English wayfaring life in the middle ages (XIVth century)

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ENGLISH WATFAR1NG LIFE JN THE
MIDDLE AGES.

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The Life of Richard Cobden.

By the RIGHT HON. JOHN MORLEY.

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i ENGLISH

WAYFARING LIFE

IN THE MIDDLE AGES

(XIVth CENTURY)

BT

J. J. JUSSERAND

FRENCH AMBASSADOR AT WASHINGTON, DR. ES LETTKES
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY

LUCY TOULMIN SMITH

EDITOR OF " RICART'S KALENDAR," " THE YORK PLAYS," ETC.

EIGHTH EDITION

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A FRENCH AMBASSADOR AT THE
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PIERS PLOWMAN, 1362-1398. Translated
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know Egypt) thanks to her tombs, and we know
Rome* thanks to Pompeii, in these modern days, better
than we know the Middle Ages of Europe and the life oj
an ordinary man during that perioa We cannot hope
to find in any corner of France or England a Pompeii,
catacombs, or pyramids. In our countries the human
torrent has never ceased flowing ; rapid, impetuous, and
tumultuous in its course, it has at no time ensured the
preservation of the past by deposits of quiet ooze.

But, this common life of our ancestors, is it indiscern-
ible, impossible to reconstruct? is that of kings and
princes alone accessible to our view through the distance
of ages, like those great monuments which men see when
they cannot distinguish the houses in a distant city ? Surely
not. But to get at the heart of the nation, to find touch
with the greater number, a patient and extended inquiry
is necessary. ¥0 make this usefully, we must break
more or less completely with the old habit of taking the
ideas of every-day life in the Middle Ages only from

8 ENGLISH WA YFAR1NG LIFE

the descriptions, the satires, or the eulogies of -poets.
Literature is no doubt of great help in these restorations,
but it is not the only, nor even the principal source of
information. Poets embellish, imagine, colour, or trans-
form ; we must not accept their statements without
checking them.

'This is just what we can do. We may have no such
burial grounds to explore as in Egypt, nor a whole town
to bring to light as at Pompeii, but we have what is
worth almost as much : the incomparable depositories of
the Records of old England. Immense strides have been
made, especially within the last hundred years, to render
their contents public. 'Thousands of documents have
been printed or analysed, and the work is still continuing ;
indeed, looking at the progress made of late, a feeling of
wonder cannot be repressed at the premature alarm of
historians like Robertson, who wrote in 1769: "The
universal progress of science during the two last centuries,
the art of printing, and other obvious causes, have filled
Europe with such a multiplicity of histories, and with
such a vast collection of historical materials, that the term
of human life is too short for the study or even the per-
usal of them." The field of research has never ceased to
widen, while the boundaries of human life do not recede ;
but students comprehend that the best means of making
themselves useful is to impose limits on themselves, to
renounce vast ambitions, and to study separate points only
of the immense problem to the best of their power. The
work of unearthing is so far advanced that it is possible
usefully to sift the riches drawn from these new cata-
combs.

At first sight all these petitions, these year-books full

IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 9

of reports of lawsuits, these long rows of statutes and
ordinances seem the coldest things in the world, the most
devoid of life. They are not even mummies or skeletons ,
they look as if they were nothing more than the dust of
old bones. But to judge of them thus were to judge in a
very superficial manner ; no doubt it would be at once
more agreeable and less troublesome to keep to the descrip-
tions of tale-tellers ; but how many chances of error do
they not present ! With the year-books, and the peti-
tions followed by inquiries, we are on distinctly more
solid ground ; we soon grow accustomed to their language,
and, under the apparently cold dust, we end by finding
sparks of life, we can then with little effort restore scenes,
understand existences, catch imprecations or cries of
triumph.

It was with this thought that the present work was
undertaken some years ago- In it there is less mention o/
Chaucer and more of the " Rolls of Parliament " than is
often found in the works devoted to this period ; this does
not arise from want of admiration for that great man,
quite the contrary, but from the need of a test and of
means of control, which may perhaps be deemed legitimate.
Above all, the present writer has desired to confine
himself in this work within strict limits ; one only
of the many sides of the common life in the fourteenth
century is here discussed, a side little enough known and
sometimes difficult to observe, namely, the character ana
the quality of the chief kinds of nomadic existence then
carried on in England. And even in that reduced compass
he is very far from making claim to completeness ; so
that this work is presented to the public more as a
sketch than a treatise.

ENGLISH W AV FARING LIFE.

author has profited by the occasion afforded him
by this translation to revise the text of his book (which
appeared in 1884), to introduce some necessary corrections,
and to add about a fourth of new matter. He has been
assisted in this, he need hardly say, by his learned trans-
lator, to whom he owes much for having assumed the task
of turning into English a work which she herself would
have been so well qualified to write. He has been helped
too by friends, all of whom he does not mean to name here.
But though feeling that in this also bis incompleteness
will be very apparent, he cannot deprive himself of the
pleasure of inscribing on this page with gratitude and
affection the names of Gaston Paris, of the Institute of
France ; of E. Maunde Thompson, Principal Librarian
of the British Museum ; of F. J. Furnivall, Director of
the Chaucer and many other Societies ; las fly, he ought,
perhaps, to have said firstly, of the poet and critic,
Edmund Gosse, to whose kind initative and suggestion he
owes it that his book is published under its present form.

7-

ALBFRT GATE,
July 7tA.

The kind reception awarded to this work allows the
author to present to the public a new edition. He has
availed himself of this opportunity to introduce some
more corrections. The frontispiece in former editions
has been replaced by a heliogravure by Dujardin of
Paris. J\

ST. HAON-LE-CHATEL,

October, 1891.

CONTENTS,

PREFACE ... ... .. 7

TABLE OF CONTENTS ... ... ... n

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ... . . 13

INTRODUCTION 29

PART I.
ENGLISH ROADS.

CHAP.

I. ROADS AND BRIDGES ... ... ... ... ... 35

II. THE ORDINARY TRAVELLER AND THE CASUAL PASSER-BY ... 90
III. SECURITY OF THE ROADS ... ... ... ... 144

PART II.
LAY WAYFARERS.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE 175

I. HERBALISTS, CHARLATANS, MINSTRELS, JUGGLERS, AND

TUMBLERS ... ... ... ... ... ... 177

II. MESSENGERS, ITINERANT MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS ... 2ig

III. OUTLAWS, WANDERING WORKMEN, AND PEASANTS OUT OF

BOND ... ... ... ... ... ... 252

PART III.
RELIGIOUS WAYFARERS.

CHAf. FAGK

I. WANDERING PREACHERS AND FRIARS ... .. ... 279

II. PARDONERS ... ... ... ... ... ... 309

III. PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES ... ... ... ... 338

CONCLUSION 405

APPENDIX n

INDEX

439

ILLUSTRATIONS.

i. — Knights travelling, followed by their escort
of archers. From the MS. Harleian 1319,
fol. 25, painted circa 1400 (see infra No. 1 1).
The two travellers are the Duke of Exeter and
the Duke of Surrey ; they go to meet Henry of
Lancaster at Chester, to whom they are sent
by King Richard If. (Aug. 1399) Frontispiece 4

2. — A minstrel dancing and singing. From the
MS. 2 B. vii., in the British Museum, fol.
1970. (English, early fourteenth century)... 7

3. — Old London Bridge. From a miniature in the
MS. 1 6 F. ii. fol. 73, in the British Museum,
containing the poems of Charles d'Orleans
(fifteenth century). This is the oldest repre-
sentation extant of the famous bridge built
by Isembert. The painting, of which the
upper part only is here given, represents the
Tower of London with Charles d'Orleans
sitting in it as a prisoner. In our reproduc-
tion may be seen the chapel of St. Thomas a
Becket and the houses on the bridge, the
wharves along the City side of the water, and

I4 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

PAG*

the tops of the white turrets of the Tower
of London. The miniature was obviously
painted from nature ... ... ... ... 35

4. — The old bridge on the Rhone at Avignon,
built by the friars pontiff in the twelfth
century, as it now stands, the four arches
and the chapel ... ... ... ... 39

5. — The old bridge at Cahors (thirteenth cen-
tury), present state ... ... ... ... 43

6. — The bridge at Stratford-at-Bow, as it stood
before its reconstruction in 1839. From an
engraving dated 1814 ... ... ... 46

7. — A part of London Bridge ; None-such House,
the drawbridge, and the houses on the bridge,
as they appeared in 1600. From a drawing
in Pepys Library, Magd. Coll., Cambridge,
reproduced by Dr. Furnivall in his edition of
Harrison's "Description of England," 1877 51

8 — Hugh of Clopton's bridge at Stratford-on-

Avon (fifteenth century) ... ... ... 56

9. — The chapel on the bridge at Wakefield (four-
teenth century). From a copyright photo-
graph by G. and J. Hall, of Wakefield ... 72

i o. — The bridge with a defensive tower at Wark-
worth, Northumberland (fourteenth century).
From a photograph by G. W. Wilson, of
Aberdeen ... ... ... ... ... 75

1 1 . — The one-arched bridge on the Esk, near
Danby Castle, Yorkshire, built during the
fourteenth century by Neville, Lord Lati-

ILL USTRA T1ONS. 1 5

PAGE

mer, the arms of whom are still to be seen
at the top of the bridge. From a photo-
graph obtained through the kindness of the
Rev. J. C. Atkinson, of Danby Parsonage,

York 78

12. — The parliament sitting in Westminster.
From the MS. Harl. 1319, in the British
Museum, fol. 57, painted circa 1400 (Eng-
lish ?). This MS. contains a chronicle of
the last years of Richard II., written in his
native tongue by a French gentleman called
Creton, who accompanied the king in his last
journey to Ireland. It is invaluable both
for its text and its miniatures ; in both the
author seems to have been very careful to
adhere to facts. He begins writing in verse,
but afterwards takes to prose, stating that
he is coming now to events of such import-
ance that he prefers using prose, to make
sure that he shall not allow himself to be led
by fancy.

He must have himself superintended the
painting of the drawings, with the greatest
care. There can be no doubt that the
figures are actual portraits ; of this there are
two proofs : first, when the same person
appears in several paintings he is always
given the same features, and can be easily
recognized ; second, the exact resemblance
of one of the persons can be put beyond a
doubt, which makes it likely that the others
also resemble their originals. Richard IJ-,

r6 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

the figure of whom constantly recurs in
the miniatures, is easily recognizable as
having the same features as in the bronze
statue over his tomb at Westminster. And
we know for certain that this tomb and statue
were ordered by Richard himself during his
lifetime ; the indenture with the seals at-
tached, dated 18 Rich. II. (1395), and bind-
ing two apparently English artists, viz.,
" Nicholas Broker et Godfrey Prest, citeins
et copersmythes de Loundres," is still in exist-
ence at the Record Office.

The sitting of the parliament here repre-
sented is the famous one when Richard was
deposed, and Henry of Lancaster came forth
to " chalenge yis Rewme of Yngland"
(" Rolls of Parliament," iii. p. 422), Oct.
1399, and the throne was then, as seen in
the painting, left unoccupied, " sede regali
cum pannis auri solempniter preparata,
tune vacua " (" Rolls," ibid.). On the right
of the throne are seated the spiritual lords;
on the left the temporal lords, knights, &c.
The nearest to the throne on this side is
Henry of Lancaster (wearing a tall fur cap).
Says Creton :

" Entour le dit siege asez pres
Estoient les prelas assis . . .
D'autre coste tous les seigneurs
Grans moyens petiz et meneurs . . .
Premiers seoit le due henry
Et puis tout au plus pres de ly
Le due Diorc (i.e., York) son beau cousin," &c.

ILLUSTRATIONS. 17

PAGE

13. — The three-branched bridge at Crowland

(fourteenth century), present state ... ... 89

14. — A common cart. From the MS. 10 E. IV.,
in the British Museum, fol. nob (early four-
teenth century ; English) ... ... ... 90

15. — A reaper's cart going up-hill. From the
Louterell psalter ; fac-simile of the engraving
in the " Vetusta Monumenta " (Society of
Antiquaries) vol. vi. ; see in this vol., " Re-
marks on the Louterell psalter," by J. G.
Rokewood. " Dominus Galfridus Louterell
me fieri fecit." (English, first half of the
fourteenth century) ... ... ... ... 93

1 6 — Ladies travelling in their carriage with their
dogs and pet animals, one of which is a
squirrel. One of the followers travelling on
horseback, to be more at his ease and to be
able to defy the wind, has covered his head
with his hood, and carries his tall hat hang-
ing to his girdle. From the Louterell
psalter (See No. 15) ... ... ... 97

17. — Travelling in a horse-litter; a lady and a
wounded knight are carried in the litter ;
squires escort them. From \:he MS. 1 1 8
Fran^aiSjfol. 285^ the Bibliotheque Nationale
at Paris; "Romance of Lancelot" (late four-
teenth century, French). A good example
of a State horse-litter is to be found in the
MS. 1 8 E. II., in the British Museum, fol. 7 ;
" Chronicles of Froissart " (French, fif-
teenth century) ... ... ... ... 101

1 8 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIJ-E.

r-AGR

18. — A young squire travelling:

"And he hadde ben somtyme in chivachie,
In Flaundres, in Artoys, and in Picardic,
And born him wel, as in so litel space,
In hope to stonden in his lady grace.
Embrowdid was he, as it were a mede
Ai ful of fresshe floures, white and reede,
Syngynge he was, or flowtynge, al the day ;
He was as fressh as is the moneth of May."

From the Ellesmere MS. of the " Canterbury
Tales." • The Ellesmere cuts are used by the
kind permission of Dr. Furni vail ... ... 103

19-20. — Ladies on horseback. Two drawings
illustrative of both ways of riding : sitting
sideways (Chaucer's prioresse) and riding
astride (Chaucer's Wife, of Bath). From the
Ellesmere MS. ... ... ... ... 105

21. — A family dinner. From the MS. Addit.
28162, in the British Museum, fol. lob (early
fourteenth century ; French). Note the
carver, the cup-bearer, the musicians1, the mar-
shal of the hall, whose mission it is to expel
objectionable intruders, whether men or dogs.
In the present case, while this officer is ex-
pelling a very objectionable lazar, come under
pretence of sprinkling the diners with holy
water, a dog a little further off seizes this
opportunity of mischief-making, and gets
hold of a fish on the table. The carver
grasps the meat with his left hand ; forks
then were unknown, but good breeding

ILL USTRA TIONS. 1 9

PAGR

was, nevertheless, not neglected, and it con-
sisted in the server's touching the meat only
with the left hand. Writing later than the time
we speak of, John Russell, marshal of the hall
to Duke Humphrey of Gloucester (fifteenth
century), adds one refinement more, that
is to use only three fingers of the left hand.
This was, in his mind, the acme of fine
carving :

"Sett neuer on fysche nor flesche, beast, nor fowle

trewly,
Moore than ij fyngurs and a thombe, for that is

curtesie.

Touche neuer with youre right hande no maner
mete surely."

"Boke of Nurture " (Furnivall, 1868, p. 137).

It may be seen from our engraving that part
of these niceties was unknown yet to carvers
in the first half of the fourteenth century.
The whole of the left hand is used to grasp
the meat ... ... ... ... ... 109

" A cooke thei hadde . . .
To boyle chiknes and the mary bones."

From the miniature in the Ellesmere MS. of
the " Canterbury Tales." The pot-hooks with
three prongs, which he carries, were the dis-
tinctive attribute of cooks and cookmaids,
and appear on all representations of such
people (several are to be found in the Lou-
terell psalter; see Vetusta Monumenta,"

20 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE.

rAGl

vol. vi., the Roy. MS. 10 E. IV., passim,
&c.). They used it to turn the meat and take
it out of the deep round-bellied pots, stand-
ing on three legs over the fire, which were
then in common use... ... ... ... 117

23. — The new habits of luxury ; a gentleman,
helped by two attendants, dressing before the
fire in his bedroom. From the MS. 2 B.
vii., in the British Museum, fol. 72 b (Eng-
lish ; early fourteenth century) ... ... 127

Of this luxury, of the spread of the use of
chimneys, Sec., Langland, as a satirist, com-
plains ; and this, as a marshal of the hall,
John Russell a little later recommends as the
proper method of dressing for a gentleman.
He then thus addresses the attendant :

" Than knele down on youre kne, and thus to youre

souerayn ye say :

* Syr, what robe or govn pleseth it yow to were to-
day?'" &c.

"Boke of Nurture" (Furnivall, 1868, p. 178).

24. — An English inn of the fourteenth century.

From the Louterell psalter ... .. ... 130

25. — On the roadside ; the alehouse. From
the MS. 10 E. IV., in the British Museum,
fol. 114^; (English, fourteenth century) ... 132

26. — A Hermit in his solitude, tempted by the
devil; MS. 10 E. IV., fol. 113 b. The
vignette here reproduced is one out of several
which illustrate a well-known mediaeval tale.

ILL USTRA TJONS. 2 j

PACI

Here it may be remarked that though this
MS., invaluable as it is for the study of
English customs, dresses, &c., during the
fourteenth century has been often made use
of, it has perhaps never been so thoroughly
studied as it deserves. It contains Decretals,
with marginal coloured drawings of the
highest value on account of their variety and
the subjects they illustrate. Not only a
number of games and trades are there repre-
sented, with numerous miracles of the Virgin,
&c., but there are also complete tales told
by the draughtsman, without words, and
only with the help of his colours. He does
not invent his stories, but simply illustrates
the fabliaux which he remembered and par-
ticularly relished. The drawing we give
belongs to the story of the " hermit who got
drunk." As he was once sitting before his
cell he was tempted by the devil, who re-
proached him with his continual virtue, and
entreated him to sin at least once, recommend-
ing him to choose either to get drunk or to
commit adultery or to commit murder. The
hermit chose the first as being the least (see
p. 132, a copy of the miniature where he is
seen at his drink). But when he has once
got drunk he finds on his way the wife of his
friend the miller ; he commits adultery with
her, and then meeting the husband, kills him.
The text of the tale is in Me"on, " Nouveau
recueil de fabliaux," 1829, vol. ii. p. 173 .
" De Termite qui s'enyvra ".... .. .... 139

22 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

PAGE

27. — Escaped prisoner flying to sanctuary. From
the MS. 10 E. IV., fol. 206 b, in the British
Museum (fourteenth century) ... ... 144

28. — The Durham knocker, affixed to one of the
doors of the cathedral. Fugitives used it to
be admitted to sanctuary (Norman) ... 153

29.— The Frid-stool in Hexham Abbey, Northum-
berland, where fugitives flying to sanctuary
sat. It is of Norman style, and seems to date
from the twelfth century ... ... ... 154

30. — An adventure seeker. From the MS. 2 B.
vii., fol. 149 (English, early fourteenth
century) ... ... ... ... ... 175

31. — A Physician (Chaucer's Doctour of Phisik):

" He knew the cause of every malady. '

From the Ellesmere MS. ... ... .. 177

32. — Playing upon the vielle (viol). From the

MS. 10 E. IV., fol. 4 ... ' 202

33-— Tne "Minstrels' gallery" in the Exeter
cathedral (fourteenth century) £rom a
photograph by Messrs. Frith and Co. ... 203

34- — A fourteenth-century juggler. From the

MS. 10 E. IV., fol. 5 212

35. — Favourite dances of the fourteenth century;
a lady dancing head downwards, to the sound
of a tabor and a double flute. From the MS.

ILLUSTRATIONS. 23

PAGF

10 E. IV., fol. 58. Representations of such
dances of women, head downwards, are in-
numerable in MSS., painted glass, old portals,
&c. There is one in the album of Villard de
Honnecourt (thirteenth century), ed. Lassus
and Darcel ; the interest taken in such per-
formances is attested by countless examples... 2K|

36. — Favourite dances in Persia at the present
day. From a modern pencil case in the
possession of the author. See also the life-
size Persian paintings exhibited in the South
Kensington Museum, where similar dances
are represented ... ... ... ...215

37. — A performing bear. From the MS. 10
E. IV., fol. 154, in the British Museum
(English, fourteenth century) ... ... 218

38 — A sham messenger carrying a letter. From

the MS. 10 E. IV., fol. 53 b 2iy

39. — A professional messenger. From the MS.
10 E. IV., fol. 302 b in the British Museum.
(English, fourteenth century) ... ... 224

40. — A travelling pedlar ; his bag robbed by
monkeys. From the MS. 10 E. IV., in the
British Museum, foi. 149^... ... ... 234

41. — A rich merchant travelling (Chaucer's
Marchaunt) :

"'A marchaunt was ther with a forked herd,
In raotteleye, and high on horse he sat,
Uppon his heed a Flaundrisch bever hat . .

24 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

PACK

Ther wiste no man that he was in dette
So estately was he of governaunce."

From the Ellesmere MS. ... ... ... 242

42. — Forest life ; wood-cutters. From the MS.

10 E. IV., fol. 100 b ... 252

43. — Forest life ; a shooting casualty. From the

MS. 10 E. IV., fol. 203 a ... ' 256

44. — Reaping time. Labourers reaping corn
under the supervision of the hayward. From
the MS. 2 B. vii., fol. 78 b. English, early
fourteenth century. " They dwell in fayre
houses, and we haue the payne and traueyle,
rayne and wynd in the feldes" (speech of
John Ball, Lord Berners' Froissart, chap,
ccclxxxi). The overseer shown in the draw-
ing may possibly be a bailiff : " Supervidere
debet ballivus falcatores, messores, cariatores,"
&c. (" Fleta," cap. 73), or a provost (who
had about the same duties, but was practically
chosen by the peasants themselves). But it
seems more likely to be a hayward ; the dress
and attitude better suit a man in that station.
The care of seeing that " repe-men . . . repe
besili and clenli," was sometimes entrusted to
such officers (see Skeat, " Notes to Piers the
Plowman," p. 273). A horn, such as our man
wears, was always worn by a hayward, who
used to blow it to warn off people from stray-
ing in the crops. The rough and command-
ing attitude seen in the drawing would not
be so readily expected from a bailiff with his

ILLUSTRATIONS. 25

PAGE

juridical knowledge and comparatively high
function, or from a provost appointed by the
peasants themselves, as from a hayward or
garde champfare ... ... ... ... 263

45, — In the stocks. A woman and a monk are put
into them ; a gentleman abuses them. From
the MS. 10 E. IV., fol. 187, where it forms
part of a series of drawings illustrating a. fab-
liau of the same sort as the one alluded to
above (illustration No. 25). It is called,
Du soucretain et de la fame au chevalier ; the
author is Rutebeuf, and it may be found in
the works of this thirteenth-century writer... 267

46. — Stocks at Shalford, near Guildford ; present

state. From a drawing by Aug. de Blignieres 268

47. — Beggars. A cripple and other beggars helped
by a generous king to his own garments.
From the MS. 10 E. IV., fol. 261 b ... 270

48. — A blind beggar Jed by his dog. From the

MS. 10 E. IV., fol. no 275

49. — A friar (Chaucer's friar). From the Elles-
mere MS. " And it shall be lawful for such
as shall be compelled by necessity to be shod,
. . , and they are not to ride unless some
manifest necessity or infirmity oblige them."
" The rule of the Friars Minors " (Dugdale's
" Monasticon," 1817, vol. vi. part iii. p. 1504) 279

50. — " When Adam delved and Eve span " — the
text of John Ball's harangue illustrated
from the early fourteenth-century MS., 2 B

26 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

PAGE

vii., fol. 4 ^, in the British Museum.
(English) ... 283

51. — A worldly ecclesiastic.

" Ful wel biloved and familiar was he
. . . with worthie wommen."

(Prologue of the " Canterbury Tales").
From the MS. 10 E. IV., fol. 185. Belongs
to the same story as No. 45 ... ..288

52 — Psalm singing. The interior of a friar's
church. From the MS. Domit. A. xvii., fol.
120^, in the British Museum (early fifteenth
century). The splendour of this church, with
its beautiful pavement, its sculptured stalls,
altar, roof, and pinnacles, very exactly cor-
responds to the contemporary criticisms against
the wealth of the friars, and may be taken as
an illustration of the very words of Wyclif
and Langland ... ... ... ... 295

53. — Sprinkling people at dinner with holy

water. From the MS. 10 E. IV., fol. 108 b 300

54. — A game of fox and geese. From the MS. 10

E. IV., fol. 49 b ... ... ... ... 309

55. — Reading in Canterbury cathedral of a fabri-
cated papal bull granting pardons to those
who will help Henry of Lancaster against
King Richard II. From the MS. Harl. 1319,
fol. 12 a, containing the chronicle of Creton
(see supra No. 12) ... ... ... ... 317

ILLUSTRATIONS. 27

PAGB

56 --A pardoner (Chaucer's pardoner).

" A vernicle hadde he sowed on his cappe,
His walet lay byfbrn him in his lappe
Bret-ful of pardoun come from Rome al hoot."

From the Ellesmere MS. of the " Canterbury
Tales" ... 337

57. — Rocamadour, general view. From a photo-
graph, obtained through the kindness of
Chanoine Laporte, of Rocamadour ... ... 338

58. — A pilgrim. From the MS. 17 C. xxxviii,
fol. 39, in the British Museum ; containing
the travels of Mandeville. (English, fifteenth
century) ... ... ... ... ...361

59. — The fortified entrance to the sanctuaries of
Rocamadour, built in the eleventh century,
recently restored. From a photograph ob-
tained as above, No. 57 ... ... ... 365

60. — Travelling by sea. From the MS. Harl.
1319, fol. 7 b. The subject is the return
of Richard II. from Ireland to England ... 369

61. — A blind beggar and his boy. The trick
played upon the blind man by his boy is well
known as being one of the incidents in the
first chapter of the sixteenth-century Spanish
novel of " Lazarillo de Tormes." It has
long been suspected that the materials for
this chapter were drawn by the Spanish
author from an earlier tale. This drawing
and several others that follow it, which
have never been adverted to with reference to

28 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

CAI

u Lazarillo de Tonnes," put the fact beyond
a doubt ; they tell in their way the same
tale, and they are of the first part of the
fourteenth century. They are to be found
in the MS. 10 E. IV., in the British Museum,
fol. 217 b-. described above under No. 25 ... 40

English Wayfaring %ife in the
Hges (^fourteenth

INTRODUCTION

" O, dist Spadassin, void un ban resveux ;
mats aliens nous cocker au coin de la cheminte
et Id, passons avec les dames nostre vie et nostre
temps a enfiler des perles ou a filer comme
Sardanapahts. Qui ne s1 adventure n'a cheval
tti mule, ce dist Salomon.""

VIE DE GARGANTUA.

AT the present day there are but few wayfarers.
The small trades which ply along the road, in
every chance village, are disappearing before our
.lewer methods of wholesale manufacture ; more and
more rarely do we see the pedlar unstrap his pack at
the farm door, the travelling shoemaker mend by the
wayside the shoes which on Sunday will re-place the
wooden clogs, or he.ar the wandering musician pipe
interminably at the windows his monotonous airs.
Professional pilgrims exist no longer, even quack
doctors are losing their credit. It was far otherwise
in the Middle Ages ; many persons were bound to a

30 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

wandering existence, and started even from infancy 01
their life-long journey. Some trotted their strang
industries in the broad sunshine, through the dust o
the highroads ; others skulked in bye-lanes or even ii
coppices, hiding their heads from the sherifFs officer-
may be a criminal, may be a fugitive, " a wolf's hea<
that every one may cut down," according to the terribl
expression of an English jurist of the thirteenth century
Among these were many labourers who had broken th
villeins bond, unhappy and oppressed in their hamlets
who wandered through the country in quest of work
as though flight could enfranchise them : but " servic
est en le sank " (" service is in the blood"),1 the magis
trate told them. Among them also were pedlars ladei
with petty wares ; pilgrims who from St. Thomas' t<
St. James' went begging along the roads, living b
alms ; pardoners, strange nomads, who sold to th
common people the merits of the saints in paradise
mendicant friars and preachers of all sorts who, accord
ing to the times, held passionately liberal harangues o
contemptibly selfish discourses at the church doors. Al
these had one character in common, namely, that in th
wide extents of country where they passed their lives
they served as links between the separated groups o
other lives which, attached to the soil by law an<
custom, were spent irremovable, every day under th
same sky and at the same toil. Pursuing their singula
calling, these wanderers, who had seen so much am
knew so many adventures, served to give some idea o
the great unknown world to the humble classes whon

1 "Year Books," 30, 31 Edward I. Edited by A. T- Horwood

for the Rolls Series, 1863.

INTRO D UCTION. 3 T

they met on their way. Together with many false
beliefs and tables they put into the heads of the stay-at-
homes certain notions of extent and of active life which
they would hardly otherwise have had ; above all, they
brought to the men attached to the soil news of their
brethren in the neighbouring province, of their condi-
tion of misery or of happiness, who were pitied or
envied accordingly, and were remembered as brothers or
friends to call upon in the day of revolt.

At a period when for the mass of mankind ideas were
transmitted orally and travelled with these wanderers
along the roads, the nomads served as a true link
between the human groups of various districts. It
would be therefore of much interest for the historian to
know exactly what were these channels of the popular
thought, what life was led by those who fulfilled this
function, what were their influence and manners. We
will study the chief types of this race, and shall choose
them in England in the fourteenth century, in a country
and at an epoch when their social importance was con-
siderable. The interest which attaches to them is of
course manifold ; the personality of these pardoners,
professional pilgrims, and minstrels, extinct species, is
curious in itself when examined near at hand; above all,
the condition of feeling among them and the mode in
which they carried on their businesses are closely inter-
woven with the whole social condition of a great people
which had just been formed and was acquiring the
features and the character which still distinguish it at
the present day. It was the epoch when, thanks to
the French wars and the incessant embarrassments Oi
royalty, the subjects of Edward III. and of Richard II.

32 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

gained a parliament similar to that which we see ii
working now ; the period when, in religious life, th
independence of English spirit asserted itself througl
the reforms of Wyclif, the statutes for the clergy, ant
the protestations of the Good Parliament ; when, ii
literature, Chaucer inaugurated the series of England'
c;reat poets ; when, in short, from noble to villein wa
felt a stir which led without excessive revolution to tha
true liberty for which we, the French, have so lonj
envied our neighbours. This period is decisive in thi
history of the country. It will be seen that in all th<
great questions debated in the cloister, the castle, or 01
the market-place, the part played by the wayfarers
though little known, was not insignificant.

We must first examine the locality of the scene
afterwards the events that took place there; we mus
know what were the roads, then what were the being
who frequented them.

PART I.

ENGLISH ROADS.

OLD LONDON BRIDGE.

(From MS. Rov. 16 F 2 in the British Museum.)

CHAPTER I.

ROADS AND BRIDGES.

THE maintenance of roads and bridges in England
was in the fourteenth century one of those general
charges which weighed, like military service, on
the whole of the nation. All landed proprietors were
obliged, in theory, to watch over the good condition of
the highways ; their tenants had to execute the repairs
for them. The religious houses themselves, owners of
property given in frank almoigney that is to say, having
an object of pure charity with a perpetual title, had dis-
pensation from every service and rent towards the former
proprietor of the soil, and in general they had no other

.,6 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

charge than that of saying prayers or giving alms foi
the repose of the donor's soul. But yet it remained foi
vhem to satisfy the trinoda necessitas, or triple obliga-
tion, which among other duties consisted in repairing
roads and bridges.

There was in England a very considerable network
of roads, the principal of which dated as far back as th<
Roman times. The province of Britain had been one o:
those where the greatest care had been bestowed upon th<
military and commercial ways by the Roman emperors
•' The network of roads in the island," says Mommsen
" which was uncommonly developed, and for which ii
particular Hadrian did much in connection with th<
building of his wall, was of course primarily subservien
to military ends ; but alongside of, and in part taking
precedence over the legionary camps, Londinium occu
pies in that respect a place which brings clearly intc
view its leading position in traffic." l In many place;
are yec to be found remnants of the Roman highways
the more important of which were called in Anglo-Saxor
times and since, Watling Street, Ermine Street, the Fosse
and Ickenild Street. "These Roman ways in Britair
have frequently been continued as the publick roads, sc
that where a Roman military way is wanting, the pre-
sumption is in favour of the present highroad, if thai
be nearly in the same direction."2 There are twc
reasons for that permanence : the first is that the roadi
were built by the Romans to supply needs which have
not ceased to be felt ; being cut, for instance, fron

1 " History of Rome," translated by W. P. Dickson, London
1 88 5, book viii. chap. v.

a J. Horsley, "Britannia Romana," London, 1732, p. 391.

ROADS AND BRIDGES.

37

London to the north through York ; towards Corn-
wall along the sea-coast ; towards the Welsh mines,
&c. : the second reason is the way in which they were
built. " A portion of the Fosse Road which remains
at Radstock, about ten miles south-west of Bath, which
was opened in February, 1881, showed the following
construction :

" i. Pavimentum, or foundation, fine earth, hard
beaten in.

" 2. Statumen, or bed of the road, composed of large
stones, sometimes mixed with mortar.

" 3. Ruderatio, or small stones well mixed with
mortar.

l< 4. Nucleus, formed by mixing lime, chalk, pounded
brick or tile ; or gravel, sand, and lime mixed with
clay.

" 5. Upon this was laid the surface of the paved
road, technically called the summum dorsum." l

All Roman roads were not built with so much care
and in such an enduring fashion; they were, however
all of them substantial enough to resist for centuries,
and they remained in use during the Middle Ages.
Other roads besides were opened during that epoch to
provide for new fortified towns and castles, and to satisfy
the needs of great landowners, religious or otherwise.

The keeping of these roads in repair, which was part
of the trinoda necessitas, was riot considered as worldly,
but rather as pious and meritorious work before God,

1 H. M. Scarth, "Roman Britain," S. P. C. K., London, 1883,

p. 121.

38 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

of the same sort as visiting the sick or caring for th<
poor ; l men saw in them a true charity for certain un-
fortunate people, namely, travellers. This is why tht
clergy submitted to them. The pious character of thi:
kind of labour may suffice to prove that the roads were
not so safe or in such a good state as has been some-
times maintained.2 The finest result of the religious
spirit in the Middle Ages was to produce that dis
interested enthusinsm which, as soon as some distress o:
humanity became flagrant, immediately created societies
for help and rendered self-denial popular. For example,
one of these distresses was seen in the power of the
infidel, and the Crusades were the consequence. The
forsaken condition of the lowest classes in the town;
was noticed in the thirteenth century, and St. Franci?
sent for the consolation of the neglected those mendi-
cant friars who were at first so justly popular, though
their repute changed so quickly. After the same
fashion travellers were considered as unfortunates
deserving pity, and help was given to them to please
God. A religious order with this end in view had
been founded in the twelfth century, that of the Pontift
brothers, or makers of bridges (fons, bridge), which

1 When Henry VIII. gave the lands of the dissolved monastery
of Christ Church to Canterbury Cathedral, he declared that he
made this donation " in order that charity to the poor, the repara-
tion of roads and bridges, and other pious offices of all kinds should
multiply and spread afar" (Elton, "Tenures of Kent," London,
1867, p. 21). The gift is made "in liberam, puram et perpetuam
eleemosynam."

2 Thorold Rogers, "History of Agriculture and Prices in
England," Oxford, 1866, vol. i. p. 138.

ROADS AND BRIDGES. 41

spread into several countries of the Continent.1 In
France, over the Rhone, they built the celebrated bridge
of Avignon, which yet preserves four arches of their
construction ; and the one at Pont St. Esprit, which is
still in use. In order to break the force of such a
current as that of the Rhone they built, closely together,
piers of an oblong section, which ended in a sharp
angle at each of the two extremities of the axis, and
their masonry was so solid that in . many places the
waters have respected it to the present day, that is, for
seven centuries. They had besides establishments on
the shores of streams, and helped to cross them by boat.
Laymen learnt the secrets of their art and in the thirteenth
century began to take their place ; bridges multiplied
in France, many of which still exist ; such, for example,
as the fine bridge of Cahors yet intact, where even the
machicolated turrets which formerly served to defend it
are still preserved.

There is no trace in England of establishments
founded by the Bridge Friars, but it is certain that
there, as elsewhere, the works for constructing bridges
and highways had a pious character. To encourage the
faithful to take part in them, Richard de Kellawe, Bishop
of Durham (1311-1316), remitted part of the penalties
on their sins. The registry of his episcopal chancery
contains frequent entries such as the following :
" Memorandum . . his lordship grants forty days
indulgence to all who will draw from the treasure that
God has given them valuable and charitable aid towards

1 See " Recherches historiques sur les congregations hospitalieres
des freres pontifes," by M. Gregoire, late Bishop of Blois. Paris,
1818.

4i ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

the building and repair of Botyton bridge." Forty da
are allowed on another occasion for help towards t
bridge and the highroad between Billingham a
Norton,1 and forty days for the great road frc
Brotherton to Ferrybridge. The wording of this lj
decree is characteristic :

" To all those, &c. Persuaded that the minds
the faithful are more ready to attach themselves to pic
works when they have received the salutary encourag
ment of fuller indulgences, trusting in the mercy
God Almighty and the merits and prayers of t
glorious Virgin his Mother, of St. Peter, St. Paul, ai
of the most holy confessor Cuthbert our patron, ai
all saints, we remit forty days of the penances impos
on all our parishioners and others . . . sincerely co
trite and confessed of their sins, who shall help by th<
charitable gifts, or by their bodily labour, in the buildii
or in the maintenance of the causeway between Brothe
ton and Ferrybridge where a great many •people •pc
byr 2

There were also gilds, those lay brotherhoods ar
mated by the religious spirit, who repaired roads ai
bridges. The Gild of the Holy Cross in Birminghai
founded under Richard II., did this, and their interve
tion was most valuable, as the Commissioners
Edward VI. remarked two centuries later. The gi
then "mainteigned . . . and kept in good reparaciou
two greate stone bridges, and divers foule and dau
gerous high wayes, the charge whereof the towne

1 " Registrum Palatinum Dunelmense," ed. Hardy, Rolls Seri
1875, vol. i. pp. 615, 641 (A.D. 1314).
* Ibid., vol. i. p. 507.

JtOADS AND BRIDGES. 45

hitsellfe ys not hable to mainteign. So that the lacke
thereof wilbe a greate noysaunce to the kinces maties
subiectes passing to and from the marches of Wales and
an vtter ruyne to the same towne, being one of the
fayrest and most proffittuble townes to the kinges
highnesse in all the shyre." 1

Whether Queen Mathilda (twelfth century) got
wetted or not, as is supposed, on passing the ford of
the river at Stratford-atte-Bow— that same village
where afterwards the French was spoken which amused
Chaucer — it is certain that she thought she did a
meritorious work in constructing two bridges there.2
Several times repaired, Bow Bridge was still standing
in 1839. The queen endowed her foundation, grant-
ing land and a water-mill to the Abbess of Barking
with a perpetual charge thereon for the maintenance
of the bridge and the neighbouring roadway. When
the queen died, an abbey for men was founded at the
same Stratford close to the bridges, and the abbess
hastened to transfer to the new monastery the property
in the mill and the charge of the reparations. The
abbot did them at first, then he weaned of it, and ended
by delegating the looking after them to one Godfrey
Pratt. He had built this man a house on the cause-
way beside the bridge, and made him an annual
grant. For a long time Pratt carried out the contract,
"getting assistance," says an inquiry of Edward I.,

* Certificates of Chantries, quoted in " English Gilds, the
Original Ordinances from MSS. of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Centuries," ed. by Toulmin Smith. E. T. T. S., 1870, p. 249.
Gilds in Rochester, Bristol, Ludlow, &c., did the same.

2 " Archzologia," vols. xxvii. p. 77 ; xx?x. p. 380.

46 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

" from some passers-by, but without often having
recourse to their aid." He also received the charity
of travellers, and his affairs prospered. They prospered
so well that the abbot thought he might withdraw his
pension ; Pratt indemnified himself the best way he
could. He set up iron bars across the bridge and
made all pay who passed over, except the rich, for he
prudently made exception " for the nobility ; he feared
them and let them pass without molesting them."
The dispute only terminated in the time of Edward
II. ; the abbot recognized his fault ; took back the
charge of the bridge, and put down the iron bars, the
toll, and Godfrey Pratt himself.

BOW BRIDGE AS IT STOOD BEFORE ITS DEMOLITION IN

(from a print datxi 183 1.)

This bridge, over which no doubt Chaucer himself
passed, was of stone, the arches were narrow and the
piers thick ; strong angular buttresses supported them
and broke the force of the current ; these formed at
the upper part a triangle or siding which served as
a refuge for foot-passengers, for the passage was so
narrow that a carriage sufficed to fill the way. When
it was pulled down in 1839, it was found that the
method of construction had been very simple. To
ground the piers in the bed of the river the masons
had simply thrown down stones and mortar till the
level of the water had been reached. It was remarked

ROADS AND BRIDGES. 47

also that the ill-will of Pratt or the abbot or of their
successors must have rendered the bridge almost as
dangerous at certain moments as the primitive ford.
The wheels of the vehicles had hollowed such deep
ruts in the stone and the horses' shoes had so worn the
pavement that an arch had been at one time pierced
through.

No less striking as a case where pious motives caused
the making of a bridge is the contract of the thirteenth
xentury, by which Reginald de Rosels allowed Peter,
Abbot of Whitby, to build a permanent bridge on the
river Esk, between his own and the convent's lands.
He pledges himself in that act to permit to all comers
free access to the bridge through his own property.
" For which concession the aforesaid Abbot and con-
vent have absolved in. chapter all the ancestors of the
same Reginald of all fault and transgression they may
have committed against the church of Whiteby and
have made them participant of all the good works,
alms, and prayers of the church of Whiteby." l
Numerous other examples of the same sort might be
quoted ; but it will be enough to add, as being perhaps
more characteristic of the times than all the rest, the
recommendations which Truth in the " Vision concern-
ing Piers the Plowman " makes to the wealthy Eng-
lish merchants, the number of whom had so largely
increased during the fourteenth century. Truth bids
them to do several works of charity, which he con-
siders of the highest importance for their salvation ;

1 "Cartularium Abbathiae de Whiteby," edited by J. C.Atkinson,
Durham, Surtees Society, 1881, vol. ii. p. 401. The original of the
Rosels contract is in Latin.

48 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

they ought, among other things, to " amenden mesor
dieux," that is, hospitals for sick people and for travellers
to repair " wikked wayes," that is to say, bad roads
and also

" . . . . brygges to-broke by the heye weyes
Amende in som manere wise."

For this and for helping prisoners, poor scholars, etc
they will have no little recompense. When they ar
about to die St. Michael himself will be sent to them t
drive away devils that they be not tormented by wicke
spirits in their last moments :

"And ich shal sende yow my-selue seynt Michel myn Angel
That no deuel shal yow dere ne despeir in youre deyinge,
And sende youre soules ther ich my-self dwelle." x

The pious character of the bridges was also shown b
the chapel that stood on them. Bow Bridge was thu
placed under the protection of St. Catherine. Londo
Bridge had also a chapel dedicated to St. Thomas c
Canterbury. . It was a roomy Gothic building c
apsidal form, with high windows and wrought pinnacle:
almost a church. A miniature in a manuscript, c
which a reproduction on a reduced scale is given at th
beginning of this chapter, shows it fixed on the middl
pier, whilst along the parapet are houses with pointe
roofs, whose storeys project and hang over the Thames

This was a famous bridge. No Englishman of th
Middle Ages, and even of the Renaissance, ever spok
but with pride of London Bridge ; it was the grea
national wonder ; until the middle of the eighteent

1 Sk cat's edit'^n, Text C, pas. x. 1. 29, et seq.

ROADS AND BRIDGES. 49

century it remained the only bridge of the capital. It
had been commenced in 1176, on the site of an old
wooden structure, by Peter Colechurch, " priest and
chaplain," who had already once repaired the wooden
bridge. All the nation were excited about this great
and useful enterprise ; the king, the citizens of London,
the dwellers in the shires endowed the building with
lands and sent money to hasten its completion. The
list of donors was still to be seen in the sixteenth century,
" in a table fair written for posterity " x in the chapel
on the bridge. A little while before his death in 1205,
another had taken the place of Peter Colechurch, then
very old, as director of the works. King John, who
was in France, struck with the beauty of the bridges of
that country, particularly by the magnificent bridge of
Saintes which lasted till the middle of our century, and
which was approached by a Roman triumphal arch, chose,
to superintend the works in the room of Colechurch, a
Frenchman, called Isembert, " master of the Saintes
schools " (1201). Isembert, who had given proof of his
powers in the bridges of La Rochelle and of Saintes,
set out with his assistants, furnished with a royal
patent addressed to the mayor and inhabitants of
London. John Lackland therein vaunted the skill of
the master, and declared that the revenue arising from
the houses that he would build upon the bridge should

1 Stow's "Survey of London " (Strype's edition, 1720) bk. i. pp.
53-57. Stow, who examined the accounts of the bridge wardens for
the year 1506 (22 Hen. VII.), found that the bridge expenses were
at that time £815 175. 2d. The present bridge dates from our
century; it was opened to circulation in 1831 ; the expense of its
erection amounted to £1,458,311.

5o ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

be consecrated to the maintenance of the edifice for
ever.1

The bridge was finished in 1209. It was furnished
with houses, with a chapel, and with defensive towera
It immediately became celebrated, and was the admi-
ration of all England. The Scotchman, Sir David
Lindesay, Earl of Crawfurd, having fallen out with
Lord Welles, ambassador at the Scottish Court, a duel
was decided on, and Lindesay chose London Bridge as
rhe place of combat (1390). He crossed the length of
the kingdom, furnished with a safe-conduct from King
Richard II., and the duel solemnly came off at the place
fixed in the presence of an immense concourse. The
first shock was so violent that the lances were shivered,
but the Scotchman remained immovable in his saddle.
The people, fearing for the success of the Englishman,
called out that the foreigner was fixed to his horse
against all rules. Upon understanding this Lindesay,
by way of reply, leapt lightly to the ground, with one
bound returned to the saddle and, charging his adversary
anew, overthrew and grievously wounded him.2

The houses built on the bridge were of several storeys ;
they had cellars in the thickness of the piers. When
the inhabitants needed water they lowered their buckets
by ropes out of the windows and filled them in the
Thames. Sometimes by this means they helped poor
fellows whose boat had capsized. The arches were
narrow, and it was not uncommon in the dark for a
boat to strike against the piers and be dashed to pieces.

* See Appendix I.

2 Stow's "Survey," p. 56; " Chronicles of London Bridge," by
an Antiquary [Richard Thomson], London, 1827, pp. 187-193.

ROADS AND BRIDGES. 53

The Duke of Norfolk and several others were saved in
this manner in 1428, but some of their companions
were drowned. At other times the inhabitants them-
selves had need of help, for it happened occasionally
that the houses, badly repaired, hung forward and fell
in one block into the river. A catastrophe of this kind
took place in 1481.

One of the twenty arches of the bridge, the thirteenth
from the City side, formed a drawbridge to let boats
pass z and also to close the approach to the town ; this
was the obstacle which in 1553 hindered the insurgents
led by Sir Thomas Wyatt from entering London.
Beside the movable arch rose a tower on the summit of
which the executioner long: placed the heads of decapi-
tated criminals. That of the Lord Chancellor, Sir
Thomas More, bled for a time on the end of a pike
on this tower before it was redeemed by Margaret
Roper, the daughter of the condemned man. In 1576,
this building of sombre memories was splendidly recon-
structed, and some very fine rooms were made in it.
The new tower was entirely of wood, carved and gilt,
in the " paper worke " style in fashion in Elizabeth's
time, blamed by the wise Harrison. It was called
" None-such House." The heads of the condemned
were no more to soil a building so cheerful in aspect ;
they were placed on the next tower on the South wark
side. Four years after this change, the fashionable Lyly
the Euphuist, careful to flatter the vanity of his com-
patriots, ended one of his books with a pompous praise
of England, its products, its universities, its capital ; he

1 As to the toll collected there from certain foreign merchants
A.D. 1331), see "Liber Albus" (ed. Riley, Introduction, p. 1.).

54 ENGLISH WAYfARING LIFE.

added : " Among all the straunge and beautiful showes,
mee thinketh there is none so notable as the Bridge
which crosseth the Theames, which is in manner of a
continuall streete, well replenyshed with large and
stately houses on both sides, and situate upon twentie
arches, whereof each one is made of excellent free stone
squared, euerye one of them being three-score foote in
height, and full twentie in distaunce one from an
other." i

This was an exceptional bridge, others presented a
less important appearance. People were even glad to
find bridges like that at Stratford-at-Bow, in spite of
its want of width and its deep ruts ; or like the
wooden bridge over the Dyke, with arches so low and
narrow that all water traffic was interrupted by a slight
rising of the level of the water. The state of this last
bridge, which, in truth, was more of a hindrance than a
help to communication, at length excited the indignation
of neighbouring counties. During the fifteenth century,
therefore, it was granted to the inhabitants upon their

1 "Euphues and his England," ed. princ. 1580 ; Arber's reprint,
1 868, p. 434. See also the large coloured drawing of about the year
1600 (partly reproduced above, p. 51), in the third part of Harrison's
" Description of England," edited by F. J. Furnivall for the New
Shakspere Society, 1877; and Mr. Wheatley's notes on Norden's
Map of London, 1593, in vol. i. p. Ixxxix of the same work.
Foreigners coming to London never failed to notice the bridge as
one of the curiosities of the town. The Greek Nicander Nucius
of Corcyra, who visited England in 1 545-6, writes in his note-book :
" A certain very large bridge is built, affording a passage to those
in the city to the opposite inhabited bank, supported by stone
cemented arches, and having also houses and turrets upon it
"Travels of Nicander Nucius," Camden Society, 1841, p. 7).

w O

§ *

ROADS AND BRIDGES. 57

pressing request, that they might reconstruct the bridge,
with a movable arch for boats.1

In the same way disappeared, also in the fifteenth
century, a bridge described by Leland in his " Itine-
rary " as having been a " poore bridge of tymber and
no causey to come to it," which crossed the Avon at
Stratford. It was in such a state that " many poore
folkes and other refused to come to Stratford when
Avon was up, or comminge thither stood in jeopardye
of lyfe." The rich Sir Hugh of Clopton, sometime mayor
of London, who had been born at Clopton near Strat-
ford, and who died in 1497, moved by the danger of his
compatriots, built " the great and sumptuous bridge
upon Avon at the east ende of the towne, which hath
fourteen great arches of stone, and a long causey made
of stone, lowe walled on each syde, at the west ende
of the bridge." This same bridge is still in use, and
quite deserves the praise bestowed upon it by Leland.
But fine as it is, one would have less regretted its dis-
appearance than the destruction of a certain " praty
house of bricke and tymbre," 2 built by the same Hugh
of Clopton with the purpose of ending his days in it.
That house was purchased afterwards — also with the
intent of ending his life in it — by a certain countryman
of Hugh, who has since become famous enough. This
was William Shakespeare, who repaired the house,
then called New Place, and died in it in the year
1616.

The calling in of the foreign priest Isembert to

* See Appendix II.

* " The Itinerary of John Leland," edited by Tho. Hearnc
Oxford, 1745, vol. iv. pp. 66, 67

58 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

superintend the works of London Bridge seems to have
been an exceptional fact. The making of ordinary
bridges was usually entrusted to local artists or masons ;
and it would have been strange indeed if the people
who could build such splend'id cathedral naves all over
England had been at a loss to span rivers with bridges.
One of the few indentures for the making of a bridge
which have come down to us concerns the re-building
of Catterick bridge, Yorkshire, in 1422, on the great
Roman road, the Ermine Street ; this document is curious
in many respects. The contract binds several authorities
on the one hand, and " Tho. Ampilforde, John Garette,
and Robert Maunselle, masons," on the other. It is
stated in it " yat ye foresaides Tho., John, and Rob.,
schalle make a brigge of stane oure (over) ye water of
Swalle atte Catrik be twix ye old stane brigge and
ye new brigge of tree (of wood), quilke forsaid brigge,
with ye grace of God, salle be made sufficiant [and
warjkmanly in mason craft accordand in substance to
Barnacastelle brigge, aftir y* ground and ye watyr
accordes, of twa pilers, twa land stathes (abutments),
and thre arches." The deed goes on to give a very
minute account of the way in which every part of the
work will have to be performed, of the material that
will be used, and of the time when the bridge must be
entirely finished and open to circulation : " And
ye saides John, Tho., and Rob., ~challe this forsaid
brigge sufficiantly in masoncraft make and fully per-
furnist in all partiez and holy endyd be ye Fest of Seint
Michille ye Arcangelle quilk yl shalle fall in ye yere of
our Lorde Gode Mle ccccxxv." It is understood
besides that they will receive in payment, at certain

ROADS AND BRIDGES. 59

fixed dates, " goanes," and also sums of money, the
total of which will be 260 marks sterling.1

The bridge built by the three masons, John, Thomas,
and Robert, is still in existence, but it has undergone
great and many alterations.

We have already seen some examples of the means
employed at this period to secure the maintenance of
these valuable constructions, when that maintenance was
ensured by something more than the charges incident to
the ownership of the neighbouring lands (trinoda neces-
sitas) ; we know that it was sometimes provided under
favour of "indulgences" promised to benefactors, some-
times by the intervention of gilds, sometimes also by the
endowments with which a great lord would enrich the
bridge which he had founded. But there were several
methods besides which were employed with success,
even with profit ; such as regular receipts under that
right of toll- which Godfrey Pratt had arbitrarily
imposed on his fellow citizens, or the collection of pious
offerings made at the chapel of the bridge and to its
warden. The right of toll was called brudtholl (bridge-
toll) or pontagium ; the grantee, or person to whom the
tax was granted, bound himself in return to make all
the necessary repairs. Sometimes the King accorded
the right as a favour during a certain period. We have
an example in the following petition, which is of the
time of Edward I. or Edward II. :

" To our lord the king prays his vassal William of

1 " The North Riding Record Society," edited by the Rev. J. C.
Atkinson, London, vol. iii. part i. p. 33.

60 ENGLISH WA YfARING LIFE.

Latymer, lord of Yarm,1 that he will grant him pont-
age for five years at the bridge of Yarm, which is broken
down, where men were wont to pass with carts and with
horses on the king's highway between the water of
Tees towards Scotland. May it please him to do this
for the soul of Madame his consort, who is to God
commended, and for the common profit of the people
who pass." The King's reply was favourable: " The
King grants the pontage for the term." 2

Some of the tariffs in force at certain bridges during
the fourteenth century have come down to us and have
been printed ; the most detailed of these is of the year
1306, and concerns London Bridge. It is annexed to a
patent of Edward I., and enumerates not only passengers,
carriages, and animals of every quality or description,
but also every sort of <c saleable " ware which may pass
either on or below the bridge : though it may have
been considered somewhat unfair to draw money from
shipmen towards the expenses of a structure that was
no help to them, but rather the reverse.3 This list,
which is a great help towards forming an exact idea

1 Yarm on the Tees, 44 miles north-north-west of York. The
" king's highway " in question is the highroad from Scotland, which
leads to the south passing through York and London. The bridge
was re-built in 1400 by Skirlaw, Bishop of Durham.

8 "Rolls of Parliament," vol. i. p. 468. The right of pontage
is frequently mentioned in the "Liber Custumarum," edited by
Riley (Rolls Series).

3 "Concessimus quod capiatis ibidem de rebus venalibus ultra
pontem predictum et subtus eundem transeuntibus consuetudine?
subscriptas, videlicet . . ." Then follows a very long list of dues.
The text of this letter-patent may be found in an appendix tc
Hearne's "Liber niger Scaccarii," ed. 1771, vol i. p. 478*.

ROADS AND BRIDGES. 61

of the commodities brought to London by land or
by river, covers no less than four pages of printed
matter : including coals, timber, wines, beer, horses,
sheep, butter and cheese, fish, millstones, silk and
other cloths, and sometimes the place they come from
is given : Flanders, Normandy, &c.

Another very curious petition (1334) will show the
application of the other mode, that is, the collection of
voluntary offerings from the charity of passers-by ; the
share of the clergy in the care of these buildings, as
well as the greediness with which the profitable right
of collecting the gifts was disputed, and the embezzle-
ments of which they were sometimes the object, are to
be noticed :

" To our lord the king and his Council showeth
their poor chaplain, Robert le Fenere, parson of the
church of St. Clement, of Huntingdon, of the diocese
of Lincoln, that there is a little chapel lately built in
his parish on the bridge of Huntingdon, the keeping
of which chapel our lord the king has granted and
delivered during pleasure to one Sir Adam, Warden of
the house of St. John of Huntingdon, who receives and
takes away all manner of offerings and alms without
doing anything for the repair of the bridge or of the
said chapel as he is bound to do. On the other hand,
it seems hurtful to God and Holy Church that offerings
should be appropriated to any one except to the parson
within whose parish the chapel is founded. Wherefore
the said Robert prays, for God and Holy Church and
for the souls of our lord the king's father and his

62 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

ancestors, that he may have the keeping of the said
chapel annexed to his church, together with the charge
of the bridge, and he will take heed with all care to
maintain them well, with better will than any stranger,
for the profit and honour of Holy Church, to please
God and all people passing that way." l

This jumble of human and divine interests was sub-
mitted to the ordinary examination, and the demand
was set aside, with the following note : " Non est pe-
ticio parliament! " ; it is not a petition for parliament.

In many cases, the bridge was itself at once proprietor
of real estate and beneficiary of the offerings made to
its chapel, and sometimes also grantee of a right of
toll ; it had income from both civil and religious
sources. Such were notably the bridges of London,
of Rochester,2 of Bedford, and many others. John
de Bodenho, chaplain, explains to Parliament that the
inhabitants of Bedford hold their own town at farm
from the king, and have undertaken to maintain their
bridge. For this they " assigned certain tenements and
rents in the said town to support it, and with their alms
have newly built an oratory on the side of the water
belonging to Lord Mowbray, by leave of the lord,
adjoining the said bridge." The burgesses gave to the
plaintiff the charge of the reparations, together with the
whole revenues. But the priest, John of Derby, repre-
sented to the king that it was a royal chapel which he
might dispose of, and the king has given it to him,
which is very unjust, since the chapel is not the king's ;
even those who founded it are still living. All these

1 " Rolls of Parliament," vol. ii. p. 88.

* See Hist. MSS. Commission, pth Report, part i. p. 284.

ROADS AND BRIDGES. 63

reasons were found good ; the judges were enjoined to
do justice to the plaintiff, and were reprimanded for not
having done it sooner, as had already been prescribed
to them.1

Enriched by so many offerings, protected by the
trinoda necessitas and by the common interest of the
landed proprietors, these bridges should have been con-
tinually repaired, and have remained sound. But it
was nothing of the sort, and the distance between legal
theory and practice was great. When the taxes were
regularly collected and honestly applied, they usually
sufficed to support the building ; even the right of
collecting them, being in itself profitable, was, as has
been seen, strongly contested for ; but the example of
Godfrey Pratt and of some others has already shown
that all the wardens were not honest. Many, even in
the highest positions, imitated Godfrey. London Bridge
itself, so rich, so useful, so admired, had constantly need
of reparation, and this was never done until danger was
imminent, or even till catastrophe happened. Henry
III. granted the farm of the bridge revenues <f to his
beloved wife," who neglected to maintain it, and appro-
priated to herself without scruple the rents of the
building ; none the less did the king renew his patent
at the expiration of the term, that the queen might
benefit " from a richer favour." The result of these
favours was not long to wait ; it was soon found that
the bridge was in ruins, and to restore it the ordinary
resources were not enough ; it was necessary to send
collectors throughout the country to gather offerings
from those willing to give. Edward I. begged his
1 " Rolls of Parliament," vol. ii. p. 100 (A.D. 1338).

64 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

subjects to hasten (January, 1281), the bridge would
give way if they did not send prompt assistance. He
ordered the archbishops, bishops, all the clergy, to allow
his collectors to address the people freely with " pious
exhortations " that the subsidies should be given without
delay. But the supplies thus urgently required arrived
too late ; the catastrophe had already happened, a
" sudden ruin '' befel the bridge, and to repair this
misfortune the king established a special tax upon the
passengers, merchandise and boats (February 4, 1282),
which tax was enacted again and a new tariff put into
force on May 7, 1306, as we have already seen. What
this sudden ruin was we learn from Stow's "Annals";
the winter had been very severe, the frost and snow had
caused great cracks in the floor of the bridge, so that
towards the Feast of the Purification (February 2), five
of the arches fell in. Many other bridges, too, in the
country had suffered damage, Rochester Bridge had even
entirely fallen.1

It may be imagined what would happen to some of
the country bridges which had been built without the
thought of endowing them. The alms that were
given for them proved insufficient, so that little by little,
nobody repairing them, the arches wore through, the
parapets were detached, not a cart passed but fresh
stones disappeared in the river, and soon carriages and

1 "King Edward kept his feast of Christmas (1281) at Worcester.
From this Christmas till the purification of Our Lady, there was
such a frost and snow, as no man living could remember the like,
wherethrough five arches of London Bridge, and all Rochester
Bridge were borne downe, and carried away with the streame, and
the like hapned to many bridges in England " (Stow's " Annales,"
London, 1631, p. 2Cl). See Appendix III.

ROADS AND BRIDGES. 65

riders could not venture without much danger over the
half-demolished building. If with all this a flood should
supervene, all was over with the bridge and with the
imprudent or hurried persons who might be crossing late
in the evening. An accident of this kind was brought
up in his defence by a chamberlain of North Wales,
from whom Edward III. claimed a hundred marks.
The chamberlain averred that he had sent the money
carefully by his clerk, William of Markeley ; alas," the
said William was drowned in Severn, at Moneford
bridge, by the rising flood of water, and could not be
found, so that he was devoured by beasts ; thus the said
hundred marks chanced to be lost."1 At that time
there were still wolves in England, and the disappear-
ance of the body, with the 100 marks, through the
action of wild beasts, would appear less unlikely than at
present.

In those days neglect attained lengths now impossible
and unknown to us. The Commons of the counties
of Nottingham, Derby, and Lincoln, and of the town
of Nottingham, declare to the Good Parliament (1376),
that there is near the town of Nottingham a great
bridge over the Trent, called Heybethebridge, " to the
making and repair of which nobody is bound and
alms only are collected, by which bridge all the comers
and goers between the north and the south parts
should have their passage." This bridge is " ruinous,"
and " oftentimes have several persons been drowned,
as well horsemen as carts, man, and harness." The
complainants pray for power to appoint two bridge
wardens, who shall administer the property that will

1 "Rolls of Parliament," vol. ii. p. 91 (9 Edward III.), 1335.

5

66 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE.

be given for its maintenance, "for God and as a work of
charity." But the king did not accede to their request.1

Or maybe it happened that the riverside proprietors
let their obligation fall into oblivion, even when it was
at commencement formal and precise enough. The
legislator had, however, taken some precautions ; he had
inscribed bridges on the list of the subjects for those in-
quiries opened periodically in England by the justices
in Eyre, sheriffs and bailiffs, as we shall see further
on ; but interested men found means to defraud the law.
People had been so long used to see ruin menace the
edifice, that when it actually did give way no one could
say who ought to have repaired it. It then became
necessary to apply to the king for a special inquiry,
and to seek on whom lay the service. The parliament
thus decide in 1339, on the demand of the prior of St.
Neots : " Item, let there be good and true men assigned
to survey the bridge and causeway of St. Neots, whether
they be broken down and carried away by the rising of
the waters, as the prior alleges, or not. And in case
they are broken down and carried away, to inquire who
ought and was used to have it repaired, and who is
bound of right to do it ; and how the bridge and road-
way may be re-made* and repaired. And what they 2
find they shall return into the chancery."

In consequence of such inquests the persons charged
with the maintenance find themselves pointed out by
the declarations of a jury convened on the spot, and a
tax is levied upon them for the execution of the repara^

1 "Rolls of Parliament," vol. ii. p. 350.

a I.e., the jury "of good and true men." "Rolls of Parliament,
vol. ii. p. in.

ROADS AND BRIDGES. 67

dons. But very often the debtors pretest and refuse to
pay ; they are sued, they appeal to the king ; horse,
cart, anything that may come to hand and belongs to
them is seized to be sold for the benefit of the bridge ;
the dispute lengthens out, and meanwhile the edifice
gives way. Hamo de Morston, for example, in the
eleventh year of Edward II., complains that his horse
has been taken. Cited to justify themselves, Simon
Porter and two others who have made the capture
explain that there is a bridge at Shoreham, called the
Long bridge, which is half destroyed ; now it has been
found that the building ought to be restored at the
expense of the tenants of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Hamo having refused to pay his part of the contribu-
tion, Simon and the others took his horse. They acted
by order of a bailiff, -and their conduct is vindicated.
After another inquest of the same period, the Abbot of
Coggeshall refused to execute any repairs to a bridge
near his lands under pretext that within memory of
man there had been no other bridge over the river
" than a certain plank of board," and that at all times
it had been found sufficient for horsemen and pedes-
trians (i Edward II.). Innumerable are the examples of
inquests of this sort and of the difficulties in executing
the measures decided on.1

Owing to these several causes the chronicle of even
the most important of English bridges, when it is
possible to trace it out, is a long tale of falls into the
river, rebuildings, and repairs, and ever-recurring cata-
strophes. Sometimes when the damage was great, and
much money was wanted and did not happen to be
1 Several instances will be found cited in Appendix IV.

68 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

forthcoming, a ferry was established as a substitute for
the late bridge, and there remained for years and years
together. Such a series of events is offered by the
history of the bridge on the Tweed at Berwick, which
was one of the longest in England. The first time we
hear of it is in the year 1199, and the news is that it
fell at that date, owing to the rising of the river. It was
rebuilt and fell again ; sometimes it was rebuilt in wood
and sometimes in stone ; at times it fell altogether
from beginning to end, and then a ferry was established,
and there remains for many years. This was the case
in 1294, when great harm was done by the inundations.
" Where the bridge fell at this time," says the latest
historian of Berwick, " there it lay for many years. The
only method of crossing was by ferry boats, worked
from both sides of the river ; while the ferry in times
of danger was defended by soldiers. Thus, in Sir
Robert Heron's (the controller) ' Book of Bills ' for
1310, there is allowed one half quarter of pease to each
of six crossbowmen (one of them being John Sharp
Arewe) guarding the ferry of the Tweed at Berwick." l
The ferry follows vicissitudes scarcely Jess numerous
than the bridge itself, and disputes arise as to the right
of working it, or rather of collecting the tolls there.
The revenues of the bridge, now that there is no longer
any bridge, are also a matter of difficulty, and the king
has to interfere to settle the matter of the rents of
houses and of fisheries belonging to the ruined monu-
ment. In 1347 at last the citizens of the town began
to think seriously of rebuilding their bridge, and the
king granted them the right of collecting towards the
1 I«hn Scott, "Berwick-upon-Tweed," London, 1888, p. 408,^ seq.

ROADS AND BRIDGES, 69

expenses a toll of sixpence on every ship entering their
harbour. The bridge was then rebuilt, but not in
such a way as not to fall again, which has happened to
it many times since. Not less doleful is the story oi
the bridge on the Dee at Chester, of which we hear in
the chronicles for the first time in 1227 and 1297, on
account of its being carried away by the water,1 and the
same may be said of many of the bridges of mediaeval
England, especially of longer ones such as the two
just named.

When rebuilding had to take place people generally
did not care to remove what remained of the old monu-
ment, and, for this reason, when a bridge has been broken
down in our time, it has been often found that it was
made of an accumulation of superimposed bridges. Such
was the case with the bridge over the Teign, between
Newton Abbot and Teignmoath, rebuilt in 1815. It
became, on that occasion, apparent that four successive
bridges at least had been at various times erected with
or over the remains of previous constructions. Mr.
P. T. Taylor, who investigated the matter at that
time, gave as his opinion " that the last or upper work
was done in the sixteenth century, and that the red
bridge had been built on the salt marsh in the thirteenth
century ; since which time there has been an accumu-
lation of soil to the depth of ten feet. He supposes
the wooden bridge to be as old as the Conquest, and
the white stone bridge to have been a Roman work." 2

Given these circumstances, it is rather a matter of
surprise than otherwise to find that a good number of

1 Ormerod, "History of Chester," 1819, vol. i. p. 285.
• " Archasologia," t. xix. p. 310.

70 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE.

mediaeval bridges still subsist in England ; the more
so as this our century has been a great destroyer of
bridges. The enormous increase of population and the
proportionate want of means of communication during
the last hundred years has proved fatal to many
bridges, and especially to the more famous and impor-
tant ones which had been built in the more largely
populated districts. Owing to such necessities London
Bridge itself has disappeared, and the recollections of
five hundred years, during which it had been, so to
say, a factor in English history and associated with the
life of the nation, could not save it. The tide of an
ever-increasing traffic was at last too strong for the
masterpiece of Isembert. Many others had the same
fate, or at least were partly rebuilt or enlarged, not
always in such a way as to retain their pristine appear-
ance. For all that, however, enough of them remain
to give an accurate idea of what they were without
having recourse merely to descriptions or drawings
in contemporary manuscripts. None, it is true, can for
elegance and completeness compete with such bridges
as are still to be found in France ; for example, with the
magnificent thirteenth century bridge of Valentr6 at
Cahors, of which an engraving has been given above
(p. 41). Those that remain are sufficient, nevertheless,
to testify to the skill of old English architects in that
particular branch of their art. As might have been
expected, these old bridges chiefly abound in those parts
of the country where the increase of traffic and popu-
lation has been the least conspicuous, on roads little
more frequented to-day than in the Middle Ages, which
then led to strong castles or flourishing monasteries,

THE CHAPEL ON THE BRIDGE AT WAKEFIELD.

'Fourteenth Century ; present state.}

ROADS AND BRIDGES. 73

and only lead now to ivy-covered ruins. For this
reason they are more numerous in some parts of Wales
than anywhere in England. Be they in Wales, in
Scotland, or in England, taken altogether they still
offer examples of almost all the peculiarities with which
it was the custom during the Middle Ages to adorn
or accompany them.

