Monastic life in the Middle Ages, with a note on Great Britain and the Holy See, 1792-1806

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MONASTIC LIFE IN THE
MIDDLE AGES

OTHER WORKS BY
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■MONASTIC LIFE-

IN THE MIDDLE AGES

WITH A NOTE ON

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

1792-1806

BY }lA/lf r> /^Ahr^

CARDINAL GASQUET

AUTHOR OF " HENRY VHI AND THE ENGLISH MONASTERIES,"

LONDON

G. BELL AND SONS, LTD.

1922

^5.

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4

PREFACE

THE Essays contained in this small volume were
printed in various periodicals many years ago.
From time to time I am asked by friends and fellow
students where they could be obtained, but I have been
unable to satisfy their requests to have copies. I have
consequently been advised to collect these fugitive
papers in another volume of Miscellaneous Essays, in
the hope that they may be found useful and of interest
to others besides those who have asked to have them.

The first of these papers, " Abbot Wallingford," was
printed separately a few years ago, but as it has been
for some time out of print I have included it in the
volume. The last, " Great Britain and the Holy See,
1 792- 1 806," has, I fear, no connexion with "Monastic
Life in the Middle Ages," under which title these essays
are grouped, and which it must be confessed only in a
rough and general way represents the contents of the
volume. But this paper, having been printed abroad, has
so far been little known in England, and so it seemed
useful to include it.

A. CARDINAL GASQUET.

Rome :
Palazzo di S. Calisto,
IN Trastevere,
5 March 1922.

4 9 60 52

CONTENTS

PAGE

Abbot Wallingford i

The Making of St. Alban's Shrine .... 40
An Abbot's Household Account Book ... 50
How OUR Fathers were Taught in Catholic Days . 67
Books and Bookmaking in Early Chronicles and

Accounts 92

A Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, a.d. 1506 . .110
A Day with the Abbot of St. Augustine's, Canter-
bury, in the Sixteenth Century . . .121
Roger Bacon and the Latin Vulgate . . .139

Adrian IV and Ireland 150

Polydore Vergil's " History " 178

^A Sketch of Monastic Constitutional History . 197
The English Premonstratensians .... 243

Great Britain and the Holy See, 1 792-1806 . . 267
Index .......... 331

MONASTIC LIFE IN THE
MIDDLE AGES

ABBOT WALLINGFORD

THE visitor who takes his stand in the choir of St.
Albans Abbey Church, is at once attracted by the
massive and elegant altar screen which occupies the
whole western end. It is, indeed, from every point of
view a remarkable object, and with the exception of the
similar screen at Winchester, from which, indeed, it was
copied, it must be considered one of the most remarkable
English architectural creations of the fifteenth century.
It is an excellent specimen of Perpendicular work
executed with great taste. Tier upon tier, statues of
saints, set in elaborately canopied niches, rise to the
very roof of the chancel, and, in the days before the
desecration of the sixteenth century, when the centre of
all was the great silver crucifix with the jewelled retable
and hanging pyx, the St. Albans screen must have
been a sight never to be forgotten. Even now, in its
partially restored condition, it rivets the attention, and
is pointed out as a worthy monument to the man who
built it — William Wallingford, Abbot of this great
Benedictine abbey for sixteen years, from 1476 to 1492.
As the visitor studies this work of beauty he must recall
the fact that art is a finer and more subtle expression
of the inmost soul even than words ; and that of arts.

2 - MONASTIC XIEE- IN THE MIDDLE AGES

architecture is not the least in power to reveal the mind
of the architect and builder. " Can the same stream
send forth waters both sweet and bitter?" exclaimed
the late Mr. J. S. Brewer. " Are the higher realizations
of artistic beauty . . . compatible with the disordering,
vulgar and noisy pursuits of an unscrupulous avarice
or ambition? Will men that gather meanly scatter
nobly ? Will any magic convert the sum total of sordid
actions into greatness of any kind?"*

With this leading principle, although the tomb of
Abbot Wallingford was in the chapel he had prepared
near by, on the south side of the high altar, his real
monument has always been regarded as the wonderful
screen he set up, which recalled the memory and name
of a great and good ruler ; a man whose work attested
the nobility of his character and the greatness of his
ideas.

Quite recently we have been asked to change our
estimate of Abbot William of Wallingford. He has been
at rest for more than four centuries, and his name has
been respected and honoured even by those who had
destroyed much of what he loved so well ; and now, in
the withering spirit of modem criticism which loves to
dethrone idols and whitewash the shadiest characters
of history, some writers would seek to obtain a reversal
of the usual judgement about Wallingford. They would
have us believe that, so far from the Abbot being a
great man and a good ruler, he was in reality a miserable
self-seeker, a liar, a perjurer, and a thief, who brought
his house to a condition of dishonour and ruin. Are we
to believe this ? What do we really know of the life of
William of Wallingford ?

WilHam was a native of the village of Wallingford,
the centre of which was the small Priory or cell depend-
ent upon the Abbey of St. Albans. He and his elder
brother, Thomas, entered the Order early in life, and
• J. S. Brewer, Ciraldus Camb.^ Pref., p. xxx.

ABBOT WALLINGFORD 3

as they are generally enumerated in the community
lists together, probably at the same time. This would
probably have been towards the close of Abbot Whet-
hamstede's first period of office, which came to an end
in 1440 by his resignation. John Stoke, the Prior of
Wallingford, was chosen to succeed him, and partly,
probably because he would have known the two
Wallingfords well before becoming Abbot, partly, no
doubt, because he recognized the great abilities of the
younger brother, William, we find them occupied early
in their lives in official positions at St. Albans. On the
death of Abbot Stoke on 14th December 145 1, the
elder, Thomas Wallingford, was senior chaplain to the
Abbot, an office of great trust and responsibiUty ; and
his brother William held the offices of archdeacon,
cellarer, bursar, forester, and sub-cellarer of the Abbey.
The capacity as an administrator displayed by the
latter was evidently so great that, although at that time
he can have been comparatively only a young man, he
was seriously suggested as a candidate for the abbatial
office. Both he and the Prior, W^illiam Albon, the second
name suggested, refused to entertain the notion, and
Abbot Whethamstede was unanimously requested once
more to take office. This was on i6th January 1452;
and throughout his second abbacy Whethamstede
continued to employ WaUingford in offices of trust, such
as " official general," chamberlain, and archdeacon.*
This fact is, perhaps, the best answer to the grave
charges brought against WaUingford with much detail
and at great length in the so-called ** Register " of the
second abbacy. |

As this book has been recently relied upon to discredit
WilHam Wallingford something must be said concern-
ing it. Though called a " Register of the Abbot John
Whethamstede," it differs entirely from the other

* Reg. J. Whethamstede, i, pp. 5, 173, etc.
t Ibid.^ pp. 102-135.

4 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

monastic Registers of St. Albans. The writer does not
even claim that it is an official record of acts, but a
setting forth of some few facts in the second prelacy of
Abbot John Whethamstede according to the method of
a registrar.* The writer was bitterly opposed to WilUam
WaUingford. This is obvious. His method of writing
history is curious. He composed the speeches of the
actors in the events he describes, even when the inter-
views he relates are of the most private nature, and he
interlards the supposed speeches with quotations both
classical and biblical. On the face of it, the so-called
register, though including facts, is a composition dic-
tated by spite and a determination to destroy the career
of WaUingford. " Again and again," writes Mr. Riley,
the editor, "he is accused of lying, and of habitual
perjury even; and of theft too, of the most iniquitous
description, in having appropriated the moneys of the
late Abbot to satisfy the cravings of an innate cupid-
ity, which had characterized him even from childhood.
His nefariousness and subtlety are enlarged upon, his
pomposity and verboseness are derided, his gverheard
lamentations are sneered at, his self -communings and
most secret thoughts, which must have been known to
no one but himself, are professedly brought to light.
Judas and Gehazi, Simon Magus and Ananias, are set
forth as his prototypes, and he is accused, in a spirit of
covetousness which might have animated the veriest
usurer, of sacrificing even unto devils. And not content
even with this, the writer extends the nefarious charge
of steaUng the late Abbot's savings, and of committing
perjury to conceal the theft, to the Archdeacon's
brother, Thomas Walingforde, who was Abbot Whet-
hamstede's senior chaplain as well. ... In the cause of
truth and honour, good feeling and good faith, we have
no option left but to behove that this narrative, what-

♦ "Hie prrelaturse Wethamstede pauca secundae more registrantis
scribuntur gesta Johannis" (Reg., i, p. 5).

ABBOT WALLINGFORD 5

ever the foundation on which it may have been based,
so far from being written by the Abbot, never even came
before his eyes."*

The Abbot again, it may be remarked, is frequently
spoken of in terms of extravagant laudation, which it
is hardly probable that he himself would have com-
mitted to writing ; any more than that he would have
penned the statement that by " solid, sober and
sensible men " his predecessor was pronounced to be
" lazy, sluggish, and odious to nearly all."

The writer adds : " The scandalous attacks upon the
character of William Walingforde and his brother
would, as already suggested, find no place in the Abbot's
Register. Derived from some source which it is now^ as
difficult even to surmise as it is wholly out of the reach
of our knowledge, this structure of calumny and
vituperation, based, may be, upon some slight fragment
of fact, was devised for a purpose which, though not
avowed, it is not so very difficult to divine, "f

In this verdict as to the worthlessness of the so-called
Register as sober history, the writer in the Dictionary of
National Biography of the account of WiUiam Walling-
ford, entirely agrees. " They " — that is these infamous
charges and suggestions, says the Dictionary — " They
are, however, evidently an interpolation, probably by a
monk jealous of Wallingford, and Whethamstede not
only took no notice of these accusations, but continued
WaUingford in all his offices."

* Reg., i, Introd., pp. xv-xvi.

f It is upon the evidence of this document that Mr. Froude en-
tirely relies for the account of the state of St. Albans in the fifteenth
century given in his Short Studies, iii, pp. 1 19-126. His picture is
as truthful as the document; and if, with the Editor, Mr. Riley, we
regard the so-called Register as a "calumnious attack," which should
" find no place in the Abbot's Register," we may equally dismiss
Mr. Froude's picturesque pages as fiction perhaps founded "on some
slight fragment of fact, and certainly no part of the true Annals of
an English Abbey."

6 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

According to the story told in these calumnious
additions to Whethamstede's Register, the foundation
of the charges rested upon the story of Abbot Stoke's
death-bed. His last illness came upon him at his Manor
of Titenhanger,* and on the news reaching St. Albans,
the Prior, Archdeacon, Sacrist, and Almoner came to
him. These, to give them their names, were William
Albon, afterwards Abbot in succession to Whethamstede ;
WiUiam Wallingford, John Wylly, and Richard Russell.
In the presence of the rest the Prior is supposed to have
addressed his dying Abbot in a set-speech on his
tendency to accumulate wealth. The Abbot, under-
standing from this that his end was drawing near,
admitted that he had saved a thousand marks, which he
intended to go for the purchase of a large bell, to pay
for the glazing of the cloister, and for a new pavement.
Being further questioned, so the story goes, about this
thousand marks, the dying man is supposed to have
declared that it would be found in a chest in the
dormitory under the care of William Wallingford and
his brother, Thomas Wallingford, the Abbot's senior
chaplain. After the Abbot's death, however, on search
being made for the money, only 250 marks could be
found in the late Abbot's purse, the two Wallingfords
declaring on oath that they knew of no other money.
This is the story, and in the sequel it is made out that
William Wallingford and his brother were suspected,
not only by the Prior, but by Abbot Whethamstede
after his election, as well as by others who were exam-
ined on the matter, of having stolen the savings of
Abbot Stoke. There is this much truth in the story,
that Abbot Stoke did leave money to carry out the
works mentioned above. His obituary notice says:
" Whilst lying in bed dying, he left behind him, by his
own wish, those moneys with which was purchased the
great bell, which (after him) is called John, [He also
* Reg., i, p. 115.

ABBOT WALLINGFORD 7

left] money for the new glazing of the cloister, and
before he died he purchased the beautiful gold cloth of
red colour, and directed that it should be used to cover
the corpses of dead brethren on the funeral days, as is
now done."

It has been the custom to look upon Abbot Stoke as
a squanderer of the property of St. Albans, since there
is little to show as his special work for the house:
further, that during his short reign the years were years
of plenty, and his revenues must have been propor-
tionately great; nevertheless, that he left St. Albans
much impoverished and in great debt, to the dismay
of his successor, who was greatly hampered in the
undertakings he wished to carry out by the improvident
management of Abbot Stoke. For all these ideas the
so-called Register is alone responsible, and there is
ample evidence that they are false, like the rest of the
calumnious suggestions of the anonymous writer.

One work of considerable expense was certainly
carried out by Abbot Stoke. It has been the custom to
credit his successor — Abbot Whethamstede — with the
building of the tomb for the great benefactor of the
Abbey, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. But the Duke
died during Stoke's abbacy, and the obituary notice of
the Abbot specially declares that he built (fahricari
faciehat) the monument.* What that cost was we may
judge from the memorandum printed in theMonasticon.f
" First the abbot and convent of the said monasterie
have payed for makying of the tonibe and place of
sepulture of the said duke within the said monasterie
above the summe of £433 : 6 : 8."

When Abbot Whethamstede succeeded John Stoke
at the unanimous wish of the Community, he was an
old but still vigorous man. He quickly experienced
considerable difficulties relating to the privileges and

* Cott MS., Nero D. vii, f. 36.
t II, p. 202, note.

8 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

legal exemptions of the monastery, which amongst
other things involved the necessity of suing for one of
those general pardons from the Crown which were
common in those times, but which are difficult to
understand. In 1455 the King, Henry VI, is made to
forgive amongst other things, " all treasons, murders,
rape of women, felonies, conspiracies, etc.," which
had been committed by the Abbot and Convent of St.
Albans before the 9th day of July (1453).* Of course
no one will seriously maintain that these terrible crimes
thus forgiven by the king, and to which, by the fact
that this pardon was sued for, the Abbot and his
brethren had tacitly at least pleaded guilty, were in
fact committed. It is admitted that such sweeping
charges were often made at this time, and, as in this
case, tacitly admitted, so as to require a royal pardon
for every possible offence. In this way security was
attained, and the royal exchequer was replenished.
Twice during his short rule Abbot Whethamstede was
compelled to take out such a general pardon from the
Court of Chancery, t These, however, need not be taken
as evidence of any fearful and awful crimes committed
at this time by the Abbot and Convent of St. Albans.
It is allowed on all hands that such charges, such
admissions, were mere legal fictions to enable the law
officers of the Crown to get people into their hands.
The pardon was merely drawn up in a general stereo-
typed form, and had no reference to actuahties.

So far from there being any evidence of the im-
poverished state of St. Albans at the beginning of
Whethamstede's second abbacy, everything that we
know for certain points to the opposite conclusion.
" Immediately after his installation "I he started build-
ing the library for which he had prepared much material
during his first term of office. In his second year he

• Reg., i, pp. 195 seq^. t /did, p. 291.

I Ibid., p. 432.

ABBOT WALLINGFORD 9

completed the building, and on the shell he spent more
than £150. Besides this, on the masonry, lead work,
glazing, shelves, and desks he spent much more. He
then took in hand the rebuilding of the bakehouse which
was in a ruinous condition. When he had finished he
had expended some £205 on the work, not including the
food and drink of the workmen ; but he had the satis-
faction of believing " that there was no more elegant
building in the whole kingdom."*

It is interesting here to note that Abbot Whetham-
stede carried out these works and expended all this
money " through Brother William W^alhngford,! then
his official," or man of business. The interest lies in the
fact that it is suggested by the scurrilous writer of the
so-called Register that it was precisely during this
period of his abbacy that Whethamstede was charging
Wallingford with theft, falsifying accounts, and perjury,
etc., which is hardly consistent with employing him in
this office of trust as a good and faithful servant.

It is both interesting and useful to note that, in con-
tradiction to the suggested poverty and ruin of the St.
Albans' finances by the peculations and misappropria-
tions of William Wallingford, the long list of benefac-
tions, etc., to St. Albans, made by Whethamstede during
his second abbacy, extending over many pages of the
Obit Book, is three times at least as long as that of
any other Abbot. It includes the making of his own
tomb, and the completion of a silver gilt altar retable
— evidently a wonderful work of art — which, by the
way, was also made in his second year spoken of above,
and which cost £146 for workmanship, and on which
was used 513 ounces of silver. Besides this Whetham-
stede was able to purchase estates and lands, to repair
parish churches in the gift of the Convent, to provide
altars and plate and organs, etc., a record which gives
no indication of financial difficulties.

* Reg., i, p. 424. Cott. MS., Nero D. vii, f. 36. f Ibid.

10 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

All the time William Wallingford was the Abbot's
official. Right at the close of his abbacy, when it was
necessary to send some discreet man of business to
carry out a delicate negotiation with Lord Sudely, once
in 1460, and again in 1461, on the successful settlement,
Abbot Whethamstede made choice of William Walling-
ford to conduct the business. When also, in 1464, the
Abbot had to appoint a commission for the examina-
tion of people charged with heresy, the two monks
chosen by him were the Prior and William Wallingford,
the Archdeacon.

Abbot Whethamstede died on 20th January 1465,
and on the following 25th of February William Albon,
the then Prior, was cliosen to succeed. After his in-
stallation he appointed to the high and responsible office
of Prior the former Archdeacon, WilHam Wallingford.
This choice is absolutely inexplicable if we credit the
statements of the so-called Register. It must be re-
membered that it was this new Abbot himself, William
Albon, who, as Prior, had taken part in the supposed
death-bed scene of Abbot Stoke, and had subsequently
charged William Wallingford of theft and perjury to
Abbot Whethamstede; and yet it was this very man
whom he chose out of the whole Community to be his
alter ego and to share his cares and responsibilities in the
administration of St. Albans. Moreover, if we are to put
any trust in the statements of the so-called Register,
John Wylly and Richard Russell, who are also said to
have witnessed the death-bed scene, were still alive as
seniors at the top of the Community, and would surely
have protested against such an appointment as that of
their discredited and criminal brother to the highest
office in the Abbey. Yet this is the record of the ap-
pointment in the Register: " Memorandum that on the
i8th day of March (1465), the feast of St. Edward the
King, the Lord Abbot, with the common assent of his
brethren, at the time of Chapter usual in this Monas-

ABBOT WALLINGFORD ii

tery, created Dom William Wallingford, his Archdeacon,
Prior of the said Monastery. He was conducted to his
stall in the choir between Dom Thomas Luton, sub-
prior and precentor of the Monastery, and Dom Nicholas
Ly chef eld, the third prior."

During the years of William Albon's abbacy — that
is from 1465 to 1476 — at least four canonical visitations
of the Abbey " in spirituals and temporals " must have
been made by Abbots appointed for that purpose by
the Benedictine General Chapters. These meetings were
held as nearly as possible every three years, and, as
part of the necessary business of the Fathers, choice
was made of a President General, whose duty it was to
see that the statutes and regulations were carried out,
and of Visitors to go personally to examine into the
state of the various abbeys and priories of the Order.
Such an examination was no mere formaUty. Notice
of the advent of the Visitor was given beforehand, and
all were warned to be present and give evidence on their
conscience of their knowledge of anything amiss in the
government of the house in the way of mal-administra-
tion of temporals, laxity of government, or decay of
spiritual interests. To elicit information of anything
which needed correction, sets of questions were "drawn
up to be answered by the individual members of the
Community.

In this way, at a General Chapter of the Benedictines
of the South Province, held at Northampton in 1464, the
Abbot of Peterborough was appointed to visit the
monasteries of Black Monks in the diocese of Lincoln.
In fulfilment of this duty he wrote on the 4th June 1465
to say that he would be at St. Albans on 25th June to
commence the visitation. He required the Abbot to
inform all who ought to be present, and to let him know
the names of those he had summoned.* Abbot William
Albon acknowledged the letter, and submitting himself
* Reg., ii, p. 47,

12 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

and his house " humbly " to the Visitor, and he enclosed
the hst of the monks of his Abbey who should present
themselves.*

Another Chapter was held three years later, in 1467,
and at this the Abbot of Eynesham was made the
canonical Visitor of the Monasteries in this district. He
gave notice that he would fulfil this duty on 21st April
1468, and was welcomed and received in the same way
as the previous General Visitor had been.f The number
of monks examined at this time would have been
between fifty and sixty. J Other Chapters were held in
1471 and 1473, which would have been followed as
usual by the regular visitation and examination. In the
last of these Chapters the Abbot of St. Albans was
elected as Visitor to Glastonbury, and being unable to
go there himself he deputed two of his monks to act
for him in May 1474. §

So far as there is evidence, it is possible to assert that
the Monastery of St. Albans was at this period in as
flourishing a state as the circumstances of the times
would allow. There is no sign whatever of any want
of vigilance over either temporals or spirituals, and
members continued to receive the habit and be professed
as monks of the Abbey. Thus in 1466 four were given
the monastic tonsure, and the following year four were
professed and six received the habit. William of
WaUingford remained the alter ego of the Abbot during
all the eleven years of his rule. In 1473 he was, with
others, appointed to make the visitation of the various
vicars and curates of the town of St. Albans.

All this time money and care were expended upon the
repair and beautifying of the house. Abbot Albon's

* Reg., ii, p. 48.
f Ibid.^ p. 76.

i In 1 380 the number of the St. Albans Community was fifty-three
and two novices. — Obit Book, Cott. MS., Nero D. vii, f. 8ib.
§ Reg., ii, pp. 1 1 7- 1 1 8.

ABBOT WALLINGFORD 13

obituary notice speaks of his having furnished his
Monastery with vestments, books, and ornaments to the
value of 600 marks. He also purchased lands and
tenements adding to the revenues of the Abbey to the
amount of 100 marks annually, and he built two
apartments in stone for the cellarer and bursar of
the establishment.

The Register thus records the death and burial of
Abbot Albon. " Memorandum — on the first day of the
month of July 1476* — the dominical letter being F. —
Master WiUiam Albon, Doctor of Laws, late Abbot of
St. Albans, closed the last day of his life in the room
named ' the Cloke Chamber ' within the Monastery of
St. Albans about eight in the evening. He was interred
with all solemnity by the Reverend Father in Christ,
John Hunden, Bishop of Landaff, on the Friday next
following, before the feretry of St. Amphibalus, in the
foresaid Monastery. May God be merciful to his soul.
Amen."

It devolved immediately on William Wallingford to
arrange for the election of a successor to the deceased
Abbot. On the day of the funeral, therefore, he des-
patched two monks to ask the royal permission to
proceed; and having obtained this, he summoned the
priors of the various cells to come and take part in the
election. This was fixed for the 5th of August, and on
that day sixty monks (four by proxy), all of whom were
in Sacred Orders, met together in the Chapter House
to choose their Superior. Besides the actual resident
community, the electors comprised the priors of eight
priories or cells dependent upon St. Albans. These
obviously must have formed a very valuable body of
experienced men, apart from the Community, who were
capable of advising and influencing the election, and if
need be in the right direction. As was usual, two
notaries and Masters in the Law were present as
* This, in 1476, was a Monday.

14 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

" directors and advisers " to the electors, who had
gathered together in the Chapter House. The leaf of the
Register containing the details of the election is missing ;
but the royal writ under the Privy Seal furnishes the
information that the electors chose William Wallingford
for their Abbot " unanimously "* {unanimiter) and " per
Spirihis Sancti viam," i.e., by acceptance by the whole
Community without any scrutiny of votes, f This result
is clearly a complete refutation of the charges made
against William Wallingford in the pages of the so-
called Register. Had he been the thief, liar, perjurer,
etc., suggested by the anonymous slanderer, it is im-
possible to conceive that a body of sixty men, more than
one-half of whom had known Wallingford before the
election of Whethamstede in 1452 J — that is for twenty-
six years — and eight of whom were men of independent
positions, as priors of the various cells attached to the
Abbey, could have all agreed to make choice of so
undesirable and shady a character. They could not all
have been men without conscience and despicable
hypocrites; and this they would have been had they
solemnly attended the Mass of the Holy Ghost to beg
the guidance of the Holy Spirit on their choice, and
after listening to the reading of the Quia propter, which
recalled their serious obligations in conscience and
before God, made choice of an unworthy Abbot to rule
over them.

• Reg., ii, p. 155. Mr. Riley (i, Introd., p. xix) did not notice
this statement, for he writes : " As to the degree of unanimity in re-
ference to his election which prevailed among the inmates of the
Convent, it is impossible to speak."

I Obituary notice, Reg., i, App. D, p. 477.

X From a comparison of the three lists of the Community given in
the Register (i, p. 11; ii, pp. 27, 145) it may be seen that from
1452 to 1476 some twenty-four religious had died, so that thirty-
three who were present at Wallingford's election would have been
also present at Whethamstede's in 1452. During twenty-eight years
the yearly average of deaths at St. Albans would appear to be about
1,6, and the yearly increase during the same period about 2.1.

ABBOT WALLINGFORD 15

During the abbacy of Wallingford, St. Albans
apparently prospered and its numbers increased in
normal proportions. In the first four years there were
some eighteen names added to the list of the Com-
munity, five of whom were novices. In 1477 six monks
were professed and eight received the habit. In 1480
Abbot Wallingford was appointed by the Benedictine
General Chapter to visit all the religious houses in the
diocese of Lincoln,* and in the same year St. Albans
was visited by the Abbot of Westminsterf in person,
and all the reUgious examined as to the spiritual and
temporal condition of the Abbey and as to their know-
ledge of anything which stood in need of correction.
The next General Chapter was held in 148 1, and
according to the triennial rule this was followed by
others in 1484 and 1487. Visitations, therefore, were
probably held in 1484 or 1485 and in 1488.

In the year 1484 something in the nature of an attack
upon the good name of Abbot Wallingford seems to
have been made at some time or other, possibly in this
visitation. At any rate, it must clearly have been to
answer accusations of a serious nature against his
character and administration that the Prior and Com-
munity were prompted to draw up their declaration
about their Abbot, which subsequently was incorporated
in his obituary notice.

After stating all that he had done for his Community
in the various offices he had held, the document con-
cludes: " And in testimony of all the foresaid things,
and as a bright example of future ages, we, Thomas
Ramridge, Prior, and the other Fathers and brethren,
Conventuals of this Monastery, signify the truth of this
to all men by our common seal : and by the unanimous
consent of all and the assent of each individual, by this
writing testify that all these things were lovingly and

* Reg., ii, p. 220. t Ibid.^ p. 228.

i6 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

kindly done and carried out by this best of Fathers,
8th August, A.D. 1484."*

Whilst it is of course impossible to tell what really
prompted this general expression of loyalty and affec- | \
tion to Abbot Wallingford in 1484, what can be said
with some degree of certainty is that it was called forth
by some attack upon him, which the Community
thought calumnious and untrue. The only attack of
this kind as to which we have any knowledge is that
contained in the so-called Register, and it is perfectly
possible that either at the time of visitation or in some
other way the Community may have become acquainted
with the fact that this precious composition existed
under the colour of being a Register of Abbot Whet-
hamstede. The mention of certain monks as having been
present at the death-bed scene of Abbot Stoke would
ahnost certainly have prevented its use or production
in the lifetime of the supposed three witnesses against
Wallingford. By 1484 Abbot (formerly Prior) Albon,
John Wylly, and Richard Russell were all dead, and
Abbot Wallingford alone remained; so that the time
was propitious to make use of this production, evidently
aimed at destroying the character of Wallingford. If
it were used at this time it would be a perfect explana-
tion of the document drawn up by the Prior and
Community to give it the lie direct.

During the early years of his rule Wallingford had
something to say to the two convents of Pray and
Sopwell, at or near St. Albans and under his jurisdiction.
In 1480 EHzabeth Baroun, the Prioress of Pray, resigned
her office by reason of her increasing infirmities, which
prevented her governing her house. Abbot Wallingford
appointed Dom John Rothbury, Archdeacon, and Dom
Thomas Ramridge, the Subprior, to examine and ratify
the election of a successor in the person of Dame Alice

• Reg., i, App. D, p. 479.

ABBOT WALLINGFORD 17

Wafer.* In 1481 he sent the same two monks to hold
a visitation at the Convent of Sopwell. They were
directed to inquire fully into the state of the house,
both in spirituals and temporals, with full powers to
depose, appoint, cite, suspend, and excommunicate any
of whatever state, grade, or dignity they might be,
should such a course be deemed necessary. The Prioress
and each nun is ordered under holy obedience to appear
before the Visitors and give evidence. The Prioress,
Dame Johanna Chapelle, being old and too infirm to
govern, is to be relieved of her office, and one Dame
Elizabeth Webbe is to be installed in her place.

Abbot Wallingford, since the time of holding the
office of Archdeacon under Whethamstede, had shown
his interest in education. Ramridge, his successor as
Abbot, says of him that he became distinguished for his
care of students, assigning the money necessary to
train ten young monks. He was appointed by General
Chapter to consider the best selection for superior of
the monks studying at Oxford ; and from the list drawn
up for the visitation in 1480 it appears that three of his
young monks were at the university. One of these, John
Maynard, supplicated for his D.D. in 1507, and was
then Prior of Gloucester College, f At the same time,
among the Community there was a Doctor of Canon
Law, a Doctor of Theology, and a Bachelor also of
Theology, J whilst by .the death of Abbot Albon, St.
Albans had lost another Doctor in Canon Law.

A point of general interest is the connection of St.
Albans at this time with the introduction of printing.
The subject is somewhat obscure, but what is certain
is, that between 1480 and i486, the unknown printer
of St. Albans issued eight works from the press. This
was in the time of Abbot Wallingford, and it is im-

* Reg., i, p. 222.

t Boase, Register of the Univ. of Oxford^ i, p. 53,

X Ibid., p. 36.

C

i8 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

possible to suppose that with his love for learning he
did not know about this new wonderful help for studies,
even if, as it is difficult to suppose, he did not actively
support and encourage the invention, especially if the
printer was the Abbey schoolmaster. All that is cer-
tainly known about this printer is, that in Wynkyn
de Worde's reprint of the St. Albans Chronicle, the
colophon states: " Here endith this present chronicle
compiled in a book, and also emprinted by one sometime
schoolmaster of St. Alban."

The writer of Wallingford's biographical notice in the
Dictionary of National Biography says: " There is no
clear proof of any closer relation between Wallingford
and the schoolmaster of St. Alban than between John
Esteney, Abbot of Westminster, and William Caxton,
who worked under the shadow of Westminster Abbey.
Yet the probabilities of close connection in a little place
like St. Albans between the Abbot, who was keenly
interested in education, and the schoolmaster, who was
furthering education by the printing of books, are in
themselves great, and are confirmed by the fact that
two of the eight books printed between 1480 and i486
bear the arms of the town."

It has been remarked by Mr. Riley* that the Registers
of Abbots Albon and Wallingford " in many of their
details " afford " a striking illustration of the state of
helpless decrepitude and decadence into which the
monastic system in this country had fallen for near a
century before the time when its doom was finally
accomplished; and showing that it was to no small
extent its own internal shortcomings that, in combina-
tion with the evil passions of an unprincipled sovereign,
and the greed of his even more unprincipled creatures,
contributed to precipitate its fall." The indications of
this " helpless decrepitude and decadence " which Mr.
Riley sees are apparently the gifts of the next presenta-
* Reg., ii, Introd., p. xxiv.

ABBOT WALLINGFORD 19

tions of rectories impropriated to St. Albans, in return
for services rendered to the Abbey. These no doubt are
numerous, but it is somewhat difficult to understand
what is particularly wrong about the transactions;
and in viev/ of the very troubled times and the many
changes in the political history of the period it seems
that these " rewards for services " may have been the
best, if not almost the necessary means of safeguarding
the interests of the Abbey.

In consequence of these troubled times also, the many
changes in the lay officials of the Abbey were probably
politic and necessary. Why, for example. Abbot
Wallingford's grant in 1479 to Lord Hastings " of the
office " of Seneschal " by reason of the singular love (he)
hath heretofore borne us and our Church, and which
we trust in future he will bear," should be regarded as
evidence of " decadence," is difficult to understand.

With regard to the frequent manumissions of the
bond-men of the Abbot, which characterized this period
in the history of St. Albans, it might naturally have
been supposed that this " freeing of the slave " would
have been accounted as an act of generosity and put to
the credit of the Abbot. But, when Abbot Albon
freed bond-men and their families and apparently
exacted a fine or composition for doing so, it is suggested
that his object was to make money for himself out of
the transaction,* whilst, when Abbot Wallingford exacts
no consideration for manumissions of later date, we
are told that it looks "as if the Abbot was only too
happy to be rid of the presence of persons who had
claims upon him as a landowner," no wonder that the
writer in the Dictionary of National Biography thinks
that " Mr. Riley, in his introduction to the second
volume of Whethamstede's * Chronicle ' is, however,
unduly severe in his interpretation of many of Walling-
ford's acts."

* Reg., ii, p. xxxiv.

20 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

The fact is sometimes overlooked that, situated so
near the capital and on a much frequented road, the
Abbey of St. Albans underwent many vicissitudes in
the troubles which at various times afflicted the country.
At this particular period in the fifteenth century, the
Abbey, perhaps for its peace, was too deeply committed
to one party of those contending for the crown, and that
not the ultimately successful side on the field of Bosworth.
Richard III had been the friend and patron of the
Abbey: a thing which would have been remembered
against it when Henry VII came to the throne. The
situation was extraordinary, and a passage from Dr.
Gairdner's Preface to Letters, etc., Richard III, Henry
VII,* best explains the dangers which the adherents
of the defeated cause ran. " He [Henry VII] pretended
to have been actually king even before his victory at
Bosworth. His first parliament did not scruple to
recognize this fiction, and passed an Act by which it
appeared, not that Henry and his followers had rebelled
against Richard, but that Richard and his followers
had rebelled against Henry. Perhaps there never was
such a blot on the English statute book. A notorious lie
was deliberately enacted for the purpose of attainting
the adherents of a defeated cause. It is true the number
of attainders was not great, but the stretch of power
even in that day was unprecedented. * O God !' exclaims
the prior of Croyland, ' what security are our kings to
have henceforth, that in the day of battle they may not
be deserted by their subjects, who, acting on the lawful
summons of a king, may on the dechne of that king's
party, as is frequently the case, be bereft of life and
fortime and all their inheritance.' "

The last years of the rule of Abbot WalHngford must,
for this reason, have been difficult. For although the
Abbey from the first necessarily accepted the king who
had won his crown in 1485 on the field of Bosworth,

* II, p. xxxi.

ABBOT WALLINGFORD 21

the Abbot's friendship with Richard III brought them
within the terms of the Act which made the adherents
of the fallen king rebels against Henry and liable to
attainder. It is by no means improbable that the
difficulties later experienced in the conflict between St.
Albans and Archbishop Morton may in part have been
due to politics. Morton was the ecclesiastical champion
of Henry VII : he had shared in the king's exile and
was properly rewarded upon his triumph. His endeavour
from the first was to secure for his royal master's title
the sanction of the Pope, and it is more than probable
that the extensive powers* of visitation of religious
houses, asked for jointly by the king and archbishop,
were suggested by the necessity of being assured of the
entire submission of the English monastic houses. It
has been conjectured that in the case of St. Albans the
king was greatly displeased to find Catesby, the chief
Seneschal of the Abbey, among the " traitors " at
Bosworth.f

On receipt of these plenary powers of visitation,
Archbishop Morton on 5th July 1490 sent what is called
a Monitio, or warning, to Abbot Wallingford of his
intention to apply this authority to the case of St.
Albans. He enclosed a copy of the Bull of Pope Innocent
VIII, giving him power to visit all monasteries in
England, and then says: " It has come to our notice
by public report and by frequent relations of people
worthy of credit, that you, the said Abbot, have long
been and are noted for simony, usury, and for the
spending and dilapidation of the goods and possessions
of the said Monastery, as well as for other great crimes
and excesses to be afterwards noted.

" Further, . it is reported that under you regular
observance and hospitality has decayed and is still
decaying, so that the intentions of the pious founders

* Wilkin's Concilia, iii, p. 630.

+ Newcome, Hist, of St. Albans, p. 400.

22 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

of the Abbey are not carried out, and the ancient and
regular method of Ufe has been abandoned by many of
your brethren, who have given themselves over to a
reprobate sense." Then follow a series of the gravest
charges against the moral character of one of the nuns
of Pray and some of the monks; the name of one of
the younger religious, Thomas Sudbury, being men-
tioned. Sopwell, too, had been put into the care of
monks who have dissipated the property and brought
it to ruin. The same has been done in regard to the
property of the cells dependent on St. Albans. As to
the Abbey itself, Wallingford is charged, according to
report, with getting rid of property and jewels, of cutting
down the woods, and especially of selling all the oaks
and timber trees to the value of 8000 marks. As to the
monks, some are said to be given to every worldly evil ;
divine service is neglected, and some consort even within
the monastery precincts with bad women; others
purchase promotion by theft of chalices and church
plate and jewels, even from the shrine of St. Alban
itself. Report also accuses the Abbot of defending the
evil doers, and humiUating and keeping in the back-
ground those of his Community who are good and desire -
to live in a rehgious manner.

Morton then goes on to say that before the reception
of the Papal Bull he had charitably called Abbot
Wallingford's attention to the reported abuses, but that
the Abbot had neglected to correct them. He now once
more warns him that he must correct what is amiss in
his own life and that of his subjects. If he does not
within thirty days certify the Archbishop that what is
necessary is done, Morton warns him that, acting on
the general powers given him in the Bull of Innocent
VIII, he will himself come and hold a visitation.

This is the Monitio, or warning ; and on the face of
the document it professes to be merely the statement
of reports, of the gravest nature it is true, but merely

ABBOT WALLINGFORD 23

unproved reports against the good name of the Abbot
and Convent. They are so sweeping and terrible that
the whole is suggestive of the equally sweeping common
form in which the " pardons " previously referred to
are couched, and which, if they were to be accepted as
absolutely true, would affect the characters and reputa-
tions of some of the most illustrious English ecclesiastics
of the period.

The charges, or rather reports, set forth by Morton,
as will be seen, involve the person of Wallingford as well
as the St. Albans Community in doubt and suspicion.
And perhaps the most astonishing part of this astonish-
ing document is the clause directing Wallingford to
correct the supposed abuses himself. If Archbishop
Morton himself believed one half of these reports, the
Abbot was a man of utterly abandoned life; and to
leave to him the correction of the supposed abuses
was nothing short of a criminal neglect of the duty with
which he was charged by the Bull of Innocent VIII.
The Archbishop says that he had warned the Abbot
before of what was being said, and that as he had paid
no attention to the warning, he now repeats his " moni-
tion " with the additional authority given by the
general powers of visitation he had received. It is clear,
therefore, from the document, that the Monitio is not a
record of what was found after inquiry, as Mr. Froude
would have his readers believe:* neither is it even a
notification of any actual visitation which Archbishop
Morton had determined to make, as some have stated.
It purports to be merely a statement that grave reports
were in circulation about the good name of the Abbot
and Community, and under a threat of a personal
visitation at some future time, an order is conveyed to
Abbot Wallingford, who, if the tales reported by Morton

* Short Studies, iii, p. 127. Mr. Froude says: "Cardinal
Morton, after examhtatioti of witnesses, has left in his Register as
the result of his enquiry ^^ etc.

24 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

were only partially true, was a hopelessly bad and
incompetent man, himself to correct what was amiss.

With regard to the Convents of Pray and Sopwell,
about which stories of the gravest nature are detailed,
it may be recalled to the reader that in 1480 the strictest
investigation had been made by two monks deputed
by Wallingford, and in each case new superiors had been
appointed to secure better discipline ; and although in
regard to the whole of these charges, or rather rumours,
it is open to any one to believe them, it should be re-
membered that there is absolutely no proof that any
single one of them is true in fact, and their face value
is, at the worst, that they remain to this day " not
proven " by any evidence whatsoever; whereas, as will
appear presently, there is the distinct evidence of the
Community that the reports were unfounded.

Rumours of some coming difficulties would probably
at some time before the date of " monition,'* have
called Abbot WalHngford's attention to the scandalous
reports in circulation about St. Albans. The report that
reached him must have suggested to the Abbot that
some attack upon the Abbey and its privileges was in
contemplation ; and, as in duty bound by the oath of
his office, he at once took measures to stop any infringe-
ment of these rights.

Before the close of 1489 he had despatched some of
his Community to Rome to beg for the protection of the
Holy See. In fact, the obituary, so often referred to,
gives the name of the monk who pleaded their cause
at this time. This is the entry: " We ought not to
forget what great expenses and heavy burdens he
[i.e., Wallingford] bore in his old age when he strove
with diHgence against the Archbishop of Canterbury
and High Chancellor of England [i.e., Morton] to defend
the liberties and immunities of this monastery, and
with great force strongly and manfully resisted his
power, and appealed to Rome. He sent his monk John

ABBOT WALLINGFORD 25

Thornton to Rome, and boldly cited the Archbishop
and his Dean of Arches (to appear there). At length
our best and most revered of Fathers and most worthy
Abbot gained a truly just victory, and preserved all our
privileges whole and untouched, to our great honour
and utihty. May God and St. Alban our Patron here
and in all places be praised."*

The victory here spoken of, as gained by Wallingford's
agents in Rome, appears in the shape of a Brief from
Pope Innocent VIII addressed to Archbishop Morton
on 6th February 1490, The Pope in this, after declaring
that St. Albans was a monastery exempt from all
jurisdiction save that of the Pope himself, charges him
{i.e., the Archbishop) with the duty of protecting its
privileges and defending the Abbot and monks from all
attacks upon them. This he is to do " out of respect for
the Pope and the said Holy See — quod erit et nobis
gratum — which will also be pleasing to us."f

Before this document could have been received in
England, Abbot WalHngford must clearly have had
from Archbishop Morton that warning as to the reports
in circulation about himself and St. Albans, which the
latter says in his Monitio he had given him. Walling-
ford's agents in Rome would have been informed of the
attitude of the Archbishop and have been directed to
acquaint the Holy See. Meanwhile, on July the 5th of
this same year 1490, Morton issued his Monitio ', and
on the nth of the same month it appears from the
Roman archives that the St. Albans proctor — no doubt
the monk John Thornton — appeared in person before
the Pope, and in the presence of one of the Cardinals
presented a petition in the name of the Abbot and
monks. In this was set forth the privileges of exemption
from all Episcopal jurisdiction, which had been granted
to the Abbey by previous Popes, and quite recently

* Reg., i, App. D, p. 478.

t Vat. Ai'ch. Arm,, xxxix, torn. 19, f. 270^.

26 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

confirmed by His Holiness himself. Amongst these
privileges was the exemption from all visitations except
by properly appointed Legates of the Holy See, and
even by these only when the Abbey was specifically
named. To this exemption was coupled the right of
appeal to the Pope in person when these privileges were
attacked. The proctor of the Abbot therefore begs
that the Pope will prohibit all attacks on the Abbey,
and declare void all censure or excommunication that
might be inflicted on St. Albans.* This petition was
successful ; and the same day a Papal Bull was issued
fully granting, the protection asked for, pending the
appeal and until such time as a definite sentence had
been pronounced upon it.f

The prosecution of the appeal was not delayed, and
the taking of the evidence was committed " to Masters
Jerome de Porcariis and Francis Bruno, two chaplains
of the Auditors of Causes " before the Holy See. The
judges thus appointed acted with great promptitude,
and decided that if St. Albans was allowed in this case
to plead its exemption, other religious houses might be
led to follow the example thus set by it, and also refuse
to submit to visitation. They therefore advised the
Pope to make special provision in this matter, and for
this time to suspend the admitted privileges. Conse-
quently, on 30th July 1490 another Bull was issued by
Pope Innocent VIII addressed to the Archbishop of
Canterbury. In this document, after reciting the
general faculties of visitation and correction of religious
houses already granted to the Archbishop of Canterbury
at the request of the King of England, the Pope goes
on to say that it had lately been represented to him that
certain of the English monasteries, " and in particular
St. Albans, and the house ruled over by a Prior, which
was called St. Andrew's, Northampton," had refused

* Vat. Arch. Reg. Suppl. 913, fol. Ixviii.

t Vat. Arch. Reg. Inn. VIII, anno 6°, vol. 893, fol. i\

ABBOT WALLINGFORD 27

to admit the Archbishop's right of visitation on the plea
of a privilege of exemption granted by various Popes.
They had appealed to the Holy See, and on the advice
of the judges appointed to hear the appeal, he (the
Pope), to put an end to the dispute and because " the
King has humbly petitioned for it, granted by this Bull
special faculties to the Archbishop to hold the visitation
in question, notwithstanding all rights and privileges
possessed by those houses." Archbishop Morton in
order to carry out this order was empowered if necessary
to invoke the help of the secular arm.*

So far as Rome is concerned this is the end of the
matter. It does not require much knowledge of the
methods of the Apostolic Curia to see that there was no
possibility of any appeal from a deliberate judgement
given in a Papal Bull, and the Abbot of St. Albans, had
he wished, could not have carried the case further.
Roma locuta est, causa fmita. What exactly was settled
would appear to be this : the right of the Archbishop
to hold the visitation of St. Albans in virtue of the
general faculties he had received was given in favour
of the Abbey. As a matter of practical politics, however,
and at the special request of the English King, special
faculties were given to him by the above-named Bull
to put an end to the dispute.

What exactly Archbishop Morton did or did not do,
when he received these faculties to hold the visitation,
if necessary by calling to his aid the secular power, is
most unfortunately very obscure. Some slight informa-
tion seems to be contained in the obituary notice of
Abbot Wallingford. This remarkable document would
serve well for the exercise of students in the higher
criticism. It embodies at least three historical papers
regarding Abbot Wallingford, drawn up at different
times and obviously for some special purpose. Reference
has been made to one of these documents which is dated
* Vat. Arch. Reg. Lat., vol. 884, f. 127.

28 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

in 1484, and which gives us the testimony of the Prior
and Community as to the character and worth of their
Abbot. A second document is dated in 1490, the year
be it remarked of the Monitio addressed by Archbishop
Morton, containing his catalogue of reported abuses at
St. Albans which called for redress, and the year also
of the final and wise decision of the Pope, that in spite
of all privileges the Archbishop was to see to this matter
as he thought fit. It seems more than probable that the
catalogue of all that their Abbot — their pins et optimus
Pater, as they call him — had done for his house in his
office of trust, before his becoming Abbot, was the
prelude to the declaration of what had been effected up
to the year 1490, during the fourteen years of his
abbacy. This is a free translation of what Prior Thomas
Ramridge says in the special passage in question: " I
will here say and plainly declare that he was afterwards
[i.e., after holding the office of Prior, etc.) elected Abbot,
that is to say by unanimous agreement (pacto, per
Spiriius Sancti viam). After taking upon himself this
office, and in the few years that have passed since, that
is fourteen,* he has paid £1830 for the debts of his
predecessor, as clearly appears in the account of his
Official. Moreover, we must add to this that most
ornate, splendid, and lofty screen of the high altar,
which adds greatly to the beauty of the church, delights
the eyes of those who examine it, and which is to all
seeing it the most wonderful work of ail in the kingdom ;
the cost of this reached the sum of iioo marks."

What was the purpose of this declaration at this
precise time ? It can hardly be questioned that it has
some relation to Archbishop Morton's Monitio. In reply
to the reports mentioned by Morton that their Abbot
was a spendthrift, dissipating the goods of his Monas-
tery, the monks brought forward proof to the contrary

* Wallingford was elected Abbot in 1476, so that this would have
been written in 1490.

ABBOT WALLINGFORD 29

and showed that probably none of his many predecessors
had done anything Hke as much for the Abbey. With
this declaration of 1490, there can be Uttle doubt, the
document drawn up six years before, in 1484, was
incorporated, as both subsequently were in the obituary
notice of Abbot Wallingford.

The document as it stands is a categorical denial of
many of the evil reports which Morton says had reached
his ears about St. Albans. The declaration of the en-
tire Community, given under the Convent seal, that
collectively and individually they held Wallingford in
veneration, as a piissimus et optimus Pater : the cata-
logue they furnished of all that he had done for the
material welfare of his Abbey, and in all how " useful
and beloved " he had been to his brethren: and their
appeal to the account book of his officials in proof of
his having spent a very large sum in clearing off the
debts of his predecessor, was, there can be little doubt,
sent to the Archbishop as the joint reply of the Com-
munity to the calumnious reports. The date, 1490,
seems to make it certain that it was used in connection
with the Monitio of Archbishop Morton. What was the
result ? Unfortunately there is little evidence to guide
us. The last leaves of Wallingford's Register have been
torn away, and there is no entry beyond the Monitio in
that of Morton. To some extent, therefore, we are left
to conjecture. The Archbishop had been granted full
powers to satisfy himself about St. Albans, and therefore
the result was absolutely in his hands. If he made the
visitation, and after inquiry left things as they were,
leaving Abbot Wallingford still in office, most people
will regard this as sufficient 'evidence that he certainly
did not find St. Albans in the terrible state which the
reports of which he speaks had led him to suppose.

On reflection, however, it seems to nle more probable
that he never really held the visitation at all, but was
satisfied, by the solemn testimony of the entire Com-

30 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

munity, that Wallingford was not the evil ruler he had
been represented to be by his calumniators, and that he
had only to look " in every corner " of St. Albans to
see what the Abbot had done in buildings and repairs,
or to search into the accounts to find what debts he
had paid off in the fourteen years of his abbacy. It will
be remembered that Archbishop Morton in his Monitio
proposed to make a visitation only if he were not
assured that what was said to be amiss should be
immediately corrected. It seems, therefore, not un-
likely that this declaration of the whole Community as
to their entire trust in Wallingford, and their personal
belief in him as a good man and able administrator,
together with the proofs brought forward that he was
no reckless squanderer of monastic property, etc.,
satisfied the Archbishop that he had been misled by
listening too readily to evil and malicious reports.
Having gained his point in Rome, on receiving the
testimony of the monks he seems to have been content
to let the matter rest.

One thing is certain, namely, that things remained at
St. Albans what they were. With every power to depose
Abbot Wallingford if he were satisfied that matters
were as bad as they were reported to be. Archbishop
Morton left him to rule the Abbey. The ordinary and
natural interpretation of this fact is that on further
inquiry and reflection he came to the conclusion that
the evil reports were, in fact, untrue.

Wallingford died in June 1492, for on the 29th of that
month King Henry VII gave the Community licence
to choose a successor.* On i6th September of the same
year the royal assent was given to the choice of
" Thomas Ramridge, formerly Prior of St. Albans," as
Abbot " in place of WiUiam Wallingford, late Abbot. "f
As to this choice it may be useful to note that it is itself

* Rot. Pat. 7 H. VII, m. 34.
+ Rot. Pat. 8 H. VII, m. 3 [18].

ABBOT WALLINGFORD 31

a presumption against the truth of the slanderous
reports catalogued in Morton's Monitio. As all know
that the discipline in a great Abbey such as St. Albans
is mainly in the hands of the Prior, and if the condition
of the Abbey was really as bad as these rumours would
have us believe, the blame must fall quite as much upon
Ramridge as upon Wallingford. Yet it is this Ramridge
who, two years after the date of Morton's letter, is
chosen to succeed him, and whose election is confirmed
by the king.

The obit of Abbot Wallingford, which on the anni-
versary of his death was read out during the latter part
of the office of Prime to the Community, then all
assembled for the daily Chapter, is an unusually long
document. It has been already referred to as incorpor-
ating documents which were drawn up for certain
reasons in the years 1484 and 1490. In 1492, upon
Wallingford's death, certain portions were added, and
although the entire document is long, it may be here
translated.

** We now come to recall to our memory the principal
loving acts and noble and sumptuous works of our late
venerable Father and Abbot the Lord William Walling-
ford. We set down what and how much this loving and
best of Fathers began and accomplished most devotedly
in this place at his great expense. These works, indeed,
are apparent and abound in every part and corner of
this holy house. It would, indeed, take much too long
a time were we to describe these works and relate all
he had done ; still, for his praise, and as an example
to others, we will here briefly set down some of his
deeds :

** First then, whilst he was Archdeacon of this Monas-
tery, for God's service and out of reverence for holy
religion he supported and educated ten young religious
out of his own revenues and at great expense. Also he
set up many fine new buildings in many parts of our

32 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

monastery ; as for example the noble library and kitchen
of stone. Further he gave a sumptuous gilt chalice and
two cruets, and glazed the windows and caused pictures
to be painted in many parts of the church. Also it was
his goodness and liberality which repaired many of the
monastic offices, making many tumbledown places to
appear as new.

" Many most precious ornaments he also bestowed
on this Monastery and (amongst others) the finest cloth
of gold. From this cloth of gold were wonderfully worked
the copes, tunicles and dalmatics, which to-day we use
to the great glory of God ; for no other Monastery in
England possesses finer. If any one would know the
true value of all these things the sum total is 980 marks.

"Then after he was made Prior, at the same time
holding the office of kitchener, he paid for the (latter)
office, then greatly in debt, £360 of English money.
Also he expended for various repairs of farms, houses
and other (buildings) belonging to the office of kitchener,
in the space of eight years, 1000 marks, and notwith-
standing all these expenses and repairs he built up the
Prior's hall and furnished it with all things necessary.

" Here, moreover, I will speak of and plainly show
that he was afterwards elected as Abbot by acclamation
(of the Community, pacto per viam Spiritus), and having
taken the pastoral office, in the few years that have
passed since, that is fourteen (i.e., 1490), he paid the
debts of his predecessor, as is clearly proved by the
accounts of his official, to the amount of /1830. In
addition to this he set up that most ornamental, sump-
tuous and lofty screen of the high altar, which is a
great glory to the church, pleasantly delights the eyes
of all who see it, and to all examining it is the most
wonderful work in the kingdom.

'* Then, it is no light praise for him to have finished
our Chapter House at his great cost, for he spent on it
£1000. Then he arranged for the making of two windows

ABBOT WALLINGFORD 33

in the church, one in the north part near the Sacristy,
the other in the southern part near the clock ; on these
he expended £100. Beyond this, for the purchase of
lands (to endow) a perpetual Mass in honour of the name
of Jesus every Friday for ever, and for a daily Mass for
his own soul, the celebrant each day to receive 5d. ;
and this expense came to £100. Also he paid £60 for a
mitre and two pastoral staves.

" Also for the building of his Chapel and tomb on the
south near the High Altar, with railings and marble
slab with the figure on it, with other ornaments of the
Chapel, he expended £100.

" Moreover, we should not forget what great costs
and heavy burdens he sustained in his old age when he
strenuously defended the hberties and immunities of
this Monastery against the Archbishop and High
Chancellor of England. He valiantly and manfully
resisted and appealed to Rome. He sent his monk
John Thornton to Rome and cited the Archbishop and
his Dean of Arches to appear. In the end, this our best
and most Reverend Father and most worthy Abbot
obtained a just victory, and preserved intact and
inviolate all our privileges, to our great honour and
utihty. May God and St. Alban, our patron, here and
everywhere be praised.

" What is, moreover, most wonderful, praiseworthy
and memorable is, that our best of Fathers after so
many and such great expenses, after such an immense
number of works, left his Monastery free and without
the least debt: although for many years in buildings
and lawsuits and many other things he had spent so
great a sum of money for the honour and liberty of the
Monastery.

" The total sum of money expended on all the above-
named burdens and benefits by the foresaid Right
Rev. Father, Wilham Wallingford, for the benefit of
this Monastery, both when he held the offices of Cellarer,

D

34 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Archdeacon, Prior and Cook, as well as in the days of
his Abbacy and Pastoral dignity, is £8600, 7s. 6d.

" And in testimony of all the foresaid, and as a
brilliant example to all to come, we, Thomas Ramridge,
then Prior, and we the other Fathers and brethren,
conventuals of this Monastery, signify the truth to all
men by our common seal, and by the unanimous
consent of all of us collectively, and assent of each
inclividually, by this private writing we testify that all
these things were lovingly and benignly accompHshed
and done by the said most worthy Father, in the year of
Our Lord 1484, the 8th day of the month of August.

" From the foregoing we can see most clearly how
useful and how beloved he has been to his Monastery.
Wherefore all of us with true hearts devoutly pray day
and night to the Almighty God for him, and that he
may deign to give him a fitting reward in heaven for his
deeds on earth. Amen."

It seems inconceivable that this description of the
character of Abbot Wallingford, and these details of his
benefactions, could have been entered in the Obit Book
of St. Albans, and publicly read each year in Chapter,
if they were not substantially true. The entire Com-
munity of over sixty members knew the truth of the
facts, and had their former Abbot been the perjured
villain and the reckless spendthrift he is represented by
some to have been, the public reading of this laudatory
document would have been imprudent and impossible.

It is time, however, to consider the other point of
view. I take that of Dr. James Gairdner in the Intro-
duction to the third volume of Lollardy and the Reforma-
tion (pp. XXX, seqq).

" Abbot Wallingford is, indeed, praised by the monks
as one who, besides paying off in fourteen years the
heavy debts of his predecessor, did a number of muni-
ficent things on behalf of the Abbey — among others,
presented it with a splendid altar screen which exists

ABBOT WALLINGFORD 35

there even now. But if it be true,* as stated in Arch-
bishop Morton's letter, that he cut down the wood of
the Monastery to the vahie of 8000 marks, the explana-
tion seems to be that he paid the debts of the house out
of capital, and reduced the value of a magnificent
property to make things comfortable for the existing
generation of monks, j In that case he grossly abused
his official trust; and unfortunately there are records
of his previous history as a monk which agree only too
well with this hypothesis. For he was a trustee J of
Abbot Stoke, a covetous man who, against the rules
of the Order, § had accumulated a private hoard, and
after Stoke's death he was called to account by Abbot
Whethamstede for attempted embezzlement. Abbot
Whethamstede, indeed, once charged him to his face
with perjury, and was only persuaded not to dismiss
him from various offices of trust by the intercession of
influential noblemen, whose friendship the culprit had
cultivated like a man of the world. "||

* If it be true-, this is the whole matter. On the one hand we
have the positive testimony of the entire Community as .to the
administration of Wallingford: On the other what Morton gives
as " a report " : Morton does not state that he cut down the wood,
but that he hears reports that he had done so.

f There is no evidence of any kind that the value of the property
was thus diminished. The very opposite would be gathered from
the testimony of the Community as to the excellent administration
of Abbot Wallingford.

X Trustee is hardly the word to use of a man who is said merely
to have known where certain money had been placed.

§ There does not appear to be any reason to defame the memory
of Abbot Stoke. Dr. Gairdner evidently does not know that the
revenues of St. Albans, and indeed of all the great houses, were
divided for the support of the various offices. The Abbot, who was
constantly called upon to meet royal taxation, etc., had a large
revenue, and because he died with a certain amount of money, which
he had intended to spend on certain works for the Abbey, it is
hardly just to speak of his having " accumulated a private hoard."
II The whole of this account is founded upon the document
printed as Registrum Abbatice J. Whethamstede^ which the Editor,
Mr. Riley, characterizes as a " structure of calumny and vitupera-

36 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

" Yet after Abbot Whethamstede and his successor
William Albon* had passed away, this WilHam Walling-
ford was actually elected Abbot himself,! with what
results to the Monastery Archbishop Morton's letter
sho^^'S too clearly, I and the further information which
Abbot Gasquet has obtained for us from the Vatican
archives — though he appears not to have seen it in that
light § — helps, I think, rather to set forth a crowning
triumph of worldliness over religion. Abbot Walling-
ford knew beforehand what efforts not only Archbishop
Morton but King Henry VII were making at Rome
to punish his misconduct, and he actually succeeded in
frustrating them.||

*' He knew the ways of Rome at least as well as they
did, and he set himself from the first to preserve invio-
late the exemption of the Abbey from all Episcopal
jurisdiction.** As early as the 6th February 1490, he
had procured from Innocent VIII a brief addressed to

tion " which had " no place in the Abbot's Register," and " was
devised for a purpose which, though not avowed, it is not so very
difficult to devise." "/« ^/i^ cause of truth and honour^ f^ood feeling
and good faith^^ writes Mr. Riley, " we have no option left but to
believe that this narrative, so far from being written by the Abbot,
never even came before his eyes." Dr. Gairdner has here trusted to
the guidance of Mr. Froude, rather than to that of Mr. Riley, and
accepted the document as sober history.

* Abbot Albon continued Wallingford in his offices and made
him his Prior.

I Dr. Gairdner does not say "by the unanvnous voit of his
brethren."

X Thisletterofitself;!>r^z/^jorj^^7f/j nothing whatever. It simply
states a series of reports, which apparently were never examined
into.

§ This much is certainly true.

II This is absolutely contrary to the "information" I obtained from
the Vatican archives. The Pope expressly permitted the visitation
to take place under the circumstances, although it was against the
privileges of the Abbey.

■** It would be strange indeed if the Abbot did not exert him-
self to preserve the privileges of the Abbey, seeing that he had
taken an oath to do so at the time of his election.

ABBOT WALLINGFORD 37

the Archbishop desiring him to protect the Abbot and
monks from all interference with their privileges. On
the 5th July, however, Morton having already obtained
a Bull empowering him to visit exempt Monasteries*
(though it was chiefly those with foreign heads),
addressed that letter to the Abbot, in which the charges
are expressed. But the Abbot had his proctor in Rome
and appealed against the right of the Archbishop to
hold a visitation, t On the 30th July, however, the Pope,
at the King of England's earnest solicitation, granted
the Archbishop special faculties to override objection
raised to his visitation, both by the Abbey of St. Albans
and by the Priory of Northampton. But there must
have been one more move upon the chessboard, of which
Abbot Gasquet does not seem to have come upon any
notice at Rome. J For the victory remained at last with
St. Albans, which Wallingford succeeded by great
efforts in preserving from the dreaded visit ation,§ and
surely no worse account could well be given of the
Court of Rome than is implied by such a termination
of the case;|| and surely no worse account could be

*This did not affect the privileges of St. Albans, which included
exemption from all general powers of visitation, unless expressly
named in them.

t As he was bound to do by virtue of his oath.

X I feel constrained to protest against the phrase does not seem^
etc. I informed Dr. Gairdner that there were no more documents
to be found, and his expression has been taken by many to mean
that I knew of a later document and had suppressed it. To any one
who knows the procedure of the Roman Courts a Bull of a Pope
determining a cause is final. There is no appeal from the Pope to
the Pope.

§ This statement is absolutely without foundation. There is no
proof that the Visit was not held or the case settled in the way
suggested before, p. 30.

I This judgement is founded upon Dr. Gairdner's mere supposi-
tion, which has no warrant in fact. All that the historian has to
guide him in the way of documents tends to show that the Pope
acted with the utmost honesty and prudence. He even suspended
the privileges, which he had himself fully confirmed, to allow the
Archbishop to hold the visitation asked for.

38 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

given of the Abbey of St. Albans than the way the
result was recorded."*

" Moreover, we ought not to be unmindful how great
most serious expenses and heaviest charges " — the
translator must endeavour to do justice to the redund-
ance of the original language — " he sustained in his
old age, when he diligently took action against the
Archbishop of Canterbury, Great Chancellor of England,
for the defence of the liberties and immunities of this
Monastery, and when he manfully resisted his power
and great strength (illius potentice et niagnis virihus).
He appealed even to Rome, etc., as in the Obit previously
given, t

" Such " (continues Dr. Gairdner) " was the actual
working, J in this particular instance of an old, compli-
cated and corrupt system. As many zealous reformers,
who, like Dean Colet, were still loyal to that system,
said about the state of the Church in their day, that there
was no lack of good laws to correct abuses if they were
only properly enforced. But then how were they to be
enforced when there was so much corruption? Good
men did not see their way to a remedy. In this case the
zeal of the highest prelate in England, aided by all the
influence of England's King at the Court of Rome —
which was always very considerable, though the Church's

* Reg., J. Whethamstede, i, App. the Obit Book^ p. 478.

t Abbot Wallingford certainly did oppose the visitation which,
Cardinal Morton proposed to make. In view of the oath taken by
him to preserve inviolate all the privileges of his house, it is difficult
to see what else he could have done. Dr. Gairdner's strictures are
based on the pure supposition that the visitation ordered by the Pope
was defeated subsequently by this wicked (!) Abbot by means of his
Roman agents. There is nothing in the documents to warrant this
assumption. The ultimate judgement of the Pope is contained in the
letter ordering the visitation, even, if necessary, by invoking the
secular arm. The praise recorded in the Obit naturally refers to
the confirmation of all the privileges, which Wallingford secured
as at least one result of his difficulties in regard to this visitation,
which was allowed merely as an exception.

X Not '^actttai^" but the "working" supposed hy Dr. Gairdner.

ABBOT WALLINGFORD 39

freedom from State control was theoretically absolute
— could do nothing to avert the triumph of a powerful
and wealthy Abbot, who had shamefully misgoverned
the Community over which he presided, and made it a
source of moral contagion to the neighbourhood," etc.
Where are we ? Is this really regarded by Dr. Gairdner
as " history " ? History must be founded on facts, and
deductions must be based upon facts and not upon
mere prejudice. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the
King of England did get what they asked for. This much
is certain, by the Papal Bull. Dr. Gairdner assumes,
without any warrant of fact, and indeed against the
certain practice of the Roman Curia, that wicked Abbot
Wallingford purchased and coerced the Pope into
withdrawing this Bull. This view may be suggested by
prejudice, but it is not historical. He further assumes
that the visitation was never made in any shape or
form, because he assumes the truth of the reports
contained in Cardinal Morton's letter, quite as certainly
as Mr. Froude, who declared that the letter contained a
record of what the Cardinal found to be true after full
examination. The only safe guide in history is to abide
by the facts and by the facts only, and this case of
Cardinal Morton and St. Albans as represented by Dr.
Gairdner is a very good illustration how even so excellent
an historian, to whom the entire world is so much
indebted, may stray from the path of history into the
realms of romance once the sign-posts of facts have been
disregarded.

THE MAKING OF ST. ALBAN'S
SHRINE*

THE history of English art has yet to be written.
So completely did the Reformers of the sixteenth
century succeed in their work of destruction, that not
only were the works of the goldsmith, of the broiderer
and of the painter, ruthlessly doomed, but the reputation
and even the very names of generations of English
artists were blotted out of the annals of the country by
the wreckers employed by Henry and Edward. To
many people it would perchance appear somewhat
audacious to suggest that in the dark Middle Ages
English artists in stone, metal, wood, glass, and textile
fabric were at work, who might easily teach our masters
in this boasted nineteenth century. We need only point
to buildings, which have survived the attempts alike of
destroyer and would-be restorer, as evidence that this
is no exaggeration. The designer in the dark ages has
set the copy which we in these days can hardly imitate.
As Ruskin appropriately, though somewhat rudely,
remarks about modern St. Albans: " Is there a soul so
blind as not to see a difference between the men who
could have designed and built such cliffs of walls and
the apes who can pull them down and construct bad
imitations of them?"

But, though much has perished, still scattered here
and there in the pages of monastic chronicles and

* A paper read before the Guild of SS. Gregory and Luke at
St. Albans, 1892.

40

THE MAKING OF ST. ALBAN'S SHRINE 41

cartularies, and entered almost by chance upon the
rolls and other dusty documents in our national archives,
may be found evidence of the existence of art workers
— aye of great schools of art — in England, about which
we know little or nothing. Sometimes, even, there
appears the record of a name, although so perfectly did
they in those days of faith understand the value of
common work that but few individual artists' names
remain to satisfy the curiosity of later ages. The place
of our meeting to-day* suggested at once to me, when
asked to read a short paper, that some notes gathered
from the great chronicles of St. Albans about the
making of the saint's shrine might be not altogether
inappropriate.

The beginning of the twelfth century was a time most
remarkable at St. Albans for the perfection of its metal
work. A renowned goldsmith, by name Anketil, who
had for seven years been chief of the artificers in precious
metals at the Court of Denmark, and the designer of
the coins of that kingdom, became, on his return to
England, a monk at this abbey. Geoffrey, the sixteenth
abbot of the monastery, who ruled from a.d. 1119 to
A.D. 1146, was not slow to reaUze the importance of
making use of his exceptional talents in the construction
of the first great shrine of St. Alban. I say the first, as
meaning that of which any special account has come
down to us, although there is evidence that a hundred
years before some such shrine was in contemplation.
For we know that Leofric, the tenth abbot, had, during
a famine, sold the treasures of the church to feed the
poor, " retaining only certain precious gems for which
he could find no purchaser, and some most wonderfully
carved stones, commonly called cameos ] the greater
part of which were reserved to ornament the shrine
■when it should be made."

Well, as I have said. Abbot Geoffrey, about A.D. 1124,
* The meeting was held at St. Albans.

42 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

began the first great shrine. He collected about £60
for the work, " And," says the chronicler, " it happened
that by the labour of Dom Anketil the work so pro-
spered and grew as to claim the admiration of all who
saw it." The chief part of the shrine proper was what
we should now know as repousee work, and the figures,
that the goldsmith monk hammered in the golden
plates, were made solid by cement poured into the
hollows at the back. With these precious plates of
beaten metal the whole structure of the shrine was
covered, so that no wonder it won " the admiration
of all who saw it."

Here for a time the work was delayed. Funds failed
and bad times came upon the house, so that the metal
canopy, which had been designed to crown the work
and for which much gold and silver and many jewels
had been collected, remained unfinished. Still so
beautiful was the portion so far completed, and so
heavily was everything round about covered with gold,
that the substance of the work looked like soUd metal.
Then to enrich the shrine yet more, the antiques called
" Sardios oniclios," or, as the chronicler says, " vulgarly
cameos," were brought out of the treasury and fitted
into the work. One of these precious stones, however
(which the writer minutely describes, and which he said
had been the gift of King Ethelred to St. Alban), was
found to be so large that no other stone could be found
to match it, and it was again laid by in the treasury.
Into this new shrine thus prepared in the art workshop
of the Abbey by the skill of Dom Anketil the relics of
St. Alban were translated on 2nd August, a.d. 1129.

