YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Flap indicafingr the j more prominent fid, | Shrines to which m Pilgrimag-es were niBdeioEng-Iand PILGRIM LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES BY THE SAME AUTHOR The South Devon and Dorset Coast. With a Coloured Frontispiece, Maps, Line Drawings, and 32 Full-page Illustrations. Large Crown 8vo. Cloth. 6s. net. " It combines literary charm with topographical and his torical information of no small value. . . . Mr. Heath's book is one to turn to again and again, with the certainty of finding something new and of interest." — Lady's Pictorial. " As a companion for the leisure hours that come to those who travel, it recalls scenes of delight in the easiest and most attractive style." — The Motor Car Journal. London: T. FISHER UNWIN. Frontispiece, PILGRIM LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 'By SIDNEY HEATH AUTHOR OT "THE SOOTH DEVON AND DORSET COAST, "HOMELAND CHURCHES," ETC. WITH 43 ILLUSTRATIONS lAddphl T. FISHER DNWIN LONDON: ADELPHI TERRACE LEIPSIC: INSELSTRAS-SE 20 1911 (All rights reserved.) TO ERNEST W. HASLEHUST, R.B.A. AS A SMALL TOKEN OF FRIENDSHIP AND ESTEEM THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED NOTES ON MAPS The only road taken by the pilgrims of old that remains practically in its entirety is that which runs along the shoulder of the downs from the daughter city of Winchester to the mother one of Canterbury. This is a very ancient trackway, a veritable " harrow," or hoary old road, that was in existence for centuries before the shrine of Becket became the most hallowed in Europe. The road itself maintains a fairly uniform level throughout, a few feet below the crest of the downs, and although it passes within half a mile or so of many important places, it goes directly through few. The pilgrims could look down on the towns and avoid them if they wished. There are three ways by which the modern tourist may follow the route taken by the mediaeval pilgrim : — I. By, treading literally in his footsteps — i.e., by walking. 2. By cycle. 3. By, train or motor-car to convenient centres from whence the trackway can be explored in sections. 7 Notes on Maps The railway has many advantages for the busy man. It runs parallel to the road for considerable distances, and the stations are conveniently placed, so that it is possible, by a series of daily or weekly excursions, to cover the whole of the route in the course of a summer. By far the best way is to tramp along the trackway ; for even if the cycle enables one to make good time over the well-defined and level portions, the machine has to be pushed for considerable distances when the " Pilgrims' Road " crosses ploughed fields, or merges into a rough and brier-tangled woodland path. On whichever method of travelling one's choice may fall — and a caravan would probably prove an ideal method — the modern pilgrim has one great advantage over his mediaeval predecessor, in that he can procure, at a trifling cost, excellent maps that cover the entire route. The well-known Ordnance maps have probably done as much to popularise modern pilgrimages as Wynkyn de Worcle's " Informacion for Pylgrymes " did for the mediaeval ones . Be this as it may, the old-time pilgrimage has left its mark on our modern cartog raphy, and the magic words " Pilgrims' Way " appear still on many a modern map. For all purposes, and for every class of traveller who would journey along or near what is probably the most ancient, as it is surely the most interesting, road in England, the Ordnance Survey maps are unequalled. They fold easily for carrying in the 8 Notes on Maps pocket ; and armed with a set of these excellent maps, the traveller may leave the fair city of Winchester in full confidence that if he read them aright, they will direct him faithfully to the first city of the Anglo- Saxon race and the mother city of all the Englands of the Seven Seas. The large sheet maps of the new series on the one -inch -to -the -mile scale are the best for general purposes. The numbers of the sheets required are 124, 125, 115, 116, and 117. These sheets cover the whole of the route to within a short distance of Canterbury. The prices of these sheets are is. 6d. paper, and 2s. mounted. Mr. T. Fisher Unwin, 1, Adelphi Terrace, London, W.C., is the sole wholesale agent for these maps, which can be obtained from any bookseller. PREFACE This book is designed to serve and entertain the general reader who is interested in the religious pilgrimages of olden days, of which so many memorials remain throughout the country. Regarded from any standpoint — religious, archaeo logical, or architectural — the subject is a vast one, and these pages are but portions of the whole story. The information set forth in this book has been gathered from many sources, owes much to the labours of others, and is the result of a considerable amount of searching, collation, and selection. In dealing with such a multiplicity of dates, one can hardly hope to be immaculate in chronology, and the author would ask indulgence if some of his statements lean more to the legendary and traditional than to the purely scientific and historical sides of the subject. The sceptical antiquary may dissect the folklore, traditions, and religious customs of the past, and prove to his own satisfaction that they are nothing but myths. Yet to some of us our old English garden of legend and romance, with its beautiful flowers of chivalry and devotion, is infinitely sweeter to live with than are the dry. and barren acres ii Preface given over to the cultivation of nothing but proven facts. At any rate, let us keep enough romance to moisten the antiquary's dry treatises on those ancient days, when, with all their faults, religion was exhibited by the chivalrous invasion of infidel lands, and love was attested by daring deeds of arms done in honour of bright eyes. The thanks of the author are due to, among others, Dr. Colley March, F.S.A., Mr. Herbert Batsford, Mr. Philip Norman, F.S.A., the proprietors of the Builder, Miss Ida M. Roper, and Mr. W. A. Dalziel, the Honorary Secretary of the Chaucer and Early English Text Society. S. H. Upwey, Dorset. 12 CONTENTS NOTES ON MAPS PREFACE CHAP. <- I. INTRODUCTORY Il.r GENERAL REMARKS ON RELICS AND SHRINES III. HERMITS, ANCHORETS, AND RECLUSES IV. FLAGELLANTS AND DANCERS Va/ HOLY WELLS .... * VI. -''PILGRIMS COSTUMES, TOKENS, AND BADGES 'VII. PILGRIM ITINERARIES 'VIII. ^WINCHESTER TO CANTERBURY ' IX. THE SHRINE OF BECKET . ' X. PILGRIM INNS .... XI. THE BOXLEY ROOD OF GRACE XII. OUR LADY OF WALSINGHAM, AND OTHER NORFOLK SHRINES . XIII. THE LEGEND OF WINCHCOMBE AND THE BLOOD OF HAYLES .... XIV. NOTES ON SOME SHRINES OF BRITISH SAINTS XV. INDULGENCES AND PENANCES XVI. THE REFORMATION .... INDEX ..... 13 PAGE 7 1117 .* 49 7296 100121 ' 146168184 200227 236 254 266 33i34i ILLUSTRATIONS CHRIST CHURCH GATE, CANTERBURY THE CANTERBURY PILGRIMS ROCK HERMITAGE, WARKWORTH . CHANTRY CHAPEL AT CLIFTON CAMPVILLE DRESSED WELLS AT TISSINGTON . SIGN OF ST. JAMES OF COMPOSTELLA PILGRIM SIGNS FROM AMIENS CANTERBURY SIGN WITH AMPULLA CANTERBURY SIGN CANTERBURY BROOCH CANTERBURY SIGN . CANTERBURY SIGN .... CHAUCER AS A CANTERBURY PILGRIM THE SQUIRE .... THE SERGEANT-AT-LAW THE PRIORESS THE PARDONER THE WIFE OF BATH THE TOMB OF ST. THOMAS 15 Fronttspiecc PAGE • 43 82 • 9i Facing Il6 I24 126 127 I29 • 130 • 131 ¦ 132 • 134 . I36 • 137 . 138140 142 . 185 Illustrations PAGE "THE MARTYRDOM," CANTERBURY . . 187 THE BONIFACE HOSPITAL, MAIDSTONE . Facing 202 THE CHEQUER OF THE HOPE, CANTERBURY . 207 ROOM IN THE CHEQUER OF THE HOPE . . 209 THE TABARD INN, SOUTHWARK .... 214 THE TABARD INN, SOUTHWARK . 2l6 THE PILGRIMS' INN, GLASTONBURY . 219 WALSINGHAM SIGN ..... 241 THE GATEWAY, WALSINGHAM PRIORY . . . 243 CHAPEL OF THE RED MOUNT, KING'S LYNN . 247 PLAN OF THE CHAPEL OF THE RED MOUNT . 249 GALLERY OF THE PILGRIMS' INN, WINCHCOMBE . 259 RUINS OF CHAPTER HOUSE, HAYLES ABBEY . . 262 SKETCHES IN ST. DAVID'S CATHEDRAL . 269 THE CANTILUPE SHRINE, HEREFORD . Facing 270 SHRINE OF ST. AMPHIBALUS . . 281 SHRINE OF ST. CANDIDA ..... 292 INSCRIPTIONS ON RELIQUARY OF ST. CANDIDA . . 293 THE LADY CHAPEL, GLASTONBURY . 295 DOORWAY OF LADY CHAPEL, GLASTONBURY . 297 THE DUN COW, DURHAM . ... 303 » LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL ..... 311 MAP INDICATING THE MORE PROMINENT SHRINES TO WHICH PILGRIMAGES WERE MADE IN ENGLAND End pater 16 PILGRIM LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY The word " pilgrimage " comes from the old French • pelegrinage, Latin peregrinatio, and means a journey undertaken in a devotional spirit to some sacred place. The fundamental idea of the Christian pilgrimage was that the Deity exercised a benevolent \ influence operating through sacred media in some definite building or locality. Every nominal Christian of the Middle Ages yearned to make a pilgrimage to some hallowed shrine or sacred place, in much the same manner as at the present time in India, the home of pilgrimage, the pious wish of every Brahmin is to visit the holy city of Benares, and to be washed clean in the waters of the Ganges. To quote Macaulay : "In times when men were scarcely ever induced to travel by liberal curiosity, or by the pursuit of gain, it was better that the rude inhabitant of the North should visit Italy and the Edst as a pilgrim, than that he should never see anything but those squalid cabins and uncleared woods amidst which he was born. In times when life and female honour were exposed to daily risk .from tyrants and 17 B Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages marauders, it was better that the precinct of a shrine should be regarded with an irrational awe, than that there should be no refuge inaccessible to cruelty and licentiousness. . . . Had not such retreats been ('scattered here and there, among the huts of a miser able peasantry, and the castles of a ferocious aristocracy, European society would have consisted merely of beasts of burden and beasts of prey." Further, " Even the spiritual supremacy arrogated by the Pope was productive of far more good than evil." Just as the Crusades contributed to the culture of the Middle Ages, so pilgrims did much to advance civilisation and, while they furthered thd» common use of letters, were not infrequently the bearers of peaceful messages between warlike nations, and before it became abused the pilgrim's badge was a sign of Christian fellowship and the revered token of international brotherhood. During their sojourn in Palestine and the East the Crusaders, and after them the pilgrims, learned something of the conditions of Eastern life, and brought back with them, in addition to a vast number of holy relics, an appreciation for the peculiar pro ducts of that region— jewels, silks, perfumes, and spices . With a brisk commerce throughout the length and breadth of the Mediterranean, the wealth of Genoa, Pisa, Florence, and Venice was founded, and the inland sea was covered with sails trafficking from the ports of Italy to those of Syria and Egypt. The necessity of transporting merchandise from the East to supply the demand thus created in the West stimulated commerce, advanced the science of navi gation, and encouraged manufactures. From the Greeks the Italians learned the art of weaving silk. 1 8 Introductory Arabia was made to yield her secrets for tempering and inlaying military weapons j. and Constantinople furnished the Christians with splendid specimens of her native art. Nearly all our early Christian churches owed something to the trade from the Orient that followed the romantic wars of the Crusades, and to the wonder with which the churches of Byzantium were regarded by the pilgrims of Western Europe. It is obvious, therefore, that, in spite of the particular vices the pilgrims acquired beneath a warmer sun than that which shone upon their native lands, the effect_of_ pilgrimages was_ to strengthen* the intercourse with Eastern nations which the Crusades riad commenced, and to create a demand in the West for the products, arts, and industries of the East. In mediaeval days the importance of a_cltX- depended far less on the number of its in habitants, the volume of its trade, or the advantage of its climate than on the number and quality of its holy .tilings.. The richest city was that which possessed the greatest number of miracle-working relics to attract the pilgrim. In the Middle Ages pilgrimages, acting through the virtue of relics, had the same practical influence on the minds of men as have the themes of science or political economy at the present day, and *it is doubtful if we shall ever appreciate to the full the profound effect produced by these pilgrimages, in the days when every idea was a belief, when legends were realities. To us, the religious memorials of the past, the desecrated shrine and the dishonoured reliquary, are merely examples of ancient art, trinkets that supply a study for the jeweller, a subject for the lecturer, and, most frequently of all, a specimen in 19 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages the museum. To our forefathers these things were living forms, voices which were heard, and I teachers to be obeyed. Doctrines and historical traditions which echoed and were transmitted from nation to nation, from age to age, became the natural inheritance of the devout pilgrim, and so tended to feed and nourish the mysterious spirit of intense reverence with which saintly relics and hallowed shrines were regarded by the law, the laity, and the hierarchy of mediaeval days. As an anonymous writer has said : "In most countries hospitals were maintained at every stage for the accommodation of the pilgrim ; and chivalry in arms kept watch and ward wherever he was in danger of pagan insult or aggression. For him the Teutonic brotherhood guarded the German forests ; for him the knights of Santiago patrolled the Moorish frontier ; and for him the galleys of St. John main tained ceaseless and most gallant warfare with the merciless rovers of the Mediterranean. Kings and councils took care of his interests while engaged in these holy excursions, and hedged his household and estate from all assault. Creditors were forbidden to dun and enemies to assail, and the severest form of excommunication was denounced against his wife did she dare to contract another marriage during his absence." At the present day, when locomotion has been so wonderfully facilitated that the means of communica tion to and from the most distant parts of the world offer the traveller an almost bewildering choice of routes, we can scarcely realise what our feelings would be should we find ourselves without the trans porting aids of the railway, steamship, motor-car, and other mechanically-propelled vehicles. 20 Introductory The mediaeval lover or diplomat, instead of availing himself of the post, regular in departure and true in arrival, was compelled either to transmit his letters by a special messenger or to entrust them to any person who happened to be journeying towards the place of address, to the knight returning to his own estate after a foreign war, the priest soliciting a benefice, the monk changing his monastic abode, and, above all, to the pilgrim ori palmer on his way to pay his devotions at some famous shrine or holy well. Slow and tardy indeed were the modes of com munication so irregularly obtained ; for upon " the best estafetted ' road in Europe, the road to Rome," three months elapsed before the pilgrim, quitting the shrine of Becket at Canterbury, could stand before the great basilica of St. Peter. The geographical knowledge of the earlier years of the Middle Ages apart from that personally acquired by travellers, consisted mainly of brief extracts from the pages ot Pliny and Solinus. The terrestrial sphere, as por trayed in the first quarter of the fourteenth century, shows a circular projection, in the exact centre of which appears Jerusalem, while the Temple is depicted in the exact centre of the city. On the outermost margin is the ocean surrounding the whole domicile of mankind, and beyond the countries of Christendom nothing is shown but representations of camels and ostriches, elephants and tigers, designs that, by covering the regions unknown to the cartog'rapher, hide his ignorance as they amuse the spectator. The lucid idea which an Ordnance map conveys at once to us was wholly wanting, and the forms and positions of the various portions of the ' Guarded by military couriers. '21 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages globe, the boundaries of the kingdoms, the localities of the great cities, and the courses of the rivers were all enveloped in vagueness and uncertainty. For the transmission and diffusion of thought, ideas, and opinions we now depend almost entirely on the printing press ; but it is quite possible that as much was effected without its aid, for it is beginning to be admitted that the ideas imparted by means of printing obliterate each other by their numbers. We can readily understand that when the printing press did not exist the smaller quantity of mental stimulants was more than compensated by their intensity. In the tale brought home by the knight who had won his spurs in foreign wars, and the impassioned narrative of the pilgrim recounting the glories of the shrines of Europe, there was a vivid vitality that must have carried conviction to the minds of whole masses of the population. It is, of course, easy for us to sneer at the super stitious customs and the love of pilgrimage which played so prominent a part in the lives of our ancestors, but the sneering can be, and indeed has been, overdone. All impartial historians are agreed that there was a peculiar fitness in the mental quali ties of the mediaeval period, when considered as intro ductory to our own. Stationary, or even retrograde as the Middle Ages may appear to be with respect to some of the faculties of the intellect, others were exhibited in full and beneficial activity. To under stand rightly any age or customs with a view to estimating fairly their character and influence, we must, by the force of sympathetic imagination, trans port ourselves into that age, acquaint ourselves with its leading activities, and endeavour to feel and think '22 Introductory as the people who lived under its social and religious influences must have felt and thought. It is neither wise nor just to measure the customs of a past age by the standards of our own. As the great German writer Frederick Schlegel reminds us : " The Middle Ages are sometimes re garded as a chasm in the history of the human intellect, a void space, as it were, between the genius of antiquity and the civilisation of modern times. Art and science are, by an ingenious fiction, supposed to terminate their existence, only to start into life from chaotic nothingness after a sleep of ten centuries : this is inaccurate, nay, untrue, for the essence of ancient knowledge and culture never entirely perished, whilst much that is noblest and most excellent in the improvements of modern times was born of meditzval genius." At the same time, we cannot dissociate the present from the past if we would, for continuity is as in evitable in manners and customs, in psychical pro cesses, as it is in physical facts. Thus the mediaeval pilgrimage and the pointed Gothic arch are, like the saintly relic, the hallowed shrine, and the whole celestial hierarchy, our heritage and our destiny. With the advent of Christianity in England the Holy! Land and Rome naturally became points of attraction j to the devout adherents of this faith, and the ancient British Christians often made pilgrimages to these places, as we learn from St. Jerome, who speaks as though the practice was liable to lead to abuse, for, says he, "it is as easy to find the way to heaven in Britain as at Jerusalem." Christian pilgrimages to the Holy Land are mentioned as early as the third centtiry, and by the fourth they were more or less common from all parts of the Roman Empire. 23 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages At the same time, we have not many records of pilgrimages made to the Holy Land by the Saxon Christians ; but Adamnan, Abbot of Iona in Beda's lifetime, wrote an account of the holy places which was taken from a description of Palestine given him by Arcwulf, a French bishop, who, having made the " grand tour " of Jerusalem, Damascus, Constantinople, and Alexandria, was carried by a storm to the coast of Scotland, where the ship found shelter at Iona. Adamnan's chronicle does not seem to have kindled much desire among his contemporaries to visit the Holy Land ; and, with a few notable excep tions, the Saxon pilgrimages from these islands ended at Rome, the scene of so many martyrdoms and the grave of so many saints, where one of the first to appear was Cedwella, formerly King of Wessex, who, after being well received and baptized by Pope Sergius, died within seven days afterwards, April 20, 689 A.D. It is not difficult for us to understand the passion for pilgrimage which soon seized upon our early Christian ancestors when the warm glow of romance ! began to encircle about "Those holy fields, Over whose acres walked those blessed feet." The restless spirit of their barbarian fathers seemed still to work in them, a spirit that is by no means an expended force at the present day, although directed into a different channel. The pilgrims, Crusaders, buccaneers, merchant adventurers, colonisers, and explorers of the Middle Ages have handed down to us the spirit of wanderlust, although the modern tourist travels by motor-car for pleasure 24 Introductory and worldly profit, whereas his mediaeval prototype journeyed afoot for the welfare of his soul. In early days, not only Cedwella, and enthusiastic youths like the two sons of St. Richard, the King of the English men, but great warriors and statesmen renounced their dignities for the pilgrim's garb ; and Ina, the greatest of English kings before Alfred, was the most distinguished of the band. Pilgrimages to Rome became highly popular, and before long noble and simple, clerk and layman, men and women, caught the infection, wishing, as Beda says, " to live as pilgrims on earth that they might be welcomed by the saints when they were called away from their earthly sojourn." The Church itself was not behind in encouraging the people to enrol themselves in one or other of the many bands of wanderers, with the result that a perpetual inducement was held out to pilgrimage and vagrancy to rise into a regular profession. In addition to many advantages to his body spiritual, the pilgrim enjoyed particular privileges of a tem poral nature, with the result that proscribed criminals or hunted debtors helped to fill the ranks of devout pilgrims. If a priest, the pilgrim drew his full stipend, providing that his absence did not exceed a term of three years. If a layman, he was excused. the payment of all taxes. The property of all pilgrims was secured from confiscation and injury while on pilgrimage, nor could they be arrested or cast in any civil court. Their sanctity was universally respected, for once the sacred cross was sewn upon his garment and he had received the blessing of Holy Church, the pilgrim was above all law except the ecclesiastical. He was protected by St. Peter and the Pope. 25 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages Another, and one of the greatest factors that helped to swell the ranks of pilgrims and tended to the formation of bands of penitents, was the frequency with which famine and pestilence swept over the land. First famine, then the plague would lay whole districts desolate. The _people^being taught that" these calamities werje_jnanifestations"of DivTnlT'wrath atsmfGQnllgTgjfnce or religious backslidings, were" easily led to believe thaf the only remedy was to resort to penance by a course of severe asceticism, when penance became a mania and fraternities were established for its better practice. During the whole of the mediaeval period it is doubtful if the plague was ever entirely absent from this country, while every now and then, usually about every ten years, it would rage with extraordinary violence. The insanitary condition of the towns and the dirty habits of the people were, no doubt, largely re- : sponsible. In reading any contemporary accounts regarding the personal habits of the people of this country during the Middle Ages, it is significant to notice how any allusions to personal cleanliness are conspicuous by their absence ; and even when we do happen upon such reference it is confined to the washing of the face and hands. In the reign of Edward IV. soap was provided in the King's house hold only for the washing of clothes, although it is possible that it was used for other purposes as well. The filth of all classes of the population, excepting perhaps the ecclesiastical, was simply indescribable, and even princes were no strangers to vermin and other accompaniments of dirt. As late as the reign of Henry VIII., and possibly for many years later, the scullions lay naked in the 26 Introductory kitchens, and were so filthy that in 1526 a special ordinance was passed " for the better avoydyng of corruption and of all uncleanness out of the king's house," making provision " for such scolyons as shall not goe naked or in garments of such vileness as they now doe, and have been accustomed to doe, nor lie in the nights and dayes in the kitchens or ground by the fireside." We are told that Cardinal Wolsey, when going to Westminster Hall, held in his hand " a very f ait- orange," the inside of which was filled with a vinegar- soaked sponge, " against the pestilent odours of his many suitors." Erasmus makes many references to the plague, which he states was due to the filth of the streets and houses. Of the latter we read that " the floors are commonly of clay, strewed~with rushes, under which lies unmolested an ancient collection of beer, grease, > fragments, bones, spittle, excrements and urine of dogs and cats, and everything that is nasty." That even such a terrible scourge as the plague had its beneficial as well as its purely harmful and destructive forces is obvious to all students of history. The epidemics that depopulated the towns and denuded the agricultural districts of labourers played a con siderable part in the welfare as in the desolation of nations. Our English hedgerows, which, until the advent of the motor-car, were the pride and glory of the countryside, are memorials, or at any rate are reminders, of the plague, for they mark the change in land tenure that followed the Black Deatlu It was the scarcity of men that dealt the final blow to villeinage and serfdom, and so released the English agricultural labourer from slavery. As a modern writer says : " Plague helped to kill the textile 27 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages industries of the eastern counties and laid the foun dations of the modern prosperity of Lancashire and Yorkshire. It was largely responsible for the decline of the power and wealth of the monasteries, and thus brought nearer the Reformation. It revolutionised Church life and greatly modified Church architecture. It even facilitated the growth of English literature. Up to the time of the Black Death French was the principal language of the schools and of the wealthy. So many teachers died in the epidemic that a new \ race of educationists arose who insisted on giving instruction in the English tongue, and the way iwas thereby paved for ' Piers Plowman ' and Chaucer." ' When we read of the loss of life due to warfare or to epidemics during the mediaeval period, we must bear in mind that the total population of England was under two millions at the time of the Nortriajn Conquest, and Professor Creasy tells us that the census showed no advance on this figure in the reign of John. It is necessary that we should keep this in mind, or we may fail to attach sufficient import ance to the epidemics that carried off a few thousands of the inhabitants, and wonder why such destruction of life should have been regafded as a national catastrophe that sent the survivors weeping to the shrines of the saints. It is probably no exaggeration to describe the modern tourist, who " does " Italy in ten days or Norway in five, as a direct descendant of the mediaeval pilgrim, and but for the Reformation the making of pilgrimages might have suffered no breach of historical continuity. The old-time pilgrimage was touring and sight- * Daily Mail, February 15, 191 1. '28 / Introductory seeing.^aLit_s_best, notwithstanding many disadvan tages, and there were more wonders to be witnessed between Venice and Jerusalem than the most enter prising traveller would now encounter in a voyage round the entire world. Of the thousands of pilgrims who wended their way to the smaller domestic shrines we have no records, but an English traveller in the fourteenth century has related that he saw lying in the harbour of Corunna eighty shiploads of pilgrims, of which vessels thirty were from England. At the, shrine of Becket at Canterbury the annual number of\ pilgrims exceeded for many years the remarkable figure of two hundred thousand, and the extraordinary devotion paid to this saint appears at one time to have almost, if not quite, effaced the adoration of the Deity. At God's altar, for example, the offerings j in one year totalled the meagre sum of £3 2s. 6d., while the shrine of Becket received no less than £832 12s. 3d. The year following the disproportion was still greater, for not a single penny was offered at God's altar, although St. Thomas had for his share £954 6s. 3d., representing some thousands of pounds of our present currency. Other equally famous shrines, apart from the most famous of them all, the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, were those of the Holy Blood of Hayles ; St. Andrew, in Scotland ; St. David, in Wales ; St. Edmund, at St. Edmundsbury ; St. Patrick's Purgatory, in Ireland ; St. Ninian, in Galloway ; St. James of Compostella, in Spain ; and the Virgin's House, at Loretto, in Italy. In England the shrine of Becket, at Canterbury, and that of Our Lady of Walsingham, in Norfolk, rank easily first, both in popularity and in the numbers of pilgrims who visited them. The English domestic shrines surpassed in point 29 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages of numbers, variety, and wealth those of any other country, there being no fewer than thirty-eight of these pilgrims' Meccas in the county of Norfolk alone. } There is little reason to doubt that the organisation /of bands of pilgrims for transmarine voyages [developed into a regular trade, and one that may be Ssaid to have been the first great commercial specula tion of mediaeval days . The foundation of the wealth of Venice is traceable to the great influx of foreign pilgrims, and the same may be said of PjsaJLheims, Corunna, Genoa, and other favoured places. Many cT~~bur"bI6T cities and towns like Canterbury and Walsingham must have derived much pecuniary benefit from the pilgrims. When pilgrimages became the fashion almost any thing, from a scolding wife to a great offence, was excuse sufficient for the making of one. A knight of old about to undertake some dangerous mission of love or war invariably prepared himself for the ordeal by making a pilgrimage, and, returning in safety, he made another one as the most approved fOrm of thanksgiving for having been preserved from disaster or death. So Richard I., on his escape from the Austrian dungeon, wended his way barefooted from Sandwich to the shrine of Becket, and the first a^t of Columbus on recrossing the Atlantic was to make a pilgrimage. Gibbon hints that Peter the Hermit became a pilgrim to escape from matrimony, and a certain Guy de Crema is said to have gone all the way to Ararat in the hope of obtaining a piece of the Ark, with which to fashion a talisman for his wife to wear against a too rapid increase of' family. Louis VII. had a perfect mania for pilgrimages, for, having got 30 Introductory rid of a bad wife by some such promenade, he married again, and immediately set out on another from gratitude at getting a good one. These, how ever, were trifles, for he made a series of such pedestrian exercises through Europe, extending over a period of twenty-eight years, in order to induce the saints to provide him, as they eventually did, with a son and heir. For a pilgrimage -maker, this monarch's record would be hard to beat. Pilgrimages could be performed by proxy, a con sequence, perhaps, of the common doctrine of the mediaeval Church that an individual could occa sionally depute his religious duties to others without i detriment to himself. Generally, however, it will be found that such pilgrimages were made only after the death of the person to whom they referred, although there are a few instances to the contrary. ^x't, -'&.. ',- ,rt. Provision for these jwstzobit^ pilgrimages are frequently met with in the wills of the twelfth to the sixteenth century. In the earlier instances they were mostly directed to Rome or Jerusalem, but in later times, like other pilgrimages, they were more commonly made to domestic shrines. A pious dame whose will is given in an old " History of Norfolk " provided for a pilgrim to visit, after her death, no fewer than eight different shrines in that county. In the will of Lady Cecily Gerbridge, dated 1418, ten marks are bequeathed for a pilgrim to visit Rome, and Bishop Gardiner of Norwich left twenty marks for a like purpose. In some cases the executors of a will were directed to give certain sums of money to all pilgrims who were willing to under take an assigned pilgrimage for the deceased. A few extracts from these wills may be given from the 31 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages volumes of " York Wills," published by the Surtees Society : — 1400. Roger de Wandesford, of Tereswell, in the county of Nottingham, left money to support a pilgrim " to visit the glorious confessors there resting," to whom he made a solemn ,vow when he was tossed about in the greatly troubled sea, between Hibernia and Norway, and nearly drowned. 1404. Matilda, wife of John Holbeck, citizen and merchant of York, left a silver-gilt necklace, set with gems, to be hung on the tomb of St. John of Bridlington. 1466. Wm. Boston, of Newark, chaplain, buried before the altar of St. Stephen in the parish church of Newark, ordered his tomb to be covered with a marble slab, on which should be placed a marble figure of his father, and another of himself. He also left 26s. viijrf. for a priest to make a pilgrimage for him to Bridlington, Walsing- ham, Canterbury, and Hales. 1472. Wm. Ecop, Rector of the parish church of Heslerton, in the East Riding, ordered a pilgrim to visit the shrine of St. John of Bridlington, and seventeen other holy places named, and for the pilgrim to pay fourpence at each holy place visited. 1485. Dame Margaret Pigot, daughter of Wm. Sywardby, Esq., of Sywardby, left "my Table of Gold to St. John of Bridlington." In several of these wills the soul of the testator is bequeathed " to our Lord Jesus, to our Lady Saint Mary, to Saint John of Bridlington, and to all the saints in heaven." Judging from the number of bequests left to jit, the shrine of St. John of Bridlington would appear to have been one of the most popular in Yorkshire. The performance of religious duties and penances by proxy was, no doubt, largely resorted to by many members of the community. There is a popular story to the effect that a certain man had followed his wife to confession, and when she retired behind the altar to receive corporal discipline, he cried to spare her, for 32 Introductory she was very tender, and he would take the punish ment in her place ; whereupon, as he bowed himself to the rod, she cried, " Strike hard, father, for I am a great sinner ! " There is little reason to doubt that when pilgrimage became the fashion the scrip and staff were as fre quently assumed for the purpose of committing new ^ins as for the performance of penance for old ones. The holy well in its secluded and leafy bower, the hallowed shrine in the dimly-lighted cathedral, were excellent places of assignation, fto reach which a pilgrimage formed a convenient and a plausible excuse. What proportion such impious pilgrims bore to their more devout companions we have few means of.' ascertaining, but we have considerable evidence that in quite early days the monkish custodians of shrine and relic were much perturbed by this abuse of pilgrimage, and they have not failed to record the fate that overtook the transgressors. "--Perpavoe enim svnt civitates in Longobardia, VEL IN Francia avt in Gallia, in ova non sit advltera vel meretrix generis anglorvm, qvod scandalum est tvrpitvdo totivs ecclesia." So wrote a continental bishop of the period, and we have every reason to believe that the conduct of the dames of other lands were just as bad, if not rather worse, as the example of Eleanor, the divorced wife of Louis VII ., goes to show. It was in vain that the more pious fathers of the Church preached and wrote against the abuse of pilgrimage. Their pleadings fell on deaf ears, their. eloquence was in vain, and availed but little to stem1 the growth of the many abuses. Pilgrimages had, in 33 C Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages common parlance, come to stay, and to many folk going on pilgrimage was " A nostrum famous, in old popish times, For purifying souls that stunk with crimes; A sort of apostolic salt, That popish parsons for its power exalt, For keeping souls of sinners sweet, Just as our kitchen salt keeps meat." " Jerusalem," wrote St. Jerome, " is now made a place of resort from all parts of the world, and there is such a throng of pilgrims of both sexes that all (the temptation, which you might in some degree avoid elsewhere, is here collected together." A few years after the death of Beda, Winfrid, an English missionary in Germany, wrote to Cuthbert, Archbishop of Durham, to say that there " was great need to check the practice of pilgrimages, for many, both men and women, only go abroad for the purpose of living licentiously, without the restraint they would find at home, or are tempted by the vices of the cities in France and Lombardy to fall from the paths of virtue." According to the testimony of Winfrid there were few cities on the way to Rome where such persons were not to be met with, and the historian j Gibbon tells us that " the roads were covered with multitudes of either sex, and of every rank, who pro fessed their contempt of life so soon as they should | have kissed the tomb of their Redeemer. Princes and prelates abandoned the care of their dominions, and the members of these pious caravans were a prelude to the armies which marched in the ensuing age under the banner of the cross." During the eleventh century in particular the belief in the merit and even the obligation in the sight of 34 Introductory God of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem were as firmly im pressed on the mind of every nominal Christian, whatever his rank or . station, as are the necessity and advantage of a pilgrimage to the Kaaba of Mecca in the creed of the followers of Mohammed at the present day. Each year saw the number of pilgrims augment, and all persons were strictly enjoined to hold a pilgrim in great respect and veneration, as an especial favourite of the Almighty, inasmuch as he had been admitted by Him to the glorious privilege of visiting the sacred places, and had retained, it was thought, a portion of their sanctity. In all pilgrimages of real devotion the practice/ of walking was common, and it was usual for thel pilgrim to make his journey, barefoot. It was thus] that Richard I. made his journey from Sandwich to Canterbury. In one of the Paston letters, dated 1 47 1, the Duke and Duchess of Norfolk are mentioned as making a pilgrimage together in this manner from Framlingham to Walsingham. Henry VIII., in one of his numerous pilgrimages to Walsing ham, walked barefoot from Barsham, a distance of three miles, and Henrietta Maria's pilgrimages from St. James's to Tyburn were similarly performed. The returning Crusaders brought into this country from Palestine a large number of relics, to some of which we owe the founding of such shrines as that of the True Blood, at Hayles Abbey, in Gloucester shire, in which the sacred material had been imported by the Crusaders. The papal assertion that relics possessed the powerl of self -reproduction was inevitable in the days when churches were so many and genuine relics so few,' especially as bishops were threatened with depriva- 35 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages ition of office should they dare to consecrate churches ,void of relics. Calvin, in his interesting little black - 'letter volume, printed in 1 561, declares, with excusable exaggeration, that the portions of the true cross shown in the European churches were enough to load a large ship. The relics purporting to be those of our Lord's Passion — the holy blood, the seamless gar ment, fragments of the crown of thorns — were almost as numerous, as indeed were the relics of the Virgin. Her shift was shown at Aix-la-Chapelle, her qombs at Rome and Besancon, and her wedding -ring at Perugia. The most popular relic, how- lever, of the Virgin was her milk, such as that /exhibited in England at Walsingham, and in many ; churches on the Continent. The multiplicity of holy relics was not free from certain disadvantages, notwithstanding that their exhibitors could plead to sceptical and well-travelled pilgrims the papal decree that all holy relics had the Divine gift of self -multiplication. There is an old story told of a visitor making a tour of the various French shrines in the early years of the sixteenth century, to the effect that when shown the skull of John the Baptist at a certain monastery, the pilgrim remarked that the skull of the same saint had been , exhibited to him only the day before at another j abbey. " Maybe," the monkish custodian is said \ to have replied, " that was the skull of John the ! Baptist when a young man, whereas this in our [ possession is his skull after he was fully advanced in I years and wisdom." A full list of the relics still treasured in the continental churches would be indeed a surprising document. With regard to the present-day attitude of the 36 Introductory Church of Rome towards such relics, and the miracles performed by their aid, the words of the late Cardinal Newman may be quoted as authoritative, unquestioned, and canonical :— " Certainly," he wrote, " the Catholic Church, from east to west, from north to south, is, according to our conceptions, hung with miracles. The store of relics is inexhaustible, they are multiplied through all lands, and each particle of each has in it at least a dormant — perhaps an energetic — virtue of supernatural opera tion. At Rome there is the true cross, the crib of Bethlehem, and the chair of St. Peter, portions of the crown of thorns are kept at Paris, the holy coat is shown at Treves, the winding sheet at Turin. At Monza the iron crown is formed out of a nail of the cross, and another nail is claimed for the Duomo of Milan, and pieces of Our Lady's habit are to be seen in the Escurial. The Agnus Dei, blessed medals, the scapular, the cord of St. Francis, all are the media of Divine manifestations of grace. Crucifixes have bowed the head to the suppliant, and Madonnas have bent their eye upon assembled crowds. St. Januarius's blood liquefies periodically at Naples, and St. Winifred's Well is the scene of wonders in an un believing country. Women are marked with sacred (stigmata, blood has flowed on Fridays from their five wounds, and their heads are crowned with a circle of lacerations. Relics are for ever touching the sick, the diseased, the wounded, sometimes with no result at all, at other times with marked and un deniable efficacy. Who has not heard of the abundant favours gained by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, and of the marvellous consequences which have attended the invocation of St. Anthony of Padua? These phenomena are sometimes reported 37 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages of saints in their lifetime as well as after death, especially if they were evangelists or martyrs. The wild beasts crouched before their victims in the Roman amphitheatre, the axe -man was unable to sever St. Cecilia's head from her body, and St. Peter elicited a spring of water for his jailer's baptism in the Mamertine. St. Francis Xavier turned salt water into fresh for five hundred travellers, St. Ray mond was transported over the sea on his cloak, St. Andrew shone brilliantly in the dark, St. Scholastica gained by her prayers a pouring rain, St. Paul was fed by ravens, and St. Frances saw her guardian angel. I need not continue the catalogue. It is agreed on both sides ; the two parties join issue over a fact ; that fact is, the claim of miracles on the part of the Catholic Church ; it is the Protestants' charge, and it is our glory." FjiithrheaHng is, of course, as old as the hills, for before there was religion there was magic, and wherever there was magic faith-healing was largely practised. In writing of the so-called miracles of healing* which have taken place at numberless shrines and holy wells, and which have been inscribed on papal bulls by the thousand, one must speak with caution. No one in his senses now believes that an application of the reputed blood of Becket mixed with water will reset a fractured pelvis, or that a twisted limb can be straightened by dipping it into the waters of a holy well. At the same time we must remember that the Mediaeval Period was an age of infinite faith, and therefore one of immense possibilities with regard to the relief, if not the cure, of diseases which may be, to a certain extent, controlled by the mind. That many of the reputed miracles of the Middle Ages were 38 Introductory not genuine, and were feigned to bring fame to< some particular shrine, is certain. The great mass! of pilgrims had minds which, though constrained by1 faith, the most biassed lover of the mediaeval system could not call scientific, so that the mere exercise of walking from shrine to shrine, coupled with a plain, wholesome diet, effected many cures of minor ailments, which were hailed by the monks as cases of miraculous healing. It is the fashion to-day to regard the mediaeval miracle with scepticism. Yet the fact remains that remarkable cures, bearing much similarity to the old-time miracle, are effected at the present day. Such a statement requires proof, which is furnished by a paper on " Modern Miracles of Healing," which was read only last year (1910) before the North Wales Branch of the British Medical Association, when several of the medical men present bore testi mony to certain cases of healing at St. Winifred's Well being of undoubted authenticity, an extra ordinary testimony to the power of faith -healing in this eminently scientific age, and one which helps us to realise that many of the mediaeval miracles were, in a sense, quite genuine. With the rise of the domestic shrine in England the foreign pilgrimage declined, for who but the most devout would make a perilous journey overseas for benefits that could be more easily procured at home, especially as the edict went forth that two pilgrimages to a great shrine like that of St. David, in Wales, equalled in merit one made to Rome? When the occupation of showing genuine or assumed relics to an ever-increasing number of visitors became a source of profit, great inducements of various kinds, such as indulgences, were held out to attract pilgrims, with 39 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages the result that p^grhnages degeneratedv until they became, for the majority of those attending them, mere holiday jaunts. "And what were the sentiments, one may ask, which animated these countless hordes of pilgrims— knights, nobles, kings, ladies, priests, clerks, gentles, and yeomen — and urged them to undertake so frequently such long and perilous journeys? The majority of such wayfarers, in the earlier days at any rate, may be regarded as devout and pious persons who honestly believed in the efficacy of their arduous pilgrimage. To quote Mr. J. J. Jusserand ' : ''Arrived at the end of the journey, all prayed ; prayed with fervour in the humblest posture. The soul was filled with religious emotion when from the end of the majestic alley formed by the coloured twilight of the nave, the heart divined, rather than the eye saw, the mysterious object of veneration for which such a distance had been traversed at the cost of such a fatigue. Though the practical man galloped up to bargain with the saint for the favour of God, though the emissary sent to make offering in the name of his master might keep a dry and clear eye, tears coursed down the cheeks of the poor and simple in heart. He tasted fully, of the pious emotion he had come to seek, the peace of heaven descended into his bosom, and he went away consoled. Such was the happy lot of simple, devout souls." It is doubtful if a more charming description has ever been penned of the devout and genuine pilgrim than that quoted above; but there were others, in the later days especially, who were merely pleasure- seekers or holiday-makers, accompanied by a con- * "English Wayfaring Life," J. J. Jusserand (T. Fisher Unwin). 