In several cases the chapels which placed them under
the protection of a saint and where offerings were
collected, are still extant. There is one, of the fif-
teenth century,1 at Rotherham, Yorkshire, " a chapel
of stone wel wrought," says Leland ; another, a small
one, is to be seen on the bridge at Bradford-on-Avon,
Wiltshire ; a third, a very tall structure, stands on the
middle of the bridge at St. Ives, Huntingdonshire ; but
the finest example by far of such buildings is the chapel
on the bridge at Wakefield, both chapel and bridge
dating from the fourteenth century. Leland mentions
them as "the faire bridge of stone of nine arches,
under which runnith the river of Calder, and on the east
side of this bridge is a right goodly chapel of our lady
and two cantuarie preestes founded in it." This foun-
dation was made about 1358 ; Edward III., by a charter
dated at Wakefield, settled "£10 per annum on
William Kaye and William Bull and their successors
for ever to perform Divine service in a chapel of St.
Mary newly built on the bridge at Wakefield." 2

1 The date is shown by a will of the 24th of August, 1483, by
which a sum is left towards the making of the chapel to be built
on Rotherham Bridge. See J. Guest, " Historic Notices of Rother
ham," Worksop, 1879, fol. pp. 125-6. Two views of the bridge
and chapel are given, pp. 126 and 581.

2 Camden's "Britannia,"ed. Gough, vol.iii.,Lond., 1789, pp. 38-9

74 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE,

In our century the bridge has been widened on its
west side ; which has caused it to lose its original
appearance on this side. The chapel, too, was restored
in 1847, DUt its original perpendicular style was care-
fully respected.1

Several specimens also remain of bridges with the
triangular recesses we have mentioned, left on the top
of the piers for the safety of foot passengers. Among
many other examples may be quoted the fine fourteenth-
century bridge at Warkworth, Northumberland,2 which
also deserves notice for another peculiarity much more
rarely to be met with, that is, the preservation of the
tower built at one end for its defence. Most of
the bridges of any importance were protected in this
way ; of late it has been found useless, and the con-
sideration that they were ornamental has rarely been
sufficient to prevent such fortifications being pulled
down. Those at Chester were removed in 1782-1784;
those at York were demolished (with the bridge itself,
of the thirteenth century) at the beginning of our
century ; the Durham example, built on Framwellgate
Bridge, in 1760, &c. It must be conceded that those
towers were sometimes very inconvenient. A person
who was present on the occasion told me that, quite
recently, a gipsy's caravan was stopped at the tower on
Warkworth Bridge, being unable, owing to the lowness

1 T. Kilby, "Views in Wakefield," 1843, fol. ; J. C. and C. A.
Buckler, "Remarks upon Wayside Chapels," Oxford, 1843.

2 " Twenty marks were left towards the rebuilding of this bridge,
by John Cook of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 2 Rich. II., 1379," (E.
Mackenzie, "View of the County of Northumberland," 1825, vol.
ii. p. in).

ROADS AND BRIDGES. 77

of the arch, to go under it. The pavement had to be
hollowed out to allow the caravan to proceed on its
journey. Rarer even are bridges with houses on them,
as was the fashion in the Middle Ages. A solitary
house remains on Elvet Bridge at Durham, and the
only bridge with a complete row of houses is quite a
recent structure, being the familiar Pulteney Bridge
built at Bath by William Pulteney in the eighteenth
century.

The more numerous of the mediaeval bridges still in
existence are those of one arch ; there are many of them
in Wales, some are most elegant and picturesque ; such
is the famous Devil's Bridge over the Mynach, near
Aberystwith. In England the largest is the one over
the moat of Norwich Castle ; and the most curious the
three-branched one at Crowland, this last belonging in
its actual state to the fourteenth century. It is no
longer used, as no road passes over it and no water under.
Others are to be met with in several parts of the
country, one of the finest being built over the Ksk,
near Danby Castle, Yorkshire. Its date is about 1385 ;
the arms of Neville, Lord Latimer, who had it built are
yet to be seen at the top of the bridge, on one of its
sides.1

Lastly, attention must be drawn to bridges of a larger
kind ; most of them have unfortunately undergone
great alterations and repairs. Besides the Wakefield
Bridge above mentioned, there is one over the Dee, at
Chester, part of which is as old as the thirteenth

1 An engraving of this not sufficiently known bridge is given on
the next page. I have been enabled to do so by the kindness of
the Rev. J. C. Atkinson, of Danby Parsonage.

78 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

century ; it has been thoroughly repaired since Ormerod
disrespectfully described it as " a long fabric of red
stone extremely dangerous and unsightly." * At Durham
there are the Fram well gate and the El vet Bridges,
both originally built in the twelfth century. A six-
arched bridge, rebuilt in the fifteenth century, exists

THE BRIDGE NEAR DANBY CASTLE, YORKSHIRE.
{fourteenth Century.']

at Hereford ; another, repaired in 1449, with the help
of indulgences, remains at Bidford.2 A four-arched
one, built in the fourteenth century, over the Dee is

1 "History of Chester," London, 1819, vol. i o. 28 q.
* Dugdale, "Warwickshire," 1730, ii. 724.

ROADS AND BRIDGES. 79

tc be seen at Llangollen ; it is <f one of the I'ri Thlws
Cymru, or three beauties of Wales ; " r the arches are
irregular in size, for the architect, in this and in many
other cases, minding more the solidity of the structure
than its uniformity, built the piers at the places where
the presence of rocks in the bed of the river made it
most convenient. Other mediaeval bridges of several
arches remain at Huntingdon, at St. Ives, at Norwich
(Bishop's bridge), at Potter Heigham (a most pictu-
resque one),2 &c. One of the most interesting is
the thirteenth-century bridge over the Nith, at Dumfries,
in Scotland, which had formerly thirteen arches, seven
of which only are now in use. It was long considered
the finest after that of London.3

The maintenance of the roads much resembled that
of the bridges ; that is to say, it greatly depended upon
arbitrary chance, upon opportunity, or on the goodwill
or the devotion of those to whom the adjoining land
belonged. In the case of roads, as of bridges, we find
petitions of private persons who pray that a tax tfe

1 J. G. Wood, "The Principal Rivers of Wales," London, 1813,
vol. ii. p. 271.

2 See F. Stone, "Picturesque Views of the Bridges of Norfolk,"
Norwich, 1830.

3 Rough sketches of more than thirty old English bridges may
be seen in a curious engraving by Daniel King (seventeenth
century) bearing as a title : "An orthographical designe of several!
viewes vpon ye road in England and Wales," and as a subscription :
" This designe is to illustrate Cambden's Britannia, that where he
mentions such places the curious may see them, which is the
indeavour, by Gods assistance, of

" Y. S. Daniell King."

(A copy bound in the MS. Harl. 2073, as fol. 126.) Catterick
Bridge (supra p. 58) is among the bridges there represented.

8o ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

levied upon those who pass along, towards the repair
of the road. " Walter Godelak of Walingford, prays
for the establishment of a custom to be collected from
every cart of merchandise traversing the road between
Jowemersh and Newenham, on account of the depth
and for the repair of the said way. Reply : The King
will do nothing therein." r Again, a lady arrogates to
herself the right to levy a tax on passengers. " To
our lord the king show the commonalty of the people
of Nottinghamshire passing between Kelm and Newur,
that whereas the king's high way between the said two
towns has been wont to be for all persons freely to pass,
on horse-back, in carriages, and on foot from time im-
memorial, the Lady of Egrum has got hold to herself
of the said road in severalty, taking from those passing
along there grievous ransoms and exactions, in disherit-
ance of the king and his crown and to the great hurt
of the people." The king orders an inquest.2

Sometimes the sheriffs in their turns ordered the levy
of taxes on those who did not repair the roads ; the
law, as we have seen, allowed it ; but those who were
fined protested before Parliament under the pretext that
the roads and the bridges were " sufficient enough ; "
— " Item, humbly pray the Commons of your realm, as
well spiritual as temporal, complaining that several
sheriffs of your kingdom feign and procure present-
ments in their turns that divers roads, bridges, and
causeys are defective from non-reparation, with pur-
pose and intent to amerce abbots, priors, and seculars,
sometimes up to ten pounds, sometimes more, some-

1 "Rolls of Parliament," vol. i. p. 48 (18 Edward I., A.D. 1289).
9 Ibid., vol. i. p. 424 (18 Edward II., 1324).

ROADS AND BRIDGES. Si

times less, and levy the said amercements by their
officers called out-riders, without delay or any reply of
the parties, in places where the said roads, bridges, and
causeys are sufficient enough, or perhaps are not in
charge of the said amerced men." Reply : Let the
common law be kept, and the amercements reasonable
in this case.1

Where negligence began, the ruts, or rather the quags,
be^an. Those numerous little .subterranean arches,
which the foot-passenger now does not even notice, with
the purpose of carrying off brooks dry during a part
of tne year, did not exist then, and the brook flowed
through the road. In the East at the present day, the
caravaneers talk in the bazaars of the town about the
roads and pathways ; we speak of them ourselves on
returning home, as books of travel show. In the East,
however, a road is often nothing else than a place along
which men customarily pass ; it little resembles the
irreproachable highways the idea of which the word
road evokes in European minds. During the rainy
season immense pools of water cut off the usual track
of the horsemen and camels ; they increase by little and
little, and at length overflow and form true rivers. At
evening the sun sets in the heavens and also in the
purpled road; the innumerable pools of the way and
of the country reflect the red or violet clouds ; the wet
horses and the splashed riders shiver in the midst of all
these glimmerings, while overhead and at foot the two
suns approach one another to rejoin on the horizon.
The roads of the Middle Ages sometimes were like

» " Rolls of Parliament," vol. iii. p. 598 (7 and 8 Henry IV.).

6

82 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

those of the modern East ; the sunsets were magnificent
in winter, but to face journeys required a robust horse-
man, inured to fatigue, and with stubborn health. The
ordinary education, it is true, prepared one for all these
trials.

The roads in England would have been entirely im-
passable, and religious zeal would have been no more than
the indulgences of the Bishop of Durham sufficient to
keep them in condition, if the nobility and the clergy,
that is to say, the whole of the landed proprietors, had not
had an immediate and daily interest in possessing pass-
able roads. The English kings had had the prudence
not to form great compact fiefs like those which they
themselves possessed in France, and which caused them
to be such dangerous vassals. Their own example had
no doubt taught them, and we find them from the
beginning distributing to the shareholders in the great
enterprise domains scattered in all corners of the island.
This kind of chequered proprietorship subsisted to the
fourteenth century. Froissart, indeed, remarked it :
" And several times," says he, " it happened that when
I rode about the country with him, for the lands and
revenues of the English barons are here and there and
much scattered^ he called me and said : ' Froissart, do
you see that great town with the high steeple ? ' " x Tne
unfortunate Despencer who put this question was not
alone in having the lands which he owed to the prince's
favour sown at hazard in every county ; all the great
men of his style were in the same case. The king him-
self, besides, with all his court, as well as the lords,
ceaselessly went from one country house to another, by
1 Edition by S. Luce, vol. i. p. 257.

ROADS AND BRIDGES. 83

choice, and still more by necessity. In time of peace it
was an appearance of activity which was not displeasing,
but, above all, it was a means of living. All, however
rich, were obliged to economize, and, like proprietors in
all ages, to live upon their lands by the produce of their
domains. They went from place to place, and it was
of much importance for them to have passable roads,
where their horses would not stumble and where their
baggage waggons, which served for true removals, might
have a chance of not being overturned. In the same
way the monks, those great cultivators, were much in-
terested in the good maintenance of the roads. Their
agricultural undertakings were of considerable extent ;
an abbey such as that of Meaux, near Beverley, had in
the middle of the fourteenth century, 2,638 sheep, 515
oxen, and 98 horses, with land in proportion.1 Besides,
as we have seen, the care of watching over the good
condition of the roads was more incumbent on the
clergy than on any other class, because it was a pious
and meritorious work ; and for this reason the religious
character of their tenure did not exempt them from the
trinoda necessitas, common to all the possessors of land.
All these motives combined were enough to provide
roads that were considered sufficient for the current
needs, but in those days people were contented with
little. The carts and even the carriages were heavy,
lumbering, but solid machines, which stood the hardest
jolts. People of any worth journeyed on horseback.
As to those who travelled on foot, they were used to
all sorts of misery. Little, then, sufficed ; and if other

1 " Chronica monasterii de Melsa," edited by E. A. Bond ; Rolls
Series, 1868, London, vol. iii. preface, p. xv.

84 ENGLISH WA V PARING LIFE.

proofs were wanting of the state into which the roads
were liable to fall, even in the most frequented places,
we should find them in a patent of Edward III.
(November 20, 1353), which orders the paving of the
highroad, aha via, running from Temple Bar (the
western limit of London at this period) to Westminster.
This road, being almost a street, had been paved, but
the king explains that it is " so full of holes and bogs
. . . and that the pavement is so damaged and broken "
that the traffic has become very dangerous for men and
carriages. In consequence, he orders each proprietor on
both sides of the road to remake, at his own expense, a
footway of seven feet up to the ditch, usque canellum.
The middle of the road — "inter canellos "—the width
of which is unfortunately not given, is to be paved, and
the expense covered by means of a tax laid on all the
merchandise going to the staple at Westminster.1

Three years later a general tax was laid by the City
of London on all carts and horses bringing merchandise
or materials of any kind to the town. The ordinance
which imposed it, of the thirtieth year of Edward III.,
first states that all the roads in the immediate environs
of London are in such bad condition that the carriers,
merchants, &c., " are oftentimes in peril of losing what
they bring." Henceforward, to help the reparations, a
due would be levied on all vehicles and al! laden beasts
coming to or going from the city; a penny per cart
and a farthing per horse, each way ; for a cart bringing
sand, gravel, or clay, threepence a week must be paid.

1 Patent Roll, 27 Edward III., rn Rymcr (cd. 1708), vol. v. p. 774.
Sec as to the repair of this same road in 1314, thirty-nine years
earlier, " Rolls of Parliament," vol. i. p. 302^.

ROADS AND BRIDGES. 85

Exception as usual was made for the carriages and
horses employed in the transport of provisions and
other objects destined for great men.1

The environs of Paris about the same time presented
roads and bridges quite as badly kept as those in the
neighbourhood of London. Charles VI., in one of his
ordinances, states that the hedges and brambles have
greatly encroached on the roads, that there are even
some in the midst of which trees have shot up.

" Outside the said town of Paris, in several parts of
the suburbs, prfoostd and vicomfJof the same, there are
many notable and ancient highways, bridges, lanes, and
roads, which are much injured, damaged, or decayed
and otherwise hindered, by ravines of water and great
stones, by hedges, brambles, and many other trees
which have grown there, and by many other hindrances
which have happened there, because they have not been
maintained and provided for in time past ; and they
are in such a bad state that they cannot be securely
traversed on foot or horseback, nor by vehicles, without
great perils and inconveniences ; and some of them are
abandoned at all parts because men cannot resort there."
The Provost of Paris is ordered to cause the repairs to
be made by all to whom they pertained ; and, if necessary,
ro compel by force " all " the inhabitants of the towns
neighbouring to the bridges and highways.2

But what helps us to understand the difficulty of
journeys in the bad weather better than ordinances, and
enables us to picture the flooded roads like those of the

1 Riley's "Memorials of London," London, 1868, p. 291.

2 Ordonance of March i 1388, " Rccueil d'Isamhcrt," vol. vi.
D. 66;.

86 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

East in the rainy season, is the fact declared in official
documents of the impossibility that existed formerly
during bad weather of responding to the most impor-
tant royal summons. Thus, for example, we see the
bulk of the members called to Parliament from all parts
of England fail at the appointed day, without the delay
being attributable to any othe~ cause than the state of the
roads. We read thus in the record of the sittings of
the second Parliament of the third year of Edward III.
(1339) that it was necessary to declare the few repre-
sentatives of the Commons and of the nobility who had
been able to reach Westminster, " that because the
prelates, earls, barons, and other lords and knights or
the shires, citizens and burgesses of cities and boroughs
were so troubled by the bad weather that they could
not arrive that day, it would be proper to await their
coming." l

Yet these members were not poor folks, they had
good horses, good coats, thick cloaks covering the neck,
reaching up just under the hat, with large hanging
sleeves falling over the knees ; 2 no matter, the snow or
the rain, the floods, or the frost, had been strongest.
While battling each one against the weather which

o o

hampered his journey, prelates, barons, or knights, must
have been obliged to stop their animals in some isolated
inn, and as they listened to the sound of the sleet on
the wooden panels which closed the window, feet
at the fire in the smoky room while waiting the
retreat of the waters, they thought on the royal dis-
pleasure which soon, no doubt, would show itself in

1 " Rolls of Parliament," ii. p. 107.

* See the engraving as frontispiece, p. 4..

_ c

ROADS AND BRIDGES, 8y

* the painted chamber " at Westminster. In short,
though there were roads, though property was burdened
with obligatory services for their support, though laws
from time to time recalled their obligations to the
possessors of the soil, though the private interest of
lords and of monks, in addition to the interest of the
public, gave occasion to reparation now and then, — the
fate of the traveller in a fall of snow or in a thaw was
very precarious. The Church might well have pity on
him, and might specify him, together with the sick and
the captive, among the unfortunates whom she recom-
mended to the daily prayers of pious souls.

THE THREE-BRANCHED BKIUGE AT CKOUl.ANK.

A COMMON CART.

(From the MS. IO E. IV. in the British Museum. English ; Fourteenth
Century. }

CHAPTER II.

THE ORDINARY TRAVELLER AND THE CASUAL
PASSER-BY.

THUS kept up, the roads stretched away from the
towns and plunged into the country, interrupted
by the brooks in winter and scattered with holes ;
the heavy carts slowJy followed their devious course,
and the sound of grating wood accompanied the vehicle.
These carts were very common and numerous. Some
had the form of a square dung-cart, simple massive
boxes made of planks borne on two wheels ; others,
a little lighter, were formed of slatts latticed with a
willow trellis : the wheels were protected by great
nails with prominent heads.1 Both were used for labour

1 See representations of these carts in the manuscripts of the
fourteenth century, and especially in MS. Roy., 10 E. IV., at the

THE ORDINARY TRAVELLER. 91

in the country ; they were to be found everywhere, and
were hired very cheaply. Twopence for carrying a
ton weight a distance of one mile, was the average
price; for carrying corn, it was about a penny a mile
per ton.1 All this does not prove that the roads were
excellent, but rather that these carts, indispensable to
agriculture, were numerous. They did not represent a
large sum to the villagers, who themselves fabricated
them ; they were made solid and massive because they
were easier to set up thus and resisted better the jolts of
the roads ; a very slight remuneration would suffice for
the owners of carts. The king always needed their
services ; when he moved from one manor to another,
the brilliant cortege of the lords was followed by an
army of borrowed carts.

The official purveyors found the carts on the spot
and freely appropriated them ; they exercised their
requisitions ten leagues on each side of the road
followed by the royal convoy. They even took with-
out scruple the carts of travellers coming thirty or forty
leagues, whose journey was thus abruptly interrupted.
There were indeed statutes against forced loans, which
especially provided that suitable payment should be
made, that is to say, " ten pence a day for a cart with
two horses, and fourteen pence for a cart with three
horses." But often no payment came. The " poor
Commons " re-commenced their protestations, the par-
British Museum, fol. 63, 94, no, &c., and in the Louterell psalter
We give above a fac-simile of one of them, and below a representa-
tion of a reaper's cart from the Louterell psalter. See also Bodl.
MS. 264, fos. 42, 84, 103, 1 10.

' T. Rogers, " History of Agriculture and Prices," i. pp. 650-661.

92 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

liament their statutes, and the purveyors their exac-
tions. Beside the carts they demanded corn, hay, oats,
beer, meat ; it was quite a little army that had to be
fed, and the requisitions cast the villages into terror.
People did what they could to be exempted ; the
simplest way was to bribe the purveyor, but the poor
could not. Yet numberless regulations had successively
promised that there should never be any further abuse.
The king was powerless ; under an imperfect govern-
ment the laws created to last for ever rapidly lose their
vitality, and those made at that time died in a day.
Purveyors swarmed ; many gave themselves out as
king's officers who were not so, and these were not
the least greedy. All bought at absurd prices and
limited themselves to promising payment. The statute
of 1330 shows how these payments never arrived ;
how also when twenty-five quarters of corn were taken
only twenty were reckoned because they were mea-
sured by " the heaped bushel." l In the same way, foi
hay, straw, &c., the purveyors found means to reckon
At a halfpenny for their own account what was worth
two or three pence ; they ordered that provision of
wine should be brought, kept the best in order to sell
it again on their own behalf, and got paid for returning
a portion of it to those from whom they had taken it,
which singularly reversed matters. The king perceived
all this and reformed accordingly. A little time after

1 " Statutes of the Realm," 4 Edward III. ch. 3. Eight bushels
make a quarter. [The Act 25 Edward III. stat. 5, ch. 10 (A.D.
1351) provided that every measure of corn should be striken with-
out heap, and that the royal purveyors should use this measure,
(Hence the name strike for a bushel.) L. T. S.]

THE ORDINARY TRAVELLER. 95

he reformed again, and with the same result. In 1362
he declared that henceforth the purveyors should pay
ready money at the price current of the market ; and
he added the amusing proviso that the purveyors should
lose their detested name and should be called buyers :
" that the heinous name of purveyor [i.e. provider] be
changed, and named achatour [buyer]." l The two
words conveyed, it appears, very different ideas.2

The same abuses existed in France, and numerous
ordinances may be read in the pages of Isambert which
are conceived in exactly the same spirit and which
respond to the same complaints ; ordinances of Philip
the Fair in 1308, of Louis X. in 1342, of Philip VI.,
who wills that the " preneurs pour nous " (" takers for
us "), should not take unless they had " new letters from
us," which shows the existence of false providers as
in England. John of France renews all the restrictions
of his predecessors, December 25, 1355, &c.

The king and his lords journeyed on horseback for
the most part, but they had also carriages. Nothing
gives a better idea of the encumbering, awkward luxury
which formed the splendour of civil life during this
century than the structure of these heavy machines.
The best had four wheels ; three or four horses drew
them, harnessed in a row, the postilion being mounted
upon one, armed with a short-handled whip of many
thongs ; solid beams rested on the axks, and above
this framework rose an archway rounded like a tunnel ;
as a whole, ungraceful enough. But the details were
extremely elegant, the wheels were carved and their

1 Statute 36 Edward III. stat. i, ch. ^.
* See several extracts in Appendix V

96 EXGLISU WAYFARING LIFE.

spokes expanded near the hoop into ribs forming
pointed arches ; the beams were painted and gilt, the
inside was hung with those dazzling tapestries, the
glory of the age ; the seats were furnished with em-
broidered cushions ; a lady might stretch out there, half
sitting, half lying ; pillows were disposed in the corners
as if to invite sleep, square windows pierced the sides
and were hung with silk curtains.1 Thus travelled
the noble lady, slim in form, tightly clad in a dress
which outlined every curve of the body, her long
slender hands caressing the favourite dog or bird.
The knight, equally tightened in his cote-hardie^ re-
garded her with a complacent eye, and, if he knew good
manners, opened his heart to his dreamy companion in
long phrases like those in the romances. The broad
forehead of the lady, who has perhaps coquettishly
plucked off her eyebrows and stray hairs, a process
about which satirists were indignant,2 brightens up ar

1 Representations of carriages of this kind are frequent in
manuscripts. Many are to be found, with two wheels and much
ornamented, in the romance of the King Meliadus (MS. of the
fourteenth century in the British Museum, Add. 12,228, fos. 198 v°,
243). The celebrated carriage with four wheels of the Louterell
psalter (also of fourteenth century) is here reproduced. It is
drawn by five horses harnessed in a row. On the second sits a
postilion with a short whip of several thongs ; on the fifth, that is,
the nearest to the carriage, sits another postilion with a long whip
of the shape in use at the present day.

2 La Tour-Landry relates a story of a holy hermit who saw in a
dream his nephew's wife in purgatory. The demons were pushing
burning needles into her eyebrows. An angel told him that it was
because she had trimmed her eyebrows and temples, and increased
her forehead, and plucked out her hair, thinking to beautify herself
and to please the world. (" Le livre du Chevalier de La Tour-
Landry," ed. Montaiglon, Paris, 1854. An English translation of

•

. 7H I ^

THE ORDINARY TRAVELLER. 99

moments, and her smile is like a ray of sunshine.
Meanwhile the axles groan, the horse-shoes crunch the
ground, the machine advances by fits and starts,
descends into the hollows, bounds altogether at the
ditches, and falls violently back with a dull noise.
The knight must speak pretty loud to make his dainty
discourse, maybe inspired by the recollections of the
Round Table, heard by his companion. So trivial a
necessity has always sufficed to break the charm of the
most delicate thought ; too many shocks agitate the
flower, and when the knight presents it, it has already
lost its perfumed pollen.

The possession of such a carriage as this was a
princely luxury. They were bequeathed by will from
one to another, and the gift was valuable. On
September 25, 1355, Elizabeth de Burgh, Lady Clare,
wrote her last will and endowed her eldest daughter
with " her great carriage with the covertures, carpets,
and cushions." In the twentieth year of Richard II.
Roger Rouland received £4.00 sterling for a carriage
destined for Queen Isabella ; and John le Charer, in
sixth of Edward III., received £1,000 for the carriage
of Lady Eleanor.1 They were enormous sums. In the

the fifteenth century was published by the Early English Text
Society in 1868.)

1 The king's sister. Devon's " Issues of the Exchequer," 1837,
p. 142. As Englished by Devon, the Latin text referred to would
mean that the receiver of the money and maker of the carriage
»vas Master la Zousche, but La Zousche was the clerk of the ward-
lobe, who had the money from the Exchequer to give it to John le
Charer, " per manus John le Charer." Per has here the meaning
of pro, a use of the word of which several instances may be
found in Du Cange. (This indication of Devon's mistake is due
to the late Mr. Bradshaw, of Cambridge.)

loo ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

fourteenth century the average price of an ox was
thirteen shillings, one penny farthing ; of a sheep, one
shilling and five pence ; of a cow, nine shillings and
five pence ; and a penny for a fowl.1 Lady Eleanor's
carriage then represented the value of a herd of sixteen
hundred oxen.

Scarcely less ornamented were the horse-litters some-
times used by people of rank, especially by ladies.
They were of the same shape as the carriages, being
covered with a sort of round vault, in which were cut
more or less large openings. Two horses carried them,
one before, the other behind, each being placed between
the shafts with which the machine was provided at both
ends.2

Between these luxurious carriages and the peasants'
carts there was nothing which answered to the multi-
tude of middle -class conveyances to which we are now
accustomed. True, there were some not so expensive
as those belonging to the princesses of Edward's Court,
but they were not many. Every one at this time knew
how to ride on horseback, and it was much more
customary to employ the animals than the heavy
vehicles of the period (see frontispiece). They went
much faster, and their masters were more certain to
arrive. " The Paston Letters " show that matters had

1 Thorold Rogers, "History of Agriculture and Prices," i.
pp. 361-363.

2 Curious representations of such litters are to be found in
mediasval manuscripts ; for instance, in the MS. 118 FranQais, in
the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, fol. 285, where two persons are
to be seen in the litter, a lady and a wounded knight (Romance
of Lancelot, fourteenth century) ; or in the MS. Roy. 1 8 E. II. in
the British Museum, fol. 7. (Chronicles of Froissart.)

IM^'fettti^

TRAVELLING IN A HORSE LITTER. [A lot.

(From the MS. 118 Fran fats in the Bibliotheque Nationals, late Fourteenth Century.)

THE ORDINARY TRAVELLER. 103

changed little in the fifteenth century. John Paston
was ill in London, his wife wrote to him to beg him to
return as soon as he could bear the horse-ride ; the idea
of returning in a carriage did not even occur to them.
Yet it was an affair of a severe illness, " a grete dysese."
Margaret Paston writes on September 28, 1443, " I/

A YOUNG SQUIRE (CHAUCER'S SQUIRE) TRAVELLING ON HORSEBACK.
(From the Ellesmere MS.)

I might have had my will, I should have seen you ere
this time ; I would ye were at home, if it were your
ease, and your sore might be as well looked to here as
it is v/here ye be, now liefer than a gown though it
were of scarlet. I pray you if your sore be whole, and
so that ye may endure to ride, when my father comes

io4 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE.

to London, that ye will ask leave, and come home,
when the horse shall be sent home again, for I hope ye
should be kept as tenderly here as ye be at London." l

Women were accustomed to riding almost as much
as men, and when they had to travel they usually did
it on horseback. A peculiarity of their horsemanship
was that they habitually rode astride. The custom of
riding sidewise did not spread in England before- the
latter part of the fourteenth century, and even then it
was not general. In the invaluable manuscript of the
Decretals (Roy. 10 E. IV.) in the British Museum, ladies
on horseback are constantly represented ; they always
ride astride. At one place (fol. 310) horses are shown
being brought for a knight and a lady ; both saddles
are exactly the same ; they are very tall behind, so as
to form a sort of comfortable chair. The numerous
ivories of the fourteenth century in the South Kensington
Museum and in the British Museum often represent a
lady and her lover, both on horseback, and hawking.
In almost all cases the lady unmistakably rides astride.
Both ways of riding are shown in the illuminations of
the Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer's " Canterbury
Tales," which illuminations belong to the fifteenth
century. The wife of Bath rides astride, and carries
large spurs, and the prioress sits sideways.

There were few places in England where the sight of
the royal cortege was not well known. The journeys
of the Court were incessant. We have seen the
motives for this above. The royal itineraries that

1 "Paston Letters" (1422-1509), edited by Jas. Gairdner,
1872, vol. i. p. 4.9. [The spelling in this quotation is modernized
-L. T. S.]

A WOMAN RIDING ASTRIDE (CHAUCER'S WIFE OF BAlriJ.
(From the Ellesmere MS.}

A LADY RIDING SIDEWAYS (CHAUCER'S PRIORESS).
(from the Elksmcre MS.)

THE ORDINARY TRA VELLER. 107

have been published throw a flood of light upon this
continual need of movement. The itinerary of John
Lackland shows that he rarely passed a month in the
same place, most frequently he did not even remain
there a week. Within a fortnight he is often found at
five or six different towns or castles.1 The same in the
time of Edward I.; in the twenty-eighth year of his
reign (1299-1300) that prince changed his abode
seventy-five times without leaving the kingdom, that is
on an average three times a fortnight.2

And when the king moved, not only was he pre-
ceded by twenty- four archers in his pay, receiving three-
pence a day,3 but he was accompanied by all those
officers whom the author of tf Fleta " enumerates with
so much complaisance. The sovereign took with him
his two marshals, his outer or foreign marshal
(forinsecus) who in time of war disposed the armies
for battle, fixed the halting-places on his journeys, and
at all times arrested malefactors found in the virgata
regia^ that is to say, within twelve leagues around his
dwelling ; 4 and his inner marshal (intrinsecus], who

1 "Patent Rolls and Itinerary of King John." Edited by T
DufTus Hardy, 1835.

2 " Liber quotidianus garderobae " (Society of Antiquaries), Lon-
don, 1787, p. 67.

3 "Archers. And xxiiij archers on foote for garde of the
kinge's body, who shall goe before the kinge as he travaleth
thorough the cuntry " (" King Edward II.'s . . . Ordinances,"
1323, ed. Furnivall, p. 46).

+ "Fleta, seu commentarius juris Anglicani," editio secunda,
London, 1685, lib. ii. cap. 2, 4. This treatise is said to have been
composed in the prison of the Fleet by a lawyer in the time of
Edward I. It is posterior to 1292, for mention is made in it of
the submission of Scotland.

io8 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

guarded the palace and castles, and cleared them as
much as possible from courtesans. He received from
every common harlot (meretrice communi} four pence
by way of fine, the first time that he arrested her ;
if she returned she was brought before the steward,
who solemnly forbid her ever to present herself at the
dwelling of the king, queen, or their children ; the third
time she was imprisoned and the tresses of her hair
were shorn off; the fourth time one of those hideous
punishments was resorted to which the Middle Ages in
their barbarity tolerated; the upper lip of these women
was cut off, " ne de caetero concupiscantur ad libidinem." l
There was also the chamberlain, who took care that the
interior of the house was comfortable : " he has to
arrange decently for the king's bed, and to see that the
rooms be furnished with carpets and benches ; " the
treasurer of the wardrobe, who kept the accounts ; the
marshal of the hall, whose mission it was to eject
unworthy intruders and dogs, — <f non enim permittat
canes aulam ingredi," — and a crowd of other officers.2

Over all must be placed the king's seneschal or
steward, the first officer of his household, and his great
justiciar. Wherever the king went the apparatus of
justice was transported with him : when he was about
to start the steward gave notice to the sheriffs of the

1 Lib. ii. cap. 5. An ordinance of Edward II. speaks only of
the brand by a hot iron on the forehead. (" King Edward II.'s
Household and Wardrobe Ordinances," A.D. 1323, Chaucer
Society, ed. Furnivall, 1876.)

a Lib. ii. cap. 14, 15.

3 He sent a mandatum to this effect, which he withdrew when
the king changed his mind as to the place where he wished to go,
which happened often enough. " Debet autem senescallus nomine

THE ORDINARY TRA VELLER. 1 1 1

place where the court would stop, in order that he might
bring all his prisoners to the town where the prince
was to be stationed. All the cases amenable to the
jurisdiction of the justices in eyre were then determined
by the steward, as the king's justiciary, who prescribed,
if necessary, the judicial duel, pronounced sentences of
outlawry, and judged in criminal and civil cases.1 This
right of criminal justice even accompanied the king
abroad, but he only exercised it when the criminal had
been arrested in his own house. This occurred in the
fourteenth year of Edward I. This sovereign being at
Paris, Ingelram de Nogent came into his house to rob,
and was taken in the act. After discussion it was
decided that Edward, by his royal privilege, should
remain judge in the matter ; he delivered the robber
over to Robert Fitz-John, his steward, who caused
Ingelram to be hung from the gibbet of St. Germain-
des-Pres.2

For a long time the chancellor himself, and the
clerks who made out the writs, followed the king on
his journeys, and Palgrave notes that frequently a
strong horse was required from the nearest convent to
carry the rolls ; 3 but this custom came to a close in the

capitalis justitiarii cujus vices gerit mandare vicecomiti loci ubi
dominus rex fuerit declinaturus, quod venire faciat ad certura
diem, ubicumque tune rex fuerk in ballivia sua, omnes assisas
comitatus sui et omnes prisones cum suis atachiamentis " (" Fleta,"
lib. ii. cap. 3, § 4).

1 " Habet etiam ex virtute officii sui potestatem procedendi ad
utlagationes et duella jungendi et singula faciendi quas ad justi-
tiarios itinerantes, prout supra dictum est pertinent faciendi "
("Fleta," lib. ii. cap. 3, § n). 3 "Fleta," lib. ii. cap. 3, § 9.

3 " Original authority of the King's Council," p. 115.

ii2 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

fourth year of Edward III., when the Chancery was
permanently installed at Westminster. The tribunal
moving on, a crowd of suitors moved with it. No
matter though they were not inscribed on the rolls,
they followed without losing patience, as the shark
follows the ship, hoping to light on some prey. Parties
with a lawsuit, various petitioners, women " of ill
life" (de fole vie}, quite a herd of individuals without
a character, persisted in escorting the prince and his
courtiers. They quarrelled among each other, robbed
by the way, sometimes committed murders, and did not
contribute, as may be imagined, to render the news of
the king's arrival welcome.

In the ordinances of his household, Edward II.
••declares and deplores all these grave abuses ; he orders
that men without a character who follow the Court
shall be put in irons for forty days on bread and water,
and that the women of ill life shall be likewise im-
prisoned and branded with a hot iron ; he forbids his
knights, clerks, squires, valets, grooms, in short, all
who accompany him, to bring their wives with them,
unless they have any post or employment at Court, this
host of womenkind not possibly being other than a
cause of disorder. He also limits the number of
those who should accompany the marshal, which had
increased little by little beyond all bounds. His
ordinances are very wise and very minute, but it is
well known how quickly such orders in the Middle
Ages fell into desuetude.

Justice travelled not only in the king's suite. She
was peripatetic in England, and the magistrates from
London who had to bring her into the shires, as the

THE ORDINARY TRA VZLLRR. 1 1 3

sheriffs and bailiffs into the boroughs within their
counties, periodically went round the country redress-
ing wrongs. But grave abuses also slipped into these
institutions; and, in spite of the precautions which had
made the men under the jurisdiction of the sheriffs and
bailiffs themselves the judges of these officials, numerous
statutes one after the other had to declare some practices
culpable and to stop them, for a time. The view of
frankpledge was held before the sheriffs and bailiffs in
hundreds and manors.1 This was a minute inquiry,
article by article, of the manner in which the laws of
police and of safety, the rules as to property, were
executed; the juries summoned were questioned as to
this or that case of robbery, murder, fire, rape, sorcery,
apostasy, destruction of bridges and of roads (de pon-
tibus et calcetis fractis]^ of vagabondage, &c., which
they might know. The turns or tourns of the sheriffs
and bailiffs might, according to the Great Charter, only
take place twice a year, not oftener, because their coming
occasioned loss of time and money to the sworn men
who had to leave home, and to the king's subjects
at whose houses these officers had to lodge.2 The

1 This seignorial right was attached to many manors, and was
conveyed with them. See the petition of an abbess who claims
(on account of the fines by which she ought to profit) the view of
frankpledge, attached to the manor of Shorwalle, in the Isle of
Wight, which has been given to her. Isabella de Forte, the lady
of the isle, disputes this right with her. (" Rolls of Parliament,"
ii. p. 182, year 1347.)

3 Magn?. Carta, cap. 42, of the second confirmation by Henry
III. (1217), Stubbs' "Select Charters," p, 337. "Nee liceat
alicui vicccomiti vel ballivo tenere turnum suum per hundrcdum
nisi bis per annum." (" Fleta," lib. ii. cap. ^2.)

8

1 14 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

people greatly feared the abuses which might arise on
this head, and the Commons often petitioned the king
on that account.1

The itinerant judges also held regular inquest, accord-
ing to the Articles of the Crown, in the same fashion.
The frequency of their arrivals varied with the period ;
the Great Charter (art. 18), fixed the number at four
each year. They sat in full court of the county, they
presided over it, and they thus served as a link between
the royal justice and the justice of those ancient popular
courts. In proportion as the importance of the magis-
trates increased, that of the sheriff as judge diminished.
They demanded of the juries what crimes, what mis-
demeanours, what infractions on the statutes had come
to their knowledge. And in these minute interroga-
tories at every moment came up the names of the
sheriff, the coroner, the bailiff, the constable, of all the
royal functionaries, whose conduct was thus placed
under popular control. Has any of these officers, says
the judge, released some robber, or a false moneyer,
or a clipper of coin ? Has he for any consideration
neglected the pursuit against a vagabond or an assassin ?
Has he unjustly received fines? Has he been paid
by men who wished to avoid a public charge (for
example, of being sworn as member of a jury) ? Has
the sheriff claimed more than reasonable hospital! t)
from those in his jurisdiction in tourns held too oft?
Has he presented himself with more than five or six
horses? And the juror ought in the same way to
denounce, under the faith of his oath, creat lords who
have arbitrarily imprisoned travellers passing through
1 See Appendix VI.

THE ORD1NAR Y TRA VELLER. 1 1 5

their land, and all those who neglect to assist in
arresting a robber and in running with the " hue and
cry ; " for in this society each man is by turns peace
officer, soldier, and judge, and even the humble peasant,
menaced by so many exactions, has, too, his share in the
administration of justice and the maintenance of public
order. It will be seen how important from a social
point of view were these judicial tourns, which regu-
larly reminded the poor man that he was a citizen,
and that the affairs of the State were also his affairs.1

When the monks came out of the cloister and
travelled, they wilfully modified their costume, and
it became difficult to distinguish them from the lords.
Chaucer gives us an amusing description of the dress
of the mundane monk :

"I saugh his sieves purfiled atte hond
With grys, and that the fynest of a lond,
And for to festne his hood undur his chyn
He hadde of gold y-wrought a curious pyn,
A love-knotte in the gretter end ther was." 2

But the councils are still more explicit, and do more
than justify the satire of the poet. Thus the Council of
London in 1342, reproaches the religious with wearing
clothing " fit rather for knights than for clerks, that is
to say short, very tight, with excessively wide sleeves,
not reaching the elbows, but hanging down very low,
lined with fur or with silk." They wore the beard long,

1 "Fleta,"lib. i. cap. 19, 20. See also "Local Self-Government
and Centralization," by Toulmin Smith, 1848, pp. 220-232, 298.

3 Prologue to the " Canterbury Tales" ; The Monk (ed. Rich,
Morris, vol. ii. p. 7).

n6 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE.

rings on their fingers, costly girdles, purses or bags
whereon figures and arabesques were embroidered in
gold, knives which resembled swords, boots red or
chequered in colour, shoes ending in long points and
ornamented with slashes ; in a word, all the luxury
of the great ones of the earth. Later, in 1367, the
Council of York made the same remarks ; the religious
have " ridiculously short " clothing ; they dare publicly
to wear those coats " which do not come down to the
middle of the legs, and do not even cover the knees."
Very severe prohibitions were made for the future,
though on a journey tunics shorter than the regulation
gown were tolerated.1

A bishop did not start on a journey without a
great train ; and the bishops, not to speak of their
episcopal visitations, had to travel like the nobility to
visit their lands and tc live on them. On all these
occasions they took with them their servants of different
classes and their companions, like the king with his
court. The accounts of the expenses of Richard de
Swinfield, Bishop of Hereford, give an idea of the
broad life led by the prelates. He was a bishop of
some importance, very rich in consequence ; many
manors belonged to his bishopric ; he could hold his
rank as prelate and as lord, be hospitable, charitable to
the poor, and spend much on requests and suits at the
court of Rome and elsewhere. He had constantly in
his pay about forty persons of different ranks, the greater
part of whom accompanied the master in his numerous
changes of residence. His squires (armigeri] had from
a mark (133. 4d.) to a pound a year ; his valletiy that
1 See Appendix VII

THE ORDINARY TRA VELLER. \ i 7

is, the clerks of his chapel and others, his carters, por-
ters, falconers, grooms, messengers, &c., had from a
crown to eight shillings and eightpence. In the third
degree came the kitchen servants, the baker, with two
or four shillings a year ; in the fourth degree, the boys
or pnges who helped the other servants and received from
one to six shillings a year. One of the most curious

A COOK ON A JOURNEY (CHAUCER'S COOK).
(From the Ellesmere MS.)

retainers of the bishop was Thomas de Bruges, his
champion, who received an annual salary that he might
fight in the prelate's name on occasion of any lawsuit
which might be terminated by judicial duel.1

1 "Household Expenses of Richard Swinfield," ed. J. Webb, 1854
(Camden Society), vols. i. p. 125, ii. pp. xxx-xxxvi. The duels
of Thomas de Bruges were not those of the cases of felony and

ii8 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

At eventide, monks, great men, and travellers of all
kinds sought shelter for the night. When the king,
preceded by his twenty-four archers, and escorted by his
lords and the officers of his household, arrived in a
town, the marshal indicated a certain number of the
best houses, which were marked with chalk. The
chamberlain presented himself, asked the inhabitants
to make room, and the Court installed itself as well as
it could in the lodgings. Even the capital was not
exempt from this vexatious charge, but the marshal
had to come to an understanding with the mayor,
sheriffs, and city officers for the indication of the habita-
"tions. Sometimes the royal agent took no notice of
this wise proviso, and a great commotion followed.
In the nineteenth year of Edward II., that prince
having come to the Tower, the people of his household
quartered themselves on the citizens without the mayor
and aldermen having been consulted ; even the sheriffs
house was marked with chalk. Great was the wrath
of this officer when he found Richard de Ayremynne,
the king's own secretary, established in his house, the
stranger's horses in his stable, his servants in the

crime which resulted in the death of the vanquished; it was merely
the duel with staff and shield (cum fiute et scutd) which required,
as may be imagined, the replacement of the champion much less
frequently. In the twenty-ninth year of Edward III., a duel took
place by means of champions between the Bishop of Salisbury and
the Earl of Salisbury. When the judges, conformably to the laws,
came to examine the dress of the combatants, they found that the
bishop's champion had several sheets of prayers and incantations
sown in his clothes ("Year Books of Edward I.," Rolls Series, 32-33
year, Preface, p. xvi note). The examination of the dress was
always made, of course with the intention of discovering these
frauds, which were considered as most dangerous and disloyal.

THE ORDINARY TRAVELLER. 119

hitchen. Without in the least being stopped by his
lespect for the majesty of the king, the sheriff, counting
upon the privilege of the city, immediately drove out
the secretary and his suite by force, rubbed off the
marks of the chalk, and became once more master of
his own house. Cited to appear before the Court
steward, and accused of having despised the king's
orders to the extent of at least £1000, he energetically
defended himself, and appealed in defence to the mayor
and citizens, who produced the charters of the city
privileges. The charters were formal, they must be
admitted ; the sheriff's ardour was excused ; Ayre-
mynne consoled himself as best he could, and did not
receive any indemnity.1

In the country, if the king did not find himself in
proximity to one of his own or his liege's castles, he
often went to lodge at the neighbouring monastery,
sure of being received there as master. The great
lords on their journeys did their best to imitate the
prince in this respect.2 In the convents hospitality
was a religious duty ; for the order of St. John of
Jerusalem the first of duties. This order had establish-

1 See Riley's " Liber Albus," p. 303, where the case is entered
in full.

2 It is enough to turn over Froissart to notice the extreme
frequency of this custom ; Jean de Hainaut arrives at Denain :
"There he lodged in the abbey that night" (lib. i. part i. ch. 14) ;
the queen disembarks in England with the same Jean de Hainaut,
" and then they found a great abbey of black monks which is
called St. Aymcn, and they were harboured there and refreshed
for three days" (ch. 18) ; "there the king stopped and lodged in
an abbey" (ch. 292) ; " the King Philippe came to the good town
of Amiens, and there lodged in the abbey of Gard" (ch. 296), &c.

120 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

merits all over England, and it was good fortune for
the poor traveller to come to one of them. No doubt
he was treated there according to his rank, but it was
much not to find the door closed. The accounts of
the year 1338,! show that these knight-monks did not
seek to avoid the heavy burden of hcspitality ; in their
lists of expenditure are always to be found charges
occasioned by su-pervenientibus (strangers). When it
was an affair of kings or prince?, they exceeded them-
selves; thus the Prior of Clerkenwell mentions "much
expenditure which cannot be given in detail, caused
by the hospitality offered to strangers, members of the
royal family, and to other grandees of the realm who
stay at Clerkenwell and remnin there at the cost of the
house." In consequence, the account closes with this
rdsumt* : "Thus the expenditure exceeds the receipts
by twenty-one pounds, eleven shillings and fourpence."
Even the neighbourhood of a great man was a source
of expense ; he was glad to send his suite to profit by
the hospitality of the convent. Thus in the accounts
for Hampton, the list of people to whom beer and bread
have been furnished ends by these words : *' because the
Duke of Cornwall lives near." 2

It should be noted that most of these houses had been
endowed by the nobles, and each one recognizing his
own land or that of a relation, a friend, or an ancestor,
felt himself at home in the monastery. But these

1 "The Knights Hospitallers in England," edited by Larking
and Kemble, Camdcn Society, 1857. It is the text of a manuscript
found at Malta entitled, " Extenta terrarum et tenementorum
Hospitals Sancti Johannis Jerusalem in Anglia, A.D. 133$."

2 "Knights Hospitallers, ' pp. 99, TOI, 127.

THE ORDINARY TRAVELLER. 121

turbulent lords, friends of good cheer, abused the grati-
cude of the monks, and their excesses caused complaints
which came to the ear of the king.1 Edward I. for-
bade any one to venture to eat or lodge in a religious
house, unless the superior had formally invited him,
or that he were the founder of the establishment, and
even then his consumption should be moderate. The
poor only, who more than any lost by the excesses of
the great, might continue to be lodged gratuitously :
" the king intendeth not that the grace of hospitality
should be withdrawn from the destitute."2 'Edward
II., in 1309, confirmed these rules, which it appears fell
into abeyance, and promised again, six years later, that
neither he nor his family would make use of the hospitality
of the monks with excess.3 It was trouble lost ; these
abuses were already comprised among those which it was
the object of the Articles of the Crown to discover, but
were powerless to get rid of. Periodically the magis-
trate came to question the country folk on the subject.
He asked them " if any lords or others had gone to
lodge in religious houses without being invited by the
superiors ; or had gone at their own expense, against the
will of the said religious ; " whether any bold persons
"had sent into the houses or mansions belonging to the
monks or others, men, horses, or dogs to sojourn there
at an expence not their own ? " It appears that it was
difficult or even dangerous to apply these rules, for the,
magistrate again questioned the jury about " any who
may have taken revenge for refusal of food or lodging.'M

1 See Appendix VIII. * Statute 3 Edward I. cap. I.

•* Statute 9 Edward II. cap. ll, Articuli cleri, A.D. 1315-1316.
4 " Fleta," lib. i. cap. 20, § 68, 72.

122 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

The Commons in parliament, mindful as they
were in such matters of the fate of the poorest, were
not less jealous than the wealthy of the benefits of
monkish hospitality, and watched lest the custom should
fall into desuetude. The non-residence of the clergy,
which was to be one of the causes of the Reformation
two hundred years later, occasioned violent protestations
during the fourteenth century. The Commons object
especially because from this abuse there results a
decay of the duties of hospitality. " And that all other
persons advanced to the benefices of Holy Church,"
they demand of the king, " should remain on their said
benefices in order to keep hospitality there, on the same
penalty, except the king's clerks and clerks of the great
lords of the realm." l The parliament again protests
against the appropriation by the pope of rich priories
to foreigners who remain on the continent. These

o

foreigners " suffer the noble edifices built of old time
when they were occupied by the English to fall quite
to ruin," and neglect " to keep hospitality." 2

Only people of high rank were admitted in the
monastery itself. The mass of travellers, pilgrims and
others, were housed and fed in the guest-house. This
was a building made on purpose to receive passersby ;
it usually stood by itself, and was even, sometimes,
erected outside the precincts of the monastery. Such,
for instance, was the case in Battle Abbey, where the

1 "Rolls of Parliament," iii. p. 501, A.D. 1402.

2 Ibid., iii. p. 82, A.D. 1379-80. The clergy, on the other hand,
complain that the sheriffs sometimes come "with their wives and
other excessive number of people," to install themselves into monas*
teries, under pretext of collecting monies for the king. Ibid., p.
26, A.D. 1377.

THE ORDINARY TRAVELLER. 123

guest-house is still to be seen outside the large entrance
gate. These edifices commonly consisted of a hall with
doors opening on each side into sleeping rooms. People
slept also in the hall of the guest-house ; old inventories,
for instance the one concerning the Dover Maison-Dieu
or hospital, show that beds were set up there, and there
it seems, remained permanently.1

It is hardly necessary to recall that hospitality was
also exercised in castles ; barons who were not at feud
willingly received one another ; there were much stricter
ties of brotherhood among them than now exist among
people of the same class. We do not often now give
lodging to unknown persons who knock at the door ; at
the most, and that rarely, we permit a poor man passing
along in the country to sleep the night in our hay-loft.
In the Middle Ages, men received their equals, not by
way of simple charity, but as a habit of courtesy and also
for pleasure. Known or unknown, the travelling knight
rarely found himself refused the entry to a country
house. His coming in time of peace was a happy
diversion from the monotony of the days. There was
in every house the ball, the large room where the
repasts were taken in common ; the new-comer ate
with the lord at the table placed at one end on the
spot called the dais; his followers were at the lower
tables disposed the other way, along the walls of the
house. Supper finished, all soon retired to rest, people
went to bed and rose early in those days. The traveller
withdrew sometimes into a special room for guests, if
the house were large ; sometimes into that of the master

1 "Inventories of St. Mary's Hospital, or Maison Dieu," Dover,
by M. E. C. Walcott, " Archaeologia Cantiana," London, 1869.

124 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

himself, the solar (room on the first storey), and spent
the night there with him. Meanwhile, the lower tables
were taken out of the hall, for in general these were not
standing, but movable ; x mattresses were placed on the
ground over the litter of rushes which day and night
covered the pavement, and the people of the household,
and of the traveller, the strangers of less importance,
stretched themselves out there till morning. Such a
litter of herbs or rushes was in constant use, and was to
be found in the king's palace as well as in the houses
of mere merchants in the city : it was spread in lieu of
a carpet, to keep the room warm and to give an appear-
ance of comfort. It is still to be met with, and this
is, I believe, the last place where it has found refuge,
in old-fashioned French provincial diligences ; the straw
in English country omnibuses is also its lineal descendant.
Prices paid for the purchase of rushes constantly recur
in the accounts of the royal expenses.2 They were so
largely used in towns as well as in the country, that
people in cities did not know what to do with the soiled
ones, and the local authorities had to interfere over and

1 " Mensae de medio remouentur " (or, in the English version by
S. Bateman of 1582, fol. 8 1, " when they have eaten, boord, clothes,
and reliefe bee borne awaye"). Description of a dinner in Eng-
land, by Bartholomew the Englishman (de Glanville), I3th century.
" Barxholomi Anglici de proprietatibus rerum," Frankfort, 1609,
lib. vi. cap. 32. Smollett, in the eighteenth century, notes the
existence of similar customs in Scotland ; people dine, then sleep
in the hall, where mattresses are stretched in place of tables
("Humphrey Clinker").

2 " Hall and chamber, for litter, 2od. ; hall and chamber, for
rushes, i6d. ; hall, &c., for litter, id., &c." (Extracts from the
Rotulus familiaj, 1 8 Ed. I., " Archajologia," vol. xv. p. 350). The
king was then at Langley Castle, Buckinghamshire.

THE ORDINARY TRAVELLER. 125

over again, in London especially, where the inhabitants
were apt to throw them into the Thames, with the result
of greatly damaging and polluting the water.

Through a window pierced in the wall of separation
between his room and the hall, on the side of the dais,
the lord could see and even hear all that was done or said
in the hall. The hall was used for sleeping even in the
king's house ; the ordinances of Edward IV. show it ; l
at a period much nearer our day (1514), Barclay still
complains that at Court the same couch serves for two,
and that the noise from the comers and goers, from
brawlers, coughing, and chattering perpetually hinders
sleep.2 At the first streaks of dawn, sending through
the white or coloured panes of the high windows spots
of light upon the dark carved timber- work, which, high
above the pavement, supported the roof itself of the
house, all stirred on their couches ; soon they were out
of doors, horses were saddled, and the clatter of hoofs
sounded anew on the highway.

Towards the latter part of the fourteenth century a
change was perceptible in the use of the hall. It was
first noted by that acute observer of manners, William
Langland, the author of the " Visions." Life was be-
coming, by slow degrees, less patriarchal and more
private ; people were less fond of dining almost publicly
in their halls. Rich men began to prefer having their

1 Turner and Parker, "Domestic Architecture in England,
from Edward I. to Richard II," Oxford, 1853, p. 75. See also in
" Archaeologia," vi. p. 366, the description, with drawings, of the
Royal Hall at Eltham.

2 Eclogue III. in the edition of the " Cytezen and Vplondysh-
man," published by the Percy Society, 1847, p. li.

ia6 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

meals by themselves in rooms with chimneys, which last
particular Langland is careful to notice as being a sign
of the growing luxuriousness of the times.1 Less and
less inhabited, the hall gradually became little more than
a sort of thoroughfare leading to the rooms where
people were living a life more private than before. It
decreased in size as well as in importance, until it was
nothing in ordinary houses but the vestibule which we
now see.

It must have been only the very poor, or the very rich
or powerful for whom the monastery served as a hostelry.
Monks received the first in charity, and the second by
necessity, the common inns being at once too dear for
the one and too miserable for the other. These were
intended for the middle class : merchants, small land-
owners, packmen, &c. A certain number of beds were
placed in one room, and each man bought separately
what he wished to eat, chiefly bread, a little meat, and
some beer. Complaints as to the excessive prices were
not much less frequent then than now ; the people
petitioned parliament and the king interfered accordingly
with his accustomed useless good will. Edward III.
promulgated, in the 23rd year of his reign, a statute
to constrain " hostelers et herbergers " to sell food at
reasonable prices ; and again, four years later, tried to
put an end to the " great and outrageous cost of victuals
kept up in all the realm by inn-keepers and other
retailers of victuals, to the great detriment of the people
travelling across the realm." 2

1 " The Vision concerning Piers the Plowman" (Skeat), Text
B, passus x. line 96.
1 Statutes 23 Ed. III. ch. 6 and 27 Ed. JIT. st. i, ch. 3. As to

THE ORDINARY TRAVELLER. 129

To have an instance of ordinary travelling, we may
follow the warden and two fellows of Merton College,
who went with four servants from Oxford to Durham
and Newcastle in 1331. l They travelled on horseback;
it was in the dead of winter. Their food was very
simple and their lodging inexpensive, the same items
recur almost always ; they comprise, on account of the
season, candles and fire, sometimes a coal fire. One
of their days may give an idea of the rest : for a certain
Sunday they write down :

Bread ... ... 4d.

Beer ... :.. zd.

Wine ijd.

Meat 5^d.

Potage ... ... id.

Candles id.

Fuel 2d.

Beds ... ... ... zd.

Fodder for Horses lod.

Beds, we see, were not dear , on another occasion the
servants alone are at the inn, and their sleeping comes
to a penny for two nights. Generally, when the party
is complete, the whole of their beds cost twopence ; at
London the price was a little higher, that is a penny a
head.2 Sometimes they have eges or vegetables for a
farthing, a chicken or a capon. When they had con-
diments, they put them down separately, for example :
fat, £d.; gravy, |d.; pickle for the same price; sugar, ^.d ;

the inns of the Middle Ages, see Francisque Michel and Ed.
Fournier, "La Grande Boheme, histoire des classes reprouvees,"
vol. i., "Hotelleries et cabarets," Paris, 1851; and in the " Ve-
tusta monumenta," vol. iv., 1815, pi. xxxv., a fine view of the
George Inn at Glastonbury (fifteenth century).

1 The Latin text of their account of expenses is published by
Thorold Rogers in his " History of Agriculture and Prices," ii. p.
2 " Liber Albus," ed. Riley, Introduction, p. Iviii.
9

1 30 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

pepper, saffron, mustard. Fish recurs regularly even
Friday. Evening comes, the roads are dark ; the way
is lost, they take a guide, to whom they give a penny.
On passing the Humber they pay eightpence, which
may appear much, after the other prices. But we must
remember that the river was wide and difficult to cross,
especially in winter. The annals of the Abbey of Meaux
constantly mention the ravages caused by th.-* overflow
of the river, telling of farms and mills destroyed, of
entire properties submerged, and of cultivation swept

AN ENGLISH INN OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTUKY

(From the Louterell Psalter. )

away. The owners of the ferry profited by these acci-
dents, in continually augmenting their prices, and at last
the king himself was obliged to intervene in order to
re-establish the normal rate, which was a penny for a
horseman ; this is what the warden and fellows with
their company paid.1 Sometimes our travellers fur-
nished themselves beforehand with provisions to carry
with them ; a salmon was bought, " for the journey,"

1 See Appendix IX.

AVJVS AND ALEHOUSES. 131

eighteenpcnce, and for having it cooked, doubtless
with some complicated sauce, they pay eightpence.

Amusing specimens ot dialogue on arrival between
traveller and innkeeper, and discussion as to the price
of victuals, may be read in the Manual of French
Conversation, composed at the end of the fourteenth
century by an Englishman, under the title of " La
Maniere de Language que t' enseignera bien a, droic
parler et escrire doulz Francois." r Chapter iii. is par-
ticularly interesting. It shows " how a man who is going
far out of his own country, riding or walking, should
behave himself and talk upon the way." The servant
sent forward to engage the room utters the warm wish
(( * that there are no fleas, nor bugs, nor other vermin.'
' No, sir, please God,' replies the host, ' for I make
bold that you shall be well and comfortably lodged
here — save that there is a great peck of rats and mice.' "
The provisions are passed in review, the fire lighted,
supper prepared : the traveller arrives, and it is curious
to note with what a gallant want of ceremony he
assures himself before dismounting that he will find
" good supper, good lodging, and the rest," 2at the inn.
Further on (chap, xiii.) there is question of another
hostelry, and the conversation between two travellers
who have just slept in the same bed shows what a
trouble the fleas were : " William, undress and wash
your lens, and then dry them with a cloth, and rub
them well for love of the fleas, that they may not leap

1 Published by Prof. Paul Meyer in the Revue Critique (1870),
vol. x. p. 373.

? " Bon soupcr, bon gitc, et le reste *' (La Fontaine).

1 32 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

on your legs, for there is a peck of them lying in the
dust under the rushes. . . . Hi ! the fleas bite me so !
and do me great harm, for I have scratched my
shoulders till the blood flows."

Beer was drunk along the road, and it was found in
other places besides the inn where travellers slept at night.
At the cross-roads of frequented highways there were
houses where drink could be had. A long projecting
pole above the door, which displayed afar off its bunch
of branches, announced the presence of the alehouse to
travellers. Chaucer's pilgrims, riding on the way to
Canterbury, dismounted at a house of this kind. The

ON THE KOADS1UE. THE ALEHOUSE.

(l-'rom the MS. 10 E. IV. ; English; Fourteenth Century.}

pardoner, according to his habit, would not begin his
tale without a little comfort :

" But first quod he her at this ale-stake
I wil bothe drynke and byten on a cake."

A miniature of the fourteenth century, of which we
give a reproduction, represents the alehouse with its
long horizontal pole holding its tuft of foliage well out
in front above the road. The house consists but of one
storey, a woman srands before the door with a large
beer-jug, and a hermit is drinking from a large cup. It
was the fashion to have extremely long poles, which

1MNS AND ALE HO USES. 1 3 3

offered no inconvenience in the country, but in town
they had to be under regulations, and a maximum of
length fixed. In truth, according to the wording of the
Act, poles so long were used, that they " did tend to the
great deterioration of the houses in which they were
placed," and further, they were so long and had signs
so low, that they were in the way of the riders' heads.
The Act of 1375 which relates these grievances orders
that in future the poles shall not extend more than
seven feet over the public way.1 This left enough to
give a picturesque character to streets not so wide as
ours.

There were taverns of ill-fame, especially in the
towns. In London it was forbidden by the king to
keep open house after curfew, and for very good
reasons, " because such offenders as aforesaid, going
about by night, do commonly resort and have their
meetings and hold their evil talk in taverns more than
elsewhere, and there do seek for shelter, lying in wait
and watching their time to do mischief." 2

It was for fear of such dangers that the sheriffs and
bailiffs were obliged, in their Views of Frankpledge, to
require the men in their bailliwicks to say upon oath
what they knew " of such as continually haunt taverns,
and no man knoweth whence they come ; of such as
sleep by day and watch by night, eat well and drink
well, and have nothing." l

1 Rilcy's " Memorials of" London," p. 386.

z Statutes for the City of London, 13 Ed. I., "Statutes of the
Realm," vol. i. p. 102, A.D. 1285.

3 Articles of the View of Frankpledge, attributed to 1 8 Ed. II.,
" Statutes," vol. i. p. 246 (French version).

i34 E:\GLISII WAYFARING LIFE.

We know the fine picture of a tavern in the four-
teenth century which Lnngland has left us. With as
much spirit ns Rabelais he brings us into the presence
of the tumultuous scenes which pass at the alehouse,
to tl.e discussions, the quarrels, the big bumpers, the
intoxication which ensues : we see every face, we dis-
tinguish the sound of the voices, we remark the coarse
behaviour ; and one might almost take part in that
strange assembly, where the hermit meets the cobbler
and " the clerk of the churche," a band of cut-purses
and bald-headed tooth-drawers.

" Thomme the tynkere, and tvveye of hus knaues,
Hicke the hakcneyman, and Houwe the nclderc, *
Claryce of Cockeslane, the clerk of the churche,
An haywarde and an heremyte, the hangeman of Tyborne,
Dauwe the dykere, with a dosen harlotes,
Of portours and of pyke-porses, and pylede toth-drawers.
* * * * * *

Ther was lauhyng and bkeryng, and 'let go the coppc,
Bargeynes and beuereges by-gunne to aryse,
And seten so til evesong rang." a

At these taverns peasants are also found. Christine
de Pisan, that woman whose writings and character so
often recall Gower, shows them to us drinking, fighting,
and losing in the evening more than they have gained
all the day ; they have to appear before the pi ovost,
and fines accrue to augment their losses :

" At these taverns every day you will find they
remain, drinking there all day as soon as their work is

1 Hugh the needle-seller.

2 " Piers the Plowman," Skeat's edition, Text C, passus vii.
H- 364-3 7°. 394-

INNS AND ALEHOUSES. 135

done. Many find it the thing to come there in order to
drink ; they spend there, 'tis perfectly true, more than
they have gained all day. Do not ask if they fight
when they are tipsy, the provost has several pounds in
fines for it during the year. And there are seen those
idle gallants who haunt taverns, gay and handsome." l

At the time of the Renaissance in England, the poet
Skelton, tutor of Henry VIII., amuses himself by de-
scribing in one of his most popular ballads an alehouse
on the highroad ; the house is just like those which
Langland knew a century and a half sooner. The ale-
wife, who brews, God knows how, her beer herself,
is a detestable old creature, with a hooked nose, humped
back, grey hairs, and wrinkled face, very much like the
" magots " painted since by Teniers. She keeps her
tavern near Leatherhead, in Surrey, on a declivity near

* "Par ces ravernes chacun jour,
Vous en trouveriez a sejour,
Beuvans la toute la journee . .
Aussi tost que ont fait leur journcc.
Malnt y aconvient aler boire :
La despendent, c'est chose voire,
Plus que toute jour n'ont gaignc.
» * # *

La ne convient il demander
S'ilz s'entrebatent quand sont yvres j
Le prevost en a plusieurs livres
D'amande tout au long de Tan.

* » * *

Et y verries de ces gallans
Oyseux qui tavernes poursuivent
Gays et jolis."

(" Le Livre de la mutacion de fortune," liv. iii., MS. ^03 Fr.,
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.)

136 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

ihe highroad, and she sells her wares " to travellers, to
-.ynkers," and others :

" Her nose somdele hoked,
And camously croked,

* * * *

Her skynne lose and slacke,
Grained like a sacke,
With a croked backe.

* * * *

She breweth noppy ale,
And maketh therof port sale
To travellars, to tynkers,
To sweters, to swynkers,
And all good ale drinkers."

Passers-by and dwellers in the neighbourhood crowd
to her house :

" Some go streyght thyder,
Be it slaty or slyder ;
They holde the hye waye,
They care not what men say,
Be that as be may ;
Some, lothe to be espyde,
Start in at the backe syde,
Over the hedge and pale,
And all for the good ale."

The reputation of the houses with long bunches of
branches does not seem to have improved, and many
»f those who frequented them had little wish to boast
of it. As for paying the score that was the difficulty !
The worshippers of drink who had no money got out
of it the best way they could ; they paid in kind :

ROADSIDE HERMITS. 137

" Instedc of coyne and monny,
Some brynge her a conny,
And some a pot with honny,
Some a salt, and some a spone,
Some their hose, some theyr shone."

As to the women, one brings :

** her weddynge-rynge
To pay for her scot,
As cometh to her lot.
Som bryngeth her husbandes hood,
Because the ale is good." x

Other isolated houses that were found along the road
had also constant relations with travellers, those of the
hermits.2 In the fourteenth century hermits for the
most part seldom sought the solitude of deserts or the
depth of the woods. Such as Robert Rolle of Ham-
pole, fasting, falling into ecstasies, consumed with the
divine love, were rare exceptions ; they lived by pre-
ference in cottages, built at the most frequented parts of

1 " Elynour Rummynge. The Poetical Works of John
Skelton," ed. Dyce, 1843, vol. i. p. 95.

2 A few hermitages are still in existence ; one is to be seen at
Knaresborough, Yorkshire, and is said to have been first inhabited
by St. Robert in the thirteenth century ; it is entirely hollowed out
of the rock, and has a perpendicular window which seems to have
been carved in the fourteenth century. Another, partly of masonry
and partly scooped out of the rock, is in existence at Warkworth,
Northumberland. One of the most famous ballads in Bishop
Percy's " Reliques " is about the hermit of Warkworth. This
hermitage seems to have been gradually enlarged by its successive
inhabitants ; but it appears from the style of the windows and
carvings to belong mostly to the fourteenth century.

138 ENGLISH WA YFAR1NG LIFE.

the great roads, or at the corners of bridges.1 They
lived there, like Godfrey Pratt,2 on the charity of the
passers-by ; the bridge with its chapel was already almost
a sacred building ; the neighbourhood of the hermit
sanctified it still further. He attended to the repairing of
the edifice, or was supposed to do so, and was willingly
given a farthing. 3 It was a strange race of men,
which in this century of disorganization and reform,
in which everything seemed either to die or to undergo
a new birth, increased and multiplied in spite of rules
and regulations. They swelled the number of parasites
of the religious edifice, sheltering under the religious
habit a life that was not so. These importunate and
evil growths attached themselves, like moss in the damp
of the cathedral to the fissures of the stones, and by the
slow work of centuries menaced the noble edifice with
ruin. What might remedy this ? It was useless
mowing down the ever-growing weeds ; it needed a
patient hand, guided by a vigilant eye, to pluck them
out one by one, and to fill up the interstices by de-
grees : it was a saint's business, and saints are rare.
The episcopal statutes might often apparently do a

1 See, for an example of a hermit installed at the corner of a
bridge, an Act of resumption which formally excepts a grant of 145.
yearly to the "Heremyte of the Brigge of Loyne and his succes-
sours," 4 Ed. IV., " Rolls of Parliament," v. p. 546. Another
example is to be found in J. Britton, " On Ancient Gate-houses "
(Memoirs illustrative of the History of Norfolk, London, Archaeo-
logical Institute, 1851), p. 137, where we find a hermit living on
Bishop's Bridge, Norwich, in the thirteenth century and after.

