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^ 
 
CALENDARS ^^ 
 
 AN ATTEMPT 
 
 TO ELUCIDATE SOME PORTIONS OF THE 
 
 jgwtorp of tfie ilrtorp 
 
 OR 
 
 iTftaternitfr of ealentrarSt 
 
 WHOSE LIBRARY ONCE STOOD OVER THE NORTH, OR JESUS 
 AISLE OF ALL SAINTS' CHURCH, BRISTOL. 
 
 BY THE EEV. HENKY KOGERS, M.A., 
 
 VICA.R OF THAT CHURCH. 
 
 CTalcittratB* ^wl. 
 
 BRISTOL: 
 
 LIGHT AND RIDLER. London: HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO. 
 
 1846. 
 
0^ 
 
 
 n 
 
TO THE COMMITTEE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 BRISTOL AND WEST OF ENGLAND 
 
 ARCHITECTURAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY 
 
 THIS LITTLE WORK, 
 
 THE OBJECT OF WHICH 18 TO ELUCIDATE A PORTION OF 
 
 THE HISTORY OF "AUNCIENTE BRYSTOWE," 
 
 IS GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED, 
 
 BY THEIR FAITHFUL SERVANT, 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 395910 
 
n 
 
"The Calendaries, otherwise caullid the Glide or Fratemitie of 
 Brightstowe the original of it is time owte of mynde." 
 
 LELAND. 
 
 " CoUegium le Kalenders ab antiquo fandatum : diu 
 
 ante conquestum Willelmi Conquestoris." 
 
 WILLIAM DB WOBCESTBE. 
 
 " propter bonitatem et antiquitatcm." cardinal gualo. 
 
 " One of the most ancient establishments of the British Kingdom." 
 
 EVANS. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The Author requests his readers to observe that though 
 he will occasionally be found using, as in justice he should, 
 the language of praise with respect to the habits of the 
 Calendar Brethren, he does not pledge himself to an 
 unqualified approbation of all that was said, taught, or 
 done, either by themselves or others during the same 
 ages of the Christian Church. That though he has felt 
 that as a Parish Priest he ought to extol devotedness, 
 prayerfulness, and self-denial in religious duties, he is not 
 to be charged with advising these to be performed jwectse/y 
 as they were exhibited several centuiies ago : that though 
 he is bound as a truthful Christian man to recommend 
 certain good habits, now, alas ! rarely adopted, he is not 
 to be accounted an Anti-Reformer merely because he 
 speaks of persons who practised those habits before the 
 Reformation. 
 
 His chief desire has been to throw light, however weak, 
 on a subject hitherto scarcely noticed, though it is a 
 b2 
 
VUl 
 
 subject connected with the earliest periods of the Church 
 of Christ in England, and most intimately interwoven 
 with the records of Bristol, both prior, and subsequent, 
 to the Norman Conquest ; while at the same time he has 
 ventured to impress on those who boast of being blessed 
 with a purer creed, the necessity of outdoing in holiness 
 of life others not so privileged as they. 
 
 He regrets that his researches into the origin and 
 habits of" The Calendars" have not been more successful, 
 and that what he has gleaned has been so imperfectly put 
 together. At the same time he solemnly disavows all 
 party spirit, and hopes that every one who takes up his 
 little book for perusal, will divest his mind of that 
 wretchedly morbid feeling which angles for the heresies 
 of others. 
 
 Bristol, 1845. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Page 3. 
 Obscurity and importance of Subject. 
 CHAPTER H. 
 Page 13. 
 Christian features of " Aunciente Brystowe " — The origin 
 of the Calendar Brotherhood derivable from a Chris- 
 tianized pagan custom. 
 
 CHAPTER m. 
 Page 29. 
 
 Their existence from an early Christian age to a.d. 700 — 
 Their subsequent connexion with the institution of 
 Corpus Christi day. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Page 41. 
 
 The state of Bristol and the habits of the citizens while 
 the Calendars were located at Holy Trinity Church — 
 The brothers well suited for the situation, and the 
 situation for them. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Page 61. 
 
 Vicinity of the " Holy Cross " — Sir John de Ripariis. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Page 75. 
 
 Removal of the Calendars from Holy Trinity to Al-hallowen. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Page 87. 
 
 The Calendar Sisters — Their duties, religious zeal, and 
 purity. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Page 101. 
 
 The rules of the house of the " Ffraternitie of Calends." 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Page 119. 
 
 The Calendars' library — Their schools for conversion of 
 the Jews — Restoration of Al-hallowen Church. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Page 141. 
 
 Cecilia de la Warre — Money stolen from the priory of the 
 Calendars for the use of the Council Chamber. 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 Page 163. 
 Secularity spreads in the brotherhood — Robert Ricart — 
 " The Maire ys Kalendar " — Ricart and Canynge com- 
 pared. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 Page 179. 
 
 The " general mynde " — The " Dawnse of Sowles " and 
 "precious prymer" — Scull of S. Thomas of Canterbury 
 — Variety of benefactions. 
 
 CHAPTER Xm. 
 
 Page 211. 
 
 Dissolution of the Calendar Brotherhood. ,^ i 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Page 225. 
 
 Living and dying in God's consecrated house. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Page 239. 
 
 The example of observing daily prayer in the Church set 
 by eminent Bristol merchants. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 (the conclusion.) 
 
 Page 265. 
 Master and servant. 
 
 The figures in the Frontispiece, (which is taken frovi 
 an old drawing of Bristol,) represent (\) S. John's Gate. 
 (1) New Gate. (SJ S. Leonard's Gate. (^J S. Nicholas 
 Gate. 
 
b3 
 
" A temple shadowy with remembrances 
 " Of the majestic past." 
 
 MB3. HEMANS. 
 
 "Approach with reverence — There are those within 
 Whose dwelling place is heaven." 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 OBSCURITY AND IMPORTANCE OF SUBJECT. 
 
 There are few branches of literary pursuit, 
 which produce in a greater degree mingled 
 feelings, than a research into former consti- 
 tutions, the foundations of which are sunk in 
 obscurity: the certain is so confounded with 
 the uncertain, conjecture so often supplies the 
 place of fact, that the mind is harassed, vexed 
 or pleased, with the frequent alternations of 
 satisfaction and disappointment which it 
 encounters in the pursuit of its object. 
 
 To set about the work of enquiring into the 
 customs, habits, and rules of Institutions, of 
 which scarcely any other memorial is left but 
 their name, or a floating tradition of the zeal 
 of their members ; to find here or there an 
 
.^<^:- ly, ;' 65^1^Ct3^RJTY AND IMPORTANCE 
 
 allusion but no historical fact, or a fact with 
 no connecting circumstances of which it may 
 form a link, is a result at once disheartening 
 and cheering : such an attempt is like dis- 
 placing a majestic piece of armour which for 
 ages has hung in some baronial hall; in doing 
 which we fear, lest, as we search closely for 
 indications of curious workmanship, or in- 
 dentations made by an antagonist's heavy 
 blow, we not only cause a jar or shock to 
 what has remained untouched for years, but 
 disarrange what we never can replace. It is 
 like removing from its cobwebbed corner some 
 blood-bought tattered banner, and while too 
 curiously examining its texture and devices, 
 to be forced to learn that every fresh discovery 
 which we make, proves indeed the fine delicacy 
 of the material, but shows with it the rudeness 
 of our touch : or lastly, it is like lingering 
 among beautiful ruins, where hand and foot 
 tremble, lest in searching for some hidden relics 
 
OF SUBJECT. - & 
 
 of taste and skill we crush or displace others, 
 where as our eye detects in the lofty crumbling 
 column, and richly mullioned window, a 
 thousand gems of art and devotion, the 
 beauties we see only make us long for 
 more. 
 
 Thus, in like manner, while searching for 
 the laws which regulated, and the habits which 
 characterised some Christian fraternity, the 
 memory of which has well nigh passed away, 
 the ruins only of it left, we fear lest while 
 bringing from their obscure resting places the 
 few records that remain of their quaint schemes 
 and untiring zeal, the light of modern notions 
 prove too strong, and scorching and withering : 
 we fear, lest by giving too great prominence 
 to one feature, we become guilty of injustice 
 to another, — lest we pollute sacred things by 
 unholy touch, or disturb exquisite beauty by 
 rude interference; and when, after many a 
 tedious hour of dry unretributive research, we 
 
6 OBSCURITY AND IMPORTANCE 
 
 discover, to our joy, some new proof of the 
 holy fervour with which Christian spirits once 
 burnt, it is not unmingled with regret that it 
 was mixed up with much of superstition and 
 sin, and that many excellencies, which doubt- 
 less existed, are unrecorded and unknown. In 
 other words, that the picture from length of 
 time, from lost memorials, from accumulated 
 decay, is necessarily so imperfect. 
 
 If there be any subject to which these 
 remarks may be referred with stricter applica- 
 tion than another, it is that which these pages 
 are intended to elucidate. Boasting of an 
 antiquity which few religious houses, or even 
 large conventual institutions could claim, and 
 commended by Abbots, Bishops, and Popes' 
 legates for goodness (^^ propter bonitates") 
 in an age when sister establishments were 
 deeply infected with the poison of worldly 
 pomp and secular views, the poor and studious, 
 and devoted Calendars noiselessly but usefully 
 
OF SUBJECT. 7 
 
 pursued their coui-se. With but little wealth, 
 with no external brilliancy of monastic power, 
 and no gorgeousness of order, the Prior and 
 his Co-brethren were happy in the discharge 
 of their solemn duties. Fully occupied were 
 they with their constant services — their awful 
 requiems — their supplications for those who 
 with their last words entreated their inter- 
 cessory prayers, that the sinful omissions 
 and commissions of their lives may be for- 
 given — visiting the sick, and relieving the poor 
 with alms — aiding their fellow-citizens by keep- 
 ing their archives — opening the doors of their 
 Library to all, and explaining to the youths, 
 as they pored over the several chained* 
 volumes, the difficult passages which from 
 time to time presented themselves. Of the 
 vast advantage conferred on the city in 
 which they dwelt by such an Institution, 
 
 * In the list of Benefactors to the Church one is named who 
 paid for the chains wherewith some of the books were fastened. 
 
8 OBSCURITY AND IMPOBTANCE 
 
 if well regulated, no reasonable mind can 
 doubt ; but whatever that advantage may have 
 been, whether great or small, it was, with 
 regard to Bristol, confined to the ages in 
 which they flourished, it was not permitted 
 to extend to our own times, — few and vague 
 are the memorials left. Providence, cer- 
 tainly for the best and wisest purposes, 
 ordained that the effects of their labours and 
 zeal should be unfelt by posterity; for their 
 whole library, containing more than eight 
 hundred books, besides some civic archives, 
 many rude and curious emblematic drawings, 
 and numerous other manuscripts, was totally 
 consumed by fire A.D. 1466. To this event 
 we are mainly to ascribe the great obscurity 
 which hangs over their history, and hence 
 it is that we are furnished with such scanty 
 materials for our work : and as Bristol seems 
 to have enjoyed, in a peculiar manner, the 
 privilege of their settling within her walls, 
 
OF SUBJECT. 9 
 
 we in vain look to the records of other 
 cities and towns to supply our deficiencies, 
 or to throw any light on this subject; we 
 are left to glean what information we can 
 from casual allusions in a few ancient deeds, 
 and parochial minutes; and these allusions 
 are not only rare, but, generally obscure. 
 
 No apology, we hope, need be offered 
 for the present attempt. The history of the 
 Calendars is wound up with some of the most 
 interesting events of our city. Great was the 
 influence, for good or for evil, which they 
 exercised over all classes of the citizens. A 
 somewhat annoying silence has been main- 
 tained with regard to this subject, not only 
 by monastic writers in general, so far as the 
 author has been able to ascertain, but by our 
 own several annalists and topographers ; while 
 almost every other portion of ancient Bristol's 
 history has been fully described, this has been 
 left, if not untouched, at any rate but slightly 
 
 c 
 
10 OBSCURITY AND IMPORTANCE 
 
 adverted to. Perhaps, then, as such a length 
 
 of time has elapsed, it may appear to some 
 
 an useless, and to others a presumptuous, 
 
 attempt to take up a subject so involved in 
 
 difficulty : yet if but a few interesting facts 
 
 be preserved from an increasing obscurity, 
 
 or encouragement be given to those who are 
 
 more capable of the task of making further 
 
 researches, good will have been done -, while 
 
 the little parochial duty which is usually laid 
 
 upon the writer, and a free access to some 
 
 interesting manuscripts, supplied him with 
 
 opportunity and matter, which he conceived 
 
 to be his duty not to disregard. To this may 
 
 also be added, the pardonable desire he has 
 
 long entertained, to know somewhat of those 
 
 who, during a period of at least three hundred 
 
 years, successively spent their whole lives 
 
 within the same hallowed walls in which it is 
 
 his privilege to pass many of his happiest 
 
 hours. Nor has he any wish to smother the 
 
OF SUBJECT. 11 
 
 humbling thoughts which arise in his mind 
 when, as he crosses those solemn but muti- 
 lated aisles, he remembers that beneath his 
 tread are mouldering the bones of these elder 
 brethren ; or as he now leads and joins in, our 
 Church's beautiful Liturgy, can he altogether 
 repress the thought of those past times, when, 
 though centuries have since flowed by, fervent 
 prayers and holy hymns, in a great measure 
 the same as are now uttered, were poured 
 forth by some devout prior,* his confreres, 
 and fellow-parishioners within the same sacred 
 walls to the glory of that God Whom we 
 adore, "the same yesterday, to-day, and 
 for ever." 
 
 * Several of the Priors of the Calendars were Vicars of All 
 Saints. 
 
 c 2 
 
" Adopted in God's family, and so 
 
 " My old coat lost into new arms I go, 
 
 " The cross my seal in baptism spread below, 
 
 " Does by that form into an anchor grow. 
 
 " Crosses grow anchors, bear as thou shouldst do 
 
 " Thy cross, and that cross grows an anchor too." 
 
 JOHK DONNE. 
 
 "Porte la croix avec patience, 
 
 "Et unis la passion a celle du Sauveur." 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 CHRISTIAN FEATURES OF " AUNCIENTE BRISTOWE ;" THE 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE CALENDAR BROTHERHOOD DERIVABLE 
 FROM A CHRISTIANIZED PAGAN CUSTOM. 
 
 Before entering into an explanation of the 
 few particulars which have descended to our 
 times, relative to the Calendars, we are bound 
 in justice to remark, respecting the external 
 features of " aunciente Brystowe " that they 
 were eminently Christian, The original 
 ground plan of the town, its varied details 
 and the subdivisions, however minute, of 
 almost every street, tenement, and even 
 buttress, were intended as a rude embody- 
 ment of some high truth of our religion, to 
 remind the traveller and sojourner, the visitor 
 and citizen, that he was a member of the one 
 c2 
 
14 CHRISTIAN FEATURES OF 
 
 great Christian family ; and, as a responsible 
 being, needed, in the midst of his daily 
 occupations, to be put in mind, through the 
 medium of things which caught the eye, of 
 the blessings which cluster on the Cro55. To 
 this end, not only had his brow received its 
 impress in early infancy as it rose freshened 
 by the dews of the Baptismal font, not only 
 was he regularly catechised by his parish priest, 
 but the imaged niches of his streets, the beam- 
 ends and corbels of his dwelling, the shield 
 or escutcheon that formed the key-stone of his 
 mantel-piece, the devices assumed in lieu of ar- 
 morial bearings by the merchants and trades 
 men, and the rich manner in which it was usual 
 to decorate the initial of the Christian name, 
 while that of the surname was written with 
 the simple letter — the Christian initial being 
 likewise in these devices or marks frequently 
 set at the foot of the Cross, immediately 
 pendent, as it were, on that sacred emblem; — 
 
"AUNCIENTE BRYSTOWE/' 15 
 
 all these things, though they may be regarded 
 in our matter-of-fact utilitarian rationalizing 
 times, as trifling and superstitious, yet must 
 have exercised considerable influence over 
 him, and have coloured the imaginings of his 
 mind; while even the mutilated remains 
 v^hich we possess, serve to show (in however 
 rude a manner) the general bearing of former 
 ages towards what ought, in every age, to be 
 the Christian's One Great Object. But besides 
 these minor memorials of sacred things, the 
 four principal streets which reached from gate 
 to gate of his city, carried the same sublime 
 idea to his imagination, for these formed a 
 Saint Andrew's Cross ; and the cluster of 
 houses in each division, framing together a 
 Maltese Cross, conveyed the same holy 
 allusion ; while, in the centre, between four 
 churches, rose in later times (now, alas ! 
 entirely removed) the " Crux Magnifica," 
 standing on the spot, which, for many a long 
 
16 CHRISTIAN FEATURES OF 
 
 year before, had been occupied by a less 
 splendid, though not less faithful, symbol of 
 the Christian Faith. The Cross* stood where 
 it ought to stand, on the highest and most 
 central part of the city — the first object of the 
 citizens' view — the very centre of their town, 
 as that which it represented should have been, 
 of their hopes; to that point there was a 
 concentration of their streets and traffic, con- 
 veying the lesson that not only should the 
 Cross, emblematic of Him Who hung thereon, 
 be their highest object, but that to which, as 
 to a holy acme, should converge all their 
 worldly occupations. As in the noble city of 
 Antwerp there are seven gates, from each of 
 
 * Collinson, speaking of the original intention of erecting 
 crosses, says that it was to "remind people of the meritorious 
 
 cross and passion of our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ The 
 
 knees of our religious ancestors with gladness pressed those 
 steps which the degeneracy of modem times has studiously con- 
 tiived to unhallow and destroy." — Vol. I. p. 224. 
 
 Our Print represents the old Cross, not the " Crux Magnifica " 
 which was afterwards removed to College Green. 
 
"AUNCIENTE BRYSTOWE." 17 
 
 which runs a long wide street tenninating at 
 the Cathedral, with its marble columns, its 
 porphyry and its gold ; so in Bristol its four 
 gates, with churches to guard the entrance 
 and remind the wayfaring man that he was 
 approaching a Christian city, opened into 
 streets which converged to one holy memorial, 
 and at their point of concentration united in 
 the blessed Cross. Who shall despise such 
 material Christianity? Such a method of 
 reaching the heart through the eyes? Such 
 ''petrifaction,'" as it has been called, of our 
 religion? Nay, what Christian Bristolian is 
 there who cannot regret that tokens, em- 
 blazoned with all possible attractions, of 
 merchandize and manufacture meet his view 
 at every turn, but that outward memorials of 
 his Faith are so studiously removed ? 
 
 Such was the general character of the 
 external features of the city during the period 
 of at least five centuries, when the Calendars 
 
18 PROBABLE ORIGIN OF THE 
 
 dwelt near its most prominent spot. The 
 sparrow has oft found her a nest near the 
 altars of our God, where could the members 
 of a Christian brotherhood more suitably 
 linger than around " the cross " of their Lord ? 
 But whence came they ? How arrived they 
 here ? Who were they ? Here lies one of 
 our chief difficulties. We know, from many ex- 
 amples, that most energetic and decided efforts 
 were directed by the early believers in Christ 
 to the spiritualizing what was worldly, and 
 Christianizing what was heathen, consequently 
 we are for ever finding in the study of primitive 
 Church usages, a Dagon consecrated into an 
 ark of God. It was not to be expected that the 
 subtle and polished Greek or patriotic Koman 
 would give up all his old prejudices in an hour ; 
 the Christian fisherman and tentmaker, with 
 their successor Saints, whose names are written 
 in the Book of Life, employed the wisdom 
 of the serpent attempered by the harmlessness 
 
CALENDAR BROTHERHOOD. 19 
 
 of the dove, and though they would not, if 
 they had dared, have compromised the terms of 
 the message they bore, yet they did not hesitate 
 to bend the circumstances they encountered to 
 their own hallowed purposes. Hence we find 
 many traces of heathen habits in Christian 
 usages : for instance, the Pagan custom of 
 placing lamps in sepulchres was turned to 
 holy purpose by Christians, and indeed so 
 completely Christianized that as may have 
 been seen in the Genevieve cabinet, they were 
 even arranged in a shape assuming the form of 
 the sacred monogram. To some such feeling 
 then, a desire of Christianizing a popular 
 heathen practise, we may perhaps trace the 
 origin of the fraternity of Calendars. Their 
 very name is classical ; though belonging to a 
 Christian fraternity it carries us back in idea to 
 Koman customs. We do not hear of them as 
 a distinct order, as a regularly organized body 
 of Ecclesiastics, until the sixth or seventh 
 
20 PROBABLE ORIGIN OF THE 
 
 century of the Christian era, still it may be 
 fairly inferred that some traces of their consti- 
 tution are to be discovered in the Roman 
 Calendae from which they doubtlessly derive 
 their name. Nor is this idea chimerical as will 
 appear from the following circumstances : — 
 The Roman Calends were always considered 
 sacred days, being so called, as some suppose, 
 (quasi colendm) from the veneration with which 
 they were regarded. The care of regulating 
 the year and the public calendar was entrusted, 
 under the Roman polity, not to the Consuls, 
 or Praetor, or Tribunes, but to the Pontifex 
 Magnus and his College. Here we at once 
 discover pretty clear indications that, however 
 vague, or superstitious, or idolatrous the no- 
 tions of the Romans were, they considered the 
 regulation of the Calends of sufficient import- 
 ance to be invested in their Ministers of 
 Religion, Some days, likewise, were pro- 
 nounced by them as " fasti," and others as 
 
CALENDAB BROTHEKHOOD. 21 
 
 ^^ nefasti," and though the knowledge of these 
 mysteries had, in later times, in some way 
 or another, been revealed to the patricians, 
 yet it formed the peculiar province of the 
 Pontifices, or High Priests : here, again, are 
 traces of a sacerdotal nature evident in the 
 duties discharged with reference to the Calends. 
 Further still, we shall see that one of the 
 principal offices (derived from a very early 
 period) of the prior and co-brethren of the 
 Calendars was to keep a public record of 
 events, to superintend and regulate a library 
 open to all the citizens under certain restric- 
 tions, and to explain to those who required 
 such assistance any difficulties that may have 
 arisen ; and are there not strong evidences of 
 the same kind of office in that required of 
 the Pontifex Magnus? He was, says Dr. 
 Adam in his Roman Antiquities, to draw up 
 a short account of the public transactions 
 of every year in a book, and to expose this 
 
 D 
 
22 PROBABLE ORIGIN OF THE 
 
 register in an open place at his house, where 
 the people might come and read it. Others 
 derive the name " Calends " from a Greek 
 word, signifying "I call/' in allusion to a 
 custom common in Kome, and as it would 
 appear, in some sort observed by the early 
 Britons, of a Priest (like a Wardour, as in out 
 own old city arms) ascending a tower at the 
 beginning of each month, and from thence 
 giving notice to the people to come and listen 
 to his proclamation, crying out, "I call, I 
 call; come, hear the moon's age."* Now, 
 though we cannot distinctly trace any con- 
 nexion between the order of our Calendars 
 and the Eoman customs on the Calends, still 
 there is enough to justify the hypothesis that 
 
 * KaXw, KaXw. " Calendse, primus dies mensis, quod eo die 
 " solebat Pontifex ascendere turrim de consuetudine Romanorum, 
 " et volens nunciare quota sit luna eo die vel principiu mensis, 
 " dicebat pluries KaXw, KaXw, quasi, voco vos, venite et audite 
 "oetatem lunae." — See, Summa quae Catholicon appellatur fratris 
 Johannis januensis, &c., 1503. 
 
CALENDAR BROTHERHOOD. 23 
 
 this Roman practice first suggested to our 
 Christian forefathers the importance of espe- 
 cially marking the beginning of months, of 
 investing the Priesthood with the duty of 
 proclaiming it, and adding to it the further 
 office of keeping the public records. This 
 notion, if we are justified in entertaining it, 
 establishes the great antiquity of the Calen- 
 dar brotherhood; as it identifies its occupations 
 with the earliest of Christian usages in Britain; 
 and Bristol was a chief Roman settlement ; so 
 early as the year 429 we learn that the riches 
 of foreign countries were brought into Britain 
 by the mouth of the Severn, Bristol, called 
 by the Roman name " Civitas," or " Caer 
 Brithon," was a principal port, and therefore 
 here particularly would it be expedient to 
 subdue Pagan notions by their subjugation to 
 Christian rites. 
 
 If it be supposed that the Calendars may 
 have been so called from their meeting for 
 D 2 
 
24 PROBABLE ORIGIN OF THE 
 
 general purposes on the Calends of each 
 month ; the supposition vanishes on learning 
 that they frequently thus met only four times 
 a year ; or that they derived their appellation 
 from the fact that conferences mentioned by 
 Du Cange were anciently held by the clergy 
 of each deanery on the first day of every 
 month concerning the imposition of Penance : 
 a fair answer is, this may have been a matter 
 of convenience, and in no sense the cause 
 of designating any one religious fraternity 
 rather than another, with this name. Nu- 
 merous examples, as we have said, may be 
 brought forward, (and why should not the 
 origin of the Calendars be classed among 
 them?) wherein Pagan customs have started 
 the idea for, and then been made by 
 devout minds subservient to. Christian ob- 
 servances. Just (to cite another example 
 besides that of sepulchral lamps, already 
 alluded to) as in the present day we keep 
 
CALENDAR BROTHERHOOD. 25 
 
 Midlent or Mothering Sunday, not so much, 
 as some would have it, through any idea 
 derivable from the Lessons appointed for that 
 holy day, as from a spiritualized heathen 
 custom : its origin has been assigned to a 
 very remote period, even to the Koman Hilaria 
 or Feast in honor of the Mother of the Gods 
 upon the 8 Ides of March, which Mother of 
 the Gods was converted by Christianity into 
 the Mother Church :* not that Christianity is 
 indebted to heathenism, but that heathenism, 
 through the influence with which it was 
 brought into contact with holy example, 
 mysterious sacraments, the grace of penitence, 
 and miraculous powers bowed to the Church 
 of Christ. So through a similar process, by 
 no means unusual, and under the circum- 
 stances quite probable, may we trace the 
 Christian custom of observing with particular 
 
 * Fosbroke. 
 
 d3 
 
26 PROBABLE ORIGIN OF THE 
 
 honor the beginnings of months to the 
 reverenced (colendse*) Calends of Eoman 
 times. If a heathen Pontifex was not degraded 
 by proclaiming the moon's age, how was it 
 unworthy a Christian Priest to tell of the 
 steady lapse of fading time, while in the 
 order of his holy office he spake of Him by 
 Whose behest alone the moon pursues her 
 silent round ? If the Roman Pontifex declared 
 to the people convened on a certain day the 
 several feasts or holidays in the month then 
 commencing, why should not a Christian 
 Priest hallow this custom by proclaiming the 
 solemn festivals and holidays of the Church 
 which would fall in each month? Just as 
 now, in a more seemly manner, the curate 
 in each parish is required to "declare unto 
 the people what Holy days or Fasting days 
 are in the week following to be observed." If 
 
 * " Calendse, quasi colendse, quod solebant coli apud veteres." 
 " Summa quae Catholicon, &c," 
 
CALENDAR BROTHERHOOD. 27 
 
 it were a circumstance of sufficient importance 
 to justify the Roman law that the Pontifex 
 Magnus, and he only, should draw out a 
 record of public events, and submit them at 
 his own house to the inspection of his fellow 
 citizens ; can it be deemed a thing improbable 
 that in Christian times, in a city whose every 
 feature was stamped with some Christian 
 mark, the momentous duty of keeping its 
 records, and thereby investing passing events 
 with their true, because Christian, import, 
 should devolve on a fraternity of the Christian 
 Priesthood ? 
 
" The greatest Saints avoided the society of men, when they 
 could conveniently, and did rather choose to live to God in secret. 
 
 " In silence and in stillness a religious soul advantageth herself, 
 and leameth the mysteries of Holy Scripture. 
 
 " There she findeth rivers of tears, wherein she may every night 
 wash and cleanse herself; that she may be so much the more 
 familiar with her Creator, by liow much the farther oflf she liveth 
 from all worldly disquiet." 
 
 T. A'Kempis. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THEIR EXISTENCE FROM AN EARLY CHRISTIAN AGE TO 
 
 A.D. 700; THEIR SUBSEQUENT CONNEXION WITH THE 
 
 INSTITUTION OF CORPUS CHRISTI DAY. 
 
 Such may have been the origin of the 
 Calendars of All Hallowen Church. It would 
 be an endless work to attempt to trace out 
 their actual rise, or follow closely their pro- 
 gress, as a religious brotherhood, through 
 several centuries. Still, though we lose sight 
 of them for so long a period, and possess no 
 actual data from which to glean probabilities, 
 or on which to fasten facts ; yet we may not 
 thence conclude that they are but of com- 
 paratively modern date, or that they exercised 
 no influence in the dissemination of catholic 
 truths, or that no historical connexion between 
 them and the first establishment of Christianity 
 
30 THEIR EXISTENCE FROM 
 
 in our British isles, not to say even with the 
 ancient Calendag, is discoverable ; for if during 
 the disturbed times of the wars between Saxons 
 and Britons, the incursions of Pict and Scot, 
 or the invasions of those blood-thirsty Danes, 
 who " came down like a flood" on the lands 
 and houses of sainted men and holy com- 
 munities,* our Calendars, like many other 
 religious fraternities, were compelled for safety 
 to worship their crucified Eedeemer in the 
 heart of some black forest, in the clefts of 
 some otherwise unvisited rock, or on the 
 margin of some secret stream : if their history, 
 because at such a time impossible to be recorded 
 by earthly pen, or because they were them- 
 selves loath to rush into the temptation of the 
 world's applause, is unknown to us, surely it 
 
 * " Priests were every where massacred at the altars ; and pre- 
 "lates with their flocks, all respect to honour heing set at 
 "naught, were swept away hy fire and sword, without any to 
 "give hurial to their mangled corpses." 
 
 Venebable Bede. 
 
AN EARLY CHRISTIAN AGE. 31 
 
 would be unfair to infer that they did not 
 exist as brethren of the holy Catholic Church, 
 as a recognized portion of the Communion 
 of Saints. 
 
 There are few bodies of "religious," as 
 indeed there are few individual Saints, in 
 whose lives, as it has been truly observed,^ we 
 do not find some such unhistorical interval 
 as this : and if it make no show on the pages 
 of history, it may have yet been the most 
 momentous period of their existence, the seed 
 time of the Church, the springing germ of 
 a holier growth : whether that unrecorded 
 interval has been spent in ascetic retirement, 
 or outward conflict, it has often been the 
 season of probation, " the Vigil of their 
 Christian Knighthood, on which their whole 
 future depended." Thus S. Paul abode in 
 silence in Arabia : but was his time there 
 
 * Lives of English Saints. 
 