40 Introductory siderable number of adventurers, minstrels, dancers, { and camp followers, living on the credulity or bounty y of their wealthier fellow-travellers. Each may have ; had his quiet and devotional moment before the hallowed relic, as, the world forgetting, he confessed his sins or sought the intercession of the Blessed Virgin. At the same time, it would be ridiculous to affirm that all who went on pilgrimage during the Middle Ages were actuated by devotional motives, or con cerned their minds very much about the spiritual benefits to be derived from their journey. J. R. Green tells us that restless workmen made use of , pilgrimages when seeking a new situation, and a statute of Richard II. attempted to put a stop to the practice. Thus we find that a small band of devout pilgrims would be joined by those to whom a pilgrimage was but a pretext for some other objective ; the merchant taking his goods to a distant town, the artisan in search of work, would, in many cases, join one of the numerous bands of pilgrims who were journeying in the desired direction. We have a curious picture of the manner in which certain of our home -pilgrimages were prosecuted in the early years of the fifteenth century, when William Thorpe was tried for heresy by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1407. Thorpe had been accused by Archbishop Arundel of having asserted that " those men and women who go on pilgrimages to Canter bury, to Beverley, to Walsingham, and to other such places, are accursed and made foolish, spending their goods in waste. Such persons as these spend much money and time in seeking out and visiting the bones or images of this or that saint, do that which is in direct disobedience to the commands of God, 4i Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages inasmuch as they waste their goods partly upon inn keepers, many of whom are women of profligate conduct, partly upon rich priests, who have already more than they need." " Ungracious lousel I " replied the Archbishop, " thou favourest no more truth than a hound. Since, at the road at the north door at London, at our Lady at Walsingham, and many other divers places in England, are many great and praisable miracles done, should not the images of such holy saints and places be more worshipped than other places and images where no such miracles are done? " With the increase of shrines all over the country, it was inevitable that pilgrimages should tend to become mere pleasure parties, in which the spirit of real devotion and austerity was conspicuous by its absence. A troop of pilgrims was never wanting in the elements of humour, and so mixed a company was bound to afford an opportunity for fun and frolic. So much was this the case that as early as the days of Charlemagne we find the pilgrim's badges denounced as the insignia of imposture and deceit. We have many contemporary records to show that, as they trudged or cantered along the highways and byways, they relieved the tedium of the journey with songs, legends, and stirring tales of adventure, while the notes of flutes, bagpipes, and other musical instru ments gave an additional gaiety to the scene. The popular songs of the day were certainly broadly humorous, if not something rather worse, for, as Sir Thomas More observed, " there be cathedral churches into which the country come with procession, and the women following the cross with many an unwomanly song." Another passage from one of the early State 42 Introductory trials may be quoted. The dialogue occurs between a disciple of Wycliffe, temp. Henry IV., and Arch bishop Arundel of Canterbury. " Also, sir," says the disciple, " I know well that when divers men and women will go after their owne wills, and find ing out a pilgrimage, they will order to have with Tha Canterbury Pilgrims, from an Illuminated MS, Beg 18. D. ii. them both men and women that can sing wanton songs ; and some other pilgrims will have with them bagpipes, so that every towne they come through, what with the noise of their singing and the sound of their piping, and with the jangling of their Canter bury bells, and with the barking out of dogs after them, that they make more noise than if the king 43 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages came that waye, with all his clarions and minstrells. And if these men and women be a month in their pilgrimage, many of them shall be half a year after great jinglers, tale-tellers, and liars." To this somewhat severe accusation the Archbishop replied that " Pilgrims have with them singers and also pipers, that when one of them which goeth bare- foote striketh his toe upon a stone, and maketh it to bleed, it is well done that he and his fellows begin then a song, or else take out of his bosome a bag pipe, to drive away with such mirthe the hurte of his fellow. For with such solace the travaile and weari- nesse of pilgrims is lightly and merrily brought forth." There were, however, more serious charges brought against the pilgrims and their followers than the foregoing. In Sir Thomas More's " Dyalogue on the Adoracion of Images " the interlocutor observes that " the most part [of pilgrims] that cometh, cometh for no devotion at all, but only for good company to babble thitherward, and drinke dronke there, and then dance and reel homeward." According to Chaucer the pilgrims of whom he has given us so vivid an account in the " Canterbury Tales " were little more than a merry band of revel lers, all decked out in their gayest garments, and exhibiting no sign of their austere profession in either appearance, behaviour, or spirit. " Every man in his wise made herty chere, Telling his fellows of sportes and of cheer, And of mirthes that fallen by the waye, As custom is of pilgrims, and hath been many a daye." However hard they may have prayed at the end of their journey, they appear, during Chaucer's time 44 Introductory at any rate, to have given themselves up to enjoy- * ment on the way, and when they raised their eyes > to heaven it will generally be found that they did \ so in order to take aim at it with the end of a ,' bottle. : It is not difficult to understand why the " Wife of Bath," who, besides doing many of the lesser tours, had been three times to Jerusalem, longed to go on more journeys, and why the knight GeoffroideJj^Tour Landry, in the treatise ' he wrote on morals and be- "fiaviour for the use of his daughters, warned them against pilgrimages as against the plague. At the same time, these remarks must be taken as more applicable to the customary, fashionable, and regular pilgrimages than to those undertaken spon taneously by individuals or small bands of penitents from some strong religious impulse or motive, and how different the early Christian was from the " Canterbury " pilgrim the " Canterbury Tales " unfold. There is a general impression that the custom of making pilgrimages had fallen into abeyance, had, in fact, died of inanition, long before the Reformation swept shrine and relic to the winds. Such was possibly the case with the smaller domestic shrines, for _J,ong^ before the close of the fifteenth century pilgrimage had ceased to be an important factor in the_ religious life of the country. At the same time, we know that Henry VIII. himself made more than one pilgrimage and gave the customary gifts to several shrines ; and the little black-letter volume entitled " Informacion for Pylgrymes unto the Holy Land," printed by Wynkyn de Worde about 1498, ran 1 Harleian MSS., No. 1,764. Printed under the title of "The Knight of the Tower," by Caxton, in 1484: 45 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages \ through three editions. The beautiful Pilgrims' Inn at Glastonbury was erected about 1475 to accommo- jdate those visiting the holy places of St. Joseph of Arimathea and the relics of St. Dunstan ; and although the daily resort to shrines for devotional •\purposes had practically ceased, the Jubilees of St. Thomas of Canterbury, the last one being kept in (1520, were attended by such vast crowds of people that special provisions were made for their accommo dation. In 1533 Hugh Latimer wrote to his friend Master Morice, from his rectory of West Kineton (Kington West), in Wiltshire, saying : "I dwell within a mile of the Fossway, and you would wonder to see how many they come by flocks out of the West Country to many images — to our Lady of Worcester, &'c, but chiefly to the Blood of Hayles, which they believe to be the very blood of Christ, and that the sight of it puts them in a state of salvation." Spring was the favourite season for English ;pilgrimages to domestic shrines, particularly in the I days when the delights of a holiday trip were tempered with the sense of performing a religious duty. As these latter-day pilgrims started on their journey well provided with money, and clad in rich ^garments, they were worth plundering. Country roads were unsafe for solitary or small bodies of pilgrims who could not afford the luxury of an escort of armed servants ; so for mutual convenience and protection, for safety and better entertainment on the way, they formed themselves into companies of sufficient strength to defend themselves if attacked on the ill-kept highways that led to Hayles, to Walsingham, or to Canterbury. For better or worse the days of devotional pilgrim ages in this country are over, except for the Roman 46 Introductory Catholics, and on every side the Pilgrims' Ways are strewn with the wreckage of mediaevalism. No longer does Chaucer's merry cavalcade ride forth in the fresh spring morning, a motley company " From every shire's end Of England, to Canterbury they wend The holy blissful martyr for to seek, That them hath helpen when that they were sick." Yea, verily, the days of devotional pilgrimages are over, and as they have no equivalent in our land it is imagination alone that will awaken the thought that they once played an important part in the social and religious life of our ancestors. No longer does the wooden Christus hanging on the oaken rood-tree bend the head to the penitent suppliant ;¦ and vanished utterly from our Protestant churches is the bejewelled and glistening Mary and her little company of angels. Long still and gone are all these things, and only the reverence of a reverie remains. " Whence and whither, jolly Pilgrims, whither ride ye forth to-day, That like kings ye canter, canter, canter on the King's highway ? What your quest, and what your token ? Be they bells or blooms ye wear ? Proud and princely are your trappings— can ye do the deed ye dare? Nay, but who be ye that ask us ? Up and with us as we ride ! And may God not help the laggard that shall wait for time or tide ! We be Pilgrims of the Ages, with a world to win or lose ! Gentle, simple, up and with us! We can stay not while ye choose ! We be Canterbury Pilgrims in a world we mean to win : All the true of all the Englands— all the free of English kin, All the brave of fifty kingdoms, all whose sires were Men of Kent, 47 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages Riding onward past the landmarks on the ways our fathers went ; And we canter, canter, canter east and west and south and north With a Canterbury gallop forth and forth and ever forth ! Far and fast our fathers cantered by the highways of the sea When they rode with hempen bridle on the horse of oaken tree : Sound of heart the stout old horse is though his mate be steed of steel; Bone and sinew tempered metal, stronger frame and swifter heel; Lady's hand can guide and curb him though the foam be on the reins, And the lightning of the tempest be the life-blood in his veins. Not a haven, not a headland but hath heard his bridle ring, As we canter, canter, canter by the highways of the King. What the tokens? They be tokens of the bells of white and blue In the mother garden-island, in the Kentish morning dew. Blue for Hope, and white for Honour, let them bloom there spring to spring, As we canter, canter, canter on the highways of the King ! Saintly relic, shrine and hallow ? — nay, hath pilgrim need of these, Brothers' dust the ground we tread on, and the ooze of all the seas? Nobler promise hath our token. Hearken, Hearken ! In the sky Ye can hear the Yule bells pealing from the belfry, low and high : Bells of promise, pealing, pealing of an England free, and One In the league of all the Englands ere the pilgrimage be done. Peace and Freedom ! Peace and Freedom ! This the tale our token tells ; And the world looks up to listen to the Canterbury bells." Anon. 48 CHAPTER II GENERAL REMARKS ON RELICS AND SHRINES Before considering in detail the religious customs and observances which the Protestant peoples have long regarded as " superstition," if not something rather worse, it may be well for us to bear in mind that just as men have given their lives to uphold the honour of their country, to defend that honour as symbolised in a few square yards of bunting, so men gave the labour of their lives to create fitting resting-places and shrines for the glorification of a hallowed and saintly relic. If we eliminate all such portions of the great architectural creations of the Middle Ages as were due to or influenced by religious sentiment and devotional superstition, the greater part- of the personal appeal made by the material fabric vanishes. On every side, in this country as on the Continent, we find evidence of the immense pains and labour the monkish craftsmen took to enshrine" in the most beautiful manner they knew some assumed fragment of the True Cross or a reputed phial of the Holy Blood ; and around these religious motives sprang up those beautiful architectural creations which, even in their ruin and decay, compel bur wonder and stimulate our imagination. Not only, however, are these buildings to be regarded as archi tectural creations, for many of them are literally 49 D Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages " prayers jn._stone," whereof every brick is an Ave Vlaria and every" piece of carving a Paternoster. Thus it is that so many of our mediaeval churches ind cathedrals possess a plainly felt but indescribable atmosphere that permeates the materiariFabric, and ivhich, by some mysterious and subtle influence, trans- - forms the material house of man into the spiritual louse of God, surely the highest and noblest ideal within the domain of architectural expression. Relics formed the real wealth of the mediaeval Dhurch and the demand for some form1 of miracle- ivorking relic was due in a large measure to a decree^ )f the second Nicene Council (A.D. 787), by which bishops were threatened with djrjrijyjaiiorA^of^office) should they consecrate j:hufches without jelics, a/ iecree that holds good in the Roman Catholic Chufch it the present day. The natural consequence was :hat when no genuine relics could be obtained every rind of fraud was perpetrated. It is really astounding the extraordinary value the :lergy put upon relics, and the great efforts they nade to secure them. No means were considered 00 low to obtain them, and a regular trade was done n saintly relics. The graves of the saints and martyrs became so •ansacked, we are told by contemporary historians, hat not so much as a finger-nail with any pretence o occult power remained unappropriated. With the mthority of the Church to back him the relic -hunter vas early abroad, awaiting his opportunity to purloin ome arm, leg, or other portion of a saint's anatomy vhile such was being transferred to a new shrine. It is related of one Stephen, chanter to the nonastery of Angers, that he walked barefoot through •"ranee and Italy all the way to Apulia, for the sole 5° Remarks on Relics and Shrines purpose of stealing an arm of St. Nicholas, She miraculous power of which had brought untold wealth and glory to the Abbey of Bari ; but he did not succeed in his attempt. A considerable business, too, was done in "faked " relics, for the clergy, unless they could procure genuine ones, were obliged" to be content with imita tions, with which we may be sure the market was flooded. -" Thus it came to pass that after a while the bogus or mechanical -working relic was in danger of ousting the genuine article, for if the relic could not be saintly it could easily be extraordinary. So one monastery would exhibit the plume of a phoenix, presented by one of the popes ; another treasured the mark Cain bore on his forehead ; while' a third would proudly call attention to the tip of Lucifer's tail, lost in conflict with a Syrian hermit. Henry Stephens, the famous French printer, mentions that in the sixteenth century, there was exhibited in a French monastery a phial of glass containing some of Christ's tears, and in another, church a glass containing some of His breath. A very favourite device was the image or picture containing some hidden mechanism, which was worked with gratifying results. The more popular of these mechanical contrivances were representations of the Virgin shedding real tears and the Crucifix exuding blood. At Breslau the good fathers, with a touch of inventive genius, showed their astonished congregations a carving purporting to be a repre sentation of '" the deyil— ear-ry-ing his grandmother on a wheel-barrow " I It must not be forgotten that from very early days there had always been within the Church a Si Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages. considerable number of iconoclasts, men who thought that religion could be taught and preached without the help of pictorial symbolism1 or sacred imagery. In 726 Leo published a long edict against ,the growing use of relics, shrines, and images of all descriptions, when his decrees met with such fierce opposition that a civil war resulted. Leo's son, Constantine Copronymus, renewed his father's edict, and in 754 convened at Constantinople a Council, at which the use of images and relics was condemned. These decrees were warmly welcomed by the Eastern churches generally, but were utterly rejected at Rome. Among the Latins the most eminent iconoclast was Claudius, Bishop of Turin, who, in 823, ordered all images, and even the Cross itself, to be cast out of the churches and burned. He treated relics with the utmost contempt and ridiculed the virtues ascribed to them. He also censured the frequent pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to the tombs of the saints. As one would expect, the relics most eagerly sought, apart from the bones of saints and martyrs, were pieces of the wood of the Cross, drops of the Holy Blood, phials containing portions of the Virgin's milk, the nails and similar memorials pf the Crucifixion. St. Jerome states (" Epist. ad Eustachium ") that the column to which our Lord was fastened for the scourging existed in his time in the portico of the Holy Sepulchre, and that it retained marks of the blood of our Saviour. Beda places this column within the church, and Gregory of Tours dilates on the miracles wrought by it. The number of nails by which the Saviour was 5* Remarks on Relics and Shrines fastened to the Cross has always been a matter of dispute. Nonnus affirms that three only were used, and in this he is preceded by Gregory Nazianzen. Cornelius Curtius, an Augustine friar who wrote a treatise, " De Clavis Dominicis," insists on the use of four nails, and in this he is supported by the earliest representations of the Crucifixion, in which four nails are always shown. The upraised arms and the three nails belong to a comparatively late period of pictorial religious art. Of the four reputed original nails the Empress Helena is said to have thrown one into the Adriatic during a storm, which at once ceased. The early history of the second nail is obscure, and authorities differ as to whether it was inserted by Constantine in his helmet, his crown, or in one of his statues at Con stantinople. However, this nail was afterwards found, considerably mutilated, in the church of St. Croce- in-Gerusalemttie, at Rome. The Cathedral of Milan claims to possess the third original nail, which' Eutropius states was fixed through one of our Saviour's hands, and which, we are told by Rufinus (" Ecc. Hist.," iv.), was used by Constantine as a bit, in accordance with the prophecy of Zechariah (xiv. 20), " In that day shall be upon the bells [bridles] of the horses, Holiness unto the Lord." The fourth and last nail, said to have been the one driven through our Saviour's right foot, is shown at Treves, where is also the seamless garment. The wood of the Cross is stated by Lipsius to have been such as happened to be nearest at hand, in which case it would probably be oak, as this grew plentifully in Judaea ; and what are claimed to-day to be authentic pieces of the original Cross bear much resemblance to fine-grained and dark oak. S3 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages Beda states that the wood of the Cross on which the Saviour suffered was— the upright of cypress, the cross-piece of cedar, the head -piece of fir, and the suppedaneum (footpiece) of box. This differs from the Eastern tradition, which substitutes olive and palm for the fir and box. Be this as it may, the Cross, like so many of the popular relics, had the faculty of gracing two or more shrines at the same time. It existed in a complete state at Constantinople, and in fragments all over Europe. The discovery, or invention, of the true cross by the Empress Helena is assigned to A.D. 326, the twenty-first year of the reign of her son Constantine. Briefly the tradition is to the effect that this devout princess, in her seventy-ninth year, inflamed with holy ardour, resolved to visit the scenes of our Lord's Passion. The pagans had obliterated all the marks of the hated Christians, Calvary had been piled up with stones and earth, on the summit of which was erected a temple of Venus. The Empress, however, hearing of a Jew who knew where certain memorials had been hidden, forced him to disclose the secret. The spot he named was carefully excavated, with the result that within it three crosses were found, and lying beside them the title-board which Pilate had written as the superscription for that on which our Lord suffered. St. Ambrose affirms that this title was attached to one of the crosses, but other historians assert that Helena herself had no guidance as to which was the true cross, until, by the suggestion of the Bishop of Jerusalem, certain sick and infirm persons were touched by all three, when, as only one produced miraculous cures, there no longer remained any doubt as to which was the authentic one. 54 Remarks on Relics and Shrines Over the hallowed spot a church was built by Helena, or St. Helena as she afterwards became, and within it the real Cross was deposited, after a considerable portion had been sent to Con stantinople, to be inserted by Constantine into the head of one of the statues representing himself. At a later date the remaining portion of the Cross found its way to Rome, where the Church of St. Croce-in-Gerusalemme was built specially for its reception. A festival to commemorate the Invention of the Cross was ordered to be celebrated annually on May 3rd, and on Easter Sunday the Bishop of Jerusalem exhibited the great object of devotion to thousands of devout pilgrims. Small portions of the holy wood, set in gold and gems, were distributed to those who could afford to purchase them, while to make the supply equal to the extraordinary demand, it was boldly asserted that the holy wood had a miraculous power of self- reproduction, and could never be diminished how ever largely it was distributed. St. Cyril, Patriarch of Jerusalem, affirms the miraculous nature of the holy wood, which he likens to the five small loaves with which five thousand people were supplied. From the time of Heraclius we hear but little about this more or less complete Cross, the discovery or invention of which was severely criticised by Jortin (" Remarks," vol. iii.). It may have been destroyed by the Saracens when they conquered Jerusalem in 637, but nothing is definitely known about it. The wooden title-board, however, is still preserved at Rome, where it was sent by Constantine and placed in a leaden chest above the vaulted roof of St. Croce Church, the whole being 55 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages walled in and its position indicated by an exterior mosaic inscription. This had become illegible from lapse of time, but while some repairs to the church were being carried out during the pontificate of Innocent VIII., A.D. 1492, the window through which the sacred relic was viewed became broken, and the holy title was discovered. Such is the history recorded on a wall of the church, en circling a stairway leading to the Chapel of St. Helena. Moreover, this discovery and the truth of the find were authenticated four years later by a papal bull of Alexander VI. The Crouched, or, more correctly perhaps, the crutched or crossed Friars, were founded in honour of the discovery of the Cross by St. Helena. Accord ing to Chaucer, to crouch is to make the sign of the cross. They appear, also, to have been called crosiers for the same reason. They were fairly numerous on the Continent, and came to England in the thirteenth century, when they founded friaries at London, Oxford, and Reigate. In the Greek Church Crouched-mass Day is held on the 1 4th of September, and on that day the ecclesiastical year commences. F. A. Gasquet, in his "English Monastic Life," writes : " The Crossed Friars are said by some to have taken their origin in the Low Countries, by others to have come from Italy in very early times, having been instituted or reformed by one Gerard, prior of St. Maria di Morella at Bologna. In 11 69 Pope Alexander III. took them under his protection and gave them a fixed rule of life. These friars first came to England in the year 1244. " Matthew Paris, writing of that time, says they appeared before a synod held by the Bishop of Rochester, each carrying a stick upon which was a 56 Remarks on Relics and Shrines cross . They presented documents from the Pope and asked to be allowed to make foundations of their fraternity in England. Clement Reyner puts their first establishment in this country at Reigate, in 1245, and their second in London, in 1249. This second foundation is the better known, as it has given the name of Crutched Friars to a locality in the City of London. They had a third house at Oxford, and altogether there were six or seven English friaries. Besides the cross upon their staves, from which they originally took their names, the friars had a red cloth cross upon the breasts of their habits." There were two classes of miraculous pictures, one comprehending those which are said- tbTiavef had a miraculous jorigm, like the Veronical portrait ; the otEef,~a far niore numerous class, include those which have caused miracles to be performed, such as the picture of the Virgin at St. Giovanni e Paolo, near Rome, which was seen to shed real tears when the French armies invaded Italy. One of the best known pictures of this class is in St. Peter's at Rome, and is important for the authentication of the miracle. It consists of a picture of the Virgin with a mark under the left eye, and this inscription : "This picture of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, which stood between the pillars of the porch of the ancient Basilica, having been struck by an impious hand> poured forth blood on the stone which is now protected by a grating." Another of the famous relics at St. Peter's, and one that is rarely shown, is the Veronical present ment of our Lord, said to have been painted from life by some unknown person, Veronica, . who took it to Rome, where an altar was erected in its honour. The Veronical handkerchief, on which is the impress 57. Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages of our Lord's face, is also at Rome. St. Veronica, however, is a purely mythical person, the term being a corruption of vera icon, a true image. | It may be mentioned that the majority of the above-mentioned relics and images, together with •hundreds of others, are still to be seen in Roman jCatholic churches. To give a list of the wonderful relics in the Italian •churches alone would fill many volumes, but the following are only a few to be seen in the church of St. Croce : — i. Three pieces of the cross, presented by Constantine. 2. The title of the Cross with inscriptions in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. 3. One of the holy nails with which Christ was crucified. 4. Two thorns from the sacred crown of thorns. 5. The finger of St. Thomas the Apostle which touched the1 most holy rib of the risen Lord. 6. One of the pieces of money received by Judas Iscariot. 7. The cord by which our Lord was bound to the Cross. 8. The sponge. 9. A piece of the seamless garment. 10. A portion of the veil and some of the hair of the Virgin Mary. 1 1 . Some earth from Calvary saturated with holy blood. 12. A phial of the milk of the Blessed Virgin. 13. A phial of our Lord's blood. 14. Some of the manna with which God fed the Israelites in the Wilderness. 15. A portion of the rod of Aaron that budded. 58 Remarks on Relics and Shrines 1 6. Part of the head of John the Baptist. 17- A tooth of St. Peter. 1 8. Bones of Mary Magdalene. 19. Relics of Saints Bridget, Galian, Felicite, Catherine, and Margaret. Previous to the Reformation these relics were nearly, if not quite, as numerous throughout the British Isles. In Glasgow, for example, mention is made of a gold phial containing part of the coat of St. Kenti gern, also the mouth of St. Ninian in a gold casket, part of the girdle of the Virgin Mary and a phial of crystal containing her milk, a portion of the manger in which our Lord lay, and a small bag containing some of the sweat of St. Martin. The relics in the various English cathedrals, churches and abbeys showed a great similarity ; for it was only the favoured few, like Durham, Shaftesbury, Canterbury, Gloucester, and Edmundsbury, that could boast of the possession of a martyr's sacred remains with which to draw the ever-wandering bands of pilgrims who perambulated the country for pleasure, health, or devotion. The following list of relics in Wimborne Minster, before the Reformation, may be taken as typical of those possessed by other religious houses, and one cannot fail to notice their close analogy with the continental examples to which attention has already been called. 1 . A piece of the Cross. 2. Part of our Lord's robe. 3. A large stone from His sepulchre. 4. A piece of the altar upon which our Lord was lifted up and offered by Simeon. 5. Some hairs of our Lord's beard. — » 59. Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages 6. A piece of the scourging pillar. 7. Part of the alabaster box. 8. A shoe of St. William. 9. Part. of the thigh of the Virgin Agatha. 10. Some bones of St. Catherine. 11. Part of St. Mary the Egyptian. 12. Part of our Lord's manger. 13. A thorn from His crown. 14. One of St. Philip's teeth. 15. Some blood of St. Thomas a Becket. 16. The hair shirt of St. Francis. The authorities of St. Mary's Church, Warwick, enticed pilgrims from all parts of the Midlands in order to show them such marvels as the manger of our Lord, part of the burning bush of Moses, the chair of the patriarch Abraham, some of the Virgin's hair, and part of the face of St. Stephen. In 1762, during some repairs to the capstone and the addition of a new copper vane to the fine spire of Salisbury Cathedral, the workmen discovered a wooden box containing a round leaden one, 5| inches in diameter and -z\ inches deep. Within this inner box was a piece of woven fabric considered to be a relic of the Virgin Mary, the patron of the church, which had been deposited as a charm to guard the spire from danger. The relic and boxes were enclosed in a copper cylinder and replaced .where they had been found. -— - It was usual for relics to be enclosed in a small chest, box, or casket ; and depositories of this kind were practically universal in all European churches before the Reformation, and exist in large numbers in Roman Catholic countries at the present day. The reliquary was made of wood, stone, iron, gold, or silver, and was frequently lavishly decorated with 60 Remarks on Relics and Shrines precious stones. Personal reliquaries, in the form of a brooch, were often worn as a charm against harm or disease. A good example is furnished by an ancient brooch, which was made in the reign of Elizabeth, and once belonged to a Highland chief/ Maclean of Lochbury, in the Isle of Mull, being formed of silver found on his estate. It is of circular form, scolloped, and surrounded by small upright obelisks, each set with a pearl at the top ; in the centre is a round crystalline ball, considered a magical gem ; the top may be taken off, showing a hollow in which sacred relics were placed. On the reverse of the brooch are engraved the names of the Three Kings of Cologne, and the word " consumma tion." This was a consecrated brooch, and worn not only for the purpose of fastening the dress, but, like the pilgrims' signs of earlier days, as an amulet. , The wills of clerics and ecclesiastics often reveal}- the bequest of relics to some church or convient.'. William of Wykeham, the founder of St. Mary's College, Winchester, and of that other " Saint Maries College," or New College, Oxford, bequeathed to Winchester Cathedral, where he lies within his beautiful chantry, a golden cross, encased within which was a piece of the " Tree of the Lord." Among some documents discovered in an old parish chest at Tavistock in 1885 was a very interest ing Warden's Roll (1385-6), which is considered to be the earliest document of this character in exist ence. The record in Latin and engrossed on parch 1 ment is headed : " Account of Reginald Strepa, Warden of the light of the Blessed Eustachius of Tavistock, from the feast of the Invention of the Holy Cross in the year of the Lord 1385 to the same feast in the next following 1386." The box also yielded 61 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages a number of churchwarden's rolls of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. From one of these we gather that in 1471 the treasure of the church had received the following additions : " one beryl set in silver, and with a chain of silver to hang the aforesaid to the- pix with the body of Christ on the principal feasts ; one cross of silver-gilt with the figures of St. Mary the Virgin and St. John the Evangelist to the same belonging ; one box, in which the hair of St. Mary, the Virgin and St. Mary Magdalene are "contained ; one cup of silver ; one little cross, the legacy of John the Hermit ; one censer of silver." Not only did parish and small conventual -churches compete with the great cathedrals and abbeys in the matter of relics, but even the little chapels attached jtoJiospitals and almshouses were full of_similar things . In early days when these hospices were used by the poorer class of pilgrims, for. whom the custodians of the wealthy shrines had no great love, relics found their way into these charitable institutions to attract the wealthier pilgrims who had alms to dispose of. St. Bartholomew's Hospital, just outside Oxford, was once an important charity of which the chapel and a few portions of the secular buildings remain. Many relics were kept in this chapel — the comb of St. Edmund, the skin of St. Bartholomew, the bones of St. Stephen, and a rib of St. Andrew the apostle. Such as were troubled with continual headaches were cured by using the comb of the saintly Edmund ¦. These relics attracted so large a number of pilgrims that the Fellows of Oriel College conveyed them to their Church of St. Mary, Oxford, where they, remained until the reign of Elizabeth. TiWhen a woman was taken to St. Bartholomew's 1 62 Remarks on Relics and Shrines Hospital, London, with her tongue so swollen that she could not close her mouth, Rahere, the founder of the charity, applied his remedy : — " And he reuolvynge his relikys that he hadde of the Crosse, he depid them yn water and wysshe the tonge of the pacient ther with and with the tree of lyif, that ys with the same signe of the crosse upon the same tonge. An yn the same houre all ,the swellyrige wente his way, and the woman gladde and hole went home to here owne " (" Mediaeval Hospitals of England"). The Maison Dieu of Dunwich benefited by the alms of pilgrims who went to see its holy cross, which, like that at the hospital at Colchester, was reputed to be a portion of the true Cross. To nearly all these hospitals where relics were exhibited in-^ dulgences were granted to the pilgrims who should. visit them and contribute to the charities. We learn that : " In the midst of the Feretory of St. Cuthbert his sacred shrine was exalted with most curious workmanship, of fine and costly green marble, all lined and gilt with gold ; having four seats or places, convenient underneath the shrine, for the pilgrims or lame men, setting on their knees to lean and rest on, in the time of their devout offerings and fervent prayers to God and Holy St. Cuthbert, for his miraculous relief and succour ; which being never wanting, made the shrine to be so richly invested that it was esteemed one of the most sumptuous monuments in all England, so great were the offerings and jewels bestowed upon it ; and no less the miracles that were done by it even in these latter days." Still to be seen is the shrine of the Three_Magi at Cologne, one of the most celebrated and splendid 63 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages ever erected. The value of the jewels alone with which it is ornamented is estimated at £300,000. Magnificent shrines may be seen also at Aix-la- Chapelle, while another almost as good is preserved in the Museum Of Mediaeval Antiquities, at Rouen. The pilgrims who wended their way to the Holy t Sepulchre at Jerusalem would find all along the route, in church or monastery, an immense number !of curious relics to excite their wonder and appeal !! to their devotional instincts. ' Some of these marvels are described by the chaplain who accompanied Sir Richard Torkyngton and a party of pilgrims to the Holy Land, in the sixteenth century. Of Lyons he writes : " Ther ys a Cuppe of an Emerawde stone, wherof ower Savyor Crist drank at hys Mawndy." Of Milan : " Ovyr the hye Auter in the Roff or toppe of the Churche ys a syne of a sterr of golde, and in the mydys of the sterre ys on of the naylis that ower Savyr Crist was crucifyed w*. Ther breune lampes abowth it that ye may se it p' f jjhtly." At Padua, among other things, he mentions " the tong of Seynt Antony yett flayer and ffressh with which tong he convertyd myche peple to the ffeythe of Crist." At Padua also, in a Franciscan abbey, " we see the ffynger of Seynt Luke that he wrote the holy gospell wl," and in the Church of St. John, at Rhodes, lay "the ffynger of Seynt John that he shewyd ower Savr whaune he seyd Ecce Agnus Dei!" They would also pass the Isle of St. Nicholas, with its famous iron tools that never lost their edge owing to the miracle wrought by this saint, one of the seven islands of Rhodes, where dwelt a daughter of Hippocrates in dragon-like form, who could only be restored to her proper shape on receiving the 64 Remarks on Relics and Shrines kiss of a soldier who was a virgin. Such were a few of the piquant wonders and surprises with which the mediaeval pilgrim was beguiled throughout the length of his journey. The practice of making valuable presents to; shrines, though by no means always associated with pilgrimages, was akin to them in spirit. Offerings1, to shrines were made either annually, or at other,, periodical intervals, by great numbers of people. From the household book of the Earl of North umberland, we find that he gave donations every year to several popular shrines, and kept a candle burning constantly before some of them, with an allowance of money to the priest who should attend it. Edward I. made periodical gifts to over a hundred shrines, and his queen is recorded to have given twelve florins of gold, for herself and her son, to the several shrines of Becket at Canterbury, with three florins more for the child which her Majesty was then expecting. During sickness it was common for the invalid, ,. or his friends to tempt the intercession of a saint * by vowing to present quantities of corn, bread, or' wax at his shrine, the precise quantity being! frequently determined by the weight of the patient, i The most valuable offerings were those made by bequest. Ladies, at their death, often bequeathed .. their richest dresses and most costly jewels to the ':' shrine of their favourite saint, and it was in this way, as much as by the gifts of pilgrims, that immense wealth was accumulated by the churches. One reason why gifts were made in this form rather than in money was to insure their permanent attachment to the particular shrine to which they were bequeathed. At famous shrines like that of 65 E Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages Becket many of the offerings would be preserved, but^at many of the lesser ones the priests claimed tfuTgifts as their own. At the celebrated image of 'our Lady in St. Paul's, even the candles set up by the devotees were not allowed to burn, but were regularly taken down and carried to a room below the Chapter House, where they were melted as a perquisite of the canons. The same appears to have been the custom prevailing at most of the London shrines, and from the loss of this source of revenue the value of many of the livings in the city was sensibly diminished at the Reformation. The immense popularity of numbers of small shrines, and wells of water sanctified by some pious hermit, was due in no small measure to the mediaeval belief that everything, from a cut finger to a great calamity, was directly attributable to the Great First Cause — the will of God. {.Implanted in the mind of every man and woman was a real belief in the actual personal presence of God in every joy or success that befell them, and an equally firm con viction that the devil was personally responsible for every accident or piece of misfortune .O Secondary causes had not yet been studied, by the inasses at any rate, so that the mediaeval mind possessed an earnest faith in the supernatural, and a firm belief, that the universe was controlled by the Divine and by satanic forces respectively. The result was that the Church assigned a tutelary deity for every situation of life, and so filled the country with an endless number of shrines, each of which possessed some specific virtue. The custom is aptly ridiculed in Sir Thomas More's '" Dyalogue " : " We set every saint in his office, and assign him a craft such as pleaseth us. Saint Loy we make a horse -leech, and because one smith is 66 Remarks on Relics and Shrines too few at the forge, we set Saint Ippolitus to help him. Saint AppoUonia we make a tooth-drawer, and may speak to her of nothing but sore teeth. Saint Sythe women set to seek their keyes. Saint Roke we appoint to see to the great sickness, and with him we join Saint Sebastian. Some saints serve for the eye only, St. Germain only for children, and yet he will not once look at them but if their mothers bring with them a white loaf and a pot of good ale . And yet is he wiser than St. Wylgeforte ; for she, good soul, is, as they say, content to be served with oats, peradventure to provide a horse for an evil husband to ride to the devil, for that is the thing she is so sought for, insomuch that women have changed her name, and, instead of St. Wylgeforte, call her St. Uncumber, because they reckon that, for a peck of oats, she will not fail to uncumber them of their husbands." This list might be carried much farther, for there was scarcely a single ill to which the mediaeval flesh was heir that was not regulated and governed by some saint. From the same local and specific efficacy many of the lesser and uncanonised shrines enjoyed a reputation but little inferior to those which could boast of a celestial patron. Prominent among the European shrines that drew such multitudes from these shores was the Virgin's house at Loretto. According to legendary lore this " Santa Casa " is the identical dwelling in which our Lord was born, and in which Mary was born, betrothed, arid married. It is said to have been dis covered by St. Helena three centuries after the Incar nation, on its original site, from which, in 1291, it was carried by angels through the air and set down in Dalmatia, where it did not rest for long, as three 67 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages years later, in December, 1294, some shepherds saw it flying over the Adriatic towards Italy, where it was eventually deposited at Loretto. The building is of stone, and measures thirty-two feet long, thirteen feet wide, and eighteen feet in height. On the right hand of the altar is an effigy of the Virgin, " black as a negress, and liker a Proserpine than a Queen of Heaven." A bull of Pope Paul II. sets forth in detail the " infinite miracles " that have been wrought at this shrine, which is bedecked with votive offerings of vast value from all parts of the world. " Our Lady of Loretto " once had a chapel at Musselburgh, near Edinburgh, which possessed a famous image of the Virgin. To this shrine, an immensely popular one, James V. of Scotland made a pilgrimage from Stirling in 1536. Lyndsay, an old- time satirist, sang thus of its pilgrims :— " I have sene pass ane marvillous multitude Young men and women, flingand on thair feit, Under the forme of frenzeit sanctitude, For till adore ane image in Laureit; Mony came with thair marrowis for to meit." The shrine of the " Three Magi " at Cologne is one ,bf the most popular attractions this ancient German [city has for the modern tourist. This is another of 'those shrines due to the wonderful discovering powers of St. Helena, who, having detected the burial-place of these kings in the Far East, removed their bodies to Constantinople, where they remained in the Church of St. Sophia until the reign of the Emperor Emmanuel, who allowed them to be removed to the Cathedral of Milan. With the fall of Milan, in 1164, the relics were given by the Emperor^ Frederick to Raynuldus, Archbishop of Cologne, whose successor, 68 Remarks on Relics and Shrines Philip von Heirisburg, placed them in the magnificent reliquary that reposes in what is probably the most remarkable shrine in the world. The relics consist of three skulls, reputed to be those of the Magi, but so enveloped in velvet and heavily, jewelled em broideries, that only the upper part of each skull is visible. The holy coat of Treves, or, more correctly, perhaps, the seamless garment, reputed to be that worn by our Saviour at his crucifixion, and mentioned by St. John (xix. 24), was given to the ancient episcopal city on the Moselle, by St. Helena, who is said to have converted her palace at Treves into the cathedral which she endowed with this treasure. Notwithstanding that quite a score of other churches claim to be the possessors of a similar garment, the genuineness of the Treves relic has been affirmed by a papal bull and attested by many miracles wrought at the shrine. Many of the more famous relics of the Church of Rome are shown only at intervals of five, ten, or twenty years ; and at one time the seamless garment was exhibited once only in every hundred years, and then stored in some secret hiding-place, and so securely hidden that its existence was considered to be very doubtful. However, on July 6, 1844, Bishop Arnoldi, two years after his appointment to the see, announced a centenary jubilee, at which the holy coat would be exhibited. The official circular was to the following effect ; " That, in consequence of the urgent request of the clergy and body of believers in the bishopric of Treves, the only relic preserved in the cathedral, being the coat without seam worn by our Saviour, will be exhibited for six weeks, from the 1 8th of August following, that the wish of all 69 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages who have the pious intention of making a pilgrimage to Treves to behold and venerate the holy garment of our Divine Redeemer may be fulfilled, and each may gain the entire remission of his sins', granted by Pope~fceoT X!7uriarer~aate of July 26, 1514. The said Pope— namely, with the wish that the Cathedral of Treves, which has the honour of preserving the seamless coat of our Lord Jesus Christ, and many other holy relicls, may be distinguished by suitable grandeur of establishment and splendour of orna- \ment — gives, according to the words of the aforesaid bull, a full remission of sins in all future time to all believers who go on pilgrimage to the exhibition of thf^hnTy_ mat gtTV^yp^. sincerely confess and repent of their sins, or at least have a firm intention to do so, and who, moreover, contribute with a liberal hand to the suitable decoration of the cathedral as recommended by the holy father, but which still remains imperfect from the end of last century." iThis epistle, containing the promise of one of the I most extraordinary indulgences' ever issued, naturally \drew an immense concourse of pilgrims to Treves. " Pilgrims came from all quarters, many in large bands, preceded by banners and marshalled by their village priests. It was impossible to lodge the great mass of footsore travellers, and they slept on inn- stairs, in outhouses, or even in the streets, with their wallets for their pillows." With the opening of the cathedral doors the crowds flocked to the shrine, where, prostrating themselves before the relic, they exclaimed : " Holy coat, to thee I come I " " Holy coat, to thee I pray ! " until in the course of six weeks some millions of people had gone through the ceremony, and left behind them an immense sum of money for the decoration of the cathedral. 70 Remarks on Relics and Shrines Many contemporary prints were issued of the relic, and these all depict a loose garment of simple form and wide sleeves, entirely without seam or decoration. With the closing of this remarkable exhibition, con troversy at once began, and Johann Ronge addressed a letter to the Bishop of Treves denouncing the resuscitation of the superstitious observances of the Middle Ages. Although supported by Czerski and many priests, Ronge's letter excited much wrath at Rome, and he was excommunicated. He continued to lead a considerable number of followers, who denied the supremacy of the Pope, much to the alarm of the "German Governments, and in 1 8 5 o his follow ing was suppressed and he himself expelled from Germany. He eventually found a home in London, where he gained a livelihood by teaching. The Scala Santa, or Holy Stair, is in a chapel of the church of St. John Lateran, at Rome. It consists1 of twenty-eight white marble steps, and is affirmed by its custodians to be the stair which Christ ascended when He appeared before Pilate. It was carried by angels from Jerusalem to Rome. To-day, as for centuries, thousands of pilgrims creep up its steps on their knees, with rosaries in their hands, and kiss ing each step of the holy stairs as they ascend. A similar Scala Santa, also claimed to be the genuine and original one, may be seen at Bonn. In addition to the holy stair, the church of St. John Lateran possesses a wonderful headshrine of St. Peter, and the extraordinary relic of the Holy Blood, said to have resulted from our Lord's circumcision. 