* See before, pp. 45 et seq.

3 See before as to the part taken by the clergy in the collection
of offerings, the care and maintenance of bridges (chap. i.).

ROADSIDE HERMITS.

139

great work, but it was superficial merely. Though the
heads were beaten down, the roots remained, and the
lively parasite struck yet deeper into the heart of the
wall.

Solemn interdictions and rigorous prescriptions were
not wanting ; these cast down heads which ever rose
again. To become a hermit a man must be resolved

O

on an exemplary life of miseries and privations, and,
that imposture might be impossible, he must have epis-

A HERMIT TEMPTED BY THE DEVIL.

(From the MS. 10 E. IV. ; English. ; Fourteenth Century.")

copal sanction, that is, possess " testimonial letters from
the ordinary." These rules were broken without
scruple. Inside his dwelling the not very devout
creature in hermit's garb might lead a pretty pleasant
life, and it was so hard elsewhere ! The charity ot
passers-by was enough to live upon, especially if he had
few scruples and knew how to beg ; no other labour, no
pressing obligation, the bishop was distant and the

1 40 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

tavern close by. All these reasons caused a never-end
ing growth of the mischievous species of false hermits
who only took the habit to live by it, without asking
permission of any one. In the statures they were
bracketed with beggars, wandering labourers, and
vagabonds of all kinds, who were to be imprisoned
without distinction while awaiting judgment. There
was only exception for " approved " hermits : " except
men of religion and approved hermits having letters
testimonial from the ordinary." * A statute like this
proves sufficiently that Langland did not exaggerate in
his eloquent description of the life of hermits; his verse
is but the commentary on the law. The author of the
"Vision" is impartial and does justice to sincere
anchorites : true Christians resemble them.2 But who
are these false saints who have pitched their tent at
the edge of the highroads or even in the towns, at
the doors of the alehouses, who beg under the church
porches, who eat and drink plentifully, and pass the
evenings in warming themselves ?

"Ac eremites that en-habiten by the heyeweyes,
And in borwes a-mong brewesters and beggen in churches." 3

Who is that man who rests and roasts himself by the
hot coals, and when he has well drunk, has only to go to
bed?

1 i 2 Rich. II., ch. 7, " Statutes of the Realm."
a " Piers Plowman," Skcat's edition, Text C, passus i. 1. 30 ; passus
x. !. 195.

3 Ibid., passus x. 1. 188.

ROADSIDE HERMITS. 141

" Icwede eremytes,

That loken ful louheliche to lacchcn * mennes almesse,
In hope to sitten at euen by the hote coles,
Vnlouke hus legges abrod, other lygge at hus ese,
Reste hym and roste hym and his ryg (back) turne,
Drynke drue and deepe and drawe hym thanne to bedd; ;
And when hym lyketh and lust hus leue ys to aryse ;
When he ys rysen, rometh out and ryght wel aspicth
Whar he may rathest haue a repast other a rounde of bacon,
Suluer other sode mete, and som tyme bothe,
A loof other half a loof, other a lompe of chese ;
And carieth it horn to hus cote and cast hym to lyue
In ydelnesse and in ese." 2

All these are unworthy of pity, and, adds Langlana
with that aristocratic sentiment which has not been
sufficiently remarked in him, all these hermits meanwhile
are common artisans, " workmen, webbes and taillours,
and carters knaves ; " formerly they had " long labour
and lyte wynnynge," but they remarked one day that
these deceitful friars who were seen on every side
" hadde fatte chekus," they immediately abandoned
their labour and took lying garments, as though they
were clerks :

" Other of som ordre, other elles a prophete."

They are seldom seen at church, these false hermits,
but they are found seated at great men's tables because
their clothes are respectable ; look at them eating and
drinking of the best ! they who formerly were of the
lowest rank, at the side tables, never drinking wine, never
eating white bread, without a blanket for their beds.

* Look humbly to gain alms.

2 " Piers Plowman," Skeat's edition, Text C, passus x. 11. 140-1152.

1 42 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

"Ac while he wrought in thys worlde and wan hus mete with

treuthe,

He sat atte sydbenche and secounde table ;
Cam no wyn in hus wombe thorw the weke longe,
Nother blankett in hus bed ne white bred by-fore hym.
The cause of al thys caitifte cometh of meny bisshopes
That suffVcn suche sottes." *

These rascals escaped the bishops, who ought to have
had their eyes better open. " Alas ! " said a poet of
the thirteenth century, Rutebeuf, in charming language,
" The coat does not make the hermit ; if a man dwell
in a hermitage and be clorhed in hermit's dress, I don't
care two straws for his habit nor his vesture if he does
not lead a life as pure as his coat pretends. But many
folk make a fine show and marvellous seeming what
they are worth ; they resemble the trees which
blossomed too brightly and which fail to bring forth
fruit." 2

Under the eyes of the placid hermit, comfortably

1 "Piers Plowman," Skcat's edition, passus y. 11. 251-256.
a "Li abis ne fet pas Termite ;

S'uns horn en hermitage abite

Et s'il en a les dras vestus,

Je ne pris mie deus festus

Son abit nc sa vcsteurc,

S'il ne maine vie aussi pure

Comme son abit nous demonstre ;

Mes maintes genz font bele monstrc

Et merveilleux sanblant qu'il vaillent :

II sanblent les arbres qui faillent

Qui furent trop bel au florir."

(Lc Dit de frere Denise. " CEuvrcs completes dc Rutebeuf,"
edition Jubinal, Paris, 1874, vol. ii. p. 63.)

ROADSIDE HERMITS. 143

established at the edge of the road, under the glance of
this man, who calmly prepared himself by an untroubled
life without care nor suffering for a blissful eternity,
flowed the changefully coloured current of travellers,
vagabonds, wayfarers, and wanderers. His benediction
rewarded the generous passer ; the hard look of the
austere man did not suffice to disturb his blessed in-
difference. The life of others might rapidly consume,
burnt by the sun, gnawed by care ; his own endured in
the shade of the trees, and continued without hurt,
lulled by the rustle of human passions.

AN ESCAPED PRISONER FLYING TO SANCTUARY.

(F, om the MS. 10 E. 2V.)

CHAPTER III.

SECURITY OF THE ROADS.

THESE roads thus traversed in all directions by
the king and the lords going from one manor to
another, by the merchants going to the fair, the
market, or the staple, these roads, where at intervals the
crunching of the peasants' carts was heard, were they
safe ? The theoretic study of the legal ordinances, and
of the manner in which the county police and the town
watch and ward were organized, might lead to the con-
clusion that precautions were well taken for the pre-
vention of misdeeds, and that travelling did not present
more danger than it does at present. If we add, as
Mr. Thorold Rogers has shown, that there was a regular
service of carriages between Oxford and London, Win-
chester, Newcastle, &c., and that the price of transport
was not dear we might be persuaded that the roads

SECUR/TY O* THE ROADS. 145

were absolutely safe. Yet we should be wrong. On
the other hand, we must not consider, on the faith of
the romances, as some do, that there were brigands in
every thicket, a hanged man at every branch, and robber
lords settled along every stream. But we must take
accident, or the unexpected, into account.

Accident plays a greater part in the fourteenth
century than perhaps at any other epoch. It was the
moment when modern life began, when the superficial
brilliancy of a novel civilization had recently modified
society from top to bottom. Confidence was greater,
homes less fortified, the crenelated castle changed into a
villa or a mansion, while the hut grew into a house.
More means were taken than formerly to hinder ill-
doing ; but numerous occurrences happened to destroy
this commencement of security. At bottom society
was neither quite calm nor quite settled, and many of its
members were still half savage. The term "half" may
be literally taken. If we made a list of the qualities of
such or such an individual, we should find that the first
part belonged to a much civilized, and the second to a
very barbarous world. Thence these contrasts ; on one
side order, which it would perhaps be injustice not to
consider the normal condition ; and on the other, the
frequent ebullitions of the untamed nature. Let us
take an example of such occurrences : here are a knight
and his men at the corner of a road, who are waiting for
a caravan of merchants. The text itself of the victims'
petition gives all the details of the encounter.1

The incident took place in 1342. Some Lichfield
merchants state to their lord, the Earl of Arundel,

1 Printed in the " Archasological Journal," vol. iv. p. 69.

10

t46 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

that on a certain Friday they sent two servants and two
horses laden " with spicery and mercery," worth forty
pounds, to Stafford for the next market day. When
their men " came beneath Cannock Wood " they met
Sir Robert de Rideware, Knight, who was waiting for
them, together with two of his squires, who seized
on the domestics, horses, and booty, and took them
to the priory of Lappeley. Unfortunately for him,
during the journey one of the servants escaped. At
the priory the band found " Sir John de Oddyngesles,
Esmon de Oddyngesles, and several others, knights as
well as others." It was evidently an arranged affair,
carefully organized ; everything was done according to
rule ; they shared " among them all the aforesaid
mercery and spicery, each one a portion according to
his degree." That done, the company left Lappeley
and rode to the priory of Blythebury, occupied by
nuns. Sir Robert declared at the abbey that they were
the king's men, " having travelled far," and begged for
hospitality as it was usually given. But it seems the
company had a bad appearance ; the abbess refused.
The knights, seeing this inopportune reception, burst
the gates of the barns, gave hay and oats to their
horses, and so passed the night.

But they were not the only persons well occupying
their time. The escaped servant had followed them at
a distance, and when he saw them installed at the priory
he returned in all haste to Lichfield to warn the bailiff
who hastened to collect his men for the pursuit of the
robbers. The latter, who were men of the sword, as
soon as they were met, turned on their defence, and a
real combat took place, in which at first they had the

SECURITY OF THE ROADS. 147

upper hand, and wounded several of their enemies. At
length, however, they lost ground and fled ; all the
spices were recovered, and four of their company
taken, who were immediately beheaded on the spot.

Robert de Rideware was not among the victims, and
did not lose heart. He met his relative Walter de
Rideware, lord of Hamstall Rideware, with some of his
following, while the bailiff was on his road back to
Lich field; all together turned their horses' heads in
pursuit of the bailiff. A fresh fight ; this time the
king's officer was worsted and fled, while the lords
finally took from him the spices once more.

What resource remained for the unhappy William
and Richard, authors of the petition ? Resort to
justice ? This they wished to do. But as they were
going for this purpose to Stafford, chief town 'of the
county, they found at the gates of the city some of the
retainers of their persecutors, who barred their passage
and even attacked the-m so warmly that they hardly
escaped without grievous hurt. They returned to
Lichfield, watched by their enemies, and led a pitiable
existence. <f And, sire, the aforesaid William and
Richard, and many people of the town of Lichfield, are
menaced by the said robbers and their maintainers, so
that they dare not go out of the said town at all."

This legal document, the original of which still exists,
is tolerably characteristic, and from this it appears
that these lords and their assistants were not without
resemblance to those of the Promessi Spvsi and their
terrible bravi. Here, especially, may be remarked the
coolness and determination of the knights, who were
not disconcerted by the death of four of their number;

148 ENGLISH WAYfARING LIFE.

the attack under cover of a wood ; the selection of the
victims ; " garsuns " belonging to rich merchants ; the
demand for hospitality in a priory under pretext oi
journeying in the king's service ; the expeditious justice
of the bailiff, and the persistent surveillance to which
the steps of the victims were subjected by their tyrants.
These are not quite exceptional facts, and Robert of
Rideware was not the only one who was on the look out
in the copses along the side of the roads. Many other
lords were, like him, surrounded by devoted men, ready
for all enterprises. Capes and liveries of their masters'
colours were given to them, which permitted them easily
to be recognized ; a lord well surrounded with his
partizans considered himself as above the common law,
and justice had no easy matter to make herself respected
by him. The custom of having, each one, a number
of determined servitors bearing his colours became
universal at the end of Edward II I. 's reign and under
Richard II. , it subsisted in spite of statutes l during
the whole of the fifteenth century, and contribute!
largely to render the barons' wars of this period em-
bittered and bloody.

1 Richard II. had several times to renew and confirm them, but
without effect. In his first statute upon this subject, he states the
luxury of partizans which many men, though of indifferent means,
delight in; declaring "that divers people of small revenue of land,
rent, or other possessions, do make great retinue of people, as well
»f esquires as of other, in many parts of the realm" (i Richard
[I., cap. 7, A.D. 1377). The third statute of 13 Richard II., that
of l6th year (cap. 4), that of zoth year (cap. I and 2), are likewise
directed against the abuse of liveries and the number of partizans
of the "lords spiritual and temporal." Henry VI. renewed these
statutes, without effect,

SECURITY OF THE ROADS. i &

But even independently of the periods of civil war.
the misdeeds committed by certain barons and their
faithful followers, or even simply by followers acting on
their own account under cover of their lord's colours,
were everywhere so frequent and so serious that in many
counties it might have been thought there was war.
The preamble of a statute of the second year of Richard
II.1 makes perhaps rather an exaggerated picture of these
disorders on purpose better to justify rigorous measures,
but the description must have been in a large measure
true. We there see (the king learnt it at the time from
the formal petitions addressed to parliament and by
public rumour) that certain people in several parts of the
kingdom claimed " to have right to divers lands, tene-
ments and other possessions, and some espying women
and damsels unmarried, and some desiring to make
maintenance in their marches, do gather them together
to a great number of men of arms and archers, to the
manner of war, and confederate themselves by oath and
other confederacy." These people, having no " con-
sideration to God, nor to the laws of holy church, nor
of the land, nor to right, nor justice, but refusing and
setting apart all process of the law, do ride in great
routs in divers parts of England, and take possession
and set them in divers manors, lands, and other posses-
sions of their own authority, and hold the same long
with such force, doing many manner apparelments of
war ; and in some places do ravish women and damsels,
and bring them into strange countries, where please
them ; and in some places lying in await with such
routs do beat and maim, murder and slay the people,
1 Statute 2 Richard II., stat. i. cap. 6, A.D. 1378.

ISO ENGLISH WAYfARING LIFE.

for to have their wives and their goods, and the same
women and goods retain to their own use ; and some-
times take the king's liege people in their houses, and
bring and hold them as prisoners, and at the last put
them to fine and ransom as it were in a land of war ;
and sometime come before the justices in their sessions
in such guise with great force, whereby the justices be
afraid and not hardy to do the law ; and do many other
riots and horrible offences, whereby the realm in divers
parts is put in great trouble, to the great mischief and
grievance of the people." l In the Good Parliament in
1376, the Commons had already made similar com-
plaints : " Now great riot begins anew by many people
in different parts of England who ride with a great
number of armed men," &c.2

1 The picture which this statute presents is so complete that it
is not necessary to quote other texts. In the petitions addressed
to parliament are found very numerous complaints by private
persons for acts of violence of which they had been victims, for
imprisonment by the action of their enemies, robberies, cases of in-
cendiarism, of destruction of game or fish in the parks. Examples :
petition of Agnes of Aldenby, beaten by malefactors (" Rolls
of Parliament," i. p. 375) ; of Agnes Atte Wode, she and her son
beaten and robbed (ibid., i. p. 372) ; of the inhabitants of several
towns of the county of Hertford, who have been imprisoned and
forced to pay ransom by the knight John of Patmer (i. p. 389) ;
of John of Grey, who was attacked by fifteen malefactors so deter-
mined as to set fire to a town and assault a castle (i. p. 397) ; of
Robert Power, who is robbed and his mansion sacked, his people
beaten, by " men all armed as men of war" (i. p. 410) ; of Ralph
le Botiller, who has seen his mansion pillaged and burnt by eighty
men, who came with arms and baggage, bringing ropes and hatchets
on carts (ii. p. 88), &c. In France, it is well known, the misdeeds
of this kind were still more numerous, but there was then a con-
tinual state of war there. 2 " Rolls of Parliament," ii. p. 351.

SECURITY OF THE ROADS. 151

Besides these organized and quasi-seignorial bands>
there were ordinary robbers, against whom Edward I.
had taken, in 1285, special measures in the Statute of
Winchester. It is declared in this Act that malefactors
are accustomed to crouch down in the ditches, coppice,
or brushwoods near upon the roads, especially near
those which link two market towns. This was, of
course, the passage-way of many easy victims, richly
laden. Thus the king orders that the edge of the high-
ways shall be cleared for a distance of two hundred teet
on each side, in such a manner that there remain neither
coppice nor brushwood, nor hollow nor ditch which
might serve as shelter for malefactors. Only large trees
such as oaks might be left. The proprietor of the soil
had to do this ; if he neglected it, he would be respon-
sible for robberies and murders, and must pay a fine to
the king. If the road crossed a park, the same obliga-
tion lay on the lord, unless he consented to close it by
a wall or a hedge so thick, or by a ditch so wide and
deep, that robbers could not cross it or find therein a
shelter before or after their attacks.

But in proportion as we advance in the fourteenth
century, we find that these common thieves discovered
a better employment for their energies without quite
changing their condition. They allied themselves,
sometimes secretly, sometimes openly, to the seignorial
bands, and were not henceforward unticketed men for
whom no one was responsible. The Commons are
aware of the fact, and complain accordingly : " Whereas
it is notoriously known throughout all the shires of
England that robbers, thieves, and other malefactors
on foot and on horseback, go and ride on the high-

1 52 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

way through all the land in divers places, committing
larcenies and robberies : may it please our lord the king
to charge the nobility of the land that none such be
maintained by them, privately nor openly ; but that
they help to arrest and take such bad fellows." l In
the prc-ceding parliament the same complaints had been
made, and the king had already promised that he would
order " such remedy as should be pleasing to God and
man." 2

All these ill-doers, without reckoning the support of
the great, had fine privileges. Some of them were met
along the roads with a cross in hand ; both king and
holy church forbade the touching of these, they were
men who had forsworn the kingdom. When a robber,
a murderer, or any felon found himself too hard
pressed, he fled into a church and found safety. In
almost all societies having reached a certain state of
civilization the same privilege has existed or still exists.
It continues in constant use in many parts of the
East. A church in the Middle Ages was a sacred
place ; whoever had crossed its threshold was under the
protection of God, and many fine miracles, the history
of which was familiar to everybody, attested with what
particular favour the right of sanctuary was regarded by
the Holy Virgin. At Walsingham, whither there was
a celebrated pilgrimage, people never failed to go and
see the " Gate of the Knight," a gate which had
stretched itself so as to give miraculous bhelter to a
man on horseback, hard pursued by his enemies, and

* " Rolls of Parliament," vol. ii. p. 201 (22 E. HI., 1348).
7 Ibid., vol. ii. p. 165.

RIGHT OF SANCTUARY. 153

who found himself thus opportunely placed beyond the
reach of men as well as beyond the reach of law.

Several curious relics of old English sanctuaries are
still in existence. There is at Durham a beautiful
bronze knocker, cast and chiselled in Norman times,
still affixed to the cathedral door through which male-
factors were admitted to the sanctuary.1 As soon as
they had knocked, the door was opened, the bdl in the
Galilee tower was rung, and after having confessed

THE KNOCKER OF THE DURHAM SANCTUARY (NORMAN).

before witnesses their crime, which was at once put into
writing, the culprits were allowed to enjoy the peace
of St. Cuthbert. In several churches there was a chair
or stool called the J "rids 'tool, or peace chair, upon which
the criminal sat, and was then absolutely safe. At
Beverley, for instance, there was one, the Latin inscrip-
tion of which has been preserved : " This stone seat is

1 R.W. Billings, "Architectural illustrations ... of the church
at Durham," London, 1843, p. 23.

'54

E'NGLTSU WAYFARING LIFE.

called freedstoll, that is, chair of peace, on reaching
which a fugitive criminal enjoys complete safety." 1
The Beverley and the Durham sanctuaries were among
the most celebrated in England. The privilege extended
not only to the church, but to one mile round it, the
space being divided into six circles, and it was more
and more sinful to drag fugitives violently from the
sanctuary the nearer they were when seized to the inner

THE FRIDSTOOL AT HEXHAM ABBEY, NORTHUMBERLAND (NORMAN).

circle. If they had reached the altar or the fridstool
no money atonement was accepted. One such stool is
still preserved at Hexham Abbey, Northumberland ; it

1 " Erant hujusmodi cathedrarum multae in Anglia . . . Bever-
laci autem celeberrima, quae priscorum regum benignitate (puta
^Ethelstani vel alterius cujusplam) asyli nacta privilegium, tali
honestabatur inscriptione : * Hasc sedes lapidea Freedstoll dicitur,
i.[e.] pacis cathedra, ad quam reus fugiendo perveniens, omnimodair,
habet securitatem ' ' (H. Spelman, " Glossarium Archaiologicum,"
3rd ed., London, 1687, p. 248).

RIGHT OF SANCTUARY.

'55

is of Norman style, and seems to belong to the twelfth
century.

But the most curious remembrances of the English
sanctuaries are the registers still preserved in some few
cases, in which were entered the confessions of the
criminals at the moment they asked for admittance.
The Beverley and the Durham registers have been
printed ; both date from the fifteenth century ; that
of Durham covers the years 1464 to 1524; it includes,
besides other crimes, 195 murders and homicides, in
which 283 persons are concerned, and which are divide!
as follows, according to the trades and avocations of the
perpetrators :

" Husbandmen
Labourers ...
Yeomen
Gentlemen...
Ecclesiastics
Merchants ...
Tailor
Plumber
Carpenter ...

Tanner

Baxster

Glover

Sailor

Apprentice...

Under-Bailiff

Servant

Knight (an accessory)

" The occupations of the remainder are not mentioned." f

The entries in the register resemble each other very
much ; the formalities are the same ; the Galilee bell is
tolled, the culprit makes a full confession ; witnesses
are called to hear it, and the names of all concerned are
given in full. Here is an example translated from the
Latin original : " To be remembered that on the 6th day
of October, 1477, William Rome and William Nichol-

1 J. Raine, " Sanctuarium Dunelmense et Sanctuarium Bever-
lacense," London, Surtees Society, 1827, p. xxv.

/5& ENGLISH WAYFARING LUE.

son, of the parish of Forsate, fled to the cathedral
church of St. Cuthbert in Durham, where on account
among other things of a felony committed and publicly
confessed by them, consisting of the murder by them of
William Aliand ; they asked from the venerable and
religious men, Sir Thomas Haughton, sacristan of the
said church, and William Cuthbert, master of the Galilee
there, both brothers and monks of the same church, to
be admitted to the benefit of the immunity of the
church, according to the liberties and privileges conceded
in old time to the most glorious confessor Cuthbert.
And by the ringing of one bell according to custom,
they obtained this benefit. There were present there,
seeing and hearing, the discreet men William Highyng-
ton, Thomas Hudson, John Wrangham, and Thomas
Strynger, witnesses called in especially for the occasion." *
At Beverley there were no witnesses : the culprit
swore with his hand on the Book. Besides stating the
cause of his flying to sanctuary he took his oath to
remain peaceful, to help in case of fire, to be present at
mass on the commemoration day of King Athelstan,
benefactor of the church, &c. :

" Also ye shall bere no poynted wepen, dagger, knyfe,
ne none other wapen, ayenst the kynges pece.

" Also ye shalbe redy at all your power, if ther be
any debate or stryf, or oder sodan case of fyre within
the towne, to help to surcess it.

"Also ye shalbe redy at the obite of Kyng Adelstan,
at the dirige and the messe, at such tyme as it is done,
at the warnyng of the belman of the towne, and doe

1 See Appendix X.

RIGHT OF SANCTUAR Y. 157

vour dewte in ryngyng, and for to offer at the mcsse on
the morne," l &c.

To drag men out of sanctuary was a sacrilege which
brought down excommunication. Nicholas the Porter
had helped to snatch from the church of the Carmelites
of Newcastle some laymen who had taken refuge there
*' for the safety of their lives," and who, once delivered
to civil authority, had been executed. He was obliged
to employ the intervention of the Pope's nuncio to
gain pardon, and to submit to a public penance much
opposed to our present customs :

" We order," wrote Bishop Richard to the curate of
St. Nicholas of Durham, " that on Monday, Tuesday,
and Wednesday of the \Vhitsun-weck just coming, he
shall receive the whip from your hands publicly, before
the chief door of your church, in his shirt, bare-headed,
and barefoot.2 He shall there proclaim in English the
reason for his penance and shall admit his fault ; and

1 " Sanctuarium Dunclmense et Sunctuarium Beverlacense,"
p. ill.

2 Penance of this kind was not only applied to men. Women
of all ranks were obliged to submit to it. In the same Register
Palatine of Durham may be seen the case of Isabella of Murley,
condemned for adultery with her sister's husband, John d'Amunde-
ville, to receive publicly "six whippings around the market of
Durham " (vol. ii. p. 695). What makes it the more strange is
that the case was not one of people of the lower sort. This
Amundeville family was powerful and old-established in the
county. There are particulars about them from the thirteenth
century in Surtees, " History and Antiquities of the County Palatine
of Durham," London, 1823, vol. iii. p. 270. Another example is
to be found in the " Constitudones . . . Wakcri de Cantilupo"
(Bishop of Worcester), A.D. 1240; Wilkins' "Concilia Magn.<
Britannia: ct Hibernias," London, 1757, vol. i. p. 663.

158 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIJE.

when he has thus been whipped the said Nicholas will
go to the cathedral church of Durham, bareheaded, bare-
foot, and dressed as above, he will walk in front, you
will follow him ; and you will whip him in the same
manner before the door of the cathedral these three days,
and he will repeat there the expression of his fault." l

The king himself did not dare to infringe upon the
privileges of sanctuaries, and, though unwilling, had to
let traitors escape by this means his revenge or justice.
In a case of this kind, one of the Henries wrote to the
Prior of Durham, and careful as he was to state that
he bound himself only " for that occasion," there is
no doubt that there was nothing exceptional in this
acknowledgment of the full immunities enjoyed by St.
Cuthbert's Church : " Trusty and welbeloved in God,"
says the king, 2 " we grete you well. And wheras we
undirstand that Robert Marshall late comitted to prison
for treason is now escapid and broken from the same
into youre church of Duresme, we hauyng tender zele
and devocion to ye honour of God and St. Cuthbert, and
for the tendir favour and affection that the right reverend
fader in God our right trusty and welbeloved the
Bisshop of Duresme our chauncellor of England we
have for his merits wol that for that occasion nothyng
be attempted that shud be contrarie to the liberties and
immunitie of our church. We therefor wol and charge
you that he be surely kept there as ye wol answere unto
us for him." As there could be very little need for the

1 "Registrum Palatinum Donelmense," ed. Sir T. D. Hardy,
London, 1875, vol i. p. 315, A.D. 1313. See Appendix X.

2 Henry IV or Henry V. Raine, " Sanctuarium Dunelmense,"
p. xvii.

RIGHT OF SANCTUARY. 159

king to declare such an obvious feeling as his respect
for St. Cuthbert, the earnest recommendation by which
he ends his epistle is most likely to have been the only
real cause of his writing to his welbeloved the Prior
of Durham. Another characteristic instance is the
rebellion of Jack Cade, 1450, when one of his accom-
plices fled to St. Martin-le-Grand, the most famous of
the London sanctuaries. The king in this case wrote
to the Dean of St. Martin's ordering him to produce
the traitor. This the Dean refused to do, and he
exhibited his charters, which being found quite cor-
rect and explicit, the fugitive was allowed to remain in
safety where he was.1

This right of sanctuary was most valuable, not only
for political offenders, but also, and much more, for
robbers. They escaped from prison, fled to the church,
and saved their lives. " In this year" (18 E. II.,
1 324), say the " Croniques de London,"2 " ten persons
escaped out of Newgate, of whom five were retaken, and
four escaped to the church of St. Sepulchre, and one to
the church of St. Bride, and afterwards all for-swore
England." But when the poor wretches were watched
in the church by their personal enemies, their situation
became dangerous. This is what the statutes of 1315-
1316 show. The authors of a petitions to the king
set forth that armed men established themselves in the

1 " Historical Notices of the Collegiate Church or Royal free
Chapel and Sanctuary of St. Martin le Grand, London," by A.
J. Kempe, London, 1825, p. 136.

2 " Croniques de London," edited by G. J. Aungier, Camden
Society, 1844, p. 48 (written by a contemporary of the events).

3 "Articuli cleri." statute 9 E. II. cap 10.

i5o ENGLISH IV A Y FA RING LII-E.

cemetery, and even in the sanctuary, to watch the
fugitive, and guarded him so strictly that he could not
even go out to satisfy his natural wants. They hin-
dered food from reaching him : if the felon decided to
swear that he would quit the kingdom his enemies
followed him on the road, and in spite of the law's pro-
tection dragged him away and beheaded him without
judgment. The king reforms all these abuses,1 and
orders that the old regulations as to abjuration should
be put in force, that is to say the following : " When a
robber, murderer, or other evil-doer shall fly unto any
church upon his confession of felony, the coroner shall
cause the abjuration to be made thus : Let the felon be
brought to the church door, and there be assigned unto
him a port, near or far off, and a time appointed to him
to go out of the realm, so that in going towards that
pore he carry a cross in his hand, and that he go not
out of the king's highway, neither on the right hand,
nor on the left, but that he keep it always until he shall
be gone out of the land ; and that he shall not return

D *

\vithout special grace of our lord the king."

The felon took oath in the following terms : " This
hear thou, sir coroner, that I, N., am a robber of
sheep, or of any other beast, or a murderer of one or
of more, and a felon of our lord the King of England,
and because I have done many such evils or robberies
in this land, I do abjure the land of our lord Edward
King of England, and 1 shall haste me towards the port
of such a place which thou hast given me, and that I

1 He forbids those on guard to stay in the cemetery, unless there
is imminent danger of flight. The felon may have the " neces-
saries of life " in the sanctuary, &c.

RIGHT OF SANCTUAR Y. 1 6 1

shall not go out of the highway, and if I do I will that
I be taken as a robber and felon of our lord the king ;

O *

and that at such a place I will diligently seek for
passage, and that I will tarry there but one flood and
ebb, if I can have passage ; and unless I can have it in
such a place I will go every day into the sea up to mv
knees assaying to pass over ; and unless I can do this
viithin forty days, 1 will put myself again into the
church as a robber and a felon of our lord the king.
So God me help and his holy judgment." l

In the church the robbers found themselves in com-
pany v/ith insolvent debtors. These before coming
tncre made a general donation of all their property,
and the creditors who cited them to justice found
that they had no hold over them. In 1379, 2 Richard

1 "Statutes of the Realm," i. p. 250, text of uncertain date,
but probably belongs to the reign of Edward II. According to
"Fleta" (lib. i. cap. xxix.), at the end of forty days of asylum, if
the malefactors have not abjured the kingdom, food must be
refused to them, and they would no longer be allowed to emigrate.
On the road to the port, according to the same authority, the felon
wore a costume which would cause him to be recognized. He was
to be " un-girt, un-shod, bare-headed, in his bare shirt, as if he
were to be hanged on the gallows, having received a cross in his
hands."

2 Statute 2 Rich. II., stat. 2, chap. 3. These frauds had been
already complained of under Edward III. A petition of the
Commons in the parliament of 1376-77 ("Rolls of Parliament, "ii.
p. 369), declares that certain people, after having received money
or merchandise on loan, and having made a pretended gift of all
their property to friends, "flee to Westminster, St. Martin's, or other
such privileged places, and live there a long time, ... so long that
the said creditors are only too pleased to take a small part of their
debt and release the rest." Then the debtors return home, and
their friends give them back all their property.

II

r6a ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

II. remedied this inconvenience. During five weeks
once a week, the debtor is to be summoned, by procla
mation made at the door of the sanctuary, to appear in
person or by attorney before the king's judges. If he
does not choose to appear justice will have her course ;
sentence v/ill be passed, and the property that he had
given will be shared among the creditors.

This was, however, only a temporary remedy. In
the first years of the following reign, we find the Com-
mons presenting to the king their laments over the same
abuses. Apprentices leave their masters with their
goods, tradesmen in debt, robbers, flee to St. Martin-
le-Grand and calmly live there on the money they have
stolen. They employ the leisure which this peaceful
existence leaves them in patiently fabricating charters,
obligations, and false quittances, imitating the signatures
and seals of honest city merchants. As to the brigands
and murderers, they are comfortably off for preparing
new crimes ; they go out at night to execute them, and
return in the morning in perfect safety to their inviolate
retreat. The king limits himself to vaguely promising
that " reasonable remedy shall be had." 1

Some years later (A.D. 1447) there was a great com-
motion among the Goldsmiths' Company of London,
for they had found out that a quantity of sham gold
and silver plate and jewellery had been issued from the
privileged precincts of St. Martin's sanctuary, to tha
great detriment of their own worshipful company.
They brought the facts under the notice of the king,
who wrote to the Dean recommending him to check
this abuse if possible : " Trustie and welbeloved, we
1 See Appendix X.

RIGHT OF SANCTUAR K T 63

grete you wel, and let you to wete that we be informed
that there be divers persons dwellinge within our
seinctuarie of St. Martin's that forge and sell laton and
coper, some gilt and some sylved for gold and silver,
unto the great deceipt of our lege people. . . "l The
tone of the king's letter is very moderate ; he seems to
write only to please the Goldsmiths' Company, while
pretty well realizing that he is powerless in the matter,
and that his recommendations will come to nothing.

A priest who took refuge in a church was not
obliged to quit England ; he swore that he was a priest,
and " enjoyed ecclesiastic privilege, according to the
praiseworthy custom of the kingdom." 2 But the
church, who accorded to all comers the benefit of
sanctuary, reserved to herself the power of removal
from it. "In this year (1320), a woman who was
named Isabel of Bury, killed the priest of the church
of All Saints, near London Wall, and she remained in
the same church five days, so that the Bishop of Lon-
don issued his letter that the church would not save
her, wherefore she was brought out of the church to
Newgate and was hanged on the third day afterwards." 3

In those days, when agitations and revolts were not
uncommon, the right of sanctuary might be useful for
any one ; it was therefore quite in vain that Wyclif pro-
tested and demanded its suppression. A bishop even,
however sacred his person, might himself be liable to
have to spur his horse and to fly towards a church

1 A. J. Kempe, " Historical Notices of ... St. Martin le
Grand," London, 1825, p. 135.

2 Statute 9 E. II. cap. 15.

3 "Croniques de London," Camden Society, 1841, p. 42.

164 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

to save his head. The Bishop of Exeter was in this
case when Isabella and her son came to overthrow
Edward II.1 "The same day came one Sir Walter de
Stapleton, who was Bishop of Exeter, and the king's
treasurer the previous year, riding to his house in
Elde Deanes lane to his dinner, and there he was
proclaimed traitor ; and he seeing that fled on his
horse towards the church of St. Paul's, and was there
met and quickly unhorsed, and brought to Cheap,
and there he was stripped and his head cut off."

Under Richard III. might be seen a queen and a
king's son refuse to quit the sacred enclosure of West-
minster, in which their life was safe, thanks to the
sanctity of the place. Sir Thomas More has left in
his hisrory of the usurper, the first real history in the
national language which English literature can count,
a moving picture of the courage of Edward I Vs. widow
and of the great quarrel raised by Richard in order to
snatch the second child of the late king from the abbey.
To the reiterated demands that were made to her the
queen replied : " In what place cculde I recken him
sure, if he be not sure in this the sentuarye whereof was
there neuer tiraunt yet so deuelish, that durst presume
to breake. . . . For soth he hath founden a goodly glose,
by whiche that place that may defend a thefe, may not
saue an innocent." 2 The subterfuge of Richard III.
consisted simply in having the right of sanctuary

1 "Croniqucs dc London," Camden Society, 1844, p. 52.

* " The History of King Richard the Thirde " (unfinished),
<vriten by Master Thomas More, than one of the Under Sherriffs
of London : about the yeare of our Lorde, 1513. London 1557.
Reprinted by S. W. Singer, Chiswick, 1821, p. 55.

RIGHT OF SANCTUAR Y. 1 65

abolished. In his speech in favour of the measure,
which had particularly in view the asylums of St. Paul's
and Westminster, the Duke of Buckingham drew a very
lively as well as an exact picture of the disorders to
which this right of refuge led : " What a rabble of
theues, murtherers, and malicious heyghnous traitors, and
that in twoo places specyallye. . . . Men's wyues runne
thither with theyr housbandes plate, and saye, thei dare
not abyde with theyr housebandes for beatinge. Theues
bryng thyther theyr stolen goodes, and there lyue
thereon. There deuise thei newe roberies ; nightlye
they steale out, they robbe and reue, and kyll, and
come in again as though those places gaue them not
onely a safe garde for the harme they haue done, but a
license also to doo more." l

This privilege endured, however, and even survived
the introduction of the Reformation into England ; but
from that hour it was less respected. Lord Chancellor
Bacon cites the sanctuary of Colnham, near Abingdon,
which being considered " insufficient" for traitors, under
Henry VII. several political criminals who had taken
refuge there, were unceremoniously seized, and one of
them was executed.2 Sanctuaries were suppressed,
theoretically at least, in the twenty-first year of the
reign of James I. : " And be 'it alsoe enacted by the
authoritie of this present parliament that no sanctuarie
or priviledge of sanctuary shal be hereafter admitted or

1 " The History of King Richard the Thirde," pp. 44, 45.

2 "History of the reign of King Henry VII.," Ellis and Sped-
ding's edition of Bacon's Works, vol. vi. p. 43. Bacon says that
Henry "was tender in the privilege of sanctuaries, though they
wrought him much mischief" (p. 238).

1 66 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

allowed in any case." l But, nevertheless, sanctuaries
lingered on in England as well as on the continent.
Cromwell complains in one of his most frimous speeches
of the difficulties his Government experience on that
account when they have to ask from foreign potentates
that justice be done in certain cases. He alludes to the
recent assassination of an English messenger, and says : .
" It is the pleasure of the Pope at any time to tell you that
though the man is murdered, yet his murderer has got
into the sanctuary." In England, after the statute of
James L, the right of sanctuary did not fall entirely
into disuse, for the suppression of this privilege had to
be renewed. It was again enacted in 1697, and sanc-
tuaries are to be found even so late as the reign of
George L, when the asylum of St. Peter's at West-
minster was demolished.

With all their penal severity, law and custom still gave
other encouragements to malefactors. They frequently
received charters of pardon ; the royal chancery will-
ingly granted these because they must be paid for,
and the Commons unweariedly renewed their com-
plaints against these crying abuses. The priest, John
Crochille, states to the king in parliament that while
he was at the Court of Rome he has been outlawed,
and was imprisoned on his return. The chancellor
has granted him a charter of pardon, but he is " so im-
poverished that he has not the wherewith to pay for
the said charter." 2

Charters were thus given to the innocent for money,

1 21 James I. cap. 28, § 7 ; "Statutes," vol. iv. part ii. p. 1237.
a " Rolls of Parliament," 21 Ed. III. vol.ii. p. 178. See also the
petition of the Commons in 1350-51, 25 Ed. III. vol. ii. p. 229.

CHARTERS OF PARDON. 167

and to " common felons and murderers " also, which
had two results : first, the number of brigands increased
by reason of their impunity ; next, men dared not
bring the most formidable criminals to justice for fear
of seeing them return pardoned and ready to revenge
themselves terribly. Unhappily, besides the profit of
the tax paid, the interest that the lords had in the con-
tinuance of this abuse tended to its maintenance. In-
separable fiom their men, they could defend them from
justice as they themselves were defended by them in
the street or on the road ; and the best means of saving
these bravi from the consequences of some assassination
was to obtain or to buy for them a charter of pardon.
The Commons were not ignorant of this, and recalled
to the king that often the lords, protectors of criminals,
obtained charters for them on the representation that
these men were abroad, occupied in fighting for the
prince. The charter on^e obtained, the brigands
returned and recommenced their ill-deeds, without
fear of being troubled by any one.1

For all these reasons the traveller would not have
been prudent if he had not foreseen at departure the

1 " Our lord the king by untrue recommendations has several times
granted his charter of pardon to notorious robbers and to common
murderers, when it is given him to understand that they are staying
for his wars beyond the sea, whence they suddenly return into their
country to persevere in their misdeeds." The king orders that on
the charter shall be written ** the name of him who made the
recommendation to the king." And the judges before whom this
charter shall be presented by the felon to have his liberty shall
have the power to make inquiry, and if they find that the recom-
mendation is not well founded, they shall hold the charter of non
effect (" Rolls of Parliament," vol. ii. p. 253, A.D 1353).

1 68 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

chance of some ill meeting, and if he had not in con-
sequence armed himself. This was a recognized neces-
sity, and it was therefore that the Chancellor of the
University of Oxford on occasion of a journey allowed
the students to carry arms, otherwise strictly forbidden.1
There was, then, little safety against robbers, and
there was not always much even against the sheriff's
officers. At this insecure period, when prowlers were
so numerous, it was enough to be a stranger in the
district, especially if it were night, to be sent to gaol on
suspicion, as shown by a statute of Edward III.2
Nothing is more general than the terms of this law ;
the power to arrest is almost without limit : " Whereas,
in the statute made at Winchester in the time of King
Edward, grandfather to the king that now is, it is con-
tained, That if any stranger pass by the country in the
night, of whom any have suspicion, he shall presently
be arrested and delivered to the sheriff, and remain in
ward till he be duly delivered ; and because there have
been divers manslaughters, felonies, and robberies done
in times past, by people that be called roberdesmen,
wastors, and draw-latches . . ." whoever suspects a passer-
by to belong to one of these bands, "be it by day or by
night," shall cause him immediately to be arrested by
the constables of the towns ; the man shall be kept in
prison till the justices of gaol delivery come down, and
meanwhile inquiry shall be made. Now, supposing that

1 Regulations of 1313. " Munimenta Academics ; or documents
illustrative of academical life and studies at Oxford," edited by H.
Anstey, London, 1868 (Rolls Series), vol. i. p. 91. The penalty
was prison and the loss of the weapons.

» 5 Edward III. cap \\.

HUE AND CRY. 169

a stranger pass through the town by night; the constable
arrests him, he imagines himself already in prison " til
the justices come down," and he runs away instead 01
allowing himself to be taken. The statute has provided
for this case.1 " If they will not obey the arrest, hue
and cry shall be levied upon them, and such as keep
the watch shall follow with hue and cry with all
the town, and the towns near, and so hue and cry shall
be made from town to town until that they be taken
and delivered to the sheriff." Singular picture ! It is
the middle of the night, the stranger is perhaps a robber,
perhaps an honest man, who has lost his way, not
knowing the town ; his fault is that he was not within
doors by the curfew ; he gropes his way in the dark
lanes ; the watch perceives him and questions him, he
reflects as we have imagined, and behold ! the hue and
cry begins, the watch runs, the town wakes up, lights
appear, and one after the other the more zealous join in
the pursuit. If the town is fortified, the postern gates have
long been closed, and he will be surely taken. Scarcely
can he hope to cast himself into some half-closed door-
way at a turning of the street, behind which he ma)i
cower, listening with trembling hand and beating heart
to the watch who pass heavily along at a charging pace,
surrounded by a cloud of furious shouters. The number
of steps lessen, and the shouts are less heard, then they
die away, lost in the depths of the city.

But if the town is merely a market town or large

straggling village, not enclosed by walls, the first

thought of the fugitive will be to gain the open, and

then he must not tear marshes, ditches, hedges ; he must

1 Statute of Winchester, i 3 Ed. f. cap. 4.

170 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

know how, at a bend of the ground, to leave the high-
road and to profit by any place where the Statute of
Winchester may be negligently applied. Without
that he is lost, the constables follow him, the town
follows him, the " cry " continues, and at the next
village the scene of the starting will begin over again.
The inhabitants, warned by the clamour, light their
lanterns, and see, they are already in chase. Before he
reaches the end of the high-street some peasant will be
found on the alert ready to bar him the passage of the
road. All have an interest in it, all have been robbed,
or their friends or relations ; some one belonging to
them may have been wounded, assassinated on the road
as he returned from market. Every one has heard
such misadventures spoken of, and feels himself per-
sonally menaced. Hence this zeal in joining the chase
with the noise of the hue and cry, and the conviction
that, running so hard and making so many folks run,
the fugitive must be a famous brigand ready for the
gibbet.1

1 This power of running down the first comer was, like number-
less laws of the time, at once a guarantee for the public safety and
a dangerous arm in the hands of felons. Robbers used it, and it
happened sometimes that they by this means imprisoned their own
victim. Alisot, wife of Henry of Upatherle, sets forth to the king
that her husband was made prisoner by the Scotch at the battle of
Stirling, remained their captive more than a year, then returned
after having paid forty pounds ransom. In his absence, Thomas of
Upatherle and Robert of Prestbury seized on the fields which he
possessed at Upatherle, divided them, pulled down the houses and
acted as the owners, taking to their own houses all the property
they could. The prisoner's return surprised them ; as soon as they
knew that he had re-appeared on his lands, "the said Thomas, by
false agreement between him and the said Robert, raised hue and

HUE AND CRY. 171

cry on the said Henry and put upon him that he had robbed him
[Thomas] of his chattels to the value of j£ioo." They were be-
lieved ; " the said Henry was taken and imprisoned in Gloucester
castle for a long time," waiting for the coming of the justices,
exactly as the statute said. Henry recovered his liberty in the
end, and obtained a writ against his enemies; but they brought
force and came to meet their victim, "and beat the said Henry
in the town of Gloucester, that is they bruised his two arms, both
his thighs, and both his legs, and his head on both sides, and quite
wrecked and vilely treated his body, so that he barely escaped
death." The king's reply is not satisfactory : " If the husband be
alive, the plaint is his, if he be dead the wife's plaint is nothing."
("Rolls of Parliament.' vol. M. p. 35. A.H.

PART II.
LAY WAYFARERS

AN ADVENTUKE SEEKER

(From the MS. 2~B. vii. ; English ; early Fourteenth Century.}

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

" Qui ne s1 adventure n'a chcval ni mule
cedist Salomon. — Qui trap s1 adventure perd
cheval et mule, respondit Malcon."

VIE DE GARGANTUA.

WE have seen the aspect and usual condition of
English roads ; we must take separately the
principal types of the wandering class and see
what sort of a life the wayfarer led, and what was his
importance in society or in the State.

The wayfarers appertaining to civil life were, in the
first place, drug-sellers, buffoons, glee-men, perambulating
minstrels, and singers ; then messengers, pedlars, and
itinerant chapmen ; lastly, the outlaws, thieves of all
kinds, peasants out of bond, or jobbing workmen. To

r;6 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

ecclesiastic life belonged preachers, mendicant friars,
and those strange dealers in indulgences v\ho were
called pardoners. Lastly there were pilgrims, whose
object was religious, but in whose ranks, as in Chaucer's
book, clerk and lay were mingled.

Many of these individuals, for instance the friars, had,
it is true, a resting-place, but their existence was passed,
for the greater part, on the roads; when they left their
house their purpose was not to reach this or that place ;
they had no fixed itinerary, but spent their time in long
rambles about the country, begging as they went.
They had, in the long run, caught the manners and the
language of true nomadic wayfarers, and in common
opinion were generally confounded with them ; they
belonged to that caste or family of beings.

As for the strange race which we still see at the
present day wandering from country to country, and
which, later than any, will represent among us the caste of
wanderers, it had not yet made its appearance in the
British world, and we have nothing to do with it here.
The Bohemians or Gipsies remained entirely unknown
in England till the fifteenth century.

''TIIER WAS ALSO A DOCTOUR OF PHISIK" (CHAUCER'S DOCTOR).
(From the Ellesmere MS.)

CHAPTER I.

HERBALISTS, CHARLATANS, MINSTRELS, JUGGLERS, ANL
TUMBLERS.

THE most popular of all the wanderers were
naturally the cheerfullest, or those who appeared
to be the most beneficent. These latter were the
follcs with a universal panacea, very numerous in the
Middle Ages ; they went about the world selling health.
On days of off-work they established themselves in
the village green, or the market place, spreading a
carpet or a piece of cloth on the ground ; they displayed
their drugs, and began to harangue the people. We

12

178 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

may hear at the present day the same kind of discourses
as those they spoke in the fourteenth century in England
France, or Italy ; their profession is one that has changed
less than any. In the thirteenth century the herbalist of
Rutebeuf spoke like Ben Jonson's mountebank of the
seventeenth century, like the charlatan who yesterday a
hundred steps from our gates attracted the crowd to his
platform. Big words, marvellous tales, praise of their
noble and distant origin, enumeration of the extra-
ordinary cures they have made, ostentatious display of
an unbounded devotion to the public good, and of
entire pecuniary disinterestedness : all this is found, and
always will be found, in the talk of all these insinuating
itinerants.

" My good friends," said Rutebeuf's medicinal hert>-
seller six hundred vears ago, " I am not one of those
poor preachers, nor one of those poor herbalists who
stand in front of the churches with their miserable ill-
sown cloak, who carry bags and boxes and spread out a
carpet. Know that 1 am not one of these ; but I be-
long to a lady who is named Madame Trote of Salerno,
who makes a kerchief of her ears, and whose eyebrows
hang down as silver chains behind her shoulders : know
that she is the wisest lady in all the four quarters of the
world. My lady sends us into different lands and
countries, into Apulia, into Calabria . . . into Burgundy,
into the forest of Ardennes to kill wild beasts in order
to extract good ointments from them, to give medicine
to those who are ill in body. . . . And because she
made me swear by the saints when I parted from her I
will teach you the proper cure for worms, if yc"1 wiii
listen. Will you listen ?

HERBALISTS. 179

" . . . Take off your caps, give ear, look at my
herbs which my lady sends into this land and country ;
and because she wishes as well to the poor as to the
rich, she told me that I should make pennyworths of
them, for a man may have a penny in his purse who
has not five pounds ; and she told and commanded that
I might take pence of the current coin in the country
wherever I should come. . . .

" These herbs, you will not eat them ; for there is no ox
in this country, no charger, be he never so strong, which
if he had a bit the size of a pea upon his tongue would
not die a hard death, they are so strong and bitter. . . .
You will put them three days to steep in good white
wine, ; if you have no white take red, if you have no
red wine take fine clear water, for many a man has a
well before his door who has not a cask of wine in his
cellar. If you breakfast from it for thirteen mornings
you will be cured of your various maladies. ... If my
father and mother were in danger of death and they
were to ask of me the best herb I could give them, I
should give them this. This is how I sell my herbs
and my ointments ; if you want any, come and take
them ; if you don't want any, let them alone." *

This herbalist was one of those who were pursued in
France and England by royal ordinances for the illegal
practice of medicine. Phillippe the Fair in 1311,
John the Good in 1352, had made severe decrees against
them. They reproached them with being " ignorant of
men's temperament, of the time and mode of administer-
ing, of the virtues of medicines, above all, of laxatives

x "Diz de 1'erberie." " CEuvres completes deRutebeuf," Jubinal's
edition, 1874, vol. ii. p. 58.

r8o ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

in which lies danger of death." These people " often
come from abroad," go through the town and the
suburbs, and venture to administer to the too confiding
sick, " clisteria multum laxativa et alia eis illicita," l
with which the royal authority was justly indignant.

In England the itinerant drug-seller had no better
reputation ; the popular songs and satires always show
them to us in the taverns on good terms with the worst
society. To have an idea of what their recipes might
be, we must recall what the medicine protected by the
statutes of the kingdom was. We must remember
that John of Gaddesden, court doctor under Edward
II., got rid of the tiaces of the small-pox by wrapping
the sick man in red cloths ; he treated thus the heir to
the throne himself.2 He had for a long time been
troubled how to cure stone : " at last," says he, in his
" Rosa Anglica," " I thought of collecting a good
quantity of those beetles which in summer are found in
the dung of oxen, also of the crickets which sing in the
fields. I cut off the heads and the wings of the crickets
and put them with the beetles and common oil into a
pot ; I covered it and left it afterwards for a day and
night in a bread oven. I drew out the pot and heated
it at a moderate fire, I pounded the whole and rubbed

1 Isambert, " Recueil General des anciennes lois Franchise? ,"
vol. iii. p. 16, and iv. p. 676.

2 " Let scarlet red be taken, and let him who is suffering small-
pox be entirely wrapped in it or in some other red cloth ; I did
thus when the son of the illustrious King of England suffered from
small-pox ; I took care that all about his bed should be red, and
that cure succeeded very well.'' (John of Gaddesden, otherwise
"Joannis Anglici, praxis medica rosa anglica dicta." Augsburg,
1595, lib. ii. p. 1050.)

ITINERANT QUACKS. 181

the sick parts ; in three days the pain had disappeared;"
under the influence of the beetles and the crickets the
stone was broken into bits.1 It was almost always thus,
by a sudden illumination, that this doctor discovered
his most efficacious remedies : Madame Trote of Salerno
never confided to her agents in various parts of the
world the secret of more marvellous and unexpected
recipes.

However, the law distinguished very clearly between
a court physician and a cheapjack of the cross-ways. A
Gaddesden had the support of an established reputation
to apply his strange medicaments to his patients, and he
offered the warranty of his high position. He had
studied at Oxford, and he was an authority ; a serious
physician like Chaucer's doctor, who had grown so rich
during the plague, did not neglect reading and medi-
tating his writings. Not having less knowledge, nor
certainly less ingenuity, the wandering herbalist was less
advantageously known : he could not, like the royal
physician, rely on his good reputation to make his
patients swallow glow-worms, rub them with beetles
and crickets, or give them " seven heads of fat bats"2 as
a remedy ; the legislator, therefore, took care to look after
him. In the country, like most of the other wayfarers,
the quack curer found means almost always to escape
the rigour of the laws ; but woe to him if he attempted
to try his cures publicly in the town. The unhappy
Roger Clerk in 1381 found himself sued for the illegal
practice of medicine in London, because he had wished
to cure a woman by making her wear a certain parch -

1 "Rosa Anglica," vol. i. p. 496.

* A remedy for diseases of the spleen (" Rosa Anglica ").

1 82 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE.

ment on her bosom. He was brought to the pillory
" through the middle of the city, with trumpets and
pipes," on a horse without a saddle, his parchment ana
a whetstone round his neck, other disgraceful signs were
also hung round his neck and down his back, in token
that he had lied.1

Uneasy at the increase of these abuses, Henry V.
passed in 1421 an Ordinance against the meddlers with
•physic and surgery ^ " to get rid of the mischiefs and
dangers which have long continued within the kingdom
among the people by means of those who have used the
arts and practice of physic and surgery, pretending to
be well and sufficiently taught in the same arts, when of
truth they are not so." Henceforth there would be
severe punishments for all doctors who have not been
approved in their arts, " that is to say, those of physic
by the universities, and the surgeons by the masters of
that art." 2 The irregularities were renewed, as bad as
ever or little short of it. To give therefore more
authority to medicine recognized by the State, Edward
IV., in the first year of his reign, erected the Company of
Barbers of London using the faculty of surgery into a
corporation. 3

The Renaissance came and found barbers, cheap-
jacks, empirics, and sorcerers continuing to prosper on
British soil. Henry VIII. declared it with regret, and

1 " Memorials of London," documents relating to the thirteenth,
fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, edited by H. Riley, London,
1868, p. 466.

3 "Rolls of Parliament," 9 Hen. V., vol. iv. p. 130.

3 Their charter of 1461 is given in Report and Appendix of the
City Liveries' Commission, 1884, vol. iii. p. 74. [L. T. S.]

QUACKS AND DOCTORS. 183

promulgated new rules. " The science and connyng
of physyke and surgerie," said the king in his statute,
" to the perfecte knowlege wherof bee requisite bothe
grere lernyng and ripe experience, ys daily within this
Royalme exercised by a grete multitude of ignoraunt
persones, of whom the grete partie have no maner of
insight in the same nor in any other kynde of lernyng ;
some also can no lettres on the boke, soofarfurth that
common artificers, as smythes, wevers, and women
boldely and custumably take upon theim grete curis
and thyngys of great difficultie, in the which they
partely use sorcery and which-crafte, partely applie such
medicine unto the disease as be verey noyous and
nothyng metely therfore, to the high displeasoure of
God." i

Consequently, every one who may wish to practice in
London or seven miles round, must previously submit
to an examination before the bishop of the capital, or
before the Dean of St. Paul's, assisted by four " doctors
of phisyk." In the country the examination will take
place before the bishop of the diocese or his vicar-
general. In 1540, the same prince united the corpora-
tion of the barbers and the college of surgeons, and
granted each year to the new association the bodies of
lour condemned criminals for the study of anatomy.

Hardly were all these privileges conceded than a
complete revulsion took place in the mind of the
legislators, and who, it may be wondered, did they
regret ? precisely those old unregistered quacks, those
possessors of infallible secrets, those village empirics so
hardly treated in the statute of 151 1. A new law was
x Statute 3 Hen. VIII. cap. 11.

1 84 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

passed, which is but one long accusation against the
authorized doctors ; these certified doctors poison their
clients as well as the old quacks, only they take more
for it. " Mynding oonlie theyre owne lucres, and
nothing the profite or ease of the diseased or patient,
[they] have sued, troubled and vexed divers honest
persones as well men as woomen, whome God hathe
endued with, the knowledge of the nature, kind e, and
operacion of certeyne herbes, rotes, and waters, . . .
and yet the saide persones have not taken anything for
theyre peynes and cooning, but have mynistred the
same to the poore people oonelie for neighbourhode and
Goddes sake, and of pite and charytie ; and it is nowe
well knowen that the surgeons admytted wooll doo no
cure to any persone, but where they shall knowe to be
rewarded with a greater soome or rewarde than the
cure extendeth unto, for in cace they wolde mynistre
theyre coonning to sore people unrewarded, there
shoulde not so manye rotte and perishe to deathe for
lacke of helpe of surgerye as dailie doo." Besides, in
spite of the examinations by the Bishop of London,
" the most parte of the persones of the saide crafte of
surgeons have small coonning ; " this is why all the
king's subjects who have " by speculacion or practyse "
knowledge of the virtues of plants, roots, and waters,
may as before, notwithstanding enactments to the con-
trary, cure all maladies apparent on the surface of the
body, by means of plasters, poultices, and ointments
" within any parte of the realme of Englande, or within
any other the kinges dominions." l

The change, as we see, was radical ; the secrets of the
1 Statutes 32 Hen. VIII. cap. 42 ; 34 and 35 Hen. VIII. cap. 8.

CHARLA TANS. 185

villagers were no longer the secrets of sorcerers, they
were precious recipes which they had received from
God by intuition ; the poor, exposed to die without a
doctor, rejoiced, the quacks breathed. Ben Jonson,
that bold pedestrian who set out from London, stick
in hand, and walked to Scotland for pleasure, who
knew so well the usual attendants at English festivals,
has left us the living portrait of a quack doctor, a
portrait which is specifically that of a Venetian of the
seventeenth century, but which still remains true to-day,
and will be so for all countries in all time. Characters
of this kind are almost immovable ; Jonson's hero is
the same individual as he whose discourse Rutebeuf
had picked up three centuries and a half earlier. With-
out a doubt, in his visits to Smithfield fair, the dramatist
had heard many a cheap-jack call out with thrilling
voice, his eyes turned to heaven, " O, health, health !
the blessing of the rich ! the riches of the poor !
who can buy thee at too dear a rate, since there is
no enjoying this world without thee." Upon which,
Jonson's orator makes game of his colleagues, boasts
of his incomparable panacea, into which enters a little
human fat, which is worth a thousand crowns, but
which he will part with for eight crowns, no, for six,
finally for sixpence. A thousand crowns is what the
cardinals Montalto and Farnese and his friend the
Grand Duke of Tuscany have paid him, but he despises
money and he makes sacrifices for the people. Like-
wise he has a little of the powder which gave beauty
to Venus and to Helen ; one of his friends, a great
traveller, found it in the ruins of Troy and sent it him.
This friend also sent a little of it to the French Court,

i sb ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

but that portion had become " sophisticated," and the
ladies who use it do not obtain from it such good
results.1

Three years later, an Englishman who did not know
Jonson's comedy, finding himself at Venice, was filled
with wonder at the talk of the Italian mountebanks,
and thinking to give his countrymen fresh details on
a race which flourishes more in that peninsula than in
any country of Europe, drew from nature a portrait
just like that which Shakespeare's friend had drawn.
<f Truely," wrote Coryat, " I often wondred at many
of these natural orators. For they would tell their
tales with such admirable volubility and plausible grace,
even extempore, and seasoned with that singular variety
of elegant jests and witty conceits, that they did often
strike great admiration into strangers* that never heard
them before." They sell " oyles, soueraigne waters,
amorous songs printed, apothecary drugs, and a com-
mon-weale of other trifles. ... I saw one of them
holde a viper in his hand, and play with his sting a
quarter of an houre together, and yet receive no hurt.
. . . He made us all beleeve that the same viper was
lineally descended from the generation of that viper
that lept out of the fire upon St. Paul's hand, in the
island of Melita, now called Malta." 2

No doubt the loquacity, the volubility, the instant
conviction, the grace, the insinuating tone, the light,
winged gaiety of the southern charlatan were not found

' "The Fox," Act II. sc. i (1605).

2 "Coryat's Crudities," reprinted from the edition of 1611,
London, 1776, vol. ii. pp. 50, 53. Coryat set out from Dover, 14
May, 1608.

MOUNTEBANKS, i8j

so fully or so charmingly at the festivals of old Eng-
land. These festivals were, however, joyous ; they
were much attended, and you met there many an artful
character, jesting and as entertaining as Autolycus, that
type of the pedlar and frequenter of all the country
feasts, to whom Shakespeare has given a place in his
gallery of immortals. The country labourers went in
crowds to these meetings to suffer jests that were an
amusement even to themselves, and to buy ointments
which did them good : they are to be seen there still.
At the present day in France, and in England also, the
crowd still collects before the vendors of the remedies
which infallibly cure toothache, and do away with other
pains of lesser importance. Certificates abound all round
the shop ; it seems as though all the illustrious people in
the world must hafoe been benefited by the discovery ; the
tradesman now addresses himself to the rest of humanity.
He speaks up, he gesticulates, he gets animated, leans
over with a grave tone and a deep voice. The peasants
press round, gaping with inquisitive eye, uncertain if they
ought to laugh or to be afraid, and they finish by taking
confidence. The purse is drawn out with an awkward
air, the large hand fumbles in the new coat, the piece of
money is held out and the medicine received, while the
shining eye and undecided physiognomy say plainly
enough that the cunning and the habitual practical sense
are here at fault ; that these good souls, clever and in-
vincible in their own domain, are the victims of every
one in an unknown land. The vendor bestirs himself,
and now, as formerly, triumphs over indecision by means
o/ direct appeals.

In England we should choose the incomparable Goose

1 88 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

Fair at Nottingham as the place to see these spectacles ;
they shine there in all their infinite variety ; we may
there ascertain that the quacks of to-day have lost no
great amount of their hereditary raciness ; there, of all
places and occasions, the fact may be recognized that
English people are not invariably lost in their thoughts,
as they have been constantly described from the time of
St. Evremond downwards ; for on that day of folly and
inconceivable liberty may be seen in action Rubens'
great " Kermesse " at the Louvre, albeit illuminated by
a very different light.

Greater still was the popularity, in the Middle Ages,
of the wayfarers who came not to cure, but simply to
amuse the crowd, who, if they did not bring remedies
for diseases, at least brought forgetfulness of troubles ;
these were the minstrels, the performers of feats,
jugglers, and singers. Minstrels and jongleurs J- under
different names, exercised the same profession, that is,
they chanted out songs and romances to the accompani-
ment of their instruments. At a time when books
were rare, and when the theatre, properly so called, did
not exist, poetry and music travelled with the minstrels
and gleemen along the highway ; such guests were
always welcome. We find these wayfarers at every
feast ; in all festivities, wherever there was to be
rejoicing ; it was expected from them as from wine or
beer, that care would be lulled to sleep, that they
would bring joy and forgetfulness. They set about
it in several ways ; the most respected consisted in

1 I translate this word by glee-man, which is perhaps the best
English equivalent of the early jongleur before he degenerated into
the juggler. [L. T. S.]

MINSTRELS. 189

singing and reciting, some in French, others in English,
the exploits of ancient heroes.

This was a grand part to play, one held in much
reverence ; the glee-men or minstrels who presented
themselves at the castle with their heads full of warlike
stories, or tales of love, or lively songs made but for
laughter, were received with the highest favour. On
their arrival they announced themselves without by
cheerful airs which were heard at the end of the hall ;
soon came the order to bring them in ; they were
ranged at the bottom of the hall, and all gave ear to
them.1 They gave a prelude on their instruments, and
then began to sing. Like Taillefer at the battle of
Hastings, they related the prowess of Charlemagne and
of Roland, or they spoke of Arthur or of the heroes
of the wars of Troy, uncontested ancestors of the
Britons of England :

1 Horn and his companions, in the romance of " King Horn,"
disguise themselves as minstrels, and present themselves at the gate
of Rymenhild's castle :

" Hi yeden bi the grauel
Toward the castel,
Hi gunne murie singe
And makede here gleowinge.
Rymenhild hit gan ihere
And axede what hi were :
Hi sede, hi weren harpurs,
And sume were gigours.
He dude Horn inn late
Right at halle gate,
He sette him on a benche
His harpe for to clenche."

(" King Horn," ed. J. R. Lumby, *Early English Text Society.
1866, 1. 1465.)

ENGLISH WAYfARING LIFE.

*' Men lykyn jestis for to here,
And romans rede in diuers manere
Of Alexandre the conqueroure,
Of Julius Cesar the emperoure,
Of Grece and Troy the strong stryf,
There many a man lost his lyf,
Of Brute that baron bold of hond
The first conqueroure of Englond,
Of kyng Artour that was so richc,
Was non in his tyme him liche.

How kyng Charlis and Rowlond fawght

With sarzyns nold they be cawght,

Of Tristrem and of Ysoude the swete

How they with love first gan mete,

Of kyng John and of Isombras,

Of Ydoyne and of Amadas,

Stories of diuerce thynggis

Of pryncis, prelatis, and of kynggis,

Many songgis of diuers ryme,

As english, frensh, and latyne."1

In the fourteenth century most of these old romances,
heroic, rude, powerful, or touching, had been re- cast
and put into new language ; florid descriptions, compli-
cated adventures, extraordinary marvels had been added
to them ; many had been put into prose, and instead
of being sung they were read.2 The lord listened with
pleasure, and his taste, which had become more and
more palled, permitted him to find a charm in the

1 " Cursor Mundi," a Northumbrian poem of the fourteenth
century, edited by R. Morris for the Early English Text Society,
vol. v. p. 1651 and vol. i. p. 8. See Appendix XI.

8 It began to be customary to read aloud the verses also, instead
of singing them. Chaucer foresees that his poem of "Troilus"

MINSTRELS 191

strange entanglements with which each event was hence-
forth enveloped. He now lived in a more complex
life than formerly ; being more civilized he had more
wants, and simple and monotonous pictures in poems
like the Song of Roland, were no longer made to caress
his imagination. The heroes of romance found harder
and harder tasks imposed upon them, and were obliged
to triumph over the most marvellous enchantments.
Beyond this, as the hand became lighter the painting
had more refinement ; pleasure was taken in their
amorous adventures, and, as far as might be, that
charm, at once mystic and sensual, was given to them
of which the sculptured figures of the fourteenth century
have preserved so deep a mark. The author of " Sir
Gawayne " finds extreme pleasure in describing the visits
which his knight receives,1 in painting his lady, so
gentle, so pretty, with easy motions and gay smile ; he
gives all his care to it, all his soul ; he finds words
which seem caresses, and verses which shine with a
golden gleam.

These already frequent pictures of the thirteenth
century multiplied still more in the fourteenth, but
at the end of this last century they were displaced and

may be indifferently read or sung, and he writes, addressing his
book :

" So preye I to God, that non myswrite the,
Ne the mys-metere, for defaute of tonge !
And red wher so thow be, or elles songe,
That thow be understonde, God I beseche ! "

("Troilus," book v. i, 1809.)

1 " Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight," ed. R. Morris, Early
English Text Society, 1864, pp. 38, et ieq.

i92 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

passed from the romance inro the tale, or into poems,
half tale, half romance, such as the " Troilus " of
Chaucer. After many transformations the romance
was on the way to be lost among the new styles which
better suited the genius of the hour. A hundred years
earlier such a man as Chaucer would no doubt have
taken up the Arthur legends in his turn, and would
have written some magnificent romance for the min-
strels ; but he left us tales and lyric poems because he
comprehended that taste had changed, that people were
still curious but not enthusiastic about old heroic stones,
that few any longer followed them passionately to the
end, and that they were made more the ornament of
libraries than the subject of daily thought.1 Thence-
forward men liked to find separately in ballads and
tales the lyric breath and the spirit of observation which
formerly was contained in the romances ; these, aban-
doned to the less expert rhymers of the highways,
became such wretched copies of the old originals that
they were the laughing-stock of people of sense and
taste.

1 Brilliantly illuminated manuscripts multiplied, they were
sought and very well paid for. Edward III. bought, in 1331, of
Isabella of Lancaster, nun of Aumbresbury, a book of romance
for which he paid her £66 135. 4d., which was an enormous sum.
When the king had this book he kept it in his own room (Devon's
"Issues of the Exchequer," 1837, p. 144). Richard II. (ibid. 213)
bought a bible in French, a " Roman de la Rose," and a " Roman de
Perceval " for £28. To give an idea of these prices we must recall,
for example, that a few years (1328) before Edward bought his
book of romance, the inhabitants of London entered in the City
accounts £"] ics. for ten oxen, £4 for twenty pigs, and £6 for
twenty-four swans, which they had given to the king (Riley's
"Memorials of London," 1868, p. 170).

