Chapter XXVIII: Conclusion (2)

[134] It is easy to understand how Jews themselves came back to England under the guise of Lombards. We know enough, from many other sources, of the evils which followed from the inconsistent efforts to outlaw all takers of interest, to appreciate the truth which underlay the obvious exaggerations of the Commons in their petition to the King in 1376. "There are in our land a very great multitude of Lombards, both brokers and merchants, who serve no purpose but that of ill-doing: moreover, several of those which pass for Lombards are Jews and Saracens and privy spies; and of late they have brought into our land a most grievous vice which it beseems us not to name" ("Rot. Parl.," vol. ii., p. 352, Sec. 58).

[135] Benvenuto da Imola, "Comentum," vol. i., p. 579; Etienne de Bourbon, p. 254; Nicole Bozon, pp. 35, 226; "Piers Plowman," B., iii., 38; cf. Gower, "Mirour," 21409.

[136] "Mirour," 25429 ff., 25237 ff., 25915. Mr. Macaulay remarks that Gower seems to deal more tenderly with his own merchant-class than with other classes of society; but his blame, even with this allowance, is severe.

[137] "Mirour," 25813. The emphasis which he lays on carpets and curtains shows how great a luxury they were then considered.

[138] "In justice, however, to these centuries, it must be remarked, that they received the institutions of Frankpledge as an inheritance from Saxon times" (Riley).

[139] "To these writs return was made [in 1354] to the effect that the civic authorities had given orders for butchers to carry the entrails of slaughtered beasts to the Flete and there clean them in the tidal waters of the Thames, instead of throwing them on the pavement by the house of the Grey Friars." Again: "Although this order [of 1369] was carried out and the bridge destroyed, butchers continued to carry offal from the shambles to the riverside; and this nuisance had to be suppressed in 1370." But the whole passage should be read in full.

[140] Vol. I., cxxxviii. ff. and 365 ff.

[141] Mrs. Green, "Town Life," ii., 55.

[142] Between 1347 and 1375, for instance, there are only 23 cases of pillory in all.

[143] It is pertinent to note in this connection the medieval custom of giving condemned meat to hospitals. Mr. Wheatley ("London," p. 196) quotes from a Scottish Act of Parliament in 1386, "Gif ony man brings to the market corrupt swine or salmond to be sauld, they sall be taken by the bailie, and incontinent, without ony question, sall be sent to the leper folke; and, gif there be na lepper folke, they sall be destroyed all utterlie." At Oxford in the 15th century, there was a similar regulation providing that putrid or unfit meat and fish should be sent to St. John's Hospital. ("Munimenta Academica" (R.S.), pp. 51, 52). Here is a probable clue to the tradition that medieval apprentices struck against salmon more than twice a week. See _Athenaeum_, August 27 and September 3, 1898.

[144] Besant insists very justly on the blood-kinship between the leading citizens and the country gentry. ("Medieval London," i., 218 ff.) He shows that a very large majority of Mayors, Aldermen, etc., were country-born, and of good family.

[145] Michelet, "Hist. de France," l. i., ch. i.

[146] John Philpot, it may be noted, was at this very time one of the Collectors of Customs under Chaucer's Comptrollership.

[147] "C. T.," E., 995.

[148] The violent scenes of the years 1381-1391 are summarized in Wheatley's "London" (Medieval Towns), pp. 236-9. Among the victims of an unsuccessful cause were even Sir William Walworth and Sir John Philpot.

[149] Walsingham, an. 1392; "Eulog. Hist.," iii., 368.

[150] Ed. Luce, vol. i., pp. 224, 243, 249.