Before passing on we may be permitted to note that
this artist in gold work, Dom Anketil, out of eight marks
of gold made also a wonderful chalice and paten, which
subsequently Abbot Geoffrey sent as a present to the
Pope Gelestine. I resist the temptation to dwell on the
various presents which the same Abbot Geoffrey gave

THE MAKING OF ST. ALBAN'S SHRINE 43

to his church, and the works performed through his
aid, and which all go to prove that this first half of the
twelfth century was an age of great artistic work at St.
Albans. The account of his vestments — copes in sets
of sevens and fours, chasubles and dalmatics, worked
albs and dorsals — all thickly covered with gold and
jewels, would be a study of itself. So rich were they
that, alas! they tempted his successor in a time of
straitness, by the very wealth of gold woven into
them, and they were burnt to recover the metal used
in the manufacture of the golden cloth, or laid as
ornaments upon the finished material.

But to return to the shrine. Not long after it had been
so far completed as to receive the relics of the saint in
A.D. 1129, the poor in the neighbourhood were afflicted
with a great scarcity, as we have said, and to relieve
their necessity Abbot Geoffrey took away and melted
down much of the gold used on its construction. A few
years of prosperity, however, enabled him to replenish
the treasury, and once more " he adorned the shrine
with silver, gold, and gems much more precious than
before." Still, however, the canopy so long in contem-
plation remained unfinished. At first Abbot Geoffrey
was afraid of beginning lest people should carp at his
prodigality and the riches he lavished upon the saint's
shrine; and then, when he did at last make a start,
death came upon him almost as soon as he had begun
seriously to take in hand the long-delayed work.

His successor. Abbot Ralph, who, as we have just
noted, burnt the cloth of gold vestments to recover the
metal, was not very likely to leave the shrine alone. It
was a gold mine ready at hand, and so far from attempt-
ing to complete the glorious work, he regarded it as
such, and broke off certain of the plates of beaten gold
to purchase back a manor that had been alienated from
the monastery. He had no absolute need, however, to
borrow from the saint, since, as the chronicler notes, he

44 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

had many gold and silver vessels for his own table use,
which he might have melted down for this purpose.
Still, to be just to his memory, it must be added that
before his death (and he only ruled over the Abbey
but a very brief space) he had made provisions for the
repair of the injuries he had caused to the noble work
of Dom Anketil, the goldsmith monk. His successor
in the abbatial chair of St. Albans caused the work
to be at once undertaken, and re-made the shrine from
this gold and silver and these precious stones, " and,"
notes the historian, " it was re-made of most decent
workmanship."

So far, however, all that had been completed was the
body of the shrine itself, which contained the relics of the
saint. It was actually finished some time before a.d. ii66,
at which date Simon, the nineteenth abbot, succeeded
Abbot Ralph. He ruled over the house till a.d. 1183,
and seriously took in hand the completion of the long-
contemplated canopy. In order to understand how he
placed the shrine it is necessary to bear in mind that
the great altar screen did not exist until long after this
period, and that the " theca " containing the relics of
the saint, overlaid, as we have seen, with plate of golden
repousee work and jewels, had originally been made to
stand behind the high altar, and had, apparently, been
quite hidden by it from the choir. Abbot Simon, having
collected by every means in his power a great stock of
gold and silver, set about making what must have been
about as rich a metal canopy to go over the finished relic
chest as can be imagined. It is called an outer shrine,
or canopy, and was the work " of that most renowned
artificer," as he is called, " Master John the goldsmith."
From the name and style given to him we should judge
that this artist was not himself a monk, and we have
evidence that another very skilful lay worker in precious
metals was at this same time also a resident in the Abbey
and at work in its art school. " In a few years," writes

r

THE MAKING OF ST. ALBAN'S SHRINE 45

the chronicler, " this laborious, sumptuous, and most
artistic work was happily accomplished"; and he {i.e.,
Abbot Simon) placed it in its (present) elevated posi-
tion ; that is, above the high altar facing the celebrant,
so that every priest celebrating Mass upon the altar
may have both in sight and in heart the memory of the
martyr, since visible to the eye of the celebrant was
represented the martyrdom or decapitation. Round
about the canopy, that is, on its two sides, he fashioned
a series of panels representing the life of the Holy
Martyr, preparatory to his passion. These were clearly
displayed in figures standing boldly out in the beaten
work of silver and gold, commonly called levdtura
(repousee). At the eastern end he placed an image of
the Crucifix, with the statues of Mary and John, and
made the frame more handsome by an arrangement of
divers gems. On the western end, in well-raised work,
surrounded by gems and precious golden knobs, he
enthroned an image of the Blessed Virgin, holding her
son to her breast and seated on a throne. Above this
structure rose the roof of this canopy, and at its four
angles were placed " windowed turrets " surmounted
with what the writer calls " four lovely crystal domes,
with their marvels." In this, " which is of wonderful
size," he continues, " the shrine of the martyr, the key
as it were of the old structure, in which the bones of the
saint are known to be preserved, and which Abbot
Ralph had made, is fittingly placed."

So far did the work proceed during the golden era of
English mediaeval art, the twelfth century. I do not
know whether you have been able to follow the details
I have given, but I have before me a picture of what the
shrine must have been. No doubt there was some kind
of a foundation or base — itself possibly raised on several
steps — upon which the shrine reposed under the glorious
canopy just described, since we are told that it was
raised up so as to appear over the altar, for we must

46 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

again recall to mind that the great screen — so striking
a feature in the modern church — did not obstruct the
view of the canopy till the latter half of the fifteenth
century. As far as information goes it would appear
probable that till the middle of the fourteenth century
the shrine, as it was made in the twelfth, remained
untouched. It is not quite certain exactly when it was
that the marble base, of which the shattered fragments
remain to-day, was made for the shrine. It was certainly
designed and executed in the fourteenth century, and
possibly it was completed by the sumptuous Abbot de
la Mare somewhere in the last half of that century. We
are told in the Abbey chronicles that this abbot often
enriched the shrine with jewels, and that upon the top
of the inner shrine he placed the image of an eagle with
its wings extended, and which at the cost of £20 (some
£400 perhaps of our money) he had caused to be made
of silver gilt.

I pass quickly to the following century. A list of
church plate and vestments, probably made about
A.D. 1427, adds a little to our knowledge of what the
shrine was at this date. After speaking of Abbot de la
Mare's eagle, the list describes what it calls " two
suns " given to the church of St. Albans by Dom John
Savage, one of the monks. The long rays of these
ornaments were of silver gilt, and on the tip of each was
fixed some precious stone. The centre part of the " sun,"
which was of pure gold, contained various relics of the
passion (including a fragment of the Holy Cross), and
of some of the saints. These two " suns " were placed
upon the cresting of the great canopy.

One other note as to the shrine of St. Alban in the
fifteenth century may be found in the register of Abbot
Whethamstede. In the middle of that century he adorned
the altar of the saint, which stood at the western end
of the shrine, with a silver tabula. This was apparently
a wonderful work of art, fashioned out of beaten metal,

THE MAKING OF ST. ALBAN'S SHRINE 47

fully gilt. As the chronicler says, " There is not thought
to be another more grand and sumptuous in the whole
of this kingdom." To complete this triumph of the
goldsmith's art, besides 795 ounces of old silver plate
melted for the purpose. Abbot Whethamstede provided
more than £40 at one time for the metal, and spent
50 marks upon the making.

I will now ask you to picture to yourselves what
this glorious monument alike of English piety and
English art must have been at the time of its desecration
at the fall of the Abbey. On the Purbeck marble base,
the remains of which we have all admired to-day, rested
the most costly and precious portable shrine, containing
the relics of the saint. This was, as we have seen, a very
marvel of workmanship, originally designed and
executed by Dom Anketil. The substance of the theca or
chest was covered entirely with plates of gold, on which
the skill of the goldsmith monk had wrought figures
of saints and scenes from history. Jewels of all kinds,
gems, cameos, and all manner of precious stone, thickly
studded the framework of these repousee pictures and
sparkled in the light of the tapers ever burning round it.
On the cresting of the high-pitched roof perched the
silver-gilt eagle with outspread wings, which Abbot de
la Mare had made to crown the work. Such was the
shrine itself, which thrice a year — upon Ascension day
and on the two festivals of St. Alban — was borne from
its resting-place in procession by four priests in copes,
and on these occasions it was wont to be covered by the
rich cloth of woven gold, presented for that purpose
by Thomas Wodestock, Duke of Gloucester.

Here, certainly near to the shrine and probably at
one end of it, was kept the great golden cross, made in
the twelfth century to contain a relic of the Holy Cross,
which was visible through the crystal in the centre. In
every procession this reliquary was carried by one of
the brethren between two other crosses which were

48 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

held aloft by two of the lay brethren, and on Passion
Sunday the relic was venerated by the whole convent.

In general features the shrine of St. Alban was
probably very similar to that of St. Edmund at Bury.
Of this we can form some notion from the miniature in
Dom John Lydgate's Life of St. Edmund, representing
King Henry VI paying his devotions at Edmundsbury
on Christmas Eve, 1433.

Over the shrine proper, and supported by outer
pillars of marble — the remains of which are still visible
— was the metal canopy. It does not appear whether
this cover, as was the case at Durham, was con-
structed so as to move up and down, and only on
great feasts was raised so as to display all the glories
of the inner shrine. In workmanship, and in the value
of the materials used, the canopy could hardly have
been inferior to the relic case itself. From the de-
scription it would appear to have had four sides of
silver repousee work gilt, upon which were shown
pictures of the life and martyrdom of the saint. Over
this was a well-pitched roof of the same metal, and in
the triangles formed at the two ends of the roof were
the two representations of the crucifix with the Mary
and John, and Our Blessed Mother with the infant
Christ. At the four comers four towers, with buttresses,
niches, and windows, ran up to some considerable
height, and were each topped by a ball of brilliant
crystal. At each end, on the apex of the triangle formed
by the roof, rested the gilt suns, with all their rays
tipped by sparkling jewels. Finally it seems not im-
probable that the ridge of the roof may have been
broken in the centre by some slender spire rising aloft
towards the wooden ceiling.

I will conclude by asking you to feast your imagina-
tion for a moment more upon the marvellous treasures
gathered to do honour to the proto-martyr of England
at his resting-place in the abbey. At the foot of the

THE MAKING OF ST. ALBAN'S SHRINE 49

shrine, before the close of the fifteenth century. Abbot
Whethamstede had placed the wonderful retable, or
reredos, upon the altar of the saint. This stood at its
westernmost end, and was wrought of beaten silver
gilt, and it added one more precious ornament to the
chapel of the saint.

Fancy what a picture must have met the eye upon a
high festival, before Abbot Whethamstede's great cliff
of a screen shut out the view of the rest of the church !

Had we been within the choir screen in the great
Abbey church for first vespers, four centuries and a half
ago, what a picture of splendour would have met our
view! The gorgeous copes of Duke Humphrey of
Gloucester, with which the monks were vested, would
have been all but lost in the blaze of precious metals
and the sparkle of countless jewels which would have
appeared over the great high altar, reflecting back and
multiplying the lights of countless tapers. To-day, at
any rate, the cover would have been raised, and the
splendid shrine, with its no less splendid canopy,
would have simply dazzled us with their rich magnifi-
cence. Even in the dark shadows of the ambulatory,
beyond the chapel of the shrine, the gold and jewels of
the reliquary of St. Amphibulus would have caught the
light of the candles and added one more glory to the
martyr-crown of the great Saint Alban.

AN ABBOT'S HOUSEHOLD
ACCOUNT BOOK*

WE, who live in this twentieth century, can hardly
reahze the conditions of existence a few hundred
years ago. Steam, electricity, and the many other won-
derful discoveries and inventions of our age have so
revolutionized the simple life of our forefathers that it
is not surprising if we find a difficulty in picturing it to
our minds. Practically annihilating space and time, the
steam engine and telegraph, to name but two of those
wonderful helps we possess, have, amongst other things,
compelled the entire world to contribute to the com-
plicated comforts and luxuries of modern days. The
products of lands and continents unknown to our
forefathers now find almost a necessary place daily on
the tables of people even of very moderate means. To
many of us, however, it is not uninteresting, nor indeed
is it without its use, in these spacious days of luxury to
recall the simphcity and frugality which satisfied the
needs and tastes of our ancestors, before the artificial
wants of later times had been created.

It must be confessed that, speaking generally, our
knowledge of the conditions of life in England, say in
the fourteenth or fifteenth century, is scanty enough,
and any addition to it will probably be welcomed by
those who take even a slight interest in the past of our
country and people. It is chiefly from account books
and other seemingly dry and unpromising sources of

* A paper in The Dowtistde Review ^ 19 lo.
50

AN ABBOT'S HOUSEHOLD ACCOUNT BOOK 51

information that our knowledge of the manners and
customs of past ages must be derived. One such book
of household accounts came in my way many years ago
at our Public Record Office, and forthwith engrossed
my attention for a time. The copy I then made has
lain for years in my writing case, and turned up by
chance whilst on a journey of some days' duration. It,
and the notes I had made upon it, helped me to pass
away many hours very pleasantly, and they are here
set down in a connected narrative, in the hope that
they ma}^ be of interest to others besides myself, and
may, perhaps, help them to pass some idle moments
not unprofitably or unpleasantly.

The account book in question sets forth the household
expenses of an Abbot of Westminster in the fourteenth
century, for two years from Michaelmas, 137 1, to the
same date in 1373. The Abbot in question was Nicholas
Litlington, who, having been prior of his house under
Simon Langham, succeeded him as Abbot when the
latter became Bishop of Ely in 1362. Langham was
made Archbishop of Canterbury in 1366 and Cardinal
two years later, when, on account of differences with
the King, he resigned the archbishopric. Litlington, as
Abbot of Westminster, remained always the attached
friend of his predecessor. Indications of this friendship
are to be found even in these accounts, in which several
visits of the Lord Abbot to the Lord Cardinal at his
house in Holborn are recorded, as well as notices of the
provisions purchased for Cardinal Langham's stay at
one of the Abbot's manor houses, when he had come
to England from Avignon in 1372, by command of Pope
Gregory XI, to mediate between France and England.

Abbot Nicholas Litlington was a careful administrator,
and is noted as a " stirring person," very useful to the
monastery. He did a good deal for the material welfare
of his house during the four-and-twenty years he held
the abbacy. Amongst other things he repaired all his

52 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

manor houses, which had been much injured by a
great storm just after his election as Abbot, and some
indication of this special work may be seen even ten
years later in these household accounts. In June 1371,
for instance, there is provision made for the feeding of
forty-five workmen at Bourton and Morton, in the
county of Gloucester. In this regard it is not un-
interesting to notice that though all Wednesdays,
Fridays, and Saturdays throughout the year were kept
as days of abstinence from flesh meat by the Abbot
and his household, meat was provided in place of fish
on the Wednesdays for the hired workmen. Whilst
these accounts show that the monks and conventual
servants fasted on fish, the labourers on one such
occasion had for their refection, besides bread and
forty-six gallons of beer, " a piece of bacon, six rounds
of beef and a pig."

The chroniclers of the abbey of Westminster tell us
that Abbot Litlington built two sides of the present
cloister and, besides erecting the Jerusalem Chamber,
furnished several of the Obedientiaries with new
quarters. He enriched the treasury of the church with
several precious articles, including a pastoral staff, two
chalices, and a great missal for use at the high altar.
" Two books of the coronations," which still exist,
marked with his initials, were, in all probability,
prepared for the splendid ceremonial of the Coronation
of King Richard II, in 1377, at which the Abbot
assisted officially.

As three days in each week were days of abstinence
from meat, and as none whatever was taken during the
whole of Lent, a considerable part of these accounts is
naturally devoted to recording the purchase of fish.
The variety is very remarkable; over thirty kinds of
lish being mentioned in the course of the two years.
Besides fresh fish, which appears to have been fairly
plentiful, three sorts of dried fish formed the staple

AN ABBOT'S HOUSEHOLD ACCOUNT BOOK 53

of the diet at the Abbot's table. These were what is
called "green fish," which was also apparently salt;
" hard fish," known usually as stockfish, and which
was probably salted and dried " lyng and lobb " ; and
the ordinary smaller fish, such as haddock and herring,
salted and preserved in barrels. Besides these, other
kinds of fish, stocked for use in the Abbot's larder, are
named, such as salt salmon, red herrings, and salt eels.
The consumption of these dried and salt fish is naturally
very considerable, since those who had no easy access
to the sea, or who had not fish ponds and stews, were
obhged to rely upon the stock of cured fish. Thus, in
these accounts are many items representing large
purchases of such stores. For example, at the beginning
of Lent may be found a note that " now is the time of
hard fish and red herrings " : and so the purchase is
registered of "93 hard fish costing 22s. 6d. ; 4 barrels
of salt red herrings and 5 barrels of red ' schotus '
herrings," for which 6is. 6d. was paid.

Taking into account the difference in the value of
money in the fourteenth century, these prices, and,
indeed, those for all other kinds of fish, appear very
high. The fact is, that at no time in the later Middle
Ages was fish cheap. The reason is obvious : the demand
for this kind of food was great, whilst the art of angling
was rude, the tackle poor and inadequate, and the
carriage, especially of salt-water fish, difficult and
expensive. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
Yarmouth was the great market to supply England
with salt-water fish, at any rate with cured fish for
storing purposes. Indeed, sea-fishing generally, till the
fifteenth century, was almost entirely in the hands of
the eastern towns of England, and it was only after that
time that the Bristol sailors, by the aid of the mariner's
compass, were able to reach the northern fisheries, and
thus break down the monopoly of the Norfolk fishing
towns.

54 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Some of the great fish dinners at this time, if we may
judge from the payments for provisions entered in
these household accounts, must have been truly wonder-
ful banquets. Take, for example, a meal given by Abbot
Litlington at Westminster to his Community and some
specially invited guests, on Maundy Thursday, 1371.
This great day in Holy Week fell in that year on 25th
March, and preparations for the feast were evidently
begun some days before. On the previous Monday, for in-
stance, men were dispatched on horseback to Teddington
and Kingston-on-Thames to procure fresh salmon, and
six others were out angling on the great London river for
whatever they could catch. As a result, the entries in
the accounts show that the following were collected for
the Abbot's larder: " 2 pike, 4s. lod. ; 2 pikerel from
the stews, M. ; one fresh salmon, 19s. 6d. ; 300 smelts,
2s. ; 100 dace, 2s. 10^. ; 5 rounds of sturgeon, i6s. 6^. ;
10 lampreys, 2s. lod. ; i fresh lamprey from the stews,
4s." Besides these there were all manner of salt fish,
amongst which no less a number than 574 red herrings
were served up in the Refectory. Early on the morning
of Maundy Thursday itself a messenger arrived in haste
from the Prior of Malvern, with a present of three fresh
Severn lampreys ; and this little incident appears from
the fact that a " tip " of 3s. i)d. was given to the
bringer of this timely gift by the Abbot's steward.

Besides this vast quantity of fish, many other things
were, of course, purchased on this occasion to furnish
forth the banquet properly. Thus, the cost of a gallon
and a half of oil is set down against this day; and
18 lb. of dried fruit, | lb. of ground pepper, and 2 lb.
of peas to make the soup. For the actual Maundy —
the washing of the feet of the brethren and the poor by
the Abbot — a special provision was evidently made by
the purchase of a quantity of bread and beer and three
jars of " sweet wine," which cost 5s.

Of course, no information is forthcoming in these

AN ABBOT'S HOUSEHOLD ACCOUNT BOOK 55

special accounts as to how the food was prepared and
served up at Westminster on these and similar feast
days. This, however, can be gathered from other
sources of information. Thus the well-known Book of
Nurture tells us that soup from peas or frumenty was
often flavoured on great days by the addition of the
tasty tail of a beaver. This was so even on fish days,
and " sweet is that fish," it remarks, " which is not
fish at all." Whether this was done at Westminster may
be doubted, not because it would not be considered
lawful, but because beavers' tails would necessarily
have been scarce. There is in these accounts, certainly,
an instance of water-fowl being eaten without hesitation
at a Westminster dinner on another fish day.

In these times, salt fish was, of course, the greatest
" stand-by " for the caterer of every religious house
and, indeed, for every housekeeper during the time of
Lent, and to a lesser extent during the rest of the year.
No doubt, before cooking such dishes, the recommenda-
tion of John Russell was a useful hint to be acted upon
in the days when the preparation and preservation of
all such articles of food must have been somewhat
primitive, and the outside skin might possibly have
been found to be both hard and strong. '* Of all manner
salt fish," he says, "look ye pare away the fell " (i.e.,
the skin). For this reason, too, no doubt in accounts
such as these, one always finds the records of purchases
of large quantities of condiments, such as the " half
pound of ground pepper " bought for this Maundy
Thursday dinner, and the mustard, always in great
demand, especially when fish was served. ** Salt salmon,
congur, green fish, both lyng and myllwelle " [i.e.,
codling) are to be served according to the old traditional
cooking directions, with mustard sauce, or, if the bones,
skin, and fins be first removed, they may be eaten with
plain butter. In mediaeval times, as now, herrings,
especially salt herrings, were plentiful. " Baken heryng

56 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

is dressid and dished " says the Book of Nurture, " with
white sugar," — not, perhaps, a dish to tempt the
modem palate. " The white hering by the bak abroad
ye splate him sure. Both row and bones voyded,
then may your lord endure to eat merrily with
mustard."

Another aspect of life in the fourteenth century
illustrated in these accounts of Abbot Litlington is the
management, etc., of a mediaeval stable. In days when
all the world travelled on horseback, or in primitive
carriages, with large teams of horses, and with large
retinues, the provision for stable accommodation was
always a serious matter. The retinue of our Abbot, for
instance, was generally more than twenty, and men
were sent on in advance of the main cavalcade to
prepare provisions and bake " the horse bread "
necessary for the riding and pack horses. Sometimes,
on these journeys of the Lord Abbot, there is recorded
the hiring of beds for the principal officers. At Dartford,
for example, on one occasion, he was with his predecessor
at Westminster, now Cardinal Langham, with a retinue
of twenty-six men, and it became necessary to hire
" ten beds for one night," at the cost of a penny for
each, which, from other instances, appears to have been
the ordinary charge. Sometimes the Abbot had to
prepare for the stabling of a great number of horses,
as when, on one occasion, he entertained a number of
the gentry of Gloucester and Worcester, and on another
when the King, " with all his household," came on a
visit to him.

In the items regarding the horses and stables we find
notices of the making and repairing of carriages and
carts ; of the care and keep of the horses, draught and
riding. Leather and webbing is purchased for mending
the harness. Cart covers, or, as they are called on
several occasions, " cart clout es," are made from canvas
procured for the purpose, and the carriage-hood is

AN ABBOT'S HOUSEHOLD ACCOUNT BOOK 57

repaired and the leather well oiled and polished by the
help of half a gallon of some preparation which cost 4^.
It would have been interesting could we have had a
fuller account of my Lord's carriage, with its team of
horses and its coachman. Incidentally, we learn that
it sometimes lost its way, for rewards are given to
various countrymen and boys, at various times and
places, for pointing out the proper road to take. Three
or four times, in the course of the two years over which
these accounts extend, the Abbot's coach passed along
the Hammersmith road, which then, as now, seems to
have been in a chronic state of being repaired, for each
time the payment of an alms to the road-makers is
entered among the expenses of the journey.

The mention of " pack-horses," sent hither and
thither to fetch and carry, under the guidance of one
John Reigate (the carter), his boy, and others, and of the
repair of pack-saddles, the baiting and occasional
shoeing of the horses, add some lines to the picture of
the Abbot's stables in these years. That the animals
were well fed and looked after can hardly be doubted
in view of the payments for hay, beans, and oats, not
to name the " horse bread " purchased for them
regardless of expense, or baked for them even by the
Abbot's cook himself. The animals were carefully
chosen, and the " master of the horse," several times
during the period covered, was dispatched to some
distant place to see, try, and report on some proposed
purchase, or to determine whether it was fit to find
a place in the stalls of the prelate.

My Lord Abbot's palfrey — a grey mare, apparently —
was the object, not unnaturally, of very special care.
Once it was sick, and a quart of oil was procured for it.
It had its own groom, and his purchase, on one occasion,
of two pounds of " oil of bay " somehow seems to
suggest a desire to make its coat glossy. At another
time, the purchase of a scythe is recorded " to cut fresh

58 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

grass " for this favourite riding horse of my Lord the
Abbot of Westminster.

In these accounts there are numerous items relating
to fishing and hunting, and these will be of special
interest to many. To-day, of course, if a housekeeper
wants an addition of game or fish for the larder on some
special occasion, recourse is had to the nearest poul-
terer's. In the past centuries the steward sent word
to the huntsman or the fisherman to go forth and seek
for some suitable addition to the table. It was certainly
a more sporting way of replenishing the larder, and it
had the added excitement of complete uncertainty as
to result.

Peter was the name of Abbot Litlington's head
huntsman at this time, and his understudy was one
Walter West. Their hunting dogs were properly seen
to: dishes were purchased for their food and special
payments were made for their milk. At one time
Peter and his three boys went away from the Abbot's
manor of Denham for a six days' hunting expedition,
taking his hounds and three specially swift hunting
dogs. At times, as dogs to-day will do, these dogs went
astray, and on one occasion men were out scouring the
country for two days to find a lost hound, but with
what success these accounts do not relate.

Hawking, too, is mentioned on several occasions, and
many entries relate to the purchase of meat and chickens
to feed the falcons and hawks. " Falconer John " some-
times had bad luck ; and on one occasion having flown
his hawk at some bird, it would not return to his hand,
but flew off and compelled him to ride about over the
country in every direction for two days, during which
he spent 4d. of his master's money.

On one occasion Peter the huntsman and his helps
were rowed up the Thames beyond Wandsworth to look
for wild duck. On another, he was taken by the stable
grooms j^LS far as Campden in Gloucestershire, to hunt

AN ABBOT'S HOUSEHOLD ACCOUNT BOOK 59

the neighbourhood. At Pinner, in Middlesex, a general
hunt was organized after " wild animals," and several
times expeditions were arranged for the purpose of
catching the young deer in the Abbot's parks. On one
of these occasions a large supply of big nets were brought
on the backs of three pack horses, and three days later
one Thomas Burdet headed a party of seven of the
Abbot's servants to Caversham, to stake the nets and
prepare the traps to take the does alive. At another
time the same Thomas Burdet led a party on a boar
hunt in the little park at Denham. It was a success,
and one big boar was captured and killed, whereupon
Walter the cook, who was one of the party, set to work
to cut it up and salt it. This took him a week to do,
and he was paid 13^. for his trouble. The party had
with them a pack horse, and the salted meat was put
on its back and sent up to the Westminster larder for
use at my Lord's table.

Several items in the accounts afford some slight
information about the production and use of wine in
England in the fourteenth century. From the earliest
times the vine was cultivated in England, and much of
the wine drunk was of native production. Mr. Roach-
Smith* has shown that some forty vineyards are
mentioned in Domesday. WilHam of Malmesbury,
evidently speaking from personal knowledge, mentions
the vineyards and wine of Gloucester. At Freshford,
near Bath, a living vine was discovered last century
in the exact place where old accounts represent a
vineyard to have existed, and probably very many of
the old names of places connected with the word, were
ancient vineyards. In confirmation of William of
Malmesbury's assertion of the production of wine in
Gloucestershire, several items from these accounts may
be quoted. For example, in June 1371 one of the
Abbot's carters, with a boy and a team of horses was
* CqIL Antigua, YI.

6o MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

sent to Tewkesbury to bring back two pipes of wine.
On another occasion one John Pecche was sent " to
purchase wine into the west country." In 1372 the
Abbot's officials bought a hogshead of " red wine " and
" a pipe of sweet wine " from the stores of Lord de
Spenser, for which £13 was paid. This wine was first
taken to the vintner, v/here fresh hoops were put upon
the barrels at a cost of 2s. 6d. It was then found that
the pipe of sweet wine was not quite full, and an extra
gallon was bought to fill up the cask, for which 13^.
was paid. The barrels were afterwards carted up to the
cellar at Westminster. Besides the red wine and the
sweet wine, " white " wine is mentioned on several
occasions as having been bought by the gallon or
half -gallon, on a journey. Vinum de la Reyn is also
named, and is^d. was on one occasion paid for a gallon
and one gill of this Rhenish wine.

The ordinary drink evidently was beer, and many are
the entries relating to brewing days, to the making and
repair of barrels and mugs, and to the refreshments
given to messengers, carriers, and the rest. An item
of certain interest is the mention in these accounts ten
or a dozen times of " sea coal." In making Mistress
Quickly in Henry IV say that Falstaff had promised
to marry her whilst " sitting in my Dolphin-chamber
at the round table by a sea-coal fire," Shakespeare was
supposed by many to have perpetrated an anachronism.
But Rogers, in his history of prices, has pointed out
that the earliest entry of sea-borne coal is in relation
to Dover in 1279. It seems to have been employed,
occasionally at least (he says), for " smith's work."
In these accounts it is used for this and other purposes,
including, evidently, cooking. For forging horseshoes,
on Saturday, nth October 1 371, three-quarters of a ton
was purchased for 4s. The price given by Rogers as the
average from 1371 to 1380 is is. ii^d. per quarter, which
js only slightly less than what the Abbot was charged.

AN ABBOT'S HOUSEHOLD ACCOUNT BOOK 6i

The number and variety of the fish that are noted in
the Abbot's accounts are very considerable. Besides
the herring, which with cod and hng or stockfish was
the great " stand-by " of the chef, there are many
species of salt-water fish named as articles of food on
days of abstinence. Such are haddock, whiting, or
merling as they are called, mackerel, sole, plaice, ray,
porpoise, and gurnet, besides sprats, smelts, shrimps,
mussels, and oj^sters, not to mention the useful, if not
too tasty, conger eel. Of their fresh-water cousins we
may find the names of barbel, pike, dace, roach, min-
nows, with, of course, salmon, fresh and salt, and the
much-prized, but apparently fairly plentiful, lamprey.

Old John Russell gives us some idea of how best to
dish up some of these denizens of the deep, or river.
Salt fish, stockfish (after it has been coaxed back to
some measure of softness by many waters ofttimes
renewed), merling {i.e., whiting), and mackerel, after
the bones and skin and fins have been removed, may
best be eaten with sweet butter. Of pike, the belly is
the best, and this should always be served with much
sauce. Lamprey is always good. If it be salt it should
be cut into seven gobbets, and, after the back bone has
been voided, it is best eaten with onions and galantyne.

The onion was much prized and almost necessary in
the days when meats were strong and garnishing
vegetables few. " The onion," says the Maison Rustique,
" though it be the country man's meat, is better to use
than to taste : ioj he that eateth everie day tender
onions with honey (!) to his breakfast shall live the more
healthfull, so that they be not too new."

The table of my) Lord the Abbot must have afforded
almost as great a variety of meats and game as of fish.
Beef and mutton are perhaps not quite as common an
article of food as we might have been inclined to guess.
Pork and bacon are named several times, and once there
is a record of a pig purchased to be turned into lard for

62 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

kitchen use. As the signs of the coming winter multiplied
preparations are made for the annual salting of animals,
mainly sheep, for use during the months of cold and frost.
On St. Martin's Day, nth November, the mediaeval
farmer considered seriously what his live stock was and
measured his store of hay. What he could not hope to
feed till the coming spring had to go into the salting
tub. Lamb and veal are only named once during these
two years as having been purchased, but birds of various
kinds appear to have been plentiful. Capons and chickens,
ducks, both wild and tame, geese, egret and herons,
pheasants, partridges and pigeons, quail, teal and small
birds generally, are amongst those named. The swan,
too, is spoken of as having been bought on four great
occasions. Probably the Abbot, like Chaucer's man,
" A f at swan loved he best of any roost."

The cost of a swan is set down at 3s. 4^. for a dinner
on Sunday, 28th December 1371, and for the same meal
four ducks at is. 8d. and seven capons at 2s. ^Id. were
bought. The following year about the same time the
Abbot gave a dinner to his tenants at Denham, and the
meat bill contained items for beef, mutton, four small
pigs, five ducks, one swan, six geese, six capons, nine
fowls, two woodcock, and " a milk cream cheese."

The Abbot's kitchen was probably no very grand
place, and modern cooks of even the most moderate
household would probably scoif greatly at the kingdom
of the Abbot of Westminster's chef. The accounts name
two cooks as serving my lord at this time, Walter and
John, but whether John succeeded Walter the cook
or worked together with him does not appear on the
face of the documents. They were paid regular wages,
and when called upon to do any extra work they some-
times had a reward. For instance, on a certain Wednes-
day, it happened on the Wednesday in Holy W^eek, 1372,
Walter the cook found that for the great dinner always
given by the Abbot to the monks of Westminster on

AN ABBOT'S HOUSEHOLD ACCOUNT BOOK 63

Maundy Thursday there was no fresh salmon in the
larder. We may picture his consternation. The credit
of the house, at least his part of it, was at stake ; but
he was evidently a man of resource and determined to
ride at once to Kingston-on-Thames to try and purchase
some. He went also to Hampton, and in the end got
what he wanted — two fine fresh Thames salmon, for
which the price was 215. 2d. How much that may
be in our money I will not guess and I dare not
calculate what it would work out per pound; but I
hope Master Walter the cook got a lecture for his ex-
travagance. Possibly he did not, for I see he was paid
2\d. for his reward in securing these dear fish.

We learn very little in these papers about the actual
fire or " furnace " at which the cooks prepared their
dinners. Incidentally, we find that both wood or char-
coal and "sea coal" were used in the kitchen, though
the more common fuel was clearly wood. The fireplace
was, apparently, not altogether an " open hearth " kind,
on which various small fires boiled or roasted their own
special dishes, whilst a vast iron pot, supported on a
tripod over logs of wood, cooked the savoury mess of
the day. We are told by one entry of a domestic break-
down in the kitchen arrangements and of the sudden
departure from the Abbot's manor of Denham of a
boy to bring back fire-bricks, petra pro furno, at once
from Westminster.

Not much appears in these papers of accounts about
the purchase of any " instruments " of culinary art.
At one time a bucket is bought, at another a tin vessel,
and at another a big copper pot is mended as well as
three brass dishes, which last item cost 10^. Mention
is made of a large provision basket and of a spice-box
with a lock of its very own, as also of wooden trenchers
and that great instrument of every mediaeval kitchen,
the necessary sharp " lechyng knife," for dividing up
the portions before they were dished.

64 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Perhaps the best way to realize the work of a great
kitchen, Hke that of the Abbot of Westminster, is to
study the preparation made for some great day. On
Monday, 8th August 1372, the King and his entire
household came to dine with Abbot Litlington at his
manor house of Islep. There had been an unusual
bustle of preparation. A week before one John Pecchc
had been dispatched into the West of England to
procure wine, and another attendant of the Abbot
had gone, with a boy and two horses, to Westminster
to bring back silver goblets and other plate. A third
expedition went from Islep to Winchcombe, Derehurst,
and Worcester to purchase provisions and other
necessaries. As the day drew near the bills came pouring
in. There was linen of all sorts; towels and " broad-
towels " ; two napkins " to serve the King before the
dinner " cost 18^. ; twelve ells of linen were made up
into two tablecloths and two ** savenapes," and four ells
of " linen gracie " were devoted to some mysterious
purpose, and, possibly, may have been meant to filter
the beer. The sempstresses were paid 5^. for making
the various cloths and napkins, and for the canvas
screen which closed in the end of the hall and hid the
buttery-hatch.

The store of spices, etc., was, as usual on these
occasions, very considerable. A pound of cloves cost
1$. 6d., Jib. of mace 5s. 6d., Jib. of ginger 3s. 2d.,
and so on with rice, flour, cinnamon, dates, currants,
prunes, and pines. This last was a seasoning much used,
but exactly what it was is not known. Some think it was
dried mulberry. The grocery bill for the King's enter-
tainment ends with 5 lb. of sugar, price 7s. The only
other item which is somewhat strange is " galynggale,"
of which some pounds were used. It was a root of a
plant from the East Indies of an aromatic smell and
hot, bitterish taste. From it was made galantyne, " a
sauce for any kind of roast fowl, made of grated bread,

AN ABBOT'S HOUSEHOLD ACCOUNT BOOK 65

beaten cinnamon, ginger, sugar, claret wine and vinegar
made as thick as grewelle."

There were the usual meats at this royal banquet, and
the bill gives the following: "]"] capons, 156 pullets, 2
pheasants, 5 heron, 6 egrets, and 6 brewas. These last
were probably whimbrel or half curlew, to be eaten,
according to the BooU of Nurture, " with sugar and salt,"
mixed with the water of the river. All the above poultry
was purchased in London, and were brought down alive
to Islep at a total cost of 43s. 2d. The same cavalcade
which brought the birds brought 5 lb. of salt, 6 gallons
of cream, and much honey.

Besides the above, the stewards procured 12 dozen
tin vessels; 250 wooden bowls, hired for 2s. zd., 9
of which were lost, and for which ultimately 9^. each
had to be paid to the contractor; 5 large bowls and
dishes, with 4 wooden ladles. Five days before the great
festivity two men were at work setting up the trestle
tables, the benches, and the great dresser. Over this
v/as erected what is called " unum hall" in canvas;
but what the hall was for and how it could have been
''' super dressoria " is not clear.

On the Saturday before the King's arrival, two days
before, for the day before was Sunday, the baker and
brewer were at work on their respective trades: the
former making not only payn de mayn, table bread,
for the visitors, but stores of horse bread for the horses
of the King and all his merry men. At the same time
the cooks were using up the supply of fine flour for the
pasties which proved so important a part in all mediaeval
banquets.

Of course, vegetables and fruits are here conspicuous
by their absence. In fact, throughout these accounts
fruit is not often mentioned, and still more seldom
anything in the shape of our modem vegetable. Dates,
prunes, raisins, currants, figs are the usual fruits named
— all of them, of course, dried. Onions are named twice

66 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

and green peas once. Apples also are only once named,
and twice there is a record of a purchase of a basket
of cherries for my lord at Oxford. Besides these, rice,
peas for soup, and oats for pottage, are about all the
items of the vegetable kingdom known to the keeper
of the accounts of Abbot Litlington in 1371-1372.

These pages are truly " dry bones," but even these,
when they are stirred, seem to tell us some little of the
life led hundreds of years back in this England of ours.
Of this we know so very little that even a small matter
may help us to realize it better, and if we care for the
past at all we ought to try and understand how our
forefathers who made our country Hved out the span of
their lives.

HOW OUR FATHERS WERE TAUGHT
IN CATHOLIC DAYS*

SOME few years ago I attempted in the pages of this
Review to show that the instruction given by the y
EngHsh priests in prerRpfnrmRtinn times was by no
means so hopelessly inadequate as it suited the sectarian
purposes of some writers to represent. In fact, an
extended and careful examination of original and much-
neglected sources had compelled me to come to a very y
different conclusion. All the available evidence, in the ^
shape of books of religious instruction in general, and
of those intended to assist priests in the discharge of
their plain duty of teaching in particular, not to mention
the various collections of set sermons and of materials
to aid in the production of sermons, now to be found
among the manuscripts in the British Museum, pointed
to the fact that the people were properly instructed in
their religion. This, after all, was merely what the late
learned Professor Janssen had found to be the case in
Germany in the ages which preceded the coming of
Luther ; and upon a review of all the facts it seemed to
me certain that before the change of religion in England,
the duty of giving popular instruction in the faith and
practices of the Catholic Church was conscientiously y
discharged. ^

In a paper dealing with a mass of evidence, much of it
necessarily somewhat minute, and extending over a
period of two centuries anterior to the Protestant

* Printed in The Dublin Review^ April 1897.
67

68 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Reformation, it was obviously impossible to do little
more than name some few of the works written to
furnish material for religious teaching, and to indicate
only in very general terms the nature of that teaching.
Yet this last is precisely what we want specially to
understand more fully. What exactly, for instance, was
the kind of instruction given to our Catholic forefathers ?
Was it as clear and definite and precise as that which
we are accustomed to ? and how do the terms in which
that teaching was conveyed compare with the modes of
expression in use amongst us now? The answers to
these and kindred questions will be found, I fancy, the
really interesting part of the subject to most people.
The information requisite for a reply to such queries
can only be obtained by an extended examination of
some of the works in question, and in the present article,
therefore, I purpose to direct the attention of the reader
to one single volume of pre-Reformation instructions.
This paper will in reality consist mainly of quotations
from the work in question, for in this way only is it
possible to form any adequate notion of the character
of the teaching given to our Catholic ancestors.

The volume I propose to submit to the test of exam-
ination is one that is said to have been very popular

y I in the fifteenth century. It is called Dives et Pauper — the
\ rich and the poor man — and its purpose is thus declared
• \ in the colophon at the end of one copy : " Here endeth

' / a compendious treatise or dialogue of Dives and Pauper :
, that is to say, the rich and poor, fructuously treating
, upon the Ten Commandments." There exist manuscript

/ copies in the British Museum library * and elsewhere,
and editions of it were issued from the printing presses
of Pynson in 1493, Wynkyn de Worde in 1496, and

1 Thomas Berthlet in 1536. The fact that it was con-
sidered a volume of sufficient interest and importance
to warrant its pubUcation by the first English printers
* Harl. MS. J 49; Royal MS. 17, c. xx and xxi.

HOW OUR FATHERS WERE TAUGHT 69

among the earliest fruits of the newly discovered art of /
printing will be sufficient to attest its popularity, and //j/^
the value attached to it by the ecclesiastical authorities. /^

The author of the tract is usually considered to have
been a Carmelite friar of Doncaster named Henry I x/
Parker, who lived in the second half of the fifteenth
century, dying in 1470. He was a graduate in theology of
the University of Cambridge, and is chiefly, if not wholly,
known to fame through a sermon which he preached at / y
Paul's Cross in 1464. In this he apparently vehemently
attacked the secular clergy, and being supported in his /
refusal to retract by the brethren of his Order, he got 1 1/
into serious trouble with the Bishop of London, which '
eventually led to his imprisonment. His right to be
accounted the author of the tract Dives et Pauper
appears to rest upon little but conjecture, and, as it
seems to me, upon conjecture not founded upon any
reliable basis of fact. Neither the manuscripts extant
nor the printed editions give any direct indication of
authorship, whilst the indirect indications to be found
in the book itself seem to make it most unlikely that it
could have been written so late as the time of Henry
Parker. After carefully reading the volume and noting
any illustrations of the time, and of the circumstances
of the English people when the author was writing, I am ;
strongly of the opinion that the book was composed
somewhere in the first decade of the fifteenth century. { ^
The only actual date mentioned in the volume is 1402, ^
to which the author refers as that of the appearance of
a star or comet well known to his readers. The circum-
stances, popular difficulties, and popular movements
indicated, also appear certainly to lead to this conclusion.
The whole tone, bent, and method of the dialogue
between this rich man and poor man forcibly recall the
sermons of Bishop Brunton of Rochester, which were
preached at the close of the long reign of Edward HI
and in the early years of Richard 11. The spirit of the

^

70 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

two is identical ; but, unfortunately, little is apparently
known of these eloquent discourses. I believe that I shall
be the first to call attention to them. The very title
of this book, and still more of a sermon on the text,
" Simul in ununi dives et pauper," attributed to the
same author, recalls an eloquent sermon of Bishop
Brunton on the same text, and would seem appHcable
to the circumstances of a period when the hostility of
the vipper classes to the Church, imder the influence of
John of Gaunt and the inheritors of his spirit, only
served to bring out into relief the soundness of the
Christian instincts and Catholicity of the people gener-
ally. In the mind of the author of Dives et Pauper, as in
that of Bishop Brunton, the upper classes by their evil
li\dng had brought down upon the country the manifest
punishment of God in the humiliations which had
befallen it, and both call out loudly for a return to the
greater simplicity of living and singleness of purpose
which characterized the English nation in earUer days.
Bearing in mind, then, the probable date at which this
volume of instructions first saw the light, and the
unsettled circumstances of the times, let us turn to the
book itself and see what kind of lessons were considered
best suited to the people. The passages quoted will
be given as in the original, but for the convenience
of the reader in a modern spelling.
j The main conception of the author in wTiting the
i dialogues is that the poor man takes the role of teacher ;
I Dives, the rich man, that of pupil or questioner. The
'subject-matter is a full and careful discussion of the
Ten Commandments, and the general scheme and the
division of the subject into the consideration of the two
tables, as included in the two precepts of charity, is
practically the same as that sketched out by Archbishop
Peckham in 1281 for the guidance of parish priests in
the discharge of their duty of instructing the people
committed to their charge. It is prefaced by an explana-

r

HOW OUR FATHERS WERE TAUGHT 71

tion given by the poor man of the blessings of poverty,
and of the way in which Our Lord by making choice
of that state for His own had raised and ennobled it.
The rich man makes answer :

The same your brother told me twenty years ago,* but then
we spoke chiefly of the state of high perfection. Let us now
speak awhile, I beg you, of that lower kind of perfection neces-
sary for all, for as I cannot attain to the higher state, I would, as
indeed I must, keep and hold firmly the lower degree of per-
fection.

To this Pauper replies in the words of Our Lord to
the rich young man, " Serva mandata — keep well the
Commandments." This Dives agrees is necessary, and
" therefore fain would I keep them better than I have
done, but," he adds, "I see so many doubts therein
that I cannot keep them." Upon this Pauper proceeds
to enlighten him, and his explanation of the difficulties
proposed forms the bulk of the tract under consideration.

* It is perfectly evident that this is an expression not used at
haphazard, and that the author here designates some writer known
at the time. " Your brother " is evidently understood in the sense
of a member of the same religious profession. Although I may
have a suspicion as to the person referred to, I do not feel justified
in giving expression to the supposition. It is just here that for
England we miss such a work as the Histoire Litteraire. I cannot
but reflect with a certain legitimate satisfaction that my own
brethren in religion laid out such ample and firm foundations for
the whole edifice of the history of their own country as is implied
by the Histoire Littdraire ; the Recueil des Historiens ds la France ;
Recueil des Historiens des Croisades ; Gallia Christiana ; Concilia
Galliae^ the great collection of Charters; the collections for
Histories of Provinces, etc. At the same time, I cannot but reflect
with something like regret and shame that so little has been done
in England. In any question touching our earlier literary history
we are practically without help. Nor is it possible to make up for
the past neglect on a sudden. Such a work as the Histoire Litteraire
requires a long period of preparation by devoted workers. Nor can
I forget that the Benedictines of Germany had already planned and
were engaged in a similar scheme for their own country when the
Revolution put an end to their existence.

72 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Starting with the first commandment the question of
images is at once raised. Now, if there be one subject
more than another upon which the pre-Reformation
EngHsh CathoHcs are supposed to have been very ill
instructed indeed, it is as to the use and abuse of
images. Probably a very large number of our country-
men at the present day are under the delusion that their
CathoHc ancestors were little better than idolaters
before the Protestant Reformation came to cast down
the images and enlighten the priest-ridden population
as to the heinousness of their pagan worship of stocks
and stones.* The destruction of the statues of Christ
and the Saints and the general whitewashing of the
frescoed walls of the churches are justified and explained
by the sad necessity which forced the first English Pro-
testant leaders to extirpate a foul and deep-rooted error
against the Christian faith from the hearts and minds
of the people at large, by wholesale and pitiless destruc-
tion. It is assumed that the Catholic clergy in England
in pre-Reformation days not only did not instruct their
flocks as to the proper devotion and reverence which
alone it was lawful to pay to the representations of
Christ upon the cross or to statues of Our Lady and of
the angels and saints in heaven, but that false and super-
stitious practices were encouraged and tolerated if not
positively inculcated by the Catholic priesthood for
their own wicked ends. It is of interest consequently
for us to see how the question is treated in this popular
book of instructions. Dives starts the subject by de-
claring that he does not understand how the numerous

* It is only within the last few years that in a work of world-wide
reputation, such as the Monume7ita Germatiiae^ which no one would
have thought could be made the vehicle of mere vulgar Protestant
imputation, a writer so highly competent in his own sphere as
Herr Krusch, has quite gratuitously suggested that unlettered,
poor Catholics at the present day actually worship the wood and
the stone of images {Mon. Germ. Scr. Rer. Meroving^ iii, p. 208,
note 4).

1

HOW OUR FATHERS WERE TAUGHT 73

images " that are in the churches now " can be right, /

and he thinks they ought all to be burnt. Pauper replies
that they serve three great ends, namely: " they are
ordained to stir men's minds to meditate upon the )
Incarnation of Christ and upon His life and passion
and upon the lives of the saints " ; also to move the ^
heart to devotion and love, " for oft man is stirred more
by sight than by hearing or reading " : thirdly, images
" are intended to be a token and a book to the ignorant
people, that they may read in imagery and painting as
clerks read in books." Dives pushes his point and asks
how it can be possible to read any lesson from a painting.

Pauper: When thou seest the image of the crucifix think of
Him that died on the cross for thy sins and thy sake and thank
Him for His endless charity that He would suffer so much for
thee. See in the image how His head was crowned with a
garland of thorns till the blood burst out on every side, to
destroy the great sin of pride which is most manifested in the
heads of men and women. Behold, and make an end to thy
pride. See in the image how His arms were spread abroad and
drawn up on the tree till the veins and sinews cracked and how
His hands were nailed to the cross and streamed with blood,
to destroy the sin which Adam and Eve did with their hands
when they took the apple against God's prohibition. Also He
suffered, to wash away the sin of the wicked deeds and wicked
works done by the hands of men and women and make an end
of thy wicked works. See also how His side was opened and
His heart cloven in two by the sharp spear and how it shed
blood and water, to show that if He had had more blood in His
body, more He would have given for men's love. He shed His
blood to ransom our souls, and water to wash us from our sins.

But whilst the teacher endeavours to draw his hearer
to an understanding of the deep meaning that he can
if he will read into the representation of the crucifixion
before his eyes and thus make it a '* book " to himself ^
no less really than the written book of the learned, he
most carefully and in language which for clearness of
expression and simplicity of illustration cannot be 1

74 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

excelled, warns him not to mistake the nature of the
reverence paid to the image :

In this maner [he continues] I pray thee read thy book and
fall down to the ground and thank thy God who would do so
much for thee. Worship Him above all things — not the stock,
nor the stone nor the wood, but Him who died on the tree of
the cross for thy sins and thy sake. Thou shalt kneel, if thou
wilt, before the image but not to the image. Thou shalt do thy
worship before the image, before the thing, not to the thing;
offer thy prayer before the thing not to the thing, for it seeth
thee not, heareth thee not, understandeth thee not. Make thy
offering, if thou wilt, before the thing, but not to the thing; make
thy pilgrimage not to the thing nor for the thing, for it may not
help thee, but to Him and for Him that the thing represents.
For if thou do it for the thing or to the thing thou doest idolatry.

Nothing could be plainer than this teaching, as to the
meaning of reverence paid to images, and Pauper
enforces it by some examples. Just as when a priest in
church at Mass, he says, with a book before him bends
down, holds up his hands, kneels and performs other
external signs of reverence and worship, he does all this
to God and not to the book.

So should the unlettered man use his book; that is, imagery
and painting, not worshipping the thing, but God in heaven and
the saints in their degree. All the worship he doth before the
thing he doth it not to the thing but to Him the thing represents.

He further reminds Dives that the priest offers up Holy
Mass before the image of a crucifix specially chosen to
remind aU that " Mass-singing is a special mind-making
of Christ's passion." Before the image then :
the priest says his Mass and offers up the highest prayer that
Holy Church can devise for the salvation of the quick and the
dead. He holds up his hands; he bows down, he kneels and
all the worship he can do he does ; more than all, he offers up
the highest sacrifice and the best offering that any heart can
devise — that is Christ, the Son of the God of heaven, under the
form of bread and wine. All this worship the priest doth at Mass
before the thing — the crucifix; and I hope there is no man nor
woman so ignorant that he will say that the priest singeth his

HOW OUR FATHERS WERE TAUGHT 75

Mass or maketh his prayer or offers up the Son of God, Christ
Himself, to the thing. ... In the same way unlettered men
should worship before the thing, making prayer before the thing
and not to the thing.

One of the boasted reforms of the early English
Protestants was that they had put a stop to the adora-
tion which was paid to the cross, and in particular had
forbidden the retention in the service of Good Friday
of any semblance of the old practice of honouring it
by what was known as "creeping" to it; that is,
approaching it with bended knee. It was claimed that
by allowing this customary reverence, the Church had
given occasion for the growth of serious superstition
among the common people, amounting in reality to
practical idolatry. In view of this it is interesting to
see how Pauper deals with this question :

[On Good Friday] says Dives, especially, in Holy Church, men
creep to the cross and worship the cross. — That is so [replies
the teacher], but not in the way thou meanest. The cross that
we creep to and worship so highly at that time is Christ Himself,
who died on the cross on that day for our sin and our sake. . . .
He is that cross, as all doctors say, to whom we pray and say
" Ave crux spes unica — Hail thou cross, our only hope." — But
[rejoins Dives] on Palm Sunday, at the procession, the priest
draweth up the veil before the Rood and falleth down to the
ground with all the people, saying thrice thus : ''''Ave Rex noster
— Hail, be Thou our King " ! In this he worships the thing as
king ! — Pauper: Absit ! God forbid ! He speaks not to the image
that the carpenter hath made and the painter painted, unless
the priest be a fool, for the stock and stone was never king.
He speaketh to Him that died on the cross for us all — to Him
that is King of all things. . . . For this reason are crosses placed
by the wayside, to remind folk to think of Him who died on
the cross, and worship Him above all things. And for this same
reason is the cross borne before a procession, that all who
follow after it or meet it should worship Him who died upon a
cross as their King, their Head, their Lord, and their Leader
to heaven.

In this matter of worship there is one point on which

76 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

it is frequently asserted that the EngHsh pre-Reforma-
tion Church tolerated gross error. It is held by not a
few that in those days the distinction now so well
known to every Catholic between the supreme divine
honour paid io God and the relative honour shown to
His saints was not recognized, or at any rate not
distinctly taught to the people at large. No one who
has examined the books of religious instruction in use
during this period could possibly with honesty maintain
an opinion so opposed to the evidence they afford. In
particular is this distinction between the worship due
to God and that honour, however great, to be paid to
his creatures drawn most exactly in regard to the
devotions to our Lord's Blessed Mother. This, for
example, is how Pauper in his instructions treats the
matter. After most carefully explaining that there
are two modes of " service and worship," which differ
not merely in degree, but in very kind, and which were
then, as now, known under the terms Latria and Dulia,
he proceeds :

Latria is a protestation and acknowledgment of the high
majesty of God ; the recognition that He is sovereign goodness,
sovereign wisdom, sovereign might, sovereign truth, sovereign
greatness ; that He is the Creator and Saviour of all creatures,
and the end of all things ; that all we have we have of Him ;
and that without Him we have absolutely nothing, and that
without Him we can neither have nor do anything, neither we
nor any other creature. This acknowledgment and protestation
is made in three ways : by the heart, by word, and by deed. We
make it by the heart when we love Him as sovereign goodness ;
when we love Him as sovereign wisdom and truth that may not
deceive nor be deceived; when we hope in Him and trust Him
as sovereign might, that can best help us in need ; as sovereign
greatness and Lord, who may best yield us our deserts ; and as
sovereign Saviour, most merciful and most ready to forgive us
our misdeeds. . . . Also the acknowledgment is done in the
prayer and praise of our mouths. For we must pray to Him and
praise Him as sovereign might, sovereign wisdom, sovereign

HOW OUR FATHERS WERE TAUGHT 77

goodness, sovereign truth, as all-just and merciful, as the Maker
and Saviour of all things, etc. And in this manner we may not
pray to or praise any creature. Therefore they who make their
prayers and their praises before images and say their Pater noster
and their Ave Maria and other prayers and praises commonly
used by Holy Church, or any other such, if they do it to the
image and speak to the image they do open idolatry. Also
they are not excused even if they understand not what they
say, for their lights and their other wits, and their inner wit,
also showeth well that there ought that no such prayer, praise,
or worship should be offered to such images, for they can neither
hear them, nor see them, nor help them in their needs.

In his explanation of the second commandment
Pauper treats very fully of the various questions con-
nected with oaths and vows, and with much emphasis
points out the evil of rash oaths and perjury. He
declares that in his belief England has been punished
for this sin more than once in the transfer of the kingdom
from one ruling power to another, as for example when
" WilUam, Duke of Normandy, swept away nigh all the
chivalry of the land and changed the lordships and
the prelates of the land, nigh all into Frenchmen." He
laments, much in the same way that Bishop Brunton
did in his sermons preached about 1380, that this sin
was again so rife in the land : " Alas," he says, " in our
days we fall into perjury in the highest degree, not one
but nigh all, and what blood hath been shed since!
This land is enfeebled in every estate by the shedding
of blood." Under this same command comes an ex-
cellent instruction on the nature of servile work and
as to what works are lawful or unlawful to be done on
Sundays and holidays. For example, the tract says,
" Also messengers, pilgrims, and wayfarers who might
easily rest without great harm, are excused, provided
that they have done their duty and heard Matins and
Mass," Specially speaking about the mystery and
miracle plays which were often performed in Catholic
England on the feast days, the writer says :

y^ MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Spectacles, plays, and dances that are used on great feasts,
as done principally for devotion and honest mirth and to teach
men to love God the more, are lawful if the people be not there-
by hindered from God's service, nor from hearing God's word,
and provided that in such spectacles and plays there is mingled
no error against the faith of Holy Church and good living. All
other plays are prohibited both on holidays and workdays
(according to the law), upon which the gloss saith that the re-
presentation in plays at Christmas of Herod and the Three
Kings and other pieces of the Gospel, both then and at Easter
and other times, is lawful and commendable.

D. Then it seemeth by thy speech that on holidays men may
lawfully make mirth.

P. God forbid else, for, as I said, the holidays are ordained
for the rest and relief both of body and soul.

The explanation of the three commandments of the
first table of the law is furnished by a passage showing
how the whole decalogue is included in the two precepts
of the love of God and the love of our neighbour, and
the motives which should induce us to strengthen and
increase the former in our souls.

Thus [says the teacher] all the ten commandments are com-
prehended and included in the two commands of charity. The
first precept of charity is this : Thou shalt love the Lord God
with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, with all
thy might. When he saith thou shalt love thy God with all thy
heart, He excludeth all manner of idolatry that is forbidden by
the first commandment ; that is, that man set not his heart, nor
his faith, nor his trust in any creature more than in God, or
against God's worship. For whosoever loveth another well, in
him he hath full trust and faith, and after the manner he loveth
so he trusteth, and whom he trusteth most, commonly he loveth
most. Therefore it is that God ordered that thou shouldst love
Him with all thy heart ; that is to say, with all thy faith, in such
a way that thou set all thy faith and trust in Him before all
others, as in Him that is almighty and can best help thee in thy
need. And therefore the first commandment of these three is
applicable principally to the Father Almighty. . . . Also God
biddeth that thou love Him with all thy soul ; that is to say (as
St. Anselm declares), with all thy will, without contradiction,

HOW OUR FATHERS WERE TAUGHT 79

that thy will be not contrary to His will, but always conformable
to it. And in that He biddeth that thou take not His name in
vain, He bids, that as thou hast taken the name of Christ and
art called Christian, so thou shalt conform thy will, thy life, and
thy speech to the will of Christ, so that thou will nothing, nor
do nothing, nor say nothing against His will, wiUingly and wit-
tingly; nor cause others so to do, nor avow against His will and
worship. . . . And look that thou spend all thy being in His
worship and His love. Then lovest thou Him with all thy soul,
in which principally is thy life and thy being, and so if thou
spend not thy hfe and thy being in His love, thou lovest Him
not with all thy soul, and thou takest His name in vain who is
Qui Est; that is, "He That Is." For everything that is, taketh
its being of Him. And so if thou spend thy life in sin and in
vanities thou takest His name of being in vain.

Turning to the second table, Pauper, in his role of in-
structor, shows how the first commandment of this table
bears a close analogy to the first of the former table :

Mankind [he says] hath two beginnings : The first beginning
arid beginner is God; the second beginning and beginner is the
father and mother. By the first precept of the first table we are
taught to worship God above all things as Him that is the
beginning of us all and of all creatures. By the first command-
ment of the second table we are taught to worship father and
mother, who are our beginning after God.

In the course of his teachings upon the command-
ment Pauper lays down the principle that any one who
enters the religious life when his father and mother are
in any need of his help does what is wrong, and in-
cidentally he informs Dives that the duty of assisting
his parents extends to the life beyond the grave, and
that he is bound to help the souls of his father and
mother by prayers and almsdeeds.* Under this com-
mandment, too, Pauper speaks of our duty with regard

* Those acquainted with early English wills will readily see how
well this duty was discharged by our Catholic ancestors. There
are very few wills indeed which do not contain bequests to obtain
prayers and masses for the souls of the father and mother of the
testator.

8o MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

to the worship of God and the principle upon which the
obUgation is founded :

Also by this commandment we are bound to worship God,
who is the Father of all things, who is called the Father of
mercies and God of all comfort. He is our Father, for He made
us of nought; He bought us with His blood; He findeth us all
that we need and much more; He feedeth us. He is our
Father by grace, for by His grace He hath made us heirs of
heavenly bliss. Was there ever a father so tender of His child
as God is tender of us? He is to us both father and mother,
and therefore we are bound to love Him and to worship Him
above all things.

In connection with this commandment several
chapters of the volume treat of the honour and obedience
due from the Christian to what the author calls in good
old English phrase " our ghostly fathers," the Pope,
bishops and priests of the Church, the ministers of " our
mother the Church." The relations and duties, as in the
case of earthly parents, are reciprocal, and although
he vindicates the principle that those who preach the
Gospel should live by the Gospel, and that consequently
priests and curates have a natural right to support their
claim by ecclesiastical law to the payment of tithes,
Pauper writes down some very severe words indeed
against those prelates whose zeal in the cure of souls
is governed by ideas of their own profit and loss. In
this section the nineteenth chapter deals especially with
the authority of the Church to claim obedience from
Christians in matters of faith, and the author inculcates
the duty of submission to the decisions of the Pope, the
bishops, and priests.*

* It is perhaps worth remarking that in the edition printed by
Berthlet no mention whatever is made of the Pope ; though the
title-page professed that the book was issued from the press in
1534, it seemed somewhat too early to have found the Pope's name
removed from the original. A reference to the other editions of
Pynson and Wynkyn de Worde, however, shows that this was
really the case, as they, as also the manuscript copies of the tract,

HOW OUR FATHERS WERE TAUGHT 8i

The portion of Chapters xxiii and xxiv as to the
Christian's duty to honour the saints and angels, and in
particular our personal patrons, is very practical and
beautiful. The passage chiefly about devotion to the
guardian angels is as follows :

First, worship ye our Lady, mother and maid, above all next
after God, and then other saints, both men and women, and
then the holy angels as God giveth thee grace. Worship ye
them not as God, but as our tutors, defenders and keepers, as
our leaders and governors'under God, as the means between us
and God, who is the Father of all and sovereign Judge, to appease
Him and to pray for us and to obtain us grace to do well and
forgiveness of our misdeeds. For this reason David sayeth,
" Every spirit shall pray to the Lord in ' behoveful ' time for
mercy and forgiveness of sin." And, dear friend, pray ye heartily
to your angel, as to him that is nearest to you and hath most
care of you, and is, under God, most busy to save you. And if
ye will follow his governance and trust in him in all goodness
and with reverence and purity pray ye to him faithfully, make
your plaints to him, and speak to him homely to be your lielper,
since he is your tutor and keeper assigned to you by God. Say
ye oft that holy prayer, "Angele qui meus es," etc.

For the benefit of those readers who may not know
this simple but excellent prayer to the angel guardian
which English mothers taught their children in Catholic
days, which is found so frequently recommended in the
sermons of the fifteenth century, and which the con-
fessor in those ages was wont to suggest for the use of
his penitents, it may be here given as Englished from
the well-known tract Dextra Pars Ociili :
O angel who my guardian art,

Through God's paternal love;
Defend and shield and rule the charge
Assigned thee from above.

mention the Pope as the first authority in matters of faith. One
MS. (Royal MS. 17, c. xxi) shows the word Pope partially erased
from the page, and Berthlet's edition, though dated 1534 on the
title, was in reality published, as the colophon at the end states,
only two years later.

G

\

82 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

From vice's stain preserve my soul,

O gentle angel bright ;
In all my life be thou my stay,

To all my steps the light.

Some of the most vigorous and incisive of the instruc-
tions of Pauper are devoted to the subject of preaching
and to the obligation of priests to teach their people
and speak plainly to them. He has no patience with
those who are unwilling to blame when it is their duty
to do so.

That flattery of false prophets, of preachers and of other
speakers, who blind the people with pleasant leasings,* and will
not unfold to them their wickedness, is one principal cause of
the destruction of many realms, lands, people and cities unto
this day, as we may see before our eyes, if flattery and leasing
blind us not. . . . Some preachers in these days preach full
well against sin, but against the great sin that all the land is
intrecked in, and all Christendom knoweth, and which is the
evident cause of our misfortunes, against that no man preacheth,
but nigh all be about to maintain it. — D. What sin is that? —
P. Often have I told thee, but thou believest me not. Go over
the sea and there men will tell thee if thou ask.

On the necessity of preaching in general and of
vernacular instructions in particular, his language is as
strong and uncompromising as that which we have been
too long accustomed to associate with the name of
Wyclif. No more unwarranted assumption has ever
been made in the name of history than that which has
classed as Lollard productions, old English fifteenth-
century tracts and booklets which dealt openly with
abuses needing correction. In particular has this been
the case in regard to all treatises, pleading for more
simple and systematic vernacular teaching of religion.
Were it not as plain as the noonday sun that the author
of Dives and Pauper was a loyal and devout son of Holy
Church, and did not the tract contain the patent
affirmation of those truths of religion which the followers
^ I.e., falsehood.

HOW OUR FATHERS WERE TAUGHT 83

of Wyclif were chiefly concerned to deny, there can be
Httle doubt that because of his declaration as to the
value of preaching he would have been set down as a
Lollard writer. Here is what he says on the matter of
instruction :

Since God's word is life and salvation to man's soul, all those \
who hinder God's word and hinder them that have authority of
God and by orders taken to preach and teach, from preaching
and teaching God's word and God's law, are manslayers ghostly.
They are guilty of as many souls as perish by the hindering
God's word, and namely those proud, covetous priests and
curates that can neither teach nor will teach, nor suffer others
that both can and will and have authority to teach and preach of
God and the bishop who gave them their orders, but prevent
them for dread lest they should get less from their subjects, or
else the less be thought of, or else that their sins should be
known by the preaching of God's word. Therefore they prefer
to leave souls that Christ bought so dearly to perish than to
hear their own sins openly reproved generally among other men's
sins. As St. Anselm saith, God's word ought to be worshipped
as much as Christ's body, and he sins as much who hindereth
God's word and despiseth God's word or taketh it recklessly as
he that despiseth God's body, or through his negligence letteth
it fall to the ground. On this place the gloss showeth that it is
more profitable to hear God's word in preaching than to hear
a Mass,* and that a man should rather forbear his Mass than
his sermon. For by preaching folk are stirred to contrition, and
to forsake sin and the fiend and to love God and goodness, and
(by it) they be illumined to know their God and virtue from
vice, truth from falsehood, and to forsake errors and heresies.
By the Mass they are not so, but if they come to Mass in sin
they go away in sin, and shrews they come and shrews they
wend away. Also the virtue of the Mass standeth principally in
true beHef in the Mass, and specially in Christ, who is there in
the host. But that (belief) a man may learn by preaching of /
God's word and not by hearing of Mass, and in so far hearing /
of God's word truly preached is better than the hearing of Mass. ^ V

* It will be unnecessary, ot course, to remark that the author is ..^^

not here speaking of the Mass of Obhgation on Sundays and ^ ''
festivals, but of voluntary attendance at Masses of devotion.

84 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Nevertheless, the Mass profiteth them that are in grace to get
more grace and forgiveness of sin. . . . Both are good, but (the
preaching of) God's word ought to be more discharged and
more desired than the hearing of Mass.

In one place Pauper condemns loudly the rising
tendency, remarked upon so frequently by the writers
and in the chronicles of the period which followed the
French successes of Edward III, of foolish and im-
moderate dress.

I am sure [he says] that the foul, stinking pomp and pride
of array now used in this land in all three parts of the Church :
that is, in the feudaries, in the clergy, and in the commoners,
will not remain unavenged unless it be soon amended by true
repentance and the forsaking of this sin. For from the highest
unto the lowest, in every state and every degree, and nigh
even in every person, there is now seen the bodies of men and
women arrayed against all reason and the law of God.

In another connection the author pleads for the use
of the English word father in place of other and more
high-sounding titles for those of high degree whom we
are bound to honour.

In holy writ [he says] all men of worship are called senes
and seniores, that is seigniours in French. And in the French
tongue men of worship and lords are called seigniours and
phres^ that is fathers in English, for they are fathers in honour
and ought to be worshipped as fathers by the fourth command-
ment.

It is somewhat curious at a time when, as we have
been led to suppose, cruelty, especially to animals, was
little considered, to find our author speaking strongly
against the wanton and unnecessary killing of God's
creatures.

When God forbade man to eat flesh [he says], he forbade
him to slay beasts in any cruel way, or out of any liking for
shrewness. Therefore, He said, " Eat ye no flesh with blood "
(Gen. ix), that is to say, with cruelty; "for I shall seek the
blood of your souls, at the hands of all beasts." That is to say:
I shall take vengeance for all the beasts that are slain only out

HOW OUR FATHERS WERE TAUGHT 85

of cruelty of soul and a liking for shrewness. For God that made
all hath care of all, and He will take vengeance upon all
that misuse His creatures. Therefore, Solomon saith, "that He
will arm creatures in vengeance on their enemies " (Wisdom, v);
and so men should have thought for birds and beasts and not
harm them without cause, in taking regard that they are God's
creatures. Therefore, they that out of cruelty and vanity
behead beasts, and torment beasts or fowl, more than is
proper for man's living, they sin in case full grievously.

