I 
 
 DUKE UNIVERSITY 
 LIBRARY 
 
 NEWMAN COLLECTION 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 RUTH GALLERT NEWMAN 
 
 IN MEMORY 
 OF 
 
 JAMES R. NEWMAN 
 
 4 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2018 with funding from 
 Duke University Libraries 
 
 https://archive.org/details/englishwarfaring01juss 
 
ENGLISH KNIGHTS TRAVELLING, AUGUST, 1399. 
 
 1 From the MS. Harleian, 1319, painted circa A.D. 1400.) 
 
ENGLISH 
 
 WAYFARING LIFE 
 
 IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 (XIV th CENTURY) 
 
 BY 
 
 J. J. JUSSERAND 
 
 FRENCH AMBASSADOR AT WASHINGTON, DR. ES LETTRES 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY 
 
 LUCY TOULMIN SMITH 
 
 EDITOR OF “ RICART’S KALENDAR,” “ THE YORK PLAYS,” ETC. 
 
 EIGHTH EDITION 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 Edition: 
 
 T. FISHER UNWIN 
 
 PATERNOSTER SQUARE 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 SHAKESPEARE IN FRANCE. Illus¬ 
 
 trated. Demy 8vo, cloth, gilt top. 2 is. 
 
 THE ENGLISH NOVEL IN THE TIME 
 
 OF SHAKESPEARE. Translated by E. Lee. 3rd 
 ed. Illustrated. 7s. 6d. 
 
 A FRENCH AMBASSADOR AT THE 
 
 COURT OF CHARLES II. 2nd ed. Illustrated. 
 7s. 6d. 
 
 PIERS PLOWMAN, 1362-1398. Translated 
 
 by M. E. R. 2nd ed. 7s. 6d. 
 
 A LITERARY HISTORY OF THE 
 ENGLISH PEOPLE, FROM THE ORIGINS 
 TO THE RENAISSANCE. 12s.6d.net. 
 
 ENGLISH ESSAYS, FROM A FRENCH 
 
 PEN. 7s. 6d. Illustrated. 
 
 THE ROMANCE OF A KING’S LIFE. 
 
 Translated from the French by M. R. Revised and 
 enlarged by the Author. Illustrated. 6s 
 
We know Egypt, thanks to her tombs, and we know 
 Rome, thanks to Pompeii, in these modern days, better 
 than we know the Middle Ages of Europe and the life oj 
 an ordinary man during that perioa We cannot hope 
 to find in any corner of France or England a Pompeii, 
 catacombs, or pyramids. In our countries the human 
 torrent has never ceased flowing ; rapid, impetuous, and 
 tumultuous in its course, it has at no time ensured the 
 preservation of the past by deposits of quiet ooze. 
 
 But, this common life of our ancestors, is it indiscern¬ 
 ible, impossible to reconstruct ? is that of kings and 
 princes alone accessible to our view through the distance 
 of ages, like those great monuments which men see when 
 they cannot distinguish the houses in a distant city ? Surely 
 not. But to get at the heart of the nation, to find touch 
 with the greater number, a patient and extended inquiry 
 is necessary. To make this usefully, we must break 
 more or less completely with the old habit of taking the 
 ideas of every-day life in the Middle Ages only from 
 
ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE 
 
 the descriptions, the satires, or the eulogies of poets. 
 
 \ Literature is no doubt of great help in these restorations, 
 but it is not the only, nor even the principal source of 
 information. Poets embellish , imagine, colour, or trans¬ 
 
 form ; we must not accept their statements without 
 checking than. 
 
 This is just what we can do. We may have no such 
 burial grounds to explore as in Egypt, nor a whole town 
 to bring to light as at Pompeii, but we have what is 
 worth almost as much : the incomparable depositories of 
 the Records of old England. Immense strides have been 
 made, especially within the last hundred years, to render 
 their contents public. Thousands of documents have 
 been printed or analysed, and the work is still continuing; 
 indeed, looking at the progress made of late, a feeling of 
 wonder cannot be repressed at the premature alarm of 
 historians like Robertson, who wrote in 1769 : “ The 
 universal progress of science during the two last centuries, 
 the art of printing, and other obvious causes, have filled 
 Europe with such a multiplicity of histories, and with 
 such a vast collection of historical materials, that the term 
 of human life is too short for the study or even the per¬ 
 usal of them." The field of research has never ceased to 
 widen, while the boundaries of human life do not recede; 
 but students comprehend that the best means of making 
 themselves useful is to impose limits on themselves, to 
 renounce vast ambitions, and to study separate points only 
 of the immense problem to the best of their power. The 
 work of unearthing is so far advanced that it is possible 
 usefully to sift the riches drawn from these new cata¬ 
 combs. 
 
 At first sight all these petitions, these year-books full 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 9 
 
 of reports of lawsuits, these long rows of statutes and 
 ordinances seem the coldest things in the world, the most 
 devoid of life. They are not even mummies or skeletons , 
 they look as if they were nothing more than the dust of 
 old bones. But to judge of them thus were to judge in a 
 very superficial manner; no doubt it would be at once 
 more agreeable and less troublesome to keep to the descrip¬ 
 tions of tale-tellers ; but how many chances of error do 
 they not present! JVith the year-books , and the peti¬ 
 tions followed by inquiries , we are on distinctly more 
 solid ground; we soon grow accustomed to their language, 
 and, under the apparently cold dust, we end by finding 
 sparks of life, we can then with little effort restore scenes, 
 understand existences, catch imprecations or cries of 
 triumph. 
 
 It was with this thought that the present work was 
 undertaken some years ago. In it there is less mention of 
 Chaucer and more of the “ Rolls of Parliament ” than is 
 often found in the works devoted to this period; this does 
 not arise from want of admiration for that great man, 
 quite the contrary, but from the need of a test and of 
 means of control, which may perhaps be deemed legitimate. 
 Above all, the present writer has desired to confine 
 himself in this work within strict limits ; one only 
 of the many sides of the common life in the fourteenth 
 century is here discussed, a side little enough known and 
 sometimes difficult to observe , namely, the character ana 
 the quality of the chief kinds of nomadic existence then 
 carried on in England. And even in that reduced compass 
 he is very far from making claim to completeness; so 
 that this work is presented to the public more as a 
 sketch than a treatise. 
 
IO 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 The author has profited, by the occasion afforded him 
 by this translation to revise the text of his book (which 
 appeared in 1884 ), to introduce some necessary corrections, 
 and to add about a fourth of new matter. He has been 
 assisted in this, he need hardly say, by his learned trans¬ 
 lator, to whom he owes much f of having assumed the task 
 of turning into English a work which she herself would 
 have been so well qualified to write. He has been helped 
 too by friends, all of whom he does not mean to name here. 
 But though feeling that in this also his incompleteness 
 will be very apparent, he cannot deprive himself of the 
 pleasure of inscribing on this page with gratitude and 
 affection the names of Gaston Paris, of the Institute of 
 France; of E. Maunde Thompson, Principal Librarian 
 of the British Museum ; of F. J. Furnivall, Director of 
 the Chaucer and many other Societies; lastly, he ought, 
 perhaps, to have said firstly, of the poet and critic, 
 Edmund Gosse, to whose kind initative and suggestion he 
 owes it that his book is published under its present form. 
 
 J. 
 
 Albfrt Gate, 
 
 July nh. 
 
 7 ‘he kind reception awarded to this work allows the 
 author to present to the public a new edition. He has 
 availed himself of this opportunity to introduce some 
 more corrections. ‘The frontispiece in former editions 
 has been replaced by a heliogravure by Dujardin of 
 Paris. J. 
 
 St. Haon-le-Chatel, 
 
 October , 1891. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PREFACE. 7 
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS ... n 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 13 
 
 INTRODUCTION... ... ... ... ... ... 29 
 
 PART I. 
 
 ENGLISH ROADS. 
 
 :hap. 
 
 I. ROADS AND BRIDGES ... ... ... ... ... 35 
 
 II. THE ORDINARY TRAVELLER AND THE CASUAL PASSER-BY... 90 
 
 III. SECURITY OF THE ROADS ... ... ... ... I44 
 
 PART II. 
 
 LAY WAYFARERS. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY NOTE .173 
 
 I. HERBALISTS, CHARLATANS, MINSTRELS, JUGGLERS, AND 
 
 TUMBLERS ... ... ... ... ... ... 177 
 
 II. MESSENGERS, ITINERANT MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS ... 219 
 
 III. OUTLAWS, WANDERING WORKMEN, AND PEASANTS OUT OF 
 
 BOND ... ... ... ... ... ... 252 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I 3 
 
 PART III. 
 
 RELIGIOUS WAYFARERS . 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. WANDERING PREACHERS AND FRIARS 
 
 II. PARDONERS 
 
 III. PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 APPENDIX 
 INDEX ... 
 
 PAG* 
 
 ... 279 
 
 ... 309 
 
 ••• 338 
 
 ... 405 
 
 ... 411 
 — 43S 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAG I 
 
 1. —Knights travelling, followed by their escort 
 
 of archers. From the MS. Harleian 1319, 
 fol. 25, painted circa 1400 (see infra No. 11). 
 
 The two travellers are the Duke of Exeter and 
 the Duke of Surrey ; they go to meet Henry of 
 Lancaster at Chester, to whom they are sent 
 by King Richard II. (Aug. 1399) Frontispiece 4 
 
 2. —A minstrel dancing and singing. From the 
 
 MS. 2 B. vii., in the British Museum, fol. 
 197^. (English, early fourteenth century)... 7 
 
 3. —Old London Bridge. From a miniature in the 
 
 MS. 16 F. ii. fol. 73, in the British Museum, 
 containing the poems of Charles d’Orleans 
 (fifteenth century). This is the oldest repre¬ 
 sentation extant of the famous bridge built 
 by Isembert. The painting, of which the 
 upper part only is here given, represents the 
 Tower of London with Charles d’Orleans 
 sitting in it as a prisoner. In our reproduc¬ 
 tion may be seen the chapel of St. Thomas a 
 Becket and the houses on the bridge, the 
 wharves along the City side of the water, and 
 
14 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 PAG1 
 
 the tops of the white turrets of the Tower 
 of London. The miniature was obviously 
 painted from nature... ... ... ... 35 
 
 4. —The old bridge on the Rhone at Avignon, 
 
 built by the friars pontiff in the twelfth 
 century, as it now stands, the four arches 
 and the chapel ... ... ... ... 39 
 
 5. —The old bridge at Cahors (thirteenth cen¬ 
 
 tury), present state ... ... ... ... 43 
 
 6. —The bridge at Stratford-at-Bow, as it stood 
 
 before its reconstruction in 1839. From an 
 engraving dated 1814 ... ... ... 46 
 
 7. —A part of London Bridge ; None-such House, 
 
 the drawbridge, and the houses on the bridge, 
 as they appeared in 1600. From a drawing 
 in Pepys Library, Magd. Coll., Cambridge, 
 reproduced by Dr. Furnivall in his edition of 
 H arrison’s “Description of England,” 1877 51 
 
 8 —Hugh of Clopton’s bridge at Stratford-on- 
 
 Avon (fifteenth century) ... ... ... 56 
 
 9. —The chapel on the bridge at Wakefield (four¬ 
 
 teenth century). From a copyright photo¬ 
 graph by G. and J. Hall, of Wakefield ... 72 
 
 10. —The bridge with a defensive tower at Wark- 
 
 worth, Northumberland (fourteenth century). 
 From a photograph by G. W. Wilson, of 
 Aberdeen ... ... ... ... ... 75 
 
 ; 1.—The one-arched bridge on the Esk, near 
 Danby Castle, Yorkshire, built during the 
 fourteenth century by Neville, Lord Lati- 
 
ILL USTItA T10NS. 
 
 mer, the arms of whom are still to be seen 
 at the top of the bridge. From a photo¬ 
 graph obtained through the kindness of the 
 Rev. J. C. Atkinson, of Danby Parsonage, 
 York ... ... ... ... ... 78 
 
 12.—The parliament sitting in Westminster. 
 From the MS. Harl. 1319, in the British 
 Museum, fol. 57, painted circa 1400 (Eng¬ 
 lish ?). This MS. contains a chronicle of 
 the last years of Richard II., written in his 
 native tongue by a French gentleman called 
 Creton, who accompanied the king in his last 
 journey to Ireland. It is invaluable both 
 for its text and its miniatures; in both the 
 author seems to have been very careful to 
 adhere to facts. He begins writing in verse, 
 but afterwards takes to prose, stating that 
 he is coming now to events of such import¬ 
 ance that he prefers using prose, to make 
 sure that he shall not allow himself to be led 
 by fancy. 
 