[151] Cf. Mrs. Green, _loc. cit._, ii., 31. "In 1499 a glover from Leighton Buzzard travelled with his wares to Aylesbury for the market before Christmas Day. It happened that an Aylesbury miller, Richard Boose, finding that his mill needed repairs, sent a couple of servants to dig clay 'called Ramming clay' for him on the highway, and was in no way dismayed because the digging of this clay made a great pit in the middle of the road ten feet wide, eight feet broad, and eight feet deep, which was quickly filled with water by the winter rains. But the unhappy glover, making his way from the town in the dusk, with his horse laden with panniers full of gloves, straightway fell into the pit, and man and horse were drowned. The miller was charged with his death, but was acquitted by the court on the ground that he had had no malicious intent, and had only dug the pit to repair his mill, and because he really did not know of any other place to get the kind of clay he wanted save the highroad."

[152] Etienne de Bourbon, p. 411.

[153] T. Wright, "Homes of other Days," pp. 345 ff., whence I borrow the accompanying illustration from a MS. of the 15th century, representing the outside and inside of an inn. Incidentally, it illustrates also the common medieval phrase "naked in bed." Mrs. Green ("Town Life," ii., 33) quotes the grateful entry of a citizen in his public accounts "Paid for our bed there (and it was well worth it, witness, a featherbed) 1_d._"

[154] There were _seventy_ places of pilgrimage in Norfolk alone (Cutts, "Middle Ages," p. 162). For churches as trysting-places for lovers or gossips we have evidence on many sides, _e.g._ the lovers of the "Decameron" (Prologue and Epilogue), and the custom of "Paul's Walk" which lasted long after the Reformation.

[155] Berthold v. Regensburg, "Predigten," ed. Pfeiffer, i., 448, 459, 493; Et. de Bourbon, p. 167; "Piers Plowman," B., v., 527, C., v., 123; Wharton, "Anglia Sacra," i., 49, 50.

[156] "Wyclif's Works," ed. Arnold, i., 83; cf. other quotations in Lechler; "Wiclif," Section x., notes 286, 288; Jusserand, "Vie Nomade," p. 296; Foxe (Parker Soc.), vol. iii., p. 268.

[157] Chaucer himself tells us the day in the "Man of Lawe's Prologue"; Prof. Skeat has accumulated highly probable evidence for the year 1387 (vol. iii., p. 373, and vol. v., p. 75).

[158] About 520 feet from the ground, according to Hollar, but more probably a little short of 500 feet. (H. B. Wheatley, "London," p. 333.) It must be remembered also how high the cathedral site rises above the river.

[159] Bern. Ep. 25; cf. "Liber Guillelmi Majoris," p. 478.

[160] Skeat, v., p. 129. "In the subsidy Rolls (1380-1) for Southwark, occurs the entry 'Henri Bayliff, Ostyler ... 2_s._' In the Parliament held at Westminster (1376-7) Henry Bailly was one of the representatives for that borough, and again, in the Parliament at Gloucester, 2, Rich. II., the name occurs."

[161] The too strict avoidance of oaths had long been authoritatively noted as suggesting a presumption of heresy; here (as in so many other places) Chaucer admirably illustrates formal and official documents.

[162] About L1000 in modern money.

[163] "Its unsuitableness to the Clerk has often been noticed," writes Mr. Pollard; but surely those who find fault here have forgotten the obvious truth voiced by the Wife of Bath, "For trust ye well, it is impossible that any clerk will speake good of wives."

[164] This highly dramatic addition of the Canon and his Yeoman is probably an afterthought of Chaucer's, who had very likely himself suffered at the hands of some such impostor.

[165] There is, as Prof. Skeat points out, an inconsistency here in the text. We can see from Group H., l. 16 that Chaucer had at one time meant the Manciple's tale to be told in the morning; yet now when it is ended he tells us plainly that it is four in the afternoon (Group I., 5).

[166] An allusion to the alliterative verse popular among the common folk, like that of "Piers Plowman."