7i CHAPTER III HERMITS, ANCHORETS, AND RECLUSES "At the close of the day, when the hamlet is still, And mortals the sweets of forgetfulness prove, When nought but the torrent is heard on the hill, And nought but the nightingale's song in the grove- 'Twas then by the cave of a mountain reclin'd, A hermit his nightly complaint thus "began ; Though mournful his numbers, his soul was resign'd, He thought as a sage, tho' he felt as a man." Beattie. ALMOST every form of religion appears to have had adherents who correspond more or less to our general idea of a hermit. Among the Jewish sects we have the Essenes, of whom De Quincey wrote with such eloquence and learning ; and Buddhism is not with out its solitary dwellers. Of the Essenes, Spanheim gives the following particulars (" Eccl. Ann." ix.): — " They adriiitted only grave or aged men into their society ; had a community of goods and provisions ; practised celibacy ; lived an austere life, enduring much fatigue, and using coarse food and clothing j they exercised no trade or art by which mankind 72 Hermits, Anchorets, and Recluses could be injured or vice cherished ; observed stated periods for prayer in a prescribed form ; observed the Sabbath somewhat superstitiously ; were emi nently zealous in piety, beneficence, and hospitality ; loved solitude and contemplative silence ; required of their disciples a probation of four years ; punished delinquents with severity ; avoided lawsuits, con tentions, and disputations, and therefore were not troublesome to our Lord," To whom the honour of being the first Christian- hermit belonged was a. much discussed question as early as the fourth century after Christ, at which time the issue was narrowed down to the respective claims of Paul the Hermit and the much tempted St. Anthony. In the Epistle to the Hebrews we are told how those of whom the world was not worthy wandered in the desolate places of the earth, and lived in the dens and caves of mountainous regions ; and there is little doubt that among these early cave- dwellers is to be found the earliest Christian hermit — such an one, for example, as Paul, who, when the Decian persecution raged in his native land of Thebaid, in Upper Egypt, withdrew to a grotto in a remote mountain. A palm-tree growing near his cave is said to have furnished him with both food and raiment ; and in later and happier times, when the persecutions of the Christians began to cease, habit had so endeared him to his primitive way of living, that he was unwilling to break his enforced retirement. Shelley, in his " Alastor," has depicted well a fitting home for the Spirit of Solitude, and the imagination of the poet has given us an exquisite yet a realistic description of the scenic properties of the abodes of the first hermits : — 73 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages "The eternal pyramids, Memphis and Thebes, and whatsoe'er of strange Sculptured on alabaster obelisk, Or jasper tomb, or mutilated sphinx, Dark Ethopia in her desert hills Conceals. Among the ruined temples there Stupendous columns and wild images Of more than man, where marble demons watch The Zodiac's brazen mystery, and dead men Hang their mute thoughts on the mute walls around." j In every case we find that the habitations of these f early hermits were' entirely secjuded from_ all other abodes of men, although at- times they appear to have fixed theirdwellings in the neighbourhood of each other, when~theTr~ceIIs were called by the collective name of laura. Even in such instances, however, they always lived personally separate ; and thus the laura was distinguished from the ccenobium, or convent, where the inmates formed themselves into a society and held everything in common. To Paul the Hermit the distinction is usually assigned of having first devoted himself to this kind of solitude, and it is recorded of him that he said three hundred prayers a day. A little heap of pebbles by his side served to tell him how he progressed in his devotions, perhaps the first instance of beads, for the word bede or bead means literally prayer, the name afterwards being applied to the small globular bodies used for telling beads — i.e., counting prayers. When these hermits began to foregather into a society,, we have the institution of Anchorets or monachism, in which they acknowledged the authority of some common .Superior. The next step in a natural gradation waTTRat great turning-point in 74 Hermits, Anchorets, and Recluses the history of Christianity, the development of monastic life, for there is little doubt that it was in the.^fiaixfjiL^edu^on^from .being jntensely_ practical and objective, .became more jnedlitative, introspective, ~and _ mystical . "fne temptation of St. Anthony by the devil is a very familiar story, and one for which there is historic groundwork, as may be gathered by him who peruses the Life of this saint, by Athanasius. Here we are told how St. Anthony gave all his goods to feed the poor, and frequented only the society of the ascetic. He was the great hermit who was the father. o£ monasticism. He withdrew to a grotto in a rock "which had been used for the purpose of a tomb, where, by excessive fasting and exhaustive spiritual conflicts witri~tHe Evil One^ he worked himself into a rnorhid anrl highly pvritprl <5t-j.to-t»t-minrl In later life he retired to a very distant mountain, where he spent twenty years among the ruins of a dilapidated castle. Another famous hermit who flourished towards the close of the fourth century was St. Simeon Stylites- Having passed a long and severe novitiate in a monastery, ' this devotee contrived within the space of a small circle of stones, to which he was confined by a heavy chain, to ascend a column raised gradu ally from nine to sixty feet in height, on the top of which, without descending from it, he passed thirty years of his life, and at length died of an ulcer in his thigh. Crowds of pilgrims from Gaul and India are said to have thronged around his pillar, and to have been proud to supply his necessities. Those acquainted with the " St. Simeon Stylites " of Tennyson will not fail to perceive how carefully and gradually this noble poem has been developed, 75 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages and how faithfully the historical character has been preserved. " O my sons, my sons, I, Simeon of the pillar, by surname Stylites, among men ; I, Simeon, The watcher on the column till the end ; I, Simeon, whose brain the sunshine bakes ; I, whose bald brows in silent hours become Unnaturally hoar with rime, do now From my high nest of penance here proclaim That Pontius and Iscariot by my side Show'd like fair seraphs. On the coals I lay, A vessel full of sin : all hell beneath Made me boil over. Devils pluck'd my sleeve ; Abaddon and Asmodeus caught at me." The images of St. Simeon were regarded with an intense veneration, and Theodoret tells us that they were set up as protecting amulets at the entrances of the shops in Rome. We are all familiar with the story of Reter the ^Hermit who, barefooted and penniless, inveighed jagamst' the atrocities of the Turks to Christians at .Jerusalem, and exhorted the warriors of the Cross to jtake up arms against the infidels. His impassioned 'eloquence inspired all Europe with enthusiasm, and enlisted many followers in the cause. In those days the sword was the title by which estates and coun tries were won, and by which they were held. The passion of the age was for religious warfare, peril, and adventure, especially as fighting for possession of the sepulchre was a more agreeable method of doing penance than Jthe_ wearing_pf_ sackcloth in a village chuTch jar_ mortifyirig" the flesh" witn~'lnany "strbTcgg. The first Crusade set out on its wild career, a motley company of knights, spendthrifts, barons, beggars, women, and children. Then came the second, the 76 Hermits, Anchorets, and Recluses third, and the fourth Crusades, which differed but little in personnel from that which had inaugurated the movement. Crusading was tk§L_ajnu^eioejaLjand ho_bhy — of^ >iMtcu_centuries. while two millions of Europeans, among them the flower of the armies of England, France, and Germany, perished before the cause was abandoned. Turning to our own country, we find that the first Christian hermit of whom we have any definite and authentic records was St. Dunstan, afterwards Abbot of Glastonbury, and seventh Archbishop of Canter bury (A.D. 960), and the first of the seven primates of all England who hailed from the great Abbey of Glastonbury. He was one of those master-spirits of whom it is almost impossible for a late posterity to form a correct judgment. His great powers of learning and Jijs varied accomplishments are almost the only points upon which- his numerous biographers are agreed. His enemies ascribed his gifts to magic, the unlawful knowledge of which, said they, lay buried in the Somerset marshes, in the mystic island of Avalon, and in Glastonbury where St. Dunstan is said to have occupied a cell, or destina, which, according to his biographer Osbern, was not more than five feet long, two feet and a half in breadth, and barely the height of a man. There appear to be very few of our early bishops and saints who did not prepare themselves for a religious life by dwelling in solitary state in some rocky cave or primitive hermitage. There are few counties in England to which history or tradition does not assign the abode of a hermit, while Durham perhaps is exceptionally rich in such cave dwellings. St. Jerome was one of the first to point out the 77 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages dangers of a life of this kind. "Pride," says he, " soon steals on a man in solitude. If he has practised fasting for a short time, and has seen nobody, he begins to think he is a person of consequence, and forgets himself, who he is, and whence he comes, jand whither he is going." With regard to the extraordinary visions seen by the early hermits, we have been told that " the body, when not fed with a sufficiency of wholesome food [and the hermits sometimes mixed their flour or pottage with wood-ashes and burnt herbs] deludes the senses with strange dreams by day or night, and the quick vigour of the understanding is lost in wandering imaginations." Be this as it may, St. Jerome and St. Benedict had strange visions, as also did Walter, a hermit who is thought to have lived on or near Flamborough Head, and whose strange dreams were recorded by Alcuin of York. One of the most interesting of these visions is that of Drycthelm, who, having " been some time dead, rose again to the life of the body, and related many remarkable things which he had seen," ' and who, after his vision, took the monk's habit at Melrose Abbey, and retired to a hermitage. Alcuin of York has also recorded the visions of Guthlac of Croyland, who inhabited a hermitage in the swamps, and who was always doing battle against foul fiends. Etha of Crayke was a dweller on a hill so thickly shut in by trees that, according to tradition, a squirrel could reach York by hopping from bough to bough. " Here in the depth of the wilderness," says Alcuin, " he led an angelic life." There is little reason to doubt that many, if not all, of these hermit visions were the result of severe * Beda's " Eecles. Hist.f Bk. 5, chap. xii. 78 Hermits, Anchorets, and Recluses and prolonged fasting. Physicians know as a fact that lack of bodily nourishment, coupled with soli tary confinement, stimulates rather than checks the When the youthful St. Jerome fled into the desert of Chalcis, and lived among the hermits, he con fessed that the physiological effect of the severest starvation was to give intensity to the desire for sensual indulgence. " Oh, how often," he exclaimed, "set in the desert and in that vast solitude which, scorched by the fierce rays of the sun, afforded to monks a horrid dwelling-place, how often did I find myself amid the sensuous delights of Rome ! I was alone and filled with bitterness. My limbs were rough with sackcloth ; my body squalid as an Ethiopian's with fasting. Day by day I wept and groaned and denied myself sleep, and if, overborne with weariness I sank upon the ground, my bones rattled like those of a skeleton. Yet while from fear of hell I had made myself a companion of scorpions and wild beasts, my imagination rioted among luxurious dances. My face was pallid with hunger, my soul was heaving with concupiscence." In " Piers Plowman " we read about the " eremites " who worked until they discovered that those in friar's garb had fat cheeks. Those who feigned religion for the sake of its worldly advantages Langland called "toilers." " As by English of our elders, of old men's teaching, He that lolleth is lame, or his leg is out of joint, Or maimed in some member, for to mischief it soundeth. And right so soothly such manner eremites Lollen agen the Belief and Law of Holy-Church." Milman, in his "Latin Christianity," tells us how 79 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages in the time of Pope Innocent IV. (1240), all the hermits, solitaries, and small separate confraternities, who lived under no recognised discipline, were registered and incorporated by a decree of the Church, and reduced under one rule, called " the Rule of St. Augustine," with some more strict clauses introduced, fitting the new ideas of conventual life. Innocent died before his reforms could be fully carried out ; but, with the aid of a miracle, they were completed by his successor in the Papacy, Alexander IV. ; to whom, when he was most needed, St. Augustine himself appeared, clad in a long black gown, tattered and torn, in sign of poverty, bound round his waist with a leathern girdle and buckle, with a scourge in his right hand. He told Alexander that the contumacious hermits, who had refused to adopt the uniform rule and dress, were forthwith to accept the Augustine rule and habit, and to submit to monastic discipline. Notwithstanding St. Augus tine's miraculous appearance, it was not until 1284 that these scattered hermits and independent com munities were brought within the monastic " trade union," under the name in England of Austin Friars. Closely allied to pilgrimages, and often, indeed, the raison d'itre of such, were these hermitages, anchorholds, and recluse cells ; all of which were both recognised and regulated by the mediaeval Church, and indulgences were granted to those who 'should visit them. Authentic relics of the canonised saints and martyrs were limited in number and safely guarded, but the rags and tatters of the wayside hermit, and of the ascetic recluse, were eagerly sought for the cure of ills and the other miraculous pro perties ascribed to them. It is an almost forgotten 80 Hermits, Anchorets, and Recluses fact that the churchyard of mediaeval days contained many buildings in addition to the church itself ; such as charnel-houses, chantry-chapels, church-houses for storing the church ales, stables for the horses of the nobility while they were attending Divine service, and hermitages and anchorholds for those who had given themselves up to a life of religious seclusion. Early in the seventh century the councils began to notice, modify, and control this kind of life. " Those who affect to be anchorites," say the Trullan canons, " shall first for three years be confined to a cell in a monastery ; and if, after this, they profess that they persist, let them be examined by the bishop, or abbot y let them live one year at large ; and if they still approve of their first choice, let them be con fined to their cell, and not be permitted to go out of it, but by consent and benediction of the bishop, in case of great necessity." There were two distinct classes of these solitary livers, both, however, under vows as strict and as binding as those that governed the communities attached to the great monastic foundations. The principal difference between the hermit and the recluse was that whereas the former might wander from and change his abode at will, the latter was immured and " sealed " within the reclu- sorium, or anchorhold, for life. There appears to j be no doubt that from the earliest days of Chris tianity in this country men and women embraced a solitary life at their own pleasure, and, living in a cave or bower, trusted literally to Providence for their little needs, if poor, or spent their wealth in charity, if rich. These primitive rock hermits seem always to have j had an eye for the picturesque when choosing their I 8r F Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages humble abodes, as can be seen by the hermit caves remaining at Warkworth, Wetheral, Bewdley, and Wa?Hw6*th many another lovely spot to which tradition has associated one of these solitary dwellers. Certain of these hermits appear also to have dwelt 82 Hermits, Anchorets, and Recluses near the high-roads, and especially by fords over~ the rivers, and in the vicinity of wells of water, where, in addition to their prayers and blessing, they bestowed a frugal sort of hospitality to all needy travellers and pilgrims. It was not long before the orders of hermits and recluses developed into well- established institutions under the jurisdiction of the bishops, and they became quite as much religious orders as were those of the Benedictines or the Fran ciscans. Just as a bishop to-day does not ordain a deacon until he has obtained a " title," so the mediaeval bishop admitted no man into the order of hermitsj until he had obtained a presentation to a hermitage.! Both hermitages and recluse cells were generally! endowed with lands or money to make them self- supporting ; and the patronage of therii was bought! and sold in the same way as other religious benefices. In the case of recluses such endowment was essential, otherwise a conscientious recluse might have been in danger of starving had he or she been dependent on the alms and offerings of pilgrims and passers-by. We are not surprised, therefore, to learn that the bishops took pains to ascertain that the offerings and endowments accruing would be sufficient for the maintenance of the inmates before admitting any one to the respective orders. The initiation into the order of recluses was, accord ing to the late Rev. E. L. Cutts, a religious ceremony of great solemnity. " The vows having been taken at the altar, the habit was placed on the includendus (the person to be enclosed), who was then given a lighted taper and a procession was formed. First the choir, then the includendus, then the priest, abbot, or bishop, with the congregation following, and all singing a solemn litany. When the cell was 83 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages reached the priest entered alone, and consecrated and blessed the little chamber, after which he led in the includendus, and blessed him. The includendus now became the inclusus (the enclosed one), and was sealed within the living grave never to cross the threshold during life." During the "sealing " ceremony the choir chanted appropriate psalms, while all prayed for the inclusus. The procession then returned chanting, leaving the recluse cut off for ever from the assembly of fellow- creatures. That recluse cells and anchorholds existed in England in considerable numbers is proved by the frequency with which they are mentioned, and by bequests left to them, in the wills of the charit- . ably -minded, during the twelfth, thirteenth, and four teenth centuries. > / Thus, St. Richard, Bishop of Chichester, left be quests to Friar Humphrey, the recluse of Pageham, to the recluse of Hogton, to the recluse of Stopeham, and to the recluse of Herringham. Walter de Suffield, Bishop of Norwich, left bequests to " anchores " and recluses in his diocese ; and especially to his niece Ela, in the anchorhold of Massingham. In the will of Henry II. we find bequests to the recluses of Jerusalem, England, and Normandy. Lord Scrope of Masham, in 141 5, be queathed to every anchoret or recluse dwelling in London and its suburbs 6s. 8d., and to every anchoret and recluse dwelling in York and its suburbs 6s. 8d., and special bequests were made to Robert, the recluse of Beverley (40s.), and 13s. 4d. each to the anchorets of Stafford, Kirkbeck, Warth, Peasholme, Kirby, Thorganby, Leek, Gains borough, Kneesall, and Dartford. Also to Thomas the Chaplain, dwelling continually in the church of 84 Hermits, Anchorets^ and Recluses St. Nicholas, Gloucester ; * to Elizabeth, late servant of the anchoret of Hatnpole ; to the recluse in the house of the Dominicans at Newcastle, and to every anchoret and " anchoretess " that could be found within three months of his decease. Of the anchorets above mentioned the most famous was Richard of Hampole, who wrote a book of devotion for the use of a nunnery about the beginning of the reign of the third Edward. His little manual contains, among other pious rules, the following " seven marks to know when the Spirit of God works in the soul " : — I. It makes a man or woman to set the world at nought, and all the worldly worships and vanities therein. 2. It makes God dear to the soul, and all the delight of the flesh to wax cold. 3. It inspires both delectation and joying in God. 4. It stirs thee to the love of thy neighbour, and also to com passion of thine enemy. 5. It inspires all manner of chastity. 6. It makes to trust in God in all tribulations, and to joy in them. 7. It gives desire to will to be departed and to be with God, more than to have worldly prosperity. This famous Hermit of Hampole was Richard Rolle, born at Thornton, Yorkshire, about 1290, and educated at Oxford. When nineteen years of age he was seized with a desire to become a hermit, and obtained from Sir John de Dalton a cell, with daily sustenance, at Hampole, about four miles from Doncaster, where he lived until his death, in 1349. In addition to many prose treatises he is the author of the " Prick of Conscience," and he translated the ¦ This "Thomas the Chaplain'' is thought to have dwelt in a chamber over the porch (mentioned in the Corporation Records of 1440), no part of which remains. 85 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages Psalrris into English prose. " The Prick of Con science " (Stimulus Conscientice) is in seven parts, and the author gives his reason for the title. "Therefore this treatise draw I would In English tongue that may be called ' Prick of Conscience,' as men may feel, For if a man it read and understand wele, And the matters therein to heart will take, It may be his conscience tender make ; And to right way of rule bring it be live [quickly] And his heart to dread and meekness drive, And to love, and yearning of heaven's bliss, And to amend all that he has done amiss." A few of these old recluse cells may be found in our churches to-day, although they are not in their original condition, as the partition walls have long since been removed, and the cells now form part of the aisles or transepts of the churches in which they are found. In actual construction there was probably but little difference between the anchorhold and the recluse cell, but much is left to conjecture, as not one example of a detached timber anchorhold has sur vived. These appear to have been built adjoining the main walls of the church, and some authorities are of opinion that what are known as " low-side " windows, which occur in so many of our churches,. and have long been a qucestio vexata, may mark the sites of such anchorholds. This window is generally found in the south wall of the chancel, near the south west angle, a few feet above the ground, and often immediately beneath a large window, as at Dallington Church, Northants. These apertures have nearly all been closed up with masonry, but many indications go to show that they had no glazing, but were 86 Hermits, Anchorets, and Recluses covered externally by an iron grating, with a wooden door opening inwardly, the hinges of which are frequently to be seen imbedded in the masonry, although few of the wooden doors have survived. Among the purposes for which these windows are conjectured to have been formed is that they were for confessional purposes, although the position of many of them would make an orderly confession impossible. From another supposition, that they were connected with mortuary services, they are frequently called lychnoscopes. The "symbolical theory," that the window represents the wound in Our Lord's side, is plainly one of those impertinences of symbolism which have always constituted the weakest side of symbolic art. The theory most in favour at present is that these windows were used for the purpose of ringing a hand sanctus bell at the elevation of the Blessed Sacrament. The most usual type of recluse cell, in the earliest days of Christianity as well as during the mediaeval period, seems to have been a small chamber about twelve feet square, with three windows — one towards the choir of the church through which the inmate received the Sacrament, another on the opposite side for food, and a third to give light to the cell. The " Ancren Riwle " was the manual generallyj adopted by all recluses and anchoresses as the text book for the regulation of their conduct. It was written originally for three sisters, who, at the time, were living the life of anchoresses at Tarrant Keinston, in Dorset. These young ladies afterwards embraced the Cistercian rule, when they took up their abode at the neighbouring Abbey of Tarrant Crawford. This episode of their having migrated from the minor order of recluses to the greater one 87 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages of Cistercians may explain the reason for the %i erroneous statement so frequently met with that the "V Ancren Riwle " was written for the guidance of nuns . The fact that the sisters became nuns in no way affects the question that the " Ancren Riwle " was written for them, as its title implies, while they were living the life of anchoresses. The late Mr. Henry Moule, a well-known Dorset antiquary, told the present writer that he had seen in the chancel of the old parish church of Tarrant Keinston a recluse cell of the type above mentioned, and that it remained intact until the greater part of the church was rebuilt, some sixty years ago. The authorship of the " Ancren Riwle " is generally attributed to Richard Poore, who held the See of Salisbury from 121 7 to 1229, and possibly for the same community, or for another convent of women, the author of the " Ancren Riwle " wrote the beautiful homily called " The Wooing of Our Lord," of which the first paragraph may be quoted : — " Jesu, sweet Jesu, my love, my darling, my Lord, my Saviour, my honey-drop, my balm I Sweeter is the remembrance of Thee than honey in the mouth. Who is there that may not love Thy lovely face? What heart is there so hard that may not melt at the remembrance of Thee? Ah ! who may not love Thee, lovely Jesu? For within Thee alone are all the things joined that ever may make any man worthy of love to another." A few extracts from the " Ancren Riwle " will doubtless help us to realise the arduous nature of a recluse's life, and the many difficulties which beset her. " Hold no conversation," says the Bishop, " with any man out of a church window, but respect it for the sake of the holy sacrament 88 Hermits, Anchorets, and Recluses which ye see there through, and take men and women to the wicket in the parlour to speak when necessary." They are also exhorted to be on their guard against men, "even against religious men." Also, says he, " first of all, when you have to go to your parlour wicket, learn from your maid who it is that comes, and when you must go forth, go forth in the fear of God to a priest and sit and listen, and not cackle." Again : "If any man requests to see you [to have the black curtain drawn aside], ask him what good might come of it, and if any one become so mad and unreasonable that he puts forth his hand towards the wicket cloth, shut the wicket quickly and leave him, and as soon as ariy man falls into evil discourse, close the wicket and go away with this verse, that he may hear it : ' The wicked have told me foolish tales, but not according to Thy law,' and go forth before your altar and say the Miserere." Another curious rule was that which prohibited the keeping of any animals in their cells, except the domestic cat. In the church attached to a convent of Carmelite nuns (recluses of the strictest kind), at Mawgan, Cornwall, at the junction of the transept and chancel, the walls are cut away to the height of six feet from the floor, and to the width of five feet from each wall. The upper parts of the walls rest on flat segmental arches, carried by a short octagonal pillar. A low diagonal wall is built across the angle thus exposed, and a small lean-to roof is run up from it into the external angle, thus enclosing a triangular space within. In this wall the low side window is inserted, the sill being four feet from the ground. Two small screens running flush with the' inner walls of the transept and chancel would convert the space 89 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages Hntb a cell, of which similar examples are said to have existed at one time at Grade, Landewednack, and Edington. Other remaining examples of recluse cells in England include a small stone building of fourteenth- century date, adjoining the north side of Rettendon Church, Essex. The structure is two-storied, and is entered through an elaborately moulded doorway from the chancel. The lower floor is now lighted by a (modern window, and is used as a vestry. On the west side of this chamber is a stone stairway built up in the nave aisle, which gives access to an upper story that agrees very well with the description of a recluse cell. On the south side are two arched niches, one of which was pierced by a small window now blocked up, and which formerly looked down upon the altar. On the left of the chimney is a small square opening filled with modern glass, but the hook upon which the original shutter hung is intact. At Clifton Campville, Staffordshire, is a somewhat similar cell. Beneath it is a chantry chapel with two fine five-light windows, ornamented with cusps, and inside there is a beautiful groined ceiling. The cell is reached from the chancel (as was usually the case), through a doorway in the north wall, from which a winding stairway leads to the upper room. The two-light window of this chamber (shown in the accompanying drawing) is modern, but there are very distinct remains of the two square openings by which the cell was formerly lighted. Other reclusoria pertaining to this type are found at Chip ping Norton, Oxfordshire, and Warmington, War wickshire. Surrey has several interesting examples, as at Shere, at Compton, and possibly at Dunsfold. 90 Mil ,1 * , Chantry Chapel at Clifton Cawpville. with remains of Recluse Celf sbove iWW Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages In the north aisle of St. Mary's Church, Whalley, is a chantry dedicated to St. Nicholas, and in the south aisle one dedicated to St. Mary. These two chantries were founded in consequence of a dispute that arose out of the suppression of the Hermitage, a building that once stood at the western end of the churchyard. It was founded and well endowed by Henry, Duke of Lancaster, in 1 361, but owing to the unsatisfactory conduct of the recluse and her women attendants, it was suppressed in 1444 by Order of Henry VI. The revenues were given to provide these chantries, which were to be served by two priests,- who were to say daily Mass for the repose of the soul of Duke Henry. On the screen of the north aisle chantry we read : Orate pro anima Thome Lawe, Monachi—" Pray for the soul of Thomas Lawe, Monk." Adjacent to this chantry is the grave of John Paslew, the last abbot of Whalley Abbey, who was executed for his participation in the Pilgrimage of Grace (1556-7). Of Richborough Castle, Kent, Leland writes^ " Withyn the castel is a lytle paroche chirch of St. Augustine, and an heremitage. I had antiqui ties of the heremite, the which is an industrious man. Not far fro the heremitage is a cave, wher men have sowt and digged for treasure." All traces of this " lytle paroche chirch," and of the hermitage, have disappeared; When the redoubtable Guy, Earl of Warwick, returned from a pilgrimage to the- Holy Land during the reign of Athelstan (a.d. 926), he found the Danes besieging Winchester, and the Danish champion, Colbrand, prepared to decide the issue by single combat against any of the Saxons. Earl Guy, still wearing the palmer's garb, met and defeated the Danish giant, after which he made him- 92 Hermits, Anchorets, and Recluses self known to the King, and having returned thanks for his victory in Winchester Cathedral, he retired to a hermitage beside the Avon," and passed the closing years of his life in the cave which still bears his name, and in all probability contains his bones. He is said to have received his daily dole from the hands of his Countess until his death, in the year 929. In ancient deeds and charters there are many records relating to anchorholds and recluse cells, as at Norwich, where, in the churchyard of St. Julian, there were a succession of anchoresses, some of whose names have been preserved — Lady Julian in 1393, Dame Agnes in 1472, Dame Elizabeth Scot in 1481, Lady Elizabeth in 15 10, and Dame Agnes Edryge in 1524. A document preserved among the registers of the Bishop of Lichfield shows that there was an anchor- hold for several female recluses in the churchyard of St. Romuald, Shrewsbury, and in it the Bishop directs the Dean of St. Chadd, or his procurator, to enclose Isolda de Hungerford, an anchorite, in the houses of the churchyard of St. Romuald, where the other anchorites live. In the same register we find a precept dated February 1, 13 10, from Bishop Walter de Langton to Emma Sprenghoose, admitting her an anchorite in .the house in the churchyard of St. George's Chapel, Shrewsbury, and he appoints the archdeacon to en close her. Bishop Roger, in 1362, gave a licence permitting Robert Worthin, on the nomination of Queen Isabella, to serve God in the reclusorium built adjoining the Chapel of St. John the Baptist, in the city of Coventry. 1 Guy's Cliff, near Warwick. 93 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages In 1402 Robert Chard, a monk of Ford Abbey, obtained permission to immure himself as an anchorite in a " solitary house," or cell, beneath Crewkerne Church, and what are thought to be portions of the anchorhold may still be seen on the external walls of this beautiful structure. Mr. W. B. Wildman, in his " History of Sher borne," writes : " Near the Chapel of our Lady of Bow in Sherborne Abbey, was the Ankret House, all traces of which have disappeared," and Dean Stanley, in his " Memorials of Westminster Abbey," tells us that " here as often in the neighbourhood of great conventual buildings dwelt, apparently from generation to generation, a hermit, who acted as a kind of oracle to the neighbourhood." j In olden as in more modern days, the hermit tjias always appealed to the makers of our English (literature, while two of Albert Durer's celebrated 'woodcuts depict St. Anthony and St. Jerome in their cells. In the National Gallery hangs Fra Angelico's famous painting of a hermit clothed in rushes. From the story of Thaysis, in the " Golden Legend," we learn that " she went to the place which the abbot had assyned to her, and there was a monasterye of vyrgyns ; and there he closed her in a celle, and sealed the door with led. And the celle was lytyll and strayte, and but one lytyll windowe open, by which was mynistered to her poor lyvinge, for the abbot /commanded that they should give her a lytyll brede and water." Spenser, in the allegory of the Red Cross Knight, makes his hero, with Una and the Dwarf, meet with Archimago, the devil, in the guise of a hermit, and Spenser, keenly combatant against what he held to be the corruptions of the Roman Catholic Church, 94 Hermits, Anchorets, and Recluses regarded his Satanic Majesty as the founder of Catholicism. The knight and his companions are sheltered in Archimago's house. "A little lowly Hermitage it was, Downe in a dale, hard by a forests side, Far from resort of people that did pas In traveill to and froe : a litle wyde There was an holy chappell edifyde, Wherein the Hermite dewly wont to say His holy thinges each morne and eventyde : Thereby a christall streame did gently play, Which from a sacred fountaine welled forth alway. * * * * * Arrived there, the litle house they fill, Ne looke for entertainement where none was ; Rest is their feast, and all thinges at their will : The noblest mind the best contentment has. With faire discourse the evening so they pas; For that olde man of pleasing wordes had store, And well could file his tongue as smooth as glas : He told of Saintes and Popes, and evermore He strowd an Ave-Mary after and before." We all remember Goldsmith's "Turn, gentle Hermit of the Dale," but the " Hermit ' " by Beattie, a poem of eight verses, is now well-nigh forgotten. Of the same kind is Pamell's story of the hermit who, bewildered by the disorders of the world, arraigns the moral government of God, but is restored to his right mind by the angel who accom panied him, and who had been the instrument of Providence in all the horrors he had witnessed. Fielding makes his benighted travellers fall in with a compassionate hermit of the hill, who gives them entertainment, and tells them of his early life, and in " Ivanhoe " we have that curious character of half highwayman and half hermit, in the jovial clerk of Copmanhurst. * The first two verses are quoted at the beginning of this chapter. 95 CHAPTER IV FLAGELLANTS AND DANCERS One of the most extraordinary features of the Middle Ages, and the direct outcome of pilgrimages, were the wandering bands of penitents. These com panies were numbered by hundreds, andjeach ofjhem possessed somejndividual characteristic. Some were composed of the pooFj5nly7 "others. JKejeJimlJett to ment_while one or twowere made up entirely of children. Occasionally a brotherhood would arise with membership extended mainly to those who held peculiar opinions. The great majority, however, were free to all Christians without distinction of age, sex, rank, or opinion, though each of them had some particular form of discipline for their adherents. Thus every now and then these bands of people would journey from shrine to shrine, praying and mortifying as they went, and gathering recruits along the way. After exciting interest for a short time the larger number of these associations would dissolve as suddenly as they had appeared ; a few survived for years, while one or two underwent periodical re vivals down to comparatively recent times. The most persistent of these bands of fanatics were the dancers, the palmers, and the flagellants. The dancers made their first appearance at Aix-la- Chapelle in 1373, when they were composed of a 96 ' Flagellants and Dancers ragged set of wanderers who made begging and) vagrancy a profession. They had a secret system! of initiation, at which it was said, as with most of these secret initiations, they practised all kinds of abominations. Wandering about in bands of thirty or forty, their apparent poverty, their earnestness, and their frantic fanaticism gave them an extra ordinary hold on the multitude. Wherever they went their singular reputation caused large crowds to assemble to watch their per formances, and thousands who went as sightseers became infected with the mania, which came to be regarded in the nature of a contagious disease that was even more dreaded than the plague. Everywhere the dancers became the centre of a writhing mass of humanity making violent motions of worship, offering prayers in the form of convulsive shrieks, and acting as though they would take heaven itself by storm. Their hysterical ravings were re garded as prophetic. It was quite in vain that the axe beheaded hundreds of these maniacs, or that the gibbets broke down with the weight of their bodies. The flagellants were unquestionably the strangest! of all these itinerants of faith as they were the most tenacious of existence. Wherever the shrieks andl groans of the gloomy flagellants alarmed the ears, those in the vicinity fled and hid themselves, for the penitential torrent of blood and tears absorbed all with whom it came in contact. There was no escape for any, rich and poor alike ; resistance was vain, remonstrance unheeded. Under the penalty of having the flesh flogged from their bones those who happened to cross their path were forced to become flagellants until they were released at the first celebrated shrine. 97 G Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages It was in 1260, about the time when the enthu siasm for the Crusades was flagging, that public associations began to spring up in Italy for the pur pose of discipline. Multitudes of people, of all ranks and ages, practised this mortification of the flesh along the open streets in the hope of obtaining Divine mercy for their sins. Perugia is said to have been the first scene of this madnes*s, and a hermit named Rainier the in stigator. The custom, after practically dying out, was revived in all its fury during the fourteenth century, and for ten years the flagellants perambulated and agitated Europe. This revival is said to have had its origin during a plague in Germany in 1349, when from the first the Teutonic knights met it with fierce opposition. In 1 3 5 1 these warriors assembled and set upon a body of flagellants, massa cred thousands of them on the spot, and compelled the remainder to be re-baptized. The flagellants propagated the extravagant doctrine that flagellation was of equal virtue with the Sacraments ; that by its administration all sins jwere forgiven, that the old law of Christ was soon to be abolished, and that a new law enjoining the baptism of blood administered by flogging was to be substituted in its place. They were not supported by the heads of the Church, and Pope Clement VII. issued a bull against them, with the result that many of their leaders were taken and burned at the stake. The custom, however, continued to crop up at intervals. At the beginning of the fifteenth century flagellants are again mentioned in Lower Saxony. They rejected every branch of external worship, and entertained some wild notions respecting the evil spirit. 98 Flagellants and Dancers The infection, as in the former outbreaks, spread with great rapidity, and was only suppressed by the Kings of Poland and Bohemia expelling all flagellants from their territories. As enthusiasm for these various sects began to decline active measures for their total abolition were adopted by the Council of Constance (14 14-18), but a remnant of them continued in existence until the close of the century. L^5rij7_cjin]j;_the..rjalmers, a class of foreign 4uigximsj_jyhose real._ history and condition are but littlg—known. Their designation). is ~tGbught~to~Kave been derived from the palms, ' branches of which they brought home from Palestine as evidence of their pilgrimage. The distinction between them and ordinary pilgrims was that the pilgrim had, some home or dwelling-place, but— the palmer— had none. The~piTgfim travelledto some specific shrine or holy place, but the palmer to all. The pilgrim journeyed at his own charges, but the palmer professed poverty and went upon alms. The pilgrim might give over his profession and return home, but the palmer must persist till he obtained his palm by death. The profession of the palmer was originally. \ voluntary, and arose from that rivalry of fanaticism' so prevalent during the earlier years of the Middle Ages. "During the tenth and eleventh centuries men were sometimes ordered to become palmers — to give up wife, family, home, and country—as a penance for their sins. 99 CHAPTER V HOLY WELLS It is, of course, easy for us to understand the im portance of the well in all countries and at all times.; for " living water " is the spring of life, and as such is quite a feature in the narrative of Moses, brief as that narrative is. In Eastern lands not so bountifully provided with streams and fountains of water as are Britain and the European countries jgenerally, the well has always been of great social, ^economical, commercial, and even political, import ance. In the Orient it is to-day, as it was for centuries before the Christian era, the meeting-place of the citizens in the eventide, the gathering -place of the shepherds and herdsmen ; and the cool, limpid waters in the sandy desert must have been the silent witnesses of countless acts of religion, social and political compacts, and commercial transactions. Here, at the well-side, one journey begins or another is regulated, and at the green oasis in the sandy waste the weary pilgrim may find refreshment and repose. All travellers and explorers are agreed that the lack of fresh water is the curse of a kingdom, as the prospect of it in abundance is the desideratum that helps forward the weary steps of a stranger when he enters an unknown territory. " The well digged which they digged not " has ioo Holy Wells a conspicuous place in the catalogue of God's bounties of which Moses reminded the Israelites. Then again, the well figures prominently in the language of Holy Scripture, and the simile, the illustration, the metaphor, and the symbol are still telling forth the great Eastern proverb that " of all things WATER is the first." It is now generally accepted that both tree and well worship existed in Britain long before the "Christian era, arid were not introduced here by the Christian missionaries, who, finding both in vogue J on their arrival, tolerated them at first and utilised, them afterwards as they did with so many other) pagan customs. The success of the early Christian, missionaries in this country was due in no ~smalV measure to their willingness to compromise with many of the pre-Christian customs they were powerless to stamp out, and to the readiness with which they grasped every opportunity of grafting the new faith of Christianity on to the pagan forms of religious observance. In this way the Church assimilated beliefs it could not destroy, and in many cases substituted its saints and angels for the gods and spirits of the heathen cults. We know from Beda that the Saxons assembled at certain sacred places for the celebration of religious rites. Trees, rocks, and wells marked their sacred places, and that such were venerated by the Saxons is not a matter of conjecture but of evidence. A canon of the reign of Edgar enjoins the clergy to be diligent in withdrawing the people from the worship of trees, stones, and fountains. But the pagans could not be weaned from the old customs by canons, laws, or edicts, and this was recognised 101 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages by the authorities. Pope Gregory's letter to Mellitus (Beda, lib. i., c. 30) directs him to retain the old temples and consecrate them, " that the nation, seeing their temples are not destroyed, may remove error from their hearts, and knowing and adoring the true God, may the more familiarly resort to the place to which they have been accustomed." In short, the policy of the Church was to make the transition from pagan error to Divine truth as easy as possible. In England, where St, Augustine and his successors obeyed the papal directions, the people would be gathered together in the places they held sacred — within the stone circle, in the leafy grove, by hoary rock or holy well. And we have evidence of it in stones once sacred to Druidical worship, marked with a cross ; in wells of water once sanctified by heathen ceremonies, placed under saintly invocation by Christian superstition ; in old church sites whereon Woden and Fregg, and before them Jupiter and Venus, were worshipped. It is, therefore, easy to understand how an archaic devotional custom gradually developed in course of time, in the case of some wells at any rate, into a more superstitious one, how some wells came to be called " wishing-wells " and others to be regarded as " prophetic." ""Ancient wells of water are still frequently to be found near stone monuments or churches which have replaced them, and in many instances it is highly probable that the existence of the spring of water determined the position of the cromlech, monument, or church. A considerable number of our old churches, and even a few of our cathedrals, appear to have been built on the sites of stone circles where wells existed, and in some cases still exist. Glasgow Cathedral is traditionally 102 Holy Wells said to have been built on the site of the cell of St. Kentigern, which is stated to have been placed within a Druidical circle, and a well may still be seen in the cathedral. On the site of this Scottish herrnifs oratory the cathedral was erected. The visitor is shown a narrow shaft formed in a circular enlargement of the stone bench which runs round the interior of the walls, just beneath one of the Early English lancet -windows, by which shaft one may still dip into the limpid waters which supplied the Druidical lustrations, and then the daily drink to the Celtic hermit and the baptismal element to his Pictish converts. St. Chad's Well, by which that saint and bishop had his oratory, still exists in a little garden adjoining St. Chad's Church at Lichfield, although the relics and bones of the saint, which had been carefully hidden and preserved during the Reformation, have j been enshrined in the altar of the Roman Catholic j Cathedral of St. Chad, at Birmingham, one of the finest architectural creations of Pugin, as it is one of the least known. This little well at Lichfiejd wasl frequented iri olden days by a' vast number of pious"" devotees, and even to-day it is customary for the clergyman, attended by the churchwardens and a great concourse of children, to visit this well on Holy Thursday (Ascension Day), when it is adorned with boughs and flowers, and the gospel for the day is read. The water, which is quite milky in colour, is supposed to possess certain medicinal virtues, which may have helped to strengthen the belief in its miraculous powers of healing. Sir John Floyer, a physician of Lichfield in 1702, published a curious essay " To Prove Cold Bathing both Safe and Useful," in which he gave a table 103 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages of the diseases for which the water of St. Chad's Well was beneficial. London has several associations with St. Chad, for on the east side of Gray's Inn Road, near King's Cross, stood St. Chad's Well, which was one of the favourite spas of the metropolis. The New River takes its rise from springs called Chad's Well, situated in the meadows between Hert- ford and Ware ; and the course of the river in the north of London gave name to Chadwell Street. Devonshire has several holy wells, as at Ladwell orchard at Ashburton, the overflow from which unites with the Ashbum stream below the town. The well was formerly known as Our Lady's Well, now cor rupted into Ladwell. A short distance to the west of Ashburton is a spring called Gulwell the water of which is still considered efficacious to wash weak eyes with. The name Gulwell is a contraction of St. Gudula's well, as this saint was the patron saint of the blind, and had a lantern for his attribute. A granite cross once stood over this spring, and por tions of it may be seen at Gulwell Farm. Lidwell or Ladywell, near Dawlish, with its gruesome stories of the monk -highwayman, is too well known to be described here. Totnes has a very interesting well in Leechwell, which, Mr. E. Windeatt tells us, " consists of three oblong stone troughs of different lengths placed side by side, fed by water issuing out of three spouts. One spring has always been considered efficacious in cases of diseased eyes, and is still used for such. The centre trough, known as ' long cripple,' is much longer than the other two, "and was supposed good for lameness, but some say for the bite of a long cripple or grass snake ; the remaining trough for skin disease, possibly leprosy, as the lazar-house and its ground adjoined the well." 104 Holy Wells Father Wallace, in his "Life of Edmund of Canterbury," mentions St. Edmund's Well at Oxford as having been resorted to by. people for the healing of wounds and maladies, until the practice was prohibited by Bishop Sutton, 1280, on the grounds of superstition. Recent analysis has proved that the water of many of these old wells is mejdkjnalj and they have, there fore, certain curative properties ; and it was quite in accordance with the spirit of mediaeval days to put such wells under saintly invocations, and to attribute their virtuej3_tp_the miraculous power of the_j|ain.tly patron. Others appear to have had no inherent virtue beyond that which all pure cold water possesses, but were reputed to have a supernatural efficacy to the devout. To one or two, special virtues were attributed ; and the idea that the waters of certain wells had marvellous healing powers was not con fined to the British Isles, but prevailed generally over Europe. We shall hardly doubt, if we consider the strength with which heredity and custom operate, and the tenacity with which the people of this country still cling to their local superstitions, that some of our wishing wells and springs may be those to which a superstitious veneration was paid in heathen days. From Canute's enactments against worshipping at fountains and wells, it is evident that pagan rites used to be observed at them down to his reign. The crooked pins which the Irish and Cornish peasantry still drop into their " holy " wells, and the grotesque jargon they utter when doing so, are traces of an old custom that has continued to the present day. *Brand, in his " History of Newcastle," refers as follows to a well still called Beda's Veil, near Jarrow : "As 105 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages late as 1740 it was a prevailing custom to bring children troubled with any disease or infirmity ; a crooked pin was put, and the well laved dry between each dipping." i As one would expect, the more famous of these | springs of water became.