 He must have himself superintended the 
 painting of the drawings, with the greatest 
 care. There can be no doubt that the 
 figures are actual portraits ; of this there are 
 two proofs : first, when the same person 
 appears in several paintings he is always 
 given the same features, and can be easily 
 recognized; second, the exact resemblance 
 of one of the persons can be put beyond a 
 doubt, which makes it likely that the others 
 also resemble their originals. Richard IF, 
 
ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE . 
 
 PAGB 
 
 r 6 
 
 the figure of whom constantly recurs in 
 the miniatures, is easily recognizable as 
 having the same features as in the bronze 
 statue over his tomb at Westminster. And 
 we know for certain that this tomb and statue 
 were ordered by Richard himself during his 
 lifetime; the indenture with the seals at¬ 
 tached, dated 18 Rich. II. (1395), and bind¬ 
 ing two apparently English artists, viz., 
 “ Nicholas Broker et Godfrey Prest, citeins 
 et copersmythes de Loundres,” is still in exist¬ 
 ence at the Record Office. 
 
 The sitting of the parliament here repre¬ 
 sented is the famous one when Richard was 
 deposed, and Henry of Lancaster came forth 
 to “ chalenge yis Rewme of Yngland” 
 (“ Rolls of Parliament,” iii. p. 422), Oct. 
 1399, and the throne was then, as seen in 
 the painting, left unoccupied, “ sede regali 
 cum pannis auri solempniter preparata, 
 tunc vacua ” (“ Rolls,” ibid.). On the right 
 of the throne are seated the spiritual lords; 
 on the left the temporal lords, knights, &c. 
 The nearest to the throne on this side is 
 Henry of Lancaster (wearing a tall tur cap). 
 Says Creton ; 
 
 “ Entour le dit siege asez pres 
 Estoient les prelas assis . . . 
 
 D’autre coste tous les seigneurs 
 Grans moyens petiz et meneurs . . , 
 
 Premiers seoit le due henry 
 
 Et puis tout au plus pres de ly 
 
 Le due Diorc (i.e., York) son beau cousin,” &c. 
 
 s- 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 17 
 
 13. —The three-branched bridge at Crowland 
 
 (fourteenth century), present state ... ... 89 
 
 14. —A common cart. From the MS. 10 E. IV., 
 
 in the British Museum, fol. wob (early four¬ 
 teenth century ; English) ... ... ... 90 
 
 15. —A reaper’s cart going up-hill. From the 
 
 Louterell psalter ; fac-simile of the engraving 
 in the “ Vetusta Monumenta ” (Society of 
 Antiquaries) vol. vi.; see in this vol., “ Re¬ 
 marks on the Louterell psalter,” by J. G. 
 Rokewood. “ Dominus Galfridus Louterell 
 me fieri fecit.” (English, first half of the 
 fourteenth century) ... ... ... ... 93 
 
 16. —Ladies travelling in their carriage with their 
 
 dogs and pet animals, one of which is a 
 squirrel. One of the followers travelling on 
 horseback, to be more at his ease and to be 
 able to defy the wind, has covered his head 
 with his hood, and carries his tall hat hang¬ 
 ing to his girdle. From the Louterell 
 
 psalter (See No. 15) ... ... ... 97 
 
 17. —Travelling in a horse-litter; a lady and a 
 
 wounded knight are carried in the litter; 
 squires escort them. From die MS. 118 
 Fran^ais, fol. 285111 the Bibliotheque Nationale 
 at Paris; “ Romance of Lancelot” (late four¬ 
 teenth century, French). A good example 
 of a State horse-litter is to be found in the 
 MS. 18 E. II., in the British Museum, fol. 7 ; 
 
 “ Chronicles of Froissart ” (French, fif¬ 
 teenth century) ... ^ ... ... ... 101 
 
i8 
 
 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE. 
 
 i*AGB 
 
 t 8.—A young squire travelling: 
 
 “ And he hadde ben somtyme in chivachie. 
 
 In Flaundres, in Artoys, and in Picardie, 
 
 And born him wel, as in so litel space, 
 
 In hope to stonden in his lady grace. 
 
 Embrowdid was he, as it were a mede 
 Ai ful of fresshe floures, white and reede, 
 
 Svngynge he was, or flowtynge, al the day ; 
 
 He was as fressh as is the moneth of May.” 
 
 From the Ellesmere MS. of the “ Canterbury 
 Tales.” The Ellesmere cuts are used by the 
 kind permission of Dr. Furnivall ... ... 103 
 
 19-20.—Ladies on horseback. Two drawings 
 illustrative of both ways of riding : sitting 
 sideways (Chaucer’s prioresse) and riding 
 astride (Chaucer’s Wife of Bath). From the 
 Ellesmere MS. ... ... ... ... 105 
 
 21.—A family dinner. From the MS. Addit. 
 28162, in the British Museum, fol. 10 £ (early 
 fourteenth century; French). Note the 
 carver, the cup-bearer, the musicians, the mar¬ 
 shal of the hall, whose mission it is to expel 
 objectionable intruders, whether men or dogs. 
 
 In the present case, while this officer is ex¬ 
 pelling a very objectionable lazar, come under 
 pretence of sprinkling the diners with holy 
 water, a dog a little further off seizes this 
 opportunity of mischief-making, and gets 
 hold of a fish on the table. The carver 
 grasps the meat with his left hand ; forks 
 then were unknown, but good breeding 
 
ILL USTRA TIONS. 
 
 19 
 
 was, nevertheless, not neglected, and it con¬ 
 sisted in the server’s touching the meat only 
 with the left hand. Writing later than the time 
 we speak of, John Russell, marshal of the hall 
 to Duke Humphrey of Gloucester (fifteenth 
 century), adds one refinement more, that 
 is to use only three fingers of the left hand. 
 
 This was, in his mind, the acme of fine 
 carving : 
 
 “ Sett neuer on fysche nor fiesche, beast, nor fowle 
 trewly, 
 
 Moore than ij fyngurs and a thombe, for that is 
 curtesie. 
 
 Touche neuer with youre right hande no maner 
 mete surely.” 
 
 “ Boke of Nurture ” (Furnivall, 1868, p. 137). 
 
 It may be seen from our engraving that part 
 of these niceties was unknown yet to carvers 
 in the first half of the fourteenth century. 
 
 The whole of the left hand is used to grasp 
 the meat ... ... ... ... ... 109 
 
 22 .— 
 
 “ A cooke thei hadde . . . 
 
 To bovle chiknes and the mary bones.” 
 
 From the miniature in the Ellesmere MS. of 
 the “ Canterbury Tales.” The pot-hooks with 
 three prongs, which he carries, were the dis¬ 
 tinctive attribute of cooks and cookmaids, 
 and appear on all representations of such 
 people (several are to be found in the Lou- 
 terell psalter; see Vetusta Monumenta,” 
 
20 
 
 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE. 
 
 pac;b 
 
 vol. vi., the Roy. MS. io E. IV., passim, 
 
 &c.). They used it to turn the meat and take 
 it out of the deep round-bellied pots, stand¬ 
 ing on three legs over the fire, which were 
 then in common use... ... ... ... 117 
 
 23. —The new habits of luxury ; a gentleman, 
 
 helped by two attendants, dressing before the 
 fire in his bedroom. From the MS. 2 B. 
 vii., in the British Museum, fol. 72 b (Eng¬ 
 lish ; early fourteenth century) ... ... 127 
 
 Of this luxury, of the spread of the use of 
 chimneys, &c., Langland, as a satirist, com¬ 
 plains ; and this, as a marshal of the hall, 
 
 John Russell a little later recommends as the 
 proper method of dressing for a gentleman. 
 
 He then thus addresses the attendant: 
 
 “ Than knele down on youre kne, and thus to youre 
 souerayn ye say : 
 
 ‘ Syr, what robe or govn pleseth it yow to were to¬ 
 day ? &c. 
 
 “ Boke of Nurture” (Furnivall, 1868, p. 178). 
 
 24. -—An English inn of the fourteenth century. 
 
 From the Louterell psalter ... .. ... 130 
 
 25. —On the roadside ; the alehouse. From 
 
 the MS. 10 E. IV., in the British Museum, 
 fol. 114 (English, fourteenth century) ... 132 
 
 26. —A Hermit in his solitude, tempted by the 
 
 devil; MS. 10 E. IV., fol. 113 b. The 
 vignette here reproduced is one out of several 
 which illustrate a well-known mediaeval tale. 
 
ILL USTRA TLONS. 
 
 2 1 
 
 PAG l 
 
 Here it may be remarked that though this 
 MS., invaluable as it is for the study of 
 English customs, dresses, &c., during the 
 fourteenth century has been often made use 
 of, it has perhaps never been so thoroughly 
 studied as it deserves. It contains Decretals, 
 with marginal coloured drawings of the 
 highest value on account of their variety and 
 the subjects they illustrate. Not only a 
 number of games and trades are there repre¬ 
 sented, with numerous miracles of the Virgin, 
 
 &c., but there are also complete tales told 
 by the draughtsman, without words, and 
 only with the help of his colours. He does 
 not invent his stories, but simply illustrates 
 the fabliaux which he remembered and par¬ 
 ticularly relished. The drawing we give 
 belongs to the story of the “ hermit who got 
 drunk.” As he was once sitting before his 
 cell he was tempted by the devil, who re¬ 
 proached him with his continual virtue, and 
 entreated him to sin at least once, recommend¬ 
 ing him to choose either to get drunk or to 
 commit adultery or to commit murder. The 
 hermit chose the first as being the least (see 
 p. 132, a copy of the miniature where he is 
 seen at his drink). But when he has once 
 got drunk he finds on his way the wife of his 
 friend the miller ; he commits adultery with 
 her, and then meeting the husband, kills him. 
 
 The text of the tale is in Meon, “ Nouveau 
 recueil de fabliaux,” 1829, vol. ii. p. 173 . 
 
 “ De Termite qui s’enyvra ”.... .... 139 
 
22 
 
 ENGLISH IVA YFARING LIFE. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 27. —Escaped prisoner flying to sanctuary. From 
 
 the MS. 10 E. IV., fol. 206 b , in the British 
 Museum (fourteenth century) ... ... 144 
 
 28. —The Durham knocker, affixed to one of the 
 
 doors of the cathedral. Fugitives used it to 
 be admitted to sanctuary (Norman) ... 153 
 
 29. —The Frid-stool in Hexham Abbey, Northum¬ 
 
 berland, where fugitives flying to sanctuary 
 sat. It is of Norman style, and seems to date 
 from the twelfth century ... ... ... 154 
 
 30. — An adventure seeker. From the MS. 2 B. 
 
 vii., fol. 149 (English, early fourteenth 
 century) ... ... ... ... ... 175 
 
 31. —A Physician (Chaucer’s Doctour of Phisik): 
 
 “ He knew the cause of every malady.’ 
 
 From the Ellesmere MS. ... ... .. 177 
 
 32. — Playing upon the vielle (viol). From the 
 
 MS. 10 E. IV., fol. 4 ... ... ... 202 
 
 33. —The “ Minstrels’ gallery ” in the Exeter 
 
 cathedral (fourteenth century) Prom a 
 photograph by Messrs. Frith and Co. ... 203 
 
 34. —A fourteenth-century juggler. From the 
 
 MS. 10 E. IV., fol. 5. ... ... ... 212 
 
 35. —Favourite dances of the fourteenth century; 
 
 a lady dancing head downwards, to the sound 
 of a tabor and a double flute. From the MS. 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 23 
 
 10 E. IV., fol. 58. Representations of such 
 dances of women, head downwards, are in¬ 
 numerable in MSS., painted glass, old portals, 
 
 &c. There is one in the album of Villard de 
 Honnecourt (thirteenth century), ed. Lassus 
 and Darcel ; the interest taken in such per¬ 
 formances is attested by countless examples... 214 
 
 36. —Favourite dances in Persia at the present 
 
 day. From a modern pencil case in the 
 
 possession of the author. See also the life- 
 size Persian paintings exhibited in the South 
 Kensington Museum, where similar dances 
 are represented ... ... ... ...215 
 
 37. —A performing bear. From the MS. 10 
 
 E. IV., fol. 154, in the British Museum 
 (English, fourteenth century) ... ... 218 
 
 38 —A sham messenger carrying a letter. From 
 
 the MS. 10 E. IV., fol. 53 b ... ... 21 y 
 
 39. —A professional messenger. From the MS. 
 
 10 E. IV., fol. 302 b in the British Museum. 
 (English, fourteenth century) ... ... 224 
 
 40. —A travelling pedlar ; his bag robbed by 
 
 monkeys. From the MS. 10 E. IV., in the 
 British Museum, fol. 149 b ... ... ... 234 
 
 41. —A rich merchant travelling (Chaucer’s 
 
 Marchaunt) : 
 
 “ A marchaunt was ther with a forked herd, 
 
 In motteleye, and high on horse he sat, 
 Uppon his heed a Flaundrisch bever hat . . 
 
24 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Ther wiste no man that he was in dette 
 So estately was he of governaunce.” 
 