MINSTRELS. 193

Thus many of the grand French epics were abridged and
put into skipping or barren English verse. For them the
fine age was passed ; when ChauctT, in company with his
pilgrims came, in his turn, to relate, with a sly look, the
deeds of Sir Thopas, popular good sense represented by
the host revolted, and the recital was rudely interrupted.
Yet from Sir Thopas to many of the romances which ran
the streets or were repeated by the singers from place to
place the distance is small, and the parody which amuses
us was hardly anything but a close imitation. Robert
Thornton, in the first half of the fifteenth century,
copied a good number of these romances from older
texts. In turning them over we are struck by the
excellence of Chaucer's jesting and by the closeness of
his parody. These poems all unfold after one and the
same pattern, smart and sprightly without much thought
or much sentiment ; the cadenced stanzas march on,
clear, easy, and empty ; no constraint, no effort ; you
may open and close the book without a sigh, without
regret, without exactly being wearied, but yet without
much caring about anything in it. And passing chance-
wise from one romance to another, it seems much the
same. Take no matter which, " Sir Isumbras " for
example ; after a prayer recited for form's sake, the
rhymer cries up the valour of the hero, then praises a
valuable virtue which he possessed, his love for the
minstrels and his generosity towards them :

"He lufFede glewmene well in haulle
He gafe thame robis riche of pallc

Bothe of golde and also fee ;
Of curtasye was he kynge,
Of mete and drynke no nythynge,

On lyfe was none so fre."

'3

.94 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

Isumbras, his wife, and his son, have unique qualities ;
he is the most valiant of knights, his wile the most
lovely of women :

**I wille yow telle of a knyghte
That bothe was stalworthe and wyghte,

And worthily undir wede ;
His name was hattene syr Ysarabracc."

So is also Sir Eglamour :

" Y shalle telle yow of a knyght
That was bothe hardy and wyght,
And stronge in eche a stowre."

Exactly the same, Sir Degrevant :

" And y schalle karppe off a knyght
That was both hardy and wyght,
Sire Degrevaunt that hend hyght,
That dowghty was of dede."1

Not inferior to any of them is Chaucer's Sir Thopas :

"... I wol telle verrayment

Of myrthe and of solas,
Al of a knyght was fair and gent
Jn batail and in tornament,

His name was Sir Thopas."

• The "Thornton Romances," edited by J. O. Halliwell
for the Camden Society, pp. 88, 121, 177. The romances
published in this volume are, "Perceval," "Isumbras," "Eglamour,"
and "Degrevant"; the longest scarcely occupies 3,000 lines, "Isum-
bras" not I,ooo. The manuscript, which is at Lincoln Cathedral,
is a collection containing many other romances, especially a " Life
of Alexander," a "Mort d 'Arthur," an "Octavian," and a "Diocle-
tian," to say nothing of numerous prayers in verse, recipes to cure
toothache, prophecies of weather, &c.

MINSTRELS. 195

Thus, when not stopped short by mine host of the
"Tabard," the minstrel slightly varies the airs for us on
his viol, but it is always the same instrument, and the
feeble sound which issues from it gives a monotonous
family character to all his songs.

But the noble had few better distractions ; the
theatre did not yet exist ; at long intervals only, when
the great yearly feasts came round, the knight might
go, in company with the crowd, to see Pilate and Jesus
on the boards. There he found not only the crowd
but sometimes the king also. Richard II., for example,
was present at a religious play or mystery in the four-
teenth year of his reign, and had ten pounds distributed
among several clerks of London who had played before
him at Skinnerwell " the play of the Passion and of the
creation of the world." x A few years later he was
present at the famous York plays, at the feast of Corpus
Christi, which were played in the streets of that city.2
The rest of his time the knight was only too happy to
receive at home men who had such vast memory, who
knew more verse and more music than could be heard
in one day.

The king also greatly liked their coming. We find
that he had them sometimes brought up to him in his
very chamber, where he was pleased to sit and hear
their music. Edward II. received four minstrels in his
chamber at Westminster and heard their songs, and
when they went he ordered twenty ells of cloth to be

1 " Issues of the Exchequer," p. 244.

* " Extracts from the Municipal Records of the City of York,"
bv Rob. Davies, London, 1843, p. 230.

196 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

given them for their reward.1 In those days no one
thought of rejoicing without minstrels; there were four
hundred and twenty-six musicians or singers at the
marriage of the Princess Margaret, daughter of Edward
I.2 Edward III. gave a hundred pounds to those who
were present at the marriage of his daughter Isabella,3
some of them figured also at his tournaments.4 When
a bishop went on his pastoral rounds he was sometimes
greeted by minstrels, hired on purpose to cheer him ;
they were of necessity chosen among local artists, who
were apt at fiddling cheap music to his lordship. Bishop
Swinfield, in one of his rounds, gave a penny a piece to
two minstrels who had just played before him ; but on
another occasion he distributed twelve pence a piece.5

When gentlemen of importance were travelling they
had sometimes the pleasure of hearing minstrels when
they reached the inn, and in that manner whiled away
the long empty evenings. In the curious manual
already quoted, called " La maniere de langage," com-
posed in French by an Englishman of the fourteenth
century, we see that the traveller of distinction listens
to the musicians at the inn, and mingles his voice if
need be with their music : " Then," says our author,
" come forward into the lord's presence the trumpeters

1 Wardrobe Accounts — " Archsologia," vol. xxvi. p. 342.

2 Thomas Wright, "Domestic Manners and Sentiments," 1862,
p. 181.

3 40 Ed. III., Devon's " Issue Rolls of the Exchequer," p. 188.
* See two examples of like cases in the introduction to the

" Issue Roll of Thomas de Brantingham," p. xxxix.

s " Roll of Household Expenses of Richard de Swinficld, Bishop
of Hereford," ed. J. Webb, Camden Society, 1854-55, v°l- *• PP'
'5*. 155-

MINSTRELS. 197

and horn-blowers with their frestels (pipes) and clarions,
and begin to play and blow very loud, and then the
lord with his squires begin to move, to sway, to dance, to
utter and sing fine carols till midnight without ceasing."1
In great houses minstrels' music was the usual
seasoning of meals. At table there are only two
amusements, says Langland, in his great satire : to
listen to the minstrels, and, when they are silent, to
talk religion and to scoff at its mysteries.2 The repasts
which Sir Gawain takes at the house of his host the
Green Knight are seasoned with songs a:id music.
On the second day which Gawain spends with the
Green Knight the amusement extends till after supper;
they listen during the meal and after it to many noble
songs, such as Christmas carols and new songs, with all
possible mirth :

" Mony athel songez,

As coundutes of kryst-masse, and carolez newe,
With all the manerly merthe that mon may of telle."

On the third day,

" With merthe and mynstralsye, with metez at horwylle,
Thay maden as mery as any men moghten." 3

In Chaucer's " Squire's Tale " the King Cambynskan
gives a

" Feste so solempne and so riche
That in this worlde ne was ther noon it lichc."

1 Ed. P. Meyer, in " Revue Critique," vol. x. (1870), p. 375.

2 " Piers Plowman," Text C, pass. xii. 11. 35-39.

-J " Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight," ed. R. Morris, Early
English Text Society, 1864, 11. 484, 1652-1656, and 1952. In
the same manner Arthur, after an exploit by Gawain, sits down
to table " Wythe alle maner of mete and mynstralcie bothe "

198 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

and we see this prince sitting after the third course
among his nobles listening to the music,

" That so bifelle after the thridde cours,
Whil that the kyng sit thus in his nobleye,
Herkyng his mynstrales her thinges plcye
Byforn him atte boord deliciously. . . ."

During all these meals it is true the sound of the viol,
the voice of the singers, the "delicious things" of the
minstrels, were interrupted by the crunching of the
bones which the dogs were gnawing under the tables,
or by the sharp cry of some ill-bred falcon ; for many
lords during dinner kept these favourite birds on a
perch behind them. Their masters, enjoying their
presence, were indulgent with the liberties they took.

The minstrels of Cambynskan are represented as
attached to his person ; those belonging to the King of
England had the same permanent functions. The
sovereign was seldom without them, and even when he
went abroad was accompanied by them. Henry V.
engaged eighteen, who were to follow him to Guyenne
and elsewhere.1 Their chief is sometimes called king
or marshal of the minstrels.2 On May 2, 1387,

1 " This indenture, made 5 June in the 3rd year of our
sovereign lord King Henry the fifth since the Conquest, witnessed)
that John Clyff, minstrel, and 17 other minstrels, have received
from our said lord the king, through Thomas, Earl of Arundel and
Surrey, treasurer of England, forty pounds as their wages, to each
of them I2d. a day for a quarter of a year, for serving our said
lord in the parts of Guyenne or elsewhere " (Rymer's " Fcedera,"
ed. 1704-32, year 1415, vol. ix. p. 260).

2 The chief of the minstrels of Beverley was called alderman
[L. T. S.]

MINSTRELS. 199

Richard II. gave a passport to John Caumz (? Camuz),
" rex ministrallorum nostrorum," who was setting out
for a journey beyond the sea.1 On January 19, 1464,
Edward IV. grants a pension of ten marks " to our
beloved Walter Haliday, marshal! of our minstrels." 2
The Roll of Thomas Brantingham, treasurer to Edward
III., bears frequent mention of royal minstrels, to
whom a fixed salary of sevenpence-halfp'enny a day is
paid. 3 King Richard II. had in the same manner
minstrels in his pay, and enjoyed their music when
travelling. When he went for the last time to Ireland
he had to wait for ten days at Milford on account of
contrary winds. ^A French gentleman named Creton,
who was with him, and who wrote afterwards a most
interesting account of what befell the unfortunate king
during the last year of his reign, states in his chronicle
that the time was merrily passed at Milford while the
contrary winds lasted, and that day and night they had
music and songs of minstrels.4

The richest nobles naturally imitated the king, and

1 " Fcedera," year 1387, vol. vii. p. 555. In Sir John Hawkins'
" History of Music,'' London, 1853, vol. i. p. 193, John of Gaunt's
charter to the king of his minstrels in Tutbury, dated 4 Richard II ,
is given at length. [L. T. S.]

2 " Fcedera," year 1464, vol. xi. p. 512.

3 " Issue Roll of Thos. de Brantingham," ed. Devon, pp. 54-57
and 296-298. These pensions were granted for life.

« " La feumes nous en joie et en depport
Dix jours entiers, atendant le vent nort
Pour nous partir.

Mainte trompette y povoit on oir
De jour, de nuit, menestrelz retentir "

M.S. Harl. 1319, in the British Museum, printed in "Archzeo-
logia," vol xx. p. 297.)

ENGLISH WA YFARItiG LIFE.

had their own companies,1 who went away to play when
occasion presented itself. The accounts of Winchester
College under Edward IV. show that this college
recompensed the services of minstrels belonging to the
king, the Earl of Arundel, Lord de la Ware, the Duke
of Gloucester, the [Earl] of Northumberland, and the
Bishop of Winchester ; these last often recur. In the
same accounts in the time of Henry IV. we find men-
tion of the expenses occasioned by the visit of the
Countess of Westmoreland, accompanied by her suite.
Her minstrels formed part of it, and a sum of money
was bestowed on them.2

Their services were great, and they were well paid ;
for their touched-up, mutilated, unrecognizable poems
might certainly shock persons of taste, but not the mass
of enriched fighters, who could pay the passing minstrel
and grant him profitable favours. Wandering singers
seldom came to a castle where they did not get gifts of
cloaks, furred robes, good meals, and money. Langland
often returns to these largesses, which proves that they
were considerable, and he regrets that all this gold was
not distributed to the poor who go from door to door
like these itinerants, and are the minstrels of God :

1 So also the mayors of many towns had their minstrels or
waits, and money allowed for them. For instance, Bristol and
Norwich (fifteenth century), "English Gilds," pp. 423, 447 ; York,
R.. Davies' "Extracts from York Records," 1843, p. 14, note.
[L. T. S.]

" Warton's " History of English Poetry," Hazlitt's edition, 1871,
ri. p. 98. Langland also notices the good reception which was
given to the king's minstrels when they were travelling, in order
to please their master, who was known to be sensible of these
marks of good will.

MINSTRELS. 201

" Clerkus and knyghtes welcometh kynges mynstralcs
And for loue of here lordes lithen hem at festes :
Much more, me thenketh, riche men auhte
Haue beggers by-fore hem, whiche beth godes mynstrales." '

But his good advice was not heeded. As long as there
was the old hall in the castles, the great room where all
the meals were taken in common, the minstrels were
admitted to it. In building these halls the architect
reckoned on the necessity for their presence, and
arranged a gallery in which the musicians were estab-
lished to play on their instruments, above the door of
entrance, opposite to the da'is, the place where the
master's table was set.2 The custom of building
such a gallery long survived the Middle Ages.
At Hatfield a minstrels' gallery of the seventeenth
century adorns the hall of that splendid place, and is
still put to the use it was originally intended for.

The classic instrument of the minstrel was the vielle
a kind ofviolin or fiddle with a bow, something like
ours, a drawing of which, such as it was used in the
thirteenth century, is to be found in the album of
Villard de Honnecourt.3 It was delicate of handling,
and required much skill ; thus, in proportion as the
profession lowered, the good performer on the vielle
became rarer ; the common tambourine, which any one

1 " Piers Plowman," Text C, pass. viii. 1. 97.

* See a drawing of such a gallery in a miniature reproduced
by Eccleston, " Introduction to English Antiquities ; " London,
1847, p. 221. To the sound of the minstrels' music four wild
men or mummers are dancing with contortions ; sticks lie on
the ground, no doubt for their exercises ; a barking dog is jump-
ing between them.

3 "Album de Villard de Honnecourt,' edited by Lassus and
Darcel, 1 8 eg, plate I

2O2

ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

might learn to use in a little time, replaced the vielle,
and true artists complained of the music and the taste
of the day. It was a tambourine that the glee-man of
Ely wore at his neck when he had that
dialogue with the King of England,
which proved so unsatisfactory for the
monarch : " He came thence to London ;
in a meadow he met the king and his
suite ; around his neck hung his tabor,
painted with gold and rich azure." l

Xhe .minstrels played yet other instru-
ments, the harp, theHilteTthe guitar,jthe
] kind H" iron 1 1-

the ancient instrument of the Celtic
people), and others.2

The presents, the favour of the great,
rendered the lot of the minstrels very
enviable ; they therefore multiplied ex-
ceedingly, and the competition was great.
tn the fifteenth century, the king's
minstrels, clever and able men, protested
to their master against the increasing au-
dacity of the false minstrels, who deprived
them of the greater part of their revenues.
" Uncultured peasants," said the king,
who adopted the cause of his own men, " and workmen

1 " Si vint de sa Loundres ; en un prc"e
Encontra le roy e sa meisnee ;
Entour son col porta soun tabour,
Depeynt de or e riche azour."

(" Le roi d'Angleterre et le jongleur d'Ely," edited with "La
riote du monde," by Francisque Michel, Paris, 1834, p. 28.)

2 At Exeter Cathedral may be seen many of the musical instru-

PLAYING UPON

THE VIELLE.
(Prom the MS. 10
E. IV.; English;
early Fourteenth
Century. )

MINSTRELS. 205

of different trades in our kingdom of England have
passed themselves off as minstrels ; some have worn
our livery, which we did not grant to them, and have
even given themselves out to be our own minstrels."
Thanks to these guilty practices they extorted much
money from the subjects of His Majesty, and although
they had no understanding nor experience of the science,
they went from place to place on festival days and
gathered all the profits which should have enriched the
true artists, those who had devoted themselves entirely
to their profession, and did not exercise any low trade.
The king, to raise his servitors above all others,
authorized them to reconstitute and consolidate the old
gild of minstrels, and no one could henceforth exercise
this profession, whatever were his talent, if he had not
been admitted into the gild. Lastly, a power of inquiry
was granted to the members of the society, and they
were to have the right of putting all false minstrels
under a fine.1

ments which were used in the fourteenth century, sculptured in
the " Minstrels' Gallery," where a series of angels are performing,
reproduced above. The instruments they use have been identified
by M. Carl Engel as being : the cittern, the bagpipe, the clarion,
the rebec, the psaltery, the syrinx, the sackbut, the regals, the
gittern, the shalm, the timbrel, the cymbals. (Carl Engel, "Musical
Instruments," South Kensington Museum Art Handbook, p. 113),
[The duties of the court minstrels of Edward IV. are declared
in the Black Book of the Orders of that king's household
(Harl. MS. 610, fol. 23), and their instruments are enumerated ;
"some vse trumpetts, some shalmes, some small pipes, some are
stringe-men." L. T. S.]

1 The Charter (taken from Patent Roll of Ed. IV. pt. I, m. 17)
is given in Rymer, April 2 j., 1469. It has many of the pro-

206 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

We recognize in this patent one of those radical
decisions by which sovereign authority in the Middle
Ages believed it could arrest all the currents contrary to
its own tendencies, and destroy all abuses. In the same
manner, and without any better success, the price of
bread and the wage for a day's labour were lowered by
statute.

The authorities had, besides, other reasons for watch-
ing over the singers and itinerant musicians ; while they
showed indulgence to the bands attached to the persons
of the great, they feared the rounds made by the others,
and sometimes took heed to the doctrines which they
went about sowing under colour of songs. These
doctrines were very liberal, and even at times went so
far as to recommend revolt. There was an example ot
this at the beginning of the fifteenth century when, in
full war against the Welsh, the Commons in Parlia-
ment denounced the minstrels of that race, as fomen-
tors of trouble and even as causes of rebellion.
Evidently their political songs encouraged the insurgents
to resistance ; and parliament, who bracketed them with

visions of the usual gild character, setting the members under
the government of a marshal and two wardens, and was attached
to St. Paul's Cathedral, London, by its religious side. The
society was restored again in the seventeenth century, and
expired in 1679. (Hawkins, "History of Music," vol. ii. p. 698.)
There was also a famous gild of minstrels at Beverley of very
ancient date, ruling the minstrels between the rivers Trent
and Tweed. (See Pou son's " Beverlac," London, 1829, p. 302.)
The minstrels of Chester had special privileges. (Hawkins i.
p. 191.) The ordinances of a gild of minstrels at York officially
recorded in 1561 still exist ("York Plays," Oxford, 1885, pp. xxxviii
note, 1 25 note) ; and of another at Canterbury in 1526. (W. Welfitt's
" Extracts from Canterbury Records," No. xxi.) [L. T. S.]

MINSTRELS. 207

ordinary vagabonds, knew well that in having them
arrested on the roads, it was not simple cut-purses
whom it sent to prison. " Item : That no westours
and rimers, minstrels or vagabonds, be maintained in
Wales to make kymorthas or quyllages on the common
people, who by their divinations, lies, and exhortations
are partly cause of the insurrection and rebellion now
in Wales. Reply : Le roy le veut." *

Great popular movements were the occasion for
satirical songs against the lords, songs composed by the
minstrels and soon known by heart among the crowd.
It was a popular song, doubtless very often repeated in
the villages, which furnished to John Ball the text for
his great speech at Blackheath in the revolt of 1381 :

" When Adam delved and Eve span
Who was then the gentleman ? "

Again, under Henry VI., when the peasants of Kent
rose, and their allies the sailors took and beheaded the
Duke of Suffolk at sea, a satirical song then made was
very popular and has come down to us. As before
killing him they gave a mock trial to the king's
favourite, so in this song they play the comedy of his
funeral ; nobles and prelates are invited to it to sing
their responses, and in this pretended funeral service,
which is a hymn of joy and triumph, the singer calls
down heavenly blessings on the murderers. At the end
the Commons are represented coming in their turn to
sing a Requeiscat in pace over all Eng'ish traitors.2
The renown of the popular insurgent of the

1 "Rolls of Parliament," iii. p. 508, A.D. 1402.

2 See Appendix XIL

2o3 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE

twelfth century, the outlaw Robin Hood, continually
increased. His virtues were sung ; it was told how
this pious man, who, even in the greatest danger, waited
till mass was over before getting into a place of safety,
boldly robbed great lords and high prelates, but was
merciful to the poor ; l which was an indirect notice to
the brigands of the time of the need to discern in their
rounds between the tares and the wheat.

The sympathy of the minstrels for ideas of emancipa-
tion, which had made such great progress in the four-
teenth century, was not only evinced in songs; these
ideas were even found in the altered romances which
they recited in presence of the lords, and which hence-
forth were full of pompous declarations on the equality
of men. But on this point the hearer took little offence;
the poets of a higher order, the favourites of the upper
classes, the king himself in his official acts liking to
proclaim liberal truths which it was hardly expected
would be required to be put in practice ; and they had
accustomed society at large to this. Thus Chaucer cele-
brates in his most eloquent verse the only true nobility in
his eyes, that which comes from the heart.2 Thus also
King Edward I., on summoning the first true English

1 The ballads touching Robin Hood were collected by J. Ritson ;
"Robin Hood Ballads," London, second edition, 1832. The greaf
majority of the songs that have come down to us on this hero are
unfortunately only of the sixteenth century, but there are a few of
earlier date ; his popularity in the fourteenth century was very
great. See " Piers Plowman," Skeat's edition, Text B, p. v. 1. 79.

2 "The Wyf of Bathes Tale" (sixty-eight lines on the equality
of men and on nobility) ; again, in the " Parson's Tale," " Eek
for to pride him of his gentrie is ful gret folye . . . we ben alle
of oon fader and of oon moder ; and alle we ben of oon nature

MINSTRELS. 209

in Tir^^jjerlareH that he did so inspired by

the old maxim which prescribes that what concerns all
should be approved by all, and proclaimed a principle
whence have since issued the most radical reforms of
society.1

Such direct appeals from the king to his people con-
tributed early to develop among the English the sense
of duty, of political rights and responsibilities. In one
of his necessities, at a time when parliament scarcely yet
existed, this led him to explain his conduct to the people
and to justify himself : " The king about this, and
about his estate and as to his kingdom, and how the
business of the kingdom has come to nothing, makes
known and wishes that all should know the truth of it ;
which ensues," &c.2

In France the proclamations of very liberal principles
are frequent in royal edicts, but these fine words are but
a decoy, and the trouble to dissimulate is hardly taken.
Louis X. in his ordinance of July 2, 1315, declares that
" as according to the law of nature every one is born

roten and corrupt, bothe riche and pore " (R. Morris' edition ol
"Canterbury Tales," vol. ii. pp. 240, 24.1; vol. iii. p. 301).
Compare also these lines of a French piece of the same century
(quoted in the discourse upon the state of letters in the fourteenth
century, " Histoire Litteraire de la France," vol. xxiv. p. 236):

" Nus qui bien face n'est vilains,
Mes de vilonie est toz plains
Hauz horn qui laide vie maine :
Nus n'est vilains s'il ne vilaine."

1 "Sicut lex justissima, provida circumspectione sacrorum princi-
pum stabilita hortatur et statuit ut quod omnes tangit ab omnibus
approbetur, sic," &c. (Rymer's " Fcedera," year 1295, vol. ii. p. 689).

* "Fcedera," year 1297, vol. ii. p. 783.

aio ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

free," he has resolved to enfranchise the serfs on his own
estates, but he adds that he will do it for money ; and
three days afterwards, fearing that his benefit is not
sufficiently prized, he adds practical considerations with
which philosophy is mingled in a strange manner. " It
may be that some, ill-advised and in default of good
counsel, may tend in ignorance of such great benefit
and favour to wish rather to remain in the baseness of
servitude than to come to free estate : wherefore we order
and commit to you that for the aid of our present war
you levy on certain persons according to the amount of
their property, and the conditions of servitude of each
one, as much and sufficiently as the condition and riches
of those persons may bear a^d as the necessity of our
war may require." l

Well then might the minstrels follow the king himself
in repeating axioms so well known, and which according
to appearance there was so little chance of seeing carried
out. Only, ideas, like seeds of trees falling on the soil, are
not lost, and the noble who had fallen asleep to the mur-
mur of verses chanted by the glee-man waked up one day
to the tumult of the crowd collected before London,
to the refrain of the priest John Ball ; and then he
had to draw his sword and show by a massacre that
the time was not yet come to apply these axioms, and
that there was nothing in them but songs.

Poets and popular singers had thus an influence over
the social movement, less through the maxims scattered
over their great works than by those little wild pieces,
struck off on the moment, which the least of them
composed and sung for the people, on the cross-roads
1 Tsambert's "Recueil," vol. iii. pp. 102, 104.

MINSTRELS. 211

in time, of rebellion, in the cottages in ordinary times,
as a reward for hospitality.

Minstrels, however, were to disappear. In the first
place, an age was beginning when books and the art of
reading spreading among the people in general, every one
might search them for himself and would cease to have
them recited ; in the second place, the public theatres
were about to offer a spectacle much superior to that of
the little troops of musicians and wandering singers,
and would compete with them more strongly than the
" rude husbandmen and artificers of various crafts,"
against whose impertinence Edward IV. was indignant.
Lastly, public contempt, which was increasing, would leave
the minstrels abounding indeed, but beneath the notice
of the higher classes, then to be lost in the lowest ranks
of caterers to public amusement, and finally to disappear.

In fact, the period of the Taillefers who would go
to death in the fight while singing of Charlemagne was a
short one ; the lustre which the jongleurs or trouveres
of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, who confined
themselves to the recitation of poems, had shed on their
profession, was effaced in proportion as they associated
themselves more closely with the unrestrained bands of
tumblers, jugglers, leaders of performing bears, con-
jurors, and ribalds of all kinds.1
These bands had always existed, but the singers

1 " There saugh I pieyen jugelours,
Magiciens and tregetours,
And phitonisses, charmeressea,
Olde wiches, sorceresses
That use exorsisaciouns
And eke thes fumygaciouns."

(Chaucer's " House of Fame," 1. 169.)

212

ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

of romances had not always joined them. At all
times, in castles and at the fairs, there were to be
found buffoons, whose coarseness
astonished and enchanted the spec-
tators. The precise details which
the contemporaries unanimously give
upon their amusements show that
not only their witticisms would not
oe tolerated among the rich of to-
day, but that there are even few
retired villages where the peasants
on a festival would accept them
without disgust. However repug-
nant may be this thought, it must
be noted that these pastimes were
customary, that the great found
pleasure in them, that in the troup
of mummers and tumblers who went
about wherever mirth was wanted,
there were some who excited
laughter by the ignoble means
which John of Salisbury describes.1
Two hundred years later, two sacri-
legious clerks, out of hate to the
Archbishop of York, gave them-
_:> selves up to the same monstrous
A FOURTEENTH GEN- buffooneries in his cathedral, and the
TURY JUGGLER. epjscopai letter wnich relates these

(rrom the MS. 10 r r , .

E. iv.} facts with the precision or an official

report adds that they were committed more ribaldorum*

1 See " Polycraticus," lib. i. chap. viii.

' Historical Papers from the Northern Registers," ed. Raine.
Rolls Series, p. 398. Cf. Bodl. MS. 264- fos. »i. c». 56. 91, &c.

JUGGLERS. 213

The usage of them was perpetuated owing to their
success, and had remained popular. Langland, at the
same epoch, shows that one of his personages is not a
true minstrel, not only because he is not a musician, but
also because he is not clever at any of these exercises
of such strange coarseness.1

The greater was the feast, the coarser seem to have
been sometimes the attitude and the songs of the
minstrels. The time of Christmas was especially noted
for the liberties they took. Thomas Gascoigne, in the
sort of theological dictionary which he has left, warmly
recommends to his readers to abstain from hearing such
Christmas songs, for they leave on the mind images and
ideas which it is almost impossible afterwards to wash
out. He adds as a warning the story of a man he knew.
1 I have known," says he, " I, Gascoigne, Doctor in,
Divinity, who am writing this book, a man who had
heard at Christmas some of those shameful songs. It
so happened that the shameful things he had heard had
made such a deep impression on his mind that he could
never in after time get rid of those remembrances nor
wipe away those images. So he fell into such a deep
melancholy that at length it proved deadly to him." 2

We may see also by the representations of the dance
of Salome which are found in the stained glass or the

1 "Ich cannat tabre ne trompe ne tclle faire gestes,
Farten ne fithelen at festes, ne harpen,
Japen ne jogclen ne gentelliche pipe,
Mother sailen ne sautrien ne singe with the giterne "
("Piers Plowman," ed. Slceat, Text C, passus xvi. 1. 205.)
8 " Loci e libra veritatum ; Passages selected from Gascoigne's
Theological Dictionary" (1403-48), ed. Thorold Rogers, Oxford,
1881, p. 144.

214

ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

manuscripts of the Middle Ages what sort of games
might amuse persons at table, in the opinion of the
artists. It is by dancing on her hands, her head down-
wards, that the young woman gains the suffrages of
Herod. Now, as the idea of such a dance could not
. be drawn from the Bible, we must believe that it arose
from the customs of the time. At Clermont-Ferrand, in
the stained glass of the cathedral (thirteenth century),

FAVOURITE DANCES IN MEDIEVAL ENGLAND.
(From the MS. 10 E. IV.)

Salome dances on knives which she holds with each
hand, she also having her head downwards. At Verona,
she is represented on the most ancient of the bronze gates
of St. Zeno (ninth century) bending backwards and
touching her feet with her head. Those standing by
seem filled with surprise and admiration, one puts his
hand to his mouth, the other to his cheek, in an in-
voluntary gesture of amazement. She may be seen in
the same posture in several manuscripts in the British

TUMBLERS. 215

Museum; Herod is sitting at his table with his lords,
while the young woman dances head downwards.1 In
another manuscript, also of the fourteenth century,
minstrels are shown playing on their instruments, while
a professional dancing girl belonging to their troop
performs as usual, head downwards, but this time, as
at Clermont, her hands rest on two swords. The
accounts of the royal exchequer of England sometimes
mention sums paid to passing dancers, who, no doubt,
must also have performed surprising feats, for the pay-

FAVOURITE DANCES IN PERSIA.

(Fiom a modern pencil-case,}

ments are considerable. Thus, in the third year of his
reign, Richard II. pays to John Katerine, a dancer of
Venice, six pounds thirteen shillings and fourpence for
having played and danced before him.2

In the East, where, in our travels, we have some-
times the surprise of finding ancient customs still
living which we can at home only study in books, the

1 For instance, MS. Add. 29704, fol. n. This particular
illumination seems to belong to the fourteenth century.

2 Devon's "Issues of the Exchequer," p. 212.

216 ENGLISH WAYfARING LIFE.

fashion for buffoons and mimics survives, and even
remains the great distraction of some princes. The late
Bey of Tunis had fools to amuse him in the evening
who insulted and diverted him by the contrast of their
permitted insolences with his real power. Among the
rich women of the Mussulmans of Tunis, few of whom
can read, the monotony of the days which during their
whole life are passed under the shadow of the same
walls, under the shelter of the same gratings, is broken
by the recitals of the female fool, whose sole duty is to
enliven the harem by sallies of the strangest liberty.
As for the dances, they frequently consist, in the East,
in performances exactly similar to that of Herodias,
such as it is shown in manuscripts. Women dancing
head downwards are constantly represented on Persian
pictures ; several examples of such paintings may be
seen in the South Kensington Museum, and the same
subject is often found on the valuable pencil-cases which
were formerly made with much taste and art in Persia.

If the Europeans of the fourteenth century were
capable of tasting such pleasures, it was not surprising
that, following on the moralists, public opinion should
at length condemn in one breath minstrels and mimics,
and should set them down with those vagabond roamers
of the highways, who appeared so dangerous to parlia-
ment. In proportion as we advance the minstrel's role
grows viler. In the sixteenth century Phillip Stubbes
saw in them the personification of all vices, and he
justifies in violent terms his contempt* for " suche
drunken sockets and bawdye parasits as range the
cuntreyes, rymingand singing of vncleane, corrupt and
filthie songes in tauernes, ale-houses, innes, and other

BUFFOONS. 217

publique assemblies." Their life is like the shameful
songs of which their heads are full, and they are the
origin of all abominations. They are, besides, innumer-
able :

" Every towne, citie, and countrey is full of these
minstrelles to pype up a dance to the deuill : but
of dyuines, so few there be as they maye hardly be
scene.

"But some of them will reply, and say, What, sir!
we haue lycences from iustices of peace to pype and
vse our minstralsie to our best commoditie. Cursed
be those licences which lycense any man to get his
lyuing with the destruction of many thousands !

" But haue you a lycence from the archiustice of
peace, Christe Jesus ? If you have not . . . than may
you, as rogues, extrauagantes, and straglers from the
heauenlye country, be arrested of the high iustice of
peace, Christ Jesus, and be punished with eternall death,
notwithstanding your pretensed licences of earthly
men." '

We see to what a state of degradation the noble
profession of the old singers was fallen, and how little
the necessity either of obtaining an authorized licence
or of entering into a gild, as Edward IV. desired,
checked their extravagances. With new manners and
inventions the object of their existence disappeared, and
the truly high part of their art vanished ; the ancient
reciters of poems, after having mingled with the some-

1 Phillip Stubbes' "Anatomy of Abuses," ed. F. J. Furnivall,
New Shakspere Society, 1877-79, PP- I71t I72' Stubbes' opinion
was shared by all the writers in the sixteenth century who piqued
themselves on religion or austerity of manners.

2l8

ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

what disreputable troops of caterers to public amuse-
ment, saw these troops survive them, and there only
henceforth remained upon the roads those coarse
buffoons and vulgar musicians whom reflective persons
held as reprobates.

A PERFORMING BEAR.

(From MS. 10 E. IV.}

A SHAM MESSENGER.

(From the MS. 10 E. IV.}

CHAPTER II.

MESSENGERS, ITINERANT MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS.

ALL his life long, kind, loving, merry Chaucer was
fond of travels and travellers, of roamers and
tale-tellers, of people who came from afar, bring-
ing home with them many stones if little money, stories
in which much falsehood no doubt was mingled with
very little truth. But what is the good of raising a
protest against harmless falsehoods, is not sometimes
their mixture with " sooth " a pleasant one ? Thus, he
said,

"Thussaugh I fals and sothe compouned
Togeder fle for oo (one) tydynge."

He looked for seekers of adventure, and was never tired
of hearing their tales.

220 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

" Aventure,

That is the moder of tydynges,
As the see is of wclles and of spryngcs ; "

and no greater pleasure for him than to see

" Winged wondres faste fleen,
Twenty thousand in a route,
As Eolus hem blew aboute."

He was in this a real connoisseur^ fully appreciating
the merit of a well -told lie, and knowing how useful
and pleasant some such may be found to beguile slow-
winged time. Long before he started from the Tabard,
" faste by the Belle," for a journey which millions of
Englishmen have since performed at his heels, allured
by the music or merriment of his song, he had this same
taste for " unkouthe syghtes and tydynges." Finding
himself once in great " distresse " of mind, with a
heavy heart " disesperat of all blys," what did he dream
of to " solace " himself but of meeting and hearing the
whole innumerable tribe of tale-tellers, wayfarers, and
adventure seekers, by fancy assembled in an immense
house " made of twigges, salwe, rede and green eke ? "
This happened when he wrote of the "House of Fame,"1
where after having met the bard " that bare of Thebes
up the fame," and " gret Omere," and " Venus clerke
Ovide," he imagined that there was no room for him,
and feeling his grief as keen as ever, dreamed of some-
thing else, willing

**Somme newe tydyngis for to lere,
Somme newe thinge, Y not what,
Tydyngs other this or that,
Of love, or suche thinges glad."

1 All the extracts here given are taken out of the " House ol
Fame," book iii., "Poetical Works of Chaucer," ed. R. Morris.

, MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS. 221

In this he had full satisfaction ; his dream took
another turn and he was led towards the place he
wanted where things glad were to be found, a temple
not of fame, but of tales and tidings, of noise and
merriment :

" And theroute come so grete a noyse,
That had hyt stonde upon Oyse,
Men myght hyt have herd esely
To Rome, Y trowe sikerly."

The noise went up to the sky from innumerable aper-
tures, for

"This hous hath of entrees
As fecle (many) as of leves ben on trees,
In somer whan they grene ben."

Never for one instant is the place quiet nor silent ; it is
always

" Filde ful of tydynges

Other loude or of whisprynges ;

And over alle the houses angles,

Ys ful of rounynges and of jangles,

Of werres, of pes, of mariages,

Of restes, of labour and of viages."

War and peace, and love and travels ; all this he was to
make in after-time the subject of his song in the " Can-
terbury Tales," and he represents himself in this earlier
poem as if coming to the well and spring of all tales,
placed somewhere in the land of dreams and fancy but
surrounded by people who were neither fanciful nor
dreamy things, bony beings, on the contrary, with strong
muscles and alert tongues, and the dust of the road to
Rome or the East on their feet ; surrounded, in fact, by
these very roamers we are now trying to call up one
by one from the past, and who stand there in such an

222 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE,

apotheosis as is convenient for their quaint but rather
questionable assembly. Good Chaucer lends a willing
ear, and the ways of speech of these people are carefully
preserved in his verse for those who may after him
find interest in them. In this manner they spoke :
every person, says the poet,

" Every wight that I saugh there
Rouned (muttered) in eche others ere,
A newe tydynge prevely,
Or elles tolde alle oppenly
Ryght thus, and seyde ; ' Nost not them
That ys betyd, late or now ? '
— ' No,' quod he, 'Telle me what.'
And than he tolde hym this and that,
And swore therto that hit was sothe ;
'Thus hath he sayde' and 'Thus he dothe,'
And 'Thus shal hit be ' and ' Thus herde.Y seye.'"

And the delight is that the tale repeated by many is
always new, for it is never exactly the same ; the lie
fattens as it grows old, so that it may serve your pleasure
many a time and oft :

" Whan oon had herde a thinge ywis,
He come forthright to another wight,
And gan him tellen anon ryght,
The same thynge that him was tolde,
Or hyt a forlonge way was olde,
But gan sommewhat for to eche (increase)
To this tydynge in this speche
More than hit ever was . . .
As fire ys wont to quyk and goo
From a sparke sprongen amys,
Tille alle a citee brent up ys."

That there may be no mistake about the sort of
people to whom the pleasant art of stretching a lie is so

MESSENGERS, MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS. 223

familiar, Chaucer is careful to name them, and there we
find almost every one of our friends already mentioned
or hereafter described, the English sea or land way-
farers :

"And lord ! this hous in alle tymes
Was ful of shipmen and pilgrimes,
With scrippes (bags) bret-ful of leseyngs (lies)
Entremedled with tydynges,
And eke allone be hemselve ;
O many a thousand tymes twelve
Saugh I eke of these pardoners,
Currours, and eke of messangers
With boystes crammed ful of lyes."

What Chaucer gathered from these shipmen, pardoners,
couriers, and messengers, he assures us it was not his
intention to tell the world,

" For hit no nede is redely ;
Folke kan hit synge bet than I.'1

Whether or not some doubt may have afterwards
entered his mind about the great poetical faculty of
" folke," certain it is that for the delight of future ages
he did not stick to his word, as every reader of the
" Canterbury Tales " well knows.

These " boystes " which Chaucer represents, carried
by messengers and couriers, were filled in the way he
describes only in a metaphorical sense, and this left
room for more solid ware, for letters and parcels too,
for in those old simple days, the messengers were
the only equivalent for mail and for parcels post.
They were to be found in the service of abbots,
bishops, nobles, sheriffs, and of the king. Such a

224

ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE.

costly forerunner of the post was not, of course,
accessible to everybody ; people did as they best could.
The poor man waited till some friend was going a
journey ; the rich only had express messengers, charged
with doing their commissions at a distance, and with
carrying their letters, letters which were generally written
at dictation by a scribe on a sheet of parchment, and then
sealed in wax with the master's signet.1 The king kept
twelve messengers with a fixed salary ; they followed
him everywhere, in constant readiness to start ; they

A PROFESSIONAL MESSENGER.

(From the MS. 10 E. IV.}

received threepence a day when they wete on the road,
and four shillings and eightpence a year to buy shoes.2

1 See the representation of lords and ladies dictating their letters
to scribes, and of messengers carrying them to their destinations in
the MSS. at the British Museum, Royal 10 Ed. IV. fol. 305, 306,
&c., and Add. 12228 fol. 238.

2 " King Edward II. 's Household and Wardrobe Ordinances,"
1323, ed. Furnivall, 1876, p. 4.6.

M 'ESSENCE RS, MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS. 225

The prince charged them with letters for the kings of
France and Scotland ; sent them to call together the
representatives of the nation for Parliament ; to order
the publication of the papal sentence against Guy de
Montfort ; to call to Windsor the knights of St. George ;
to summon the " archbishops, earls, barons, and other
lords and ladies of England and Wales" to London to be
present at the funeral of the late queen (Philippa) ; to
prescribe the proclamation in the counties of the statutes
made in Parliament ; to command the " archbishops,
bishops, abbots, priors, deans, and chapters of the
cathedral churches of all the shires to pray for the soul
of Anne, late Queen of England, deceased." l We
find him in another case sending messengers or heralds'
to foreign parts, viz., France, Germany, Brabant
Flanders, Scotland, to call the nobility of these coun-
tries to a great tournament, a sort of international
match to be held on St. George's Day. The amount of
the expense so incurred, which is not less than thirty-
two pounds, shows that the messengers must have had
long protracted journeys and must have had to visit
in detail the countries allotted to each of them.2

Sometimes the king got into trouble with his Com-,
mons on account of the expenses of messengers, which
he did not alw:»ys feel inclined to pay from his own
purse. Such a case happened in 1378, and the Com-

1 " Issue roll of Thomas de Brantingham," ed. F. Devon,
London, 1835, pp. xxxii, xxxvii, xliv, 408; "Issues of the
Exchequer," 1837, pp. 220, 255. Whole pages of Thomas de
Brantingham's roll (e.g., pp. 154-155) are filled with payments
received by messengers, which show the frequent use that must
have been made of their services.

* 32 Ed. III. "Issues of the Exchequer," p. 169

15

226 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

mons took this opportunity of again asserting their
views about ~the French and other foreign possessions
of their sovereign : Ireland being included among
these. They plainly state, as they had done before, that
those countries and the expenses concerning them are a
matter for the king, not for them ; it is a sort of kingly
luxury with which they will have nothing to do.
They remonstrate, therefore, that about forty-six
thousand pounds sterling have been spent and entered
as an item of national expense " for the safeguard
of certain countries, places, and fortresses, for which
the Commons ought in no way to be charged. These
are partly in the march of Calais and partly at Brest,
Cherbourg, in Gascony, and in Ireland ; and also ex-
penses over certain messengers to Flanders, Lombardy,
Navarre, and Scotland." The Government peremptorily
refuses to accept this kind of reasoning, and returns
a spirited answer : "To which it was answered that
Gascony and the other forts which our lord the king
has in the parts beyond, are and must be as barbicans
for the kingdom of England, and if the barbicans are
well kept, with the safeguard formed by the sea, the
kingdom will be secure of peace. Otherwise we shall
never find rest nor peace with our enemies ; for then
they would push hot war to the thresholds of our
houses, which God forbid. Besides, through these
barbicans our said lord the king has convenient gates
and entrances towards his enemies to grieve them when
he is ready and can act." Good reasons also are given for
retaining among public expenses the costs of the journeys
of messengers north and south.1 None the less did the
1 2 Rich. II., A.D. 1378, "Rolls of Parliament," vol. iii. p. 36,

MESSENGERS, MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS. 2*7

good Commons of England long continue to consider
the French wars, glorious perhaps, but undoubtedly
expensive, as a personal quarrel of their sovereign, and
as, in fact, little more than a rivalry between two
French sovereigns.

Many strange parcels besides letters had couriers and
messengers to carry from one place in the country to
another : presents to fair ladies, commodities of all sorts
for their own masters. Thus, in the year 1396, we find
a servant of the Due de Berri sent as a messenger to
Scotland, and travelling all the way thither from France
across England to fetch certain greyhounds of whom his
master appears to have been fond. He is accompanied
by three men on horseback, who will have to help him
in taking care of the hounds, and he carries a safe-
conduct from Richard II., to travel without hindrance
through the English dominions with his followers and
all that belongs to them.1

Among the missions given by the king to his servants,
some are found which at the present day would seem
singularly repugnant. For instance, he might charge
one of his faithful servants to carry the quarters of a
criminal's body condemned for treason to the great
towns of England. In this case he did not employ
simple messengers; they were personages of confidence,
who were followed by an escort to convey the sad
remains. Thus Edward III., in the fifty-first year of his
reign, paid not less than twenty pounds to "Sir William
de Faryngton, knight, for the costs and expenses he had
incurred for transporting the four quarters of the body

1 Rymer's "Fcedera," April 3, 1396 (iQ Rich. II.).

228 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

of Sir John of Mi stre worth, knight, to different parts
of England.;" »

Of all travellers, the messenger was the swiftest ;
first, because travelling was his business ; he was a good
horseman, an experienced person, clever in getting out
of trouble on the road and at the inns. Woe to who-
ever thought to stop him ; there were immense fines
if the masrer were powerful, still more if the man were
the king's messenger. A messenger from the queen who
had been imprisoned by the constable of Roxburgh Castle
did not hesitate to claim ,£ 10,000 sterling for contempt
of his sovereign, and ,£2,000 as indemnity for himself.2

When, on August 7, 1316, Jacques d'Euse, cardinal-
bishop of Porto, was chosen pope at Lyons, and assumed
the name of John XXII., Edward II. being at York
learnt the news ten days afterwards through Laurence
of Ireland, messenger of the house of the Bardi. And
indeed we find by the accounts of the king's household
that this prince paid Laurence twenty shillings on the
lyth of August to reward him for his trouble. It was
only on the 2yth of September that, being still at York,
the king received by Durand Budet," the cardinal of
Pelagrua's messenger, the official letters announcing the
election ; he gave five pounds to the messenger.
Finally, the pope's nuncio having arrived in person
shortly afterwards, bearing the same news which was
now not at all fresh, the king made him a present of
a hundred pounds.3

1 " Issues of the Exchequer," p. 202.
a " Rolls of Parliament," i. p. 48 (18 Ed. I.).
3 " Wardrobe Accounts of Edward II.," Archaeologia, xxvi,
pp. 3*1, 336.

MESSENGERS, MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS. 229

Such was the custom, presents were made to the
bringers of good news ; the royal messengers had thus
a chance of casually increasing their meagre pay of
threepence a day. Most fortunate were those who
brought word to the king himself of happy events.
Edward III. gave forty marks of rent for life to the
queen's messenger who came announcing the birth of
the Prince of Wales, the future Black Prince ; he gave
thirteen pounds, three shillings and fourpence to John
Cok of Cherbourg, who told him of the capture
of King John at Poictiers ; he settled a hundred
shillings of rent upon Thomas de Brynchesley who
brought him the good news of the capture of Charles
of Blois.

Sometimes messengers were liable to find themselves
in a very difficult plight. In time of war they had to
conceal their real quality, and were in constant danger
of being stopped and having their bag searched and
their letters opened. People felt very strongly about
foreigners living in England, many of them being friars,
who might disclose the secrets of the realm in their
private correspondence. The Commons therefore asked
for very strict rules to be passed in order to remedy
this possible evil, and we find them, in the year 1346,
when England was at war with France, recommending
the creation of something like the cabinets noirs of a
\ater date.1

1 " Item, be it prohibited everywhere that any alien send letters
beyond the sea, or receive letters which come thence; unless he
shew them to the chancellor or to some other lord of the Privy
Council, or at least to the chief wardens of the ports or their
lieutenants, who shall further show them to the said Council '
(" Rolls of Parliament," vol. ii. p. 163, 20 Ed. III.).

230 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE.

Langland in his " Visions " graphically compares the
different modes of travelling of messengers and such
other wayfarers as merchants going with their goods
from one place to another. The one is the swiftest
of all, no one would have dared to stop him ; the other
was retarded by his pack, his debts, his fear of robbers,
his necessity of abstaining from short cuts across the
fields, which short cuts, strange as it may seem, were
freely allowed to messengers : no hayward would
disturb them ; no man in his senses, no " wys man "
would "wroth be" on account of his crops being
spoiled by a messenger :

"... Yf a marchaunt and a messager metten to-gederes

And scholde wende o way where both mosten restc, . . .

The marchante mote nede be lette(kept)lengere then the raessagere:

The messagere doth na more bote with hus mouthe telleth

Hus erande and hus lettere sheweth and is a-non delyuered.

And thauh thei wende by the wey tho two to-gederes,

Thauh the messager make hus wey a-mydde the whete,

Wole no wys man wroth be, ne hus wed take ;

Ys no haiwarde yhote (bidden) hus wed for to take :

Necesitas non babet legem.

Ac yf the merchaunt make hus way ouere menne corne,
And the haywarde happe with hym for to mete,
Other hus hatt, other has hode, othere elles hus gloues
The marchaunt mot for-go, other moneye of hus porse . . .
Yut thauh thei wenden on way as to wynchestre fayre,
The marchaunt with hus marchaundise may nat go so swithe
As the messager may ne with so mochel ese.
For that on (one) bereth bote a boxe, a breuet (letter) ther-ynne,
Thar the marchaunt ledeth a male (trunk) with meny kynne thynges
And dredeth to be ded there-fore and (if) he in derke mete
With robbours and reuers (thieves) that riche men dispoilen ;
Ther the messager is ay murye hus mouthe ful of songes." *

' Text C, pas. xiv., 11. 33-59.

MESSENGERS, MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS. 231

Wayfarers there were in whom both characteristics
were united, the slowness of pace of the merchant and
the lightness of heart of the messenger. These were
the pedlars, a very numerous race in the Middle Ages,
one of the few sorts of wanderers that have not yet dis-
appeared. A jovial race they seem to have been ; they
are so now, most of them, for their way to success is
through fair speech and enticing words ; and how could
they be enticing if they did not show good humour and
entrain ? " Gaiety " mends their broken wares and
colours the faded ones, and blinds customers to other-
wise obvious defects. They have always been described
so ; they were jnerry and sharp-tongued, such was
Shakespeare's Autolycus ; such is, in a novel of our
time, the jovial owner of the dog Mumps, Bob Jakin
of " The Mill on the Floss." " ' Get out wi' you,
Mumps,' said Bob, with a kick; 'he is as quiet as a
lamb, sir ' — an observation which Mumps corroborated
by a low growl, as he retreated behind his master's
legs." About the exact scrupulousness prevailing among
the tribe the opinion has perhaps not been quite so con-
sistent, which is the best that can be said for it.

One good point about them, however, is that in
mediaeval England, whatever may have been their repu-
tation, they entirely escaped legislation. Very possibly
they were impliedly included in statutes against
vagrants and rovers ; but they may at least argue that
as a matter of fact they are not named in any Act of
Parliament, and pass unobserved or nearly so by the
Westminster legislator down to a comparatively recent
date. They are for the first time named in a statute
during the reign of Edward VI., in which, it is true,

23 2 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE.

they are treated in a very contemptuous manner, being
described as more " hurtful than necessary to the common
wealth." This is called " an acte for tynckers and
pedlers," and is to the following effect : " For as muche
as it is evident that tynkers, pedlers and suche like
vagrant persons are more hurtful 1 than necessarie to the
Common Wealth of this realm, Be it therefore ordeyned
. . . that ... no person or persons commonly called
pedler, tynker or pety chapman shall wander or go from
one towne to another or from place to place out of the
towne, parishe or village where such person shall dwell,
and sell pynnes, poyntes, laces, gloves, knyves, glasses,
tapes or any suche kynde of wares u hatsoever, or gather
connye skynnes or suche like things or use or exercise
the trade or occupation of a tynker ; " except those that
shall have a licence from two justices of the peace ;
and then they will be allowed to travel only in the
"circuyte" assigned to them.1 Queen Elizabeth, too,
had a word for pedlars, and it was not more compli-
mentary than what her brother had to say about them.
Their name appears in her " Acte for the punishment
of vacabondes ; " and a very curious list of wanderers
is found in it : "It ys nowe publyshed," says the queen,
" that ... all ydle persones goinge aboute in any
countrey of the said Realme, vsing subtyll craftye and
unlawfull games or playes, and some of them fayninge
themselves to have knowledge in phisnomye, palmestrye,
. . . and all fencers, bearwardes, comon players in inter-
ludes and minstrels not belonging to any baron of this
realme ... all juglers, pedlars, tynkers, and petye
chapmen . . . and all scollers of the Universityes of

1 5 and 6 Ed. VI., ch. 21. Statutes, vol. iv. part L p. 155.

MESSENGERS, MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS. 233

Oxford or Cambridge yl goe about begginge . . . and
all shipmen pretendinge losses by sea . . . shalbee
deemed roges vacabounds and sturdy beggers intended
of by this present act." * But the case of pedlars
was not seriously taken in hand before the reign of
William III. who put a tax upon them and, ominously
enough, bound them to certify commissioners for trans-
portation how they travelled and traded.2

The late date of this statute of pedlars, if it may be
called so, is the more remarkable as they swarmed along
the roads in the Middle Ages. There were not then
as now large shops in every village with all the neces-
saries of life ready provided for the inhabitants. The
shop itself was itinerant, being nothing else than the
pack of travelling chapmen. In the same way as
the literature minstrels would propagate, as news,
tales, and letters, pardons from Rome and many other
things, so household wares were carried about the
country by indefatigable wayfarers. A host of small
useful things were concealed in their unfathomable
boxes. The contents of them are pretty well shown by
a series of illuminations in a fourteenth-century manu-
script, where a pedlar is represented asleep at the foot
of a tree, while monkeys have got hold of his box and
help themselves to the contents. They find in it vests,
caps, gloves, musical instruments, purses, girdles, hats,
cutlasses, pewter pots, and a number of other articles.

As to the means by which pedlars came by their goods,
several were familiar to them, and purchase seems to
have been only one among many. A proverbial saying

1 14 Eliz. ch. v. Statutes, vol. iv. part t. pp. 590, tt seq.
* 8 and o Will. III., ch. 25.

234

ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

preserved for us by Langland shows how they secured
furs for their country customers. The author of the
" Visions " states how Repentance came once to Avarice,
and examined him as to his doings in usury :

'"Hastow pite on pore men that mote necks borwe ?'
' I have as moche pite of pore men as pedlere hath of cattes
That wolde kille hem, yf he cacche hem myghte, for coueitisc of
here skynnes.' " x

A PEDLAR ROBBED BY MONKEYS.

(From the MS. 10 E. IV.}

a practice which cannot fail to be deeply resented by
all lovers of cats.

The regular merchants whom Langland and Chaucer
describe, with business enough to be in debt, adorned
with Flaundrisch hats and forked beards, were a
very different sort of people ; but though no mere
wanderers, they were, too, great wayfarers. Many of
them had had to visit the continent to find market for
their goods, and for their purchases. Through them
1 Text B, pas v. 1. 246.

MESSENGERS, MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS. 235

tco, and it was in fact, perhaps, the safest and most
reliable among many such channels of information, ideas
of what was going on in the outer world and how
things were managed in France and elsewhere, points
of similitude and comparison, were introduced to
England and made the subject of thought and discus-
sion. During this century the foreign trade of Eng-
land had greatly increased ; there was a constant
intercourse with Flanders, with Bruges above all other
towns, for the sale of home produce : wools especially,
and woolfels, cheese, butter, tin, coals,1 &c., with the
Rhine country, with Gascony, with Spain, for the pur-
chase of wines ; 2, with the Hanse towns, Lombardy,
Venice, and the East. Unintelligent regulations con-
stantly interfered, it is true, with this development, but

1 The English coaling trade had greatly increased in the four-
teenth century; large quantities were brought by water from
Newcastle and other places to London and partly consumed on
the spot, partly exported. The importance of the coal mines
did not escape the notice of the Commons, who stated in the year
1376-7 that "en diverses parties deinz le Roialme d'Engleterre
sont diverses miners de carbons, dont les communes du dit partie
ont lour sustenantz en grande partie" (51 E. III. "Rolls of Parlia-
ment," vol. ii. p. 370).

2 The trade in wines was enormous, especially with Gascony, and
subjected to the most minute regulations. Not only the impor-
tation of it was the occasion of constant regulations, but the retail
sale in towns was perpetually touched upon by local ordinances
Woe to the vintner who was detected meddling in any unfair way
with his liquor ; he might experience the chastisement inflicted
upon John Penrose, who for such an offence was sent to the
pillory in 1364, had to drink publicly there his own stuff, to have
what he could not drink poured over his head, and was besides
sentenced to renounce his trade for ever. (Riley, " Memorials of
London," 1 868, p. 318.)

2tf ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

so strong was the impulse that it went on steadily.
One of the most persistent and most noxious of these
regulations was the prohibition to export money or
bullion, which governments were never tired of renew-
ing.1 English merchants were prohibited when pur-
chasing goods in foreign countries to pay for them with
money ; they had to pay in kind, with wools, cheese
and other home produce, which of course might or
might not, be found acceptable by the vendor. It
was, in other words, forbidden to use money as a
means of facilitating exchange, which is its very raison
dttre, and people had to return to the primitive
practice of troc, or exchange in kind. It had some-
times worse effects than that of impeding transactions ;
foreign merchants might, as once did the Flemings,
show their appreciation of the rules imposed on their
English purchasers by answering their proffer of wools
and cheese with a beating and imprisonment until they
would alter their laws or their minds. For which
treatment, English merchants sent doleful complaints
to Parliament. In such cases retaliation upon Flemings
in England might be demanded, but no thought was
entertained, even by the injured party, of repealing
laws considered as an indispensable safeguard for the
kingdom.2

1 Same rules in France: "Que nul billon, vaissellemente,
joyaux d'or et d'argent ne soint traits hors dudit royaume par
personne quelle que ce soit, si ce n'estoit vaissellemente de
prelats ou de nobles ou d'autres gens d'eglise pour lour service "
(Ordinance of Jean le Bon, dated from London, 1358 ; Isambert,
vol. v. p. 39).

2 " Rolls of Parliament," 45 Ed., III. A.D. 1371, vol. ii. p. 306.
While this legislation was strictly enforced in England, the royal

MESSENGERS, MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS. 237

Not much wiser were the rules applied to merchant
shipping. What made them worse was that they were
constantly changed, a defect which was also noticeable
in all trade regulations of that time. Some are curious
as being an attempt to establish the strict rules which
Cromwell so successfully worked on after 1651 : "Item
to increase the navy of England which is now greatly
diminished, it is assented and accorded, that none of the
king's liege people do from henceforth ship any mer-
chandize in going out or coming within the realm of
England in any port, but only in ships of the king's
liegeance." But the very next year this statute was
altered so as to practically annul it : " It is ordained and
granted that the said ordinance only have place as long
as ships of the said ligeance in the parts where the said
merchants happen to dwell be found able and suffi-
cient." l The same unsteadiness of purpose was shown
in almost every branch of the yet unbaptized science
of political economy.

Not less worthy of notice than this attempt at a
Navigation Act is the claim made, even at this time,
by the Commons of England to a traditional supremacy
over the seas. In one of their innumerable petitions
concerning the decay of the navy, which seems to have
been a favourite complaint from the remotest period
down to our own time, they state that the rash and
often useless pressing of ships for the king's service had

government, according to petitions of the Commons and with
remarkable naivete, often wrote to princes on the continent, recom-
mending them to allow their own subjects to bring to England
money, bullion, and plate.

1 Statute 5 Rich. IT. st. i. ch. 3, and 6 Rich. II., A D. 1581-2,

238 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE.

brought about a most dangerous decrease of the navy ;
many mariners addicting themselves to other trades,
while only " twenty years ago, and always before^ the
shipping of the Realm was in all the ports and good
towns upon the sea or rivers, so noble and plenteous
that all the countries held and called our said sovereign :
the King of the Sea (le Rot de la Mter)" * As these
were trading ships, only occasionally used for war
purposes, this gives an idea of the importance to which
British merchant shipping had attained in the four-
teenth century and which it wanted to recover.

The rules concerning foreign merchants coming to
England were in the same manner constantly changed ;
sometimes the hardest restrictions were put upon them,
and sometimes everything was done to allure them to
England. The result was the same ; trade was im-
peded doubtless, but it went on, and in spite of the
unsteadiness of legislation, of unexpected retaliatory
measures (as when, for instance, Hanse merchants were
imprisoned on account of misdeeds committed in Prussia
by inhabitants of this country, no reason of complicity
being alleged, but only it seems one of geographical
vicinity 2), in spite of restrictions innumerable, the
intercourse steadily increased, to the great benefit of the
community and the wider diffusion of ideas. In the
ninth, the twenty-fifth, the twenty-seventh, and other
years of his reign, King Edward III., again and again
stated that he took foreign merchants under his special
protection : " To replenish the said realm and lands," he
said on one of these occasions, " with money and plate,

1 " Rolls of Parliament," 46 Ed. III., A.D. 1372, vol. ii. p. 31 1.
• Ibid., II Rich. II., A.D. 1387, vol. ii;. p. 253.

MESSENGERS, MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS. 239

gold and silver and merchandises of other lands, and to
give courage to merchants strangers to come with their
wares and merchandises into the Realm and lands
aforesaid, we have ordained and established that all
merchants strangers which be not of our enmity, of
what land or nation that they be, may safely and surely,
under our protection and safe conduct, come and dwell
in our said realm and lands, where they will, and from
thence [freely] return," I selling their goods to whom
they please, being exempted from purveyance and only
paying the ordinary customs. If war is declared
between England and their country, they will have
forty days to clear the realm, during which time they
will be allowed to continue their sales, and even more
delay will be allowed them in case they are ill, or
are detained by bad weather. This last was, as we
have seen, a very necessary proviso, for a merchant
coming with his goods in the depth of winter to a
broken bridge might be stopped a pretty long time ;
the same also if, reaching the sea-coast, he found
contrary winds. The statute of the twenty-fifth year
provided that the liberal intentions of the king
towards foreign merchants should be brought by way
of proclamation to the notice of the officers and inhabi-
tants of all the English counties, trading cities, sea-
ports, &c.2

Thus protected and impeded by turns, foreign trade
jogged on, and as common interest was, after all, stronger
than popular prejudice and royal ordinances, it managed
to thrive in England. Foreign gilds were established

ii. ch. 2.

» Statute 27 Ed. III. st ii. c
* 25 Ed. III. stat. iii, ch. 2.

J4o ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

i

in London ; foreign settlements took place in several
trading towns,1 foreign fleets visited the English shores
at regular intervals, none with more important results
than the fleet of the Venetian Republic. It began to
visit regularly the ports of Flanders, England, and the
north in the year 1317 ; each ship had on board
thirty archers for its defence, commanded by young
Venetian noblemen. There was in the fourteenth
century a Venetian consul at Bruges, and the com-
mander of the galleys did not fail to put himself into
communication with him. The fleet, or " galleys of
Flanders," as it was called, brought to England cotton
from Egypt, cloth of silk from Venice, cinnamon,
pepper, cloves, saffron, camphor, musk, and other
drugs or spices from the East, sugar from Egypt and
Sicily, &c. The trade of Venice in the eastern Mediter-
ranean was very extensive ; it was carried on freely,
except during occasional wars with the Saracen, and
the commercial interests of the Italian Republics in the
continuation of a good understanding with the infidel
was one of the principal causes of the cessation of
crusades. From England the Venetian galleys took
back wools and woollen cloths, leather, tin, lead, sea-
coal, cheese,2 &c.

1 See particulars about the Gildhalda Teutonicorum in Dow-
gate Ward, Thames Street, and afterwards in the Steel- house, in
W. Herbert's " Livery Companies," London 1837, vol. i. pp. 10-16.
The importance of Italian settlements of money-changers and
money-lenders (whence the "Lombard streets" or "rues.des
Lombards " surviving in many towns) are well known. See also
Ilertzberg's " Libell of englishe policye," Leipzig, 1878.

2 These and many other particulars about English trade with
Venice are to be found in Rawdon Brown's " Calendars of Stacc

MESSENGERS, MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS. 241

The importance of this intercourse with the con-
tinent, which fortunately the variations in the law of
the land were unable to check, gave prominence to the
English merchant in the community. He is already in
the fourteenth century, and has been ever since, one of
the main supports of the State. While the numerous
applications of Edward III. to Lombard bankers for
ready money are well known, it is sometimes over-
looked how often he had recourse to English merchants,
who supplied him with that without which his archers'
bows would have remained unstrung. The advice and
goodwill of the whole class of merchants could not be
safely ignored ; therefore their attendance was constantly
requested at Westminster to discuss money and other
State matters. Some families among them rose into
eminence, such as the De la Poles of Hull, who became
earls of Suffolk with descendants to be killed at Azin-
court, to be checked by Joan of Arc at Orleans, to be
made dukes, and to be impeached for high treason. It
was, too, the time of " thrice Lord Mayor of London"1
Dick, afterwards Sir Richard Whittington, who does
not seem to have entertained the same feeling as the
pedlars before-mentioned for cats. Another man of the
same sort a little later was the famous William Canynge,
of Bristol, who made there a large fortune in trading with
foreign countries. One of the boats of this Canynge
was called the Mary Redcliffe, a name as well as his

Papers . . . in the Archives of Venice," London, 1864 (Rolls) ; see
also J. Delaville le Roulx, "La France en Orient au XIVe. siecle,"
Paris, 1886, vol. i. p. 199. See also "The libell of Englishe
policye," 1436, ed. Hertzberg and Pauli, Leipzig, 1878, p. 37.

1 For the first time in 1398. He was a liberal lender of money
to Kings Henry IV. and Henry V.

16

H* / ENGLISH WAV FARING LIFE.

own since associated with the memory of the Bristol
boy-poet, Thomas Chatterton.

Below men in such an exalted situation the bulk of
the merchant community throve as best they could.
One of the necessities of their avocation was constant
travelling. They were to be met about the roads
almost as much as their poorer brothers the pedlars.

A RICH MERCHANT TRAVELLING (CHAUCER'S MERCHANT).
(From the E lies mere MS.)

They also made great use of the water-courses, and,
carried their goods by boat whenever there was any
possibility. Hence the constant interference of the
Commons with the erection of new mills, weirs,
and other hindrances on rivers by lords of the
adjoining lands. The "Rolls of Parliament" are full
of petitions asking for the complete suppression of all
new works of this sort as being detrimental to the

MESSENGERS, MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS. 243

" common passage of ships and boats on the great
rivers of England," or stating that " the merchants who
frequent the water between London and Oxford used
to have free passage on the Thames from London to
Oxford, with their ships to carry their goods and to
serve the commonalty and the people, but now they are
disturbed by weirs, locks, mills, and many other hin-
drances." l The reasons that merchants preferred
such a conveyance were that the cost of carriage was
less ; except for the occasional meeting of unexpected
locks and weirs, they were more certain than on
ordinary roads to find before them a clear course ; and
they were better able to protect themselves against
robbers.

They could not, however, go everywhere by water,
and willingly or not they had then to betake themselves
to the roads, and incur all the mischances that might
turn up on the way, or at the inn. In one of his
" Visions," Langland describes how once one of the
mischievous characters in his poem rifled at the inn
the boxes of some travelling chapmen.

'*' Thus, ones I was herberwed/ quod he, 'with an hep of

chapmen,
I roos whan thei were arest and yrifled here males ' " (their

trunks).

Repentance, who had just been asking if his inter-
locutor had never made " restitucioun," wonders at this
strange statement as to how things went on at the inn :

" That was no restitucioun . . but a robberes thefte.''

* "Rolls of Parliament,'' 25 Ed. III. A.D. 1350, and Ed. I. or II
anno incerto, vol. ii. p. 232 and vol. i. p. 475.

244 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE.

To which the careless being retorts in a way which
reminds one of Chaucer's French of Stratford-atte-Bow :

" ' I wende (believed) ryflynge were restitucioun,' quod he, ' for

I lerned neuere rede on boke,
And I can no frenche in feith but of the ferthest ende of nor-

folke.""

Between the " male " of these chapmen and the mere
pack of the pedlar the difference is not very consider-
able ; it is not very great either if compared to the
" male " of the merchant we have met before, who
travels slowly on account of it, and who is represented
by the poet as the emblem of " men that ben ryche."
So that these three links kept pretty close together the
chain of the itinerant trading community. They all
had to go about and to experience the gaieties or
dangers of the road, the latter being of course better
known to the richer sort than to the poor Bob Jakin of
the day. The reasons for this constant travelling were
numerous ; the same remark applies to merchants of
the fourteenth century as to almost all other classes :
there was much less journeying than to-day for mere
pleasure's sake, but very much more, comparatively, out
of necessity. We cannot underrate the causes of per-
sonal journeys which the post and telegraph, with the
money facilities they have introduced, have suppressed.
But besides this consideration, in the fourteenth century
the staple and fairs were among the causes impelling
merchants to move about.

The staple was the subject of constant regulations,

1 Text B, pas. v. 1. 232.

MESSENGERS, MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS. 245

complaints, and endless alterations. The fundamental
law concerning it is the well-known statute of 1353,
the mechanism of which the following extracts will
show : " We (/.£., the king and Parliament) have
ordained . . . first, that the_staple of wools, leather,
woolfels.and lead, growing or coming forth within our
said realm and lands, shall be perpetually holden at the
places underwritten, that is to say, for England at
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, York, Lincoln, Norwich, West-
minster, Canterbury, Chichester, Winchester, Exeter,
and Bristow ; for Wales at Kaermerdyn ; and for Ire-
land at Dublin, Waterford, Cork, and Drogheda, and
not elsewhere ; and that all the said wools, as well old
as new, woolfels, leather, and lead, which shall be
carried out of the said realm and lands shall be first
brought to the said staples, and there the said wool and
lead, betwixt merchant and merchant or merchant and
others, shall be lawfully weighed by the standard ; and
that every sack and sarpler of the same wools so weighed
be sealed under the seal of the mayor of the staple."
JAjryJEnglish may bring and sell wool-at- the staple ; but
only foreign merchants are allowed to take it out of
the realm. It is prohibited to stop carriages and goods
going to the staple. It is ordained also " that in every
town where the, staple shall be holden, shall be ordained
certain [streets] and places where the wools and other
merchandises shall be put ; and because that the lords
or guardians of the houses and places, seeing the
necessity of merchants do set percase their houses at
too high ferm, we have ordained that the houses which
be to be leased in such manner, shall be set at a reason-
able ferm," after the estimation of the local authority,

246 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

assisted by four discreet men of the place.1 It need
scarcely be said that the staple was often removed from
one town to another, from England to Calais and from
Calais to England, &c., according to inscrutable whims
and fancies, and with very detrimental results for all
traders.