^ fashionable places of pilgrimage, and the bishops frequently granted indjolj^ejoce^s to those who visited them. These pilgrimage wells were generally enclosed in a building or well-house for the convenience of pilgrims and the profit of the custodians. A chapel, too, was often attached, in which the seekers of the miraculous virtues of the holy well might offer prayers for its efficacy and deposit their offering. The welljvh£ui§e and the .chapel were the pump-room and assembly-room of these ancient spas, where inns sprang up to lodge and entertain the pilgrims ; and a famous holy well was as great an attraction to our old towns as the possession of medicinal waters is to the Bath, Cheltenham, Harrogate, or Tunbridge Wells of to-day. The ecclesiastical romancers— the guidejbpok, writers . of other days — embellished the original ! Jegends, to invest the neighbourhood of "wells with the added charm of poetical association. Thus with many of these ancient springs of water there is a curious blending of archaeology, history, and romance, which last, though it has least to do with facts, may be more real than the other two. If we look through the histories and life -stories of the numerous Celtic saints who founded oratories in England, Scotland, and Ireland, we shall find that a very large proportion of them lived the life of hermits, in which cases it was essential that the saint should build his cell or oratory near a stream or spring of water in order to be near that indispensable necessary 106 Holy Wells of life. Near many of these early oratories still to be found in Ireland, Wales, the North of England, and Cornwall, the spring which supplied the hermit saint is existing, and is reputed, in many instances, to be a holy well. It was almost inevitable that when every relic of these holy men, down to the rags and tatters of their garments, was reputed to possess miraculous properties, the wells which they had used should bear their names, and share in the individual virtues attributed to them. Wells Cathedral, as its name implies, is associated with abundant springs of water. Near the east end of the fabric there are three such wells, on a spot now enclosed by the Bishop's garden, while the overflow of water fills the moat that surrounds the palace. In the fifteenth century Bishop Beckington (1443-64) caused a conduit to be made to convey a supply of fresh water to the inhabitants by a deed in which he granted " to William Vowell, the brethren, fellow-citizens, and burgesses of the city of Wells, to have and to hold for ever a conduit, with troughs and pipes, above and underground, to be supplied from certain water within the precincts of his palace called St. Andrew's Well, the waste water to be for the use of the episcopal mills." In return for this bounteous supply of fresh water, Vowell and his fellow-citizens agreed to visit Beckington's tomb in the cathedral once every year, and to this day the city of Wells is watered by this overflow from the ancient spring. Tradition asserts that Ina founded a church about 705, beside St. Andrew's Well, and placed it under the care of a small band of secular canons. This foundation was given many privileges by succeeding kings of Wessex, until the place was selected as the seat of the new bishopric founded by 107 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages Edward the Elder for Somerset, when Its first bishop was Athelm, Abbot of Glastonbury, translated to Canterbury in 914. Wells are ; found Jn many other^cathedrals. as at Carlisle, where they have been covered over, and Evelyn speaks of a spring of water he saw in the *' vestrie " of York Minister. We know that when Paulinus baptized Edwin at York, it was in a spring over which a wooden oratory was erected for the occasion, and that over this oratory the walls and roof of the cathedral were afterwards raised. The well now to be seen in the crypt is said to be the one in which Edwin was baptized. Some of these wells had become renowned at a very early period. The term " holy well " is common all over the country, and has given name to several parishes in England and Wales, and the now vanished Holywell Street of London derived its name from the same source. " Holywell," in Flintshire, is the best example we have of a holy well. It is dedicated in honour of St^ Winifred, a noble British maiden, the daughter of Thewith, who was lord of that part of the country some time during the seventh century. Her uncle was St. Benno, a holy man who built an oratory on the site of the present parish church. The popular ». tradition is to the effect that a neighbouring prince, one Caradoc, became enamoured of the maiden's charms. One day he pursued her with violence, but being unable to overtake her, he drew his sword, and at one blow severed her head from the body. The head bounded down the hill, until it was near St. Benno 's oratory, and lo I where it rested there gushed forth from the earth a copious stream of pure water, 108 Holy Wells which was soon found to possess miraculous proper ties. The stones which had been spotted with the virgin's blood retained the sacred stains, and yearly, on the anniversary of the event, they assumed fresh colours. The well became a great place of pilgrimage, and was visited for generations by great crowds of pilgrims. We are also told that St. Benno restored the young lady's head to her shoulders, when the only personal trace of the adventure that remained was a fine white circle about the neck, which served to authenticate the miracle. At the present day the fountain is one of. the finest in the country, and from it water flows at the rate of twenty -one tons a minute. The building or chapel in which it is enclosed is an architectural gem built by the mother of the seventh Henry towards the close of the fifteenth century. The well itself is in a square-vaulted crypt with an ambulatory, over which is a small chapel, contiguous to the parish church, and on a level with it, the entrance to the well being by a descent of some twenty steps from the street. The water is in a star -shaped basin in the centre of the crypt, ten feet in diameter, canopied by a graceful Stella vaulting, and enclosed originally by stone traceried screens filling up the spaces between the shafts that supported the vaulting. In the roof of the chapel are a number of crutches, arranged in a decorative manner, which are said to have been left by grateful cripples who were cured by the miraculous power of the waters. In the valley by which the well is approached are a number of stones which are pointed out as the penitential stations, at each of which the pilgrim stayed to pray on his way to make his final supplication by the famous well of St. Winifred. 109 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages The legend of St. Winifred was related by the monk Elerius in 660, and repeated with various em bellishments by Robert of Salop in 1190. Early in the fourteenth century Pope Martin V. granted special indulgences to all pilgrims who should visit St. Winifred's Well. The Cottonian MS. in the British Museum records many miracles that took place there, and sets forth in detail how the pilgrims' withered and useless limbs, diseases, and deformities were all healed and cured by the waters of the well, where the dumb recovered their speech and the blind their sight. A collection of the miracles of St. Winifred, printed by Heame from a manuscript assigned by experts to the end of the fourteenth century, tells us how " in the towne of Schrowysbury setan iije men togedur and as they seton talkyng, an atturcoppe cum owte of the wowz [walls], and bote hem by the nekkus alle thre, and thawgh hit grevyd hem at that tyme but lytulle, sone aftur hit roncoled and so swalle her throtus and forset her breythe, that ij of hem weron deed, and the thrydde was so nygh deed that he made his Testament and made hym' redy in alle wyse, for he hoped nowghte but only dethe." The " atturcoppe " which wrought such harm in the ancient town of Shrewsbury is thought to have been a kind of large spider, and it is satisfactory to know that the third man was cured by an application of the water in which the bones of St. Winifred had been washed . / What the numbers were of pilgrims who visited this well is impossible to estimate, but as late as | 1629, at St. Winifred's feast, there was an attend- ; ance of some two thousand persons, and one hundred land fifty priests. It is said that "on the stone9 at no Holy Wells the bottom of the well grow the Bissus iolethus, and a species of red Jungermafinia, known vulgarly as St. Winifred's Hair and Blood." The well at Binsey churchyard, about two miles from Oxford, has the same dedicatory saint as the parish church, which, although not unique, is rather unusual, a^s there are at least one hundred and twenty saints to whom, or in honour of whom, wells are dedicated in various parts of the British Isles. With regard to the Binsey well, we leam from the " Beauties of England and Wales " that " several priests used to dwell here under the appointment of the Prior of St. Frideswide's, Oxon, to confess and absolve devotees, and it is said that Secworth, on the opposite side of the river, contained twenty-four inns for the reception of these pious travellers." In the exterior of the west end of East Dereham Church, Norfolk, is an arch, beneath which St. With- berga is said to have been buried. A spring of water now rises from beneath it, flowing doubtless from the sainted body, as the holy well at Flintshire from the head of her sister, St. Winifred. At St. Mary-le-Wigford, in the High Street of Lincoln, the spring under the churchyard wall is covered over by a delightful little perpendicular building in the form and design of a chapel. Ordinary churchyard wells are of a rather different character from those above mentioned, and in any account of them attention must be called to the fact that a large number of our old churchyards are of far greater antiquity than the churches to which they form the courts. Long before the erection of parish churches the people would be gathered together around a cross of stone, or a portable one of wood or bronze (of which latter some excellent examples ni Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages are in existence), generally near a well of water, the Sacrament being administered by means of a portable altar, such as the one discovered in a bishop's grave in Durham Cathedral in 1828. Simeon of Durham, in his account of the translation of the relics of St. Acca, about the middle of the eleventh century, tells us there was found upon the saint's breast a wooden table in the fashion of an altar, made of two pieces of wood joined with silver nails. Leland tells us that a portable altar, said to have been used by Beda, was preserved at Jarrow in his time. The wells in our parish churchyards are often in a remarkable position under the churchyard wall, half in and half out of the churchyard, and often near one of its entrances. Remembering that few stone fonts of proved Saxon date exist, and that some of the wells and streams attached to the old Celtic oratories were certainly used for the rites of^Jjaptism, and also bearing in mind the origin of the wefl"m"York Minster, it appears highly probable that these wells were intended to supply the baptismal element, and may have been in many instances the actual fonts of the early Saxon converts. There is a curious instance in Bisley churchyard, Gloucestershire, in which an erection, assumed to be a churchyard cross, is stated, on the authority of a MS. preserved in the Bodleian library, to have been built over the churchyard well. The MS. states that on one occasion " a man havingfallen into the well, the ... churchyard was*"excommunicated for three years, and the inhabitants ; j^fejobliged to rarryl their "rfearl to BihiTry." "An examination of an engraving of this so-called cross, given in Grose's " Gloucestershire," makes it apparent that the illus- tradition is not of an unusual type of churchyard cross, 112 Holy Wells but is an ornamental covering, bearing much resem blance to several well-known examples of font-covers. These old churchyard wells exist in such numbers that it \s not possible to refer to them all, for a full list would be, indeed, a surprising document. A service was held recently at Plemstall, near Chester, for the dedication of the well of St. Plegmund, friend and tutor of King Alfred. The Archdeacon of Chester, who conducted the service, reminded the congregation that, while living there as a hermit, Plegmund acquired so great a reputation for sanctity and learn ing that Alfred, "in 890, appointed him to the arch bishopric of Canterbury. Holystone, in Northumberland, has a very ancient well, in the centre of which, rising up out of the water, is a stone inscribed with this legend :— " In this place, Paulinus the Bishop baptized three thousand Northumbrians. Easter DCXXVII." The wells of Cornwall form almost a class by themselves, not only by reason of the romantic traditions that have been woven about them, but also in consequence of the excellent condition in which they are found. Cornish folk are extremely super stitious, and they have always held the belief that great harm will befall those who destroy or mutilate, not only the sacred wells but any of the ancient monuments of the county. The result has been to: preserve to a remarkable extent such monuments as crosses, cromlechs, stone circles, and ancient wells of water. It is difficult to find a Cornish village of any size that cannot boast of a holy well. The district around St. Germans is typical of many other portions of this outlying western county. It abounds in mysterious piles of rocks such as the Trethevy Stone and the Hurlers, while no less attractive to the 113 H u> Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages student of folklore are the sacred wells of St. Keyne and St. Cleer. The latter was used in former days as a bowssening pool, and held in great repute for its efficacy in restoring^ the insane to mens sana in cor pore sano. Near at hand is the interesting church of St. Neot's, where is one of the oldest wells in Cornwall. The original baptistery was destroyed, but another has been erected over the well, the legen dary history of which is set forth on a remarkable series of old stained -glass windows within the church. The road from Liskeard to Looe passes by St. Keyne, where the waters of the well possess a wonderful property, according to Thomas Fuller, who says, "whether husband or wife came first to drink thereof, they, get the mastery thereby." The well has been immortalised in Southey's well- known ballad, " The Well of St. Keyne." "A well there was in the west countrie, And a clearer one never was seen, There is not a wife in the west countrie But has heard of the well of St. Keyne.'' The ballad goes on to relate how a traveller, sitting beside the well, met a countryman, with whom he had a long chat about its tradition :— "'You drank of the water, I warrant, betimes,' He to the countryman said ; But the countryman smiled as the stranger spoke And sheepishly shook his head. ' I hastened as soon as the wedding was o'er And left my good wife in the porch ; But faith ! she had been quicker than I, For she took a bottle to church ! ' " St. Keyne, or St. Keyna, the tutelary saint of this well, is said to. have been a pious virgin, the daughter 1 1.4 Holy Wells of Braganus, Prince of Brecknockshire, who lived about the year 490. She is also said to have made a pilgrimage to St. Michael's Mount and to have founded a religious establishment there. Another famous Cornish well is that of St. Maddern, of which Mr. Haslam writes : " The oratory was built near a little stream which flows under its south-western angle ; here a well has been excavated which is continually fed by the clear stream as it passes onward. The well is enclosed by rude masonry, having an aperture to the nave about 4 feet in height and 2 J feet in width." Ireland is quite as abundantly supplied with wells as is Cornwall, and the Celtic saints who came in such numbers from the Emerald Isle to the land of Lyonesse during the earliest days of Christianity would find the legendary kingdom of King Arthur as full of holy wells as was their native land. Mr. Petrie, in his " Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland," mentions, in addition to a large number of other holy wells, one at Tobar-na-Druadh, near Sheepstown, County Kilkenny ; St. Brigid's Well, at the Faughard, County Louth ; and Lady's Well, near Dundalk, which have stone roofings over them exactly like oratories. Prominent among the holy wells of Wales is the Fynnon Vair, at Wygfair, near St. Asaph, in which the neighbouring spring rises at the west end of the church, and was enclosed in a Stella well of the same plan and style as that of St. Winifred, at Holywell. The author of an interesting work on Ireland, published in 1873, criticises in no uncertain manner the ceremonies and rites that were then being still performed at the holy wells of that country. " Some Roman Catholics say that pilgrimages and ' stations ' are not now made at these wells. Let any one visit H5 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages Lough Derg, or any of the other holy sites, and they will know the truth of this matter. There are some diseases and ailments that may be benefited by change of air and by clean and cold water, but these natural remedies are not to be had ' without price ' at the holy wells. Amidst the wild tribes of Africa there are not more superstitious devotees than the poor Irish, who may be seen ' making ^e stf>t'"ns ' at the holy wells." Further : *"" The waters of ' Our Lady's well,' Cross- haven, County Cork, are supposed to be endowed with special healing qualities, and peasant-pilgrims come from great distances to bathe their eyes and drink of the sacred waters, with devout worship and prayers to Mary. Mariolatry is taking the place of the nominal Christianity. Those who are too feeble to go or be brought to the well send by members of their household religious charms, or pieces of coloured rag which have been previously blessed by the parish priest. The fragments are tied upon the branches of the trees over the water, and by this means the miraculous virtue of the well is supposed to be transferred to the owners of the suspended charms." ' Any one who possesses any enthusiasm for old English celebrations could become an accomplished well-drggser during the month of June by studying the methods employed at Wirksworth, Tissington, Buxton, and many another well-dressing centre. The modern well-dressing, or decorating with floral gar lands, is usually a kind of competition for local prizes, but it is nevertheless a marked survival of the days when this ancient custom had a religious significance in the pagan ritual of the Romans, who decked their springs with flowers in honour of the 116 Photo by] DRESSED WELLS AT TISSINGTON. [-R. & R. Bull. Holy Wells water-nymphs in the manner described by Milton in " Comus " : — "... the shepherds at their festivals Carol her goodness loud in rustic lays, And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream, Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils." Derbyshire appears to lead the way in this cere mony, but wells are still dressed at various places in Staffordshire, Shropshire, Westmorland, and Lancashire. The usual method is to make a back ground of clay and moss, either around or at the back walls of the well, the flowers forming effective designs against the dark moss. At Tissington, where there are some fine wells, Ascension Day is selected for the carrying out of the ceremony, and the accompanying illustrations of these decorated wells give a good idea of the effect produced by our modern well -dressers. The Tissington ceremony has a peculiar significance, as it originated as a thanksgiving service for a bounteous supply of water from the wells during an exceptional drought in 1615, recorded thus in the old parish registers : " There was no rayne fell upon the earth from the 25th day of March till the 2nd day of May, and then there was but one shower ; two more fell between then and the fourth day of August, so that the greatest part of this land was burnt upp, bothe corn and hay." There are five wells at Tissing ton, each having a distinctive name. The Ascension Day service is held in the church at 11 o'clock, followed by a second service at each of the wells, consisting of a psalm or one of the lessons for the day, and a hymn, the Benediction being pronounced on the conclusion of the last service. U7 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages Affixed to the parish church of St. James's, Clerkenwell, London, is a tablet bearing the follow ing inscription : — a.d. 1800. Willm. Bovnd] _. , „, , T „ r Church Wardens. Joseph Bird ) For the better Accommodation of the neighbourhood This pump was removed to this spot where it now stands. The Spring by which it is supplied is situated four feet eastward and round it as History informs us, the Parish Clerks of London, in remote ages annually performed sacred plays. That custom caused it to be denominated Clerks' Well and from which this parish derived its name. The water was greatly esteemed by the Prior and brethren of the order of St. John of Jeru salem and the Benedictine nuns in the neighbourhood. This tablet which was Formerly fixed on the site of the Ancient Clerks' Well, viz., the pump house, No. 2, Ray St., westward, was fixed here as a memento of the Past in 1878. W J. Harrison 1 ChurchWardm. Geo. Blackie i According to Stow there was once a holy well at Shoreditch, dedicated to St. John. Simpson, in his " Agreeable Historians," tells us that " at Muswell 118 Holy Wells Hill was formerly a chapel, called Our Lady of Muswell, from a well there, near which was her image. This well was constantly resorted to by way of pilgrimage." In 1628 a number of people, brought before the Kirk Session of Falkirk, were accused of going to Christ's Well on the Sundays during May to seek their health. They were found guilty and sentenced) to repent " in linens " three several sabbaths. In the Session Records of June 2, 1628, we find it stated,1 with reference to this trial, that "it is statue and Ordained that if any person, or persons, be found superstitiously and idolatrously, after this, to have passed in pilgrimage to Christ's Well, on the Sundays of May, to seek their health, they shall repent in sacco (sackcloth) and linen three several Sabbaths and pay twenty lib. toties quoties, for ilk fault ; and if they cannot pay it, the baillies shall be recom mended to put them in ward, and to be fed on bread and water for aught days." In 1657, several parishioners were summoned before the same session for resorting to a well at Airth, a village six miles north of Falkirk, on the banks of the Forth, and the whole of them were ordered to be publicly rebuked for their " super stitious carriage." As a good example of how these old customs persist in the popular mind, and continually crop up in spite of laws and enactments passed against them, the following extract from the Hibernian Magazine for July, 18 17, may be quoted: "At Stoole, near Downpatrick, in the North of Ireland, there is a superstitious ceremony, commencing at twelve o'clock at night on every midsummer eve. Its sacred mount is consecrated to St. Patrick. The plain contains1 119 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages three wells, to which the most extraordinary virtues are attributed. Here and there are heaps of stones, around some of which appear great numbers of people running with as much speed as possible. Around others crowds of worshippers kneel with bare legs and feet, as an indispensable part of the cere mony. The men, without coats, with handkerchiefs on their heads instead of hats, having gone seven times round each heap, kiss the ground, cross themselves, and proceed to the hill ; here they ascend on their bare knees, by a path so steep and rugged that it would be difficult to walk up. Many hold their hands clasped at the back of their necks, and several carry large stones on their heads. Having repeated this seven times, they go to what is called St. Patrick's Chair, which are two great flat stones placed upright in the hill ; here they cross and bless themselves as they step in between these stones, and while repeating prayers, an old man, seated for the purpose, turns them round on their feet three times, for which he is paid ; the devotee then goes to con clude his penance at a pile of stones called ' the altar.' While this busy scene of superstition is con tinued by the multitude, the wells, and streams issuing from them, are thronged by crowds of halt, maimed, and blind, pressing to wash away their infirmities with water consecrated by their patron saint ; and so powerful is the impression of its efficacy on their minds that many of those who go to be healed, and who are not totally blind or altogether crippled, really believe for a time that they are, by means of its miraculous virtues, perfectly restored. These effects of a heated imagination are received as unquestion able miracles, and are propagated with abundant exaggeration." 1 20 CHAPTER VI PILGRIMS' COSTUMES, TOKENS, AND BADGES Ignoring for the moment the dresses worn by Chaucer's merry band, we find that in early days the costume of a professional pilgrim consisted of a Jong, coarse, russet^gown, with large sleeves, sometimes pat£hed_jrijli__crosses, a ,J^^eF_heJt round the shoulders^ or. loins, wjth.~a„ bowl, .bag-and,..scriD sus- pejided_iio_m it, a large round hat decorated JBOth scaJlQp_-sijeJls». or small leaden images of the Virgin andjsaints ; a rgsaxy of large beads, h'ung~rouriaT"the neck or arm, arid a long^alking^stgiff (the bourdon),1 hooked like a crosier, or furnished near the top with a hollow ball, or balls, which were sometimes used as a musical instrument. Sir Walter Ralegh writes : — "Give me my scallop shell of quiet, My staff of faith to walk upon ; My scrip of joy, immortal diet ; My bottle of salvation ; My gown of glory (hope's true gage), And then I'll take my pilgrimage." In the earlier and more austere days of pilgrimage ¦ "This sompnour bar to him a stif burdoun, Was nevere trompe of half so gret a soun." (" Canterbury Tales.") 121 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages the pilgrim received consecration, which was extended to the various parts of his attire. He repaired to the church, where, after prostr^jngJbdm^JiUbefareJthe., altar, certain prayers and. Masses werejgajd, ending with the Gloria Patri, Ad te, Domine, levavi, and the Miserere. On rising, the officiating priest conse crated his scrip and staff, sprinkling each with holy water, and placed the former round the pilgrim's neck, the latter in his hand. Should the intending voyage be a transmarine one, to Compostella, Loretto, or Jerusalem, the crosses of his gown were sprinkled in the same way and then sewn on his garment before the eyes of the assembled congregation. On leaving his town or village the newly -enrolled pilgrim was led. out of. the parigh in procession, with the cross and holy water borne high before him. Apart from such general tokens as images of the Virgin and saints, there were many distinctive badges worn by pilgrims who had visited, either in body or in spirit, certain particular shrines. Thus the dis-^ tihguishing badge of pilgrims to the shrine of St.| James of Compostella was an escallop shell worn either on the cloak or hat. In the " Friar of Orders Gray," an ancient ballad, the lady describes her lover as clothed, like herself, m " a pilgrim's weedes " : — "It was a friar of orders gray, Walkt forth to tell his beades; And he met with a lady faire Clad in a pilgrime's weedes. 'Now Christ thee save, thou reverend friar, I pray thee tell to me, If ever at yon holy shrine My true love thou didst see.' 122 Pilgrims' Costumes, Tokens, and Badges ' And how should I know your true love From many another one? O by his cockle hat and staff, And by his sandal shoone. But chiefly by his face and mien, That were so fair to view ; His flaxen locks that sweetly curl'd, And eyne of lovely blue.'" And so on through twenty -eight verses. The word " weed," as used in this ballad, is said by E. W. Fairholt to be " used indiscriminately by the poets of the Middle Ages to signify a single coat or cloak, or the entire dress, as we still talk of a widow's weeds." The author of an anonymous work called the " Eulogium," cited by Camden, in writing of the, excess of men's apparel, says : " They have another weed of silk which they call a paltock." J. R. Planche- considered the " weed " to have been of Spanish origin, and probably brought " into fashion by the knights in the service of John of Gaunt or Edward the Black Prince, whose connection and com munication with Spain was so near and so frequent." The adoption of the scallop-shell was due, accord ing to popular tradition, to the relics of St. James being conveyed in some miraculous fashion from Jerusalem to Spain in a marble ship, at the sight of which the horse of a Portuguese knight took fright and plunged into the sea with its rider. After being rescued by the sailors his clothing was found to be covered with scallop-shells. Erasmus gives another version when he causes one of his interlocutors to remark to a pilgrim recently returned from abroad : — " What country has sent you safely back to us, 123 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages covered with shells, laden with tin and leaden images, and adorned with straw necklaces, while your arms display a row of serpents' eggs? " " I have been to St. James of Compostella," replies the traveller. " What answer did St. James give to your pro fessions? " " None, but he was seen to smile, and nod his *fign of o?f Canterbury naturally had many of these charitable institutions for_ those who could not, afford the_ fashionable quarters of " the Chequers." and to whom the hospitality of the wealthy priory of Christ Church or of the Abbey of StTAugustme would not be extended. The Hospital of St. Thomas the Martyr, now generally known as King's Bridge Hospital, was founded and endowed by Archbishop Hubert Walter (1193-1205) for the reception of pilgrims to the shrine of St. Thomas, when the food supplied was limited to a cost of fourpence a day, .far— £ach pilgrimr who was also given a night's lodging. Stephen Langton (1207-29) was a great benefactor to the foundation, which is still one of the most important charities in the city. At the visitation of Cardinal Archbishop Pole (1556-8) it was recorded that : " They are bound to receive wayfaring and hurt men, and to have eight beds for men and four for women to remain for a night, and more if they be not able to depart ; and the Master of the Hospital is charged with the burial ; and they, have twenty loads of wood yearly allowed, and twenty-six shillings a year for drink." In the reign of Elizabeth, Archbishop Parker enlarged the foundation and added a school, "out "the latter has fallen into abeyance". It appears that, apart from their ^tiaritahleNinrl scholastic duties, the authori- 205 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages ties of this hospital were require The foundation had the right of burying such pilgrims as died there in that portion of the ratherlral church ypjfl which was set qpg.r±— fnr the "ftfilfflVBBf- of pilgrims. The registers, which date from the early, years of the sixteenth century, record that sixpence a week was spent on beer for the poor guests,, twenty shillings a year Tor the poor. woman who waited upon them, and £10 6s. 8d. for a chantry priest?"" 'Part 01 the revenues were paid in kind, such as the " cocks and hens " paid for the rent of hospital lands in the Forest of Blean. The sum total was a rather inconvenient quantity : " Sum total of the cocks and hens, a hundred and nineteen, and a third part of a hen, and a half of a hen." Eventually this " poultry " payment was compounded for in money, a cock being estimated as equivalent to 2§d. and a hen valued at 3d. Chaucer does not mention the name of the Canter - bury_Jxostei at which the pilgrims alighted at their journey's end ; and it is from the author of the " Epilogue " that we first hear of the " Chequer of the Hope," ' which is said to have been the most jfrequented of all the inns of the city. The building, portions of which still stand at the corner of High .Street and Mercery Lane, has been much altered and pulled about, although as recently as 1845 the greater part of the old hostelry, was intact. The old Merceria was rebuilt by Prior Chillenden about 1400, and here were <"hfl-rQwsi of stalls and booths for the sale of pilgrims' tokens and other trifles of a like nature. • The chessboard on the hoop-(barrel), an intimation that games and drink were provided. 206 Pilgrim Inns The position of the inn, near the entrance to the cathedral, would make Tt a rnwwniej-i^ 'jfifjfflfcre The spacious cellars with vaulted roofs' may still be seen ; but the inner courtyard and the great dormitory. THE CHEQUER OF THE HOPE, CANTERBURY. {From an old print.) of a jfoundred beds were burned down some thirty years ago. The old street front, however, with its broad overhanging eaves, makes a mute appeal, and so renders Mercery Lane one of the most attractive corners of Canterbury. That it was a galleried inn is certain, for Gostling, in his " Walk. Round Canter- 207 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages bury," mentions a wooden staircase that led originally to the gallery round three sides of the inner court. The description of the arrival of Chaucer's party, written apparently not long after Chaucer's death, and printed by Urry, tells us how the pilgrims arrived in Canterbury at " myd-morowe " (in the middle of the forenoon), and took up their lodgings at the " Chequer " :— "They toke their in and loggit them at mydmorowe I trowe Atte cheker of the hope, that many a man doth knowe." After Harry Bailey, the host of Southwark, had ordered dinner for his merry troop, they all pro ceeded to pay their devotions at the shrine of St. Thomas. At the cathedral door they, were sprinkled with holy water : — "Then at chirch dore the curtesy gan to ryse, Tyl the knyght, of gentilness that knewe right wele the guyse, Put forth the prelatis, the parson and his fere, A monk, that took the spryngill with a manly chere, And did as the manere is, moilid al their patis, Everich aftir othir, righte as they were of statis." /"" The knight and some companions went direct to f pay their devotions at the various "stations," but \ others began to wander about the nave, while the {miller entered into a warm discussion concerning (the armorial bearings displayed on some of the painted windows. At length the host of Southwark asserted his authority, called the party together, and reprimanded them for their negligence ; whereupon they hastened to make their offerings : — 208 Pilgrim Inns "Then passid they forth boystly gogling with their hedis Knelid adown to-fore the shrine, and hertlich their bedis They preyd to Seint Thomas, in such wyse as they couth And sith the holy relikes ech man with his mowith Kissid, as a goodly monk the names told and taught. And sith to othir places- of holynes they raught, And were in their devocioune tyl service were al doon." As noon approached theyjaought signs of Canter- ROOM IN THE CHEQUER OF THE HOPE, CANTERBURY. (From an old print.) bury brooches, and returned to the " Chequer " for dinner. After the meal they changed their garments and went^forth.-tfflL " sport and pley" them, "eche man as hym list,"_until supper-time. ~~ 209"" o Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages The knight, with an eye to his profession of arms, and accompanied by his son, went to examine the fortifications..: — "The knyght with his meyne went to se the walle And the wardes of the town, as to a knyght befalle ; Devising ententflich the strengthis al about, And apointid to his sone the perell and the dout For shot of arblast and of bowe, and eke for shot of gonne, Unto the wardis of the town, and how it might be wonne And al defence ther-ageyn, aftir his intent He declarid compendiously, and al that evir he ment." The mojak». accompanied by the parson and the friar, Went tO vHr a, rrmr"a.l frienrlj and tO Sample his_wines ; while th&Jadies remained at hgrne, and visitejL-_J]ag_ garden of^jheir hostess of the_ " Chequer " :— " The wyfe of Bath was so wery she had no wyl to walk, She toke the priores by the honde, 'Madame, wol ye stalk Pryvely into the garden to se the herbis growe, And aftir with our hostis wife in hir parlour rowe ? I wol gyve yewe the wyne, and ye shul me also, For tyl we go to soper we have naught ellis to do.' The priores, as woman taught of gen til blood and hend, Assentid to hir counsel, and forth gon they wend, Passyng forth softtly into the herbery." The other pilgrims amused and entertained them selves in a variety of ways. The supper ended in mirth and Jollity^ which lasted "tyl the tyme that it was well withm eve." The more sober of the company retired early to rest ; but the noisy ones continued to drink and " jangle," until those in their beds became annoyed at the disturbance and per suaded them to go to rest : — "Save the pardoner, that drew apart, and weytid by a cheste, For to hide hymself till the candill wer out." 210 Pilgrim Inns With the " candill " out the pardoner stole away to pursue a low amour. In the morning the knight and all the fellowship set forth homeward as the sun began to draw upward. The host of Southwark suggested that they should not cast lots to decide who should tell the next story, as some of the revellers might still be feeling the effects of the previous evening's libations, or, in the words of the host, from their having been " semi -boozy over-eye." Another tavourite~glithering-place of the Canter bury pilgrims was the great priory of Christ Church, while royal visitors were lodged in St. Augustine's Abbey. F_or ordinary strangers, at Christ Church tne uuejsjen Chamber, there was tne t^uesten^ Chamber, repaired and enlarged early in tn"5 flflixiilll ""Ulntury by Prior Chillenden, since when it has borne the name of " Chillenden's Guest Chamber," which now forms .part of the Bishop of Dover's house. Here the statutes of Archbishop Winchelsea provided that poor pilgrims gbnniH hp fgH dfrily with fragments of bread" dlld Ine'kr, ^Whileanother privilege granted by the Prior to pilgrims "of1 'all ranks and" natioflaTity, who Vnight die at Canterbury,"" waj> that of burial at Christ Church, under the shadowotthe ratheHraT*walls: Many piIgrinls~TS^C*anteTburylwould doubtless call at the famous T^perJgojnita.Lof St. Nicholas, situated on the London Road, one mile from the city. Halting at the hospital, which was founded by Lanfranc in 1084, they would he -offered certain relics-to kiss, and would probably drink a r-np of water from the holv well. The existing building, although partly rebuilt with brick in the reign of James II., contains a con siderable portion of the original Norman structure, while the interior walls are covered with a number of 211 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages old fresco paintings. A curious feature of the church lis the downward slope of the floor from the altar to (the west doorway. The same thing is observable at Shaftesbury, and in many of those churches built to accommodate large bodies of pilgrims. In many of the churches the pilgrims, with clothing, feet, and bodies covered with the dust and filth of the journey, would spend the whole night before the hallowed shrine or saintly relic, with the consequence that the necessity arose of devising some simple method for flushing the floor with water. At Harbledown the slope of the floor would allow the water to ,dj~gjn off after the_.leners.Jiad attended Mass in the church. Guernes du Pont St. Mayence, an Angio -Norman poet who wrote a metrical Life of Becket immediately after the primate's death, relates an interesting anec dote to the effect that when, in 1174, Henry II. made his memorable pilgrimage to Canterbury, he stopped at Harbledown, and " for the love of St. Thomas he gave in grant twenty marks of rent to the poor house." From the hospital he walked bare foot to do penance at the shrine of Becket. The following extract is from the contemporary MS. in the British Museum : — "Juste Cantorbire unt lepros un hospital, U mult ad malades de gent plein de mal ; Pres une liwe i ad del mustier principal, La u li cors saint gist del mire espirital Ki manit dolent ad mis en joie e en estal. Dune descendi iluec li reis a Herebaldun, E entra el mustier, e a fet sa oreison, De trestuz ses mesferz ad requis Deu pardun ; Pur amur Saint Thomas a otrie en dun Vint marchies de rentes a la povre maison." Some interesting relics are preserved in the 212 Pilgrim Inns hospital, including the famous " Erasmus " money, or alms -box, of which tradition gives the following account. When Erasmus visited the hospital in the company of Dean Colet, one of the brethren presented a holy relic, a portion of Becket's shoe, for the travellers to kiss before being sprinkled with holy water. The dean declined the proffered favour with such an outburst of wrathful rhetoric that the courteous Erasmus must needs made amends by dropping a goodly donation into the box, at that time fastened by a chain, of which a few links remain, to a tree near the hospital gate, or at the end of a long pole, so that the passer-by might give his. dona tion at a safe distance from the infected lepers. The well at Harbledown is commonly called the Black Prince's Well, according to the popular tradi tion that water from it was sent to the hero of Poictiers when on his deathbed at Canterbury.- 'This tradition is unsupported by evidence, while the fact that the Black Prince did not die at Canterbury is entirely against the supposition. It may, hqsvever, be connected with the prince in another way, for after the battle above referred to the Prince and his prisoner, King John of France, passed through Harbledown (April 19, 1357) on their way to Canter bury and London, when they may have been re freshed with a cup of water at the well. Be this as it may, the keystone of the semicircular arch above it bears, in somewhat deep carving, the well-known cognisance of the Prince — the three feathers and the motto, Ich Dien, but there is no evidence to show when the stone was inserted or the motto cut upon it. A woodcut of the well made in 1845 shows neither feathers nor, motto. The " Tabard," or, as it was called in later times, j 213 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages [the "Talbot," at Southwark, was the great London starting -point for the Canterbury pilgrims in the days when every other hnilr|jng- in Southwark appears to have, been either a brewery or an inn. The vast THE TABARD INN, SOUTHWARK. (By permission of Mr. Philip Norman, F.S.A.) number of Southwark inns has been attributed to the large amount of accommodation required for those travellers who arrived after the gates of the bridge had been closed, and had perforce to wait until the morning before they could enter the city. 214 Pilgrim Inns ^C^aiUerbury_Js more fortunate than Southwark, as portions at any rate of the " Chequer " may reason ably be supposed to remain, whereas all traces of the original " Tabard " had disappeared for centuries before the modern public -house that occupied the site was sold in 1865, and finally pulled down about 1886. / It must be confessed that the early history of the '"Tabard" is not of a very engrossing kind, and had it not been for Chaucer, to whom it owed all its fame, it is doubtful if its history would have ever been written. As the authors (William Rendle, F.R.C.S., and Philip Norman, F.S.A.) of "The Inns of Old Southwark " say : " The ' Tabard ' owes all its fame to the fact that it was depicted by Chaucer as the place of assemblage for his Canterbury pilgrims." " In South werk at the Tabard as I lay Redy to wenden on my pilgrimage To Cau'nterbury with ful devout corage, • At night was come into that hostelrie Wel nyne and twenty in a companye, Of soridry folk, by aventflre i-falle In felawschipe, and pilgryms were thei alle, That toward Caunterbury wolden ryde." A good view of the inn, with the pilgrims setting out on their journey, is given in Urry's " Chaucer," published in 1721 ; and if absolute reliance could be placed on this woodcut we should have much to compensate us for the loss of the actual building. The print shows a ..range of low hnildings with a swinging sign across the roadway anr1 what appears to be stone steps leading to the galleries, which, in hostels of this character, were placed~"7m"Three sides 215 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages of the yard. It is possible that the woodcut was based on or copied from an older drawing ; but the fact remains that the original " Tabard " of Chaucer's day was burned to the ground half a century before the publication of Urry's book. This fire of 1676 left nothing but the foundations, on which, in 168 1, a new Tabard Inn sprang up. In 1865, what remained of the Carolean inn, which THE TABARD INN, SOUTHWARK. (From Urry's Clmucer.) had in its turn been patched and altered over and over again, was advertised for sale as the " Tabard Inn, the scene of the opening of Chaucer's Canter bury Pilgrimage." The question of its being retained on national grounds was raised in the Times, when the conclusion reached was that nothing remained sufficiently authentic to justify its retention as a genuine relic of old London. " The Rood of Barmsey " (Bermondsey Abbey) 216 Pilgrim Inns would doubtless be visited by many pilgrims before setting out on their long journey to the shrine of Becket. John Paston, in 1465, prays " his mother to visit the North Door and St. Saviour at Bermondsey, and take his sister Margery to pray for a good husband ere she come home again." The route taken by the London pilgrims would be along what is now the Old Kent Road, through Kent Street, and by the Bars and the Lock, the streamlet of St. Thomas a Watering. This " waterynge of Seint Thomas " was just beyond the second mile stone on the road to Kent. It was a recognised place of execution, and the first halting-place of Chaucer's pilgrims. If the " Tabard " of Southwark has vanished utterly, and the " Chequer of the Hope " is in almost equally bad case, we have fortunately at Glastonbury a late but good example of a pilgrims' inn which remains much as when it was first erected. At Winch- combe, in Gloucestershire, considerable portions of the pilgrims' inn remain. The New Inn at Gloucester is a galleried inn that is said to have been built to accommodate the pilgrims who visited the tomb of Edward II. ; and the " Bell " at Tewkesbury makes a similar claim. All along the roads that led to the great shrines a certain amount of accommodation for travellers must have been provided ; and if they could be definitely located through the veil of modernity that has descended over them, old pilgrims' inns would be found to have existed along the roads that led to Hayles, Walsingham, Gloucester, Glastonbury,1 ^-"' and Canterbury. The old George Inn at Salisbury still stands in High Street, aMMagtaqMPrtmpr used as a hostelry. A doorway in the yard and a few other portions 217 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages of the structure have been said to date back to the time of Edward II. The gateway, of ornamental woodwork, has been assigned to the fifteenth century, and two large projecting bay windows should be noticed. The inn is thought to have been built to accommodate the pilgrims who came to visit the shrine of St. Osmund in the neighbouring cathedral., That it was a flourishing hostelry in the coaching ?days there is abundant evidence, and P°ny° TfTiflrj" having paid ^ gyjorhitant S,p™ for the liffl||rY "f " a silken bed— and a very good diet." The George " or the Pugrims' Tnn at Glastonbury is unquestionably the hest example- « rmrtt of a building_ergcted for the housing n-f pi1fJv;TV>g, and one which recent research has provided with a touch of romance. The inn was built originally as a hostel for pilgrims resorting to the abbey and its famous shrines, and in 1490 was, together with two plots of land on the north side, given by Abbot Selwood to the chamberlain of the abbey. The interior has naturally been somewhat modernised for the benefit of the modern pilgrims to Glastonbury ; but the front is . a very, rWoratiyf; pi^fip of hnilrlinjT rirhlv orna mented with shields of arms, carvings, and the other architectural conceits .oil, tne.Jifteehtn century. The majority of the windows are later insertions. The clock bracket that now supports a heavy stone sign was copied by the builder of " Napper's Mite," Dorchester, a charming little almshouse erected in 161 5. For many years there existed at Glastonbury traditions and legends relating to the secret passages without and within the abbey precincts. One of the most persistent of these rather scandalous rumours alleged that an underground passage led from the Pilgrims' Inn to either the Abbey gates or 218 (The Piigrrim/'' W Ja, Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages the Abbot's dwelling. From time to time many archaeologists, attracted by so romantic a legend, have inspected the cellars and other portions of the inn without result, and have denied the truth of the tradi tion. Warner, who wrote a history of the town and abbey in the nineteenth century, mentions the passage, which furnishes him with an excuse to suggest f hat it was used by the abbots for the purpose of visiting ladies stajyjng_at the Pilgrims' Inn. During the past few months Mr. JBiigh Bond, who is in charge of the excavations at the abbey, came across an old journal containing the following reference to the inn : — " Under the house is a vault which leads into the abbey, so low that a man must crawl on his knees to pass it ; but there are benches, or little narrow places, to rest the elbows on, in order to ease the knees. It comes out into a large vaulted place, used for a cellar, and after about five or six paces turns aside to the right into another passage, high enough for a man to walk upright ; this passage is about five or six paces long, and leads to a flight of steps which conducted privately to the abbot's chamber." """"¦' " "Having" discovered something definite, a precise description by some one who had evidently traversed the passage in question, Mr. Bligh Bond lost no time in asking the permission of the proprietors of the building to make a thorough examination of the premises. After a close scrutiny of the cellar walls some traces of what appeared to be a low filled- in archway were discovered. At this point the masonry was attacked with a crowbar, with the result that before many stones had been removed the opening of a small tunnel was fully revealed. 