Of the slight incidental indications, given by Pauper,
of the state of society, I quote only the following, from 1
which some deduction must doubtless be made to allow )
for any overshading of the picture of evils from which (
the world suffers so common in the earnest moralist. \

It seemeth to me [he says] that the prophecy of St. Boniface , /
(as to evils that would befal England if the people did not ^1 / -
keep continent) is now fulfilled. For what adultery hath reigned Ijj^c^*
in this land these many years is no secret, and, namely, among (^
these lords who have now brought the country to such bitter ]
bales. Some of them be slain, some of them yet live in much /
woe. God's law is forgotten, and it is forbidden that men L
should know it and hear it in their mother tongue. The people 1
is unworthy and despised by all Christendom for their falsehood /
and their false believing. . . . They are harlots in living,
unstable in faith, unstable in battle, overcome by nearly all,
hated by God and man, without grace and success nigh in all
their doings.

Among the many touching exhortations given by
Pauper in this tract, is one detailing the advantage of
keeping the Passion of Christ ever before the mind as a
stay to evil inclinations and a remedy against sin. He
prefaces his instruction by a story. A certain king's son
had lost his affections to a poor woman below him in
station, whom, in spite of the efforts of his relations, he
wedded. For her sake he had to endure many and great
persecutions from relatives, and finally was sent to the
wars, where he fought with great distinction. Placed
in the forefront of the battle on one occasion, by com-

86 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

mand of those whose susceptibilities he had injured by
his marriage, in the hour of victory he fell fighting,
covered with wounds. Before he died he sent to his wife
his sliirt marked with his blood, and pierced in a hun-
dred places with the weapons that had wounded him
to death. With this he sent her the following lines :

Behold my wounds and have them in thy thought,

For all the goods that are thine I with my blood have bought.

The wife received the token and forthwith hung the
shirt in her chamber, and whenever she was tempted to
forget the high estate to which she had been raised, she
would retire thither, and looking on the garment, would
say to herself :

When I have his blood in mind,
That was to me so good and kind,
Shall I never husband take,
But him that died for my sake.

In the same way, says our author, should the thought
of Christ's suffering and death be our stay and our
strength.

For why? All the joy and bliss that we shall have in heaven,
and all the grace and goodness that we have here on earth, we
have it all by virtue of Christ's Passion. For had He not died
for our sakes we should have for ever lain in the pains of hell.
By this shirt so full of wounds and so covered with blood I
understand His blissful body. For as man's body is clad in his
shirt, so the Godhead was clothed in the bHssful body of Christ.
This body was all bloody and full of wounds, so that as the
prophet saith : '' From the sole of the foot to the top of the head
there was no whole place in His body." Therefore, dear friend,
I pray thee hang this shirt in the privy place of thy chamber,
that is to say: set ye Christ's Passion entirely in your heart,
and when the fiend or the world or the flesh or any wicked
man or woman begins to tempt you to sin, anon wend thy way
to thy heart and look ye on this shirt. Think how that blissful
body was born of the maid Mary, without sin and sorrow and
never did amiss. Think how it was rent and mangled and spat
upon for our sins and our sake and not for His own guilt.

HOW OUR FATHERS WERE TAUGHT 87

And if ye do so, and think entirely upon Christ's Passion, ye
shill easily overcome every temptation and have better patience
in every tribulation.

la the practical instructions here given upon the
seventh commandment, " the theft and robbery of man's
name and woman's, and that is called backbiting and
defaming," is condemned in vigorous language. Pauper
warns his " dear friend " to refuse to listen to the tongue
of the detractor.

And, therefore, the wise man saith, put away from thee the
wicked mouth, and put far from thy lips backbiting. Hedge
thine ears with thorns. Hear not the wicked tongue and make
doors to thy mouth and locks to thine ears. Think that he will
speak of thee as evil behind thy back as he doth of another
behind him. Think what woe and mischief cometh of back-
biting and wicked tongues, and show him no good cheer.
But show him by thy countenance and cheer that his speech
pleaseth thee not, and anon he shall cease and be ashamed of
his malice. For the wise man saith: Right as the northern
wind destroyeth and scattereth the rain and the clouds, so the
heavy face of the hearer destroyeth the backbiting tongue.

Under the same heading of theft, Pauper utterly
condemns the conduct of those ecclesiastics who in
place of preaching the Gospel and proclaiming God's
law, treat their audiences to pretty stories and pretended
miracles. I cannot omit to give the passage, as it helps
to dispose of the notion that the one idea of the author-
ities in pre-Reformation days was to cover up abuses,
and that one of the chief reasons why the bishops and
priests were so vigorous in putting down the Lollard
followers of Wyclif was that they were bold enough to
publish and denounce their misdeeds.

Also [Pauper writes], there is theft of words, of which theft
God speaketh by the prophet, where God calls false prophets
and false preachers those who stole away His words from the
people, and told not the truth as God bade them, but only said
such things that should please the people, and so deceive the
people with falsehoods and with false miracles, as men do

88 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

nowadays, feigning miracles of images to maintain idolatry for
lucre of offerings, and false miracles of wicked livers, and say
that God doth miracles for them and blindeth the people in
falsity, and so they give the worship of miracle-doing to in)ages
that man hath made and to wicked livers, God's enemies, vhich
miracles only God may do. They so rob God of His wcrship,
and in that they withdraw God's word and the truth of God's
law, that belongeth to men of Holy Church to teach, and the
people to hear and to know, and so they deceive the people in
that they be thieves of God's word, and so shall be punished
full hard of God for such theft of God's word.

It is hardly necessary to say that the sympathy of
Pauper is with the poor. The very name might be
sufficient to indicate this; and the truth is — and it is
abundantly clear from every record of the early fifteenth
century which touches the matter at aU — that the
Church as a pia mater opened her large heart to the
poorest members of Christ's flesh in the many troubles
and difficulties which beset their path in life at this
period. The sufferings and struggles of the people, as
distinguished from the classes, enlisted the good offices
and engaged the sympathy of many a vigorous preacher
and writer among the ecclesiastics of the age. There is
no greater mistake as to the true facts of our history
than to suppose, as so many do, that the secret of the
success of LoUardry lay in the fact that it was popular,
and espoused the popular cause and defended the people
from the overbearing tyranny of the nobility. Almost
the very contrary was the truth. The Church was, in
the truest sense, the Church of the poor, and the followers
of Wyclif prospered — in so far as they had any prosperity
at all — by the countenance and patronage of John of
Gaunt and his party among the nobility. The general
attitude of Churchmen at this period to the pressing
social question may be well illustrated by a passage or
two from these instructions.

By the law of kind [says Dives] and by God's law all things
are common. Therefore, saith the law, right to the air, nor the

HOW OUR FATHERS WERE TAUGHT 89

light of the sun may not be departed by lordships, nor appro-
priated more to one person than to another; nor to one college
more than to another. No more should other things that are
given commonly to the help of mankind be departed by lord-
ships, nor appropriated more to one than another; but all
things should be in common; and therefore we read that in
the beginning of Holy Church all things were common to the
multitude of Christ's people. And against this law of kind
there is no dispensation. Why, therefore, bade God that men
should not steal, since all things are common to good mfen?

Pauper. But as the law saith, division and property of lordship '^r
is made amongst mankind by wickedness of false covetousness )
of both rich and poor. For the rich draw to themselves what /
belongeth to others. For why? All that the rich man hath^
passing his honest living after the degree of his dispensation, /
it is other men's and not his. And he shall give full hard '-
reckoning thereof at the day of doom, when God shall say to
him: "Yield account of your baily wick." For rich men andu^
lords in this world are God's bailiffs and God's reeves, to ordain /
for the poor folk and to sustain them. . . . Also poor folk be )
not paid with sufficient living, but covet more than they need, '7
and for covetousness, more than for need, take things against S
the lord's will in hindering of him and of other that be more i^
needy, and therefore God forbade all manner of theft that men ^
should take nothing for any miscovetousness against the lord's )
will.

Pauper then proceeds to explain at length that though
all men are equal in birth there are lordships of kind, of
this worldly make, and of governance, which are rightly
ordained of God's providence. Still no property gives
any one the right to say this is mine and that is thine ;
for property, so far as it is of God, is of the nature of
" dispensation and governance," that is the power of
dispensing God's good gifts to men.*

* Many [of these who dispense God's gifts, he continues] are
full false, and yet, since the dispensation of God's worldly goods
is so committed to them, in that far they have lordship of their
own proper dispensation ordained by God. They are called
properly lords of their proper dispensation not for their false
covetousness. For in that they are no lords but tyrants and

90 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Further our instructor in a " long process " shows that
though according " to degree " more or less will be
necessary for the proper support of estate, and more or
less will be lawful, still, after due allowance is made
for that, then what is over is for the rich man's poorer
brethren at his dispensation. He then specially speaks
of the duties of the clergy to the poor. He says :

Saint Jerome saith that all that clerks have of Holy Church
goods, it is the poor men's, and for help of the poor folk princi-
pally Holy Church is endowed. To them that have the bene-
fices and the goods of Holy Church it belongeth prirtcipally to
give alms and to have the cure of poor people. Therefore
St. Bernard saith: "The naked cry and the hungry plain them
and say to bishops, what doth gold in your bridles? it may not
put away cold and hunger from the bridle. It is ours that you
so spend in pomp and vanity. Ye take it from us cruelly and
spend it vainly," and in another Epistle he wrote to a Canon
thus: "If thou serve well God's altar, it is granted to live by
the altar, not to buy thee bridles silver or over-gilt. For what
thou keepest for thyself of the altar, passing thy honest needful
living, it is raveny, it is theft, it is sacrilege. Therefore these
men of Holy Church that buckle their shoes of silver and use
great silver harness in their girdles and knives; and men of
religion, monks, and canons and such like that use great ouches
of silver and gold on their capes to fasten their hoods against the
wind, and ride on high horses with saddles harnessed with gold
and silver more pompously than lords, are strong thieves and
do great sacrilege, so spending the goods of Holy Church in
vanity and pride, in lust of the flesh, by which things the poor
should live."

To this plain speaking he adds that the tithes were
appointed as much to help the poor as the priest. They
are to be regarded as an act of worship on the part of

ravenous, and so though they have proper lordship to dispense
worldly goods more than the poor people, yet they have no more
lordship by way of kind than the poor man, nor no other lordship
than the poor man, but only that of dispensation, and so though
the rich folk have more lordship of proper dispensation than the
poor still, the lordship of nature in needful things standeth still
common to rich and poor.

HOW OUR FATHERS WERE TAUGHT 91

those who pay them; the acknowledgement that all
comes from the hand of God ; they are not God's profit,
but His profit also pays them.

The foregoing extracts afford some insight into this
once popular book of English religious instructions.
They may fairly be left to tell their own tale.

The language is bold and outspoken to a degree which
may perhaps astonish some who are unacquainted with
the straight speaking of our Catholic teachers in pre-
Reformation days. The honest determination to expose
evils and to seek to remedy them is most characteristic
of Catholic life in the Middle Ages and most commonly
proceeds from the mouths of those most uncompromis-
ingly Catholic in feeling. Before closing this already
lengthy paper I should like to make two remarks.
First: it will be observed that the instructor in thisf
case is not the rich and therefore presumably the better )
educated man, but the poor man. This is not by
accident. Few people who have penetrated below the
surface can have failed to perceive how in thoroughly
and traditionally Catholic districts the religious poor,
though they may not have received much school educa- ,
tion, have a grasp and an understanding of the truths ;
and teachings of their religion which puts persons in a
better position in life to shame. Secondly: since the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries we have undoubt- )
edly progressed and a vast amount of new spiritual I
books have been accumulated; but I take leave to
doubt whether, for weight, for power, for direct appro-
priateness at the same time to the high and the low,
to the rich and the poor, to the gentle and the simple,
to the learned and unlearned, we might not do worse
than go back to some of the old.

BOOKS AND BOOKMAKING IN EARLY
CHRONICLES AND ACCOUNTS*

TURNING over the pages of our annals the reader
constantly comes upon some record of books made
for, or given to the library of the monastery or house
in which the writer lived, or in which he was specially
interested. Sometimes also in manuscript volumes,
though not as frequently as we could wish, we find some
details of the actual making of a manuscript, of the cost,
for instance, of the materials, of the payments made for
the writing, for the illumination, and for the binding.
Less frequently again we come upon chance indications
and directions made by one scribe to help a second, or
to direct the illuminator and rubricator, who was to
follow him in working upon the MS., as to his part in
the work.

The churchwardens' books and other similar accounts
help us in a measure to estimate the cost of bookmaking
and bookbinding and to understand how, and under
what conditions, the scribe and the binder did their
work in the place — parish or house — that employed
them. They show us the itinerant bookbinder plying his
trade, accompanied not infrequently by his wife to do
the stitching of the quires for him. The couple wandered
from place to place where their services might be desired,
and made their bargains for new work and for old ; for
complete binding or old patching, settling down for a
time in the parish or village which needed their help.

* A paper read before the Bibliographical Society, 19 Nov. 1906.

92

BOOKS AND BOOKMAKING 93

Lastly, old wills and inventories enable us to form some
idea of the kind of books possessed by private indi-
viduals in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.

All this, of course, presents a vast field for any patient
enquirer; but for the purpose of a brief paper such as
this it is somewhat difficult to know where to begin.
As, however, I make no pretence of having made any
exhaustive collection of facts from the sources I have
indicated, I will ask you to let me merely illustrate the
kind of information we get in them from entries taken
almost at haphazard from the pages of my note books.

From the earliest times, as all know, when (if we are J
to believe what so many of our would-be instructors tell ,
us) people cared little or nothing about the Bible, and
knew still less about it, the greatest pains were most
certainly taken in the preparation and embellishment of
the Sacred text. Of this, at least, there can be no doubt.
Gospel books used in the services and known as Textus,
were often, if not generally, bound in covers of gold
and other precious metals, and enriched very frequently
with jewels, ivories, or cameos. The Sacred Books were
carried in procession by the deacons before chanting the
Gospels that all the clergy and people might bow to
them in reverence of the Holy Scripture, and the
jewelled volumes were placed upon the altars during the
divine service as the most precious of ornaments. The
Monk Elmham, for instance, writes in his history that
in the sacristy of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, such a
Textus and a Psalter were preserved to be placed on the
altar on great feasts. ** Since," as the same chronicler
tells us, " on the outside there was wrought in full relief
the image of Christ blessing, and the four evangelists "
in silver. And this, as we are told, was merely one of
these precious Scripture books belonging to St. Augus-
tine's. In the same way, in 1077, Abbot Paul, of St.
Albans, had made for his monastery " two texts
ornamented with gold, silver, and precious gems." We

94 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

learn from the St. Albans annalist that this same abbot
obtained from a Norman knight two parts of his tithe
of the vil of Hatfield towards the expenses of making
these books. The abbot watched over the work himself,
and directed that certain rations of food should be given
daily to the scribes, in order that they might not be
required to leave their work. " In this way," says the
historian, " the abbot caused many splendid volumes
to be written for the church by chosen scribes brought
from a distance," and " he had many choice volumes
written in the Scriptorium, which he had built, Lanfranc
supplying him with the texts to copy."

At the beginning of the thirteenth century Walter of
Colchester, a celebrated worker in metals, became a
monk of St. Albans, drawn thither by another great
artist, Br. Ralph Guby. He is said to have bound a
Textus in a cover of gold, upon which was chiselled and
wrought, with great skill, a figure of Christ in majesty,
with the four Evangelists. But it is unnecessary to
illustrate this matter further. References to these
precious bindings are to be found scattered all over the
pages of the Monastic Chronicles, and any proper
account of the ornamentation of such books would itself
be sufficient to furnish a paper, although possibly the
subject is one more properly relating to art than to
bibhography.

The wonderful series of monastic registers of St.
Albans printed in the Rolls Series, even from mere
incidental references, affords us some idea of how the
library of a great abbey grew through the care of
successive abbots. The Abbot Paul, to whom I have
already referred, ruled the house from 1077 to 1093. In
that time he had enriched the collection of books by
twenty-eight manuscripts, most of them apparently
being church books and monastic consuetudinaries. We
can vmderstand why this should have been so if we
remember that Paul was the first Norman abbot, and

BOOKS AND BOOKMAKING 95

no doubt he desired to reconstruct the old Saxon
monastic Ufe on the lines which he knew abroad. For
this purpose he introduced Lanfranc's Consuetudinary,
or book of customs, and during the years of his rule
he made St. Albans, as the chronicle records, " almost
a school of religious observance," to which men were
sent to learn the newest mode of monastic discipline.
Abbot Paul's successor. Abbot Richard, governed the
abbey till 11 19. He gave, and had written to give to
the abbey many books, but one especially is noted in
the Gesta Ahhatum. This is a missal or mass book to be
used in the daily Conventual Mass. At the beginning
of this volume the abbot was himself depicted kneeling
at the feet of Our Lord, and on the same page in letters
of gold was inscribed his name as that of the donor. It
was in this abbot's time that the well-known fire in the
school during the progress of a miracle play happened.
In this conflagration there perished several copes that S
had been lent from the great sacristy of the abbey, as /
well as many precious books. It is said to have been in v
reparation for this loss that Geoffrey the schoolmaster /
offered himself as a monk to serve the monastery. In /
process of time the schoolmaster rose to be abbot, and "^^
v/hilst holding office was able to give a missal enriched
with gold and many other church books to his house.

Abbot Robert, who became superior of St. Albans
in 1 15 1, during the fifteen years he ruled the destinies
of the abbey, is said to have " had written so many
books " that the annalist unfortunately thought " it
would occupy too much space to set down their names."
Symon, surnamed " the Englishman," was the nine-
teenth abbot, ruling the monastery from 1167 to 1183.
He was a literary man himself, and he did all he could
to attract well-educated men to the abbey. He made a
collection of the best books, and caused authentic texts
of the Old and New Testament and glossed versions to
be copied in the Scriptorium without a fault. Here

98 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

and Constitutions of the Provincial Chapters of the
Order, wrote a commentary on the Prologue of the
Rule of St. Benedict, and compiled a register of the
various privileges granted to his house.

Michael de Mentmore, his successor, to whom I have
referred, procured two good Bibles for the community,
as w^ell as many other volumes. Two of these latter are
specially named — " an Ordinale or Portiforium, an
object of beauty and sumptuous in its workmanship,"
and a most wonderful (perpulchrum) Psalter for use in
the choir and cloister, which volume, adds the annalist
rightly, " was a delight to all who saw it." The next
two abbots, whose rule synchronized with the second
half of the fourteenth century, built the library and
what is called the " Study," and caused to be made in
the Scriptorium, or purchased, a very large number of
books to be added to the monastic collection.

Abbot Whethamstede, who in the fifteenth century
twice ruled St. Albans, gave three books to Humphrey,
Duke of Gloucester, which were then valued at £io,
and a Book on Astronomy to the Duke of Bedford,
worth £$ 6s. Sd. He also paid a monk of Bury St.
Edmunds, the poet Lydgate, £3 6s. Sd. for a translation
of the Life of St. Alban into English. This last, although
finished, was still only in quires, unbound, upon Whet-
hamstede's resignation in 1440. He was re-elected in
1451 and, finding that Lydgate's work was still in the
same state, unbound, he spent more than £3 on the
covers and binding, and placed it at the shrine of the
Saint in the church. Abbot Whethamstede was himself
the author of a large and almost encyclopaedic work
called the Granarium in four volumes. A copy of this
was amongst the books mentioned as given by Duke
Humphrey to Oxford, and another is named as having
been copied for St. Albans at the cost of 20 marks,
whilst three volumes out of the four are to be found
among the British Museum MS. collections. In this

BOOKS AND BOOKMAKING 99

regard the account of payments made during Abbot
Whethamstede's rule, for the making and compilation
of books, and given by Amundesham (vol. ii, p. 260), is
of considerable interest. From this account may be well
understood the great cost of producing manuscripts at
that day — the middle of the fifteenth century — even in
a monastic Scriptorium. For the four great Gradual
books in the choir the abbot paid £20 (probably more
than £300 or £400 of our money) ; a glossed copy of
Boethius de Consolatione cost £5 (hardly less perhaps than
£80). The twenty-three works set out in the first part
of the account cost £82 3s. 4^. in or about 1440 : that is,
according to the present value of money, probably
between £1,300 and £1,500.

I have taken these items from the Chronicles of St.
Albans to illustrate the growth of the hbrary under the
care of the successive abbots, because the series of these
annals is so complete and inviting. The history of any
other house, however, would serve the purpose almost
equally well. The register of Henry de Estria, Prior of
Canterbury, and the Canterbury Book of Obits, for
example, contain many interesting records of gifts of
volumes to the Christ Church library. Estria himself,
for instance, is said to have gathered together at great
cost during the forty-seven years of his priorship, " many
more books on all kinds of subjects than any of his
predecessors." Thomas Chillenden, who was Prior from
1390 to 141 1, also was a great and noteworthy book
collector, and secured for his house " very many precious
volumes of different sorts," and so on. Naturally the
library in this cathedral monastery was enriched by
gifts from the archbishops. Thus, according to the Obit
Book, Archbishop Arundell left the monks " a fine
volume containing all the works of St. Gregory,"
forbidding under pain of excommunication that it
should ever be taken away from Christ Church. The
monks, however, had some difficulty in getting possession

98 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

and Constitutions of the Provincial Chapters of the
Order, wrote a commentary on the Prologue of the
Rule of St. Benedict, and compiled a register of the
various privileges granted to his house.

Michael de Mentmore, his successor, to whom I have
referred, procured two good Bibles for the community,
as well as many other volumes. Two of these latter are
specially named — " an Ordinale or Portiforium, an
object of beauty and sumptuous in its workmanship,"
and a most wonderful {perpulchnim) Psalter for use in
the choir and cloister, which volume, adds the annalist
rightly, " was a delight to all who saw it." The next
two abbots, whose rule synchronized with the second
half of the fourteenth century, built the library and
what is called the " Study," and caused to be made in
the Scriptorium, or purchased, a very large number of
books to be added to the monastic collection.

Abbot Whethamstede, who in the fifteenth century
twice ruled St. Albans, gave three books to Humphrey,
Duke of Gloucester, which were then valued at £io,
and a Book on Astronomy to the Duke of Bedford,
worth £3 6s. 8d. He also paid a monk of Bury St.
Edmunds, the poet Lydgate, £3 6s. Sd. for a translation
of the Life of St. Alban into English. This last, although
finished, was still only in quires, unbound, upon Whet-
hamstede's resignation in 1440. He was re-elected in
145 1 and, finding that Lydgate's work was still in the
same state, unbound, he spent more than £3 on the
covers and binding, and placed it at the shrine of the
Saint in the church. Abbot Whethamstede was himself
the author of a large and almost encyclopaedic work
called the Granarium in four volumes. A copy of this
was amongst the books mentioned as given by Duke
Humphrey to Oxford, and another is named as having
been copied for St. Albans at the cost of 20 marks,
whilst three volumes out of the four are to be found
among the British Museum MS. collections. In this

BOOKS AND BOOKMAKING 99

regard the account of payments made during Abbot
Whethamstede's rule, for the making and compilation
of books, and given by Amundesham (vol. ii, p. 260), is
of considerable interest. From this account may be well
understood the great cost of producing manuscripts at
that day — the middle of the fifteenth century — even in
a monastic Scriptorium. For the four great Gradual
books in the choir the abbot paid £20 (probably more
than £300 or £400 of our money) ; a glossed copy of
Boethiiis de Consolatione cost £5 (hardly less perhaps than
£80). The twenty-three works set out in the first part
of the account cost £82 3s. ^d. in or about 1440 : that is,
according to the present value of money, probably
between £1,300 and £1,500.

I have taken these items from the Chronicles of St.
Albans to illustrate the growth of the library under the
care of the successive abbots, because the series of these
annals is so complete and inviting. The history of any
other house, however, would serve the purpose almost
equally well. The register of Henry de Estria, Prior of
Canterbury, and the Canterbury Book of Obits, for
example, contain many interesting records of gifts of
volumes to the Christ Church library. Estria himself,
for instance, is said to have gathered together at great
cost during the forty-seven years of his priorship, " many
more books on all kinds of subjects than any of his
predecessors." Thomas Chillenden, who was Prior from
1390 to 141 1, also was a great and noteworthy book
collector, and secured for his house " very many precious
volumes of different sorts," and so on. Naturally the
library in this cathedral monastery was enriched by
gifts from the archbishops. Thus, according to the Obit
Book, Archbishop Arundell left the monks " a fine
volume containing all the works of St. Gregory,"
forbidding under pain of excommunication that it
should ever be taken away from Christ Church. The
monks, however, had some difficulty in getting possession

s

100 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

of the volume after the Archbishop's death, and it was
not indeed until some years after that they succeeded,
and then only when Prior John petitioned the Duke of
Gloucester on the matter. It seems that Sir Gilbert
Umfraville, Arundell's executor, had given the book
to King Henry IV to look at, and he was not able
during his life to get it back from the monarch. On
Henry's death it was found that by his will he had
desired that the book should be given to the Carthusians
of Shene, and this had been done. The Prior's petition,
which was granted, was that the Prior of Shene should
be ordered to hand the book to William Molash, monk
and almoner of Christ Church, and as the volume clearly
belonged to Canterbury, this was ultimately done.

Kings sometimes, as borrowers of books, were difficult
to deal with. Besides the instance just named there is a
note in 1424 that the Countess of Westmorland peti-
tioned the Duke of Gloucester, the Protector, that she
might have given up to her a book containing the
" Chronicle of Jerusalem and the voyage de Godfrey
Boylion," which the late King Henry V had borrowed,
and which, at the time, Robert Rolleston, clerk, keeper
of the wardrobe to the King, held in his keeping as part
of his late master's possessions.

I may here recall a gift of Archbishop Courtenay to
Christ Church, Canterbury. He left six books, said to
be very valuable : a work of St. Augustine, a dictionary
in three volumes, and the Commentary of De Lira in
two. His brother, Richard Courtenay, had the use of
them, but gave a bond for £300 that his executors should
hand the gift over to the monks on his death.

A somewhat curious letter about some books appears
in a collection of documents concerning the Premon-
stratensian Canons, which I have lately been engaged
upon for the Royal Historical Society. I say " curious,"
because we do not often find a purchaser writing to say
that he has paid too little for a bargain, and desiring to

BOOKS AND BC)6KMAK)NG' ; .; iityi

make restitution. It appears that a certain Thomas
Hill, the Rector of Chesterford, some time before 8th
September 1458, obtained possession of a portable Bible
and a dictionary by purchase. They had been left by a
certain clerk named Daniel to the Abbey of Welbeck,
and had got into the hands of a priest called Richard
Scot, who had been chaplain to Roger Walden, Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, during his brief term of ofhce
(1398-9). In 1420, the priest, Thomas Hill, arranged
the sale of the two volumes with the Welbeck authorities,
but, as he says, " I was young then and looked too much
to worldly wealth, and so obtained the books at less
than a just price." He consequently charged his
executors to give back the books to the abbey on pay-
ment of the sum he had paid, namely, 30s. ; or, if the
Canons of Welbeck did not want to wait till his death,
he offered to pay down another 205. at once, for the
satisfaction of his scruples of conscience. As a third
alternative the Rector of Chesterford suggested that
should the Canons of Welbeck not wish to purchase the
books for the 30s. he had given for them, on his death
his executors would sell them in open market, and any
sum they might fetch over and above the original
price, they should pay over to the abbey as conscience
money.

Abbot Benedict, of Peterborough, who was chosen in
1 177, had been Prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, and
was a man of great literary attainments. He is said to
have been a musician and composed anthems, both
words and music. He wrote a *' Volumen egregium "
on the death and miracles of St. Thomas, and a hst
is extant of fifty-three volumes which he added to the
collection at his abbey of Peterborough. Amongst these
were twenty-one volumes of the Bible, glossed and not
glossed ; two volumes of Peter Lombard ; two of the
decreta of Gratian, and many other works on canon
law ; an Arithmetic, a Seneca, a Martial, and a Terence.

J.02: MONASTIC LIFE. IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Frequently, of course, from the kind of books given
to or procured for any religious house we can guess at
the special tastes of the donor. Thus Abbot Marleberge,
of Evesham, before becoming a monk, had taught canon
law and civil law at Oxford. He brought his law books
to Evesham with him, and he also presented the library
with a Cicero, a Lucan, and a Juvenal. During his term
of office also he caused many books to be written, and
found the necessary materials for others which the
monks wrote. So, too, Prior William de Rokeland of
Bury brought many law books to his abbey ; and one
monk, Stephen, who was a doctor of medicine, gave
" three large and very beautiful books on medical
science " to guide " in the treatment of the sick."

Much information regarding the cost of books and
of the materials for making them can be obtained from
accounts and such like documents. Mr. Ansty, in the
Munimenta Academica (I, xiii), gives the bill for writing
the book of the Southern Proctor at Oxford in 1477.
The actual writing cost £3 17s. /\d., the illumination
£1 5s. M., the binding js. 2d., and the two clasps 12s. ;
a fee of 3s. /\d. was also paid for the loan of the copy,
and £1 3s. 4^. to the Proctor for overseeing the work,
that is, I suppose, collating it. The whole bill of
£7 8s. lod., when translated into the money value of our
day, appears very large, but for rare books almost any
price was paid. The Countess of Anjou, for a copy of
the Homilies of Haimon, Bishop of Halberstadt, gave
two hundred sheep, five quarters of wheat, and the same
quantity of rye. Even as late as 1433, £66 13s. 4^. was
paid for transcribing the Works of Nicholas de Lira, in
two volumes, destined to be chained in the library of
the Grey Friars at Oxford. An idea of the value of this
cost may be gathered from the fact that the usual price
of wheat at the time was 5s. /\d. per quarter, and that a
ploughman received one penny a day for his wages.

In the inventory of the royal library of Charles VI

M^^^ BOOKS AND BOOKMAKING 103

of France, made by order of the Duke of Bedford in l^
1423, the books are all priced. It is remarkable that,
compared with the prices set on the books of the Due
de Berri in 1416, all are priced very low. Whilst the
dearest book in the royal library was 16 livres and the
cheapest 5 sous, the dearest in the Berri collection was
put at 500 livres. It is not unlikely that the Duke of
Bedford, desiring to purchase the entire collection — / j
which he afterwards did for 1,200 livres — had them /
valued as low as possible ; even then they were put at /
2,323 livres, above 1,000 livres more than the Duke
gave. It would be of great interest to discover what
became of the books of this wonderful library. It is
surmised that they generally came over to England,
although, as M. Delisle has pointed out, some came back.
In the library of St. Genevieve there is a Livy with an
inscription on a fly-leaf saying that it was sent to
England as a present to the Duke of Gloucester by his
brother-in-law, the Duke of Bedford. A note also at
the beginning of a copy of Durandus' Rationale which
belonged to this famous collection, says that it was
purchased in London in 1441.

An indenture, dated 26th August 1346, and printed
in the Fabric Rolls of York by the Surtees Society
(vol. XXXV, p. 165), is useful as giving an excellent
account of the prices paid for work on MSS. in the
fourteenth century. In this instance Robert Brekeling,
the scribe, undertook to write a Psalter with a Calendar
for 5s. 6d., and, in the same style of writing, the Office
for the Dead with a collection of hymns and collects, for
an additional 4s. yi. He also promised in this contract
to illuminate the first letters of the psalms in gold and
colours, and the rest of the first letters in gold and red,
except the titles of double feasts, which were to be in
workmanship like the initial letters of the Psalter. Also
all the first letters of the verses (of the Psalms) were
to be in good blue and red, and all letters at the begin-

104 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

nings of the Nocturnes, or divisions of the office of
Matins, were to be five hnes of the MS. in size, and to be
well painted; the initials of the Beatus Vir and the
Dixit Dominus especially were to be larger still, six or
seven lines in size. For all this illumination Robert
Brekeling was to receive only 5s. 6d. over and above
18^., which was allowed him for the gold, and 2S. for the
colours.

Other examples to illustrate the prices of MS. work
are to be found in the same Fabric Rolls. In 1498 the
great " Antiphoner " for the lectern in the choir at
York Cathedral was written, illuminated, and bound for
the sum of £4 gs. 6|^. A century before, in 1393, the
writing of two Graduals for the choir cost £4 6s. 8d,
Richard de Styrton charged 40s. for illuminating them ;
22s. y^d. was paid for the parchment, and 4^. for some
linen covers or bags to keep the unbound quires in and
prevent their getting soiled. The next year, 1394,
£4 13s. ^d. was paid to the same scribe, friar WiUiam
Ellerker, for the parchment and writing of four books
for choir use. In 1395 Robert, the bookbinder, was paid
los. for binding one of the great Graduals for the choir
of York: four skins of parchment as guards in the
insides of the binding cost 20^., and the skin of a deer
for the outside 3s. 2d. Again in 1399 " Robert Buke-
bynder " had to bind another book called the " Great
Gradual." The guard leaves in this case were the skins
of four young calves, and the skin of a specially large
deer had to be procured for the binding at the cost of
4s. Friar W. Ellerker, according to previous agreement,
was paid 13s. 4^. for writing the Gradual, and Mr. R. de
Styrton 20s. for illuminating it.

In 1526 there is an interesting entry in these same
Rolls about music books : Leonard Mason, the Cantor,
was paid los. by the Dean's order for two books of
four-part music with " Kyrreallay " and masses. Another
musician, John Gibbons, was given 3s. 4d. for " les

BOOKS AND BOOKMAKING 105

prikking " — i.e., writing in the music of the hymns and
Te Deum in several choir books.

The illuminator and the corrector followed the scribe
in the preparation of all books which demanded care or
which were to receive the embellishment of painted
initial letters, or of those larger miniature paintings,
which are best evidence of the love of books in those
who paid for them, and of the art of those who executed
the work. Curiously enough, whilst it is not uncommon
to find the name of the ordinary scribe at the end of a
MS., it is very and strangely rare to find any record of
the artist who embellished it. M. Delisle explains this
by the suggestion that the illuminators, generally
laymen, were forbidden to add anything whatsoever to
a MS., whilst the ordinary scribe, frequently a cleric,
had greater freedom given to him. Sometimes, however,
the artist managed to get his name recorded, and Delisle
speaks of a Bible at the end of which is " Explicit textus
Biblie Robertus de Billyng me fecit. Amen." Between
the strokes of Billyng' s signature are some vermilion
lines which, on being closely examined, proved to be
the following : " Jehan Pucelle, Ancian de Cans, Jacquet
Maci, ils hont enlumine ce livre ci: ceste ligne de
Vermeillon que vous vees fu escrite en Tan de grace
mille ccc xxvii. en un jeudi, darrenier jour d'avril."

At the end of a MS. in the Burgundian Library at
Brussels is a useful bill of the cost of the volume. The
transcription cost 44 especes; the loan of the MS. to
copy 71 the illuminator for making a miniature in
grisaille 4 ; and the paper 6 especes — in all 61 especes,
or about 2,260 francs of our money. This is an interesting
example, as it is not very common to find the cost of
the book set down within its own covers.

In regard to the actual work of making books, and
notes left by the scribes in the margin, an example
given by M. Dehsle from a Pontifical made for Pope
Benedict XIII, now in the Bibliotheque Nationale, may

io6 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

be recalled to the memory. Many notes in this volume
indicate to the painter the subject he is to paint and
how he is to treat it. For example, " The Pope on his
throne:" " here the Pope kneeling: " here " a stole is
to be painted," etc. In this case the name of the artist
is known. It is Brother Sencius Gonterii, and he received
for all his work 17 florins and "jd. The marginal notes
of scribes, which are intended for others that come after
them to finish the work, might often escape attention,
but they furnish most instructive information about
mediaeval bookmaking. For example, let us take MS.
Reg. 3, E VI — the Four Gospels glossed. This is a very
good instance of the extreme care taken in correcting
on collation. The scribal errors are here very numerous
and considerable: they have been indicated by the
corrector in the margin with a leaden style, in a regular
and neat hand. After this had been done, the corrections
so indicated have been entered on erasures in the text :
and this method may be seen exemplified throughout
the volume. Also in portions of the book scriptural ^nd
patristic references have been indicated with the
plummet, but have never been executed or written in.
Or take in the same Royal Collection 4, A 11 — a copy
of a glossed Genesis. This is about as good a book as we
could desire for showing how it was managed that the
indications to the rubricator did not appear when the
volume was completed. A line of piercing points was
drawn on the parchment in the first instance to indicate
Where the binder should cut the leaves : then the letters
or headings, which it was intended should be put in by
the rubricator, were placed just outside this line, and
when he had done his work and these letters or headings
had found their place in the MS., the notes were sliced
off by the knife of the binder following along the line of
pierced points.

Royal MS. 3, C II, affords an example of another
kind. The book is also a glossed Genesis; and it is

BOOKS AND BOOKMAKING 107

chiefly interesting perhaps for the marginal notes.
Someone has been all through the volume, noting in the
margin all the passages of Holy Scripture referred to
in the various extracts from the Fathers, which make
up the gloss. The way this was done was apparently as
follows : — First someone went through the volume enter-
ing in these references in the usual " scrabble " hand
with a leaden style, and when this was done a trained
scribe went through the sheets and copied them all in
the formal writing in the usual way. The original style
scrabbles are still visible throughout the book, and this
fact makes the volume a very useful text-book for
learning to read these crabbed, hurried notes, which
occur in so many MSS., and which are often too tan-
talizing for those who would decipher them. Here the
formal hand of the rubricator has translated them for us.
To go back to the expenses of mediaeval bookmaking :
in the book of " Expenses of Sir John Howard, Kt., of
Stoke Neyland, and afterwards Duke of Norfolk,
1462-1469," we have an interesting account of pa5^ments
made in 1467 for the making of a Psalter. The docu-
ment nms :

Item the 28th day of July my mastyr rekened with Thomas
Lympnour of Bury, and my master paid him for 8 hole vynetes
[vignettes], prise the vynett xii^- 8^.

Item for 2i.di. vynetts, prise the di. vynett 4^-65.

Item for psalmes lettris 1500 & di the prise of a c. 4^- 5/2

Item for parvis [or small] lettris 6300 prise of a c. id- 5/3.

Item for wrytenge of a quare[& di pryse the quayre 20^-2/6

Item for wrytenge of a Calender -iid

Item for 3 quayres of Velym prise the quayre 20^- 5/-

Item for notynge of v quayres & 2 leves prise of the quayre
M-ihd

Item for capital drawinge iii c & di - the price 3^

Item for floryshynge of Capytallis v.c. - 5^

Item for byndynge of the boke - 12^.

To this bill we have a note appended : " The wyche

io8 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

parcellis my mastyr paid him this day and he is content."
In the above account we possess a very detailed account
of all the expenses of making, illuminating, and binding
a book in the fifteenth century. Beginning with the
purchase of the vellum required, we^ notice that,
apparently, two quires and two leaves were furnished to
the scribe, since, whilst only three quires were purchased,
the book consisted of five quires and two leaves. The
preparation, or " notynge " as it is called, of the vellum
is charged for as an extra. This no doubt refers to ruling
the margins and hues, making the pricking points, and
generally preparing each leaf for the writing and painting
that was to be placed on to it. Then comes the large
and small formal lettering, for which different prices
were charged: by " psalm letters," which in this case
numbered 1,550, I understand the bigger letters it was
usual to have at the beginning of each verse of a psalm,
for each of which the charge was four times the amount
paid for the ordinary letter. Besides this there is a
charge made for writing a quire and a half in the ordinary
character of the handwriting of the period, and for the
Calendar at the beginning, for which i2d. was charged.
For the 350 ordinary capital letters which had to be
" drawn " — that is, I suppose, were too elaborate to be
merely written with the ordinary pen — an extra of ^d.
was paid; whilst the " floryshynge " of 500 other
capital letters cost 5^. a hundred. The illumination
was a special item of charge ; in this psalter there were,
apparently, eight whole page pictures — " vynetts " as
they are called — and twenty-one half-page; for the
former the price was one shilling, and for the latter
sixpence each. Finally, for the binding of the book
there was charged twelve shilUngs, which suggests
rather a sumptuous binding.

In the same book of accounts, I may perhaps be
permitted to add, are two not uninteresting items. The
same day, notes the keeper of the accounts, " my

r

BOOKS AND BOOKMAKING 109

mastyr paid for painting of two chesse hordes 2oi.,"
and on 3rd May 1464, it is recorded that " my mastyr
payd to John Gyldre for two bokys, a Frenshe boke
and an Yenglyshe boke calyd Dives et Pauper, bought
at Maningtree, 13s. ^d."

A PILGRIMAGE TO THE HOLY LAND

A.D. 1506*

PILGRIMAGES to the holy places and the shrines of
the Saints were some of the most constant features
of mediaeval life. In England the special chapels and
altars and tombs to which the people flocked to pay
their devotions, or to beg the intercession of Our Lady
and the Saints to obtain some favour from God Almighty,
were almost countless ; and to the ports nearest to the
more renowned Sanctuaries, such as Glastonbury and
Walsingham and Canterbury, shiploads of foreign
pilgrims were brought; just as other shiploads of Eng-
lish were borne across the sea to Rome or Compostella.
In the fifteenth century and particularly towards its
close, this Catholic spirit of devotion displayed itself
perhaps more conspicuously than in earlier days.
Caxton tells us in the Preface to The Cordyal — a tract
on the Four Last Things — that the book was translated
by Earl Rivers; " who sythen the tyme of the grete
tribulacion and adversitie of my saide lorde, hath been
ful vertuously occupied, as in goyng of pilgrimagis to
Seint James in Galice ; to Rome ; to St. Barthylmew ;
to St. Andrew ; to St. Mathew in the royalme of Naples
and to Seint Nicholas of Bar in Puyle and other dyverse
holy places."

Of pilgrimages such as these of Earl Rivers unfor-
tunately we have very few accounts, and these are at
best very meagre and unsatisfactory. There is, indeed,

* From the Downside Review^ 1906.
no

A PILGRIMAGE TO THE HOLY LAND iii

one exception, and that is the story of a Pylgrymage of
Sir Richard Guylforde to the Holy Land, in the year
1506, which was printed in 1511 by Richard Pynson.
It is such a rare book, however, that Sir Henry*EUis,
when editing the tract for the Camden Society in the
year 1851, considered that the copy in the Grenville
Library at the British Museum was probably unique.
Issued more than fifty years ago to the members of a
Society, it is possibly little known at the present day,
and it may not be without interest to give some account
of this pilgrimage taken from Sir Henry Ellis' reprint.

The journey to Jerusalem in those days was not only
most arduous, but took a goodly sum of money to
accomplish. When Richard I arrived at Marseilles,
he is said to have found quite a number of would-
be pilgrims to the Holy Places, who had waited so long
a time that their funds were entirely exhausted. In the
eleventh century we hear of a vast pilgrimage consisting
of thirty Norman knights and clerks, which at one
time was the nucleus of a body of some seven thousand
pilgrims which had gradually gathered together.
Ingulph, who tells the story, says that when this
company got among the Arabs, they were quickly
" eviscerati de infinitis pecuniis," otherwise " bak-
sheesh." Having made their pilgrimage they returned
Miome ; but " de triginta equitibus, qui de Normannia
pingues exivimus, vix viginti pauperes peregrini, et
omnes pedites, macie multa attenuati, reversi sumus."

As a rule English pilgrims to Jerusalem would make
their way to Marseilles and thence proceed by ship to
Jaffa. Towards the end of the fifteenth century, how-
ever, after there had been a long break in the continuity
of English pilgrimages to the Holy Land, the route
chosen was by Venice to Palestine. We find this to
have been the case with Sir Richard Guildford's party,
and with that of Sir Richard Torkington who followed
in their footsteps in 1517. At the close of the former

112 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

account the writer states that ** pilgrims are always
accustomed to take their galley immediately after
Corpus Xti day " from Venice, and he explains that it
was because they delayed their departure till six weeks
later that they were on their return caught by " the
stormy weather " of " the dread wynter season."

Before speaking of Sir Richard Guildford and his
journey, it is interesting to remark that the pilgrimage
of Sir Richard Torkington was conducted on the same
lines as that of his predecessor in more ways than one.
The account of the first pilgrimage was printed by
Pynson in 15 ii, and without doubt the pilgrims of
15 17 took a copy of the little volume with them as their
Baedeker, and again and again descriptions, for instance,
are given in the words of the print. This is a practice
not uncommon in the later pilgrimages and tends to
render their record useless and uninteresting. Earlier
voyages were made use of, as modem guide books
sometimes now are by those who kept diaries of their
travels abroad, and whole passages were " lifted "
from the earlier accounts to adorn the pages of the later.

Sir Richard Guildford, the chief pilgrim, was a man of
some note in England. He was born at Rolvenden in
Kent about the middle of the fifteenth century. He
was probably with Henry VII at the battle of Bosworth
in 1485, and he held many offices of trust under the
first Tudor sovereign until 1506, when he set out on
his journey to Jerusalem. On 7th April of that year
he made his will, and next day, accompanied by John
Whitby, prior of Gisbum in Yorkshire, a chaplain, who
subsequently wrote the account of the journey, and
some two or three others, he embarked at Rye on the
first stage of his journey to Palestine.

" The Wednesday at night in Passion Week, which
was the 8th day of April, the year of Our Lord God
1506, about ten o'clock the same night, we shipped at
Rye in Sussex and the next day, which was Shyr

A PILGRIMAGE TO THE HOLY LAND 113

Thursday about noon, we landed at Kyryell (Griel at
the mouth of the Teres) and rode to Dieppe the same
night."* The next morning they pushed on towards
Rouen, stopping to hear their Good Friday " divine
Service " at Totes and remaining for Holy Saturday and
Easter Day at the former cathedral city.

The pilgrims then passed through France, Savoy, and
North Italy to Venice, which they reached on i6th May.
Here they remained some weeks waiting for a ship to
take them to Jaffa. During that time they went to
Padua for the feast of St. Anthony, which was kept with
" Great Solemnity " on 13th June. " There was," says
the writer of the travels, " the same day a solemn
procession, whereat were borne many relics, and the
number of doctors of Civil Law and of Physic was great
exceedingly." The celebrated abbey of St. Justina
struck these Englishmen and they describe it as "a
place of Black monks, right delectable, and also
solitary."

Returning to Venice the pilgrims visited the sanc-
tuaries and shrines of the " City of the Sea." At St.
Mark's they noted the wonderful jewels and precious
relics. " There is a great Chalice of fine gold of curious
work set with many precious stones," says the author,
" which is in height three quarters of a yard; it is too
large to use at Masse, but they use it in adorning the
altar at principal times and in their procession on
Corpus Christi day. There are also two great candle-
sticks among others of wonderful greatness, that are
right curiously wrought and are fine gold, garnished all
over with stones of great price."

These English visitors were evidently delighted with
their experiences at Venice. " The richness, the sump-
tuous buildings, the religious houses and the establish-
ment of their justices and councils, with all other things,"
says the chronicler, " maketh the city glorious, and
* The spelling has been modernized throughout.
I

114 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

surmounteth in Venice above all places that I ever saw."
Then, after describing the festival of the " Marriage of
the Sea " held upon the day of Our Lord's Ascension,
he speaks of the great day of Corpus Christi, " on which
was the most solemn procession that I ever saw. There
went Pageants of the Old Law and the New Law,
joining together the figures of the Blessed Sacrament
in such number and so apt and convenient for the feast,
that it would make any man joyous to see it. And
besides that it was a great marvel to see the great
number of religious folk and of schools, which we call
brotherhoods or fellowships, with their devices, all of
whom bore lights of a wondrous goodly fashion. And
between each of the pageants went little children of
both kinds, gloriously and richly dressed, bearing in
their hands in rich cups or other vessels some pleasant
flowers or other well smelling or rich stuff, dressed as
angels to adorn the said procession. The form and
manner thereof exceeded all other that ever I saw so
much that I cannot write it. The Duke sat in Saint
Mark's Church in right high state, with all the Seigniory
and all the pilgrims present. The Duke thus sitting,
the said procession came by him and began to pass
about seven o'clock, and it was past twelve before the
said procession came once about, passing by as fast as
they might go."

It was on Friday, 3rd July, that the galley with the
pilgrims on board left the harbour of Venice and
anchored for the night a few miles outside. No doubt
the usual ceremonies for the starting of a ship with
pilgrims on board were carried out in this instance.
The Priests and Clerks first mounted to the round-top-
castle and chanted psalms and litanies for a prosperous
voyage. This was followed by the Veni Creator in which
all joined, and during the singing of which the sails
were set in God's name and the vessel started on its way
to the strains of the Salve Regina,

A PILGRIMAGE TO THE HOLY LAND 115

I pass over the account of the voyage and of the
places the pilgrims visited by the way. They landed
when they could to procure provisions and to hear
Mass; as for instance at Cyprus, where the writer
notes: "We went on land to Mass, and refreshed
us with fresh victuals." About forty miles from Jaffa
a pilgrim ship crossed them on its return journey.
These pilgrims had left Venice three weeks ahead of
them, had made their pilgrimage and were on their way
back to the Adriatic. The Holy Land was first sighted
on Monday, 17th August, " and as soon as we had
sight of (it)," says our author, " we sung Te Deum and
thanked joyously Almighty God that had given us such
grace to have once the sight of that most holy land."

The next day, Tuesday, " at night about 6 o'clock,"
that was the i8th August, they came to Jaffa and
anchored in the roadstead. But their weary stay on
board a ship was not yet at an end : before they dare
land they had to send to Jerusalem to the warden of
Mount Sion to come and conduct them into the Holy
City; and they were compelled to wait seven days
before " the lords of Jerusalem and Rama — without
whose presence and conduct no Pilgrim can land,"
were able to come to the port. Two more days were
spent in debating what tribute should be paid for
liberty to disembark; and so it was not until 27th
August, almost eight weeks after taking ship at Venice,
that the Pilgrims set foot upon the soil of Palestine.
On landing fresh troubles were awaiting them : "as
we came out of the boat," writes the chaplain, " we
were received by the Mamelukes and Saracens, and put
into an old Cave (every one) by name and tally, their
scrivener even writing our names man by man as we
entered into the presence of the said Lords. And there
we lay in the same grotto or cave all day Friday, upon
bare, stinking stable ground, as well night as day, right
evilly entreated by the Moors."

ii6 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

In the early morning of Saturday, 29th August, the
pilgrims were allowed to leave Jaffa and put up for the
night in the hospital built for the reception of travellers
at Rama by Duke Philip of Burgundy. There was
nothing there, however, but the bare walls, except a
well of fresh water " which was much to our comfort."
Here both Sir Richard Guildford and the Prior of
Gisbum became so ill that they could not move again,
and " therefore," says the writer, " with great difficulty
and outrageous cost, we purveyed camels for them and
certain Mamelukes to conduct them in safety to Jeru-
salem." It is hardly necessary for the writer to add that
these people " entreated us very evil, and took much
more for their pains than their covenant " bargained for.

I need not give the details of the visits made to the
Holy Places minutely narrated in the account. The
pilgrims were lodged close to the Holy Sepulchre and
the Franciscans saw to their necessaries, if not to their
comforts, and acted as their guides during the time of
their stay, " informing and showing us," says our
author, " the holy places within the Holy Land."

Neither Sir Richard Guildford nor the Prior of
Gisburn were able to be with the pilgrims on their
visits to the shrines of the Holy City, and the neigh-
bourhood. In fact, the illness which had developed
during their voyage and which had declared itself on
their first landing was aggravated by their transport on
the back of camels to Jerusalem, where on Saturday,
5th September, as our author relates, " Master Prior of
Gisburn, deceased about two or three o'clock in the
afternoon; and the same night late, he was had to
Mount Sion and there buried. And the Sunday at night,
about one or two of the clock after midnight, my Master
Sir R. Guildford, whom God assoyle, deceased and was
had the same morning to Mount Sion before day."

" And the same Monday, Our Lady's Even, the
Nativity, all the pilgrims came to Mount Sion, to the

A PILGRIMAGE TO THE HOLY LAND 117

burying of my said Master Guildford, where was done
by the friars as much solemn service as might be done
for him." The death of the two chief Englishmicn
among the pilgrims did not long delay their companions
in making the usual round of sight seeing and in per-
forming the required spiritual exercises. In fact, " after
the funeral the same afternoon we went," says the
writer, " to Bethany, which is beyond the Mount of
Olivet, about four miles from Jerusalem." Thence they
passed on to the Jordan valley, visited Jericho and the
Dead Sea, " where sometime stood the cities of Sodom
and Gomorrha, Also beside the Dead Sea is the statue
of Salt of Lot's wife, but," adds our author, " that place
standeth so that it is very laborious to see." Having
seen everything that was to be seen, and having gained
all the indulgences to be obtained at the various shrines,
" we made us ready," writes the chaplain, " and by one
assent dressed ourselves to return to our galley. And
there we took humbly our leave of the holy places and
of the most blessed city of Jerusalem, reckoning our-
selves not so happy to see any more the same in all our
lives, and thanking Almighty God with all our hearts
for the great grace that he had given us, to see and visit
the same blessed places and the holy city once in our
lives before we died. And thus with right light and
joyous hearts, warned by our dragomen and guides,
we all came to Mount Sion on Monday, the 14th day
of September, the which was Hoty Rood day, about
three o'clock in the afternoon. There we found all
ready, the Lords Mamelukes, as well of Jerusalem as of
Rama and others, with their folks to the number of
three hundred horsemen, to conduct us to Jaffa. And
so, there at the said Mount Sion we took our asses and
rode forth at the said time, and we never alighted to
bait them until we came to Rama, which is thirty long
miles from Jerusalem. And, about two hours before
day that same night we came to Rama and alighted

ii8 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

there at the Hospital, being right weary of that journey,
for the beasts we rode upon were right weak and right
simple and evilly trimmed to journey with."

After a couple of days rest the returning pilgrims
reached Jaffa ** soon after noon " on Thursday, 17th
September. They had another experience of the Jaffa
grotto or cave where they had suffered so much on their
first landing in the country. " Here we lay in the
grotto," writes our author, " all that night, and were
right evilly treated by the Saracens in many ways ; and
(we were) in great fear, which were too long to write."

" Friday about night time, with great difficulty, with
much patience and also with large departing of our
money [more ' baksheesh '] we were delivered on board
of our galley, and Saturday, the 19th day of September,
we made sail homeward with right great joy." The
return journey from Jaffa to Venice was full of adven-
ture. Ill luck seemed to pursue the vessel, which was
driven about out of its course by constant storms.
There were rumours too of Moorish vessels that were on
the look out for the pilgrim ships to exact ransom from
them, and which had already " lately taken many sails
of Christian men." Once when the " wind began to
enforce and blew outrageously," and " all night indured
a wondrous great tempest, as well by exceeding over
blowing of wind as by continual lightning," the ship
had to run before the storm over a hundred miles back
on its course. At another time, on All Hallow's Eve,
they had no sooner started from their shelter, than the
storm again sprung up with renewed violence. They
were then nearly being cast on a desert island, and only
got an anchor to hold when all had given themselves up
for lost. For " by this time," says our author, " we were
almost driven upon the rock, which was hideous and
almost fearful to look upon ; which rocks with all the
isles are deserts, and upon the coasts of Turkey, which
caused us to be the more in fear, in so much every man

A PILGRIMAGE TO THE HOLY LAND 119

made himself ready to (appear before) Almighty God,
and dressed themselves in readiness with such things as
they thought would best help them on shore to save
their lives. And no one waited for any other, but every
man made shift for his escape as Almighty God would
give them grace."

Then they ran short of provisions and were driven
almost to desperation, but providentially came in sight
of the isle of Candia ; whereof, says the writer, " we made
great joy, not only for the happy escape from the great
danger we were late in, but also for the lack and scarcity
of victuals that was in our galley, for not only the
patron, but also the pilgrims and the sailors were clearly
disprovided of bread, wine and all other victuals." So
** the next morning we landed there, and after Mass we
rested ourselves and refreshed us after our great fear
and trouble with such victuals and necessaries as we
found there, and so re-comforted ourselves after the great
scarceness that we had sustained many days before."

The storms, however, were still to trouble them. One
night in November, our author says, " there arose a
marvellous great tempest and exceeding rain, and with
the greatest rage of wind that ever I saw in all my life ;
and so incessantly it continued all that night, in so
much where we had out two anchors they held not
firmly, but raised and dragged by the violence of that
outrageous storm, by the force whereof we were almost
driven upon a rocky shore. And great pity it was to see
what tribulation and fear the mariners had that night
and also the pilgrims, who rose from our lodgings and
drew together, and devoutly and fearfully sang Salve
Regina and other anthems, and we all gave money and
vowed a pilgrimage to our blessed Lady de Miraculis
at Venice . . . and hkewise the mariners (promised to)
make a pilgrimage at their own costs and charges — and
with great devotion and prayer of some well disposed
pilgrims there^ and every man hanging in this great

120 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

fear, with the outrageous cries and clamours of the
mariners, they let fall the third anchor, which thanks be
to Almighty God, held fast and kept our galley from
driving any further and so we rode out the fierce storm
for that night/'

And so, sometimes beaten by the storm out of their
course, sometimes lying in the trough of the sea, without
wind enough to steady their vessel, sometimes hanging
on to their anchors, hoping that the gales would pass
and fair weather would follow, they spent the weeks till
the New Year's day, which came upon a Friday. The
change of fortune, however, did not come with the
beginning of January. For " the night following there
arose a wondrous great tempest of exceeding much
wind. And therewith it rained and hailed so unreason-
ably that no man might look forth above the hatches.
And by the force of this tempest we were fain to strike
all our sails and drift in the sea as God would. And
what for the great cry and noise of the mariners and
galyettes, and for the noise and sight of the hideous
and fearful storm and tempest, there was no man that
took any rest that night. (And though) soon after
midnight the great tempest began to swage and wax
less, howbeit the wrought (up) seas tossed and rolled us
right grievously."

All things, however, come to an end, and on Monday
the 25th January the three EngUsh pilgrims reached
Venice once more, " wondrous glad and joyous of our
safe arrival there and thanked Almighty God, as we
had cause to do " ; for they had been nineteen weeks
and one day on the sea coming from Jaffa. At Venice
they only delayed long enough to accomplish their
vowed pilgrimage to the Madonna delta Salute, and then
turned their faces homeward. Five weeks after leaving
Venice they reached Calais, and on the 9th March 1507
they landed at Dover, having been absent from England
on their pilgrimage one whole year all but twenty-nine
days.

A DAY WITH THE ABBOT OF ST.

AUGUSTINE'S, CANTERBURY, IN

THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY*

THE dissolution of the English monasteries destroyed
more than the mere material structures. It obliter-
ated, with a completeness which is most remarkable,
almost every indication of the hfe which the inmates
had led in these " great and solemn houses of rehgion."
In lieu of any reliable evidence as to what was un-
doubtedly a feature in the social life of the country,
until the crash came and the monks were ejected from
their cloisters, we have the traditional account set about
by those who, having taken forcible possession of the
nests, desired to paint the former possessors as very
black birds indeed. " The less said the better " about
those monks and nuns was, until very recent times, the
usual formula by which any incautious enquirer was
warned to hold his tongue and stifle his curiosity. If
this was not sufficient, then those who pretended to
know reluctantly shook their heads over the idle,
ignorant, and vicious lives of those poor deluded men
and women.

Times are somewhat changed now ; and people want
to know what really was the case. Hence, any indication,
however small, of the lives and characters of pre-
Reformation religious is precious and interesting to the
historical enquirer in these by-paths of research into
the past. Unfortunately, however, there is apparently

* From the Downside Review ,, 1900.

121

122 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

little enough to be gleaned in this field of enquiry, and
it is quite by chance that even a gUmpse is afforded into
this old world. A chance legal document, for example,
tells us just a little about the school at Glastonbury, as
some readers of the Downside Review may remember;
another enquiry in the Court of Chancery gives us the
picture of the Venerable Abbot Whiting walking in the
monastic garden and sitting in the green arbour there
in converse with his neighbour Lord Stourton; and
John Aubrey, the Wiltshire antiquary, gives us the
precious recollections of " Old Jacques, who could see
from his house the nuns of the priory [of St. Mary, near
Kingston St. Michael] come forth into the nymph-hay
[or meadow, on the east side of the house, with a
delightful prospect on the south-east] with their rocks
[/.d. distaffs] and wheels, to spin, and with their sewing
work. He would say that he had told threescore and
ten; but of nuns there were not so many, but in all,
with lay-sisters, as widows, old maids and young girls,
there might be such a number." " This " (exclaims old
John Aubrey) " was a fine way of breeding up young
women, who are led more by example than precept, and
a good retirement for widows and grave single women,
to a civil, virtuous and holy life." With few exceptions,
then, any indication of the life led by the English monks
and nuns of old is shrouded in mysterious darkness.
A veil — I suspect not unintentionally — has from the
first been drawn over this side of past English life, and
we are almost as ignorant of the men who lived in the
moss-grown and ivy-clad piles which rise as if witness
of a great catastrophe, as we are of the builders of the
ruined cities of Mashonaland, or of the peoples who
carved the rocks in the forests of Yucatan.

It is just because all is here so dark and every ray of
light is so welcome that I present the readers of the
Downside Review with a narrative which I chanced upon,
and which is described fairly accurately by the title I

AN ABBOT OF ST. AUGUSTINE'S 123

have given it, A Day with the Abbot of St. Augustine's,
Canterbury, in the Sixteenth Century. The abbot in ques-
tion, I would ask my readers to remember, is John Essex,
the last abbot of the venerable Benedictine abbey which
traced its origin back to Ethelbert and St. Augustine.
The house, at any rate in the later centuries that
preceded its destruction, was somewhat overshadowed
by its great monastic cathedral neighbour of Christ-
church, which, as the See of the Metropolitan, occupied
a high position in the Church of England. Moreover,
when the end came in the sixteenth century, a dark
shadow, so at least it has long been thought, rested over
the good name of St. Augustine's Abbey. It was not
known in any way to have moved with the times, and
it had no particular reputation for learning or special
work, at a time when men's minds generally were being
stirred by the revival of literary studies. And besides
this negatively bad character, positive charges of the
most odious kind were formulated by the visitors of
Henry against this very Abbot, John Essex, with whom
we are now chiefly concerned, and some at least of his
monks. It may be hoped that by this time few people,
without further evidence than the mere word of these
discredited royal agents, are ready to believe these
unsavoury reports. But as the story I am going to
relate has to do with two of those who are thus in-
criminated at St. Augustine's, it is well to bear this in
mind, as this is no mere hearsay evidence, but comes
from one who knew these said monks intimately.

As is so often the case, this glimpse into the past
comes from an unexpected quarter. In 1590 Thomas
Twyne, a learned doctor of medicine and a member of
both universities of Oxford and Cambridge, published a
small volume containing a tract in Latin, written by his
father, John Twyne, the celebrated antiquary. The
latter had held the post of schoolmaster in the Canter-
bury School, and was well acquainted with the monks

124 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

both at Christchurch and St. Augustine's. The work in
question, now very rare, is entitled : De rebus Alhionicis
Britannicis atque Anglicis, Commentariorum lihri duo. It
is not, it must be confessed, a promising title for a work
likely to contain much of interest on our subject, and
I came upon it almost by chance in the course of a
thorough examination of all books of English origin
printed in the sixteenth century. The motto on the title
page, taken from Cicero's De Divinatione, at once inter-
ested me : ** Quis est quem non moveat clarissimis
monumentis testata consignataque antiquitas? " but I
was little prepared for what the tract disclosed about
the abbot and prior of St. Augustine's on the eve of the
dissolution of the monastery.

John Twyne, who prints the little volume, says in his
introduction that its author, his father, died in the year
1581, ** an old man, and in the opinion of many capable
judges very learned." As its name implies, the tract
discusses the early antiquities of this island, and
gathers together the quotations from Greek and Latin
writers, pagan and Christian, which seem in any way
to refer to the country. The form of the treatise is cast
in the shape of a conversation which is supposed to have
been held at a country house belonging to St. Augustine's
Abbey, between John Essex — or Yokes, as he is here
called — the last abbot; John Digon, the last prior;
and Dr. Nicholas Wotton, who, becoming first Dean of
the Cathedral of Christchurch, Canterbury, upon the
expulsion of the monks, was considered to be one of the
most brilliant men of his time, and was employed on
many embassies to foreign countries. This conversation
is, of course, imaginary, and is used here merely to
convey the information in a pleasant form; but that
the author should have made choice of these characters
as his spokesmen at such a time — " in tanta temporum
iniquitate " — to use his own words — is not a little
remarkable, But, more than this : he specially tells us

AN ABBOT OF ST. AUGUSTINE'S 125

that to his own knowledge, not only were his characters
during their lives fully capable of sustaining the role
he set them, but that he had himself often heard them
carrying on discussions similar to that which in this
tract he supposes them to hold.

In the letter to his son which introduces the tract
proper, John Twyne tells him that he has composed it
to give him the benefit of his knowledge, and implies
that after having taught him as far as " privati sudor es
mei " would allow, he had sent him to Oxford to reap
there " the fruit of good letters." As Thomas Twyne
came to Corpus Christi College " from Kent in 1560,"
it seems not unlikely that the tract would have been
written some time early in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
" I have dedicated the work to your name," the father
says, " that you may have what you have asked for, a
pledge of my undying love for you ; and if ever you find
time amidst your necessary studies, to read these papers,
I shall think myself abundantly rewarded for my
labour." He then tells him that as a lad he had himself
seen " Richard Foxe, at one time Bishop of Winchester,
but then an aged man, honoured indeed by all, but
blind." For himself, he says, after religious learning,
" which teaches the way of eternal life," together with
the study of grammar and rhetoric, and the reading of
the poets and orators, together with history and mathe-
matics and other graver studies, he had, even indeed
when he had held the office of a public teacher, always
turned with pleasure and profit to the consideration of
the lessons taught by antiquity. About England
especially he had read every book and searched in every
writer for any scrap of information as to the origin of
his people. From early youth he had taken the highest
interest in all discussions about the antiquity of his
race and country, and had looked on all who were
instructed in this matter " as men to be venerated and
men whose acquaintance was to be cultivated."

126 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

" Wherefore," he continues, " as even at this time I
wilUngly confess that I have the most pleasing memory
of the conversations of learned men of old, I have
arranged what I have to say as to the antiquity of
Britain in the form of a conversation among grave
people. Often it seems to me that a word has greater
weight when it seems to come to us from the past and
from aged, experienced and learned men.

" Now above all the many people whom I have ever
known I have especially revered two, because in their
days they were above all others remarkable for the high
character of their moral lives (morum gravitatem
summam) and for their excellent knowledge of all
antiquity. These were, if you do not already know their
names, John Yokes and John Digon. The first was the
most worthy abbot, the second the most upright prior
of the ancient monastery of St. Augustine. This house
Ethelbert of Kent, when king of the English Heptarch}^
had founded near Canterbury at the request of his guest
Augustine, who had converted the English to the faith,
in honour of SS. Peter and Paul. The abbot was a hale
old man, of the greatest personal sanctity of life (summa
vitcB sanctitate),

" A third, younger than either of these, and for many
reasons respected by me before all other men, was
Nicholas Wotton, who was sprung from an illustrious
stock. At that time though a mere youth, he was still
most learned, and he afterwards became a doctor of
both laws, whose opinion was much sought after. After
the expulsion of the monks he became the first Dean of
Christchurch, and his culture, prudence, virtue and
other high qualities of soul caused him to be sent on
many honourable embassies to foreign princes and
rulers, and to be accounted one of the royal council in
the government of the kingdom.

" These three illustrious men I knew in familiar inter-
course, and I often heard them discuss every matter of

AN ABBOT OF ST. AUGUSTINE'S 127

antiquity. I have chosen them in particular to discourse
about it in this work, because I know they all worked
in this matter in a way worthy of all praise.

" I have consequently assigned the part of replying
and summing up to Vokes, both because of his age and
the solidity of his learning. Wotton and Digon I have
represented as putting the questions. Wotton possessed
a knowledge of all things ; so much so that it would be
hard to say what he was ignorant of. He possessed also
an acute judgment, and his powers were of such an
order that after being raised to the highest dignity his
age was passed in the fulness of his honours. But the
fortunes of that honourable old man Vokes were very
different. The position he attained to gave him a title
to be, as they call it, a peer of the High Parhament, yet
after so many abbots who preceded him had held the
position, he lived to see himself stripped of the dignity
and reduced to the rank of a private individual.

" Here, however, I do nor wish, not is it my design,
to weep over the expulsion of the religious or over the
destruction of the monasteries. I am satisfied to think
that these vast piles, as all these structures certainly
were, would not have been allowed to fall into the ruin
which ever threatens all earthly things which the sun
sees or will see, except by the just judgment of God,
for some offences. For since cities, states and empires
of the world are overturned in lapse of time and reduced
to naught, we must expect like vicissitudes in all things
subject to decay. So that contemning these the soul
may cleave to Him with whom all things are beautiful
and not subject to decay.

" But having said this much, that change must be
looked for in respect to all human things present and
to come, I will philosophize no further, but will at once
take up the thread of my discourse, lest I seem to forget
my own design :

" I will at once turn to Abbot Vokes. One summer day

128 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

that learned youth, Wotton and John Digon, who was
indeed a monk, but had not as yet been chosen to office,
as he was on the death of the Prior (of St. Augustine's),
came to visit the abbot. He was then at the village of
Sturry, about a mile or a little more from Canterbury,
where he was rusticating according to his usual practice.
In this very place (by the way), not so long after the
overthrow of the monasteries, the revered old man
wasted away in misery and neglect. Wotton and Digon
had not so long before left Louvain, and had followed
to England and to Oxford that most learned man,
Lodovico Vives, whom I myself knew and reverenced
when staying in your college of Corpus Christi, and
whom I heard giving public lectures there.

*' When they, and I also at the same time, had come
to visit the old man, and we were all three with him
there, having thanked us for our coming he raised his
eyes to heaven and said : * I thank Thee, O Eternal
God ! and I congratulate you and myself, O most dear
Wotton, and you also Brother Digon, for that He has
brought you safe to this country and to this house. I
trust that the journey to your native country has been
prosperous, and I would know what has happened to
you whilst crossing the narrow waters of our English
Channel.' "

Wotton (who, it would almost seem, had experienced
the unpleasant effects of the crossing) rephed that in
his opinion the ancient inhabitants of the land must
have been somewhat happier in the days when, " as
you Father Abbot have often told us," our island was
joined to the continent " than now when, to those
passing to and fro, the wind and sea are apt to show
themselves unpropitious . ' '

" What you say, my dear Wotton," rephed the
Abbot, " is indeed true, but the fact (that our island
was ever part of the mainland) requires more prooi
than the usual assertion." He then goes on to criticize

AN ABBOT OF ST. AUGUSTINE'S 129

at some length the account given by Geoffry of Mon-
mouth, whom he calls " our English Homer and Father
of lies.'* Still, on the request of the three youths who
were his guests that he ** would tell them something
of what he had noted on this pomt in all his long and
diligent researches among the writers of history,"
he, saying that he has devoted much time to these
studies " even to his old age," declares that he is
himself convinced that England has not always been
an island.