 From the Ellesmere MS. ... ... ... 242 
 
 42. —Forest life ; wood-cutters. From the MS. 
 
 10 E. IV., fol. 100 £ ... ... ... 252 
 
 43. —Forest life ; a shooting casualty. From the 
 
 MS. 10 E. IV., fol. 203 a ... ... ... 256 
 
 44. — Reaping time. Labourers reaping corn 
 
 under the supervision of the hayward. From 
 the MS. 2 B. vii., fol. 78 b. English, early 
 fourteenth century. “ They dwell in fayre 
 houses, and we haue the payne and traueyle, 
 rayne and wynd in the feldes ” (speech of 
 John Ball, Lord Berners’ Froissart, chap, 
 ccclxxxi). The overseer shown in the draw¬ 
 ing may possibly be a bailiff : “ Supervidere 
 debet ballivus falcatores, messores, cariatores,” 
 
 &c. (“ Fleta,” cap. 73), or a provost (who 
 had about the same duties, but was practically 
 chosen by the peasants themselves). But it 
 seems more likely to be a hayward ; the dress 
 and attitude better suit a man in that station. 
 
 The care of seeing that “ repe-men . . . repe 
 besili and clenli,” was sometimes entrusted to 
 such officers (see Skeat, “ Notes to Piers the 
 Plowman,” p. 273). A horn, such as our man 
 wears, was always worn by a hayward, who 
 used to blow it to warn off people from stray¬ 
 ing in the crops. The rough and command¬ 
 ing attitude seen in the drawing would not 
 be so readily expected from a bailiff with his 
 
ILL USTRA TIONS. 
 
 25 
 
 <\GE 
 
 juridical knowledge and comparatively high 
 function, or from a provost appointed by the 
 peasants themselves, as from a hayward or 
 garde champetre ... ... ... ... 263 
 
 45. —In the stocks. A woman and a monk are put 
 
 into them ; a gentleman abuses them. From 
 the MS. 10 E. IV., fol. 187, where it forms 
 part of a series of drawings illustrating a fab¬ 
 liau of the same sort as the one alluded to 
 
 above (illustration No. 25). It is called, 
 
 Du soucretain et de la fame au chevalier; the 
 author is Rutebeuf, and it may be found in 
 the works of this thirteenth-century writer... 267 
 
 46. —Stocks at Shalford, near Guildford ; present 
 
 state. From a drawing by Aug. de Blignieres 268 
 
 47. — Beggars. A cripple and other beggars helped 
 
 by a generous king to his own garments. 
 
 From the MS. 10 E. IV., fol. 261 b ... 270 
 
 48. —A blind beggar led by his dog. From the 
 
 MS. 10 E. IV., fol. 110 ... ... ... 275 
 
 49. —A friar (Chaucer’s friar). From the Elles¬ 
 
 mere MS. “ And it shall be lawful for such 
 as shall be compelled by necessity to be shod, 
 
 . . , and they are not to ride unless some 
 manifest necessity or infirmity oblige them.” 
 
 “ The rule of the Friars Minors” (Dugdale’s 
 “ Monasticon,” 1817, vol. vi. part iii. p. 1504) 279 
 
 50. —“ When Adam delved and Eve span ”—the 
 
 text of John Ball’s harangue illustrated 
 from the early fourteenth-century MS., 2 B 
 
26 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 vii., fol. 4 b, in the British Museum. 
 (English) ... ... ... ... ... 283 
 
 51.—A worldly ecclesiastic. 
 
 “ Ful wel biloved and familiar was he 
 . . . with worthie wommen.” 
 
 (Prologue of the “ Canterbury Tales”). 
 From the MS. 10 E. IV., fol. 185. Belongs 
 to the same story as No. 45 ... .. 288 
 
 52 —Psalm singing. The interior of a friar’s 
 church. From the MS. Domit. A. xvii., fol. 
 
 120 b, in the British Museum (early fifteenth 
 century). The splendour of this church, with 
 its beautiful pavement, its sculptured stalls, 
 altar, roof, and pinnacles, very exactly cor¬ 
 responds to the contemporary criticisms against 
 the wealth of the friars, and may be taken as 
 an illustration of the very words of Wyclif 
 and Langland ... ... ... ... 295 
 
 33.—Sprinkling people at dinner with holy 
 
 water. From the MS. 10 E. IV., fol. 108 b 300 
 
 54. —A game of fox and geese. From the MS. 10 
 
 E. IV., fol. 49 b ... ... ... ... 309 
 
 55. —Reading in Canterbury cathedral of a fabri¬ 
 
 cated papal bull granting pardons to those 
 who will help Henry of Lancaster against 
 King Richard II. From the MS. Harl. 1319, 
 fol. 12 a, containing the chronicle of Creton 
 (see supra No. 12) ... ... ... ... 317 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 27 
 
 56 —A pardoner (Chaucer’s pardoner). 
 
 “ A vernicle hadde he sowed on his cappe, 
 
 His walet lay byforn him in his lappe 
 Bret-ful of pardoun come from Rome al hoot.” 
 
 From the Ellesmere MS. of the “ Canterbury 
 Tales” .337 
 
 57. —Rocamadour, general view. From a photo¬ 
 
 graph, obtained through the kindness of 
 Chanoine Laporte, of Rocamadour ... ... 338 
 
 58. —A pilgrim. From the MS. 17 C. xxxviii, 
 
 fol. 39, in the British Museum ; containing 
 the travels of Mandeville. (English, fifteenth 
 century) ... ... ... ... ... 361 
 
 59. —The fortified entrance to the sanctuaries of 
 
 Rocamadour, built in the eleventh century, 
 recently restored. From a photograph ob¬ 
 tained as above, No. 57 ... ... ... 365 
 
 60. —Travelling by sea. From the MS. Harl. 
 
 1319, fol. 7 b. The subject is the return 
 of Richard II. from Ireland to England ... 369 
 
 61. —A blind beggar and his boy. The trick 
 
 played upon the blind man by his boy is well 
 known as being one of the incidents in the 
 first chapter of the sixteenth-century Spanish 
 novel of “ Lazarillo de Tormes.” It has 
 long been suspected that the materials for 
 this chapter were drawn by the Spanish 
 author from an earlier tale. This drawing 
 and several others that follow it, which 
 have never been adverted to with reference to 
 
28 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 “ Lazarillo de Tormes,” put the fact beyond 
 a doubt ; they tell in their way the same 
 tale, and they are of the first part of the 
 fourteenth century. They are to be found 
 in the MS. io E. IV., in the British Museum, 
 fol. 217 b. described above under No. 25 ... 
 
 405 
 
English Wayfaring Htfc in the 
 Nibble Hgcs (^fourteenth 
 Century). 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 “ 0, dist Spadassin, void un bon resveux ; 
 mais allons nous cacher an coin de la cheminee 
 et Id passons avec les dames nostre vie et nostre 
 temps a enfiler des perles on cl filer comme 
 Sardanapalus. Qui ne s'adventure n'a cheval 
 ni mule, ce dist Salomon." 
 
 Vie de Gargantua. 
 
 A T the present day there are but few wayfarers. 
 The small trades which ply along the road, in 
 every chance village, are disappearing before our 
 aewer methods of wholesale manufacture ; more and 
 more rarely do we see the pedlar unstrap his pack at 
 the farm door, the travelling shoemaker mend by the 
 wayside the shoes which on Sunday will re-place the 
 wooden clogs, or hear the wandering musician pipe 
 interminably at the windows his monotonous airs. 
 Professional pilgrims exist no longer, even quack 
 doctors are losing their credit. It was Ur otherwise 
 in the Middle Ages ; many persons were bound to a 
 
3 ° 
 
 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE. 
 
 wandering existence, and started even from infancy on 
 their life-long journey. Some trotted their strange 
 industries in the broad sunshine, through the dust of 
 the highroads ; others skulked in bye-lanes or even in 
 coppices, hiding their heads from the sheriff's officer— 
 may be a criminal, may be a fugitive, “ a wolf’s head 
 that every one may cut down,” according to the terrible 
 expression of an English jurist of the thirteenth century. 
 Among these were many labourers who had broken the 
 villeins bond, unhappy and oppressed in their hamlets, 
 who wandered through the country in quest of work, 
 as though flight could enfranchise them : but “ service 
 est en le sank ” (“ service is in the blood”), 1 the magis¬ 
 trate told them. Among them also were pedlars laden 
 with petty wares; pilgrims who from St. Thomas’ to 
 St. James’ went begging along the roads, living by 
 alms ; pardoners, strange nomads, who sold to the 
 common people the merits of the saints in paradise; 
 mendicant friars and preachers of all sorts who, accord¬ 
 ing to the times, held passionately liberal harangues or 
 contemptibly selfish discourses at the church doors. All 
 these had one character in common, namely, that in the 
 wide extents of country where they passed their lives, 
 they served as links between the separated groups of 
 other lives which, attached to the soil by law and 
 custom, were spent irremovable, every day under the 
 same sky and at the same toil. Pursuing their singular 
 calling, these wanderers, who had seen so much and 
 knew so many adventures, served to give some idea of 
 the great unknown world to the humble classes whom 
 
 1 “Year Books,” 30, 31 Edward I. Edited by A- J. Horwood, 
 for the Rolls Series, 1863. 
 
INTRO D UCT/ON 
 
 3 i 
 
 they met on. their way. Together with many false 
 beliefs and fables they put into the heads of the stay-at- 
 honies certain notions of extent and of active life which 
 they would hardly otherwise have had ; above all, they 
 brought to the men attached to the soil news of their 
 brethren in the neighbouring province, of their condi¬ 
 tion of misery or of happiness, who were pitied or 
 envied accordingly, and were remembered as brothers or 
 friends to call upon in the day of revolt. 
 
 At a period when for the mass of mankind ideas were 
 transmitted orally and travelled with these wanderers 
 along the roads, the nomads served as a true link 
 between the human groups of various districts. It 
 would be therefore of much interest for the historian to 
 know exactly what were these channels of the popular 
 thought, what life was led by those who fulfilled this 
 function, what were their influence and manners. We 
 will study the chief types of this race, and shall choose 
 them in England in the fourteenth century, in a country 
 and at an epoch when their social importance was con¬ 
 siderable. The interest which attaches to them is of 
 course manifold ; the personality of these pardoners, 
 professional pilgrims, and minstrels, extinct species, is 
 curious in itself when examined near at hand; above all, 
 the condition of feeling among them and the mode in 
 which they carried on their businesses are closely inter¬ 
 woven with the whole social condition of a great people 
 which had just been formed and was acquiring the 
 features and the character which still distinguish it at 
 the present day. It was the epoch when, thanks to 
 the French wars and the incessant embarrassments o* 
 royalty, the subjects of Edward III. and of Richard II. 
 
3 2 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 gained a parliament similar to that which we see in 
 working now; the period when, in religious life, the 
 independence of English spirit asserted itself through 
 the reforms of Wyclif, the statutes for the clergy, and 
 the protestations of the Good Parliament ; when, in 
 literature, Chaucer inaugurated the series of England’s 
 great poets ; when, in short, from noble to villein was 
 felt a stir which led without excessive revolution to that 
 true liberty for which we, the French, have so long 
 envied our neighbours. This period is decisive in the 
 history of the country. It will be seen that in all the 
 great questions debated in the cloister, the castle, or on 
 the market-place, the part played by the wayfarers, 
 though little known, was not insignificant. 
 
 We must first examine the locality of the scene, 
 afterwards the events that took place there; we must 
 know what were the roads, then what were the beings 
 who frequented them. 
 
PART I. 
 
 ENGLISH ROADS. 
 
 3 
 
OLD LONDON BRIDGE. 
 
 (From MS. Roy . 16 F 2 in the British Museum.) 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ROADS AND BRIDGES. 
 
 T HE maintenance of roads and bridges in England 
 was in the fourteenth century one of those general 
 charges which weighed, like military service, on 
 the whole of the nation. All landed proprietors were 
 obliged, in theory, to watch over the good condition of 
 the highways ; their tenants had to execute the repairs 
 for them. The religious houses themselves, owners of 
 property given in frank almoigne , that is to say, having 
 an object of pure charity with a perpetual title, had dis¬ 
 pensation from every service and rent towards the former 
 proprietor of the soil, and in general they had no other 
 
,6 
 
 ENGLISH IVA YFAR1NG LIFE. 
 
 charge than that of saving prayers or giving alms for 
 the repose of the donor’s soul. But yet it remained for 
 ffiem to satisfy the trinoda necessitas , or triple obliga¬ 
 tion, which among other duties consisted in repairing 
 roads and bridges. 
 
