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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Bought with the income
of the
MATTHEW C. D. BORDEN FUND

THE PEOPLE'S FAITH
IN THE TIME OF
WYCLIF

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
C. F. CLAY, Manager *
LONDON : FETTER LANE, E.G. 4
NEW YORK : G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
BOMBAY , ]
CALCyTTA [ MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd.
madras j
TORONTO ; J. M. DENT AND SONS, Ltd.
TOKYO : MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

THE PEOPLE'S FAITH
IN THE TIME OF
WYCLIF

BY
BERNARD LORD MANNING, B.A.
SOMETIME SCHOLAR OF JESUS COLLEGE, DONALDSON BYE-
FELLOW OF MAGDALENE COLLEGE, AND LIGHTFOOT SCHOLAR
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

THIRLWALL ESS AT 191 7

CAMBRIDGE
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
I919

Me-r33

TO
ARTHUR GRAY
MASTER OF JESUS COLLEGE
AND
ARTHUR CHRISTOPHER BENSON
MASTER OF MAGDALENE COLLEGE
THIS ESSAY IS GRATEFULLY
DEDICATED

Simile factum est regnum caelorum homini, qui seminavit
bonum semen in agro suo. Cum autem dormirent homines,
venit inimicus ejus et superseminavit zizania, . .
Sancti Matthaei Evangelium, xiii, 24-5.
Per tolerantiam zizaniorum crescit fructus frumentorum.
Sancti Augustini Enarratio in Psalmum Ixiv, 1 2 ;
Opera, iv, 784. Migne.

PREFACE
THIS essay falls into three sections. In the first,
which comprises chapters i, ii, and iii, are
examined some of the ways by which religion was
taught in the fourteenth century: the Mass, the
sermon, and the confessional— the dramatic, the
rhetorical, and the personal presentation of Christi
anity. In the second section, which continues from
chapter xv to chapter ix, comes the subject matter
of popular reUgion, and here there are two sub
divisions, theory and practice, (i) What did the
average man know about Christianity? How could
he express what he knew? How well was he ac
quainted with the main facts of theology, with the
principal stories in the Bible, vsath prayers and hymns
and pious ejaculations? What did he understand of
those sacraments which concerned him? What part,
had they in his religious, hfe? After the wheat come
the tares — after the beliefs which the Church tried
to plant, the beliefs which it tried to uproot. What
was meant in the fourteenth century by 'supersti
tion'? How far had popular religion compromised
with witchcraft, astrology, idolatry, and more trivial

vm

PREFACE

forms of misbelief? (ii) Passing then to the practical
expression of popular faith the essay illustrates the
relation of Christianity (a) to everyday hfe, in mar
riage, the care of children, oaths, dancing, treatment
of animals, and the like; and (6) to sacred duties, by
the reverence shown for holy days and holy things,
where incidentally the difference between medieval
and modern ideas of reverence comes into view
The third and final section, comprising chapters
X, XI, and xil, is devoted to three problems which
agitated the popular mind: the social problem of
poverty, the philosophical problem of free-will, and
the rehgious problem of prayer.
The essay, despite its comprehensive title, does
not profess to deal with more than a few aspects
of popular belief and practice. I have made no
attempt to cover the whole of the ground even super
ficially; the object has been to illustrate popular
opinion on a few subjects by allowing the men of
the fourteenth century to speak for themselves; and
the endeavour to bring out some points in detail
has necessarily disturbed the balance and led to a
certain lack of proportion.
The generation whose faith is here described was
the generation of Wyclif and Langland, of Chaucer
and Gower, the generation who covered the second
half of the fourteenth century. Most of the material
drawn upon touches this generation on one side or
the other, but I have not hesitated to go farther
afield when the excursion seemed to be justifiable.

. PREFACE ix
The List of Books is intended to serve one purpose
only, to elucidate the footnotes. It is not a catalogue
of books consulted nor the beginning of a bibhography.
One thing remains to be done, and that the plea
santest of all. I cannot deny myself the privilege of
recording my gratitude for the help that has been given
to me. To the Adjudicators of the Thirlwall Prize,
especially to Professor Bury and Dr Rose, I owe
particular thanks for the great consideration which
they showed to me when I was placed in somewhat
difficult circumstances. To Dr Foakes Jackson and
Mr G. G. Coulton the essay owes- more than I can
say, but not more, I hope, than I can be grateful for.
The extent of their patience and kindness can be
measured only by those who have trespassed as
often and as shamelessly as I have done. And, if
I may venture to do so, I should lik^ to express my
warm thanks to Mr R. V. Laurence, Dr J. N. Figgis,
Mr G. Lapsley, and Mr G. G. Butler, who gave me
direction and advice when I was about to set out on
the work ; to the Master of Jesus, Sir Arthur Quiller-
Couch, and Mr C. E. Sayle for suggestions of various
kinds; to Sir John Sandys and Mr E. Harrison for
help in the last stages of the, book; aiid to Mr A. R.
Waller and to the readers of the University Press
for the many corrections and improvements which
they have suggested, as also for the indulgence with
which they have treated me at a time when- my
attention has of necessity been given to other work.

X PREFACE
Though I can now do no more, I must express
my sense of deep obligation to the late Professor
Gwatkin, who took no little trouble to advise me in
the beginnings of my research and was good enough
to show interest in its progress.
B. L. M.
Cambridge,
25 November 1918.

CONTENTS

BOOKS, EDITIONS, AND ABBREVIATIONS
INTRODUCTION ....
I. THE MASS ....
II. THE SERMON
III. THE CONFESSIONAL
IV. THE RUDIMENTS OF THE FAITH
V. BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION
VI . COMMUNION AND EXTREME UNCTION
VII. ERRONEOUS AND STRANGE DOC
TRINES
VIII. GOOD WORKS
IX. HOLY DAYS AND HOLY PLACES
X. THE PROBLEM OF POVERTY .
XI. THE PROBLEM OF FREE WILL .
XII. THE PROBLEM OF PRAYER
CONCLUSION
INDEX ....

PAGE xiii I
4
17
2939 51
6178
102123
H5IS4 174
184 189

BOOKS, EDITIONS, AND
ABBREVIATIONS
This list sets out the titles and editions of the books to which
references are most often made in the Essay; the abbreviations
and symbols used in the footnotes are indicated here in
brackets after the full title. Most of the footnotes state
explicitly whether the references are to pages or to lines or
to chapters, but where the system is at all intricate (e.g. in
Dives and Pauper) it is explained below. The appeals to certain
books are so many and so simple that it has seemed unneces
sary to enter into detail every time, and it is stated in this
list once and for all that the references are to lines (e.g. in
Gower's Fo;ir Clamantis).
VERSE
The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman in
three parallel texts, ed. W. W. Skeat; Oxford, 1886.
(Piers Plqwman.)
The Text is indicated by capital letters, the Passus by
Roman numerals, the Une by Arabic numerals, e.g.
B. IV. 10.
The Works of John Gower, ed. G. C. Macaulay; Oxford,
1899-1902.
Mirour de I'Omme. (Mirour.)
Confessio Amaniis. {Conf. Aman.)
Vox Clamantis. (Vox Clam,.)
The Books are indicated by Roman, and the lines by
Arabic numerals, e.g. Conf. Aman. III. 16.
Pearl, ed. I. GoUancz, 1891.
The Pearl, ed. C. G. Osgood, 1906.
Pearl, rendered into English verse by G. G. Coulton, 1906.
Pierce the Ploughman's Crede, ed. W. W. Skeat, E.E.T.S.,
1867. (Crede.)

xiv BOOKS, EDITIONS, AND ABBREVIATIONS
Lay Folks Mass Booh, ed. T. F. Simmons, E.E.T.S.,
1879. (L.F.M.B.)
References are to Text B except where it is otherwise
stated.
Merita Missae, printed in Lay Folks Mass Book.
Manner ¦and Mede of the Mass, printed in Lay Folks Mass
Book.
Lay Folks Catechism, ed. Simmons and Nolloth, E.E.T.S.,
1901. (L.F.C.)
Handlyng Synne, by Robert of Brunne, ed. F. J. Fumivall,
E.E.T.S., 1901. (Hand. Synne.)
The references are to lines.
Early English Alliterative Poems, ed. Richard Morris,
E.E.T.S., 1864. {Alliterative Poems.)
Political, Religious, and Love Poems, ed. F. J. Fumivall,
E.E.T.S., 1866. (P.R.&'L.)
Twenty Six Political and other Poems, ed. Dr J. Kail,
E.E.T.S., 1904. (Kail.)
Reference is made to the number of the poem by Roman
numerals and to the page of the volume by Arabic
numerals.
Hoccleve's Works, Minor Poems, ed. F. J. Fumivall,
E.E.T.S., 1892.
Instructions for Parish Priests, by John Myrc, ed. Edward
Peacock, revised by F. J. Fumivall, E.E.T.S., 1902.
(Instructions.) The references are to lines.
PROSE WORKS
The Prymer, ed. H. Littlehales, E.E.T.S., 1895 and 1897.
Festial, by John Myrc, E.E.T.S., 1905.
The Book of the Knight of La Tour Landry, E.E.T.S.,
1906. {Tour Landry.)
The Fifty Earliest English Wills, ed. F. J. Fiimivall,
E.E.T.S., 1882. (Wills.)
The Brut, E.E.T.S., 1906-8.

BOOKS, EDITIONS, AND ABBREVIATIONS xv
pnglish Prose Treatises of Richard Rolle deHampole, ed.
G. G. Perry, E.E.T.S., 1866. {E.P.T.)
Reference is made to. the number of the treatise by
Roman numerals and to the page of the volume by
Arabic numerals.
The Incendium Amoris of Richard Rolle, ed. Margaret
Deanesly, 1915.
Julian of Norwich, Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love,
ed. R. F. S. Creasy, 1670. (Revelations.)
Julian of Norwich, Comfortable Words for Christ's Lovers,
ed. Dundas Harford, 191 1. {Comfortable Words.)
Walter Hilton, Scale of Perfection, ed. J. B. Dalgaims,
1901. (Scale.)
The Cell of Self -Knowledge, Mystical Treatises, edited by
J. E. G. Gardner, 1910.
Wyclif, Select English Works, ed.- Thomas Arnold, 1869.
(Arnold.)
English Works of Wyclif Hitherto Unprinted, ed. F. D.
Matthew, E.E.T.S., 1880. (Matthew.)
Reference is made to the number of the tract by Roman
numerals and to the page of the volume by Arabic
numerals.
Fasciculus Rerum Expetendarum et Fugiendarum, ed.
Edward Brown, 1690.
Volume I for Articuli Johannis Wiclefi Angli.
Volume II for Defensorium Curatorum by FitzRalph
of Armagh. (Def. Cur. in Fasc. II.)
The references are to the pages of the Fasciculus.
Loci e Libro Veritatum, Passages firom Gascoigne's
Theological Dictionary, ed. J. E. T. Hpgers, r88i.
The Dialogue of Dives and Pauper, yynson's edition.
1493. (D.&^P:)
The pages of this book are not numbered. It contains
a prologue on Poverty and ten parts, one part for each
of the Ten Commandments. These parts are sub-divided
into chapters. References are made by indicating
(I) the commandment, (2) the chapter, and sometimes

xvi BOOKS, EDITIONS, AND ABBREVIATIONS
(3) the particular column of the chapter. The command
ment is indicated by Roman numerals, the chaptei/
and the column by Arabic, e.g. "D. S- P. iv. 3. 2 " is a
reference to the second column of chapter three in the
part which discusses the fourth commandment. Parts
of columns are always reckoned as whole columns,
and where the third figure does not appear the refer
ence is to the whole chapter.
Register of John de Gr'andisson, ed. F. C. Hingeston-
Randolph, 1894-9. {Register.)
Concilia Magnae Britanniae et Hiberniae, ed. David
Wilkins, 1737. (Wilkins.) '
S|; Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica. Parma, 1852.
{Sum.ma.)
WORKS IN THE ROLLS SERIES
Thomae Walsingham Historia Anglicana, ed. H. T. Riley,
1863^4. (Walsingham.)
Chronicon Henrici Knighton, ed. J. R. Lumby, 1889-95.
(Knighton.)
Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden, ed. C. Babington and
J. R. Lumby, 1865-86. (Higden.)
Chronicon Angliae 1328-1388, ed. E. M. Thompson,
1 1874. (Chron. Angl.)
Eulogium Historiarum sive Temporis, ed. F. S. Haydon,
1858-63. (Eulogium.)
Johannis de Trohelowe et Henrici de Blaneforde mona-
chorum S. Albani necnon quorundam anonymorum
Chronica et Annates, ed. H. T. Riley, 1866. (Troke-
lowe.)
Political Poems and Songs, ed. Thomas Wright, 1859-61.
(Political Songs.)
Fasciculi Zizaniorum, ed. W. W. Shirley, 1858. (Fasc.
Ziz.)

INTRODUCTION
Christianity in the fourteenth century was still an
oral rehgion. It was taught rather by word of mouth
than by the written word, and as a natural conse
quence it was far more dependent on the ministers of
the Church than it is to-day. There were few religious
books in the vulgar tongue, and if anyone desired
more instruction than the services of the parish
church could give, he was unable to provide it for
himself. There was but one certain way of obtaining
information about Christianity — from a professional
teacher. The wealthy availed themselves of private
chaplains^. The poor betook themselves to a wander
ing friar.
And if fourteenth century religion owed little to
books, it owed little also to the "godly homes " of the
people. Those b«^t teachers of Protestantism were
not the allies of the medieval Church. There is com
paratively httle trace of "family religion" in, the
records of popular Christianity; the ordinary man's
worship was an affair of churches and altars and
shrines, not of the fireside. The father was not the
priest of the household ; the mother's knee was not
1 Cutts, Parish Priests and their People, ch. xxvii. See
Grandisson's Register, Index, p. 1716, for a great number
of private chapels.

2 INTRODUCTION
the children's altar. The official teachers did not lay
much stress on family worship. John Myrc, it is true,
expressed the hope that his hearers "prayen well at
hom yn your houses^," but he did not stay to em
phasise the point. To retort that he was preaching
about the Church may help to explain the fact, but
does not explain it away. Public devotions were
definitely preferred to private as less self-centred and
more helpful to the general body of the faithful.
St Margaret, said Myrc, "wyll con you more J>onk
forto make a masse sayd yn J^e worschip of her J>en
forto fast mony evenes bred and watyr wythout
masse ^." Without the Enghsh Bible family worship
could not take any considerable part in the rehgious
life of the people. Little was heard of "pure religion
breathing household laws," nor does it seem to have
been a prominent ideal of the age.
The influence of devout parents must indeed have
been strong in the fourteenth as in other centuries.
The old question, "What mean ye by this service? "
would often be upon a child's lips when daily hfe
was honeycombed by religious observances: graces
and crossings at meals*, Ave and Pater, invocation
of saints, defences against evil spirits, obeisance to
shrines and images — these would arouse the curio
sity of children and afford occasion for homely
instruction: And yet the traces of lay teaching are to be
discerned only very faintly. It was, after all, an
' Festial, p. 279. " ibid, p. 199.
' ibid. p. 286.

INTRODUCTION 3
inconsiderable amount of religious instruction that
the average man received from sources not distinctly
ecclesiastical. What, then, were the regular ecclesi
astical channels by which religion came to the lay
man? The parish church was the chief of them, and
the influence of the parish church wj^p felt through
the Mass, the sermon, and the confessional system.

r — 2

CHAPTER I
THE MASS
How often did the ordinary layman hear the Divine
Service of the Mass? What did it mean to him when
he heard it? Could he take an intelhgent part in it,
or was it a piece of incomprehensible magic?
In most churches Mass was said every day, and
unless he had a sufficient excuse every Christian
might be expected to aitend. Medieval literature is
full of casual references to daily attendance at Mass,
and, as far as it goes, this evidence is conclusive.' In
some ranks of society at least it was customary to
begin the day with Divine Service. For the leisured
classes Mass was, like dinner, a part of the daily
routine. It was a regular preface to a day's hunting,
and was often mentioned merely as an indication
of the hour. Every one was urged to be present at
the daily service if he could, but many exceptions
were allowed. The majority of the people did not
attend each day, nor was it expected of them. The
"common people" were always exempt because of
their agricultural work.
To chyrche come, jef )>ow may.
And here ]>y masse vche day.

CH. I] THE MASS 5
said Myrc, but he recognised that this would often
be impossible, and went on to add
And 3ef ]jow may not come to chyrche.
Where euer );at )jow do worche,
When J)ow herest to masse knylle,
Prey to God wy)) herte stylle".
On Sundays, when httle work was done, the "com
mon people " as well as their masters were free to hear
Mass, and were hable to fines if they did not do so.
A general attendance was ex"pected, too, on the
greater feast-days, for these were observed as care
fully as Sundays 2. And yet John Myrc apparently
looked for a larger congregation" on Sunday than on
the feast-day; for we find him usually arranging for
the sermon about a saint to be preached not on the
saint's own festival, but on the Sunday immediately
preceding it^. The mid-morning Mass was the prin
cipal and best-attended service. Many people con
sidered matins quite superfluous*, and though church-
going was general in the fourteenth century there
were always some folk who spent little time in church
till they were finally carried thither^ They preferred
to pass the hour of service in bed, in the tavern, in
games, or in dressing themselves^.
' Instructions, 1603. Cf. Mirour, 16244.
2 Festial, p. 266. All Saints : attendance urged at evensong on
the vigil, and at matins, Mass, and evensong, on the day itself.
Trokelowe, p. 340. People at church on Corptis Christi.
Mirour, 5245 and 5619. Though "ly Sompnolent" sleeps at
service and "Lachesce" is late, it is clear that they attend
church "en haulte teste."
' Festial, pp. 11, 18, 52, 79, 132, 138, 142, 146, 175, etc., and
contrast, for a few sermons on holy days, pp. 26, 30, 38, etc.
* Mirour, 5179. ' Vox Clam. vn. 829.
* Tour Landry, chap, cviii. p. 145.

6 THE MASS [ch.
It might appear that the layman was a mere
spectator watching a ceremony which he could not
understand. Except on the rarest occasions he did
not himself comrmunicate^ In a popular explanation
of the service there, was no direction about this ; the
chance that the worshippers would communicate was
so unlikely that the author felt safe in ignoring it.
Lydgate indeed frankly taught that there was no
need to partake of the bread; to see the priest's
communion was quite as efficacious^. Until the time
came for the distribution of that " holy bread " which
was carefully distinguished from the sacrament itself
the layman had not the interest of going forward to
take his share in the service*.
This was not the chief obstacle. It was the use of
Latin which most effectually prevented congre
gational worship* However it may have been in
earher times, by the end of the fourteenth century
the Latin of the Mass was unintelhgible to most
people^. In books intended for general use Latin
quotations were usually translated. Even French
was becoming pedantic. Institutions hke the law-
courts were recognising the language of the ordinary
man^, and' the Church itself did so when it was
^ See chap. vi. p. 6i below. ^ Merita Missae, Une 127.
' Walsingham, i. p. 475, gives quaint testimony to this
weekly custom. Cf. Hand. Synne, 7301; Instructions, 1345.
* Rosmini, Five Wounds ofthe Holy Church, chap. 1. Of the
Wound in the Left Hand of the Holy Church, which is the
Division between the People and the Clergy in Public Worship
' (especially sections 13, 14, 15-19).
" e.g. Mirour, 27475; Conf. Aman. vi. 980.
" In 1362. Parliament was opened by an English speech in
the foUowing year.

I] THE MASS 7
essential that the people should understand exactly
what was said. If an excommunicated person was
denounced, it was stated with great care that the
people should be warned in the vulgar tongue, that
they might know what was said to them^.
In the Anglo-Saxon Church it had perhaps been
usual to translate the Gospel into English after it had
been read in Latin, but this concession to local dialect
ceased at the Norman Conquest^ According to one
school of opinion it was indeed unnecessary for the
congregation to know what was being said at Mass.
The liturgy was a sort of magic which could not fail
to benefit the hearers whether they understood it or
no. It was compared to the spell by which conjurers
charm an adder. Little as it might convey to their
minds, the people were told, "Tpe verrey vertu 30W
alle a-vayles*." It seemed that the priest was satis
fied so long as the charm served to produce "mass-
pennies" — for in the offertory at least the layman
was first encouraged, and afterwards compelled, to
take his part. Whon he tornej' a-non ]>e tille.
Go vp to him with ful good-wille
And ^i peny him profre*.
But this comparison of the Mass to the charming of
an adder was no fair representation of what the Mass
was intended to be, or of what in fact it was to many
congregations. The mere existence of the Lay Folks
Mass Book is sufficient to show that something more
' Grandisson's Register, pp. 1053, 1061, 1109, 1149.
* Lay Folks Mass Book, p. 211.
' Manner and Mede of the Mass, line 447. * ibid. Une 512.

8 THE MASS [ch.
was attempted in the later Middle Ages; it represents
a serious attempt to make the Mass intelligible first
to those who spoke French and later to the English^.
The structure and purport of the service were ex
plained in jingling verse, the thoughts of the wor
shipper were directed, and free translations of many
prayers were supplied. These last the reader was
advised to "con with-outen boke" that he might
spend the time of Mass profitably and devoutly^.
The prayers given were admirable for their simple
piety. No one could fail to understand them, and
the popular rehgion which they represented cannot
be dismissed as a superstition unintelhgible even to
those who professed it*.
The Lay Folks Mass Book was not a translation of
the hturgy. It rested on a theory that the priest and
the layman ought to approach God, not by the same,
but by different ways. Even their creeds were not
identical; the priest used the Nicene formula, the
people an Enghsh version of the Apostles' Creed.
Some of the prayers were adapted from the hturgy*;
and some parts, hke the Gloria in Excelsis, Sursum
Corda, a.nA Agnus Dei, were translated and expanded^.
To translate the whole of the hturgy would have been
regarded as an act of desecration. Though some of it
1 L. F. M. B. pp. xxxii, xlix. 2 jjj^_ jj^g g^g
' ibid, lines 187, 314, 428. Cf. Instructions, 290.
" L.F. M. B. Une 336 et seq., a paraUel to the prayer for the
Church Militant iu earth ; cf. St Ambrose's prayer in Manner
and Mede of Mass, Une 620.
\ hF;, ^-^^ -"^^ "^ (Gloria), Une 516 (Agnus Dei) ; Manner
and Mede of Mass, Une 549 (Sursum Gorda), Une 596 (Agnus

;i] THE MASS 9
might be rendered into Enghsh with propriety, there
was a deep-rooted feehng against any such treatment
of the more sacred parts. The words of consecration
in particular, those "fyue wordes...)?at no mon but a
prest shulde rede^," were held in the same awe that
the Jews had for the Name of Jehovah. Alexander
VII expressed no new feeling in the Church when, in
1661, he condemned a translation of the whole missal.
Only the blasphemous, he thought, could have en
deavoured thus "to cast down and trample the
majesty of the most sacred rite embodied in the
Latin words, and by their rash attempts expose to
the vulgar the dignity of the holy mysteries^." The
object of the Lay Folks Mass Book was, therefore,
not to make the congregation understand what the
priest was saying. Two devotions, one lay and one
clerical, were to proceed at the same time. According
to Lyndwood, who quoted an early fourteenth cen
tury writer, the Canon of the Mass was said in silence
ne impediatur populus orare^.
For illiterate people the Lay Folks Mass Book
offered no solution of the difficulty. The Mass re
mained unintelligible and uninteresting. All that
could be done was to urge
If J)ou kan noghte rede ne saye
py pater-noster rehers alwaye*.
^ Manner and Mede of Mass, line 674.
2 BuU quoted /.. F. M. B. p. 388 (note).
^ Lyndwood, lib. 1. tit. 10, ut archidiaconi (a). Cf. L. F. M. B.
pp. XX and 364 (Dr Christopherson quoted). ,
* L. F. M. B. "C" Text, Une 89. Lay brethren among the
friars, the Cistercians (for whom *his Text was written), and
other orders often had no more advanced devotions. Cf . Myrc's
story, Festial, p. 279.

IO THE MASS [CH.
This, to say the least, was a remedy of doubtful merit.
Merely to repeat Pater noster for oneself was as^
wearisome as to hear Latin collects said by others.
Few members of an ordinary congregation could
make either practice a channel of hving devotion.
Yet the only thing that the author of the Lay Folks
Mass Book could suggest for the ignorant worshipper
was that he should repeat a Pater and a.nAve a, dozen
times in the course of a single Mass^. The book at
best could appeal only to a small number of laymen,
and the author unconsciously recognised this. He
seems to have had in mind the wealthier and better
instructed. The readers were told to pray for their
"tenandes and servandes," but there was no alterna
tive petition for masters and lords ^. The villein and
the tenant would not use the book.
In any congregation, too, the great majority must
still heve been untouched by the growing use of
English prymers and translations of the Gospels.
The references in wills to "my prymer" prove that
among those classes that made wills the prymer was
common enough*. The phrase "a little^book like a
prymer" is also substantial evidence. But most
people possessed no books and for them the prymer
was as if it did not exist. In the fifteenth century it
became common for the wealthy to follow the lessons
in Enghsh as the priest read them in Latin. Many of
the translations of the Gospels remain, but their very
magnificence proves that, hke the prymer, they were
' L. F. M. B. Unes 60, 82, 152, 261, 297, 398, 423, 480, 574,
601, 621.
2 ibid. Une 369. ' See chap. iv. p. 47 below.

I] THE MASS II
never in general use. Most of the poorer people who
had Enghsh versions were of doubtful orthodoxy, and
from the trials of Lollards it is clear that a poor man
who possessed a translation was suspected.
Most men, therefore, went to Mass unprovided with
any aid to worship. They were left either to improvise
their devotions as the service proceeded, or to repeat
any prayers that they might know by heart. And
some knew none^.
Whilst members of the congregation were saying
their own prayers in English or in such Latin as they
could ^, most of the formal responses were made by
the clerks alone. But it was still expected that the
layman would take some little part in the Latin
hturgy (with the sound of which he must have been
very famihar). Priest and people were supposed to
say together the Orate in the Offertory, possibly the
Sanctus, and the Libera nos a malo in the Pater at the
end of the Canon*; other parts, hke the Confession,
might be said by the layman "loude or stille*," as he
pleased. The tendency was to leave the service more
and more to the clerks alone, and it was to combat
this that the translator of the Lay Folks Mass Book
laboured. He was- anxious that the congregation
should continue to take their share in the better known
portions. At least they should join in the Pater,
bot answere at temptacionem
set libera nos a malo, amen.
hit were no nede J^e jjis to ken,
for who con not l>is are lewed men*.
' See chap, iv p. 43 below. ^ Festial, p.' 282.
.^^ L.F. M. B. p. xix. * ibid, line 52. * ibid. Une 488.

12 THE MASS [CH.
This accepted plan of separate devotions for clergy"
and people threw too much responsibihty on the
individual worshipper. If he went to Mass in a mood;
congenial to worship he would find opportunity for
private prayer, but if his own spiritual resources were
not sufficient, if he needed guidance and stimulus for
his thought— and the average worshipper did — he
looked to the service itself to help him.
It was chiefly by means of pictures and symbohsm
that the Church tried to meet this need of the lay
man's. Rarely, if ever, has symbolism been more
carefully studied and more exactly practised than
in the fourteenth century. In theory at least there
was no obscure corner in the church which was not
hallowed by association with some tremendous
doctrine, no temporary posture of the priest which
did not declare an eternal verity, no hem nor tassel
of his garments which did not represent an attribute
or an experience of God Himself. In the ceremonial
of the Mass there was set forth every detail and every
aspect of the atonement of mankind. Not a dogma
was omitted, not the minutest event in Christ's
Passion but was commemorated there^. From an art
symbolism had been transformed into a science.
Every faculty of many 'every- property of nature had
been captured and subdued for that supreme drama
of worship. Music and silence, colour and distance,
light and darkness, imagery and gesture, all con
tributed to the final result. The Church itself, even
the humblest, was the poor man's service book.
• Taylor, Medieval Mind, chap. xxix. § i.

I] THE MASS 13
Peopled with images and daubed with legends, with
its huge fresco of the Last Judgment over the chancel
arch, it was intended (as one writer expressed it) "to
be a toke & a boke to the leude peple that they may
rede i ymagery & painture that clerkes rede i the
boke^." All helped to make real the unseen things
that are eternal. Earth was "crammed with heaven
and every common bush afire with God."
It would be folly to maintain that so lavish an
expenditure of art and skill was without any effect
upon the ordinary congregations. A few events in
the Gospel history were impressed upon the people
with a vividness which has been retained among
Protestants ojily by a continual reference to the
written word^. It is doubtful whether in modern
times — except in a few remarkable rehgious move
ments — the Divine tragedy has so powerfully pos
sessed men's minds. In the fourteenth century whilst
men were in church the Cross was ever before their
eyes, the Crucifixion was continually in their thoughts.
Each day the sacrifice was commemorated. Each day
they were shown the Body and the Blood. In the
later medieval meditations on the death of Christ*
there is an unique pathos and a peculiar appeal which
can only be explained by the fact that the devout
thought more about it, dwelt more exclusively upon
it, and entered into a fuller appreciation of it, than
they have since l)een able to do.
' Dives and Pauper, I. i. 4. Cf. Festial, p. 279.
2 See also chap, iv, pp. 49-50 below.
3 e.g. in tfie writings of Julian of Norwich, of Rolle, in Dives
and Pauper, Piers Plowman, Quia Amove Langueo.

14

THE MASS . [CH-

It may be allowed, then, that the imagery and the
symbohc actions helped in some degree to interpret
to the laity a Latin hturgy which was in itself in
comprehensible to them. Most of the worshippers
reahsed the broad outhn£s of the doctrine of the
atonement. They understood that the Mass repre
sented the Holy Supper instituted by our Lord before
He suffered. They saw something of the love of God
manifested in the sacrifice of His Son.//5But there is no
evidence that the details of the elaborate ritual con
veyed any clear or definite meaning to the average
church-goer. He could scarcely be expected to re
member that the stole represented "ye rop y* he
(our Lord) was led w* to his deth, The girdel the
bondes yat he was bounde with to the pyler and to
the crosse," or that the mitre of a bishop "betokneth
the crowne of thornes y' crist bare on his hede for
mannes sake. And therfore the mytre hathe two
sharpe homes in tooken of the sharpe thornes^."
The mystic interpretation was well enough for the
experts, but it was not usually obvious to the layman
or to the majority of the clergy. Even Gower did not
expound symbols from his own knowledge; he copied
from Aurora word for word^. In its enthusiasm for
symbolism the Church had overshot the mark. The
holy drama was too exact to be followed, too scientific
to be popular. To understand the elaborated ritual
demanded at least as much scholarship as the Latin
rite itself. The ordinary man was left at the end very
^ D.&.P. VIII. 8. 3.
^ Vox Clam. m. chap. xxiv.

I] THE MASS

15

nearly where he had been at the beginning. He might
be interested, but he could hardly be edified; his
wonder was increased, but his mind was not in
formed. Even when the ritual was explained there
was room for an infinite variety of fantastic inter
pretations^; but if we may judge from the universal
love of show and pageantry at civic and military
festivities 2 it is probable that mere ceremonial, how
ever little understood, helped to attract the people
and to popularise the Mass.
It is a one-sided view that sees in the Mass onfy
or chiefly a service for the visible congregation. A
ghostly company was present too. The liturgy was
supposed not only to confirm the faith of the living,
but to give peace to the souls of the dead. The namesr
on the bede-roll were read to remind the people for
whose benefit they had assembled ; prayer was asked
for particular souls as well .as for the general multi
tude of the faithful departed*. Usually the names
were familiar. The worshippers had seen and talked
with him who was now commemorated in the parish
church where once he too had prayed. There. was
this human interest in the Mass which it is easy to
overlook. We are apt to conceive it as a public
meeting intended to advance the cause of religion
either by its appeal to the unconverted or by its
' e.g. the "U tunges on the preestes shuldre" commonly
said to mean that England was twice renegade and perverted,
but truly signifying that the priest should teach by example
and precept. £>. (S- P.'viii. 8. 5.
2 e.g. Brut, Part 11. p. 380.
' The request for memorial masses is almost invariable in
Fifty Earliest English Wills.

1 6 THE MASS [ch.
stimulating influence upon professing Christians.
Judged so, the fourteenth century Mass must be pro
nounced a failure, but in truth any such judgment is
irrelevant. For the Mass was not devised to make an
impression on the beholders. It was not primarily a
meeting for propaganda or appeal or instruction; it
was a union of faithful souls to adore and commemo
rate their God, a meeting of the Church Mihtant with
the Church Triumphant, an attempt to reahse the
communion of saints in heaven and in earth.

CHAPTER II
THE SERMON
Even before the Reformers had discovered the Sacra
ment of the Preached Word preaching was one of the
chief means used to instruct the laity. Yet the clergy
did not practise it so faithfully as some^ have repre
sented. It was the duty of the parish priest to ex
pound to his flock the Creed, the Ten Command
ments, the Pater, and the Ave at least three or four
times a year. This was very little, but most people
had regarded the delivery of sermons as one of the
minor duties of the clergy. The holy day, said Myrc,
was ordained to hear God's service and the Mass —
he did not mention preaching^. There was, however,
in the fourteenth century a growing desire for ser
mons. Wyclif expressed it most violently*, but his
bpinion was not unique*; nor was it confined to his
followers. Archbishop Thoresby in 1357 could rio
• e.g. Gasquet, Parish Life in Medieval England, chap, x.;
and even Trevelyan, England in the Age of Wycliffe, p. 128..
^ Instructions, 889.
^ e.g. Matthew, iv. p. 55; the whole of v., especially p. 112;
VII. p. 150.
* Lay Folks Catechism, Thoresby's version, line 48, and
LoUardizing version, line 48.
M. 2

1 8 THE SERMON [ch.
longer rest satisfied with the three or four sermons in
a year which had contented Peckham two generations-
before^; he thought that the clergy in his province
ought to instruct the laity every week, "at least on
the Lord's day 2." The author of Dives and Pauper
valued preaching even above the administration of
the Sacraments*, and denounced those- "theues of
goddes worde" who neglected to teach the people,
and drew on themselves the punishment threatened!
by Ezekiel*
The more energetic priests were trying to supply]
the demand for sermons, and to remove from theii(-
order the reproach of "doumbe houndes^." They
composed courses of sermons, providing appropriate
discourses for the Sundays and holy days in the
year®, and it is clear that the people responded to
their efforts. "Mony haue lyst to here honest
talkyng," said Myrc, "and namely yn hyr holydays
forto be ocupyed yn gode'"; therefore he urged
1 L. F. C. Text "P," line 16, p. 7.
^ ibid. Text "C," Une 13, p. 6.
" D. 6^ P. V. 10; especially column 4: "And rather a man
shulde forbere hys messe than hys sermoun. For by prechyngd
f oike be styrede to contricion and to forsake synne and the
fende, and to loue god.... By the messe be they not so. But iJ
they come to messe in synne, they goo awey in synne; anq
shrewis they come, and shrewys they wende." Cf. vii. 12. 6,
where "teaching and preaching" are set before "sacramente|
yeuig" in an account of the duties of the clergy. Ferrera
Howell, Bernardino of Siena, p. 219, "You should let the Mass
go, rather than the sermon."
Matthew, xxvii. p. 441. Knighton, 11. p. 179, Purvey's
opinion. Fasc. Ziz. p. 409, Sautrey's opimon.
^ D. &¦ P. VII. 3. 2; Ezekiel iii.
^ Piers Plowman, B. x. 287.
" e.g. Myrc, Festial-, Neale, Medieval Preaching-, Fasciculus
Morum. ' Festial, p. 191.

II] THE SERMON 19
parsons to "occupy holy festys of ]>e 3ere" with pious
discourses^, showing by his stories about Nero's
death^ how the gaps could be filled, if the official
history of the saint had been delivered on the Sunday
preceding*. It is significant that in the tirades of
most moralists against the faults of the age there
were no complaints that people would not hear
sermons* The congregations were indeed more ready
to listen than the priests to preach. It was by their
preaching that the friars won much of their influence.
They preached to make themselves popular, and were
popular because they preached. Their enemies ad
mitted regretfully the effectiveness of their sermons,
though Gower found a few who were idle and unwilling
to fulfil this duty^- The friars' churches and the new
parochial churches of this and the following century
were built as great preaching halls, wide and comfort
able and easy to speak in.
Wyclif has made it clear that in his day three
sorts of sermons were known : the string of anecdotes,
the scholastic di^scussion, and the practical exposi
tion of the Word. The first two he condemned. To
deliver moral exhortations based on the Bible
appeared to him the most useful function of a priest.
Yet he was ready to confess that the anecdotal ser-
j.jon was the most popular as he complained that it
was the most usual. "To sum men," he said, "it
1 Festial, p. 196. ^ ibid. p. 191.
0 Cf. p. 5 above.
* Myrc laments the wickedness of the people "Ijagh ]ia.y
heren prechyng and techyng." Festial, p. 73.
* Mirour, 21721. 2 — 2

20 THE SERMON [CH.
plesijj for to telle ye tahs ^at }>ei fynden in seintis
lyves, or wij-outen boh writt; and sich >ing plesif>
ofte more J>e peple^^." The friars in particular were
skilful in charming their hearers by a flow of stories,
always marvellous and sometimes edifying^. They
knew that the fourteenth century Enghshman loved
a well told tale, and they accommodated his taste.
They were accused of neglecting Divine Service to
spend their time hunting for anecdotes which wouM
adorn their sermons* Wyclif was never tired of rle-
proaching those who "techen opynly fablys, crony-
khs, and lesyngis, and leuen cristis gospel and yk
maundementis of god, and 3it don Tf>ei Tfis principaly
I for worldly wynnynge, frendschipe, or veyn name*."
This was not an unfair description of many medieval
, sermons. Most of those in Myrc's Festial are mere
strings of legends, the unreason of which is their least
fault. In the fourteenth century they were perhaps
less incredible than in the twentieth, but they canncit
have been less barren. Most of the stories had no
object but to declare the marvellous powers of som;e
saint^, and, many of them being irrelevant, even thM
purpose was not always served. The regular pk'ji
was to tell first any Bibhcal narrative concerning the
^ Arnold, Select EngUsh Works, vol. i. p. 332.
^ See Little, Studies in English Franciscan History, chaj^^s ^ '¦
for an account of their sermon note-books : Liber Exemptoritjr
and Speculum Laicorum of the thirteenth century, Les Contes
Moralisds and Fasciculus Morum of the fourteenth.
' Pierce the Ploughman's Crede, line 591.
'^ Matthew, i. p. 16.
* Festial is full of these legends; e.g. the talking bird th,at
called on St Thomas (p. 43). St Dunstan's mother (p. 60), the
hand of St Thomas of India (p. 20).

II] THE SERMON 21
saint, but, that once done, no wonder was too pre
posterous if only it would hold the people's attention.
At times, however, the stories were useful. Parables
drawn from daily hfe, vividly told and easily under
stood, helped to fix the mind of the congregation and
gave definite emphasis to a preacher's words^ Some
few of the legends were more than useful; they had a
beauty and a piety indescribable, and an appreciation
of the spirit of the Gospel impossible to translate into
plain exhortation. Myrc concluded his Christmas
sermon with a story which must stand for many.
There was once, he said, a woman guilty of lechery
who in her remorse dared not think of judgment, of
heaven, or of hell. Judgment she feared, for heaven
she was unfit, hell she had well deserved. Even the
thought of Christ's Passion brought her no relief —
she could not forget that she had been "unkind to
him who suffered it for her." At last she called to
mind that our Lord had been a child. Children, she
knew, took no revenge for wrong, and she cried out
to Christ "prayng hym for his chyldhede j^at he wold
haue mercy on hor." She was heard and her sin was
forgiven^. Worthless or useful, the stories were well told, and
if they did httle good they did little harm. At worst
the preacher provided an agreeable interlude in the
sad, hard life of his hearers. Though there might be
little moral gain, an innocent interest and a momen
tary relief were provided for the harassed poor,
' Rolle, English Prose Treatises, iv. p. 8. Cf. Kail, xxvi.
p. 143, a parable very characteristic of the age.
2 Festial, p. 26, cf. p. 19 (The heavenly palace).

22

THE SERMON [cH.

depressed by plagues, terrified by earthquakes and
echpses, half-starved by drought and flood. There is
small reason to wonder that the friars against whose
sermons the severe reformer railed were heard gladly
by the common people.
; For the scholastic dissertation there was far less
defence. The peasants and the craftsmen could de
rive neither pleasure nor instruction from it. It
served only to exalt the preacher, and proclaim his
wisdom. Friars could not resist the temptation tjo
add to their reputation in this way. Not content!'
with amusing their congregations with vain legends,
complained Wyclif, they paraded their academic
sophistries instead of declaring the simple word of
God. It would be more profitable to "studien bisily
holy writt & techen it more )>an veyn sophistrie &
astronomye & more Jjan ]?e popis decretalis & fablis
& cronyclis^." The manner in which the fourta
commandment could be so construed as to recomi-
mend almsgiving^, the perfections of the numbeli
six*, the inner meaning of the repeated Yea and Nay^^,
— these expositions of Scripture which delighted thie
medieval scholar were of no value to the ordinarjy
congregation. The intricate subdivision and the
tortuous allegories did but hide truth from the plain
man^- Though Wychf was at times guilty of an occasional,
lapse into these subtleti-'is, he agitated consistently
for another type of seriribn, more practical than the
' Matthew, xiv. p. 225. = D.&, P. iv. 25.
' ibid. III. 2. « ibid. 11. 6. 4.
^ Cf . Loci e Libro Veritatum, p. 24, quoted belowin note 7, p. 26.