This leads up to a long discussion, in which passages
are freely cited on the question from the ancient writers,
and the monks, John Digon and Doctor Wotton, also
take their part in the controversy, and are represented
by Twyne as fully able to deal with the classical authors
and to cap the abbot's learned quotations by others of
equal value. At length, when Digon had quoted some
verses of a poem by Valerius Flaccus, Abbot Yokes
could scarcely contain his admiration of them, and
turning to Wotton said, " But what do you think ? Do
not these lines please you as much as they do me?"
" First of all," replied Wotton, " without impertinence
I may perhaps express my delight that our friend Digon
has not turned his attention only to sacred studies,
which people chiefly look for in men of his cloth. He
is also proficient in profane literature, as is quite
evident to me and also to our friend Twyne, as well as
to you, Reverend Father Abbot."

" And upon this," says Twyne, " Digon through
modesty trying to waive off this high commendation
of his friend Wotton, the abbot intervened saying,
' whilst I fully recognise and praise the usual diligence
of my brother Digon, let us, by your leave, pass again
to our subject.' " Then, when Wotton had quoted many
authors who had noted the encroaching of the sea upon
the land. Abbot Yokes smihngly said, " It is useful to
remember also that of the poet, non omnia possumus

K

\

130 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

omnes. For Pliny noted many changes, Seneca before
him not a few ; Strabo also some, and Ovid some. But
before all others, Plato and his disciple, Aristotle, have
done this, though there is no distinct mention of our
land at all." Later on, the Abbot spoke in high praise
of the work of " that prince of interpreters and gram-
marians, Honoratus Servus," and, as he paused, Digon
interjected, " I have his book and look on it, as I ought
to do, as well nigh sacro-sanct." To which, with a smile,
the Abbot replied : " Then read it and consider his
words about Britain having been divided from the
continent of Europe."

" Both this passage and that of the poet Claudian,
which you Father Abbot have quoted and explained to
us," said Wotton, " are always in the hands of the
many, and I know not who has not read them ; but I
confess that never before this have I see their full force,
and I fancy I may say the same for Digon." Then,
passing on to speak of changes in the configuration of
the earth which were known to history, Wotton names
" this our Kent — not to look for examples elsewhere.
Thanet," he reminds them, " was once an island,
though men can now get to it dry-shod and without a
boat," whilst, on the other hand, territory which was
once the property of Earl Godwin, is now but shifting
sands covered by the sea; and since," he continues,
" I have opportunely named Kent, our beloved county
and the most dehghtful spot in all England (as I hope it
wiU not be too dreadful an admission to make, even
for our friend Twyne here, though he was bom in
Hampshire), tell us something about this. Father Abbot,
for you do not know how anxious we are to listen to
you."

" Then," said he, "I will with pleasure tell you what
I know; for what you ask about is not very much
further back than my memory carries me. For even in
my time Thanet, from an island, has been made a

AN ABBOT OF ST. AUGUSTINE'S 131

peninsula or Chersonesus. I know eight trustworthy
men still living, who say that they have seen, not merely
small skiffs, but big ships laden with merchandise
frequently pass and repass between the island and
our continent." On this and much more to the same
effect, John Digon quoted some lines of Virgil, which,
he declared, had often come into his mind as he
looked out and saw the waves breaking on the Godwin
sands.

This led the conversation to the old inhabitants of
England, and Abbot Vokes thought that the best
account of the Phoenicians was to be found in a note,
written on the ninth chapter of the eighth book of St.
Augustine's De Civitate Dei by Ludovico Vives. You,
he says, will appreciate this the more because he is to
you both ** not merely a learned and, above all, an
impartial writer, but, of all your teachers, he is the one
with whom you have been on most famihar terms, and
certainly the one you have loved best. Here is the
book," he adds, " and as the passage is long, I will read
it to you." Then follows the note in question, and on
the conclusion of the reading, Wotton declares that not
only does he remember it perfectly well, but ** that he
himself was with Vives when he was writing it, and, as
far as his powers allowed, helped his master in looking
up his authorities." " This," replied the Abbot, " of
course we know. He bears witness himself to the help
he received from you, Wotton, and makes very honour-
able mention of it in his notes."*

* A note on the celebrated Ludovico Vives will help the reader
to appreciate the distinction achieved by Nicholas Wotton in bdngr^
" most familiar with him." Dr. Harald Hoffding in his Histc0 oji
Modern Philosophy^ vol. i, chap, v, gives a very high appreciation
of Vives. Born at Valencia in 1492, he died at Bruges in 1540; he
had been tutor to Henry VI IPs daughter, till the royal divorce
estranged him from his master. Vives was an earnest Catholic,
but by no means narrow or intolerant. He had original and excel-
lent ideas on education, which were afterwards adopted by the

132 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

The young monk Digon, in passing to speak of the
origin of the name Britain, said, " there is, Reverend
Father, in our hbrary (at Saint Augustine's Abbey) a
very old manuscript, without any name of the author,
in which I remember to have read a full account of the
supposed origin ; no doubt you. Father, have often read
it." Before the Abbot could reply, however, Wotton
exclaimed " my dear Digon, it is not much use quoting
a book the author of which does not appear, and the
value of which cannot be known." The Abbot did not
altogether approve of such grounds for rejecting this
ancient manuscript authority, but he agreed that, in
this particular instance, the book, which he knew well,
had little weight.

So the conversation went on ; sometimes the Abbot
taking the lead, sometimes Wotton or the young monk
Digon. Authorities, classical and other, are quoted in
a way which shows a complete mastery of the particular
subject and a wide general reading, which would make
us think that in " those dark days of learning," such a
morning meeting at the Abbot's country house was a
pure fiction, were we not assured by the writer Twyne
that he had often heard conversations of a similar kind
between these same men. In the midst of the conversa-
tion the Abbot became conscious that while they were
talking the time had slipped away so fast, that it was
the hour for the midday meal. "I see," he says suddenly,
" that in our talking we have forgotten ourselves, and

Jesuits, whose founder was said to have been a personal friend of
Vives. His chief distinction lies in the domain of psychology. He
started the modern empirical school of that science ; leaving aside
speculative questions as to the nature of the soul for a study of its
phenomena. Descartes owes much to him. For a more detailed
account of his theories v. op. cit., pp. 36-7.

A long and most interesting sketch of Wotton's career may be
found in the Dictionary of National Biography. He seems to have
been a typical result of Renaissance culture ; a keen mind, an amiable
nature, a somewhat too pliant disposition ; in other words, an ideal
diplomat.

AN ABBOT OF ST. AUGUSTINE'S 133

our servant reminds us that it is the time appointed to
refresh our bodies. If there is still any point on which
you wish to satisfy yourselves, do this after food."

" And when he had said this," writes Twyne, " the
reverend old man rose from his seat and lovingly
invited us to partake of his meal. We followed him into
the dining chamber."

After the midday meal, which supposition the author
introduces to conclude the first portion of his tract
De rebus Albionicis, before taking up the dialogue
again, Twyne speaks at some length about the learned
men who had specially turned their attention to the
subject under consideration, or who had assisted others
by their general knowledge of ancient literature ' to
come to sound conclusions on the matter. He names
some at length and refers to another book, in which he
has spoken more fully about the antiquaries he has
himself known: " And," he concludes, " in that book
I have made more distinct mention of the cultured
Nicholas Wotton and of John Digon, as well as of
Abbot Yokes, of whom the learned Wotton, whenever
he had occasion, was wont to speak in high praise,
setting forth his prudence and almost universal know-
ledge. Nor did he ever hesitate, when speaking about
him, to declare that he was a man worthy of all honour
and reverence. He was only too willing at any time, he
said, to hear the Abbot talk on any subject, and had
often, as on this occasion, eagerly listened to his in-
structions on matters of antiquity."

" So it fell out," writes Twyne, " that when dinner was
over, after we had walked awhile to take the air in the
alley, seeing it was not yet late and the sun was still off
its setting, Wotton declared that he was anxious to
hear more on the matter of their previous conversation,
requesting the Abbot to take up the discussion where it
had been broken off and to carry it to its proper ending.
' That is,' he added, ' if it be not too irksome to you,

134 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Reverend Father Abbot, or if more important occupa-
tions do not claim your time; you do not need to be
told how very willingly we always listen to you when
discussing any question. And certainly/ he continued,
looking at Digon and me, ' I am sure we all desire that
you will go on with what you were saying and tell us
what you know about the first inhabitants of Albion,
from which instruction this not unpleasant digression
of dinner called you.* "

Then the conversation began once more, Wotton and
Digon taking their part in it, and showing their ac-
quaintance with the writings of ancient authors, classical
and Christian. Abbot Yokes, however, in this second
part of the tract, is represented as holding the position
of instructor, and to his opinion the two younger men
are constantly described as appealing, as to one whose
well-recognized learning gave him a right to speak on
all these matters.

Wotton, in the first place, expressed a wish to get rid
of the fabulous. He thought they had had enough of
giants and Cyclopean heroes — beings that might be
proper sport for poets and story-tellers, or calculated to
interest women and children, but which ought not to
be considered in serious discussions. He asked, however,
for some information as to the remains of human beings
which had been dug up in various parts of the country,
and which were " shown in private collections or
exhibited in public places," and which were considered
proof that at one time or other the land had been
peopled by giants. He named in particular certain
excavations which had been made in the time of the
then King Henry VIII, at the expense of Sir Christopher
Hales, when certain mounds or barrows had been found
to contain the bones of men of great size and fragments
of bronze and iron weapons. " Can you tell me about
these ?" he said, for " I know well enough, Father Abbot,
that this cannot have escaped your notice since you are

AN ABBOT OF ST, AUGUSTINE'S 135

ever so anxious to examine into antiquity." To many
people, he added, this discovery appears to strengthen
the popular opinion that England was at one time
peopled by a race of giants.

" Not so, learned Wotton," replied the Abbot, " it
does nothing of the kind; although even when you
talk about the graves of giants, you seem to confirm
the common view. The exploration of the tomb you
refer to did not escape me, and I myself saw and ex-
amined the very ancient objects then discovered ; but,"
he added, " we had better confine ourselves now to what
we know of the first inhabitants from the ancient
writers who have spoken about our island." Upon this
the Abbot made a long quotation from Tacitus in regard
to the matter, and when he had finished, John Digon
took up the matter by another quotation, which he
prefaced by saying: "You will remember, Father
Abbot, no doubt, how the following bears out the
words of Tacitus," and concluded by remarking, " all
this agrees with what you. Reverend Father, have said.
It is taken from a copy of Ludovico Vives' relation
about the Phoenicians in Spain."

It would be tedious to most of my readers to follow
out in detail the somewhat lengthy conversation which
is represented as having taken place in the Abbot's room
on this afternoon. Suffice it to say that the speakers
seem to have been f amihar with every author and ready
to cap each other's quotations by others not less apt,
as if they had already possessed the collection of
extracts in the Monumenta Britannica. It is indeed
strange to find monks like Abbot Yokes and John
Digon credited with the possession of so much learning
and such culture by one who has a great reputation him-
self as an antiquary, and to have his declaration that, to
his personal knowledge, they reaUy were the learned and
serious students he here represents them. Out of the
entire discussion I propose only to transcribe one short

136 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

passage, which refers to Canterbury and to the disas-
trous fire which destroyed so many valuable manu-
scripts at Christchurch, on the eve of its dissolution as
a monastery. " Hardly any city in the kingdom,"
says the Abbot, " equals this Canterbury of ours in
its antiquity or its dignity; few can be thought to
compare with it. For a long time it flourished as the
royal city of the strong Kings of Kent ; also it was the
place of the chair of the Archbishop, and was honoured
as the resting place of both, and for its fidehty to reUgion
and the number of its reUgious houses. It often suffered
dire afflictions : it was besieged by the Danes and lay
in ruins; it was consumed or greatly diminished by
fires, the rage of enemies or the chance of accidents.
But in my opinion no misfortune was so grievous as
that fire which a few years ago broke out in Christchurch
monastery; and which, besides other buildings, de-
stroyed the library. That celebrated library was founded
by Theodore the Archbishop, was enriched by many
benefactors, and was completed in time by Henry
Chicheley, Theodore's successor in the Archiepiscopal
chair. In that fire among many thousands of books,
alas! one copy of that precious book of Cicero, De
repuhlicd (Theodore's) perished in the flames. Another
copy I have heard exists in Rome; but in my short
stay there I did not see it, and I have not as yet received
a printed copy, which together with prints of the works
of Caesar and other books, have been promised me by
Cardinal Evrard de la Marck,* the friend of our friend
Ludovico Vives."

In concluding these brief notes upon this very rare
volume on the antiquities of England, I would refer
again to what I said at the beginning as to the light it

• Cardinal de la Marck was made Bishop of Lit^ge in 1 505, and
held the See till his death in 1538. Pope Leo X made him Cardinal
in 1 520, and at the request of the Emperor Charles V, Clement VH
made him Legate in the Low Countries.

AN ABBOT OF ST. AUGUSTINE'S 137

incidentally throws upon the character of Abbot Vokes.
It is well known that, on the authority of the dis-
credited Bale, upon the last Abbot of St. Augustine's,
Canterbury, there has hitherto been supposed to rest
the dark shadow of nameless crime. Abbot John Essex,
as he is usually called, together with some of his monks,
were named by the visitors of the monastic houses at
the time of their dissolution as being men of infamous
character; and they have been held up in history to
execration as affording types of the immoralities which
necessitated the destruction of the religious houses. It
is impossible to read the praises bestowed upon this
abbot by the antiquary Twyne, and to note the words
put into the mouth of Nicholas Wotton, the first secular
Dean of Christchurch, without coming to the conclusion
that the memory of this last Abbot of St. Augustine's
has been most grievously wronged. Wotton and Twyne
both were intimately acquainted with him, and, living
long after he had passed away from the life of poverty
to which the destruction of his beloved monastery had
condemned him, they must no doubt have heard some-
thing of the scandals by which the destroyers sought to
besmirch his good name, and thus in some measure
defend their spoliation. It is hardly too much to
suppose even that his friend Twyne sought in this little
volume to give his son, and through him posterity, a
knowledge of the truth. Instead of the Abbot being a
man given up to odious vice, we are asked to beheve
him to have been the most cultured, cultivated, and
courteous of gentlemen : one who, as Nicholas Wotton
declares, was worthy of all reverence and respect. We
see him as the friend of learning of every kind; and
ready to encourage it in others, as in the case of the
monk John Digon, who had been sent over the sea to
study under the great Ludovico Vives. We see him in
these pages as the antiquary, to whose weU-stored mind
men were only too willing to appeal for information;

138 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

who could understand what a loss to scholarship had
been the destruction of the Canterbury library, and who,
at the very eve of the destruction of his house, was in
communication with learned men in Rome to procure,
for his library at St. Augustine's, some of the early
prints of the classics. It is a mere chance that this
volume has survived to counteract the impression made
by the vague but deadly charges brought against the
good name of this abbot. Twyne evidently did more
than this; for he mentions another book in which he
had written more at length about the character and
learning of Abbot Vokes and the monk Digon ; but this
volume, alas! does not appear to have come down to
us. Still, I fancy that to most unbiassed minds the
tract De rebus Alhionicis will be sufficient to reverse
the verdict of past generations, and to dispel the ugly
cloud of calumny which has so long hung over the ruins
of St. Augustine's.

ROGER BACON AND THE LATIN
VULGATE*

THE work of Roger Bacon in regard to the Vulgate
is well known. His opinions as to the state of the
text in the ordinary Bibles of the thirteenth century,
and his suggestions as to the principles which should
regulate any revision have been frequently set forth by
those interested in the history of the Latin Vulgate,
whilst many modern writers, amongst whom I may name
M. S. Berger,t the Abbe Martin, | the Franciscan Father
Theophilus Witzel,§ and others, have written specially
upon this subject. Little therefore remains to be done
but to follow in their footsteps. r

From one point of view the whole of Roger Bacon's
encyclopaedic works may be regarded as leading up to V
the revision of the Latin Bible, which he considered so )
important. The necessary scientific correction of the
text was the main reason impelling him to demand a / j
more accurate study of languages and more correct i^ y
knowledge of science. Throughout all his various /
treatises, or parts of his great work, Bacon constantly /
returns to the same central idea, namely, that the theo- 1
logians of his day, and in particular the teachers in the \

* A paper contributed to the Roger Bacon Comtneinoration Essays.

t Samuel Berger, De Phistoire de la Vulgate en France^ Paris,
1887.

X J. p. p. Martin, La Vulgate latz?te an XI1I« Steele (Vapres Roger
Bacon, Paris, 1888.

§ Theophilus Witzel, O.F.M., " De Fr. Rogero Bacon eiusque
sententia de rebus biblicis,'"' in Atxh. Franc. Hist.^ iii, 3-22, 185-213.

139

140 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

great University of Paris, had neglected to ground
themselves sufficiently in matters of language and
science, to the great detriment of their special studies.

It is clear that the Franciscan had expressed these
views as to the decadence of theological studies to Pope
Clement IV, before the elevation of the latter to the
Papacy, and as a consequence that Pope in the second
year of his pontificate communicated to the friar his
desire that he should write fully his criticism of the
state of ecclesiastical studies at the time, and make
whatever suggestions he thought useful to remedy the
evils he perceived. In 1267, therefore, Bacon replied
with his Opus Minus, in which the tract The Seven
Capital Sins of Theology sets forth clearly the points
wherein he considers the training then given to ecclesi-
astics was at fault.

The fourth of these ''Capital Sins" Bacon declares to be
the practical abandonment of the scientific study of the
sacred Scriptures in favour of the Book of the Sentences of
Peter the Lombard, upon which in the University of
Paris all theological training was then based. He writes :
" When any one has read that [i.e., the Book of the
Sentences] he thinks himself a Master in Theology,
though he has not studied (non audiat) a thirtieth part
of his Text [i.e., the Sacred Scriptures]."* That by the
word " Text " Bacon means the Bible is made clear by
what foUows, for in the context he complains that
whereas other faculties use the text proper to their
studies as the basis of the teaching in the schools,
theology leaves its text practically on one side.

In the forefront of his work, written by direction of
the Pope and presented to him, Roger Bacon pleaded
for " a more thorough and scientific teaching of the
Holy Scripture." In his opinion there was an imperative
need for a change in this matter in the schools of the
Paris University. Some readers of his words may
* Opits Mimis^ ed. Brewer, p. 328.

ROGER BACON AND THE VULGATE 141

perhaps be inclined to regard his expressions as not
justified in fact, but the whole passage is worth quoting
as giving the best available evidence. " At Paris and
elsewhere," he says, " the Bachelor, who takes the
readings of the Text [i.e., the Bible], gives place to the
lecturer on the Sentences. The latter is always honoured
and preferred before the foraier. He who gives lectures
on the Sentences takes the best hour according to his
pleasure ; he has also a socius (or assistant) and his own
room, if he is a friar. But the one who reads the Bible
has not these advantages. He has to beg for whatever
hour the lecturer on the Sentences may be pleased to
give him, etc. Am I not right, therefore, in saying,"
Bacon concludes, " that the Text of the faculty of
theology gives place to the Sentences ?"*

But even this evil, which he deplores, the learned
Franciscan did not regard as so serious as the state of
the sacred text itself in what he calls the received Bible,
used in the University of Paris. In this, he says, " the
text is for the most part horribly corrupt, f and it is so
uncertain that great doubt must arise as to the true
reading. As a consequence, those who wish to correct
the text dispute with each other as to the real rrieaning.
There are, in fact, almost as many * correctors * as
readers, and they really should more truly be called
* corrupt ors ' than * correctors,' since every one of them
presumes to change what he does not understand,
which would not be permitted in the case of the works
of the poets. "J

This unjustifiable treatment of the sacred text, we
are told, is made without knowledge or discretion, and
in this regard Bacon cites with approval the dictum of
St. Augustine {Cont. Faust., xxxii, 16), that " when
Latin codices disagree, recourse must be had to many
and those the oldest MSS., since ancient texts are to be
preferred to modern, and numbers to a few." In stating
* Op. Minus., pp. 328-9. f Ibid.^ p. 330. % Ibid.

142 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

this principle of criticism, Bacon declares that there is
ample evidence to show that in numberless passages
the Paris Bible of his day has incorporated readings
quite opposed to those to be found in the oldest authentic
manuscripts. In these ancient codices, he says, may
be seen the readings held as authentic by the Roman
Church; that is, he adds, "the translation of St.
Jerome, as St. Isidore declares in his book De Officiis

(i, 12)."

If, he continues, after recourse has been had to the
ancient manuscripts there still remains a doubt as to
the proper rendering of a passage in the sacred text,
according to the teaching of St. Augustine, St. Jerome,
and indeed of " all the doctors " of the Church, " re-
course must be had to the language from which the
Latin text has been translated " to determine whether
it has rendered the meaning of the original exactly
or no. As an example in point Bacon takes the words
of Mark, viii, 38, which in the Latin run: " qui me
confessus fuerit . . . confitebitur," etc., which should be
" confusus fuerit . . . confundetur" according to the
Greek manuscripts, which have a Greek word meaning
" being ashamed of."

That this is the true reading. Bacon confirms by an
instructive use of the Eusebian Canons. In the second
of these Canons are noted the passages in which three
of the EvangeHsts agree. Amongst these the passage
in Mark, viii, 38 is seen to agree with parallel passages in
Matthew and Luke. In the former the words used are,
" who shall deny me," and in the latter, " who shall be
ashamed of me" ; thus confirming the opinion that the
word used in the Latin version of Mark should be
confusus and not confessus.

Roger Bacon does not apparently consider the
defective nature of the Bible made use of in the schools
of Paris as so very extraordinary. For forty years, he
says, many theologians and Paris booksellers have been

ROGER BACON AND THE VULGATE 143

copying and selling the corrupt text. A great number
of careless scribes have added to the confusion by making
changes of words, etc., according to their own judge-
ment. Theologians have no means of examining the
text critically, and so rely upon it as correct. Later,
when perhaps they became conscious that there was
something wrong or unsatisfactory, they wished to
change what they imagined to be wrongly translated.
But " because they had not the ability, each one made
what corrections he pleased." " This,'' our author says,
" is still being done," and as each one has his own
opinion as to what corrections should be made, the
result is to introduce " an almost endless diversity of
readings."* The result is uncertainty, and the case is
really similar to that described by St. Jerome writing
to Pope Damasus : " Where there is diversity the truth
cannot be known."

The origin of the difi&culty resulting in the defective
Paris text was, in Roger Bacon's opinion, simply this :
that those who did not hesitate to correct, made no
attempt to seek for the readings to be found in the most
ancient Latin texts, and were ignorant of the Greek and
Hebrew languages from which the Latin version was
derived. Even, he says, a good grammar would help
them and save them from trying to change " the old
grammar which St. Jerome, who translated into Latin,
knew so well, since he was a pupil of the great Donatus
and the greater Priscian." Contrary to what theologians
have said, the text of the Latin Church is not a mixed
one. It was translated by St. Jerome from the Hebrew,
except the Psalms, which are from the Septuagint. The
Psalter, indeed, remained in the translation from the
Greek because the Church was accustomed to its use
and would not accept the version made by St. Jerome
from the Hebrew, which was the only one he himself
thought to be correct.

* op. Mill., p. 333.

144 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

In this same part of his Opus Minus Roger Bacon
gives a full account of the translations that had been
made of the Holy Scripture before the time of St.
Jerome. In this he manifests an extent of knowledge
surprising in the thirteenth century, and which, indeed,
could hardly be surpassed in these days. His conclusion
is that the translation of St. Jerome was excellent in
every way, and that it is the only one recognized by the
Latin Church, and a return to which must be the end
of all revision.

He calls the Pope's attention to the fact that the
Septuagint Greek is not whoUy trustworthy, as that
text too has been corrupted by scribes and others. This
St. Jerome had noted in his day, as for example in
Ezekiel, xlii, 2, where the word cuhitorum has found its
way into the text, where the Greek has nothing, and
where St. Bede notes that the word should be cala-
moYum. Before leaving this matter, he again insists
that the ancient Bibles are the only true tests of correct-
ness, and he warns students against paying too much
attention to the passages of Holy Scripture used in the
Divine Office and other liturgical services, since changes
have been made for the sake of greater clearness and for
aids to devotion.*

The need for possessing some knowledge of Greek in
order to make corrections safely is also well illustrated
by Roger Bacon. He takes the words of Matthew, xii,
31, spiritus blasphemiae, where the word spiritus —
usually understood as meaning the Holy Spirit — is
shown by the Greek to be in the genitive case de-
pending on hlasphemia.\

In the Opus Majus Bacon again insists upon the
necessity of examining the oldest Latin manuscripts

* Op. Min., p. 347.

t A great many manuscripts have this mistake, as may be seen
in the list of authorities for this reading in Wordsworth and White's
great work on the New Testament.

GER BACON AND THE VULGATE 145

** existing in monasteries and not yet glossed or re-
touched," which afford the true version made by the
authority of the Roman Church. " According to the
testimony of these old Bibles the Paris edition should
be corrected."* Seeing the real danger to religion by
the circulation of a text of the Bible into which many
errors had crept, the learned Franciscan, in this as in
many other matters far in advance of his age, begs the
Pope to take seriously into consideration the question
of a thorough revision. Three centuries before the
Council of Trent Bacon wrote to Clement IV: "I cry
to you against this corruption of the Text, for you alone
can remedy the evil."

The Franciscan was also seriously concerned at the/
private attempts being made in the thirteenth century'^
to correct the sacred text. He considered that the only
result of the work of these correctors will be to make
confusion worse confounded.

" Every teacher," he says, " in the Order of Minorites
corrects as he pleases ; and the same is the case among
the Friars Preachers and Seculars. Each one changes
what he does not understand. The Preachers have
chiefly occupied themselves with this kind of correction.
Twenty years ago and more they presumed to make a
corredoruim and set it forth in writing. But later they
made another to supersede it: now they hesitate (as
to the corrections) more than others do, not knowing
where they are. In this way their corrections are the
worst kind of corruption and the destruction of God's
Text. It is a much less evil and indeed without any
comparison to make use of the uncorrected Paris Bible
than to accept their corrections, or those of any others, "f

Bacon's opinion was expressed strongly against the
substitution of words and phrases for the original text,
no matter how much better and clearer they might

* Opus Maj., ed. Bridges, iii, 95.
t Op. Tertium^ ed. Brewer, p. 93.

146 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

appear to those who used them. In several places in
his works he complains of this tendency of the correctors
of his age. They never do this " when they read the
poets " is his argument more than once repeated, but
in the case of Holy Scripture " every lector makes what-
ever changes he pleases."*

He complains also of the absence of unity and method
in making corrections, which was manifest in all the
attempts made in his time. The correctors were not
agreed as to what text they had to restore. Theologians
as a body seemed even to think that the text used by
the Latin Church was not St. Jerome's translation at
all, but a n^xed version compiled from many different
sources. For this reason with great liberty they intro-
duce whatever words they desire to use. " But it is
certain that the Latin Church uses St. Jerome's trans-
lation, except in the Psalter, the translation of which is
taken from the Septuagint."t In principle, therefore.
Bacon determines that every revision or correction must
have for its scope the restoration of St. Jerome's text ;
whereas the thirteenth-century correctors make use of
other translations and even take their text from
commentators, from the ecclesiastical liturgy, and even
from the works of Josephus.J

For these reasons Roger Bacon begs the Pope to use
his supreme authority and prohibit these private
attempts at correcting the sacred text, and to commit
this difficult and laborious task to men who possessed
adequate learning and who were skilled in the languages
necessary for attempting the important work. The two
things the learned Franciscan chiefly condemns are:
first, the Paris text; and, secondly, the attempts at
correction which had been made, chiefly by the Fran-
ciscans and Dominicans, in the first half of the thirteenth
century, some forty years or so before he himself

* Op. Mi7u, ed. Brewer, p. 330. f Ibid.^ p. 334.

X Ibid., pp. 347, 348.

ROGER BACON AND THE VULGATE 147

denounced these attempts to the Pope and implored
him to put a stop to them.

His condemnation of the majority of the correctors
is based on several important considerations, amongst
which are the following : they have no adequate know-
ledge of the ancient Bibles ; their knowledge of Hebrew
and Greek from which the Latin is derived is insufficient ;
they are unacquainted with the best Latin grammarians,
and in particular with the works of Donatus and
Priscian, the masters of St. Jerome ; and they were not
au courant with the various versions which were in
existence in the Latin Church, nor had they studied
their origin and history.

By the expression " ancient Bibles " Bacon meant
those which had come down from the age of St. Gregory
the Great, St. Isidore of Seville, and Alcuin, " and
numberless other Bibles," he writes, " scattered in
various countries, contemporary with St. Isidore or
before his time, which are free from alterations. They
are the same in all things, except for the faults of copy-
ists, from which no writing is free." *

The account of the origin of the Vulgate text given
by the learned Franciscan is of great interest as showing
not only the extent of his knowledge on this particular
part of his subject, but his entire familiarity with the
works of the Fathers of the Church and of St. Jerome in
particular.

"St. Jerome," he says, " found the [Latin] transla-
tion of the Septuagint disfigured not only by the errors
of the scribes, but by having from the first many faults
of omission of necessary things and addition of things
superfluous. He [St. Jerome] perceived that truth was
in this detained as a captive, and for this reason he
resolved to give the Latin Church a version made from
the Hebrew. He translated the Hebrew as well as he
could and as exactly as he dared, for he had no wish to
* Op. Min., p. 335.

148 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

frighten his readers by too great novelties. Denounced,
as he was, as a falsifier and corruptor of the Scriptures,
he did not dare to translate everything exactly as he
wished, as may be seen in what he has written. Thus,
through human frailt}^ or the rapidity with which he
worked he dictated or wrote things sometimes inexactly,
as he himself confesses in his letter to Magnus and in his
commentaries on Isaias, where he desires to correct what
he had translated badly." *

Later in the same part of his work Bacon adds to this
account the following :

" Knowing that his [St. Jerome's] first translation
[from the Hebrew] was not sufficiently exact, wishing
to set forth the truth and to satisfy the desires of
students, he resolved to leave another translation in
private writings. This he could do, so as not to scandaHze
the faithful, since this second edition has never been
used by the people or by the Church. At all times,
indeed, very few have used the original writings of St.
Jerome on the Bible. For instance, Rabanus (Maurus)
and Cassiodorus, two most learned men, have declared
that they could not find all his works. Rabanus says
this expressly in his commentary on Jeremias." f

To enforce his conclusion that the only version
adopted by the Latin Church is that which St. Jerome
made under the authority of Pope St. Damasus, Roger
Bacon adds this reflection :

" So great a work could not have been accomplished
either by the doctors of Paris or by any other person
without the authority of the Holy See. It could not
have been and ought not to have been done without this
authorization: it would have been improper. Can it
be said now that this work has been concluded with this
authorization either by the Paris doctors or by others
or by some sovereign Pontiff ? But there is no document,
no Register of any Pope, no chronicle or history which
t Op. Min.y p. 336. * Ibid.^ p. 344.

ROGER BACON AND THE VULGATE 149

says this. We expect this in matters of small moment :
and therefore with greater reason must look for it in so
grave a business, which serves for the foundation of all
ecclesiastical discipline." *

It is unnecessary to examine more fully the connexion
of the great Franciscan doctor, Roger Bacon, with the
revision of the Vulgate. He shows in his works that he
fully and entirely realizes the importance of the critical
examination he advocates, and he lays down the true
principles on which any critical correction must proceed.
His proposal to Pope Clement IV was to appoint a
commission of capable men with the avowed object of
restoring the text of St. Jerome. The methods he
suggests are the scientific methods employed to-day in
the production of a critical text. The oldest manuscripts
were to be sought for, examined, weighed, and com-
pared, and the evidence of the best and oldest codices
for any reading was to be taken as against the less
worthy and the more modern. Finally, the readings,
even when they were almost certainly those of St.
Jerome, were to be controlled by the original Greek or
Hebrew, from which this version of St. Jerome has been
translated.

What must strike any reader of Roger Bacon's works
in regard to the Holy Scripture is the grasp the learned
doctor had in the thirteenth century of the whole sub-
ject of Biblical revision, and how true and clear were
the critical principles he laid down so many centuries ago.

* Op. Min.^ p. 342.

ADRIAN IV AND IRELAND*

FOR more than two centuries England justified its
claim to rule Ireland on the authority of a well-
known " Bull " of Pope Adrian IV. By this instrument
the first and only Englishman who sat in the chair of
St. Peter, Nicholas Breakspeare, who took the title of
Adrian IV, gave the sovereignty of the island to our
English king, Henry II ; and, although at the present
day, and indeed since the close of the fifteenth century,
this grant has nothing to do with the relations existing
between the two countries, still the question of the
genuineness of the " Bull " possesses an historical
interest for the people of both nations.

From time to time the '* fact " that an English Pope
made a donation of Ireland to his own countrymen is
used by non-Catholic Irish Nationalist writers for the
purpose of trying to undermine the inborn and undying
love and devotion of the Irish people for the sovereign
Pontiffs. These attacks were met by the Irish Eccle-
siastical Record in the article in which Dr. Moran, the
learned Bishop of Ossory, adduced many powerful, if
not conclusive, reasons for rejecting the " Bull " as
spurious. English historians have universally taken
the genuineness of the document for granted; and
Dr. Lingard, for example, thus describes the origin
and purpose of Pope Adrian's grant : f

" The proximity of Ireland to England, and the

* Printed in the Dublin Review^ July 1883.
t Hist.^ vol. ii, p. 177, sth ed.
150

ADRIAN IV AND IRELAND 151

inferiority of the natives in the art of war, had suggested
the idea of conquest to both WilUam the Conqueror
and the first Henry. . . . Within a few months of his
[Henry II 's] coronation, John of Sahsbury, a learned
monk, and afterwards Bishop of Chartres,was despatched
to sohcit the approbation of Pope Adrian. The envoy
was charged to assure His Hohness that Henry's
principal object was to provide instruction for an
ignorant people, to extirpate vice from the Lord's
vineyard, and to extend to Ireland the annual payment
of Peter Pence ; but that, as every Christian island was
the property of the Holy See, he did not presume to
make the attempt without the advice and consent of
the successor of S. Peter. The Pontiff, who must have
smiled at the hypocrisy of this address, praised, in his
reply, the piety of his dutiful son ; accepted the asserted
right of sovereignty which had been so liberally admitted,
expressed the satisfaction with which he assented to the
king's request, and exhorted him to bear in mind the
conditions on which the assent had been grounded."

Irish historians also appear generally to have taken
the same view as Dr. Lingard expressed in the foregoing
passage, and to have had little suspicion about the
authenticity of the " Bull." On the contrary, the
Student's Manual of Irish History, published in 1870
by Miss Cusack, declares that " there can be no doubt
whatever of the authenticity of this Bull," and this
would seem to be the general verdict of Irish authorities
until comparatively recent times.*

The Abbe MacGeoghegan, it is true, in his History
of Ireland,] appears somewhat inclined to discredit
the document, though at the same time he takes special
pains to defend the Irish clergy and people against the

* See also speeches in Ireland and elsewhere, on the Pope's
recent Circular to the Irish Bishops, and Mr. Justin H. McCarthy's
recently published Outline of Irish History, where the authentic
character of the Grant is assumed. t Duffy, 1844.

152 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

censures implied by it. It was only in the year 1872
that the first indictment of the evidence upon which
the " Bull " had been accepted as genuine, was drawn
up by Dr. Moran, and published in the pages of the
Irish Ecclesiastical Record. To the arguments against
the " grant " stated in that article, the editor of the
Analecta Juris Pontificii has added fresh and almost
conclusive evidence of the forgery of what has been so
long left unquestioned and accepted as genuine by
historians.

The following account is given by the author of the
researches in the Analecta of the reasons which deter-
mined him to undertake the study of the question :

" Many years ago, an Irishman living at Montreal, in
Canada, wrote to me for the purpose of calling my
attention to the subject of Adrian IV and his pretended
donation of Ireland to the English. He begged me to
treat this important question for the honour of the
Holy See, and to clear the name of Pope Adrian, upon
whom this grave accusation had rested for so many
centuries. At the time I was travelling, but happening
to stop some time in a city rich in libraries, I commenced
my researches, and conducted them to some length.
When obUged to continue my journey, I entrusted my
papers to the librarian ; and on my return, after an
absence of two years and half, I learnt, to my great
regret, that the librarian had died, and that all my notes
had disappeared. I was, consequently, obliged to begin
again; but I have been fully compensated for the
mischance by an unhoped-for discovery, that of the
true letter of Adrian."

The circumstances under which Henry II is said to
have asked and obtained this famous " Bull " are well
known. He was anxious in his restless spirit to have
occupation for his arms. The slave trade against which
the Conqueror and Bishop St. Wulstan had striven, and
which they had for a time succeeded in suppressing at

ADRIAN IV AND IRELAND 153

Bristol, was again carried on during the disturbed times
of Rufus and his brother, the first Henry, and was
allowed to grow unchecked during the civil dissensions
of Stephen's reign. Thus it came to pass that Ireland,
on the accession of Henry II, was full of Englishmen
who had been kidnapped and sold into slavery. This
would have furnished a pretext sufficient for war, had
a pretext been needed by the ambitious mind of the
English king; and shortly after his accession to the
throne John of Salisbury was, according to his own
account, despatched to Rome to obtain the Papal
sanction and blessing for the proposed expedition to
Ireland. Adrian IV was then Pope, and from him was
obtained, as is supposed, the famous grant, by means of
which Henry and his immediate successors were created
sovereign princes over the island. Those among Irish
historians who have accepted John of Salisbury's
account of the donation have considered that Adrian
was purposely deceived as to the state of the country
and the necessity of the English interference by the
king's envoy, and have regarded the " Bull " as a
document granted in error as to the real circumstances
of the case. Dr. Lingard takes a view less creditable to
the reputation of the Pope, when he represents him as
smiling " at the hypocrisy of the address " made by
John of Salisbury, while still acceding to the request he
proffered in behalf of his royal master. It can be now
shown, almost conclusively, that though a request of
the nature described by Salisbury was indeed made
about this time to the Pope, he was not the envoy sent
to make it, and the answer was very different to that
of the supposed " Bull," which we now give in the words
of Dr. Moran's translation.

Adrian Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to our most
dear Son in Christ, the illustrious King of the English, greeting
and Apostolic Benediction.

The thoughts of your Highness are laudably and profitably

154 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

directed to the greater glory of your name on earth, and to the
increase of the reward of eternal happiness in heaven, when as
a Catholic Prince you propose to yourself to extend the borders
of the Church, to announce the truths of Christian faith to
ignorant and barbarous nations, and to root out the weeds of
wickedness from the field of the Lord; and the more effectually
to accomplish this, you implore the counsel and favour of the
Apostolic See. In which matter we feel assured that the higher
your aims are, and the more discreet your proceedings, the
happier, with God's aid, will be the result; because those under-
takings that proceed from the ardour of faith and the love of
religion are sure always to have a prosperous end and issue.

It is beyond all doubt, as your Highness also doth acknow-
ledge, that Ireland, and all the islands upon which Christ the
Son of Justice has shone, and which have received the knowledge
of the Christian faith, are subject to the authority of S. Peter and
of the most holy Roman Church. Wherefore we are the more
desirous to sow in them an acceptable seed and a plantation
pleasing unto God, because we know that a most rigorous
account of them shall be required of us hereafter.

Now, most dear Son in Christ, you have signified to us you
propose to enter the island of Ireland to estabhsh the observance
of law among its people, and to eradicate the weeds of vice,
and that you are willing to pay from every house one penny as
tribute to S. Peter, and to preserve the rights of the churches
of that land whole and inviolate. We, therefore, receiving with
due favour your pious and laudable desires, and graciously
granting our consent to your petition, declare that it is pleasing
and acceptable to us, that for the purpose of enlarging the limits
of the Church, setting bounds to the torrent of vice, reforming
evil manners, planting the seeds of virtue, and increasing
Christian faith, you should ente^ that island and carry into
effect those things which belong' to the service of God, and to
the salvation of that people; and that the people of that land
should honourably receive and reverence you as Lord; the
rights of the churches being preserved untouched and entire,
and reserving the annual tribute of one penny from every house
to S. Peter and the most holy Roman Church.

If, therefore, you resolve to carry these designs into execution,
let it be your study to form that people to good morals; and
take such orders both by yourself and by those whom you shall
find qualified in faith, in words, and in ^ood conduct, that the

ADRIAN IV AND IRELAND 155

Church there may be adorned, and the practices of Christian
faith be planted and increased, and let all that tends to the
glory of God and the salvation of souls be so ordered by you
that you may deserve to obtain from God an increase of
everlasting reward, and may secure on earth a glorious name
throughout all time.
Given at Rome, etc.

This document is not dated, but John of Salisbury,
who claims to have been the ambassador who obtained
it for Henry II, gives the year 1155 as the date when
it was granted. There are, however, grave, if not over-
whelming, reasons for questioning the value of this
testimony, since the biography of Salisbury makes
it exceedingly improbable that he was ever entrusted
with such a mission to Rome. Educated out of England,
which he left in 1137, John of Salisbury did not return
to his native country till 1149, and then only for a very
short time, as he can be proved to have returned almost
immediately to the Continent, where he became occu-
pied in teaching at Paris. It is hard to believe that
Henry would have made choice of an unknown and
untried man to conduct so important and difficult a
piece of diplomacy as negotiating with the Pope about
the expedition to Ireland. This much is certain, indeed,
that Henry did, at the beginning of his reign, send
ambassadors to Adrian, who was then almost at the
close of his pontificate ; but this mission was given to
three bishops and an abbot — namely, Rotrodus,*
Bishop of Evreux, of whom we shall have more to say ;
Arnold, Bishop of Lisieux;- the Bishop of Mans; and
Robert, Abbot of St. Albans. John of Salisbury, if he
were with this embassy, could not have played the
important part he claims to have done, but would have
gone only in the capacity of a simple clerical retainer.
It is a curious fact that the date of this mission to the
Pope from Henry is the same as that claimed by

* Gallia Christiana^ tom. ii, pp. 557 and 776.

156 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Salisbury for his visit, a.d. 1155 ; and it is most unlikely
that the English king would have sent two different
embassies at the same time. The old chronicles give
as the object of the visit of these prelates to Rome at
this time the wish of Henry to obtain from Adrian
absolution from an oath made by him to his father
Geoffrey. Apparently other English business was
treated of at the same time, as we judge from a letter
bearing the date of 27th February 1155, written by
Adrian to the Scotch bishops. Nothing whatever appears
as to the proposed expedition to Ireland.

Other circumstances also tend to throw discredit upon
the account given by John of Salisbury. When he
finished his work called Polycraticus, he dedicated it
to Thomas, afterwards St. Thomas a Becket, then
Chancellor of England, who at that time was with his
royal master at the siege of Toulouse. This was in the
year a.d. 1159; and in that year, apparently for the
first time, Salisbury was presented to Henry by St.
Thomas. If, as we may suppose from this fact, he had
been up to this time unknown to the king, it is most
improbable that four years previously the same monarcli
had entrusted him with so private and confidential a
mission to Rome.

Moreover, although Salisbury speaks in the Poly-
craticus of his having passed three months at Bene-
ventum with Pope Adrian — a fact rendered itself most
unlikely by reason of the details he gives of the extra-
ordinary familiarity with which the Pope treated him —
he makes no mention whatever in that work of the
important grant of Ireland accorded to his petition.
Such an omission is all the more curious because the
work in question was intended by its author as a means
of securing the favour and patronage of the Chancellor ;
and had Salisbury been the means of obtaining for
England so signal a favour, this mere fact would have
been a certain pass to the countenance and protection,

ADRIAN IV AND IRELAND 157

not alone of St. Thomas, but of King Henry himself-
This omission is sufficient to make us suspect either that
the chapter in SaHsbury's subsequent work, the Meta-
logicus, in which mention is made of Adrian's grant, is
not his work at all ; or that the grant was inserted by
him at the instance of the king, and to gain his favour.

It is fair to say that some consider it probable that
John of Salisbury was known in England before he
became secretary to St. Thomas as Chancellor in 1159.
It is thought also that he was secretary to Archbishop
Theobald, the predecessor to St. Thomas in the See of
Canterbury; but this belief is founded upon the fact
that there are in Salisbury's works many letters written
by Archbishop T. to Pope A,, which may equally stand
for Archbishop Thomas and Pope Alexander as for
Archbishop Theobald and Pope Adrian. It is true that
the last chapter of the Metalogicus declares that he was
the secretary of Theobald, as well as mentioning the

Bull" of Adrian; but grave suspicions are enter-
tained as to the honesty or genuineness of this part of
Salisbury's work. As this concluding chapter in the
Metalogicus is rightly considered the most important
evidence upon which the authenticity of the " Bull "
rests, it will be necessary to consider it at some length.
It has been sometimes supposed that Salisbury wrote
the chapter containing the important declaration of
Pope Adrian's grant in order to favour the designs
of Henry on Ireland; and that the price of this
deceit was the Bishopric of Chartres bestowed upon
him by the king. There is very httle doubt that the
character of John of Salisbury is not altogether such as
to place him beyond suspicion. Some of his letters show
that he could play a double part, and was in reahty not
the straightforward friend of his master St. Thomas that
he pretended to be.* We are, however, inclined to

* John Bale, a Protestant, in a biographical notice attached to
an edition of the Metalogicus^ Leyden, 1639, says : " Archiepiscopo

158 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

think that the editor of the Analeda is right in exoner-
ating SaHsbury from the charge of fraud, and in sup-
posing that the last chapter of the Metalogicus was an
interpolation at some subsequent period.

It is undeniable that the forty-second chapter of the
work has absolutely nothing to do with the rest, which
had for its object the defence of the study of logic and
metaphysics. The forty-first chapter finishes this
subject in a natural and Christian manner by a quota-
tion from the Book of Wisdom, and it is a strange
contrast in the next chapter (forty-second) to come
upon a lament over the siege of Toulouse and the evils
likely to arise out of the quarrel of the two kings, oddly
mixed up with records of a most unlikely famiharity
existing between himself (Salisbury) and Pope Adrian.
The Pontiff is represented as insisting on eating off the
same plate with him and drinking from the same cup,
while he is supposed to have declared publicly that he
loved Salisbury more than his own mother and brother.
These curious details are immediately followed by the
declaration of Adrian's gift of Ireland, to which is added
a repetition of what he had said in the prologue about
his occupation as chancellor and secretary to the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury. The whole chapter is thus so
strange in itself, so different in style to the other
writings of John of Salisbury, and so oddly tacked on
to a work on philosophy, that it is highly probable it
was not his work at all. This probability is increased
by the fact that the circumstances of the interview with
Pope Adrian described in the Metalogicus differ so much
from those in the Polycraticus, where no mention is
made of Adrian's donation; nor of the " fine emerald
ring " sent from the Pope to Henry to convey some
strange sort of investiture. Moreover, the hand of the

Thomae quandoque familiarius fuit et in exilio comes: sed non
propterea omisit suas objicere pervicaccs in regem benignum
dementias.^^

ADRIAN IV AND IRELAND 159

impostor is betrayed by one or two expressions such as
" usque in hodiernum diem " and " jure haereditario
possidendam." Finally, if the last chapter of the Meta-
logicus is genuine, it was written about the year 1159,
since the illness of Archbishop Theobald, who died in
1 161, is mentioned. At latest the date of the work is
1 160 ; while it is a matter beyond dispute that no men-
tion whatever was made by Henry of this " grant " of
Ireland by the Pope till at earliest A.D. 1175,* or fifteen
years after it was published in the Metalogicus. This is
inexplicable, except on the ground that the chapter is
a subsequent interpolation in order to give colour to
Henry's claims on Ireland. We must here note that the
possession of such a " Bull " would have been most
useful to Henry in 1167, when his followers first joined
Dearmaid, in order to justify English interference ; it
was of vital importance when he went over to receive
the homage of the Irish, and could never have been
withheld or concealed at the Council of Cashel in 1172,
at which the Papal legate presided. Such silence can
only mean that the " Bull " did not exist, and as yet
Henry was unable to forge it for a reason which will be
obvious later.

" It was said " f (observes Fr. Burke, the Dominican
orator) " that Henry kept the letter a secret, because his
mother, the Empress Matilda, did not wish him to act
upon it. But if he had the letter when he came to
Ireland, why didn't he produce it ? That was his only
warrant for coming to Ireland. He came there and
invaded the country, and never breathed a word about
having the letter to a human creature. There is a lie
on the face of it."

From what has been said, it will be allowed that, at
best, John of Sahsbury's works do very little towards
establishing the authenticity of Adrian's Bull. It can

* Cambrensis EversttSy vol. ii, p. 440, note.

t The Sophistries 0/ Fronde Refuted — The Normans in Ireland.

i6o MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

also be shown that other authorities for it are not more
rehable. Sahsbury, though speaking, as we have seen,
of the existence of the Papal grant, if the genuineness
of the last chapter of the Metalogicus be conceded, still
does not give its text ; and it was at least thirty years
after Adrian's death that the " Bull " itself first
appeared in the Expugnatio Hibernica of Giraldus
Cambrensis. It is important to estimate the value of
this testimony, as we believe it can be shown that
every subsequent English chronicler who mentions it has
simply accepted it on Giraldus's authority. Giraldus
was twenty years of age when, in 1150, he went to study
in Paris. Twenty-five years later (1175) the Archbishop
of Canterbury sent him into Wales and named him
Archdeacon of Brecknock ; and it was not till 11 84 that
Henry II took any notice of him. He was named
chaplain of the Court, but for some reason or other got
no other preferment, though actively and by his pen he
served the king's purposes both in Wales and Ireland.
His fixed idea was to remove his native country from
the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and
apparently to get himself appointed Archbishop of St.
David's. With this object in view he refused two
bishoprics — Bangor in iigo and Llandaff in 1191 — as
well probably as others. In 11 98 he got himself named
to the See of St. David's, and set out immediately to
Rome to obtain from Innocent III the realization of
his pet projects. The Pope would have done what
Giraldus wished ; but the King and the Archbishop of
Canterbury strenuously opposed the scheme, and it fell
through, and Giraldus returned, enraged against the
King and Court, without having effected his purpose.

He devoted the rest of his Hfe to writing the Expug-
natio Hibernica, publishing three editions of it — the first
in or about the year 1188, and the last, dedicated to
King John, in 1209. It is to some date between these
two that the publication of the " Bull " of Adrian IV

r

ADRIAN IV AND IRELAND i6i

is to be referred. Another copy is also found inserted in
his autobiography (" De rebus a se Gestis "), which was
written in 1295,

There is, however, httle reKance to be placed in the
works of this author as regards historical facts. In his
Expugnatio he candidly declares that truth was not his
only object, but that he took up his pen to glorify Henry
II, * " Topographicam Hibernicam ... in partris vestri
laudem triennii labore digessi." In fact, according to
the late editors of Giraldus's works in the " Rolls "
series (Dr. Brewer and the Rev. J. Dimock), it is fair to
regard the Irish history as having been written with a
purpose — that is, to win the king's favour, and hence
justly to be accepted with suspicion, and looked upon
more as an epic poem than as sober relation of fact.
From the tone of mind Giraldus manifests, it is not at
all unlikely that he would accept unquestioned any
document which would favour the pretensions of his
royal master, or promote the interests of the Welsh
adventurers in Ireland. The preface to torn, v of the
Opera Giraldi Camh. completely and for ever demolishes
his claim to be considered an historian. From it we
quote the following :

" In the fifth chapter of the second book the early
manuscripts give, under the year 1174 or 1175, a
privilege long before obtained from Pope Adrian IV,
authorizing Henry II 's invasion of Ireland, and a
confirmatory one of the then Pope, Alexander III, with
some prefatory matter principally relating to the per-
sons employed in bringing the privilege for publication
into Ireland at this time, and to the agency of John of
Salisbury in having procured the first from Pope Adrian
IV in 1 1 55. All this in the early manuscripts is clear
and consistent ; agreeing perfectly, moreover, with the
evidence of contemporary authorities, and as regards
the account of the procuring of Adrian's privilege fully
* Opp-i torn, i, p. 70.
M

i62 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

corroborated by John of Salisbury himself. But the
later manuscripts omit Alexander's privilege and all
mention of him, and give Adrian's privilege only. The
prefatory matter had to be altered accordingly. In
doing this they marvellously contrive to make Henry in
1 172 apply for and procure this privilege from Pope
Adrian, who died in 1159 ; and with equally marvellous
confusion they represent John of Salisbury, who had
been Henry's agent in procuring the privilege in 1155,
as sent, not to Ireland, but to Rome, for the purpose of
pubhshing it at Waterford in 1170 or 1175. But the
cause of the suppression and the germ of the blundering
in the prefatory matter were both perhaps supplied by
Giraldus, in his copy of this chapter, as given in the
* De Instructione Principum.' He there states, in
introducing Alexander's privilege, that some asserted it
to be a forgery; and hence, perhaps, its suppression
afterwards in the ' Expugnatio,' by some rectifier of his
history of Henry's papal rights over Ireland. . . .*

** I think I have said enough to justify me in refusing
to accept Giraldus' history of the Irish and of their
English invaders, as sober, truthful history. . . . Truth
was not his main object : he says he compiled the work
for the purpose of sounding the praises of Henry 11. "|

It would, indeed, almost seem as if succeeding English
annalists were suspicious of Giraldus as a writer of sober
history, as his record of events is made very little use
of in other chronicles. The influence, however, of the
publication of Adrian's " Bull " by Giraldus can be
traced to the historical writings of Matthew of Paris,
through the records of Ralph de Diceto,J who compiled
his work about a.d. 1210. Matthew of Paris contributed
more than any other to spread the " grant " of Adrian ;
but his mention of it in no way adds to the authority in
support of its genuineness. He did not live till nearly a

* Preface, torn, v, pp. 69, 70. f /^/V/., pp. 42, 51, etc.

X Imagines Historiarum, Raoql de Diceto,

ADRIAN IV AND IRELAND 163

century after Pope Adrian; and in his History he,
for the most part, till the year 1235, only makes a com-
pendium of Roger Wendover, his fellow rehgious at St.
Albans, whose chronicle again only professes to be, down
to the thirteenth century, an epitome drawn from other
sources, and is thus worthless as an independent witness.
Besides the Bull of Alexander III, confirmatory of the
" grant " of Adrian IV., given in the works of Giraldus,
and, as remarked by Dr. Brewer, rendered doubtful
even on the authority of the same author, there are
three letters attributed to the same Pope which have
reference to the invasion of Ireland. They were first
pubHshed in 1728 by Hearne in the Liber Niger Scaccarii
— the Black-Book of the Exchequer — and are addressed
respectively to the Irish Bishops, to the English king,
and to the Irish princes. Dr. Moran remarks that " they
are certainly authentic." They all bear the same date
of the 20th September, are written from Tusculum, and
are attributed to the year 1170. Although the author
of the article in the Analecta does not agree with Dr.
Moran as to the authentic character of these documents,
he admits that they, at least, form some very powerful
arguments against the genuineness of Pope Adrian's
Bull. In the first place, they completely ignore its
existence, and although entirely taken up with the
affairs of Ireland, recognize no other title or claim of
Henry to dominion in that country except " the power
of the monarch, and the submission of the chiefs." They
speak, moreover, of the Pope's rights over all islands,
and ask Henry to preserve these rights. On this matter
the Analecta points out that in the whole Bullarium
there is no authentic document containing this claim.
Again, no mention is made of Peterpence, which Adrian
is supposed to have charged Henry to estabUsh in
Ireland by his Bull, and this although Alexander was
writing twenty years after Adrian, and specially men-
tions certain papal rights. This would prove that the

i64 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

" grant " of Adrian was unknown in Rome as com-
pletely as in England and Ireland. Such a deduction is
confirmed by the action of Pope John XXII with the
Ambassadors of Edward II at the beginning of the
fourteenth century. King John in 1213 had given
England over to the Holy See, to be held by him and
his successors as a fief from the Pope. Neither Edward I
nor Edward II troubled himself about the matter, till
in A.D. 1316 the latter sent ambassadors to John XXII
on his accession, to offer a thousand pounds sterling
promised by John, and to excuse the English for past
neglect in the matter of this tribute. No distinction is
made in the payment between that for England and
Ireland, and the fact that the Pope did not take advan-
tage of so favourable an opportunity for reminding the
English king that he had not done homage for Ireland,
nor paid tribute for it, seems to show that the " Bull "
of Adrian was unknown at the Court of John XXII.
It is certain also that historians of this time were
ignorant of the existence of such a document, for during
the residence of the pontifical Court at Avignon two
♦Lives of Pope Adrian IV were written. One was
composed in a.d. 1331, and the second in 1356, and in
neither is there any mention of this important act of
the Pope, although the authors find a place for many
less important documents.

It is true that Baronius inserts the " Bull " in his
Annals, and his authority is consequently claimed for
the authenticity of the document, especially as it is
given with the additional information that his copy was
taken " from a Vatican manuscript." Until lately this
note had been taken as proof that an authentic copy was
to be found in the Roman archives. Dr. Moran, however,
completely disposes of this evidence.!

" During my stay in Rome/' he says, "I took occasion

* Muratori, Scriptores remnt Italicarum torn. ifi.
f Irish Ecclesiastical Record^ ut sup.y p. 61.

ADRIAN IV AND IRELAND 165

to inquire whether the MSS. of the eminent annaUst
(Baronius), which happily are preserved, indicated the
special ' Vatican Manuscript ' referred to in his printed
text, and I was informed by the learned archivist of
the Vatican, Monsignor Theiner, who is at present
engaged in giving a new edition and continuing the
great work of Baronius, that the ' Codex Vaticanus '
referred to is a MS. copy of the ' History of Matthew of
Paris,' which is preserved in the Vatican Library. Thus
it is the testimony of Matthew of Paris alone that here
confronts us in the pages of Baronius, and no new
argument can be taken from the words of the eminent
annalist. Relying on the same high authority, I am
happy to state that nowhere in the private archives, or
among the private papers of the Vatican, or in the
' Regesta,' which Jaffe's researches have made so
famous, or in the various indices of the Pontifical
Letters, can a single trace be found of the supposed
Bulls of Adrian and Alexander."

We have been obliged more than once to refer to this
Bull of Alexander III, which has been considered by
most historians as absolutely certain proof of the
authenticity of Pope Adrian's original " grant." The
fact is that the second Bull rests on no better, if as good,
evidence as the former which it is supposed to confirm.
Giraldus Cambrensis states that it was granted by
Alexander III in 1172 to Henry, in confirmation of
Adrian's original donation of Ireland to England. The
author of the Macarice Excidium (p. 247) * considered
that this fact " set at rest for ever all doubt as to the
genuineness of the * grant ' made by Adrian IV." This
second Bull, however, rests on no other authority than
Giraldus, who himself throws some discredit upon the
document. It was originally published as part of the
Expugnatio Hibernica, though many later editors have
separated it from that work. In another tract, De
* Apud Dr, Moran, Ecclesiastical Record^ p. 59.

i66 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Instructione Principum, written towards the end of his
Hfe, Giraldus refers to the Bull in doubtful language.
" Sicut a quibusdam impetratum asseritur aut confingitur :
ah aliis autem unquam impetratum fuisse negatur " —
" Obtained, as some assert or imagine, while others
deny that it was ever obtained." On the original and
sole authority for it, then, the genuineness is at best
doubtful, and it becomes a very poor prop to support the
claims of Adrian's " grant." To this we may add that
the date and style of Alexander's Bull tends to throw
discredit upon it. The three letters of the same Pope
referred to are dated from Tusculum, in a.d. 1172, where
we know from history that Alexander then was. The
Bull, on the other hand, is supposed to have been issued
from Rome in 1172, to which city Alexander did not
return till six years later, when the disturbances which
drove him into exile were quelled.

It is thus clear that the evidence upon which the
existence of the confirmatory Bull of Alexander rests,
is not only doubtful at its source, but the place from
which it is dated betrays the fact of forgery. And,
moreover, it is very improbable that Alexander would
have been induced to give such a letter to Henry. The
Pope must have known well that in 1159 the English
king had supported the anti-pope Octavianus, and,
again, in 1166, another Guido against his own un-
doubted claim to the Papacy. This was well known, as
Matthew of Westminster says that Henry forced every
man, woman, and child in England to renounce his
allegiance to the true and go over to the anti-pope.
Only two years before the king had appeared as the
bitter persecutor of St. Thomas and the abettor of his
murder. It may consequently be argued with reason
that Pope Alexander would not have been likely to
issue a " Bull " in favour of Henry's pretensions to
become the apostle of order and religion in Ireland. He
must, indeed, have known the king too well to trust

ADRIAN IV AND IRELAND 167

him to act honestly, having already had samples of
double-dealing in the long quarrel between the Arch-
bishop St. Thomas and his sovereign. A notorious
instance of Henry's capability of deceiving took place
at the time of the coronation of the young prince, which
was carried out while the Archbishop was out of favour
at the Court. Nine years before, when the See of Canter-
bury was vacant, Henry had obtained from the Pope
a grant allowing him to get any prelate to perform the
ceremony; the reason assigned for asking this favour
being that the coronation would take place probably
before the See of Canterbury was filled up, and that the
king wished to defeat any claim of the Archbishop of
York to perform the ceremony. On the ground of this
permission Henry now sought to make the Archbishop
of York usurp the undoubted right of the Archbishop
of Canterbury. Alexander, at the instance of St. Thomas
wrote several letters* forbidding any prelate, and par-
ticularly his Grace of York, to usurp the office of crown-
ing the prince. There is, notwithstanding, preserved
among the papers of St. Thomas, a mandate from the
Pope addressed to the Archbishop of York, ordering
him to perform the ceremony. This document is a
manifest forgery, f and is worth recording as evidence,
if any were required, that Henry was quite capable of
manufacturing or adapting, documents to serve his own
purposes, and that consequently we should be justified
in accepting with caution the alleged " Bull '* of
Alexander or that of Adrian, which it was supposed to
confirm, unless they were supported by independent
testimony.

Giraldus Cambrensis, it is true, asserted that both
these Bulls were produced in a Synod of Irish clergy at
Waterford, in a.d. 1175, and most historians have
looked upon this assertion as a proof that they must

* Ep. St. Thom.^ ii, 45, 47.

t See Lingard, History^ vol. ii, p. 153 note (5th ed.).

168 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

both have been authentic. It would, of course, be fair
to argue from their production at this assembly only
their existence ; but Dr. Moran has shown that at best
it is extremely unlikely that any such synod was ever
held at this time. In Irish annals there is no record of
such meeting, which, indeed, the very disturbed state
of the country would have prevented at that time. In
the same year, a.d. 1175, Henry seems to have appointed
the first Bishop of Waterford, and so it is possible that
a meeting of the Anglo-Norman clergy, assembled for
the purpose of election or confirmation, may have been
magnified by Giraldus into a national Synod. In that
case the production of the Bulls before an assembly of
this character would have no special significance.

We may here note a strong confirmation of our doubts
as to the authentic character of Pope Adrian's " grant,"
even if the subsequent " Bull " of Alexander is not also
affected. Directly the murder of St. Thomas became
known, Henry crossed over to Ireland with the object
apparently of preventing the anger of the Pope finding
him out by letters of excommunication or interdict.
For five months a strict watch was kept on all vessels
coming from the Continent, and not a ship was allowed
to reach the Irish coast, even from England, without
the king's knowing that it was not conveying any Papal
letters. Directly a favourable message was brought to
him at Wexford he set out at once, and, crossing Eng-
land, passed over into Normandy. There, in the
cathedral of Avranches, on the Sunday before the
Assumption, 1172, Henry swore on the Gospels, in the
presence of the legates, bishops, barons and people, that
he was not guilty of the murder of the Archbishop.
This oath, taken under such solemn circumstances,
included the placing of the kingdom of England under
the Pope, and the oath of fealty for it to Alexander.*

* This clause in the oath is not found in John of Salisbury's
account ; but Baronius inserts it as found in the Vatican Archives.
Also Muratori, Rerum Italicarufn Scripiores^ torn, iii, p. 463.

ADRIAN IV AND IRELAND i6g

Had Ireland at this time been really given to England
by the Holy See, under such circumstances as these it
would have been mentioned. This, however, is not the
case. " Praeterea ego," runs the oath, " et major filius
mens rex juramus, quod a Domno Alexandro Papa, et
ejus Catholicis successoribus recipiemus et tenebimus
regnum Anglice, et nos et nostri successores in perpetuum
non reputabimus nos Anglic^ veros reges donee ipse nos
CathoHcos reges tenuerint." In the following year
Henry wrote to Pope Alexander by his secretary, Peter
of Blois, and referred to his holding England as a fief
under the Holy See, but neither in this is there any
mention of Ireland.* These two facts are strong con-
firmation of any suspicions of the genuineness of Pope
Adrian's Bull.

We have shown that the evidence in favour of the
authentic character of the Papal grant of Ireland to the
EngHsh Crown must be accepted with extreme caution,
if not with positive suspicion. The authorities upon
which it has been so long received by Enghsh historians
as a strange but true fact, prove, on examination, to be
hardly reliable sources of information. Many external
circumstances, as well as the inherent intrinsic improb-
ability of the " grant," confirm the impartial mind in
objecting to receive it as undoubted history. Moreover,
the labours of the editor of the Analecta have now made
it possible to show with reason that Adrian IV, so far
from giving any encouragement to Henry in his designs
on Ireland, in reality refused, when asked, to be a party
to the enterprise, and pointed out the injustice of it.
The idea of effecting the conquest of the island had
suggested itself to the Conqueror and to Henry I, and
it was but natural that the project should revive in the
restless mind of Henry II. It must have been evident,
however, to him that an English Pope would of necessity
be cautious in favouring any pretensions of his own
countrymen against a neighbouring country. The
* Lingard, vol. ii, p. 191, note.

170 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

knowledge that Adrian's approval would in all prob-
ability be withheld, if the idea was started as an
English scheme, seems to have obliged Henry to look
for some other sovereign to help him in obtaining the
authorization of the Pontiff for his design, and Louis
VII of France was clearly the only prince in a position
to render him this service. On the theory that for this
purpose Henry wanted to make a tool of Louis, we can
explain a fact that has appeared to puzzle annalists —
namely, why it was that these two kings, who had been
for a long time avowed enemies, suddenly, and by the
advances of Henry, became fast friends, just at this
very period, a.d. 1158. After many years of war and
contention Henry met Louis at Rouen, and not only
made peace, but espoused his son to the infant daughter
of the French king. The Pope wrote to the Chancellor
of Louis to convey his congratulations to the two
sovereigns on their complete reconciliation. The two
proceeded together to Paris, and afterwards made a
joint pilgrimage to Mount St. Michael's, in Normandy.*
So complete was their reconciliation that at this time
they despatched a joint mission to Rome to ask Adrian's
blessing and approval of a hostile expedition they were
intending to make together. The choice of an Enghsh-
man as ambassador seems to point to the fact that the
projected enterprise was of more importance to the
EngUsh than to the French king. Rotrodus, the envoy
selected,! was at that time (a.d. 1158) Bishop of
Evreux, and had been one of the witnesses of the
reconciliation between the two kings. J He was much
attached to the interests of the English king, and had,
from the time of his coronation, at which he assisted,
been employed in several missions for his royal master.
Amongst others, as we have noted before, he was in the

* Migne, Patrol., torn, clx, p. 484.

t Gallia Christiana^ torn, ii, p. 776. See also the Pope's letter in
reply. % Ibid.^ torn, iv, p. 633.

ADRIAN IV AND IRELAND 171

embassy despatched to Rome by Henry in 11 55. It
was thus a courtier of Henry who was sent on this joint
mission from the two monarchs.

Rotrodus arrived in Rome at the close of the year
1 158, or the beginning of the following year, and
informed the Pope of the project entertained by Henry
and Louis. What this project was does not absolutely
appear, but there can be httle doubt that it was really
the invasion of Ireland upon which the mind of Henry
was intent. In order to give colour to the pretensions it
was necessary to represent it as being intended in
reality as a crusade in favour of religion. The Pope,
however, would not enter into the designs of the two
kings, and refused to be a party to such an injustice.
He not only refused the request of Bishop Rotrodus,
but wrote to Louis at some length to point out the
reasons that compelled him to take this course. On this
letter can be based many arguments to show that the
attitude of Adrian towards the proposals of the English
king as regards Ireland was one of strong disapproval,
and that granting that this letter refers to Ireland, it
would be impossible for Adrian to have issued, very
much about the same time, the " Bull " of donation at
the request of John of SaUsbury.

In the first place, the Pope's letter shows clearly
enough that his consent had been asked solely on the
ground that the expedition had a religious character,
and the fact of the reply being addressed to Louis
would probably only prove that Henry had taken care
not to be too prominent in the business for fear that
the real motive might become too apparent to the
English Pope. Adrian proceeds to say that he could not
give consent to any project of such a nature, unless he
were certain that the people and clergy of the country
wanted foreign interference. This, be it remarked, is a
very different sentiment to that with which the same
Pope is credited in the alleged " Bull." The various

172 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

dangers which Louis is likely to run are then pointed
out to him by the Pope, and for every reason he con-
cludes not to give him any " Bull " encouraging the
project till such time as he has warned the people of the
kingdom of the intention of the two kings in order to
see whether they will co-operate with them. In con-
clusion, the Pontiff begs the king to reflect well on the
matter, and not to undertake the enterprise before
consulting the bishops and clergy of the country.