32 THEIR EXISTENCE FROM 
 
 wasted? Thus (to look higher still) our 
 Blessed Lord Himself, from the time of His 
 disputing with thie doctors, to His baptism 
 by S. John, spent a silent (was it not a 
 holy ?) interval of eighteen years : it was an 
 interval in which He was occupied about His 
 Father's business. So may it have been with 
 the Calendars : because their life was hidden, 
 was it, forsooth, no life ? Nay, was it not a 
 more real and vigorous life for being '' hid 
 with Christ in God ?" Mav not this interval 
 in their history be compared to the torrent 
 that bursts forth from some mountain height, 
 lashes the rude cliffs in grandest majesty, 
 tumbles into the dark valley beneath, and then 
 for many a furlong fathom-deep pursues, 
 under the earth's sod, its own course unseen, 
 unknown, (yet all the time being filtered from 
 former pollutions) till in calm majestic course 
 we find it again rolling peacefully along, 
 hastening to mingle its tributary waters with 
 
AN EARLY CHRISTIAN AGE. 33 
 
 the ocean; and that so in like manner these 
 brethren, springing from that rock on which 
 Christ has built His Church, may have 
 appeared in solemn magnificence in an early 
 Christian age, and then overpowered, buried 
 as it were, beneath the world's weight from the 
 eyes of other men, and their tones of solemn 
 services drowned by the unhallowed, uncon- 
 genial, and louder din of war, persecution, 
 chivalry, and merchandize, may have remained 
 unknown, it may have been, therefore, the 
 more pure, till gentler times encouraged them 
 to come forth from their rude grottoes, rustic 
 altars, and hallowed caverns, to find a peaceful 
 settlement in some suitable town or village. 
 This conjecture gains importance not only 
 from their name, but also from the admitted 
 fact that never is reference made to them by 
 historians, without some positive allusion to 
 the antiquity of their order. However vague 
 may be the account of their rites, habits, and 
 
 E 
 
34 THEIR EXISTENCE FROM 
 
 regulations, those who have mentioned them, 
 agree in the fact that they were of very ancient 
 origin. Leland (a good authority to be quoted 
 on this subject) says in his Itinerary, "The 
 Calendars, otherwise caullid the Gilde, or 
 Fraternitie of Brightstowe was fyrste kepte 
 in the Church of the Trinitie, sens at All- 
 Hallows, the original of it is owt of mynder 
 He speaks also of its existing at Holy Trinity 
 in the time of Aylward Meau and Bristric 
 his sunne, lords of Brightstowe, afore the 
 Conquest^ The Pope's legate. Cardinal 
 Gualo, immediately after the coronation of 
 Henry IH, at Gloucester, visited their house, 
 approved its rules, spoke in high terms of 
 the excellency of its order, the good dis- 
 cipline exercised by its members, and their 
 individual conduct, not omitting to mention 
 in special terms the antiquity of their origin, 
 William de Worcestre, a credible authority, 
 inasmuch as his own uncle was a Calendar 
 
AN EARLY CHRISTIAN AGE. 35 
 
 Presbyter, speaks of their foundation as " of 
 old, a long time before the conquest of 
 William the Conqueror." (" Collegium le 
 
 Kalenders ab antiquo fundatum 
 
 diu ante eonquestum Willelmi Conquestoris; ") 
 and he further tells us that he saw and 
 read letters certificatory (of their antiquity) 
 in the time of S. Wolstan the Bishop, and 
 those letters written in a hand, even then 
 accounted ancient, (antiqua manu.) Topo- 
 graphers and other antiquaries referring to 
 the Calendars have usually termed them a 
 "Fraternity," not knowing, in consequence 
 of their very early origin, whether they could 
 be justly termed a priory or not ; and Mr. 
 Evans, in his History of Bristol, expresses 
 his conviction that theirs was one of the most 
 ancient establishments of the British kingdom. 
 Losing, however, as we necessarily must, all 
 account of this brotherhood for several cen- 
 turies it is at least satisfactory to find a notice 
 E 2 
 
36 CONNEXION WITH THE INSTITUTION 
 
 of their existence (though that is all) about 
 the year of our Redemption 700. They were 
 subsequently recognised as a fraternity closely 
 connected with the establishment of the fes- 
 tival of Corpus Christi. But their origin 
 was surely antecedent to the institution of 
 this feast : they may have allowed their 
 name to be in some sort identified with it 
 out of compliment to Urban IV., or because 
 great privileges were granted on that day, 
 of the benefit of which they were glad to 
 avail themselves, or because they may have 
 taken a leading part in those rude symbolical 
 plays which represented detached subjects 
 extending from the creation to the final 
 judgment. Be the cause what it may, the con- 
 nexion of the Calendars' name with the festival 
 of Corpus Christi^ does not affect their greater 
 
 * The following entry (certainly affording no proof of the 
 priests' intemperance} is to be found in the minute book belonging 
 to All Saints Church : — 
 
 " Itm yn wyne to ye prestys on corp- x day //? — Item in wine 
 to the pi-iests on Corpus Christi day 2d 1 
 
OF CORPUS CHRISTI DAY. 37 
 
 antiquity ; it merely proves them to have been 
 at the time of its first institution a recognized 
 Christian body, consisting principally of 
 presbyters. On the festival above mentioned, 
 the trades in the several cities attended the 
 procession, in which was carried the pix, or 
 chrystal box* inclosing the Host, and as the 
 Calendars held from other causes frequent 
 intercourse with the trades^ it is reasonable to 
 suppose that in course of time their origin 
 may have been viewed as cotemporary with 
 the institution of processions and pardons on 
 Corpus Christi day. 
 
 This observance was kept up with great 
 solemnity and grandeur, through many 
 generations, until it was found that the 
 
 * A curious bequest is mentioned in Drakard's Stamford of 
 William Bruges, who bequeathed " a solempnitie of aray for the 
 fest of Corpus Christi." This " solempnitie " was a richly wrought 
 pix or shrine, to be borne between the Deacon and Sub-deacon. 
 To the church of All-Hallowen was likewise given by Roger 
 Gurdeler " a pix, wherein the blessed Sacrament is borne irt 
 Tisitacions, with the cupp and spone, all silver and gylt.," 
 
 E 3 
 
38 CONNEXION WITH THE INSTITUTION 
 
 expense incurred for luxuries and processional 
 display was unbecoming and ill suited to a 
 religious brotherhood. In the reign of 
 Edward IV. the following entry was made 
 among the constitutions and ordinances of 
 the vicar and parishoners of Allhallowen, 
 Bristol, (a similar one must have been made 
 in the book of ^^ the brothers " for their more 
 extensive extravagance on these occasions, 
 and that book was destroyed by the fire, or 
 " aliened " when the " styple was pyght 
 down.") " Item — Wheras yt hath ben yerly 
 usyd afor ys tyme that on Corpus Christi 
 day on ye Churche coste ye Procutors to 
 geve a dyner unto ye Vycar and to ye 
 Preestys and to ye Clerkys yt ys nowe agreed 
 and ordeynyd yt fro hens forward ye dyner 
 to be lefte," &c., &c. 
 
 There does not appear to be any good 
 authority for ascribing their rise to a period 
 coetaneous with the institution of the festival 
 
OF CORPUS CHRISTI DAY. 39 
 
 of Corpus Christi ; for had they appeared 
 then for the first time, had Urban IV. been 
 their founder, we should not have to encounter 
 the difficulties to which we are now subjected. 
 The conclusion at which we may safely arrive 
 is this : the Calendars were amongst the first 
 Christian brotherhoods existing in England in 
 the times of our Saxon forefathers, tracing 
 their origin to a Christianized heathen custom 
 of religion, and though like many other 
 religious bodies injured, scattered, obscured, 
 yet reappearing and recognized in the year 
 of Grace 700. 
 
 Our next enquiry is, — where, when, and 
 under what circumstances, do we meet with 
 them in Bristol. 
 
« My God, where is that ancient heat towards Thee, 
 " Wherewith whole shoals of martyrs once did bum, 
 " Besides their other flames ?" 
 
 HERBERT. 
 
 « And as I passid in my priere ther prestis were at messe 
 
 « In a blessid borugh that Bristow is named, 
 
 " In a temple of the Trinite, the toune even amyddis, 
 
 « That Christis Churche is cleped among the comune peple." 
 
 FROM A POEM OX THE DEPOSITION OP RICHARD II. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE STATE OF BRISTOL AND THE HABITS OF THE 
 CITIZENS WHILE THE CALENDARS WERE LOCATED 
 
 AT HOLY TRINITY. THE BROTHERS WELL SUITED FOR 
 
 THE SITUATION, AND THE SITUATION FOR THEM. 
 
 Once even to a proverb, not only a "city 
 of churches," but a " blessid borugh, " 
 Bristol is now a city of tall chimnies, sunless 
 avenues, gaudy shops, massive warehouses, 
 huge factories, an overgrown population, 
 without room or sufficient opportunity for 
 public worship, and, which is worse than 
 all, guilty as a mass of immortal beings, 
 almost beyond other towns, of " the sacrilege 
 of schism." How then can they, who are in 
 any way partakers of this sin, be capable of 
 realizing in themselves the habits and feelings 
 prevalent among Bristol citizens, in the times 
 
42 STATE OF BRISTOL WHILE THE 
 
 to which we are about to refer ? To leave, for 
 any novelty whatever, the ordinances of the 
 church, apostolic in origin, and approved by 
 the unanimous voice of catholic centuries, was 
 with them as deep and indelible a disgrace, 
 as they justly felt it would be an injury to 
 their souls : to regard their apprentices or 
 other domestics in any light but that of 
 members of their own families, for whose 
 eternal, not less than their temporal, well- 
 being they were greatly responsible, was a 
 crime at which their Christian sense of right 
 and wrong, of reciprocal obligation, would 
 have shuddered ; to omit voluntarily matins 
 and even-song, if not the observance of the 
 other canonical hours at their parish church, 
 though this never caused the omission of 
 private or family prayer, was not only in their 
 sight a grievous sin against God and their 
 conscience, but a serious and almost unpar- 
 donable interruption of their domestic order : 
 
CALENDARS WERE AT HOLY TRINITY. 43 
 
 to be deprived, except through stringent 
 necessity, of the daily* refreshment vouchsafed 
 in the Blessed Eucharist was far worse than 
 being robbed of their material daily bread, — in 
 short their home was no happy home to them 
 unless there was continual church-going : and 
 to pass by a festival without enjoying the 
 church's high offices, without ringing of bells, 
 closing of shops, suspension of secular 
 business, &c., &c., the honest sport of 
 wrestling or leaping in the Broad or Lewin's 
 green mead, the lively, yet modest dance on 
 the fair grounds, adjoining the Priory of S. 
 James, in fact making it a thorough Christian 
 holiday, in honor of those whose ''virtuous 
 
 * Archbishop Cranmer, that zealous promoter of the Reformation, 
 speaking of the Holy Communion says—" Our Saviour Christ 
 Jesus to comend this His Sacrifice unto al His faithful people, 
 and to confirm their faith and hope of etemall salvation in the 
 same, hath ordeigned a perpetual memory of His said Sacrifice, 
 daily to be used in the Church to His perpetual laud and praise, and 
 to our singular comfort and cosolation." — Preface to " A Defence 
 of the true and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body 
 and Bloud of Christ. 1550." 
 
44 STATE OF BRISTOL WHILE THE 
 
 and godly living "* all good men would 
 follow, was with them a sin which weeks and 
 weeks of penitential tears could not have 
 washed away. The services of the church 
 were then not only a part of the nation, they 
 were even embodied in every household, they 
 were necessary and hallowing portions of the 
 family arrangements, and essential ingredients 
 in every individual's business and happiness. 
 There was doubtless much of superstition, even 
 sin in some of their services, but with this we 
 have nothing to do ; the Christian citizens of 
 Bristol were then thoroughly sincere observers 
 of what they were taught the church of 
 Christ required. But we write when different 
 feelings pervade the great mass of our fellow- 
 townsmen : and these arise, we would believe, 
 not from any indisposition in them to honor 
 catholic, (we do not mean popish) usages to 
 receive catholic truths, or honestly to enjoy 
 
 * Collect for All Saints Day. 
 
CALENDARS WERE AT HOLY TRINITY. 45 
 
 catholic privileges, but from an hereditary 
 disease; a sickly heritage derived from few 
 generations ! thankful, but humbled should 
 we be, that a healthier disposition seems to be 
 coming upon us, a regaining of our long-lost, 
 but justly due rights. Let us then for awhile 
 carry our minds a few centuries back, when in 
 our own loyal and ancient city Bristol, the 
 Calendars found a home, and a centre of 
 usefulness radiating into a very wide circum- 
 ference, at the Church of Holy Trinity. That 
 church is now removed ; or rather the deep 
 and speaking reminiscences of earlier times, 
 the language of stone, the cruciform area, 
 reminding the bending penitent of Him Who 
 died for him; the uni-triple approach to the 
 holiest, and the three-united aisles suggesting 
 even to a casual worshipper thoughts of the 
 Blessed Trinity; all these have now passed 
 away, and made room for a modern church of 
 the unmeaning, unspeaking style of Sir 
 
 F 
 
46 STATE OF BRISTOL WHILE THE 
 
 Christopher Wren; and with them conse- 
 quently the records they bore of those devout 
 men who once worshipped there, once found 
 a laborious but happy home, day and night, 
 within its sacred precincts, are vanished. But 
 though stones are gone, and carved memorials 
 have been pillaged, shall we neglect to honor 
 that fervent spirit which so warmly glowed in 
 Ella's breast, that forgetful of all earthly ties, 
 and his own comforts, even needs, the noble 
 Saxon so richly endowed that temple ? Nay, 
 we will not even pass by Aleric Sneaw,^ with 
 his warm heart and his rough hands, — who at 
 his sole expense, and joint-labour, so cheer- 
 fully raised the lofty spire; those aisles and 
 that spire are now gone, even the stone statue, 
 that would have perpetuated, so long as stone 
 
 * This is, perhaps, the same individual who is sometimes desig- 
 nated "Brictric Sneaw," over whose history hangs so much of 
 romantic melancholy ; for the particulars of the incident alluded to 
 we refer to the account given by " The Church- Goer," Cp. 38, n.,) 
 on the authority of Agnes Strickland. 
 
CALENDARS WERE AT HOLY TRINITY. 47 
 
 could last, pious Ella's memory, was doomed 
 to be walled up for many years, and at the 
 demolition of the old church was compelled 
 to forego his stationary character and migrate 
 to an unknown dwelling. Why, if still in 
 existence, should he not find his way back to 
 some such suitable post, — some old church 
 tower where, like Brennus and Belinus at S. 
 John's, he would awaken no one's fears or 
 wrath, but perchance kindle in the breast of a 
 Christian citizen or wayfarer, a holy emulation 
 — a desire to "go and do likewise"? "Pious" 
 thieves (to whom indeed we would acknow- 
 ledge obligations for preserving what ruder 
 hands may have destroyed) have surely 
 opportunities enough of restoring to some 
 niches in our churches the once honoured 
 effigies of earlier times. 
 
 Christ Church, as the church of Holy 
 Trinity is now called, is still an object to be 
 loved, to be rejoiced over, though there are no 
 f2 
 
48 STATE OF BRISTOL WHILE THE 
 
 chimes hymning to the good folks of Broad 
 and Wine Streets, as heretofore they did six 
 times a day, and no funny quarter-boys with 
 hammer in hand prepared for their busy 
 work ; we should love her, however, for that 
 she is a temple of the Great God; and we 
 should rejoice in her for that she stands on 
 ground which has been consecrated nearly 
 ever since Bristol has existed a city; and 
 while two of her sister churches, S. Ewen and 
 S. Andrew, have been rifled of their treasures, 
 levelled with the ground, and their holy earth 
 by impious hands desecrated to worldly 
 purposes, she still, (though in altered form) 
 remains as the casket of rich jewels, the 
 shrine of honoured dust, the guardian of 
 costly treasures; she still re-echoes (though 
 at distant intervals) the soft voice of prayer 
 and praise which ceaselessly reverberated 
 through her ancient aisles, she even yet guards 
 the remains of those who lived and died 
 
CALENDARS WERE AT HOLY TRINITY. 49 
 
 Christ-like, some peaceful laborious Calendars, 
 those men of unmurmuring affliction, of per- 
 severing self-denial, of unobtrusive devotion, 
 of sleepless v^atchfulness, of quiet holiness. 
 
 While the Blessed Spirit is one and the 
 same, diverse are Its operations; and conse- 
 quently devoted men in the church have 
 laboured in various ways, and amid various 
 scenes to do the same work, their Master's 
 will : some among rudest rocks and wildest 
 scenery, others in courtly houses, baronial 
 halls, or even on warlike fields ; some in the 
 distant lonely cell, others in the crowded, but 
 silent convent ; some in the depths of solitude 
 with no earthly companions but birds and 
 reptiles, and others in busy cities amidst the 
 uproar of the noisy mart : yet though various 
 their field of labour, all the faithful were and 
 are members of one body, having one para- 
 mount object in view : and so while some 
 simple-hearted men were content to dwell in 
 F 3 
 
50 THEY WELL SUITED FOR THEIR SITUATION, 
 
 damp out-of-the-way dells, (afterwards trans- 
 formed into rich abbey lands, through their 
 own continued untiring labours) of whom we 
 read* ''nothing was heard except that day 
 and night went their bells, first the bell for 
 matins, then the great bell tolling out for the 
 lay brethren to get up, and all day long for 
 the hours, and for vespers in the evening, and 
 for compline at night-fall : of whom nobody 
 knew how they lived, except that their white 
 habits were seen in the fields as they worked " 
 in silence, and that they never begged : while 
 these strove in their vocation truly and godly 
 to serve their Master, the less romantic, but 
 not less laborious lot of others, as of our 
 Calendars, was cast in crowded towns, there to 
 soften by example and rebuke the stern nature 
 of mercantile man,- — to call him by their 
 frequent bell from a too-engrossing world to 
 
 * Life of St. Stephen. 
 
AND THE SITUATION FOR THEM. 51 
 
 the spirit-calming work of prayer and praise, 
 — to lead his thoughts, yea, even in the 
 midst of traffic and civic duties, heaven- vizard, 
 — to catechize and instruct his children, — to 
 pay constant visits of mercy, — to receive and 
 entertain poor pilgrims, or other strangers, — 
 to check the growth of heresy, and to make 
 proselytes to the cross, for the Calendars 
 held it one of their chief objects to teach 
 Jews, so much so, that they not only 
 personally laboured among them, but founded 
 schools for their training. That conventual 
 institutions, like every thing else on earth, 
 should deteriorate by time, — that Wealth 
 should introduce into them I^uxury, — that 
 Dignity and Honor should engender Pride, 
 and that Power should render them regardless 
 of earthly consequences, is nothing different 
 from what we may at any time discover in 
 every institution, be it ancient or modern, 
 secular or religious : that the existence of 
 
52 THEY WELL SUITED FOR THEIR SITUATION, 
 
 such abuses justified their total abolition is, 
 at least, very doubtful; this question how- 
 ever, as it forms no part of our present 
 enquiry, is gladly dismissed. We have 
 alluded to hard-working monks and rich 
 abbey lands ; one observation on this matter 
 seems to be required : we are apt to imagine, 
 when noticing the luxuriant domains in which 
 abbeys or monastic ruins now stand, that the 
 monks, with a quick and greedy eye to their 
 personal interests, selected for themselves the 
 most sheltered and fertile spots : the contrary 
 however appears to have been the case : 
 wild, far away, rocky, or swampy lands were 
 the objects of their choice ; and if these in 
 after times, from steady labour, persevered in 
 year after year, continued even through cen- 
 turies, changed their ruggedness into culture, 
 their wildness into regular luxuriance, and 
 their barrenness into fertility, sorrow take 
 that narrow mind which would attribute the 
 
AND THE SITUATION FOR THEM. 53 
 
 change to other than its rightful cause -, the 
 unremitted labours of patient monks softened 
 the hard clod, broke the obstinate gravelly 
 plain, freed the entangled wilderness, and 
 their continual prayers brought down upon 
 it all the enriching dews of heaven. Hear 
 Wordsworth, 
 
 " Who with the plough-share clove the barren moors ? 
 " And to green meadows changed the swampy shores ? 
 " Thinned the rank woods ; and for the cheerful grange 
 " Made room, where wolf and hoar were used to range ? 
 " Who taught, and showed by deeds, that gentler chains 
 " Should hind the vassal to his lord's domains ? 
 « The thoughtful monks, intent their God to please." 
 
 Unlike these, the sphere of duty marked 
 out for our Calendars lay within the city 
 gates : in the very centre of trade and bustle 
 these peaceful, unmurmuring men abode. It 
 does not appear whether this locality was 
 appointed for them by their spiritual superior, 
 whose word they would follow with readiness 
 
54 THEY WELL SUITED FOR THEIR SITUATION, 
 
 and entire submission,* or whether they fixed 
 upon it for themselves ; under either circum- 
 stance the church of Holy Trinity, or rather a 
 building, with its library, dormitory, and 
 refectory, attached to the church and commu- 
 nicating with it, and afterwards one near it, 
 namely, Al-hallowen Church, were the places 
 fixed upon for their residence during several 
 centuries. Nor as a religious body could they 
 well have chosen a fitter position : here the 
 influence of holy example was most required, 
 for it was the most crowded and busy, as it 
 was the most worldly and thoughtless part of 
 the neighbourhood, yet even here in the midst 
 of shops and stalls, surrounded by merchants, f | 
 petty tradesmen, and speculators, the devout 
 
 * " Uavreg t& liriaKoirCi aKo\ovBtl.TB 0*5 'Iritrovq X/oierrog rw 
 Har/oi." 
 
 8. IGNATIUS. 
 
 Vossius on this passage says, 
 
 " Nemini mirum videri debet, si et hie et alibi tatitam auctori- 
 tatem Episcobis et Presbyteris adtribuit Ignatius ; non aliter de 
 jllis loquitur Polycarpus." 
 
AND THE SITUATION FOR THEM. 65 
 
 mind, accustomed to see God every where, 
 could find ample food for the exercise of holy 
 meditation. Four Christian temples formed 
 the angles of a square, and the Holy Cross 
 rose in deser\'ed dignity in the centre; as 
 though they would remind the contemplative 
 soul of the five wounds that rent our 
 Redeemer's body — the pierced hands and 
 feet, and the central heart. They, doubtless, 
 chose the city (if the choice was submitted 
 to them) because there they would be called 
 to labour most for their Master; they could 
 not, if they would, have been magnificent, 
 as their brethren of the Abbey of S. Augus- 
 tine ; or rich, as those of the Priory of S. 
 James ; or stately, as the neighbouring 
 Knight Templars, with their chain mail, 
 snowy vest, and red cross ; or even uninter- 
 rupted, as the minor preachers; for all these 
 dwelt outside the citv walls, bevond the 
 angry noise and ceaseless excitement of 
 
66 THEY WELL SUITED FOR THEIR SITUATION, 
 
 traders and dealers, and all of them, if we 
 except the last-mentioned, had extensive and 
 embattled houses for secure rest, and peace- 
 ful fields for holy meditation, while the poor 
 Calendars were content, nay, counted it all 
 honor to labour where personal ease was 
 most taxed, but where heavenly cultivation 
 was most needed. And they were monks ; 
 and because they were monks the modern 
 English reader may account them nothing 
 worth; and deem all they did, however 
 praiseworthy, as useless and evil : but surely 
 this is unjust : quaint, irregular, and wrong 
 we pronounce some of their habits to have 
 t)een, and so will our habits appear in the 
 eyes of future generations, but they may not 
 be really the more blameable on that account. 
 Well has it been observed that "it is the 
 vulgar fashion of the present day to abuse 
 the unfortunate monks, and to charge their 
 memory with every species of calumny. 
 
AND THE SITUATION FOR THEM. 57 
 
 But let US remember that such charges arise, 
 in the first instance, from those who benefitted 
 by their spoils, and who had therefore a 
 positive interest in disparaging them, — from 
 men whose sins were of a seven-fold deeper 
 die than were the sins of those whom they 
 first reviled and then plundered .... 
 When we calmly reflect on the unfeigned 
 piety of the great majority of those men, 
 "who departed not from the temple, but 
 served God with fastings and prayers night 
 and day," — ^ their assiduous cultivation of 
 learning, — their diligence in keeping their 
 registries and chronicles, and transcribing 
 their manuscripts, a great part of which 
 we have wantonly destroyed ; — their charity 
 to the poor; their disinterested hospitality 
 to strangers ; their liberal encouragement 
 of education, architecture, and horticul- 
 ture ; their transmission to us of our 
 Bible uncorrupted ; and, finally, when we 
 
 G 
 
58 THEY WELL SUITED FOR THEIR SITUATION. 
 
 contrast with all this the profane use that 
 has since been made of the funds solemnly 
 bequeathed for the most holy purposes, we 
 shall be forced to admit that the sin of 
 sacrilege has entered our vitals ; and that 
 if a reformation was necessary in the 
 sixteenth century, a more searching one is 
 required for the nineteenth." (From Kev. 
 C. J. Lyon's History of St. Andrew's, 
 Edinburgh.) 
 
g2 
 
" O ye swelling hills and spacious plains ! 
 " Besprent from shore to shore with steeple towers, 
 " And spires, whose silent finger points to Heaven ; 
 
 * * * " May ne'er 
 
 " That true succession fail of English hearts, 
 " Who, with ancestral feeling, can perceive 
 " What in those holy structures ye possess ! " 
 
 wordsworth. 
 
 (the excursion.)' 
 
CHAPTEK V. 
 
 VICINITY OF THE " HOLT CROSS." SIR JOHN DE RIPARIIS. 
 
 Existing records there are none of how these 
 brothers spent their time while their residence 
 was where Christ Church now stands : but for 
 themselves, so far as we can judge, they 
 needed no earthly memorials, they sought 
 none, they wished for none : all they 
 longed for was, that labouring for Christ their 
 ^^ record may be on high :" no illuminated 
 manuscript, with its purple and gold ; no 
 mysteriously discovered roll (miraculously 
 preserved from amongst forgotten Ella's shri- 
 velled parchments) bears witness to their 
 labours night and day; their "witness is in 
 heaven." How they lived, how they fasted, 
 how they watched, how they prayed, how 
 g3 
 
62 VICINITY OF THE "HOLY CROSS." 
 
 they subdued self, how they laboured among 
 their fellow-citizens at the period referred to, 
 is untold. This we know, that for many and 
 many a long year, in contented poverty, with 
 scanty fare, and midst laborious watchings, 
 they strove to fulfill their duty in that state of 
 life unto which they had been called. They 
 had reason to be happy in the spot chosen 
 for their priory, from several causes : an air, 
 or outward semblance, of religion, which true 
 Christians may make real, pervaded the city 
 itself; and beyond it, they could not look 
 from their own tower, or clamber up to the 
 shrine of S. Brandon (the hill itself reminding 
 them of their crucified Lord*) without seeing 
 the whole face of the country from so far as 
 the eye could reach, down to the Frome 
 that lazily flowed by their city walls, thickly 
 
 * WiUelmus Botoner, alias, WiUiam de Worcestre, whose uncle 
 was one of the Calendar brethren, speaking of Brandon HiU, says 
 "Dictus mons est similis monti Calvarise prope Jerusalem "—the 
 gaid hill is like the hill of Calvary near to Jerusalem. 
 
VICINITY OF THE " HOLY CROSS." 63 
 
 studded with abbeys, priories, churches, 
 oratories, granges, all, places mediately or 
 immediately, set apart for God's glory. Need 
 we wonder that the county of Gloucester 
 should have been conspicuous (would that it 
 still retained its former character!) amongst 
 other counties for its Christian pre-eminence ? 
 Need we wonder that a proverb should have 
 sprung up and grown, and that men wishing 
 to give stability to the truth of an assertion, 
 should have used the saying, " As sure as 
 God is in Gloucestershire ?'' Some traces of 
 what the character of the vicinity about the 
 Holy Cross was, in the times of the Calendars, 
 may still be found, and some idea foniied 
 respecting it. In many particulars, as is 
 naturally to be expected, it is very different 
 from what it was. A modern dweller in that 
 locality would perhaps smile at the thought 
 of gardens and fields in the Pithay where 
 now narrow, dark, and filthy lanes and courts 
 
64 VICINITY OF THE *' HOLY CROSS." 
 
 abound. He may think that now there would 
 be a far more fitting occasion for the colli- 
 strigium or "neck-stretcher" which once stood 
 in Wine Street (then in allusion to this instru- 
 ment of torture called Wynche Street.*) He 
 may think (and with some show of reason) 
 that such punishment would be far more 
 serviceable to the unchaste and the drunkard 
 of these days, than to the poor delinquent 
 baker who so often suffered from it in former 
 times ; or he may perchance sigh at the 
 retrospection, and long for the return of days 
 gone by, when he is told that places now many 
 of them the notorious haunts of dissipation, 
 the awful abodes of shameless, yet withal, 
 skulking, reprobates were once open healthy 
 gardens, the lingering places of artless inno- 
 cence, the recreation fields of godly house- 
 
 * "Wynche Stbbte.— Harry Snellard gave to S"" Wyllm (Mooche) 
 Vycar of ye seyde Churche (of AH hallows) and to hs assygnes 1 
 howse yn wynche strete .... God hare incy on hs sowle." From 
 the " General Mynde." 
 
VICINITY OF THE "HOLY CROSS." 65 
 
 holds, while the few residences which were 
 near, were those of respectable, even aristo- 
 cratic families. Sad are the ravages of time, 
 but saddest when they change innocence into 
 guilt. Let any one now pass through those 
 lanes, the abodes, for the most part, of Sin 
 and Misery, and hardly will he be able to 
 familiarize to his mind the fact that merry 
 rosy-cheeked children, and cheerful youths, 
 and sedate elders once sauntered there in neat 
 gardens, labyrinthine slopes, and shady walks 
 — ^yet, such was the case — nor have many years 
 passed away since the time when these may 
 have been seen there : even so late as 1608 
 (though then, compared with earlier days, 
 much disfigured) there were in the Pithay 
 at least eight* gardens, with "lodges and 
 penthouses." The existence of lodges and 
 penthouses would imply that the gardens 
 
 * Feoffment of Ralph Hurle, and others, to new trustees, 
 dated 20th July, 6th of James, (1608.) 
 
66 VICINITY OF THE "HOLY CROSS." 
 
 were of considerable extent, and frequented 
 by the citizens as pleasure grounds, for 
 penthouses were principally erected where 
 there were "ambulatories," or public walks. 
 Until about a century prior to this date nearly 
 the whole of the Pithay was garden or pasture 
 ground ; it was not till the close of the reign 
 of Edward IV., a.d. 1482, when this ground 
 was sold to Richard, Duke of Gloucester, 
 and others, that the face of the locality lost, 
 so to speak, its rural character; and even 
 then it was not sacrificed, as now, to the 
 formation of close lanes and sunless courts, 
 but merely divided into compartments, with 
 two, or at most three, tenements erected on 
 them ; so late as a century after, as mentioned 
 above, there were eight gardens. It seemed 
 necessary so far to describe the state of that 
 part of our city which lay behind the church 
 of Holy Trinity, for on it often rested the 
 wakeful eyes of the Calendar brethren as, at 
 
VICINITY OF THE "HOLY CROSS." 67 
 
 early dawn, or closing eve, or when they 
 prevented the night watches, they mused 
 and prayed. Here often during the interval 
 (long on winter mornings) between lauds 
 and matins, ere yet the slumbering world 
 awoke, would they find that paradise which 
 wealthier convents supplied in the cloister, 
 for shutting themselves out from things 
 temporal, "gathering," as says S. Bernard, 
 "their souls up into themselves," and con- 
 templating God. Besides which, some de- 
 scription is necessary to give us an insight 
 into the topographical character of the town. 
 Easily too on other sides of their abode, 
 from the battlements of their church, or from 
 the roof of their own dwelling, or from the 
 deeply recessed windows of their dormitory 
 may the eye have rested, not, as now, on 
 nought but blackened bricks and tiles, but 
 on the soft green of earth and the tranquil 
 blue of heaven. Eastward lay the gardens 
 
68 VICINITY OF THE ^^ HOLY CROSS." 
 
 to which we have alluded, — southward, the 
 Templars' dwelling and church of the Holy 
 Kood, resting against rising fields and the 
 azure hills of Somersetshire, — westward, the 
 Abbey Church^ and domain of S. Augustine, 
 — and northward, the Priory of S. James, 
 with its own fair grounds, dotted, as they 
 constantly were, with labouring or meditating 
 monks, several plots of open land, belonging 
 to neighbouring barons, fertilized by con- 
 tented serfs and master-loving villaines, the 
 farm of the mendicant friars, the grange 
 of the minor brothers, f and Lewin's Mead : 
 Lewin's Mead ! this very name again awakens 
 
 * This is said, on the supposition that they were not removed 
 from Christ Church till after the erection of the Abhey of S. 
 Augustine, &c., a supposition not altogether without foundation ; 
 their prospect, prior to the erection of the above religious houses, 
 extended over open pasture lands. 
 
 f Some works (black letter; with curious emblematical title page 
 and conclusion, are still preserved at All Saints' Church, and are 
 in excellent condition. One of the authors was « Sacri ordinis 
 fratrum predicatorQ j " and another, "Sacre theologie professor 
 ^;umii ordinis fratrum minorum." 
 