220 Pilgrim Inns Further examination showed that the passage corres ponded exactly with the description given in the old journal ; the stone elbow rests were there, and a drainage channel for water was found in the centre of the floor. The passage has been proved to take a downward course, and then continues on an upward slope beneath the High Street, south-west towards the abbey gates and monastic buildings. The air was very foul, but the explorers were able to penetrate some distance along the passage until a solid obstruc tion barred their further progress. At the time of writing (June, 1 91 1) it has been decided to try and locate the passage from the abbey end. The contributor of a short account of the discovery to the Western Morning News of June 14, 191 1, writes as follows : — " Although not generally known, what may have been a portion of the passage was revealed some years ago. At the north-east corner of the Abbey enclosure is a house built on the site of some of the ancient monastic buildings, and known as 'St. Dunstan 's.' Some years ago the then owner of St. Dunstan's was having alterations made in the base- jnent of the house, when the workmen broke into a large, dark place, which had all the appearance of an underground passage. This was examined for a short distance, and was found to be empty, save for a few small objects which were found upon the floor, amongst them being an ancient lamp. On a report of the discovery being made to the occupier of the house, she gave orders that it must be sealed up, and this was accordingly done before any one possessing , antiquarian knowledge had any chance of investigating it." The hospitals, commanderies. and preceptories -•""¦"' ¦— ^ 221 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages forrnrjer| hy .the miliary ordajM^-/ P , by the KnightS Hospitallers and the Knights Templars— have been purposely omitted from this chapter, although both and pilgrims, and the charitable work of their founda tions had, many point's of 'sTnaarjfT^Lo'fhe'l?iimh.1er HJiuLflf w:wfgrpr^' ^rl*'1,1'5 It is curious to notice that just as many churches were re -dedicated at the Reformation, so the names < of many old hostels and taverns were altered ; and* it is very interesting to note how such comparative trifles as inn signs were affected by the spirit of the Reformed religion. At the same time, we have many examples of the tavern nomenclature of pre-Reforma- tion days. Have we not all at some time or other in our wanderings through rural England, found entertainment and refreshment at a " Salutation " village inn ? The only salutation to justify such a title to-day is that which is exchanged between the thirsty traveller and the landlord; but in its original form this was the "Hail, Mary I " or Salutation of the Blessed Virgin. The signboards of these inns usually depicted the Annunciation, and one of the best known hotels in the Lake Country displays such a sign to this day. At the Reformation the figure of the Virgin was erased, or painted over, but that of the angel Gabriel was left on the board, so that the old tavern, which had for centuries rejoiced in the name " Saluta tion," was by a simple and easy step to come down to us as the " Angel," a name common all over the country. We have many other survivals of a similar nature, such as the " Cross Keys," the symbolical keys of heaven, and the attributes of St. Peter. The " Cardinal's Hat " was very popular with the John Barleycorns of ancient days, when, the 222 Pilgrim Inns great Cardinal Wolsey was at the height of his power, and although now generally extinct it was the sign of a well-known tavern that stood in Lombard Street in 1459. We have also doubtless refreshed the inner man at some " Pope's Head," or " Pope's Arms " taverns, of both of which several remain, in name. In 1636, nearly a century after the Reformation, there were four " Pope's Head " taverns in London, the most famous being that in Cornhill, dating possibly from the reign of Edward III., and certainly from that of Edward IV. This remained until 1856, when it was pulled down. This " Pope's Head " on Cornhill was situated in Pope's Head Alley, a thoroughfare still existing opposite the Royal Exchange ; and, as Stow tells us, there was a " Cardinal's Hat " tavern in the same alley, the Papacy was well represented in the topo graphical and tavern nomenclature of Cornhill. The " Pope's Head " in Cornhill is mentioned in the fourth year of Edward IV. (1464) in the account of a wager between an Alicant goldsmith and an English rival; the foreigner contending that "Englishmen were not so cunning in workmanship of goldsmithry as Alicant strangers." Stow, however, puts the date of the actual house much earlier than this. He says: " This Pope's Head tavern and other houses adjoining, strongly built of stone, hath of old time been all in one pertaining to some great estate or rather the King of this Realm." Stow's evidence for this statement is that the Arms of England, as they were borne previous to the reign of Edward III., were " fair and largely engraven on a stone towards the High Street." , Pepys refers to a fine panelled room in the tavern in 1668-9, and here on April 14, 223 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages 1 7 1 8, Quin, the actor, killed, in self-defence, his fellow-comedian, Bowen. In the old ballad " London Lyckpenny " it is Stated that in the reign of Richard II. wine was sold at the_.ll Pope's ..Head 'L. at one^^penny a pint, with" bread included. It is related how a traveller coming to Cornhill, the wine-drawer of the tavern takes the man by the hand and says, " Will you drink a pint of wine? " whereunto the country man replies: "A penny spend I may," and so drank the wine. This is Stow's version. In the ballad the taverner, not the drawer, solicits the man's custom, and the latter, instead of getting the bread for nothing, complains of having to go away hungry. "The taverner took me by the sleeve," ' Sir,' saith he, ' will you our wine assay ? ' I answered, 'That cannot me much grieve, A penny can do no more than it may ' ; I drank a pint, and for it did pay ; Yet sore a hungered from thence I yede, And wanting money I could not speid." There is still at Lytchett Minster, Dorset, an old inn called " Peter's Finger," on the signboard of which is a representation of the saint holding up one hand from which the blood is dripping. The title " Peter's Finger," however, does not refer to a saintly relic or mutilation, being merely a corrup tion of St. Peter-ad-Vincula (St. Peter in Chains), a term applied to certain lands or manors, some times called Lammas Lands, the occupants of which had to perform on St. Peter's Day (which corres ponds with our Lammas Day, August ist) prasdial service as a condition of their holdings. The chapel 224 Pilgrim Inns within the precinct or liberty of the Tower of London is dedicated to St. Peter-ad-Vincula, a title that is also given to a small tract of land lying between Salisbury and Alderbury. One of the signs under which some famous old taverns did a thriving business was the " Mitre," 6f which the doyen was that in Mitre Court, Fleet Street, one of Dr. Johnson's favourite haunts, where Goldsmith and his contemporaries used to meet for literary and other, less dry, refreshment. There are possibly more " Mitre " taverns of historical interest than those of any other name. In the "Quack Vintners," 1712, the reason given for the partiality shown by innkeepers for this sign is explained as follows: — "May Smith, whose prosperous Mitre is his sign, To show the Church no enemy to wine, Still draw such Christian liquor none may think, Tho' e'er so pious, 'tis a sin to drink." Of " Saints " inn-signs we have several, in addi tion to those whereon are depicted the national saints — St. George, St. Andrew, St. Patrick, and St. David. The " Cat and Wheel " is a curious corruption of the Catherine Wheel, intended originally as an emblem of the instrument by which St. Catherine was martyred. St. Martin, the vintners' patron saint, has fallen from the high place he once held among tavern signs, and with him have gone St. Dunstan, St. Luke, and the celestial hierarchy whose individual forms and emblems were once almost as prominent on inn -signs as they were in churches. In con clusion, we should remember that old hostels and inns , bearing the above signs over the city pavements or 225 P Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages amid the trees of the village may, many of them, have refreshed the weary pilgrim of other days, as they refresh the equally weary pilgrim of to-day. They are not hotels or restaurants. They are taverns, and they are English. 526 CHAPTER XI THE BOXLEY ROOD OF GRACE For the mechanical working image we have no need to go abroad, for one of the most ingenious of these wojkirig.. xmiajtrnta, the "Boxley Rood of Grace, adorned an English Cistercian Church, founded at Boxley, near Maidstone, in 1 1 44, by William de Ipres, Earl of Kent. This rood or crucifix is saidjpy tradition^ to have been brougEt_to Boxley by ahorse whicii_had-s.txa^fid. from its owner. The~monks told themselves that this was a miracle and laid claim to the Object, which is thus described in the "Perambulation of Kent," written in 1570, by William Lambarde. : — " But now if I shoulde leave Boxley, the favourers of false and feyned Religion would laugh in their sleeves, and the followers of God's trueth might justly cry out and blame me. " For it is yet freshe in mind to bothe sides, and shall (I doubt not) to the profite of the one, be continued in perpetuall memorie to all posterite, by what notable imposture, fraud, juggling, and Legierdemain, the sillie lambs of God's flocke were (not long since) seduced by the false Romish foxes of the Abbay. " The manner wherof, I will set downe, in such sorte onely, as the same was sometime by themselves published in print for their estimation and credite, 227 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages and yet remaineth deepely imprinted in the minds and memories of many on live, and to their ever lasting reproche, shame, and confusion. "It chaunced (as the tale is) that upon a time a cunning Carpenter of our country was taken prisoner in the warres betweene us and Fraunce, who (wanting otherwise, to .satJsn&Jor.his.TaHnsome), and having good leysure to devise for his deliver ance, thought it best to attempt some curious enter prise, within the compasse of his own Art and skill, to make himselfe some money withall: And there fore, getting togither fit matter for his purpose, he cojrmacted OI wood, wyer, paste, and paper, _a RoQd_e_of such exquisite Art and excellencie, that it not onely matched~lrr~ct>nie1yriesse and due propor tion of the partes the best of the common sorte; but in straunge motion, variety of gesture, and nimbleness of joints, passed al other that before had been seene; the same being able to bow downe and lifte up it selfe, to shake and stirre the handes and feete, to nod the head, to rolle the eies, to wag the chaps, to bende the browes, and finally to represent to the eie, both the proper motion of each member of the body, and also a lively, expresse, and signifi cant shew of a well contented or displeased minde; byting the lippe, and gathering a frowning, forward, and disdainful face, when it would pretend offence: and shewing a moste milde, amyable, and smyling cheere and countenaunce, when it woulde seeme to be well pleased. " So that now it needed not Prometheus fire to make it a lively man, but onely the_Jjej^2e_of_-±he co vetous^Pr iests of Bell, or the aide of some craftie College of Monkes. todem?^nor"nTake~!t~passe Tor a verie God. ~~ 228 The Boxley Rood of Grace " This done, he made shifte for his libertie, came over into this Realme, of purpose to utter his mer chandize, and laide the Image upon the backe of a Jade that he drave before him. " Now when hee was come so farre as to Rochester on his way, hee waxed drie by reason of travaile, and called at an alehouse for drinke to refreshe him, suffering his horse neverthelesse to go forwarde alone along the Citie: " This Jade was no sooner out of sight, but hee missed the streight westeme way that his Maister intended to have gone, and turning Southe, made a great pace toward Boxley, and being driven (as it were) by some divine furie, never ceased jogging tell he came at the Abbay church doore, where he so beat and bounced with his heeles, that divers of the Monkes heard the noise, came to the place to knowe the cause, and (marvelling at the straunge- nesse of the thing) called the Abbatt and his Convent to beholde it, " These good men seeing the horse so earnest, and discerning what he had on his backe, for doubt of deadly impietie opened the doore: which they had no sooner done, but the horse rushed in, and ran in great haste to a. pillar (which was the verie place where this Image was afterwarde advaunced) and there stopped himself e, and stoode still. " Now while the Monkes were busie to take off the lode, in commeth the Carpenter (that by great inquisition had followed) and he challenged his owne : the Monkes loth to lose so benifi,ciall a stray, at first made some deniall, but afterward, being assured by all signes that he was the verie Proprietarie, they graunt him to take it with him. " The Carpenter then taketh the horse by the '229 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages t'head, and first assayeth to leade him out of the Church, but he would not stirre for him: Then beatheth hee and striketh him, but the Jade was so restie and fast nailed that he woulde not once remoove his foote from the pillar : at the last he taketh off the Image, thinking to have carried it out by selfe, and then to have led the horse after: but that also cleaved so fast to the place, that notwithstanding all that ever he (and the Monkes also, which at length were contented for pities sake to helpe him) coulde doe, it woulde not be mooved one inch from it: So that in the ende partly from wearinesse in wrestling, and partly by persuasion of the Monkes, which were in love with the Picture, and made him beleeve that it was by God himselfe destinate to their house, the Carpenter was contented for a piece of money to go his way, and leave the Roode behinde him. " Thus you see the generation of this the great God of Boxley, comparable (I warrant you) to the creation of that beastly I doll Priapus, of which the poet saith: — " ' A figtree blocke sometime I was, A log unmeete for use : Till Carver doubting with himselfe, Wert best make Priapus, Or else a benche ? resolv'd at last To make a God of mee : Thenceforth a God I am of birdes, And theeves most drad, you see.' " But what? I shall not neede to reporte, howe lewdly these Monkes, to their owne enriching and the spoile of God's people, abused this wooden God after they had thus gotten him, bicause a good sort 230 The Boxley Rood of Grace be yet on live that sawe the fraude openly detected at Paules Crosse, and others may reade it disclosed in bookes yet extant, and commonly abroad." The figure was worked by hido'e-ti-rnephariisrn and its movements were regarr),ed.-a.s„.m.i.r.a£:uloiis. From the account given in Foxe's " Book of, Martyrs," it appears that the image was capable! of assuming every kind of facial expression, accord ing to the value of the offering tendered. A piece of silver, we are told, was received with frowning lip, but a piece of gold caused the " jaws to wag merrily." Many other picturesque details grew up around this wonderful figure, as that it could foam at the mouth, weep from the eyes, and raise its hands in blessing. However, when the monastery was dissolved by Henry VIII., certain curious folk discovered that the figure was full of cleverly con cealed wires, of which Foxe tells us there were a hundred, but Foxe, honest man though he was, may have exaggerated. Be this as it may, the miraculous rood which' had bowed its head, and stirred its eyes, was paraded) through the roads from market town to market town, exhibited as a piece of jugglery before the Court, exposed to ridicule at Maidstone and St. Paul's Cross, and eventually was publicly burned, together with many images of the Virgin and saints. Latimer, when sending the image of the Virgin to London from his own Cathedral of Worcester to be burned, is recorded as having exclaimed : " She with her old sister of Walsingham, her younger sister of Ipswich, and their two other sisters of Doncaster and Penrice, would make a jolly muster at Smith - field." Burnet, in his " History of the Reforma tion," tells us that when one of the effigies of the 231 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages Virgin in Worcester Cathedral came to be unfrocked, it was found to be a figure of one of the bishops of the diocese. At Boxley also was a famous image of St. Rumald, Rumbold, or Grumbald, the son of a North umbrian king and of a daughter of Penda, King of Mercia. He died when three days old, but not before he had repeated the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed in Latin, a feat for which he gained canonisation. His image at Boxley is said to have been small, and of a weight so light that a child could lift it, but that it could at times become so heavy that it could not be moved by persons of great strength. Thomas Fuller, the quaint old divine, tells us that " the moving hereof was made the conditions of women's chastity. Such who paid the priest well might easily remove it, whilst others might tug at it to no purpose. For this was the contrivance of the cheat — that it was fastened with a pin of wood by an invisible stander behind. Now, when such offered to take it who had been bountiful to the priest before, Ithey bare it away with ease, which was impossible for their hands to remove who had been close-fisted in their confessions. Thus it moved more laughter than devotion, and many chaste virgins and wives went away with blushing faces, leaving (without cause), the suspicion of their wantonness in the eyes of the beholders; whilst others came off with more credit (because with more coin), though with less chastity." The relics of this very youthful saint were carried to Buckingham and deposited in a shrine in an aisle of the church dedicated in his honour. In 1477, Richard Fowler, Chancellor of Edward IV., 532 The Boxley Rood of Grace left a bequest for rebuilding this aisle and the making of a new and costly shrine for the relics, which continued to attract pilgrims up to the Reformation. Foxe, in his " Book of Martyrs," relates how several Lollards, having renounced the "new doctrine," were, nevertheless, forced to walk to Buckingham and deposit an offering at the shrine of St. Rumald. Churches dedicated in honour of this infant saint are very rare, but there was one at Shaftesbury, in Dorset, outside the borough boundary. To-day this church is more commonly spoken of as Cann Church. Boxley is situated a little over two miles to the north of Maidstone, the roads from the latter place being numerous. Standing some way off the village are a few ruins, including part of the refectory, which mark the site of the old abbey, where the nave of the church has been turned into a garden containing a lily-pond. A small portion of the original entrance remains, while the size of the tithe -barns speaks more eloquently than words of the former wealth of the foundation. When the abbey was dissolved, Jeffrey Chamber, the Commissioner chosen by the Vicar-General, re ported that " upon the defacing of the late monastery of Boxley and plucking down of the images of the same, I found in the Image of the Roode of Grace, the which heretofore hathe ben hadde in great venera- cion of people, certen ingynes and old wyer with olde roton stykes in the back of the same that dyd cause the eyes of the same to move and stere in the hede thereof lyke unto a lyvelye thyng. And also the nether lippe in lykewise to move as thoughe it shulde speke. Which so founde was not a litle strange to me and other that was present at the plucking downe of the same." 233 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages There have been many apologists for the Boxley Rood of Grace, and similar working automata, and although Cromwell's commissioners may not have been too scrupulous in their descriptions of these figures, the fact remains that throughout the whole of the Tudor period the strong Catholic party let judgment go by default, and made no attempt to refute the evidence, unreliable and biassed as much of it was, of Cromwell's agents. The truth is we do not know, we probably never shall know, the real history of these things, especially as those most com petent to tell us all about them, the learned ecclesi- ologists of the Roman Catholic Church, are silent. /This being so the Holy Rood of Boxley remains one j of the unsolved problems of religious history. As Mr. F. C. Elliston-Erwood, in his charming little volume on "The Pilgrims' Road," reminds us: " Boxley village and Park House are intimately con nected with Tennyson. 'fThe broad ambrosial aisles of lofty limes,' that are the scene of the village festival in the opening of ' The Princess ' are part of Boxley Park. . . . Tennyson stayed here in 1842, and the old road was often the scene of his rambles. We can picture him treading the path and beating out those musical lines that come so frequently in his nature poems." From the fact that in 1261 Arch bishop Boniface built a hospital on the banks of the Medway at Maidstone, for the reception of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury, it is probable that large numbers of devotees used this route at that time, although Maidstone lay out of. the direct course for the majority of the pilgrims who would cross the river at either Cuxton, Snodland, or Ay les - ford. The London pilgrims to Canterbury would have to make a detour to reach Boxley, as they 234 The Boxley Rood of Grace generally proceeded by way of the direct road from Chatham. Miss Julia Cartwright (Mrs. Ady) writes : " The Abbey of Boxley owned vast lands, and the Abbots were frequently summoned to Parliament, and lived in great state." Be this as it may at the Disso lution no more serious personal charge was brought against the monks than that there were too many flowers in the convent garden, and that therefore they had turned " the rents of the monastery into gilly flowers and roses." If nothing more serious than an excess of horticultural zeal had been preferred against all the monastic brethren, what pleasanter reading the history of the Reformation would have made ! 235 CHAPTER XII OUR LADY OF WALSINGHAM, AND OTHER NORFOLK SHRINES " Gentle heardsman, tell to me, Of curtesy I thee pray, Unto the towne of Walsingham Which is the right and ready way. Unto the towne of Walsingham The way is hard for to be gon; And verry crooked are those pathes For you to find out all alone." The scene of this charming old ballad, of which , the first two verses are quoted above, is laid near Walsingham, in Norfolk, where the famous— image ' of the Virgin and _the_ even., more famous relic of i her milk, gave the little town a European reputation from the numerous pilgrimages made to it and the immense riches it possessed. The Walsingham pilgrimage formed the basis for many a popular ballad such as the following : — "As ye came from the holy land Of blessed Walsingham, O met you not with my true love As by the way ye came ? * * * * How should I know your true love, That have met many a one, As I came from the holy land, That have both come and gone?" 236 Norfolk Shrines Second only to the shrine of Becket at Canterbury in popular esteem, in the numbers of pilgrims it attracted, and in its great riches, was the great shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, situated in a remote corner of North Norfolk, a_few_ miles Jxom— the sea._ The history of this shrine is, to a very large extent, a history of one side of English religious life from before the Conquest down to the Reformation. Erasmus informs us that Walsingham was ..supj; portechalmost entirely Jby^the vast numbers of persons who Came to make their offerings to the J/irgin, and he adds that there"wasH3carce""a~ person of any note in England who had not at some time or other paid it a visit or sent a present thither . King and peasant, foreigner and native-born, cleric and lay man, all wended their way to Walsingham. In May, 1469, Edward IV. and his queen made a pilgrimage to Walsingham, as is recorded in a letter from James Hawte to Sir John Paston : — " As for the king, as I understand, he departs to Walsingham upon Friday, com sev' night, and the queen also, if God send her health." In 1470 John Paston wrote to his mother to tell her that the Duchess qUiorfolk would visit Norwich on her way to Walsingham, and, accompanied by her husband, the duchess paid another visit to the shrme on foot, in September 1471. In 1478 Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, was one of the pilgliTms~tb"' Walsingham. There is no reason to doubt that this Norfolk shrine rivalled the earlier one of Our Lady of Loretto, in Italy, and a large numbgrjof inns and hostels were built for the accommodation" of the pilgrims, not only in Walsingham and the immediate vicinity 237 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages of the shrine, but alonft all the Norfolk highways that led to it. The^ original chapel , was founded five years before the Conquest by Ricoldie de Faverches, or Taverches, and was reputed to be an exact copy of the Santa Ga^gL, or Home of the Virgin, which was conveyed in so miraculous a manner from Nazareth to Loretto. • With the return of the Crusaders from Palestine a portion of the Virgin's milk found its way to Wal singham, and the popular belief of the day was that the Virgin herself__had..come to establish herself in N orfonrrri~consequencP PT thfi itiMt Is having .invadf"* the Holy^^^^L The result was that a splendid priory soon stood beside the primitive and original chapel. This priory was founded in 1420 by Godfrey de Faverches, and given to the Order of St. Augustine. It appears that the pilgrims who arrived here entered the sacred precincts by a low narrow gatef purposely made difficult to pass as a precaution against relic -snatchers. On the gate was nailed a copper figure of a kfiight on horseback, whose miraculous preservation on that spot by the Virgin formed the subject of one of the numerous legends with which the shrine abounded. Passing through the gate, the pilgrim found himself in a small chapel, where, on giving a suitable offering* he was allowed to kiss a gigantic bone, said to have been the finger-bone of St! Peter. He was then conducted to a building thatched with reeds and straw, enclosing two wells of water which had attained great fame for their medicinal proper ties, but more so, perhaps, on account of the rare virtue they were reputed to have possessed of granting^ whatever the pilgrim might wish fox. 238 Norfolk Shrines Passing through the outer gateway, an unfinished building in the time of Erasmus, the devotee found himself before the Chapel of the Virgin, a small wooden building with a door in each opposite side, through which the pilgrims made their entrance and exit. Within this chapel Stood the celebrated image of the Virgin, on the right of the altar. Incense was kept burning perpetually before it, and By the" light of the many tapers Erasmus beheld the gold and jewels with which the effigy was adorned. After kneeling awhile in prayer the pilgrim arose, and deposited his offering, which was immediately taken up by a priest to prevent the next comer from steal ing it when depositing his own coin . At another altar, probably in the outer chapel, was exhibited the far-famed relic of the heavenly milk, enclosed in crystal and set up in a crucifix. Erasmus saw the sacred relic, which he tells us looked excessively like chalk, mixed with white of egg, and quite solid. Of Walsingham in general the same writer says : " This house depends chiefly on the Virgin for support, for the greater offerings only are laid up, but if money or things of small value are offered, they are applied to the maintenance of the convent, and their superior, whom they call their prior. The church is neat and elegant, but the Virgin dwells not in it. This place, as out of respect, she has resigned to her Son. She has her temple so placed as to be at her Son's right hand, nor does she dwell even there. The building is not finished, and the wind comes in at the doors and windows, for the ocean, father of winds, is just by. In the unfinished church is a narrow wooden chapel, into which the worshippers aire admitted by a narrow door on each 239 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages side. It has but little light, and that only from wax tapers, which give a very agreeable smell. If you looked in, you would say it was the mansion of the gods, it glitters so with jewels, gold, and silver." The following extracts from the " Household Book of the Earl of Northumberland " will show what constant tribute was paid to Our Lady of Wal singham : — " Item : " My lord useth yearly to send afore Michaelmas for his lordship's offering to our Lady of Walsingham — 4d. Item : My lord useth and accustometh to send yearly for the upholding of the light of wax which his lordship findeth burning yearly before our Lady of Walsingham, containing eleven pounds of wax in it after — 7d. Ob. For the finding of every pound ready wrought by a covenant made with the channon by great, for the whole year, for the finding of the said light burning — 6s. 8d. Item : My lord useth and accustometh to send yearly to the channon that keepeth the light before our Lady of Walsingham, for his reward for the whole year, for keeping of the said light, lighting it at all service times daily throughout the year — i2d. Item : My lord useth and accustometh yearly to send to the priest that keepeth the light, lighting of it at all service times daily throughput the year — 3s. 4d." The gifts, offerings, and benefactions made to the shrine were many and various. In 1369 Lord Burghersh bequeathed to it a silver statue of him self on horseback, and Henry VII. gave a silver image of himself, kneeling on a table, with " a brode border, and in the same graven and written with large letters, blake enameled, theis words : ' Sancte Thpma, intercede pro me.' " y Among the many royal visitors were Henry III., 240 Norfolk Shrines Edwards I. aad II., and Charles V. Henry VIII. walked barefoot from Barsham to present a neck lace, and this monarch, when dying, is said by Spelman, but by no other historian, to have left his soul in charge of Our Lady of Walsingham, but this is quite unsupported by evidence. Catherine of Arragon, however, did so bequeath her soul, and a sum of 200 nobles, to be given to a pilgrim to spend in charity on his way to the shrine. About the middle of the fifteenth century Sir W. WalsinghzTii Sign Yelverton, in a letter to his cousin, John Paston, wrote : " Right worshipful cousin, I recommend one to you, thanking you as heartily as I can for myself, and especially that ye do so much for our lady's house of Walsingham, which I trust verily ye do the rather for the great love that ye deem I have thereto, for truly if I be drawn to any worship or welfare, and discharges of mine enemies' danger, I ascribe it unto our lady." We also find Margaret Paston writing to her husband to inform him that " my mother behested 241 Q Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages [vowed] another image of wax of the weight of you to our Lady of Walsingham, and she sent four nobles [£i 6s. 8d.J to the four orders of friars at Norwich, to pray for you, and I have behested to go on pilgrimage to Walsingham and St. Leonard's for you." Th£_offejing, of an image— of wax. oL_jhe weight of ! the_j^erson for the good of whose soul it was provided was a somewhat rare, and, considering the price of wax in the fifteenth century, a very costly gift. The Church of the Priory of St. Leonard, at Norwich, referred to by Margaret Paston, was in great repute with pilgrims for its images of the Virgin, the Holy Cross, and St. Anthony, but was afterwards rendered more famous by the pilgrimages made to the effigy of Henry VI ., by whose miraculous intervention great cures are supposed to have been performed. Mr. W. A. Dutt, in his book on "The Norfolk and Suffolk Coast " (Fisher Unwin ), tells us that " Endowments and offerings of pilgrims made the priory fWalsinghaml exceptionally rich— in one year the offerings alone amounted to £3,000 of our money — and it may be that it was in consequence of its being so wealthy that it became, early in the six teenth century, the most disorderly and demoralised religious housg_hi_tlie county? When it was dissolved its yearly revenue amounted to about £5,000 present money. The site was then sold to Thomas Sidney, the governor of a hospital at Walsingham, ' for the use of the people,' but he kept it, we are told, for himself." Although the modern pilgrim will find but a few fragments remaining of the old Priory of Walsing- ^'42 Norfolk Shrines ham, he can, if he be so minded, find his way there from London along the first road set down in Holinshed's " English Itinerary," by way of Waltham and Ware, or along the road that leads to Brandon, The Gateway, Walsingltvtfi Priory. Swaffham, and Fakenham, although all of these deviate very much from the Walsingham Green Way, of which practically no traces remain, although local enthusiasts will tell you otherwise. The original shrine of Our Lady was destroyed at the Reformation, but an interesting and possibly accurate 243 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages \copy of it may be seen in the Roman Catholic Church at King's Lynn, not very far away. ' A portion of the entrance gateway, a tall frag ment of the great eastern window of the abbey church, and the pilgrims' bath and wishing wells are the most important features that remain of this ancient building, of which, long after its destruction, Philip, Earl of Arundel, who died irt the Tower in 1 595, penned the lines :— "Bitter, bitter, oh to behould The grasse to growe Where the walls of Walsingham So stately did shewe Levell, levell with the ground The towers do lye Which with their golden glittering tops Pearsed once the skye. Owls do shriek where the sweetest hymns Lately were sung ; Toads and serpents hold their dens Where the palmers did throng. Weep, weep, O Walsingham, Whose days are nights, Blessings turned to blasphemies, Holy deeds to despites ! Sin is where our Lady sat. Heaven turned is to hell, Satan sits where our Lord did sway, Walsingham, oh, farewell ! " The_pilgrims' wells, two in number, have been described by Erasmus in his " De Peregrinatione." They were no doubt enclosed in~a building and had an attached chapel. When Erasmus visited them he found that between the two wells was a stone 244 Norfolk Shrines on which the votary of Our Lady kneh^wjjji, Jiis right knee bared : he then plunged one hand in eacE~weTl, so that the water reached to the wrist, and sileiUly_wished his wish, after which he "drank as mucn~ofth&.water as_he_could ^ hold_in_ihe-hollows of his hands. It was also customary for the pilgrims to carry jhejyj&ex away in .deaden, amp^uf^iqrjheir ow£LlliEHi?~use> or ^or *h-e benefit or their friends and relations. In an old " Guide to Norfolk," published early in the nineteenth century, we read, with regard to Lynn Regis, as the town of King's Lynn was then called : " About halfway between the south and east gates stand the remains of an ancient oratory, a singular kind of building, with several vaults and cavities under the ground, over which are some dark cells, where the priests were used to take confessions in, and above them is a small chapel, in the figure of a cross, arched above, and enriched with carvings. It was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and commonly called Our Lady's Mount, whither the Romish peni tents, in their pilgrimage through this town to the holy wells and the monastery of Our Lady at Walsing ham used to resort and perform their devotions." This building, which remains much as when first erected, is the only complete example we have left of a pilgrim chapel, although traces of several others have been found in various parts of the country. Having seen what an early nineteenth-century topographer said of this chapel, the account given one hundred years later by Mr. W. A. Dutt may be quoted, not only as being the latest description of the build ing, but as a confirmation of a fact which has often struck the present author, namely, that the guide book and topographical writers of a century ago 245 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages were, considering the limited amount of material the had to draw upon, singularly accurate in their genera statements. With regard to this particular chape Mr. Dutt writes : " The most remarkable buildin /'in Lynn is the Chapel of St. Marv-on-the-Hill. bette / known—as tne ' Red Mount Chapel.' It was buil ( about 1485 by Robert Curraunce, and consists o a red-brick octagonal tower containing an exquisit I little cruciform chapel of stone, measuring eighteei feet from east to west, fourteen feet from north t< south, and thirteen feet in height. The roof almos exactly resembles that of King's College Chapel, Cam j bridge, and its workmanship is of a very high order < This perfect church in miniature has beneath it 1 \ vestry with a small chapel attached, while in the base- ; ment of the small tower, below the level of the top oi j the mound, is another chapel or vault in a state ol : decay." The building has served a variety of uses. | and has been successively a conduit, stable, powder- magazine, and pest-house, but was carefully restored in 1828, and placed under the care of the Corporation authorities. The date of its erection, 1485, is borne out by entries in the municipal records of the town, relating to a dispute between the Prior of Lynn and the Commons. Mr. Ralph Surridge, an architect who has drawn out plans and made a minute study of the fabric, considers it to be one of the most interesting archi tectural studies in the district. Writing to The Builder (February 1, 1908), he says : " This chapel, dedicated to St. Mary, was built for the use of pilgrims on the way to the shrine at Walsingham. Outside the building is a platform of earth, which is retained by a surrounding wall supported by but tresses. . . . The lower chapel is entered from the 246 Chapee or the Red Mouht Kincs Lxnrr, West ELEV&non Scale of* Rcet By permission of " The Builder." Drawn by Ralph Surridge. Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages north-east door in the outer wall, although at one time this was the priests' entrance only, and the people's entrance was by a passage under the west door, which is now blocked up — it is vaulted in brick and at present in a very uninviting state, all the decorations and pavement having gone. Just inside the west door is a window from which the service in the lower chapel could be seen. To the right of this entrance are the main stairs to the west door of the upper chapel. In passing the east end of the chapel a passage is formed under the altar, the walls being supported by two arches. The interior of the upper chapel is a most beautiful piece of fifteenth- century work. It has a nave, transepts, and choir, vaulted in stone, and is lighted by four quatrefoil windows. Near the south door are the steps to the priests' chapel and vestry and to the doorway in the north-east outer wall." The Roman Catholics of Lynn and the surround ing district make an annual pilgrimage on May 25 th to this chapel, attended by priests and acolytes, and with a carved effigy of Our Lady borne high before them. At Hillborough, between Brandon and Swaffham, the pilgrims' chapel is little more than a mass of ruins, but the beautiful little building at Houghton- in-the-Dale, which had been converted into cottages, is once more in the hands of the Roman Catholics, for whom it has been re -dedicated. This was known as the " Shoe House," or " Chapel, gi^the Slipper," as it was here, according to tradition7""that"" the pilgrirns_disxarded their. J&otwear. and proceeded to WalsinghaBU^some _two miles_ or so away. The only serious rival in the county of Norfolk to the shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham was that 248 ) Chapel or ttie Red Mount Kirrcfe Lynrr I I I ¦ L. Scjvlc • oy EfcusT Grout© eloor Plat* By permission of "The Builder." Drawn by Ralph Surridge Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages of the Holy Crnss_at^ Ractort Ahhey., or, more correctly, Bromholm Priory, a monastery of the Cluniac Order founded in 908. Until 1295 this was merely a " cell " or dependency of the larger monastery of Castle Acre, belonging to the same order, but its possession of so famous a relic brought it fame and made it independent of the parent abbey, where they had nothing more attractive to show pilgrims than a spurious arm of St. Philip. Brom holm was one of those lesser monasteries (those with incomes of less than £200 per annum) which were dissolved in 1536. Of the ruins some consider able portions remain — the gate-house, north transept, and Chapter-house-^but not to be compared either in quantity or quality to the magnificent remains still standing of the great Norman abbey of Castle Acre, founded in 1085. The Holy Cross of Bromholm is mentioned by Langland and Chaucer, also by Thomas Fuller, who says : " Amongst all others, commend me to the Cross of Bromholme." Chaucer's reference occurs in " The Reeve's Tale," where the miller's wife exclaims, " Help, holy crois of Bromeholme I " and in the " Vision " of Piers Plowman we read : — " But wenden to Walsingham, and my wife Alis, . And byd the roode of Broomholm bring me out of dette." Roger of Wendover has related how the ' relic got to Bromholm, and recorded the wonderful miracles that were wrought by its aid. Although it is supposed to have been burned at the Reformation there are strong reasons for thinking it is still in existence. Mr. Dutt quotes, in the book already referred to, a note that appeared in " Eastern Counties Collectanea" (1872-3), as follows: "A 250 Norfolk Shrines convent of nuns in Yorkshire, who have a large piece of the Cross of our Lord, set in silver in the shape of a Jerusalem cross, desire to trace its history. A member of the family of Paston was at one time Superioress of this convent. Now the Pastons were intimately connected with the Priory of Bromholm, and lived in the next parish, and it does not seem improbable that at the Dissolution the celebrated relic of the true Cross, for which Bromholm was famous, may have come into the possession of the Paston family." It would be interesting to learn which of the con vents of Yorkshire desired this information, and if the relic is still in their possession. The Pastons were the great patrons of Brom holm, and when John Paston was buried, in 1466, his " wake " was held in the monastery, and attended apparently by a great concourse of people. For three days one man was employed in flaying beasts, and provision was made of "13 barrels of beer, 27 barrels of ale, a barrel of beer of the great assize, and a runlet of red wine of 15 gallons." A barber found employment for five days in smartening up the brethren and their guests, who, on this aus picious occasion, consumed no less than 1,300 eggs, 20 gallons of milk, 8 gallons of cream, 41 pigs, 49 calves, and 10 'neat stock.'" Matthew Paris has also recorded the story of this wonderful cross, to the effect that Baldwin, Count of Flanders, being harassed by infidel kings, and neglecting in his march against them to take the Cross of Christ and other relics with him on his campaign, was in consequence defeated and slain. A chaplain of English extraction had been left in charge of the relics, and lie, on learning of the 251 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages Count's death, hurried from Constantinople, with the sacred treasures. He came to England with his spoil and commenced business at St. Albans Abbey by selling to the monks some jewelled crosses and images of St. Margaret, but he failed to induce them to purchase the piece of the true Cross. After offer ing the relic to several wealthy monasteries without disposing of it, the chaplain came at length to the poor chapel of Bromholm. " There he sent for the Prior and some of his brethren, and showed them the above-mentioned Cross, which was constructed of two pieces of wood, placed one across the other, and almost as wide as the hand of a man ; he then humbly implored them to receive him into their order with the cross and the other relics which he had with him, as well as his two children." The chaplain was admitted into the monastery, and before long miracles began to work by the aid of the holy wood, when the dead were restored to life, the blind received sight, the lame walked, the lepers were made clean, and devils were exorcised. The arm of St. Philip at Castle Acre was by no means the only spurious relic to be seen in Norfolk, for at Winfarthing, near the Suffolk border, the monks exhibited the " good sword of Winfarthing," a relic invaluable for the recovery of lost property, stolen or strayed horses, while perhaps its great popu larity was due to the power it was said to have possessed of shortening the lives of refractory husbands. To invoke its aid for this purpose the impatient helpmate was required to enter the church on every Sunday throughout the year and set up a lighted candle before the relic, which is supposed to have been originally the sword of a robber who took sanctuary in the churchyard. It was laid up in 252 Norfolk Shrines the church for years, when the clergy, being hard- pressed for a relic, bethought them of the old sword, ¦which they proclaimed a relic, and made a hand some revenue out of it. ' A writer of the Georgian era, referring to this relic, said, somewhat unkindly : " What pilgrimages would be made in the days of modern gallantry, was the sword of Winfarthing now in existence." 253 CHAPTER XIII THE LEGEND OF WINCHCOMBE AND THE BLOOD OF HAYLES Situated on the picturesque Clent Hills, not far from the busy city of Birmingham, is a very small but highly interesting church dedicated to God I in honour of St. Kenelm (a.d. 820), one of some j half-dozen churches in Britain so dedicated. According to legendary lore, St. Kenelm was a king, sub-regulus, or chieftain of Mercia, when Winchcombe in Gloucestershire was the head town of that kingdom. Kenelm being but a boy when he came into his inheritance, an elder sister, Quendrede, became his guardian. The princess being ambitious and in love, was desirous of possessing her brother's kingdom, and the little Kenelm was removed from Winchcombe to a royal hunting lodge on the Clent Hills, where he was slain while hunting with his sister's betrothed, who buried the body at a lonely spot and placed a large stone over it. The extraordinary part of the legend is to the effect that on a certain day in Rome, when the Pope was celebrating Mass before the High Altar of St. Peter's, a dove flew into the great basilica, bearing 254 Winchcombe and the Blood of Hayles in its beak a scroll of parchment on which was inscribed : — "In Clent, in Cowbage, Kenelme Kyngborn, Lyeth under a thorn, his hede of shorn." * Puzzled by this strange message, delivered in so unusual a way, the Pope, making inquiries, and find ing that Kenelm was a member of one of the regal houses of Britain, dispatched messengers with in structions to solve the problem. The scene now shifts again to Clent and an old woman whose herd of cows fed on the hills there. It appears that one of the herd, a white cow, always went to a certain spot near a large stone and there remained, eating nothing but daily growing fatter and sleeker than the rest of the cattle. This unusual circumstance being reported to the papal emissaries, they followed the animal to the stone, which, on being removed, disclosed the remains of the murdered Kenelm and the sword with which he had been slain. Fromj beneath the stone a spring of water gushed forth, j and both spring and stone may be seen on the Clent Hills to-day. It was highly improbable that such valuable relics authenticated by the papal messengers would remain long without claimants, and two parties of monks, one from Winchcombe the other from Gloucester, set out in haste from their respective convents to claim the body. Unfortunately, both parties arrived on the scene at the same moment, with the result that a violent dispute arose as to which monastery the relics should adorn. The wrangling continued until the 1 There are several versions. Mr. J. C." Wall, in " Shrines of the British Saints," gives : "In Clento cou bathe Kenelm, Kynebearn lith under thorne havedes bereaved." 