantuariensem . . . agnovit. Erat . . . pallio nigro
pellibus agninis candentibus obsito indutus, pilleolo capitis vertice
perornatus (Reginaldus Dunelmensis, Libel, de Admir. S. Cuthberti,
p. 256). An interesting notice of the clerical cassock, as the
clergy at Cologne about the beginning of the twelfth century had
it made, is preserved to us by a writer of that period, in his Life
of St. Norbert, of whom we learn that, at presenting himself for
ordination, he laid aside his secular ermine-lined robe for the
cassock furred with lowly sheep-skin : Cum ei sacrista vestes
ofterret benedictas, quas ut ceteri ad ordines suscipiendos indueret ;
ille . . . convertit manum ad unum de famulis suis qui erant
ibidem juxta eum, et innuit sibi prsesentari pelliceum agninum
quod ad hujusmodi opus de industria jusserat praeparari. Quo
accepto exuit varium, et multiformem diabolum indumentum
scilicet mirae aestimationis pretio . . . comparatum . . . et induit
uniformem et simplicem Christum, vestem videlicet hominibus
hujus seculi et maxime illius regionis apud nobiles prorsus insoli-
PART I. CHAP. VI. 19
(22) ever, between the world and the sanctuary : as
plain but well-dressed sheep-skins were thought
quite good enough for such a purpose, to the great
bulk of religious people, it was always strongly
forbidden by the canons to employ the more costly
(23) furs for this or any other use about their
person, and the only individuals exempted from
such a rule were the several dignitaries of the
Church. 50
The Anglo-Saxon must have been, in every
respect, just like the fur-lined cassock of the
English churchman.
tarn, vilissimi pretii et nullius fere momenti, &c. ( Vita S. Norberti,
in A A. SS. Junii, i. 823). The "varium" of the text was the vair
or rich fur so much used by the nobility of that time.
By the ecclesiastical canons enacted during the thirteenth cen-
tury we know that abroad the secular clergy were required always
to come to church in a pelisse which was to reach down to the
heels : Ne canonici ecclesiarum in solennitatibus et stationibus
sine chorali pelliceo vel veste canonicali sub superpelliceo incedant
in ecclesiis conventualibus et in choro. Condi. Coloniensis, canon
ix., c. A.D. 1260 [Harduin, Cone., vii., 522]. Indumenta clericorum
maxime cappas et superpellicia et pellicias decernimus tantum esse
talaria. Statuta ex MS. Alnensis Monas. (circa A.D. 1200), in Mar-
tene, Thes. Anecd., iv. 1191.
It was decreed by the council of Westminster (A.D. 1138) that
nuns should not wear costly furs: Prohibemus sanctimoniales
variis seu grisiis, sabellinis, marterinis, hereminis, beverinis pelli-
bus et annulis aureis uti. Wilkins, Condi., i. 415.
50 Matthew Paris carefully notices that the choir cope of the
Legate, who, in opening the council of London (A.D. 1237) at St.
Paul's, put on his vestments in the church, was lined with " vair " :
Se induit superpellicio et desuper capa chorali pellibus variis
f urrata, &c. Hist., p. 302.
20 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
SECTION III
After the cassock, we come to
THE COPE,
which, though perhaps unknown to St. Beda and
Archbishop Ecgberht, was certainly looked upon
as a sacred vestment, and worn by the later Anglo-
Saxon churchmen. Indeed, one of the earliest
drawings we know of this garment is shown us by
an Anglo-Saxon pontifical, 51 in an illumination of
(24) which, the bishop, who is going through the
ceremonies for dedicating a church, is figured
51 The Anglo-Saxon [Alet] Pontifical, now in the public library
at Rouen, but formerly belonging to the monastery of Jumieges.
Speaking of this precious manuscript in his invaluable work
De Antiquis Ecclesix Ritibus which ought always to be among
the books of every ecclesiastic, as well as antiquary, Martene
(writing A.D. 1702) says: Pontificale Anglicanum eiusdem monas-
terii (Gemmeticensis) annorum circiter 900 (ib., i. 21), and thus
makes it a codex of the early part of the ninth century. This
illumination is given in "The Anglo-Saxon Ceremonial for the
Dedication of Churches." Arch&ologia, xxv., pi. xxx.
Vested in alb, stole, and cope, the abbot of an Anglo-Saxon
monastery blessed the wax-tapers to be carried by his monks on
candle-mass day : Omnes albis induti . . . Deinde abbas stola et
cappa indutus benedicat candelas. Regularis Concordia, in Reyner
[Apost. Benedict], Append., p. 85.
The more general custom in England, especially for bishops and
dignitaries of the Church, was to wear under the cope an alb
with a stole fastened cross-wise upon the breast, as we may see by
the figures in pi. xxxvii. of " The Painted Chamber, Westminster,"
edited by the late J. Gage Rokewode, Esq., my estimable and
learned friend. This is also shown by the carving in oak of
Bishop Barnek. Bishops now never cross their stoles.
From the Alet Pontifical.
22 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
vested in an alb, stole, maniple, and cope, as the
reader will see by the accompanying woodcut of
it. But the use of such a robe was not confined,
in this country, to bishops ; for whatever may
have been the custom, upon this head, abroad,
here at least in the reign of the Confessor, copes
were allowed to be worn by the chanters, or, as
they (25) were at a later period called, the "rulers
of the choir," for Leofric bequeathed three copes
for this specific purpose to his church of Exeter ; 52
and they were, along with the other costly and
beautiful garments for the divine service, provided
with so much care by one of the most distin-
guished saints of this or any other land the
Anglo-Saxon Margaret, queen of Scotland. 53
Like the same kind of vestment in other coun-
tries, 54 the Anglo-Saxon cope was made of silk
62 . iii . cantercseppa and . iii . canterstafas. Kemble, Cod. Dip.
Anglo-Saxonuru, iv. 275.
53 His rebus, id est quse ad divinse servitutis cultum pertinebat,
nunquam vacua erat illius camera; quse, ut ita dicam, qusedam
cselestis artificii videbatur esse officina. Ibi cappae cantorum,
casulse, stolse, altaris pallia, alia quoque vestimenta sacerdotalia
et ecclesise semper videbantur ornamenta. Vita S. Margaritas,
A A. SS. Junii, ii. 329, n. 7.
54 With other beautiful vestments given to the church of his
monastery by the abbot St. Ansigisus (A.D. 820), were : Cappas
Romanas duas, unam videlicet ex rubeo cindato et fimbriis viridi-
bus in circuitu ornatam, alteram ex cane pontico, quern vulgus
Bevurum nuncupat, similiter fimbriis sui coloris decoratam in orbe
(Chron. Fontanellense ab auct. cotevo in D'Achery, Spicilegium,
ii. 280). The cope, " ex cane pontico," commonly then called
beaver skin, must have been made of ermine, which, for many ages
later than St. Ansigisus's time, was thought to be the skin of
the Pontic mouse. Among the rich vestments in the treasury
of St. Riquier's Church, A.D. 831, were : Cappa castanea auro
PART I. CHAP. VI. 23
(26) varying in colour with the festival and season ;
and we may be sure that it was highly adorned
with gold and embroidered imagery : 55a a deep
fringe, which sometimes was formed of little tink-
ling bells made of gold, 556 ran all around it below ;
(27) a morse or clasp, which seems to have been
sometimes studded with jewels, kept its sides in
front fastened across the breast ; while, behind,
it had sewed to it a wide hood, 56 so made as to
parata T, serica I (Chron. Centul. ib., p. 310) [P.L. clxxiv. 1253] ; and
in his will, Bishop Riculf mentions, A.D. 915 : Capas duas, una
purpurea, et alia bition. [P.L. cxxxii. 468.]
55a Besides a large quantity of other rich Anglo-Saxon vest-
ments, submitted to the pilfering fingers of William I., at Ely,
were : xxxiiii cappas, quatuor earum cum aurifriso, alia sine auri-
friso ; iiii taissellos ad opus capparum (MS. Cotton, Titus A. i., fol.
24, b). One of the copes given to the same minster by St. JEthel-
wold is said to have been of singular beauty : Contulit etiam
ecclesise nonnulla ornamenta capas videlicet plures, sed unam
insignis operis (Thomas Elien., Hist. Eliensis in Anglia Sacra, i.
604). Dedit (abbas Egelricus) et choro 24 cappas, scilicet 6 albas,
6 rubeas, 6 virides, et 6 nigras (versus A.D. 984). Ingulph. [ed.
W. de Gray Birch, 1883, p. 91].
636 Our first William sent St. Hugh, Abbot of Cluny, a most
splendid cope, the fringe to which consisted of these very orna-
ments : Misit rex (Willelmus Anglorum princeps) domino abbati
et sacro conventui cappam pene auream totam . . . inferius autem
undique tintinnabula resonantia ipsaque aurea pendent (Vita S.
Hugonis Ab. Cluniac. in A A. SS. Aprilis,iu. 66 1). From all that we
know of the Norman king, there can be no doubt that this gorgeous
cope was filched from some Anglo-Saxon church. Conrad (prior
of Christ Church, Canterbury, A.D. 1108) bestowed upon that
cathedral : Cappam pretiosissimain undique exterius auro puris-
simo intextam, inferius et per circuitum CXL nolas argenteas sed
deauratas habentem, nonnullis lapidibus pretiosissimis interpositis,
fieri fecit, pro cujus expensione centum libras distribuit. Hist.
Prior. Eccl. Cantuar., ed. Wharton, Aug. Sac., i. 137.
56 The fringe and the square jewelled morse are seen in the
woodcut above, from the illumination of the Anglo-Saxon Ponti-
24 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
be drawn up with ease when the head needed
protection from the weather. 57
(28) But in the latter days of the Anglo-Saxon
period, this hood, it is likely, underwent no slight
change ; and if not in all, at least in some churches
of this country, was laid aside to have its place
filled up by a flat piece of ornamental embroidery,
which, hanging loose from the cope, bore the
name while it kept up the remembrance of the
true old hood : nay more, there are grounds for
thinking that this appendage, in its new and
altered form, was sometimes of one sheet of thin
but solid gold, which being held to the vestment
by small chains or fastenings of the same precious
metal, could be easily undone and taken off. 58
Among those who came into power here, after
the Anglo-Saxons, the cope continued to be, in
shape and material, what it was before ; but its
hood, if it had not then, at least very soon after
fical now at Rouen, and figured by Mr. Gage, Archseologia, xxv. 17.
The hood hanging upon the bishop's shoulders is also well marked
there.
57 At the end of the last century, all over the Continent, might
be found old copes with sharply-pointed hoods of a bag-like form,
as if made to be drawn up and worn about the head. Of this sort
were those two red ones still used, in De Moleon's time, at Rouen
Cathedral : II y a encore deux anciennes chappes rouges qui ont
des chaperons ou capuchons pointus . . . On sait que ce chaperon
ou capuchon se mettoit sur la tete. Voy. Liturg., p. 379.
58 His Normans, whom William I. sent all about this country
to rifle the Anglo-Saxon minsters, found at Ely : ii'ii taissellos ad
opus capparum (MS. Cotton, Titus A. i., fol. 24, b). These " taisselli "
filched from the poor monks were, no doubt, movable hoods of
beaten gold or silver.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 25
the arrival of the Normans, fell, as a covering for
the head, quite into disuse, though the place and
form of this original appurtenance remained well
marked by a large flat appendage hung from the
shoulders and bearing its name, just as at the
present day.
Like the Anglo-Saxon, our English cope was
(29) rendered as beautiful as the loom, the gold-
smith's craft, precious stones, and the needle of the
embroiderer, could make it. Cloths of gold shot
with the richest tints of colour, the most costly
silks, and velvets of the deepest pile, were sought
out for it ; 59 these again were wrought all over
in the most tasteful and elaborate patterns, with
branches spreading out into leaves and flowers,
having birds and animals looking forth from amid
them, and formed in part, to heighten the effect,
of plates of silver, or with filigree work in solid
gold; 60 at (30) other times the whole surface of
69 Capam meam de panno ad aurum scilicet baudekin. Wills,
<&c., of the Northern Counties, i. 6, published by the Surtees Society.
Capa facta de baudekinis purpureis cum aquilis aureis extensis
cum floribus.
Duse capse factse de baudekino unius operis varii coloris, cum
bestiis variis intersertis.
Capa Gileberti de Stratton de panno aureo lineato cum sendato
rubeo afforciato.
Capa Johannis Maunsel de panno aureo qui vocatur ciclatoun.
Visit, in Tltes. S. Pauli Londinensis (A.D. 1295), Dugdale, Hist, of
St. Paul's, p. 318.
60 Dederat unam capam rubeam cum leonibus laminis argenteis
capse infixis, et morsum ponderantem quatuordecim solidos et
quatuor denarios (Johannes Glastoniensis, p. 203). Capa domini
Edmundi Comitis Cornubise de quodam diaspero Antioch. coloris,
tegulata cum arboribus et avibus diasperatis quarum capita,
26 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
the cope was overspread with circles, or quatrefoils
enclosing embroideries, each a little picture a
work of art in itself telling some story from
holy writ, or out of the saints' legends. 61
(31) It was, however, more particularly on the
hood, the orphreys, and the morse .of a cope, that
pectora, et pedes, et flores in medio arborum sunt de aurifilo
contexts. Dugdale, St. Paul's, p. 318.
61 Capa Lanfranci nigra frectata auro cum bestiis et floribus
aureis et .ij tassellis aureis.
Capa ejusdem nigra cum magnis tassellis aureis, &c.
Capa sancti Edmundi de morre cum tassellis gemmis ornatis.
Ornam. in Vestiar. Ecc. Ckristi Cant. (A.D. 1315), [Inventories, Christ
Church, Canterbury, p. 53],
Capee duse de samicto rubeo cum magnis tassellis aureis, et
morsibus cum gemmis.
Sex capse de samicto rubeo cum tassellis aureis minoribus.
Duae capse de samicto rubeo cum parvis tassellis aureis.
Duae capae de samicto rubeo sine tassellis, cum lato aurifrigio
veteri. Ibid.
The ten splendid copes which were given (A.D. 1322) by Walter
to the church of Glastonbury, are thus carefully remembered by
the historian of that venerable house : Walterus dedit decem capas
. . . quarum prima preciosior continet historias passionis Christi,
cujus campus aureus est et deasperatus ; secunda similiter continet
easdem historias cum aliis, cujus campus similiter est aureus et
deasperatus. Tercia dicta le velveth coccinei coloris cum ymagini-
bus . . . Quinta de samicto rubeo cum apostolis circulata . . .
Septima de samicto rubeo continens historias Sanctorum Dun-
stani, David, et Aldelmi cum scalopis. Octava de samicto tuleo
continens historias S. Dunstani, cum leopardis et scalopis, &c.
(Johannes Glaston., p. 261). Of such copes so storied the only one
in this country is at Alton Towers, and once belonged to the
nunnery of Syon House, near London, but now in the possession
of the Earl of Shrewsbury : it will be minutely described at the
end of this chapter. Of Durham Cathedral we are told that the
monks walked " in procession with all the rich copes belonging to
the church, every monk one. The prior had an exceedingly rich
one of cloth of gold, which was so massy that he could not go
upright with it, unless his gentlemen, who at other times bore
up his train, supported it on every side whenever he had it on."
The Rites of Durham, p. 85.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 27
the artist who had its making put forth all the
most beautiful of his devices, and the giver of the
vestment exhibited his pious magnificence.
Very often the same cope had belonging to it,
not merely one, but several hoods, all of which
could be put off 62 and on with the greatest ease,
(32) so that at a high festival the one figured with
the subject of the day might be worn ; at times,
indeed, these so-called hoods were neither em-
broidered, nor even of silk or velvet, but formed,
as it would appear from ancient records, of sheet
gold, beaten out into some elegant design, and
enchased with precious stones. 63
62 It would seem that the English custom was, in making copes
for the use of churches belonging to the Knights Templars, to put
upon such vestments some badge indicative of that warlike order ;
for among the copes of St. Paul's, London (A.D. 1295) one so
wrought is especially noticed : Capa fact a de baudekino ad modum
Templi cum militibus equitantibus infra, cum avibus super manus,
quam dedit Henricus de Sandwyco Episcopus. Dugdale, St.
Paul's, p. 318.
The hood of the above-mentioned Syon House cope was mov-
able, and is now lost ; but the three golden loops by which it hung
are still to be seen just below the orphrey behind.
63 In the annals of Rochester Cathedral, one of those gorgeous
hoods made of silver-gilt and encrusted with gems, is especially
noticed among the good works of Helyas, the prior of that church :
In capa Gileberti episcopi fecit fieri morsum de argento et capettum
deauratum et preciosis lapidibus ornatum (Thorpe, Registrum
Roffense, p. 122). Archbishop Lanfranc's "capa . . . cum 2 tas-
sellis aureis," was, to my thinking, a cope enriched with two such
movable hoods of pure beaten gold. Of the like precious metal
were the hoods belonging to some of those other magnificent copes
enumerated in the same note 61, just now, p. 26.
But the word tassellus, so often found there, had, with our old
native ecclesiastical writers, more than one meaning; though,
as it should be carefully borne in mind, it was never employed by
them to signify the ornament which we now call in English " tassel."
28 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(33) With regard to the form of this hood, if we
may guess by the few early pictorial representations
Tassellus was used several ways, to express one ornament or another
affixed upon dress, though it became generally limited to the
vestments and adornments of the ministers of religion, upon
almost every article of whose sacred attire it may be discovered
to have been a decorative part. Thus we find tassellus in our
ancient records to mean :
1 . The large thin sheet of gold or silver hanging behind on the
cope, as shown by the authorities above.
2. Any piece of gold or silver plate fastened to a vestment ; for
not only copes, but chasubles, too, had their tasselli sparkling with
gems, hung all about them.
Dedit (Richardus abbas S. Albani) etiam casulam unam, auro,
tassellis ac gemmis pretiosis adornatam. Stolas binas pretiosas
cum manipulo, capam unam purpuream, morsu et tassellis caris-
simis redimitam. Matt. Paris, Vit. Abb. S. Albani, p. 35.
3. The morse was carefully distinguished from the tassellus, as
is shown by the extract just given from Matt. Paris.
4. The ornaments on the back of episcopal gloves, when not
done in embroidery, but made of silver or gold plate, are likewise
called tasselli :
Cirothece.
Item par unum cum tassellis argenteis et parvis lapidibus.
Item par unum de lino cum tassellis argenteis et perulis.
[Inventories of Christ Church, Canterbury, p. 71.]
5. Again, although the hood behind on a cope was called the
tassellus, yet, whenever square or round plates of gold or silver,
having on them pearls or jewels, were sewed by way of orphrey
down in front of the cope, or on any other part of its border, as
was often the fashion, to give it additional radiance, such plates
were called tasselli :
Fecit etiam vij cappas, quarum una auro et lapidibus obducta
est tota. Alia vero pretiosis tassellis, auro et margaritis anterius
et in circuitu parabatur. Alise quatuor, optimo aurifrigio, septima
purpurea, tassellis decenter adornatur. Vita Gaufridi (A.D. 1119),
Matt. Paris, Vit. Abb., p. 62.
Capa Radulphi Herefordiensis episcopi de rubeo samicto cum
tassellis et amauz in medio [Inventories of Christ Church, Canterbury,
p. 54]. The " amauz " were amethysts.
Hence it came that any piece of ornament, whether merely of
simple cloth of gold, or of beautiful and elaborate embroidery,
when it happened to be a different work from the vestment
PART I. CHAP. VI. 29
remaining of it in illuminated manuscripts, it must
(34) have been, among the Anglo-Saxons, of a
straight-sided, three-cornered shape, ending in a
sharp (35) point : afterwards, it took, as we well
know, a somewhat altered figure, keeping the
triangle, but with circular instead of right lines
on two of its sides, and having its downward
point much blunted, like indeed the inverted
head of a gothic window. This shape the hood
on our copes ever retained till the latest days of
Catholicism in England, 64 and at no time was there
itself, and was affixed to it, whatever that vestment might be
cope, chasuble, dalmatic, or tunicle, it mattered not the orna-
ment was called tassellus : Fecit (Ernulfus eccl. Roffensis Ep.) duas
casulas, scil. nigram cum tassello super humeros de auro bruslatam,
et aliam de viridi samith. Thorpe, Itegist. Roffense, p. 120.
Item capa Adse Prioris de viridi samicto cum tassellis rubeo
brudatis. Item due cape de croceo samicto cum rubeis tassellis
brudatse. Item capa una de croceo panno diasperato cum tas-
sellis de viridi. Capa professionis Thome Eboracensis Archiepis-
copi de rubeo panno diasperato cum tassellis nigris rotundis
brudatis. Ornam. in Vest. Eccl. Christi Cantuar. (A.D. 1315) [In-
ventories, ut sup., pp. 53, 54],
Item par unum (Tunic, et Dalmatic.) J. de Bocton de croceo
samicto cum tassellis de Baudekino ante et retro. \Ibid., p. 58.]
Tunicse et Dalmaticse.
Item par unum de panno de Tharse coloris de pounaz cum
stellis et crescenciis aureis, cum tassellis in dorso de martirio S.
Stephani brudatis super Dalmaticam, et martirium S. Thomee
brudatum super tunicam.
Par unum S. Edmundi de samicto de morre cum tassellis ante
et retro consutis. [Ibid., p. 57.]
64 The beautiful English cope made of purple velvet, and pro-
fusely embroidered, of about the end of the fifteenth century,
which belongs to Sir Robert Throckmorton, Bart., and is now
lying outspread before me, has its hood, which is sewed all round
quite close to the body of the vestment, cut to the shape de-
scribed above in the text. Such, too, is the form of hood shown
30 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
ever the custom of making it here as now semi-
circular.
The orphreys were two bands, some eight
inches in breadth, of another material than the
cope itself, and reaching all down from the neck
on both sides in front, as the vestment shows
itself on the (36) wearer's person. These orphreys
were variously made : sometimes they consisted
of rich but simple cloth of gold, or of silk ; at
others, an appropriate design of flowers, branches,
or quatrefoils ran all through them, glittering
with precious stones, pearls, and the finest
enamels 65 tabernacle standing over tabernacle,
each holding a saint exquisitely embroidered a
row of shields, every one blazoned with heraldic
bearings in their proper colours, 66 or one unbroken
string, formed by thin plates of solid gold studded
with jewels, like some of the golden hoods, went
about the sides of this vestment ; while all around
by the woodcuts in the rare edition of the Salisbury Processional,
printed under the editorship of the then Bishop of Winchester,
A.D. 1528. [See Wordsworth, Salisbury Processions (Cambridge,
1901) and Processionale, ed. Henderson.]
Unaware of this, beside a deal else belonging to the subject,
some among those who, with a most praiseworthy zeal, but not
the most thorough good taste, have lately striven with ourselves
to bring back the old English Catholic form to our vestments, in
giving designs for copes, have directed the hood to be shaped in
the modern semi-circular, instead of the old pointed way. Let us
hope that those who have the making of a cope hereafter will
avoid this oversight and wide departure from antiquity.
65 Capa de indico velvetto cum aurifrigio de rubeo velvetto
cum platis et perlis desuper positis. Visit, in Thes. S. Pauli
Londinensis (A.D. 1295), Dugdale, Hist, of St. Paul's, p. 318.
66 The orphreys of the Syon monastery cope are heraldic.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 31
at bottom, instead of fringe or any other trimming,
there hung a great number of little gold or silver
bells. 67
(37) SECTION IV
To hinder the cope from slipping off, it was
fastened over the breast by a kind of clasp, which
here in England was familiarly known as
THE MoBSE, 68
which was, in shape, flat or convex ; from five to
six inches in breadth, either circular, square, or in
67 Capa Lanfranci nigra ornata gemmis et auro, cum .ij cam-
panellis rotundis argenteis deauratis cum magno topacio et quatuor
amauz in pectore. [Inventories of Christ Church, Canterbury, p. 53,
where see also following entry.]
Ernulfus, Bishop of Rochester (A.D. 1115): Fecit fieri . . . capam
principalem cum skillis argenteis. Anglia Sacra, i. 342.
Conrad (who died A.D. 1127), prior of Christ Church, Canterbury,
had already bestowed upon that cathedral the following splendid
cope: Cappam preciosissimam undique exterius auro purissimo
intextam, inferius et per circuitum centum et quadraginta
holas argenteas sed deauratas habentem, nonnullis lapidibus
preciosissimis interpositis fieri fecit, pro cujus expencione centum
libras distribuit [Inventories of Christ Church, Canterbury, p. 44].
This cope must have been most magnificent, for the ^100 spent
on it in the twelfth century would then go further than ^1000
now. The 140 "holse" were, I presume, so many cup-shaped
bells, a favourite ornament, at the time, as a trimming for a
cope. A fine old cope, trimmed all around below with slender
silver bells, is still to be seen in the inner sacristy of the great
church at Aix-la-Chapelle.
68 Ipse archiepiscopus (Cantuariensis Bonifacius) capam illam
preciosam, qua subprior indutus erat, dilaceravit, et firmaculum,
quod vulgariter morsus dicitur, avulsit . . . quod auro et argento
et gemmis fuerat preciosum. Matt. Paris, Hist. Anglic. (A.D. 1250),
p. 522, col. ii.
32 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
some one of those many forms of graceful outline
to be found in the details of pointed architecture.
It was made of gold or of silver, of ivory or copper,
(38) or of wood overlaid with one or other of the
precious metals : gems, too, and pearls were given
for its enrichment. But the workmanship as
much as the material lent a value to this appur-
tenance ; for all the cunning of the goldsmith's
art was exercised upon its design ; and though
it happened to be at times merely of copper, yet
the beautiful enamels with which it glowed,
rendered it even then costly. 69
69 Morsus Alardi decani triforiatus de auro puro cum kama-
hutis et aliis lapidibus multis et perils sine defectu ponderans
xxxiis. vie?.
Morsus Galfridi de Lucy argenteus exterius deauratus cum
limbo triphoriato aureo insertis quatuor magnis lapidibus et aliis
minoribus et perlis, et cum ymaginibus Salvatoris coronantis
matrem suam, et Petri et Pauli lateralibus et angeli superius et
datoris morsus inferius cum duobus bitellis, et continet in circuit u
circulum de albis perlis ; sed deficiunt lapillus unus et xv noduli
cum triphorio, ponderans xls. Cresta ejusdem argentea exterius
deauratus, cum exteriori triphorio aurato, et pomello pulchro
argenteo deaurato insertis cum triphorio cum lapidibus et perlis
majoribus et minoribus . . . et lista de par vis perlis rupta est ad
quantitatem quinque pollicium, ponderans I marc.
Morsus Ricardi de Clifford argenteus exterius deauratus cum
limbo et cresta triphoriata de auro insertis lapidibus ; et deficiunt
tres lapilli ponderans cum brochea argentea appensa xvis. ivc?.
Morsus . . . de cupro exterius deauratus cum octo lapidibus et
berillo in medio representante Crucifixum : cresta ejusdem de cupro
exterius deauratus cum lapillis et perlis amxis.
Item septem morsus lignei ornati laminis argenteis et lapidibus,
et una cresta argentea. Visitatio in Thes. S. Pauli Londinensis
(A.D. 1295), Dugdale, Hist, of St. Paul's, pp. 310, 311, new ed.
Capa de Morre de Kocco distincto cum tassellis aureis et morsu
de ebore. [Inventories, Christ Church, p. 53.]
Though but seldom, yet sometimes the morse was called " pec-
PART I. CHAP. VI. 33
(39) From every cope having in general its own
morse, this ornament must have been made fast on
toral " ; and under such a name we find some very rich ones set
down in the Winchester inventory :
One pectoral of gold set with stones.
One pectoral partly gold, partly silver and gilt, set with stones.
Six pectorals of silver and gilt, garnished with stones. Dugdale,
Mon. AnyL, i. 202.
The name of " ouche," or " noche," was in some few places given
to it. In the list of church-ornaments belonging to Worcester
Priory (A.D. 1540) were :
A noche, called Lyttulton's noche, of golde and precious stones
(pertin. priori et conventui) ;
the supp r ior's noche ;
the chauntor's noche. Green, Hist, of Worcester, ii., App., p. v.
The Annunciation of our blessed Lady St. Mary was a favourite
subject for a morse in old English times, as we find by various
documents. In the inventory (A.D. 1385) of the ornaments be-
longing to the chapel royal of Windsor (see p. 6), are noted down :
Unus morsus argenteus deauratus et aymellatus in cujus medio
salutatio angelica extat, cum armis comitis Warwichise.
Unus morsus argenteus deauratus, cum salutatione angelica in
tabernaculis pulchriter dispositis, cujus angeli deficit ala sinistra,
et de lilio deficit unus flos. Dugdale, Mon. Anglic., viii. 1365.
At New College, Oxford, among what are called the founder's
jewels, is a piece of enamel figured with the Annunciation. That
it was once the centre part of a morse, seems to me quite clear ;
though, from its style as a work of art, I think it later than
Wykeham's time, and must have been the gift of some other
well-wisher to that college.
Unus morsus triangularis argenteus deauratus cujus medium
est aymellatum, &c.
Unus morsus nobilis argenteus deauratus lapidibus ornatus
circumquaque, in cujus medio est lapis camahu in quo sculpitur
imago unius prophetse, &c., ib. sicut supra.
While we read the foregoing list of English morses, we are
struck not so much by the costliness of the materials bestowed
in general for their making, as with the variety of detail and
elaborate delicacy of execution in which such church-ornaments
were wrought. This shows to what a height of perfection our
native goldsmiths had reached, proving that our English, like our
Anglo-Saxon workmen, went beyond those of other nations in
their elegant handicraft.
VOL. II. C
LIBRARY ST. MARY'S COLLEGE
34 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(40) one side of the vestment, and hitched itself
to the other by means of a tongue, or a set of
hooks, or by a pin like a brooch. 70
(41) As an old morse is among the greatest
ecclesiastical rarities, per-
haps the reader may be
glad to see, in this wood-
cut, the form of a very
good one on enamelled
copper, which once be-
longed to a parish church
in Buckinghamshire, and
is now in my collection. 70a
Not always was it that the cope was held fast
by a metal morse : sometimes the vestment was
confined, as now, by a square piece of the same
stuff as the cope, by the help of large hooks and
eyes, or with loops and knots made of gold
70 In the note above, the reader will have noticed that Richard
de Clifford's morse had attached to it a silver brooch, cum brochea
argentea appensa ; which, no doubt, must have been to fasten it
to one or other side of the cope.
70a This morse is a very good specimen of enamel as done at the end
of the thirteenth century. The green ground upon which the angel-
acolytes stand, is well strewed with daisies, half white, half gold,
and at each side, on a field azure, is a fleur-de-lis or. In French,
the daisy is called " La Marguerite, "and the heraldry is the blazon
of France : can this morse then have been part of the chapel
ornaments belonging to the oratory of Margaret of France, Philip
the Fair's sister, whom our Edward I. married as his second wife P
the style of art shown in it is precisely of that prince's days.
After having been used as a morse, this beautiful piece of enamel
was mounted on wood, and made to serve for what was called a
" pax-brede " : such is its actual shape.
PAKT I. CHAP. VI. 35
lace. 71 But (42) even such morses were not with-
out their adornment; for besides the embroidery
upon them, they shone with jewels, and cones
covered with pearls stood out from them. 72
(43) If every other document showing what, in
olden times, must have been the splendour of our
vestments for public worship when this kingdom
was happily Catholic, had been lost, except the list
[given in the first edition of this work] of those
71 Capa . . . de rubeo sameto cum pectorale optime breudata
cum castro et episcopo et diacono.
Capa . . . de rubeo sameto cum rotundis pectoralibus aurifrigiis.
Episcopus habet duo.
Capa . . . de cendato aflforciato albo cum margaritis ante, loco
morsus. Visit, in Thes. S. Pauli Londinensis (A.D. 1295), Dugdale,
Hist, of St. Paul's, p. 317.
The Syon Monastery cope, now at Alton Towers, and another
rich old English cope of the reign of Henry VII., belonging to
Sir Robert Throckmorton, Bart., and at Buckland, as well as
another fine one now at Slindon, Sussex, have, each of them, a
morse of rich embroidery of the same stuff of which the cope itself
is made.
72 For the beautiful morses embroidered and jewelled on many
of the copes at Salisbury (A.D. 1220), see Wordsworth, Sarum
Processions, 176.
Even now at Rome on great festivals each of the six suburban
cardinal bishops wears in his cope a morse, or as it is there called,
a " formale," which consists of three far projecting knobs, or
cones, covered all over with choice pearls, and these cones are so
mounted that they form a perpendicular line ; while in the morse
of the supreme Pontiff these same pearled ornaments stand in a
triangle. Speaking of the morse used by the Pope, Cancellieri
tells us : II medesimo (formale di perle) era stato lavorato sotto
Clemente VIII., e rifatto da Pio VI. Era tutto d'oro, con un
ramo di ulivo d'oro, smaltato verde, che serviva d'ornamento, e
circondava tre pigne grosse composte di perle orientali, formate
in forma triangolare, a differenza del formale de' sei cardinali
vescovi suburbicarj, che portano le tre pigne di perle, in linea
perpendicolare. Descrizione delta Settimana Santa, p. 9.
36 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
which once belonged to Salisbury Cathedral, we
should still have quite enough to let us know
how enamels, even ancient cameos, silver, gold,
pearls, and precious stones, all rendered more
beautiful from the light and exquisite workman-
ship by which they were set forth, could ever be
found and bestowed by churchman and laic as
freely as they were profusely, on the making and
adornment of what, with truth, might then be
called a " capa pretiosa," or precious cope.
To hold these beautiful vestments, chests, from
the peculiarity of their shape called " triangles," 73
were invented, perhaps as early as the Anglo-
Saxon period. But among our ecclesiastics of later
times, we know that it was not one of their last
thoughts to get together the best kinds of wood
for constructing, and elegant scroll-work in iron
for ornamenting, such repositories, of which some
few may still be seen scattered about the kingdom in
(44) our larger churches. 74 From the form of these
" triangles," we perceive that the cope before being
put by, must, in general, have had its hood taken
off, to be laid flat and unbent upon the wider part of
the vestment itself, which had been folded in two. 75
73 Materiem ad faciendum triangulum ad capas reponendas com-
paravit (Helyas prior Roffensis). Thorpe, Regist. Roffense, p. 122.
74 In the undercroft or crypt, at Wells Cathedral, there is a
good early triangle or cope chest, and two finer still are at York
Minster ; another exists in the vestry at Salisbury Cathedral.
75 Sometimes the hood of the cope was not only sewed to it,
but stitched all round and not allowed to hang with the lower
part free ; in such instances the hood was necessarily left on the
cope and folded with it.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 37
Before leaving the cope, we should remember
that the Church, especially in the western parts of
Christendom, has, ever since she adopted this robe,
looked upon it pre-eminently as her processional,
in the same manner as she has always deemed the
chasuble her sacrificial vestment. While offering
up the unspotted Sacrifice of the Mass, the priest
must ever be clad, together with the rest of his
sacred attire, in a chasuble : 76 for processions, as
(45) well as at every part of the liturgy during
the year more immediately connected with them,
the rubrics according to the Salisbury Use direct
the chief celebrant, at least, to have on a cope ; 77
76 A love for what was new not only in belief but ritual, and
the strongly felt wish of going against catholic antiquity, must
have whispered the use of the cope as a vesture for the priest that
shall execute the ministry of the holy communion, "commonly
called the Mass," to those men who drew up the rubrics for
Edward VI. 's first Book of Common Prayer, and acting under the
lay authority of that boy-king, did away with the old to put in
its stead a new form of prayer and national belief.
77 See the Salisbury Processional passim, but more especially
the rubric for Christmas-day : In die nativitatis, dum hora prima
ante missam canitur sex pueri ad ministrandum vestiti cappas
sericas in chorum deferant : quibus ceteri clerici ad processionem
et ad missam donee cantatur Agnus Dei, et Pax Domini per totum
chorum data fuerit, induantur prseter sacerdotem et ministros.
Quod totiens fiat quotiens in festo duplici, Dominica videlicet, vel
aliis festis quando processio fiat causa festivitatis. Precedat
minister virgam manu gestans locum faciens processioni ; deinde
aqua benedicta ; deinde tres cruces a tribus accolitis deferentibus
albis et tunicis, deinde ceroferarii duo albis cum amictibus induti
tantum ; deinde duo thuribularii in simili habitu. Deinde sub-
diaconus. tune dyaconus dalmatica et tunica indutus textus singu-
los def erat. Post dyaconum eat sacerdos in alba et cum cappa
serica ; chorus itaque sequatur in cappis sericis. Processionale ad
Usum EccL Sarum (A.D. 1528), fol. viii. (see Henderson, p. 1 1). St.
Osmund himself expressly says, that on all festivals kept with a
38 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
so, too, under the same ritual feeling, in collegiate
and (46) cathedral churches, and the wealthier
religious houses, the canons, the monks, and friars,
and as many as possible of the elder clergy, were
arrayed in silken copes, at the principal services
on each Sunday and holyday marked for walking
in any kind of solemn procession. 78
procession : Tune enim omnes capis utuntur sericis ad processionem
et ad missam. (Gap. xix., De Habitu Chori per totum annum in Use
of Sarum, i. 24.) Such, too, was the practice followed at St.
Paul's, London [i.e., on feasts of the first or second class]: ad
missam chorus est in cappis. [Sparrow Simpson, Registrum,
P- 53].
78 It must have been a glorious sight, that of any one of our
dear old collegiate, or cathedral churches St. George's, Windsor,
for example, or Henry VII.'s chapel, York, Lincoln, or West-
minster on some high festival, with its choir brimful of priests,
and as they walked down those long withdrawing aisles, singing
as they went, in majestic strains, psalms to the praises of God, or
the joyous and gladdening " Salve festa dies," each having on a
gold bright cope, beautiful enough to mantle a king at his corona-
tion. Though so common, such a ceremonial was not the less
beloved by our believing forefathers ; our poets liked to dwell
upon it in their lays, and make their personages talk of its
splendour, as the prince does to his forlorn daughter, whom he
strives to soothe by telling her among many other things :
Than shall ye go to your evensong,
With tenours and trebles among,
Threscore of copes of damask bryght
Full of perles they shalbe pyght.
Your sensours shalbe of golde
Endent with azure manie a folde, &c.
The Squire of Low Degree, Ritson's Collection of Metrical Romances,
vol. iii.
These " threscore of copes " were as nothing in some of our
great English processions.
It must have been a glorious sight to have beheld these
jewelled copes as they gleamed with the evening rays of a cloud-
less summer sun, when a long and gorgeous procession, on its way
to meet and welcome a bishop or a prince, wound slowly through
PART I. CHAP. VI. 39
(47) For a like reason was it, moreover, that
the " rectores chori," or rulers of the choir, who,
the streets of London, or some fine old town, each quaint-looking
house of which had hung flaunting from its windows, that beetled
far over the path below, beautiful hangings of cloth of gold, vel-
vet and tapestry. As Princess Margaret, daughter to our Henry
VII., went to Scotland to be married to King James, she was
everywhere met on her road by the clergy in solemn procession,
according as the rubric of Salisbury prescribed; and her reception
by the monks of Durham is thus set down by one who travelled
in her numerous equipage. "At the Gatt of the Church was
my Lord the Byscop of the sayd Place, and my Lord the Prior
revested in Pontificalls, with the Convent all revested of ryches
Copps, in Processyon, with the Crossys, &c." Leland, Collectanea,
iv. 276. When Edward VI. rode from the Tower of London to
Westminster for his coronation : " On the other side of the streets
in many places, stood priests and clerkes with their crosses and
censors, and in their best ornaments, to sense the king ; and by
all the way where the king should pass, on either side, were the
windows ' and waies goodly garnished with cloaths of tapestry,
arras, cloath of gold and cloath of silver, with quishions of the
same garnished with streamers and banners as richly as might
be devised." Ibid., p. 310.
The historian Foxe that true type of what the low and scoffing
dissenters of his own day were speaking in his mendacious book
of our old catholic processions, particularly notices the number
of copes worn on such occasions. Describing the thanksgiving
made A.D. 1536, in London, for the recovery of the king of
France's health, that Protestant writer says : " The king (Henry
VIII.) commanded a solemn and famous procession to be ordeined
through the city of London, with the waits and children of
grammar schooles, with the maisters and ushers in their array:
then followed the orders of the friers and chanons and the priours
with their pompe of copes, crosses, candlestickes, and vergers
before them. After these followed the next pageant of clerkes
and priests of London, al in copes likewise. Then the monkes of
Westminster and other abbeys, with their glorious gardeviance
of crosses, candlestickes, and vergers before them in like sort. Last
of al came the queere of Pauls, with their residensaries, the Bishop
of London, and the abbots following after in their Pontificalibus.
After these courses of the clergy,, went the companies of the city
with the Lord Maior and aldermen in their best apparel, after
their degrees. And lest it might be thought this procession of
40 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
on (48) account of their office, had to be so often
moving to and fro as they led the singing, not
only bore (49) richly ornamented staves in their
hands, but from the Anglo-Saxon, and all through
the English period, were vested, too, in copes, the
most beautiful which their churches happened to
possess. 79
When the number of clergy was great and the
church wealthy in splendid vestments, a custom
existed in some places of England of spreading
a wide linen cloth in the middle of the choir floor,
and heaping it with a pile of copes to be worn at
the divine service. 80 By this method these gar-
ments could be easily got at just before the clergy
the Church of London to make but a small or beggerly shew, the
furniture of the gay copes there worne was counted to the number
of 714. Moreover, to fill up the joy of this procession, and for
the more high service to Almighty God, besides the singing queeres
and chaunting of the priest es, there lacked no minstrels withall,
to pipe at the procession " (Actes and Monuments, ii. 976, col. 2,
London, 1596; v. 102, London, 1838). Writing concerning Queen
Mary, of injured memory, the same Foxe tells us (A.D. 1555) :
"Upon the daie of the conversion of saint Paule, there was
generall and solemne procession through London to give God
thankes for their conversion to the catholicke church : wherein
(to set out their glorious pompe) there were fourscore and
ten crosses, 160 priests and clerkes, who had everie one of them
copes upon their backs, &c." Ibid. (vi. 588, London, 1838).
79 Among the ornaments in Salisbury Cathedral (A.D. 1222) were:
Baculi iiij ad chorum regendum (Wordsworth, Salisbury Processions,
p. 177). Concerning the copes worn by the Anglo-Saxon rulers
of the choir, see note 52, before, wherein their staves are likewise
mentioned.
80 Duo panni linei qui in principalibus festis in choro explicantur
ad capas superponendas continentes in longitudine quilibet sex
ulnas et dimidium ; hinc inde facta sunt duo vestimenta. Cap.
de Wyndesore (A.D. 1385); Dugdale, Mon. AngL, viii. 1364.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 41
had to walk forth in procession, and as easily put
off afterwards.
(50)
SECTION V
But the beautiful silk cope, decked with em-
broidery and storied orphreys, must not be con-
founded with another clerical garment somewhat
like it in shape, bearing the same name, and
which was anciently called
THE CANON'S COPE.
This robe, as may be seen from the woodcut, 81 was
a large, full, flowing
cloak, quite free
and open before,
downwards from the
breast, where it be-
gan to close, and
sewed up as far
as the throat ; all
around which was
attached a hood, so
as to be easily drawn
up over the head,
though it was in
general thrown
81 It is of an illumination at the head of the ninety-seventh
psalm, Gantate Domino, in a Latin psalter, written and illuminated
in England during the second half of the thirteenth century, in
my possession.
42 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(51) back upon the shoulders and left hanging
there. To put on this vesture, the wearer had
to pass his head through the neck. For all the
clergy, high or low, in cathedral and collegiate
churches, this cope was ordered to be black, 82 and
82 Besides the statutes of St. Paul's, London, given in the
Reijist.rum,, also see " De Habitu Chori," Use of Sarum, xix. In
the statutes which he drew up for his cathedral church at Exeter
(A.D. 1337) Bishop Grandisson rehearses St. Osmund's rubrics
for the most part almost word for word, adding however to them
as follows : Quandocumque fit servicium pro mortuis dum corpus
ad ecclesiam deportatur, et ad " Placebo," et ad " Dirige," et ad
" Commendationes," et ad Missam licet duplex festum fuerit, et
etiam in processione causa Temporis vel Tribulationis, et in Roga-
tionibus, licet in festis duplicibus fuerit. Similiter etiam fiat
in festo S. Marci Evangeliste ad processionem que solet fieri ipso
die de jejunio, semper capis nigris utuntur: in vigiliis vero et
quatuor Temporibus semper quando de jejunio dicitur Missa,
utantur clerici in choro capis nigris, excepto ad "Placebo," et
" Dirige," tantum in octavo die Assumptionis et in die Gabrielis
Archangeli.
xxii. Debent itaque omnes indui exterius capis nigris . . . longis
ad minus usque ad pedes : et interius superpelliceis longitudinem
cape non excedentilAis. Et in capite pilleolis nigris : item calcea-
menta habeant honestati et religioni convenientia, et alia indu-
menta clericorum decentia et in nullo forma vel colore reprehensi-
bilia. Coronas fere usque ad medium capitis cum tonsura ad aures
statui condecentes (Ex Ordinali a J. de Grandissono Ep. Exon.
edito A.D. 1337, fol. x.) [see reprint by H. E. Reynolds]. This
manuscript is in the library of Exeter Cathedral, and for this
extract I am indebted to my esteemed friend, the Rev. Dr.
Oliver.
This canon's cope is especially mentioned by some of our native
writers, who contrast it with the richer and more ornamented one.
Describing a discussion which took place (A.D. 1 237) in St. Paul's
Cathedral, London, Matthew Paris tells us : Willielmus de Raele
indutus capa canonicali et superpellicio, &c. (Hist., p. 302 ; not in
&). I* 8 black colour is particularly noticed by Roger Hoveden,
in his account of St. Thomas of Canterbury : Post celebrationem
Missse archiepiscopus imposuit collo suo stolam, deinde induit
cappam nigram canonicalem et profectus est statim ad curiam
regis. [Chronica. Pars Posterior, R.S. LI., i. 226].
PART I. CHAP. VI.
43
most likely (52) they had it made of thin cloth,
or some other woollen texture.
SECTION VI
Along with the canon's cope was worn the
"almucia," or, as it is often found called in our
old documents,
THE FURRED ALMUCE,
an article of ecclesiastical raiment which, while
it has always been so fashioned as to answer its
twofold purpose of cap and tippet, has undergone
no slight variations. Such an appendage became
to the choir-priest, when about the divine offices,
some of which were sung at night or early morn,
and are long, what the hood was to the layman ;
and like (53) that portion of worldly dress, from
which, however, it widely
differed in form, shrouded
the head and neck, at the
same time that it muffled
the shoulders, as we see
here.
This earliest shape of
the furred almuce may
be seen on many old
monuments abroad, and
it is figured on the heads of the canons who are
sitting stalled and at matins, in an illumination
PETRUS DE CINTHIIS, Canon of St.
Peter's, Rome, A.D. 1360.
44 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
of our Richard II.'s beautiful prayer-book, now
belonging to the British Museum, and of which
we have given an etching in the present work. 83
On the outside, this almuce was commonly of
black cloth, 84 and within, lined with fur of a
colour and a quality betokening the wearer's
rank in the church 85 and grade in the choir;
83 See the frontispiece to this volume.
84 W. Sparrow Simpson, Registrum, p. 67.
85 Various kinds of fur were used for the almucia or almuce,
according to the rank of the wearer : the finer sorts were limited
to the dignitaries and upper canons ; but even among the clergy
of the lower grade in a cathedral, there was a distinction marked
by the furring of the almuce. Towards the beginning of the
fifteenth century, the vicars choral of the four great personages in
Lichfield Cathedral were to be known from the others by the
almuce of Calabrian skin which they wore : Succentor . . . ac
vicarii chorales stallorum dignitatum decanatus, cancellariatus et
thesauriatus . . . dietse ecclesiae nostrse (Lichfieldensis) amado
sint sacerdotes, ac almuciis de calabur in prsefata ecclesia utuntur
(Statuta Hey worth, Ep. Lick. c. 1420, in Dugdale, Mon. Angl.,
viii. 1263). That scoffer at everything most holy, Bale, in his
Olde God and the neive, which is a translation from the work of
Hartmannus Dulichius, makes the vicars or " chaplaynes " of a
cathedral thus speak of their choir dress : " Besydes this (a whyte
linen surples) we do on us a calabere amyce (sig. L, fol. vii.).
Afterwards do come in our masters and lordes of the close covered
with grey amyces, and havynge on a very white surples." Sig. L,
fol. viii. 6.
Though only a minor canon, the sub-dean of St. Paul's, London,
was privileged to wear an almuce like to the one allowed to the
upper canons and the dean himself : Subdecanus . . . par erit reliquis
suis fratribus (minoribus canonicis) hoc uno excepto quod amictum
ex grisio, more majoris canonici ferre possit et debet quod erat ei
concessum anno Christ i MCCCC, Willielmo War ham tune episcopo
(De Sub-Decano, Dugdale, hist, of St. Paul's, p. 345). There is a
mistake here in the time ; Warham was Bishop of London from
A.D. 1502 till 1504.
This " amictus ex grisio " was called the " grey almuce," and
made of costly silver-coloured fur : the minor canon's almuce was
formed of a much less expensive fur, of a dark brown colour,
PART I. CHAP. VI. 45
and the tails of (54) the animals, the skins of
which had been employed for that purpose, were
fastened all round its lower (55) hem as a kind
of fringe. To the dignitaries of the Church,
therefore, was allotted a richer sort of (56) almuce:
doctors in divinity or canon law might be at once
which, from its being found in greater quantities in Calabria,
took its name from that Italian province : Sunt in ecclesia S.
Pauli canonici qui minores appellantur, almucium ex calebro
utuntur (ib., p. 353, De Can. Minor.). Being a mark of honour,
the grey almuce was allowed to the royal chaplains. At the High
Mass for Henry VII.'s burial: After the lords and barrens had
made theire oft'eringe, then followed the chapleins of dignitie and
the grey amezes of the Kinges chappell, &c. (Leland, Collectanea,
iii. 308). Moreover, not only in cathedrals and collegiate churches,
but even in a chantry chapel, when endowed to support several
priests, the almuce of fur was allowed to be worn by those
chantry priests, as if they were canons. This we learn from the
statutes drawn up by William, Bishop of Norwich (A.D. 1354):
Domina Matildis de Lancastria . . . unam perpetuam cantariam
quinque capellanorum fundavit. In capella autem eorum dum
divina celebrant superpelliciis et capis nigris et almuciis de nigro
et furratis ad modum canonicorum secularium indui volumus
(Mon. Angl., viii. 1555). The rulers of the choir, even in our parish
churches, wore grey almuces : A.D. 1530. For two stolys for the
rectors in the quyre, and two greyes skynnes 4.9. id. (Nichols,
Churchwardens' Accts.of St. Mary Hill, p. 109). These two "stolys"
or stools were most likely set just before the eagle or lectern in
the middle of the chancel.
Our English prelates sometimes bestowed upon the dignitaries
of the monastic clergy the privilege of wearing the grey almuce.
In the Register of Hugh Oldham, Bishop of Exeter, may be seen,
as Dr. Oliver tells me, a licence granted the yth of January 1508,
to John Carlyon, prior of the Augustinian convent of St. Stephen's,
Launceston (Reg. fol. 34) : Ut Tu et successores tui Priores dicti
Prioratus, valeas et valeant uti temporibus Divinorum et in pro-
cessionibus universis illo habitu amisise de gray quo temporibus
Divinorum in nostris ecclesiis Cathedrali et Collegiatis utuntur
canonici.
46 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
recognised by a scarlet almuce furred with grey ; 86
the full canon had assigned him one that was
outside black, but within made of the same fine
grey skins of a deep silvery hue ; while to every
person beneath that rank it was forbidden, with a
few exceptions, to have any other than a dark
brown and cheaper kind of fur in this article of
Church attire. 87
(57) The end of the thirteenth and the be-
ginning of the fourteenth century saw the pretty
general adoption among the clergy, both secular
86 Doctors of divinity and dignitaries in the Protestant Estab-
lishment of England, still keep up the use of the scarlet gown
in the universities on solemn occasions, and the daily wear of the
scarlet hood hanging behind from the shoulders, in the cathedrals.
This, to my thinking, is not the old, but a modern way of putting
it on : anciently the doctor's hood was placed upon the shoulders
and not behind, as is shown from the ceremonial of our Catholic
kings at the feast of the Epiphany, as is instanced in Henry VII.,
who, "on the xnth even went to the evensong in his surcoot
outward with tabert sieves, the cappe of estate on his hede, and
the hodeaboute his showlders in doctors wise." Leland, Collectanea,
iii. 235.
At the christening of Prince Arthur, Henry VII.'s eldest son,
besides several bishops, there were present " many noble doctors
in riche copes and grey amys." Leland, Collectanea, iii. 206.
' 7 This distinction between the furs of the almuces assigned to
canons and to vicars, is noticed in the statutes of the collegiate
church of Stoke by Clare, in Suffolk (A.D. 1422): Statutum est et
ordinatum quod canonici utantur almuciis griseis, et vicarii nigris,
et utrique capis nigris serico duplicatis sive ornatis et superpel-
liciis albis, matutinis, missis, et aliis horis canonicis, more aliorum
collegiorum, a festo S. Jeronimi usque vigiliam Paschse : et deinde
usque ad idem festum utantur canonici almuciis griseis, et super-
pelliciis albis sine capis nigris, nisi in Missis et exequiis defunc-
torum et processionibus in quibus per ordinale aliter requiritur;
et per idem tempus utantur superpelliciis albis, et almuciis
honestis et consuetis serico duplicatis et furratis (Dugdale, Mon.
AngL, viii. 1419). See also note 85, just before.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 47
and monastic, of a small round cap, which they
were allowed to have on during the less solemn
parts of Divine service : 88 the almuce, as a hood,
became therefore not so much needed as of old,
and perhaps may have been felt, excepting by
night, or during cold weather, even too warm.
Hence arose the custom of throwing back from
the head in the daytime the uppermost part of the
almuce, to let it hang down behind like a hood ; 89
and to hinder the whole, in this loose condition,
from slipping off the shoulders, (58) it was brought
to meet in front by being stitched together all
down the breast, so that in putting it on, the
wearer had to pass his head through it. More-
over, about the beginning of the fifteenth century,
we find that another change was wrought in this
attire, and it came, here in England, to be fash-
ioned more as a tippet for the shoulders than
as a head-covering, though it could be, and very
likely sometimes was, applied to this latter pur-
pose, for it kept a large roomy hood hanging
down from all around the neck : it entirely over-
spread the shoulders and breast, whereon it met
and was still sewed, and reaching as far down
as the elbows, mantled the person, like a modern
short cape, being of the same length before as
88 This closely-fitting kind of skull-cap is seen on the canons
figured in our frontispiece to this volume, and on several of the
grave-brasses that have been given by Waller in his Monumental
Brasses. [See p. 54 for an example.]
89 See note 21 further on.
4 8
THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
behind : it kept its fringe of little tails, but to
these were now added two long strips of the same
fur which, stole-like, fell below the
knees, retaining the whole way
down an equal breadth, that must
have been about three inches, as
is shown by this woodcut of the
effigy of William Canynges, in St.
Mary Kedcliffe's, Bristol.* To-
wards, however, the early part of
the sixteenth century, this furred
almuce underwent another though
slight modification ; it was made
to be, like a shawl, (59) longer
behind than before, and the two
strips of fur in front, where they
began, were very wide, but nar-
rowing as they fell, ended in a sharp point. 90
Not the least remarkable thing in these changes
of the furred almuce is, that it became, as it were,
turned inside out : at the beginning, it was out-
wardly of black cloth, and inside, lined with fur ;
in its first variation, nothing could be seen but
its fur: to the very last it kept its little hood
hanging behind and partly around the shoulders.
[* This effigy is not that of Canynges ; see a reproduction of
his monument in Hollis, Monumental Effigies, part vi., published
July 1842.]
90 There are several examples of this among the later brasses :
that of Arthur Cole, canon of Windsor (A.D. 1558) (see vol. i.
p. 472), in St. Mary Magdalen College, Oxford, shows it well.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 49
But how happens it, some may ask, that eccle-
siastics, well known to have been not canons in
any cathedral or collegiate establishment, but mere
rectors in their respective churches, should be
figured wearing the canon's furred almuce ? To
answer this question, we must bring to mind a
custom peculiar to this island.
In many of our parish churches there were both
a rector and a perpetual curate : while the rector
was looked upon as the personage or " parson," '
(60) and held to be its dignitary, to the perpetual
curate fell all the heavier work the cure of souls.
Now as several of our cathedrals, by a curious
anomaly, were served, not as throughout the rest
of Christendom by canons chosen from among the
secular priesthood, but by monks of the Benedic-
tine order, 92 in such dioceses, as a slight compen-
sation to the secular clergy, those of them who
91 The great officials or dignitaries of a cathedral were called
personages or personse; and in England such a title was given,
and not unfittingly, to the rectors of parish churches. The Council
of Oxford (A.D. 1222), says in one of its decrees: Universi rectores
ecclesiarum qui vulgariter dicuntur persone (Wilkins, Concil., i.
596) ; and Lyndwood, in his Provinciate, p. 67, note a, especially
tells us this : " Persona, i.e. rector ; et est persona vulgare Angli-
corum." The title of " parson " is time-honoured in England, and
lays claim to our respect from its frequent recurrence in the decrees
of our venerable and ancient national councils. It will therefore
never be slightingly applied by any one who either knows or loves
the gone-by glories of the Catholic Church in this land. W. de
Wanda, afterwards Dean of Salisbury, thus denominates the
higher clergy of that cathedral : " Ad excellentiores eiusdem
ecclesise filios, viz. personas et canonicos," in contradistinction to
the "clerici inferiores, viz. vicarii." Wilkins, Condi., i. 554.
92 See notes 14 and 15, further on.
VOL. II. D
50 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
were rectors were allowed to assume, as if they
had been really canons, the furred almuce ; and
this privilege, which had long existed, was
formally ratified to them by the Apostolic See,
on the occasion of elevating some of our parish
churches into their new dignity of rectories. 93
93 Fuit nobis expositum quod ... in civitate Cantuariensi
nulli sunt canonici, vel aliae personse ecclesiasticse, quse almucia
de variis sive griseis pellibus deferant, prout in quampluribus
ecclesiis dicti regni illarum canonici deferre consueverunt, et
quse juxta consuetudinem regni ipsius ad decus et ornamentum
ecclesiarum et personarum ecclesiasticarum multum conferunt.
Cum autem, sicut eadem expositio subjungebat, in Cantuariensi
prsedicta, ac diversis aliis dioecesibus dicti regni sint quamplures
ecclesiae parochiales, rectores et etiam perpetuos vicarios insimul
habentes, quarum cura animarum non per rectores, sed per
vicarios praedictos exercetur . . . etsi illarum rectores almucia de
variis sive griseis pellibus hujuscemodi in supplimentum canoni-
corum deferrent, id profecto ad decus et honorem tarn rectorum
eorundem, quam totius cleri civitatis et dioeceseos Cantuariensium
praedictarum cederet. Quare pro parte dicti Thomse cardinalis
nobis fuit humiliter supplicatum ut quod Cherryng et de Aldyng-
ton . . . parochialium ecclesiarum rectores moderni, et qui pro
tempore fuerint, almucia de pellibus variis sive griseis hujusce-
modi deinceps perpetuo deferre valeant, statuere et ordinare,
aliasque in prsemissis opportune providere de benignitate apos-
tolica dignaremus ; nos itaque hujuscemodi supplicationibus
inclinati quod moderni et qui pro tempore fuerint rectores
parochialium ecclesiarum praedictarum almucia de variis sive
griseis pellibus hujuscemodi, tarn in Cantuariensibus praedictis
quam quibusvis aliis ecclesiis dicti regni, necnon processionibus et
aliis actibus perpetuo deinceps, adinstar canonicorum aliarum
ecclesiarum cathedralium secularium praedicti regni deferre libere
et licite valeant, auctoritate apostolica, tenore prsesentium, statui-
mus et ordinamus , . . Dat. Romse, A.D. 1483. Sixti IV., Bulla,
ex reg. Alcock. Wigorn., fol. 129, Wilkins, Condi., iii., 615, 6 1 6.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 51
(61) SECTION VII s f f , r , f , f;
Though not wholly, at least in great part, these
variations were owing to the use of
(62) THE CLERICAL CAP,
at which we slightly glanced just now.
If we are to believe an unknown writer (wrongly
named Alcuin, but who must have lived some
time during the eleventh century), the clergy at
Rome, and in some other quarters within the limits
of the Latin rite, in his days always officiated at
the holy sacrifice bareheaded, differing on this
point from the Greeks, who wore a cap at the
altar. 94 That this so-called Alcuin was mistaken
with regard to the usages of the later Anglo-
Saxons, at least for bishops, we shall be able to
show when we come to speak of the episcopal
mitre : regarding the second order of clergy, how-
ever, he is correct, for no evidence exists to prove
that up to the reign of the Confessor, any sort
of cap was employed in this country at Divine
service by any one in the priesthood, or of a lower
rank in holy orders.
94 Tiara erat vestis, pileolum videlicet rotundum . . . Huiusce-
modi vestis non habetur in Romana ecclesia, vel in nostris
regionibus. Non enim moris est, ut pileati divina mysteria cele-
brent. Apud Grsecos autem hoc dicitur, qui pileos, id est, cuphias
gestant in capite, dum assistunt altaribus. Pseudo-Alcuin, De
Divinis Off.) Gap. De Singulis Vestibus [P.L., ci. 1 239].
52 THE CHUKCH OF OUR FATHERS
Soon after this latter period, the cap must have
Jbeen adopted by our English ecclesiastics, since
, in (63) the next century, we find it noticed as one
of the marks by which a 'churchman might be
known in this country. 95 It must have been, too,
not only a part of his ordinary dress, but of his
ceremonial attire. 96 The monks were not slow in
95 Reginald, the monk of Durham, a contemporary of St. Thomas
of Canterbury, in describing that martyr's dress, particularly
notices his cap : Pilleolo capitis vertice perornatus (De Adm. B.
Cuthberti Virtut., p. 256). Other English writers notice it also:
Then Reynolde with his sword-point put off Thomas's cap, and
smote at his head and cut off his crown (Caxton, Liber Festivalis,
fol. Ixxxviii) : Pilleumque mucrone dejiciens. Capgrave, Nov. Leg.
Anglise, [ed. Horstmann, Clar. Press, 1901 ; ii. 395].
96 Item in sequenti armario inveni sex pilleolos omciariorum et
octo mitras. Invent, an. 1218, i., Hist. Nem., 66.
The term, however, under which this black cap was more
generally known in the colloquial language of the time, was
" hure " ; Matthew Paris tells us of the Bishop of Lincoln, in the
reign of Henry II. (A.D. 1163) : Statimque assurgens, in maim regis
per capitis sui galerum qui " hura " dicitur, resignavit id juris
quod dicebat se habere in ecclesia beati Albani, &c. (Vit. Abb.,
p. 53). Again, in a satire, written during the thirteenth century,
on the Consistory Courts, the ecclesiastic president is described as
wearing a black cap or " hure," and a gown with hanging sleeves,
called a " hery-goud " :
Furst ther sit an old cherl in a blake hure
Of all that ther sitteth semeth best syre,
An heme in an hery-goud with honginde sleven.
Political Songs of England, p. 1 56 (Camden Soc.). By a canon of
the Council of Worcester (A.D. 1240) this sleeved garment was
expressly forbidden to the higher clergy : cappas etiam deferant
clausas sacerdotes et personatum habentes, ubique ; nee utantur
de csetero Heregaudis (MS. Cotton, Claudius A. viu., and Wilkins,
Condi., 670). By some, the " hure " has been mistaken for a
" gown." This hure was required to be worn in church : Utantur
omnes (clerici majores) in choro nigris pileis ancehuris, et nullo
modo capiciis sive cappis monstruosis. Statut. Eccl. Collegiat. de
Stoke juxta Clare. Dugdale, Mon. AngL, viii. 1419.
xaot tujiO: its itot lun Roto Iwf safe
PART I. CHAP. VI. 53
following (64) the example of the secular clergy,
and in the year 1243, the Roman Pontiff, Innocent
IV., on being asked, gave leave to the Benedictines
of St. Austin's Abbey, Canterbury, 97 to wear caps
in the choir during Divine service. After that
epoch, mention of the cap often occurs in our
national as well as foreign documents ; and in
some cathedrals 98 of this country it was a part of
the dress especially (65) ordained by the statutes
to be put on by each prebendary when he came
to sing in the choir.
But it would seem that, truly speaking, the cap
used by our churchmen in the olden times, was of
a twofold kind, of which one, like a skull-cap,"
97 Vestris supplicationibus inclinati vobis utendi pileis vestro
ordini congruentibus cum divinis interfueritis officiis, concedimus
liberam facultatem. Ita tamen quod in lectione Evangelica
et elevatione corporis Domini Jesu Christi, et in aliis debita
reverentia observetur (Raynaldus, Annales ad annum 1243, n. 41).
This same Pope granted a like faculty to the monks of Peter-
borough. Gunton, Hist. Peterb., p. 161.
98 Bishop Grandisson (A.D. 1337), in his statute, "De Habitu
Chori," says : Debent omnes indui exterius capis nigris. . . . Et
in capite pilleolis nigris, &c. See note before, 82, p. 42.
99 This skull-cap, it would seem, was called " birettum," and
Robert, Archbishop of Canterbury, invested Thomas Custe, of
Maidstone, with an ecclesiastical benefice (A.D. 1298), by giving
him the very one which he himself, the metropolitan, had on :
Thomas Custe providimus de beneficio ecclesiastico . . . illudque
eidem Thomse contulimus ac eum de ipso per nostrum birettum
prsesentialiter investimus, &c. (Chron. W. Thorn, p. 1969). This
" birettum " must in shape have been half a circle, so as to cover
the upper part only of the head : such it is figured very often on
the grave brasses set over dignified churchmen : John Strete,
rector of Upper Hardress Church, Kent, and three out of the four
ecclesiastics from New College Chapel, Oxford, all given in their
fine work, by the brothers Waller, are examples. [See overleaf.]
One kind of cap there was which all churchmen were forbidden,
54
THE CHUKCH OF OUR FATHERS
(66) fitted tight to the head ; the other, more loose,
and though quite round and cornerless, widened
at top, (67) from the middle of
which, as we see in the sculptures
A
& ^
under the threat of fine and deprivation, to
wear either in public, except on a journey,
or in any place before their ecclesiastical
superiors ; and such was the coif called also
in the canons " tena " : Nee nisi in itinere
constituti (clerici) unquam aut in ecclesiis,
vel coram prselatis suis, aut in conspectu
communi hominum, publice infulas suas
quas vulgo " coyphas " vocant, portare
aliquatenus audeant vel praesumant (Constit.
Othoboni, A.D. 1268, Wilkins, ConciL, ii. 4).
Archbishop Peckham (A.D. 1281), in the
provincial council which he held at Lambeth,
embodied this among his constitutions, and
made a heavy enactment " contra (clericos)
portantes infulas aut tenas coram prselatis,
aut coram populo publice deferentes" (*&.,
p. 59). To guess from illuminated MSS.,
this coif must have been made of white
linen ; and it sat very close upon the head,
which it entirely covered, and was tied by
two strings rather tightly under the chin. It
might, however, be put on under the hood by the clerk who was un-
well, or in cold weather : " Videtur sentire quod tali infula vel tena
sub caputio, causa frigoris vel infirmitatis, uti non sit prohibitum,"
as the gloss expresses in Lyndwood, Provinciale, lib. iii. tit. i.
p. 1 20. Hence William deBussey"qui . . . captus est coram judici-
bus judicandus. Et cum non posset obiectis respondere . . . voluit
ligamenta suse coifse solvere, ut palam monstraret tonsuram se
habere clericalem." Matt. Paris, Hist.,A.T>. 1259, p. 663 [not in R.S.].
Our lawyers wore, and are still thought to wear, the coif ; and
it is distinctly shown on the head of a cumbent figure in Dor-
chester Church, Oxon, representing one of the Stonor family, in
his days a serjeant of the coif.
To mere laymen it was allowed to keep on the coif even in
church : this we learn from a passage in the Life of St. William,
Archbishop of York, in which we are told of one who crept up
into the loft over the screen during matins, and falling asleep
DR. WILLIAM HAUTRYNE,
Trom New
Oxford.)
1441. (From New College
PAKT I. CHAP. VI.
55
and illuminations of the period, it shot up sud-
denly into a low blunt point. 1
By the end of the fifteenth century, this cap
had already exchanged its round for a square
there, had his coif cut in two upon his
head without being hurt by the stone
pillar of the bookstand which fell upon
him : Dormientibus siquidem in am-
bone quibusdam canonicorum servien-
tibus . . . unus ibidem quiescentium,
caput suum super basim pulpito in quo
legi solet Evangelium, reclinavit. Et
ecce, dum tertia lectio legeretur, per
impulsum fortuitum, lapis columnaris
non modici ponderis, super caput
quiescentis cecidit . . . Surgens vero
ille qui dormierat, nihil mali sentie-
bat : tenam autem suam quam habebat
in capite dissolvens, advertit earn ex
utraque parte capitis .... corrosam,
&c. Ada S. Willielmi, Archiep. Ebo-
rac. in A A. SS. Junii, ii. 144.
1 The larger cap is well shown on
the cumbent stone figure in Hereford
Cathedral of Dean Borew, who died
A.D. 1462 [or John de Swinfield, 1294-
1314]. The cap is low and quite round.
Hollis has published this monument.
It is seen too in our woodcut of Dr.
Christopher Urswick in Section IX.,
p. 72.
By the customs of St. Paul's Cathe-
dral, London, its minor clergy were
forbidden to go during daytime into
the church to sing the Divine office at
the canonical hours with a cap on,
unless it was doubled up on their head : Nullus eorum
cum pilleo nisi dupplicato, super caput ad horas canonicas ingredi-
antur. Reg., p. 67. From this, it would follow that the clerical
cap had, in some churches, a full, broad brim which could and was
required to be turned up on reaching the choir.
JOHN BOREW, Dean of Hereford.
de die
5 6 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
form, but still it was always kept very low though
wide, and in the transition lost that slight eleva-
tion in the middle of the crown which it had
hitherto had : not being then made up with a
harsh stiffness about it, it showed no hard straight
lines and sharp (68) angles, like the modern stiff
pasteboard cap, but took an easy, soft, bending
shape. Most likely at first, only such ecclesiastics
as were either weak of health, or deep stricken in
years, thought of wearing both the close skull-
cap and the larger and more roomy square one
together ; later, however, the hale and youthful,
the old and feeble, all deemed it becoming to do
so ; hence came it that, to take off the two caps
together at those parts of the service where, out
of reverence to the Holy Name or otherwise, the
head should be bared for a short while, they were
sewed one to the other, so that out of this grew
the celebrated " pileus quadratus," !J which time
has handed down to us, though somewhat altered,
in the present trencher-cap of the English uni-
versities.
For all orders of the clergy, from the bishop
downwards to the lowliest clerk, this cap was black ; 3
2 The refusal of some of the heads of the Protestant Establish-
ment, in the early part of Elizabeth's reign, to wear the square
cap and the surplice, kindled the warmest controversy among the
teachers of Protestantism.
3 As extraordinary exceptions to this general rule, Sarnelli
noticed that in his time (A.D. 1682), the skull-cap worn by the
Patriarch of Venice was purple, as were the caps of the canons at
Antwerp Cathedral : A prcposito del berrettino . . . Monsignor
PART I. CHAP. VI. 57
(69) and such a general rule knew of but very
few exceptions : those whom the Supreme Pontiffs
raised to the dignity of the Koman cardinalate,
besides the scarlet hat 4 granted them by Pope
Innocent IV., A.D. 1245, were allowed to wear, at
Divine service, a scarlet cap, 5 by Paul II., A.D.
1464. Moreover, in some cathedrals, by an
especial favour of the Holy See, all the canons,
as at Pisa to the present day, or only a chosen
few of those dignitaries, as in former times at
Cologne, 6 were permitted to (70) have this scarlet
Patriarca 1'usa di color pavonazzo ; siccome ho letto, che dello
stesso colore adoperano le berrette i canonic! d'Antuerpia. Lettere
Eccles., ii. 63.
4 Sandini, Vit& Pontif. Romanor., p. 366, in notis. Venetiis, 1768.
6 Ibid., p. 438.
6 Statuimus (Eugenius Papa III.) ut septem idonei presbyteri
cardinales in prsedicta ecclesia (Coloniensi) ordinentur, qui induti
dalmaticis et mitris ornati, ad principalia duo altaria eiusdem
ecclesise cum totidem diaconibus et subdiaconibus quibus sandali-
orum usum concedimus, Missarum solennia in festivis diebus tan-
tummodo administrarent. Ep.x.Jw#em^///.,c. A. 0.1146; Harduin,
Condi., vi., Pt. 2, p. 1250; and Crombach, Hist. SS. Trium Reg., p. 808.
I saw, A.D. 1847, the Archbishop of Cologne robed exactly like
a cardinal, though he is not one, assist at High Mass in the cathe-
dral of that city ; and in the public picture gallery I noticed, on
the left hand in going into the large room, a small picture of
one of these cardinal - canons, robed in scarlet cassock, surplice,
hood of crimson trimmed with fur, and having his almuce or amys
of grey edged with brown tails hung over his right arm, and a red
cap in his hands.
What was formerly the colour of the doctor's cap in our English
universities I cannot say ; but as it is known the hood was and
still continues to be scarlet, I am led to think that so top was, in
Catholic times, the cap. An illumination in a MS. of the Canter-
bury pilgrimage, copied by Shaw in his beautiful work, Dresses
and Decorations of the Middle Ages (vol. ii. plate 62), shows, among
other riders, a dignified churchman, who has on not only a scarlet
cassock and a scarlet hood about his shoulders above his rochet,
58 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
cap, along with all the other cardinalitial robes.
But purple caps for bishops were, (71) in bygone
but a bonnet on his head of that same colour : this ecclesiastic I
take to be meant for a doctor in theology ; and Henry de Mauns-
field, D.D., and Chancellor of Oxford University, A.D. 1311, is
figured on a window in the chapel of Merton College in that city,
clad in a dark blue gown, and having on a light crimson-coloured
skull-cap.
In some of the French universities, the cap for a doctor in
divinity was ornamented with a white silk tassel ; that for a
canonist with a green one ; and a doctor's in civil law with a red
one having a purple tuft in the middle : Notandum quod sicut
sunt tres gradus, tres floci ex filo serici debent esse super quolibet
boneto doctorandi et doctoris sui prsesentantis, videlicet si quis
assumat magisterium portet flocum album in signum divinitatis
theologize ... si in jure canonico, deferat flocum ex filo serici
viridis in signum castitatis et doctrinse ... si in jure civili,
portet flocum serici rubri in signum veras justiciae et sanguinis,
media vero parte flocum coloris violacei. Stat. Universit. Aquens.
(A.D. 1489), apud Carpentier in Sup. ad Gloss. Du Cangii, verbo
" flocus," torn. ii.
At Salamanca and Coimbra, the doctor of divinity's cap was
black, but wholly covered by a large white silk tassel : Dantur illi
(doctori) insignia illius collegii et illius gradus nempe birretum
nigrum, et Salimanticse et Conimbrise et aliis collegiis ponitur in
apice birreti floccus magnus ex serico albo occupans totum birretum
(Scappus, De Birr. Rub. Cardin. Respon., iv. 64). In Germany, doctors
in civil law were allowed a scarlet cap : Jurisperitorum pileus est
ruber (in Germania) (Theoph. Raynaudus, De Pileo, cap. x.). In
some of the French universities the doctor's cap was round, and
along with it was conferred the privilege of using a golden sash :
Accipite birretum rotundum ad modum coronas . . . Datur
Cadomi zona . . . Accipite zonam auream, &c. (Lenauderius, De
Privil. Doct. in Tractat. de Variis verbis Juris, torn, xviii., fol. 4, b.
quest. 3). In the great yearly procession at Louvain, where the
members of that university used to walk along with the trades of
the town, all doctors, whether of theology, or of law, or medi-
cine, wore a cap and hood of a scarlet colour (Molanus, De Imagini-
bus, ed. Paquot, p. 506). At the university of Salamanca, to
doctors in theology was allowed the " Beca," a very curious kind
of hood of red silk which, after being rolled like a low crown around
the head, fell in large folds all about the shoulders of the wearer.
It is described and figured in A A. SS. Junii, ii. 631.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 59
days, as much unknown here in England, as they
still are, and ever have been, in every other
quarter of the Church.
SECTION VIII
Besides the furred almuce and the clerical cap,
(72) there was another though less usual kind of
adornment, of which our native antiquaries seem
unaware, and no modern liturgist has taken any
notice : on particular occasions the custom was in
England for the clergy to wear
A GARLAND TWINED ABOUT THE HEAD.
Crowned with roses, and honeysuckle, and other
sweet-smelling flowers, the canons and vicars of
some of our cathedrals, 7 and the clergy in not a
7 Sicque hodie cum alibi turn apud Anglos, statis solennibusque
diebus sacerdotes coronati in supplicationibus publicis incedunt et
prsesertim Londini sacerdotes Paulini, mense Junio die divo Paulo
Apostolo sacro, qui simul omnia ejus diei sacra coronati curant,
faciuntque. Polydore Vergil, De Invent. Rer., ii. 17.
Stow mentions the procession at St. Paul's, London, on the
feast of the Apostle, when the dean and chapter " apparelled in
coaps and vestments, with garlands of roses on their heads, issued
out at the west door." Survey of London, iii. 165 (ed. Strype,
London, 1720).
Of old, our English youth, it would seem, were very fond of
wearing wreaths of flowers, for such floral adornments were not
the least conspicuous parts of the holiday attire displayed at Paris
by our young countrymen then studying there, as they went
forth to meet their king, Henry III., when he visited that city
(A.D. 1254) : Scholares autem Parisienses, maxime Anglicse nationis,
certificati de adventu talium regum et reginarum . . . cereos,
vestesque festivas (quas vulgus Cointisas appellant), et omnia quse
60 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(73) few of our parishes, 8 walked forth in solemn
array at the great processions of the year, and on
the festival of the saint under whose name their
dear old church was dedicated to Almighty God ;
and besides this, went through all the Divine ser-
vice of the day having on these wreaths of bloom-
ing flowers.
Such a becoming practice was not confined to
England ; Germany, 9 France, 10 and Italy, 11 followed
gaudium poterant attestari, emerunt et sibi prseparabant, can-
tantes ramigeri et florigeri, cum sertis et coronis et musicis instru-
mentis, processerunt venientibus obviam, &c. (Matt. Paris, Hist.,
p. 604.). Chaucer makes his gaily clad young gentleman
Have hatte of floures fresh as May,
Chapelet of roses of Whitsunday.
The Romaunt of the Rose, Fragment B. 2276, 2277 [Student's
Chaucer, Skeat, p. 24].
8 Garlondes on Corpus Christi day, lod. . . . for rose-garlondis
and wodrove garlondis on Saynt Barnebas day, nd. Nichols,
Churchwardens' Accts. of St. Mary Hill, p. 94.
A dozen and \ rose-garlondes on St. Barnebas day, 8M. Ibid.,
p. 95.
For two doss di (two dozen and a half) bocse garlonds for prests
and clerkes on St. Barnebe daye, is. iod., A.D. 1486. Ibid.
For rosse garlonds on Corpus Christi day, vid.
garlonds on Seynt Marten's day, y e translacyon. Ibid., St. Martin
Outvuich, London (A.D. 1525), p. 273.
9 Sequantur pueri seu scholares lineis induti, et coronas in capite,
non calices tamen, sed candelas accensas, aut insignia passionis
Domini aut nolas in manibus portantes et pulsantes (in processione
in solemnitate Corporis Christi). Synod. Dioces. Wormiens. (A.D.
1610), Cone. Germ., ix. 119.
It was not merely the singing boys of a cathedral who wore a
wreath of flowers on this great festival ; even the Emperor him-
self, of Germany, used, at that period, to walk in this procession
with nothing on his head but a floral crown, for it is recorded
of Ferdinand II. (A.D. 1619), that he used to take part in this
solemnity, "sola florea redimitus corolla." Sarnelli, Lett. EccL, iv.
50, n. 1 8.
Videas eos qui ^va-r^pio^opov sacerdotis cingunt latera viros
PART I. CHAP. VI. 6 1
(74) it ; and as the clergy of those countries went
forth, bearing in triumphant gladness the body of
principes aliosque proximos vel antecedentes vel subsequentes
sertis redimitos : floribus ornatos pueros, rosis coronatas virgines
imo et Moguntiae ecclesiarum omnium canonicos clerumque pene
totum quernis aut hederaceis capita revinctos coronis. Indicant
haec omnia spiritualem laetitiam. Serarius, Opusc., iii. 142, where
the " Corpus Christi " procession is described.
On the octave day of the Epiphany, all the subdeacons belonging
to Cologne Cathedral, at performing a ceremony peculiar to that
church, walked in procession to the chapter-house with lighted
tapers in their hands and their heads crowned with ivy -wreaths :
Hederaceo serto coronati cereisque accensis, &c. Crombach, Hist.
SS. Trium Reyum, torn, iii., lib. iii., cap. xiv., p. 732.
10 Martene found this procession thus figured in an illumination
in a manuscript missal, written for some church at Melun : In
missali Melodunensi, feria 5, post festum SS. Trinitatis habetur
missa de SS. Sacramento, cui appicta est imago sacerdotis sacram
eucharistiam manu gestantis, sub baldachino a quatuor viris delate,
qui perinde ac sacerdos ipse reliquique clerici nudum caput florum
coronis ornatum habent (De Ant. Ecc. Rit., torn, iii., lib. iv., cap.
xxix., p. 197). In his precious but now rare little book, De Pro-
cessionibus Ecclesiasticis, Eveillon tells us, that at the cathedral of
Angers, of which he was a canon, among other rites during the
procession for Corpus Christi, were observed the following : Serta,
festae frondes, corollas e floribus in capitibus puerorum symphonia-
corum et aliorum ecclesise administratorum, &c. (p. 274). Exactly
the same rite was followed in the cathedral of Laon, as we learn
from the work of its learned and pious dean, Bellotte, who tells
us that, among the things got ready for keeping the festival of
Corpus Christi in that church, were : Serta seu f estse frondes in
sanctorum reliquiis apponendae, corollse item e floribus, capitibus
puerorum symphoniacorum, et aliorum ecclesise ministrorum effe-
rendae (Ritus Ecc. Laudunensis, p. 859). In the same church, the
custom was to give away wreaths made of green boughs, as the
hymn was being sung at the hour of prime on the morning of
Twelfthtide eve : Post quemlibet versum Hymni ad Primam decan-
tandi repetenda, Dei solemnia recolat Ecclesia; ac eodem ipso tern-
poris momento fit in eadem Laudunensi Ecclesia, ac illius sumptu,
solemnis ac publica virentibus foliis coronarum largitio (ibid., p.
813). That wearing garlands was peculiar neither to Angers nor
Laon, but adopted all over France, is evident from what a later
writer on the same subject, Vatar, remarks : C'est premierement
62 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
our (75) Lord in the blessed Eucharist, through
the streets and squares of the densely peopled
city, or along (76) the highways and byways of
the lowly village and the little hidden hamlet of
a rural parish, they had nothing on their heads
but a wreath of roses ; and the old men and the
young, the choir of singing-boys, and the youthful
maidens clad in white, who strewed the path,
whereby the Holy of Holies was to come, with
evergreens and sweetly-scented herbs and flowers
all were garlanded with roses. In some towns
abroad was it the custom for the good parish
priest to go every year, his brow entwined with
newly-gathered buds of the rose and (77) orange-
blossom, and holding in his hand a posy of the
sweetest roses nicely arranged, with his loved and
loving flock crowded about him, to do homage
oh paroissent tous les ministres des autels avec les plus beaux
ornemens, des couronnes de fleurs a leurs testes, et des bouquets
a leurs mains. Des Processions de Vfiglise, p. 472.
11 The practice of North Italy is well shown by the rubrics in
the " Sacerdotale " put forth for the diocese of Brescia. Con-
cerning the procession for Corpus Christi, that manual enjoins:
Deputentur principaliores aliquot viri pro portando baldachino,
sub quo sacerdos cum Venerabili Sacramento processionaliter ire
debet : qui viri pro cuj usque facultatibus pulchre sint vestiti,
ferantque singuli sertum in capite ex floribus confectum. Induan-
tur aliquot puerorum paria ad formam Angelorum cum sertis in
capite, quorum aliqui canistris deferant folia rosarum versus
Venerabile Sacramentum quandoque in processione seminanda, &c.
Aliquot viri decenter vestiti cum sertis rosarum in capite qui ab
utraque parte baldachini deferant faces, lampades, seu candelas
accensas. . . . Instrui possent aliquot paria puerorum, puella-
rumque, qui decenter vestiti, et cum sertis roseis processionaliter
irent, &c. Catalani, Rituale Romanum, ii. 214, 215 [ed. Rome,
1757].
PART I. CHAP. VI. 63
to the bishop seated on his episcopal chair in the
cathedral : 12 in other places, did he who had been
just called to the priesthood, walk with a crown of
flowers around his head to the altar upon which
he was then about to offer up, for the first time,
the holy and adorable sacrifice of the Mass. 13
(78) SECTION IX
Another step onwards will lead to
THE VESTURE OF THE CLERGY IN CHOIR.
Till the change in our national belief, many of
England's cathedrals were held and served, not as
abroad by secular canons, but Benedictine monks.
12 Antiquus mos Noise incubuit ut omnes sacerdotes ... ad
urbem episcopumque se conferant. Verumtamen non licet clericis
urbem intrare nisi coronatis atque ordine canentibus, cum plus-
culis tibicinibus. Cantus sunt Dei et sanctorum hymni ; corollas
vero contextse rosis floribusque citreis aliisque quos pulcherrimos
ea dies producere solet ; manu quoque ferentibus fascicules rosarum
affabre contextos, atque arte distinctos.
Eo itaque modo ornati sacerdotes urbem templumque episcopi
ingrediuntur. . . . Vocatur igitur sacerdos ... ad episcopum
accedit coronatus atque floribus redimitus. Deinde solium ascendit,
ac genu flexo extractaque capiti corolla, episcopum veneratur, corol-
lamque et ac fascicules florum omnes illi largitur, et exosculata
manu accedit ad suos. Ughelli, Italia Sacra, vi. 284.
13 Martene, in his most interesting Voyage Litteraire de Deux
Benedictins, tells us : Lorsque nous arrivames a Anchin la premiere
personne que nous rencontrames f ut une chanoinesse reguliere, qui
portoit une couronne de fleurs sur la tete, et comme cela nous
surprit, on nous dit qu'il y avoit en ce jour-la une premiere messe
au monastere, et qu'aux premieres messes le celebrant portoit une
couronne de fleurs a 1'autel, qu'il retenoit jusqu'a 1'offertoire, et
qu'alors on 1'envoyoit a la plus proche parente, qui la portoit le
reste de la journee. Second Voyage, p. 85.
64 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
This custom was brought into use by St. Austin,
himself a monk, and was more widely spread and
strengthened through the way in which the Anglo-
Saxon Church followed the advice that St. Beda
gave for overcoming whatever difficulties might
arise against the erection of new episcopal sees
a thing the saint warmly advocated which was to
set them up in the larger and more wealthy monas-
teries. 14 That monks should serve a cathedral is
(79) so wide a departure from the practice observed
in every other country of Christendom, that it has
awakened the surprise of ecclesiastical writers. 15
Some of our cathedrals, before the coming over
here of the Normans, but after that event many
more, were in the hands of and officiated in by
the secular clergy, embodied together under the
name of
CANONS,
about whom, in general, it may not be amiss to
say a word or two.
14 Quapropter commodum duxerim, habit o major! concilio, et
consensu pontifical! simul et regal! edicto, prospiciatur locus aliquis
monasteriorum, ubi sedes episcopalis fiat. Et ne forte abbas vel
monachi huic decreto contraire ac resistere tentaverint, detur illis
licentia, ut de suis ipsi eligant eum, qui episcopus ordinetur, et
adjacentium locorum, quotquot ad eandem dioecesim pertineant,
una cum ipso monasterio curam gerat episcopalem ; aut si forte in
ipso monasterio qui episcopus ordinari debeat inveniri nequeat, in
ipsorum tamen, juxta statuta canonum, pendeat examine, qui de
sua dioecesi ordinetur antistes. Beda, Epist. ad Ecgberctum An-
tistitem, ex., ed. Stevenson, Opp. Hist., ii. 216 [ed. Plummer, i. 413].
15 Augustinus enim et Laurentius, aliique primi prsedicatores
Anglorum monachi fuerunt et in episcopiis suis vice canonicorum
quod vix in aliis terris invenitur, monachos constituerunt.
Ordericus Vitalis, Eccles. Hist., iv. [P.L., clxxxviii. 322].
PART I. CHAP. VI. 65
The word canonicus, or KCLVOVLKOS, comes from KCLVWV,
which means a straight slip of wood for rectifying what
is crooked. Besides several other ecclesiastical signifi-
cations, " canon" or KCLVM means; i, a rule of life; 2,
a list or roll of the clergy associated to any particular
church. As those who give themselves up more im-
mediately to the worship of God and the service of the
sanctuary, ought always to follow a straighter line of
conduct, and be controlled by a stricter rule of life,
hence it was that, at an early period, all persons,
whether men or women, who had (80) made religious
vows, the clergy, in all its grades, as well as monks and
nuns, were denominated " canonical."
Towards the end of the fourth and the beginning of
the fifth century, the bishops, in some places, gathered
their clergy about them within their own houses, where
they all lived together according to a certain rule, pro-
vided with food, raiment, and the requisites of life out
of the revenues of the church which they served, and
close to which they were dwelling. If not the first, at
least one of the most illustrious examples of such a
society was furnished by the celebrated St. Austin and
his clergy of Hippo, who lived together under the same
roof, and formed a kind of religious brotherhood, ob-
serving one common rule of life or canon, without
making what are now known as the monastic vows,
celibacy excepted, to which all in holy orders bound
themselves. Such a mode of living for themselves
and those among their clergy who served the cathedral
church, became gradually adopted by several other
prelates, especially on the Continent ; and hence arose,
at least in continental Christendom, the system of
cathedral chapters, the members of which were called
" canons," not only because they lived together under
the same roof, slept in the same dormitory, ate at the
same board, and obeyed one common rule, but because
they were all enrolled as brethren upon the list of the
VOL. II. E
66 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
same church which, in return for their services to her,
fed and cherished them as her children. For the clergy
officiating at the cathedral of Metz, in Lorraine, was it
that St. Chrodegang, the bishop of that see from the
year 743 to 756, drew up a code of rules differing,
under a few heads only, from the Benedictine institute.
The common hall, the common sleeping-room, the
dwelling-place enclosed by a wall in which there was
but one gate to be opened and shut at stated hours,
and watched by a porter, (81) are all insisted on by the
rule of St. Chrodegang, which may be seen in Holsten,
Codex Regularum, ed. Brockie, ii. 96. The Council of
Aix-la-Chapelle, held A.D. 8 1 6, drew up a set of statutes
for the canons of cathedrals and collegiate churches,
very much the same as those framed by St. Chrode-
gang, but which were somewhat altered by another
Council at Rome, A.D. 1059.
In that dearth, mourned over so long ago by Gildas,
of documents illustrative of the early British church,
we do not rightly know what was the system adopted
by the bishops of Britain for the service of their
cathedrals, though we are warranted to think that
their episcopal sees were set up in the larger mon-
asteries, and therefore served by monks. The Anglo-
Saxons were acquainted with the use of the term
" canonicus " as applied to the clergy. Ecgberht,
archbishop of York, A.D. 732, tells us: Canones dici-
mus regulas quas sancti patres constituerunt, in quibus
scriptum est quomodo canonici, id est, regulares clerici
vivere debent ([The so-called] Excerpt. Ecgberti, Thorpe,
Ancient Laws and Institutions of England, ii. 97) ; and
the Council of Calcuth (Calchuthense), held A.D. 787, in
its fourth discourse, which is thus headed : Ut vita et
habitus canonicorum, etc., sint de more orientalium, et juxta
canones et decreta pontificum Romanorum, makes the fol-
lowing enactment: Ut episcopi diligenti cura pro-
videant quo omnes canonici sui canonice vivant, et
PART I. CHAP. VI. 67
monachi sen monachae regulariter conversentur tarn in
cibis quam in vestibus, ut discretio sit inter canonicum
et monachum vel secularem (Wilkins, Condi, i. 147).
From such scanty evidence it would be hard to draw
any more distinct conclusion, than that the term
" canonicus " was in use among the Anglo-Saxons
to point out the rest of the clergy from the monks
who were bound to follow the rule (82) of their
order, and to do the bidding of their abbot, as the
churchman was to heed the ecclesiastical canons, and
listen to the voice of his bishop. Perhaps, too, those
of the clergy who were more strict in the fulfilment
of their duties, were, from such a regularity, called
" canons."
It would seem that those of our cathedrals which
were served, during the Anglo-Saxon period, not by
monks but by the secular clergy, had not belonging to
them canons governed by the same rule of common
life, like those on the Continent. When Leofric trans-
lated his see from Crediton to Exeter (A.D. 1050), he
got his new church to be served by canons who dwelt
together under the same roof, slept in the one same
room, and took their meals in the same common hall,
a way of life for the clergy not monks, unheard of
hitherto in this land, as Malniesbury tells us : Huic
(Livingo) tempore Edwardi successit Lefricus apud
Lotharingos altus et doctus qui sedem episcopatus
transtulit in civitatem quse, propter fluvium Exam qui
muros lapsu suo allambit, vocatur Excestre . . . Hie
Lefricus eiectis sanctimonialibus a sancti Petri monas-
terio episcopatum et canonicos statuit, qui contra
morem Anglorum ad formam Lotharingorum uno
triclinio comederent, uno cubiculo cubitarent. Trans-
missa est hujusmodi regula ad posteros, quamvis pro
luxu temporurn nonnulla iam ex parte deciderit,
habentque clerici ceconomum ab episcopo constitutum
qui eis diatim necessaria victui, annuatim amictui com-
68 THE CHUKCH OF OUR FATHERS
moda suggerat. William of Malmesbury, De Gestis
Pontificum Anglorum [ii. 94, R.8., lii. 201].
The end of the eleventh century, however, witnessed
a change in the discipline that had for so many years
been so generally observed on the Continent by the
clergy who served the cathedrals. That intimate com-
munity of life was broken off, and the observance of
the same common (83) rule dispensed with. To every
canon was allotted a dwelling-place apart for himself
and his servants, though each one was expected to live
within the walled space, called, from that circumstance,
the close a good specimen of which is still to be seen
at Wells, near the cathedral or at least within the
neighbourhood of his church. To each was assigned,
besides the commons which he drew every day he
punctually came to choir, a decent provision, called a
prebend, for the support of himself and his household ;
and an uninterrupted attendance at the various daily
and nightly church services was enjoined, unless the
individual was expressly allowed, for some good reason,
to be away. Thus, even after the alteration had been
brought about, a something that bore a likeness to the
ancient discipline was still kept up, and for this reason,
and because they were enrolled in the list of clergy
belonging to the church to which they became asso-
ciated, the cathedral and collegiate clergy of the higher
grades continued to be, and are yet called " canons."
There were some collegiate bodies of canons who
would not relax, but have ever remained steadfast in
the practice of the early discipline of their order,
always living in community under the guidance of
their ancient rule. Such are now known as canons
regular, and are thus distinguished from the other
canons.
Perhaps the canons regular may be the " chanoines,"
and the secular clergy of cathedrals and collegiate
churches the " canons " of our old national writers,
PART I. CHAP. VI. 69
whose distinction between " chanoines " and " canons "
has hitherto puzzled our modern commentators.
In this transition, which was slow, of the canons
regular into secular clerks, the vesture which had been
first used by them in choir underwent little change ;
so that the cathedral clergy continued to array them-
selves, for singing (84) the divine service, in robes like
those employed by their predecessors.
In all cathedrals and collegiate churches, the clergy
who served them might be separated into two grand
divisions, of which one was called the upper, the other
the lower grade. In the first were ranked the personages
or dignitaries, as the dean, the treasurer, chancellor,
precentor, &c., and the full canons ; in the second, the
under canons, vicars, and the rest of the minor clerks :
the boys who sang in the choir, or ministered about
the altar, were looked upon and treated as a distinct
body.
For going to choir, over a cassock or pelisse,
each one put on, in early times, an alb, at a later
period, a surplice. Besides these garments, both
grades of the clergy, without distinction, wore the
canon's black woollen cope 16 throughout the year
16 Some families of canons regular still require their members,
whenever they go out of the house, to wear over their cassock
a linen surplice, and above that a large, full, black canon's cope.
I have often met them so dressed about the streets of Rome.
Such, too, was their habit when they went abroad in England
during olden times, as we learn from our poet Chaucer, who thus
describes one of them :
At Boghton under Blee, us gan atake
A man, that clothed was in clothes blake,
And undernethe he wered a whyt surplys.