VICINITY OF THE '^ HOLY CROSS." 69 
 
 a host of painful feelings. How altered from 
 what it once was ! It is sickening and 
 harrowing to reflect on what it now is in 
 comparison of the time when silent brethren, 
 absorbed in prayer, lingered in its peaceful 
 scenes — the misty gray of dawn, the scorch- 
 ing sun of noon, and the foggy chills 
 of nightfall descended there on the white and 
 gray friar muttering his psalter as he worked 
 in his fields for his daily bread, (for the produce 
 of these gardens was his principal source of 
 sustenance) : there too gambolled blythe child- 
 hood, and there the homely citizen enjoyed his 
 old English sport, while the free-hearted noble- 
 man, part of whose property lay there, did 
 not deem his escutcheon disgraced by enter- 
 ing the lists with his humbler neighbours. 
 That portion of these grounds which was 
 not the rightful property of the Church, 
 mostly belonged, as it seems, to one '^ Sir 
 John de Kipariis," alias, " Sir John de la 
 
 H 
 
70 SIR JOHN DE RIPARIIS. 
 
 Eiver, " afterwards " Lord of Tomerton." 
 With no jaundiced eye, however, did he 
 look on the Church's patrimony adjoining 
 his own, too heavy a debt he owed her for 
 his Holy Baptism, for the living food of 
 the oft-received Eucharist, and the thousand 
 other blessings she had bestowed on him 
 ever to covet what she possessed : nor was 
 he content with mere verbal expressions of 
 gratitude, he was anxious to show it in his 
 deeds ; an opportunity was not long wanting : 
 so that soon was seen springing up on the 
 goodly lands of Tormarton a Christian 
 temple, and in it a costly little chantry, 
 dedicated to God in the name of the Blessed 
 Virgin. In that church rest his remains ; 
 the spot marked and guarded by an altar 
 tomb, whereon his effigy reclines, — and in 
 his hand — what ? — a sword to show his 
 prowess ? a scroll recording his valiant 
 deeds ? a list of the services he had rendered 
 
 ii 
 
 fl 
 
SIR JOHN DE RIPARIIS. 71 
 
 his prince and country ? no ; a memorial of 
 that which in his lifetime was his dearest 
 object, and, doubtless, a happy reflection on 
 his dying bed; a model of the church he 
 had erected to the honor of his God.* 
 That Sir John ever resided in Lewin's Mead 
 we cannot say ; (a Lord of Tormarton now 
 may well shudder at the idea.) It is quite 
 certain that he had not only lands there, 
 but lands " with buildings " on them : and 
 that this may have been his residence till 
 his removal to " Tomerton " is more probable 
 than, at first sight, it may appear to be, 
 when we infer, as we justly may, that he 
 
 * Some doubt may exist whether the Sir John thus represented 
 held property in Lewin's Mead in the time when the Calendars 
 were at Christ Church. The De la Riviere family is of consider- 
 able antiquity, one of its members was high sheriff of the county 
 of Gloucester 1275, and the family was then an old one in the county. 
 The same spirit however of grateful love to the Church was heredi- 
 tary among them — the question, therefore, of which Sir John it was, 
 is of little moment. The Manor of Winsford, Somersetshire, was 
 also held by Ihem in the reign of Edward 1st, and hence obtained 
 the name of Winsford-Rivers. 
 
 h2 
 
72 SIR JOHN DE RIPARITS. 
 
 took his name from his property in Lewin's 
 Mead. Anciently men were distinguished by 
 adding their father's Christian name to their 
 own, as Owen ap Meredith ap Tudor; but 
 after the conquest, they were generally taken 
 from the place of their abode. How well 
 then does the surname of Sir John accord 
 with the character of his property in Lewin's 
 Mead, close to the foot of which, if not round 
 a considerable part of it, flowed the river 
 Frome : his land formed a steep bank on one 
 side, and a lane, (to which was given an 
 obscene designation,*) running beneath the 
 city walls, was the summit of the bank on 
 the other ; Sir John's surname " Eiparia " 
 signifies " a river between two banks :" as 
 though in English tongue he had been called 
 " Sir John of the Kiver between two banks," 
 or as the words round his seal have it, 
 
 * A similar designation was given to a lane in Oxford, and to one 
 in Coventry. 
 
SIR JOHN DE RIPARIIS. 73 
 
 "Johannes de la River." This conjecture 
 obtains corroboration from his adopting a 
 swan for his crest. 
 
 But it is time to return to our Calendars. 
 We have before stated that no earthly records 
 are to be found of what fruits their zeal and 
 self-denial and prayerful watchings bore, while 
 they found a home at Holy Trinity Church. 
 Yet who shall say that we have not quite as 
 much as they wished us to have? They 
 studied not (at least in their earlier and 
 purer days) human applause; they coveted 
 not canonization after death ; they sought not, 
 like Fame, to flit across the mouths of future 
 generations : they had trained their ambition 
 to a loftier and holier flight — it soared above 
 earth and could find no rest short of the 
 shores of heaven. 
 
 h3 
 
" So wanderers ever fond and true 
 
 Look homeward through the evening sky, 
 
 Without a streak of heaven's soft blue 
 To aid Affection's dreaming eye. 
 
 The wanderer seeks his native bower, 
 And we will look and long for Thee; 
 
 And thank Thee for each trying hour. 
 Wishing, not struggling, to be free." 
 
 CHBI8TIAN YEAB. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 REMOVAL OF THE CALENDARS FROM HOLT TRINITY TO 
 AL-HALLOWEN. 
 
 About the year 1066, when Harding, son of 
 the King of Denmark, was made Governor of 
 Bristol, we learn from Leland that the Calendar 
 brethren removed from the church of Holy 
 Trinity to that of All Hallows, or All Saints. 
 The cause of their removal forms one of the 
 most obscure portions of their history. 
 It may have been done, as has been 
 conjectured, at the solicitation of Kobert 
 Hardynge, who was a great favourite of our 
 Second Henry,* and the founder of the 
 
 • This would make the date of their removal about 100 years 
 later. Leland says it took place about the year 1066, and a 
 curious deed, preserved in the "littel Rede Boke," assigns it to 
 the reign of Henry ii. 
 
76 REMOVAL OF THE CALENDARS 
 
 Monastery of S. Augustine the Great, to 
 which he had given the church of All Saints : 
 This opinion is confirmed by one Johnne a 
 Dannburie, who was 17th Abbot of that 
 Monastery early in the 15th century, and is 
 reported to have written "An accounte of 
 Brystowe Poettes," wherein it is said that 
 " dhe Calendarres (were) remov'de bie Eobertte 
 Hardynge fromm dheyr furstte dwellynge 
 ontoe Allehalloes Chyrche." 
 
 Poor John a Dannburie (for we must give 
 him a word as we pass along) had a troublous 
 time of his own, with his wayward monks, 
 some neglecting the rules, and others resisting 
 his authority : still, during his lifetime, by 
 dint of continued forbearance, accompanied 
 with much anxiety, the abbey remained 
 comparatively quiet, and refractory brothers 
 submitted, though unwillingly, to his authority, 
 for in the midst of their growing secularity 
 and nascent rebellion they loved him. No 
 
FROM HOLY TRINITY TO AL-HALLOWEN. 77 
 
 sooner, however, was his body laid in the 
 grave (January, 1428), than the storm which 
 had been long gathering broke out with terrific 
 violence : with such fury, indeed, that the 
 rightful successor to the abbacy (known as 
 having restored and built the Manor-house of 
 Almondsbury,) was fraudulently expelled from 
 his post, and forced to surrender his chair to a 
 subtle usurper and wretched waster of the 
 goods of the monastery; — the name of this 
 unauthorized usurper is known, but oblivion 
 has buried all further reminiscences of him — 
 no other memorial of his life, and none 
 whatever of the time or place of his death, 
 are recorded ; he was justly cast out of the 
 abbey — received, as he deserved, the fulmi- 
 nations of ecclesiastical excommunication, and 
 died '' unwept, unhonoured, and unsung." It 
 must not be thought that such intrusions into 
 sacred offices, and such usurpations of 
 hierarchical privileges, were peculiar to abbeys 
 
78 EEMOVAL OF THE CALENDARS 
 
 and monasteries, and that our cathedral 
 institutions have since the Reformation been 
 exempt from them ; for even amongst our own 
 prebendaries, one, about 1560, is said to have 
 been a concealed Papist, and not long after 
 him, another, who was only a grocer in the 
 city, contrived to be numbered among them. 
 
 John a Dannburie's explanation of the 
 removal of the Calendars from one church to 
 another, if we may depend on the authenticity 
 of the record from whence it is extracted, 
 corresponds with what Leland tells us in his 
 Itinerary, that Robert Earl of Gloucester and 
 Robert Harding translated the fraternity of 
 Calendars from " Trinitie to the church of All 
 Hallows." If these concurrent testimonies 
 are to be relied on, the object of their removal 
 was, doubtless, to connect them more 
 immediately with the abbey of S. Augustine, 
 in order that the Prior of the Calendars should 
 recognize the authority and profit by the 
 
 j\ 
 
FROM HOLY TRINITY TO AL-HALLOWEN. 79 
 
 advice of the Abbot. The vicarage still 
 remaining in the patronage of the Dean and 
 Canons bears in some sort a present testimony 
 to the probability of this conjecture. It 
 should also be kept in mind, that Christ 
 Church being a rectory, and All Saints a 
 vicarage, the latter vras the more eligible for 
 these brethren, for w^here any church is a 
 vicarage it may always be presumed to have 
 belonged to some religious fraternity, so that 
 by this arrangement they may have been 
 ingrafted on some other community either 
 decayed or desirous of being intermingled 
 virith them. Though, after all, it is not impos- 
 sible, scarcely improbable, that their removal 
 may have been the occasion embraced for 
 changing an old rectory into a vicarage, instead 
 of their being settled there because it was 
 already a vicarage. In a curious old deed, 
 measuring about six inches by three, and still 
 in the date of which does not appear, being. 
 
80 REMOVAL OF THE CALENDARS 
 
 I find that money was left by, or to, the Hector 
 of All Saints for a lamp to be kept continually 
 burning before the altar of the Holy Cross ; 
 yet even this is not so far free from doubt as 
 to justify the inference that All Saints was 
 then a rectory. The bequest, however, was 
 certainly made to this church, as was also a 
 similar one under the will of Martyn Draper, 
 for a lamp to burn before the same altar; 
 another by Alice Halye (1261) before the high 
 altar ; another by Sir R. Parkhouse, for two 
 " torchys to ye Hye Awter ;" another by John 
 le Gate, to find five tapers before our Lady's 
 altar; another to find the lamp before the 
 ^'precious sacrament in the quire;*' another 
 for a "branche" of wax burning before the 
 rood ; and many others, the money for which 
 was regularly paid during many years to " the 
 Brothers of the Kalends," who were faithful 
 to their trust, taking care that day and night 
 the lamps (at least those at the high altar,) 
 
FROM HOLY TRINITY TO AL-HALLOWEN. 81 
 
 should be kept continually burning, to signify 
 God's sleepless care of His church, and the 
 need that man should ever live with his lamp 
 trimmed, ready to meet the Bridegroom. 
 
 The truest perhaps, and certainly the easiest 
 solution of the difficulty which encumbers the 
 question of their removal, is that for some 
 causes, to us unknown from the length of time 
 which has since elapsed, and the destruction 
 of their records by fire, there was greater 
 convenience for the abode of a large and 
 increasing brotherhood and the formation of a 
 public library at All-Hallows' church than 
 could be obtained at Holy Trinity. Proud, 
 too, as they were of their antiquity, they found 
 in the heavy Norman pillars and low massive 
 arches something in the former church 
 peculiarly adapted to their feelings and retiring 
 habits. In other respects, it would be very 
 doubtful whether their removal was one, as to 
 site, for the better : here, with the exception 
 
 I 
 
82 REMOVAL OF THE CALENDARS 
 
 of their own churchyard (which extended 
 over a considerable portion of High Street, 
 our present exchange * and, probably, market, 
 and in the centre of which stood a verv 
 handsome and lofty cross of stone), and that 
 of their view from the windows of the library, 
 their situation was disadvantageous : for they 
 were now, in comparison, hemmed in, being 
 surrounded by closely compressed streets, 
 inhabited principally by vintners, weavers, 
 butchers, and boddice makers, — such as 
 Wynche Street, Scattepulle Street, St. Col las 
 Street, Worchepe Street, Thorow-house Lane, 
 &c., &c. ; and though few of these streets 
 actually adjoined their church, yet they 
 excluded in a great measure the view of 
 gardens and fields, so that these brethren 
 must at first have sadly missed the sweet 
 earthy fragrance and the bright dewy spangles, 
 
 * A fact established by the vast quantity of human bones 
 exhumed when the Exchange was built. 
 
FROM HOLY TRINITY TO AL-HALLOWEN. 83 
 
 and the cheerful scenery of the Pithay and 
 S. James' Meads. But, as has been before 
 remarked, they have left behind them suffi- 
 cient evidence that temporal profit or personal 
 ease never influenced them when duty called 
 for a sacrifice. The church of All-Hallows 
 still stands, altered indeed in many parts, 
 mutilated, contracted, modernized, but there 
 even yet hangs about her, in visible form, 
 the spirit of departed days ; memorials, that 
 have bid defiance to the wear of time, and have 
 for the most part escaped the chisel and axe 
 of modern science still remain. There are, 
 even now, a few unpretending solid heavy 
 pillars, emblems of the retiring, but unbending, 
 character of those who, unseen by the world's 
 eye, in that same house of God, outwatched 
 in prayer the stars of night. Windows, placed 
 by the zeal of some of the later brothers, and 
 still bearing, probably, their own shields (em- 
 blematic of the Trinity in Unity), retain 
 i2 
 
84 REMOVAL OF THE CALENDARS, ETC. 
 
 their masonry ; though the subdued light, 
 which once streamed through with richest 
 hues, and fell on their lowly figures as they 
 bent in supplication, or intoned their solemn 
 exequies by note over the dead, now blazes 
 in the full glare of more modern taste.^ 
 
 * The windows on the north aisle, or Lady Chapel, were 
 " worshypfully glassyd," with one continuous story of " Te Deum 
 laudamus." The two in the cross aisle, the gift of Sir Thomas 
 Marshall, a Calendar, and Vicar of the church 1407, were adorned 
 with stained glass, one representing the Seven Works of Mercy, 
 and the other the Seven Sacraments (so called). If such then 
 were the windows in the aisles (and those on the north side 
 must have been gorgeously magnificent) how richly emblazoned, 
 how full of story, may we not reasonably suppose those at the 
 east and west to have been ! yet the former is now completely 
 blocked up by a house in High Street, a beam of which runs 
 right through it, though the shafts and part of the muUions, still 
 remain hid behind tlie wooden altar screen ; and the latter (the 
 west window) is partly obscured by an organ and gallery, and 
 partly walled up. 
 
i3 
 
" Sisters of Charity — there is, for the most part, no noise or display 
 " in what they do ; and in smoothing down the footmarks which 
 " their brother man has trodden deep in the surface of society, 
 " so light and gentle is their step, they do not leave the imprint 
 " of their own behind." 
 
 IHE CHURCH-GOER. 
 
 (s. Peter's.) 
 
 " Charity speaks Mndly, deals tenderly ; grieves not the hearts of 
 " the living, and treads softly upon the graves of the dead." 
 
 BISHOP WILSON. 
 
-<r->. 
 
 CHAPTEE Vn. 
 
 THE CALENDAR SISTERS. THEIR DUTIES, RELIGIOUS 
 
 ZEAL AND PURITY. 
 
 We now come to something more tangible 
 in their history — though much has been lost 
 we now begin to obtain some information 
 respecting them ; scanty indeed this in- 
 formation is, often mixed up with secular 
 and extraneous matter, with distant allusions 
 then well known but now forgotten, and 
 not unfrequently leaping over a long series 
 of years ; bare, mingled, and obscure as the 
 records are from whence our information is 
 gleaned, they yet give us some insight into 
 the rules and constitution of the order of 
 Calendars. From these we learn that their 
 
88 THE CALENDAK SISTERS. 
 
 community was composed principally of 
 priests,* to whom were added a few lay 
 brethren and sisters. The existence of a 
 sisterhood, attached to this society, bound by 
 the same laws and pledges as the brothers were, 
 subject to the same penalties, labouring in the 
 same cause, and amenable to the spiritual 
 superintendence and rebukes of the same 
 prior, is an interesting fact, exhibiting at once 
 the truly conventual character of the fraternity, 
 and the extensive ramification which in its 
 labours for good it had, by this time, acquired. 
 We call it a fact, for though it has been 
 barely noticed by other writers, there cannot 
 be the least doubt of its existence. Two 
 proofs shall suffice, though more of a similar 
 character may be adduced : one of these we 
 will take from their own rules, and the other 
 from an ancient will. There is still extant 
 
 ♦Written "sacerdotes" not " presbyteri," to show the sacredness 
 of their calling.— See Sparrow's Rationale, " Of the word Priest," 
 
THE CALENDAR SISTERS. 89 
 
 the '^regula domiis ffraternitatis Kalend :'' in 
 this it is expressly ordered that prayers shall 
 be made on stated occasions " pro fratribus et 
 sororibus'' for the brothers and sisters, and, 
 "quotiens fit mencio de confratribus, intel- 
 ligendum est nomen confraternitatis similiter 
 de sororibus,'' whenever (in these rules) men- 
 tion is made of co-brethren, it must be under- 
 stood that the name co-brethren applies 
 equally to the sisters. Consequently all the 
 heavy duties, painful self-denials, constant 
 labours, and almost unceasing wakefulness, 
 being night after night, and sometimes all 
 night long in the church, fell upon these 
 devoted virgins with as much force and 
 strictness, as on the hardier nature of the 
 brethren ; both being alike subject to severe 
 penalties, ending, if frequently incurred, in 
 expulsion from the community ; and, what 
 was far worse than this, in obstinate cases the 
 punishment was excommunication. The other 
 
90 THE CALENDAR SISTERS. 
 
 proof of the existence of a sisterhood of 
 Calendars is furnished by the will of one 
 Kobert Picard, bearing date "the Sunday 
 next before the feast of St. Kenelm, the 
 Martyr, 1258," wherein the testator gives to 
 the vicar of All Saints half a mark of silver ; 
 to the dean (query, deacon ?) of the same 
 church 12d. ; to the sub-dean (?) 6d. ; 
 and 12d. for the maintenance of a clerk who 
 should celebrate divine service for the soul 
 of the said Picard, for the souls of all his 
 ancestors, and for the souls of all the brothers 
 and sisters of the confraternity of the 
 Calendars in Bristol, 
 
 A bare mention of nunneries and sister- 
 hoods in these days gives rise in English 
 minds to scarcely any other feelings than 
 those of ridicule and suspicion. That any 
 should literally "forsake houses, or brethren, 
 or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or 
 children, or lands for Christ's sake," is, in 
 
THE CALENDAR SISTERS. 01 
 
 modern English view, excessively imprudent, 
 often indeed considered directly at variance 
 with the intention of those words ; though 
 our own immortal Hooker observes, that "it 
 is an infallible rule in exposition of sacred 
 scripture, that where the. literal construction 
 will stand, the farther from the letter is 
 commonly the worst." It is not, however, 
 too much for us to admit, that though our 
 views on the subject may differ from those 
 of earlier English Christians, yet that they 
 who associated themselves in coelibate institu- 
 tions were actuated by the purest motives. 
 The precise nature of the duties performed 
 by the Calend Sisters is nowhere related, any 
 further than that they knelt at stated hours in 
 Al-Hallowen church in frequent devotion; 
 services were for ever going on ; and long 
 after the midnight bell had tolled, their lowly 
 modest figures, covered with a long veil, or 
 enveloped with a thick hood and largely 
 
92 THE CALENDAR SISTERS. 
 
 folded wimple, may have been seen silently 
 moving about reflected against the low 
 Norman pillars or dark walls by the ever- 
 burning lamps on the High Altar* and 
 Altar of the Holy Cross ; not that they were 
 constantly passing and repassing from one 
 place to another, for motionless, and like 
 lifeless figures, long did they kneel or stand 
 till each service was over ; and then one 
 may have seen their shadows on the wall 
 as they noiselessly glided from one of the 
 numerous shrines in the church to another, 
 or, when they clustered together to join softly 
 in the solemn requiem, or as they knelt to 
 pray for a " slumbering world sunk in sin." 
 We cannot approve all their services, though 
 we may admire their zeal : invocations of 
 
 * This was provided for by the will of Alice Halye, dated 
 Wednesday after the translation of S. Swithin, 1261. The testatrix 
 gave a house in the parish of All Saints for the pei-petual main- 
 taining of the lights before the High Altar. Similar bequests, 
 as already mentioned, are to be found in other wills. 
 
THE CALENDAR SISTERS. 93 
 
 the dead are not catholic but popish; and 
 though their zeal, severed from discretion, 
 sometimes ran into excess (a circumstance 
 which should not repress our ardour but 
 increase our circumspection ;) yet we cannot 
 think it just that their purity should be always 
 suspected; a suspicion originated, and per- 
 petuated principally by novels and romances. 
 Why in this, by no means the most moral, 
 age, should the sneering laugh and unkind 
 suspicion always follow the mention of nuns 
 and sisterhoods? Dark and wretched are 
 some of their histories ; but these tales, in- 
 cluding even those not substantiated are few, 
 when we consider the many hundreds of years 
 such institutions existed, and the many 
 thousand sisters there were in every country, 
 nay in England (once proverbially the land 
 of Saints) in every county. It is true 
 there were Calendar brethren and Calendar 
 sisters ; but what then ? were they necessarily 
 
 K 
 
94 , THE CALENDAR SISTERS. 
 
 profligate ? eternal vows bound them both, 
 and the heaviest temporal penalties hung 
 over them both; at any rate they had 
 not the temptations of idleness, ease, or 
 luxury. No sooner was one duty performed 
 than another almost immediately succeeded, 
 and though Vice will find or make opportu- 
 nities, it is always least successful with those 
 whose time is most occupied : and no one 
 can venture to assert that the Calendar sisters 
 had not sufficient to employ them in various 
 works of charity, necessity, and piety. Not- 
 withstanding, however, such constant engage- 
 ments and the hallowing effects which follow 
 such Anna-like attendance on the temple, yet 
 accounts are not wanting which speak of sad 
 derelictions and awful crimes perpetrated in 
 some sisterhoods. Such occurrences, truth 
 obliges us to say, are rare, they are exceptions, 
 by no means rules ; and therefore with regard 
 to the Calendars, the purity of whose character 
 
THE CALENDAR SISTERS. - 95 
 
 has never been sullied, for it stands unap- 
 proached by tale, whether true or slanderous, if 
 the duties of these sisters were such that they 
 called them sometimes into secular scenes, few 
 were their opportunities of worldly or vicious 
 pursuits; whenever the canonical hours and 
 other offices were ended, what with dressing 
 victuals for the whole fraternity, washing linen, 
 carrying the weak, leading the feeble, tending 
 the sick, they had at least less temptation to go 
 astray than females now usually have : or when 
 tempted, the mind was constantly being 
 drawn back, and the wavering inclination 
 strengthened for what was right by the com- 
 bined influences of rigid confession, severe 
 penitential acts, habitual religious services, 
 and the frequent recurrence of such suppli- 
 cations as "Dignare Domine, die isto, sine 
 peccato nos custodire," or "Libera nos a 
 malo," while if they partook (as is not 
 altogether improbable) more nearly of the 
 k2 
 
96 THE CALENDAB SISTERS. 
 
 character of Cistercian or Gilbertine nuns, 
 let the tongue of scandal for ever rest when 
 it is remembered that ^' the monks and nuns 
 never saw each other except when a nun was 
 at the point of death, and the priest entered 
 to administer extreme unction and to com- 
 mend her soul into the hand of God." If 
 we have not that charity which " thinketh no 
 evil '' at least we may hush suspicion respect- 
 ing such sisters long since departed, particu- 
 larly when we call to mind, that in order that 
 the nuns may be " unseen when they made 
 their confession, or received the Holy Com- 
 munion, a grating was constructed : the time 
 of death alone bringing the priests and nuns 
 together." And though from the obscurity 
 which hangs over the History of the Calendars 
 we cannot say to what order they belonged, 
 and from the smallness* of the church in 
 
 • Al- Hallowen church was comparatively small — there is no doubt 
 but that formerly it was much larger than at present — ^its nave must 
 
THE CALENDAR SISTERS. 97 
 
 which their semces were now conducted, the 
 screens and gratings common in larger and 
 more regular institutions may not have been 
 adopted, still most unchristian would it be 
 to infer from the simple existence of a joint 
 community of brothers and sisters, framed 
 expressly for the purposes of religion, under 
 the sanction of pope and abbot, within the 
 immediate cognizance of a rigid prior, and 
 amenable to the most severe penalties, the 
 necessity of profligacy; rather should we 
 regard it as an evidence of unanimous devo- 
 tion and sympathetic holiness.* 
 
 have been considerably longer to have been at all in character 
 with the chancel and the rest of the building. It was probably cut 
 off in length when the original tower which stood at the west end 
 was " brent and the standeynge parte was pyghte downe." It is 
 sad to think how much consecrated ground is now used in Bristol 
 for secular purposes. Whole churches have been desti-oyed, 
 church-yards alienated, chancels cut off, and naves abbreviated. 
 
 * A remarkable example of the character for purity which some 
 of the Bristol sisters maintained is afforded by the nuns of S. Mary 
 Magdalen, whose house stood on S. Michael's Hill. Though jjj 
 
 K 3 
 
98 THE CALENDAR SISTERS. 
 
 this establishment there were but three professed nuns, yet there 
 were many novices to whom was entrusted the education of the 
 citizens' daughters. In such high estimation were these nuns and 
 novices held, that the Visitors, at the Reformation, strongly recom- 
 mended, though to no purpose, that they should not be dissolved. 
 
 See Dallaway. 
 
 The author's opinion on the above subject is by no means 
 singular. The Rev. John Evans, who continued Corry's History of 
 Bristol, thus expresses himself. " Forming our conceptions from 
 " novels or romances rather than from historical testimony, it has 
 " been the fashion of modern times to associate dissoluteness with 
 " our conceptions of monasteries, and impurity with the establish- 
 " ment of a nunnery. In these general conclusions are forgotten 
 " the piety and resignation which might have frequently been 
 " found in the gloomy cloister, and the meekness and saint-like 
 « submission which were generally the inhabitants of the nunnery. 
 " In this levelling principle we forget that in these establishments 
 « the indigent had their wants supplied, and the children of sorrow 
 " and suffering found a ready asylum, in which the hand of sym- 
 " pathy was always cheerfully extended to mitigate affliction," 
 
^' Thou fearest watchhigs, fasts, and manual labour, but these 
 " are light to one who thinks on the eternal fire. The remem- 
 " brance of the outer -darkness takes away all horror from solitude. 
 " Think on the strict sifting of thine idle words which is to 
 " come, and then silence will not be so very unpleasing. Place 
 " before thine eyes the everlasting weeping and gnashing of teeth, 
 " and the mat or the down pillow will be the same to thee." 
 
 S. BEKNARD. 
 
CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 THE RULES OF THE HOUSE OF THE " FFRATERNITIE OF 
 CALENDS." 
 
 In an illuminated manuscript, still in being, 
 composed and decorated by one of the lay 
 brethren, we have, what he designates " The 
 Rules of the house of the Ffraternitie of 
 Calends." The title would lead us to imagine 
 that here we should find all we wanted 
 respecting their origin, order, and constitu- 
 tion: that at least we should be told how 
 oft, and in what manner their sacred services 
 were performed; how the few hours, which 
 each day were not spent in the church, were 
 employed ; that there would be some allusion 
 to the regulations by which their chapter was 
 ordered; some insight into their occupations 
 while in their hall, refectory, and library : but 
 
102 THE RULES OF THE HOUSE 
 
 we cannot wade far into his confused mass of 
 contracted and badly written Latin without 
 finding such expectations almost entirely 
 defeated. No allusion whatever is made to 
 the appointment or duties* of the prior and 
 sub-prior ; scarcely any to those of the other 
 brethren, be they cleric or lay ; the domestic 
 occupations are all passed over in silence; 
 their religious services, except the special 
 ones, are hid under the same tantalizing veil ; 
 and were it not for other documents, we 
 could not learn from these canons that there 
 was even a public library in connexion with 
 their community. The principal portion of 
 this "Regula" is occupied in giving rules 
 for the performance of obits, and the various 
 services for the departed faithful, particularly 
 those of their own members. An inference 
 
 * A slight reference to these is made in a deed wherein John, 
 Bishop of Worcester, establishes the ordinance of the house of 
 Calendars. 
 
OF THE ^'FFRATERNITIE OF CALENDS." 103 
 
 may hence be fairly drawn that this manu- 
 script does not give the whole canon of the 
 priory, but is to be regarded rather as an 
 appendix to rules already in existence, and 
 which these brethren may have had in com- 
 mon with some other monastic institutions or 
 which were peculiar to themselves ;* in con- 
 sequence however of their being, beyond 
 other communities, more frequently required 
 to perform commemorations, this "Regula" 
 was framed to supply what was wanting (in 
 their particular case) in the general rules. 
 Some interesting circumstances may, notwith- 
 standing, be gleaned from the few casual remarks 
 which are therein introduced. The preamble 
 recites the authority by which their commu- 
 nity was permitted to exist, and be recognized 
 as a Christian brotherhood. We have before 
 
 * That they had other rules besides those contained in the 
 " Regula " is quite certain, since Bishop Wulstan himself speaks of 
 then- « ancient rules," which, says he, « have been observed time im- 
 memorial." 
 
104 THE RULES OF THE HOUSE 
 
 observed that they had received not only the 
 approbation but the commendation of Abbots, 
 Bishops, and Pope's legates, we now find 
 that their canons and rules were, after strict 
 examination, approved by William, Bishop 
 of . Worcester, in whose diocese the city of 
 Bristol then was, and who is himself said to 
 have been a brother of the community, though 
 he probably ceased to be a brother on his 
 elevation to the Episcopate, as the office of 
 Bishop was kept distinct from the character of 
 monk. They were also confirmed by a Papal 
 rescript, which, as the preamble declares, 
 every one is bound to obey and defend 
 (" quem sequi tenentur omnes, pariter et 
 defendere.") 
 