 There was in England a very considerable network 
 of roads, the principal of tvhich dated as far back as the 
 Roman times. The province of Britain had been one of 
 those where the greatest care had been bestowed upon the 
 military and commercial ways bv the Roman emperors. 
 ‘ The network of roads in the island,” says Mommsen, 
 “ which was uncommonly developed, and for which in 
 particular Hadrian did much in connection with the 
 building of his w'all, was of course primarily subservient 
 to military ends ; but alongside of, and in part taking 
 precedence over the legionary camps, Londinium occu¬ 
 pies in that respect a place which brings clearly into 
 view its leading position in traffic.” 1 In many places 
 are yet to be iound remnants of the Roman highways, 
 the more important of which w r ere called in Anglo-Saxon 
 times and since, Watling Street, Ermine Street, the Fosse, 
 and Ickenild Street. “These Roman ways in Britain 
 have frequently been continued as the publick roads, so 
 that where a Roman military way is wanting, the pre¬ 
 sumption is in favour of the present highroad, if that 
 be nearly in the same direction.” 2 There are two 
 reasons for that permanence : the first is that the roads 
 were built by the Romans to supply needs which have 
 not ceased to be felt; being cut, for instance, from 
 
 1 “ History of Rome,” translated by W. P. Dickson, London, 
 1 885 , book viii. chap. v. 
 
 2 J. Horsley, “Britannia Romana,” London, 1732, p. 391. 
 
ROADS AND BRIDGES. 
 
 37 
 
 London to the north through York ; towards Corn¬ 
 wall along the sea-coast; towards the Welsh mines, 
 &c. : the second reason is the way in which they were 
 built. “ A portion of the Fosse Road which remains 
 at Radstock, about ten miles south-west of Bath, which 
 was opened in February, 1881, showed the following 
 construction : 
 
 “i. Pavimentum, or foundation, fine earth, hard 
 beaten in. 
 
 “ a. Statumen, or bed of the road, composed oflarge 
 stones, sometimes mixed with mortar. 
 
 “3. Ruderatio, or small stones well mixed with 
 mortar. 
 
 “ 4. Nucleus, formed by mixing lime, chalk, pounded 
 brick or tile; or gravel, sand, and lime mixed with 
 clay. 
 
 “ 5. Upon this was laid the surface of the paved 
 road, technically called the summum dorsum .” 1 
 
 All Roman roads were not built with so much care 
 and in such an enduring fashion; they were, however 
 all of them substantial enough to resist for centuries, 
 and they remained in use during the Middle Ages. 
 Other roads besides were opened during that epoch to 
 provide for new fortified towns and castles, and to satisfy 
 the needs of great landowners, religious or otherwise. 
 
 The keeping of these roads in repair, which was part 
 of the trinoda necessitas , was not considered as worldly, 
 but rather as pious and meritorious work before God, 
 
 1 H. M. Scarth, “Roman Britain," S. P. C. K., London, 1883, 
 p. iz 1 . 
 
38 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE . 
 
 of the same sort as visiting the sick or caring for the 
 poor ; 1 men saw in them a true charity for certain un¬ 
 fortunate people, namely, travellers. This is why the 
 clergy submitted to them. The pious character of this 
 kind of labour may suffice to prove that the roads were 
 not so safe or in such a good state as has been some¬ 
 times maintained. 2 The finest result of the religious 
 spirit in the Middle Ages was to produce that dis¬ 
 interested enthusiasm which, as soon as some distress of 
 humanity became flagrant, immediately created societies 
 for help and rendered self-denial popular. For example, 
 one of these distresses was seen in the power of the 
 infidel, and the Crusades were the consequence. The 
 forsaken condition of the lowest classes in the towns 
 was noticed in the thirteenth century, and Si. Francis 
 sent for the consolation of the neglected those mendi¬ 
 cant friars who were at first so justly popular, though 
 their repute changed so quickly. After the same 
 fashion travellers were considered as unfortunates 
 deserving pity, and help was given to them to please 
 God. A religious order with this end in view had 
 been founded in the twelfth century, that of the Pontife 
 brothers, or makers of bridges {pons , bridge), which 
 
 1 When Henry VIII. gave the lands of the dissolved monastery 
 of Christ Church to Canterbury Cathedral, he declared that he 
 made this donation “ in order that charity to the poor, the repara¬ 
 tion of roads and bridges, and other pious offices of all kinds should 
 multiply and spreaci afar” (Elton, “Tenures of Kent,” London, 
 1867, p. 21). The gift is made “in liberam, puram et perpetuam 
 eleemosynam.” 
 
 2 Thorold Rogers, “History of Agriculture and Prices in 
 England,” Oxford, 1866, vol. i. p. 138. 
 
THE OLD BRIDGE AT AVIGXOX. IA 39 
 
 (Twelfth Century ; present state.} 
 
ROADS AND BRIDGES. 
 
 4 i 
 
 spread into several countries of the Continent. 1 In 
 France, over the Rhone, they built the celebrated bridge 
 of Avignon, which yet preserves four arches of their 
 construction ; and the one at Pont St. Esprit, which is 
 still in use. In order to break the force of such a 
 current as that of the Rhone they built, closely together, 
 piers of an oblong section, which ended in a sharp 
 angle at each of the two extremities of the axis, and 
 their masonry was so solid that in many places the 
 waters have respected it to the present day, that is, for 
 seven centuries. They had besides establishments on 
 the shores of streams, and helped to cross them by boat. 
 Laymen learnt the secrets of their art and in the thirteenth 
 century began to take their place ; bridges multiplied 
 in France, many of which still exist ; such, for example, 
 as the fine bridge of Cahors yet intact, where even the 
 machicolated turrets which formerly served to defend it 
 are still preserved. 
 
 There is no trace in England of establishments 
 founded by the Bridge Friars, but it is certain that 
 there, as elsewhere, the works for constructing bridges 
 and highways had a pious character. To encourage the 
 faithful to take part in them, Richard de Kellawe, Bishop 
 of Durham (1311-1316), remitted part of the penalties 
 on their sins. The registry of his episcopal chancery 
 contains frequent entries such as the following : 
 “ Memorandum . . his lordship grants forty days 
 
 indulgence to all who will draw from the treasure that 
 God has given them valuable and charitable aid towards 
 
 1 See “ Recherches historiques sur les congregations hospitalieres 
 des freres pontifes,” by M. Gregoire, late Bishop of Blois. Paris, 
 1818. 
 
4J 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 the building and repair ofBotyton bridge.” Forty days 
 are allowed on another occasion for help towards the 
 bridge and the highroad between Billingham and 
 Norton, 1 and forty days for the great road from 
 Brotherton to Ferrybridge. The wording of this last 
 decree is characteristic: 
 
 “ To all those, &c. Persuaded that the minds of 
 the faithful are more ready to attach themselves to pious 
 ■works when they have received the salutary encourage¬ 
 ment of fuller indulgences, trusting in the mercy of 
 God Almighty and the merits and prayers of the 
 glorious Virgin his Mother, of St. Peter, St. Paul, and 
 of the most holy confessor Cuthbert our patron, and 
 all saints, we remit forty days of the penances imposed 
 on all our parishioners and others . . . sincerely con¬ 
 trite and confessed of their sins, who shall help by their 
 charitable gifts, or by their bodily labour , in the building 
 or in the maintenance of the causeway between Brother- 
 ton and Ferrybridge where a great many people pass 
 
 byr ^ 
 
 There were also gilds, those lay brotherhoods ani¬ 
 mated by the religious spirit, who repaired roads and 
 bridges. The Gild of the Holy Cross in Birmingham, 
 founded under Richard II., did this, and their interven¬ 
 tion was most valuable, as the Commissioners of 
 Edward VI. remarked two centuries later. The gild 
 then “mainteigned . . . and kept in good reparaciouns 
 two greate stone bridges, and divers foule and daun- 
 gerous high wayes, the charge whereof the towne of 
 
 1 “ Registrum Palatinum Dunelmense,” ed. Hardy, Rolls Series, 
 1875, vol. i. pp. 615, 6+1 (a.d. 1314). 
 
 2 Ibid., vol. i. p. 507. 
 
THE VALENTRE BRIDGE AT CAHORS. [M3- 
 
 (Thirteenth Century ; present slate.) 
 
ROADS AND BRIDGES. 
 
 45 
 
 hitsellfe ys not hable to mainteign. So that the lacke 
 thereof wilbe a greate noysaunce to the kinges ma ties 
 subiectes passing to and from the marches of Wales and 
 an vtter ruyne to the same towne, being one of the 
 fayrest and most proffittuble townes to the kinges 
 highnesse in all the shyre.” 1 
 
 Whether Oueen Mathilda (twelfth century) got 
 wetted or not, as is supposed, on passing the ford of 
 the river at Stratford-atte-Bow—that same village 
 where afterwards the French was spoken which amused 
 Chaucer—it is certain that she thought she did a 
 meritorious work in constructing two bridges there. 2 
 Several times repaired, Bow Bridge was still standing 
 in 1839. The queen endowed her foundation, grant¬ 
 ing land and a water-mill to the Abbess of Barking 
 with a perpetual charge thereon for the maintenance 
 of the bridge and the neighbouring roadway. When 
 the queen died, an abbey for men was founded at the 
 same Stratford close to the bridges, and the abbess 
 hastened to transfer to the new monastery the property 
 in the mill and the charge of the reparations. The 
 abbot did them at first, then he wearied of it, and ended 
 by delegating the looking after them to one Godfrey 
 Pratt. He had built this man a house on the cause¬ 
 way beside the bridge, and made him an annual 
 grant. For a long time Pratt carried out the contract, 
 “getting assistance,” says an inquiry of Edward I., 
 
 1 Certificates of Chantries, quoted in “ English Gilds, the 
 Original Ordinances from MSS. of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth 
 Centuries,” ed. by Toulmin Smith. E. T. T. S., 1870, p. 249. 
 Gilds in Rochester, Bristol, Ludlow, &c., did the same. 
 
 2 “ Archteologia,” vols. xxvii. p. 77 ; xx’x. p. 380. 
 
46 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 “ from some passers-by, but without often having 
 recourse to their aid.” He also received the charity 
 of travellers, and his affairs prospered. They prospered 
 so well that the abbot thought he might withdraw his 
 pension ; Pratt indemnified himself the best way he 
 could. He set up iron bars across the bridge and 
 made all pay who passed over, except the rich, for he 
 prudently made exception “ for the nobility ; he feared 
 them and let them pass without molesting them.” 
 The dispute only terminated in the time of Edward 
 II. ; the abbot recognized his fault ; took back the 
 charge of the bridge, and put down the iron bars, the 
 toll,and Godfrey Pratt himself. 
 
 BOW BRIDGE AS IT STOOD BEFORE ITS DEMOLITION IN 1S39. 
 {From a print datfd 1831 .) 
 
 This bridge, over which no doubt Chaucer himself 
 passed, was of stone, the arches were narrow and the 
 piers thick ; strong angular buttresses supported them 
 and broke the force of the current; these formed at 
 the upper part a triangle or siding which served as 
 a refuge for foot-passengers, for the passage was so 
 narrow that a carriage sufficed to fill the way. When 
 it was pulled down in 1839, it was found that the 
 method of construction had been very simple. To 
 ground the piers in the bed of the river the masons 
 had simply thrown down stones and mortar till the 
 level of the water had been reached. It was remarked 
 
ROADS AND BRIDGES. 
 
 47 
 
 also that the ill-will of Pratt or the abbot or of their 
 successors must have rendered the bridge almost as 
 dangerous at certain moments as the primitive ford. 
 The wheels of the vehicles had hollowed such deep 
 ruts in the stone and the horses’ shoes had so worn the 
 pavement that an arch had been at one time pierced 
 through. 
 
 No less striking as a case where pious motives caused 
 the making of a bridge is the contract of the thirteenth 
 tentury, by which Reginald de Rosels allowed Peter, 
 Abbot of Whitby, to build a permanent bridge on the 
 river Esk, between his own and the convent’s lands. 
 He pledges himself in that act to permit to all comers 
 free access to the bridge through his own property. 
 “ For which concession the aforesaid Abbot and con¬ 
 vent have absolved in chapter all the ancestors of the 
 same Reginald of all fault and transgression they may 
 have committed against the church of Whiteby and 
 have made them participant of all the good works, 
 alms, and prayers of the church of Whiteby.” 1 
 Numerous other examples of the same sort might be 
 quoted ; but it will be enough to add, as being perhaps 
 more characteristic of the times than all the rest, the 
 recommendations which Truth in the “ Vision concern¬ 
 ing Piers the Plowman ” makes to the wealthy Eng¬ 
 lish merchants, the number of whom had so largely 
 increased during the fourteenth century. Truth bids 
 them to do several works of charity, which he con¬ 
 siders of the highest importance for their salvation ; 
 
 1 “Cartularium Abbathiae dc Whiteby,” edited by J. C. Atkinson, 
 Durham, Surtees Society, i88i,vol. ii. p.401. The original of the 
 Rosels contract is in L.atin. 
 