255 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages evening, when one of the monks proposed that they should all lie down for the night, and those who awoke first in the morning should have the body. The suggestion was agreed to, when it doubtless became a trial as to who could remain awake until daylight appeared, and we may be sure that not one of the company closed his eyes until overcome by fatigue. Be this as it may, when morning came the Winchcombe men had disappeared with the booty. Thereupon the Gloucester contingent started off in pursuit, to be perceived by the victors of the night's vigil as, exhausted by the heat of the day, they toiled up a hill with their burden. At last, when their strength was nearly spent and their pursuers close at hand, the Abbot thrust his staff into the earth, when water immediately gushed forth for the re<- freshment of his weary monks, who, having quenched their thirst, renewed their journey, and reached their destination in safety. Kenelm's wicked sister, Quendrede, learning that the bells were pealing because the remains of her brother were being brought by a party of monks into Winchcombe, took up a service book and began to read the prayers backwards, but as the proces sion passed her dwelling both her eyes fell from their sockets on to the pages of her book. The remains of Kenelm were buried beside those of his father, King Kenulf, in Winchcombe Church, and his tomb was visited by an immense number of pilgrims until the Reformation, as also were the church dedicated to him at Clent and the well beside it. The story is, to a certain extent, supported by the evidence of the tombs, which, when opened in 1815, revealed two stone coffins, within the smaller 256 Winchcombe and the Blood of Hayles of which was the skeleton of a boy and the rusted l remains of an iron sword, the instrument of j martyrdom. > Mr. J. C. Wall writes : "The relics of the saint and the dust of the king were thrown to the ground ; the shrine and the coffin were afterwards sold and placed in the grounds of Warmington Grange." Be this as it may, two stone coffins may be seen to-day in Winchcombe Church, with an inscription placed over them setting forth the main incidents of the legend. If the original coffin of St. Kenelm was re moved to Warmington Grange in 1 8 1 5, it would be interesting to know when and by whom it was replaced in the church. The once famous abbey of Winchcombe was entirely destroyed at the Dissolu tion, although a few memories of its old-time activities still cling to the place. The " George " is one of those ancient pilgrims' inns which abounded in the vicinity of shrines. The initials R.K., still to be seen on the building, are those of Richard Kyder- minster, abbot in the days of the seventh Henry. It is an interesting old building with a galleried yard, the view from the far end of which is one of great charm. Within the church vestry is a memorial in the shape of a door, once abbey property and marked with the same initials as those on the inn. This has been recently rescued from a neighbouring farm house. There are many other treasures in the vestry — old chalices and flagons — to describe which would take us far beyond the limits set for this volume. The church has an aisled nave of eight bays, with octagonal shafts and depressed arches. East of the choir is a presbytery, with triple sedilia on the south side, and farther east is a lady chapel, or reliquary, having no connection with the church except by a (257 * R Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages narrow doorway. Until 1872, when the church was " restored " by that terrible vandal Wyatt, the altar stood centrally, with seats for the communicants on the south, east, and north sides respectively. The same arrangement existed at Deerhurst, and still exists in Jersey, and at Lyddington, Rutlandshire, among a few other places. While at Winchcombe the devotional pilgrim of >;the Middle Ages would not fail to make his way ;vto the Cjstercjan^Abbey of Hayjes, some two or three ^miles__piL- famed for~rt^~feIicof the Holy Blooid. Mr. St. Clair Baddeley, in his very interesting paper on " The Holy Blood of Hayles," tells us that " relics known by the title of Sanguis Christi, other wise ' drops of the Holy Blood,' belonged to several categories. They sometimes derived from the blood shejLaJuXIalyary — from hands, feet, or, side of the Christ ; sometimes from the blood issuing from His forehead, wounded by the crown of thorns ; others still (as was the case with the Lateran relic) derived from the occasion of the circumcision ; still others (and these were not uncommon in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries) derived from crucifixes which had been struck, or had accidentally fallen ; or from ' Hosts ' which had either been called in question or had been profaned by impious hands, and had bled." With the latter type of relics we are not much con cerned ; but the former class, those purporting to be genuine drops of our Lord's blood, have a common history, in that they all claimed to be drops of the blood contained in a vase, enclosed in a leaden chest inscribed Jesu Christi Sanguis, which was dis covered at Mantua, in 804. The tradition concerning the Holy Blood of Hayles is, as told by the authority above quoted, to the effect that : " It came to Europe, "258 Gallery ^°f the PilGriHis Inn Winchcombe Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages into the possession of William lE^Count of Holland, Zealand,- -and Friesland, authenticated by £Ke~seal and guarantee of Jacques Pantaleon, Patriarch of Jeru salem 1255-61, afterwards Pope, as Urban IV. As this pontiff was both a Cistercian and the Institutor of the great festival of Corpus Domini, the monastery of Hayles at a later day no doubt considered its relic to be above all question. He died in 1264. Three years later we find Edmund, son of Richard. Earl qf_ConiH£aJlJ the Founder, of Hayles, purchasing the relic from Elorenz V.. Count of Holland, and Taking it back to England with him." Only one-third of the Holy Blood was given to Hayles, the remainder was kept until 1297, when it was presented to the Augustinian House of Bons- hommes at Ashridge, Bucks, which had been founded in 1283. The Blood of Hayles was deposited in its shrine with great ceremony, and placed in charge of a custodian, or Altararius, whose duty it was to display it to the pilgrims and to collect their fees. Richard, Earl of Cornwall, and the founder of Hayles Abbey, was a brother of Henry III., and he held the title of King of the Romans from the year 1257, and married Sanchia of Provence, a sister of Eleanor, the queen of Henry III. Edmund, the purchaser of the Holy Blood, was their second son, born at Berkhampstead on December 26, 1250. When he died, at Ashridge, in 1300, his body was taken to Hayles for burial. The abbey was founded in 1246, and dedicated on November 5, 125 1, in the presence of Henry III., Eleanor, and a vast company of nobles and eccle siastics. The church, consumed by fire in 1271, was rebuilt by Richard, the original founder. By the middle of the fifteenth century the buildings Were 260 Winchcombe and the Blood of Hayles in a bad state of repair, until the popes came to the" rescue by granting indulgences (see Chap. XV.), the sales of which must have been enormous, as with this " pardon " money the monks repaired their church, rebuilt the cloisters, and paved the Chapter House with tiles. On December 24, 1539, the abbey and the whole of its possessions were surrendered by Stephen Sagar, its last abbot, who, together with his twenty-one monks, were pensioned out of the revenue, which was returned at £330 2s. 2d. The Commissioners, headed by Bishop Hugh Latimer, issued their certificate, in which they stated, among other things, that the supposed relic was en closed within a round beryl, garnished and bound on every side with silver. They also stated that the contents of the phial proved to be an unctuous gum coloured a glistening red resembling somewhat the colour of blood, " and after we did take our part of the said substance and matter out of the glass then it was apparent glistening yellow colour, like amber, or base gold, as doth cleave to as gum;, or bird-lime." On November 24, 1539, one month before the abbey was formally surrendered, the Holy Blood of Hayles, that had brought such fame and wealth to this secluded corner of Gloucestershire, was publicly destroyed at Paul's Cross by John Hilsey, Bishop of Rochester, who declared it " to be no blood, but honey clarified and coloured with saffron." As Mr. St. Clair Baddeley says : " This statement seems to give the lie to the calumnious affirmations which had been sown broadcast, describing it as the blood of a duck . . . which were repeated by Fuller, Burnet, Herbert, and others who followed Holinshed, Fox, and other writers, all of whom derived from 261 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages the testimony of William Thomas, Clerk of the Council to Edward VI." Whatever it may have been composed of it is generally agreed that the relic was not that which it professed to be, so that whether it was a concoction of duck's blood or clarified honey is a question of little moment. In 1899 investigations were commenced on the site of the Abbey of St. Mary, at Hayles, under the auspices of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, and in the summer of the following year the cloister walks and their adjacent :2j6j2 Winchcombe and the Blood of Hayles walls were cleared of rubbish, and the falling arches supported with dry masonry. The Chapter House and Sacristy were excavated, and the church located. In the Chapter House six beautiful bosses of thir teenth-century date were found, and six others bearing the arms of Huddleston, Compton, Percy, and Evesham Abbey were discovered in the cloister walk. Other things brought to light were some sixteenth-century tiles, and fragments of stained glass, pottery, and ironwork, all of which have been deposited in a small museum within the grounds. The excavation of the presbytery revealed some frag ments of a stone effigy in chain mail, which have been conjectured to be portions of the effigy that surmounted the tomb commemorating Edmund, Earl of Cornwall. Miss Ida M. Roper, F.L.S., the author of some valuable monographs on " Monumental Effigies," writes : " The pieces consist of a portion of an arm in mail showing the relieving strap at the wrist, a hand grasping the hilt of a sword, and a portion of the thigh, also in mail, the rings carved in the stone." The uncovering of the foundations proved the church to have been about 320 feet in length, or, as figures convey little meaning except to the pro fessional architect, as long as Gloucester Cathedral without its Lady Chapel. The exposure of the eastern limb of the church, always the most important part of such buildings, proved the plan to have been what architects call periapsidal ; that is, the apsidal termination had polygonal chapels (at Hayles five in number) and semicircular ambulatories, an arrangement very popular with those greater churches where provision had to be made for a processional path or ambulatory round a high altar, 263 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages presbytery, or shrine. At Hayles the eastern limb of the church would have the shrine of the Holy Blood as its base centre. Mr. Francis Bond, writing without particular reference to Hayles, tells us that " the one great advantage of the plan, which led our builders to prefer it to the plan in vogue in the mother- churches in Normandy, probably was that it fulfilled the requirements of processional ritual. It enabled a procession to pass right round the high altar with out entering the sacred enclosure of the presbytery." For pilgrimage churches the plan was equally con venient, and there is little doubt that the plan originated in the pilgrim churches of the Continent about the end of the ninth century. The plan would not only provide ready access to the eastern chapels, but it allowed the pilgrims to circulate round the whole of the eastern end of the church, without re tracing their steps to the inconvenience of their companions. The Holy Blood of Hayles naturally calls to mind a similar relic to be seen at the present day (among other places on the Continent) in the beautiful chapel of Saint Sang, or Holy Blood, at Bruges, that most interesting of Belgium's ancient towns. The building is two-storied, the lower one forming the church founded by Thierry d'Alsace and Sibylle d'Anjou, in 1148, and consecrated to the honour and glory of God and of His servant St- Basil, in 11 50. The upper church was rebuilt in the fifteenth century. The Holy Blood had been given to Thierry d'Alsace by the Patriarch of Jeru salem, in consideration of the valour he had shown in the second Crusade. It was taken to Bruges in a glass bottle by its recipient and his friend Leonius, Abbot of St. Bertin, and placed in a rich reliquary in the chapel, to which four chaplains were appointed. 264 Winchcombe and the Blood of Hayles Every Friday up to 1325 the blood liquefied in a similar manner to that of St. Januarius at Naples ; but after this date the miracle ceased for a time, until the phial was placed in a new reliquary by the Bishop of Ancona in 1388, when the miracle began to work again. The original chdsse was stolen by Gueux in 1570, and the one now to be seen was made at the commencement of the seventeenth century by a noted goldsmith of Bruges, who bore the English name of John Crabbe. It is a beautiful piece of silver-gilt work, loaded with precious stones and medallions. At Bruges, also, in the Hospital of St. John, is a singularly beautiful reliquary, the panels of which, painted by Memling, illustrate the legend of St. Ursula. 20 = CHAPTER XIV NOTES ON SHRINES OF BRITISH SAINTS With the lives of the early British saints and the traditions which have gathered about them we are not much concerned, although there is a fascination about saintly legends and traditions, even if they are unsupported by evidence. At the same time, to dismiss many of the legends as myths presents more difficulties than to accept the idea that the majority of them contain a certain amount of truth. The shrines and tombs, the churches and chapels connected with the saints of old are very numerous in the British Isles, so numerous that it is not possible in this chapter to attempt more than a brief refer ence to a few of the more prominent saintly shrines or royal tombs to which pilgrimages were made. Historically considered, any account of English shrines should commence with that of St. Alban^ the proto -martyr of Britain; but our present purpose will be served best if the subject is treated in the nature of a cathedral tour, beginning in the far west at the lonely little city of St. David's. Here, on a promontory of Wales, jutting far out into St. George's Channel, stands the vejoetable cathedral ofjhe_^eat_W^kh_saint. On the summit of a cliff overlooking the sea are the ruins of a 266 ^~ Shrines of British Saints little chapel that marks the reputed birthplace of StT David, and where " St. NonT"WeII7ra~ spring that bubbled up in answer to her prayer, may still be seen. St. David studied at Llanwit Major, and after his ordination lived with Paulinus, Abbot -bishop of Ty Gwyn, for about ten years, after which time he built a hermitage for himself in the Vale of Ewias, where the ruins of Llanthony Priory now stand. After the lapse of several years he returned to his native place, and founded a monastery on the site of the present., cathedral. He was formally canonised by Pope Callixtus in the twelfth century, although for many years previously his shrine had been an object of veneration. In course of time St. David was accounted the patron saint of Wales. Part of the shrine remains in the cathedral, where it occupies the space between two piers in the presby tery. A low seat for the pilgrims is supported on three pointed arches, in the spandrils of which are deeply-cut quatrefoils, the two middle ones being pierced through the stonework into the aumbries at the back_jof~th'e^shriae--ior-..ti]je_-reception of offer- ings. Three blind arches above the seat a,re sur mounted by crocketed moulding, terminating in head corbels, now much mutilated. At the back of the shrine, which is very plain, are two square and three round-headed aumbries. The relics of the saint were placed in a portable reliquary, and a niche behind the altar is considered to be the .pVce^where the reliquary was kept after its periodical exhibition to the pilgrims . The Rev. Hermitage Day says : " When the niche was opened a few years ago there were found in it some human bones, which had been embedded in a mass of mortar, perhaps to prevent a worse desecration. St. David's relics may 267 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages yet rest in the cathedral, in a spot unmarked and known only to a few." So great was the fame of St. David's shrine that the saying arose, Roma semel quantum, dot bis Menevia tantum, expressing the popular belief that two pilgrimages to St. David's were equivalent to one made to Rome. Another Welsh cathedral with saintly relics was that of Llandaff, where the objects of pilgrimage were the sKrines or tombs of Saint Dubricius, the founder of the see, and Saint Teilo^ his successor. The tomb of the latter saintwas held in such venera tion that solemn oaths were taken upon it, even as late as the seventeenth century. The tomb is now in an arched recess, with the effigy of a bishop (in vestments and with a mitre) of the early Decorated period lying upon it. From Llandaff to .Hereford is not a far cry ; and in this latter cathedral were two shrines of such importance that pilgrims were attracted from all parts of the country to see the relics. The first event to bring the cathedral into pro minence as a place of pilgrimage was the murder of Ethelbert, King of the East Angles, by Offa, King of Mercia. Ethelbert had been invited to Offa's palace, near Hereford, as the suitor of the latter's daughter Alfrida, but was foully murdered, at the instigation, it is said, of Offa's wife. Various reasons have been assigned for the deed, among them that Queen Quenrida wished to become possessed of East Anglia in addition to Mercia. The legend is to the effect that on the night of the burial a column of light rose towards the sky, brighter than the sun ; and three nights afterwards the murdered king appeared to his friend Brithfrid and asked him to 268 Niche atbttKofHievh HI tar where tne tefiy vers Hep t. fn/*ej ffutb^. Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages remove his body ta the monastery near Hereford. Other miraculous events happening1, Offa sent two bishops to ascertain the facts, and then, possibly repenting of his deed, caused an elaborate monument JLo_be erected over Ethelbert 's tomb, and presented gifts to the church, whicn became known as the Church of Saints Mary and Ethelbert. Ethelstan IL, Bishop of Hereford from 1012 to 1056, had a magni ficent shrine made for the relics, but in 1055, during an invasion of the Welsh, the church was so com pletely destroyed by fire that only a tooth of St. Ethelbert is said to have been preserved. With the rebuilding of the cathedral another shrine was erected, to which pilgrims continued to flock until the Reformation. The destruction of the original shrine was a source of great trouble to the monks, who feared that pilgrims would pay their devotions elsewhere ; but the situation was saved by the timely advent of another saint, Thongs df Oantilupe, Bishop of Hereford from 1275 to 1282. During his epis copate he went to Rome to appeal against a decree issued by the Archbishop of Canterbury which he considered unjust. On the way to Rome he died of fever, and Richard Swinfield, his chaplain, being deputed to bring home his bones, boiled the deceased bishop, and returned with his heart and his bones, the former being given to the College of Bons- hommes at Ashridge, the latter deposited in the Lady Chapel at Hereford. With the bones enshrined, miracles soon began to work by their aid, and over three hundred afflicted persons are said to have been healed at the tomb, with the result that the shrine of St. Thomas became one of the most popular in the West of England. In cases of sickness it was customary for an offer- 270 CaHftiope Shrine. Hereford fl h^J^f To face p, 270, Shrines of British Saints ing of wax to take the form either of a taper corre sponding to the length of the donor, or a quantity equal to his weight, and this form of offering appears to have been used whether the saintly benefits were asked for human or bestial beings. We are told that Edward I., hearing of the great healing virtue of the shrine, caused a model in wax to be made of his favourite falcon, which was ailing, and sent it, with a valuable offering, to the shrine. The relics were translated several times, and part of the shrine remains in the north transept of the cathedral. It consists of the base which supported the reliquary. It is an elaborate piece of work in Purbeck marble, and is in two parts, the lower in the form of an oblong tomb, with fourteen figures of Knights Templars, of which Order St. Thomas was Pro vincial Grand Master. On its surface is the matrix of a brass. The upper portion consists of an oblong slab, supported on an open arcade. From Hereford we pass to Gloucestershire, famed for. the :. Holy„Blbod_ of Hayles^ the tomb of St. Kenelm, at Winchcombe, and in the Cathedral of St. Peter at Gloucester that of Edward II. Before the murder of this monarch Gloucester was in the same position as Canterbury previous to the martyr dom of Becket. There were no popular shrines and consequently no funds for the beautifying of the cathedral. In 1327 the deed that deprived England of a king was to bring to Gloucester wealth undreamed of by the monks and abbot. After Edward's escape into Wales he was recaptured by the Queen's party and imprisoned. In the spring of 1327 he was removed by night to Berkeley Castle, where he was at first well treated by his custodian, Lord Berkeley, who, on that account, was ordered "271 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages Ssto give up the keys of the castle, which he raid with a heavy heart, fearing that violence was intended towards the King. After Berkeley's re moval Edward was subjected to horrible tortures, and his shrieks of despair are said to have been heard by the villagers. He is said to have " ended his life with a lamentable loud cry heard by many both of the towne and the castle." The news of his death soon spread abroad, but the neigh bouring religious houses of Malmesbury, and Kings- wood, in Gloucestershire, and of St. Augustine, in Bristol, refused to receive the body for burial, fearing the vengeance of Isabella, his widow, the " she-wolf of France." Abbot Thokey of Gloucester saw his opportunity, and begged the body of Edward for interment, and, his request having been granted, the royal remains were conveyed to the monastery and buried with all the rites of the Church. With the fall of Queen Isabella and the acces sion of Edward III. one of the first acts of the new King was to_. raise a stately tomb over the resting-place of his predecessor. Then a reaction set in, and all England wended its way to Gloucester to pay their devotions at the tomb of the murdered Edward and to honour the brave old abbot who had given him burial. Dean Spence writes : " It was a strange cult this of the murdered sovereign, and one hard to explain. It seems as though men in England felt that a curse lay on them, and on their homes and hearths, owing! to their having suffered the Lord's anointed to be cruelly done to death in their midst. So thousands came and prayed at the dead King's shrine. Their offerings enriched the abbey coffers. Soon there was wealth enough to have rebuilt the whole church from its very founda- 272 Shrines of British Saints tions. At all events, the desire of the monks to adorn their ancient house with new work could now be gratified." Pilgrims came in such numbers that' the " New Jnn " is said to have been erected specially for their accommodation. The monument, with its effigy and beautiful canopy, may still be seen in the cathedral choir. The figure js.o£ alabaster, and it has been fre quently stated that the face was modelled from a death mask of the monarch. This was not the opinion of the late Mr. Albert Hartshome, a very great authority on monumental sculpture, who wrote : " It appears to be a conventional bearded statue, with regal attributes, but bearing a certain general resemblance to the original. ... It is highly im probable that a cast, for the use of a sculptor, was taken of the royal face . . . and the circumstances Of the revolting crime were specially unfavourable to such a departure from the usual conventional practice of sculptors of that period." The canopy of the tomb is of Decorated work that terminates aloft in delicate pinnacles . By the time sufficient offerings had been made to complete the building Abbot Thokey was a very old man, and on his resignation, in 1329, John Wygmore was appointed abbot. He it was who began the great architectural changes that gave Gloucester the honour of forming the cradle of the Perpendjculax _style, which was a little later to be carried to such perfec tion by Bishop Edington and William of Wyke- ham, his successor in the see of Winchester. The not far distant cathedral of Worcester was fortunate enough to possess" four "Bishops., who were thought worthy of canonisation-=§tT Egwin, St. Oswald, St. Dunstan, and St. Wulstan, the shrines 273 S Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages of two of whom were erected in the cathedral. St. Oswald, who succeeded St. Dunstan in the bishopric, built the first cathedral, in the Saxon style, of which no portion remains, with the exception, perhaps, of part of the wall of the prior's passage leading into the eastern cloister. In 1084 Bishop Wulstan began to build his Norman cathedral, of which the greater part was destroyed by fire. During Bishop Sylvester's episcopate another cathedral was erected, and at the time of its con secration, in 12 1 8, the relics of St. Wulstan were enclosed in a new shrine, the ceremony being attended by Henry III. and William Trumpington, Abbot of St. Albans. On the return of the latter to his abbey he took with him a rib of St. Wulstan, which he enclosed in a shrine and placed it over an altar dedicated in honour of the saint. Many pilgrimages were made to the relics of St. Wulstan, who died in 1095, and was canonised eight years later. William II. enriched the shrine with fine gold and silver work, and King John was a frequent visitor to it. So highly did the latter King esteem this shrine and that of St. Oswald that on his death bed he expressed the wish that he should be buried between their respective shrines, and that they, together with the cowl which was to be placed upon his head, would ensure for him an easier passage through purgatory. After his conquest of Wales, Edward I. made a special pilgrimage to St. Wulstan's shrine, where he gave thanks for his victory. Prince Louis of France levied a tribute of three hundred marks on the monastery, to meet which the monks, in 1 216, were compelled to melt down the gold and silver trappings of the shrine. Near the Chapter House at Worcester are the 274 Shrines of British Saints beautiful remains of the Guesten Hall, built in 1320 by theprior for thereceprion of Jhe, noMe._aBd' w^ltTiy^pngrirns" Another famous Worcestershire t pilgrimage -place was Eveshagi, with its shrine, .of. .Sl^Egaan, and later that of Simon -de — Montfort. St. .Egwin is said to nave made a pilgrimage to Rome with his feet fettered, and in the Tiber he found the key which he had thrown into the Avon before starting on his journey, and was thus able to free himself from the fetters. He was the founder of Evesham Abbey, the site of which was determined by the vision of the swineherd Eoves, to whom the Virgin appeared while he was tending his swine, and pointed out the spot where the intended abbey should be erected, all of which is depicted on the old monastic seal of Evesham Abbey, of which St. Egwin became first Abbot, and who bore for his conventual arms a chain and horse block in chevron between three mitres, in allusion to his pilgrimage. In 1265 the great Battle of Evesham was fought, and resulted in the defeat and death of Simon de Montfort. An old writer has called this battle " the Murther of Evesham," and after de Montfort's death. one of the Royalist leaders ordered the earl's body to be dismembered and his limbs dispersed, his hands being cut off and sent, still in their bloody bandages, to his wife, who had followed the fortunes of the fight from the abbey walls. The monks of Evesham took up de Montfort's cause, proclaimed him saint arid martyr, and took portions of his body into the abbey and laid them before the high altar, when miracles began to work, both here and at the little spring of water on the hillside that spouted out on the spot where de Montfort is said to have fallen. 275 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages Again to quote Dean Spence : " The enormous popu larity of de Montfort among the people is abun dantly testified by the remains which we still possess of the folklore of that period- ... He was especially the people's loved hero, and their love endured beyond the death of their champion. He was even invoked and received a kind of worship from his countrymen, who came in numbers to the tomb in the abbey, and kneeling, there prayed their passionate prayers to their dead patron saint." A well-known saint was Frideswide, the first builder of Christ Church, Oxford ' (729), where she was laid to rest. The church was partly burned down during the massacre of St. Brice's Day in 1002 ; but the tomb of the saint appears to have been unharmed, for on Ethelred rebuilding the church about two years later, he placed the shrine in the centre instead of on the south side as previously. In 1 180 the relics were translated to another place with great pomp and ceremony, and many miracles are recorded. On two other occasions the relics were translated, each time to a richer and more splendid shrine, to which Henry III. and Edward I. made pilgrimages ; and shortly before its destruction it was visited by Catherine of Arragon. Although the reliquary has vanished, portions of the marble shrine were discovered recently among the stones forming the lining of a well near the western end of the cathedral. A length of plinth, containing two quatre- foils and two queens' heads, was found doing duty as a step, and another portion of the shrine was discovered in a wall of an adjoining cemetery. The workmanship is of the early, Decorated period, the ' The present cathedral. '276 Shrines of British Saints spandrils being filled with delicately-carved foliage. As far as possible the shrine has been rebuilt, the missing portions filled for the present with blue stone, pending the discovery of further fragments. The actual relics were said to have been pre served up to the Reformation, and are now thought to lie with other bones beneath the pavement of the lady chapel. To_St. Alban belongs the honour lof being the proto- martyr of Britain, and one of the most remark able facts connected with him is that he had only just Jaecome a convert to Christianity when his martyrdom took glace. His home was in the Roman city of Verulam^ which was proud in later days to become known as St. Albans in honour of the saint. During the Diocletian persecution a priest named Amphibalus, of Caerleon, fled to St. Alban for shelter. At this time St. Alban was not a Christian, but he protected the fugitive, and noticing the hours the priest spent in prayer and devotion, made in quiries of him which led to his being instructed in the new faith, and in a short time St. Alban embraced Christianity. He was soon denounced as a protector of Christians, and soldiers were sent to search his house, but this having become known to St. Alban, he gave Amphibalus his clothes, and sent him out in safety through a secret door. Then, robing himself in the other's vestments, he awaited the soldiers, who took him before the judge. His disguise was soon penetrated, and the enraged official ordered him to do sacrifice at once to prove himself a true worshipper of the gods. On his refusal to sacrifice or to disclose the whereabouts of Amphi balus he was ordered to be scourged, a punishment endured so patiently that he was then condemned '277 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages to death. He was taken to the top of a hill over looking the city, when, owing to a miracle, the soldier who had been appointed executioner refused to do the deed, and he was also put to death with St. Alban, in 303. Many legends grew up around the name of the saint, one to the effect that the night after his burial a clear stream of light came down from heaven and rested upon his sepulchre. An'gels hoverftd— round- the light, sing ing, among other songs, " Alban, the glorious man, is a noble martyr of Jesus Christ." Many people beholding' this heavenly vision were turned from their heathen gods and became Christians. Tradition says that Amphibalus was found in Wales, whence he was brought to Redbourne, near Verulam, and sub jected to horrible tortures. On the spot where St. Alban was martyred a chapel was built, to be destroyed during an invasion of the Danes in the sixth century. Towards the end of the eighth century King Offa of Mercia. founded a monastery on the site, urged thereto, it issairlplSy- a vision, and St.^Alban's relics, which had been concealed for safety, were suitably enshrined. The fourteenth abbot, Paul of Caen, built a fine Norman church, using Roman bricks from Verulam for the edifice. The monastery of St. Albans soon became thg m^st jrnpnrfanf Bene dictine house in England. Throngs of pilgrims visited the shrine of the saint, which had several royal benefactors. To this shrine Henry III. made a pilgrimage, and presented a valuable bracelet, rings, and embroidered palls. Edward I. gave an image of silver-gilt, Edward III. valuable jewels, and Richard III. a necklace of precious stones for the 278 Shrines of British Saints image of the Virgin, that stood on the west end of the shrine, which was several times despoiled of its treasure, twice to relieve the poor after famines, and a third time for the purchase of the manor of Brentfield. Yet after each succeeding dismantling the shrine arose in more magnificence than before. In 1302-8 Abbot John rebuilt the whole structure on which the reliquary rested, and this remained until it was so thoroughly pulled down at the Dissolu tion that all traces of it were thought to have vanished. During a slight alteration of the chureh, however, in 1847, some beautifully worked fragments of Purbeck marble were found built into the walls, and when, several years later, still more fragments were discovered, over two thousand in all, they were pieced together and the shrine was re-erected in its old position eastward of the High Altar and westward of the retro -choir. The lower part of the pedestal consists of quatrefoil panels, and above these are twelve canopied niches, the backs filled in with thin plates of clunch, on which are still visible the three lions of England and the fleurs-de-lis of France, emblazoned in vermilion, blue, and gold. Scenes from the martyrdom of St. Alha.n_-are^^culplured around tEe~ pediment, which is further ornamented with statues of kings, prelates, and angels censing. The whole is capped with a richly sculptured cornice. Originally the shrine was surrounded by fourteen slender square shafts, and three cable -pattern shafts on each side for holding tapers. Fragments of these shafts have been found, and when more of them have been unearthed it is possible that the restora tion of one of the most beautiful pieces of fourteenth- century work in the country will be completed. Dean Farrar wrote : " The numerous pilgrims to 279 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages the abbey probably aD.prQacheoLthe shrine by the wax Jacmse. .gale., (now an archway leading from the town), where tapers could be obtained for offering at_the shrine. Then they must have entered by the north-transept door, and would see in front of them the^J^k_oLJ^^r^^ These, as we may judge by the places cut to receive them, must have been about twenty feet high, and have effec tually prevented the public in either transept from intruding into the presbytery or monks' choir." To the north of the shrine is the watching- gallery, occupying the space between two piers. It is of two stories, where the monks kept watch and ward lest any thief should attempt to rob them of their treasures. Some cajierL^gujres on the gallery represent a variety of subjects, including a woman milking a cow, a man mowing barley, a cat with a rat in her mouth, and many others. John Lydgate, the " Monk of Bury," wrote for Whetamstede, Abbot of St. Albans, the Latin legend of St. Alban about the year 1430, and was paid for translating, writing, and illuminating it a hundred shillings (in present value about £70). The book, when finished, was placed upon the altar of the saint. Just to the north of the watching-gallery of St. Alban is the shrine of St. Amphibalus, this also restored from fragments found in the walls. Around the base are some curiously carved stones, on one of which appears part of the name of Amphibalus. Surmounting the base is an open arcade and above the whole a deep cornice. The only real survival we have of an old English shrine is that of F.dward trip Cnnfp^sm- at West minster. This, although much mutilated when it was 280 Shrines of British Saints robbed of its valuables by Henry VIII.'s commis sioners, was restored during Mary's reign. The Shrine of <£f Jfmpftibalws §; Confessor died on January 5, 1065-6, and was buried before the High Altar of the church which 281 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages he had himself erected. Long before his canonisa tion by the Pope, in 1161, he had been hailed as a saint by the people, not only on account of his peculiar sanctity but also in consequence of the wonderful anixacles that took place before his tomb. William I . paid his devotions, and gave rich offerings to the shrine. He also rebuilt the tomb in a sumptuous manner, owing, it1 is said, to the miracle of St. Wulstan's staff. This prelate, having been commanded to resign his bishopric by William, laid his pastoral staff on the tomb of St. Edward, who had appointed him to the see ; but no one was able to take it up again but St. Wulstan himself. The remains of the Confessor were afterwards translated by Archbishop Becket to a magnificent shrine prepared by Henry II. Mr. J. C. Wall1 writes : — j | " In a manuscript Life of St. Edward in the University Library, Cambridge, is a representa tion of the translation. Archbishop Thomas and King Henry themselves lifted the body from the old to the new tomb, assisted by the Abbot of West minster and other prelates, the monks of St. Peter's holding aloft the lid of the feretory. This picture shows the decoration of the sides arid roof, the shape of the ends and finials, and the top -cresting of the feretory, which stands on a stone base draped with embroidered hangings. " Another illustration gives the elevation of one of the ends of the feretory. Here a number of pilgrims are venerating the relics, while one of them creeps through an aperture in the base . . . hoping thereby to receive relief from some infirmity." 1 "Shrines of British Saints." 282 Shrines of British Saints The translation of St. Edward's body .took place in 1 1 63, twq_jrears after his -canonisation ; yet, according to monkish historians, his body was jtill entire and uncorrupted and his vestments undecayed, a fact which still further enhanced the sanctity of the saint, and his tomb became more venerated by pilgrims. When the choir and eastern part of the abbey church had been completed sufficiently by Henry III. for Divine service, this King gave orders for the re- translation of the body of St. Edward into the new shrine which he had prepared for it in a special chapel behind the High Altar. The anniversary of the translation, October 13, 1269, was celebrated for nearly three centuries afterwards. On St. Edward's Day the citizens of London, in their corporate capacity, used to visit the shrine, and grand processions, with lighted tapers, were made to it by all the religious communities of the city. Frequently the presence of the reigning sovereign and his Court gave an additional splendour to the festival. In 1390 Richard IL, who had adopted St. Edward the Confessor as his patron saint, and his Queen sat crowned in the abbey, while Mass was celebrated at the anniversary. At the three great festivals of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide the shrine of St. Edward was visited by immense crowds of pilgrims of all ranks and of all ages ; the prince, the noble and the peasant flocked thither with their offerings. Here on March 20, 141 3, on the eve of his departure for the Holy Land, Henry IV., while per forming his devotion to this saint, was seized with the sudden illness from which he never recovered. The shrine of St. Edward the Confessor became 283 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages onejpf the wealthiest in the kingdom. At Henry III. 's marriage with Eleanor, in 1236, he caused an image of his Queen to be made for the adornment of the shrine, and he also presented a golden vessel con taining the heart of his nephew Henry. At this shrine Edward I. offered the Scottish crown and sceptre, and the Stone of Destiny from Scone. The same monarch also gave a piece of the True Cross, set in gold and precious stones. At his coronation Edward II. gave sufficient gold for the making of two figures to decorate the shrine, one of St. John, the other of St. Edward. The choice of the figures to be fashioned rested on the allusion to the old legend which stated that one day Edward the Con fessor was asked for alms by an aged beggar. Having nothing with him in the way of coin, and unwilling to send the old man away unsatisfied, he took the rings from his finger and gave them to the_ beggar, who was really St. John in disguise, and who eventually returned the rings by two pilgrims and revealed his identity. Henry VII. had an image of himself made in a kneeling attitude, covered with gold plates and enamelled, placed upon the top of the shrine. The shrine stands to-day in the Chapel of the Confessor, where it was placed by Henry III., and although the lapse of centuries has deprived it of its brilliant colouring and gilding, yet it remains still a splendid example of the work of Peter of Rome, whom Henry employed, together with one Oderic, of the same city, to erect a fitting shrine for the relics of the great St. Edward. An inscription around the cornice was plastered over by Abbot Feckenham at the Marian restora tion, but this has fallen away in places, leaving a 284 Shrines of British Saints few words exposed. The inscription has been trans lated thus by Rapius : — " In the year of our Lord 1270, this work was finished by Peter a Roman citizen. Reader, if thou wilt know how it was done ; it was because Henry was the present saint's friend." The lower part of the shrine has arcaded recesses, with trefoil -heads-^into. which pilgrims- thrust-them- selves when afflicted^qth ~d-isease9~~they, J505hed_jto cure by a personal contact . with ^the saintly relics. TTiestepls* deeply worn by the knees of Innumer able pilgrims, although these hollows are now on the inner instead of the outer edge, owing to the stone having been reversed in a relaying. The original wooden canopy which covered the feretory was totally destroyed. The present cover is attributed to Abbot Feckenham, but was probably never finished. In the reign of James II. the chest con taining the body of St. Edward the Confessor having been broken open by the fall of some scaffolding, the contents were exposed to view, and " under the shoulder-bone of the monarch was found a crucifix of pure gold, richly enamelled, and suspended to a golden chain twenty-four inches in length, which, passing round the neck, was fastened by a locket of massive gold, adorned with four large red stones. The skull, which was entire, had on it a band or diadem of gold, one inch in breadth, surrounding the temples, and in the dust lay several pieces of gold, coloured silk, and linen." ' A choirman of that time who examined the relics took out the valuable crucifix and chain, which, after passing through various hands, were sold by auction * " British Costume," J. R. Planche. '285 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages as late as 1830, but their present whereabouts are unknown. It was to prevent such sacrilege that James II. commanded the chest to be enclosed in one bound round with strong ironwork. At Canterbury were the remains of St. Anselm, St. Elphege, St. Dunstan, St. Odo, and St. Wilfrid; and with this goodly array of saintly relics it is possible that, notwithstanding the immense popularity of the shrine of St. Swithin at Winchester, these tombs would have attained greater notoriety had it not been for the overwhelming devotion paid to the relics of Becket. Very little is known of the resting-places of St. Anselm and St. Elphege. The relics of St. Odo and St. Wilfrid were translated to the " corona " of St. Thomas. It was St. Elphege who carried the skull of St. Swithin to Canterbury in the eleventh century. The bones of St. Dunstan were the cause of much bitterness between the monks of Glastonbury and those of Canterbury, both foundations claiming to possess the true relics. Although St. Dunstan became Archbishop of Canterbury after a short period as Bishop of Worcester, it was at Glaston bury that he spent the greater part of his life. He died on May 19, 988, after a celebration of the Eucharist. He was at first buried in the crypt at Canterbury, but on the rebuilding of the choir his relics, and those of St. Elphege, were translated to new shrines on the south and north sides of the High Altar respectively. The monks of Glaston bury claimed to have possession of the true relics of St. Dunstan, but no shrine was erected there until 1 184. With the raising of a shrine the monks 286 Shrines of British Saints fabricated a tale concerning the relics to the effect that after the burning of Christ Church certain monks were sent to Canterbury for the remains. Arrived at the city, they found the cathedral still smouldering, and discovered the bones of St. Dunstan, with which they returned to Somerset. As they neared Glaston bury the bells rang of their own accord to welcome the relics of the saint, which were at first buried near the door leading from the cloisters to the nave, in a spot known only to two monks. Here the relics remained for 170 years. After the destruc tion of the abbey by fire the bones were found and enshrined in a reliquary, to which many pilgrimages were made. So famous and wealthy did this shrine become that it roused the jealousy of the Canter bury monks, who sent a protest to the abbot, stating that the real bones of St. Dunstan were in their own monastery of Christ Church. Notwithstanding the spurious nature of the Glastonbury relics, pilgrimages continued to be made to them until 1508, when Archbishop Warham examined the tomb of the saint at Canterbury and found in the wooden chest a leaden case containing the skull and bones, together with a plate of lead, bearing the inscrip tion, Hie requiescit Sanctus Dunstanus, Archie pis - co pus. Thereupon he sent word to Abbot Beere that, as the true bones of St. Dunstan rested at Canterbury, the claim of Glastonbury must be aban doned under pain of excommunication. At Chichester a famous shrine was that of Richard de la Wych, Bishop of the see, and an erstwhile Chan cellor of Oxford University. He was canonised in 1260, seven years after his death, by Pope Urban IV. In 1276 his relics were translated with great cere- rnony, in the presence of Edward I., his Queen and 287 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages Court. The shrine was placed to the east of the High Altar, and a watching loft was built to guard its treasures, which was not removed until 1820. Pilgrims came in such crowds to the tomb that the body of the saint was dismembered, and three separate stations were made: one at the original tomb, another at the shrine, and a third at a head- shrine, or reliquary containing his skull. Mr. J. C. Wall writes: "On April 3rd— St. Richard's Day — the concourse of pilgrims was of such magnitude that in 1478 Bishop Storey made stringent rules whereby the crowds might approach the shrine in seemly order. The pilgrims were accustomed to carry staves, and the jtruggjes__for precedence Jed jojthe free use of these on each other's headsT'ojten leading to seriou^Jjnjury, .jrid_jii__one case _even dgaih- The Bishop directed that, instead of staves, they should carry crosses and banners, and the members of the several parishes should approach reverently from the west door in prescribed order, of which notice was to be given by the parish priests in their churches on the Sunday preceding the festival." In the fifteenth century the cathedral was sadly in need of repair, and to meet the expenses of the restoration, indulgences were granted to all making pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Richard on Whit Sunday and on Trinity Sunday. By way of penance for poaching on the preserves of the Bishop in Hoghton Chace, the Earl of Arundel was granted absolution only on condition that he made a pilgrim age to the shrine. The shrine was destroyed on the " XXth day of November, the XXXth yere of the reyne of Henry the VIII ; by Wyllm. Gorgny, Knygth, and Willm 288 Shrines of British Saints Erneley, esquyer," who have left an inventory of the valuables and money taken for the King. In the neighbouring county of Hampshire was the great and popular shrine of St^Swithin, known to most people as the " weather saint," from the tradition that when the *lnonkT*™of Winchester attempted to remove his relics from the lowly grave he had chosen " where the feet of passengers and droppings from the eaves " should beat upon his grave, a heavy rain began to fall and continued so severely for the following forty days, that it was regarded as a warning that he resented the proposed disturbance of his bones. St. Swithin was the friend and tutor of King Alfred, whom he accompanied on a visit to Rome. He died about 862, and his body lay in its humble burial-place, on the north side of the cathedral, for more than a century, when King Edgar had a splendid shrine prepared within the church into which his relics were translated in 963, by St. Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester. The translation was the occasion of many miracles. In the library of Gloucester Cathedral are three MS. leaves, written about 985, recording some of these miracles. The accounts have been published under the title of " Gloucester Fragments," and relate the remarkable appearance to a poor smith of the saint who asked him to go to Eadsige, a priest who had been ejected from the abbey, and desired him to go to Bishop Ethelwold and command him to open the grave and remove his bones to the interior of the church. Many miracles were performed at the tomb of St. Swithin, where the sick were said to be healed at the rate of from three to eighteen a day. The" saintly remains were divided in the eleventh century '289 T Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages his skull going to Canterbury and an arm to Peter borough. In 1 1 50 Bishop Walkelyn translated the residue of the relics to a new shrine, when he re built the cathedral. On September 21, 1538, the shrine was destroyed. St. Swithin was essentially a " home-made " saint, as -iiejyajsja^mip.r^^ . Although Salisbury never attained the popularity extended to many other pilgrimage centres, it was in this cathedral that on his canonisation, in 1456, the shrine of St. Osmund was erected. His supposed tomb, removed by Wyatt to the nave when he destroyed the Beauchamp Chantry in which it for merly rested, is now placed between the Lady Chapel and the south aisle. No trace remains of the shrine, but legends of the miracles wrought by its aid and the indulgences granted to pilgrims prove its former existence. The reputed tomb bears the date MXCIX in Roman numerals, but their authenticity has been questioned, so that of satisfactory evidence connecting St. Osmund with this incised slab we have none. When Wyatt opened the tomb it was empty, a fact which proves nothing one way or the other, as the relics may have been removed to a secret hiding- place if not destroyed at the Reformation. At Malmesbury, in the same county, stood the shrine of St. Aldhelm, Abbot of Malmesbury and first Bishop of Sherborne. He died in 709 at Doulting, and in 837 King Ethelwulf erected a costly shrine for the relics. This shrine appears to have been a wonderful piece of work, with the back enriched with silver panels, gilt. In embossed work were representations of the four miracles wrought by the saint — the Book, the Beam, the Boy, and the Chasuble. In the front were figures in solid silver, "290 Shrines of British Saints the pediment of crystal, and the inscription in letters of goldi The shrine was looted by the Danes, but the bones of the saint had been safely hidden and were event ually taken up again by the secular canons who displaced the regular monks at Malmesbury, they having been installed there by King Edwy in order to vent his wrath on St. Dunstan. The relics were again enshrined and attracted great crowds of pilgrims — so many, indeed, that on special occasions a troop of mounted soldiers was required to main tain order. The _At2bey_0fjSL.