* * * *
Al light for somer rood this worthy man
And in myn herte wondren I bigan
70 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(85) by night as at matins, 17 and by day, for prime,
tierce, sext and none, or, as they are called, the
" little hours," excepting at the more joyful sea-
sons, such as Easter and Whitsuntide, and on
high festivals and great saints' days, when they
cast off the black cope and appeared in their
surplices, 18 or were arrayed in rich silk copes for
the procession and the grand High Mass. 19
(86) The almucia or furred almuce was worn
What that he was, til that I understood
How that his cloke was sowed to his hood ;
For which, when I had longe avised me
I denied him som chanon for to be.
The Chanones Yemannes Prologue [556-558, 568-573, Skeat,
Student's Chaucer, p. 657].
17 The morrow-mass priest of Lichfield Cathedral, as he had to
say Mass as early as five o'clock every morning, was allowed to be
away from midnight office : Capellanus S. Ceddae ... in ecclesia
nostra . . . missam matutinalem, viz., hora quinta incipiente, de
mane singulis diebus celebret . . . ita quod idem capellanus . . .
matutinis media nocte decantandis, minime interesse teneatur.
Statuta Heyworth Ep. (c. A.D. 1420), Dugdale, Mon. Angl., viii. 1262.
18 See chapter xix., De Habitu Chori per totum annum [Use of
Sarum, i. 24].
19 The Salisbury rubric on this head was quoted just now in
note 77. The Use of St. Paul's, London, may be found in Sparrow
Simpson, Registrum, p. 53.
In the statutes drawn up by Bishop Hugh Pateshull, for the
cathedral of Lichfield (c. A.D. 1239), we find it ordered: Capse de
samito, vel tantum de auro, vel alia pretiosa in bona custodia
separatim serventur, et nulli vicario tradantur, nisi praecipue in
majoribus festis et processionibus. Et vicarii cum capis sericis
induerint, eas modeste deponant et honeste reponant. Nullus
autem vicarius capam sericam sibi oblatam recuset, nee in choro,
nee in processione, &c. Dugdale, Mon. Angl., viii. 1258.
To the precentor belonged the office of allotting these copes
to the various members of the choir, according to the rank which
each one held in the Church : Ad cantoris officium pertinet capas
in choro, quotiens gerantur. pro qualitate personarum distribuere.
Dugdale, Hist, of St. Paul's, p. 346, De Cantor e.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 71
by the canons of the upper grade, all the year
round, at the church services, 20 both by day and
by night : to those in the lower grade, this vesture
was allowed (87) only at the offices of the choir
which were sung by night, and for such individuals
it was ordered to be made, not only of a smaller
size, but of less costly materials, than the ones
in use among the dignified clergy.
But upon those holydays and particular occa-
sions that the dignitaries of a cathedral, or colle-
giate church, and the parochial clergy, when
doctors of divinity, exchanged the simple black
woollen cope for the rich silk embroidered one,
they still kept on the almuce, which was always
made of a fur, and lined and trimmed with a stuff
of a colour which proclaimed their rank, and wore
it, as the accompanying woodcut shows, under
the splendid processional cope in such a manner,
that the upper portion or hood of this furred
20 When Du Molinet wrote (A.D. 1666) his small, though rich
and well-illustrated work, entitled, Discours sur les Habits anciens
et moderns des Chanoines, he found it a custom, in some places, not
only for the celebrant and his ministers, but for every new priest
at his first Mass to go to the altar having the head covered with
a furred almuce : J'ay trouve qu'il y a encor quelques endroits,
ou les prestres et les ministres allant a 1'autel, portent 1'aumusse
en teste, sur leurs ornements sacrez, et d'autres ou les nouveaux
prestres s'en servent pareillement aux jours de leurs premieres
Messes (p. 18). But even a hundred years after, when De Moleon
gave his book to the world, the furred almuce still continued
to be so worn at High Mass in Rouen Cathedral during the winter
months : Le soudiacre, le diacre, et le celebrant . . . ont en este
1'aumusse sur le bras gauche, et la tete couverte du bonnet quarre,
et en hyver pardessus la chasuble ou tunique ils ont 1'aumusson,
qui leur couvre la tete et les epaules. Voy. Liturg., p. 363.
72 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
almuce overlapped that part of the top which
goes above the neck, and displayed itself, like
a broad ruff, over the shoulders.
Such, too, was the way in which
the rulers or rectors of the choir,
even in parish churches that were
not collegiate, wore their furred
almuce along with the cope of
silk, when they officiated at Mass,
matins, or evensong on great
days.
(88) Another way of wearing
this furred almuce was to throw
it across either the right or left
shoulder, and keep it hanging
there as much before as behind,
with the hand grasping one end
as it had been a little sack. Such
a custom arose towards the be-
ginning of the fifteenth century, and was followed
in many places abroad, and perhaps in some,
though they must have been but few, here in
England. 21
21 In a manuscript book of Hours of the fifteenth century,
in my possession, there are, in one of its illuminations, figured
two minor canons, having the almuce, shaped in the bag-form
as a covering for the head, thrown over the shoulder in such a
way, that the end, with the little points or tails hanging all round
it, falls behind. But the reader may see many examples of such
a custom in the woodcuts, particularly at ff. 2 b. 29, 86, 194, of the
valuable Pontificate Romanse Ecclesise, printed A.D. 1520, in Venice,
by Giunta ; as well as in those to be found in another important
liturgical work, Sacrar. Cserem. Rom. Eccl. Lib. Tres, from the same
press, A.D. 1582, especially at ff. 167, 180.
From the grave-brass of
Christopher Urswick.D.D. ,
in Hackney Church, Mid-
dlesex, A.D. 1521.
From the Roman Pontifical, Giunta, Venice. 1520, f.
From the Roman Pontifical, Giunta, Venice. 1520, f. 194.
74 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
Now, however, a practice, if not everywhere
yet very widely, prevails, of carrying this " almucia "
slung upon the lower part of the left arm ; but
in some churches it is still worn sewed to the
canon's cope, like a hood, and spread all about
the shoulders. 22
(89) The hood as it used to be made and worn
of yore, both by churchmen and the laity, must
not be confounded with the choir almuce : the
article of church attire differed, in many ways,
from that part to which it answered of the common
every-day dress of the period. Then, as now, it
happened, though not always, yet often, that in
small towns, and especially country churches, the
little boys who served the priests at the altar, as
well as the parish sexton, were mere lay-folks, not
having the tonsure, much less any one of the four
minor orders. From such, the same compliance
with the canons on the point of dress could not be
looked for as from ordained clerks, nor was it
asked. Hence came it that those individuals,
while going through the offices of the liturgy
along with the priesthood, might always be known
for secular people by something or another about
their garb, either in its colour, its cut, or
22 Such is the practice at St. Peter's, St. Mary Major's, and
St. John Lateran's, at Rome. But in some of the smaller col-
legiate churches of the Holy City, the canons carry upon the left
arm their almuce, which is neither ermine, like that of the upper
canons, nor grey, as is the one given to the minor canons of the
great basilicas, but of brown skins.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 75
its materials. Perhaps one of the readiest illus-
trations of this to be found, is the attire of the
youth in our woodcut, here
given from an illumination
in (90) a fine old manu-
script Salisbury missal 23
now before me. Over his
surplice, this lad wears a
hood which, like his cas-
sock, is scarlet, thus show-
ing itself, not only in its shape, but tint, to be
an appurtenance of the world rather than of the
sanctuary.
SECTION X
After having thus gone through the list of all
those ornaments and articles of sacred attire used
by the priesthood itself, or by churchmen below
that rank in the hierarchy, as were allotted to each
order of them according to the place it has given
it in the Church's public ministrations, we will
now take a short view of such adornments as
more especially belong to the episcopate : of
these,
THE MITRE
being the first, ought to have our first attention.
Without stopping to try what strength there
23 In the possession of Sir Robert Throckmorton, Bart., and
described at note 64, i. 344 of this work.
76 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
may be in the proofs upon which is rested the
opinion of those who say, that the apostles St.
John and St. James wore each of them, a plate of
gold upon his forehead when ministering before
the people, let us travel upwards through ecclesi-
astical history, and a very few hundred years after
(91) the apostolic age do we meet with facts
showing, some indeed indirectly, others however
most immediately, that in many places of at least
this, the Western Church, during that early
period,
BISHOPS WORE GOLDEN CROWNS AT THE DIVINE
SERVICE.
Unless in reality such was then the usage, the lan-
guage of some of our highest ecclesiastical writers
would have had no meaning : 24 but all doubt is
24 At the end of the fourth, or beginning of the fifth, century,
St. Jerome, a priest, addressed St. Austin, a bishop, thus : Fratres
tuos dominum meum Alypium et dominum meum Evodium, ut
meo nomine salutes, precor coronam vestram (Ep. ad August, n.
26). The " corona," or crown, here spoken of by St. Jerome, was
a something, therefore, not common to himself and St. Austin.
St. Austin, however, writing as follows to a brother bishop, talks
of the " crown " as of what was common to both of them : Per
coronam nostram nos adjurant vestri, per coronam vestram vos
adjurant nostri. Ep. ad Proculianuiti [(Paris, 1836) ii. 94, Epis.
xxxiii.].
Now the tonsure, or cutting away, in the shape of a circle, the
hair from the top of the head, being a mark of having left the
world worn by all clergymen, by St. Jerome the priest equally
with St. Austin the bishop, it is clear the " corona " in the
above letters did not mean the clerical tonsure ; and, not meaning
that, must of consequence be understood of some distinctive
PART I. CHAP. VI. 77
(92) cleared away by the circumstance that, in de-
scribing the sacrificial array of the British epis-
copacy in the sixth century, an author of the
period lets us know, that a jewelled diadem of
gold on the brow of the bishop was one of the
prelate's chief ministerial ornaments ; 25 and such a
ornament then worn about the head by a bishop only, of, in fact,
a circlet or crown, most likely made of gold or silver.
Our own Venerable Beda, himself but a priest, in dedicating one
of his works [Life of S. Cuthbert] to Eadfrid, a bishop, makes use
of the same form of speech while addressing him thus : Vestrse
almitatis corona. Beda, Op. Hist. Mm., ed. Stevenson, p. 47, 2.
But the language of other writers is more precise. Thus of the
great St. Ambrose, sang Ennodius, himself a bishop, and a writer
of the sixth century, A.D. 511 :
Serta redimitus gestabat lucida fronte
Distinct um gemmis ore parabat opus.
Ennodius, Epigram Ixxvii. [P.L. Ixiii. 348].
Three centuries later (A.D. 794), Theodulph, Bishop of Orleans,
thus describes the episcopal crown of gold :
Aurea pontincis cingebat lamina frontem
Qua bis binus apex nomen herile dabat.
Lib. v. carm. iii., v. 610 [P.L. cv. 357].
In all our ancient forms for the consecration of a bishop, the
silence respecting the crown or golden circlet, makes no more
against the use, in olden times, of this ornament, than does the
same silence in all our ordination services now respecting the
clerical cap, which, although it is never formally given by the
Church to any of her ministers, is worn, however, by all ranks of
them, from the bishop downwards to the lowliest clerk, as a
ceremonial part of attire.
25 In the Life of our British countryman, St. Samson, its writer,
who, if not an actual contemporary with that holy bishop (c. A.D.
565), must have lived but a very short time after him, while
affording us a glimpse of the episcopal ornaments in the British
hierarchy at that period, as he describes the vision with which
St. Samson was favoured, particularly mentions these coronals :
Sanctus Samson admirabilem vidit visum. Quadam nocte circum-
septari se a delicatis, ac densissimis canditatorum turbis cernit,
et tres episcopos egregios diadematibus aureis in capite ornatos,
THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
coronal, so (93) gemmed, was actually found about
the head of one of our earliest Anglo-Saxon bishops,
St. Cuthberht, when his grave was opened in the
twelfth century. 26 Besides bishops, abbots too, it
would seem, were allowed, during the Anglo-
Saxon period of our
Church, to have on,
most likely but at
great solemnities, a
circlet of gold, set
with precious stones,
the shape of which,
and way of wearing
it, are well shown by
this woodcut of a
(94) figure in St.
^Ethelwold's Bene-
dictional. 27 Our island was not the only country
where, during the sixth and following centuries,
these golden crowns were used by the prelates of
the Church at the celebration of the liturgy ; such
diadems were employed for a like purpose by
those personages in Italy and Germany, and other
atque holosericis ac pulcherrimis amictos vestibus in faciem sibi
adsistere, &c. Vita S. Samsonis, ab auctore anonymo sub&quali,
Mabillon, AA. SS. B., i. 165, n. 43.
26 In fronte sancti pontificis auri lamina non textilis fabrica,
tantummodo forinsecus deaurata, prseminet, quse diversi generis
lapidibus preciosis, minutissimis tamen, undique conspersa renitet.
Reginald of Durham, De Admir. S. Cuthberti, p. 87.
27 Now at Chatsworth, in the library of the Duke of Devon- -
shire, by whom I was kindly indulged with a leisurely inspection
of this truly glorious specimen of Anglo-Saxon art.
PART I. CHAP. VI.
79
parts of continental Christendom. By a very old
Roman " Ordo " it is directed, that at beginning
the Gospel, when the deacon makes upon himself
the sign of the cross,
the bishop and all the
people should do in like
manner ; then turning
themselves reverently to-
wards the Gospel, have,
all the while it is being
sung, neither crown nor
any kind of covering on
the head. 28 If, too, it
were quite certain that
the (95) accompanying
figure, from the bronze
gates put up before St.
John the Evangelist's
28 Et postquam dixerit Sequentia sancti evangelii . . . et reliqua,
facit crucis signum in fronte sua idem diaconus, et in pectore :
similiterque episcopus et omnis populus ; et revertuntur ad evan-
gelium. Sed et baculi omnium deponuntur de manibus, et in
ipsa hora, neque corona, neque aliud operimentum super capita
eorum habetur (Ordo Romanus II., ed. Mabillon, Mus. Ital., ii. 45,
46). This is the Ordo which Amalarius made the ground-work,
(A.D. 820-830) of his Edogx de Officio Missse, in which he says,
while treating of the singing of the gospel by the deacon : Neque
coronam, neque aliud operimentum super caput eadem hora
tenentes. [P.L. cv. 1322].
When the grave of St. Goslin, abbot of a monastery at Turin
(A.D. 1061), was opened in the year 1472, there was found, along
with other ornaments upon his body, one of these crowns : Con-
spicit itaque justi et piissimi patris epitaphium, corpusque pallio,
corona quam mitram dicimus, et baculo, more majorum decent er
contectum. Inventio corp. S. Goslini Abb., in A A. SS. Februarii, ii.
632, n. 4.
8o THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
chapel in the baptistery at the Lateran, during the
fifth year of Celestine the Third's pontificate (A.D.
1 196), were really intended to represent that pope, 29
then herein should we behold an unquestionable
proof, that even to the latter end of the twelfth
century, the ancient custom (96) was not alto-
gether laid aside of wearing these episcopal
crowns along with the chasuble and other sacer-
dotal garments.
But these circlets of gold, if often, were not
always, the only ornament around the brow of
an Anglo-Saxon bishop. Whether through old
age, weak health, or bringing to mind how the
priesthood under the Aaronic dispensation had
its comely head-dress, from feelings that a higher
dignity belonged to the Christian episcopate, or
perhaps from all these reasons mingling together,
certain is it our Anglo-Saxon prelates very soon
began to wear upon the head a ceremonial cover-
ing formed of a white kerchief, the finest in
texture, and called from its use and material the
bishop's head-linen, 30 which fitted quite close, and
was hindered from slipping off by a long bandage
tied behind, so as the two ends of this fastening
might be left to fall free and long about the
29 Ciampini, in his Vetera Monimenta, i. 239, is of opinion that
this figure was meant for Pope Celestine III., and in it he is
followed by Bonanni, La Gerarchia Ecclesiastica, p. 278 ; but
D'Agincourt thinks, and I agree with him, that it does not repre-
sent the Roman pontiff. Hist, de VArt, cfcc., Sculp., pi. xxi., n. 7.
30 Infula . . . Biscop heafod lin. sElfric's Gloss., p. 69.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 8 1
shoulders. 31 From the (97) words of St. Beda it
would seem, at the beginning of the eighth century,
the usage here was to wear both crown and linen
together : 32 at a later period, however, the linen
kerchief with its fillets was often the sole head-
covering for a bishop, as we see by the very
interesting picture of St. Dunstan (vol. i., p.
296), figured in one of our liturgical manuscripts
in the British Museum, of the Anglo-Saxon
epoch. 33 This illumination furnishes us with the
31 Of this kind, seemingly, were the two bands trimmed with
gold (nastolse ex auro paratse), noted down among the treasure
belonging (A.D. 831) to St. Riquier's Church, in Ponthieu; and
very likely the " capellum auro paratum " mentioned just after-
wards, in the same list, was nothing more than a fine white
linen kerchief worked all about with gold, to be worn by the
bishop of the diocese when he came to officiate at that monastery.
Descrip. de Thesaur. S. Richarii, in Chron. Centul. [P.L., clxxiv.
1258]. '
32 Sive ergo coronulse fuerint aurese, claritatem perpetuse lucis
significant: sive fuerint byssinse, ipsam nostri corporis immortali-
tatem, quse perennis futura est, figurate denuntiant. Et recte
sacerdos cum stolis byssinis coronas superadditas gestat ut et in
continentia ipse sua jugiter seterna prsemia meditetur et in sanc-
tificatione continentise, vel bonse operationis simul eadem gaudia
supernee beatitudinis audientibus promittat. Beda, De 7'aberna-
culo, iii. 8 [P.L., xci. 482].
33 From the nimb or circle, betokening endless, heavenly happi-
ness, about the head of St. Dunstan (who died A.D. 988), this
illumination could not have been painted sooner than the end of
the tenth, or early in the eleventh century. Done, however, at
whichever period, we may safely assume it to represent the ritual
custom followed by the holy archbishop, of wearing such an attire
on the head. Thus it shows the liturgical usage of the Anglo-
Saxon church in the tenth century.
At the beginning of an " Evangelisterium," called after St.
Nicholas, in the library of Munich, somewhat later in date than
the before-mentioned Cotton manuscript, there is figured a bishop,
who wears a like kind of close, tight cap, white, and seemingly of
VOL. II. F
82 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
earliest known instance of the (98) shape which the
mitre, properly so called, first took in this country
From MS. Nero C. iv., fol. 37.
linen, all around the lower part of which runs a crimson band ;
and a stripe of the same colour goes from the middle of the fore-
head up to the top of the kerchief. This illumination is given by
Silvestre in his valuable work, Paleographie Universelle, partie iv.
The same form of mitre is seen on the head of St. Amand, figured
in Mabillon's Annales Ordinis S. Benedicti, i. 487, from an illumi-
nated manuscript ; and the bishops sculptured on an old tomb in
Reims Cathedral likewise wear it, as we perceive from the engrav-
ing given of this monument by Martene, Voy. Litt., ii. 81, t. I.
The Anglo-Saxon Archbishop of Canterbury, St. Elphege,
martyred by the pagan Danes (A.D. 1012), used, on the great
festivals of the Church, to wear his pall and mitre all through
the day: Quod si prsecipua solennitas instaret . . . ipse (Elphe-
gus) autem in vestitu candido, desuper amictus pallio, mitra
csesariem constrictus, diem transigebat, quatenus per exteriorem
habitum vest is, interiorem conciret habitudinem virtutis, &c.
Vita S. Elphegi, Arch. Cant. Mart., auctore Osberno (c. A.D. 1070),
in A A. SS. Aprilis, ii. 636.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 83
towards the latter half of the (99) tenth century;
in the next age, the first sproutings, as it were,
of the two horns began to show themselves, and
Winchester Cathedral's very curious font 34 (which,
to my thinking, after a leisurely examination of
it, is a work of St. Edward the Confessor's reign),
lets us see how the mitre here in England arose
into two short points, not raised before and be-
hind as now, but right and left over each ear.
In the twelfth century, these elevations still held
the same place, but instead of being sharp, they
were quite blunt, broad, and very low, as the
figures from an Anglo-Norman manuscript 35 on
the plate opposite will testify.
But about this very time sprang up those
strongly marked and characteristic features which,
with but some small variation, have lasted to
the present day, in this episcopal adornment.
Hitherto no (100) cleft nor parting at top was
discernible : now, however, while the points
or rather slightly swelled out elevations were
brought, from arising on the right and left sides
of the head, to shoot up before and behind, the
mitre was so made, that when put on, its two
horns, now heightened a little, stood apart one
from the other, leaving a wide gap between them.
34 This font is given in large plates in vol. ii. of the Vetusta
Monumenta.
35 MS. Cotton, Nero c. iv., in the British Museum, of the Psalter
done into Anglo-Norman.
8 4
THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
This new shape, which was thus given, towards
the end of the twelfth century, to the mitre, is
well displayed in this figure
of a bishop, taken from a
manuscript 36 written and
illuminated, towards that
period, by an English hand ;
and the continental writers
of the time, while unfold-
ing the hidden symbolic
meanings which belong to
this article of episcopal
array, have drawn its form
distinctly to our eyes, in
their circumstantial account
f a ^ ^ s P ar ^ s an d embel-
lishments.
(101) The ribbon or bandage, which at one time
used to be wound about the head, behind which
it was knotted to keep fast the mitre, when that
covering was nothing more than a closely fitting
linen cap, now dwindled into a mere ornament :
its two ends, bordered by a deep fringe of scarlet
silk or golden thread, were made to be quite flat
and stiff, and stretching out to some little length,
fell hanging from the back of the mitre upon the
bishop's shoulders, and thus became the lappets
36 The limner of this manuscript has fallen into an error in
setting the maniple on the right, instead of the left, wrist of the
bishop. This precious little codex [Life of St. Cuthbert] belongs
to Sir William Lawson, Bart.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 85
or pendants. But if a silken or golden fringe
was the ordinary, it was not the exclusive edging
of these pendants, for sometimes they had at-
tached to their ends, by light chains of gold or
silver, a quantity of little bells, wrought out of
these same precious metals. 37
(102) A few years rolled away, and the mitre
grew somewhat higher and wider ; but while it
thus very slowly enlarged, it nowise altered its
olden form.
About A.D. 1300, as our woodcut 38 of Bishop
Giffard well shows, the mitre had reached in
England, as it did abroad, that becoming size and
graceful outline to which it long afterwards stead-
fastly kept, until towards the second half of the
37 Una mitra breudata . . . et ornatur laminis argenteis
deauratis et lapidibus insertis . . . et in altero pendulorum
deficiunt tres cathenulse cum karolis argenteis appensis. (Dugdale,
Hist, of St. Paul's, p. 315). Una mitra . . . ornata perlis albis
per totum campum et flosculis argenteis deaurata (deauratis ?)
lapidibus insertis ordine spisso ; et deficit una campanula in uno
pendulorum. (Ib.) Such bells are found fringeing the pendants to
the mitres worn by the Roman pontiffs, about the same time they
were used in England; and from an inventory taken (A.D. 1295) of
the ornaments in the treasury of the Pope's palace, it would seem
that the number hanging to each pendant was often five, never
more than six : Mitram magnam, &c., et in una de caudis sunt vi
balassi . . . et v campanelle, et in alia cauda sunt vj zaffiri . . .
et v campanelle. Of another rich mitre it is said : In caudis sunt
. . . et xii campanelle. Extracts from this inventory are given
by Garampi, Illustrazione di un Sigillo della Garfagnana, p. 85.
The coronel of strawberry leaves seen round the brow of the
archiepiscopal mitre in modern emblazonments of it, is an heraldic
imagination of late date, a Protestant, not a Catholic idea.
Now, as in all times back, there is not the slightest difference
between the mitre of a bishop, or an archbishop.
38 See i. 306.
86 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
sixteenth century, when classicism in architecture
and every kind of ornament, creeping from the
palace to the cathedral, pushed mediaeval art out
of her very home the Church : soon afterwards,
under this new influence, the mitre swelled itself
out into a bulging shape, and upstretched its
height beyond the bounds of due proportion.
But these tall, barrel-waisted, unsightly mitres,
made especially in France, are shrinking away
before the smaller and more comely ones that are
now fashioned, after the restored type of the
fourteenth century.
(103) From the shape, let us go to
THE MATERIAL AND COLOUR OF THE MITRE.
Though it may have been circled round with a
hoop of beaten gold, though gems of price did
often load its surface, still, from the earliest
glimpse which we are enabled to catch of the
mitre, as used among our Anglo-Saxon brethren
in the faith, since the sainted Beda wrote, up
to the end of the twelfth century, we everywhere
find that it was made, not of silk, but of nothing
more costly than plain (though always the best
and whitest) fine linen, of that kind by the older
ecclesiastical writers called " byssus," J which,
39 Mitra sumitur a lege, quse thiara, cydaris, infula, pileum
appellatur. Ex bysso conficitur, auro et gemmis ornatur, habens
duo cormia, duasque lingulas posterius. et fimbrias dependentes
inferius. (Sicardus, Mitrale, ii. 5) [P.L., ccxiii. 73]. Sicard wrote
PART I. CHAP. VI. 87
during the Middle Ages, (104) was known here
in England under the name of " buckram." The
thirteenth century, however, witnessed new en-
richments heaped upon this episcopal appurte-
nance. Though plain white linen continued still
to be employed for the making of mitres, yet
such as happened to be covered with it were set
aside, as now, to be worn during the seasons of
penance, and at the mournful and less solemn
functions of the Church. Instead of the linen
hitherto exclusively employed, the richest silks
came to be adopted for this purpose. This was
not all : often the ground of the mitre was sown,
as it were entirely overspread with the choicest
oriental pearls ; 40 and not unfrequently was the
c. A.D. 1185. Mitra pontificis scientiam utriusque Testament!
significat ; nam duo cornua duo sunt Testamenta, duse fimbriae
spiritus et litera. Circulus aureus, qui anteriorem et posteriorem
partem complectitur, indicat quod Omnis scriba doctus in regno
coelorum de thesauro suo nova profert et vetera. (Innocent PP.,
c. A.D. 1198, De /Sac. Altaris Myst., I. lix.) [P.L., ccxvii. 796. The
reference is to S. Matt. xiii. 52, Vulgate], Mitra autem, quia linea
est, castitatis candorem munditiamque significat . . . Bene autem
totus a capite usque ad pedes lino episcopus operitur, quia omnis
honor ejus et gloria, castitaset munditia est. Bruno Signien. Ep.,
De Consec. Eccl. [P.L., clxv. 1107]. Bruno wrote c. A.D. 1086.
Honorius of Autun (A.D. 1130) likewise tells us that the mitre
then was made of fine white linen : Mitra quoque pontificalis est
sumpta ex usu legis. Hsec ex bisso conficitur. . . . Mitra ergo ex
bisso facta multo labore ad candorem perducta caput pontificis
circumdat, dum Ecclesia baptismate mundata, labore bonorum
operum candidata, caput suum scilicet Christum in gloria videre
anhelat. Gemma Animse, i. 214 [P.L., clxxii. 609].
40 Hubertus, archiepiscopus, dedit mitram in qua sunt c. et
dimid. et xxv. lapides pretiosi, et iv. esmals. Thorpe, Regist.
Roffense, p. 121.
88 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(105) whole mitre wrought of nothing else but
plates of beaten gold and silver. 41 Every art was
bid to come and lend its beauty to this sacred
diadem : the embroideress was its willing hand-
maid, and her needle storied it with saints ; the
enameller, after his craft, strewed it over with
everlasting flowers (106) and devices, and wreathed
it about with bands of beautiful design in lively
and unfading colours ; the jeweller sprinkled it
with the light from every precious stone, with
the soft green rays of the emerald with the fire
Mitra aurea cum perulis infra et extra, et gemmis preciosis.
H. Regis tercij.
Item mitra aurea. J. de Peccham Archiepiscopi cum gemmis
preciosis.
Item mitra ejusdem argentea cum duabus crucibus super cornua.
Item mitre .iiij. brudate et gemmis ornate.
Item mitre .iij. cum perulis ornate sine gemmis.
Item mitre duse simplices de Bokram. [Invent. Gh. Ch. Canter-
bury, 1902, pp. 70, 71.]
41 About the middle of the fourteenth century, all the better-
most sort of mitres were made in England from thin but solid
sheets of Igold or silver. Such were those worn by the mitred
priors of Winchester Cathedral : Mitris eciam aurif risiatis, aureas
et argenteas laminas et gemmas preciosas habentibus, baculo pas-
torali, cirothecis aurifrisiatis, et anulo in digito, tunica, dalmatica,
sandaliis et aliis insigniis pontificalibus . . . usi sumus. Hist.
Dunelmensis Scriptores Tres, Append, p. cliv.
In the latter times of Catholic England, a distinction was made
by our churchmen between mitres of the old and the new make.
Those formed of thin but solid sheets of gold or silver were called
" standing mitres " ; those of thick parchment, covered with white
silk, or a web of small seed-pearls, fell under the denomination of
"mitres after the old fashion." Hence we read in the Winchester
inventory of Henry VIII.'s reign, of "three standing mitres of
silver and gilt, garnished with pearls and precious stones ; ten old
mitres, garnished with pearls and stones, after the old fashion. "
Dugdale, Mon. Anglic., i. 202.
PAKT I. CHAP. VI. 89
of the burning ruby the blue beams of the sky-
lit sapphire, and the golden twinklings of the
yellow topaz. Nor was the worker in the costly
metals behind the rest with the cunning of his
elegant mystery : when he was asked to fashion
a rich mitre out of gold or silver, he wrought
those two thin, though solid, sheets of which it
was to be made up, out of the precious metal, in
such a way, that they not only opened and shut
with utmost readiness by means of gimmels or
hinges, light though strong, in their frame and
nicely adjusted at the sides, but so bent them-
selves upon the wearer's venerable brow, as to sit
with ease upon it : two other gimmels held loosely,
yet securely, the lappets as they swung behind ;
and all up the edges of the mitre, this master of
his art taught to creep a purfling of crockets in
silver, the thin, leaf-like, veined appearance of
which, cut as they were, and tooled to look so
light, so sharp, so crispy, that they would be gazed
on now as a marvel a very miracle of handicraft,
and perhaps might baffle many, if not most, work-
men of the present day to imitate them. 42
42 Una pretiosissima et magna mitra, cum duobus pend. auro cir-
cumdata et lapidibus pretiosis, saphiris et rubeis, valoris septin-
gentarum marcarum per sestimationem, ex dono Thomse Rotheram
archiepiscopi Eborum (Invent. Ornam. ad Eccl. Cath. Ebor. pertin.
Dugdale, Mon. Anglic., viii. 1203). From what we are told (ib. p.
1286) of "the jewels belonging to my Lord of Lincoln's miter," it
must have been covered with pearls and precious stones, and one
of the most splendid in Europe. Amid a quantity of other church
plate sacrilegiously carried off from Fountains Abbey by the royal
pilferer, Henry VIII., were : One mitre, having the edges of silver
9 o THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(107) To learn how rich and beautiful were our
old English mitres, we have only to look at the
very few remains which still exist of one of
them; 43 and (108) cast an eye upon the list of
and gilt, and set with round pieces of silver, white like pearl, and
flowered of silver and gilt in midward, weight twelve ounces. One
mitre of silver gilt, and set with pearl and stone ; weight seventy
ounces. Dugdale, Mott., v. 290.
Precious stones on a mitre, a hallowed vessel, or in anything
for the house of God, should not be cut as ladies' jewels are, in
facets, but en cabochon, that is, in the unbroken, pebble-like shape.
Apart from the difference which ought always to distinguish the
sacred from the secular, even in ornament, there is greater broad-
ness of colour and depth of tint, a something grander, in gems
when set in the smooth elliptical form. The jewels upon every
kind of church ornaments were invariably mounted en cabochon
during the mediaeval period. This should be minded by such as
have the making of vessels for the altar.
43 Judging from its fragments, which I have more than once
seen at New College, Oxford, the mitre bequeathed to that house
by its magnificent founder, William of Wykeham, must have been
as rich as it was beautiful. The ground was of what, from their
smallness, were called seed-pearls, sewed with great regularity
upon white silk ; all around the lower part went a band of enamels
linked together by hinges, so as to leave them free to bend ; and
up the middle, both before and behind, ran a stripe composed
most likely of the same ornaments. There were silver gimmels
at the sides ; and all the edges were purfled with a border of
exquisitely wrought crockets in silver gilt. Of course there were
jewels, but they are gone.
About a hundred years ago there was still to be seen, in
Belgium, one of our fine, precious, old English mitres, quite
entire. Among other things which were shown to Martene on
his visit to the monastery of Cambron, that learned liturgist
especially mentions : La belle mitre qu'un eveque de Gand, qui
avoit besoin d'argent, vendit a un abbe de Cambron, quoyqu'elle
soit couverte de perles et de pierres precieuses. On dit qu'elle est
venue autrefois d'Angleterre (Voyage Litt. y ii. 108). At Rieux,
in the south of France, Martene was shown another beautiful
English mitre : Nous vimes dans la sacristie une fort belle mitre,
que (Monseig. Bertier dernier eveque) avoit achetee d'un Anglais,
et dont il fit present a son eglise, ordonnant qu'on s'en serviroit
les grandes fetes. Ib. p. 35.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 91
sacred ornaments that once, and in happier times,
adorned the cathedral churches of this country.
With regard to
THE COLOUR OF THE MITRE,
from everything we know about this liturgic
covering for the head, ever since it began as a
piece of plain, (109) simple linen, wrapped around
the brows of the aged bishop, unto its actual
shape, it is evident, that excepting when made
from hard gold, beaten into thin plates, or of cloth
of gold, its ground-colour was invariably white. 44
44 All the old-known mitres still in existence have a white
ground. St. Thomas of Canterbury's, figured by Shaw, vol. i. of
his Dresses and Decorations,; an abbot's, very low in form, kept
along with other curious things in the archives room at Bruges
Cathedral; and the remains of William of Wykeham's, in New
College, Oxford, are such. The Limerick mitre, which Shaw has
also given, is made of thin but solid plates of silver, studded with
many precious stones. All the bishops represented on the walls
of the old painted chamber at Westminster, wear white mitres
(see Gage Rokewode's Description in the Vetusta Mon., t. vi., pi.
xxxvii.). Full of liturgical interest is a beautiful picture belong-
ing to Mr. Eastlake, and painted in oils by some unknown but
able Flemish artist of the fifteenth century. It is thought to
represent the burial of our St. Thomas a Becket at Canterbury.
Of the mitres figured in it, all are white ; two seemingly of thick
silk, purfled with golden crockets ; the third all overspread with
pearls. The striking bluish whiteness of two albs in this picture
is not a caprice of the painter's, but done, as I think, to show that
those garments were of silk, not linen, with the creamy tint of
which, as seen in the acolyte's curiously made surplice, the blue-
ness of the silk is well contrasted.
The two mitres once belonging to St. Denys, near Paris, and
figured in Felibien's history of that abbey, plate I , had a ground
of small pearls, and were studded with precious stones.
In the Ordo Romanus xiii, drawn up by command of Pope
Gregory X. (A.D. 1271), the white colour of the mitre and its three
kinds, plain and enriched, according to the feast-day upon which
92 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
Such a tradition, (110) too, is studiously kept up
at the present day by the Roman ritual, which
allows not of red, green, purple, or black mitres,
but specifically tells us (111) that there are three
sorts of bishop's mitre : the first is called the rich
one, because it is adorned with gems and precious
stones, and often made out of sheets of gold and
silver : the second is the gold embroidered mitre,
which has no gems nor plates of gold or silver
upon it, but, for its (112) ornament, a few small
pearls, and is made out of white silk wrought
with gold, or of simple cloth of gold, but without
any plates of that precious metal, or pearls upon
each had to be worn, is clearly laid down : Dominus Papa tres
mitras diversas habet, quibus diversis temporibus utitur ; scilicet
unam albam totam, imam cum aurifrisio in titulo sine circulo, et
mitram aurifrisiatam in circulo et in titulo. Mitra aurifrisiata
in circulo et in titulo utitur in officiis diebus festis et aliis. . . .
Mitra vero cum aurifrisio in titulo sine circulo, utitur cum sedet
in consistorio . . . Alba utitur diebus dominicis et aliis non
festivis (Mabillon, Mus. Ital, ii. 232, n. 12). The " titulus " is the
stripe of gold running up the middle of the mitre. In our inven-
tories of church ornaments we never find mention made of any
coloured mitres ; they are always either white, or of gold :
Una mitra alba cum stellis et grossis lapidibus.
Una mitra alba breudata cum stellis et frecturis et octo lumbis
in circulo de purpura ornata lapidibus et flosculis. Dugdale, Hist.
of St. Paul's, p. 315.
A rich myter w fc golde, peerlys, and pcious stones (pertin.
priori et con vent ui).
A myter amelde (enameled) w* pcious stones.
A myter w fc peerlys, called the white myter. Inventory of
plate belonging to the Priory of Worcester, A.D. 1540, Green, Hist, of
Worcester, t. ii., Append, p. v.
Una mitra de albo serico cum rebaud. de auro.
Una mitra de albo serico ornata cum argento deaurato, in
circumf erentiis cum pretiosis lapidibus, &c. Invent. Ornam. ad Ecc.
Cath. Ebor. pertin. A.D. 1510, Dugdale, Mon. viii. 1203.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 93
it : the third, which is called the plain mitre, is
without any gold, being covered with plain silk
damask, or other stuff, even linen or white cloth,
with red edging or fringe to the hanging lappets. 45
The use of the mitre was not confined to bishops :
Koman cardinals, in virtue of their dignity, though
not even priests ; abbots of great houses, by espe-
cial privilege granted by the supreme pontiff; the
canons of some highly-favoured cathedrals 4G were
I am aware that examples, though few and far between, of red
mitres can be pointed out. In a sixteenth-century stained-glass
window at St. Jacques, Liege, and upon a late tomb in Maidstone
Church, Kent, a crimson-tinted mitre, edged with gold, appears.
Let not, however, the young student in ecclesiastical antiquities
be led astray upon this or another question, touching the colour
of the vestments, by such weak authority. The Belgian window
is of that gaudy, fantastic age of art known as the "cinque-cento,"
or " renaissance " ; our English instance of sculpture is of the
latest mediaeval period. But works of that time are, by them-
selves, never to be trusted as the faithful likenesses of the things
they figure, and especially where colouring is concerned. Works
of that epoch were done, not by men who were churchmen as well
as painters and sculptors, but under artists uncontrolled by the
clergy ; under those who, even if they happened to know the rules
and the symbolism of the ritual, overlooked both for the sake of
producing what they thought effect and contrast in colours. To
the mere painter, crimson would be deemed much better than
white as a ground for a mitre, to bring out its golden trimmings
and its jewels, as well as to heighten the whole effect of the
window, or stone monument, as a work of art in colouring.
45 Cseremoniale Episcoporum, i. 17.
46 To the canons in a few of the great churches in western
Christendom, the Holy See had granted the privilege of robing
themselves for the divine service in all things just like Roman
cardinals. In some cathedrals, however, such as that of Pisa, and
at Lisbon, all the full canons are admitted to this honour ; in most
others, such as those of Magdeburg, Cologne, Mentz, and Treves,
it was confined to a limited number, to seven priests, seven
deacons, and as many subdeacons, all of whom wore mitres along
with the rest of the cardinalitial vesture. All the canons of
94 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(113) allowed to put on this along with some other
ornaments, such as the dalmatic, tunicle, gloves,
and sandals, distinctive of the episcopate. Nay,
but half a century ago, there were churches in
France wherein priest, deacon, and subdeacon, at
High Mass, used each to wear a mitre : so did the
precentor and rulers of the choir, or chanters, while
about the Divine service, on great festivals. 47
Bamberg Cathedral were allowed to have the mitre. AA. SS.
Junii, \\i. 871.
To the provost of St. Die's collegiate church, at the foot of
Mount Vosge, St. Leo IX. (c. A.D. 1048-1054), besides the use of
the mitre and other pontifical ornaments, accorded the especial
privilege of wearing, over his alb, tunicle, and dalmatic, a silken
net-like ornament, falling all around the body, from the girdle
downwards to the feet, and called the " Rete/' from being fashioned
like a net. This we learn from one of its canons, Riguet, who tells
us : Ex institutione Leonis IX., qui majoris prsepositi titulum et
officium aliquando apud nos gessit, factum creditur, ut successoribus
pontificaliter omciantibus pedum et mytra sit, cum peculiar! quo-
que ornamento sericeo, in formam piscatorii retis cooperiente
albam, tunicellam atque dalmaticam, a cingulo usque ad pedes,
quod vulgo Rete vocant, retiatum Latine diceremus. In tali
ornatu assistit praepositus solenniorum dierum officiis. Riguet,
A A. &S. Junii, iii. 871.
47 [A. S. Maurice de Vienne], a la messe du chceur, le celebrant,
le diacre et le soudiacre ont des mitres aux jours solennels (Voy.
Liturg., p. 10. [A S. Vincent de Macon], a la grand messe du
choeur . . . le celebrant, le diacre et le soudiacre chanoines, aussi
bien que les deux chappiers quand ils sont chanoines, se servent
de mitres (ib. p. 147). Les chanoines de 1'eglise collegiale de S.
Pierre de Macon ont aussi 1'usage de la mitre quand ils efficient
au grand autel (ib.). That such a ritual custom was of very long
standing in France, we gather from an observation made by
Richard, Archdeacon of Poictiers (A.D. 1163), and recorded by our
Matthew Paris in these words : Quod audiens Pictavensis archi-
diaconus, " Meus," inquit, " vicarius in ecclesia beati Hillarii incedit
mitratus in omnibus prsecipuis anni solemnitatibus, nee derogat
mitra episcopali dignitati." Vitas S. Albani Abbatum, p. 80 [ed.
Hodgkinson].
PAET I. CHAP. VI. 95
(114) Not only the abbots over our greater
houses, but even the priors in several monasteries
attached to our cathedral churches, had asked for,
and gotten from Rome, a privilege for wearing,
in the celebration of the liturgy, all the episcopal
adornments the mitre, the ring, the pastoral
staff, the tunicle, the dalmatic, the gloves, the
sandals. These ornaments, the mitre more espe-
cially, the monks often chose to have made after
a kind the richest and most costly ; and never
heeding whether the bishop of the diocese were
there or not, celebrated the Divine service in his
cathedral thus episcopally arrayed. The bishops,
with reason, loudly complained of this to Rome,
and bewailed in becoming speech that such an
unseemly inroad on their pre-eminence should be
let go forwards, with an assurance to the Pontiff
that it raised up no small scandal among the
people, and very much lowered the dignity of
the episcopate, observing at the same time, how
many priors of the cathedral churches in various
parts of the country would not put on such orna-
ments, lest they might seem to be on the same
level with their bishops. Acknowledging the
truth and justice of the episcopal protests, (115)
the holy See forbade all our abbots and priors
to use, when their diocesan was present, any
pontifical ornament, and even in his absence to
employ other than the simple white mitre, or, at
most, the one of gold cloth, but without precious
96 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
stone, jewel, or costly adornment of any sort upon
it. After a time, the monks wearied the Pope
with fresh supplications, and the above decree
was so far recalled to please them, that even a
prior might, with the bishop present in his own
cathedra], wear the cloth of gold mitre ungarnished
with either pearl or jewel, along with the ring ;
but when that personage was away, then could
the prior come forth vested in all the pontifical
array. 48 In the instance (116) of Worcester
48 The Privilegia concessa Priori Ecclesiss Wigorn. per Sedem
Apostolicam, printed by Wilkins, throw much valuable light upon
this question, as regards England. In the year 1351, John of
Evesham, Prior of Worcester cathedral church, had obtained from
Pope Clement VI. the privilege, for himself and successors, of
wearing the mitre, &c. ; and Pope Urban V. added his confirma-
tion of it (A.D. 1363), in the manner following : Urbantis episcopus
servus servorum Dei, dilecto filio Johanni de Evesham Priori
ecclesise Wigorn., &c. Clemens Papa sextus . . . tibi et successo-
ribus tuis prioribus ecclesiae Wigorn. ordinis sancti Benedict! . . .
indulsit, ut tu et iidem successores tui mitra, annulo, baculo,
tunica, et dalmatica, pastoralibus uti, et benedictionem solennem
in Missa et mensa dare libere valeatis, &c. Et licet, sicut exhibita
nobis pro parte tua petitio continebat, multi abbates et priores in
regno Anglise existentes, etiam non exempti, quibus a sede
Apostolica concessum erat, ut mitra uti possent tarn in episco-
porum suorum prsesentia quam eorum absentia, mitris uti solerent
laminis argenteis et gemmis preciosis ornatis ; tamen postmodum
pro parte . . . Reginaldi episc. Wigorniensis extitit suggestum
. . . Innocentio Papae sexto . . . quod si tu et successores tui
vigore indulti hujusmodi mitra et baculo aureas vel argenteas
laminas seu gemmas preciosas habentibus, et aliis ornamentis
preedictis in ejus prsesentia uteremini, non modicum in populo
scandalum generaretur, et pontifical! dignitati quamplurimum
derogaretur ; quodque multi priores cathedralium ecclesiarum
dicti regni Anglise ornamentis talibus non utebantur ne pares
eorum episcopis viderentur ; prsefatus Innocentius prsedecessor,
ipsius Reginaldi supplicationibus inclinatus . . . declaravit quod
tu et successores, praedicti hujusmodi indulti vigore, mitra, et
PART I. CHAP. VI. 97
Cathedral, its prior's staff was a " bordonus," or
stiff wand of silver, ending, not with a crook, but
with a knob.
aliis ornamentis preedictis in prsesentia Reginald! episcopi et
successorum suorum episcoporum Wigorniensium nullatenus, in
eorum vero absentia mitra alba et etiam aurificata sine lapidibus
tamen et gemmis preciosis et alio precioso ornamento tantummodo
uti possetis.
Nos igitur . . . tuis in hac parte supplicationibus inclinati . . .
indulgemus, ut tu et iidem successores tui, in episcopi Wigornien-
sis prsesentia, mitra aurificata gemmarum et perlarum ornamenta
non habente necnon annulo ; in ejusdem vero episcopi absentia,
mitra etiam perlarum et gemmarum ornatum habente, annulo,
tunica, dalmatica, sandaliis et chirothecis episcopalibus ac bordono
argenteo, botonum argenteum habente in capite absque alio ornatu,
uti et benedictionem solennem dare in missa . . . libere valeatis,
&c. (Wilkins, Condi, iii. 201). From these and other documents,
such as those given in the Appendix (pp. cxlvii., cliv.) to the Hist.
Dunelmensis. Scriptores Tres, we learn, that it was not before the
middle of the fourteenth century the great monasteries of Eng-
land sought more particularly to get for their abbots or priors the
privilege of the mitre and other pontifical ornaments.
To understand thoroughly what great privileges came with the
precious mitre, the reader should know that complaints had been
often and justly made that, while sitting in council, the mitred
abbot could not be, as he ought, distinguished in anything from
the bishops of the Church. To do away with such an unseemly
disorder, Pope Clement IV. (A.D. 1 267), decreed, that henceforward,
whensoever present at council or synod, all exempt abbots should
wear no richer mitre than the gold-embroidered one, having
neither precious stones, nor plates of gold or silver on it ; un-
exempt abbots, the plain white mitre : in every other place, the
exempt abbot might assume that kind of mitre which had been
especially allowed him by the Apostolic See (Catalani, Pontificate
tiomanum, Rome, 1738, i. 257). An abbot became "exempt"
when, by an especial favour, his monastery was withdrawn from
the canonical jurisdiction of the bishop in whose diocese it stood,
and it as well as all its inmates were answerable to no other
ecclesiastical tribunal than that of Rome. All such grants and
exemptions are very unwise, being certain to make, sooner or
later, wide breaches in ecclesiastical discipline ; and under all
circumstances, instead of strengthening, weaken that meekness
and lowliness of heart, which a monastic life ever strives to teach
VOL. II. G
98 THE CHUKCH OF OUR FATHERS
(117) Besides the mitre, the Roman Pontiff fre-
quently wears what was called the "regnum," but
is now better known as
its followers. So true indeed is this, that the statutes of some
orders have forbidden their abbots to use pontificals, though
privileged before to do so, alleging this reason : Ne forsan ex
ipsis supercilium elationis assumat, aut sibi videatur sublimis, &c.
(Innocent III.,Epist.,i. 197 [P.L M ccxiv. 173]) ; and St. Bernard writes
in as strong language, while he blames those abbots of the order
who were seeking to get themselves exempt, and win from Rome
the permission to use pontificals: Miror quosdam in nostro
ordine monasteriorum abbates hanc humilitatis regulam odiosa
contentione infringere, et sub humili (quod pejus est) habitu et
tonsura tam superbe sapere, ut cum ne unum quidem verbulum de
suis imperiis subditos prsetergredi patiantur, ipsi propriis obedire
contemnant episcopis (St. Bernard Ablo.,Epist. xlii., seu Opusculum
ii. ; De Moribus d Off. Episcoporum, ix., 33 [P.L., clxxxii. 830,866
also 148]. Verum aperte indicant quidam horum quid cogitent,
dum multo labore ac pretio apostolicis adeptis privilegiis, per ipsa
sibi vindicant insignia pontificalia, utentes et ipsi more pontificum,
mitra, annulo, atque sandaliis. Sane si attenditur rerum dignitas,
hanc monachi abhorret professio : si ministerium, solis liquet
congruere pontificibus [ibid., 832]. The many-headed evil growing
out of these exemptions was seen and deeply regretted, not only
by St. Bernard in France, but in this country too, and among the
monks themselves, one of whom, Jocelin de Brakelond, almoner of
St. Edmundsbury, thus speaks of it : Venit rumor ad abbatem
H(ugonem) quod R(ichardus) archiepiscopus Cantuariensis vellet
venire (A.D. 1176) ad scrutinium faciendum in ecclesia nostra
auctoritate legatie sue ; et, accepto consilio, misit abbas Romam
et impetravit exemcionem a potestate predicti legati. Redeunte
nuntio ad nos de Roma, non erat unde solvi poterat quod ipse
promiserat domino Pape et cardinalibus, nisi ex circumstantiis
crux que erat super magnum altare, et Mariola, et Johannes, quas
imagines Stigandus archiepiscopus magno pondere auri et argenti
ornaverat, et sancto ^Bdmundo dederat. Dixerunt etiam quidam
ex nostris qui abbatem familiarius diligebat, quod ipsum feretrum
sancti ^Edmundi deberet excrustari propter talem libertatem, non
advertentes magnum periculum posse nasci de tali libertate ;
quod si forte aliquis abbas noster qui res ecclesie voluerit dilapidare
et conventum suum male tractare, non erit persona cui conventus
possit conqueri deinjuriis abbatis, qui nee episcopum, nee archi-
episcopum, nee legatum timebit, et impunitas ausum prebebit
PART I. CHAP. VI. 99
(118) THE TIARA,
which, like the bishop's mitre, has had its
changes in shape, and increase of adornment. At
what (119) precise time the popes assumed the
tiara cannot be well ascertained. Bruno of Segni 49
mentions it in the (120) eleventh century, and
from what he, besides Pope Innocent III., 50 says
of this covering for the head, it would appear to
have been looked upon in their days as the sym-
bol of temporal and regal sway, not of spiritual
and priestly power. The papal tiara, as the picture
overleaf (as well as another at p. 380, t. i.)
shows, was at first a conical cap, ending at top in
a small round ball, and wreathed about the fore-
delinquendi (Cronica Jocelini de Brakelonda, ed. Rokewode, p. 4).
Though by no means the first, yet a remarkable and conspicuous
example of an exempt abbot in England, was that of John of
Hertford, chosen abbot of St. Alban's, A.D. 1235. The whole pro-
cess of his election is given at full length, under the title of
" Modus constituendi abbatem exemptum," in Wilkins, Concil.,
i. 631.
49 After noticing the bishop's mitre, St. Bruno says of the pope's
tiara : Summus autem Pontifex propter hsec et regnum portat
(sic enim vocatur), et purpura utitur, non pro significatione, ut
puto, sed quia Constantinus Imperator olim Beato Silvestro
omnia Romani Imperii insignia tradidit : unde et in magnis pro-
cessionibus omnis ille apparatus Pontifici exhibetur, qui quondam
Imperatoribus fieri solebat. Bruno Signien. Ep., De Consecrate
Eccl. [P.L., cxlv. 1108].
50 In his sermon on St. Silvester, Pope Innocent HI. says:
Romanus itaque Pontifex in signum imperil utitur regno, et in
signum pontificii utitur mitra ; sed mitra semper utitur, et ubique ;.
regno vero, nee ubique, nee semper, quia pontificalis auctoritas et
prior est, et dignior et diffusior quam imperialis [P.L., ccxvii. 481,,
482].
100
THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
head with a single crown of gold. 51 (121) So
it continued to be adorned until the pontificate
From MS. 2 B. vii., f. 308.
51 That such was the olden form of the pontifical mitre, we may
see in a very curious liturgical roll, an illumination from which
Gerbert has published at the end of his first volume, De Cantu et
Musica Sacra. The pope is sitting on a faldstool, and wears a
triangular-shaped mitre, which is strongly contrasted by the low
mitre with two short very blunted points, worn by a bishop who
is standing on the left, and much like the mitres in our plate at
p. 82 of this volume. That there may be no mistake, the word
" Papa " is written, like the rest of this manuscript, in Longobardic
character, over the pontiffs head. This valuable roll was, and
perhaps may still be, in the Barberini Library, at Rome.
From this particular form of mitre having been adopted at an
early period, exclusively by the Roman pontiff, came the practice
of putting it always upon the figure of the first in the long line of
popes St. Peter. Hence, in most of our English monastic seals,
whereon the Prince of the Apostles happens to be figured, he is
made to have on such a mitre, with the only addition of a crown
around the brow of it, as we may behold in several fine abbatial
seals, some of which are engraved in the new edition of Dugdale,
PART I. CHAP. VI. 1 01
of Boniface VIIL, A.D. 1294-1303, who aUd&d! A
to it (122) a second crown; and but a few y|ea|r$ |f [\ H V
afterwards, Urban V. completed its decoration byr f j~ r
bestowing on it another coronal. But the tiara
with its triple crown always kept to its first and
olden sharply pointed form ; and it was not until
the beginning of the sixteenth century that it
quite exchanged its straight for an oval shape,
swelling out somewhat broad at top. Beneath
the mitre and tiara, bishop and pontiff were
accustomed to have on a closely fitting skull-cap,
which is well shown in some of our woodcuts. 52
SECTION XI
Amid the appliances once needed at solemn
High Mass, more especially when sung by a bishop,
there was ever to be seen a
COMB,
usually of ivory, sometimes quite plain, but at
others adorned with elaborate carving, and even
Monadicon Anglicanum, as that for Peterborough (t. i. pi. v.). for
Athelney (t. ii. pi. xiii.), for Hyde (ib., pi. xiv.). Unaware of this,
some antiquaries, meeting with figures much broken, especially
about the head, where a tapering mitre might easily be shattered,
and finding the remains of a crown upon what is instantly known
for a bishop, have been sadly puzzled to account for this seemingly
regal mark of distinction, and to assign the fragment of ancient
mediaeval art to the right personage.
52 Particularly in those, i. 360, 362. The cap, made of crimson
velvet or satin, edged with ermine, and called " camelacium,"
worn by the Roman pontiffs not many years ago, was the same
kind of covering for the head.
102 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
{ /; |,g@mmed with precious stones. Combs of such a
'kind were often to be found kept among those
costly things belonging to the sacristy of some of
(123) the greater churches abroad, 53 or reckoned
up along with the sacred ornaments in an Anglo-
Saxon minster, 54 and, during later times, in an
old English cathedral. 55
53 In the treasury at Sens Cathedral, they still have a fine large
ivory comb, sculptured with the figures of animals and adorned
with precious stones. On it are cut these words, PECTEN SANCTI
LUPI, and the belief is, it once belonged to, that holy bishop, who
sat in the see of Sens a part of the sixth century. Another
French prelate, Riculf, bequeathed (A.D. 915) to those who should
come after him in his bishopric, among other liturgical ornaments :
Pectenem eburneam unam (Test. Riculfi Epis. [P.-L., cxxxii. 468] ).
Among the chapel furniture enumerated in his will by that holy
nobleman, Everard, who died A.D. 937, in Belgium, we read of :
Pipam auream unam . . . pecten vero auro paratum unum, flavel-
lum argenteum unum. Testam. Evrardi Comitis, in D'Achery,
SpiciL, ii. 877.
54 Along with several other sacred appliances once belonging
to St. Cuthberht, and put along with his body in the coffin, was
his comb, of which Reginald thus speaks : Habet (S. Cuthbertus)
secum in sepulchro altare argenteum . . . forpices adhuc priscse
novitatis gratiam retinentes . . . ubi cum pectine ejus eburneo
hactenus conservantur quod in medio perforatur, ita ut tres pene
digiti in eo possint leviter infundi, cujus magnitude cum consimili
latitudine videtur decenter extendi. Nam longitudo latitudini
pene cosequatur, nisi quod pro ornatu altera alteri in aliquo dis-
similatur (De Admir. S. Cuthberti Virtut., p. 89). By these latter
words of Reginald, it is evident that St. Cuthberht's comb must
have been broader than it was long. Another ivory episcopal
comb, longer than it is broad, measuring 6j inches in height by
4! inches in width, was found in a bishop's grave at Durham
Cathedral (A.D. 1827), and may be seen figured, full size, in Raine,
S. Cuthbert, pi. vii. St. Neot's comb is thus described by Leland :
Pecten S. Neoti ex ossiculo duos digitos lato insertis piscium
denticulis instar maxillae lupi fluviatilis. Collect., iii. 13.
65 The " pecten eburneum " which Archbishop Hubert left to
his cathedral of Canterbury, was thought worth a notice by Gervase
(Ada Pontif. Cant. [R.S., Ixxiii. ii. 413]); and the Sarum inventory,
PART I. CHAP. VI. 103
(124) If it was a bishop who pontificated, the
deacon and subdeacon combed his hair as soon
as his sandals (125) had been put on his feet,
while sitting on his faldstool ; 56 if a priest cele-
drawn up half a century later (A.D. 1222) enumerates : Pectines v
eburnee exceptis iis qui sunt ad altaria [Wordsworth, Salisbury
Cerem., p. 177]. St. Paul's Cathedral, London, had (A.D. 1295) :
Tres pectines eburnei spissi et magni et tres tenues et usuales de
ebore. Item, unum pecten eburneum pulchrum de dono Johannis
de Chishulle. Item duo pectines eburnei sufficientes. Et memoran-
dum quod ad cistam coram cruce est unum pecten eburneum et
unum vas cristallinum ornatum argento cum reliquiis (Dugdale,
Hist, of St. Paul's, p. 316). At a visitation to the treasury in
Canterbury Cathedral (A.D. 1315), among other precious ornaments
for that church's use, were : Pecten . j aureus . H. Regis . tercij .
gemmis ornatus cum nigro Camau et gernettis quadratis. ^[Pecten
. j eburneus cum lamine argenteo et deaurato cum gemmis ex
utraque parte. Ultern . vj pectines eburnei [Christ Cli. Inven-
tories, p. 74]. In the list of relics which the monk of Durham,
Richard de Segbrok, found hanging round St. Cuthberht's shrine,
when he was appointed its keeper (A.D. 1383), are noticed: the
comb of Malachias the archbishop. Item, the comb of St. Boysil
the priest (Raine, St. Cuthbert, p. 127); "the ivory comb of St.
Dunstan " was also there (ibid., p. 125). Among many other
rich church-ornaments carried off from Glastonbury monastery
by Henry VIII. was " a combe of golde, garnishede with small
turquases and other course stones, weinge with the stones viii oz.
di." Dugdale, Mon. Anglic., i. 63, new ed.
56 One of the rubrics in the pontifical written out by order of
Ratold, Abbot of Corby, before the year 986, directs : Deinde
ministretur ei (episcopo) aqua ad manus, et pecten ad caput, after
putting on the episcopal tunic (Gregor. Sacr., ed, Menard, p. 261
[P.L., Ixxviii. 241] ). In the chapter, "De his quse observanda sunt
circa mysterium quando episcopus cardinalis Missarum sollemnia
celebrat," in the Ordo Romanus, drawn up by Cardinal J. Gaetano
just at the closing of the thirteenth century, occurs this pas-
sage: Sunt necessaria pro persona pontificis pecten et tobalea
circumponenda collo ejus quando pectinatur (Mabillon, Mus. ItaL,
t. ii. p. 288) ; and further on, in the same " Ordo," it is directed :
Ipso pontifice super faldistorio residente, diaconus et subdiaconus
accipientes ab acolythis tobaleam suam et pecten, extendant
tobaleam circa collum et caput ejus leviter et decenter pectinent,
104 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
brated, the same office of the comb was done for
him as he sat within his niched seat the first
of those three sedilia in the (126) presbytery, to
be observed in most of our English old parish
churches, built of stone, against the southern wall
of the chancel. 67
SECTION XII
Though holding such a very high place among
pontifical appurtenances, and often spoken of by
writers on ecclesiastical and civil history, the
origin of
THE PALL
has not been sufficiently well searched after by
liturgists and Church antiquaries : few, I imagine,
suspect that this archiepiscopal appendage is the
true and only representative of the Roman toga ;
and yet its legitimate descent from that ancient
classic garment can be accurately traced up.
For almost the last thousand years the shape
of the pall has undergone few if any changes in
videlicet primo diaconus a parte dextra, deinde subdiaconus a
sinistra (ibid., p. 292). Durand writes: Caligis et sandaliis im-
positis pontifex et sacerdos caput pectinat. Rationale, lib. iv.,
cap. iii., n. I.
67 From a ritual belonging (A.D. 1 360) to the church of Viviers,
in the south of France, we gather that the celebrant's hair was
combed by the deacon, not only in the vestry, but several times
during divine service : Sacra celebraturus sedet dum in choro
Kyrie, Gloria et Credo decantantur ; unde quoties assurgebat, ipsi
capillos pectebat diaconus amoto ejus capello seu almucio, licet
id officii jam in secretario antequam ad altare procederet, sollicite
ei prsestitisset. Du Gauge in verbo Sedes Majestatis.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 105
western Christendom, and every archbishop of
the (127) Latin rite, when vested in his full
pontificals for singing solemn High Mass, wears
about his shoulders a pall, nothing different,
except in the length of the band hanging down
before and behind, from that same badge of
ecclesiastical dignity figured on the person of
St. Dunstan, vol. i., p. 296. Now, as then, it is
woven of plain white lamVs wool, 58 and marked
in (128) several places with a cross, and is at
present, as it has been for many ages past,
fastened by three pins, one on the left shoul-
der, another on the breast, and another on the
58 In noticing the garments found upon St. Gregory the Great's
body, when that illustrious pontiff's grave was opened (c. A.D.
827), John the Deacon, who wrote his life some fifty years
after (towards A.D. 875), tells us : Pallium ejus bysso candente
contextum nullis fuisse cernitur acubus perforatum, sic ipsum
circa scapulas obvolutum fuisse, non autem confixum dignoscitur.
. . . Quod autem reliquiarum phylacteria tenui argento fabricata,
vilique pallio, de cpllo suspensa fuisse videntur, habitus ejus
mediocritate" demonstratur. Porro in exilitate baltei, quae unius
pollicis mensuram numquam excedit, speciem propositi regularis
olim a sancto Benedicto statuti . . . eum servasse luce clarius
manifestat (John the Deacon, S. Gregorii Papse Vita, iv. 80
[P.I/., Ixxv. 228] ). De Bralion, and other writers on the subject,
behold in this "pallium" of St. Gregory, the liturgical ornament
known at present exclusively under such a name. To me it looks
no other than the common everyday cloak of that saint, which
was worn by him, not like the higher classes of men in those times
fastened with a brooch, more or less curiously wrought, as we
may see in the monuments of the period but in the way poorer
people then did, unpinned, and wrapped about his shoulders : the
same lowliness of thought, with regard to dress, showed itself in
the pontiff's "baltheum," or girdle, which was of the plainest and
the narrowest ; hence nothing can be drawn from the garments in
which St. Gregory was found clothed to prove that his liturgic
pall was made, not of wool, but " byssus," or thin linen.
106 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
back, over the chasuble ; spread out flat, it takes
this shape.
Towards the end of the sixth century, at
the period when St. Gregory the Great was
head of God's Church upon earth, and
when St. Austin came from Rome to Kent, such
was not, however, either the shape of the Roman
pall or the mode of wearing it. This ornament was
then a long straight band, in width somewhat
broader than now, and so put on, that being thrown
loosely about the neck of the bishop, it hung half
way down his breast and back, and met upon the
left shoulder in a manner that allowed one end to
droop before, the other behind his person, as may
be seen on SS. Maximianus and Ecclesius, 59 each
in (129) his day Archbishop of Ravenna, about the
middle of the sixth century, and in the illumi-
nations of some of the early liturgical codices.
59 Shown in our woodcut, i. 260 of the present work. The earliest
known description of the pall well agrees with the shape and fall-
ing down the breast of this ornament, as we behold it on the
persons of those two Archbishops of Ravenna ; for the writer of a
very curious treatise on the liturgy, as celebrated in Gaul during
the end of the sixth century, much about the period when the
mosaics at St. Vitale's were done, speaking of the pall, says:
Palleum vero quod circa collo usque ad pectus venit, rationale
vocabatur in vetere testamento. . . . Quod autem collo cingit,
antiques consuetudinis est, quia reges et sacerdotes circumdati erant
palleo veste fulgente, quod gratia praesignabat (tixpositio Brevis
Ant. Lit. Gal. [P.L., Ixxii. 97] ). By the same writer we are led to
believe that, if not throughout the year, for Easter-time at least,
both ends of the pall had hung to them a fringe of little bells :
Palleum vero in Pascha cum tintinnabulis Eucharistia velatus
instar veteris testamenti ubi tonica sacerdotis plena tintinnabulis
signans verba preedicationis ostenditur. Ibid.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 107
Such, no doubt, was the way in which our Arch-
bishops of Canterbury and York, for a century or
two after the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons,
wore theirs ; and at the present time, after this
same fashion is it that throughout the Greek
Church every bishop (for there, all bishops are
allowed this adornment) still continues to put on
his pall or u omophorion."
In going back to the rise of the pall, our readers
should be told that the old Roman toga was a
kind of white woollen mantle, cut in the
shape of the upper section of a circle,
or, to speak better, in the form of a
cycloid. Of this, the end (i) was let
(130) fall to the ground, in front, from
the wearer's left shoulder; the other ex-
tremity (6) was then brought down the back and
wound under the right arm, so as to leave it quite
free and bare, and going athwart the lower part
of the breast, was cast over the left shoulder again
(5), entirely muffling it, till at last it drooped upon
the heels, as may be understood more clearly
by the figure (p. 108) of a statue in the Vatican
gallery, representing one of the " gens togata," or
citizens of Roma, in the last days of the Republic.
However majestic, the old toga was cumber-
some ; hence, in the reign of Augustus, it began
to be laid aside as an article of clothing, though
as a robe of (131) imperial state and official
dignity its use at court and in the provinces was
io8
THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
ceremoniously kept up, in one curtailed form or
another, until the overthrow of the Koman empire.
During this long interval, although its first name
was never quite dropped, it lost all its early ful-
ness, as we may perceive from the representation
(p. 109) of Anastasius Probus, 60 who was consul
60 Our woodcut is a much reduced copy of one out of the two
consular figures cut on Probus's ivory diptych, which once be-
longed to St. Martin's Church, at Liege, where one of its leaves,
surrounded with a border of jewels, served as the binding to the
upper side of a book of the Gospels for High Mass. Along with
Wilthem's learned dissertation on it, this Liege diptych was pub-
lished by Gori, in his highly valuable and curious Thesaurus
Veterum Diptychorum, i. 280. This " toga picta," or, as it was some-
times called, <l palmata," bestowed upon the consuls by the reign-
ing emperor, shone with gold embroidery upon a ground of the
brightest purple ; and besides the name of " toga," had those^of
" lorum " and " trabea " given to it.
PART I. CHAP. VI.
109
A.D. 517, and is here shown to us robed in
his "toga picta" of office. Its abridgment went
imperceptibly (132)
on, until at last it
dwindled down to
be a mere broad
band, and was put
on, not as any por-
tion of dress, but as
a badge of their
authority, whenever
they came forth in
public for the dis-
charge of theirduties,
by the officers of the
state, as we see by
the woodcut (p. no),
representing the pre-
sident of some council of provincial magistrates.
(133) No sooner did the Roman emperors, in
the person of Constantine, forsake heathenism,
than those who had to manage the outward
economy of the Church were brought very often
FL. ANASTASIUS PAUL. PROBUS SAVINIANUS
POMP. ANAST.
01
61 The learned and laborious prelate, Bianchini, in his magni-
ficent edition of Anastasius Bibliothecarius (De Vitis Rom. Pontif.,
t. iii. p. xxviii. Proleg.), furnished the engraving from which we
have borrowed the illustration (p. 1 10) of our subject, which receives
further light from a like figure inscribed Pr&ses Concilii, which the
same writer gives in plate in. of the before-named work; both
figures are taken by Bianchini from old paintings, or, as he tells
us, to quote his own words : Ex veteri pictura in libris Antiquit.
Oamilii Cardinalis de Maximis. Ibid.
no
THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
before the eye of the world, by being allowed to
watch openly over religious discipline, and to do
more of their pas-
toral duty in pub-
lic than they dared
before. Instead,
as hitherto, of
trying to crush the
faith of Christ, the
state now sought
to uphold it, and
stretched forth
honours and
afforded help to
its teachers : the
emperors were but
too glad on be-
holding the officers
of the ecclesiastic
co-ordinate, as it were, with the civil government ;
and rejoiced at finding the same grades of power
and dignity among the bishops of the Church as
existed between the secular authorities of the
empire. It is very likely, therefore, that from the
reign of Constantine, the local boundaries of each
diocese throughout the Christian world were made
to coincide, as near as possible, with those of the
civic jurisdiction, so that every city should have
its own bishop, every province its archbishop, and
every large tract of country its primate.
PRJESES.
PAKT I. CHAP. VI. in
As the official dress of the civil functionaries
showed at first glance the rank of its wearer, so,
we may warrantably presume, it was deemed but
fitting that his position, in the hierarchy, of the
ecclesiastical superior should be pointed out by
some mark upon his sacred garments. But as
the old toga, through all its changes, had always
(134) been looked upon as the everywhere-known
and honoured token of high authority and magis-
terial jurisdiction, a new, though slight, modifica-
tion of this Roman emblem of power was adopted
by the Church, as a badge of that higher, because
ghostly, prerogative to which archbishop, primate,
and the supreme pontiff himself each according
to his degree is uplifted over those beneath him.
To such a sacred ornament, from its first use in
the sanctuary, the name of "pall " has been given.
Let it not, however, be imagined that all at
once this ornament became the ecclesiastical
badge and appurtenance of every archbishop
throughout the Church : 62 such was not the fact ;
it crept but slowly into general use, and upon this
62 That a bishop might be the metropolitan of a country and
still not be allowed the use of the pall, at the end of the fifth or
beginning of the sixth century, is clear from the following passage
in the life of St. Ceesarius of Aries, written by three of his con-
temporaries : Papa Symmachus tanta meritorum ejus (Csesarii)
dignitate permotus, non solum verissime emn metropolitans
honore suspexit, sed et concesso specialiter palii decoravit privi-
legio (Vitse, $. Csesarii Arelat. i. 4 ; AA. SS. August., vi. 71). Not
because he happened to be an archbishop, but through an especial
favour was it that the pall came to be allowed to St. Csesarius, in
the opinion of those writers, all of whom were bishops.
ii2 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
liturgical subject the practice of western differed
widely from that of eastern Christendom. Being
one among (135) the ensigns of imperial dignity,
the pall on its adoption as an article of sacred
array was, as such, exclusively worn at first by
the head of the Church, the bishop of Rome,
the great western patriarch ; afterwards, the other
and lesser patriarchs those of the East assumed
it. Very soon each of these dignitaries thought
well to confer this distinguishing vesture upon
the bishops within his own particular patriarchate,
but after a different manner : those of the East
granted it in time, not merely to archbishops, but
indiscriminately to all their brother bishops under
their jurisdiction. Such was not the way followed
by the Latin portion of the Church : the bishop
of Rome at first allowed the Roman pall to be
worn by his vicars only, that is, by those bishops
in far-off countries to whom he had entrusted
powers for acting there on his behalf; and he
bestowed the Roman pall, not only on bishops of
the Latin, but upon those of the Greek rite : the
archbishops of Aries had through a lengthened
period a hundred years and more been suc-
cessively nominated his vicars in Gaul by the
supreme pontiff, who had therefore decorated
them with the pall at each renewal of their com-
mission ; 63 and when he sent forth a like charge
63 Popes Symmachus (498-514), Vigilius (538-555), Pelagius I.
(555-559), and St. Gregory the Great, each in his pontificate sent
PART I. CHAP. VI. 113
(136) to John, bishop of Corinth, Pope St. Gregory
the Great conferred upon him a like honour. 64
The same great Roman pontiff having sent Austin,
then but a priest, to convert the heathen Anglo-
Saxons, afterwards wrote to him to go over and
receive episcopal consecration from the bishop of
Aries, 65 who was the nearest papal vicar. But
while St. Gregory constituted the first archbishop
of Canterbury his vicegerent in this island, with
fullest metropolitan jurisdiction 66 over all its
bishops, and sent him the pall, 67 he told our new
primate he was not to exercise any authority over
the Church of (137) France, because of old to the
bishops of Aries had the Holy See deputed a
vicariate power there. 68
Some time before St. Gregory's pontificate, had
the pall to the then archbishop of Aries along with his appoint-
ment of papal vicar in Gaul. Vigilius writes thus to Auxanius :
Et quia digna credimus ratione compleri, ut agenti vices nostras
pallii non desit ornatus ; usum tibi ejus, sicut decessori tuo
predecessor noster sanctse recordationis Symmachus legitur con-
tulisse, beati Petri functa auctoritate concedimus. Vigilius Papa,
Epist. vii. [/'.-//., Ixix. 28]. See also Ep. x. of the same pontiff to
Aurelianus, ibid. Pelagius addresses Sapaudus in the like words
Nos fraternitati twe hujusmodi curas injungimus ut sedis nostrse
vicarius institutus ad instar nostrum in Galliarum partibus primi
sacerdotis locum obtineas, &c. . . . Usum quoque pallii tibi ala-
criter affectioseque concedimus pariter etiam pallium dirigentes.
Pelagius Papa I., Epist. xi. [P.L., Ixix. 105, 106]. St. Gregory sent
the pall to Virgilius, bishop of Aries. S. Gregorius, Regist. Ep.,
v. 53 [P.L., Ixxvii. 785].
64 Ut supra, Ep. Ivii. [P.L., Ixxvii. 790, 791].
65 Beda, Hist. Ecc. i^xxvii.
66 Ut supra.
67 Cap. xxix.
68 Cap. xxvii.
VOL. II. H
LIBRARY ST. MARY'S COLLEGE
ii4 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
it been the custom for many archiepiscopal sees to
write to the Apostolic See and beg to have the
pall, the new prelate asking for the privilege of
this ornament rather as a kindness shown to him-
self, than because to wear it was looked upon as
a right belonging to his bishopric. Though but
seldom, yet sometimes the badge of honour thus
sought for was withheld, as the Roman pontiffs
acted upon the principle, that such a mark of
their favour should be awarded according to the
circumstances of the case. 69 However, by the
eighth century, this ceased to be their rule of
action ; and from that period to the present day,
all archbishops, without distinction or demur, may
receive the pall at the shrine of St. Peter, or have
it sent them, nay, cannot lawfully exercise any
solemn nor episcopal function without it.
As was just now observed, the first time we be-
hold it on the monuments of Christian antiquity,
figured as a metropolitan adornment, this pall (138)
shows itself to have been, in those early days, a
long narrow strip, so wound once only about the
upper part of the person as to meet upon his left
shoulder, down from which one end hung before,
another behind : this the reader will see in our
69 In his letter to Brunchild, queen of the Franks, telling her
that, as she had requested, he had sent the pall to Syagrius,
bishop of Autun, Pope Gregory writes : Prisca consuetude ob-
tinuit ut honor pallii nisi exigentibus causarum meritis, et fortiter
postulanti dare non debeat. S. Gregorius, Eegist. Ep. ix. n.
[P.L., Ixxvii. 952].
PART I. CHAP. VI. 115
picture,* as well as from illuminated manu-
scripts. Since the invariable custom has long
been in the Latin Church for no one to wear
the pall without having it from the Holy See
itself, it always happened that there were no
local differences in its shape, ornament, or make ;
for being wrought at Rome, whence it was sent
to those honoured with it, only when they could
not come and fetch it away themselves, it was
everywhere alike at the same periods throughout
western Christendom. By the beginning, however,
of the ninth century, the pall, though it still kept
its olden shape of a long stole, began to be put on
in a way slightly different from its first fashion ;
for instead of both ends falling at the side from
the left shoulder, they fell down the middle, one in
front, from the chest to the feet, the other just as
low behind on the back of the archbishop : this
we perceive from an interesting mosaic which yet
exists at Rome, and was done about that period. 70
* See i. 260.
70 The mosaiced apse belonging to one of those large halls built
in the Lateran palace, at Rome, by Leo III. (A.D. 795-816), still re-
mains, and of the subjects figured upon it, one represents St. Peter,
throned and wearing a liturgical pall. With his left hand the
prince of the apostles gives a flag to Charlemagne, who is kneeling
at that side of the apostolic chair ; with his right, he outstretches
a pall to a successor of his, Leo, who, like the emperor, is on his
knees, and has on a pall already. This mosaic, which may be seen
well engraved in Alemann's De Lateranensibus Parietinis Dissert.
Hist., p. 45, tab. vi., a work full of varied research, was done under
Leo's pontificate, and shows extremely well, not only how the
liturgical pall was worn at that time, but, fortunately too, its
then exact shape in the one quite like a stole held out to the
pontiff by St. Peter.
u6 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
Such a change must (139) have arisen thus: of
the two parts which crossed, and very likely
were pinned to each other upon the left shoulder,
the one which hitherto had stopped there and
been let fall down at once, instead of this, came
now to be still further carried forwards till brought
to the middle of the breast, where it was twisted 71
over its first fold and only then left free to hang
in front, not as formerly, by the side of the person ;
the other end coming from the breast and going
over the left shoulder was drawn behind the back,
and arranged there after the same mode : if any
one will look at those venerable monuments to
which we just now referred, he may soon see how
this was done. After a time, the pall underwent
another alteration : to (140) get rid of the un-
sightliness of what, if clumsily managed, must
often have looked like a knot, its upper roll,
instead of being lapped about, was kept fastened
in its place at the breast and back upon the under
one, as at the left shoulder, by a golden pin.
Furthermore, owing to the nicety with which the
two parts were laid one over the other, although
the left side of the pall was in fact double, it did
not seem so : liturgical writers have spoken of this
occurrence. 72
71 This " twisting " of the front pendant of the pall is well shown
in the figure of St. Gregory the Great, copied as a frontispiece by
Menard, in his edition of the Liber Sacramentorum, from an illumi-
nation of an old manuscript.
72 Est autem pallium in sinistra duplex ... in dextra vero
pallium duplex non est. . . . Fit autem pallium ex lana, vili
PART I. CHAP. VI. 117
At this point, the next step into its last and
actual shape was easy : ceasing, as it then did, to
be made in one long straight band, which needed
to be pinned in a way to sit well upon the wearer,
the pall was so woven as to form at once a flat
circular band, some three inches in breadth, from
which hung down two straight bands just opposite
each other, about a yard in length and as broad
as the circle. To this day such is its form, with
the exception that the pendants now barely go
beyond a foot of our measurement.
From the time that its ends were brought from
the left side to hang straight down the middle of
the wearer, before and behind, instead of falling no
(141) lower than the waist, the pall was made to
reach the feet, as we may behold from written and
pictorial 73 evidences. Judging, too, from the
scilicet materia (S. Bruno Signiensis, Quid sig. vest. Episc.) [P.L.,
clxv. 1 1 06]. So, too, remarks Pope Innocent III. (De Sac. Altaris
Myst., i. 63) [P.L., ccxvii. 797].
73 In the following extract from an Anglo-Saxon Pontifical, not
only its woollen texture, but its reaching down to the wearer's
feet, are both severally noticed : this precious codex once belonged
to St. Dunstan, and is now in Paris. It has a particular prayer
part of which we here give to be said when either the archbishop
of Canterbury (archiepiscopus ecclesise Christi) or the archbishop
of York (ecclesise S. Petri) received the pall ; and in this prayer,
the consecrator was thus to beseech heaven for the new archbishop :
Consecratio post pallium. Sit ei honor pallii ornamentum animse, et
unde advenit fastigium visibile, inde florescat amor invisibilis, et
sicut exterius ovinae vestis jugum prse ceteris sacerdotibus in
summo indumentorum deportare videtur : ita interius mitia coram
Christo prsecordia gestet, &c. . . . Et sicut orsum est istorum
lanigenae vestis fimbriaa pedes pertingunt, sic famulum tuum
omnipotens Deus in theoricis practicisque coram tuis obtutibus
providum et innocentem usque ad finem vitae perseverare con-
n8 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
oldest mosaics and illuminations, the pall for
many ages bore marked upon it but two crosses,
and they were not black, but coloured almost
always bright purple, 74 though occasionally red :
one cross was (142) on the end in front, the other
cedas. Dunstan Pontifical, in Martene, De Antiq. Ecc. Rit., t. ii.,
lib. i., c. viii., art. xi. t p. 41.
Our pictures of St. Dunstan [vol. i., p. 296] and of an archbishop
seated on his faldstool [vol. ii., p. 210], testify this length of the pall.
74 That the crosses on the pall were purple, is certified by the
written and pictorial monuments of antiquity. In his work on
the liturgy which he put forth A.D. 847, Rabanus Maurus
observes : Summo pontifici (qui archiepiscopus vocatur) propter
apostolicam vicem pallii honor decernitur, quod genus indumenti
crucis signaculum purpureo colore exprimit (De Instit. Cleric., i. 23)
[P.L., cvii. 309], Three centuries and a half later (A.D. 1 198), Pope
Innocent III., in his full description of the pall, tells us that its
four crosses were purple : Fit enim pallium de Candida lana con-
textum, habens desuper circulum humeros constringentem, et
duas lineas ab utraque parte dependentes. Quatuor autem cruces
purpureas, &c. (De Sac. Alt. Myst., i. 63) [P.L., ccxvii. 797]. With
regard to the artistic monuments of past ages, Pope Pasqual I.
is figured among the mosaics of two churches at Rome in that of
St. Cecilia, and that of St. Praxedis wrought during the ninth
century : in both, the pontiff is represented in the same way, and
the cross seen in front at the end of his pall is purple, or rather,
crimson. These mosaics show moreover that, at the time, the pall
had on it but two crosses one at each extremity. In the Ravenna
mosaics, St. Maximianus's pall exhibits but one cross in front : of
course, it had another on the end hanging behind. When the body
of St. Leo the Great was the last time translated, one of the
crosses and it was red still remained of those which were
marked upon the pall that most likely had been put upon this
holy pontiffs relics at a former translation of them. Grimaldi, an
eye-witness, in his written account of this occurrence (A.D. 1607),
says : Remanserat super humero dextro crux parva rubri coloris,
quae erat pallii pontificalis. Item aliam crucem paulo longiorem
ejusdem pallii juxta pectus in parte dextra tenebat. In medio
pectoris conspiciebatur aurea una spinula pallii infixa planetse.
Grimaldus, Lib. Instrum. in Sac. Vat. Basil. Crypt. Monum., p. 46,
ed. Dionysio.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 119
in the same place behind : afterwards, four crosses
were mentioned (143) as adorning it ; 75 but now
it has six, and all these are black. 76
A thousand years ago and more, we find the
custom was to fasten the pall to the chasuble itself
(144) by three pins, one on the left shoulder, another
at the breast, and the third upon the back. 77 As may
75 Pope Innocent III., quoted in the note before.
76 Of the pall, as it is now formed at Rome, there lies before me
at this moment an exact and well-executed facsimile, for which I
am indebted to the ready kindness of the present archbishop of
Dublin, the Most Rev. Dr. Murray. From the description which
his Grace was pleased to send along with the facsimile, we learn
that one side of the pall is single, the other double ; and the parts
where each of the two pendants is attached to the circle, have
three folds : there are altogether six crosses, four on the round
part, one on each of the pendants, and of that shape which heralds
call patttfe, every one made of black silk, and edged with fine black
cord : at the ends the pendants are, for about a couple of inches,
sheathed in thin lead, covered over with black silk.
From Pertsch's account (Tractatio de Orig., Usu, et Auct. Pallii
Archiep., p. 20) of the archbishop of Cologne's pall, received from
Rome (c. A.D. 1750), it would seem, that ornament not only varied
somewhat in shape, but in the number and colour of the crosses
which, he says, amounted to eight, six being purple, two black
from the pall as now fashioned : he talks, too, of several little
strings sewed to the edge of the pall ; but I cannot help thinking
that Pertsch, somehow or another, has fallen, in this instance,
into a deep mistake.
77 In the Ordo Bomanus ii. (which must have been drawn up
before the beginning of the ninth century, since we find Amalarius
commenting upon it about that time), directions are laid down
for pinning the pall to the chasuble when the Pope solemnly pontifi-
cated : Novissime per diaconum vel subdiaconum cui ipse jusserit,
pallio superinduitur (pontifex), et corifigitur per acus in planeta
retro et ante et in humero sinistro (Ordo Rom., ii., ed. Mabillon, Mus.
ItaL, ii. 42). Earlier still we observe the same rubric ; for in
the " Ordo i.," it is said : Induit (pallium) super pontificem, et
configit eum cum acubus in planeta retro et ante et in humero
sinistro (ibid., p. 7). In giving us the symbolic meaning of the
pall, St. Bruno of Segni notices the use of three pins, thus : Acus
120 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
be well supposed, such pins were of silver or of
gold, and often, if not always, headed, in this
country as well as abroad, with precious stones. 78
(145) Upon some archiepiscopal chasubles were
sew r ed little hooks, through which these pins,
instead of (146) running into the. texture of that
autem non ad pungendum . . . sed ad planetam palliumque
jungendum inventse sunt. The little hooks sewed on the chasuble,
and for catching and holding fast the pins, are then expressly
mentioned by that holy writer : Qusedam ansulae antiquitus in
planeta positse erant,quibus acus inserebantur^ et pallium simul cum
planeta firmabant, ne a suo loco pallium moveretur. Possumus
autem per acus, quia tres sunt, fidem, spem, et charitatem in-
telligere. S. Bruno Sig. Ep., Quid Pallium signijicet [P.L., clxv.
1107].
78 Among the sacred jewels once belonging to St. Thomas of
Canterbury, and still kept in that cathedral in the year 1321,
when an inventory was taken, were, along with the " lapides
ejusdem (Sancti Thomse) in auro situati, . . . Firmacula tria
parva vetera unde .ij cum parvis gemmis et .j cum nigro saphiro "
\C1irist Church Inventories, pp. 71, 72], These "firmacula" could
have been nothing else but those pins used for the pall of our
glorious martyr : the morses for copes are noticed by themselves
in the same list of church-ornaments. Gervase, the monk of
Canterbury, tells us, that Archbishop Hubert left to the same
church, besides other sacred things : Spindulus iii de auro (Act.
Pontif. Cantuar.) [.R..,lxxiii.,ii.4i3]: these three golden "spindulse,"
or spinulse, as they are more commonly called, were the pins for
the pall.
By foreign writers the jewel-headed pins are often noticed :
Cencio Savelli, in the Ordo Romanus which he drew up c. A.D. 1191,
tells us that the pall was put on the Roman pontiff thus : Archi-
diaconus . . . aptat idem palleum super pontificem ; et intromissis
spinulis aureis tribus, ante, et retm, et sinistro latere, in capite
quarum sunt innixi tres hyacintini lapides (Mabillon, Mus. ItaL,
ii. 212). The inventories of the papal ornaments (of which
copious extracts from the manuscripts in the Vatican library are
given by Garampi), furnish us with many curious items ; and we
find that Pope Boniface VIII. possessed many of these rich pins
for his pall : Novem accus de auro cum novem zaffiris, quarum
sex sunt ponderis unius uncise, et dimidium quart, et tres denar.
(Del Sigillo delta Garfagnana, p. 122). In another of these Roman
PART I. CHAP. VI. 121
costly vestment itself, were made to go ; 79 after-
wards, these pins were not allowed to touch the
chasuble at all, but pierced the pall only, and
it is interesting to find them marked, though
perhaps not quite correctly, upon some of our
archiepiscopal effigies. 80 For the (147) last three
inventories (A.D. 1314), mention is made of "tres acus pro palleo
cum tribus zaphiris " ; and later (A.D. 1371), "acus auri pro pallio
cum lapidibus pretiosis " (ibid., p. 123). In fact,, when Boniface
VIII.'s grave was opened (A.D. 1605), Grimaldi saw upon the
pontiff's body some very small pieces of the pall, of which the
pins were riot only rich but perfect : Cruces pallii serico nigro, ut
hodie summi pontifices utuntur, necnon spinulee aureee saphyris
preciosis ornatse, quarum una in medio pectoris, altera in armo
sinistro aderant, interse adhuc extabant (in Dionysius, Sac.
Vat. Basil. Crypt. Monum., p. 130). These pins are shown upon
the cumbent figure of Pope Nicholas V. who died A.D. 1455, and
lies buried in the subterranean church of St. Peter's, Rome : his
monument is etched in Dionigi, ut supra, p. 139, tav. liii.
79 St. Bruno of Segni expressly speaks of these hooks : see his
words at the end of note 77, p. 120.
80 On Archbishop Stratford's effigy, which lies in the south aisle
of the choir in Canterbury Cathedral, may be seen, well marked,
not only the pall (without, however, its crosses), but these pins ;
but they are placed, one below the right shoulder, the other below
the left, the third on the middle of the breast, the two latter
just as they should be. Putting a pin at the right shoulder is
against the rubrics, which are, and ever have been, followed by the
church ; and we must look upon this archiepiscopal monument at
Canterbury rather as an oversight of the sculptor, than as any
evidence that our English primate wore the pins upon his pall
otherwise than his fellow archbishops throughout western Europe
at the period. Unless he knew better, an artist, for the sake of
uniformity, would of course be led to fix a pin upon the right as
well as the left shoulder. By the like carelessness, because some
crosses were to be indicated on the pall, artists, not over-exact,
put any number they happened to fancy, as we may observe in
illuminated manuscripts. The reason why the crosses on the pall
are not now to be found in the Canterbury archiepiscopal effigies,
is, that having been done in colour, and not cut, they have, like
the rest of the painting once all over them, faded away.
122 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
hundred years and more, however, the way for
attaching these pins has been, that they should
pierce neither pall nor chasuble ; but from out
each of those crosses, whereon the old custom
was to stick them, there should come two or
three little eyes or loops of black silk, passed
through which, the pin hangs fast upon the pall
at that place whereat formerly it ran into that
ornament. 81
(148) The way for putting on the pall was
(during at least the Middle Ages), to make the
two pendants drop, one before, the other behind,
directly upon the orphrey of the chasuble, and
the circular part to go round the person in such
a manner that it might sit, not about his neck,
but over his arms, midway between the shoulder
and the elbow : 82 at present it is hung upon the
81 From a manuscript pontifical of the fifteenth century, Giorgi
quotes a long rubric for the putting on of the pall. Part of this
rubric says : Nulla spinula perforet pallium, et nullo modo acumen
ejus tangat planetam (Lit. Rom. Pontif., i. 222). Such, too, is
the present rubric, as may be gathered from the Cseremoniale
Episcoporum, which directs thus : Diaconus capit unam ex tribus
spinulis . . . videlicet pulchriorem eamque infigit cruci anteriori
pallii ante pectus existenti, aliam in cruce sinistri humeri, tertiam
subdiaconus infigit cruci posteriori quse omnes ita infigantur ut
tertio transeant per crucem in qua sint ocelli tres, seu ansulse
tres sericse ejusdem coloris nigri, ita tamen ut nee crucem, neque
pallium perforent, neque planetam tangant ; et gemmae spinulis
appositse remaneant ad dextram infigentis. ii. 8, 20.
82 Est autem locus conveniens pallii super brachia, ut videlicet
nee tantum ascendat, quod appropinquet ad cubitum, sed sit quasi
in medio, &c. (Ordo Rom. xiv, auct. J. Gaietano (c. A.D. 1298), in
Mabillon, Mus. Hal., ii. 285). Again the same Ordo says: Pallium
componat (diaconus) ita, quod crux anterior sit ante pectus super
aurifrigium planetse et . . . trahat pallium super dextrum brachium
PART I. CHAP. VI. 123
shoulders. That part which is double for so it
still continues to be made is let fall upon the
archbishop's left side, and there one of the three
golden pins is fastened to it ; the second of these
pins is stuck in front, at the part whence the
pendant starts down from the circle ; the third
behind, in a like position.
As will be readily believed, such a badge of
metropolitan jurisdiction coming as it did from
the very shrine which held, and yet holds, the
body of St. Peter himself, and sent through the
hands of his successor as head of Christ's Church
on earth, the Bishop of Rome 83 has always been
pontificis versus cubitum ; postea . . . cum manu dextra pallium
super sinistrum brachium pontificis trahat, providens quod ipsum
pallium super brachia descendat quasi ad medium inter armum et
cubitum, &c. (ib., p. 294). Such, in fact, is the way that the pall
is shown on many of the sepulchral figures of the Roman pontiffs,
as the reader may see in Dionigi, Sac. Vat. Basil. Crypt. Monum.,
pp. 126, 142, 146. Such, too, is the way in which it is worn by St.
Andrew, on a seal belonging to Wells Cathedral, and engraved at
the end of t. ii., pi. xii. of Dugdale's Mon. Anglic.
83 Every year, on the morning of St. Agnes's feast, the 2ist
of January, a horse, bearing, slung over his back, two baskets, each
of which holds a lamb of the fairest and the whitest, is to be seen
walking into Rome from the country, towards the Pope's palace?
before which it awaits till the Pontiff comes to a window, thrown
wide open, and standing there, makes the sign of the cross upon
the bleating burden below him. Borne hence to the fine old basilican
church of St. Agnes-out-of-the-walls, where solemn High Mass
is to be sung, these lambs, decked with ribbons and flowers, are
taken to the altar, and kept at its foot while the holy sacrifice
is offered up. Formerly at the Agnus Dei, but now after divine
service is ended, the celebrating priest goes through the ceremony
of blessing these little animals. They are then given over to the
canons of the Pope's cathedral (St. John Lateran's), and the
chapter of that church sends them to the Pontiff himself, who
orders them to be conveyed unto the dean of the apostolic sub-
124 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
looked (150) upon with due regard, and received
by its future wearer with every becoming respect.
If not kept at home by great hindrances,
each archbishop has ever had to go to Rome
and fetch back his pall from the tomb of the
prince of the Apostles. 84 (151) When, however,
deacons, by whom they are entrusted to the care of some nunnery,
where they are kept and fed. In due time these lambs are shorn,
and their fleeces, along with which is put, if need be, other fine
wool, are spun and woven by the nuns into palls, against the
festival of SS. Peter and Paul. On the eve of that day, these
palls are carried to St. Peter's, and laid upon the high altar, when
they are shortly afterwards taken down into that hollow space
below it, and when evensong is done, blessed in due form either
by the Pope himself, or in his stead, by the cardinal arch-priest
of that basilica. They are then shut up within a rich silver-gilt
box, and put close by St. Peter's shrine, and so kept there until
wanted for bestowing upon new archbishops. I have more than
once seen both functions, the blessing of the lambs at St.
Agnes's, and of the palls at St. Peter's. The form of blessing
them is given by De Bralion from an old codex belonging to the
Vatican basilica.
For other notices on the pall, the liturgist should read over
with care an admirable dissertation, full of all kinds of ecclesiasti-
cal learning, from the pen of Dom. Ruinart, entitled, Disquisitio
Historica de Pallio Archiepiscopali, to be found among the Ouvrayes
Posthumes de Mabillon et de Ruinart, ii. 400. Afterwards he may
go through the short but well-arranged, and neatly-written, work
of De Bralion's, Pallium Archiepiscopale ; and along with it he can,
if he choose, look into the larger and later book on the same sub-
ject, by Pertsch, Tradatio Canonica de Origine, Usu, et Auctoritate
Pallii Archiepiscopalis.
84 When they went to Rome to fetch the pall, our Anglo-Saxon
archbishops with their own hands took it from off St. Peter's altar,
as we learn from the " letter of privileges " given by Pope John
XIII. to our St. Dunstan, and printed whole, for the first time,
by Mabillon: Incipit epistola privilegii, quam jubente Johanne
Papa suscepta benedictione ab eo Dunstan archiepiscopus a suis
manibus accepit, sed pallium a suis manibus non accepit, sed eo
jubente ab altare sancti Petri Apostoli. A A. SS. 0. Z>., vii. 643.