II] THE SERMON 23
schoolman's thesis, more instructive than the ^mar
vellous anecdote. " We holden >is manere good,— to
leeve sich wordis, and triste in God, and telle sureh
his lawe and speciali his gospelhs^." The friars and
the prelates might protest that truth was too
mystically enshrined in the Bible to be comprehended
by the layman : " it is false to )>e lettere & men wyty)>
neuere what it laeneTp^." Wychf was not without
his answer: "si]p goddis lawe is so myche & so hard
to vndirstonde...whi schuUe worldly curatis & pre-
latis make so many bokis of here newe lawis for to
meyntene here pride & coueitise & worldly array?*"
If Scripture was difficult to understand, that was
only an additional reason for studying and expound
ing it. Wyclif himself usually refused to be drawn
aside into the by-paths of difficult exegesis; it was
his method to pass hghtly over abstruse questions,,
to teach the simple lessons of righteous living. " Muse
we not " on this point, was his advice when an obscure
passage was reached* "Beside lettre of this gospel,
mai men meve doutis of scole ; but me Jpinki]? now,
it is bettre to touch lore of vertues^."
Wychf has left us many models of the expository
sermons which he approved. The ordinary congre
gation might find them more dull than Myrc's racy
anecdotes, but the serious hstener could not fail to
learn from them infinitely more of the content of the
' Arnold, vol. i. p. 332.
^ Matthew, iv. p. 89; cf. xviii. pp. 264, 266; xxiii. p. 343.
' ibid. II. p. 38.
* e.g. How did the kingdom come from Archelaus to Herod?
Arnold, vol. i. p. 339.
= ibid. vol. I. p. 338.

24 THE SERMON [cH.
Bible and the obhgations of the Christian profession.
This style of preaching was not pecuhar to Wychf
and his followers, but it was not common. Wychf
suggested one reason why the parish priests so rarely
expounded the Bible: "fewe curatis han y>e bible^ &
exposiciouns of )>e gospelis, & litel studien on hem &
lesse donne after hem 2." Yet a few of the orthodox —
even Myrc himself sometimes — did expound the
Scriptures as ably, and apply them as appropriately,
as Wychf. No rigid theory of verbal inspiration
deterred the medieval narrator from adding many^
suggestive details to the bare Bible stories; no
scholarly scruples hampered him when he heightened
the effects, or drove the moral home, by the most
curious of anachronisms. Not content with the state
ment in the Gospel that Herod " slew all the children
that were in Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof,"
Myrc could add tenderly of the children, "fay dydden
lagh on hom ]?at slowen hem and playde wyth hor
hondes when J>ay seen hor bryght swerdes schyne*."
In one branch of his art the medieval preacher was
^ This, Mr Coulton teUs me, is borne out by the many wills
and inventories of the clergy which remain.
2 Matthew, vn. p. 145. Cf. FitzRalph, Defensorium Cura
torum in Brown, Fasciculus Rerum, vol. 11. p. 473.
^ Festial, p. 29. Cf. p. 28, Stephen kneeled to pray for his
enemies, though not when he prayed for himself, because he
wished to pray more devoutly for their benefit than for his own ;
p. 53, Saul was so mad against the Christians that he "snorted
at ))e nose and fro)>e at )je mowth"; p. 190, St Paul was ex
ecuted honourably because, unlike St Peter, he was a great
gentleman; p. 79, sins of Judas. Arnold, vol. i. p. 317, Christ
was laid before the ox and the ass ; their breath kept him warm
in that cold time. Cf. Morris, Alliterative Poems, "Patience,"
Une 475, p. 106, Jonah's Gourd. Hand. Synne, 6779.

II] THE SERMON 25
singularly expert. He could stir the feelings and
appeal to the heart with tremendous effect. Except
by the preachers of the Evangehcal Revival the
message .of Calvary has never been so powerfully set
forth. Contemplation of the Crucified had been for
centuries the supreme exercise of devotion, and the
fourteenth century had inherited a spiritual ex
perience the depth of which we can scarcely appreci
ate. Modern rehgious thought and sentiment are not
concentrated so exclusively on the Divine tragedy,
and with the old obsession something of the old
appreciation has been lost. As the early Protestants
were men of one book — their language borrowed
from the Bible, their thought coloured by it — so the
medieval Christian ;was a man of one event. The
Passion of Christ was his daily meditation. It was
not for nothing that he crossed himself a score of
•times each day. Over the whole medieval world lay
the broad shadow of the Cross. With the fifteenth
century new interests broke in to disturb the con
templation, but for men hving in the fourteenth the
old experience was still valid and unchallenged.
The preacher who spoke of the Passion struck a
chord which already vibrated in his hearers' hearts.
The response was spontaneous and often over
whelming. The" finest passages in the Dialogue of
Dives and Pauper are disguised sermons on this
theme^. Pauper might try to regulate his words
suitably for an intimate discussion, but in fact he
was pleading with a congregation. The periods were
' D. & P. X. 3.

26 THE SERMON [CH;
oratorical, but the appeals were not mere rhetoric.
Myrc too rose to his greatest heights, and forgot his
triviahty, when he dwelt on this subject^- The
echoes of these sermons can be found in much
popular poetry^, and in the discourses of the Knight
of La Tour Landry, whose quaint presentation of
the sacrifice of Christ was perhaps the most affecting
of all* In the fourteenth as in the early nineteenth
century* the terrors of " hell fire " were presented with
the "love of God to men"; and each picture set ofi
the other. The vigour of the descriptions must be
admitted^. It is not surprising that the conscience
of the hardened sinner was disturbed®
Distinct from preaching properly so called',
1 Festial, pp. 112, 113.
2 Piers Plowman, B. xviil. and xvi. 160-6. Kail, xix.
p. 85. Furnivall, Political, Religious, and Love Poems, p. 150
(Quia Amore Langueo), p. 160 (Complaynt of Cristej, p. 204
(FiUus Regis Mortuus Est), p. 244 (A, B. C. on the Passion of
Christ). Pearl, stanzas 68, 95,
^ Knight of La Tour Landry, chap, cvi, p. 142. Cf. Reve--
lations of Divine Love, chap. xvi. p. 41 et seq.
* Tennyson, Northern Cobbler, ix. * e.g. Festial, p. 5.
^ ibid. p. 287. Walsingham, vol. i. p. 199 (Effect of the
preaching of Johannes de Vecca on Palm Sunday, 1337). Cf.
Little, Enghsh Franciscan History, p. 123.
' The practice of delivering discourses on particular words of
Scripture was popularised by the friars. Gairdner, Lollardf
and the Reformation, vol. i. p. 229, note, with reference to-:
J. E. T. Rogers, Loci e Libro Veritatum (Passages from Gas
coigne's Theological Dictionary), pp. 18 and 44. "Ille enim
modernus modus praedicandi (sc. sumendo thema et inducendo
divisiones thematis ' assumpti) intravit poslquam ordines
fratrum ecclesiam intraverunt, sed praedicare materias
assumptas declarando, et textum scripturae sacrae secundum
ordinem textus postillando, seu e.xponendo, fuit modus prae
dicandi sanctorum patrum" (p. 44). "Modernos praedica-
tores, quorum labor major est circa formam et modum divi-
sionum et concordancias vocales textuum quam circa declara-
cionem rerum utilium" (p. 24). Cf. pp. 179-80; 183-4.

II] THE SERMON 27
whether expository, emotional, or anecdotal, was
the medieval "instruction," simpler, less pretentious,
but perhaps more useful for imparting knowledge to
an ignorant populace^. The historical facts contained
in the Creed were enlarged upon, the Commandments
applied to daily life, the contents of the Pater ex
plained, the cardinal virtues recommended, the
deadly sins denounced. With admirable directness
these ' ' instructions ' ' supplied that sort of information
which was embodied later in the Anglican catechism^.
But many of the clergy were themselves too badly
educated to give such teaching to others. It was for
these priests that Peckham, Myrc, and Thoresby
wrote. The Lollards complained that priests were not
severe enough in their denunciation of wickedness,
whilst the friars preached nothing but "mercie &
mensk*," "all of pardon to plesen the puple*."
"Many men for sich slow]pe of sharp reprouyng
synnen meche, for sharp wordis byten ofte where
softe speche shulde not moue...& herfore freris (be
cause they were the most active preachers) shulden
loke whej'er )>ei ben coupable in )>is synne, & amende
hem ]?erof ^." But this was not the only verdict. One
severe critic of the age declared himself fairly well
satisfied with such preaching as was done; his great
1 Gasquet, Parish Life, p. 213 et seq.
2 Lay Folks Cafechism is a series of these "instructions."
Festial, p. 282, example on the Pater. Kail, xxn. p. loi, isa
reminiscence of "instructions."
^ Pierce the Ploughman's Crede, Une 81.
* ibid, line 74.
^ Matthew, xxii. p. 313.

28 THE SERMON [ch. ii
complaint was about quantity not quality. But he
thought that plainer speaking was necessary about
flattery, " the grete synne that al the lond is entriked
in & al cristendome knowth^." Even Gower, who
can be trusted to complain wherever complaint is
possible, bears reluctant testimony to the' merit of
some of the preaching; time after time he contrasts
the discourses of the clergy with their evil lives 2. A
recent judgment on the preaching of the friars is
still more favourable. "The itinerant preachers,"
says Mr Little, "knew the difficulties and sorrows
and temptations of the people they addressed; they
were not afraid to castigate the vices of all classes,
and to insist on the performance of duties ; they gave
courage to the poor and oppressed. The teaching on
the whole, with some marked exceptions, was bracing
and stimulating*."
^ D. &¦ P. V. 5. 2.
^ Vox Clam. iv. cap. xvii. Conf. Aman. Prologue, 417, 449;
Book I. 629.
' A. G. Little, English Franciscan History, p. 156.

CHAPTER III
THE CONFESSIONAL
The scantiness of sermons and rehgious hterature
was less serious than might at first appear. Though
denied some channels of instruction, the fourteenth
century layman could avail himself of one that has
since been closed. He could seek guidance through
the confessional. To-day every man is his own
casuist. Christian principles are stated broadly in a
general way, but to the particular circumstances of
a man's own life the Church does not usually attempt
to apply them. In the Middle Ages it was not so.
Preaching was spasmodic and insufficient, partly be
cause the administration of confession made it less
necessary. Less care was given to the public ex
position of the Gospel, -but greater pains were taken
to provide private advice for individual difficulties.
Many of the troubles of the Church arose from the
gradual superseding of confession by preaching. In
the earlier days when ignorance was deeper, con
fession had been adequate for the need of the ordinary
congregation. Simple advice, not discussion nor ex
planation, had been wanted then. But the age of

3°

THE CONFESSIONAL [ch.

Edward III was self-conscious, self-rehant, critical,
curious. It was prepared to take little on trust. It
would hear all sides and form its own conclusions.
The incarnation of this spirit was Chaucer; he was
exceptional not in his inquisitiveness and his sym
pathies, but in the force and clarity with which he
could express them. There was, consequently, a
demand for sermons, whilst people were little dis
posed to use the confessional.
The new Orders were naturally the first to meet the
popular demand. They were in closer touch with the
masses. They were hampered by a less weighty
tradition. Regarded from one side the quarrel of the
friars and the parish clergy was the quarrel of the
progressives and the conservatives. The friars recog
nised that the layman liked sermons and dishked
confession, and they were prepared to readjust
ecclesiastical machinery accordingly. They special
ised in preaching, and were accused of degrading the
confessional. They were opportunists, but if they
played to the gallery, it is to their credit that they
saw what the gallery wanted. The conservatives in
the Church- — the bishops and the parish priests —
were less sensitive to the demands of the age, more
impressed by the value of traditional ways, more
conscientious, perhaps, in their use of them. They
deplored the contempt into which the confessional
was falling, and were indignant at the profanation of
it by the friars^.
'¦ In Wesleyan Methodism a situation has arisen which
nearly resembles, and in part explains, the dilemma of the

Ill] THE CONFESSIONAL 31
The literature of the time was full of these con
troversies. Time after time it was urged that without
confession and absolution no soul was safe. The
danger of dying unshriven was a well known theme.
But and thei dye a sodeyne dethe
With-outen shrefte or penaunce.
To helle they gone withouten lese.
For thay can chese none oj^er chaunse^.
No prayers of the Church could avail those who died
without absolution: "Tf>yn for}euenes mote be here,"
said Myrc^- And how could forgiveness come, in
quired Gower, if- confession were neglected?* The
Knight of La Tour Landry had more than one vivid
story to teaeh his daughters the advantages of
regular and complete confession* False pride in a
reputation for holiness, which prevented her from
declaring her sins, took St Gregory's mother to
torment^ /
Church in the fourteenth century. Amongst the younger
members the class-meeting — an informal sort of lay con
fessional — ^has fallen into disuse, almost into contempt. Many
of the younger ministers have accepted the situation. They
have not devoted time or energy to what they consider an
out-worn institution. The conservatives, especially the class-
leaders, are extremely bitter about this "neglect," and accuse
the ministers of "killing" the class-meeting. The old forms
are no longer observed. Often the minister does not "meet"
each class separately, as formerly was the custom; he "meets"
a group of classes, where, say the conservatives, the proper
work cannot be done. To complete the parallel there is a cry
against the sale of holy things. The class ticket of membership
is given to people who do not attend class, but who pay
"class-money." 'What could be more like the old cry against
the friars: 'they sell absolution'?
' P.R.&' L. Adulterous Falmouth Squire, Une 146, p. 97.
2 Hand. Synne, 598, cf. 11385. ' Mirour, 6128.
' Tour Landry, chap. viii. p. 11; chap. ix. p. 12.
^ P. R. &• L. Trentalle Sancti Gregorii, Une 25, p. 84.

32

THE CONFESSIONAL [CH.

Many thought an annual confession sufficient. Be
fore they received communion at Easter they un
burdened their consciences to the priest^. This was
not deemed satisfactory by the clergy; who could
remember all his sins for twelve months? Myrc
warned each of his hearers "allway [to] kepe his
concyens clene not forto abyde from lenton to lenton,
but as sone as he felej^e J>at he hath synnet, anoon goo
chryue hym, and mekly take the dome of his schryft-
fader^." Yet there were those who did not confess
even once a year. Lent came and went, and they
remained in their sins* Some delayed until death
overtook them*.
It was not enough merely to go to confession. Re
pentance, faith, and good resolutions were necessary',
To go carelessly, laughing on the way to the priest,
was to invite condemnation* To tell part of one's
sins to one confessor and part to another — to confess
"by parcelles" — was to steal absolution, and dis
please God'. Nor was it wise to confess to any clerk.
Some had not the necessary wisdom*; some had not
the necessary authority*. The parish priest, who had
¦'maystery" of the souls of his parishioners was the
proper confessor. FitzRalph of Armagh with charao-
' Mirour, 4431, 5623. Cf. Def. Cur. in Fasc. 11. p. 470:
"Romanus pontifex uou potest," etc.
' Festial, p. 2; Hand. Synne, 4783.
' Piers Plowman, B. v. 420.
' Hand. Synne, 4789.
5 ibid. 12619; P. R. &¦ L. Christ's Own Complaint Unes
517. ,529. P- 199-
' Hand. Synne, 11547.
' ibid. 11823, Summa, Supplementum, Q. ix. A. 2.
8 Hand. Synne, 11587.. » ibid. 11603.

Ill] THE CONFESSIONAL

33

teristic vigour declared that neither the Pope nor
God Himself could release a man from the obhgation
of confessing at least once a year to his parish priest^.
The influence of the confessional may be measured
both by the violence of the attacks upon it and by
the suggestions of those who -wished to see it still
more effective. The psychology of the sinner was
studied by the more able priests. They approached
their spiritual "cases" with the discretion of experts,
varying their own attitude according to the tempera
ment of the patient, now stern, now kindly, always
impressive. Some penitents were so disheartened by
any sign of disgust at their faihngs that the priest
must talk to them hke a fellow-sinner.
Wonde Jjou not for no schame, [he was to say]
Parauentur I haue done J)e same.
And fulhelt myche more,
3ef jjow knew alle my sore^.
"Freyne hym ]?us," said Myrc, " & grope hys sore*."
Others with less tender consciences might need to be
severely catechised. By direct questions the con
fessor was to spread a net from wliich there was no
escape*. The sinner must be kept strictly to the
point; he was to reveal his own sins, not other men's.
The priest must not enquire about his accomplices.
To do so would be backbiting and no shrift^. Finally,
the priest must be diplomatic in imposing penance;
he must weigh circumstantias criminis, qualitatem
1 Def. Cur. in Fasc. ii. pp. 470, 47-1.
^ Instructions, 793. ^ ibid. 800.
* ibid. 805-1398.
^ Hand. Synne, 11623; Wilkins, 11. p. 514.

34 THE CONFESSIONAL [cH.
personae, et genus delicti, tempus, et locum, causam et
moram in peccato factam, devotionem etiam animi
poenitentis^. If the layman was exhorted to accept
the penance prescribed^, the priest was warned not
to drive him to rebelhon by indiscreet severity. The
restive temper of the people must be taken into
account, or the sacrament would fall into neglect.
3eue hym penaunce jienne also J>at tyde,
But non o)>er jjen he wole take
Wors fienne lest Jjow hym make'-

On dedly synne, as lawes techeth.
To seuen jerus ende recheth.
Paste bred & water vche fryday.
And for-go flesch on Wednesday.
But nowe [laments Myrc] be fewe j>at wole do so,
perfore a ly3ter way ]jou moste go*.
There is the same ring of common-sense in the
penances suggested. Not all were foolish, super
stitious, or degrading. To overcome pride, Myrc
recommends his patient
• Ofte to knele, and erfie to kys,
And knowlache wel |iat erf>e he ys.
And dede mennus bonus ofte to se,
And Jienke |;at he schal syche be^.
The indifference of the laity was not the worst
trouble. The sacrament was abused by some of the
clergy. The sale of absolution was one of the forms
of simony most lamented by morahsts, and Wychf
' Wilkins, ii. p. 513,' cf. Instructions, 1405.
2 Hand. Synne, 11791. ^ Instructions, 1522.
* ibid. 1625, cf. Matthew, xxiii. p. 336.
* Instructions, 1557.

Ill] ' THE CONFESSIONAL 35
thought that false confessors were of all men most
sinful^. The root of the evil was in the practice of
commuting personal acts for money payments; the
same process which had destroyed the manorial com
munity was degrading the penitential system. , All
that had made either institution healthy and human
was disappearing. The personal relation between the
sinner and the priest was replaced by a "cash-nexus,"
and the hideous system- represented by Chaucer's
Somnour was the inevitable result. Everybody saw
that the purse was the decisive factor^, and it was
possible for so loyal a churchman as Gower to charge
the clergy- with encouraging vice to increase their
gains. A prostitute was, in the most literal sense,
more profitable than a nun*
That the competition of the Mendicant Orders
with the secular clergy increased this evil there seems
little reason to doubt. Even if he were strictly con
scientious in giving absolution no stranger could
administer this peculiarly intimate rite so effectually
as the resident*. Now the parish priest was the
penitent's neighbour. He knew everyone's history
and circumstances. The friars did not;
For haue .)jei ]>i money a mone|> jjerafter,
Certes, Jieij ))OU come ajen he nyl }>e no3t knowen*.
Sin appeared more shameful when it was told to a
1 Matthew, xvi. p. 247.
* Vox Clam. 111.197, and 223; iv. 760. Cf. Conf. Aman.
Prologue, 407; Mirour, 20161. L. F. C. LoUardizing Version,
Une 767. Wright, Political Songs, vol. i. p. 324. Piers Plow
man, B. II. 171. ' Mirour, 20149.
* Def. Cur. in Fasc. 11. pp. 468, 471.
^ Pierce the Ploughman's Crede, Une 248.

36 THE CONFESSIONAL [ch.
man whom one saw every day^- The parish priest,
too, was more likely to be at hand. The sick could
confess at night in case of need^; husband and wife
could confess, as they ought, to the same person*.
There is, moreover, considerable evidence that friars
were less strict and more venal than the secular
clergy. The testimony of defeated rivals must not be
accepted in toto, and the very success of the new
Orders was in the eyes of the parish priest their most
grievous offence; but when all allowance has been
made the friars cannot be acquitted. They certainly
had special temptations to pander to their charges,
for they had no assured and independent income as
their rivals had* Ladies found them lenient, but
from their intimacy with fair sinners the worst
charges arose"^ The parish priest, said popular
opinion, is too ready to curse offenders*, but the friar
is too ready to absolve them. Langland bitterly de
scribed the friars as the favourite confessors of al
classes, and gave his own reasons for their popularity'.
From Lady Meed to the vulgar Sloth every notorious
sinner turned to the false confessors who destroyed
the world; "]?ei seyn ]?at >ei wolen answGre for men
at domes day for to excuse hem 3if ]>ei wolen }efe
hem or here hous to make gaye wyndowis or veyn
' Def. Cur. in Fasc. ii. p. 471. 2 ibid. loc. cit.
' ibid. loc. cit.
* ibid. p. 469.
' Mirour, 21265, 9i45; Wright, Pohtical Songs, vol. I,
pp. 264-6; Def. Cur. in Fasc. 11. p. 479.
8 Hand. Synne, 10881, 10905. Wright, Political Songs vol,
I. p. 308.
' Piers Plowman, B. v. 140; xx. 281, 311.

Ill] THE CONFESSIONAL

37

housynge & nedles moche gold or silueri." This was
the echo of Langland's friar :
We han a wyndowe a wirchyng wil sitten vs ful heigh;
Woldestow glase that gable and graue there-inne thi name,
Siker sholde thi soule be heuene to haue^.
Each confessor was urged to do his part in checking
these abuses. He ought not to administer the sacra
ment to all who asked for it. He ought to discover
first whether the penitent were his parishioner; and
if he were not satisfied about this he was to
Theche hym home fayre hys way.
But he schowe ]>e I-wryten,
Where-by fiou myjt wel I-wyten,
pat he hath leue of hys prest
To be I-schiyue where hym lust'.
There is little evidence that this self-denying ordi
nance was observed, though it would have increased
the power of the confessional immensely. Absolution,
if more difficult to obtain, would have been more
highly valued.
Yet with all its defects the confessional was still
one of the most powerful forces in popular religion.
The Lollards realised that the vital issue in their
conflict with the Church was not the papal authority
nor even the doctrine of the Mass. It was the ab
solving power of the priest. Wyclif in his tract Of
Confession tried from all sides to undermine this
rock of the Church. Beginning with the idea that
' Matthew, ix. p. i8i (cf. the heading).
* Piers Plowman, B. in. 48, cf. Canterbury Tales, Prologue,
231. ' Instructions, 704, Cf. Wilkins, 11. p. 513. Summa,
Supplementum, Q. vm., A. 4, 5, 6.

38 THE CONFESSIONAL [ch. m
everything depends upon the state of the individual
soul, he argued "confession mut be wilful, or elhs it
is not medeful to man'" ; it was, moreover, an inven
tion of Innocent III ; our Lord never ordained it, and
they who say that it is essential insinuate that He
and His apostles should be blamed for the omission^.
God is well content with silent repentance; "men
shulden vndurstonde fz.t fe curtesie of god askij? not
of iche man to shriue him Tfus by voice of rnoujie."
Men may repent silently as well as sin silently, "for
god is as redy to 3yue mercy as he is redy to take
veniaunce*." The faith of the Church was corrupted
when the priest seemed to make himself God's
partner in forgiveness, as if God and he forgave to
gether, or as if he could force God's action by his
formula. The rite of the Greeks was less objection
able. Instead of saying " I assoyle " the priest prayed
that God would do so*. Here at least the Lollards
followed their master. This was the first charge
brought against Oldcastle — even before his heresy
about the Host. Thow seist "confessioun auriculeer
Ther needith noon^."
In popular attacks and in official statements of
Lollard doctrine it was quite usual to lay more stress
on this point than on the denial of transubstantia-
tion*. > Matthew, xxm. p. 328. 2 ibid, xxiii. p. 332
» ibid. p. 340. On these grounds a Lollard priest who
desired a confessor at his death was denied his request
Walsingham, 11, p. 159. ^
« Matthew, xxin. p. 333; Summa, P. iii., p. lxxxiv A r
Hoccleve, To Sir John Oldcastle, 1415, Une 81 ' '
« e.g. Knighton, 11. p. 260. Wright, Political Songs I p 23 s

CHAPTER IV
THE RUDIMENTS OF THE FAITH
"After the pope's cathohc religion," 'says Foxe, "a
true christian man is thus defined : first to be baptized
in the Latin tongue (where the godfathers profess
they cannot tell what) ; then confirmed by the bishop ;
the mother of the child to be purified; after he be
grown in years, then to come to the church; to keep
his fasting-days; to fast the Lent; to come under
Benedicite (that is, to be confessed of the priest) ; to
do his penance; at Easter to take his rites; to hear
mass and divine service; to set up candles before
images ; to creep to the cross ; to take holy bread and
holy water; to go in procession; to carry his palms
and Candle, and to take ashes ; to fast the ember-days,
rogation-days, and vigils; to keep the holidays; to
pay his tithes and off ering-days ; to go on pilgrimage;
to buy pardons; to worship his Maker over the
priest's head; to receive the pope for his supreme
head, and to obey his laws; to receive St Nicholas'
clerks; to have his beads, and to give to the high
altar; to take orders; if he will be a priest, to say his
matins, to sing his mass, to hft up fair, to keep his
vow, and not to marry; when he is sick to be an
nealed, and to take the rites of the holy church ; to

40 THE RUDIMENTS [ch.
be buried in the church-yard; to be rung for; to be
sung for; to be buried in a friar's cowl; to find a soul-
priest, etc. All which points being observed, who can
deny but this is a devout man, and a perfect christian
cathohc ; and sure to be saved, as a true, faithful child
of the holy mother-church^? "
This definition is accepted and expanded by an
American scholar^ who has more recently attempted
to picture the religion of an ordinary layman at the
end of the Middle Ages. It is, nevertheless, a carica
ture; not because of misstatements, but because of
omissions. Almost every one of the actions recited by
Foxe did in fact have a place in popular rehgion in
the fourteenth century. He has described with no
table accuracy the covering husk of the medieval
faith, but, finding this so repulsive, he refused to
believe that it could contain any vital principle. It
is difficult to remember that Foxe and Dexter were
describing the same form of Christianity as the
preacher who declared that the three things believed
in the fourteenth century to be necessary for salva
tion were "full contricion wyth schryft, full charjle
wythout feynyng, and jtabull^ f ayth wythout flater-
yng. And^_sothIy7" he adds, "wythout yes pre, fer
may no man_haue pardon at Rome^^ elleswher*."
The questions by which the same divine proposed to
1 .4cts and Monuments, vol. i. p. 86. Ed. 1853 (Church
Historians of England).
2 H. M. Dexter, The Congregational ism of the last three
hundred years. Lecture i. pp, 1—58.
3 Festial, p. 74; cf. Kail, xxir. pp. 101-2 (summary of beUef
and practice). Hand. Synne, 1954 (picture of holy life).

IV] OF THE FAITH

41

test the faith of a dying man are also quite unhke
anything that Foxe would lead us to expect. They
might have come from a Protestant clergyman in
spired by the Evangehcal Revival. After assuring
himself that the sick man is firm in the orthodox
faith_, is sorry for his sins, and desires to amend his
evil ways, Myrc concludes by enquiring, even as John
Wesley might have done,
Be-leuest |;ow with ful gode deuocyone
On ihesu crystes passyone?
And how hys passyone saue \ie schal
And by non ojier way at al' ?
After his own definition of "the pope's catholic
religion" Foxe might v^^ell ask "tell me, good reader,
what faith or spirit, or what working of the Holy
Ghost, in all this doctrine, is to be required ^" but
if Myrc's account of the matter be accepted 'that
sceptical enquiry ceases to have point. Between the
two descriptions lies the truth. The average Christian
of the fourteenth century was not so coinpletely lost
in mere formalities as Foxe imagined, nor yet so
spirituall;|; minded as Myrc would have us believe.
Like Disraeli's rendering of the creed of the poor in
the nineteenth century * each of these accounts con
tains fact, but none of these writers has given an
exhaustive description of popular Christianity.
' Instructions, 1721, cf. "vij specialle interrogacions " from
the Lansdowne MS, 762, Foi. 216, printed on p. 69. They con
clude : "Belevest thowe fully that Criste dyed for the, and that
thowe may neuer be saved but by the Merite of Cristes passione,
and thanne thankest therof god ijfith thyne harte asmoche as
thowe mayest? "
^ Acts and Monuments, loc. cit.
^ Sybil, book in. chap. iv. pp. 192-3 (ed. 1871).

42 THE RUDIMENTS [ch.
The view of the Church was that every Christian
ought to know the Apostles' Creed, the Ten Com
mandments, the Pater, and the Ave. In popular
verses, which are a safer guide than official pro
nouncements, it is assumed that the ordinary layman
will be able to say at least his Creed and Pater^.
Moch ys a man for to blame
pat kan nat wurschep Goddys name
With paternoster ne wy)) crede,
pys beleue shuld hym to heuene lede^.
Robert Mannyng was professedly writing for laymen',
and he assumed that they could teach the Creed and
Pater to children*. The priest was expected to supple
ment this parental instruction^ According to one of
the chroniclers an evil spirit learnt not onl-y. Pater,
Ave, and the Creed, but even In Principio, in the
household of a widow who lived near Bristol. This
household was perhaps better informed than most,
for the widow's son was a priest, though lamentably

' Kail, vm. p. 33 :
Thow may not knowe a cristen man
pou} ]>ovf here hym say his crede,
pe ten comaundementis tan.
ibid. VI. Une 15, p. 25. Cynical advice to laymen, "Say
no|ier pater noster ue crede." Pearl, stanza 41, Pater and
Creed would have been taught to the child. Piers Plowmim
A. XI. 301: Souteris and seweris suche lewide lottis
Percen with a pater-noster the paleis of heuene.
Cf. Matthew, xviii. p. 274, "symple pater noster of a
ploujman." Conf. Aman. v. 7117, layman knows Pater and
Creed; Mirour, 5559, blamed for ignorance of Pater.
^ Hand. Synne, 4241.
¦' ibid. 43, 11295.
I fji^,- .9^99' c^- Instructions. 153, (god-parents) 1049
'' Wukins, III. 59. ^^

IV] OF THE FAITH 43
devoted to sport ^. The Pater and the Ave were the
two most popular devotions, and there is abundant
evidence that they were commonly used by the l^ity^-
The compiler of the Lay Folks Mass Book indicates
that most of his readers were famihar at least with
the Pater by the easy way in which he urges them to
repeat it a,t odd moments during the service*. Yet
he admits that there are ignorant people who do not
know even so much*. The Apostles' Creed, though
peculiarly the layman's creed ^, was not known by
all'. The fact that some laymen were ignorant of
these elementary things is not surprising, for many
priests had no sure knowledge of them'. The classical
example of ignorance, Sloth in Piers Plowman^, can
not have been a,ltogether imaginary; yet it seems
safe to infer that a fair proportion of the artisans and
' Trokelowe, p. 196. At first the evil spirit stumbled over
words, but improved by practice.
2 Grandisson, Register, Part in. p. 1234: Lavyna StoUoke:
"postquam Oracionem Dominicam cum Salutacione Beale
Marie pro anima dicti defuncti dixerat."
Festial, p. 280: women gossiping in church try to cover
sin by saying that they were repeating 'hor Pater Noster,'
Merita Missae, line 3; Crede, line 6.
' "See above p. 10, note i.
¦* L. F. M. B. line 488 (quoted abovep. 11). The Mass Book
was not designed for the lowest classes, whose ignorance would
be deeper (see above p. 10). In a monastery there were some
whose reUgious resources were restricted to the Pater, cf. C
Text of L. F. M. B. line 89.
= L. F. M. B. Une 197 :
Men oen to saie ^o crede som tyme,
when jjai saie hore (Nicene) loke |?ou saie fiine (Apostles').
" Manner and Mede of Mass, line 449. Crede, Une 8.
' Wilkins, in. p. 59: significant account of what priests
must know. Cf. p. 364, § 36.
' Piers Plowman, B. v. 400. Instructions, 1600.

44 THE RUDIMENTS [ch.
better class people were familiar with the Creed and
the Pater. But some knew them only as Latin tags,
and this was unsatisfactory^. Myrc would have the
preacher inform his flock that
hit ys moch more spedfuU and meritabull to you to say
your 'Pater Noster' yn Englysche \en yn suche Lateyn, as je
dojje. For when 3e spekyth yn Englysche, (len je knowen and
undyrstondyn wele what je sayn ; and soo, by your undyrstond-
yng, 3e haue lykyng and deuocyou forto say hit^.
Another time, speaking of the proper use of the Ave,
he urged :
Teche hem to sayne ))us in Ynglis tonge, ("at ))ee mown
vndurstande what Jiei sayne. And algate, whan Jiei comyn to
|)is worde ' God is wyth \e ' ))at Jiai sayne hyt deuowtely and
wyth ful deuocion, not to hastely, to seyne mony Avees; for
it plesuth oure lady more to bene grete devotely wyth one
Aue, \z,n wyth many wythowte deuocion'.
The priest was expected, to assure himself that his
parishioners were familiar with these elements of the
faith; before giving absolution he might test the
penitent's knowledge of the Creed, the Pater, and the
Ave^. About this, it was complained that the friars
were careless. They were willing to absolve anyone
who would pay, however ignorant and however
vicious he might be^.
' Latimer, Sermons, pp. 307-8 (Parker Society, 1844).
2 Festial, p. 282. ' jjj-^ p ^gg.
^ WUkins, III. 59. After directions that the priest should
teach the Pater, the Creed, the Ave, and the correct way to
make the Sign of the Cross, there follows; "et quia, ut audivi-
mus, etiam quidam adulti haec ignorant, praecipimus, ut, cum
laici ad confessionem accedunt, diUgenter examinentur, utrum
sciant praedicta, et secundum quod expedit eis a sacerdotibus
instruantur. " ' Instructions, 805.
5 Pierce the Ploughman's Crede, Une 131: "pouj ]>o\x conne
noujt l^i Crede, Kare );ou no more, I schal asoilen )je, syre."

IV] OF THE FAITH 45
It was the chief object of the preaching in parish
churches to instruct the laity in these rudiments of
the faith. By innumerable episcopal mandates and
synodal decrees the parish priest was charged to
explain to his flock in the vulgar tongue the Creed,
the Commandments and the Pater at least three or
four times a year, whilst exceptional prelates thought
that such instruction should be given at least every
Lord's Dayi. The more earnest churchmen realised
that the preacher's work was not sufficient. Often it
was indifferently performed, sometimes it was com
pletely neglected, in some parishes the priest did not
know the language of the people 2. As a consequence
the century produced a considerable number of re
ligious rhymes, which were very simple and easily
remembered. At the beginning of his long didactic poem
Mannyng explained that he l3,oped to combine in
struction with enjoyment for his readers and hearers.
He intended to oust the unwholesome "talys and
rymys" that led sociable men to
faUe ofte to vylanye.
To dedly synne, or oJ>er folye.
For swyche men haue y made }iis ryme
pat jiey may weyl dyspende here tyme'.
* Wilkins, in. 59: "decem mandata  frequenter prae-
dicet et exponat." in. p. 10. Festial, 282: Pater "ones ojjyr
twyse ynj'e jere." Instructions, 404. L. F. C. intro. p. xvi.
^ Wilkins, in. p. 364, § 29: "quidam tamen quandoque pro-
moventur in regno Angliae ipsius regni idioma penitus igno-
rantes, quique ad iufOrmandum subditos indisponuntur et
muti." Grandisson's Register, 11. p. 820.
' Hand. Synne, 49.

46 THE RUDIMENTS [CH-
His racy style and his thrilhng anecdotes must have
made religious instruction palatable; and he had
many imitators. The popular Enghsh verses of the
time often contained free renderings of the Com
mandments, the Creed, the Pater and portions of the
Biblei, and, whatever their hterary merits or de
merits 2, they were useful. If , as their authors intended,
they were recited or sung whenever and wherever
people came together, they would fill the place now
taken by cheap handbooks and devotional works.
Besides this the layman might well have some
knowledge of the Psalms. The ecclesiastical au
thorities seem to have had no objection to the trans
lation of the Psalter into Enghsh; and from the
fourteenth century onwards nothing in devotional
literature was more popular than the several English
versions of the Psalms. It was, however, with those
few Psalms which formed the favourite offices that
the layman was most familiar. These were collected
in the prymers, and it is the prymer rather than the
Breviary that may be considered the Prayer Book' of
the fourteenth century*. The Breviary was too intri
cate and too variable to be followed by the layman;
and it was in Latin. The prymer on the other hand
was simple in structure. The devotions in it were
almost invariable from day to day* It was in the
' See p. 48, note i.
2 Literary critics have usually overlooked the first object
of these verses: popular instruction.
3 The prymer puzzled historians; Bradshaw imagined that
it was an abbreviated form of older devotions. Littlehales,
Prymer, Part 11. p. xi.
* Littlehales, Prymer, Intro, in Part n. p. xxxviu.

IV] OF THE FAITH

47

people's own tongue, and from the many copies that
remain, as well as from the continual mention of such
books in wills and contemporary hterature^, it may
be inferred that the influence of the prymer in
popular devotions was considerable. Though few
laymen were wealthy enough to own a prymer, and
fewer still learned enough to use it, many would bear
its words in their memory.
The contents of the'ra^ipsi' varied little ; the Hours
of the Virgin, the seven Penitential Psalms, the
fifteen Gradual Psalms, the Litany, Placebo, Dirige,
and the Psalms of Commendation were usually in
cluded. There might also be English versions of
Matins, Evensong, Compline, and of other " Hours ^" ;
these would include the Te Deum, the Command
ments, and several prayers besides the Pater and
Ave. Very rarely the Athanasian Creed appeared*;
the Apostles' Creed was usually thought sufficient.
The more devout and better educated layman might
well have a knowledge of a-11 these aids to devotion.
With the words of Scripture outside the Psalms
very few of the laity can have been at all familiar,
and many were in complete ignorance. There were
English versions of "Pety Job*," which was well
known because it occurred in the Office of the Dead,
' Wills, pp. 50, 59, 76, 102, 107. Cf. p. 58, our Lady's
psalter used. Chaucer, Prioress's Tale, line 1707 (Globe Ed.).
Piers Plowman, C. vi. 46 (a cle k). Cf. Littlehales, Prymer,
Part II. p. xUi. ; Maskell, Monumenta Ritualia, in. p. xlvii.
^ e.g. The Hours of the Cross, Golden Litany, an account of
our Lord's Ufe and Passion, Mon. Rit. in. p. 263, cf. p. xvU.
' ibid. 111. p. 257.
* The lessons read in the Office of the Dead were so called.
Mon. Rit. III. p. 115. Kail, xxv. p. 120.

48 THE RUDIMENTS [ch.
and of several of the classical passages of the New
Testamenfi These were commonly in rhyme and
were introduced into popular poetry. The preachers,
too, could tell Bible stories as effectively as they told
others. Occasionally there was considerable detail
and accuracy^, but it was not uncommon to find even
a clerk entirely confused in a simple Biblical narra
tive. Potiphar might be confounded with Pharaoh,
and his wife called Queen of Egypt*; Absalom might
be made a dutiful son who outlived David*, Esther
placed in the Book of Kings ^, the story of Ruth
mangled beyond recognition^, and the events of our
Lord's life disarranged'. The people's ignorance of
the Bible and the feebleness of the efforts that were
made to instruct them were two of Wyclif's favourite
themes*. Nor does his word stand uncorroborated;
men who were by no means critical of the Church give
their testimony to the people's ignorance not only of
1 Kail, XXI. p. 96 (St Matt. v. 1-16). P. R. &. L. Christ's
Own Complaint, p. 198, line 489 (i Cor. xiii. 1-3). Hani.
Synne, 6635 (Dives and Lazarus), 7121 (i Cor. xiii.). Pearl,
stanza 42 (Parable of Laboureis), 60 (Christ blessing children),
73 (Vision of St John). L. F. C. (Ten Commandments),
Alliterative Poems: Parable of King's Son, Noah, Abraham,
Lot, Sodom, Belshazzarin "Cleanness"; Jonah in "Patience,"
2 Festial, p. 4 (St Matt. xxv. 31), p. 18 (Doubting Thomas),-
p. 93 (Jacob), p. 97 (Joseph).
° Tour Landry, chap. Iviii. p. 76.
* ibid. chap, xciii. p. 122.
= ibid. chap. xcv,u. p. 128. « ibid. chap. xci. p. 119.
' ibid. chap. in. p.,i5i- These mistakes occur in a book
compiled or at least revised by "ii prestes and u clerkes."
(Prologue, p. 3.) ¦
' Matthew, i. p. 16, n, p. 37, iv. p. 8q, vii. passim, xiv.
pp. 221, 225, xix. p. 276 Wyclif seems to imply that the
"lewed men" did not eve^ kilpw that the Pater was part of
St Matthew's Gospel, xxvn. p. 429.