48 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 they ought, among other things, to “ amenden meson- 
 dieux,” that is, hospitals for sick people and for travellers ; 
 to repair “ wikked wayes,” that is to say, bad roads ; 
 and also 
 
 “. . . . brygges to-broke by the heye weyes 
 Amende in som manere wise.” 
 
 For this and for helping prisoners, poor scholars, etc., 
 they will have no little recompense. When they are 
 about to die St. Michael himself will be sent to them to 
 drive away devils that they be not tormented by wicked 
 spirits in their last moments : 
 
 “And ich shal sende yow my-selue seynt Michel myn Angel 
 That no deuel shal yow dere ne despeir in youre deyinge, 
 
 And sende youre soules ther ich my-self dwelle.” 1 
 
 The pious character of the bridges was also shown by 
 the chapel that stood on them. Bow Bridge was thus 
 placed under the protection of St. Catherine. London 
 Bridge had also a chapel dedicated to St. Thomas of 
 Canterbury. It was a roomy Gothic building of 
 apsidal form, with high windows and wrought pinnacles, 
 almost a church. A miniature in a manuscript, of 
 which a reproduction on a reduced scale is given at the 
 beginning of this chapter, shows it fixed on the middle 
 pier, whilst along the parapet are houses with pointed 
 roofs, whose storeys project and hang over the Thames. 
 
 This was a famous bridge. No Englishman of the 
 Middle Ages, and even of the Renaissance, ever spoke 
 but with pride of London Bridge ; it was the great 
 national wonder ; until the middle of the eighteenth 
 
 1 Skeat’s edit^n. Text C, pas. x. 1 . ,19, et seq. 
 
ROADS AND BRIDGES. 
 
 49 
 
 century it remained the only bridge of the capital. It 
 had been commenced in 1176,011 the site of an old 
 wooden structure, by Peter Colechurch, “ priest and 
 chaplain,” who had already once repaired the wooden 
 bridge. All the nation were excited about this great 
 and useful enterprise ; the king, the citizens of London, 
 the dwellers in the shires endowed the building with 
 lands and sent money to hasten its completion. The 
 list of donors was still to be seen in the sixteenth century, 
 “ in a table fair written for posterity ” 1 in the chapel 
 on the bridge. A little while before his death in 1205, 
 another had taken the place of Peter Colechurch, then 
 very old, as director of the works. King John, who 
 was in France, struck with the beauty of the bridges of 
 that country, particularly by the magnificent bridge of 
 Saintes which lasted till the middle of our century, and 
 which was approached by a Roman triumphal arch, chose, 
 to superintend the works in the room of Colechurch, a 
 Frenchman, called Isembert, “ master of the Saintes 
 schools ” (1201). Isembert, who had given proof of his 
 powers in the bridges of La Rochelle and of Saintes, 
 set out with his assistants, furnished with a royal 
 patent addressed to the mayor and inhabitants of 
 London. John Lackland therein vaunted the skill of 
 the master, and declared that the revenue arising from 
 the houses that he would build upon the bridge should 
 
 1 Stow’s “Survey of London ” (Strype’s edition, 1720) bk. i. pp. 
 53-57. Stow, who examined the accounts of the bridge wardens for 
 the year 1506 (22 Hen. VII.), found that the bridge expenses were 
 at that time £815 17s. 2d. The present bridge dates from our 
 century; it was opened to circulation in 1831 ; the expense of its 
 erection amounted to £1,458,311. 
 
 4 
 
5 ° 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE . 
 
 be consecrated to the maintenance of the edifice for 
 ever. 1 
 
 The bridge was finished in 1209. It was furnished 
 with houses, with a chapel, and with defensive towers* 
 It immediately became celebrated, and was the admi¬ 
 ration of all England. The Scotchman, Sir David 
 Lindesay, Earl of Crawfurd, having fallen out with 
 Lord Welles, ambassador at the Scottish Court, a duel 
 was decided on, and Lindesay chose London Bridge as 
 the place of combat (1390). He crossed the length of 
 the kingdom, furnished with a safe-conduct from King 
 Richard II., and the duel solemnly came off at the place 
 fixed in the presence of an immense concourse. The 
 first shock was so violent that the lances were shivered, 
 but the Scotchman remained immovable in his saddle. 
 The people, fearing for the success of the Englishman, 
 called out that the foreigner was fixed to his horse 
 against all rules. Upon understanding this Lindesay, 
 by wav of reply, leapt lightly to the ground, with one 
 bound returned to the saddle and, charging his adversary 
 anew, overthrew and grievously wounded him. 2 
 
 The houses built on the bridge were of several storeys; 
 they had cellars in the thickness of the piers. When 
 the inhabitants needed water they lowered their buckets 
 by ropes out of the windows and filled them in the 
 Thames. Sometimes by this means they helped poor 
 fellows whose boat had capsized. The arches were 
 narrow, and it was not uncommon in the dark for a 
 boat to strike against the piers and be dashed to pieces. 
 
 * See Appendix I. 
 
 1 Stow’s “Survey,” p. 36; “ Chronicles of London Bridge,” by 
 an Antiquary [Richard Thomson], London, 1S27, pp. 187-193. 
 

 PAKT OF LONDON BRIDGE WITH THE DRAWBRIDGE AND NOXE-Sl'CIJ HOUSE. 5 L 
 
 (As it stood about A.D. 1600.) 
 
ROADS AND BRIDGES. 
 
 S3 
 
 The Duke of Norfolk and several others were saved in 
 this manner in 1428, but some of their companions 
 were drowned. At other times the inhabitants them¬ 
 selves had need of help, for it happened occasionally 
 that the houses, badly repaired, hung forward and fell 
 in one block into the river. A catastrophe of this kind 
 took place in 1481. 
 
 One of the twenty arches of the bridge, the thirteenth 
 from the City side, formed a drawbridge to let boats 
 pass 1 and also to close the approach to the town ; this 
 was the obstacle which in 1553 hindered the insurgents 
 led by Sir Thomas Wyatt from entering London. 
 Beside the movable arch rose a tower on the summit of 
 which the executioner loner placed the heads of decapi¬ 
 tated criminals. That of the Lord Chancellor, Sir 
 Thomas More, bled for a time on the end of a pike 
 on this tower before it was redeemed by Margaret 
 Roper, the daughter of the condemned man. In 1576, 
 this building of sombre memories was splendidly recon¬ 
 structed, and some very fine rooms were made in it. 
 The new tower was entirely of wood, carved and gilt, 
 in the “paper worke ” style in fashion in Elizabeth’s 
 time, blamed by the wise Harrison. It was called 
 “ None-such House.” The heads of the condemned 
 were no more to soil a building so cheerful in aspect ; 
 they were placed on the next tower on the Southwark 
 side. Four years after this change, the fashionable Lyly 
 the Euphuist, careful to flatter the vanity of his com¬ 
 patriots, ended one of his books with a pompous praise 
 of England, its products, its universities, its capital ; he 
 
 1 As to the toll collected there from certain foreign merchants 
 a.d. 1334), see “Liber Albus” (ed. Riley, Introduction, p. 1 .). 
 
54 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 added : “ Among all the straunge and beautiful showes, 
 mee thinketh there is none so notable as the Bridge 
 which crosseth the Theames, which is in manner of a 
 continuall streere, well replenyshed with large and 
 stately houses on both sides, and situate upon twentie 
 arches, whereof each one is made of excellent free stone 
 squared, euerye one of them being three-score foote in 
 height, and full twentie in distaunce one from an 
 other.” 1 
 
 This was an exceptional bridge, others presented a 
 less important appearance. People were even glad to 
 find bridges like that at Stratford-at-Bow, in spite of 
 its want of width and its deep ruts ; or like the 
 wooden bridge over the Dyke, with arches so low and 
 narrow that all water traffic was interrupted by a slight 
 rising of the level of the water. The state of this last 
 bridge, which, in truth, was more of a hindrance than a 
 help to communication, at length excited the indignation 
 of neighbouring counties. During the fifteenth century, 
 therefore, it was granted to the inhabitants upon their 
 
 1 “ Euphues and his England,” ed. princ. 1580 ; Arber’s reprint, 
 1868, p. 434. See also the large coloured drawing of about the year 
 1600 (partly reproduced above, p. 51), in the third part of Harrison’s 
 “ Description of England,” edited by F. J. Furnivall for the New 
 Shakspere Society, 1877; and Mr. Wheatley’s notes on Norden’s 
 Map of London, 1593, in vol. i. p. lxxxix of the same work. 
 Foreigners coming to London never failed to notice the bridge as 
 one of the curiosities of the town. The Greek Nicander Nucius 
 of Corcyra, who visited England in 1545—6, writes in his note-book : 
 “A certain very large bridge is built, affording a passage to those 
 in the city to the opposite inhabited bank, supported by stone 
 cemented arches, and having also houses and turrets upon it 
 “Travels of Nicander Nucius,” Camden Society, 1841, p. 7). 
 

UUG11 OF CLOPTON’S BRIDGE AT STRATFORD-ON-AVON. [ P 56 . 
 
 [Fifteenth Century .) 
 
ROADS AND BRIDGES. 
 
 57 
 
 pressing request, that they might reconstruct the bridge, 
 with a movable arch for boats. 1 
 
 In the same way disappeared, also in the fifteenth 
 century, a bridge described by Leland in his “ Itine¬ 
 rary ” as having been a “ poore bridge of tymber and 
 no causey to come to it,” which crossed the Avon at 
 Stratford. It was in such a state that “ many poore 
 folkes and other refused to come to Stratford when 
 Avon was up, or comminge thither stood in jeopardye 
 of lyfe.” The rich Sir Hugh of Clopton, sometime mayor 
 of London, who had been born at Clopton near Strat¬ 
 ford, and who died in 1497, moved by the danger of his 
 compatriots, built “ the great and sumptuous bridge 
 upon Avon at the east ende of the towne, which hath 
 fourteen great arches of stone, and a long causey made 
 of stone, lowe walled on each syde, at the west ende 
 of the bridge.” This same bridge is still in use, and 
 quite deserves the praise bestowed upon it by Leland. 
 But fine as it is, one would have less regretted its dis¬ 
 appearance than the destruction of a certain “ praty 
 house of bricke and tymbre,” 2 built by the same Hugh 
 of Clopton with the purpose of ending his days in it. 
 That house was purchased afterwards—also with the 
 intent of ending his life in it—by a certain countryman 
 of Hugh, who has since become famous enough. This 
 was William Shakespeare, who repaired the house, 
 then called New Place, and died in it in the year 
 1616. 
 
 The calling in of the foreign priest Isembert to 
 
 ‘ See Appendix II. 
 
 2 “ The Itinerary of John Leland,” edited by Tho. Hearne 
 Oxford, 1745, vol. iv. pp. 66, 67 
 
5S ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 superintend the works of London Bridge seems to have 
 been an exceptional fact. The making of ordinary 
 bridges was usually entrusted to local artists or masons ; 
 and it would have been strange indeed if the people 
 who could build such splendid cathedral naves all over 
 England had been at a loss to span rivers with bridges. 
 One of the few indentures for the making of a bridge 
 which have come down to. us concerns the re-building 
 of Catterick bridge, Yorkshire, in 1422, on the great 
 Roman road, the Ermine Street; this document is curious 
 in many respects. The contract binds several authorities 
 on the one hand, and “ Tho. Ampilforde, John Garette, 
 and Robert Maunselle, masons,” on the other. It is 
 stated in it “ yat y e foresaides Tho., John, and Rob., 
 schalle make a brigge of stane oure (over) y e water of 
 Swalle atte Catrik be twix y e old stane brigge and 
 Y e new brigge of tree (of wood), quilke forsaid brigge, 
 with y e grace of God, salle be made sufficiant [and 
 war]kmanly in mason craft accordand in substance to 
 Barnacastelle brigge, aftir y e ground and y e watyr 
 accordes, of twa pilers, twa land stathes (abutments), 
 and thre arches.” The deed goes on to give a very 
 minute account of the way in which every part of the 
 work will have to be performed, of the material that 
 will be used, and of the time when the bridge must be 
 entirely finished and open to circulation: “ And 
 
 y e saides John, Tho., and Rob., schalle this forsaid 
 brigge sufficiantly in masoncraft make and fully per- 
 furnist in all partiez and holy endyd be y e Fest of Seint 
 Michille y e Arcangelle quilk y* shalle fall in y e yere of 
 our Lorde Gode M le ccccxxv.” It is understood 
 besides that they will receive in payment, at certain 
 
ROADS AND BRIDGES. 
 
 59 
 
 fixed dates, “ gounes,” and also sums of money, the 
 total of which will be 260 marks sterling;. 1 
 
 The bridge built by the three masons, John, Thomas, 
 and Robert, is still in existence, but it has undergone 
 great and many alterations. 
 
