mmmmm MONASTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES OTHER WORKS BY HIS EMINENCE CARDINAL GASQUET ** Of such historians as Gasquet the cause of historic truth can never have too many." — Fall Mall Gazette. "Only a few men can obtain a secure reputation for solidity and fidelity, and among these happy ones Gasquet must be numbered. ... His historical writings are always a pleasure and a profit to read." — Catholic Times. HENRY III AND THE CHURCH. A Study of his Ecclesiastical Policy and of the Relations between England and Rome. Second edition. Demy 8vo. 12.?. net. THE EVE OF THE REFORMATION. Studies in the Religious Life and Thought of the English People in the period preceding the Rejection of the Romish Jurisdiction by Henry VIII. Sixth edition. 8vo. 8^\ 6 /^Ahr^ CARDINAL GASQUET AUTHOR OF " HENRY VHI AND THE ENGLISH MONASTERIES," LONDON G. BELL AND SONS, LTD. 1922 ^5. PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN. CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES VVHITTINGHAM AND GRIGGS (PRINTERS), LTD. TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. HJ 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 inst ruction given by the y EngHsh priests in prer RpfnrmRtinn 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 id eal of Cju ny ^f]S tVip p ^istence of one great centr'5.1"m5haster:SLS ltlL, dependencies, eve n by the hundred, spread oyer jan^-n y i Ws, and tormmga vast fe n rial hier archy. 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 nomm ee"or even in remote England or Spain was made in the namc^ an d Willi llib bail CLlon 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 t Tie devuiUh Leiiluiy^ BuL 'All i ti^ g tory 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, th at the C lunyL 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, a nd if that_ s pring were broken, or even weakened, there was no chance of ren ewal 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. LONDON : CHARLES WHITTINGHARI AND GRIGGS (PRINTERS), LTD. CHISWICK PRESS, TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE. .NTERlJ^^^^ih^ JAN^ JUH 6 78 mmi OCT LD 2lA-40m-2, 69_ (J60578l0)476— A-32 YB 452b3 U.C, BERKELEY LIBRARIES <:D3fl5Sflt,7D ^^ JX74 • ft f THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA UBRARY