[167] It was mostly destroyed by fire in 1865. Most writers on Canterbury, misled by the ancient spelling, call the inn "Chequers of the Hope." _Hope_, as Prof. Skeat has long ago pointed out, is simply _Hoop_, a part of the inn sign. Cf. Riley, "Memorials of London," pp. 497, 524; and "Hist. MSS. Commission," Report v., pt. i., p. 448.

[168] Mrs. Green, "Town Life," ii., 33.

[169] A. Murimuth, ed. Hog., p. 225.

[170] Walsingham, an. 1349; Hoccleve, E.E.T.S., vol. iii., p. 93.

[171] Ed. Buchon, i., 286; ed. Luce, iv., 327.

[172] Longman, "Edward III.," i., 225, 413.

[173] Longman, "Edward III.," vol. i., pp. 147, 157, 178.

[174] Ed. Buchon, i., 12, 34; ed. Luce, i., 284-287.

[175] Cf. Darmesteter, "Froissart," p. 16, and Froissart, ed. Buchon, p. 512. "The good queen Philippa was in my youth my queen and sovereign. I was five years at the court of the King and Queen of England. In my youth I was her clerk, serving her with fair ditties and treatises of love; and, for the love of the noble and worthy lady my mistress, all other great lords--king, dukes, earls, barons and knights, of whatsoever country they might be--loved me and saw me gladly and gave me much profit."

[176] I cannot refrain here from calling attention to the extraordinary historical value of the eight volumes of Exeter registers published by Prebendary Hingeston-Randolph, who in this department has done more for historical students, during the last twenty-five years, than all the learned societies of the kingdom put together.

[177] Ed. 1812, p. 317. The text of this book is frequently corrupt; but the evident sense of these ungrammatical lines 3-5 is that the envoys were allowed to watch the unsuspecting damsels from some hidden coign of vantage. It will be noted that Hardyng speaks of _five_ daughters; there had been five, but the eldest was now dead.

[178] Ed. 1841, p. 206. She was Katherine, daughter to Sir Adam Banastre. Miss Strickland asserts that the Queen, contrary to the custom of medieval ladies in high life, nursed the infant herself. She gives no reference, and her authority is possibly Joshua Barnes's "Life of Edward III." (1688), p. 44, where, however, references are again withheld. The Black Prince was born June 15, 1330, when the King would have been 19 and the Queen just on 16 years old according to Froissart; but Edward was in fact only 17, and Bishop Stapledon's reckoning would make the Queen about the same age.

[179] Throughout this chapter I multiply the ancient money by fifteen, to bring it to modern value.

[180] Such acts of vandalism were far more common in the Middle Ages than is generally imagined; a good many instances are noted in the index of my "From St. Francis to Dante."

[181] Devon, "Issues of the Exchequer," pp. 144, 153, 155, 199; "York Fabric Rolls," p. 125; cf. 154. It was one of the privileges of the Archbishops of York to crown the Queen. For the mortuary system, see my "Priests and People in Medieval England." (Simpkins. 1_s._)

[182] Clough, "Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich."

[183] "Mon. Germ. Scriptt.," xxxii., 444.

[184] "Mirour," 23893 ff.

[185] Lenient, "Satire en France" (1859), p. 202.

[186] Sacchetti, "Novelle," cliii.; Ste-Palaye, "Chevalerie," ii., 80.

[187] Mr. Rye (_l. c._) points out how frequent was the interchange between London and Lynn. Another colleague of John Chaucer's, John de Stodey, Mayor and Sheriff of London, had been formerly a taverner at Lynn.

[188] "Mirour," 7225: Cf. "Piers Plowman," C., vii., 248. Readers of Chaucer's "Prologue" will remember this mysterious word "chevisance" in connection with the Merchant. Its proper meaning was simply _bargain_: the slang sense will be best understood from a Royal ordinance of 1365 against those who lived by usury; "which kind of contract, the more subtly to deceive the people, they call _exchange_, or _chevisance_."

[189] "Vie Nomade," pp. 33, 46.