IV] OF THE FAITH

49

the contents of the Bible but even of the most elemen
tary facts about ifi Famiharity with the Scriptures
was indeed not reckoned a necessary part of popular
religion. But although the fourteenth century layman might
have no first hand knowledge of the Bible he was
usually acquainted with a number of Biblical inci
dents and stories. It would be a gross mistake to
irnagine that Scriptural history became part of the
common stock of knowledge only after the Reforma
tion. The everyday speech of the people was not
indeed steeped in scriptural phraseology before the
Authorised Version appeared, but the popular litera
ture of the fourteenth century — songs, romances, and
moral anecdotes — is filled with references to the Bible.
Noah's Flood^, the wives and wisdom of Solomon*,
the wickedness of Jezebel* and the fate of Nebuchad
nezzar ^ were as current in the common speech of
Cathohc as of Protestant England. The story of
"man's first disobedience, and the fruit of that for
bidden tree" had provoked popular controversies
before Wychf's followers translated the first chapters
of Genesis; the responsibility of Eve and the serpent
for Adam's fall was as hotly contested in Chaucer's
day as in Darwin's*. Favourite stories hke these were
' Myrc, referring to the signs of the four EvangeUsts,
remarks^, "mony lewde men wenen fiat fiay wern suche bestys
and not men." Festial, p. 261.
2 e.g. Kail, x. p. 41. Conf. Aman. Prol. 1013. Allit.
Poems, V Cleanness." Piers Plowman, B. x. 399.
^ Piers Plowman, B. x. 16; Conf. Aman. vn. 3891, 4469.
' Tour Landry, chap. Ixvi. p. 88.
* Conf. Aman. i. 2785.
' Piers Plowman, e.g. B. v. 611; xviii. 277. Mirour,
M. 4

50 THE RUDIMENTS OF THE FAITH [ch, iv
weU known, but it is always of the same score of
characters that one hears^- Within certain hmits the
ground was fairly famihar, but outside it was almost
unexplored. And it was not from writings but from
sermons and mystery plays and church pictures that
the layman gathered his inaccurate and superficial
knowledge of Biblical incidents. To those parts of
the Bible which do not lend themselves to dramatic
or pictorial representation — to the prophets and the
epistles — there are few references in the literature of
the times, and these references become more scarce
as the literature becomes less and less academic.
Whatever the theory might be, in practice the Bible
was treated like Gesta Romanorum or any other
storehouse of edifying narratives. The ordinary
Englishman seems to have been quite as conversant
with some apocryphal stories as he was with those
contained in the Scriptures. Popular writers alluded
to the early history of Lucifer, the war in heaven, the
Virgin's burial, and a dozen other legends, in fuU
confidence that the point would not be missedl
Whether an incident was or was not contained within
the pages of the Bible was in the fourteenth century-
no test either of its religious value or of the layman's
familiarity with it.
28854, Conf. Aman. ProX. 1002. Festial, p. 291. D. & P. yi.
chapters 10. 24, 25.
'¦ Cf. Chambers, Medieval Stage, 11. p. 321 (Subiects for
Miracle Plays.) ¦'
2 e.g. Conf. Aman. 1. 3299, and stories which conclude
Mirour.

CHAPTER V
BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION
The layman was expected to have some knowledge of
the form and meaning of the seven sacraments, and
in popular treatises they were often explained to
gether with the deadly sins and the facts of the Creed.
Of the seven, three stood out pre-eminent: Baptism,
the Eucharist, and Penance. Which of these appeared
greatest to the layman of the fourteenth century it
would be impossible to decide; for, if the Eucharist
was the holiest mysteryi, and if Baptism was the only
gate to heaven, religious teachers gave more attention
to Penance than to either of the other two.
Robert Mannyng has expressed the common view
of Baptism in his own forcible way :
, pys ys Ipe fyrst and pryncypalle,
purgft Jie whych we are saued alle;
Saued we are, fjurgfi crystendam,
Of the heued synne of Adam.

Adam's synne was so grefe,
pat );yT was to God, none so lefe,
pyt he ne shulde to helle gone
But he were wasshe yn fie fonte stone^.
"A soul of a child," said Hilton, "that is born, as is
not christened, by reason of original sin, "hath no
' Summa, P. in., Q, lxv., A. 3. ^ Hand. Synne, 9499.
4—2

52 BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION [ch.
likeness of God; he is nought but an image of the
fieiid, and a brand of hell; but as soon as it is chris
tened, it is reformed to the image of God^." As cloth
is of no use for wearing until it is properly prepared,
so it fareth by a barne that borne is of wombe.
Til it be crystened in Crystes name and confermed of the
bisshop.
It is hethene as to heuenewarde and helplees to the soule*.
This was the doctrine of original sin in its strictest
form. No Calvinist has ever emphasised more terribly
the effects of "our father's fault in that far day*";
and because the hope of the infant's salvation de
pended on the rite. Baptism was usually administered
as soon as possible after birth. Any person might
baptize at need — a layman, a woman,- even a pagan
or a heretic *. It was the duty of the priest to instruct
his parishioners in the essential parts of the sacra
ment, and especially to be sure that midwives under
stood what was necessary ^. Water ought always to
be placed in readiness when the birth of a child was
expected ®. For euery man, both hygli and logfi,
pe poyntes of bapteme owe); to knowe,
To helpe chyldryn yn many kas;
Men wete neuer what nede one has'.-
' Scale, Bk ii. Pt i. Chap. 4, p. 144.
^ Piers Plowman, B. xv. 448; xi. 82.
' Pearl, stanza 27.
* Instructions, 135. Wilkins, 11. 293. Summa, P. in., Q.
Lxvii., A. 3, 4, 5. Trokelowe, p. 237: to explain a prophecy
Richard II is said to have been christened ' John ' by midwives.
D. &¦ P. vn. 19. 2. Piers Plowman, B. x. 350: " An vncristene,
in that eas may cristen an hethen." Cf. Skeat's note, vol. li,'
p. 159, with references.
° Hand. Synne, 9613, Wilkins, in, 59.
" Wilkins, 11, 293. ' Hand. Synne, 9591.

V] BAPTLSM AND CONFIRMATION 53
Two things only were necessary : water, and a sincere
invocation of the Name of the Holy Trinityi. A lay
man might baptize in Enghsh or Latin 2-; either lan
guage made a vahd sacrament, but the greatest care
should be taken to name the three Persons in the
Godhead correctly*. No other god must be invoked;
the formula must not be altered substantially. A mid
wife who baptized a child by calling on "God and
seynt lone " was responsible for its damnation *. No
fantastic ceremonies must be added ; in particular no
relics of paganism could be tolerated. Some people
had a custom of appeasing the heathen gods re
nounced at this sacrament by placing gifts of food at
the child's head^, but churchmen denounced as im
pious all these follies, which were dear especially to
the women. And not only were such pagan customs
opposed; at least some of the clergy tried to destroy
the superstitions which gathered around the Christian
sacrament itself. They discouraged the idea that
the Name of the Trinity was a mere magic spell,'
which was to be used in any circumstances to force
salvation upon children. Fraudulent or forcible
baptism, for instance, was not approved: if "criste
me stele yong childre of iewes & of hethen peple &
baptise them ayens the wyl of ther fader and moder "
1 It was not necessary to give the child a name. Hand.
Synne, 9605; Instructions, 564.
^ Hand. Synne, 9602; Instructions, 131.
' Wilkiiis, II. 293; Hand. Synne, 9607. Summa, P. in.,
Q. Lxvi.'.A. 5, 6. Cf. Q. LX., A. 8.
- * Hand. Synne, 9619.
^ ibid. 9667; Instructions, 126; Chambers, Medieval Stage;
I. pp. 265-6;

54 BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION [CH.
the sacrament may be vahd, but it has been abused.
From such unnatural acts a Christian character will
hardly spring^- Moreover without a devout intention
in him who performs it the sacrament was not
efficacious ; or rather there was no sacrament — how
ever correctly the Latin were pronounced. On the
other hand an ignorant person who blundered in the
case-endings could perform the rite if in his heart he
were sincere^. One enlightened (though by no means
unorthodox) writer was therefore driven to express
the view that it would be better for a child to be
baptized by a "lewyd man or woma" than by a
simoniac priest who demanded money for his ser
vices. " And if he wef of age y' shuld be baptised and
there were noo man ne woman butt the preest^
though he were in peryl of dethe he shulde rather die
without baptyme of water thanne he shulde be
baptised by symonie. For in that case the baptyin
of the holy goost suffiseth to him*." Probably this
writer would have preferred lay baptism to the
^ D. &¦ P. vu. g. i; Summa, P. in., Q. lxviii., A. lo.
' Instructions, 569:
And fiaj me say, as fiey done vse,
Sory laten in here wyse, As |jus,
I folowe ])e in nomina patria & iiUa spiritus sanctia: AmeN.
Of these wordes take |jow non hede,
pe fologhjie ys gode wythoute drede
So )jat here enteut & here wyt
Were forto folowe hyt;
Ay whyle J>ey holde ]>e iyrste sylabul,
pe fologhbe ys gode. wythouten fabul. As )>us.
Pa of patris, ft of filij, spi of spiritus sancti. Amen.
To name the Persons in the wrong order or in jest was no
sacrament, line 588.
» D.S-P. VII. 19. 2.

V] BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION 55
ministrations of those drunken priests whose tongues
could scarcely stammer out the wordsi.
This "baptym of the holy goost" was one of the
subjects most keenly debated in the fourteenth cen
tury. Was the sacrament of Baptism an absolute
necessity for salvation? Might not God sometimes
save souls by a special and mysterious gift of His
Spirit, by a spiritual equivalent of the ecclesiastical
rite? This discussion was not a result of the Lollard
movement. It began much earlier than Wyclif's
work. Mannyng tried to combat a hberal view which
he considered dishonouring to the Sacrament; and
the very terms ^ in which he refers to the matter are
sufficient to show that even in the early decades of
the century the doctrine of spiritual baptism com
manded a considerable number of adherents. Wychf*
and Hilton*, too, bear their testimony to the wide
spread behef that Baptism was not the only way to
salvation-: "those men err greatly and grievously,"
Hilton remarks, "who say that Jews and Turks, by
keeping of their own law, may be saved, though they
believe not in Jesus Christ." It says much -for the
mental activity of the century that a controversy so
' Instructions, 623.
2 Hand. .Synne, 9515; some thought Jews (i.e. unbaptized)
could be saved.
Hostiensis, Summa Aurea, Lib. in.. Rubric, De presbitero
non baptizato, and cf. De Baptismo et eius effectu, section 14,
Quot eius species. Tres, est enim baptismus iluminis flaminis
et sanguinis. St Thoirias, Summa Theologica, P. in., Q. lxviii.,
A. 2.
' Cf. Arnold, vol. i. p. 329, Sermon for Holy Innocents' Day:
"|jer ben many baptemys, as it is knowun comunly."
' Scale, Bk 11. Pt 1. Chap, i, Sect. .:, p. 138.

56 BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION [cH,
doctrinal should have become a matter* of popular
interest. Opinion was not divided along the regular hnes of
orthodoxy and heresy. There were teachers as ortho
dox as Mannyng who held out some hope of salvation
for the unbaptized by a special exercise of God's
limitless graoe. John Myrc, when he had to account
for the salvation and canonization of the Holy
Innocents — none of whom was baptized — went out
of his way to explain to his congregation that "folo3t
come]? jjre maner of wyse: yn water, as we ben
crystened yn ye fonte at ye chyrch; in chedyng blod,
as ye childyr and mony ]?owsandys of oyer martyrs
^at schedden hor blod for Crystys loue; the yxyd
f ologht ys in f ayth yn ye wheche all ye patryarchs and
prbphetys, and all oj^yr holy fadyrs ]?at wern befor
Crystys yncarnacyon ya.t leuedyn yn Cristes comyng ;
J>ay wern folowed yn fologht of faythe^." Wyclif
agreed with .Myrc in this point though he raised the
question in a different way. He was willing to allow
that circumcision was a real equivalent for Baptism
under the old law^; but, even so, rnany of the Holy
Innocents had not been circumcised. It was necessary
therefore to suppose a spiritual circumcision " as it is
knowun comunh " that there is a spiritual Baptism.
"And God is not so obhshid to sensible sacramentis

' Festial, p. 36. Piers Plowman, B. xn. 282. Summa, P.
III., Q. LXVI., A. II and 12. Hilton had a similar idea when he
said that the "chosen souls" of the Old Testament had either
"general" or "special," "secret" or "clear" belief in "Christ
to come" as we have in "Christ already come." Scale, loc. cit.
^ Cf. Summa, P. in., Q. lxx.

V] BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION 57
ya.t ne he may, wiJ>outen hem, 3yve a man his grace^."
The author of Piers Plowman extended the benefits
of this spiritual baptism from Old Testament saints to
virtuous pagans, setting forth exphcitly the very
doctrine which Hilton condemned^ It appeared un
reasonable to suppose that the wisdom of Solomon
and Aristotle* and Socrates should be counted for
nothing whilst the Penitent Thief and Mary Magda
lene went to bliss*. There must be some equivalent
for Christian faith and rites. Moral virtue cannot be
valueless in God's sight, or "lyue we forth with hther
men" would be the best rule of life. Langland found
comfort in the story of Trajan's salvation and re-
ciirred to it again and again ^ Ymagynatyf seized
' Arnold, vol. I. p. 329. A heretic who recanted in 1405
admitted that he had preached before a. large congregation,
that infants dying unbaptized can be saved. Wilkins, ni.
p. 283. "Articuli Johannis Wiclefi Angli damnati per Conci
lium Constantiense" in Brown, Fasciculus, vol. i. p. 268:
"Definientes, parvulos fidelium sine sacramentaU baptismo
decedentes non fore salvandos, sunt stoUdi et praesumptuosi."
^ Scale, Bk 11. Pt i. Chap, i. Sect. 2: "Since this is so,
methinks that those men err greatiy and grievously who say
that Jews or Turks, by keeping of their own law, may be saved,
though they beUeve not in Jesus Christ, as Holy Church
beUeveth; inasmuch as they beUeve that their own faith is
good, and secure, and sufficient for their salvation. And in
that'belief they do as it seems many good deeds of justice and
righteousness, and peradventure if they knew that the Chris
tian faith were better than their own, they would leave their
own and take it, and therefore they shall be saved." Cf. Piers
Plowman, B. xii. 268-274, 284-293.
' Lines found in the Corpus Christi MS. 293, and in the Duke
of Westminster's MS., definitely state that since " aristele al-so
sewede jie same secte" as Job "hit semefi so|)ly by sondry
skylus to schewe pat he is saf as was lob," but, adds the writer,
"I can not seye jje so])e." Skeat, Piers the Plowman (Oxford
1886), note on p. 383, vol. i.
* Piers Plowman, B. x. 414-441.
^ ibid. B. XI. 135-164; XII. 210, 280.

58 BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION [cH.
the text saluabitur vix iustus in die iudicij and argued
from it -ergo saluabitur'^. This hberal doctrine which
is usually associated with the fifteenth century
mystics of the Rhine country was known and
debated in England a full century earlier.
But according to the sterner thinkers damnation
was the inevitable lot of all the unbaptized, whether
they were Jews or heathen or the children of Christian
parents^- No still-born child could be saved*; mid-
wives were vehemently forbidden to comfort the
parents by repeating the baptismal formula over a
dead child, but if a midwife saw that a child was Qot
likely to live after birth she ought to baptize its head,
or any part of its body which she could reach* In
the common view, then. Baptism was a necessary
condition of salvation; but in itself it was never held
to be sufficient. The baptized person must continue
in the narrow way that he had entered. "Many that
hath received Christendome, and liveth unchristen
Life, and so dyeth out of Charity; all these shall be
damned to Hell without end, as Holy Church teacheth
me to beheve*."
1 Piers Plowman, B. xii. 278.
2 ibid. B. XII. 275-277.
"Alle thise clerkes," quod I tho, "that on Cryst leuen;*
Seggen in here sarmones that noyther Sarasenes ue Iewes,
Ne no creature of Cristes lyknesse with-outen Crystendome
worth saued."
s Hand. Synne, 9557. a Instructions, 91.
^ Revelations, chap, xxxii. p. 73, cf. chap, xxxiii. p. 74.
Scale, Bk 11. Pt i. Chap, i. Sect. 2. False Christians "go to
the pains of HeU endlessly as Jews and Turks do, and into
much more and greater pains than they, inasmuch as they had
the truth and kept it not."

v] BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION 59
The sacrament of Confirmation had an insignificant
part in the ordinary man's rehgion. Little is said of
it, and it is easy to understand why the service made
so httle impression on the popular mind. It did not
recur constantly like the Eucharist and Penance; and
when they were confirmed most children were not old
enough to be awed by, or even to be conscious of, the
ceremony. The same indeed might be said about
Baptism, which had a tremendous effect on the
imagination, but then, unhke Baptism, Confirmation
was never supposed to have a decisive influence on
the soul's destiny. Myrc wrote at great length about
the first sacrament, yet almost the only thing which
he had to say about Confirmation was that, whereas
• Baptism was necessary for salvation, Confirmation
was not. And fiagh a chylde confermet nere.
So fiat he folowed by-fore were.
To dyspuyte |jer-of hyt ys no nede, ^
He schale be saf wythowte drede'.
When that was the teaching it is not surprising to
find priests and people rather indifferent to the sacra
ment. The physical difficulties of administering
it were alone enough to account for considerable
irregularity and delay. In wide and sparsely
populated districts the bishop could complete his
circuits only very occasionally. Bishop Gra.ndisson
in 1336 at the village church of St Buryan confirmed
pueros quasi innumerabiles de ipsa Parochia^; but
there is no reason to suspect that energetic prelate of
' Instructions, 671.
^ Grandisson's Register, II. p. 820.

6o BAPTISM AND- CONFIRMATION [ch. V
slackness in the performance of his duties. The com
piler of his register, nevertheless, feehng that some
apology was necessary, explained that the parish
was lata utique et diffusa. The Council of Oxford in
1322 ordered that parents should be urged to have
their children confirmed once (but only once) ; if the
Bishop did not visit their neighbourhood they ought
to seek him and not to delay^ beyond the child's fifth
year*. ""
Certes, fio men moche mysdo,
pat abyde long, are )iey go );ar-to;
And wymmen, gretly ouer alle fjyng,
pat wyl nat here chyldryn bryng'.
Mannyng's rebuke of these unconfirmed "men,"
though not to be pressed too closely, seems to support
Mr Capes's contention that many people were never
confirmed*. The friars, whose energy in some sorts
of popular religious work was unquestionable, took
little interest in the confirmation of children. Their
critics said that they interested themselves only in
such rites as brought emoluments *, and not only to
the friars but to the less devoted parish priests also
the absence of an offering must have made Confirmar:
tion appear a somewhat superfluous sacrament.
' Wilkins, II. p. 512. ^ Instructions, 157.
' Hand. Synne, 9841.
* Capes, English Church in the i^th and 15th centuries, p. 229.
« Def. Cur. in Fasc. 11. pp. 474, 478. Cf. Vox Clam. iv. 739.'

CHAPTER VI
COMMUNION AND EXTREME UNCTION
The order of the Mass and its effect upon the minds
of the congregation have been discussed already^. It
is necessary now to consider not the reaction of the
service on the layman, but the layman's own idea
about the service; not the spectator's impressions of
the weekly drama of worship, but the faith of the
communicant on those solemn Easter days when he
walked forward up the narrow aisle of has viUage
church to receive that very Body of Christ which
was represented on the rood screen above his head.
It was unusual for a layman in the fourteenth
century to take communion more than once a year.
He was encouraged to think this sufficient, but he
was considered most negligent if he omitted to com
municate at Easter*. Some, nevertheless, were care
less. People were warned that it was very dangerous
' See chap. i. above.
^ Hand. Synne, 10283-10300. L. F. C, Thoresby's version,
line 320, p. 66. Mirour, 4434, 4461. Wilkins, 11. 528, corro
borates: "dominico corpore in die Paschatis assumpto."
Piers Plowman, B. xix. 386, seems to suggest the monthly
communion which was common for Regulars. The Ancren
Riwle recommended communion no oftener than fifteen times
a year, i.e. monthly and at the great feasts. Archbishop
Sudbury in 1378 ordered all to confess aud communicate on the
three great feasts: Cutts, Parish Priests, p. 235. Johnson,
Laws and Canons, 11. 444. Cf. Summa, Pars ni., Q. Lxxx., A. 8.

62 COMMUNION AND [ch.
to present themselves for communion with any sins
unconfessed; it was, indeed, better, said Mannyng, to
sin after communicating than before, for
God takefj hyt nat to so grete grym
As 3yf Jiou yn tresoun receyuedest hym^.
Unconfessed sin was punished notably: "seknesse,
feblenesse and sodeyne dethe fal comonly aftre
Ester amonges the people for men in Ester resceyue
unworthily goddes flesshe and his blode*." Most
decent people therefore confessed towards the end of
Lent*. It was thought somewhat irreverent not to
fast on the day of communion, though churchmen
had to bewail that this preparatioft was frequently
omitted ; men would practise abstinence for the sake
of earthly sports more readily than for Christ's Body*.
The Easter communion was sometimes accompa
nied by the very reverse of fasting. Certain sons of
drunkenness and gluttony^, complained Archbishop
Raynold, had no sooner received Christ's Body than
they began to feast in the most shameful way in the
very church itself, turning God's house into a tavern.
They did not even stay to receive the sacrament
reverently, but rushed to the priest in scandalous
haste, fearing all the time that others would take
their places at the feast ; worst of all, they deceived
^ Hand. Synne, 10257: 2 £) <§. p yjjj 13. ,3.
' The layman was urged to confess more than once a year
as he was not urged to communicate more often. Cf. chap. ni.
p. 32 above. '
* Wilkins, 11. p. 528, Summa, Pars in., Q. lxxx., A. 8.
= "Quidam crapulae et voracitatis fiUi quorum Deus venter
est." Wilkins, loc. cit. ""

VI] EXTREME UNCTION 63
the simple folk who could not distinguish these un
godly banquets from the sacrament^
The solemnity of an annual communion to a devout
communicant cannot be exaggerated, and does not
need to be explained to those who are famihar with
"Sacrament Sunday" in the Church of Scotland.
The medieval Church in its wisdom used everything
that could help to make the season impressive. The
day itself was the most wonderful in a calendar that
abounded in wonders. The communicant had been
long prepared for the reception of the bread — pre
pared for it not merely by prayer and fasting and
confession*, but by a daily*, or weekly*, or at least
monthly ^, witnessing of this same ceremony in which
he was at last to take his part. The wafer which he
was now to receive he had frequently worshipped as
the priest held it high overhead at the most impressive
moment of the daily rite ; from childhood he had been
taught to regard it as"]7esamebodij'atdi3edfor f^e®."
A subtle analysis ' of his mind has shown with how
' Wilkins, loc. cit. , for a vivid description of what was pro
bably an early form of "church-ales."
' See chap. iii. p. 32 above.
^ Pearl, stanza loi. Manner and Mede of Mass, Une 71.
Mirour, 18 164.
* Cf. chap. i. p. 5 above. ^ Def. Cur. in Fasc. 11. p. 470.
* Manner and Mede of Mass, line 72. Cf. p. 66 below.
,'' L. F. M. B. Appendix iii. (Ashm. MS. 1286, foUo 223),
p. 126, sets out six considerations before communicating, with
lines of thought to be followed in the service and afterwards;
"if it be so ];at a man feele not goostely affeccioun" he might
pray "A! lord, lord, now ful mercyful lord, what schal I do?
I haue put fyre in my bosum, and I feele noon heete of it 
I haue put hony in my mou^, and I fele no maner swetnesse
Jier-of  I haue resceyued a souereyne medcyne, and 3it I
feele neuere fie more heele."

64

COMMUNION AND [ch.

strange a thrill the communicant was expecting to
receive the consecrated bread, and by what methods
he could often produce a suitable mental exaltation
if it did not come spontaneously.
Nothing was more constantly impressed upon the
priests than the scrupulous reverence which they
must themselves observe towards the Elements; and,
although these regulations sprang from a sincere
veneration, they must also have been valued, by a
Church so well acquainted with human nature, for
their psychological effect upon the ignorant laity.
About the physical condition of the bread and wine
the priest could not be too careful^- The wipe must
be red like blood, unless it was quite impossible to
procure any but white; it must not be diluted over
much with water, ut non vinum ab aqua sed aqua a
vino absorbeatur^. The host, which should appear
"white and round*," must be preserved in suitable
vessels* and renewed every seven days, or more
often if necessary, ne  coniraxerit humiditatem seu
mucorem; unde reddatur vel turpis aspectu vel gustui
abominabilis^ It must be protected from the
Church mouse: Do vp so that sacrament
pat hyt be syker in vche way,
pat no beste hyt towche may.
3ef hyt (were) eten wyth mows or rat,
Dere fiow moste a-bygge l?at'.
' Instructions, 1769.
^ Wilkins, in. 11. Summa, P. iii,, Q. lxxiv., A. 8.
' Cf. Matthew, xxv. 357, xxviii. 465.
' Wilkins, iii. pp. 11, 59. Cf. Instructions, 1850
" Wilkins, III. p. 59, cf. 11. p. 513. Myrc advisSs a daily
change, Instructions, 1835. ¦ » Instructions 1894.

VI]' EXTREME UNCTION 65
A penance of forty days was prescribed for the care
less priest 1. No smallest drop of wine nor crumb of
bread must be lost. If a spider should fall into the
chahce, the priest must suck out the spider and
swallow it; if a drop of wine should fall he must
scrape it up and burn the scrapings, preserving any
ashes with the rehcs of his church *. Lest any particle
of the bread should be lost or defiled after the ad
ministration, it was customary to give wine and
water to the communicants to help them to swallow
the whole morsel at once ; says Myrc to the priest :
warne hem fiow schal
_, That ]jey ne chewe jiat ost to smal,
Leste to small fiey done hyt breke.
And iu her teth hyt do steke;
There-fore ^ey schule with water & wyn
Clause here mow);, that nojt leue fier-Iu'.
The communicant was told that this wine and water
was no part of the sacrament lest he should believe
it to be the Blood of Christ*. To maintain popular
reverence for the sacrament it was ordained that the
priest should observe due ceremony when he carried
the Host to a. sick perscin. He was to take his surplice,
hood, and stole, and, unless difficulties of time and
place prevented, the parish clerk must precede him
with a bell and a light. Anyone whom he met, even
the Archbishop of Canterbury himself, must kneel
down whether the road were fair or foul^.
1 Instructions, 1899. ^ ibid. 1819. ' ibid. 254.
* L. F. M. B. p. 381, with reference to Lyndwood. In
structions, 250.
^ Wilkins, II. 513. III. 59. Instructions, 304, iSsg. Grandis
son's Register, 11. p. 786; Trokelowe, p.. 394.
M. 5

66 COMMUNION AND [ch.
However the schoolmen might quahfy their de
scription of the Eucharist by talk of accident and
substance, the Host had become for the ordinary
man nothing les'B than Christ Himself. The more
popular, the less scholarly, is the hterature, the more
plainly is this stated, "py creatoure^," "The kyng
that alhthys world bathe wro3t*," '"pe same bodi
j^at dijed for J'e*," " Chryste, goddes sonne of heuyne
under fourme of brede and wyne*" — these are com
mon descriptions of the- Elements^- To "receive
God " seems to have been the most usual expression
for communicating® The Host was more than a
representation of Christ, more than a symbohc help
to worship; it was itself the object of worship and
prayer. True adoration was not withheld from it, as
it was from images. Whilst people, were warned
against making direct prayer to images' they were
told plainly to pray to the Host.
Loke [said Lydgate] to the hy autere
And pray to hym that hangythe there*.
It was part of Wychf's error that he did not make
' Hand. Synne, 10300.
" Merita Missae, Une 142. Cf. Instructions, 311.
" Manner and Mede of Mass, Une 72
* D.S-P. I. 3. 3. Cf. Pearl, stanza 101.
° Cf. Hand. Synne, 9951 : '
Bo)>e iiesshe and blode fier ys Ifeyd,
purgft Jie wurdes fiat f.e prest ha|> seyd,
pat lyjte with-ynne |ie vyrgyne Marye,
And on fe rode for vs wulde deye.
Mirour, 715 1.
« Kail, XXIII line 81, p 106: "When ),ou to chirche gostTo
resceyue god. Hand. Synne. 10300: "Ones to receyue W
creatoure, Mirour, 8386 L. F. M. B. Appendix in. p. 122.
« ¦?; '^.-^v/- ^- 4-,. Cf. chap. VII. p. 99 below.
' Merita Missae, line 41,

VI] EXTREME UNCTION

67

this distinction between the Host and images^. There
is a significant passage in one of Grandisson's letters
which shows that the Eucharist was regarded as the
fulfilment of Christ's promise: Ecce Ego vobiscum sum
omnibus diebus^
Yet despite this the layman of the fourteenth
century was under -no delusion about the appearance
and taste of the bread. It was no part even of vulgar
orthodoxy to pretend that the wafer had the pro
perties of fiesh. Only to the eye of faith did the true
quality of the Host appear. Correct belief was not
attainable without love for Him Who was com
memorated and sacrificed.
Stedfast beleue, of loue hyt comes
And of beleue, loue men nomes'.
A writer of the early fifteenth century, addressing the
Host, set out as clearly as any Reformer the antithesis
of faith and sense :
In syjt and in felyng, |70U semest bred.
In byleue, flesch, blod, and bone;
In sy3t and felyng, Jjou semest ded.
In byleue, lyf, to speke and gon;
In sy3t and felyng, nother hand ne hed.
In byleue, bofie god and man;
In syjt and felyng, in litil sted,
In byleue, grettere Jjyng nes nan*.
1 Knighton, vol. 11. p. 158. ^ Register, 11. p. 1148.
^ Hand. Synne, 9941, cf. 9975-
* Kail, XXIII. Une 113", p. 107. Cf. Hand. Synne, 9987:
Hyt semefi brede, as be syjt,
And as brede, sauer haf> ryjt,
Nofiyr Jje sy3t, nojjer (le felyng,
Hafi fjerof any certeyn fjyng :
what shal f^an, fe most saue,
But stedfast beleue fat fou shalt haue?
5—2

68 COMMUNION- AND [ch.
To convince sceptics^ and to reward saints*, the
Divine truth about the sacrament had occasionally
been made manifest to the human senses; but this
was exceptional. God had shown consideration for
our sensibility, said one, in veiling the mystery;
For jyf hyt fyl, as iiesshe to take
wlate we shulde, and hyt forsake'.
It has been a common error to suppose that Wyclif
was the first in fourteenth century England to rouse
a discussion on this sacrament, and some have even
asserted that he denied the Real Presence. That last
notion is disproved by many passages in his writings*
and by the fact that he died celebrating Mass^. A
considerable discussion was raging round the sacra
ment of the altar before the Lollard movement began,
and quite independently of it. Wychf and his follow
ers indeed, so far as they spoke of the matter, claimed
to range themselves on the popular, conservative side
against the friars, who were disturbing the faith of a
"thowsand wynter and more" by their new-fangled
words and definitions®. Henry VIII's scornful retort
to the heretic that Christ's words Hoc est enim corpus
meum settled the whole question would have been
endorsed by the Lollard author of Pierce the Plough-
' Hand. Synne, 9999. Knighton, 11. p. 163.
^ The story of Grosseteste. T
' Hand. Synne, 9981. Summa, P. in., Q. Lxxv., A. 5.
* Lechler, Johann von Wiclif, Bach 11, Kap. 7,' xi. B, Vom
Abendmahl, p. 613 et seq.
' ibid. Buch 11. Kap. 8, vn. p. 722.
« Matthew, XXVIII. p. 465, xxv. p. 357. LoUardizing
Version of L. F. C. : "cristys owne body in lyknesse of bred,"
Une 1030, p. 67. Eulogium Historiarum, ill. 350^

VI] EXTREME UNCTION 69
man's Crede, whose firm adherence to traditional
doctrine obliged his Protestant editor to tamper with
the text in 1553^.
The sermons and discussions in which the friars
tried to make the doctrine of transubstantiation in
telligible to the people were dishked by many pious
folk, who were well pleased to leave such matters to
the schools, and to maintain for themselves a simple ,
faith like Donne's and George Herbert's*. The friars
were accused of shaking the faith of their hearers*,
or at least of "thickening it with curious definitions " ;
boys (over whom they had a special influence) * were
taught to wrangle about the Eucharist in an un-
edifying and irreverent way *. Hilton bore his witness
to the existence of doubts about the sacraments, but
warned his reader that although the declarations of
the Church might not commend themselves to par
ticular individuals they must be believed neverthe
less *, Most of these popular doubts about the sacra
ments seem to have arisen simply from a natural
unreadiness to believe that the Host was different
from vvhat it appeared', or from an inbred lack of
* Pierce the Ploughman's Crede, lines 822-30, p. 31.
^ Herbert, The Temple, Diviliitie; Donne, On the Sacra
ment. ' Piers Plowman, B. x. 71; xv. 68.
* Def. Cur., in Fasc. 11., pp. 472-3; 476. Mirour, 21541;
Vox Clam. iv. chap. xxi.
' Wilkins, in. p. 317.
<¦' Scale, Bk i. Pt i. Chap. xvi. p. 29.
' Hand. Synne, 9957. Mannyug-argued (9967):
Syn he (God) made alle fat nojt er was,
lesse maystry were hyt fan yn kas.
For to chaunge fe lekenes
Ynto ah oufer fyng fat es.

70 COMMUNION AND [ch.
reverence^. But some few men raised more definite
questions. In 1354 a Cornish priest, Ralf de Tremur,
a dihgent student*, was excommunicated for many.
heresies which he had not only held, but taught with
some success*. He exactly anticipated by thirty
years* Wyclif's objection to transubstantiation, and'
had applied to the Mass the text Opus manuum
vestrarum fantastice adoratis; he called St Peter and
St John bad names, and crowned his enormities by
stealing the pyx from a church and burning the Host'.
Another of Wychf's favourite doctrines was much
discussed by all sorts of people before his name made
it famous: does the character of a priest affect the
virtue of his sacraments? In the fourteenth century
the friars brought this old question prominently
before the popular mind — perhaps unintentionally —
by their claim to peculiar holiness and power*; their
Masses were believed to be more efficacious than
those of the ordinary priests. A popular rhyme in-
' Merita Missae, line 167.
* Grandisson's Register, 11. 1180: "qui eo est pemiciosior et
ad decipiendum pericior quo literacior, Magister in Artibus
quondam acer etc."
' ibid. II. 1 147.
* ibid. II. 1148: "affirihans panem et vinum in Carnem et
Sanguinem Domini Nostri Jhesu Christi Consecracione Ver-
borum substancialiter non transire."
* For the whole story, covering more than twenty years, see
Register, pp. 621, 627, 660, 715, 1147, 1179, 1303.
' Def^ Cur. iu Fasc. 11. p. 478: "Quis tolerabiliter possit
audire quod Franciscus in fide novitius melius atque utilius
viam humanae perfectionis instituit quam Deus Omnipoteiis
Omnibonus Omnisapiens fecerat in hominis institutione pri-
maria? " Cf. p. 483, "Item si sic mendicatio etc." Matthew, '
I. pp. 3, 4; xxn. p. 320, L. F. C. LoUardizing Version, line
85°. P- 55-

VI] EXTREME UNCTION

71

tended for recitation or singing in hall was written
to correct this among other errors. The layman was
urged not to consider the character or person of the
priest : pou3 he be noujt at fi lykynge
pe prest fat schal fy masse synge,
perfore lette fou nouht:
His Masse schal be as goode to heere.
As Monk, Chanoun, Hermyte, or Freere^.
John Myrc spoke to the same effect in his sermon for
Corpus Christi day : " For ya.t sacrament is so he3e and
holy in hymself )>at yer may no good man amende hit,
ne no euel man appayre hit*." "The secrament,"
said Pauper, "is not the worsse for the malyce of the
preeste*." Until the Lollards had made the dispute piquant
the attitude of the Church was perhaps not quite so
definite. In Handlyng Synne there is evidence that
the question was commonly debated early in the
century, but Mannyng's own opinion was not very
clear. He told with approval how a Suffolk man was
rescued by Masses from hell, though he had that
same strong preference fdr a good priest which was
^ Manner and Mede of Mass, lines 137, 595.
2 Festial, p. 169, cf. p. 45 quoted in chap. vu. p. 84, note 5
below. ^ D. &¦ P. VI. 17. 3 and 4. Dives knows that "Though a
preste be a shrewe the sacrametys that he mynystreth be not ye
worse. For the goodnesse of the preste amendethe nott the
sacrament." Why then, he asks, does the law forbid men to
hear the Masses of sinful priests? "Not for defaute of ye
sacrament," says Pauper. But "that they might be so
ashamed of ther synne and the soner amende them." Cf. i.
33. 2, where it is said that a 'wicked liver' can conjure fiends
with holy prayers effectively; though a good man has more
power. Summa, P. in., Q. lxiv., A. 5, 9, 10; Q. lxxxii., A. 5.

72 COMMUNION AND [ch.
afterwards condemned as heretical- The Eucharist
has powerful influence for good, Mannyng said,
And namely whan hyt ys doun
, with gode mannes deuocyun;
Hym, wyl God sunner here
pan one fat ys nat hym so dere^.
Elsewhere he discussed the matter at greater
length, concluding that -Masses were not affected by
the character of the officiating priest, though the
effect of any other sort of intercession depended on it.
pogfi fe prest be fals or frow,
pe messe, ys euer gode enow;
But f e preyere haf no myjt.
For hys lyfe ys nat clene dy3t'.
Lollard teaching at the end of the century spread
the heretical doctrine far and vride. Gower had his
1 Hand. Synne, 10435, e.g.
Ofte he seyde to hys wyfe
"A prest ! A prest ! of clene lyfe. "
" ibid. 10385.
' ibid. 2305.
A dead knight appeals to. his friend for Masses, but refuses
priest after priest suggested, for (2294)
pey were nat of clene lyfe;
Of hem fe dede jaf noun answere,
he made no fors of here preyere.
Nef eles, fe seluyn messe
ys nofer fe wurse, ne fe lesse;
pe sunne, hys feyrnes neuer he tynes,
pog* hyt on f e muk hepe shynes.
But fe muk ys fe more stynkyngge
pere fe sunne ys more shynyngge.
Ne more hyt ys lore, fe vertu
Of fe messe, but mannys pru.
A woman who sins with a priest is damned, because she
makes void all his prayers for souls in Purgatory (Une 7961)-
This doctrine nearly approaches what Wyglif taught, Mat
thew, IV. p. 78; XVIII. p. 274. Cf. D. & P., vu. 22: prayers
of a simoniac priest not heard. Summa, P. in. Q. lxxxii., A. 6.

VI] EXTREME UNCTION

73

doubts about the Masses of unworthy priests^, and
testators exhibited considerable anxiety on this
point. It was a priest "of gode conversacioun and
none other" who was wanted to sing for the souls of
the dead*
The popular view of the Mass was distinctly
mechanical. The tenor of wills and anecdotes shows
unmistakably that the layman was taught to beheve
that he could increase the effect of Eucharistic
prayers by the simple process of multiplying them or
making them more elaborate*. The benefits which
the living and the dead received varied in direct pro
portion with the number and magnificence of the
Masses said and with the amount of offering made at
each. To multiply candles was to multiply the soul's
chances of salvation. Yet, although this was the
general effect of most of the popular instruction
afforded, there were some efforts to give the layman
a more spiritual conception of the Eucharist. As the
Divine Presence could not be perceived without faith
and love *, so the mere reception of the wafer was un
availing: "In gostly. by lyue shal saued be^." The
author of Piers Plowman, as might be expected,
was insistent on this spiritual interpretation of the
^ Mirour, 20503.
2 Wills, e.g., p. 15, John Plot, 1408 : " of good conuersacion " ;
p. 49, Lady Peryne Clanbowe, 1422: "honest men and good
Uuers and ellys not"; p. 88, Wm Fitz-Harry, 143 1: "a trewe
prest and that y wi-ft it be Frere William. . .and elles, y wi H- haue
the best lyver that may be y-geten," "the best prest that may
be found"; p. 105, Richard Bokeland, 1436: "two gode hon-
nest and vertuous preestes of conuersacioun."
' e.g. ibid. pp. 6, 15, 81. * Hand. Synne, 9941.
¦^ Kail, xxiii. line 96, p. 106.

74

COMMUNION AND [cH.'

sacraments; indeed he rarely referred to them except
to emphasize their worthlessness apart from faith
and good works^.
The idea that good works should accompany the
sacrament was often — though not always* — dis
torted. It was sometimes taken to mean that in
order to secure any benefit from Mass an offering
must be made. Mannyng seems to come near
saying that a Mass without an offering is of no
avail to any one*, and elsewhere there are echoes of
his opinion-. This teaching led straight to the
simoniacal selling of Masses, which was deplored and
condemned in vain at council and synod.
The official documents of the Church set forth
continually in impressive language the necessity of
Extreme Unction and the great benefits to be de
rived from it. Popular literature had less to say
about this sacrament than irtight perhaps have been
expected. The neglect, however, is apparent only.
Religious teachers and writers usually spoke to lay
men of the necessity of shrift before death without
actually mentioning the final rite, for the very
practical reason that in confession the initiative was

' Piers Plowman, B. xm. 259; xix. 387.
2 L. F. M. B., Text B, Une 242. Cf. Manner and Mede of
Mass, Une 515.
' Hand. Synne, 10711:
pys sacrament helpef nat jyt a-lone,
But deuoute offrynges also echone;
Alle fat we ofifre at fe messe,
Alle oure saluacyon hyt ys.
Cf. 10745, 10794.