One of our Anglo-Saxon prelates, Elf sin, died upon the Alps
PART I. CHAP. VI. 125
it came to him who could not undertake the
journey, no small ceremony has on occasions been
shown in this kingdom on the pall being brought
hither. With a crowd of bishops, abbots, and
nobles of the land about him, Archbishop (152)
St. Anselm barefoot, though otherwise arrayed
in all his sacred vestments, walked forth as far
as the gates of Canterbury to meet the papal
messenger his own nephew, who had brought
him from Rome his pall, which the younger An-
selm carried to his uncle in a box of silver. Borne
from the city's walls in solemn procession, the
pall was laid upon the high altar of that cathe-
dral, and from off of which, as if from St. Peter's
own hand, 85 the archbishop took it himself, in
virtue of his primatial authority, but not until
while going to Rome for the pall, as archbishop of Canterbury:
Ipse (Elfsinus) vero archiepiscopatus Cantuariensis fungeretur
honore, Romam de more pro pallio proficiscens, cum Alpes ascendis-
set, acerba tactus infirmitate exspiravit ibidem. Gervasius, Act.
Pontif. Cantuar. [R.S., Ixxiii. ii. 353].
When Archbishop Lanfranc went to Rome, after having taken,
as the custom then was, his pall from the altar, he received a
second one, as a token of especial friendship, from the hands of
the supreme Pontiff himself, as we learn from one of our monastic
writers, William of Malmesbury : Romam ivit (Lanfrancus), et
honorifice a sede apostolica susceptus, unum quidem pallium ab
altari Romano more accepit, alterum vero in inditium videlicet
sui amoris, cum quo missam celebrare solebat, Alexander ei papa sua
manu porrexit (De Ges. Pontif. Anglorum [Lib. i. 25, R.S., lii. 40]).
This was the first and last example of such a favour.
85 Statutum est ut a quo pallium in Angliam delatum est f ab
eodem Cantuariam super altare Salvatoris deferretur, et inde ab
Anselmo quasi de manu beati Petri pro summi quo fungebatur
pontificatus honore sumeretur. Eadmer, Hist. Novorum, ii. [/..,
Ixxxi. 72],
126 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
he had made a profession of canonical obedience
to the Koman pontiff. Then all present came
up and kissed, out of reverence to St. Peter, the
metropolitan's pall, which was afterwards put
on St. Anselm, who was led with much state to
the English primatial chair and enthroned upon
it : this done, the archbishop began solemn High
Mass, at which he consecrated Theobald to the
bishopric of Worcester. 86
86 Praefatus Anselmus (nepos Anselmi domini archiepiscopi
domino papae familiaris) pallium in vase argenteo honorifice
ferens, Cantuariam venit, itumque est illi obviam usque ad por-
tam civitatis, ab utroque conventu duarum ecclesiarum, archiepis-
copatus scilicet, et vicinee abbatise Sancti Augustini cum omnibus,
qui pro hoc ipso illo confluxerant. Pater stipatus episcopis et
indutus, ut alii, vestibus sacris, nudis pedibus devotus occurrit.
Sicque delatum super altare Salvatoris pallium est, et a pontifice
inde susceptum facta prius Romano pontitici de ndelitate, et can-
onica obedientia, professione. Deinde pro reverentia beati Petri,
ab omnibus deosculatur, et indutus eo, pontifex summus ad cathe-
dram patriarchatus Anglorum gloriose perducitur, et inthronizatur.
Ante quam cathedram dictis orationibus et aliis quse ipsius ecclesiae
sacer usus dici instituit, mox ecclesias Wigornensis antistes electus
Theobaldus nomine, ei consecrandus prsesentatur. (16. v. 113) [B.S.
Ixxxi. 230]. It was barefoot, too, that St. Thomas a Becket went
forth to meet the pall sent to him by Pope Alexander : Alexander
papa tertius ei pallium misit perclericum ejus JohannemSarisberien-
sem. Archiepiscopus contra illam fasciam pectoralem et humeralem
suscipiendam devotus, pronus et nudus pedes ivit (William Fitz-
stephen, Vita S. Thomx Cantuar., 24) [JB.S., Ixvii. iii. 36]. Bare-
foot, also, but a very few years later, Archbishop Hubert went
forth to receive his pall : Deinde alba indutus et cappa, sequente
conventu, nudus pedes incedens, pallium suscepit per manum
nuntii Celestini papse. Gervase, Chron., ed. Twysden, ii. 1585.
Moreover, as it would seem, the custom was, before enthroning, to
hoist the newly-elected archbishop upon the high altar in Canter-
bury Cathedral : Defuncto itaque archiepiscopo (Huberto, A. D. 1205),
. . . adolescentiores quidam de conventu Cantuariensi. . . . Regin-
aldum suppriorem suum in archiepiscopum elegerunt ; et media de
nocte, post factam electionem hymno Te Deum laudamus cantato,
PART I. CHAP. VI. 127
(153) Before he may exercise any of his archi-
episcopal functions, every new archbishop must
have gotten (154) from Rome his pall, which,
however, he can wear, not each time he may like
to sing High Mass, but only upon set occasions
and the greater festivals of the year, 87 although
prius super maius altare, deinde in archiepiscopali cathedra
posuerunt (Matt. Paris, Hist. Anyl, p. 148) [R.S., xliv., ii. 104].
Such a rite is still kept up in Rome at the election of a new
pontiff, who, no sooner chosen, is carried into St. Peter's, and
seated on a throne upon the high altar, to receive the homage of
the cardinals.
The words uttered by the bearer of the pall from Rome to Can-
terbury, on handing it over to the English primates, were as fol-
low : Forma dandi pallium Johanni archiepiscopo Cantuariensi, anno
MCCCXXXIV. Ad honorem Dei omnipotentis et B. Virginis, et SS.
Petri et Pauli, et D. Papse Johannis XXII., et S. R. E. necnon
et Cantuariensis ecclesise tibi commissse tradimus tibi pallium de
corpore B. Petri sumptum, plenitudinem videlicet pontificalis
officii ; ut utaris eo infra ecclesiam tuam certis diebus, qui expri-
muntur in privilegiis ei ab apostolica sede concessis. (Wil. de
Dene, Hist. Roffensis, in Wharton, Anglia Sac., i. 372). The
reader, perhaps, may ask why, in the above form, this archiepis-
copal ornament is said to have come from St. Peter's body. An
account of the ritual observances, during the twelfth century, for
blessing these palls, we still have from a history of St. Peter's on
the Vatican, from the pen of a canon at the time of that church,
Petrus Mallius, who tells us that they were consecrated in the con-
fession, and laid upon the shrine of the prince of the apostles ; and,
to speak in this mediaeval writer's own words : Et inde est quod
legatus sanctse Romanse ecclesise dicit : Accipe pallium de corpore
beati Petri sumptum, in plenitudinem officii tui. AA. SS. Junii,
vii. 38.
87 The festival days, and episcopal functions, on which the arch-
bishop may wear his pall, are always set down in the apostolical
letter which is sent with it. When, upon one celebrated occasion,
St. Thomas of Canterbury wore his pall whilst he said mass upon a
common week-day, the occurrence, being so unusual, is thus noticed
by one of the writers of his life ; Et hanc quidem missam, praeter
morem, eo die qui f estus non erat, cum pallio celebravit (S. Thomas
Cantuariensis). Vita S. Thomse Cantuar, ed. Lupo, i. 53.
128 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
during the days of our Anglo-Saxon (155) Church,
as it would seem from St. Gregory the Great's
instructions on this head to St. Austin, 88 this or-
nament was borne by an archbishop whenever
(156) he solemnly offered up the holy Sacrifice.
Hence is it that the pall never has been worn over
any other vestment but the chasuble. Except by
particular permission from the Holy See, no metro-
politan has at any time been allowed to wear his
pall when he leaves the kingdom, or goes beyond
the boundaries of his canonical and recognised
jurisdiction. 89 Therefore, when he dies, the arch-
88 At the same time he sends St. Austin the pall, that illustrious
Roman pontiff tells the newly-consecrated archbishop of Canter-
bury : Pallium prseterea per latorem prsesentium fraternitati tuae
. . . direximus, quod videlicet tantum in sacrosanctis celebrandis
mysteriis utendi licentiam impertivimus. Beda, Hist. Ecc., ii. 8.
The following were the days and occasions upon which our
archbishops, in Anglo-Saxon times, might wear the pall. "Pal-
lium," says John XIII. to St. Dunstan, " fraternitati tuas ex more
ad missarum solennia celebranda commendamus, quod tibi non
aliter ecclesise tuse privilegiis in suo statu manentibus, uti conce-
dimus, nisi solummodo in Nativitate Domini, et in Epiphania,
atque in Resurrectione, et Ascensione Domini, ac Pentecosten
pariterque in Assumptione Dei genitricis Marise, seu in nataliciis
Apostolorum ; verum etiam in consecratione episcoporum atque in
natalis tui die, nee non et in die consecrationis ecclesias quern
usum antecessores nostri prodiderunt." A A. SS. 0. B., vii. 643.
89 By an especial favour,, the Roman pontiff, Calixtus II. (A.D.
1 1 19), allowed Turstin, archbishop of York, as long as he remained
in banishment, to wear his pall upon the same days, and for the
same functions, as he would had he been at home in his own pro-
vince. Not having such a leave, surprise was awakened among
the officers of the Roman court, on hearing that Radulf, arch-
bishop of Canterbury, had used his pall when out of this kingdom,
and in places, and on occasions, unbefitting ; Nam et usum pallii
quam diu in exilio esset (Turstinus) illi concessit (Kalixtus papa)
illis diebus et officiis quibus in provincia sua ex prsedecessorum
PART I, CHAP. VI. 129
bishop is buried (if within the limits of his own
province), with his pall about his shoulders ; 90 if
(157) abroad, with it folded up and put beneath
his head. But the use of this badge is not so ex-
clusively archiepiscopal that none below such a
step in the hierarchy may wear it ; for there are
some few bishoprics in Germany, France, and
Italy, to which the right of the pall has been,
through especial favour, granted for ever by the
Holy See for the use of their prelates, notwith-
standing they be but simple suffragans. 91 Though
no archbishop may take and put on his pre-
decessor's pall, 92 but must ask for and get a fresh
suorum consuetudine uteretur. Etenim extra provinciam et
regnum absque permissione summi pontificis metropolitse pallio uti
non licet : unde et in curia Romana aliquociens inter se contu-
lerunt, Radulphum archiepiscopum excessisse quod in alio regno,
et in capellis et in locis non decentibus palliatus cantabat. Th.
Stubbs, Actus Pontif. Eboracen., ed. Twysden, ii. 1716.
90 Gervase, the monk of Canterbury, one of the few who helped
to bury St. Thomas a Becket the day after the saint's martyrdom,
tells us that, along with his other pontifical vestments, the arch-
bishop had on the pall : Habet .... albam in qua sacratus est ;
tunicam quoque et dalmaticam, casulam, pallium, et mitram.
Act. Pontif. Cant. [R.S., Ixxiii. ii. 396].
91 Bamberg, in Germany ; Autun and Dol, in France ; and in
Italy, Lucca, Pavia, and Verona, besides the suburban bishopric of
Ostia the cardinal bishop of which see always consecrates the
newly chosen Pope though but simple episcopal cities, have be-
longing to each of them the privilege of the pall for their prelates.
92 In the Council held, A.D. 1070, at the bidding and in the pre-
sence of the first Norman William, one of the three reasons put
forth for dragging Stigand, the last Anglo-Saxon archbishop, out
of his primatial chair of Canterbury, was : Quia vivente archiepis-
copo Roberto, non solum archiepiscopatum sumpsit sed etiam ejus
pallio quod Cantuarise remansit .... in missarum celebratione
aliquamdiu usus est. Roger de Hoveden [Chronicle R.S., Ii. i. 123].
VOL. II. I
1 30 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
one for himself, it is not so with those bishops
whose dioceses enjoy the hereditary privilege of
its use, for they need (158) no new pall nor
From MS Nero c. iv., f. 34.
personal leave to assume the one belonging to
their see. 93
93 On meeting with old monumental sculptures, or while looking
over illuminated manuscripts, the antiquary must be careful and
distinguish between the archiepiscopal pall and the mere orphrey
of the chasuble, since it is known that the latter embroidered
decoration was not always sewed to the vestment itself, but made
in a way to be easily shifted, and put on and off, much after
the fashion of the pall. Unless warned of this fact, the young
liturgical student might often, at first sight, mistake a priestly
monument for that of some archbishop.
Moreover, it is clear that, towards the end of the Anglo-Saxon
period of our Church, the pall was employed by our artists in their
PART I. CHAP. VI. 131
(159) Concerning another beautiful adornment,
THE KATIONAL,
which was worn alike by all the episcopate, whether
bishops or archbishops, in this country, from the
beginning of the twelfth to about the end of the
fourteenth century, as several monuments show us,
we have spoken elsewhere in this work. 94 Here,
however, the student should be warned that, al-
though mistaken by some few among the eminent
liturgical writers of the Church, the real " rational "
has nothing to do with the "pall." True is it,
that in comparing the vestments of the Aaronic
with those of the Christian priesthood, our metro-
politan badge by a few has been called " super-
humerale " as well as " rationale" ; but after what
the reader has had brought before him in a former
section upon this very subject, it is thought that
works, not solely as the ritual badge of an archbishop, but as a
symbol also for catching the gazer's eye., and telling him unto
what a loftiness of popular veneration, or high authority above all
his fellows, some great saint's holiness of life had uplifted him ;
to say, in fact, by a liturgical figure of speech, that the blessed man
upon whom the limner in his admiring love, and not the Roman
pontiff, had bestowed the pall, stood as high over all other saints
of his own time, country, and order, as an archbishop does amid
the bishops of his province. To convey such a meaning, doubtless,
was it that the good Winchester monk, who so beautifully illumi-
nated the benedictional which his brother in religion, Godemann,
wrote out at St. ^Ethelwold's behest, has arrayed Bishop St. Cuth-
berht and Abbot St. Bennet each in a pall over his chasuble, like
Pope St. Gregory the Great, who is grouped along with them ; as
may be seen in Arch&ologia, xxiv. pt. iii. p. 48.
94 See i. 302.
i 3 2 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
he will easily acknowledge there is the widest
difference between the mediaeval "rationale,"
beaten out of gold and studded with jewels, and
the woollen " pallium."
That
GLOVES
formed a part of the sacred attire for the solem-
nities of religion, and were worn by all bishops in
the northern parts of the Latin Church, is shown
by some of the earliest liturgical monuments that
(160) have come down to our times. 95 A form of
prayer in the ninth century was already framed
for the bishop to say as he drew them on, which
has continued, in one shape or another, to be set
forth in all pontificals ever since ; and from the
notices of them scattered among the documents of
those times, 96 we may conclude that they were
always made of the best material, and often orna-
95 Quidam enim sacerdos inibi suos wantos perdidit dum prse-
dictum sacraretur templum ; quos quidam clericus inveniens,
furtim de ipsa ecclesia nova exportare cupiens, de prsedicta
sancti Stephani et omnium sanctorum ecclesia exire non potuit,
nee ipsos wantos secum deferre valuit. Gesta Domini Aldrici
Cenomanicae Urbis Ep. (c. A.D. 832), a discipulis suis [P.L., cxv. 34].
96 In that valuable Ordo Sacramentorum, printed first by the
Lutheran M. Flaccus Illyricus, and afterwards by Cardinal Bona,
then by Martene, there is a prayer to be said by the bishop whilst
he draws on his gloves ; and it is headed in the codex, " Ad in-
duendas manus " (Martene, De Antiq. Eccl. Rit., t. i. cap. iv. art.
xii. p. 177, Bassani, 1788). In a monument of the tenth century,
the Missa Vetus ex Codice Ratoldi, the rubric, after the bishop has
washed his hands, says : Tune ministrentur ei manicse . . . postea
detur ei annulus in dextra manu desuper manica. Menard, p. 261
[P.L., Ixxviii. 241].
PART I. CHAP. VI. 133
mented with gold. Though no positive mention
occurs of them in our Anglo-Saxon evidences, there
can be little doubt they were in use among the
Anglo-Saxon hierarchy.
After St. Osmund's days, however, there is no
(161) lack of national proof concerning the use, in
the liturgy, of gloves by our bishops. We know,
too, they were of the richest description : gold,
pearls, and precious stones often glistened on
them as they covered the hands of our English
prelates. 97 We see their shape upon so many
existing monuments (162) in sculpture and paint-
ing of their times, from which we perceive that
these pontifical gloves were so long as to reach
some way up above the wrist, and had, in later
97 Among many other gifts to Canterbury, of which he had been
chosen archbishop A.D. 1 193, Hubert bestowed upon it : Mitras vi.,
chirothecarum paria iii., omnia gemmis et auro parata decenter, prae-
terea mitras et chirothecas sine auro (Gervasius, Act. Pontif. Cantuar.
[R.S., Ixxiii. ii. 413]). St. Paul's Cathedral, London, was rich in these
gloves : Mitra bene ornata bendis aureis triphoriatis, insertis lapi-
dibus et perils. . . . Item cirotecse simul apparatus. Item duo
paria cirothecarum ornata laminis argenteis deauratis, et lapidibus
insertis. Visitatio facta in Thes. S. Pauli, A.D. 1295, ^ n Dugdale,
Hist, of St. Paul's, p. 315, new edit.
In the year 1321, belonging to Canterbury Cathedral, there were :
Cirothece. R. de Winchelesee cum perulis et gemmis in plata quad-
rata. IF Item. Par unum cum tasselis argenteis et parvis lapidibus.
IT Item. .iiij. paria cum tasselis argenteis. IF Item. Par unum de
lino cum tasselis argenteis et perulis [Christ Ch. Inventories, p. 71].
That these tassels, as we said before, were thin plates of beaten
gold or silver, is further shown by a passage in the Gesta Gaufredi
de Loduno, telling us that, among many other gifts to the church
of Le Mans (of which he was bishop about the middle of the thir-
teenth century), he bestowed upon it : Quinque paria cerotecarum,
et duas paraturas argenteas deauratas ad opus earumdem cerote-
carum. Mabillon, Vetera Avalecta, iii. 335.
i 3 4 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
times, a tassel hanging from a point in which
their cuffs were made to end, at the under side of
the wearer's arm. 98 But gloves were not the only
things employed of old by our English dignitaries
for keeping their hands warm (163) in cold weather,
during the celebration of the holy offices at church.
Most likely long before, assuredly soon after, the
coming over here of the Normans, certain
METAL BALLS,
sometimes of copper, but oftener of silver parcel-
gilt, were so contrived that the hollow inside
might be safely filled either with burning char-
coal or hot water, if not indeed with some
chemical preparation apt to give out heat for a
98 Upon our countryman Hadrian IV.'s gloves was embroidered
a lamb, with this inscription, Agnus Dei, as we learn from Grimaldi,
a canon of St. Peter's at Rome, who was present when the pontiff's
coffin was opened (A.D. 1606) and his vestments found quite entire
(Dionigi, Sac. Vat. Bas. Crypt. Man., p. 124). At New College,
Oxford, among other pontifical appurtenances once belonging to
their munificent founder, William of Wykeham, they have a glove
of purple silk, with a broad ornament woven in gold thread on the
back of it. In the very interesting cumbent figure found not long
ago walled up in Rochester Cathedral, and presumed to represent
Bishop John de Sheppy, a very good example of episcopal gloves
may be seen. They were richly embroidered, had jewels on the
back, and reached far up over the wrist [see p. 174],
This form of the episcopal glove, with its tassel, or tuft of silk,
is well seen on Archbishop Chicheley's eftigy, in Canterbury Cathe-
dral, and engraved by Britton. It shows, too, those small silver
plates sewed on the back and called " tasselli " a term not to be
mistaken for our English word "tassel." The "cirothecse auri-
frisiatse" worn by the priors of Winchester, are noticed among
their pontifical ornaments at note 41, p. 88, of this volume.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 135
length of time." (1 64) One of these warming-balls,
the bishop, at those parts of the Mass and the
other portions of the Divine service when he could
becomingly do so, as he was sitting down, used
to hold within both his hands and thus easily
chafe them, a usage which has hitherto been un-
known to, or overlooked by, every one who has
written on the liturgy.
99 The "pomum argenteum" frequently occurs in the lists of
ecclesiastical ornaments. Among the things given to the abbatial
church of Sherborne by its sacristan William, in the middle of the
twelfth century, was : Unum pomum argenteum incisum et per
partes deauratum (Cartularium Abb. de Sereb., in the possession of
Sir T. Phillips, Bart.). Belonging to St. Paul's Cathedral,
London (A.D. 1295), there were: Pomum Eustachii episcopi argen-
teum factum de opere levato de ymaginibus deauratis, ponderis
xvis. viid. cum scutella in capsa de corio. Item pomum argen-
teum de opere gravato de ymaginibus representantibus xii
menses deauratis cum scutella, de dono F. Basset xiis. Item
pomum argenteum album planum, ponderis cum scutella i marc.
Item pomum cupreum parvi pretii (Dug dale, Hist, of St. Paul's,
p. 312, new edit.). In the year 1321 there were in the vestry of
Canterbury Cathedral : Tres calepugni de cupro deaurato. The
use of this " pomum," though hinted by the word " calepugnus,"
is unmistakably set forth by the Salisbury inventory, in which
we find : Pomum unum argenteum ad calefaciend. manus (see
Wordsworth, Salisbury Ceremonies, 170). The " scutella," or little
dish, noticed above, was, no doubt, to hold the "pomum," or ball,
when it was handed to, or taken from, the bishop. In the
treasury of York, as late as A.D. 1530, there were: Unum cale-
factorium argenti deauratum cum nodis curiosis insculptis ponderis
unius uncise. Item unum calefactorium de cupro deaurato cum
nodis insculptis ponderans decem unc. (Monast. AngL, viii. 1205);
and the "Inventory of all jewels," &c., stolen by Henry VIII.
from Lincoln Cathedral. A.D. 1536, enumerates: A calefactory,
silver and gilt, with leaves graven, weighing nine ounces and a
half (ibid., p. 1281). Belonging to Ely Minster at the suppres-
sion, was : A ball, silver and gilt, fourteen ounces. Illustrations,
&c.,from the Accompts of Churchwardens, p. 136.
136 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
Besides their gloves, our bishops wore, on occa-
sions, a certain kind of
LOOSE SLEEVES,
called " brachialia," 1 which could be easily drawn
(165) over the alb high up almost to the elbow,
and thus hinder the cuffs of that vesture and its
beautiful apparels from being splashed when the
bishop, on Holy Saturday, baptized the new-born
infants in the font which he had just hallowed.
For as the sacrament was always, during Catholic
times, no otherwise administered than by holding
the child with both hands, and plunging it three
times quite beneath the water, 2 the wrists needed
1 An imperfect Pontifical, after the English use, now in the
British Museum, MS. Vesp. D. i, gives the following rubric at the
service: In dedicatione ecclesiae. Induat se episcopus brachialia
et manicas lineas, ne vestes sordescant. Cencio de' Savelli, who
drew up his Ordo Romanus some time about the end of the twelfth
century, in his chapter, " Quid debeat dominus papa facere in
Sabbato sancto," says: Exuit se de pallio et planeta, et induit
bracalia cerata, et revertitur ad fontes et baptizat tres parvulos.
Mabillon, Mus. Ital., ii. 184.
2 The Salisbury rubric says : Accipiat sacerdos infantem per
latera in manibus suis et . . . baptizet eum sub trina immer-
sione tantum, sanctam Trinitatem invocando, ita dicens, N. Et ego
baptizo te in nomine Patris (et mergat eum semel versa facie ad
aquilonem et capite versus orientem), et Filii (et iterum mergat
semel versa facie ad meridiem), et Spiritus Sancti, Amen (et mergat
tercio recta facie versus aquam (Manuale ad Usum Eccl. Sarum, a
manuscript of the fifteenth century in my possession). [Cp.
Surtees Soc., vol. Ixiii., p. 14*]. On this account was it that all
the original fonts to be still found in our old parish churches
throughout the land were deep and wide. It is to be much
wished that, along with other good old Catholic English religious
practices, baptism by immersion should be brought back into
PAKT I. CHAP. VI. 137
guarding (166) from being wetted: hence came
the use of these loose sleeves, which for better
security were made of cere-cloth.
There was again another exclusively episcopal
appurtenance, never beheld now, and of the use of
which, in olden days, liturgical writers seem quite
unaware : such is
(167) THE BISHOP'S PONSER,
or thumbstal, made either of beaten gold or silver,
and jewelled. It was put upon the right hand
thumb, that had been dipped into the chrism, or
the other two holy oils, for anointing anything
general use. Our present Ordo for baptism allows of it, for the
rubric says : Ubi autem est consuetude baptizandi per immersio-
nem, sacerdos accipit infant em, et advertens ne Isedatur, caute
immergit, et trina mersione baptizat, &c. Though this sacrament
is as good to the soul, and as truly given, according to whichso-
ever of the three ways it may happen to be administered, whether
by sprinkling, by pouring, or by dipping, yet, as the last was the
common form for baptism in this country through the British,
the Anglo-Saxon, and the English periods, from Lucius of holy,
to Henry VIII. of wicked, memory in our annals ; and as this
method more clearly brings before our eyes the symbolic meaning
of St. Paul, when he tells us : Know you not that all we who are
baptized in Christ Jesus, are baptized in his death ? For we are
buried together with him by baptism into death ; that as Christ
is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may
walk in newness of life : for if we have been planted together in
the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his
resurrection (Romans, cap. vi. vv. 3, 4, 5), its restoration is
heartily to be longed for. In the waters of baptism, the infant is
buried a child whose soul is stained with sin ; it arises spotless as
an angel, and the child of God. How can this truth be so well
told to the lookers-on as by plunging the little one beneath the
cleansing waters ! St. Paul makes a burial in, and immediate rising
from, the water the outward sign of this sacrament of baptism.
138 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
with the sign of the cross : out of respect to
these oils, which are hallowed with such form on
Maundy Thursday, and to hinder the vestment
from being unduly rubbed with them, this
"ponser" was put upon the bishop's thumb and
kept there until that part of the liturgy whereat
he always washes his hands. That these thumb-
stals were often very rich, and laden with pearls
and rubies, is certain from a description by William
of Wykeham, in his will, of the best he had, for
he possessed several. Perhaps they were peculiar
to England, as in our national ecclesiastical docu-
ments is the only notice of them to be found. 3
3 A Pontifical belonging to the church of Salisbury, in the
service for ordaining priests, has the following rubric of what the
bishop is to do after having anointed the new priest's hands :
Postea lavet (episcopus) manus suas si voluerit, vel imponatur
digitale .i. ponsir quousque lavat manus suas (Maskell, Monum.
Bit. Ecc. Anglic., iii. 213 [new ed., ii. 225]). That this "digitale,
id est, ponsir," was to go upon the thumb of the bishop's right
hand, is shown by the rubric a little before the last : Episcopus
depositis chirothecis . . . intingat pcllicem manus dexterae suse
in oleo et chrismate commixtis super patenam . . . dicendo hsec
verba, Per istam unctionem, faciat crucem super manus sacerdotis
cum dicto oleo et chrismate, &c. Ibid.
My gifted friend, Mr. Maskell, has put in between two brackets
a note of interrogation of his own, after the word " ponsir," as
much as to say, What does it mean? Well might he ask the
question, for the term is not to be found in Du Cange or any other
lexicographer. The will of that truly great English churchman,
William of Wykeham, happily lets us see almost its very shape,
and tells us how handsomely it was often made, thus clearing away
the difficulty about this word. That good bishop of Winchester,
besides his larger gold pontifical ring, and his better gold chalice,
bequeathed to his successor, "item ponsere meum meliorem,"
worked and ornamented with four rubies, and cxli pearls (Testam.
Vet., ed. Nicolas, ii. 767). I need not add that, hitherto, the word
" ponser " has been a puzzle to our antiquaries.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 139
(168) Another small occasional ornament, most
likely set aside for the exclusive use of the bishop,
in the several dioceses of England, was a little
sheath, or
CANDLE-HOLDER,
made of silver and gilt, with which the prelate
could take hold on and clasp the wax taper he
bore in his hand, as he walked, along with his
clergy, in solemn procession on Candlemas-day,
in honour of the blessed Virgin Mary. 4
(169) SECTION XIII
Not as the least conspicuous among the em-
blems of the episcopacy has been long looked
upon the properly 5 so-called
4 The celebrated Anthony, bishop of Durham (dying A.D. 1310)
left, among other ornaments, to his cathedral : Crucem patriarch-
alem argenteam et deauratam, et unum manuale ejusdem operis
pro cereo suo in die Purificationis. Wills and Inventories, ed.
Raine, i. 12.
5 Not every ring worn by a bishop was, truly speaking, the
pontifical one ; but that only which he put, when vested, on the
annular, or last finger but one of the right hand. Our bishops,
while singing High Mass, wore several rings, and particularly a
large one upon the thumb. This, as well as the pontifical and
every other ring, seems to have been never passed below the
second joint of the finger, whereas now, bishops, like other people,
wear their episcopal ring below the second joint, or between it
and the knuckle. Archbishop Chicheley's figure, in Canterbury
Cathedral, shows the thumb-ring and the pontifical one, and both
rest at the middle, not bottom of the finger. With our English
bishops, a custom seems to have, at one time, prevailed, of
bequeathing a ring (not, however, the pontifical one) to the
reigning king. Such tokens of episcopal goodwill towards
i4o THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
PONTIFICAL RING,
which, to judge from the notices we have of some
(170) of them, and the few specimens that are
still to be met with, must have been in general
rich often quite beautiful. From its very use
(being worn over gloves made of silk, much
thicker in their texture than now), this ring was
larger and, in conformity with the style of those
times, wrought more heavy than the same kind of
ecclesiastical ornament is in our days. 6 Though
Edward I. fill up a somewhat lengthy space in the very curious
wardrobe accounts of that prince, wherein we see that these
everyday rings worn by bishops had usually set in them either a
sapphire or a ruby. Among them were : Annulus auri cum saphiro
qui fuit (fratris Willielmi quondam Dublin archiepiscopi defuncti).
Lib. Quotid. Garderobaz Edwardi Primi, p. 343. Anulus auri cum
rubetto perforate qui fuit (Roberti Coventr' et Lich' episcopi
defuncti). Ib., p. 344. Anulus auri cum saphiro qui fuit J. Ebor.
archiepiscopi defuncti (ib., p. 345). Anulus auri cum quatuor
rubettis magnis qui fuit fratris J. de Peccham, nuper Cantuar'
archiepiscopi defuncti (ib., p. 346). Anulus auri cum saphiro qui
fuit A. Assaven' episcopi defuncti. Anulus auri cum rubetto
legatus regi per W. de Cornera, quondam Sarum episcopum,
receptus in garderoba . . . de executoribus testamenti ejusdem.
Ibid.
6 Among the " anuli pontificales " at Canterbury Cathedral
(A.D. 1315) are mentioned: Unus anulus quadratus magnus cum
smaragdine oblongo . et quatuor pramis et quatuor gernettis. Item
anulus magnus cum saphiro . et quatuor pramis cum quatuor
margaritis. Item anulus Johannis Archiepiscopi, cum saphiro
nigro, cum 'viij granis smaragdinis. Item, anulus R. de Winchelsee
archiepiscopi, cum saphiro, &c. [Invent, of Christ Ch., Cant., p. 71].
The rings of St. Thomas a Becket were kept apart; and his
great ones are thus mentioned : Anulus pontificalis magnus cum
rubino rotundo in medio. Item annulus magnus cum saphiro nigro
qui vocatur Lup. Ibid.
In the will of that great and good man, William of Wykeham,
we find that he bequeathed to his successor in the bishopric of
PART I. CHAP. VI. 141
commonly having (171) for its stone a sapphire,
it not unfrequently bore a deep broad emerald, or
a ruby; and to keep it in (172) its right place,
another plain but smaller ring was put upon the
finger just above it. 7
Winchester, his best book, De Officio Pontificali, his best missal, his
larger gold pontifical ring, with a sapphire stone, surrounded with
four balas-rubies, and two small diamonds and eleven pearls ;
also his better gold chalice. Nicolas, Testaments Vetusta, ii. 767.
As now, so then, a bishop's ring, after the Anglo-Saxon period,
was never graven, and could not therefore be used as a signet ;
hence grew the necessity for each prelate to provide himself with
his own proper seal, which at his death was publicly broken up :
and being, in general, of silver, the fragments of the matrix were
offered at the shrine of the patron saint of his diocese. It is a
common observation in some of our English ecclesiastical docu-
ments, for example, in the bishopric of Durham : Audita morte
istius, statim fracta fuerunt ejus sigilla et sancto Cuthberto
oblata (Wills and Inventories of the Northern Counties of England,
i. i). Post cujus mortem fracta fuerunt sigilla ejusdem, &c. (ib.,
p. 2). In exequiis Ricardi primi habuit ecclesia (Dunelm.) . . .
unum anulum aureum pontificalem, et in die sepulturee ejus fracta
fuerunt sigilla ejusdem et Sancto Cuthberto oblata (ib., p. 5).
The pieces of these seals were afterwards melted down and
wrought into chalices (ib., p. 26). That these seals were broken
in public, and with some ceremony, is clear from the following
notice of the fact : Obiit Robertus de insula Dunelmensis episcopus.
Quo sepulto, sigillum ejus publice coram omnibus a magistro
Roberto Avenel est confractum (Hist. Dunelm. Scriptores Tres,
p. 63.) Very likely the episcopal was broken in the same way as the
abbatial seal, which the monks thus destroyed at the burial of the
abbot, and in the open church, upon one of the steps of the high
altar ; as we learn from Matthew Paris, who tells us, while
noticing the death and funeral ceremonies of William, abbot of St.
Alban's (A.D. 1235): Pulsato igitur solernni classico, deportatum
est corpus in ecclesiam, sequente conventu et psallente consueta.
Et illico, vidente toto conventu et quolibet introducto, confractum
est sigillum abbatis uno martello super unum graduum lapideorum
ante maius altare, ita ut tota cselatura, imaginis scilicet et
litterarum, deleretur. Vitas, S. Albani Abbatum, p. 87.
Tune sedendo cirothecas manibus imponat et anulum pontifi-
calem magnum, una cum uno parvo strictiori anulo ad tenendum
142 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
The use of the pontifical ring is of very early
date in the Church : 8 among the Anglo-Saxon
hierarchy, this is shown in various ritual docu-
ments of the time, 9 as well as by the finding of
one of these (173) very rings when the grave of
an Anglo-Saxon bishop was opened. 1
10
fortius super imponat. Modus induendi episcopum [Barnes, Lacy
Pontifical (Exeter 1847)], p. 3.
8 St. Isidore of Seville is a witness that, in the sixth century,
the rubric of the Spanish Church was, to give a ring, with all
ritual form, to the bishop at his consecration : Datur et annulus
(episcopo) propter signum pontificalis honoris, vel signaculum
secretorum. De Ecc. Ojfficiis, lib. ii. cap. v. 12 [P.L., Ixxxiii.
784].
9 In the three Anglo-Saxon pontificals now in France two at
Paris, one at Rouen the pontifical ring is especially noticed by
the rubrics at the consecration of a bishop. Archbishop Ecgberht's
pontifical says : Cum anulus datur hsec oratio dicitur : Accipe annu-
lum pontificalis honoris, ut sis fidei integritate munitus [Surtees
Soc., vol. xxvii. p. 3]. The pontifical at Rouen, and St. Dunstan's at
Paris, both have Cum annulus datur hsec oratio dicitur : Accipe ergo
annulum discretions et honoris, fidei signum, ut quae signanda
sunt, signes, et quse aperienda sunt, prodas, &c. (Martene, De Ant.
EccL Bit., I. viii. Ordo iij.). I am led to think, by the wording of
this prayer, that the rings of Anglo-Saxon bishops were graven ;
and that they were employed by those prelates for sealing, and
thus giving authority to their pontifical instruments, if not on
every, at least on some occasions. Pontifical seals like those of our
English epoch were quite unknown in Anglo-Saxon times.
10 At the beginning of the thirteenth century, on opening, in
Dorchester Church, near Oxford, the grave of a bishop, supposed
to be St. Birinus, among other things, was found a ring : In vent us
quoque est annulus, itemque crux plumbea super pectus eius, &c.
De S. Birino Ep. Dorcestrensi, in Surius, Vit., vi. 688.
Though by right of their degree, doctors in divinity wear a ring,
they must put it off while saying Mass, as none but a bishop, or
a mitred prelate, may keep it on in offering up the holy Sacrifice.
The wearing of a ring is forbidden to those of the clergy who have
not been created mitred prelates, or taken the degree of the
doctorate.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 143
SECTION XIV
From a subject which has been but slightly, if
(174) at all, handled by our English ecclesiastical
antiquaries, we have to pass, and speak of
THE PECTORAL CROSS,
now worn by the bishops of the Church whenever
they sing or say Mass.
Of all our several kinds of figured monuments
done in this country at any time while it was
Catholic, v whether in sculptured stone, grave-
brasses, enamels, embroidery, silversmiths'-work,
stained glass, wall-painting, illuminations, seals,
or glazed tiles, not one shows either a bishop or
an abbot wearing hung upon his breast and over
his chasuble from a string or chain around his
neck anything like what is now called the
pectoral cross. Moreover, in none of our written
documents belonging to the same period in
none of our rituals, wills of bishops, nor in-
ventories of cathedral jewels and precious things,
is there once a mention of it. What we say of
England may be with the same truth said of the
whole Church ; and it is remarkable, that while
both Pope Innocent III. and St. Thomas of
Aquino are most minute in reckoning up the
vestments and ornaments distinctively belonging
144 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
to bishops in their days, and always worn by
them when solemnly arrayed for the holy sacri-
fice, those two writers never drop a word about
the pectoral cross, as one of those adornments
which the prelate should have on. 11 From all
this (175) we are led to believe, that the formal
use of the pectoral cross, as now worn over the
chasuble, goes no farther back than the middle
of the sixteenth century. 12 At the same time,
11 See. i. 405 of this work. As late as the end of the twelfth
century, when Innocent III. wrote, it seems from what he says
that, at least according to the Latin rite, no one but the Roman
pontiff formally put on the pectoral cross while vesting for Mass ;
for in a chapter expressly on this subject, and headed " Quare
Romanus Pontifex post albam orale, et post orale crucem assumat,"
the Pope, in comparing the liturgical vestments worn by the high-
priest of the old law with those of the high-priest of the Christian
dispensation, observes : Et quia signo crucis auri lamina cessit,
pro lamina quam pontifex ille gerebat in fronte, pontifex iste
crucem gerit in pectore. . . . Ideoque Romanus pontifex crucem
quamdam insertam catenulis a collo suspensam, sibi statuit ante
pectus (De Sac. Altaris Myst., i. 53 [/ J .-L., ccxvii. 793, 794]). Not a
word is spoken, either here or elsewhere, by this eminent liturgist,
of drawing out this cross from beneath the chasuble ; hence, though
hanging round the neck but hidden under this vestment, it is never
shown on any of the old figures of the popes.
12 Though Durand follows the same enumeration of episcopal
ornaments as Innocent III. and St. Thomas, as we find in his
Rationale (lib. iii. cap. i. n. 7), still, however, in a pontifical of his,
when he had been made bishop of Mende, he has inserted this
rubric : Crux pectoralis. si quis ea velit uti (Martene, De Antiq.
Eccl. Bit., lib. i. cap. iv. art. xii. Ord. xiii. p. 221). The whole of
Durand's rubric is, as is usual with him, borrowed without acknow-
ledgment from other documents, and seems nothing but an
abridged transcript of a passage in an Ordo Romanus which Mabillon
and earlier ritualists have upon good grounds attributed to
Cardinal Gaetano, Durand's contemporary. Among the sacred
ornaments which according to the writer of this Ordo should be
got ready for a cardinal bishop, are : Amictus, alba, cingulum cum
subcinctorio . . . crux pectoralis, stola, &c. (Ordo Rom. xiv., Mabill.,
PART I. CHAP. VI. 145
however, there (176) is undeniable proof that
what we may safely say gave rise to the present
pectoral cross, was in existence many ages ago,
and this is
THE KELIQUARY WORN AROUND THE NECK BY
ALL ENGLISH BISHOPS WHENEVER THEY
SANG HIGH MASS.
As in other countries, 18 so from the earliest days
(177) of Christianity in this island among the
Anglo-Saxons, the practice was for lay-folks and
Mus. ItaL, ii. 288). From the way in which the Ordo and its copyist,
Durand, speak, we may conclude that the cross was put round the
neck over the alb, and left to hang there quite hidden by the
chasuble.
13 The reliquary which St. Gregory the Great used to wear com-
monly about his neck, is thus described by John the deacon, who
wrote the pontiffs life, A.D. 875 : Reliquiarum phylacteria, tenui
argento fabricata, vilique pallio de collo suspensa fuisse videntur.
Vita S. Gregorii Papse, iv. 80 [P.L., Ixxv. 228]. Another illustrious
ornament of God's Church, and the Roman pontiff's contemporary,
called, too, by the same name, St. Gregory of Tours, in telling us
of a miracle which he himself witnessed wrought by the Almighty
through the relics which the holy bishop wore in a gold cross hung
within the folds of his garments on his breast, lets us know that
such was the pious usage of those times in Gaul ; and considering
the neighbourhood and Christian intercourse between the two
countries, what he says must be looked upon as evidence of the
Britons' practice : Hujus beatse Virginis reliquias (writes the
Gaulish prelate) cum sanctorum Apostolorum, vel beati Martini,
quadam vice super me in cruce aurea positas exhibebam. Cumque
per viam graderemur, conspicio haud procul a via hospitiolum
cujusdam pauperis incendio concremari. . . . Tune extractam a
pectore crucem elevo contra ignem, &c. De Gloria Martyr., i. 1 1
[P.L., Ixxi. 716]. The wording of this passage, " extractam a pectore
crucem," shows that the cross holding these relics was not worn
outwardly, but muffled up beneath the bishop's daily dress.
VOL. II. K
146 THE CHURCH OP OUR FATHERS
churchmen (bishops in particular) to wear at all
times a reliquary, often fashioned in the shape of
a cross, hanging on their breast. Of St. Wilfrid,
Eddi, his friend and the writer of his life, tells us,
that Queen Ermenburga had the one which that
holy archbishop of York always carried about his
person, stolen from around his neck while he lay
in the prison into which he had been thrown by
her husband Ecgfrith, king of the Northumbrians. 14
(178) Moreover, the golden reliquary made like a
cross, which our countryman St. Willibrord used
to carry about his person whenever he travelled,
and after his death was stolen by a worthless
deacon from the church wherein that holy bishop
lay buried, as we gather through the prose and
poetry of another star in our annals the learned
Alcuin must have no doubt been worn hanging
from around his neck by the Anglo-Saxon apostle
of the Frisons. 15 Besides his sandals, the neck
14 Regina vero . . . chrismarium hominis Dei sanctis reliquiis
repletum . . . de se abstractum in thalamo suo manens aut curru
pergens, juxta se pependit (Eddius, Vita S. Wilfridi Ebor., cap.
xxxiii., ed. Gale, iii. 69). That St. Wilfrid wore this reliquary
about his neck, we are expressly told by Eddi : Sanctas reliquias
quas regina de collo spoliati (Wilfridi) abstraxit. 76., cap. xxxviii.,
p. 71.
15 In his prose life of St. Willibrord, Alcuin speaks thus of that
theft : Quidam etiam officio diaconus, et nonmerito, in ecclesia
sancti viri crucem auream, quam vir sanctus secum in itinere
portare solebat . . . non horruit subtrahere furto Alcuin, Op.,
I. xxvii. [P.L., ci. 709!. From what he says in the metrical notice
of the saint, we are able to collect that the stolen cross was in fact
a reliquary :
Altaris juvenis corrupta mente minister
Clam rapuit qusedam sancti donaria templi
PART I. CHAP. VI. 147
cross (for so it was then called in this country) of
our glorious Anglo-Saxon martyred archbishop of
Canterbury, St. Elphege, is particularly noticed by
Osbern, the monk of Canterbury. 16
(179) The reliquary so often fashioned in the
shape of a cross most probably because it held
a hair-like splinter of the true holy rood, either
stuck upon, or shut up within a little one made
out of common wood 17 was not only worn in
Tollitur ac ssevo quaedam crux aurea furto
Quam Christ! famulus secum portare solebat
Dum plus egit iter, Christo comitante, viator,
Reliquias propter multas quas condit in ilia.
Ibid., cap. xxxii. [722].
16 Collariam martyris crucem (Vita S. Elphegi, in A A. SS. Apr.,
ii. 40, p. 641). Besides a ring and a psalter, Archbishop ^Elfric
bequeathed to Archbishop Wulf ston a neck-cross : And he becwaeS
Uulfstane aercebiscope ane sweor-rode, and anne ring, and anne
psaltere ; and ^Elfheage biscope anne rode (Kemble, Codex Dip.
Anglo-Sax., iii. 352). When the body of a bishop, thought to be
that of St. Birinus, was taken up out of its grave in Dorchester
Church, near Oxford, A. D. 1224, a metal cross was found lying on
his breast : Quidam canonicus dixit . . . invenisse corpus episcopi
integrum cum duplici stola et infula rubra e panno serico, atque
cum cruce e metallo confecta, pectori ejus imposita: denique cum
calice ad umbilicum ejus posito. De S. Birino ep. Dorcest., in Surius
Vit., vi. 688.
Reginald of Durham says not a word of any cross being met
with amid the episcopal ornaments in which the body of St.
Cuthberht was dressed, when the monks opened and looked
into his coffin at the translation of the saint's relics (A.D. 1104).
Reginaldus Dunelmensis, Libellus de Admirand. S. Cuthberti, p.
84. But upon the unknown bishop, whose body was, as late as
A.D. 1827, ungraved in Durham Cathedral, a gold cross, studded
with one large and several small garnets, and evidently hung by a
string from around the neck, was found hidden among the folds
of silken vestments on the breast of the prelate : the shape of it
may be seen in Raine's St. Gutlibert, pi. i.
17 Large crosses of wood, upon which short thread-like chips
from the true cross were glued, have been at times mistaken by
i 4 8 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
England as much (180) after St. Osmund's days
as it used to be among the Anglo-Saxon bishops,
but in time came, by the rubrics of our English
pontificals, to be a required ornament for the
prelate whenever he vested himself in all his
pontifical array. 18 From this it follows, (181) that
the heedless traveller, or shamelessly passed off by exaggerating
and boastful sacristans, for so many portions of the true cross
itself : hence those who are always but too glad to throw a slur
upon the Catholic Church and her practices, have laughed and said
that, were all the fragments which are, throughout Christendom,
shown as pieces of the cross gathered into one heap, there would
be enough timber to build a ship of war. What though the
remark be accurate with regard to the crosses themselves of
common wood on which are pasted, or within which are shut up,
these little, thin, almost indiscernible parings from the true cross,
the sneer cannot apply to these parings themselves, all of which,
if brought together and put into a scale, would not weigh many
ounces.
18 In Bishop Lacy's pontifical, a liturgical manuscript written
here in England some time during the fourteenth century, there
is " Modus induendi episcopum ad solempniter celebrandum,"
according to which : Induat (episcopus) amictum, albam, et
stolam, et reliquias circa collum. Liber Pontificates, ed. Barnes,
P- 3-
Not only were the " relics to be hung around the bishop's neck,
after he had put on his amice, alb, and stole," inclosed within a
cross-shaped reliquary, but sometimes in little cases, and of these
no mean specimen, I suspect, is the one found, not many years
ago, by a labourer in a field near Devizes, where I lately saw it :
measuring if inch in breadth by if high, and made of the purest
gold, it is enamelled on one side with the figure of St. John the
Baptist, on the other, with an archbishop's, in all likelihood St.
Thomas of Canterbury, arrayed in his pontificals : at bottom it
shows this inscription, A mon >J< derrayne, which may perhaps
mean, To my after-comer, thus willing it to be a kind of heirloom in
the bishopric. It opens in two, so that relics might be put inside ;
and at top there is a small ring, through which could have been
run a cord or chain for hanging it about the neck. It now belongs
to the Rev. W. Maskell, and may be seen figured in the Archaeo-
logical Journal, v. 157.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 149
what is now rightly known under the title of the
bishop's pectoral cross, was, strictly speaking,
never among an English prelate's liturgical ap-
purtenances according to St. Osmund's rite for
his church of Salisbury; and, in all likelihood,
the use of this ornament, as it is now worn over
the chasuble, began in those countries which
adopted the Roman pontifical, only just after the
fall of the Catholic Church in this kingdom.
SECTION XV
The next prelatic ensign that asks our notice, is
THE PASTORAL STAFF,
the very ancient liturgical use of which is beyond
a doubt ; whatever darkness may hang over its
first form, and how unknown at present the exact
(182) material, the practice was to choose for the
making of it.
That a staff of some kind was solemnly put into
the hands of the newly-consecrated bishop, for a
token of ghostly rule over his people, we are told
by St. Isidore of Seville, 19 in the sixth century ;
19 Huic autem (episcopo) dum consecratur, datur bacillus, ut
eius indicio subditam plebem vel regat, vel corrigat, vel infirmit-
ates infirmorum sustineat. St. Isidore, De Eccl. Officiis, ii. 5.
[P.L., Ixxxiii. 783]. Almost a hundred years before the days of
this eminent Spanish bishop, who nourished towards A.D. 596, we
have proof of the importance given to this emblem of episcopal
authority ; for we find recorded in the life of St. Csesarius, bishop
150 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
and ecclesiastical documents of our own island
show it to have been looked upon as one among
the emblems of episcopal jurisdiction, and there-
fore it was delivered with ritual solemnity to the
Anglo-Saxon bishop at his consecration. 20
(183) The origin of the pastoral staff perhaps
was twofold : needed at first to uphold the
tottering feebleness of the aged priest who had
been called to watch as head shepherd over his
own little corner of Christ's fold, the old man's
walking-stick crept slowly into liturgical use, till
at length it came to be acknowledged the emblem
of the overseeing office entrusted to the Church's
bishops, and, like every other appurtenance of
the sanctuary, had befitting decorations bestowed
upon it. But if it afforded help to the venerable
personage who bore it in his hands, it became
a symbol of his spiritual authority. From the
earliest monuments in sacred or profane art
from the most archaic fictile vases of Greece and
of Aries, A.D. 502, written by one of his own clergy, that the
saint's pastoral staff was on public occasions borne before him by
one of his clerks as he went to church : Cum vir Dei ... ad aliam
ecclesiam pergeret, clericus cui cura erat baculum illius portare,
quod notariorum officium erat, oblitus est, in quo ministerio ego
serviebam. Tune loci illius incolse cum eum invenissent . . .
virgam ipsam de pariete suspendunt. Vita S. Csesarii Arel. in A A.
SS. dugusti, vi. 79.
20 Gum datur baculus hzec oratio dicitur : Accipe baculum pastor-
alis officii, et sis in corrigendis vitiis sseviens, &c. [in Egbert Pont.
(Surtees Soc.) p. 3] (Ordinatio Episcopi, 32). The same rubric and
the same prayer are to be found in an Anglo-Saxon pontifical now
at Rouen, and in St. Dunstan's, at Paris. Martene, De Ant. Ecc.
Hit., I. viii., Ordo iij.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 151
Sicily, as well as from the oldest frescoes in the
Roman catacombs, we find that during all periods,
and among every nation, a wand was considered
the emblem of power and command : so has it
continued to be, and still is, under one form or
another, from the king's sceptre down to the
lowliest staff of office. This will explain why,
from a very early period until now, not only
bishops, but abbots, nay, even abbesses too,
should have been allowed the use, after a certain
manner, of the pastoral staff.
What at first may have been the shape of the
(184) pastoral staff, it is hard, at such a wide
distance of time, to determine ; but from those
found in the ninth century hanging over the
graves of bishops, then long since dead, it would
seem they were bent at top. 21 The very word,
too, of " cambutta," or crook-headed walking-
stick, 22 one of the terms (185) employed at an
21 In relating a miracle which happened in the church of St.
Denis, near Paris, an unknown writer of that house tells us that
a poor countryman: Videt . . . introire senem clericum ponti-
ficalibus vestibus exornatum, ferentemque in manu baculum a
capite arcuatum in ima reflexum, qualibus antiquiores pontifices
usos fuisse, ad memorias eorum suspensi declarant. Vita S. Dionysii
Ep. Paris, ab anon, in Mabillon, A A. SS. O.B., iv. 312.
22 This was the first meaning of " cambutta." The reader should
know that, for many centuries, a usage prevailed for aged and
sickly ecclesiastics to carry along with them into church a short
staff, upon which they might lean as they stood in the choir, or
about the altar, taking part in the public service ; and in some
countries, though the bishop might have even his pastoral staff in
one hand, in the other he held this short stick, for Mabillon met
with an illumination wherein bishops having both staves at the same
time were figured. De Cursu Gallicano, p. 435 [P.L., Ixxii. 414].
152 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
early period, and borrowed by the Church from
the Armoric, or rather, our own insular British
tongue, to signify this liturgical appliance, 23 tells
us that the pastoral staff of olden times, like what
the shepherd's crook has always (186) been, was
curved at the upper end. Such, however, was
not the invariable form, at least in this island,
for at one time our Anglo-Saxon bishops used
pastoral staves which were quite straight all up
These low staves are mentioned in several old documents. St.
Martin of Tours gave his own to the youthful Victurius (who was
afterwards bishop of Le Mans), as we learn from an old manu-
script life of the latter saint, quoted by Mabillon : Cui (S. Victurio)
Martinus dedit baculum (seu) sustentaculum super quod solent
sacerdotes fusis orationibus sustentari (ibid.). While the gospel
was being read, these staves were laid down, as Amalarius tells
us: Usque ad istud omcium baculis sustentabamur ; modo, ut
oportet servos ante Dominum stare, humiliter stamus, deponentes
baculos e manibus (De Eccl. Off., iii. 18) [P.L., cv. 1126]. About
Amalarius's time, the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle, A.D. 816, pub-
lished a rule for canons regular, and in chap. 131 ordained:
Studeant summopere canonici prsedictas horas vigilantissima
cura custodire . . . Nee cum baculis in choro exceptis debilibus,
sed religiosissime illis standum et psallendum est (Harduin, Gone.,
iv. 1 1 39). As late as the middle of the twelfth century, the use
of these low, plain staves lasted, for Honorius of Autun, in his
beautiful Gemma Animae, i. 24, De baculis, says : Dum evangelium
legitur, baculi de manibus deponuntur [P.L., clxxii. 552].
23 In many old documents the pastoral staff, whether it be for
bishops' or abbots' use, is called "cambutta." Writing (c. A.D.
842) the life of St. Gall, who died A.D. 646, Walafrid Strabo speaks
of St. Columbanus's abbatial staff under such a name : Baculum
ipsius (Columbani) quern vulgo cambottam vocant, per manum
diaconi transmiserunt (Vita & Galli, cap. xxvi., in Mabillon, A A.
SS. 0. B., ii. 233) ; and in our own Anglo-Saxon pontificals, such as
St. Dunstan's, we find the episcopal staff so designated : Pontifex
ter super liminare ecclesise cambuta sua aut baculo percutiat, &c.
Ordo quomodo domus Dei consecranda est, Pontificale S. Dunstani, in
Martene, De Ant. Ecc. Rit., t. ii., lib. ii., cap. xiii., p. 255.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 153
and capped by a knob or ball, as is shown by the
figure of a bishop, vested in a cope and holding
his pastoral staff in his right hand, preserved to
us by an illumination in an Anglo-Saxon ponti-
fical, and well copied in our picture, which we
gave while speaking of the cope. 24 This, too,
must have often been its shape abroad, for while
Charlemagne was away carrying on war against
the Huns, a bishop, whom he had left at court,
so far let his vanity outstrip his good sense, as
to try and get the absent emperor's sceptre for a
pastoral staff; 25 which emblem of kingly power,
then as now, was a straight rod or wand, not
crooked at top, but ending in a flower, or some
such ornament. 26
24 A picture of an Anglo-Saxon illumination, given before,
p. 21 of this volume, shows the form of the pastoral staff used in
this country at that period.
25 Idem quoque episcopus, cum bellicosissimus Carolus in bello
contra Hunos esset occupatus ... in tantam progressus est proter-
viam, ut virgam auream . . . Caroli quam ad statum suum fieri iussit,
f eriatis diebus vice baculi ferendam pro episcopali ferula improvidus
ambiret. On hearing of such an idle wish, Charlemagne, after he
came home, took an opportunity to rebuke the bishop, in these
words : Sceptrum nostrum quod pro significatione regiminis nostri
aureum ferre solemus, pro pastorali baculo nobis ignorantibus
vendicare voluisset. Monachus Sangallensis, lib. i., cap. xix., De
EccL Cum Caroli M., in Duchesne, Hist. Franc. Script., ii. 113.
26 Not unlike a tall, tapering walking-stick, are two out of the
three sceptres used by Charles the Bald, as we find by the illumina-
tions in the Bible given him by the monks of Metz, and in his
own prayer-book. Some of these curious paintings have been
engraved by Baluze, and may be seen at the end of vol. ii. of his
Capitularia Reg. Franc., pp. 848, 849. One sceptre is short, and
flowered at the top ; another, the tall one, has neither flower nor
ball ; the third, as tall and tapering as the second, is tipped, like
the Emperor Lothair's (Voyage des deux Bene'd., ii. 136), with
154 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
Wood, no doubt, though perhaps of the choicest
kinds, such as ebony, cedar, or cypress, furnished
the material for the pastoral staff in the earlier
ages of the Church in this island ; 27 and of wood,
though (188) hidden by gilding, it is often made
for the Catholic bishops of this country to the
present day. Churchmen in the twelfth century
purposely composed it from several materials : its
stem was made of wood, shod with iron, blunted,
not sharp, at its foot, and surmounted by a small
knob of rock-crystal, or of one or other of the
a smallish ball. In the same Bible is figured a bishop, holding
in his left hand a pastoral staff slightly curved at top.
27 That the pastoral staff, among the Anglo-Saxons, used to
be made of wood, is shown by the one of simple elderberry-tree,
once belonging to St. Burchard, and which hung for many ages
over his grave. St. Burchard was one among the several Anglo-
Saxons whom our holy countryman, St. Boniface, called over to
Germany as helpers in the harvest of souls, and where Burchard
was consecrated, by that apostle of Franconia, the first bishop
of Wiirtzburg. While speaking of the saint's pastoral staff, Egil-
ward the monk says : In loco sepulturse ejus servatur virga sam-
bucea . . . pastor Burchardus cum sua pastorali virga modernis
pastoribus, qui pascentes semetipsos, vix in ipsis baculis suis aliqua
carent pompa ( Vita S. Burchardi, in Mabillon, A A. SS. 0. B., iii. 650).
It is not, however, unlikely that here, as well as abroad, the
pastoral staff was composed of gold and silver, and adorned with
crystal, during the ninth century : Baculus auro, argento, et
crystallo paratus ii, prseparatio baculi unius ex crystallo. Descrip.
Thesau. S. Richarii, A.D. 831, Chron. Gentul. [P.L., clxxiv. 1258].
For later times, many evidences might be brought forward :
when Stephen, Abbot of St. Genevieve's, at Paris, was chosen,
A.D. 1 1 59, bishop of Tournay, together with their congratulations,
he had sent him from the abbot and the brotherhood of a
religious house, a pastoral staff of cypress wood : Munusculum
vobis mittimus de remotis partibus nobis missum, baculum pas-
toralem cypressinum, officio vestro et qualitate mysterii congruum,
et quantitate ministerii condignum. Stephanus Tornacensis,
Epist., 234 [P.L., ccxi. 528].
PAET I. CHAP. VI. 155
precious metals, from which sprang out the crook
itself, carved in ivory, with this sentence running
round it Dum iratus fueris, misericordise recorda-
beris ; while upon the ball beneath was written
the word Homo, and the spike at the lower end
bore this injunction Parce. Thus the bishop,
by the very emblem of his high spiritual power,
was warned, though (189) angered, not to be
wrathful to keep in remembrance, being but a
man himself, he ought to watch over his own
heart, and let not the thoughts of his dignity uplift
him and even while bringing the iron strength
and correction of Church discipline to bear against
sinners, still he must be mild, not harsh. 28
Very soon, however, it became to the ecclesias-
tical artist an object of thoughtful concern ; and
the ivory, 29 the silver, and the gold, the precious
28 Baculus ex auctoritate legis et evangelii assumitur, qui et
virga pastoralis, et capuita, et ferula, et pedum dicitur (Gemma
Animae, i. 217, De baculo episcopali). Hie baculus ex osse et ligno
efficitur, crystallina vel deaurata sphserula conjunguntur, in
supremo capite insignitur, in extreme ferro acuitur, &c. (ibid.,
219). Os recurvatur, ut populus errans per doctrinamad Dominum
retrahatur. ... In curvatura est scriptum, Dum iratus fueris,
misericordise. recordaberis (see Habakkuk, iii. 2) ; ne ob culpam
gregis superet ira mentem pastoris. ... In sphserula est scrip-
tum, Homo, quatenus se hominem memoraretur, et de potes-
tate collata non elevetur. Juxta ferrum est scriptum, Parce, ut
subjectis in disciplina parcat . . . unde et ferrum debet esse
retusum, &c. Ibid., 220 [P.L., clxxii. 609-611].
29 A few years ago I saw. amid several other ecclesiastical
appurtenances, in a private collection of mediseval antiquities in
London, a most delicately-carved pastoral staff, the whole in the
finest ivory. By its style it seemed to be a work of the early
part of the fourteenth century, and done by an English hand.
Of this kind may have been the ivory one mentioned among the
156 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(190) stones, 30 and the enamels 31 brought to him
for its formation and adornment, were all wrought
up (191) with such skilful cunning, especially by
the hands of workmen in this country, that it
often happened a bishop's pastoral staff, belonging
to one of our larger churches, came to be valued
for its beauty as a work of art, quite as much as
it was for the richness and worth of the gold and
jewels which shone about it : such was the mag-
Salisbury ornaments, A.D. 1222 : Baculi pastorales iiij, quorum
unus est eburneus. [Wordsworth, Salisb. Cerem., 177.]
30 The treasuries of our English cathedrals could, in olden days,
display many a splendid pastoral staff. Salisbury had hers :
Baculus pastoralis argenteus pretiosus bene deauratus cum lapidi-
bus pretiosis. Ut supra.
31 The variety of material employed in England for making
pastoral staves, may be seen from the list of those belonging to
Canterbury Cathedral, A.D. 1315 :
Baculi pastorales.
Baculus cedrinus cum .ix angelis aureis . J. Archiepiscopi.
Item Baculus ejusdem argenteus anelatus cum floribus de Liz.
Item Baculus albus eburneus.
Item Baculus Sancti Thome de Piro cum capite de nigro cornu.
Item Baculus de lynde cum capite de nigro cornu et paucis
gemmis ornatus.
Item Baculus . B. archiepiscopi cum gemmis ornatus cum mages-
tate et Episcopo argent' in capite. [Christ Ch. Inventories, p. 70.]
At Winchester Cathedral there were : Three pastoral staves
of silver and gilt. Item, one pastoral staff of an unicorn's horn.
Dugdale, Mon. Angl., i. 203.
Kept to this day, at his magnificent foundation, New College,
Oxford, is William of Wykeham's pastoral staff, which, studded
as it is all over with enamels, and with its beautifully wrought
little tabernacles running storey above storey, peopled by small
but graceful figures of saints, exhibits a bright proof of how able
were our ancient silversmiths. Another precious, though hitherto
seldom noticed, specimen of old English workmanship, is the
pastoral staff of Bishop Fox, at Corpus Christi College, built by
him at Oxford.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 157
nificent pastoral staff which one of the Norman
robbers of our Anglo-Saxon minsters, Odo,
bishop of Bayeux, ran away with from Durham
Cathedral. 32
Both in this country and abroad, it was a
custom of early introduction, to speak of the pas-
toral staff (192) as distinguishable into two differ-
ent portions, the long straight part, or staff itself,
and the twisted top, appropriately called " cam-
butta " or crook. 33
32 Qusedam etiam ex ornamentis ecclesise (Dunelmensis) inter
quse et baculum pastoralem materia et arte mirandum, erat enim
de saphiro factus, preefatus episcopus abstulit : Simeon of Durham,
Hist, de Dunelm. Ecc., iii. 24 [fi., Ixxv. 118]. Not only Nor-
man bishops, but Norman monks, were guilty of pilfering our
Anglo-Saxon church ornaments : "Isto enim tempore," says the
historian of Abingdon monastery, "erant in hac domo quidam
monachi et sacristse de coenobio Gemeticensi qui ornamenta
quamplurima a beato ^Ethelwoldo laboriose adquisita et huic
domui collata, tarn aurea quam argentea eruderato penitus argento
a rota memorata, secum in Normaniam fraudulenter asportaver-
unt." Dugdale, Mon. AngL, i. 516.
33 Such a distinction of parts is well expressed in the inventory
of ornaments belonging (A.D. 1295) to St. Paul's Cathedral, Lon-
don : Baculus Bicardi episcopi, cujus cambuca de argento deaurato.
Baculus ejusdem cum cambuca cornea continens interius vineam
circumplectentem leonem de cupro deaurato. Baculus cujus
cambuca est cornea continens massam cupream deauratam fusam
in ymagines multas, et pomellum similis operis insertis lapidibus.
Baculus cum cambuca eburnea continente agnum. Baculus qui
fuit Henrici di Wengham, de argento triphoriato et deaurato,
cujus cambuca continet ymaginem Pauli ex parte una, et cujus-
dem archiepiscopi ex parte alia, et in circuitu inseruntur lapides
turkesii et gernectse et baculus ligneus de tribus peciis ornatus
tribus circulis argenteis insertis lapidibus . . . cujus pes est de
argento deaurato. Dugdale, St. Paul's, p. 316. Gaufredus de
Loduno, bishop of Le Mans (A.D. 1254), gave to that church :
Cambutam argenteam magni ponderis deauratam et opere decoram
158 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(193) With respect to abbots and abbesses, the
usage was in Catholic England for the bishop
who consecrated them, to put into the hands,
both of one and the other, as the case might be,
a pastoral staff : besides this, the abbess received
a ring, 34 (194) which, however, was not bestowed
cum baculo pastorali. Gesta Gaufridi de Loduno, Ep. Cenoman-
nensis, in Mabillon, Vet. Analect., iii. 390.
The head, or crook, of the pastoral staff, called "cambutta"
and " cambuca," seems to have been, in some parts of this country ;
known under the name of " cruche-head," as we may gather from
the inventory of church plate stolen by Henry VIII. from Foun-
tains Abbey, at the same time that we learn how beautiful and
costly must have been those two which belonged to that house ;
and are thus described, along with what must have been a pro-
cessional cross : One cross-head, silvered and gilt, with an image,
weight thirty-two ounces ; one cruche-head, gilt, weight forty-six
ounces ; one staff of silver, ungilt, for the same cruche-head ; one
head of a cruche of silver, gilt, weight a hundred ounces ; the staff of
thecruche, gilt, weight seventy ounces. Dugdale,M(w. Angl.,v. 290.
But earlier still, Jocelin, the monk of St. Edmund's, marks
this distinction, while he records the donations bestowed upon
that house by his friend, its abbot, Sampson (A.D. 1197): Optulit
conventui casulam preciosam et mitram auro intextam, et sandalia
cum caligis sericis, et cambucam virge pastoralis argenteam et
bene operatam. Cronica Jocelini de Brakelonda (C. S., ed. Roke-
wode), p. 64.
34 Not only to the abbess, at her installation, but to every nun,
on taking the veil, a ring was, and yet is given. The celebrated
John Duke of Bedford bestowed a ring each upon those nuns who
made their religious vows at the opening of Syon House Convent,
founded by his brother, King Henry V., as is recorded in the
original martyrology belonging to that monastery. At folio iL,
verso, of that manuscript,, now in the possession of the Earl of
Shrewsbury [now Add. MS. 22,285], there is the following entry:
Anno Domini MCCCCXXVI. In die See. Agathe Virginis et Martiris,
feria iij, positus erat primus lapis in fundamento ecclesise monas-
terii de Syon in parochia de Istilworthe, per Johannem Ducem
Bethfordie fratrem fundatoris nostri (Henrici Quinti Regis
Angliae) presente magistro Henrico Bewforde episcopo Wyn-
chestrie et magistro Johanne Kempe episcopo Londinensi qui
PART I. CHAP. VI. 159
upon any abbot, unless his house were a mitred
abbey. 35 According to the present Roman ponti-
fical, abbots still receive a pastoral staff, but not
abbesses, when they are blessed for their respec-
tive offices by the Church, after their election :
abbesses, however, in our English convents,
though they have ceased to be solemnly pre-
sented with it after the old rite of Sarum, 36 keep
up, in a certain way, a remembrance (195) of the
ancient custom, and usually have a pastoral staff
leaning by the side of their chair in the choir.
Not only bishops, but abbots took their pastoral
benedixit et sanctificavit eundem lapidem iacentem in aquilonari
angulo ad orientalem plagam predicte ecclesise. Dux iste dedit
omnibus sororibus prime professionis anulos quibus profitebantur.
35 Postea tradat ei (abbati) baculum, dicens modesta voce :
Accipe baculum pastor alis officii, quern prefer as caterve tibi commisse ad
exemplum juste severitutis et correctionis. Si sit anulandus et mitran-
dus tune dentur sibi. Benedictio Abbatis, in Barnes, Lacy Pontifical,
p. 105. Matthew Paris calls the abbot's staff "baculus choralis,"
and lets us know that, at St. Al ban's, though elected, no abbot
might carry his staff until he had been solemnly blessed : In pro-
cessionibus supremus procedet, ut alius senior, non in medio
choralem ferens baculum. Vitse Abb., p. 92.
36 Post det ei (abbatissae) baculum, dicens: Accipe baculum pas-
toralis officii, &c. Tune det ei annulum, dicens : Accipe annulum,
fidei signaculum, Spiritus Sancti ut sponsa voceris, et sic ei fideliter
servias. Postea installetur per episcopum si in proprio monasterio
fuerit benedicta, ut abbates installantur, &c. Benedictio Abbatissse,
ib., p. 113. Several of our church monuments show us abbesses
with the pastoral staff; among the rest, the interesting high
tomb, in Oxford Cathedral, of the lady Montacute, one of whose
four daughters, figured below on the sides, became a nun and
abbess, who stands with her hands joined, and having her staff
leaning against her left shoulder. The abbess in the Louterell
Psalter holds in her right hand a staff, the crook of which is
beautifully carved ; so, too, does Elizabeth Harvey, abbess of
Elstow. in her grave-brass, etched by Waller. [See overleaf.]
i6o
THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
staff with them when they went to a council. 37
Every reader of English history will readily call
to mind that touching
passage in the life of St.
Wulstan, bishop of Wor-
cester, whom Archbishop
Lanfranc, with most
blameworthy obsequious-
ness to King William's
unlawful wishes, and
quite forgetting the
canons of the Church,
sought to depose the
Anglo-Saxon bishop of
an Anglo-Saxon people
from his see, because
forsooth he could not
talk the language of the
Norman stranger. Re-
fusing to yield up his
ELIZABETH HARVEY, Abbess of Elstow.
37 Speaking of the council held
at Rheims (A.D. 1119), Simeon,
the monk of Durham, says : Ad
hoc concilium multiplex factus est
archiepiscoporum, episcoporum,
abbatum et principum diversarum
provinciarumconcursus cum cleri-
corum . . . numerosa multitudine.
Numerates sunt ibi personarum
pastoraliumvirgse ccccxxiiii., Inter
quos et Turstinus Eboracensis
ecclesiee archiepiscopus elect us,
&c.Hist. Regum, 197 [R.S.,
Ixxv. ii. 254].
PART I. CHAP. VI. 161
bishopric to any one but his late sovereign, Edward
the Confessor, the good (196) bishop went to that
king's grave in the church of Westminster, where
they were then assembled, and thrusting his pas-
toral staff into the hard stone which covered the
royal corpse, left it standing there, miraculously
upright, and so fastly rooted that no other hand
but his own could draw it out. 38 (197) In those
38 Apud hunc (Lanfrancum) vir Domini Wulstanus simplicitatis
et imperitise accusatur, et quasi homo idiota et sine litteris de-
ponendus, rege consentiente, vel etiam hoc ipsum prsescribente
decernitur. Igitur in synodo quam apud Westmonasterium rege
praesente celebravit Lanfrancus, inter csetera quse tractavit negotia,
jubet venerabilem virum baculum resignare cum annulo. At
vir Domini nee vultu mutatus nee animo, erexit se, et virgam
pastoralem manu tenens : " Vere," inquit, " domine archiepiscope,
vere scio quia nee hoc honore dignus sum, nee huic idoneus oneri
nee sufficiens labori : sciebam hoc cum me clerus eligeret, cum
episcopi cogerent, cum me dominus rex meus Edwardus ad hoc
officium invitaret. Ipse auctoritate sedis Apostolicse in meos
humeros hoc onus ref udit et per hunc baculum me episcopali gradu
investiri prsecepit. Et nunc pastoralem tu virgam exigis quam
non tradidisti, officium adimis quod non contulisti. Et ego
quidem insufficientiam non ignorans, et tuse sanctseque synodi
sententise cedens resignabo baculum, sed non tibi, sed ei potius
cujus eum auctoritate suscepi." Hsec cum dixisset, cum suis
accessit ad lapidem quo gloriosissimi regis exuvise claudebantur,
et stans ante sepulchrum : " Tu scis," inquit, " domine mi,
Edwarde, quam invitus hoc onus susceperim . . . Et ecce novus
rex, nova lex, novus pontifex, nova jura condunt, novas promulgant
sententias . . . tibi, inquam, resigno baculum, tibi curam eorum
quos mihi commendasti dimitto. . . ." Hsec cum dixisset, elevata
paululum manu, in lapidem quo sanctum corpus tegebatur infixit
baculum. " Accipe," inquiens, " domine mi rex, et cui libuerit
trade ilium." Et sic descendens ab altari exutus pontificalibus
inter monachos ipse monachus simplex resedit. Admirabantur
omnes cernentes virgam immersam silici et quasi radicibus nitere-
tur, neque ad dextram neque ad sinistram declinare. Temptant
earn quidam evellere ; sed ilia stabat immobilis. . . . Tune prsesul
Lanfrancus, novitate miraculi stupefactus, et regem volens tantse
VOL. II. L
LIBRARY ST. MARY'S COLLEGE
162 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
days, too, it would seem, that our bishops carried
about with them their pastoral staff on most
occasions, for we find that Ranulf, Bishop of
Durham, had his with him when he was shut up
a prisoner in the Tower of London ; and took
care not to forget it when he escaped. 39
(198) But the pastoral staff, fashioned like a
shepherd's crook, was not the only emblem which
the head of a brotherhood of monks could wield,
in this country, for a sign of his spiritual authority
within the house entrusted to his jurisdiction :
a plain, thick, silver wand and, instead of the
crook, bearing at top a solid knob or ball, some-
what resembling the pilgrim's staff, and, like it,
called
admirationis esse participem, mittit qui eum in synodum evocarent.
Advenienti cum proceribus assurgit Lanfrancus, simulque ad
regis tumulum properantes, facta oratione manum apponit ponti-
fex, baculum tentat eruere, sed obsistente sancti Regis virtute
conatus ejus desiderate caret eftectu. . . . Tune Lanfrancus ad
sanctum (Wulstanum) accedens, inquit : " . . . Accede, f rater mi,
accede ad dominum tuum, imo et nostrum : credimus enim quod
sancta ejus dextera quse nobis baculum negavit, tibi laxata manu
facile resignabit."
His dictis, sanctus pontifex sua usus simplicitate paruit im-
peranti, et accedens ad altare, " Ecce," inquit, " ego, domine mi,
Edwarde, ecce ego quime tuo commisi judicio " Hsec dicens,
levi tactu virgam tentat evellere, quse manu ejus secuta, ac in
molli luto fuisset impressa desiliit. Aelred, Abb. Rievallis, De Vita
et Miraculis Edwardi, lib. ii. [P.L., cxcv. 779, 780].
39 Ranulfus Flambardus, . . . episcopus funem ad columnam,
quse in medio fenestrse arcis erat, coaptavit, et baculum pastoralem
secum sumens, per funem descendit. Ordericus Vitalis, Ecclesias.
Hist., lib. x. [P.L., clxxxviii. 759].
PART I. CHAP. VI. 163
THE BORDON,
was used in some of the monastic establishments
of England. As not a few of our cathedrals were,
against the universal practice of the Church,
served, not by secular canons, but Benedictine
monks, in such communities, not an abbot, but a
prior had assigned to him its government. In
these instances, this latter personage often was
honoured with the privilege of arraying himself
for Mass, and other liturgical functions, in full
pontificals; 40 but the (199) probability is, there
might be found more examples than that of
Worcester Cathedral, where, instead of the regular
pastoral staff with its crook, like the one carried
by a bishop or an abbot, the cathedral prior was
suffered to use only the silver bordon, 41 which
may be not unfitly here called
40 For the privilege granted to John de Evesham, Prior of
Worcester, and to all who should come after him, as such, in that
church, see note 48, p. 96, of this volume, as well as the following
one.
As late as the last century, the provosts of some cathedrals
abroad had the use of the pastoral staff on solemn occasions. Of
his visit to Toulouse Cathedral, Martene says : On nous fit voir
dans la sacristie le baton pastoral que le prevot porte lorsqu'il
officie solemnellement. Voyage Lit., t. i. pt. ii. p. 47.
41 Nos (Urbanus V., A.D. 1363) indulgemus ut tu (Johannes de
Evesham, prior ecclesise Wigorniensis) et iidem successores tui
. . . mitra, annulo, tunica, dalmatica, sandaliis et chirothecis epis-
copalibus, ac bordono argenteo botonum argenteum habente in
capite absque alio ornatu, uti . . . libere valeatis. Volumus autem
quod hujusmodi bordonus, quo tu et successores tui utemini, ad
1 64 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
THE PRIOR'S STAFF.
When some of our native writers speak of the
(200) choir-staff as the one borne by an abbot
whenever he walked in procession along with the
monks of his house, 42 let not the reader think
that by this was meant what is properly called
THE RULER OF THE CHOIR'S STAFF,
which quite differed from the true pastoral staff,
both with regard to shape and emblematic signifi-
cation. The " rectores chori," or rulers of the
choir, who were few or many, according to the
modum pastoralis baculi non sit factus. Privilegia Eccl. Wigorn.,
Wilkins, ConciL, iii. 201.
In Worcester Cathedral may yet be seen, within a niche at the
back of the modern altar-screen, a cumbent figure of one of its
priors ; at whose side there lies this bordon, or crookless staff, cut
in stone, and shaped according to the injunctions of the above
papal indult. The industrious Abingdon thus described it two
hundred years ago : There ariseth a tomb .... wherein lyeth the
portraiture of a bishop, or prior, vested for the altar, his head
supported with angels, and covered with a mitre ; at his feet a
lyon, gloves on his hands, suitable to his function, the right lifted
up to give a benediction, in the left a staff, not with a cross, as a
metropolis, nor yet a crosier, as a bishop, but curiously wrought,
and such as I have seen the archichoristse, or rulers of the choir,
use in a most solemn and high Mass. Survey of Worcester Cathedral,
1723, p. 20.
42 Electus autem (abbas) etsi fuerit unus de ultimis novitiis loco
supremo illico statuetur ... In processionibus supremus ex parte
abbatis procedet, ut alius senior, non in medio choralem ferens
baculum, ut antiquitus temere consuevit, ne forte in posterum
cassatus retrocedat (Matthew Paris, Vit. S. Albani Abbatum, p. 92).
Very likely the pastoral staff used in the choir by the abbots of
St. Alban's, though precisely the same in shape, was of much
inferior materials to the one employed at Mass : hence this plainer
one was called the choir-staff.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 165
solemnity of the festival, but always arrayed in alb
and cope, 43 and often having the precentor at their
head, 44 directed the singing of the choir all through
(201) many parts of the Divine service at matins
at Mass at evensong. As they arose from
their stools, 45 or went down from their stalls to
cluster (202) around the large brazen eagle, upon
43 Besides their silken copes, the rulers of the choir wore the
canons' grey furred almuce. See note 85 before, p. 44.
44 His staff at St. Paul's Cathedral, London, judging from the
following description, must have been very fine : Baculus cantoris
de peciis eburneis, et summitate cristallina,, ornata circulis ar-
genteis, deauratis, triphoriatus lapidibus insertis ( Visit, in Tliesaur.
S. Pauli, Lond., in Dugdale, Hint, of St. Paul's, p. 316). At the
royal chapel at Windsor (A.D. 1385), this dignitary's staff is thus
noticed : Unus baculus pro precentore in choro, ligatus in quinque
locis, cum puncto argenteo in fine, habens in summitate ejusdem
imam partem eburneam ex transverse cum christallo in finibus
(Mon. Anglic., viii. 1365). At Winchester Cathedral there was:
One rector's staff of unicorn's -horn (ibid., i. 202). The beauti-
fully wrought staff-head, figured in Dibdin's Tour through the
Northern Counties of England, was, I suspect, one of those carried
in his hand by the ruler of the choir.
The royal abbey of St. Denys, near Paris, had in its treasury a
very fine chanter's staff, given by one of its precentors (A.D. 1394),
and figured, plate I, in Felibien's Hist, de I'Abbaye de Saint Denys.
45 Very likely the " scampna ferrea plicancia et argentata,"
brought from the Countess Goda's chapel in her manor-house at
Lambeth, by Ralph the monk, to Rochester Cathedral (Regist. Roff.,
p. 119), as well as the "v cathedrae ferr. pro choro cum lectrino
ferr.," mentioned in the indenture of things belonging to Cobham
College, Kent (A.D. 1479), and printed by Thorpe (ibid., p. 239),
were as many iron stools for the rulers of the choir, and set near
the iron lettern, on the floor of the chancel. In such a place are
they seated at present in the churches abroad, either on high
wooden chairs, or upon benches. Sometimes,, too, they all sat in
a row upon one form, put quite by itself, in the middle of the
choir. For throwing upon, and covering such benches, a carpet of
the finest kind was often employed. Geoffrey de Loduno, Bishop
of Le Mans, in France, gave to that church : Duos tapedas subtus
pedes servientium ad altare, et duos minores mirabili opere quo-
1 66 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
the outstretched wings of which lay open the
heavy Grail, or widely spreading Antiphoner
from the noted and illuminated leaves of which
they were chanting ; or as they walked to and
fro, giving out to each high-canon in his turn the
anthem to be sung, these rulers of the choir bore
in their hand a staff, sometimes beautifully adorned
and made of silver, ending, not with a crook, but
a short cross-beam, which carried some enrich-
ment, elaborately wrought and richly decorated. 46
rum unus operit sedem regentium chorum. Gesta Gaufridi de
Loduno (A.D. 1255), in Mabillon, Vet. Analect., p. 335.
Our chanters' stools were not without their ornaments, as we
find from the inventory of St. Paul's, London, where the plainer
stools served, most likely, for the under-rulers of the choir.
Quatuor cathedrae lignese debiles. Item tres cathedrae f errese debiles.
Una cathedra ferrea cum capitibus et pomellis deauratis quse est
cantoris. Visit, in 77ies. S. Pauli, Londini (A.D. 1295), Dugdale, St.
Paul's,?. 315.
46 The enamelling, the imagery, the lace-like tabernacle-work,
bestowed especially upon the head of the English staff, for the
rector of the choir, may be almost seen from the description of
the " Baculi pro chori regentibus," set down in the list of plunder
carried off by Henry VIII. from Lincoln Cathedral : Imprimis, a
staff covered with silver and gilt, with one image of our Lady
graven in silver at one end, and an image of St. Hugh in the
other end ; and having a boss, six squared, with twelve images
enamelled, having six buttresses, wanting one pinnacle and two
tops. Item, two other staves, covered with silver and gilt, having
an image of our Lady, and a chanon kneeling before her at every
end, with this scripture, Pro nobis ora, &c., having also one knop,
with six buttresses, and six windows in the midst, one of them
wanting a pinnacle, with this scripture about the staff, Benedictus
Deus in donis suis. Item, two other staves, covered with silver
parcel gilt, having a knop in the midst, having six buttresses, and
six windows in every staff, gilt, wanting one round silver plate of
one crouches end. Dugdale, Mon. Anglic., viii. 1281. From these,
and other descriptions, it would appear that the head of the staff
was made like St. Anthony's cross, or the capital letter ~|~. Upon
the top of this were set the images.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 167
Of such a liturgical (203) practice we have evi-
dence for Anglo-Saxon 47 as well as English times; 48
and on this, like almost every other ritual observ-
ance, St. Osmund merely (204) retained for his
rite of Sarum a usage which he found established
in the rubric of this country before the coming
of the Normans ; in fact, the Anglo-Saxon, the
English, and, until a late period, even if they do
not still, several churches on the continent put
staves into the hands of the choir-rulers, 49 as is
still practised in Belgium. 1
50
47 Bishop Leofric left to his cathedral at Exeter : iii. canter-
cseppa and .iii. canterstafas, &c. Kemble, Codex Dipl. Anylo-Saxo-
num, iv. 275.
48 At Salisbury (A.D. 1222), there were, in the treasury : Baculi
viij ad chorum regendum [Wordsworth, Salisbury Oerem., 177].
These staves at Canterbury Cathedral were as rich as they were
curious, in the year 1315, and are thus enumerated :
Baculi Cantorum.
Baculus sancti Thome argenteus et deauratus et gemmis
ornatus.
Item, baculus sancti Dunstani minor argenteus cum gemmis et
capite eburneo.
Item, baculus ejusdem major in parte argenteus et gemmis
ornatus, cum dente Sancti Andrese.
Item, .iiij. baculi de cornu cum capitibus eburneis.
Item, quinque baculi argentei, cum capitibus eburneis. [Ghrist
Church Inventories, p. 74.]
The royal chapel at Windsor had (A.D. 1385): Duo baculi de
una secta pro rectoribus chori in principalibus. Duo baculi pro
rectoribus secundariis, &c. Duo baculi harnizati cum berillo.
Dugdale, Mon. Anglic., viii. 1366.
49 Martene tells us that, being at Toulouse during the feast of
the Assumption, he saw the processions : Les chanoines de la
cathedrale vinrent aussi en procession ... Us avoient six chantres
revetus de tuniques portant sur leurs epaules des batons d'argent,
qu'ils appellent des bourdons (Voyage Lit. des deux Benedict., t. i.
1 68 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(205) Of all the prelates of the Church,
THE ROMAN PONTIFF
is the only one now who
DOES NOT ON ANY OCCASION MAKE USE OF THE
PASTORAL STAFF, 51
nor has he for the last six hundred years at least ;
although before the beginning of the twelfth cen-
tury, there can be no doubt the successor of St.
(206) Peter employed, like every other bishop, a
pastoral staff at those parts of the liturgy where
it is still employed. This we know from those
partie ii. p. 49). De Moleon (1700-1718) found, at the church of
S. Maurice de Vienne : Les chantres chappez ayant leurs mitres
en tete et leurs batons en main (Voyages Liturg., p. 29) ; and speak-
ing of Rouen Cathedral in his times, he tells us that : A la grand
messe, les fetes triples,, le chantre en chappe avec son baton gou-
verne le chceur (de la cathedrale de Rouen). II annonce au
celebrant le Gloria in excelsis, et le Credo. Pendant le Gloria in
excelsis, il avertit deux chaplains pour chanter le Graduel ou jube,
&c. (ibid., p. 360). At Rome, in Sicily, and at Malta, these staves
were at one time in use, as Magri tells us ; see Hierolexicon, in
verbo Baculus.
50 During the High Mass which I heard, on a Sunday not long
ago, at Bruges Cathedral, there were two rulers of the choir,
vested in albs and copes, and seated on high oaken chairs placed
in the middle of the choir, with the eagle of latton before them.
They bore staves in their hands whenever they moved about the
choir ; and behind their stools, two little acolytes were standing,
who arranged the fall of these chanters' copes, as they came back
and sat down again.
51 What Pope Innocent was the first to observe, in the twelfth
century, is equally true now : Romanus autem pontifex pastorali
virga non utitur. De Sacro Altar is My 'St., i. 62 [P.L., ccxvii. 796.]
PART I. CHAP. VI. 169
pictorial 52 as well as written testimonies 53 we
possess upon the (207) subject, though both of
them let us see that the shape of the papal differed
from that of the episcopal staff; the pontiffs
seems never to have had the crook upon it, but
was topped either by a small cross or a ball.
In connection with the pastoral staff, there are
two or three questions about which the reader
may perhaps like to hear a few words. By some
(who do not, however, let us learn upon what
authority) are we told : "It is well known, that
one distinguishing mark between the mode of
carrying this staff by a bishop or by an abbot was,
52 The brothers Magri, in the new edition of their Hierolexicon,
have given engravings of two old works of art, figuring one St.
Gregory the Great ; the other, Pope Gelasius II., who sat in St.
Peter's chair, A.D. 1118, just eighty years before Innocent III.'s
time. St. Gregory holds in one hand a long staff, headed with a
little cross ; and Gelasius's is an equally tall wand, bearing at the top
a small egg-like knob. The first may be seen at the word Baculus,
the second under Mitra, in the Latin edition of the above-named
excellent book, printed at Venice, A.D. 1735 [also Venice, 1677].
" 3 Luitprand, Bishop of Cremona, while writing on the events
of which he had been an eye-witness, in his description of Pope
Benedict's deposition (A.D. 964) tells us : Post hsec pallium sibi
abstulit (Benedictus) quod simul cum pontificali ferula, quam
manu gestabat, domino papse (Leoni) tradidit. Quam ferulam
idem papa fregit, et fractum ostendit populo. De rebus Ottonis
Magni Imperatoris gestis, lib. vi. [P.L., cxxxvi. 910.]
That the Roman pontiffs used the pastoral staff as late as the
end of the eleventh century, is clear from the discourse of Pope
Urban II. (A.D. 1092) to the monks of La Cava, near Salerno, when
he went and with much solemnity consecrated their church ; for
among other things, the pontiff tells them: Nam quo ego utor
aureo baculo, ut magnse sit dignitatis, est tamen integumentum
molestissimarum curarum, fastidiosissimi stomachi. Cavensis Cceno-
bii Dedicatio, ex MS. Chron. Caven. in AA. SS. Martii, i., 336, n. 8.
1 70 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
that the first turned the crook outwards to denote
his jurisdiction over a diocese, the other, inwards,
towards himself, to denote that his jurisdiction
reached over the members only of his own house." M
True is it, that belonging to the mediaeval period
of our ecclesiastical history, there still exist many
monuments, such as sculptures upon tombs and
over graves in our fine old cathedrals and minsters,
episcopal and monastic seals strung to deeds and
grants, and illuminated manuscripts, wherein we
behold an abbot or an abbess figured, carrying
the pastoral staff of office in such a way that its
crook is turned inwards. But true is it also, that
from amid these very same evidences of gone-by
days may be gathered examples, and not a few,
in which (208) we see those same monastic digni-
taries represented as holding this staff with its
crook away from themselves and pointed for-
wards. 55 This, however, is not all, for instances
54 Monumenta Ritualia Ecdesix Anglicax, by the Rev. W. Mas-
kell, M.A., iii. p. cxxxvii. [In the later edition (Oxford, 1882), II.
cl., this runs, "It is commonly said," &c.]
55 In the beautiful Louterell Psalter there is figured an abbess
with her pastoral staff, the crook of which is turned outwards.
Richard Bewfforest, Prior of Dorchester Church, Oxon, in the
sixteenth century, and Elizabeth Harvey, Abbess of Elstow, Bed-
fordshire, about the same period, have each a pastoral staff, the
crook of which in both instances is outwards [p. 1 60]. Upon his
grave-brass in Westminster Abbey, its abbot, John Esteney, is
drawn arrayed in his pontifical vestments, giving his blessing with
his right hand and holding in his left a pastoral staff, with the
crook turned out. Abbot Thomas de la Mere is represented on
his magnificent brass in St. Alban's Abbey Church, lying with
his staff, the crook of which is outwards, under his left arm ; and
an old cumbent figure of an abbot, now placed in the south aisle
PART I. CHAP. VI.
171
abound of bishops who have the crook of the staff
put inwards, 56 that is, in the (209) very way as-
of the choir at Peterborough, has
a staff in the same position.
The same thing may be observed
in many of our abbatial seals, such
as that for Croyland (Dugdale,
Mon. Anglic., t. ii. pi. x., new ed.) ;
for Pollesworth Nunnery (ib., pi.
xiii.); and for Thorney (ib., pi.
xvi.).
66 To show this, a great many
examples from among the ecclesi-
astical monuments of the medi-
aeval period, still left all about this
country, might be cited. In the
woodcut we gave not long ago,
p. 84, of an English illumina-
tion, St. Cuthberht is figured
bestowing the episcopal blessing
as usual with his right hand,
and holding with the left the
pastoral staff, the crook of which,
however, is turned not away, but
towards himself. Just so is
placed Bishop Giffard's, as we
may find by looking at i. 306 of
this work. On the seal of St.
Nicholas's Priory, Exeter, that
celebrated archbishop of Myra
wears his pall and holds his pas-
toral staff in his left hand, with
the crook turned inwards. At
Lichfield Cathedral there is a
statue of a bishop whose pas-
toral staff is in the same posi-
tion ; and near to where once
stood the altar of " our Ladie of
pitie," in what is yet called the
Galilee, or west end of Durham
Cathedral, may be seen the paint-
ing of a bishop, the crook of whose
staff is inwards. Indeed, in the
very beautiful series of episcopal
RICHARD BEWFFORBST, Prior of
Dorchester.
172 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
serted to be one among the well-known distinc-
tive marks that he who so carries it must be an
abbot. The argument then resting for its ground
upon monumental examples and without leaning
upon any other prop, although deemed strong
enough to uphold such an opinion about the
difference between the way in which a bishop's
and an abbot's crook used to be turned, will very
soon break down. If, too, we look elsewhere, and
seek within the rubrics and the texts of the liturgy
(210) itself, or among those writers who have so
beautifully set forth to view the mystic significa-
tion of the Church's ceremonies, we shall be
equally unsuccessful in our search : in fact, there
is nothing in the ancient ritual, nothing in the
works of those who have written on its symbolism
and unfolded to us its hidden meanings, to war-
rant the above assumption, or which helps us to
believe there ever was this well-known acknow-
ledged distinction, and that such may be trusted
as a safe and unerring rule upon these matters. 57
seals belonging to that great northern see, there are more
perhaps which show us the crook turned inwards than outwards,
as may be seen by those figured in the Surtees Society's Priory
of Finchale, pp. xxv. 2, 20, 168, 173, 180.
In the very old Sacramentary of Gellone, St. Matthew is figured
holding in his right hand a pastoral staff, the crook of which is
turned towards that apostle's head, as may be seen in Silvestre's
fine work, Paleographie Universelle, partie iii.
57 Had such a distinction been at all known when Honorius of
Autun lived, that copious writer on ecclesiastical symbolism would
never have overlooked it, more especially while speaking of the
abbot's staff, and noticing its very crook thus : Abbati conceditur
pastoralis virga, quia ei traditur Dominici gregis custodia . . .
PART I. CHAP. VI. 173
Again, in the works of some few modern writers
on the liturgy, it has been laid down as a rule,
that the abbot's staff, by way of discerning it from
a bishop's, must always have hanging, just under
the crook, a long linen napkin. 58 The only formal
sanction given for such an ordinance came from
St. (211) Charles Borromeo, 59 for the usual rubrical
authorities, even as yet, say nothing concerning
this observance. 60 But whatever may have, before
the sainted archbishop of Milan's days, been the
practice of Italy upon this point, here in Eng-
land such a rite was at no time followed under
this meaning ; nor did our old churchmen ever
recognise in the towel fastened to the pastoral
staff, any mark announcing that he who carried
it so muffled, was an abbot not a bishop. The
truth is, of the many effigies whereon we find
this napkin, in general hanging down, though
sometimes rolled about the staff, by far the
greater number show us the person, not of an
abbot, but a bishop; 61 and there can (212) exist
Hujus baculi flexura non ex albo, sed ex nigro debet esse, quia in
commissa cura non debet mundi gloriam quaere re. Summitas
curvaturse debet esse sphserica, quia cuncta ejus disciplina debet
esse deifica. Gemma Animae, i. 238 \P.L., clxxii. 615],
58 Gavantus, ed. Merati, Thesaur. Sac. Bit., t. i. pars i. tit. xix. ;
In Processionibus, pars ii. tit. i.
59 Baculus pastoralis . . . orario aut sudario non ornatur si
episcopalis est quo insigni abbatialis ab illo distinguitur. Ada
Eccl. Mediolan. De Baculo Pastorali, Instruct. Supell. Eccl., ii. 627.
60 Neither the Roman Pontifical, nor the Cxremoniale Episco-
porum, nor any decree from the Congregation of Rites, says a
word upon the subject.