 None was admitted, even as a lay brother, 
 without the strictest enquiry into proofs of 
 his fitness for such a brotherhood from 
 habitual devotion, tried continence, and holi- 
 ness of life. Once admitted, he was bound 
 
OF THE "FFKATERNITIE OF CALENDS." 105 
 
 by a most stringent oath, placed on rigid trial, 
 and kept under the severest surveillance ; 
 while the slightest dereliction, or apparent 
 unfitness on his part was immediately repro- 
 bated, and that by the voice of the whole 
 assembled chapter. Were he absent but from 
 one service in the church, unless detained by 
 illness, rebuke, in the presence of the whole 
 body, was the consequence, and when vows 
 of poverty became less common, and a spirit 
 of worldliness had made its way into the 
 brotherhood, this punishment was increased 
 by the payment of a fine. Such regular 
 attendance was no slight requirement, scarcely 
 performable indeed, except by those whose 
 souls were richly filled with grace, and whose 
 bodies, by continued acts of self-denial, were 
 brought under subjection, for their services 
 were more frequent than even those of kindred 
 institutions. '^ The sacristan, *at first peep of 
 
 L 
 
106 THE RULES OF THE HOUSE 
 
 day, trimmed the church lamp and that of 
 the dormitory ; then the bell tolled— in a 
 moment this little world of Christian brethren 
 was alive;" one by one their figures glided 
 noiselessly into the church, keeping close to 
 the walls, — their arms crossed — their eyes 
 fixed on the ground — and so the day began ; 
 in like manner all the usual canonical hours 
 were required to be observed by them, 
 that is at Prime, about 6 o'clock A. m., at 
 Tierce about 9, at Sext about 12, at Nones 
 about 3 p. M , at Vespers about 6, at Compline 
 about 9, and at Lauds and Matins about 
 midnight and cock-crow ; and besides all these 
 services which they kept in common with other 
 religious houses, they were bound to attend 
 frequent commemorations of the departed, 
 more frequent than those of others from their 
 numerous shrines and chantries, and probably 
 from the dedication of their church to All 
 
 
OF THE "FFRATEENITIE OF CALENDS." 107 
 
 Saints, and keeping their encoenia on the eve 
 of All Souls day.* Some of these obits too 
 continued for 30 consecutive days (trentale.) 
 a heavy burden all this on poor human 
 nature : a severe tax on mind and body : 
 and yet the slightest relaxation w^as followed 
 by disgrace and punishment. In the midst of 
 their errors and superstitions v^hat a spirit of 
 religious zeal must have burnt in the souls 
 of these unwearied brothers and sisters ! 
 what a slow yet pleasingly torturing martyr- 
 dom must they have suffered from their 
 ceaseless services ! and what a contrast to the 
 cold luxurious, easily fatigued worship of 
 modern Christians do their habits supply ! 
 Since our faith is purer, our zeal ought to 
 be at least commensurate with theirs, and 
 if they could watch and pray day and night 
 
 * A festival instituted through the day-dream of a fanatic monk ; 
 and, as Wheatley remarks, deservedly abrogated by the reformed 
 church. 
 
 l2 
 
108 THE RULES OF THE HOUSE 
 
 for SO many hours, is it not little the church 
 now requires of her children when she bids 
 them begin and end each day with God, 
 worshipping within her hallowed precincts 
 at early dawn and darkening eve ? 
 
 The Calendar brethren were no less subject 
 to weakness, disease, and ailments of various 
 kinds than other men; their limbs were not 
 more firmly knit, — their muscles were not 
 capable of greater tension, save that their 
 simple fare and continuous temperance gave 
 and retained their strength : yet what they 
 acquired by abstinence they frequently lost 
 in " perils by cold," and in " watchings oft : " 
 sickness, therefore, was no more a stranger 
 to their community than it is to associations, 
 clubs, or masonic lodges now : very often 
 were they called upon to discharge the 
 Christian duty of bearing one another's i 
 burdens. So we are not surprised to find 
 especial directions given in their "Eegula" 
 
 •3 
 
 i 
 
 J 
 
OF THE " FFKATERNITIE OF CALENDS." 109 
 
 for this purpose, nor, that they considered 
 it rather medicinal and salutary than a hard- 
 ship when one member suffered that all the 
 members should suffer with it. 
 
 To meet their wants, supply their needs, 
 procure them extra food, clothing, or fuel, — 
 to give them the luxury of meat or wine, and, 
 in short, to furnish them with things calculated 
 to afford relief or comfort in their extremity, 
 daily contribution was made in the church — 
 made first as an offering to God, and then 
 applied as God directs in providing for the 
 sick and needy. Whether any brother 
 required aid or not, there was (in addition 
 to the fines levied for neglect, which were 
 carefully preserved in a chest for the general 
 purposes of the community, and in part 
 applicable to this) a regular ^^ oblatio," or 
 almsgiving, and special offertories made for 
 their sick, infirm, and aged : so that even a 
 lay-brother, though he dwelt at some distance 
 L 3 
 
110 THE RULES OF THE HOUSE 
 
 from the church, was entirely supported in 
 every illness that befell him, and during 
 the slow decay and languor^ of increasing 
 years. 
 
 The levying of pecuniary fines, and the 
 voluntary offering among the Calendars, 
 would lead one into the idea that this frater- 
 nity was differently constituted from those 
 religious bodies which had only a common 
 property ; this was probably, at the time of 
 which we are writing, the case, and may 
 have arisen from their close connexion with 
 the citizens, from their lay brethren holding 
 occasional offices in the town, and, in later 
 times, from the number of bequests &c., 
 for commemorations — these circumstances 
 brought them a varying income, and so 
 made fines available ; the ^^ Regula " seems : 
 clearly to intimate that this was the case — 
 the phrase " pcenam subeat sex denariorum," 
 
 * " Si deciderit in languorem," — Regula. 
 
OF THE "FFRATERNITIE OF CALENDS." Ill 
 
 and such like, frequently occurring. Nor 
 was attention bestowed only on temporal 
 wants and bodily infirmities : hour after hour, 
 morning, noon, evening, night, did the 
 conjoined supplications of the brethren and 
 sisters ascend to heaven in the sick brother's 
 behalf, like for S. Peter, " prayer was made 
 without ceasing of the church unto God 
 for him," (Acts 12 c, 5 v.) The light which 
 at day-break stole in at the east window, 
 and that which at evening crimsoned the 
 west, — the broad blaze of noon variegating 
 the aisle floors with thousand hues from 
 painted glass,* and the flickering glimmer 
 at midnight from the lamps on the 
 various altars, fell alike on the prostrate 
 figures of those who were remembering a 
 sick brother or sister in their prayers. 
 
 The best regulated institutions of man are 
 liable to be occasionally disarranged : and 
 
 * « Fenestris vitreatis cum figura " (see also p. 84), 
 
112 THE RULES OF THE HOUSE 
 
 this to teach us, among other lessons, that 
 the calm of earth will at times be disturbed, 
 for nothing human is perfect : if peace dwells 
 any where in this world, ought we not to 
 expect to find it most in the secluded cloister, 
 and round the altars of that God of whom 
 the Psalmist says. He shall " keep His people 
 secretly in His tabernacle from the strife of 
 tongues?" Those who framed the "Kegula" 
 for our Calendars knew full well what human 
 nature was, and that the '^ strife of tongues " 
 might sometimes mar the peaceful harmony 
 of the brotherhood, and obtrude itself even 
 into the " tabernacle : " no record remains 
 to tell of such an event; so far as present 
 memorials relate no one discordant note 
 jarred their continued harmony ; ^ still it 
 
 * Unless it be inferred from tlie following curious item, appended 
 to an old inventory of the Church "Evidences," among those 
 deeds of which, in Edward IV. time, they could give no certain 
 explanation : — " Item 1 Evydens undyr ye Dene ys sele as for a 
 stryfe ymade yn ye Churche, yat ye Churche schulde not stonde 
 
OF THE '^ FFRATERNITIE OF CALENDS." 113 
 
 was proper to guard in their rules against 
 such a painful and unbecoming contingency ; 
 and sadly trying must it have been to any 
 proud heart or peevish spirit that may have 
 existed in a Calendar brother or sister to 
 be required to come speedily forward and 
 confess before a full assembled chapter of 
 prior and priests, and in the presence of the 
 lay brethren, the sin into which it had been 
 betrayed. If this, and such like humiliating 
 but wholesome discipline, was not penitently 
 complied with, the offender was pronounced 
 to be cut off from the fraternity, (a confrater- 
 nitate se noscat abscissum ;) the same con- 
 ditions rested on those who were unwilling 
 cheerfully and regularly to bear their pro- 
 portionate share of the burdens which fell. 
 
 suspendyd." We also find in the list of payments (Henry VI.) 
 that a bill was "made to ye Byshope a genst ye prior of ye 
 Kalendars and his brethryn." Whatever these disputes may have 
 been, tliey existed between the proctors of the Church and the 
 prior of the Calendars, not between the brethren themselves. 
 
114 THE RULES OF THE HOUSE 
 
 both in and out of the church, on the whole 
 body. 
 
 Independently of those duties, which in 
 common with other monastic institutions, 
 devolved on the Calendars, they appear, as 
 we have seen, to have been particularly 
 required to perform " obits " — services or 
 masses for the faithful departed. It is no 
 part of our present enquiry, how far the 
 church either permits or disapproves the 
 practise of prayers for the dead ; the English 
 ritual passes the subject in silence, and so 
 will we. "The satisfactory and sufficient 
 reason," says Mr. Palmer in his " Origines 
 Liturgicae," " for the omission of such prayers 
 in the English Liturgy is that they were 
 inea^pedient'' 
 
 It is not easy, however, encumbered as 
 we are with modern notions and prejudices, 
 to imagine the effect produced on the senses, 
 we would also hope on the heart's best 
 
 II 
 
OF THE " FFRATERNITIE OF CALENDS." 115 
 
 feelings, by the awfully impressive manner 
 in which these services for the dead were 
 performed. There were in All Saints Church 
 seven or eight altars for chantries besides 
 the high altar; the body of the church, nave 
 aisles, may have been frequently seen filled 
 with the friends of deceased persons, bearing 
 flowers to hang in wreaths upon the respective 
 altars or to strew upon the graves, and 
 kneeling in silence, while in slow and 
 measured tone the chantry priest chaunted 
 the "Dirige," or "Placebo:" at other times 
 may have been seen all the Calendar priests 
 in their snowy* albs, or richer vestments ;f 
 with arms crossed and bending heads, 
 standing almost immoveably, like lifeless 
 
 * "Dhe Calendarrs dyghte yn blanche vestraentes lyke to 
 shemeryng snowef^ — J. a'Dannburie. 
 
 f These were generally bequests ; several are described as 
 being of silk richly spangled with " sterrys of golde " (stars of gold), 
 and others of light green cloth of gold "bawdkin," with the 
 orfres of purple " bawdkin." 
 
116 THE EULES OF THE HOUSE 
 
 figures,^ in the innermost part of that deep 
 chancel, and forming an effective group 
 round the high altar. What kindly affection 
 too, and pleasing solemnity hang over a 
 provision made for the interment of any 
 departed Calendar priest, — a provision intro- 
 duced in a few simple words, and mentioned, 
 as it would appear, quite casually, that 
 whenever a priest should die, he should be 
 carried to his grave by four brother priests, 
 clad in surplices : a custom once generally 
 prevalent all over England, but which has 
 now fallen into disuse. Is it not a pious 
 wish, that it be revived? whoever partakes 
 with us in the high and fearfully responsible 
 duties of ministering God's Word and 
 Sacraments, may at least claim as a last kind 
 act a brother's shoulders to bear him to his 
 "long home." Thus we find Dr. Humphrey 
 
 * " NuUus confratrum, dum missa cantetur, discurrat, sed in 
 cancello staret, aut genu flectat." — Regula. 
 
OF THE " FFKATERNITIE OF CALENDS.'' 117 
 
 Henchman, Bishop of London, who ordained 
 the pious George Herbert, saying, " I laid my 
 hand on Mr. Herbert's head ; and, alas ! 
 within less than three years, lent my shoulder 
 to carry my dear friend to his grave." * Nor 
 let it be imagined from the passing provision 
 above referred to, that it was only the 
 higher clergy — abbot, bishop, prior, or sub- 
 prior — that received this attention, for 
 many a Calendar priest was thus borne 
 to burial, whose goods would not suffice f 
 even to defray the expenses of the wax 
 lights used in the procession. 
 
 • Isaak Walton, 
 f « Quibus si bona defuncti non sufliciaut," &''.— Regula. 
 
<* aid friends, old scenes, will lovelier be, 
 «* As more of hearen in each we see." 
 
 KEBLE. 
 
CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 THE calendars' LIBRARY. THEIR SCHOOLS FOR CONVER- 
 SION OF THE JEWS. RESTORATION OF AL-HALLOWEN 
 
 CHURCH. 
 
 The time of these devoted men, as we before 
 observed, was spent principally in prayer 
 and praise : many an hour passed by and 
 found them — not sometimes one and some- 
 times another, but all together assembled in 
 the church; the residue of their day, with 
 the exception of a limited space allotted to 
 the refectory or bodily exercise, was fully 
 employed in attendance at their library : 
 nor was this occupation any sinecure : it was 
 not only for their own study and improve- 
 ment that this library was formed and 
 M 2 
 
120 calendars' library. 
 
 maintained, but that the adult citizen should, 
 at stated hours, there find food for his mind 
 and the youth be instructed by these 
 " spiritual pastors " in useful and religious 
 learning. From the earliest times the care 
 of the education of the people of this land 
 has been entrusted to the English Church ; 
 and until she assume the entire control 
 of it again, education cannot be sound, the 
 unity of faith will be shattered, and the 
 bond of peace broken. In addition, likewise, 
 to the watchful care of providing proper 
 mental food for adult Christians and teaching 
 the young, their energies and affections 
 were engaged on the side of winning wan- 
 derers to the true faith : unbelievers and 
 misbelievers were the objects of their frequent 
 anxieties and labours : we are not astonished, 
 therefore, to learn that under their superin- 
 tendence, and principally through their 
 untiring efforts, schools were erected in 
 
calendars' library. 121 
 
 connexion with their library, for "the con- 
 version of Jews." Nor is it the least interesting 
 result of our present research to be led into 
 the belief that most probably some of the 
 later Calendar brethren were converted Jews. 
 The earliest account I have been able to 
 find of the existence of this library is 
 appended to a drawing (mentioned by 
 Barrett) whereon it is stated, that the 
 Kalendars' " bochorde," or library, was 
 "ybuilden by Eva Fytzhardynge and Lewis 
 de Ghente in 1092." The next is given in a 
 deed, dated the Friday next after the feast 
 of the apostles SS. Peter and Paul, in 
 the year 1333, in which John,=^ who was 
 then abbot of the monastery of S. Augustine, 
 gave his licence and consent for its re- 
 
 * John Snow, abbot of S. Augustine, who died July 12, 1341. 
 He succeeded Edmund de Knoll, said to have rebuilt the vestry 
 and the church from the foundation. He procured from the Crown 
 a confirmation of all the possessions belonging to the monastery, 
 as appears in certain Charter Rolls of the 1st and 2nd Edward.. 
 
 M 3 
 
122 calendars' library. 
 
 erection. This licence was granted on 
 the humble suit of the "co-brethren of 
 the Fraternitie of Calendars 3" their motive 
 was a " devout zeal for the increase 
 of divine worship ;" and the building 
 was intended for the " use and habitation 
 of the priests' co-brethren :" and the deed 
 ensures (so far as it could do it) " peaceable 
 and unmolested possession to them and their 
 successor priests for ever." Thus then they 
 were always on the spot ; the church gates 
 were scarcely ever fastened ) a close fulfillment 
 of the prophecy, *Hhy gates shall be open 
 continually; they shall not be shut day nor 
 night " — Isa. 60 c, 11 v. : religious services 
 were constantly being performed, and oppor- 
 tunity was thus offered to the harassed, 
 whether by sin or worldly business, to enter 
 at any hour, late or early, and lift up his 
 heart in thanksgiving, or unburden the tale 
 of his sins and his troubles to God. 
 
 i 
 
calendars' library. 123 
 
 This deed speaks of the building, (the 
 dimensions being expressly given) which 
 was then erected adjoining to, and partly 
 over, the Jesus Aisle, as having been intended 
 as a " habitation " for the Calendar priests : 
 no allusion is made in this document to 
 the regulation or even actual existence of a 
 public library beyond the mere building : 
 a century, however, passes away, and we find 
 another document relating to the same matter. 
 It was in the spring of the year 1443, that 
 the prior, sub-prior, and co -brethren met, 
 after the usual duties of the church, in 
 solemn conclave, to consider what they 
 should do, as stewards of God, to promote, 
 more than they hitherto had done. His holy 
 worship, and benefit their fellow citizens, 
 particularly the young and the unbelieving. 
 Their dwelling, which, at the best, was 
 but poor and confined, was now found to 
 be, if not inadequate, at least very incon- 
 
124 calendars' library. 
 
 venient for their augmented numbers and 
 increasing duties. The unpleasantness arising 
 from confinement of space they were willing 
 enough to bear ; they sought no luxuries : 
 but their dwelling was ill-arranged, and had 
 fallen into a wretched state of dilapidation, 
 almost without their knowledge ; for we 
 may easily imagine that men whose minds 
 were deeply and incessantly engaged in 
 sacred duties would think little of the slowly 
 but surely advancing progress which decay 
 was making on their abode till necessity 
 compelled them ; that they would scarcely 
 bestow a thought on the inroads a hundred 
 years would make on neglected and unrepaired 
 materials, unless (which does not appear to 
 have been the case in this instance) it was 
 the office and duty of the Bursar, or some 
 other brother to look after the building. It 
 was not, however, so much the fault or wear 
 of the material that they now met to repair. 
 
RESTOKATION OF CHURCH. 125 
 
 as to rectify, though late, so far as they 
 could, the injury that had been done to 
 God's house ; and, as they were a considerable 
 body of ecclesiastics, to lay themselves out 
 more entirely for the good of their fellow 
 citizens. They determined, therefore, to 
 petition, without loss of time, the abbot of 
 S. Augustine for licence to re-build their 
 little habitation in such a manner, that the 
 beautifully enamelled church windows, highly 
 wrought arches, storied roof, &c., &c., which 
 had been encroached upon by their already 
 narrow dwelling, might be restored to their 
 pristine beauty -, and their house, though even 
 made smaller by such alterations, become 
 through the medium of a library, available 
 to the citizens. It was on the feast of S. 
 Edmund the Archbishop, 1443,* that they 
 
 * All Saints, Bristol, had now from a considerable period been 
 impropriated. Impropriations were by this time very generally 
 practised by the larger religious houses j from these, at the disao- 
 
128 RESTORATION OF CHURCH. 
 
 houses are now used are borne in mind ; but 
 they are by no means solitary instances ; we 
 often read* of buildings being erected over the 
 porches of churches, and actually into churches 
 for residences of hermits and chantry priests. 
 To give one example, at Bicknor, in Kent, 
 a room projects nearly across the aisle and 
 under the church's roof.f Obtaining this 
 licence from the abbot was a relief to their 
 burdened conscience, and a great point gained. 
 The cost was heavy and sore ; it vexed them 
 not, for it was for God's glory : so they 
 cheerfully gave up their few comforts, joined 
 personally in the labour, and by their own 
 manual aid abbreviated the interruption 
 to their holy services; not that these were 
 discontinued even for a day, for dust and 
 rubble and the " pygtynge " down of masonry 
 
 * S. Dunelm, 44. 
 
 f Halsted's Kent, v. 568. Fosbroke's Antiquities, 133 (note). 
 This subject is more fully treated in chapter 14. 
 
RESTORATION OF CHURCH. 129 
 
 will not hinder a devoted soul from contriving 
 a place for prayer. Still from within those 
 same hallowed walls the voice of praise and 
 supplication, with the same frequency as here- 
 tofore, ascended to heaven, and when the 
 restorations were completed, and richer orna- 
 ment bestowed on God's house, and greater 
 encouragement afforded to God's people, there 
 were not wanting those who appreciated the 
 self-sacrifice, disinterestedness, and labours of 
 our Calendars. Among the first of these was 
 the Vicar of the church. Sir William Rodberd ; 
 even while the restorations were only in con- 
 templation, lest death should anticipate his 
 good deed, he, on the Feast of the Decollation 
 of S. John the Baptist, declared his fixed de- 
 termination of devoting to this pious purpose 
 some important property, the recovery of 
 which he had just effected ; and, living to see 
 the work finished, he, on the Christmas Eve 
 which closed their labours, made it chargeable 
 
 N 
 
130 calendars' library. 
 
 to nearly its whole value. But the most noble 
 gift was that of the prior himself. Whatever 
 wealth he had, appears to have accrued 
 from long savings, procured principally by 
 continued fasting, self-denial, and shunning of 
 luxuries. To him, though we are not to 
 attribute the origin of the library, we are cer- 
 tainly to ascribe its most flourishing and im- 
 portant condition — a prosperity not permitted 
 to last long. Sir John Gyllard, prior of the 
 Calendars, expended on the library the 
 princely sum of £217. To estimate fairly the 
 value of this amount, I have but to tell the 
 reader that there is now before me a document 
 bearing date about twenty years later, wherein 
 an agreement is entered into by a certain party 
 " to make well, workmanly, and surely, with 
 "good timber, a house in High-street, with 
 "floors, windows, partitions, &c., the said 
 " house having a shop, a hall above the shop 
 " with an oriel window ; a chamber above the 
 
calendars' library. 131 
 
 "hall with an oriel window, and another 
 " chamber above that/* &c., &c., for all which 
 the other party covenants to pay the sum ster- 
 ling of £6 1 3s. 4d. Now the deed expressly 
 states that this was the sum to be paid for 
 building the whole * not merely a part of 
 the house; the only perquisite allowed to the 
 builder was the old timber ; the money, being 
 considerable in those days, was to be paid by 
 three instalments. To estimate, then, the 
 value of this disinterested prior's benefaction 
 and zeal, we must bear in mind that he gave 
 towards the supply and maintenance of the 
 library alone, a sum equal to the cost of build- 
 ing 30 of the smaller houses in High-street, 
 adorned, as they then were, with projections, 
 graduating upwards and terminating in gables, 
 ornamented with quaintly wrought timber 
 
 * The parish minute book contains all the particulars (specifying 
 even the quantity of nails used) of building a house in the same 
 neighbourhood, in the year 1443; the expenses amount to £7. 5s. 3d. 
 
 n2 
 
132 calendars' library. 
 
 and pargeting. A mingled feeling steals over 
 us in the contemplation of these records — a 
 feeling made up partly of admiration and 
 partly of regret; of admiration, that a man 
 should offer such a sacrifice for the benefit of 
 his fellow-citizens and for the cause of religion 
 in general ; of regret, that a library so valuable 
 and curious should have been destroyed 
 through the carelessness of a drunken man; 
 however, drunkenness only did that which 
 avarice and revenge* would have done at a 
 later period ; had it escaped the rash act of a 
 temulent point-maker, f the ruthless hands of 
 royal commissioners would have been soon 
 
 * " Whatever advantages have resulted from the dissolution of 
 monasteries and other religious houses, no praise is due to Henry, 
 since it is unquestionable that avarice and revenge were the tyrant's 
 only motives for their dissolution." 
 
 Corby's Bristol. 
 
 f Point-maker — a maker of lace tagged, or tag-laces. The circum- 
 stance above referred to thus appears in a minute-book belonging 
 to the church: — "And yn her yer // housys next ye styple 
 wer ybrent by / dronkyn poyntmaker," — " And in their year two 
 
calendars' library. 133 
 
 busied in its destruction. It is useless now to 
 indulge any feelings of regret; the loss sus- 
 tained is, and ever will be, irretrievable, yet 
 when we think of the hundreds of volumes 
 contained in that library, including valuable 
 manuscripts of religious, national, and local 
 interest, and the time spent in teaching our 
 forefathers, when youiig, the duties they owed 
 to their God, their king, their country, and 
 their city, we may at least allow that a debt of 
 gratitude is due to the memory of the Calen- 
 dar brethren. Of their manuscripts, two or 
 three only now remain, and these are so im- 
 perfect, damaged by damp, torn, and other- 
 wise injured, that we cannot but deeply regret 
 
 houses next the steeple were burnt by a diTinken point-makev>" 
 
 Shakspeare (Henry IV, part 2) frequently uses this word, thus— 
 " If my young lord, your son, have not the day, 
 " Upon mine honor, for a single point 
 " I'll give my barony." 
 Again — 
 
 " What ! with two points, on your shoulder..'*^ 
 
 n3 
 
134 CALENDARS* LIBRARY. 
 
 the thoughtlessness which has subjected them 
 to such ill-treatment. Among these MSS. we 
 may reckon the parish minute-book of the 
 time of Henry VI. and Edward IV., a book 
 not strictly to be considered the composition 
 of the Calendars because it extends through a 
 long series of years, and is written by various 
 hands. There is also a latin transcript of the 
 " blessed Seynte Augustine/' " de visitatione 
 infirmorum/' and " de vita Xriana," with ex- 
 tracts from an address of S. Bernard to the 
 " Monks of the Mount of God ;" and, likewise, 
 sadly mutilated, partly on vellum and partly 
 on paper, (illuminated) what seems to be a 
 copy of a portion of the writing of the Holy S. 
 Gregory, that good man to whom, under God, 
 we are indebted for a great part of our impres- 
 sive litany and beautiful collects. 
 
 It is but justice to bear in mind that it was 
 during the reigns of our third Edward and his 
 immediate successors that the principal privi- 
 
calendars' library. 135 
 
 leges, immunities, and rights were granted to 
 the burgesses of Bristol, on account of their 
 loyalty and other excellencies ; and it was 
 during these reigns that the Calendars were in 
 the zenith of their influence. Their books 
 and teaching mainly contributed to form, 
 mould, and confirm the minds of the citizens ; 
 we say mainly contributed, because theirs was 
 the only public library in Bristol ; other re- 
 ligious houses had a large store of books, and 
 some of their members were regularly engaged 
 in producing, copying, and illuminating 
 manuscripts, but the peculiar office of the Ca- 
 lendars was to instruct those who were not 
 brethren of any religious order. It was the 
 Calendars who gave a character to the train of 
 literary thought which pervaded the more 
 studious of the townspeople : they spoke to the 
 youths of the deep mysteries of Christ's reli- 
 gion, training their ductile minds on the teach- 
 ing of the church, enforcing reverence to the 
 
134 CALENDARS* LIBRARY. 
 
 the thoughtlessness which has subjected them 
 to such ill-treatment. Among these MSS. we 
 may reckon the parish minute-book of the 
 time of Henry VI. and Edward IV., a book 
 not strictly to be considered the composition 
 of the Calendars because it extends through a 
 long series of years, and is written by various 
 hands. There is also a latin transcript of the 
 " blessed Seynte Augustine," " de visitatione 
 infirmorum/' and " de vita Xriana," with ex- 
 tracts from an address of S. Bernard to the 
 " Monks of the Mount of God :" and, likewise, 
 sadly mutilated, partly on vellum and partly 
 on paper, (illuminated) what seems to be a 
 copy of a portion of the writing of the Holy S. 
 Gregory, that good man to whom, under God, 
 we are indebted for a great part of our impres- 
 sive litany and beautiful collects. 
 
 It is but justice to bear in mind that it was 
 during the reigns of our third Edward and his 
 immediate successors that the principal privi- 
 
calendars' library. 135 
 
 leges, immunities, and rights were granted to 
 the burgesses of Bristol, on account of their 
 loyalty and other excellencies ; and it was 
 during these reigns that the Calendars were in 
 the zenith of their influence. Their books 
 and teaching mainly contributed to form, 
 mould, and confirm the minds of the citizens ; 
 we say mainly contributed, because theirs was 
 the only public library in Bristol ; other re- 
 ligious houses had a large store of books, and 
 some of their members were regularly engaged 
 in producing, copying, and illuminating 
 manuscripts, but the peculiar office of the Ca- 
 lendars was to instruct those who were not 
 brethren of any religious order. It was the 
 Calendars who gave a character to the train of 
 literary thought which pervaded the more 
 studious of the townspeople : they spoke to the 
 youths of the deep mysteries of Christ's reli- 
 gion, training their ductile minds on the teach- 
 ing of the church, enforcing reverence to the 
 
136 CALENDARS* LIBRARY. 
 
 higher powers, and curbing and reproving ten- 
 dencies to go astray. Old and young came 
 within the scope of their influence, not omit- 
 ting those who held public offices, particularly 
 members of the council chamber. The con- 
 sequence is, that the good folks of " Aunciente 
 Brystowe" were not only ever accounted the 
 most loyal but the most christian of English 
 people ; and so we find that the council men 
 frequented the daily prayers and mass in com- 
 mon with the other citizens, and were also 
 invariably present at particular chantries and 
 other special services. Our civic rulers in 
 those simple days had been well taught to 
 consider that religious duties were to be the 
 principal concern, and municipal calls, how- 
 ever important, to be made subservient. It 
 need awaken no surprise, then, that in their 
 official characters, the mayor, sheriff, common 
 council, and others in authority, habitually kept 
 the festivals and fasts of the church ; no proces- 
 
calendars' library. 137 
 
 sions were formed, or business of more than 
 ordinary import transacted by them, without 
 first assembling in a body at some church for 
 prayer that the mercies of God may rest upon 
 them. No national blessing was vouchsafed 
 but what in the church a special thanksgiving 
 was observed by all, led on by their christian 
 rulers ; for example — when news arrived that 
 the siege of Calais was raised, on that occasion 
 we read of no triumphal arches, merchant 
 feasts, or pot-house debauchery, it was a 
 strictly religious observance throughout the 
 whole city.* And lest the habit of attending 
 some particular church on special occasions 
 should have a tendency to disturb order, or 
 mar the beauty of the parochial system, 
 over and over again do we find it expressly 
 recorded, that when their official tasks were 
 
 • " Itm for beryng of ye crosse ye Sonneday byfor Sejmt 
 " Laurens ys day, for hreykng of ye sege of Calais.*' 1437. 
 
138 
 
 calendars' library. 
 
 done, and their refreshments of " spiced cake- 
 brede and wyne*' dispatched, they returned 
 " every one to his own parish church for even- 
 song'' 
 
** But sadder strains and direr bodiugs dark 
 
 ** Come haunting round the Almighty's captive ark." 
 
 " To hew the holy gold away, 
 
 " And seize the jjortion as they may." 
 
 LYRA APOSTOLICA. 
 
 % 
 
 I 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 CECILIA DE LA WARBE. MONEY STOLBN FROM THE 
 
 PRIORY OF THE CALENDARS FOR THE USE OF THE 
 COUNCIL CHAMBER. 
 
 Continued peace has never fallen to the lot of 
 the visible church -, and this may have been 
 lest saints on earth should be tempted to for- 
 get the " rest that remaineth." Heavy perse- 
 cutions, the sword, the rack, the arena, were 
 the full-wreathed crimson flowers which 
 formed the crown of martyrdom for some; 
 and petty, intestine, wearing disputes framed 
 the component parts of the crown of others. 
 Neither of these kinds of persecution seems 
 to have fallen to the lot of the Calendars. 
 
 o 
 
142 CECILIA DE LA WARRE. 
 
 Whatever may have been the fate of Xh^ founders 
 of their order; they, of whom we write, had 
 not been called upon to defend their faith 
 at the price of life. None of the brethren 
 had yet fallen a victim to bigotry, or been 
 '^ butchered to make a holiday." Equally 
 undisturbed had their course been by internal 
 divisions ; for rich and full and calm as the 
 costly oil which descended from Aaron's 
 beard was their unity. Still there were those 
 who envied them their quiet and peace ; 
 who hated them, perhaps for the just reproofs 
 they administered ; attributed their holy 
 labours to unholy motives, and endeavoured 
 to raise among the citizens a feeling of 
 contempt towards their order. Many 
 instances of this narrowness of spirit may 
 be traced out, and as few things are more 
 strongly characteristic of a little mind than 
 dealing in insinuations but shrinking from 
 open charges, we find the opposition oifered 
 
CECILIA DE LA WARRE. 143 
 
 to them principally exhibiting itself in this 
 way. Nor were their enemies contented 
 with vexing them by talk and whispered 
 allusions, they often took care to glance 
 unkindly at them in their legal engagements 
 and covenants, and even in their wills, thus 
 carrying their feelings of animosity with 
 them into the grave ; and by their last acts 
 adopting measures to perpetuate the mischief 
 they were so desirous of effecting. We offer 
 the following as an example, (though we 
 suspect it to be by no means the most 
 flagrant) as showing the indirect mode of 
 attack assumed to subdue the influence of 
 this priory. 
 