£he fairs, the very name of which can scarcely fail to
awaken ideas of merry bustle, gay clamour, and joyous
agitation, were subjected too to very stringent regula-
tions, so that the word reminded many people not only
of pleasure but also of fines, confiscations, and perhaps
worse. When the time came for a fair, it was prohibited
to sell anything in the town except at the fair, under
pain of the goods exhibited being seized. All the
ordinary shops were to be closed. Such regulations
were meant not only to insure the largest possible atten-
dance at the fair, but also to secure for the lord of it
the entirety of the tolls he had a right to. An inquest
holden at Winchester, where there was a famous St.
Giles' fair, gives an idea of the manner in which these
commercial festivities were solemnized. The fair be-
longed to the Bishop of Winchester. On the eve of
St. Giles's Day, at early dawn, the officers of the bishop
went about the town proclaiming the conditions of the
fair, which were these : no merchant was to sell or
exhibit for sale any goods in the town, or at a distance
of seven leagues round it, except inside the gates of the

1 Statute 2 of 27 Ed. III. A.D. 13^3. Canterbury was made a staple
town " en 1'onur de Saint Thomas," " Rolls of Parliament," vol. ii.
p. 253, same year. As an example of the changes affecting the
staple system, see the statute 2 Ed. III. chap. 9 (A.D. 1328), by
which all staples were, for a time, abolished.

MESSENGERS, MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS. 247

fair. The same ministers proclaimed the assise of bread,
wine, and ale ; tasted the wine, broke the casks where
they detected " insufficient " wine. They proved all
weights and measures ; they burned the false ones and
fined the owners. All merchants were to reach the fair
not later than a certain time (the feast of the Nativity of
the Virgin Mary) ; if they came later they were not ad-
mitted except with a special licence from the bishop.
The usual allowance is made in case they may have been
kept back by a storm at sea, or by some mischance on
land, " infortunium in terra," which in this time of bad
roads, and of such determined robbers as Sir Robert of
Rideware might not have been infrequent. A court of
" pie powder," that is, " of the dusty feet," J was held in
the fair itself, and all suits arising from transactions
there were determined by this tribunal at once, and
without an appeal. Similar rules were in existence at
the Westminster fair, and at many others.2 The im-

1 " Pedii pulverisati curia. Ea est quae in nundinis constituitur,
ad nundinalium rixas litesque celerrime componendas. . . . Dictum
praecipue de mercatoribus vagabundis, qui nundinas pagatim
insectantes omnes discurrunt provincias, nee sistendi locum
agnoscunt, sed de his etiam qui ex omni parte ad nundinas con-
fluunt" (H. Spelman, " Glossarium archaiologicum," ed. tertia,
Londini, 1687, p. 455).

2 These and other particulars about the way in which fairs were
managed at Westminster and Winchester are to be found in a
petition with an inquest of the year 1302, 30 Ed. I., in the
"Rolls of Parliament," vol. i, p. 150. The Winchester Fair on
St. Giles' hill, "Montem sancti Egidii," was one of the most famous
English fairs. Langland mentions it, together with the Wayhill
fair, Hampshire (still in existence), and gives a graphic account ok
the cheating that went on there, among unscrupulous merchants.
(" Visions," Text C, pas. vii., 1. 211.) Cf. Elton's " Market Righu
and Tolls," 1889 (a blue book).

248 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

portance of these meetings is shown by the constant
recurrence in the "Rolls of Parliament" of petitions con-
cerning them, beseeching the king to grant a fair to a
certain lord or to a certain town, or to suppress a
neighbouring town's fair, for fenr it may hurt our own.
People from the counties and from the continent
flocked to the fairs. The largest and the more widely
known were those of Winchester,1 Abingdon, Bar-
tholomew fair 2 in Smithfield (London), Stourbridge
fair, &c.3 In the time of Elizabeth, Harrison, while
describing England, could not help expressing his pride
in the importance and renown of English fairs, about
which he writes thus : " As there are no great towns
without one weekelie market at the least, so there are
verie few of them that haue not one or two faires or
more within the compasse of the yeare, assigned vnto
them by the prince. And albeit that some of them
are not much better than Lowse faire or the common
Kirkemesses beyond the sea, yet there are diuerse not
inferiour to the greatest marts in Europe, as Sturbridge
faire neere to Cambridge, Bristow faire, Bartholomew
faire at London, Lin mart, Cold faire at Newport pond

1 Sec "Charter of Edward III. [as to] St. Giles' Fair, Winchester,"
ed. G. W. Kitchin, London, 1886.

2 This fair, immortalized by Ben Jonson, disappeared only in 1855.
See H. Morley's "Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair" (2nd cd. 1874).

3 See list in Mr. Elton's Report, Market Rights Commission, 1889,
vol. i. p. 5. There were fairs established especially for herrings and
other fishing produce at Yarmouth, Scarborough, and many other
towns on the sea-coast. The rigours of Lent and the number of
fasting days throughout the year gave pirticular importance to these
articles of consumption. Hence, too, the attention paid to fisheries
and the regulations to prevent the catching of small fish, the
destruction of spawn and bait, &c. Great complaints are made

MESSENGERS, MERCHANTS AND PEDLAKS. 249

for cattell, and diuerse other." l Stourbridge fair be-
longed to the city and corporation of Cambridge, and
took place in September, lasting three weeks. Tents and
wooden booths were erected at that time on the open
fields, so as to form streets ; each trade, as was usual, had
its own street, in the same manner as may be seen now in
the bazaars of the East. Among the principal articles
sold at this fair were: "ironmongery, cloth, wool, leather,
books." This last article became a very important one
when the art of printing spread ; there was in the
North Hundred of Oxford, in the sixteenth century, a
fair in which an extensive sale of books took place, and
this, as Professor Thorold Rogers has justly observed, is
the only way to account for the rapid diffusion of books
and pamphlets at a time when newspapers and adver-
tisements were practically unknown. " I have, more
than once," adds the same authority, " found entries of
purchases for college libraries, with a statement that the
book was bought at St. Giles' fair." 2 No reader of
Boswell needs to be reminded how the father of Dr.
Johnson had a booth for book selling on market days

against the use of the net called " wondyrchoun," which drags
from the bottom of the sea all the bait "that used to be the food of
great fish." Through means of this instrument fishermen catch
" such great plenty of small fish that they do not know what to do
with them, but fatten their pigs with them" (" Rolls of Parlia-
ment," 1376-7, vol. ii. p 369). As to salmon fishing in the
Thames, see ibid., vol. ii. p. 331, A.D. 1376.

1 Harrison's "Description of England," ed. Furnivall, 1877,
part i. book ii. chap, xviii. (first published in 1577).

2 " History of Agriculture and Prices in England," vol. iv.
chap. iv. p. 155. As to Stourbridge fair, ibid. vol. i. chap. vii. p.
141.

250 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE.

at Uttoxeter, in doing which he was merely keeping up,
as we see, a mediasval tradition of long standing. How
young Samuel refused once to accompany his fa-rher to
the market, and how, in after-time, when he became
king of the London literary world, he repaired on a
rainy day to the spot where the booth used to be, and
there did penance, is too well known to be more than
alluded to here. Even at the present day books con-
tinue to be an article of sale at the fuirs in many French
country places, and sheets of printed matter are taken
from thence to cottages, where, under the smoky
light burning in winter by the fireside, people, not
very dissimilar to their forefathers of five hundred years
ago, read of mediaeval heroes and of the worthies of
the world.

To the fairs, along with mummers, jugglers, tumblers,
beggars, and the whole of the catchpenny tribe, the
pedlar was sure to resort, in the approved Autoiycus
fashion. " He haunts," says the clown in " Winter's
Tale," "wakes, fairs, and bear-baiting." There he
might exhibit " ribands of all the colours i' the rainbow ;
points, more than all the lawyers in Bohemia can learn-
edly handle, though they come to him by the gross ;
inkles, caddisses, cambricks, lawns. Why, he sings
them over, as they were gods or goddesses ; you would
think a smock were a she-angel, he so chants to the
sleeve hand, and the work about the square on't." J So
that everybody might remark as does the honest clown
to fair Perdita, " You have of these pedlars that have

> " Winter's Tale," iv. 3. Cf. " The foure Ps," by John Hey-
wood, London, 1545, one of the "Ps" is a pedlar, whose wares
are enumerated in full.

MESSENGERS, MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS. 251

more in them than you'd think, sister." And not un-
satisfied with their lot, careless of robbers, having few
wants, they might plod the miry roads of Plantagenet
England, as they did at the time of Shakespeare, merrily
singing some " Winter's Tale " ditty :

** Jog on, jog on, the foot-path way,

And merrily hent the stile-a ;
A merry heart goes all the day,
Your sad tires in a mile-a."

FOREST LIFE. WOOD-CUTTERS.
(/•raw the MS. 10 £. IV.)

CHAPTER III.

OUTLAWS, WANDERING WORKMEN, AND PEASANTS
OUT OF BOND.

THE mountebanks, the musicians, and their fellows
have arrested us at the street corners and in castle
courtyards ; the pedlars have led us to the fairs
and markets. With the outlaws, the unfortunates put
outside of the law, we must leave the highroad for the
scarcely-tracked pathway, and penetrate into the woods.
England at that time was not the immense meadow
which is ploughed by the railways of the present day ;
there still remained much of that forest of which
Cassar speaks in his Commentaries, and in which the
ancestors of the Plantagenet kings had so jealously
maintained their rights of the chase. The woods
were not so strictly guarded as they are at the present

OUTLA WS AND PEASANTS OUT OF BOND. 253

day ; they offered an extensive asylum to bandits and
to those fleeing from justice. In the popular mind the
idea of the grand rustling forest, and the idea of the
free life which the proscribed led there, were mingled
in one and the same sentiment of sympathy. This is
why, alongside of the Arthurian epic, we find that of
the trees and bushes, that of the brave men who,
dwelling in the underwood, were imagined to have
struggled for the public liberties, those of Hereward,
of Fulk Fitz-Warin, of Robin Hood. Let a man be
pursued, he was immediately on the way to the forest ;
it was easier to get there, he remained nearer to his
relations, and he was quite as safe as if he had crossed
over to the continent.

Robbers, bandits, poachers, and knights might thus
meet as comrades in the depths of the wood. The
forest is the first thought of the proscribed squire in the
ballad of the " Nut .Brown Maid," the masterpiece of
English poetry in the fifteenth century, a musical duet
of love, full of the wild charm of the great forest, with
a well-accented cadence and frequent rhymes which
sound on the ear. On the point of being taken, the
poor squire is fain to choose between a shameful death
and retreat into "the grene wode." His betrothed,
who is nothing less than a baron's daughter, wishes to
follow him ; and then in every couplet, her lover, in
order to try her, represents to her the terrors and
dangers of the fugitive's life ; she may perhaps see him
taken and die a robber's death :

" For an outlawe this is the lawe, that men hyra take and binde
Without pytee, hanged to bee, and wauer with the wynde."

254 ENGLISH WAYFARING UfE.

With this is a thrilling picture of the life in the wood,
of the brambles, snow, hail, rain ; no soft bed, for roof
the leaves alone :

** Yet take good hede, for euer I drede, that ye coude not sustein
The thorney wayes, the depe valeis, the snowe, the frost, the

reyn,
The cold, the hete ; for drye or wete we must lodge on the

playn;
And, vs aboue, noon other roue (roof), but a brake, bussh or

twayne."

No delicate food, but only such as the wood affords :

" For ye must there in your hande bere a bowe redy to drawc,
And as a theef thus must ye lyue, euer in drede and awe."

Still further, and the trial becomes harder ; the young
girl must cut off her lovely hair; life in the forest does
not allow of keeping that ornament. Lastly, to crown
all : I have already in the forest another sweetheart,
whom I love better, and who is more beautiful. But,
as resigned as Griselda, the betrothed replies : I shall go
none the less into the forest ; I will be kind to your
sweetheart, I will obey her, " for in my mynde, of all
mankynde, I love but you alone." Then the lover's joy
breaks out : " I wyl not too the grene wod goo, I am
noo banysshyd man," 1 am not an obscure squire, I am
the son of the Earl of Westmoreland, and the hour of
our wedding is now come/

All the fugitives whom the forest received into its
depths were not romantic knights, followed by women

1 " The Nut Brown Maid," in Skeat's " Specimens of English
Literature," Clarendon Press, 4th edition, 1887, p. 96.

OUTLA WS AND PEASANTS OUT OF BOND. 255

patient as Griselda and brave as Bradamante. To pass
from poetry to reality, they were for the greater part
formidable rovers, the same against whom Edward I.
and Edward III. had passed the rigorous law for sus-
pected persons,1 mentioned above. This class was
composed, first of organized bands of brigands whom
the statute calls Wastours, Roberdesmen, and Draw-
latches, then of occasional thieves, sharpers, and male-
factors of all kinds, and of different outlaws who were
all of them struck with that civil death to which the
lover in the " Nut Brown Maid " made allusion. The
sentence of outlawry was usually the turning-point for
a wandering life, which was then forced to become a life
of brigandage. To be declared an outlaw, a crime or a
misdemeanor must have been committed ; a demand for
justice by the plaintiff of a purely civil character was
not enough ; 2 but to be in a position to merit the
gallows, no very great guilt was necessary, thence the
large number of outlaws. In a criminal lawsuit of the
time of Edward 1.3 the judge in his place explains that
the law is this : if the thief has taken anything which is
worth more than twelve pence, or if he has been con-
demned several times for little thefts, and the total may
be worth twelve pence or more, he ought to be hanged.
" The law wills that he shall be hanged by the neck."
Still, as the judge observes in the case of a woman

1 Statute of Winchester, 13 Edward I. chap, iv., confirmed by
Edward III. See before p. 151.

2 " Item videtur nulla esse utlagaria.si factum, pro quo, inter-
rogatus est, civile sit et non criminale " (Bracton, Rolls Series,
vol. ii. p. 330).

3 "Year Books of Edward I." (Rolls Series), years 30-31, p. 533.

256

ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

who had stolen to the amount of eightpence, the law is
milder than in the days of Henry III., for then a theft
of the value of fourpence would hang a man.1

The man became an outlaw, and the woman a weyve,
that is, abandoned to the mercy of every one and unable
to claim the protection of the law. The author of
" Fleta" expresses with terrible force the condition of
persons so punished ; they have wolves heads which
may be cut off with impunity: "For she is a weyve whom"
no one will own, and it is equivalent to outlawry so far
as penal consequences go. An outlaw and a weyve bear

FOREST LIFE — A SHOOTING CASUALTY.

(From the MS. 10 E. IV.)

wolves heads, which may be cut off by any one with
impunity, for deservedly ought they to perish without
law who would refuse to live according to Jaw."2 The
outlaw lost all his property and all his rights ; all the
contracts to which he was a party fell void ; he was no
longer bound to any one nor anybody bound to him.

1 "Year Books of Edward I." (Rolls Series), years 30-31, pp«
537-538. In the case of this woman, as she had no goods of her
own and her husband was in Paris, she was let off without loss
of chattels, for, "note this," adds the record, "it is better to leave
the wrong-doer unpunished, than to punish the innocent." Mild
judgments of this kind at times modified the harshness of the
law. [L. T. S.] a " Fleta," lib. i. chap, xxvii.

OUTLA WS AND PEASANTS OUT OF BOND. 257

His goods \vere forfeit : " the chattels of an outlaw
shall belong to our lord the king ; " if he had lands the
king kept the usufruct for a year and a day, at the end
of which he restored them to the chief lord (ca^italis
diminus}.1 There were also very hard legal maxims
on this subject ; a man accused of murder and acquitted
suffered confiscation nevertheless, if he had fled, fearing
justice. Listen to the magistrate : " If a man be
acquitted of manslaughter and of assent and help,
the justices shall thereupon ask the jury if the prisoner
took to flight; if they say No, let him go quirs, if Yes,
the king shall have his chattels."2 It may be conceived
that the draconian severity of such regulations was not
calculated to lessen the audacity of those whom they
concerned, and that the excessive rigour of these penal-
ties would often transform the fugitive of a day, who
had feared the clear-sightedness of the judge, into a
brigand by profession and a robber on the highway.

Besides persons of this kind there were all the
vagabonds who, without meriting sentence of outlawry,
had fled the village or the farm to which they were
attached. The villein who, without special licence, left
his master's domain, only entered the common life again

1 "Bracton," vol. ii. pp. 340-342.

* " Year Books of Edward I.," year 30-31, p. 515. Sonjetimes a
man would profit by the absence of an enemy on the continent and
affirm to a magistrate that he was in flight, and cause him to be
declared an outlaw ; thus the priest, John Crochille, complains to
parliament for having been unjustly outlawed during a journey
which he had made to the Court of Rome, in 1347 ("Rolls of Par-
liament," vol. ii. p. 178) ; the priest, Robert of Thresk, is also
declared outlaw during his absence from the kingdom, "by the
malice of his accusers" (ibid., 1347, vol. ii. p. 183).

17

258 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

after putting himself at his mercy, or, which was less
hard, after having passed a year and a day in a free
town without leaving it and without the lord having
thought of interrupting the prescription. In this latter
case he became a free man, and the ties which bound
him to the soil were broken. But if he confined him-
self to wandering from place to place he might be
re-taken any day that he reappeared at his own door.
An example of this may be seen in a curious lawsuit of the
time of Edward I., the abstract of which has come down
to us : — A. presents a writ of imprisonment against B.
Heiham, counsel for B. says : It is not for us to defend
ourselves, A. is our villein, his writ cannot take effect
against us. This is verified, it is found that A. is the
son of a villein of B.> that he ran away, and several years
afterwards returned home " to his nest," where he was
taken as a villein. The judge declares that this seizure
was legal ; that a villein might wander about during
six, seven years or more, but if at the end he were found
" in his own nest and at his hearth," he might be seized
as continuing to be his lord's lawful property ; the fact
of his return put him into the condition he was in
before his departure. On hearing this decision the
delighted counsel appropriately cites the scripture, "He
fell into the pit which he hath digged." l

Escaped peasants brought the most numerous
recruits to the wandering class. In England, a multi-
tude of causes, among which the great Plague of 1349 2

1 " Cecidit in foveam quam fecit." (See "Vulgate," Psalm vii.
1 6 : cecidit should be incidit.) ("Year Books," Edward I., year
21-22, p. 447.)

2 According to Seebohm ("The Black Death and its place in

OUTLA WS AND PEASANTS OUT OF BOND. 259

ranks as the chief, had in the fourteenth century over-
turned the relations of the working classes with the
rich, and the proportions between the value cf wages
and that of the objects necessary to life. In face of a
need of emancipation which arose on all sides, parliament
—the House of Commons as willingly as the king-
passed hard laws which prescribed the maintenance of the
statu quo ante pesfem. Thence came among the peasants
an immense desire to change place and to see other parts.
In their own village, they might observe, nothing was
to be got but the same wages as before the plague ;
but in such another county, they thought or fancied
there is better pay ; besides, why not mingle with the
class of free labourers ? It was numerous and increased
unceasingly, in spite of statutes. All of them did not
succeed in concealing their past ; and when the danger
of being " put into stocks " and sent back to their
masters became great, they fled again, changed their
county and became roamers. Others, discontented with
or without cause, only quitted their hamlet to become

English History," two articles in the Fortnightly Review in 1865)
more than half of the population died during the year 1348-49.
Knyghton, a contemporary, gives a striking picture of the plague
at Leicester. " There were scarcely any who took heed of riches
or cared for anything . . . And sheep and oxen wandered through
the fields and among the crops ; there was no one to go after and
collect them ; but there perished an untold number in out of the
way ditches and under hedges." In the autumn labour was out of
all price, and part of the crops were left on the ground (Twysden's
"Decem Scriptores," col. 2599). "Through this pestilence," say
the Commons in Parliament, " cities, boroughs, and other towns
and hamlets throughout the land have decayed, and from day to
day are decaying, and several are entirely depopulated" (25 E. III.,
A.D. 1350-1, "Rolls of Parliament," vol. ii. p. 227).

260 ENGLISH WAYfARING LIFE.

immediately vagabonds of the most dangerous kind,
without house or home. Thus in the precincts of
Westminster, the chapter house of the Abbey where
the Commons sat resounded with ever new complaints
against the increasing want of discipline among the
peasantry. The Commons, who, generally speaking,
represented the proprietors of the soil in the country,
and a bourgeoisie with somewhat aristocratic tendencies
in the towns, rose with force against the wishes for
freedom among a clacs of workers whom they in no way
represented. They wanted the re-establishment of all
the old laws and customs, and the energetic repression
of new disorders. But the current was too strong, and
it swept by the laws ; they were constantly renewed,
but uselessly.

In 1350, immediately after the plague, a first ordin-
ance is directed against the "malice of servants," who
already had great independence and wished to have
still greater. They wanted more wages than formerly,
and also other terms of engagement ; they would not
work " without taking hire that was too outrageous." x
Formerly they hired themselves out for a year, now
they desired to remain their own masters, and to hire
themselves by the day; the statute forbids them to

1 "Rolls of Parliament," vol. ii. p. 233. Compare the French
ordinances; that of John, of this same year (" Recueil d'Isambert,"
iv. p. 576), orders the idle people of Paris to work or to go away,
which was less radical and still less useful than the English
ordinances. Another order of John (Nov., 1354) was directed
against the workmen who go from town to town, seeking great
wages in other places where the ordinances are not strictly kept
(ibid. p. 700). They are menaced with imprisonment, the pillorr,
and branding by the hot iron.

OUTLAWS AMD PEASANTS OUT Of BOND. 261

work under these conditions. Four years later there
are new complaints; l corn is very low and the labourers
refuse to receive it in lieu of payment ; they persist
also in desiring day hire ; all these doings are con-
demned anew. The quarrel continues and grows
embittered. In the thirty-fourth year of his reign
Edward III. threatens to have the guilty branded on
the forehead with an F, as a sign of " fauxine " (false-
hood).2 In 1372 the Parliament declares that "labourers
and servants flee from one county to another, some go
to the great towns and become artificers, some into
strange districts to work, on account of the excessive
wages, none remaining for certain in any place, whereby
the statute cannot be put in execution against them." 3

The Commons of the Good Parliament of 1376
obtained the confirmation of all the previous statutes.
Prohibitions were renewed against going out of a
man's "own district" (fays propre). The peasant must
stop there and serve whoever wants him, not merely if
he were serf or bondman but even if he belonged to
the class of " labourers and artificers and other servants."
But the economic changes that had taken place had
rendered possible what was not so formerly ; labourers
were wanted, and it was not rare to find landowners
who gave occupation to the workmen in spite of the laws,
even by the day and at other wages than those of the
tariff The parliamentary petitions declare that " they
are so warmly received in strange places suddenly into
service, that this reception gives example and comfort to

1 "Rolls of Parliament," vol. ii. p. 261, parliament of 135-f-
3 Statute 34 Ed. III. chap. 10, A.D. 1360-1.
3 "Rolls of Parliament," ii. p. 312.

262 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

all servants as soon as they are displeased with anything
to run from master to master into strange places, as is
aforesaid." And this would not go on, justly observe
the Commons, if when they offered their services in this
fashion they were " taken and put in the stocks."
That was true ; but the farmers who were wanting good
limbs, and whose crops were waiting on the ground,
were too happy to meet with " servants and labourers,"
whoever they might be ; and instead of taking them
to the nearest gaol, they paid and gave them work.
The labourers were not ignorant of this, and their
traditional masters were forced to reckon according to
circumstances and to show themselves less severe. For
on some unreasonable demand or some over-strong
reprimand, instead of submitting as formerly, or even
protesting, the workman said nothing but went away :
" as soon as their masters challenge them with bad
service or offer to pay them for their service according
to the form of the said statutes, they flee and run away
suddenly out of their service and out of their own
district, from county to county, from hundred to hun-
dred, from town to town, in strange places unknown to
their said masters." l

What was much worse, and would inevitably happen,
was that many among them not being able or not will-
ing to work took up begging or robbing by profession.
These " wandering labourers become mere beggars in
order to lead an idle life, and betake themselves out of
their district commonly to the cities, boroughs, and
other good towns to beg, and they are able-bodied and
might well ease the community if they would serve"
1 " Rolls of Parliament," ii. p. 340, A.D. 1376.

2 p

OUTLA WS AND PEASANTS OUT OF BOND. 265

So much for the beggars ; l now for the robbers : "And
the greater part of the said wandering servants com-
monly become strong robbers, and their robberies and
felonies increase from one day to another on all sides."
Energetic measures must be taken ; let it be prohibited to
give alms to this sort of person, and " let their bodies
be put in the stocks or taken to the next gaol," to be
sent afterwards to their own neighbourhood. Edward
III. in 1 349 2 had already condemned to prison those
persons who, under pretext of charity, came to the aid
of beggars ; these vagabonds went through the country
" giving themselves to idleness and vice, and sometimes
to theft and other abominations." The same com-
plaints recur in the time of Richard II. Hardly is he
on the throne than they are repeated from year to year ;
we find them in 1377, 1378, 1379. 3

Statutes multiplied in vain ; the king was obliged to
recognize in his ordinance of 1383 that the " feitors
(idlers) and vagrants " overran the country " more
abundantly than they were formerly accustomed." 4 In
1388 he renewed all the orders of his predecessors and
reminded the mayors, bailiffs, stewards, and constables

1 Langland shows, in the same way, the shameless beggar who
goes, bag on shoulder asking from door to door, who may very well
if he pleases gain his bread and beer by work ; he knows a trade
but he prefers not to exercise it.

" And can som manere craft in cas he wolde hit vse,

Thorgh whiche crafte he couthe come to bred and to ale."
("Piers Plowman," Text C, pass. x. 1. 155 ; see also ibid., pass. i.

1. 40.)

a Statute 23 Ed. III. cap. 7.
3 "Rolls of Parliament," vol. iii. pp. 17, 46, 65.
* Statute 7 Rich. II. cap. 5.

,266 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

of their duties, especially to repair their stocks and to
keep them always ready for putting in persons of the
wandering class.1

These were not vain threats, and they did not deal
with light penalties. The prisons of those days had very
little resemblance to those light and well-washed build-
ings which are now to be seen in many towns of Eng-
land ; for instance, at York, where the average of the
condemned certainly find more cleanliness and comfort
than they ever enjoyed. They were often fetid dungeons,
where the damp of the walls and the stationary position
compelled by the irons corrupted the blood and engen-
dered hideous maladies.

Many a wandering workman accustomed to an active
life and the open air came thus, thanks to the incessant
ordinances of king and Parliament, to repent at leisure
in the dark for his boldness, and during days and nights
all alike to regret his liberty, his family, and his " nest."
The effect of such a treatment on the physical con-
stitution of the victims may be guessed ; the reports of
justice besides show it very clearly ; we read, for
example, in Rolls of the time of Henry III. as
follows :

" Assizes held at Ludinglond. The jury present
that William le Sauvage took two men, aliens, and
one woman, and imprisoned them at Thorlestan, and
detained them in prison until one of them died in
prison, and the other lost one foot, and the woman lost
either foot by putrefaction. Afterwards he took them
to the Court of the lord the king at Ludinglond to try
them by the same Court. And when the Court saw
1 Statute 12 Rich. II. cap. 3

OUTLA WS AND PEASANTS OUT OF BOND. 267

them, it was loth to try them, because they were not
attached for any robbery or misdeed for which they
could suffer judgment. And so they were permitted
to depart." l

How in such a condition the poor creatures could
" depart," and what became of them the Assize Rolls
do not say. What is certain is that no sort of indem-
nity was given them to help them to get out of trouble
in their horrible condition. The justice of our fathers
did not stand upon trifles.

IN THE STOCKS.

(from the MS. 10 E. IV.)

The stocks, which according to the laws of Richard
II. were always to be kept in good condition ready for
use, consisted of two beams one placed on the other.
At the right distances round holes were pierced at the
line of junction ; the upper beam was raised, and the
legs of the prisoners were passed .through the holes ;
sometimes there was a third beam in the openings of
which the wrists of the poor wretches were also caught ;
the body sometimes rested on a stool, sometimes on the

1 " Gleanings from the Public Records," by Mr. H. Hewlett, in
the "Antiquary," March, 1882 (vol. v. p. 99). Concerning ill-
treatment inflicted upon prisoners, see a petition of the Commons,
I Ed. III., A.D. 1326-7, "Rolls of Parliament," vol. ii. pp. 9, 12.

268 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE.

ground. In certain places the stocks were pretty high ;
they only placed the sufferer's legs in it and he remained
thus, his body stretched on the ground in the damp, his
head lower than his feet ; but this refinement of cruelty
was not habitual.1

Stocks are still to be seen in many places in England ;

THE STOCKS AT SHALFOKD, NEAR GUILDFOKD.

(Present state.)

for instance, in the picturesque village of Abinger, where
they stand on the green, near the churchyard. Others
in a very good state of preservation are in existence at
Shalford, near Guildford. It is not very long since
stocks ceased to be used in England ; vagabonds and

1 See, besides the above engravings, representations of these
instruments of punishment in Foxe, " Actes and Monuments,"
London, 1563, fol. DD. 390, 1272, &c.

OUTLA WS AND PEASANTS OUT OF BOND. 269

drunkards were seen in them within the memory of men
who are not old at the present day. According to their
remembrance people when released felt so benumbed
that they were scarcely able to stand, and experienced
great difficulty in getting away.

But the threat of prisons so unhealthy and of stocks
so unpleasant did not deter or hold back the workers,
weary of being attached to the soil. Every pretext for
leaving their neighbourhood was welcome to them ;
they even dared employ that of a journey for devotion.
They set out, staff in hand, " under colour of going far
on a pilgrimage," and never returned. But a new
restraint was to be employed to tame this turbulent
spirit, the obligation that everyone furnish himself with
true letters of travel or passports, in order to move from
one county to another. No one might leave his village
if he did not bring a " letter patent containing the cause
of his going and the date of his return, if he were to
return." In other wordsj even when there was the right
to go and settle definitively elsewhere, it was necessary
to have a permit for moving in order to go away.
These letters would be sealed by a "good man" (prod
bomme\ assigned in each hundred, city, or borough, by
the justices of the peace, and special seals were to be
expressly made, said the statute, bearing in the middle
the king's arms, the name of the county around, and
that of the hundred, city, or borough across. The case
even of fabricating false letters was foreseen, which
shows what a burning wish to quit their neighbour-
hoods was felt to be in persons of this class. Every
individual surprised without regular papers was put into
prison provisionally.

270

ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

The beggars were treated as " servants " who had no
" testimonial letters." l What was insisted on was to
retain as many people as possible permanent, and thus
to hinder the disquieting peregrinations of these rovers.
As to the beggars incapable of working, they must
also cease frequenting the highroads ; they shall end
their life in the city where they may be found at the
time of the proclamation, or at most in some town near
to that in which they were born ; they will be taken

A CRIPPLE AND OTHER BEGGARS.
(From Die MS. 10 E. IV.}

there within forty days, and will remain there " for the
rest of their lives."

What is stranger, and what in default of other proofs
would show to which class students then belonged, is
that they are comprised in the same category ; they
were accustomed on returning to their neighbourhood,
or on making pilgrimages or going to the university, to
hold out the hand to passers-by and to knock at the
doors as they went along. They were likened to the

1 12 Rich. II. cap. 7.

OUTLA WS AND PEASANTS OUT OF BOND. 271

beggars, and were put into irons if they had not the
regulation letter ; this document was to be given to
them by the Chancellor, that is the only difference.
" And that the scholars of the universities that go so
begging have letters testimonial of their Chancellor
upon the same pain." x

Again, in the following year (1389), a new statute
reproves the custom of " artificers, labourers, servants,"
&c., who keep for their own use harriers and other
dogs, and on " feast days, when good Christians are at
church hearing Divine service," get into the parks and
warrens of the lords, and destroy all the game. Much
more, they profit by these occasions when they meet to-
gether armed, without fear of being disturbed, to " hold
their assemblies, conversations, and conspiracies, to rise
against and disobey their allegiance." Certainly the
close thickets of the seignorial forests must have
sheltered meetings of this kind more than once during
church service time before the great revolt of 1381 ;
in such retreats no doubt were brought forth some of
the stirring and active ideas which were transported
from place to place, by the wanderers, and which made
the people of different counties understand the common
ties which united them together.

In such a revolt as this, the part taken by .the
wandering class is considerable, and there is every
reason why the historian should not neglect it. If we
do not take count of this element, it is impossible to
explain the importance and the extent of a movement
which nearly had consequences parallel to those of the
French Revolution. " I had lost my heritage and the
1 12 Rich. II. cap. 7. Cf. above, p. 232.

272 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

kingdom of England," said Richard II. on the evening
of the day when his presence of mind saved him ; and
he was right. Why was the Jacquerie in France a
common and powerless rising compared to the English
revolt ? The reasons are manifold, but one of the chief
was the absence of a class of wayfarers as strong and
numerous as that of England. This class served to
unite all the people : by its means those of the South
told their ideas to those of the North, what each suffered
and desired ; the sufferings and wishes were not iden-
tical, but it sufficed to understand that all had reforms
to demand. Thus, when it was known that the revolt
had begun, the people rose on all sides, and it was clear
then that each desired a different good and that the
associated bands pursued different objects ; but the
basis of the contention being the same, and all wishing
for more independence, they marched in concert without
being otherwise acquainted than by the intermediary
of the wayfarers. The kings of England, indeed, had
perceived the danger, and on different occasions they
had promulgated statutes bearing especially on the talk
indulged in by the wanderers on their travels about the
nobles, prelates, judges, and all the depositaries of public
strength. Edward I. had said in one of his laws :

" Forasmuch as there have been oftentimes found in
the country devisors of tales, whereby discord, or occasion
of discord, hath many times arisen between the king and
his people, or great men of this realm ; for the damage
that hath and may thereof ensue, it is commanded, that
from henceforth none be so hardy to tell or publish any
false news or tales, whereby discord, or occasion of dis-
cord, or slander may grow between the king and his

OUTLA WS AND PEASANTS OUT OF BOND. 273

people, or the great men of the realm ; and he that
doth so, shall be taken and kept in prison, until he hath
brought him into the court who was the first author
of the tale." '

The danger of such speeches, which touched the acts
and even the thoughts of the great men of the kingdom,
became menacing anew under Richard II., and in the
first years of his reign the following statute was pro-
mulgated, reinforcing that of 1275 :

<c Item, Of devisors of false news and reporters ot
horrible and false lyes, concerning prelates, dukes, earls,
barons, and other nobles and great men of the realm,
and also concerning the chancellor, treasurer, clerk of
the privy seal, steward of the king's house, justices of
the one bench or of the other, and of other great
officers of the realm about things which by the snid
prelates, lords, nobles, and officers aforesaid were never
spoken, done, nor thought •, . . . whereby debates and
discords might arise betwixt the said lords or between
the Lords and the Commons, which God forbid, and
whereof great peril and mischief might come to all the
realm, and quick subversion and destruction of the
said realm, if due remedy be not provided : it is straitly
defended upon grievous pain, for to eschew the said
damages and perils, that from henceforth none be so
hardy to devise, speak, or to tell any false news, lyes,
or other such false things, of prelates, lords, and of
other aforesaid, whereof discord or any slander might
rise within the same realm ; and he that doth the same
shall incur and have the pain another time ordained

1 Statute 3 Ed. I. stat. I. cap. 34, A.D. 1275.

18

274 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE.

thereof by the statute of Westminster the fir^t." l But
this statute was passed in vain ; two years later broke
out the revolt of the peasants.

In mediaeval France during and after the wars the
roads belonged solely to pillaging brigands who were
born workmen or knights. Soldiers who represented
the dregs of the highest and the lowest classes were intent
upon robbing the rest of society ; the road resounded
with the noise of arms, the peasant hid himself; troops
equipped for the defence of the land attacked everything
without scruple that was less strong than themselves and
worth robbing ; such people " turn French," as Froissart
puts it, and turn English according to the interest of the
moment. The vagrants threatened by the English law
were of another kind, and whatever the number of
brigands among them these were not in the majority •
the remainder of the peasants sympathized with instead
of fearing them. Thus the English revolt was not a
desperate enterprise ; it was conducted with extraordi-
nary coolness and good sense. The insurgents showed
a calm feeling of their strength which strikes us, and
which struck much more the knights in London ; they
were men who marched with their eyes open, who,
if they destroyed much, wished also to reform. It
was possible to treat and to come to an understanding
with them ; in truth, the word and pledge given them
will be broken, and the revolt will be smothered in
blood ; but whatever the Lords and Commons sitting
at Westminster may say of it, the new bonds will not
have the tenacity of the old ones, and a really great step
towards freedom will have been made. In France, the
1 Statute z Rich. II. cap. 5.

OUTLAWS AND PEASANTS OUT OF BOND. 275

beast of burden, ill-nourished, ill-treated, fretted by the
harness, went along shaking his head with a wan eye
and a languishing step ; his furious kicks onlv caused
new weights to be added to the load which crushed
him, that was all ; centuries were to pass before he
would obtain anything else.

BLIND BEGGAR AND HIS DOG.

(From the A/S. 10 E.

PART III.

RELIGIOUS WAYFARERS

A FRIAR ON A JOURNEY (CHAUCER'S " FRERE ").
(From the Lllesmere MS.)

CHAPTER I.

WANDERING PREACHERS AND FRIARS.

WHILE the sentiment of wants and of c >mmon
desires spread everywhere, by means of that
crowd of workpeople whom we find in England
ceaselessly moving in spite of the statutes, the guiding
ideas were spread and made common by another kind
of roamer, the preachers. Sprung also from the people,
they had studied ; as we have seen it was not necessary
to be rich in order to go through the course at Oxford ;
the villeins even sent their children there, and the Com-
mons, not very liberal in spirit as we know, protested
against this emancipation of another kind, this advance-
ment by means of learning, " avancement par clergie."
They protested in vain, and the king replied to their
request, that he would think of it, " le roi s'avisera "

28o ENGLISH WA YFAR1NG LIFE.

(1391). This was then, and is to-day, the form of royal
refusal.1 These clerks knew what was the condition of
the people ; they knew the miseries of the poor, which
were those of their father and mother and of themselves,
and the intellectual culture they had received enabled
them to transform into precise conceptions the vague
aspirations of the labourers of the soil. The first are
not less necessary than the second to every important
social movement ; both may be indispensable to the
formation of the tool, but it is these precise conceptions
which form the blade.

The roaming preachers knew how to sharpen it, and
they were numerous. Those whom Wyclif sent to
popularize his doctrines, his " simple priests" did just
what others had done before them ; they imitated their
forerunners, and no more limited themselves to expound-
ing the rather undemocratic theories of their master
than the mendicant friars, friends of revolution, kept
to the precepts of the gospel. Their sympathies were
with the people, and they showed it in their discourses.
Wyclif contributed to increase the body of these wan-
derers; his people were not greatly to be distinguished
from the others; and if it was easy to find clerks who
would fulfil the duties he desired, it was because many
in the kingdom were already prepared for such a
mission, and only waited their opportunity.

All, in fact, did the same kind of work ; they scoured
the country, drawing together the poor and attracting
them by harangues filled with what unfortunates always
like to hear. This was clearly visible when revolt broke
out, and the ordinances then passed show clearly how

1 " Rolls of Parliament," vol. iii. p. 294.

WANDERING PREACHERS AND FRIARS. 281

much the influence of the wandering preachers was
feared. Their habits and speech even are there re-
ported ; these malcontents have an austere aspect, they
go " from county to county, and from town to town
in certain habits under dissimulation of great holiness."
Naturally they dispense with the ecclesiastical papers
with which the regular preachers ought to be furnished ;
they are " without the licence of our Holy Father the
Pope, or of the Ordinaries of the places, or other suffi-
cient authority." They preach not only in churches ;
they seek public places, markets, street corners where
the crowd assembles " not only in churches and church-
yards, but also in markets, fairs, and other open places
where a great congregation of people is." And it is
not of theology that they are willing to speak, it is
truly the social question which at bottom preoccupies
them ; on their lips the religious sermon becomes a
political harangue ; " which persons," continues the
ordinance, " do also preach divers matters of slander,
to engender discord and dissension betwixt divers
estates of the said realm as well spiritual as temporal,
in exciting of the people, to the great peril of all the
realm." They are cited to appear before the eccle-
siastic authority, the ordinaries, but they take care not
to make submission, and refuse to " obey to their
summons and commandments." Let the sheriffs and
other king's officers henceforth watch with care these
wandering preachers and send to prison those who are
not in due order.1

We may gain an idea of their speeches by recalling

1 Statute 5 Rich. II., 2, cap 5.

282 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE.

the celebrated harangue of the priest John Ball ; * the
type of these travelling orators. Certainly, in the Latin
phrase of the " Chronicle of England," his thoughts take
too solemn and too correct a form, but all that we
know of the sentiments of the multitude confirms the
substance of it so well that the basis of the discourse
cannot have differed from what the chronicler has trans-
mitted to us. The popular saying quoted before serves
as John Ball's text, and he developes it in this manner :

" At the beginning we were all created equal ; it is
the tyranny of perverse men which has caused slavery
to arise, in spite of God's law ; if God had willed
that there should be slaves He would have said at the
beginning of the world who should be slave and who
should be lord." 2

What rendered him strong was that he found his best
weapons in the Bible ; he appealed from it to the good
feelings of the men of the people, to their virtue, their
reason ; he showed that the Divine Word accorded
with their interest ; they would be "like the good
father of a family who cultivates his field and plucks
up the weeds." The same ideas are attributed to him
by almost all the chroniclers. Froissart describes his
doings in almost the same words as the statute already
quoted, as preaching in the open air when he found a
congregation of people, especially on Sundays, when
the peasants stood in the churchyard after mass. The

1 He has often been considered a Wyclifite ; but while in many
things alike, he did not share all the master's notions, and, on the
other hand, had some proper to himself; thus, according to him,
natural children could not go to heaven.

2 "Chronicon Angliae," 1328-1388, ed. E. Maunde Thompson,
1874 (Rolls Series), p. 321.

3*

W Co
Q ^

* *

- <0

E~»

WANDERING PREACHERS AND FRIARS. 285

words he puts in his mouth are nearly the same as
those attributed to him by the " Chronicon Anglias " :
"This preest," says Froissart, "vsed often tymes on the
sondayes after masse, whanne the people were goynge
out ot the mynster, to go into the cloyster and preche,
and made the people to assemble about hym, and wolde
say thus : A ye good people, the maters gothe nat
well to passe in Englande, nor shall nat do tyll euery
thyng be common, and that there be no villayns nor
gentylmen. . . . What haue we deserued or why shulde
we be kept thus in seruage ? we be all come fro one
father and one mother, Adam and Eve : wherby can
they say or shewe that they be gretter lordes than we
be, sauynge by that they cause vs to wyn and labour,
for that they dispende . . . they dwell in fayre houses,
and we haue the payne and traueyle, rayne and wynde
in the feldes ; and by that that cometh of our labours
they kepe and maynteyne their estates. . . . Lette vs
go to the kyng, he is yonge, and shewe hym what
seruage we be in. ... Thus Johan [Ball] sayd on
sondayes whan the people issued out of the churches
in the vyllages ; . . . and so they wolde murmure one
with another in the feldes and in the wayes as they
want togyder, affermyng howe Johan Ball sayd trouthe."1
So the enthusiastic multitude promised to make this
apostle archbishop and chancellor of that kingdom in
which he dreamed he should see " equal liberty, equal
greatness, equal power " 2 for all ; but he was taken,
drawn, hanged, beheaded, and quartered,2 and his dream
remained a dream.

1 Lord Berners' "Froissart," cap. ccclxxxi. ed. 1812, p. 641.

2 "Chronicon Anglias," 1328-1388, Thompson's edition, 1874,
p. 322.

286 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

Meanwhile, politics aside, there might yet be found
in the fourteenth century some of God's chosen ones
who, alarmed by the crimes of the world and the state
of sin in which men lived, left their cells or the paternal
roof to go round among villages and towns and preach
conversion. There remained some of them, but they
were rare. Contrary to others, these did not speak
of public affairs, but of eternal interests ; they had not
always received sacred orders ; they presented themselves
as volunteers to the celestial army. Such a man in
England was Richard Rolle of Hampole, whose life was
partly that of a hermit, partly of a wandering preacher.
He was neither monk, nor doctor, nor priest ; when
young, he had abandoned his father's house to go and
lead a contemplative life in the solitude of the country.
There he meditated, prayed, and mortified himself;
crowds came to his cell to listen to his exhortations;
he had ecstatic trances ; his friends took off his ragged
cloak, mended it, and put it back on his shoulders
without his perceiving it. To add to his troubles the
devil tempted him " under the form," says the anchorite
himself, " of a very beautiful young woman whom he
had seen before, who had had a very great love for
him." With great difficulty he escaped the temptation.
He afterwards left his retreat, and during a long time
he travelled over the north of England, " changing
place continually," preaching to lead men to salvation.
Finally he settled at Hampole, where he ended his life
in retreat, writing incessantly, and edifying all the
neighbourhood by his devotion (1349). Scarcely was
he dead when his tomb became an object of pilgrimage,
pious people brought offerings there, miracles were

WANDERING PREACHERS AND FRIARS. 287

accomplished. In the convent of nuns at Hampole.
which drew great honour from the vicinity of his tomb,
there was immediately composed an " Office of St.
Richard, the hermit," destined to be sung when he
should be canonized. But the Office of the old hermit
and wandering preacher has never been sung down to
the present day.1

The wandering preachers who were met with in the
villages were not always Lollards sent by Wyclif, nor
inspired men who, like Rolle of Hampole, held their
mission from God ; they were often members of an
immense and powerful caste sub-divided into several
orders, that of the mendicant friars. The two principal
orders were the Dominicans, preachers or black friars,
and the Franciscans, friars minor or grey friars, both
established in England in the thirteenth century,2 " men
of this [world] that most wide walken," said Langland.3
We must not allow the amusing satires of Chaucer to
blind our eyes to the initial merit of these orders, nor
to show us in the mendicant orders nothing, from the
beginning, but impudent and idle vagabonds, at once
impious, superstitious, and rapacious. The following
portrait is well-known :

*' A Frere ther was, a wantoun and a merye

1 " English Prose Treatises of Richard Rolle of Hampole,'
edited by Rev. George Perry, 1866 (Early English Text Society)
Preface, pp. ix, xv-xix. See before, p. 137.

2 The Dominicans in 1221 ; the Franciscans in 1224. See Dr
Jessopp, "The Coming of the Friars," London, 1888, pp. 32-34.

3 " Vision," Text C, pas. xi. 1. 14.

ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

Ful wel bilovcd, and famulier was he
With frankeleyns overal in his cuntre,
And eek with worthi wommen of the toun :
*****

Ful sweetly hcrde he confessioun,
And plesaunt was his absolucioun.
lie was an esy man to yeve penance,
Ther as he wiste to han a good pitance ;
For unto a povre ordre for to gcve
Is signe that a man is wel i-shrcve.
* * * * *

He knew wel the tavernes in every toun,
And every ostiller or gay tapstere."1

6Ktouamtitattu| no licctrcni

yftir ^icolu nil i clnUp^ti cvio ftt
fjmrtic-ulu riMiiftaox Tnmit u?r w
^

j«0 fuo ntuto!cot£iu \\
nun ittuitmm ctv
ci tmumtoti

A WORLULY ECCLESIASTIC.

(From the MS. 10 E. IV.}

In Chaucer's days, there were many such friars, but.
there were also exceptions. I do not speak merely of'
those, rather rare in the fourteenth century, who,

1 Prologue to " Canterbury Tales," ed. Morris, vol. ii. p. 7, 8.

WANDERING PREACHERS AND FRIARS. 289

living among the poor, continued the traditions of their
order, poor as they and being besides experienced,
devout, and compassionate : Chaucer's friar was not of
those, and was afraid of acquaintance with " a lazer
or a beggere " and of dealing " with such poraile."
But even among those who lived outside of the rule,
there were men whose thoughts were less base, how-
ever dangerous they might be. I speak of the friars
who may be confounded with the simple priests of their
enemy Wyclif, and who were certainly comprised along
with them in the statute of 1382. It is certain that
many friars, in their roaming career, like the priest
John Ball preached the new doctrines of emancipation
in the open spaces and markets. Hence alone among
all the clergy at the moment of revolt they still pre-
served a certain popularity ; and the monastic chroniclers,
their natural enemies, in their narrations, complacently
parade this new grievance against the detested orders.1
Langland, who cursed the revolt, cursed also the friars
for having a part of responsibility in it. Envy has
spoken into their ears and said : study logic, law, and
the hollow dreams of philosophers, and go from village
to village proving that all property ought to be in
common,

"and prouen hit by Seneca
That alle thyng vnder heuene ouhte to beo in comune." '

1 Jack Straw, according to the confession which his contemporary
the monk Thomas Walsingham relates of him, would have liked
to keep no other ecclesiastics on the earth but the mendicant
friars; "Soli mendicantes vixissent super terram qui suffecissent
pro sacris celebrandis aut conferendis universas terrae" ("Historia
Anglicana," vol. ii. p. 10, Rolls Series, 1867-69).

a " Piers Plowman," Skeat's edition, Text C, pass, xxiii. 1. 274.

296 ENGLISH WA YFAR1NG LIFE.

Always armed with good sense, Langland plainly
declares that the author of these subversive theories lies ;
the Bible says, " Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's
goods." Formerly the life of the friars was exemplary,
Charity dwelt among them ; this was in the days of St.
Francis.1

And indeed, what a holy mission their founder had
given them ! Coarsely dressed, barefoot, and ill-fed,
they were to go into the towns and visit the poorest and
more closely populated suburbs, to seek out the lost.

" And all the brothers," said Francis, in his rule,
" are to be clad in mean habits, and may blessedly mend
them with sacks and other pieces ; whom I admonish
and exhort, that they do not despise or censure such
men as they see clad in curious and gay garments and
using delicate meats and drinks, but rather let every
one judge and despise himself." They must never
quarrel, but be " meek, peacable, modest, mild and
humble. . . . And they are not to ride unless some
manifest necessity or infirmity oblige them. Whatso-
ever house they go into, they shall first say, ' Peace be
unto this house,' and, according to the Gospel, it shall
be lawful for them to eat of all meats that are set before
them." They must beg in order to get the necessaries
of life, but they must receive them in kind, never in
money. " The brothers shall not make anything their
own, neither house nor place, nor any other thing; and
they shall go confidently to beg alms like pilgrims and
strangers in this world, serving our Lord in poverty
and humility." 2

1 "Piers Plowman," Skeat's edition, Text C, pass. xvii. 1. 352.

3 " The Rule and Life of the Friars Minors," in Dugdale'j
" Monasticon Anglicanum," London, 1817, vol. vi. p. 1504.

WANDERING PREACHERS AND FRIARS. 291

All the miseries, all the hideous uglinesses of humanity,
were to appeal to their sympathy ; and the lower classes
in return would love and venerate them like saints.
Eccleston relates that a friar minor once, without per-
mission, put on his sandals to go to matins. He
dreamt afterwards that he was arrested by robbers, who
cried out, " Kill him ! Kill him ! " " But I am a friar
minor," said he, sure of being respected. " Thou liest,
for thou art not barefoot ! " l The first of their duties
was to remain poor, in order to be able, having nothing
to lose, fearlessly to use firm language to the rich and
powerful of the world. They were reminded of this
by the wise and courageous Robert Grossetete, Bishop
of Lincoln, on his death-bed, in 1253, and he cited to
them appropriately this line of Juvenal : " Cantabit
vacuus coram latrone viator." The friars were to be
like the traveller without money, whose peace of mind
is never disturbed by meeting robbers.2

St. Francis would not have wished his friars to be
lettered men ; he has been unjustly reproached with it.
With wisdom he forbade those subtle theological and
metaphysical researches which uselessly absorbed the
life of the great clerics. There were enough of others
who would give themselves up continually to this.
What he desired was to send through the world a race

1 Thomas of Eccleston, author of the "Liber de adventu
minorum in Angliam " (published by Brewer in his " Monumenta
Franciscana" ), saw the most flourishing period of the lesser
orders. His book is of extreme na'ivete and abounds in narratives
of visions and of marvellous deeds. The vision here in question
will be found at page 28 of the "Monumenta," 1858 (Rolls Series).

2 Matthew Paris, " Historia Anglorum," London, 1866, vol. iii.
r. 14.5 (Rolls Series).

29* EfrGLtSH WAYFARING LtF&,

of missionaries who would devote themselves materially
and physically to the welfare, body and soul, of all the
weary. Thus understood, the disinterestedness was
much more absolute, the servitude more voluntary, and
the effect on the masses greater. The subtlety of
teachers was not necessary for them ; and the striking
example of the poverty of the consoler, heedless of
his own pain, was the best of consolations. Above all,
the pride of the apostle must be killed, the greatness of
his merit must be apparent to God only. When the
heart is purified to this point it has a sufficient com-
prehension of life and of its highest motives to be
naturally eloquent ; the study of the " Summae," in
repute, is useless. But too many dangers surrounded
this sublime foundation, and the first was knowledge
itself. " The Emperor Charles," once said the Saint,
" Roland and Oliver, and all the paladins and all strong
men, have pursued the infidel in battle till death, and
with great trouble and labour have won their memorable
victories. The holy martyrs died struggling for the
with of Christ. But in our days there are persons who
seek glory and honour among men by the narration
simply of the exploits of heroes. In like manner there
are some among you who take more pleasure in writing
and preaching on the merits of the saints than in
imitating their works." This reply St. Francis made to
a novice who wished to have a psalter. He added in a
rather sarcastic vein, " When you have a psalter you will
wish to have a breviary, and when you have a breviary
you will sit in a chair like a great prelate, and will sa)
to your brother, ' Brother, fetch me my breviary ! ' " l

1 r* Speculum Vitas B. Francisci et sociorum ejus"; opera fratris
Guil. Spoelberch, Antwerp, 1620, part i. cap. 4.

WANDERING PREACHERS AND FRIARS. 293

The popularity of the friars was immense, and it was
soon found that they had monopolized in England l
everything that concerned religion.2 By a curious con-
tradiction, their poverty had attracted riches to them,
and their self-denial power ; the hovels where they
lodged at first had become sumptuous monasteries with
chapels as large as cathedrals ; the rich had themselves
buried there, in tombs chiselled with the latest refines
ments of the florid Gothic. Their apologists of the
fifteenth century relate with admiration that in their fine
library at London there was a tomb ornamented with
four archangels; 3 that their church, begun in 1306,
was three hundred feet long, ninety-five wide, and sixty-
four feet high, with the columns all of marble as well
as the pavement. Kings and princes had enriched this
building ; some had given the altars, others the stalls ;

O * O *

Edward III., "for the repose of the soul of the most
illustrious Queen Isabella, buried in the choir," repaired
the great middle window, which had been blown down

1 Thirty-two years after the friars had appeared in England,
chey already possessed forty-nine convents (" Monumenta Francis,
cana," ed. Brewer, 1858, p. 10, Rolls Series). In Matthew Paris
will be found a very good description of the action of the friars
minor in England on their arrival here, of the poor, humble, and
useful life that they led at first (" Historia Anglorum," ed.
Madden, 1866, vol. ii. p. 109).

2 See the "Defensionem curatorum contra eos qui privilegiatos
se dicunt " (410, undated), a speech made in 1357, by Richard
Fitz-Ralph, Archbishop of Armagh, in which are denounced the
succescive encroachments of the mendicant friars in detriment of
curates and other ecclesiastics.

3 " Monaraenta Franciscana," ut supra, pp. 514, &c. This
library had been founded by the celebrated Richard Wh'ttington,
Mayor of London in 1397, 1406, and 1419.

294 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

by the wind. There was in the same church the heart
of the Queen Eleanor, mother of Edward I. Relating
that it was placed there, the monk Rishanger, a con-
temporary, makes the following cruel remark, which
Walsingham does not fail to reproduce in his " Historia
Anglicana." * " Her body was buried in the monas-
tery of AmbresSury, but her heart in London, in the
church of the Minorites, who, like all friars of other
orders, claim for themselves something of the bodies of
any powerful persons dying ; after the manner of the
dogs assembling at the dead bodies, where each one
greedily awaits his portion to devour." Gilbert de
Clare, Earl of Gloucester, had given for the same
building twenty trunks of trees from his forest of
Tunbridge. Rich merchants, the mayor, the aldermen,
followed the example. The names of the donors were
inscribed on the windows, and Langland was indignant,
and recalled the gospel precept, " Let not thy left hand
know \\hat thy right hand doeth." We learn thus that
the third window on the west had been given by Walter
Mordon, merchant of salted cod, Stokefyschmonger^ and
Mayor of London. The second window on the south
is due to John of Charlton, knight, and his wife, their
arms figure in it ; the fourth to Walter de Gorst, fell-
monger of London ; the fifth to the Earl of Lancaster ;
the fourth on the west arises from " the product of
various collections, and thus it does not bear a name."
One of the donors is styled the special father and friend
of the friar minors. It must have been a triumph for
the Wyclifites to reproach the friars with all these mun-
dane splendours ; Wyclif returns to it again and again :
1 Year 1291-92.

PSALM SINGING. THE INTERIOR OF A FRIAR'S CHURCH.

(From the MS. Domit. A. xvii., in the British Museum) IP-

WANDERING PREACHERS AND FRIARS. 297

" Freris bylden mony grete chirchis and costily waste
housis, and cloystris as hit were castels, and that with-
oute nede. . . . Grete housis make not men holy, and
onely by holynesse is God wel served." 1

Interminable lists, too, of cardinals, bishops, and
kings who have belonged to the order are drawn up,
not forgetting even " certain persons of importance in
the world," which is quite a mundane vanity. Finally,
they point out the dead who at the last moment assumed
the habit of the friars : " Brother Sir' Roger Bourne,
knight, buried at Norwich in the friar's habit, I334."2

The pride and riches of the Dominicans are quite as
great. The author of " Pierce the Ploughman's Crede,"
towards the end of the fourteenth century, describes
minutely, but without exaggeration, one of their
convents, the splendid columns to be seen there, the
sculptures, paintings, and gildings that adorn the
chapel, the magnificent coloured windows ornamented
with the arms of the nobles or the mark of the
merchants who have given them, the imposing tombs
of knights and ladies stretched out in brilliant dress
heightened with gold.3

1 Wyclif's " Select English Works," ed. Thos. Arnold, 1869, vol.
iii. p. 380.

2 " Monumenta Franciscana," p. 541. Thence the reproaches
of the satirists :

" Of these frer mynours me thenkes moch wonder,

That waxen are thus hauteyn, that som tyme weren under."
Thomas Wright's "Political Poems and Songs," 1859, vol. i. p.
268 (Rolls Series).

3 "Pierce the Ploughman's Crede," edited by Rev. W. W.
Skeat, 1867, Early English Text Society, pp. 7-9. The author of
this poem is unknown. Professor Skeat, with every probability,

298 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

We see that the proportions are reversed ; as great as
the modesty required by the holy founder now was the
pride. The faults with which Chaucer reproaches them
creep in among them ; they become interested, greedy,
rapacious ; mendicity is their trade, which some practice
well, others better ; miracles of self-denial are demanded
of them, and behold, on the contrary, prodigies of
selfishness. It is no longer religion, it is their order
which must be protected. We have seen that many
meddle with social questions, others preach no longer
on behalf of Christ, but on behalf of the order ; the
transfer is complete. All borrow largely from the
treasure of good works amassed by their first apostles
and spend it madly. The respect of the multitude
lessens, their renown for holiness is weakened, they
cast into the other scale of the balance so many faults
and disorders that it over weighs. And what remains
henceforth ? Superstition replaces holy customs ; they
have learned metaphysics, but it is a gross materialism
which at last masks the superhuman ideal of Francis of
Assisi. Contact with their habit represents a good
action ; if the dress is assumed on the death-bed the
demons will take flight. It is a cuirass without defect.
They have had numberless visions which have revealed
to them all these articles of a new faith : " Thei techen
lordis and namely ladies," says Wyclif, " that if they
dyen in Fraunceys habite, thei schul nevere cum in
helle for vertu therof." *

believes him to have been the same who wrote the " Complaint of
the Ploughman," printed in Wright's " Political Poems," vol. i.
pp. 304-346. [L. T. S.]

" Select English Works," vol. iii. p. 382. A satire of the

WANDERING PREACHERS AND FRIARS. 299

And so it came to pass that, not only the poets like
Chaucer and Langland, not only the reformers like
Wyclif, but the monks also of old-established orders,
waged open war against the friars. To which they were
moved partly, it is true, by jealousy, when they saw
these newly created brotherhoods rising in importance,
in number and in wealth, but partly, also, by the
sight of undeniable abuses and worldliness. It seems
to day almost incredible that in those ages, vaguely
spoken of as ages of faith, a monk writing the chronicle
of his convent may have inserted in the pages of his
grave work, composed, if I may say so, by authority,
such descriptions of the behaviour of the friars as
Chaucer's contemporary, the monk Thomas Walsing-
ham did, when, in St. Alban's abbey, he wrote his
History of England. " The friars," says he, " unmind-
ful of their profession, have even forgotten to what end
their orders were instituted ; for the holy men their
law-givers desired them to be poor and free of all kind
of temporal possessions, that they should not have
anything which they might fear to lose on account of
saying the truth. But now they are envious of

fourteenth century contains the following lines to the same

effect :

" Isti fratres praedicant per villas et forum
Quod si mortem gustet quis in habitu minorum
Non intrabit postea locum tormentorum,
Sed statim perducitur ad regna coslorum."

But if a poor person asks burial in one of their privileged
churches,

"Gardianus absens est, statim respondetur
Et sic satis breviter pauper excludetur."
(Wright's "Political Poems," Rolls Series, vol. i. pp. 256-57.)

300

ENGLISH WAY PARING LIFE.

possessors, approve the crimes of the great, induce the
commonalty into error, and praise the sins of both ; and
with the intent of acquiring possessions, they who had
renounced possessions, with the intent of gathering
money, they who had sworn to persevere in poverty,
call good evil and evil good, leading astray princes by
adulation, the people by lies, and drawing both with

Sl'RINKLIS'O DINERS WITH IIOl.V WATER.

(From the MS. 10 E. IV.}

themselves out of the straight path." Walsingham
adds that a familiar proverb in his time was, " He is a
friar, therefore a liar" (" Hie est frater, ergo mendax").1
The sanctity of the institution and the unworchiness
of a great many of its representatives, caused it to be at
once venerated and detested ; however contemptible be

* " Historia Anglicana," 1867-69, vol. ii. p. 13 (Rolls Series).

WANDERING PREACHERS AND FRIARS. 301

the man, you could not be certain that he had not the
keys of heaven, and respect mingled with fear in the
sentiment felt towards him. Thus poets laughed at
the friars, popular story-tellers scouted them ; distrust,
doubt, contempt spread, rising from the mere friar to
the bishop himself; clerics were caricatured on the very
stalls upon which they sat; Master Reynard was repre-
sented delivering a sermon while wearing episcopalian
insignia, and the miniaturist, charged with illuminating
an imposing volume of Decretals, was not afraid to
satirize people belonging to the church, whether bishops,
monks, or mere clerks. One of these last is shown
forgetting in the kitchen his sprinkler and bucket of
holy water ; then remembering what he has come for
and going to sprinkle the masters at table, he returns
afterwards to the cook-girl.1 In the same spirit the
author of a popular song of the fourteenth century says :

** Preste ne monke ne yit chanoun
Ne no man ot religioun
Gyfen hem so to devocioun

As done thes holy frers.
For summe gyven ham to chyvalry,
Somme to riote and ribaudery ;
Bot ffrers gyven ham to grete study,

And to grete prayers."

Then follow several stanzas containing precise accusa-
tions, the details of which cannot be quoted.2

The people, nevertheless, saw in the friars their pro-

1 Brit. Mus. MS. Roy. 10 E. IV., fol. 100 and following folios.
See also in MS. 17 Cxv. in the British Museum a satirical picture
of a " ffryer."

2 Wright's "Political Poems," vol. i. p. 263.

302 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE.

tectors and allies in case of revolt, though at other
times they pursued them in the streets with stones.
Irritated by the " proud behaviour " of the preaching
friars, they hunted them down, maltreated them, and
demanded their extermination. They dealt no better
with the minorites : they pulled off their coats and
sacked their houses, " by the instigation of the evil
spirit," and did this in different places in the kingdom;
in 1385 it was necessary to have a royal proclamation
to protect them.1

The Commons were indignant at the number of
foreigners among the friars, who were a permanent
danger to the State. They demanded " that all the
alien friars, of whatever habit they might be, should
void the realm before the Feast of St. Michael, and if
they remained beyond the said feast they should be held
as out of the common law " [/'.*., outlawed].2

The friars kept their assurance, they were blessed in
the days of their good actions ; now they speak much
and make themselves feared ; it is to the Pope alone

1 "At the same time (20 E. II.) the preaching friars took to
flight because they feared to be maltreated and ruined, because the
commonalty bore with them very reluctantly, on account of their
proud behaviour, for they did not behave as friars ought "
(" Croniques de London," ed. Aungier, Camden Society, p. 54).

"Know ye, that we have understood, that some persons of our
kingdom of England, by the instigation of the evil spirit, . . .
do and daily strive to do harm and scandal to our beloved in Christ,
the religious men, friars of the order of minors, . . . openly and
secretly stirring up our people against them to destroy the houses
of the said friars, tearing their habits from them, striking some, and
ill-treating them, against our peace" (Proclamation of Richard II.
in 1385. Rymer's " Fordera,"ed. 1704, vol. vii. p. 458).

» *' Rolls of Parliament," 20 E. 111., vol. ii. p. 162, A.D. 1346.

WANDERING PREACHERS AND FRIARS. 303

they are amenable ; they may go on without bowing to
any one, their power is independent, they have become a
church within the Church. Along with the priest who
preaches and confesses in his parish is found the
wandering friar, who preaches and confesses every-
where ; his universal presence is a source of conflicts ;
the parish priest finds himself abandoned ; the religious
wayfarer brings the unknown, the extraordinary, and
everybody runs to him. He lays down his staff and
wallet and begins to talk ; his language is that of the
people, the whole parish is present, he occupies himself
with their eternal welfare, and also with their earthly
matters ; for lay life is familiar to him, and he can give
appropriate advice. But his teaching is sometimes
suspicious. " These false prophets," says (not Wyclif,
but) the Council of Saltzburg of 1386, "by their
sermons full of fables often lead astray the souls of
their hearers," they make game of the authority of the
parish priests.1 What power could resist ? The tide
rose and swept away the embankments ; the excellent
became the worst, corruptio optimi pessima, and the old
adage was verified to the letter. Every class of society
had grievances against them, lords, bishops, monks,
Wyclif s followers, and the men of the people ; still
they kept their place ; men found them everywhere at
the same time, in the cabin and in the castle, begging
from the rich and knocking also at the door of the poor.
They sat down at the table of the lord, who treated them
with consideration ; with him they played the part of
the fashionable religious man ; they interested, they
pleased. Wyclif shows them creeping into familiarity
1 Labbe, " Sacrosancta Concilia," Florence, vol. xxvi. col. 729.

304 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE.

with the great, liking " to speke bifore Jordis and sitte
at tho mete with horn, . . . also to be confessoures of
lordis and ladyes." l Langland, in " Piers Plowman,"
reproaches them in the same way. In a Wyclifite
treatise of the same period we read, " Thei geten hem
worldly offis in lordis courtis, and summe to ben con-
seilours and reuleris of werris, and also to ben chamber-
leyns to lordes and ladies." 2

On the other hand, they were seen to exercise the
most varied callings in the villages where they made
their rounds, to their wallet they added store of thread,
needles, ointments, with which they traded :

" Thei becomen pedleris, berynge knyues, pursis,
pynnys and girdlis and spices and sylk and precious
pellure and forrouris for wymmen, and therto smale
gentil hondis [dogs], to gete love of hem. "3

People sung of them, but they continued, and every
one laughed :

" Thai wandren here and there,
And dele with dyvers marcerye,
Right as thai pedlers were.
Thai dele with purses, pynnes, and knyves,
With gyrdles, gloves, for wenches and wyves." *

1 " Select English Works," vol. iii. p. 396.

a " The English Works of Wyclif, hitherto imprinted," edited
by F. D. Matthew. Early English Text Society, 1 880, p. 1 3. Most
of the pieces composing this collection are merely attributed to
Wyclif, this one among them. See also Gower's "Vox Clamantis,"
Roxburghe Club, 1850, p. 228.

3 "English Works of Wyclif hitherto unprinted," edited by
F. D. Matthew, 1880, p. 12.

+ So also in Chaucer's "Prologue" .

" His typet was ay farsud ful of knyfes
And pynnes, for to yive faire wyfes."

WANDERING PREACHERS AND FRIARS. 305

The author of this piece, a contemporary of Chaucer,

adds :

" I was a frere ful many a day
Therefor the sothe I wate.
But when I sawe that thair lyvyng
Acordyd not to thair preching,
Of I cast my frer clothing,

And wyghtly went my gate" (my way).1

Between the scepticism of the century and blind
credulity, superstition flourished. The friars thought
they could sell the merits of their order by retail. They
were so numerous and prayed so devoutly, that they had
a surplus of prayers, and thought they should do well
by distributing this superfluous wealth. The friars
went about the villages, discounting these invisible
riches, and selling to pious souls, under the name of
letters of fraternity, drafts upon heaven. What is the
use of these parchments ? the friars were asked. They
give a share in the merits of the whole order of St.
Francis. What are they good for ? Wyclif was asked.
" Bi siche resouns thinken many men that thes lettris
mai do good for to covere mostard pottis." 2

However depreciated they were at the end of the
century, the friars did not lose all hold over the people.
Henry IV., of the House of Lancaster, usurped the
throne, and soon found that he must reckon with the
friars minors. A good many among them were indig-
nant with his enterprise, and preached in the country,

1 Wright's "Political Poems and Songs," 1859, vol. i. pp. 264
and 268.

a "Select English Works," vol. i. p. 381. See also Wright's
"Political Poems and Songs," 1859, vol. i. p. 257.