61 There are many monuments in England to show that the
174 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
no doubt, such a linen or silken appendage used
to be employed by both those dignitaries indis-
criminately. If we may venture an opinion, this
napkin was never meant as a token of difference
at all, but became adopted early in the fourteenth
century rather for the sake of cleanliness than as
a badge of a fettered and narrower jurisdiction,
and not only to hinder the brightness and the
gilding of the burnished staff from being tarnished
by the hand's clamminess, but to keep the hand
itself from being tainted with a no very grateful
smell, which its heat would always take up from
clenching, though for a short length of time, any-
thing of copper, however strongly coated it might
be with gold ; and the tubes of those staves, from
being of wood, came, about the above-named
pastoral staff, whether in the hand of a bishop, or an abbot, had
hanging to it a long piece of linen, or of silk. This appendage is
discernible, among others, upon the grave-brass, in Westminster
Abbey, of John Waltham, Bishop of Salisbury (A.D. 1395); upon
that, in the same church, of its abbot, John Estney (A.D. 1498);
upon Bishop Branscomb's effigy, in Exeter Cathedral ; as well as
on another, in the same church, of Bishop Oldham, with this
difference, that, instead of drooping straight down, it is rolled
two or three times round his staff. It is shown also upon William
of Wykeham's cumbent figure at Winchester Cathedral; upon
Bishop Mitford's in Salisbury; and upon Archbishop Walter de
Gray's in York Minster ; also upon that truly beautiful monument,
said to be of John de Sheppy, in Rochester Cathedral.
The Nuremberge Chronicle has, scattered up and down through
its highly curious pages, many a woodcut of a bishop; and in
almost every one we find, hanging to the pastoral staff, the same
long kind of napkin ; but instead of being wrapped and knotted
at top about it, a string fastens it there, and it is capped by a
sort of funnel-shaped ornament, which is never seen in our English
monuments.
JOHN DE SHEPPY
page 174
PAKT I. CHAP. VI. 175
period, to be usually made, if not of gold or
silver, at least of metal gilt.
(213) The thorough good taste shown by our
forefathers in colouring all their sculptures, has,
besides lending so much beauty to those works 62
62 Those among us of the Puritan school in decoration (the
lovers of whitewash, who scruple at anything beyond yellow-ochre
in a place of worship) are, happily for the beauty of God's house,
and the resurrection of the fine arts in this country, becoming
fewer every day ; and we have good hopes that, ere long, colour
will be again as much employed for heightening the effect of
architectural ornaments (the sculptures especially) in our churches,
as it used to be throughout this land in bygone days. Let not
people, however, be led astray by thinking that the wretched
manner in which some figures and carvings have been lately
daubed, is a revival of the true old style. Nothing can be farther
from the truth ; and, after a short search, we shall find that, to
paint sculpture, whether in wood or stone, must have been an art
by itself, so nicely, so neatly, so becomingly, was it done, without
flaunting or garish dazzle. Carter (no weak authority upon such
matters) speaks thus about the cumbent figure of Bishop Walter
Branscomb, in Exeter Cathedral : " From these and other, the
like objects, in various parts of the kingdom, are adduced the
strongest proofs of the taste of the painting, gilding, &c. . . .
Hence it may be accounted why the present statue is so minutely
coloured in the above mode, the execution of which (painting) is
most wonderfully elaborate. I speak without fear of contradic-
tion, but by those who have never studied, or drawn from this,
or other like remains. Having most scrupulously copied this
example, to the fullest scale, in many large drawings, I may thus
presume on the certainty of what 1 now advance in its praise ;
indeed, too much cannot be said to cause general observation and
general regard," &c. (Specimens of English Ecclesiastical Costume, &c.,
by John Carter, p. 1 8). I have in my possession a small " Calvary,"
or representation of Christ going to be crucified, the crucifixion
itself, and the taking down from the cross, made as a rere-doss
for an altar, in a little domestic oratory. It is carved in wood,
and every one of its fifty tiny statuettes is so well and so delicately
painted and finished, that the golden embroidery upon some of
the garments nay, the very woof itself is admirably done. The
painting and embossed gilding of the rere-doss in the Lady Chapel
of Gloucester Cathedral, are, by themselves, worth a journey to
that beautiful piece of architecture.
176 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
of art, (214) made them the truthful keepers, as
it were, of some valuable liturgic knowledge,
which at this far-off time we could pick up no-
where else. But from several of our cumbent
episcopal effigies, though their bright gilding be
now almost quenched though their once warm
tints be dimmed and sadly faded, still enough of
both is left for the sharpened eye of the keen
archaeologist to find out, among other things, that
this napkin was always white, and frequently had
one or two tassels hanging to, or a fringe of gold
running round the lower edge ; 63 whether wrought
of silk or of linen cannot at present be seen,
although most likely the former, if not invariably,
may have often been the material with which this
towel used to be made.
When borne to church for his burial, the dead
abbot, stretched out on an open bier, and arrayed
in full sacrificial vestments, and, if belonging to
any one of our greater monasteries, with a mitre
on his head and sandals on his feet, had his
gloved hands placed crosswise, or sometimes
clasped as in prayer, upon his breast, and his
pastoral staff was placed at his right beneath his
arm. 64 Such a rule, however, was not so strictly
63 Such was the colour and ornament of the napkin hanging
down from Bishop Branscomb's pastoral staff, in his effigy, still in
Exeter Cathedral. Carter's Specimens, &c., p. 18.
64 Portabatur igitur corpus a camera quae dicitur abbatis ubi
expiraverat (Willielmus abbas S. Albani monasterii) in infirmariam
et ibidem pontificalibus est indutum, mitra capiti apposita, mam-
bus chirothecse cum annulo et dextro sub brachio baculus con-
PART I. CHAP. VI. 177
followed but what, to judge from sepulchral
monuments, this abbatial staff often rested, like
a bishop's, on the abbot's left side. 65 Examples,
too, are not wanting in which we may see
that even the archbishop's cross was not always
laid on his left, but sometimes on his right. 6 * 5
Again, we often find the pastoral staff so (216)
represented on effigies as not to lie straight
down alongside, but diagonally from the feet to
the shoulder, athwart the person of the departed
prelate ; and although we have not as yet found
out why, we may be sure that to such a funeral
rite there belonged in those days a well-under-
stood symbolic meaning.
It has been assumed that among the well-
known distinguishing marks between the mode of
carrying this staff by a bishop and by an abbot,
one was, "the first carried his staff in his left
hand, the latter in his right." 67 True is it,
bishops did, and still do, bear the pastoral staff
in the left hand ; but that abbots carried theirs
suetus, manibus cancellatis, sandalia in pedibus decenter aptata.
Et deposito cooperculo a feretro positum est corpus super illud, et
fasciis caute ligatum ne caderet cum portaretur evolutum. . . .
Pulsato igitur solemn! classico deportatum est corpus in ecclesiam,
&c. Matt. Paris, Vitx S. Albani Abb., p. 87.
66 In St. Alban's Abbey Church, the fine grave-brass of Thomas
de la Mere (abbot of that house A.D 1396) shows the staff lying on
his left side.
66 Archbishop Chicheley has his cross on his left, Archbishop
Warham on his right side, as may be seen in their effigies at
Canterbury Cathedral.
67 Monumenta Rit. Eccl Anglic, by the Rev. W. Maskell, t. iii.
p. cxxxvii. [ii. cl.].
VOL. II. M
1 78 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
always, by way of difference, in the right, is
incorrect : John Esteney, Abbot of Westminster,
is figured on his grave-brass in that church, as
holding his staff in his left hand and giving his
blessing, like a bishop, with his right. The old
English, just as the present Eoman rubric, directed
the bishop to take hold of his staff with the left
hand ; and the reason is obvious : it was that he
might keep his right hand free to bestow, while
uplifting it, his blessing upon the people, either
formally, as at High Mass and other public ad-
ministrations of the Church, or as he (217) walked
to and from the altar in processions. But as our
mitred abbots had the privilege of giving, at the
High Mass they sang in pontificals, the solemn
blessing, which could be imparted by the raised
right hand only, they were forced to hold the staff
in their left, while going through this ceremony
of the ritual.
Our next step leads us to a question of some
interest, both for the liturgical student and the
mediaeval antiquary, on the so-called
PAPAL CROSS WITH THREE TRANSOMS, AND THE
PATRIARCHAL CROSS WITH Two SUCH BARS,
each shorter than the one beneath it, and running
athwart the top of an otherwise tall, plain staff.
Nothing is there in the Ordines Romani, nor
in any pontifical ritual, old or new nothing in
PART I. CHAP. VI. 179
ancient or actual practice to afford the narrowest
grounds whereon to rest the slightest opinion that
such a form of a cross has at any time or any-
where been borne about him by the Roman pontiff.
From the period when it became usual to carry
before this vicar of Christ upon earth the symbol
of man's redemption a cross it was always
fashioned like the one now employed for such a
purpose, being a plain common cross, having very
often fastened to it by nails an image of our
Divine Redeemer, in other words, a crucifix, let
into a small ball on the top of a staff, both of
which were of silver, or of gold.
(218) Respecting the two-barred, or so-called
PATRIARCHAL CROSS,
the question cannot be cleared up either so soon
or with the same readiness. Though from such
liturgical documents as have reached us, we do
not learn it was anywhere the strict ritual usage
for patriarchs to have carried before them a cross
with two bars, but on the contrary, theirs, like
the supreme pontiff's, always has been what it
now is the common simple one ; nevertheless
there are grounds for believing such a sort of
cross has been in some few instances employed,
even in this country, during a brief period of
the mediaeval epoch. The celebrated bishop of
Durham, Anthony Beck, had bestowed upon him
i8o THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
by the Holy See the honorary title of the Jeru-
salem patriarchate, and in consequence of this
must he have possessed, among the rest of his
episcopal array, a certain silver-gilt patriarchal
cross, 68 especially mentioned (219) as a part of his
mortuary gift to his cathedral; but whether it
was short and stemless and so made as to hang
against the wall ; or with a foot, that it might
stand somewhere about the altar in his domestic
chapel for a badge of Beck's titular dignity; or
whether it was mounted on a staff and borne
before this bishop of Durham, we have not now
any means of positively deciding. In all proba-
bility, however, it was fashioned like, and answered
the purpose of this latter kind of cross ; for it is a
curious fact, that among those exquisite illumina-
tions in the truly magnificent manuscript Queen
Mary's Psalter 69 a work painted during the latter
years of the thirteenth, if not at the beginning of
the fourteenth century, therefore done about the
very time of Beck's episcopate, and, as it would
68 The famous Anthony Beck, Bishop of Durham, was one of the
very few English prelates who have had bestowed upon them the
nominal dignity of patriarch: Clemens V., primo anno (1305)
papatus sui creavit Antonium Dunelmensem episcopum in Patri-
archam Jerosolomitanum (Hist. Dun elm. Scriptores Tres [Surtees
Soc.], p. 83). In consequence of such a title, Beck had, among his
episcopal ornaments, a patriarchal cross, made of gilt silver, which
we find set down along with the other splendid things which went
from his chapel to Durham Cathedral at his death: Ex capella
ejusdem (Antonii episcopi) unam crucem patriarchalem argenteam
et deauratam. Wills and Inventories of the Northern Counties of
England, p. 12.
69 In the British Museum, MS. 2, B. vu.
PART I. CHAP. VI 181
seem too, by an English hand, there is one (of
which, when we come to speak a little later of the
bishop's faldstool, we shall give a woodcut [p. 210])
that shows a patriarchal cross upon a staff, held by
a seated archbishop. Furthermore, upon some of
our monastic seals, St. Peter, arrayed in pontificals,
and wearing on his head the old one-crowned papal
tiara, supports in his left hand what looks very
like a double-barred or patriarchal (220) cross, 70
though perhaps the lower bar may have been
originally meant as the two branches of a floria-
tion, from out of which the usual papal cross was
made to seem springing.
If we look around us, we shall soon behold
other, though foreign instances, wherein these
double-transomed crosses may be found, and they
are the coins struck by the emperors of Constanti-
nople, as well as several monuments of Byzantine
ecclesiastical art. 71 But, it may perhaps be asked,
70 St. Peter is thus figured on the seal of John Islip, Abbot of
Westminster, etched in the new edition of Dugdale, Mon. Anglic.,
i., plate 4 of seals ; on the Gloucester Abbey seal (ibid., pi. 6) ; and
on that of Muchelney Abbey (ibid., ii. pi. 13). Upon our super-
altar the lamb holds a staff, with a flag and a double-transomed
cross at top, as the reader may see in the woodcut, vol. i. p. 204,
of this work.
71 Golden coins from the mint both of the elder and of the
younger Theodosius, as well as of Arcadius, of Honorius, and of
other Greek emperors, show, on the reverse, a cross of two bars.
Cardinal Borgia possessed a Greek-made cross, in iron, coated with
copper, so shaped ; and has given a rough engraving of it at the
end of his admirable work, De Cruce Vaticana. From another
equally learned book of his, De, Cruce Veliterna, p. 203, we learn that
at the monastery of the Holy Cross, near Avellana, he found a
reliquary fashioned after the same form. In one of the illumina-
iS2 THE CHUECH OF OUR FATHERS
how (221) could such things bias our customs in
the far west limits of Christendom ? We answer :
very easily. Let it be kept in mind, that first, the
crusades, then pilgrimages to the Holy Land, took
many of our people our churchmen especially, in
these latter expeditions through the chief cities
and the capital of the Greek empire, and over
Asia Minor, as they wended their way to and
from the birthplace and sepulchre of our Lord.
Meeting with this form of cross not unfrequently
during their eastern travels, nay, at Jerusalem
itself, not only often but always they may have
thought it, with other western Christians, so char-
acteristic of the Holy Land, so very much so of
the Holy City, that its Latin patriarch and its
Latin king must each of them needs assume it
as their respective distinguishing badge. From
being thus adopted as his episcopal and cere-
monial cross by one among the several patriarchs
in the Church, it became, to the painter's eye, a
recognised symbol for pointing out every other
ecclesiastical personage honoured with (222) the
patriarchal title. But as the two-barred cross,
tions in a Greek manuscript belonging to the Vatican library, and
figured by D'Agincourt (pi. 57, Peinture), our Divine Redeemer,
uprising from the grave, holds a two-barred cross in his left hand ;
but the crucifixion just over this plate shows that the upper beam
was to express the board with writing on it ; so, too, does the
crucifixion, painted after the Greek style, in fresco, in the now
burned down church of St. Paul's-beyond-the-Walls, at Rome, and
engraved likewise by D'Agincourt (pi. 96). Giunta di Pisa, follow-
ing the tradition left by the Greek teachers of painting in Italy,
often fashioned his crosses just in the same way. Ibid., pi. 102.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 183
imagined for all primates, told to the world that
they stood higher in the hierarchy than any arch-
bishop, whose cross had but one single bar, so the
cross with three was then thought of for the pope,
to announce the headship and supremacy of the
Roman pontiff over every other primate.
That the Latins, however, quite misunderstood
the shape of the cross as they saw it fashioned in
Palestine, is beyond a doubt ; for while looking at
the above-mentioned Greek monuments and orna-
ments of the Eastern Church, we are very soon led
to believe that the uppermost of the two bars upon
what is sometimes called the patriarchal, at others,
the Jerusalem or Lorraine 72 cross, is nothing else
than a representation of the piece of board with
the writing on it, set by Pilate's order above the
head of our Saviour on the cross. In fact, then,
the cross with three bars attributed to the Pope, is
nothing more than the arbitrary and unauthorised
invention of painters a mere emblem thought of,
(223) and not very long ago, by artists to symbolise
the first bishop the head of the Church the
Roman pontiff. The patriarchal cross, in a very
few places, and for a very short period, formerly
72 Godfrey de Bouillon, Duke of Lorraine, being chosen by the
Crusaders the first Latin king of Jerusalem, adopted the use of
this double-barred, or, by some called, Jerusalem cross. In memory
of one of their princes, whose holiness as a Christian, and bravery
as a soldier, shed such 'glory on their country, the Lorrainers be-
came very fond of it ; and its frequent appearance in that province
made it be known to very many under the name of the cross of
Lorraine.
1 84 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
was, but now never is used, and has become the
sign in works of art of patriarchal dignity.
With respect to
THE ARCHIEPISCOPAL CROSS,
we have strong evidence to show that a cross used
to be carried before the archbishops of this island
during the British period of its Church history :
the one employed for such a purpose by St.
Samson, Archbishop of York, while the Britons
held this land, is spoken of in the very valuable
life of that saint ; 73 and most probably the staff
accustomed to be borne before St. Csesarius,
Archbishop of Aries, the contemporary of our
British countryman, had, like his, a cross upon
the top of it. 74 Throughout the Anglo-Saxon
epoch, we have nothing positive on this subject,
although we find that a procession was then often
headed by a clerk carrying aloft a (224) golden
or a silver crucifix : in such a manner was it that
St. Austin went before King Ethelberht ; 75 thus,
too, did Abbot Ceolfrid leave his monastery at
73 Post ejus obitum aliquod intervallum, imago crucis quse ante
eum ferri semper solebat, quamque benedixerat, quse denique auri
atque argenti, gemmarumque venustatibus circum fuerat solidata,
a quodam malefico ac pessimo homine furtim detecta, ao de-
honestata est. Vita S. Samsonis Ep. Dolen. ab anonymo subaequali,
ed. Mabillon, A A. SS. B.\. 171.
74 See note 19, p. 150.
76 Veniebant crucem pro vexillo ferentes argenteam. Beda,
Hist. Ecc. AngL, i. 25.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 185
Wearmouth, when he started on his pilgrimage
to Kome. 76
By the end, however, of the eleventh century
did the custom formally begin, both here and on
the continent, for all archbishops to have carried
before them by one of their chaplains, a staff,
ending not like a bishop's, with a bend in imita-
tion of the shepherd's crook, but topped by a
somewhat small cross, often richly ornamented
with precious stones. Such a liturgical practice
was at first solemnly observed by the Roman pon-
tiffs, who at length granted, among other privi-
leges, this same right in favour of their legates.
Afterwards, primates, then archbishops, in some
quarters of Christendom, were allowed its authori-
tative use, as a personal distinction awarded them
from the Holy See. But since each corner of
God's one Church is, or ought to be, equally dear
as another (225) to its visible head upon earth,
our common father the Pope, and since personal
favours are often invidious, still oftener unjust,
they were in this instance wisely dropped, and by
the beginning of the twelfth century, to have a
cross borne before him became, not a partial, but
a general rubric, for every archbishop ; and the
76 Conveniunt omnes in ecclesiam beati Petri . . . Hinc fletibus
universorum inter letanias resonantibus exeunt . . . Veniunt ad
litus . . . Ascendunt et diacones ecclesise cereas ardentes et
crucem ferentes auream, transit flumen (Ceolfridus), adorat
crucem, ascendit equum, et abiit. Beda, Vita S. Ceolfridi, in Hist.
Abb., ii. 17 [Plummer, i. 382].
1 86 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
ecclesiastical records of no country furnish for
those times more curious or more interesting
illustrations of it than our own. Until he had
gotten his pall from the Roman pontiff, no arch-
bishop might let the cross be carried before him ;
hence it was, that St. Anselm, Archbishop of
Canterbury, admonished Samuel, Bishop of Dublin,
to leave off doing so. 77
The way in which our archbishops of Canter-
bury solemnly received their cross was very im-
pressive. As the primate of all England rode for
his enthronisation towards the metropolitan see,
he was met at a short distance from that city by
a crowded procession, amid which came one of
the monks from Christ Church, bearing the archi-
episcopal cross ; and no sooner did the prelate
catch a first (226) view of this symbol of our
belief, than he got down from his horse, and
throwing himself flat upon the earth, with out-
stretched arms awaited its approach, showing by
this lowly posture his inward love and homage
for his Redeemer. Then did he who carried the
holy emblem of God made man, standing over the
archbishop, warn him of his future duty to love,
defend, and govern well that Church which had
77 " Audivi," says the saint, " quia facis portari crucem ante te
in via. Quod si verum est, mando tibi ne amplius hoc facias, quia
non pertinet nisi ad archiepiscopum a Romano Pontifice pallio
confirmatum ; neque decet te, ut ulla prsesumptione insolitse rei te
notabilem et reprehensibilem hominibus ostendas." St. Anselm,
Epist., iii. 72 [P.L., clix. no]. He refers to the same thing again.
Ibid., iv. 27 [P.L., clix. 216].
PART I. CHAP. VI. 187
been entrusted to his pastoral charge. These few
words said, he put the cross into the hands of
the kneeling archbishop, who immediately gave
it unto that one of his chaplains whom he had
chosen for his cross-bearer or " croyser," and then
arising from the ground, followed the procession,
which brought him with a joyful singing of
psalms to the walls of Canterbury. But no
sooner did he reach its gates, than the archbishop
put off his shoes and walked the rest of the way
barefoot, even up to the high altar of that magni-
ficent cathedral, where, robed in his chasuble and
wearing his pall for the first time, he offered up
the eucharistic sacrifice, and was led in due form
and seated in the primate's chair. 78
78 Gervase, the monk of Canterbury, who bore forth, and gave
the cross to Archbishop Hubert (A.D. 1193), has purposely written
an account of the ceremony, that we might know how it was done :
G(ervasius) ab electo (Huberto) recedens, et in crastino rediens,
crucem portans, obviavit electo a Lundonia venienti, crucemque
tradidit cum devotione apud Leveseham iij. nonas Novembris.
Et ut sciant posteri quomodo fieri debeat, modus susceptionis hie
erat :
Cum igitur Cantuariam tendens prsedictum G(ervasium) qui
hsec scripsit, crucem bajulantem appropiare videret, equo de-
scendit in terram corruens extensis brachiis crucem adoravit,
astante praefato G(ervasio) cum episcopo Roflensi et innumera
multitudine. Surgenti autem et in genibus statim erecto, dixit
Gervasius: "Nuntius sum, venerande pater, nuntium ferens
optimum, non hominis sed Dei, immo Illius Qui Deus est et homo,
Jesus Christus . . . Qui salutat te salute seterna, rogat, mandat,
et prsecipit, ut ecclesiam Suam regendam suscipias, eamque diligas
et protegas in fide non ficta. In hujus signum nuntii summi
Regis vexillum tibi trado ferendum. Accipe libenter, porta
fideliter, ut cum sanctis praedecessoribus tuis Cantuariensis
ecclesiaa patronis in seternum gaudeas. Amen."
Cruce itaque suscepta, et clerico ferenda tradita. . . . Deinde
i88 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(227) The first, the last, indeed the only time our
metropolitan ever touched, according to the ritual,
his archiepiscopal cross, was the day and on the
occasion when he took it from the hands of the
monk who brought it to him on the road as he
went to make his first primatial visit to Canter-
bury : ever afterwards, not the archbishop, but a
chaplain of his, called of yore the "croyser," ;
(228) carried it aloft before that prelate in all pro-
cessions, and kneeling at his feet, held it up
before him while at pontifical High Mass and
other solemn occasions he had by the rubrics to
give his pastoral blessing. So much indeed was
it thought beside the usage of the ritual for an
archbishop to carry this cross with his own hands,
that when St. Thomas a Becket deemed it, under
a most remarkable circumstance, fitting to do so, 80
one of his suffragans present, the bishop of Here-
alba indutus et cappa sequente conventu nudus pedes incedens,
pallium suscepit per manum nuntii Celestini papte. Quo redi-
mitus pallio cum ca?teris episcSpalibus indumentis intronizatus est
et miannm celebravit. Gervasius, Chronica [1LS., Ixxiii, i. 521, 522].
79 In the Golden Ltgendt, the account of St. Thomas of Canter-
bury's martyrdom says: And one Syr Edwarde gryrne that was
his croyser, put fort he his anne with the crosse to bere of the
stroke, : the stroke smote the crosse on sondre, and his anne
almoost of. Ed. Wynkyn de Jl'orde, fol. Ixvi.
* Obiter precedent i eum ait (Sanctus Thomas) Alexandra
crucis suae bajulo, "melius egissem, si in nostris instrumentis
venissem." Proposuerat enim quod nudis pedibus incedens, et
revestitus, et crucem bajulans, ad regem intraret, ei pro pace
ecclesite supplicaturus . . . cum equo descendisset, crucem, quam
primam bajulaverat Alexander Wallensis, in manus accepit.
William Fitz-Stephen, Vita S. Thorns Cant., 47 [B.S., bcvii iii.
56, 57]-
PART I. CHAP. VI. 189
ford, immediately ran up and offered to act as
that brave martyr's chaplain, and bear the archi-
episcopal cross before him. 81
(229) Wherever they went, throughout the king-
dom, the archbishops of Canterbury, being the pri-
mates, had their cross carried before them ; 82 but as
the archbishops of York laid claim to a like privi-
lege, there arose between the two sees a litigation,
which after a time was settled in this manner :
when the two archbishops happened to walk in the
same (230) procession, their respective crosses, as
81 Intraturus (S. Thomas Cantuar.) came ram regis ... ad
ostium ipsum bajulat propria crucem manu. . . . Occurrit autem
Robertus Herefordensis inquiens : " Pater, sustine, ut ego vice
capellani crucem deferam ante prassentiam vestram ; sic enim con-
decet." Alan of Tewkesbury, Vita S. Thomx Cantuar., 8 [E.S.,
Ixvii. ii. 330]. John de Stratford, another archbishop of Canter-
bury, following St. Thomas's example, went to Westminster Hall,
carrying his cross with his own hands, and demanded to be let
into Parliament, the doors of which the king had ordered to be
kept shut against him (A.D. 1341) ; and on this occasion the bishop
of Ely took and bore the archiepiscopal cross: Archiepiscopus
crucem suam bajulans, se a dicto loco nullatenus recessurum
asseruit. . . . Ego tanquam obediens domino meo regi humiliter
venio ; et crucem meam hie in manibus meis gesto . . . idem
archiepiscopus postmodum cum episcopis et cum domino Simone
Eliensi episcopo crucem dicti archiepiscopi de manu sua capiente,
parvam aulam Westmonasteriensem est ingressus, &c. Stephen
Birchington, in Vit.Archiep. Cantuar., ed.Wharton,yltt<7. Sac., i. 39, 40.
82 Returning from his seven years' exile, St. Thomas of Canter-
bury had his cross, that was always carried, throughout all Eng-
land, before him, hoisted on high in the ship which brought him
over from France: In nave vero archprsesul vexillo crucis quod
archiepiscopi Cantuarienses tanquam totius Anglise primates,
coram se semper bajulare consueverunt, erecto, per quod navis
ejus ab aliis discerni poterat (ut supra, p. 112). On going into
church, just before his martyrdom, the saint : Crucem praeferri
sibi praecepit. Alan of Tewkesbury [?], Vita S. Tliomse, Cantuar., ed.
Lupo, i. 128.
1 9 o THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
often as the road was wide enough, were both to
be carried together, that of Canterbury on the
right, that of York on the left side of the way ;
but when too narrow for both to go abreast,
York was to yield room and let Canterbury march
first : the same pre-eminence was given to the
archbishop of Canterbury in provincial councils,
at coronations, and all public ceremonials within
this kingdom. 83 While making his visitations,
or going through the country in solemn array,
the cross was borne before the prelate by his
chaplain, the croyser, who, like the archbishop
himself, as well as everybody in his train on such
occasions, always rode on horseback. 84 At (231)
83 After this controversy had been carried on for many years, it
was at last happily agreed (A.D. 1353) that : Archiepiscopus
Cantuariensis tanquam praeeminentior ad dexteram partem regis
sedebit, et Eboracensis in sinistra. Et Cantuariensis et Ebora-
censis archiepiscopi, si via lata fuerit, simul incedent ; sed in
introitu ostiorum vel aliis locis strictis, ubi cruces simul deferri
non possunt, crux Cantuariensis praecedet, et crux Eboracensis
subsequetur. Stephen Birchington, in Vit. Archi&p. Cantuar., in
Wharton, Ang. Sac., i. 44 ; and again at p. 77.
84 Sicut erat (Simon de Langham, archiep. Cantuar.) per stratam
regiam itinerando versus Otteford, de equo cruciferarius suus ad
terrain cadens, hasta crucis eriormiter fracta est, sed celeriter
reparata (ibid., p. 47). Fitz-Stephen told us just now (note 80,
p. 1 88) how St. Thomas of Canterbury rode to court on horse-
back ; but whether the steed mounted by our archbishops used to
be of any particular colour, or had certain trappings, we cannot
say. If, however, our doctors of divinity bestrode jet-black mules
so richly caparisoned as we behold one of them in a troop of
pilgrims on their way home from Canterbury, shown in an illumi-
nation from a manuscript of Lidgate's Storie of Thebes, and
published by Shaw (Dresses, <bc., of the Middle Ages, ii. 62), then
may we be sure our primate's horse was splendidly appointed in its
housing. Some of our bishops, we know, kept up much state
PART I. CHAP. YI. 191
each one of those parts, however, of the liturgy
whereat a bishop should ; so did, and yet does an
archbishop, employ the usual pastoral staff, which
he held in his own left hand. 85 When therefore
(232) examples are met with of mediaeval sculp-
ture and painting, in which an archbishop is seen
figured leaning on the staff of his cross, or folding
it within his arms, let not the reader take them
as so many proofs to show that such was in truth
the ritual usage followed in those times : the
cross, instead of a pastoral staff, is put by the
side, or in the hands of the archbishop, not to
mean that he used so to carry it, but to signify,
by such an emblem, the high place which, as a
prelate of the Church, he held in her hierarchy.
about their horses. Of one bishop of Durham, Anthony Beck, an
old writer, Robert de Graystanes, tells us : Pannum maximi
pretii comparavit ; et ex eo palefredis suis coopertoria, quse huces
nuncupantur, fecit. Hist. Dunelmensis Scriptores 7'res [Surtees Soc.],
p. 64. Abroad in Italy in particular to several archbishops
was granted, by the Pope, a privilege of riding a white palfrey,
the trappings of which were also white, when they went in pro-
cessions ; thus, of Pisa, for example, we learn: Equo albo cum
naco albo in processionibus utendi et crucem per subjectas vobis
provincias portandi . . . licentiam damus (Ughelli, Italia Sacra,
iii. 409). The Pope's horse was white, too, but covered with
crimson, and had a silver bridle : Pontifex induit planetam albam,
pallium, et mitram sollemnem, descendensque de palatio usque ad
exitum porticelli, ubi albus palafridus cum nacco scarlatse super-
posito et argenteo freno sollemniter prseparatus est . . . equitando
incedit. Ordo Rom. xn., auct. Cencio, in Mabillon, Mus. Ital., ii. 185.
85 Archbishop Thomas Arundell, besides many other splendid
gifts to his cathedral of Canterbury, presented it with : Unum
baculum pastoralem magnum argenteum et totaliter deauratum
(Ang. Sac., i. 62). Other rich and curious pastoral staves, pos-
sessed by Canterbury Cathedral before ArundelPs times, are
mentioned in a note of this volume, p. 156.
192
THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
Never of a metal less costly than silver, this
archiepiscopal cross was sometimes wrought of
gold, and sparkled with jewels. 86 Although fre-
quently shown in monu-
ments as a mere cross
without any kind of
image upon it, still we
have good (233) reasons
for believing that not
unoften it bore on each
of its two sides a figure
of our Lord hanging
nailed to the rood. 87
From MS. 2, A. xxii., f. 221.
86 Item .ij cruces portatiles
pro domino Archiepiscopo unde
unus baculus tornatilis.
Item Crux Johannis Archie-
piscopi argentea deaurata cum
duabus ymaginibus argenteis.
Item Crux ejusdem parva de
auro cum ligno dominico et dup-
plici patibulo [Inventories of Christ
Church, Canterbury, p. 69].
87 Though the archiepiscopal
cross is very often figured with-
out an image of our Lord upon it,
yet there are several instances
to the contrary. An archbishop
from a manuscript in the British
Museum (Biblioth. Reg. 2, A.
xxii.), engraved by Shaw (Dresses
and Decorations of the Middle Ages, i. 16), bears an archiepiscopal cross
upon which hangs the crucified body of Christ ; and in the grave-
brass of Thomas Cranley, Archbishop of Dublin (A.D. 1417), at
New College Chapel, Oxford, we find the same thing.
The "crux cum ij ymaginibus," and another " cum dupplici pati-
bulo," or two images of Christ crucified, both mentioned in the
foregoing note, warrant the idea that our English archiepiscopal
PART I. CHAP. VI. 193
Perhaps such a double crucifix was peculiar to an
archiepiscopal as distinguished from the common
processional cross ; thus letting us see that for-
merly a figure of Christ crucified was turned look-
ing towards the archbishop as he followed it, while
another met the eyes of the crowd who gazed
upon the fore-side of this cross, as it came borne
along immediately in front of our primates. Now,
the cross carried before the Pope has always a figure
of Christ upon it, and this is always turned to face
the pontiff; so too should the cross be held, if it
have a crucifix, and be carried before an archbishop.
(234) Till towards the end of the twelfth cen-
tury, no ecclesiastic, however high his rank, did
once presume to have a cross borne before him
in any part of this country, except our two arch-
bishops : about that period, however, to the no
small grief of some English churchmen, papal
legates, though not even bishops, by virtue of
their office had a cross carried before them, and
wore mitres. 88
crosses, if not always at least often, had an image before, and an
image behind, on them, and each the same subject our Saviour
as hanging on the cross.
88 Non est ante hsec tempora (A.D. 1186) archiepiscopo Cantua-
riensi talis illata injuria, ut in provincia ejusdem archiepiscopi,
immo et in ecclesia, ut de cruce sileam, legatus aliquis mitratus
incederet. Nunc autem quidam Romanse ecclesise Cardinalis qui-
dem sed diaconus, alter vero Cantuariensis ecclesise suftraganeus
necdum sacratus sed Coventrensis ecclesise electus, ambo mitrati
incedentes, ambo prse se cruces ferentes in Cantuariensi provincia
honorem et reverentiam habuerunt legationis. Gervasius, Chronica
[R.S., Ixxiii. i. 346]. Gervase was a monk at Christ Church,
Canterbury.
VOL. II. N
i 9 4 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
SECTION XVI
The next article of solemn ministerial attire
among the Anglo-Saxon priesthood asking our
notice, are
THE SANDALS,
which we know from a variety of sources were, in
make and material, like those worn at the public
service in other quarters of the Church 89 during
(235) that period, and in after times in this
country ; though perhaps our English bishops
may have bestowed more ornament upon this
individual portion of their pontificals than their
Anglo-Saxon forerunners in the episcopacy. At
the same moment he finds a mystic signification
in the liturgical attire of the altar's ministers,
many an ecclesiastical author has incidentally
let us know some curious particulars about their
shape and ornament, and among the rest, of these
89 In his interesting Iter Alemannicum, p. 264, as well as in his
excellent work, Veins Liturgia Alemannica, i., 252, Gerbert has
given an engraving of a very old pair of episcopal sandals, which
he happened to find at Reichenau, near Constance. They are
of leather, apparently once stained purple, and still have their
original embroidery down the front. With good reason Gerbert
supposes them to have belonged to St. Egino, who was bishop of
Verona, and died A.D. 802. From these we may judge of the
shape and ornament of the sandals worn at that period by our
Anglo-Saxon prelates. The form of the episcopal sandal, about
half a century before St. Austin began his mission among the
Anglo-Saxons, may be seen from the Ravenna mosaics, of which
we have given two pictures at p. 260, vol. i., of this work.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 195
sandals. Our own St. Beda, 90 who, in fact, is the
earliest writer (236) and founder, as it were, of
' such a symbolizing school for western Christendom,
in speaking of these sandals, leads us to think that
during his day, they must have been so fitted
upon the foot as to leave a good part of the
instep, if not quite bare, at least transparent
through the open work of the pattern according
to which the upper-leather was cut : after such a
fashion were those found upon St. Cuthberht. 91
9l) St. Beda says : Proinde Marcus dicendo calceari eos sandaliis
vel soleis, aliquid hoc calceamentum mysticse significationis habere
admonet, ut pes neque tectus sit, neque nudus ad terrain, id est,
nee occultetur Evangelium, nee terrenis commodis innitatur. In
Marcum, vi. 9, lib. ii. [P.L., xcii. 187].
91 The sandals found on St. Cuthberht's feet when his grave
was opened (A.D. 1 104), are thus described by Reginald, who wrote
but a few years afterwards : In pedibus calciamenta pontificalia
gerit (S. Cuthbertus) quae vulgus vocare sandalia consuevit. Quse,
ex regione superiori inultis foraminibus minimis patere videntur
quorum operamina artificiosa ex industria taliter confecta com-
probantur (De adm. virt., p. 88). These sandals had not, how-
ever, been worn by the saint during his life-time; for imme-
diately after death, when he was laid in his first grave (A.D. 687),
the shoes with which he was then buried, though new, seem to
have been no other than those in common use, about that part of
the country, at the period. The unknown but earliest writer of
St. Cuthberht's life, while describing the taking up of that holy
bishop's body eleven years afterwards, remarks : Omnia autem
vestimenta et calceamenta . . . attrita non erant . . . et ficones novi,
quibus calceatus est, in basilica nostra inter reliquias pro testi-
moniis usque hodie habentur (Vita S. Cuthberti, Auct. Anon, in
Ven. Beda, Opera Hist. Minora, ed. Stevenson, 1841, p. 282). It was,
therefore, not before the year 698 that the sandals which Reginald
describes could have been put on St. Cuthberht's feet. While he
was a priest the saint used to wear leathern leggings : Semel cal-
ceatus tribracis, quas pelliceas habere solebat, sic menses perdu-
raret integros. Ven. Beda, Vita S. Cuthberti [P.L., xciv. 758].
In these boots St. Cuthberht must have often said Mass, as he
196 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(237) St. Osmund and his Norman brother
bishops wrought, as far as we can learn, no
alteration in the sandal ; and it still continued
to be made here as elsewhere 92 of leather, stained,
however, with the finest tints, and with the upper
part so perforated with small holes as to resemble
a beautiful design, and making it look as if pierced
with windows. 93 (238) Hardly had a hundred
years rolled by, when more costly materials were
sought for and employed : not only the " win-
let whole months pass away without taking them off, through a
spirit of mortification.
92 Hildebert, a writer of the eleventh century, gives the follow-
ing symbolic meaning to the open work in the upper part of the
sandal spoken of by Reginald : Optima enim misistis sandalia, in
quibus et ostensa est amicitia, et oblata doctrina. Ea namque
torporem nostrum secretis excitant stimulis, et quasi quadam
manu pulsant ut evigilemus et assumamus nobis pedes evangeli-
zantium bona. . . . Nimirum consuetudinis est et rationis pertusa
desuper esse sandalia, ut totus appareat pes, nee totus sit coopertus.
Prsedicator enim nee abscondere omnibus, nee omnibus evangelica
debet aperire sacramenta. Hildebert, Epist. iii. 31 [P.L., clxxi.
302]. The true reading seems to be : Ut nee totus appareat pes,
&c. At the end of Povyard's Dissertazione sopra VAnteriorita del
bacio de' piedi de? Sommi Pontefici, the reader will find figured many
shapes of episcopal sandals.
03 Innocent III., towards the beginning of the thirteenth cen-
tury (A.D. 1 196-1216), while he assigned the same before-mentioned
emblematic signification to the episcopal sandals, describes them
thus: Sandalia vero de subtus integram habent soleam, desuper
autem corium fenestratum quia gressus praedicatoris debent subtus
esse muniti, ne polluantur terrenis : secundum illud Excutite pul-
verem depedibus vestris (S. Matt. x. 14), et sursum aperti, quatenus
ad cognoscenda ccelestia revelentur. . . . Quod autem sandalia
quibusdam locis aperta, quibusdam clausa sunt, designat quod
Evangelica prsedicatio nee omnibus debet revelari, nee omnibus
debet abscondi. Sicut scriptum est : VoUs datum est nosse mysteria
regni Dei, c&teris autem in parabolis (S. Luke viii. 10). De Sacro
Altaris Mysterio, i. 48 [P.., ccxvii. 792].
PART I. CHAP. VI. 197
dowed " leather spoken of by Pope Innocent, but
the richest silks, elaborately embroidered, were
used here in England for making episcopal san-
dals, when that pontiff wrote his beautiful work
on the Mass ; for among the ornaments of Salis-
bury Cathedral (A.D. 1222), were "two pair of
sandals . . . one of blue silk, the other of green
cendel embroidered " ; 94 and not only were these
(239) English episcopal shoes curiously adorned
with gold and silver needlework, but often might
they be seen ornamented with the finest pearls. 95
Judging from our sepulchral monuments and illu-
minated manuscripts, the " corium fenestratum,"
or open-worked leather episcopal sandal, fell into
disuse about the fourteenth century in England,
and such a style of shoe was left in possession of
the laity, among whom, at that period and later,
we know it was the fashion to wear shoes with
the upper-leather cut into a variety of beautiful
94 Duo paria sandaleorum, unum de serico indico quod sunt
Episcopi Goscelini, et aliud de viridi cendell. brusdato quod fuit
Episcopi Herbert!. Wordsworth, Salisbury Cerem., 177.
Along with the rest of his pontifical ornaments, in which our
countryman, Pope Hadrian IV., was arrayed for his burial (A.D. 1 1 59)
and which were found quite whole when the large granite sarco-
phagus, that as yet serves for his coffin, was opened, and officially
examined by the canons of St. Peter's Church, at Rome, one of
them, Grimaldi, noticed, and thus described, that pontiff's sandals :
Sandaliis corii Turcici ad flores margaritis ornatis sine cruce, &c.
Sac. Vat. Bas. Cryp. Mon. ed. Dionigi, p. 124.
95 In the treasury of St. Paul's Cathedral, London (A.D. 1295),
there were : Sandalia Henrici de Wengham episcopi cum flosculis
de perlis indici coloris, et leopardis de perlis albis, &c. Dugdale,
Hist, of St. Paul's, new edition, p. 315.
i 9 8
THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
designs resembling the tracery of window-heads,
through which the bright colour of the green,
blue, or scarlet stock-
ing beneath was
shown to great ad-
vantage. Of the
smart dressy lay-
man, who acted as
" parish clerk,"
Chaucer says :
With Powles window
corven on his shoos,
In hoses rede he wente
fetisly; 96
and the words of
our poet are well
illustrated by (240)
the accompanying
woodcut of a paint-
ing, now unhappily
no more, but which
once adorned the
walls of St. Ste-
phen's Chapel, in the
old palace at West-
minster. 97
On some of our
English bishops'
sandals, the sign of
90 The Mill&res Tale, 132, 133. Skeat, Student's Chaucer, p. 460.
97 To the kindness of Mr. H. Shaw am I indebted for the use of
this block of a painting, which, being done in the reign of Edward
PART I. CHAP. VI. 199
the cross was wrought, either in gold needle-
work or with precious stones. 98 Its form may
often be well seen marked upon the feet of our
prelates in illuminated manuscripts, of which we
gave a specimen just now," and upon their
sepulchral effigies, several (241) of which yet
show, not only streaks of their ancient gilding
and colour, but the now empty sockets scooped
out in the stone all about the mitre, the chasuble,
and the sandals too, for holding mock jewels.
The monument in Worcester Cathedral to Bishop
Giffard, figured in this work, 1 shows that (242)
his crimson sandals were ornamented with a cross
marked out by gems. 2
III., admirably illustrates the words of a provincial council held at
London, A.D. 1342, wherein such shoes, as well as scarlet and green
stockings, are forbidden to the clergy, some of whom are thus re-
proved for wearing these worldly ornaments of attire : In sacris
etiam ordinibus constituti . . . velut effoeminati militari potius quam
clericali habit u induti . . . caligis etiam rubeis scaccatis et viridibus,
sotularibusque rostratis et incisis multimode, &c. (Wilkins, Concil.,
ii. 703). Mr. Roach Smith is fortunate in having, among his col-
lection of English antiquities, several fine specimens of these shoes
themselves, and of men's pattens, found during some recent ex-
cavations in London. That the pattens were worn by the clergy
without any blame, and in the church itself, is clear from the
following extract: "For two pair of pattens for the priest."
Churchwardens' Accounts of St. Mary Hill, London (A.D. 1491), illust.
by Nichols, p. 100.
98 In the treasury of St. Paul's Cathedral, London (A.D. 1295),
there were : Sandalia de rubeo sameto cum caligis breudatis . . .
sotulares sunt breudatae ad modum crucis. Dugdale, Hist, of St.
Paul's, p. 315.
99 See the figure of the Pope in the picture at p. 100 of this
volume.
1 The picture of it may be found at p. 306, vol. i.
2 Geffrey de Loduno, Bishop of Le Mans, bequeathed (A.D. 1255)
to that church, among other pontifical ornaments : Sandalia et
200 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
These episcopal sandals were, from the days of
St. Osmund, made in England of almost every hue
green, light blue, black but more generally
scarlet : in other parts of the Church they were,
with few exceptions, either black or red. Indeed,
as a liturgical writer during the twelfth century
(Sicard) observes, this kind of shoe took the name
of sandal from the red dye with which the leather
they were made of had been coloured. 3
During the Anglo-Saxon period, sandals were,
no doubt, allowed to be worn at the holy Sacrifice
by priest, deacon, and subdeacon, in this country,
as they were upon the continent. But they must
have differed in shape and adornment, according
to the office and dignity of the wearer : this we
gather from Amalarius, who wrote between A.D.
820 and 830.*
sotulares rubri serici auri preciosorumque lapidum varietate dis-
tincta. Gesta Gaufridi de Loduno, in Mabillon, Vet. Analect., p. 335.
This is an exact description of Bishop Giffard's sandals. They were
coloured crimson ; and, from the sockets on them, were evidently
jewelled. See our picture, vol i., p. 306.
3 Sandalia dicuntur ab herba sandarical (sandyce), vel sandalico
colore quo depinguntur. Est autem genus calceamenti, quo partim
pes tegitur inferius, partim relinquit superius, factum ex pellibus
animalium mortuorum. Intus album, foris nigrum vel rubeum,
multis filis et lineis context um, gemmis ornatum, &c. Sicardus,
Ep. Cremonensis, Mitrale, ii. 5 [P.//., ccxiii. 72].
4 Varietas sandaliorum varietatem ministrorum pingit. Epis-
copi et sacerdotes pene unum est officium : at quia nomine et
honore discernuntur, discernuntur etiam varietate sandaliorum
. . . Episcopus habet ligaturam in suis sandaliis, quam non habet
presbyter . . . Diaconus, quia dissimilis est episcopo ab officio,
non est necesse ut habeat dissimilia sandalia, et ipse ligaturam
habet, quia suum est ire ad comitatum. Subdiaconus, quia in
adjutorio est diacono et pene in eodem officio, necesse est ut
PAKT I. CHAP. VI. 201
But if not about, at least soon after, the time of
St. Osmund, this kind of shoe began to be with-
held from the clergy of the second order, and has
ever since been exclusively confined to bishops
and mitred abbots. 5
From the time that the Church reserved the use
of the sandal to the episcopal order, she has shown
herself, especially here in England, most watchful
in hindering the second order of the clergy from
wearing shoes or stockings dyed either green or
(244) scarlet, colours which our old national
councils have, over and over again, loudly for-
bidden to them in their garments, and especially
and expressly, in any kind of covering for the
feet or legs. The council of Exeter, held A.D.
1287, ordained that the clergy should use no
other but black boots ; 6 and in the council of
London (A.D. 1342) a more pointed prohibition
against the use of green or scarlet-coloured leggings
caligse rubese scaccatse et virides by the clergy,
is inserted in the second of its canons. 7 Even as
habeat dissimilia sandalia, ne forte sestimetur diaconus. Amalarius,
De Eccles. Officiis, ii. 25 [P.L., cv. iioo].
5 Diaconi non debent uti compagis, id est sandaliis, neque
manipulis, id est calciamentis episcopalibus, absque indulgentia
sedis apostolicse speciali. Olim enim utebantur, quia eorum erat
discurrere per comitatum. Hodie ergo nee ipsi nee sacerdotes
utuntur : sed episcopi solum, ufc per varietatem sandaliorum,
notetur varietas officiorum. Durandus, Ration., iii. 8, n.
6 Prsecipimus quod pannis sericis, vel viridibus, aut rubeis
sotularibus consutiis, caligis aliis quam nigris . . . non utantur
(clerici). Synodus Exoniensis, cap. xvii. in Wilkins, Condi. Mag.
Brit., ii. 141.
7 Wilkins, Condi., ii. 703.
202 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
late as about the year 1480, Bishop Waneflete,
in the statutes which he drew up for his college
at Oxford, " restrains all and singular the fellows
and scholars from aniwise using within the uni-
versity or abroad, high-lows, or red, or peaked
boots, or dresses of any other form than those
which appear to be suitable and agreeable to the
priestly state, the holy canons," &c. ; and still
later, Bishop Fox (A.D. 1517), the munificent
founder of another college in the same university,
forbids the members of his establishment " to pre-
sume to use in the university, or away from it,
red, ruby-coloured, (245) white, green, or motley
high-lows, or peaked shoes, or of other shape or
die than shall seem ... to be suitable to and
becoming the degree of priests." Nothing,
therefore, could display a greater want of know-
ledge about the antiquities of our old English
Catholic Church and the canons of her mediaeval
councils, than representing, in their Mass-vest-
ments, mere priests arrayed in scarlet boots, thus
making them appear guilty of breaking the ordi-
nances of the Church while about the most solemn
act of their office offering up the holy Sacrifice.
Yet this, and other like grievous blunders, are
often met with in works which undertake to
teach what were the liturgical usages of olden
8 Statutes of Magdalen College, Oxford, translated by Ward, p. 127.
The Foundation Statutes for Corpus Christi College, Oxford, ed. Ward,
P. 137.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 203
time in this country. If Strutt, whose labours
have afforded such invaluable aid to the student
of English ecclesiastical antiquity, could see how
some of his plates have, in a late republication of
them, been capriciously coloured, that carefully
exact artist would stare in pained amazement.
Though doctors of divinity were in Catholic
England allowed, as a mark of honour, to wear a
scarlet cassock and a scarlet hood, lined with
ermine (and effigies of them clad in such a
coloured dress are to be met with), yet they never,
on the strength of this privilege, put on the
episcopal sandal the scarlet shoe. The only
seeming exception (246) to the canonical enact-
ments were acolytes : in by-gone times, as now,
those who acted as such in the Church services
were, very often, lay youths. Then, too, as at
present in some places, they were clothed in
cassocks of scarlet, and on their feet they had,
like Chaucer's layman parish-clerk, black, win-
dowed shoes, which let the scarlet stockings be
seen from beneath, or a kind of low boot, all
scarlet. One of the illuminations in a manuscript
done about the beginning of the fifteenth century,
and in my possession, shows two tonsured clerks,
in surplices and scarlet cassocks, waiting on the
celebrant at a funeral ; and in the highly curious
illuminations of that beautiful manuscript con-
taining the coronation service for the kings of
France (Tiberius B. VIIL, in the British Museum),
204 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
an acolyte, wearing scarlet boots as well as scarlet
cassock, is more than once figured. 9
Whether our Anglo-Saxon bishops, along with
their sandals, wore that kind of wide ornamented
STOCKING, OR RATHER FOOTED LEGGING
NOW USED,
and denominated, formerly " campagi," but at
present, " caligee," is uncertain ; nor are we able
to ascertain if the sandal itself was like a low
slipper, or a species of short boot reaching, not
only beyond the ankle, but some way up the leg :
in illuminations, the alb is necessarily figured as
falling down over the instep, and thus hides the
higher part of (247) the bishop's sandals. Those,
however, upon the feet of St. Swithin, in the
Benedictional of St. ^Ethelwold, 10 and of St.
Benedict, 11 are so distinctly and carefully drawn,
that we may see they were, in shape, like a high
shoe, yet made, not only of another sort of
material but after a much more ornate fashion
than such as are worn by the various lay-folks,
and even virgin saints, represented in that magni-
ficent work of Anglo-Saxon art and penmanship.
Amalarius takes no notice of any other sort of
ceremonial covering for the feet and legs of
9 [See Henry Bradshaw Society, vol. xvi.].
10 Archgeologia, vol. xxiv., plate 29.
11 Ibid., plate 30.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 205
bishops than the sandal, which he makes to be
the same thing as the " campagus." 12 Theo-
dolphus, who wrote A.D. 794, but a very few
years earlier than Amalarius, while telling us
that these " campagi " were a part of a bishop's
ministerial garments, lets us know, that before
arraying himself in them, the episcopal wearer
drew upon his feet and legs a species of linen
stocking. 13
Towards, however, the end of the tenth century,
(248) these stockings became a formal article of a
bishop's vestments. This we learn from a pre-
cious manuscript of the Mass, written out by
order of an abbot of Corbey, Ratoldus, who died
A.D. q86. 14
12 Congruum est ut nosmetipsos absolvamus de sandaliis, sive,
ut alio nomine, campobis, qui supersunt in pedibus. De Ecc. Off.,
ii. 1 8 [P.L., cv. 1095].
13 Linea crusque pedesque tegant talaria ut apte,
Qui super addatur campagus ipse decens.
Carm. v. 3 \P.L., cv. 35 5]. Indeed,, the same thing is hinted at by
Amalarius : Sicut per linum, quo pedes vestiuntur, castigatio pedum
significatur, ita per sandalia profectus est praedicandum. De Eccl.
0/.,ii. i8[P.L., cv. 1095].
Not only after, but very long before, St. Osmund's days, did the
Church in this country strive to wean all ecclesiastics from follow-
ing the fashions set by laymen, with regard to dress : hence the
Council of Clovesho (A.D. 747) strictly forbade all clerks to swathe
their legs with those narrow bandages so often seen in Anglo-
Saxon illuminations : Vestibus consuetis juxta formam videlicet
priorum, sive clerici, sive monachi deinceps utantur : nee imitentur
seculares in vestitu crurum per fasciolas, &c. Condi. Clovesoviense,
cap. xxviii., Wilkins, i. 99.
14 Among other interesting rubrics in this valuable codex, we
read the following : Primo quidem minister deferat caligas, usque ad
genu tendentes, &c. Respondet episcopus . . . jube sanctificari has
caligas ; ut et in gressu resplendeat Evangelii veritas, &c. Deinde
206
THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(249) With respect to this country and the times
which immediately followed the coming over here
of the Normans, and the introduction into so many
places through the land of St. Osmund's Use for
his church of Salisbury, amid the scanty memorials
left us upon this point, we see
enough to show us that our
English bishops began at an
early period to wear these
" caligse " or episcopal stock-
ings, and upon which they
bestowed costly materials
and elaborate adornment. 15
Among the few episcopal
ornaments still to be found
in England, not the least in-
teresting is one of the caligse,
or vestmental stockings of
Bishop Waneflete's, kept at
Oxford, in St. Mary Magdalen
Bishop Waneflete's episcopal
stocking.
minister det sandalia, &c. Vet us Missa ex Cod. Ratoldi, in Menard's
notes on S. Gregorii Lib. Sacram. [P.L., Ixxviii. 239] ; and from the
allusion made to the symbolic meaning of these "caligae," or
bishop's stockings, in that part of the prayer to be said at putting
them on, given above, we may infer that, even then, they had be-
come highly ornamented. Indeed, at the very beginning of that
same century, Riculfus Helenensis (A.D. 915) deemed his episcopal
stockings, as well as sandals (caligas et sandalias paria duo), to be
worth bequeathing, along with several other vestments, sacred
vessels, and books, to a church, for the use of all future bishops of
that see. Testamentum Riculfi, in the Append, to Regino of Priim
[P.L., cxxxii. 468].
15 Belonging to the church of Salisbury (A.D. 1222) there were
"iiij. paria caligarum " [Wordsworth, Salisbury Cerem., 176] : and
PART I. CHAP. VI. 207
College, which he built and so munificently en-
dowed : it is of cloth of silver, embroidered with
birds in gold, with flowers in coloured silks, and
with sun-rays darting from a cloud, seemingly the
device of Edward IV.; along with it, one of (250)
the same good
prelate's sandals
of crimson vel-
vet, dotted with
bright small
spots of gold,
and worked with
large flowers and
t . i Bishop Waneflete's episcopal sandal.
leaves in col-
oured silk, preserved with equal care in the same
place, the reader will see figured in these two
plates. 16
among the splendid vestments in the treasury of St. Paul's Cathe-
dral, London (A.D. 1295), we find set down: Sandalia cum caligis
de rubeo sameto diasperato, breudata cum ymaginibus regum in
rotellis simplicibus. Item sandalia Henrici de Wengham episcopi
cum flosculis de perlis indici coloris, et leopardis de perlis albis, cum
caligis breudatis et frectatis de armis palatis et undatis. Dugdale,
Hist, of St. Paul's, new ed., pp. 315, 316.
16 This crimson velvet is of a deep rich pile, and wrought with
flowers, in gold, and with leaves, like ivy, of silk, half yellow, half
green; the little dots of gold, with which the velvet is thickly
sprinkled, are found very often on English velvet vestments of the
latter part of the fifteenth century. As the reader may see, in
shape the sandal was made like a high half-boot ; it is lined with
very thin white kid. It has no heel, properly so called, and its
size is large, being one foot in length, and six inches high.
The stocking is of silver tissue, worked with gold birds, flowers,
blue, yellow, and white, and a peculiar ornament a nebule, white
and blue, with yellow rays shooting from its edge. It is two feet
two inches high, and in width seven inches. For the obliging use
208 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(251) Our Catholic bishops, all through the
Latin Church, wear these ornamented stockings
along with their sandals whenever they pontificate,
except at Mass for the dead.
The use of purple stockings for every-day wear
by bishops and the higher class of prelates, was
quite unknown to our old English Catholic
Church ; and is but of a comparatively modern
introduction at Rome itself, where, however, it is
regulated by strict rules. Bishops chosen from
the secular clergy have the right of wearing purple
stockings, purple collar, and purple cassock every-
where, and at all times ; but mere prelates, though
of the higher order, are strictly forbidden to wear
either purple stockings, purple cassock, or purple
collar, anywhere out of the city of Rome, or away
from the court of the supreme pontiff. 17
of these two woodcuts I owe my best thanks to that accomplished
antiquary,, M. H. Bloxam, Esq.
17 By an Apostolical Institution, issued by Pius VII. (A.D. 1818),
it was declared, concerning the higher rank of prelates, or titular
apostolic Prothonotaries : Jus erit Protonotariis apostolicis titu-
laribus extra Urbem duntaxat, et quando eo loco, ubi degunt, non
adsit summus pontif ex, uti habitu prselatitio, videlicet veste talari,
et palliolo nuncupate mantelletto, nigri coloris.
Usus collaris, et caligarum coloris violacei omnino interdicitur.
Sacrum operantes a simplicibus sacerdotibus minime differunt,
Scc. (Manuale Ecclesiasticorum sen Collectio Decret. Auihent. Sac. Hit.
Cong., Romse, 1841, pp. 183, 184). If any individual, therefore,
even were he an apostolic prothonotary, were to use, for instance
here in England, purple cassock and collar at Mass ; were he to
presume to dress like a bishop, and go into society in purple stock-
ings, he would not only be acting in direct opposition to a papal
mandate, but run the risk of being deprived of his prelacy if he
did not heed the second admonition addressed to him by his
ecclesiastical superior, on account of such a breach of discipline ;
PART I. CHAP. VI. 209
(252) SECTION XVII
The last of those distinctions generally, though
not exclusively, assigned to bishops is
THE FALDSTOOL, 18
the very name of which teaches us to understand
by it a kind of chair or seat which can be opened
out or shut just as may be needed. From the
(253) ease with which it could be put up and
carried about, the faldstool usually accompanied
a bishop 19 when he went about his diocese, or
celebrated in his own city away from the cathedral
which, as that word itself indicates, is no other
than the church wherein the episcopal " sedes "
see or bishop's chair is erected, 20 and thus be-
f or it is ordained by the same pontiff : Qui secus facere, aliisque
preeter memorata privileges ac juribus uti auserint, si ab ordinario
tanquam ab apostolica sede delegate semel et bis admoniti, non
paruerint, eo ipso privates honore se sciant. Ibid., p. 186.
18 The word " faldistorium " undoubtedly sprang, not from a
Latin, but a Teutonic root ; and in its first true form, " fald-
stool " (folding stool) sounds so very English, as to make us
believe it was given to this sort of chair by our Anglo-Saxon
fathers.
19 The provision of a faldstool for the use of a bishop is particu-
larly required by our old English ritual. In the Consecratio Episco-
porum, the rubric said: Comprovinciales episcopi deducant eurn
(consecrandum) per manus coram consecratore sedente super faldis-
torium in medio majoris altaris, dorso verso ad altare, sedilia
episcoporum in modum corone a dextris et a sinistris electi. The
Liber Pontificalis of Bishop Lacy, ed. Barnes, p. 92.
20 The one cathedral holding the one chair of a diocese is well
marked in our old English rubrics. Bishop Lacy's Pontifical at
VOL. II.
210
THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
came (254) substituted for it in every other place,
and was, in a certain manner, employed in its
stead.
Of the shape according to which the faldis-
torium used to be fashioned, some faint idea may
be formed by the one upon which an archbishop
is figured sitting, in an English illumination,
which we put before the reader in this plate.
From MS. 2, B. vii. f. 291.
Exeter says : Cum ad sedem episcopii sui consecratus episcopus
pervenerit, priusquam in cathedra ponatur, ab aliquo episcopo
cui a metropolitano injunctum fuerit, hec oratio ante ipsam cat he-
dram dicatur (p. 100). The bishop's chair in our old cathedrals
was often a work of great beauty, and elaborately wrought in
stone : such, to be seen even yet at Durham, was the one erected
by Bishop Hatfield (c. A.D. 1350): Dominus Thomas Hatfeld per
plures annos ante mortem suam, fecit sedem episcopalem inter
chorum et magnum altare ex parte australe, de opere lapideo valde
sumptuoso, &c. Wills of the Northern Counties, published by the
Surtees Society, i. 38.
Unaware that a bishop may not have two sees or chairs at once
in the same diocese, and knowing but little of ancient ecclesiasti-
PART I. CHAP. VI. 211
On a very few occasions was it wrought out
(255) of gold itself, and jewelled; 21 sometimes,
too, of silver, 22 oftener, however, as now, of gilt
metal, or of ebony 23 and the more common sorts
cal history, even less of the canons of the Church, some architects,
when left to themselves in such matters, have wished to set up
an episcopal throne in a college chapel (or, as they would wrongly
call it, collegiate church), and even in the parish church near the
bishop's dwelling, though he has his see already elsewhere. How-
ever great or crowded may be a college ; though its chapel, like that
of King's College, Cambridge, be very large and one of the finest
buildings in the kingdom, still it is never called, nor ought we
to think it, anything more than " a chapel." To be " collegiate,"
a church must have daily choir-service sung in it, support a dean
and canons, and possess a chapter, as if it were a cathedral. More-
over, to be talking of " enthronisations " and " cathedrals " in
England, is and will be inaccurate, until we get back our hierarchy.
No church that does not really hold the " cathedra," or see, from
which a bishop takes his title, can be a cathedral. A vicar-apos-
tolic's cathedral, with its chair, is deemed to be in that city of
which he is called bishop ; and before he can celebrate in the one,
or be enthroned in the other, he will have to travel, " in partibus
infidelium," and go, as it may need, to Egypt or to Asia Minor. Ere
using the terms, let us strive and get back the Church's true, old,
canonical form of government the hierarchy ; not, however, the
half of it, but its entireness, that is, for the clergy of the second
order, as well as for the bishops.
21 The magnificent faldstool given to Pope Clement IV. (A.D.
1 269) by Charles, King of Naples, is thus described in the Vatican
inventory : Facistorium magnum aureum, cum lapidibus pretiosis,
quod D. rex Carolus fel. rec. dementi Papse IV. donavit et dedit.
Garampi, Illustrazione di un Sigillo della Garfagnana, p. 81.
22 Of Hugh Pudsey, Bishop of Durham (A.D. 1187), Geoffrey of
Coldingham tells us, that on taking the cross for the holy war,
he had made, among other things, to carry along with him a
magnificent silver chair : Episcopus vero cruce suscepta . . . fecit
sibi vasa diversa ex argento, sedile quoque argenteum mirandi
operis et decoris, ut ma jorum episcoporum sive ducum gloriam
superaret (Hist. Dunelmensis Scrip. Tres, p. 13). Surely such a
chair must have been the bishop's liturgical faldstool.
23 In Pope Boniface VIII.'s inventory we find : Unum falcis-
torium parvum de ebano, quod jungitur simul sicut una tabula.
Item unum facistorium de ebano. Garampi, p. 81.
2i2 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
of wood. 24 (256) Cloths of great price, such as
golden baudekin, and silks of a rich texture,
elaborately embroidered, were always thrown over
it ** by way of covering, but after such a graceful
manner, as not to hide the artist's beautiful handi-
work which he had bestowed upon its paw-like
feet, as well as the four corners at top, which,
if not always, very often at least, were made to
end in the likeness of an animal's neck and head.
In later times in this country the faldstool was
" a chair of woode, covered with crymsen velvet,
and the pomells and handells thereof garnished
with silver." 26
Not only to bishops was the use of the faldstool
always allowed, but also to abbots, 27 and even to
24 Una cathedra lignea quse fuit Johannis episcopi quam habet
episcopus Ricardus. Visit, in Thesaur. S. Pauli, Londini (A.D.
1295), Dugdale, St. Paul's, p. 315.
25 Such hangings are enumerated thus in the Salisbury inven-
tory : Pannuli ad faldestolium ij. Wordsworth, Salisbury Cerem.,
p. 176.
26 A faldstool of this kind was " parcell of such stuffe as came
from Canterberye." Mow. Anglic., i. 67.
27 At the service which took place when the new abbot went to
the bishop for the solemn blessing, our old English rubric directed
a faldstool to be set for the abbot on the steps before the altar :
Et ordinetur pro abbate unum faldistorium ante gradum altaris
(Benedictio Abbatis, in Bishop Lacy's Liber Pontificalis, p. 103).
The casual notice, by Matthew Paris, of the faldstool, is bound up
with a very touching scene which took place in the chapter-house
of St. Alban's a few days before the death (A.D. 1214) of John,
abbot of that far-famed monastery : Et fecit (abbas Johannes)
apportari secum unam cathedram quam vulgariter " faudestolam "
appellamus. Et cum prsesidisset loco suo, ut moris est, superiori,
obortis lacrymis uberrimis cum crebris singultibus, . . . ait, &c.,
prsecepit abbas ut illud sedile de quo prsedictum est, allatum
poneretur in medio super tapetium quern locum " Judicium " appel-
PART I. CHAP. VI. 213
(257) some high personages among the laity, such
as the Queen at the coronation, when " for her
shalbe ordeyned, on the left side of the high
aulter (in the churche of Westmynster) a folding
stole, wherein she shall site while the king shalbe
requyred of the keeping the customes and lawes
of England." 2S
SECTION XVIII
Here perhaps the liturgical reader may wish to
know whether
THE ANGLO-SAXON, LIKE THE SALISBURY, RITUAL
VARIED THE COLOUR OF THE VESTMENTS.
From some of the most interesting monuments
of ecclesiastical antiquity which have come down
to us, we learn that the Church, especially in
Gaul, (258) began at an early period to distinguish
the higher festivals of the year by the employment,
as at Easter, for example, of white vestments in
her service for that time ; 29 those sacrificial gar-
lamus. Et ivit sessum super illud ; petensque sibi dari a singulis,
singulas disciplinas expoliavit se usque ad carnem nudam, &c.
Matt. Paris, Vitas, S. Albani Abbatwm, p. 72. [R.S. xxviii., Gesta
Abbat., i. 245.]
28 Device for the Coronation of King Henry VII., p. 13, Rutland
Papers, edited by .Terdan, for the Camden Society.
29 St. Remigius, Bishop of Rheims, in his will (A.D. 499), be-
queathed to his successor in that see, his white chasuble for Easter
use : Futuro episcopo successori meo, amphibalum album pascha-
lem relinquo. S. Remigii Ep. Hem. Testamentum [P,L., Ixv. 971].
Contemporary with St. Remigius lived St. Csesarius, of whom we
2i4 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
ments must have been therefore of some darker
hue at the less solemn seasons. A practice which
then obtained in Gaul was no doubt followed,
during the same epoch, throughout this island
by the British priesthood, and afterwards among
the Christianised Anglo-Saxons, with whom we
know the kingly purple for sacerdotal ministering
vesture found much favour. 30 Other colours were
adopted (259) (the very same, in fact, as we now
use 31 ), but whether employed after the same ritual
laws and on the same occasions, we have not at
present the means of ascertaining. Certain is it,
that between the Roman rubric now in force, and
the old Sarum practice upon this point, a slight
are told by the friend who wrote the life of this illustrious bishop
of Aries : Casulamque quam processoriam habebat albamque Pascha-
lem dedit ei, &c. ( Vita S. C&sarii, ed. Mabillon, A A. SS. 0. B., i. 643).
Having occasion to speak of one of this same holy bishop's chasubles,
St. Gregory of Tours incidentally lets us know that it had a hood
just like the white chasubles worn at Easter : Cappa autem hujus
indumenti (casulse) ita dilatata erat atque consuta, ut solent in illis
candidis fieri quae per Paschalia festa sacerdotum humeris impo-
nuntur. S. Gregorius Ep. Turon., Vitge. Pat. [P.I/., Ixxi. 1045].
30 The dalmatic and tunicle found on St. Cuthberht's body were
purple, as we before observed (i. 322); St. Beda mentions the
hyacinthine colour of the tunicle (ibid., p. 324) ; and purple is the
hue of the chasuble worn by the Anglo-Saxon bishop of whom
we gave the figure (vol. i. p. 1 52).
31 Theodore, Bishop of London, bequeathed (c. A.D. 962) white,
yellow, and red chasubles to different friends : And ic an Deodrad
min wyte messe hakele ]>e ic on pani bouthe. and al jSat j>er to birefc
. . . and ic an Odgar J>e gelewe messe hakele . . . and ic (an) Sprat-
ache J>e rede Messe hakele -3 al }>e >er to bireS, &c. The will is
given at length by Blomefield (County of Norfolk, iii. 458). For the
white, red, green, and black copes provided for the church of his
minster, by the Anglo-Saxon abbot, Egelric, see note 550^ on
p. 23 of this volume.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 215
difference does exist ; Rome herself never uses
sky-blue, 32 England (260) in Catholic times did; 33
32 In Spain, and at Naples, I observed sky-blue vestments are
used on the festivals of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Though at
Rome light blue is never seen in the sanctuary, there was a time
when it was employed as a substitute for black, or purple, as we
learn from the Or do Romanus xv., drawn up by Peter Amelio,
who nourished c. A.D. 1393: and in cap. xxiv., De die cinerum, he
tells us : Papa recedit, et vadit ad recipiendum paramenta sua in
revestiario . . . nigri aut violacei indii coloris. Verumtamen
modernis temporibus Romana ecclesia istis tribus utitur quasi pro
uno colore. Mabillon, Mus. Ital., ii. 462. Whether light blue
vestments were here, in England, ever worn on holy days of the
Blessed Virgin, we know not ; white ones were, we are certain :
Unum vestimentum album bonum de panno adaurato pro princi-
palibus festis beatae Marise, &c. Unum vestimentum album de
camoca pro commemoratione beatse Marise, &c. Registrum Capellse,
Regix de Wyndesore (A.D. 1385), Dugdale, Hon. Anglic., viii. 1363.
33 In all our great lists of English vestments, blue, as distin-
guished from purple, is invariably to be found ; in earlier times,
"indicus," at a later period "blodium,"is the term employed to
designate it. Thus, among the copes belonging (A.D. 1295) to St.
Paul's Cathedral, London, there were : Capa de purpureo sameto,
capa de rubeo sameto, capa indici coloris, capa de baudekino indici
coloris, &c. (Dugdale, Hist, of St. Paul's, pp. 316, 317). So of the
chasubles (ibid., p. 323). The register of the royal chapel at
Windsor Castle (A.D. 1385) mentions unus (coster) pannus magnus
de velvetto purpureo, &c. Unus pannus de panno adaurato
palliatus rubro et blodio coloribus, pro sepulchro Domini (Mem.
Anglic, viii. 1363). York Cathedral enumerated its copes under
the different heads : Capse rubese, blod, virides, purpurese, &c.
(ibid., p. 1208); and at Lincoln, under " Casulse et capse blodei
coloris," are set down all the vestments of a blue colour, as " a
chesable of blew damask, &c., a cope of the same colour, a cope of
cloth of gold, of bawdkin of blew colour," &c. (ibid., p. 1284) ; while
the "casulse et capse purpurei coloris," as a chesable of purpur
velvet, a cope of purpur colour of gold, &c., are put by themselves
(ibid., p. 1283). That truly good and munificent prelate, Bishop
Wykeham, bequeathed to his church of Winchester his " new vest-
ment of blue cloth, striped, and embroidered with lions of gold,
with thirty copes of the same cloth, embroidered with the history
of Jesse in gold" (Testamenta Vetusta, ed. Nicolas, ii. 768). What
may have been the precise times for using blue we cannot tell,
216 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
Rome enjoins black for Good-Friday, 34 England
prescribed red. 35
although we now and then catch such stray notices as the follow-
ing : Casula de panno Tarsico, indici coloris . . . de dono Magistri
J. de S. Claro, qui voluit ut cum ilia celebretur in festis omnium
Sanctorum et Sancti Erkenwaldi (Dugdale, Hist, of St. Paul's,
p. 323). Furthermore, among the " blue " vestments, or " vesti-
menta blodia," at York Minster, there was a set for Advent and
Septuagesima time : Una secta blod del baudkin pro Adventu et
Septuagesima. Dugdale, Mon. Anglic., viii. 1209.
34 The use of black on Good Friday is of some antiquity in the
Roman ritual, though purple might be substituted for it : Colore
nigro utitur feria sexta in Parascheve, in missis defunctorum, et
in processionibus quas Romanus pontifex nudis pedibus facit.
Sciendum tamen est, quod diebus quibus est usus nigri coloris, uti
violaceo non est inconveniens. Ordo Romanus xiv., auct. J. Gaietano,
(c. A.D. 1298), ed. Mabillon, Mus. ItaL, ii. 291.
35 Not only on this day, but all through Lent, the vestments
were to be red, according to the Sarum rite. In a fine folio-sized
Salisbury missal, written out towards the end of the fourteenth
century, and now open before me, are to be found the following
rubrics: Feria iiij. in capite ieiunii . . . episcopus vel eius decanus
vel excellentior sacerdos indutus vestibus sacerdotalibus in capa
serica rubea, &c. Dominica in ramis palmar um . . . sequitur
benedictio florum et frondium a sacerdote induto capa serica
rubea, &c. Feria v. in cena Domini in primis fiat reconciliatio
poenitentium . . . sacerdos . . . indutus vestibus sacerdotalibus
in capa serica rubea, &c. Feria vi., in die Parasceves dicta hora ix.,
accedat sacerdos ad altare indutus vestibus sacerdotalibus et
casula rubea, &c. The same rubrics are in all the printed copies
of the Missal and Processional, according to the use of Salisbury.
Peterborough Minster had twenty- seven "red albs for Passion
week" (See vol. i. 353). But England was not singular in this;
the Ambrosian rite prescribed red albs for the same solemn season
(ibid.) ; and, until very lately, red was the colour of the sacred
ornaments worn at the services of Passion time and on Good
Friday especially in many great churches in France, at the
cathedrals of Bourges, Sens, and Mans, as we learn from De
Moleon ( Voyages Liturg., pp. 144, 172, 222). For the same symbolic
reason which induced St. Osmund to ordain red for the colour of
the vestments all through Lent, was it that the plain, figureless,
wooden cross, borne in procession during the same penitential
season, used to be painted red here in England : Dominica ij., et
PART I. CHAP. VI. 217
(261) With regard to the substance and the
colour of their lining, no exact rules seem to have
been laid (262) down : the dye of the stuff with
which a vestment was lined in many instances
differed, but in some (263) exactly agreed with
that of the robe itself, and oftentimes the stuff
omnibus dominicis per xl., excepta prima dominica, deferatur crux
lignea rubei coloris depicta, sine ymagine crucifixi, &c. Crede
Michi [Wordsworth, Tracts of C. Maydeston (H.B.S.), pp. 49, 50].
In England, as abroad, yellow-coloured vestments were worn in
some places. At Lincoln Cathedral there was " a chesable of yellow
silk, with an orphrey small, with a crucifix of gold, in red, upon
the back, and two tunacles, with three albes, and the whole
apparel, with two copes of the same suit and colour, for Lent
(Dugdale, Mon. Anglic., viii. 1285). In the same church, however,
red was the colour for Good Friday, as a "chesable, with two
tunacles of red, for Good Friday," are specifically noticed (ibid.,
1282), and "lined with white" (ibid., 1290). No later than the
year 1762, when the learned and zealous liturgist, Bellotte,
published his work on the ritual followed at the cathedral of
Laon, of which he was dean, the custom was, in that church, for
the celebrant to wear a yellow vestment on Good Friday : Color
autem croceus locum habet in ecclesia Laudunensi in solo prse-
sanctificatorum oificio, quod feria sexta in Parasceve quotannis
consuevit celebrari (Observations ad Ritus Eccl. Laudunensis, 771).
Of the yellow garments worn by the celebrant and his assistants,
at Angers Cathedral, on Good Friday, we have already spoken in
another part of this work (i. 351); and as the Jews, up to the
end of the last century, in several countries, were obliged, by
law, to wear a yellow badge somewhere about their dress ; and as
the mediaeval painters almost always figured Judas Iscariot, the
betrayer of our Lord, not only very ugly, but with yellow- reddish
hair most likely the symbolic meaning assigned by Bellotte for
the liturgic use of yellow, especially on Good Friday, is the true
one, being : Adversus biliosos videlicet Judaicse gentis animos,
qui pertinacibus improperiis in Christum salvatorem insiluerunt.
Croceo namque, seu flavo colori bilis assimilatur, cujus sedes et
imperium in prsecordiis et visceribus Judseorum nedum iram sed et
irse furorem provocavit adversus Dominum et adversus Christum
ejus. Ibid., 772.
2i8 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
was of silk ; though less costly (264) in its kind. 33a
All of the vestments now existing in this country
from Catholic times, which the writer has met
with, are invariably lined with a thick coarse kind
of linen, either blue or red in colour.
SECTION XIX
The ritual practice of
BLESSING VESTMENTS AND SAYING A PRAYER
WHILE PUTTING ON EACH OF THEM,
demands a short notice.
Not only did the Anglo-Saxon 36 and the Salis-
35a Casula de Indico cendallo, lineata cum rubeo cendallo. Visit,
in Thes. S. Pauli, Londini, Ibid., 323.
Casula de albo diaspro, lineata cum cendallo purpureo. Ibid.
Casula de rubeo sameto lineata sendato rubeo. Ibid., 322.
Some high personages wore their copes lined with costly fur,
such as vair, or ermine : Ingressus ecclesiam (S. Pauli, Londinensis)
. . . pontificalibus se induit, scilicet superpellicio, et desuper capa
chorali pellibus variis furrata, et mitra. Matt. Paris, Hist., p. 302
[in anno 1237]: (Paris, 1644).
36 Archbishop Ecgberht's Pontifical enumerates the vestments
in one of the prayers , used at the blessing of them : Exaudi pro-
pitius orationem nostram ut hanc planetam famuli tui ill. seu
pudorem, albam ac stolam, cingulum, orariumque dextra tua
sancta benedicere, sanctificare, consecrare, et purificare digneris.
Quatenus haec vestimenta ministris et levitis ac sacerdotibus tuis
ad divinum cultum ornandum et explendum proficiant, sanctisque
altaribus tuis mundi et ornati his sacris vestibus ministraturi
irreprehensibiles in actu et dictu interius exteriusque appareant,
&c. [Egbert Pontifical (Surtees Soc.), p. 17]. "Pudorem" is
evidently a blunder of the scribe's ; the word should have been
" poderem," as was observed before in this work, i. 374,
PART I. CHAP. VI. 219
bury 37 (265) rituals agree with one another, but
also with the present and very ancient custom
of the Church, (266) in the principle of always
blessing after a solemn manner every vestment
that had been offered and set aside for liturgical
use within the sanctuary.
Moreover, while arraying his person in those
garments for offering up the mystic sacrifice, the
Anglo-Saxon priest said to himself, in a low tone
of voice, a little prayer as he put on each one of
them, just as is done at present ; 38 and although
37 John de Burg, chancellor of Cambridge University (A.D.
1385), tells us that all vestments are to be blessed either by the
bishop, or by one having a faculty to do so : Sine vestibus ab
episcopo, vel altero potestatem habentem, benedictis celebrare
non licet . . . Sex autem sunt hujusmodi vestimenta sacerdotalia
.s. amictus, alba, cingulum, stola, manipulus, et planeta (Pupilla
Oculiy cap. vii., De his que sunt de ornatu). The same is asserted by
another English canonist, William Lyndwood (Provinciale, lib. i.
tit. 6, nota a, p. 33) ; and in the Exeter Pontifical, 239, we see the
forms of each of these benedictions. But besides this, the amount
of fees paid on the occasion may not unfrequently be met with ;
for instance, to give a few out of many examples :
At Bilibro, for halwyng of the pyx auter clothis, and a tonych,
an aube, an amyte, and expens, is. 8d. Churchwardens' Accts. of
Walberswick, illustrat., &c., by Nichols, 185.
Pd. to Robt. when he browght the clothes from the bishope,
y* was halowyd. Id. of St. Michael's, York, ibid., 314.
38 Ad Superhumeralem
Virtus summa ds cunctorum rector opimus,
Tu benedic lirum quo nunc ornamur amictii,
Ut servire tibi valeamus corde pudico.
Ad Albam
Vestibus angelicis induti rex pi&atis,
Poscimus a libare pium b libamen odoris,
Ad citius delenda male contagia mentis.
220 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(267) nothing of this precise kind may be found
in St. Osmund's treatise, or amid those liturgical
codices of his ritual which have reached our hands,
still we cannot bring ourselves to think that no
such sort of prayer was said by our English
Ad Cingulum
Scrutator cordis et caste mentis amator,
Tu lumbos precinge meos d intime judex,
Mortificans pravos in casto corpore mores. c
Ad Stolam
Colla jugo subdenda tuo ds alme sacrator,
Ad cuius dignum pra&iosa morte sepulchrum,
Virtus angelica consederat ordine munda.
Ad Vasulam
Spes aeterne d ds cunctorum certa salusque,
Tu memor esto mei toto te corde petentis,
Exequar ut dignus cselestis munia vitse,
Dumque meis manibus trectator 6 mistica Justus/
Dispereat quicquid contraxit 6 ' ordo veterni.
Ad Manipulum
Qui super astra sedes qui regni sceptra tuearis A
Summus adesto ds michimet tua jussa sequenti
Adq.* levant capiti conplexibus adhibe dextram,
Ut valeam casta tibi sistere perp&i vita.
Warren, Leofric Missal, p. 59 ; in another, but an Anglo-Saxon
hand. These same prayers, along with those at putting on the
stockings, sandals, belt, tunicle, gloves, and ring, when a bishop
pontificates, are given in the missal written out for Ratold, Abbot
of Corbey (A.D. 986), and published by Menard in his S. Gregorii
Liber Sacramentorum, p. 259 [P.L., Ixxviii. 240, 241], in a much
more correct form than that of Leofric's missal.
a possimus (Menard, d aeterna (261) h tueris
ibid., p. 260). e tractatur * ac
6 pii / virtus j levem
c gestus o contraxerat
Some whole lines, too, are left out in Leofric's missal.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 221
priests, or that they merely recited the preparation
for Mass, set forth in the Salisbury missal, while
vesting.
SECTION XX
SPLENDOUR AND BEAUTY AT ALL PERIODS OF
THIS COUNTRY'S VESTMENTS
Now that we have reached the end of this (268)
branch of our subject, well may we look back and
point exultingly to those glowing examples of
zeal shown by our forefathers in everything be-
longing to the decency and becoming splendours
of God's public worship. Whether the Anglo-
Saxons, the Normans, or the English ruled, it
mattered little ; our island home, the while
Catholicism spread throughout its length and
breadth, was quickened by the one same undying
wish to make the house of God, the church and
the throne of Christ, the altar more glorious
than the houses of men, more dazzling with
beauty than the thrones of earthly kings. The
brightest of our national worthies, those who gave
us our lofty birthright as freemen, the framers
of our wisest, soundest laws, our incomparable
Alfred, our holy Edward the Confessor, deemed it
not beneath them to provide splendid vestments
for the Church's ministers ; and our royal Anglo-
Saxon dames, our JElfflseds, our Emmas, our
Margarets, busied their minds and bethought
themselves how they might procure the most
222 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
beautiful sacerdotal garments for the service of
the altar.
The vestments of the sacrificing priest, and the
deacon and sub-deacon who ministered to him,
were always of seemly, often of most beautiful and
precious stuffs, curiously wrought with the figures
of saints in needlework, 39 at the same time that
(269) they were literally stiff with gold, and
twinkling with star-like gems. 40 The daughters
39 Kept in the chapter library of Durham Cathedral, and en-
graved for Raine's St. Cuthbert, is the stole which ^Elfflaed, Edward
the Elder's queen, got made for Frithestan, Bishop of Winchester.
This Anglo-Saxon liturgic ornament is all over-wrought with
figures of the apostles. [See vol. i. p. 338.]
40 See note 1 1, p. 295, and note 12, p. 297, vol. i., of this work.
Of the richness of Anglo-Saxon vestments we may catch some
slight idea from the minute description furnished us by Reginald,
the monk of Durham, of the dalmatic found (A.D. 1 104) on the
body of St. Cuthberht, and of which we spoke before.: Cujus
dalmaticre fines extremos limbus deauratus, instar aurifraxii ali-
cujus, undique perambiendo circumluit, qui pree auri copia, quae
in ejus fabrili textura inseritur, non facile, et tune quidem cum
aliquo stridore, reflectitur. Ita est volubilis ac replicabilis, at
tamen pro spissitudine sua, sine alicujus adjutorio, iterum ad
rigorem pristinum per se reductibilis. Qui ad mensuram palmae
virilis latitudine distenditur ; cujus operis industria satis artificiosa
fuisse videtur. . . . Circa collum vero ubi caput emittitur limbus
aureus priore latior opere et precio etiam incomparatior esse
videtur. De Admirand. B. Cuthberti, c. xlii. (Surtees Soc.), pp. 87,
88. In his notice of St. Oswald (Archbishop of York in 971) the
English Dominican friar Thomas Stubbs, writing A.D. 1360, tells
us that the Anglo-Saxon saint's chasuble, a purple one, adorned
with gold and precious stones, and still as beautiful as ever, was
kept at the church of Beverley : Hujus infula purpurea et auro,
gemmis ornata et prisca pulchritudine fulgida, Beverlacensi adhuc
servatur ecclesia (Th. Stubbs, Ada Pontif. Eboracen., ed. Twysden,
ii. 1699). Misit rex (Willelmus Anglorum princeps) domino abbati
et sacro conventui cappam pene auream totam, in qua vix nisi
aurum apparet vel electrum vel margaritarum textus et gemmarum
series ; inferius autem undique tintinnabula resonantia, ipsaque
PART I. CHAP. VI. 223
and the (270) wives of kings, and the great ones
of this world, thought their leisure but too well
filled up, and their wealth meetly bestowed,
when they themselves plied, or made others ply,
the needle in stringing their jewels on those
sacerdotal garments they had worked from the
correct and canonical, no less than beautiful,
patterns which had been sketched for them by
a Dunstan's hand. 41 Such was the skill with
which these designs were executed, that our
Anglo-Saxon ladies became famous abroad for
their ability in needlework ; and so highly was
embroidery esteemed among themselves, that
lands (271) even were bestowed as a reward for
teaching this womanly accomplishment. 42 Italy
herself could show nothing to be compared with
some of our vestments ; and a cope which
^Egelnoth, the Anglo-Saxon primate, had given,
together with many other presents, to an arch-
aurea pendent ; regina auteni planetam plane dignissimam mittente
et accipientibus quia sic rigidam, ut plicari non posset (Vita S.
Hugonis, Alb. Cluniac., in A A. SS. Aprilis, in. 66 1). If not niched
from some Anglo-Saxon minster, this cope and chasuble were
wrought by Anglo-Saxon hands, and after Anglo-Saxon patterns.
41 Nobilis qusedam matrona, ^Edelwyrm nuncupata, quodam
momentulo vocavit eum (S. Dunstanum) familiari precatu ad se :
quatenus ille ad divinum culturn, quamdam stolam sibi diversis
formularum schomatibus ipse prsepingeret, quam postea posset
auro, gemmisque variando pompare. Vita S. Dumtani, a co&vo, in
A A. SS. Maji, iv. 350.
42 Under Achelei, in Buckinghamshire, it is stated that Godric,
the sheriff, granted to Aluuid half a hide of land so long as he
should be sheriff, on condition that she should teach his daughter
the art of embroidery. Description of the Public Records, p. 10.
224 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
bishop of Benevento (who once came here to beg
alms at Cnut's court for Apulia), long remained
without an equal in that countiy ; where Eadmer,
years afterwards, found it still unmatched, and
by far the most beautiful among all those like
vestments worn by the bishops at a council pre-
sided over by the Roman pontiff at Benevento,
whither this Englishman had gone, along with
another archbishop of Canterbury, St. Anselm. 43
(272) In going through the life of that pearl
amid women, Edmund Ironside's grand-daughter,
and little niece to Edward the Confessor our
own Anglo-Saxon Margaret we meet with many
a touching scene. On becoming Malcolm King
of Scotland's wife, this Anglo-Saxon princess
wedded, as it were, that country to herself, and
toiled so long and well to civilise its then rude
people. If we stop awhile to behold the royal
but unlettered husband, who doated, as well he
might, upon her, taking up with religious rever-
ence Margaret's prayer-book, and as he gazed
43 Archiepiscopus Beneventanus cappa prse omnibus qui conventui
ipsi intererant preciosiori decoratus . . . concilio prsesidebat. . . .
Pontifex quoque sedis ipsius (Cantuariensis, regnante Cnutho)
^Egelnothus nomine, inter reliqua quse homini (archiepiscopo Bene-
ventano) dedit, cappam illi valde preciosam aurifrigio ex omni
parte ornatam dedit, quse et illius ecclesise decori et ecclesise Can-
tuariensis futuris temporibus tantse existeret testimonio et pro-
bationi. . . . Mox celebrate concilio ubi Beneventanum ipsum adii
et . . . cospi de eadem cappa loqui et unde illam haberet quasi
nescius interrogavi . . . earn ordine quo descripsi suam ecclesiam
ab ecclesia Cantuariensi adeptam esse declaravit. Eadmer, Hist.
Novorum, lib. ii. [R.S., Ixxxi. 107, 109, 1 10].
PART I. CHAP. VI. 225
upon its beautifully illuminated leaves and golden
letters which he knew not how to spell, kiss it
for his queen's sake (for it was almost hourly in
her hands) ; still more shall we wish to linger in
thought within that chamber of hers, where she
watched the labours of her waiting-maidens and
worked along with them ; and where copes, and
chasubles, and stoles, and altar frontals, might
always be seen, some in the workers' hands,
others already done, and most beautifully wrought
by the needles of those high-born dames and
worthful females whom Margaret the queen had
drawn about her to spend their talents in em-
broidery upon the adornment of God's altar and
the sacrificial garments of its ministers : 44 all the
44 His rebus, id est quse ad divinse servitutis cviltum pertinebant
nunquam vacua erat illius (Margaritse) camera ; quse, ut ita dicam,
qusedam coelestis artificii videbatur esse officina. Ibi cappse can-
torum, casulse, stolse, altaris pallia, alia quoque vestimenta sacer-
dotalia et ecclesise semper videbantur ornamenta. Alia manu
artificum parabantur, alia, jam parata admiratione digna habe-
bantur. . His operibus feminse deputabantur quse natu nobiles, et
sobriis moribus probabiles interesse reginse obsequiis dignse judi-
cabantur. Vita S. Margaritas Reginse Scotise, auct. Theodorico,
Monacho Dunelmensi, cosevo, in A A. SS. Junii, ii. 329.
Another Anglo-Saxon lady, and one of high birth, celebrated for
her skill in working with her needle, was ^Elfswide,, who, at the
death of her mother, Leoflaed, went to live in holy retirement
hard by Ely Minster. Here, along with her waiting-maids, she
spent much time in embroidery, and upon the loom ; and, besides
other vestments, wrought, with her own hands, a very beautiful
white chasuble : Filia eius ^Elfeswida cum possessione de Stevesche-
worde secclesise se tradens viri consortium aspernatur, illic jugiter
professa est permanere ; cui tradita est Coueneia locus monasterio
vicinus ubi aurifrixorise et texturis secretius cum puellulis vacabat ;
quse de proprio sumptu albam casulam suis manibus ipsa talis
ingenii peritissima fecit. Thorpe, Cod. Dip. Anglo-Sax., iv. 270.
VOL. II. P
226 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
stars of Anglo-Saxon royalty (273) set well. But
what was the practice of the latest, was the prac-
tice of the earliest Anglo-Saxons ; and in the very
act of affording us the symbolic meaning assigned
by that people to the gold and purple of the
sacerdotal garments, St. Beda lets us know how
richly adorned must have been the robes of the
sanctuary in his days. 45
(274) Though not outstripped, the Anglo-Saxons
were equalled by the Anglo-Normans and the Eng-
lish in a becoming zeal for the beauty of God's
house and its servants' ministering array. Still,
however, the higher merit belongs to the first, for
Anglo-Saxon feelings suggested, and Anglo-Saxon
fingers wrought those tasteful designs on the
sacred garments 46 that, however rich they might
45 Cuncta autem fiunt de auro pretiosisque coloribus : quia nihil
vile ac sordidum in sacerdotis ore vel opere debet apparere ; sed
cuncta quae agit, universa quae loquitur, omnia quse cogitat, et
coram hominibus prseclara, et in conspectu interni arbitrii oportet
esse gloriosa. Beda, De Tabernaculo, iii. 3 [P.L., xci. 466]. De auro
videlicet, et ante omnia in habitu sacerdotis intellectus sapientise
principaliter emicet. Cui autem hyacinthus, qui serio colore re-
splendet, adiungitur ; ut per omne quod intelligendo penetrat,
non ad favores infimos, sed ad amorem coelestium surgat . . .
Quamvis, ut superius ssepe dictum est, in purpureo colore possit
ipsa effusio sanguinis pro Christo, vel diversarum tolerantia pres-
surarum intelligi. Ipsa enim est crux, quam sequentes Dominum
quotidie ferre jubemur. Unde merito talis species inter alias
humero sacerdotis refulget, ut ipsum ad patienda adversa semper
doceat esse paratum. 7ta'd., iii. 4 [P.I/., xci. 467].
46 If Anglo-Saxon Winchester had its school of illuminators, so
had it its female artists in embroidery, for Matilda the first
William's queen, particularly mentions one of them the wife
of Alderet as she specifies her bequest to the church of the Holy
Trinity, at Caen, of a chasuble, being wrought by this Anglo-
PART I. CHAP. VI. 227
be in their (275) materials, were thought richer
still from their beauty, and, as works of art, have
earned for themselves the historian's notice : at the
same time a sight of them always called forth the
admiration and awakened the wishes of foreigners
to possess them. 47 A change of kings brought
Saxon matron : " Do," says Queen Matilda in her will, " Sanctse
Trinitati Cadomi casulam quam apud Wintoniam operatur uxor
Aldereti . . . atque aliud vestimentum quod operatur in Anglia," &c.
Cart. S. Trinit. at Bib. Nat., Paris, No. 5650, given at full length
by the Abbe De la Rue in his interesting Essais Historiques sur la
Ville de Caen, t. i., Preuves, No. i. Anglo-Saxon nuns seem to
have begun, from an early period, to bestow their time upon
embroidery ; for St. Aldhelm (A.D. 680) sings of them :
A urea dum exili Christo filia virgo acu dedicata
Manu pallida torquet, sereo turn ego calamo
Crinigeris pingo paginas. . . .
Epist. ad Acircium, Opp. S. Aldhelmi, ed. Giles, 273.
47 It is evident that, during former times, in England, vestments
were admired, not merely for the costliness of their materials,
but, from being looked upon as works of art, were tried by that
standard, and appreciated accordingly. Enumerating all that
Lanfranc did for his cathedral at Canterbury, William of Malmes-
bury tells us, in a marked manner, of the beautiful vestments
which that primate bestowed upon his see : Jam vero ex habun-
danti est dicere, quantum ibi ornamentorum congesserit, vel in
palliis, et sacratis vestibus, in quibus, cedente materia, manus
aurificum vincebat expensarum pretium, vel in diversicoloribus
picturis, ubi lenocinante splendore fucorum ars spectabilis rapiebat
animos, et pulchritudinis gratia sollicitabat oculos ad lacunaria.
De Gestis Pontif. Anylorum, lib. i., 43 [R.S., Hi. pp. 69, 70].