-Ma.jry the Virgin at Shaftesbury was one of the best endowed m England, and when the body of King Edward the Martyr was brought hither in June, 980, the importance of the founda tion was greatly increased by its becoming a place of pilgrimage to the shrine of the sainted King. Tradition associates Corfe Castle with the murder of Edward, but this is doubtful, although the " Saxon Chronicle " recording the event says the foul deed took place at " Corfes Gear," where stood the domus Elf r idee. The body is said to have been first buried in a lowly grave, possibly at Wareham; until Ethelred, who had come to the throne on his brother's death, became stricken with remorse, and com manded that the relics should be duly honoured. This resulted in the bones being placed in a reliquary and deposited in the " Holy of Holies " at Shaftes bury. The shrine attracted many pilgrims, who brought offerings and purchased indulgences. No trace of the shrine remains, although a tomb was uncovered a few years ago which is thought may have been the resting-place of St. Edward. In the little village of Whitchurch Canonicorum, in the same 291 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages county of Dorset, and not a very great distance from Shaftesbury, an interesting discovery has lately been made of the ancient leaden reliquary con taining the relics of St. Candida,. The recessed tomb, known locally as the " saint's shrine," stands in the north transept of the church, and consists of two portions, the lower part pierced by three open ings through which pilgrims placed their hands to obtain contact with the healing virtues of the relics. The upper slab is of older date. In March, 1900, a crack appeared in the north wall, and an old fracture in the shrine became widened. On examina tion the leaden reliquary was found inside with an inscription recording that the casket contained the relics of St. Wita, or Candida. The remains were replaced and the shrine cemented to prevent further damage.: 1 ' Every one is familiar with the legend of the Holy Thorn at Glastonbury, and of the landing of St. 292 Shrines of British Saints Joseph of Arimathea near by, where an oak-tree was planted in commemoration called the Oak of Avalon. St. Joseph and his companions, being weary after their journey, sat down to rest on the slopes of a hill near the town, which hill still bears the name of Weary -all- Hill. Here St. Joseph struck his staff, a dry hawthorn stick, into the ground, when it com menced to grow, and became a large tree which constantly flowered on Christmas Day. From very early days Glastonbury was considered CT.RELl&G.Scew *WGREQ£SCT-RELICX€Sce.W|TE Inscriptions on Reliquary qJ> fl Candida. a sacred spot, for here King Arthur was buried. The first church is said to have been a little wattled building erected by St. Joseph, but the early ecclesi astical history of the place is very obscure, although two early charters mention the little wooden church, the forerunner of the famous monastery. In the sixth century St. David is reputed to have built a new church near the old one, and still later King Ina built and endowed a monastery. After the Danish invasions the foundation declined, but was brought into prominence again by St. Dunstan, who cajis^d-^histonbury to become famous throughout Europe for its "culture and Ieamlng7~anoT-whose spurious ~sTinhlTTn~'lat!er days aTtracTed thousands of 293 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages pilgrims, some of whom found accommodation in the old Pilgrims' Inn described in a former chapter. The beautiful ruins of the Lady or St. Mary's Chapel, frequently called St. Joseph's Chapel, are the remains of the church built in the twelfth century on the site of an older building, which was practically destroyed by fire in 1184. The ruins show some beautiful Transitional work, and the fine north and south doorways, although mutilated, are lavishly enriched with carving. Beneath the chapel is a crypt containing a well. In the sixteenth century Abbot Beere built a chapel, of which portions remain, in memory of King Edgar, a great bene factor to the abbey, whose bones were enshrined with much ceremony in his chapel. In the Glastonbury Museum are preserved many interesting Fffipr*"<-npg oT the days when the town was thronged with pilgrims^ sucTT" as staffs, " counters " made by the monks for use as corns, "leather _bott les, and a reliquary containing a small piece of bone said to be that of St. Paulinus, and-g3Ken-..to trie- -monastery by St. Augustine. Apart from Our Lady of Walsingham and the Cross of Bromholme, a popular pilgrimage in the eastern counties was that made to the shrine of St. Edmund, at Betriches worth, now called Bury St. Edmunds. The saint was bom at Northemberg,'; in old Saxony, of which his father Alkmund was prince, and to his father's Court came Offa^ King of the East Angles, when Edmund was about twelve years old, on a pilgrimage to Rome and the Holy Land. Having no heir to the throne, as his only son Fremund was a hermit, Offa adopted Edmund as his successor. Offa died at Constantinople on his homeward journey, and Edmund proceeded to 294 wmpz Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages England and landed near Hunstanton, where it is said springs of water gushed forth when Edmund prayed for his new kingdom on landing. During his reign the Danes harried the country, and in 870 they again invaded the fenland, sacking monasteries, whose riches they seized. Then Hinguar, the Danish leader, sent a message to Edmund demanding his submission, but he, knowing that this would mean the downfall of Christianity, refused. He then ordered his men to retreat, and he himself, with the faithful Bishop Humbert, awaited the Danes before the altar of the church. He was eventually seized and bound, then suffered the indignity of a mock trial, and he was led in the evening outside the village, bound to an oak-tree, and left as a target for the archers. Many arrows buried themselves in his body, but to prolong the torture, no fatal wound was inflicted. Then Hinguar promised him his life if he would renounce his faith, but the King made no reply and was be headed, together with Bishop Humbert. When the Danes had left the district the friends of the martyrs began to search for their relics, and the legend runs that the head of the King could not be found, when in the wood they heard a voice say, " Here, here! " and going to the spot, they saw the head guarded by a wolf. The arms of Bury St. Edmunds are : Azure, three royal crowns, or, each crossed by two arrows; the crest being aJ wolf guarding the head of Saint Edmund. The relics were first buried at the scene of the martyrdom, now Hoxne, but in 903 they were trans lated to Betrichesworth, and here, in course of time, a stately abbey arose over the saintly remains. Cnut made a pilgrimage to the place, and Edward the Confessor was a frequent visitor. Before setting £96 ejtrrf-*.**.!- "Ar*- .Y\'/?/tsiJ GZasfoHhorr "/V' yw"'^ Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages out on the crusade, Richard I. came to the shrine, to which he gave sufficient land to maintain a perpetual light before the relics. The two wax torches thus provided were the cause of a great catastrophe, for one night, while the guardians of the relics slept, one of the tapers fell over and set fire to the table and burned the shrine. The relics were unharmed and a new shrine was quickly pre pared, into which the remains were placed. Other royal visitors to the shrine were Queen Eleanor, who gave valuable jewels, King John, Henry III., who prepared a still more costly shrine for the relics, Edward I., and Henry VI. In Westgate Street, Bury St. Edmunds, stands the Roman Catholic Church dedicated in honour of St. Edmund, and in it may be seen an altar -statue of the saint and a painting representing his martyrdom. A silver reliquary, inscribed " From the bones of St. Edmund, the Martyr King of England," contains a relic of the saint presented to the church by Cardinal Duprez, in 1867, and an alms-box at the west end is said to have been made from a portion of the oak-tree at Hoxne to which St. Edmund was bound. John Lydgate wrote a volume of poems in honour of Edmund, the patron saint of his own monastery of Bury, the " precious charbuncle of martirs alle," which MS., in addition to illuminated letters, is adorned with over a hundred illustrative and con temporary pictures, one of which depicts Lydgate himself kneeling at the shrine of St. Edmund. Lydgate was about thirty years old when Chaucer died. He was born at the village of Lydgate, some seven miles from Newmarket. He was ordained sub- deacon in the Benedictine Monastery of Bury St. 298 Shrines of British Saints Edmunds in 1389, deacon in 1393, and priest in 1397. He is generally spoken of as " the monk of Bury," and was the chief poet of the generation after Chaucer. According to tradition, St. Augustine himself founded a church in the Isle of Ely, or Eel Island, among the fens, " and therefore," says Beda, " it has its name from the great plenty of eels taken in those marshes." Nothing is really known about the church in the fens until the stately building arose in the honour of Etheldreda, Queen and Abbess, whose sanctity was such that she is said to have retained her virginity although twice married. Her first husband was Toulbert, a prince oT East Anglia, and her second Ecgfrid, the son of Oswy, of Northumbria, who had wrested Mercia from Penda. Etheldxeda. soon returned to the Abbey of Coldingham, where she had retired after her first marriage. It was not long before Ecgfrid regretted having given her per- ^ mission to resume a religious life, and he set out for Coldingham with an armed band to take her away by force if necessary. Ebba, the abbess, became advised of the project, and counselled her niece Ethel dreda to fly southwards and take refuge in her own land of Ely. On the way miracles were worked in her favour, for being almost overtaken by her husband near St. Abb's Head, the sea surrounded the hill on which she and her attendants had taken refuge, and remained there for seven days, until Ecgfrid grew weary and left her in peace. At Ely in 673 she founded the great abbey of which she was consecrated abbess. She died in 679, and was buried at her own desire in the cemetery among the nuns. During her last illness she suffered great pain in her throat, which she said " is a fitting punishment 299 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages to me for the pleasure I once took in wearing neck laces there." From Etheldreda, or Awdry, is said to be derived the word "tawdry," from St. Awdry's Fair; where cheap necklaces and other ornaments were offered for sale. Etheldreda's sister Sexburga succeeded her as abbess, and sixteen years later she resolved to trans late the bones of her sister to a fitting shrine. Some monks were given the task of obtaining a slab of stone large enough for the purpose, and as there was none to be found near by, they went by boat to Grantchester, an abandoned Roman city near Cam bridge, and there they saw beside the walls " a white marble coffin, most beautifully wrought, and neatly covered with a lid of the same sort of stone." Believing it to have been placed there by Divine agency, they gave thanks to God, and returned with their treasure to Ely, and the remains of Etheldreda were translated to the shrine with great ceremony on October 17, 695. On two other occasions the relics of St. Etheldreda were translated. In 1 106 the relics of her sainted relatives were translated with hers ; St. Sexburga being enshrined eastward of her, St. Ermenilda, her niece, on the south side, and St. Werburga, St. Ermenilda 's daughter, on the north. In 1 541 the shrine was despoiled and nothing now remains of the silver reliquary, the jewels, or the white marble tomb at which pilgrims used to kneel. The watching loft is still there, although removed from its original position. The Rev. Father Lockhart is said to have been able to recover some relics of the saint, which are now enshrined in the chapel connected originally with the town house of the Bishops of Ely, at Ely Place, London, now a Roman Catholic 300 Shrines of British Saints church. A remarkable series of sculptures repre senting scenes in the life of St. Etheldreda somehow escaped destruction at the Reformation, and may yet be seen on brackets supporting richly canopied niches at each angle of the great octagon of Ely Cathedral. The subjects comprise : (i) The marriage of St. Etheldreda with Ecgfrid of Northumbria. (2) Her taking the veil at the monastery of Colding ham." (3) Her staff taking root and bearing leaves and shoots while she slept during her flight from the monastery. (4) Her miraculous preservation on the hilltop by the rising of the waters. (5) Her consecration as Abbess of Ely. (6) Her death and burial. (7) The legend of St. Brithstan, who is said to have been released from his bonds by the saintly merit of Etheldreda. (8) The translation of her relics. In the northern counties popular shrines were those of St. Cuthbert and St. Beda. The Life of the former contains much that is legendary. He is said to have worked many miracles, and on one occasion stilled a tempest. In early youth he was a shepherd, and it was while tending his sheep by night that he had the vision which resulted in his adopting the religious life. He became Prior of Lindisfarne, and in 685 was Bishop of the island. Two years later he died. In accordance with his wish his body was wrapped in a linen cloth given him by the Abbess Yeoca, and buried in a stone coffin, the gift of the Abbot Cudda. After the lapse of eleven years the monks wished to remove his relics to a reliquary above ground, and obtained the consent of Bishop Eadbert to their plan. On opening the stone coffin, however, the body was found in such a wonderful state of preservation that the monks hastened to inform the bishop, who directed 301 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages that a fresh garment should be placed on the saint's body, which should then be put into a wooden coffin and placed on the sanctuary pavement. About one hundred and fifty years later the ravages of the Danes so alarmed the monks of Lindisfarne for the safety of their relics, that they fled and took with them the body of St, Cuthbert and their sacred vessels and books. Then commenced the historical wanderings of the monks for over one hundred years, with their precious burden, which ended in the founding of the cathedral church of Durham, where the relics of St. _CjithJaert had a new resting-place. Many legends grew up around the joumeyings of the monks, many of which state that the saint himself often came to their assistance. For years the monks remained at Chester-le-Street, to which place the see was removed for a time, and while here, Athelstan, son of Edward the Elder, visited the shrine, on his way to the Court of the Scottish King, Constantine. In the British Museum is a manuscript recording his gifts to the shrine, among which were a stole with a maniple, and fabrics of gold and tapestry, now preserved in the cathedral library at Durham. Of the latter part of their journey, the story is told how that, coming to a place called Wardenlawe, to the east of Durham, the saint's body became fastened to the ground and could not be moTjed. Being in great trouble, the monks fasted and prayed for three days, when it was revealed that the body should be taken to Dunholme. Not knowing where this place was, the travellers remained unenlightened until they heard a woman call to her companion to know if she had seen her cow. The other replied that the cow was in Dun- holme. " This was a happy and heavenly Sound 302 Shrines of British Saints to the distressed monks, who thereby had Intelli gence that their Journey's End was at Hand, and the Saint's Body near its Resting-place ; thereupon with great Joy they arrived with his Body at Dunholme in the year 997." To commemorate the event Bishop Flambard erected a monument of a milkmaid and her cow, 303 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages the original panel being replaced in the eighteenth century by the one still to be seen on the north west turret of the Nine Altars Chapel of Durham Cathedral. On their arrival at Dunholme the monks erected a temporary shelter for the relics, until such time as they could build a more fitting resting-place. Several times the relics were removed, until at last, in 1 1 04, they were translated into the present cathedral by Bishop Carileph. Thousands of pilgrims visited the shrine, among them William I., Henry III., Edward II., and Henry VI., each of whom brought valuable offerings. The shrine appears to have been of a similar type to those of St. Edward at Westminster and St. Edmund at St. Edmundsbury, and near it was a box known as the " pix of St. Cuthbert," into which the offerings of _the poorer pilgrims were placed, these ndt being of .sjjffkient value to_.be. hung. oa..the J^tuaT shrine, which was dismantled at the Dissolution, when the relics were buried . beneath the spot where the shrine had stood. Some doubt has been expressed as to whether these were the authentic relics, or bogus ones placed in the shrine so that the real ones could escape desecration at the hands of the Commissioners. A tradition is extant to the effect that the actual hiding-place of St. Cuthbert's body was known only to three Benedictines, who have handed down the secret on the death of one of their number to a member of the same order. The tomb in the Nine Altars Chapel was opened in 1827, and the contents corresponded so well with ancient accounts of the saint's body as to leave no doubt whatever that the remains still treasured in Durham Cathedral are those of St. Cuthbert. Two maniples, a stole, a girdle, and 304 Shrines of British Saints two bracelets of gold, and a large golden cross of ancient workmanship were removed from the tomb and may be seen in the library of the Dean and Chapter. The annual Feast of St. Cuthbert, which lasted for a week, attracted „ aAjgrilT^Jtora.- a^qyexj^ country. From the rolls of the cellarer, preserved at Durham, we find that in 1347 the consumption of provisions included the following: Six hundred salt herrings, four hundred white herrings, thirty salted salmon, twelve fresh salmon, fourteen ling, fifty-five *' kelengs," four turbot, two horse-loads of white fish, nine carcasses of oxen, seven carcasses and a half of swine, fourteen calves, three kids, twenty-six suck ing porkers, seventy-one geese, fourteen capons, fifty- nine chickens, five dozen pigeons, five stone of hog's lard, four stones of cheese and butter, a pottle of vinegar, a pottle of honey, fourteen pounds of figs and raisins, and one thousand three hundred eggs. St. Cuthbert appears to have had. a strong aversion to women, and at Lindisfarne he had a separate chapeTseTapart for them, and the Galilee Porch or Chapel at Durham is said to have been built origin ally for their use. Be this as it may, no woman was allowed to enter the chapel containing St. Cuthbert's shrine, or, according to some writers, even a church dedicated in his honour. A dark-coloured line in the naye_jxLniirham_Cj|th^drai^fIafks the limit beyond which no woman was allo~wed"~to~~pas's" eastwards. Reginald of "Durham" relates that an embroideress, " nobly skilled," determined to> pass the limits assigned to women, but was at once detected and ignominiously expelled from the church. In the Galilee of Durham is the grave marking 305 U Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages the site of the once magnificent shrine of the vener able Beda, to whose great work on " The Ecclesias tical History of England " we owe our knowledge of the early history of the English Church in these islands. The greater part of his life was passed at Monkswearmouth and Jarrow. He died in the latter place and was buried in the monastery chapel, where pilgrimages were made to his tomb. It was not until a century later that the title " Venerable " became attached to his name; the legend concerning it is that the monk who was composing the inscrip tion for his tomb had got as far as Hac Sunt in fossa, Bedce ossa, but could not find a suitable word with which to com plete the rhythm of the line, and at last retired to rest disheartened. The next morning on returning to his task he found to his surprise that the line had been completed by angelic hands : — Hac Sunt in fossa, Bedce Venerabilis ossa. In 1020 the relics of Beda were stolen from Jarrow by a pilgrim and taken to Durham, where they were placed in a small linen sack in St. Cuthbert's coffin. In 1155 Bishop Hugh Pudsey translated the remains to a magnificent shrine of gold and silver, which was removed in 1370 to the Galilee by Richard de Castro Barnardi. Here they remained until the Reformation, when, in 1542, the relics were re -interred on the site of the shrine, which was destroyed with the exception of the plain 306 Shrines of British Saints slab of stone which still indicates the spot where the relics were buried. The only shrine of any importance in York Minster was that of Archbishop William Fitzherb.ert, canonised as " St. William of York " in order to provide in the northern counties a counter-attrac tion to the shrine of the great Becket at Canter bury. On March' 18, 1226, Pope Honorius issued a letter " tied with thread of silk, and a Bull " saying that William (Fitzherbert) having been nominated by the Dean and Chapter of York, for the honour of canonisation, was henceforth to be included in the catalogue of the " Saints of the Church Militant." No efforts appear to have been made to enshrine the relics until William de Wickwaine was raised to the episcopate, when one of his first acts was to translate them to a lofty, shrine, prepared behind the High Altar on a platform raised upon arches from the crypt, removed thence for the purpose. The expenses' of the translation were defrayed by Anthony Bek, then Bishop of Durham, who afterwards became Patriarch of Jerusalem. The shrine was dismantled by Dr. Layton, one of Cromwell's Commissioners, who had become Dean of York, arid the desecrated relics were buried in the nave beneath a marble slab. At Lincoln were four shrines, St .JHugh, ,th.eJBishop, and " Little St. Hugh " having been canonised by the Pope, while the other two, Robert Grosseteste and John of Dalderby, both of them Bishops of the diocese, were hailed as saints by the people. Bishop Hugh was buried at his own desire in the chapel dedicated to St. John the Baptist, near the cloister door. " Bury me there," he said, " where I have so often loved to minister;! but lay me by 307 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages the side of the wall, where people will not be in danger of tripping over my, tomb." The Bishop was not allowed to stay for long in so lowly a place. Miracles began to work at his tomb, and on his canonisation, in 1220, such throngs of pilgrims flocked to the place that it was found necessary to enlarge the church. The apse built by St. Hugh was pulled down and the cathedral lengthened by five bays. When completed the relics were trans lated to a shrine at the back of the High Altar, and in the midst of the beautiful " Angel Choir." The ceremony was carried out with impressive grandeur, Edward I. and his Queen, Edmund his brother, and the Queen of Navarre being present at the time. The head of St. Hugh was placed in a separate head-shrine or reliquary of gold and precious stones. " Little Saint Hugh " was said to have been crucified by the Jews in 1255, and in consequence was canonised, but recent investigation has proved that his death was the result of an accident. Robert Grosseteste, the successor of St. Hugh in the see of Lincoln, was regarded as a saint by the people owing to the miracles wrought at his tomb, which was visited by thousands of pilgrims, although his relics were never formally enshrined. The remains of John of Dalderby were translated to a costly silver shrine enriched with precious stones. The shrines of SS. Hugh and John were destroyed at the Reformation, but that of " Little Saint Hugh," which does not seem to have attracted so much wealth, was left untouched, and remained in situ until the time of the Great Rebellion. To Derby the relics of St. Alkrnund, the son of a King of Northumbria said to have been treacherously slain by the Danes, were hastily trans - 308 Shrines of British Saints lated for fear of the invaders. In the midland town he was hailed as their patron saint, and the festival of his translation, March 19th, was kept with due honour. His shrine became famous for miracles and was much visited owing to its being situated on one of the most frequented highways connecting the north and south portions of the country. A special church dedicated in his honour was built for the reception of his relics. A short distance to the north of St. Alkmund's Church at Derby is a well which bears the saint's name, and was credited with healing pro perties, while the old custom of decorating the well on the festival of St. Alkmund has been revived in recent years. The churchyard of St. Mary's, Lichfield, was the first resting-place of the remains of Str Chad, the great Celtic saint, who became first Bishop of Lich field. The " Book of St. Chad," a beautiful manu script now preserved at Lichfield, was probably the work of the saint. Originally a plain little wooden shrine was erected over his remains, and Beda said it was " made like a little house covered, having a hole in the wall, through which those that go thither for devotion usually put in their hand and take out some of the dust, which they put into water and give to sick cattle or men to taste, upon which they are presently eased of their infirmity and restored to health." When the church of St. Peter was built on the site of the present cathedral, his relics were translated into it. On the rebuilding of the cathedral in 1 148 an elaborate shrine was prepared, and in 1296 the relics were translated again to a yet more magnificent shrine. About a century later the saint's relics were once more translated, the base of this shrine being of marble, and the feretory of gold 3°9 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages enriched with precious stones. On the occasion of one of these translations the head of St. Chad was removed from the body and separately enshrined in the Chapel of the Head of St. Chad. Tlus^chapel I^^Jbiseii__rjestoied j^cteatly^-andLil, 5lilL^ntair_SL_a_i aumbry and a .fifteenth -century stone gallery? whence tne~piterinis viewed the relics. At the Reformation Bishop Lee begged the King to spare the shrine of their first Bishop, a request which was granted, owing, it is said, to Lee having secretly married the King to Anne Boleyn. Soon afterwards, however, the shrine was despoiled, but the relics were taken and preserved by Prebendary Dudley, and the story of their preservation and continuous transmission is told at length in the " Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus," edited by Henry Foley, S.J. In 1 84 1, on the consecration of the Roman Catholic Cathedral at Birmingham, the relics of St. Chad were conveyed into the sanctuary, arid placed in a reliquary of oak, adorned with jewels, gilding, and painting, above the High Altar. In the Cathedral at Chester may be seen a portion of the shrine of St. Werburgh, which, although destroyed at the Dissolution and its stone used for other purposes, and particularly in the making of the Bishop's throne, has been restored recently as far as possible, the missing portions being replaced by plain stone to distinguish them from the original. Doubts have been expressed as to whether the St. Werburgh at Ely, and she of Chester are one and the same person, or whether there were two saints bearing the same name. It is now generally accepted that the same saint had shrines in both places. St. Werburgh is said to have been buried at Dereham, and when the grave was opened after many years, 310 <*«*(/// vw-'i*** M-ptf&fc LICHFIELD CATHEDKAL. Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages being found untouched by decay, was translated into the church, where the usual miracles began to work. In the ninth century, during a Danish invasion, the relics were conveyed to Chester for safety, and afterwards the stately church was built as a home for the shrine. So great was the reputation of this saint in Chester that her relics were carried in pro cession in the streets in 1180, when their aid was invoked to arrest a terrible conflagration. A portion of her relics appear to have been left at Dereham, for we find that the monks of Ely obtained possession of them by a stratagem, and carried them to their church, where they were enshrined with great rejoicing. Although the list is by no means exhausted, we need not continue any further these " devotional items " that are left to us with much of their frag rance of past times, all the pathos of old memories, and the distinct characteristics of successive phases of religious and political life. Each example of the shrines that stirred the devotional instincts of our ancestors, and stimulated the architectural genius of the monkish craftsmen, is highly suggestive to the beholder. Who can doubt that saintly relics pro vided the inspiration for much that is noblest in our national ecclesiastical architecture? Around the jacxejLjB&lic,. rapturous lv enshrined" grew the chapel, monastery, or cathedral. The archi tectural gemus_ of the Middle Ages__caught at trie idejubred_oi^ie.yQtipn, andjlej^loned it magnificently in buildings which we can copy only in a soulless way, mainly, perhaps, because science, in killing the belief in holy relics, scotched the germ of faith, which was the great driving force behind the mar vellous architectural achievements of the Mediaeval 312 Shrines of British Saints Period, buildings whereof every stone was a Pater noster and each piece of delicate carving an Ave Maria. "Firm was their faith, the ancient bands, The wise of heart in wood and stone, Who reared with stern and trusting hands Those dark grey towers of days unknown ; They filled the aisles with many a thought, They bade each nook some truth recall, The pillared arch its legend brought, A doctrine came with roof and wall." (Hawker of Morwenstow). 313 CHAPTER XV INDULGENCES AND PENANCES The history of indulgences and penances is a very, interesting one, particularly, perhaps, as the granting of the former is by no means an obsolete custom; in the Church of Rome, and the ecclesiastical law relating to the latter has never been abrogated by the Church of England. By, the Church of Rome the indulgence is regarded as "a releasing, by the (power of the keys committed to the Church, the_debt of _t.empp.ral punishment, which. may__remain .duengon ¦ account_Qf_ our sins, aftei_tjhe_sm^themSjelyes, as to the guilt and eternal punishment, have been already remitted ... by repentance _ .and confession " (vide " Grounds of Catholic Doctrine," Chapter X., Question i ) . There are two main classes of indulgences-plenary and non-plenary — which are subdivided under such headings- as "partial, temporary, indefinite, local, perpetual, real, and personal. s A^jp/ggarj/ indulgence is that by which a remission is obtained of all the" temporal punishment due on sin, either in this world or the next. A non-plenary or partial indulgence is that which remits a part only of the punishment due to sin, and usually, operates in the remission of so many days, weeks, or years of penance, which would otherwise have to be 3»4 Indulgences and Penances observed before the penitent was cleansed from his sin. Temporary indulgences are those which, as the name implies, are granted ,fpr a . certain specified time, as distinct from the indefinite indulgences, the duration of which is unlimited. Perpetual indulgences are granted in perpetuity, while local ones operate only in connection with par ticular chapels, churches, shrines, holy springs, and sacred places. A personal indulgence is granted to certain individuals, corporate bodies, fraternities, general assemblies, and religious brotherhoods of various kinds. Other indulgences are termed " enjoined pen ances " (pamttentice injunctce), and by them is con ferred the remission of so much of the punishment due to sins as the delinquent would have to pay by the more regular canonical penances, or by those pronounced by the priest. Lastly, there is what is called a real indulgence, which is attached to material and movable things, such as rosaries, medals, and crosses, and is granted to those who wear these and similar articles with devotion and contrition. After the bishops had enjoyed the privilege of granting indulgences for many centuries, the popes at length discovered what a powerful instrument it might become in their own hands ; therefore, in the eleventh century, when the papal dominion was approaching its zenith, the heads of the Roman see assumed to themselves the exclusive prerogative of granting indulgences and dispensing pardons. The result was that the net of repentance was spread far and wide, and indulgences were no longer confined to their original institution as a form of ecclesiastical discip line, but were extended to remit the punishment of 315 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages the wicked in the future world. The sale of_indul- gencgs received an immense^ stimulus when it was decreed tKaTffi~them relief could Jje~ granted tojhe dead^and the people were reproached if they showed unwillingness to contribute the sums of money necessary to , deliver their deceased relatives arid friends from the horrors of purgatory. .. To vindicate in an authoritative manner some of *"the really extraordinary pontifical measures relating to indulgences, a document was produced, which was modified and embellished in the thirteenth century by St. Thomas Aquinas, and which affirmed, among ; other declarations, that there existed an immense ' measure of merit composed of the pious deeds of the saints — an excess above such virtue and holiness as was required for their own salvation, and was available for the benefit of those who purchased indulgences. The guardian and wholesale dispenser of this surplus piety was the Pope, who was empowered to assign such quantities of the precious material to sinners as would suffice to free them from the punishment due for their crimes. Moreover, it was asserted that this over flow of saintly virtue was inexhaustible, and one wonders somewhat if it were stored in a liquid or a tabloid form. That it was well paid for we may be sure. This singular traffic was carried on for many years both in this country and on the Continent, and the revenues of many ecclesiastical, monastic, and charit able institutions must have been swelled enormously by those wishing to secure the privilege of sinning for a cash payment. In buying an indulgence the purchaser was nOt in theory excused or exempted from the duty of 316 Indulgences and Penances repentance, but was released only from the penances irnposed by ecclesiastical authority, the endurance of which was intended originally to be a sign of the penitents' sincerity in the renunciation of evil. Authorised indulgences were intended originally for th^^mne^jol ^pej^ent^who^ had confessed Jj^eir sins ^.3£dxeiLa.bjjDjir|ioji. The mpnks, however, and the other retailers of indulgences, did not trouble their heads much about repentance, and multitudes of buyers went away with the comfortable assurance that no troublesome consequences would attend the commission of the offences specified on their " pardon -tickets." Be this as it may, the sale of indulgences brought a golden harvest to the coffers of the Vatican ; in the fifteenth century, in particular, the disposal of them1 was a well-organised business, and a public sale of them was generally preceded by some specious pretext — for example, to provide funds to wage war against heretics, or for the prosecution of a crusade against the Neapolitans. All students of the Reformation will remember that Martin Luther's first great controversy with the Church of Rome related to the sale of indulgences, which Pope Leo X. had instituted for the purpose of obtaining funds for the completion of St. Peter's, which had been begun by his predecessor, Pope Julius II. On the 31st of October, 15 17, there appeared on the door of the castle church at Witten berg a document, written in Latin and signed by Luther, which was destined to occupy a great place in history. This .was his discussion on the sale of indulgences, in a series of ninety-five theses, which, although moderate in form, were a scathing con-< demnation of the mechanical system of the Church in the sixteenth century. 317, Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages The right of promulgating Leo X.'s indulgences, with a plenary remission to all such as should con tribute towards the completion of the magnificent fabric of St. Peter's, together with a share in the profits arising from1 the sale of them, was granted to Albert, Elector of Mentz and Archbishop of Magdeburg, who selected as his chief agent in Saxony a certain Dominican monk, John Tetzel, whose licen tious character was reputed to be on an equality, with his enterprising spirit and his popular eloquence. Assisted by the monks of his order, he was soon heard to boast that he had saved more souls from hell by his indulgences than St. Peter had converted by his preaching. In the usual form' of absolution, written by his own hand, he said : — " May our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon thee, and absolve thee by the merits of His most holy passion. And I, by His authority, that of His apostles Peter and Paul, and of the most holy Pope, granted and committed to me in these parts, do absolve thee, first, from' all ecclesiastical censures, in whatever manner they have been incurred ; and then, from all thy sins, transgressions, and excesses, how enormous soever they may be, even from such as are reserved for the cognizance of the holy see ; and, as far as the keys of the Holy Church extend, I remit to thee all punishment which thou deservest in purgatory on their account ; and I restore thee to the Holy Sacraments of the Church, to the unity of the faithful, and to that innocence and purity which thou didst possess at baptism ; so that, when thou diest, the gates of punishment shall be shut and the gates of the paradise of delights shall be Opened ; and if thou shalt not die at present, this grace shall remain in full force when thou art at 3i8 Indulgences and Penances the point of death. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." This indulgence is so comprehensive in character that we are not surprised to learn that when Tetzel was eventually expelled from Saxony, he established himself in a village on the border, where he con tinued to do a big business with those persons anxious to secure the privilege of sinning on easy terms. The sale of unauthorised indulgences was very common in England and many spurious " pardons " were disposed of by unscrupulous persons. Bishop Grandisson of Exeter (1327-69) forbade the sale of fictitious and unauthorised pardons within the diocese. So recently, as the year i8oo,a Spanish vessel was captured near the coast of South America, freighted, among other things, with numerous bales of indul gences for various sins, the price of which, varying from half a dollar to seven dollars, was marked upon each. They had come from Spain, and were intended for sale among the Roman Catholic com munities of South America. At the present day many of the churches of Rome, Italy, and the Roman Catholic countries generally, have inscribed over the altar the words indulgentia plenaria, an intimation that a plenary indulgence is attached to the Masses offered there. In some cases the meaning is more than implied, as in the Church St. Maria della Pace, where hangs the famous fresco by Raphael, and where, above one of the altars, the visitor may read : — " Ogni Messa celebrata in quest altare libera un anima dal purgatorio." which may be translated : — " Every Mass celebrated at this altar frees a soul from purgatory " ; 319 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages and a similar notice, posted up near the altar, is in the church of St. Croce di Gerusalerrime . All matters pertaining to indulgences are discussed and settled by the "Congregation of Indulgences," an assembly or committee consisting of cardinals and various prelates, whose duty it is to examine the reasons put forward by all persons applying for indulgences, and to grant or refuse them, as they may think fit, in the name of the Pope. The Tax of the^Sactsd, Roman Chancery sels..forth the jcales-of— payment for various indulgences., and the fees levied for offences are peculiar, as may be gathered from the following : — For murdering a layman For lying with a mother or sister For procuring abortion For taking a false oath in a criminal case For defiling a virgin For keeping a concubine For simony For sacrilege For robbing For burning a neighbour's house From the " Informacion for Pylgrymes," printed by Wynken de Worde, we learn that in the sixteenth century there was a scale of payment for admission to all the holy places, graduated according to the reputed sanctity of each, and " to every pylgryme at the firste fote that he setteth on londe there is graunted plenary remyssion de plena et a culpa." At the majority of the sacred spots a similar remission was given. Thus at Rama, the reputed scene of the martyrdom of St. George, a " groat Venetian " was demanded, for which, in .addition. Jo., a view of Jhtg place, the pilgrim was entitled to indulgence, for, 320 s. d. 7 6 7 6 7 6 9 0 9 0 10 6 10 6 10 6 12 0 12 0 Indulgences and Penances " seven years and seven Lents," and it would be diffi- culrto*-mentte"ri "any "noteworthy shrine or holy place where such advantages were not granted to the traveller in exchange for his fee. It has been fittingly said by Langland that pilgrims came home so loaded with indulgences that they " had leave to lie all their lives after." A few extracts from this Pilgrim's Guide Book may be given : — "The fyrste is before the temple of the sepulcre doore. There is a foure square stoon whyte. Where up pon Christe restyd him wyth his crosse whan he went towarde the mount of Caluarie. Where is Indulgence VII yeres & VII lentes." " Also a lytyll thens is a place & a stoon on whyche our lady rested her upon, visytynge the holy places. VII yeres & VII lentes." " In the vale of Syloe is a welle where our lady wasshyd the clothes of Ihehu Cryfte. Ther is VII yeres & VII lentes." " Also a lytyll thens aboue hangynge on the hyll ben places lyke caues where the apostles were hydn in the time of the passyon of Cryste. VII yeres & VII lentes. " Atte the hyhe awter of mount Syon there is a place there Crist made his maundy with his discyples. VII yeres & VII lentes." Mediaeval indulgences are worthy of attention if only because they help us to mark an important epoch. The famous Mainz indulgences were circu lated in 1454, "a date," as Mr. Walter Crane reminds us, " which appears to be the earliest definite date that can be fixed on to mark the earliest use of printing." > Indulgences carved or inscribed after the continental manner on some portion of the fabric are extremely rare in English churches at the present day, and possibly the only example that has survived is that inscribed on the west jamb of the south door of the little chapel, or ecclesiota, of * " Decorative Illustration," Walter Crane. 321 X Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages St. Catherine, at Milton Abbey, Dorset. The inscrip tion, of thirteenth-century date, is in Lombardic capitals, and reads : — INDVLGENCIA | H' • SCl : LOCI • C = E : X : DIES j The Rev. Herbert Pentin writes : " The indulgence was offered, presumably, to those who would con tribute to the fabric fund of the chapel." I Although these inscribed indulgences are so rare, we have a very large number of records relating to the granting of indulgences to those who would con tribute to the relief of the poor in hospitals and almshouses, and Pope Martin V. granted special indulgences to all"~pilgrTrns~ who should, visit St. ,Winif*edi'Well."" When any doubt was thrown on the authenticity of a relic, or from some other cause a_ shrijievJost^ prestige in the eyes of devotees, the popes .fre quently granted indulgences in the hope of restorin^Jrie^.eriiporary'Tois of popularity. Thus* when St. Thomas Aquinas 'expressed "his opinion that Holy Blood did not, and could not, exist, for the simple reason that at the moment of our Lord's resurrection the blood that had been shed had perforce been reunited to the resuscitated body, the custodians of the shrines which attracted pilgrims by their claim to possess some phial of Christ's blood were much perturbed by the arguments of the greatest theologian of his century. The relic of the true Blood preserved in Hayles Abbey, Gloucestershire, which had been so rapturously enshrined and adored, fell into disrepute until Popes John XXIII., Eugenius IV., Callixtus III., and Paul II. came to its rescue by granting indulgences to its venerators. 1 " Memorials of Old Dorset." 322 Indulgences and Penances Eugenius IV. (1431) granted absolution for four confessions at Corpus Christi, and seven years and three Lents to all " who give anything to the worship of God and that precious Blood." A little more than a quarter of a century later Callixtus III. granted full remission " at Corpus Christi and at Holy Rood in May and Harvest, gave one hundred days' pardon to those who put their helping hands to the welfare of the Monastery of Hayles." There is no doubt whatever that the Holy Blood of Hayles was saved from oblivion, if not from something worse, by the aid of indulgences. Mr. St. Clair Baddeley writes : " From these documents [indulgences] we gather two important facts — first, that these Pontiffs regarded the relic favourably ; secondly, that Hayles Abbey during the Wars of the Roses, like many another convent, was tumbling about the ears of its inhabit ants, and was looking to its relic of the Holy Blood to save it from perdition. As we presently (in A.D. 1470) find the Abbot of Hayles, William Whitchurch, practically rebuilding the church of Didbrook, we may safely conclude that papal favour toward the relic was proving really efficacious and brighter days had dawned on the monastery." It may be of interest to mention that episcopal indulgences will generally be found to differ from those issued by the Pope, inasmuch as while the former rarely remit p£nance.~for-m,or-e--trian~seven, thirteen, or forty days, the papal indu lgeTiceTTEhew no such limits. In Trinity Hospital, Salisbury, an ancient charity for twelve old men, founded by William Chandler, obiit 141 1, the visitor may still see a precious parch ment in the form of a bull of Pope Boniface, dated 1379- The document, which is a splendid specimen 323 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages of fourteenth-century caligraphy, promises a fort night's indulgence to those who obey its behests. The interesting Hospital of St. Bartholomew, near Oxford, is used as a farm, with the exception of the chapel. In addition to the relics preserved there (see Chapter II.), Burgwash, Bishop of the diocese in 1336, granted forty days' indulgence to all who would come to the chapel within the octave of the saint, and worship, with " Prayers, Oblations, and Gifts, and contribute relief towards the leprous Alms-folk." " Upon which," Mr. J. Oxley » tells us, " multitudes of people obeyed this injunction, and set up the image of the saint in the windows and on the wall of the chapel." On January 9, 1449, Adam Moleyns, Bishop of Chichester, was brutally murdered near the Domus Dei (now the Garrison Chapel), at Portsmouth. Fifty years later a " Process " was held for the absolution of the inhabitants of Portsmouth from the sentence of excommunication, which had been passed upon them at the time of the crime. For the " Process " the Bishop of Winchester issued a highly interesting document relating to the services and Masses he ordered to be said for the deceased Bishop, and, " at the end of the procession, the said Master John Dowman intimated to the same parishioners and to others present, that the said Reverend Father granted forty days' indulgence to all persons visiting the said place and making stations there, so often as they should say the De Profundis and the Lord's Prayer five times, with the Salutation of the Angels five times, and the Apostles' Creed." The indulgences quoted above were, with the ex ception of the Salisbury example, granted by bishops, * The Antiquary, vol. v., No. 12, New Series. 