Chapter X

SOME CONSEQUENCES OF THE GREAT MORTALITY.

Estimate of population of England in 1377, and before the great pestilence — Social revolution — Dearth of labourers and artisans — The tenantry swept off — Rise in prices — State efforts to depress the working classes — A third of the land falls out of cultivation — Leasehold farming — Serfdom declines — Popular rising of 1381 practically emancipates the labourer — Growth of large landowners — English language spreads as French declines — Effects on architecture — Great works left unfinished — Statistics of clerical mortality — Effects on the Church — Old traditions perished — Decline of public liturgical worship — Young and aged, and inexperienced persons ordained priests — Curious examples of this — Great falling off in number of candidates for ordination at Winchester, Ely, Hereford — Decline of the universities — False views about the preponderance of regular clergy — After the Black Death their number relatively greater — Pluralities — Depopulation of monasteries — Instances cited — Wadding's explanation of Franciscan decadence — The Black Death, a calamity sudden, overwhelming, and of widespread effect 194-219

TO THE READER.

In publishing this story of a great and overwhelming calamity, which fell upon England in common with the rest of Europe, in the middle of the fourteenth century, I desire to record my grateful thanks to those who have in any way assisted me in gathering together my material, or in weaving it into a connected narrative. Amongst these many kind friends I may specially name Mr. F. Bickley, of the British Museum, Mr. F.J. Baigent, the Rev. Prebendary Hingeston-Randolph, and, above all, Mr. Edmund Bishop, to whom I am greatly indebted for advice, criticism, and ever-patient assistance in revising the proof-sheets.

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