Our Anglo-Saxon ladies, as we are told even by foreign writers,
were famed for their skill in embroidering, in weaving stuffs of
gold, and in plying the needle ; nor were our men behind their
countrywomen in works of the nicest handicraft : " Anglicse
nationes feminse," says an old French writer, " multum acu
et auri textura, egregie viri in omni valent artificio." William
of Poitiers, Gesta Gulielmi [P.L., cxlix. 1267]. The first William
and his Norman followers were not slow in availing themselves
of this superiority in English art, for bettering their outward
appearance ; and such was the elegance of the dresses worn by
228 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
no change in (276) the religion of our country,
whose sons and daughters remained, under Nor-
man rule, as warm-hearted and as able as ever
in the holy work of decorating the altar ; while
our English women especially kept up that high
reputation for embroidery bequeathed to them by
their Anglo-Saxon mothers. Not (277) merely
foreign bishops sought for, but the supreme pontiff
himself asked to have vestments from this coun-
try ; 4S and the admiration and praises bestowed
the king and his court on their going over, for the first time,
from England to Normandy, that the people there were quite
dazzled with the splendour and beauty of the new attire, anything
like which they had never before seen, as we learn from the same
pen : Regis autem regiorumque satellitum indumenta spectantes
intexta atque crustata auro, quaeque antea viderant vilia sesti-
mavere (ibid.) [P.L., id. 1268]. Another unexceptionable witness,
the Frenchman Gotselin, who came over here during the reign
of William the Norman, and was a monk at Canterbury, speaking
of England and its people, says : His (margaritis) aurificum
ingenia inter prseclaros lapides aurea ecclesise adornant monilia.
Ipsos etiam sequat aut superat aurea Anglicarum virginum textura,
quse regia et pontificalia insignia, intincto murice coccoque bis
tincto flammantia, splendidis unionibus et margaritis cum prsecel-
lentibus gemmis prsetexto auro instellant, et pretiosa stemmata
artificii mixtura amplius irradiant. Vita S. Augustini, Ep. Cantuar.
[P.L., Ixxx. 51, 52].
48 Vestments that had been wrought in England awakened
such admiration abroad, that even the Popes wrote hither, and
begged to have them (Matt. Paris, Hist. AngL, p. 473, Parisiis,
1644); and in the inventory of vestments belonging to Pope
Boniface VIII., mention is particularly made of such among them
as had orphreys of English needlework : Una stola cum frixio
Anglican o (Garampi, Del Sigillo della Garfagnana, p. 86) ; plane ta,
cum aurifrixio Anglicano (ibid., p. 119). When Robert, the Abbot
of St. Alban's, went to pay his respects to Nicholas Brakespere,
who on being chosen Pope took the name of Adrian IV., and
filled the apostolic chair from A.D. 1154 till 1159, he carried along
with him, to Benevento, many rich presents for the supreme
PART I. CHAP. VI. 229
(278) by some of our native writers, upon the best
of our home-wrought vestments 49 as real works
of art, are fully borne out by the few remnants
of those liturgical garments which have happily
reached us 50 through so many perils from wanton
destruction or ordinary decay.
pontiff, who was born, and had been bred, in one of the hamlets
belonging, and near, to that far-famed abbey in Hertfordshire.
But of these gifts, our exalted countryman would keep nothing
besides the three very beautiful mitres, and the pair of sandals
wrought by Christina, the Abbess of Markgate, because they were
so surprisingly handsome : Obtulit igitur abbas (Robertus) domino
papae, aurum, et argentum non minimi ponderis, et alia munera
pretiosa ; mitras etiam tres, et sandalia operis mirifici, quse domina
Christina, priorissa de Markgate, diligentissime fecerat. Et cum
omnia serenissimo vultu intuitus est dominus papa,-omnia acecp-
tavit, sed non accepit, prseter mitras et sandalia, quia admirabilis
operis. Matt. Paris, Vit. Abb. S. Albani, p. 46 [.R.S., xxviii. i. 127.
49 In recording the good deeds and pious munificence of
Margaret Duchess of Clarence (A.D. 1429), the monk of St. Alban's
passes the following encomium upon the beauty of the splendid
set of vestments which she had bestowed upon that church :
Obtulit etiam unum vestimentum integrum cum tribus capis
choralibus de panno Tyssewys vulgariter nuncupate, in quibus
auri pretiosa nobilitas, gemmarum pulchritude, et curiosa manus
artificis stuporem quendam inspectantium oculis reprsesentant.
Monast. Anglic., ii. 222.
50 The oldest, as well as most beautiful, specimen of English
embroidery I know of, is a cope which once belonged to the
monastery of Syon, near Isleworth, but is now the property of the
Earl of Shrewsbury. It is quite a storied vestment. On the higher
part of the back is the Assumption, or crowning of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, beneath which is the Crucifixion, and lower down
still, the archangel St. Michael overcoming the dragon ; then high
up on the right, the death of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Thomas
putting his finger to the wound in our Lord's side, St. James the
Less holding a club, another apostle with a book and spear, St. Paul,
St. James the Greater, the burial of the Blessed Virgin Mary ; high
up on the left, St. Mary Magdalen and our Lord the touch me not
St. Philip holding three loaves and a book, St. Bartholomew, St.
Andrew, and ten cherubim winged and standing on wheels, besides
two figures, seemingly religious men, holding scrolls'. The hood,
2 3 o THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(279) From the plentiful store which we have of
written documents illustrating the period between
St. Osmund's and Henry VIII. 's days, we learn
that all through the existence of the Sarum Use,
the materials employed in the making of our
chasubles, copes, dalmatics, and tunicles, here in
England, were at all times the most beautiful and
the richest that our own handicraft might bring
forth, or our traders could find out for the country
in far-off lands : ciclatoun and baudekin and every
other sort of cloth of gold, either plain or shot
with colour ; samit and satin ; velvet, as soon as
it was known ; silks of all kinds damasked,
rayed, watered, clouded, or as the term then was,
" marbled " ; cloth of Tars, and fabrics from
Saracenic (280) looms, were each put into requisi-
tion as they came to hand. 51
which was hung by three loops, is lost ; the orphreys are two broad
bands of shields, charged with the armorial bearings of some of our
most illustrious English families ; and running all about the edge,
at bottom, is a narrow band of emblazoned shields ; but this, as well
as the orphreys, is not so old as the body of the cope, which, by
its style, seems to have been worked towards the second half of the
thirteenth century, but before the end of our third Henry's reign.
51 Capa de panno aureo qui vocatur ciclatoun ( Visit, in Thes. S.
Pauli, Londin. A.D. 1295, Dugdale, St. Paul's, p. 318). Capa de
panno ad aurum scilicet Baudekin cum vestimento plenario de
panno Yspaniae ad aurum (Wills, &c., of the Northern Counties of
England, part i., p. 6, Surtees Society). The celebrated Anthony
Beck, who died Bishop of Durham A.D. 1310, had in his chapel
vestments of all the following costly and foreign stuffs : De rubeo
panno tartarico brudatum cum archangelis deauratis . . . de panno
de satyn purpurei coloris cum archangelis argenteis brudatis . . .
de rubeo welveto . . . de satyn indici coloris, cum flourdelies et
aliis floribus et stellis intextis . . . de panno Sarracenico . . . de
panno albi, indici et rubei coloris palliatis . . . de panno aureo
PART I. CHAP. VI. 231
(281) Thus we see that the love for the beauty 52
of God's house, glowing as it did like a hallowed
indici coloris, &c. (ibid., p. 13). The "indicus color" in the above
is light blue.
At the burial of Ralph Lord Neville, of Raby, the church of
Durham had given to it, for making vestments : ij pannos aureos
unum rubeum cum floribus Sarracenicis intextis . . . et ex alio
panno nigro aureo cum ramis arborum et foliis et bestiis et albis
rosis in finibus, &c. (ibid., p. 27). Casula Hugonis de Orivalle de
albo diaspro (Visit, in Tlies. S. Pauli, Londin. A.D. 1295, Dugdale,
Hist, of St. Paul's, p. 323.). Casula de quodam panno Tarsico
cum rubeo panno diasperato auro, &c. Ibid.
Casula de sameto radiato. Ad Altare S. Michaelis, ibid., p. 334.
Tunica de quodam panno marmoreo spisso, &c. Ibid., p. 322.
Tunica de diaspro marmoreo spisso. Ibid., p. 322.
Parura de serico marmoreo. Ibid., p. 320.
Tunica et dalmatica de panno indico Tarsico besantato de auro.
Ibid., p. 322.
Tunica et dalmatica de quodam panno Tarsici coloris, tegulata
cum besantiis et arboribus de aureo filo contextis. Ibid.
Vestimentum . . . de Albo panno de Tharse, de opere de
Turkye, &c. [Inventories of Christ Church, Canterbury, p. 63.]
Vestimentum . . . de panno de Inde samicto, &c.
Vestimentum de rubeo panno de Antioche, &c.
Vestimentum de Inde panno de Antioche, &c. Ibid.
Capam meam de panno ad aurum scilicet Baudekin. Wills, &c.,
part i., p. 6.
A cope of cloth of gold of bawdkin of blew colour. Inventory of
Lincoln Cath. in Dugdale's Mon., viii. 1284.
Four good copes of blew tishew. Ibid.
A cope of green cloth of gold. Ibid.
A black cope of cloth of silver. Ibid., p. 1285.
52 By no nation throughout Christendom was more done than
by old Catholic England, for the splendour and majesty of public
worship. Let any one read over the inventories of all those rich
vestments and sacred vessels which once belonged to St. Paul's
Cathedral, London, to Canterbury, York, and Lincoln ; let any
one cast an eye upon those churches that yet stand, and on the
beautiful ruins of those which once were, and he will be imme-
diately convinced of this, indeed, it is a remark of old writers,
foreigners as well as natives. An English divine of the fifteenth
century puts into the mouth of one of the speakers in his book,
the words following : As men saye, God is in no londe so well
LIBRARY ST. MARY'S COLLEGE
232 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
fire, (282) amid the Anglo-Saxons, was fed with
the same earnest zeal by the Normans, and burned
on with (283) a steady, nay, increasing flame, from
serued in holy churche as he is in this londe. For so many fayre
churches, ne so good arraye in churches, ne so fayre seruice, as
men say is in no lande, as it is in this londe. Dives and Pauper,
&c., Tlie Fyrste Command., fol. 69, Berthelet, 1536.
Late in the same century, a Venetian gentleman, who had been
in this country and looked well about him, was much struck with
the splendour of our ecclesiastical ornaments ; for he noticed that
the wealth of the kingdom showed itself more particularly in
adorning the house of God ; lor throughout the land there was
not a parish church so lowly but what had its crosses, candle-
sticks, thuribles, basins, and bowls of silver ; there was not a
convent of begging friars, wherein the same things, as well as
many others that would do for a cathedral, were not also of
silver : Sopra tutto tale richezza si conosca espressamente nelli
tesori ecclesiastici ; imperd che in tutto quel regno non vi e par-
occhia si vile, dove non sieno croci, candellieri, turribili, bacili,
e boccali d'argento ; ne e si' povero convento di mendicanti, dove
non sieno tutte le medesime cose d'argento, e molti altri orna-
menti pur d'argento convenienti ad una chiesa cathedrale (A
Relation of the Island of England, printed for the Camden Society,
p. 29). In the Bodleian library, Oxford, there is a curious manu-
script, containing "The Declaration off Thaccompte of Sir John
Williams, Knight, late Master and Treasurer of the Jewelles and
Plate which were the late Kinges Henrye the Eighth, and found
in sundry monasteries, priories, cathedrals, churches, and colleges,
at his Majestie's visitation," &c. This list of royal theft fills up
a roll of parchment no less than fifty-four feet long ; and the mere
weight of the gold and silver is something enormous.
So far we have evidence of the material grandeur of our old
Church; but of its high moral worth a thing of much greater
importance we possess the weighty testimony of that bright
light of the age and country he lived in, Sir Thomas More, who
tells us of the priesthood of England : So dare I boldly say that
the spiritualitie of England, and specialtye that parte in whiche
ye fynde most fault, that is, to wit, that part which we commonlye
cal the secular clergy, is, in learning and honest living, well able
to matche and (saving the comparisons be odious, I would say
further) farre able to over match number for number the spiritu-
altie of anye nacion christen. Dialogues, iii. 225 ; Works, London,
I557-
PART I. CHAP. VI. 233
their coming over here, up to those sad mournful
times under Henry VIII., Edward, and Elizabeth,
when, in both senses, the light of the sanctuary
was darkened put out, as cathedral and parish
church were rifled of their material splendours ;
but what must be wept for as immeasurably worse,
as the brightsomness of the Gospel was dimmed
in becoming shorn of many of its grace-working
ordinances, and a new religion, framed by strangers,
was brought over hither from a foreign land, and
thrust by worldly-minded men upon our unwilling
people instead of their olden national belief. A
faithful few held fast to the truth ; and notwith-
standing fines and dungeons, the gibbet, and civil
(284) degradation, kept up the faith and belief of
their Catholic forefathers in this country. Better
days have come, the clouds are melting away, the
Gospel of Christ is once more shedding its soft
rays on men's hearts in England, and the voice of
the Church makes itself heard amid a people that.
Babel-like, talks with so many tongues in matters
of religion. The age, the land in which we Catho-
lics live, throw a duty on our shoulders : we, in
our day, must do as did those who have gone
before, be they Anglo-Saxon, Norman, or English :
like them, we are guided through this to a better
world by the same unerring teacher of God's truth
the one, holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church : like
them must we light up the sanctuary of Christ
with all the beauties which man's adoring heart
234 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
and head can plan, and man's grateful hand can
execute : to the Almighty is due the best of every-
thing. A great experiment has been tried ; in
stripping the holy place of outward ornament,
Protestantism leads on its hearers to strip the soul
of an inward reverence 53 for holy things and holy
(285) institutions : it is therefore the duty of
Catholicism to strive and awaken among men
those olden and better feelings towards the ordi-
nances of heaven, by making the adornments of the
altar, and the sacrificial garments of its ministers,
bespeak the deepest reverence for, whilst they tell
of those awful mysteries wrought upon it.
53 Like the Catholic Church, Protestants of the Establishment
deem the Eucharist the most holy among the institutions of
Christ. Yet such were those soul-benumbing effects of the change
in religion upon Englishmen, that very soon the establishment
had (A.D. 1640) to fence her communion-tables with rails, and
thus hinder people from sitting upon them in service-time, as
well as to " preserve them from such or worse profanation." This
canon was enacted not without reason, for among many other
documents of a like kind, the Visitation Books in the registry
of Durham afford us several instances of such disrespect : A.D.
1578. Nicholas Palmer pr., detected. He ministered in a milke
boule.
A.D. 1610. Rowland Scot pr., for quarrellinge and drawing his
dagger on lo. lackson, and for appointing combat in the church at
the communion-table (St. Cuthbert, &c., by James Raine, M.A.,
p. 63). This respectable Protestant minister adds of his own:
'' This is worse than the story of the men, who, in the recollection
of persons still alive, or not long since dead, retired from an ale-
house in the village, and finished their game of whist upon this
selfsame table " (ibid.). Many such instances might be collected.
Some few years ago, a party of men, during the wakes at the
village of Alton, Staffordshire, brought the communion-table out
of the parish church, and played at cards upon it in the middle of
the street.
PAET I. CHAP. VI. 235
Let us hope that such of our Catholic ladies as have
the time, the talents, and the means, may soon begin
to follow that good example set them by their high-
born Anglo-Saxon, their Norman, and their later
English sisters in the faith. Then, indeed, the never-
ending working of fire-screens and 'slippers will some-
times, at least, give way to a (286) stole, or maniple, or
the figured orphrey for a cope, or a chasuble, if not to a
pall, storied with passages from Holy Writ, or the life
of a patron saint, to be hung during festivals upon the
chancel's walls, or before the altar as a frontal. Then,
too, instead of seeing our Catholic ladies follow their
own ideas of millinery prettiness, with regard to the
shapes and ornament of Church vestments, we shall
find them consulting some competent authority for the
true old forms and the traditional symbolism of the
sacred garments.
But to be able, like a St. Dunstan, to furnish the
proper designs when asked for, it is necessary that the
clergy be well taught our national ecclesiastical an-
tiquities. Such studies, however, have unhappily been
quite overlooked in the training of our youth who are
being brought up for the priesthood; and yet the
elements of these studies are to be found in almost
every village throughout the kingdom, and may be
searched after without the slightest hindrance to other
avocations. How can the afternoon of a college play-
day be more healthfully spent than in a cheerful walk
over a beautiful country, while going to look at, inside
and out, some venerable parish church ? Even the
lay-boy will find much to delight, much to uplift,
much to ennoble, much to edify his young mind, and
teach him to value his country, and love his religion
more. But it is to the student in divinity more
especially that our glorious old Catholic cathedrals,
our beautiful old Catholic parish churches will be
sermons in stones, eloquent treatises on the sacra-
236 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
ments and sacrifice of his olden faith, loud-speaking
witnesses to what his forefathers believed, and his
forerunners in the sacerdotal office taught for ages
upwards to the sad time of England's change of re-
ligion, begun by Henry VIII. and finished by Elizabeth.
From out of them may be drawn arguments which go
home (287) at once to the heart and understanding of
every Englishman.
St. Dunstan was not the only churchman artist :
most of the architects who built, and the painters who
ornamented the churches of this island, were clergy-
men; and when freemasonry was an association exist-
ing for no other than artistic purposes, and was not
only harmless but holy in its tendencies, and sanctioned
by the Church, the highest order in it consisted ex-
clusively of priests.
Now, though it be not wished to make our clergy
working artists, still it is much to be desired, nay, it is
in a manner needful, that they should, from their know-
ledge of ecclesiastical antiquities, be able to direct
artists in the building and the embellishment of our
churches ; for without the guidance of a well-informed
ecclesiastic, no layman, however talented and clever
he may be, can at all hope to build churches without
faults, or decorate and fit them up without some de-
parture from the traditions and the symbolism which so
truthfully tell the belief of bygone ages. To do either,
it is necessary to have a more thorough acquaintance
with the canons of councils and ecclesiastical literature
in general, than the education or the leisure of any
layman artist can allow him to make ; and for the last
three hundred years, the architects, painters, and
sculptors, who have best succeeded in the ecclesias-
tical correctness of their various productions, have
always been those who most enjoyed the advantage
of having the private advice of some learned clerical
and communicative friend.
(288) CHAPTER VII
IF our Anglo-Saxon forefathers' love towards their
Maker burned forth with so much brightness, and
showed itself by the way in which they lit up
the house of God with beauty, and arrayed the
ministers of his altar with magnificent vestments,
the love they bore to their fellow-man shone out
no less sweetly through those many holy practices
of religion by which they strove to help him in his
ghostly wants, and more especially to shorten the
punishment undergone by his soul in the next
world, for his sins he committed whilst in this. As
THE ANGLO-SAXONS HELD WITH so MUCH
STEADFASTNESS BY THE DOCTRINE OF
PURGATORY,
no wonder they afforded, by their devotional and
religious exercises, such strong demonstration of
this article of their Catholic belief. They were
taught to remember that, without the slightest
doubt, the very instant after death, the soul of
each one, whether good or bad, was individually
judged. 54 Furthermore, they believed that " some,
64 Futurum quoque judicium esse bonis et mails, statim post
hujus vitae terminum nulli Catholicorum dubium est. S. Bonifacius,
237
238 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(289) who on account of good works have been
preordained to the lot of the elect, but who,
because of some bad deeds, stained with which
they went forth out of the body, are, after death,
seized upon by the flames of the purgatorial fire,
to be severely chastised, and either are being
cleansed, until the day of judgment, from the filth
of their blemishes by this kind of long trial ; or,
being set free from punishment by the prayers,
the alms-deeds, the fasts, the tears of faithful
friends, and by the oblations of the healing sacri-
fice, they get, undoubtedly before that time, to
the rest of the blessed." 55 This exposition (290)
tiermo i., De Fide recta, ii. 58, Op., ed. Giles. Like to St. Boniface's
was the doctrine of that glory of the Anglo-Saxon Church, St.
Beda, who, at his dying moments, repeated in his native tongue
some lines in poetry, the meaning of which we learn from the
Latin translation of his scholar Cuthberht, who was present at the
time, and renders them thus : Ante necessarium exitum prudentior
quam opus fuerit nemo existit, ad cogitandum videlicet, ante-
quam hinc proficiscatur anima, quid boni vel mali egerit, qualiter
post exitum judicanda fuerit. Cuthwino Cuthberht, Introduction to
Beda, Hist. Ecc. [ed. Plummer, i. p. clxi.]. Those Protestants who
take up the new opinion broached by Burnet, in his posthumous
work De &tatu Mortuorum, of course will disagree with the Catholic
teaching of old St. Beda and St. Boniface. It is a curious fact
that St. Boniface anathematised Burnet's heterodoxy a thousand
years before it was put forth.
55 At vero nonnulli propter bona quidem opera ad electorum
sortem prseordinati, sed propter mala aliqua, quibus polluti de
corpore exierunt, post mortem severe castigandi excipiuntur
flammis ignis purgatorii, et vel usque ad diem judicii longa hujus
examinatione a vitiorum sorde mundantur ; vel certe prius ami-
corum fidelium precibus, eleemosyni, jejuniis, fletibus, hostise
salutaris oblationibus absoluti poenis, et ipsi ad beatorum per-
veniunt requiem (S. Beda, Horn. i. 4) [P.L., xciv. 30]. The heavy
stress which St. Beda in this passage lays upon the merit of
good works, should not be overlooked. Alcuin's words, in uphold-
PART I. CHAP. VII. 239
of the belief of his countrymen in the doctrine of
purgatory, put forth by one of the most learned
writers of the age one of the greatest Anglo-
Saxon saints one of the highest worthies of this
land, is well illustrated by what Drythelm saw
during a trance, an account of which this same
Venerable Beda has set down at full length in his
Ecclesiastical History. In telling how, in the
province of the Northumbrians, a man, whose
name was Drythelm, came to life again, and
spoke of the many things to be dreaded, and the
many to be wished for, which he had seen, St.
Beda says, that Drythelm's angel guardian who
had led him to (291) behold the various regions
of the other world, before sending him back to
this, asked thus, "Knowest thou what all those
things are which thou hast seen ? " " No,"
answered Drythelm : then said the angel, " that
valley which thou didst behold so frightful for its
scorching flames and stiffening cold, is that place
wherein are tried and punished the souls of those
who, putting off the confession and amendment
of their evil deeds, at last, on the very point of
death, betake themselves to penance, and so go
forth out of the flesh ; but who nevertheless,
ing the Catholic belief in purgatory, are quite as strong as St.
Beda's ; for this second glory of the Anglo-Saxon Church truly
says : Sunt ergo quidam justi minutis quibusdam peccatis obnoxii,
quia sedificaverunt supra fundamentum, quod est Christus, fcenum,
ligna, stipulas quse illius ignis (purgatorii) ardore purgantur, a
quibus mundati, seternse felicitatis digni efficientur gloria. Alcuin,
De Fide Trinitatis, iii. 21, p. 736 [P.Z>., ci. 53].
2 4 o THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS *
since they had confession and penance even at
their death, are all to reach the kingdom of
heaven at the day of doom. But the prayers,
the alms-deeds, the fasts of the living, and more
especially the celebration of Masses, help many of
them in such a way, that they are set free even
before that day of judgment. That flame-belch-
ing and stinking pit which thou sawest, is the
mouth itself of hell, into which whosoever but
once shall have fallen, will never thence be
liberated for all eternity. That flowery place,
wherein thou didst see that most beautiful band
of young folks so bright and gladsome, is the
one wherein are received the souls of such as
go indeed out of the body in good works, not,
however, of such perfection as to merit to be
immediately let into the kingdom of heaven, but
who, however, at the day of judgment will all
enter into the vision of Christ and the joys of
the heavenly kingdom. But (292) whosoever are
perfect in every word, deed, and thought, as soon
as they leave the body, go immediately into the
kingdom of heaven, in the neighbourhood whereof
is that place where thou didst catch the sound of
mellow song, together with the odour of sweet-
ness and a brilliancy of light." '
The creed of any people will always make its
impress upon their customs ; and in no place is
56 Beda, Hist. Eccl. v. 12 [see P.L., xcv. 247-252].
PART I. CHAP. VII. 241
this truth better shown than in this country.
A strong belief of theirs in the existence of a
middle state, for the cleansing of such souls as
died under the guilt of the less heinous kinds
of sin, or had not been sufficiently afflicted here
for those greater faults of which the everlasting
punishment hereafter had been mercifully for-
given, led all our forefathers to " holy and
wholesom thoughts " : hence do we behold why
THE ANGLO-SAXONS FOLLOWED MANY RELI-
GIOUS PRACTICES GROUNDED ON THE
DOCTRINE OF PURGATORY.
i. Most anxious were the living, to whatever
rank of society they belonged, to get from their
friends, among the clergy in particular, a promise
that after death their souls should be prayed for :
warlike kings and learned clerks equally sought
to have themselves, when dead, remembered in
the Mass as often as it was offered up by their
sacerdotal (293) survivors; 57 and the sick man's
57 Sed et me defuncto pro redemptione animre mese, quasi
familiaris et vernaculi vestri orare, et missas facere, et nomen
meum inter vestra scribere dignemini. Such are the words of St.
Beda, which he addresses " Patri Eadfrido episcopo, sed et omni
congregation! fratrum, qui in Lindisfarnensi insula Christo
deserviunt," (Beda, Vita Prosaica S. Cutliberti Prefatio [P.L., xciv.
734 and 733]). Many other instances might be brought : Ethelbert,
King of Kent, thus asks for his soul, when he shall be dead, the
prayers of St. Boniface, the Anglo-Saxon apostle of Germany :
Totis visceribus mentis efflagito, ut . . . multis nos ac crebris
orationum tuarum suffragiis adjuvare digneris . . . tarn dum
VOL. II. Q
242 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
last words often were that he might not be
forgotten over that holy sacrifice. 58
2. What they so earnestly wished to have done
for themselves after death, they never, while they
lived, missed doing in behalf of others ; and
whenever kinsman, or friend, or even their low-
liest hind (294) was taken out of this world, they
immediately besought Almighty God, and called
upon all their neighbours far and wide to beseech
Him, for mercy and forgiveness on the poor soul
so lately flown from earth and carried to his
awful doom ; 59 they hied them to the church, and
bade the name of him or her just dead to be
whispered in the ear of the priest as he stood
sacrificing at the altar, that for the departed an
especial mention might be made over the holy
victim. 60
adhuc esse me in hac mortal! carne audias, quam etiam post
obitum meum, &c. Epist. Ixxxiii. Archiep. Bonifacio Ethilbertus
rex Cantise, S. Bonifacii Op., Giles, i. 177.
58 While reading the death-scene of St. Beda, sketched for, and
sent to an absent schoolfellow by Cuthberht (cf. p. 238), a faithful
and loving disciple of that great master, every one will be touched
with its holiness, as well as with the beautiful and feeling strokes
of its writer, who tells us, among other things, of the dying saint :
allocutus est unumquemque, monens et obsecrans pro eo Missas
et orationes diligenter facere, quod illi libenter se facturos spo-
ponderunt. Beda, Hist. Eccl. (Prolegomena) [P.L., xcv. 16].
59 Similiter deposco, ut sanctarum missarum oblationes offerre
digneris pro anima mei propinqui, qui mihi prse cseteris charus
era t. Bugga Bonifacio, & Bonifacii Opera, ed. Giles (Londini,
1844), i. 28.
60 " Precor," inquit, " domine mi episcope, memineris ad Missas
Hadwaldi mei (hoc enim viro erat nomen), qui heri cadendo de
arbore defunctus est." Such was the petition of the Abbess
^Elflaede to St. Cuthberht (Vita S. Cuthberti, cap. xxxiv. [P.L, y
PART I. CHAP. VII. 243
If nothing more remained in illustration of the
custom among the Anglo-Saxons of praying for
the dead but the beautiful story told by St.
Beda of the two brothers, Imma the soldier
and Tunna the (295) priest, it would have been
quite enough in itself to show us what was the
teaching of the Anglo-Saxon Church, and the
devotional practice of her people concerning pur-
gatory. Imma tells the nobleman who kept him
prisoner: "I have a brother a priest in my own
province, and I know that, thinking me to be
killed, he often says Mass for me ; and were I
in the other life, my soul would be loosened from
punishment through his intercession." Tunna,
it must not be forgotten, was, as a priest, ordained
" to make oblations for the living and the dead." 61
xciv. 774]. The same circumstance is mentioned by a somewhat
older but unknown writer, more minutely thus : Ilia (abbatissa
Elfleda) vero statim ad episcopum sanctum (Cuthbertum) cucurrit,
dedicantique eo die ibi ecclesiam, et missam cantantibus tune in
eo loco, ubi dicitur, " Memento, Domine, famulorum :J anhelans
in basilicam pervenit, nomenque fratris, quod dicebatur Hadpuald,
indicavit. Vita S. Cuthberti, auct. anon., ed. Stevenson (1841),
p. 281.
61 Habebat enirn (juvenis Imma) germanum fratrem, cui nomen
erat Tunna, presbyterum et abbatem monasterii qui cum eum
in pugna peremtum audiret, venit quaere re si forte corpus ejus
invenire posset, inventumque alium illi per omnia simillimum,
putavit ipsum esse, quern ad monasterium suum deferens honori-
fice sepelivit et pro absolutione animse ejus ssepius missas facere
curavit. Quarum celebratione factum est quod dixi, ut nullus eum
posset vincire, quin continue solveretur. Interea comes, qui eum
tenebat, mirari et interrogare coepit quare ligari non posset, an
forte literas solutorias, de qualibus fabulse ferunt, apud se haberet,
propter quas ligari non posset. At ille respondit, nihil se talium
artium nosse ; " sed habeo fratrem," inquit, " presbyterum in mea
244 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(296) 3. In all monasteries, whenever any one
belonging to it died, the death-knell was rung ;
and (297) though it were the depth of night, no
sooner heard they that well-known bell swinging
forth slowly and sadly its mournful sounds, than
all the inmates of that house arose and knelt
down by their bedsides, or hurried to the church
provincia, et scio quia ille me interfectum putans pro me missas
crebras facit ; et si nunc in alia vita essem, ibi anima mea per
intercessiones ejus solveretur a poenis."
A tertia autem hora, quando missae fieri solebant, saepissime
vincula solvebantur.
Qui post hsec patriam reversus atque ad suum fratrem per-
veniens, replica vit ex ordine cuncta, quae sibi ad versa, quaeve in
adversis solatia provenissent ; cognovitque, referente illo, illis
maxime temporibus sua fuisse vincula soluta, quibus pro se mis-
sarum fuerant celebrata sollemnia. Sed et alia, quse periclitanti
ei commoda contigissent et prospera, per intercessionem fraternam
et oblationem hostiae salutaris ccelitus sibi fuisse donata intellexit.
Multique hsec a prasfato viro audientes accensi sunt in fide ac
devotione pietatis ad orandum, vel ad eleemosynas faciendas, vel
ad offerendas Domino victimas sacrae oblationis, pro ereptione
suorum, qui de seculo migraverant ; intellexerunt enim quia sacri-
ficium salutare ad redemtionem valeret et animae et corporis sempi-
ternam (Beda, Hist. Eccl., iv. 22). The writer of the Anglo-Saxon
homilies, JElfric, brings forth the whole of this passage in one
of his discourses, headed " a hortatory sermon on the efficacy of
the holy Mass," which he thus begins : We read in many places
in holy writings that the holy Mass greatly benefits both the
living and the dead, as Beda the wise doctor has written in the
Historia Anglorum of a certain thane. Homilies of the Anglo-
Saxon Church, ed. Thorpe, ii. 357.
Alcuin mentions the same miracle, in the following verses :
Est mihi sed frater devoti pectoris, inquit,
Quern scio, quod Christo pro me solemnia cantat
Missarum, quoniam me putat esse peremptum.
Et si forte animam nunc altera vita teneret,
Illius ilia preces propter missasque frequentes
Libera, credo, foret, pcenasque evaderet omnes.
Poema de Pont, et Saudis Ecc. Eboracensis [P.L., ci. 829].
PART I. CHAP. VII. 245
and prayed for the soul of the brother or sister
that moment gone. In telling how Begu, within
the minchery at Hackness, was miraculously given
to know of St. Hilda's death, miles away, at
Whitby, Venerable Beda says: " Asleep in the
sisters' dormitory, that nun heard on a sudden
upon the air the well-known sound of that bell
by which they were accustomed to be wakened
and called to prayers when any of them was
summoned out of this world. Getting up im-
mediately, she ran, much frightened, to Frigyth,
the virgin who was then set over the monastery
instead of an abbess, and wailing and weeping,
and with many a long-drawn sigh, told her that
the mother of them all Hilda the abbess had
departed this life. When Frigyth heard this,
she aroused all the sisterhood, and calling them
to church, bade them to say prayers and psalms
for their mother's soul ; and after they had spent
the remainder of the night in doing so, there
came, at the earliest dawn, some of the brother-
hood from the place whereat she died, and told
them of her decease." 62 Such a pious exercise
62 Haec (Begu) tune in dormitorio sororum pausans audivit subito
in aere notum campanee sonum, quo ad orationes excitari vel con-
vocari solebant, cum quis eorum de seculo fuisset evocatus. . . .
Statimque exsurgens nimio timore perterrita cucurrit ad virginem,
quse tune monasterio abbatissse vice prsefuit, cui nomen erat
Frigyd, fletuque ac lacrimis multum perfusa ac suspiria longa
trahens nunciavit matrem illarum omnium Hild abbatissam jam
migrasse de seculo. . . . Quod cum ilia audisset suscitavit cunctas
sorores, et in ecclesiam convocatas orationibus ac psalmis pro
anima matris operam dare monuit. Quod cum residue noctis
246 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
was not confined (298) to religious houses, for the
Council of Calchuth, or Chalk-hythe, ordained that
at a bishop's death, throughout every diocese each
church should toll its bell and call together all
God's servants to sing thirty psalms for the soul
of the departed. 63
Of all those religious rites which the Anglo-
Saxon Church bade her ministers to do for the
dying and the dead, we still have the whole course
laid down in that precious liturgical codex which
once belonged to Bishop Leofric. From this manu-
script we learn, that no sooner did those about the
sick man find he was reaching his end in this
world, than the holy Eucharist was brought and
(299) given to him, though he were not fasting,
but had already eaten food that day. After his
communion, either priests or deacons read to him
all those passages in the Gospels which tell of our
Lord's bitter throes and yielding up the ghost
upon the hard bed of the cross. Just before,
however, the dying man breathed his last, he was
laid upon sackcloth, spread for that purpose upon
the floor, and strewed with ashes : 64 then were
tempore diligenter agerent, venerunt primo diluculo fratres, qui
ejus obitum nunciarent, a loco ubi defuncta est. Beda, Hist. EccL,
iv. 23.
63 Jubetur . . . ut quandocunque aliquis ex numero episcoporum
migraverit de seculo . . . statim per singulas parochias in singulis
quibusque ecclesiis, pulsato signo, omnis famulorum Dei coetus ad
basilicam conveniat, ibique pariter xxx psalmos pro defuncti anima
decantent. Synodus Calchuthensis, cap. x., in Wilkins, Cone., i. 171.
64 Thus died stretched upon the floor of his cell the holy St.
Beda : Et sic in pavimento suee casulsB, decantans " Gloria Patri,
PART I. CHAP. VII. 247
sung the seven (300) penitential psalms and the
litany, wherein which, after all the saints' names
et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto," cum Spiritum Sanctum nominasset,
spiritum e corpore exhalavit ultimum, ac sic regna migravit ad
coelestia (Epist. Cuthberhti Guthwino [P.L., xcv. 17, 18]). After the
coming of the Normans, the same custom was still kept up in this
country, for Archbishop Lanfranc thus speaks of it : segro in agonia
posito, et jam si ita visum fuerit morituro, famulus qui ad hoc
deputatus est cilicium expandat, et supra illud ad mensuram
longitudinis et latitudinis quam ipsum cilicium habet, signum
crucis de cineribus faciat, morientemque fratrem desuper ponat
(Decreta Lanfranci pro Ord. Bened., cap. xxiv., in Reyner, Apost.
Bened., App., p. 249). The miraculous cure, during Archbishop
Lanfranc's primacy, of Edward (who, being archdeacon of London,
took the Benedictine habit at Canterbury), gives an apt illustration
of the Anglo-Saxon ritual for the dying : Ille juxta quod putabatur,
in suprema hora constitutus, ad terram super cilicium positus est.
Accurrentes fratres septem psalmos pcenitentiales et letanias pro
obitu ejus ex more decantabant. Igitur in letaniis cum dicerent,
S. Dunstane intercede pro anima ejus, et id ipsum pro spe subven-
tionis quam in ipso dulcius habent, iterarent ; coepit seger pene
defunctus respirare, et in circumstantes pio intuitu oculos dirigere,
&c. (Mirac. S. Dunstani, in Mabillon, AA. SS. B. vii. 693). The
sackcloth and ashes upon which the dying used to be laid are
thus noticed, just after the form for blessing the latter, in a
Roman " Ordo," very likely written out in the eleventh century :
Benedictio cineris. Deus pietatis, &c. Tune extendatur in terra
cilicium, et de cinere benedicto super illud a sacerdote fiat crux,
et aquai benedictae aspersio ; et super illud ponatur infirmus :
et similiter fiat crux et aspersio super pectus illius, et dicat ei sic :
" Recordare quia cinis es et in cinerem reverteris." Ait rursus ei
sacerdos : " Placent tibi cinis et cilicium ad testimonium pceni-
tentise tuse ante Dominum in die judicii ? " Resp. " Placent "
(Ordo Romanus X., in Mabillon, Mus. ItaL, ii. 115). Gervin, who
died abbot of St. Riquier's in Ponthieu, A.D. 1074, when about to
expire, was carried into the church, and breathed his last stretched
upon sackcloth before an altar : manu propria innuit eis ut fer-
retur in ecclesiam. At fratres eum accipientes sustulerunt, et
strato cilicio ante sancti Joannis Baptistae, quod vicinum erat,
altare posuerunt, &c. (Ghron. Centulen., iv. 35, ed. DAchery,
Spicil.^ ii. 353 [P.L., clxxiv. 1359]) ; thus, too, St. Louis, King
of France, yielded up his soul to God : " brought unto saynt
Denys, where he lyinge a season sycke, and knewe that the owre
248 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
had been gone through, (301) immediately was
said that beautiful anthem, Subvenite " Come to
his help ye saints of God, meet him all ye angels
of the Lord, taking his soul and bearing it unto
the presence of the Most High." 65 (302) When
the lifeless body had been washed and the prayers
of deth was nere, comaunded suche as were about hym y fc they
shulde spredde a tapette upon the grounde, and than laye hym
upon the sayde tapet, and upon hym to be made a crosse of asshes,
which all was doon accordynge to his cumandement, and there he
so lay tyll he dyed. Fabyan's New Chronicles of England, &c., p. 263,
ed. Ellis, London, 1811.
65 Incipit ordo in agenda mortuorum.
Mox autem ut euni uiderint ad exitum propinquare communi-
candus est de sacrificio sancto, etiam si comedisset ipsa die, quia
communio erit ei defensor et adiutor in resurrectione iustorum,
et ipsa eum resuscitabit. Post communionem perceptam, legende
sunt passiones dominicse ante corpus infirmi, seu a presbyteris, seu
a diaconibus, quousque egrediatur anima de corpore. Primitus
enim ut anima de corpore egressa fuerit, ponatur super cilicium et
canantur vn psalmi poenitentiales, et agenda est Isetania prout
tempus fuerit. Finitis autem sanctorum nominibus, mox in-
cipiatur R. Subvenite. See Leofric Missal [Warren, 198]. For this
and other ritual and devotional purposes, those parts of the Gos-
pels descriptive of the passion and death of our Redeemer were
written out so as to form a little book by themselves. Of such
codices belonging to the Anglo-Saxon epoch a few are still to be
found in our libraries : among the literary treasures of the British
Museum there is " Passio Christi, litteris Saxonicis, cent, viii.,"
marked, Harley, 2966. This custom was kept up, both here and
abroad, until a very late period, and most books of Hours, in
manuscript or printed, have the " Passio Domini nostri Jehu
Christi : " in a small manuscript book of Hours, written and
illuminated in France quite at the end of the fifteenth century,
and in my possession, and in the Salisbury Hare Beatissime Vir-
ginis Marie, printed A.D. 1526, of which a fine copy now lies before
me, the " Passion " is according to St. John : there are, however,
examples in the sixteenth of the old collection of all the evan-
gelists' history of it, and such is the manuscript " Passio Christi,
cent, xvi.," in the Museum, Harley, 2978.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 249
for that part of the ceremony been said, 66 it was
clad in seemly garments, bespeaking the rank
and condition in this world of the individual, 67
06 Orationes quando inciperint corpus lavare. Leofric Missal,
200.
67 A bishop, by the Anglo-Saxon ritual, was arrayed for burial
in all his episcopal sacrificial ornaments : upon his breast was
placed a small particle of the blessed Eucharist, folded up in a
corporal, or enclosed in a chalice : the particle most likely had
been first steeped for a short time in the sacred blood at Mass.
After being wrapped well up within a winding-sheet, or in a cere-
cloth, the body was laid in a stone coffin, with a hollow in the
upper end scooped out, so that the head might fit into it. An
unknown, but an older writer than St. Beda, thus describes the
burial of the great St. Cuthberht : Toto corpore lavato, capite
sudario circumdato, oblatis super sanctum pectus positis, vesti-
menta sacerdatalia indutus, in obviam Christi calceamentis suis
prseparatis, in sindone cerata curatus, animam habens cum Christo
gaudentem, corpus incorruptibile, requiescens et quasi dormiens in
sepulchre lapideo, honorabiliter in basilica deposuerunt ( Vita S.
Cuthberti, auctore anonymo, ed. Stevenson, Ven. Bedse Opera Hist,
minora, p. 281). Eleven years afterwards, the grave was opened,
and from off the feet of the saint were taken the " ficones novi
quibus calceatus est " (ibid., p. 282). St Cuthberht himself thus
expresses his own wishes regarding his burial : Cum autem Deu's
susceperit animam meam, sepelite me in hac mansione juxta
oratorium meum ad meridiem, contra orientalem plagam sanctse
crucis quam ibidem erexi. Est autem ad aquilonalem ejusdem
oratorii partem sarcophagum terrse cespite abditum, quod olim
mihi Cudda venerabilis abbas donavit. In hoc meum corpus re-
ponite, involventes in sindone quam invenietis istic. St. Beda,
Vita S. Cuthbercti [P.L., xciv. 777]. To this day the villagers in
most parishes throughout England feel a strong dislike to have
any of their kindred buried on the north side of the church ; they
still wish to have their grave on the south side : as he tells us, in
his Hist, of Hawsted, p. 38, Sir John Cullum tried, but all in vain
(c. A.D. 1762), to get the people of that parish to bury their friends
on the north side.
Of the vestments found upon St. Cuthberht's body when his
grave was again explored (A.D. 1 104), a description from Reginald
may be seen i. 322, of this work. Besides this, an unknown
writer who has left an account of St. Cuthberht's body being
removed into a new shrine (A.D. 1054), gives us a good description
2 5 o THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
and then carried with religious solemnity to (303)
church : 68 on the road thither, such as went with
of the beautiful Anglo-Saxon chalice which they found on opening
the saint's coffin : Sed et alia sicut fuerant, inventa cum illo re-
condiderunt . . . et quse sacerdotem decebant altare videlicet
argenteum, corporalia cum patina, etiam calicem parvum quidem,
sed materia et opere pretiosum cuius inferior pars figuram leonis
ex auro purissimo habens, gestat dorso lapidem onichinum arte
pulcherrima cavatum, quique ex studio artificis ita inhaeret leoni,
ut manu facile possit in gyrum verti, nee tamen inde auferri (Hist.
Translationis S. Cutliberti, in A A. SS. Martii, iii. 140). Such being
the high state of the silversmith's craft among the Anglo-Saxons,
no wonder their workmen in the precious metals should have been
sought for by Italy to make her shrines and decorate her altars,
as we have shown elsewhere in these pages, i. 232.
Besides this instance of St. Cuthberht's, we have that of another
Anglo-Saxon bishop's body clad in sacred vestments, found in
Dorchester Church, and supposed to be St. Birinus : Corpus epis-
copi integrum cum duplici stola, et infula rubra e panno serico,
atque cum cruce e metallo confecta pectori eius imposita : denique
cum calice ad umbilicum eius posito.
On opening the grave again shortly afterwards, the same writer
tells us : Inventus quoque est annulus, itemque crux plumbea
super pectus ejus, calix parvus, particulae vestimentorum eius,
duse stolae, sed non integrse. Inventa est etiam crumena qusedam
serica super pectus eius, itemque ex una parte auro contexta :
in qua omnes asserebant pallam supra memoratam cum Christi
corpore. Vita S. Birini ab auctore anonymo post A.D. 1227 scripta,
in Surius, Vit., 3 Decembris, p. 687.
Not only bishops, but others who had given themselves to God
in this world by following a religious life, were clothed in new
garments for their burial. When the abbess of Ely, ^Edilthryda's
body, after lying in the earth sixteen years, was taken up, all that
virgin-queen's array in which she had been buried looked quite
fresh ; still, however, the corpse was dressed by the nuns in new
clothing : Sed et linteamina omnia, quibus involutum erat corpus,
integra apparuerunt . . . Laverunt igitur virgines corpus, et
novis indutum vestibus intulerunt in ecclesiam, &c. Beda, Hist.
Eccl., iv. 19.
The same custom was practised towards the laity : hence
various precious ornaments, showing by their workmanship their
wearers must have held the Christian belief, besides brooches
and armlets of gold, have been brought to light whenever the
PART I. CHAP. VII. 251
it sang anthems, but in particular the psalm
Miserere ; m (304) and there was it left until Mass
grave of an Anglo-Saxon thane has been found and happens to be
examined.
These Anglo-Saxon rites for the dying and the dead were kept
up among the monks, as we may see by the following extract
from the rule which St. Dunstan had himself revised for the
monasteries of this country : Frater autem ille infirmus si senserit
suam crevisse imbecillitatem. indicetur hoc conventui a fratre
illius custode. Ex eo ergo quotidie post matutinalem missam,
sacerdos casula exutus cum reliquis illius ministris missse,
Eucharistiam ferentes pnecedentibus cereis et turibulo, cum
omni congregatione, eant ad visitandum infirmum canentes
psalmos poenitentiales consequente litania, et orationibus ac
unctione olei prima tantum die ; demum communicetur. Quod
si innrmitas leuigata fuerit, intermittatur et hoc, sin alias,
prosequatur visitatio usque ad exitum.
Eo igitur in extremis agente, pulsetur tabula conveniantque
omnes ad tuendum exitum eius et initient commendationem
animse, Subvenite sancti Domini, et reliqua iuxta ordinem commenda-
tionis. Exempto autem homine, lavetur corpus a quibus iussum
fuerit : lotum induatur mundis vestimentis, id est interrula,
cuculla, caligis, calceis, cuiuscumque sit ordinis, nisi vero sacerdos
fuerit circumdetur ei stola super cucullam si ita ratio dictaverit ;
inde defertur in ecclesiam, psallentibus cunctis, motisque omnibus
signis ; quod si ante lucem, nocte, aut finitis tenebris in matutino
obierit si sepulturse impendenda prseparari possunt ante refec-
tionem f rat rum, sepeliatur peractis missarum celebrationibus ; sin
minus, ordinentur fratres qui sine intermissione psalmodise vacent,
residentes circa corpus die noctuque sequenti, donee mane facto,
corpus terrse commendetur. Consummatis omnibus quse sepul-
turse officio debentur ibidem incipienfces septem pcenitentiae psal-
mos, revertantur ad ecclesiam, et prostrati coram sancto altari
finiant eosdem psalmos pro fratre defuncto : dehinc, per septem
continuos dies plenarie agatur vigilia, offerentibus cunctis ad
matutinalem missam, et omnibus horis regularibus finitis, unum
ex prsescriptis prostrati canant psalmum, sequente oratione.
Exinde usque ad trigesimum diem, more solito, cum tribus lec-
tionibus agatur vigilia offerente uno choro ad missam. Trigesimo
vero die iterum plenarie, his tarn xxx diebus, quotidie sacerdotum
unusquisque secretis oratorii locis specialiter pro eo missas cele-
bret : diaconi vero psalterium ex integro ; subdiaconi quoque
quinquagenarium devotissime psallant, si autem occupati una die
252 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
could be offered up, and those among the dead
man's friends (305) and kinsfolks who wished
had come and brought the soul-shot, as their
gift at the offertory of that (306) holy sacrifice. 70
After Mass was done, the priest walked down
and stood by the bier whereon lay (307) stretched
the corpse, over which he pronounced the usual
prayers and absolutions. 71 Bishops, kings, and
distinguished personages were almost always in-
terred in a stone coffin, 7 ' 2 and within the church
nequiverint, alia persolvant. Mittatur etiam epistola ad vicina
quseque monasteria eiusdem depositionis denunciatura diem.
llegularis Concordia, in Reyner, Apost. Bened., Append., p. 93.
68 In the Bayeux tapestry, there is figured the burial of King
Edward the Confessor. The royal corpse is within a covered bier,
which two men carry on their shoulders ; persons in ordinary
clothing, but known by the tonsure on the head to be clerks, walk
behind it ; and two little boys, holding hand-bells, which they are
ringing, are by the side. The " vn handbellan " which Bishop
^Ethelwold bequeathed, along with many other ecclesiastical
appliances, to Medeshamstede (MS. Societ. Ant.,6o,i. 39, b), as well
as those " xn handbella " left to Exeter Cathedral by its bishop
Leofric (Thorpe, Cod. Dip. Anglo-Sax., iv. 275), and the "mi hand-
bellan," enumerated in the list of Anglo-Saxon church-ornaments
in a fine Evangelisterium belonging to York Cathedral, may have
been, among other liturgical uses, so employed at funerals, very
likely to awaken the neighbourhood's attention as the procession
went by, and ask the people's prayers for the soul of him or her
whose body they saw then going to be buried.
69 Et post lauationem corporis deferatur in ecclesiam cum anti-
phonis et responsoriis, et cum adpropinquauerint ecclesise, cantent
psalmum Miserere et Kyrrie eleison, &c. Leofric Missal, 200.
70 In ecclesia autem requiescat corpus defuncti quousque pro
eius anima missa celebretur, et offeratur ab omnibus quibus visum
fuerit. Ibid.
71 Post missam autem, stat sacerdos iuxta feretrum ubi corpus
est, et dicat orationem hanc. . . . Et sic leuatur corpus de ecclesia,
et deportetur usque ad locum sepulturse cum antiphona Aperite
mihi portas . . . et ponitur in sepulchre. Ibid.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 253
(308) itself; 73 but the great bulk of the people
had coffins of wood 74 and a grave in the church-
yard, or some (309) lonely spot especially hallowed
72 St. Cuthberht was buried in a stone coffin : "Cum autem,"
said the dying saint, " Deus susceperit animam meam, sepelite me
in hac mansione juxta oratorium meum ad meridiem, contra
orientalem plagam sanctae crucis quam ibidem erexi. Est autem
. . . sarcophagum terrse cespite abditum, quod olim mihi Cudda
venerabilis abbas donavit. In hoc meum corpus reponite, invol-
ventes in sindone quam invenietis istic" (Beda, Vita S. Cutli-
berti [P.L., xciv. 777]). Sebbi, who had laid aside the crown of
the East Saxons for the monk's cowl, was enclosed in a stone
coffin, as we learn from St. Beda : Cujus corpori tumulando prae-
paraverunt sarcophagum lapideum (Hist. ttccl.,iv. ii). The new
coffin provided for the holy virgin ^Edilthryda's corpse, when it
was translated into Ely Minster, was of stone : Placuit abbatissse
levari ossa ejus, et in locello novo posita in ecclesiam transferri ;
jussitque quosdam fratribus quaerere lapidem, de quo locellum
in hoc facere possent (ibid., 19). The shape of the Anglo-Saxon
coffin was different from ours, being broad at the head, narrow
at the foot, and straight-sided, as we learn from the venerable
historian of those times : Ita aptum corpori virginis sarcophagum
inventum est, ac si ei specialiter prseparatum fuisset ; et locus
quoque capitis seorsum fabrefactus ad mensuram capitis illius
aptissime figuratus apparuit (ibid.). From the well-written ac-
count of that highly interesting discovery made, not long ago,
at Pytchley, Northamptonshire, of a burial-ground with graves
of not merely the Anglo-Saxon, but of the Christian-British
period, we find that some such a hollow for the head, particularly
used to be cut out of the live stone by the British Christians
for their dead. Archaeological Journal, iii. 1 1 1.
73 St. Austin, and the archbishops who followed him in the see
of Canterbury, were, for many years afterwards, buried in the
church of SS. Peter and Paul, hard by that metropolitan city
(Beda, Hist. Eccl., ii. 3). Indeed, it was expressly built that the
bishops of Canterbury, and the kings of Kent, might be buried in
it (ibid., i. 33). The bishops were interred apart, by themselves,
in the northern aisle; the kings and queens, in the southern
aisle, dedicated to God in honour of St. Martin : In porticu illius
(ecclesise AA. Petri et Pauli) aquilonali decenter sepultum est;
in qua etiam sequentium archiepiscoporum omnium sunt corpora
tumulata (ii. 3). Defunctus est rex ^Edilberct . . . atque in
porticu sancti Martini intra ecclesiam beatorum apostolorum Petri
254 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
for Christian sepulture. 75 In each Anglo-Saxon
burial-ground stood (310) a tall stone cross, gene-
rally wrought all over with knots and sculpture ; 76
et Pauli sepultus est, ubi et Bercta condita est (ibid., v.). The
"porticus"of St. Beda means our "aisle," not our "porch"; for
it was "intra ecclesiam," within the church itself.
74 In her meekheartedness, the royal ^Edilthryda desired, and
was buried in, a wooden coffin : Ut ipsa jusserat, non alibi quam
in medio eorum, juxta ordinem quo transierat, ligneo in locello
sepulta (Beda, Hist. Eccl., iv. 19). From this it would seem that
the nuns of Ely were all buried in the churchyard, and in wooden
coffins. Sometimes did the dying man have placed close by his
bedside the coffin in which he was to be buried : Intra vit ergo illo
episcopus, et vidit eum, moestis omnibus, jam morti proximum,
positumque loculum juxta eum in quo sepeliendus poni deberet
(ibid., v. 5). In these instances it is reasonable to think that
the coffin was not of such a heavy material as stone, but of wood.
75 Not always within, or by the side of, a church was it that
the Anglo-Saxons buried their dead ; for they had burial-grounds
hallowed in honour of St. Michael, the guardian of souls, and of
other saints, situated in retired spots, as we learn from the life of
St. John of Beverley : Est mansio quaedam secretior, nemore raro,
et vallo circumdata, non longe ab Hagustaldensi ecclesia . . .
habens coameterium sancti Michaelis archangeli, &c. (Beda, Hist
Eccl., v. 2). Those who, unhappily, had died impenitent, were
cast, like the drunken but clever smith spoken of by Beda, into
unhallowed ground, without mass, psalm, or prayer of any kind,
said for them : Sine viatico salutis obiit et corpus ejus in ultimis
est monasterii locis humatum (ibid., v. 14). The suicide's body
was forbidden to be buried in the churchyard, or any place of
clean sepulture : Si quis sponte seipsum occiderit armis vel qua-
cunque diaboli instigatione, non est permissum, ut pro tali
homine missa cantetur, vel cum aliquo psalmorum cantu corpus
terrse committatur, vel in mundo cemeterio jaceret sepultum.
Canons enacted under King Edgar, Ancient Laws, &c., of England, ed.
Thorpe, ii. 269.
76 The churchyard cross is particularly mentioned in St. Cuth-
berht's life, quoted just now (note 72, p. 253); and examples of
such a kind of cross, still spared to us, may be seen all over the
kingdom, more particularly throughout the midland and northern
counties : for instance, at Eyam and Bakewell, besides other
towns and villages, in Derbyshire ; at Wolverhampton, Stafford-
shire; and in the same county, at Checkley, where the shaft of
PART I. CHAP. VII. 255
a little cross of stone often (311) upreared itself at
the head of a grave, with a wish cut on it, in Kunic
letters, that the wayfarer would pray for the soul
of him whose body lay below ; 7T a cross, with the
same petition written round it, was marked upon
the small thin square stone set as a pillow 78
beneath the dead man's head (312) in his tomb ;
and a cross of wood, overspread with a sheathing of
gilt metal, was in some instances enclosed with
the corpse very likely on its breast and buried
together with it. 79
the old Anglo-Saxon cross is shattered into three pieces now
serving as head-stones to as many graves, which the hamlet's
tradition assigns to three bishops slain by the heathenish Danes.
Like crosses, at Bedale and Aycliffe, may be seen figured in the
Archaeological Journal, iii. 259, 260; as also that at Hawkswell.
Ibid., p. 259.
77 The small stone cross, measuring 3 ft. in height and i ft. 9 in.
in breadth, which was found A.D. 1807, while digging a grave in the
churchyard of St. Mary's, Lancaster, must have been of this sort ;
and if Professor Magnussen of Copenhagen's reading of its Runic
inscription may be trusted, it asks us to pray that Cynibald may
find rest (Arch. Journ., iii. 73) : [see picture in vol. iii.] ; and for
the same purpose was set up the second of the two crosses at
Aycliffe, 4| ft. in height and 15 in. in width. Ibid., p. 261.
78 That the Anglo-Saxons put pillows of some kind or another
in the coffin, under the dead man's head, we learn from a passage
in Beda, while describing the miracle which took place at the
burial of Sebbi, king of the East Saxons : In vent um est sarco-
phagum illud congruae longitudinis ad mensuram corporis, adeo
ut a parte capitis etiam cervical posset interponi, &c. (Hist. EccL,
iv. n). Under this pillow itself, if not indeed on many occasions
instead of it, was placed a small stone, generally square, though
sometimes round, but always bearing on it the cross's holy sign,
between the branches of which ran an inscription, written half in
Runic half in Latin, to tell the name of, and ask a prayer for, the
individual whose head it propped. Of such burial pillow-stones,
some that were found at Hartlepool are figured in the Archxologia,
vol. xxvi., plate 52, p. 480.
256 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
Throughout all these doleful services, we hear
how feelingly and soothingly the Anglo-Saxon
ritual spoke Catholic belief: while it prayed its
prayers for peace and forgiveness, and the bright
light of God's countenance on him or her whom
death had carried off, it assured the living that
the souls departed of their righteous brethren, and
holy, spotless, fellow-servants, already dwelt in the
fullest happiness of heaven with the Lord ; and
that, while to Him alone belonged the power of
(313) healing the soul after death, for us was it to
cry unto His goodness and mercy in behalf of
those who had gone before us, with the stain of
smaller sins about them. 80 Hence was it, that
into the mouth of the priest, while offering up
79 The metal cross found upon the bishop's breast at Dorchester
is mentioned in note 16, p. 147. A few years ago, I was shown a
very curious cross, evidently of the Anglo-Saxon period, of wood,
but neatly covered with thin leaves of gilt copper, and which had
been found in digging a grave in the churchyard of (I think) East
Farley, near Maidstone, Kent. It was little more than a foot in
length, and must have been used for the purpose described in the
text.
80 The Omtiones in the Agenda Mortuorum, to be found in Leofric's
Missal, lay down this doctrine of the Catholic Church very clearly :
Deus apud quern mortuorum spiritus uiuunt, et in quo electorum
anime, deposito carnis onere, plena felicitate Isetantur, prsesta
supplicantibus nobis ut anima famuli tui illius, quse temporali per
corpus uisionis huius luminis caruit uisu, eeterne illius lucis solatio
potiatur. Non eum tormentum mortis adtingat, non dolor hor-
rende uisionis afficiat, non pcenalis timor excruciet, non reorum
proxima catena constringat, sed, concessa sibi delictorum omnium
venia, optata quietis consequatur gaudia repromissa. Per.
Ibid., 202.
Deus, cui soli competit medicinam prsestare post mortem, prsesta
quesumus ut anima famuli tui illius, terrenis exuta contagiis in
tue redemptionis parte numeretur. Per. Ibid.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 257
the unbloody sacrifice for the dead, the Anglo-
Saxon ritual put a form of supplication to be
varied according to the condition in this life and
the sex of the departed : besides this, it bade the
priesthood to call down Heaven's forgiveness, not
only on the souls of those for whom they were
bound to pray especially by name, but also upon
all whose bodies lay buried in the graves about
their churches. 81
(314) 4. But the wishes of the Anglo-Saxons to
go after, as it were, the souls of the dead and help
them in another world by the prayers they put up,
and the good works they did for them in this, did
not halt here. Like their fellow-Catholics of by-
gone times, or those who dwelt at the period in
other parts of Christendom, they took care to keep
81 Missa super episcopum defunctum.
Ad Com. His sacrifices quesumus, omnipotens deus, purgata
anima et spiritu famuli tui illius episcopi ad indulgentiam et
refrigerium sempiternum pervenire mereatur. Per. Leofric
Missal, 195.
Missa pro defuncta femina.
His sacrifices, domine, animse famulee tuae illius, a peccatis
omnibus exuatur, sine quibus a culpa nemo liber existit ; ut per
hsec pise placationis officia perpetuam misericordiam consequatur.
Per. Ibid. 196.
Suscipe, domine, preces nostras pro anima famuli tui illius, ut si
quee ei maculae de terrenis contagiis adheserunt^ remissionis tuse
misericordia deleantur. Per. Ibid. 197.
In cymeteriis.
Deus, cuius miseratione animse fidelium requiescunt, famulis tuis
illis et illas (sic) uel omnibus hie in Christo quiescentibus da pro-
pitius ueniam peccatorum, ut a cunctis reatibus absoluti sine fine
Isetentur. Per eundem. Ibid. 198.
VOL. II. R
258 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
the " month's mind," as it is yet called, that is, to
have offered up the holy sacrifice of the Mass in a
more than usual solemn manner for the soul of a
deceased friend all through the month, but especi-
ally on the third, the seventh, and the thirtieth
day, immediately following his death ; S2 and no
82 In telling us of this ritual custom, Abp. Theodore assigns its
origin and meaning in the manner following : De commemoratione
defunctorum, vel de Missa pro eis, et cur in., vii., vel xxx., aut anni-
versarius dies ccelebretur.
Solemus memoriam mortuorum generaliter celebrare tercia, ac
septima, et tricesima die ... Purgatio mortui hominis per sacrificium
sacerdotis, tertia die et vn., congruit naturae humanse : peccatum
animae quae neglexit Dei cultum in cogitatione, vita, et in intel-
lectu, humiliter confitendo, offerimus Deo sacrincium tercia die,
ut ab his peccatis purgetur : similiter, peccatum quod per corpus
gessit, cupimus purgari in quarto die post tercium diem id est vii.
post mortem suam, quia corpus notissimis elementis subsistit.
Duobus modis committitur omne peccatum, aut faciendo ea quae
non debuimus facere, aut omittendo ea quae debuimus facere.
Omnia peccata quae egit et non debuit agere, deflemus usque ad
septimum diem in quo numero designatur universitas ; deinceps
usque ad tricesimum diem, rogamus et pro illis quse debuit facere
et non fecit. Seorsum vero rogamus pro anima et seorsum pro
corpore ; quando vero studeinus ut opera amicorum nostrorum sint
plena coram Deo; tricesimo die pro eis sacrincium offerimus . . . Missa
saecularium mortuorum ter in anno, tertia die, et vii. et xxx., quia
surrexit Dominus (tertia die), et vii. dies jejuna vere filii Israel pro
Saul, et xxx. dies . . . Moysen planxere. Theodore Arch. Cant.,
Liber Penitentialis, ii. 51, 52, 53; Ancient Laws and Institutes of
England, ed. Thorpe [Op. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, iii. 194].
St. Dunstan also speaks of the month's prayer, and of the service
on the ill., vii., and xxx. day : Dehinc (pro f rat re defuncto) per
septem continues dies plenarie agatur vigilia offerentibus cunctis
ad matutinalem missam, et omnibus horis regularibus unum ex
praescriptis (psalmis poenitentialibus) prostrati canant psalmum,
sequenti oratione : exinde usque ad trigesimum diem more solito
cum tribus lectionibus agatur vigilia offerente uno choro ad missam.
Trigesimo vero die, iterum plenarie, his tamen xxx. diebus quotidie
sacerdotum unusquisque secretis oratorii locis specialiter pro eo
missas celebret : diaconi vero psalterium ex integro, subdiaconi
PART I. CHAP. VII. 259
(315) doubt it was from a feeling wish on the side
of the legislature, to hinder the niggardness of
quoque quinquagenarium devotissime psallant, si autem occupati
una die nequiverint alia persolvant. Et agatur pro eo prima,
tertia, septima, trigesima dies plenarie, reliquis sub brevitate.
Regularis Concordia S. Dunstani Archiep. Cant, in Reyner, Apost.
Benedict, in Anglia; in Append., p. 93. Moreover, in one of the
provincial councils held in that part of Germany which our
countryman St. Boniface, and his Anglo-Saxon fellow-labourers,
had converted, there is a canon headed De trigesimis mortuorum,
which enacts thus : Fideles pro defunctis amicis jejunia et obla-
tiones triginta diebus adimpleri faciant. S. Boniface, Op., ed.
Giles, ii. 33. No wonder, then, we find the masses more particu-
larly for these three days, especially set forth in the oldest litur-
gical codices : in the Liber Sacramentorum S. Gregorii there is the
Missa in die depositionis defuncti, sive tertio, septimo, trigesimoque, ed.
Menard, p. 231 [P.L., Ixxviii. 217]. Exactly the same rubric is to
be found in the Leofric Missal, p. 197.
But the thirty days' prayer in behalf of the dead was used
throughout the Church, long before the conversion of the Anglo-
Saxons ; and several Fathers speak of it. St. Ephrem the Syrian
thus feelingly beseeches, in his last will, all his surviving friends
to say Mass for his soul : Fratres . . . comitamini me in oratione,
in psalmis et in oblationibus. Et quando diem trigesimum com-
plevero, mei memoriam, fratres, facite : mortui enim vivorum obla-
tionibus juvantur. ... Si autem Mathathiee filii . . . sicut in
Scripturis legistis per oblationes tamen eos a reatibus mundarunt,
qui in bello ceciderant, licet operibus suis Ethnici, suisque moribus
mali fuissent ; quanto magis sacerdotes filii Dei per sanctas suas
oblationes, et per linguarum suarum precationes debita mortuorum
condonabunt (S. Ephreem Syrus, in Test. Biblioth. Oriental! s, i. 143,
144). Leaving the east to come to the western part of Christendom,
we find the same practice mentioned by St. Ambrose : Ejus ergo
principis et proxime conclamavimus obitum, et nunc quadragesimam
celebramus, assistente sacris altaribus Honorio principe ; quia sicut
sanctus Joseph patri suo Jacob quadraginta diebus humationis
officia detulit, ita et hie Theodosio patri justa persolvit. Et quia
alii tertium diem et trigesimum, alii septimum et quadragesimum
observare consueverunt, quid doceat lectio, consideremus. S. Am-
brosius, De obitu Theodosii oratio, 3 [P.L., xvi. 1386].
Some of the most touching passages in the writings of St.
Ambrose are those in which he promises to pray and offer up
the Holy Sacrifice for the souls of the dead. Thus he consoles
2 6o THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
surviving (316) relatives from cheating the dead
out of the Church's services, that it recommended
Faustinus at his sister's death: Itaque non tarn deplorandam,
quam prosequendam orationibus reor : nee mcestificandam lacrymis
tuis, sed magis oblationibus animam ejus Domino ccmmendandam
arbitror (Epist. 39, 4 [P.I/., xvi. 1099] ). In behalf of his brother
Satyrus's soul, the holy bishop addresses the Almighty in these
words : Tibi nunc, omnipotens Deus, innoxiam commendo animam,
tibi hostiam meam offero : cape propitius ac serenus fraternum
munus, sacrificium sacerdotis (De excessu fratris sui Satyri, i. 80
[p. 1315]). Again he intercedes with God for the soul's rest of
his friend the Emperor Theodosius with all the holy warmth of
a Christian heart : Da requiem perfectam servo tuo Theodosio,
requiem illam quam prseparasti sanctis tuis. Illo convertatur anima
ejus, unde descendit ; ubi mortis aculeum sent ire non possit, ubi
cognoscat mortem hanc non naturse finem esse, sed culpse. . . .
Dilexi, et ideo persequor eum usque ad regionem vivorum, nee
deseram, donee fletu et precibus inducam virum, quo sua merita
vocant, in montein Domini sanctum ; ubi perennis vita, ubi cor-
ruptela nulla, nulla contagio, nullus gemitus, riullus dolor, nullum
consortium mor.tuorum, vera regio viventium, ubi mortale hoc
induat immortalitatem, et corruptibile hoc induat incorruptionem
(Oratio de obitu TheocL, 36 [p. 1397]). It must not be thought that
praying for the dead was a thing of mere choice, during the early
ages of the church ; so far is this from truth, that St. Epiphanius
puts down, as one among the heresies of which Arius was guilty,
the teaching of that heresiarch, that prayers for the dead were
idle, and of no avail. St. Epiphanius, Hxr., 75 [P.G., xlii. 514].
More than a century after St. Ambrose's time, St. Gregory the
Great notices this thirty days' prayer for the dead : Diu est quod
frater ille qui defunctus est in igne cruciatur, debemus ei aliquid
caritatis impendere, et eum inquantum possumus, ut eripiatur,
adjuvare. Vade itaque, et ab hodierna die diebus triginta con-
tinuis offerre pro eo sacrificium stude, ut nullus omnino prseter-
mittatur dies, quo pro absolutione illius hostia salutaris non
immoletur. Dialog., iv. 55 [P.L., Ixxvii. 421].
Though the liturgical thirty days' prayer for the departed soul
is much older than this great pontiff's times, there was a favourite
form of it, popularly known in England as St. Gregory's trental,
which lasted throughout the whole year, and consisted of the
following thirty masses, to be said, according to Salisbury Use,
in this manner: Si quis trigintale Sancti Gregorii celebrare dis-
posuerit: tune celebret tres missas de nativitate Domini: tres
PART I. CHAP. VII. 261
the dues for the (317) above purpose should be
paid before the corpse was buried. 83
(318) In common with their fellow-Catholics of
these our times, as well as with those of all ages
and in (319) every corner of the earth, the Anglo-
Saxons knew that the funeral cypress of hotter
climes, and their (320) own hardy evergreen yew-
de Epyphania Domini : tres de purificatione Beatse Mariee : tres
de annunciatione ejusdem : tres de resurrectione Dm : tres de
ascen. Domini : tres de Pente. : tres de Trinitate : tres de assump-
tione Beatse Marise Virginis : et tres de nativi. ejusdem ; itaquod
iste inisse celebrentur infra oct. dictorum festorum sicut in prima
die, &c. Et debent dici quotidie per annum " Placebo " et " Dirige,"
&c. (Missale ad Usum Sarum, fol. 53, reverse, Parisiis, apud Guliel-
mum Merlin, 1555) [Burntisland ed., p. 883*]. The whole of this
Sarum rubric has been thus translated and quoted by Becon :
Thre masses of the Nativity of our Lord. Thre masses of the
Epiphanie of our Lord. Thre of the Purification of our Lady.
Thre of the Annunciation of our Lady. Thre of the Resurrection
of our Lord. Thre of the Ascension of our Lord. Thre of Pente-
cost. Thre of the Trinite. Thre of the Assumption of our Lady ;
and thre of her Nativitie ; so that these masses be celebrated
within the octaves of the said feasts, as on the first day, with the
same Kirie eleyson, Gloria in excelsis, and Credo ; and also the same
Sequence and Preface with Communicantes, Hanc igitur, Sanctus,
and Agnus, as it is contained in the Canon of the Masse : also with
these prayers folowyng, so that the prayers that folowe be sayed
with the collecte of the feast under one Oremus and under one
Per Dominum. There must also be sayde every daye thorowout
the yeare, Placebo and Dirige, with ix Psalmes, and ix lessons, and
ix Anthemes, excepte it be the tyme of Easter, when it shal be
said dayly with thre lessons only. The commendation also must
be sayd as often, so that both at Placebo and at Dirige the first
collect or prayer shall be Deus summa spes, &c., and also at the
commendacion. Againe, at the masse of the day, the aforesayd
prayer shall be sayde of him that celebrateth the masse thorowout
the whole yeare. Thos. Becon, The Reliques of Rome, 1563, fol.
207, b.
83 It is most proper that soul-scot be always paid at the open
grave. Laws of K. Ethelred, Thorpe, i. 309.
262 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
tree, 84 overshadowing the graves on the south side
of many a churchyard, (321) were not " the only
84 A great many of our churches stand upon the very spot where
stood an Anglo-Saxon, if not even a British church ; and on this
point one of the best proofs is the valuable discovery made, not
long ago, of an Anglo-Saxon, and beneath that of a Christian
British burial-ground, under the church and churchyard of
Pytchley, Northamptonshire (Archaeological Journal, iii. 105).
That those venerable old yew-trees, to be seen in so many of our
churchyards, were put there by order of Edward I., to provide
the youths of the parish with bow-staves for practising archery,
is not only unsupported by the weakest evidence, but of itself is
an idea which cannot bear examination. Many of those trees
were planted by Anglo-Saxons', not a few by Christian Britons'
hands. At Aldworth, Berks, there stands in the churchyard a
yew-tree, measuring nine yards in circumference at upwards of
four feet from the ground. The shape is very regular, of an urn-
like form. The branches spread to a considerable distance, and
rise to a great height (Beauties of England, i. 171). Now if we
follow [the rule laid down by De Candolle, and referred to by
Professor Henslow in his Botany, we shall find that this yew-tree
is as old as the ancient British period of our ecclesiastical annals.
Learning that our countryman, Evelyn, had left exact notes of
the circumferences to which some of the most celebrated specimens
had reached in England, De Candolle measured the same trees
again ; and then comparing Evelyn's measurements with his own,
and noting how much each had grown, this learned foreign botanist
found that the yew-tree, in this country, increases its diameter
one line every year. During the June of 1841 I visited the Aid-
worth yew ; and, on measuring, ascertained it had enlarged its
girth by half a yard since it had been noticed in the first volume
of the Beauties of England, published 1 760 that is, in the course of
eighty-one years. But as half a yard is equal to eighteen inches,
equal to 216 lines, which, divided by three, will show the increase
of the diameter to have been only seventy-two lines after eighty-
one years, we perceive that this specimen had not grown so fast as
De Candolle's rule would allow. Let us, however, take that rule
as a safe one, and then we have this result of the Aldworth yew's
age in the year 1 760. Being nine yards in circumference, this tree
was therefore three yards in diameter ; but 3 yds. = 9 f t. x 12 =
108 in. x 12= 1296 lines, or as many years old, A.D. 1760 ; and sub-
tracting its age from that date (1760-1296 = 464), we perceive
that it must have been planted as far back as A.D. 464 : that is,
PART I. CHAP. VII. 263
constant mourners o'er the dead " ; for they were
quite aware the Church never (322) would forget
them, but many times each day throughout the
year beseech God's forgiveness on (323) their
souls, and that too with more especial care as
time brought round their anniversaries, if they
craved it, and had asked while living, and taken
steps that such a holy office might be done in
their behalf. That all indeed, high or low, rich
or poor, clerk or layman, strongly wished to be so
shortly after the preaching of St. Grermanus against the Pelagian
heresy. Hitherto our ecclesiastical antiquaries have taken little
or no heed of the churchyard yew-tree ; but it is much to be wished,
on several accounts, that whenever a church is visited for the sake
of making notes of it, attention may be paid to its yew-tree, if it
has one ; the position of which, and its circumference, ought to be
jotted down. Sometimes, too, where the yew is but young, its
donor's name, and the planting of the tree, are both recorded in
some of the church papers ; as I found, not long ago, while looking
through some old books kept in a room over the porch at Sutton,
not far from Abingdon.
So strong was their love for this well-chosen symbol of never-
fading joy in heaven, that the early Christian Britons, it is likely,
often, if not always, sought to build their churches quite near to
some fine yew-tree even then, may be, a few hundred years old.
Perhaps the largest of our churchyard yews may be older than
Christianity itself. Giraldus Cambrensis, while in Ireland, A.D.
1 1 86, noticed, standing in the churchyards there, some very old
yew-trees, which were thought to have been planted by the holy
men of old : Prse terris autem omnibus, quas intravimus, longe
copiosius amaro hie succo taxus abundat ; maxime vero in
ccemiteriis antiquis, locisque sacris, sanctorum virorum manibus
olim plantatas, ad decorem et ornatum quern addere poterant,
arborum istarum copiam videas (Topogr. Hiberniss [.fi., xxi. ii. 152]).
Most likely the Irish were taught this custom by their elder sister
in the faith, the British Church ; and St. Patrick may have, among
other ritual usages taken over to Ireland from this his native
country, Britain, introduced the practice of always having a yew-
tree in the churchyard.
264 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
remembered after death, in the Church's prayers,
is shown by each monument we have belonging
to Anglo-Saxon times. For the deceased arch-
bishops of Canterbury, was there, from the earliest
days, a solemn mortuary service every week offered
up at the altar of St. Gregory, near to which those
metropolitans had allotted them a burial-place : 85
sovereigns founded monasteries for their own
ghostly weal hereafter; and often did a king
desire to have his grave dug beneath the roof of
that same church whither it was his wont to come
to (324) pray and hear God's hallowed word,
believing, as he so warmly did, that his poor
departed soul would be much helped by the daily
prayer of those religious men who served the Lord
in that place, 86 and of whom this earthly prince
had provided there should dwell an unbroken
succession there, until Christianity ceased to be
known in this island, to act as prayerful inter-
cessors to Almighty God in behalf of their long-
85 Habet hsec (ecclesia SS. AA. Petri et Pauli) in medio pene
sui altare in honore beati papse Gregorii dedicatum, in quo per
omne sabbatum, a presbytero loci illius agendse eorum solemniter
celebrantur. Beda, Hist. EccL, ii. 3.
86 In quo monasterio ipse rex (Oidilvald) et frequentius ad
deprecandum Dominum verbumque audiendum advenire, et de-
functus sepeliri deberet. Nam et seipsum fideliter credidit multum
juvari eorum orationibus quotidianis, qui illo in loco Domino
servirent. Ibid., iii. 23. Under the same pious feelings it was
that Queen banned built a monastery, the monks of which were
for ever to pray in behalf of Oswin's soul, and even for the wretch's
who had murdered him : In quo monasterio orationes assiduse pro
utriusque regis (id est, et occisi et ejus qui occidere jussit) salute
seterna fierent. Ibid., iii. 24.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 265
deceased benefactor. 87 Moreover, (325) hardly was
ever an ornament cross or chalice of gold, cope
or chasuble, or offertory dish bequeathed to the
altar, 88 hardly a grant, though (326) small, bestowed
on any church, or monastic house, but what the
87 Thus it is that JEtheluulf, king of Kent (A.D. 832), expresses
his intention for the pious bequest of some lands which he
bestowed upon Christchurch, Canterbury, as we learn from his
deed of gift : Has enim prsenominatas ac suprascriptas donationes
nostras Deo omnipotenti ad laudem et gloriam seu etiam pro
expiatione piaculorum nostrorum in perpetuam possessionem post
dies nostros perpetualiter liberatum, sicut ante prjedictum est,
concedendo donamus, ut laus Dei a congregatione ilia intercessioque
animarum nostrarum omniumque amicorum nostrorum in illo loco
incessanter, quamdiu Christiana fides permaneat, cotidie erigatur.
Hanc eandem donationem cum signo sanctse crucis confirmavi, &c.
(Cod. Dip. Anglo-Sax., ed. Kemble, v. 89). Such, too, was the wish
of another of our Anglo-Saxon kings: Volo autem ut quamdiu
Christianitas permanserit in hac insula, sint monachi de Certeseya
mei intercessores ad Dominum (Athelslan, A.D. 933, Codex Dip., ed.
Kemble, ii. 193). While augmenting the landed possessions of the
bishopric of Winchester, this same King ^Ethelstan enjoined that
the members of the church of the Holy Trinity, in that city,
should be fed thrice in the year for ever : Volo itaque ut haec
supradicta familia semetipsam pro me tribus diebus in anno pascat,
hoc est in festivitate Omnium Sanctorum, et quamdiu Christianitas
permanserit in hac insula, sint illi mei intercessores ad Dominum.
Ibid., v. 216.
88 Ic geann into BaSum to sancte Petres mynstre for mine
earman sawle and for minra yldrena (5e me min ar of com, and
mine ahta . . . anes beages is on syxtigum mancussum goldes,
and anre blede is on ]?riddan healfon punde, and twega gyldenra
roda, and anes maessereafes mid eallum (5am <5e Saerto gebyreS
(Wulfwaru's Will, Cod. Dip. Anglo-Sax., iii. 293). Ego (JElfgyva
Ymma regina, A.D. 997) contuli eidem aecclesise Christi, pro spe
salutis seternse, calicem cum patena aurea, in quo sunt xiii marcse
de puro auro, et duo dorsalia de pallio et duas capas de pallio cum
cessalis (tassellis ?) auro paratis (ibid., p. 299). Among many other
munificent bequests, Queen ^Elfgyfu (A.D. 1012) leaves "annse
offring disc into Nunna mynstaer " (ibid., p. 360). The beautiful
palls given by the same princess to Ely, we have already noticed
(i. 243).
266 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
prince or thane who made it, expressly named
that it was conferred in his own soul's and his
forefathers' souls' behalf, and for the loosening of
their sins. 89
(327) Rightly believing as they did, and as all
Catholics do and ever have, that the prayers of
the living, alms-deeds, fastings, but more than
anything else, the offering up of the holy sacri-
fice of the Mass, are such helps to the dead man's
soul that they free it before the day of judgment
from its sufferings, 90 those endowments which our
89 Pro animse remedio (Codex Diplomaticus JEvi Saxonici, ed.
Kemble, i. i) ; pro absolutione criminum meorum (ibid., p. 35) ;
consulens animse mese in posterum (ibid., p. 51); pro remedio
animse mese atque meorum patrum (ibid., p. 115); pro remedio
animse mese et propinqui mei Hatheredi, necnon pro salute
cunctarum animarum stirpis nostrse (ibid., p. 206) ; pro perpetua
redemptione ac salute animse mese meique conjugis (ibid., p.
212) ; pro salute animse mese et omnium progenitorum meorum
(ibid., p. 269) ; providens mihi in futuro decrevi dare aliquid
omnia mihi donanti (ibid., p. 54) ; pro remedio animse meae et
relaxacione piaculorum meorum (ibid., p. 126). Offerings of money
were sometimes carried to Rome, and distributed there . for the
good of the dead : Ego Dunwald minister, dum adviveret, inclitse
memorise regis ^Ethelberti, nunc vero pecuniam illius pro animse
eius salute ad limina apostolorum Romas cum aliis perferre de-
siderans, &c. (ibid., p. 133. See also iii. 128, 271, 273, 293, 304,
351, 354). In one of his charters, Eadweard of Wessex (A.D. 903),
says: Ego Eadward . . . Angul-Saxonum rex, pro piaculorum
meorum remedio, necnon et antecessorum meorum atque etiam
posteritatis mese subsequentis, &c. (Cod. Dip. Anglo-Sax., v. 152).
A charter of King ^Ethelstan's (A.D. 932) has the passage follow-
ing : Pro redemptione animse meae et pro salute omnium priorum
regum et futurorum, et pro tocius populi Christiani seu viventis
vel defuncti in gente Anglorum, &c. (ibid., p. 211).
90 The angel-guide who explains the vision to Dryhthelm, speak-
ing of those who " sic de corpore exeunt," says : Multos autem
preces viventium et eleemosynse et jejunia et maxime celebratio
missarum, ut etiam ante diem judicii liberentur, adjuvant. Beda,
Hist. EccL, v. 12.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 267
Anglo-Saxon forefathers made to win for them-
selves and kindred such ghostly aids in another
world, were neither few nor stinty. As they
brought to church the fresh green sod of earth
symbol of the lands they were giving and put it
along with their deed of gift upon God's altar, 91
they spoke their wishes (328) that the offering
might earn for them a forgiveness of sins and
everlasting happiness. To carry out the gospel-
grounded wishes of its benefactors, a cathedral,
or minster, or parish church, as it might be,
entered into various sorts of agreements with
them ; a formal pledge was given that such a
number of psalms should be sung, so many masses
said therein, each day throughout the year for the
well-being, ghostly and temporal, of those friends
as long as they might live, and when they died,
for their souls' speedy health and healing from
91 ^Ethelbald, king of the Mercians, in bestowing the monastery
of Coccham upon the church of Canterbury, made it over to that
cathedral in this manner : Utque illius donatio perseverantior
fieret, ex eadem terra cespitem et cunctos libellos prsememorati
coenobii, per venerabilem virum Cuthbertum archiepiscopum
misit, et super altare Salvatoris pro perpetua sua salute poni
prsecepit (Cod. Dip. Anglo-Sax., ed. Kemble, v. 58). Sometimes
the deed of gift was written in the church itself, and before the
high altar, upon which the royal donor placed it with his own
hands, as we learn from the charter of King ^Etheluulf's offering
of the land of Wintereden to St. Peter's Church at Winchester :
Scripta est autem hsec donatio ... in civitate Wentana, in
secclesia Sancti Petri, ante altare capitale. . . . Et tune pro
ampliori firmitate rex JEtheluulfus posuit cartulam supra altare
Sancti Petri, et episcopi pro fide Dei acceperunt ; et postea per
omnes secclesias transmiserunt in suis parochiis, &c. Ibid., p. 94.
268 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
their sins in the other world. 92 Sometimes the
(329) promise was but for one day in every
week ; 93 sometimes for each returning year's mind
or anniversary only of their death, 94 and such kind
92 Bishop Waerferth and the brotherhood of St. Peter's Minster,
at Worcester, promised JEthelred and ^Ethelflaed, that, during
life, and after death, they should both be prayed for after this
manner : Every day, at each before-dawn-song or matins, at each
even-song, and at each tierce-song, there should be said for them
the psalm De Profundis, as long as they were alive, but after
death the Laudate Dominum ; and on every Saturday there should
be said for them, at St. Peter's Church, thirty psalms and masses,
both as long as they lived, and after their death : WaerferS bisceop
and se heored habbaS gesetted Saes godcundnesse beforan Saere
<5e him mon daeghwamlice deS ge be heora life ge aefter heora life,
<5aet Sonne aet eolcum uhtsonge and aet eolcum aefensonge and
aet eolcum undernsong, De Profundis, Sonne sealme, Sa hawile Se
heo lifgeon ; and aefter heora life Laudate Dominum, and aelce
Saerternesdaege on Sanctes Petres cyrcean )?rittig sealma and
heora maessan aegSer ge for heo lifgende ge eac forSgeleorde.
Cod. Dip. Anglo-Sax., v. 143.
93 Masses and psalms were promised to be said for ^Ethelwolf
of Wessex (A.D. 844) every Wednesday, in the churches of Shire-
burn and Winchester, for ever : Placuit autem tune postea epis-
copis yElhstano Scireburnensis secclesise et Helmstano Wyntan-
ceastrensis secclesise cum suis abbatibus et servis Dei consilium
inire, ut omnes fratres et sorores nostri ad unamquamque secclesiam
omni ebdomada Mercoris die, hoc est Wodnesdag omnis congre-
gatio cantet quinquaginta psalmos, et unusquisque presbyter duas
missas, unam pro rege JESelwlfo, et aliam pro ducibus eius huic
dono consentientibus, pro mercede et refrigerio delictorurn suorum.
. . . Postquam autem defuncti fuerint pro rege defuncto, singu-
lariter ; pro principibus defuncti s, communiter. Et hoc sit tarn
firmiter constitutum omnibus diebus Christianitatis quasi libertas
constituta est quamdiu fides crescit in gente Anglorum. Ibid., p. 94.
94 Ceolwen, by a deed of gift, made over to Winchester Minster
fifteen hides of land : Ut memores sint eius et animse Osmodi ... ad
anniversarium eius, hoc est septimo die ante Rogationes (Cod. Dip.
Anglo-Sax., v. 136). In the Anglo-Saxon translation of this
charter, " anniversarium " is rendered " his gemunde dege " (ibid.,
p. 137), his mind day. The " Missa in die anniversario unius
defuncti," or mass to be said on the anniversary day, may be
seen in the Leofric Missal, p. 197.
PART I, CHAP. VII. 269
religious (330) services were to be done in those
churches until the Christian belief itself should
have an end in this island. Heaven was called
upon to witness and begged to watch over the
gift ; and curses loud and deep were spoken, hot
and withering anathemas were hurled against that
impious man whose Judas-like greediness should
at any time drive him to rob the Church of what
had thus been bestowed upon it, or hinder the
donor's wishes from being fulfilled. 95
(331) But his obit or anniversary day was not
thus merely cared for, and endowments made for
the keeping of it. That he might always have
good men and women's prayerful remembrances
for his welfare during this life, and in the next
for his soul's quicker freedom from the sin-cleans-
ing smarts of purgatory, the Anglo-Saxon, while
leaving his gift to a church or a religious house,
95 Thus is it that the first Christian king among the Anglo-
Saxons, JEthilberht of Kent (A.D. 604), begs God's wrath may fall
upon such as disturb his gift of land to Rochester Cathedral :
Si quis . . . prsesumpserit minuere aut contradicere, in conspectu
Dei sit damnatus et sanctorum eius, hie et in seterna ssecula,
nisi emendaverit ante eius transitum quod inique gessit contra
Christianitatem nostram (Cod. Dip. Anglo-Sax., i. j). A hundred
years later, ^Ethilweard of the Hwiccas (A.D. 706) speaks thus :
Si quis autem donationem Christo a nobis traditam temp-
taverit infringere, confringat Deus regnum et potentiam eius hie
et in futuro sseculo, sitque pars eius cum Juda infideli traditore
(ibid., p. 64). Towards those who shall take from the privileges
he has bestowed upon the church, King JEthelstan's wishes are :
Cum Juda proditore infaustoque pecuniarum compilatore suisque
impiissimis fautoribus sub seterne maledictionis anathemate edaci-
bus innumerabilium tormentorum flammis sine defectu periturum.
Ibid., ii. 192.
270 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
often agreed that he should be allowed to go into
a kind of holy fellowship with it, and be prayed
for in the Masses offered up by its priests, and
be thought of by the brethren of that minster,
or the sisterhood of that mynchery in their psalm-
singing, their fastings, and their alms-deeds, so
as to have his share in the merit of those hallowed
works. Among the Anglo-Saxons nothing was
more common than for lay-folks to enter into
such a sort of brotherhood with cathedrals and
monasteries. 96
96 When Cnut and his brother Harold were received into the
fellowship of Canterbury, the king bestowed upon that cathedral
the splendid copy of the Gospels now in the British Museum, and
which tells us that : *J< In nomine Dni Jim Xjii. Her is apriten Cuutes
Kinges iiama pe is ure leofa lilaford for jjorulde 7 ure gastlica broSor
for Gode 7 Harold t>aes Kinges broSor. British Mus. MS., i. D. ix.
Our kings in days of old became brothers not only of monasteries
in this country, but of those abroad; so too did many of our
bishops : this we learn from the instance of King ^Ethelstan, and
some bishops along with him, who were formally admitted into
brotherhood with St. Gall's and all the monasteries of Germany.
Confraternitas inita inter monasterium S. Galli et Anglorum regem
Adelstean necnon Keonuuald episcopum ac alios, sub Engelberto II.,
abbate, anno Christi 929.
Anno ab incarnatione Domini DCCCCXXVIIII. Indictione II.
Keonwald venerabilis episcopus profectus est ab Anglis : omnibus
monasteriis per totam Germaniam cum oblatione de argento non
modica, et in idipsum a Rege Anglorum eadem sibi tradita visitatis
in Idib. Octob. venit ad monasterium S. Galli ; Secundo autem,
postquam monasterium ingressus est hoc est, in ipso Depositions
Sancti Galli die, basilicam intravit et pecuniam copiosam secum
attulit de qua partem altario imposuit, parteni etiam utilitati frat-
rum donavit. Post haec, eo in conventum nostrum introducto, omnis
congregatio concessit ei annonam unius f ratris, et eandem orationem
quam pro quolibet de nostris, sive vivente, sive vita decedente,
facere solemus, pro illo facturam perpetualiter promisit. Hsec sunt
autem nomina, quae conscribi rogavit. Rex Anglorum Adalstean,
Keonowald Episcopus. Wigart. Kenuun. Conrat. Keonolaf. Wun-
PART I. CHAP. VII. 271
(332) As might be anticipated, evidence of such
a practice was heard in the wording, and could
be gathered (333) from the ceremonial of the
Anglo-Saxon Church's liturgy. The laic who had
brotherhood with any of the religious bodies, was
looked upon as a child of that house its friend
its familiar was thought of and prayed for as
such under this latter appellation. 97 Not one day
ever shone down upon this land, but its morning
had been awakened by heavenward strains by
the song of worshippers around a thousand altars
upon which the Eucharistic sacrifice was offered
by the solemn anthem and the psalmody poured
forth to God from thousands of choirs ; and the
glimmering of earliest dawn lighted their path for
the inmates of every cloister as they went forth
singing from their church to go and walk slowly
trud. Keontrud. Appendix A, to Mr. Cooper's Report, Supplement,
p. 20.
Osuulf ealderman and BeornSryS his wife begin the deed of gift
to Christchurch, Canterbury, thus : With great lowliness we pray
we two may be in the community of those who are God's servants.
. . . Ond mid micelre eadmodnisse biddaS Saet wit moten bion
on Sem gemanon Se Saer got>es Siowas siondan. Codex DipL,
ed. Kemble, i., 292, circa A.D. 805. Sometimes the agreement for
brotherhood, between the laity and a religious house, is noticed in
these words : *J Hec est cartula quae demonstrat conventionem illani
quam fecerunt Oswulfus et ^ESiliSa uxor sua cum domino abbate
Leofstano et monachis secclesiae sancti Albani, quando introierunt in
fraternitatem illorum, &c. Cod. Dip. Anglo-Sax., iv. 280.
97 Pro familiaris. . . . Deus incomprehensibilis . . . propitius
esto famulis tuis beniuolis omnibus et benefactoribus atque con-
sanguineis nostris seu et his qui se nostris manibus uel orationibus
commendauerunt uel qui nobis eelemosinarum suarum reditus
erogauerunt; succurre eis ubique, &c. Leofric Missal, 207. At
pp. 14, 191, there is the Missa pro Familiaribus.
272 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
around that minster's burial-ground, then stop
there until they had (334) chanted, at the foot
of the cross that uprose amid the graves, a short
service in behoof of all their brothers' and sisters'
souls, their laical brethren's included, whose
bodies lay buried in that hallowed spot. 98 So
much indeed did the thane and the wealthy
ealderman usually wish for interment among the
brethren of that house with which he was in reli-
gious fellowship, that often did he make an express
agreement, in whatever part of the country his
(335) death might happen, a company of those
monks should come and fetch his corpse to their
minster and give it solemn burial therein."
98 In Anglo-Saxon monasteries, the religious, after they had
sung the matin service, went at day-dawn in procession, and
chanting psalms, all about the graves of their dead brethren :
Cum enim nocte quadam, expletis matutinse laudis psalmodiis,
egressse de oratorio famulse Christi ad sepulchra fratrum, qui eas
ex hac luce prsecesserant, solitas Domino laudes decantarent, &c.
Beda, Hist. Ecc., iv. 7. The object of such a visit was to pray for
the souls of those brethren who lay buried there ; for in St. Dun-
stan's revision of the Benedictine Rule for this country, we find
it thus ordered : Post quos (diei laudes) eundum est ad matutinales
laudes de omnibus sanctis, decantando antiphonam, ad venera-
tionem Sancti cui porticus, ad quam itur, dedicata est. Post
hos, laudes pro defunctis. Quod si luce diei ut oportet finitum
fuerit officium, incipiant Primam, &c. Reg. Concor., in Reyner,
Apost. Bened. Append., p. 81. But as lay folks men and women
who had been, while living, in brotherhood with a religious house,
might, if they so wished, be buried in the same burial-ground
along with the professed members of that community (see note
86, p. 264), they came within the meaning of brethren, and as such
were thus prayed for.
99 ^Ernketel and Wulfrun his wife say: Volumus autem ut
post dies nostros corpora nostra ibidem, si Deo placuerit, sepulta
requiescant, et ubicunque alter nostrum vitam finierit, fratres
PART I. CHAP. VII. 273
Even the smallest circumstances of every-day
life were sought out and put to spiritual profit :
on high festivals and other solemn occasions, to
the abbot or the prior, as he arose from table at
the end of dinner, there was brought a large bowl
filled with wine, of which he drank a little, and
handed this " poculum charitatis," or love-cup,
round to his monks, each of whom took a short
draught in like manner : after this ceremony,
which was meant as a symbol of brotherly affec-
tion and good-will one towards another, was said
grace, which finished with a prayer for their bene-
factors alive and dead. Now, as he bequeathed
a silver bowl unto a favourite monastery, to be
used in this ritual form of drinking by the breth-
ren there, the trustful Anglo-Saxon hoped that
he, as the giver of the cup, would be more imme-
diately brought to their pious remembrance and
be oftener prayed for in their thanksgivings after
meals. 1 Hundreds of (336) years after the coming
Ramesiae venientes cum custamento tarn suo quam amicorum
nostrorum corpus defunct! Ramesiam deferant tumulandum, &c.
Cod. Dip. Anglo-Sax., iv. 303.