VI] EXTREME UNCTION 75
with the layman, whilst in Unction it was with the
priest. Upon the priest therefore was impressed the
importance of the anointing, upon the laity the im
portance of confession. And assuredly there was no
scarcity of fearsome stories recounting the fate of
those who, hke the Falmouth squire, died unshriven^.
These stories were the complement of the many in
structions* urging upon the clergy their solemn duty
to the sick. Neghgent priests who allowed their
parishioners to die without the last sacraments were
threatened with suspension which would be made
permanent if ex consuetudine hoc fecerint^. For tha
prevention of such un-Christian deaths the priest
was expected not to leave his cure day or night with
out reasonable cause, and to leave it then onlywhen
he had provided a competent substitute. He was to'
visit promptly all persons who desired to be anointed.r
He was hable to penalties if he used the terrors of a
dying man to extort money for the administration of'
Unction *-
But it was unhkely that the priest would often be
asked to administer this sacrament. It was, rather,
his duty to press it upon the sick, for many laymen.
1 P. R. &¦ L. p. 97.
^ Wilkins, 11. 134: "inter caetera sacramenta istud nOn
minimum, praecipimus venerari, et sacerdotes parochos, quan-.
docunque fuerint requisiti, ad visitandum infirmos se promp-
tissimos exhibere : qui si difficiles se exhibuerint in hac parte,
et infirmis poenitentibus (et petentibus) gratis absque uUa
exactioue pecuniae sacramentum hoc non contulerint, cum
gratia sit gratis (data) et non pretio conferenda, convicti super
hoc, juxta canonrcas sanctiones punientur condigne."
^ Wilkins, 11. p. 294. Cf. 11. p. 135; in. p. 59.
* ibid. II. p, 134 loc. cit.

76 COMMUNION AND- [QH.
regarded it with suspicion.. This was not surprising;
was not Unction the sign and seal of death? Ignorant
people might well imagine that it destroyed any
chances of a recovery. There were, too, some curious
superstitions which clung persistently around the
rite, and made it repulsive to any healthy-minded
person who was anxious not merely to prolong his
life but also to enjoy the fulness of its pleasures. It
, was a common belief that even if a man should re
cover after he had received Unction he was bound
thenceforward to lead a stunted, crippled life: he
must eat no flesh; he must take pains never to leave
his feet bare; he must have no carnal knowledge of
his wife^. "Anele hem nat but ]jey shulde deye*"
was, therefore, the general feehng on the: matter.
More than one synod* denounced these erroneous
opinions. Parish priests were ordered to contradict
them, and to warn the congregations that to neglect
so great a sacrament for .such fanciful reasons was to
defy the Apostle St James, who had said clearly : Si
injirmatur quis ex vobis, inducat presbyteros ecclesiae,
et orent super eum, unguentes eum oleo sancto in
nomine. Domini*. The notion that this sacrament,
like Baptism, could be received only once, was also
to be impugned. Unction could bc; received as many
times as necessary, provided only that twelve months
elapsed between each administration^. There was
1 Wilkins, li. pp. 295. 512, 135. Hand. Synne, 11267.
2 Hand. Synne, 11268.
' Wilkins, 11. p. 512. * ibia. 11. p. 512.
5 ibid. II. pp. 295, 512. Summa, Supplementum O xxxiii
A. I, 2. • ¦ , "

VI] EXTREME UNCTION 77
consequently no reason for the sick to delay their
reception of it as long as they dared, fearing that, if
they recovered, they could not be anointed again
when the hour of death should really come. From the
ponderous Latin of the synods these official pro
nouncements were translated into jinghng verse for
the use of " lewed men." Mannyng advised people to
take no risks of dying unaneled:
But yn euery an euyl strong —
Lygge fou shorte whyle or long —
pou shalt aske fys sacrament'.
It is best, he added, that the sacrament be given by
your own desire. Even if you see it already brought
for you, make a devout request, and do not accept it
merely as a matter of form*
Later in the century this superstitious suspicion of
Unction was reinforced by Lollard arguments. Not
because of its effect but because of its invalidity the
followers of Wychf opposed the rite. It was, they
said, without Scriptural sanction, for si corporalis
unctio for et sacramentum, ut modo fingitur , Christus &
ejus apostoli promulgationem eius minime tacuissent^.
1 Hand. Synne, 11275. ^ ibid. 11249, cf. 11281.
' Brown, Pa5cicM/MS, I. p. 269, Articuli Johannis Wiclefi. Cf.
Summa, Supplementum, Q. xxix., A. 3.

CHAPTER VII
ERRONEOUS AND STRANGE DOCTRINES
The dilemma which faced the translators of St Paul's
sermon on Mars' Hill faces all ¦who think about the
Church in the fourteenth century: where is the hne
between "rehgion" and "superstition"^? Any,
modern discussion of the matter degenerates into a
wrangle because to-day no two persons define "super
stition " in the same way. But it was not always so.
In the fourteenth century the line between rehgion
and superstition was more clearly drawn, and the
Church set itself to stamp out the one as definitely as
to foster the other.
The principle which guided it in its discrimination
was not rational but rehgious. It was not because
certain notions were (as we should say) more im
probable than others that they were condemned. It
was their effect on practical religion that the Church
had in mind when it came to judge popular behef s.
If a particular "superstition" tended to make people
more careful about rehgious practices and Christian
virtues, it was not only tolerated but blessed, whilst
another which did no great'er violence to human
reason was condemned as degrading and impious and
' Acts, xvii. 22. Cf. text and margin in R.V.

CH. vii] STRANGE DOCTRINES

79

unreasonable, because it could not be brought within
the recognised teaching and practice of the Church;
or perhaps because it occasioned inconvenience to her
ministers. In superstition as in all else the .Church of
the fourteenth century strove for order and regulari-
sation, fighting chiefly against individual fancies and
unprofessional rites. A disturbing belief was opposed ;
an accommodating one was nourished; and the in
fluence of the Church thus tended at thesame time
to increase and to diminish popular superstition.
The official attitude towards popular ideas of the
Eucharist well illustrates the general principle. On
the one hand the Church sanctioned any belief, how
ever preposterous, if it tended to exalt the power of
the Mass, the dignity of the Host, or the consequence
of the priest. Because these stories glorified the
sacrament the layman was encouraged to believe
that the saying of a Mass could remove iron fetters
from a knight's body^, or sustain a miner who had
been buried alive in a pit*; that a man whose^ickness
prevented him from receiving the bread in the usual
way received it through his side near his heart*, that
blindness would not strike the fortunate eyes which
saw the Host carried to the sick* To increase the
offerings of the devout they were told that a penny
offered at Mass would secure an increase of worldly
wealth as well as freedom from their sins^. To make
them more careful about confession they were taught
' Hand. Synne, 10507. ^ ibid. 10729.
' Festial, p. 172. ^ Instructions, 312.
'¦> Manner and Mede of Mass, line 518.

.8o ¦ ERRONEOUS AND [ch.
that sickness overtook those who had gone to Easter
communion without full absolution^. Reverence for
the saints*, for holy days*, and for holy places*, was
recommended by the most foolish and degrading
stories. The beneficial effects of fasting were illus
trated by the story of a beheaded man who did not
die till he was shriven ^, and by the well known fact
that "ye spolde of a fasting man may sle any eddyr
bodyly®." The forgiveness of enemies was proved to
be pleasing to God because a crucifix kissed a man
who had pardoned his father's murderer''. The Book
of the Knight of La Tour Landry is full of pious anec
dotes of this kind; upon them a father and two
priests"^ hoped to build the faith of two girls. That
conscientious priest John Myrc crowded his book of
sermons with stories even more wonderful and offered
them as spiritual food to his flock. The Stacions of
Rome, a poem well known at the end of the century,
shows clearly how religion was identified with marvel-
mongering ^.
' D. &¦ P. VIII. 13. 3. Tour Landry, chap. Ixxxvii. p. 112.
^ Festial, p. 20, Story of St Thomas's hand; p. 43, Bird that
called on St Thomas a Becket.
^ Festial, p. 172, Birds in.Holy Week ; p. 137, StMark'sDay.
* Stacions of Rome in P. R. &¦ L,
^ Tour Landry, chap. vii. p. 10.
^ Festial.^p. 83, quoted from Ambrose; cf. Mirour, 18025.
' Hand. Synne, 3797. * Tour Landry, Prologue, p. 3.
' The. reconciliation of different parts of this poem must
have taxed even medieval ingenuity: our Lord's foreskin, for
example, was said to be preserved in two places: St John
Lateran and the Chapel of ' Seynt Agas. ' But the chief interest
of the document is not in its evidence of popular creduUty, nor
of the way iii which the Church took advantage of it. It shows
especially the great ease with which doctrines were debased
and parodied in the popular mind. According to the official

vii] STRANGE DOCTRINES 8i
Yet even when it seemed most reckless the Church
did not give an entirely free hand to popular
imagination, or encourage every sort of story about
saintly goodness and miracle. Such hcence was only
permitted about an officially recognised list of people
and places, and the ecclesiastical authorities resisted
the attempts of the over-devout to add to this hst
as promptly as they resisted the Lollard efforts to
remove certain items from it. The unauthorised
worship of such men as Lancaster^, Edward II*, and
Arundel* was effectually suppressed in the end; and
pohtical prejudice cannot always be alleged as a
sufficient reason. The question in dispute was
whether undeserved suffering in death unaccompanied
by a pious life could make a man a saint. Many held
that oblationum frequentia aut miraculorum simulacra
were inadequate. Episcopal records give many in
stances of the steadying effect of this official caution.
Bishop Grandisson no doubt believed and taught as
many wonderful stories as John Myrc, but it was pre
cisely because he believed them so seriously that he
view pilgrimage could not affect the pardon of sin, but only
the remission of temporal or purgatorial penance; to visit
St Peter's at the exhibition of the Vernicle absolved dwellers
in Rome from 4000 years of purgatory and those who crossed
the sea from 12,000 years. Biit the popular mind, reflected
(accurately because unconsciously) in this poem, made little
distinction between pardon itself and remission of punishment.
Pardon ys fe sowle bote.
At grete Rome fer ys f e Roote ;
Pardon yn frensh a worde hit ys
Forjeuenesse of synfies y -wys (line 3).
Yet, to speak accurately, forgiveness of sins was a benefit to
be derived from our Lord's passion alone.
> Higden, vm. 312. ^ ibid. vm. 324.
' Trokelowe, 219.
M. ' 6

82

ERRONEOUS AND [ch.

could not allow them to be added to or tampered
with; therefore when he heard stories of mysterious
bell-ringing in his cathedraP, or of cures wrought at
a rector's tomb*, he immediately took precautions ne,
quod absit, populum nobis commissum ydolatrare, vel
a via Veritatis ac Catholice Fidei aberrare contingat^.
Commissioners were appointed to enquire most care
fully* into the rumours and, as their records show,
they were by no means ready to accept any cock-and-
bull story simply because it had a pious prologue or
epilogue. The kind of proof that satisfied the four
teenth century was different,, no doubt, from that
which would be demanded to-day, but the fact re
mains: the Church exercised a restraining influence,
for it usually did not sanction a new miracle or edify
ing story vrithout some show of proof satisfactory to
the age^.
' Register, Part II. p. 941.
^ ibid. Part in. p. 1231; cf. vol. 11. pp. 784, 942, alleged
restoration of sight enquired into and one fraud proved.
' ibid. Part 11. p. 941.
" The reports of one commission are preserved in fuU (Part
III. p. 1233) giving details of ten cases of alleged miracles with
the most circumstantial details or a sta-tement that none is
known. The taking of the evidence seems to ha,ve been quite
thorough. Cf. Instructions to other Commissioners, Part 11,
p. 941.
^ The sort of proof which might sa,tisiy popular opinion may
be judged from the foUowing:
(i) Mannyng recites the story of a lady who was burnt for
ever in hell becau* she adorned herself -with 'homes'; appear
ing in a vision she told her squire on what day he and his lord
should die. Her forecast was correct and therefore:
By fat tokenyng wel men knew
pat fe tale was ryjt and trew.
Hand. Synne, 3307.
(U) Myrc (Festial, p. 148) tells of the charity of Edward the
Confessor in giving a ring to a pilgrim "for Seynt lonys loue";

VII] STRANGE, IJOc'tRINES 83
The Church, then, intentionally fostered "super
stition " where it might be expected to stimulate the
laity to virtuous lives or religious practices, and these
last were so intimately connected with the income of
the clergy that unscrupulous priests abused the piety
of the ignorant^.
But, on the other hand, against some sorts of
superstition the Church had set its face; and it
worked as vigorously to uproot these as to foster
others. There were prejudices against particular
times and methods of receiving the sacraments.
These were denounced because they were a hindrance
to the ministers of the Church and a disturbance of
ecclesiastical order. Children born within eight days
of Easter or Whitsunday, said Myrc, should be
baptized at those festivals; priests must warn their
congregations lest any one should give way to the
superstition that Easter and Whitsun Eve were un
lucky days for Baptism*. Fanciful rites at Baptism
must not be tolerated; they savoured of paganism
and sorcery ; and it was probably to prevent any sort
of magical practices, as well as to show reverence,
the pilgrim, who was St John, after seven years sent back the
ring to Edward with a warning of his approaching death.
"Then who.so lust to haue fis preuet sofe, go he to Westmyn-
styr; and fer he may se fe same ryng fat was seuen 3ere yn
paradys." (iii) Most significant of all, even Wyclif riiade no effort to
disprove the miracles performed by saints of whose doings he
disapproved (especially of their participation in the wealth of
the Church) : he grants that all the miracles may be true^ and
lien discredits them by arguing tiiat the fiend performed them
to deceive men. Matthew, xxviii. p. 469.
^ Ci.D. cS-P. 1. 13. 2; VII. 3. 2; I. 10. 2 discussed below, p. loi.
' Wilkins, 11. p. 293. Instructions, 141.
6—2'

84 ERRONEOUS AND [ch.
that the vessel and the water used in a Baptism at a
private house were ordered to be given up by the
parents^. No one must hold the- unwarranted behef
that an unconfirmed child was sure to be damned*.
The shrinking from Extreme Unction* and the
curious fancy that communion was less ^beneficial if
a wafer was divided amongst several persons were
held to-be superstitious*. Warnings were often given
against a blind trust in the special efficacy of par
ticular rites said in particular ways by particular
men^. Pauper was never tired of ridicuhng these
passing fashions in rehgious observances. He urged
^people to rely on the ordinary services performed in
the ordinary way ^. To believe that Masses were of no
avail except on feast-days and the two days follow
ing', to fast with the particular object of avoiding
' The vessel was to be, reserved "ad opus ecclesiae" or
burnt, the water was to be'poured on a fire or down the bap
tistery sink. Wil]iins, li. p. 293, Instructions, 116.
" Instructions, 671.
^ See chap. vi. p. 76 above.
* Kailj XXIII. pp. 105, 106. Wyclif agreed with the ortho
dox. Knighton, 11. 161.
^ Festial, p. 45. Myrc discoursing on the pagan supersti
tions about New Year's Day passed to forms of the same sin
common at his time. "3e fat ben Goddys seruandes, be je
well war, lest je ben desceyvet by any s'orsery and by any
byleue: as by takyng of howsell of on man raythyr fen of
anofyr, ofyr forto bye ofyr selle, and aske or borue. Yn fe
whyche some men haue dyuerse opynyons fat. 3yf fay werne
clene schereven, fay wer -worthy giet penawnce for mysbeleue;
for fat comyth of fe fende, and not of God." Manner and
Mede of Mass, line 140,
^ D. &¦ P. VII. 21 and 22.
' ibid. VII. 21. 4. "Sume prestes faitoures telle the people
th.at but the messes be saide in thre dales principally of tho
fees'tes, that is to saye in the festis and in two dales next
folowynge, eUes the soules be nat holpen by tho messes."

VII] STRANGE DOCTRINES 85
sudden death^, to fast on unusual days in the behef
that peculiar virtue is attached to such practices*,
must be described only as a "nyce fantasy & mys-
bileue fuUe nigh wichecraft*." Even the trental — a
series of thirty masses — then much in vogue*, might
be so abused as to become an eviP One writer went
so far as to declare that it was simony to try to limit
the benefits of a Mass for "certeyne soules and for
no moo " ; the priest was bound to sing for all Chris
tians*. The horror of pestilence and the unprece
dented sorrows of the age had driven many people
to a frenzy of devotion in which they placed a
feverish trust in any peculiar or abnormal obser
vance'. These aberrations from the ordinary ways
of religion must have been assisted by some of the
clergy; the friars in particular were suspected of
pandering to the unhealthy "rehgiosity" of over-
' D. &¦ P.i. 42. 1 : "yf men were certayne by suche fastynge
that they shuld nat die sodeynly, but haue tyme of repetaunce
and to be shreuyne and houselyde, they shulde be the more re-
chelesse in their lyuyuge, and the lesse tale yeue for to doo amys
in hope of amendemente in their diyng." ibid. 1. 42. 2: "For
more sodeyn deth wyste I neuir that men hadde thanne I wyste
theym haue that haue fastyd suche fastes vii yere aboute."
The sudden death was presumably death by pestilence.
' ibid. I. 42. 3: "Fastyng is gode if it be done in mesure
& maner & with gode itecion so that men sett no mysbyleue
therin ne grounde them in no lesynges ne in no nyce obser-
uaiices." See p. 176, note i below. The whole chapter with its
account of special feasts in honour of the Virgin is most illumi
nating. ' ibid. I. 42. 5.
* P.R.6' L. p. 83. Wills, pp. 31, 40, 48, 88, 105, 113.
5 D. &¦ P. VII. 22. Pauper denied that St Gregory had any
connection with the trental, vn. 21. 5.
" ibid. VU. 21. 2; 22. 4.
' Brut, II. 303, speaks of "wilful penaunce" as a result of
the Plague.

86 .ERRONEOUS AND ICH.
wrought minds; but it may be said to the credit of
the Church that it often tried dehberately to counter
act this excitement. The financial interests of some
of the clergy, especially of the parish priests, were
affected by these extraordinary outlets of rehgious
zeal; and selfish reasons joined with common sense
in leading men back to the normal exercises of
.devotion^. Recluses and mystics sometimes threw
their influence on the side of quiet, regular piety.
But worse than any misconception about Christian
rites was the lingering attachment to pagan customs
and beliefs. Many of these indeed had been sb over
laid with Christian sentiment that. they passed un
recognised*, but some survived quite plainly in
surprising places. At the sacrament of Baptism there
remained a custom of appeasing the gods who were
renounced*, and some people still cherished a belief
in the three weird sisters who had a fateful influence
ori the new-born child*. These superstitions the
Church tried to root out, if it could not adapt them
to its own uses^.
Sorcery in general was condemned as partnership
1 Cf. Wilkins, n. p. 145 (similar danger in 1287).
" Festial] p. ^39 : in speaking of " Saynt Gowdelake fat fyrst
ynhabit Crowland yn fe Fenny s" Myrc reveals the fact that
the fiends supposed to haun-fc the place in pagan times ("for .
fat place was nomet and callyd f e abytacyon of fendes frogh
all fe centre") did not disappear from popular beUef when
Christianity came. They were then allotted to Satan. The
connection between the eastward position and sun-worship
is recognised in D. & P. i. 16.
3 See chap. v. p. 53 above. Cf. Chambers, Medieval Sta,ge,l.
pp. 265-6. * Hand. Synne, ^yi. -'- '
-. = e.g. food might be laid at the child's head if It were laid
for the Trinity and not for pagan deities. Hand. Syifi^f, 9667,

VII] STRANGE DOCTRINES 87
with Satan and his sateUites, "the gods of the
heathen," prominent among whom was Mawmet, the
Saracen's idol. It has been argued that by continually
referring to witchcraft and describing the evils of it
the Church helped to preserve the superstition; had
such fancies been ignored, it is said, they must have
died a natural death. That may be the modern view;
but certainly it was not the view of fourteenth cen
tury writers. To them sorcery never appeared likely
to die of inanition; it was a growing cult which no
amount of preaching and punishment would root out
of the English nation^.
Astrology was regarded with horror by the ortho
dox for two reasons: first, because in its nature and
origin it was pagan and, secondly, because it tended
to increase a belief in that irresistible fate called
"destenye*." This weakened .morality*; it was
certain, too, to harm the influence of the Church in
the same way as did the Augustinian doctrines re
vived by Bradwardine*- Belief in a star-ridden fate
or in Divine predestination made it impossible or
unnecessary that men should work out their own
salvation by the recognised ecclesiastical machinery.
^ D. &¦ P. 1. 35. 4; "wole they nat cease for noo losse for
noo prechynge for noo shame, ne for no punisshynge from
¦witchcraft." i. 48. 2: "egUsshe nacon that moste takyth hede
to his (the fiend's) lore & moste taketh hede to wychcraft."
Chron. Angliae, p. 98: Dominican magician, follower of King
Nectanabus, in league -with AUce Perrers. Trokelowe, p. 301.
- 2 D. (S. p. I. 22. 3 : "what is that destenye that men speke so
moche of, And as they say al thing fallith to man and woma
by destenye? " See chap, xi. below.
' ibid. 1. 25. 3.
* Lechler, Johann von Wiclif, Buch i. Kap. 2, v. p. 229

88 ERRONEOUS AND [ch.
The Church tried, therefore, to maintain among the
laity a simplebehef in free vvill, throwing the decision
for salvation or damnation entirely upon the in-
dividual^. Against astrology no one has ever written
better than the clergy who sought to destroy it in the
late fourteenth and the early fifteenth century. It is
impious, they said, for it takes away God's free will
as well as man's ; these astrologers " wole be of goddes
pryue couseyl, wyl god nyl god, & rule his domes, his
dedys, his werkes, and al by their wyttes & by the
Jcourse of the planetes*." It is unscriptural, for the
Bible tells us that God altered His plans about
Nineveh*. It is unjust, for it makes no allowance for
man's repentance and God's pity. It is irrational,
because the same stars may be observed to have
different effects: Jacob and Esau must have been
born under the same star, yet " iacob was a gode man
and esau a shrewe*." The various . fortunes and
' D. &¦ P. I. i8. 2: "He (God) made them, (stars) for man,
nat ma for hem. He made hem nat to gouerne man but he
yaue man & woman wytte & discrecion toSouerne them selue
w' his grace by the light & wissyng of tyme whyche he hath of
the bodies aboue."
ibid. I. 23t- 3: "For if their (astrologers') crafte were true
the testament of goddes lawe shuld serue of nought, & soo
goddes lawe holy churche lawe skyl and reson shulde serue of
nought. For ther is no ma worthy to be punysshid for a syn
that he may nat fie ne worthye to be medid, for a gode dede
that he may nat leue. But for that man doth wele whan he
myghte do amys therfore he is worthy mede. And for that he
dothe euyl whan he might do wele & might leue his mysdede
and wole nat: therefore he is worthy moch peyne." Cf. Rolle,
E. P. T., V. p. 9; Conf. Aman. vn, 633; Mirour, 26737.
^ D. &¦ P. I. 17. I,
- ibid. I. 19. 2: "whan they repetyd hem & amedyd theym
& cryde after mercy he chaged his dome & sparyd the cyte."
' ibid. I. 20. 2.

VII] STRANGE DOCTRINES 89
characters of men are due to education and sur
roundings. It is not because of the stars, but because
of natural opportunities, that dwellers by the sea-side
turn to fishing^. Evil parents are a worse bane than
any planet.
God is the great Cause of all things ; external bodies
are never more than signs*. Pauper was apparently i
reluctant to admit even the influence of the moon on
tides — so much did he detest astrology. It is " token
whanne the see shal ebbe and flowe," as the sun,
moon, and stars are signs to man, beast, bird, and
fish to do after their kind. But the moon cannot be
the real or only cause of the tide, because "in other
ferre cutrees ne in the grekes see is no suche ebbyng
ne flowyng*." As "in citees and townes men rule
them by the cloke," yet are not slaves of the clock*,
so it is with the heavenly bodies. Natural portents
are to be taken as indications of God's displeasure*,
but only in a general way. Special interpretation, or
prophecy of particular events therefrom, is "high
folye & open wytchecrafte*" ; God, says Pauper very
finely, "usith nat the thundre-as an home to blow
his counseyl aboute the worlde'." It is true that men
can sometimes read the immediate future as shep
herds foretell the weathei:*; the storms and comets
and echpses of the century were plain warnings of the
judgment of God in war and pestilence upon the sin
^ D.& P. 1. 22. 2.
2 They are "God's grindstone" which He uses as He will.
ibid. 1. 18; I. 27. .
' D. &¦ P. I. 28. ¦• ibid. 1. 18. 3. ^ ibid. 1. 29.
« ibid. I. 47. i. ' ibid. i. 47- 3- ' «'*»'<*• I- 26.

go

ERRONEOUS AND [CH.

of England^ ; but they were not the cause of anything.
The Magi were enhghtened by the inspiration of God,
- and not by astrology. A devout attention to Balaam's
prophecies taught them the significance of the Star
of Bethlehem*- Modern astrologers, whatever they
may pretend, collect their information from i;umours*;
they have access to no supernatural wisdom ; and the •
v«ry fact that their own lives are full of failure proves
that they cannot advise others how to act wisely*
Towards witchcraft the Church took a less rational
attitude, an attitude that is more difficult for the
twentieth century to understand. By their own sin
cere belief in the powers of a personal devil and his
interference in human affairs the- clergy opened a way
for a flood of vulgar superstitions which despite all
their efforts they were unable to restrain or to
regularise. They taught the laity to believe in a
malign spirit second in knowledge 'and power only
to God Himself.
He may lightly knowe what is done in dyuerse cuntrees
and londes. He is so sotel in kynde that ther may noo dore ne
walle shytte hym out of couseyl. And so he may here and se
what men & wome do though it be ful pryue 5-
Besides his own singular faculties and his long ex
perience^ the devil had his angels, the fiends,
' All the chroniclers give examples,: e.g. see chap. xi. p. 155,
note 2 below.
^ D. 6- P. 1. 23 and 24. ' ibid. 1. 30."
* ibid. I. 26. I. Cf. Pauper's argument against those who
claiin to 'multiply' gold and silver:, why are they so poor? I.
49. Canterbury Tales, Canon's Yeoman's Prologue, line 628.
» D. &¦ P. 1. 31. I.
' ibid. loc. cit.

VII] STRANGE DOCTRINES

91

"whiche duel sume in the fyre, sume in the ayre,
sume in the water, and some in the erth for to tempte
mankynde and been besy night and daye to lese
manes soule and womanes^." These fiends, according
to the common teaching of the Church, haunted the
earth and accompanied man in every step of his life.
They were responsible for every evil event :
fay reryfe warres; fay makyf tempestys in fe see, and
drownyfe schyppes and men, fay makyfe debate bytwyx
ueghtburs and manslajt fefwyth; fay tendyfe fyres, and
brennen howses and townes; fay reryth wyndys,_and blowyf
don howsys, stepuls, and -trees; fay make wymen to ouerlye
hor children; fay makyf men to sle homselfe, to hong homself
ofyr drowne hom in wanhope, and such mony ofyr curset
dedys^. No one could ignore such powerful agents, and many
people naturaUy desired to make the best of both
worlds :- God's and the devil's. Like English poh-
ticians after the Revolution, they thought it safer to
maintain relations with both parties. Some had trans
ferred their allegiance completely to the devil, and
were believed, at the price of their souls' damnation,
to have acquired some authority over him. Very
frequently they claimed to exercise this authority by
using the prayers of the Church as charms.
The Church granted the premises of popular super-

1 D. (S- P. I. 36. 6.
" Festial, p. 150. Cf. p. 259. D. &- P.i. 31. 2 : " ofte tymes
they haue leue of god for. mannys synne for to do wounders to
cause hidous tempestes- to ehfecte and enuenym the ayr and
cause moreyne & sekenesse, hungre & droughte, discension
and werre." Trokelowe, pp. 196, 340, 342, -.Walsinghain, i.
p. 199. Knighton, 11. p. 81.

92

ERRONEOUS AND [CH.

sti tion, but interpreted them quite differently from
this. Granting — indeed teaching — the possibihty of
men and women selling themselves to the fiend and
working miracles by his power, the Church denied
that they had obtained any authority ' over him
thereby, or that they could in any way command his
obedience'^. All that sorcerers could do was to offer
to the fiend worship which properly belonged to God,
-thus gratifying that impious pride which was the chief
-element in his character*- The devotion with, which
numbers of people, especially old men and women*,
adored the fiend was a standing reproach to Chris
tians whose worship of the true God was far leas
enthusiastic. In return for this gratification of his
pride the devil was wilhng to exercise his power to
reward his worshippers*. Thus when -a witch used a
Pater and said that in so doing she commanded the
fiend she lied openly. All that was proved by any
si:jpernatura,l occurrence which might follow was that
the fiend had been pleased; it was the fiend and not
the Pater which took effect. This point was illus
trated by the tale of a " cow sucking bag " that would
obey a witch but not a bishop, even though both
conjured it in the same form of words, — the explana^
tion being that the devil inside the bag was -willing
^ D. (Sf P. I. 33. Conf. Aman. vi. 1376, 2377. L. F. C.
LoUardizing Version.^Une 545.
-^D. &¦ P. I. 32. 3. Cf. Fasciculus Morum, Pt v.- c. 26
(quoted in Little, English Franciscan History, App. III.):
"diabolo instigante, quod proprium est deo summo creatori
attribuunt oreaturis."
' D. &:P.i. 36. 7.
' ibid. I. 36. I.

VII] STRANGE DOCTRINES 93
to perform for his friend but not for his enemy^- The
oharm itself was of no consequence. It was the mental
attitude of the man that was decisive :
pe wurdys certys beyn ryght noght.
But fals beleue makef dede y-wrogtit^.
The correct attitude for Christians was, therefore,
never to have any part in witchcraft, because it was
essentially devil-worship. Even to effect a good deed
the fiend's help must not be used*.
Yet by this teaching the Church had in some sense
made a compromise, and was unable to take so clear
a line as it did towards astrology. Unlike the power
of the stars the power of the devil was not denied out
right. However the clergy might denounce witch
craft, they had fatally weakened their position by
admitting its reality. Some priests went so far as to
lend themselves and their altars to this superstition*;
and, though the Church as a whole violently con
demned the use of charms as a means of controlling
the devil's power, it consistently taught that Divine
assistance might be secured by a similar practice. To
say the Pater as a charm was a sin only if it were said
to the fiend. If said "for deuocion nat for curioustie,"
" Paternost^, Aue, or the Crede or holy wordes of y"
gospel or of holy wryt*". were potent against both
fiends and wicked men^. The Cross and the Name of
' Hand. Synne, 501.
2 ibid. 495. ,
' D. ,&¦ P. I. 35. 2. E.g. to catch a thief by sorcery is
sinful. 4 ibid. I. 34. 3. " ibid. 1. 34. 2.
" e.g. Tour Landry, chap. iv. p. 7.

94

ERRONEOUS AND [en.

JESUS were especially effectived Even rats might
be scared away by the names of our Lord and the
saints*. In the opinion of the Church almost every
thing* depended on the attitude of the individual
who used a charm ; the most natural acts, if intended
superstitiously, were a form of witchcraft*.
Though such teaching left the ignorant still under
the tyranny of many superstitions, it was at least one
step forward. If not completely destroyed, the devil-
world was put under rational control. Its relation to
human life and its effect upon the individual were
made to depend on thought and intention, not on
the chance use of a formula which, by its intrinsic
' e.g. the devil admits {Hand. Synne, 8243) :
No fyng fat man may of hym sey,
Dofe oure powere so moche a-weye
As nemme that passyun and fat rode
pat he shedde on, his swete blode;

And specyaly "Ihesus," fat name
Ys our shenshyp and oure shame.
Festial, p. 151: "fe fend, fe curset tyrand of helle dredyfe
hym wondyr sore, when he heryf fe Kyngys trompes of Heuen
ryng, and cros and baners brojt about. For fis cause, when
any tempest ys, men usyf forto ryng bellys, an/d so forto dryue
fe fend away."
2 P.R. &.L. p. 23.
' Not quite everything ; some prayers were so potent against
evil that even a wicked man could use them with good effect.
D. &- P. I. 33. 2: "nat only gode lyuers but wyckyd lyuers
in many lodes catche feendes oute of men and wymen and
children by vertue of goddes worde and holy coniuracions and
holy prayers ordeyned of holy church," and yet " soner a gode
man or a gode woma shal do that thanne a wyckede.'J But
there were no evil charms which by their own virtue, apart
from 'fals beleue,' could harm a Christian.
* ibid. I. 39. A man who cures people by skill but preteitds
to supernatural powers is as guilty as if he had secured the
help of the fiend.

VII] STRANGE DOCTRINES

95

power, might blast an ignorant man who had used it
unwittingly. The honest Christian had nothing to
fear: To man fat ys yn gode beleue,
Wycchecrafte shal hym neuer greue'.
Besides superstitions which reached as high and as
deep as astrology and devil-worship there were in the
fourteenth century many foolish customs and beliefs
against which common sense and simple observation
would have been a sufficient protection. It was in
deed only to common sense and simple observation
that the author of Dives and Pauper appealed when
he set himself to destroy them. The people com
monly believed, he tells us, that frogs were "lucky"
animals : a man who met them would grow wealthy ;
and yet it was plain that "these labourers, deluers,
and dykers that moost mete with frogges and todes
been fulle pore comonly*." The other belief, that it
was "unlucky" to meet a priest, or to pass one on
the right hand, he condemns as irrational and dis
honouring to a sacred profession*. Many people were
superstitious about certain days in the year; some
indulged in divinations, especially at Christmas and
New Year*. Some saw wonderful things in mirrors
and basins; some relied on lots and dice^. There were
professional magicians who transformed men and ¦
women, who visited Elfland, who cured and caused
injuries by incantation and the use of waxen images*-
' Hand. Synne, 8147. ^ D. &• P. i. 46. ' ibid. 1. 50.
*-ibid. I. 47 and 48. Cf. Chambers, Medieval Stage, 1. p. 269.
* Conf. Aman. iv. 2792.
' Fasc. Morum, V. 26. Wilkins, 11. 518, especiaUy alternative

96 ERRONEOUS AND [oh.
Palmistry was considered especially rehable for
matrimonial affairs i. A httle observation, thought
Pauper, would have sufficed to show how groundless
these fancies were, but in his time as in Bacon's it was
true that "men mark when they hit, and never mark
when they miss*."
There was some difference of opinion about dreams.
Many writers thought that the ordinary man took his
dreams too seriously.
Beleeue nou3t moche yn no dremys,
For many be nat but gleteryng glemys'.
Most dreams, it was urged, had a rational explana
tion. The dreamer had been over-eating; he was too
hot or too cold*. Other men whose general outlook
was amazingly rational inclined nevertheless to the
belief that some dreams at least should be treated
seriously. All were not insignificant : some came from
God, others from the fiend^. The whole question was
an open one*, and, despite Gower's assertion that
popular opinion had pronounced against a. serious
consideration of them', it is clear that dreams still
affected such mundane affairs as parliamentary
grants* and the restitution of stolen goods ^ The
reading in footnote : ' 'characteribus, carminibus, praestigiis, et
sortilegiis, et Merlini vaticiniis fidem adhibent aenigmaticis,
ne dicam de spiritibus inclusis." Summa, Pars li. (second part),
Q. xcv., A. 4-8, aud Q, xcvi.
^ Fasc. Morum, loc. cit. : "quot -viros habebit et quot uxores
taUs?" ' Of Prophecies. ' Hand. Synne, 379.
^ ibid. 389. D. S- P. I. 43. Fasc. Morum, loc. cit.
¦' D. &¦ P. I. 43 and 44. ' Conf. Aman. iv. 2917, 3052.
' Vox Clam. 1. Prol. 3. ' Chron. Angliae, p. 70.
° Walsingham, i. p. 255. Higden, ix. App. p. 201.

VII] STRANGE DOCTRINES

97

fiend. Pauper beheved, had a cunning plan of sending
a dream about God to men who were on the verge of
some misfortune, in the hope that they would connect
God chiefly with unpleasant events and turn from
Him. The plan was so far successful that most men
said they would prefer to dream of the fiend himself
than of God or our Lady, so certainly did misfortune
seem to follow a holy dream^. This preference seemed
to Pauper somewhat impious, and he was inclined
to think that people would do well to pay less
attention to their dreams, whatever the subject
might be*.
In some customs afterwards to be branded "super
stitious" the theory of the Church was better than
its practice. Not a few people in the fourteenth cen
tury felt that the reverence paid to images was a
breach of the First Commandment, and this was the
first of the many popular discussions mentioned by
the author of Dives and Pauper^. Dives introduced
the problem by complaining "men do make ymages
these dales grete plente bothe in churche and out of
churche ; And alle men as me thynk worshyp ymages :
And it is fulle harde to me but I do in that as al men
done. And if I worshyp them me thinketh I do
ydolatrie ayenst goddes lawe*." "Whereof' serue
these ymages," he cries, "I wolde they were brent
alle^." This iconoclastic attitude was common

^ D. &¦ P. 1. 45- 2.
2 ibid. I. 44.
' ibid. First Commandment : chap. i.
4' ibid. I. I. 2. ' ibid. i. i. 3.

98 ERRONEOUS AND [CH.
amongst the Lollards^, though it was not shared by
them all; one of their writers joining with the author
of Dives and Pauper to explain the correct way in
which images were to be regarded*. The latria which
might be offered properly to God only was distin
guished from the dulia due to holy men and from the
veneration which could be paid to inanimate objects,
without idolatry*, but
for as moche as al these maners of worship so diuerse ben
clepid with one name of worship in engUsshe tunge & ofte the
'atyne of worshyp is taken and used unpropirly and to com
monly Therefore men fal in moch dout and errour in redyng &
nat wele understonde what they rede*.
In the course of his ridicule of the idols of the heathen,
Gower paused to explain the difference between them
and Christian images. Yet he had to bewail the fact
that the vulgar could not distinguish between the use
and the abuse of these aids to worship^. .
' Festial, p. 171: "ferfor roodes and ofyr ymages ben
necessary in holy chirch, whateuer fes Lollardes sayn.""
^ L. F. C. LoUardizing Version, Une 508.
^ D. & P. I. chaps. II, 12, 13. This threefold distinction
was not quite the same as that made at the Second Council of
Nicea (Milman, Latin Christianity, vol. 11. p, 392): where
irpoanivriais and Xarpela only were distinguished. The
Council of Frankfort in 794 falsely accused the CouncU of
Nicea of allowing the same adoration to Images as to the Holy
Trinity: but in the CaroUnian books a fuller expression was
given to Teutonic feeUng. D. &• P., though not copying the
Carolinian books, is nevertheless in agreement with them on
one main. point: images are worthy of less veneration than
Uving men (Milman, in. p. 97). The actual cross on which
our Lord died, "if that men had it," could receive 'ypduUa'
with the Virgin and the Manhood of Christ, for of all inanimate
things it is the most worthy. D. &- P. i. 13. 4. Summa, P. m,,
Q. XXV., A. 4. * D. S- P. I, 13. 5.
^ Vox Clam. n. 520, 541. Conf. Aman. v. 1501. Knighton,
II, j). 158 (Wyclif's view).

vii] STRANGE DOCTRINES

99

The true purpose of images, said Dives, was three
fold: to direct thought, to stir emotion, to serve as
a book for the "leude peple i." This argument for
images was commonly used. One preacher defending
them from Lollard attacks declared himself vigorously :
I say boldyly...fer ben mony fousaund of pepul fat couf
not ymagen in her hert how Crist was don on fe rood, but as
f ai lerne hit be syjt of ymages and payntours ^.
The truth of this remark was borne out by the con
fession of Julian of Norwich, who reckoned "paintings
of crucifixes" a part of her creed*. Images were to be
helps to, and not objects of, worship:
thanke thy god that wolde do so moche for the and worshyp
him aboue al thynge, nat the ymage, nat the stocke, stone, ne
tree, but hym y' dyed on the tree for thy synne & thy sake:
So that thou knele if thou wylt bifore the ymage, nat to the
ymage. Do thy worshyp afore the ymage, nat to the ymage.
Make thy prayer bifore the ymage, but nat to the ymage. For
it seeth the nat, herythe the nat, understondeth the nat.
Make thyn offrynge if thou wylt bifore the ymage, but nat to
thymage. Make thy pilgramage nat to the ymage, ne for the
ymage. For it may nat helpe the, but to him and for him
that the ymage representith to the. For if thou doo it for the
ymage or to the ymage thou doste ydolatry*.
1 D.&-P. I. I. 3.
2 Festial, p. 171 : Myrc quotes " Ion Bellet " to the effect that
-'ymages and payntours ben lewde menys bokes."
' Comfortable Words, p. 18.
* D. &• P. 1. 2. 4. Cf. I, 5. 2 : "the ymage neither can ne may
helpe at nede For it hath no vertue at alle. It is nothyng elles
but a boke or a toke to the leude peple." i. 4. 3. On Palm
Sunday the priest appears to worship the Cross when he has
drawn up the veil. " God forbede," cried Pauper, " He speketh
nat to the ymage y' the carpenter hath made and the payntour
painted, but if the pste be a fole. For that stocke or stoone
was neuir kynge, but he spekyth to hym that dyed" on the croce
for us al, to him that is king of alle thynge." i. 13. 2. An

loo ERRONEOUS AND [CH.
Plainer language could scarcely be, but the writer of
it, unhke some who have quoted him ^, was ready to
admit that the distinction which he elaborated was
not understood by most laymen ; " for lewdnesse they
been deceyued and worshyp creatures as god him
.self*." The impression of Dives was that "whane men
knele bifore the ymage, pray and loke on the ymage
with wepyng teres, biiche or knocke theire brestys
w' other suche countynaunce they do al this to the
ymage, and," he adds significantly, "so wenyth
moche peple*." The priest, too, on Palm Sunday
seemed to say to the image Ave rex noster, "and
soo he worshipeth that ymage as king*." Did not
some suppose that, at Mass, Christ in the sacrament
was offered to the carved crucifix^? It was not
generally understood that the cross represented our
Lord, and was so addressed with more reverence than
in itself it deserved*. For some of these mistakes
Pauper thought one might fairly blame the laity.
Their ordinary faculties ought to have been sufficient
image, said Dives, was less worthy than the Uving tree from
which it w^ made. RoUe, E. P. T., v. p. lo.
' Gasquet, Parish Life in Mediaeval England, pp. 57-8, 174,
179. ' D. &• P. I, 4. 3, see note 6 below.
^ ibid. 1. 3. I. Hand. Synne, 3876.
* D.&- P. I. 4. 3.
^ ibid. I. 3. 3.
" ibid. 1. 4. 2: "Sumtyme we speke of the crosse only as
of his token & the crosse y' he died upon, and so one worde is
referred to diuerse thinges. And this blidith moche folk in their
redynge. For they wene that alle the prayers that holye chirch
maketh to the crosse, that he maketh theym to the tre that
Criste died on, or elles to the croce in the churche, as in that
anteme, O crux splendidior. And so for lewdnesse they been
deceyued and worshyp creatures as god him self."