[190] These were, of course, fines for breaches of the assize of ale, as in the Norwich cases already mentioned.

[191] In 1347 his total income was L2460, out of which he saved L1150. In the two other years given by Smyth he saved L659 and L977. Some knights even made a living by pot-hunting at tournaments. See Ch.-V. Langlois, "La Vie en France au M. A.," 1908, p. 163.

[192] Cf. a similar instance in Riley, p. 392.

[193] The Shillingford Letters show us the Bishop and Canons of Exeter selling wine in the same way at their own houses (p. 91).

[194] Oman, "Art of War in the Middle Ages," 380 ff.

[195] Buchon, i., 349, 431; Globe, 349.

[196] "Mirour," 24625. Cf. the corresponding passage in the "Vox Clamantis," Bk. VI. According to Hoccleve, "Law is nye flemed [= banished] out of this cuntre;" it is a web which catches the small flys and gnats, but lets the great flies go (_Works_, E.E.T.S., iii., 101 ff.).

[197] Walsingham, an. 1381. The evil repute of jurors is fully explained by Gower, "Mirour," 25033. According to him, perjury had become almost a recognized profession.

[198] Gautier, _loc. cit._, p. 352.

[199] Lyndwood, "Provinciale," ed. Oxon., p. 272.

[200] "Piers Plowman," B., xv., 237, and xx., 137.

[201] Pollock and Maitland, "History of English Law," vol. i., p. 387; Lyndwood, "Provinciale," pp. 271 ff. It is the more necessary to insist on this, because of a serious error, based on a misreading of Bishop Quivil's injunctions. The bishop does, indeed, proclaim his right and duty of _punishing_ the parties to a clandestine marriage; but, so far from flying in the face of Canon Law by threatening to _dissolve_ the contract, he expressly admits, in the same breath, its binding force.--Wilkins, ii., 135.

[202] Wilkins, "Concilia," i., 478.

[203] Froissart, Buchon, iii., 235, 258.

[204] "Piers Plowman," C., xi., 256. Gower speaks still more strongly, if possible, "Mirour," 17245 ff. Chaucer's friend Hoccleve makes the same complaint (E.E.T.S., vol. iii., p. 60), and these practices outlasted the Reformation. The curious reader should consult Dr. Furnivall's "Child Marriages and Divorces" (E.E.T.S., 1897).

[205] "Adam of Usk," p. 3; cf. "Eulog. Hist.," iii., 355 (where the price is given as 22,000 marks), and 237, where the negotiations for another Royal marriage are described with equally brutal frankness.

[206] Froissart, Buchon, ii., 758.

[207] "Paston Letters," 1901, Introd., p. clxxvi.; cf. for example, Thorold Rogers' "Hist. of Ag. and Prices," ii., 608. "Megge, the daughter of John, son of Utting," pays only 1_s._ for her marriage; but "Alice's daughter" pays 6_s._ 8_d._; and so on to "Will, the son of John," and "Roger, the Reeve," who each pay 20_s._ That is, it was possible for the lord of the manor to squeeze L20 in modern money out of a single peasant marriage.

[208] Sarradin, "Deschamps," p. 256.

[209] Riley, p. 379. It must, however, be remembered that the ordinary rate of interest then was twenty per cent. Thus Robert de Brynkeleye receives the wardship of Thomas atte Boure, who had a patrimony of L300 (14th-century standard). With this Robert trades, paying his twenty per cent. for the use of it, so that he has to account for L1080 at the heir's majority. Of this he takes L120 for keep and out-of-pocket expenses, and L390 for his trouble, so that the ward receives L570. The Royal Household Ordinances of Edward II.'s reign provide for the maintenance of wards until "they have their lands, or the king have given _or sold_ them."--"Life Records," ii., p. 19.

[210] Ste-Palaye, _loc. cit._, i., 64 ff.; ii., 90. This rule of age, like all others, had, however, been broken from the first. As early as 1060, Geoffrey of Anjou knighted his nephew Fulk at the age of 17; and such incidents are common in epics. Princes of the blood were knighted in their cradles.