1 ^ Ego ^Edelgiva comitissa do et concede recclesiae Ramesise
ad honorem Dei et sancti Benedict! et ad animse mese subsidium
seinpiternum terrain meam (Je Stowe, &c. Do etiam duos cyphos
argenteos de xn marcis ad pondus hustingise Londoniensis ad ser-
viendum f ratribus in ref ectorio, quatenus dum in eis potus edentibus
fratribus ministratur, memoria mei eorum cordibus arctius incul-
cetur. Estote fratres carissimi memores mei erga Eum cuius
gratia indigeo. Deus autem sit nobis propitius ; et ego vobis fida
soror ero quamdiu duraverit tempus meum. Cod. Dip. Anglo-Sax.,
iv. 304. A shadow of this Anglo-Saxon custom may yet be seen
in the grace-cup of the universities, and the loving-cup passed
VOL. II. S
274 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
here of the Normans, this wish, so long cherished
among all classes in this (337) country, to be in
brothership with religious houses, far from abating
had become even stronger; nor was the ritual
use of the wassail bowl at their solemn thanks-
givings after dinner laid aside in monasteries ;
but we find our bishops, our nobles, and our
common people still seeking such fellowship ; 2
and sometimes as his offering, on the day he
was admitted, a bishop gave to the house which
granted him a place in their brotherhood, a
round among the guests at the great dinners given by the Lord
Mayor of London. The cliaritas, or draught of wine as a pledge of
mutual kindness, is often noticed in old rituals ; St. Dunstan, in
his Concordia Regularis, p. 87, speaks of it ; so does St. Osmund's
contemporary, John, bishop of Avranches, in his curious work, De
Officiis Ecclesiasticis, where he tells us that on Maundy Thursday :
Cum eadem processione ad potandam caritatem in refectorium
pergant [P.L., cxlvii. 50]. St. Margaret, queen of Scotland, it
would seem, brought the loving-cup into use among the Scotch,
for on the authority of Father Lesley, the Bollandists, in a note
to that Anglo-Saxon princess's life, tell us : Gratiosum inventum,
Margaritas vulgo attribui solitum propinandi mutuo haustus ab
iis qui gratiarum vel S. Margaritas nuncupatur. A A. SS. Junii,
ii. 332. Wiglaf, king of Mercia, is said to have given, A.D. 833, his
own drinking-horn to the abbey of Croyland : Ut senes monasterii
bibant inde in festis sanctorum, et in suis benedictionibus memin-
erint aliquando animse Vuitlafii donatoris. Cod. Dip. Anglo-Sax.,
i. 305 ; and though we may suspect the genuineness of this docu-
ment as a charter, there can be no doubt but it truly represents
Anglo-Saxon customs.
2 Among the Cotton MSS. in the British Museum, there is
" Catalogus Benefactorum, et omnium eorum qui in plenam frater-
nitatem monasterii S. Albani usque ad annum MCCCCLXIII recepti
erant." Nero, D. vii. Piers Ploughman talks of some men who
might "be founde in fraternite of alle foure ordres." Passus,
vii. 192 [ed. Skeat, 1869, p. 86].
PAKT I. CHAP. VII. 275
splendid bowl, 3 under the very same feelings of
the older (338) Anglo-Saxons that he might be
3 Such was the gift which Thomas de Hatfield, bishop of Durham,
A.D. 1350, made to St. Alban's Abbey : Ejus precibus et ob prseclara
merita frater effectus (Thomas de Hatfield, episcopus Dunelmensis)
nostri capituli totius assensu conventus, annuum assecutus est
post fata officium mortuorum. Qui etiam die quo suscepit nostri
capituli beneficium, dedit conventui cyphum suum murreum quern
Wesheyl nostris temporibus appellamus. Catal. benefac. et omnium
eorum qui in plenam fraternitatem accepti erant. Cotton MS., Nero
D. vii. fol. 87. Not many years ago, in Germany as well as
Belgium, this custom was still kept up of sending round the
loving-cup at grace after dinner; and to those who devoutly
took part in the rite, the bulls of Pope Boniface VIII. and Pope
Eugene IV., offered an indulgence, as the Bollandists tell us
while referring to what the Scotch used to call " St. Margaret's
draught " : Simile quid, post dictas gratias, surgentes convivae in
Germania et Belgio faciunt " ad lucrandas," ut ajunt " Indulgentias
Bonifacii Papse"; fortassis vm. qui an. 1300 jubilsei solennitatem
instauravit, amplissimas largitus Indulgentias. In chronicis autem
Antverpiensibus . . . legitur quod anno 1430 "factus est Papa
Eugenius IV. qui dierum xl indulgentias concessit, post dictas a
mensa gratias potaturis " : sed conditio subesse putatur, ut haustus
hie immediate sequatur gratias, atque ultimus sit (A A. SS. Junii,
ii. 332). Such a practice, on the Continent, was observed by lay
folks at their dinners, as well as by the clergy.
In the Catholic days of England, all clubs, then known under
the name of " gilds," being associations formed more for spiritual
than worldly purposes, bore the stamp of our olden faith on each
one of their statutes; and borrowed from the Church's ritual,
among other pious observances, the use, at their feasts, of the
loving-cup. As these gilds, however, were made up, in by far the
greater part, of lay folks, it was not a thing of so much ease, as
at the table of a religious community, to hinder, amid such secular
brotherhoods of tradesmen, any excess in drinking while handing
round this wassail bowl. His vows bound the monk to be tem-
perate and sparing in what he ate and drank ; he lived under
the eye of superiors who could see, and must have punished, the
slightest breach in this wholesome discipline. Not so the gild-
brother. Here, then, our holy religion stepped in, and wisely
strove to make her voice be heard after another fashion. She
bethought herself of this loving-cup as the very hindrance of
drunkenness at gild-feasts ; and therefore, while she, mother-like,
276 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
thought of in the prayers of those monks who
should ever drink out of it at grace-time.
sanctioned harmless merrymaking, and tried to awaken feelings of
brotherly kindness between high and low, rich and poor, among
her common children whom she joyed to bring together, she
bestowed out of her treasures a spiritual gift, in the shape of an
" indulgence " of so many days, upon those who, being truly
sorrowful for their sins, should sparingly and soberly drink out of
the loving-cup. This we learn from several documents of English
ecclesiastical antiquity. In the British Museum there is, among
the Lansdowne Manuscripts, the original register book (marked
403), which once belonged to the gild of Corpus Christi, at York ;
and its inventory of precious things, while describing its mazer
bowl, tells that Archbishop Scrope granted an indulgence of forty
days' pardon to those who drank out of this cup under these con-
ditions following : Unus ciphus magnus de murro cum ligatura
plana ex argento deaurata, qui videlicet ciphus indulgencialis digno
nomine censetur, et hac de causa. . . . Beatse quidem memoriae
Dominus Ricardus Scrop, quondam archiepiscopus Eboraci, vere
penitentibus et confessis qui de hoc cipho sobrietamine cum
moderamine et non excessive nee ad voluptatem mente pura
potaverit, quadraginta dies indulgencise contulit graciose (Memoirs
of York, by the Archaeological Institute, p. 25). These " mazers" are
shallow bowls of wood, light, thin, and mostly quite black, which
sets oft' the rim and mountings of silver, oftentimes gilt, extremely
well. An indulgenced mazer-bowl came, very properly, to be
treated with a certain share of religious respect, and always em-
ployed in a pious manner on being brought out, which happened
at those high festivals only when the brethren dined together in
their own gild-hall. There, as soon as the banquet was quite over,
the warden, filling this loving-cup of theirs with choice wine, or
with hippocras, or with mead, drank first, then sent it round the
board, as a pledge of brotherly good-will, e?,ch toward the other ;
for all, without distinction of age, wealth, or rank, to have a small
draught out of it. This done, the gild-priest arose ; all stood up ;
a thanksgiving was made ; the souls of their dead brothers were
prayed for ; each member of the gild went his way, and there was
no more drinking. Though, through a spirit of abnegation, some
members of a religious body might have wished to mortify them-
selves, and send round this loving-cup without taking even one
little sip out of it, there were occasions upon which this self-denial
was forbidden ; and each one, without exception, was, by the
statutes of the house, commanded to take a draught of this bowl
PART I. CHAP. VII. 277
(339) To fulfil their friends' and benefactors'
holy behests, and to know the true time when, as
like the rest. So far did it come to be looked upon by our fore-
fathers, that drinking, though but a drop, out of the same cup,
was a pledge of brotherly love, and a proof of kindly feeling one
towards the other. Hence, among the rules for St. Bartholomew's
Hospital, at Sandwich, do we find this ancient enactment : Omni
die Dominica post prandium, solent convenire fratres et sorores in
aulam dicti hospitalis ; et magister dabit eis id. et quelibet persona
dabit iq., et habebunt unam ollam plenam seruicie, et sic bibent
pariter ad nutriendum amorem inter se ; et hoc facient coacti per
magistrum, si adesse noluerint. Post decessum suum dicent
orationes suas pro fundatoribus, et adjutoribus, et benefactoribus
ipsius domus, et pro omnibus fidelibus vivis et defunctis. Ex Lib.
Custumali Villx Sandwici, in Boys, Hist, of Sandwich, p. 89.
Of the several mazer-bowls still in existence, though only a few
are indulgenced, all show, in the inscription running round the
edge, a something that speaks of religion. In the vestry at York
Cathedral, there is a fine one, unto which Archbishop Scrope and
another bishop had each granted an indulgence of xl. days, as the
writing, pounced on the outside of the silver-gilt rim, tells us :
" *%< Recharde arche beschope Scrope grantis on to alle tho that
drinkis of this cope xl" dayis to pardune. Robert Gubsune Beschope
musm grantis in same forme afore saide xl u dayis to pardune
Robart Strensalle." Which legend, as well as a woodcut of this
loving-cup itself, may be seen accurately figured in the Memoirs of
York, &c., p. 25. When Drake wrote his fine work on York, this
very bowl was still there, in the possession of the Cord wain ers'
Company ; and every feast-day, after dinner, it used to be filled
with spiced ale, and, according to ancient custom, it was drunk
round among them (Eboracum, p. 439). Some readers, perhaps,
may not be aware that this " pardon of forty days " was under-
stood, both by people and clergy, to be a forgiveness, on the
Church's side, of just so much time out of those many years of
penance, which, by the ecclesiastical canons, a person, through
his sins, would have had to undergo before he could be restored to
his forfeited communion with the Church. This is clear from the
wording of indulgences granted by the prelates of this country
while it was Catholic. In the year 1252, Boniface, archbishop of
Canterbury, says : Omnibus vere penitentibus et confessis qui ad
ecclesiam Beati Petri de Burgo causa devocioiiis et ob venerationem
beati Oswaldi regis et martyris cujus sanctissime reliquie conti-
nentur ibidem, accesserint, et de bonis a Deo sibi collatis grata
278 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
the (340) year came round, each one's anniversary
ought to be solemnised, in every church and
minster was kept (341) a book wherein were
written the names as well as the dying day of
those for the good of whose souls (342) prayers
were to be said, alms bestowed, and the Eucharistic
sacrifice offered up. Such a register of the dead
was sometimes called " the Album," 4 (343) some-
times " the Annal," 5 but oftener, both here 6 and
caritatis subsidia loco tarn pio gratiose duxerint conferenda
quadraginta dies de injuncta sibi penitentia misericorditer re-
laxamus (Gunton, Hist, of Peterborough, p. 346). This "quadraginta
dies de injuncta sibi penitentia misericorditer relaxamus " is the
common form which is to be found in almost all grants of in-
dulgences issued by our old English bishops. In the Pupilla Oculi
of John de Burgo, or Borough (fol. 57), may be found a long chapter
{" De penitentiis a jure statutis," cap. xiii.), by which we see that,
for one sin, a ten years' penance is inflicted, at the beginning of
which the penitent is to be " sacco indutus, et humi prostratus,
nocte dieque misericordiam Dei imploret ; jugiter tribus mensibus
continuis a vespera usque ad vesperam pane et aqua utatur," &c.
4 Sed, et me defuncto, pro redemtione animse mese, quasi
familiaris et vernaculi vestri, orare, et missas facere, et nomen
meum inter vestra scribere dignemini. Nam et tu, sanctissime
antistes, hoc te mihi promisisse jam retines, in cujus etiam testi-
monio futurse conscriptionis religiose fratri vestro Gudfrido
mansionario prsecepisti, ut in albo vestrse sanctse congregationis
meum nunc quoque nomen apponeret. Beda, Vit. S. Cuthb. Prsef.
[P.L., xciv. 734, 735].
5 Quserant in suis codicibus, in quibus def urictorum est annotata
depositio, et invenient ilium hac, ut diximus, die raptum esse de
seculo. . . . presbyter statim egressus requisivit in Annali suo, et
invenit eadem die Osualdum regem fuisse peremtum. Beda, Hist.
Eccl., iv. 14.
6 Answering to this title Liber Vitse, there is now in the British
Museum, Domitian vn., the precious codex which once belonged to
Durham, and was begun by the monks there in the ninth century,
and reaches down to Henry the Eighth's apostasy. The idea of the
Book of Life, as well as the expression, are both borrowed from St.
Paul, Phil. iv. [verse 3].
PART I. CHAP. VII. 279
abroad, 7 " the Book of Life " ; and, in all like-
lihood, the whole of Christendom cannot show
one so valuable and interesting, whether the
length (344) of years through which it runs back,
the richness with the beauty of its writing in gold
and silver in the early part of it, or the ritual
solemnity with which the olden usage was to
guard this codex, be looked at, as the "Book of
Life" that formerly belonged to the Cathedral
of Durham. "There did lay," writes one who
probably had seen what he tells of, on the high
altar (of Durham Cathedral), " an excellent fine
book, very richly covered with gold and silver,
containing the names of all the benefactors to-
wards St. Cuthbert's Church from the very original
foundation thereof, the very letters of the book
being, for the most part, all gilt, as is apparent
in the said book till this day. The laying that
book on the high altar did show how highly
they esteemed their founders and benefactors ;
and the quotidian remembrance they had of them
in the time of Mass and divine service, and this
7 Bertrand, the eleventh bishop of Le Mans, in the will which
he made, A.D. 615, speaks more than once of the Liber Vitas, which
it was the custom in those days to keep, for the enrolment of
benefactors' names, in every church throughout France : " Rogo,"
says the holy man, " abba illustris loci illius, ut nomen meum in
libro vitse recitetur." Test. Bertichramni, in Mabillon, Vet. Analect.,
p. 257; again, after having bequeathed certain moneys to each of
several churches at Le Mans, he thus earnestly begs : Illud vero
specialiter rogo, ut in superscripta loca . . . nomen meum ac
sacerdotes illorum in libro vitee jubeant adscribere, et per singulas
festivitates recitari. Ibid., p. 263.
280 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
did argue, not only their gratitude, but also a
most divine and charitable affection to the souls
of their benefactors, as well dead as living." 8
Like their (345) brethren in the faith throughout
every other part of Christendom at that period
as well as now, so among the Anglo-Saxons, the
Eucharistic sacrifice was never offered up but
what they prayed to Heaven in an especial
manner for their friends and benefactors, alive
and dead. 9 On Sundays and high (346) festivals,
8 The Antiquities of Durham, p. 20. This manuscript, as was said
just now, is in the British Museum among the Cotton MSS., under
the shelf-mark Domitian vn. : At the very beginning, but in much
later script ion, we read that " ordo et methodus hujus libri nihil
aliud est quam annualis commemoratio in sacrificio Missse ani-
marum defunctarum omnium benefactorum et benefactarum erga
monasticam ecclesiam beatissimi patris Cuthberti," &c. Its beauti-
ful binding of gold and silver has been torn away, and lost. It
has been edited by the Rev. J. Stevenson, for the Surtees Society,
vol. xiii.
9 Thus is it that Sigebald, seemingly an abbot, as he calls him-
self, " ultimus famulorum Dei famulus," writing from this country
to Abp. Boniface, tells him he has put his name down among
the bishops here, that along with them he may be prayed for at
Mass, especially each time he himself, Sigebald, offers up the holy
Sacrifice : Notum sit tibi, quod ex eo tempore nomen tuum
adscriptum habuissem, cum Missarum solemnia celebrarem simul
cum nominibus episcoporum nostrorum, et modo non cesso quam-
diu subsistam ; et si supervixero tibi, cum nomine patris nostri
Erenwaldi episcopi tuum adscribo nomen. S. Boniface, Op. i. 69,
ed. Giles. Proofs of the same holy fellowship, kept up between the
Anglo-Saxons and their countrymen abroad, are many. Cynehard
writes thus to Lull, an Anglo-Saxon missioner in Germany : Et
hoc profitemur, quod omnia quse tua Sanctitate suggerente, man-
data sunt, studiosissime, Domino favente, complere satagimus,
non tan turn in spirituali orationum solatio exhibendo, et missarum
solemnitate celebranda pro vobis, et pro illis, qui in vestris region-
ibus in Christi concessione obeunt, &c. . . . Nomina quoque
presbyterorum vestrorum diaconorumque ac monachorum, vel
PART I. CHAP. VII. 281
all present were asked to join in these supplica-
tions : no sooner had those who chose brought
their gifts to the altar at that part of the Mass,
called from such a rite the " offertory," than was
read, most likely by the deacon from the "ambo,"
out of what used anciently to be called the
diptychs, but in latter times the bead-roll, a list
of those living friends in ghostly fellowship with
that particular church, and of such as had that
day helped it by their offerings ; then followed
the names of the dead on whose souls the people
were begged earnestly to call down God's fatherly
forgiveness. 10 But this was not all : if we may
monacharum sive cseterorum, quse misistis, per monasteria et per
ecclesias nostrse dioecesis direximus ad celebranda pro eis missa-
rum solemnia,, et orationum suffragia. Id ipsum facere vestram
Sanctitatem suppliciter exoramus pro eis, quorum nomina vobis
habemus dirigenda et nominatim cum personis suis scribenda,
eorum scilicet, qui mihi proprie atque huic ecclesise, cui servio,
amicissimi, vel subditi fiebant, vel prselati. Cynehardus Lullo, St.
Boniface, Op., i. 224, 225, ed. Giles.
10 By the old Anglo-Saxon canons, a penance of forty days'
length was to be undergone by the deacon who should forget to
bring up to the altar the oblation the unleavened bread, and the
chalice holding the wine mingled with a little water until the
altar-cloth was brought, and the names of the dead had been
read : Diaconus obliviscens oblationem offerre, donee ofteratur
linteamen, quando recitantur nomina pausantium, similiter (quad-
raginta dies) poeniteat. Theodore, Cap. et Frag, in Ancient Laws, &c.
of England, ed. Thorpe, ii. 75. This Archbishop of Canterbury's
discipline not only shows that the names of the dead of those
who had fallen asleep in the Lord were read up aloud just about
offertory time, that they might be afterwards prayed for at the
holy Sacrifice, but leads us to draw from it that the deacon it was
who gave out those names, and in a place too away from the altar ;
so that, should he ever forget to set the paten with the bread, and
the chalice with the wine at the altar, that they might be ready
to be immediately put upon the linen corporal as soon as out-
282 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(347) judge from the ritual practised among their
neighbours on the shores of France, here as there,
spread upon the holy table, before he went up into the " ambo "
for the reading of the diptychs or bead-roll, the celebrant would
be hindered from going on with the more solemn portion of the
Mass until this deacon came back again to do that part of his
ministry he had left out. In some places abroad, it was neither
from the " ambo " nor by the deacon that these names used to be
recited, but by the subdeacons standing behind the altar : Subdia-
coni a retro altari ubi memoriam vel nomina vivorum et mortuo-
rum nomina verunt, vel recitaverunt, procedunt, &c. Codex Ratoldi,
ed. Menard, D. Gregorii Lib. Sacram., p. 246 [P.L., Ixxviii. 244];
and in Collectio post nomina in the Missale Gothicum, ed. Mabillon,
De Litur. Gal., p. 235 [P.L., Ixxii. 264], we find : Et hos, quos
recitatio commemoravit ante sanctum altare, &c.
The Anglo-Saxon early custom of reading out the names, both
of the living and the dead, just after the offertory, was at that
period likewise followed throughout France ; for, in all the old
liturgies once in use, there is to be found a collect to be said
immediately before the Preface, and entitled Collectio post nomina,
the wording of which is full of Catholic belief. From the Gothic
Missal we select the following : Auditis nominibus offerentum,
fratres dilectissimi, Christum Dominum deprecemur . . . ut haec
sacrificia sic viventibus proficiant ad emendationem, ut defunctis
opitulentur ad requiem, &c. Missale Gothicum,, ed. Mabillon, De
Liturg. Gal., p. 201 [P.L., Ixxii. 236] ; Suscipe (Domine) jejunantium
preces cum libatione prsesenti, defunctis refrigerium, superstitibus
indulgentiam donans, per earn placatus : et nomina quorum sunt
distincte vocata figere in scriptione sempiterna digneris (ibid.,
p. 233) [P.L., ibid., 262] ; Auditis nominibus offerentum, debita
cum veneratione beatissimorum Apostolorum, et Martyrum,
omniumque Sanctorum commemoratione decursa, et offerentum
et pausantium commemoremus nomina, ut seternalibus indita
paginis, sanctorum ccetibus adgregentur (ibid., p. 255) [P.L., ibid.,
281] ; Domine . . . offerentium nomina recitata caelesti chiro-
grapho in libro vitse jubeas adscribi, &c. (ibid., p. 232) [P.L.,
ibid., 261] ; Recitatis nominibus offerentum, fratres carissimi,
omnipotentis Dei misericordiam deprecemur . . . ac sicut ille
(sc. beatus Sinfurianus Martyr) post carceris septa, post pcenarum
ligamina, postque famis inediam, seternitatis gaudia infinita per-
fruitur, ita defunctorum animse, laxatis inferni pressuris, Abrahse
patris gremio conlocentur, &c. (ibid., p. 280) [P.L., ibid., 301]. In
the Missale Francorum, this collect is rubricked Super oblata ; but
PART I. CHAP. VII. 283
a (348) subdeacon at the place in the canon of
the Mass whereat the dead are individually to be
prayed for, whispered into the ear of the sacri-
ficing priest the (349) names of those whom he
was bound more especially to remember. 11 To do
this correctly, the subdeacon (350) must have had
the book or scroll upon which those names were
in the Missale Gallicanum Vetus, it keeps its old name, Collectio
post nomina. Auditis nominibus offerentum, fratres dilectissimi,
omnipotentem Deum supplicemus . . . ut acceptio benedicti cor-
poris et sacri poculi praelibata communio defunctis opituletur ad
requiem, viventibus proficiat ad salutem. Ibid., p. 365 [P-L., ibid.,
370].
11 That such was the rubric, in France, up to the tenth century,
we gather from the following accidental notice of it by Fulcuinus,
abbot of Lobes, A.D. 965 : Remis nuper cum fuissemus et cum viro
venerabili . . . Adalberone archiepiscopo confabularemur . . .
Dixit episcopus . . . prsedecessorum suorum ductam usque ad se
consuetudinem, ut inter Missarum solemnia in ea speciali com-
memoratione defunctorum quse supra diptyca dicitur, et in con-
secratione Domini corporis solemniter agitur, quotidie in aurem
presbyteri recitante silenter subdiacono, omnium ipsius sedis
nomina scripto viritim recitentur episcoporum. Gesta Lobiensium,
in D'Achery, Spicil., ii. 733.
Both by the deacon in the " ambo," and the subdeacon at the
altar, these names of the dead were recited either out of a book
like the Durham Liber Vitx, or from long narrow sheets of vellum,
stitched one to the other, that unrolled. Being used so con-
spicuously at the public service of the Church, this representative
of the ancient diptychs, like them, must have had, in many of the
larger minsters of this country, a magnificent covering of some
kind bestowed upon it. If a roll, a case of ivory, nicely carved,
very likely held it ; if a book, it was bound between two solid
plates of silver, parcel gilt, with figures wrought upon them. A
Spanish prelate, Bishop Rudesind, dying A.D. 978, bequeathed to a
church of his building: Diptagos argenteos imaginatos et deauratos,
calices argenteos exauratos tres (Coronica General de la Orden de
San Benito, ed. Yepez, t. v., fol. 424^.), and the Durham Book of
Life was bound in silver and gold, as we know from some verses
written by a later hand on one of its leaves.
284 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
written, lying open before him. As time crept on,
it brought with it to almost every church a num-
ber of benefactors, till at last, in most places, they
often amounted unto thousands, and to go through
all their names would have taken up a whole
morning. Besides then the founders and the
chiefest friends of each minster, no one else was
always prayed for individually in the liturgy ; no
others' names were read out but of those whose
anniversary or year's mind fell upon that very
Sunday or festival, or within the past week ; thus
each, as the seasons went round, was remembered
in his turn once during every twelve months.
To let, however, all their benefactors, dead and
living, have their share in the prayers of the
clergy, the " Book of Life " or the "bead-roll," as
it might be, was ever kept upon the altar, so that
at all the Masses, whether high or low, said
thereat, the priest, after a formal manner set forth
in the liturgy, begged of God to look down from
heaven with loving-kindness upon the souls of all
those whose names were written in that list which
lay before his eyes. 12
12 The so-called Durham Ritual presents us with several forms
of prayer in behalf of the dead ; and the following collect will
show that, while the Anglo-Saxons believed that both angels and
men could, by their intercession with God, much help the souls of
the departed, at the same time the ritual usage of that people
was to keep, either on the altar itself, or very near it, a written
list of such as were to be more especially remembered, so that
their names might be easily set before the sacrificing priest at
Mass : Ascendant ad te, Domine, preces nostras (sic) interceden-
PART I. CHAP. VII. 285
(351) From the practice of reading up, at offer-
tory time, in each church, the names of its especial
tibus omnibus sanctis agminibus angelorum ut anime famulorum
tuorum famularumque tuarum quorum et quarum nomina hie sunt
conscripta, gaudia seterna suscipiant, ut quos fecisti adoptionis
participes, jubeas hereditatis tuse esse consortes, Per. (Hituale
Ecclesise, Dunelmensis, ed. Stevenson [Surtees Soc.], p. 157). At
low Mass, on week days, may have, even then, been adopted the
custom followed at Durham and elsewhere in this country, as well
as in some places abroad, of always having the bead-roll, or Liber
Vitse (the Book of Life), lying upon the altar. In such a way
could the priest be reminded to pray over the holy Sacrifice for all
those, in general, whose names were written down therein. When
the benefactors and brethren amounted, as may be seen in the
Durham Book of Life, to many hundreds nay, thousands such an
expedient became absolutely necessary. With regard to this early
use in the western parts of the Church, there can be no doubt ;
for, in the very old Bobbio Missal now in the Ambrosian Library at
Milan, the collect for the " Missa pro vivis et defunctis " points to
it : Majestatem tuam, clementissime Pater, exoramus pro fratribus
et sororibus nostris, seu omnibus benefactoribus nostris, vel qui
se in nostris orationibus commendaverunt, tarn pro vivis, quam et
solutis debito mortis, quorum eleemosynas erogandas suscepimus,
vel quorum animas ad memorandum conscripsimus, vel quorum
nomina super sanctum altarium scripta adest evidenter, &c.
Sacram. Gallic. [P.L., Ixxii. 543]. The Liber Sacramentorum S.
Gregorii P. a manuscript of the ninth century, in the cathedral
library at Cologne, Codex 880 has, at the beginning of the Canon
of the Mass, this sentence on the margin: Et eorum quorum
nomina ad memorandum conscripsimus ac super sanctum altare
tuum scripta adesse videntur. Again, in the letters of holy
brotherhood between the canons of Laon and the monks of
St. Remigius (A.D. 928), it is agreed that : Nomen quoque fratris
in catalogo defunctorum annotetur, sacro altari tempore sacrificii
superponendum (Mabillon, Vet. Analeda, p. 161); and Ordericus
Vitalis, an Englishman, who was a monk (c. A.D. 1123) of St.
Evroul's at Uzez, in Normandy, tells us of such a custom, as it
was observed in that house : In rotulo quidem longissimo omnium
f ratrum, dum vocante Deo ad ordinem veniunt, nomina scribuntur ;
deinde patrum et matrum eorum, fratrumque ac sororum vocabula
subscribuntur. Qui rotulus penes aram toto anno servatur, et
sedula commemoratio inscriptorum in conspectu Domini agitur,
dum ei a sacerdote in celebratione missse dicitur : Animas famu-
286 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(352) benefactors, particularly the dead, and of
asking the people gathered there about the altar
to pray for the health and welfare of the living,
and earnestly beg of Heaven its forgiveness on
the souls of the departed, there grew out a ritual
observance called
BIDDING THE BEADS. IS
This may be looked upon as one of the most
lorum famularumque tuarum, quorum nomina ante sanctum altare
tuum scripta adesse videntur, electorum tuorum jungere digneris con-
sortio. Ordericus Vitalis, Hist. EccL, iii. 14 [P.L., clxxxviii. 275].
13 Answering to that part of our public service called " bidding
the beads," and observed in the ritual of this island both before
and after the coming hither of the Normans, are those prayers, set
forth in all the Eastern liturgies, to be said at the reading of the
diptychs, as may be seen in that valuable work, Liturgiarum Orien-
talium Collectio, edited by Renaudot, who has given a good sketch
of the subject, i. 253, ibid.
With regard to the ritual of the Latin part of the Church on
this point, from St. Austin's words (Epist. ad Januarium, Ep. 55)
we catch what must have been the African usage at the very be-
ginning (A.D. 400) of the fifth century ; and a sermon of St.
Csesarius of Aries lets us see the practice, during the sixth, of
Gaul, where, it would appear by an expression in the sixth canon
of the Council of Lyons (A.D. 517), it was called the "people's
prayer," and said after the gospel, " oratio plebis quse post evangelia
legeretur " (Harduin, Concil.,ii. 1054). Ivo of Chartres (A.D. 1092), in
his Decretale, part ii. cap. 120 [P.Z., clxi. 193], quotes from some
Council of Orleans a canon which shows the bidding prayer in
France to have been, in substance, precisely what it was among our
Anglo-Saxons ; and a very old form of the prayer itself, as used at
Aries, is given from the ancient diptychs belonging to the church
of St. Aurelius in that city, at the end of the Regula S. Aurelii,
in Holsten, Codex Reg., ed. Brockie, i. 154. For Germany, we
have Regino, abbot of Priim, who says that the following should
be the way of making, after the sermon at Mass, every Sunday and
holyday, this very prayer : Oportet ut in diebus festis vel dominicis,
PART I. CHAP. VII. 287
(353) beautiful amid the liturgical usages known
to our country, and was a rite which, beginning
very early (354) among the Anglo-Saxons, they
kept up with all due care, and afterwards became
followed with equal exactness by the Salisbury
and every other (355) Use throughout this king-
dom until the latest hour the olden faith was
acknowledged as the national belief. In carrying
his gift at offering- time to God's altar, the Anglo-
Saxon was taught to leave it there in behalf not
merely of himself and kinsfolks, but also for the
good of those souls of the dead whose names were
written down upon the bead-roll 14 just read out ;
post sermonem inter missarum solemnia habitum ad plebem, sacer-
dos admoneat ut juxta apostolicam institutionem, orationem omries
in commune pro diversis necessitatibus fundant ad Dominum pro
regibus, et rectoribus ecclesiarum, pro pace, pro peste, pro infirmis
qui in ipsa paroechia lecto decumbunt, pro nuper defunctis ; in
quibus singillatim precibus plebs orationem Dominican! sub silentio
dicat, sacerdos vero orationes ad hoc pertinentes per singulas ad-
monitiones sollemniter expleat. Ait enim apostolus : Obsecro
primum omnium fieri orationes, obsecrationes, gratiarum actiones,
&c. Regino, De Ecc. Discipl., i. 190 [P.L., cxxxii. 224, 225].
At the " prone," or discourse, delivered at the parish mass in all
the churches throughout France, there used to be, not long ago,
if not as yet, said a form of prayer, answering in every respect to
our old " bidding the beads." That we Catholics of England should
have ever left off our Salisbury, York, and other venerable missals
and breviaries, and laid aside our fine old national uses and ritual
among the rest, the "bidding of the beads"- is deeply to be lamented.
Let us hope, however, that, ere long, a rite which was practised
most likely by the Britons, certainly by the Anglo-Saxons, the
Anglo-Normans, and the English, till the end of Mary's reign, may
once more be taken up and put to fill its old place in the public
worship of the Catholics of England, so that our people, as of yore,
may all join their priest and say along with him, before he begins
his sermon, the truly Catholic petitions of the " bidding prayer."
14 In one of those Anglo-Saxon manuscripts lost to the Cotton
Collection by fire, and marked Galba A. 14, might be seen this
288 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
and to help him in doing what she bade, the
Church told him to join her in a prayer framed
especially for the purpose set forth, sometimes
in Latin, sometimes in Anglo-Saxon, after this
manner :
Oremus fratres karissimi Domini misericordiam pro
fratribus ac sororibus nostris ab orients usque ad occi-
dentem, ut et illi orent pro nobis unusquisque in diversis
locis per Christum Dominum nostrum.
Oremus etiam pro imitate secclesiarum, pro infirmis,
pro debilibus, pro captiuis, pro pcenitentibus, pro labor-
antibus, pro nauigantibus, pro iter agentibus, pro ele-
mosinas facientibus, pro defunctorum spiritibus, et pro
his qui non communicant, ut det illis Do minus dignain
agere poanitentiam per Christum Dominum nostrum.
Oremus etiam Domini misericordiam pro spiritibus
carorum nostrorum pausantium ill. ut eis Dominus
placidum refrigerium tribuere dignetur, et in loco
quietis ac refrigerii (356) sanctorum suorum interces-
sione eos transferat per Ihesum Christum Dommum.
Offerimus tibi Domine Jhesu Christe hanc orationem
ab ortu solis usque ad occidentem, a dextera usque ad
sinistram, in honorem et gloriam divinitatis Chris ti et
humanitatis, in honorem et gloriam omnium graduum
ccelestium, Michahelein, Gabriheleun archangelum, in
honorem et gloriam patriarcharum, prophetarum, apos-
tolorum, ac martyrum, pro omnibus virginibus, fidelibus,
poenitentibus, pro omnibus matriinoniis, pro bonis non
ualde, pro malis non ualde, pro omnibus merentibus
orationem et deprecationem nostram. Per eundem.
Such is the form of bidding prayer once em-
ployed at Winchester Cathedral before St. Osmund
rubric : Dis gebed man sceal singan aet offrunga for hine sylfne.
7 for his broSor. 7 for gespysterna. 7 for ealle ]?am ]?e he on
gebedraedenne bi}?. and for eal Cristen folc. Wanley, Cat., p. 231.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 289
framed his Use for Salisbury ; and it has been
handed down to us in Leofric's Missal, a codex
containing by far the most precious monument of
the Anglo-Saxon liturgy to be found in any of our
libraries throughout the whole country : 15 like to it
(357) in meaning, although drawn up in the Anglo-
Saxon tongue, is the following bidding of the
beads, copied out of a fine manuscript of the four
Gospels, which seems to have at one time be-
longed to the Church of Sherbourne, but is now
at York Minster. 16
(358) pitan we gebiddan god ealrmhtme heofina cyn-
ing 7 Sea marian 7 ealbe godes halgan J>aet we moton
godes selmihtiges -pillan gepyrcan, &c. Pat. nr.
pittan we gebiddan for urne papan on rome 7 for
15 This Missal is one of the " ii f ulle maesse bee " given by Bishop
Leofric, during the Confessor's reign, to Exeter Cathedral (Cod.
Dip. Ang.-Stix., iv. 275) ; and by every liturgical student, British
or foreign, will be looked upon as one of the most precious among
the numerous valuable manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, where
it is marked Bod. 579. [See the edition by Warren, Oxford, 1883,
where this is p. 8.]
16 At York Cathedral, in the record-room next to the consistory
court [now in the Treasury], there is a Latin copy of the Gospels,
or, as the Anglo-Saxons well called it, a " Christ's Book," finely
written and illuminated with the emblems of the four Evangelists,
one at the beginning of each gospel, St. John's excepted : at the
end are bequests of land, also " Sermo Lupi " in Anglo-Saxon,
another discourse in Anglo-Saxon, but with this heading : " Nemo
Christianorum paganos superstitiones intendat," &c., and another,
" A Christo enim Christiani sunt nominati," &c. From an in-
ventory of church plate beginning thus plf j* yndoii pa cyrican
madmas on Shirburnon, &c., there can be no doubt this Evan-
gelistarium once belonged to Sherborne Minster, and may have
been one of the " twa Xpes bee " entered after. The Anglo-
Saxon bidding prayer in the text may be seen in this codex [cp.
Surtees, vol. Ixiii. p. 219.*]
VOL. II. T
290 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
urne cyning 7 for ne arceft 7 forne ealdon man, &c.
Pat. nr.
pittan we gebiddan forure godsybbas 7 for ure cumseft-
gan 7 for ure gildan 7 gilds preostra 7 ealles thaes folces
gebed the thas halgan stowe mid aelmesan seceft mid
lihte mid tigeiSmge 7 for ealle ))a))epe oefre heora aelines-
san befonde paeron aerlife and aefter life. Pat. nr.
For for ... erjer (for )>fae}>er ?). saule bidde pe Pat.
fir. 7 for meilmere saule 7 for ealle ]>a saula fefulluhe (?)
underpengan 7 on Crist gelyfdan from Adarnes daege to
Jrissum daege. Pat. nr.
At the end of these prayers, no doubt it was
that a list of the dead used to be read from the
" Book of Life," and the worshippers present were
asked to commend unto God's mercy, in par-
ticular and by name (i) such as had endowed
that church expressly on the agreement of being
for ever afterwards so remembered ; 17 (2) those
whose anniversary (359) fell about that time ; and
(3) every one who had died in that parish or
neighbourhood within the week just passed.
This catalogue of the dead, given out to be
prayed for on Sundays, began during the Anglo-
Saxon, and continued all through the English
and Norman periods of our Church history to
be called " the bead-roll." Bidding the beads
therefore consisted of these two parts : in the
first place, prayers were said for the different
17 To help clothe the bishop and monks of Winchester, ^Ethel-
wolf, the ealderman, bequeathed (A.D. 945) twelve hides of land, on
condition that they put him down in their bead-roll : <5a twelf
hida, to scrudfultume, Saet hi me on heora gebeddredenne haebben.
Cod. Dip. Anglo-Sax., v. 333.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 291
personages in church and state in general and
who were living ; in the second, for certain pri-
vate individuals in particular who were dead.
Helping as it did to knit, through the ties of
a ghostly kindred, all the inhabitants, high and
low, of this country into one great household like
brethren to link the present with the past, and
bring back the dead to live for ever in the pious
remembrance of their surviving countrymen to
bind all three parts of God's Church with one
another, by teaching the faithful on earth to ask
the saints in heaven for their intercession, and to
beg God's forgiveness on the souls in purgatory
those poor souls not as yet clean enough to go
where nought defiled can enter, this liturgical
practice was quite as much heeded and cared for
by St. Osmund, and his fellow-Normans, as ever
it had (360) been among the Anglo-Saxons; and
it continued to be followed throughout the land
till the end of Mary's reign. 18
18 The xxiij day of July (A.D. 1554) dyd pryche at Powlles crosse
master Harpfeld, and he dyd pray in ys bedes for the kyng and
quene, Phelipe and Mare, by the grace of God kyng and quene of
England, &c. (The Diary of Henry Macliyn [O.S.], p. 66). Again:
The ix day of Desember dyd pryche at Poulles cross doctur Borne,
bysshope of Bathe, and prayd for the pope of Rome (Julius the
thurde), and for alle the solles of purgatory (ib., p. 78). After
Henry VIII. had apostatised, by setting himself up as the head
of the Church in England, among other things he kept was the
bidding prayer, for which he sent out the form following : " This
is an order taken for preaching and bidding of beads in all sermons
to be made within this realm. First, whosoever shall preach in
the presence of the king's highness . . . shall, in the bidding of
beads, pray for the whole Catholic Church of Christ, as well quick
292 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(361) According to the Salisbury rubric, this
bidding prayer was every Sunday to be given out
in cathedral and collegiate churches, by the cele-
brant standing in front of the rood-loft and before
the western doorway of the choir, at the procession
for sprinkling the holy water ; in parish churches,
after the Gospel [Offertory], and either from
before an altar, or from the pulpit. 19 Though
as dead. . . . Item, the preachers in all places of this realm, not
in the presence of the king's said highness . . . shall, in the
bidding of the beads, pray first ... as is above ordained and
limited, adding thereunto in the second part for all archbishops
and bishops, and for the whole clergy of this realm, and specially
such as the preacher shall name of his devotion : and thirdly for
all dukes, earls, marquisses, and for all the whole temporalitie of
this realme, and specially such as the preacher shall name for
devotion ; and finally, for the souls of all them that be dead,
and specially for such as it shall please the preacher to name."-
Wilkins, ConciL, iv. 783 ; see also p. 808, ibid.
19 IF Quando vero venerit processio ante magnam crucem in
ecclesia . . . vertat se sacerdos ad populum et dicat in lingua
materna sic : Oremus pro ecclesia Anglicana, et pro rege nostro, et
archiepiscopis, episcopis, et specialiter pro episcopo nostro N. } et pro
decano vel rectore huius ecclesix (scilicet in ecclesiis parochialibus),
et pro terra sancta, pro pace ecclesise et terrx et regina et suis liberis,
et cetera more solito. Deinde vertat se sacerdos et dicat istum
psalmum, Deus misereatur, ex utraque parte chori more solito sine
nota, ex parte chori principal! incipiatur. Finito psalmo cum
Gloria Patri et Sicut erat, sequatur Kyrie eleison. Xpe. eleison.
Kyrie eleison. Pr. nr. Deinde dicat sacerdos in audientia sed sine
nota : Et ne nos. Red libe. Ostende nobis Dne. misericordiam tuam.
Et salutare tuum da nobis. Sacerdotes tui induant iustitiam. Et
sancti tui exultent. Dne. salvum fac regem. Et exaudi nos in die
qua invocaverimus te. Salvum fac populum tuum. Et rege eos et extolle
illos usque in eternum. Dne. fiat pax in virtute tua. Et abundantia
in turribus tuis. Dne. exaudi orationem meam. Et clamor meus.
Dominus vobiscum. Et cum spiritu tuo. Oremus.
Deus qui charitatis dona per gratiam Sancti Spiritus tuorum cordi-
busfidelium infundis, da famulis et famulabus tuis pro quibus tuam
deprecamur clementiam salutem mentis et corporis, ut te tola virtute
PART I. CHAP. VII. 293
always the very same (362) in meaning and in
substance, the words of the bidding prayer
diligant et que tibi placita sunt iota dilectione perficiant, et pacem tuam
nostris concede temporibus. Per Xpm. Dnm. nrm.
IF Item con versus ad populum dicat sacerdos in lingua materna :
Oremus pro animdbus N. ti N., more solito ; et postea vertat se
sacerdos et dicat psalmum, De profundis, supradicto modo. Gloria
Pri. cum Kyrie eleison. Xpe. eleison. Kyrie eleison. Pater nr. Et
ne nos. Sed libe. Requiem eternam dona eis, Dne. Et lux perpetua.
A porta inferi. Erue, Dne., animus eorum. Credo videre bona Dni.
In terra viventium. Dns. vobiscum. Et cum spiritu tuo. Oremus.
Absolve qs. Dne. animas famulorum famularumque tuarum paren-
tum, parrochianorum, amicorum, benefactorum nostrorum : et animas
omnium fidelium defunctorum ab omni vinculo delictorum, ut in resur-
rectionis gloria inter sanctos et electos tuos resuscitati respirent. Per.
Requiescant in pace. Amen. He preces predicte dicuntur supra-
dicto modo omnibus dominicis per annum : sive de dominica sive
aliquo festo sit servitium nisi duplex fuerit : et nisi in sexta die a
Nativitate Dni. : et in die Scti Silvestri si in dominica evenerit :
et nisi in dominica Palmarum. Ita tamen quod in ecclesiis par-
rochialibus, non ad processionem, sed post evangelium et ofFertorium,
supradicto modo dicuntur ante aliquod altare in ecclesia vel in pul-
pito ad hoc constituto : tamen psalmus De profundis, cum versu
et oracione Absolve qs. Dne., semper in statione ante crucem in
ecclesia supradicto modo . . . ut supra diximus. Finitis precibus
intrent chorum, cantore incipiente Letentur celi et exultet terra, &c.
Processionale ad usum insignis Ecclesie Sarum, Londini, A.D. 1555,
fol. v v . In the edition of A.D. 1528, instead of "Oremus pro
ecclesia Anglicana," the first prayer reads, " pro ecclesia Romana,
et pro papa," but in my copy, old Harry VIII. 's claw has tried to
scratch this sentence out by running a pen over it, but in vain ;
and as the tyrant's ink could not blot away the words, so the per-
secutions of the law have been unable, though at their hot work
for three hundred years, to crush Catholicism in this country [Cp.
Dr. Henderson's reprint (Leeds, 1882), pp. 6-8].
For giving out the names from the bead-roll, the custom was
that the parish should allow a certain yearly stipend : hence we
find such as the following entries in old churchwardens' accompts
" to the parissche prest for the redyng of ye bede rolle on ye
sondaiis xijd." (Boys, Hist, of Sandwich, p. 364). Individuals, too,
bequeathed money to have themselves especially remembered at
the Sunday-beads : A.D. 1480, Avery Cornburgh had written upon
his grave in Romford Church, the following among other verses :
294 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
seem to have varied in different (363) parts of
the country, and perhaps every diocese may have
Moreover this call to your remembrance anon,
That in the beadroll of usage every Sonday redd ;
The souls of this A very, Beatrice, and John
Be prayed for in speciall ; se that owr will be spedd
And that the curate of this church curtesly be ledd
And for his labor have in reding of that roll
Forty pens to prey for them and every Christian soul.
(Weever, Funeral Monuments, p. 403). It seems to have been in some
places the curate's office to read out the Sunday bead-roll, and the
emolument arising from its discharge a part of his benefice : some-
times may be met with a note of the money paid for this service,
as for instance : To Maister Darby, for the bederolle for a yere, 2S.
(Churchwardens? Accts. of St. Mary Hill, London, A.D. 1510, Illus-
trat., &c., by Nichols, p. 105); P d to S r Robert for D'Beyd roylle,
2s.Ibid., p. 309.
As the bidding of the beads was, according to the Salisbury rubric,
to be made just after the Gospel [Offertory], it became a usage for
the priest, whenever he wanted those who were hearing his Mass to
add their supplications along with his own whilst he craved any
particular favour from Heaven, to turn round at this part of the
holy Sacrifice, and telling the people the object of his pious wishes,
ask their help, and beg them mingle their cries with his in putting
up to God those prayers which he and they forthwith began upon
their bended knees. This we gather from the following record,
by Reginald the Durham monk, of a miraculous cure wrought at
Bellingham Church, in North Tyndale, upon a young girl whose
hand had been suddenly shrivelled up : Perlecto ad Missam
evangelio, idem sacerdos proximorum compatiendo miseriis, prae-
cepit ab omnibus fieri per ecclesiam no vies pro ejus (puellse cujus
manus sinistra . . . adeo contracta diriguit, quod earn nee pro-
ducere aut contrahere ullo modo potuerit) sospitate compendium
satis notissimum dominicse orationis. "Hiis," inquiens, " verbis
dominicse doctrine Deum venerantes, Sancti Cuthberti clementiam
pro hac languente expostulate," &c. . . . Cujusmodi verbis fideles
accensi, preces alacrius effundunt, omnesque talibus affatim eloquiis
sacerdotem prosequuntur, et dicunt " Sancte Cuthberte, nunc
hujus misellse miserere, et Dominum exorans," &c. . . . No vies
talibus expletis, ecce venerandus confessor solita sibi dementia
pie deprecantibus affuit. . . . Necdum quidem populus in ecclesia
oratione completa de terra surrexerat, &c. Libdlus de Adm. B.
Cuthberti, p. 244.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 295
had its own form. 20 The two samples (364) which
we are going to lay before our readers will, how-
ever, be enough to let them hear how the self-
(365) same Catholic voice which used to bid the
beads in Latin, or in Anglo-Saxon words, spoke
none other than a like belief while uttering, many
hundred years afterwards, those very prayers
in English to our fathers. This shorter way of
bidding the beads gives us an outline of the form
which, it is probable, became adopted, though
not in all, yet in many churches within the pro-
vince of Canterbury.
A SHORTER FORME OR MANNER OF BIDDING
THE BEADES
Masters and frendes, as for holy dayes and fast-
ing dayes ye shal have none thys weke, but that
ye maye doe all manner of good workes, that
shall bee to the honoure of God, and the profyt
of your own soules. And therefore after a laud-
able consuetude, and a lawfull custome of our
mother holy Churche, ye shal knele down movyng
your heartes unto Almightye God, and makyng
your speciall prayers for the iii estates, concernyng
all Christen people ; that is to saye, for the
Spiritualtye, the Temporaltie, and the soules
20 In Some Account of Exeter Cathedral, published by the Society
of Antiquaries, with plates, in folio, at p. II of the letterpress,
is given the old form of bidding prayer used there during the
fifteenth century.
296 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
being in the paynes of purgatorye. Fyrst, for our
holy father the Pope with all hys Cardinalls ; for
all Archeby shops and (366) byshops, and in especiall
for my Lord Archbishop of Canterburye your
Metropolitane : and also my Lorde Bishop of this
diocesse, N., and in generall for all persons, vicars,
and parishe priests having cure of mannes soule,
with the ministers of Christes Church, as wel
religious, as not religious. Secondly, ye shal
pray for the unitie and peace of al Christen
E-ealmes, and specially for the noble Realme of
England, for our soveraigne Lord the King, for
the Prince, for my Ladye the Kinges Mother,
with all their progeneye ; and for all the Lordes
of the councel, and al other of the nobilitie, which
dwell in the contreyes having protection and
governaunce of the same, that Almightie God
may send them grace so to governe and rule the
lande, that it maye bee pleasing unto almightye
God, wealth and profyte to the lande, and salva-
tion to their soules.
Also ye shall praye for all those that have
honoured the church wyth light, lampe, vest-
mente, or bell, or with any ornamentes, by the
whiche the service of almightye God is the better
maintayned and kepte. Furthermore ye shall
praye for all true travailers, and tillers of the
earth that trulye and duelye done their dutye to
God and holye church, as they be bounde to do.
Also ye shal pray for al manner of frutes, that be
PART I. CHAP. VII. 297
done uppon the grounde, or shal be, that al-
mightye God of hys greate pitye and mercye
maye sende suche wederynges that they maye
come to the sustenaunce (367) of man. Ye shall
praye also for al those that be in debt or deadly
sinne, that almightye God maye give them grace
to come oute thereof, and the soner by our prayer.
Also ye shall praye for all those that bee sicke or
diseased, eyther in body or in soule, that al-
mightye God maye sende them the thing whiche
is moste profitable, aswel bodily as ghostly. Also
ye shall praye for all pilgrimes and palmers that
have taken the way to Rome, to S. James or
Jerusalem, or to any other place, that almightye
God may give them grace to go safe, and come
safe, and give us grace to have parte of their
prayers, and they part of oures. Also ye shal
praye for the holy Crosse, that is in the posses-
sion and hands of unryghtful people, that al-
mightye God may send it into the possession of
Christen people, when it pleaseth hym. Further-
more I commit unto your devoute prayers all
women that be in our ladyes bondes, that al-
mightye God may send them grace, the childe
to receave the sacrament of baptisme and the
mother purification. Also ye shall praye for the
good man or woman that thys daye geveth bread
to make the holy lofe, and for all those that
fyrste began it, and them that longest continue.
For these and for all true Christen people, every
298 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
man and woman say a Pater noster, and an Ave,
Deus misereatur nostri, &c., cum Gloria Patri,
(&c. While the priest is saying the aforesaid
orysons, he shal stand with his face eastward and
looke unto the high altare. When (368) he hath
once done, he shal turne hym againe to the
people and speake unto them on this manner.
Thirdly, ye shal pray for your frends soules, as
your fathers soule, your mothers soule, your breth-
rens soule, your sisters soule, your Godfathers
soule, your Godmothers soule, and for all those
soules, whose bones rest in this church or church-
yarde or in other holye place, and for al the soules
being in paines of purgatorye, but especially, and
above al, for those soules, whose names be accus-
tomed to be rehearsed in the beaderolle as I shall
rehearse them unto you by the grace of God, etc.
For these in speciall and for all other in generall
that it is needfull to praye for ; for every man and
woman saie a Pater nosier and an Ave. Now
shal the priest againe turne eastward and say,
De profundis, etc., cum Or emus, Absolve que-
sumus, &c. 21
21 Thos. Becon, Reliques of Rome (A.D. 1563), fols. 234, 235.
Becon tells us it was from the English Festival! he took the above
form of "byddyng the beades on the Sunday." This English
" Festivall " is a very valuable and highly curious work, called the
Liber Festivalis, which may have been translated, but certainly was
first printed, by Caxton and afterwards reprinted by Wynkyn de
Worde. By comparing Becon's transcript with Caxton's edition
of A.D. 1483, the reader will find that Becon has considerably
abridged the original, which runs thus at the end : " ye shal also
pray ... for all the soules that we ben bounde to pray for and
PART I. CHAP. VII. 299
(369) The following will show what was the
form more or less generally observed in the pro-
vince of York, at the earliest part of the fifteenth
century.
PRO PRECIBUS DOMINICALIBUS
Ye shall make your prayers specially till our
Lord God Almighty, and till his blessed mother
Mary, and till all the holy court of heaven for the
state and the stableness of all holy Kirk. For the
pope of Eome and all his cardinals, and for the
archbishop of York, and for all archbishops and
bishops, and for all men and women of religion,
and for the person (parson) of this kirk that has
your souls to keep, and for all the priests and
clerks that has served or serves in this kirk or in
any other. And for all prelates and ordiners and
all that holy Kirk rules and governs, that God
lend them grace so for to rule the people, and
swilk ensample for to take or show them, and
them for to do thereafter, that it may be loving
unto God, and salvation of their souls.
Also ye shall pray specially for the good state
of this realm, for the king, and the queen, and
for the sowles that been in the paynes of purgatorye, there abyd-
ing the mercy of our Lord God, and in special for them that have
most nede and leste helpe, that God for his endeles mercy lesse
and mynysshe theyr paynes by the moyen of our prayers and
brynge them to his everlastyng blysse in heven ; and also for the
sowle of N., or of them that on suche a day this weke we shal
have the annyversarye, and for alle Cristen sowles ye shal say a
Pater noster, and an Ave" &c.
300 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
for all the peers, and the lords of this land, that
God send (370) love and charity them among, and
give them grace so for to rule it, and govern it
in peace, that it be loving to God and the com-
mons unto profit.
Also ye shall pray specially for them that lely
(loyally) and truly payes their tendes (tithes) and
their offerings till God, and holy Kirk, and for all
that other does that God them amend.
Also ye shall pray specially for them that this
kirk first biggid and edified, and all that it up-
holds, and for all that therein finds book, or
chalice, vestment, light, or towel, or any other
ornament wherewith God's service is sustained.
And for them that holy bread gave to this kirk
to-day, and for them that first began, and longest
holdes on.
And for all land and till land, and for all sea
farand (sea-faring), and for the weather, and for
the fruit that is on earth, that the earth may bring
forth his fruit Christian men to profit.
And for all pilgrims and palmers, and for all
that any good gates has gone or shall go.
And for all them that bridges and streets makes
and amends, that God grant us part of their good
deeds, and them of ours.
Also ye shall pray for all our parishins whereso
they be on land or on water, that God save them
from all missaunters (misadventures), and for all
women that are with child in this parish or in any
PART I. CHAP. VII. 301
other, that God deliver them with joy, and give
the child Christendom, and them purification ; and
(371) for all them that are sick and sorry, that
God Almighty comfort them ; and them that are
in good life that God hold them therein.
For them that are in debt, or in deadly sin, or
in prison, that God bring them out thereof; for
them that for us, and for all Christian folk for
charity say a Pater noster and an Ave, &c.
Also ye shall pray specially till our Lady St.
Mary that she become our advocate, and that
she pray for us specially till her dear son.
Also ye shall pray specially for the brethren
and sisters of St. Peter's minster of York, and
of St. John of Beverley, and of St. Wilfrid of
Eipon, and for all that ye are h olden unto, and
for all that God would ye pray for, say a Pater
noster and an Ave, &c.
Also ye shall pray specially for our fathers'
souls, and our mothers' souls, and for our god-
fathers' souls, and our god-mothers' souls, and
for our brethren's souls, and our sisters' souls,
and for our elders' souls, and for all the souls of
whom the bodies are buried in this kirk, or in
this kirk-yard, and for all souls that in purgatory
God's mercy abides, and for all Christian souls
of whom we have had any good of, say a Pater
noster and an Ave, &c. 22
22 From a MS. York Manual, the calendar of which shows it to
have been written out A.D. 1403. For the use of this valuable
LIBRARY ST. MARY'S COLLEGE
302 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(372) From these interesting liturgical monu-
ments, we behold that what had been sought
after with so much pious eagerness by the Anglo-
Saxon, became an object no less dear to the wishes
of every one in this island, as long as the Salis-
bury and other (373) national rituals remained in
use ; ^ and few individuals were there who could
manuscript I owe many thanks to its obliging owner, Sir William
Lawson, Bart. Instead of its old, I have given it the present
spelling. [See Surtees Soc. Ixiii. 123-127.]
The reader will have seen that, in the bidding of the beads, the
prayers for the dead form a distinct part by themselves, and have
their own psalm, versicles, responses, and collect. Unto such a
portion of the " beads," it looks as if there had been given by the
people an exclusive designation ; and it would seem that in the
provincial speech of our eastern counties it was known under the
name of sangrede, for it would be hard to find out any other mean-
ing for this term from the way it is met in the will made, circa
A.D. 1420, at Bury St. Edmund's, by one John Baret, who says :
Item, I wil the seid WilFm Baret, and alle tho that shal succede
hym, pay yeerly to the sexteyne of the monastery of Bury, who
so be for the tyme, iijs. \vd. for a sangrede, that my soule, my
fadrys and my modrys sowlys and my frendys may be prayd fore
in the pulpit on the Sunday, and the parysh prest to do as moche
as sangrede requerith.
In the pious bequests to churches, persons often begged to be
prayed for at the Sunday beads ; thus Thomas de Hoton says :
Do et lego Deo et ecclesise beatse Marise Veteris unum novum
missale, j calicem, et j bonum vestimentum, ita ut rectores ejusdem
ecclesise habeant animam meam recommendatam in oracionibus suis
dominicalibus faciendis. Test, Eboracensia, Surtees Soc., i. 64.
23 Some few of these original bead-rolls are still to be seen :
and Hearne, that untiring, but methodless antiquary, has printed
some ; one of which, thought by him, from its form of writing,
to go back as far as Richard II. 's reign, is here shown the reader.
This roll was found in a manuscript of Hilton's Scale of Perfection,
a codex that, before its dissolution, belonged to the Charter-House,
London. It is drawn out on a large octavo leaf of vellum, and
consists of the names following :
For the soule of Syr John
Rudkyn. And for the soule off
PART I. CHAP. VII. 303
afford it but made, at (374) some time or other
of their life, a gift, especially unto their own
Emmot Skyllyngton. And
for the soule of Thomas
Parkyn and Jone. And for (the soule of)
Henry Walgat. And for the
soule of Rychard Florry and
Margere. For the soule off
John Coye and William Coye.
And for the soule of Mayster
Roger Floure, and for the
soule of Mayster Rychard
Thymmylby. God have mercy on
these soules and of all
Crystyn soules.
Hearne, Hist, of Glaston, preface, p. T.
Besides this short common Sunday bead-roll, with mere names
and exclusively of such as had been its special benefactors, in
each church there was kept a longer one, filled with the names of
all those persons who had bestowed but the smallest trifle upon
it, and telling what their gifts had been. This larger bead-roll
used to be read out once only in the year mostly, on the feast
of All Hallows and on that particular day, to remind the
parishioners to pray on the morrow All Souls' day more espe-
cially for those to whose kindness their church stood indebted.
Amongst the several pious purposes for which Simon Lyster, of
Hengham, put six acres of land in feoffment (A.D. 1483), one was
for himself and his benefactors " on Holowmes-day, to be rehersid
in the comyn beed." Blomefield, Norfolk, ii. 426.
The long bead-roll was, however, read on other days in some
few instances. A.D. 1455, the mayor and corporation of Norwich
kept, on St. Jerom's day, an obit for the souls of all the deceased
benefactors to that city, and their names and gifts were all read
out of a bead-roll kept for that purpose. Blomefield, Norfolk,
iii. 1 60.
Besides its being so much to our present purpose, the reader
will be glad to have set before him the following larger bead-roll
of Our Lady's Church, Sandwich, as it is one of the most valuable
documents of our ecclesiastical antiquities, showing the pious
munificence of our forefathers, and that holy earnestness with
which they strove to make the house of God beautiful :
" Thys ys the specyall copy of the bederoll, rehersyng of all the
namys of thoo sawlys of the goode doarys of oure lady chyrche
30 4 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
parish church, to have their name, (375) when
dead, written upon its bead-roll, and thus be
wyth yn the town of Sandewyche and yn specyall for them that
havyn bene grete helparys and releuarys therto, as hyt aperyth
here yn rehersyng as folowyth ; that ys for to say :
For the sawlys of John Condy and Wyllyem Condy, the whyche
weryn the fyrst begynneris of the fundacion of this chauntery,
and for all othyr that havyn gevyn there to more of ther goodys
where thorouth that hyt may be the better mayntenyd.
Also for the sawlys of Thomas Loweryk and of hys wyff, the
whyche foundid the chapell of oure lady at the hede of this
chyrche, and of iij wyndowys of the north syde of this chyrche.
Also for the sawle of Harry Loveryk, the whyche gaf the
monstrant of sylwyr and gylt for to bere ther yn the sacrament
on corpus Christi day.
Also for the sawlys of Thomas Elys and Margrete hys wyff and
for ser Thomas Rollyng sometyne vicary of this chyrche and for
hys fadrys and modrys sowlys, of whoos goodys was made wyth
the west wyndow of this chyrche and gaf unto the reparacions of
the sayd wyndow a yerely rent of xiij s. iiii d. perpetually to be
payn and ressevid : also made the vicriage of thys parissche more
than hyt was un to the honour of them that schullen be vicary
after hym, so that the sayd vicariis schuld gevyn yerely un to the
wardeyns of the sayd chyrche, for to do ther with an obite for hym
and for all hys parysschoners yerely ther of xl d. and the sayd
vicary than beyng schall haue of the sayd xl d. for the said obite
so yerely done xii d. and euery prist with yn the sayd chyrche
iiij d. and the parysche clerke ij d. and the sexteyn ij d.
Also for the sawlys of John Gyllyng and of his wyvys, the
whyche made the north wyndow of this chyrche be hys lyff daiis ;
and also gaf unto the reparacion of this chyrche xx u and x s. yerely
for ever.
Also for the sawle of Harry Cambrig he^emyte the whyche gaf
a chalys of xvi ounces syluer.
Also for the sawlys of Symon Barle and hys wyff, the whyche
gavyn yn her daiis a vestment for a priest of grene veluet, and ij
payntyd tabelys that stode some tyme on seynt Laurence auter an
afore the auter.
Also for the sawlys of John Goddard and hys wyf, of whos goods
was gevyn ij whyte damaske coopis with gold.
Also for the sawle of ser John Skynner priest ; of hys goodys
was gevyn a hole vestiment for a priest of cloth of sylke powderyd
with dayse flowris.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 305
prayed for, on Sundays, through at least a certain
length of years, if not everlastingly.
Also for the sawlys of Alexander Norman and of ij wywys, the
whyche be hys lyff daiis made the south wyndow and the south
porche of this chyrche.
Also for the sowle of Robard Crystmesse, of whos goodys was
gevyn unto the chaunge of these bellys xl 11 .
Also for the sawlys of Thomas Chyn and Thomas Barbor and
ther wyvys of whos goodys was made the procession porche and
the best masse boke.
Also for the sawlys of John Goddard of this parssche, of whos
goodys was gevyn ij bokys, a grayell and a martologe.
Also for the sawlys of Harry Derey and Alys his wyf , of whos
goodys was made vi copelys of the south roff of this chyrche.
Also for the sawlys of Symon Chapman and Julyen his wyf, of
whos goodys was gevyn a hole vestyment for a priest of cloth of
gold of Luke lynyd with grene tartary, and a chalys syluyr and
Also for the sawlys of Stephyn Gerard and Margery hys wyff of
whoos goodys was gevyn a good newe masse boke.
Also for the sawlys of Raft' Archere and hys wyf, the whyche gaf
be hys lyf daiis a crysmatory of syluyr, and the kuueryrig of the
fonte, and the ymage of seynt Jamys withyn seynt Jamys chapell.
Also for the sawlys of John Smyth vyntener and Joone hys wyff
the whiche gave a hole vestment and a cope of imperiall and a
grayell.
Item for the sawlys of John Colwyii and of hys wyff the whyche
gaf be ther lyf daiis the best crosse of syluer and gylt with a staf
of laton ther to, the whyche cost xxv 11 .
Also for the sawlys of Thomas Grene, Joone hys wyf, and John
Bysschop, the whyche gaf the fote of syluer for that crosse to
stand ther on the hygh auter.
Also for the sawlys of Thomas Burges, othyrwyse callyd garter
kyng of herawdys and of Anneys hys wyff, the whyche gavyn the
best chalys with ij cruettis of syluer, a purpyll coope with the
orfraiis of blak tyssew, and a hole vestiment for a priest of the
cloth of gold of the kyngys armys.
Also for the sawlys of John Cheseman and hys wyff, of whos
goods was gevyn unto the sute of rede baudekyns of gold the sum
of xvj u . xiij s. also a hole newe legende the whyche cost x u . vj s.
viij d.
Also for the sawle of ser Thomas Mowton vicary, the whyche
gaf be hys lyf daiis un to ij new sensers and ij candylstyks, and
VOL. IF. U
3 o6 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(376) Out of the Catholic belief in Purgatory,
there sprang up among our Anglo-Saxon fore-
fathers (377) certain particular religious usages,
which outlived all change of races and dynasties,
and throve in (378) this country until, much
against the people's wish, the state put away its
old for a new-born and foreign-bred form of creed.
The first of these devotional practices which we
have to notice is
THE Pious FELLOWSHIP IN BEHALF OF THE
DEAD WHICH ONE ANGLO-SAXON MINSTER
OFTEN FORMED WITH ANOTHER.
We have heard with what feeling earnestness
St. Beda, that holy learned man, besought to have,
as soon as he should breathe his last, masses
offered up and prayers said for his soul by the
monks of a monastery, 24 far away from his own
Jarrow. What that saint asked in his own indi-
to a boke ycalyd an antiphoner and unto other necessariis the
sum of xxj 11 . vi s. viii d.
Also for the sawlys of John Wellys clerk of this chyrche, the
whyche gaf a hole vestimente for a prieste, and a bason of laton
for the lamp to hang.
Also for the sawlys of Wyllyem Clowtyng and Peyne hys wyff,
of whoos goods the vestery was newe repayryd unto valow of vj u .
Boys, Hist, of Sandwich, p. 372.
Swaffham Church commemorated all its benefactors on Whit-
monday, when the large common bead-roll was read all through,
and it was not only much longer, but even more interesting than
the one just given, as may be seen from Blomefield, Norfolk,
vi. 217.
24 See note 4, p. 278.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 307
vidual person, whole religious bodies strove, at
the very time he was living, to get done for all
their members : 25 hence (379) arose the custom for
one minster to tie itself, by a formal agreement of
brotherhood, unto another, with the mutual under-
standing that each should say a fixed number of
psalms and masses for the souls of the dead, not
only belonging to its own, but the other's congre-
gation. 26 Often, too, the compact was so wide as
to take in, not merely those who had plighted
their vows to God and put on the cowl in that
minster, but all lay-folks men or women who,
by their benefactions, had become entitled to the
prayers of its members. 27
Linking itself under such a bond of ghostly
friendship, not merely with one or two, but a
great many other houses scattered up and down
this island sometimes even with clerical establish-
ments far off beyond the sea, as Winchester and
other minsters here did in regard to those reli-
25 Similiter ut pro dormientium f ratrum animabus, qui nobiscum
laborabant in Domino, orationum adjuvamina et missarum solemnia
celebrare faciatis precamur, quorum nomina gerulus harum
literarum demonstravit. Bonifacius Aldherio, in Op. S. Bonifacii,
i. 201, ed. Giles.
26 Direximus itaque fratrum nostrorum nuper defunctorum
nomina, ut eorum in vestris sanctis orationibus solito more
memoriam habeatis, et ad csetera deinceps monasteria eadem
nomina scripta dirigatis, sicut et nos facimus, quoties de vobis
sive de cseteris monasteriis defunctorum fratrum nomina veniunt.
Anonymus Anonymo (ibid., i. 263). The "solito more" of the
text shows that this practice had, even then, towards the early
part of the eighth century, been of some standing.
27 See Lull's letter, quoted at the end of next note.
3 o8 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
gious congregations founded by St. Boniface in
(380) Germany, 28 our Anglo-Saxon Churchmen
soon learned how needful was it that a monastery
should have some fixed rule to go by in the due
interchange of those pious services which each
promised to perform towards the other's members,
as if they were its own. Hence arose the use of
THE DEATH-BILL,.
called by some the mortuary-roll or brief, which
(381) was a list of its dead sent by one house to
be remembered in the prayers and sacrifices of the
other with which it was in fellowship : an especial
messenger, from his office, named the roll-bearer,
carried it. When a bishop or an abbot died, and
28 Inprimis itaque scire te volumus, o dilectissime, quod gra-
tanter accipimus nostram parvitatem vestris sanctis orationibus
commendatam, ut sicut vestra benignitas de Missarum solemni-
tatibus, et orationum assiduitatibus, Deo instigante, dictavit, ita
quoque nostra mediocritas devota mente implere conetur, memori-
aque nominis vestri in septenis monasteriorum nostrorum synaxibus
perpetua lege censeri debet . . . Nomina quoque defunctorum et
viam universalem ingredientium prout opportunitas anni exegerit,
ex utraque parte adducentur (Bonifacio archiepiscopo Ebwaldus Estan-
glorum Deo donante regia potestatefretus in S. Bonifacii Op., ed. Giles,
i. 72). Lull, the friend and Anglo-Saxon successor of St. Boniface
in the see of Mentz, kept up the same close intercommunion with
England, as we learn from Cinehard the bishop of Winchester's
letter to this second apostle of Germany : Nomina quoque presby-
terorum vestrorum diaconorumque ac monachorum, vel monacharum
sive cseterorum quse misistis, per monasteria et per ecclesias nostrse
dioecesis direximus ad celebranda pro eis Missarum solemnia et
orationum suffragia. Id ipsum facere vestram Sanctitatem suppli-
citer exoramus pro eis quorum nomina vobis habemus dirigenda et
nominatim cum personis suis scribenda. Ibid. p. 225.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 309
among the laity some royal personage some high-
born thane, the munificent patron of that house
the monk unto whom belonged this duty started,
as soon as possible, on horseback, and rode all
about until he had called at each one of those
places with which his own monastery held brother-
hood, to tell the doleful news and ask their in-
mates' prayers for the soul of that individual
named in the death-bill of which he came the
bearer. Excepting these rare and more solemn
occasions, no other than a common list was
written, and the roll of the house sent forth at
certain periods during the year, with the names
upon it of such as had died within the last
few months, and for whom, according to agree-
ment, the celebrations of the Church were to
be made : 29 to monasteries in the (382) neigh-
29 Nomina quoque defunctorum, et viam universalem ingredi-
entium prout opportunitas anni exegerit, ex utraque parte addu-
centur (Ebwaldus Bonifacio, ib. p. 73). This we also learn from St.
Dunstan, who also tells us the precise prayer said on the occasion :
Epistola ad vicina quseque monasteria eiusdem (defuncti monachi)
depositionis denunciatura diem ut iste sit sensus.
Dominus N. abbas monasterii N. cunctis sanct?e ecclesise fidelibus
tarn prselatis, quam et subditis. Cum cunctos maneat sors irrevo-
cabilis horse, notum vobis esse cupimus de quodam fratre nostro
N. quern Dominus de ergastulo huius saeculi vocare dignatus est
die N., pro quo obsecramus obnixe ut sitis strenui interventores
ad Dominum, sentiatque in interventione, quibus fuerat unitus in
ordinis communione.
Quod si ex alio monasterio noto ac familiari, f rater quis nunciatus
fuerit defunctus, conveniant pulsata tabula undique fratres, rnotis
uti preediximus omnibus signis ; vij. pcenitentise prostrati in
oratorio modulentur psalmos hac subsequente oratione : Satisfaciat
tibi Domine Deus noster pro anima fratris nostri N. Beatae, Domini
Genetricis semperque virginis Mariae, et sancti Petri apostoli, atque
3 io THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
bourhood, the death of one in ghostly fellowship
with them was immediately announced.
What our forerunners in the Faith did during
the eighth, they went on doing till the sixteenth
(383) century all through this land ; and as under
Anglo-Saxon, 30 just so under Norman 31 and Eng-
sancti Benedicti confessoris tui, omniumque Sanctorum tuorum oratio, et
prassentis familise tux devota supplicatio, ut peccatorum omnium veniam
quamprecamur obtineat, nee eum patiaris cruciari Gehennalibus flam-
mis, quern eiusdem filii tui Domini nostri Jesu Christi glorioso sanguine
redemisti. Qui tecum vivit, &c.
Et agatur pro eo prima, tertia, septima, trigesima dies plenarie,
reliquis sub brevitate ; et nomen eius notetur in anniversariis : at
ex ignoto, tantum commendatio animse et una dies (Regularis Con-
cordia, in Reyner, p. 93). The Saint then adds : Ab octavis Paschse
. . . usque octavam Pentecostes vigilia pro defunctis et psalmi
pro benefactoribus non solent cani. Ibid., p. 90.
30 The following letter of fraternity, which Adela, who seems to
have been the abbess of some nunnery, sent to Leofric (whom
Edward the Confessor raised to the bishopric of Crediton, whence
that prelate carried his see to Exeter and died there during the
first William's reign), shows what were the particular devotional
obligations to be discharged by all those who might be admitted
to such pious brotherhoods : L. gratia dei episcopo Adela dei
famula quicquid melius in domino. Opto me fore in tuis sanctis
orationibus, ut tu sis in meis. Idcirco tibi mando de fraternitate
atque communione sanctorum omnium in qua cupio ut sis sicuti
ego. Omnes qui ea bona intentione menteque utantur atque ita
in fine sint perseuerantes ut nullo modo ex ipsa sint diffidentes
absque dubio coheredes fuerint dei regno. Unusquisque enim
fidelis qui in ea cupit intrare debet pro uiuis et defunctis x psal-
teria decantare et psalmum Deus misereatur nostri cotidie usitare,
et in feria ii. missam pro defunctis, et in vi. feria missam pro
uiuis. Et si quis ex his fratribus hoc seculo fuerit functus, missam
cotidie pro eo infra xxx dies oportet celebrari. Quod ex beatis-
simis patribus scilicet Ricardo atque Odolone est decretum pro
quorum benefactis deus est declaratus in magnis miraculis. Vale.
Leofric Missal, p. 59. It is written in a more modern hand than
that of the Missal itself, and on a vacant space at the end of the
leaf.
31 Abp. Lanfranc, made the primate of England through the
first Norman William's influence, allotted the office of drawing
PART 1. CHAP. VII 311
lish prelates, (384) our cathedrals and monasteries
went into a like kind of fellowship, both with
one another here and with those abroad. 32 The
up and sending off these death-bills, to the precentor, as we learn
from one of his decrees : Cura brevium qui foras mitti solent pro
defunctis fratribus, et cura numerandi tricenaria et septenaria, ad
eum (Cantorem) pertinet. Decreta Lanfranci pro ordine S. Bene-
dicti, in Reyner, Apost. Benedict. Append., p. 235.
32 From entries in the Liber Vitse of Durham, we find that house
kept religious fellowship with many monasteries in England, be-
sides some in France (Liber Vitx, ed. Stevenson, pp. 71, 72, 73).
The same practice was followed by all the monasteries, both great
and small, in this country. With regard to Christchurch, Canter-
bury, there may be seen among the Cotton manuscripts (Claudius
C. vi. 7, fol. 1 66), Societatum virorum et fceminarum indiculus, pro
quorum animabus monachi Ecclesise Christi Cantuariensis tenentur
praestare servitia, officia et missas.
Pro Domino episcopo Roffensi fiet servitium in ecclesia sicuti
pro nostris, et pro monachis ejusdem ecclesise, in conventu vii
plenaria officia, xxx diebus Verba mea, et quisque sacerdos vii
missas.
Pro monachis S. Augustini fiet per omnia sicut pro nostris,
excepto Verba mea, et cibo ad eleemosynam.
Pro sororibus Sceftonise vii officia plenaria in conventu, quisque
sacerdos iii missas, alii psalmos, et vii diebus Verba mea.
Pro canonicis S. Gregorii omnia signa ter pulsabuntur, et unum
officium non festivum in conventu fiet et in primo tricenario quod
occurrit ponentur.
Monachi de Glestingeberia plenam nobis societatem habent, et
nos cum illis similiter. Dies etiam anniversaria obitus illorum in
martyrologio nostro et dies anniversaria obitus nostri in martyr-
ologio ipsorum scribetur. Et unusquisque sacerdos missam unam.
Besides these, they had brotherhood with ten other monasteries
in England ; and abroad, the " Societates ecclesiarum in trans-
marinis partibus " were with six great houses. Adela's letter to
Leofric, given just now (note 30), will show what was the usage
in this country during Anglo-Saxon times. Of the form on the
Continent, of letter for this kind of religious fellowship, there is
an old (c. A.D. 838) and a good specimen in the one which was
sent on the occasion from the monks of St. Remigius, at Rheims,
to those of St. Denys, near Paris, and printed by D'Achery
(Spicil., iii. 333). How common, not only here but in France, the
3 i2 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
roll-bearer's office (385) was always kept up ; his
task remained the same, 33 but the death - bill
same practice must have been, may be gathered from the outpour-
ings of Baudre, the poetical abbot of Bourgueil:
Invectio in rolligerum.
Obsecro jam parcat tarn ssepe venire veredus,
Per nimios usus nimium sua verba veremur
Vivant prselati, pro quorum morte vagatur
Vultur edax, corvusque niger, volitansque veredus, r
Necnon bubo canens dirum mortalibus omen.
Significant mortes, prsesaganturque cadaver.
Sic rotulus semper mortem cuiuslibet affert
Ergo sit a nostris penitus conventibus exul,
Qui semper mortem, qui nuntiat anxietatem.
Nam si s^epe venit, nummi mercede carebit, <fcc.
Baldricus Andegav. Abb. Burgul., Carmina Historica [P.L. clxvi.
1184, 1185]. This same writer, who nourished towards the end
of the eleventh century, composed several odes to be inscribed
upon such mortuary rolls ; and these verses may be seen among
his Carmina, : the ode with this title, In Rotulo Rainaldi Remensis,
begins thus :
Si quid defunctos posset mea musa juvare
Debueram musam revera continuare,
Sed pro defunctis potius duo sunt facienda
Usus quse nobis et jus designat agenda.
Nam pro defunctis jus et compassio plorat,
Et pro salvandis animabus proximus orat, &c.
Ibid. [1183].
33 Two hundred years and more after St. Dunstan's time, an-
other holy countryman of ours, St. Gilbert of Sempringham, made
for these death-bills almost the very same rule as was laid down
by the illustrious Anglo-Saxon archbishop of Canterbury : Cum
aliquis vel aliqua de nostris obierit, infra tres dies mittantur, qui
scripta defuncti per singulas domos nostras ferant. . . . Portitori
brevium obituum nostrorum detur panis regularis et potus per
singulas domos. Cum obitus pro defuncto nostri ordinis recitatur
in capitulo, dicatur pro eo in conventu quam citius ordinata dici
poterit. Nee differatur missa ultra octo dies . . . et scribatur
nomen ejus in martyrologio et net pro eo tricennale in singulis
domibus ; et unusquisque sacerdos dicet pro eo tres missas, et unus-
quisque inferioris ordinis unum psalterium ; fratres et sorores laicae,
PART I. CHAP. VII. 313
carried by him showed, especially (386) on great
and particular occasions, something more than
the bare name and titles of the illustrious de-
ceased, written, as of old, upon a slip of unadorned
vellum. Before it was let go out of the scrip-
torium, or writing-room, this scroll went under
the limner's (387) beautifying hand, which set
forth, in nicely-wrought illuminations, the high
and holy doings of the great departed one : how,
in his last sickness, he had been duly aneled and
houseled, how he had given him all his rites, how
the burial service had been solemnly performed
for him at home. 34 Everywhere (388) the brief-
pro psalterio septies viginti et decem " Pater noster." Institutions
Beati Gileberti de Sem^ringham, &c. De Off. Mortuorum, in Mon.
Anglic., vii. xci*.
34 These rolls are some among the scarcest of our national ritual
documents : I have met with only one in private hands, and very
few are to be seen in our public collections of MSS. Perhaps the
Chapter library of Durham is the richest in these monuments ; and
it is presumed that the following description will not be unaccept-
able to the antiquarian and liturgical reader :
" 48. A roll thirteen yards in length and nine inches in breadth,
consisting of nineteen sheets of parchment, upon the following sub-
jects : " Upon the death of John Burnby, prior of Durham, in the
year 1464, Richard Bell his successor (afterwards bishop of Carlisle)
and the convent, entrusted a brief, if it may be so called, communi-
cative of the virtues of prior Burnby and his predecessor William
of Ebchester, to one or more monks of their cathedral, and com-
missioned them to travel throughout the kingdom, for the purpose
of prevailing upon its religious houses to assist in praying out of
purgatory the souls of the deceased dignitaries. The roll com-
mences with a splendid illumination three feet in length, illustra-
tive of the death and burial of one of the priors." Cod. Manuscript.
Ecc. Cathed. Dunelmensis Catalogus, &c., a Tlwma Rud., p. 435.
Rud gives the form of the brief, which, after dwelling upon the
holiness of life and the many good works of these two priors, ends
thus : " Quocirca, cum opus sit meritorium, captivas animas fidelium
3 i4 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
bearer was received, treated, and speeded on his
way as if he were a brother of that (389) house ;
defunctorum poenas luentes purgatorias vivorum precibus et
pietatis operibus suffragari ut a penis atrocibus celerius absolvan-
tur, vestne universitatis caritatem devotis precibus obnixius flagi-
temus, quatinus et maculas peccatorura quas carnali contraxerunt
miseria, vestrarum precum devocio diluat et abstergat et quod in
venia animarum venerabilium priorum nostrorum subsidium et
levamen de vestro promptuario pietatis conferre decreveritis cum
vestris insertis titulis redigi sedulo deprecamur ut . . . nostrse
devocionis munificencia vobis et vestris rependere teneamur.
" With this the monks set out, and the roll proves that, in the
course of their travels, they visited not fewer than 623 religious
houses, each of which wrote its title, order, and dedication upon the
roll, and pledged itself to pray for the deceased priors, receiving,
in return, an interest in the orisons of the priory of Durham.
" The theme thus stands at the foot of the brief : Anima Magistri
Willielmi Ebchester, et anima Magistri Johannis Burnby, et
animse omnium fidelium defunctorum per Dei misericordiam in
pace requiescant ; and the first monastery which the monks visited
thus records itself : Titulus monasterii Beatse Marise de Gyseburn
in Clyveland ordinis S. Augustini Ebor. Dioc. anima Magistri
Willielmi Ebchester et anima Magistri Johannis Burnby. et animse
omnium fidelium defunctorum per misericordiam Dei in pace
requiescant. Vestris nostra damus, pro nostris vestra rogamus.
"Each house thus writes its title, &c., and subjoins the above
verse, with the exception of the monastery of St. Paul, at Newen-
ham, co. Line., which exhibits the same sentiment in different
language : ' Quod dedimus vestris et vos impendite nostris.' "
Ibid., pp. 436, 437.
Similar rolls are contained in the treasury (of Durham) (ibid.,
p. 436). The whole of the above one is given at full length in
Hist. Dunelm. Scriptores Tres, Append., p. 448.
Of these very interesting documents the Surtees Society lately
published another, which will show the reader that, while the self-
same Catholic doctrine, accompanied by the same holy wish in
behalf of the dead, was put forth in it, the roll was written in a
different form of words : Venerabilibus patribus et amicis sanctae
religionis viris ad quos pervenerint heec scripta, Robertus prior
ecclesise cathedralis Dunelmensis, et ejusdem loci conventus,
salutem, et caritatis mutuse incrementum. Inter csetera pietatis
opera credimus indubitanter fore prsecipuum et Creatori nostro
maxime gratum, illis optati solaminis subsidia conferre, qui, decurso
PART I. CHAP. VII. 315
but the while he tarried under its roof the com-
munity recorded upon his brief the day and (390)
year of his coming to them, and their own sorrow
at the doleful tidings he brought. Their grief
was spoken in Leonines, which told of the good
deeds and holy life, whilst they wept the death of
the renowned deceased ; or they penned a Latin
couplet to say : " We will do for you and yours,
vitse prsesentis tsedio, extra statum merit! nunc positi poenas luunt
in purgatorio pro commissis juventutis prseteritae, aliena suffragia
devotissime flagitantes. Unde, quia sancta est et salubris cogitacio
pro defunctis exorare, ut a peccatis solvantur, ut canit ecclesia,
universitatem vestram venerandam ad quorum noticiam literse
prsesentes pervenerint, ad hujus tarn sanctse tarn immensse
devocionis studia, prout est moris antiquitus usitati salubriter
exorantes, in Domino, mutuse vicissitudinis optentu et gracia
rogamus humiliter, quatinus animam bonse memorise domini Thomse
nuper episcopi nostri, qui octavo idus Maii diem suum clausit
extremum, et animas confratrum nostrorum omnium in Christo
quiescencium quorum nomina lator prsesencium vobis praesentabit,
precibus vestris sacris recomendare velitis Altissimo ; ut per
oracionum vestrarum devota suffragia consequi mereantur eternse
beatitudinis requiem quam optarunt. Harum vero portitori
Johanni de P., nostro breviatori cum ad vos declinaverit, quod
humanitatis est exhibere velitis caritatis intuitu, ut vestris in
eventu consimili teneamur arcius grata vicissitudine respondere.
In cujus rei testimonium prsesentibus per triennium tantummodo
duraturis sigillum commune Capituli nostri duximus apponendum.
Data in Capitulo nostro octavo idus Octobris, anno Domini
millesimo ccc mo octagesimo primo. Hist. Dunelm. Scriptores Tres, in
Append, p. 152.
No doubt that fine roll, illuminated with the death-bed, the
dirge (an etching of which will be found a little farther on in this
work) and tomb, in Westminster Abbey, of John Islip, abbot of
that house, and given in Vetusta Monumenta, t. iv., plates 16, 17,
1 8, 19, was one of these mortuary rolls painted and sent about the
country to all those religious communities with which Westminster
held fellowship, to beg their prayers for the soul of abbot Islip.
This fine MS. belongs to the Society of Antiquaries.
3 i6 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
as we hope that you will do for us and ours." :
Most likely, (391) having mingled his own voice
35 An old roll, enumerating the churches which prayed for the
soul of Lucy de Vere, foundress of Hengham Priory, an Rich. I.,
commences thus :
Titulus. Ecclesia S fi Petri Westmonastern. Anima Dominae
Lucise Priorissae de Hengeham et animae omnium fidelium defunc-
torum, per Dei misericordiam, requiescant in pace. Amen.
Concedimus ei commune beneficium ecclesise nostrse,
Oravimus pro vestris, orate pro nostris.
On her death this lady was mentioned in the prayers not only
of Westminster, but of fifty other churches, as appears from the
roll, in which the same words occur above fifty times, but con-
stantly written in a different hand. Every one of these churches
strived to outdo each other in showing the respect they had to the
memory of this lady, which made some of them write verses upon
the occasion, several of which occur in the said roll.
Hsec virgo vitae mirtus super astra loc )
Et sic Lucise lux sine fine d j a
Transit ad superos venerabilis hsec moni )
Vix succedet ei virtutum munere t j
Ad lucem Lucia venit sine fine man )
Et sic quern coluit Patrem videt Omnipot j e
Luci Lucise prece lux mediante Marias
Luceat seterna quia floruit ut rosa verna.
Tres tibi gemm I ( lucent Lucia cor )
Insuper aur ) a e } die lectse qua rati j
Mater virgo t ) ( Martir fuit ergo lev )
Cernat ad ex ) amen \ districti Judicis } ai
Subveniant animae Lucise coelica quaeque
Ad quorum laudes dapsilis urna fuit.
Scandat ad astra poli virgo Lucia beata
Quae Ohristo soli fuit in terris famulata.
Verax vita via te ditet luce Lucia
In cceli propria cum virgine matre Maria.
Mors rapit omnia, sunt quia sompnia terrea quaeque,
Nuda tuguria, celsa palatia, mors unit aeque.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 317
in the Placebo, or Even-song ; in the Dirige, or
Matins; followed by (392) a Mass of Requiem
chanted for the dead in every church he visited,
this messenger, after many months' absence,
reached his own cloister, carrying back with him
the illuminated death-bill, now filled to its
farthest length with dates and elegiacs, for his
abbot to see that the behests of the chapter had
been duly done, and the library of the house
might be enriched with another document.
The fellowship, or right of being prayed for
during life and after death, granted by our Anglo-
Saxon monks to lay-folks men and women was
not only kept up here, but the system itself be-
came stretched out to a much wider extent be-
neath the governance of Norman and English
discipline than it had ever been heretofore. Not
satisfied with (393) having, as of old, their names
upon the bead-roll of a religious house, knights
and earls and high-born ladies would sometimes
get themselves, at their last illness, clothed, that
This priory being dedicated to the B. V. Mary and the Holy
Cross, for that reason upon the roll, is painted the Virgin Mary,
and over her
Stella maris, candoria ebur, speculum paradysi,
Pons venise, vitse janua, virgo vale.
And, for the same reason, a large cross is painted upon the same roll,
and above it
Crux bona, crux d ) ( lignum super omnia 1 )
Me tibi cons f 1 & na j redimens a peste mal f 1 g na -
Hearne, preface to his edition of Leland's Itinerary, vol. 5, p. xxvii.,
Oxford, 1744.
3 i8 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
they might thus die in the habit of some favourite
order, the austerities and self-denying practices
of which they had not, whilst young and well
and in healthful strength, had heart enough to
undergo. 36
36 St. Gilbert of Sempringham's Rule tells how the funeral rites
were done for those who had taken the habit of the order on their
death-bed : Susceptus quilibet in morte, in habitu canonici vel
fratris, per priorem et con ven turn alicujus domus ... in ilia domo
qua susceptus est, fiat pro eo sicut pro canonico vel f ratre, excepto
cibo xxx dierum. Et mittetur obitus ejus cum obitu primi de-
functi domus illius post mortem illius ; et sic net pro eo in aliis
domibus, sicut pro familiari, et in tricennalibus ponetur. In domo
vero qua suscipitur, scribetur in martyrologio, et in brevibus
mortuorum scribetur ad succurrendum, si habitum habuerit. Set
non mittentur brevia pro eo per se, nisi habuerit cartam magistri
(Institutiones Beati Gileberti de Sempringham, &c., De Off. Mortuorum,
in Mon. Anglic., vii. xcii*. When a monk of the order died, a day's
portion of meat and drink was, for the month following, given to
the poor in behalf of his soul. This was not done for a layman who
took the habit at his death.
" The obituary," says Mr. Raine, in his interesting though pre-
judiced work "the obituary of the Priory of Durham ... is
contained in the margin of an old copy of Bede's Martyr ology,
bound up along with many other matters relative to Durham, in
the MS. .B., iv. 24, in the library of the dean and chapter ; and,
be it noted, almost every entry proves my assertion, that men,
even of exalted rank, were in the habit of bidding farewell to the
world, and submitting to the austerities of the cloister. Let
me subjoin a few high-sounding names who died in the odour
of sanctity : Robert, the knight and monk ; Girald, knight
and monk ; Guerin, knight and monk ; Hamelin, knight and
monk ; Pagan, the knight ; Reiner, the knight ; Gospatrick, the
earl and monk" (Raine, St. Cuthbert, p. 95). This gentleman is
mistaken in his " assertion ; " for these entries merely show that
the above-named noblemen, at their dying moments took upon
them the habit, though they had never spent a day within the
Priory of Durham as cloistered monks. Of such a practice we
have spoken before (i. 398, note 120); and Carter, in his Speci-
mens, has given the figure from Conington Church, Hunting-
donshire, of a knight clad in mail armour, over which he wears
the habit and cord of a Franciscan friar. The oversights in such
PART I. CHAP. VII. 319
(394) Whilst by these means they sought to be
looked upon in some religious house as a kind
of brethren with its cloistered inmates, and thus
win its prayers (395) in behalf of their own and
kindred's souls when they should die, our Anglo-
Saxon lay-folks bethought themselves of those
pious associations known as
GILDS, 37
which have come down to us from them under
the self-same name and for the self-same truly
Catholic purposes. Mutual help with regard to
this world and the next this life's present wel-
fare and the soul's happiness hereafter was the
matters, committed by ignorance, or "a zeal not according to
knowledge," scoffers at Christ's Church have eagerly snatched
at, while they strove to show, so unreasonably, that the doctrine
of Purgatory, with which this practice was loosely linked, must
be wrong, because both may have been sometimes misunderstood,
abused, or misapplied. Thus Latimer, a man of the " new learn-
ing," so ranter-like in logic and in language, babbles about " our
old ancient purgatory pick-purse, that was swagged and cooled
with a Franciscan's cowl put upon a dead man's back, to the fourth
part of his sins." Sermons (Parker Soc.), p. 50.
37 The word " gild " is Anglo-Saxon, in which language it means
"the payment of money." Hence, as a fee, at going into any
club, and a yearly contribution of so much, were needful to keep
it up, of whatever kind it happened to be whether for religious
purposes or for trade the fellowship itself, from the " gilda," or
money clubbed together for upholding it, was called " gild."
Gilds were of two kinds, religious and secular ; and it would
seem that, in every parish church, the Anglo-Saxons kept a holy
gild ; for the ninth among the canons enacted under King Edgar,
forbids one priest to deprive another of anything either " in his
minster, his shrift-shire, or his gildshipe." Thorpe, Ancient, Laws,
ii. 247.
3 2o THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
bond which linked the Anglo-Saxon layman with
his fellow-layman in these holy companionships.
On being made a member, the Anglo-Saxon, as he
swore upon the shrined relics of their common
patron saint in the minster wherein they met,
pledged his oath to stand by his gild-brother in
every rightful cause, never to harm his person,
nor hurt his good (396) name. 88 For mere worldly
business and occasional feastings, each gild had
its own especial hall ; 39 and its concerns were
watched over by particular officers, among whom
the steward, 40 if not the first, was one of the most
trustworthy and conspicuous : it had, too, its own
chaplain or gild priest 41 to say Mass for the health
and well-being of the living and the souls' rest of
all its departed brethren. 42 (397) Craving for itself
' M j5 is panne aerest j5 aelc op rum ap on haligdome sealde sopre
heldraedeime for Gode 7 for porulde. 7 eal geferraeden ]>aem a sylste
pe rihtost haefde. The Thanes' gild, at Cambridge. Hickes,
Diss. Epist., in Thesaur. ii. 20.
For such kinds of oaths there was, among the Anglo-Saxons, a
particular form, which began thus : By the Lord, before whom
this relic is holy, I will be faithful and true, &c. (Thorpe, Ancient
Laws of England, i. 179). The " haligdom," or shrine with the relic,
is well shown in the Bayeux tapestry (pi. 6, t. vi. of the Vetusta
Monumenta), wherein Harold is figured between two shrines, with
a hand outstretched upon each, and taking his oath to William.
39 Orcy haefS gegyfeu pae gegyld healle 7 pone stede aet Abbodes-
byrig gode to lofe 7 see Petre 7 pam gyldscipe to agenne. Kemble,
Cod. Dip., iv. 277.
40 The steward or " stiwerd " is mentioned in note 44, p. 322.
41 The " gild priest " is especially prayed for in the Anglo-Saxon
bidding of the beads, p. 290.
42 And se Maesse-preost a singe twa maessan othre for tha
lyfigendan frynd. Othre for tha forSge fare nan aet aelcere mittinge :
and aelc gemaenes hades broSur twegen Salteras-Sealma. oSerne for
tha lyfigendan frynd. O theme for tha forSgefarenan and eft forS-siSe
PART I. CHAP. VII. 321
the ever-wakeful care and prayers of some saint
above, each gild kept the festival of its patron
with much solemnity and upon the eve of that
day an offering was brought to the church in
which its members were accustomed to assemble
for their common devotions. 43
But in the illness and at the death of any
among its brotherhood, was it that the Anglo-
Saxon gild showed forth its Christian kindness.
According to the statutes of one, founded at
Abbotsbury by a nobleman called Orcy, if a
member fell sick, though as far as sixty miles
away, the steward had to find fifteen men who
were to go and fetch their ailing friend to his own
home; and if he happened to die (398) within
thirty miles, as many of the gild as could be
brought together, on horseback or on foot, were
to go and bring the body to that church in which
their dead brother had wished to be buried 44 :
aelc monn vi maessan oSSe vi. Sealteras Sealina. Statutes of a
Gild at Exeter. Hickes, Dissert. Epist. in Ling. Vet. Sept. Thes.,
ii. 22.