VII] STRANGE DOCTRINES loi
to warn them against idolatry i Yet, even so, he was
obhged to admit that the chief responsibihty lay upon
the clergy. When Dives expressed his wonder that
"men be so besy to do the people worship ymages,"
the defender of the estabhshed order could not deny
the charge. If the "leudenesse" of clergy and people
was in part to blame, so was the "couetyse of men of
holy churche*." The false prophets who "maynteyn
ydolatrie for lucre of offerynge" by "feynyng
myracles of ymagis as men do these dales" steal -
God's true word from the people and the people's
'worship from God* The advantage which priests
cynically took of the layman's ignorance was shown
most unmistakably in Lent; at that time according
to custom images should be covered — yet the hypo
crites left uncovered any that brought in money.
"Leue this mater," urged Pauper in despair, "for it
is odiouse to the coueitouse prestys y' wynne great
richesse by suche ymages*."
^ D. &• P. 1. II. 5: "they y' make their prayers and ther
prisinges bifore the ymages & say their Pater host', their
Aue maria, and other prayers and prisynges used comoly of
holy churche or any suche other, if they do it to the ymage &
speke to the ymage they doo open ydolatrye. And they be
nat excusyd alle if they understonde nat what they saye. For
their sighte & their other wyttes & their ynner wyt also shew-
yth wele that ther owith no suche prayer prysynge ne worshjrp
be done to no suche ymages. For they may nat here them ne
se hem ne helpe them at nede."
^ ibid. I. 13. 2. Vox Clam. 11. 541.
' D. &¦ P. VII. 3. 2. * ibid. 1. 10. 2.

CHAPTER VIII
GOOD WORKS
The leaders of the Romantic Revival performed a
great service and a great disservice to medieval
religion. They rescued it "from the contempt and
ignorance of the " enhghtened" rationalists, but they
¦almost smothered it in magic and mysticism. As a
result, it has been conceived too often as something
remote from the ordinary ways of ordinary? men. It
has been pictured as dealing only with sacraments
and mysteries, saints and visions, the Day of Judg
ment and eternal life. And a casual acquaintance
with the best known writers of the fourteenth century
confirms this vague impression. Wyclif wrote fre
quently about the neglect of the plain moral teaching
of the Gospeli. Langland lamented that the popular
preachers of the day devoted their attention rather
to insoluble mysteries than to practical living, thus
quickening doubts instead of virtue.
Freres and fele other maistres that to the lewed men prechen,
3e moeuen materes inmesurables to tellen of the trinite.
That ofte tymes the lewed peple of hir bileue douten.
Bettere byleue were mony doctoures such techyng,
And tellen men of the ten comaundemen-tz and touchen the
seuene synnes.
And of the braunches that burgeouneth of hem and bryngeth
men to helle.
And how that folke in folyes myspenden her fyue wyttes^.
' Arnold, i. p. 338. Matthew, i. 16, in. 50, vn. passim.
' Piers Plowman, B. xv. 68.

CH. VIII] GOOD WORKS

103

Rehgion was, nevertheless, very far from being a
remote mystery; it concerned itself intimately with
daily hfe. In the face of all the complaints it is im
possible to avoid the conclusion that too httle moral
and rehgious teaching was given to the laity, but
when and where it was given it was practical. The
morahst did not err by making his lessons too vague
and general; he left not a doubt of what he meant i;
he had always a pertinent illustration *.
The very form and method of Langland's poem are
enough to prove that the Englishman of the four
teenth century knew something of Christian morahty.
The freedom with which he impersonated the virtues
and vices implies that his public — and it was a wide
one — had a certain familiarity with the subject. And
to the layman of the fourteenth century the virtues
and vices were not mere names. Strenuous effort was
put forth to make them real even for the simple and
ignorant. Gluttony, for example, was more than an
abstract quality*; writers like Mannyng translated it
into the terms of everyday life.
Twyys on f e day ys sustynaunce
To man fat haf gode cheuysaunce

pogh he be man of -tiauayle,
Hyt were y-now with-outefayle*.
To eat more fhan two meals a day was gluttonous, and
to indulge in "rere sopers" was as bad*. Plain food
1 Instructions, 977-1398. Conf. Aman. iv, 1083,
2 Mirour, 1981, (The boastful lose their virtues as a cack-
Ung hen loses her eggs.) Cf, 12457, 14053, 16555.
8 See also the exposition of Pride, pp. 111-113 below.
¦¦ Hand. Synne, 721.^. __ ° ibid. 7259,

I04

GOOD WORKS [CH.

was best for soul and body^. The innumerable host
of moral stories showing in lurid hght the fate of the
immoral and the bhss of the virtuous were the most
common part of popular knowledge*. The elemen
tary lesson of Christianity, "People, be good*,'' was
not forgotten, but it was presented in a form different
from that now adopted by preachers and teachers.
The Church did not then teach virtue by reference to
the Sermon on the Mount or by exalting Christ as the
pattern for everyday life. It analysed the human
heart, tabulated all conceivable sins, and called on
men to beware. The average Christian of the twen
tieth century approaches -moral, problems with the
question, "What would Jesus do?" Five hundred
years ago he would have referred to the Ten Com
mandments and the sevenfold presentations of virtue
and vice — if he had been well enough taught to know
these things. The obvious drawback to the medieval
method of teaching morality was its intricacy. Illus
trations might drive home separate lessons, but the
general scheme was more suited for academic dis
cussion than for daily guidance. Even the most
unlearned can never entirely forget the example of
Christ; and the "golden rule"* has the prime merit
of simplicity; but to make a countryman famihar

' Conf. Aman. vi. 657; Mirour, 7951.
^ e.g. Handlyng Synne is full of them; so are Dives and
Pauper, Knight of La Tour Landry, Myrc's Festial, Confessio
Amantis. ' Ruskin, Praeterita, vol. i. sect. 22. Cf. Lockhart, Life of
Scott (ed. 1900), chap. Ixxxiii. p. 428.
' St Matthew, vii. 12.

VIII] GOOD WORKS

105

with the whole scheme of the virtues and vices, and
to teach him to refer every action to it, would be a
difficult task even to-day. There is no reason to
wonder that in many medieval parishes it was ill
performed. There were, however, few parts of life on which the
Church did not say something definite and practical.
It gave careful supervision to all that concerned
- marriage and divorce and the nurture of children.
Betrothal without the priest's consent it forbad^. It
fiercely denounced child-marriages* and unnatural
ties between old and young, or between persons in
different ranks of society*. .A.fter the Plague vigilance
was especially necessary*. The disordered state of
society tended to promote irregular and ill assorted
unions, with nothing to recommend them but financial
' Hand. Synne, 8363:
3yf fou a womman troupe plyght
Out of holy cherches syjt;
Men oght nat so for to do
pogh fat frendes consent farto;
For holy cherche ogtit fyrst for to wyte
Of here gederyng, yyi hyt may sytte.
Cf. 8399. .
^ ibid. 1 1 203: Also, for men by-hete hem largely.
Are chyldryn wedded ofte for-fy;
For fyr are many wedded for gode.
And for no stedfast loue of blode.

Many one weddef euery deyl
For fe loue of syre kateyl.
Cf. 1663.
' Festial, p. 290: "Wherefore, os by Goddys ordynaunce, a
man schal takou a wyf lyke of age, lyk of condicions, and lyk
of burth; for fereos fese ben accordyng it is lyk to fare wel,
and ellys not."
* e.g. Wilkins, in. pp. 19, 61, 71. Cf. 11. p. 135. chap. vU.

io6 GOOD WORKS [CH.
considerations^. If some gave too little consideration
to social rank, others tried to form a narrow caste;
the rich would marry only the rich*; and birth was
preferred to virtue*.
Adultery and fornication were the sins most com
monly denounced, as they were very generally
practised. The gentry were perhaps the greatest
sinners. fys [said Mannyng] ys now a comun synne
pat many one fallyn ynne
For almost hyt ys euery-whore
A gentyl man haf a wyfe and a hore
And wyues haue now comunly
Here husbondys and a ludby*.
The wealthy, moreover, protected too many of these
sinners from the wrath of the Church*. "Lechours"
were threatened vrath the most hideous pains; the
medieval moralist took peculiar pleasure in elabora
ting sufferings appropriate to every variety of sin*
The children born from an illegitimate union were
commonly believed to be inherently wicked and
unfortunate, perhaps doomed to hell by the very
circumstances of their birth'- On this matter the
' Piers Plowman, B. ix. 160-176. Brut, p. 314: "And in
fis same jere (36 Ed. Ill) was a grete & houge pestilence of
peple, and namely of men, whos wynes, as wymmen out of
gouernaunce, token husbondes, as wel straungers as of er lewed
and symple peple, f e whiche^ forjetyng her owne wurschip &
berthe, coupled and maried hem -with hem fat were of lowe
degre & litel reputacioh." Cf. p. 303 ("weddyng wifoute
frendship"). Mirour, 17269. Conf. Aman. v. 2830.
2 Mirour, 17365. ' .ibid. 17329.
* Hand. Synne, 2925. ^ ibid. 7645.
° e.g. P.R.&.L. Adulterous Falmouth Squire, lines 36, 201 ;
Tour Landry, chap. xxxv. p. 51.
' Tour Landry, chap. Ivii. p. 75 : " For the children that ben

viir] GOOD WORKS 107
influence of the Lollards tended only to stiffen the
teaching of the Church ^- There was even a hankering
desirS to revive the brutal punishments of older times.
" In sum places," said the Knight of La Tour Landry,
speaking with obvious satisfaction of the torture of
harlots, "thaire throtes be cutte, in sum places thei
be brent, in sum places bothe man and woman putte
alle quik in erthe*." But there was more than mere
denunciation. Some fourteenth century moralists
understood a little about psychology ; they recognised
the influence of dreams and thoughts on sexual sins *.
And yet about this seventh deadly sin, of which
they heard so much, certain people still held erroneous
views. Some considered fornication defensible be
cause it was an equal contract; unlike adultery, it
wronged no third party and desecrated no sacrament *.
Bigamy, too, found some apologists, confident, like
Milton, in the example of the Old Testament patri
archs. The orthodox, however, held that a dispen
sation was allowed under the old law for the special
not of trewe maryage, they be they by whome the grete hery-
tages and Auncestri ben loste."
' Gairdner, Lollardy and the Reformation, vol. i. p. 184:
Wiche said that no bastard can be saved though he held the
belief with reservations. (Fasc. Ziz. p. 376.) Cf. John BaU
(Walsingham, 11. p. 32: "Docuit etiam neminem aptum regno
Dei, qui non in matrimonio riatus fuisset").
^ Tour Landry, chap, cxviii. p. 162: "she shulde be brent
or stoned vnto the dethe, so noble and trwe was the lawe of
God and of Moyses." Cf. P. -ff. &¦ L. p. 31.
' Hand. Synne, 7561.
* D. (&• P. VI. 8. I : "comon opynyon it is that is no dedly
synne." Gower, who devoted nearly 340 Unes to adultery, had
less than 50 for fornication {Mirour, 9085 and 8749). Cf.
Wilkins, 11. p. 518 (Complaint of Convocation); and in. p. 247
(LoUard's recantation).

io8 GOOD WORKS [cH.
purpose of increasing God's people; it could not be
pleaded in Christian ages when continence was con
sidered lawful for the very reason that the raccTiad
become plenteous^. Many believed that adultery was
less sinful in man than in woman, but enlightened
writers denounced any such notion, declaring that as
a rule man was the more eager in sin *- There were
constant complaints that holy seasons* and even
holy places* were not reverenced by the lustful.
Most religious teachers paid too little attention to
the upbringing and education of children. To warn
parents continually of the danger of overlying their
children was one of the recognised duties of a priest ^,
and the priest shared with the parents the responsi
bility of giving to the child an elementary knowledge
of rehgion*. Children ought to know the Pater, the
Ave, and the Creed as well as the correct way of
making the sign of the cross'. But not the least
anxiety of the Church was to ensure that children
were trained with sufficient severity. In the mind of
the celibate clergy, who knew little or nothing of
child-life, education consisted most obviously in
^ D. &- P. VI. 20. 2, cf. VI. g. i; Summa, Supplementum,
Q. LXV., A. 2.
^ D. &• P. VI. chaps. 5, 6, lo, ii, 12, 24, 25.
' Hand. Synne, 20og. Piers Plowman, B.xui. 348. Lechery
tempting maids:
As wel in fastyng-days and Frydayes and forboden nyjtes;
And as wel in Lente as oute of Lente alle tymes ylyche,
Suche werkes with hem were neuere oute of sesoun.
-D. &¦ P. 1. 21. 3: "if they comen togyddre...in holy tyme
withouten drede or reuerece of the tyme."
* Tour Landry, chap. xxxv. and xxxvi. pp. 51-2.
5 Wilkins, in. pp. 61, 69. . Instructions,' 155,.
« Hand. Synne, 9697. ' Wilkins, in. p. 59.

VIII] GOOD WORKS

109

chastisement. A child of flve, said Mannyng, had
been known to go to heU because its father had
neglected his duty and had not beaten ifi. There is
great significance in another remark by the same
writer. He was going to illustrate Solomon's in
junction about wholesome chastisement by the story
of Eli's sons: " wyle 30 fat joure chyldryn be a-ferd,
3yxief hem fe smert ende of fe jerde; "
And techef hem gode fewys echone
3yt dur 30W breke hem no bone '.
Sometimes the tables were turned and children used
violence against their parents. This was so monstrous
a sin that even the enthusiastic advertiser of the
stations of Rome could not promise forgiveness for
it*. The misuse of oaths was a matter which took a
prominent place in religious teaching. The high value
set upon solemn swearing did not make men fear to
swear rashly. Of all vain oaths, blasphemous reference
to the parts of our Lord's body was held to be the
most offensive; one of the best-known medieval
stories tells how people had seen our Lord's body
mangled worse than on Calvary, and how it was
explained that this fresh suffering was caused by
' Hand. Synne, 4863. Cf. Piers Plowman, B. v. 34.
* Hand. Synne, 4859.
^ P. R. &¦ L. Stacions of Rome, p. 118, Unes 145-8.
At St Anastasius' Wrathyng of fadur & modur, jyf hit be.
In goddes name he for-jeuef hit f e
So fou smyte not -with f yn honde :
Ry3th so hit ys; I unferstonde.

IIO GOOD WORKS [ch.
profane swearers^. Everyone agreed in condemning
this kind of oath, but the more scrupulous objected
to any light use of God's Name* Thoughtless oaths
were used especially by the gentry, and their example
was followed by every boy who wished to appear a
man of fashion*. Some thought it wors6 to swear by
the Virgin than by her Son *, but there was little pro
test against the very common practice of swearing by
the saints^ The author of Dives and Pauper entered
with great detail into the matter, explaining precisely
when and how it was lawful to take the several sorts
of oath*. The Lollards were inclined to object to any
sort of swearing, alleging that Christ forbad it. "I am
sykyr," "It is soth," " Withoute doute it is so," and
similar phrases, were all that they would allow'.- This
sweeping interpretation of our Lord's word seemed
to Pauper unjustifiable*. Some oaths were lawful, as
some were sinful. It was always wrong, for example,
1 e.g. Festial, pages 3, 113. Mirour,- 6433. Instructions,
865. Vox Clam. v. 759, Hand. Synne, 689. D. &¦ P. 11. 11. 4.
Piers Plowman, B. xviii. 230, Kail, xix, p. J7.
2 D.&-P. II, 4. I. Cf. II. 2. I : "Sume say of another i scorn
god hathe forsaken him, & iapers and disoures comoly name
goddes name i veyne in this maner though they swere none
othe." Piers Plowman, B. v. 376.
_ ' Hand. Synne, 759. Cf. 669, 689. Gower, Carmen super
multiplici viciorum pestilencia, line 232. ,
^ Hand, Synne, 789:
More drede ys, by here to swere
pan ys Tay hym fat she dede bere.
' e.g. Langland, whose opinion in such matters was
usually severe, tending almost to Lollardy, had no hesitation
about swearing by saints. Even Piers Plowman swore by
Peter (B. vi. 3), by Paul (B. vi. 25), by our Lord Himself (B. vi.
287);cf. A. XI. 228, B. VI. 22 (by Christ), B. xi. 27 (by St Mary).
^ D. & P. Second Commandment. ' Knighton, 11. p. 262.
' D. &¦ P. II. 6, 3: It was not "swere i no manere," but

VIII] GOOD WORKS m
to swear by a creature i, or to swear in craftily chosen
words which, though perhaps hterally true, were sure
to deceive * Perjury, he held, was a sin second only
to idolatry. It was worse than manslaughter*, and
was terribly punished by God*. Yet an evil oath was
better broken than observed 5- A woman might
legitimately deceive a "lechour" with an oath.
Better ys to skape with an ofe
pan synne dedly, and God be wrofe ».
Jephthah was wrong in performing his vow :
Seynt Austyne seyf certeynly
pat he synned ryjt dedly '.
Herod's observance of his oath was no justification
for his wicked act; it was. a mere excuse — if his own
eye had been demanded, instead of the Baptist's head,
would Herod have been so careful of his honour*?
Personal vanity, one expression of the deadly sin
Pride, was often denounced. It showed itself in many
ways. Some people boasted of "hyghe lynage," an
absurd boast :
Befenke fe weyl fro when fou cam;
Alle we were of Adam".
"swere nat i euery maner." Summa, P. ii. (second part), Q.
LXXXIX., A. 2.
^ D.&'.P.u.y. Swrnwa, P. II. (secondpart), Q. LXXXIX., A. 6.
' D. &¦ P. II, 9-
' ibid. II. 17; Mirour, 6423; Festial, p. 300.
* D. &¦ P. II. 18: perjured Britons and Saxons defeated by
Danes; broken faith of St Brice's day punished in 1066.
' ibid. II. 34.
' Hand. Synne, 8357, cf, 2811. ' ibid. 2889. ' ibid. 2833.
' ibid. 3033. Instructions, 1013. There are many such
parallels to John Ball's couplet:
Whan Adam dalf, and Eve span
Wo was thanne a gentilman?
Walsingham, 11. p. 32.

112 GOOD WORKS [CH.
Some thought too highly of physical gifts, of bodily
strength and beauty i^; and so came to despise those
unfortunate persons who were crippled or deformed *.
Even the hair or the voice or the complexion might
become a temptation to pride. Pride showed itself,
too, in unduly fashionable clothes*, in love of titles*,
in discourtesy to servants ^, in display of horses *, even
in elaborate tombstones ' From scarcely any of these
sins were the clergy exempt * ; the friars and preachers
thought much of their personal appearance. But it
was the vanity of women which provoked the four
teenth century moralist more than anything else.
Gower for once was stung into humour. His grimly
bitter description of the arts of women is in its way
a masterpiece ' Mannyng, on the other hand, could
scarcely trust himself to speak :
Of proud wymmen wuld y telle
But fey are so wroth and telle '''.
His fiercest invective and most ghastly anecdotes
were reserved for those
fat are so foule and fade,
pat make hem feyrere fan god hem made
With oblaunchere or outher floure
To make hem whytter of coloured' .
To paint the face and to pull out " superfluous hairs "
' Instructions, 1003. Hand. Synne, 3043, 3311.
' ibid. 3317.
' Instructions, 1031. Hand. Synne, 3321; Mirour, 1219;
Conf. Aman. 1. 2691; Brut, p. 296; Eulog. Hist. in. p. 230.
^ Hand. Synne, 3407. ^ ibi^, 3515.
* Instructions, 1037. Hand. Synne, 3083.
' Hand. Synne, 8779. Cf. Wills, pp. 71, 88, 105, 116.
^ D.&- P. VI. 13. 4; VII. 12. 4.
» Vox Clam. v. cap. vi. " Hand. Synne, 3215.
"ibid. 3217. Vox Clam. v. 379, 409, 413.

VIII] GOOD WORKS 113
were crimes punished in hell by the most ingeniously
appropriate torments 1. To borrow clothes *, to take
undue interest in them, to copy the fashions of the
other sex*, to indulge in fantastic decorations like
"horns*, '' was to arouse God's anger. This care for
the appearance of the body was a double sin: it in
creased pride and it led to lechery — as indeed it was
often intended to do^
This puritanical spirit, which was a marked
characteristic of fourteenth century religion, ex
hibited itself in other ways, and not only amongst
the Lollards. Mannyng distrusted almost all sorts
of recreation; people who were interested in such
things usually neglected God's service* Dancing
was held by some to be wicked at all times, but
especially on Sundays and holy days'- Minstrels and
their instruments fell under a like suspicion*. Jousts
led often to lechery,, always to vain expense'. Only
those miracle plays which were connected with the
^ Tour Landry, chap. Iiii, p. 69, * Hand. Synne, 3457.
' Knighton, ii. p. 57.
'' Hand. Synne, 3223, Tour Landry, chap, xlvii. pp. 63, 66.
^ D.&- P. VI. 13. 2.
* Hand. Synne, 4681 :
Daunces, karols, somour games,
Of many swych come many shames;
whan fou stodyst to make fyse,
pou art-slogti yn Goddys seruyse.
' D. &¦ P. III. 17. 4. Pauper personally did not share this
view (p. 135 below). Matthew, i. p. 9 (quoted below p. 133),
XII. p. 206: "I gesse wel fat 3onge wymmen may sumtyme
daunsen in mesure," etc. Hand. Synne, 9015,
' Proverbs collected in 1530 representing opinions of earUer
generations. P. R. &• L. p. 31: "Instrumentis of mynstrelsy
seldome doth pleace. god." Cf. Chambers, Medieval Stage,
vol. I. p, 39-
s Hand. Synne, 4571. Tour Landry, chap. xxv. p, 35.
IVT 8

154 GOOD WORKS [ch.
Nativity, the Resurrection, and similar subjects,
could be approved, because only such could streng
then faith 1 To borrow ecclesiastical garments for
dramatic performances was held to be a form of
sacrilege and was strictly forbidden*. About the
morality of kissing, opinion was divided, but Mann--
yng's own view was clear.
Some wene fat kyssyng ys no synne.
But grete peryl fallef fer-ynne.
Be fou neuer so chaste & straunge,
kyssyng wyl fyn herte chaunge'.
Geoffrey de la Tour Landry has recorded his wife's
opinion that, however innocent it might be for girls
to "make to them good chere'' and "kysse them
before all," secret kissing was hardly to be tolerated,
for it is the "nyghe parente and Cosyn vnto the fowle
fay tte or dede*."
To make out, as some do, that this puritanical
attitude to pleasures was the creation of the Re
formers, is to neglect quite half the evidence. Catholic
England may have been "Merrie England," but, if
some of the merriment existed because of the Church,
at least as much existed in spite of it. Towards
popular pleasures, as towards popular superstitions,
the Church took up a critical attitude; of some it
approved because they could be made to serve its
purpose, of others it did not approve because it had
no use for them. To represent the Church as a
1 Hand. Synne, 4639; Wilkins, in. p. 60; D. &¦ P. ill. 17. 2.
^ Hand. Synne, 4675.
^ Hand. Synne, 8ioy-,ci. y6y7. Instructions, 1253. Summa,
P. II. (second part), Q. cliv., A. 4.
" Tour Landry, chap. cxxxUi. p. 1 85 . Cf . Conf. A man. v. 6553 .

VIII] GOOD WORKS 115
force tending to increase hght-hearted mirth is
to show but- one side of the picture. In fourteenth
century rehgion we can find the forerunners of Mr
Stiggins as well as those of Mr Chesterton.
Even the propaganda against cruelty to animals
had its fourteenth century counterpart. Chaucer's
prioress alone would show that there were some who
had tender hearts for the suffering of dumb creaturesi.
Of Margery Kemp too it was told that she could not
bear to see even a beast wounded ; if she saw a man
smite a horse or another beast with a whip "she
thought she saw our Lord beaten and wounded " like
the beast*. Then as now some people objected on
principle to the destruction of any living thing, and
Pauper felt it necessary to explain for their benefit
that the Fifth* Commandment was not intended to
prevent the slaughter of animals for food. God
allowed man
"to slee bestes, fesshe and foule to his profite, but not to sle
*the for crueltye, ne for lykynge in vanyte and shrewidnesse.
And therfore whanne he forbadcie man to ete flesshe with the
blode he forbad him to slee bestes by way of crueltye or for
lykynge i the shrewednes." "For god that made al," he adds,
anticipating the Ancient Mariner, "hath cure of al"; He has
promised to take vengeance "for alle the bestys that ye slayne
only for crueltye of soule and lykynge i shre-widnes " ; "there
fore men shuld haue rueth on bestys of (sic) bryddys and not
harme them withoute cause*."
Yet despite much plain and some beautiful teach
ing the popular conception of virtue was mechanical.
^ Canterbury Tales, Prologue 142.
' A Short Treatise of Contemplation, printed in The Cell of
Self Knowledge, p. 54.
' According to the Roman enumeration, * D. <&¦ P. v. 15.
8—2

ii6 GOOD WORKS [ch.
To escape hell and to win heaven a certain amount of
merit had to be amassed. A righteous man who had
virtue enough and to spare might help the dead by
performing, good deeds for their benefit; and if by
chance the dead whom he had in mind were already in
bliss, the merit so expended was not lost. The excess
amount was transferred to other souls still in Purga
tory, "and yen," said one preacher revealing the
courtesies of the dead, "ye sowles yat ben holpen
J>erwyth heyley ya.y )>onken ye sowles ya.t hit was
yeiien for^." The great "tresowre of holy chyrche,"
comprising all human merits and the immeasurable -
benefits of Christ's Passion, formed a spiritual bank
with which any soul might open an account. The
account might be opened at any time, and many
people naturally postponed the day, even trusting to
secure a sufficient store of merit after death by
¦charitable bequests and the intercession of the Church.
"I wene," said Dives, and he seems to speak for
many, "that all me might be holpen with her rich-
esses after her deth*." The wealthy were especially
tempted to make this mistake*; and the Christian of
the fourteenth century, like our Lord's disciples, often
envied the rich man his chances of entering the King-
^ Festial, p, 270.
^ D. &- P. IX, 6. I : "It is nat soo," said Pauper.
' ibid. IX. 5. 4^ "Couetise puttith example of knightes, of
marchauntes, of plates, of lordes and of ladies; If thou haue
richesse, saith couetise, thou may do moche almesse and haue
many prestis to pray for ye oute of purgatorye. But be ware
for by suche bihestes the feende & worldly couetise been aboute
to disceyue the and to bringe the in glotonye and lechery and
ydolatrie.... He wole mak the more trust in thy gode tha in
thy god."

VIII] GOOD WORKS X17
dom. In this world, wealth might be transitory but,
as Gower bluntly said^, it could be used to buy
heaven. "Wele is he y* may haue helpe of his gode
after his dethe, and thenne fynde frendes and true
atturneys*." The Church disapproved of this delaying of the
fruits meet for repentance, but could not declare that
such delay in itself prevented salvation. For on the
one hand the theory of a treasury of merit gave
definite support to the practice, and on the other it
has always been against the genius of Christianity to
deny the possibility of salvation to any man so long
as he lives. The Church has never liked "death-bed
repentance," but with the penitent thief before her
she has never been .able to doubt its efficacy. Four
teenth century teachers could only urge a man to ^
secure his salvation by good works whilst he lived,
and point out the very grave risk of leaving the
matter' till death*. One might always die suddenly
or lose one's senses, and so, being unable to ask mercy
in the "last end" of life, one might be damned*.
"Couetise" would spare no efforts to make one add
sin to sin until it was too late to be shriven.
" He wole so entryk the in dett and in synne tiiat it shall be
fill harfle to the for to escape and so to brynge the to die in
' Mirour, 23557, 23563-
' D. &• P. IX. 10. 3. Cf. St Luke, Kviii. 25-26.
' P. R. S- L. Adulterous Falmouth Squire, Unes 146-9.
* D. &¦ P. V. ir. 3: Dives, "Moch folk presume so moch on
the merci of god tha,t they yeue no tale to lyue in their synne
moche of al ther life in- hope to haue mercy in last end."
Pauper, " ...comonly such maner folke be desseyued by soden
deth or elles in ther diynge they lese ther hedys and ther
wyttys and begynne to raue."

ii8 GOOD WORKS [ch.
dedly synne. And if thou dye in dedly synne al the golde undre
the cope of heuene though it were thyne ne alle the prestes
under sone may nat helpe the'." "But only they sUal be
holpen with their goode after their dethe that deseruyd by ther
lyf to be holpen with their richesses after their dethe, as they
that do almesse after their staate, and spende wele the goode
that god hathe sentte to theym, and paye wele their dettes,
and do such other gode dedys and kepe theim from dedely
synne to their lyues end or namely thanne^."
V It was good to build churches and to repair roads;
these things would speak for the soul, but they could
not hush the cry of the poor whom the pious bene
factor had oppressed when he was alive*.
It was easier too, to acquire merit before death than
after it ; " one peny shal,gfyt more bifore hisdeth than
tuenty penys after. And more gfiteth one candel
bifore a ma than xx behynd hym*."
But besides all this there was the danger that pious
intentions would not be carried out. One might be
hindered from making a will as one wished^; if one
were a serf, the will when made might be contested*
The clergy could not be trusted to carry out faithfully
the wishes of the dead. Bequests for the estabhsh-
ment of lights and chantries and the relief of the poor
> D.&- P. IX. 5. 5. 2 ibid. IX. 6. i.
^ p. R. &¦ L. p. 181: Christ's Own Complaint, Une 201.
Mirour, 15553.
* D. (S- P. IX. 10. 3.
* Wilkins, 11. p. 155. The synod of Exeter threatened with.^
excommunication aU who should hinder a man from making
his will freely. Cf. in. p. 96.
* Wilkins, 11. p. 553: "Item omnes ilU, qui ascriptitiorum
vel aliorum serviUs conditionis testamenta, vel ultimas volun-
tates quovismodo impedierint contra consuetudinem ecclesiae
AngUcanae hactenus approbatam, per excommunicationis
sententiam compescantur."

VIII] GOOD WORKS 119
were turned from their original purpose 1. "Anhue-
lers" lived in drunkenness and lechery whilst the
testator remained in torment*- Executors were
almost certain to be untrustworthy ; their reputation
was extremely bad. No class of men — not even
lawyers — had a worse name among the people.
Of alle wykked men fat men calle,
pe fals executours be worst of alle '
was Myrc's summary of their character. Many were
the tales of their treachery; it was safest to be your
own executor *-
Ryche men gadere ryche tresours
To make with ryche executours,
pe whyles fe execiitours sekke (i.e. fyl fe bag)
Of fe soule fey ne rekke*.
Executors divided amongst themselves the money in
their charge. They argued that if the dead man's soul
were in hell it could not be removed thence by any
number of Masses, whereas if it were in heaven nothings
done on earth could improve its lot®. Miserable was
the fate of the neglected dead :
whanne they shal crepe into purgatorye that is hoter
thanne any ouene than they take to their executoures a boUe
fulle of water in their hond, that is to say golde and syluer &
other richesses for to do almesse for them & by almesdede, by
messes syngyng, and holy praiers refresshe them in their
peynes & kele the fyre aboute theym. Bijt comonly whan.
they haue this boll of water in their h'onde and haue the godes
at their wyUe, they laughe so and make so mery and fare so
1 Wilkins, in, p. 60; in. p. 244, § 53. There is much evidence
for this, Mr G, G. Coulton tells me, iu monastic records.'
" Mirour, 20537. ' Hand. Synne, 1219.
* ibid. 6293. Gower, Latin Works, p. 368, Nota contra
mortuorum executores. Gower acted on his own advice, and
provided prayers before he died. ^ ibid. 6233. " ibid. 6329

120 GOOD WORKS [ch.
wel -w' the godes of the dede y' they may no thing cast after
them for they be ful lothe to forgo any of the godes. . And
therwhUes the synful soule lyeth in purgatory'.
After all, was it not unreasonable for a man to
expect others to care for his soul's welfare when he
himself had been so careless of it in his lifetime? The
executor might well plead :
how shulde y bringe f e of pyne,
when fou ne wuldest, whyl alle was f yne ?

how shuld y late fy gode me fro,
when fou lete noun fro fy-self go ?
who shulde fe oute of sorowe vnbynde,
when to f y self fou were vnkynde ^ ?
To expect better results by appointing executors
from one's own family was quite useless;
Of alle executours fat men fynde.
Worst are fyn owne kynde.
And fy chyldryn specyaly
Are to f y soule vnkyndely :-
py chyldryn alle sey ryght f us :
"Whom shuld fey jyue hyt but vs^? "
This at least was a lesson which men took to heart.
No sort of provision in wills was so strict as that
which tied the testator's own family*. With grim
humour Mannyng remarked:
Ne be fou neuere yn swyche errour
¦ To make fyn eyr fy secutour,
Ne fy sekutoure fy fysycyene,
Yn hope for to leue a-3ene'.
1 -D. (S- P. IX. II. 2. See the whole chapter. Cf. Piers
Plowman, B. xx. 288-91. Kail, xxv, p. 138,
^ Hand. Synne, 6455.
^ ibid.. 6263. Cf. 6283, 10791.
* e.g. Wills, pp. 130, 49 (Lady Clanbowe tried to secure
her brother's acquiescence in her will bv leaving him a set of
vestments, mass book, and chalice). "^ Hand. Synne, nil.

VIII] GOOD WORKS 121
Yet with all these warnings men continued to rely
on the merit that could be secured for them after
their death. They exercised businesslike prudence in
their rehgious bequests ; striving to secure the maxi
mum of spiritual advantage from every sum spent.
Their confident trust was shown by the way in which
they left money to multiply candles and ornaments^,
to win the grateful prayers of the poor and the in
firm*, to assure themselves of places in the rich
window of sorae friary church*, and above all to
perpetuate their names in the prayers of the Church
by the establishment of chantries, where masses and
other offices might be said for ever*. "No one can
now doubt," says a modern Roman Cathohc writer,
"that the mediaeval sinner knew quite as well as
the gentleman of the nineteenth century that if he
offended God and did not resolve never to offend
Him again, he would infallibly be lost, though he •
left all his lands to the neighbouring convent. Priests
might sing Requiems, ¦ and nuns might recite their
Office, but nought could avail the impenitent before
the judgement seat of Christ^." It is true that
the more earnest teachers strove to convince men
of this doctrine, but it does not appear that they
had any great success. And it is undeniable that
' Wills: almost every -will gives an example, e.g. p. 11.
2 ibid., e.g. pp. 78, 105.
¦* Pierce the Ploughman's Crede, line 175. Piers Plowman,
B. XIV. 199.
' Wills, many examples, e.g. pp. i, 75, 105.
° J. B. Dalgaims, Essay on the Spiritual Life of Mediaeval
England, p. iii. ; prefixed to Walter Hilton, Scdle of Perfection,
(ed. 1901). '

122 GOOD WORKS [ch. vni
there were other teachers— and they the most popu
lar — who were often guilty of teaching precisely the
reverse^. 1 Piers Plowman, B.. xx. 352-365. 'Cf. teaching in Tour
Landry, chap, xxxiv. p. 47. Friars taught that to die in their
habits and to be buried in their churches ensured salvation.
WycUf protested: "pilat my3te haue be dampned al 3if he
hadde dyed in cristis clofes." Matthew, xxn. p. 316.

CHAPTER IX
HOLY DAYS AND HOLY PLACES
It was one of the defects of the Oxford Movement
that in its enthusiasm it lost most of its critical
faculties. Scholars who ought to have known that
contemporary continental Roman Catholicism was
neither Enghsh nor medieval introduced from it
many palpably modern and entirely un-English
customs under the delusion that they were" reviving "
the rehgien of the EngUsh Church in the Middle Ages.-
Dr Wickham Legg has exposed some of their blunders
about church furniture^, but more than the external
part of worship was misunderstood. The mistake
went much deeper. Many of the Anglo-Cathohc
representations of the spirit of medieval religion
have been as crude and false as the ecclesiastical
architecture of the last century which claimed to be
Gothic. The ecclesiastic or the pious layman of the
fourteenth century would find his views on some
subjects preserved more exactly by the straitest sects
of puritanical Dissenters than by the average Roman
or Anglo-Catholics of modern times. The observance
of Sunday is perhaps the most flagrant example of
this. Archbishop Laud has misled us. In his reaction
* Ecclesiological Essays, vol. ii. p. 27. Medieval Ceremonial.

124 HOLY DAYS AND HOLY PLACES [ch.
from the extreme Puritanism of his times he was
driven to exaggerate the anti-puritan characteristics
of the medieval Church ; but if medieval opinion be
judged by the views of men like St Bernard it will
appear that Laud's anti-puritanism, whatever it was,
was not medieval.. It is easy in criticising his pseudo-
medievalism to exaggerate in the opposite direction.
There can be no doubt, however, that the Sabba
tarianism of the Puritans had its counterpart in the
fourteenth century not only amongst the Lollards
but amongst the most, orthodox teachers. When
modern writers adduce the "freedom" of the old
English Sunday as a proof of the easy "liberal"
attitude of the medieval Church they are guilty of
the fundamental mistake of imagining that the
Church sanctioned what it was obliged — after many
protests — to tolerate.
The Sabbath was recognised as the greatest feast
of the Church. Its Divine institution was a theme as
well known to the fourteenth-century Catholic as to
the seventeenth-century Puritan, and it was agreed
that the alteration of the day from Saturday to
Sunday did not lessen the obligation to observe the
third commandment. Many good reasons for the
change could be alleged, and one ingenious writer
argued that, although under the old covenant the
seventh day was regarded as the "ceremonial" day
of God's rest after the creation, it was on the eighth
day that the Father and the Son had really rested^.
1 D. (&. p. III. 3. 4.

4x] HOLY DAYS AND HOLY PLACES 125
Not even the Pope could remove the obhgation to
observe it.
Of al f e festys fat yn holy chyrche are.
Holy Sunday men oght to spare ;
For fe pope may, furgti hys powere,
Turne fe halydays yn fe jere
How as he wyl, at hys owne wyl,
Bot f e Sunday shal stonde styl ' .
It was recognised that every one could not attend the
daily services of the Church *, and for this reason the
Sunday services were held to be specially binding*.
Only for exceptional causes might they be neglected ;
on that point the official pronouncements of synods
and councils were in hearty agreement with popular
teachers. Statuimus, said Bishop Russell in 1350,
ut in qualibet parochiali ecclesia denuncietur paro-
chianis, ut de qualibet domo vir vel mulier, vel uterq;
eorum qualibet die dominica veniant ad ecclesiam
audituri divina et praecepta ecclesiae, nisi rationabiliter
sint excusandi*'. A fine of three shillings and four-
pence was threatened against habitual offenders. The
same was said for the ignorant in Enghsh verse :
And fat day fou .owyst and shal
For to here f y seruyse al ;
ilatyns messe here, tn rede or syngge,
Euery deyl to fe endyngge*.
^ Hand. Synne, 805. ^ See chap. i. above.
' Wilkins, 11. p. 145: "Et quanto variae seculi operationes
parochianos non sinunt caeteris diebus divinis officiis interesse ;
tanto his diebus singuli curiosius tenentur adesse, ut dum pro
p.ane materiaU in singulos dies perituro sex diebus laborave-
runt; septimo saltem die cibo spirituali, qui non peiit, verbo
scilicet praedicationis salubrius refociUentur. " Instructions,
89.=}- * Wilkins, in. p. 11. '' Hand. Synne, 821.