 It was well known that the Calendars 
 were designated by a title corresponding 
 with the French " religieuse,'' being usually 
 termed in legal and other documents religious 
 men ; but this they had in common with 
 other conventual establishments ; so in order 
 o2 
 
144 CECILIA DE LA WARRE. 
 
 to point them out more strongly it was 
 necessary to fix on some distinguishing 
 peculiarity in them : this was readily supplied 
 by the circumstance of their teaching Jews, 
 and that some of these, after their conversion 
 to the Christian faith, had become Calendar 
 brethren. This was a prominent mark 
 offered to the shaft of indirect malice. So 
 by a deed poll, of uncertain date, one Cecilia 
 de la Warre granted to William de Novo 
 Burgo certain property in All Saints parish, 
 with full liberty to sell it to any purchasers, 
 with the specific exception of " religious 
 persons and Jews,^' This woman, who, most 
 probably, herself dwelt, or certainly whose 
 tenants dwelt, under the shadow of the priory 
 tower, and within sound of its ever-going 
 bell, was determined to hand down to 
 posterity her hatred of those whose influence 
 for good was felt on every side of her own 
 property or residence. We shortly afterwards 
 
CECILIA DE LA WARRE. 145 
 
 meet with her as a married woman, but 
 cherishing a like inviduous spirit, her husband 
 being (we would hope, unwittingly) drawn 
 into the same. In a joint deed effected by 
 them, after marriage, a clause is most carefully 
 introduced to the effect that any benefit 
 which may accrue from the purchase of the 
 recited property should not be extended to 
 the " Clergy and Jews''' Ah, Cecile ! may 
 we not suspect that your excessive, and by 
 this time inveterate, rancour towards "religious 
 men and Jews " arose from that short but 
 heated conversation which you held with the 
 prior of the Calendars touching a tender 
 question in which you were deeply interested ? 
 Doubtless, in after life some moments of 
 reflection may have awakened the wish that 
 your impetuosity had not gained the mastery 
 over your better feelings ! The circumstances, 
 as nearly as we can gather them, were as 
 follows : one morning when matins were 
 o 3 
 
146 CECILIA DE LA WARRE. 
 
 over the prior had retired, as his custom 
 was, for private study and meditation ; an 
 impressive sight it was to watch that aged 
 man, with his silvery beard, shrunk form, 
 and wasting eye, absorbed in thoughts of 
 the world unseen as he pored over the sublime 
 meditations of the holy Bernard till he made 
 them his own ; though standing on the brink 
 of this side Eternity's dark stream,^ he held 
 such close communion that heart seemed 
 linked in heart with those elder brethren 
 who had already crossed to the further shore. 
 His peaceful hour was destined, on the 
 morning in question, to be interrupted : one 
 of the inferior brethren entering with 
 reverential step, announced the approach of 
 an unusual visitor ; a minute passed, and 
 there stood before him a lady tall and 
 beautiful. She had not seen more than 
 thirty summers ; her hair was braided with 
 a rich chaplet of diamonds and pearls ; one 
 
CECILIA DE LA WARRE. 147 
 
 long cluster of raven ringlets drooped over 
 her left shoulder; her dress, though not 
 studied, was of the most costly character, 
 and she drew near rather as one accustomed 
 to command, than as a meek maiden about 
 to seek the counsel of her spiritual adviser. 
 She presented a striking contrast to the 
 simple, lowly, and humble-minded sisters 
 belonging to the priory ; an acute observ^er 
 would have little difficulty in detecting in 
 that bright eye and curled lip a haughtiness 
 of spirit that would ill brook being thwarted. 
 It was manifest, however, that on this occasion 
 there was some uncontrollable timidity 
 mingled with her usual high bearing; one 
 might have seen in her a laboured attempt 
 at unconcern made by a mind deeply sensible 
 that it was bent on doing what was wrong. 
 About the superior hung a frankness and 
 good nature which speedily removed any 
 timidity she may at first have felt ; her 
 
148 CECILIA DE LA WARRE. 
 
 mission was soon opened ; the tale of her 
 love told ; her determination of matrimony 
 avowed, and the aged prior's advice and 
 blessing sought. "Marriage," said he, "is an 
 honorable estate instituted of God in the time 
 of man's innoeency, and may not be lightly 
 taken in hand ; the Christian virgin should 
 prepare herself by rigid discipline and 
 penitential acts before she presume to partake 
 of that great sacramental mystery, as the 
 Apostle defines it; she should well consider 
 that like the Church to Christ, so she to 
 her husband, must be a pure, harmless, 
 holy bride : her fidelity and affection must 
 emulate the Church's devotion for her 
 heavenly Master. In thy veins, Cecilia," he 
 continued, " still runs the blood of thy devout 
 forefathers, who to the glory of God erected 
 in this our city the hospital of S. Bartholomew, 
 and whose love for Christ caused the fair 
 waves of Avon to reflect in their glassy bosom 
 
CECILIA DE LA WARRE. 149 
 
 the costly turrets of S. Anne ; but on whom 
 deigns their wealthy descendant to bestow 
 her hand?" 
 
 "My object in intruding on your solitude," 
 haughtily replied she, "was not, Sir Prior, to 
 gratify an unjustifiable curiosity, — it was not 
 to supply a new subject of conversation for 
 your brethren in their refectory, or for the 
 wimpled maidens in their dormitory : I came 
 to thee, as in duty bound, to ask thy ghostly 
 counsel, as to the method by which our 
 Holy Mother Church would have me prepare 
 for the Sacrament of Matrimony; but yet — " 
 and she paused a moment, as though in 
 doubt whether she would proceed, — "but yet, 
 a daughter of the house of the Baron de la 
 Warre will not, cannot, shrink from avowing 
 what she is proud to feel, and will be prouder 
 still to effect. She denies your right to task 
 her thus ; and though your keen eye may 
 detect a momentary quiver about this lip, and 
 
150 CECILIA DE LA WARRE. 
 
 a passing flush upon this cheek, yet within is 
 a heart that will never quail beneath the 
 frown of an imperious priest ! Know then, 
 since you will hear it, that a few more suns 
 will rise and set, and the towers of Landaff 
 shall reecho the free shout of merriment, 
 and the joyous chimes of Landaff bells shall 
 bound merrily along the heather crags on 
 the nuptial morn of the archdeacon's bride ! " 
 A cloud passed over the prior's brow, but 
 it lingered not ; his eye kindled with 
 animation, perhaps with anger, but it was 
 as short-lived as a flake of snow upon a 
 summer's stream. ''An archdeacon's bride T' 
 he firmly repeated, " an archdeacon's bride ! 
 And can it be, that a daughter of the Church 
 can thus disgrace her profession ? — can it 
 be, that one over whom I have watched from 
 her cradle, who has been regenerated in the 
 sacred waters of Baptism, and trained in 
 all the ordinances of our Holy Mother can 
 
CECILIA DE LA WARKE. 151 
 
 raise a matricidal hand against her, and 
 tempt one of her ministers to evade his vow 
 of celibacy ? Can it be, that you can thus 
 cast an eternal blot on the hitherto untarnished 
 scutcheon of the founder of S. Anne's ? " 
 
 "I have done so already," was her quick 
 reply, "already have I but too deeply stained 
 that fair atchievement by stooping to consult 
 the poor dotard chief of a paltry brotherhood. 
 You may refuse, — you may blame, — you 
 may threaten, — but, there are means!'' With 
 these words, uttered in an indignant tone, 
 and accompanied with a haughty look of 
 disdain, Cecilia de la Warre abruptly closed 
 the interview. Shortly after, availing herself 
 of a growing laxity in ecclesiastical discipline, 
 she contrived to become the archdeacon's 
 wife. 
 
 It is but just to add, (though it does 
 not appear to have been the case in this 
 instance) that an archdeacon may have been 
 
152 CECILIA DE LA WAKRE. 
 
 a layman, although holding an official 
 situation in the Church : just as we know 
 that laymen may have been deans and 
 prebendaries until they were excluded by 
 the Act of Uniformity. Still a consistent 
 prior would not sanction such conduct, 
 and when referred to, would, of course, 
 unhesitatingly declare his disapprobation. 
 The obscure wording, also, of these old 
 documents leaves it somewhat doubtful 
 whether the hand of the haughty Cecile, so 
 impatient of rebuke, was coveted by the 
 archdeacon or the archdeacon's son : either 
 case, if the said official was a clerk, supposes 
 a breach of ecclesiastical discipline ; for 
 whether a father or a husband he must have 
 forsaken his vow of celibacy ; and this would 
 necessarily draw down on the fair applicant 
 ecclesiastical censure, because by her marriage 
 with such a person she made herself a party 
 in the irregularity. This circumstance will. 
 
 i 
 
MONEY STOLEN FEOM THE PRIORY, ETC. 153 
 
 in a great measure, account for the unwearied 
 zeal with which she, ever after, sought out 
 opportunites of evincing her ill-will towards 
 the priory. 
 
 We will tax our readers patience with 
 only one instance more of these petty 
 annoyances. Our object in referring to 
 them is to bring forward the causes which 
 cramped the influence of the Calendars, 
 and led the way to further aggressions. 
 Unprincipled men soon found out that the 
 subdued spirits of these brethren, trained, 
 as they were, never to repay evil with evil, 
 were just the objects on which they might 
 most easily exercise wrong. How grievous 
 is it that the very calmness of meek spirits 
 often most exposes them to injury ; and 
 still more grievous that those who are in 
 authority, and ought to be the foremost to 
 shelter the unarmed and protect the innocent, 
 sometimes avail themselves of an opportunity 
 
 p 
 
154 MONEY STOLEN FROM THE PRIORY 
 
 of doing wrong with impunity, because 
 wreaked on well disciplined, calm, and 
 forgiving minds ! The fact we are about to 
 relate is recorded among the annals of our 
 own corporation, and is entered, with the 
 fewest possible words, in "the Maire of 
 Bristowe is register," by the pen of one of the 
 lay brothers. This Calendar tells us, with 
 a simplicity that bespeaks truth, that money 
 was " stolen by the Counseile from the 
 priory of Al-hallowen." 
 
 Poor men ! they were not only destined, in 
 common with other religious houses, to have 
 their plate, including gold and silver, ships, 
 tabernacles, cups, patens, chalices, crucifixes, 
 &c., of curious workmanship, inlaid with crys- 
 tals and rubies, appropriated to his own private 
 purposes by one Sovereign,* and their tene- 
 ments (so many of them at least as escaped his 
 hands, or were restored by Mary) confiscated 
 
 * Henry vm. 
 
FOR THE USE OF THE COUNCIL CHAMBER. 155 
 
 and sold by another,* but they were subject 
 also to cruel peculations even from those who 
 were most indebted to them. Certes, a visit from 
 royalty was a heavy expense to the loyal citizens 
 of Bristol ; and when a courier brought word 
 to the Council that it was the good will 
 and pleasure of that oft defeated and 
 depressed monarch Henry the Sixth to pay 
 Bristol another visit (I think it was in the 
 27th year of his reignf), the members of 
 
 * Queen Elizabeth, — the virgin monarch, "good Queen Bess" 
 as she is popularly styled j but we have just reason to question the 
 applicability of that epithet to her. " The field, the dance, the bear 
 garden, the stage, (says the Rev. Mr. Haweis, in his Sketches of 
 the Reformation) succeeded constantly and rapidly on her morning 
 studies in Theology. She was a gay, worldly, scheming woman 
 
 The circulation of immoral books appears to have received 
 
 a stimulus in her reign." At one time eight play houses were 
 open every Sunday, in which much Fescennine licence was taken. 
 " I speak it with sorrow of heart," says William Alley, a jolly 
 preacher in the 2nd year of the Queen's reign, " to our vice ballet- 
 makers and enditors of wanton songs, no revengement but rewards 
 axe largely paid and given." 
 
 •}• An entry of the expense for ringing the bells of Al-hallowen 
 on this occasion is thus made in the Churchwardens' accounts : — 
 *' Itm to Ryngerys a genst ye Kynge." 
 
 p2 
 
156 MONEY STOLEN FROM THE PRIORY 
 
 that august body were astonished and 
 pressed down, as well they might have 
 been, under the weight of their increasing 
 and expensive honours. Their hearts were 
 full of loyalty, but, unfortunately, their 
 coffers were empty of gold : How were 
 these latter to be replenished? In this 
 dilemma, they bethought them at once of the 
 prior and co-brethren of Calendars. Hard 
 savings out of their pittances, and the 
 accumulations of many years (for their wants 
 were few ; or, if numerous, not freely 
 indulged), had obtained for them the character 
 of possessing some wealth. But, reasoned 
 these honourable (?) council men, what need 
 have such self-denying men of gold ? what 
 need have they of money, who, like the : 
 Cluniacs, when nature requires sleep are 
 awake, when they would eat are made to 
 fast ? Surely gold must be valueless to them, 
 whose night is for the most part passed in 
 
FOR THE USE OF THE COUNCIL CHAMBER. 157 
 
 praying in the church, and their day in 
 sacred works and study ! Surely, little call 
 can they have to make on pecuniary sources, 
 whose refectory supplies them for meat, with 
 eggs and beans with their pods on ; and for 
 drink (boisson des beufs), liquor fit for 
 oxen,=^ at best but poor and (mouille) 
 watered wine. Such wealth, while in their 
 possession, apparently useless, in fact quite 
 lost on them, would be very serviceable to 
 us most honorable members of a most 
 honorable council, particularly on this 
 occasion of a repeated royal visit ! Thus 
 thought and thus argued the chief speakers 
 in that august civic conclave : and their 
 argument prevailed, ^'Majori parti placuit," 
 for the result of the debate in the council 
 hall that day was, that the bailiffs received 
 certain orders, which they obeyed to the 
 very letter, though, as it would seem, not 
 
 * Query — Beef-tea. 
 
 p3 
 
158 MONEY STOLEN FROM THE PRIORY 
 
 without some compunction of conscience ; 
 for as recorded in the " Maire is register/' 
 though they brought many pounds sterling 
 to " the use of the chamhre,''' yet it was 
 '^ agenst theyre wille, for they tvere coerced 
 thereto by the Counseille, rvhyche money, as 
 it was saidCy was stole from the priory of 
 Alhallowen'' The day named by the royal 
 visitant soon arrived ; bells were ringings 
 flags were flying, motley crowds with cheerful 
 faces and decked in best attire, were, at an 
 early hour, seen hurrying towards the gate 
 of S. Nicholas, from the portals and 
 subterranean chapel of whose church issued 
 a goodly flock refreshed by matin prayers : 
 these helped to swell, by their numbers, the 
 multitude of citizens anxious to give a cordial 
 welcome to their sovereign. The Mayor, 
 the Vice-comes or Sheriff*, and the Baliffs, 
 who had now for once suffered their loyalty 
 to get the better of their sense of justice. 
 
FOB THE USE OF THE COUNCIL CHAMBER. 159 
 
 were brilliantly attired, and their horses 
 richly caparisoned. The day passed 
 with the hilarity, cheerfulness, and extra 
 indulgence common to such occasions, the 
 civic feasts were plentiful, and the " cuppes 
 were filled right merrille ahoutej' so that 
 the gay monarch and his retinue were in 
 all things " moste worchepefully " entertained : 
 but when that festive day was over, and the 
 citizen had returned to his counter, and the 
 dame had laid aside her costly* minever 
 and satin, little was thought of the price 
 paid for the pageantry ; little was it thought 
 that through many a long winters night 
 the fagot would blaze less cheerily in the 
 hall, or the head roll more restlessly on 
 the log,t that hard substitute for a pillow, 
 
 * On one occasion some Bristolians were fined for the costliness 
 of their wives' and daughters' dresses : so that they paid the double 
 tax, of their wives' extravagance and the magistrates' sentence, 
 
 f " We, ourselves, have lyen full oft upon straw pallettes .... 
 and a good rounde logge under our heades insteade of a boulster." 
 
 " Pillowes, sayde they, were thougt meete onely for women in 
 childehed." Hollinshed, 
 
160 MONEY STOLEN FROM THE PRIORY 
 
 ill the dark and straitened sollar,* the 
 dormitory of the Calendars ! We hear of 
 no complaint from them : no murmur 
 is reported to have issued from their 
 lips : the circumstance had never escaped, 
 it would not now be known to us, 
 were it not for the dry matter-of-fact entry 
 of an official who mentions it without a 
 comment. Such an act of injustice was as 
 uncalled for, as it is happily unprecedented, in 
 the annals of Bristol council-men. Naturally 
 enough may our Calendars have complained 
 of the ill-treatment they received in requital 
 for the benefits they had conferred on the 
 citizens : but, in their view, a very essential 
 part of their religion was to bring their minds 
 into that state which would quietly, nay, 
 even thankfully, receive injuries, which would 
 honor the Temple above the gold, and lead 
 them to consider that there was a holiness 
 
 * SoUar — an upper room. The word is often used by ancient 
 writers in this sense, thus — " In the Solyer where the Souper of 
 Jhesu Cryst and of hys Appostles was made." — Gold : Leg : xix. 
 
FOR THE USE OF THE COUNCIL CHAMBER. 161 
 
 in poverty borne for their Master's sake. We 
 may fairly regard this example of patience 
 under injuries as a criterion of their usual 
 conduct, — as a part of their spiritual system, 
 — as one flower culled from amongst the 
 thousand which bloomed on their borders, — 
 as a sample, like the grapes of Eshcoll, of 
 what the whole vineyard bore. 
 
 The names of the authors of this cruel 
 and sacriligious act ought not to lie hid, 
 though we may hope that they lived to 
 repent of their sin, and " where they had 
 done injury or wrong made amends to the 
 uttermost of their power."* 
 
 Eichard Fforster was the mayor who 
 " coerced " his servants to do what was 
 wrong; and William RoUfe and John Wykam 
 were the pusillanimous bailiffs who, though 
 " agenst theyre rville,'' knowingly committed 
 a theft at the solicitation of another. 
 
 • Rubrick in " The Visitation of the Sick»" 
 
" Dies irse, dies ilia, 
 
 " Crucis expandens vexilla, 
 
 ** Solvet seclum in favilla« 
 
 " Quantus tremor est futurus, 
 " Quando judex est venturus, 
 " Cuncta strict^ discussurus ! ' 
 
 TE SPIRITS 
 
 AND SOULS OF THE RIGHTEOUS, 
 
 BLESS YE THE LORD ; 
 
 PRAISE HIM, 
 
 AND MAGNIFY HIM 
 
 FOR EVER ! 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 SECULARITY SPREADS IN THE BROTHERHOOD. — ROBERT 
 
 RICART, " THE MAIRE YS KALENDAR." RICART AND 
 
 CANYNGE COMPARED. 
 
 A contagious worldliness had by this time 
 more or less infected the religious houses 
 in England, and was spreading with fearful 
 rapidity on every side. Nothing so 
 much tended to the decline of monastic 
 establishments as their growing secularity. 
 Covetousness, cunning, intemperance, and 
 almost every species of sin, were to be 
 found beneath the cowl and cloak ; and 
 those which in the midst of an almost 
 universal depravity were able to keep 
 
164 SECULARTTY SPREADS 
 
 1 
 
 themselves from the grosser acts, were too 
 often infected with the poison of worldly 
 mindedness. It is not to be expected that 
 our Calendars would altogether escape the 
 wretched effects of such a widely spread 
 miasma. It does not appear that any deadly 
 sin is to be laid to their charge either 
 collectively or individually ; but that fearful 
 root of evil, the love of money, had struck 
 its fibres deeply into their community, so 
 that even religious offices were desecrated by 
 being forced to subsei-ve worldly purposes. 
 Vigorous were the efforts now made to obtain 
 oblations : every kind (whether sanctioned 
 by Catholic usage or not) of anniversary, 
 obit, and prayers for the departed was 
 instituted ; costly and curious offerings on 
 their several shrines were encouraged, and 
 the dying urged to avail themselves by gold 
 of the Church's prayers. And while this 
 was being carried on by the clerics, the lay 
 
IN THE BROTHERHOOD. 165 
 
 brethren were alike active in their department, 
 seeking and courting civic offices, for which, 
 from their former character, aptitude for 
 business, and great influence, they were 
 seldom unsuccessful applicants. It is an 
 ill wind, says a proverb, which blows no 
 one any good : to this secular spirit, 
 unworthy as it was, and deeply to be 
 deprecated, we are indebted for the good 
 fortune of obtaining more account of our 
 Calendars than would otherwise be supplied, 
 — though, as it is, we are but gleaners, — 
 the most we know is but incidentally noticed ; 
 a fire, as we have before observed, is said 
 to have destroyed all the books and manu- 
 scripts belonging to the library, which was 
 one of the two houses adjoining the Church 
 *' styple " that were " ybrent ; " had it not, 
 therefore, happened that one of the lay 
 brothers was elected Town-clerk in the reign 
 of Edward IV, we should have been able 
 
 Q 
 
166 EGBERT RICART. 
 
 to obtain still fewer memorials than those 
 we have. This was one Eobert Kicart, clever 
 in pen, quick in accounts, shrewd in intellect, 
 and not wanting in judgment. His capa- 
 bilities were duly appreciated by those in 
 authority, and his worldly gifts not suffered 
 to lie unemployed. He retained, as we find, 
 through the residue of his life, a most 
 grateful recollection of the happy hours he 
 had paseed in Al-hallowen Church and its 
 Priory ; and, perhaps, in the midst of worldly 
 tumults often sighed for the holy quiet he 
 once enjoyed within their precincts ; by his 
 last will he secured a sum of money to be 
 annually paid, in equal proportions, to the 
 Church and the Fraternity of which he had 
 been, in his purer days, a brother or fellow. 
 Among other particulars concerning him 
 we learn that he was commanded by that 
 " famouse and discrete psonne William 
 Spenser, Maire of Bristol in the reign of 
 
"THE MAIRE YS KALENDAR." 167 
 
 oure moost dradde souvryne lord King 
 Edwarde the fourth, to devise, ordaine, and 
 make a book, to be called or named the 
 Maire of Bristowe is register, or ellis the 
 Maire is kalendar." In devising this, his 
 monkish genius is very apparent, but amidst 
 all its oddities and quaintness there is some- 
 thing very beautiful, and, to our cold-hearted 
 age, reproving, in the rude emblematic 
 drawing with which he commences his 
 labours. Who would now think it necessary 
 or advisable to prefix an emblazoned repre- 
 sentation of some important scene . in the 
 life of Christ, wrought out with extreme 
 care by the author's own hand, to a book 
 recording civic rules, processions, appoint- 
 ments and expenses ? nay, is it not to be 
 regretted that we have fallen so much into 
 the way of considering that our duties to 
 the world are necessarily to be abscinded 
 from all reference to religion? not that 
 q2 
 
168 ROBERT RICART 
 
 appending a pictorial representation of a 
 Christian doctrine to a book of accounts is 
 at once a proof of the piety of the author ; 
 but when we find allusions to the great truth 
 of Redemption shown during any given age 
 or successive ages in all that was publicly 
 said, done, or written ; in debates, letters, 
 books, parchments, scrolls, tapestry, buildings, 
 niches, ornaments, we have certainly some 
 evidence that, as a nation, they outwardly 
 (charity will suppose inwardly too) did it 
 to the glory of God. In fact, Ricart declares 
 in his opening sentence that this was his 
 chief object in forming his manuscript, telling 
 us (in Latin) that he composed it for " the 
 honor of Almighty God and the glory and 
 praise of His Blessed Mother," adding to 
 it the prayer that "the Holy Mary would 
 be propitious to his undertaking." We have 
 nothing to do with this semi-cleric changeling 
 Calendar's religious opinions : he writes and 
 
"THE MATRE YS KALENDAR." 169 
 
 depicts as a layman — as an official — as 
 the Town-clerk of Bristol, and yet glories 
 in his religion ; he did not think his memoirs 
 would be less acceptable to Christian 
 people because they occasionally referred 
 to religious duties, and were sent abroad 
 with what was, according to his view, a 
 Christian frontispiece and dedication. As 
 this drawing is fully explained by Barrett, 
 in his History of Bristol, I refer the reader 
 to his description of it, only remarking, 
 that what he calls " an angel with a trumpet " 
 is no other than one waving a " thuribulum," 
 or incense vessel. 
 
 The idea, so prevalent in those and many 
 former days, of praying for the dead is found 
 interspersed throughout his whole register : 
 such as, when speaking of the " worshipful 
 and aunciente fadres who purchased the 
 franchises of Bristowe," he writes, 
 
 " I can no more say for them that now lieth in cheste, 
 But pray to God send their sowles good reste," 
 Q 3 
 
170 EGBERT RICART 
 
 And again, referjing to those who " built 
 the Castell of Bristowe, and founded the 
 Abbey of Seint Austjne " he adds, 
 " Almighty God rewarde them in hevyn 
 For al we are bound to praye for the same." 
 
 The character of his opinions, respecting 
 some of our kings, as well as of his 
 Latinity, may be conjectured from the 
 following : 
 
 ^^Willmus Rufus." 
 
 "Grata sagitta fuit Willm quae premebat 
 Dira morte ruit qui dira frequenter agebat."^ 
 
 "Henricus sec.'* 
 
 "Hie est Henricus sub quo passus repitur 
 Praesul magnificus Thomas gladioque feritur." 
 
 " Johannes." 
 
 " Quis dolet aut doluit de regis morte Johis 
 Qui nulli placuit dum vixit pluribus annis." 
 
 He has left us scarcely any specimen of 
 his attempts at English poesy, but we furnish 
 our reader with one made by Willielmus, 
 a brother Calendar, " yus he wroten, as I 
 
"THE MAIRE YS KALENDAR." 171 
 
 amm toulde," says J. a'Dannburie, '' dhe 
 Lorde hys prayre : " 
 
 «Ur fadre, yat yn heavyn ys ; 
 
 Whoe hallyed scheold bee iwis ; 
 
 Hie kyngdo comen us ontoe ; 
 
 Hie volunde on aerthe don alsoe. 
 
 As bene yn heavyn brighte ; 
 
 Hie hallie brede senden aie 
 
 On yis ande ylk oder daie ; 
 
 For yeven ous sinis ydon 
 
 As for yeven us uch oder men ; 
 
 Ne fondyng letten us amynge ; 
 
 Botte syld ous fro dhe wycke foule thynge." 
 
 A Latin manuscript also, partly on vellum 
 and partly on paper, and bearing manifold 
 evidence of having been v^^ritten by a Calendar 
 brother, still exists though greatly mutilated ; 
 at the end is added a curious series of 
 reasons why the Apostles were twelve in 
 number. The only piece of English in it 
 affords a quaint specimen of the versification 
 of his day. Damp, erasure, and ill-usage 
 
172 RICART AND CANYNGE. 
 
 have severally contributed to render it illegible 
 in certain portions. Thus it runs : 
 ** These xii. Apostles under figure 
 I shal declare in short manere, 
 In the olde lawe hi scripture, 
 Pfigured by priarchs* xii. they were 
 In gendring feyth us to lere,t 
 They .... first that dede make 
 Holy churche for goddis sake." 
 
 Serviceable, however, as Ricart's abilities 
 were to the council chamber ; pleased as we 
 may be with his rude drawings ; and even 
 thankful under the circumstances that he 
 sought and obtained the office of Town 
 Clerk ; yet he must not be screened from 
 the censure he so justly deseiTes of forget- 
 fulness of higher vows, and of lending a 
 helping hand to fan into a flame the fire 
 of destruction, not at this time openly seen 
 indeed, but most surely smouldering. What 
 a contrast is afforded by his conduct and 
 
 * Patriarchs. f Learu. 
 
RICART AND CANYNGE. 173 
 
 that of Canynge ! one a member of a holy 
 brotherhood, leaving the solemn peacefulness of 
 his order for secular gaieties and civic excite- 
 ment ; the other, an honored Bristol merchant, 
 throwing aside his robe of fur and scarlet, 
 and his spangled gauntlet, and seeking the 
 quiet of retirement in the Benedictine College 
 at Westbury. One, leaving the seclusion of 
 his primary vocation — the monotonous round 
 of monastic services — the self-subduing habits 
 of a cenobite order, and burying himself in 
 mercantile cares and magisterial duties : the 
 other, casting aside his gloves, his robes, 
 his mace and all the insignia of office, — 
 tearing himself from worldly honors, high 
 friendship and princely companionship, 
 giving up earthly ties, even refusing an 
 alliance* urged by the most powerful of 
 
 * Dallaway calls this a " silly tradition." The Mayor's Register 
 however has the following entry: Canynge was "to be maried 
 by the Kyng our souATain lord's commandmt, as it was saide, but 
 gave up the worlde, and in all haste toke orders upon hym of the 
 gode Bisshop of Worcestre, called Carpynter, and was made priest 
 and sang his furst masse at our lady of Redclif the yere followyng.'* 
 
174 EICART AND CANYNGE. 
 
 this world's inducements, a king's proposal ^ 
 and backed by the strongest of nature's 
 inducements, a lady pure and beautiful, and 
 high in the regal court ; and, for what ? 
 that he may spend the residue of his life 
 in holy loneliness and contemplation, in 
 acts of self-denial and penitence, in con- 
 tinuous prayer and praise. The contrast 
 is striking; but withal there was nothing 
 singular and uncommon in the course adopted 
 by Canynge. He did what thousands of 
 others had done ; he did what hundreds 
 around him were doing ; thinking, as they 
 did, that having been born alone, and destined 
 to die alone, a habit of loneliness aids much 
 the establishment and fixidity of the Christian 
 character. The venerable Bede informs us 
 that many English, noble and low-born, 
 vied with each other in leaving the world 
 and devoting themselves to a religious life. 
 More than one Saxon king have laid aside 
 their crowns and assumed the monastic habit : 
 
RICAKT AND CANYNGE. 175 
 
 no marvel then that Canynge, wearied with 
 the world, should have humbly knelt (though 
 he was mayor of no mean city) at the 
 Abbey gate of Westbury, and earnestly 
 craved admission into the order. We find 
 him an acolyte in 1467, and a priest the 
 year following. What a change ! The rich 
 robes of a Bristol merchant abandoned for 
 a monk's rough cloak ! the uproar of public 
 excitement for the silence of a cloister ! the 
 gaiety of city feasts for the poor fare and 
 fastings of a convent ! the reception of 
 royalty for the washing of a worne pilgrim's 
 feet! An idea of this kind once possessing 
 the soul of a fervently religious man 
 influences him through life and accompanies 
 him to his death-bed. Without any undue 
 stretch therefore of imagination we may 
 bring before our minds the dying Canynge, 
 supported on his hard mattress by two brother 
 monks, and with lean, bony, quivering hand 
 
176 RICART AND CANYNGE. 
 
 sketching (as we are informed he did) a 
 design for his own monument, still to be 
 seen in RedclifF Church, which simply tells 
 his tale of having left the world for God. 
 A recumbent priest, resting his feet on a 
 distorted figure, intimates his having put off 
 the old man of worldly turmoil and sin, and 
 trampled it under foot, though the triumph 
 gained, was gained, as it always is, with per- 
 sonal agony — an intimation, plain enough, that 
 he who would crucify the flesh with its affec- 
 tions and lusts, must submit to sufferings ; for 
 there can be no crucifixion without pain. 
 Canynge's is not the only example afforded 
 that a man to be a disciple of Christ, must 
 be a sufferer — "all great saints have had 
 great trials." 
 