 We have already seen some examples of the means 
 employed at this period to secure the maintenance of 
 these valuable constructions, when that maintenance was 
 ensured by something more than the charges incident to 
 the ownership of the neighbouring lands (trinoda neces- 
 sitas ) ; we know that it was sometimes provided under 
 favour of “indulgences” promised to benefactors, some¬ 
 times by the intervention of gilds, sometimes also by the 
 endowments with which a great lord would enrich the 
 bridge which he had founded. But there were several 
 methods besides which were employed with success, 
 even with profit ; such as regular receipts under that 
 right of toll which Godfrey Pratt had arbitrarily 
 imposed on his fellow citizens, or the collection of pious 
 offerings made at the chapel of the bridge and to its 
 warden. The right of toll was called brudtholl (bridge- 
 toll) or pontagium ; the grantee, or person to whom the 
 tax was granted, bound himself in return to make all 
 the necessary repairs. Sometimes the King accorded 
 the right as a favour during a certain period. We have 
 an example in the following petition, which is of the 
 time of Edward I. or Edward II. : 
 
 “ To our lord the king prays his vassal William of 
 
 1 “ The North Riding Record Society,” edited by the Rev. J. C. 
 Atkinson, London, vol. iii. part i. p. 33. 
 
6o 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE . 
 
 Latymer, lord of Yarm, 1 that he will grant him pont¬ 
 age for five years at the bridge of Yarm, which is broken 
 down, where men were wont to pass with carts and with 
 horses on the king’s highway between the water ot 
 Tees towards Scotland”. May it please him to do this 
 for the soul of Madame his consort, who is to God 
 commended, and for the common profit of the people 
 who pass.” The King’s reply was favourable: “The 
 King grants the pontage for the term.” 2 3 
 
 Some of the tariffs in force at certain bridges during 
 the fourteenth century have come down to us and have 
 been printed ; the most detailed of these is of the year 
 1306, and concerns London Bridge. It is annexed to a 
 patent of Edward I., and enumerates not only passengers, 
 carriages, and animals of every quality or description, 
 but also every sort of “ saleable ” ware which may pass 
 either on or below the bridge : though it may have 
 been considered somewhat unfair to draw money from 
 shipmen towards the expenses of a structure that was 
 no help to them, but rather the reverse .3 This list, 
 which is a great help towards forming an exact idea 
 
 1 Yarm on the Tees, 44 miles north-north-west of York. The 
 “ king’s highway ” in question is the highroad from Scotland, which 
 leads to the south passing through York and London. The bridge 
 was re-built in 1400 by Skirlaw, Bishop of Durham. 
 
 2 “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. i. p. 468. The right of pontage 
 is frequently mentioned in the “Liber Custumarum,” edited by 
 Riley (Rolls Series). 
 
 3 “Concessimus quod capiatis ibidem de rebus venalibus ultra 
 pontem predictum et subtus eundem transeuntibus consuetudines 
 subscriptas, videlicet . . Then follows a very long list of dues. 
 The text of this letter-patent may be found in an appendix tc 
 Hearnc’s “Liber niger Scaccarii,” ed. 1771, vol i. p. 47S*. 
 
ROADS AND BRIDGES. 
 
 61 
 
 of the commodities brought to London by land or 
 by river, covers no less than four pages of printed 
 matter : including coals, timber, wines, beer, horses, 
 sheep, butter and cheese, fish, millstones, silk and 
 other cloths, and sometimes the place they come from 
 is given : Flanders, Normandy, &c. 
 
 Another very curious petition (1334) will show the 
 application of the other mode, that is, the collection of 
 voluntary offerings from the charity of passers-by ; the 
 share of the clergy in the care of these buildings, as 
 well as the greediness with which the profitable right 
 of collecting the gifts was disputed, and the embezzle¬ 
 ments of which they were sometimes the object, are to 
 be noticed : 
 
 “ To our lord the king and his Council showeth 
 their poor chaplain, Robert le Fenere, parson of the 
 church of St. Clement, of Huntingdon, of the diocese 
 of Lincoln, that there is a little chapel lately built in 
 his parish on the bridge of Huntingdon, the keeping 
 of which chapel our lord the king has granted and 
 delivered during pleasure to one Sir Adam, Warden of 
 the house of St. John of Huntingdon, who receives and 
 takes away all manner of offerings and alms without 
 doing anything for the repair of the bridge or of the 
 said chapel as he is bound to do. On the other hand, 
 it seems hurtful to God and Holy Church that offerings 
 should be appropriated to any one except to the parson 
 within whose parish the chapel is founded. Wherefore 
 the said Robert prays, for God and Holy Church and 
 for the souls of our lord the king’s father and his 
 
62 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 ancestors, that he may have the keeping of the said 
 chapel annexed to his church, together with the charge 
 of the bridge, and he will take heed with all care to 
 maintain them well, with better will than any stranger, 
 for the profit and honour of Holy Church, to please 
 God and all people passing that way.” 1 
 
 This jumble of human and. divine interests was sub¬ 
 mitted to the ordinary examination, and the demand 
 was set aside, with the following note : “Non est pe- 
 ticio parliament ” ; it is not a petition for parliament. 
 
 In many cases, the bridge was itself at once proprietor 
 of real estate and beneficiary of the offerings made to 
 its chapel, and sometimes also grantee of a right of 
 toll ; it had income from both civil and religious 
 sources. Such were notably the bridges of London, 
 of Rochester, 2 of Bedford, and many others. John 
 de Bodenho, chaplain, explains to Parliament that the 
 inhabitants of Bedford hold their own town at farm 
 from the king, and have undertaken to maintain their 
 bridge. P'or this they “ assigned certain tenements and 
 rents in the said town to support it, and with their alms 
 have newly built an oratory on the side of the water 
 belonging to Lord Mowbray, by leave of the lord, 
 adjoining the said bridge.” The burgesses gave to the 
 plaintiff the charge of the reparations, together with the 
 whole revenues. But the priest, John of Derby, repre¬ 
 sented to the king that it was a royal chapel which he 
 might dispose of,, and the king has given it to him, 
 which is very unjust, since the chapel is not the king’s ; 
 even those who founded it are still living. All these 
 
 1 “ Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 88. 
 
 * See Hist. MSS. Commission, 9th Report, part i. p. 284. 
 
ROADS AND BRIDGES . 
 
 63 
 
 reasons were found good ; the judges were enjoined to 
 do justice to the plaintiff, and were reprimanded for not 
 having done it sooner, as had already been prescribed 
 to them. 1 
 
 Enriched by so many offerings, protected by the 
 trinoda necessitas and by the common interest of the 
 landed proprietors, these bridges should have been con¬ 
 tinually repaired, and have remained sound. But it 
 was nothing of the sort, and the distance between legal 
 theory and practice was great. When the taxes were 
 regularly collected and honestly applied, they usually 
 sufficed to support the building ; even the right of 
 collecting them, being in itself profitable, was, as has 
 been seen, strongly contested for ; but the example of 
 Godfrey Pratt and of some others has already shown 
 that all the wardens were not honest. Many, even in 
 the highest positions, imitated Godfrey. London Bridge 
 itself, so rich, so useful, so admired, had constantly need 
 of reparation, and this was never done until danger was 
 imminent, or even till catastrophe happened. Henry 
 III. granted the farm of the bridge revenues “to his 
 beloved wife,” who neglected to maintain it, and appro¬ 
 priated to herself without scruple the rents of the 
 building ; none the less did the king renew his patent 
 at the expiration of the term, that the queen might 
 benefit “ from a richer favour.” The result of these 
 favours was not long to wait ; it was soon found that 
 the bridge was in ruins, and to restore it the ordinary 
 resources were not enough ; it was necessary to send 
 collectors throughout the country to gather offerings 
 from those willing to give. Edward I. begged his 
 1 “ Rolls of Parliament” vol. ii. p. 100 (a.d. 1338). 
 
6 4 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 subjects to hasten (January, 1281), the bridge would 
 give way if they did not send prompt assistance. He 
 ordered the archbishops, bishops, all the clergy, to allow 
 his collectors to address the people freely with “ pious 
 exhortations ” that the subsidies should be given without 
 delay. But the supplies thus urgently required arrived 
 too late; the catastrophe had already happened, a 
 “ sudden ruin ’’ befel the bridge, and to repair this 
 misfortune the king established a special tax upon the 
 passengers, merchandise and boats (February 4, 1282), 
 which tax was enacted again and a new tariff put into 
 force on May 7, 1306, as we have already seen. What 
 this sudden ruin was we learn from Stow’s “Annals”; 
 the winter had been very severe, the frost and snow had 
 caused great cracks in the floor of the bridge, so that 
 towards the Feast of the Purification (February 2), five 
 of the arches fell in. Many other bridges, too, in the 
 country had suffered damage, Rochester Bridge had even 
 entirely fallen. 1 
 
 It may be imagined what would happen to some of 
 the country bridges which had been built without the 
 thought of endowing them. The alms that were 
 given for them proved insufficient, so that little by little, 
 nobody repairing them, the arches wore through, the 
 parapets were detached, not a cart passed but fresh 
 stones disappeared in the river, and soon carriages and 
 
 1 “King Edward kept his feast of Christmas (1281) at Worcester. 
 From this Christmas till the purification of Our Lady, there was 
 such a frost and snow, as no man living could remember the like, 
 wherethrough five arches of London Bridge, and all Rochester 
 Bridge were borne downe, and carried away with the streame, and 
 the like hapned to many bridges in England ” (Stow’s “ Annales,” 
 London, 1631, p. 2d). See Appendix TIT. 
 
ROADS AND BRIDGES. 
 
 6 5 
 
 riders could not venture without much danger over the 
 half-demolished building. If with all this a flood should 
 supervene, all was over with the bridge and with the 
 imprudent or hurried persons who might be crossing lnte 
 in the evening. An accident of this kind was brought 
 up in his defence by a chamberlain of North Wales, 
 from whom Edward III. claimed a hundred marks. 
 The chamberlain averred that he had sent the money 
 carefully by his clerk, William of Markeley ; alas,“ the 
 said William was drowned in Severn, at Moneford 
 bridge, by the rising flood of water, and could not be 
 found, so that he was devoured by beasts; thus the said 
 hundred marks chanced to be lost.” 1 At that time 
 there were still wolves in England, and the disappear¬ 
 ance of the body, with the ioo marks, through the 
 action of wild beasts, would appear less unlikely than at 
 present. 
 
 In those days neglect attained lengths now impossible 
 and unknown to us. The Commons of the counties 
 of Nottingham, Derby, and Lincoln, and of the town 
 of Nottingham, declare to the Good Parliament (1376), 
 that there is near the town of Nottingham a great 
 bridge over the Trent, called ITeybethebridge, “ to the 
 making and repair of which nobody is bound and 
 alms only are collected, by which bridge all the comers 
 and goers between the north and the south parts 
 should have their passage.” This bridge is “ ruinous,’ 
 and “ oftentimes have several persons been drowned, 
 as well horsemen as carts, man, and harness.” The 
 complainants pray for power to appoint two bridge 
 wardens, who shall administer the property that will 
 
 1 “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 91 (9 Edward III.), 1335. 
 
 5 
 
66 
 
 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE. 
 
 be given for its maintenance, “for God and as a work of 
 charity.” But the king did not accede to their request. 1 
 
 Or maybe it happened that the riverside proprietors 
 let their obligation fall into oblivion, even when it was 
 at commencement formal and precise enough. The 
 legislator had, however, taken some precautions ; he had 
 inscribed bridges on the list of the subjects for those in¬ 
 quiries opened periodically in England by the justices 
 in Eyre, sheriffs and bailiffs, as we shall see further 
 on ; but interested men found means to defraud the law. 
 People had been so long used to see ruin menace the 
 edifice, that when it actually did give way no one could 
 say who ought to have repaired it. It then became 
 necessary to apply to the king for a special inquiry, 
 and to seek on whom lay the service. The parliament 
 thus decide in 1339, on the demand of the prior of St. 
 Neots : “ Item, let there be good and true men assigned 
 to survey the bridge and causeway of St. Neots, whether 
 they be broken down and carried away by the rising of 
 the waters, as the prior alleges, or not. And in case 
 they are broken down and carried away, to inquire who 
 ought and was used to have it repaired, and who is 
 bound of right to do it ; and how the bridge and road¬ 
 way may be re-made and repaired. And what they 2 
 find they shall return into the chancery.” 
 
 In consequence of such inquests the persons charged 
 with the maintenance find themselves pointed out by 
 the declarations of a jury convened on the spot, and a 
 tax is levied upon them for the execution of the repara' 
 
 1 “ Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 350. 
 
 2 I.e., the jury “of good and true men.” “Rolls of Parliament, 
 vol. ii. p. hi. 
 
ROADS AND BRIDGES. 
 