43 Srym nihton aer petres maessan aet aelcon gegyldan aenne
peningc. oc53e an peningcwurC weaxes. Kemble, Cod. Dip., iv. 277.
This penny, or, in its stead, the pennyworth of wax, must have
been for the gild-stock : the wax may have afforded them lights
for their hall, but was chiefly employed to furnish the tapers
burning at their own altar in the parish church. On maesse aefen
aet twa gegyldum aenne bradne hlaf well besewen 7 well gesyfled
to urum gemaenum aelmyssan. Ibid., iv. 278. This loaf, baked of
the best and finest flour, was offered by two of the gildship in
behalf of all the brethren as their common alms, to the priest who
sang the mass on their feast-day, St. Peter's, the 2Qth of June.
44 gyf ure aenig geuntrumod sy binnan syxtig . . . n findon we
fyftyne menn j5 hine gefeccon. 7 gyf he forSfaren sy. xxx. 7 J>a hine
VOL. II. X
322 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
on the morning of the funeral, all the gild was
bidden to the service, whereat they gathered
round the bier upon which lay stretched the
corpse, and they prayed and made an offering
during the Mass in behalf of the departed soul 45 ;
and those who did not come were mulcted in a
fine, either of so much (399) wax for the church
lights, or of honey 46 for the use of the brethren.
Thus the dead gild brother or sister was borne
with all religious solemnity to the grave ; and
Masses were said, psalms sung, alms bestowed,
gebringon to Saere stowe pe he to gyrude on his life. 7 gyf he on
neawyste forSfaren sy. warnige man J>one stiwerd to hwylcere stowe
jJ lie sceole. 7 se stiwerd warnige sySSan Sa gegyldan swa fela s\va he
maege maest to geridan oftSe to gesendan .$ hi paerto cumon 7 -p lie
wurdlice bestandan 7 to mynstre ferian. 7 for Saere sawle georne
gebiddan (ibid., iv. 278). The same, too, was the rule in other
gilds at that time. The Thanes' gild, at Cambridge, bound them-
selves, if a brother of theirs fell sick, or died, far away from his
home, to go, fetch him back, and bury him where he himself had
wished : gif hpilce gegilda ut of lande forSfere oSSe beo gesycled^
gefeccan hine his gegildan. 7 hine gebringau deadne oSSe cucene
paer he to pilnie. be paem ylcan pite }?e hit gecpeden is. The
Thanes' gild, at Cambridge. Hickes, Diss. Epist. in Thesaur., ii. 21.
45 gyf aeiiigum on urum geferraedene his forSsiS getide sceote aelc
gegylda aenne peningc aet >am lice for >aere sawle. (Kemble, Cod.
Dip., iv. 278.) Se gildscipe hyrfe be healfre feorme of pone forS-
feredan. 7 aelc sceote tpegen paenegas to paere aelmessan .7 man
paer ogebrynge -$ gerise aet see JE>eldrySe. The Thanes' gild, at
Cambridge. Ibid., p. 20.
46 gif he aet ham forSferS 7 gegilda ^ he ne gesaecft ; 7 se
gegilda )>e ne gesece his morgen spaece, gilde his syster huniges
(ibid., p. 21). This form of expression, "morgen spaece," to
signify the morning service for the dead, would seem to hint that
there used to be a funeral sermon as well as mass. The same fine
of honey, for a like omission, was exacted in other gilds. For
example: Gif h>ilc gegilda for>faere gebringe hine ealgegildscipe.
>aer he to Jnlnie. 7 se >e >aerto ne cume oylde syster huniges.
The Thanes' gild, at Cambridge. Ibid., p. 20.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 323
doles of food given to the needy, for the good of
the poor soul : 47 indeed the first and the highest
duty of an Anglo-Saxon gild, was made to stand
upon the Catholic doctrine of purgatory.
Here again, the Normans, and later the English,
carried out the belief and followed the ritual
practices which the Anglo-Saxons had so warmly
(400) cherished. Of the many thousand churches
throughout this country, there was none, how-
ever small, but had belonging to it always one,
often many, of these gilds ; 48 and the statutes
for their government, (401) as well as the pur-
47 Every man who has given his " wed " in our gildships, if he
should die, each gild-brother shall give a " gesufel " loaf for his
soul, and sing a fifty (of psalms ?)^ or get it sung, within xxx tlays
(Judicia Civitatis Lundonise, in Thorpe, Ancient Laws, i. 237). The
" gesufel " loaf was one made of fine flour.
48 In Wymondham Church, Norfolk, there were, at the change
of religion, no fewer than ten gilds (Blomefield, Norfolk, ii. 523) ;
and at Hingham, seven (ibid., p. 423) ; seven also at Swaffham
(ibid., vi. 217). The town of Great Yarmouth had no less than
seventeen (Swindon, Hist., p. 809). In his Treatise on Tithes,
Walton says: Where a saint's image stands without the quire
to which a brotherhood belongeth, the wardens of the brother-
hood compound, some for iijs. ivd., vs., vjs. viijd, or more, per
annum, to have the brotherhood kept in the church (Stow, Survey
of London, edited by Strype, t. ii., book v., p. 26). The image was
of the gild's patron saint, and near it was set up the altar upon
which the gild-priest said his mass. The quick eye of a good
mediaeval antiquary will often be able to see where one of these
gild-altars stood, in many of our old country parish churches.
The bracket by a pier, or coming out of the wall in some quiet
corner ; the two iron staples, in the same place, a few feet asunder,
for holding the rods from which hung down the two side curtains ;
and the little sacrarium, which, if plastered over, may be found
out by a few soft taps against the right-hand side of the wall,
all speak of some small gild-altar.
The number of gilds in the London churches, and the contribu-
324 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
poses of their foundation, were, in the sixteenth
century, quite akin to those which called forth
and guided the same kind of holy fellowship in
its earliest forms among our Anglo-Saxon fathers.
Like them, the English gild-brother bound him-
self by oath (under, too, the exact same form of
invocation), to bear goodwill and be faithful to
that brotherhood, and pledged his word to pay all
due respect to its alderman and his successors in
that office : 49 his deed of admission was (402) then
tions which they made for upholding the public worship, may be
learned from all our old evidences :
Received of Thomas Hogan, master of our Lady's brotherhood.
1515 Kensyngton.
Our Ladie's )
b th I William Ironmonger, parish priest there.
Also of oblacions and offerings received upon the festfull days
of our Blessed Lady.
Of New Brethren, &c.
Item of Mr. Dr. Ayns worth, 6s. Sd.
- of Sir Rys ap Thomas, Knight, 6s. 8d.
Churchwardens' Accounts of St. Margaret's, Westminster, Illustra-
tions, &c., pp. 5, 6.
A.D. Received the I3th day of September of the gift of the
brethren of St. John Baptist, ^i. los.
Received the same day, of the gift of the brotherhood of St.
Christopher, js.
Received the $th of October, of the brotherhood of St. Cornelius,
&
Received the same day, of the brotherhood of St. George, los.
Ibid., p. 77.
A.D. 1427. To the brotherhood of Our Lady and St. Thomas
the Martyr, in St. Magnus Church, for Hugh Brownham, for the
Salve per annum, xiis. St. Mary's at Hill, London, ibid., p. 90.
49 In the worship of God Almighty our Creator and his Moder
Saint Marie and Allhallowes and Saint James Apostle, a Fraternite
is begon of gode men in the chirch of Saint James the yer of our
Lord MCCCLXXV, for amendement of her lyves and of her sowles,
and to nourish more love among the bretheren and sustrein of
PART 1. CHAP. VII. 325
stamped with the gild's own seal, which was not
unfrequently kept hanging at the patron saint's
shrine : 50 his name was written down in a roll
kept (403) at the gild altar, and from that moment
he, along with the rest of the brotherhood, was
daily prayed for there. Once admitted, and
regularly paying his gild-dues for the space of
seven years, each one kept his membership to the
end of his days ; and it was only a sinful way of
life, or the guilt of unfair dealings, which could
shut him out of the brotherhood, 51 that otherwise
the bretherhede. And ech of theym had sworen upon the book
to performe the pointes undernethe at her power, &c. (Stow,
Survey, iii. 12). What they had "sworen" was on all occasions
like the following form of oath : " This here ye Mr. Alderman
and all trewe bretheren and sustryn of this Fraternite and
Gyld of St. George in Norwich. That fro this day foreward, the
honer, prosperites, worchepes, and welfares of this Fraternite
and Gyld, after myn power I shall susteyn, carefully mayntene and
defenden, and all lef ul ordinances withoute trouble or grevaunces
of the seid bretheren or sustres, or of any officers of them, and
buxom be to you Mr. Alderman, and to all your successours alder-
men, in all liefull commaundements to myn power and konyng.
" So helpe me God at the holidome and be this book." (Blome-
field, Norfolk, iv. 348). The " holidome " is only a variation of the
Anglo-Saxon word " haligdom," or shrine holding relics of a saint :
this form of oath, which we find glanced at in note 38, p. 320,
lasted here in England from Anglo-Saxon times till the days
of Protestantism ; at the coronation of Edward VI., the Lord
Protector finished his "homage" by swearing, " So God help me
and all Hallowes " ; Cranmer " then kneeled down and made his
homage," which he ended in these words, " As God shall help and
all. Saints. " Leland, Collectanea, iv. 327.
50 Fecit cartam signatam quodam sigillo quod solebat pendere ad
feretrum sancti JEdmundi unde gilde et fraternaciones solebant
sigillari (Chronica Jocelini de Brakelonda [C.S.], p. 2). The writing
down of the new brother's name on the gild-roll at the altar, is
specified at note 52.
51 Also yf ther be in Bretherhede ony riotour, other contekour,
326 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
would help him through sudden misfortune or
unmerited imprisonment, and uphold him, by a
weekly allowance, when fallen into honest poverty,
or feeble, sickly old age. 52
other soche by whom the Bretherhede might be enslaundered, he
shal be put out thereof into tyme that he have hym amended of
the defaults beforeseid. Statutes of St. James's Gild, quoted by
Stow, Survey, iii. 12.
52 If any of the foreseid Bretherhede (founded A.D. 1375) falle in
soch mischefe that he hath noght, ne for elde other mischeve of
feebleness help himself ; and have dwelled in the Bretherhede seven
yeres ; and doen therto al the duties within the tyme, every wyk
af tyr, he shal have of the common box xiiij d. terme of his lyfe, but
he be recoveryd of the mischefe.
Also yf any of the foreseid be imprisoned falsely by any other,
&c., he shal have xiii d. during his imprisonment every wyk.
Stow, Survey, iii. 12.
Who so ever by the grace of God is dysposyd to entre into the
blessyd fraternyte of the Gylde of our gloryous Savyour cryst
Jhu, and of the blessyd vyrgin and martyr Saynt Barbara foundyd
in Saynt Kateryns church next the towre of London, and wyll
have the pardon, prevylege and profet thereto graunted and
ordeynd : must pay to the seyd fraternyte the some of x s. iiij d.
sterlynge at his first enter} r nge, if he will ; or ellys by leaser
within the space of vii yeres ; that is to say, at his first entering
xii d. and every quarter followyng iiij d. tyll the seyd x .?. iiij d. be
payd in mony, plate or any other honest stufe. And at the first
payment he or she that so enteryth in to the seyd fraternyte,
whether they be weddyd or single, shal receyve a letter with the
seal of the warden collectour, which warden collectour shall re-
ceyve his name, and bring it to the auter of the glorious Jhu and
Seynt Barbara in Seynt Kateryns church before seyd, and thereto
be regestryde ; and there shall be prayd for dayly be name. And
when the last payment of the some of x s. iiij d. is payd ; then
the seyd brother or syster shall receyve a letter with the common
seal of the seyd fraternyte and place with the masters name and
wardens therein for the tyme beyng. Whereby he shal have a
great commodyte and suerty of lyvynge ; that is to sey that yf
ever the seyd brother or syster fall in decay of worldely goods, as
by sekenes or hurt by the warrys, or uppon the land, or see, or
by any other casualte or meanes fallen in poverte: Then yf he
brynge the seyd letter sealyd with the seyd common seal, the
PART I. CHAP. VII. 327
(404) Whenever a brother or a sister died, all the
members who were able came arrayed, not in the
(405) festive, but the mourning black livery of the
master and al the company shal receve him favorably, and there
he shal have every weke xiiij d. house rome and beddinge, and a
woman to wash his clothys, and to dresse his mete : and so to
continue yere by yere, and weke by weke durynge his lyfe by the
grace of Almighty Jhu and Seynt Barbara. Ibid., ii. 7.
The gild (of St. George, Norwich) had several poor brothers
called almsmen, which they allowed a weekly sum to (Blomefield,
Norfolk, iv. 348). In the first year of Mary's reign (A.D. 1553), the
gild made an order to buy yearly as much freese as would make
xiii gowns to be given to xiii of the xl poor people in God's-house,
and each gown to have the " conysance" of the gild on them, viz.
a red cross (ibid., p. 351). Gilds gave annual charity: stipends to
poor persons, found beds and entertainments for poor people
that were strangers, and had people to keep and tend the said
beds, and did other works of charity. Ibid., vi. 196.
In St. Stephen's Church, Coleman Street, London, there was a
gild of St. Nicholas, which " the gode men of Coleman street in
nourishing of love and of charite among hem and in help to theym
that falle into poverte, begon in the yere MCCCLXIX," &c. Stow,
Survey, iii. 63. A.D. 1385 there began at Norwich, in honour of
St. George, a fraternity of brethren and sisters who, by volun-
tary subscription, found a chaplain celebrating service every day
in the cathedral, for the welfare of the brethren and sisters of
the gild, while alive, and their souls when dead. Thus they con-
tinued till 5 Henry V. (1416), and then that prince granted them
a charter, the original of which is in the gild-hall, and by which
they were incorporated by the name of " The Alderman, Masters,
Brethren, and Sisters of the Fraternity and Gild of St. George in
Norwich," with power to choose yearly one alderman and two
masters, and to make all reasonable orders and constitutions for
their own government, to clothe themselves in one livery, and
yearly to hold and make a feast in any convenient place in the
city, and to have a common seal, to sue and be sued, and to main-
tain a chaplain to pray daily for the health of the king, the alder-
man, masters, brethren, and sisters while alive, and their souls
when dead, with licence to purchase x I. per annum in mortmain.
The prior, mayor, sheriffs, and alderman of the gild to have power
to expel or remove all members of the gild for any bad behaviour,
&c. Blomefield, Norfolk, iv. 347.
328 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
gild, to the house of the deceased, and bore forth
the (406) corpse for its burial. If the departed
had been overtaken by death within a certain
number of miles away from home, the wardens
sent and fetched the body, which was met, just
beyond the town, by the whole fellowship. 53 Here
spreading their best hearse-cloth 54 over the coffin,
the gild carried it (407) with all due ritual solem-
nity, bearing lights 55 and chanting psalms about
it and before it, 56 as they went to church, where
they sang Placebo, or even-song that night, and
53 Also gif it by falle that eny of the bretherhede falle seeke
fyue myle eche wayes aboute London, and dyeth there, that gif
the wardaynes of that yer ben ysent aft' than, it is ordeyened that
thei schullen wende, and fecche home the body to London ; and
that alle the bretheren be redy at her warnynge and go agens the
body with outen the citee townes ende, for to brynge the body to
the place with worschyppe. Statutes of the Brotherhood of the Holy
Trinity, St. Botolph's, London, quoted by Hone, Anc. Mysteries, pp.
84, 85.*
54 We have instanced (note 6, p. 361) two of these beautiful
hearse-cloths, which still exist in London ; and mentioned with
what solemnity they were used by our old Catholic citizens.
55 The gild of St. Austen's, in Watling Street, London, kept
" two torches, with the which, if any of the said fraternity were
commended to God, he might be carried to the earth." Stow,
Survey, iii. 140.
56 In their sorrowful processions, our gilds always told their
beads, and said prayers to themselves, as they walked through
the streets, if they did not mingle their voices in the singing.
All Souls' gild used to meet, for their devotions, in the chapel
over the charnel-house, in St. Paul's Churchyard: "On the day
of All Souls, at morning prayer, when the bell rung vii o'clock,
they came together in the church of Holy Trinity, near Aldgate ;
and so, from that place, with a grave pace, they walk to the
foresaid chappel, numbering their prayers as they went along,
and their secret orisons, pouring them out, vultu cordiali, with
a serious countenance, for the living and the dead, &c." Stow,
Survey, iii. 148.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 329
early on the morrow came thither again to sing
the Dirige, or matins for the dead. 57 This service
was followed sometimes only by one, oftener by
three solemn Masses, at each of which every
brother present went up at offertory- time to the
altar and put his mass-penny for (408) the good
of the departed soul into the hand of the sacri-
ficing priest. 58
Our latest as our earliest gilds had each its
gild-priest, whose duty it was to say, in the
chapel or at the altar belonging to the brother-
hood, Mass every day for the healthful welfare
of the living, and the souls' forgiveness of the
departed members. 59 Once at least, if not oftener
in the year, all the fellowship met and celebrated
a solemn funeral service with Placebo on the
eve, and early next morning Dirige, followed by
a grand high Mass of Requiem for their deceased
57 For the meaning of those services called Placebo and Dirige,
see a note on p. 404.
58 The Mass-penny is explained on p. 405.
59 The priest shall be charged, by the wardens of the year, for
to do his mass, winter and summer, by five o'clock, " sayinge
byfore masse, duly, a memorie of the Trynytee " (Eegistre Boke of
the Brethren of the Holy Trinity, St. Botolph's, London, quoted by
Hone in his Ancient Mysteries, p. 79). Besides this, every gild-
priest had to go, on Sundays and holydays, and help the priests
in the parochial services of the church in which his gild kept their
altar. All chantry-priests were bidden by our old English canons
to do so. The brotherhood-priest of the gild of the Holy Trinity,
at St. Botolph's Church, London, was required to be " meke and
obedient unto the qwere in alle divine seruyces durynge hys time,
as custome is in the citee amonge alle other priestes." Hone,
Anc. Mysteries, p. 79.
330 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
brethren, whose names were all read out of the
bead-roll by a priest from the pulpit, 60 and thus
60 In the Sunday next, " after alle sowlen day, the preste schal
rede, openlyche stondynge in the pulpyte, alle the names of the
bretheren and the sustren that ben on lyue." A Dirige was also
ordained on the Sunday night after " alle sowlen day " ; and, on
the morrow, a Requiem for the dead, "bretheren and sustren";
at which each brother and sister should attend, and offer "an
halfe-peny," or be " uppon peyne of a pounde of wexe " (Brotherhood
of the Holy Trinity, St. Botolph's, London, in Hone, Anc. Mysteries,
p. 79). Herein we see that, as among the Anglo-Saxon, so with
the later English gilds, there was exacted the same sort of fine
for the same kind of omission in the discharge of exactly the
same duty, coming to pray for the dead man's soul.
In the reign of Edward IV., among the goods belonging to
Holy Trinity brotherhood, in the church of St. Botolph, Alders-
gate, London, there was : A rolle of velom' couered with a golde-
skyn, conteyng diuerse pagents paynted and lemenyd with gold,
that is to say, of The Holy Trinite, Seynt Fabyan and Seynt Sebas-
tyan, and Seynt Botulff, and the last pagent of the terement and
generall obyte of the bretheren and susteren that be passed to
God ; with clayne obseruances & prayers to stere the peple to the
more devocion toward the seyde bretherhode (Hone, Anc. Mysteries,
p. 82). By this it would seem that the bead-roll of a gild was
often illuminated like those death-bills of which we have spoken,
note 34. The way of beginning to read out this bead-roll was
as follows : Of your devout charity ye shall pray for all the
brethren and system of the gild of our glorious Saviour Christ
Jesu, and of the blessed virgin and martyr, St. Barbara, founded
in St. Catharine's Church, &c. (Antiquarian Repertory, i. 148).
There is a great variety of " Bidding Prayers " in this same place.
A little work, on the same subject, has been published by the
Rev. H. O. Coxe. Three forms of this prayer, hitherto inedited,
are printed in this volume (pp. 288, 289, 299).
To secure the everlasting prayers of a brotherhood in behalf of
a departed soul, just as if the individual, while in this world, had
been in its fellowship, living friends might, and often did, procure,
by paying a fee, the dead man's admission into a gild. Such a
holy kindness, Henry VII.'s queen, Elizabeth of York, performed
towards one of her servants : Maister Richard Peyn, the queene's
aulmoigner, for the buryeng of Griffith, late yeoman of the
queene's chambre, and for the making of him a broder of Saint
Margarett's, at Westminstre, xiijs. iiijc?. Privy Purse Expenses
of Elizabeth of York, p. 97.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 331
individually (409) brought to the pious remem-
brance that they might be prayed for by those
present, and so be thought (410) of and recom-
mended to God's mercies the while each gild-
brother went up with his mass-penny to the altar at
offertory-time. When the church service was over,
a dole of bread or money was given to the poor. 61
But the same Christian love which moved them
to pray for their brethren's souls when departed,
taught them to think about the bodily wants of
those among the living to whom old age had
brought neediness. Hence we find that belonging
to most large gilds there always was a certain
number of almsfolks, men and women, kept in
(411) food and clothing by the funds of the
brotherhood, which, when wealthy enough, had
a house apart for its own decayed people, instead,
as sometimes happened, of sending them to be
lodged in the nearest "God's house" or " spital,"
for by both these names a hospital for the poor
was then called. 62 Here again the truly Catholic
wish of helping the souls of the dead by prayer
was not forgotten, and twice at least within the
day these almsmen and women were summoned
to bid their beads at church for all the departed
as well as living fellows of their gild.
61 Doles, either of money, or bread, food, or fuel in cold weather,
were always given to the poor after every solemn Mass for the
dead.
62 For the kind of dress worn by these poor men, see note 52,
P- 327.
332 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
Made up as our old gilds were of individuals
from all ranks in society, often numbering at the
same time in their brotherhood the ruling king,
with his queen, great earls, noble ladies, church-
men, soldiers, the wealthy citizen, and the lowliest
workfolks in the town, 63 it was a wise thought
63 Brotherhoods comprehended individuals of both sexes, and
of all ranks and stations in life. In the year 1476, Sir Henry
Ward, Knight ; Dame Agnes Hasely ; Robert Shoredycke, Squier ;
The Lady Graa ; Raynold Colyer, prior of St. Bartholomua's ; The
Duchess of Bedford ; William Bartram, Esq. ; iny Lady Ankerasse ;
Sir Thomas Knolle, vicar of Datchet ; are among the " Brethren
and Sistern in arrears " noticed in " The churchwardens' accompts
of St. Margaret's, Westminster," A.D. 1476 (Illustrations, c&c., p. 2).
Belonging to the gild kept in St. Botolph's Church, Aldersgate,
London, there were at its beginning (A.D. 1 373), fifty-three " brethe-
ren " and twenty-nine " susteren ; " during the loth of Henry IV.
among them were " Thomas de Berkyng, abbas de Seynt Osyes ;
Johannes Roos, Armiger ; Dominus Johannes Watford, Prior S.
Bartholomaei ; Ricardus Lancastre, Rex de Armis ; Katharina,
uxor ejus ; Ricardus Haye, Armiger ; Johanna, uxor ejus ; Rogerus
Audelby, Rector de White Chapell ; " in the 2nd Henry V. " Ricar-
dus Derhem Episcopus Landavensis" was the master of this
brotherhood. Hone, Ancient Mysteries, p. 80.
A gild bead-roll often tells us the rank of many among its
brotherhood ; of this the following may serve as an example : Of
your devoute charyte ye shal pray for al the brethern and system
of the gyld of our glorious Savyoure cryst Jhu, and of the blessyde
vyrgin and martyr seynt Barbara, foundyd in Seint Katerin's
church next to the towre of London. And first, ye shal pray
specyally for the gode estate of our soverayne Lord and moost
crysten and excellent prince Kyng Henry VIII. and Queen
Kateryn, founders of the seid Gyld, and gracyous Brotherhod, and
brother and syster of the same. And for the good estate of the
French Quenys grace Mary, syster to our seyd Soverane Lord, and
Syster of the sayd gylde.
If Also ye shal pray for the good estate of Thomas Wolsey,
of the tytle of seynt Cecylle of Rome preest Cardynal and Legatus
a latere to our holy father the Pope, archbyshop of Yorke and
Chanceler of England, brother of the same gylde.
f Also, for the good estate of the Duke of Buckyngham and
PART I. CHAP. VII. 333
that (412) of choosing a peculiar dress 04 to be
worn by all its members each alike, 65 whenever
they were all (413) gathered together at their
my Lady his wyfe. Also for the good estate of the Duke of
Norfolk and my Lady his wife. The Duke of Southfolke.
^1 Also for my Lord Marques. For the Yerle of Shrewysbery ; the
Yerle of Northumberland ; the Yerle of Surrey ; my Lorde Has-
tynges ; and for al their Ladies, bretherne and systers of the same.
IT Also for Sir Rychard Chomely Knyght ; Syr Wyllyam Comp-
ton Knyght, Syr Wyllyam Skevyngton Knyght, Syr Johan Dygby
Knight, &c. &c. and for al their Ladys, bretherne and systerne
of the same that be alyve, and for the sowylles of them that be
ded, and for the master and wardens of the same gylde, and the
warden collectour of the same. And for the more specyal grace
every man of your charyte sey a Pater noster and an A ve.
51 And God save the Kynge, the master, and the wardens, and
al the bretherne and system of the same. Stow, Survey, ii. 6.
64 There is a certain company, or gild, of citizens, who, out of
pure devotion and alms, sustain and keep up a light in the chapel
of the Blessed Virgin, support the divine service, and repair and
beautify the said chapel ; which gild has been imrnemorially kept
there on the feasts of the Blessed Virgin, and other usual times,
and on the gild days, viz., the feasts of St. Mary, they appear
in one sort of clothes or livery, of their own buying, for the more
decency, &c. (Blomefield, Norfolk, iii. 152). The livery of St.
Christopher's gild, at York, consisted of two colours violet and
rayed cloth : My lorde (the earl of Northumberland) useth and
accustomyth to pay yerely to the masters of Saynt Cristofer-gilde
of York, if my lorde be brother, and my lady syster ther, for ther
brotherhede, for an hole yere, to the said Saynt Cristofer-gilde
xiijs. iiijd, after vis. viijd for ather of them . . . viz. vis. viijd. for
my lorde, and vis. viijrf. for my lady, if sche be at my lord's fynd-
yngs, and not at hir owen ; at such tyme as the masters of the
said Saynt Cristofer-gild, of York, bringis my lord and my lady,
for their lyverays, a yarde of narrow violette clothe and a yerde
of narrow rayd cloth. The Northumberland Household Book, p. 347.
65 The priest of the brotherhood of the Holy Trinity, in St.
Botolph's Church Without, Aldersgate, London, had given him
every year, " an dowble hode of the colour of the breth'hode "
(Hone, Ancient Mysteries, p. 79). Hence we learn there was no
difference in colour between the gild-livery of a churchman, and
that worn by lay-folks, in the same brotherhood ; the distinctive
mark between them was the make of the garment, as the church-
334 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
meetings. To the outward look, the high became
thus brought down, (414) the low raised up,
to one common level while employed upon
one common work of religion. This equality of
person was not the only purpose answered : by
way of distinguishing in a large city its own
fellowship from other like bodies, as well (415)
as to throw around itself a certain degree of fitting
splendour, every gild adopted a peculiar ceremonial
dress, or as the usage then was to call it livery.
This consisted of a gown of one, and hood gene-
rally of another chosen colour : upon the latter
article of the clothing was, if not always, at least
often, worn a particular badge, called the " cog-
nizance " of the gild. This ornament was worked
in embroidery upon one of the gown sleeves, 66 but
man's was always cut after another fashion from the layman's.
The prior of Christ's Church, in the city of London, was sworn
alderman of the Portsoken ward, in the first of Richard II. These
priors have sitten and ridden amongst the aldermen of London,
in livery like unto them, saving that the prior's habit was in shape
of a spiritual person as I myself have seen in my childhood
(Stow, Survey, ii. 58). By this, we find out that the prior's, like
the alderman's, livery was scarlet.
66 When King Henry VI. came back to England after being
crowned at Paris, " he was mette upon Baram Downe with a great
company of gentyles and comoners of Kent all cladde with rede hodes
... at Blak Heth he was mette with the mayer and the cytezeyns of
London . . . the cytezeyns beyng cladde in white with dy vers werkes
or conysaunces browderyd upon their slevys, after the facultie of
theyr mysterys or craftes, and the mayer and his brether were all
clothed in scarlet " (Fabyan, Chronicles, ed. Ellis, p. 603). As the
civil followed the religious gilds in all their customs ; they, too,
had each their holy patron; no doubt, therefore, these " cony-
saimces " were for every trade its own tutelar saint or his emblem.
The brethren of St. George's gild, Norwich, had on their livery as
PART 1. CHAP. VII. 335
oftener just below the left shoulder in front upon
the hood, 67 in the same place where, if the cogni-
sance (416) happened, as it sometimes did, to be
wrought of solid silver, it also used to be stuck
like a pin or brooch. 68 These cognisances exhib-
ited either the figure, or the well-known symbol
a cognisance "a red cross " (see note $2, p. 327), which was of course
on a white field or ground. The cognisance of the Jesus gild,
London, was the letters I. H. S. as we learn from the next note.
67 The xvj day of Feybruary (A.D. 1557) was bered master
Pynoke fysmonger . . . and brodur of Jhesus, with ij goodly whytt
branchys, and xij grett stayffes torchys ; and xij pore men had
good blake gownes ; and iiij grett tapurs and a the compene of
the clarkes and mony prestes, and then cam the mornars, and
after the bredurud of Jhesus, a xxiiij of them, with blake saten
hodes with I.H.S. on them, and after the compene of the Fys-
mongers in ther leverey, &c. (Machyn, Diary, p. 166). The black
satin hoods were most likely the mourning attire of that gild.
68 Among the " Jewells that longith unto our Lady chirche,"
there was "a lytell ... of seynt Christophoris brethered of sylver
of vi ounces " (Boys, Hid. of Sandwich, p. 374). Probably the
wanting word is " nowch " or brooch. As it weighed so much,
this ornament must have been rather large, and seems to have
been, in olden times, a favourite adornment with those who loved
field-sports, since Chaucer's " Yeman," who
" clad in cote and hood of grene,"
also wore
" A Cristofre on his brest of silver shene."
The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, lines 103, 115 (Skeat's
Student's Chaucer, p. 420).
The old gild-hood, as well as the canon's furred almuce, and the
layman's, and every other kind of hood, in olden times, consisted
of two parts : the lower and broader one, overspreading the
shoulders, like a tippet ; the higher and smaller one, which could
be drawn up and worn over the head, as a full, roomy cap. Not
being slit open in front, it had to be put on by passing the head
up through its throat, which held the upper and the under parts
together. The Dominican and the Austin friars still keep to the
use of this old and once common garment, in the dress of their
respective orders ; and the bishop's mozetta is a representation
336 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
of the patron. (417) Thus was it that all our old
brotherhoods were arrayed whenever they gathered
for their devotions (418) about their own altar,
or walked forth in procession with a cross, and a
banner figured with their patron saint borne aloft
before them. The alderman or head-officer of
the gild might easily be known, not merely by
his place amid the brotherhood, but by the addi-
tional ornaments about his robes ; and the white,
or green, or other coloured wands which they
carried in their hands, marked out the dignified
officials who acted under him. 69 On festive occa-
of it, with this difference that the old hood was close all round,
whereas the mozetta is cut in front, and has to be buttoned down
the breast ; and the little bag-like appendage is a dwarf represen-
tation of the large round cap which once did serve for covering
the head, while the older garment was worn. At Oxford and
Cambridge, whenever a sermon is preached before the university,
the beadle of the church pins upon the preacher's shoulder, just
as he is stepping into the pulpit, a small black silk representative
of the academic hood or liripip, but now so tiny as to be scarce
large enough to cover one's hand. Such, however, is the official
importance which university tradition has bestowed upon this little
ornament, that some maintain a meeting to be of no authority
if presided over by a proctor from whose back this very diminutive
representation of the ancient liripippium has been plucked though
stealthily ; and a rash undergraduate sometimes tries to achieve
this dangerous exploit.
All the dresses I have as yet met with that have been lately
devised for our gilds, happily springing up all over the country,
look anything but seemly and becoming ; and are as wide apart in
colours, shape, and ornament, from the gild-clothing of olden
times, as they are in those phrases employed to specify their
different parts. " Collar and shield," in their modern application,
are words unknown to English Catholic antiquity, no less than
those ornaments themselves, which are more like the components
of a military and secular, than of a religious badge.
69 The use of white and green wands is mentioned in note 2
further on, p. 360.
THE MINSTRELS' PILLAR
St. Mary's, Beverley
agc 337
PART I. CHAP. VII. 337
sions their processional march as well as grand
dinner was enlivened by the sprightly strains of
music, which arose from a band of minstrels gaily
dressed. 70 But it was upon the saint's day of
the gild that all its bravery and magnificence were
shown, and even these were brought to yield
their chiefest homage to the Almighty. Each
gild's first steps were bent towards their church,
where solemn High Mass was chanted ; thence
went all the brotherhood to their hall for the
festive dinner. The processions on the occasion
and other amusements so dear to Englishmen,
when their country was merry England, were
meant to be edifying and (419) instructive; and
helped religion to make her children both good and
happy, through even their recreations. This pre-
sent age, with its stepmother's chill heart, dull
eye, and hard iron-like feelings, that sees naught
but idleness in a few hours' harmless pause from
toil, and knows nothing but unthriftiness in
money spent in pious ceremonial, and thinks that
the God who sprinkled the blue heaven with
silvery stars, and strewed the green earth with
sweet-breathing flowers of a thousand hues, and
taught the birds to make every grove ring with
70 The parish clerks and sextons, with their banner, wayts, and
minstrels, hold their gild on Corpus Christi day (Blomefield,
Norfolk, i. 207). The gay costume of our English minstrels might
once be seen in the five coloured figures which still adorn the
pier which their gild built in the beautiful church of St. Mary's,
Beverley.
VOL. II. Y
338 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
their blithe songs, and told the little brook to
run forth with a gladsome ripple, all in worship
of Himself, can be best and most honoured by
the highest and noblest of His wonderful works,
the soul of man, the more gloomy, the more
mopish, the sourer it is ; such an age will not
understand the good which, in a moral and social
point of view, was bestowed upon this country
by the religious pageants, and pious plays and
interludes of a bygone epoch. Through such
means, however, not only were the working
classes furnished with a needful relaxation, but
their very merry-makings instructed while they
diverted them.
From far and near the people hurried to behold
the gild-processions ; and well* they might, for
the whole scene was gladdening and splendid.
Among our countrymen there is and ever has
been a fondness for the simple beauties of nature,
especially (420) for those small though lovely works
of God flowers. No one more deeply than an
Englishman understands how Solomon in all his
glory was not so beauteously arrayed as is the
lily of the field. It was, however, while these
heart-bred feelings lay under soul-stirring warm
Catholic, instead of chill Protestant, control, that
they showed themselves in the best because the
holiest light ; for then Englishmen used to think,
and truly so, that God's own sweet creations
should be brought, along with man's devices,
PART I. CHAP. VII. 339
though most ably done, to yield a homage to
their common Maker by being employed in giving
more solemnity to God's public worship. Hence
arose various ritual customs, as pleasing to the
eye as their symbolism was instructive to the
mind of him who witnessed them : the lighted
taper set before the blessed Virgin's image was
wreathed with flowers ; 71 that of the saint, the
patron of a gild, had a garland of fresh gathered
roses put upon its head the day the brotherhood
came to church and kept their festival; 72 the
English maiden bride was (421) crowned with
flowers as well as jewels when she walked into
church and bowed her down for the marriage
blessing at the sacrament of wedlock ; midsummer
71 Cereum quoque quern floribus consuevimus redimire constituit
(abbas Grulielmus) accendi ante nobilem Mariolam diebus ac nocti-
bus festorum prsecipuorum, et in processione quse fit in commem-
oratione ejusdem. Matt. Paris, Vitse Abb. S. Albani, p. Si. [B.S.
xxviii. i. 286.]
72 The tailors' gild at Salisbury kept a chantry priest to say
Mass in their patron-saint's chapel St. John the Baptist's in
St. Thomas's Church ; and by their statutes " the two stewards
for the time being, every year shall make and set afore St. John
the Baptist, upon the altar, two tapers of one pound of wax, and
a garland of roses to be set upon St. John's head ; and the chapel
is to be strewed with green rushes " (MS. Register of the Gild). In
some places this saint's feast was kept after another and very
symbolic way. To express how the forerunner of our Lord lived
houseless in the wilderness with naught but the trees to shelter him,
the walls of the church used on that day to be stuck all over with
fresh green boughs ; and the very tapers themselves burned at Mass,
and the other ritual services of that festival, were made of green
wax : among the chapel expenses of Winchester School (8th and gth
of Henry IV.) is the following entry, for which I am indebted to
the kindness of the Rev. W. H. Gunner : In viridibus candelis et
ramis arborum emp : erga festum Nat. Sci Joh. Bap. xiii. d.
34 c THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
was hallowed as a Christian festival in Catholic
England : " on the vigil of St. John Baptist, and
on St. Peter and Paul the Apostles, every man's
door (in London) being shadowed with green
birch, long fennel, St. John's wort, orpin, white
lilies, and such like, garnished upon with beautiful
flowers, had also lamps of glass, with oyl burning
in them all night. Some hung out branches of
iron curiously wrought, containing hundreds of
lamps lighted at once, which made a goodly
shew." 73 (422) In giving joyful splendour to a
gild-procession, flowers were not forgotten : as
we mentioned before, 74 our clergy, in the olden
times of England, observed a ritual custom, no
less beautiful to the eye than seemly from all its
symbolic meanings, of going through the divine
service, on some of the higher festivals in the
year, crowned with garlands woven of the prettiest
and sweetest smelling flowers. Thus was it,
that wearing wreaths of crimson roses on their
heads, did the new bishop, Roger de Walden,
and the canons of his cathedral, walk forth in
73 Stow, Survey, i. 256. Good old Stow, who witnessed the
putting down of the old, and the coming in of the new re-
ligion in England, lets us know the change for the worse in the
manners of the people : " The youth of this city (of London) also
have used, on holidays, after evening prayer, at their masters'
doors, to exercise their wasters and bucklers; and the maidens,
one of them playing on a timbrel, in sight of their masters and
dames, to dance for garlands hanging thwart the streets ; which
open pastimes in my youth, being now suppressed, worser practices
within doors are to be feared." Ibid., p. 251.
74 See p. 59 of this volume.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 341
solemn procession as he went to be enthroned
in his episcopal chair at St. Paul's, London,
A.D. 1405, on the 3Oth of June, the feast of
that Apostle : this we are told by one who was
there and saw the sight. 75 Till the latest days of
(423) Mary's reign, such a becoming ritual usage
lasted here in England ; and often did " Chep
and Cornhylle and Byshopegatt" resound with
the " waytes playing" and the " qwre syngyng
Salve festa dies" as the "felowshype of clarkes
went their procession two and two together,
each having a surples and a ryche cope and a
garland." 76 This was not all; (424) the very
75 Die (Commemorationis S. Pauli) tarn ipsemet episcopus
(Rogerus de Walden) quam omnes canonic! ejusdem ecclesise usi
sunt in processione solemn! garlandis de rosis rubris ; et qui vidit
ista et interfuit, testimonium perhibet de his et scripsit haec.
Historiola Londinensis, in Wharton, Hist, de Ep. et Dec. Londin.,
p. 150.
76 The Diary of Henry Machyn (C.S.), 62, 88. With regard to
the " ryche copes " spoken of above by this worthy citizen of
London, such was their general beauty and value that, at the
plunder of the church by Edward VI., an especial and distinguished
officer was appointed to receive and keep them : master Arthur
Sturtun was the reyseyver of all copes of cloth of gold that was
taken out of all churches, and he dyd delever them unto serten
parryches agayne to them that cowld know them, &c. Ibid.,
p. 165.
The singing, the music, the lights, and the numbers of coped
priests employed to give splendour to our old English processions
in towns, may be observed in the following description of one
which used to be made by the mayor and corporation of Sandwich
every year to St. Bartholomew's hospital at that seaport : Solent
omni anno in die saiicti Bartholomei major et communitas, cum
solempni processione tarn omnium presbiterorum et clericorum
ville predicte quam laicorum, locum ilium visitare ; ita videlicet
quod presbiteri in suo ordine et cereis, in capis et ceteris vesti-
342 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
wax torches which these garlanded gild-priests
carried burning in their hands, were, for some
of their processions, not only painted, but en-
twined with wreaths of flowers. 77
Other gild - processions there were that had
more of pageantry about them : in these a gild-
brother personating his fellowship's, and the
nation's patron St. George, brought up, on horse-
back, the long gild-procession, our warrior-saint
himself glittering in burnished armour, or other-
wise sumptuously attired, bestriding a stately
mentis, eua cantantes ; quos precedant laici suo ordine, cum tubis et
omni melodia, quorum quilibet usque ad numerum *ij et amplius
fereat cereum in manu sua .... qui quidem cerei offerri debent in
ecclesia dicti hospitalis, et locari super candelabra et alias trabes
ad hoc assignatas, &c. Ex Lib. custumali villse. Sandivici, in Boys,
Hist, of Sandwich, p. 87.
77 The xxiiij day of May (A.D. 1554) was Corpus Christi day,
and ther wher mony goodly prosessyons in mony parryches, for
mony had long torchys garnyshyed in the old fassyouns and
stayffe torchys bornyng and mony canopies borne abowtt the
strett, &c. (Machyn, Diary, p. 63). In the parochial accompts of
St. Margaret's, Westminster, are to be found the following items,
during Queen Mary's reign, from which we see that " garnyshyd
in the old fassyoun " meant that the torches were painted, and
afterward wreathed with natural flowers :
Payde for garnyshyng the iiij torches for Corpus Christye day
ijs.
flowres to the same torches vjd.
Payde for flowres for the torches on Corpus Christie day vijc?.
for v staf torches xs. xrf.
for the garnyshyng of them xxd.
Payde for iiij newe torchis wayeng Ixxxxij li. di. at vd. the li,
xxxviijs. viijd.
for garnysshyng of the sayd iiij torchis xxrf.
for flowres the same day iiijrf.
Ibid., p. 400. Processional torches, especially for cardinals, are to
this day, at Rome, still painted with various colours.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 343
pacing steed trapped in velvet housings, and
having by his side a gild-sister arrayed as St.
Margaret, and mounted on her palfrey, both
saints emblems of the Christian Church lead-
ing between them, overcome and bound in a
silken halter, the scaly dragon, the well-known
(425) type of the devil, sin, and unbelief: 78 in
78 The inventory taken, A.D. 1468, of the "Jewells, &c.," belong-
ing to St. George's gild, Norwich, mentions a scarlet gown for the
George with blue garters. A coat armour for the George beaten
with silver, iv. banners of the same work, with the arms of St.
George, for the trumpets. A banner with St. George's image,
another with his arms. A chaplet for the George, with an owche
of copper gilt, and all horse furniture. A dragon, a basnet, a pair
of gauntlets, two white gowns for the heynsmen (henchmen), a
sword, the scabbard covered with velvet and bossed (Blomefield,
Norfolk, iv. 349). The " George " of this inventory was one of the
gild-brothers, who was magnificently dressed and rode on horse-
back, accompanied by one of the sisters, also mounted, represent-
ing St. Margaret, who, as well as the warrior saint, overcame her
dragon. A.D. 1534, it was ordered that "Philip Foreman be
George this year, and to have ^10 for his labour and finding
apparel." 1537. "Bought for apparel of the George and Margaret,
eight yards tawny, and four yards crimson velvet, to be in the
custody of the alderman." Every man was to have a hood of
sanguine and red, and wear it at the feast. Ibid., 348.
Among the things to be sold after " the alteration of the old
ordinances " by those sour men of the new learning, in the second
year of Edward VI., belonging to this same gild, were "a jerkin of
crimson velvet ; a cap of russet velvet ; a coat armour of white
damask with a red cross ; a horse harness of black velvet with
copper buckles gilt, for the George ; a horse harness of crimson
velvet with flowers of gold, for the Lady ; divers banners, &c."
The "Lady" was the personification of St. Margaret (ibid., 351).
In Mary's reign, the people had their innocent amusements given
back to them, and A.D. 1556, "a gown of crimson velvet pirled
with gold" was bought for the George, ibid./ but in the first yea
of Elizabeth the representations of the saints were forbidden,
and it was only the emblem of Satan that the people were allowed
to look upon : in 1558, it was ordered "that ther shall be neyther
George nor Margaret, but for pastime the dragon to come in and
shew himself as in other yeres." Ibid. -
344 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
another gild-procession, the giant St. Christopher
(426) came bearing our Lord, in the likeness of
a little boy, upon his shoulder ; and as he walked
along, his presence told the crowd to beware and
carry Christ always about them, in all their ways,
by holiness of life.
Besides the solemn High Mass, besides the
dinner with its minstrelsy, and the gay pageant
with its music, the gild, if it were rich enough,
celebrated its patron saint's day by having a
religious play (427) performed. 79 These sacred
interludes became at an early period, and long
remained, great favourites with Englishmen ; and
whilst they spoke of Christ and of His saints,
stirred up a warm religious feeling in the people's
hearts. 80 Fitz - Stephen, a (428) writer of the
79 At the gild-days, there were grand processions made by the
brothers and sisters of St. Thomas a Becket's gild, to his chapel
in the wood near Norwich, and interludes played ; with good
cheer after them (Blomefield, Norfolk, iv. 426) ; and, in fact, among
the expenses of brotherhoods, items are found for the dresses, the
music, and the singing, employed in those sacred plays : for the
gild of the Holy Trinity kept at St. Botolph's Without, Aldersgate,
London, some of the common yearly charges were " for costis on the
Trynyte Sonday & on the evin, for mete & drynk & stately clothes,
mynstrelles, synger, &c." Hone, Ancient Mysteries, p. 84.
80 There were two kinds of sacred plays ; of the first, which may
be called liturgical, were such as the younger clergy acted with
much ritual solemnity at church during service, and were meant
to set before the people's eyes in a strong light some portion of
Holy Writ which spoke of the mystery commemorated in that
festival; of the second, were those performances which lasted
several days, going through the whole sacred history from Adam to
our Divine Redeemer's resurrection, and were acted by laymen
as well as clerks, during fair weather, in the churchyard ; when
it was cold or rainy, in some wide lofty hall. Of the first or
PART I. CHAP. VII.
345
twelfth century, tells us how London, before and
during his time, had stronger likings (429) for
liturgical sort of representations, traces may be found in the
Anglo-Saxon ritual ; St. Dunstan especially lays down the rubric
for the one exhibited upon Easter Sunday morning, and which
was kept up in this country, till it changed its religion : In die
sancto Paschae septem canonicse horse a monachis in ecclesia Dei
more canonicorum . . . celebrandse sunt. . . . Dum tertia recita-
tur lectio, quatuor fratres induant se, quorum unus alba indutus
ac si ad aliud agendum ingrediatur, atque latenter sepulchri locum
adeat, ibique manu tenens palmam quietus sedeat dumque tertium
percelebratur responsorium residui tres succedant, omnes quidem
cappis induti turibula cum incensu manibus gestantes, ac pede-
tentim ad similitudinem quserentium quid, veniant ad locum
sepulchi : aguntur enim hsec ad imitationem angeli sedentis
in monumento, atque mulierum cum aromatibus venientium ut
ungerent corpus Jesu. Cum ergo ille residens tres velut erroneos
ac aliquid quserentes viderit sibi adproximare incipiat mediocri
voce dulcisone cantare Quern quxritis ; quo decantato fine tenus,
respondeant hi tres uno ore Jesu Nazarenum ; quibus ille, Non est
hie, surrexit sicut pr&dixerat. Ite, renunciate quia surrexit a mortuis.
Cuius missionis voce vertant se illi tres ad chorum dicentes,
Alleluia, resurrexit Dominus, &c. Regularis Concordia (in Reyner,
p. 89). St. Osmund retained this Easter representation, but in
his Treatise, it is merely noticed as the " Processio ante matutinas
die Pasche " ( Use of Sarum, Ixxi. (8 1 ), i. 153); and that it was, as well
as the other liturgical sacred interludes, always given at Salisbury
Cathedral, is clear from the list of ornaments belonging to that
church, A.D. 1222, for among them are mentioned: Corone ij de
latone ad representationes faciendas (Wordsworth, Salisbury Cerem.,
171). In those parts of England wherein the Sarum rite was
followed, such liturgical plays were enjoined in the Church's
service ; Hugh Nonant, bishop of Lichfield, in his Statutes (issued
A.D. 1194), speaks of them as usual and common observances: In
nocte Natalis representatio pastorum fieri consuevit, et in diluculo
Paschse representatio Resurrectionis Dominicse, et peregrinorum
representatio die Lunse in hebdomada Paschse, sicut in libris super
his et aliis compositis continetur, &c. (Wilkins, Condi., i. 497)- As
in England, so abroad, these sacred interludes were made a part of
the ritual, for St. Osmund's countryman and contemporary, John of
Avranches, takes notice of them in his Liber De 0/iciis Ecdesiasticis ;
and in his edition of that precious work, Prevot has given from
MS. ordinals of Rouen Cathedral, the rubrics and the music for
346 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
sacred than secular representations, and much
more willingly gazed upon plays setting forth
those miracles wrought by the confessors, and
the torments undergone by the martyrs of God's
Church, than upon any kind of worldly theatrical
spectacles. 81 When the weather was fair, these
sacred (430) plays, or, as they were sometimes
called, " mysteries," were acted in the church-
yard, 82 or any other (431) open spot; otherwise,
some of these services, pp. 117, 206, 211 [P.L., cxlvii. 85, 137-139]:
in our own churchwardens' accounts, the item so often to be
found paid at Christmas " for leading the star," is another evidence
to show that these performances were used in the smallest of our
parish churches. Those sacred plays of the second kind became
great favourites among the English, and William Fitz-Stephen,
the friend and familiar of St. Thomas of Canterbury, lets us know
that in his times the Londoners were especially fond of them :
81 Lundonia pro spectaculis theatralibus, pro ludis scenicis,
ludos habet sanctiores. repraesentationes miraculorum quse sancti
confessores operati sunt, seu reprsesentationes passionum quibus
claruit constantia martyrum (Vita S. Thomas Cantuar., 13 [R.S.,
Ixvii. iii. 9]). Other large towns exhibited them, and from the
record of a miracle wrought at the shrine of St. John of Beverley,
we learn what crowds used to flock to the churchyard of that
beautiful minster to behold them when they were acted there in
the open air :
82 Contigit, ut tempore quodam sestivo (seculo xiii.) intra septa
polyandri ecclesiae B. Joannis (Beverlacensis) ex parte aquilonari,
larvatorum (ut assolet) et verbis et actu fieret repraesentatio
Dominicae Resurrectionis. Confluebat eo copiosa utriusque sexus
multitude, variis inducta votis, delectationis videlicet seu admira-
tionis causa vel sancto proposito excitandae devotionis. Cum vero,
prae densa vulgi astante corona, pluribus et praecipue statura
pusillis desideratus minime pateret accessus, introierunt plurimi
in ecclesiam ut vel orarent, vel picturas inspicerent, vel per
aliquod aliud genus recreationis et solatii pro hoc die taedium
evitarent. Ingressi igitur ecclesiae limina adolescentuli quidam,
casu fortuito ostium quoddam reperiunt semiapertum quo per
gradus ascenditur ad superiora murorum. Eo accurrentes levitate
puerili, gradatim insuper, murales ascendebant basilicae testudines,
PART I. CHAP. VII. 347
they were performed in the gild-hall, if not
within the church itself. 83 So fond indeed did
the people show themselves of these representa-
tions from Holy Writ, and the saints' lives, that
they were acted, in celebrating all the higher
festivals of the year, 84 not only before (432) a
ea ut reor intentione, ut per altas turriculorum fenestras, seu si
qua vitrearum fenestrarum essent foramina, liberius personarum
et habitus et gestus respicerent et earumdem dialogos auditu
faciliori adverterent, &c. Mirac. S. Joannis Beverlacensis, in
A A. SS. Maji, ii. 189. In a parchment roll containing the names
of the mayors and bailiffs of Lincoln, beginning with the 34th of
Edward III., among other things worthy of record, notice is taken
of " Ludus de Pater Noster hoc anno ; Ludus Sci Laurentii : Ludus
See Susanne ; Ludus de Sco Jacobo ; Ludus Corpus Xpi." York,
Chester, and Coventry, were each celebrated for the splendour of
their sacred dramas. [See Toulmin Smith, York Mystery Plays,
Oxford 1885.]
83 What Polydore Vergil, who was a canon of Wells Cathedral,
says of his native land, Italy, may be understood of England :
Solemus vel more priscorum spectacula edere populo . . . item
in templis vitas divorum ac martyria representare in quibus ut
cunctis par sit voluptas, qui recitant vernaculam linguam tantum
usurpant (Polydorus Vergilius, De Invent. Rerum, v. 2). That
such plays were called " mysteries," we are told by Matthew Paris,
as is shown in note 89, further on, p. 349.
84 It would seem that, in keeping the saint's day of a parish,
the village festival was often enlivened by a public dinner, followed
by a sacred play ; and, as all the country round came and saw, the
neighbourhood was asked to help, by subscriptions, to discharge
the expenses of it, letting what might be over go to the good of the
parish chest. Proofs of this abound in the churchwardens' accounts
of a play of the holy martyr, St. George, on St. Margaret's festi-
val, acted in a croft at Bassingbourne, Cambridgeshire. The
subscriptions towards it, from the neighbouring towns, are put
down ; and mention is made of " garment men, minstrel waits
from Cambridge, players, the setting up of the stage ... to John
Recher for paynting of three fanchoms (fantoms) and four tor-
mentors ; to John Hobarde, brotherhood priest, for the play- book,
iis. viiirf. (Antiquarian Repertory, i. 167). Again, we find the pro-
ceeds of another such festival thus noticed :
348 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
gild brotherhood, but in the king's palace, 85 the
abbot's chamber, 86 and the baron's stronghold. 87
Receyved and gathered in redy money
and other resayts, xl. xiiis. ijd.
Paymentes,
To the pagentt players,
For goulde forrall,
For baryng of the boke,
To 5 payr of gloves,
To the minstrell,
Towards the gyldeyng of the tabernikell,
Paide to Colben, for hys tabor,
For payntyng of the cote armes,
To Floowe that played the folle,
and so remayneth clere above all charge, viil. xs.
Illustrations, &c., p. 181.
85 Down to the latest days of Catholicism, our kings delighted
in these plays ; for Christmas Day, A.D. 1538, the Household book
of Henry VIII. presents us this item : " Mr. Crane, for plaing
w 1 the children before y e King, v]l. xiijs. iiijrf." The "children"
were the singing boys of the royal chapel.
86 In some monasteries there was a large room allotted especi-
ally for the acting of these plays : Pro nova tectura unius camerse
vocatse le Playerchambre, A.D. 1464 (The Priory of Finchale (Surtees
Soc.), p. ccxcviii.). Moreover, among the records of some religious
houses are to be found other evidences of these performances.
In the bursar's roll of the Priory of Durham, A.D. 1355, are the
following entries :
To the players istrionibus of our Lord the Bishop, and the
two players of the Earl of Northampton, at the feast of St. Cuth-
bert, in March, vis. viijrf.
To the players at the feast of St. Cuthbert, in September,
vis. viijc?. Raine, St. Cuthbert, p. 109.
For wine to the Lord Prior in the games ludus at the feast
of All Saints (A.D. 1378), vs.
For wine at Easter at the Prior's game, iijs. viiiyL
For the singers at the game, iijs. ivd. Ibid., p. 1 18.
A.D. 1381, wine bought for the prior and his associates, at the
four games in his apartments camera and other places, xxvs.
For the singers playing at Beaurepaire, iijs. ivd. Ibid., p. 120.
To the singers playing at the Houk before the Nativity, ijs. ivd.
Gloves and money given to a minstrel at the Prior's game, iijs.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 349
(433) Though not always, yet often, the youths
brought up in the schools belonging to our cathe-
drals (434) nay, the young clerks themselves
who served those churches, were the actors ; 88
and the richest copes of some rich minster
were occasionally borrowed to be worn on the
QQ
occasion.
For wine given to the brethren at the games of the Lord Prior,
and at home in the chamber solarium and infirmary, viijs.
Ibid., 136. "In vino dato in ludis Domini Prioris," is an item to
be found in the rolls of Finchale Priory.
87 To one of the six or seven priests who were always kept, dur-
ing Catholic days, in large English households, for the daily cele-
bration of the divine service, did it belong to write these sacred
plays; and the singing-boys acted some of them in the chapel,
other some in the great hall of the baronial castle. In the house-
hold of the Earl of Northumberland there were six chaplains,
" viz., the almoiiar, and if he be a maker of interludys than he
to have a servaunt to the intent for writynge of the parts, and
ells to have non " (The Northumberland Household Book, p. 44,
London 1827). My Lord useth and accustomyth to gyfe yerely
if his Lordship kepe a chapell and be at home them of his Lord-
schipes chapell if they doo play the play of the Nativite uppon
Cristynmes-Day in the mornnynge in my Lords chapell befor his
Lordship . . . xxs. (ibid., p. 343). In reward of them of his Lord-
ship chappell and other his Lordshipis servaunts that doith play
the play before his Lordship uppon Shrof tewsday at night . . . xs.
(ib., p. 345) ; to them, &c., that playth the play of Resurrection
upon Esturday in the mornnynge in my Lordis " chapell " befor
his Lordshipe . . . xxs. Ibid.
88 In the year 1378, the scholars of St. Paul's School presented
a petition to Richard II. praying his Majesty to prohibit some
inexpert people from representing the History of the Old Testa-
ment, to the great prejudice of the said clergy, who had been
at great expense in order to represent it publicly at Christmas.
Dodsley's Preface to a Collection of Old Plays.
89 Venit vocatus ab abbate Richardo, dum adhuc ssecularis esset
(Gaufridus abbas) ut scholam apud Sanctum Albanum regeret. . . .
Legit igitur apud Dunestapliam, expectans scholam Sancti Albani
sibi repromissam ; ubi quemdam ludum de Sancta Katerina quern
350 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(435) Instead of lending new fire, like too
many theatrical exhibitions of these times, to the
unhallowed warmth of a sinful heart, these sacred
plays helped to cool it, by teaching men to know
there was a God to love and fear, 90 a heaven to
win, saints to follow thither, a devil to withstand,
a hell to dread. To these scriptural performances,
as to everything else which was old and Catholic,
did the bulk of our people cling, 91 until, along
with the rest of (436) those ancient and more
important observances of our national Church,
they were wrenched by wily statesmen from them ;
yet, in spite of Government, these pious interludes
" miracula " vulgariter appellamus fecit. Ad quse decoranda, petiit
a sacrista Sancti Albani, ut sibi capse chorales accommodarentur, et
obtinuit. Matt. Paris, Vitas, Abb. S. Albani, p. 35. [R.S. xxviii.
i- 73-1
90 In his prologue to a play to be acted upon Candlemas Day and
called " The Killing of the Children of Israel," the writer says :
The last yeer we shewid you, and in this place,
How the shepherds of Crist by the made letification,
And thre kyngs that ycome fro the cuntrees be grace
To worship Jesu with enteer devotion ;
And now we propose . . .
... to shew you our Ladies purification.
Frends, this processe we propose to play as we can,
Before you all here in your presens,
To the honour of God, our Lady, and seynt Anne, &c.
Hawkins, Origin of the English Drama, i. 6.
91 How delighted all classes of the people used to be with these
pious and scriptural interludes we learn from Dugdale, who says
(Warwickshire, p. 116), "I have been told by some old people
who, in their younger years, were eye-witnesses of these pageants
so acted, that the yearly confluence of people to see that shew was
extraordinary great," &c.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 351
were kept up in several towns many years after
the introduction of Protestantism. 92
The shattered frame of many an old English
gild-hall still remains, and its standing place may
be always found hard by the church wherein the
brotherhood kept up the chapel of their patron
saint, around the altar of which all their beadsmen,
and often some one or other of themselves, daily
knelt at Mass, and, before they rose to go away,
said a prayer on behalf of the souls departed.
Though in the country parish and the lonely
hamlet, this building was but a little yet well-
arranged house, overlooking, if not within the
churchyard wall itself, 93 in the busy town, and
92 There was a play (A.D. 1409) at Skinners' Hall (London) which
lasted eight days (saith Stow), to hear which most of the greatest
estates of England were present. The subject of the play was the
sacred Scriptures from the creation of the world : they call this
Corpus Christi play in my country, which I have seen acted at
Preston, and Lancaster, and last of all at Kendall, in the beginning
of the reign of K. James ; for which the townsmen were sore
troubled, and upon good reasons the play finally suppressed, not
only there, but in all other towns of the kingdom. Weever,
Monuments, p. 191.
93 At Diss, in Norfolk, there were in the parish church two
gilds, and the gild-hall was common to them both, being the
same that is now standing at the south-east corner of the church-
yard, which was granted to the inhabitants, and is now used for
the charity schoolhouse. It was at that time well furnished for
the merry meetings of the brethren and sisters of those gilds, &c.
(Blomefield, Norfolk, i. 33). The house on the south side of the
churchyard of Oxburgh belonged to one of the gilds there, and is
called in old writings the gild-hall; and the house on the east
side of the said churchyard was another gild-hall, and belonged to
that of Corpus Christi, the ceilings being painted and beautified
with the portraiture of our Saviour, the five wounds, &c., as may
be observed to this day. Ibid., vi. 196.
352 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
wealthy city, it (437) arose in all the grandeur
and the beauty which the sister-arts of architec-
ture, sculpture, and painting, could bestow upon
it, and showed, as that of St. Mary's at Coventry
still does, the taste and the wealth, while it bore
witness to the cheerful doings and kindly hospi-
talities of its Catholic first owners, under whom,
the morning after a " gaude " day, hundreds of the
poor had given them at its kitchen hatch, food
enough to furnish forth more meals than one. 94
(438) But among the first and warmest hallowed
yearnings which at all times filled the hearts of
our old English gild brothers and sisters, one was
to shed beauty all about God's own house, the
Church, and throw a becoming splendour around
the solemnities of our one, same, unchanged, un-
changeable belief. Seldom did it happen but the
94 Speaking of what he is pleased to call " the jolly doings of
these gilds," Blomefield says, " but as the poor of the parish always
were partakers with them, I much question whether their revenues
were not better spent then, than they have been since they were
rapaciously seized," &c. (Norfolk, v. 278). Blomefield was a minister
of the Protestant Establishment. Many documents still remain
to tell us of the mirth and plenty of those gild-feast dinners : " In
the feasts of the fraternity of the Holy Cross in Abbington they
spent yearly six calfs which cost two shillings and two pence a
piece, sixteen lambs at twelve pence a piece, above four score
capons at three pence a piece, eight hundred eggs at five pence a
hundred, besides many marrow bones, much fruit and spice, and a
great quantity of milk, cream, and flour.
" Upon those days of rejoicing withal they used to have twelve
minstrels, viz., six from Coventry and six from Maidenhead, for
which and for other uses of the fraternity, William Dyer, vicar of
Bray in Berks, gave them five tenements and lands in Abbington."
Leland, Itin., vii. 72, note by Hearne.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 353
gild chapels became at last the richest and most
dazzling in the church ; as a symbol of what they
wished each one of their own souls to be in their
Maker's sight ever watching, wakeful in the
eye of man shining by a life spent in good
works and holiness. Often was it that their funds
supported the wax taper gleaming at the foot of
Christ upon the cross in the rood-loft fitting
emblem of the wall between heaven and earth
or supplied the lights kept (439) burning night
and day near the adorable Eucharist as over the
high altar, within a golden pix shrouded by a
cloud-like canopy, it hung midway between the
chancel's ceiling and its floor, to tell us that the
earth was not worthy to be touched by this second
and better manna rained to us from heaven. The
poor man's books, the stained-glass window, and
the paintings in the church, were often put up
and done at the joint cost and the pious bidding
of the brothers and sisters of a gild. 95 The songs
1)5 In the east window of the north aisle of Kingland church,
Norfolk, several persons are figured kneeling before a crucifix, and
with labels : S'ca Trinitas, unus Deus, miserere nobis, underneath
Orate p\ fratriV ; et sororib' ; gilde S'ce Trinitatis qui fieri fecerunt
istam fenestram (Blomefield, Norfolk, viii. 254). On one of the
windows in Beeston church was the following inscription, to say
that St. Mary's gild, held therein, had put up no less than eight
windows : Orate specialiter p'. salubri statu f rat rum et soror'.
gilde gloriose Virginis Marie, cujus honori hec dedicatur eccl'ia et
omnium viventium benefactor', eorund'. et p'. a'ab'. omnium frat-
rum et soror'. defunctor'. ejusd. gilde ac etiam p'. a'ab', defunctor'.
benefactor', eorund'. qui propriis expensis et pecuniis eidem gilde
habende largitis has octo fenestras vitro fieri devote curaverunt.
A .MCCCCX. Ibid., ix. 465.
VOL. II. Z
354 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
of praise and the hymns at solemn public worship
upon the Lord's own day each week, and upon
the holy-days throughout the year, wafted heaven-
ward, now in strains of the softest, slowest,
sweetest tone that seemed to weep and sigh, yet
breathe as (440) hopeful of forgiveness, then gush-
ing out in all the overpowering flood, the full
swelling majesty of tuneful jubilation, that the
cunning art of the musicianer could think of,
breathed, too, in the mellowest, roundest, most
silvery notes that the lips of the many choristers,
robed, angel-like, in long white surplices, knew
how to waken, were as often provided by the
same brotherhoods. But that was not all ; their
still untiring labours must go on till they made,
what at first had been their little lowly unknown
chapel, take its place of beauty high up amid the
beautiful churches of England. 96
96 The chife Paroche Chirche (at Boston) was St. John's, where
yet is a chirche for the toune. St. Botolph's was but a chapel to
it. But now it is so risen and adournid that it is the chifiest of
the toune, and for a paroche chirce the beste and fayrest of al
Lincolnshire, and servid so with singging, and that of cunning
men, as no paroche is in al England. The society and Bretherhodde
longging to this chirche hath caussid this, and now much land
longgith to this society (Leland, Itin. vii. 37). Of the town of
Ludlow, the same writer remarks : There is but one paroch church
in the towne (of Ludlowe), but that is very fayre, and large,
and richly adorned. This church hath been much advanced by
a brother-hood therein founded in the name of St. John the
Evangelist. The originall thereof was (as the people say there)
in the tyme of K. Edw. the confessor ; and it is affirmed there
that the pilgrims that brought the ringe from beyond the sea as a
token from St. John to K. Edward, were inhabitants of Ludlowe.
Leland, Itin. iv. 91.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 355
(441) Remarkable was the fondness of our
Catholic forefathers, when they wished to carry
out a work that might yield reverence to God,
stir up devotion towards His saints, or shed
lustre around the public offices of religion, of
gathering themselves together into one body,
that Christ might be amidst them. Hence, if a
pious few felt one common desire to set up a
particular light in any church, or get sung there
every evening a hymn in praise and honour of
our blessed Lady, a gild was immediately thought
of for that purpose. 97 Very often indeed it
This fraternity hath a guardian chosen yearly amonge the
burgesses, and to this colledge belonge nowe a tenne priests,
partly found by endowment of landes, partly by gatheringe the
devotion of the people thereabout. And these priests have a
fayre house at the west end of the paroch church yard, and by it
is an hospitall or alms-house of a 30 poore folkes for the most part,
and some times, maintained partly by the fraternity, and partly
by mony given for obiits of men buried there in the church.
There was a very rich merchant in Ludlowe not longe since
caHed Hosier, buried in the paroch church, whoe founded a cantu-
arye in a part of the aforesayd colledge endowinge it with 10 or
12.1. land by the year. Ibid., p. 92.
There is a guild or society at this church of St. Mary in the
market-stead (at Lichfield). This was begunne in K. E. 3 tyme.
There be 5 preists belonginge to this brotherhood, and they serve
in St. Marye's church. Ibid., p. 112.
97 " Gode bretheren and susteren : it is forto weten and knowen,
that the bygynnynge of this bretherhode of grete deuocio'n, eu'y
ma' paynge a peny, forto fynde xiij taperes about the sepulcre of
c'ste (Christ) at Estre, in the chirche of seynt Botulphe with-
oute Alderesgate, in Loundon. Aft' that throug'e more gretter
deuocio'n, and sterynge unto the worschippe of God, it' was
yturne in' to a frat'nyte of the Holy Trynyte, nougt with stond-
ynge the fyndynge eu'y yere, the may' tenynge of the forsayde
xiij taper's, of the whiche breth'hode thes' were thei/' &c.
(Hone, A nc. Mysteries, p. 79). Concerning these lights " there
356 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(442) happened from out of these small brother-
hoods so begun, there sprang up in our busy trad-
ing towns (443) the larger gilds, which at last
grew so wealthy as to own a well-built hall, to
keep their own thirteen beadsmen, or their school, 98
ben ordeyned xiij tapers of wex, and eu'y taper of sex pounde of
wex, with dysches of pewtere, accordynge th'to, forto brenne
about the sepulcr' on estres eue' and estres day, al so longe as the
mane' es in holy chirche." Ibid. 82.
In the church of St. Magnus, London Bridge, there was a
famous gild of our lady " de Salve Regina," established there
1 7th Edward III. "Be it remembered, that Rauf Capelyn du
Bailiff ; Will. Double, fishmonger ; Roger Lowher, chancellor ;
Henry Boseworth, vintener ; Steven Lucas, stockfishmonger, and
other of the better of the parish of St. Magnus, near the bridge of
London, of their great devotion, and to the honour of God and
his glorious Mother our Lady Mary the Virgin, began and caused
to be made a chauntry, to sing an anthem of our Lady, called
( Salve Regina,' every evening. And thereupon ordained five
burning wax lights at the time of the said anthem, in the honour
and reverence of the five principal joys of our Lady aforesaid, and
for exciting the people to devotion at such an hour the more to
merit to their souls. And thereupon many other good people of
the same parish, seeing the great honesty of the said service and
devotion, proffered to be aiders and partners to support the said
lights, and the said anthem to be continually sung, paying to
every person every week a half-penny. And so that hereafter,
with the gifts that the people shall give to the sustentation of
the said light and anthem, there shall be to find a chaplain sing-
ing in the said church for all the benefactors of the said light and
anthem." Stow, Survey, ii. 175.
98 In his Itinerary, Leland gives " a remembraunce out of a litle
boke of the Antiquities of the Howse of Calendaries in Bright-
stow," from which we learn that " The Calendaries, otharwyse
cawlyd the gilde or Fraternite of the clergie and comonaltye of
Brightstow, and it was firste kepte in the churche of the Trinitie,
sens at Al Halows.
" The originall of this fraternitie is out of mynd.
" In the tyme of Kynge Henry the 2, Robert Erie of Glocestar
and Robert Hardinge translatyd the fraternitie of the Calendaries
from Trinitie onto the churche of Al Hallows.
PART I. CHAP. VI. 357
to become possessed of broad lands and estates,
and to have their own chantry chapel served by
one or more gild-priests, whose duty it was to
pray therein daily for the living and the dead.
Their Christian belief being the quickener, the
very soul of our countrymen's actions during those
(444) ages when they were Catholic, these same
motives acted in the framing of those associations
which merchants and workmen made among them-
selves, for the good of their particular branch of
commerce, or their own trade ; " and it is a fact
" At this tyme were scholes ordeyned in Brightstow by them
for the conversion of the Jewes, and put in the order of the
Calenderis and the Maior." vii. 87, 88.
99 Midway between the purely devotional and the civic gilds,
there stood some few which partook in a manner of the character
of both : such were the Parish-clerks', the Bell-ringers,' and the
Minstrels' gild. Receiving into their brotherhood organists,
choir-masters, singing men, and sextons, the Clerks' gild was
necessarily made up, in a large part, of lay folks and married
persons, who got their bread by their professional services in the
churches, without having any kind of orders. The Bell-ringers
stood in the same position ; so too did the Minstrels, who played
a great deal at church, in processions, and at sacred plays ; and
therefore we are not surprised at finding it laid down in the
statutes of the Beverley gild of Minstrels, that " there science and
art musicall is to be only exercised to the honour of God, and the
comforthe of man " (Poulson, Beverlac. i. 302). At an early period
there was a gild of Bell-ringers at Westminster Abbey : King
Henry III. gave one hundred shillings, by payment each half-year,
to the brethren of this gild, and their successors, who were assigned
to ring the great bells there (Stow, Surveij, ii. book vi. p. 8). In
most of our large towns there was a clerks' gild ; that at London
must have been wealthy, if we may judge from the magnificence
of their procession on Corpus Christi day, which festival seems to
have been their gild holiday: The vj day of May (A.D. 1554) was a
goodly evynsong at Yeldhall colege, by the masters of the clarkes
and ther felowshype of clarkes with syngyng and playng. . . .
LIBRARY ST. MARY'S COLLEGE
358 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
worthy (445) of remembrance, that all their
statutes show how earnestly and unweariedly
THE Civic GILDS IN OLD TIMES PRAYED
FOE THE DEAD.
Like such as were purely of a devotional and
religious character, these secular brotherhoods
always put themselves under the patronage of a
saint, whom they chose, in most instances, on
account of some historical or symbolic con-
nection with their craft, or as they called it
" mystery": St. Peter, who once had been a
fisherman, was the London gild of fishmongers',
St. Dunstan the goldsmiths' patron saint. The
image of their heaven-dwelling guardian, (446)
wrought sometimes of silver and sparkling with
jewels, was canopied beneath a rich tabernacle and
set up in the highest and most honourable place
The morrow after was a great Mass at the same place, by the
same fraternity, when every clerk offered a halfpenny. The Mass
was sung by divers of the queen's chapel and children ; and after
Mass done, every clerk went their procession two and two to-
gether, each having a surples and a rich cope, and a garland ; after
them iiij" standards, stremars, and baners; and evere on that
bare them had a nobe (an alb) or elles a surples ; and ij and ij
together ; then came the waytes playrig, and then be-twyn xxx
clarkes a qwre syngyng Salve festa dyes ; so ther wher iiij qweres.
Then cam a canepe borne by iiij of the masters of the clarks over
the sacrament, with a xij stayff-torchys bornyng up sant Laurans
lane, and so to the farther end of Chep, then back a-gayn up
Cornhylle . . . unto sant Albrowsse chyrche ; and ther they dyd
put off ther copes and so to dener every man. Machyn, Diary,
p. 62.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 359
within their hall, and his life was storied in the
tapestry, hung up on great days, on its walls. 1 His
festival was the gild's-holy-day, whereon, clad in
their new liveries, 2 the warden having on his gown
1 That St. Dunstan should have been chosen by English gold-
smiths as the patron of their craft and mystery, was but fitting,
since from the writer of our great archbishop's life we learn that :
Manu aptus erat ad omnia: picturam facere, litteras formare,
scalpello imprimere, ex auro argentoque, ere et ferro, quicquid
liberet operari (Capgrave, Nova Legenda Anglie [Horstman,
i. 274], or, as the English Legendes of the Sayntes hath it : Then
used he (St. Dunston) to werke in geldsmythes werke with his
owne hondes (fol. cxxxii). Aloft in the reredos of their hall, the
goldsmiths of London had a figure, silver gilt and set with gems,
of their patron St. Dunstan ; the walls of the same hall were hung
with arras of the saint's " story/' the drawings for which were made
in London and sent to Flanders to be wrought (Herbert, Livery
Companies of London, ii. 212, 226); their loving-cup,, "with Saynt
Dunston on the toppe," was equally rich ; they kept their " St.
Dunston's light " burning in St. John Zachary's Church ; and they
had their chapel of Seynt Dunston at Paul's, where within its
niche or tabernacle stood the "ymage" of the saint, with its
" riddel " or curtain of " blew buckram " drooping about it (ibid.
p. 212). Forgetful of their own land and its holy men of old, some
of our goldsmiths Catholics, I am sorry to say now go to France,
and borrow a St. Eligius for their patron.
2 The xiii day of May (A.D. 1 5 54) was the Fyssmongers and sant
Peters in Cornhyll prossessyon, with a goodly qwyre of clarkes
syngyng, and a iiij xx of prestes wayryng copes of cloth of gold,, and
so folohyng my lord mayre and the althemen in skarlet ; and then
the compeny of Fyssmongers in ther leveray, and they and the
offesers. beyryng whyt rods in ther handes, and so to Powlles, and
ther they dyd the oblassyon after old fassyon (Machyn, Diary,
p. 62). In the year 1557, there was made by the same gild a still
more magnificent procession, with " the Mass kept at saint Peter's,
in Cornhill; three crosses borne and a c prestes in copes; and
clerks syngyng Salve festa dies,; and then cam the parish with
whyt rodes, and then the craft of Fysmongers ; and after my lord
mayre and the althermen, and alle the ofFesers with whyt rodes in
ther handes ; and so to Polles and ther offered at the he (high)
auter, and after to dener to the Fysmongers hall to dener."
360 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
(447) of crimson velvet, 3 and his brother officials,
as well as himself, holding white or green wands
in their (448) hands, all the fellowship walked in
solemn procession : minstrels playing music went
before ; hindermost came a long line of clerks in
surplices, and the chaplains of the gild arrayed in
splendid copes, and chanting the joyful Salve festa
dies. In this order they reached their patron saint's
church : here the holy Sacrifice was offered up
with all due solemnity. When Mass had been
sung, they returned in like manner to their hall,
where but a few days before the newly-chosen
warden for the year had been elected and ele-
vated to his distinguished trust, by having set
upon his head a garland of flowers, or a velvet
The sam day be-gane a stage play at the Grey freers of the
passyon of Cryst. Ibid., p. 138.
The rods or wands borne by the dignitaries of these city gilds
were not always white, but sometimes green: at the burial of
" T. Lune grocer in sant Mare Mawdlyn, in Mylke-strett," there
were " mony morners in blake and dyver althermeii with gren
stayffes ; and the masturs of the hospetalle with gren stayffes."
Ibid., p. no, 1 06.
3 The wardens' gowns were of velvet : On Seynt Dunston's eve
allways hytherto the aldermen of thys fellyshippe hathe been used
to assemble in theyr vyellett gownes and clookys : and all the
hoole companye of the lyvery to assemble at the Goldesrnyths hall,
in theyr second lyverey ; and to have iiij chapeleyns, to wayte and
goe before theym to PawlFs (Herbert, Livery Companies, ii. 213).
In the Ironmongers' gild, the chaplain's gown and hood were of
puke colour :
1541. Paid for v yardes of puke for our chapelyn's gown and
hood at viiis. virf. the yard, xlvjs. ixrf.
The livery of the brethren was crimson and puke, and the mere
hood cost viis. ijrf. Ibid., p. 587.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 361
wreath, enriched with plates of gold and silver. 4
Here they dined, and (449) the gild's loving-cup,
garnished with the figure of their patron saint,
was handed round. 5 But the end of their yearly
celebrations was a solemn dirge and Mass of
Requiem for the dead. In some of these civic
fellowships, on arising from the dinner-table itself,
our citizens, with their wives and daughters, all
formed into procession again and walked back to
church, whither their almsmen, by their beadle's
bidding, had taken their own richest hearse-cloth
and spread it over the hearse, which had been
put up for the occasion, and stood with a number
of funeral yellow lights about it 6 (450) high up
4 At the end of their year of office the outgoing wardens of the
London civic gilds went " with garlands on their hedes " to the
hall belonging to the brotherhood, where an election was made of
the new wardens, " upon whom the forseid garlandes shullen be so
sett " (ibid., i. 84). In the accounts kept by the Grocers' gild, a
sum of 2od. is put down (A.D. 1401) for "the ij chapellettes pour
couroner les novels mestres " (ibid., p. 85). Later, instead of flowers
being used for these garlands, they came to be, and, in some of the
London companies, perhaps still are, like the heraldic wreath,
except that they are made of red velvet, and have pieces of silver
fastened on them engraved with the company's arms (ibid., p. 195):
a sort of a cap fronted with what appeared to be a silver plate, is
now employed on the occasion by the Fishmongers. Ibid., ii. 44.
5 For the old custom of the loving-cup, see note 3, p. 275, where
the fine mazer-bowl now at York Cathedral, but once belonging
to a gild in that city, is mentioned, p. 277 : the Goldsmiths' fine
loving cup, bearing the figure of that gild's patron, St. Dunstan,
was just now spoken of in note i. p. 359.
6 Every gild in the kingdom had one or more funeral palls,
or, as they were called " herse-cloths " ; some of them very rich,
as may be seen from the two which still exist in London, the
first belonging to the Fishmongers' company, the other to the
Saddlers' : both are beautiful, that of the Fishmongers particularly
362 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
in the nave : Placebo, or even-song for the dead,
was then chanted. In other gilds, this pious,
though sorrowful, work of kindness was left to
be done a few days after the feasting ; but always
on the morrow of the day, whenever it was, that
they came to church for the Placebo, a Mass of
Requiem followed, at which their chaplain from
the pulpit read out each name upon their gild
bead-roll, asking their prayers for all, but beseech-
ing them to pray more especially in behalf of
the dead brethren and sisters, as well as such
who had ever been benefactors of their gild. 7
In olden, as in (451) modern days, the city
companies feasted their members ; while, how-
so, being of the finest cloth of gold elaborately embroidered.
"On Seynt Dunston's day after dyner the hoole lyverey (of
Goldsmiths) must goo unto the generall obyte and dyrge for
all the brethern and system of thys companye wythe the
chapeleyns before theym : and the beadell to see that the best
hersse-clothe and waxe be provyded and made ready by the
almesmen," &c. Ibid., ii. 215.
7 By the statutes of the Fishmongers' gild, London, it was
ordained that "on the Sunday next after the aforesaid festival
of St. Peter and St. Paul, afore mete tyme they (the members)
shall been all present in the same chirche (of St. Peter's, Cornhill),
in their lyverie aforesaid, ther to here a solempne masse of requiem
for all the soules of the same fraternite and for all Christen soules,
and atte whiche Masse the preest of the same fraternite openly
in the pulpit shall reherce and recomende to all good prayers by
name all brethern and sistern quyke and deed of the foreseid
fraternite and all cristen ; and in this same Sonday shall all this
fraternite have and hold a fest or a semble, as the wardeynes
for the tyme beying willen ordeyne, and that every persone atte
that same tyme shall paie for her leyvere als it comyth to and
here quarterage also if he owe ony atte that tyme, and for the
fest also." Ibid., i. 69. Much the same regulations were followed
by the Goldsmiths. Ibid., ii. 215.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 363
ever, they occasionally, and without blame, thus
thought about the pleasures of the living, they
did not, as long as they were Catholic, forget
the ghostly wants of the departed brethren, but
took care to gladden their souls whilst in
purgatory by the help which they daily sent
them through the holy Sacrifice and other offices
of religion. For such a praiseworthy end, each
of the London civic gilds kept, if not several,
at least one priest, whose duty it was to offer
up Mass every morning, and to say two additional
collects, one for the living, the other for the
deceased members' good. Other services were
often performed exclusively for the dead by this
same chaplain ; 8 and in bestowing the alms of
the society (452) in the support of such among
its own members as had fallen into want, the
gild required that its almsmen should go twice,
at least, within each week and hear Mass at
the altar of its patron saint, and pray for the
8 The priest of the Fishmongers' gild, London, bound himself
to " seye his masse every day but reasonable cause it lette, with
a special orison Deus qui caritatis, or a memorye for the quyke,
and on other Deus venie largitor, for the dede outake hie and
solempne festes in whych he be spared but of his devocion : and
also to say evere day feriall in the same chirch, after noon, Placebo
and the JJirige, with ix lessons and the same speciall orison above-
sayd, for the same deede brethern and sistern with the commenda-
cion saying, and every monday and friday feriall a masse of requiem
or a memorie for all the soules of the forseyde brethern and
sisterne, and for all cristen souls ; and every monday, Wednesday,
and friday vii psalms penetenciall and litanie, with prayers and
orysons that longen thereto, for the lyves and the souls afore-
seyde." Ibid., i. 69.
\
364 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
souls of all the departed brethren. 9 Often, too,
the man who had thriven well in his trade
would bequeath some of his wealth to his gild
brethren for the endowment of a chantry, that
(453) Mass might be said for his and all their
souls as long as the world should last. 10 When
a member died, all of his fellowship were bidden
to come and hear the Mass and services at his
burial, and pray for his soul. 11
How the last solemn rites of the Church used
to be administered, not only for gild-brethren,
9 Belonging to the Goldsmiths' gild, London, there were a
certain number of almsmen or " Allows-men," as they were called,
who had, on being admitted, to swear that they would, " without
reasonable excuse to the contrary, be every Wednesday and Friday
at Seint Johan Zacharie's churche by viij of the clokke, at the
masse of Drew Barentyne's preste ; and there to pray for the
goode estate of alle the bretheren of the crafte that be alyve and
for alle the soules, by name, of alle the bretheren that ben past
to God, that hathe given any lands or tenements to the mayn-
tanyng of the almes whose names foloweth and been in a bill
in the said chirche." Ibid., ii. 193, note. It was ordered that these
almsmen come weekly to the Goldsmiths' Mass at St. John
Zachary's, in their blue gowns, and to every obit in their black
gowns. Ibid. 209.
10 In the Goldsmith's gild-books, relative to keeping their obits,
there is the copy of an agreement (made A.D. 1369) between their
wardens and the dean and chapter of St. Paul's, London, for
maintaining a chantry in the chapel of St. Dunstan in that
cathedral, for the soul of John Hyltoft, goldsmith, of London (ibid.
ii. 208). Hyltoft had bequeathed very plentiful means to his
brotherhood for that especial object.
11 In their statutes, the Grocers required, " that at the death of
a member of the brotherhood in London, the warden for the year
should order the beadle to warn the brothers to go to the dirge
and on the morrow to the Mass, under pain of viijs " (ibid. f p. 70).
The wardens of the Goldsmiths' gild yearly held and kept twenty-
five obits, at divers parish churches, and went to the said obits,
&c. Ibid.f ii. 206.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 365
but for all other persons in general during old
Catholic times, is a point of inquiry full of
interest for the student of medieval or liturgical
antiquities.
In the first place, then, from all the evidences
we have upon this subject, we find that
THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE SALISBURY RITUAL
EACH ENJOINED THE SAME SACRAMENTS TO
BE GIVEN TO THE DYING.
The very first moment the sick person's illness
became threatening, he was told to prepare him-
self (454) and receive extreme unction, 12 and into
his ear were whispered those soothing, hopeful
words from holy writ, of St. James, who says :
" Is any man sick among you ? Let him bring in
the priests of the Church, and let them pray over
him, anointing him with oil in the name of the
Lord, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick
man ; and the Lord shall raise him up : and if he
be in sins, they shall be forgiven him " (cap. v.
12 Among the excerptions of Ecgberht, Archbishop of York (A.D.
732), the twenty-first is: Ut secundum diffinitionem sanctorum
patrum, si quis infirmatur, a sacerdotibus oleo sanctificato cum
orationibus diligenter ungatur (Thorpe, Laws of England, ii. 100).
So, too, JElfric's Pastoral Letter says : The mass-priest shall
rightly preach the true faith to men . . . visit sick men . . . and,
if the sick layman desire to receive unction, let him confess him,
and forgive every grudge, before the unction, &c. (ibid., p. 385).
The sick person received extreme unction once only in every
illness ; but the holy eucharist every day till he died. See page
252 of this volume, in the note for St. Dunstan's rule.
366 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
14, 15). In this holy anointing the Anglo-Saxons
knew there was "a healing and a forgiveness of
sin," 13 and so strongly (455) did they hold by this
teaching, as to believe that whosoever should have
received this rite with fitting dispositions, his soul,
after death, became as spotless as the new-born
child's who dies immediately after being washed
in the cleansing waters of baptism. 14 Hence was
it enacted by the canons, " that every priest should
have both baptismal oil, and unction for the sick,
and also be prompt for the people's rites, and
diligently promote Christianity." 15
The last anointing was given to the dying
Anglo-Saxon with no small ceremonial solemnity.
Arrayed in all his sacerdotal vestments, and
accompanied (456) by acolytes who bore lighted
13 ^Elfric's Pastoral Letter, 48 (ibid., p. 385). In another letter
of his, entitled Quando dividis Chrisma, the same bishop says : O
ye mass-priests, my brothers . . . to-day (Maundy Thursday) we
are to divide our oil, hallowed in three ways, as the book points
out to us, i.e., oleum sanctum, et oleum chrismatis, et oleum
infirmorum, that is, in English, holy oil, the second is chrism, and
sick men's oil ; and ye ought to have three flasks ready for the
three oils, for we dare not put them together in one oil vessel,
because each of them is hallowed apart for a particular service.
. . . With sick men's oil ye shall anoint the sick, as James the
apostle taught in his epistle, Ut allevet, &c., ' ' That the Lord
may raise them from their sickness ; and, if they are in sins, that
they shall be forgiven them." Ibid., p. 391.
14 After noticing the words of the apostle St. James, Ep. v. 13,
14, Archbishop Ecgberht says: Ideo fidelis quisque, si possit,
unctionem obtinere debet, et ritus qui ad earn pertinent : quoniam
scriptum est, quod quicunque hos ritus habuerit, anima ejus seque
pura erit, post obitum suum, atque infantis, qui statim post
baptisma moritur. Pwnitentiale in Thorpe, Ancient Laws, ii. 179.
16 Canons enacted under King Edgar. Ibid., p. 259.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 367
tapers, an incense-breathing thurible, and holy
water, the priest, who was about to administer
this sacrament, walked with .slow step from the
church to the sick man's abode, at the threshold
of which this procession halted for a moment,
holy water was sprinkled on the door-posts, and
the anthem sung : " Peace be to this house," &c. 16
Going in, and having reached the dying person's
bedside, the priest bent over him and asked why
the minister of the Church had been sent for ;
and on hearing from himself that it was to have
extreme unction, he told the sick man (457) to
make a full confession of all his sins. 17 This
16 The rubrics followed by the Anglo-Saxon Church in ad-
ministering the sacrament are to be seen, to this day, in the
Anglo-Saxon [Alet] pontifical now in the public library at Rouen,
under the shelf -mark 362. Dum invitati sacerdotes ad infirmum
fuerint visitandi ungendique causa, qui eorum ad illud officium
dignus jure censetur, induat se superhumerali, alba, et stola, cum
phanone atque planeta si affuerit, sin alias, casula non induatur.
Diaconus vero qui evangelii textum ferat et oleum infirmorum,
et ceroferarii secundum ordinem suum se induant. Unus cero-
ferariorum dextra cereum, Iseva thuribulum cum incenso. Sic
induti cum domum in qua infirmus jacet intrare voluerint, sacerdos
Iseva codicem quo hujus officii orationes habentur, teneat, dextra
se signo dominicse crucis muniat. . . Et sic intrando istam anti-
phonam (dicat) : " Pax huic domui," &c. Deinde vero progrediens,
undique versus aquam benedictam aspergendo atque antiphonam,
"Asperges me, Domine, hysopo," decantando, ad lectum segroti
. . accedere satagat.
17 Tune sacerdos flexis genibus ante segrotum inclinet, dicens ei,
"Ut quid nos vocasti, frater?" Infirmus dicat : "Ut unctionem
mihi tradere dignemini." Sacerdos tune dicens ei : ' i Prius te ad
puram prepara confessionem, de cetero sanctam accipies unctionem,"
&c. Tune ejus accipiat confessionem. Et si cunctis voluerit
dimittere, sanctam ei humiliter tradat unctionem. Quod si
noluerit, sacrato eum chrismate omnino non tangat.
3 68 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
shrift being gone through, the holy anointing was
administered by the priest, who dipped the thumb
of his right hand into the hallowed oil and made
with it the sign of the cross upon the eyes, the
ears, the nostrils, the mouth, the hands, and other
parts of the dying man's body ; and the words
that the priest uttered, at each several time,
besought of God to forgive those sins committed
by that sense the organ of which he was then
touching with the oil. 18 Just before breathing his
last, the Anglo-Saxon received the housel or
blessed Eucharist, 19 which was always kept in the
church ready for that purpose under the very
same name we still (458) give it viaticum 20 to
strengthen him on the road from this to another
world. 21
18 Perungat infirmum de oleo sancto sanctificato cruces faciendo.
. . . Oratio ad oculos ungendos in supercilis oculorum : " Ungo oculos
tuos de oleo sanctificato, ut quidquid inlicito visu deliquisti, huius
olei unctione expietur. Per Dominum nostrum," "Succurre,
Domine, infirmo huic," &c. Psal. : "Beati quorum," &c. Then
follow all the other anointings : Ad aures ; ad nares ; ad labia, &c.
Martene, De Ant. Ecc. Rit., i. (301), 302.
19 See page 248 of this volume, in the note.
20 Concerning the holy housel, or blessed eucharist, kept as the
" viaticum " in Anglo-Saxon churches, the reader may see what we
have written upon that point, i. 107, 108 of this work.
21 Acri coapit (S. ^Ethelwoldus) infirmitate gravari, et sacrati
olei liquore perunctus, Dominici Corporis et Sanguinis perceptione
exitum suum munivit. (Vita S. dEihelwoldi, Ep. Winton. auctore
ut videtur Wolstano, eius discipulo ; in Mabillon,, A A. SS. O.B.
vii. 610.) The liturgical reader should observe that, in the Anglo-
Saxon ritual, extreme unction was always administered before the
eucharist ; according to the Sarum Manual, oftener, but not
invariably so.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 369
With some slight variations in the wording and
the rubrics of the service, as few as they were
unimportant, these very same ordinances con-
tinued to be still followed in England from the
Norman William's earliest to the Tudor Mary's
latest days. By the Sarum rite, laid down in its
Manual or Book, with the form of administering
the sacraments, the priest, vested in a surplice,
with a stole about his neck, carried the hallowed
oil 22 and the holy housel (459) to the dying man :
this English, like the Anglo-Saxon priest, stopped
at the door to sprinkle it with holy water, saying,
" Peace be to this house," &c. 23 He, too, first of
of all heard the sick man's confession of all his
sins, 24 and after absolution and the kiss of peace, 25
22 The following is the solemn manner in which the dean and
chapter of St. Paul's, London, went and anointed a dying brother
canon : Si vero invalescente egritudine, extrema sit injungendus
unccionne, decanus cum canonicis presentibus, si infirmo placuerit,
aqua benedicta, cruce, cereis, et tintinnabulo precedentibus,
tempore opportuno ibunt ad infirmum. et decanus ipse, vel alius
fratrum quern elegerit infirmus, extreme unccionis omcium ex-
equatur, &c. Sparrow Simpson, Regist., pp. 61, 62.
23 Ordo ad visitandum infirmum. Imprimis induat se sacerdos
in superpellicio cum stola ; et in eundo dicat cum suis ministris
septem psalmos penitentiales (Manuale ad Usum Sarum, Rotho-
magi impressum in officina magistri Martini Morin, fol. Ixxxi). Et
cum intraverit domum, dicat, u Pax huic domui," &c. (ibid., fol.
lxxxiij v ). Quando infirmus debet inungi, afferenda est ei ymago
crucifixi, et ante conspectum eius statuenda ut Redemptorem
suum in ymagirie crucifixi adoret, et passionis eius quam pro
peccatorum salute sustinuit recordetur. Deinde aspergat infirmum
aqua benedicta. Ibid., fol. Ixxxiiij [Surtees Soc., vol. 63, p. 44*].
24 Deinde audita integra confessione infirmi, et factis interroga-
tionibus expedientibus inungat sacerdos infirmo quod si quid
injuste alieni habuerit, vel si quern injuste leserit seu damnifi-
VOL. TT. 2 A
370 THE CHURCH OF CUE, FATHERS
gave him extreme unction, 26 (460) according to the
olden Anglo-Saxon rubric, and with like prayers,
then the blessed Eucharist, 27 so that, as (461)
caverit, reddat et satisfaciat si valeat, sin autem veniam humiliter
postulet, &c. Ibid., fol. Ixxxvij and 48.*
25 Fiat eius absolutio, .... deinde osculetur crucem infirmus et
sacerdotem et postea omnes alios per ordinem, &c. Ibid., fol.
Ixxxviij and 48.*
26 Accipiat interim sacerdos oleum infirmorum super pollicem
dextrum et sic cum illo pollice tangat infirmum cum oleo signum
crucis faciens super utrumque oculum incipiendo ad dextrum
oculum, et dicat sacerdos hoc modo : " Per istam unctionem et
suam piissimam misericordiam indulgeat tibi Dominus quicquid
peccasti per visum." R. "Amen." Sequatur psalmus, "Exaltabo
te, Domine." .... Deinde super aures, .... deinde super labia,
&c. Ibid., fol. xc [and 49*].