It is as well at once to declare that the great difficulty
in fixing the reference of this letter to the design of
invading Ireland is the fact that the country is not
mentioned by name. Unfortunately, it was a common
custom in the transcription of documents to write only
the initial letter of proper names. Thus, in this letter
the envoy is called " R." Bishop of Evreux, and the
country the two kings were anxious to obtain the Pope's
approval to invade is only " H," which may stand
equally well for " Hispania " and " Hibemia." We are
thus left to the internal evidence of the document itself
to determine to which of these two countries it has
reference. Dr. Lingard was apparently aware of the
existence of the letter,* but it did not suggest itself to
his mind that it had any reference to Ireland. He says :
" When Louis a few years later (1159) meditated a
similar expedition into Spain, and for that purpose
requested the consilium et favorem Romanae Ecclesiae,
the answer was very different. Adrian dissuaded him
because it was " inconsulta ecclesia et populo terrae
illius."

It is, however, clearly shown in, the Analecta that it
is impossible that this letter of Adrian, addressed to the
two kings, can have any reference to Spain, while every
circumstance in it tending to fix the special country,
gives weight to the opinion that it was Ireland about
which the Pope wrote. In the first place, the document
* History^ vol. ii, p. 178, 5th ed., note.

ADRIAN IV AND IRELAND 173

refers not to a kingdom {regnum) but a country {terra).
Now Ireland was not recognized as a kingdom officially
till the sixteenth century, and in all formal papers
before that time it is constantly spoken of as a country
{terra) merely. Spain, on the other hand, was at this
time divided into three kingdoms — Castile, Aragon, and
Galicia; and the most powerful, the king of Castile,
had the title of Emperor. King Louis of France had
only a year or two before the date of the letter (1155)
made a pilgrimage to St. James, and was well received
by his father-in-law the Emperor of Castile.* Hence,
not only have we the official title of Spain to be a king-
dom at the time when Adrian wrote, but it is impossible
to suppose that Louis could have been so ignorant of
the feeling of a country in which he had not long before
been journeying, and over which his own father-in-law
reigned as Emperor.

Again, the country referred to in Adrian's letter
clearly had many princes or chiefs, which was quite true
of Ireland, but not of Spain, about the state of which
the Pope could not be ignorant. It also, undoubtedly,
must have possessed its own episcopal hierarchy,
capable of free deliberation ; for Adrian advises Louis
and Henry to consult the bishops and clergy as to their
wish to receive foreign intervention in their affairs.
The Church in that part of Spain, at this time overrun
by the Moors, had almost disappeared, and for the rest
it would have been quite unnecessary to ask the advice
of the Spanish bishops as to punishing their oppressors.
On the other hand, the Holy See must have been well
acquainted with the flourishing state of the Church in
Ireland at this period. During the hundred and fifty
years which preceded the reign of Henry II, numerous
and well-attended Councils had been held for the
maintenance of discipline and regulation of morals.
Only a few years before Henry made his first attempt
* Robertus de Monte. Migne, Patrol.^ torn, clx, p. 478.

174 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

on the country, several great and renowned Irish saints
occupied Sees in the country, and a great council was
held at Athboy at which 13,000 representatives of the
nation attended to hear what the Church commanded.
That Adrian must have known the state of the Church
is rendered all the more likely since he had studied in
Paris under a celebrated Irish professor, Marianus,
afterwards a monk of Ratisbon, for whom he conceived
a great affection. It was only to be expected, therefore,
that if he had this knowledge of the Irish Church, he
should require that the bishops and clergy be consulted
as to the propriety of such an invasion as the French
and English kings contemplated.

It must be remembered, also, that Adrian desires that
the people of the country should be consulted, a thing
impossible in the portions of Spain in possession of the
Saracens. He also, throughout, repeats his doubts as
to the utility and necessity of the enterprise proposed
by the kings, which would certainly not have been the
case had their wish been merely to drive the infidel out
of Spain. It is obvious that Adrian, like all his pre-
decessors, would have been only too glad to grant
protection to the kingdoms of France and England,
had the wish of the kings been merely to fight against
the Moors in Spain.

Lastly, a comparison of the alleged " Bull " of Adrian
and the authentic letter brings out one or two strange
facts. In the first place, the document, as given by
Giraldus, does not express the name or even initial of
the prince to whom it was granted : " Adrianus epis-
copus servus servorum Dei, carissimo in Christi filio
illustri anglorum regi salutem." Next, the preamble of
the " Bull " is almost word for word the same as that
of the letter written to Louis VII, in 1159, and although
it might happen that a few words of two official docu-
ments would be the same, there is no other example of
such a singular similarity, extending -as it does over ten

ADRIAN IV AND IRELAND

175

or fifteen lines. As this curious fact is the basis of a
theory, we shall state in brief, to account for the
forgery of the " Bull " of Adrian, it is worth reproducing
the two documents in order that our readers may judge
for themselves.

Letter to Louis VII.

Satis laudabiliter et fruc-
tuose de Christiano nomine
propagando in terris, et seter-
nse beatitudinis prsemio tibi
cumulando in coelis, tua vide-
turmagnificentia cogitare, dum
ad dilatandos terminos populi
Christiani, ad paganorum, bar-
bariem debellandam et ad
gentes apostatrices, et quae
catholicse fidei refugiunt nee
recipiunt veritatem, Christian-
orum jugo et ditioni subden-
das, simul cum charismo filio
nostro Henrico illustri An-
glorum regi, in H. proferare
intendis, et studes assidue (ut
opus hoc felicem exitum sor-
tiatur) exercitum et quae sunt
itineri necessaria congregare.
Atque ad id convenientius
exsequendum, matris tuse
sacrosanctae Romanas Ecclesise
consilium exigis et favorem.
Quod quidem propositum tan-
to magis gratum acceptumque
tenemus, et amplius sicut
commendandum est, commen-
damus, quanto de sinceriore
charitatis radice talem inten-
tionem et votum tam laudabile
processum credimus, ac de
majori ardore fidei et religionis

" Bull" to Henry II.

Laudabiliter satis et fructu-
ose de glorioso nomine pro-
pagando in terris, et aeternae
felicitatis praemio cumulando
in coelis, tua magnificentia
cogitat; dum ad dilatandos
Ecclesiae terminos fidei veri-
tatem, et vitiorum plantaria de
agro Dominico extirpanda,
sicut catholicus princeps inten-
dis; et ad id convenientius ex-
sequendum, consilium Apo-
stolicae sedis exigis, et favorem.
In quo facto, quanto altiori
consilio et majori discretione
procedis,tanto in eo feliciorem
progressum te, praestante Dom-
ino, confidimus habiturum; eo
quod ad bonum exitum sem-
per et finem solent attingere,
quaede ardore fidei et religionis
amore, principium acceperunt,
etc. Significasti se quidem no-
bis, fili in Christo carissime, te
Hiberniae insulam, ad subden-
dum ilium populum legibus et
vitiorum plantaria inde ex-
tirpanda, velle intrare, etc.
Nos itaque, pium et lauda-
bile desiderium tuum cum
favore congruo prosequentes,
etpetitioni bonaebenignumim-
pendentes assensum, gratum

176 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

amore propositum et desid- et acceptum habemus, ut pro
erium tuum principium habu- dilatandis Ecclesiae terminis,
erunt. pro vitiorum restringendo de-

cursu, pro corrigendi moribus,
et virtutibus inserendis, pro
Christianae religionis augmen-
to, insulam illam ingrediaris.

It is almost impossible to compare the two documents
here given without coming to the conclusion that the
similarity is not the result of a mere accident. The idea
consequently suggests itself as possible that the text of
Adrian's actual refusal, as conveyed to the kings in the
letter brought back by Rotrodus to Louis, was made to
serve as the basis of the forged " Bull." What is certain
about the matter is, that Louis and Henry having
applied to the Pope for his approbation of a proposed
invasion of a country called by its initial letter " H,"
the Holy Father refused to grant any such approbation,
and grounded his refusal upon reasons similar to those
by which he is supposed, about the same time, to have
been induced to grant permission to Henry to invade
Ireland. The two documents are strangely like in form
and expression, and every circumstance, by which the
country referred to by the letter " H " may be identified,
points to the conclusion that it also was meant to refer
to the proposed Irish expedition. Of course, had Adrian
really refused the permission asked for, as he clearly
did in his letter to Louis, the French king would have
known that any pretended permission was a forgery;
and had the refusal been intended to prevent any
expedition to Ireland, the " Bull," which is supposed to
have sanctioned it, could never have been produced
during the lifetime of the French king. A reference to
dates will show that this is so, and that all mention of
the existence of the document was carefully avoided
before the year a.d. 1180, when Louis died.* The

* In A.D. 1 177 Henry was chosen to arbitrate between two

IT

ADRIAN IV AND IRELAND 17;

silence which was kept for so many years about so
important a document, and one which would have
been so useful to Henry, has been often remarked upon
as suspicious, and has puzzled many historians to
explain. May it not be accounted for by the knowledge
that such a forgery would be at once detected by Louis ?

In fact, although the secret of the negotiations of
Rotrodus with Adrian in behalf of Henry and Louis was
kept so well, that the text of the Pope's refusal was until
lately almost unknown, still the annalist of Archin who
continued the chronicle of Sigebert appears to have had
some suspicion of the fact. Speaking of the year a.d.
1 171, about the preparations made by Henry for the
invasion of Ireland, he says :* — " Henry, king of
England, puffed up with pride, and usurping things not
conceded ; striving for things he had no business to do,
prepared ships and called together the soldiers of his
kingdom to conquer Ireland."

Whether this theory as to the origin of the " Bull "
be correct or not, it can safely be said that the evidence
upon which the authenticity of the document has so
long been held, is at best very doubtful, and should be
accepted with extreme caution. A careful examination
will, we believe, induce most inquirers to reject the
"Bull "as an undoubted forgery, and to consider it
more than probable that Pope Adrian IV, so far from
granting any approbation to Henry in his designs on
Ireland, or making any donation of that country to the
English crown, in reahty positively refused to be a party
to such an injustice.

Spanish kings. In this office he styled himself " King of England,
t)uke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and Count of Anjou." No
mention is made of Ireland (Rymer, torn. i).
* Migne, Patrologie^ tome clx, p. 307.

N

POLYDORE VERGIL'S -HISTORY"*

THE importance of Polydore Vergil's History for the
reign of Henry VII is fully recognized by all
students of that time. Dr. James Gairdner, without
doubt our first English authority for the events of this
period of our national history, considers that with the
exception of the poetical story of Bernard Andre, from
which we learn something, albeit very little, Vergil's
work may be regarded as the only contemporary history
of this reign. Dr. Wilhelm Busch also, in his excellent
study of England under the Tudors, speaks as strongly
about our indebtedness to this cultured Italian ecclesi-
astic, and declares that " for elegance of language, easy
narrative, firmness and independence of judgment
[Polydore's work] far surpasses [that of] all the English
historians of his day." Even for the reign of Henry
VIII, although he is considered by some as " not so
trustworthy, owing to his bias against Wolsey," his
authority cannot be altogether set aside, since in the
opinion of Mr. Brewer " no man was better informed
on European politics " at this time.

It is curious that in the case of a book of such import-
ance for the history of the early Tudor sovereigns no
attempt has been made to provide students with a
critical edition, at least of the last two books, which
deal with the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII.
Even for the reigns of Henry VI, Edward IV, and

* A paper read at a meeting of the Royal Historical Society,
19 December 1901.

178

r

POLYDORE VERGIUS " HISTORY " 179

Richard III, in the opinion of so competent an authority
as Sir Henry EUis, Polydore's History " is indispensable
to fill a chasm of near seventy years in a dark period
[of our national life], since he wrote this portion of
his work whilst many of the persons alluded to in the
events of the reigns of Edward IV and Richard III
were alive and also communicated with him." I hope
that in what I am about to say I shall be able to show
that it is time some scholar undertook a critical edition
of this important work.

By way of preface it may be useful to give a brief
account of our author and of what we know about his
history. Polydore Vergil was a native of Urbino in
Italy. His family name was apparently de Castello, and
he was a relative of Cardinal Hadrian de Castello, under
whose patronage he first found his way to England.
Bom some time in the latter half of the fifteenth
century, he becomes first known to the learned world
by a book of Latin proverbs which he dedicated to
Duke Guido Ubaldo of Urbino and published at Venice
in 1498. In the first years of the sixteenth century,
recommended by Pope Alexander VI to the English
king, Vergil came over to this island as sub-collector
of Peter's pence, and by 1508 we find him nominated
by Henry VII to the archdeaconry of Wells. Two years
later he became naturalized, but in 1514 or 1515, falling
under the displeasure of Cardinal Wolsey, he was put
into prison, and upon being liberated after many
months' incarceration he paid a visit to his native place
of Urbino. After a short stay he returned once more to
England, where he remained, with the exception of two
years again spent in Italy, until 1552, when he retired
permanently to Urbino, where he died probably about

1555.

We are, of course, mainly concerned with the com-
position of his history. The Anglica Historia, as the
author caUs it, has been often printed — twice at least

i8o MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

by Vergil himself. These editions — published in 1534
and 1546 — comprised twenty-six books and carried the
history of England down from the earliest times to the
death of Henry VI I. From the letter prefixed to these
editions and dated August 1533 we learn that the work
was dedicated and presented to Henry VIII. At a
subsequent date, according to most authorities, Poly-
dore enlarged his work, adding the twenty-seventh
book, which related the story of the reign of Henry
VIII down to the year 1538. In this form the book was
printed in 1555, again in 1557, and several times since.
I need say nothing as to the literary merits of the history
itself. It was a great advance undoubtedly in the
method of telling the story of a nation on anything
which had gone before — at least in England. Vergil
gave a consecutive readable story, using his materials
and weaving them into a narrative on the lines of the
modem historian rather than on those of the old
English chroniclers.

This fact may help us to understand why the publica-
tion of his History raised many prejudices against our
author in the minds of his contemporaries which have
barely given place to more just appreciation even in
writers of our day. In his desire to sift fact from legend
he touched Englishmen in some tender spots. He dis-
carded Brute, for example, as a mythical hero, and
considered Geoffrey of Monmouth's works as a hetero-
geneous mixture of truth and fiction, not to be relied
upon as history. To defend the legendary antiquity of
their country, writers like Leland and Sir Henry Savile
charged Vergil with looking at our ancient records with
foreign spectacles; whilst others, like Caius, and
subsequently Gale, declared that he had wilfully de-
stroyed ancient records or shipped them out of the
country that his misrepresentations should not be
detected by posterity. I need hardly say that no one at
the present day believes these baseless charges against

r

POLYDORE VERGIL'S " HISTORY " i8i

our author, though few people perhaps are inclined to
attribute much importance to the Anglica Historia.

A quotation from the above-named study of Dr.
Busch will show, better than any words of mine, the
peculiar value and importance of Vergil's work for the
reigns at least of the first two Tudor sovereigns, and will
make it clear, I think, that a new edition of so important
an historical document ought long ago to have been
undertaken by some competent authority. " The
History of Henry VII," he writes, "is by far the best
and most original part of the whole work. As in the
case of the chronicler Hall, his history of Henry VII's
time appears so perfectly different in design and
character from that of Henry VIII that, when com-
paring the two parts critically, we must be careful to
divide them. It is probable that, as soon as Polydore
had conceived the idea of his historical work, he com-
menced his notes in his diary (see the preface to the
twenty-seventh book), but we are unable to determine
exactly the date when he did so. . . . As Polydore was
not living in England during the time of Richard III,
nor during the first fifteen years of Henry VII's reign,
he could only describe the events of those periods at
second hand. The independent spirit which is displayed
by Polydore in manipulating his material is in striking
contrast to the English historians of the day, and makes
it specially difficult for us to discover the sources from
which he drew." Then, after remarking on the way in
which generally Vergil's statements bear the test of
documentary evidence. Dr. Busch continues: "We
stand, of course, on more firm ground for the last four
to six years of the King's [Henry VII] life, when
Polydore himself was an eyewitness. The most brilliant
portion of his work is his excellent appreciation of
Henry's character, which concludes it."

Now, in the case of a work more than once printed by
its author and so frequently used from the days of

i82 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Francis Bacon to those of Dr. Busch, it will probably
appear somewhat strange that I come forward at this
time to advocate the need of a new and critical edition ;
but I venture to think I shall be able to convince you
that I do not do so without solid reasons. Many years
ago, whilst looking through the volumes of transcripts
in the Public Record Office made for the nation by the
late Father Stevenson, I came upon his copy of an
English chronicle transcribed from a manuscript in the
Vatican Library. There was nothing — and indeed at the
present day there is nothing — to indicate the nature of
the work, or to suggest the name of its author ; but the
only writer whom I could associate with an English
chronicle coming down to a date as late as the battle of
Flodden was Polydore Vergil himself. On confronting
a printed edition of the Anglica HistoHa with the
Record Office transcript, two things at once became
evident: (i) that the published history was certainly
founded on the manuscript ; and (2) that the differences
were very considerable, and not uninteresting. These
differences were not merely stylistic — hardly a sentence,
indeed, was exactly the same — but substantial ; passages
appearing in the print which were not found in the
manuscript and vice versa : moreover, it was apparent
that the whole print had been edited in a very curious
and systematic way.

Upon finding out this much I wrote to my friend,
Father Erhle, the ever courteous librarian of the
Vatican Library, asking whether he could tell me some-
thing about the original ; how it was described in their
catalogues, and whether there was nay indication of
authorship in the manuscript. In the course of time he
replied, stating that the transcript at the Record Office
was copied from one of two volumes containing Polydore
Vergil's History, and that the work was supposed to be
the original autograph copy corrected by the author
himself. On my next visit to Rome I carefully studied

r

POLYDORE VERGIL'S " HISTORY " 183

the two volumes, with some curious and not uninterest-
ing results.

The volumes in question formed part of the great
collection made by the first Dukes of Urbino, and
mainly brought together with the assistance and under
the influence of their librarian, Federigo Veterani.
Prefixed to the first volume of this manuscript history
is a letter addressed to Duke Francis in 1613 by Anthony
Vergil Batteferi, who describes himself as Polydore
Vergil's grand-nephew. In this document he explains
that having lately found " these volumes of Polydore
Vergil's English History, written in his own hand, and
by his commands safely preserved during civil disorders
in the Firminian Castle," he had determined to offer
them as a not unworthy addition to the celebrated
Urbino Library. He had hesitated, he says, to do so
because he found that this copy differed from the print
in some places and that not a few sentences had been
quite changed; but on consideration he determined
to carry out his first intention, under the belief that
since this was undoubtedly the autograph copy it was
not unworthy to find a place in the ducal library. " For
what," asks the writer of this epistle, " can be more
desired in such a library of manuscripts than originals,
or autographs, as they are called when they are written
by the hand of the author himself ; and among authors
worthy of all esteem surely Polydore must certainly
find a place."

Prefixed to the second volume is a note addressed by
the same Anthony Batteferi to the reader, in which he
begs him to remark that the divisions of the books in
the manuscript are different from those in the printed
copies ; the fourteenth, for example, in the former (i.e.
the manuscript) being the sixteenth in the latter or
print, and so on. " If," he adds, " the corrections made
in this autograph copy, and the changes and additions
made in printing the work, be rightly considered, they

i84 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

will tend to show how the author polished his style, and
will exalt his candour, prudence, and judgment."

That the manuscript has been corrected diligently is
certain. A slight examination of the Vatican manuscript
win show how carefully the author has worked and re-
worked at his first draft. The corrections indeed are so
considerable that at times whole passages, and indeed
pages, have been cancelled and others inserted ; whilst
hardly a single leaf can be found free from some altera-
tion. These changes are all obviously in the hand which
wrote the manuscript, and for this reason the volume
has been regarded as the first and original draft of
Vergil's History made, as his grand-nephew not un-
reasonably supposed, by Polydore himself.

All this, however, is not so clear as it might seem to be
at first sight. There is this strange and puzzling point
about the manuscript : it is most certainly not in the
handwriting of Polydore Vergil at all, nor have the
corrections been made by him. Those who are ac-
quainted with the Urbino manuscripts in the Vatican
Library can have no manner of doubt that these two
volumes were written by the hand of the celebrated
librarian of the Dukes of Urbino, already named,
Federigo Veterani. There is ample material for forming
a correct judgement on the matter ; for in the three and
forty years during which he held ofiice under the first
three Dukes, Federigo, Guidubaldo, and Francesco
Maria I, Veterani copied, with his own hand, sixty
volumes for the ducal library. Of these, eleven are still
extant in the Vatican collection with Veterani's name
attached to them. In this special case, moreover, at
the end of the second volume of the manuscript History
we have the following note in the hand that wrote the
previous pages and corrected them (I translate of course) :
" Memorandum for the nuns of St. Clare at Urbino,
that they carefully preserve this work during the times
pf the wars, &c., and when the troubles are over that

POLYDORE VERGIL'S " HISTORY " 185

they restore it. Here are bound up together twenty-one
books of a manuscript history of England written for
the English king. Also five books of a copy of the said
history. I beg that they may be carefully kept with
other volumes in the venerable convent of the nuns of
St. Glare at Urbino until with God's blessing these wars
come to an end. I, Federigo Ludovico Veterani of
Urbino, have written this whole work {scripsi totum
opus). The fifteenth and last book is signed with a
letter P. Thanks be to God. Amen."

This is definite enough, and it may be taken, therefore,
as certain that Veterani not only wrote this manuscript
of Polydore Vergil's History, but, what is more, cor-
rected it throughout, as if he were correcting his own
original draft. The only suggestion I can offer in
explanation of this is that Vergil some time about the
end of the year 1515, or more probably, as Mr. Brewer
says, in the spring of 15 16, went to Italy. During this
visit he would almost certainly have gone to his native
place, Urbino, and (if I am right in my theory) he then
induced his friend Veterani — his patron's librarian — to
throw into shape the notes he had collected for the great
work on English history he had already projected. This
seems to be the only theory which will account for the
facts. What is certain is (i) that the History claims to
be, and clearly is, Polydore Vergil's ; (2) the manuscript
contains personal indications of his authorship; (3)
the printed editions are based upon this manuscript,
and indeed closely follow it ; while (4) the manuscript
is as certainly written and corrected by Veterani in
such a way as to make it clear that this was the original
draft and no mere copy of a previous draft of the
author. The wars and civil disturbances mentioned by
Veterani help us to guess the time when his share in the
work was finished. The siege of Urbino in September
1516, its capture and subsequent recapture in 1517 by
Duke Francis^ would seem to point to the time when

i86 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Veterani considered it best to conceal some of the
manuscripts of the ducal hbrary in the Convent of Santa
Chiara, especially when we know that many of the
treasures which remained in the palace actually did
perish during those disturbances. This date (15 16-17)
too fits in excellently with the events recorded in the
manuscript history of Henry VIII, which is brought to
a close with the burial of James IV of Scotland after
the battle of Flodden in 1513.

If this supposition that the manuscript represents the
first draft of the subsequently printed History made
from Vergil's notes be correct, the importance of the
manuscript is, from an historical point of view, greatly
enhanced. It represents the author's real view of
persons and events far more certainly than does the
subsequent print, which was unquestionably edited in
view of circumstances, which after the penning of the
draft made it perhaps prudent and politic to tone down
expressions of opinion, or introduce passages reflecting
on individuals who had forfeited the royal favour,
which did not find a place in the original notes. To take
one example, Mr. Brewer, after speaking of Vergil's
imprisonment for writing against the King and Wolsey,
and his subsequent liberation after the latter had
obtained his hat in 1515, says : " Polydore went home
in the spring of 15 16 and took immortal revenge when
he was fairly out of the Cardinal's reach. He sneered at
the Cardinal's birth, sneered at his ingratitude, sneered
at his buildings, sneered at his administration of justice,
sneered at his cardinal's hat," etc. The writer then goes
on to comment on the celebrated passage in the twenty-
seventh book of the printed history of Henry VIII,
which, copied and embelhshed by various writers from
Hall to Froude, has been the foundation of the general
verdict of history as to the great Cardinal. Burnet, for
example, has his fling at Polydore for his character of
the Cardinal, and thinks that he has certainly " sufhci-

POLYDORE VERGIL'S " HISTORY " 187

ently revenged himself on Wolsey's memory " for the
Cardinal's somewhat coarse usage of the cultured
Italian. Upon which Sir Henry Ellis asks: " Who is
there that has studied the history and correspondence
of Wolsey's time but sees the corroboration, in every
part, of the portrait which Polydore Vergil has drawn ?"
In our time this question has been answered in the
negative by one who has studied the history and corre-
spondence of the time, and moreover Mr. Brewer's keen
and sound historical instinct enabled him to divine that
this passage was, if not an insertion, at least intended
merely as an " immortal revenge " upon the memory
of Wolsey. The manuscript helps us to see that this
surmise was in part correct, for not one line of this
bitter invective of the subsequent print finds a place
in the original draft. It was not penned when in 15 16
Polydore found himself in Italy beyond the reach of the
all-powerful Cardinal, nor probably as a mere revenge,
but subsequently, when arranging the original draft for
the press after the fall of Wolsey, the author found that
some caustic reflections on his memory would not make
his work less pleasing to Henry VIII.

I now propose to give some examples of the changes
which were introduced into the text of the History when
it was printed in 1534. I have already spoken of the
letter, dated 1533, which Polydore addressed to the
King as the preface of his work. This letter appears also
in the manuscript, but in a considerably longer form.
It was consequently penned long before the date of the
print, and, what is of greater interest, the manuscript
version enables us to supply some details as to the
composition of the History which have disappeared in
the latter forms. The first portion of the letter, although
presenting great differences between the two versions,
need not call for special remark ; but when the author
comes to speak of the Enghsh histories which had
existed before his time we find that a good deal of the.

i88 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

manuscript version has disappeared altogether in the
print. For example : in the former St. Bede is described
as " a man venerable for the sanctity of his life " ; in
the latter he is simply " homo Anglus " — an EngUsh-
man. Of the following passage in the draft nothing
has found its way into the edited text: " I consider
that of the various annals [which have come down to
us] those written about English affairs by the monks
William of Malmesbury and Matthew Paris should be
accounted true histories. I call those which were
composed of old by monks who were wont to engage in
such writing in Enghsh monasteries mere annals, and
in such records bald statements of events are sometimes
made inconsistent with other statements and not un-
frequently mingled with obvious errors. Reports of
things that have taken place as they were talked about
on the highways were noted down by the monks in
their solitudes from the descriptions of travellers and
from popular rumour which reached them. Such annals,
long neglected and dust-covered, William of Malmesbury
and Matthew Paris have utilized and called their own.
Still from their own histories and from those of foreign
countries that have had relations with England any one
who did not mind the labour could get material for a
proper history. But since, as Pliny says, it is hard to
invest old records with the charm of novelty and to
Hght up the dark spots in history, men have till now
been deterred from writing history, and it might easily
have happened that in the course of time the great deeds
of EngUsh kings and those of this most noble people
would be altogether forgotten. This, O most glorious
King, it was worth striving to prevent, for your kingdom
can beyond question compare favourably with any
other in its religious observances, in its wealth, and in
the power of its sovereigns."

Then follows a passage in the manuscript of which a
mere trace only has survived in the printed edition, and

POLYDORE VERGIL'S " HISTORY " i8g

which, as it deals with the history of Vergil's actual work,
I here venture to translate, although the quotation is
somewhat lengthy. " As soon as I had come to Eng-
land," he writes, " in order not to give myself up to
mere idleness I imposed upon myself the task of writing
the history of the peoples who had inhabited this
celebrated island from the earliest times to our own
days. In this long period the kingdom had grown from
small beginnings, and what it needed was an historian
worthy of its greatness. Thus it happened that I first
began to spend the hours of my night and day in
searching the pages of English and foreign histories in
order to see whether (if I may make use of such an
expression) out of so vast a forest of events I might be
able to cut some fagots with which to warm the work-
shop where so great a work was destined to be done.
What shall I say more? I spent six whole years in
reading these annals and histories, during which,
imitating the bees which laboriously gather their honey
from every flower, I collected with discretion material
proper for a true history. When, on approaching our
own times, I could find no such annals (for indeed by
the careless spirit of our age none such exist), I betook
myself to every man of age, who was pointed out to me
as having been formerly occupied in important and
pubUc affairs, and from all such I obtained information
about events up to the year 1500. From that time —
since I came to England immediately after that date
— I have myself noted down day by day everything of
importance."

I may here, perhaps, be allowed to point out that the
Vatican manuscript clears up a doubt which has rested
upon the exact date of Vergil's coming to England. It
has hitherto been a mere matter of inference. Some
have argued that it was in 1501 ; others, like the writer
in the Dictionary of National Biography, that it was
" possibly in the early part of 1502." This latter date,

190 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

which is that adopted by Dr. Busch, is correct, since
under the year 1502 Vergil expressly says in the manu-
script draft, " In this year I first came to England."

To return to the dedication : at this point a passage
of considerable length has been altogether cancelled in
the draft by the hand of Veterani. Much of the deleted
paragraph is now quite illegible, but with care and
attention the sense of the passage at least can be made
out. It is not uninteresting and is much as follows:
" In this way, when at length I was prepared for writing
my history, I still hesitated to make a beginning, being
fearful lest the very magnitude of the undertaking put
it wholly beyond my powers. Whilst I remained in this
uncertainty of mind, many people — for indeed my
studies were known to every one — thought that I had
finished my work. They most luckily spoke to you, O
King, on the subject, and by this means, as it turned
out, there was given me the very impetus necessary to
carry the work to a conclusion. And, indeed, you may
reaUy be said to have been the true cause of my begin-
ning the work, since at length this is what happened :
when the rumour of my undertaking being finished
reached your ears, most serene Majesty, one day, whilst
conversing with me on hterary matters, you deigned to
ask whether I had entirely concluded my occupation
or task. To this I repHed that in truth I had not even
begun it: whereupon you so encouraged me that,
trusting to the authority of your name, I took up the
heavy and difficult work, hoping that what I did might
prove acceptable to you and to the English people
generally, inasmuch as I was but trying to rescue from
oblivion the fives of the illustrious kings, your ancestors,
and beyond that merely to chronicle the events of your
own reign."

The uncancelled but yet unprinted portion then
continues : " In this way now well prepared for writing,
with God's help I attacked the labour and at length

POLYDORE VERGIL'S " HISTORY " 191

finished it satisfactorily; for I have told the story of
things lately done by you in so elegant a manner that
without doubt the concluding portion of my book will
be more pleasing to my readers than any other. In the
whole work I have not desired or thought of anything
beyond showing a sufficiency of learning : of set purpose
I have made use of a simple style by which light is
best thrown on difficult matters and illustrious deeds
made to appear in greater glory. I have taken care to
set down properly the many names of places and the
surnames of men, which are hardly to be put into Latin,
preferring — [I may remark that this was changed in the
print, and it is often difficult to recognize names of
persons and places in their latinized form] — to write
them thus rather than (as must otherwise happen) to
destroy their meaning ; as to the rest I hope I have done
my best : I have written as an Italian (outsider) and I
have faithfully told everything. As far as I could I
have put away affection, bias, and fear, and have
avoided the blot of partiality as well as the calumnious
reports of evil-wishers. Before beginning to criticize,
will those who desire to do so recall to their minds the
fact that I have laboured only for the good of my
readers as no one before me has attempted to do ? If
they shall find in the work things needing correction
which have escaped me, and this I doubt not — for I am
a man and liable to err — I pray them to occupy their
minds with the good side of my work rather than try
to injure the reputation of my industry. This work of
mine is so far satisfactorily completed that at least,
out of the vast mass of annals, I have prepared material
for others who after me may wish to write our history
in a more elegant way and enrich its diction at their
pleasure."

So much for the introduction. It will be allowed that
from the manuscript draft we learn a good deal of
interest connected with the history of the work. I have.

192 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

of course, made no attempts to compare the texts
systematically beyond a certain point, but I can easily
give examples of substantial differences.

The following passage about Hadrian Castello's
palace in the Borgo in Rome, one of the fine buildings
in the city, which he gave to the Enghsh, has been
altogether, for some not quite obvious reason, omitted
from the print. " In his [i.e. Pius IFs] place," runs the
manuscript, " there was chosen Julian, Cardinal of S.
Peter ad Vincula, a Ligurian by birth, under the name
of Julius II. The three ambassadors of the [Enghsh]
king came to offer his royal congratulations, and
Hadrian di Castello, the bishop of Hereford, whom a
short time before Alexander VI. had made cardinal,
entertained them in his house in Rome. This same
Hadrian the English king translated about this time
from the see of Hereford to that of Bath and Wells.
And Cardinal Hadrian, besides the daily prayers he
offered both for the king and for the whole English
nation, determined to leave a lasting monument to
prove to all men that he was not unmindful of the
benefits he had received from Henry, and that he ever
loved the EngUsh nation. In this mind he gave to the
king the magnificent palace which he had built in Rome
near the Vatican, and he ornamented it with the royal
arms, that people might plainly see that the noble
edifice was dedicated for ever to the Enghsh name."

Again, the following addition in the draft manuscript
to the printed account of the sweating sickness given
in the twenty-sixth book is worth preserving. " This
disease at the time [1485] first pervaded England, and
subsequently it often greatly afilicted the country. At
this time, too [1516] it is not lightly prevalent." I may
here remark that the note " at this time " also points
to the date I have suggested as that of the composition
of the manuscript draft, for the disease again made its
appearance in 1516 and 1517, as we learn from the

POLYDORE VERGIL'S " HISTORY " 193

State papers. *' And certainly," the manuscript con-
tinues, " we should not pass over in silence the fact that
the disease was unknown before the former date [1485].
It began at the beginning of Henry's [i.e. the Seventh]
reign, and although in a short time it ceased its ravages
for a while, it returned towards the close of his rule.
Afterwards, during the four years which elapsed before
the next great outbreak, it was fatal only to those who
neglected proper remedies. The comrnon opinion was
that it was a presage of the severity with which Henry
was to rule his people. But, perchance, the sweating
sickness had another meaning; namely that Henry
would only keep his power by the sweat of his brow,
which certainly was the case. For from the very com-
mencement of his reign he was constantly harassed by
fresh conspiracies against him, and moreover only
escaped danger, ever present from the arms of his
enemies and the rebellions of his subjects, by great
personal labour."

It would be impossible within reasonable limits to
point out even the important changes which have been
made in the printed edition from this first draft. I must
content myself with mentioning one or two that I have
specially noticed in running through the pages of my
notebook. For example : the character of King Henry
VI is given in the draft at greater length than we find
it in the edited text, and it closes with the following
passage, of which only a trace remains : " He was most
patient, and the more he suffered from calamities and
experienced the contumely of his enemies the more he
thanked God, openly saying that these evils had rightly
fallen on him, partly on account of his own sins and
partly because of the offences of his people. With this
personal holiness was united the fulness of the love of
God, by reason of which, even in this life, he was
merited to be known to men for his miracles — for there
are many alive now who have witnessed them and can

o

194 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

give testimony to them. For this reason King Henry
VII rightly, a few years ago, urged Pope Julius II to
number him among the Saints ; but being overtaken
by death he left this matter to be completed by his son
Henry VII I." The print, I would note, has merely,
in place of this last sentence—" but being overtaken
by death he could not bring the matter to a conclusion."
It seems not unlikely that in 1533, when the manuscript
was ready for the press, the King would not care to be
reminded of this charge left him by his father.

An instance of a minute but curious mistake which
has been perpetuated through the print is worth giving.
In 1488, according to the edited text, Henry VII passed
Christmas at Norwich. Bacon, in his history of the
reign, has followed Polydore Vergil, but his recent
editor, Spedding, has pointed out that this date is
certainly incorrect, as the king was elsewhere at Christ-
mas, and that the " Heralds' " account, printed by
Leland (" coll." iv), gives Easter as the time when
Henry remained at Norwich for the festival on his
journey from Edmundsbury to Walsingham. It is
satisfactory to find that the original draft has the
correct date — " festa paschalia peregit."

I may here note that in editing the print Vergil has
struck out almost every sentence relating to the char-
acter, etc., of the bishops, which the draft usually gives
upon their appointment. I do not profess to understand
why this should be so, but the omissions are generally,
I think, to be regretted. For example, on the death
of Archbishop Henry of Canterbury, who is called in
the draft by his surname " Archbishop Henry Dene,"
Warham was appointed. The edited text merely
chronicles the fact, but the manuscript goes on to
describe him as a man of great modesty who " step by
step mounted to the highest dignity in the English
Church, for which, by reason of his learning and prud-
ence, he was considered both by the king and his

r

POLYDORE VERGIL'S " HISTORY " 195

council to be most fitted of all " other churchmen. To
the see of London William Baron was promoted, a
" man learned in the law and endowed with an acute
judgment."

I can hardly conclude these brief notes of difference
between the draft manuscript version of Vergil's History
and the printed text without some reference to his
characterization of the reign of Henry VII. Dr. Busch
considers that " the most brilliant portion of his work
is his excellent appreciation of Henry's character, which
concludes it." But here, too, the editing is considerable.
In the first place the print somewhat exaggerates the
pious practices of the king, and the picture of Henry
VII daily " hearing two or three Masses " and loving
to attend frequent sermons, and " on Sundays and
festivals himself reciting the Divine office," etc., which
is derived from the edited text, in the draft merely
appears in the statement that " he daily most reverently
was present at Mass," which was the common practice
of most practical Christians in those days. Moreover,
the print has suppressed the following passage with
which the account. of Henry's character ends: " But
the vice of avarice alone, to which (as we have previously
shown) he was much addicted, afterwards overshadowed
these great virtues. For this vice, which even in a
private individual is a great evil, ever warping the
character, in a ruler must be looked on as most detest-
able, inasmuch as it destroys and perverts that trust,
justice, and uprightness by which a kingdom is ruled."
I may note that this portion of the manuscript has been
twice struck out and rewritten in the draft. It is,
therefore, a most deliberate judgement.

It will be noticed that the author refers to something
he had already said about the king's tendency to
avarice. This passage is to be found in the manuscript
on folio 269, and is, of course, also left out in the print.
It is somewhat lengthy, and so I will not inflict it upon

196 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

my audience, but will content myself with saying that
it reflects in plain terms upon the harshness with which
Henry VII ruled his people during the latter years of
his reign.

I trust that I have convinced my hearers that in the
Vatican MSS. (Urb. 497-498) there is material for a new
edition of the very important Anglica Historia of
Polydore Vergil.

A SKETCH OF MONASTIC CONSTITU-
TIONAL HISTORY*

THE Count de Montalembert's work needs no recom-
mendation. It might, perhaps, have been thought
that the subject was too remote from the main interests
of the present day to make any new edition possible.
The fact, however, that one is called for is the best
evidence of the continued popularity of The Monks of
the West.

In this introduction I propose to spend no words on
the work itself, or on its author, to whom as a monk I
cannot but feel the utmost gratitude, since he, a man
of the world, has so thoroughly understood, and, as an
artist, so graphically pictured, the services rendered by
the Monastic Order to mankind. My purpose is to
occupy the space allotted to me in dealing with a matter
which did not engage Montalembert's attention, and
which, perhaps, has not hitherto been sufficiently con-
sidered. The subject, which I may call from analogy
Monastic Constitutional History, will be found to present
many features of interest.

Writing, as Montalembert did, with the design of
presenting to the world a popular account of the work-
ings of the monastic system in Europe, as exemplified in
the lives of those monks whose names are chiefly known
to us in the history of nations, it did not enter into the
scope of his work to give any definite account of this

* Written as an Introduction to a reprint of Montalembert's
Monks of the West^ August 1895.

197

198 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

side of monastic history. It is obvious that during a
past which covers fourteen hundred years, the principles
of monastic organization will have varied to meet
various and var3dng conditions of time and place. It
would seem desirable that those who may wish to
understand the full bearing of Western monachism
should have at hand some consecutive account of the
purely constitutional side of monastic government. In
this behef, the chief part of the present introduction is
devoted to a sketch of the changes of policy and govern-
ment inaugurated at various stages in the history of the
Order. But to make this inteUigible it is first necessary
to take into account the general principles which
underlie the whole theory of monasticism.

It is imdeniable that the monastic order is a great
fact in the history of European civihzation. Augustine
in England, Poniface in Germany, Ansgar in Scandin-
avia, Swithbert and Willibrord in the Netherlands,
Rupert and Emmeran in the territories of Austria,
Adalbert in Bohemia, Gall and Columban in Switzerland
and Eastern France — all are names of monks who must
be regarded as the first to lead the nations from the
darkness of paganism and savagery to the light of the

r Christian faith and the blessings of a civilized life. It is
not too much to say that few nations of the modern
world have been converted to Christianity, or tutored
in the arts of peace, except through the medium of
monasticism.

\^ In view of this broad fact, it is impossible to doubt
that the monastic system must possess some strange
power, some special gift of influencing bodies of men. A
glance at the monuments which these great men have
left behind them will reveal the secret of their power,
and the principle in the working of which they assured
their success. Canterbury, Fulda, Salzburg, St. Gall,
and the thousand abbeys which existed, or still exist,
in Europe, all testify to the monastic hfe which the

A SKETCH OF MONASTIC HISTORY 199

apostles of the Western nations carried with them into
the countries they evangehzed. The monastery was the
pulpit of the monk-apostle, and his power for good lay
not in his words chiefly, but in the example of his
monastic life.

This is the secret of the conversion of European '
peoples. St. Augustine, for example, came with forty
companions, ail trained in the same " school of the
Divine service." They landed in England, winning the
country to Christ with cross and banner, and with the
songs of the liturgy on their lips ; they pray, they live
the life of the Church in contemplation and in labour. /
Their names are for the most part unknown, except /
some few who are later selected to found similar centres )
in other parts of the country. History hardly tells us j
that they preached and taught ; they lived and worked |
and died, and behold the peoples among whom they J
dwelt were Christian. It is -the same elsewhere. Even \
in his martyrdom and death St. Boniface associated
with himself thirty of his monastic brethren.

It is an old truth — as old, at least, as the days of
Solomon — that the heart does not long for what the eye
does not see. Words are indeed powerful when they
touch the springs of memory, or rouse the feelings in
regard to some well-known and well-loved object, but
they are powerless to fire the imagination as can the
actual presence of the object itself. And if this is so in \
regard to matters with which we are naturally sym- /
pathetic, it is much more true in respect to what is /
repugnant to our natural tendencies, or what requires \
an effort to be understood or to be put into practice. ^

There is nothing more noble, but at the same time n
nothing harder to nature or less likely to fire mere ^
natural enthusiasm, than the Qhrisiianiife,_ Faith in j^
the unseen, submission of the intellect and of the will, '
war to be ever waged against the passions — " the cross, '
to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Gentiles

200 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

foolishness " — these are the framework of the Christian
rule of conduct. There is Uttle here Hkely to find a
response in the untuned nature of man. True it is that
the godlike spark still slumbers in the soul, however
fallen and depraved, but it is buried too deep for bare
words to reach, and is too dull for the breath of argu-
ment or exhortation to kindle it into life. The burning
fire of enthusiasm and heroic self-devotion can alone
reanimate it and make it burst into a living flame.
Eloquence, even when supported by learning, education,
energy, and influence, is not the means by which the
conversion of nations is brought about. They may
concur, they may bring the work to a conclusion, they
may rouse the attention and excite the curiosity, but
it is the fife of the preacher, or rather the fact of his
aiming at a higher ideal than that to which he invites
his hearers, that touches the heart, subdues the will, and
finally leads the intellect to accept the faith of Christ.
It was not the learning of the Apostles, but the fact
that they had left all to follow their Master, that drew
after them the largest hearts and intellects of the empire
of Rome.

The Monk is, therefore, pre-eminently the Apostle.
But his apostolate is not exercised to its full extent as
an individual. A single man, though he be a saint, is
but one. He comes and he goes ; and although he draw
all after him Uke the whirlwind, or flash into the dark-
ness as hghtning, passing fron east to west, he fives his
'little space and is gone. Even a Francis Xavier could
not convert a nation or build up a Church in India or
Japan. The Christian fife is not merely the fife of an
' idividual, it is the life of a society, and as such it cannot
>e illustrated in its relation and practical workings by
'le example of any one person. To establish a Christian
nation it is necessary to present for the imitation of the
people who are to compose it, not the bare laws and
regulations of the Church, but an actual pattern of a

A SKETCH OF MONASTIC HISTORY 201

Christian sodety. This is found pre-eminently in the
rnbnastic life; and it is the monastic order, therefore,
as distinguished even from the religious order, which has
proved itself the apostle of the nations. ^

To fully understand the position of monasticism in
the early ages of the Church it is necessary to draw a
distinction between the Religious Orders, as now
understood, and the Monastic Order. Both, indeed, set
before themselves as an aim the realization of the
Gospel counsels; both, too, have much in common as
to principles, traditions, and usages. But while the
former are societies, instituted at various periods in
later ages to meet accidental needs of the Church, taking
up the religious life as a means towards carrying out
that special end, the latter is merely a systematized
form of a life according to the Gospel counsels, existing,
for its own sake, as a full expression of the Church's
true and perfect life. From Antony and Pachomius it
passed into the hands of the great lawgiver of Western
monachism, St. Benedict, and assumed under him that
final shape which adapts itself so marvellously to the
requirements of each succeeding age, and knows no
better reform than that of a return to the simple
^inciples__of his broad-minded monastic regulations.

This life, so simple yet so wide in its conception ; this
code, so discreet yet so firm; this " school of Divine
service," so homely and yet so sublime in its teachings,
is founded upon three chief elements — the vows, the
cloister, and the Divine Office. By the first, the monk ,
dedicates himself to aim at a life of perfection ; by the
second, he separates himself from actual contact with i
the world and all that might interfere with his renuncia- |
tion of it, to unite himself to the family of his monastic I
home; and, by the third, in continual and united /
intercourse with his Creator in the choir service, he
realizes that kingdom of God upon earth which is the
visible form of the Christian revelation.

\

202 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

I St. Benedict instituted three vows. The first, and
what may be regarded as the note of St. Benedict's
legislation for the monastic order, is stability. This is
the key to the spirit of monasticism as interpreted in
his rule, for by it the monastery is erected into a family,
to which the monk binds himself for ever ; acting only
through it, sharing in all the joys and sorrows of its
members, giving and receiving that help, comfort, and
strength which come from mutual counsel, and the free
interchange of thoughts and desires, and watched over
by a suj^rior, who is the father of his family.

The second is the vow of conversion, by which the
monk solemnly renounces the three concupiscences, and
binds himself to aim at the perfection of the evangelical
counsels and a Hfe of perfect charity. In so far as he is
able to fulfil this by God's grace, he becomes the man of
God, the perfect Christian.

Thirdly, the monk binds himself by a vow of obedience
to an entire subjection of his will to the command of his
superior, and to the observance of all those means of
hoUness supplied by the rule and its practices of labour
and mortification.

The monastic ideal demands seclusion, and this not
merely as a means of avoiding the temptations of the
world. All great undertakings are matured in solitude.
It is not in the hurry and confusion arid excitement
which accompany execution, but in the stillness and
calm silence of preparation, that the strength which
does great deeds is accumulated and concentred. The
fury of destruction and the ravages of extermination
may be the work of a moment, but the task of healing
and of building up is a slow process, and a labour of
time and silence. The monk undertakes a great work
in the calm and peace of soUtude, that of following out
the counsels of perfection. The " workshop," where he
makes use of " the instruments " by which this is to be
achieved, is, says St. Benedict, " the enclosure of the

A SKETCH OF MONASTIC HISTORY 203

monastery and stability in the community," and the
soUtude is not that of the hermit but the seclusion of the
cenobite, or monk living in common with others, which
is the " fortissimum genus monachorum." Under such
circumstances, obedience, paternal care, discipline,
fraternal charity, and the calm privacy of family life,
are so many guarantees for the monk's perseverance.

The central figure of this society was its Divine King. \
The monastery was a palace, a court, and the Divine \
Office was the daily service and formal homage rendered ■
to the Divine Majesty. This, the opus Dei,^w3iS the
crown of the whole structure of the monastic edifice. 1
It was pre-eminently the work of the monk, which was
to take precedence of every other employment, and to |
v/hich monastic tradition has ever given a marked 1
solemnity. Day by day, and almost hour by hour, the
monk, purified by his vows, enclosed from the world, i
seeks to renew the wonderful familiarity with his God j
and Father, which our first parents forfeited, but which, /
through our second Adam, is restored in the Christian /
Church. In a word, the Divine Ofiice is the soul of the/
monastic life.

Such, in brief, is the fundamental, the vivifying idea
of the monastic life. From this point of view it is
nothing more than the Christian life of the Gospel
counsels conceived in its full simplicity and perfection.
It has no determinate object in view beyond this; it
has no special systems or methods. The broad law of
Christian liberty is its only guide; it is neither strict
nor lax; it aims neither at too high things nor is it
content with any low standard of conduct; but it
adapts itself to the workings of grace in each individual
soul, and gains its end when it has brought that indi-
vidual soul to the highest perfection of which its natural
and supernatural gifts render it capable.

Here then lies the distinction between the Monastic
and what we have called specifically the Religious

204 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Orders, namely, that the latter have essentially some
special work or aim, in view of which many of the
observances of the monastic life, and some of its chief
characteristics, have to give way altogether, or be forced
to take a subordinate place. To this special work all
must accommodate themselves, and of necessity it will
demand special views, special systems of training,
special spiritual and scientific methods, and in so far
must interfere with the development of Christian social
sanctity, which is the scope of monasticism.

It is that this specially fitted the Monastic Order for
the work of national conversion which it effected in
Europe. A religious of any kind has without doubt a
special power in effecting conversions. Not only his
state, and the special gifts of character which are the
natural results of the training received to fit him for the
reUgious life, but the mere fact of his being a religious,
has a power of impressing the mind of those to whom
he addresses himself. There is, moreover, a power in
united numbers altogether greater than that represented
by the sum of the individual units. A corporation has
its own weight of authority, and a religious who is
attached to such a body acts with the authority and
influence which naturally belongs to it.

The monks possess many characteristic qualities
calculated to exercise a special influence over the minds
and hearts of men. First, the monk is secluded from the
world, and must be able to lead a hfe of silence. What
a power does not this give him over the man of the
world, who is perhaps the very slave of the little
pleasures, the frivolous vanities, the busy interests, the
all-engrossing ambitions which the monk leaves and
ignores. The power to withdraw is a mark of strength,
and we worship strength in spite of ourselves. The man
who can show himself perfectly independent of us at
once places himself in a position of superiority, and the
feeling of inferiority is the first step towards submission.

A SKETCH OF MONASTIC HISTORY 205

Again, there is a simplicity about the true monastic
character. One thoroughly imbued with that spirit has
no end to serve save only the one. His looks, his ways,
his speech, bear the impress of that large liberty of
spirit which flows from a childlike obedience to the
inspirations of the inner life. His tone marks the
candour, open-heartedness, and consideration for others
which are the result of habits formed by his family life.
If he lacks calculating shrewdness, an art which the
world affects but despises, by this his way is opened to
the only sure road to the human heart. He who has
won the heart of a nation may make its laws.

Further, the monk possesses the great secret of
absence. He does not intrude nor mar his work by over-
presuming on his influence. In spiritual matters, more
especially, little good and much harm is done by inter-
fering between man and his conscience, and by fore-
stalling the workings of Divine grace. The monk, too,
dwells in a world that has lasted long. By his traditions
he has learnt the Divine art of patience, and can wait
in peace and faith for God's own time.

In the monastic order the action of the individual is
sunk in that of the corporate body of the community
to which he belongs. It is thus not any single man's
peculiar gifts or talents, but the united reputation of a
body of unknown men which is the power brought by
the monastic order to such a work as that of a people's
conversion. Not the men who compose the monastic
corporation, but the life they live, is the exciting and
attractive force. Individual members pass away, but
the self-same life goes on, and the self-same influence
continues to manifest itself on those brought within its
sphere.

History teaches us that the practical Romans effected
the subjugation of countries to their empire, not so much
by the force of arms as by means of the gradual influence
of the " colonies " they planted among the conquered

2o6 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

( races. These bodies of men were the real but unobserved
conquerors of the world. They brought with them
j Roman laws and customs, Roman arts and civihzation,
( and by living among the people induced them of their
own accord to adopt the manners, the language, and
name of their conquerors. If the bishops and clergy are
the rulers and governors of the Church's empire, and
the religious orders its armies and its garrisons, the work
effected by the monastic order may not unaptly be
compared to that of the Roman colonies. By the mere
fact of settling among a people, and exhibiting to them
the excellence and beauty of the Christian life, they
won them insensibly to adopt the Christian creed and
name, as by exhibiting the arts of peace in operation
before the eyes of the uncultivated races of the Western
world the monks taught them the value of a civilized life.
It has already been remarked that the monastery was
a realization of the ideal of Christianity. It is the spirit
of the perfect Gospel teaching, embodied in tangible and
visible reahties. As a man by his appearance, his
features, nay, by his very presence, testifies in a certain
degree to the spirit which is within him, so the very
walls of a monastery should speak to the beholder and
draw him within the circle of its influence. It has,
moreover, a voice of its own, which speaks a language
all can understand, and has a weight and authority
; unknown to mere individual speech. That voice is Jthe
Xpivine Office. In this external language of the monastic
life the monk speaks, not only to his Creator, but to his
fellow men as well. The perpetual round of prayer and
praise is something more than an intercessory power.
It, rightly understood, is the medium of intercourse
between the monastic body and the people in the midst
of which it dwells. No one is so dull that he cannot
understand the faith in the unseen, the hope of another
world, and the burning love of God which are mani-
fested in the perennial sacrifice and song of praise of

A SKETCH OF MONASTIC HISTORY 207

the monastic choir. Through the individual preaching
of the monk, through his works, through his words of
counsel and of comfort, through his hospitality, through
his dealings with his fellow-men in all the varied rela-
tions of life, he exercises some portion of his apostolate ;
but the choir of the monastery is the monk's real pulpit,
and the daily Office his most efficacious sermon.

One who was not called to the monastic life has said,
" It is in the cloister, and in the bosom of the sanctuary,
where they passed their lives, that the monks have
exercised the power of attraction which has drawn to
them almost the entire world. The whole Church has,
in a manner, established itself upon the monastic order,
draws from it its spirit of virtue, and comes to it to
renew in men's souls the worship and respect due to
God."

Such, in brief, are the general principles upon which
the monastic order was founded and has flourished for
so many centuries. The illustrious author of The Monks
of the West has described in his graphic pages the lives
and works of many of the great men who, in virtue of
the strength gained in the following out of these prin-
ciples, have rendered the greatest service to the civiliza-
tion, no less than to the religion, of the nations of
Western Europe. The account he presents in his pages
of the power and influence of monachism in the West,
without pretending to be a systematic and scientific
history, is perhaps even on that account more useful to
enable the ordinary reader to acquaint himself with
that interesting story. Modern research and criticism
would have caused the Count de Montalembert, had he
now been revising his great work, sometimes to modify,
or indeed in some few instances to rectify, the con-
clusions to which his studies at that time led him. But
in the main the carefully drawn and life-like picture
would still stand as his mind's eye saw it, and his
master-hand sketched it, thirty years ago.

2o8 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

It has been before noted that the monastic order
existed in the early ages of the Church with the sole
end of carrying out the counsels of the Gospel. This
unity of object resulted in an essential unity, although
in practice different monastic bodies followed out this
end by the observance of a multiplicity of rules. To
make this original position of Western monasticism
clear, it is necessary to consider the matter somewhat
more fully. Mabillon states that the end of the monastic
state was always considered to be in brief the personal
sanctification of the individual, intercessory prayer for
the wants of others, and, when charity or some special
necessity required, works undertaken for the good of
the Christian commonwealth. In the time of St. Jerome
and St. Augustine the monastic life was well recognize^
as an integral part of the Church's system. Not only
was there no established code or rule to which all who
desired to be monks were bound to conform themselves,
but it was well understood that an individual might
pass from this or that house to any other in which the
monastic life was being led. In other words, the actual
rule as a discipHnary code was altogether subordinated
to the end, and this rule and method of life depended in
great measure upon the will of the ruler of the monastery.
Hence in many places one rule gave place to another ac-
cording as circumstances changed, and not infrequently
in one and the same place two or more rules were combined
together; thus, according to St. Gregory of Tours, in
the monastery of Ainay, they " followed the rules of
St. Basil, Cassian, Caesarius, and other Fathers, taking
and using, that is, what seemed proper to the conditions
of time and place."

In this respect, strange as it may seem, in days when
our conceptions of conventual life are established upon
ideas drawn from the example of modern religious
institutes, the introduction of the Benedictine rule was
never intended to divide off those who followed it from

A SKETCH OF MONASTIC HISTORY 209

the rest of the monastic body. The clerical order in
the Church was regarded as one, though subject in
minor matters to different disciplinary regulations in
different parts of the Church. The canons of councils
were for the clerical body what monastic rules were for
monks. In the same way the monks of the West were
one body, though following different rules, and there
was no thought of the followers of St. Benedict forming
an exclusive congregation or order, in the modem
signification of those words. For the better carrying out
of his ideal St. Benedict drew up a code of laws, charac-
terized by a wide and wise discretion. To secure the
end more certainly, those who desired to walk in the
path of the Gospel counsels under his guidance, promised
a life-long obedience. It was the first introduction of a
" profession " for life, " according to the rule " ; and
it was known to the monk who " wished to fight under
the law," that, as the rule says, " from that day it was
not lawful for him to withdraw his neck from the yoke
of the rule." The result of this introduction was two-
fold: on the one hand, it established firmly the per-
petuity of the family life, that " stability in the
community " which has since become the characteristic
mark of monasticism ; and on the other, for the only
will of the abbot or superior it substituted a code of
laws by which his government was to be guided. Never-
theless the rule itself shows that, though St. Benedict
required obedience to his code of regulations, he never
intended to forbid other customs and practices. In fact,
he expressly refers his followers to the rule of St. Basil
and others for further guidance. In the seventh and
eighth centuries monks were not known as exclusive
followers of Benedict, or Caesarius, or Columban, but as
members of the monastic order; and St. Benedict's
rule itself is not called the rule of this or that monastery,
but the Regula Monachorum — the rule of monks. And
although, in accordance with the monastic spirit, many

210 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

a practice survived and many an observance was
retained, which would be sought for in vain in the rule
of St. Benedict, this came in fact to be the only recog-
nized code whereby the life of every monastery in the
West was ruled. Any one who will read the rule of St.
Columban or St. Caesarius will fully understand how
this came to pass. The former is marked by rigid aus-
terity in silence, in food, and in every kind of external
mortification. The simplicity of its fundamental con-
ception cannot be exceeded. It may be resumed in one
sentence, " that a man may always depend on the word
of another " (Cap. ix) : a principle sound indeed in
itself, but still to pass from the influence of St. Columban
to that of St. Benedict was a transition from the un-
certain and the vague to the reign of law. In fact,
neither the code of St. Caesarius nor that of St. Columban
is really a rule of life at all, the whole direction depending
upon a discretion which might or might not be wisely
exercised. That St. Benedict's legislation should have
superseded all others was in the very nature of things
inevitable. The difference of tone and form between his
rule and that of others is unmistakable ; and, however
deep and intense the piety which breathes in the Regula
Coenohialis which goes under the name of St. Columban,
it is a rehef to pass from its crude expositions of monastic
discipUne to the grave and noble laws of the Roman
monk. Under these circumstances it is not wonderful
that by the end of the eighth century, not merely had
St. Benedict's rule superseded all others, but in France
the very memory of any other code had so completely
perished that it could be gravely doubted whether
monks of any kind had existed before the time of this
great monastic legislator, and whether there could be
any other monks but Benedictines.

But it is necessary again to emphasize the fact that
even here the spirit of exclusivism — that very negation
of the whole Benedictine spirit — had no place. It is a
failure to recognize this truth which has, for example.

r

A SKETCH OF MONASTIC HISTORY 211

led many writers astray on the question of the rule
followed at Jarrow and Wearmouth. They read that
St. Benet Biscop collected the customs of seventeen
monasteries, and argue that he must have composed a
rule for his houses out of all these. Those who realize
the Benedictine spirit and practice will understand that
this selection of the customs of other monasteries is in
no way inconsistent with the full observance of the rule
of St. Benedict, and they will have no difficulty in
telling what that " rule " is which St. Bede himself
needed to designate by no more definite term than The
Rule. Those not versed in these matters will perhaps
take the authority of Alcuin, who was an intimate
friend of the monks of Jarrow and Wearmouth, and
who from residence there was perfectly competent to
speak on the matter. After exhorting them to keep
with the utmost diligence " the observance of regular
life " which the " holy Fathers Benet and Ceolfrid
established among you," he continues: " And let the
rule of St. Benedict be often read in the gatherings of
the brethren, and let it be explained in the native
tongue, so that it may be understood by all. According
to the instruction of which let every one correct his own
life, so that what you have vowed to God before the
altar may be inviolably kept." V

The rule of St. Benedict having been commonly \
recognized as the code for all monks throughout the \
West, it was inevitable that some sort of union between i
monasteries should come into existence. Each monastic /
family according to the rule is a separate unit, wholly /
distinct, and with an independent life of its own. These
units were brought together in the great assembly of
Aix-la-Chapelle, in a.d. 817, which, under the guidance
of St. Benedict of Aniane, passed a number of rules for
the better regulation of monastic life.* This assembly

* I have great difficulty in thinking that the document printed
in Migne, T. 99, col. 739 seq., is correctly attributed to St. Simpert,
Bishop of Augsburg. That it proceeds from one who was both

212 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

was no sudden resolution, but had long been designed.
It is noteworthy that the idea of this gathering did not
spring from the minds of men of Prankish race, nor from
the ranks of those Enghsh strangers who for a century
had played so great a part in the evangehzation and
civilization of the German races, and who in the old
Christian land of the Franks had raised ecclesiastical
life from the degradation into which it had sunk. It
was not that these men did not understand the value
of organization, for it was an instrument they had used
for laying the foundations of the Christian Church in
Central Europe. It was not that as monks they were
actuated by any small or grudging spirit, which impelled
them to shut themselves up within the narrow circle
of their own inherited traditions. They themselves went
to seek in the monasteries of Italy for observance likely
to benefit them and supplement their own practice;
they were ready, under conditions, to use the help of
those with whom they could have had little natural
sympathy, as is evidenced by Alcuin making use of St.
Benedict of Aniane for Cormery. They were essentially
practical men, and unquestionably their action most
effectually prepared the way for the meeting at Aix.
But the assembly itself was designed by men actuated
by a wholly different spirit — men who, in the reign of
Charlemagne, had been kept in due subordination by
that great ruler, and who had been employed by him
with discretion, but who, under his worthy but weak-
minded son, Lewis the Pious, became masters of the
situation, and in the intrigues of the court held in their
hands all the reins of power. These were the Goths of
Aquitaine, a gifted race, but not capable, as the reign
of Lewis shows, of supporting the weight of empire.

bishop and abbot is certain ; but it seems no less certain that its
title and its attribution date only from the year 1550. It suits per-
fectly the spirit of the time from 814 to 816, but not, as it seems
to me, 802, for instance.

A SKETCH OF MONASTIC HISTORY 213

The prime agent, so far as the monastic movement of
the time is concerned, was Benedict of Aniane, a man
whose influence may be traced in the whole subsequent
history of the Benedictine Order. Just as he was alien
in race from the dominant Franks, so also he differed
from the Anglo-Saxon in that, though schooled in a
Benedictine monastery, he still regarded the rule of St.
Benedict with something of impatient contempt, as not
sufficiently rigid and austere. Time and experience,
however, without changing his nature or effacing the
characteristic traits of his race, brought him a more
tempered and balanced judgement, and to this he was
helped by the very breadth of St. Benedict's own
conception of the monastic life.

Benedict of Aniane early initiated on a small scale
in his native land the scheme which he fully matured
in later years. He was appointed by Lewis Visitor-
General of the monasteries ib the kingdom of Aquitaine.
History does not record in detail the steps he took to
further his designs, nor the measure of his success ; but
by the death of Charlemagne in a.d. 814, and the
succession of Lewis to the Empire, he was placed in a
position to carry his plans into execution. He was
already past middle life, and no time was lost. The rapid-
ity with which events succeeded one another shows that
the whole scheme v/as already matured. Benedict had
complete influence over the mind of the new Emperor,
and there was no one whose word was so weighty in all
affairs as that of the monk. Suitors of every grade,
secular as well as ecclesiastical, came to understand that
their request was granted if they could but win the
good word of Benedict. Beyond, possibly, securing
power for men of his own Gothic race, Benedict forebor^
to use his influence for furthering any pohcy of state,
but gave his attention to plans upon which he had
already set his heart for a monastic revival.

Not far from the imperial palace at Aix there rose

V

214 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

as by enchantment, in the course of a year or two, the
monastery which Lewis built for his monk, Benedict.
Here, as example is better than precept, were to be
gathered the choicest spirits amongst his friends, and
its thirty monks, with their abbot, were to form the
model monastery upon which the numerous ancient
houses scattered through the broad dominions of the
Carolingian Empire were to reconstitute their lines.
Hither might stranger monks come at the bidding of
their abbots to inform themselves of the observances of
Inde, and carry them back for adoption in their own
houses.

"^-^ -Benedict's ideas were perfectly clear and definite.

/ Every monastery and every monk in all his master's
realms was to be like to himself and his. He aimed at a
cast-iron system of uniformity, and herein lies the
essential antagonism of spirit between Benedict of
Aniane and the great Benedict.

The Assembly of 817 must certainly have been one of
the most remarkable of the numerous gatherings in the
hey-day of the Carolingian Empire. Already, in 816, a
great meeting had settled, with all the weight of imperial
authority, the rule of life for the secular clergy, and
especially for those living in common. The meeting of
the abbots and monks was attended with every pomp
and circumstance calculated to impress the imagination.
At this general assembly of his people, Lewis associated
with himself in his Empire his first-born, Lothair, and
crowned him Emperor, whilst he declared his two other
sons kings of Aquitaine and Bavaria, carrying out that
division of the Empire which was to be afterwards the
source of such distress and fatal discord. From these
matters of high estate Lewis passed at once to the great
concern of his favourite Benedict, and the issue of the
meeting of the loth July 817 is recorded in a series of
resolutions, which touch the whole range of the monastic
life. Benedict's object was to secure that all monasteries

A SKETCH OF MONASTIC HISTORY 215

should be reduced to such a uniformity in all things that
it might seem as though " all had been taught by one
single master in one single spot." There was designed
to be uniformity in the quantity of food and drink,
uniformity in the time of rising and going to rest,
uniformity in their church services and their choir
ceremonies, uniformity in the length and cut of the
habit ; in a word, absolute uniformity in everything.

It is clear from the documents that exist that Benedict
was able to obtain assent to some only of the points of
observance on which he had set his heart. Many he was
obliged to give up, to secure, as his biographer and
admirer says, " any common unity, and out of con-
sideration for the weaknesses of others." What was
agreed upon, however, was to be observed strictly. But
the means taken to secure this were certainly not such
as would have recommended themselves to the advisers
and friends of Lewis's father, the great Charles, and
they must have been the outcome of the counsels of
Benedict himself, and of the people of his race, who were
now supreme at court. By the imperial orders inspectors
were to be placed in every monastery to see whether
what had been ordered was in fact observed, and to
train those who were ignorant of the new mode of
hfe.

Such were the plans of Benedict, but they passed hke
a summer's dream. His scheme of a rigid uniformity
among the monasteries of the Empire, secured by the
appointment of himself as General, aided by an agent
or inspector in each house — an idea wholly alien to the
most elementary conception of Benedictine life — met
with the fate it deserved. But in the customs thus
imposed upon the monasteries by Lewis the Pious there
was much that was very generally recognized as good
and helpful, and adopted even beyond the confines of
his Empire. It was instinctively felt that some code
supplementary to the rule was needed, and in these

2i6 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

capitula of Aix may be recognized a draft of what are
now called constitutions, declaratory of the rule.

It is not to be supposed, because Benedict of Aniane
died before his hopes had been reahzed, and because his
plans for monastic management were rendered im-
possible by the later confusions of Lewis's reign, that
therefore his action produced no effect. On the contrary,
it sent a thrill of life through the monastic system of
the Empire. Everywhere it awoke a desire to rise to
the requirement of the time, to aim at the best possible
realization of the duties of the monastic state, and this
naturally produced effects visible beyond the sphere of
religion. It is, perhaps, too readily assumed, because
such vast progress, especially in the revival of letters,
was made in the reign of Charlemagne, that, therefore,
the whole work was done. Far from it : the masters and
the pupils in the great central schools could then mani-
pulate their Latin and write with a correctness which
indicates an astonishing progress from the state of
things fifty years before; but the great bulk of the
manuscripts of even the later years of Charlemagne show
that the ancient barbarisms had not disappeared, and
that the ninth century, so generally regarded as an age
of ruin and decay, was in truth, so far as letters are
concerned, a time of continued progress. In that period
a general level was attained which in Charlemagne's
time could be reached only by the masters of learning.
And if this be so, it is due to the activity generally
prevaiUng in the monastic schools, an activity which, if
in itself no certain criterion of excellence in discipline,
at least raises the presumption that those amongst
whom it prevailed were not altogether lost in spiritual
torpor, but were animated with something of that
heavenly fire of charity which must overflow in benefits
to others.

In our own country of England we find the next
rnovement in monastic government, It has been

I»

A SKETCH OF MONASTIC HISTORY 217

assumed, without sufficient consideration and know-
ledge, that the monastic life was practically extinct in
England in the early days of the tenth century, surviving
only in a few old men, who mumbled their matins in
Glastonbury, and that the Benedictine rule was imported
afresh — a foreign exotic — all complete from Fleury or
from Ghent, whether by Dunstan or Odo, Ethelwold
or Oswald, it matters not. History teaches us that the
monastic revival in England at this period was essentially
English in its origins and characteristics. If in the
large-minded spirit of St. Benedict men went to learn
the customs of Ghent and of Fleury, their mission did
not take place till the close of those ten silent years
Dunstan passed as abbot of Glastonbury, removed from
all secular cares, and building up the spiritual edifice of
his rehgious life. It was not until he had made his own
trial and experience, and had formed men of his own
kith and kin, and was thus ready to prove and approve,
to accept and assimilate, or put aside as unfit for men
of his race, what foreign monastic life could show, that
he trusted his monks on their mission abroad.