[211] Walsingham, ann. 1307, 1381; "Eulog. Hist.," iii., 189, 389. The woman avoided the battle only by withdrawing her accusation.

[212] Gower, "Mirour," 17521.

[213] "Prediche Volgari," ii., 115, and iii., 176.

[214] I quote from the 15th-century English translation published by the E.E.T.S. (pp. 25, 27, 81; cf. 23, 95; the square bracket is transferred from p. 23). Between 1484 and 1538 there were at least eight editions printed in French, English, and German.

[215] Rashdall, "Universities of Europe," ii., 599.

[216] Pp. 8, 18, 33, 36, 156, 207, 217, 218, and _passim_.

[217] "Most of the girls in our 'Chansons de Geste' are represented by our poets as horrible little monsters, ... shameless, worse than impudent, caring little whether the whole world watches them, and obeying at all hazards the mere brutality of their instincts. Their forwardness is not only beyond all conception, but contrary to all probability and all sincere observation of human nature." Gautier, _l. c._, p. 378.

[218] There is a very interesting essay on "Chaucer's Love Poetry" in the _Cornhill_, vol. xxxv., p. 280. It is, however, a good deal spoiled by the author's inclusion of many works once attributed to the poet, but now known to be spurious.

[219] Bk. IV., ll. 152, 158, 367, 519, 554, 564.

[220] "Paston Letters" (ed. Gairdner, 1900), ii., 364; iv., ccxc.

[221] Few tales illustrate more clearly the woman's duty of accepting any knight who made himself sufficiently miserable about her, than that of Boccaccio, which Dryden has so finely versified under the name of Theodore and Honoria. Equally significant is one of the "Gesta Romanorum" (ed. Swan., No. XXVIII.).

[222] Quoted by S. Luce, "Bertrand du Guesclin," 1882, p. 124.

[223] The essentially compulsory foundation of Edward III.'s armies, for at least a great part of his reign, seems to have been overlooked even by Prof. Oman in his valuable "Art of War in the Middle Ages."

[224] Froissart, ed. Luce, i., 401. It was at this time that Edward also proclaimed the duty of teaching French for military purposes, as noted in Chap. I. of this book.

[225] "Norwich Militia in the 14th Century" (Norfolk and Norwich Arch. Soc.), vol. xiv., p. 263.

[226] Knighton (R.S.), ii., 42, 44, 109.

[227] The Scots themselves had found out long before this who were their most formidable enemies. Sir James Douglas had been accustomed to cut off the right hand or put out the right eye of any archer whom he could catch.

[228] Compare the interesting case in Gross, "Office of Coroner," p. 74. Two conscripts, on their way to join the army, chanced to meet at Cold Ashby the constable who was responsible for their being selected; they ran him through with a lance and then took sanctuary. It is significant that they were not hanged, but carried off to the army; the King needed every stout arm he could muster.

[229] Tournaments not infrequently gave rise to treacherous murders and vendettas, as in the case of Sir Walter Mauny's father (Froissart, Buchon., i., 199). Compare also the scandal caused by the women who used to attend them in men's clothes (Knighton, ii., p. 57). Luce, however, very much overstates the Royal objections to jousts (pp. 113, 141). He evidently fails to realize what a large number of authorized tourneys were held by Edward III.

[230] Froissart, Globe, 94-97.

[231] Denifle, "La Desolation des Eglises," etc., vol. i., pp. 497, 504, 514. Two pages from English chroniclers are almost as bad as any of the iniquities printed in Father Denifle's book, viz. the sack of Winchelsea (Knighton, ii., 109) and Sir John Arundel's shipload of nuns from Southampton (Walsingham, an. 1379; told briefly in "Social England," illd. ed., vol. ii. p. 260).