 Thou Noble Offspring of noble parentage ! 
 If we may not fulfil thy wish " Orate pro 
 animabus," &c., we may yet "bless God 
 for thy "departure in His faith and fear;" 
 
 4 
 
RICART AND CANYNGE. 177 
 
 we may beseech Him to "give us grace to 
 follow (thy) good example ; " we may pray 
 Him that with (thee) " we may be par- 
 takers of His heavenly kingdom; we may 
 beseech Him to grant that we with (thyself 
 and) "all those who are departed in the 
 true faith of His holy name may have our 
 perfect consummation and bliss in His eternal 
 and everlasting glory." 
 
 Canynge, thou noble- offspring of noble 
 parentage ! grandson emulating and surpassing 
 the zeal and Christian love which glowed 
 in the breast of thy father, and father's parent] 
 while that " pride and boast of Western lands," 
 the glorious fabric of S. Mary, Redcliffe, 
 remains, — so long as Englishmen can feel as 
 Englishmen, — so long as the Church's sons 
 continue to admire the " beauty of holiness," 
 and love to see the Great " King's daughter 
 all glorious," thousands, and tens of thousands, 
 shall extol and reverence thy name, 
 O, CANYNGE] 
 
 B 
 
" Snatched sudden from th' avenging rod, 
 
 " Safe in the bosom of thy God j 
 
 " How wilt thou then look back and smile 
 
 " On thoughts that bitterest seemed erewhile j 
 
 " And bless the pangs that made thee see 
 
 " This was no world of rest for thee." 
 
 CHRISTIAir YBAB. 
 
 " Why, say some of these men, can you not live as the Apostles 
 •' lived ? Why, say I again, let them lay down their goods at 
 the Apostles' feet, and then let them ask that question." 
 
 WILLIAM BUBTOW, 
 
 (Preacher at Norwich, about a.d. \5S0.) 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE "general MYNDE." THE " DAWNSE OF SOWLES " 
 
 AND PRECIOUS " PRYMER." SCULL OF S. THOMAS OF 
 
 CANTERBURY. VARIETY OF BENEFACTIONS. 
 
 We have referred to the growing secularity 
 which by this time had generally infected the 
 religious houses in England, and have included 
 our Calendars amongst those who were some- 
 times induced to barter spiritual privileges 
 for paltry gold ; to prostitute holy services 
 and commemorations of the departed for 
 additional bequests to their brotherhood ; and 
 to tamper with the feelings of the living 
 and the dying that their own influence and 
 wealth may be increased. This is a serious 
 charge : lightly would we step over the 
 graves of the dead. But we have endeavoured 
 to do justice to their zeal and devotedness, 
 r2 
 
180 THE " GENERAL MYNDE." 
 
 we may not shelter them from the blame 
 they justly incurred. What, for instance, 
 could have been a more gross and palpable 
 means of extorting money than the parade 
 they made of reciting on stated occasions 
 the names and gifts of benefactors? It is 
 right that good deeds should be recorded 
 as an example to the selfish, and encourage- 
 ment to the diffident and reluctant ; but 
 no Christian man can approve of theatrical 
 displays in churches, and other adventitious 
 means being adopted in order to lead the 
 unwilling to give from vain and improper 
 motives. It was a goodly custom in ''the 
 primitive Church to commemomte the faithful 
 departed. Our Christian forefathers " un- 
 rolled, year after year, the catalogue of saints, 
 and read aloud their warfare and their victory, 
 thereby to embolden with a holy daring 
 the church militant on earth — to put a new 
 heart into the weary and the wavering j'* but 
 
THE "GENERAL MYNDE." 181 
 
 man's sin and Satan's cunning perverted 
 this holy custom into evil ; on this " they built 
 a lying doctrine, and turned the unseen 
 world into a fable, and the commemoration 
 of the saints into a snare;"* and such 
 degeneracy had found its way into the 
 brotherhood of Calendars. Let the reader 
 imagine the Church of Al-hallowen, not then 
 curtailed in its fair proportions of height 
 and length, dressed out with more than 
 usually attractive decorations ; the triforium 
 pendent with tapestry, paintings, and light 
 carved work ; — let him imagine some eight 
 altars hung about with curtains of elaborate, 
 gilded, and exquisite workmanship ; a 
 dazzling display, from every niche, of costly 
 bequests ! roodloft, screen, mitred images, 
 ledges, even paintings, every spot indeed 
 to which an ornament could be appended, 
 covered with bequests of the deceased ! Let 
 
 * Manning. 
 
 r3 
 
182 THE " GENERAL MYNDE." 
 
 him bring before his mind the high altar 
 groaning beneath the weight of crucifix, 
 tabernacle, pixes, &c., rvorshipfully endued 
 with jewels, and every jewel reflecting by 
 innumerable rays the lights from lamps and 
 tapers : the frontal of that altar being cloth 
 of silver, on which was worked in gold 
 the " fygur of ye Trynite, " and the 
 " coronacyon of oure Lady ; " curtains, 
 embroidered with angels and stars of gold 
 being suspended round about ; the other 
 altars at the same time overlaid with coverings 
 of chequered velvet, or inwrought with 
 minutest marquetry ; ^ the former rich with 
 
 * The curiously inlaid and richly carved front of the altar which 
 stood in the south aisle of the Church, and called the rood altar, 
 was set with images of S. Anne, S. Mary Magdalene, and other 
 saints "full worshyppfully ; " this was enclosed with a door, 
 into the pannels of which were wrought figures of S. Mary and 
 S. John standing at the foot of the Cross ; over the whole hung a 
 curtain of tapestry, worked with silver and gold, to be drawn 
 aside on special occasions. This elaborate piece of workmanship 
 was the sole gift of that sincere cliurch-lover, " Dame Alice 
 Chester," and the tapestry, we have reason to believe, was worked 
 by her own fair fingers. 
 
THE "GENEBAL MYNDE." 183 
 
 "orfres" of gold, and powdered with stars," 
 the latter storied with figures and emblems, 
 brilliant with crystal and other precious 
 stones, while from all parts of the roof and 
 unoccupied portions of the pillars and wall 
 drooped banners of " clothe of sylvyr," with 
 figures of " All-halo w" raised in gold. Let 
 him present to his mind's view the full 
 company of priests, (vicar, calendars, chauntry 
 priests and clerks,) flanked with deacons and 
 sub-deacons, in their most gorgeous array 
 of consecrated *" amices, chesybles, tunicles, 
 with orfres of ray ffelvett," and "copes of 
 " branched damaske," (all gifts of departed 
 benefactors) grouped in the chancel ! Let him 
 
 * The vestments, like those of the Jewish priests, were all 
 consecrated or hallowed in a formal manner, the expense thereof 
 was defrayed by the parish : 
 
 " Item, for halowyng of one peyr vestyments, xiid." 
 
 They were also very expensive : a " newe sewte" of vestments 
 cost £2. 7s. lOd., while the "beste sewte" stood them in 
 £4. 13s. 4d., nearly thevalue of building a [house in the principal 
 »treet in the city. 
 
184 THE " GENERAL MYNDE/* 
 
 imagine everything produced calculated to 
 bewilder and attract, and, that after the 
 feelings of the assembled multitude has received 
 an additional excitement by the elevation 
 of the Host, that one of the priests advances 
 and reads the following commemoration, or, as 
 it was then called, "General Mynde." Let 
 him imagine all this — and he may do it 
 without any perversiop of truth — and then 
 say whether we are severe in our remark that 
 even the Calendar brethren were tempted in 
 some sort to yield to the too general habit 
 amongst religious fraternities of tampering 
 with the feelings of the living and the dying. 
 Thus he spake : " Good Christian People ! 
 '' whereas it hath been a laudable custom, 
 '^ and of long continuance in use, that on 
 " this * day the names of good doers and 
 
 * Usually, at the Church of All Saints, on Ash- Wednesday, 
 the people being then more disposed to set lightly by earthly 
 possessions ; the priest signing them on the forehead in the fomi 
 of the Cross, with this admonition : " Remember thou art dust, 
 
THE " GENERAL MYNDE. 185 
 
 " well-willers by whom livelihood, tenements, 
 " buildings, jewels, books, chalices, vestments, 
 " and other ornaments and goods, as follow, 
 " have been given unto this church, to the 
 " honor and worship of Almighty God, and 
 " increasing of Divine Service, should be 
 *' rehearsed and showed unto you, by name, 
 " boy, man, and woman, what benefit they 
 " did for themselves, their friends, and others 
 " in their life time, and what they left to be 
 " done after their days that they should not 
 *' be forgotten, but be had in remembrance 
 
 "and be prayed for 
 
 "and also for an example to all ye that are 
 " now living that ye may likewise do for 
 "yourselves while in this world, that after 
 " this transitory life ye may be in the number 
 " of good doers that shall be rehearsed by 
 
 •nd shalt return to dust." Sometimes it was on the Sunday 
 before Ash- Wednesday, which was probably the day designated 
 « Relyk Sonday." 
 
186 THE '^ GENERAL MYNDE." 
 
 ^^ name, and had in the special prayers of 
 " Christian people in time to come : so that 
 "through the perfect mercy of Almighty 
 '' God, by the intercession of our Blessed 
 "Lady, and of all the blessed Saints in 
 "whose honour and worship this Church 
 "is dedicate, ye may on to the everlasting 
 " bliss and joy that our Blessed Lord hath 
 " redeemed you unto. Amen." 
 
 Who can doubt the result of such an 
 address, backed by a powerful appeal to the 
 external senses, quickened by exhibited 
 benefactions of departed friends, the dear 
 memory of whom was yet green and vivid 
 in the minds of many present ; and to internal 
 feelings, created by the natural desire every 
 man entertains and cherishes of not being 
 immediately forgotten when he is dead? 
 Nevertheless, it is well to keep the departed 
 faithful in mind — to think of them, not so 
 much as what they were, but as what they 
 
THE " GENERAL MYNDE." 187 
 
 now are, waiting the accomplishment of 
 Christ's elect. The result, under the cir- 
 cumstances above mentioned, was just what 
 might have been expected : fear in one, 
 vanity in another, religious awe in a third, 
 and bewilderment in the rest, led to increasing 
 oblations and bequests, which combined to 
 fill the " cofres" of the fraternity. The effect 
 was bad in a moral point of view ; for some 
 men in their last moments did not shrink 
 from avowing that their object in leaving 
 testamentary gifts to the church was not only 
 that they should be prayed for, but that they 
 should be expressly mentioned by name, when 
 the " General Mynde was rehearsed." Thus 
 we find honest Eichard Ake, a parishioner, 
 covenanting to give for the use of the vicar 
 for ever, one antiphonary, * subject to the 
 
 • The " Antiphonarium" contained the anthems and responsoiies 
 which were sung in the course of Divine Service j it is sometimes 
 called the "graduale," because these anthems were occasionally 
 ehanted on the steps Cgradus) of the Ambon. 
 
188 THE "GENERAL MYNDE." 
 
 proviso that he " be prayed for among the 
 benefactors f and even a burgess of London, 
 R. Derkin, the mercer, who had undertaken 
 the distant^ journey to Brystowe on important 
 business, being led into All Saints Church, 
 and there dazzled by the parade of 
 commemorating priests, the effect of which 
 influenced him to his death bed, bargains, 
 through the medium of a bequest, to be 
 prayed for by name. And the wealthy Henry 
 Chester, with his church-loving wife Alice, 
 thought it not beneath their dignity to have 
 expressly mentioned in their will that certain 
 benefactions were granted on the sole 
 condition that " they be preyd for every ffreday 
 at ye masse by name ;" and their wish was 
 fulfilled, for not only were they prayed for 
 
 * The journey was usually performed on foot; the higher class 
 of travellers proceeded on horseback. A considerable expense 
 was entailed on this chunih, the year it was thought necessary io 
 commission Thomas fFylor to procure some new vestments. Th« 
 t^arge is made for 
 
 " hs costys to ryde to london for yo newe aewto." 
 
THE " GENERAL MYNDE." 189 
 
 every Friday by name, but special notice was 
 also taken of their obit or anniversary. A 
 black cloth of considerable dimensions was 
 suspended in the church, on which were 
 wrought, in large letters of gold, H. C. and 
 A. C. ; beneath this ran a scroll with this 
 " scripture of gold :" Orate pro animabus 
 Henrici Chester, et Aliciw uxoris ejus; and 
 the whole was surmounted with a valuable 
 crucifix. 
 
 But though we advert to these failings, 
 we speak not of them as peculiar features 
 in the character of our Calendars ; or even 
 as being so prominent in them as in most 
 other brotherhoods. On the contrary, they 
 were singularly preserved from the excesses 
 too general in religious houses ; but they 
 were not wholly uncontaminated, they caught 
 the almost universal infection of courting 
 benefactions, but not with it the disease of 
 selfish misappropriation. As they grew 
 
 s 
 
190 
 
 richer they seem to have grown more eminent 
 for their ahnsgiving. Their increased wealth 
 appears scarcely to have sullied the purity 
 of their life, or to have affected their practice 
 of voluntary personal poverty and unwearied 
 prayerfulness : a rare instance of successful 
 combating with Satan. Well has the Church 
 taught her children to pray in solemn litany 
 three times a week, " in all time of our 
 wealth. Good Lord, deliver us !" 
 
 The spirit of subdued pride, of humility 
 in the midst of riches, which was cherished 
 by the cleric and senior lay brothers, speedily 
 extended itself to their inferior officers ; 
 these are described as being men of " trewe 
 and sadde dysposycyon" — as those who 
 would " bear no tales by-twene neyghbor 
 " and neyghbor, whereby any occasyon of 
 " stryfe or debate shulde growe yn tyme on." 
 Many of them are represented as " well- 
 wyllyd men yn all their dayes," and 
 
THE "GENERAL MYNDE." 191 
 
 " profetabyll unto the Church, specyally 
 when comyn about yn ys pysche" (parish). 
 
 Theirs was, notwithstanding, a chequered 
 life, full of vicissitudes ; we have mentioned 
 several petty annoyances and some grevious 
 injuries to which from time to time they had 
 been exposed. Their increased importance 
 as the depository of the bequests of departed 
 Christians laid them open to others. This 
 they had not anticipated ; they could scarcely 
 believe it possible that what a dying man 
 left in testimony of his regard to the Church, 
 or to obtain her future prayers, would be 
 coveted, much less aliened or stolen from 
 their keeping. But experience taught them 
 a different lesson : not even the fulmination of 
 a spiritual curse* could secure their posses- 
 
 • The deed of Roger le Gurdeler, containing the threat of 
 " thundering " a curse against the sacrilege of aliening, selling, 
 or breaking his " coope, cuppe, and spone," is, I believe, still 
 preserved among the All Saints' parchments. The " peyn of 
 cursynge," however, awoke no terrific forebodings in the minds 
 of the agents of Henry VIII. 
 
 s 2 
 
192 THE " GENERAL MYNDE." 
 
 sions from peculation. One John Sheppard 
 " wythdrawyd " rent from the Church which 
 had been paid &om time immemorial ; and 
 when the " General Mynde " was rehearsed, 
 his name was recited, and with it his sacri- 
 ligious act : but instead of " God haue mcy 
 on hys sowle " the priest exclaimed " God 
 amende hym ;" so either from shame or from 
 some better motive, J. Sheppard, the younger, 
 paid all arrears, and restored to the church 
 of the Calendars its rightful property, and 
 obtained its prayers for " ys fadyr ys sowle, 
 ys modyr ys sowle, and ys sowle," i. e. for 
 the souls of his father, mother, and self. But 
 they were not always so fortunate. Among 
 their most valuable property were rare and 
 elaborate books ; some of these had been 
 lent under bond, others had been bequests 
 to their house from nobles and rich merchants, 
 while many of them had occupied nearly a 
 lifetime in composition and illumination. 
 
THE "DAWNSE OF SOWLES," ETC. 193 
 
 One in particular they esteemed most highly, 
 and took the utmost precaution and, as they 
 thought, the surest means to secure it. It 
 had been made and presented by William 
 Wittins, who had also given another (some- 
 what singular) present, as a " memoryall 
 that every man shulde remember hs own 
 dethe," — on this, he and others, bestowed the 
 title of " Dawnse of Sowles " (the Dance of 
 Souls). But the book to which we are 
 alluding was a '^ Prymer with vii Psalmys, 
 Letany, Dirige and Comendacyons, Psalmys 
 of ye Passyon, and many other devocyons." 
 
 Just within the south door of the church 
 was placed the image, so reverenced by fisher- 
 men and the timid dreaders of pestilence, 
 Saint Christopher. There he stood, with his 
 huge brawny figure, sinking beneath the 
 weight of the Holy Child Jesus, as he at- 
 tempted to bear Him across the brook. 
 Beneath this image was placed (for what 
 s 3 
 
194 THE "DAWNSE OF SOWLES " 
 
 purpose I am at a loss to conjecture) a grate, 
 and within that they hid their valued treasure. 
 Neither the sanctity of the church, however, 
 nor iron bars, nor the stalwart figure of S. 
 Christopher could deter some daring thief 
 from removing it from its hiding place. No 
 sooner was the theft discovered than most 
 of the brothers were dispatched in various 
 directions, to regain, if possible, what had 
 been lost. Footworne, wearied, and dis- 
 heartened, many a mile they journeyed on, 
 many an illnatured remark they bore, and 
 many a vain search they instituted. At 
 length the thought occurred to one of the 
 brothers in chapter assembled, that those 
 admiring pilgrims * who had recently visited 
 their church, 'ere they embarked for S. Jago's, 
 
 * Among the receipts at this time, is to he found one referring 
 to the oflFerings made hy those who had reached the port of 
 Brystowe, in order to be conveyed by chartered ship to Spain, 
 and had resorted to the Church of Al hallowen as that in which 
 were to be found the most ancient brotherhood, the most valuable 
 
AND PBECIOUS " PRYMER." 195 
 
 had been more enamoured with their relics, 
 jewels, and books, than was altogether con- 
 sistent with the devotional feelings of men 
 quitting their homes, and abandoning for the 
 most part earthly possessions, and hastening 
 forwards to pay their vows in a distant 
 Spanish church, gaze on one of the most 
 costly shrines in the world, and kneel beside 
 the veritable remains of S. James the Less. 
 
 This Calendar's suspicion was quickly com- 
 municated to the others, and two volunteered 
 to assay the dangerous enterprize of pursuing 
 them into Spain. The chartered vessel that 
 had conveyed the suspected pilgrims was far 
 off at sea, probably had by this time reached 
 its place of destination. No means of attain- 
 ing their object were now left to our dauntless 
 pair but trudging on foot by land ; occupied 
 
 relics, and the most continuous worship. They are entered in 
 the old church book, framed to " recorde al thynges," as " pylgryms 
 goyng to Seynt Jamys." 
 
196 THE "DAWNSE OF SOWLES " 
 
 on their way with continued repetition of 
 portions of the Psalter, only halting at night- 
 fall at some monastery, to the superior of 
 which they carried commendatory letters from 
 their own prior or the abbot of S. Augustine's ; 
 or lingering for a short time at some way-side 
 oratory, that prayer may refresh and help 
 them on their road ; and when they reached 
 the sea, taking open boat, fully confident in 
 the power of Him Who bids the waves be 
 calm, and stills 
 
 " The wailing sea-biid on the hungry shore." 
 Many days and nights were spent in perils 
 by water and land, in perils from their own 
 countrymen and strangers, when at length 
 their watching eyes caught the golden hills 
 of Spain ; their sails had been flapping with 
 a cruel sluggishness for several hours in the 
 sultry breeze, but scarcely had they doubled 
 Cape Finistere before a brisk gale sprung up, M 
 the white foam curled on the waves, the 
 
AND PRECIOUS " PRYMER. ' 197 
 
 canvas swelled to its utmost, and the boat 
 bounded gallantly into port Few minutes 
 elapsed before the two brothers from Al-hal- 
 lowen, Brystowe, may have been seen, in 
 rude outlandish garb, plodding on their way 
 towards S. James'. 
 
 There was little difficulty now in getting 
 forward : in every village were to be found 
 conveyances, such as they were, for pilgrims 
 and visitors to that noted shrine ; and, though 
 the sun had passed the meridian when they 
 landed, ere the stars were high in the bright 
 heavens which curtain Galicia, they reached the 
 splendid city of Compostella — a city, the site 
 of which seems to have been determined, like 
 that of several of our English cities, almost 
 by a spirit of inspiration. Girt about by 
 precipitous rocks, hedged round from noxious 
 winds, and matted by intermingling hills from 
 pestilential blasts, in a well-hollowed romantic 
 valley, rests this nest of churches ! wherein 
 
1 98 THE " DAWNSE OF SOWLES 
 
 were hospitals for pilgrims and devotees who 
 came from every part of the world ; monas- 
 teries, within whose walls watched and prayed 
 learned and devoted servants of Christ ; nun- 
 neries, wherein, beneath coarse flannel and 
 snowy wimple, burnt the glowing souls of 
 Christian virgins ; and above all, the glorious 
 Cathedral, that sacred casket of the hallowed 
 remains of " the brother of our Lord.'* Gal. 
 1 c. 19 V. Here our two Calendars entered, 
 knelt, adored. This done, short was their 
 rest that night ; before day-break they arose, 
 and when lauds and matins were over, they, 
 like other pilgrims, were permitted to gaze 
 on the blessed bones of the Sainted James, 
 and to inspect the other relics and curiosities 
 preserved in that church. Judge then of their 
 delight, not unmingled with indignation, when 
 amongst them they found their anxiously- 
 sought, highly-valued treasure, — there was their j 
 ^' precious Prymer." They cared not to waste! 
 
199 
 
 their time in rebukes or reproaches ; having 
 repossessed themselves of their book, and 
 carefully secured it in their wallet, the port 
 was soon gained, the English cliffs soon seen, 
 and glad of heart and light of step, these 
 wayfarers cheerfully bounded on, hastening 
 homeward, heedless of the length, toil, peril of 
 their journey. 
 
 No sooner had they reached the Priory of 
 Al-hallowen than the success of their mission 
 was the subject of joy and gratitude among 
 the whole brotherhood, who by this time had 
 become anxious for their safety : and, with a 
 kind of triumph, they again deposited their 
 " precious ^prymer '' in the grate of Saint 
 Christopher. 
 
 But restless and unquiet spirits there were 
 which would not even now let it remain 
 untouched — again it was missing — again 
 sought — but never again brought back. Thus 
 simply is this tale recorded ; " ye wyche 
 " stode yn ye Grate undyr Seynt Chropher 
 
200 THE " DAWNSE OF SOWLES," ETC. 
 
 " ys ffote ; and ye seyd boke was stole and 
 " fownde at Seynt Jamys yn Galeys and 
 " brought home and newe ygrated and sethe 
 " ystole agen." We have stated that the 
 donor of this vahiable book had also pre- 
 sented to the church " The Dawnse of Sowles," 
 as a memorial that every man may remember 
 his own death. After so great a length of 
 time it is now impossible to say precisely 
 what this was. It appears to have been either 
 a painting, or a gorgeous piece of tapestry 
 wrought in gold and silver tissue, interwoven 
 with brilliant colours of worsted-work ; for 
 several reasons we are inclined to believe it to 
 have been the latter ; particularly as a person 
 was regularly paid for bringing it, and when 
 removed rolling it up again.* It was sus- 
 
 i 
 
 * The reader, who may be curious in such matters, will be 
 
 pleased with the following extracts from " The Minutes " of 
 
 payments : — 
 
 14o0. " Itm for vi stakys to ye dawns of sowlys xx<i- 
 
 1475. " Itm for brengyng of ye dawns of sowlys viii^' 
 
 "Itm for hangynge uppe of ye dawnse of sowlys] ^jjjd. 
 " twyse a yere, and for rowlyng uppe a gayne j 
 
SCULL OF S. THOMAS OF CANTERBURY. 201 
 
 pended from the ceiling twice a year, and 
 perhaps on some other special occasions. 
 It would be an almost endless task to attempt 
 describing the host of curious relics and bene- 
 factions which belonged to these brethren 
 prior to the dissolution of religious houses. 
 Among the former, we may mention that 
 they boasted of being in possession, not only 
 of the candlestick^ but of the scull of the 
 canonized martyr-prelate, S. Thomas of Can- 
 terbury. The two entries in the Church 
 Book referring to the candlestick and scull 
 of Archbishop Becket, who was murdered 
 A. D. 1170, are both crossed out, but 
 manifestly, from the colour of the ink, by 
 a comparatively late pen. The scull would 
 have been considered an invaluable relic — 
 bearing, as it necessarily would, the marks 
 
 • The candlestick, which was of brass, was presented to the 
 church by Sir William Selke, who was a brother of the Calendars, 
 and Vicar of All Saints in 1280. 
 
202 SCULL or s. thomas of canterbuby. 
 
 of those blows and cuts which disimprisoned 
 his saint-like soul. We cannot but be 
 surprised that so small a fraternity as that of 
 the Calendars should have possessed it. We 
 may indeed very reasonably question whether 
 it ever did. The Archbishop was buried in 
 the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral ; two years 
 later he was canonised ; in 1221 his body was 
 disinterred, and removed to a rich shrine at 
 the eastern end of that church, in the presence 
 of King Henry III. and a great concourse of 
 the nobility and others: many miracles were 
 said to have been wrought at his tomb. A 
 clever thief must he have been who under 
 such circumstances could have purloined the 
 skull, or even a part of it. The attribute of 
 S. Thomas of Canterbury, whether in painting, 
 stained glass, or tapestry, is " kneeling, a ^ 
 " man behind with a sword, the middle edge 
 " of which is fixed in Becket's scull :" the 
 original skull itself would be considered 
 beyond all price valuable. 
 
VARIETY OF BENEFACTIONS. 203 
 
 It is interesting likewise to observe the 
 variety of character which the benefactions 
 assumed; being not only according to the 
 taste and means of the several donors, but 
 also in some degree indicative of their feelings. 
 Occasionally we find most costly presents 
 made : one man alone gave silver "pax-bords," 
 a tabernacle of gold, processionals, stalls in 
 the cross aisle, the whole chapel of our Lady 
 on the North side of the church, the windows 
 of which were richly decorated with stained 
 glass, taking care at the same time that money 
 should be left to keep it in repair for ever ; he 
 likewise endowed a priest to sing (in per- 
 petuum) at our Lady's altar. These and 
 many other benefactions this rich man gave. 
 While another, who was a poor bookseller, 
 in proportion to the means wherewith he had 
 been blessed, would not be deprived of the 
 privilege of making his offering too to God's 
 church, so cheerfully he gave of his little, 
 T 2 
 
204 VARIETY OF BENEFACTIONS. 
 
 humbly presenting his tabard, or " beste 
 gowne."* One rejoiced in being able to apply 
 the talents intrusted to him in putting new roofs, 
 building a new altar, with a figure of Saint 
 Ursula, placing on it a rich crucifix of silver and 
 gold, " worchepefully endowed" with rubies ; 
 while another (a poor artisan) hearing that 
 "gode Byshopp Carpynter" was expected at 
 the priory, worked morning and evening to 
 present him with the utmost his skill and 
 industry could produce, and on the day of 
 his arrival knelt before him, and begged his 
 acceptance of a carefully wrought mitre. Nor 
 was the gentler sex wanting of zeal in this 
 respect : among its number one of the most 
 munificent was the "revered and gracyouse 
 lady, by profession. Dame Maude Spyser,'* 
 whose benefactions of jewels^and purfled vest- 
 ments were almost innumerable : her death is 
 
 * " Rychard myett, boke syllar, gaue hys |^beste gowne." — Jhu 
 haue mcy on hys sowle." From the " Generall Mynde." 
 
VARIETY OF BENEFACTIONS. 205 
 
 recorded as having been "ablessyd departing," 
 and during her life she enriched the church 
 with endowments for chantry-priests, with 
 " substantyall chalys," cruets, cressets, 
 thuribula, all of solid silver; besides an 
 *^egyll of laten ffor the gospell to be redd 
 uppon," and a " tabuU off the transffyguracyon 
 of Jhu'' Great pains are taken in the several 
 entries, (and doubtless similar care observed at 
 the recitation of Benefactors' names, or "the 
 General Mynde,") to give her the full title of 
 " Lady," though her husband had been only 
 a grocer in the parish. Another (Alice Chester, 
 to whose zeal we have before referred,) re- 
 marking that the best cross was used in the 
 Sunday processions, presented the brotherhood 
 with another less costly indeed, yet silver gilt 
 and enamelled, with figures of Saint Mary 
 and Saint John. The old rood loft, too, was 
 a grievous eye-sore to her, for she perceived 
 that it was " sengyll and no thyng bewty," so 
 
 t3 
 
206 VARIETY OF BENEFACTIONS. 
 
 she requested that the unsightly loft may be 
 removed, and at her own cost provided a 
 worshipful one " yfulfyllyd w*- Imagys,"* to 
 supply its place. 
 
 We will not detain the reader with a further 
 enumeration of such gifts, but will close this 
 chapter with the observation, that in those ages 
 which we designate " dark," in that period 
 of England's history which we deem 
 superstitious, there was so much that was 
 disinterested and unselfish, there were such 
 a simplicity and devotedness of affection 
 towards the church, that we in vain look for 
 their counterpart in our enlightened and purer 
 
 * Having had occasion to refer to the Images used in All Saints, 
 Bristol, it may not he amiss to quote here a portion of a letter written 
 hy the late Dr. Arnold, whom no one will suspect of a leaning towards 
 Popery: it is dated June 24, 1840. "Now for Bourges a little 
 more. In the crypt is a Calvary aud figures as large as life, repre- 
 senting the hurying of our Lord. The woman who showed us the 
 erypt had her little girl with her; and she lifted up the child, about 
 three years old, to kiss the feet of our Lord. Is this idolatry? 
 Nay — verily it may be so, but it need not be, and assuredly is in 
 itself right and natural. I confess I rather envied the child." 
 
 Life and Correspondence, by A. P. Stanley, M.A. 
 
VARIETY OF BENEFACTIONS. 207 
 
 days. Many now shrink from devoting the 
 produce of their skill, time, or talents to the 
 service of Holy Church from a fear lest 
 their offerings be not sufficiently costly. We 
 respect the feeling : but do such persons 
 consider that it is not the worldly estimation 
 in which any gift may be held, but the mind 
 of the giver which constitutes its value? 
 How appositely does a quaint old writer 
 remark " The sacred spouse doth wound her 
 Spouse with one of her head haires, of which 
 he makes so great accompt, that he compares 
 them to the flocks of the goates of Galaad ; 
 and hath no sooner commended the eyes of 
 his denote Louer, which are the most noble 
 parts of the face, but presently he fals a 
 praising her head haire, which is the most 
 fraile, vile, and abject. That we might learne 
 thereby, that in a soule taken with holy loue, 
 actions that seeme very poore are highly 
 agreeable to the Divine Majestic." Never- 
 
208 VARIETY OF BENEFACTIONS. 
 
 theless, our gifts must always be in proportion 
 to our means and opportunities : and thus 
 once a King of England thought it not 
 beneath his royal dignity to avow, when 
 taunted for the waste of his liberal donations, 
 " If those treasures have contributed to the 
 '' increase and glory of the house of God, 
 " blessed be the Lord that He has inspired 
 *' me with the will to grant them ; and that 
 " He has bestowed such grace on my reign, 
 " that I am permitted to behold the increasing 
 " prosperity of my holy mother, the Church." 
 A right royal speech, well worthy a Christian 
 King ! 
 
" The reverend pile lay wild and waste, 
 " Profaned, dishonored, and defaced ; 
 " Through storied lattices no more, 
 " In softened light, the sunbeams pour, 
 " Gilding the Gothic sculpture rich 
 " Of shrine and monument and niche ; 
 " The civil fury of the time 
 " Made sport of sacrilegious crime." 
 