After five and twenty years of practice, when the
times were favourable in every sense, and Dunstan
himself held the see of Canterbury, St. Ethelwold
brought forth that " monastic Concordia Regitlaris of
the English nation," which described and prescribed
one customary use for the whole of England. The
keynote of the Concordia is an intense spirit of nation-
ality. This was only to be expected, in view of the
political circumstances of a time when the land exulted
in the reign of " Edgar the Glorious," " governor,"
** ruler," " king," " monarch," " basileus " of the whole
of this isle of Albion, assisted by " his band of heroes."
But here, too, it would be a mistake to imagine that any
narrow spirit of exclusivism would be allowed. The
whole ecclesiastical life of the nation was to be regener-
ated by inspirations largely drawn from the great days

2i8 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

of the renewed Western Empire, from the legislation
of Charlemagne, and of the early days of Lewis the
Pious. It was no mere copy, but a thorough assimilation
of what might wisely and safely be adopted by the
advisers of Edgar. It is in this way that, joined to the
English Concordia Regularis, are so often found the
Capitula of Aix, which were the outcome of the influence
of Benedict of Aniane.

With the details of the legislation found in the
Concordia we have no concern, and attention need be
directed only to one point. Twice in the course of the
short Preface or Prologue it justly mentions the quality
of discretion as having presided at its compilation, and
it was ordained that in future nothing whatever should
be added to it except by common consent. The docu-
ment itself is not concerned with any scheme of govern-
ment ; it is taken for granted that this was on normal
lines, and no provision is made for any centralized
organization or general meetings. But, for all that, it
was not a document thrown out to take its chance;
quite the contrary. Though no scheme of government
was propounded, a practical measure was provided for
in the mind of its originator, St. Ethelwold. He con-
ceived in reality much the same plan as did St. Benedict
of Aniane; the pivot on which he would make the
whole machinery of government turn was the king.
The election of all abbots and abbesses, although con-
ducted in accordance with the teaching of the rule,
required the royal assent. This measure was dictated
by the desire to free the monasteries from the inter-
ference of local magnates; but the superiors were
directed to address the king and queen in all their needs,
and to come to the court in person. This prominence of
the king is emphasized in many ways throughout the
whole Concordia.

Ethelwold's idea seems to have been this: that
gigreement on constitutions once, secured there was no

A SKETCH OF MONASTIC HISTORY 219

need for further or formal meetings, because the
authority of the king could be invoked at all points, and
direct recourse had to him, whilst he, Ethelwold, was
himself at the king's side, his perpetual counsellor and
confidant, and ready to see that all was rightly done.
But the saint, even from his own point of view, failed to
take into account the uncertain chances of human life.
Almost immediately a stroke of Providence removed
Edgar, and in the troubles that followed the whole
machinery as he had planned it broke down.

Here, again, though his attempt failed, the work
accomplished was in reality great. Each monastery was
once more thrown back on its own resources, but with
a definite idea to aim at, and efforts were concentrated
on work at home, with what results for the public
benefit, no less than for their own discipline, the outcome
of the school of Winchester alone is direct evidence.

But it was not in England only that the movement
set on foot by the master-spirit Dunstan, and formu-
lated in the provisions of the Concordia Regularis,
exercised its influence. In the last years of the century
there proceeded from Einsiedeln a powerful refonii,
which put a new life into many monasteries of South-
ern Germany, but the importance of which has been
obscured by the much later Hirschau imitation of
Cluny. The curious conformity of the Einsiedeln statutes
at the end of the tenth century with the EngUsh Con-
cordia was long ago noticed. The resemblance is not
accidental ; in the second half of that century Einsiedeln
was ruled by an EngUsh stranger, Gregory, who by the
votes of his brethren was placed in the abbatial chair.
Is it too much to imagine that Gregory had learnt in
Englai>d, before the Concordia was drawn up, the
traditional practices of the monasteries of his native
land?

The EngUsh movement initiated by Dunstan is only
one of many which proved the vitaUty of the monastic

220 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

idea in the West. Everywhere abroad during the tenth
century the same phenomenon of new Hfe, springing
up from many centres, presents itself. These manifesta-
tions are so numerous, and there is so much action and
interaction, that it is impossible in a mere sketch like
this to give even a bare outline. In Western France,
in Burgundy, in Lorraine, in Western Germany and
Central Italy, the forms were varied, and in details the
movements varied still more, but all v/itnessed the
soundness of that instinct which led St. Benedict, having
set men in the right road, to trust to their innate desire
for the good and the right to lead them along the path
of the Gospel counsels, rather than to impel them by
superfluous external machinery. There is, however, one
exception — in some respects Jhe greatest name in all
monastic history — Cluny. '"This demands special notice
(^ as a fresh starting-point) ananas the practical introduc-
tion of a new idea in monastic government. It is not
necessary to consider here how or under what circum-
stances the system was developed. The ideal of Cjuny
^f]S tVip p^istence of one great centr'5.1"m5haster:SLSltlL,
dependencies, even by the hundred, spread oyer jan^-ny
iWs, and tormmga vast fen rial hierarchy. The sub-
ominate monasteries wpr^ HppeQf^tnits^n the sfric.t£st
sense. Tire siiperfer ot eve];:sLliouse, however ^feat— as,

for example, the priory of Lewes — was the nommee"or

even in remote England or Spain was made in the namc^
and Willi llib bailCLlon of the abb(TC jxLLLLuhy. 11" was a
mighty dream, ana tne realization oi it was fully equal
to the conception. The abbot of Cluny was the general
of an army in the strictest subordination to its chief;
and it must be said that for the first two centuries the
abbots form a dynasty worthy of so lofty a position, so
vast a power.

The name of this great house has exercised over some
ipinds a singular fascination, and many are led to

A SKETCH OF MONASTIC HISTORY 221

attribute to it an influence which it did not in fact
exercise, and assign to it men whom it did not form.
Still, after all possible deductions have been made,
Cluny remains one of the chief factors in the history of
tTie devuiUh Leiiluiy^ BuL 'All iti^ gtory and alPits
greatness must not bEnd us to the weakness inherent
in the system, a weakness precisely consequent on its
deflection from the mere simplicity of St. Benedict's
ideas. It is clear, in the first place, that the ClunyL
system of dependencies cut at the root of the family
life, witnout wnich (^except under extraordinary safe-
guards) the Benedictine life cannot permanently main-
tain itself. The house of Cluny was more than a mere
centre of a vast system ; j^wa^hej^^^ryjrinjn spring of
its life, and source of all its government, and if that_
spring were broken, or even weakened, there was no
chance of renewal Moreover, the greatness of Cluny
was kept up m a fictitious way, and if for a time the
means adopted sustained the great edifice, it only
resulted in more complete ruin when the collapse came.
If there is one point in monastic government about
which St. Benedict legislates clearly it is that the abbot
should be the elect of the monks. Cluny, whether
intentionally or unintentionally, adopted methods
whereby practically the ruling abbot could secure the
nomination of his successor. Not that the choice actually
made did not perhaps result in the general good of the
house, for in truth it was the great qualities of the
abbots of Cluny which kept up the system so long. But
the glory of Cluny was secured at the expense of the
sohdity of its inner hfe, and herein lies the explanation
of the fact that when Cluny fell, it fell suddenly and
from the highest point of its exterior glory. Resting,
as this highly centralized system had come to do, on
the one person of its abbot, when the crash came it was
found that its life had gone beyond the power of re-
cuperation. As a community Cluny was dead. If a

222 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

great institution could be saved by a single man, that
man certainly was Peter the Venerable, whose char-
acter is one of the most beautiful in the whole range of
monastic history ; but having admitted false principles
of government, not consonant with the ideas of St.
Benedict, the Cluniacs became the victims of their own
creation.

It is possible to see early in its history the rock upon
which the great institution split. It was only a question
of time when the spirit, indicated by the claim to the
title ahhas abbatum, would degenerate into a keen
appreciation of dignities and distinctions, of exemptions
and privileges, and would find therein a satisfaction
which no formal renunciation of the world could render
monastic. Excellent as may have been the intention
of those who first sought for Cluny and all its depen-
dencies freedom from episcopal interference, not the
less is it certain that herein lay the element of a danger
for the monastic order. By such an emancipation it
sought to constitute itself a body corporate, distinct
and apart, instead of forming, as the monastic order
on the lines of St. Benedict was intended to do, an
element in the full life of the Christian Church. The
chances of a renewal of vigour springing up in, and
radiating from, a dozen different centres were gone
under the Cluniac system of a complete centralization.
It was in vain that Peter the Venerable called round
him to a chapter priors who might be numbered by the
hundred; in vain were new statutes promulgated by
the capitidi universalis assensu; in vain that all this
legislation is declared to be according '' to the counsel
of brethren wise and fearing God," and not by the mere
will of the abbot-general. By the very system of Cluny
the priors were but the shadows of the abbot, and no
house, not even the greatest monastery, had any
inherent principle of life, but was doomed to follow the
fate of its centre.

A SKETCH OF MONASTIC HISTORY 223

It was but natural that a reaction should set in when
men's eyes were opened to what really stood behind
those glories of Cluny, so conspicious during the lifetime
of St. Hugh. The revulsion manifested itself outwardly
in the rise of many orders, whether of monks or of
canons regular, about this time. People longed for
something more simple — for a life disburdened from the
excessive pomp and circumstance which had grown up
round Cluny. It was instinctively felt that there was a
danger of lapsing into mere formalism, and it is in
some such explanation as this, rather than in that of
their being a protest against any grave relaxation of
the monastic life, that we must understand the rise of
the Cistercians. It was by no mere accident that Peter
the Venerable and St. Bernard found themselves in
antagonism. What immediately concerns us here is the
question of government, and strange as it may appear
on this point, Citeaux only brought to full development
the germ already implanted in the system of Cluny.
Practically the Cluniac system of government con-
stituted it an Order, but by the method of estabhshing
one scattered family. Citeaux for the first time struck
out a new line, which carried it farther from St. Bene-
dict's idea. Whilst preserving the notion of each
monastery as a family, endowed with the principle of
fecundity, it formed itself into an Order in the modern
sense of an organized corporation.

The basis of the Cistercian system lies in the perpetual
pre-eminence of the abbot and house of Citeaux,
combined with the yearly assembly in that monastery
of all the abbots of the " order." The end to be attained
by this highly centralized system is put forward by its
originator, St. Stephen Harding, an EngUshman who at
an early age had left his own country and never returned
thither. In the plainest terms he states his intention.
" Now we will and we order," he say, " all monks in the
confederation to observe the rule of St. Benedict in all

224 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

things as it is observed in the New Monastery — that is,
to induce no other meaning into their reading of the
Holy Rule but what the holy fathers, our predecessors
(that is, the monks of the New Monastery), have
understood and held." Accordingly, as a natural
consequence, " We also will that they abide by the
customs and the chant, and have all the books for office
and mass, according to the form of the customs and the
books of the New Monastery." Absolute uniformity was
a natural corollary of such a form of government, and
this was secured, besides the annual meeting of abbots,
by an annual visitation of every monastery. To the
abbot of Giteaux was secured a right of visiting any
and every monastery at will ; but it was provided that
he was not to interfere with the temporalities and the
ordinary business of any house against the wish of its
abbot and brethren, although in enforcing discipline
he was absolute. This, so far, at least recognized the
individuality of each monastery as is contemplated by
St. Benedict.

Looking at the document upon which the Cistercian
system was founded, the Carta Caritatis, its main design
as a system of government was to safeguard by every
possible means the " New Monastery " (that is, Citeaux)
and its abbot. It is true that the abbot of any monastery
which had founded another retained always certain
rights and duties in regard to the daughter-house, and
that to the four great daughter-houses of Citeaux were
secured certain special rights and privileges which gave
them apparantly a commanding position, and made the
semblance of a hierarchical organization. Yet the pre-
dominant position of Citeaux is carefully secured — on
the one hand, by the provision that there should be no
chapter or other official meeting of abbots except the
one general chapter, to be held always at Citeaux ; and,
on the other, by the declaration that in case of dissent
in this chapter the decision absolutely lay with the

A SKETCH OF MONASTIC HISTORY 225

abbot of Citeaux and those who, sicjing with him, appear
to be of the sanior pars.

It is obvious that in a system estabUshed on the Hnes
of the " Charter of Charity " everything must depend
on the centre. This the composer of the document
evidently felt to be the weak point of the system, and
to it he devoted the last sections of the document. As
we read them, notwithstanding the brandishing of the
sword of excommunication over the abbot and convent
of Citeaux in the last resort, it is impossible not to feel
their practical futility. Events subsequently showed
that this was so; and the proof lies in the history of
the Order itself. The Bemardines of Italy and the
Feuillants of France could only come into existence and
breathe freely by tearing up the Charter of Charity.
By the very organization of the system, that which long
centuries of Benedictine history has shown to be a
certainty — the spontaneous springing up of renewed
life and energy, sometimes even in the most unexpected
quarters, and the power of free development — was
rendered impossible.

Moreover, in one particular the Charter of Charity
gives utterance to an idea clearly aUen to the mind of
St. Benedict. The expression " our Order " occurs again
and again in this short document, no longer in the sense
of a method of life common to every monastery, but of a
corporation excluding all not distinctly on its own lines.
With Citeaux the Religious Order, in its modern
signification, appears fully developed, and it was but
another step in the same direction to the system of the
Mendicants in the thirteenth century.

The rush of Cistercian development in Western
Europe, and the manifest decline of Cluny influence, are
calculated to arrest the attention, and in so far perhaps
to conceal from us the fullness of activity which in
reahty characterized the monastic order generally in the
twelfth century. It is useless to burden these pages

Q

226 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

with any list of centres of monastic action at this
period, which are to be found also in remote Scotland
and Scandinavia, Poland and Hungary, and the atten-
tion of the reader is directed here merely to the main
currents of Benedictine life. It must be borne in mind
that the adoption of Cluny customs by no means
necessarily impHed any adoption of its spirit, and the
real and most lasting good effected by Cluny for the
monastic order generally was that it undoubtedly sent
a current of renewed life through the entire system.
This manifested itself in many new beginnings, and
reconstitutions of older foundations, which, however, in
themselves, when closely examined, seem to be in fact
reactions against the method and tendency of Cluniac
centralization. At Camaldoli and Monte Vergine in
Italy, as at Grandmont or the Chartreuse in France, the
incHnation was towards a more secluded and eremitical
life, whilst at Vallombrosa there was a closer imitation
of Cluny on a small scale. The abbot of Vallombrosa,
as head of the congregation — the elect, by the way,
of the superiors of the few monasteries which formed it,
and not of his community — was possessed of the general
regimen of the entire union, every house of which was
thus in strict subordination to the central authority.
In process of time, however, the natural tendency of a
powerful head to seek further power and position at the
expense of the members showed itself in securing
perpetuity for the abbot of Vallombrosa as an irremov-
able abbot-general, and in the reduction of the superiors
of the other houses to the position of nominees of a
yearly general chapter ; whilst yet another step in the
same direction was taken by a provision requiring the
assent of the abbot-general for the reception of all
subjects of the Congregation.

In Germany, also, Hirschau set before itself Cluny as
a model, and by its measure of success powerfully aided
in the restoration and foundation of many monastic

m A5

A SKETCH OF MONASTIC HISTORY 227

centres. But, be the cause what it may, the abbot of
Hirschau certainly failed to create for himself a position
of pre-eminence and sole dominion, such as had been
that of the abbots of Cluny. In Western France the
practical reaction against the Cluniac spirit was chiefly
manifested by houses like Bee and Tiron, which, whilst
maintaining an excellent observance, and whilst ready
to communicate the secrets of good discipline and
success to their neighbours, left their special customs
to make their way by virtue of their own intrinsic
merits. Great were the results achieved by their
influence, even in distant lands.

Indeed, among the Black Benedictines generally there
was a conscious recoil from the Cluniac system in the
first half of the twelfth century, manifesting itself by the
introduction of a form of union consonant with the
spirit of St. Benedict. The abbots of a number of
monasteries in what is now Belgium and Northern
France met together in chapter for mutual counsel and
support, and resolved to introduce into their houses
certain changes in regard to observance and choral
duties. The chapters were to be annual, but no provision
appears to have been made for mutual visitations,
which in most cases, of course, remained entirely in the
hands of the bishops. It is probable that the intention
to promote capitular meetings was fully carried out,
though the actual notices of such assemblies are scanty.
Nor was this the only example of chapters of this kind.
A few years later the abbots of Saxony assembled to
discuss and settle matters of monastic life and discipline,
and later still those of the ecclesiastical province of
Rouen. It is to be observed that these are spontaneous
movements, coming from the monasteries themselves,
and not imposed by external authority, and they
clearly indicate a feeling that some such change was
wanted to meet the needs and requirements of the day.
The importance of the movement, however, does not lie

228 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

in the particular results immediately obtained, but in
the fact that they were the prelude to the system to
which the Church in a General Council has given her
sanction, for safeguarding the monastic life.

In the Fourth Lateran Council, held under Innocent
III, in 1215, the following directions were given for
holding everywhere national or provincial chapters by
the Black monks. After speaking of the rights of the
diocesan bishops, the twelfth Canon directs that every
three years, in each province or kingdom, a chapter of
abbots and conventual priors should be held in some
conveniently situated monastery. They are advised,
whilst unacquainted with the method of holding such
meetings, to invite two Cistercian abbots of the neigh-
bourhood to give them counsel and help in matters of
procedure. For, as the Canon says, " the Cistercians
have long been accustomed to the way of holding such
chapters." These two White abbots were to associate
with themselves two Benedictine monks, and the four
were to preside at the first meeting. It was, however,
expressly provided that none of these presidents should
take to himself any authority of a superior, so that they
could be changed if it seemed convenient. The business
of the meeting was to treat of the improvement of
regular observance; and whatever was agreed upon,
provided it met with the approval of the presidents,
was to be observed by all without appeal. Moreover,
in each chapter certain prudent and religious men were
to be nominated to visit, in the name of the Pope, every
Benedictine house of the province, to correct where
correction seemed necessary. If in these visitations
they should find any abbot worthy of deposition, they
were to denounce him to the bishop of the diocese, who
was to take the steps necessary for his removal, and if
the bishop would not act they were to refer the case to
the Holy See. The bishop was further to see that the
monasteries in his diocese were in good order, " so that

A SKETCH OF MONASTIC HISTORY 229

when the aforesaid visitors come there, they may find
them worthy rather of commendation than correction ;
being, however, careful not to make his visitations a
burden or expense, so that the rights of superiors be
maintained without injury to the subjects."

By these provisions, it is obvious, a double security
was provided for the well-being of the monasteries. The
bishops were still maintained in the position they had
always occupied as visitors, and as judges where the
conduct of the superior might give occasion to the
gravest censures. At the same time, by providing that
the monasteries should also be visited every three years
by monks chosen by the provincial chapters, but acting
as delegates of the Holy See, any failure of the bishop
to fulfil his duty as diocesan, or an}'' incapacity to under-
stand the practical working of the monastic life, would
receive the necessary corrective.

The system sketched out in the Council of the Lateran
satisfied a need long felt as the outcome of practical
experience. It was but the outline of a scheme the
details of which had to be supplied in the working ; but
this had its advantages, inasmuch as it enabled the
monks of different countries to adopt measures suitable
to their own people and circumstances. If worked with
good will, whilst preserving to each monastery the
ancient Benedictine principle of family autonomy, it
was calculated to afford the valuable aids of co-operation
and the security of mutual support. It may be said
that the English Benedictine monks, and they alone,
gave the system a fair trial. At the outset they set
themselves to overcome difficulties, and allowed prac-
tical experience to point out the way by which deficien-
cies might be made good. England at the time, just
after the death of King John, with the French invasion,
and the whole country in a turmoil, was hardly the land
in which, it might be thought, such an experiment could
be tried with much promise of success. Still, within

230 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

three years after the Lateran Council, the first chapter
had been already held (1218), and those assembled had
even then come to feel that there was a real danger of
making grave blunders. Without promulgating their
decrees, they met again the next year at St. Albans to
rectify their mistakes, but still they refrained from
pubHshing any statutes, leaving time for further de-
liberation and experience to make sure of their ground,
so as not to commit themselves to directions which
could not in practice be observed. It was consequently
not until 1225 that the Statuta of the first chapters were
issued, and the appointment of the visitors shows that
the plan of general chapters ordered by the Council had
been reduced to a practical system.

In England, in curious distinction from the rest of
Europe, the scheme, once set well on foot, was main-
tained with regularity to the end. It was in this sup-
ported by the tenacious adherence to the old relation
subsisting between the monastery and the bishop of
the diocese, as was intended by the provisions of the
Lateran. For, although five of the abbeys of England
claimed exemption from episcopal jurisdiction, the rest
of the Benedictine houses in the land, without exception,
including some of the greatest and most wealthy
monasteries of Christendom, were not so exempt, and
never thought of trying to withdraw themselves from
inclusion in the general law of the Church.

The system, complex as it may appear to the theorist,
in practice worked thoroughly well. In England, under
its influence, the monasteries maintained their prestige,
and secured in general good discipline. Of course there
were individual failures here and there, but the system
so worked that they were inevitably brought to light,
and the evil could be checked before the harm done
was irremediable. Every two or three generations the
English monks reviewed their practice, and adapted
themselves to changed circumstances, but history shows

SKETCH OF MONASTIC HISTORY 231

that they never introduced, or indeed needed, any
startling reforming principles. As a whole, they secured
and retained to the last the respect of the Catholic
people of England. Whilst the revenues of most of the
great Benedictine houses abroad were appropriated by
sovereigns, prelates, and nobles, in this country —
although the English kings were not less needy nor less
wilful, and the English nobles not more wealthy nor
more self-denying than those of other lands — none of
the abbeys fell into the hands of commendatory abbots
until, as a single exception, Wolsey obtained possession
of St. Albans. Even this monastery at the cardinal's
death fell back for the last days of its existence into the
hands of a regular abbot. The English nature is not
more patient of all the small restrictions and restraints
to which the common life of a monastery subjects the
monk ; yet to the last not a single EngUsh Benedictine
house ever even thought of secularization. If this be so
it is simply owing to the fact that the monasteries of
England frankly accepted, and loyally carried out, the
system proposed to them by the Lateran Council — a
system wholly consonant with the spirit and tradition
of the Benedictine Order.

This system of government was never changed in
England, although modified and perfected in certain
details. The famous Bull Benedictina, of 1336, found the
English monks perfectly organized and prepared to
carry out its provisions. In point of government it
made no appreciable difference, although it was to them
a summons to greater efficiency. The characteristic
mark of all EngHsh Benedictine legislation, as seen in
the statutes of chapters and in visitation injunctions,
is common-sense and discretion. Nowhere are the
English monks backward in stating their objection to
measures, impracticable for the EngHsh, which were
suggested for their acceptance, whilst they showed
themselves perfectly ready to adopt changes which

232 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

were practical and workable. The details of this inter-
esting story are at hand, but the limits of our present
subject exclude any fuller description.

Turning to foreign countries, it is useless to attempt to
gauge the results of the Lateran legislation, for the
simple reason that no country but England appears to
have taken the Council seriously. There were, it is true,
efforts here and there, chapters held for a time, without
apparent sequence or determined perseverance. The
consequence was inevitable in times of intellectual
upheaval, of civil disturbance, and of constantly
increasing luxury among ecclesiastics as well as laymen.
The wealth of the monasteries was tempting, and they
fell an easy prey to the great in Church and State.
Kings, nobles, cardinals, and prelates obtained nomina-
tions to abbeys, and absorbed revenues of houses in
which they felt little interest, and which too often they
allowed to go to ruin. Vocations naturally fell off, and
communities were reduced to a mere handful, Uving on a
pittance grudgingly doled out to them by the ecclesi-
astics or laymen who claimed to be their commendatory
abbots.

In France the great Cistercian movement seems to
have exhausted the soil of those religious forces which
might have turned men to a renewal of Benedictine life.
Italy, no more than France, recognized the opportunity
afforded by the Council of Lateran for revivifying its
ancient abbeys; but, unlike France, it still possessed
a reserve of monastic force which manifested itself in
the institution of the Silvestrines, the Celestines, and,
early in the fourteenth century, of the Olivetans. The
importance of these new institutes lies in the fact that
they gradually advanced towards that form of govern-
ment which became most general among the Benedic-
tines throughout Europe in the sixteenth, seventeenth,
and eighteenth centuries. They each mark steps in
the development. The earliest, the Silvestrines, were

A SKETCH OF MONASTIC HISTORY 233

constituted with perpetual superiors under one head,
the Prior of Monte Fano, who, as General, governed in
conjunction with a chapter representative of the houses.
The next in order of date, the Celestines, had a similar
organization, except in one important point — the
Superiors were not perpetual, and the head of the
Institute was an abbot, but elected by general chapter
for a term of three years only, and ineligible till after a
period of nine years had elapsed.

The Olivet ans mark the last stage. The monks were
not professed for any particular monastery, but, like
the friars, for the general body of the congregation.
Officials were appointed by a small committee, nomin-
ated by the general chapter, and for short periods only,
and the abbot-general was also visitor of the various
monasteries, as well as " superior of superiors," his
power being limited by various practical checks, and
by the fact that his authority was for a very short
period only. The system offered, as is evident, the
strongest contrast to that of Cluny, the results of which
were now patent to all the world; and under it the
existence of commendatory superiors was practically
impossible. It, moreover, destroyed any local attach-
ment to a house, and broke up the family life, which is
the central idea of St. Benedict's legislation; and
further, it abolished also all perpetuity of office, and,
taking from the monastic communities rights of election,
it concentrated all real power in the hands of a small
committee.

The great councils of the fifteenth century, the
avowed object of which was " reform in head and
members," occupied themselves seriously also with the
condition of the monastic order. But already in many
quarters, independently, the monks had busied them-
selves with that question, and had taken practical steps
to renew their vigour. They thus afforded another
example of their inherent power of spontaneous renewal

234 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

as distinct from exterior pressure, which from cTpntury
to century has ever animated the Benedictines. \

These movements took two distinct paths, ^ne in
Italy, carrying out the hues already laid down by the
Olivetans, was initiated by the congregation of St.
Justina of Padua, afterwards called the Cassinese, and
this formed later a model for the monks of France and
Spain. The second was confined to Germanic lands, and
of this the union of Bursfeld, which maintained the
traditional lines, may be taken as a type. It is necessary
briefly to sketch the early history of the institute of St.
Justina of Padua. It owed its origin to the zeal of a
noble Venetian, Ludovico Barbo, who had become
commendatory abbot of the monastery of St. Justina,
and who, subsequently embracing the monastic state,
deterrnined to restore regular life in his monastery.
For this purpose he was joined by a few members of
other religious bodies, including two Olivetan monks.
Within the space of a few years, however, houses in
other parts of Italy desired to join him in his venture,
and in the year 142 1 these monasteries, four in number,
found themselves in a position to propose to the Pope a
scheme of union. The chief points in the proposals thus
submitted and subsequently approved were the follow-
ing: although professed in difierent monasteries, the
monks did not belong to any house by their profession,
but to the general body of the congregation, and were
to be esteemed as members of any house in which they
might happen for the time to be placed. Secondly,
the most ample power was possessed by the annual
general chapter, which appointed four or more visitors,
one of whom was to have the position of president.
He was to transact all business concerning the general
welfare of the union ; but for everything the assent of
the other visitors was required, and he was bound to
direct himself according to the decrees and instructions
of the chapter. These officials consequently were mere

A SKETCH OF MONASTIC HISTORY 235

deputies of the chapter, to which they were bound to
render strict account of all their acts.

Ludovico Barbo himself at once saw that the in-
evitable issue of his system w^as that superiors must
cease to be perpetual, and the elect of their convents.
Consequently he at once resigned his position, and
transferred the obedience of his monks to the visitors
elected by the first general chapter of 142 1. Within the
next few years the three other houses also came to
recognize that the principles of the system were incon-
sistent with superiors holding office in perpetuity, and
withdrew from the union. St. Justina of Padua was
thus left to follow out alone its system, which at the time
some considered contrary to the Benedictine profession
— an opinion which, in 1432, called forth a bull from
Pope Eugenius IV, constituting the new congregation
part of the order and rule of St. Benedict. In this docu-
ment the provisions of the union were defined and
approved. A small committee of the chapter had the
appointment of all superiors and officials, and could
dispose of all monastic property as they deemed best
for the general interests of the body. In order to
concentrate all authority within the congregation itself,
appeals from the chapter decisions to the Holy See
were expressly forbidden, and outside interference of
every kind was thus guarded against.

The new congregation now busied itself in obtaining
from the Popes extensive privileges, amongst the rest,
that no monastery which joined the body could be held
in commendam, nor any pension charged on the revenues
of a house, even by the Pope himself. The leading idea
of Ludovico Barbo was a desire to cut at the root of the
vicious system of commendatory abbots, an evil which
he saw entailed the ruin of the monastery and the
collapse of all regular discipline, and which could be
coped with only by some powerful organization; and
in viewing the picture presented by a house like Polirone

236 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

in the first half of the sixteenth century, it is easy to
understand the charm exercised by the Hfe of these
monks on those who, Uke Pole, were admitted to their
intimacy. In less than a century the congregation of
St. Justina of Padua, now under the title of the Cassinese
Congregation, embraced all the great Benedictine houses
of Italy.

In this system it is obvious that the monastery, as
such, had no independent life or existence. All power
was gathered up into the hands of a small committee of
eight or nine members, called Definitors, chosen by
chapter, and who appointed the visitors and President
to rule the congregation out of chapter. Everything,
from the appointment of the President even down to
that of the cellarer of the smallest house, was in their
hands. The danger to the system, besides its departure
from the Benedictine ideal, lay in this, that by the
election and re-election of the same visitors and definitors
all power could be kept in the hands of a small body
of managers, and by this means, in practice, the very
perpetuity would be brought about which the system
had been devised to guard against. This, in fact, did
happen, as we learn on the authority of Pope Leo X,
who had been commendatory abbot of Monte Cassino,
and as such had resigned his abbey to the congregation
of St. Justina of Padua, with which, as he says, he had
an intimate acquaintance. He prescribed as a remedy
for the evil that no one should be re-elected for the
highest offices of the congregation till after the lapse of
a certain period. This legislation, however, was a few
years later withdrawn by Pope Adrian VI at the
instance of a powerful party in the congregation, and
the internal history of the body from this time forward
manifests a constant struggle between those who wished
to revive the legislation of Leo X, and a small party
who desired to retain the power in their hands. It
seems clear that the hopes of maintaining the congrega-

A SKETCH OF MONASTIC HISTORY 237

tion in vigour and life lay with the former; as a fact,
after nearly a century of strife, the latter obtained the
victory.

It is unnecessary for the present purpose to dwell at
any length on the French congregations of St. Vannes
and St. Maur, which in the seventeenth century modelled
their statutes on those of St. Justina. They really aim
at the same object, though presenting in details points
of direct contrast. Thus, among the Cassinese it is
expressly prescribed that the President is not to be
called General, and his powers are carefully restricted ;
but he and the Cassinese abbots generally, though not
blessed, were allowed all the dignity and state of
episcopal pontificalia. The " Superior-General " of the
congregation of St. Maur, on the other hand, though
possessing much real power, was strictly prohibited
from using mitre, staff, or cross, and was dressed as the
other monks.

The Spanish congregation deserves a somewhat more
detailed notice. It was formed by the gradual union of
the Benedictine houses in Spain to the royal monastery
of Valladolid, which had been founded at the close of
the fourteenth century, and had always maintained the
highest reputation for regularity and observance. As
this had been the centre of the union, the Superior of
the house, elected by the votes of his community, long
maintained pre-eminence, and took the title of General.
As the number of monasteries linked together in the
congregation increased, the olhce of Abbot-general was
detached from the house of Valladolid, and became
elective in the general chapter. The powers of this
General were considerable, and he was the only ordinary
visitor of the congregation; but in practice his action
was controlled by three nominees of chapter, called
definitors-judges, who formed a standing court of appeal
from his decisions, and by the association with him of
a secretary and a socius chosen for him by chapter, who

238 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

were dways at his side. But the most important
difference between the congregation of Spain and Italy
lay in the fact that the Spanish jealously maintained
the family system designed by St. Benedict as far as
was possible under a scheme in which the superiors
were not perpetual, and were chosen by the general
chapter. Every monk made his profession for a house
to the family of which he belonged, and every house
maintained in all things its own independent life. The
abbots, although only elected for the space of four
years, were the real rulers of their monasteries, and
nominated all their officials.

This Spanish congregation has a special interest for
English people, since the English monks who revived
their order in the early days of the seventeenth century
consistently adopted the system of Spain in all points
which characteristically distinguish that system from
that of the Cassinese, except the generalate.

The movement for renewal in Germany in the fifteenth
century took another direction. It attempted no novel-
ties, retaining perpetuity of superiors and profession for
the monastery: and in its most successful effort — the
union of Bursfeld — really set itself, though tardily, to
carry out the system prescribed by the general chapter
of the Lateran and the Bull Benedidina, which had been
successfully worked in England from the first. It was
a union of independent monasteries joined together for
common purposes, and in particular for the maintenance
of regular discipline by means of periodical visitations.
Whilst preserving to each house the Benedictine prin-
ciple of autonomy, the Bursfeld Union yet secured for
all the help and strength derived from co-operation. It
admitted, indeed, in some measure, the vicious principle
of a "head monastery" in Bursfeld, but in practice
this was neutraUzed by the singular discretion of the
abbots. The political state of the country, and the
jealousies of petty potentates, both secular and ecclesi-

A SKETCH OF MONASTIC HISTORY 239

jastical, interfered with the full success of this congrega-
tion, but in spite of all difficulties it achieved a great
work, and showed, as England had done before, the
wisdom of the Fathers of the Lateran and of Pope
Benedict XII.

Other efforts at the same period in the south of
Germany had less enduring effects. They too were
greatly hampered by the condition of the Austrian lands
in that age, and their methods and legislation betray a
want of attention to the great principles of monasticism,
which on the whole were fimily grasped by the Bursfeld
union, and a concentration on the minutiae of the
religious life, which in St. Benedict's idea were intended
to vary according to circumstances. The religious
revolution of the sixteenth century fell with fatal effect
upon them, but happily in the revival of Cathohc life
in Germany the Benedictine monasteries shared in the
general renewal, and issued in local congregations like
the Swiss and Bavarian. If at the close of the last
century they fell victims to the greed of secular poten-
tates, it was not from interior weakness, for the com-
munities were large, full of life and vigour, and exercising
a beneficent influence in the districts in which they were
placed ; and if, after the storm of civil revolution passed,
several were revived, it was due to the kindly and keen
recollection of the benefits they had conferred on the
people of the country.

In the ordinary course of human affairs the means
whereby great and wide-reaching results are achieved is
the concentrated effort of a directed organism. As the
mind passes in review the action of the Monastic Order
in the past centuries, it cannot but be struck by the
fact that, whilst the Benedictines have indeed achieved
a work which has left its enduring impress on the
religious and social history of Europe, their history is
specifically characterized by a want of definite organiza-
tion.

240 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

The explanation of this apparent contradiction
between great achievement and the neglect of that
which human prudence would have dictated as necessary
for attaining any great and permanent result is easy.
St. Benedict grasped fully in things divine the law of
contradiction, which is the surest basis of the Christian
life and effort — a law which lies on the surface of the
Gospel story, and is confirmed by the deeper considera-
tions which are rooted in the Gospel teaching. It issued
in the contradiction of the Cross, and found its expression
in such words of our Lord as, " He that shall lose his
life for My sake shall find it." The results achieved by
the Monastic Order have not been obtained by the
exercise of power, but of influence. Their action upon
society was that of the personal influence of the family,
not that of the impersonal agency of the State.

The history of a rehgious order is the practical
manifestation of the spirit and mind of the founder. It
is an integral part of his life. There can be no doubt
that at a certain period some idea of an organized body
suggested itself to the mind of St. Benedict ; but with
mature experience and an ever-growing insight into
divine things he relinquished the government of his
many monasteries to confine himself to the care of the
single family of Monte Cassino. Nor can it be said that
the observance of the rule he wrote was in his concep-
tion to be confined to a single house, or even to his own
country. He clearly saw that its use might spread to
other lands, and might have to be adapted to conditions
wholly different from those of his native Italy. In these
circumstances the very absence of any direction for
organization must be taken as a true and sincere ex-
pression of his inmost mind.

Having laid down lines for the government of a
Christian family desirous of living according to the
Gospel counsels, St. Benedict left the good that might
result from its action on the Church and the world to

SKETCH OF MONASTIC HISTORY 241

God's Providence, and to be determined by the needs
and circumstances of time and place. And so it has
come about. " St. Benedict," writes Cardinal Newman,
" found the world physical and social in ruins, and his
mission was to restore it in the way — ^not of science, but
of nature ; not as if setting about to do it ; not professing
to do it by any set time, or by any series of strokes,
but so quietly, patiently, gradually, that often till the
work was done it was not known to be doing. It was
a restoration, rather than a visitation, correction, or
conversion."

And, in fact, the greatest works of the Monastic
Order for religion, for civilization, and for learning, were
effected without set design. When the Church had need
for its aid and support it was found that by its inherent
vitality it had grown into, and strengthened itself for
what was required of it. Few things in ecclesiastical
history are so remarkable as the perpetual renewal of
the Benedictine spirit, springing up within the order
itself and manifesting itself in various forms. For this
St. Benedict in his rule left no provision beyond what
is implied in the exercises of the monastic daily life of
prayer and labour, and discipline of mind and heart.
And the history of the order shows that there was no
need for any such provision, that if the life here and
there became for a time relaxed, there was always
within it a reserve of power and strength which could
not long be repressed, but would break forth in new
beginnings, and which, by way " not of science but of
nature," would wake again into life those perhaps grown
languid by lapse of time.

The genius of Cardinal Newman has caught the very
spirit of St. Benedict's followers, as manifested in the
history of the past, when he recognizes the order as " an
organization, diverse, complex, and irregular, and
variously ramified, rich rather than symmetrical, with
many origins and centres and new beginnings, and the

R

242 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

action of local influences. . . . Instead of progressing on
plan and system, and from the will of a superior, it has
shot forth and run out as if spontaneously, and has
shaped itself according to events, from an irrepressible
fullness of hfe within, and from the energetic self-action
of its parts, like those symbolical creatures in the
prophet's vision which went every one of them straight-
forward, whither the impulse of the Spirit was to go."
It was a perception of this truth which must have
inspired the Count de Montalembert, a statesman, a
politician, a litterateur, a man of the world, to devote
so much of his life to the study of the history of the
Monastic Order in the West, and to have dedicated to
the telUng of the story the full maturity of his powers.
He recognized in the very simplicity of its methods,
and in the resolute cheerfulness of its spirit, that it has
a service to render to the world of to-day.

THE
ENGLISH PREMONSTRATENSIANS*

THE Premonstratensian Order was founded in the
early part of the twelfth century by St. Norbert.
This remarkable man was bom at Xanten, in the duchy
of Cleves, in 1080. His family were highly connected,
his father being Count of Gennep, and his mother a
cousin of the Emperor Henry IV. The aspirations of
Norbert's early years seemed to mark him out for an eccle-
siastical career, and when quite a youth, in accordance
with an abuse of Church patronage unfortunately too
common in those days, he was presented with a canonry
in his native city. At the earliest possible age he was
ordained subdeacon; but, being attracted by natural
disposition to the gaieties of the world, for a long time
he hesitated to enter the higher grades of the sacred
ministry and passed his time mostly at the court of his
cousin the Emperor, to whom he acted as almoner. In
the thirtieth year of his age, however, his thoughts
were turned to the more serious side of life by a narrow
escape from death by lightning. After a prolonged
preparation he received the sacred orders of deacon and
priest, and spent a considerable period of strict retire-
ment in the abbey of Conon. As a result of his reflections
he resigned his canonry and other preferments, and in
1 1 18 embraced a life of complete poverty in order that
he might the better devote his life to the work of
preaching to the poor. He commenced his new mode of

* A paper read at a meeting of the Royal Historical Society,
19 December 1902.

243

244 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

work by an unsuccessful attempt to induce his brethren,
the canons of Xanten, to embrace a hfe more in accord
with the regular observances, to which they were
bound, at least theoretically, by their name of ** canons."
Failing to induce others to follow his example, in 1119
he determined to estabhsh a body of Regular Canons
constituted according to his ideals. For the purpose of
his first experiment Norbert made choice of a lonely
and desolate valley in the forest of St. Gobain, which
subsequently became renowned throughout Europe as
Premontre. Here, by the side of a stream and near to
the remains of an ancient chapel, the Bishop of Laon
built for him and his companions the first house of the
new Order, and here on Christmas Day 1121 some forty
religious received the white habit and cloak of Canons
Regular. Their founder gave them the rule of St.
Augustine, and four years later, in 11 25, the Premonstra-
tensian Canons were formally approved by Pope
Honorius I.

From the time of its first foundation the new Order grew
by leaps and bounds. St. Norbert, as I have said, destined
his followers for the preaching of the Gospel to the poor ;
but they were to be moulded for their work by the
practice of strict conventual life. In giving them the
rule of the Austin Canons, their founder desired that
the superior should receive the Abbatial dignity and
character. It is worth remarking that the Premontre
Canons were the first to conceive the idea, afterwards
so largely developed by the mendicants of the thirteenth
century, of uniting to them by a formal aggregation lay-
men and women in what was known as a " third Order."
These associated brethren, though not bound by the
stricter obligations of religious life, still, while engaged
in their secular employments, followed a mitigated
observance somewhat akin to that of the canons
themselves. At Premontre and elsewhere there were
also established in the vicinity of the abbeys convents

THE ENGLISH PREMONSTRATENSIANS 245

of women, called Canonesses, much on the lines sub-
sequently adopted by the Gilbertines in England. This
form of Premonstratensian life, however, never obtained
in this country, and the only two establishments of
English Canonesses which came into existence had no
connection with any abbey of the Order.

The first monastery of Premonstratensian Canons in
these islands was in Scotland, whither King David
brought a colony in 1125; that is, of course, during
the lifetime of the founder. In England itself the first
abbey was set up at Newhouse in Lincolnshire, to which
in 1 143 the abbey of Licques, near Calais, furnished the
community. Within a quarter of a century, Newhouse
became the parent of Alnwick (1147) ; St. Agatha's
(1152); Welbeck (1153); Barlings (i 154) ; and Sulby
or Welford (1154). In another fifty years or so, it had
sent out six more colonies : namely, Croxton (1172) ;
Tupholme (1190) ; Neubo (1198) ; Dale, otherwise
called Stanley Park (1204); and Coverham (1212). In
1 195 Alnwick placed a daughter house at Langley, and
in 1200 St. Agatha's one at Eggleston. In almost the
same period Welbeck, destined to be perhaps the most
important of all the English houses, had planted seven
colonies : Hagneby (1175) ; Leyston (1183) ; Beauchief
(1183) ; West Dereham (1188) ; Torre (1196) ; Dureford
{circa 1217) ; and Hales Owen (1218). Sulby, too, had
established one daughter abbey at Lavendon; and
Croxton three, namely Blanchland (1190), Cockersand
(1193), and Horneby (?i20o); whilst Shap or Heppa,
in Cumberland, was the creation of Blanchland within
a few years of its own foundation. Premontre itself was
directly responsible for the foundation of two English
houses: St. Radegund's, or Bradsole Abbey (1193), and
Begeham (1200). To these we must add Langdon, an
offshoot from Leyston (1183) ; Titchfield, founded in
1231 ; Wendling, founded from Langley (1267) ; Bileigh
near Maldon (1180) ; and the cell of Dodford, founded

246 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

from Hales Owen. To complete the list of Premon-
stratensian foundations in England it is necessary to
name the two convents of canonesses of the Order
at Brodholm in Nottinghamshire and Irford in
Lincoln.

Down to the present time the information available
for the general history of the Order in this country, and
for the particular history of the above-named thirty-
four houses, has been scanty and disappointing. The
collection of docimients which the Royal Historical
Society now proposes to print in the series of Camden
pubhcations adds very materially in every way to our
knowledge of the general government of the Order in
this country, and furnishes us with many documents
of importance and interest for the history of each
individual house. The papers are drawn from two
sources: (i) A transcript of a Register of the Order,
made in the eighteenth century, and now in the British
Museum; and (2) an original Register among the
Ashmole MSS. (MS. 1519) in the Bodleian Library.

The Museum transcript forms part of the collection
of the antiquary Francis Peck, the author of the well-
known Desiderata Curiosa, made with the intention of
producing an additional volume to Dugdale's Monas-
ticon Anglicamim. Five volumes (Add. MS. 4934 to
Add. MS. 4938) among the Additional MSS. in the
British Museum now contain these collections, and the
first two relate exclusively to the Premonstratensian
Canons. To a great extent the documents were trans-
cribed, apparently about the year 1733, from a Registrum
Premonstratense ; and although, to suit the convenience
of students. Peck has systematized and arranged this
Register, he is careful to give the foliation of the
original MS., and it is thus possible to say that he has
made use of the entire Register. The Museum became
possessed of these Peck transcripts in a very simple
manner. Upon the death of the antiquary most of his

THE ENGLISH PREMONSTRATENSIANS 247

manuscripts were purchased by Sir Thomas Cave.
These monastic collections were placed by him in the
hands of Dr. Andrew Gifford, one of the sub-librarians
of the British Museum, for examination and arrange-
ment. At the beginning of the first of these five volumes
(MS. 4934) Dr. Gifford has inserted a memorandum,
dated 14th May 1779, setting forth how they found their
way into the national library. Having put them in
order for Sir Thomas Cave, Dr. Gifford, recognizing
their value for English monastic history, pressed Sir
Thomas to allow them to remain among the Museum
collections. He could obtain no definite promise from
their owner, and had to be content with a reply to the
effect that " probably some time or other they would
come " to the library. For many years they remained
under Dr. Gifford's care at the Museum ; but in the year
1777 the owner called for them and took them away.
Sir Thomas died the year after their removal, and his
son, in answer to Dr. Gifford's renewed request that
these collections might be given to the Museum, handed
them over to him. The opinion of the librarian as to
their worth is recorded in the note already mentioned.
" They are," he says, " a most valuable and almost
inestimable collection. If the gentlemen at Rome, who
have been some years composing the history of the
Premonstratenses, knew of them, doubtless they would
consult and insert them ; having made great enquiries
after the same years ago."

Unfortunately, Peck does not give any indication of
the place where the Register thus transcribed was
preserved. This is aU the more strange inasmuch as in
has other collections he is usually most careful to give
the name of the owner of every manuscript he copied.
Thus, a great many papers were to be found, we are
told, in the Duke of Rutland's room at Belvoir Castle :
as, for example, the Domesday of Croxton Abbey. But,
in the case of the Registrum Premonsfratense, though in

248 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

every case the folio of the MS. is carefully noted, no
indication is given by which it is possible to discover
even where the original was in Peck*s time, still less, of
course, where it is at the present day. As no reference
whatever is made by the antiquary to ownership, it
seems not improbable that the volume may have been
his own property at the time he copied it.

The second source from which it is proposed to take
the collections for Premonstratensian history, about to
be published by this Society, is, as I have already
indicated, a volimie now in the Bodleian Library. MS.
Ashmole 1519 is an original Register of Bishop Redman,
and records his visitations and other business trans-
actions with the Premonstratensian Order in England,
of which he was a member, and, during a long period
at the end of the fifteenth century, practically the
superior. It had been supposed by many that this
Ashmole MS. was really the original Registrum Premon-
stratense from which Peck's transcript had been made.
This, however, proved not to be the case when, by
means of the transcript of the Oxford MS. acquired by
the Royal Historical Society, it has been possible to
compare it carefully with Peck's transcript. They are,
indeed, entirely different ; but there can be little doubt
that the Registrum Premonstratense used by Peck
originally formed part of the same general Register of
which the Ashmole MS. is the other part.

In the first, or Peck MS., the earliest document is a
letter dated 1291, and written by the Abbot of Premontre
to England. The entire volume comprises some 165
distinct records, the last being the account of the
election of Edmund Greyne as abbot of Hales Owen,
on 4th July 1505. Most of the documents are concerned
with the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and towards
the close of the latter century there are recorded many
visitations made by Bishop Redman. The second, or
Ashmole MS., is rightly known, however, as " Redman's

THE ENGLISH PREMONSTRATENSIANS 249

Register," since, whilst registering indeed some few
early papers — probably copied into the volume for easy
reference, as precedents — the volume is almost entirely
filled with the record of Bishop Redman's administra-
tion of the Order from 1474 to 1505. The visitations
registered in the other volume, it may be remarked, are
supplementary to those here recorded.

Bishop Redman, a native of Cumberland, entered the
Premonstratensian Order in the house of Shap, of which
he subsequently became abbot, some time about 1459.
Shap Abbey was situated only a few miles from Levens,
his birthplace, and it was an important house with
ample revenues. In 1478 Redman was nominated by the
Abbot of Premontre his vicar in England. By this time
he had already been Bishop of St. Asaph for ten years,
although he still continued to hold the abbacy of Shap
with full jurisdiction, spending much of his time in the
practical government of his house. Redman was
evidently a man of great energy and determination.
He found the cathedral church of his see of St. Asaph
a mere heap of ruins, in which state it had remained
since Owen Glendower had destroyed it in 1408. He
set to work to restore it, and when, in 1496, he was
translated to Exeter, he left it substantially what it
remains to-day. In 1501 he was again translated, to
Ely, and he died at Ely House, Holbom, on 24th August
1505. Practically during all his long episcopate, ex-
tending over thirty-seven years, Redman continued to
exercise thp office of visitor of his Order in England,
and the record of his work is to be found in the two
volumes of his Register about to be published by the
Royal Historical Society. That he continued to hold
the abbacy of Shap after he became bishop, and that
not merely in commendam but as the governing superior,
is a fact quite out of the ordinary course and somewhat
difficult to explain. The only suggestion I can offer is
that, in view of the impoverished state of his first

250 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

diocese and of his determination to rebuild his cathedral,
he was allowed to retain the well-endowed abbey of
Shap. His continuance to the close of his life in the
office of Visitor of the English Province of Premon-
stratensian Canons is evidence that he was appreciated
by his brethren, and had the full confidence of the heads
of the Order abroad.

Peck's transcript of the Registrum Premonstratense,
then, and the Ashmole original MS., when put together,
form one general Register, and they furnish a fairly
full record of the Order in England during the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries. Moreover, it would appear
more than likely that both volumes were in reality the
work of Bishop Redman. Both certainly were connected
with him in some way or other, since the records of his
visitations are to be found in both, although no single
record is repeated: the full Register requiring both
manuscripts to complete it. It would seem probable
that in the first part, which we know only in Peck's
transcript, the Bishop had gathered together copies of
early documents, mainly regarding fhe relations of the
mother house at Premontre with the English abbeys;
these, with certain forms likely to be useful in the work
of administration either for reference as precedents, or
to be copied as occasion required, form the greater
portion of the volume, the rest being taken up with
records of actual visitations. The Ashmole MS. is
almost exclusively occupied with the acts of the Bishop's
administration as vicar of the Abbot of Premontre and
as visitor

Of the subsequent history of this latter volume
practically very Httle is known. In 1697, when the
Catalogus Anglice was published, it was already among
the Ashmole MSS. In 1642, however, Gervase Holies
transcribed from it certain hsts in a volume now in the
British Museum (Add. MS. 6118), and the old Register
v^S then in the possession of Sir Wingfield Bodenham. .

NGLISH PREMONSTRATENSIANS 251

This is practically all that is known about it. Since it
has been in the Bodleian it has furnished some material
to local antiquaries interested in the history of certain
houses, but not to any great extent. In Nash's Wor-
cestershire (Appendix, xxxix-xl) there are several pieces
regarding Hales Owen printed from the volume. Addy,
in the History of Beauchief, gives his translation of some
few documents.

One feature of Peck's transcript must be noticed. I
have said that the antiquary did more than merely
copy the original Register: he arranged it in such a
way as to render its contents more accessible to the
historical inquirer. In the first instance he sorted the
documents and classified them under the heads of
Generalia and Specialia. In the Generalia he placed all
records relating to the general history or administra-
tion of the Order in England, arranged as far as possible
in strict chronological sequence. In the second or
Specialia he gathered up all pieces relating to the indi-
vidual houses and arranged them under their special
names set down in alphabetical order. In this way those
who v/ere interested in any special locality or abbey are
able to turn at once to the material they desire to
consult. On consideration and consultation for the
purpose of the forthcoming edition of the MSS., Peck's
arrangement was thought to be so useful that not only
has it been determined not to disturb it, but to treat
the Ashmole Register upon the same system, and to
classify the documents contained in it under the same
two headings, placing them in their proper position
with those copied by Peck.

Let us now consider a few of the main features in the
history of the English Premonstratensians as it appears
in the documents thus arranged. The first, and indeed
in many ways the most important, point illustrated by
these papers are the relations of the English abbeys
with the head house of the Order at Premontre. Although^

252 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

as we have seen, that abbey had very little direct share
in planting the English branch of Premonstratensians,
it still claimed, by the rule of St. Norbert, to be some-
thing more than a head or chief house. Its abbot
demanded the right to exercise authority over all
houses of the Order and to occupy the position of
general superior over all other abbots. In this the claims
of Premontre were similar to those of Citeaux and Cluny
in regard to the Benedictine houses of their respective
Congregations.

The case of the Enghsh Premonstratensians provides
us with a good illustration of the almost necessary
difficulties and inconveniences which in practice existed
in regard to these international Congregations, and of
the friction which, at times at least, prevented the
smooth working of such a system. Apart from the
obvious difficulty which must be experienced by any
foreign superior, of understanding the temperament and
pecuHar needs of his EngHsh subjects, national com-
plications were always possible, and the reUgious in this
country were frequently forced to make choice between
obedience to the laws of their country and the duty
they owed to the foreign heads of their Order.

From the English canons Premontre claimed three
things : regular attendance on the part of the abbots at
the annual General Chapter, held at the mother house ;
the appointment of the visitor to examine and report
to the Abbot General as to the state of the houses ; and
the right to tax the affiliated houses for the benefit of
the Order in general and Premontre in particular. It
was this last demand which, in practice, caused many
difficulties and led to many misunderstandings. Our
documents, indeed, commence with a very pretty
quarrel on this score in full swing. Adam de Crecy was
Abbot of Premontre from 1304 to 1327, and the result
of his battle royal with the English suffragan abbots
on the subject of subsidies was ever after considered as

THE ENGLISH PREMONSTRATENSIANS 253

the ruling precedent, at least in this country. The
English abbots, acting on a royal prohibition against
any such payments to foreign superiors — which, by the
way, they do not seem to have much misliked — had
been for some time defaulters, when, in 13 10, Abbot
Adam de Crecy summoned them all to the meeting of
General Chapter at Premontre, and commanded them
to bring with them the overdue tallages. On receipt
of this citation the abbots met together on 23rd July
13 10, and by a joint letter, whilst expressing " due
obedience, reverence, and honour " for the Abbot of
Premontre personally, informed him that they were
quite unable to comply with his orders. A royal pro-
hibition passed by Parliament, they said, prevented
them from leaving the kingdom for such a purpose, and
were they to disregard this statute they would certainly
be outlawed and unable to return to their country.
Two of their number were, however, deputed to go over
the sea to the meeting of General Chapter, and they
were charged to explain more fully the real state of the
case, and that, besides this prohibition against leaving
the country, the English law also forbade them to pay
any tax that might be imposed upon them by the
Order abroad.

The abbots of Langdon and Sulby were the two
chosen as proctors to represent their English brethren at
Premontre on this occasion, and, fortified by a letter
signed and sealed by fourteen English abbots, they
attended the meeting of Chapter. How they fared does
not exactly appear in these papers except in the result.
Abbot Adam and the Chapter of Premontre would
listen to no explanation, and they issued a decree of
condemnation against the English abbots for not
appearing in answer to the citation, and for not paying
the required subsidy. Their excuses, as set forth by the
two delegates, were rejected as unworthy and in-
adequate; and a sentence of excommunication was

254 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

passed on all of them, to take effect without further
foraiaUty if they had not paid all that was due from
them by the following Easter. Their delegates, the
abbots of Langdon and Sulby, were ordered, moreover,
under severe penalties to pubhsh this sentence of the
whole Order in every English abbey before the end of
the year.

On i8th October 13 lo, consequently, these two abbots
summoned a General Chapter of the English Province
to meet them at Lincoln on ist December, in the church
of the Friars of the Sack (Saccorum). Besides the
attendance of the abbot, each house was, as usual,
directed to elect and send a delegate to the meeting,
that the affair might be fully known and discussed.
The delegates would, they say, personally explain to
the Fathers how and for what reasons the Chapter at
Premontre had rejected the excuses they had been
charged to give in their name for not obeying the
citation to Chapter and for their continued non-pay-
ment of the tallages. In the same assembly they
purposed to carry out the orders they had received in
regard to the publication of the decree of general
excommunication. The position was difficult and
perplexing ; on the one side and on the other there was
danger. If the English abbots gave way and paid the
foreign demands, they would have to reckon with the
law of the land ; if they refused or neglected to comply,
they were threatened with the displeasure of their
superior and the heaviest spiritual penalties. It was
really a case of " the devil and the deep sea " ; but it is
fortunately not necessary, at any rate for us, to deter-
mine exactly which was which.

The EngHsh abbots, as we have seen, were to meet at
Lincoln on ist December 1310 ; but before that date the
king had written a letter to the conveners of the
Chapter, which somewhat assisted the solution or at
least fortified the EngUsh abbots in their resolution to

THE ENGLISH PREMONSTRATENSIANS 255

resist. It is not very far-fetched to imagine that some
one of the Fathers had acquainted the King with the
perilous position in which they found themselves. At
any rate, on loth November 1310, Edward II, writing
from Berwick-on-Tweed, issued letters absolutely pro-
hibiting the levying of any subsidy or tallage on behalf
of Premontre or the payment thereof. His father,,
Edward I, he says, had already finally dealt with this,
matter. Knowing that imposts were exacted of religious-
in England by their foreign superiors, contrary to the:
intention of the founders of the English houses and to^
the injury of the realm, in the thirtieth year of his reign,
he passed an act of Parliament forbidding any English:
superior ever again to try to raise such subsidies, under
whatever name they chose to call them. By the present:
letter, therefore, the king desired to remind the abbots
of Langdon and Sulby of these enactments, and warned!
them of the grave penalties they would all suffer if they
ignored the statutes of the kingdom.

The king's monition had its due weight. The Qiapter
met as arranged at Lincoln, and the Fathers, sheltering
themselves behind the authority of the royal letter,
determined on a bold course of action. They denied
that the Abbot of Premontre or the Chapter could
legally claim any tallage from them. They admitted
that it had been paid previously, but they claimed that
this had been done merely through motives of fraternal!,
charity towards Premontre, and not because they were'
in any way bound to contribute to the foreign establish-
ment. In the present case, being constrained by King
Edward's distinct prohibition, they unanimously resolved
to withstand the claims of Abbot Adam and the General
Chapter of the Order as onerous and injurious. They
indited a spirited protest against the action of Premontre,
inasmuch as, although the distinct prohibition of the
king was made known to him, the Abbot had imposed
heavy subsidies under ecclesiastical excommunicatiort

256 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

for refusal to pay. " We therefore," they say in con-
clusion, " fearing prejudice to our houses, and desiring
to safeguard their interests from foreign exactions and
ourselves from excommunication and punishment,
appeal directly to the Holy Apostolic See " for protec-
tion. Before dispersing, on 2nd December 1310, the
necessary formalities for the appeal were gone through
in the choir of the Friars* Church, and notaries and
proctors were appointed to draw up the needful docu-
ments and prosecute the business to a conclusion before
the Curia.

For the purpose of the appeal, the proctors of the
English abbots in the first instance called for copies of
all the letters from Premontre, which had been produced
by the two abbots of Langdon and Sulby who had acted
as delegates from the Abbot and General Chapter.
These were produced on 20th January 1310-11 at
Barlings Abbey, in a certain room called the " abbot's
new chamber." The record of this meeting is of interest
as showing the extreme care that was taken to verify
the original documents: a minute description of the
subscriptions and of various seals being recorded. The
following day, 21st January, in the abbot's said chamber
and in the presence of a notary public, the English
abbots constituted WiUiam de Kyrkton, canon of
Barlings, Robert de Spalding, canon of Croxton, and
Robert de Rotheram, canon of Beauchief, their proctors
to prosecute the appeal to the Pope. They gave them
full power to act and to get others to act in their name.
They engaged to abide by the decision, whatever it
might be, and pledged themselves to meet all necessary
expenses.

The same day William de Kyrkton, named above as
first proctor, submitted a draft of his formal appeal.
It complained generally of the imposition of subsidies
from abroad without the consent of the abbots them-
selves. It asserted in plain language that the EngHsh

THE ENGLISH PREMONSTRATENSIANS 257

houses were unduly burdened and had a right to com-
plain that such subsidies were demanded under threat
of spiritual censures. Moreover, in regard to visitations
the English canons had serious cause to protest. Whilst
other provinces were visited yearly by two abbots
chosen for the purpose in the district, the Abbot of
Premontre, either himself personally or by a commissary,
had been accustomed to come over to England with a
large train of horses and attendants, and this had been
necessarily a source of great expense to the various
houses. William de Kyrkton submitted this draft for
the criticism and reply of the abbot of Langdon, who
by a legal fiction was supposed to be representing the
Abbot of Premontre, and he annexed to it a list of
papers. On loth March 1311, the appeal was ratified by
all the abbots who had not previously taken part in the
business, and the process was launched at the Curia.
As time went on, however, some of the Order were
apparently not so entirely satisfied as to the position
of hostility to Premontre definitely assumed by English
abbots generally. How far the distrust went it is now
impossible to say; but a private letter was certainly
sent by the abbots of Newhouse and Groxton to the
other abbots of the Midland houses requesting them to
convoke a meeting as secretly as possible to discuss the
matter. On 22nd August, also, the same two abbots, who
were, by the way, the visitors of the Province in the
year 131 1, wrote fully to the same Midland abbots
explaining the situation and advising a continuance of
the appeal. The English Premonstratensians were in a
serious dilemma. Hence the only apparent and legiti-
mate way out of it was to ask the Holy See to decide,
and in this all agreed and guaranteed the necessary
funds. They had acquainted the Abbot of Premontre
of their attitude and of their appeal. Some of the
abbots, however, had not paid the sum at which they
were taxed for expenses of the appeal, or rather had not

s

258 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

refunded promptly to the writers, who had advanced
the money for transmission to Rome, so as not to
jeopardise their case by delay in the payment of fees.
For this reason, as the visitors explain, it was necessary
to make a new apportionment, and all are asked to
meet their obligations punctually and without fail. It
is added, by way of encouraging them to pay cheerfully,
that the subsidy demanded by Premontre was really
greater than the tax necessitated by the expenses of
the appeal. The sum asked was in most cases £4 14s.
from each house ; but the costs were mounting up, and
already, in the one year, five demands had been made
upon the abbeys, and the total had reached no less a
sum than £320, a very considerable amount in those
days.

Meanwhile, as far as appears, the Premontre author-
ities abroad took no notice of the appeal to the Pope.
General Chapter met in the autumn of 13 11 and pro-
ceeded to declare the English abbots contumacious and
rebellious in withholding the payments previously
made to the head house and sanctioned by Chapter.
These dues, however, it may be remarked, were no
longer apparently claimed as a right, but " by ancient
and approved " custom. The abbots of Langdon and
St. Radegund were charged by the Chapter under the
severest censures to pubUsh, during the solemnity of
the Mass, the excommunication pronounced by it
against all the English abbots. They were to warn all
the canons to have no dealings with the abbots whilst
they remained under the sentence, and to declare to
the abbots themselves that under pain of deposition
they must personally appear at Premontre to answer
for their disobedience.

Abbot Adam this year, after celebrating the Premontre
Chapter, went to Vienne, where a General Council — the
same which sealed the doom of the Templars — had
assembled on i6th October. Thence, on loth February

THE ENGLISH PREMONSTRATENSIANS 259

1311-12, the Abbot General sent the EngHsh abbots a
reminder of his existence and of his determination to
bring them back to a sense of their duty. He had been
very kind to them, he says in this letter, and had
granted them many privileges in former days; but
now, as they were all under the sentence of excom-
munication passed upon them by General Chapter of
the Order, he desired to recall all favours previously
granted, and he ordered the abbot of Langdon to
publish this revocation for him.

Abbot Adam, however, did not have it all his own
way. Pope Clement V, to whom the English had
appealed for protection, appointed Cardinal Peter
Colonna to act for him as auditor, or judge. On 17th
March the Cardinal, being then also at Vienne for the
Council, after having listened to the proctors of the two
parties, issued a prohibition to the Abbot of Premontre.
By this document he was commanded not to do anything
in the matter or to issue any sentence whilst the case
was pending, and it condemned him to pay all costs and
a further sum in compensation for damage in the event
of his disregarding this peremptory admonition. Even
this, however, does not appear to have made the Abbot
pause in his endeavour to vindicate what he held to be
the rights of the mother house of the Order. On
14th April 1312, his agents in England, the abbots of
Langdon and St. Radegund, again issued a notice of
his excommunication against the recalcitrant English
superiors, and further absolved all their subjects from
obedience to them. They again, according to their
instructions, warned the canons generally to hold no
converse or communication with any of their abbots so
long as they remained under the sentence, and they
commanded the Priors of the various houses to notify
the orders of the Abbot of Premontre to their respective
superiors. This sentence was repeated on 30th April,
to guard against any plea of ignorance.

26o MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

It must have been throughout a difficult and anxious
position for the English abbots, although in point of
fact it is surprising how little appears to have come
from the terrible threats and sentences, peremptory
citations and judgments, not to name all the censures
and excommunications which were flying about. The
general reader is irresistibly reminded of the classic
lines in The Jackdaw of Rheims, which describe the
apparent result when the Cardinal

called for his candle, his bellj and his book.

Never was heard such a terrible curse !
But what gave rise to no little surprise,
Nobody seemed one penny the worse !

Apparently conscious of the royal power and protection
behind them, the abbots, having launched their appeal
to the Pope, could afford to possess their souls in
patience and regard the fulminations of their foreign
superior as calculated merely to relieve his feelings
without hurting them, so long as their case was pending.
On 6th May 1312, the English proctors wrote from
Vienne, and their letter contained some cheering news.
On the vigil of the Ascension one of them had presented
to the Abbot of Premontre the formal document of
prohibition, above referred to, which was issued by
Cardinal Colonna against his proceeding further. Abbot
Adam was much upset. In fact, the proctors evidently
took a little malicious pleasure- in reporting that " he
was made so ill from grief and mortification at this
unexpected result that he kept to his room for five days
and never left his house at all." The Enghsh abbots,
they add, need have no fear as to the result. " Master
WiUiam de St aping," the proctor, will certainly gain
the cause provided that " id ahundanter haheat quod
oportet " — which being interpreted means, if he be kept
well supplied with money. Already the Abbot ofL

THE ENGLISH PREMONSTRATENSIANS 261

Begham had obtained judgment against the Abbot of
Premontre for eighty golden florins, and in the general
cause the EngUsh abbots would long ago have got
absolution from the censures pronounced against them
from Premontre had they asked for it. Finally, there is
no doubt, they say, as they are told frequently by the
official, that the said Father Abbot will utterly fail to
carry his cause in the Curia, if Master WiUiam, the
proctor, lives and remains to fight for the Enghsh. The
said WiUiam, they add, has gained a great reputation
in the Curia, and is looked upon as " the very flower of
the English nation."

Two days later, 8th May, the above-named William
Staping, the agent at Vienne, writes more at length to
William de Kyrkton, the general proctor in England of
the English abbots. A great deal of money, he admits,
had already been spent upon this appeal. The truth
is that the proctors of Abbot Adam had promised great
sums for the reversal of what had hitherto been obtained
in the way of inhibition; but they had failed. There
was much still to be done to secure the position, and
the agent WiUiam does not hope to be able to obtain a
full absolution even ad cautelam before St. Michael's day.
The fact is that new charges have been made against
the English by the Premontre authorities, but the
English canons may take it that in the end the Abbot
will " get a fall " if he proceed. Further funds, he says,
are urgently needed, and he hopes they will be sent
him before the autumn is out. Ihere is a rumour that
it is not unlikely that in the General Council then being
held the Abbot of Premontre wiU lose his exemption
from episcopal control, unless he can obtain it again
from the Pope and Cardinals. To account in some way
for the great delay, the agent points out that several of
the necessary documents were badly drawn in a legal
sense, and matters of importance were even left out
altogether. This necessitated recaUing them aU and

262 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

again drafting them correctly : all of which had taken
time.

The final result at the Curia does not appear in the
present collection of documents. Peace, however, was
restored in some way between Premontre and the abbots
of the Enghsh province. On 25th February 13 13-4, Abbot
Adam wrote to his agent, the abbot of Langdon, that,
as he understood the recalcitrant prelates were anxious
to return to their obedience, he might absolve them
from the sentences pronounced agamst them. This
olive branch was apparently accepted, for a final agree-
ment was arrived at in the General Chapter held in 1315.
To end the dispute it was allowed that the EngHsh
abbots, instead of undergoing yearly the danger and
expense of a journey to Premontre for the Chapter,
should be represented by the visitors only and such
others as might for some purpose be specially sum-
moned. The Abbot of Premontre might, indeed, visit
the English province yearly if he so desired ; but then
only his bare personal expenses were to be defrayed by
the houses. If he pleased he might depute visitors to
act for him every five years. Further, only necessary
collections should be made from the English houses,
and these only after they had been approved by the
General Chapter and the amount to be charged had
been approved by the visitors. This practically ended
the great case. The victory certainly lay with the
EngHsh, and although some few of the papers in this
collection seem to suggest that there were still slight
difficulties at times, the principle had been settled once
for all and in accordance with the EngHsh contention.
The sovereign also evidently kept an eye upon the
Order to see that his commands about not taking
money out of the kingdom for the use of Premontre
were attended to. In 1343, for example, the king, who
was then, of course, Edward III, hearing that the
Abbot of Premontre was again trying to claim the

:E ENGLISH PREMONSTRATENSIANS 263

payment of subsidies, forestalled him by a prohibition.
He also ordered the sheriff of Northumberland to see
that none of the northern abbots paid the demands.