[232] Cf. Knighton, ii., 102.

[233] Green, "Town Life," i., 130. "At the close of the 14th century a certain knight, Baldwin of Radington, with the help of John of Stanley, raised eight hundred fighting men 'to destroy and hurt the commons of Chester'; and these stalwart warriors broke into the abbey, seized the wine, and dashed the furniture in pieces, and when the mayor and sheriff came to the rescue nearly killed the sheriff. When in 1441 the Archbishop of York determined to fight for his privileges in Ripon Fair, he engaged two hundred men-at-arms from Scotland and the Marches at sixpence or a shilling a day, while a Yorkshire gentleman, Sir John Plumpton, gathered seven hundred men; and at the battle that ensued, more than a thousand arrows were discharged by them."

[234] Ed. Luce, i., 213, 214; cf. 312.

[235] Mrs. Green, _l. c._, i., 131.

[236] This point is treated more fully in the next chapter.

[237] Denifle, _l. c._, pp. 497, 504.

[238] "More than three thousand men, women, and children were beheaded that day. God have mercy on their souls, for I trow they were martyrs." Froissart (Globe), 201.

[239] Ed. Luce, pp. 214, 249, 337.

[240] Trevelyan, "England in the Age of Wycliffe," 1st Edn., p. 195.

[241] "Conseil" (in Appendix to Ducange's "Joinville"), chap. xxi., art. 8. The writer insists strongly, at the same time, on the lord's responsibility to God for his treatment of a creature so helpless.

[242] C., iii., 177. For the Reeve's duties, see Smyth, "Berkeleys," vol. ii., pp. 5, 22.

[243] "Those who demand such mortuaries are like worms preying on a corpse" (Cardinal Jacques de Vitry, quoted in Lecoy de La Marche, "Chaire Francaise," p. 388). Having already, in my "Medieval Studies" and my "Priests and People," dealt more fully with this and several points occurring in the succeeding chapters, I can often dispense with further references here.

[244] This is admirably discussed by Mr. Corbett in chap. vii. of "Social England."

[245] Froissart, Buchon, ii., 150. Leadam, "Star Chamber" (Selden Soc.), p. cxxviii. Trevelyan, _l. c._, p. 185.

[246] Vitry, "Exempla," pp. 62, 64; "P. P.," A., iv., 34 (cf. Lecoy., _l. c._, 387); Jusserand, "Epopee Mystique," 114; and "Vie Nomade," 81, 261, 269.

[247] Walsingham, an. 1381; cf. the record in Powell, "Rising in East Anglia," p. 130. The rioters compelled the constable of the hundred of Hoxne to contribute ten conscripted archers to their party.

[248] It must be remembered that the loyal soldiers also had shown in this matter a pusillanimity which contrasted remarkably with their behaviour in the French wars; Walsingham notes this with great astonishment. The quotations are from the "Chronicle of St. Mary's, York," in Oman, Appendix V., pp. 188-200.

[249] An. 1381; cf. "Eulog. Hist.," iii., 353. The original of both these descriptions seems to be Gower, "Vox Clam." i., 853 ff.

[250] _L. c._, p. 255.

[251] The first general Sanitation Act for England was that of the Parliament held at Cambridge in 1388, and is generally ascribed to the filth of that ancient borough.

[252] "Chronicles of London" (4to., 1827), p. 65. "Eulog. Hist." iii., 353.

[253] C., ix., 304; B., v., 549. It will be noted how nearly this diet accords with that of the widow and her daughter in Chaucer's "Nuns' Priest's Tale"; cf. Langlois, "La Vie en France au M-A.," p. 122.

[254] "Rot. Parl." ii., 340.

[255] _L. c._, C., ix., 331.

[256] _L. c._, C., x., 71 ff. "Papelots" = porridge; "ruel" = bedside; "woneth" = dwell; "witterly" = surely; "and fele to fong," etc. = "and many [children] to clutch at the few pence they earn; under those circumstances, bread and small beer is held an unusual luxury." "Pittance" is a monastic word, meaning extra food beyond the daily fare.