126 HOLY DAYS AND HOLY PLACES [ch.
Even when Divine Service had been attended the
commandment had not been fully observed. All
servile work must cease.
How dur ofer prestys or clerkys.
Or fou lewed man, fat day werche,
whan fat day ys halewed yn holy chyrche ' ?
JThat a concession was made for necessary work, is
! clear both from official documents and from popular
manuals. The archbishops in their sternest moods
excepted from their denunciation of Sunday traders
those who dealt in perishable food *- It was stipulated,
nevertheless, that such sales should be sine .strepitu
lest Divine Service be disturbed* Archbishop
Arundel, also, in 1401, admitted that juxta consue
tudinem patriae it was lawful in harvest-time for
countrymen to buy and sell on Sundays, because
during the week they must devote all their time to
the ingathering of the crops, ne commoditas fructuum
terrae ad sustentationem generis humani caelesti pro
visione concessa depereat*. Yet the archbishop was
careful to provide that these Sunday traders should
first hear Mass, though it might not be the principal,
choral service^. Pauper thought it lawful
"to fisshe after heryng on the Sunday & other fisshe also
that may nat be taken but certeyn ceson of the yere," "to do
' Hand. Synne, 832. Piers Plowman, C. xiv. 85. It was
a peculiar Uberty of the poor beggar that unlike the ordinary
man he was not held contumax, thauh he worche
Haly day other holy eue hus mete to deserue.
' Wilkins, 111. pp. 43, 74.
^ ibid. ill. p. 74. * ibid. in. p. 266.
' "quamvis absque nota," ibid, loc, cit.

IX] HOLY DAYS AND HOLY PLACES 127
rightful bateiles," or "to saue that elles shulde perisshe both
ma and beste, fruyt, come, and other thinges'. '
But although the sale and preservation of needful
provisions was allowed, that concession did not excuse
people who carelessly left business to be done on the
holy day.
Ma and woma shuld so bethink them bifore i the woke day
and so ordeyne their occupacions y' they shulde nat nede to
breke the hoUday  therefore they y' wole nat go ne sende
to market in the woke daye to bye their necessaries but abyde
tyl on the Sunday for sparyng of -tyme they be nat excused
though tho thinges ben nedeful to them. Men shulde studye
and dispose hem as besily to serue god on the Sunday as they
studie bifore to traueyl for themself on the woke day^.
Objections to Sunday travelling are neitlier modern
nor Protestant; they were strongly felt five hundred
years ago. Even the liberal-minded Pauper could not
approve of the practice in general, though he allowed
that sometimes it might be necessary. As it was
lawful to sell food on Sunday, so travelling might
be permitted to "marchauntes," "bochers, tauerners
and other vitailers," as also to "messangers, pil-
grymes and wayfering men," "so that they do ther
deuer to her masse and matyns if they maye." Men
might also hire horses, carts, and ships to speed them
in their journey, if the owners' chief thought was to
help the traveller and not to win gain*. Preachers
should take care that " undre colour of prechyng they
rene nat to moche aboute in veyne in the Sunday*."
' Z). (&¦ P. III. 14. 3. Cf. chaps, xiv-xvi. Summa, P. 11.
(second part), Q. xl., A. 4.
2 D. &¦ P. III. 7. I. '' ibid. III. 15. 2.
* ibid. III. 16. I.

128 HOLY DAYS AND HOLY PLACES [ch.
This weekly rest-day was not only pleasing to God,
it was beneficial to man :
it falUth oft that they which wole nat rest on the sundaye
been made to rest al ye woke aft either for seknes tha . they fal
in by ouir trauayl or by seknes or by feblenes of their seruautes
and of their beestes or elles by deth. For often they sle their
bestes by ouir moche trauayle'.
Until the Lollards had stamped Sabbatarianism
with the suspicion of heresy churchmen regarded all
sorts of Sunday amusements with grave disfavour.
Mannyng in the early part of the century knew
nothing good of that merry English Sunday which
has been lovingly pictured by' modern writers. Plays,
carols, wrestling, and other field sports were a dese
cration of the holy day, and the game of choosing a vil
lage queen was attended with peculiar peril* To pass
the hours devoted to God's service in watching jugglers
or playing at dice in a tavern was perhaps the worst
desecration*. It was an aggravation of the offence
to commit any of these sins "before ye noun whan
goddys seruyse owyJ> to be doun*," though some
of the restrictions applied to the whole of the day',
and indeed to the late afternoon and the evening of
the previous day*. It was told of St Richard that he
was so busy one Saturday morning that he postponed
his shaving till the afternoon. The fiend appeared
and gathered up the hairs, to keep them, he said, as
' D. &• P. III. 8. 2 (wrongly numbered chap. x. in Pynson's
edition). ^ Hand. Synne, 997. ^ ibid. 1041, Instructions, 88$.
^ Hand. Synne, 1045. ' D. &• P. iii. 16. 3.
" Hand. Synne, 845. Cf. Festial, 266: All Saints' Vigil to
be observed.

IX] HOLY DAYS AND HOLY PLACES 129
a proof that St Richard had no reverence for the day
of Christ's resurrection^ The exact time for the
beginning of the holy day varied from place to
place according to the solemnity of the feast; some
men " use in saturdaies and vigilies to ryng holy at
midday*," but this was rather as a warning of the
approach of a holy day than as a sign that it had
already begun.
There was in England a custom of observing
Saturday afternoon as a holy day in honour of our
Lady, who on the Saturday following the crucifixion
alone preserved the faith that Christ would rise*,
Mannyng told how an English priest instituted, this
feast in Italy to the great advantage of Italian vines,
which were thus preserved from damage by tempest *-
Most of the restrictions were intended to apply to
feast-days as well as to Sundays. All, it was thought,
were included in the general command, "Hallow
thine holy day." But the Church recognised that
feasts came so frequently that no one could observe
all with equal strictness, and a distinction of greater
and lesser feasts was made. On the lesser feasts
needful works like "erynge & sowynge, repyng,
mowynge, cartyng" were not reckoned servile nor
a breach of the holy day, if they were done in a right
spirit and not for avarice; but Sundays and the great
feasts must be observed more punctihously ; "suche
J Festial, p. 125, cf. explanation of "Schere pursday", given
there: Saturday evening "aftyr mete was no tyme (to shave)
for holyday."
^ D.&- P. HI. 14. 2.
' Hand. Synne, loc. cit. * ibid. 877.
M. 9

I30 HOLY DAYS AND HOLY PLACES [ch,
werkes shulde natt be done but ful grete nede com-
pelle men thertoi."
In this matter as in all others, the medieval ideal
was never even nearly approached. What was the
actual practice? The godless and careless neglected
Divine Service; hope of worldly gain tempted some
to carry on their ordinary pursuits*; others sinned in
frivolous games, or, more grossly, in drunkenness and
lechery. Sunday, said Pauper, has now become a
feast of the fiend:
ye haUday was ordeyned in confusion of the feende & i
worship of god & for saluacion of manys soule, but nowe it is
turned to sheship of mannys soul, -to dispite & offece of god,
& i plesaunce of the fende. For in the Sunday reigneth more
lechery, gloteny, manslaughter, robbery, backbityng, piury,
& other synnes more than regnyd al the weke bifore'.
John Myrc wrote vigorously to the same effect;
gluttony, lechery, idleness, and pride in " dyuerse
gyses of clo]?yng" had turned the days "ordeynt yn
hegh worschyp to God and to his sayntys" into
occasions for the displeasing of God and the damna
tion of men *.
The synods and the clergy were always complaining
of the desecration of holy days^- Worldly business,
so far from ceasing, seemed to increase. The gather
ing of the people for religious purposes was made the
'¦ D. &¦ P. III. 7. 3, Fourteenth century writers use the
word holy-day in two senses : a narrow one meaning Sundays
only and a broad one including all feasts.
^ Piers Plowman, B. vn, 18. Cf. Wilkins, loc. cit. Mirour,
6277, Walsingham, 11. p, 116.
^ D. 6' P. III. 6. 2.
* Festial, p. 63, Hand. Synne, 11127. ^ Wilkins, loc. cit.

TX] HOLY DAYS AND HOLY PLACES 131
opportunity for special trading. Sundays and festi
vals were the favourite days for fairs and markets^,
and many of the saints' day fairs still survive. The
merchants erected their booths in the churchyard or
even within the sacred building; they disturbed the
service, and prevented many people from attending
it. And it could not be pleaded that only food and
perishable goods were sold, for there was no such dis
crimination. So great was the abuse that in some
places the whole population was engaged in business
and unable to attend church*. The wearisome repe
tition of the ban on all these doings proves how
popular they were. How. differently the Jews be
haved ! mourned Gower : on the Sabbath they neither
bought nor sold. But now scarcely a feast is left for
God. What is a holy day, ask our merchants, com
pared with money*?
The feeling that an irreligious custom must neces
sarily be an immoral one too may have led the clergy
to exaggerate the evils which attended this Sunday
trading. Almost invariably they recite that on such
occasions exceptionally fraudulent bargains were
made, whilst drunkenness and immorality seemed to
accompany every breach of the third commandment *.
But in the face of the evidence it is impossible not to
believe that behind these official insinuations there
was solid fact. The allegations of writs and synods
"¦ Wilkins, 11. p. 295; iii. p. 68; cf. p. 61.
" ibid. III. p. 73; Grandisson's Register, 11. p. 1201.
3 Vox Clam. v. 685.
* Wilkins, in. p. 266; 11, p. 706 (abuse of the ancient custom
of wakes).
9—2

132 HOLY DAYS AND HOLY PLACES [ch,
m
are abundantly supported by Langland^ and other
independent witnesses*.
And yet it was easier to make men abstain from
work on holy days than to induce them to use their
leisure properly. The frequent recurrence of feasts
with their vigils gave an enormous number of idle
hours to people who had few resources. When Robin
left his plough and Marian her spinning they were
disinclined to give up their free time to ecclesiastical
observances. They forgot their souls and spent the
feast in carnal delights*- The stricter clergy looked
with disfavour on games and field sports; it was im
possible for the layman to spend all his time in church
even if he had wished to do so; and the inevitable
result was that the taverns profited by the religious
ordinance. Drunkenness, rather than piety, was the
distinguishing feature of a fourteenth century holy
day — at least many keen observers would have us
believe so. The days which nominally were "fasts"
proved in fact the greatest temptation to gluttony,
for then the average man had nothing to do but to
eat and to drink ! Lechour, Langland tells us, spent
Saturday, a vigil, in drunkenness*. Glutton began
his orgy on Friday because it was a fast day, and
slept over the effects all Saturday and Sunday'.
Mannyng complained of the Thursday evening
feasting which preceded the Friday fast, for
pe Fryday nygtit ys, — fys shalt fou leue —
Aftyr fe pursday at eue".
' See below, notes 4 and 5. ^ Kail, iv. p. 18.
2 Mirour, 8653. * Piers Plowman, B. v. 72.
" ibid. C. VII. 350; cf. B. 11. 95, v. 381, 409, 416.
' Hand. Synne, 7287.

IX] HOLY DAYS AND HOLY PLACES 133
A heavy Sunday dinner ought also to be avoided^
If held early in the day it prevented attendance at
Mass^ ; if held late it tempted even the priest to rush
out before service was done*. Some people observed
the fast at one meal, but only to be the more glutton
ous after it*. Some fasted by day and ate by night*;
some contrived by a change of diet to keep the form
of fasting and suffer none of the inconvenience *- The
whole idea of a fast day was thus destroyed.
Even the clergy were very careless in their obser
vance of holy days. Some hunted*, some travelled
needlessly, some insisted that work for the Church
should go on with no interruption'. The friars, in
their quest for popularity, mixed without shame in
the profane games of the people on feast-days, taking
part in
veyn songis and knackynge and harpynge, gyternynge &
daunsynge & ofere veyn triflis to geten fe stynkyng loue of
damyseUs  fei breken foule fer halyday'.
These abuses were sufficient in themselves to make
men ask if the Church would not do well to reduce the
number of the festivals, but the attack was made the
more formidable because it was supported by an
enthusiastic Sabbatarianism. _ The question of festi
vals became one part of the Lollard controversy. On
the general principle that the Bible contained all that
was necessary for religion, it was argued that, the
Sabbath being the only holy day ordained in the
3 Hand. Synne, 7291. ^ ibid. 7318. ' Festial, p. 83.
* ibid. p. 84. ' Mirour, 7854, cf. 7890, 8365.
« Vox Clam. in. 1505.
' D. (S- P. in. 16. I. ' Matthew, i. p. 9.

134 HOLY DAYS AND HOLY PLACES [ch.
Bible, no others should be observed. The other feasts
had no Divine sanction; they were productive of
many evils; they ought, therefore, to be abolished.
To Wyclif himself the question was one rather of
expediency than of principle. If "yis multitude of
festis " helped men to love Christ better and to keep
God's law diligently "it profiti]? to sich men to kepe
sich jjingis wel." But there were others who could
live better without such human ordinances ; for such
people to "leve siche serymonies" could not be
wrong, for our Lord and His Apostles never observed
themi. It was in a similar spirit that the wisest
defender of orthodoxy conducted his argument. He
explained that the Sabbath ought never to take so
pre-eminent a place among Christians as it had
among the Jews under the old covenant.
"Amonges us also," he said, "the siiday is moste solempne
and holy for the grete dedys and wouders that god dyd in the
Sunday. But for asmoche as it commyth ofte we make it not
alway lyke solempne. For it falUth the sudayes in whiche god
shewyd his woders as Ester day and wytsonday to be more
solempne than other comon sundayes. Other testes also as
Christmasse day and epiphanye daye in asmoche as they been
oure lordes dales and come but ones in the yere. Therefore we
make more solennytee in tho dayes than we do comonly on the
Sunday^."
To return too precisely to the old law was to ignore
the greater wonders of the Incarnation, and against
the Judaising tendencies of " Seventh Day observers "
Pauper could not express himself too strongly*- He
' Arnold, vol. i. p. 330; cf. Walsingham, 11. p. 253. No one
knew if the saints were saved. Knighton, 11. p. 262.
° D. &¦ P. III. 10. 2 ; see the whole chapter.

3

ibid. III. II. 3.

IX] HOLY DAYS .AND HOLY PLACES 1 35
endorsed St Gregory's opinion that these people were
antichrist's disciples.
Those who wished to celebrate Sunday only wished
also to observe it more strictly. The advocates of a
"sad Sunday" showed some of the characteristics
which marked the Puritans three hundred years later.
They wished to revive in detail the Jewish regulations
for the Sabbath, and were scandalized by the conces
sions which the Church had made to Sunday work
and Sunday amusementsi- It was, however, against
the latter that they protested most bitterly ; had not
St Augustine said that it was better to plough and
spin on Sunday thttn.to dance*? Pauper's attitude to
this question was much more lenient than Mannyng's
had been a generation or two earlier. When he was
chaUenged, "Than it semyth by thy speche y* in
halidayes men may lefully maken myrthe," his ready
reply was "God forbede elles." Miracle plays and
dances, if connected with no sin, he would willingly
allow on holy days*, alleging as a precedent David's
dancing' before "Goddes hutch" when they brought
it to Jerusalem* He showed that many of the
stricter Sabbatarian notions were founded on a mis
understanding of the Bible; it was, for example,
absurd to apply the rules for the Day of Atonement
— a day of repentance — to Sunday, which was a token
of joy at Christ's resurrection^. Nor could the
Fathers' objection to dances and plays be advanced

' D. &¦ p. III. chaps. 14-16.

2 ibid. III. 17. 3

' ibid. III. 17. 2.

'• ibid. III. 18. 3.

= ibid. III. 17. 4-

136 HOLY DAYS AND HOLY PLACES [ch.
without quahfication. The Fathers wrote for times
when
cristen peple was moche medlyd w' hethe peple and by olde
custome and example of hethen peple used unhonest daunces
and pleyes that by olde tyme were ordejmed to stire folk to
lechery and to other synnes.
It does not follow, continues Pauper, — and here he
parts company with most medieval moralists — that
there is any sin in
" honest daiices and pleyes done i due tyme and in gode maner i
the haUday," but if these amusements "stire men and wyme to
pryde, to lechery, glutonye and sleuthe, to ouir longe wakinge
on nightes and to ydelship on the werk dales and to other
synnes as it is righte Ukly y' they do in our dales, than ben
tiiey unleful both on the haUday and o,n the werke day'."
The difference between Pauper's attitude and Man
nyng's may be easily explained. The monkish Man
nyng imagined all amusement to be licentious, whilst
the author of Dives and Pauper, who was possibly a
friar and who. certainly had a wide knowledge of life,
was arguing against an extremist, and was anxious
to point out that pleasure was not necessarily sinful.
The most obvious test of popular rehgion is the
reverence paid to holy days and holy things, but it is a
test to be applied with caution. To confound ideals
with practice is always easy, and it is the favourite
vice of those who study the Middle Ages.
In the fourteenth centuiy religion was a thing more
concrete and less abstract than it is in the twentieth.-
Though perhaps not less spiritual, it was certainly
' D.&- P. ill. 17. 3.

IX] HOLY DAYS AND HOLY PLACES U37
less content to remain entirely in the spiritual realm.
Every feehng sought a material and bodily expres
sion. It did not satisfy the medieval conscience to
repent of pride; one must do something; one must
study skulls. In the same way it was not sufficient
to reverence God, one must reverence His house. The
respect paid to medieval churches was something
quite different from that modern sentimental affec
tion which Emerson has perfectly enshrined in his
verses : We love the venerable house
Our fathers built to God :
In heaven are kept their grateful vows.
Their dust endears the sod.
The attitude of the fourteenth century was less
human, more theological. Reverence was more a
matter of duty and less a matter of emotion; it was
nof so much an attitude of mind as a series of acts.
To take off one's hat, to creep to the cross, to provide
lights and decorations — ^it was by such means that
the layman showed his reverence. The hohness of a
church consisted not in its atmosphere nor in its
associations, but in a definite number of holy things
which it contained. It was holy not because it was
the place where prayer was wont to be made^ but
because it contained certain objects used in prayer.
And as reverence consisted in a number of de
finite acts, so irreverence consisted in the omission of
them — not in a general attitude of mind. Nothing
illustrates more clearly the difference between mo
dern and medieval ideas of reverence than one of

13S HOLY DAYS AND HO.LY PLACES [ch.
Lydgate's poems. Lydgate was a monk and a priest
and the author of Merita Missae. His orthodoxy was
beyond question. Yet a man so religious and ortho
dox — who would have been duly horrified by the idea
of translating the hturgy into Enghsh — thought it
quite proper to parody the Mass in some detail, and
address it to Cupid instead of to God^. No agnostic
ina,n "age of rationalism" would descend to such a
travesty of solemn mysteries as was perpetrated by
a priest in the "ages of faith" — a priest who was
compelled by the scruples of his generation to swallow
the spiders that fell into sacramental wine*. The
material bread and wine were adored, but the rite
which made them adorable was not even respected.
The gift vvas hallowed, but not the altar which
-hallowed it. Knowing how clerics could write, we
hear with no surprise of a woman in London who
taught her daughter tp celebrate a mock Mass in
priestly vestments at a secret "altar" in her house;
what is surprising is that these people forbore from
using the words of consecration* Another example
of this same free treatment of religious subjects is to
be found in the squib on "papal neutrality," which
went round after the battle of Poictiers, and seems to
have hurt no one's sense of reverence:
Ore est le Pape devenu Franceys
e Jesu devenu Engleys;
Ore serra veou qe fra plus,
ly Pape ou Jesu*.
1 L. F. M. B., notes to Appendix v., p, 390. Cf. P. R. &¦ L.
p. 49, line 25; and p. 12 for a satire with amazing le-vity of
expression. 2 Instructions, 1825.
' Knigihton, 11. p. 316. * ibid. 11. p. 94.

IX] HOLY DAYS AND HOLY PLACES 139
Popular opinion was scandalised by the doctrinal
questionings of the Lollards, and was at one with
clerical opinion In treating doubters as reprobates;
but popular, as distinct from clerical, opinion, saw
nothing very shocking in the holding of markets in
churches and churchyards. The clergy who could
raise unhmited feehng about the one point fulminated
in vairi about the other, and despite the morahsts and
synods it is impossible to beheve that these. markets
and fairs were not attended by respectable and re
hgious persons as well as by rogues^. The mere buying
and selling was clearly condemned by our Lord's
cleansing of the Temple, but the market itself was
less objectionable than some of the things that ac
companied it.
"Me use these dales i holy church," complained the authoi
of Dives and Pauper, "bacbityng and glotony, dronkenshyp,
lechery i song, & speche of rybaudrye^"
The presence of the concubines of travelling mer
chants was responsible for the grossest immorality,
and in it priests sometimes shared*. Indeed much of
the dishonour which fell upon the Church was due to
the clergy. They abetted these evil customs for the
sake of financial gain. They let out plots of the
churchyard and even permitted stalls to stand in the
church*. The laity were not likely to respect the
churchyard when the priests used it as a pasture for
their beasts^ Great lords, too, who expected to be
' Wilkins, 11. pp. 145, 295; in. pp. 43, 61, 68.
^ D.&- P. 1. 64. 2.
' ibid. I, 64. 3. Hand. Synne, 8937.
* D. S- P. VII. 23. ^ Hand. Synne, 8657.

I40 HOLY DAYS AND HOLY PLACES [ch.
buried inside the church, had little care for the yard^.
To hold lay courts and inquests for felony in holy
places was as bad as to hold them on holy days; if a
man were condemned in sacred buildings it would be
a great desecration* Similarly, to put to secular use
any article once used for ecclesiastical purposes was
to invite the fate of Belshazzar : timber, stones, glass,
curtains, vestments, vessels — all were sacred*-
But despite this theoretical scrupulosity worse
things than markets were not unknown in churches.
The privilege of sanctuary was frequently violated,
and bloodshed sometimes followed *. Though popular
respect for holy places must still have sheltered many
an offender, a man of determined character often
braved ecclesiastical censure, took his revenge upon
his enemy, and was forgiven when he professed
repentance^. The case of the Spanish prisoners,
famous through its connection with John of Gaunt, is
typical of many. Sanctuary -breakers were sufficiently
numerous to be regularly denounced with robbers and
withholders of tithe*. Not only was the church
violated by force of arms : the same means were some
times employed to maintain a right of presentation.
In Grandisson's Register is told the thrilling story of
• Hand. Synne, 8661.
^ ibid. 8909. Cf. Instructions, line 338.
' Hand. Synne, 9333. Mirour, yiTj. Conf. Aman. v. 6981.
Higden, ix. p. 279.
* Grandisson'.s Register, i. pp. 174, 383, 449; 11. 788, 817.
Higden, ix. 174, 189, 271.
* Cf. Gower's attitude Mirour, 4825. Walsingham admits
that the restriction of the privilege in 1379 was "modificatio
satis rationaUs atque utiUs." Hist. Angliae, 1. p. 391.
" Wilkins, 11. p. 414; m. p. 95.

IX] HOLY DAYS AND HOLY PLACES 141
one St Mar^ Magdalene's Day — the story of a church
fortified aga,inst the bishop and of an abbot who
found discretion the better part oi valour^- There
wer^ many isolated instances of brawhng and assault
in church*, and the sanctity of the place did not pre
vent the stealing of oblations*; but these acts of
desperate men were due rather to the rudeness of the
age and the inefficiency of the police-system than to
any irreverence in public opinion as a whole. Less
stress must be laid on these exceptional scandals than
on the persistence of such customs as the holding of
markets on consecrated ground. These last, though
less dramatic, were more serious indications of re-
ligious indifference.
Holy places, like holy days, were desecrated by
pleasure as well as by business. Games and songs
and interludes in a churchyard, or, worse still, in a
church, were reckoned sacrilege by Mannyng *. Simon
Langham in 1364 forbad the execrable custom of
celebrating the Feast of Fools in churches, lest the
house of prayer should be turned into a house of
derision ^- About the same time Grandisson was com-
' Register, 11. 1052 et seq.
^ ibid. I. 287, II. 707, 893, 1041, 1163, 1194 (clerk murdered
after Mass); 1209 (celebrating priest assaulted).
* Wilkins, in. p. 95. * Hand. Synne, 8987.
* Wilkins, in. p. 61; cf. Instructions, 330; Chambers,
Medieval Stage, vol. i. chaps, xiii. and xiv. Feast of Fools,
especially pp. 291 et seq. (France) and pp. 321 et seq. (Lincoln
and Beverley). It is stated on p. 232, vol. i., "Outside
Lincoln and Beverley the feast is only known in England by
the mention of paraphernaUa for it in the thirteenth-century
inventories of St Paul's and Salisbury, and by a doubtful
allusion in a sophisticated version of the 'St George play," but
this seems to be inaccurate (cf. Wilkins, loc. cit.).

142 HOLY DAYS AND HOLY PLACES [ch.
plaining that in his cathedral on Christmas Day and
the following feast-days some of the ministers of the
church joined with boys in ludos ineptos et noxios
honestatique clericali indecentes, the antics in the
choir making it impossible for the people to worship^.
In some cities these jests and games in church were
regularly observed at the Feast of Fools and the
"Boy Bishop" ceremonies*. The staff of a medieval
cathedral indulged in frolics as unlike the sedate
decorum of their modern representatives as anything
could well be.
Inattention at service time was reckoned a form of
sacrilege, and there were bitter complaints about the
behaviour of the congregations at Mass. Of the
distinctively Protestant vice of sleeping in church
we hear less than we might have expected — except
among the monks. One explanation is evident. Until
the close of the Middle Ages pews were rare, and
benches uncomfortable, though the very drowsy
somehow contrived to use the footstools as pillows*.
Probably it was not easy to fall into a state of merely
passive inattention at Mass. Even for- those who
came punctually and stayed until the end, the service
was comparatively short; there was usually no long
interval for a sermon; the varied ritual and the fre
quent movements of the celebrant, however incom
prehensible, would continually recall the attention of
1 Register, vol. in. p. 1213, cf. vol, 11. p. 723 and vol. i. p. 5S6.
^ Medieval Stage, vol. i. chap. xv. Boy Bishop, p. 336 et seq.
At SaUsbury, York, Lincoln, St Albans (p. 340), at Wells in
1331 and 1338, and at Exeter in 1360 (p. 342).
' Mirour, 5250.

IX] HOLY DAYS AND HOLY PLACES 143
worshippers, unless they were misbehaving in some
quite definite way. The general complaint accordingly
was not of mere inattentive drowsiness hke that
pictured by Hogarth. There was .active irreverence.
The congregation engaged in all kinds of unseemly
by-play. Some brought their dogs to church^, some
exchanged gossip, some quarrelled, some told im
proper stories. This was no quiet whispering, but a
loud "jangling" which might interrupt the priest*.
The warning against conversation at Mass was often
enforced by the story of the devils who wrote down
every idle word. Sometimes it was St Augustine who
discovered their presence, sometimes it was St Martin,
but the moral was always directed against those who
"roune, iape, counsaile, and iangle eche with other*."
Young lovers were notorious transgressors. They
could not fix their attention on the service. They
turned their heads and gazed about them "like the
crane and the tortu*"; they listened for their lovers'
sighs 5 Even at the most solemn moment when " the
preest holdeth the body of oure Lorde bytweene his
handes," "theyre thought ande melancolye made
them ofte to thynke unto theyr delytes and to theyr
peramours more than they dyde to the seruys of
Godde*" Less regard was paid to the priest than to
' Wilkins, 11. p. 145.
* Manner and Mede of Mass, line 281. Instructions, Une
264. Tour Landry, chap. xxviU. p. 40; chap. xxix. p. 41.
Hand. Synne, 1005.
* Tour Landry, loc. cit, Hand. Synne, 9261. Manner and
Mede of Mass, line 293.
* Tour Landry, chap. ix. p. 15.
' Conf. Aman. v. 7035 et seqq., especially 7080.
' Tour Landry, chap, cxxiii. p, 173; cf. chap, xxxiv. p. 47.

144 HOLY DAYS AND HOLY PLACES [ch. ix
the stylishly dressed gallants who sat in prominent
places like ha\yks watching their preyi-
Disorder arose sometimes because laymen tried to
take a place among the clergy in the chancel, but
it was only in exceptional circumstances that this
privilege could be allowed even to the patron of the
church*. On no account could women be permitted
to stand there* Late-comers caused disturbance.
Some were satisfied if they arrived in time for the
Pax*; others rushed home to dinner before the
service was finished^ In certain places respect
was shown to the gentle-folk of the neighbourhood
by delaying the commencement of the service until
their arrival. Of this compliment they were not
always worthy. Sometimes they kept a whole con
gregation waiting whilst they lay in bed or completed
their exquisite toilet * It was, to be sure, only seemly
to honour holy days and holy places by wearing
better clothes in church than one did for ordinary
purposes; a lady who would dress herself elegantly
when she was to see a stranger, but not when she was
to present herself before God, was guilty of great
irreverence'. But it was more important to be at
service in good time than to be immaculately
dressed*. ' Conf. Aman., loc. cit.
¦•¦ Wilkins, ii. p. 145; in. p. 61, Hand. Synne, 8803.
' Hand. Synne, 8809, 8881.
* Mirour, 5621. ' ^ Hand. Synne, 7293.
" Tour Landry, chap. xxx. p. 42.
' ibid. chap, xxxvi. p. 37.
' ibid. chap, cviii, p. 145.

CHAPTER X
THE PROBLEM OF POVERTY
Sir John Seeley once said that the one virtue which
was well and consistently taught by the Church was
almsgiving^. Certainly it wasilie-favoiiri±£jdrJuxe.o£
the Middle Aeea. Every preacher, every rhymer,
every story-teller extolled this particular form of
charity. Alone it was sufficient to save ajipnl from
hell. According to a typical story, there was a wicked
man named Perys whose one good deed was that
"wyth all hys myght " he cast a loaf at a beggar " and
smot hym on ye brest, and sayde: 'Stop )>ymouthe
herwyth7\J>e deuell of hell choke ye.' " When Perys
died there was "nofyng to helpe yys soule, but only
>at lofe l^at he cast at ye pore man," yet by virtue of
that most ungracious charity our Lady secured a
second chance for him. He was not sent to hell, but
was allowed to return to earth to amend his ways *.
"Att the dredeful doome,'- said Pauper, -whanne they shall
stonde att the barre bifore the soueraign iuge Crist ihesu
thanne almesse dede shal be the beste frende that they shal
haue.... For almesse deliuereth soules from euery synne and
from dethe and suffereth nat the soule to go into derknes'."
1 Lectures and Essays, p. 261 (ed. 1870).
2 Festial, p. 104. Cf. Hand. Synne, 5573, for the same story
and ibid. 1463 for a similar one.
^ D. &¦ P. IX. 12. 4. Piers Plowman, B. v. 603, at the
dwelUng of " Seynt Xreuthe " - "Of Almes-dedes ar the hokes
that the gates hangen on."

146 THE PROBLEM OF POVERTY [ch.
Most teachers Were content with urging simply
"Give alms," paying httle attention either to the
merits of the recipient or to the motives of the giver.
This unreflecting charity was criticised by a few, and,
as often, the most sensible and enhghtened teaching
came from the recluses. Rolle taught
Dant plerumque panem pauperibus et algentibus forte tribuunt
uestimentum, sed dum elemosina sua uelfit in mortali peccato uel
pro uana gloria, aut certe ex his que iniuste adquiruntur, nimirum
non placant Redemptorem, sed ad uindiciam prouocant ludicem . . .
Possidet itaque diabolus plures quos bonos putamus. Habet
enim elemosinarios, castos, humiles, scilicet peccatores se fatentes,
ciliciis indutos, penitencia afflictos''-.
Thej;opular jdevf Ql..EOvgrty__was highly senti
mental. The poor were thought to represent Christ,
thepoor Man of Nazareth, in a pecuharly intimate
way; it was "in that secte owre saueoure saued al
mankynde*." Poverty in itself was believed to be a
virtue, and the mere fact that a man had fared HTm"
this world seemed an indication that he would rise to
great heights in the nexf.~ lhosF"who had never Had
Joy on earth liiight claim TF of right in heaven*. Men
debated whether "paciente pouerte" or "richesse
ri3tfulhche ywonne and resonablelich yspended"
were the better, and in theory at least poverty was
recognised as the higher state*. Wealth, said Gower,
is often a sign of God's anger ^. In view of the teaching
of extremists*, the author of Dives and Pauper
' Incendium Amoris, p. iso. Summa. P. 11. fsecnnd payt),
Q. XXXII., A. 7. r^ Piers Plowman/B. xiv^58__Z
' ibid. B. XIV. 108; 155. ^ — .  ,—r=:==^^^^^^
* ibid. B. XIV. 101 to end of Passus. Cf. B. xi. 179-278,
XII. 245-267, XX. 35-49. 5 Yq^ Clam. vi. 364.
« Knighton, n. p. 262 : " Quod nullus intrabit regnum cae-

X] THE PROBLEM OF POVERTY 147
thought it necessary to explain that the rich as such
were not hated by Godi, but he was plainly of opinion
that almost the only_real advantage attached to,
riches was the .power of helping the poor ^^ The rich
and. the poor might both be necessary in this world,
but the poor enjoyed an independent and assured
position. Their state was blessed in itself. The rich
on the contrary depended on the poor absolutely, to
maintain their worldly state *. The ' ' two perfections "
set before the~rich young ruler still presented them
selves to men; to keep the commandments — a life
possible to rich and to poor alike — might be all that
was "nedeful and sufficient," but to renounce pro
perty completely was the only " fulle excellent " way *
The friar taught the excellence of poverty and then
abused the popular sentinjent which he had created
in its favour. He secured the prestige of the poor, but
by fictions he escaped most of their hardships. Lang
land accepted and emphasised the friar's theory of
poverty but exposed the fraudulent practice of it *.
lorum nisi omnibus renunciaverit ea dando pauperibus, solum
deum sequendo, modo ipsorum" (i.e. LoUards).
^ D &, P. Prologue, chap. 7.
" ibid. Prologue, chaps. 2-4.
' ibid. Prologue, chap.'ix., column 2.
* Piers Plowman, B. xv. 409. Cf. Chaucer's pictures of the
wealthy begging friars, aud Def. Cur. in Fasc. 11. p. 474. " Jam
enim istis temporibus non poterit magnus aut mediocris in
clero & populo vix cibum assumere, nisi tales non vocati
affuerint mendicantes ; non more pauperum petentes ad portas
vel ostia humiliter eleemosynam, ut Franciscus in testamento
praecepit & docuit, mendicando; sed curias sive domes sine
verecundia penetrantes & inibi hospitantes nuUatenus invitati
edunt & bibunt quae apud eos reperiunt; secum nihilominus
aut grana aut simiUa aut panes aut carnes seu caseos (etiamsi
in domo non fuerint nisi duo) secum extorquendo reportant.

148 THE PROBLEM OF POVERTY [ch.
Almsgiving was therefore prompt edjjgss by humani
tarian sentiment than bv theological r)ogTri,p, less by
pity for the starving beggar .than. by devotion to the
Incarnate God.^ For in Lazarus at his_ gate the
Englishman of the fourteenth- century saw not his
unfortunate brother wronged„by the social system,
but a new incarnation_qf_^God Himself. __ Such^a view
,iiiiglit-iSSK?_P60pl^ lo5„S2.?tented wifh the inequah-
ties of society, but at least it prevented that associa
tion of patronage vvith almsgiving which has degraded
and disfigured .the once noble word "charity?"
Geoffroy^ de la Tour Landry was almost as anxious
that his daughters" should not patronise the "poor
man as that they should relieve his wants^. The
prayersof the poor were supposed to have exceptional
influence with God — Himself once a poor Man. The
dying counfecT on tEem as confidently as on the
official intercession of the priests*. The Countess of
Warwick wished to have only poor men and women
and saints carved around her tomb*. It is our merit,
said Langland, to love the poor, "here prayeres may
vs helpe*." But the poor were not merely powerful
advocates: they were also the final judges.
"Thys, good men," said John Myrc, "je schulf know weU
fat yn fe day of dome pore men schuU be domes-men wyth
Cryst, and dome fe riche. For all fe woo fat pore men hauen,
hit ys by fe ryche men; and fogh fay haue moch wrong, fay
nee quisquam eis poterit denegare nisi verecundiam naturalem
abjiciat." Vox Clam. iv. 721, 731.
1 Tour Landry, e.g. chap. x. p. 14.
2 Wills, p. 32, 20 shilUngs a year for seven years for poor
men to pray at a mind-day. Cf. pp. 78, 11, 31, 105.
3 ibid. p. 117. ¦• Piers Plowman, B. xi. 178.

X] THE PROBLEM OF POVERTY • 149
may not gete amendes, tyll fay come to fat dome; and fer
fay schall haue all hor one lust on heini."
The poor, too, besides being Christy companions at
the Judgment Day, were His special^^are on earth;
to give alms to them was to give to the Church *.~ The
clergy sometimes forgot that the poor had a claim on
all that was offered to the Church, and nothing
caused more dissatisfaction than the selfishness of
tight-fisted monks who refused to help the poor,
alleging that their property was held in common and
"therfore may non of theym yeue oute awey with
oute assente of them al*."
Si monacho dare vis, sibi possidet omne quod offers.
Nil set habet proprium, si quid ab inde petas*.
In the course^ of the century these views of the
relations between rich and poor were rudely ques
tioned. The communistic doctrines of the times are
best known through the rebellion of 1381, but they
were not originated suddenly, nor did they cease to
disturb men's thoughts when Wat Tyler vvas done to
death. The whole question of riches and poverty was
debated and discussed from every point of view^.
Wyclif's theories of dominion were but the philo
sophic rendering of those popular arguments reflected
' ,^ Festial, p. 4; cf. Joachim, Expos, in Apoc, foi, 199 6, col. 2,
Summa, Supplementum, Q. LXXXix., A. i, 2.
^ Bequests to poor named almost in the same breath as
bequests to the Church: e,g. Wills, pp. 3, 11, 15, 40, 70, 78.
Hand. Synne, 2275; association almost identification, of the
poor and the Church,
' -D. <&• P, IV. 8. I ; see all chap. 7 and 8. Piers Plowman, A.
Prol. 78, 93. * Vox Clam. iv. 231.
^ D. &- P. Prologue. Piers Plowman, e.g. B. xi. 178-278,
XIV. IOI to end.

150 THE PROBLEM OF POVERTY [ch.
in Piers the Plowman and Dives and Pauper. Some
people recognised that poverty in itself might- not
always be a virtue. The poor were not always Christ^
hke; their eyjl rnnditinn was sometimes the rejultof
sin I. There was poverty of many different sorts*, and
in almsgiving discrimination was very necessary*.
"More s'hrewyl fynde I non'e'fEan'p5re~5eggers that
haue no gode, that the worid hath forsake but they
nat the world*." Was it right to give relief to such
rascals? " Moche folke " thought it was no true alms ^-
" God forbede," exclaimed Pauper, " y' such pore folk
blynde & halt shuld be put in the ordre of almes doing
bifore them y* be pore & feble by vertue & for goddes
sake*"; yet he .would_not exclude thein completely
fjxim the benefit of alms, for "wycked doers and
synful pore men been clepyd the lest of goddes
menye'," the "least of my brethren" referred to by
our Lord in His parable.
When once this heavenly glamour had been je-
inQvedlfom poverty it was more easy to recognise
the injustice done to the poor^ _ So long~as every,
beggar., was regarded as a saint it ,yya,s difficult to
perceive his .actual misery. It was therefore in
^ e.g. Some were feeble, blind, and lame "for loue of synne
as theuys fighters baratoures, which in fight and barett lese
ther iyen, their feet, their hondes, and ofte ben punysshed by
the lawe," D. &' P. ix. 14. i.
' ibid. IX. 13. 4. Piers Plowman, B. vn. 66.
^ D. S- P. IX. 16, 3: "Also in thy yeuyng thou must take
hede to the holynes and to the profitablenesse and the nighnes
of the psone that nedith help."
* ibid. Prologue, 7, 2.
' ibid. IX. 14. 2. Cf. Piers Plowman, B. xv. 199, 221.
" D.S- P. IX. 14. I. ' ibid. IX. 14. 3:

X] THE PROBLEM OF POVERTY 151
writers hke Langland^ and the author of Dives and
Pauper, who were under no delusion about tEe"moral
character of ^jiejgoorrthatthe keenest sort of '^ocfal
conscience " was to be found. Why, they asked, was
there any poverty and misery? God could have made
all men alike if He had wished*. The author of Dives
and Pauper explained that by God's original law all
things were common to ail good men as Sunlight and
air still are*. Adam's sin introduced covetousness

into the world, and with covetousness came individual
property; but for sin "alle men shulde haue been
euynT^riche*." Jn^the existing state of society, how
ever, it was God's will that property should be re
spected; the poor must not take what was really
their own. This doctrine, wHetlier preached'~bjr
Wyclif or by Pauper, was profoundly unsatisfactory.
Dives' surprise was not unreasonable; "this is won
derful to me," he complained, "that the pore man is
as grett a lorde by way of kynde as the riche and yit
may he nought without his leue^." Pauper could only
reply that good men are under tutelage hke heirs;
they must be content to wait before they enjoy their
own. Meantime thegeneral influence of popular rehgion
was to reconcile.„menjwith j.n_ordered_inequah
society. Each rank should observe its duties and not
jpvrpp(j its itigbtsfi, Jn Go^'g eiglit kipg/ nnblp, and
peasant were equal; birth, death. ..and judgment came
' e.g. Piers Plowman, B. xiv. 174.
2 ibid. B. XIV. 166. ^ D. &¦ P. vu. 4. 4.
* ibid. VII, II. 6. Cf. Conf. Aman. v. i; Vli. 1991-
^ D. &¦ P. VII. 5, 4. " Hand. Synne, 2209.