 SCOTT. 
 
 " The priests are from their altars thrust ; 
 " Temples are levelled to the dust ; 
 " And solemn rites, and awful forms, 
 " Founder amid fanatic storms." 
 
 WORDSWORTH. 
 
 " And there shall come a king and confesse your religions, 
 " And bete you, as the Bible telleth, for breaking of your rule ; 
 " And amend Moniales, Menkes, and Chanoines ; — 
 " And then shall the Abbot of England and all his issue for ever, 
 " Have a knocke of a king and incurable shall be the wounde." 
 
 PROPHECY IN THE VISION OF PIERCE PLOUaHMAN, 
 (ABOUT AD. 1362). 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 DISSOLUTION OF THE CALENDAR BROT-HERHOOD. 
 
 The history of a fraternity is like the 
 biography of an individual : we trace his 
 course from the cradle, through boyhood and 
 manhood, to the grave : so in the former case 
 rise, progress, zenith, decay, dissolution, 
 follow each other in regular, sometimes rapid, 
 succession. No very lengthened period 
 passed ere the storm that had been long 
 gathering, burst forth with terrific violence; 
 the hollow murmurings of distant thunder 
 clouds now broke over the heads of the 
 inmates of religious houses with shattering 
 and deadly effect. ''Bluff Harry" had cast 
 
212 DISSOLUTION OF 
 
 his adulterous^ eyes on Ann Boleyn, and 
 those eyes, least fit of any to espy the faults 
 of others, detected enough (as their possessor 
 thought) in the enormities of Conventual 
 establishments, to procure a sentence for 
 their destruction — destruction to monasteries 
 and nunneries, but temporal enrichment to 
 himself. In a moment of whimsical peevish- 
 ness, or checked voluptuousness, or injured 
 pride, or of all three together, the weak 
 and haughty monarch sealed the doom of 
 thousands, arid with them that of our 
 Calendars : poor morsels indeed could they 
 supply for this royal lion's feast: when all 
 was taken from them they had in this world, 
 save cloke and scrip and contented souls, it 
 carried to the royal bag an annual income of 
 
 * " Among the maids of honor, in the suite of the Queen, was 
 
 Anne Boleyn The King was struck with the heautv, 
 
 youth, and accomplishments of this lady : after several unsuccessful 
 attempts to triumph over her virtue^ he at length entertained the 
 thought of raising her to the throne." 
 
 Hervey's Naval History of Great Britain. 
 
THE CALENDAR BROTHERHOOD. 213 
 
 but £10 18. 8.* Still, like a bird of prey, 
 he stopped not to enquire into the merits 
 of his victims, but incontinently pounced on 
 the quarry. By a single act of Parliament 
 376 monasteries were dissolved; and by this 
 one fell swoop a yearly revenue of more than 
 £32,000 (an immense sum in those days) 
 was carried to the King's Exchequer. Holy 
 vessels and pious devotions, amounting in 
 value to above £100,000, were appropriated 
 principally to the purposes of a voluptuous 
 Sovereign ; and all this paid by the starvation 
 and beggary of some 12,000 Christians. We 
 cannot deny that abuses had crept into the 
 monasteries and other religious houses ; but 
 we can scarcely in justice maintain that they 
 merited the stringent measures adopted, the 
 motives for which become the more suspicious 
 as the chief actor therein grows in our esti- 
 mation less worthy. Wretched and wicked 
 
 • So valued at the dissolution, according to Dugdale. 
 
 u 
 
214 DISSOLUTION OF 
 
 was it that the same Saint should have been 
 represented in twenty different places at the 
 same time ! or that S. Ursula had three heads ! 
 Miserable delusion that the teeth of S. Apollo- 
 nia (an accredited cure for the tooth-ache), 
 should have amounted to more than a bushel ! 
 or that the scull of S. Thomas, which probably 
 rested securely in its shrine at Canterbury, 
 should have been pretendedly exhibited on 
 an altar at Al-hallowen, Brystowe! and yet 
 what if these and other equally absurd and 
 wicked impositions were practised on the 
 people, were there no other means of remedy 
 but destroying abbeys and churches wholesale, 
 burning manuscripts and paintings, melting 
 down gold and silver, confiscating lands, 
 and unhousing men and women by thou- 
 sands ? Truly has this king's reign been 
 designated " the wild misrule of Harry 
 Tudor s sony^ 
 
 * " No age or nation perhaps was ever visited with a more 
 " remorseless tyrant than Henry VIII. Throughout his long 
 
THE CALENDAR BROTHERHOOD. 215 
 
 It is a pleasure, however, to find that our 
 present enquiry does not entail on us the 
 consideration of these questions : all we have 
 to record is, that the Calendar community — 
 brothers and sisters — shared the fate common 
 to other religious bodies, and were compelled 
 to gain their livelihood as they could. They 
 now began to feel the value of their long 
 course of discipline. Homeliness and ex- 
 posure to cold wrought not deeply on bodies 
 inured to chilling vigils — want and beggary 
 only made a kind of compulsory fasting — 
 they had prepared themselves for all the 
 vicissitudes of a changeful life. Besides 
 these reasons, there were also some which 
 caused this sentence of royalty to fall less 
 severely on them than other religious. They 
 
 " and oppressive reign his will supplied the place of law, To 
 " gratify whatever caprice was predominent, torture and death 
 " continually followed in his train. His laws, like those of 
 *' Draco, may be said to have been written in blood." 
 
 Hervey : Naval History of Great Britain. 
 
 u 2 
 
216 DISSOLUTION OF 
 
 had (as we have already seen) many enemies ; 
 one more, though a royal one, could not 
 add much to their hardships : through the 
 malice of man they had been misrepresented 
 and robbed ; through the providence of God 
 they had lost their library and their books ; 
 yet scarcely had they busied themselves in 
 restoring the injury done by the fire, scarcely 
 were they beginning to meet once more in 
 their common duties, than this the " severest 
 cut of all," drove them from their home, 
 their study, their holy companionship, and 
 their continued prayer by night and by day 
 in Al-hallowen church. Still painful though 
 the trial was, they were in some sort, as we 
 have seen, prepared for it; they had not 
 gone through their long course of religious 
 discipline to no purpose. They well knew 
 that though God's presence was promised to 
 be granted with mysterious nearness, prin- 
 cipally in the Church, yet that if impious 
 
THE CALENDAR BROTHERHOOD. 217 
 
 men drove them thence, it would be granted 
 any where ; and though the sky was their 
 roof, and intermingling branches of the oak 
 or the elm their pillars, the cold clod their 
 chancel, and some unhewn rock their altar, 
 they were quite sure they could still approach 
 as nearly as heretofore the God of their 
 fathers. We will not dwell on their mournful 
 leave-taking, the last long lingering look 
 bestowed on their once happy home, their 
 cheerful refectory, their peaceful dormitory : 
 we will not dwell on the agonizing thought 
 forced on their minds as they saw their 
 hallowed vessels roughly seized and rudely 
 cast into the balance, by hands unholy and 
 profane, their value to be calculated, not by 
 the devotion of the giver, or by the sacred- 
 ness of the purpose to which they had been 
 assigned, or even by old religious links 
 and associations, but by their weight in 
 ounces Troy! It would be painful for us 
 u 3 
 
218 DISSOLUTION OF 
 
 to dwell on the harrowing fact that with 
 rude coarse jeering and a ruffian's jerk the 
 aged friar was hurled from the steps of the 
 high altar, from whence in solemn tone he 
 had denounced the sacriligious act of the 
 intruders into God's sanctuary. We will not 
 attempt to reveal the heavy thoughts which 
 pressed down their souls when they bid 
 farewell for ever to their dear church of 
 Al-hallowen and its many material memorials 
 (so familiaiized to their deepest feelings) 
 of living faith and departed worth ; we would 
 not bring to light, if we could, those thousand 
 " pangs which deeply agitated their hearts, 
 but never rose to the surface;" those silent 
 sorrows for which they could find no sym- 
 pathy, those plaints which never gained an 
 earthly audience. The tale of their griefs 
 has never been told, and never will be told 
 till the day when we shall learn the verity 
 of the assertion " there is nothing hid that 
 shall not be known." 
 
THE CALENDAR BROTHERHOOD. 219 
 
 A few words end their tragic story. Sorrow 
 needs no verbosity, it is brief and faltering ; 
 joy is eloquent, and loves to linger long in its 
 narrations. A scanty livelihood obtained from 
 casual benevolence, from their labours, and the 
 esteem in which they were generally held, 
 aided by their own habits of voluntary self- 
 denial and patient endurance, provided them 
 with sufficient for their daily needs. Even 
 their dwelling, humbled and straightened as it 
 was, was not left them. The church's rights 
 passed into the hands of royalty, and thus, as 
 was usual in such cases, their habitation, 
 including " bochorde " and all, passed from 
 hand to hand till King Edward the Sixth sold 
 it to Sir Miles Patrick for a paltry sum, and 
 he soon disposed of it to R. Woodward, and 
 Woodward to another, and so on, through a 
 considerable period : the last account we find 
 respecting it is that on the 21st March, 1616, 
 by license under the seals of the Commissary 
 
220 DISSOLUTION OF 
 
 of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Dean 
 and Chapter of Bristol, and the Parson of the 
 Parish of All Saints, leave was given to the 
 parishioners of All Saints to open a door in 
 the walls of their church to make a way into a 
 room, still at this late period, called the 
 " Kalends," over the North Aisle, to be used 
 for the purposes of a Vestry Room. Even this 
 miserable record has something refreshing in 
 it, for it clearly implies that altered as the 
 Calendars' library now was from its former 
 character, it had never been entirely alienated 
 from the church; or if confiscated for a time, 
 and misappropriated, was afterwards redeemed 
 by one of the church's true and devoted chil- 
 dren. In the most troublesome times there 
 were those who felt their deep obligations to 
 their Holy Mother, and who could not easily 
 be deterred from acknowledging and repaying 
 them as opportunity presented. Nor need we 
 much wonder at finding distinctive traces of 
 
THE CALENDAR BBOTHERHOOD. 221 
 
 the deepest, and what would appear to us, 
 romantic, feelings of veneration for All Saints' 
 church. It has, indeed, like other old Bristol 
 churches, been mutilated, robbed, and partly 
 desecrated, but beneath its venerable tower, 
 and mysteriously decorated roof lay, and still 
 lie, the mortal remains of an unusually large 
 number of the most eminent of the citizens, 
 as well as the most holy of the fraternity, and 
 even in cases (such as death in a foreign land) 
 where difficulties occurred in the way of 
 interring the whole body of a deceased person, 
 so great was the anxiety felt that the prayers 
 and requiems of the loved brotherhood should 
 be poured forth in his behalf, that even a 
 portion of the remains, such as a hand or heart, 
 was carefully brought to be laid in that 
 hallowed ground. 
 
 The commissioners employed to strip reli- 
 gious houses of their property did not confine 
 their notice to " rags and bones," as honored 
 
222 DISSOLUTION OF 
 
 relics have been sometimes irreverently called ; 
 the minutest piece of silver could not escape 
 their hands, not only flagons and chalices, but 
 pyxes and ships,* yea, vestments and altar 
 clothes, were all made to serve their purpose; 
 even memorials of private affection and regard 
 were not held sacred ; among the latter may 
 be mentioned a goblet, or Grace-cup, called in 
 an old deed a " Ciphu de Mased," with a 
 silver cover, bequeathed as an especial legacy, 
 and handed down through several generations, 
 from vicar to vicar, and entrusted for safety to 
 the custody of the prior, — why this should 
 have been an object of their rapacious zeal it 
 were difficult to conjecture, — unless we pre- 
 sume that every thing which had a piece of 
 precious metal attached to it was held to be an 
 abomination (to all but the King) and therefore 
 to be purloined. Such things as these are_ 
 undeserving notice, further than that they tei 
 
 * "Naviculoe." 
 
THE CALENDAR BROTHERHOOD. 223 
 
 to show how effectually the commissioners did 
 their work, and that the Calendars were now 
 as poor in body as they had before proved 
 themselves to be " poor in spirit." 
 
" There abides 
 In his allotted home a genuine priest, 
 The shepherd of his flock." wobdsworth. 
 
 " Thus while the storm is high within 
 
 'Twixt love of Christ and fear of sin, 
 
 Who can express the soothing charm. 
 
 To feel thy kind upholding arm, 
 
 My Mother Church ? " christian year. 
 
 " Do not permit Thy servants' fall 
 
 O Lord my onely Hope, my All, 
 
 In th' winter of this mortall day. 
 
 But when vntired time shall haste 
 
 To render back to earth the waste 
 
 Of what I was, be thou my stay." r. de s. 1616. 
 
 " Recordare, Jesu pie. 
 Quod sum causa Tuoe vice 
 Ne me perdas ilia die." 
 
 ni 
 
CHAPTER XrV. 
 
 LIVING AND DYING IN GODS CONSECRATED HOUSE. 
 
 Most visitors, when they see the incongruous 
 encroachments made on the church of All 
 Saints, Bristol, by that which was once the 
 Calendars' dwelling, and the corresponding 
 portion of the vicarage house, are induced 
 to think it would have been well had they 
 been entirely destroyed, and better still had 
 they never been built. In an architectural 
 point of view, at least as they now stand, 
 they are most unsightly : they carry, how- 
 ever, many associations of a pleasing and 
 holy character, they are links between the 
 past and present, and they remind us so 
 much of the habits and church-loving lives 
 
 X 
 
226 LIVING AND DYING 
 
 of men of olden time, that, despite all archi- 
 tectural enormities, far better would it seem 
 to be that they should be restored (if possible) 
 to their pristine state, than entirely destroyed. 
 These encroachments, being in a church now 
 small, are conspicuous objects : but are there 
 none such in our cathedrals and large con- 
 ventual churches ? do we never see there a 
 chapter room, or confessional, or abbot's 
 throne (as at Malmsbury) from whence to 
 give the benediction ? Is a muniment room, 
 or parvise, or other excrescence, if such it 
 may be called, never found intruding into 
 sacred buildings ? and may not such intimate 
 connexion with God's house in the case under 
 consideration have served as some sort of 
 check to the encouragement of sinful, or too 
 secular feelings among the Calendar brethren ? 
 And, on the other side, is there not something 
 deeply interesting in the idea of the pastor 
 of a church ever residing within its walls. 
 
IN god's consecrated house. 227 
 
 There the holy man of God was ready at 
 hand to join in the services, receive the 
 confessions, or in any way give "ghostly 
 counsel" and spiritual aid to the flock 
 assembled beneath. Just as the believing 
 Shunamite would "make for the holy man 
 " of God a little chamber on the wall, and 
 " set for him there a bed, and a table, and 
 " a stool, and a candlestick, that it should 
 " be that when he came to them he may 
 " turn in thither." (2 Kings, 4 cap. 10 v.) 
 Or, just as Solomon, in erecting the glorious 
 Temple at Jerusalem " against the wall of 
 " the house built chambers round about." 
 (1 Kings, 6 cap.) So on the wall of the 
 church of Al-hallowen was made for the 
 parson, who was usually a Calendar priest, 
 a " little chamber," that he may dwell within 
 the holy precincts, and by a small spiral 
 staircase descend silently at any moment, day 
 or night, and there pray in secret or join 
 X 2 
 
228 LIVING AND DYING 
 
 with those already engaged in prayer and 
 praise.* Or even when engrossed in his 
 own studies in the legendary room still 
 remaining every thing around him was 
 church-like and Christian. There (in all 
 probability, the veritable handy-work of one 
 of the vicars — Sir Thomas Marshall, 1434) 
 over his mantel, stood emblematic memorials 
 of his Crucified Lord, painted or rather 
 frescoed on tile work, so as to last for 
 centuries, which they have done : f at the same 
 time, through his little window, J which 
 
 * The following entry, breathing a kindred spirit, is to be found 
 among the parochial minutes : — Thomas Holwey and Joan his 
 wife (1450), who both lie buried before the Cross Altar (in Al- 
 hallowen church), under the great stone, " yjoyned to ye Greese" 
 (i. e. steps). 
 
 " In primis they ffownded a Chauntry yn ye seyd Churche in 
 pptuum. 
 
 " Item, they gave for ewyr for a Chamhyr that ye seyd preste 
 " dwellyd yn, ye wyche they bylded yn ye Churche-yorde on their 
 " own coste ." 
 
 f A portion of this fresco painting, rope work bordering the 
 sacred monogram, is in the possession of the writer. 
 
 J The stone-work of this window is still to be seen in the parsonage. 
 
IN GOD*S CONSECRATED HOUSE. 229 
 
 opened on the worshippers beneath in the 
 church, when prevented from being actually 
 amongst them in person he could yet join 
 in their services, and listen, whether at early 
 dawn or gray evening, in bright noon or 
 awful midnight, to their solemn requiems, 
 their beautiful and soul-subduing hymns. 
 What a pleasing and hallowing idea does 
 this present to the mind ! A vicar living 
 literally within the walls of his church ! iden- 
 tifying, not only his duties, but his daily occu- 
 pations and even his floating thoughts with the 
 Temple of God ! The first gleam his waking 
 imagination would catch ; the last shadow 
 that would fall on his sleepful senses would be 
 derived from the church's services. Eli, and 
 Samuel, Anna, and the Blessed Virgin enjoyed 
 this, and doubtless hundreds more whose 
 names will never be recorded in this world.* 
 
 * Du Caiige speaks of women sitting and sleeping in the upper 
 porticus of churches for the sake of devotion. 
 
 x3 
 
230 LIVING AND DYING 
 
 And then, to think of those moments when 
 affliction lies most heavily on one, when we 
 are suffering God's " terrors with a troubled 
 mind," how softening, yet withal cheering, 
 would be such close notice of the " beauty 
 of holiness," such actual vicinity to the place 
 where God's "honor dwelleth." And then, 
 when one may be laid on a sick bed, and 
 especially when the angel of death is hovering 
 near, who could select a scene wherein to 
 receive the " ultimum viaticum " more suit- 
 able than that where God by the hand of 
 His Ministry was giving the "daily bread" 
 which " came down from heaven " to penitent 
 communicants? who could choose a place 
 wherein to die more desirable than that in 
 whose hallowed earth, when Death had done 
 his deed, his dust would rest till the number 
 of the elect was accomplished. To die undei^ 
 the roof of God's consecrated house, for M\ 
 Christian's last hour on earth to be speni 
 
IN god's consecrated house. 231 
 
 literally in the services of the church " mili- 
 tant" 'ere his spirit passed to wait beneath 
 the altar,* preparatory to joining in the 
 services of the one same church " triumph- 
 ant ;" for his last earthly breath to intermingle 
 with the breathings of praise from brethren, 
 destined still to linger awhile without the 
 veil, would seem to be the ultimatum of a 
 Christian pastor's wish as to the place and 
 mode of his departure. Such a repose would 
 be most welcome to the weary worne-out 
 frame : the peace of such a holy spot would 
 be most grateful to the believer's passing soul : 
 it would be the nearest possible assimilation 
 of things and habits present, to things and 
 habits yet to come. To die thus within the 
 church's precincts would be like fulfilling in 
 one's own end the Psalmist's saying, " Thou 
 shalt hide me in Thy tabernacled 
 
 This idea has been beautifully illustrated in 
 
 Rev. vi. c. 9, 10, 11 v. v. 
 
232 LIVING AND DYING 
 
 a little tale, fraught with the deepest piety, 
 entitled " Ivo and Verena."* The Christian 
 hero of the tale had received a mortal wound : 
 his friends bore him on a bier of fir trees, and 
 while they were yet doubting where to carry 
 him, and were looking on each other in silent 
 distress, the dying man opened his eyes, and 
 pointing to the church, made signs to be 
 carried thither. " When Ivo found himself in 
 that sacred building, and the bier on which he 
 lay was placed upon its floor, a look of peace 
 spread over his countenance. He lay still and 
 silent, crossing his hands on his bosom, only 
 his lips moved, as if to repeat a prayer. All 
 around him were motionless, watching him in 
 silence, and not pressing round him lest they 
 
 should disturb his repose 
 
 speaking with difficulty he said, ^Ask Olave to 
 read the prayers for the dying.' Whilst the 
 prayers were read he listened with fixed atten- 
 
 • Published by Burns, London. 
 
IN god's consecrated house. 233 
 
 tion, his upraised eyes directed towards the 
 roof of the church, his hands crossed as 
 before." And there where he had first planted 
 a temple to God's honor, where a Christian 
 altar had been reared, from the very place 
 where his happiest holiest hours had been 
 spent, and all his ministrations as a priest of 
 Christ had been fulfilled, his soul returned to 
 the God who gave it. 
 
 But to revert to the subject of our ''encroach- 
 ments." It need not excite wonder that the 
 parson of Al-hallowen should, from his library 
 or oratory, have a window that opened on the 
 interior of the sacred building ; for who so fit 
 a guardian of the sacred vessels and other 
 numerous oblations and valued relics which 
 lay on the several shrines of the church 
 entrusted to his care, as its own spiritual 
 pastor? This is the only example of the 
 existence of a priest's window in a Parsonage 
 known to the writer. The room called Chat- 
 
234 LIVING AND DYING 
 
 terton's at S. Mary's, Kedcliffe, has a window 
 which looks across the lower part of the 
 church, — but this could not command a view 
 of any of the altars, only the extreme West of 
 the aisles, — and was most probably built for 
 the residence of some chantry priest, who, 
 unlike his wretched successor in that room, 
 would never have ventured on the sin of 
 suicide. There are similar* parvises or abodes 
 for chantry priests at Almondsbury, Portbury, 
 and in many other large churches, but they 
 are of very different intention and character 
 from that at All Saints. As this does not look 
 merely across the nethermost parts of the 
 aisles, but commanding an Eastward view, 
 
 * Collinson says (Vol. 3. p. 158.) that it was often usual from 
 such openings for an acolyte to address the people on their entering 
 into the church, to prepare their minds for the ensuing solemnities, 
 it were scarcely likely that the window in All Saints' Parsonage 
 was used for this purpose, as the Vicar was usually chosen from 
 the elder hrethren of the Calendars, — and therefore was not merely 
 an acolyte, hut a veteran priest, — moreover, it was not near the 
 principal entrance, nor could it command a view of the people wljo 
 (liroQged in through the Western porch. 
 
IN god's consecbated house. 235 
 
 must have enabled the priest to keep a watch- 
 ful eye on the relics, and, which was once 
 considered a powerful aid to religious feeling, 
 furnished him, or others, (by permission) with 
 a perpetual hagioscope* for the great festivals, 
 or whenever else high mass was celebrated. 
 The following narrative will serve to show 
 the use for which (in part) such a window 
 may have been employed. Sauntering through 
 the streets of a town in Italy, an English gen- 
 tleman paused at the open gates of a church ; 
 and seeing several persons passing, in ingress 
 and egress, through its portals (a sight by no 
 means rare all day long), he fell in with a 
 group consisting partly of worshippers, partly 
 of idlers, and entered with them. Lingering 
 about the aisles they at length stopped before 
 one of the shrines, which was most gorgeously 
 decorated with curious relics : here some of 
 the party knelt, apparently in sincere devotion, 
 
 * Called also, an " acroscope," " lychnoscop ," and " squint." 
 
236 LIVING AND DYING, ETC. 
 
 whilst Others among them stared with mingled 
 curiosity, irreverence, and astonishment. After 
 a short delay, one of the latter stretched his 
 hand forward to touch, what was supposed to 
 be, a shoe of the Blessed Virgin, when a voice 
 was suddenly heard forbidding such unholy 
 touch, and commanding him to abstain in- 
 stantly from his sacrilegious purpose. The 
 eyes of all were turned to the point whence 
 the voice appeared to issue, and after a short 
 interval, a little window was discovered, from 
 which peered the face of an aged monk, or 
 priest, who had caused the startling interrup- 
 tion. 
 
 May not the window in the Parsonage of 
 Al-hallowen have been intended and used, 
 among other purposes, as a station for the 
 priest whence he might observe the conduct of 
 persons frequenting the open church ? 
 
Among the Saints of Christendom are men of toil and trade, ike 
 eraftsmatiy and the merchant. archdeacon manning. 
 
 " What, shall I not pray at the church ? Yes, hy all meann." 
 
 THEOPHYIwACT. 
 
 " We have a morning exercise yet as soon shall 
 
 " we get a hare with a tahor, as persuade some to come to thi» 
 " heavenly and religious exercise." w. bubton, 1589. 
 
 " Onines sacerdotes, horis competentibus diei et noctis, suarum 
 " »onent ecclesiarum signa : et sacra tunc Dqo celebrent officia." 
 
 8PELMAX. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE EXAMPLE OF OBSERVING DAILY PRAYER IN THE 
 CHURCH SET BY EMINENT BRISTOL MERCHANTS. 
 
 While enquiring into the customs and 
 manners of the times to which principally 
 the foregoing chapters refer, we have been 
 struck with several which form a remarkable 
 contrast with the habits of our own days. 
 A Bristol merchant or " Counseile Man " of 
 the 14th or 15th century (not to refer to an 
 earlier period), pursuing his avocations with 
 the same perseverance and integrity which 
 for the most part characterize a Bristol mer- 
 chant of the 19th century, adopted habits 
 which the latter would consider, if not 
 decidedly opposed to his attaining to worldly 
 Y 2 
 
240 DAILY PRAYER IN THE CHURCH OBSERVED 
 
 honors and eminence, yet at least unneces- 
 sary. No one can search into the records 
 of our former magistrates, merchants, and 
 tradesmen, without observing what a staple 
 commodity, so to speak, was, in their view, 
 religious observances : they felt that their 
 conveniences were to give way to the church 
 and not the church wait upon them : they 
 thought, perhaps superstitiously, (but was it 
 an impious superstition?) that none could have 
 God for his Father, who would not have holy 
 church for his mother. Of course we mean 
 this remark to be understood as applicable 
 to them generally ; the act of injustice, men- 
 tioned at page 155 and seq, and the act of 
 inhumanity to which we shall shortly refer, 
 occurring, it may be, once in a century, 
 cannot fairly be considered as affecting their 
 general character. Daily church-going — fa- 
 mily prayers — private devotions — penitential 
 discipline, — voluntary offerings, together with 
 
 I 
 
BY BRISTOL MERCHANTS AND TRADESMEN. 241 
 
 suspension of business on the fasts and 
 festivals, no more interrupted their eminence as 
 merchants, or marred the profits of their trade 
 than kneeling, as George Herbert says, " e'er 
 hurt silk stocking." This is indeed taking very 
 low grounds for enforcing the observance of 
 frequent public duties, but we are content 
 for the present to rest our argument upon 
 it. The members of the Council, in parti- 
 cular, set, as those in such position ought 
 to do, a good example to their fellov^-citizens 
 in this respect ; nor were the humbler classes 
 at all indisposed to follow it : they heard 
 sermons as the means but not as an essential 
 part of God's worship, while on the other 
 hand they frequented holy prayer in the 
 church as an essential part of God's outward 
 worshij 5 and Bristol stood then quite as 
 high in the nation as it does now; and its 
 inhabitants were, in proportion, quite as 
 wealthy, as respected, and as peaceable as 
 y3 
 
242 DAILY PRATER IN THE CHURCH OBSERVED 
 
 at present : a substantial proof this, that 
 "Godliness has the promise of the life that 
 now is," as well as of that "which is to 
 come," — that they who " seek first the king- 
 dom of heaven shall have all other (necessary) 
 things added unto them." Adopting the 
 language of the motto which stands at the 
 head of this chapter, we say, "Among the 
 Saints of Christendom are men of toil and 
 trade — the craftsman and the merchant^ We 
 may employ the words of the same eloquent 
 and pious writer and assert that " in all ranks 
 and all degrees of the civil state men mortified 
 in soul have lived unto Christ — none so fulfilled 
 the oflfiices and tasks of life as they, because 
 they were above them all ; they descended 
 to them and discharged them with an ease 
 and grace which nothing but an absolute 
 forgetting of self can give. None so wise, 
 so courteous, so beloved as they. None 
 richer or more prosperous. None more faith- 
 
BY BRISTOL MERCHANTS AND TRADESMEN. 243 
 
 ful in their stewardship of this world's wealth." 
 They appear to have acted out, what we 
 acknowledge in theory, the necessity of that 
 fervent advice, '^pray, pray, and never cease 
 to pray ; for, if you continue to pray, your 
 salvation is secure ; if you give up prayer your 
 perdition is inevitable.'' The sanctifying their 
 daily occupations with daily prayer in the 
 church prevented not their success as mer- 
 chants. They found (as all, who sincerely 
 try, will find,) that seeking first what was 
 God's, He took care for what was their own. 
 Such a habit softened the mind, and cemented 
 the citizens in affection one with another ; it 
 maintained peace and love, and taught the rich 
 to use their talents for God's glory, and in the 
 time of health, not less than in the hour of 
 death, to remember his church and his poor. 
 We refer to our Canynges, Darby, Frampton, 
 Ship ward, &c., &c. ; and in later times, to our 
 Whitson and Colston in proof of this. If 
 
244 DAILY PRAYER IN THE CHURCH OBSERVED 
 
 then the daily observance of public religious 
 duties neither retarded the eminence, nor 
 marred the pleasures of these men (we take 
 the negative view of the question, though we 
 may easily prove that it increased and 
 strengthened both), why, we ask, should it be 
 habitually neglected now ? And this duty 
 is binding on true Protestants especially. The 
 Prayer Book, framed and compiled by our 
 Keformers, asserts or implies daily prayer in its 
 rules " concerning the service of the church," 
 " the order how the Psalter is appointed to be 
 read," *^ the order how the rest of Holy 
 Scripture is appointed to be read," in its Title, 
 — twice in the Te Deum — in the rubrics 
 before the " Collects for peace and grace " in 
 the Morning Service, and those corresponding 
 in the Evening — in the rubric before the 
 Collect for 1st Sunday in Advent — that for 
 Ashwednesday — and " the form of prayer to - 
 be used at Sea," and in other places— we say it 
 
BY BRISTOL MERCHANTS AND TRADESMEN. 245 
 
 is especially binding on all true ProtestantSy 
 because, as Dr. Nicholls, on the Act of Uni- 
 formity, says, " Our Reformers would not have 
 daily service neglected by Ministers of the 
 church : but that they should be as diligent in 
 using the English Liturgy, as the Papists were 
 the Latin." We would venture then humbly 
 to appeal to the members of our civic corpo- 
 ration, and enquire why, as Christian rulers, 
 they do not in this respect follow the example 
 of their forefathers in office ? not only prior, 
 but long subsequent to the Reformation such 
 practice was general — the neglect of it is 
 quite an innovation.* Let some of those 
 Town Council -men, whose lives in other 
 respects stand above suspicion, only take the 
 lead (if not for their own, at least for their 
 childrens' sake), in an endeavour to restore 
 
 * That the closing of churches on week-days is an innovation is 
 sufficiently proved by a list of the hours (see appendix) at which le$$ 
 than a century ago the churches in London were opened for daily 
 service. 
 
246 DAILY PRAYER IN THE CHURCH OBSERVED 
 
 the goodly custom of attending daily public 
 prayer as a Christian body invested with awful 
 responsibilities, and others will soon follow 
 their example. And the rich particularly have 
 need to pray much in the church, let them 
 only think how " appalling are the denuncia- 
 tions against wealth in Scripture — ^what a 
 moral effeminacy it generates — what an inap- 
 titude for struggling against evil tongues from 
 without, and evil lusts from within" springs 
 from it — ^what a host of responsibilities, that 
 will never rest on the souls of hundreds 
 around them, accrue from it, — let them only 
 reflect on these things, or any one of them, 
 seriously, and then would they thankfully . 
 flock to their parish churches, that day hy day 
 they may magnify God;* earnestly would 
 they there supplicate each day that He would 
 vouchsafe to keep them from sin, and teach 
 them to dole out aright to the sick and the 
 
 * "Te Deum." 
 