20

306 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

during the first years of his reign, that Richard II.
was still living and was the true king. Henry IV. had
them imprisoned ; one who was brought into his
presence reproached him violently for the deposition of
Richard : " But I have not usurped the crown, I have
been elected," said the king. *' The election is null if
the legitimate king is living ; if he is dead he is dead
by your means ; if he was killed by you, you can have
no title to the throne." " By my head," cried the
prince, "I will have thine cut off!" The accused
were advised to put themselves at the king's mercy ;
they refused, and demanded to be regularly tried by a
jury. Neither in the city nor in Holborn could any one
be found to sit on the jury ; inhabitants of Highgate
and Islington were obliged to be fetched for the pur-
pose. These men declared the friars to be guilty ; the
poor wretches were drawn to Tyburn, hung, then
beheaded, and their heads were placed on London
Bridge (1402). The convent received permission to
gather the remains of the condemned and to bury
them in a holy spot. The Islington and Highgate
jurors came weeping to the Franciscans to implore their
pardon for a verdict of which they repented. During
several years, in spite of these punishments, friars con-
tinued to preach in the country in favour of Richard
II., maintaining that he still lived, although Henry IV.
had taken care to have a public exhibition of the corpse
of that prince in London.1

In the fifteenth century, however, the reputation of
the friars only grew worse. The abuses of which they

1 " Eulogium historiarum," ed. Haydon, Rolls Series, London,
1858, vol. iii. p. 392.

WANDERING PREACHERS AND FRIARS. 307

were the living personification, reckon among the
gravest of those which were to give so many adherents
to Luther. If there remained in their ranks men who
knew how to die, like that unfortunate friar Forest,
who was hung living by chains above a wood fire and
slowly roasted, while the reformer, Bishop Latimer,
addressed him " with pious exhortations " to force him
to repent (I538),1 the mass of the representatives of
their order remained the object of .universal contempt.
This is one of the few points on which it sometimes
happened that Catholics and Protestants agreed. Sir
Thomas More, beheaded for the Catholic faith, spoke
of the friars in the same tone as his adversary Tyndal,
who was strangled for the Protestant faith. In his eyes
they are but dangerous vagabonds. He relates, in his
" Utopia," the dispute between a friar and a fool, on the
question of pauperism. " * You will never,' said the
friar, c get rid of beggars, unless you also make an edict
against us friars/ { Well,' said the fool, ' it is already
made, the cardinal passed a very good law against you
when he decreed that all vagabonds should be seized
and made to work, for you are the greatest vagabonds
that can be.' When this was said, and all eyes being
turned on the cardinal, they saw he did not disown it ;
every one, not unwillingly, began to smile, except the
friar." 2 The jest is rather heavy ; Sir Thomas More,
notwithstanding his reputation for wit, often could not

1 Holinshed, "Chronicles," London, 1587, vol. iii. p. 945. This
friar had refused the oath of supremacy.

2 "Libellus vere aureus . . . de optim.; reipublicze statu deque
noua Insula Vtopia . . ." cura P. ^Egidii . . . nunc primum . . .
editus, Louvain, 1516, lib. i.

joS ENGLISH WA YIARING LIFE.

do better. The point to be noted is that the friars'
name was becoming worse and worse, thanks to the
rounds in their own interest made continually among
the farms and villages, not now to help the poor people,
but, on the contrary, to demand a part of what they
had ; we should remark also the close resemblance that
the chancellor finds between the mendicant friar and the
common hearthless and homeless vagabond.

A GAME OF FOX AND GEESE.

(From the MS. 10 E. IV.)

CHAPTER II.

THE PARDONERS

NDULGENCE" was at first simply a commu-
tation for penance. The punishments inflicted
for sins committed were long ; fasting and
mortification had to be carried on for months and years.
The faithful were permitted to transform these inter-
minable chastisements into shorter expiation. Thus a
clerk might exchange a year of penance against three
thousand lashes, reciting a psalm at each hundred.1
Tables of such exchanges were drawn up by competent
prelates ; thus, Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury,
in the ninth century had published a tariff allowing
people to be excused of a month's penance on bread
and water if they sung instead twelve hundred psalms

1 According to Hardy, "Registrum palatinum Dunclmense,"
preface, vol. iii. p. cxxxiv.

3 id ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

with bended knees ; for a year's penance the singing
was increased, and each course of psalter singing was
accompanied with three hundred strokes in the palm
of the hand (palmate). But it was possible to excuse
a year's penance and escape at the same time all the
psalms, fasts, and strokes on the hand by paying a
hundred shillings in alms.1 In another such table,
drawn up by Halitgarius in the same century, we find
this additional facility, that if the sinner, sentenced to
a month's penance on bread and water, chooses rather
the singing of psalms he may be allowed not to kneel,
but then instead of twelve hundred he will have to sing
fifteen hundred and eighty psalms. He may in the
same manner be excused of more than one month, up to
iwelve,2 in which last case, if he chooses not to kneel,
he will have to sing no less than twenty thousand one
hundred and sixty psalms.

Laymen, who had their choice, frequently preferred a
payment in money, and the sums thus obtained were
usually well employed. We have seen them serve for
the support of roads and bridges ; they were also
applied in re-constructing churches, in helping the sick
of a hospital, and in assisting the expenses of numerous
public enterprises. The entirety of punishments was
taken ofF by a plenary indulgence ; thus Urban II., at
the Council of Clermont, granted one to all those who,
through pure devotion and not to acquire booty or
glory, should go to Jerusalem to fight the infidel.

1 "Theodori archiepiscopi Cantuariensis pcenhentiale," in
Migne's " Patrologia," vol. xcix. col. 938 and 940.

2 "Halitgarii episcopi Camcracensis liber pcsnitentialis,'' 'ID
Migne's " Patrologia," vol. cv. col. 706.

PARDONERS. 311

Little by little the idea of a commutation vanished,
and was replaced by quite a different system, known as
the theory of the " treasury." It had indeed become
obvious as the use of indulgences spread that they could
no longer be justified as offering to the sinner nothing
more than his choice between several sorts of penance.
They were something else. A short prayer, a small
gift in money, would exempt devout people from the
greatest penalties and from numberless years of a possible
purgatory ; the one could scarcely be considered as being
the equivalent of the other ; how was the equilibrium
established between the two scales ? The answer was
that the deficiency was made up by the application to
the sinner of merits, not indeed his own, but merits of
Christ, the Virgin, and the saints, of which there was
an inexhaustible " treasury," the dispensation of which
rested with the Pope and the clergy. This theory was
acted upon long before it was put forth in express
words ; it does not appear to have been more than
vaguely alluded to before the fourteenth century, when
Pope Clement VI., "Doctor Doctorum," gave a perfectly
clear definition and exposition of the " treasury " system.
In a bull of the year 1350, Clement explains that the
merits of Christ are infinite, and the merits of the
Virgin and the saints are superabunding. This excess
of unemployed merit has been constituted into a treasury,
" not one that is deposited in a strong room, or con-
cealed in a field, but which is to be usefully distributed
to the faithful, through the blessed Peter, keeper of
heaven's gate, and his successors." However largely
employed, there ought to be " no fear of an absorption
or a diminution of this treasury, first on account of the

312 ENGLISH WA Y FA RING LIFE.

infinite merits of Christ, as has been said before, then
because the more numerous are the people reclaimed
through the use of its contents, the more it is augmented
by the addition of their merits." x It must be admitted
that such being the case no doubt the treasury would
never be found empty, since the more was drawn
from it, the more it grew. Such is in all its simplicity
the theory of the " treasury," which has ever since, and
with no change whatever, been acted upon.

Having so much wealth to distribute among the
faithful, the Church used to insure its repartition through
means of certain people who went about, authorized by
official letters, offering to good Christians some particle
of the heavenly wealth placed at the disposal of the
successors of St. Peter. They expected in return some
part of the much more worldly riches their hearers
might be possessed of, and which could be applied to
more tangible uses than the " treasury." The men
entrusted with this mission were called sometimes
qusestors, on account of what they asked, and some-
times pardoners, on account of what they gave.

Does not the name of these strange beings, whose
character is peculiar to the Middle Ages much more
than that of the friars, or any of those whom we have
just studied, recall the sparkling laugh of Chaucer, and
bring back his amusing portrait to the memory ? His
pardoner describes himself :

'* Lordyngs, quod he, in chirches whan I prechc,
I peyne me to have an hauteyn speche,

1 See Appendix XIII.

THE PARDONERS. 313

And ryng it out, as lowd as doth a belle,
For I can al by rote which that I telle.
My teeme is alway oon, and ever was ;
Radix omnium malorum e*t

In the pulpit he leans to the right, to the lefr, Ir3
gesticulates, he babbles; his arms move as much as his
tongue ; it is a wonder to see and hear him.

o

" I stonde lik a clerk in my puipit,
And whan the lewed people is doun i-sc:,
I preche so as ye have herd before,
And telle hem an hondred japes more.
Than peyne I me to strecche forth my necke
And est arid west upon the poeple I bekkc,
As doth a dowfe, syttyng on a berne ;
Myn hondes and my tonge goon so yerne.
That it is joye to se my businesse.

I preche no thyng but of coveityse.
Therfor my teem is yit, and ever was,
Radix omnium malorum est cupiditas,"

This description seems to-day so extraordinary
that it is well worth inquiring whether or not it
is consistent with facts, and can be verified from
authentic sources. The search for documents on the
subject will show once more the marvellous exact-
ness of Chaucer's pictures ; however malicious they
may be when they concern the pardoner, they do not
contain a trait that may not be justified by letters
emanating from papal or episcopal chancery.

These qu^estores, or quxstiarii as they were officially
called, were, so says Boniface IX., speaking at the very

314 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

time that the poet wrote his tales, sometimes secular
priests and sometimes friars, but extremely impudent.
They dispensed with all ecclesiastic licence, and went
from hamlet to hamlet delivering speeches, showing
their relics and selling their pardons. It was a lucrative
trade, and the competition was great ; the success of the
authorized pardoners had caused a crowd of interested
pardoners to issue from the schools or the priory, or
from mere nothingness, greedy, with glittering eyes, as
in the "Canterbury Tales": " suche glaryng eyghen
hadde he as an hare ; " true vagabonds, infesters of the
highroads, who having nothing to care for, boldly
carried on their impostor's traffic. They imposed it,
spoke loud, and without scruple unbound upon earth
all that might be bound in heaven. Much profit
arose from this ; Chaucer's pardoner gained a hundred
marks a year, which might easily be, since, having
asked no authority from any one he gave no one any
accounts, and kept all the gains to himself. In his
measured language the Pope tells us as much as the
poet, and it seems as though he would recommence,
feature for feature, the portrait drawn by the old story-
teller. First, says the pontifical letter, these pardoners
swear that they were sent by the Court of Rome :
" Certain religious, who even belong to different
mendicant orders, and some secular clerks, occasionally
advanced in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, affirm that they
are sent by us or by the legates or the nuncios of the
apostolic see, and that they have received the mission to
treat of certain affairs, ... to receive money for us
and the Roman Church, and they go about the country
under these pretexts." We find in the same manner

THE PARDONERS. 315

that it is Rome whence Chaucer's personage comes, and
he is always speaking against avarice :

*: a gentil pardoner

* * * * *

That streyt was comen from the court of Rome

*****

His walct lay byforn him in his lappe,
Bret-ful of pardoun come from Rome al hoot."

*****

"What ! trowe ye, whiles that I may preche
And wynne gold and silver for I teche,
That I wil lyve in povert wilfully ?

*****

For I wol preche and begge in sondry londes,
I wil not do no labour with myn hondes,

*****

I wol noon of thapostles counterfete

I wol have money, wolle, chese, and whete."

" Thus," continues the Pope, " they proclaim to the
faithful and simple people the real or pretended authori-
zations which they have received ; and irreverently,
abusing those which are real, in pursuit of infamous
and hateful gain, consummate their impudence by attri-
buting to themselves false and pretended authorizations
of this kind."

What says the poet ? That the charlatan has always
fine things to show, that he knows how to dazzle the
simple that he has his bag full of parchments with
respect- worthy seals, true or false no doubt ; that the
people look on and admire, that the curate gets angry
but holds his tongue :

"First I pronounce whennes that I come,
And thanne my bulles schewe I alle and some ;

3i 6 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

Oure liege lordes seal upon my patent
That schewe I first, my body to warent,
That no man be so hardy, prest ne clerk,
Me to destourbe of Cristes holy werk.
And after that than tel I forth my talcs.
Dulles of popes and of cardynales,
Of patriarkes, and of bisshops, I schewe.
And in Latyn speke I wordes fewe
To savore with my predicacioun,
And for to stere men to devocioun."

And that " turpem et infamem quaestum " of which
the pontiff makes mention is not forgotten :

** Now good men, God foryeve yow your trespas,
And ware yow fro the synne of avarice.
Myn holy pardoun may you alle warice,
So that ye offren noblis or starlinges,
Or elles silver spones, broches, or rynges.
Bowith your hedes under this holy bulle.''

The effect of large parchments and large seals dis-
played from the pulpit scarcely ever failed upon the
simple people assembled, and in many circumstances
of more importance than retail selling of the merits
of saints in heaven, recourse was had to such per-
formances. Thus when Henry of Lancaster came to
turn his cousin Richard II. out of the English throne,
the first thing he did, according to Creton, was to have
a papal bull carried up the pulpit of Canterbury
Cathedral by the Archbishop himself, the text being
read and commented upon by the prelate. As Creton
was not present when this scene, which he describes
only on hearsay, took place, the speech he gives is the
more interesting for our purpose for ic may be con-

THE PARDONERS 319

sidered an average speech, such a one as was usual and
likely to have been pronounced on the occasion. It is
to the following effect :

" My good people, hearken all of you here : you
well know how the king most wrongfully and without
reason has banished your lord Henry ; I have therefore
obtained of the holy father who is our patron, that
those who shall forthwith bring aid this day, shall
every one of them have remission of all sins whereby
from the hour of their baptism they have been defiled.
Behold the sealed bull that the Pope of renowned Rome
hath sent me, my good friends, in behalf of you all.
Agree then to help him to subdue his enemies, and
you shall for this be placed after death with those who
are in Paradise."

" Then," continues the narrator, describing the effect
of the speech, " might you have beheld young and old,
the feeble and the strong, make a clamour, and regard-
ing neither right or wrong, stir themselves up with
one accord ; thinking that what was told them was
true, for such as they have little sense or knowledge.
The archbishop invented this device . . ." l

Supposed or real, this speech is given by Creton as
having been delivered in good earnest, and is fit to be
compared to the pardoner's in Chaucer's tale. The
Canterbury pilgrim's burst of eloquence may be taken
as a caricature, but not an unrecognizable one of the
grave discourses such as the one we have just heard.

The parallel may be continued farther. The apos-
tolic letter before alluded to goes on : " For some

1 " Archaeologia," vol. xx. p. 53, John Webb's translation. See
Appendix XIV,

320 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE.

insignificant sum of money, they extend the veil of a
lying absolution not over penitents, but over men of
a hardened conscience who persist in their iniquity,
remitting, to use their own words, horrible crimes
without there having been any contrition nor fulfilment
of any of the prescribed forms." Chaucer's pardoner
acts in the very same manner, and says :

" I yow assoile by myn heyh power,
If ye woln offre, as clene and eek as cler
As ye were born.

*****

I rede that oure hoste schal bygynne,
For he is most envoliped in synne.
Come forth, sire ost, and offer first anoon,
And thou schalt kisse the reliquis everichoon,
Ye for a grote ; unbocle anone thi purse." '

Boccaccio in one of the novels which he is supposed
to tell himself, under the name of Dioneo, produces
an ecclesiastic who has the greatest resemblance, moral
and physical, to Chaucer's man. He is called Fra.
Cipolla, and was accustomed to visit Certaldo, Boc-
caccio's village. " This Fra Cipolla was little of person,
red-haired and merry of countenance, the jolliest rascal
in the world, and to boot, for all he was no scholar, he
was so fine a talker and so ready of wit that those who
knew him not would not only have esteemed him a great
rhetorician, but had avouched him to be Tully himself,
or maybe, Quintilian ; and he was gossip, or friend, or
well-wisher, to well-nigh every one in the country." If

1 " The Poetical Works of Chaucer," ed. Richard Morris, Pro-
logue to "Canterbury Tales," vol. ii. p. 21, and Prologue to
" Pardoner's Tale," vol. iii. pp. 86-90.

THE PARDONERS. 321

his hearers give him a little money or corn or anything,
he will show them the most wonderful relics ; and besides"
they will enjoy the special protection of the patron saint
of his order, St. Anthony : " Gentlemen and ladies, it
is, as you know, your usance to send every year to the
poor of our lord Baron St. Anthony of your corn and
of your oats, this little and that much, according to his
means and his devoutness, to the intent that the blessed
St. Anthony may keep watch over your beeves and asses
and swine and sheep ; and, beside this, you use to pay,
especially such of you as are inscribed into our company,
that small due which is payable once a year." I

One may conceive that such people had few scruples
and knew how to profit by those of others. They
released their clients from all possible vows, remitted
all penances, for money. The more prohibitions,
obstacles, or penances were imposed, the more their
affairs prospered ; they passed their lives in undoing
what the real clergy did, and that without profit to
any one but themselves. The Pope again tells us :
" For a small compensation they release you from vows
of chastity, of abstinence, of pilgrimage beyond the
sea to Sts. Peter and Paul of Rome, or to St. James
of Compostella, and any other vows." They allow
heretics to re-enter the bosom of the Church, illegiti-
mate children to receive sacred orders, they take off
excommunications, interdicts ; in short, as their power
comes from themselves alone, nothing forces them to
restrain it and they take it fully and without stint ;

x"The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio" . . . done into
English ... by John Payne, London, 1886, vol. ii. p. 278, tenth
Tale, sixth Day. 21

32 i ENGLISH WAYFARING

they recognize no superiors and thus remit little and
great penances. Lastly, they affirm that " it is in the
name of the apostolic chamber that they take all this
money, and yet they are never seen to give an account
of it to any one : c Horret et merito indignatur animus
talia reminisci.' " *

They went yet further, they had formed regular
associations for systematically speculating in the public
confidence ; thus Boniface IX. orders in the year 1390,
that the Bishops should make an inquiry into every-
thing that concerns these " religious or secular priests,
their people, their accomplices, and their associations " ;
that they should imprison them " without other form
of law ; de piano ac sine strepitu et figura judicii ; "
should make them render accounts, confiscate their
leceipts, and if their papers be not in order hold them
under good keeping, and refer the matter to the
sovereign pontiff.

There were indeed authorized pardoners who paid

jlhe produce of their receipts into the treasury of the

jvoman Court. The learned Richard d'Angerville (or

jde Bury), Bishop of Durham, in a circular of December

8, 1340, speaks of apostolic or diocesan letters subject

to a rigorous visa, with which the regular pardoners

were furnished.2 But many did without them, and the

Bishop notices one by one the same abuses as the Pope

and as Chaucer. ct Strong complaints have come to

our ears that the quesrors of this kind, not without

great and rash boldness, of their own authority, and to

the great danger of the souls who are confided to us,

openly making game of our power, distribute indul-

1 See Appendix XV. 2 See same Appendix.

TH£ PARDONERS. 323

gences to the people, dispense with the execution of
vows, absolve the perjured, homicides, usurers, and
other sinners who confess to them ; and, for a little
money paid, grant remission for crimes ill-atoned for,
and are given to a multitude of other abuses." Hence-
forward all curates and vicars must refuse to admit
these pardoners to preach or to give indulgences,
whether in the Churches or anywhere else, if they be
not provided with letters or a special licence from the
Bishop himself. And this was a most proper injunction,
for with these bulls brought from far-off lands, furnished
with unknown seals " of popes and of cardynales, of
patriarkes and of bisshops," l it was too easy to make
people believe that all was in order. Meanwhile let
all those who are now wandering round the country be
stripped of what they have taken, and let " the money
and any other articles collected by them or on their
behalf" be seized. The common people not always
having pieces of money, Chaucer's pardoner contented
himself with "silver spones, broches, or rynges;"
besides, we find here a new allusion to those associa-
tions of pardoners which must 'have been so harmful.
They employed inferior agents ; the general credulity
and the widespread wish to get rid of religious trammels
which men had imposed on themselves, or which had
been imposed on them on account of their sins, were
a mine for the perverse band, the veins of which they
carefully worked. By means of these subordinate re-
presentatives of their imaginary power, they easily
extended the field of their operations ; and the com-
plicated threads of their webs traversed the whole
1 Pardoner's Prologue.

324 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

kingdom, sometimes too strong to be broken, some-
times too subtle to be perceived. ;

Occasionally, too, the bad example came from very
high quarters ; all had not the Bishop of Durham's
virtue. Walsingham relates with indignation the con-
duct of a cardinal who made a stay in England in order
to negociate a marriage between Richard II. and the
emperor's sister. For money this prelate, like the
pardoners, took off excommunications, dispensed with
pilgrimages to St. Peter, St. James, or Jerusalem, and
had the sum that would have been spent on the journey
given to him, according to an estimate ; 1 and it is
much to be regretted "from every point of view that
the curious tariff of the expenses of a journey thus
estimated has not come down to us.

The list of the misdeeds cf pardoners was in truth
enormous, and it is found even larger on exploring
the authentic ecclesiastical documents than in the poems
of Chaucer himself. Thus in a bull of Pope Urban V.,
dated 1369, we find the description of practices which
seem to have been unknown to the otherwise experienced
"gentil pardoner of Rouncival." These doings were
familiar to the pardoners employed by the hospital of
St. John of Jerusalem in England. They pretended to
have received certain immunities by which they could
dispence with apostolic letters, and were not bound to

1 " Excommunicatis gratiam absolutionis impendit. Vota pere-
grinationis ad apostolorum limina, ad Terrain Sanctam, ad Sanctum
Jacobum non prius remisit quam tantam pecuniam recepisset,
quantam, juxta veram asstimationem, in cisdem peregrinationibus
expendere debuissent, et ut cuncta concludam brevibus, nihil
omnino petendum erat, quod non consult, intercedente pecunia,
concedendum " ("Historia Anglicana "; Rolls Series, vol. i. p. 452)

THE PARDONERS. 325

show any in order to be allowed to make their preach-
ings and to offer to the people their " negotia quass-
tuaria." The parish rectors and curates naturally
objected to such pretensions, but their complaints were
badly received, and to get rid of such tenacious adver-
saries, the pardoners sued them before some distant judge
for contempt of their cloth and privileges. While the
suit was being determined they remained free to act
pretty much as they liked. Sometimes they were so
happy as to obtain a condemnation against the priest
who had tried to do his duty by them, and even suc-
ceeded in having him excommunicated : which could
of course but be a cause of great merriment among the
unholy tribe. " Very often, also," adds Pope Urban,
"when they mean to hurt a rector or his curare, they go
to his church on some feast-day, especially at such time
as the people are accustomed to come and make their
offerings. They begin then to make their collections
or to read the name of their brotherhood or fraternity,
and continue until such an hour as it is not possible to
celebrate mass conveniently that day. Thus they
manage perversely to deprive these rectors and vicars of
the offerings which accrue to them at such masses."
They have, on the other hand, Divine service per-
formed " in polluted or interdicted places, and there
also bury the dead ; they use, as helps to their trade,
almost illiterate subordinates, who spread errors and
fables among the people." l

Such abuses and many others, constantly pointed out
by councils, popes, and bishops, moved the University
of Oxford to recommend, in the year 1414, the entire

1 See Appendix XV.

326 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

suppression of pardoners, as being men of loose life and
lying speeches, spending their profits " with the prodigal
son/' remitting to sinners their sins as well as their
penances, encouraging sin by the ease of their abso-
lutions, and drawing the souls of simple people "to
Tartarus." But this request was not listened to, and
pardoners continued to prosper for the moment.1

At the same time that they sold indulgences, the
pardoners showed relics. They had been on pilgrim-
age and had brought back little bones and fragments
of all kinds, of holy origin, they said. But although
there were credulous persons among the multitude,
among the educated class the disabused were not want-
ing who scoffed at the impertinence of the impostors
without mercy. The pardoners of Chaucer and Boc-
caccio, and in the sixteenth century of Heywood and
Lyndsay,2 had the pleasantest relics. The Chaucerian
who possessed a piece of the sail of St. Peter's boat, is
beaten by Frate Cipolla, who had received extraordi-
nary relics at Jerusalem. " I will, as an especial favour,
show you," said he, "a very holy and goodly relic,
which I myself brought aforetime from the Holy Lands
beyond seas, and that is one of the Angel Gabriel's
feathers, which remained in the Virgin Mary's chamber,
whenas he came to announce to her in Nazareth! "3
The feather, which was a feather from the tail of a
parrot, through some joke played upon him was

1 See Appendix XV.

a Lyndsay, "A Satire of the Thrie Estates " (performed 1535).
Early English Text Society ; John Heywood, " The Pardoner and
the Frere, the Curate and Neybour Pratte," 1533 ; "The foure Ps,"
1545. 3 Payne's "Boccaccio,'' vol ii. pp, 280, 287.

d

THE PARDONERS. 327

replaced in the casket of the holy man by a few coals ;
when he perceived the metamorphosis he did not show
any surprise, but began the narrative of his long
voyages, and explained how, instead of the feather,
the coals on which St. Lawrence was grilled would be
seen in his coffer. He received them from " My lord
Blamemenot Anitpleaseyou," the worthy patriarch of
Jerusalem, who also showed him " a finger of the Holy
Ghost as whole and sound as ever it was, . . . and one
of the nails of the cherubim, . . . divers rays of the
star that appeared to the three Wise Men in the East,
and a vial of the sweat of St. Michael when as he fought
with the devil ;" he possessed also "somewhat of the
sound of the bells of Solomon's Temple in a vial."

These are poets' jests, but they are less exaggerate
than might be thought. Was there not shown to the
pilgrims at Exeter a bit " of the candle which the
angel of the Lord lit in Christ's tomb " ? This was
one of the relics brought together in the venerable
cathedral by Athelstan, "the most glorious and vic-
torious king," who had sent emissaries at great expense
on to the Continent to gather these precious spoils.
The list of their discoveries, which has been preserved
in a missal of the eleventh century, comprises also a
little of " the bush in which the Lord spoke to Moses,"
and a lot of other curiosities.1

Matthew Paris relates that in his time the friar
preachers gave to Henry III. a piece of white marble
on which there was the trace of a human foot. Accord-
ing to the testimony of the inhabitants of the Holy

1 "The Leofric Missal" (1050-107*) edited by F. E. Warren.
883 (Clarendon Press), pp. Ixi, 3, \.

328 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

Land this was nothing less than the mark of one of
the Saviour's feet, a mark which He left as a souvenir
to His apostles after His Ascension. "Our lord the
king had this marble placed in the church of West-
minster, to which he had already lately offered some
of the blood of Christ."1

In the fourteenth century kings continued to give
example to the common people, and to collect relics of
doubtful authenticity. In the accounts of the expenses
of Edward III., in the thirty-sixth year of his reign,
we find that he paid a messenger a hundred shillings
for bringing a gift of a vest which had belonged to
St. Peter.2 In France, at the same period, the wise
King Charles V. had one day the curiosity to visit the
cupboard of the Sainte Chapelle, where the relics of
the passion were kept. He found there a phial with a
Latin and Greek inscription indicating that it contained
a portion of the blood of Jesus Christ. " Then,"
relates Christine de Pisan, " that wise king, because
some doctors have said that, on the day that our Lord
rose, nothing was left on earth of His worthy body
that was not all returned into Him, would hereupon
know and inquire by learned men, natural philosophers,
and theologians, whether it could be true that upon
earth there were some of the real pure blood of Jesus
Christ. Examination was made by the said learned
men assembled about this matter ; the said phial was
seen and visited with great reverence and solemnity of
lights, in which when it was hung or lowered could be

1 " Historia Anglorum " (Historia minor), ed., Sir F. Madden,
London, 1866; vol. iii. p. 60 (Rolls Series).

3 Devon's "Issues of the Exchequer," 1837, p. 176.

THE PARDONERS. 329

clearly seen the fluid of the red blood flow as freshly
as though it had been shed but three or four days since :
which thing is not small marvel, considering the passion
was so long ago. And these things I know for certain
by the relation of my father who was present at that
examination, as philosophic officer and counsellor of
the said prince."

After this examination made by great " solemnity of
lights," the doctors declared themselves for the authen-
ticity of the miracle ; * which was not in reality more
surprising than that at Naples Cathedral, where even
now, the blood of the patron saint of the town may
be seen to liquify several times a year, and for several
days each time.

In every country of Europe the pardoners enjoyed
exactly the same reputation and acted in the same man-
ner. We may turn to France, to Germany, to Italy, to
Spain, and we find them living, so long as there re-
mained any, as Chaucer's pardoner did. In France we
see them treated with little ceremony by Rabelais, who
has them cheated by his favourite Panurge. The clever
vaurien used to place his penny in their basin so skil-
fully that it seemed to be a silver piece : for which he
made bold to take change up to the last farthing. " 'And
I did the same,' said he, ' in all the churches where we
have been.' — 'Yea, but,' said I, 'you ... are a thief,
and commit sacrilege.' — ' True,' said he, * as it seems
to you ; but it does not seem so to me. For the
pardoners give it me as a gift when they say, in offering

1 "Le livre des fais et bonnes mceurs du sage roy Charles," by
Christine de Pisan, chap, xxxiii. vol. i. p. 633 ; "Nouvelle Collec-
tion de Memoires," ed. Michaud et Pcujoulat, Paris, 1836.

130 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

me the relics to kiss : Centuplum accipies — that is, that
for one penny I take a hundred ; for accipies is spoken by
them according to the manner of the Hebrews, who use
the future tense instead of the imperative, as you have
in the book, < Diliges Dominum, id est, dilige.' " :

Ridiculous parts are in the same way allotted to
pardoners in the farces of the old French theatre ; here
is an example :

" Pardoner : I mean to show you the comb of the
cock that sung at Pilate's, and half a plank of Noah's
great ark. . . . Look, gentlemen, here is a feather of
one of the seraphs near God. Don't think it is a joke ;
here it is for you to see.

" Triacleur : Gogsblood ! 'tis the quill from a goose
he has eaten at his dinner ! " 2 and so on.

The same in Spain. Lazarillo de Tormes, the page
of many masters, happens, at one time, to be in the
service of a pardoner. This is the same individual as
Chaucer had described two hundred years before ; he, too,
knows how to use Latin when he finds an opportunity :
" Hee woulde alwayes bee informed before he came,
which were learned and which not. When he came to
those which he understood were learned, he woulde be
sure never to speake worde of Latin, for feare of stumb-
ling : but used in suche places a gentle kinde of Castilian
Spanish, his tong alwayes at libertie. And contrariwise
whensoever hee was informed of the reverend D amines (I
meane such as are made priestes more for money than for

1 " Pantagruel," book ii. chap, xvii., " Comment Panurge
gagnoit les pardons."

2 " Farce d'un pardonneur, d'un triacleur et d'une taverniere "
(Viollet le Due, " Ancien theatre fran^ais," Paris, 1854-57, vol. ii.
p. 50).

THE PARDONERS. 331

learning and good behaviour) to hear him speake amongs
suche men you would saye it were St. Thomas : for hee
woulde then two houres together talke Latin, at lest
which seemed to bee, though it was not." l A trick
which, as is well known, Sganarelle, many years after,
did not disdain to use when put upon his last shifts as
" Medecin malgre lui."

The pardoners lived merrily ; certainly after a well
occupied day they must have been cheerful companions
at the inn. The thought of the multitude of sins
which they had remitted, of excommunications which
they had taken off, of penalties which they had com-
muted— themselves simple vagabonds menaced with the
gallows — the knowledge of their impunity, the singu-
larity of their existence, the triumphant success of
those mad harangues which gave them the keys of
heaven, must have made their hearts swell inconceivably
with coarse brutal merriment. Their heads were filled
with anecdotes which furnished them with matter for
interminable babble, either sacred or profane ; native
coarseness and borrowed devotion, the real and the
artificial man, met together roughly to the sound of
jugs and basins which clattered on the table. Look in
the margin of an old psalter at the spare figure of
Master Reynard 2 ; a cross between his paws, a mitre on
his head, he is preaching a sermon to the amazed crowd

1 " The Pleasaunt Historic of Lazarillo de Tormes, . . . drawen
out of Spanish by David Rouland, of Anglesey." London, 1586,
Sig. G. iii.

a This allegory was a favourite subject among the miniaturists,
and it is found in several manuscripts (2 B. vii.; 10 E. IV.), in the
British Museum. See the head-piece of the present chapter.

332 ENGLISH WA YFAR2NG LIFE.

of ducks and geese of the poultry yard. The gesture
is full of unction, but the eye shaded by the tawny
hair has a cruel glitter, which ought to give warning of
£he peroration. But no, the poultry-yard clucks
devoutly and fears nothing ; woe to the ducks when
the mitre has fallen : " and Thou, Lord, shalt laugh at
them," says the psalmist, exactly at this place.

What a singular knowledge of the human heart
must such individuals have had, and what curious ex-
periences they must have gone through each day ! Never
were more unworthy beings clothed with greater super-
natural powers. The deformed monster squat on the
apse of the cathedral, laughs and grimaces hideously on
his airy pedestal. And into space, up into the clouds
rise the fretted spires ; the chiselled needles detach them-
selves like lace upon the sky ; the saints make their eternal
prayers under the porch, the bells send forth their peals
into the air, and souls are seized as with a shiver, with that
mysterious trembling which the sublime causes men to
experience. He laughs; hearts believe themselves to
be purified, but he has seen their hideous sores, a
powerful hand — the Tempter's hand — will touch them
and prevent their cure ; the edge of the roof
reaches the clouds ; but bis look goes through the
garret window, he sees a beam which gives way ; the
worm-eaten planks which are cracking, and a whole
people of obscure creatures which are slowly pursuing
under the wooden shafts their secular labour of demoli-
tion : he laughs and grimaces hideously.

On the further bench of the tavern the pardoner
remains still seated. There enter Chaucer, the knight,
the squire, the friar, the host — old acquaintances. We

THE PARDONERS. 333

are by ourselves, no one need be afraid of speaking, the
foaming ale renders hearts expansive ; here the secret
coils of that tortuous soul unfold to view ; he gives us
the summary of a whole life, the theory of his existence,
the key to all his secrets. What matters his frankness ?
he knows that it cannot hurt him ; the bishop has
twenty times brought his practices to light, but the
crowd always troops round him. And who knows if
his companions — who knows if his more enlightened
companions, to whom he shows the concealed springs
of the automaton — will, to-morrow, believe it lifeless?
their memory, their reason will tell them so, yet still
their heart will doubt. If custom is the half of belief,
theirs is well-rooted ; how much more is that of the
multitude. And the pardoner also, do you suppose
that he always sees clearly what he is, do you think
that his scepticism is absolute ? he for whom nothing
is holy, whose very existence is a perpetual mockery of
sacred things, he also has his hours of fear and terror,
he trembles before that formidable power which he
said he held in his hands, and of which he has made a
toy ; he does not possess it, but he thinks that others
do ; and he hesitates ; the monster looks upon himself
and is afraid.

Very easy it was to lead the popular belief into the
channel of the marvellous. There are decrees that
forbid the making spectres or ghosts appear in those long
watches which were passed around corpses ; disobedience
was attempted, people believed they succeeded in
raising them. In presence of the horrible a strange re-
action in the heart took place, there was felt as it were
a wind of madness pass which predisposed men to see

334 ENGLISH WA YfARlNG L1F&

and to believe anything, a nervous and demoniacal
merriment seized upon all, and dances and lascivious
games were organized. Dancing was practised in the
cemeteries during the nights of mourning which pre-
ceded the feasts, there was dancing also during the
watch for the dead. The Council of London, in 1342,
prohibited " the superstitious customs which cause
prayer to be neglected, and unlawful and indecent
meetings" which were held in similar places.1 The
Council of York, in 1367, also forbid "those guilty
games and follies, and all those perverse customs . . .
which transform a house of tears and prayers, into a
house of laughing and of excess." The Gild of palmers,
of Ludlow, allowed its members to go to night-watches
of the dead, provided that they abstained from raising
apparitions and from indecent games.2 As to profes-
sional sorcerers, they went to the stake at this period, as
happened to Petronilla of Meath, who was convicted of
having manufactured powders with " spiders and black
worms like scorpions, mingling with them a certain
herb called milfoil, and other detestable herbs and
worms." 3 She had also made such incantations that

1 Labbe, "Sacrosancta concilia," Florence edition, vol. xxv.
col. 1177, and vol. xxvi. col. 462. In 1419, Henry Chicheley,
Archbishop of Canterbury, ordered public prayers, litanies, and
processions, to protect the King of England and his army against
the wicked operations of magicians. (Wilkins' "Concilia Magns
Britannias," vol. iii. p. 392.)

2 "Si vero masculus quisquam voluerit, ut est moris, ejusdem
defuncti vel defuncte nocturnis vigiliis interesse, hoc fieri permit-
tatur, dumtamen nee monstra larvarum inducere, nee corporis vel
fame sue ludibria, nee ludos alios inhonestos, presumat aliqualiter
attemptare" (Toulmin Smith, "English Gilds," p. 194).

3 " Arancis et aliis vermibus nigris ad modum scorpionum, cura

PARDONERS. 335

" the faces of certain women seemed horned like the
heads of goats ; " therefore she had her just punishment,
" she was burnt before an immense multitude of people
with all the accustomed ceremonial." Such facts as
these alone can explain the existence of the pardoner.

Let us add that the search for the philosopher's stone
was the constant occupation of many redoubted doctors;
every one had not that clear good sense, that easy
fancy, that sovereign good humour and that penetrating
spirit which permitted Chaucer to unveil before us
smilingly the mysteries of the alchemist. He shakes
all the alembics and all the retorts, and in the odd shapes
of the apparatus which frighten the imagination he lets
us see, not the newly created ingot of pure metal, but
the mixture prepared beforehand by the impostor.1
Supernatural virtues were attributed to plants and
stones ; contemporaries in reviving them went beyond
ancient inventions. Gower thinks he does well by in-
serting in a love poem all that he knows on the consti-
tution of the world and the virtues of things ; 2 even
with really learned men a mass of fabulous indications
fills volumes. Bartholomew the Englishman, whose
work is an encyclopaedia of scientific knowledge in the
thirteenth century, says that the diamond destroys the

quadam herba quas dicitur millefolium et aliis herbis et vermibus
detestabilibus " (" Proceedings against Dame Alice Kyteler, 1324,"
edited by Thos. Wright, 1843, Camden Society, p. 32).

1 "The Canons Yeomans Tale."

2 The whole of book vii. of his "Confessio Araantis " is con-
secrated to the exposition of a system of the world and to the
description of the inner nature of beings and substances. The
" Roman de la Rose " is not less explicit on these matters (con-
fession of Nature to Genius).

33<> ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

effect of venom and of magic incantations, showing
openly fear in whoever wears it ; that the topaz hinders
sudden death, &C.1

When one thinks on the number of vain beliefs
which troubled the brains of those days, it is difficult
not to remember, with a feeling of pleasure, that in an
age which was no way exempt from these weaknesses
no one condemned them with more eloquence than
Moliere : " Without speaking of other things," says
he, " I have never been able to conceive how even
the smallest peculiarities of the fortune of the least man
could be found written in the skies. What relation,
what intercourse, what correspondence can there be
between us and worlds separated from our earth by so
frightful a distance ? and whence can this fine science
have come to men ? What God has revealed it ? or what
experience can have shaped it from the observation of
that great number of stars which have not been seen
twice in the same arrangement ? "

Trouble and eloquence lost ; there will always be a
Timocles to observe with a wise air : " I am incredulous
enough as to a great many things, but for astrology,
there is nothing more certain and more constant than
the success of the horoscopes which it draws."2

So vanished into smoke the tempests which Chaucer,
Langland, and Wyclif raised against the hypocritical par-
doners of their day. They lingered on till the sixteenth
century, and then were entirely suppressed in the twenty-
first session of the oecumenical council of Trent, July
1 6, 1562, Pius IV. being Pope. It is stated in the ninth

1 "De proprietatibus rcrum," lib. xvi.
* " Les amants magnifiques."

PARDON&R&

chapter of the " Decree of Reform," published in that
session, that " no further hope can be entertained of
amending " such pardoners (eleemosynarum qu<estores\
therefore " the use of them and their name are entirely
abolished henceforth in all Christendom." *

'"Conciliorum generalium ecclesiae catholicae," toraus iv. p. 261,
Pauli V. Pont. max. auctoritate editus, Rome, 1623. Sec Appen-
dix XV.

A PARDONER (CHAUCER'S PARDONER).
(From the Ellesnure MS.)

22

A WLGRIMAGE TOWN, ROCAMADOUR, IN GUYENNE.

(Present state.)

CHAPTER III.

PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES.

IN spite of the talent of the physicians, soothsayers,
and sorcerers, there were maladies which resisted
the best remedies, and in this case a man promised
to go on pilgrimage, or to have himself carried there, to
beg for his cure. He went to our Lady of Walsing-
ham or to St. Thomas of Canterbury, whose medical
powers were considered, beyond comparison, the best of
all: "Optimus egrorum medicus fit Thomas bonorum,"
was the motto stamped on the pewter ampullae, or little
flasks which pilgrims brought back as a souvenir from
Canterbury ; "for good people that are sick, Thomas
is the best of physicians." And surelv praying at his

PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 339

shrine or sending gifts there was a better wiy of pre-
serving one's health than swallowing the black beetles
and fat bats of John of Gaddesden, Court physician.

Pilgrimages were incessant ; they were made to
satisfy a vow as in case of illness, or in expiation of
sins. Confessors frequently gave the making of a
pilgrimage as penance, and sometimes ordered that the
traveller should go barefoot or in his shirt. " Com-
mune penaunce," says Chaucer's parson in his great
sermor, " is that prestes enjoy nen men comunly in
certeyn caas, as for to goon, peradventure, naked in
pilgrimage or barfot." *

Another motive for pilgrimages, and, more than any
other, a characteristic one of the times, was to annoy
the king. Thus in the fourteenth century English
people flocked to the tomb of the selfish Earl of Lan-
caster,2 whom popular prejudice had made a saint.
The crowd hastened through a spirit of contradiction
to Pontefract, where the rebel had been decapitated,
and the pilgrims became every year more numerous, to
the great scandal of the sovereign and of the Arch-
bishop of York. A letter of this prelate shows ths

1 " Works," ed. R. Morris, vol. Hi. p. 266.

2 Cousin of Edward II., executed in 1322. Froissart has no
doubt as to the authenticity of these miracles. " Thomas erle of
Lancastre, who was a noble and a wyse holy knyght, and hath
done isyth many fayre myracles in Pomfret, where he was bc-
heeded " (vol. i. chap. vi. in Lord Berners' translation). The
body of Charles de Blois also worked miracles, and Froissart
imagined that Urban V. canonized him ; " his body [was] after
sanctifyed by the grace of God and called Saynt Charles, and
canonised by Pope Urban the V.; for he dyde, and yet dothe
many fayre miracles dayly" (vol. i. cap. 226 of Lord Berners'
translation).

WAYFA&IN& /,/££.

uselessness of prohibitions ; the idea of the semblance
of a persecution of believers organized by an arch-
bishop only excited zeal and devotion ; men fancied the
martyr would be pleased by allowing themselves to be a
little martyred. Thus while awaiting the canonization,
assemblies collect near the tomb so numerous and
tumultuous that there happen " homicides and mortal
wounds, . . . and that greater dangers yet and doubt-
less most imminent are to be feared." l

This took place the very year after the execution 01
the saint. The official was enjoined to hinder these
meetings any how, and to disperse them until the Pope
should pronounce. Nevertheless the assemblies con-
tinued, and Henry of Lancaster wrote in 1327 to the
Archbishop of York to beg him to refer to the Sove-
reign Pontiff about it, and "to bear witness to the
fame of the miracles which God works by our very
dear lord and brother."2 The same year the Commons
demanded the canonization of this same Thomas, which
was scarcely parliamentary business. 3 In 1338^ grocer
of London sold a wooden tankard (a mazer) orna-
mented with an "image of St. Thomas of Lancaster." 4

1 " Non absque homicidiis et aliisque laetalibus verberibus . . .
et de majoribus periculis verisimiliter imminentibus multipliciter
formidatur . . ." (A.D. 1323, "Historical Papers from the Northern
Registers," edited by Canon Raine, 1873, p. 324, Rolls Series).

2 The archbishop did write to this effect to the Pope (John
XXII.) on February 24, 1327, asking him to make inquiry with a
view to canonization. ("Historical Papers from the Northern
Registers," p. 340.)

3 Petition to Parliament, I E. Ill 1326-7. (" Rolls of Parlia-
ment," vol. ii. p. 7.)

4 "Memorials of London," Riley, 1868, p. 203. The miracu-

PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 341

Humphry de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and E^sex, who
died in 1361, bequeathed money to some pious persons
who should make several pilgrimages on his account,
and he specially recommended that " a good man and
true " should be hired and charged to go to " Pount-
freyt and to offer there at the tomb of Thomas, late
earl of Lancaster, 403." l To make a saint of a rebel
was the most energetic means of protesting against the
king, and the people were not lacking this opportunity
under certain of their sovereigns. Henry III. in
1266 was obliged to forbid Simon de Montfort being
considered as a saint. Now Simon had died under
excommunication, -as was represented to the king by
the bishops and barons, authors of the petitions com-
prised in the <f Dictum de Kenilworth" ; 2 he therefore
had little chance of being canonized. But still that

lous influence of the same Thomas of Lancaster is also declared
by the contemporary author of the " Croniques de London "
(Camden Society, ed. G. J. Aungier), p. 46, and many others.

1 J. NichoPs " Wills of the Kings and Queens of England," &c.,
1780, p. 54. A chapel had been built on the "mountain" where
the earl had been beheaded. The offerings which the pilgrims
brought there were, in 1334, the subject of a curious strife
between the prior and the convent of Pontefract on one hand,
and the Lord of Wake on the other hand ; this lord had " taken
possession of the said chapel and the offerings coming there, and
had taken the keys with him." The prior and the convent in a
petition to Parliament requested to have the "administration of
these offerings " as " spiritual things within their parish and
belonging to their church " (" Rolls of Parliament," vol. ii. p. 84).

2 " Ne . . . pro sancto vel justo reputetur, cum in excommu-
nicatione sit defunctus, sicut sancta tenet ecclesia" ("Dictum d:
Kenilworth," § viii., in " Select Charters," edited by Stubbs, 1870,
p. 410.)

342 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

did not prevent Latin hymns being composed in his
honour, as for a saint.1

The rebel was hardly dead when the popular feeling,
often unfavourable to him during his life, forthwith
recognized in him only a hero who had fought against
the common enemy, and through sympathy assigned to
him a place in heaven. The active revolt, rudely
interrupted by punishment, continued thus in the latent
state, and every one came to see God Himself take the
part of the oppressed, and proclaim the injustice of the
king by working miracles at the tomb of the con-
demned. The sovereign defended himself as he could ;
he dispersed the rabble and prohibited the miracles.
Thus Edward II., on October 2, 1323, wrote "to his
faithful John of Stonore and John of Bousser," order-
ing an inquiry which would be followed by graver
measures. He recalled to them that " a little time ago
Henry of Montfort and Henry of Wylynton, enemies
of the king and rebels, on the advice of the royal
Court, were drawn iind hanged at Bristol, and it had
been decided that their bodies should remain attached
to the gibbet, so that others might abstain from similar
crimes and misdeeds against the king." The people
made relics of these bloody and mutilated remains,

1 " Salve Symon Montis Fortis

tocius flos railitie,
Duras penas passus mortis,
protector gentis Angliae.

* * * *

" Ora pro nobis, beate Symon, ut digni efficiamur promissionibus
Christi " (Hymn composed a little after the death of Simon, cited
in Wartori's "History of English Poetry," edited by Hazlitt, 1871,
vol. ii. p. -f.8^.

PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 343

and surrounded them with respect, in violent protest.
Reginald of Montfort, William of Clyf, William
Courtois, and John his brother, and some others, in
order to render the king odious to the people, had
organized false miracles on the spot where the bodies
of these enemies and rebels were still hanging.1

Severe measures were needed in several places at the
same time ; while the corpses of these condemned were
being venerated at Bristol, the mere image of Thomas
of Lancaster, in the Cathedral of London, was attract-
ing a crowd of pilgrims and working miracles. In this
same year, 132^, on June 28th, Edward II. is found
writing with great irritation to the Bishop of
London :

" It has come to our ears — and it is very displeasing
to us — that many persons belonging to the people of
God, confided to your charge, victims of an infernal
trickery, crowd round a pannel placed in your church
of St. Paul's, where are to be seen some statues or
painted images, especially that of Thomas, late Earl of
Lancaster, a rebel, our enemy. Without any authori-
zation from the Roman Church, these people venerate
and worship this image, and affirm that it there works
miracles : this is an opprobrium for the whole church, a
shame for us and for you, a manifest danger for the
souls of the aforesaid people, and a dangerous example."

The bishop knows it, continues the king, and secretly
encourages these practices without any other motive
than that of profiting by the o.Terings. " By which,"
adds Edward II., " we are deeply afflicted." The usual
prohibitions follow.2

1 Rymer's " Foedera," edit. 1704, &c., vol. iv. p. »of
9 Jbid, vol. iii. p. 1033.

344 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

These were pilgrimages for the occasion. Others
were in favour for a much longer time owing to the
reputation of the departed for sanctity, not for his
former political influence. For many years, not waiting
for the solitary to be canonized, which never happened,
men came in crowds, as we have seen, to visit the tomb
of Richard Rolle, the hermit of Hampole. Even in
this, fashion ruled as mistress ; some relics or tombs
of hermits or of saints enjoyed for a period universal
favour ; then all of a sudden, through some great
miracle, another saint rose to pre-eminence, and his
rivals, by degrees, dwindled into obscurity.

Sometimes the convents, which had neither relics nor
bodies of illustrious saints to attract pilgrims, nor a
marvellous thorn-tree like that of Glastonbury, would
have a pious artist to fabricate an image worthy of
attention ; it would be inaugurated with solemnity,
and afterwards its fame would be sounded by all
permissible means. Thomas of Burton, Abbot of
Meaux, near Beverley, relates in the chronicle of the
events concerning his rich monastery, which he him-
self wrote at the end of the fourteenth century, one
of the most remarkable facts of this kind. Abbot
Hugh of Leven, one of his predecessors, had in the
first half of the century ordered a new crucifix for the
choir of the chapel : " And the artist never worked at
any fine and important part of his work, except on
Fridays, fasting on bread and water. And he had all
the time a naked man under his eyes, and he laboured
to give to his crucifix the beauty of the model. By
the means of this crucifix, the Almighty worked open
miracles continually. It was then thought that if

PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 345

access to this crucifix were allowed to women, the
common devotion would be increased and great ad-
vantages would result from it for our monastery.
Upon which the Abbot of Citeaux, by our request,
granted us leave to let honest men and women approach
the said crucifix ; provided, however, that the women
did not enter the cloister, the dormitory, and other
parts of the monastery. . . . But profiting by this
license, to our misfortune, women began to come in
numbers to the crucifix, although in them devotion was
cool, and they presented themselves only to look at the
church. They only serve to increase our expenses by
the obligation we are under to receive them." l

This na'ive complaint is interesting from many points
of view ; it shows without concealment what was done
to bring such or such a sanctuary into favour with the
pilgrims ; in the present case the effort made did not
succeed, the prodigies do not seem to have responded
to the expectation, and people came only from curiosity
to visit the church and the fine crucifix of the monas-
tery. From the artistic point of view the fact is still
more important, for this is the most ancient example
of sculpture from the nude living model to be found
in medieval England ; and this anonymous sculptor
ought to be remembered, which he is not, as one of the
precursors of the Renaissance in this country.

Another attempt of the same kind to make a chapel
popular had been tried in the parochial church of
Foston (1313); but the Archbishop of York, William
Grenefeld, was scandalized by such an abuse, and by a
letter full of good sense he put an end to the " great
1 See Appendix XVJ,

346 ENGLISH WA Y FARING LIFE.

concourse of simple people who came to visit a certain
image of the Holy Virgin recently placed in the church,
as if this image had something more divine than any
other images of the sort." x

The fact was, as may be noticed even in our days,
that, with or without the co-operation of the clergy,
some statues had a far better reputation than others ;
wonders were expected of them, and they were wor-
shipped accordingly ; the same vicissitudes were observ-
able for images as for relics and tombs of saints. This
statue had healed sick people without number, and that
one was known to have moved, to have made a s;gn,
to have spoken a word. Representations of miracles
worked by statues constantly recur in manuscripts ;
one, for instance, is to be found in several English
manuscripts of the fourteenth century.2 It shows how
a poor painter, being busy with colouring and gilding a
statue of the Virgin, with a most ugly devil under
her feet, the Evil One, angry at such an unpleasant
likeness, came and broke the ladder on which the
artist was standing ; but as he was falling and about
to be killed, the stone Virgin bent towards him, and

1 " Sane nupcr ad aures nostras pervenit quod ad quandam
imaginem beatae Virginis in ccclesia parochial! de Foston noviter
collocatam magnus simplicium est concursus, acsi in eadem plus
quam in aliis similibus imaginibus aliquid, numinis appareret "
(A.D. 1313, Wilkins' " Concilia," vol. ii. p. 423).

2 For example in the MS., 2 B. vii. in the British Museum, fol.
ill, and in 10 E. IV., fol. 209. The story of this miracle has
been told by numberless authors in the Middle Ages ; the text
of one version of the tale, with references to the others, will
be found in G. F. Warner, "Miracles de Nostre Dame," Rox-
burghe Club, i88q, pp. xxxiv and 63.

PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 347

extending her arm held him safe until help came.
Other deeds of statues were of a less graceful turn-
one was performed in the church of St. Paul-extra-
muros in Rome, as the Englishman Thomas Gascoigne
testifies. Some one had insulted the image of the saint,
saying : " ' Why hast thou got a sword, I mean to have
thy sword,' and he was trying to take it out of the
hands of the statue. But through God's doing, the
statue raised its sword on the impious man, and clove
his head to the chin ; and then death followed. This
happened at the time when Eugene IV. was Pope of
Rome, and a witness of the scene reported it to me ; this
witness was a beadel of the sa;d Pope, called Master
Erasmus Fullar, a priest of the kingdom of Hungary." l
Incidental pilgrimages apart, in ordinary times among
the English, people went to Durham to visit the tomb
of the holy Confessor Cuthbert, and the place where
was kept his ever -victorious banner ; to the shrine of
King Edward the Confessor in Westminster ; to St.
Albans, St. Edmund's Bury, St. David's, on account of
the saints after whom these towns are named ; to
Chichester, to worship the body of St. Richard the
Bishop ; to Glastonbury, where was the holy thorn-tree,
and where the church had been founded by St. Joseph
of Arimathea ; to Waltham, where a cross of black
marble had been miraculously found in the time of
King Knut. Lincoln, York, Peterborough, Win-

1 " Loci e libra veritatum, passages selected from Gascoigne's
Theological Dictionary " (1403-1458), edit. Thorold Rogers,
Oxford, 1881, p. 206. This Fullar is known to have come to
England, where he saw Gascoigne. Eugene IV. was Pope during
the second quarter of the fifteenth century.

348 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

Chester, Holywell, Beverley, and other places had
also attractions for the pilgrim ; but none could stand
comparison with Walsingham and Canterbury. At
Walsingham there was a church and a chapel ; in
the church, now levelled to the ground, was kept a
miraculous statue of the Virgin, anJ the building was
exactly similar to the Santa Casa of Loretto, which
may have been considered as a wonder in itself, for this
chapel had been built in the eleventh century, long
before the Casa was spoken of. In the church there
was a phial with milk of the Virgin in it. People
came there in numbers ; the road which led to Wal-
singham was called the palmers' way, and numerous
chapels were built along its line. The town itself was
full of inns and hospitals ; it was, in fact, a town of inns
and churches, as pilgrimage towns have geneially been.
Or else people hired horses at Southwark, with relays
at Rochester, and set out for St. Thomas of Canterbury.
This was the highroad to the continent ; a regular
service of hired horses had been established along it.
Twelvepence was paid from Southwark to Rochester,
twelvepence from Rochester to Canterbury, sixpence
from Canterbury to Dover. The horses were marked
with a hot iron in a prominent manner, so that un-
scrupulous travellers should not be tempted to quit the
road and appropriate their steeds.1 The sanctuary of
our Lady of Walsingham and that of St. Thomas had
a European reputation. Foreigners as well as the
English had a great reverence for St. Thomas of Canter-

1 Patent of 19 Richard II. in the appendix to Mr. Karkeek's
essay, "Chaucer's Schipman and his Barge, 'The Maudelayne,'"
Chaucer Society "Essays," 1884.

PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 349

bury, and went to make offerings at his shrine when
they could. Thus we find on August 3, 1402, a decree
of the Venetian Senate authorizing Lorenzo Contarini,
Captain of the Venetian galleys, setting out for Flanders,
to visit this shrine conformably to his vow. He was to
do it when the galleys were at Sandwich, and to go and
return in one day, not being permitted to sleep out of
his vessel.1

Rich and poor betook themselves there in numbers ;
Chaucer, who shows us all ranks of society mingled
together during the course of a holy journey, must not
be charged with exaggeration. The majority of these
pilgrims were sincere and in good faith ; they had
made a vow and came to fulfil it. With such
dispositions, the knight who found a pilgrim like
himself upon his road must have been less inclined
than ever to treat him with scorn ; besides, if the
distances were great between class and class at this
period, familiarities were still greater. The distance
has indeed diminished at the present day, and fami-
liarity also, as though in compensation. The noble
felt himself sufficiently raised above the common people
not to be afraid of using a kind of jovial intimacy with
them on occasion ; at the present time, when supe-
riority of rank is of less importance, every one is more
attentive and takes care not to outstep a limit which is
not now so patent as before.

Arrived at the end of the journey, all prayed ;
prayed with fervour in the humblest posture. The
soul was filled with religious emotion when from the end

1 " Calendar of Venetian State Papers relating to English
Affairs,'' edited by Rawdon Brown, 1864, vol. i. p. 42 (Rolls Series).

3$b ENGLISH WAYFAklttG LtM.

of the majestic alley formed by the great pillars of tvie
church, through the coloured twilight of the nave, the
heart divined, rather than the eye saw, the mysterious
object of veneration for which such a distance had been
traversed at the cost of such fatigue. Though the
practical man galloping up to bargain with the saint
for the favour of God, though the emissary sent to
make offering in the name of his master might keep a
dry and clear eye, tears coursed down the cheeks of the
poor and simple in heart ; he tasted fully of the pious
emotion he had come to seek, the peace of heaven
descended into his bosom, and he went away consoled.
Such was the happy lot of simple devout souls. Pil-
grims, however, were undoubtedly a very mingled race ;
no reader of Chaucer needs to be reminded that the talk
on the road was not always limited to edifying subjects,
and that pilgrims themselves, even allowing the greater
number to have been sincere and devout people, were not
all of them vessels of election. Some went like gypsies
to a fair, to gather money ; some went for the pleasures
of the journey and the merriments of the road ; so that
reformers and satirists, seeing only the abuse and not
the good that might come along with it, began to raise
a cry which became louder and louder until it was
something like a storm at the time of the Reformation.
Whom did Langland see on Palmers' way, near Wal-
singham ? Those same false hermits we have already
met by the highroads and at the corner of bridges, and
in what objectionable company did he find them !

" Eremytes on an hep with hokede staues,
Wenten to Walsyngham and hure (their) wenches after ;

PlL GR1MS AMD PIL GRIM A G&S. $ 5 1

Crete lobies and longe that loth were to swynke,
Clothede hem in copis to be knowe fro othere,
And made hem-selue Eremytes hure else to hauc."1

Wyclif denounced pilgrimages most persistently, so
much so that when one of his followers had to renounce
his heresies, belief in the usefulness and sanctity of
pilgrimages was one of the articles he had to subscribe.
Thus, in his vow of abjuration, the Lollard William
Dynet of Nottingham, on December i, 1395, swears
in these words : " Fro .this day forthwarde I shall
worshipe ymages, with praying and offering vnto
hem, in the worschepe of the seintes that they be made
after ; and also I shal neuermore despyse pylgremage." 2

Poets of a reforming mind objected to pilgrimages, not
so much on account of the worship of images, but
because they thought these travels an encouragement to
laziness and idle living. We know the opinion of
Langland. It is curious to find the same views ex-
pressed by an author of a quite different turn of mind,
the author of the " Roman du Renart." He has a
special chapter to inform us "of the pilgrimage of
Reynard and how he went to Rome." Reynard cannot
but consider that he has greatly and many a time sinned,
and feeling some anxiety about his misdeeds, goes to
a hermit and confesses himself. But such are the
faults he has to declare that the holy man does not take
upon himself to absolve him, but advises him to go to
Rome and ask the absolution of the Pope. Reynard
accordingly " takes his scrip and burdon [that is, his

1 "Piers Plowman," Skeat's edition, Text C, pass. i. 1. 51.

2 Printed in The Academy, November 17, 1883, p. 331.

35 2 ENGLISH WAYFA&ING LIFE.

wallet and staff, as did all pilgrims], and begins to move
on, and takes to his road ; he looks quite like a pilgrim,
his scrip fits his neck beautifully." But travelling alone
is not pleasant ; he meets Belin the Sheep, and persuades
him to come with him, and a little farther a donkey,
" Bernart the arch-priest," who was eating thistles in a
ditch ; he also secures this new companion. As night
is coming, the three, finding themselves near the
house of Primaut the Wolf, enter without ceremony
and make themselves at home, while the owners of
the place are away. They find there "salted meat,
cheese, and eggs . . . and good ale. Belin drinks so
much that he loses his head, and then begins to sing, and
the arch-priest to organ-bray, and Master Reynard sings
in falsetto." But their merriment is soon at an end. The
alarm has been given ; Ysengrin, Hersent, and a num-
ber of other wolves, relations, friends, compeers of
Primaut, who all of them owe grudges to Reynard,
come round and besiege the pilgrims. They escape
with great difficulty. Ill-pleased with these grievous
adventures, they agree not to go to Rome at all,
and Reynard, to whom, rather against likeliness, the
author here lends his own thoughts, winds up the
enterprise with a speech : f My lords,' says he, ' by
my head, this wandering is loathsome and tiring.
There is in the world many a good man that has
never been to Rome ; such an one has come back
from the seven saints who is worse than he ever
was. I mean to take my way home, and I shall live
by my labour and seek honest earnings ; I shall be
charitable to poor people.' Then they cried, * Be it
so, be it so,' and they betook themselves homewards." l
1 See Appendix XVII.

PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 353

The same mode of reasoning was used later on at the
time of the Renaissance by no less a man than Erasmus,
who has described in his most satirical vein the vanities
of pilgrims and pilgrimages. He supposes a meeting
of two friends, Menedemus and Ogygyus, this last one
being just come back from Compostella, and, what is
more interesting for us, from Walsingham, " the most
holy name in all England. . . . The towne is almost
susteynyd by the resort of pylgrymes." The faithful
believer Ogygyus goes on describing the wonders
of the place, the gold and silver and precious stones
offered to the miraculous statue of our Lady, the
marvels worked at the holy wells, the miracle of the
knight towards whom the portal of the church stretched
itself, the beautiful relics, and especially the crystal
phial containing some milk of the Virgin. " Whan ye
ssxten sawe vs, he dyd runne to the aultre, and put
apon hym his surplese and his stole about his nekke,
knelyd downe relygyously and worshipyd it, and
streghtforthe dyd offre the mylke to vs to kysse." The
same ceremony with surplice and kneeling, though it
has vanished into oblivion at Walsingham, may still be
seen any day in numerous churches in the south of
Europe.1

Ogygyus and his friends make their offerings, not
without remarking that there are some unscrupulous
visitors who, by a clever trick, pick money out of the
plate instead of leaving in it any of their own : a trick
which, as we have seen, was used by Panurge on a cer-
tain day when he was somewhat " escorne et taciturne "
for want of pence.

1 For example at Milan, at the tomb of San Carlo Borromeo.

23

354 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

Erasmus ends his dialogue in the same strain as the
author of " Reynard " :

" * 1 have enough to do,' says the sceptical Mene-
demus, " * with my statyons of Rome.'

" Ogygyus- Of Rome, that dyd neuer see Rome ?

" Menedemus. I wyll tell you, thus I go my
statyons at home. I go in to the parler, and I se vnto
the chast lyuynge of my doughters ; agayne frome
thense I go in to my shope, I beholde what my
servauntes, bothe men and women, be doynge. From
thense into the kytchyn, lokynge abowt, if ther nede
any of my cownsell ; frome thense hyther and thyther,
obseruynge howe my chylderne be occupyed, what my
wyffe dothe, beynge carefull that euery thynge be in
ordre : these be statyons of Rome.

" Ogygyus' But these thynges saynt James wold dow
for yow.

" Menedemus. That I shuld se vnto these thynges
holy Scripture commaundethe ; that I shuld commyt
the charge to sayntes I dyd rede yt neuer com-
maunded." l

The friend of Erasmus, Sir Thomas More, took the
opposite view, and wrote a dialogue in defence of
images, relics, and pilgrimages, but in vain.2 The

1 "A Dialoge or communication of two persons, deuysyd and set
forthe in the laten tonge, by the noble and famose claike,
Desiderius Erasmus, intituled ye pylgremage of pure deuotyon.
Newly translatyd into Englishe." London (1540?), 16°.

8 " A Dyaloge of syr Thomas More knyghte . . . wherin be
treatyd dyuers maters, as of the veneration and worshyp of ymagys
and relyques, praying to sayntys, and goyng on pylgrymage, wyth
many othere thyngys touchyng the pestylent sect of Luther and
Tyndale." London, 1529, 4°.

PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 355

time of the Reformation had come ; doubt was
becoming general, and from peasant to baron all the
people assimilated arguments like those of Latimer :

" What thinke ye of these images that are had more
then their felowes in reputation ? that are gone vnto
with such labour and werines of the body, frequented
with such our cost, sought out and visited with such
confidence ? what say ye by these images, that are so
famous, so noble, so noted, beying of them so many
and so diuers in England. Do you thinke that this
preferryng of picture to picture, image to image, is the
right vse, and not rather the abuse of images ? " l

These times were yet to come. In the Middle Ages
pilgrims came in numbers to offer their prayers, and
also money, each one in proportion to his means.
When the king, in his perpetual goings and comings,
turned aside to visit a revered shrine, it was the custom
that he should give seven shillings. The ordinances of
Edward II. for his household make express mention of
the sum.2

Before going away the pilgrims bought, then as
now, medals or signs as recollections of their journey.3

1 The sermon . . . made ... to the conuocation of the clergy
(28 Henry VIII.), in " Frutefvll sermons preached by the right
reverend rather and constant martyr of Jesus Christ, M. Hugh
Latymer." London, 1571, p. 10.

3 Ordinance for the state of the wardrobe and the account of the
household, June, 1323. "King Edward II. 's Household and
Wardrobe Ordinances," ed. Furnivall, Chaucer Society, 1876,
p 62.

3 C. Roach Smith has described a number of them in his
"Collectanea Antiqua," London, 1848, vol. i. p. 8 1, and vol. ii.
p. 43. He has given drawings of many which had bcen"dis-

356 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

The author of the supplement to the " Canterbury
Tales " at the beginning of the fifteenth century shows
the pilgrims purchasing in the town various sorts oi
sygnys or brochis. They were merely of pewter or lead,
and were perforated to be more easily sewn on the
breast or cap, rather like those which are sold at the
present day at St. Anne d'Auray in Brittany, but
larger. At Canterbury they represented St. Thomas,
and were usually in the shape of an ampulla or a little
flask ; at St. James' they represented shells ; at Amiens
the head of St. John the Baptist : <f Ecce signum faciei
beati Johannis Baptiste"; at Rome the holy sudary, which
was called the vernicle ; l at Rocamadour the Holy
Virgin. The right of selling these signs was a source
of profit, and it sometimes belonged exclusively to a
convent or to a private family. At Rocamadour this
right had been conceded in return, it seems, for military
services to the family of the De Valon, lords of

covered chiefly in the bed of the Thames, and in making the
approaches to new London Bridge."

1 Among the ornaments worn by Chaucer's pardoner was a
"vernicle " on his cap, as may be seen in the drawing, p. 337. Sir
Thomas More, in his " Dialogue " (supra, p. 354) describes as follows
the vernicle represented on pilgrims' medals : How, says he, can
it be maintained that Christ blames images, " where he lykyd to
leue the holy vernacle, thexpresse ymage also of hys blessid
vysage, as a token to remain inhonour among such as louyd hym
from ye tyme of hys bytter passyon hytherto, whych as it was by
the myracle of hys blessid holy hand expressed and lefte in ye
sudari : so hath yt bene by lyke myracle in that thyn corruptyble
cloth kepte and preseruyd vncorrupted thys xv. C. yere freshe and
well perceyued, to ye inwarde cumforte, spyrytuall reioysyng and
grete encreace of feruoure and deuocyon in the harts of good
crysten people " (Sig. B. iii.).