152 THE PROBLEM OF POVERTY [ch.
aliketo affi. God did not hate the wealthy merely
for their wealth*. The parable of Dives and Lazarus
was directed only against those rich people who gave
no alms *, but the rich man who did not trust in his
riches.. could be saved*. Our Lord^ doubriess^_was_a
poor_inan^Jju£it,wa§. JXOt certain that He renounced
all property — according to many He had " soufficahce
de monoie^." Though poverty might be the "fulle
excellent "life, fEe inlddl£;£la,.ss.,ro aji.^amaintained^
his family honestly in decent comfort had no cause
for fear *. If the poor died of neglect the wealthy who
lived in luxury were held by God to be guilty of man
slaughter', for
al that the rich man hath passynge his oneste liuyng after
the degre of his despensacon it is other menys and no hys...
Fnr rich mpn qnri lnrf|f;s jijj thys -yrorlde be goddes balyfes and
goddes reues to ordeyn for the pore folk aud to susten them*.
' e.g. Vox Clam. vi. 1019. Conf. Aman. 1. 2233, iv. 2222,
VII. 2426. Mirour, 23389.
^ D. &¦ P. Prol., chap, -vii.; Vox Clam. vu. 115.
^ Conf. Aman. vi. mo.
^ D.&- P. Prol., chap. vi.
^ Mirour, 14497. Def. Cur. in Fasc. 11. pp. 481-4.
* Hand. Synne, 6079:
3yf au husbond chyldryn haue.
One or two, mayden or knaue, '
He may haue store and tresour
To kepe with hys chyldryn yn honour.
Cf. D. &' P. Prol., chap. -viii. Summa, P. n. (second part),
Q. XXXII., A. 6.
' D. &- P.v. y. i: "if ony man or woman dye for defaute of
helpe Thanne alle y' shulde haue holpe them and might haue
holpe them and wyste therof and wolde not helpe them be
gylty of rnanslaughter...lf thou wil not fede hym whanne thou
myght thou sleeste hym." Cf. P. i?. 6- i. Christ's Own Com
plaint, p. 181, line 209.
* D. (S- P. VII. 4. 4; cf. VII, 12, 1.

x] THE PROBLEM OF POVERTY 153
Yet no one was called on to be so generous as to
impoverish himselfi.
¦^ The problem of poverty is not new, and little that
is fresh can ever be said about it. The medieval
moralist dldnSot'^T^'ve'much groujnd to be broken
by modern sociology. Ths vision of a primitive
communistic state, the doctrine of the stewardship
of wealth, the bourgeois__faith, in self-help — these
were themes familiar enough to fourteenth century
thinkers. Enthusiasts and extremists of every school
"can find supporters among the contemporaries of
Wyclif; and the humdrum conclusions of the
majority of men have not suffered any radical
revision in five hundred years.
1 Conf. Aman. v. 7774, and marginal note "Apostolus:
Ordinata caritas incipit a seipsa."

CHAPTER XI
THE PROBLEM OF FREE WILL
For religious people tremendous events, and especi
ally tremendous disasters, must always raise one
question ; what is the relation between man's life and
God's will? The problem was raised for St* Paul by
the fall of Judaism, for St Augustine by the fall of
Rome, for Calvin by the fall of the medieval Church.
It was raised for the fourteenth century by the
desolation of war and plague. Had Wyclif been able
to give to his generation a masterly positive inter'
pretation of these phenomena, he might have ranked
with St Augustine and Calvin, he might have made
Calvin's work unnecessary. But in popular- religion
Wyclif stood as a translator and a denouncer, not
as a constructive teacher^. The hour for a great
* There is no intention here of discussing WycUf's claim
to be considered as a great constructive theologian, or the
common opinion that he was the greatest schoolrtfan of his
generation; but it is true nevertheless that his influence on
popular religion was chiefly felt through his translation of parts
of the Scriptures and his polemical tracts. The tracts exposed
most trenchantly many weaknesses in the working of the
ecclesiastical system, but. did little more. UnUke Calvin,
Wyclif never presented an interpretation of Christianity
sufficiently dogmatic and inspiring to grip the popular mind.
He did not offer an alternative vigorous and positive enough
to rival the Roman faith, because he never committed himself
unreservedly to Augustinianism as Calvin did. That superb
confidence in complete and victorious harmony with the WiU

CH. xr] THE PROBLEM OF FREE WILL 155
Augustinian came, but the great man in whom
Augustinianism should have become incarnate was
occupied in other — and lesser — ways.
The principal fact in the life of fourteenth century
England was the Black Death. It dominated rehgious
thought no less than social development. It was the
background which gave a dreadful significance to
theological controversy. The Church had been placed
in a difficult, if not in a false, position by the unpre
cedented ravages of the pestilence; for the Church
wished to beheve and to teach that God was govern
ing the world; it was anxious to have the scourge
regarded as a visitation of His Providence on man's
sini Now it was not difficult to convince people of
this view; unum constanter afflrmabant, says the
chronicler, quod omnis calamitas, omnis mortalitas,
demum omnis adversttas, quae eis acciderant, ex
speciali Dei gratia contingebant *. The diffichlty came
because many were inclined to develop the idea
farther than the Church felt to be safe either for the
layman's morality or the priest's income. In the
midst of a unique terror it was easy to persuade men
of God, common in Calvin's followers, was not the distin
guishing trait of the Lollards, brave as some might be.
WycUf's tactics were admirable, but his strategy was weak;
he could write effectively about abuses, but he did not per
ceive that the campaign against the' medieval Church would
turn decisively on Augustinianism.
^ e.g. D.&- P.i. 27. 4 : " Sumtyme such auenture of hungre,
of moreyne, of tempest, of droughte, of wete, falle by the orden-
aunce of god for mannys synne or for to shewe his might and
his worshippe."
* Walsingham, i. 410, This reply to the enquiries of the
Scots about the plague is typical of the popular attitude, Cf.
pp. 222, 223, 284; vol, II. pp, 46, 117, 128, 130, 213, 229, 248.

156 THE PROBLEM OF FREE WILL. [ch.
of the irresistible power and the transcendent Will of
God; it was only difficult to make them retain their
sense of responsibility and their trust in the efficacy
of ecclesiastical rites. For if the layman was saved
from complete scepticism he rushed into an extreme
Augustinianism, and either way the orthodox position
was undermined.
The revival of Augustinianism was by far the most
threatening symptom of the times ; for as the Middle
Ages drew to a close the Church found itself more and
more committed to an anti-Augustinian doctrine.
The evolution of medieval religion had tended to
bring increasing emphasis upon the free will of man,
and to leave in- the background the over-ruling Will
of God. Christianity had come to have the appear
ance of a gigantic machine organised for the salvation
of humanity by its own good works ^. Less and less
was God conceived as a distant, irresistible Power;
He had come very near to humanity in the Person of
His Son, and the very word " God," when it was used.
in popular literature, referred^more often than not to
the human Jesus*. Through the ordinances of the
Church God offered terms to man, and the fate of
' The formula of absolution ranked the sinner's own good
works side by side -with the Passion of Christ as securing the
forgiveness of sins. Myrc, Instructions, 1694: " Ista humiUtas
& passio domini nostri ihesli christi, & merita sancte matris
ecclesie, & omnes iudulgencie tibi concesse, & omnia bona que
fecisti et fades usque in finem vite tue, sint tibi in remissionem
istorum & omnium aUorum peccatorum tuorum. Amen."
' A few instances from the many that can easily be gathered ;
Festial, p. 300; Mirour, 1116, 2920, 3130, 4985, 5311, 6750,
7434; Vox Clam. 1. 1793; Pjeys Plowman, B. v. 411, x. 261, 441,
474. XI. 244.

XI] THE PROBLEM OF FREE WILL 157
each soul depended on its fulfilhng the quite definite
conditions of salvation. The prevailing conception of
religion was contractual, and, what was equally im
portant, the material interests of the Church were
closely bound up with the maintenance of a belief in <
free will and in the efficacy of " good works," ecclesias
tically interpreted. As a consequence most writers
opposed the deterministic views to which the Black
Death gave increased currency. The one unpardon
able sin, they taught, was the minimising of human
responsibility on whatever pretext. The fatalism
which excused its failures by God's eternal decree,
the over-confidence which trusted to His mercy to.
wipe out all sins at the lasfi^, and the "wanhope"
which reconciled itself to inevitable damnation * were

^ Kail, p. 30, Une 97; p. 32, Unes 41-56; Vox Clam. vn.
1149; Matthew, xxiv. p. 351: "late me synne ynowe, for god
wole neuer lese fat he haf dere boujt." Cf. Revelations, XL. 89.
' A short mystical treatise written in English, entitled
A Devout Treatise of Discerning of Spirits very necessary for
Ghostly Livers (printed in Tke Cell of Self -Knowledge), was
especiaUy directed against the "wanhope" which made men
beUeve their evil desft-es were an evidence of their souls'
damnation: this "nice charging of conscience " might prove as
dangerous as indifference (p. 130). Scale, Bk I. Pt i. Chap. 16,
p. 30. Revelations, 1.11. 134, L,xxv.igy. Matthew, xxiv. p. 350.
Wilkins, 11. 513. Hand. Synne, 5165. Piers Plowman, con
stant references to ' ' wanhope " as the enemy of repentance and
faith: B text, v. 286: Avarice in despair would hang himself.
XII. 179: He that "knoweth clergye" is protected^ from wan
hope, "In which flode the fende fondeth a man hardest."
XVII. 307 : wanhope may prevent salvation.
"Drede of desperacionliryueth a-weye thanne grace.
That mercy in her mynde may naujt thanne falle;
Good hope, that helpe shulde to wanhope torneth," etc.
Cf. XIII. 407: "That in-to wanhope he worthe and wende
naujt to be saued." v. 452; xx. 159. Summa, P. 11, (second
part), Q. XX., A. 3.

158 THE PROBLEM OF FREE WILL [ch.
the three most common symptoms of this deplorable
temper, and all three were roundly denounced time
after time by writers who intended to reach the
popular ear.
Robert Mannyng devoted almost the last solemn
words of his long poem to this sort of impiety. Cain
and Judasi, who would not repent because of despair,
were the classical warnings.
Al tymes ys God more wrof er with fys
pan with any ofer fyng fat ys;
pjT ys no synne fat men of rede.
So moche withseyf fe godhede;
For wanhope wenyf fat f e foly
Be more fan Goddes mercy -^.
Nor must men say that righteousness is impossible to
a fallen race, laying their sins as Adam did upon God
Himself*. This was to make God's commandment
ridiculous, for
why shulde he fat fyng forbede
pat nedely moste be do yn dede*?
The note of the whole poem is the possibility of salva
tion. Man can be saved ; all depends on his own works,
especially on his penance; even bishops are not safe
unless they work the works meet for salvation ^.
what ys hyt wrf to preche yn cherche,
whan men yn dede wyl nat werche'.'
John Myrc in his sermon for the first Sunday in Lent '
put the position bluntly before his congregation. It
^ Hand. Synne, 12289. ' ibid. 12293.
^ ibid. 12367. * ibid. 12401.
* ibid. 6917, the story of Bishop Troilus whose niggardUness
almost shut him out of heaven.
* ibid. 6941.

XI] THE PROBLEM OF FREE WILL 159
was idle for the sinner to try to shift the responsibihty
for his fate on to' his Maker; God
jeuyth hym chose whef yr he wyll do mekely, wyth good wyll,
ofer no. And yf he do mekely hys penaunce, he wyll forjeue
hym hys gult, and cheressche hym more fen he dyd before
and avaunse hym yn f e court of Heuen.
If he would not accept the conditions God would cast
him into hell, of which, said Myrc, he was well
worthy^ A rhymer of the early fifteenth century expressed
the same idea even more vividly. The choice of the
spul, and not the Will of God, was decisive:
And fou be loste, whom wiltow wyte ?
Is it long on me or fe*?-

pou hast fre wiUe, knowyst euytt and good :
Chese where wyltow take fy plas'.
For suche seed as fou dost sowe,
perof shal fyn heruest be.
In heuene or helle to repe and mowe.
As fou deserued, fong fy fee*.
The attitude of the author of Dives and Pauper may
be judged from the fact that one of his chapters is
headed: "That ther is no destenye^." Not the stars*,
he said, nor heredity', nor God's decree* will account
^ Festial, p. 90. " Kail, xvn. Une 119.
^ ibid. XVII. Une 151. * ibid. xix. Une 21.'
^ p. &¦ P. I. 23.
' ibid. I. 19. 5: The stars may indicate "wherto man or
woman or comunyte is enclened by the worchyng of the bodies
aboue. Neuirthelesse as they (clerks) saye man and woman
may by vertue-ouircorne the planetes." Cf. i. 25. 3, quoted
¦with o-ther passages in chap. vii. pp. 87-90 alfcve.
' "Siityme a fulle wycked ma hath a fulle gode childe,"
and vice versa, i. 21. 4.
* "GodforbeJe saithe he (St Gregory) that any cristen man

i6o THE PROBLEM OF FREE WILL [ch,
for man's sin ; it is his own choice and he must bear
the consequences. The temptation to sin is never too
strong to be resisted; God suffers the fiend to tempt
us not because he is certain to overcome us, but be
cause we can merit "mede " only by overcoming him ^.
The author of Piers the Plowman was greatly dis
tressed by this problem of Free Will. In various
places he set out both sides of the controversy *, and
his clearness of vision showed him the difficulty of
reconciling all the facts of history and revelation with
any one theory. Yet, when all allowance was made,
his opinion remained:
vche wijt in this world that hath wys vnderstondinge.
Is cheef souereyn of him-self his soule for to jeme.
And cheuesschen him from charge whon he childhode passeth,
Saue him-self from sunne for so him bi-houeth;
For worche he wel other wrong the wit is his oune ^.
At all times and by every artifice he emphasised the
necessity for good works ; the way to " seynt Treuthe "
was the observance of the Commandments*, and

or woman shulde byleue or say that there were any destyne
But god, sayth he, that made mannes lyf of nought he ruleth
& gouerneth mannys lyf & womannes after that they deserue,"
I. 23, I. Cf. I. 19. 4: "God ruleth demeth and gouerneth al
makynde psone & comunyte, after that they deserue."
1 "The feend is so feble & so faynty' he may ouircome noo
man ne woman by temptacion, butt he wole be ouircome of
him  " Dives, "Why suffreth god hym so moche to tempte
mankynde? " Pauper, "Ther is noman worthy to haue the
crowne of lyf but he withstode the feende in gostly stryf,"
"Al our teptacion shal turne us to mede if oure wyl be to
withstonde," i, 32. .i.
^ e.g. B. X. 414, XV. 258. ^ Piers Plowman, A. x. 71.
* ibid. A. VI. 56. Cf. Latin heading in C Text, vm. 204:
' Alta uia ad fidelitatem est obseruatio x preceptorum ut dicit
Petrus Plouhman." Cf. B. x. 157.

XI] THE PROBLEM OF FREE WILL i6i
" Amende-thou " had "the keye and the chket" of
Paradise^. Everyone who would lead a virtuous life
might be saved :
For Cryste cleped vs alle come if we wolde,
Sarasenes and scismatikes and so he dyd the lewes^.
It is significant that the friars — ^the most active of
popular teachers — are represented as the keen
opponents of any Augustinian notions *.
But there is another witness who is in some ways
more convincing than any of these. John Gower
made no pretence to a peculiar message or a high
inspiration. He claimed, time and again, to be
nothing more than the mouthpiece of the people*,
and, though we recognise this as a literary device,
all that we know of his character makes it easy to
accept his estimate of himself. He was respectable,
orthodox, conventional beyond most men. He had
neither the original genius of Langland nor the pro
fessional interests of Mannyng. We know that he
borrowed at random the material for his books. It
seems likely that he borrowed his views in the same
haphazard fashion. He may fairly be taken — it is his
own phrase — as a mirror of the men of his time.
Now Gower's mind was full of this problem of
destiny and free will. Of his chief works two open^
by discussing the relation between Fortune and the
' Piers Plowman, B. v. 6io. ^ ibid. B. xi. 114.
' ibid. B. VIII. 27.
* Vox Clam. iii. Prologue, lines 11, 1267; iv. 19, 1229; vn.
1469. Cf. Conf. Aman. Prologue 124.
= Conf. Aman. Prologue 26; Vox Clam., Liber 11., with which
the original version probably opened.

i62 THE PROBLEM OF FREE WILL [ch.
evils of the time, and two close ^ with man's responsi
bility as almost their last word. This theme had a
fascination for Gower, and to it he constantly re
turned.' The times, he frankly confessed, seemed to
him as bad as could be. All three estates were at
fault; in Church and State, from Pope to peasant,
scarcely anyone pleased God*- The very elements
were disturbed. The whole creation groaned to
gether*- The last age was nearly spent*, and every
one was debating the cause of the universal dechne.
Some found fault with the clergy, some with the
gentry 5, but the most general inclination was to
blame the times: "Le siecle est mai*."
0 mundus, mundus, dicunt, 0 ve tibi, mundus.
Qui magis atque magis deteriora parts '.
It was fortune, destiny, fate. "Ther mai noman his
happ withsein*," " Mai nomanflethat schal betide*,"
— these explanations were offered for every- event in
human hf e^" The natural science of the day supported
ythis mechanical interpretation. What the vulgar
called fortune was explained by the "naturien" to
be the influence of the planets, and on this basis was
constructed an elaborate philosophy which con
fronted the "divin" when he tried to preach about
the effect of human sin"
^ Vox Clam. vu. 1401; Mirour, 26605.
* Conf. Aman. Prologue; Mirour, 26557.
= Conf. Aman. Prologue 910. * ibid. Prologue 826.
* Mirour, 27217. « Mirour, 26590.
' Vox Clam. vu. 361; cf. 11. 37, 47.
' Conf. Aman. in. 978. 9 ibid. 11. 2860.
" e.g. Conf. Aman. Iii. 1221, 1348, 1677; iV- 1524; VI. 1026,
1613, 1702; VIII. 1020, 1172.
" ibid. vu. 633; Prologue 529; iv. 1783.

XI] THE PROBLEM OF FREE WILL 163
Gower was not prepared to reject the system of the
"naturien" completely, but his instinct drove him to
the side of the "divin." He was sure that somehow
man was the cause of all ^. As Gregory expressed it,
man is a microcosm ; in himself he contains the whole
world*- If he is not in harmony with the Creator,
what wonder is there if the land and sea cry for
judgment on him, that the stars in their courses fight
against him*? Fortune is nothing, nor fate*. Every
man shapes his own destiny.
Si bene vis, sequitur bona sors, si vis male, sortem
Pro motu mentis efficis esse malam^.
That we fortune clepe so
Out of the man himself it groweth*.
However neatly the scientific interpretation of the uni
verse may hold together — planets, stones, humours,
and the rest — history proves that the virtuous- need
stand in no awe of the stars and natural forces.
Un soul prodhomme a dieu priant
Porra quasser du meintenant
Trestout le pis de leur diete'.
Did not the sun itself stand still for Joshua? Wild
animals waited on Daniel, Silvester, and Jonah.
Whilst they served God the Jews defeated every foe *.
It will be the same with England; she need fear no
omens '. Let men face their responsibilities. Let each
' Conf. Aman. Prologue 528, 582, 965 ; Vox Clam. u. 629, vn.
651. ^ Conf. Aman. Prologue 945.
' ibid. Prologue 959. * Vox Clam. chap. v. and vi.
' Vox Clam. 11. 209; Mirour, 26975.
' Conf. Aman. Prologue 548. ' Mirour, 26743.
* Vox Clam. 11. chap. v. and vi., especially line 335; Conf.
Am:.n. Prologue 550; Mirour, 27013.
° Vox Clam. vii. 1399.

1 64 THE PROBLEM OF FREE WILL [ch.
confess his own sin. Gower, at least, is ready to do

so^- Finally at the Council of Constance the condemna
tion of the Church was officially laid on the idea that
God's decree overrode human choice*.
These denunciations and warnings are in them
selves strong presumptive evidence that there were
some people who could not accept the orthodox
account of God's relations with humanity. They be
lieved readily enough that the calamities of the age
were sent by God, but they could not regard God only
as an arbiter standing outside the world to judge it at
the last. Had He not created man, and woman who
caused man's fall; and was He not in some way
responsible for all man did*? Could He be entirely
excused*? Had He not indeed pre-ordained all that
* Mirour, 27289.
2 Brown, Fasciculus, vol. i. p. 279 : Articuli Johannis Wiclefi
Angli, De futura contingentium necessitate.
¦ ' Piers Plowman, B. x. 105 (discussion of laymen):
Whi wolde owre, saueoure suffre suche a worme in his'bUsse,
That bigyled the womman and the man after,
Thorw whiche wyles and wordes thei wenten to helle.
And al her sede for here synne the same deth suffred ?
Whi shulde we that now ben for the werkes of Adam
Roten and to-rende? resoun wolde it neuere.
D. &• P. VI. 10. 2: "Th)^ false excusacion that excuse so
ther synne by the malyce of wymen byganne first in adam and
lost adam and al mankynde. For synfuUye he excused his
synne by woma wha god undernam him of his synne andput
woman in defaute. Also he put god in defaute that made
woman and answerd ful proudly as men do these dayes and
sa,yd to god : The woma y' thou yaue to me to be my felow yaue
me of the tree and I ete therof. As who seyth, Haddeste thou
not youen hir to be my felow I shuld not have synned  he
put woman aud god principaly that made woman in defaute."
* The word is Gower's, Conf. Aman., Prologue 522.

XI] THE PRObLEM OF FREE WILL 165
happened, since all that happened was according to
His Will? This newer, more vivid conception of God's
Will was sure in time to disturb the orthodox view of
sin. There was a second line of thought which made
men dissatisfied with the attitude of the Church. The
problem of evil is always raised in a peculiarly acute
form when the righteous suffer with the ungodly, and
the continued ravages of the pestilence made the
questionings of Job very real indeed for the four
teenth century. People who had been taught that
the performance of religious duties and rites would
bring temporal as well as spiritual reward^ were in-
chned to look upon prosperity and loss as a measure
of virtue and vice. It was not easy .for the Church
now to reconcile th^m to the fact that curses of
temporal mischief "fal as sone to the gode as to the
wicked*," or to teach that sometimes "mischeif is
noo curse but a louetyk of god," and that it is only
in the other world that God " punyssheth euery synne
• Hand. Synne, 9323 : The payment of tithes ensured long
Ufe and good health as well as grace and forgiveness of sin.
3yue God f e best fat fou mayst haue
And alle f e touf er wyl f e saue."
D. & P. VII. 13. 3 : "If he paye his tithis truly he shal haue
helth of body and the more plentie of gode " as well as spiritual
blessing. ibid. VI. 3. 3: "Many myscheues falle to them that lyue i
auotrie, moch sikenesse, moch myshappe, losse of good,
wanysshyng of cateyl and lytel foyson therin, sodeyne pouert,
euyl name, and ,moche shame, greate hurte and ofte maymige
and myscheuous deth, as dethe in presoun and hangynge and
ofte soden dethe and destruction of eyrys and of ther erytage."
Mirour, 2197, 9025, 16027, 26989, Cf, Benefits derived from
the sight of the Sacrament, chap. vii. p. 79 above.
^ D.S' P. X. 8. 3.

169- THE PROBLEM OF FREE WILL [ch.
after y' it is more greuous or lesse greuous^" Any
ordinary notion of justice was indeed difficult to
reconcile with the indiscriminate destruction of the
righteous with the unrighteous, of innocent children
with hoary sinners, and some men began to "grutch
ayenst goddes domes in seknes, tribulacion, and
disease, and sey that god is unrightful and cruel or
grutche ayenste his mercy*." It was about the
sorrows of his own age rather than about those of
Sodom that Dives was ¦thinking when he marvelled
so much that "god toke so general wreth to slee man
and woman and child. For I am syker," he added,
thinking doubtless of the havoc of the plague, " ther
were many children ful yonge and ungiltee in y'
synne*." There was little comfort in the reply that
the children were mercifully slain to preserve them
from the lechery of their fathers in this life and from
hell in the next. And why, asked others, had the
wicked such power in this world? " God kno with ther
maleice and what they wyll do, why yeueth he than
such lordship & power to shrewis?" To reply that
this was "for comon synne of the peple" seemed
most unsatisfactory*
The, bitterness of these questionings penetrated the
cell 9f at least one recluse with strange results. Juhan
' "In the other worlde he punyssheth euery synne (sic)'
after y' it is more greuous or lesse greuous. But in this worlde
he doth not alwey so But oft i this world he punyssheth the
les synne harder than he doth the more synne  comonly he
puuissheth harder pore folk in this world than he do rich folk
as by comon lawe  god reseruethe the greuous synnes and
ye synnes of greate folke to punisshe them in the other world
or in helle or in purgatorye." D. (&¦ P. vi. 23 passim,
2 ibid. II. 4. I. ' ibid. vi. 16. 4. * ibid. iv. 17. i.

XI] THE PROBLEM OF FREE WILL 167
of Norwich, hke most of those who fled from the
world, was greatly concerned about sin ; but strangely
enough it was not her awn sin which chiefly troubled
her. That was almost forgotten in the shadow of a
greater problem : the sin of the world. How came sin
to mar God's plan and cause Christ's passion? This^,
and not her own salvation, was the theme which
fascinated the fourteenth century mystic; and,
strictly orthodox as she desired to be*, the solution
of her doubts drove her so far into Augustinianism
that her book from the first* was felt to be dangerous
and has even been suspected of Lollardy*.
Juhan was convinced that nothing happens apart
from God ; " God doth aU thing, be it never so little ^,"
and, as a consequence, all is well done. It does not
seem so to man*: "he beholdeth some deeds well
' Her own definition of the sin which troubled her is given
in Comfortable Words, p. 75: "In this word 'sin' our Lord
brought to my mind generally all that is not good — the shame
ful despite and the utter noughting that He bare for us in this
Ufe and iu His dying; and all the pains and passions of all His
creatures, ghostly and bodily... and the beholding of this with
all the pains that ever were, and ever shall be."
^ Revelations, xxxiii. p. 74 et seq. : she disclaims any wish
"to take proof of any thing that longeth to our Faith; for I
beUeved sothfastlie that Hell and Purgatory is for the same
end that Holy Church teacheth for." Cf. lxi. p. i6i ; ix. pp. 23
and 24.
' The scribe added a prayer to God that "this booke com
not but to the hands of them that -will be his faithfuU lovers,
and to those that will sobmitt them to the faith of holy
Church," p. 204 of Miss Warrack's edition (1901).
* Cf. Father Dalgairns's Essay prefixed to Scale, p. xxxii
et seq.
° Revelations, xi. p. 31, cf. pp. 32 and 33 : "There is no Door
but he."
« ibid. XXIX. p. 66: "Ah good Lord, How might aU be weU,
for the great harm that is come by sin to thy Creatures?"

i68 THE PROBLEM OF FREE WILL [ch.
done, and some deeds evil, and our Lord beholdeth
them not so," for " all thing were set in orderere any
thing was made, as it should-stand without end; and
no manner of thing shall fail of that Point^" "One
point of our Faith" is, of course, that "many
Creatures shall be damned," and at first Julian found
it difficult to believe that, despite this, " all should be
well*." Yet our Lord showed her that what was im
possible to her was not so to Him*; God will perform
some "great deed" which we cannot conceive, and
one day He will make all things appear right to us as
in fact they now are. Julian had wondered " why by
the great, foreseeing wisdom of God sin was not
letted. For then methought that all should have
been well*"; but in her vision our Lord answered
"Sin is behouely^." He showed her further that it
had no real existence, " God is all-thing*." Julian had
come to the same faith that Tennyson was afterwards
to set before the nineteenth century ; she had reached
his "calm assurance" that — despite appearances —
"All is well'." But as he had to appeal to the "one
far off Divine event," so she based her confidence on
the "great deed that our Lord God shall do*."
1 Revelations, xi. p. 32. ^ ibid, xxxii. p. 73.
^ ibid. loc. cit, " Comfortable Words, p. 74.
^ ibid. p. 75,
" ibid. p. 120: "Ah, wretched sin, what art thou? Thou
art nought! For I saw God is all- thing. I saw thee not."
' In Memoriam, cxxvi. and cxxvii. with which compare:
"all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well."
Comfortable Words, p. 77. Revelations, xxn. 71.
' Revelations, xxxii. p. 73, cf. p. 72: "There is a deed, the
which the blissedful Trinity shall do in the last day." In Mem.
cxxxi.

XI] THE PROBLEM OF FREE WILL 169
By such doctrines the traditional notion of sin was
shaken more effectually than by all Wyclif's tracts.
To the mystics and to those whom they influenced,
sin was more than the breach of a commandment by
the individual sinner; it was something fundament
ally wrong with the whole universe. It was not a
"twelve penny matter" to be set right by a petty
fine ; it had caused the Passion of God Himself. Christ
had done all; faith, and faith only, was asked of man^.
The doctrine of Justification by Faith, shattering all
ecclesiastical machinery, was dimly outlining itself
before the mind of the fourteenth century. Juhan
strove vigorously to maintain her belief in the efficacy
of penance together with her Augustinian view of the
necessity of sin; but it was an impossible union*
The author of Pearl had also travelled far in
Augustinian theology. The medieval struggle to
gather sufficient merits to enter heaven, whether by
masses or "almsgiving, lights or endowments, seemed
^ Comfortable Words, p. 77: "These words were shewed weU
tenderly she-wing no more blame to me nor to any that shall
be saved... He blames not me for sin." Revelations, xxix.
p. 66: "this Asseeth-making is more pleasing to the blessed
Godhead and more Worshipful for man's Salvation without
Comparison than ever was the sin of Adanj harmful." ibid. l.
p. 114, JuUau reaUzed the mystery of forgiveness ("Then was
this my marvel that I saw our Lord God shewing to us no
more blame, than if we were as clean and as holy as Angels
be in Heaven" although "by the common teaching of Holy
Church and by mine own feeling " "the blame of our sins con
tinually hangeth upon us"): the mystery was explained in
chap. U. Christ, the suffering Servant, had become the
second Adam identifying himself with the first Adam; himself
"faUing" into Mary's womb "to excuse Adam from blame."
ibid. LXXXIII, p. 213: Virtue defined as "Charity given," i.e.
imputed to man by God.
^ Comfortable Words, p. 89.

170 THE PROBLEM OF FREE WILL [cH.
to him an irrelevant and trivial matter. It was the
grace of God, not obedience to the Law, which saved
men's souls. "The grace of God is great enow," he
loved to repeat^, and in the bliss which it assured all
distinction of merits was forgotten*. The pure doc
trine of Justification set forth by Toplady, the
strictest of Calvinists, was enunciated no less clearly
four hundred years earlier. It was the eighteenth.
century Evangelical who wrote:
Not the labours of my hands
Can fulfil Thy law's demands;
Could my zeal no respite know.
Could my tears for ever flow.
All for sin could not atone ;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.
But precisely the same faith had been expressed in
the fourteenth century:
'Twas said of one, I know well whom,
David in Psalter, that never lied :
"Lord ! draw never Thy servant to doom,
For none living to Thee is justified."
Wherefore to court when thou shalt come,
Where all our causes -shall be tried-,
Think on this text; to wrath give room;
And leave thy fancied rights aside.
So He on the rood that bloody died,
Whose hands the cruel nails did bite.
Grant thee to pass at that solemn tide
By innocence, and not by right !^
It was the imputed righteousness of Christ which de
stroyed sin — not sacraments, nor fasts, nor even good
works. The second Adam had rescued the first.
'¦ e.g. stanza 51 et seq.
^ Stanza 38 et seq. ,
' Pearl rendered into modern EngUsh (ed. 1906)', stanza 59.

XI] THE PROBLEM OF FREE WILL 171
Moreover, the choice of salvation did not he with
man; he was chosen by God^. This doctrine of
Election, the most characteristic note of Calvin's
Augustinianism, was sounded in the fourteenth
century not only by Wyclif and the Lohards*, and
not most clearly by them. It was Julian* who stated
with the greatest emphasis the full doctrine of
eternal Election with the corollary of Final Perse
verance *, and she was willing to go much farther than
^ Revelations, 1.111. 136, especially the passage beginning:
"For I saw that God never began to love Mankind: For
right, the same that mankind shall be in endless bUss... right
so the same Mankind hath been in the foresight of God, known
and loved fro without beginning in his rightful intent," etc.
^ WycUf's definition of the Church "congregacio omnium
predestinatorum " is reproduced in the LoUardizing version of
Lay Folks Catechism, Une 96- "Holy chyrche fat at fe day
of dome schal go hennys in-to heuyn"; line 306, "general
chirche of angelys and seyntys in heuyn and of alle fat schul be
sauyd"; line 196, "men fat schul be sauyd," Matthew, xi.
p. 198: "alle angeUs & men & wommen fat schullen be sauyd
ben goddis kyngdom & holy chirche... and alle fo fat schullen
be dampnyd in helle ben deuelis chirche or synagoge."
. This definition was given in Kail, xxiii. line i, p. 103 :
I wole be nlendid 3if y say mys.
Holychirche nes nofer tre ne stones.
pe hous of preyers, god nempned fys,
Bof e goode men and wikked ressayuef at ones.
fere as gadryng of goode men ys.
Is holychyrche of flesch and bones.
The author seems, however, to doubt if this view is correct.
Cf. Hilton, whose Scale of Perfection is full of Augustinian
notions, e.g. Bk ii. Pt ii. Chap. 9, p. 219 and Bk 11. Pt i.
Chap. 7, p. 152: "The most part of chosen souls." Hilton
continually refers to St Paul and checks all religious experience
by this apostle's.
' Augustinian phrases abound throughout Revelations, e.g.
"mankind that shall be saved," ix. 24; xxv. 60; xxvn. 64;
XXXI. 70; XXXVIII. 83; cf. " chosen souls " in Comfortable Words,
p. 49.
* Revelations, xxxvii. 83: "In every Soul that shall be
saved is a godly Will that never finally assenteth to sinn ne
never shall."

172 THE PROBLEM OF FREE WILL [ch.
Wyclif in one direction. Wychf would never allow
that the elect had assurance of their salvation; the
number of the saved was uncertain, and no one could
be sure whether or no he was includedi. In this view
Wyclif had the support of many orthodox writers,
who dreaded " assurance " as savouring of fatalism*,
but the numerous condemnations are evidence that
a severe and full Augustinian doctrine was abroad.
In one passage Wyclif complains that when he urged
the necessity of preaching he was met with the reply
that
goode men schulden be sauyd fou? no prechynge be, for fei
may not perische as god seif, and summe wicked men schullen
neuere come to bUsse for no prechynge on erthe'.
He could not deny that the elect must be saved, but
argued that preaching was the means by which God
would save them. Like other fourteenth century
thinkers who felt thfe fascination of Augustinianism,
Wychf always resisted the conclusion that some men
were irretrievably predestined to damnation, and he
added: "who knoweJ> ye mesure of goddis mercy, to
whom herynge of goddis word schal yus profite*?"
^ Matthew, xxiv. p. 350: "if we lookeu wel, as nefer we
witen ne we trowe now to be sauyd, & jhit we hopen it wif outen
any dowte."
One of WycUf's arguments against the selling of prayers
was that the laity (Matthew, xxn. p. 298 and p. 317) could
not be sure if a priest were among the saved, nor could the priest
himself (Matthew, xxvn. p. 420), cf. xxn. 317, L. F. C.
(LoUardizing Version), Une 313 : " men lakkys knowynge whefer
fey ben partys of holy chirche" (i.e. of tlie saved). Summa,
P. II. (first part), Q. cxii., A. 5.
" -D. <&¦ P. I. 42. 3. 3 Matthew, v. p. iii.
* Matthew, loc. cit. Cf. Festial, p. 123: "for cursed men
holy chyrch prayf e not : for whill a man or a woman standyf e

Xl] THE PROBLEM OF FREE WILL 173
But the very form of the question indicates that
some people had accepted the fuUer consequences
of the doctrine.
accursed he ys dampned befor God" and "fer is no suffrage of
holy chyrche fat may helpe a dampned man"; yet he may
repent and be saved. Cf. Summa, P. i., Q. xxiii. De Praedes-
tinatione, especiaUy Art. 3 and Art. 7.

CHAPTER XII
THE PROBLEM OF PRAYER
The fourteenth century discussions on the nature of
prayer were closely connected with these Augustinian
doctrines of salvation, and provide further evidence
of the theological ferment which followed the Black
Death. The old conception of prayer was disturbed.
Some cast away their entire belief. Others re
modelled their ideas. Either way the Churcli was
faced by dissentients, who were not all Lollards.
To the majority of men prayer was an instrument
for applying God's illimitable power to the difficulties
of daily lifei. The chief, if not the only, question
about it was an extremely practical one: how can
prayer be made most efficient? Is it by ordinary
Masses or by other offices*? Is it by the elaboration
or the multiplication of services*? Is it by prayer at
' Fourteenth century prayers were concerned -with every
detail of the life of the people: example is given in Bidding
Prayers used at York, L. F. M. B., p, 64, Cf. Mirour, 10297:
Gower's examples of the way in which prayer "works."
^ D. &¦ P. VII. 21 and 22.
' Wills, examples of each belief:
Lady AUce West, 1395, wanted 4400 masses "in the most
haste that it may be do, withynne xiiii nygtit next after my
deces," p. 6.
Thomas Walwayn, 1415, wanted 10,000 masses "-withoute
pompe whyche may not profyt myn soule," p.- 23.
But John Plot was careful to note that the obits for his soul
should be said with due ceremony, "with solempne seruise -

CH. XII] THE PROBLEM OF PRAYER 175
Rome or in the Holy Land^? Are the prayers of some
priests more effective than those of others? Are not
the friars the most influential of all*? Have they not
some prayers even more potent than the Pater ^} To
whom ought one to direct prayer? To the Father or
to the Son or to St Mary*? Perhaps even St Mary is
best approached indirectly — through her mother,
St Anne ^? About these and similar details .there were
continual changes in popular opinion. The piety of
some ill-balanced persons was so greatly excited by
the perils of the time that they could find no satis
faction in their regular devotions. They demanded
exceptional modes of expressing their exceptional
feelings, and the ordinary services of the Church fell
into neglect. The author of Dives and Pauper had
in mind both classes of people when he wrote about
prayer. On the one hand he reproved any fantastic
that ys for to sayn wyth Belle Ryngyng, deryge be note, and
Masse of requiem be note," p. 15.
"• P. if. (S- L. Stacions of Rome, p. •125, line 350.
2 See chap. vi. p. 70 above.
2 Matthew, xxn. p. 320; Z,., F. C, LoUardizing Version,
combats this notion, "Text L, line 59, p. 7 (no parallel in orthodox
textT); D.&' P. vu. 21. 5 opposes " specialle Orison that is nat
of the missalle, ne approued of holychurche butt ofterepreuyd. "
* Festial, 73. Our Lord is best approached by St Mary.
P. R. &¦ L. Christ's Own Complaint, v. 628, p. 203:
And fi moder, myldest of mood,
pat schewif to fee hir papis bare
(For me) of which fou soukedist foode;
And to-fore fi fadir, (&) mere maree,
pou schewist fi woundis rent on roode.
The idea was to make St Mary appeal to her Son and our
Lord to His Father. St Anne intioduces a fourth stage.
* Festial, 216. Oh St Anne's Day Myrc said "ye schul now
knele adoune and pray Saynt Anne to pray to her holy doghtyr,
oure lady, fat scho pray to her sonne fat he jeue you hele yn
body and yn soule," etc.

176 THE PROBLEM OF PRAYER [ch.
or unusual rehgious customs, assuring his readers
that the well-tried offices of devotion were more ef
fective. than these new-fangled pieties which savoured
sometimes of heresy, always of presumptioni- It
was good to fast, but why choose unheard-of days for
fasting? Were not Wednesday and Friday suitable?
Our Lady was well pleased by the Saturday fast in
her honour, why now observe Monday? "But for to
set feyth in such nyce obseruaQces and wene to be
syker of their axynge for suche obseruaunces y' is nat
lefulle for we may not knowe the wyl of god in suche
thinges w'out special revelacio of god*." In a similar
spirit he argued against those who went to the other
extreme, appealing to the common experience of
many generations against the sudden doubts of in
dividuals. Some opposed long liturgical prayers be
cause our Lord reproved the vain repetitions of the
' D.&- P. VII. 22. Cf. I. 42. 3: "in asmoche as they preferre
in their fastynge dayes of their owne choyce bifore tho dales
that been ordeyned by holy churche to faste, in somoche they
synne in presumption & do piudice to holy churche, y'
ordeyned suche dales that been moste couenyet to faste, as
Wednesday, fridaye, and Saturday  I see no grounde ne
reason in suche fastynge, ne whye it shuld be more medeful
to fast alle mondayes in the yere whan the feest of oure lady
in lente fallyth on-monday thanne to fast in worshyp, of her
wednesdaye, friday, or Saturday. For I leue sykerly tiat the
mede of fastynge ne the vertue of fastynge is nat assigned ne
limyted by ye letters of the kaleder ne folowe nat the cours of
the kalender ne chagith nat from one day to another."
Pauper complained (D. &¦ P. vu. 21. 2) of the simoniacal
practice of leaving ordinary masses for special devotions, e.g.
of the Trinity, of our Lady, or for some orison not approved
by the Church. Wilkins, 11. 145: "statuimus insuper quod
parochiales presbyteri annuaUa vel triennalia non recipiant
per quae parochiales ecclesiae careant obsequiis debitis et
quotidianis." ^ D. & P. 1. 42. 2.