 67 
 
 cions. But very often the debtors protest and refuse to 
 pay; they are sued, they appeal to the king ; horse, 
 cart, anything that may come to hand and belongs to 
 them is seized to be sold for the benefit of the bridge ; 
 the dispute lengthens out, and meanwhile the edifice 
 gives way. Hamo de Morston, for example, in the 
 eleventh year of Edward II., complains that his horse 
 has been taken. Cited to justify themselves, Simon 
 Porter and two others who have made the capture 
 explain that there is a bridge at Shoreham, called the 
 Long bridge, which is half destroyed ; now it has been 
 found that the building ought to be restored at the 
 expense of the tenants of the Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 Hamo having refused to pay his part of the contribu¬ 
 tion, Simon and the others took his horse. They acted 
 by order of a bailiff, and their conduct is vindicated. 
 After another inquest of the same period, the Abbot of 
 Coggeshall refused to execute any repairs to a bridge 
 near his lands under pretext that within memory of 
 man there had been no other bridge over the river 
 “ than a certain plank of board,” and that at all times 
 it had been found sufficient for horsemen and pedes¬ 
 trians (1 Edward II.). Innumerable are the examples of 
 inquests of this sort and of the difficulties in executing 
 the measures decided on. 1 
 
 Owing to these several causes the chronicle of even 
 the most important of English bridges, when it is 
 possible to trace it out, is a long tale of falls into the 
 river, rebuildings, and repairs, and ever-recurring cata¬ 
 strophes. Sometimes when the damage was great, and 
 much money was wanted and did not happen to be 
 ‘ Several instances will be found cited in Appendix IV. 
 
68 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 forthcoming, a ferry was established as a substitute for 
 the late bridge, and there remained for years and years 
 together. Such a series of events is offered by the 
 history of the bridge on the Tweed at Berwick, which 
 was one of the longest in England. The first time we 
 hear of it is in the year 1199, and the news is that it 
 fell at that date, owing to the rising of the river. It was 
 rebuilt and fell again ; sometimes it was rebuilt in wood 
 and sometimes in stone; at times it fell altogether 
 from beginning to end, and then a ferry was established, 
 and there remains for many years. This was the case 
 in 1294, when great harm was done by the inundations. 
 “ Where the bridge fell at this time,” says the latest 
 historian of Berwick, “ there it lay for many years. The 
 only method of crossing was by ferry boats, worked 
 from both sides of the river ; while the ferry in times 
 of danger was defended by soldiers. Thus, in Sir 
 Robert Heron’s (the controller) ‘Book of Bills’ for 
 1310, there is allowed one half quarter of pease to each 
 of six crossbowmen (one of them being John Sharp 
 Arewe) guarding the ferry of the Tweed at Berwick.” 1 
 The ferry follows vicissitudes scarcely less numerous 
 than the bridge itself, and disputes arise as to the right 
 of working it, or rather of collecting the tolls there. 
 The revenues of the bridge, now that there is no longer 
 any bridge, are also a matter of difficulty, and the king 
 has to interfere to settle the matter of the rents of 
 houses and of fisheries belonging to the ruined monu¬ 
 ment. In 1347 at last the citizens of the town began 
 to think seriously of rebuilding their bridge, and the 
 king granted them the right of collecting towards the 
 1 Inhn Scott. “ Berwick-upon-Tweed,” London, 1888, p. 408, etseq. 
 
ROADS AND BRIDGES. 
 
 69 
 
 expenses a toll of sixpence on every ship entering their 
 harbour. The bridge was then rebuilt, but not in 
 such a way as not to fall again, which has happened to 
 it many times since. Not less doleful is the story oi 
 the bridge on the Dee at Chester, of which we hear in 
 the chronicles for the first time in 1227 and 1297, on 
 account of its being carried away by the water, 1 and the 
 same may be said of many ol the bridges of mediaeval 
 England, especially of longer ones such as the two 
 just named. 
 
 When rebuilding had to take place people generally 
 did not care to remove what remained ot the old monu¬ 
 ment, and, for this reason, when a bridge has been broken 
 down in our time, it has been often found that it was 
 made of an accumulation of superimposed bridges. Such 
 was the case with the bridge over the Teign, between 
 Newton Abbot and Teignmouth, rebuilt in 1815. It 
 became, on that occasion, apparent that four successive 
 bridges at least had been at various times erected with 
 or over the remains of previous constructions. Mr. 
 P. T. Taylor, who investigated the matter at that 
 time, gave as his opinion “ that the last or upper work 
 was done in the sixteenth century, and that the red 
 bridge had been built on the salt marsh in the thirteenth 
 century; since which time there has been an accumu¬ 
 lation of soil to the depth of ten feet. Pie supposes 
 the wooden bridge to be as old as the Conquest, and 
 the white stone bridge to have been a Roman work.” 2 
 
 Given these circumstances, it is rather a matter of 
 surprise than otherwise to find that a good number of 
 
 * Ormcrod, “History of Chester,” 1819, vol. i. p. 285. 
 
 a “ Archaeologia,” t. xix. p. 310. 
 
70 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE . 
 
 mediaeval bridges still subsist in England ; the more 
 so as this our century has been a great destroyer of 
 bridges. The enormous increase of population and the 
 proportionate want of means of communication during 
 the last hundred years has proved fatal to many 
 bridges, and especially to the more famous and impor¬ 
 tant ones which had been built in the more largely 
 populated districts. Owing to such necessities London 
 Bridge itself has disappeared, and the recollections of 
 five hundred years, during which it had been, so to 
 say, a factor in English history and associated with the 
 life of the nation, could not save it. The tide of an 
 ever-increasing traffic was at last too strong for the 
 masterpiece of Isembert. Many others had the same 
 fate, or at least were partly rebuilt or enlarged, not 
 always in such a way as to retain their pristine appear¬ 
 ance. For all that, however, enough of them remain 
 to give an accurate idea of what they were without 
 having recourse merely to descriptions or drawings 
 in contemporary manuscripts. None, it is true, can for 
 elegance and completeness compete with such bridges 
 as are still to be found in France; for example, with the 
 magnificent thirteenth century bridge of Valent rd at 
 Cahors, of which an engraving has been given above 
 (p. 41). Those that remain are sufficient, nevertheless, 
 to testify to the skill of old English architects in that 
 particular branch of their art. As might have been 
 expected, these old bridges chiefly abound in those parts 
 of the country where the increase of traffic and popu¬ 
 lation has been the least conspicuous, on roads little 
 more frequented to-day than in the Middle Ages, which 
 then led to strong castles or flourishing monasteries, 
 
THE CHAI'EL ON THE BRIDGE AT WAKEFIELD. [0. 72. 
 
 'Fourteenth Century ; present state.) 
 
ROADS AND BRIDGES. 
 
 73 
 
 and only lead now to ivy-covered ruins. For this 
 reason they are more numerous in some parts of Wales 
 than anywhere in England. Be they in Wales, in 
 Scotland, or in England, taken altogether they still 
 offer examples of almost all the peculiarities with which 
 it was the custom during the Middle Ages to adorn 
 or accompany them. 
 
 In several cases the chapels which placed them under 
 the protection of a saint and where offerings were 
 collected, are still extant. There is one, of the fif¬ 
 teenth century, 1 at Rotherham, Yorkshire, “a chapel 
 of stone wel wrought,” says Leland ; another, a small 
 one, is to be seen on the bridge at Bradford-on-Avon, 
 Wiltshire; a third, a very tall structure, stands on the 
 middle of the bridge at St. Ives, Huntingdonshire ; but 
 the finest example by far of such buildings is the chapel 
 on the bridge at Wakefield, both chapel and bridge 
 dating from the fourteenth century. Leland mentions 
 them as “ the faire bridge of stone of nine arches, 
 under which runnith the river of Calder, and on the east 
 side of this bridge is a right goodly chapel of our lady 
 and two cantuarie preestes founded in it.” This foun¬ 
 dation was made about 1358 ; Edward III., by a charter 
 dated at Wakefield, settled “,£10 per annum on 
 William Kaye and William Bull and their successors 
 for ever to perform Divine service in a chapel of St. 
 Mary newly built on the bridge at Wakefield.” 2 
 
 1 The date is shown by a will of the 24th of August, 1483, by 
 which a sum is left towards the making of the chapel to be built 
 on Rotherham Bridge. See J. Guest, “Historic Notices of Rother 
 ham,” Worksop, 1879, fol. pp. 125-6. Two views of the bridge 
 and chapel are given, pp. 126 and 581. 
 
 2 Camden’s “ Britannia,”ed. Gough, vol. iii.,Lond., 1789, pp. 38-9 
 
74 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 In our century the bridge has been widened on its 
 west side ; which has caused it to lose its original 
 appearance on this side. The chapel, too, was restored 
 in 1847, original perpendicular style was care¬ 
 
 fully respected. 1 
 
 Several specimens also remain of bridges with the 
 triangular recesses we have mentioned, left on the top 
 of the piers for the safety of foot passengers. Among 
 many other examples may be quoted the fine fourteenth- 
 century bridge at Warkworth, Northumberland, 2 which 
 also deserves notice for another peculiarity much more 
 rarely to be met with, that is, the preservation of the 
 tower built at one end for its defence. Most of 
 the bridges of any importance were protected in this 
 way ; of late it has been found useless, and the con¬ 
 sideration that they were ornamental has rarely been 
 sufficient to prevent such fortifications being pulled 
 down. Those at Chester were removed in 1782—1784; 
 those at York were demolished (with the bridge itself, 
 of the thirteenth century) at the beginning of our 
 century ; the Durham example, built on Framwellgate 
 Bridge, in 1760, &c. It must be conceded that those 
 towers were sometimes very inconvenient. A person 
 who was present on the occasion told me that, quite 
 recently, a gipsy’s caravan was stopped at the tower on 
 Warkworth Bridge, being unable, owing to the lowness 
 
 1 T. Kilby, “Views in Wakefield,” 1843, fol. ; J. C. and C. A. 
 Buckler, “Remarks upon Wayside Chapels,” Oxford, 1843. 
 
 2 “ Twenty marks were left towards the rebuilding of this bridge, 
 by John Cook of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 2 Rich. II., 1379,” (E. 
 Mackenzie, “View of the County of Northumberland,” 1825, vol. 
 ii. p. 111). 
 
THE BRIDGE WITH A DEFENSIVE TOWER AT WARKWORTH, NORTHUMBERLAND. 
 (Fourteenth Century ; present slate.) 
 

ROADS AND BRIDGES. 
 
 77 
 
 of the arch, to go under it. The pavement had to be 
 hollowed out to allow the caravan to proceed on its 
 journey. Rarer even are bridges with houses on them, 
 as was the fashion in the Middle Ages. A solitary 
 house remains on Elvet Bridge at Durham, and the 
 only bridge with a complete row of houses is quite a 
 recent structure, being the familiar Pulteney Bridge 
 built at Bath by William Pulteney in the eighteenth 
 century. 
 
 The more numerous of the mediaeval bridges still in 
 existence are those of one arch ; there are many of them 
 in Wales, some are most elegant and picturesque ; such 
 is the famous Devil’s Bridge over the Mynach, near 
 Aberystwith. In England the largest is the one over 
 the moat of Norwich Castle; and the most curious the 
 three-branched one at Crowland, this last belonging in 
 its actual state to the fourteenth century. It is no 
 longer used, as no road passes over it and no water under. 
 Others are to be met with in several parts of the 
 country, one of the finest being built over the Esk, 
 near Danby Castle, Yorkshire. Its date is about 1385 ; 
 the arms of Neville, Lord Latimer, who had it built are 
 yet to be seen at the top of the bridge, on one of its 
 sides. 1 
 
 Lastly, attention must be drawn to bridges of a larger 
 kind; most of them have unfortunately undergone 
 great alterations and repairs. Besides the Wakefield 
 Bridge above mentioned, there is one over the Dee, at 
 Chester, part of which is as old as the thirteenth 
 
 1 An engraving of this not sufficiently known bridge is given on 
 the next page. I have been enabled to do so by the kindness of 
 the Rev. ]. C. Atkinson, of Danby Parsonage. 
 
7 « 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 century ; it has been thoroughly repaired since Ormerod 
 disrespectfully described it as “a long fabric of red 
 stone extremely dangerous and unsightly.” 1 At Durham 
 there are the Framwellgate and the Elvet Bridges, 
 both originally built in the twelfth century. A six- 
 arched bridge, rebuilt in the fifteenth century, exists 
 
 THE BRIDGE NEAR DANBY CASTLE, YORKSHIRE. 
 {Fourteenth Century.) 
 
 at Hereford ; another, repaired in 1449, with the help 
 of indulgences, remains at Bidford. 2 A four-arched 
 one, built in the fourteenth century, over the Dee is 
 
 1 “History of Chester,” London, 1819, vol. i d. 28;. 
 
 * Dugdale, “Warwickshire,” 1730, ii. 72A. 
 
ROADS AND BRIDGES. 
 