BY BRISTOL MERCHANTS AND TRADESMEN. 247 
 
 hungry, the fatherless and the widow, the 
 talents they hold in trust. And where can 
 such blessings be so freely and so fully 
 obtained as in the church ? 
 " Though private prayer be a brave design, 
 " Yet public hath more promises, more love : 
 " And love's a weight to hearts ; to eyes a sign. 
 " We all are but cold suitors ; let us move 
 ** Where it is warmest. Leave thy six and seven ; 
 " Pray with the most; for, where most pray, is heaven."* 
 " This holy service, " says Bishop Sparrow,f 
 "offered up to God by the priest in the name of 
 the church, is far more acceptable to Almighty 
 God than the devotion of any private man 
 
 Private devotions and services 
 
 of particular men, which are offered by them- 
 selves for themselves, are sometimes accepted, 
 sometimes refused by God, according as the 
 persons are affected to vice or virtue, but this 
 public worship is like that lamb commanded 
 to be offered by the priest for others, for the 
 
 * George Herbert. f Rationale on the Common Prayer. 
 
248 DAILY PRAYER IN THE CHURCH OBSERVED 
 
 church, and therefore accepted, whatsoever the 
 
 priest be that offers it up Good 
 
 reason, therefore, it is that this sweet smelling 
 savour should be daily offered up to God." 
 " I forbid you not " say the Homily, "private 
 prayer, but I exhort you to esteem common 
 prayer as it is worthy. By the histories of 
 the Bible it appeareth that public and common 
 prayer is most available before God." " The 
 good which we do by public prayer," says 
 Hooker " is more than by private can be 
 done." The Lord's Prayer, which we are 
 always to say when we pray, was drawn 
 up for a multitude, was first rehearsed to a 
 multitude, and first used by a multitude of 
 people met together. Hence S. Cyprian 
 says it is " a public and common prayer."^ 
 S. Augustine declares that we prevail more 
 by common, than by private supplications, — 
 "to think," adds he "that prayers at home; 
 
 « PuWica est et communis oratio. — (De Orat. Domin.) 
 
BY BRISTOL MERCHANTS AND TRADESMEN. 249 
 
 will be as acceptable to God as those made 
 at church is as if one fancied that the incense 
 of the Temple, which is a compound of several 
 precious balms, emitted no other perfumes or 
 savour than the spices would have done had 
 they been burned singly, one by one." 
 Grotius on Matthew 18 c. 19 v. remarks 
 " Though God sometimes grants to one man's 
 prayers that which he asks, yet to many 
 who unanimously join in the same petition 
 he gives both more willingly, more largely, 
 and more speedily'' 
 
 "The Christian sacrifice," observes Eobert 
 Nelson, who was probably an intimate friend 
 of our Colston,* " should be offered morning 
 
 • He was on close terms of friendship with many eminent 
 Bristol merchants ; he married a daughter of the Earl Berkeley, 
 the deserved boast of whose house was its humble devotedness 
 to the church, of which Bristol then received many marks ^ the 
 epitaph on his tomb was composed by Dr. Smalridge, Bishop of 
 Bristol. This same R. Nelson in his life of Dr. George Bull, 
 Bishop of S. David's, refers more than once to the value and 
 necessity of daily public prayer, and he relates as one of the 
 most truly episcopal and Christian acts of the Prelate whose 
 
250 DAILY PRAYER IN THE CHURCH OBSERVED 
 
 and evening in public assemblies ; they that 
 have such opportunities, and are not lawfully 
 hindered, should endeavour so to regulate 
 their time as to be able constantly to attend 
 such a great advantage to the Christian life." 
 
 " Even prayer itself," says S. Basil, " when 
 it hath not the consoj^t of many voices, to 
 strengthen it, is not itself."* And to quote 
 Hooker once more, ^'Secret neglect of our 
 duty in this kind (prayer) is but only our 
 own hurt. One man's contempt of the Com- 
 mon Prayer of the Church of God may be, 
 and oftentimes is, most hurtful unto many." 
 Time may change the external character of 
 
 life he was writing, that "when he came to live at Brecknock 
 *' they had public prayers at that place only on Wednesdays 
 " and Fridays, but by his care during his stay there, they have 
 " prayers now every morning and evening in the week^ 
 
 " And whereas at Carmarthen they had only morning prayers 
 " upon week days when his Lordship first came to that town, 
 " he set up also constant evening prayers." 
 
 * avrrj 17 Trpoatvxfj fifj kxovca tovq ffvfKpojvovvrag avavdpfffr'cpa 
 TToXXy" tavTrJQ. — Epist. 68. 
 
BY BRISTOL MERCHANTS AND TRADESMEN. 251 
 
 places, and modes of pursuing business, and 
 such like, but it cannot alter religion — this 
 must remain as important in one generation 
 as another. A merchant of the 19th century 
 needs the blessing of God and the comforts 
 of religious services fully as much as one 
 who lived in the 14th or 18th j while the 
 force of his example is so much the more 
 powerful for good or for evil, as the occasion 
 which calls it into existence is the more urgent, 
 or the scope for the exercise of its influence 
 wider. We are fully aware that several 
 objections have been raised to the practice 
 of attending daily service in the church ; 
 among them is one which at first sight 
 seems to rest on good grounds, namely, that 
 its tendency is to displace family prayer : 
 we think its tendency leans in just the 
 opposite direction. Archdeacon Manning 
 powerfully grapples with, and overcomes 
 this objection. He says, "Very little can 
 z2 
 
252 DAILY PRAYER IN THE CHURCH OBSERVED 
 
 they know of the history of the faithful 
 who in all ages of the Church have most 
 steadfastly waited on God in His daily 
 worship, if they imagine that their households 
 were without God in the world. The private 
 lives of all great saints show that none so 
 consecrated their homes as they did. In the 
 great examples of the English Church in 
 modern days we have direct evidence of this. 
 
 . There is something 
 
 almost hard-hearted in the narrow-minded, 
 short-sighted way in which people use this 
 objection, as if the few thousand households 
 of the richer, or more leisurely, or more 
 educated, or more religious, were all the 
 Church had to care and to provide, and to 
 think and to act for." " Daily private prayer^'' 
 says another, "led to daily family prayer, 
 and daily family prayer is leading to daily 
 public prayer in the sanctuary of God. Many 
 an Elijah has been repairing the altar of 
 
 a 
 
BY BRISTOL MERCHANTS AND TRADESMEN. 253 
 
 God that was broken down, and the daily 
 sacrifice is again being offered up," so that 
 family prayer is no substitute for the public 
 worship in the Temple, nor should public 
 worship in the Temple supersede family 
 prayer. Again it is said so few attend it — 
 sad that it should be so, but this does not 
 remove its obligation, or its privilege; for 
 '^ there is no restraint to the Lord to save 
 by many or by few." (1 Sam. 14 c. 6 v.) 
 But why should any be defrauded of a 
 blessing because others deprive themselves 
 of it ? " Why should Simeon and Anna be 
 thrust back from the gate that is called beau- 
 tiful because others see no comeliness in it 
 that they should desire it? Oh, surely it 
 is the weakness of the wisdom of this world 
 that would value a privilege by the numbers 
 that embrace it : then might the very religion 
 of Jesus be despised, because at first it was 
 z 3 
 
254 DAILY PRAYER IN THE CHURCH OBSERVED 
 
 rejected and the holy Author of it persecuted 
 and slain." 
 
 Among our civic rulers, for we appeal to 
 them as the lay exemplars of their fellow- 
 citizens, are men who justly rank high in 
 their several professions ; second to none in 
 the deep sense they entertain of what they 
 owe to their office ; actuated by feelings of 
 honor, perseverance, and benevolence; even, 
 for the greatest part, sensible of the import- 
 ance of religion generally, and the benefit 
 of occasional public acts of Christian worship, 
 then why should they not, as Bristol Corpo- 
 rations were used to do in times not long 
 gone by, meet as a body, at some church 
 (say S. Mark's) every morning before they 
 enter upon their duties of the day, and again 
 kneel there when the hours of worldly 
 business are over, unless indeed they prefer 
 (which would be better) sharing this privi- 
 
BY BRISTOL MERCHANTS AND TRADESMEN. 255 
 
 lege with their families, in their respective 
 parish churches? If such were their daily 
 habit, would their fellow-citizens think less 
 highly of them? Would trade be less faith- 
 fully attended to ? Would not their example 
 influence others for good? and above all, 
 would they not experience the truth of that 
 infallible saying " the blessing of the Lord, 
 it maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow 
 with it." They could have too their occa- 
 sions, such as when any matter of more 
 public interest or of greater importance is 
 to be deliberated and decided; or as oft as 
 any ecclesiastical or other national holiday 
 occur, when as heretofore with decent pomp 
 and goodly show (apart withal from sinful 
 pride) a civic procession may be formed to 
 the venerable pile of our Cathedral, or to 
 S. Mary's at KedclifFe, or any other church, 
 and the solemn duties over, they may (if 
 all agree) adjourn, as their predecessors did. 
 
256 DAILY PRAYER IN THE CHURCH OBSERVED 
 
 to "the Maire is house," and there partake 
 of " spiced cake-brede and wyne," taking 
 care, however, to return to their families in 
 time to accompany them to their "own 
 parish church for evensong." They boast, 
 as they very justly may, that through God's 
 blessing, the errors of Popish domination 
 are in England trampled under foot, and 
 true religion is, or may be, enjoyed in all its 
 purity ; yet how slow are some to show 
 that they value their privileges, and rejoice 
 in the purity of their creed. Six-sevenths 
 of his life many an Englishman now spends 
 apart from his church — six days out of seven 
 he knows nothing of public confession, public 
 hearing of God's word, public prayer; while 
 his continental neighbours, deemed to be 
 erroneous in creed and pitifully ignorant, 
 will, as I have read, assemble (in the 
 manufacturing towns) hundreds upon 
 hundreds, in their working-dress at Mass 
 
BY BKISTOL MERCHANTS AND TRADESMEN. 257 
 
 at 5 o'clock in the morning before going 
 into the factories, and join heartily in 
 the service. The Englishman runs after the 
 popular preacher, and so does the continent- 
 alist, but with this difference, that generally 
 with the former all ends with the sermon, 
 while the latter observes also Mass and 
 prayer in the church, he admires the eloquent 
 preacher, but he loves also to join heart and 
 soul at 'Uhe great sacrifice in communion 
 with the faithful living and dead." We fear- 
 lessly declare that the English Church is 
 the purest branch of the Church throughout 
 the world, but alas ! her children will not 
 obey her. She is to most of them an ideal 
 of theory, not a thing of practice. Many 
 recoil at the very mention of daily public 
 prayer morning and evening as though it 
 were a venomous serpent, something to draw 
 them away from religion. They are super- 
 stitiously irreligious; yet doubtless the Truth 
 
258 DAILY PRAYER IN THE CHURCH OBSERVED 
 
 which dwells in the English Church merits 
 more devotion than the Error of Rome. 
 
 Now perhaps it may be thought from what 
 has been said that formerly Bristol merchants 
 were surly, priest-ridden, weak-minded men, 
 without the proper independence and cheerful 
 frank-heartedness of the present generation. 
 We could not do them a greater injustice than 
 to form such an opinion; serious in prayer, 
 grave in office, and steady in business, it 
 would be a hard matter to find now a merrier 
 or happier race of men than they were. 
 The meads, and gardens, and ambulatories 
 contiguous to the city wall, and the open 
 plains beyond, witnessed the sports, on many 
 a holy-day's'^ sunny evening, of the magis- 
 
 * "They reproach the Catholic religion with the numher of its S 
 holy-days, never considering how the want of holy-days breaks 
 down and brutalises the labouring class, and that where they occur 
 seldom they are uniformly abused. Christmas, Easter, and Whit- 
 suntide — the only seasons of festival in England, are always 
 devoted by the artificers and the peasantry to riot and intoxication." 
 
 esfbiella's letters. 
 
BY BRISTOL MERCHANTS AND TRADESMEN. 259 
 
 trate and the serfe, the master's son and the 
 apprentice ; on many a festival's afternoon, 
 were Marchall (now misnamed Merchant) 
 Street and Ryding-feld crowded with merry 
 stalwart citizens, challenging each other, in 
 thorough home-spun good nature, for joust 
 and tournament; and though their feats were 
 clumsy, and caused the fields around to ring 
 again with many a hearty laugh from the hy- 
 standers, good humour was the presiding 
 deity, and health and honest cheerfulness 
 followed in its train : many and many a year 
 after the King's soldiers were withdrawn from 
 the castle would the young, the middle-aged, 
 and the old, meet on " Mons acutus " (hence 
 Montague), Kingsdown, and join in the 
 " spere play," a game in which they took so 
 much interest that the expense of it was borne 
 by a general contribution of the inhabitants : 
 wrestling and leaping, archery and tilting, and 
 sometimes fowling and ducking, supplied them 
 
260 DAILY PRAYER IN THE CHURCH OBSERVED 
 
 with amusement; in the last named art we read 
 the Bristol magistrates once prided themselves 
 on their great proficiency; in the year 1240 
 (but that is a long while ago, we believe we 
 are more humane now) they gained consider- 
 able eclat for their skill in this pursuit — no 
 enviable notoriety certainly, for the poor duck 
 and the ducked owl on her back were worried 
 out of their lives for the magistrates' sport. 
 Yet why should not a similar spirit of frank- 
 heartedness, distinct no less from pride than 
 cruelty, pervade our rich and poor now, why 
 should they not all throng (particularly on 
 the festivals and other national holidays) into 
 those glorious buildings which the piety of 
 our ancestors raised for them, to bear their 
 part of prayer and thanksgiving ; and then on 
 the common outside the walls, or in the 
 squares within, join in lawful recreation, where 
 the lusty apprentice would not fear to outleap 
 his master's son, nor the pauper's child oi 
 
BY BRISTOL MERCHANTS AND TRADESMEN. 261 
 
 want to contend with the guardian's brother, 
 while the alms of the faithful that were col- 
 lected at the offertory in the morning may be 
 making the widows' and the orphans' hearts to 
 sing with joy? And in the beautiful villages 
 which fringe our city, why should not on 
 each returning festival the old parish church 
 send out of its time-honoured portals the 
 old men and women, the lads and lasses, 
 to the merry green, where youth may disport 
 itself, and old age, well pleased, look on? 
 Alas ! selfishness has well-nigh banished all 
 such unproductive amusements, and with 
 them, we fear, good humour and loyalty, 
 from our cities and villages. It is true we 
 have amusements "for the public" without 
 number, but alas ! what clumsy " unblessed 
 and unblessing " substitutes are they for the 
 festivals of holy church.* 
 
 We conceive that there is no proof needed 
 
 ♦ See Lord John Manners on National Holidays. 
 
 A a 
 
262 DAILY PRAYER IN THE CHURCH OBSERVED 
 
 to show that a magistrate, merchant, trades- 
 man, apprentice, and every other Christian 
 man and woman, high or low, may daily 
 assemble for public worship, and observe all 
 the Church's fasts and festivals, and yet not 
 only lose nothing, but gain much, in happi- 
 ness, dignity, honest success and cheerfulness. 
 We desire to press this consideration, though 
 at the risk of being charged with presump- 
 tuous interference, very strongly on the notice 
 of those whose example may influence others, 
 particularly, as we have said, on those placed 
 in civic authority; they are the trustees of 
 many church alms, the bestow ers of some 
 church appointments, the representatives of 
 excellent churchmen, we trust that the time is 
 not far distant when, as a Corporation, they will 
 daily observe all the public ordinances of the 
 church ; and we shall again find rich Bristol 
 merchants (as single agents, not as one guinea 
 subscribers) building and endowing churches. 
 
 4 
 
BY BRISTOL MERCHANTS AND TRADESMEN. 263 
 
 schools, or alms-houses out of that abundance 
 wherewith God has blessed them. That we 
 shall again find them, like the good Thomas 
 Holwey (aided by their virtuous wives, as he 
 was by his thrifty Joan), making it a point 
 of duty to dispense rightly the rich treasures 
 entrusted by Providence to their care, visiting 
 from church to church, and with amenity 
 and tenderness pointing out defects, with 
 encouragement leading to their reparation, 
 and with ungrudged bounty aiding the work. 
 Thomas and Joan coveted not to have their 
 names handed down to us, but they have 
 reached us ; and with this remark they stand 
 recorded in an old manuscript, in an obscure 
 list of good doers; 
 
 **Item. mor ouyr moste well-wyllyd to all good 
 " werkys of ye churche to ouyr see ye reparacyons of 
 " ye churche. 4 tymes a yer goyng yn hs cheyre." 
 i. e. coach. 
 
 Aa3 
 
" Well may masters consider how easie a transposition it bad 
 " been for God, to bave made him to mount into tbe saddle tbat 
 " holds tbe stirrup ; and him to sit down at tbe table who stands 
 " by with a trencher." 
 
 tulier's holy state. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE CONCLUSION. 
 
 MASTKR AND SERVANT. 
 
 Another thought which has forcibly occurred 
 to us in the course of these enquiries, but 
 one which we must very briefly notice, is, 
 how differently masters appear to have re- 
 garded their servants and apprentices formerly 
 from what they do now ! What kindness on 
 one side, what fidelity on the other ! They 
 moved and lived together as members of 
 the same family, yet without blending the 
 necessary distinction (necessary because God 
 Himself ordained it) which exists between 
 them. Rarely do we now hear of instances 
 of any continuing in the same ser\'itude a 
 whole life : the common average scarcely 
 Aa3 
 
266 MASTER AND SERVANT. 
 
 exceeds a few years ; yet seldom has it fallen 
 to our lot to decipher an ancient will, without 
 finding kind mention of old domestics and 
 faithful apprentices ; and reminiscences, in 
 a substantial shape, of continued fidelity. 
 We will give two instances : Canynge, 
 though immured in a cloister, though he 
 had withdrawn himself from the world, shut 
 not up his recollection of past services. He 
 would not permit even the glorious work of 
 building such a church as S. Mary's, at 
 Redcliffe, to absorb his means of marking 
 his grateful memory of his old servants : 
 Wurley and Wadning, Hickes and Trewel,* 
 with others, had reason to remember the 
 good Dean of Westbury, whose religion had 
 taught him that " the rich and poor meet 
 together; the Lord is the Maker of them 
 all." But Canynge was a greatly good man, 
 
 • These and others are mentioned by name as legatees in 
 Canynge's will. 
 
MASTER AND SERVANT. 267 
 
 a man endued with extraordinary zeal, devo- 
 tion, and Christian love — few can keep pace 
 with his gigantic step ; we will refer then to 
 one belonging to the class of ordinary citizens, 
 and show that Canynge's regard for old 
 faithful servants was by no means singular, 
 or peculiar to himself. One John Bromdon, 
 an honest burgess of the town of Bristol, 
 signed, on Palm Sunday, 1375, his last Will 
 and Testament, in which, among others, we 
 find the following specific legacies : — I be- 
 queath to my servant, Arnald, a shop, with 
 all its appurtenances, situate, &c. Item, I 
 
 give to John Colton, my servant, ;* Item, 
 
 to John Perinn, my valet, ; Item, to 
 
 my servant, John Cooke, ; Item, to my 
 
 servant, John Bampton, ; Item, to my 
 
 servant, Margaret Goodhynde, ; Item, I 
 
 give to my late servant, Alice Weston, ; 
 
 Item, I give to my servant, Agnes • 
 
 * We omit the description and amount of the several legacies. 
 
268 MASTER AND SERVANT. 
 
 What we would infer from such bequests 
 as these, which appear to have been general 
 during the course of many centuries, differing 
 only in amount in proportion to the com- 
 parative wealth of the testator, is, that there 
 was more kindness on the one side, and 
 more humble fidelity on the other, than we 
 now usually find subsisting between like 
 parties ; they were not in the habit of regard- 
 ing each other respectively as tyrant and 
 slave; more sympathy and mercy prevailed 
 here, and more cheerful obedience there : and 
 to what may we reasonably attribute this 
 change of feeling and conduct ? Surely 
 amongst other inferior causes to our present 
 dividedness on religious subjects, our disre- 
 gard of the laws of the Church, our love 
 of controversial pietism, and the deadness of 
 personal religion on both sides. Let the 
 unity of faith, sought in, and cemented by, 
 the teaching and discipline of the One Holy 
 
MASTER AND SERVANT. 269 
 
 Catholic Church bind them both, bind us 
 all, whatever our rank, whatever our relative 
 obligations, and the bond will prove indis- 
 soluhle. 
 
 Of Lady Falkland it is narrated that " She 
 punctually observed the Holy Days of the 
 Church, and after the public service she 
 released her servants to their recreations and 
 the care of their own concerns, saying, * These 
 days are yours, and as due to you as ordinary 
 days to my employments,^ On these days of 
 rest she went with her books to her unlearned 
 neighbours, who were at leisure to hear her 
 read, whilst their plough and their rvheel stood 
 still. She strictly observed likewise the fasts 
 of the Church."^ 
 
 And how much happier and more united 
 we all should be, if we would but endeavour 
 to observe the rules laid down by Mr. Mede, 
 ** never to talk of religion but when we think 
 
 ♦ Churchwomen of the seventeenth century, 
 
270 MASTER AND SERVANT. 
 
 seriously of it — not to betray the want of 
 it by one's discourse of it, which should be 
 decent, grave, sober, prudent — that our dis- 
 course of religion be practical rather than 
 notional, or disputing; that it be devout, 
 edifying after an hearty and affectionate 
 manner." 
 
 " That we join a good life to our religious 
 discourses : and never contradict our tongue 
 by our deeds." 
 
 We have to apologize to our readers for 
 the introduction of matters which are some- 
 what irrelevant to our main subject — indeed 
 throughout we have little studied to gratify a 
 morbid taste for novelty, or the love of excite- 
 ment ; neither have we thought of catering to 
 a romantic fancy respecting monastic life, 
 scarcely even to maintain an uniform account 
 of any given period in our city's history. 
 Some circumstances, however, have incidentally 
 presented themselves to our notice^ which we 
 
MASTER AND SERVANT. 271 
 
 thought too important to be entirely omitted. 
 Altogether we trust that this effort to redeem 
 from increasing obscurity a few interesting 
 facts in our local history, will help, as subordi- 
 nate means, to regenerate among us good 
 catholic feelings and usages, and lead us to set 
 a just value on our venerable city, and to 
 imitate (improving where we can) the customs 
 of our Christian forefathers. 
 
 " Gloria in exrclets Bto" 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 The "List" referred to in page 245 n., and which is added 
 to " A Discourse concerning the duty and importance of 
 "Daily Public Prayer, by the Rev. J. PearsaU, A.M. 
 " MDccLi." (Not a century ago.) 
 
 A 
 
 LIST 
 
 DAILY SEKVICE, 
 
 IT IS PERFORMED IN LONDON, IN THE SEVERAL CHURCHES 
 THROUGHOUT THE BILLS OF MORTALITY. 
 
 IN AN ALPHABETICAL ORDER. 
 Bb 
 
274 HOURS OF DAILY PUBLIC PRAYER. 
 
 MORNING. EVENING. 
 
 Al-hallow's, Barkin* 9 o'Clock 7 o'Clock. 
 
 , Staining 11 „ 4 „ 
 
 St. Andrew, Holborn,) -, . o 
 
 with its Chapel I ^^ " "^ 
 
 St. John's, Bedford Row . . 11 „ 4 „ 
 
 St. Andrew Undershaft, ) 6 in Summer ) „ 
 Leaden-Hall Street., j 7 in Winter.) ^ " 
 
 St. Ann, Soho, West-| ^ '" ^^^""[[1 4 and 6, except 
 "^i^«*^^ 1 7 in Whiter. J Saturdays. 
 
 6 in Summer, 
 
 7 in Winter, 
 Wed., Friday, & 
 
 ^ Holidays, 11. 
 
 St Botolph, without Al- ) J ^ ^,(.1^^^ 3 
 
 dersgate J 
 
 St. Botolph, without Aid-) f 7, except Sa- 
 
 gate J \ turdays 
 
 St. Bride's, Fleet Street... 11 „ 7 „ 
 
 Charter House Chapel ... 11 „ ••• { 3 jn wSter.^ 
 
 ^, . . />.i 1 XT X n f 5 in Summer 
 
 Christ Church, Newgate.. 11 „ •••! 3 jn Winter. 
 
 St. Christopher, near the ) g a 
 
 xSanK •../ 
 
 * At this Church the Holy Communion was administered every 
 Sunday. 
 
 St. Antholin's, Watling 
 Street 
 
 i 
 
HOURS OF DAILY PUBLIC PRAYER. 275 
 
 MORNING. EVENING. 
 
 St. Clement Dane, Tern- 1 ^j ^.^^^^^ 3&7o'Clock. 
 
 pie Bar ) 
 
 St. Dionis Back Church, "I 8 in Summer | - 
 Lime Street / 9 in Winter. / ^ 
 
 St. Dunstan,* Stepney ... 11 o'Clock ... | ^ j^ WiTe^ 
 
 St. Edmund, the King 7 in Winter. 
 
 St. George, Bloomsbury... 11 „ 4 „ 
 
 , Hanover Sqr. 11 „ 5 „ 
 
 Conduit Street Chapel ... 11 „ 4 „ 
 
 Audley Street Chape], ) 1 1 
 Grosvenor Square ...j " 
 
 St. George, Martyr, \ ^^ a 
 
 Queen Square j " " 
 
 St. Giles, Cripple Gate ... 11 „ 7 „ 
 
 , in the fields ... 10 „ 4 „ 
 
 Great Queen Street Cha- ) -. . 
 peljLincoln's Inn fields / " 
 
 «-y^i-^wei 11 ,. -{|i:;';^re"- 
 
 St. James,t Clerkenwell ..11 „ 
 
 * At St. Dunstan's in the West, besides the morning and evening 
 prayer, the Communion was administered every Holiday at 7 in 
 the morning, 
 
 f St. James's Chapel, 6 and 11 a.m., 5 p.m., and Holy Communion 
 every Sunday. 
 
 Bb2 
 
276 HOURS OF DAILY PUBLIC PRAYER. 
 
 MORNING. 
 
 EVENING. 
 
 linster. .< 
 
 6 in Summer*] 
 St. James, Westminster. .-? and Hi I 3 & 6 o'CIock. 
 
 in Winter.] 
 
 King Street Chapel, ditto. 1 
 
 Berwick Street Chapel,) -. 
 "Westminster / 
 
 St. John, Wapping 1 
 
 St. Catherine by the Tower 1 
 
 *St. Lawrence, Jewry 1 
 
 St. Leonard, Shoreditch... 1 
 
 Ask's Chapel, Hoxton ..... 1 
 
 Lincoln's Inn Chapel 1 
 
 St. Margaret's, "Westmins. 
 Duke Street Chapel, ditto. 1 
 
 Queen Sqr. Chapelj 
 
 J 5 in Summer 
 \ 3 in Winter. 
 
 from Mid- 
 summer to Mi- 
 chaelmas. 
 
 ,do.| 
 
 } 9 „ 3 
 
 fSt. Martin in the ) 6 in Summer \ n 
 
 Fields J 7 in Winter. / ^ 
 
 Chapel in the Broadway, 
 Westminster 
 
 * The Holy Communion on every Sunday except the first in 
 the month, at 6 a.m. 
 
 f The Holy Communion on every Sunday except the second 
 in the month, at 6 o'clock a.m. 
 
HOURS OF DAILY PUBLIC PRAYER. 277 
 
 MORNING. EVENING. 
 
 St. Martin, Ludgate 11 o'Clock 6 o'Clock. 
 
 St.Mary-le-Bow, Cheap- 1 c c 
 
 side.. ..J ^ - ^ " 
 
 St. Mary Woolnorth, ) ,r. ( 4 in Summer 
 
 Lombard Street / ^" " •"l 3 in Winter. 
 
 St. Michael, Crooked Lane 8 „ 
 
 , Queen Hithe 6 „ 
 
 , Bassishaw 6 in Winter. 
 
 Oxford Chapel, St.Mary- ) ,, k 
 
 ' le-Bone i ^^ " ^ 
 
 6 in Summer' 
 
 St. Paul's Cathedral*...] ^ 'iJ'''^'' 
 
 . i after 3. 
 
 before 10.^ 
 
 St. Paul's, Covent Garden 6 and 10 ... 3&6„ 
 
 tSt. Peter's, Cornhill 11 „ 4 „ 
 
 f 6 in Summer 1 
 +St. Peter's, Westmins. i and 10 1 3 „ 
 
 [ 7 in Winter. J 
 
 * Sermons on the Saints' days. 
 
 f The Holy^ Communion every Sunday, and also a Sermon 
 every Holiday. 
 
 + A Sermon every Holiday. 
 
 The above notes are taken from " Rules for our more devout 
 behaviour," &c., first published in 1686. The eleventh edition 
 (from which these notes are extracted) appeared in 1709. 
 
278 HOURS OF DAILY PUBLIC PRAYER. 
 
 MORNING. EVENING. 
 
 St. Sepulchre's, Newgate. 6 o'Clock 3 J o'Clock. 
 
 St. Stephen, Coleman St. 11 „ 
 
 Somerset House Chapel... 11 „ 4 „ 
 
 St. Swithin, London Stone 11 „ 7 „ 
 
 rp T ^, , ( S Vacation ... 4 „ 
 
 Temple Church | ^ ^^^^ Time. 3 „ 
 
 St. Vedast, Foster Lane 6 „ 
 
 Whitehall Chapel 11 „ 5 „ 
 
 The other Churches have their services performed at 
 least every Wednesday, Friday, and Holyday." 
 
 A list similar to the above, hut containing a fuller 
 account, mentioning other London churches in which 
 the Holy Communion was administered weekly, was 
 published in the beginning of the eighteenth century, 
 in a work entitled "Pietas Londinensis." Another in 
 1683, in the " Preface " to a Book intituled " Advice 
 to the Readers of the Common Prayer," &c. Another 
 in " An Essay upon the service of the Church of England, 
 considered as a daily service," &c., by William Best, D.D. 
 1746. Another is appended to "Rules for our more 
 devout behavour in the time of Divine Service;" the 
 first edition of which was published in 1686. To these 
 
 1 
 
HOURS OF DAILY PUBLIC PRAYER. 279 
 
 may be added several others : from all which it appears 
 that ever since the Reformation, down to about the last 
 half-century, whatever diversity of opinion may have 
 existed in doctrinal points, even when religious contro- 
 versy was carried on with a warmth exceeding that of 
 our own times, few clergymen (of whatever shade of 
 opinion) thought themselves justified in closing their 
 Church against daily prayer. However divided on 
 other subjects, all seem on this point to have been 
 unanimous. We conclude in the words of two holy 
 men, " Be sure," says Bishop Ken, " to offer up to God 
 every day the morning and evening prayers" " Never 
 miss," says Archdeacon Hewitson in his advice to Bishop 
 "Wilson, the day on which he was ordained Deacon, 
 " Never miss the Church's public devotions twice a day^ 
 when unavoidable business, or want of health, or of a 
 church, as in travelling, doth not hinder." Advice 
 which the good Bishop never failed to follow, as is fully 
 shown in Cruttwell's Life. 
 
 PBINTED BY JOSEPH LEECH, BRISTOL TIMES OFFICE, BROAD-STBEET. 
 
CORRIGENDA. 
 
 Page 69, line 8, for and, read m\ 
 
 218, line 3, for friar, read prim: 
 
 257, line 19, after serpent, insert or. 
 
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