XII] THE PROBLEM OF PRAYER 177
heatheni; some opposed the intoning of prayers
"with note and hackynge of the sillabes and wordes,"
remarking cynically that anyone who approached the
king of England, as churchmen approached the King
of Heaven, with "soo many notes and hackynges in
his tale he shuld haue lytel thanke*." Others, again,
asked "Sithen god is ouir all present why pray we
more i holy churche than in other place*? "
To all such questioners Pauper rephed in a tone
that is surprisingly modern. He defended the normal
methods of worshipby psychological arguments. His
answer was always the same: these things of which
you complain have been proved to be helpful; the set
form of words*, the^ kneeling posture 5, the intona
tion *, the atmosphere of corhmon worship in a sacred
' D.&- P. 1. 57. 2. Pauper repUed " Cryst bad nat utterly y'
me shulde nat speke moche in their prayer but he ^d that me
shulde nat speke moche in ther prayer as hethen men do....
Also he badde us nat speke moqhe in oure prayer as ypocrites
done... as longe as a man or woman prayeth wysely deuoutiy
and with gode itencion so longe he speketh nat to moch." He
condemned the proverb "Shorte prayer thyrleth heuene" as
a proverb for the careless: a true 'short' prayer is a prayer
when God and man are not far apart, i. 56. i.
" ibid. I. 59, 3. Cf. Knighton, n. p. 262; Articuli Johannis
Wiclefi AngU: Contra Orationes, Brown, Fasciculus, 1. 269.
^ ibid. I. 57. 3.
* Cf. Scale^ Bk i. Pt U. Chap, i. Sect, i, p. 37,
^ D. &• P. 1. 58. 2: "As longe as man or woma is stired
to deuocion by speche or vocal prayer, by knelynge, loutynge,
fastynge, or any other obseruaunce reasonable so longe it is
wele doone to use it in his prayer, but if he be lettyd therby
from deuocion and falle therby in distraction it is better to leue
it for a tyme than to use it." Summa, P. 11. (second part),
Q. LXXXIII., A. 12, Q. LXXXIV., A. 2 and 3, Q. xci., A. i and 2.
* i). (S- P, I, 59. 3. Intonation tends "to the more excita-
tione of deuocion of the people, also to putte away heuynesse
and unlustynesse."

178 THE PROBLEM OF PRAYER [ch.
place I, have been found to stir the spirit of devotion,
and as long as they are hkely to do this we must
continue to support them. Certain points, Pauper
admitted, were in need of amendment : priests some
times intoned so as to hinder and not to help the
service, and not every chorister's character 'would
bear examination *-
Over these matters the recluses seem to have been
in close touch with popular doubts and questionings.
To those who consulted them they gave counsel
admirable in its sane moderation and its knowledge
of human hature; Rolle, Hilton, Julian, and others
less known*, had always the same advice, the same
' D. (S- P. 1. 57. 3 : " For asmoche as he (God) is ouir al there
fore i euery place he owyth to be worshiped. But for asmoche
as we may nat worship him in due maner in euery place, There
fore is holy churche ordeyned that men shulde fulfyl there y'
they leue further places . . . Firste for comon prayer and prisynge
is more plesauntc.Also to fle erroures and ydolatrye. For
if eche man or woma drewe him alone alway in his prayer the
feende shulde disseyue hym... Also to exclude slouth in goddes
seruyce." Cf. Summa, P. 11. (second part), Q. Lxxxiii., A. 12;
Q. LXXXIV., A. 2 and 3.
^ D.&- P. I. 59. Pauper admitted the evils of "lettyng the
deuout praier of the peple as doth this curiouse knackyng
sunge of the viciouse mynisties in the churche and specially
in grete and riche churches. For it is ofte seen l^at the
singers in suche places and other also ben fulle proude glutones
and lechours also."
WycUf was of opinion that simple prayer said " as comunly
men speken" not by "veyn knackyng of newe song" was best,
"for bi ther grete criyng of song, as deschaunt, countre note
and orgene fei ben lettid for studynge and prechynge of fe
gospel." Matthew, iv. pp. 76, 77.
* Mystical Treatises printed -with Margery Kemp's Short
Treatise on Contemplation, in The Cell of Self -Knowledge-,
especiaUy A Devout Treatise called the Epistle of Prayer, and
A very necessary Epistle of Discretion in Stirrings of the Soul,
by an unknown writer of the later fourteenth century who

XII] THE PROBLEM OF PRAYER 179
warning against extravagance in devotion. They set
their faces steadily against the fantastic methods of
devotion which drew people from the quiet and
regular practice of rehgion, recommending rather
that men should conform their lives to the norm of
Christian piety^, content with its time-honoured ex
pressions — the Pater for the use of all; the Psalms
for the more learned; meditation on the Name of
Jesu for the more spiritual*. Special warning was
given against that self-confident piety which scorned
set forms and times of prayer as unreal, which claimed
to follow only the leading of the Spirit* Some people
were discouraged because they had no great relish in
their devotions and no remarkable feeling of com
munion vrith God. Feeling, said Hilton, is a secondary
matter; if"the forms of worship are conscientiously
observed and the Faith is truly held there is no need
to trouble about the presence or the absence of pious
feehngs*. No one must try to force them by un
natural concentration of thought or by over-severe
penances^ No special tokens of communion with
tiod — no miraculous lights or songs or smells — must
"marks a middle point between Rolle and Hilton." See
Introduction by E. G. Gardner, p. xxiv.
' Cell of Self-Knowledge, p. 81 : "I had lever have his meed," ¦
etc. Rolle, E. P. T., ix. p. 40: Pater, Ave, matins, or psalter
recommended "for fat is euer more a sekyr standarde fat will
noghte faile."
a Scale, Bk n. Pt iu. Chap. 12, p. 289. Cf . Bk i. Pt i. Chap. 7,
p. 9. RoUe, E. P. T., 1. pp. 1-5; IX. p. 40.
' Scale, Bk l. Pt U. Chap, i. Sect, i, p. 37.
« ibid. Bk 11. PtU. Chap. 11, p. 233; cf. Bk 11. Pt i. Chap. 7,
p. 152. Rolle, E. P. T., VIII. p. 19: "It sufiiceth to me for to
lyffe in trouthe princypally and noghte in felyng."
5 RoUe, E. P. T., IX. p. 37.
12 — 2

' i8o THE PROBLEM OF PRAYER [ch.
be expected, though, to be sure, they must be
reverently received if by the exceptional mercy of
God they are granted^. Yet if they make normal
devotions impossible or unpalatable they are to be
suspected*, for heresy often begins with this sort of
spiritual pride* Above all, it is essential to maintain
the physical strength of the body, or every kind of
wild fancy will abound. A worldly person will not
suffer great harm if he lose a night's sleep for thought
of his sin, but a devout person ought to avoid such
extremes*- These external matters, after all, were
only the means and not the end ; too much emphasis
must not be laid on them^ The recluses often set out
the contrast between "formal and inward rehgion"
in a way that would have commended itself to the
early Methodists*- It was the life which tested the
value of devo,tions, though, complained Rolle, "sume
ere vnkouande and wenes ]?at ya.y desire noghte Godd
bot if ya-Y be ay criande ef Godd... as if ya.y said thus
"- Scale, p. 233 loc. cit. ' Rolle, E. P. T., viu. Cell of Self-
Knowledge: Hilton's Treatise on the Song of Angels, p. 63 et
seq., especially pp. 68-73.
'' ibid. Bk I. Pt i. Chap. 11, p. 13 et seq.
' ibid. Bk i. Pt iu. Chap. 5, Sect. 2, p. 87. Cf. Bk i. Pt i.
Chap. 15, Sect. 2, p. 26.
* Rolle, E. P. T., IX. p. 41.
^ Cell of Self-Knowledge, pp. 82, 96, 105 : " silence and speak
ing, fasting and eating, onUness and company, common cloth
ing of Christian religion and singular habits of divers and
devised brotherhoods," aU help in different circumstances.
To beUe-ve too much in any one of them is the "full and final
destroying of the freedom of Christ." Cf. Wyclif's contrast
between freedom of Christ's reUgion and bondage of "sects"
of "reUgious men." Matthew, i. "Leaven of Pharisees."
' Rolle, E. P. T., Preface xU. : "a wretched man or woman
is thylke," etc. Cell of Self-Knowledge, external signs distin
guished from real piety, p. 95 et seq. Mirour, 4489.

XII] THE PROBLEM OF PRAYER i8i
'A Lorde, brynge me to Thi blysse,' 'Lord, make me
safe,' or swylke oyei^."
But some questioners were concerned not only
with the places and methods of prayer ; they doubted
whether any sort of prayer was needed. God knew
their wants before they told Him*, and He did not
alter His plans for all their beseeching. The innumer
able "unanswered prayers" of agonised fathers and
mothers, bereaved in the "pestilence-time," gave
point to the bitter enquiry : " Wherto shulde we pray
to god for anything for he is nat chaugeable*? "
"Sume saye that god slepith whanne he helpith
theim nat as they wolde*." To these doubts neither
Pauper's common-sense nor Wyclif's denunciation of
the sale of prayers was any answer. No answer indeed
was possible so long as men regarded prayer simply
as a means of "getting things done," but a different
idea was gradually worked out in the course of the
century. The popular mystics expounded it most
fully. Men who doubted the use of prayer asked what
right the contemplatives had to lead the life of
prayer, and the Incendium Amoris of Rolle, like
many of his shorter works, was really an Apologia
' Rolle, E. P. r., IX. p. 35.
" "Why pray we to god with oure mouth sith he kuowyth
(sic) aUe oure thoughte, alle oure desire, al our wyl and what us
nedeth?" D. &¦ P. 1. 58. i.
' ibid. loc. cit. It was easier to answer the other complaint
that God sent no peace "but every yere more warre than other"
despite many prayers and processions, " For they wolde noo
peas haue," was the retort, "whanne god sent he worshipfuUe
peas on euery side they despysed pees and slew he that made
peas," I, 55. 2. Summa, P. n. (second part), Q. lxxxiii., A. 2.
* D. &¦ P. II. 4. I.

iS2 THE PROBLEM OF PRAYER [ch,
pro Vita sua^. In it he sought to show that the
hermit was not less useful than the busy prelate.
Prayer, he explained, and Julian supported him, is
not mere petition; it is communion with God. It is
not because prayer gives a man what he wants, but
because it "ones the soul to God," that it is rational
and necessary. Everything that is done would be
done though we never prayed, said Julian, but God
stirs us to pray that we may be partners in His good
deed*. Prayer in short is to be valued more for its
effect on man than for its effect on God.
Wyclif's contribution to this discussion was
curiously moderate. He seems to have retained the
more popular conception of the nature and purpose
of prayer; in his works there is little trace of the
mystic's view. Like the pilgrims to Rome or St James's
he was on a quest for the most efficient form of inter
cession; but his belief in the necessity of individual
righteousness made him seek efficiency in ways quite
unlike the friars'. For Wyclif, prayer was essentially
a personal matter ; whether or no God would hear
depended on the suppliant's moral character*. As a
consequence, he disbelieved in the inherent value of
liturgical formulae; prayer could not be sold*; it was
an affair of the heart; "who euer lyue]? preie]? best;
& a symple pater noster of a plou3man ya.t is in
r^ Incendium Amoris, e.g. pp. 204, 205. Cf. Mirour, 14569.
Summa, P. n. (second part), Q. cLxxxii.
¦ ^ Comfortable Words, p. 99.
-. ' e.g. Matthew, iv. pp. 77 and 78: "God herif nat siche
cursed men for hem self, how schulde he fanne here hem for
ofere men? " _
* ibid. XXII. p. 3*17; XXVII. p. 415.

XII] THE PROBLEM OF PRAYER 183
charite is betre ya.n a J»owsand massis of coueitouse
prelatis^." Wyclif directed his criticism rather
against the methods by which men sought to make
prayer effectual than against their notions of its
intrinsic nature. In this way he exercised an influence
not essentially different from that of the more earnest
orthodox teachers*-
> Matthew, xviii. p. 274.
" Kail, XVIII. Une 37, p. 80:
And preyere wif-oute deuocion,
pou3 fey preye, god heref hem noujt:
pe Uppes turn preyers vp so doun,
pat spekef ofer fan herte foujt.
Cf. D. &¦ P. VII. 22. 3.

CONCLUSION
Two events in modern history have directed atten
tion to medieval religion : the Protestant Reformation
and the Romantic Revival. By each of these men's
study has been directed, their enthusiasm kindled,
their views coloured; by neither has impartial judg
ment been encouraged. Always there has been zeal,
but it has not been always according to knowledge.
The controversies of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries left Christendom divided into two schools
which, for want of better names, we must call
"Catholic" and "Evangelical." These were not
separated clearly or completely. In the English
Church and elsewhere the two have existed side
by si(|e, but for all that they are distinguishable.
Differing in most things, the two have agreed in a
common view of the relation that each of them holds
with medieval Christianity. The reformers were
accused of revolution ; they admitted and gloried in
-the charge. The Catholics were accused of remaining
in the old paths, and they did not deny it. Continuity
was the boast of one party, freedom from tradition
the boast of the other. However differently they
might appraise them, they were at one about the
facts. Their agreement was, nevertheless, an agree
ment only in error.
The traditional Protestant view of Church history,
which made of the thousand years between the
"Early Church" and the Reformation a thick dark-

CONCLUSION

18.5

ness of superstition and priestcraft, illumined only
by a few morning stars like Wychf and Huss and
the nameless heretics of the Italian valleys— this
has been for some time discredited. Hardly any
fanatic would now leap from that indeterminable
date when the purity of the "Early Church" de
parted to the day when Luther nailed ninety-five
theses to the door of the Schlosskirche in Wittenberg.
But the consequences which follow from this changed
attitude have not been admitted in their entirety.
There are few Puritans and Evangelicals who have
claimed their inheritance in the Middle Ages: there
are perhaps fewer Catholics who have admitted the •
claim. It is still too commonly assumed that the
modern Catholic movement contains the whole
tradition of the undivided Latin Church, and that
puritanical living with evangelical doctrine is a new
thing in the earth. Yet neither of these opinions
will bear examination, for neither has more to
recommend it than the loud and unanimous asser
tions of all the controversialists.
The renewed study of the Middle Ages which came
with the Romantic Revival did not remove these
mistakes, but confirmed them. The new movement
found itself everywhere confronted by ratiortalism
and Evangelicalism . Either separately or in unnatural
alliance these held the field. When for the refresh
ment and enrichment of their own barren times the
leaders of the Revival turned back for inspiration
to the Middle Ages, it was but to be expected that
they would overlook, or even deny, the presence of

1 86 CONCLUSION
unattractive elements in those idealized centuries;
and all was unattractive which reminded them of
the dominant influences of the late eighteenth and
the early nineteenth century. Their protest against
the rationalism and Evangelicalism of their own day
was as natural as their inability to recognise either
in medieval thought. But the need for their protest
has now disappeared, and still to persist in seeing
only one side of the picture would be as inexcusable
as it is unnecessary. The romantic and "Catholic"
elements in the medieval Church no one to-day is
likely to forget, but it is not superfluous to recall its
evangelical and its puritan qualities, its sanity, its
commonsense, and its rationalism; to emphasize the
fact that not only one half of modern Christianity
but the whole has its roots in medieval religion.
Nowhere has this been so plainly shown as in the
field of political thought. Dr Figgis has recently
bidden us look for the exposition of medieval
political doctrine in places where continuity was
scarcely to be expected. The true successors in
modern Europe of Gregory VII and Innocent III
and Boniface VIII, as we now begin to see, were
John Calvin, John Knox, and the English Indepen
dents. In Spain, where, since the Reformation, the
Church has best preserved its medieval appearance,
the appearance only has remained unaltered. The
spirit has suffered a decisive change: Lutheranism
itself has not been more Erastian. Henry Thomas
Buckle was remarkable neither for sympathy with
ecclesiastical independence nor for insight into its

CONCLUSION 187-
development, yet even he could not fail to discern
that "in pohtical matters the Church, which was
servile in Spain, was rebelhous in Scotland^." The
Spanish Church may have been strong, but it was
strong in the strength of the state. The high papal
doctrine of the superiority of ecclesiastical over
secular powers was more faithfuUy preserved and
more vigorously practised by the clergy inspired
from Geneva than by the Spanish chaplains on the
Seven Hills. The modern world has heard the echoes
of Unam Sanctam less clearly in the Vatican than
in the Scottish Kirk, where the battle for "the
Crown rights of King Jesus" was a genuine renewal
of the struggle for the liberties of the Holy Roman
Church. Gregory VII died in exile again with the
ejected clergy of 1662, and in the Disruption of the
Church of Scotland Boniface VIII was put to shame
a second time.
And this is true of more than ecclesiastical politics :
for the fourteenth century at least it is hardly less -
true of theological and devotional traditions. Not
only nor chiefly among those who have bo^ne and
coveted the name of Catholic do we find reproduc
tions of medieval faith. Reflexions of the spiritual
experience of the fourteenth century are not less
clear, are sometimes clearer, elsewhere. None of the
Caroline divines can boast so near a kinship with
the mystic of Malvern hills as can the Baptist tinker
of Bedford. In the dream of a puritan preacher
1 Buckle, History of Civilization in England, Vol. 11, Chap. v.
p. 409 (edition 1861).

1 88 CONCLUSION
reappeared the vision of the fourteenth century
clerk. The similarity of Piers the Plowman and The
Pilgrim's Progress in spirit and thought, in the
allegory, the imagery, and the very turns of the
expression — even if there were no direct borrowing,
this came by no accident. Here is no chance resem
blance, but a family likeness.
In this sympathy with the Puritan and Evangelical '
schools of modern Christendom Langland is.not alone.
The pious rhymes of his time, burdened with the
faith and aspirations of an unknown multitude, come
closer in sentiment to the Hymns for the People called
Methodists than to anything in The Temple or The
Christian Year. From those remote versifiers one
can pass to Charles Wesley and be scarcely conscious
of the change, for medieval religion has had its in
fluence over many who have not felt its spell-, and
those who have been most sensitive to its spell have
not always been most in harmony with its spirit.
The anecdotes in Sandford and Merton and the prosy
morality of Tupper would be more to the liking of the
fourteenth century than the ecstasies of Christina Ros-
setti or the studied archaism of A Dream of John Ball.
The battle with rigid Protestantism and the final
discomfiture of the enlightened rationalists a hundred
years ago were necessary preliminaries to the re
discovery of the Middle Ages, but the memory of
those historic struggles does not justify the appro
priation of medieval religion by any modern party
or the repudiation of it by any other. For the
medieval Church is the mother of us all.

INDEX

A. B.C. on the Passion of
Christ, 26 n.
Abraham, 48 n.
Absalom, 48
Absolution, 156 M.
Acts and Monuments, see
Foxe, John
Acts of the Apostles, see Bible
Adam, 49, 51, in, 151, 158,
164 «,, 169 n., 170
A Dream of John Ball, 188
Agnus Dei, 8
Alexander VII, 9
Alliterative Poems, see Morris,
Richard
All Saints' Day, 5 n.
All Saints' Vigil, 128 n.
Amende-thou, see Langland,
William
Ancren Riwle, 61 n.
Anglo-Saxon Church, 7
Apologia pro Vita Sua, 181
Archelaus, 23 n.
Aristotle, 57
Arnold, "T., Select English
Works, 20 n., 23 «.,
24 n., 55 n., syn., 102
n., 134 M.
Articuli Johannis Wiclefi
Angli, see Brown, Ed
ward
Arundel, Richard, Earl of, 81
Arundel, Thomas, Archbishop
of Canterbury, 126
Ashmolean MS, 63 n.
Astrology, 87 fi-., 93, 95
Atonement, Day of, 135
Augustinianism, 87, 154 n.,
155, 156, 161, 167,
169, 171, 172. 174
Aurora, 14 "
Authorised Version, see Bible
Ave, 2, 10, 17, 42, 43. 44. 47.
93, IOI »., 108, xygn.

Bacon, Francis, Of Prophecies ,
96
Balaam, 90
Ball, John, 107 «,, iii«.
Bedford, 188
Bellet, John, 99 n.
Belshazzar, 48«., 140
Benedicite, 39
Bethlehem, 24, 90
Beverley, 141 m,
Bible, 2, 19, 23 ff., 46, 48 ff.,
88, 133 ff.
A cts of the Apostles, y8 n.
Authorised Version, 49
I Corinthians, 48 n.
Genesis, 49
Kings, 48
New Testament, 48
Old Testament, 56 «,,
107
Psalms, 46 f., 170, 179
St Luke, iiy n.
St Matthew, 48 n. i, 164 w.
Black Death, 105, 155, 157,
165 f., 174, 181
Bokeland, Richard, 73 n.
Boniface VIII, 186 f.
Boy Bishop, 142
Bradshaw, Henry, 46 «.
Bradwardine, Thomas, 87
Breviary, 46
Bristol, 42
Britons, III n.
Brown, Edward, Fasciculus
Rerum
Vol. I, Articuli Johannis
Wiclefi Angli, syn.,
77 n., 164 -w., 177 M.
Vol. II, FitzRalph, Rich
ard, Defensorium Cura
torum, 24 n., 32 n., 33
n., 35 n., 36 n., 60 n.,
63 «., 69 n., 70 n., i^y
n., 152 n.

I go

INDEX

Brut, 15 »., 85 n., 106 «.,
I 112 n.
Buckle, H. T., History of
Civilization inEngland,
187
Cain, 158
Calvary, 25, 109
Calvin, John, 154, 171, 186
Calvinist, 52, 170
Canterbury, Archbishop of, 65 .
Capes, W. W., English Church
in the Fourteenth and
Fifteenth Centuries, 60
Carmen super multiplici vici
orum pestilencia, see
Gower, John
Carolinian Books, 98 n.
Cell of Self-Knowledge, The,
179 »., 180 M.
A Devout Treatise called
the Epistle of Prayer,
178 «.
A Devout Treatise of Dis
cerning of Spirits, 157
n.
A Very Necessary Epistle
- of Discretion in Stir-
. rings ofthe Soul, 178 n.
Hilton, Walter, Treatise
on the Song of A ngels,
180 n.
Kemp, Margery, A Short
Treatise of Contempla
tion, .115 n., 178 n.
Chambers, E. K., Medieval
Stage, son., 53 «., 86
n.,gsn., 113 n., i^in.,
142 n.
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 30, 35, 49,
115, 147 M.
Canon's Yeoman's Tale,
gon.
Prioress's Tale, 47 n.
Prologue, 37 w., 115 n.
- Somnour, 35
Chesterton, Mr G. K,, 115
Christian Year, The, 188
Christmas, 95, 134, 142
Christopherson, John, 9 n.

Christ's Own Complaint, 32 n.,
« 48 M., 118 n., lysn:
Chronicon Angliae, 96 k.
Cistercians, gn.
Clanbowe, Lady Peryne, 73 n.,
120 OT.
Comfortable Words for Christ's
• Lovers, see JuUan
Commandments, the Ten, 17,
27. 42. 45. 47. 48«-.
104, 160
First Commandment, 97
Third Commandment, 124,
131
Fifth Commandment, 115
Complaynt of Criste, 26 n.
Concilia Magnae Britanniae
et Hiberniae,. see Wil
kins, David
Confessio A mantis, see Gower,
John
Congregationalism of the last
three • hundred years.
The, see Dexter, H. M.
Constance, Council of, 164;
see also Articuli Jo
hannis Wiclefi under
Brown, Edward
/ Corinthians, see Bible
Corpus Christi Day, 5 «., 71 ,
Corpus Christi MS, 57 «.
Coulton, Mr G. G., 24 «., 118
Creed, Apostles', 8^ 17, 27;
42 ff., 51, 93, 108
Creed, Athanasian, 47
Creed, Nicene, 8, 43 n.
Crowland, 86 «.
Cupid, Mass offered to, 138
Cutts, E . L . , Parish Priests and
their People, i «,, 61 n.
Dalgairns, J. B., 121 «., 167 ot.
Daniel, 163
Darwin, Charles, 49
David, 48, 135, 170
Dexter, H. M,, The Congre
gationalism of the last
three hundred years, 40
Dirige, 47
Disraeli, Benjamin,. Sybil, 41

INDEX

191

Dives and Lazarus, parable
of, 48 n., 152
Dives and Pauper, The Dia
logue of, passim
Dives, in Dives and Pau
per, passim
Pauper, in Dives and
Pauper, passim
Donne, John, On the Sacra
ment, 69
Easter, 32, 39, 61,62, 80, 83,134
Ecclesiological ' Essays, see
Legg, Wickham
Edward II, 81
Edward III, 30
Egypt, 48
Elfland, 95
Eli, 109
Emerson, R. W., 137
England, 15 n., 45 ot., 141 n.
England in the Age of Wycliffe,
see Trevelyan, G. M.
English Church in the Four
teenth and Fifteenth
Centuries, see Capes,
W. W.
English Prose Treatises, see
Rolle
English Works of Wyclif, see
Matthew, F. D.
Epiphany, 134
Esau, 88
Esther, 48
Eulogium Historiarum, 68 ot.,
112 OT.
Evangelical Revival, 25, 41
Evangelists, 49 ot.
Eve, 49
Exeter, 118 «., 142 ot.
Ezekiel, 18
Falmouth, Squire of, 31 «.,
> 75, 106 OT., 117 m.
Fasciculi Zizaniorum, 18 n.,
107 OT.
Fasciculus Morum, see Little,
A. G.
Fasciculus Rerum, see Brown,
Edward

Feast of Fools, 141 f.
Festial, 20 and see Myrc, John
Fifty Earliest English Wills,
I5«., 47«., 73K., 85
«., 112 «., 120 M. f.,
148 OT., 174 M.
Figgis, Dr J. N., 186
Fitz-Harry, WilUam, 73 ot.
FitzRalph, Richard, Arch
bishop of Armagh, 32
and see Brown, Ed
ward
Five Wounds of the Holy
Church, The, see Ros
mini, A.
Foxe, John, Acts and Monu
ments, 39 ff.
France, 141 ot.
Frankfort, Council of, 98 n.
Gairdner, J., Lollardy and the
Reformation, 26 ot., 107
OT.
Gardner, J. E. G., 179 ot. and
see Cell of Self Know
ledge
Gascoigne, T., Theological Dic
tionary, 26 OT.
Gasquet, F. A., Parish Life in
Mediaeval England, 1 7
OT., 27«., lOOOT.
Genesis, see Bible
Geneva, 187
Gesta Romanorum, 50
Gloria in Excelsis, 8
Glutton, see Langland, WU
liam
Gower, John
Carmen super multiplici
viciorum pestilencia,
lion.
Confessio A mantis, passim
Mirour de I'Omme, passim
Nota contra mortuorum
executores, 119 «.
Vox Clamantis, passim
Grandisson, John de. Register,
i«., 7OT.,43«.,45M„59,
65 OT., 67, 70 OT., 8i f.,,
131 OT., 140 ff.

192

INDEX

Greeks, rite of, 38
sea of, 89
Gregory VII, 186 f.
Grosseteste, 68 ot.
Handlyng Synne, 71 and see
Mannyng, Robert
Henry VIII, 68
Herbert, George, The Temple,
69, 188
Herod, 23OT., 24, in
Higden, R., Polychronicon,
81 »., 96»., 140 M.
Hilton, Walter, Scale of Per
fection, 511, 55 ff.,
58 OT., 69, 121 OT., 157
OT., 167 OT., 171 »,, 177
OT., 178 ff,; see also
Cell of Self Knowledge
Hoccleve, T., To Sir John Old
castle, 38 n.
Hogarth, W., 143
Holy Innocents, 56
Holy Innocents' Day, 55 n.
Holy Land, 175
Holy Week, 80 ot.
Hostiensis, Summa Aurea,
55 n.
Hours of the Cross, 47 ot.
Hours of the Virgin, 47
HoweU, Ferrers, Bernardino
of Siena, 18 ot.
Huss, John, 185
Hymns for the People called
Methodists, 188
Incendium Amoris, see RoUe,.
, Richard
Independents, 186
In Memoriam, see Tennyson,
Lord
Innocent III, 38, 186
In Principio, 42
Instructions for Parish Priests,
see Myrc, John
Jacob, 48 n., 88
Jephthah, in
Jerusalem, 135

Jews, 9, 53, 55 and ot., 57 n.,
58, 131, 134, 161, 163
Jezebel, 49
Joachim, Expositio in Apoca-
lypsim, 149 n.
Job, 57 OT., 165
Johannes de Vecca, 26 n.
John of Gaunt, 140
Jonah; 24 ot., 48 ot., 163
Joseph, 48 n.
Joshua, 163
Judaism, 154
Judas Iscariot, 24M., 158
Julian of Norwich
Comfortable Words for
Christ's Lovers, 99 n.,
167 ff., 171 OT., 182 OT.
Sixteen Revelations of Di
vine Love, 26 OT., 58 OT.,
157 OT,, 167 OT. ff,, 171 OT.
Kemp, Margery, 115 and see
Cell of Self-Knowledge
Kings, see Bible
Knight of the Tour Landry,
The Book of , 5 ot,,26ot,,
31 OT., 48 OT., 49 ot., 80,
93 «., 104 »., 106 OT. ff.,
113 f. OT., 122 «., 143 f.
OT., 148 OT.
Knighton, H., Chronicon, 18
»., 38 «,, 67 OT. f., 84 OT.,
91 OT., 98 n., no OT.,
113 n., 134 OT., 138 OT.,
146OT., 177OT.
Knox, John, 186
Lancaster, Thomas, Earl of,
81
Langham, .Simon, 141
Langland; WilUam, Piers the
Plowman, passim
Amende-thou, 161
Glutton, 132
Lechour, 132
Meed, Lady, 36
Seynt Treuthe, 145 ot., 160
Sloth, 36, 43
Ymagynatyf, 57
Lansdowne M^ 41 m.

INDEX

193

- Latimer, Hugh, Sermons,
44 »•
Latin Christianity, see Mil-
man, H. H.
Laud, WilUam, 123, 124
Lay Folks Catechism, ly n.,
18 n., 27 OT., 35 OT., 45
n., 61 n., 68 ot., 70 ot.,
92 n., 98 «., 171 OT.,
172 OT., 175 OT.
Lay Po/Ai ATass BooA, passim
Lazarus, 48 «., 148, 152
Lechler, J. W. von G., Johann
von Wiclif, 68 n., 87 n.
* Lechour, see Langland, Wil
liam
Lectures and Essays, see
Seeley, J. R.
Legg, Wickham, Ecclesiologi
cal Essays, 123
Lent, 32, 39, 62, IOI, 108 OT.,
158
Les Contes Moralises, see
Littie, A. G.
Libera nos a malo, 1 1
Liber Exemplorum, see Little,
A. G.
LifeofScott.see Lockhart, J. G.
Lincoln, 141 ot., 142 ot.
Litany, 47
Litany, The Golden, 47 ot.
Little, A. G., Studies in
English Franciscan
History, 20 n., 26 ot.,
28, 92 OT.
Fasciculus Morum, 18 ot.,
20 «., 92 M., 95 OT., 96OT.
Les Contes Moralises, 20 ot.
Liber Exemplorum, 20 n.
Speculum Laicorutn, 20 n.
Littlehales, Henry, Prymer,
461
Loci e libro veritatum, see
Rogers, J. E. T.
Lockhart, J. G., Life of
Scott, 104 OT,
LoUards, passim
Lollardy, iioot., 167
Lollardy and the Reformation,
see Gairdner, J.

London, 138
Lot, 48 n.
Luther, Martin, 185
Lutheranism, 186
Lydgate, ]ohn,Merita Missae,
6, 43 OT., 66, 70 «.,
137 f-
Lyndwood, 9, 65 ot.
Magi, 90
Malvern HUls, 188
Manner and Mede ofthe Mass,
7 OT. ff., 43 M., 63 OT.,
66 «., 71 OT., 74 OT.,
79 OT., 84 OT., 143 M.
Mannyng, Robert, Handlyng
Synne, passim
Mars' Hill, 78
Maskell, William, Monumenta
Ritualia, 47 ».
Mass, passim.
Matins, 5, 125, 179 ».
Matthew, F. D., English
Works of Wyclif, passim
Mawmet, 87
Medieval Mind, see Taylor,
A. E.
Medieval Preaching, see Neale
Medieval Stage, see Chambers
Meed, Lady, see Langland,
WiUiam
Merita Missae, see Lydgate,
John
Methodism, 30 ot.
Methodists, 180
Milman, H. H., Latin Christi
anity, 98 OT.
Milton, John, 107
Mirour de I'Omme, see Gower,
John
Monumenta Ritualia, see
MaskeU, WilUam
Morris, Richard, Alliterative
Poems, 24 OT., 48 OT.,
49 OT,
Moses, 107 OT,
Myrc, John
Festial, passim
Instructions for Parish
Priests, passirn,

194

INDEX

Nazareth, 146
Neale, J. M., Medieval Preach
ing, 18 OT.
Nebuchadnezzar, 49
Nectanabus, 87 ot.
Nero, 19
New Testament, see Bible
New Year, 84 m., 95
Nicea, Second Council of,
98 OT.
Nicene Creed, see Creed
Nineveh, 88
Noah, 48 OT., 49
Norman Conquest, 7
Northern Cobbler, The, see
Tennyson, Lord
Norwich, JuUan of, see Julian
Of Confession, see WycUf,
John
Office of the Dead, 47
Of Prophecies, see Bacon,
Francis
C)ldcastle, Sir John, 38
Old Testament, see Bible
On the Sacrament, see Donne,
John
Orate, n
Oxford, Council of, 60
Oxford Movement, 123
Palm Sunday, 26 ot., 99 ot.
Parish Life in Mediaeval
England, see Gasquet,
F. A.
Parish Priests and their
People, see Cutts, E. L.
ParUament, 6 ot., 96
Pater, 2, 10 1, 17, 27, 42 ff.,
92 f., IOI OT,, 108, 175,
179, 182
Pauper, see Dives and Pauper
Pax, 144
Pearl, 26 «,, 42 ot,, 48 ot.,
52 n., 63 OT., 66 OT., 169,
170 «.
Peckham, 18, 27
Perrers, Alice, 87 ».
Perys, 145
Pety Job, 47

Pharaoh, 48
Pierce the Ploughman's Crede,
20 OT., 27 OT., 35 OT., 43
OT.,44Jj.,68, 69OT.,I2IOT.
Piers the Plowman, see Lang
land, WilUam
Pilate, 122 OT.
Pilgrim's Progress, The, 188
Placebo, 47-
Plot, John, 73 OT., 174 OT.
Poictiers, 138
Political, Religious and Love
Poems, 26 OT., 31 OT. f.,
48 OT., 75 OT., 80 M., 85
n., 94 OT., 106 n. i., 109
OT., 113 OT., 117 OT. f.,
138 OT., 152 n., 175 OT.
Potiphar, 48
Praeterita, see Ruskin, John
Prymer, 10, 46 f.
Psalms, see Bible
Psalter, Our Lady's, 47 ot.
Puritanism, 113 f.. 123 f., 135
Purvey, J., 18 ot.
Quia Amore Langueo, 13 ».,
26 OT.
Ralf de Tremur, 70
Raynold, Walter, Archbishop
of Canterbury, 62
Reformation, The Protestant,
49, i84f:
Revolution, "The, of 1688, 91.
Rhine country, mysteries of
the, 58
Richard II, said to have been
christened John; 52 ot.
Rogers, J. E. T., Loci ex
libro veritatum, 22 ot.,
26 OT.
RoUe, Richard
English Prose Treatises,
21 OT., 88 OT., IOO n.,
178 ff.
Incendium Amoris, 146
Romantic Revival, 102, i84f.
Rome, 40, 81 OT., 154, 175,
182; see also Stacions
of Rome

INDEX

195

Rosmini, A., The Five Wounds
ofthe Holy Church, 6 n.
Rossetti, Christina, i88
Ruskin, John, Praeterita, 104
OT.
RusseU, W., Bishop of Sodor
and Man, 125
Ruth, 48
St Agas, church of, 80 «.
Albans, 142.OT.
Ambrose, prayer of, 8 ot.
Anastasius, church of, 109
OT.
Anne, 175
Augustine, in, 135, 143,
154
Bernard, 124
Bernardino of Siena, see
Howell, Ferrers
Brice, III OT.
Buryan, church of, 59
Dunstan, mother of, 20 n.
Francis, 147 ot,
George Play, 141 ot.
Gowdelake, 86 ot,
Gregory, 31, 85 »., 135,
159 OT., 163
James, 76
James's, Compostella, 182
John the Baptist, in
John the Evangelist, 48 ot.,
53, 70, 82OT.f,
John Lateran, church of,
80 OT.
Luke, see Bible
Margaret, 2
¦Mairk's Day, 80 ot.
Martin, 143
Mary Magdalene, 57, 141
Mary the Virgin, 43 ot., 44,
47, 50, 66 OT., 85 OT.,
97, 98 «., no, 169 ».,
1751
Matthew, see Bible
Nicholas' clerks, 39
Paul (or Saul), 24 ot., 78,
noOT., 154, 171 OT.
Paul, church of, 141 ot.
Peter, 24 ot., 70, now.

St Peter, church of, 81 ot.
Richard, 128 f.
Silvester, 163
Stephen, 24 ot.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa
Theologica, 32 «., 37
OT. f., 51 OT., 53 OT. ff.,
61 OT. f., 64 OT., 68 OT.,
71 OT. f., 76 OT. 1, 96OT.,
98m., 108 OT., IJI ».,
114 OT., 127 OT., 146 OT.,
149 M., 152 OT., 157 OT.,
172 OT. f., 177 OT. f.,
181 OT. f.
Thomas the Apostle, 20 ot.,
48 m., 80 OT.
Thomas of Canterbury,
20 OT., 80 OT.
Treuthe, see Langland,
WiUiam
Salisbury, 14*1 ot. f.
Sanctus, n
Sandford and Merton, 188
Saracen,' 58 M., 87, 161
Satan, 50, 87, 90 ff., 96 f.
Sautrey, W., 18 ot.
Saxons, in ot.
Scale of Perfection, see Hilton,
Walter
Schere pursday, 129 m.
Scotland, Church of, 63, 187
Scots, 155 OT.
Seeley, Sir John, Lectures and
Essays, 145
Select English Works, see
Arnold, T.
Sermon on the Mount, 104
Sixteen Revelations of Divine
Love, see Julian
Skeat, W. W., notes on Piers
the Plowman, 52 ».,
57 OT.
Sloth, see Langland, William
Socrates, 57
Sodom, 48 »., 166
Solomon, 49, 57, X09
Somnour, see Chaucer, Geof
frey
Sorcery, 86 f.
Spain, 186 f.

196

INDEX ¦

Speculum Laicorum, see
Little, A. G.
Stacions of Rome, 80, 109
Stiggins, Mr, 115
StoUoke, Lavyna, 43 ot.
Studies in English Franciscan
History, see Little, A.G.
Sudbury, 61 ot.
Suffolk man, 71
Summa Aurea, see Hostiensis
Summa Theologica, see St
Thomas Aquinas
Sunday, 5, 18. 1, 45, 113,
123 ff.
Sursum Corda, 8
Sybil, see Disraeli, B.
Taylor, A. E., Medieval Mind,
12 OT.
Te Deum, 47
Tennyson, Lord
In Memoriam, 168
The Northern Cobbler, 26
The Temple, see Herbert,
George
Theological Dictionary , see
Gascoigne, T.
Thoresby, J., 17, 27, 61 ot.
To Sir John Oldcastle, see
Hoccleve, T.
Toplady, A. M., 170
Trajan, 57
Trental, 85
Trevelyan, G. M., England in
theAgeof Wycliffe, lyn.
Troilus, 158 OT.
Trokelowe, Johannes de. Chro
nica et Annates, 5 ot.,
43OT., 52M., 65»., 81OT.,
87 OT., 91 OT.

Tupper, M. F., 188
Turks, 55, 57 OT. f.
Twenty Six Political and other
Poems, passim
Tyler, Wat, 149
Unam Sanctam, 187
Vox Clamantis, see Gower,
John
Walsingham, T., Historia
Anglicana, 6 ot., 26«,,
38 OT., 91 «,, 96 OT., 107
OT,, 130 OT., 134 «., 140
OT., 155 OT.
Walwayn, Thomas, 174 ot.
Warrack, Grace, 167 ot.
Warwick, Isabella, Countess
of, 148
Wells, 142 OT.
Wesley, Charles, 188
Wesley, John, 41
West, Lady Alice, 174 ot.
Westminster, 83 ot.
Whitsunday, 83, 134
Wiche, Richard, 107 «.
Wilkins, David, Concilia Mag
nae Britanniae et Hiber
niae, passim
Wittenberg, 185
Wright, T., Political Poems
and Songs, 35 ot., 36 ot.,
38 OT.
Wyclif, John, passim
Of Confession, 37
Ymagynatyf, see Lan^and,
WilUam
York, 142 OT., 174 M,

Cambridge: printed by j. a. peace, m.a., at the university press.

7675

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