[257] An Act of 1495 provided that "from the middle of March to the middle of September work was to go on from 5 a.m. till between 7 and 8 p.m., with half an hour for breakfast, and an hour and a half for dinner and for the midday sleep. In winter work was to be during daylight. These legal ordinances were not perhaps always kept, but they at least show the standard at which employers aimed" ("Social England," vol. ii., chap. vii.).

[258] Bishop Grosseteste asserted that honest labour on holy days would be far less sinful than the sports which often took their place. "Epp." (R.S.), p. 74.

[259] "La France pendant la Guerre de Cent Ans" (1890), 95 ff. The essay describes a state of things very similar to what we may gather from English records.

[260] "Universities of Europe," ii., 669 ff.

[261] Cooper, "Annals of Cambridge," an. 1410; "Munim. Acad." (R.S.), 602; Riley, 571; Strutt (1898), p. 49.

[262] "Shillingford Letters," p. 101. _Queke_ was probably a kind of hopscotch, and _penny-prick_ a tossing game; both enjoyed an evil repute, according to Strutt.

[263] "Rot. Parl." ii., 64; Myrc., E.E.T.S., i., 334.

[264] "Northumberland Assize Rolls," p. 323. There is another fatal wrestling-bout in the same roll (p. 348), another in the similar Norfolk roll analysed by Mr. Walter Rye in the _Archaeological Review_ (1888), and another exactly answering to John and Willie's case in Prof. Maitland's "Crown Pleas for the County of Gloucester," No. 452.

[265] "C. T.," A., 3328. Etienne de Bourbon has no doubt that "the Devil invented dancing, and is governor and procurator of dancers"; and he explains the popular proverb, that God's thunderbolt falls oftener on the church than on the tavern, by the notorious profanations to which churches were subjected. ("Anecdotes," pp. 269, 397.)

[266] _L. c._ ii., 672.

[267] Wilkins, "Concilia," i., 600; iii., 61, 68, 365; "York Fabric Rolls," 269 ff; Grosseteste, "Epp." (R.S.), pp. 75, 118, 161; Giffard's "Register" (Worcester), p. 422; and Cutts, "Parish Priests," p. 122.

[268] Wilkins, i., 530, 719; iii., 61 and _passim_; _Archaeological Journal_, vol. xl., pp. 1 ff; "Somerset Record Society," vol. iv.

[269] Eight men died in Northampton gaol between Aug. 1322 and Nov. 1323 (Gross, p. 79). The jury casually record: "He died of hunger, thirst, and want."... "Want of food and drink, and cold."... "Natural death."... "Hunger and thirst and natural death." One is really glad to think that so small a proportion of criminals ever found their way into prison.

[270] Gross, "Office of Coroner," p. 69.

[271] "Eng. Hist. Rev.," vol. 50.

[272] This still allowed him to migrate to another part of the King's dominions--_e.g._ Ireland, Scotland, Normandy.

[273] Worcestershire Record Society.

[274] Gower, "Mirour," 20125, 20653.

[275] Riley, 567; cf. Preface to "Liber Albus," p. cvii., and Walsingham, an. 1382.

[276] Cf. Mr. Walter Rye's articles in "Norf. Antq. Misc.," vol ii., p. 194, and _Archaeological Review_ for 1888, p. 201.

[277] The complaints which meet us in Gower and "Piers Plowman" on this score are more than borne out by the "Shillingford Letters" (Camden Soc., 1871). The worthy Mayor of Exeter reports faithfully to his fellow-citizens what bribes he gives, and to whom.

[278] Chaucer's pupil Hoccleve speaks almost equally strongly on the mischief of such pardons ("Works," E.E.T.S., vol. iii., pp. 113 ff).