27 Facta unctione ut predictum est expediens erit, ut sacerdos
ante communionem inquirat ab infirmo an aliqua alia peccata sibi
ad memoriam occurrant de quibus non erat confessus, .... Deinde
communicetur infirmus, &c. (ibid., fol. xcii). When a priest
received the viaticum, he had a stole put about his neck : Nota
quando sacerdos infirmus communicandus, stjola induetur.
Manuals ad Usum Sarum, MS. in my possession [and 50*].
In the earliest Protestant liturgy of England, the first book
of Edward VX extreme unction was set forth thus : If the sick
person desire to be anointed, then shall the priest anoint him
upon the forehead, or breast only, making the sign of the cross,"
&c. ; and in the prayer, the minister said : ' ' We .... beseech the
eternal Majesty .... to pardon thee all thy sins and offences
committed by all thy bodily senses, passions, and carnal affections,"
&c. (The Two Books of Common Prayer of King Edward VI, p. 366,
ed. Card well). A reservation of the sacrament, to be carried from
the church to the sick man's house, is also directed by its rubrics :
" If, the same day, there be a celebration of the holy communion
in the church, then shall the priest reserve (at the open com-
munion) so much of the sacrament of the body and blood as shall
serve the sick person," &c. (ibid., Communion of the Sick, p. 368) ;
''and if there be more sick persons to be visited the same day that
the curate doth celebrate in any sick man's house, then shall the
curate (there) reserve so much of the sacrament of the body and
blood as shall serve the other sick persons .... and shall im-
mediately carry it, and minister it unto them." (76^., p. 370).
PART I. CHAP. VII. 371
of yore, the soul might wing its flight for its
doom before God, shrifted, assoiled, aneled, and
houseled.
If to the bedside of the lowliest hind, the
adorable Eucharist was borne with much liturgical
solemnity in the Anglo-Saxon, not less so used
it to be according to our old English Sarum
ritual. From beneath its silken canopy, hanging
down before the high altar, with a lamp kept
burning everlastingly beside it, the parish priest
took out and carried to the sick the viaticum
enclosed in a pix, which was always lined with
the finest and the whitest linen, 28 whether that
cup itself were wrought (462) out of gold, or of
Both extreme unction and the reservation of the eucharist were
left out of Edward's second book.
28 Cum eucharistia ad segrum fuerit deferenda, habeat sacerdos
pixidem mundam et honestam, ita scilicet quod una semper in
ecclesia remaneat, et in alia in qua sit eucharistia in bursa posita
mundissima, in qua deferat corpus Dominicum ad segrotum linteo
mundo superposito et lucerna praecedente nisi seger valde remotus
fuerit,, et cruce similiter si fieri potest, nisi crux fuerit ad alium
segrotum deportata. Prsecedente quoque tintinnabulo, ad cujus
sonitum concitetur devotio fidelium. Habeatque secum semper
sacerdos horarium seu stolam, quando cum eucharistia, sicut
diximus, vadit ad segrotum. Et si seger non remotus fuerit, in
superpellicio decenter ad eum vadat, habeatque vas argenteum
sive stanneum, ad hoc specialiter deputatum quod semper ad
segrotum deferat ; ut in eo segro dare valeat post sumptam
eucharistiam suorum loturam digitorum (Constit. Provinciates
S. Edmundi Cantuariensis Archiep. A.D. 1236, Wilkins, Condi, i.
638). There is a better reading of this constitution, which says :
Habeat sacerdos aliam pixidem mundam et honestam in qua sit
linea bursa munda et in ea Dominicum corpus deferat ad segrotum,
&c. (ibid., p. 657). Archbishop Peckham (A.D. 1280) says of the
viaticum : Collocetur in pixide pulcherrima intrinsecus lino can-
didissimo adornata, &c. Ibid., t. ii. p. 48.
372 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
silver, of ivory, or of copper inside and gilt outside
ornamented with enamel. 29 In our larger towns
and more wealthy rural districts, a crowd of young
surpliced clerks formed, on these occasions, a
procession fair to behold : one, going first, bore
a cross 30 uplifted on a staff; then came another,
sounding a little silver hand-bell, 31 and all (463)
the rest with lighted torches in their hands, 32
walked either immediately before or about the
priest ; behind him followed a long array of lay-
folks, 33 men and women, telling their beads, or
' 2<J Dusd pixides (in qualibet ecclesia haberi debent), una argentea
vel eburnea, vel de opere lemonitico, vel alia idonea, in qua hostise
reserventur . . . alia decens et honesta in qua oblatse reponantur
(Constit. W. de Bleys, Ep. Wigorn. A.D. 1229 ; Wilkins, ConciL, i. 623 ;
et Condi. Exonien., ibid., ii. 139). Eucharistia in munda pixide
argentea, aut eburnea, aut alia tanto sacramento digna et idonea
conservetur (Condi. Oxoniense, 1222; Wilkins, Condi., i. 594).
30 For the use of a processional cross in visiting the sick, see
note 28, p. 371.
31 Persona (ecclesise) provideat de . . . lanterno et tintinnabulo
deferendo ante sacerdotem in visitatione innrmorum legitime
prsecedente ; et personse vel vicarii debent invenire duos cereos
processionales (Constitutions sEgidii de Bridport, Ep. Sarum, A.D.
1265; Wilkins, Condi., i. 714). Habeatur in singulis ecclesiis . . .
campanella deferenda ad infirmos et ad elevationem corporis
Christi, &c. (Condi. Exonien., A.D. 1287, ibid., ii. 139). Among the
jewels " that longith unto oure Lady chirche " at Sandwich, A.D.
1483, there occurs, "a bell of sylver, to be boryn with the
sacrament, of ix ounces, i quarter." Boys, Hist, of Sandwich,
P- 374-
32 Jeffery de Drayton, of Great Yarmouth, bequeathed (c. A.D.
1374) : To the support of the light of Corpus Christi, to be carried
to the town for visiting the sick, vis. viiid. Swinden, Hist, of
Great Yarmouth, 807.
33 To those who followed the priest as he carried the blessed
eucharist to the dying, our bishops were in the habit of granting
a ten days' indulgence: Volumus insuper et prsecipimus quod
PART I. CHAP. VII. 373
mingling their voices with the deep-toned murmur
of the clergy as they said the psalms. In poorer
places, one acolyte at the least went first, holding
a lighted (464) lantern and ringing a little bell,
that at its tinklings all might know that Christ
in the sacrament was going by, and therefore fall
down upon their knees and worship him. 34 In
sacerdotes ipsi parochianos suos moneant diligenter ut ad im-
plendum Salvatori suo reverentiam, audito prsedicto tintinnabulo,
Corpus ipsum ad domurn infirmi sequantur, et inde usque ad
ecclesiam conducant. Hiis autem qui cum devotione hoc fecerint,
singulis, viz., ad instar prsedecessorum nostrorum, decem dies
indulgentise misericorditer relaxamus. Constit. Synod. H. Wood-
loJce, Ep, Winton, in Wilkins, Condi. , ii. 294.
34 Cum autem ad infirmum eucharistia deportatur, ita decenter
se habeant portatores, superpelliciis saltern induti, cum campanella,
lumine prsecedente, nisi vel aeris intemperies obstet, vel loci re-
motio; ut per hoc devotio fidelium augeatur, qui Salvatorem
suum tenentur in via luto non obstante, flexis genibus adorare,
ad quod sunt per sacerdotes suos attentius comrnonendi. Si
autem loci remotio, vel aeris intemperies obstiterit sacerdoti,
prsecipimus ut circa collum suum in theca honesta pixidem
deferat in qua reponitur eucharistia, &c. (Constit. W. de Cantilupo,
Ep. Wigorn. A.D. 1240, in Wilkins, Concil., i. 667). John Peckham,
Archbishop of Canterbury (A.D. 1280), was not less solicitous about
the due reverence to be shown to the adorable eucharist, both in
the manner of keeping it in church, and of carrying it to the
sick ; for in one of his provincial statutes he says : Dignissimum
eucharistise sacramentum prsecipimus de ceetero taliter custodiri
ut videlicet in bursa vel loculo propter comminutionis periculum
nullatenus collocetur, sed in pixide pulcherrima intrinsecus lino
candidissimo adorriata, in qua ipsum corpus Domini repositum
in aliquo cooperticulo de serico, purpura, vel lino purissimo operiri
prpecipimus ita quod sine omni comminutionis periculo possit inde
faciliter extrahi et apponi. . . . Circumferatur autem cum debita
reverentia ad segrotos, sacerdote saltern induto superpellicio et
gerente orarium cum lumine prjevio in lucerna et tintinnabulo
sonoro, ut populus ad reverentiam debitam excitetur, qui ad
prosternandum se vel orandum saltern humiliter sacerdotali in-
formetur prudentise, ubicunque regem glorise sub panis latibulo
evenerit deportari, &c. (Statuta quxdam Johannis Peckham, Cant.
374 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
those wild parts of the (465) country where the
cottages stood afar, and to reach them a rugged
road had to be trodden, the priest, sometimes
unaccompanied by even one clerk, had to ride
while visiting the farthermost districts of his
parish. On such occasions he bore the pix
within a silk bag hung upon his breast ; 35 and,
if not carried slung round his own left arm, he
tied the lantern, with a burning taper in it,
along with the bell, about his horse's neck, and
thus, with as much ritual respect as might be,
did the good man slowly climb the rough hill's
side, or wade through the winter-swollen brook. 36
(466) To soothe them in their death-pangs,
Archiep., in Wilkins, ConciL, ii. 48). In one of his Synodal Con-
stitutions, Bp. Woodloke, of Winchester (A.D. 1308), says of this
bell : Ut ejus sonitu ad attrahendum et adorandum fideles quilibet
moneantur, &c. Ibid., p. 294.
35 Walter de Cantilupo's Constitution, in last note.
36 Si tamen contigerit casus necessitatis, sic quod presbyter
nullum ministrum habere posset paratum ad deferendum lumen,
puto quod non esset inconveniens ut presbyter lucernam cum
lumine ad unum de suis brachiis suspensam gestaret, et cam-
panam, modo quo posset meliori, pulsaret. Sic enim faciunt
presbyteri in amplis parochiis quando transeunt ad infirmos in
locis remotis existentes ; qui quandoque equitantes lucernam cum
campana applicant collo equi, et in hoc non sunt reprehendendi.
Lyndwood, Provinciate, iii. 26, note x.
In the Ashmolean museum, Oxford, there is a very curious
lantern wrought of copper, studded with knobs of rock crystal,
and seemingly made at the end of the twelfth or beginning of the
thirteenth century. It nTay have been for liturgical purposes,
either to hang up before or carry about along with the Blessed
Sacrament. So few are the pieces of crystal about it, and through
these only its light could be let stream forth, as to show that this
lantern was meant rather to keep the burning taper which it held,
from being blown out by the wind, than to illuminate the spot
at which it might be suspended.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 375
religion came again to our forefathers' bedside,
and brought along with her the same ghostly aids
which she used to bestow ages before upon the
Anglo-Saxon : the image of our Saviour was held
up to their eyes, that their latest thoughts might
dwell upon Jesus, who so loved us as to buy our
redemption by dying for us a most ignominious
death upon a cross ; 37 and all those names that
had been dear to them through life, now, for the
last time here below, fell sweetly upon their ears
from the lips of kinsfolks and clergy, kneeling
beside them, saying the litanies and calling upon
St. Alban, St. Edmund, St. Swithin, St. ^Ethel-
wold, St. Dunstan, St. Cuthberht, St. Edith,
together with all the other blessed souls of the
saints now in heaven, to pray for them. 38 Indeed,
with the exception of the bed of ashes strewed
upon the floor, 39 the Salisbury prescribed (467)
37 See note 23, p. 369.
38 These saints were especially enumerated in the Sarum Manual,
fol. xcv [Surtees Soc., vol. 63, p. 53*].
39 Though not enjoined by our rubrics, to die lying upon a cross
of ashes on the floor was a devotional practice observed in many
places : Henry the Second's eldest son, to express his sorrow
for having so often withstood his father, caused himself to be
stretched out on the floor upon a bed of ashes, upon which he
died : Deinde depositis mollioribus indumentis, cilicium induit, et
ligato fune in collo suo, dixit episcopis et ceeteris viris religiosis
circumstantibus : " Trado me peccatorem indignum, culpabilem et
obnoxium per funem istum vobis ministris Dei, postulans ut
Dominus noster Jesus Christus . . . misereatur infelicissimse
animse meae." Et responderunt omnes, "Amen." Et ipse ait illis :
" Trahite me a lecto isto per hunc funem et imponite lecto illi
cinereo," quern sibi prseparaverat ; et fecerunt sicut ille prsecepit
illis. Roger Hoveden, Ohron. [R.S., li. ii. 279].
376 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
everything which the Anglo-Saxon rubric enjoined
to be done at the hour of death.
But when the soul had sped away, the Church
thought of the lifeless body for the flown spirit's
sake, and with a becoming reverence for those
hallowing ordinances the Sacraments which
had been so often administered to it, from child-
hood to old age, carried the now breathless corpse
to the grave and buried it with pious and impres-
sive, though saddening solemnity.
Yet these rites, as doleful as they were, had
gleaming over them all a streak of light of their
own, that smiled softly away the gloom and dark-
ness of the sepulchre, and dried up the tears let
fall by weeping brethren. Throughout her burial
(468) service, with its collects, its anthems, and
its ceremonies, our holy Faith bade, as she still
bids, charity that undying everlasting virtue
to watch as it were by the grave, and, like a
mercy-angel, cry aloud on all Christians, but on
friends and kinsfolks in particular, to go, and
with their prayers, their fastings, their alms-
deeds, and good works of every kind, try and
lighten the sorrows and shorten the time of
cleansing to be borne, in the middle state, by the
soul of him or of her whose earthly remains lay
mouldering below. 40 In truth,
40 Missa, preces, dona, ieiunia, quatuor ista
Absolvant animas quas purgans detinet ignis.
Becon, Reliques of Rome, fol. 201 (A.D. 1563). Notwithstanding
this writer's gall against the Catholic Church and the sneering
PART I. CHAP. VII. 377
(469) THE FUNERAL SERVICE ACCORDING TO OUR
OLD ENGLISH EITUAL
speaks in unmistakable words, and tells us that
those who drew it up, and those who used it, be-
lieved with steadfastness in what God's Catholic
Church has ever taught of purgatory.
As in the Anglo-Saxon, 41 so in the Salisbury
way in which he speaks of its divine belief, several old English
ritual usages may be gleaned out of his book; and at the very
time he is trying to scoff at them, he unwittingly lets us know
how beautifully symbolic, how holy, how well-grounded on God's
written word, were these liturgical practices : such is his notice of
the " Spedy deliverance of soules out of Purgatorye."
First, on the sonday, cause a masse to be song or sayde in the
worship of the Trinity. Set also iii candles burning before the
sacrament al the masse tyme. Fede also three poore men, or geve
three almosses to the nedye.
Secondly, on the monday, cause a masse to be song or sayde
in the worship of all Aungels. Light also ix candles in the
honoure of the ix orders of Aungells. Fede ix pore men, or geve
ix almosses.
Thirdly, on the Twesday cause a masse to be song or sayde in
the honour of Saint Spirite : and lighten vii candles in the worship
of the vii giftes which he geveth. Fede also vii poore men or geve
vii almosses.
Fourthly, on the Wednisday cause a masse to be song or said in
the worship of S. Jhon Baptiste and of all the patriarches. Light
foure candles, and feede foure poore men, or geve foure almosses.
Fiftlye, on the Thursdaye cause a Masse to be song or sayde of
S. Peter and of the xii Apostles. Lighten xii candles, and fede xii
poore men, or geve xii almosses.
Sixtly, on the Fry day cause a masse to be song or sayd in the
worship of S. Crosse. Lighten v candles. Fede v poore men, or
geve v almosses.
Seventhly and finally, on the Saterday cause a masse to be song
or sayde in the honour of our lady and al virgines. Ligten v
candles. Fede v poore men or geve v almosses. Jesu mercy.
Lady helpe. Ibid., f. 206.
41 See p. 248 of this volume.
37 8 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
ritual, the body, immediately after death, was
washed ; and, unless the individual had been in
holy orders, or dedicated to God in a monastic
life, or of high rank in the world, it was wrapped
within a plain white linen winding-sheet. 42 Laid
(470) upon a bier, 43 it was carried to the church:
a boy with the holy water, and a cross-bearer,
walking before two acolytes, with lighted tapers
in their candlesticks, headed the mournful pro-
cession ; 44 (471) then came the sexton, ringing, at
intervals, a little bell he held in his hand, thus
asking all who heard its tinklings, or saw this
42 Lavetur (corpus) aqua tepida, vel calida, si placeat : et postea
linteamine mundo honeste involvatur, et in feretro locetur, clericis
interim dicentibus vesperas de die, et de Sancta Maria, et postea
vigilias mortuorum (Manuale ad Usum Sarum, impress, a Morin,
fol. xcix [reprint ut sup., p. 58*]). By the York ritual, it is directed
that a priest's body should be washed by a priest : Postea lavetur
sacerdos a sacerdote. Post induatur ut ordo exigitur et dicatur
hec oracio : " Suscipe Doinine animam servi tui," &c. Manuale
Eboracense MS. [ibid. 57].
43 One among the things which every parish church in this
country ought to have, was a funeral bier feretrum mortuorum.
Condi. Exonien. in Wilkins, Condi, ii. 139.
44 Si vero fuerit corpus mortuum cum processione sepeliendum,
tune eodem modo ordinetur processio sicut in simplicibus Domi-
nicis, praeterquam quod in hac processione, sacerdos et ministri
ejus in albis cum amictibus induti incedant, chorus autem in cappis
nigris quotidie (Manuale Sarum, fol. xcix v [and 59*]). What the
order of procession was on simple Sundays, we gather from St.
Osmund's Treatise : Sacerdos ebdomadarius cum diacono, et sub-
diacono textum deferente, et puero deferente thuribulum, et cero-
ferariis et acolito crucem ferente, omnibus albis indutis, &c.
xxxiv (68) in Frere, Use of Sarum, i. 53, as well as from the Salis-
bury Processional : Deinde pueri in superpelliciis aquam benedictam
gestantes ; deinde accolitus crucem ferens ; et post ipsum duo
ceroferarii pariter incedentes ; deinde thuriferarius, &c. Pro-
cessionale ad Usum Sarum,, fol. iiij, A.D. 1528 [reprint, p. 5].
PART I. CHAP. VII. 379
funeral go by, to say a prayer for the dead ; 45
clerks, two and two, (472) with the parish-priest
vested in alb and almuce, succeeded next, sing-
ing psalms : then the corpse, surrounded by
friends bearing torches and wax-lights; 46 after-
45 Provideant (parochiani) de campanellis ante funus deferendis
cum perveniatur ad sepeliendum (Constitution es sEgidii de Bridport,
Ep. Sarum, A.D. 1256, in Wilkins, Condi, i. 714). Habeatur in
singulis ecclesiis . . . lucerna, boeta, campanellse ad mortuos,
feretrum mortuorum, &c. Condi. Exonien., ibid., ii. 139.
Chaucer brings in, with much good effect, the ritual usage
followed here in England, during his time, of ringing a bell before
the dead body while it was carried to the grave ; for in sketching
the youthful wantons of the day, that poet makes a party of them
to be scared at its tinklings :
Thise riotoures three, of which I tell,
Long erst or prime rong of any bell,
Were set hem in a taverne for to drinke :
And as they sat, they herd a belle clinke
Beforn a corps, was caried to the grave.
The Pardoneres Tale, 661-665.
Belonging to the monastery of Carthusians or Charter-house,
London, there was what went by the name of the " Pardon church-
yard," wherein were buried executed felons and self-murderers,
who were fetched thither usually in a close cart, vailed over and
covered with black, having a plain white cross thwarting, and at
the fore end a St. John's cross without, and within a bell ringing
by shaking of the cart, whereby the same might be heard when it
passed (Stow, Survey of London, t. ii. b. iv. p. 62). The vj day of
October, A.D. 1554, was bered at Westmynster a grett man a
Spaneard with syngyng boyth Englys and Spaneards with a hand-
belle a-for ryngyng, and every Spaneard havyng gren torchys and
gren tapurs to the nomber of a C. bornyng, and ther bered in the
abbay (Diary of Henry Machyn, C.S., p. 71). Ringing hand-bells in
going along with the dead to church for burial, was usual among
the Anglo-Saxons, as we have remarked before at note 68, p. 252.
46 To provide lights for the burial of the poor, in some churches
the Paschal candle was broken, after Trinity Sunday, and made up
again into small tapers exclusively for the funeral service of the
poor people : Ut post festum sanctse Trinitatis fiant cerei minoris
380 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
wards followed the chief mourners, dressed in
black cloaks and hoods. 47 Brought into church,
the bier, if the deceased had been a clerk,
went into the chancel ; if a layman, and not of
(473) high degree, the bearers set it down in the
nave, hard by the rood-loft door. But whether
a churchman, or not, every one's corpse, without
distinction of sex, age, or state in life, was
placed, for the funeral service, lying stretched
out in the very same direction! as they afterwards
put it in the grave with its feet to the high-
altar, to the east. 48 The beautiful (474) symbolism
portionis de cereo Paschali qui tantum cedant in usus pauperum
mortuorum (Constit. W. de Bleys, Ep. Wigor n., A. D. 1219, in Wilkins,
Concil. i. 571). In old wills, bequests were made for the same
purpose under the name of " the poor light."
47 The black cloak, the men's hat-bands, the scarves, and women's
hoods, yet worn at funerals, are so many remnants of this old
English custom. Every Book of Hours, in its illuminations at the
beginning of the " Placebo," or the " Dirige,"as well as our picture
of the hearse, given a little farther on in this volume [p. 393], will
let the reader see the shape of those robes in former days : the
present funeral hat-band is the representative of the ancient hood,
for hats had not then come into general and common wear.
48 Si corpus Canonici vel alterius magnatis fuerit, in chorum
deferatur, sin autem alterius, extra chorum in ecclesia post ora-
tionem derelinquatur. Manuale Sarum, fol. c [reprint, p. 59*].
Singing in some of his sweetest rhymes, of a little Christian
child martyred in Asia by the Jews, like our own boy-saint little
Hugh, whom Chaucer calls " young Hew of Lincoln, slain also,
that poet glances at the ritual custom of putting the body in front
of the altar while Mass was said before burial :
Upon his bere ay lith this innocent
Beforn the auter while the Masse last :
And after that, the abbot with his covent
Han spedde him for to berie him ful fast :
And whan they holy water on him cast,
PART I. CHAP. VII. 381
of those times taught this. A large black pall,
with a wide white cross running through (475) its
Yet spake this child, whan spreint was the holy water,
And sang, " O Alma Redemptoris Mater."
The Prioresses Tale, 1825-1831.
From the very earliest period in this country, bishops and kings,
clergy and layfolks, men and women all without exception were
buried so as to have their feet towards the east ; and for a beauti-
ful symbolic reason, which prevailed here as elsewhere throughout
Christendom, up to the sixteenth century, and still almost every-
where prevails. Of the east, Honorius (A.U. 1130) says : In Oriente
est patria nostra, scilicet paradisus, unde expulsos nos dolemus.
Orantes ergo contra paradisum nos vertimus ... in Oriente sol
oritur, per quern Christus sol justitige exprimitur. Ab hoc promissum
habemus quod in resurrectione ut sol fulgeamus. In oratione ergo
contra ortum solis vertimus nos, ut solem angelorum nos adorare
intelligamus, et ut ad memoriam gloriam nostrse resurrectionis
revocemus, cum solem quern in Occidente quasi mori conspexi-
mus, tanta gloria resurgere in Oriente videmus (Gemma Animse,
i. 95) [P.I/., clxxii. 575]. All the figures on our high tombs and
brasses have their hands clasped as for prayer, and begging for-
giveness towards their poor souls ; hence Durand tells us : Debet
autem quis sic sepeliri ut capite ad occidentem posito, pedes dirigat
ad orientem in quo quasi ipsa positione orat ; et innuit quod
promptus est, ut de occasu festinet ad ortum, de mundo ad
seculum (Rationale Divin. O^c., lib. vii. cap. xxxv., sec. 39, p. 457).
As our old churches are built lying east and west, our altars
throughout the country were all so put that those who looked full
towards them, faced the east ; our graves in the churchyards,
and tombs within the church, were made to look that way.
The present Roman ritual orders that a priest shall have his
head to the altar, his feet to the people, as he is put into his grave.
Such a rubric is new ; not only all the old cumbent ecclesiastical
figures, which I have seen in the churches at Rome, are to be found
with their feet, not head, turned towards the altar, like the effigies,
clerical as well as secular, in this country ; but Catalani, in his
notes upon the Roman Ritual, admits that the earliest trace of the
present rubric goes no higher than the sixteenth century ; and he
observes : Fateor equidem, in nullo antique Rituali, Concilioque,
me inveriisse statutum quod hoc prsescribitur, ut nempe corpora
defunctorum, laicorum scilicet, in ecclesia ponenda sint pedibus
versus altare, presbyteri, vero caput versus altare habeant, &c.
382 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
whole length and width, was cast over it ; and at
its four corners were put large wax tapers. 49 Mass,
at least, was said over the dead body. 50 (476) Be-
Rituale Romanum (i. 395), ed. Catalan!, Rome, 1757. Though
we English Catholics use the Roman Missal and Breviary, we
employ a different "Ordo administrandi," widely varying in
several ceremonies from the Roman ritual : as ours gives no rubric
on the subject, we are thus still at liberty to bury our bishops and
priests, as our forerunners in the true belief have always buried
them in this land, throughout the British, the Anglo-Saxon,
and the English periods, with their feet, not head, towards
the altar.
49 Such is often the way a funeral is to be found figured in old
illuminated manuscripts : one in my possession, done by an Eng-
lish hand somewhere about the beginning of the fifteenth century,
shows a blue pall having on it a cross bottony embroidered in gold ;
the four tapers are of yellow wax.
60 Secundum antiquam Anglise consuetudinem (ut ex rubricis
liquido apparet) nullius defuncti corpus sepeliendum est, nisi pro
anima eius prius oblato Missse Sacrificio. Si igitur corpus defuncti
post vesperas deferatur ad ecclesiam, ibi insepultum relinquendum
est, usque in diem sequentem, et tune Missa prius pro anima
celebrata sepeliendum (Manuale juxta Usum Eccl. Sarisburiensis,
inter Annotationes, p. 278. Duaci, 1610). This is the duodecimo
edition of the Salisbury Manual, printed with annotations by the
English Catholic divines at Douay, where they also put forth a
quarto edition of it in the year 1604. Such facts not only
testify the zeal of these good men to keep up the use of our old
Salisbury ritual, but show that our missionary priests warmly
seconded those wishes by the employment of it ; for unless it
were so, two editions of this kind of book had not been sent out
from a foreign press in the short space of six years. Would that
the same love for the old English liturgy quickened our clergy
now as then !
Carrying a corpse into church before burial had a well-defined
purpose, according to the Catholic rubric, to have Mass offered up
for the soul of that dead person ; to take the body into church,
though allowed by the optional rubric of the Book of Common
Prayer, is, on Protestant principles, idle and unmeaning, for
nothing is said or done in, that might not be said or done over
the corpse as well outside the church's walls, with the same or
more convenience to the minister and mourners. The custom,
PART I. CHAP. VII. 383
fore offering up the holy Sacrifice, and whilst the
choir was chanting a service called the Com-
mendation (477) of Souls, 51 the priest, vested in
his alb and stole, went into the churchyard,
where he first made the sign of the cross over,
then sprinkled with holy water, that particular
spot wherein the dead person was to be buried ;
then, with a spade, he showed the length and
however, is one of those traces which show the liturgical student
a glimpse of the belief and ritual in the England of Catholic days.
So very anxious, indeed, were our old English churchmen that no
body should be buried without Mass being offered up at the funeral,
that it was decreed by the council at Oxford (A.D. 1222) the only
time a priest might say two Masses on the same day, besides
Christmas Day and Easter Sunday, was when a corpse had to be
interred : Ne sacerdos quispiam Missarum solennia celebret bis in
die ; excepto die Nativitatis et Resurrectionis Dominicse, vel in
obsequiis defunctorum, viz., cum corpus alicujus in ecclesia eodem
die tumulandum, et tune prior missa de die, posterior vero
pro defuncto celebretur (Condi. Oxonien., cap. vii. ; in Wilkins,
Condi. j i. 586). Taking the Sacrament did not break his fast ; and
by another canon of the same synod, the sacrificing priest was
forbidden to drink the ablutions of the first, if he had had to
celebrate a second Mass : Presbyter autem postquam Dominicum
Corpus et Sanguinem sumpserit in altari, si in eodem die Missarum
solennia ipsum celebrare oporteat, iterate vinum calici infusum,
vel digitis superfusum sumere non prsesumat (ibid.). These rinsings
of the chalice and of his fingers were therefore either put into
another vessel, and drunk by him at the end of the last Mass, or
poured down the piscina, the drain running through which was
made partly for such a purpose.
51 This Commendatio Animarum to be found in the Salisbury
Manual, fol. cxxiii [reprint p. 73*] immediately after the Dirige,
or Matins and Lauds for the dead consists of certain portions
of the psalms, and used to be sung over the corpse, just before
Mass, and while the priest was in the churchyard marking the
grave. It was, therefore, quite different from the Recommendation
of the Soul, at the point of death. (Ibid., fol. xciiii v and p. 56.*)
There is nothing like it in the Roman ritual.
384 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
breadth of the grave, by (478) digging the shape
of a cross upon the ground, in the meanwhile
saying aloud those words of the psalmist : " Open
ye to me the gates of justice ; I will go into them,
and give praise to the Lord. This is the gate of
the Lord ; the just shall enter into it " (Ps. cxvii.
vv. 19, 2O). 52 Going back into the church, the
priest said or sang Mass ; after which, putting off
his chasuble, he and his ministers stood at the
head of the corpse, and began what, to speak
strictly, should be looked upon as the burial
service. 53 Having censed with sweet-smelling
incense, and sprinkled holy water on the dead
body, the celebrant besought all present to say an
Our Father for the soul. 54 Lifting up the (479)
52 Deinde eat sacerdos cum stola et aqua benedicta ad locum ubi
sepeliendus est mortuus, et signo crucis signet locum, et postea
aspergat aqua benedicta. Deinde accipiat sacerdos fossorium vel
aliud instrumentum, et aperiat terrain in modum crucis ad longi-
tudinem et latitudinem corporis defuncti, dicens, Aperite michi,
&c. (Manuale Sarum, fol. ci and p. 60*). Very likely one of the
uses for which the low, narrow door on the south side of the
chancel, in almost all our old parish churches, served, was to let
the priest out into the churchyard, to mark the grave at a
burial.
53 Manuale Sarum, fol. cxxxvi v and p. So.* By the York
Ritual, the officiating priest was to be vested in a silken cope:
Post Missam sacerdos in albis et capatus solus capa serica cum
suis in albis (ibid., p. 92).
54 Deinde sequatur Kyrieleyson, Cliriste eleyson, Kyrieleyson.
Deinde roget sacerdos circumstantes orare pro anima defuncti,
dicens, Pro anima N. et pro animabus omnium fidelium defunctorum :
Pater noster, &c. (Manuale Sarum, fol. cxxxviij v and p. 81*).
Such a form of prayer often comes during the Salisbury burial
service; and in the Office for the dead, celebrated for high
personages, used to be given out, with much solemnity, by a
PART I. CHAP. VII. 385
bier, the friends carried it out, as the clergy
chanted a psalm ; 55 and all going to the spot
whereat a shallow cross had been traced on the
ground by the priest, they placed themselves
about it while the grave was dug, singing, in the
interval, the cxvn psalm. 56 After a collect, the
priest blessed, and incensed, and sprinkled the
newly-made grave ; and the body of the dead was
lowered into it as the clerks sang the XLI psalm ; 57
after which, the priest said another collect,
begging of God to forgive its sins to the poor
soul of the departed. This done, the priest put
upon the breast (480) of the corpse a parchment
scroll, written with the Absolution, 58 whilst he
herald, robed in his tabard or coat-armour, and standing at the
chancel door, with his face turned towards the people, who were
in the nave of the church.
55 Hie deportetur corpus ad sepulchrum, cantore incipiente anti-
phonam : In paradisum. Ps. In exitu Israel, &c. Ibid.
56 Finitis orationibus aperiatur sepulchrum cantore incipiente
antiph. Aperite. Ps. Oonfttemini Domino, &c. Ibid., fol. cxxxix v .
57 Hie aspergatur aqua benedicta super sepulchrum, et incense-
tur sepulchrum. Finitis orationibus, ponatur corpus in sepulchro,
cantore incipiente antiph. Ingrediar. Ps. Quemadmodum, &c.
Ibid., fol. cxli. and 82*.
68 Finitis orationibus claudatur sepulchrum ponente prius
sacerdote absolutionem super pectus def uncti sic dicendo : Dominus
Jesus Xps qui beato Petro apostolo suo ceterisque discipulis suis lictntiam
dedit ligandi atque solvendi ipse te absolvat N. ab omni vinculo delicto-
rum, et in quantum mee fragilitati permittitur ; precor sis absolutus vel
absoluta ante tribunal eiusdem Domini nostri Jesu Christ i habeasque
vitam eternam et vivas in secula seculorum. Amen. Manuale Sarum,
fol. cxli v , and 83*.
By the laws of the Church, each one was bound, as now, to go
and confess his sins unto his own pastor ; and so straitly used
such a discipline to be followed throughout all this land, that,
among the Anglo-Saxons, what we now call " parish," went by the
2 B
386 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
himself pronounced its liturgical (481) form, and
having sprinkled the body again with holy water,
name of "shrift-shire" (canon ix. under King Edgar, Thorpe,
Ancient Laws, ii. p. 246) ; and for a priest to hear the confession
of an individual not belonging to his flock, except in a case of
need, was deemed a breach of the canons. To show how she
sorrowed at sinf ulness, and to keep her children as far oft' as might
be from its guilt, the Church bethought herself of reserving unto
the bishop of the diocese all absolutions for the more heinous
kinds of sins, however truly sorrowful those might be who had
unhappily fallen into them; and unto the head of Christ's
Church on earth, the Roman pontiff, that for the very darkest
sorts. By thus making it necessary for the worse class of sinners,
however repentant, to betake themselves towards a higher
tribunal, and in doing so, to go a long and oftentimes a wearisome
journey before they could get absolution, it was hoped that a more
lasting sorrow would be awakened in the sinner's own heart,
whilst others, scared by his toils, might be frightened from his
evil ways. After a time, this discipline became somewhat softened,
and the Roman pontiff granted dispensations in the form of bulls,
bestowing a double favour one upon the holders of them to
choose once, during life, any duly appointed priest whom they
liked to hear their confession the other upon that priest so
chosen, to absolve his penitent, but for that one time only, from all
reserved cases. To hinder, however, the slightest abuse of such
an ecclesiastical kindness, the instrument itself told in strong
and unmistakable words that if the individual who had gotten it,
dared to do anything sinful under the presumption of having
forgiveness through the virtue of this privilege, the bull, by the
very deed, became quite void and ineffectual. This document is
it that the Salisbury ritual means when, in the Visitation of the
Sick, it says : Licet sacerdos possit de facto absolvere infirmum in
articulo mortis ab omnibus peccatis suis ; tamen si aliquis casus
occurrat in confessione a quo ipse sacerdos eum alias de jure
absolvere non posset ; injungendum est infirmo quod cum con-
valuerit presentet se illi ad confitendum qui eum de jure vel
consuetudine in hac parte absolvere debeat ... Si infirmus
Bullam habeat Apostolicam de plenaria absolutione et remissione
omnium peccatorum suorum semel in articulo mortis concessam,
tune primo legat sacerdos etfectum Bulle ; deinde ceteris peractis
. . . fiat eius absolutio, &c. (Manuale Sarum, fol. lxxxvij v [Reprint,
p. 48*]). As may be supposed, the exercise of this privilege was
kept for the last hour. When the holder of it died, the writing,
PART I. CHAP. VII. 387
and censed it, the cxxxi psalm (482) was recited,
along with a prayer calling upon Heaven for
mercy towards the dead, and the one (483) now
lying before them in particular. 59 The priest then
always on parchment, was put upon the corpse's breast, and
buried along with it, as we have seen by the rubric given at the
beginning of this note. On opening old graves, some of these
very ie absolutions," as they were sometimes called, have been
found quite whole and readable; so that we are enabled to
behold the exact wording of such valuable documents, and to
observe how expressive they are of the teaching of the Catholic
Church then, as now, about the requisites for the forgiveness of
sins in the Sacrament of Penance.
When the tomb of Sir Gerard Braybrook and his wife, Elizabeth,
was opened (A.D. 1608), there was found, in the leaden coflin of the
knight, an indulgence to. him and his wife, granted by Pope
Boniface IX. (A.D. 1390), in which, among other things, the pontiff
says : Hinc est quod iios vestris supplicationibus inclinati, ut
confessor quern quilibet vestrum duxerit eligendum omnium
peccatorum vestrorum de quibus corde contriti, et ore confessi,
semel tantum in mortis articulo plenam remissionem vobis in
sinceritate fidei . . . persistentibus authoritate apostolica con-
cedere valeat devotioni vestrse tenore presentium indulgemus ;
sic tamen quod idem confessor, de hiis de quibus fuerit alteri
satisfactio impendenda earn vobis per vos, si supervixeritis, vel
per hseredes vestros, si tune forte transieritis faciendam injungat ;
quam vos vel illi facere teneamini ut prseferatur ; et ne vos (quod
absit) propter hujusmodi gratiam reddamini procliviores ad illicita
in posterum committenda, nolumus, quod si ex confidentia remis-
sionis hujusmodi aliqua forte committeritis, quoad ilia prsedicta
remissio vobis nullatenus suffragetur. Nulli ergo omnino homi-
num liceat hanc paginam nostrse voluntatis et concessionis in-
fringere, vel ei ausu temerario contraire. Si quis autem hoc
attentare prsesumpserit, indignationem Omnipotentis Dei, et
beatorum Petri et Pauli apostolorum ejus, se noverit incursurum
(Dugdale, Hist, of St. Paul's, p. 32). A similar indulgence, granted
by the same Pope, to Laurence Allerthorp, canon of St. Paul's, was
discovered in his grave (ibid., p. 57). In the Black Freres (at
Boston) lay one of the noble Huntingfeldes, and was a late taken
up hole, and a leaden bulle of Innocentius, bishop of Rome, about
his neck. Leland, Itin. vi. 53.
69 Manuale Saruw, fol. cxli v , and 83*.
L
3 88 THE CHUKCH OF OUR FATHERS
strewed some earth over the corpse, so as to form
a cross upon it. As those around were singing
the cxxxix psalm the grave was filled up, 60 and
after again earnestly recommending the departed
soul to the kindness and forgiveness of God, and
saying several psalms and collects, the procession
went back into church, singing the seven peni-
tential psalms. 61
Such was the becoming service which the
Salisbury Use set forth for the burial of the
lowliest and the poorest of our Catholic fore-
fathers ; such, too, with few and unimportant
varieties, was that employed by the Anglo-Saxon
rite : in both, the (484) same liturgical elements
are to be found lights were carried, incense was
burned, the cross borne, and a bell rung before
the corpse on its way to the grave priests and
clerks, arrayed in their sacred garments, sang
sorrowfully as they walked, in a slow step, with
the bier : 62 in both, the self-same belief in a
60 Finitis oration! bus executor officii terrain super corpus ad
modum crucis ponat, et corpus thurificet, et aqua benedicta
aspergat ; et dum sequens psalmus canitur corpus omnino cooperi-
atur, cantore incipiente antiphonam : De terra plasmasti me. Ibid.,
fol. cxlij v , and 83*.
61 Ibid., fol. cxlvi and 85*.
62 By the laws of St. Edward the Confessor we learn what was
the usual rite for burying the dead in those times, since the
highway-robber, slain by those he sought to rifle, was fetched to
church, and interred after the manner following : Justicia episcopi
faciat venire processionem cum sacerdote induto alba et manipulo
et stola et clericis in suppelliciis, cum aqua benedicta et cruce et
candelabris et thuribulo cum igne et incenso; et sic extrahant
mortuum a terra ponentes in feretrum, et deportent eum ad
PART I. CHAP. VII. 389
purgatory is announced, and oft-repeated prayer
feelingly and lovingly breathed in the departed
soul's behalf.
(485) But funerals, like all the other ceremonies
of the Church, could be, and were performed,
from the earliest times, with more or less
solemnity ; and though the function's comeliness
was of a kind not bright, but sad and sorrowful,
it had about it a dim splendour, which sent
thrilling and wholesome truths home to the
heart of the thoughtful beholder, whether high
or low, poor or wealthy, according to this world's
standard.
Among the Anglo-Saxons, the splendour of a
funeral, as we may see in that given to St. ^Ethel-
wold, consisted in shrouding the bier with many
palls, woven with costly silks and elaborately
embroidered ; upon these were set copies of the
Gospels, beautifully written, and bound in solid
gold and silver, curiously wrought and studded
with precious stones ; crosses, too, radiant with
ecclesiam. Cantata missa et sancto servicio, interrent eum sicut
Christianum (Leges Regis Edwardi Oonfessoris, in Thorpe, Ancient
Laws, &c. i. 460). For other Anglo-Saxon ceremonies at the burial
of the dead, the reader may consult what has been said at
notes 68, 69, p. 252 of the present volume. Abbot Ceolfrid was
carried to the grave by crowds of his countrymen, singing psalms,
along with the inhabitants of Langres, in France, where he died,
on his way to Rome : Sepultus (abbas Ceolfridus) in crastinum
ad austrum ejusdem civitatis (Lingonarum) . . . adstante ac
psalmos resonante exercitu non parvo tarn Anglorum, qui cum eo
advenerant, quam monasterii ejusdem vel civitatis incolarum.
Beda, Vita V. Sand. Abbatum, 23. [Ed. Plummer, i. 386.]
390 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
the same costly metals and jewels, were also
placed there ; a burning cloud of lighted tapers,
carried by clerks, old and young, hovered about
it as it moved along ; and mournful hymns and
psalms arose from the procession all the way
upon the road. As the doleful train neared the
walls of Winchester, the gates of that city poured
forth a tide of people : monks, nuns, and lay-
folks, mingling into one wide stream, came out
to bear their lifeless bishop's body to the minster ;
and the deep-toned chant of the officiating clergy,
and the sobs of the orphaned poor, and the
mournings of the throng, swelled into one loud
wail of sorrow for the dead. 63
(486) No less solemn were the funerals of the
great in this country after the Anglo-Saxon period.
Royal personages were clad in all their princely
robes ; 64 and among churchmen, from the arch-
bishop downwards to the lowliest " clergion," each
63 Omnes cum dolore et amaro animo sequebantur feretrum,
incomparabili thesauro pretiosum sacrosanctis evangeliis et cruci-
bus armatum, palliorum velamentis ornatum, accensis luminaribus
et hymnis cselestibus atque psalmorum concentibus hinc inde
vallatum : quibus sequent! die Wintoniam ingredientibus obviam
corpori tota simul ci vitas unanimiter occurrit. Hinc ejulantes
turbas conspiceres monachorum, inde pallida agmina virginum;
hinc audires in excelso voces psallentium clericorum ; inde gemi-
tum flentium pauperum, &c. Vita S. dEthelwotdi, auctore Wolstano,
ed. Mabillon ; A A. SS. 0. B. vii. 610.
64 Manuale Sarum, fol. xcviij v , and p. 57*. In looking upon
any of the old Catholic royal tombs in Westminster Abbey or
Canterbury Cathedral, the liturgical student will find a com-
mentary, in stone, upon the Salisbury rubric, for the way in
which kings and queens were to be arrayed for burial, so exactly
does the effigy answer the directions of the ritual.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 391
one was arrayed in the vestments belonging to his
grade in the hierarchy : thus robed in his own
peculiar attire, priest 65 and prince were carried
forth to be buried.
(487) This procession was headed by an acolyte
with a cross between two clerks, each of whom
carried a peculiar kind of light called " a white
branch," because composed of three tapers shoot-
ing up out of one root as it were, being twisted
together at the lower end an emblem of the
Trinity. 66 If the (488) deceased was a knight,
his helmet, shield, sword, and coat-armour worked
with his armorial bearings, were each carried by
65 Belonging to St. Paul's, London, there was a clerks' brother-
hood ; and when any of them died, those in the same orders as
the deceased came vested in surplices, and carried the corpse
from his house to that cathedral, where the whole gild met and
celebrated the burial service : Si vero decesserit, hora competenti
ad ecclesiam ab hospicio deferatur ab ejusdem ordinis clericis cujus
et ipse fuerit, in suppelliciis et omcium pro defunctis plene et
solempniter celebrabitur. Sparrow Simpson, Regist., p. 66.
66 Fyrst the crosse, and on eyther side the ij whyte branches,
borne by ij clerks . . . the xxiiij clerks, and viiii prysts . . .
then Edward Merylon, his hoode on his heade, bearing the
standerde . . . after hym, Sir Richard Wheytley and Sir Richard
Harrys, chapleyns, in theyre gownes and typpetts, &c. Lord
Bray's Funeral, described in a manuscript possessed by the
Heralds' College.
Among the dues anciently belonging to the parson or curate of
our English parish churches, were : " All the branches of white
wax, if any be brought in with the corse. Which branches cost
vis. viijd, sometimes xs v sometimes xiijs. ivrf. ; and some pay more."
(Walton on Tithes, Stow, Survey, ii. iv. 26). The bleaching of wax
was not such an easy process then as now ; therefore white tapers
were expensive. I suspect that the wax of which church-lights
were made, during Catholic times, in this country, was but slightly
bleached ; for several Salisbury service-books (one, a manuscript
LIBRARY ST. MARY'S COLLEGE
392 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
some near kinsman, or by a herald clad in his
blazoned tabard ; 67 members of his household,
bearing pennons charged with his several quarter-
ings, and, high above them all, the large standard
of his arms, walked next ; a long line of clergy,
singing the funeral service, followed ; then, borne
upon servants' shoulders, came the corpse, over-
spread with a costly pall made of the finest black
velvet, striped all through with a wide cross of
silver tissue, though sometimes the whole was
one cloth of gold, but of whatever material,
scocheons of arms were always sewed here and
there about the border of this pall, as well as
upon the hangings of fine broad-cloth which were
(489) often hung, not only about the church, but
outside on the house, about the gates, and along
the walls of the street did he die in a town
wherein the deceased had dwelt. 68 Immediately
manual) in my own possession, still have, upon many leaves,
the droppings of tapers, the wax of which, by the tint which
it yet keeps, will show that it must have always been rather
yellow. Among the expenses of the gild of the Holy Trinity, in
St. Botolph's Church, without Aldersgate, London, mention is
often found of " the makyng of the branche byforne the Trinyte,
and waste of wex." Hone, Ancient Mysteries, p. 83.
67 At ys (Sir John Dudley's) beryng ... a mornar baryng ys
standard, and after, a-nodur beyryng ys gret baner of armes, gold
and sylver, and a-nodur beyryng ys elmett, mantyll, and the crest
. . . and after, a-nodur mornar bayryng his targett, and a-nodur
ys sword ; and after cam master Somersett, the harold, bayryng
ys cott armur, of gold and selver, and then the corse, covered with
cloth of gold to the grond . . . and so the Masse, songe in Laten ;
and after ys helmet ofered, and cott and targatt ; and after all was
endyd, offered the standard and the baner of armes, &c. Machyn,
Diary, p. 44.
HEARSE AT THE DIRGE IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY
FOR ABBOT ISLIP.
394 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
around the body went a crowd of poor persons,
clad in gowns with hoods, usually of black, but
sometimes of grey strong cloth, and each of these
men 69 held in one hand a large, thick, burning
staff-torch, in the other his pair of beads : within
this circle, and close to the corpse, were carried
the four banners two before, two behind of
the dead person's " avowries," (490) which were
small square vanes beaten out of gilt metal,
painted with the figures of his patron saints and
fastened flag-wise upon staves : 70 the chief, 71 and
other mourners, closed the procession.
68 At the burial of Sir R. Dobbs, Lord Mayor of London, " all
the cherche and the stret hangyd with blake and the qwyre and
armes," &c. (Machyn, Diary, p. 106). For the burial of the wife
of another Lord Mayor was "the strett hangyd with fyn brod
clothes, and the chyrch," &c. (Ibid., p. no). When "master
Machyll, altherman, was bered, all the chyrche (was) hangyd with
blake and armes, and the strett with blake and armes, and the
plase," &c.Ibid., p. 171.
69 Not only men but poor women had given them, at burials,
mourning gown and a head-covering called a rail ; but stood about
the hearse in church holding torches in their hands : the xxvj
day (of November, A.D. 1556), was bered masteres Heys a mersere's
wyff in Althermanbere, with ij whyt branchys and ten stayffe
torchys, and iiij grett tapurs, and xvj women bayreng them and
holdeng them, and they had new gownes and raylles, &c. (Machyn,
Diary, p. 119); and xx men had xx gownes of sad mantyll fryse,
and xx women xx gowns of the sam frysse, &c. Ibid., p. 109.
70 The " avowries " are well seen in the picture, given on p. 393,
of Abbot Islip's hearse, at the corners of which there were " a
banner of our Ladie . . . Saint Petres, Seynt Edmonds, Seynt
Katheryns," each upheld by its bearer, in " blak gownes and hodes
on theyre heades." Vet. Monum., iv. 2.
71 Ladies might be chief mourners, and then were supported by
a gentleman : " the cheyff morner " at the burial of My Lady Whyt
was " my lade Laxtun, and master Roper led her ; and mony
morners," &c. Machyn, Diary, p. 167.
From MS. Gough Liturg. 3, f. 72 V
page 394
PART I. CHAP. VII. 395
But for the bishops, 72 the princes, and the no-
bility of the kingdom, the funeral train was made
still more impressive. Upon a low four-wheeled
carriage, called the " chariot," 73 open on all sides,
(491) with its roof upheld by thin shafts, and
drawn by horses, lay stretched out, so as to be
well seen, the corpse of the bishop, vested in his
full pontificals, or the dead king or queen, arrayed
in all their royal splendours. When, however,
decay had been quicker than usual at its work
and had darkened the features, the body was
chested, and upon it laid an effigy of wax, made
to the likeness and clad in the garments of that
prince or prelate whom it had been fashioned to
represent. 74 However far (492) might have been
72 Bp. Gardiner's funeral procession towards Winchester was
most solemn, for " at ys gatt the corse was putt into a wagon with
iiij welles all covered with blake, and ower the corsse ys pyctur
mad with ys myter on ys hed, with ys armes, and v gentyll men
bayryng ys v banars, in gownes and hods, then ij harolds in ther
cote armur, master Garter and Ruge-Crosse, then cam the men
rydyng, carehyng of torchys a Ix bornyng at bowt the corsse all
the way, and then cam the mornars in gownes and cotes, to the
nombar unto ij c, a-for and be-hynd, and so at sant George's cam
prestes and clarkes with crosse and sensyng, and ther they had a
grett torche gyffyn them, and so to ever parryche tyll they cam to
Winchester," &c. Ibid., p. 101.
73 In The Crafte to lyve well and to dye well (printed by Wynkyn
de Worde, A.D. 1505), the title-page is embellished with a rough
woodcut, showing a burial-chariot drawn by one horse. This
carriage is on four low wheels, and quite open ; within it lies a
corpse, at full length, wrapped about and sewed up in a winding-
sheet ; and a lad seems to have the guiding of the horse, which is
covered with richly diapered housings.
74 Then came the charett wherein the kyng's corps lay. Upon
the which lay a picture resemblinge his person, crowned and richly
396 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
the place of death from its burial-place, the corpse
was carried thither with a blaze of lights, a long
train of horsemen, 75 and a crowd (493) of clerks
apparreled in his parliament robe, bearinge in his right hand a
scepter, and in his left hand a ball of golde ; over whome there was
hanginge a riche cloth of golde, pitched upon fowre staves, which
were sett at the fowre corners of the saide charett, wich charett
was drawen with seaven great coursers, trapped in black velvett
(Henry VII: 's Funeral, Leland, Collect., iv. 304). In the description
of a funeral service for Henry VIII., celebrated at Norwich, the
figure is called " a mortes of wax " (note 80, p. 400). At Queen
Mary's funeral " the corsse was brought fourth, and sett in the
chariott, and the palle laide over the same, and a syd on the said
palle laye the presentation" (Leland, Collect., v. 313). At Bishop
Gardiner's burial there was put " ower the corsse ys pyctur, mad
with ys myter on ys hed." Machyn, Diary, p. 101.
75 The xx day of March, the Earl of Bedford, Lord privy-seal,
who died at his house beside the Savoy, was carried to his burying-
place in the country, called Chenies, with three hundred horse,
all in black. He was carried with three crosses, with mony clerkes
and prestes, till they came to the hill a-boyffe sant James, and
ther returnyd certain of them home ; and thay had torchys and
almes and money gyven them. And after evere man sett in aray
on horssebake. First on red (one rode) in blake bayryng a crosse
of sylver and serten prestes on horsebake wayryng ther surples ;
then cam the standard, and then all the gentyllmen and hed
officers; and then cam haroldes on (one) beyryng ys elmet, and
the mantylle, and the crest, and anodur ys baner of armes, and
anodur ys target with the garter, and anodur ys cott amur, and
then cam the charett with vj banars rolles of armes, and a-bowt
the charett iiij banars of ymages, and after the charet a gret
horsse trapyd in cloth of gold, with the sadyll of the sam ; and
then cam mornars, the cheyffe of whom my lord Russell ys sune, and
after my lord trayssorer, and the master of the horse, and dyvers
odur nobull men, all in blake ; and evere towne that he whent
thrughe the clarkes and prestes mett ym with crosses ; and thay
had in evere parryche iiij nobuls to gyffe to the pore, and the
prest and clarke of evere parryche x*., tyll he cam to ys plasse at
Cheynes ; and the morowe after was he bered, and a grett doll
of money ; and ther the deyn of Powlles mad a godly sermon ; and
after a grett dener and gret plenty to all the contrey a-bowt that
wold com thether (Machyn, Diary, p. 83). My lade Anne of Cleyff,
suintyme wyff unto Kyng Henry the viijth, cam from Chelsey to
PART I. CHAP. VII. 397
in their liturgical attire, singing their service the
whole way : the clergy, with their people, all
along the road walked forth to meet the body
as it neared their parish bounds, and brought it
processionally to their church, wherein it stopped
for the night, not indeed in lonely darkness, but
amid lights, and with some of the neighbouring
clergy watching and praying by it until morning,
when, after Dirige had been chanted, the Holy
Sacrifice offered up, the Mass-penny given, and
a plentiful dole bestowed upon the poor, it was
moved onwards. 76 For a bishop, the great western
doors of his cathedral were thrown wide open ; the
horses drew the chariot in, and, walking slowly up
(494) the whole length of the nave, were not un-
harnessed until they had brought the body to the
choir-door, where they were claimed as part of the
bishop's mortuary gift, and led away by servants
of the chapter. 77 Sometimes the prince's or the
be buried unto Westmynster (A.D. 1557), with all the chylderyn
of Westmynster, and many prest and clarkes, and then the
gray ames of Powlles and iij crosses, and the monkes of West-
mynster, and my lord bysshope of London, and my lord abbott
of Westmynster, rod together next the monkes. Machyn, Diary,
p. 145.
7(5 To xii pore men beryng torches from London to Norfolk be
vi days, L>-., takynge echo of them on the day, iiij<?., and for iij
dayes in goyng homerward, &c. Funeral expenses of John Paston
(A.D. 1466). Blomeneld, Norfolk, vi. 483.
77 In exequiis Domini Ricardi Kellowe (A.D. 1316) habuit ecclesia
Dunelmensis duos equos deferentes corpus ejusdem patris a
manerio suo de Midilham usque ad navem ecclesire (TPtUff, <te.,
of the Northern Counties, Surtees Soc., vol. ii., p. 21). In exequiis
Lodowici episcopi habuit ecclesia Dunelm. imam veredam cum
398 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
nobleman's (495) corpse was taken to its last
home here, not accompanied by a line of poor
beadsmen carrying torches, nor by a crowd of
clerks and kinsmen upon horseback, but by water,
in a funeral barge, hung all about with lamps. 78
It must have been a mode that had much and
peculiar solemnity : the most thoughtless could
not but stop a while, and from the banks of our
majestic Thames gaze, perhaps in prayerful silence,
upon the mastless vessel as it crept softly from
v equis ipsam veredam traheiitibus a villa de Brautingham, una
cum corpore ejusdem usque in navem ecclesise Dunelm (ibid., p. 23).
Accesserunt executores dicti domini episcopi Thomse de Hatfield
(A.D. 1381) ad dominum priorem, rogantes, quatenus ob honorem
corporis possent veredam, Anglice chariot, in qua dicti episcopi
corpus fuerat deportatum, simul cum corpore in ecclesiam intro-
ducere, ac postea ipsam veredam cum equis libere abducere et
rehabere ; alias nollent ipsam veredam infra coemiterium adducere,
sed extra coemiterium corpus deponere ac super hominum humeros
in ecclesiam deportare ; quia ut asserebant, nee vereda nee equi
episcopi fuerant ; respondit dominus prior, se nolle libertates,
consuetudines, et jura ecclesise infringere quo vis modo; quin
veredam, equos, et pannos quoscunque cum quibus intraret corpus
in portam borealem, haberet sacrista ecclesiae, &c. (Willielmus
De Chambre, Contin. Hist. Dunelm. inter Hist. Dunel. Script. Tres,
Surtees Soc., vol. ix. p. 142). Such a rite seems to have been
confined to bishops : the nobleman's corpse was carried into church
upon the shoulders of his retainers ; thus : In exequiis ejusdem
(domini Radulphi de Nevyll, A.D. 1355) corpus ejus in una vereda
cum vij equis usque ad valvas cimiterii ferebatur, et ibidem, equis
cum vereda revertentibus, milites corpus ejusdem accipientes in
ulnis suis in navem ecclesise inferebant ubi solempnes exequiae pro
eo fiebant, &c. (Wills, &c., of the Northern Counties, p. 27).
78 Ostensum est corpus (Henrici VI) per dies aliquot in ecclesia
Sancti Pauli, Londoniis, atque abhinc per fluvium Thamesis ad
ecclesiam conventualem monachorum de Chertsey, Winton. diocesi,
quindecim ab urbe milliaribus, in quadam ad hoc cum luminaribus
solenniter praeparata barga, defertur humandum. Hist. Croyland-
ensis Continuatio, ed. Gale, i. 556.
A HEARSE
From MS. Auct. D. inf. 2, n, f, 145'
Page 399
PART I. CHAP. VII. 399
London up the stream through the dusk of even-
ing, with no other sounds than the sullen splash
of slow-drawn oars and the chantings of the
clergy, heard by fits above the sighings of the
wind.
To receive the dead body, there used to be put
up for churchmen and nobles, in the middle of
the choir, for all others, in the nave of the church
a "hearse," 79 which was a lofty framework of
(496) wood, usually of four, but sometimes (for
high personages) of six, and even eight posts,
with another springing in the upper storey from
the centre, all of them so bound round with fine
black cloth, silk, or velvet, as to hide the timbers.
From these uprights, technically called "prin-
cipals," as well as from the ribs which spanned
the top and kept the whole together, sprouted
out hundreds of gilt metal branches for wax
79 This " hearse " is sometimes founcUnoticed in rubrics of foreign
churches, as the " castrum doloris " ; its use is still kept up for
the burial service of the supreme Pontiff, and other high person-
ages at Rome, where it is known as the " catafalco " ; in France,
too, it is employed and called " chapelle ardente." It was a great
favourite here: Pro exequiis Domini Edmundi fratris Regis
(Eduardi I), pro factura 986 cereorum et 8 mortar, &c., pro
clavis minutis ad eosdem cereos attach' et filo pro eisdem ad
hercias ligandis. . . . Portagio 200 cereorum . . . usque prioratum
monialium extra Alegate, 217 cereorum ... ad ecclesiam Sancti
Pauli et 559 cereorum usque abbatiam Westmon' ad hercias
in eisdem locis existentes pro exequiis ibidem celebrandis, &c.
(Liber Quotidianus Guarderobse Edwardi I, pp. 46, 47). When the
chancel or the choir happened to be wide enough, these erections
were placed there for grand funerals : In the qwer was a hersse
made of tymbur and covered with blake, &c. Diary of Henry
Machyn (C.S.), p. 44.
4 oo THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
tapers ; and dotted all over amid them, drooped
a great many small flags or " pennoncels." 80 The
80 Particular attention would seem to have always been paid
to the splendour of these hearses, as we may gather from many
documents: Exequyes, imprimis, the charge of a dyryge with
iij masses, and an herse set at Crysts-Church, for the soul of King
Henry the Eighth.
Paid for all charges of an herse, with cxx lyghts, and dyverse
floryshes, hangyngs, and a mortes of wax, xls. To the peynter for vj
scogeons of the kyngs armys, made with fyne gold and bice, xiis., and
for vj other scogeons, iijs. ; paid for makyng a traverse about the
herse, that no man should come within it, and for raysyng an altar
within the same, xxvs. ; item, gave to xiij poore men that satte
aboute the herse at dyryge and mass time ivs. ivd. : item, to vj prests
that sang vj masses within the traverse in the tyme of the servyce
in the quire, ijs. ; for fetchyng things borrowed, as a bere, fourms,
a tabil for the altar, black hangyngs, crosse, basyn, &c., ixc. Item,
gaf to the clarks of Cryste-churche for many pains about the
herse, hanging the altar, ryngyng the clocher bells, &c., is. ; for
clenyng a piece of black fresado that went about the traverse
which was sore dropped with wax, viijd. (Notes taken from the
Chamberlain's Accounts, in Blomefield, Norfolk, iii. 216). In the
funeral expenses of John Paston, who died A.D. 1466, occur the
items following : for grey lynen cloth and sylk frenge for the
hers, vil. xvis. ijd. ; For makyng of the hers at Bromholm, xxu7.
ix.s-. viijd (Ibid., vi. 485). The j day of February was buried the
duchess of Northumberland, at Chelsea, where she lived, with a
goodly herse of wax and pensils, and escocheons, two baners of
armes, and iiij banners of images, and mony mornars, and with
ij haroldes of armes. Ther was a mageste and the valans, and
vj dosen of torchys and ij whyt branchys ; and alle the chyrche
hangyd with blake and armes, and a canepe borne over her to the
chyrche (The Diary of H. Machyn, p. 81). The make and size of
this hearse often varied, according to the condition of the per-
sonage for whom it was erected ; for Sir W. Laxton, Lord Mayor,
there was : " A goodly hers, with v prynsepalles and the majesty,
and the valans gylted, and viij dosen of penselles, arid xii dosen
of skochyons, and a half of bokeram," &c. (ibid, p. ill); "master
Clarenshus' syster was bered with a herse mayd with ij stores and
a c whytt candyllstykes, and in evere candyllstyke a grett
qwarell of alff, a Ib. of wax, and her armes apon the herse,
and a dosen torchys and her armes apon " (ibid., p. 121). But " the
hersse at Powlles, for the quen of Spayn, was the goodlest that
PART I. CHAP. VII. 401
first storey of the hearse was ceiled (497) with an
awning of silk, hung all about with a scocheoned
valance, and this tester-like covering (498) was
known as the "majesty." Upon the coffin that
ever was sene in England ; the bare frame cost xl 1 . the carpenter's
dute." It was " a boyffe the qwyer with ix prensepalles garnysyd,
the goodlest that ever was sene, and all the prensepalles covered
with blake velvett, and the mageste of taffata and the frynge
gold ; and all the qwyre and a-boyffe the qwyer and the sydes,
and ondur foot, and the body of the chyrche one he (on high)
hangyd with blake and armes and with xxxvj dosen of pensells
of sylke welvett, with gold and silver, and xvj baners-rolles of
armes, and iiij baners of whyt emages, wroght with fyne gold/ r
&c. (ibid., p. 90). Less costly, but still solemn, funerals were
usually like that of Sir T. Cayffe, knight, who was " bered with
iiij branchys, tapurs of wax, and penselles, with ij whyt branchys,
and iiij dosen torchys, and vj dosen of skochyons, with a standard
and a cott-armur, and pennon of armes,, and iiij baners of santes
in owlle (in oil) wroth with fyne gold, and many morners, and
master Lankoster, the harold," &c. Ibid., p. 173.
Let us hope that ere long the use of this fine piece of olden
Catholic symbolism the hearse with its hundred burning tapers,
may be brought back again into use among us. To work the
frame in such a way that it might be readily and quickly set up,
and when taken to pieces again, put by into a small space, would
not be difficult.
81 This term came, in all likelihood, to be given to this silken
ceiling, because, in most instances, the eternal Father, crowned
with the papal tiara, and mantled in a splendid cope, like the
supreme pontiff, was figured upon the under side, so as to seem
looking down, with mild forgiveness, while he absolved, by a
blessing from the three outstretched fingers of his uplifted right
hand, the soul of the individual whose corpse lay just below. The
Day of Doom, or last judgment, was sometimes painted there, as
we find by note 84, p. 403. Matthew Paris lets us know how
common it was to illuminate missals with the figure of the
Majesty; for he tells us that, among the gifts bestowed by
Richard, abbot of St. Alban's, upon the church of that house,
there was : Unum missale, in quo canitur Missa Matutinalis.
Unde in principio Missse pirigitur ejus imago ad pedes Majestatis
quse aureis litteris et penna scriptis intitulatur (Vit. Abb. S. Alb.,
p. 35). [R.S. xxviii. i. 70.] Printed on vellum, and within a cloud of
angels, and having the emblems of the four evangelists, one at each
VOL. II. 2 C
402 THE CHUKCH OF OUR FATHERS
lay beneath it was spread a wide, full pall of
(499) black velvet, or cloth of gold, marked with
a cross in the middle, and bearing a row of
emblazoned (500) scocheons by way of hem ;
and on the breast of the so-shrouded dead burned
one of those white branches, or three-pronged
candles, all through the service. To hold back
the crowd, a strong wooden railing, painted black,
ran all round the hearse, and within the carpeted
inclosure stood at each of the four corners, as
near as might be to the corpse, a bearer of an
*' avowry," 82 or picture of a patron saint ; on the
north, south, and east sides ranged the poor
beadsmen, supporting large torches, while to-
ward the west end, close to the coffin's head,
knelt the chief mourners, hearing the Masses
that were said at a temporary altar erected a
little space asunder from the hearse's eastern
foot, as is well shown in the picture reproduced
above from a drawing of Abbot Islip's burial
service in Westminster Abbey. Grand as the
hearse must have been with such a radiance
from its hundreds, nay, often a thousand, burn-
ing tapers, 83 yet sometimes (501) it stood forth
corner, is the eternal Father, or Majesty, figured at the beginning of
the canon, in a fine folio Salisbury missal in my possession ; a print,
likewise on vellum, of the crucifixion, comes just before it. These
two engravings are wanting in most existing copies of this missal.
82 iiij banners were the king's (Henry VII.'s) avowries, whereof
the first was the Trinitye, the second of our Ladie, the third of St.
George, the fourth of . (Funeral of King Henry VII., Leland,
Collect., iv. 304.)
PAKT I. CHAP. VII. 403
in even more solemn magnificence : storey arose
on storey, and angels and archangels, saints, and
effigies bespeaking the rank in life of the illus-
trious departed, all wrought in coloured wax,
looked out from amid the lights that starred
this glowing tabernacle. 84 Occasionally, however,
(502) the highest and the noblest of the land
83 Such was the smoke from so great a number of lights, that
we sometimes meet with an item like this : To the glaser for
takyn owte of ij panys of the wyndows of the schyrche, for to late
owte the reke of the torches at the deryge, and sowderyng new of
the same, xxe. (Funeral Expenses of John Paston, A.D. 1466, Blome-
field, Norfolk, vi. 484). On the hearse alone, in Westminster
Abbey, at Queen Mary's burial, there was "in lightes to the
nombar of a thousand and more." Leland, Colled., v. 318, quoted
in next note. [Cf. Alcuin Club Collections, i. 13, for a fuller account
and reproduction of the Islip Roll.]
84 The hearse, in Westminster, for Queen Mary's burial there,
was very grand : Betwene the steppes goinge up to the aulter and
the quere dore, thier was maid a very somptiouse hersse, of viij
square, with nine princypalles double storied, havinge in lightes
to the nombar of a thousand and more, garneshed with xxxvi
dozen penselles of sarsenet betten with gold and sylver of the
queue's bages, the viii rochments hanged double with vallence of
sarcenet wrytten with letters of gold and fringed with gilte fringe :
on the same hersse many skochiones in metall, with many small
skochiones of waxe ; on the upper parte of the viij great postes
stood viij archeangeles of waxe, and under them viij great skoch-
iones of armes, within the garter of waxe ; all the eight square of
the hersse was garneshed and sett with angelles, morners, and
queues in their robes of estate, maid of waxe ; under the hersse
was a great Majestie of taffata lyned with bokeram, and in the
same was maid a great dome of paynter's worke, with foure
evangelistes of fyne gold ; the eight postes were covered with
blake velvett, and on every post a skochion of sarsenet wrought
with fyne gold ; the rayle of the same was hanged on bothe sides
with fyne brode clothe and sett with skochiones of bokeram in
fyne gold ... in the mydeste of the said walle agaynge the high
aulter was maid a small aulter, which was covered with velvet and
rychely garneshed with plate, &c. Leland, Collect., v. 318.
404 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
besought to have no funeral display given to
their burial, and asked for nothing more than
a few large torches, with shields of arms hang-
ing on them, to be set around their bier, and
five tapers lit and placed upon the coffin. 85
Over night, Placebo was sung ; on the early
morrow, Dirige* 6 followed by two Masses one,
85 Volo quod quinque cerei stent circa corpus meum, in quorum
quolibet sint tres librae cerse et non minus (Test. W. de Menneville,
A.D. 1371 ; Wills, &c., of the Northern Counties, p. 33). Volo quod
xxiiij torches et v tapers, quolibet taper pondere x lib. prseparen-
tur pro sepultura mea absque alio hercio ; et volo quod dicti xxiiij
torches teneantur per xxiiij pauperes indutos togis de russeto, &c.
(Test. Johannisde Nevill, Domini de Baby, A.D. 1386; Wills, &c.,
p. 41). Armorial bearings were emblazoned on small shields,
which were hung upon the larger wax-lights. At the burial of
Sir R. Dobbs, Lord Mayor of London (A.D. 1556), there were
"iiij gylt chandyllstykes, with iiij grett tapurs with armes on
them," &c. (Machyn, Diary, p. 106). At another citizen of
London's funeral, there were " iiij grett tapurs with armes," &c.
Ibid., p. in.
86 The choir service for the dead was rubricked according to
Salisbury Use " Vigilie Mortuorum " the wakes for the dead ; in
the Roman, it is called " Officium Mortuorum," and is to be found
at the end of that breviary, while in the Salisbury Portiforium it
stands somewhere about the middle of the book, just before the
" Commune Sanctorum " ; but in one and the other it consists of
the same parts. During Catholic times in England, even-song for
the dead was known by the term " Placebo," because such is the
first word of that service, the anthem before the first psalm being
"Placebo Domino in regione vivorum." Mortuary solemnities
always began with even-song in the afternoon ; on the early
morrow, matins and lauds were chanted, after which the Mass was
sung ; then, if the body was there and to be buried in that church,
the grave was blessed and the corpse consigned to the earth.
As the first anthem at matins commenced with these words,
" Dirige Domine Deus meus in conspectu tuo viam meam,"
the whole of the morning's service, including the Mass, came to
be designated a "Dirige" or Dirge: in like manner the Holy
Sacrifice itself for the dead was termed the Mass of " Requiem," be-
cause its introit began with " Requiem seternam dona eis Domine."
PART I. CHAP. VII. 405
(503) of the Trinity; the second, of the blessed
Virgin Mary accompanied by the organ, and
chanted in prick-song, or, as we would call it,
florid music. 87 (504) The mourners then went forth
from church to a breakfast set out for them in
a hall of the neighbouring monastery, or dean's
lodgings. This meal over, they all walked back
again to take their respective places about the
hearse ; the solemn High Mass of Requiem then
began. At offertory time the mass-penny, 88 which
In a very few instances, matins and lauds for the dead, instead
of being called "Dirige" or Dirge, from the first word of the
anthem, are named " Yerba mea," from the first two words of the
v psalm with which it begins, as may be seen in the note at p. 311
of this volume.
87 Ther was iij masses songe, on (one) of the Treriete, and on of
owre Lade, the iij of requiem (Machyn, Diary, p. 167). The first
two masses were often sung in florid music, or as it was then
called " pricksong " : the morow iij masses song, ij of pryksong,
and the iij of requiem (ibid., p. 171). While these three solemn
masses were sung, low masses were said in the side chapels and at
all the altars in the church : a trental of masses (thirty) used to
be offered up for almost every one on the burial day.
88 j$y Mass-penny," we are not to understand that the amount
is meant so much as the nature of the offering itself, carried up
by lay-folks, on particular occasions, to the priest at the altar,
during Mass. At the burial service in Ludlow Castle (where he
died), for Prince Arthur, during the first Mass, which was of our
Lady, " no man offred but the Earle of Surrey as chiefe mourner.
All the other mourners and officers of armes accompanied him,
and he had both carpet and cushion. Sir W. Ovedall . . . gave
him his offring, which was a piece of gould of xld, and always as
often as the saide Earle offred the Masse-Pennyes, a gentleman of
owne bare his traine. The second Masse of the Trinitie was songe
by the bishoppe of Salisbury and the queere without organies or
children ; and at that Masse the Earle of Surrey offred a piece of
gould and vs. for the Masse pennye," &c. (Leland, Collect., v. 376).
Another herald's description of the funeral obsequies done for
Queen Mary, lets us see the purpose of " the carpet and cushion "
4 o6 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
had been duly presented (505) to the celebrant dur-
ing each of the two other Masses, was now carried
up with much state to (506) the altar by the
chief mourner : then followed the offering of the
on these solemnities : Then the Masse proceded tyll the offeringe,
at which ofleringe when the bushoppes torned them, the morners
turned them, the morners stode upe and the chief morner cam
fourth, havinge certayne noble men and the officers of armes
before her, the rest of the morners followinge, her trayne borne,
went to the aulter wher thier was laid by a gentillman usher a
carpet and a cussion on the which she kneled, and havinge her
offeringe delyved unto her, offered, and then rosse uppe and re-
torned to the hersse agayne, &c. Ibid., p. 312.
In that beautifully written, and soundly argued work, The
Supplycacyon of Soulys made by Syr Thomas More, knyght, against
The Supplycacyon of Beggars, the holy and martyred chancellor of
England refers in a feeling manner to the Mass-penny, as he
brings in wives in purgatory speaking thus to their husbands,
whom they have left still living upon earth : " Ah, swete husbandes,
whyle we lived there in that wretched world with you ; while ye
wer glad to please us, ye bestowed much upon us, and putte your
self to great cost, and did us gret harme therwith with gay gownes
and gay kyrtles and much waste in apparell, ringes and owches,
with partlets and pastes garnished with pearle, with whiche proude
pyking up : both ye toke hurt and we to many moe wayes then one,
though we told you not so than. But ii thinges wer ther speciall,
of which your selfe felt than the tone, and we feele now the
tother. For ye hadde us the hygher hearted, and the more stub-
burne to you : and God had us in lesse favour, and that alacke we
fele. For nowe that gay gear burneth upon our backes, and those
proude pearled pastes hang hote about our chekes, those partlets
and those owches hang heavye about our neckes, and cleave fast
fyre hote that woe be we there and wishe that while we lived, ye
never had folowed our fantasies, nor never had so cockered us, nor
made us so wanton, nor hadde given us other owches than ynions
or great garlike headdes, nor other pearles for our partlettes and
our pastes then fayre orient e peason. But now for asmuch as
that is passed, and can not bee called agayn : we beseche you sith
ye gave them us, let us have them still, let them hurte none other
woman, but helpe to doe us good : sel them for our sakes to set in
saints copes, and send the money hether by masse pennies, and by
poore men that may pray for our soules." Fol. xlii v ., and Works,
London, 1557, p. 338.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 407
sovereign's, or the great baron's armour; from
the large western door-way of the nave, rode
into the church a young knight upon a war-
horse richly caparisoned, and dismounting at the
hearse, or the choir steps, gave up the steed to
be led away by the servants of the dean and
chapter, or of the abbot ; 89 then, by the heralds,
(507) robed in their tabards, were slowly and
solemnly carried up to the altar, sword, target,
helmet, and coat-armour of the dead warrior; 90
89 At the funeral of Henry VII. in Westminster, after the chief
nobles had been led up to the archbishop and made the offering
of the royal arms at the foot of the altar, "there came ryding Sir
Edward Howarde armed in complete harnes (his helmet except)
upon a goodlie courser, trapped in black valvet, with the armes
of England embroithered upon the same, which rode into the
railes of the herse where he did alight, whome the said herauds
incontinent received, whose horse was ymediatly delivered unto
a servant of the abbotts of Westminster " (Leland, Collect., iv. 307).
As many as eight horses fully caparisoned, and their riders properly
appointed, have been brought into the church at the burial of
some of the higher of our nobility : Ad Missam in crastino, oblati
fuerunt viij equi, iiij pro tempore guerrre cum iiij hominibus
armatis et omnibus armis et apparatu eorum, et iiij pro tempore
pacis ; et iij panni aurei indici coloris cum floribus intextis (in
exequiis domini Radulphi de Nevyll in ecclesia Dunelmensi,
A.D. 1355). Wills, <&c., of the Northern Counties, p. 27. Volo . . .
quod j equus sit arraiatus pro guerra cum j homine armato de armis
meis, cooperto de russeto cum scochons de armis meis, et alius equus
de eadem setta cum j homine desuper pro banerio meo absque
pluribus equis ; et dicti duo equi oblentur die sepulturse mese sicut
moris est, et sint demissi cum ecclesia. Ibid., p. 44.
90 The way in which the arms of a knight were offered at Mass,
and carried up to and set upon the altar, is well shown by the
following extract from a MS. in the Heralds' College, descriptive
of John Lord Bray's funeral (A.D. 1557): " Then at the offerynge,
Mr. Garter, Rychemond, and Roudge Dragon proceaded uppe before
the chief morner, thother vj morners following hym, where all
onely he offeryd the massepennye a peece of golde, returnyd to
4 o8 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
the Holy Sacrifice (508) was proceeded with, and
at its end, the large standard was borne unto the
altar as the last offering : the corpse was lowered
into the grave, the burial service was said, a large
dole distributed to the poor, and the friends
and kinsfolks of the deceased were bidden and
went to the funeral dinner. 91
hys place. Then Mr. Garter at thend of these dely vered the cote
of armes to Mr. Thomas Cobham and Mr. Verney, who, with
Rychemond before them, offeryd the same, which Roudge
Dragon at the pryst's hands received, and placed on the awltre,
and so they returnyd, going uppe the north ile, and returnynge
down the south ile. Then Mr. Garter d d (delivered) the tar-
get to Mr. John Cobham and Mr. Lyefylde, who with Roudge
Dragon before them in lyke ordre, offeryd the same, which Ryche-
mond placed on the awltre, and returnyd ; . . . then Mr. Garter
d d the swerde to Mr. Braye and Mr. Halshe, who with Ryche-
monde before them likewise offeryd the same, the hylte forwarde,
which Roudge Dragon placed on the awltre. Then the ij fyrste
morners agayne proceaded uppe with Roudge Dragon before
them, in all poynts as afore and offerd thelme and creste which
Rychemond placed on the awltre."
91 The various rites observed of old in this country are well
set forth by the poet, while chanting the praises and holy doings
of the good knight Sir Amadas :
At morne when the dey began to spryng,
All the belles of that cety he gard to ryng
That soole for to plese.
All the relegyne of that towne,
Ageyn the cors yede with processyon,
With mony a ryche burges.
He gard xxx fci prestes that day syng ;
Sir Amadas offerd withowt lesyng,
Truly at ylke a masse ;
And he preyd horn then also,
That thei wold to the innes go,
The more and the lasse :
Hyt is in the deyd name that Y speyke
He preys yow all unto the meyte
The pepull that ar here, &c.
Weber, Metrical Romances, iii. 254.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 409
(509) The burial service followed at the funerals
of Henry VII.'s son, Prince Arthur, of Henry VII.
himself, and of Queen Mary, will show us more
exactly what was the ritual for royal personages'
obsequies at the latter period of Catholicism in
this country. The ceremonial, for the greater
part of the service, was the same as that performed
for the nobility, but with much more magnificence,
and it was only at the end that a slight, yet interest-
ing, variation could be found. After all his arms
helmet, shield, sword, and coat-armour had been
carried up to the altar and offered, " Then Sir
John Mortimer, bannerett, Sir Kichard de la Vere,
bannerett, Sir Thomas Cornwall, and Sir Robert
Throgmorton, bachelors, convayed the man of
armes, which was the Earl of Kildare's sonne
and heire, armed with Prince Arthur's owne har-
neys, on a courser richly trapped with a trapper
of velvet embrothered with needleworke of the
Prince's armes, with a pollaxe in his hande, the
head downwards, into the midst of the queere,
where the Abbot of Tewksbury, gospeller of that
Masse, received the offering of that horse. Then
the said man of armes alighted, and was led with
the axe in his hand to the buishoppe, (510) and
from thence to the vestrye. But to have seene
It was thought a work of mercy in behalf of the dead, as well as
a deed of kindness towards the living, to give a dinner at a
funeral : hence in many MS. books of Hours, the illumination at
the beginning of the Dirge shows a well-spread board with guests
sitting at it eating.
4 io THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
the weepinge when the offringe was done, he had
a hard heart that wept not. Enduring the sermon
there was a great generall dole of groats to every
poore man and woman.
" At tyme of St. John s Gospell, Sir Griffith ap
Rice offered to the deacon the rich embrothered
banner of my Lordes armes.
" The Gospell finished, all the prelats came and
senced the corpse, with all the convent (of Wor-
cester cathedral) standing without the uttermost
barres, singing divers and many anthemes. At
every Kurie Elyeson, an officer at armes, with
a high voice, said * For Prince Arthur's soule,
and all Christians' soules Pater noster.' That
finished, a minister of the church tooke awaye the
palles ; and then gentlemen tooke up the corpse,
and bare it to the grave. Then the corpse, with
weeping and sore lamentation, was laid in the grave ;
the orisons were said by the bishop of Lincoln,
also sore weeping. He sett the crosse over the
chest and cast holye water and earth thereon. His
(Prince's Arthur's) officer of armes sore weeping,
tooke of his coate of armes and cast it along over
the chest right lamentably. Then Sir W. Ovedall,
comptroller of his household, sore weeping and
crying, tooke the staffe of his office by both endes,
and over his owne head brak it, and cast it into
the grave. In likewise did Sir Ric. Croft, steward
of his household, and cast his staffe broken
(511) into the grave. In likewise did the gentle-
PART I. CHAP. VII. 411
men ushers their roddes. This was a piteous
sight to those who beheld it." 92
At the burial of King Henry VII. that
sovereign's horse was ridden into Westminster
Abbey by the Earl of Surrey's second son, and
duly offered ; and after the Mass and sermon,
"the archebissoppes, bissoppes, and abbotts went
unto the herse. At whose comminge the palles and
the iiij banners of the king's avowries were carried
away by twoe monks. Which done, the picture
was taken from the herse and borne unto St.
Edward's shrine, the kyng's chappell singinge
this anthem, Circumdederunt me gemitus mortis,
and then the said corps was incensed, and all the
royal ornaments taken from the said corps, so that
everie man might see the said corps cofferd in a
coffin of hordes . . . and soe the said corps was
laid into the vaught with great reverence . . .
whome incontinent all the archebishops, bissops,
and abbotts settinge theire crosses upon the said
corps assolled, in the most solempn manner,
saying this collett (Absolvimus). Which done,
the said archebishop did cast earth upon the
said corps. And then my Lord Treasorer and
my Lord Steward did breake theire staves and
did cast them into the vaught ; and the other hed
officers did cast their staves in, all whole. Which
done the vaught, and a goodlie riche pall of clothe
(512) of gold laide upon the saide herse. And
92 Leland, Collectanea, v. 380, 381.
4 i2 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
incontinent all the herauds did of theire cote-
armour, and did hange them uppon the rayles of the
herse, cryinge lamentably in French, the noble
King Henry the Seavenih is deade. And as soone
as they had so done, everie heraud putt on his
cotearmour againe and cryed with a loude voyce,
Vive le noble Roy Henry le V11L" 9 *
At the magnificent burial service the last of the
kind celebrated in Westminster for poor Mary,
of injured memory, the prayer, " Of your charitie
praye for the sowlle of the most puissante and
excellente prineesse Mary by the grace of God late
Queue of England, Spayne, &c. t Pater noster, was
said at every Keryaleson, and at Magnificat, and
Benedictus. Then the Dirige begon, &c." 9
"The Order of the Offeringe at the Masse of
Requiem " was as follows : " The chiffe morner
havinge before her the officers of the howshould
and the officers of armes, with the noblemen, her
trayne borne and assisted, her assystannts goinge
with her, went to the aulter and offered the
offeringe having a carpet and a cussion laid for
her by a gentillman usher: and after she had
offered, she retorned to the hersse agayne, the
other morners followinge her ii and ij. 95
" Then the corsse was let into the grave, and the
archebushoppe caste earthe on the same.
(513) "Then came the noblemen, being officers,
93 Leland, Collectanea, iv. 308, 309.
94 Ibid., v. 319. 95 Ibid., v. 321.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 413
to the grave and brake thier staves over thier
hedes, and caste the same in to the grave . . .
and the gentillmen ushers thier roddes, and then
they departed to the other noblemen ; and the
buriall ended."
Elizabeth was proclaimed in the church imme-
diately after, when " the noblemen held upe thier
hands and cappes ; and the trompeter standyng
in the rude lofte sounded." 8
With such ritual magnificence were our kings
and queens, our holy and munificent bishops and
distinguished churchmen, our mighty earls, bold
barons, and stalwart knights carried to the grave.
This ceremonial was not idly splendid, but fraught
with instructive lessons, and feelingly beautiful.
The blazing hearse holding the cold, stiff corpse
within, as it were, its own little firmament of
light, was intended to be a commentary on these
words so often repeated in the burial service
" may everlasting light shine upon him." The
glowing rays from hundreds of tapers became no
unfit symbol of a wishful prayer put up to God
by every worshipper who heard that anthem, that
the soul of their departed kinsman, or friend, or
benefactor, might be soon, if not already, called
by the gladdening voice of Christ to the happiness
of heaven, and dwell there evermore with the
brightness of (514) his lightsome countenance
shining on it. The herald, in his gorgeously-
96 Leland, Collectanea, v. 323.
4 i4 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
embroidered tabard, as he several times raised his
saddened cry, that rolled in wailing peals along
the black-draped walls of the cathedral, told,
while he asked a prayer for the soul of the royal
or the titled dead, 97 how death made no distinction,
but breathed his withering breath upon the young,
the beautiful, the strong, among the highest, as
among the lowliest, in the land : the petition
which he spoke dropped upon, and was intended
for, the poor as well as the rich man's ear ; and
the tattered beggar was thus taught (515) to know
that his supplications in behalf of a soul in purga-
tory would be equally available with those sent
forth from the noblest and most wealthy among
the great ones there present.
When less magnificence was used, the ritual,
for such as understood its meaning, had the same
instruction. The five tapers so often set upon
97 And a-fore the durge began, the harold cam to the qwer dore
and prayed for ys (Sir John Dudley's) soil by ys stylle, and so
began the durge song in Latin, all the lessons, and then the
harold prayd for a for masse, &c. (Diary of H. Machyn, p. 44).
The form used by the herald on those occasions may be seen in
Leland, Collectanea: An officer at arms,, with a high voice said,
"For Prince Arthur's soule, and all Christians' soules Pater
noster " (v. 380). At Queen Mary's dirge in Westminster Abbey,
the herald cried out, ' ' Of your charitie praye for the sowlle
of the moste puissante and excellente princess Mary, &c., Pater
noster," &c. (Ibid., p. 319). Then the bodye placed with the
hatchments set thereon, and all other things in ordre, Rychemond
herald bade the prayer as followeth : " For the soule of the Right
Hon'able Sir John Braye, knight, late Lord Braye, of your charytie
say a Pr. nr.," which he bade at other tymes accustomyd, and then
dyridge began, which ended, Mass of fi Requiem" began, &c.
MS. in the Heralds' College.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 415
the coffin without any hearse over it, spoke of the
Church's teaching to her children, that they
should believe the pain due to sin, after its
guilt has been forgiven here, must be cleansed
away in the next world by going through the
purgatorial state, or be forgiven while in this life,
by the boundless merits of our divine Redeemer's
atonements, brought to our remembrance in those
tokens of the wounds inflicted on his hands and
feet and side as he hung, nailed and bleeding, on
the cross.
However few and small might have been those
tapers that, in the poorest spot, while England
remained constant to her old Catholic belief, were
invariably set around the homeless stranger's or
the lowliest pauper's bier, night and day, till he
was buried, 98 they told, in a quiet way, the self-
98 Some of our old English Catholic poets have with much good
effect brought in this ritual custom of never leaving the humblest
individual's corpse in church all night without tapers burning
round it. Thus of Sir Amadas it is said :
Betwene a forest and a cete
He fonde a chapell of ston and tre
And saw therin greyt lyghtte.
# # # #
Over his heyd he drew his hode,
And to the chapell dore he yode
Mo anters for to here.
He loked in at a windo of glas
For to wytte what therin was,
And ther he f ownde a bere ;
A bere he saw and candyls too
A woman syttand and no mon, &c.
Sir Amadas, Weber, Metrical Romances, iii. 246.
416 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
same wishes breathing throughout our liturgy, for
(516) the unclouded light of everlasting heaven
to beam upon the dead man's soul.
Though the corpse had been buried, the funeral
rites were not yet over. All through the month
following, Placebo, and Dirige, and Masses con-
tinued to be said in that church, but with more
particular solemnity on the third, the seventh,
and the thirtieth day, at each of which times a
dole of food or money was distributed among the
poor." The hearse was left standing, with an
emblem of (517) the dead lying beneath it; 1 the
black hangings, powdered with scocheons, re-
mained drooping from the walls about the choir
and along the nave : upon a small wagon-headed
frame of wood or iron, also called a hearse, 2 and
99 Robert Salter, gent., by his will, dated A.D. 1534, bequeathed
x. to the poor on his burial day and the viith day following, and
x. on the xxx day following (Blomefield, Norfolk, ix. 203). Alice
Christion (A.D. 1349) says: "I will and bequeath that my
executors make a dole on the day of my burial, the seventh day,
and the thirtieth day ; and give to every one that comes to the
said dole a halfpenny or the value thereof." Swinden, Hist, of
Great Yarmouth, p. 817.
1 Immediately after the grand dirge at Westminster Abbey for
Abbot Islip, " they of the churche did burye the def uncte in the
seid chappell of his buyldynge . . Then in the quere undere-
nethe the hersse was made a presentacion of the corps covered
with a clothe of golde of tyssewe with a crosse and ij white
branches in candlesticks of silver and gylte. . . . The herse with
all thother things did remayne there still untill the monthes
mynde." Vet. Monum., iv. plates xv. &c., p. 3.
2 A good example of this second kind of hearse may still be
seen over the admirable cumbent figure of Richard Earl of
Warwick, in the beautiful Beauchamp chapel at St. Mary's church,
Warwick. See vol. iii.
PART I. CHAP. VII. 417
set over the grave, lay cast in massy folds a
rich pall ; and lights, more or less in number,
sometimes all day and night, sometimes only
during the services, were kept burning there ; 3
and on the thirtieth, another dirge was chanted,
the hearse lit up again, a second sermon
preached, and a larger dole bestowed. With
these (518) observances, of what was called "the
month's mind," 4 ended the funeral obsequies,
3 As soon as the grand Mass of Requiem was sung over the
corpse of Abbot Islip, they buried him in "the chappell of his
buyldynge, which was hangid with blacke cloth garnyshed with
schoocheons, and over his sepulture a pawle of blacke velvet and
ij candlesticks with angells of sylver and gylte with ij tapers
thereon and iiij about the corpse burnynge still." Vet. Monum.
iv., plates xv. &c. p. 3.
4 The "month's mind" signified constant prayer in behalf of
a dead person, during the whole month immediately following :
hence, " to mind," meant " to pray for." Gaynour, or Guenever,
Arthur's queen, on seeing the " gryselyche gost " of her mother,
who was suffering the torments of Purgatory, thus speaks to it :
" He (Christ) gif me grace to grete thi saule with the gode ; and
myn the, with massus and matins, on morun." To this the ghost
answers : " To mynne me with massus grete mestur hit were."
Robson, Three Early English Romances, edited for the C.S., p. 9.
But it was particularly on the third, the seventh, and the
thirtieth days of this month, that the services were more
solemnly performed ; most especially on this last day : " The iiij
day of October was the monyth myn (month's mind), at Waltham
abbay, of Master James Suttun, sqwyre, and clarke of the gren-
cloth ; and ther was a sarmon, and a dolle of money unto evere
howse that ned the charete ; and after, a grett dener " (Machyn,
Diary, p. 69). "The xxx day of August (A.D. 1556) was the
monyth myn of Ser W. Laxtun, knyght and grocer; and the
hersse, bornyng with wax ; and the morowe masse, and a sarmon ;
and after, a grett dener ; and after dener, the hersse taken down "
(ibid., p. 113). By custom, certain fees were paid to the incum-
bent on these occasions : " At every month's mind, year's mind, or
obit, the curate hath viijd or xijrf." (Walton, Treatise on Tithes ; in
Stow, Survey, ii., b. iv. p. 26). Of these sermons preached on the
VOL. IT. 2 D
4i8 THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS
from the earliest to the latest days of Catholic
England.
(519) Whether, therefore, celebrated for the
highest or the lowliest members of society in the
most simple and the plainest country church, or
the most beautifully-decorated cathedral with
all, or nothing of the ritual's magnificence, our
funeral services at any time employed in this land
till the change of religion under Edward VI. and
Elizabeth, 5 whether (520) those services were after
thirtieth day, we have a specimen in " A Mornyge Remembrance
had at the Moneth Minde of the noble Prynces Margarete,
Countesse of Richmonde and Darby e," &c., by that glorious
martyr to the Catholic Church in England, Cardinal Fisher,
bishop of Rochester.
The people of this country clung to these good old practices ;
for, in the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, we find such notices of
them as the following: "A.D. 1559. At the burial of R. Charilton,
for his grave and the paule, and other benevolence to the church,
and for his moneth's monument, los.
" At the burial of R. Hill, and at his moneth's mynde, 3.5. Sd.
" At the yere's mynde of Agnes Walter, Sd. For gathering the
herse lyghtes, 4.5." Churchwardens 1 Accts.wf St. Helen's, Abingdon ;
Illustrations, &c., by Nichols, p. 142.
That the "month's mind" for the souls of the dead, was as
devoutly kept among the first believing Anglo-Saxons, as it con-
tinued to be up to the end of Mary's reign, in the middle of the
sixteenth century, is beyond all doubt. This the reader will find
true, by looking back at what we have brought forwards from the
writings of two of the archbishops of Canterbury during the Anglo-
Saxon period Theodore and St. Dunstan in note 82, pp. 258, 259
of this volume.
5 In the first year of Elizabeth's reign "was bered Ser John
Sentlow, knyght, with two haroldes of armes . . . but nodur
crosse nor prest, nor clarkes, but a sermon, and after a salme of
Davyd, &c." (Machyn, Diary, p. 191). Describing the funeral
of a Protestant woman about the same time, Machyn says : Ther
was browth unto St Thomas of Acurs in Chepe . . . masteres . . .
and ther was a gret compene of pepull ij and ij together, and
PART I. CHAP. Yir. 419
the Anglo-Saxon, the Sarum, or other English
Uses, proclaim with a clear, loud voice and many
ceremonies, that cannot be mistaken, a belief in
the doctrine of a middle state a purgatory.
nodur prest nor clarke, the nuw prychers in ther gowne lyke ley-
men, nodur syngyng nor sayhyng till they cam to the grave, and
a-for she was pute into the graffe a collect in Englys, and then
put in-to the grayff, and after took some heythe and caste yt on
the corse and red a thynge ... for the sam . . . and contenent
red the pystyll of sant Poll to the Stesselonyans and after thay
song pater-noster in Englys, boyth prychers and odur and women
of the nuw fassyn, and after on of them whent in-to the pulpytt
and mad a sermon (Machyn, Diary, p. 193). Catholics can tell
the time, the place, the persons, when, where, and by whom the
changes were wrought in the olden faith of England : nay, they
can say and say weeping the day and hour when the ancient
was put away for a new and foreign belief. The xij day of May
(A.D. I559)be-gane the Englys service in the quen's chapel. Ibid.,
p. 197. The . . . day of September be-gane the nuw mornyng prayer
at sant Antholyn's in Boge-row, after Geneve fassyon. Ibid.,
p. 212.
END OF VOL. II.
Printed by BALLANTYNK, HANSON &> Co.
Edinburgh &* London
274.2
R590
Rock, Daniel
91806
R590
Daniel
v.2
our
father