It has been already suggested that the collection of
early documents, about the quarrel between Premontre
and England as to the payment of subsidies and tallages,
was made by Bishop Redman, when, as visitor and
representative of the foreign superior in England, he
had a threatened repetition of the previous difficulties.
The papers were undoubtedly the best precedents to
guide him in dealing with the matter. After many
complaints that the demand he had made upon the
EngUsh houses had not been attended to, in 1488
Herbert, then Abbot of Premontre, wrote a formal
protest to Bishop Redman. He bade him collect at once
what was due and forward it without delay. He threat-
ened the superiors with penalties if they did not comply,
in much the same way as Abbot Adam had a hundred
and fifty years before. He further suggested that if
the actual cash could not be obtained the equivalent
value should be sent in English merchandise. Almost
any kind would be acceptable to them abroad, he says,
and especially if it took the form of good white cloth
suitable for their habits, or a good and sure ambler, as
a sure-footed horse, gentle and quiet in its paces, could
rarely be found in those parts. To this strong remon-
strance Bishop Redman rephed that he had done his
best for Premontre, and had contrived, sometimes by
threats and sometimes by persuasion, to obtain what
had been demanded. It was right, however, he says,
that the Abbot of Premontre should realize once for all
that the English abbots do not in any way allow and
never have allowed the justice of the claim. They allege
a general and binding composition made with Abbot
Adam de Grecy on the matter, as well as a statute of
the realm, actually and in so many words forbidding
them to send money over the sea to a foreign superior

264 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

under pain of treason and forfeiture of goods. The
Bishop, however, sent the Abbot a copy of what the
EngUsh houses had been wont to give, and he promised
to try to procure the white cloth and other things the
Abbot wanted. The cloth, he adds, had been sent once
before, but it had been captured by pirates.

Sufficient, however, and indeed more than sufficient,
has been said upon this matter, for after all, though
important, the money difficulties form really only an
episode in the story of the Enghsh Premonstratensians
as revealed to us in the documents collected in these two
Registers. There are, of course, records of a great
number of Chapters held in England in the fifteenth
century, which, curiously enough, were for some reason
or other never celebrated in any house of the Order,
but usually in the church attached to some friary.
These papers are useful, but not so important as they
might have been had their acts been fuller and possessed
of a more legislative character. A good deal of the
discussions is taken up with directions about the dress
of the canons, and it is perhaps not uninteresting to
learn that these White Canons had at one time adopted
hlack habits in England, and had to be recalled to their
original colour lest they should be confused with the
Black, or Austin, Canons. The rochet also seems to
have caused a good deal of difficulty at various times.
Some obtained permission to wear it, and thus, of course,
others wanted it, and so finally its use became general.
Towards the close of the century the celebration of
Chapters became the occasions of a display, or ecclesi-
astical pageant, on the part of the Premonstratensians.
On one occasion Bishop Redman writes round begging
all the prelates to bring copes with them to the meeting,
so that the procession might possess due solemnity.
On another he asks all the abbots to bring their crosiers
and other pontificalia, as it was intended to make the
procession at Nottingham as gorgeous as possible.

'HE ENGLISH PREMONSTRATENSIANS 265

Another important matter in the reHgious life well
illustrated in this collection of papers is the visitation
of the monasteries of the Order during Bishop Redman's
time. It must in truth be confessed that there was a
good deal to correct ; but one thing certainly appears,
and that is that the visitor never shirked his duty in
any way, and never condoned offences without satis-
factory, and indeed frequently severe, punishment of
the guilty party. There is very little evidence, I fear,
of any revival of studies or learning among these Canons,
or any great desire to attain to the higher ideals of
the canonical rule of life. Still, it is always unsafe to
take the records of visitations, still more the injunctions
made at the time, as complete evidence of the general
tone. The very purpose of a visitation is to point out
shortcomings and to insist upon reform, and whilst
stress is necessarily laid in the records upon failings,
there is, on the other hand, no notice at all of much
useful work or of any good observance.

In the accounts of these visitations we have many
records of the journeys made by the visitor, the rates
of progress from place to place, and where he was housed
by the way. It is impossible not to be struck with the
rapidity with which he frequently moved from one point
to another.

In relation to these and to the many elections recorded
in the Register we have numerous lists of the canons
of various houses, and our knowledge of the names
of the abbots is greatly increased. A few inventories
are preserved, none perhaps of any very great interest,
and some English letters, whilst a great number of
forms of citation and election and drafts of addresses,
at the meetings of Chapters or by the visitor pre-
siding at a visitation or election, are scattered over the
volume.

On the whole, therefore, I fully believe that not only
will these collections add materially to our knowledge

266 MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

about the English White Canons, but they will be
found not wholly devoid of interest even to those whose
studies are not directed along these lines of historical
inquiry.

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE
HOLY SEE, 1792-1806

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE
HOLY SEE, 1792-1806*

FOREWORD

THE following pages give a brief resume of some
documents regarding diplomatic relations between
Great Britain and Rome, hitherto practically unknown.
They relate to the period of the Napoleonic wars,
between 1792 and 1806, and will be found full of
interest to the student of this period of our history.
A general history of the relations of England to the
Pope would be a subject to repay the student who
would undertake it. The present study of twelve years,
during the reign of George III of England and the
pontificates of Popes Pius VI and Pius VII, may be
considered as forming one chapter of such a history.

Some few words will be useful in giving the reader
the necessary ** setting " to appreciate fully the papers
here referred to. The French Republic was proclaimed
on 2nd September 1792, and immediately the National
Convention gave its sanction to the massacre of hun-
dreds of people in Paris and elsewhere. In England the
news of these horrors at once cleared up any doubts as
to the character of the French Revolution, and ranged
the country in opposition to the Republicans. On 8th
February 1793, the great war, which was destined to
last till 7th July 181 5, began.

* Printed in Rome, 1919.
269

270 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

The naval supremacy of England enabled it at once
to seize the outlying French colonies, and its fleets
proceeded to blockade Brest, Toulon, and Rochefort. In
the summer of 1794, the Brest squadron of the French
navy put to sea to convoy a merchant fleet, but was
caught and beaten by Lord Howe on " the glorious
First of June." On the other hand the English suffered
a reverse at Toulon, which the Royalist inhabitants of
the town had handed over to the English. On 20th
November 1793, Lord Hood, commanding the British
fleet in the Mediterranean, Sir Gilbert Elliot, and Lord
O'Hara took over the administration, until such time
as the monarchy should be re-established in France,
and the copy of the " Discourse " pronounced on this
occasion by these Plenipotentiaries was forwarded to
Rome for the information of Pope Pius VI, and is
among the papers here summarized. General Lord
O'Hara, who defended the place, was obliged to retire
after a short siege, and Toulon fell back into the hands
of the Republicans. Before retiring, the English were
able to destroy the French fleet and arsenal.

The loss of the harbour, however, was a serious matter
for the EngHsh ships in the Mediterranean, and rendered
it all the more imperative for the Government to
cultivate the friendship of the Pope, so as to find in the
ports of the Papal States places where the English
ships might refit and obtain supphes. In 1796, Spain
declared war upon England, and joined France, the
Dutch fleet having previously joined against the
Enghsh. In this same year, the Directory made Napo-
leon Bonaparte commander of the army in Italy, and
in two campaigns he overran the Austrian and Sardinian
possessions in the valley of the Po, and continuing his
progress over the Alps, attacked Austria from the
south. This obliged the Emperor to sue for peace,
which he obtained by surrendering Belgium and
Lombardy to France. The latter possession gave

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE 271

Napoleon the power of making further advances into
Tuscany and the States of the Church. Finally, in the
refusal of the Pope to expel the English from his
dominions and close his ports to EngUsh ships, Napoleon
found the excuse for invading the Papal territories.
With these few facts to act as a " setting " the following
pages may be left to tell their own story.

IT would probably astonish most people to hear that
diplomatic relations between England and the Holy
See existed at the close of the eighteenth century. The fact
of the mission of Mgr. Erskine to the Court of St. James
in 1793 is, of course, known, and in part it has been
described by Maziere Brady in his interesting Memoirs
of Cardinal Erskine, Papal Envoy to the Court of George
III* but the real origin of the mission, and that of a
corresponding one to Rome, appears to be generally
unknown. Lately, whilst arranging some papers of
this period in the Vatican Archives, the letters of Mgr.
Erskine from London and of the English agent at Rome
have come to light ; and, as they contain many matters
of historical interest, it appears worth while to give
some account of them.

It would seem that, some time in the first half of the
year 1792, the English Government found it necessary
to open official communications with Pope Pius VI
regarding the political situation which had arisen in
consequence of the war with the French Republicans.
For this purpose it made choice of Mr. (afterwards Sir)
John Hippisley, who had proved himself a valuable
public servant in India and who had already, whilst
residing in Italy in 1779 and 1780, been entrusted with
several confidential communications in Rome and
elsewhere.

* In a volume entitled Anglo-Roman Papers^ 1890.

272 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

The Dictionary of National Biography says : " From
1792 to 1796 he (Hippisley) resided in Italy and was
there again engaged in negotiations with the Vatican,
the effects of which were acknowledged in flattering
terms by the English Government." This apparently is
all that has been known hitherto of his mission to the
Holy See, but his position in Rome was undoubtedly
one of great influence both with the Vatican authorities
and with the most prominent members of the English
Government. He was, for instance, in constant corre-
spondence with the Secretary of State, Cardinal De
Zelada, and more especially with Cardinal Campanelli,
the pro-Datary, who was not only highly esteemed by
Pius VI, but at this particular time assisted the Secre-
tary of State in the transaction of business.

After having passed the greater part of the year 1792
in surveying the general situation, Hippisley, who^was
not himself a Catholic, came to the conclusion that the
best interests of England would be served by having a
Papal Envoy in London. It seemed to him a plain
matter of pohtical utility if not a necessity for his
country, that relations should be established between
the Pope and the English Government. It was a time
when no religious prejudices should be allowed to
prevent cordial co-operation between two powers with
so many interests in common. The presence of English
ships of war in the Mediterranean was rendered necessary
by the operations undertaken against France, and this
required the free use of the ports belonging to the Papal
States for refuge, refitting, and revictualling.

On this important matter he sounded his chiefs in
the Government and found them entirely sympathetic,
but timorous of the existing Protestant bigotry in
England. Nevertheless, from the general encouragement
he received from men like Pitt and Windham, he
decided to try and bring about the appointment of an
Envoy from the Pope, and, whilst warning his friends

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE 273

at the Vatican of a possible popular outcry at home at
the arrival of any Papal agent, he did all in his power
to get them to risk the appointment. Circumstances
favoured the project. Maziere Brady states that the
Pope employed a certain " Mr. Jenkins, then living in
Rome as British Consul or Agent " to make the first
proposals for the projected mission. This is not the
case and, as far as appears from the documents, Mr.
Jenkins had nothing to do in the matter. In fact, it
seems from the existing papers that Mr. Jenkins, who
was an English banker living in Rome, was a rather
tiresome person at this time. He was involved in
complaints made by the Papal authorities of having
assisted some Englishmen to evade the law against
removing antiquities or works of art from Italy, also
in 1793 he had tried to make some money by raising a
loan for the city of Toulon, which at Mr. Hippisley's
demand was prohibited both by the Papal and the
English Governments. There can be little doubt,
therefore, that this Mr. Jenkins had nothing to do with
the project of sending the Roman Envoy to London,
whilst Mr. Hippisley's letters show that the project
was conceived and carried out by him. Subsequently,
too, he was in constant communication with Mgr.
Erskine, who was chosen for the office.

There were some people, however, who had vague
fears of the bold step about to be taken by the Vatican.
One Englishman, for example, a certain Joseph Denham,
wrote from Onano, a village near Viterbo, to Cardinal
De Zelada, the Secretary of State, to implore the Pope
to desist. He said that he was a Cathohc and that he
feared there would be a great outbreak of Protestant
prejudice against the CathoUcs in England, if it became
known that an Envoy had been sent thither from the
Pope of Rome.

The Holy Father, however, rightly gauged the
situation. The French Revolution had already dis-

274 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

played its principles and ferocity, and the massacres of
2nd and 3rd September 1792, in Paris, followed as they
were in France generally by like horrors, showed that
the only hope for the upper classes lay in emigration.
Nobles, bishops and clergy of every grade took refuge
in England, which offered a compassionate welcome to
all, including many thousands of Catholic priests. Pius
VI was persuaded by Hippisley to utilize this generous
feeling displayed by the Protestants of England and
made choice of Mgr. Erskine for the mission of express-
ing his personal gratitude.

This prelate was eminently fitted for carrying out
his difficult and delicate task. He was a Scotsman and
a close relative of the Earl of KelHe and the Earl of Mar.
Whilst still very young he had been taken under the
protection of the Cardinal Duke of York and placed by
him in the Scots College at Rome, where he remained
from 1748 to 1753. Erskine then took up the study of
law and his career in that profession was brilliant. He
was still a layman when in 1782 Pius VI appointed him
Pro-Uditore and then Promotore delta Fede. The follow-
ing year he received Minor Orders in St. Peter's from
the hands of the Cardinal of York, and later in the same
year was ordained sub-deacon.

On 4th October 1793, Monsignor Erskine set out on his
mission to England. In a general way it was supposed
that his journey was in part dictated by a desire tc
visit his Scotch relatives. But the way had been care-
fully prepared by Hippisley, who, although not without
some fear of difficulties arising from the Protestant
temperament of the EngUsh, had the best possible
reasons for expecting that with moderate prudence
serious objections to the Mission would not be raised.

At the very time when Erskine was setting out, the
EngUsh Government were urging their Envoy in Rome
to press upon the Pope the necessity of actively sup-
porting the British resistance to the Republicans. A1

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE 275

the beginning of October, the English Minister at
Turin wrote to urge the Pope to send pontifical troops
to assist the English in the defence of Toulon ; and on
the 17th of that month, the Cardinal Secretary of
State informed Mr. Hippisley that he feared the number
of troops at the disposal of His Holiness was altogether
too small to enable him to send the number of men
(4,000) asked for ; especially as he had to try and find
troops to defend Avignon and Venaissin against the
Republicans. Still, the Cardinal Secretary adds, the Pope
would gladly help the English if he possibly could, and
he had summoned the " Cardinals of the Congregation
of State " to discuss the matter.

Meanwhile Erskine was travelHng towards England.
On 7th November Hippisley wrote to Lord Hood, Com-
mander of the Enghsh fleet at Toulon, about the loan
proposed by Mr. Jenkins. The Papal authorities, he
says, cannot encourage the project, as the financial
condition of the Papal States is very bad. He adds:
" the disposition of the Pope's Government is excellent.
It desires to contribute in every possible manner to the
success of the common cause of England and Rome."

On 20th November of this year, 1793, Hippisley had
the first news of Erskine, written from Holland. In this
letter the Envoy tells him that he hears indirectly from
the Lord Chancellor of England, that he will be wel-
comed by the Government of the country. In com-
municating this fact to the Vatican authorities, Mr.
Hippisley tells the Cardinal Secretary of State that he
thinks it would be well if the Pope were to prepare the
CathoUc Bishops of England and Ireland for the advent
of his representative, as he has some reason to suppose
that they may not hke the presence of an Envoy in
London. The best way would be for the Holy Father to
ask them to assist Mgr. Erskine in every way, and he
ventures to enclose the draft of a letter which would
be most useful for him to send.

276 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

Three days later Hippislej^ informs the Cardinal
Secretary of a letter from London, which he is sure will
be read with pleasure by the Pope. The " great and
powerful Mr. Burke " writes: " If the thing depended
on me I should certainly enter upon diplomatic corre-
spondence with the Court of Rome, in a much more
open and legitimate manner than has been hitherto
attempted. If we refuse it, the bigotry will be on our
side and most certainly not on that of His Holiness.
Our imnatural alienation has produced, I am convinced,
great evil and prevented much good. If the present
state of the world does not make us learn something,
our error is much more culpable. This excellent corre-
spondence (between Rome and England) could not
begin more fortunately than under the present sovereign
Pontiff, who unites in his person the kingly and priestly
office with advantage to both the one and the other,
and giving to each a new lustre. Truly he is a Pontiff,
whose dignity as Prince takes nothing from his dignity
as a Priest, and whose sweet condescension is every-
thing proper to a Christian Bishop. Far from weakening
in him the imposing and majestic authority of a tem-
poral sovereign it gives him on the contrary an addi-
tional force and a greater eclat.''

Together with this letter from Edmund Burke, Mr.
Hippisley sends an extract from another letter to the
same effect, received from the Anglican Bishop of
Winchester, whom he describes as " brother of Lord
North, lately the Prime Minister of England." This
prelate of the Anglican Church writes: "The estab-
lishment of relations between Great Britain and the
Pope is most desirable, especially at a time when the
piety, humility and liberality of Pius VI presents him
to us as a Prince whose friendship is an honour and
whose political or private engagements are characterized
by virtue, sincerity, and goodness of heart."

At this time an interesting memorandum, for the

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE 277

information of the Cardinal Secretary of State and the
pro-Datary, was handed to them by the EngHsh agent,
to explain all that he had done to prepare the way for
the mission of Mgr. Erskine, the Pope's Envoy, to
England. He marks the document as ** secret " and
begs that it may be returned to him after it has been
read ; but fortunately, perhaps, for the history of this
time, it still remains among the Hippisley papers in
the Vatican archives, and a few extracts from it may
be permitted. " Once the mission of Mgr. Erskine had
been determined upon," he writes, " I took every
measure possible to anticipate any difficulties which
might arise.

" The first and the greatest obstacle, which could be
foreseen, was the prejudice of the lower classes of the
people in general and of the sectaries in particular. In
order to manifest the favourable dispositions of His
Holiness to the English Government, I proposed the
publication of His Holiness' letter to the Bishop of St.
Pol de Leon, and the President of the committee of the
emigres in England was informed of my motive.

" Another object, equally necessary, was to give the
English people generally the knowledge that His
Holiness desired to instruct the Prelates of his dis-
pleasure at hearing that some of the lower classes among
the Roman Catholics had allowed themselves to be
seduced by evil minded people, and had been drawn
away from their duty to their Sovereign.

" I forewarned all my friends in England on this
matter and even wrote personally and in great detail to
His Highness the Prince of Wales, Prince Augustus,
the Lord Chancellor, Lord Grenville, Mr. Windham,
Mr. Burke and to many other members of Parliament."

The writer then goes on to say that he fears that real
intrigues and opposition to the presence in England of
a Papal representative will emanate from the Catholics
themselves, and in particular from the Bishops, who

278 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

thought they saw in this Envoy of the Pope a new
authority imposed upon them. Even in Mr. Burke's
communications, Hippisley is inchned to read in some
places fears as to the reception which will be accorded
to Mgr. Erskine, although he {i.e. Burke) is quite explicit
as to his own view about the great utility of the mission.

** By the last courier," he adds, " Lord Grenville has
written as follows: It seems only right to take this
opportunity of thanking you [Hippisley] personally for
your efforts to serve the public cause [in all this]. The
consequence of measures you have taken so wisely on
this important matter I am satisfied will be a very
essential advantage to His Majesty's service.

** More than two months back," continues Hippisley,
" I wrote to Lord Petre, the chief of the English Catholics,
upon this subject, and sent him copies of His Holiness'
letters to the Bishop of St. Pol de Leon, and the circular
to the Irish Bishops. Although I am in excellent rela-
tions with Lord Petre, I have up to the present not had
any reply from him, but Mr. Wilmot, President of the
Committee des Emigres, writes to me saying that the
Bishop of St. Pol de Leon does not think the time
altogether favourable for the immediate publication of
the letter to him.

" To understand the situation it must be remembered
that some time ago Mgr. Douglas [the Vicar Apostolic
of the London District] wrote to his agent in Rome
saying that the English Government would be quite
content if he [the Bishop] were named the Papal
representative. Moreover, this agent of the Vicar
Apostolic told Mr. Canning, a Catholic gentleman (then
in Rome) that should the Pope send any other Prelate
with a commission to England, this would be doing a
great wrong to Mgr. Douglas [who was in reality the
existing papal agent to England]. The same represent-
ative of Mgr. Douglas told me [Hippisley], only the
other day, that Mgr. Erskine would most certainly not

■ GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE 279

be received [in England] and that the Irish had threat-
ened to hang him if he dared to set his foot in Ireland.
— Why, — they say, — send us a little lawyer to meddle in
the affairs of our Bishops? "

Hippisley then declares that it is his belief that the
lower classes must have been put up to this, " otherwise
how could they have known about the intended mission
and even the name of Mgr. Erskine?" Having com-
municated his fears on this matter to Lord Hood, the
Admiral commanding the British fleet in the Mediter-
ranean, he replied on 7th October, making the following
reflection: "One must certainly complain when one
has to do with people who can only see their own
private interests, without regarding the evil consequence
which result to the public service."

Still, notwithstanding the obstacles that have been
raised to the mission of Mgr. Erskine, Hippisley repeats
his entire confidence that they will be surmounted
successfully and that " the fears of the Enghsh Ministers
will be dissipated even before the meeting of Parlia-
ment."

As a result of this exposition of the situation, in
December a letter was written from Propaganda to the
Vicar Apostolic of the London District and to the
Archbishop of Dublin. In these letters the Bishops are
asked to assist Mgr. Erskine in every possible way.
The Cardinal Prefect expresses his fears that attempts
have been made to injure the Pope's Envoy and to
poison the minds of the Bishops against him, on the
ground that his mission would clash with their rights
and diminish their position. How absurd and false
such a suggestion is, the letters say: " you may know
from the words of the document, and from your experi-
ence of the way in which the Holy Father is always
prompt to uphold and safeguard the dignity of the
Bishops." By the Pope's direction a copy of this letter
was given to Mr. Hippisley in order that any doubt

28o GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

about the Holy See not supporting the mission might
not be entertained for a moment.

On 17th December 1793, a copy of an interesting letter
from Lord Hood was communicated by Hippisley to
the Cardinal Secretary of State :

"On board the Victory, 8 November 1793.

" I received to-day the letters with which you
obligingly honoured me, dated 23 and 24 of this month.
They contained all the papers joined to them and the
two packets of documents concerning Avignon, which
the Cardinal Secretary of State had given you.

" I beg you to oblige me by assuring His Eminence
that I will give all my attention to them and that I
should esteem myself most happy if I could assist in
any way to realise the desires of the hon Pape, whose
character I revere and for whom I have the highest
esteem. I have no doubt that Mgr. Erskine will be well
received in England and that the representations and
just demands of His Holiness as to Avignon may be
favourably received."

A letter sent from the English agent in Rome to Lord
Hood, dated i8th December 1793, comes next in order
in these Hippisley papers. " I acquainted Your Excel-
lency a long time ago," he writes, " of the project of
sending some troops to A\ignon. . . . Mr. Jenkins has
just presented to the Cardinal Secretary a memoir,
which has proved under the circumstances most
embarrassing to the Pope, who is sincerely desirous on
the one hand, to give every possible proof of his zeal
in the common cause, and on the other is being obliged
to give the greatest possible attention to whatever the
present position of his own States demands of him.

" When some months ago I spoke to the Cardinal
Secretary of State about troops [being required], my
ideas turned on the sending of two or three thousand
men to preserve and defend Avignon, once already

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE 281

taken, rather than to act in any offensive measures,
this appearing to me more in accord to the spirit which
directs an ecclesiastical Sovereign like the Pope. It was
very doubtful whether it would be possible to take some
of these troops, which were newly called to arms, little
trained and little disciplined; but the goodwill of the
Pope was evident.

" The position of the States of the Church has since
become, especially in this moment, very critical. The
high cost of food and of corn in particular, is causing a
great sensation among the people and excites their
complaints. Three days ago, for example, at Albano,
a city only four leagues from Rome, there was a kind
of bread riot and they were obliged to send troops
there , . . ."

At this time — December 1793 — Hippisley had con-
siderable difficulties with the same Mr. Jenkins — " a
mere merchant of rings and marbles," as he calls him,
to whom reference has already been made. Owing to
the meddling of this gentleman, Hippisley thought it
necessary to state his own exact position as British
agent, in a letter to the Cardinal Secretary of State.
" It was I," he writes, " who first dared to propose to
the English ministry the opening up of political com-
munications with the Court of Rome. In spite of the
penal laws I openly took the initiative with our Govern-
ment and persuaded them that this proposal would be
of great benefit to my country : I did not fear to take
the entire responsibility. Your Eminence knows that
my conduct has been approved and that I have received
the thanks of the English ministry. The EngHsh
ministers at the only two courts in Italy, which are
allied to Great Britain, have many times expressed
their high appreciation of what I have done. Indeed
Sir WilHam Hamilton, the Minister at Naples, writes :
You have had a very wise thought when you took upon
yourself to open a correspondence with His Holiness. —

282 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

Mr. Trevor our Minister at Turin says : — Your country
cannot but be infinitely obliged to you, for what you
have done at Rome; the firmness and dignity of the
Pope justly deserves our entire respect and protection.
I hope that His Majesty will authorize you to present
to His Holiness the compliments which respond to his
high-minded conduct. — Finally the negotiations have
been recognised and approved by the British Secretary
of State."

To Lord Grenville, the above-mentioned Secretary of
State, Mr. Hippisley wrote a long account of what he
had done and was doing in regard to the Holy See. The
report is dated 26th December 1793, and the most inter-
esting portion of this document is that in which it is
shown how, in spite of the great scarcity of provisions
in the Papal States, the Pope had done more than he
promised in providing the English fleet with grain and
meat. " Lord Hood, the admiral commanding," he
says, " highly appreciates the help of the Holy See in
this matter, and the value of the aid is doubled by the
generous manner in which it has been accorded, at a
time when there was such a great need of provisions in
the country." The amount of grain was more than was
necessary to feed 24,000 men, on a ration of 23 ounces
of bread per day, and this calculation did not include
beans and vegetables, which were equally distributed
between the English and Spanish forces.

The Pope was not less Uberal in regard to meat ; and
this generosity, says Hippisley, " has given rise to great
complaints among the people of his States. He has
allowed us to have 500 oxen and the Spanish an equal
number: 1,000 sheep and 600 pigs as well as a great
quantity of other provisions from Ancona. Moreover
the Pope has furnished us with 40,000 quintals of powder
from his factories, and all this at cost price."

Mgr. Erskine reached London on 13th November 1793
having crossed to Margate from Ostend. Here he

f^GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE 283
mind that Hippisley's letters had prepared the way for
his reception in a much more cordial way than he had
expected. The Custom House officials at the landing
stage had evidently been warned by the Government
to receive him as a diplomatic personage, and the
postillions on his way up to town, at every change of
horses, took care to announce that he was " the Am-
bassador of the Pope."

The first letter of Mgr. Erskine to the Cardinal pro-
Datary and the Cardinal Secretary, after reaching
London is dated 22nd November. Unfortunately he had
found that many of the people, to whom he had brought
letters of introduction, were away in the country and
that he would have to await their return. Meanwhile
Prince Augustus, whom he had already known in Italy,
had heard of his arrival and had obligingly sent to
express his regret at not being in London to receive
him, but hoped to return soon to see him and to present
him at Court. Erskine thanked His Royal Highness,
but suggested that it would be proper for him first to
see the Ministers of State. He gave most people he
had met in the first days after his arrival to understand
that one object of his coming to England was to pay a
visit to his Scottish relatives. " I have been much
encouraged," he concludes, " to see the admiration,
respect and even reverence, with which every one here
speaks of Our Sovereign Lord the Pope." One of the
newspapers. The Gazetteer of the 21st November, he
says, announced his arrival in the following terms : " He
has come here on a Mission from the Pope. He is a
native of Scotland, who has resided for a long time in
Rome, where he has been known for his constant
courtesy to his compatriots," etc.

Writing later, on 19th December, Erskine describes his
reception by the people he had met as most cordial.
He had been informed that Mgr. Douglas (the Vicar
Apostolic) had tried to prevent his coming; but was

284 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

unsuccessful. He finds that the three most important
ministers are in favour of his Mission. Windham and
Burke he has already seen and spoken to, and Stuart
has written to tell him that he may be sure " of their
entire cooperation," and of their good disposition
towards his Mission to England.

At the end of the year (1793) Mgr. Erskine went up
to Scotland to visit his relations, and from Edinburgh
he wrote, on 28th December, to Cardinal Campanelli that
he was more than satisfied that his position as Envoy
was fully recognized and safe. In every place where he
had been received the greatest respect had been paid
to him, as the Pope's representative. For example, he
says : "I was at dinner in a company not large, but
very select, and there amongst others was Lord Thurloe,
the late Chancellor. He, having asked me what my
official position in Rome was, I replied that I was the
— Devil's Advocate, — at his service. Then according to
the Enghsh custom there were toasts drunk. One of
these was " to your Padrone," to which I added " the
Pope," whereupon all joined with the words " to the
Pope."

In another letter from the same place, Erskine
assures the Cardinal Secretary that the English Govern-
ment fully understand the difiicult position of the Holy
See and the impossibiUty of sending effective help to
Toulon, or of raising a loan for the defence of that
city, as proposed by Mr. Jenkins. At the moment of
writing, he says, there comes the news of the evacuation
of Toulon by the Enghsh and the destruction of its
arsenal by the French RepubHcans. This is here
considered, he adds, not a bad thing, as it frees the
alUed fleet. Of Mr. Hippisley's influence Erskine speaks
very highly : *' It is incredible how much and how
often he writes, and to how many people."

ParUament opened at Westminster on 22nd January,
1794 and Mgr. Erskine returned from Scotland to be

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE 285

presented at Court by his relative, Lord Kellie. He was
also taken by him to a place near the throne in the
House of Lords, to hear the King's speech on the
opening of ParHament. Erskine informed the Cardinal
Secretary of this in a letter, written from London on
17th February 1794, which conveyed the news that the
English Government " intend to erect and endow a
seminary for Irish Catholic priests, at a cost of 24,000
pounds sterling annually."

To return once more to Mr. Hippisley and his activities
in Rome. On 19th January 1794, he forwarded to the
Cardinal Secretary for the Pope's perusal, a copy of a
letter received from Mr. Windham. He explains that
this powerful minister, directly he heard of the arrival
of the papal Envoy, had come two hundred miles to
welcome him to London. Windham had already on
several occasions expressed to Lord Grenville and Mr.
Pitt his views as to the great importance of establishing
relations between England and the Holy See. On
meeting Erskine he had at once invited him to dine
with him and meet the ministers accredited from other
countries, and the reception of Erskine as the Pope's
representative by all had been most cordial. Hippisley
had been commissioned to convey to the minister the
thanks of the Holy Father for. his attitude ; in reply to
which Windham wrote :

" I wish I could find terms more expressive than
those which come to my pen, to express how profoundly
conscious I am of the high honour the Holy Father has
deigned to show me and how much this mark of his
condescension in my regard makes me wish for the
honour and prosperity of his Government. I am proud
at being specially honoured by the regards of the Chief
of Christianity and particularly by a Prince, whose
sublime rank does not give a greater value to his
approbation, than his personal qualities and virtues. I
must ask you to choose the most respectful and proper

286 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

means of conveying to His Holiness my homage and
sincere sentiments towards him."

In conveying this message to the Pope, Hippisley
expresses his own great satisfaction in being able to lay
at His Holiness' feet ** a homage, which comes from a
man, who is one of the most accomplished ornaments
of the British Parliament, equally distinguished by his
brilUant talents, his inflexible uprightness and who has
become the favourite and even the idol of his nation."

The Pope himself personally answered this letter of
the Enghsh agent. He says that he is much touched by
the affectionate expressions of Mr. Windham, " a man
of rare qualities in a variety of matters and whom we
consider as such." As to Mr. Hippisley, the reception
of Mgr. Erskine in England, as the Papal Envoy himself
declares, is certainly due to his good offices. " Equally
with him," the Pope adds, " we acknowledge this with
our thanks."

The Holy Father then goes on to speak of the project,
considered very important by the Holy See, of obtaining
for the States of the Church the port of Antibes, should
the Pope eventually regain possession of Avignon and
Venaissin. He enters into long details as to this scheme :
shows how important the port would be to the Holy See
and replies to objections to the proposal which Hippisley
had already stated to the Cardinal Secretary of State.
The Pope sets forth at some length the history of
Antibes and concludes that it is not in any way necessary
for French commerce, which has many other better
harbours, but that for Avignon and Venaissin it would
be invaluable.

A communication from Hippisley to the Cardinal,
dated i8th February 1794, gives the news of the opening
of the English ParUament. On the question whether
the war should be continued, the voting in the House
of Peers was 97 for and 12 against : in the Commons
277 voted in favour of war and 59 against. A motion

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE 287

of Lord Stanhope for the recognition of the French
RepubHc was rejected by the same majority. In this
letter Hippisley encloses a printed official list of presen-
tations made to the King. Amongst these was that of
Mgr. Erskine, described officially as " Envoy Extra-
ordinary from His Holiness the Pope." Erskine in his
letter to Hippisley tells him that he was presented to
the King on 22nd January, and on the following day to
the Queen, by both of whom he was received with great
cordiality.

Immediately afterwards the Papal Envoy had a long
conversation of five hours with Windham and Edmund
Burke, and then in company of the latter he went to
the Lord Chancellor and was there invited to dinner
with all the diplomats. Erskine insisted upon the
absolute necessity for the allied cause of defending Italy
against the French, and upon the importance of having
frank and open relations mth the Pope. On this
subject both Windham and Burke were in complete
agreement with him. The latter, impressed by the
reasons set forth by Mgr. Erskine, told him that he
would take the opportunity of setting forth the same
points, in a full meeting of Parliament.

Lord Petre, chief of the Enghsh Roman CathoHcs,
wrote at this time to Mr. Hippisley, giving many details
of the position of Catholic affairs, which the English
agent in Rome promised to tell the Cardinal Secretary
at their next interview. For the moment, he writes, all
he desires to say is that Lord Petre speaks highly of
the wise conduct of Mgr. Erskine, and of the high
esteem in which he is already held by the Ministers of
the Crown. Hippisley concludes this communication by
once more complaining of the attitude of certain
ecclesiastics to the Mission, with which the Holy Father
had entrusted Mgr. Erskine.

A constant correspondence was kept up between the
Cardinal Secretary or the pro-Datary, Cardinal Cam-

288 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

panelli and Erskine. The latter writes of his interview
with ministers, of his impressions and of his receptions
by the highest personages in the Court and poUtical
circles. At one time he speaks of having attended the
sessions of the Lords or Commons : at another (4th March,
1794) of having been present at the trial of Warren
Hastings.

At the first King's levee after his arrival, Erskine
met Pitt, who excused himself for not having been able,
through pressure of business, to receive him before, but
promised to do so at the earliest moment. He found
time almost immediately after this, for Erskine in the
same letter in which he had related the reception given
him by the King and Queen and his chance meeting
with Pitt, adds his account of his interview with the
minister. This was both long and satisfactory. Pitt
promised to safeguard the temporal interests of the
Holy See as far as Great Britain was able to do so. He
desired " to open up communications between the two
Courts; but said that for an open correspondence he
wished to have a time more propitious, and that at the
moment it was necessary to proceed slowly, taking one
step after another. Pitt then promised to answer the
Cardinal Secretary of State, but wished to have another
letter from him, in which no reference was made to
Irish affairs. He said that the Ministers fully recognized
the good intention of His Holiness in what he had done
in this matter, but that in their opinion it was too
delicate a point to touch upon, and therefore it would
not be wise to express it in a letter, which would remain
as an official document. For this reason he promised
to reply, if another letter without the article on Ireland
were sent.

" Finally he told me," says Erskine, " that the
Emperor had proposed to constitute a defensive league
of the Princes of Italy, and in case His Holiness were
asked to join, he [Pitt] hoped I would let it be known

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE 289

that this was the wish of His Britannic Majesty and he
hoped that His Hohness would assist, if not by arms
and money, at least by his name and the influence of his
sacred character."

The new letter of the Cardinal to Lord Grenville,
without the clause in regard to Ireland, according to
the memorandum enclosed in the above^ was to be
written on the following points : " The object of the
Mission was to thank the Government in the name of
His Holiness, for the favours shown to the French
emigres and to the English Catholic subjects. His
Holiness, to show his goodwill towards the English
nation, was pleased to give Mr. Hippisley, a member of
the British Parliament and British Consul in Rome, at
his request, provisions of grain and meat for the use of
the English fleet. For this the Holy Father had very
willingly given orders, and in this matter as on other
occasions Mr. Hippisley has shown his zeal and patriotic
spirit, which did him much honour.

" Likewise His Holiness had commissioned Mr.
Hippisley to convey his thanks to Lord Hood, the
British Admiral, for the courteous messages he had
commissioned Mr. Hippisley to make in his name.

" Of all these facts and of the feelings of His Holiness
my Lord [Grenville] may be fully informed by Mgr.
Erskine, and that His Eminence [the Cardinal Secretary]
hopes that this exchange of good offices may be con-
sidered as the dawn of an agreement between the two
States, too long alienated, whilst it would seem to be
in the interest of the subjects of both (and as he hopes
that it be the wishes of their sovereigns) to live in
friendly relations, under the sanction of the laws."

Towards the end of May 1794, Mgr. Erskine was
occupied in treating with the English Government — that
is to say, with Lord Grenville — as to some ecclesiastical
difficulties, which had arisen in the island of Corsica,
then in the possession of the English. Sir Gilbert Elliot,

u

290 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

afterwards Lord Minto, had for a brief time been Civil
Commissioner at Toulon. On the evacuation of that
port by the English on 20th November 1793, he was
appointed to the same ofhce in Corsica, when, with the
consent of the inhabitants, the British assumed the
protectorate of the island in May 1794. The Roman
ecclesiastical authorities had information that the
French, when holding possession of the island, had
changed the old system of Church government. They
had suppressed Episcopal Sees, closed religious houses,
etc., and appointed a Bishop to rule, according to their
repubUcan ideas. When it became known that the
English were to take over the Government, Erskine
was directed by the Cardinal Secretary of State to
present to Lord Grenville a memorial setting forth
these circumstances and pointing out to him the danger
of supporting the new form of rehgious government as in-
troduced by the French. This he did, accompanying the
memorial by a letter to the Minister on 20th April 1794.
The Cardinal Secretary replied to the letter of Mgr.
Erskine in regard to his interview with Pitt and the
suggested revision of the letter of credence, on 5th April
of this year 1794. He said that he would at once send the
new letter for Lord Grenville, with the clause to which
objection had been made omitted. As to the proposed
defensive league of Italian princes, he says that the
documents already sent will have shown that none
of the Princes in Italy would have been more prompt
to send to Milan to treat of such a league than the Pope,
but that the plain fact was that no notices whatever
so far had been sent out, and none of the other Princes
in Italy had been asked about the matter. " None of
these rulers however appear to take much interest in
the question ; but the Holy Father will do what hes in
him should the subject be seriously mooted. He is
ready to do what Mr. Pitt suggests, namely assist it if
not with men and money, at least with his name and
the influence of his sacred character."

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE 291

A news-letter from a Mr. Udney, the English Consul
at Leghorn, to Mr. Hippisley, dated 14th March 1794, is
interesting as giving notice of the British attack on
Corsica. " General Dundas arrived here," he writes,
" last night to my great surprise. Lord Hood is deter-
mined to take Bastia at any cost, but at the moment
he has too few troops, and rain and snow have prevented
operations up to the present. I hope that Admiral
Parker, with the vessels and frigates he commands, will
prevent any help coming from Toulon to Calvi, and
that he will intercept the vessels of war, which were to
have left Tunis last week. . . .

" Captain Welson commanding the Agamemnon,
writes to me from Bastia that on the 12th he examined
all the French positions, some of which are very strong
though not impregnable. Bad weather has not yet
allowed him to direct the fire of his vessel against a
battery, which is on the north of the city, which must
be destroyed as it serves to keep the Corsican army
from the point. Fifteen hundred Corsicans, without the
need of using cannon, hold the French and prevent them
from making any progress in the country."

On the same subject Sir William Hamilton, British
Minister at Naples, writes to Mr. Hippisley on 5th of
April. " My letters from Lord Hood tell me that he is
going to attack Bastia, though the opinion of General
d'Auban was against it. In consequence his success will
chiefly depend on marines and sailors. He needs many
things we have furnished in 24 hours from the Arsenal
at Naples and Gaeta. The Romney, an English man of
war leaves this morning with all we have supplied.
Unfortunately the Jacobin conspiracy here prevents
troops being sent." This memorandum was immedi-
ately sent by Mr. Hippisley for the information of the
Holy Father.

On 7th May 1794, Hippisley wrote to Sir Gilbert Elliot
on behalf of the Cardinal Secretary to introduce a
Roman ecclesiastic, Mgr. Albani, brother of the Prince

292 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

Albani and nephew of the Cardinal. Mgr. Albani had
been appointed to represent the Pope at any Congress
which might be held at Milan to consider the very
critical state of affairs in Italy. The English agent adds
at the end of the letter: " I thank God that I was the
first to bring about open communications between this
Government and ours, after relations had been so long
interrupted. Some time ago I sent you a copy of the
letter of Lord Grenville to Mgr. Erskine. His Excellency
has likewise assured this Prelate that he would write
directly to the Secretary of State in reply to a letter
he had lately received."

On the 20th of this same month, Hippisley reported
to Cardinal De Zelada the reception of a letter from
Erskine, written on the 29th of April. In it he says that
" he had that moment received Your Eminence's letter
to Lord Grenville, and at the same time he gives me
the pleasing inteUigence that on the motion of Mr. Fox
the Catholics were freed in the session of 28th of April,
from the obligation of taking the oath, which hitherto
prevented their giving their votes at the election of
members of Parliament. This measure was passed
unanimously." " I have also," continues Hippisley,
" had letters from two members of Parliament, who say
that the presence of Mgr. Erskine and the honourable
reception which he has had from all parties, have
directly contributed to facilitate the passing of this
important measure, as also that which was passed some
months back to discharge the Catholics from the double
tax. Mgr. Erskine's modesty would probably prevent
him from speaking of this ; but as to me it is impossible
not to give this prelate the praise that is due to him.
One of the members of Parliament, who have written
to me, noted that the King, the Queen and all the
Royal family have shown extraordinary kindnesses to
Mgr. Erskine ; and the Prelate, having had the honour
of reading to the Queen Your Eminence's letter on the

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE 293

reception of our troops at Civitavecchia, Her Majesty
had manifested the greatest pleasure .... Here, Mon-
seigneur Cardinal is a fresh occasion, very pleasing to
me, to present my humble congratulations to His
Holiness and his worthy minister upon the happy
progress of an affair, which they have conducted with
such wisdom." Enclosed in this letter is a memorandum
of the conditions of the treaty made by Great Britain,
Holland and Prussia, which were proposed by the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Pitt, and agreed to
by Parliament on the 28th April 1794. Prussia was to
be paid £300,000 to put an army of 62,000 men in
marching order, and an additional £100,000 when it
was ready to take the field. The annual payment for these
troops by England would be £1,400,000 sterling.

In the same month the indefatigable Mr. Hippisley,
after saying that he had sent all the documents con-
cerning the English regiment actually at Civitavecchia,
adds an extract from a recent communication received
from Mgr. Erskine, dated 7th March. The Monsignor
writes : ** I have just come from Mr. Windham. Having
spoken of the object of the Mission he said that he hoped
that I should not soon be recalled. Lord Carnarvon, the
Duke of Leeds and the Lord Chancellor have said the
same thing to me. Last night I was at a great party, at
the Minister of Portugal, and when the Prince of Wales
came into the salon I was talking to the Minister of
Vienna. Seeing me, he did me the honour of coming
towards me. He asked news of His Holiness and con-
gratulated me on my promotion.* On my saying to
him that I feared that this might accelerate my return,
he was pleased to answer that — this must not be too
soon, and then he added: You will be a Cardinal;
certainly you will be a Cardinal. — I replied that I had
already received so much from His Holiness that there

■* Erskine was made Uditore of the Pope in the Secret Con-
sistory, 2 1 St February 1794.

294 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

was nothing I might not hope from his goodness to me,
though I had done nothing to deserve it. The Prince
rephed : Without doubt you will be a Cardinal, and I
shall be glad to see you one.

" I did not say anything to my friend the Cardinal
(Campanelli) about this part of my conversation in my
letter to him.

" The Prince continued to talk for a long time to me
and in the most affable and gracious way. The following
day, at Lady Campbell's, he himself presented me to
his friend Mrs. Fitzherbert. He also introduced me to
Lord Clermont, saying that he was his great friend and
the Gentleman of the Chamber. In naming me he said : —
Mr. Erskine, who came here on the Pope's behalf. — To
say the truth, I find I am received and treated by every-
one as the Envoy of His Holiness."

The affairs of Corsica were again the subject of con-
versations between the Cardinal Secretary of State and
Mr. Hippisley in the May of this year, 1794. On the
28th the latter writes saying that it was now determined
that the island should be under the protection of
England and the Government be in the hands of a
council, with General Paoli at its head. The various
questions regarding the clergy " will be in good hands
and the Roman authorities have a friend in the person
of Sir Gi-bert Elliot."

On 6th June 1794, Hippisley communicated to the
Cardinal Secretary that he had just heard from London
that the Bill for giving the vote to Cathohcs had been
suspended till the next session of Parhament. The
measure had passed the first two readings unanimously,
but when it came up for the third reading, it was
observed by some one that the times were too critical
to make so important a change. " Mr. Burke and many
other members spoke in favour of the Bill, but Mr. Pitt,
who had also voted for the measure at the first two
readings, thought that it had better be suspended."

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE 295

The fact was, as Hippisley told the Cardinal : " Great
alarm had been spread over the Kingdom by the
discovery of a conspiracy of two secret societies, which
occupied the whole attention of the ministers and
Parliament," and was the reason for holding up this
measure of justice to Catholics, as also another proposal
to be made by Mr. Sheridan to admit Catholics to the
army.

" I," continues Hippisley, " would point out to Your
Eminence that no one in the Cha^iber spoke against
the principle of the Bill, or its substance, which would
certainly have passed with unanimity had it not been
for the alarm caused by the discovered conspiracy."

During the month of June, the Cardinal was furnished
with extracts of many letters which gave accounts of
the sailing of the French fleet from Toulon for the relief
of Corsica; of the pursuit of Lord Hood; and also of
several engagements between the forces. On the 15th,
news came from Leghorn that 9 French ships of the
line, 6 frigates with 5,000 men for the proposed landing
at Calvi, were blockaded in the Bay of Santa Margherita
b}^ an English fleet of 15 ships of the line and 10 frigates.

On the 17th of June a communication of another
kind reached the British agent in Rome. On that day
Sir WiUiam Hamilton, the Minister at Naples, wrote
about an eruption of Vesuvius which had taken place
the previous Sunday. It had shaken the city to its
foundations, the lava had run down the mountain to a
distance of four miles and had almost entirely over-
whelmed Torre del Greco. "It is feared that a great
part of the inhabitants have been buried alive under
the ruins. I saw this morning a stream of lava, which
had formed a new promontory to the sea and the water
was so hot that at a distance of 400 paces, I could not
hold my hand in it: a httle nearer it was evidently
boiling. At this moment we are in a dense mist and the
continual noise of the mountain threatens fresh

296 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

disasters. If this explosion of lava had not taken place
the city of Naples would have been buried in an earth-
quake."

In sending this account to Cardinal Campanelli,
Hippisley reminds him that Sir William Hamilton " is
the great authority on Vesuvius and for thirty one
years has been engaged upon the scientific examination
of its eruptions."

A letter dated 22nd June 1794, from Hippisley , informs
the Cardinal that Mr. Windham, according to the
Official Gazette of London, is about to become a Minister
of State in the place of Mr. Dundas, who had occupied
the post only for a time. In the same communication
he encloses the draft of a history of the sufferings of the
French clergy, by the Abbe Barruel,* which is being
translated into English. In his Preface the Abbe says :
" By a wonderful effect of Providence the French
clergy have been the happy cause of drawing together
the Holy See and England which for more than two
centuries had had no sort of communication."

The conduct of that portion of the clergy, who had
found refuge in England, and the enthusiasm which had
inspired that generous nation, the Catholic reHgion being
better understood by seeing the reality before their
eyes by a people who were prejudiced against it, and
finally, the interest that they took in the persons who
had fled to them and whom they helped: all tended
to lead to the point where they stand to-day, where the
attitude of the people towards the Court of Rome is
very different from that which led up to the scenes wit-
nessed in 1780.

" The truly magnanimous way in which the Court
and all classes of the British nation has acted towards
these ecclesiastics was quickly brought to the attention
of the Common Father of the Faithful. Various Briefs
and Letters in which were expressed the feeling of his
* Histolre du derge de France^

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE 297

heart and the greatness of his soul addressed to Minis-
ters, Admirals and other EngUsh Officials, were the
first steps taken by His Holiness to manifest his grati-
tude and paternal concern for everything which could
contribute to the relief of both the French Catholics and
their brethren of England."

" Fortunately," continues the memorandum of the
Abbe Barruel, " there was at this time in Rome a
member of the British Parliament, endowed with great
activity and full of resource. He interested himself
actively in the lot of the French emigres and did not
weary by letters, notes and example to influence the
general movement in their favour. Respected by the
chief members of the committee formed for the help of
the emigres, an intimate friend of the President of the
Committee, the worthy recipient of the confidence of
his Government as well as honoured by the goodness of
the Holy Father and the friendship of his Ministers,
Mr. Hippisley became the centre of the correspondence,
which was established between the benefactors of the
French clergy.

" In this way the barriers were broken and the
dividing wall, that had so long separated Rome from
London, was, if not wholly overthrown, at least passed
over without difficultv, a mutual confidence was estab-
lished and the two powers came to understand that
they had one object of mutual interest."

In a short time Hippisley found himself asked on the
one side to assure the Holy Father of the constant
protection that would be given to his States by the
English fleet, to ask from the Pope favours, which were
to be expected from a friendly power, and to lay at his
feet the expression of the thanks and admiration of the
chief oflicials, mihtary and civil, as well as of other
illustrious personages of his nation. On the other hand,
the English agent became in regard to his own country-
men, the interpreter of the lively appreciation of the

298 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

Holy Father for all that the English Court and Nation
had done for the emigrant clergy and for the Catholics
of England, and to assure them of the Pope's desire to
do all he could in return. " These and like sentiments
and methods of action served to immortalize Pius VI,
who rising above strong existing prejudices has secured
the veneration and (if it may be said) the tender regard
of a people so long hostile to Rome."

The writer then goes on to speak of the great work of
conciliation already effected by Mgr. Erskine in breaking
down prejudices and fonning friendships. But, he adds,
" even this is due to the constant care of Mr. Hippisley."

At this time the English Catholic residents in Rome
presented Hippisley with an address of thanks for all,
he had done to bring about cordial relations between
the Holy See and the English Government. " We have
seen," they say, " the great Pius VI generously give all
that his States could provide in the way of provisions
for the British fleet, and this at a time of great scarcity
in the country; and we have equally witnessed the
testimony of lively gratitude and recognition to the
Court of Rome by those who commanded the forces for
His Majesty. We have seen again a regiment of English
dragoons received with distinct honours in the States of
His Holiness and for three months treated with the
most friendly care. You, Sir, (i.e, Hippisley) were
chosen to be the channel through which His Holiness
has deigned to convey to our fellow countrymen the
gracious testimony of his satisfaction at their excellent
conduct, and in the name of the Holy Father to
present a gold medal to each of the officers. It was very
pleasing to observe that by a happy chance this regi-
ment had the name of his Royal Highness the Prince
of Wales and that its two chief commanders. General
Stuart and Colonel Erskine, are relations of your own
and of the respected Uditore of His Holiness, Mgr.
Erskine, your intimate friend for many years and at

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE 299

present your companion in the great cause in which you
are concerned."

" We have heard with the greatest joy of the honour-
able welcome given to this Prelate in England by the
Royal family and the Ministers, and our hearts are filled
with thanksgiving as we have heard that since his
arrival in England a Bill has been carried for the relief
of our CathoHc brethren, relieving them from the
double tax imposed on them, and that another Bill to
restore to them the great privilege of voting at the
elections, which is much prized by every Englishman,
has been proposed and only delayed by certain circum-
stances."

The writers of this memorial then go on to express
their belief that the laws against the Catholics were
wholly unjust, because they were made to apply to a
body ever faithful to their King. Equally unjust they
consider the hatred of the Holy See, manifested in
many of the English laws.

" A simple and exact statement of the principles,
inculcated by the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda
Fide in all its letters and admonitions to the Catholic
subjects of His Majesty, are sufficient to prove that it
is unjust to draw general conclusions for any isolated
fact and to confound the action of the Court of Rome in
purely political matters two centuries back, with the
constant teaching and discipline of our Church. Faithful
obedience to established Government and respectful
submission to those invested with authority are the
necessary rules of conduct, which have been most
warmly inculcated."

The memorialists conclude by asking Mr. Hippisley
to believe that they are sincerely grateful for all he has
done to bring about a better understanding between
the Minister of the English Sovereign and the Pope and
his Ministers.

The signatures to this document are interesting. They

300 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

are Rev. Val. Bodkin, Doctor in Theology and Laws
and agent for the Bishops and secular clergy of Ireland ;
the Rev. I. Weyburn, Professor of Theology and
Superior of the Irish Franciscans in Rome, in the name
of all the community; Rev. I. Connolly, Doct. of
Theology and Superior of the Irish Dominicans in
Rome in the name of the whole community ; the Rev.
P. Macpherson, agent of the Bishops and clergy of
Scotland; Rev. F. Luke Concanen, Doctor of the
College of Casanate [sic] and secretary of the General of
the Dominicans, and agent of the Archbishops of Ireland
in Rome; the Rev. P. Crane, Prof, of Theology and
Rector of the Irish Augustinians in Rome, in the name
of all the community ; the Rev. R. Smelt, agent of the
Bishops and clergy of England; G. Harris, student in
the English College in the name of all the students;
J. H. Mac-Dermont, student in the Irish College in the
name of all the students; J. Maclaughlan, student in
the Scots' College in the name of all the students ; Rev.
J. Connel, Secretary of Cardinal Rinuccini and agent
of the English College at Liege; Rev. N. Thompson,
Canon Regular of the Redemption of Captives in his
name and in that of Rev. B. Murphy; J. Macdonald,
student in the College of Propaganda Fide, in his name
and in that of all the British students of the College.
On 23rd of June 1794, Hippisley appeals to the
Cardinal Secretary of State to obtain more provisions
for Lord Hood. This was done at the request of Mr.
Udney, the British agent at Leghorn, who had heard
that the Pope had allowed General Erskine to have
200 beasts for the army. " Lord Hood will be greatly
disappointed in his hopes, if on his return to Leghorn
he does not find fresh provisions for his deserving
sailors. Lord Hood presses me in his letters to secure
these, and I feel sure His Holiness will consider how
much the security of Italy depends upon these brave
and good men of the British Navy/'

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE 301

On the 1st of July, Mgr. Erskine writes about a visit
to Portsmouth to witness the King's review of Lord
Howe's fleet. " It was a sight worth seeing," he says,
" especially the launch of a new ship, and the salute
of all the ships, as the King passed down the line. It
gave one the idea of a battle, at least as some of the
officials told me, but in the proportion of one to three.
On Saturday I was on board the Admiral's ship Queen
Charlotte, where I was shown everything. I remained
late so as to hear from a ship the efiect of a cannonade,
but an accident, difficult to believe, did not let me hear
this. The King with the Queen and the Royal Princesses
had gone for a sail on the frigate Eagle. With him were
Lord Howe and all the chief officers of the fleet ; but
on the point of the Isle of Wight the frigate ran on a
shoal and remained there till 10 o'clock at night, and
since no salute is fired after sunset, I did not have the
effect I hoped for.

" The Cardinal Secretary of State's letter about the
English soldiers in Italy and about the gold medal the
Pope had given to the officers I have presented to Lord
Grenville and a copy to Lord Amherst, Commander in
Chief of the Army." The replies sent (now not in private
but officially) " show that we may consider the corre-
spondence between the two Courts opened." In Lord
Grenville's letter there is a special point to remark:
" after my name there are three etceteras, as is usual
in the case of ministers." Erskine says in the same
letter that he is doing all in his power to heal the divisions
among Catholics. He has persuaded Lord Petre to go
and visit Mgr. Douglas, with whom he has not had
relations for a long period, and Throckmorton has
promised him to stop writing his pamphlets.

In the middle of the month (July) Mgr. Erskine went
to visit Oxford and was loud in his praises of all he saw.
He was well received everywhere and invited to dine
at Christ Church, founded by Cardinal Wolsey. " I

302 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

accepted," he writes, "so as to be the first — at least I
think so — of my character, who has dined there since
the fall of the Founder." The Monsignore was also
pleased to find that at Oxford there was a chapel, or
rather a little church, being built for the Catholics,
which was nearly finished. He praises the priest, a
certain Mr. Casley, by whose energy the money has
been got together, and he suggests that to encourage
him the Cardinal Secretary might be disposed to get
some help from the Holy Father for the work.

In his next letter (July 22nd) Erskine speaks of the
campaign in the Opposition press against the Ministry.
The Morning Chronicle has attacked, not the person of
the Pope but the Papacy in general, " and last Saturday
it maintained that this war was being waged to uphold
the tottering Papacy; that the King of France had
lost his crown and his life because he allowed himself to
be seduced by papal agents, etc. ; that it was contrary
to the nature of a Protestant nation (England) and
contrary to its ideas of liberty and rehgion to prop up
Rome." It was an article intended to inflame the
passions of the people, as Lord George Gordon had done
in 1780. Fortunately it produced no ill effect ; but at
this time great prudence was evidently necessary.
Meanwhile he had been able, he says, to converse at
length with the ministers as to Corsica.

In subsequent letters the British Envoy returns to
the Corsican question and says that he has the assurance
of the Minister, at last, that the spiritual government
shall be settled in accordance with the views of the Holy
See.

A letter from Cardinal CampanelH to Mgr. Erskine
begins by saying " this morning (5 July 1794) the Holy
Father said : — Write to Mgr. Erskine, and in my name
tell him that he is worthy of all praise for having given
the news of the signal naval victory gained by Admiral
Lord Howe — "

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE 303

In writing to Hippisley on behalf of the Cardinal
Secretary, Cardinal Campanelli says that he — the
Secretary of State — had written a letter to Lord Hood
and accompanied it with a present of a copy of the
Museo Pio-Clementino, as Hippisley had suggested. He
adds that the Pope is not at all content with the pro-
posed Constitution for Corsica, especially in regard to
its religious clauses, which are modelled upon the Civil
Constitution for the French clergy. He begs Mr.
Hippisley to insist with the English Government upon
this being changed, which, as just noted, had already
been done.

On the 30th of June of this year. Lord Hood writes
from on board the Victory to quiet the alarms which
had arisen from a report of the escape of some French
vessels from Toulon. A copy of this note was immedi-
ately sent to the Pope. " As I hear," writes Hood,
** that all Italy is alarmed about a second division of
vessels of Toulon, I am pleased to assure you that these
reports are unfounded, and I have the honour to tell
you that on the i8th the French only had one guardship
in the port of Toulon, and this was absolutely unfit to
take to sea. So that it is impossible that they could
send out five vessels, not even in five months' time. I
thought that this notice would be welcome and for this
reason I send it expressly for the information of His
Holiness."

With this letter Hippisley sent the Cardinal Secretary
an extract from the Histoire du Clerge de France by the
Abbe Barruel. It was the expression of the gratitude
of the 8,000 priests, who had taken refuge in England
from the Revolution, for the wonderful charity with
which they had been received. A printed copy of an
inscription to commemorate this charity, which had
been placed in 1793 in the Chapel of the King's House,
Winchester, is still folded in this letter.

In the July of 1794, Mr. Hippisley went on business to

304 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

Ancona. He was to make a tour of inspection of the
country, so as to be able to report on the natural
resources of the Papal States to the British Government.
He sought and obtained from the Cardinal Secretary of
State letters containing every requisite permission. He
appears to have been specially interested in the pro-
duction of hemp, which he thought could be increased
greatly in this part of Italy. In writing to Rome, he
suggested that the port of Ancona required considerable
attention, since, even after great sums of money had
been spent on it by the Pope, it was in no ways im-
proved. He suggested that, as at Genoa, where things
were going from bad to worse until the authorities got
an English engineer to study the question, so at Ancona
it would be most useful to obtain the same opinion
before it was too late, and he mentions that like diffi-
culties had been experienced at Ramsgate and that
these had been entirely overcome.

From Ancona Hippisley forwarded a note he had
received from Lord Hood written on board the Victory,
giving the following information: " I have left Vice
Admiral Hotham, with a superior force, to hold the
blockade of the French squadron, so that the States of
Italy need not have any fear of an attack. Through
bodily fatigue and anxiety of mind I find my constitu-
tion so undermined that I am incapable of continuing
to command His Majesty's fleet in these waters and I
must ask for leave to return to England. What is most
annoying to me is that I am deprived of the honour of
presenting my respects personally to the Pope. No one
can have a deeper veneration for His HoHness than I
have." In communicating this note to the Cardinal
Secretary, Hippisley notes that Lord Hood had on six
or seven occasions directly sent news of interest or
importance to the Holy Father.

At the beginning of August of this same year, 1794,
Hippisley, still writing from Ancona, sends to the

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE 305

Cardinal a copy of a letter from France, giving a sad
account of the state of the country, then in the Reign of
Terror under Robespierre. He again returns to the
question of Corsica, saying that he thinks it would be
difficult for the English Government to take any active
part in ecclesiastical affairs. " In every conquered
country," he says, " where the people are Roman
Catholic, the English have always left the Church
conditions in the same form, in which they found them.
Your Eminence will remember that Lord Hood, speak-
ing of Bastia, where the English flag had been raised,
authorized me to tell you that the estabhshments of
the Church would not be touched. If as conquerors we
had taken the entire island this would have been our
policy. Now, however, that the country has determined
to come under the protection of England, it is not so
easy, in view of the Convocation of the Assembly of free
Corsicans, to enforce absolutely what the Holy See
desires." Hippisley nevertheless is sure that the views
of Sir Gilbert Elliot and of Mr. Burke are the same
as those of the Pope, and he strongly urges that in any
letters on the subject there should be quotations made
from the works of Edmund Burke on the Revolution,
which had become a classic. He advises that together
with any Briefs of the Holy Father on this matter, a
printed selection of passages from the works should be
sent. For this purpose he forwards an Italian translation
of the first work and a French edition of the second.

To Mr. Windham Hippisley had written, that appar-
ently some in England are rejoicing at the chance of a
schism in Corsica, as having some relation to a general
change of religion in that island ; but that he (Windham)
was too well informed about the history of our country
and about mankind generally to imagine that, once the
Corsicans had broken their relations with the Holy See
on a question of dogma, they could be considered as
being good Protestants.

X

3o6 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

In replying to Hippisley's letters, the Cardinal
Secretary thanks him for his advice regarding the best
way to manage the difficult question of Corsica. This
advice the Holy Father will take. He will base his
reasons against the ecclesiastical changes on the Briefs
he has issued against the French changes and he
proposes to make great use of Mr. Burke's arguments
taken from the books, which he thanks Mr. Hippisley
heartily for having sent. The Cardinal thanks him also
for what he has written about the port of Ancona and
the Holy Father is by no means averse to obtaining the
advice of the celebrated Mr. Smeaton, who has been so
successful in the case of the port of Ramsgate.

On 3rd October 1794, Mgr. Erskine wrote to the Car-
dinal Secretary to tell him that the English Government
did not see its way to interfere actively in the religious
questions of Corsica. It was suggested that the Holy
See should come to some arrangement with the Corsicans
and the British Government would back it up. With this
letter Erskine forwards the official reply of Lord Gren-
ville to the Cardinal's letter. He also acknowledges the
reception of copies of the Pope's Bull condemning the
Synod of Pistoia, one of which he will give to Mgr.
Douglas.

A month previously — on 8th September — Cardinal
Campanelli had written to Mgr. Erskine expressing the
Holy Father's pleasure at hearing his account of the
good dispositions of the English Government in regard
to the innovations in prejudice of religion, proposed by
the Corsicans, and their action against priests and
religious. He begs Mgr. Erskine to insist upon the return
of the legitimate priests to the island, as their absence
is very hurtful. The Pope, he continues, was much
interested in your account of the long talk you had with
the Duke of Portland, and the Holy Father desires to
thank him and the King for their sentiments in regard
to " the Catholic religion in the Kingdom, in the con-

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE 307

quered islands, and in that of Corsica." He has every
confidence that they will oppose all novelties in that
State, which came in merely as Republican innovations.
Now " as to the change that for just reasons is now to
be made in regard to the Visitor Apostolic of the con-
quered islands, the Holy Father is always desirous, as
far as possible to meet the wishes of the Government.
He approves the agreement wisely made by the Duke
and you, and will wait for the note on the various
proposed people, in order to choose the most fitting.
In this way it is hoped to open the way for future
relations with advantage and honour to both Courts.

" For your private information I may say that of the
three people named by the Duke, that is to say, the
Bishops of Amiens, Boulogne and Troyes, according to
our present information the first would be the best. I
would add for your own instruction that it would be
well not to use the term nominate, which is not the
correct expression to use even for Cathohc Princes, when
speaking of a Vicar Apostolic or other ecclesiastical
minister to be appointed by the Holy See. The term
suggestion, request or information is more appropriate,
and would equally satisfy the Government. This is
the just remark of the Holy Father himself, which I
pass on to you, whilst at the same time in his name I
give you the highest praise for the wise way in which
you have conducted all your business and in particular
the conversation referred to."

At the beginning of October, Hippisley was able to
send some satisfactory news about the Corsican business.
He had received a letter from Sir Gilbert Elliot in which
he says that the Constitution now proposed simply
declares " that all matters (with regard to Bishops'
sees, parishes, etc.) are to be agreed upon between the
Corsican Parliament and the Pope," and he believes
that nothing prejudicial to rehgion will be attempted.
He adds: "If the communication between the two

3o8 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

Courts (of Rome and England) was recognized by the
law, the case would be essentially different, and when
this happy consummation is effected, then will be the
time for the Court of Rome to consider how directly
and officially to expose all it has to say upon the temporal
rights of the Holy See in Corsica."

Meanwhile the only way open is for Mgr. Erskine to
ask for a conference on the matter with Lord Grenville.
" Possibly having been warned as to the object of the
interview, his Lordship may have a difficulty in granting
such a meeting, but the request will be sufficient to show
the anxiety of His Hohness."

Together with this letter Hippisley encloses a copy
of another note received from Lord Hood, written from
" On board the Victory, anchored in the port of Spezia/'
He desires to thank Cardinal De Zelada for his letter
and the present he has sent him in the Pope's name.

" This present (valuable as it is in itself) I consider
not so much for its value, as a pledge of the friendship
and esteem of a virtuous Sovereign." He adds that he
has now received permission to depart for England for
a short time, and hopes to recover his health in " passing
a few weeks at the baths of Bath."

On nth November (1794) Mgr. Erskine wrote a long
letter to the Cardinal, which is of exceptional interest
as showing the relations which then existed between
him and the British Government. A portion of this
letter may be here translated. He writes: "Not
contented with the reply I received through Mgr.
Douglas, whom I had sent to His Excellency the Duke
of Portland, Secretary of State for Home affairs, so
as to give him (Douglas) the opportunity of seeing him
for the first time, I determined to go yesterday myself
to the Duke. I had a long conversation with him, and
a very satisfactory one on the present matter with
hopes of even greater satisfaction in the future. I told
him, without making any mystery about it, that the-

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE 309

faculties for Mgr. de Cominges had arrived ; that His
Hohness, sincerely desiring to second the wishes of the
Court here, had determined to carry out this matter at
once. That for this reason the faculties had come sooner
than I expected, and that as I did not wish to have any
difficulty as to the mission of Mgr. de Cominges, for
this reason I had taken the step (believing that the
Pope would approve of this under the circumstances)
of not handing the faculties to the Bishop, until I had
assured myself that no objection would be raised. . . .
Mgr. Douglas had, after his interview, told me that
there was in fact some objection. For this reason I
had come to ask His Excellency if possible to com-
municate to me the ground of the objection, so that I
might be in a position to explain the matter to the
Holy See. The Duke replied that he was most sensible
and so was His Majesty of the friendly anxiety of His
Holiness to second the just wishes of His Majesty. He
thanked me for having suspended the issuing of the
faculties, since in this way I had freed them from an
embarrassing situation, which should not have arisen.
He begged me to make his excuses to His Holiness for
this change, but he hoped that in view of the reasons,
the Holy Father would excuse him; adding that His
Holiness might be assured of the uprightness of their
intentions and of their desire that the Catholic Religion
should be maintained pure and intact in the British
dominions. A proof of this was to be found in this very
change now under discussion. Here in substance he
told me openly, that having thought of sending an
ecclesiastical dignitary to bring order, or rather to
renew the spirit of the Catholic religion in the con-
quered islands, he was directed to Mgr. de St. Pol, and
Mgr. de Cominges was proposed by him for the office.
The first time the latter was presented to him he had
shown by a certain haughty behaviour that he was not
adapted for so important and difficult a duty, for which

310 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

he was destined, and that, having afterwards obtained
information, his suspicion that Mgr. de Cominges was
not the person was confirmed. For such a Work there
was needed, he said, a zealous and exemplary man and,
in a word, an Apostolic ecclesiastic. He had consequently
told the Prelate so ; and having learnt that the Bishop's
family had many relations in the islands, he had come
to the conclusion that his presence there would be a
subject of jealousy for one or other of the parties, and
that instead of resulting in securing the spiritual good
it would cause difficulties both spiritual and temporal.
Furthermore, that as one part of his present diocese
was in Spain, it would be a delicate matter to send him
to the islands, without coming to some agreement with
the Court of Spain, which under the circumstances
was not possible."