[279] _Clergy_ is of course here used in the common medieval sense of _learning_; it does not refer to any body of men.

[280] _I.e._ the type of perfect religion, "the Christ that is to be."

[281] Be "found" or provided for, so that they need no longer to live by begging and flattery.

[282] This was very commonly the case even in the greatest cathedrals: typical reports may be found in the easily accessible "York Fabric Rolls" (Surtees Soc.). With regard to Canterbury, a strange legend is current to the effect that Lord Badlesmere was executed in 1322 for his irreverent behaviour in that cathedral. Apart from the extraordinary inherent improbability of any such story, the execution of Lord Badlesmere is one of the best known events in the reign. He was hanged for joining the Earl of Lancaster in open rebellion against Edward, against whom he had fought at Boroughbridge.

[283] Wilkins, iii., 360 ff; "Rot. Parl." ii., 313. I have given fuller details and references in the 8th of my "Medieval Studies," "Priests and People" (Simpkins, 1_s._).

[284] Taking eight test-periods, which cover four dioceses and a space of nearly forty-five years, I find that, before the Black Death, scarcely more than one-third of the livings in lay gift were presented to men in priest's orders--the exact proportion is 262 priests to 452 non-priests.

[285] Rashdall, "Universities of Europe," ii., 613, 701. Merely to reckon the number of years theoretically required for the different degrees, and to argue from this to the solid education of the medieval priest (as has sometimes been done), is to ignore the mass of unimpeachable evidence collected by Dr. Rashdall. Only an extremely small fraction of the students took any theological degree whatever.

[286] The list of indictments for grave offences in "Munim. Acad." (R.S.), vol. ii., contains a very large proportion of graduates, chaplains, and masters of Halls; and Gerson frequently speaks with bitter indignation of the number of Parisian scholars who were debauched by their masters.

[287] In Chaucer's words--

He set ... his benefice to hire
And left his sheep encumbred in the mire,
And ran to London, unto Sainte Paul's
To seeken him a chanterie for souls.

The Archbishop's decree may be found in the "Register of Bp. de Salopia," p. 639; cf. 694 (Somerset Record Society).

[288] Quoted from a MS. collection of 14th-century sermons by Ch. Petit-Dutaillis in "Etudes Dediees a G. Monod.," p. 385.

[289] Knighton (R.S.), ii., 191; at still greater length on p. 183. Walsingham, ann. 1387, 1392; cf. "Eulog. Hist.," iii., 351, 355.

[290] Kingsford, "Chronicles of London," p. 64; Walsingham, an. 1410.

[291] "P. Plowman," B., xv., 383: Jusserand, "Epop. Myst.," p. 217. See especially the remarkable words of Chaucer's contemporary, the banker Rulman Merswin of Strassburg, quoted by C. Schmidt, "Johannes Tauler," p. 218. After setting forth his conviction that Christendom is now (1351) in a worse state than it has been for many hundred years past, and that evil Christians stand less in God's love than good Jews or heathens who know nothing better than the faith in which they were born, and would accept a better creed if they could see it, Merswin then proceeds to reconcile this with the Catholic doctrine that none can be saved without baptism. "I will tell thee; this cometh to pass in manifold hidden ways unknown to the most part of Christendom in these days; but I will tell thee of one way.... When one of these good heathens or Jews draweth near to his end, then cometh God to his help and enlighteneth him so far in Christian faith, that with all his heart he desireth baptism. Then, even though there be no present baptism for him, yet from the bottom of his heart he yearneth for it: so I tell thee how God doth: He goeth and baptiseth him in the baptism of his good yearning will and his painful death. Know therefore that many of these good heathens and Jews are in the life eternal, who all came thither in this wise."

[292] "P. Plowman," B., x., p. 51; cf. Langlois, _l. c._, pp. 211, 264-5.

End of Project Gutenberg's Chaucer and His England, by G. G. Coulton

<pre id="pg-footer">