PILGRIMS AN£> PILGRIMAGES. 357

Thegra.1 They and the Bishop of Tulle appointed a
deputy to superintend the sale, and the produce was
divided by halves between them and the bishop. Such
were the benefits derived from these sales that clandes-
tine manufactories of pewter medals were established
by the inhabitants, who sold numbers of them, to the
great detriment of the authorized shop and in defiance
of ever-recurring prohibitions. Once, however, free
selling was allowed to all the people of the place; it
was in the year 1425, when the country had been
reduced to such poverty that the bishop renounced his
privilege for two years, out of charity and for the
benefit of his flock.

Pilgrims when going home were careful to wear
prominently sewn on their garments these testimonials
of their holy travels. In the above-quoted dialogue of
Erasmus, the sceptical Menedemus wonders at the
appearance of his friend : " I pray you, what araye is
this that you be in ; me thynke that you be clothyd
with cockle schelles, and be laden on euery side with
bruches of lead and tynne. And you be pretely
garnyshed with wrethes of strawe, and your arme is full
of snakes egges." The French king Louis XI., of grim
memory, was usually dressed about in the same manner,
and always wore, at least on his hat, some such pewter
medals and brooches. " And truly," writes his con-
temporary, Claude de Seyssel, " his devotion seemed
more superstitious than religious. For to whatever
image or church of God and the saints or of Our
Lady that he heard the people were devoted, or where

1 "Guide du pelerin a Rocamadour," by M. le Chanoine
Laporte, Rocamadour, 1862, chap. viii.

35$ ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

miracles were worked, he went there to make offerings,
or sent a man there expressly. He had, besides, his
hat quite full of images, mostly of lead or pewter,
which he kissed on all occasions when any good or
bad news arrived, or that his fancy prompted him ;
casting himself upon his knees so suddenly at times, in
whatever place he might be, that he seemed more like
one wounded in his understanding than a rational

" T

man.

Like the king, Louis XI., the professional pilgrims
wore a great number of images and medals on their
coats. For, beside the occasional pilgrim who came to
make an offering to such or such a shrine in accom-
plishment of a vow and afterwards returned to take up
the course of his ordinary life again, there was the
pilgrim by calling, whose whole existence was passed in
travelling from one sanctuary to another, always on the
road, and always begging. The professional pardoner
and the professional palmer, who, among other places
had seen Jerusalem and carried on his shoulder the
palm of the Holy Land, are the two most curious
types of the religious wayfaring race, and have hardly
any equivalent in our days. Like the pardoner and the
friar, the pilgrim had by calling a great experience of
men and things ; he had seen much, but with what he
retained he mingled a world of imaginations born of
his own brain. He too had to edify the multitude to
whom he held out his hand for alms, and the grand
stories of which he was the hero might not fail him

1 '* Les louenges du roy Louys xije. de ce nom," nouvellement
composees par maistre Claude de Seyssel, docteur en tous droits.
Paris, 1 508, sign. f. iii.

PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 350

under pain of dying of hunger, they formed his liveli-
hood. By virtue of repeating his tales, he finished bv
first half believing them, then entirely ; and his voice
thence took that accent of truth which alone can produce
conviction in the audience. Besides, he came from such
a distance that he might indeed have seen marvels-
around us, thought they, life flows on without prodigies
almost without events in its flat monotony ; but
every one knows that in distant countries things are
quite different. And the best proof is that none of
those who have undertaken the journey comes back
disappointed ; quite the contrary ; besides, the pleasure
of believing them is innocent enough, and we shall do
wrong to deprive ourselves of it.

Clever people, poets, men of the world, of course
deprived themselves of this pleasure ; they made up
this deficiency as best they could another way, by
laughing at pilgrims and all story-telling travellers. In
this way Chaucer put together for public merriment,
sailors, messengers, and pilgrims, as we have already
seen. To the same effect but in a graver mood,
Langland wrote in his " Visions " :

"Pylgrimis and palmers plyghten hem to-gederes,
To seche saint lame and seyntys of rome,
Wenten forth in hure (their) way with meny vn-wyse tales,
And hauen leue to lye al hure lyf-tyme." l

The crowd reasoned in a different way ; they listened,
laughed perhaps sometimes, but more often collected
themselves and remained attentive. The pilgrim was
enough respected to find his living ; and he took care

1 Skcat's edition. Text C, pass. i. 1. 47.

360 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE,

by the recital of his miseries to make himself the
more revered ; the numerous leaden medals sewn
to his clothes spoke highly in his favour, and a man
was well received who had passed through Rome and
through Jerusalem, and could give news of the

O *^ t?

" worshippers " of Mahomet. He had a bag hung at
his side for provisions, and a staff in his hand ; at the
top of the staff was a knob and sometimes a piece of
metal with an appropriate inscription, as, for example,
the device of a bronze ring found at Hitchin, a cross
with these words, " Hasc in tute dirigat iter " (" May this
direct thee in safety on the way ").* The staff at the
other end had an iron point, like an alpenstock of the
present day ; it may be seen in numerous drawings in
manuscripts.

But, as we have remarked, the whole race of
wanderers was looked at askance by the king's officers ;
these goings and comings disquieted the sheriff. We
know that the workmen who were weary of their
master left him under pretext of distant pilgrimages,
and without scruple laid down the pilgrim's staff at the
door of a new master who would pay them better.

1 See the drawing of this ring in vol. viii. of the " Archaeological
Journal," p. 360. The stick or pilgrim's staff and the bag or
" scrip " were notoriously the signs of pilgrims. In the romance
of King Horn, the hero meets on his road a palmer^ and to dis-
guise himself changes clothes with him ; in this transformation
the author only points out the characteristic particulars, that is to say,
the stafF and the bag. " Horn took burdon and scrippe." (" King
Horn, with fragments of Floris and Blauncheflur," ed. by J. H.
Lumby, Early English Text Society, 1866.) We have seen above,
p. 352, that Reynard on his way to Rome took exactly the same
implements.

PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES.

361

False pilgrims were not less numerous than false par-
doners and false hermits ; they were condemned to repose,
under pain of imprisonment, by the same statutes
as the beggars and the wandering workmen. Hence-
forward, orders Richard II. in 1388, they also must
have, like these, letters of passage with a special seal
entrusted to certain law-worth men. Without that
let them be arrested, unless they are infirm and in-

tnC

AN ENGLISH PILGRIM.
(From the MS. 17 C. xxxviii.)

capable of work ; it is evident that in this latter case they
do not go to Walsingham for the love of vagabondage,
and that their journey has a serious object.1 The same
severity was shown when it was a matter of crossing
the sea ; they must be furnished with passports in
order ; and the law comprises " all manner of people, as
well clerks as other," under pain of confiscation of all
1 Statute 12 Rich. II. cap 7.

362 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIF£.

their goods. The reservations made by the king show
that it is the wanderers alone whom he has in view,
for there is a dispensation for the " lords and other
great persons of the realm," for the " true and notable
merchants," and lastly, for the " king's soldiers." l

This passport or " licence," this " special leave of
the king," could only be available at certain fixed ports,
namely, London, Sandwich, Dover, Southampton,
Plymouth, Dartmouth, Bristol, Yarmouth, Boston,
Kingston-upon-Hull, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and the
ports of the coast opposite to Ireland. Very heavy
penalties were laid on all wardens of ports, inspectors,
captains of ships, &c., who were neglectful, or so bold
as to be favourable to the roamers. In the year 1389,
the king restrained pilgrims who were going on the Con-
tinent from embarking anywhere else than from Dover
or Plymouth. To take sea elsewhere it would be
necessary to have an " especial licence from the king
himself." 2 A number of such licences, as will be seen
further on, are still in existence.

But the attraction to distant pilgrimages was great ; 3
with or without letters men crossed the Channel, for

1 Statute 5 Rich. II. st. I, c. 2. Restrictions on pilgrimage-making
existed also in France. See an ordinance of Charles VI., February
27, 1599, prohibiting pilgrimage to Rome. " Recueil d'Isambert,"
vol. vi. p. 843.

*" Rolls of Parliament," 13 Rich. II. vol. iii. p. 275, and Statute
I, cap. 20 of 13 Rich. II.

3 As to the number of pilgrimages, their origin, and history, see
the "Dictionnaire, geographique, historique, descriptif,archcologique
des pelerinages anciens et modernes," by L. de Sivry et M. de Cham-
pagnac, Paris, 1850, 2 vols. 8vo, forming vols. xliii. and xliv. of
Migne's " Encyclopedic thcologique."

PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES, 363

which they paid sixpence, or if they had a horse, two
shillings.1 They arrived at Calais, stopping there some
time in a " Maison-Dieu," or hospital, which had been
built and endowed by pious s,,uls with revenues " for
the sustenance of the pilgrims and other poor folks
repairing to the said town to rest and refresh them." 2
Setting out again, they went to Boulogne to pray to a
miraculous virgin, whose hand still exists enclosed in a
reliquary. The statue itself was thrown into a well by
the Protestants in 1567 ; replaced on the altar in 1630,
it was pulled down again at the Revolution and burnt ;
but one of the faithful saved the hand, which the church
of Notre Dame preserves to this day. Chaucer's
travelled gossip, the Wife of Bath, had among other pil-
grimages, made this to Boulogne. 3 People also went
to Amiens to worship the head, or rather one of
the heads, of St. John the Baptist. Great was their
wonder, as we can readily believe, when, continuing
their journey, they fell in with another head of the same
saint at Constantinople. Perhaps, Jet us hope, they were
content with remarking as " Mandeville " does : Which
is the true one ? " 1 wot nere, but God knowethe ; but

* Statute 4 Ed. III. c. 8.

2 Petition of the Calais burgesses, "Rolls of Parliament," vol. iii.
p. 500, 4 Henry IV., A.D. 1402. In Dover too, on the opposite shore,
there was such a house, the inventory of which has been printed.
Walcott, "Inventories of St. Mary's Hospital or Maison-Dieu,
Dover," London, 1869. In the diary of his travels, during the six-
teenth century, the Greek Nicander N ucius observes that the town of
Dover seemed to be made almost entirely of inns and hotels. (" The
Travels of Nicander Nucius of Corcyra," Camden Society, 1841.)

3 Sec Prof. J. W. Hales' letter to The Aiademi of April 22. 1882,
(P- 287).

364 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

in what wyse than men worschipen it, the blessed seym
John holt him a-payd." l Then also people went to the
shrine of the three kings at Cologne, to Paris where
innumerable relics were kept, and to many places in
France, among which one of the most celebrated and to
the present day most curious was our Lady of Rocama-
dour in Guyenne. The fame of this pilgrimage among
Englishmen is attested by Langland, when he advises
people belonging to the religious orders to cease pil-
grimage-making, and rather practice virtue at home :

" Right so, if thow be Religious renne thou neuer ferther
To Rome ne to Rochemadore."2

It was a place of great renown. Roland, according
to a legend, went there before starting for the ill-fated
expedition where he met his death, and a large piece of
rusted iron is still shown in the old church as being part
of the famous Durandal. Henry II. of England came
there, too, as a pilgrim ; as did many other illustrious
travellers, Simon de Montfort among them. 3 The
place was fortified and had a part to play in the Hundred
Years' War. It may be seen in Lord Berners's Froissart,
" howe Sir Robert Carrol and Sir John Chandos . . .
toke Guaches, Rochemador, and diuers other townes,
the which wer newly turned frenche." 4

Then there were Spanish pilgrimages, and especially

1 Halliwell's edition, 1866, p. 108.

2 Text B, p. xii. 1. 37. Skeat's edition.

3 A. B. Caillau, " Histoire de Notre Dame de Rocamadour,"
Paris, 1834, pp. 73,^/wy.

* Vol. i. ch. cclviii.

FORTIFIED ENTRANCE TO THE SANCTUARIES OF ROCAMAOOUR. L/>-

(Reeenlly restored.}

PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 367

the world-famous one at Compostella, where English
travellers went usually direct by sea. Licences autho-
rizing the owners and captain of such or such a ship to
carry to St. James' a fixed number of pilgrims are still
in existence, and fill page after page in Rymer's
" Foedera." They were granted pursuant to the
statute of Richard above mentioned, and are all drawn
after one or two models, varying very little one from
the other. They are in Latin, with the name of the
ship in French. Here is an example of the year 1394 :

" The king, to all and each of his Admirals, &c.,
greeting.

' ' Know you that we have given licence to Oto Chamber-
noun, William Gilbert, and Richard Gilbert, to receive
and embark in the harbour of Dartmouth a hundred pil-
grims in a certain ship belonging to the same Oto,
William, and Richard, called la Charite de Paynton, of
which Peter Cok is captain ; and to take them to
Saint James, there to fulfil their vows, and from thence
to bring them back to England, freely and without hin-
drance, notwithstanding any ordinances to the contrary." l

A few provisos are added, the keeping of which the
pilgrims must swear before leaving England ; they must
upon their oath bind themselves to do nothing contrary
to the obedience and fealty they owe the king ; they
must not take out of the realm gold or silver in money or
bullion beyond what is necessary to their journey, and
sometimes it is added that they must not reveal the
secrets of the kingdom.

During the following century these licences became
innumerable, or rather they have be^n preserved in much

l"Foedera," ed. 1704, &c., vol. vii. p. 468, 17 Rich. II. 1394.

3 68 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

larger numbers. They show that, in fact, fleets loaded
with English pilgrims plied towards St. James'. We find
that " Le Petre de Darthmouth " is allowed to carrry
sixty pilgrims ; " La Marie de Southampton," a hun-
dred ; " La Sainte Marie de Blakney," sixty ; " Le
Garlond de Crowemere," sixty ; " La Trinite de Wells,"
forty ; " Le Thomas de Saltash," sixty ; and so on.
Numbers usually vary from thirty to one hundred.1

It must not be thought that these ships, carrying a
hundred passengers besides their crew on this rather
long journey, were large, well-appointed vessels.
They very much resembled the pilgrim-ships of the
present day, who carry every year to Jeddah, on the
Red Sea. crowds of Arabs on their way to Mecca. The
pilgrims were huddled together in the most uncomfortable
fashion, and had opportunities in plenty to do penance
and offer their sufferings to the saint. This may be
determined by more than probabilities, for one of those
English pilgrims, thus allowed by royal licence to
go to Galicia provided that they did not reveal the
secrets of the realm, has left a complaint about his
experience on such a journey, that has survived.
You must not think of laughing, says he, when you go
by sea to St. James' ; there is sea-sickness ; you are
pushed about by sailors under pretext of hindering the
working of the ship ; the smell is most unpleasant :

" Men may leue alle gamys
That saylen to Seynt Jamys !
Ffor many a man hit gramys (vexes)
When they begin to sayle.

i"Fcedera," 12 Hen. VI. 1434, vol. x. pp. 567-569.

PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 371

Ffor when they haue take the see
At Sandwych or at Wynchylsee,
At Bristow, or where that hit bee,
Theyr hertes begyn to fayle."

The mocking remarks of the seamen are very painful
to bear. Says the captain :

*' Some ar lyke to cowgh and grone
Or hit be full mydnyght ; "

and then turning to his men :

" ' Hale the bowelyne ! now, vere the shete !
Cooke, make redy anoon our mete,
Our pylgryms haue no lust to etc,
I pray God yeue hem rest ! '

' Go to the helm ! what, howe ! no nere ?
Steward, felow ! A pot of bere ! ' —
— ' Ye shalle have sir, with good chere,
Anon alle of the best.' "

Pilgrims were sea-sick; they could not eat, they weie
laughed at, they found the time very long ; some tried
to read with a book on their knees, but then they felt
as if their head would burst :

*' Som layde theyr bookys on theyr kne,
And rad so long they myght nat se ; —
'Alias ! myne hede wolle cleue on thre ! '"

When they are at their worst, then comes a facetious
sailor to bawl out in their ears : Cheer up, in a moment
we shall be in a storm !

37« ENGLISH WAYfARING LIFE.

" Then cometh oone and seyth : ' Be mery ;
Ye shall haue a storme or a pery ' (a squall)

* * * *

Thys mene whyle the pylgryms ly
And haue theyr bowlys fast theym by."

In short, they were very unhappy, and as the narrator
said at first, they were little inclined to games and
laughter.1

Everywhere votive offerings were hung in venerated
sanctuaries ; if, on one hand, by striking a wax statuette
together with appropriate incantations some one might?
do you great harm, on the other, by placing your image
in the chapel of a saint, great favours might be won for
you, especially cures in cases of sickness.2 There were
prisoners' irons, swords of warriors, crutches of
cripples, jewels and precious stones, tablets and offerings
of all sorts. At Rocamadour tresses of women's hair
were to be seen ; they hung there as a threat as well as
an admonition. " They were, relates the knight of La
Tour Landry, those of " ladies and gentille women
that had be wasshe in wyne, and in other thinges for
to make the here of colour otherwise thanne God made
it, the whiche ladies and gentille women that aught
(owned) the tresses were corny nge thedirward on
pilgrimage, but they may neuer haue powere to come
withinne the chirche dore vnto the tyme that thei hadde

1 "The Stacions or Rome and the Pilgrim's Sea Voyage," ed.
Furnivall, Early English Text Society, 1867^.47. This complaint
on the Compostella pilgrimage is of the fifteenth century.

2 " The Paston Letters," ed. Jas. Gairdner, vol. i. p. 48. Letter
of Margaret Paston of September »8, 1443.

PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 373

cutte of the tresses of her here," J which, says he, still
continue to be there.

Another fine story to the same effect and concerning
the same sanctuary is told by Mielot, who reports how
a very fair lady, who had led an ill life, lost her sight
as a punishment, through the will of Heaven. She went
in pilgrimage to Rocamadour, prayed to the Virgin, and
was healed, but could not, however, enter the sanctu-
aries. She then confessed on the spot to a priest, who,
" looking at her fair face," said : " Dear friend, I well
know that with these fair tresses of your hair you have
done great hurt to those to whom you have shown them.
I decide that they must be cut off in honour of God
and of our Lady." This was done ; " the tresses were
cut, and the priest had them carried inside the church
on a pole, on which were placed the tresses of women
who would be saved." Then the lady was able to enter
the church, and she praised the Virgin. But as she
was going away she could not help thinking " of her
fair hair that she had left," and she exclaimed: " Holy
Mary, my heart is sorrowful for my hair that I leave
you, and I cannot well make up my mind to it." She
had scarcely cpoken when the tresses were at once
restored to her " as fair as they were before ; " but the
blindness came back too, and blind she remained for
ever, which is a good example, " ung bel exemplaire,"
for ladies that " seek false pleasures in their fine waists
and faces." 2

1 " The Book of the Knight of La Tour Landry,"translated from
the French temp. Henry VI., edited by Thomas Wright (Early
English Text Society), 1 868, p. 70. The original French work is
of the fourteenth century.

1 *' Miracles de Nostre Dame," collected by Jean Mie"lot, edited

374 ENGLISH WAYfARlNG LlF£.

But what attracted many besides were the indulgences.
They were considerable, and the popular imagination
still further augmented their extent. The pilgrim who,
returning from Rome, came to his home, exaggerated
their number as willingly as that of the marvels which
he had seen, or thought he had seen. A pilgrim of
this kind has left his impressions of his journey in a
short poem ; he was an Englishman of the fourteenth
century, who came back from Italy dazzled by his re-
collections. His fancy is not very poetic, but we must
take into account his intention, which was merely to
collect exact figures ; thus without delaying for
picturesque descriptions, he only gives us precise infor-
mation. His strong narrow devotion allowed him to
see nothing else than thousands of the bodies of
martyrs, and he enumerated them with perseverance.
By thousands also are reckoned the years of indulgence
which he flashes as a lure in the eyes of his fellow
countrymen.

" Gif men wuste (knew), grete and smale,
The pardoun that is at grete Rome,
Thei wolde tellen in heore dome (in their opinion),
Hit were no neod to mon in cristiante
To passe in to the holy lond ouer the see
To Jerusalem, ne to Kateryne." *

But to begin with, he must give an abridgment of the
history of Rome ; it is a city to which first came the
Duchess of Troy with her two sons, Romulus and Ro-

by G. F. Warner, Roxburghe Club, 1885, p. 58. This version of
the tale is of the fifteenth century, but the story itself is muth
older.

1 I.e., St. Catherine on Mount Sinai.

PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 375

mulon, who afterwards founded the town. The duchess
thus seems to have chosen to establish herself in a city
which did not yet exist, an inadvertence in the narrator
which we must pardon. Rome was pagan at first, but
Peter and Paul

" Hit hedde i-bought,
With gold ne seluer, ne with no goode,
Bot with heore flesch and with heore blode."

The enumeration of the churches soon begins, and
for each of them we invariably learn the quantity of
relics kept in it, and of indulgences attached to it. The
benefits are proportioned to the merits ; thus when a
man sees the vernicle, that is, the holy sudary or hand-
kerchief which received the image of the Saviour, he
wins three thousand years of indulgence if he dwells
in Rome, nine thousand if he comes from a neighbouring
country,

"And thou that passest over the see
Twelve thousend yer is graunted to the."

When you enter Sts. Vitus and Modestus, the third
of your sins are remitted. Then, you descend into the
catacombs :

** But thou most take candel liht,
Elles thou gost merk (dark) as niht,
For vnder the eorthe most thou wende
Thou maight not see bifore ne bihynde
For thider fledde mony men
For drede of deth to sauen hem
And suffrede peynes harde and sore
In heuene to dwelle for euer more."

376 ENGLISH WAYFARING Lll<£.

The bodies of martyrs are innumerable ; * there are
four thousand of them at Saint Prudence, thirteen
hundred at Saint Praxede, seven thousand at Sts. Vitus
and Modestus. From time to time a famous name
brings up an historic glimpse, such as the recital of the
foundation of Rome, or the abridged life of Constan-
tine:

** In Mahoun was al his thouht."

He was at first a pagan and a leper, but according to our
author's information, he was converted and cured by
Pope Silvester. The church of St. Mary the Round,
formerly bore another name:

"Agrippa dude hit make
For Sibyl and Neptanes sake

* * * *

He gaf hit name Panteon."

He placed there a magnificent golden idol sitting, of
a particular shape :

" Hit looked forth as a cat,
He called it Neptan."

1 William Wey, in the fifteenth century, thus mentions the cata-
combs : "Item ibi est una spelunca nuncupata Sancti Kalixti cimi-
terium, et qui earn pertransit cum devocione, illi indulgentur omnia
suapeccata. Etibi multa corpora sanctorum sunt, que nullus homi-
num numerare nequit nisi solus Deus " ("The Itineraries of William
Wey,"Roxburghe Club, 1857, p. 146). Wey, like the author of the
poem, sometimes mentions prodigious numbers of bodies of
martyrs ; at the church called Scala Celi, " sunt ossa sanctorum
decem millia militum;" in one single part of St. Peter's at Rome,
there are " Petronella et xiii. millia sanctorum martyrum."

PtLGRIMS AMI) PILGRIMAGES. 37?

This idol had a cap or cover of brass which was
blown off by the wind, and carried to the church of St.
Peter. But Pope Boniface prayed the Emperor Julian
to give him the Pantheon, to which that prince con-
sented ; and one year, on November 1st, the sovereign
pontiff consecrated the building, and baptized it St.
Mary the Round.

As for relics, there is not an object mentioned by the
Gospel which has not been found, and which may not
be venerated at Rome.1 The table of the Last Supper
may be seen there, Aaron's rod, fragments of the
multiplied loaves and fishes, hay from the stall at
Bethlehem, a swaddling-cloth of the infant Jesus, and
several other things, some of which are strange
enough. Some of these relics are still in the same
churches ; for instance, the portrait of the Virgin by St.
Luke at Santa Marie Maggiore,2 " Seinte Marie the
Maiour." This is not, according to the pilgrim, a
picture really made by St. Luke ; he was going to do it,
and had prepared all his colours, when he suddenly
found the portrait before him, finished by the hands of
angels :

1 William Wey (fifteenth century) said of the church of the
Holy Cross : " Item, ibi sunt duo ciphi, unus plenus sanguine Ihesu
Cristi, and alter plenus lacte beate Marie Virginis " ("Itineraries,"
p. 146). Those who drink at the three fountains which gushed
out at the death of St. Paul are cured of all maladies ; those who
visit the church of St. Mary of the Annunciation will never be
struck by lightning ; at the church of St. Vivian there is " herba
crescens quam ipsa plantavit et valet contra caducum morbum."
At the church of St. Sebastian is shown a foot-print of Jesus; and
there it is, in fact, still to be seen at the present day. (Ibid. pp.
143-148.) ' In the Borghese chapel.

378 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

" Seint Luik while he liued in londe,
Wolde haue peynted hit with his honde,
And whon he hedde ordeyned so
Alle colours that schulde ther to,
He fond an ymage al a-pert,
Non such ther was middelert,
Mad with angel hond and not with his
As men in Rome witnesseth this." *

Other towns in Italy could almost rival Rome
with the precious relics in their churches ; Venice
especially was full of wonders of all sorts, and was
admired and visited accordingly, as may be seen from the
travelling notes of a troop of French pilgrims in the
year 1395. In this "most excellent, noble, great and
fine town all seated in the sea " may be seen the arm of
" our Lord St. George," the burdon of St. Nicholas, one
of the water-pots of Cana, one ear of St. Paul, some of
the " roasted flesh of St. Lawrence turned to powder,"
three of the stones thrown at St. Stephen, the body of
St. Mark, " which is a very fine and noble thing "
Besides, there is " in the Maison-Dieu of Venice one of
the molar teeth of a giant that was called Goliath, which

1 " The Stacions of Rome " (fourteenth century), edited by
F. J. Furnivall, Early English Text Society, 1867. Another ver-
sion of the same poem, with various readings, was printed in
" Political, Religious, and Love Poems," by the same editor
(Early English Text Society), in 1866, p. 113. See in this last
volume notes by Mr. W. M. Rossetti on the " Stacions," pp.
xxi-xlviii. He compares the information furnished by the author
of the poem to that given by the Italian Francino in the book com-
posed by him in 1600, on the same subject. Mr. Rossetti
indicates also what is still shown at Rome of the relics named in
the "Stacions."

PILG&IMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 379

giant David killed, and know you that this tooth is more
than half a foot long and weighs twelve pounds." *

It was after this fashion that the traveller related his
recollections, and these are epitomes of the discourses
which he held forth to his countrymen. The wish to
set out in their turn was awakened, and those who re-
mained in the village joined from their soul in the
pilgrim's work, and indeed in giving him help. On his
road he was treated in the same way by pious persons,
and it was thanks to these customs that poor persons
could accomplish distant pilgrimages. The rules of
several gilds provided for the case of a member who
might set out thus, to fulfil a vow. In order to take
part in his merits, all the " bretheren and sisteren" accom-
panied him out of the town, and on bidding him farewell
gave him some money. They watched their friend go
off with his measured step, beginning a journey across
many countries, which must last during months, some-
times during years. They returned to the town, and
the elders who knew the world no doubt told what
strange things their companion would see in those dis-
tant lands, and what subjects for continual edification he
would meet with on his road.

The Gild of the Resurrection at Lincoln, founded in
1374, has among its rules, "If any brother or sister
wishes to make pilgrimage to Rome, St. James of Galicia,
or the Holy Land, he shall forewarn the gild ; and all
the bretheren and sisteren shall go with him to the city
gate, and each shall give him a half- penny at least."

1 "Le Saint Voyage de Jherusalem du Seigneur d'Anglure," ed.
Bonnardot and Longnon, Societe' des Anciens Textes Fran9ais, 1878,
PP- 3, 4-

380 ENGLISH WA ypAklNG LIFE.

The same rule is found in the Gild of Fullers of Lincoln,
founded in 1297 ; the pilgrim going to Rome was accom-
panied as far as the Queen's Cross outside the town if he
left on a Sunday or a feast-day ; and if he could let them
know of his return and it were not a working day, all
went to meet him at the same place and accompanied
him to the monastery. Again, the tailors also give a
half-penny to him among them who is going to Rome
or St. James, and a penny to him who goes to the Holy
Land. The ordinances of the Gild of the Virgin,
founded at Hull in 1357, had : " If any brother or sister
of the gild wishes at any time to make a pilgrimage to
the Holy Land, then, in order that all the gild may
share in his pilgrimage, he shall he fully released from
his yearly payment until his return."

There were also gilds which kept open house to
receive the pilgrims, always with the same object of
joining themselves by some good work to that of the
traveller. Thus the gild-merchant of Coventry, founded
in 1340, maintained " a common lodging-house of thir-
teen beds," to receive poor travellers who cross the
country going on pilgrimage or from any other pious
motive. This hostelry was directed by a governor, aided
by a woman who washed the feet of the travellers and
took care of them. The annual expenditure on this
foundation was ten pounds sterling.1

When one of the king's servants had a pilgrimage to
make, the prince, understanding his motive, willingly
authorized him to depart, and even helped him with
money. Edward III. gave to William Clerk, one of his
messengers, one pound six shillings and eightpence, to
1 Toulmin Smith, "English Gilds," pp. 157, 177, 180, 182, 231.

PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 381

help him in his charges during the pilgrimage undertaken
by him to Jerusalem and Mount Sinai.1

Yet, as we have seen, the fourteenth century was not
an age of serious and true devotion. The Popes Jived
at Avignon, their prestige was declining, and particularly
in England ; even the prelates showed at times very little
respect: for the Roman Court. Nowhere can be found,
not even in Wyclif, more violent accusations nor more
scandalous anecdotes concerning the Pope than in the
chronicle composed by Thomas of Burton, Abbot of
Meaux. The way he speaks of indulgences is also very
free. As a special favour to the faithful who died during
a pilgrimage to Rome, Clement VI. "ordered the angels
of Paradise," writes the abbot, " to lead their souls straight
to the gates of heaven without making them pass through
purgatory." 2 The same Pope granted what the pilgrim
above quoted seems to have ignored, that those who
should see the holy sudary should return to the state
they were in before baptism. Lastly, "he confirmed all
the indulgences granted by two hundred sovereign
pontiffs his predecessors, which are innumerable."

At the period when the monastic chroniclers without
scruple wrote down in their books anecdotes on the
Roman Court like those of Thomas of Burton, the
general devotion was not merely lessened, it was dis-
organized, gone mad. The chroniclers show, indeed,

1 Devon's "Issues of the Exchequer," 1837, p. 159.

2"Chronica monasterii de Melsa," ed. E. A. Bond, 1868, vol.
Hi. p. 88 (Rolls Series). The Abbot of Meaux declares that
Clement VI. replied to the reproaches of his confessor as to hii
bad life : " Quod facimus modo facimus consilio medicorum.''
About his theory of the "treasury," see supra, p. 311,

382 ENGLISH IVA YFARING LIFE.

that the excesses of impiety clashed with the excesses
of fervour, and it was thus that, for example, the false
pardoner, a retail merchant of the merits of saints, met
the bleeding flagellant upon the highway.1 The papacy
might show great good sense by the condemnations which
it hurled against both;2 its decrees did not suffice to
restore the equilibrium of men's minds, and the bounds
of reason were continually being passed ; in ardent piety
as in impious revolt men went to the verge of madness.
It is painful to read the recital of the obscene sacrileges
committed in York Cathedral by the partizans of the
Bishop of Durham, and yet the facts cannot be
doubted, we have the archbishop himself reporting
them.3 Faith disappeared, or was transformed ; men
became at once sceptical and intolerant. It is not at all
the modern serenely cold and imperturbable scepticism,
it is a violent movement of the whole nature which

1 "In which year (1350) there came into England certain
penitents, noblemen and foreigners, who beat their bare bodies
very sharply, to the effusion of blood, now weeping, now singing ;
yet, as was said, they did this too unadvisedly, being without licence
from the apostolic see " (Walsingham, " Historia Anglicana," Rolls
Series, vol. i. p. 275). Compare Robert de Avesbury, " Hist.
Edwardi Tertii," ed. Hearne, Oxoni, 1720, p. 179. The flagellants
whipped themselves with knotted cords furnished with nails, they
prostrated themselves to the ground with their arms crossed,
singing.

2 The flagellants were condemned by Clement VI. in 1 349 ; he
ordered the archbishops, bishops, &c., to have them imprisoned
(Labbe, " Sacrosancta Concilia," Florence ed., vol. xxv. col. 1153).

3 Letter of the Archbishop of York to his official, " Historical
Papers from the Northern Registers," ed. Raine, pp. 397-399.
The guilty were not unimportant vagabonds ; one has the title of
magister, another is professor of civil law,

PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 383

feels itself impelled to burn what it adores ; but the
man is uncertain in his doubt, and his burst of laughter

O

stuns him ; he has passed as it were through an orgie,
and when the white light of the morning comes he will
have an attack of despair, profound anguish with tears,
and perhaps a vow of pilgrimage and a conspicuous
conversion. Walsingham sees one of the causes of the
peasants' revolt in the incredulity of the barons :
" Some among them believe, it is said, that there is no
God, they deny the sacrament of the altar and resurrec-
tion after death, and consider that as is the end of the
beast of burden, so is the end of man himself." l

But this incredulity was not definitive, and did not
hinder superstitious practices. Men did not under-
stand how to go straight forward ; instead of opening
the gates of heaven with their own hands, they imagined
they could get it done by those of others ; they had
Paradise gained for them by the neighbouring monastery
as they had their lands worked for them by their tenants ;
eternal welfare had become matter of commerce with
the letters of fraternity of the mendicant friars and the
lying indulgences of pardoners. Men lived at their
ease, and quieted themselves by writing pious donations
in their wills, as if they could, according to the words
of a French writer of a later date, " corrupt and

1 " Nam quidam illorum credebant, ut asseritur, nullum Deum
esse, nihil esse sacramentum altaris, nullam post mortem resurrec-
tionem, sed ut jumentum moritur, ita est hominem finirc "
(" Historia Anglicana," vol. ii. p. 12). Langland also complains of
the scepticism of the nobles, who question the mysteries, and make
these grave matters the subject of light conversation after meals.
(" Piers Plowman," Text C, pass. xii. 1. 35).

384 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

win over by gifts God and the saints, whom we ought
to appease by good works and by the amendment of our
sins." * Very instructive reading is that of the last acts
and wills of the rich lords of the fourteenth century.
Pages are filled with bequests made from motives of
devotion ; gifts are left to all the shrines, convents,
chapels, and hermits, and testators go so far as to make
pilgrimages after death by proxy, paying for them.
The same Humphrey Bohun who sent " a good man
and true " to the tomb of Thomas of Lancaster, also
ordered that after his death a priest should be sent to
Jerusalem, " chiefly," said he, " for my lady mother,
and for my lord father, and for ourselves," with the
obligation to say masses at all the chapels where he
could along the journey,2

As to the Crusades, men were always talking of them,
perhaps more than ever, only they did not make them.
In the midst of their wars kings reproached one another
with being the only hindrance to the departure of the
Christians ; there was always some useful incident
which detained them. Philip of Valois and Edward
III. protest that if it were not for their enemy they
would go to fight the Saracen. " It is the fault of the
English," writes Philip, that " the holy journey beyond
sea has been hindered " ; 3 it is the doing of the King

1 "Les louenges du roy Louys xij.," par Claude de Seysscl,
Paris, 1508.

" " A Collection of the Wills of the Kings and Queens of Eng-
land," &c., printed by J. Nichols, London, 1780. Will of Humphrey
Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex, who died 1361, p. 54.

3 Robert of Avesbury, " Historia Edwardi Tertii," ed. Hearnc
Oxford, 1720, p. 63.

PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 3^5

of France, declares Edward III. on his side, in a
solemn manifesto, which has turned him from the
" sancto passagio transmarine." l No doubt the days
of St. Louis had not so far gone by that the sense of
this great duty, the war against the infidel, should be
already lost, and men still thought that if it were some-
thing to set out for St. James or Notre Dame, yet the
true road to heaven was that to Jerusalem. Meanwhile
on this subject we see break forth some of those ideas
which seem to be inspired by the practical views of
modern times, and which began to spread in the four-
teenth century. We crush the infidel, why not convert
him ? Is it not wiser, more reasonable, and even more
conformable to the religion of Christ ? Were the
apostles whom He sent to us Gentiles covered with
armour and provided with swords ? Reflections like
these were made, not merely by reformers such as
Wyclif and Langland,2 but by men of an habitually
calm mind and great piety, such as Gower:

" To sleen and fighten they us bidde

Hem whom they shuld, as the boke saith,
Converten unto Cristes feith.
But herof have I great merveile
How they wol bidde me traveile,

1 Robert of Avesbury, " Historia Edwardi Tertii," ed. Hearne,
Oxford, 1720, p. 115.

2 Langland speaks of the Saracens without cursing them ; they
might be saved, it was Mahomet who deceived them in anger at
not being made pope; men ought to convert them ; the pope makes
indeed bishops of Nazareth, Nineveh, &c., but they take care never
to visit their undocile flocks (" Piers Plowman," Text C, ed. Skeat,
pass, xviii. pp. 314-318). 25

386 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIF&

A Sarazin if I slee shall,

I slee the soule forth withall,

And that was never Cristes lore." «

It was found convenient, however, to talk of Crusades,
and some still believed that they would be made. For this
Elizabeth de Burgh, Lady Clare, desired that five men-at-
arms should fight in her name in case there should
be a " common voyage " within seven years following
her death.2 The merit of their works would be
attributed to her, and they would receive a money com-
pensation amounting to 100 marks each. But the com-
mon voyage remained a project for ever, and the only
expeditions set on foot were private enterprises.3

In this case religious enthusiasm was not the only
lever ; the chivalric and stirring instincts which filled this
age of combats caused half the devotion which urged
these little troops to start. A good number of them
came from England ; the English were already, and
even before that time, great travellers, as they are now.
They were to be met with everywhere, and also, as
now, their knowledge of French served them in some
degree in everv country on the Continent. It was the
language of the upper classes, as " Mandeville" reminds
us,4 it was also that which was spoken in the East by

1 " Confessio Amantis," Pauli's edition, vol. ii. p. 58.

2 She died November 4, 1360, Nichols' "Wills of Kings and
Queens," &c., 1780, p. 29.

3 The last effective Crusade ended in 1272, with the return of
Prince Edward (Edward I.) to take the crown on his father's death.
These holy wars had covered a period of nearly two hundred
years. [L. T. S.]

* He says (in French) : "And know that I would have put this
little book into Latin for brevity, but because many understand

PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 387

the European, the Frank. Trevisa, declaring that the
English were forgetting that language, deplores it; how
will they do if they go abroad ? " That is harme for
hem and they schulle passe the see and trauaille in
straunge landes and in many other places." x However,
if the English no longer knew French fluently, they
took heed of the utility of the language, and they tried
to acquire some notions of it before setting out on their
travels. They employed competent. persons to compose
manuals of conversation to teach them how " to speak,
to pronounce well, and to write correctly sweet French,
which is the finest and most graceful language, the
noblest to speak of any in the world after Latin of the
schools, and is better prized and loved than any other
by all men ; for God made it so sweet and lovable
chiefly to His own praise and honour. And therefore
it may well compare with the language of the angels in
heaven, on account of its great sweetness and beauty."
So wrote an Englishman in the fourteenth century.2

The English went much abroad ; every author who
draws their portrait describes their taste for moving
about at home, and their love of distant travel ; the

Romance better than Latin, I have put it into Romance that it be
understood, and that the lords and knights and other noblemen
who do not know Latin, or but little, and who have been beyond
seas, may know and understand whether I speak truth or not"
Sloane MS. 1464, fol. 3, at the British Museum (French MS. of
the beginning of fifteenth century).

1 In his translation of Ralph Higden's " Polychronicon," ed. C
Babington, vol. ii. p. 161 (Rolls Series).

* "La Maniere de Langage," &c., a text published by Prof.
Paul Meyer in the "Revue Critique," vol x. (1870) pp. 373, 382.
The dedication is dated May 29, 1396.

388 ENGLISH WAYFARING

moon is the planet assigned them on this account.
According to Gower, it is owing to her that they visit
so many countries afar off:

'* What man under his [/.*., the moon's] powere
Is bore, he shall his place chaunge
And seche many londes straunge ;
And as of this condicion
The mones disposicion
Upon the londe of Alemaigne
Is set, and eke upon Britaigne,
Which now is cleped Engelonde,
For they travaile in every londe." x

Wyclif places them under the patronage of the same
planet, but draws different consequences from it ; 2 and
Ralph Higden the chronicler expresses himself in these
terms, which seem prophetic, they have proved so exact :
" That people are curious enough that they may know
and tell the wonders that they have seen ; they cultivate
other regions, and succeed still better in distant coun-
tries than in their own, . . . wherefore it is that they
are spread so wide through the earth, considering every
other land that they inhabit as their own country.

* "Confessio Amantis," vol iii. p. 109 (Pauli's edition).

2 He says the English are wanting in perseverance, "Et hinc
secundum astronomos lunam habent planetam propriam, quas in
motu et lumine est magis instabilis " ("Fasciculi Zizaniorum,"
edited by Dr. Shirley, p. 270, Rolls Series). Caxton at the point
of the Renaissance also considers the moon as par excellence the
planet of the English : " For we englysshe men ben borne vndcr
the domynacyon of the mone, whiche is neuer stedfaste but euer
wauerynge " (Prologue to his " Boke of Eneydos compyled by
Vyrgyle," 1490).

PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 389

They are a race able for every industry." He says also
that the English of his time love the pleasures of the
table more than any other people, and spend much on
food and on clothing.1 But the important point here is
this taste for travelling which was so marked. A
number of them were established in Italy, where they
had become condottieret and they went up and down
the peninsula according to the will of whomsoever
paid them. Such were John Hawkwood, whose tomb
still adorns the cathedral at Florence, William Gold,
and several others. Fierce people they were, with
ardent passions, ready sometimes, in the good old
manner, to do and sacrifice as much to recover a fugitive
girl as to take a town. One letter of William Gold
will be enough to give an idea of the sort of men they
were, and of the life led by these bellicose wanderers.
It is sent to Louis of Gonzaga, lord of Mantua, on
August 9, 1378, and concerns the girl Jeannette, of
France :

"... Let her be detained at my suit," says Gold,
" for if you should have a thousand golden florins spent
for her, I will pay them without delay ; for if I should
have to follow her to Avignon I will obtain this woman.
Now, my lord, should I be asking a trifle contrary to
law, yet ought you not to cross me in this, for some
day I shall do more for you than a thousand united
French women could effect ; and if there be need of
me in a matter of greater import, you shall have for the
asking a thousand spears at my back. Therefore, in
conclusion, again and again I entreat that this Janet

1 " Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden," edited by C. Babington,
1869, vol. ii. pp. 1 66, 1 68, Rolls Series,

3QO ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE.

may be put in a safe place unknown to anybody, and
there kept until I send some servant of mine for her
with a letter from myself, for I would do more for you
in greater matters. And I pray you, thwart me not
about putting her in a safe place, for you alone, and no
one else are lord in Mantua.

" The Camp under Verona, August 9, 1378.

u P.S. — I beseech by all means that [the] said Janet
may not quit Mantua, but be in safe custody, and so
you will have obliged me for ever."

No less determined as a warrior than as a lover, and
accustomed, as it seems, in both cases, to put people
to flight, William Gold was made a citizen of Venice
in recognition for his services on April 27, 1380, and in
July of the same year received from the Doge Andrea
Contarini a pension of 500 gold ducats for life.1

With a rather different bent of mind, though not averse
either to adventures, other little troops left England,
beginning their long journey owards the Holy Land.
They did not usually start on so distant an expedition
without being furnished with letters from their sove-
reign, which might serve both as passport and as
recommendation in case of need. The tenor of these
documents was nearly alike and similar to that of the
following letter granted by Edward III. in 1354 :
"Know all men that the noble Jean le Meingre,2 knight,

1 Rawdon Brown, " Calendar of State Papers relating to English
Affairs ... at Venice," London, 1864, vol. i. pp. 24, 29 ; original
in Latin.

2 Marshal of France. Rymer calls him " Johannes Meyngre,
dictus Bussigand." As to Boucicaut and his son, also a marshal of
France, see Delaville le Roulx, " La France en Orient, au XIV*
Siecle," Paris, 1886, vol. i. pp. 160-16?,

PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 391

called Boucicaut, our prisoner, is about to set forth,
with our permission, with twelve knights to St. James,
and thence to march against the enemies of Christ in
the Holy Land ; and that we have taken him and his
twelve companions, their servants and horses, &c.,
under our protection and safe conduct in their going
and coming through our dominions." *

Such travellers were well received by the King of
Cyprus, and assisted him in his numerous difficulties.
The king sLowed himself pleased with these visits, and
sometimes expressed his gladness in letters through
which a lively satisfaction appears. Thus, in 1393, he
writes from Nicosia to Richard II., and tells him that a
knight has no need of a personal recommendation to
him to be welcome in the island ; all the subjects of
the King of England are his friends ; he is happy to
have Henry Percy, who will be very useful to him.2 In
the same manner the troop of French pilgrims, to which
belonged the lord of Anglure, was welcomed in Cyprus,

1 Rymer's " Fcedera," vol. v. p. 777. These letters must have
been given pretty frequently, for we find that they were drawn
up after a common form like our passports. (See that given by
Rymer in vol. vii. p. 337, A.D. 1381.) In November, 1392, the
Earl of Derby (the future Henry IV.) was at Venice, and set out
thence to go to the Holy Land, He had letters for the Republic
from Albert IV, Duke of Austria, and the Great Council lent him
a galley for his voyage. Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, also
set out from Venice for Palestine, in February, 1398-99. He had
presented himself to the Venetian Senate, furnished with a letter

Jrom Richard II. (" Calendar of State Papers relating to English
Affairs ... at Venice," &c., ed. Rawdon Brown, 1864, p. Ixxxi,
Rolls Series).

2 " Historical Papers from the Northern Registers," ed. Raine,
p. 425.

592 ENGLISH WA Y FA RING LIFE.

in 1396. They reached Cyprus on their way home,
after a fearful storm, in which their lives were greatly
imperilled. As soon as the king heard of their having
landed he sent to them provisions in plenty : a hundred
poultry, twenty sheep, two oxen, much good wine and
good white bread. Then he asked them to his Court,
and when they came called the queen and his children
to help him in receiving them, and being himself a
great huntsman, he begged them to go to the hunt
with him, a pleasant offer after so many trials, and not
one to be refused.

With the notion of the pilgrimage was largely
associated that of the adventures which were to be had
at the various places and along the road ; they were
even sought, if necessary, and then the religious object
disappeared in the crowd of profane incidents. Thus,
in 1402, De Werchin, Seneschal of Hainault, announced
his project of a pilgrimage to St. James of Spain, and
his intention to accept the friendly combat of arms with
any knight for whom he should not have to turn from
his road more than 20 leagues. He announced his
itinerary beforehand, so that any one might make ready.1

The strange man, Jean de Bourgogne by name, who
chose to sign his book of travels " Jean de Mandeville," 2

1 " Chronique de Monstrelet," lib. i. chap. viii.

2 The voyages called " Mandeville's Voiage and Travaile "
were assuredly written in the fourteenth century in French, then
were translated into Latin and English. Only the portion relating
to Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, may have been founded on a real
journey. The article " Mandeville," by Mr. E. B. Nicholson and
Colonel Yule in "The Encyclopaedia Britannica" (gth edition);
a paper, " Untersuchungen iiber Johann von Mandeville und die
Quelle seiner Reiseschreibung," Berlin, 1888 (printed in "Zeit-

PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 393

gives somewhat similar reasons to explain why he under-
took his journey to the East in 1322 through perilous
seas and countries — or rather, according to modern
discoveries — through the books of his library. He
started (or, anyhow, he studied and wrote) partly, says
he, to sanctify himself, partly to know the world and
its wonders, and to .be able to speak of them ; for many
persons, he observes, are much pleased with hearing the
marvels of different countries described. The reason
he publishes his impressions is, first, because numbers
of people like stories of the Holy Land, and find great
consolation and comfort in them ; and, secondly, to
make a guide, in order that the small companies or
caravans like that of Boucicaut may profit by his know-
ledge. His ideas as to the road to be followed are
not unreasonable. Thus, " to go the direct way " from
England to Palestine, he advises the following itinerary :
France, Burgundy, Lombardy, Venice, Famagusta in
Cyprus, Jaffa, Jerusalem. Very often people went to
Jerusalem by way of Egypt. It was a tradition of
long standing that the greater part of the difficulties
concerning the Holy Land had their root in Egypt ;
many tombs of saints also attracted the pilgrims there,
so that crusaders, or mere pilgrims, often took that
road to Jerusalem. " Mandeville " says he himself
followed this itinerary. In 1422 Gilbert of Lannoy
wrote, " at the behest of King Henry of England, heir
and Regent of France " (that is, Henry V.), a descrip-

schrift der Gesellschaft fur Erdkunde," bd. xxiii. p. 177), and Mr.
Warner's "Buke of John Maundevill," Roxb. Club, 1889, fol.,
represent the actual state of the question. The identification of
Mandevllle with Jean de Bourgogne, who died at Liege in 1372,
can no longer be doubted now.

394 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE.

tion of the places through which a crusade might be
led against the infidels, for this prince, like his pre-
decessors, continued dreaming of a crusade. Lannoy
gives a detailed account of each town, stating what
sorts of provisions in wood, water, &c., may be found
in each country, in what plains an army can be easily
arrayed, in what ports a fleet shall be safe. He gives
the greatest attention to Egypt, and describes its several
towns : " Item. There is Cairo, the chief town of
Egypt, on the river Nile which comes from Paradise." l
But the Crusade, in anticipation of which he wrote,
never took place, and the next military expedition which
should reach Syria through Egypt was destined to be
that of Bonaparte in 1798.

Besides the history of a journey to Egypt, Palestine,
Syria, Central Asia, and China, " Mandeville " gives
the description of a number of countries peopled by
imaginary monsters. This fantastic part of his work
did not diminish its success, quite the contrary ; it was
translated into most European languages, and above
300 MSS. of it now remain. But we, less confiding
than our fathers, do not willingly accept the excuse
which he gives us as a guarantee of (at least) his good
faith : " Things that are long past away from sight fall
into oblivion, and the memory of man cannot retain
and comprehend everything." 2

Many books came after his, much more detailed and
practical. While the renewal of the Crusades ap-
peared less and less probable, the number of individual

1 " A Survey of Egypt and Syria . . . from a MS. in the
Bodleian Library," Archasologia, vol. xxi. pp. 281, 319.
» Sloane MS. 1464, fo. 3, British Museum.

PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 395

pilgrimages was on the increase. The word of the
priest which could no longer pluck up entire nations
from the soil, only detached here and there little
groups of pious men or seekers after adventure, who
went to visit the holy places under favour of the
tolerant spirit of the Saracen. The greater number,
indeed, no longer set out to fight the infidel, but to
ask his permission to see Jerusalem, which was readily
granted. We find, from the fourteenth century
onwards, quite a service of transports at Venice,
organized for the use of the pilgrims : " It is the rule,"
says a traveller of the fourteenth century, " that the
Venetians send every year five galleys to the Holy
Land. They all reach Beyruth, which is the port for
Damascus in Syria ; thence two of them bring the
pilgrims to Jaffa, which is the port for Jerusalem." l
Many particulars about this service of transports, and
the purchases to make before starting, and the pro-
visions to take, are to be found in a book written in
the following century by William Wey, Fellow of Eton
College. He recommended that the price of the passage
be carefully settled before starting, and that a bed with
its pillows, sheets, &c., be provided. This was bought
near the church of St. Mark, and the whole cost three
ducats, including the sheets and blankets. After the
journey the vendor took back these things for a ducat
and a half ; " Also when ye com to Venyse ye schal by
a bedde by seynt Markys cherche ; ye schal have a
fedyr bedde, a matres, too pylwys, too peyre schetis

1 "Le Saint Voyage de Jhcrusalem du Seigneur d'Anglure," ed.
Bonnardot and Longnon, Societe des Aliens Textes Fran^ais,
Paris, 1878, p. 99.

396 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

and a qwylt, and ye schal pay iij dokettis ; and when
ye com ayen, bryng the same bedde to the man that ye
bowt hit of and ye schal have a doket and halfe ayen,
thow hyt be broke and worne." J Such settled customs
and fixed prices show better than anything else the
frequency of the intercourse.

William Wey has all the conveniences for the
traveller to which we are accustomed in the present
day ; he composes mnemonics of names to learn, a
vocabulary of Greek words which it is important to
know, and he gives for learning by heart the same
ready-made questions which our manuals still repeat in
a less mixed language :

" Good morrow. Calomare.

Welcome. Calosertys.

Tel me the way. Dixiximo strata.

Gyff me that. Days me tutt.

Woman haue ye goyd wyne ? Geneca esse calocrasse ?

Howe moche ? Posso ? "

He also sets down a table of the exchange of the
different moneys from England to Greece and Syria ;
and a programme for the employment of time, as now
very parsimoniously dealt with ; he only allows
thirteen days to see everything and start back again.
Lastly, he gives a complete list of the towns to be
passed through, with the distance from one to the

1 " The Itineraries of William Wey, Fellow of Eton College,
to Jerusalem, A.D. 1458 and A.D. 1462, and to Saint James of
Compostella, A.D. 1456." London 1857, Roxburghe Club, pp.
5, 6. In his first journey Wey started from Venice with a band
of 197 pilgrims who were embarked on two galleys.

PlLGklMS AND PILGRIMAGES. j9?

other, a map of the Holy Land with an indication of
all the remarkable places,1 and a considerable catalogue
of the indulgences to be gained.

Wey foresaw all the disagreeables to which the ill
will of the captain of the galley might subject you ;
he recommends engaging a place in the highest part of
the boat, " for in the lawyst [stage] vnder hyt is ryght
smolderyng hote and stynkynge ;" 2 you must not pay
more than forty ducats from Venice to Jaffa, food
included ; it is necessary to stipulate that the captain
stops at certain ports to take in fresh provisions. He
is bound to give you hot meat at dinner and supper,
good wine, pure water, and biscuit ; but it is well
besides to take provisions for private use, for even at
the captain's table there is great risk of having bad
bread and wine. " For thow ye schal be at the tabyl
wyth yowre patrone, notwythstondynge, ye schal oft
tyme haue nede to yowre vytelys, bred, chese, eggys,
frute, and bakyn, wyne, and other, to make yowre
collasyvn ; for svm tyme ye schal haue febyl bred,
wyne and stynkyng water, meny tymes ye schal be ful

1 Pages 102-116. Such a map is exhibited in the glass cases
of the Bodleian Library at Oxford. It is probable, but not quite
sure, that this is really the map of William Wey, the one he calls
" mappa mea " in his book. It has been reproduced in fac-iimile :
" Map of the Holy Land, illustrating the Itineraries of W. Wey,
Roxburghe Club, 1867." It is seven feet in length and sixteen
and a half inches in breadth. See also : "De passagiis in Terram
Sanctam," edit. G. M. Thomas, Venice, 1879, folio. (Societe de
1'Orient Latin). This work contains extracts from a " Chronolcgia
magna," compiled in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, with
maps and plans, one especially of Jerusalem and adjoining places.

3 "A good preuysyoun," "Itineraries," p. 4.

398 ENGLISH WA YfA&lNG LIFE.

fayne to ete of yowre owne." It would even be
prudent to take some poultry : " Also by yow a cage
for half a dozen of hennys or chekyn to have with
yow in the galey ; " half a bushel of seed to feed them
must not be forgotten.1 You must also have remedies,
" confortatyuys, laxatyuys, restoratyuys," saffron,
pepper, spices. On arrival at a port it is well to leap
ashore one of the first, in order to get served before
others, and not to have the leavings ; this counsel
of practical selfishness often recurs. On land heed
must be taken as to the fruits : " beware of dyuerse
frutys, for they be not acordyng to youre complexioun,
and they gender a blody fluxe. and yf an Englyschman
haue that sykenes hyt ys a maruel and scape hyt but he
dye thereof." Once in Palestine, attention must be
given to the robbers ; if you don't think of it the
Saracens will come and talk familiarly with you, and,
under favour of conversation, will rob you ; " Also
take goyd hede of yowre knyves and other smal
thynges that ye her apon yow, for the Sarsenes wyl go
talkyng wyth yow and make goyd chere, but they wyl
stele fro yow that ye haue and they may." At Jaffa
you must not forget to get firs'-, in order to have the
best donkey, " Also when ye schal take yowre asse at
port Jaffe, be not to longe behynde yowre felowys ; for
and ye com by tyme ye may chese the beste mule, other
asse, for ye schal pay no more fore the best then for
the worst. And ye must yeve youre asman curtesy a
grot." 2 This last recommendation shows the high

1 " A good preuysyoun," " Itineraries," pp. 5, 6.
• Ibid. The same scramble for asses is going on even now in
Palestine and Egypt.

PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 399

antiquity of " pourboires," one of the best preserved
of mediaeval traditions. At last the caravan leaves the
seaside and proceeds towards the Holy City ; and then
it is prudent not to straggle too far from your com-
panions for fear of evildoers.

Well worthy of notice is the fact that these visits
to the Holy Land were in great part performed on
donkeys ; knights themselves did not disdain mounting
these modest animals : " At this said inn did we dis-
mount our asses," says the narrator of the travels of
the lord of Anglure, who visited Jerusalem at the end
of the fourteenth century. This is enough to show that
if there was, as there still is, some danger of robbers,
it was not very serious. If there had been any chance
of real fight the knights would hardly have ventured
getting into it on donkey-back. In fact, many of
those reports of travels in the Holy Land give the
impression of mere tourists' excursions, and what comes
out most clearly from them is the spirit of tolerance
displayed by the Saracen. He did not forbid the entry
into Palestine of all these pilgrims, who often came as
spies and enemies, and he let their troops do very much
as they liked. We see that the companions of the
lord of Anglure, and half a century later of William
Wey, go where they will ; returning when it is con-
venient, and making plans of excursions beforehand as
they would do at present. They admire the beauty of
the " muscas " or mosques, the quaint appearance of the
vaulted streets with light coming from apertures at the
top of the vault, and with shops for Saracen merchants
on both sides, in other words, the bazaar ; they are led
by and receive explanations from their " drugemens " ;

466 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

at certain places they meet officers entrusted with the
permit of the " Soudan," as to all affairs concerning
foreigners. These officers are called "consulles." They
find European merchants established and doing much
trade in the port of the infidel ; they have, in fact,
nothing to fear seriously but the local wars, about
which they were pretty sure to get timely information,
and calamitous encounters at sea. William Wey and his
companions learn with much uneasiness on their return
that a Turkish fleet with dubious purpose is ready to
quit Constantinople, but happily they do not meet it.

It is interesting to compare the experiences of both
troops of pilgrims, the French and the English ; very
often they are similar. The lord of Anglure got into
Jerusalem very easily, and with the proper authorization :
" Shortly after, we started thence on foot, and with the
license of the lieutenant of the Sultan we entered the
holy city of Jerusalem at the hour of vespers, and
were all received and lodged in the hospital where it is
customary now for pilgrims to stay." They travel by
land without much difficulty from Palestine to Egypt,
and go down the Nile, a large river, where " live several
serpents called cokatrices," otherwise crocodiles ; which
river " comes from Paradise." There only they have a
rather narrow escape, being attacked in their boat by
"Arab robbers," and some of their troop are wounded
with arrows, but none is killed. They were at that
time returning from a visit to the hermitage where " St.
Anthony and his little pig " had lived.

It is needless to say that, if Rome was full of relics,
there was no want of them in Jerusalem. All the
places named in the Gospel seem to have been identified

PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 40 1

with precision, and a few others too : " Item, continuing
to go up towards this mountain on the right hand side,
there is a house \\here the sweet Virgin Mary learnt at
school." You may see, too, the place where was
roasted the paschal lamb ; " even here was warmed the
water with which our Lord washed the feet of His
apostles." There is also a cave or well " where King
Herod had the Innocents thrown, out of spite." At
Bethlehem there is a church of St. Nicholas, " in which
place the sweet Virgin Mary hid herself to draw her
milk from her worthy breasts when she would fly to
Egypt. In this same church there is a marble column
against which she leaned when she drew her worthy
milk, and this pillar continues moist since the time she
leaned against it, and when it is wiped, at once it sweats
again ; and in all places where her worthy milk fell,
the earth is still soft and white and has the appearance
of curded milk, and whoever likes takes of it, out of
devotion."

In Egypt, too, the wonders are numerous, but many
are of a different order. Besides the churches and
hermitages there are the u granaries of Pharaoh," that
is the pyramids, which seem to the lord of Anglure
and his companions "the most marvellous thing they
had yet seen in all their travels." They are cut 'f in
the shape of a fine diamond," but inside they are full of
animals, who stink horribly. Mandeville, who had
seen them some years before, gives them the same
origin, and utterly discards the belief that they might
have been tombs of high personages. He mentions the
hieroglyphics, which is about the only thing in all his
book he does not try to explain ; he has also a word

36

402 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE.

for the grim inhabitants of the pyramids : " Thei ben
alle fulle of serpentes. And aboven the gernerers with
outen ben many scriptures of dyuerse languages. And
sum men seyn that they ben sepultures of grete Lordes,
that weren somtyme ; but that is not trewe ; for all the
comoun rymour and speche is of alle the peple there,
bothe far and nere, that thei ben the garneres of Joseph.
And so fynden thei in here scriptures and in here
cronycles. On that other partie, yif thei werein sepul-
tures, thei scholden not ben voyd with inne. For yee
may well knowe that tombes and sepultures ne ben not
made of suche gretnesse ne of suche highnesse. Wher-
fore it is not to beleve that thei ben tombes or sepul-
tures." l Strange it is but yet a fact, that this powerful
mode of reasoning has not convinced such sceptics as
Mariette and Maspero.

Besides the pyramids, the companions of the Lord of
Anglure notice and greatly praise the houses with their
terraces, the mosques and their " fine lamps," and it is
curious to observe that these same fine lamps, admired
in 1396 when they were fresh and new by our pil-
grims, can be seen now without going so far, for they
are in the South Kensington Museum. The Egyptian
animals, too, are noted by our travellers as being very
striking ; besides the crocodiles there are the tall-necked
giraffes, and then the elephants. A very strange beast
an elephant : " It could never bend to the ground to get
its food on account of its great height, but it has in its
snout something like a bowel, put at the further end

1 ** Voiage and Travaile of Sir John Maundeville/' ed. Halli-
well, 1866, p. 52.

PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 403

of its snout," and this bowel " hangs down almost to
the ground," and with it the beast " takes its food and
carries it to its mouth."

At last the time came when our pilgrims had seen
everything, and they had to bend their way homewards.
Twice did William Wey undertake, the great journey,
happy to have seen, fain to see again. When he came
back to England for the last time he bequeathed to a
chapel, built on the model of the Holy Sepulchre, the
souvenirs which he had brought back, that is to say, a
stone from Calvary, another from the Sepulchre itself,
one from Mount Tabor, one from the place where the
cross stood, and other relics. As for the French troop
of pilgrims who had left Anglure-sur-Aube on July 16,
1395, they came back in the following year, complete
in their numbers but for Simon de Sarrebruck, who had
died of fever in Cyprus during the journey home, and
lies interred in a church there. " And on Thursday
the twenty-second day of June, and the day before the
eve of the feast of St. John the Baptist, in the year
of grace of our Lord, 1396, we found ourselves again
dining in Anglure."

A BLIND BEGGAR CHEATED OF HIS DRINK BY HIS BOY.
(from the MS. IO E. IV.}

CONCLUSION.

WE have followed the race of roamers in
many places : on the road, at the hostelry, in
taverns, in churches ; we have seen them
exercising a host of different trades, and we have
distinguished among them very different specimens :
singers, buffoons, cheap -jacks, messengers, pedlars,
pilgrims, wandering preachers, beggars, friars, vagabonds
of several kinds, labourers detached from the soil,
pardoners, knights loving distant expeditions. We
have accompanied them here and there over the high-
roads of England, and we have followed them to Rome
itself, and to the Holy Land ; there we shall leave them.
To the wandering class also belong the representatives
of many other professions, such as scribes, tinkers,
cobblers, masons, exhibitors of animals or bearwards,
such as those whom Villard de Honnecourt visited one
day in order to draw a lion " al vif," from the life.

406 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

But the only important members are those which have
just been studied.

The current of life represented by the existence of
all these roamcrs is powerful ; we have seen what a
great though not very apparent part they played in
the State. The labourer breaks the bonds which for
centuries have attached him to the manor, and hence-
forward desires to be master of his own person and of
his service, to hire himself by the day if it seems good
to him, and for a price which corresponds to the
demand there is for him. It is a necessary reform
which he seeks, and it will be made by degrees, in
spite of laws, independently of the authorities. There
is none more important, and it is upon the roads rather
than at the castle that it behoves us to study it. We
must seek the origin of it among the brushwood, where
armed bands meet together during church service, and
on those straggling roads where the false pilgrim throws
his pretended staff aside to take up his tools and look
for work far from his old master. These people recom-
mend by their example the emancipation which the
wandering preachers explain in their discourses, making
it an immediate and popular need.

The great questions of the age, the social and the
religious questions, march towards their solution, partly
on the highroad, partly by the influence of the
wanderers. The begging friars go from door to door,
the pardoners grow rich, the pilgrims live by alms and
oy the recital of their adventures, always on the road,
always at work. What is this work ? By constantly
addressing the crowd, they end by making themselves
known for what they are ; by making the crowd of its

CONCLUSION. 407

own accord pass sentence upon them, by disabusing it,
they render reform inevitable. Thus on this side also
the rust of the Middle Ages will drop away, and another
step be made towards modern civilization.

Besides, each of these strange types deserves to be
taken apart and considered not only in relation to the
masses, but in itself too ; for each shows very apparently
in his own person a characteristic side of the tastes, the
beliefs, and the aspirations of the times. Each of their
classes corresponds to a need, an eccentricity, or a vice
of the times ; through them we may examine, as it
were, one by one the souls of the people and reconstitute
them entirely ; just as the nature of the soil may be
guessed from the flora of a country.

The general impression is that the English people
then underwent one of those considerable transforma-
tions which present themselves to the view of the
historian like the turning of a highroad. Coming out
from gorges and mountains the road suddenly changes
its direction, and the rich, sunny, fertile plain is per-
ceived in the distance. We have not yet reached it,
many troubles are still reserved for us ; it will disappear
again from our sight at times, but we have seen it, and
the result of our efforts is that we know at least in
what direction to march in order to attain it. During
the age which is opening the emancipated peasant will
enrich himself in spite of the wars made by the barons ;
and the Commons will have an instrument of control
over the royal power in their hands, which they may
use, according to the period, more or less well, but
which is the best invented up till our time. The Par-
liament which sits at Westminster at the present day is

4o8 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIF&

in its essential elements identical with the Parliament
which prepared the statutes of the kingdom under the
last Plantagenet princes. In the fourteenth century,
whatever some thinkers, too much affected by the glory
of Simon de Montfort and of St. Louis, may have said,
humanity was not stopped on its way. There needs no
other proof of this than the host of truly modern ideas
which were spread throughout society ; among the
upper class under the influence of a higher education
and larger intercourse with foreign countries ; among
the lower class through the effects of long experience
of common abuses ; ideas made popular and rendered
practical by the nomades — ignorant workmen, single-
hearted preachers. All those unreasonable freaks, all
the madnesses of the religious spirit, those incessant
revolts and follies which have been remarked, would
make men discontented with false and dangerous thoughts
and sentiments, which it was necessary to push to an
extreme in order to become unbearable and be rejected.
On a number of similar points, whether he were the
partizan or the object of reform, as working man or as
pardoner, whether he were an unconscious instrument
or not, the wanderer will always have much to teach
whoever will question him. For good or evil it may
be said that the wanderers acted as " microbes " in
mediaeval history, a numerous, scarcely visible, power-
ful host. They will perhaps tell the secret of almost
incomprehensible transformations, which might have
seemed to necessitate a total overturn, like that which
took place in France at the end oi the last century, a
new or rather a first contrat social. England, for many
reasons, has not required this ; one among those reasons

CONCLUSION. 409

is the influence of the roamers which united the people
and allowed it, thanks to that union which rendered it
strong, to snatch the necessary concessions at a fitting
season. And notwithstanding, as the calmest changes
do not take place without some trouble, as also among
the English there have been, in the course of centuries,
more than one bloody fray, the nomad may perhaps end
by answering his interlocutor in the words of a common
proverb of some unhackneyed wisdom, which should
hinder discouragement : " Le bois tortu fait le feu droit "
— Crooked log maketh straight fire.

APPENDIX

APPENDIX.

i. (p. 5o).

PATENT OF KING JOHN ENTRUSTING A FRENCHMAN
WITH THE COMPLETION OF LONDON BRIDGE

" Literae patentes etc. de edificatione et sustenratione pontis
London. Patent Roll 3° lohannis, m. 2, no. 9.

u lohannes Dei gratia rex Angliae etc. dilectis et fidelibus
suis majori et civibus London' salutem. Attendentes qualiter
circa pontem Xanton' et pontem de Rupella Deus a modico
tempore sit operatus per sollicitudinem fidelis clerici nostri Isen-
berti, magistri scolarum Xanton', viri utique literati et honesti,
ipsum de consilio venerabilis patris in Chnsto H. Archiepiscopi
Cantuar' et aliorum, rogavimus et monuimuset etiam coegimus
ut pro vestra et multorum utilitate, de ponte vestro faciendo
curam habeat diligentem. Confidimus enim in Domino, quod
idem pons tarn necessarius vobis et omnibus transeuntibus, ut
scitis, per ejus industriam, faciente Domino, poterit in proximo
consummari. Et ideo volumus et concedimus quod salvo jure
nostro et conservata indempnitate civitatis London', census
tdificiorum quae super pontem praedictum idem magister sco-
larum faciet fieri sint imperpetuum ad eundem pontem reficien-
dum et operiendum et sustentandum. Quia igitur idem pons
tam necessarius sine vestro et aliorum auxilio perfici non
poterit, mandamus vobis, exhortantes quatinus memoratum

414 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

Isenbertum ct suos pro vestra utilitate pariter et honore sicut
decreverit benigne recipiatis et honoretis in hiis quae dicta
sunt, consilium et auxilium vestrum eidem unanimiter impen-
der.tes. Quicquid enim boni et honoris eidem Isenberto
feceritis, nobis factum reputare debetis. Si quis vero eidem
Isenberto vel suis in aliquo foris faciat, quod non credimus, vos
illud eisdem faciatis, quam citius ad vos pertinet emendari.
Teste meipso, apud Molinell, xviii. die Aprilis."