324 Indulgences and Penances and may be compared to the following extract from a deed, dated the sixteenth year of Henry VIII., referring to a papal indulgence given to those who should contribute to the funds of the ancient Hospital of St. Margaret, at Wimborne, Dorset. The deed recites that "Pope Innocent IV., in the year 1245, by an indulgans or bulle did assoyl them of all syns foregotten, and offences done against fader and moder, and all swerynges neglygently made. This indulgans, grantyd of Peter and Powle, and of the said pope, was to hold good for 51 yeres and 260 days, pro vided they repeated a certain specified number of Paternosters and Ave Marias daily." Miss R. M. Clay, in " Mediaeval Hospitals of Eng land," gives a very interesting example of a papal brief, dated 1392 : — " Relaxation of seven years and seven quadragene to penltelrts~\vhb7 on~Ke *prmTnp^ITFeasfs~oFtne year and those of St. James in the month of July and the dedication, the usual octave and six days, and of a hundred days to those who, during the said octaves and days visit and__giye alms for the sus- tentatjon, and .recrggrion of theTchapel of St . James's poOr-^iospital, without the walls, London." Tenances are closely allied to indulgences, the latter, indeed, being frequently granted to redeem the former, and the imposition of a penance was often the raison d'etre of a pilgrimage. As early as the fifth century penance .bjggan^taJie^ojmjmied^ and in place of the ancient severities prayers, Masses, and _ajms^were substituted, to be superseded in their turn, to a considerable extent, by the granting of indul gences . The " Codex Pcenitentialis " is the authorative book which contains everything relating to the imposition 325 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages of penance and the reconciliation of penitents. Very similar are the Roman " Penitential," and those of Beda and Archbishop Theodore, of Canterbury. Equally interesting but far less known is the unpub lished " Penitential " of Bishop Bartholomew, of Exeter, of which a copy is among the Cottonian MSS. in the British Museum. The compiler, a native of Brittany, was Bishop of Exeter from 1161 to 1184. The MS. contains 177 folios on vellum, and is beauti fully written in the contracted Latin of the twelfth century. After a long exposition on penances in general, he treats in detail the various penances to be done for offences against morality, &c, and those to be enforced against fortune-tellers and sooth sayers. If a woman places her son on the roof, of her house, or in an oven, to cure him of the fever, she shall do five years' penance. Conjurors, fortune tellers, or sorcerers, being laymen, "slSlLdO-fifiiiance three days, and abs^jn^ixoxayadae^ beer, and meat ; others shall do penance twelve days for the same offence. Whosoever shall eat unclean flesh, or flesh torn from a beast, shall do penance forty days, but if necessity from hunger has driven him to this, the penance shall be much lighter. Such are a few extracts from a mass of curious matter contained in the " Penitential " of Bishop Bartholomew. The seller or retail vendor of indulgences was called the Pardoner, an important ecclesiastical official, whom Chaucer describes thus : — "But of his craft, from Berwick unto Ware, Ne was there such another pardonere, For in his mail he had a pillowbere, Which, as he saide, was our Lady's veil. He said, he had a gobbet of the sail That Saint Peter had, when that he went Upon the sea, till Jesu Christ him hent. 3.26 Indulgences and Penances He had a cross of laton full of stones, And in a glass he hadde pigges bones. But with these relics, whenne that he fond A poore parson dwelling upon lond, Upon a day he gat him more money Than that the parson gat in moneths tway ; And thus with feigned flattering and japes, He made the parson, and the people, his apes." In Piers Plowman we may read about the pil grims and palmers who went to St. James~~6f ComposteTla^anH" "the~~sainTs~~of Rome, "also of the " long lubbers " who made their way to our Lady of Walsingham, in the hope of obtaining an indulgence : — "There preached a Pardoner, as he a Priest were, And brought forth a bull with bishop's seals, And said that himself might assoil them all Of falseness of fastings, of vows to-broke. Lewed men lieved [believed] him well and likeden his words, Comen and kneleden, to kissen his bulls. He blessed them with his brevet, and bleared their eyne And raught with his rageman rings and brooches. Thus ye giveth your gold gluttons to help." From the word " rageman," used by Langland, our word " rigmarole " is thought by some authorities to have been derived. Long after the Reformation a kind of indulgence survived in .the . form _of_ church finest ~ak"iss^iovm by many existing records, such as the following from the books of the General Session of Edinburgh. " 1643 Feb. 10. Given in by Geo. Stuart, advocat, for not coming to the ile, 20 merks. Given by Col. Hume's lady for private marriage with young Craigie, 20 merks. Given by Mr. Robt. Smyth for private marriage, 20 merks." 327 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages "1644 May 9. Given by Mr. Luis Stuart and Isbell Geddes, for fornication, 21 lib. 6s. 8d. By Robert Martin, for his private marriage, 20 merks." "1645 March 13. Given for Wm. Salmond, relapse in fornication. 53 lib. 6s. 8d." Pjjbhc ^penarice_w^ punishment for immorality, and the Church law with regaraT"to this offence has not been abrogated, although it is not now enforced. The penitent, haxgheaded and barelegged, and clad in a white sheet, mar1g_an np^_jv2Ilfgf^>ILjtL.5nm^4:ujJaJ^r P1a,Pff ofjthe imputed crime . Several cases occurred during the last century, as at Liverpool, where, in 1840, penance was performed by a female at St. Peter's Church. The following1 extracts are from the Church wardens' Accounts of Woodbury Church, Devon : — " 1701-2. Pd for the charges of a woman doeing penance 009 1702-3. Paid the Charge for a woman doing penance 7 " In the Vestry, Book of Otterton is the following entry : — "June 20th, 1764. It is agreed at a parish meeting this Day, by us parishioners who were there present, that the Churchwardens shall take out an Order of Penance against Pascho Potter, who was presented at the last visitation for a Base Child, arid that the expenses of it be allowed and reimbursed them either out of the poor or Church Rate." 328 Indulgences and Penances At Otterton also we find : — " 1714, Oct. 17. Paid to procure sheet and wand for Peter Longworth standing penance 00 01 00 1735. Paid for washing the Parish Sheet for Club's wife to stand penance in 00 00 02" The following example from the Registers of Frithelstock must close the list : — " Alexander Tuck died at Great Torrington of the small pox aged about 75, August ye 10th 1720, which fellow had the Horrid impudence to tell the minister of Frithelstock that he knew what Anathema Maranatha was as well as Himself only because the aforesaid Gentleman asked his Impudent Daughter whether or no she would do penance or be excom municated for her Bastard, which she had then in her arms when her Honest uncle Jo : Tuck was buried (who was excommunicated and died so at Crediton in the small pox 17 13.)" It may not be without interest to note that decrees or letters issued by the Pope have from early times been called papal " bulls " because of the attached bulla, or seal of lead, without which they, were invalid. It is sometimes called the " seal of the fisherman," for the reason that the early papal letters always concluded Datum Roma sub annulo piscatoris (" Given at Rome under the signet of the fisher man "), a reference, of course, to St. Peter. . Py""*brder of the Pope, and sealed with lead. They are writtejn on parchment to distinguish them from briefs, which are written on paper. Another distinguishing feature between papal briefs and bulls is that whereas the former are dated a die nativitatis, the latter a die incarnationis. In affairs 329 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages of the greatest importance golden or silver bulls were formerly used, and in the Chapter House at Westminster are two golden bulls, one attached to the treaty between Henry VIII. of England and Francis I . of France, the other to the instrument by which Pope Clement VII. conferred on Henry VIII. the title of "Defender of the Faith." Papal bulls are frequently mentioned in early Acts of Parliament, and they were formerly valid in this country. By the statute 28 Henry VIII. c. 16, all bulls obtained from the Bishop of Rome are de clared to be null and void ; and the statute 13 Elizabeth, c. 2, pronounces the procuring, publish ing, or using of them to be high treason. The historical student will find the most copious collection of papal bulls in the " Bullarium Magnum a Leone Magno ad Benedictum XIV." (A.D. 461 to 1757), published at Luxembourg, 1747-58, in nineteen tomes, forming eleven large folio volumes. 330 CHAPTER XVI THE REFORMATION In writing about the Reformation the difficulty is to steer a middle course between the whole-hearted supporters of the monastic system, who describe Thomas Cromwell and his friends as " infamous wretches," and the equally biassed persons to whom the word " monastery " is synonymous with licen tiousness and immorality, and who firmly believe that the religious houses were suppressed largely, if not entirely, because they were hotbeds of vice. Notwithstanding the support given them by J. A. Froude, to name but one historian, the greater number of the accusations brought against the abbots and inmates of monastic houses have been proved to be mere fictions, invented for the purpose of aiding the work of spoliation. Although to estimate exactly the precise condition of English monastic life in 1530 is an impossible task at the present day, it is quite true to say that no unimpeachable evidence has yet been produced to show that the cloister fostered vice, or that the occupants of religious houses were not living up to a fairly high standard as com pared with that of to-day — a higher standard, at any rate, than was attained by the secular clergy outside monastic jurisdiction and control. The accounts sent to the Vicar-General by the 331 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages four agents of his own choosing— London, Layton, Legh, and Ap Rice— are not supported by evidence, and the methods adopted by the Reformers— the de struction of noble building's, the burning of valuable manuscripts, the alienation of Church property— have never been excused. At the same time, to condemn the methods employed does not imply that the con tinued existence of the monastic system would have been for the good of the Church or for the welfare of the realm. All impartial historians are now agreed that the system had reached its utmost limit of use fulness long before it was suppressed, that it had ceased to be a vital factor in religious life, and that its suppression could not have been achieved without at least the passive help of the people, by whom the destruction of the building's was deplored, as the breaking down of the system was universally welcomed. Indeed, it is quite an open question as to whether such violent and drastic changes could have been carried to a successful issue without the brutal methods of the Vicar-General. Be this as it may, the monasteries had lost caste and had become lax in many ways, although no student of history can doubt that for many centuries they had played a splendid part in the development of civilisation, and this even after the time when the Papacy had ceased to be a purely spiritual power working for the common good. For more than a century before what we call the Reformation, which was not one event, but a series extending over many years, there had been frequent and loud calls for reform. Religious services had become more and more formal in the observance of an outward routine, and long before the Dissolution the devotional charms of the priest failed to open the fountains of love 332 The Reformation or dispel the cares of doubt. The outward forms of the faith, the ceremonials and processions, were as picturesque, as gorgeous, and as ascetic as ever ; but they had lost vitality, and even the memory of their original power and significance had become dim and obscure. It would be difficult to find a fairer statement of the causes that led up to the Reformation than that penned by the Rev. Anthony Deane in the charm ing notes he used to contribute to the pages of the Treasury when he was editing that periodical. " In truth," he wrote, " some change was essential. It was demanded by two facts : the altered condition of the nation and the altered condition of the monasteries themselves. An institution which suited excellently well the needs of the thirteenth century was not necessarily adapted to the needs of the sixteenth. And the tone of the religious houses had deteriorated ; they had been great spiritual centres ; they became powerful administrators of vast estates. Immersed in such business, the religious character of these foundations was greatly vitiated. Of gross sin or immorality there was practically none, but of easy-going worldliness there was more than enough. And a monastic life which is not supremely good becomes at once, from the high claims it makes, more than usually bad ; it degrades its own ideals in the sight of the world. Again, the work of the monasteries to a great extent was finished. For centuries they had been immeasurably in advance of the general standard of learning, but with the pro gress of the Renaissance they began to fall behind it. And the invention of printing made unnecessary one of their special forms of industry : the laborious copying of manuscripts was needful no longer. But, 333 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages above all, the time had come when either the whole constitution of the monastic system must be reformed or the episcopal system of the Church reduced to impotence. From quite early days, many of the regular clergy had"dedia^ of the English bishops, professing obedience only to~~TEeiF_abbot, and througlT~him ~to the Pone . Obviously this meant that there would be incessant strife between the abbots and the bishops, and the supremacy of the former was in flat contradiction to the first principles of Church government. . . . To imply that no reform at all was needed, that this dual system of Church government could be con tinued, that the monasteries were still adapted to meet the needs of the age, is to let partisanship obscure historical truth." Certainly the Reformation quickened the intelli gence of the people ; and when the excitement caused by the momentous changes had subsided, social life was brought under the dominion of a moral ideal that struck a happy mean between laxity on the one hand and severe austerity on the other. To pilgrimages the Reformation gave the deathblow, although these had long ceased to be devotional, and for generations before the destruction of shrines and relics the hlood-exuding crucifix and the weep ing images of the Virgin were regarded with a healthy scepticism ; and even such genuine relics as the Church possessed had lost a good deal of their miraculous virtue in the popular mind, with the result that they were of but little value as alms -drawing assets. It is interesting to note in this connection that on the accession of Mary no saint in all England was replaced in a shrine, with the single exception of Edward the Confessor at Westminster. Even the 334 The Reformation powerful Cardinal Pole at Canterbury left the saints in their obscurity, although he could hardly have believed that the effect of Henry's edicts would be permanent. A few extracts from the Injunctions of 1559 may be given : — "23. Also that they shall take away, utterly extinct, and destroy all shrines, coverings of shrines, all tables (engraved pictures), candlesticks, trindals and rolls of wax, pictures, paintings, and all monu ments of feigned miracles, pilgrimages, idolatry, and superstition, so that there remain no memory of the same in walls, glass -windows, or elsewhere within their churches and houses, preserving nevertheless, or repairing the walls and glass -windows, and they shall exhort all their parishioners to do the like within their several houses." "32. Item, that no persons shall use charms, sorceries, enchantments, witchcraft, soothsaying, or any such-like devilish device, nor shall resort at any time to the same for counsel or help." "35. Item, that no persons keep in their houses any abused images, tables, pictures, paintings, and other monuments of feigned miracles, pilgrimages, idolatry, and superstition." The Injunctions were followed by the Visitation Articles of the same year, among which we find : — " 2. Item, whether in their churches and chapels all images, shrines, all tables,- candlesticks ... be removed, abolished, and destroyed." "9. Whether they used to declare to their parishioners anything to the extolling or setting forth of vain and superstitious religion, pilgrimages, relics, or images, or lighting of candles, kissing, kneeling, or decking of the same images." 335 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages "45. Item, whether you know any that keep in their houses undefaced any images, tables, pictures, paintings, or other monuments of feigned or false miracles, pilgrimages, idolatry, and superstition, and do adore them, and specially such as have been set up in churches, chapels, or oratories." A glance through the churchwardens' accounts of the period, many of which have been printed, will show how general was the destruction of the shrines and relics to which pilgrimages had been made for centuries. With the passing! .pf-ihe miraculous and sajntly media the devotional pilgrimage was shattered beyo~nd™recovery,'"^rid"" quickly becamejbu$_. a„ pious memory. In conclusion, it may be of interest to mention that the general idea that the Reformation disposed once for all of the claims of the Church of Rome to certain abbeys and conventual churches in this country is quite erroneous. With regard to the possessions of the Benedictine Order, at any rate, their claim has been definitely stated in a most lucid manner by Henry Norbert Birt, O.S.B., in a letter to the Church Times, dated March 13, 1908, and written particularly with regard to the claim of the Roman Catholics to possess the Abbey of Glastonbury. The letter is so interesting and of so much historical value as an authoritative state ment from one of the most distinguished members of the Church of Rome in this country that no apology is needed for quoting it at length :— " After the dissolution of the religious houses by Henry VIII. some of the communities endeavoured to maintain their corporate existence, but in process of time died out. As long as the Orders that formerly existed in England were represented by 336 The Reformation members lineally descended from them, so long could they maintain a legal claim to their ancient posses sions. But as they died out their claims became extinct. Thus the English Carthusians, Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians, and the rest came to an end, and their modern representatives have sprung from entirely new beginnings, and can therefore have only a ' sentimental ' interest in the ancient posses sions of the respective Orders to which they belong. The same may be said of the hierarchy, though of course our contention is that the same authority which sent St. Augustine and his companions to England, and through them founded the Provinces of Canterbury and York and the various dioceses of England, might as legitimately replace them, and actually did so at the restoration of the hierarchy in 1850. The case of the Benedictines is, how ever, different. When Westminster Abbey, was re stored by Queen Mary, its abbot, Feckenham, a monk of Evesham, embodied in himself the claim of the corporate body of which he was the head to ,the former possessions of that body. When his com munity was dispersed in 1559 by Queen Elizabeth, its members still represented that claim ; and when one solitary member, Sigebert Buckley, finally re mained, all the accumulated rights of his spiritual ancestors were centred in him. He, in the providence of God, outlasted Elizabeth's long reign, having spent the whole of those forty-four years in various prisons for conscience' sake. Before his death, which occurred at a very advanced age, in 1 610, he had aggregated to himself and the ancient congregation of Black Monks, of which he was the sole survivor, two secular priests who had become monks, and by. that act, and their union with Englishmen, pro- 337 y Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages fessed in the Spanish congregation, that ancient English Benedictine Congregation has grown up again into the numbers it now possesses, and thus, through Sigebert Buckley, the one slender link with the past, the ' Benedictines of the modem Roman communion ' are the present-day representatives in unbroken line of the Benedictines who came to England with St. Augustine in 597. " There has, providentially, never been a snap in the chain of the Benedictine descent, as in that of the other Orders, and therefore the legal claim (by descent) to the old possessions has never ceased, though Anglicans may rest secure in the thought that as Bishop Ellis (himself a Benedictine of the old English Congregation) stated in the reign of James II., the 'Benedictines of the modern Roman communion ' will never disturb existing arrangements by urging such a claim to the ousting pf present owners. It is merely a ' sentimental ' ground which has caused us steadily to uphold our title to Glaston bury, St. Albans, Westminster, and the rest of the pre-Reformation Benedictine houses." The writer then goes on to say : "It may interest your readers to know that in Charles I.'s reign, when some folk entertained an ill-founded idea that England would shortly return to the obedience of the See of Rome, and that the old houses of religion and the Cathedrals would be restored, the English Bene dictines abroad actually allocated their members to the various Cathedral priories they had formerly possessed, as nucleus communities ready to man them whenever they might be handed over ; and from that day to this the said Congregation has main tained the titular Cathedral priorships in its midst, and the succession to Canterbury, Durham, Win- 338 The Reformation Chester, Worcester, Coventry, Norwich, Ely, Peter borough, Gloucester, Chester, Bath, and Rochester is complete. We have also amongst us the Abbots of Glastonbury, St. Albans, St. Mary's, York, Bury St. Edmund's, Evesham, Reading (the Right Rev. Francis Aidan Gasquet, Abbot-President), and West minster ; and if the rest, as Colchester or Pershore, are not filled, they are but in abeyance. " I may further point out that because our claim ' from sentimental grounds only ' to these houses has legally never determined, we form the important link between the old and the restored hierarchy, for it should be remembered that the communities of the above twelve Cathedral priories had the rights of election to their respective sees, as the Canons of the less numerous secular Cathedrals had to theirs ; and whatever a secular Parliament (without the concurrence of its ecclesiastical element, be it borne in mind) may have decreed, those ecclesiastical rights could never cease to be, and endure in posse, if not in esse." It is perhaps hardly necessary to point out that the claims set forth above in so crisp and lucid a manner apply only to the Benedictine Order ; and that the Church of Rome as a whole makes no such, claim, although the Church of England still recognises the Orders of Rome and admits Roman Catholics to her communion. If any doubt exists as to the position of Roman Catholics in England at the present day, the follow ing testimony of Father Humphrey, priest of the Society of Jesus, may help to elucidate it : "I do not defend the position, for I do not think it de fensible, inasmuch as I do not believe it to be true that we [i.e., Roman Catholics] represent the pre- 339 Pilgrim Life in the Middle Ages Reformation Church of England in the sense of our being a continuation of that body. We are a new Mission straight from Rome." "But with still clearer voice, and sweeter tongue, Thus speaks the legend, .' Sleep and death are one, Not diverse, and to death's long sleep there comes Awakening sure and certain, when the Dawn Of the Last Day shall come, and shall unseal The sleepers' eyes, and the swift sun of Spring Illumes the caves of sleep, and stirs the blood Which else had slumbered still. Yet since no sign Comes from the sleepers here, the yearning souls Which mark the struggling breath come short and faint, The tired eyes close, and the calm peace which smoothes The painful brow — and feel 'tis sleep — no more- Yet find no proof, cherish the legend fair, Because life longs to be, because to cease Is terrible, because the listening soul Waits for some whisper from beyond the grave, Waits still, as it has waited through all time, Waits undismayed, whate'er its form of creed, Nor fails, though all is silence, to believe, Deep in its sacred depths, too deep for thought, The Resurrection and the Life to be." Lewis Morris. 340 INDEX Abbotsworthy, 171 Abraham, 60 Adamnan, 24, 146 Addington, 179 Addison, 144 Adriatic, The, S3, 68, 151, 160, 161 Agincourt, 191 Agnes, Dame, 93 Agnus Dei, 37 Airth, 119 Aix-la-Chapelle, 36, 64, 96 Alastor, 73, 74 Albania, 151 Albury Park, 176 Aldeburgh, 132 Aldon. Thomas of, 193 Alexander III., Pope, 56, 161 Alexander IV., Pope, 80 Alexander VI., Pope, 56 Alexandria, 24, 125 Alfred, King, 25, 113, 168, 289 Alfrida, 268 Alice Holt Woods, 172 Allen, Grant, 170, 176 Alresford, 171 Altars, Portable, 112 Alton, 171 Amiens Cathedral, 126 Anchorets, see Hermits Ancona, 265 Ancren Riwle, The, 87, 88, 89 Angelico, Fra, 94 Angers, 50 Ap Rice, 332 Apulia, 50 Arabia, 19 Ararat, 30 Arcwulf, 24, 146 Areopagitica, The, 145 Ark, The, 30 Armenia, 125 Arms, Canting, 125 Arnoldi, Bishop, 69 Arragon, Catherine of, 241, 276 Arthur, King, 115, 146, 293 Arundel, Archbishop, 41, 43 Arundel, Earl of, 244, 288 Ashburton, 104 Ashridge, 260, 270 Asia, 136 Athanasius, 75 Athelm, Abbot, 108 Athelstan, 92, 177, 180, 302 Atlantic, The, 30 Aubrey, 200 Augustinian Canons, 177 Augustinians, The, 337 Austin Friars, 80 Avalon, Isle of, 77 Avington, 171 Avon, The, 93, 275 Aylesford, 179, 234 Babylon, 125 Bacon, 144 Bacton, see Bromholm Baddeley, St. Clair, 258, 261, 323 Bailey, Harry, 136, 208 Baldwin, Archbishop, 180 Baldwin, Count of Flanders, 251 Bale, 199 Bari, Abbey of, 51 Barmsey, see Bermondsey Abbey Barnardi, Richard de Castro, 360 Barnes, William, 133 Barsham, 35, 241 Bartholomew, Bishop, 326 Bath, 106, 339 Battle, 203 Beattie, 72 Beaufort, 174 Beauties of England and Wales, The, hi Bee, 203 Becket, 38, 46, 126, 127, 128, 131, 132, 168, 169, 174, 178, 202, 205, 212, 213, 271, 282, 286 Becket, Shrine of, 21, 29, 30, 65, 66, 127, 130, 170, 177, 184-199, 201, 203, 208, 217. 237i-3°7 Beckington, Bishop, 107 341 Index Beda, 24, 25, 34, 52, 54, ioi, 105, 112, 146, 299, 301, 306, 309, 326 Beere, Abbot, 287, 294 Bek, Anthony, 307, Belloc, Hilaire, 182 Benares, 17 Benedict, 197 Benedictines, The, 83, 304, 337, 338 Bentley, 172 Berkeley Castle, 271 Berkeley, Lord, 271, 272 Berkhampstead, 260 Bermondsey Abbey, 216, 217, Bernard, 155 Besancon, 36 Bethany, 163 Bethlehem, 37, 125, 152, 163 Betrichesworth, 294, 296 Beverley, 41, 84 Beverley, Robert of, 84 Bewdley, 82 Bibliotheca, Tanner's, 160 Bibury, 112 Bigberry Wood, 181, Biilingford, 203 Binsey, in Birmingham, 103, 254, 310 Birt, Henry Norbert, 336 Bishop's Sutton, 171 Bisley, 112 Blackadder, Robert, 162 Black Death, The, 27, 28 Black Monks, The, 337 Blean, Forest of, 206 Bodleian Library, The, 112 Bohemia, 99 Boleyn, Anne, 310 Bologna, 56, 141 Bond, Bligh, 220 Bond, Francis, 264 Boniface, Archbishop, 179, 201, 202, 234 Boniface, Pope, 323 Bonn, 71 Booh of Martyrs, The, 231, 233 Book of St. Chad, The, 309 Boughton Aluph, 181 Boulogne, Our Lady of, 132 Bourdon, Sir John, 124 Bourdon, The, 121 Boutell, 125 Bow, Our Lady of, 94 Bowen, 224 Boxhill, 176 Boxley Rood of Grace, 179, 227-235 Braganus, 115 Brand, 105 Brandon, 243, 248 Brentfield, 279 Breslau, 51 Breydenbach, Bernhard de, 167 Bristol, 272 Brithfrid, 268 British Medical Association, The, 39 British Museum, no, 128, 131, 132, 156, 163, 212, 302, 326 Brocquiere, de la, 155 Bromholm, Holy Cross of, 250-252, 294 Bromholm Priory, 250-252 Brownlow, Bishop, 153 Bruges, 264, 265 Buckingham, 232, 233 Buckley, Sigebtrt, 337, 338 Builder, The, 246 Bulls, Papal, 38, 329, 330 Burford, 176 Burghersh, Lord, 240 Burgundy, Philip of, 161 Burgwash, Bishop, 324 Burnet, 231, 261 Bury St Edmunds, 59, 294, 296, 298, 299. 304, 339 Buxton, 116 Byzantium, 19 CAEN, Paul of, 278 Caerleon, 277 Cain, 51 Callixtus III., Pope, 267, 322, 323 Calne, 198 Calvary, 54, 258 Calvin, 36 Cambrensis, Giraldus, 126 Cambridge 133, 300 Cambridge, Earl of, 205 Cambridge, King's College Chapel, 246 Camden, 123 Cann Church, 233 Canons, TruIIan, 81 Canterbury, 30, 35, 41, 46, 59, 77. "3, 126-130, 168-170, 173, 177, 180, 182, 184-199, 202, 204-215, 234, 286, 290, 335, 337, 33» Canterbury, Christ Church, 168, 177, 181, 195, 198, 205, 211, 287 Canterbury Tales, The, 44, 45, 135, 144, Canute, 105, 296 Caradoc, 108 Carileph, Bishop, 304 Carlisle, 108 " Carpenter's Wife," The, 142 Carthusians, The, 337 Cartwright, Julia, 182, 235 Castle Acre, 250, 252 Catherine Wheel, The, 225 Caxton, 159, 163 Cedwella, 24, 25 •¦ Cenwulf, 180, 342 Index Chalcis, 79 Chamber, Jeffrey, 233 Chana, 152 Chandler, William, 323 Chantries Wood, 173 Chard, Robert, 94 Charing, 180, 181 Charlemagne, 42 Charles I., 338 Charles V., 191, 241 Chartham Hatch, 181 Chatham, 235 J Chaucer, 28, 44, 47, 56, 1 2 1 , 1 26, 1 32-1 36, 143, 144^-206, 208, 215, 216, 250, 298, 299, 326 Chaucer Society, The, 132 Chawton, 171 Cheltenham, 106 "Chequer of the Hope," The, 205-210, 215, 217 Chester, 113, 310, 312, 339 Ghester-le-Street, 302 Chichester, 201, 287, 324 Chilham, 181 Chillenden, Prior, 206, 211 Chilworth, 175, 176 Chios, 151 Chipping Norton, 90 Church Times, The, 336 Ciderhouse Cottage, 174 Cistercians, The, 88 Claudius, Bishop, 52 Clavijo, 156 Clay, Rotha M., 199, 203, 325 Clement V., Pope, 147 Clement VII., Pope, 98, 330 Clent, 254-256 Clerkenwell, 118 " Clerk of Oxenford," The, 136 Clifton Campville, 90 Cobbett, William, 175, 176 Cobham Farm, 180 Codex Pomitentialis, The, 325, 326 Colbrand, 92 Colchester, 63, 339 Coldingham Abbey, 299, 301 Coldrum, 170 Colet, Dean, 213 Colley Hill, 176 Cologne, Three Kings of, see Magi Columbus, 30, 157 Compostella, 29, bj, 124, 129, 132, 141, 157. 159. 327 Compton, 90, 172, 173 Compton./nmiTy, 263 Congregation of Indulgences, The, 320 Conquest, The, 28 Constance, Council of, 99 Constantine, 53, '54, 55, 58, 302. Constantinople, 19, 24 52, 53, 54, 55 68, 152, 252, 294 Copronymus, Constantine, 52 Corfe Castle, 291 Cornhill, 223, 224 Cornwall, 170 Cornwall, Earl of, 260, 263 Corpus Christi, Procession of, 160 Corunna, 29, 30 Courtenay, Archbishop, 201 Coventry, 93, 339 Crabbe, John, 265 Crane, Walter, 321 Crayke, Etha of, 78 Creasy, Professor, 28 Crediton, 147 Crema, Guy de, 30 Crewkerne Church, 94 Croce-in-Gerusalemme, St., 53> 55, 58, 320 Cromwell, Thomas, 198, 199, 234, 331 Crosshaven, 116 Cross, The True, 49, 53-55, 63 Croyland, Guthlac of, 78 Crucifix, 51 Crusades, The, 18, 19, 76, 77, 98 Cudda, Abbot, 301 Curraunce, Robert, 246 Curtis, Cornelius, 53 Cutts, Rev. E. L., 83 Cuxton, 179, 234 Czerski, 71 Dalderby, John, 307, 308 Dallington Church, 86 Dalmatia, 67 D'Alsace, Thierry, 264 Dalton, Sir John de, 85 Damascus, 24, 125, 152 Dancers, The, 96, 97 Danes, The, 92, 278, 291, 296, 302, 308 D'Anjou, Sibylle, 264 Dante, 144 Darent, The, 177 Dartford, 84 Dawkins, Boyd, 170 Dawlish, 104 Day, Rev. Hermitage, 267 Deane, Rev. Anthony, 333 Deerhurst, 258 De Peregrtnatione, 244 De Quincey, 72 Derby, 308, 309 Dereham, 310 312 Dertling, 180 Devenish, John, 204 Didbrook, 323 Digges, family, 181 Dishington./flfmTy, 124 343 inaex Dissolution, The, 194, 235, 257, 304, 310, 332 " Doctor of Physic," The, 141 Domesday Survey, 180 Dominicans, The, 85, 337 Domus Dei, 203, 204, 205, 324 Doncaster, 85, 231 Dooms of King Ina, The, 146 Dorchester, 218 Dorking, 176 Doulting, 290, Dover, 159, 203, 204 Dover, Bishop of, 211 Dowman, John, 324 Downpatrick, 119 Drummond, family, 176 Drycthelm, 78 Dryden, 133, 144 Dudley, Prebendary, 310 Duff, W. Gordon, 162, 164 Dundalk, 115 Dunholme, see Durham Dunsfold, 90 Dunwich, 63 Duprez, Cardinal, 298 Durer, Albert, 94 Durham, 34, 77 Durham Cathedral, 59, 112, 3<"-3°5> 338 Durham, Reginald of, 305 Durham, Simeon of, 112 Dutt, W. A., 242, 245, 246, 250 EADBERT, Bishop, 301 Eadsige, 289 Early Travels in Palestine, 155 East Dereham Church, in Eastwell, 181 Ebba, 299 Ecgfrid, 299, 301 Edgar, 101, 289, 294 Edinburgh, 68 Edinburgh, General Session of, 327 Edington, 90 Edington, Bishop, 273 Edmundsbury see Bury St. Edmunds Edryge, Dame Agnes, 93 Edward I., 65, 188, 190, 203, 241, 271, 274, 276, 278, 284, 287, 298, 308 Edward II., 217, 218, 241, 271-273, 304 Edward III., 85, 133, 156, 159, 223, 272, 278 Edward IV., 26, 223, 232, 237 Edward VI., 262 Edward the Black Prince, 123, 213 Edward the Confessor, 126, 280-285, 296, 304, 334 Edward the Elder, 108, 302 Edwin, 108 Edwy, 291 Egypt, 18, 156 Eichstadt, 150, 153 Eleanor, Queen, 33, 260, 284, 298, 337 Elerius, no Elizabeth, Queen, 61, 62, 178, 205, 330 Elizabeth, Lady, 93 Ellesmere MS., The, I45 Ellis, Bishop, 338 Elliston-Erwood, Frank C, 182, 234 Ely, 299, 300, 301, 310, 312, 339 Ely, Isle of, 299 Emessa, 151, 152 Emmanuel, Emperor, 68, 191 England, 23, 42, 56, 57, 63, 77, 80, 90, 102, 106, 107, 108, 127, 156, 162, 163, 172, 175, 185, 189, 260, 272, 279, 296, 319, 33°, 334, 336 Eoves, 275 Ephesus, 151 Erasmus, 27, 123, 190, 191, 213, 239 244 Erneley, Willm., 289 Ernwulf, Prior, 185 Escallop, see Scallop Escurial, The, 37 Essenes, The, 72 Ethelbert, 180, 268, 270 Ethelburga, 146 Ethelred, 276, 291 Ethelstan, Bishop, 270 Ethelwold, Bishop, 289 Ethelwulf, 290 Eugenius IV., Pepe. 322, 323 Eulogium, The, 123 Europe, 21, 22, 31, 54, 76, 98, 105, 169, 189, 258, 293 Eutropius, 53 Evelyn, 108 Evesham, 275, 337 Evesham Abbey, 263, 339 Evesham, Battle of, 275 Exeter, 151 Fcedera, Rymer's, 158 Fairholt, F. W., 123, 136, 144 Fakenham, 243 Falkirk, 119 Farnham, 172 Farnham Castle, 172 Farrar, Dean, 189, 194, 195, 279 Fasting, 78, 79 Faverches, Godfrey de, 238 Faverches, Ricoldie de, 238 Feckenham, Abbot, 284, 285, 337 Fielding, 95 Figila, 151 Fitzherbert, see St. William 344 Index Fitzstephen, 197 Flagellants, 96-99 Flambard, Bishop, 303 Flamborough Head, 78 Flanders, Philip of, 191 Florence, 18 Florenz V., 260 Floyer, Sir John, 103 Eoley, Henry S. J., 310 Ford Abbey, 94 Forth, The, 119 Fowler, Richard, 232 Foxe, 231, 233, 261 Framlingham, 35 France, 34, 50, 77, 149, 279, 330 France, Louis of, 274 Francis I., 330 Franciscans, The, 83, 337 Franciotto, Canon, 150 " Franklin," The, 138 Frederick, Emperor, 68 Fregg, 102 Fremund, 294 Friars, Crutched, 56, 57 Friars of Orders Gray, The, 122, 123 Frithelstock, 329 Froude, J. A., 331 Fulda, 153 Fuller, Thomas, 1 14, 232, 250, 261 Fynnon Vair, 115 Gabriel, 222 Gaeta, 151 Gainsborough, 84 Galilee, 152 Ganges, 17 Gardiner, Bishop, 31 Gasquet, F. A., 56, 339 Gatton Park, 177 Gaul, 75 Gaunt, John of, 123, 133 Genoa, 18, 30, 132, 133 George IV., 174 Geraint, 146 Gerbridge, Lady Cecily, 31 Germany, 34, 71, 77, 98, 147, 148 Gervase, 184 Gibbon, 30, 34, 144 Glasgow, 59, 162 Glasgow Cathedral, 102, 103 Glastonbury, 77, 146, 201,286, 287,292- 294, 336, 339 Glastonbury, The Pilgrims' Inn, 46, 217-^221 Gloucester, 217, 255 Gloucester Cathedral, 59, 263, 271, 272, 289, 339 Gloucester, St. Nicholas Church, 85 Godmersham, 181 Golden Legend, The, 94 Goldsmith, 95, 144 Gomshall, 176 Gorgny, Wyllm,>88 Gosfling, 207 Grade, 90 Grandisson, Bishop, 319 Grantchester, 300 Gray's Inn, 104 Great Torrington, 329 Green, J. R„ 41 Gregory, Pope, 102, 147 Grey, Sir Thomas, 205 Grim, 197 Grosseteste, Robert, 307, 308 Grumbald, see St. Rumald Gueux, 265 Guildford, 173, 174 Guildforde, Sir Richard, 160, 161 Guildhall Museum, 128 Gulwell, see St. Gudula Guy, Earl of Warwick, 92, 93 HACKHURST Downs, 176 Hamble, The, 149 Hampole, Richard of, 85 Hamworthy, 171 Harbledown, 212, 213 Harrogate, 106 Harrow Way, The, 172 Hartshorn, Albert, 273 Hawte, James, 237 Hayles, 46 Hayles Abbey, 29, 35, 217, 258-264, 271, 322, 323 Headbourne Worthy, 170 Hearne, no Hebrews, Epistle to the, 73 Heidenheim, 148, 153, 154 Heinsburg, Philip von, 69 Henrietta Maria, 35 Henry II., 186, 191, 192, 199, 212, 282 Henry III., 240, 260, 274, 276, 278, 284, 298, 304 Henry IV., 43, 283 Henry V., 191 Henry VI., 92, 157, 242, 298, 304 Henry VII., 109, 186, 240, 284 Henry VIII, 26, 35, 45, 144, 180, 191, 194, 199, 231, 241, 281, 288, 325, 330, 33° Heraclius, 55 Herbert, 261 Hereford, 268, 270, 271 Hermits, 72-95 Hermit, The, 95 Herringham, 84 Hertford, 104 Hibernian Magazine, The, 119, 120 345 Index Higham Ferrers, 201 Hillborough, 248 Hilsey, John, 261 Hinguar, 296 Hippocrates, 64 Historia Lucensis, The, 150 History of Newcastle, The, 105 Hodasporicon, The, 148 Hoghton Chace, 288 Hog's Back, The, 172 Hogton, 84 Holinshed, 198, 243, 261 Hollingboume, 180 Holy Blood, 29, 35. 36, 46, 49, 71, 258- 362, 264, 265, 322, 323 Holybourne, 171 Holy Coat, see Seamless Garment Holy Land, The, 23, 24, 64, 92, 146, 148, I5S, IS6, 159. 160, 167, 180, 283, 294 Holy Sepulchre, The, 29, 52, 64, 125 Holy Stair, The, 71 Holystone, 113 Holy Thorn, 292, 293 Holywell, 108. 115 Holywell Street, 108 Honorius, Pope, 307 Horton, Thomas, 198 Hospitium, The, 200, 201, 203 Houghton-in-the-Dale, 248 Howfield Wood, 181 Hoxne, 296, 298 Huddleston, Family, 263 Humbert, Bishop, 296 Humphrey, Father, 339 Humphrey, Friar, 84 Hungerford, Isolda de, 93 Hunstanton, 296 Hyde Abbey, 171 INA, 25, 107, 146, 147, 293 Index Librorum Expurgandorum, 144 Index Librorum Prohibitorum, 144 India, 17, 75, 156 Indulgences, 314-325 Informacion for Pylgrymes, The, 45, 159, 163-167, 320 Injunctions (of 1559), 335 Innocent IV., Pope, 80 Innocent VIII., Pope, 56 Inn Signs, 222-225 Iona, 24, 146 Ipres, William De, 227 Ipswich, 231 Ireland, 106, 107, 115, 119 Isabella, Queen, 93, 272 Israelites, The, 101 Italy, 17, 18, 28, 50, 56, 57, 68, 98, ISI Itchen Abbas, 171 Itchen Stoke, 171 Itchen, The, 171 Ivanhoe, 95 Jaffa, 152, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165 James II., 211, 285, 286, 338 James V., 68 Jarrow, 105, 112, 306 Jehoshaphat, 163 Jersey, 258 Jerusalem, 21, 24, 29, 31, 34, 35, 45, 55. 64, 71, 76, 122, 123, 140, 141, 146, 148, 151, 152, 155, 159, i6o> 161, 163, 166 John, King, 28, 147, 274, 298 John, King of France, 213 John XXIII., Pope, 322 Jordan, The, 163, 166, 167 Jortin, 55 Judaea, 53 Julian, Lady, 93 Julius II., Pope, 317 Jupiter, 102 Jusserand, J. J., 40 KEMSING, 178 Kent, 170, 177, 203 Kenulf, King, 256 Kerslake, Mr., 151 King's Bridge Hospital, 205 King's Cross, 104 King's Lynn, see Lynn Kingswood, 272 Kingsworthy, 171 Kirby, 84 Kirkbeck, 84 Kit's Coty House, 170, 179 Kneesall, 84 Knights Hospitallers, 222 Knights Templars, 222, 271 Kyderminster, Richard, 257 Ladwell, 104 Ladywell, 104 Lambarde, 178, 227-231, Lancaster, Duke of, 92, 133 Landewednack, 90 Landry, Geoffroi de la Tour, 45 Lanfranc, 211 Langland, 79, 321 327 Langton, Stephen, 189, 205 Langton, Walter de, 93 Latimer, Hugh, 46, 231, 261 Lawe, Thomas, 92 Lawrence and Bullen, 164 Layton, Dr., 307, 332 Lebanon, 152 Lee, Bishop, 310 Leechwell, 104 Leek, 84 346 Index Legh, 332 Leland, 92, 112 Lenham, 180 Leo, 52 Leo X., Pope, 70, 317, 318 Leonius, Abbot, 264 Lichfield, 103, 147, 309 Lichfield, Bishop of, 93 Lichfield Cathedral, 309 Lidwell, see Lady well Liege, 156 Lincoln, 1 1 1, 307, 308 Lindisfarne, 301, 302, 305 Lipsius, 53 Liskeard, 114 Little St Hugh, 307, 308 Liverpool, 328 Llandaff, 268 Llanthony Priory, 267 Llanwit Major, 267 Lockhart, Father, 300 Loftie, W. J., 163 Lombardy, 34. London, 42, 56, 57, 63, 66, 71, 84, 104, 126-129, I72, 182, 189, 202, 216, 243, 283, 325, 332 Long, Sir Henry, 198 Looe, 114 Loretto, 29, 67, 68, 122, 237, 238 Lough Derg, 116 Louis VII., 30, 31, 33, 190, 191 Lower Saxony, 99 Lucca, 150 Lucy, Bishop, 171 Luther, Martin, 144, 317 Luxembourg, 330 Lychnoscopes, 87 Lydda, 152 Lyddington, 258 Lydgate, John, 143 280, 298 Lyndsay, 68 Lynn, 131, 244-249 Lyonesse, 115 Lyons, 64 Lytchett Minster,' 224 Macaulay, 17 Magdalen College, Oxford, 174 Magi, The, 61, 63, 68, 69, 141 Magna Charta, 189 Maidstone, 179, 202, 203, 231, 233, 234 Mainz, 321 Mailing Abbey, 202 Malmesbury Abbey, 155, 272, 290, 291 Malmesbury, William of, 155 Mantua, 258 Martin V., Pope, no, 322 Martyrsworthy, 171 Mary, Queen, 197, 281, 334, 337 Masham, Lord Scrope of, 84 Massingham, 84 Mandeville, Sir John, 155, 156 Maundrell, 155 Mawgan, 89 Mediterranean, 18, 20 Medway, The, 179, 234 Mellitus, Bishop, 102 Melrose Abbey, 78 Memling, 265 Memorials of Westminster Abbey, 94 Mentz. Albert of, 318 Merstham, 177 Milan, 37, 53, 64, 68, 189 " Miller," The, 139 Mill, J. S., 144 Milman, 79 Milton, 117, 144, 145, Milton Abbey, 322 Minto, W„ 161, 162 Mohammed, 35 Mole, The, 176 Moleyns, Adam, 324 Monkswearmouth, 306 " Monk," The, 143 Montaigne, 135 Monte Casino, 153, 154 Montfort, Simon de, 275, 276 Monza, 37 More, Sir Thomas, 42, 44, 66 Morice, Master, 46 Morley, Henry, 144 Morris, Rev. John, 195, 196 Morris, William, 133 Mortimer, family, 125 Moselle, The, 69 Moses, 60, 100, 101 Moule, Henry, 88 Mull, Isle of, 61 Munich, 156 Musselburg, 68 Muswell Hill, 118, 119 Muswell, Our Lady of, 119 Naples, 37, 151, 265 Navarre, Queen of, 308 Nazareth, 152, 163 Nazianzen, Gregory, 53 Newcastle, 85 Newman, Cardinal, 37, 38, 155 Newmarket, ,298 New River, The, 104 Nicene Council, 50 "Nonne," The, 138 Nonnus, 53 Norfolk and Suffolk Coast, The, 242 Norfolk, Duchess of, 35, 237 Norfolk, Duke of, 35 Norfolk, History of, 31 347 Index Norman, Philip, F.S.A., 215 Northemberg, 294 Northumberland, Earl of, 65 Norway, 28 Norwich, 93, 237, 242, 339 Oderic, 156, 284 Offa, 147, 268, 270, 278, 294 Olive, Mount of, 163 Ortha, 151 Osbern, 77 Ospringe, 203 Oswy, 299 Otford, 177, 178 Otterton, 328, 329 Oxford, 56, 57, 61, 62, 85, 105, m, 287, 324 Oxford, Christ Church, 276 Oxley, J., 324 Paddlesworth, 179 Padua, 64 Pageham, 84 Palestine, 18, 24, 35, 99, 238 Palestine Text Society, 148 Palmers, The, 99, 244, 327 Pandulf, Cardinal, 189 Pantaleon, Jacques, 260 " Pardoner," The, 136, 140, 326 Parnell, 95 Paris, 37 Paris, Matthew, 56, 251 Parker, Archbishop, 205 " Parson," The, 142, 143 Paslew, John, 92 Paston, John, 217, 237, 241, 251 Paston, Letters, 35, 237, 241 Paston, Margaret, 217, 241, 242 Patara, 151 Paulinus, 108, 267, 294 Paul II, Pope, 68, 322 Paul's Cross, 231, 261 Paul, the Hermit, 73, 74 Peasholme, 84 Pegoletti, 156 Pekin, 156 Penda, 232, 299 Penrice, 231 Pentin, Rev. Herbert, 322 Pepys, 218, 223 Perambulation of Kent, The, 227 Percy, family, 263 Pershore, 339 Pertinax, Abbot, 153 Perugia, 36 Peterborough, 290, 339 Peter's Pence, 147 Peter, the Hermit, 30, 76 133, Petrarch, 144 Petrie, 115 Piedmont, 150 " Piers Plowman," 28, 79, 125, 128, 250, 327 Pilate, 54, 71 Pilgrimage of Grace, 92 Pilgrims' Chapels, 172, 173, 174, 176, 245-248 Pilgrims' Costumes, 121-123, 136- 144 Pilgrims' Inns, 180, 200-226, 257 Pilgrims' Itineraries, I46-167 Pilgrims' Ports, 157-159 Pilgrims' Ships, 158, 164 Pilgrims' Signs, 42, 121-132, 209, 245 Pilgrims' Ways, 168-183 Pisa, 18, 30 Plague, The, 26-28, 97 Planche, J. R , 123, 136 Plemstall, 113 Pliny, 21 " Ploughman," The, 143 Plymouth, 159 Poictiers, 213 Poland, 99 Pole, Cardinal, 205, 335 Polo, Marco, 156, 157 Pont St. Mayence, Guernes du, 212 Poore, Richard, 88 Pope, 133 Portsmouth, 205, 324 Potter, Pascho, 328 Prick of Conscience, The, 85, 86 Provence, Sanchia of, 260 Pudsey, Hugh, 306 Pugin, 103 Puttenham, 172 Pynson, Richard, 160 Quack Vintners, The, 225 Quendrede, 254, 256 euenrida, 268 uin, 224 Rahere, 63 Rainier, 98 Ralegh, SirW., 121 Rama, 161, 320 Raphael, 319 Rapius, 285 Raynuldus, Archbishop, 68 Reading, 339 Recluses, see Hermits Redbourne, 278 Red Cross Knight, The, 94, 95 Red Mount Chapel, 245-248 " Reeve," The, 139 348 Index Reformation, The, 28, 45, 59, 60, 66, 103, 130, 144, 167, 184, 191, 194, 197, 200, 222, 233, 235, 237, 243, 250, 256, 290, 301, 306, 308, 310, 317, 327, 331- 340 Reigate, 56, 57, 176, 177 Relics, Sacred, 49-71 Reliquaries, Personal, 61 Rendle, William, F.R.C a, 215 Rettendon Church, 90 Reyner, Clement, 57 Rheims, 30, 189, 191 Rhine, The, 153 Rhodes, 64 Richard I, 30, 35, 155, 180, 191, 298 Richard II., 41, 159, 199, 224, 283 Richard III, 278 Richborough Castle, 92 Robertson, 144 Rochester, 56, 339 Roger, Bishop, 93 Rolle, Richard, see Hampole Rome, 21, 23-25, 31, 34, 36, 37, 39, S2, 53, 55. 57, 58, 7'. 76. 79, »4°, 141. 146, 147, 148, 151, 153, 163, 185, 188, 197, 254, 268, 270, 275, 277, 294, 319, 327. 34° Rome, Peter of, 284 Rome, St Peter's, 21, 57, 151, 254, 317, 318 Rom-Feoh, see Peter's Pence Ronge, Johann, 71 Roper, Ida M, 263 Ropley, 171 Rouen, 64, 149 Roxburghe Club, 163 Rufinus, 53 Rumbald, see St. Rumald Rupibus, Peter de, 205 Rye, 160 S^WULF, 155 Sagar, Stephen, 261 St. Abb's Head, 299 St. Acca, 112 St Alban, 266, 277-280 St. Alban's Abbey, 252, 274, 277-280, 338, 339 St. Aldhelm, 290, 308, 309 St. Alkmund, 294 St. Alphege, 188 St. Ambrose, 54 St. Amphibalus, 277, 278, 280 St. Andrew, 29, 38, 62, 107, 225 St Anselm, 195, 286 St. Anthony, 73, 75, 94, 143, 242 St. Anthony of Padua, 37 St. AppoUonia, 67 St. Asaph, 1 15 St. Augustine, 80, 92, 102, 180, 186, 197, 205, 211, 238, 272, 294, 298, 337, 338 St. Awdry, see St. Etheldreda St. Bartholomew, 62, 203 St. Basil, 264 St. Beda, see Beda St. Benedict, 78 St. Benno, 108, 109 St. Blaise, 188 St. Boniface, 147, 148, 153 St. Brigid's Well, 115 St. Brithstan, 301 St Candida, 292 St. Catherine, 225, 322 St. Catherine's Chapel, 173 St. Catherine's Ferry, 173, 174 St. Cecilia, 38 St. Chad, 93, 103, 104, 195, 309, 310 St. Chadd, see St. Chad St. Cleer, 114 St. Clement, 140 St. Cuthbert, 34, 63, 195, 301-306 St. Cyril, 55 St. David, 29, 39, 225, 266-268, 293 St. Dubricius, 268 St. Dunstan, 46 77, 188, 192, 221, 225, 273, 274, 286, 287, 291, 293 St. Edith, 178 St. Edmund, 29, 62, 105, 294, 296, 298, 304 St. Edward, see Edward the Confessor St. Edward the Martyr, 291 St. Egwin, 273, 275 St. Elphege, 286 St. Ermenilda, 300 St Etheldreda, 299-301 St. Frances, 38 St. Francis, 37 St. Francis Xavier, 38 St Frideswide, in, 276 St. Frigidian, 150 St. George, 225, 320 St. Germain, 67 St Germans, 113 St Gile's Fair, 172 St. Gudula, 104 St. Helena, 53-5°, °7, 6S. 69 St Hugh of Lincoln, 307, 308 St. Ippolitus, 67 St. James, 29, 118, 122-124, 157, 325, 327 St. Januarius, 37, 265 St Jerome, 23, 34, 52, 77, 7». 79. 94 St John, 20, 69, 118, 204, 265, 284 St. John Chrysostom, 153 St. John the Evangelist, 62 St. John Lateran, Church of, 71 St. John of Bridlington, 32 St. John the Baptist, 36, 93, 126, 127, 180, 186, 307 349 Index St. Joseph of Arimathea, 46, 293 St. Julian, 93, 204 St. Kenelm, 254-257, 271 St. Kentigern, 59, 103 St. Keyne, 114 St. Laurence, 177 St. Lebuin, 153 St. Leonard. 242 St. Loy, 66 St. Luke, 225 St Maddern, 115 St. Mark, 160, 165 St Margaret, 252, 325 St. Martha's Chapel, 173-176 St. Martin, 59, 225 St. Mary-le-Wigford, in St Mary Magdalene, 62 St. Michael's Mount, 115 St. Neots, 114 St. Nicholas, 51, 92, 172, 211 St. Nicholas, Isle of, 64 St. Ninian, 29, 59 St. Non, 267 St. Odo, 286 St. Olave, 132 St. Osmund, 218, 290 St. Oswald, 273, 274 St. Patrick, 29, 119, 120, 225 St. Paul, 38, 141, 152, 231 St. Paul's Cathedral, 66 St. Peter, 25, 37, 38, 71, 145, 201, 224, 238, 309, 318, 329 St. Peter ad Vincula, 224, 225 St. Philip, 250, 252 St. Plegmund, 113 St Raymund, 38 St. Richard, King, 25, 149-151 St. Richard of Chichester, 84, 287, 288 St. Roke, 67 St. Romuald, 93 St. Rumald, 232, 233 St. Saba, Monastery of, 152 St. Scholastica, 38 St. Sebastian, 67 St. Sexburga, 300 St. Simeon Stylites, 75, 76 St. Sophia, Church of, 68, 153 St. Stephen, 60, 62 St. Swithin, 168-172, 204, 286, 289, 290 St Sythe, 67 St. Teilo, 268 St. Thomas Aquinas, 316, 322 St. Thomas de Cantilupe, 270, 271 St. Thomas of Canterbury, see Becket St. Ursula, 265 St. Veronica, 57, 58, 140 St. Walburga, 148, 153-155 St. Werburg, 300, 310 St. Werburga, see St. Werburg St Wilfrid, 286 St. William of York, 307 St. Willibald, 148-155 St. Willihad, 153 St. Winibald, 149 St. Winifred, 37, 39, 108-111, 115, 322 St. Wita, see St. Candida St. Withberga, in St. Wulstan, 155, 273, 274, 282 St. Wunebald, 148, 153, 154 St. Wylgeforte, 67 Sala, G. A, 157 Salisbury, 60, 88, 217, 290, 323, 324 Salisbury, John of, 197 Salop, Robert of, no Samarcand, 156 Samos, 151 Sandwich, 30, 35 Sanguis Christi, see Holy Blood Santa Casa, The, 67, 68, 238 Santiago, 20, 129 Santo Spirito, Hospital of, 147 Saracens, The, 55, 147, 152 Saxon Chronicle, The, 291 Saxons, The, 92, 101, 146, 147, 148 Scales; Robert de, 125 Scallop Shell, 121, 123-125, 129, 132 Schiltberger, 156 Schlegel, Frederick, 23 Scone, 284 Scot, Dame Elizabeth, 93 Scotland, 24, 68, 106 Scrope, Lord, 205 Seale, 172 Seamless Garment, The, 53, 69, 70 Selwood, Abbot, 218 Sens Cathedral, 186 " Sergeant-at-Law," The, 138 Sergius, Pope, 24 Seville, 157 Shaftesbury, 212, 233, 292 Shaftesbury Abbey, 59, 291 Shakespeare, 135, 144 Shalford, 173 Sheepstown, 115 Shelley, 73 Sherborne Abbey, 94 Shere, 90, 176 Shoelands, 172 Shoreditch, 118 Shrewsbury, 93, no Shrewsbury, St. George's Chapel, 93 Shrines, 19, 20, 40-71, 266-312 Shrines, Bequests to, 32, 240, 241 Sicily, 151 Sidney, Thomas, 242 Sidon, 152 Sigismund, 191 Sigurd, 155 350 Index Siloam, 163 Simpson, 118 Sinai, 125 Skeat, Professor, 133 Smithfield, 203, 231 Snodland, 179, 234 Solinus, 21 Southey, 114 Southampton, 149, 170, 171, 204 Southwark, 129, 203, 208, 211, 214, Spain, 123, 140, 149, 162, 319 Spanheim, 72 Spelman, 241 Spence, Dean, 272, 276 ' Spenser, 94, 144 Sprenghoose, Emma, 93 " Squire," The, 137 Stafford, 84 Stafford, Henry, 237 Stamford 201 Stanley, Dean, 94 Stede Hill, 180 Stephens, Henry, 51 Stirling, 68 Stone of Destiny, 284 Stoole, 119 Stopeham, 84 Storey, Bishop, 288 Stour, The, 127 Stow, 118, 198, 223, 224 Street, 205 Sudbury, Archbishop, 182, 192, 193 Suffield, Walter de,\ 84 Surrey, 177 Surridge, Ralph, 246 Sutton, Bishop, 105 S waff ham, 243, 248 Swift, 135, 144 Swinfield, Richard, 270 Sylvester, Bishop, 274 Syria, 18 Tabard Inn, The, 129, 213-217 Tamerlane, 156 Tarrant Crawford, 87 Tarrant Keinston, 87, 88 Tartary, Khan of, 156 Taverches, see Faverches Tavistock, 61 Tennyson, 75, 234 Terracina, 151 Tetzel, John, 318, 319 Tewkesbury, 217 Thames, The, 127, 128, 130 Thaysis, 94 Thebaid, 73 Theodore, Archbishop, 326 Theodoret, 76 Thetford, 203 215 Thewith, 108 Thokey, Abbot, 272, 273 Thomas the Chaplain, 84, 85 Thorganby, 84 Thornham, 180 Thornton, 85 . Thorpe, William, 41 Thorpness, 132 Tiber, The, 275 Tissington, 116, 117 Titsey, 177 Titsey Park, 177 Tobar-na-Druadh, 115 Torkyngton, Sir Richard, 64, 162 Tortosa, 151 Totnes, 104 Toulbert, 299 Tours, Gregory of, 52 Tower Hill, 193 Treasury, The, 333 Treves, 37. 53, 69, 70, 71 Trompington, Sir R., 124 Trumpington, William, 274 Tuck, Alexander, 329 Tudela, Benjamin of, 155 Tunbridge Wells, 106 Turin, 37 Turner, Thackeray, 173 Tyburn, 35 Ty Gwyn, 267 Tyre, 152 Tyting Farm, 175 Urban IV, Pope, 260, 287 Urry, 208, 215, 216 Vatican, The, 144, 147, 317 Venice, 18, 29, 30, 160, 161-166 Venus, 54, 102 Vernicle, The, 132, 140, 141 Verulam, 277, 278 Virgin Mary, 32, 36, 37, 51, 52, 57, 59, 60, 62, 67, 68, 92, 116, 121, 132, 152, 174, 188, 222, 231, 279 Vortigern, 180 Vowell, William, 107 Wales, 107, 108, 115, 266, 267, 271, 274 Walkelyn, Bishop, 290 Wallace, Father, 105 Wall, J. C, 257, 282, 288 Walsingham, 30, 35, 36, 41, 46, 129, 132, 203, 217, 231 Walsingham Green Way, 243 Walsingham, Our Lady of, 29, 42, 236- 248, 294, 327 Walter, Hubert, 180, 205 Walter the Hermit, 78 Waltham,. 243 351 Index Wardenlawe, 302 Ward, Robert, 199 Ware, 104, 243 Wareham, 291 Warham, Archbishop, 287 Warkworth, 82 Warmington, 90 Warmington Grange, 257 Warner, 220 Warrenne, William of, 177 Warth, 84 Warwick, 60 Wauncey, Richard de, 173 Waynflete, Bishop, 174 Weary-all-Hill, 293 Well-dressing, 116, 117 Wells, 107, 201 Wells Cathedral, 107 Wells, Churchyard, m-120 Wells, Holy, 100-120 Wendover, Roger of, 250 Western Morning News, 221 West Kineton, 46 Westlake, N. H. J, 193 Westminster, 27, 304, 330, 334, 337-399 Weston Wood, 176 Westwell, 181 Wetheral, 82 Wey, The, 173 Wey, William, 159, 160 Whalley, St. Mary's Church, 92 Whetamstede, Abbot, 280 Whitby, John, 160 Whitchurch Canonicorum, 291, 292 WhitechUrch, William, 323 White Horse Stone, 179 Wickwaine, William de, 307 "Wife of Bath," The, 45, 136, 141 142 Wildman, W. B, 94 William, Archbishop, 191 William, Count of Holland, 260 Williams, John, 194 William I, 147, 282, 304 William II, 274 Wilts, Earl of, 157 Wimborne, 325 Wimborne Minster, 59 Winchcombe, 217, 254-258, 271 Winchelsea, Archbishop, 211 Winchester, 61, 92, 93, 168-170, 172, 174, 182, 203, 273, 286, 289, 339 Windeatt, E, 104 Winfarthing, 252, 253 Winfrid, J4 Wirksworth, 116 Wittenberg, 317 Woden, 102 Wolsey, Cardinal, 27, 223 Wood, 159 Woodbury Church, 328 Wooing of Our Lord, The, 88 Worcester, 155, 232, 273, 339 Worcester, Our Lady of, 46, 231 Wordsworth, 135 Worthing, 171 Worthin, Robert, 93 Worth Maltravers, 171 Wright, Thomas, 133, 155, 160 Wriothesley, 198 Wrotham, 179 Wyatt, 258, 290 Wycliffe, 43, 184 Wygfair, 115 Wygmore, John, 273 Wykeham, William ot,-6l, 273 Wynken de Worde, 45, 157, 159, 163, 320 Yelverton, Sir W, 241 Yeoca, Abbess, 301 "Yeoman," The, 139 York, 78, 84, 108, 112, 203, 307, 337, 339 York, Alcuin of, 78 York Wills, 32 Zechariah, 53 Zion, Mount of, 163 VNWIN BROTHERS, UMITED, THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON. 3 9002