With regard to his own position, Mgr. Erskine says
that he was disposed to tell Mgr. de Cominges that the
faculties had arrived, since he will have already heard
directly from his friends in Rome, but to say that he
(Mgr. Erskine) had not yet had any orders to hand them
to him. " From this affair I came to the conclusion that
it was necessary to induce the Government here, when
they have to treat of another nominee, not to propose
any name before they have ascertained the views of the
Holy See. I consequently said to the Duke," continues
Erskine, " that it was always difficult to have either well
founded or impartial information; and that since the
wish of His Majesty and his own was to provide for the
preservation of the Catholic religion by means of good
Pastors, I begged him to reflect if the best method for
securing this would not be to have an understanding
with the Holy See, which was always interested solely
in the choice of good subjects, and since it was the
centre, etc., was naturally better informed of the
character and the merits of everyone. I told him the
present case showed that it was necessary to have good

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE 311

information before acting, and how useful was this
suggestion of mine.

" I also begged him to think of what might be an
even more difficult case. Supposing, — I said — that His
Holiness had any canonical objection against the
person of Mgr. de Cominges, or against some other
person nominated by His Majesty. In such an eventu-
ality His Holiness could not grant the faculties requested
and then what would happen ? This Government would
not wish and could not obhge His Hohness to act
against his conscience. Would it perhaps send the person
nominated or pennit him to go without his faculties?
Here there would be things contradictory in them-
selves. Does it not therefore follow that such a nomina-
tion would be useless and that it would be necessary
to proceed to the choice of another subject ? To avoid
these and similar inconveniences, I drew the conclusion
that it would be always proper, and I would even say
necessary, to agree with Rome (previously) on the
person to be nominated.

" The Duke entered most reasonably into all I had
said and told me that we must agree together on the
choice of a new subject. He named the Bishop of
Boulogne-sur-Mer, that of Amiens and that of Troyes,
I said that as to this I could not say anything without
the determination of the Holy Father and I hope that
he will send me the list, so that I may forward it for the
Pope's final decision."

After this the talk passed on to the subject of Corsica
and on this the Minister said " that His Holiness might
be assured that here as elsewhere the Court would take
every measure necessary to preserve the Catholic
Rehgion, such as it was before the introduction of the
fatal French innovations. He told me that the patent
for the nomination of Sir Gilbert Elliot as Viceroy in
Corsica, had just been forwarded to him."

Mr. Hippisley left Italy in 1796. For some time he

312 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

had been in bad health and had been obhged to make
use of the services of his daughter in his correspondence.
Meanwhile Mgr. Erskine continued to correspond
regularly with the Cardinal Secretarj^ of State. The
Revolution was no longer confined to France and war
was kindled in Piedmont, Austria, Spain, and England.
In May, 1795, it was rumoured that the allied Powers
contemplated calling a Congress to discuss the possi-
biUty of a general peace, and the Pope determined to
take timely measures to have a representative in such a
Congress to uphold the rights of the Catholic Religion
and in defence of the Papal States already invaded at
Avignon and Venaissin. Pius VI chose Erskine as his
representative, and the official appointment was sent
to him on 6th June 1795.

Although, in consequence of disagreements among
the allied Powers, this proposed Congress never took
place, the credentials addressed to Mgr. Erskine gave
him a position as Envoy Extraordinary, which was most
useful to him. In June of this same year (1795) the
Society of Antiquaries in London forwarded to His
Holiness a copy of a volume on Roman Military An-
tiquities compiled by the Society, and Pius VI wrote to
Erskine to convey his thanks to the Society. In this
same letter the Pope expresses his sense of loss at the
death of Cardinal Campanelli, Erskine's true friend and
constant correspondent.

"It is unnecessary," writes Meziere Brady,* " to
enter into details of the French occupation of Rome
and the brutal violence practised on the person of
Pius VI, who rashly consented to the treaty of Tolentino,
made under compulsion, on the 19th of February 1797.
Previously to that time the Pope had been violently
stripped of the greater part of his dominions and was
virtually a prisoner, soon to become one in dread reality,
and he was helpless before Bonaparte.

* Memoirs of Cardinal Erskine ^ p. 1 39,

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE 313

The events of the sad years 1796 and 1797 threw addi-
tional labours upon the shoulders of Erskine. As Great
Britain had more open intercourse with foreign parts,
London became a centre of correspondence between
Erskine and the Papal Nuncios in Madrid, Lisbon,
Vienna, the Rhine, and Holland. He wrote frequent
dispatches to Monsignors Casoni, Pacca, Ruffo, Delia
Ganga, and Brancadoro. His Vienna dispatches were
sent sometimes through the hands of Marchese de
Circelli, Neapolitan Minister at London, and sometimes
through Mr. Canning, then Under Secretary of State;
and very often in these roundabout ways he contrived
to send letters to Rome and the Pope, as also to the
Papal Secretary of State, Cardinal Giuseppe Doria.

On i6th March 1798, Pope Pius VI wrote a long letter
to Mgr. Erskine from Siena, which is of pathetic interest,
and deserves to be read in its entirety. After thanking
the Monsignore for the present of a service of English
table linen and some razors, the Holy Father continues :
" We have said that we received your kind present in
this place of exile, because the French force compelled
Us to decamp from Rome, declaring that the civil
Government belonged to the people. The first step
which the French took at the opening of the Revolution
was to burn Us in effigy, in Paris. Next they possessed
themselves of Avignon and Venaissin, and then they
seized the three provinces of Bologna, Ferrara and the
Romagna, and, piece by piece, they took all the rest,
so that of all our Sovereignty nothing remains to Us
save the memory. The war, for them so fortunate, is
a war against Religion, for they perpetrated a thousand
sacrilegious outrages against the Church — as the late
Bishop of Spires wrote to Us — against the priests and
friars, confiscating their property. And this was the
system which they have always pursued, and still
continue to pursue in Rome. They found out a pretended
excuse in the circumstance that General Duphot wa^

314 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

killed by Our civil troops; but his death was in con-
sequence of his own attempt to force their quarters
and disperse them. They resisted, as was their duty,
and in the confusion shots were fired, and a bullet
happened to kill the General. This is the undeniable
truth, as results from the Process instituted by Our
Secretary of State. But they have determined to colour
all their iniquities by this pretext, in order to carry into
execution the plan they had concerted beforehand,
which was to impose intolerable contributions, to quarter
their soldiers by compulsion, forcing poor families, who
could scarcely feed themselves, to entertain officers,
soldiers and horses. Several prelates were arrested in
Castel S. Angelo and sent to the Convent of the Con-
vertite, in the Borgo, as hostages for six or seven
Cardinals who are to be banished — they say — to Sicily,
and have already been sent to Civitavecchia. If mal-
treatment had been offered to the French, there might
be excuse for them, but in reality every attention and
consideration was shewn them.

" Before entering Rome they gave assurances in
writing that the form of Government would not be
changed; but at their very first ingress, they insisted
that the keys of the City gates and of Castel S. Angelo
should be consigned to them. Before Our forced
departure, they placed guards within the innermost
rooms of Our apartment, put seals on Our presses, and
carried away everything there was of any value. They
despoiled the Vatican of its most precious monuments,
such as statues, pictures and codices ; and they did the
same in many private houses, notwithstanding their
declaration that all property would be safe.

" We Ourselves determined not to leave Our residence
' — whatever might be the cost — taking into considera-
tion Our age, over eighty years. Our state of convales-
cence after a malady of the duration of two years and
a half, which took away the use of Our feet. But it was

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE 315

not possible for Us to obtain the favour of remaining,
as they threatened to make Us leave the Palace by
force, so that we were obliged to drink the bitter cup
and to go out from Our States, and retire, as they
ordered, to the dominions of Tuscany. Could greater
barbarity be shown ? On leaving the Palace, which was
before day, we found at the foot of the grand staircase
an escort of seventy Dragoons and two Commissaries.
The Commissaries accompanied Us all the way here to
Siena, though the guards on horseback were dismissed
at the end of the first stage.

" Now although We quite understand that in London
you cannot bring to the front religious motives, yet
such motives when they involve questions of Sove-
reignty and the rights of nations, must make a strong
impression. And for the same reason We, being per-
sonally known to the Emperor of Russia, have written
a Brief to him, imploring his aid under the present most
bitter circumstances, and We doubt not that he, albeit
a schismatic, will take to heart Our unfortunate situa-
tion. And therefore Your Lordship must employ means
to secure that in the Congress, which must be held for
peace either in Rastadt or elsewhere, restitution shall
be made to Us of the States which were violently taken
from Us, beginning with Avignon and Venaissin. It is
a thing certain and not disputed that what is gained in
an unjust war must be restored and cannot pass into
the dominion of the unjust possessor. A war more
unjust than that of the French against the Holy See
cannot be imagined; wherefore We have most just of
titles to claim back all that has been taken from Us. He
who shall be destined to act for Us in the quality of
Our Commissary for Great Britain, must make himself
Our Advocate and put forward the aforementioned
reasons of the spoil and sackage committed against Us
without the smallest cause of complaint. We leave this
business to whom are not wanting activity and eloq^uence.

3i6 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

" On the evening of the seventh of this month seven
Cardinals were carried to Civitavecchia for transporta-
tion to Sicily or, as some say, to Portugal. We shall
wait and see what other acts of hostility they will
perpetrate.

" From Siena, the Church of the Assumption, the i6 of
March, 1798."*

This letter of Pius VI, when Erskine had made it
known in England, moved the King and his Ministers
to try and think of some means to help the unfortunate
Pontiff. In a letter of the Cardinal Dean to Lord Nelson
and also in one from Lord Grenville, written on i8th
December 1798, mention is made of a project to try
and liberate His Holiness from his place of detention,
which was then the Certosa of Florence. It was thought
that the French at the time were hampered for want
of troops, as in an intercepted letter Bonaparte speaks
of the necessity of keeping 200,000 men on the Rhine.
The project, whatever it was, came to nothing, but may
have been the one reason why the Holy Father was
removed to Valence, where he succumbed to his suffer-
ings and hardships on 29th August 1799.

Meanwhile the events in Rome added greatly to
Mgr. Erskine's work in England. On the suppression of
the Congregation of Propaganda by the French, Cardinal
Borgia the Pro-Prefect managed to find a refuge in
Padua, then in the possession of the Austrians, and in
this way Erskine was able to communicate with him
and assist him in the transmission of letters through
England. The blow to Propaganda and the Oriental
and National Colleges in Rome threatened to be fatal
to the missions. Erskine laboured strenuously to remedy
the evil by opening up a correspondence with mission-
aries in all parts of the world. Practically, Cardinal
Borgia and he at this time transacted the entire business
.of Propaganda, and as the French had seized all its

• Translated in Memoirs of Cardinal Erskine^ pp. 140-142,

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE 317

revenues, Mgr. Erskine collected and administered very
large funds for these missions, and subsequently gave
an exact account of his receipts and disbursements.

By the French occupation of Rome Mgr. Erskine lost
all his revenues as Uditore and as Papal Envoy and
got very little from his canonry of St. Peter's, owing to
the enormous forced contributions imposed by the new
masters of the eternal city. It is of interest to record
that King George III, on reahzing the situation, pro-
visionally pensioned the Monsignore, whilst the occupa-
tion of the Papal States continued.

During the closing months of 1799, Erskine constantly
shows his anxiety about the Conclave, which was finally
assembled at Venice, for the election of a successor to
the late Pius VI. As his death under such unparalleled
sufferings and persecutions had excited great com-
passion and emotion in England Erskine determined to
celebrate a public Requiem for his soul. This was
carried out in the Church of St. Patrick, Soho, on
i6th November 1799, with all possible solemnity.

Cardinal Consalvi became Secretary of the Conclave,
which began on ist December, and several communica-
tions passed between him and Mgr. Erskine. In one,
written from London on 17th December, the Monsignore
was able to give him the news that a yearly allowance
had been made by the English Government to the Car-
dinal Duke of York. In another of 2nd February 1800,
he tells the Cardinal that he had explained at length
to Lord Grenville the state of the Pontifical territory
and of the Eternal City on which His Lordship had
declared " that it was the wish of the British Govern-
ment that everything should be restored to what it
was before the violent and unjust aggression of the
French."

Cardinal Chiaramonti was elected Pope on 14th March
1800, and took the name of Pius VI I. It was not,
liowever, till the 4th of April that Lord Grenville was

3i8 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

able to commiinicate the news to Erskine, who im-
mediately wrote to Cardinal Consalvi to offer his
homage to the new Pontiff and at the same time to beg
that his recall might be considered. He finds, he says,
his health suffering from the climate of England.
Meanwhile a letter from Consalvi crossed his, and he
found himself reappointed and a new cypher for his
official correspondence communicated to him. So
Erskine continued to write his despatches, which were
for the most part forwarded by Mr. Canning, the Under
Secretary, and the couriers of Lords Grenville and
Minto.

On 14th April 1800, the Monsignore sends a long letter
on a matter which had been communicated to him by
the British Government. It seems that the Austrians
were putting great pressure upon the new Pope to
place himself entirely under their protection. An
Austrian Cardinal had been urging this very strongly,
but the opinion in London was, that there would be a
great danger to the Pope in this, as once the Austrians
set their feet in Rome it would be no easy matter to
get them out again. In this same letter Erskine says
that it has been difficult to see Lord Grenville, as he
and the other Ministers have been wholly occupied in a
project for the Union of England and Ireland, under one
form of Government.

On the 22nd of the month the Monsignore announces
that the above-named Union was carried in the Com-
mons by a great majority of votes. He adds that
yesterday he assisted at St. Patrick's Church, Soho, at
a Te Deum for the election of His Holiness Pius VII.
Eight days later Lord Grenville himself wrote to
Cardinal Consalvi, thanking him for letting him hear
of the election of the new Pontiff. He is glad, he says,
to be assured in His Eminence's letter " that His
Holiness is actuated by the same principles and possesses
the same character as His illustrious predecessor, so

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE 319

eminent for his public and private virtues. Conduct of
affairs, founded on such principles, cannot but secure
the continuance of that friendship and those good
relations, which so happily existed between Great
Britain and the Papal State during the time of the late
Pontificate. Your Excellency may be sure that this
Government of His Majesty will ever have the most
sincere desire to cultivate these sentiments."

Pope Pius VII left Venice on his return to Rome om
6th June 1800, and entered the Eternal City on the third
of the following month. The French, owing to the
advance of troops from Naples, had withdrawn, and
on the 17th of July, a letter written by Mr. Penrose,
the British agent in Florence, had given some assurance
of English help in case of need. " In consequence," he
says, " of your application I am empowered to assure
you in Lord Keith's name, that if any danger should
be incurred to the Pope's person from an irruption of
the French into Roman territory. His Lordship will
use every exertion for stationing a vessel of war, whether
at Civitavecchia or Gaeta, for the security of a sovereign
in amity with His Majesty."

On Sir John Hippisley's departure, Mr. Thomas
Jackson, the British plenipotentiary to the Court of
the King of Sardinia, took over the duties of English
agent at Rome. At first his chief occupation was
endeavouring to protect English shipping and trade in
the ports, etc., of the Pontifical States, since the French,
in their advance into the Papal territory, were already
putting extreme pressure on the Pope to expel all the
English from them.

When Pius VII returned to Rome many questions
were raised about the pillage of works of art from the
public museums and private palaces which had gone on
during the French occupation. On 21st July 1800, for
example, Mgr. Erskine wrote that he had received a
claim from Mgr. Albani regarding precious pictures and

320 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

statues belonging to his family. The claimant asserted
that they had been seized first by the French and then
left behind, when the Neapolitan troops quitted the
capital. On his demand to these latter for their restitu-
tion, the authorities declared that the Enghsh under
Sir Thomas Trowbridge had taken these works of art
as their share of the plunder. Mgr. Erskine, whilst
expressing his disbelief of this accusation, promised to
lay the matter before the Enghsh Ministers. This he
did, and on 12th August he was able to report the result
of their enquiries. He enclosed a long letter from Lord
Grenville and another from Lord Spencer, the First
Lord of the Admiralty. The latter forwarded a reply
from Sir Thomas Trowbridge, indignantly denying the
charge that the English had plundered any property
whatsoever in Rome, according to the complaint of the
Duke Braschi and Mgr. Albani.

At this same time many complaints were made by
the Roman authorities of the way in which the law,
prohibiting the exportation of works of antiquity and
art from Rome, was being evaded. Erskine, who was
written to on the subject, replied that the English
Government were fully aware of this traffic, and of the
methods taken by the dealers to conceal their violation
of the law. He mentions a case in which " the cele-
brated painting of St. Gregory by Annibale Carracci "
had been prepared for exportation by coating it with
gum, over which when dry a poor modern figure of the
Archangel S. Michael had been painted. The Enghsh
authorities were wilhng to do what they could, but
there would seem to be need of more care in Rome
itself.

Many requests were also being made for permission
to export antiquities. In one case the artist and art
dealer, Robert Fagan, then living in the Eternal City,
asked to be allowed to send to England an antique
-statue of Venus " more beautiful than any other known

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEfi 32I

except perhaps the Venus of Medici and so considered
by Ganova " ; a Mercury, almost equally fine, and other
antiques. These had, according to Fagan, been pur-
chased by the Prince of Wales from him. The permission
was withheld for a time, as the estimate of their value
for the payment of the tax differed very considerably.
Fagan had valued them at less than half what the
Government valuer, Aw. Carlo Fea, had put upon
them. What happened to them is not clear from the
documents that exist.

To return to the Erskine correspondence. On 9th
January 1801, he reports that Lord Nelson is leaving
Portsmouth and that his destination is probably the
Mediterranean, and that as a league has been formed
by Russia, Denmark, and Sweden to resist the British
claim of a " right to search " of neutral vessels. Nelson
will probably have instructions to attack Russian
vessels in the Mediterranean and Black Sea.

Mgr. Erskine was one of the fourteen Cardinals
reserved in petto in the Consistory of 23rd February 1801.
He, however, begged that his nomination should not
be made public, whilst he remained in England; but
George III and Pitt were informed of it and cordially
congratulated the Monsignore. The King jokingly asked
him at his next audience, why he had not come in his
new robes !

Erskine expected to quit London in May, but was
delayed by business till some months later. The
Concordat between the Pope and the First Consul had
been negotiated in September 1800 in Paris, and on
5th June 1 80 1, Consalvi left Rome to conclude it. It was
signed by him as Plenipotentiary of the Holy See on
3rfl July of that year. By its second article the Pope
undertook to re-arrange the boundaries, etc., of the
French dioceses : and by the third article to invite the
Bishops to resign their sees. In England there were
residing at this time three Archbishops and sixteen

Y

322 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

Bishops* and to Mgr. Erskine was left the task of
confronting these difficulties. On 13th October 1801, the
Envoy wrote from London that he had received the
Briefs, by which the Holy Father invited the French
Bishops to resign their sees into his hands. He antici-
pates bother, as there had been long meetings of the
prelates concerned with the Archbishop of Narbonne,
and, as he hears, the only ecclesiastics who have
upheld the necessity of obedience to the voice of the
Holy Father are the Archbishops of Aix and Bordeaux
and the Bishops of Lescar and Cominges.

Erskine accompanied a copy of the Brief with a
latter to each of the Bishops, in which he says : " The
Pope has not omitted to practise every possible en-
deavour to preserve to Your Lordship your See, but had
experienced most profound regret in finding your
resignation, in these urgent circumstances, indispens-
ably required for the good of the Church and her unity,
and for peace and the re-establishment in France of the
Cathohc ReUgion. His Holiness has charged me to
assure your Lordship, that he has in every possible way
recommended you to the First Consul, whom he has
asked to keep you in view in his nominations to the new
dioceses and at least to provide for your subsistence.
And such is the anxiety of the Pope to contribute in
every possible way to the relief of your Lordship, that
he will not omit any favourable conjuncture for alleviat-
ing the burden of your situation and helping your
personal needs."

During this same year Erskine keeps Cardinal
Consalvi acquainted with the news in England. He
speaks of the King's illness; the ministerial crisis on
which Pitt, Grenville, Dundas, Spencer, and Windham

* These were : The Archbishops of Narbonne, Aix, and Bor-
deaux, the Bishops of Lescar, Arras, Montpelier, Angouleme,
Nantes, Noyon, S. Pol de Leon, Usez, Perigueux, Cominges,
Lombez, Vannes, Moulins, Audez, Troyes, and Avranche.

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE 323

had resigned. It is supposed, he says, that Addington —
the Speaker of the House of Commons — will take Pitt's
place as head of the Government. In September the
Monsignore speaks of the great excitement in England
at the prospect of an invasion, and says that Nelson
is going to make an examination of the French forces
at Boulogne.

To return to Rome. On i8th February 1801, Mr.
Jackson complains to the Cardinal Secretary of State
about the seizure of a British ship. The Naples Packet,
in the port of Civitavecchia and he prays for the
Cardinal's protection. In the same month there were
rumours of the French again advancing under General
Murat. If this were true it might be necessary for the
English to depart. As the Cardinal had told him, he
says, that " the French demand that all English retire
from the States of His Holiness," he begs the Cardinal
" in that event to employ your good offices to procure
me an exemption from an order of this kind, assuring
you that it would be a true service done to me, especially
as my delicate health would not allow me to take a
journey in this season without danger."

In the year 1803, Jackson obtains audiences for Lord
Elgin returning from his embassy at Constantinople and
his secretary Mr. Hunt. In June General Stuart was in
Rome on his way to England and was intending to pass
through the Papal States and embark at Ancona.
Rumours, however, were in circulation that the French
troops were already in possession of that part of the
Papal territory and Mr. Jackson asks in confidence the
Cardinal's advice, which he is sure will be dictated " by
the affectionate regards of His Holiness and his own
for the English nation."

The same month an incident occurred at Porto
d'Anzio, which called for the warm thanks of the
British agent. The French had seized an English vessel
in that harbour and the Pope at once demanded and

324 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

obtained its freedom. Mr. Jackson is sure that this
act " will be greatly pleasing to the Government of His
Majesty and that at the same time it will induce all the
British Commanders to observe, on their side, the strict
neutrality of the ecclesiastical ports." On the fourth of
July, Jackson again thanks the Cardinal Secretary
" for the promptitude with which he has insisted upon
the surrender of the ship and of the Enghsh flag." He
adds: " I take this occasion of informing your Emin-
ence that in a letter I have received from Lord Nelson,
dated 25 June, his Excellency has great satisfaction at
the news of the neutrality of the States of His Holiness."

Mr. Jackson remained at his post till the Pope left
Rome in 1805 to crown Napoleon at Paris. In March of
that year, in a letter to the Cardinal Secretary, he
refers to the departure. " I suppose," he says, " that
nothing is changed as to what the Holy Father said in
his last letter, that his leaving was fixed for the middle
of March. ... I desire most ardently to see the Holy
Father return to His States to enjoy a peaceful and a
happy life."

In November Mr. Jackson prepared for his own
departure. The rumoured landing of British and
Russian troops at Naples would, he foresees, cause
movements among the French troops, which would
make his stay impossible. He writes to the Cardinal
Secretary in the hope that in conformity with " the
constant attention and goodness he had always shown
him " he will not forget to give him timely warning of
the march of the French troops on Rome or any other
point in the Pontifical States. The assembly of a
corps d'armc'e, which, according to reports, is taking
place in Tuscany, together with the troops already at
Ancona, may possibly be with this object.

Two letters of 1806 to Cardinal Consalvi complete the
existing dossier of letters from Mr. Jackson as English
agent. The first is dated 26th February. In it he writes :

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE 325

" In the cruel circumstances in which I find myself I
cannot refrain from bringing to Your Eminence's
knowledge the two following facts :

" Monsieur Cacault, before leaving Rome, after the
declaration of hostilities, asked me to give him a pass-
port for his effects, etc., which he wished to send from
Leghorn to Marseilles. Not only did I at once give him
mine ; but I gave him a letter addressed to the British
Commanders asking them to allow these things, the
property of a Minister returning to France, to pass. I
also on my responsibility asked the Consul General at
Leghorn to do the same.

" Since the arrival of His Eminence Cardinal Fesch
in Rome, a Frenchman presented himself at my house,
coming from Paris, where he said he was one of the
chiefs of a plot against the Government. I interrupted
him at this point, observing to him that he knew very
little of England and the English; that although
unfortunately we were at war, I could assure him on
our side, we would carry it on loyally, and that con-
sequently I never wished to hear propositions of this
kind as they were so entirely opposed to the principles
of my Government as also to mine. I ended by warning
him never again to come to my house or I should be
obliged to close my door against him. He has never
shewn himself again.

" Such a way of acting, Monseigneur, deserves a
return very different to what I experience at this moment
and should at least procure for me the possibility to
attend to the orders of my Court in Rome and in the
Ecclesiastical States, and in case of departure, obtain
for me facilities from the French Ministers.

" However, I assure your Eminence that the liberal
conduct I have pursued in regard to the French (which
has always been guided by the wish to diminish as far
as possible the inevitable miseries of war) is a matter
of great consolation to me in my present situation, as

326 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

also the remembrance of your Eminence's goodness and
my feelings of eternal gratitude to His Holiness."

On 13th March of this year, 1806, Mr. Jackson writes
from Trieste, saying that he had arrived safely there the
day before. " I shall never forget the care you have
taken," he adds, " to secure my leaving Rome in
circumstances so critical and difficult. I feel that it is
to you, Monseigneur, that I owe the security of my
journey and the liberty and independence I am now
enjoying here. I must not omit to thank your Eminence
for your recommendation to Mons. the Auditor Leonardi,
who took every trouble imaginable to allow of my
embarking at Pesaro."

This practically ends the documents regarding the
diplomatic relations of England and Rome at this
period. In the year which followed the departure of
Mr. Jackson, the British agent (1807), nearly all the
papers in the present dossier refer to the numerous
attempts made by the Cardinal Secretary to defend
English property in the Pontifical States from the
French officials. A decree of Napoleon, issued from
Berlin on 21st November 1806, forbade the introduction
of English merchandise into the Papal States or the
exportation of grain of any kind. Two officials of the
Pope were appointed to visit every ship which entered
the ports and were required to certify that no English
goods were on board. In conformity with this decree
visits were made by the French to storehouses and
shops of traders on the Adriatic and Mediterranean.
The Papal Government did not in the least acknowledge
the right of the French to institute such enquiries, still
less to proceed to the confiscation of any such goods,
maintaining that the Holy See was neutral. The
Pontifical officials did all in their power to prevent or
delay such visits, and as a fact, though these searches
were made, it does not appear that they led to the
discovery or confiscation of much English propert}^

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE 327

At any rate these papers make it evident that even in
the absence of any British agent from Rome, the Papal
officials still continued to safeguard English interests
as far as they could, during the oppressive rule of the
French in their second occupation of the States of the
Church.

EPILOGUE

IT may be of interest to the reader to learn what
happened to Mgr. Erskine and Sir John Coxe
Hippisley, after the conclusion of their respective
missions in England and Rome.

Mgr. Erskine prepared to leave England in December
1 80 1. There was nothing further to delay him in the
country, and as he had been created Cardinal* by the
Pope, he was anxious to get away. Cardinal Caprara
had been in Paris since October, acting as legate a
latere to sign the Concordat, which had been negotiated
between the Pope and the existing French Government,
of which Bonaparte was now First Consul. A prelim-
inary peace had already been concluded between the
aUies and France, and it had been agreed to hold a
congress at Amiens to settle the terms of a general
peace for Europe, So Erskine left London on 12th Dec-
ember 1801, travelling with an English passport, which
described him as " late Legate from His Holiness at this
Court." He reached Paris a week later, and was present
at the official proclamation of the Concordat. For one
reason or another, he remained there for more than
eight months, and only left, on 29th August 1802, to
continue his journey to Rome, which he reached in
October 1802. On 17th January 1803, he was declared
Cardinal deacon, with the title of S. Maria in CampiteUi,
which had been formerly held by the Cardinal Duke of

^ Reserved in petto.

328 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

York, his patron and early benefactor. Whilst he
remained in the Eternal City, Cardinal Erskine was able
to serve Enghsh interests in many ways, and was the
means of securing the property and rights of the Scots
College, of which he had been in early days a student.

At this time Cardinal Erskine was still only a sub-
deacon ; but in 1804 he received deacon's orders. The
situation of the Pope in Rome was by no means secure,
and it quickly appeared that the Emperor Napoleon
had no intention of allowing him any freedom of action.
By threats he compelled the Pontiff to comply with his
wishes, and to adopt a full French policy. Finally
Napoleon determined to proceed further, and to either
make the Pope a mere cipher to carry out his will in all
matters civil or ecclesiastical, or to deprive him of his
temporal power altogether. Accordingly, on 13th Feb-
ruary 1806, he set forth his determination in a document
couched in clear and even harsh language, and on 2nd
March, Cardinal Fesch presented a note to the Holy
Father in milder language, but to the same effect. In
these documents the Pope was told to break off all
relations with other European powers, to shut his ports
against Russian, Swedish, and English ships, and to
expel all the English from Rome and the Pontifical
States. In these critical circumstances, Pius VII called
together all the Cardinals in Rome, and was supported
by their advice in refusing to submit to such demands.

Events after this move very quickly. The French
troops were already in possession of Ancona, and in
1806 they occupied all the harbours of the Pontifical
States. On ist November 1807, the French General
Lemerrois proclaimed himself Governor of the provinces
of Ancona, Macerata, Fermo, and Urbino. By a decree
of Napoleon, 2nd April 1808, all these Pontifical States
were declared united to the Kingdom of Italy. Rome
itself had already been occupied, on 2nd February of this
year, 1808, by General Miollis, who planted cannon

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE 329

against the gates of the Quirinal palace. In this month
and March, fourteen Cardinals were forced to depart
from Rome, and later on in the year, others were
seized and deported. For a time Cardinal Erskine
shared the Pope's captivity in the Quirinal, until on
the night of 5th July 1809 the Holy Father was seized
by French soldiers, and carried away as a prisoner.
Erskine was then allowed to return, not to his own
apartments in the Capranica palace, but to a palace
in the Via di Aracoeh, once the abode of Cardinal De
Zelada.

On 8th December 1809, Erskine received peremptory
orders from General Radet to the effect that the
Emperor Napoleon directed that he should leave within
twenty hours for Paris. The Cardinal was ill, and did
not at once obey; but pressure was exercised, and at
last on 2nd January he was obliged to leave Rome, and
reached Paris on 26th January 1810.* For a time his
health seemed to improve, but in the first days of 1811,
he received " a terrible shock by the arrest of Mgr.
De Gregorio, Father Fontana, and Cardinals Gabrielli,
Opizzoni and De Pietro, who were all shut up in prison
in the Donjon of Vincennes." At the end of February,
he had a second stroke, and died on 20th March 181 1.
He was buried at the same time as Cardinal Vincenti,
who had died on the same day, in the Church of S.
Genevieve, Paris. A circle of white marble under the
cupola of his titular Church of S. Maria in CampitelH,
Rome, records his death.

Mr. Hippisley, on returning to England, was created
a baronet in 1796. He continued during his hfe to
interest himself in all Catholic matters, frequently
corresponding with Cardinals and other friends he had
made in Rome. It was through letters addressed to him
by Cardinal Borgia that the pecuniary distress of the

* For an interesting account of this journey, see Mezi^re,
Brady's Me?noirs, pp. 233-258.

330 GREAT BRITAIN AND THE HOLY SEE

last of the Stuarts, Henry Benedict Cardinal Duke of
York, was first brought to the notice of King George
III, and was relieved by a pension from him. On his
death the Cardinal of York left several mementoes of his
gratitude to his friend Sir John Coxe Hippisley. Whilst
a member of the House of Commons, Sir John always
strenuously supported full Catholic Emancipation. He
retired from Parliament in 1819, but continued to write
much in favour of the claims of Catholics in Ireland and
in England to justice. He corresponded frequently
with Cardinal Consalvi, Secretary of State to Pius VII,
of whose abiUties he had the highest opinion, and whose
friendship he much prized.

INDEX

ABBOT, election of, 13.
Adalbert, work of, 198.

Addington, Speaker, 323.

Addy, referred to, 251.

Adrian IV, Pope, and Ireland, 150-
177; blessing sought from, 170.

Adrian VI withdraws legislation,
236.

Ainay Monastery, rules followed by,
208.

Aix, Archbishop, 322.

Aix-la-Chapelle, assembly at, 211,
214.

Albani, Mgr., 291; claims for pil-
lage, 319.

Albano, bread riot at, 281.

Albon, William, 3, 6; abbacy of,
10-13, 16.

Alcuin, 147, 211.

Alexander VI, Pope, on the "Bull"
of, 157, 161, 165, 167; recom-
mends Vergil, 179.

Alnwick, 245.

Alps, 270.

Amherst, Lord, 301.

Amiens, Bishop of, 307.

Amundesham referred to, 99.

Ananias, prototype of, 4.

Ancona, provision allowed from,
282 ; a visit and report on, 304,
306; occupation by French, 323,
328-

Andre, Bernard, a poetical story,
178.

Anjou, Countess of, purchases a
book, 102.

Anketil, his work and renown, 41-
44.

Ansty, Mr., quotation from, 102.

Antiquities, wrongful exportation
of, 320.

Antony, 201.

Aquitaine, King of, 214.

Aragon, kingdom of, 173.

Archin, quoted, 177.

Architecture as mind revealer, 2.

Aristotle, 130.

Arnold, Bishop of Lisieux, 1 55.

Art, an expression of soul, i ; history
yet to be written, 40.

Arundell, Archbishop, story of a
bequest, 99.

Athboy, council held at, 174.

Aubrey, John, recollections of, 122.

Augustus, Prince, 277, 283.

Austria, 270, 312; effect of monas-
tic order in, 198.

Avignon, 51; pontifical court at,
164; invasion of, 275, 280, 286,
312.

Avranches, Cathedral of, solemn oath
taken at, 168.

Bacon, Francis, 182, 194.

Bacon, Roger, and the Latin Vul-
gate, 139-149-

Baedeker^ ancient form of, 112.

Bale, John, a discredited authority,
137, \S1note.^

Bangor, Bishopric of, 160.

Barbo, Ludovico, founds a system,

234.
Barlings, 245, 256.
Baronius, as an authority, 164.
Baroun, Elizabeth, Prioress of Pay,

16.
Barruel, Abbe, quotation from, 296,

303.
Bastia, 291, 305.
Bath, 59, 308.
Bath and Wells, See of, 192.

331

332

INDEX

Batteferi, Anthony Vergil, on pre-
serving originals, 183.
Bavaria, King of, 214.
Bavarian, 239.
Beauchief, 245, 256.
Bee, influence of, 227.
Bedford, Duke of, and a royal library,

102.
Begeham, 245.
Begham, Abbot of, 261.
Belgium, 227, 270.
Bell, called John, 6.
Belvoir Castle, 247.
Benet, Father, 211.
Beneventum, 156.
Benedict, Abbot, of Peterborough,

as a book collector, loi.
Benedict, Henry, Cardinal Duke of

York, 330.
Benedict XIII, notes on Pontifical

for, 105.
Benedictine Abbey, 123; builder

of, I.
Benedictine Order, history of, ii,

201-242.
Berger, Samuel, 139.
Bernard, 97.

Bernardines, possibilities of the, 225.
Berri, Due de, book prices in his

collection, 103.
Berthlet, works from press of, 68, 80.
Bethany, visit to, 117.
Bible, reasons for embellishing, 93.
Bibles, meaning of " ancient," 147.
Bileigh, 245.
Blanchland, 245.
Boase Register quoted, 17.
Bodkin, Val, Rev., 300.
Bodleian Library, 246, 248.
Bohemia, effect of monastic order

in, 198.
Bologna, French occupation of, 313.
Book of Nahire quoted, 55, 65.
Books and their making, 92-109.
Bordeaux, Archbishop, 322.
Borgia, Cardinal, 316, 330.
Borgo, 314.
Bosworth, 20, 112.
Boulogne, Bishop of, 307.
Bourton, feeding of workmen at, 52.
Boylion, Godfrey, Voyage de, 100.
Bradsole Abbey, 245.

Brady, Meziere, on French occupa-
tion of Rome, 271, 312.

Brancadoro, Mgr., 313.

Braschi, Duke, complaint of, 320.

Breakspeare, Nicholas. See Adrian
IV, Pope.

Brecknock, Archdeacon of, 160.

Brekeling, Robert, MSS. work by,
103.

Brest, 270.

Brewer, J. S., quoted, 2, 161, 163,
178, 186.

Bristol, 153; compass used by
sailors of, 53.

British Museum, in, 246.

Brodholm, 246.

Bruno, Francis, 26.

Brunton, Richard, Bishop, reflec-
tions of, 69, 76.

Brute, place in history, 180.

Brussels, Burgundian Library, cost
of a MS. in, 105.

Burdet, Thomas, 59.

Burgundy, revival in, 220.

Burke, Edmund, reception of the
Papal Envoy, 276, 284, 287, 305 ;
Catholic emancipation and, 294.

Burke, Fr., quoted, 159.

Bursfield, monastic system at, 234,
238.

Bury St. Edmunds, shrine at, 48.

Busch, Dr. Wilhelm, quoted, 178,
190, 195.

Caius, on Vergil's writing, 180.

Calais, 120.

Calvi, 291.

Camaldoli, 226.

Cambridge, University of, 69.

CampanelH, Cardinal, quoted, 287,
294, 302.

Campbell, Lady, 294.

Campden, 58.

Canning, Mr., 278, 313, 318.

Canova, 321.

Canterbury, 93, no, 136; its testi-
mony, 123, 198; fire at Library,
136; gifts to, 99; Archbishop of,
51; St. Augustine's, a day with
Abbot of, 121-138; /'^/tf;— -Estria,
H. de, 99; Chillenden, Thomas,
99-

INDEX

333

Caprara, Cardinal, 327.
Capranica Palace, 329.
Carnarvon, Lord, 293.
Carracci, Annibale, method of ex-
porting picture by, 320.
Cashel, Council of, 159.
Casley, Mr., 302.
Casoni, Mgr., 313.
Cassinese, history of institute of,

234.
Castello, de. See Vergil, Polydore.
Castello, Hadrian de. Cardinal, 179,

192.
Castile, Kingdom of, 173.
Catesby, Seneschal of St. Albans,

21.
Catholic Emancipation, 294.
Catholic Religion, on the mainten-
ance of, 309.
Cave, Sir Thomas, 247.
Caversham, 59.
Caxton, William, 18, no.
Celestine, Pope, present sent to, 42.
Celestines, institution of, 232.
Ceolfrid, Father, 211.
Certosa of Florence, 316.
Chancery, Court of, pardons issued

from, 8.
Chapelle, Dame Johanna, 1 7.
Chapters, meetings and powers of,

II, 13, 17, 235, 237; directed to

be held, 228.
Charlemagne, progress during reign

of, 212, 216.
Charles VI of France, book prices

of, 102.
" Charter of Charity," dependence

of, 225.
Chartres, Bishop of, 151.
Chartreuse, 226.
Chaucer quoted, 62.
Chiaramonti, Cardinal, afterwards

Pius VII, 317.
Chillenden, Thomas, a book col-
lector, 99.
Christ, on keeping the Passion of, 85.
Christ Church, Oxford, visit to, 301.
Christian life, the inspiration of, 199.
Christianity, ideal of, 203, 206.
Circelli, Marchese de, 313.
Citeau, claims of, 252; monastic

system instituted by, 223.

Civitavecchia, 293 ; Cardinals ban-
ished to, 314, 316.
Clement IV and the Latin Vulgate,

140, 145, 149.
Clement V, Pope, 259.
Clergy, duties to the poor, 90.
Cluny, review of monastic system of,

220-223, 225; claims of, 252.
Coal, early mentions of, 60, 63.
Cockersand, 245.

Colonies, influence of planting, 205.
Colonna, Cardinal Peter, 259.
Columban, work of, 198.
Cominges, Bishop, 309, 322.
Commandments, explanation of, 7 1 -

78.
Compostella, pilgrims, no.
Concanen, F. Luke, Rev., 300.
Connel, J., Rev., 300.
Connolly, I., Rev., 300.
Conon, Abbey of, 243.
Consalvi, Cardinal, 317, 330.
Convertite, Convent of, 314.
Cormery, 212.
Corpus Christi College, 125.
Corsica, considerations regarding,

289, 291, 294, 302, 305, 307 ;

nomination of Viceroy in, 311.
Courtenay, R. , Archbishop, proviso

in use of books, 100.
Coverham, 245.
Crane, P., Rev., 300.
Crecy, Adam de, Abbot of Pre-

montre, quarrels with England,

252-264.
Criel, 112.
Cross, relic of, 47,
Croxton, 245, 256.
Croxton Abbey, Domesday of, 247.
Croyland, Prior, on security of

Kings, 20.
Cumberland, 245.
Cusack, Miss, quotation from, 151.
Cyprus, pilgrims at, 115.

Dale, 245.

Daniel, clerk, his gift of books, loi.

Dartford, 56.

D'Auban, General, 291.

David, King, helps a new Order,

245.
Dead Sea visited, 117.

334

INDEX

Dean, Cardinal, 316.

Dearmaid, 159.

De Gregorio, Mgr., 329.

Delisle, M., on a royal library, 103 ;
on illuminators, 105.

Delia Ganga, Mgr., 313.

Dene, Archbishop Henry, 194.

Denham, Manor of, incidents at, 58,
59, 62, 63.

De Pietro, Cardinal, 329.

Derehurst, 64.

Diceto, Ralph de, a compiler, 162.

Dictionary of National Biography
quoted, 5, 18, 19, 189, 272.

Dieppe, 112.

Digon, John, description and con-
versation of, 124-128.

Dimock, J., Rev., 161.

Dives et Pauper^ author and ex-
tracts, 68-91, 109.

Divine Office, the soul of monastic
life, 203, 206.

Dodford, 245.

Domesday referred to, 59.

Donatus, 143.

Doncaster, 69.

Doria, Giuseppe, Cardinal, 313.

Douglas, Mgr. (the Vicar Apostolic),
278, 301.

Dover, 60, 120.

Dress, of immoderate, 84.

Duliay distinction of, 76.

Dundas, General, 291, 322.

Dunstan as introducer of govern-
ment, 217, 219.

Duphot, General, death of, 313.

Dureford, 245.

Durham, 48 ; Bishop of, 97.

"Edgar the Glorious," 217, 219.

Edmundsbury, 194.

Education, interest in, 17, 31.

Edward I, 164, 255.

Edward II, 69, 164; intervention

of, 255.
Edward I II prohibits subsidies, 262.
Edward IV, reign of, 178.
Eggleston, 245.
Einsiedeln, 219.
Elgin, Lord, 323.
Ellerker, William, paymentsto, 104.

Elliot, Sir Gilbert, 270, 290, 294,

305, 318-

Ellis, Sir Henry, referred to, in,
179, 187.

Elmham, Monk, quoted, 93.

Ely, Bishop of, 51.

Ely House, Holborn, 249.

Emmeran, work of, 198.

England, comparison of conditions,
50; society in, 85; religious in-
structionin,67 ; literary data need-
ed for, 7 1 fiote ; pilgrimages to and
from, no; authority for ruling Ire-
land, 150; sweating sickness in,
192; monastic government in, 198,
216, 230 ; religious houses in,
245 ; relations to the Pope, 269-
330 ; payment for troops by, 293 ;
regard for Church establishments

by, 305-

Erhle, Father, information supplied

by, 182.
Erskine, Cardinal, as Papal Envoy,

271-330.
Essex, John, Abbot, a day with,

121-138.
Esteney, Abbot of Westminster, 18.
Estria, Henry de, his gifts of books,

99.
Ethelbert of Kent, 123, 126.
Ethelred, King, gift to St. Albans,

42.
Eugenius IV, 235.
Europe, monastic system in, 197-

242.
Evreux, Bishop of, 155, 170.
Exeter, 249.
Eynesham, Abbot of, his visitation,

12.

Fagan, Robert, art purchase and

request of, 320.
"Falconer John," 58.
Fathers, how they were taught, 67-

91.
Fea, Aw. Carlo, 321.
Federigo, Duke, 184.
Fermo, Province of, 328.
Ferrara, French occupation of, 313.
Fesch, Cardinal, 325.
Feuillants, possible existence of, 225.
Fish, variety and supply of, 52, 61.

INDEX

335

Fitzherbert, Mrs., 294.

Fleury, adoption of system at, 217.

Flodden, Battle of, 182, 186.

Fontana, Father, 329.

Fox, 292.

Foxe, Richard, Bishop of Win-
chester, 125.

France, 113, 220, 225, 227, 270,
337; monastic order in, 198; oc-
cupation of Rome by, 312-316,
328.

Francis, Duke, 185.

Francis Xavier, limitation of, 200.

French Revolution, character of,
269 ; effect on upper classes, 274.

Freshford, vineyard at, 59.

Friars of the Sack, Church, 254.

Froude, J. A., referred to, 5 note,
23, 39, 186.

Fulda Cathedral, its testimony, 198.

Gabrielle, Cardinal, 329.

Gaeta, 291.

Gairdner, Dr. James, quoted, 20,
34-39, 178.

Gale on Vergil, 180.

Galfrid, 97.

Galicia, kingdom of, 173.

Gall, work of, 198.

*' Galynggale," use of, 64.

Gasquet, Abbot, information ob-
tained by, 36, 37.

Gehazi, prototype of, 4.

General Chapters. See Chapters.

Gennep, Count of, 243.

Geoffrey, Abbot, promotes artistic
works, 41 ; gift of books, 95.

Geoffrey, father of Henry II, 156.

Geoffrey of Monmouth, 129, 180.

George III, King, and the Holy See,
269-330 ; practical sympathy from,

317-

Germany, religious instructions in,
67; monastic order in, 198; re-
vival in, 220.

Gesia Abbatum quoted, 96.

Ghent, system used at, 217.

Gibbons, John, payments to, 104.

Gifford, Andrew, Dr., historical col-
lection of, 247.

Gilbertines, 245.

Giraldus Cambrensis, a doubtful

historian, 160, 165.
Gisburn, 112.
Glastonbury, 12, no, 217; school

at, 122.
Glendower, Owen, 249.
Gloucester, 52, 56, 58; wine pro-
duction in, 59.
Gloucester, Duke of, 103 ; assistance

sought for a book, 100.
Godwin, Earl, 130.
Gonterii, Sencius, 106.
Gordon, Lord George, 302.
Goths of Aquitaine, 212.
Grandmont, 226.
Great Britain and the Holy See,

269-330.
Gregory, Abbot, 219.
Gregory XI, Pope, 51.
Grenville, Lord, 277, 282, 301, 317,

322.
Greyne, Edmund, Abbot of Hales

Owen, 248.
Guby, Ralph, 94.
Guido, 166.

Guidubaldo, Duke, 184.
Guildford, Sir Richard, pilgrimage

of, 111-117; death of, 116.
Gyldre, John, payments to, 108.

Hagneby, 245.

Hales, Sir Chi-istopher, financial

help from, 134.
Hales Owen, 245, 248.
Hall, 186.

Hamilton, Sir William, 281, 291.
Hammersmith Road, 57.
Hampton, 63.
Harding, St. Stephen, 223.
Harris, G., 300.
Hastings, Lord, office granted to,

19.
Hastings, Warren, trial of, referred

to, 288.
Hatfield, tithes of, 94.
Hearne referred to, 163.
Hemp, its production suggested,

304-
Henry I, 153, 169.
Henry II, grant of Ireland to, 151 ;

persecutor of St. Thomas, 166;

"Bull" to, 175.

336

INDEX

Henry IV as a book borrower, lOO.

Henry IV, 6o.

Henry VI, character and reign of,

178, 193.
Henry VII, 112, 194; patron of

St. Albans, 20; contemporary

history of, 134, 178.
Henry VIII, 178, 194-
Heppa, 245.
Herbert, Abbot of Premontre,

claims made by, 263.
Hereford, See of, 192.
Hill, Thomas, Rector of Chester-
ford, story of book purchase by,

lOI.
Hippisley, Sir John Coxe, mission

to Rome, 271-330; address of

thanks to, 298.
Ilirschau imitates Cluny, 219, 226.
History, vital basis of, 39.
Hoffding, Harald, Dr., 131 note.
Holborn, 51.
Holland, 313.
Holies, Gervase, 250.
Holy Land, pilgrimage to, no- 1 20.
Honoratus Servus, 130.
Honorius I, Pope, approves a new

Order, 244.
Hood, Lord, correspondence of,

270, 279, 282, 289, 291 ; anxiety

for navy, 300.
Horneby, 245.

Hotham, Vice- Admiral, 304.
Household Book, Description of an

Abbot's, 50-66.
Howard, Sir John, expenses of

mediaeval book-making, 107.
Howe, Lord, 270, 301, 303.
Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester,

gifts from, 49, 98 ; tomb of, 7.
Hunden, John, Bishop of Landaff,

13-
Hungary, 226.
Hunt, Mr., 323.

Images, dialogue on, 72.

India, 200.

Innocent III, 228.

Innocent VIII, Pope, effect of Bulls

of, 21, 26.
Ireland, Pope Adrian IV and,

150.177 ; hiding place from Papal

letters, 168; reason for English-
men in, 153; and Papal Envoy,
279.

Irford, 246.

Irish Ecclesiastical Recordy 150.

Tslep, manor house of, 64.

Italy, 113, 1 79,. 220, 225, 234, 270,
271,273; Tisiting monasteries in,
212; the security of, 300; in-
. creased production from, 304; loss
of antiquities from, 320; Princes
of, defensive league of, 288.

Jackdaw of Rheims, quotation from,

260.
Jackson, Thomas, Mr,, English

agent at Rome, 319, 323-326.
Jaffa, experiences at, iii, 113, 115,

118.
James IV of Scotland, 186.
Janssen, Professor, results of research

by, 67.
Japan, 200.

Jarrow, rule followed at, 211.
Jenkins, Mr., as British Consul or

Agent, 273, 281, 284.
Jericho, visit to, 117.
Jerome, St., and the Latin Vulgate,

140.
Jerusalem, on visiting, 1 1 1 ; Chron-
icles of, 100.
Jerusalem, Lords of, 115, 117.
Jerusalem Chamber, builder of, 52.
John, Abbot, gift to monastery, 96.
John, King, 160, 164.
John, Master, the Goldsmith, work

done by, 44.
John of Gaunt, 70.
John of Salisbury, authenticity of

his work, 151, 153, 155.
John XXII, Pope, 164.
John, Prior, successful petition of,

100.
John, the cook, 62.
Judas, prototype of, 4.
Julian, Cardinal of St. Peter ad

Vincula, 192.
Julius II, Pope, 194.

Keith, Lord, 319.
Kellie, Lord, 274, 285.
Kent, 112, 125, 130.

INDEX

337

Kings, security of, 20.

Kingston-on-Thames, 54, 63.

Krusch, Herr, on Catholic worship,
72.

Kyrkton, William de, canon of Bar-
lings, 256, 261.

Lanfranc, his works, 94, 95.

Langdon, Abbot, duties and difficul-
ties of, 245, 253-264.

Langham, Simon, Abbot of West-
minster, 51.

Langley, 245.

Lateran Council, direction of system
from, 228.

Latria, distinction of, 76.

Lavendon, 245.

Leeds, Duke of, 293.

Leghorn, 291, 300.

Leland, 180, 194.

Lemerrois, General, proclaims him-
self Governor, 328.

Lent, supply of fish in, 52.

Leo X, Pope, 236.

Leofric, Abbot, his use of Church
treasures, 41.

Lescar, Bishop, 322.

Lewes, Priory of, 220.

Lewis the Pious, 212, 218.

Leyston, 245.

Library, building of, 8; growth
under the abbots, 93-99.

Lincoln, 246, 254.

Lincoln, Diocese of, visitation to, 1 1.

Lingard, Dr., quoted, 150, 172.

Lira, Nicholas de, cost of transcrib-
ing works of, 102.

Lisbon, 313.

Lisieux, Bishop of, 155.

Litlington, Nicholas, household
account book of, 50-66.

Livy, 103.

LlandafF, Bishopric of, 160.

Lollard, reason for suppressing, 82,
87, 88.

Lombardy, 270.

London, 313.

Lorraine, revival in, 220.
^' Lothair made Emperor, 214.

Louis VII of France, negotiations
with, 170-177.

Louvain, 128.

Luther, 67.

Luton, Dom Thomas, sub-prior, 11.
Lychefeld, Dom Nicholas, ii.
Lydgate, Dom John, miniature from,

48.
Lydgate employed as translator, 98.

Mabillon on the monastic state, 208.
Mac-Dermont, J. H., 300.
Macdonald, J., 300.
Macerata, Province of, 328.
MacGeoghegan, Abbe, 151.
Maclaughlan, J., 300.
Macpherson, P., Rev., 300.
Madrid, 313.

Maison Rusiique quoted, 61.
Maldon, 245.

Malvern, Prior of, a present from, 54.
Mamelukes, Lords of, 115, 117.
Mans, Bishop of, 155.
Manuscripts, cost of production, 98-

109.
Marck, Evrard de la. Cardinal, bio-
graphy of, 136 note.
Mare, de la, Abbot, sumptuous work

by, 46.
Margate, 282.
Maria I, Francesco, 184.
Marleberge, Abbot, of Evesham as

a book collector, 102.
Marseilles, iii.
Martin, J. P. P., 139.
Mason, Leonard, payments to, 104.
Mass, endowment of a, 33.
Matthew of Paris, on the writings of,

162, 165, 188.
Matthew of Westminster, 166.
Maynard, John, Prior, 17.
Mentmore, Michael de, interest in

books, 98.
Metalogicus referred to, 157-159.
Middlesex, hunting in, 59.
Migne, 211.

Minto, Lord. See Elliot, Sir Gilbert.
Miollis, General, occupies Rome,

328.
Miracle Plays, lawfulness of, 78.
Molash, William, almoner of Christ

Church, 100.
Monastic Histoiy, a sketch of, 197-

242.

338

INDEX

Monasteries, evil effect of wealthy,
232.

Monks of the West^ introduction to,
197-242.

Montalembert, Count de, introduc-
tion to, 197-242.

Monte Cassino, 236, 240.

Mont Vergine, 226.

Moors, 173.

Moran, Dr., BishopW Ossory, 150,
164.

Morning Chronicle quoted, 302.

Morton, feeding of workmen at, 52.

Morton, John, Archbishop, on ad-
ministration of St. Albans, 21^39.

Mount Sion, visit to, 116.

Muratori, 168.

Naples, 291, 296.

Napoleon, reason for an invasion by,

270; decree on merchandise, 326;

seeks to force a policy, 329.
Narbonne, Archbishop, 322.
Nash referred to, 251.
Nelson, Lord, 316, 321.
Netherlands, effect of monastic order

in, 198.
Neubo, 245.
Newhouse, 245, 257.
Newman, Cardinal, on St. Benedict,

241.
Normandy, 168, 170.
North, Lord, 276.
Northampton, 26 ; Chapter held at,

II.
Norwich, Henry VII's visit to, 194.
Nottinghamshire, 246.

Obedientiaries, new quarters for, 52.

Obit Book referred to, 9, 34.

Octavianus, anti-pope, 166.

Odo, 217.

O'Hara, Lord, 270.

Olivetans, institution of, 232.

Opizzoni, Cardinal, 329.

Orders referred to — Benedictines,
211-227; Celestines, 232; Cister-
cians, 224, 232; Cluniacs, 220,
226; Mendicants, 225 ; Olivetans,
232.

Oslend, 282.

Oswald as introducer of a system,

217.
Ovid, 130.
Oxford, 17, 64, 125; gift of books

to, 98; Catholic progress at, 301.

Pacca, Mgr., 313.

Pachomius, 201.

Padua, 113.

Palestine, 1 1 1 ; difficult in entering,

115-
Paoli, General, 294.
Papal Bulls referred to — Adrian IV,

150, 175; Alexander III, 165;

Benedictina, 231; Eugenius IV,

235; Innocent VIII, 22.
Pardons, common forms used in, 8,

23.
Paris, University of, its neglect in

teaching, 139.
Parker, Admiral, 291.
Parker, Plenry, biographical notes

on, 69.
Paul, Abbot, ornamental work by,

93.
Paul's Cross, preaching at, 69.
Pay, Convent of, 16, 22, 24.
Pecche, John, 60, 64.
Peck, Francis, transcripts made by,

246.
Peckham, Archbishop, 70.
Penrose, Mr., 319.
Peter, head huntsman, 58.
Peter the Lombard, his works as

studies, 140.
Peter the Venerable unable to save

a system, 222.
Petre, Lord, 278, 287.
Philip, Duke of Burgundy, hospital

built by, 116.
Piedmont, 312.
Pinner, hunting at, 59,
Pistoia, Synod, condemned by Papal

Bull, 306.
Pitt, 272, 284, 288, 294, 321.
Pius VI, Pope, 270; extract from

letter of, 286.
Pius VII, 269; election, returns to

Rome, 317 ; captivity of, 329.
Pliny quoted, 130, 188.
Po, valley of, 270.
Polirone, 235.

INDEX

339

Po/ycmiicus referred to, 156, 158.
Porcariis, Jerome de, 26.
Portland, Duke of, 306.
Porto d'Anzio, incident at, 323.
Portsmouth, review of fleet at, 301,
Preaching, duties in, 82.
Premonstratensians, story of the

English, 243-265.
Premontre, claims of, 244, 252;

General Chapters at, 252, 258,

262.
Premontre, Abbot of, nomination

by, 249.
Priscian, 143.
Property, rights of, 89.
Prussia, military considerations with,

293-
Pynson, works issued by, 68, 80.

Quickly, Mistress, 60.

Radet, General, orders from, 329.

Ralph, Abbot, damages a shrine, 43.

Rama, Lords of, 115, 117.

Ramridge, Thomas, Prior, loyal ex-
pressions from, 15, 16, 28, 34;
chosen as Abbot, 30.

Redman, Richard, Bishop, bio-
graphical notes on, 248.

Reigate, John, 57.

Religious Orders, distinction of, 200-
204.

Reymund, Prior, description of his
work, 96.

Rhine, the, 313, 316.

Richard, Abbot, description of his
missal gift, 95.

Richard I, ill.

Richard II, 69.

Richard III, Patron of St. Albans,
20, 179.

Richard of Bury, gift of books to, 97.

Riley, H. T., quoted, 4, 14, 18, 19.

Rivers, Earl, pilgrimages of, no.

Roach-Smith quoted, 59.

Robert, Abbot of St. Albans, 155.

Robespierre, 305.

Rochefort, 270.

Rochester, 69.

Rochet, cause of general use, 264.

Roger, Abbot, works collected by,
97-

Rogers, T., referred to, 60.
Rokeland, William de. Prior, gift of

books from, 102.
Rolvenden, 112.
Romagna, French occupation of,

313-
Roman Military Antiquities^ pre-
sent of a copy of, 312.
Romans, their conquest of empire,

205.
Rome, 182, 227; appealed to, 24-

27, 36, 151 > 153. 155; pilgrims

to, no; diplomatic relations with,

269-330; newspaper attack on,

302; French occupation of, 312-

316.
Rothbury, Dom John, Archdeacon,

16.
Rotherham, Robert de, canon of

Beauchief, 256.
Rotrodus, Bishop of Evreux, as

envoy, 155, 170.
Rouen, 112; meeting of kings at,

170.
Ruffo, Mgr., 313.
Rupert, work of, 198.
Ruskin, J., remarks on St. Albans,

40.
Russell, John, cookery hints from,

55, 61.
Russell, Richard, Almoner of St.

Albans, 6, 10, 16,
Russia, Emperor of, aid sought from,

315.
Rutland, Duke of, 247.
Rye, pilgrimage starts from, 112.

St. Agatha, 245.

St. Albans. Abbots — Albon, 3, 6,
10-13, 16; Geoffrey, 41, 95; John,
96; Leofric, 41; Mentmore, 97;
Paul, 93; Ralph, 43; Ramridge,
17, 30; Richard, 95; Robert, 95,
155; Roger, 97; Simon, 44, 94;
Stoke, 3, 35 ; Wallingford, Rich-
ard, 97; Wallingford, William,
I, 28, 30; Whethamstede, 3, 35,
98; William, 97. Almoner —
Russell, Richard, 6, 10, 16. Arch-
deacon— Wallingford, Thomas, 4.
Sacrist — Wylly, John, 6, 10, 16.

340

INDEX

St. Albans, an abbot's care of, i, 12,

15, 21 ; description of altar screen

at, I, 28; its library, 8, 32, 97-

99; MSS. and books for, 93;

monastic system at, i, 11, 230;

office of Historiographer, 96;

printing at, 17; under Wolsey,

231.
Si. Albam Chronicle, 18.
St. Albans, Schoolmaster of, 18.
St. Amphibalus, 13, 49.
St. Andrew, no.
St. Andrew's, Northampton, 26.
S. Angelo, Castel, 314.
St. Ansgar, the work of, 198.
St. Anthony, feast of, 113.
St. Asaph, restoration of Cathedral,

249.
St. Augustine, 93, 123, 198.
St. Augustine, dictum of, 141 ; mon-
astic life in his time, 208 ; adoption

of the rules of, 244.
St. Barthylmew, no.
St. Basil, rules of, 208, 210.
St. Bede, descriptions of, 188; term

used by, 21 1.
St. Benedict of Aniane, history of

his foundation, 201-242.
St. Benet Biscop, 211.
St. Boniface, the work of, 198.
St. Coesarius, rules of, 208, 210.
St. Cassian, rules of, 208, 210.
St. Clare, memorandum for the nuns

of, 184.
St. Columban, rules of, 209.
St. Damasus, Pope, 143, 148.
St. David, Archbishop of, 160,
St. Ethelwold introduces a system,

217.
St. Gall, Cathedral as a testimony,

198.
St. Genevieve, Paris, 329.
St. Genevieve Library, 103.
St. Gobain, 244.
St. Gregory the Great, 147.
St. Gregory of Tours quoted, 208.
St. Hugh, 223.
St. Isidore of Seville, 147.
St. James in Galice, 1 10.
St. Jerome, recognition of monastic

life, time of, 208.
St. Justina, description of, 113.

St. Justina of Padua, history of in-
stitute of, 234.

S. Maria in Campitelli, 327, 329.

St. Mark's, jewels and relics at, 113.

St. Mary, Kingston St. Michael, 122.

St. Mathew of Naples, no.

St. Maur, 237.

St. Michael, Mount, royal visitors
at, 170.

St. Nicholas of Bar in Puyle, no.

St. Norbert, founder of an Order,

243-
St. Patrick, Soho Church, 317, 318.
St. Pol de Leon, Bishop, 277, 278,

309-
St. Radegund, Abbot of, 245, 258.
St. Roger, tomb of, 96.
St. Simpert, 211.
St. Stephen Harding, 223.
St. Thomas a Becket, 156, 166, 168.
St. Vannes, 237.
St. Wulstan, 152.
Salzburg Cathedral, a testimony to

monastic system, 198.
Santa Chiara, Convent of, 186.
Saracens, treatment by, n5, Ii8;

cited as evidence, 174.
Sardinia, 270.

Savage, Dom John, gift of orna-
ments, 46.
Savile, Sir Henry, on Vergil, 180.
Savoy, n3.
Saxony, 227.
Scandinavia, 226 ; effect of monastic

order in, 198.
Scot, Richard, loi.
Scotland, 226; introduction of new

Order, 245.
Scots College, Rome, rights secured

to, 328.
Seneca, 130; copied for monastery,

97-
Shakespeare referred to, 60.
Shap, 245.
Shap Abbey, 249.
Shene, Prior of, restoration of book

from, 100.
Sheridan, Catholic Emancipation

and, 295.
Siena, Pope banished to, 313.
Sigebert quoted, 177.
Silvestrines, institution of, 232.

INDEX

341

Simon, Abbot, his work for a shrine,

44; "the Englishman" and St.

Albans, 9$.
Simon Magus, prototype of, 4.
Smelt, R., Rev., 300.
Sopwell, Convent of, 16, 22, 24.
Spain, 220, 237, 270, 310; king-
doms of, 173.
Spalding, Robert de, canon of Crox-

ton, 256.
Spedding, 194.
Spencer, 322.
Spenser, Lord de, 60.
Spires, Bishop of, 313.
Stanhope, Lord, 287.
Stanley Park, 245.
Staping, William de, 260.
Stephen, 153.
Stephen, Monk, his gift of books,

102.
Stevenson, Father, transcripts of,

182.
Stoke, John, Abbot, 3; deathbed

scene of, 6, 10, 35.
Stourton, Lord, 122.
Strabo, 130.
Stuart, Mr., 284.
Sturry, 128.
Styrton, Richard de, payments to,

104.
Sudbury, Thomas, 22.
Sudely, Lord, 10.
Sulby, 245; Abbot of, duties and

difficulties of, 253-264.
Swiss, 239.

Swithbert, work of, 198.
Switzerland, effect of monastic order

in, 198.
Symon. See Simon.

Teddington, 54.

Tewkesbury, 60.

Textus, preservation and use, 93.

Thames, 58,

Thanet, Isle of, 130.

Theiner, Monsignor, research work
of, 165.

Theobald, Archbishop, 157.

Theodore, Archbishop of Canter-
bury, 136.

Thompson, N., Rev., 300.

Throckmorton, influenced to stop

writing, 301.
Titchfield, 245.
Titenhanger, Manor of, 6.
Tiron, influence of, 227.
Tolentino, treaty of, 312.
Torkington, Sir Richard, pilgrimage

of. III.
Torre, 245.

Torre del Greco, destruction of, 295.
Totes, 112.

Toulon, 270, 291, 303.
Toulouse, Siege of, 156, 158.
Trent, Council of, 145.
Trevor, Mr., 282.
Trowbridge, Sir Thomas, accusation

against, 320.
Troyes, Bishop of, 307.
Tupholme, 245.
Turin, 275.
Tuscany, 271, 315.
Tusculum, 163, 166.
Twyne, John, tract by, 123.
Twyne, Thomas, as apublisher, 123.

Ubaldo, Guido, Duke, 179, 184.

Udney, Mr., British agent, 291, 300.

Umfraville, Sir Gilbert, loo.

Urbino, Dukes of, 183; Library,
MSS. offered to, 183; Province of,
185, 328; Vergil's association
with, 179.

Valence, Pope removed to, 316.
Valerius Flaccus, 129.
Valladolid, 237.
Vallombrosa, system at, 226; Abbot

of, central authority of, 226.
Vatican- Library, 182.
Venaissin, invasion of, 275,286, 312.
Venice, iii, 118, 179; experiences

of pilgrims at, 113; Pope elected

at, 317.
Vergil, Polydore, on the "History'

of, 178-196; visits to England,

179, 181, 189.
Vestments, use requested, 264.
Vesuvius, an eruption of, 295.
Veterani, Federigo, as a MS.

copyist, 183.
Via di Aracoeli, 329.
Vienna, 313.

342

INDEX

Vienne, 258.

Vincennes, Donjon of, 329.

Vincenti, Cardinal, 329.

Visitations, rights and contests of, 1 1,
12, 15, 21, 38, 224, 227 ; a protest
regarding, 257; beneficent pur-
pose of, 265.

Visitor-General, appointment of,

Vives, Lodovico, biographical notes

on, 128, 131, 135-137.
Vulgate, advocacy of, 139-149.

Wafer, Dame Alice, 16.

Walden, Roger, Archbishop of
Canterbury, loi.

Wallingford, Richard, Abbot, dona-
tion from, 97.

Wallingford, Thomas, 2.

Wallingford, William, Abbot, de-
scriptive character of, i.

Walsingham, no, 194.

Walter of Colchester as a binder,
94.

Walter, the cook, resourcefulness of,
59, 62.

Wandsworth, 58.

Warham, William, Archbishop, 194.

Waterford, 162, 167; Bishop of,
168.

Wearmouth, rule followed at, 211.

Webbe, Dame Elizabeth, 17.

Welbeck, 245.

Welbeck, Abbey of, story of a gift
to, lOI.

Welford, 245.

Wells, Archdeaconry of, 179.

Welson, Captain, 291.

Wendling, 245.

Wendover, Roger, 163.

West, Walter, 58.

West Dereham, 245.

Westminster Abbey. Abbot — Lang-
ham, Simon, 51 ; Litlington,
Nicholas, 51.

Westminster Abbey, building at, 52.

Westminster Abbot visits St. Al-
bans, 15.

Westmoreland, Countess, petitions
for return of a book, 100.

Wexford, 168.

Weyburn, I., Rev., 300.

Whethamstede, John, Abbot, on
the register of, 3-6, 9, 10, 14, 35;
as an administrator, 7-10, 35; con-
tribution to shrine, 46 ; interest
in books, 98.

Whitby, John, prior of Gisburn, 1 1 2 ;
death of, 116.

Whiting, Abbot, 122.

Wight, Isle of, 301.

William, Abbot, benefactor of
books, 97.

William, Duke of Normandy, 77.

WilHam of Malmesbury referred to,
59, 188.

William the Conqueror, 151, 169.

Willibrod, work of, 198.

Wilmot, Mr., 278.

Winchcombe, 64.

Winchester, 303 ; altar screen at, i ;
Bishop of, extract of letter from,
276; School of, 219.

Windham, Mr., 272, 284, 287, 322;
extract from, 285.

Witzel, Theophilus, 139.

Wodestock, Thomas, Duke of Glou-
cester, use of gift by, 47.

Wolsey, Cardinal, 179, 301; char-
acter of, 186; his hold on St. Al-
bans, 231.

Worcester, 56, 64.

Wotton, Nicholas, Dr., description
and conversation of, 124-128.

Wyclif, 82, 87.

Wylly, John, Sacrist of St. Albans,
6, 10, 16.

Wynkyn de Worde, colophon of, 18;
editions from press of, 68, 80.

Xanten, 243.

Yarmouth, lish market at, 53.

York, Archbishop of, duplicity re-
garding, 167.

York Cathedral, ** Antiphoner" for,
104.

York, Duke of. Cardinal, 3 17, "327.

Yorkshire, 112.

Zelada, Cardinal de, 272, 292, 308,
329.

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