Hearne, at the end of "Liber niger scaccarii," London,
1771, vol. i. p. 470.

n. (P. 57).

PETITION RELATIVE TO AN OLD BRIDGE, WHOSE
ARCHES WERE TOO LOW AND TOO NARROW TO
PERMIT BOATS TO PASS.

" Unto the ryght wise and discrete comons of this present
Parlement; besecheth mekely the comons off the countees
of York, Lincoln, Notyngham, and Derby j That whereas
ther is, and of longe tyme hath been, an usuall and a commune
passage fro dyvers and many parties of the seid countees unto
the citees of York, Hull, Hedon, Holdernes, Beverley, Barton,
and Gry.mesby, and so forth, by the hie see, by the costes, unto
London and elles where, with all maner of shippes charged
with wolle, leed, stone, tymbre, vitaille, fewaille, and many
other marchandises, by a streme called the Dike, in the counte
of York, that daiely ebbith and floweth : over whiche streem
ys made a brigge of tymbre called Turnbrigg, in the parisshe
of Snayth in the same counte, so lowe, so ner the streem, so
narrowe and so strayte in the archees, that ther is, and of long
tyme hath been a right perilous passage, and ofte tymes
penshinge of dyvers shippes ; and atte every tyme of creteyne1
and abundaunce of water, ther may no shippes passe under the

' Creteyne, increase, rising flood; in French, crue ,

APPENDIX. 415

seid brigge, by the space of half a yere or more, and also a grcte
partie of the countees to the seid ryver ajonyng, is yerely by
the space of xxti myles and more surrownJed, by cause of
the lowenes and straitenes of the said brigge, to the grete hurt
and damage as well to the kyng in his customes and subsidys,
that shuld growe to him of the seid marchaundises, chargeable
with suche diverse, as to the seid shires, countres, cites and
burghes, and the inhabitants of theim. . . .

u Please hit unto your right wise discretions, consideryng
the premisses, to pray and beseche the kyng our soverayn lord
to graunte . . . that hit shall be lefulle to what sum ever per-
son or persons of the seid shires, that will atte theire owne
costages take away the seid brigge, and ther with and profiles
therof, and in othir wise, newe edifie and bilde anothir brigge
there, lengere in lengthe by the quantite of v. yerdes called the
kynges standard, and in hieght a yerd and a half by the same yerd
hiegher then the seid brigge that stondes ther nowe, as well for
passage of all maner shippes comyng therto, and voidaunce of
water under the seid brigg as for passage of man, best and carriage
over the seid newe brigge so to be made, with a draght lef
contenyng the space of liij fete called Paules fete in brede, for
the voidying thorugh of the mastes of the shippes passinge
under the seid new brigg ; and that every shipmen that wol
passe under the seid brigge with their shippes, may laufully
lifte up and close the seid lef att their pleser ; and that the
mayster of every shippe paie for every liftyng of the seid lef
id. to the lord of the soille for the tyme beyng ... for the
lofe of Godd and in waye of charite. . . .

" Responsio. Le roy de 1'advys et assent de lez seignurs
espirituelx et temporalx et lez communes esteantz en cest pre-
sent parlement, ad graunte" tout le contenue en icell petition en
toutz pointz."

" Rolls of Parliament," vol. v. p. 43 ; 20 Henry VI., A.O,
1442.

*i6 ENGLISH WAYFARING LJFE.

HI. (P. 64).
LONDON BRIDGE AND ITS MAINTENANCE.

At the end of his edition of the " Liber niger scaccarii,"
London, 1771, vol. i. pp. 470-478, the antiquary Hearne
printed a series of curious Letters Patent relating to London
Bridge. That of John, commending Isembert to the city, is
given before (Appendix I.). There follow, an order of John
devoting the tax paid by foreign merchants established in Lon-
don to the support of the bridge (Close Roll, 15 John m. 3) ;
a patent of Henry III. addressed " to the brothers and chap-
lains of the chapel of St. Thomas on London Bridge, and to
the other persons living on the same bridge," to inform them
that the convent of St. Catherine's Hospital, near the Tower,
would receive the revenues and would take charge of the repairs
of the bridge for five years (Patent 50 Hen. III. m. 43, No.
129); grant of the same revenues and charge to the queen for
six years (54 Hen. III. m. 4, No. u) ; patent of Edward I.
(January, 1281), ordering a general collection throughout the
kingdom to ward off the bad condition of the edifice (9 Ed.
I. m. 27) ; patent of the same king ordering the levy of an
extraordinary tax on account of the catastrophe which has
happened.

" Rex majori sub London' salutem. Propter subitam
ruinam pontis London' vobis mandamus quod associatis vobis
duobus vel tribus de discretioribus et legalioribus civibus civi-
tatis praedicias, capiatis usque ad parliamentum nostrum post
Pasch' prox' futur', in subsidium reparationis pontis predict!,
consuetudinem subscriptam, videlicet, de quolibet homine
transeunte aquam Thamisiae ex transverso ex utraque parte
pontis London' de London' usque Suthwerk et de Suthwerk
usque London* occasione defectus reparationis pontis predicti
unum quadrantem, de quolibet equo sic transeunte ibidem
unum denarium, et de quolibet summagio sic ibidem transeunte
unum obolum. Set volumus quod aliquid ibidem hac occa-

APPENDIX. 417

sione interim capiatur nisi in subsidium reparationis pontis
supra dicti. In cujus, etc. Teste rege apud Cirencestr',
iiij° die Februarij" (10 E. I. m. 18).

The same year, on 6th July, the king prolonged the term
during which this exceptional tax should be levied to three yeais
(ib. m. 9) ; he also granted a license (for "nonest addatnpnum
nostrum") to the mayor and commonalty of London to devote
three pieces of ground in the city to building and renting out,
for the benefit of the bridge (10 Ed. I. m. u). Then, in the
thirty-fourth year of his reign, Edward I. established a detailed
tariff of the tolls which all merchandise passing under or over
the bridge should pay during the next three years (34 Ed. I. m.
25). Even this was not enough, as we find Edward II.
addressing the authorities of the Church throughout the king-
dom, enjoining them to permit messengers to collect funds
towards repairing the bridge within their jurisdictions (14 Ed.
II. pt. i. m. 19).

IV. (p. 67).

INQUIRIES RELATING TO THE MAINTENANCE OF
BRIDGES.

A great many examples of these inquests may be found in
the collection published by the Record Commission, " Piaci-
torum in domo capitulari Westmonasteriensi asservatorum
abbreviatio " (London, 1811, fol.). Here are a few of
them :

Case where an abbot is obliged explicitly, as one of the
conditions of his tenure, to repair a bridge, p. 205 (u and 12

Ed. I.).

Agreement between the abbot of Croyland and the prior
of Spalding for the construction of several bridges, p. 205 (12
Ed. 1.).

Discussion as to the building of a bridge at Chester, p. 209
(13 Ed. i.). 2?

4i 8 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

Refusal by the abbot of Coggeshall to repair a bridge :
" Per juratores, Abbas de Coggeshale non tenetur reparare
pontem de Stratford inter Branketre et Coggeshale, eo quod
de tempore memorie non fuit ibidem alius pons quam quedam
plar.chea de borde super quam omnes transeuntes salvo et
secure transire potuerunt," p. 303 (i Ed. II.).

Measures taken to constrain the inhabitants of two towns to
repair the bridges of a highway in their neighbourhood : " Dis-
tringantur villate de Aswardeby et Skredington ad reparandum
pontes in pupplica strata inter Lafford et ecclesiam de Stowe
juxta inquisicionem inde captam anno Ivi. Henrici iij. coram
Giiberto de Preston et sociis suis in comitatu Lincolniensi
itinerantibus, per breve ejusdem regis," p. 305 (2 Ed. II.).

Finding out of the person who is to repair Chesford bridge,
p. 3 14 (6 Ed. II.).

Refusal of the abbot of Fountains Abbey to repair Bradeley
bridge, p. 318 (7 Ed. II.).

Hamo de Morston's case, p. 328 (n Ed. II.), referred to
above, p. 67.

Repair of the bridges of Exhorne, Hedecrone, and Hekinby,
in the county of Kent, p. 339 (15 Ed. II.).

Inquest as to Claypole bridge. It is found that the inhabi-
tants of Claypole are bound to repair it : u Ideo preceptum
est vicecomiti Lincolniensi quod distringat homines predicte
viile de Claypole ad reparandum et sustentandum pontem pre-
dictum in forma predicta," p. 350 (18 Ed. II.), &c.

V. (p. 95).

THE KING'S JOURNEYS. — PETITIONS AND STATUTES
CONCERNING THE ROYAL PURVEYORS.

" Nullus vicecomes vel ballivus noster vel aliquis alius
capiat equos vel carettas alicujus pro cariagio faciendo, nisi
reddat liberationem antiquitus statutam ; scilicet pro caretta

APPENDIX. 4.19

ad duos equos deccm denarios per diem, et pro caretta ad tres
cquos quatuordecim denarios per diem." Magna Charta,
first confirmation by Henry III., art. 23 (A.D. 1216).
"Statutes of the Realm," Record edition, 1810, vol. i. p. 15.
This article is found in successive confirmations of the great
charter; the germ of it was contained in John's charter, A.D.
1215, art. 30.

" Item pur ceo qe le poeple ad este" moult greve" de ceo qe
les bledz, feyns, bestaill, et autre manere de vitailles et biem
des gentz de mesme Je poeple, ont este pris, einz ces houres
. . . dont nul paiement ad este fait, . . ." &c. Preamble
to the statute 4 Ed. III., ch. iii. " Statutes of the Realm,"
A.D. 1330. See also statute 36 Ed. III., ch. ii.

Petition of the Commons, 25 Ed. III., 1351-52 ("Rolls of
Parliament," vol. ii. p. 242) : " Itemprie la commune qe la ou
avant ces heures les botillers nostre seigneur le roi et lour
deputez soleient prenclre moult plus de vyns a 1'oeps le roi qe
mestier ne fust ; desqueux ils mettont les plus fcbles a 1'oeps
le roi et les meliours a lour celers demesnes a vendre, et le
remenant relessont a eux desqueux ils les pristerent, pur grantz
fyns a eux faire pur chescun tonel, a grant damage et em-
poverissement des marchantz. . . ."

The inhabitants of the counties of Dorset and Somerset
complain in the same way that the sheriff of these counties
had taken of them " cynk centz quarters de furment et trois
centz bacouns, a 1'oeps le roi, come il disc, et il ne voillast pur
sa graunt meistrie et seigneurie allower pur vintz quarteres tors
qe pur sesse quarters, et c'est assaver bussell de dit blee fors
que dis deniers, la ou il vendist apres pur xv deniers. Par quey
vos liges gentz sount grauntement endamage et vous, chier
seigneur, n'estes servy des blees et des bacounes avauntditz
..." (4 Ed. III., 1331, "Rolls of Parliament," vol. it.
p. 40).

Petition of the Commons to the Good Parliament of 1376 :
" Item prie la commune qe come le roi de temps passe et ses
progenitours, nobles princes, soleient avoir lour cariage, c'est

420

ENGLISH WAYFARING LlfM.

assaver chivalx, charietz et charettes pur servir leur hostiel :
et ore les purveours de 1'hostel nostre dit seigneur le roi
pur defaut de sa propre cariage et de bone governance pre-
nont chivalx, charietz et charettes des povres communes, la
environ par x leukes ou le roi tient son hostel, si ;bien des
gentz de loigne pays par xxiiii leukes ou Ix passantz par la
chymyne come des gentz demurrantz en mesme le pays, en
grande arrerissement et poverisement des dites communes
..." ("Rolls of Parliament," vol. ii. p. 351).

Complaint of the clergy at being subjected to the exactions
of the purveyors (1376) : <c Item provisores et ministri regis
pro provisionibus regiis faciendis feodurn et loca ecclesiastica,
invitis viris ecclesiasticis seu eorum custodibus non intrent,
nee animalia aliaque res et bona inde auferant, prout fecerint
et faciunt nunc indies, contra ecclesiasticam libertatem et con-
stitutiones sanctorum patrum et statuta regni ed>tain hac parte.
Nee in via extra feoda et loca predicta predictorum virorum
cariagium carectasve capiant vel arrestent."

" Resp. Le roi le voet." (" Rolls of Parliament," vol. ii.
P. 358.)

VI. (p. 114).

THE RECURRENCE OF L.EET-DAYS AND VISITS OF
JUSTICES.

The Commons petition as follows the Good Parliament of
1376 : " Item ou de ancien temps ad este custume qe les pre-
sentours dussent presenter les articles du lete et de vewe de frank
plegg tan soulement deux foitz par an, ... les baillifs avaunt
ditz fount les povres gentz et les husbandes de pais, qeux dus-
sent travailer en leur labours et husbandriez et pur le commune
profit, vemr de trois semaignes en trois £ lour wapentachez
et hundredez, par colour de presentement avoir, et rettent
leur labours et leur husbanderiez au tene, sinoun q'ils leur
veullent doner dels ransons et fyns q'ils ne purront sustener
ne endurer. . .

APPENDIX. 421

" Resp. II y ad estatutz suffisamment."

" Rolls of Parliament," 50 Ed. III., vol. ii. p. 357.

Again, the Commons having pointed out that the visits ol
the justices in eyre are a very great cause of trouble and
expense to the people in time of war, the king suppresses
the visits of those magistrates while the war lasts, except when
any " horrible " case may fall out.

" Item priont les communes au roi leur seigneur q'il ne grante
en nulle partie du roialme eire ne trailbaston durante la guerre,
par queux les communes purront estre troblez ne empoveres,
fors qe en horible cas.

" Resp. Le roi le voet."

" Rolls of Parliament," vol. ii. p. 305, 45 Ed. III., 137.1.

VII. (p. 116).

THE DRESS OF THE WORLDLY MONK.

According to the Council of London ( 1 342) : "... Militari
potius quam clericaii habitu induti surjriori, scilicet brevi
seu stricto, notabiliter tamen et excessive latis, vel longis
manicis, cubitos non tegentibus [tangentibus in Labbe] sed
pendulis, crinibus cum [two words not in Labbe] furrura vel
sandalo revolutis, et ut vulgariter dicitur, reversatis, et caputiis
cum tipettis mirae longitudinis, barbisque prolixis incedere, et
suis digitis annulos indifterenter portare publice, ac zonis stipatis
pretiosis mirae magnitudinis supercingi, et bursis cum imagini-
bus variis sculptis, amellatis [annellatis, L.j et deauratis, ad
ipsas patenter cum cuhellis, ad modum gladiorum pendentibus,
caligis etiam rubeis, scaccatis et viridibus, sotularibusque
rostratis et incisis multimode, ac croperiis [propriis, L.] ad
sellas, tt cornibus ad colla pendentibus, cpitogiis aut clods [this
word not in L.] furratis, uti patenter ad oram, contra sanc-
tiones canonicas temere non verentur, adeo quod a laicis vix
aut nulla patet distinctio clericorum." Wilkins' " Concilia

422 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

Magnae Britanniae," London, 1737, vol. ii. p. 703 ; also in
Labbe, " Sacrosancta Concilia," year 1342, vol. xxv. col. 1170.
According to the Council of York (1367) : " Nonnulli . . .
vestes publice deferre praesumpserunt deformiter decurtatas,
medium tibiarum suarum, seu genua nullatenus attingentes
. . . ad jactantiam et suorum corporum ostentationem." Labbe,
Ibid. vol. xxvi. col. 467-8.

VIII. (p. 121).
LXACTIONS OF CERTAIN NOBLEMEN WHEN TRAVELLING.

Petitions of the Commons, " Rolls of Parliament," vol. i.
p. 290, (8 Ed. II.), A.D. 1314 : " Item par 14 oft asquns grantz
seignurs de la terre passent parmi le pays, ils entrent en
maners et lieus de Seint Eglise et des autres, et pernent saunz
conge le seignur et les baillifs gardeyns de meisme les leus,
et encontre lour volunte, ceo q'il voillent saunz rien paer en-
contre la lei et les ordenaunces, non pas eaunz regard a
1'escomenge (excommunication) done encontre tutz tels. Et
si homme les devi rien, debrisent les eus par force, et pernent
et emportent ceo qe beal lour est, et batent les ministres et
destruent les biens, plus qe il ne covendreit, et autres grevouses
depiz ultrages fount.

" Item il prenent charettes et chivaux de fair lour cariages
a lour voluntez saunz rien paer et des queux nientefoitz james
n'est faite restoraunce a ceux qi les devient ; ne il n'osent
suire ne pleindre pur le poair de diz seignur qar s'il le facent
ils sont honiz ou en corps ou en chateux ; par quoi ladite
comuneaut£ prie qe remedie soit fait en tels ultrages."

IX. (p. 130).
PASSAGE OF THE HUMBER IN A FERRY.

" Ad peticionem hominum de Estriding petenc' reme-
dium super nimia solucione exacta ad passagium de Humbr'

APPENDIX. 4,3

ultra solitum modum." The king directs the opening of an
inquest, with power to the commissioners tore-establish things
in their pristine condition. " Rolls of Parliament." i. p 202
(35 Ed. I., 1306).

Another petition under Edward II. : «« A nostre seigneur le
[roi] et a son consail se pleint la comunaut6 de sa terre qe par Id
ou homme soleit passer Humbre entre Hesel et Barton, homme
a chival pour dener, homme d p£e pur une maele, qe ore surit il,
par extorsion, mis a duble ; et de ceo priunt remedi pur Dieu."
The king, in reply, orders that the masters of the ferry shall not
take more than formerly : " vel quod significent causam quare
id facere noluerint." Ibid., p. 291 (8 Ed. II. , 1314-5).

X. (pp. 156, 158, 162.)
THE RIGHT OF SANCTUAK/.

Example of entries in the Durham sanctuary register:
" Memorandum quod vj die mensis octubris, A° D' M. cccc
LXX vu° Willielmus Rome et Willielmus Nicholson parochiae
de Forsate, convolarunt ad ecclesiam cath. Sancti Cuthberti
Dunelm., ubi inter csetera pro felon ia per eosdem commissa et
publice confessata, in, de, et pro occisione Willielmi Aliand,
per eosdem antea occisi, pecierunt a venerabilibus et religiosis
viris dominis Thoma Haughton sacrista ipsius ecclesiae et
Willielmo Cuthbert magistro Galileae ibidem, fratribus et
commonachis ejusdem ecclesiae, immunitatem ecclesiae, juxta
libertates et privilegia gloriosissimo confessor! Sancto
Cuthbcrto antiquitus concessa, favorabiliter eis concedi, et per
pulsacionem unius campanae, ut est moris, favorabiliter
obtinucrunc. Ibidem praesentibus, videntibus et audientibus,
discretis viris Willielmo Heghyngton, Thoma Hudson,
Johanne Wrangham, et Thoma Strynger, testibus ad praemissa
vocatis specialiter et requisitis." " Sanctuarium Dunelmense,"
ed. J. Raine, Surtees Society j London, 1827, No. v.

424 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

On the question of sanctuaries the councils are explicit:
" Firmiter prohibemus ne quis fugientes ad ecclesiam, quos
ecclesia debet tueri, inde violentes abstrahat, aut ipsos circa
ecclesiam obsideat, vel eisdem substrahat victualia." Concilium
provinciale Scoticanum, A.D. 1225, in Wilkins' " Concilia
Magnse Britannias," London, 1737, vol. i. p. 616.

It was needful to take good care that the refuge was in a
true church, duly consecrated. This is shown by the reports
of cases in the Year Books. Plere is a case of the time of
Edward I. : —

" Quidem captus fuit pro iatrocinio, et ductus coram
justiciariis et inculpatus, dixit : Domine, ego fui in ecclesia de
N. et dehinc vi abstractus, unde imprimis peto juris berieficium
quod mittar retro unde ibi fui vi abstractus. — Justiciarius. Nos
dicimusquod ecclesia ilia nunquam fuit dedicata per episcopum.
— Priso. Sic, domine. — jfusticiaritis. Inqjiratur per duodecim :
— Qui dixerunt quod ilia ecclesia nunquam fuit dedicata per
episcopum. — Jiaticiariiu. Modo oportet te resp.mdere. —
Priso. Sum bonus et fidelis : ideo de bono et malo pono, etc.
(formula of submission to the decision of a jury, patriam). —
Duodecim nominati exiverunt ad deliberandos («V)." " Year
Books," edited by A. Horwood, 1863, vo'- '• P- 54' (R°^s
Series). Here the final result is not given. The Year Books
not infrequently make mention of cases where the right of
sanctuary is invoked, which shows that thieves did not neglect
this advantage.

The abuses resulting from the right of sanctuary, especially
with reference to St. Martin's le Grand in London, are
described as follows in one of the Commons' petitions : " Item
prient les communes, coment diverses persones des diverses
estatz, et auxi apprentices et servantz des plusours gentz, si
bien demurrantz en la citee de Loundres et en les suburbes
d'icell, come autres gentz du roialme al dite citee repairantz,
ascuns en absence de lour meistres, de jour en autre s'enfuyent
ove les biens et chatelx de lour ditz mestres a le college de
Seint Martyn le Grant £n Loundres^ a 1'entent de et syr

APPENDIX. 425

mesmes les biens et chateux illeoqes vivre a. lour voiuntee
saunz duresse ou execution du ley temporale sur eux illeoqes
ent estre faite, et la sont ils resceux et herbergeez, et mesmes
les biens et chateux par les ministres du dit college al foitz
seiseez et pris come forffaitz a le dit college Et auxi diverses
dcttours as plusours marchantz, si bien du dite cite"e, come
d'autres vaillantz du roialme, s'enfuyent de jour en autre al dit
college ove lour avoir a y demurrer a 1'entent avaunt dit. Et
ensement plusours persones au dit college fueez et la demur-
rantz, pur lour faux lucre, forgent, fount et escrivent obliga-
tions, endentures, acquitances, et autr'es munimentz fauxes, et
illeoqes les enseallent es nouns si bien de plusours marchantz
et gentz en en la dite citee demurantz, come d'autres du die
roialme a lour disheriteson et final destruction . . . Et en
quelle college de temps en temps sount receptz murdres,
traitours, come tonsours du monoye del coigne le Roy, larons,
robbours et autres diverses felouns, malfaisours et destourbours
de la pees nostre seignur le roy, par jour tapisantz et de noet
issantz pur faire lour murdres, tresons, larcines, robbories et
felonies. . . . Et apres deux murdres, tresons, &c., faitz, al
dit college repairent." " Rolls of Parliament," voi. Hi. p. 503,

A.D. 1402.

XI. (p. I90).

MEDIEVAL ROMANCES IN ENGLAND

The first romances recited in England were necessarily
French ; then men began to translate them. The bulk of
the English romances are translated or imitated from the
French. Very few were originally written in English. The
French originals were in great repute, as numberless instances
testify. Among many others, the translator of the romance of
" William of Palerne," in spite of the liberties he takes,
affirms that he follows the French text exactly, and glories in

426 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

" In this wise hath William al his werke ended,
As fully as the frensche fully wold aske,
And as his witte him wold serve, though it were febul."

("William of Palerne," translated about 1350; ed. Skeat,
Early English Text Society, 1867, ^ 5521)- The translator
adds that he did this work by request of Humphrey de
Bohun, Earl of Hereford. The Earl ordered this poem on
account of those persons who were ignorant of French, who
at this time were, as we see, among those who might be
interested by such literature.

"He let make this mater in this maner speche
For hem that knowe no frensche, ne neuer vnderston "

Ibid. 1. 5532.

Layamon, who wrote at the beginning of the thirteenth
century, inserted in his great poem, " i.rut,'* the legends
which make the race of the sovereigns of Britain descend
from Eneas. Until that time this fabulous origin had only been
set forth in Latin and in French. Layamon's " Brut " is
largely borrowed from Wace, but the native poet added much
to his original.1 Numerous posterior English romances refer
to this origin, which ceased to be disputed. Thus the author
of " Sir Gawayne " opens by recalling that after the siege of
Troy, Romulus founded Rome, "Ticius" peopled the
Tuscan country, " Langaberde " Lombardy, and Brutus
established himself in Great Britain. At the end he assures
his readers that all his narratives are drawn from the " Brutus

1 Layamon's " Brut," edited by Sir F. Madden, Roxburghe
Club, 1847. For much information on the French versions of the
legend, including Geoffrey of Monmouth, see " Bulletin de la
Societe* des anciens textes Fran9ais," 1878, p. 104, and "La
Litterature Francaise du Moyen age," par G. Paris, 1888, sees.
54, 93 ; also on the whole subject, Mr. H. L. D. Ward's Catalogue
of MS. Romances in the British Museum, i. pp. 198-277. [L. T. S.]

APPENDIX. 427

bokees," which was a sufficient guarantee of authenticity.1
We know that the chroniclers were not less credulous on this
point than the romanciers : the protests of Gerald the Cam-
brian and of William of Newbury (in the proemium of his
history) were thrown away, and Robert of Gloucester, Ralph
Higden (u a Bruto earn acquirente dicta est Britannia," 4l Poly-
chronicon," ed. Babington, vol. ii. p. 4), the anonymous author
of the " Eulogium Historiarum," and a host of other respect-
able chroniclers accepted these vain legends in their writings.

XII. (p. 207).

POPULAR ENGLISH SONGS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
The following collections may be consulted :

" Ancient Songs and Ballads from the reign of Henry II. to
the Revolution," collected by John Ritson, revised edition by
W. C. Hazlitt, London, 1877.

" Political Songs of England from the reign of John to that
of Edward JI.," edited by Thomas Wright; Camden Society,
London, 1839.

" Songs and Carols now first printed from a MS. of the
xvth Century," edited by Thomas Wright ; Percy Society,
London, 1847.

" Political Poems and Songs," from Edward III. to Richard
III., edited by Thomas Wright j Rolls Series, London, 1859,
1861.

" Political, Religious, and Love Poems," edited by F. J.
Furnivall ; Early English Text Society, London, 1866.

" Catalogue of MS. Romances in the British Museum," by
Henry L. D. Ward, vol. i., London, 1887. See as to Robin
Hood ballads, pp. 516-523.

" Bishop Percy's folio MS. — Ballads and Romances,"
edited by J. W. Hales and F. J. Furnivall, Ballad Society,
London, 1867.

1 "Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight," ed. R. Morris, 1864.

428 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE.

" The English an<i Scottish popular Ballads," now being
edited by Prof. F. J. Child, Boston, U.S.A., 1882, &c.

We find in these collections many satirical songs on the
vices of the times, on the exaggerations of fashion, the ill
government of the king, on the Lollards, on the friars ;
pleasantries about women, with some songs of a higher
character urging the king to defend the national honour and to
make war. See for example Dr. Furnivalf's book, p. 4. In
this work is printed the song referred to in our text on the
death of the Duke of Suffolk (pp. 6-1 1) :

Here folowythe a Dyrge made by the comons of Kent in the
tyme of ther rysynge, when "Jake Cade was theyr cappitayn :

Who shall execute ye fest of solempnite ?
Bysshoppis and lords, as gret reson is.
Monkes, clianons, and prescis, withall ye clergy,
Prayeth for hym that he may com to blys.

And that nevar such anothar come aftar this
His intersectures, blessid mot they be,
And graunt them to reygne with aungellis I
For Jake Napys sovvlc, placebo and dirige.

"• Placebo," begyneth the bisshop of Hereiorthe ;
" Dilexi,'' quod ye bisshop of Chester.

XIII. (p. 312).

INDULGENCES AND THE THEORY OF THE "TREASURY"
ACCORDING TO POPE CLEMENT VI.

" Quantum ergo exinde ut nee supervacua, inanis aut super-
flua tantae effusionis miseratio redderetur, thesaurum militant!

APPENDIX. 4*9

Ecclesias acquisivit, volens suis thesaurizare filiis plus pater, ut
sic sic mfinitus thesaurus hominibus, quo qui usi sum, Dei
amicitiae participes sunt efFecti. Quern quidem thesaurum
non in aerario repositum, non in agro absconditum, sed per
beatum Petrum coeli clavigerum, ejusque successores, suos in
terris vicarios commisit fidelibus salubriter dispensandum, et
propriis et rationabilibus causis, nunc pro totali, nunc pro
partial! remissione pcenae temporalis pro peccatis debitae tarn
generaliter quam specialiter (prout cum Deo expedire cognos-
cerent) vere poenitentibus et confessis misericorditer applican-
dum. Ad cujus quidem thesauri cumulum, beatae Dei
genetricis, omnium electorum a primo justo usque ad ulti-
mum merita adminiculum pisestare noscuntur, de cujus con-
sumptione, seu minutione non est aliquatenus formidandum,
tarn propter infinita Christi (ut praedictum est) merita, quam
pro eo quod quanto plures ex ejus applicatione trahuntur ad
justitiam, tanto magis accrescit ipsorum cumulus meritorum."

" Dictionnaire dogmatique, historique ascetique et pratique
des indulgences/' by Abbe P. Jouhanneaud, Paris, 1852, p.
123-4 (being vol. xxvii. of Migne's " Nouvelle encyclopedic
theologique ").

XIV. (P. 319).

SERMON ACCOMPANYING THE DISPLAY OF A PAPAL
BULL (ON THE OCCASION OF THE COMING OF
HENRY OF LANCASTER).

" 4 Mes bonnes gens, entendez tous ici.
Vous savez bien coment le roy banny
A, a grant tort, vostre seigneur henry,

Et sans raison ;
Et pource jay fait impetracion
Au saint pere, qui est nostre patron,
Que trestous ceulx auront remission
De leurs pechiez

130 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

De quoy oncques ilz furent entachiez,
De puis leure quilz furent baptisiez,
Qui leur aideront tous certains en suez

Celle journ6ej
Et vesenci la bulle seellee,
Que le pappe de romme la Iou6e
Ma envoie, et pour vous tous donne"e,

Mes bons amis.

Vueilliez lui dont aidier ses ennemis
A conquerre, et vous en serez mis
Avecques ceux qui sont en paradis

Apres la mort.'

Lors veissiez jcune, viel, feble, et fort
Murmure faire, et par commun accort,
Sans regarder ni le droit ni le tort,

Eulx emouvoir,

Cuidant que ce con leur fist assavoir
Feust verite, tous le courent de voir ;
Car de sens nont gueres ne de savoir,

De telz ya.

Larcevesque ce conseil cy trouva."

"Frcrch metrical history of the deposition of King
Richard II." (by Cre"ton), edited and translated into English by
Rev. J. Webb. " Archaeologia," t. xx. p. 310,

This speech is attributed by the chronicler to Thomas of
Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1413-14), and is sup-
posed to have been delivered at the time of the landing of
Henry of Lancaster in 1399 (Henry IV.)

XV. (pp. 314, 322, 325, 326, 337).

ECCLESIASTICAL DOCUMENTS CHIEFLY CONCERNING
ENGLISH PARDONERS.

Richard de Bury on the Pardoners, A.D. 1340:
"Cumsitstatutum in canone ne qui eleemosynarum quzestores

APPENDIX. 431

ad praedicandum aut indulgentias clero et populo insinuandum
sine literis dioecesanis aut apostolicisadmittantur, literasque apos-
tolicae quaestoribus hujusmodi concessae ante admissionem eorum
per dioecesanos examinari debeant diligenter : ex gravi tamen
multorum querela ad nostrum pervenit auditum, quod nonnulli
ex hujusmodi quaestoribus, non sine multa temeritatis audacia,
motu suo proprio, in animarum subditorum nostrorumpericulum
et jurisdictionis nostrae elusionem manifestam, indulgentias
populo concedunt, super votis dispensant, et perjuriis, homicidiis,
usuris et peccatis aliis, sibi confitentes absolvunt, et male ablata,
data sibi aliqua pecuniae quantitate, remittunt, ac alias abusiones
quamplurimas faciunt ec exponunt."

" Registrum Palatinum Dunelmense," edited by T. D.
Hardy, vol. iii. p. 325.

Provincial Synod of Dublin, 1348 :

"Cap.xxii. Dequastoribus. Item, quia eleemosynarum quae-
stores nonnullas abusiones in suis praedicationibus proponunt,
ut decipiant simplices tantum, et nonnulla alia bona subtili vel
fallaci potius ingenio extorqueant, nonnulla etiam mala in
deceptionem animarum multiplicem perpetrentur j statuimus
et ordinamus, quod nullus amodo quaestor sine literis archi-
episcopi vel dioec. admittaturquovismodo. . . . Sacerdotes vero
qui alio modo quam supra dicto, quaestores ad prasdicandum
voluntarie et scienter admittunt, per annum a celebratione
divinorum ipso facto sint suspensi ; et ipsi quaestores, si contra
praemissa aliquid attentaverint, ipso facto sint excommunicati.
Et si per quadraginta dies perseveraverint, ad significationem
episcoporum capiantur et incarcerentur, quousque de talibus
aliud merit per loci dioecesanum dispositum. Quascunque
literas hujusmodi quasstoribus hactenus concessas revocamus,
praemissarum sententiarum relaxatione sine absolutione loci
dioecesani reservata. Et capellani pecuniam ea occasione
receptam ecclesiis cathedralibus restituant triplicatam.*'

Wilkins, "Concilia," 1737, vol. ii. p. 750.

tf* ENGLISH WAYFARING LtFti.

Bull of Pope Urban V. " contra quaestores hospitaiis
Jerusalem in Anglia," 1369:

"Urbanus . . . archiepiscopo Cant, ejusque suffraganeis, salu-
lem. . . . Nuper dilectis filiis Johanne Sancti Dunstani West.,
Ricardo B. Mariae Wolnoth, recforibus, et Philippo de Braunton,
ac Willelmo de Eya, perpetuis vicariis parochialibus ecclesiarum
London. Exon. et Norwicen. dioec. ac nonnullis aliis rectonbus
. . . nobis referentibus percepimus, quod quaestores priorum,
praeceptorum et confratrum domorum hospitaiis S. Johannis
Jerusalemitani in Anglia, de voluntate, conniventia, ratihabi-
tione, seu mandato dictorum prioruin ... in pluribus contra
juris et rationis metas impudenter excedunt. . . . nonnulli
Umen quaestores priorum et confratrum praedictorum, gratia
quaestus hujusmodi ... ad rectorum et vicariorum hujus-
modi ecclesias accedentes, et se ad prasdicandum seu ex-
ponendum populo hujusmodi negotiaquaestuaria offerentes, licet
congrue et legitime requisiti, literas sedis apostolicae vel
dioecesani loci eisdem rectoribus seu vicariis sic requirentibus,
ostendere seu exhibere penitus non curarunt neque curant ;
quin verius de voluntate, conniventia seu mandato de quibus
praedicitur, denegarunt expresse contra constitutionescanonicas
. . . praetendentes ipsos priores et fratres pro se et eorum
quaestoribus in eaparte fore notorie privilegiatos, licet hoc neque
notorium fuerit neque verum ; et ut quadam astutia colorata
ipsos rectoies, et vicarios exliibitionem literarum hujusmodi sic
petentes, acrius fatigent laboribus et expensis, ipsos eo quod
exhibitionem literarum hujusmodi sic deposcebant et de-
poscunt, tanquam injuriatores contra eorum privilegia mani-
festos, et quaestuum suorum impeditores proclamarunt et pro-
clamant, ipsosque ea occasione coram eorum conservatoii-
bus seu subconservatoribus ad loca diversa et quandoque
valde remota fecerunt et faciunt ad judicium evocari, et per
conservatores sive subconservatores hujusmodi contra eosdem
processus indebitos fieri, eosque nonnunquam excommunicari,
aggravari et denunciari licet d.1 facto, ac alia eis gravamina
quamplura inferri procurarunt et procurant, in ipsoium

APPENDIX. 433

rectorum et vicariorum grave praejudicium et scandalum
plurimorum : et insuper quaestores praedicti frequenter et
potissime, quando satagunt alicui rectori seu vicario nocere,
ad ipsius rectoris seu vicarii ecclesiam in aliquo die festo, prae-
cipue quando populus solitus est offerre, accedunt, et ibidem
quaestuare, seu nomina fratriae seu fraternitatis suae legere
incipiunt et continuant usque ad talem illius dici festi horam,
qua missa ibidem pro illo die convenienter non potest celebrari ;
sicque rectores et vicarios hujusmodi suis faciunt oblationibus,
quae eis in missis hujusmodi obveniunt, nequiter defraudari.
Insuper in ecclesiis et locis ad eos seu dictum hospitale
nullatenus pertinentibus, licet publice interdictis seu pollutis
divina faciant etiam publice celebrari, et in eis pro eorum
libito per se et alios sepeliunt corpora defunctorum ; officium
quoque seu negotium quaestuandi personis simplicibus et quasi
illiteratis committunt,qui simplices aliis simplicibus erroneum
praestantes ducatum, generaliter, ut de spiritualibus taceamus,
in populo diffundunt errores."

Wilkins, " Concilia," London, 1737, vol. iii. p. 83.

Letter of Simon Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury, A.D.

1378:

" Simon, etc., dilecto filio commissario nostro Cantuar.
general!, salutem, etc. Ad nostrum audientiam est perlatum,
quod licet eleemosynarum quaestores, nisi apostolicas vel dioe-
cesani episcopi literas exhibuerint, admitti non debeant, vel
permitti indulgentias sibi concessas insinuare, et populo
praedicare ; nonnulli tamen quaestores, qui non sine multa
temeritatis audacia, et deceptione multiplici animarum, ac
elusione populi christiani, indulgentias remissionesque falsas
et frivolas, et aliaerronea . . . praedicant abusive tarn per vos,
quam per official, archidiaconi nostri Cantuar. de diebus in
dies indifferenter illicite admittuntur."

Wilkins, "Concilia," vol. iii. p. 131.

Bull of Pope Boniface IX., A.D. 1390:
" Ad audientiam nostram, non sine magna mentis displi-

28

434 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

centia fidcdignorum quamplurimum relatio perduxit quod
quidam religiosi diversorum etiam mendicantium ordinum et
nonnulli clerici saeculares etiam in dignitatibus constituti,
asserentes se a nobis aut a diversis legatis seu nuntiis sedis
apostolicae missos, et ad plura peragenda negotia diversas
facultates habere per panes, in quibus es pro nobis et Ecclesia
Romana thesaurarius deputatus, discurrunt, et veras vel
praetensas, quas se habere dicunt, facultates fideli et simplici
populo nunciant et irreverenter veris hujusmodi facultatibus
abutentes, suas fimbrias, ut vel sic turpem et infamem quaes-
tum faciant, impudenter dilatant, et non veras et praetensas
facultates hujusmodi mendaciter simulant, cum etiam pro
qualibet parva pecuniarum summula, non poenitentes, §ed
mala conscientia satagentes iniquitati suas, quoddam mentitae
absolutionis velamen prastendere, ab atrocibus delictis, nulla
vera contritione, nullaque debita praecedenti forma (ut verbis
illorum utamur) absolvant ; male ablata, certa et incerta, nulla
satisfactione praevia (quod omnibus saeculis absurdissimum est)
remittant ; castitatis, abstinentiae, peregrinationis ultramarinae,
seu beatorum Petri et Pauli de urbe aut Jacobi in Compos-
tella apostolorum, et alia quaevis vota, levi compensatione
commutent ; de haeresi vel schismate nominatim aut incidenter
condemnatos, absque eo quod in debita forma abjurent et
quantum possunt debite satisfaciant, non tantum absolvant,
sed in integrum restituant; cum illegitime genitis, ut ad
ordines et beneficia promoveri possint, et intra gradtis pro-
hibitos copulatis aut copulandis dispensent, et eis qui ad partes
infidelium absque sedis praedictae licentia transfretarunt, vel
merces prohibitas detulerunt, et etiam qui Romanae aut aliarum
ecclesiarum possessiones, jura, et bona occuparunt, excorc-
municationis et alias sententias et poenas, et quasvis interdicts
relaxent, et indulgentiam quam felicis recordationis Urbanus
Papa VI. praedecessor noster, christifidelibus certas basilicas
et ecclesias dictae urbis instanti anno visitantibus concessit, et
quas in subsidium Terras Sanctas accedentibus conceduntur,
quibusvis elargiri pro nihilo ducant, . . . et quaestum, quem

APPENDIX. 435

exinde percipiunt, nomine cameras apostolicae se percipere as-
serant, et nullam de illo nihilominus rationem velle reddere vide-
antur: Horret et merito indignatur animus, talia reminisci. . . .

" Attendentes igicur quod nostra interest super tot tantisque
malis de opportunis remediis salubriter providere, fraternitati
tuae de qua in iis et aliis specialem in domino fiduciam obtine-
mus, per apostolica scripta committimus et mandamus, quatenus
religiosis et clericis saecularibus hujusmodi, ac eorum familiari-
bus, complicibus, et collegiis, et aliis, vocatis qui fuerint
evocandi, summarie, simpliciter, et de piano, ac sine strepitu
et figura judicii, etiam ex officio super praemissis, auctoritate
nostra, inquiras diligentius veritatem, et eos ad reddendum
tibi computum de receptis et reliqua consignandum, remota
appellatione, compellas, et quos per inquisitionem hujusmodi
excessisse, vel non verum aut non suffictens seu ad id non
habuisse mandatum inveneris, capias et tandiu sub fida custodia
teneas carceribus mancipatos, donee id nobis intimaveris."

Baronius* " Annales ecclesiastic!/' continuation by Raynaldus,
ed. 1752, vol. vii. p. 525.

Opinion of the University of Oxford on Pardoners, A.D.
1414:

" Articulus tricesimus nonus ; contra falsas pradicationes
quastorum. — Quia inverecundi quaestores turpissimos suos
quaestus ad firmam emunt cum Simone, indulgentias vendunt
cum Gyesi, et adquisita consumunt cum filio prodigo inhoneste,
sed quod magis est detestabile, cum non sint in sacris ordini-
bus constituti, publice praedicant, ac false praetendunt quod
absolvendi a posna et a culpa tarn superstites quam defunctos
plenam habeant potestatem, cum aliis blasphemiis, quibus
populum spoliant ac seducunt, et verisimiliter ad tartara secum
trahunt, praestantes spem frivolam et audaciam ad peccandum.
Abusus igitur hujusmodi sectae pestiferae ab ecclesiae limitibus
deleantur."

drticull concernentes reformationetn unher salts ecclesice^ editi
per universitatem Oxon. Wilkins, " Concilia," vol. iii. p. 365.

436 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE.

Suppression of pardoners, A.D. 1562 :

" Cum multa a diversis antea conciliis, tarn Lateranensi ac
Lugdunensi, quam Viennensi, adversus pravos eleemosynarum
quaestorum abusus remedia tune adhibita, posterioribus tempo-
ribus reddita fuerint inutilia, potiusque eorum malitia ita
quotidie magno fidelium omnium scandalo et querela ex-
crescere deprehendatur, ut de eorum emendatione nulla
spes amplius relicta videatur, statuit ut posthac in quibus-
cumque christianae reiigionis locis eorum nomen atque usus
penitus aboleatur, nee ad officium hujusmodi exercendum
ullatenus- admittantur; non obstantibus privileges, ecclesiis,
monasteriis, hospitalibus, piis locis et quibusvis cujuscumque
gradus, status et dignitatis personis, concessis, aut consuetu-
dinibus etiam immemorabilibus. Indulgentias vero aut alias
spirituales gratias, quibus non ideo christifideles decet privari,
deinceps per ordinaries locorum, adhibitis duobus de capitulo,
debitis temporibus populo publicandas esse decernit. Quibus
etiam eleemosynas, atque oblata sibi charitatis subsidia, nulla
prorsus mercede accepta, fideliter colligendi facukas datur,
ut tamdem coelestes hos Ecclesiaa thesauros, non ad quxstum
sed ad pictatem exerceri, omnes vere intelligant."

" Conciliorum generalium Ecclesiae catholicas, Pauli V.
Pont. Max. auctoritate editus." Tomus iv., Romas, 1628,
second paging, p. 261.

XVI. (p. 345).

THE FIRST RECORDED CRUCIFIX SCULPTURED FROM
THE LIFE IN ENGLAND.

Narrative of Thomas of Burton, Abbot of Meaux, near
Beverley : " Dictus autem Hugo abbas xvus crucifixum
novum in choro conversorum fecit fabricari. Cujus quidem
operarius nullam ejus formosam et notabilem proprietatem
sculpebat nisi in feria sexta, in qua pane et aqua tantum

APPENDIX. 437

jejunavit. Et hominem nudutn coram se stantem prospexit,
secundum cujus formosam imaginem crucifixum ipsum aptius
decoraret. Per quern etiam crucifixum Omnipotens manifesta
miracula fecerat incessanter. Unde tune etiam putabatur quod,
si mulieres ad dictum crucifixum accessum haberent, augmen-
taretur communis devotio, et in quam plurimum commodum
nostri monasterii, redundaret. Super quo abbas Cistercii a
nobis requisitus, suam licentiam nobis impertivit ut homines
et mulieres honestae accedere possent ad dictum crucifixum,
dum tamen mulieres per claustrum et dormitorium seu alia
officina intrare non permittantur. ... Cujus quidem licentiae
praetextu, malo nostro, feminae saepius aggrediuntur dictum
crucifixum, praecipue cum in eis frigescat devotio, dum illuc
ut ecclesiarn tantum introspiciant accesserint, et sumptus
nostros augeant in hospitatione earundem." " Chrunica
monasterii de Melsa," edited by E. A. Bond, 1866-68, vol.
iii. p. 35 (Rolls Series).

XVII. (P. 351).

THE PILGRIMAGE OF R.EYNARD.

" Ci commence le pelerinage Renart, si con il ala a Rome

* * * *
Escrepe et bordon prent, si muet,
Si est entrez en son chemin,
Moult resemble bien pdlerin,

Et bien li sist 1'escrepe au col."

The travellers find in the " ostel Primaut," that is the house
of Primaut, the wolf:

" Char salee, formache et oes

* * * *

Et si trovent bonne cervoise.

438 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE

Tant but Belins que il s'envoise ;
Si a commencie a chanter
Et 1'arche-prestre a orguener,
Et Dant Renart chante en fauset."

The speech of Reynard :

" Seignor, dist Renart, par mon chief,
Cest errer est pesant et grief;
II a el siecle meint prodome
Qui onques ne furent a Rome :
Tiex est revenuz des sept sainz
Qui est pires qu'il ne fu ainz.
Je me voil metre en mon retor,
Et si vivrai de mon labor
Et gaaignerai leelment,
Si ferai bien a povre gent.
Lors ont crie : outre'e, outre'e !
Si ont fete la retorne'e."

" Le roman du Renart," publie d'apres les MSS. de la
bibliotheque du Roi des xiii6., xive., et x"e. siecles, par M. D.
M. M6on, Paris, 1826, vol. ii. pp. 127, 133 et seq.

THE END.

INDEX.

INDEX.

ABINGDON FAIR, 248 ; sanctuary,

tee COLNHAM
Abinger, stocks at, 26%
Abjuration, felon's oath of, 160
Alehouses with poles, 132 ;

society to be found in, 134-

»37

Aliens, resistance to, by Parlia-
ment, 229, 302
Ambush laid by knights upon

merchants, 145-47
Amiens, a resort for pilgrims, 363
Anglure, lord of, see FRENCH

PILGRIMS

Asses, travelling on, 399
Autolycus, 231
Avancement par clergie, 279
Avignon, bridge at, 39, 41
Ayremynnc, Richard de, secre-
tary to Edward II., 1 18

BALL, JOHN, 24, 25, 207, 281,

282

Baptist, St. John, relics of, 363
Bartholomew fair, 248
Bartholomew the Englishman,

1*4

Battle Abbey, guest house at, 122

Bear, performing, 218

Beds, price of, 129

Beggars and begging, 262, 265
note, 270, 275, 307

Berwick-on-Tweed bridge and
ferry, 68

Beverley sanctuary, 154, 155

Billingham, 42

Birmingham gild, 42

Bishop, his state and retinue, 1 16,
117

"Black Death" of 1349, 258

Blind beggar and boy, 27, 405

Books sold at fairs, 249

Botyton bridge, 42

Boucicaut, Marshal, 390

Boulogne, 363

Bourgogne (Jean de), 392, 393

Bow bridge, 45, 46

Bradeley bridge, 418

Bridges, maintenance of, 36, 59-
64 ; pious character of this,
38, 43-48 ; indenture for
building one, 58; chapels
on, 48, 50, 61, 73 ; abuse
of their revenues, 61, 63 ;

44*

INDEX.

Bridges continued- —

neglect and decay, 64-69 ;

movable, of timber, 414 ;

towers on, 53, 74 ; houses

on, 50, 54, 77
Brigandage in England, 149-50,

I67» 2S5
Brotherton, 42
Brudtholl, 59
Brut, legend of, 426
Buffoons, 212-18
Bull, papal, reading a fabricated,

26, 429

Bullion not to be exported, 236
Burdon or pilgrim's staff, 360
Burton, Thomas of (Abbot of

Meaux), 381

Bury, Richard de, 322, 430
Bushel measure, 92

CADE'S rebellion, " dirge '' of

that time, 428

Cahors, bridge at, 41, 43, 72
Calais Maison-Dieu for pilgrims,

S^S

Canterbury, pilgrimages to, 348

Carriages, 17, 95-100

Carts, 90-92, 93

Carving at table, mode of, 18,
19, 115

Catterick bridge, 58, 79

Cats killed for their skins by
pedlars, 234

Charlatans, 178, 185, 187

Charters of pardon, 166, 167

Chaucer's " House of Fame," 2 1 i ,
220-223 ; Cook, 117 ;
Friar, 279, 287-88 ; Par-
doner, 312-16, 320, 337;

Physician, 177; Merchant,
242 ; Monk, 115 ; "Sir
Thopas," 193; Squire, 197;
pilgrims. 349, 359; opinions
on the equality of men, 208
note

Cheap-jacks, 181, 185

Chesford bridge, 418

Chester bridge, 69, 77, 417

Chimneys, 20, 126

Christine de Pisan on taverns,
135 ; on the miraculous
blood of Christ, 328

Churches, fugitives watched in,

'59

Church, her " treasury " of

heavenly wealth, 311-12

Claypole bridge, 418

Clergy resist exactions of pur-
veyors, 420 ; " advance-
ment by" 279; tee ECCLE-
SIASTICS

Clerkenwell Priory, 120

Clermont-Ferrand, Herodias in
stained window at, 214

Clopton, Hugh, 57

Coal trade, 235

Coggeshall, Abbot of, has to re-
pair a bridge, ^7, 418

Colechurch, Peter, 49

Colnham near Abingdon, sanc-
tuary there, 165

Compostella, St. James of, pil-
grimages to, 367, 368-372,

3/9» 392> 396 *?*'
Conspiracy against justice, case

of, ijonote

Cook with his pot-hook, 19, 115
Coryat's charlatan, 186
Court, officers of royal, 107;

INDEX.

443

lodgings in town and coun-
try, 118-120
Credulity, effects of, 333-37,

383-84
Cre'ton's account of Richard II.,

?5> X99> 319

Criminals in sanctuary at Bever-
ley, 155 j see DURHAM

Cross in hand borne by outlaw,
152, 160, 161 note

Crowknd bridge, 77, 89

Croyland, Abbot of, agreement
as to a bridge, 417

Crusades, causes of their cessa-
tion, 240, 384-386; Lan-
noy's survey for a crusade,

393-4
"Cursor Mundi," 190

Cyprus, pilgrims at, 391, 403

DANBY CASTLE, bridge near, 77,

78
Dances, coarseness of, 22, 214-

»i6; in cemeteries, 334
Dead, superstitious observances at

burial of, 333-34
Decretals, fourteenth - century

MS. of, containing valuable

drawings, 21, 25
Devotion in fourteenth century

disorganized, 381-384
Dinner in hall, 18, 109, 124;

sprinkling diners with holy

water, 300
Dover Maison-Dieu, 123, 363

note

Dressing in the morning, 20, 127
Duels, between Lindesay and

Welles, 50 ; of Thomas de

Bruges, 117 note ; between
the Bishop and Earl of Salis-
bury, 118

Dumfries, bridge at, 79

Durham, bridges at, 78 ; pilgrim-
age to, 347; sanctuary, 22,
*53> 155-595 registry, 43,
44> !55

Dyke (Yorkshire), bridge over,

54. 4H

ECCLESIASTICS, worldly, clothing
of, 115, 421 ; state of a
bishop, 116; see CLERGY,
RELIGIOUS HOUSES, FRIARS,
and PARDONERS

Eccleston, Thomas, 291

Egypt, 394. 4°°> 4OI~2
Elephant queerly described, 402
Ely, the glee-man of, 202
Englishmen great travellers, 386-
390; the restless moon their
planet, 388 ; soldiers of
adventure, 389
Erasmus on pilgrimages, 353,

354

Exeter Cathedral, minstrels' gal-
lery, 202-5

" FABLIAUX " illustrated in a
manuscript of Decretals, 21.

25
Fairs, regulations and frequenters

at, 246-251
False tales against the great, 272,

273
Farce (French) of a pardoner.

&c., 330

444

INDEX.

" Fauxine," brand of, 261

Felon's oath of abjuration, 160 ;
charter of pardon, 167

Ferry over the Tweed, 68 ;
Humber, 130, 422

Ferrybridge, 42

Fire in bedroom a luxury, 20,
127

Fish, fairs for sale of, 248 ; com-
plaints as to net called
" wondyrchoun," 249 note

Flagellants, 382

Flemings, 236

"Fleta," 107 note, in, 115, 161

Foreign affairs, expenses over,
disallowed, 226

Foreign trade, 235, 238-240

Forest in England, 252, 254,
256

Fourteenth century, incredulity
of 381-83 ; modern views
then held, 385

Fox and geese, 309, 331 ; see
REYNARD

France, purveyors in, 95 ; herba-
list there 600 years ago, 178 ;
ordinances as to workpeople
there, 260 ; pardoners in,

329» 33°

Francis, St., 290, 292
Franciscan friars, 290-97
Frankpledge, 113, 133
French, manual of language, 131,

196, 387
French pilgrims to Holy Land,

narrative of, 378, 395, 400-

4°3

French Revolution, comparison
between and revolt of 1381,
271, 274

Friars, Franciscan, 25, 279, 290-
297 ; Dominican, 297 ; their
pride and corruption, 298,
303-4; enmity against, 299,
301-307; their hold over
the people, 305-6 ; repre-
sentation of a church, 26,
295

Frid-stool at Beverley, 153; at
Hexham, I 54

Froissart, 82, 285, 339, 364

GADDESDEN, JOHN of, 180, 181

Gascoigne, Thomas, 213, 347

" Gawayne and the Green

Knight," romance, 191, 197

Gilds, of minstrels, 205 ; of Holy

Cross, Birmingham, 42 ; ol

foreign merchants in London,

239; of palmers, Ludlow,

334; of Lincoln, Hull, and

Coventry, helping pilgrims,

379> 38o
Gloucester, assault in the town,

171 note

Gold, William, letter of, 389-90
Grossetete, Bishop of Lincoln,

291
Guest-house, 122

HAIRS plucked out, 96 note;

ladies' tresses, 372, 373
Hall of the house, 123-25
Hampole, tee ROLLE
Hanse merchants, 235, 238
Hatfield, musicians' gallery at,

201

Hayvvard over reapers, 24
Henry IV., friars minors inimical

to, 305 ; false indulgence
read on his behalf, 319, 429

Herbalists, 178, 181

Hereford bridge, 78

Hermits and hermitages, 137, 138;
story of hermit who got
drunk, 21 ; false hermits,
140-143

Herodias, 214

Hexham, Frid-stool at, 22, 154

Highgate and Islington jurors,
their verdict against Fran-
ciscans, 306

"Horn, King," romance of, 189,
360

Horseback, customary convey-
ance, 100; mode of riding
on, 104, 105

Horse-litters, 17, 102

Hospitality, by ecclesiastics, 119,
122 ; this abused, 121 ; in
castles, 123

House of the king, interior of, 108

Hue and cry, 168-170 ; abuse of,
170 note

Humber, price of ferry, 130, 423

Huntingdon bridge, 79 ; chapel
on, 6 1

[LL-LIFE, persons of, how treated,

I O8, 112

Illuminated manuscripts, prices

of, 192 note
Incantations, 334, 372
Incredulity, widespread, 381-83
Indulgences, system of, 309, 310;

political use of, against

Richard II., 316-19, 429;

enumeration of, gained by

445

pilgrimages, 375, 377 note,
381; scoffed at by Burton,

Inns and innkeepers, 126; dia
logue on arrival, 131 ; figure
of an inn, 130

Inquiries, periodical, legal, 66,
121 ; relating to bridges, 66,

417

Insecurity of roads and intimida-
tion, 145-150

Ireland, 226

Isembert, French builder of
London Bridge, 49, 413

Islington, see HIGHGATE

Ives, St., bridge at, 79

Italy, English soldiers in, 389-90

JAMES, ST., of Compostella, pil-
grimages to, 367-372, 379,

392
Jerusalem, maps of, 397 note, see

KNIGHTS and PALESTINE
Jongleurs, decay of, 211
Jonson, Ben, describes a quack

doctor, 185
Jugglers, 212, 213
Justice, accompanies the king's

court, ill, 112; brought

periodically to the people,

"3715

Justices, itinerant, 114, 421

KELLAWE, RICHARD DE, 41

Kentish bridges, 418

King, frequent journeys of, 82.

107 ; notice of these given

108 ; lodged in reliju-u*

446

INDEX.

King continued —

houses, 119; minstrels
attached to, 198, 199;
offerings at shrines by, 355

Knaresborough hermitage, 137

note

Knights of St. John of Jerusalem,

120

LANCASTER, THOMAS, EARL OF, his
popular canonization, 339-

341

Lands in England, their owner-
ship scattered, 82

Langland quoted, 48, 126, 134,
140-142, . 197, 200, 230,
234, 243, 265, 290, 304,

359
Lannoy, Gilbert of, his survey

preparatory to a crusade,

393-4
Latimer on pilgrimages, 355

" Lazarillo de Tormes" and its

original, 27, 28, 330
Leet days, 420
Letters carried by messengers,

224, 227 ; of aliens, 229
Letters of travel, 269, 362 ; of

fraternity, 305
Liberal principles spoken, but not

meant, 208-210
Lichfield, merchants of, robbed,

145-47 •

Lily's "Euphues," 54
Lindesay, Earl of Crawfurd, his

duel with Lord Welles, 50
Litter of rushes, &c., 124
Liveried retainers, 148
Llangollen bridge, 78

London, reparation of roads near,
84 ; quartering of royal
household in, 1 18; taverns in,
133 ; sanctuaries of, St. Mar-
tin le Grand, 159, 162, 424,
All Saints, London Wall,
163, St. Paul's and West-
minster, 164, 165, 166 ;
punishment for illegal
practice of medicine in, 1 81 ;
gild of barber surgeons, 182 ;
examinations of doctors in,
183 ; religious play at
Skinner well, 195

London Bridge, 13, 14, 48-54,
63-4 ; patents relating to,
60 note, 413, 416-17

Louis XI. of France, his super-
stitious devotion, 357

Louterell Psalter, 17, 91

Loyne, hermit on the bridge of,
138 note

Ludinglond, case in the court at,
266

Luttrell Psalter, see LOUTERELL

" MAINTENANCE " of followers,

148, 149
Mandeville the traveller, 363,

386, 392-94

Manual of French, 131, 196, 387
Meaux Abbey, 83 ; crucifix at,

sculptured from life, 345,

43.6
Medicine, practice of, authorized

and unauthorized, 180-85 j
Mendicant friars, 287
Merchants, foreign, 238, 240 ;

English, importance of, 242-

INDEX.

44?

244; their difficulties in
travelling, 230

Merits, of Christ and the saints,
"treasury" of, 311, 312,
428 ; of the friars' order, to
be sold, 305

Messengers, royal and other, 224-
230 ; their rewards, 228,
229 ; swiftness, 230 ; sham
messenger, 219; a pro-
fessional, 224; contempt of
queen's, 228

Minorites, church of, in London,
293-4; see FRANCISCANS

Minstrels, 188, 189, 195-211 ;
gilds of, 205, 206 note;
drawings of, 7, 203; " king "
of, 198, 199; decay of, 211,
217

Miracles worked by rebels made
saints by the people, 340,
342, 343 ; worked by
statues, 346

Moliere on astrology, 336

Moneford bridge, 65

Monks' worldly clothing reproved,
115, 421

Montfort, Simon and Henry of,
popular saints, 341, 343

Moon, the planet of the English,
388

More, Sir Thomas, his " History
of Richard III.," 164;
" Utopia," 307 ; on pilgrim-
ages, 354

Morston, Hamo de, 67, 418

Musical instruments, 201, 102,
205 note

Musician's gallery, 201

Mustard pots, 305

NAVY of England, 237

Neots, St., inquiry as to bridge

at, 66

Newton Abbot, bridge near, 69
Night-watches of the dead, 334
"None-such House," 14, 53
Norwich, bridges there, 77, 79 ,

hermit on Bishop's bridge,

138 note

Nottingham, bridge near, 65
"Nut Brown Maid," ballad of,

253-55

OXFORD UNIVERSITY, students of,
might carry arms on a
journey, 168, 279 ; travellers
from, to the north, 129;
recommended abolition of
pardoners, 325, 435

Outlawry, what it is, 255-57;
oath of abjuration, 160 ;
malicious declaration of, 257
note

"PALERNE, WILLIAM of," romance,

425
Palestine, pilgrimages to, 390,

394> 395-4°3 .

Palmer, or professional pilgrim,
see PILGRIMS

Parcels, carried by:messengers, 227

Pardon, charters of, to criminals,
1 66, 167

Pardoners, 312; comparison of the
portraits drawn by Chaucer
and the Pope, 3 1 3-320; Boc-
caccio's portrait, 320, 326-7 ;
the authorized pardoner,

448

INDEX.

Pardoners continued —

322-23 : mischiefs caused

by, 321-25 ; life of, and

credulity round them, 331-

337 ; on the continent, 329;

suppression of, 336, 436 ;

ecclesiastical documents as

to, 430-36
Paris, repair of roads in the

suburbs of, 85 ; English

king robbed at, in
Parliament, sitting of, in 1399,

15, 1 6, 87
Partizans, 148-50
Passports, 269 ; for pilgrims, 362
Paston, John and Margaret, 103,

37*

Peasants and servants, movement
and agitation among, 258-
262, 271

Pedlars, 231-34; pedlar robbed
by monkeys, 234 ; friars
become, 304

Penance in public, 157

Persian dances, 215, 216

Pilgrims, attempts to attract, 344,
345 ; character of, 349, 350 ;
offerings by, 355 ; signs pur-
chased and worn by, 356,
357; character of the pro-
fessional pilgrim, 358-360;
his dress, 360, 361 ; pass-
ports, 361, 362 ; routes taken
by, 363 ; ships' licenses to
carry, 367 ; at sea, 368-372;
relics seen, indulgences
gained by, 374-78 ; help to
by gilds, 381, 382; help to
by the king, 380

Pilgrimages, motives for, 338-39;

to tombs of rebels, 339-343;

to places in England, 347 ;

opposed by Wyclif, 351 ;

to places abroad, 362-378,

390-403 ; Boulogne, 363 ;

Amiens, 363 ; Rocamadour,

364, 372 ; St. James of

Compostella, 367-372, 379 ;

Rome, 374-78 ; Venice,

378 ; Palestine, 390-403
Plague, effects of, in England,

258-59
Political songs sung by minstrels,

206-208
Pontage, 59-60
Pontife brothers, 38, 41 note
Pope, John, XXII., conveyance

of the news of his election

to the English king, 228
Potter Heigham, bridge at, 79
Prayers, written, sewn into clothes,

118

Pratt, Godfrey, 45, 46
Preachers, wandering, their in-
fluence and character, 280-

8 1, see FRIARS
Prices, excessive at inns, 126; of

food, &c., on ordinary

journey, 129

Prisoners, cruelties to, 266
Proprietors in England, their

lands scattered, 82
Purveyors and their exactions, 91,

95 ; petitions and laws as to,

418-20

QUACKS, or cheap-jacks, 181-85
Quarters of a criminal, transport
of, 227

INDEX.

449

Questors, 312, 313 ; ecclesiastical
documents as to, 430—36,
see PARDONERS

RABELAIS on gaining pardons, 329
Reaping-time represented, 24,

263
Isclics, 327-29 ; sold by pardoners,

326

Religious plays, 195
Religious houses, lodgings at,

119, 121

Revolt of 1381, its causes and
character, 271, 274, 383

Rewards to messengers, 228-29

ReynaiJ the Fox, 301, 331; his
pilgrimage, 351,437

Richard III. and sanctuary,
164-65

Ridevvare family, their misdeeds,
146

Riot and robbery caused by
maintenance, 150-52

Roads, Roman in England, main-
tenance of, 35 ; pious charac-
ter of this, 38 ; taxes or
dues, for the reparation of,
79, 80, 84 ; interest of landed
owners in their maintenance,
82 ; to be clear on each side,

Robbers, 167, 265

Robin Hood, 208, 253

Rocamadour in Guyenne, 25,
338, 364 ; pilgrims' tokens
sold at, 356, 357 ; famous
resort for pilgrims, 364 ;
story of ladies' hair at, 372,

373

Rolle, of Harapole, Richard, 137,

286
Romances of fourteenth century,

190-94, 425

Rome, pilgrimage to, 374-78
Roxburgh Castle, 228
Rushes on floors, 124
Rutebeuf, 142, 178

SARACENS, toleration for, and
exercised by, 385, 395, 399

Sanctuaries, English, 152-56;
admission to Durham and
Beverley, 156, 423

Sanctuary, right of, 152, 158; in-
fringement of, 158, 159, 164,
424 ; penance for this, 157 ;
abuse of, 161-63, 165, 424 ;
must be in a duly consecrated
church, 424 ; suppression of,
165

Sculpture from the life, first
instance of, in England, 345,

436

Sea, English supremacy over,
238 ; travelling by, 27, 368-

37*

Servants, see PEASANTS
Severn, rising of, messenger

drowned by, 65
Shalford, stocks at, 265
Ships for pilgrims, 367-372
Shoreham bridge, 67
Singers, wandering, 197, 198,200
Skelton's alehouse, 135-37
Slander, statutes against, 272, 273
Smallpox, John of Gaddesden's

cure for, 1 80
Smith field fair, 248

45°

INDEX.

Songs, collections of popular, 427
Society only half civilized, 145
Spalding, prior of, agreement as

to a bridge, 417
Squire, a young, 18, 103
Staple, statute of, its provisions,

245

" Stations of Rome," 374-78
Statues, miracles by, 346, 347
Stocks, 25, 259, 265, 267
Stourbridge fair, 248, 249
Stubbcs, " Anatomy of Abuses,"

217

Stratford-at-Bow, bridge at, 46
Stratford-on-Avon, bridge at, 55,

57

Straw, Jack, 289 note
Swinfield, Bishop, 116, 117, 196

TALK, rebellious, spread by wan-
dering people, 274

Tambourine, 202

Taverns, see INNS and ALEHOUSES

Teign, bridge over, near Newton
Abbot, 69

"Testimonial letters," 270

Thames water, pollution of, with
litter, 125

Thieves and robbers, 148-151,
265

Tolls on bridges, 59-61, 64, 417

Travelling, modes of, 83,95, 230,.
399 ; expenses of, 129 ; by
sea, 368-372 ; exactions by
great men on a journey, 422 ;
see PURVEYORS

" Treasury '' of heavenly merits,
311, 312, 428

Trinoda necessitas, 36, 37, 59

UNIVERSITIES, begging students of,
270; see OXFORD

VAGABONDS, 257, 265

Venice, mountebanks at, 186;
dancer from, 215; commerce
with, 235, 240; relics and
maison-dieu at, 378; trans-
port service from, to Holy
Land, 395

Vermin at inns, 131

Vernicle, 27, 356, 375

Vielle or viol, 201, 202

Villeins, breaking bond, 30,
257-58

firgata regia, 107

Votive offerings by pilgriir. 3, 372

WAGES, increase of, after the
Great Plague, 259, 261

Wakefield bridge chapel, 71, 73

Wales, bridges in, 77, 78 ; min-
strels in, 206

Walsingham, sanctuary there,
152 ; pilgrimages to, 348

Wanderers, their influence on
society, 30, 31

Wark worth bridge, 74, 75 ; her-
mitage, 137 note

Water-ways, obstruction of, re-
sisted, 242, 243

Wayhill, fair 247

Weather, bad, a serious hindrance
to travellers, 85-89, 239

Westminster fair, 247

Wey, William, his itineraries,

376, 377. 395-99
Weyve, a woman outlaw, 256
Whitby, bridge built by the

Abbot of, 47

INDEX.

45*

Wight, Isle of, 113 note
Winchester Fair, 246, 248
Wine trade, 235
Wolves heads borne by outlaws,

Fleta's saying, 30, 256
Women tumblers, 214-16
Worldly costume of monks, 115,

421

Workmen, see PEASANTS
Wyclifite preachers, 280-85

Wyclif reproaches the friars, 297,
298, 304, 305 ; his simple
priests, 280, 289 ; opposed
pilgrimages, 351

YARM on the Tees, bridge at

60
York Cathedral, desecration of,

by ribalds, 212, 382

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