 79 
 
 to be seen at Llangollen ; it is “ one of the ‘Tri ‘Thlws 
 Cymru , or three beauties of Wales;” 1 the arches are 
 irregular in size, for the architect, in this and in many 
 other cases, minding more the solidity of the structure 
 than its uniformity, built the piers at the places where 
 the presence of rocks in the bed of the river made it 
 most convenient. Other mediseval bridges of several 
 arches remain at Huntingdon, at St. Ives, at Norwich 
 (Bishop’s bridge), at Potter Heigham (a most pictu¬ 
 resque one), 2 3 &c. One of the most interesting is 
 the thirteenth-century bridge over the Nith, at Dumfries, 
 in Scotland, which had formerly thirteen arches, seven 
 of which only are now in use. It was long considered 
 the finest after that of London .3 
 
 The maintenance of the roads much resembled that 
 of the bridges; that is to say, it greatly depended upon 
 arbitrary chance, upon opportunity, or on the goodwill 
 or the devotion of those to whom the adjoining land 
 belonged. In the case of roads, as of bridges, we find 
 petitions of private persons who pray that a tax be 
 
 1 J. G. Wood, “The Principal Rivers of Wales,” London, 1813, 
 vol. ii. p. 271. 
 
 2 See F. Stone, “Picturesque Viev/s of the Bridges of Norfolk,” 
 Norwich, 1830. 
 
 3 Rough sketches of more than thirty old English bridges mav 
 be seen in a curious engraving by Daniel King (seventeenth 
 century) bearing as a title : “An orthographical designe of severall 
 viewes vpon ye road in England and Wales,” and as a subscription : 
 “ This designe is to illustrate Cambden’s Britannia, that where he 
 mentions such places the curious may see them, which is the 
 indeavour, by Gods assistance, of 
 
 “ Y. S. Daniell King.” 
 
 (A copy bound in the MS. Harl. 2073, as fol. 126.) Catterick 
 Bridge {supra p. 58) is among the bridges there represented 
 
So 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 levied upon those who pass along, towards the repair 
 of the road. tc Walter Godelak of Walingford, prays 
 for the establishment of a custom to be collected from 
 every cart of merchandise traversing the road between 
 [owemersh and Newenham, on account of the depth 
 and for the repair of the said way. Reply : The King 
 will do nothing therein.” 1 Again, a lady arrogates to 
 herself the right to levy a tax on passengers. “To 
 our lord the king show the commonalty of the people 
 of Nottinghamshire passing between Kelm and Newur, 
 that whereas the king’s high way between the said two 
 towns has been wont to be for all persons freely to pass, 
 on horse-back, in carriages, and on foot from time im¬ 
 memorial, the Lady of Egrum has got hold to herself 
 of the said road in severalty, taking from those passing 
 along there grievous ransoms and exactions, in disherit¬ 
 ance of the king and his crown and to the great hurt 
 of the people.” The king orders an inquest. 2 
 
 Sometimes the sheriffs in their turns ordered the levy 
 of taxes on those who did not repair the roads ; the 
 law, as we have seen, allowed it ; but those who were 
 fined protested before Parliament under the pretext that 
 the roads and the bridges were “ sufficient enough ; ” 
 —“ Item , humbly pray the Commons of your realm, as 
 well spiritual as temporal, complaining that several 
 sheriffs of your kingdom feign and procure present¬ 
 ments in their turns that divers roads, bridges, and 
 causeys are defective from non-reparation, with pur¬ 
 pose and intent to amerce abbots, priors, and seculars, 
 sometimes up to ten pounds, sometimes more, some- 
 
 * “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. i. p. 4S (18 Edward I., a.d. 1289). 
 
 * Ibid., vol. i. p. 424 (18 Edward II.. 1324). 
 
ROADS AND BRIDGES. 
 
 times less, and levy the said amercements by their 
 officers called out-riders, without delay or any reply of 
 the parties, in places where the said roads, bridges, and 
 causeys are sufficient enough, or perhaps are not in 
 charge of the said amerced men.” Reply : Let the 
 common law be kept, and the amercements reasonable 
 in this case. 1 
 
 Where negligence began, the ruts, or rather the quags, 
 began. Those numerous little subterranean arches, 
 which the foot-passenger now does not even notice, with 
 the purpose of carrying off brooks dry during a part 
 of tne year, did not exist then, and the brook flowed 
 through the road. In the East at the present day, the 
 caravaneers talk in the bazaars of the town about the 
 roads and pathways; we speak of them ourselves on 
 returning home, as books of travel show. In the East, 
 however, a road is often nothing else than a place along 
 which men customarily pass; it little resembles the 
 irreproachable highways the idea of which the word 
 road evokes in European minds. During the rainy 
 season immense pools of water cut off the usual track 
 of the horsemen and camels; they increase by little and 
 little, and at length overflow and form true rivers. At 
 evening the sun sets in the heavens and also in the 
 purpled road; the innumerable pools of the way and 
 of the country reflect the red or violet clouds ; the wet 
 horses and the splashed riders shiver in the midst of all 
 these glimmerings, while overhead and at foot the two 
 suns approach one another to rejoin on the horizon. 
 The roads of the Middle Ages sometimes were like 
 
 1 “ Rolls of Parliament,” vol. iii. p. 598 (7 and 8 Henry IV.). 
 
 6 
 
82 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 those of the modern East; the sunsets were magnificent 
 in winter, but to face journeys required a robust horse¬ 
 man, inured to fatigue, and with stubborn health. The 
 ordinary education, it is true, prepared one for all these 
 trials. 
 
 The roads in England would have been entirely im¬ 
 passable, and religious zeal would have been no more than 
 the indulgences of the Bishop of Durham sufficient to 
 keep them in condition, if the nobility and the clergy, 
 that is to say, the whole of the landed proprietors, had not 
 had an immediate and daily interest in possessing pass¬ 
 able roads. The English kings had had the prudence 
 not to form great compact fiefs like those which they 
 themselves possessed in France, and which caused them 
 to be such dangerous vassals. Their own example had 
 no doubt taught them, and we find them from the 
 beginning distributing to the shareholders in the great 
 enterprise domains scattered in all corners of the island. 
 This kind of chequered proprietorship subsisted to the 
 fourteenth century. Froissart, indeed, remarked it : 
 “And several times,” says he, “it happened that when 
 I rode about the country with him,for the lands and 
 revenues of the English barons are here and there and 
 much scattered , he called me and said : ‘ Froissart, do 
 you see that gieat town with the high steeple?’ 1,1 Tne 
 unfortunate Despencer who put this question was not 
 alone in having the lands which he owed to the prince's 
 favour sown at hazard in every county; all the great 
 men of his style were in the same case. The king him¬ 
 self, besides, with all his court, as well as the lords, 
 ceaselessly went from one country house to another, by 
 1 Edition by S. Luce, vol. i. p. 257. 
 
ROADS AJVD BRIDGES. 
 
 83 
 
 cnoice, and still more by necessity. In time of peace it 
 was an appearance of activity which was not displeasing, 
 but, above all, it was a means of living. All, however 
 rich, were obliged to economize, and, like proprietors in 
 all ages, to live upon their lands by the produce of their 
 domains. They went from place to place, and it was 
 of much importance for them to have passable roads, 
 where their horses would not stumble and where their 
 baggage waggons, which served for true removals, might 
 have a chance of not beins; overturned. In the same 
 way the monks, those great cultivators, were much in¬ 
 terested in the good maintenance of the roads. Their 
 agricultural undertakings were of considerable extent; 
 an abbey such as that of Meaux, near Beverley, had in 
 the middle of the fourteenth century, 2,638 sheep, 515 
 oxen, and 98 horses, with land in proportion. 1 Besides, 
 as we have seen, the care of watching over the good 
 condition of the roads was more incumbent on the 
 clergy than on any other class, because it was a pious 
 and meritorious work ; and for this reason the religious 
 character of their tenure did not exempt them from the 
 tnnoda necessitas , common to all the possessors of land. 
 
 All these motives combined were enough to provide 
 roads that were considered sufficient for the current 
 needs, but in those days people were contented with 
 little. The carts and even the carriages were heavy, 
 lumbering, but solid machines, which stood the hardest 
 jolts. People of any worth journeyed on horseback. 
 As to those who travelled on foot, they were used to 
 all sorts of misery. Little, then, sufficed ; and if other 
 
 ' “Chronica monasterii dc Melsa,” edited by E. A. Bond ; Holls 
 Scries, 1868, London, vol. iii. preface, p. xv. 
 
84 
 
 ENGLISH WA YEA RING LIFE. 
 
 proofs were wanting of the state into which the roads 
 were liable to fall, even in the most frequented places, 
 we should find them in a patent of Edward III. 
 (November 20, 1353), which orders the paving of the 
 highroad, alta via, running from Temple Bar (the 
 western limit of London at this period) to Westminster. 
 This road, being almost a street, had been paved, but 
 the king explains that it is “ so full of holes and bogs 
 . . . and that the pavement is so damaged and broken ” 
 that the traffic has become very dangerous for men and 
 carriages. In consequence, he orders each proprietor on 
 both sides of the road to remake, at his own expense, a 
 footway of seven feet up to the ditch, usque canellum. 
 The middle of the road—“ inter canellos ”—the width 
 of which is unfortunately not given, is to be paved, and 
 the expense covered by means of a tax laid on all the 
 merchandise going to the staple at Westminster. 1 
 
 Three years later a general tax was laid by the City 
 of London on all carts and horses bringfingr merchandise 
 
 O O 
 
 or materials of any kind to the town. The ordinance 
 which imposed it, of the thirtieth year of Edward III., 
 first states that all the roads in the immediate environs 
 of London are in such bad condition that the carriers, 
 merchants, &c., “ are oftentimes in peril of losing what 
 they bring.” Henceforward, to help the reparations, a 
 due would be levied on all vehicles and all laden beasts 
 coming to or going from the city; a penny per cart 
 and a farthing per horse, each way ; for a cart bringing 
 sand, gravel, or clay, threepence a week must be paid. 
 
 1 Patent Roll, 27 Edward III., in Rymcr (cd. 170S), vol. v. p. 774. 
 Sec as to the repair of this same road in 1314, thirty-nine years 
 earlier, “ Rolls of Parliament,” vol. i. p. 302^. 
 
ROADS AND BRIDGES. 
 
 85 
 
 Exception as usual was made for the carriages and 
 horses employed in the transport of provisions and 
 other objects destined for great men. 1 
 
 The environs of Paris about the same time presented 
 roads and bridges quite as badly kept as those in the 
 neighbourhood of London. Charles VI., in one of his 
 ordinances, states that the hedges and brambles have 
 greatly encroached on the roads, that there are even 
 some in the midst of which trees have shot up. 
 
 “ Outside the said town of Paris, in several parts of 
 the suburbs, ■prdvostd and vicomtd of the same, there are 
 many notable and ancient highways, bridges, lanes, and 
 roads, which are much injured, damaged, or decayed 
 and otherwise hindered, by ravines of water and great 
 stones, by hedges, brambles, and many other trees 
 which have grown there, and by many other hindrances 
 which have happened there, because they have not been 
 maintained and provided for in time past; and they 
 are in such a bad state that they cannot be securely 
 traversed on foot or horseback, nor by vehicles, without 
 great perils and inconveniences ; and some of them are 
 abandoned at all parts because men cannot resort there.” 
 The Provost of Paris is ordered to cause the repairs to 
 be made by all to whom they pertained ; and, if necessary, 
 to compel by force “ all ” the inhabitants of the towns 
 neighbouring to the bridges and highways. 2 
 
 But what helps us to understand the difficulty of 
 journeys in the bad weather better than ordinances, and 
 enables us to picture the flooded roads like those of the 
 
 * Riley’s “Memorials of London,” London, 1868, p. 291. 
 
 s Ordonance of March r 1388, “ Rccueil d’lsambcrt,” vol. vi. 
 
 D. 66;. 
 
S6 
 
 ENGLISH IVA YFARING LIFE. 
 
 East in the rainy season, is the fact declared in official 
 documents of the impossibility that existed formerly 
 during bad weather of responding to the most impor¬ 
 tant royal summons. Thus, for example, we see the 
 bulk of the members called to Parliament from all parts 
 of England fail at the appointed day, without the delay 
 being attributable to any othe- cause than the state of the 
 roads. We read thus in the record of the sittings of 
 the second Parliament of the third year of Edward III. 
 ( 1 339) t ^ lat it was necessary to declare the few repre¬ 
 sentatives of the Commons and of the nobility who had 
 been able to reach Westminster, “ that because the 
 prelates, earls, barons, and other lords and knights or 
 the shires, citizens and burgesses of cities and boroughs 
 were so troubled by the bad weather that they could 
 not arrive that day, it would be proper to await their 
 coming.” 1 
 
 Yet these members were not poor folks, they had 
 good horses, good coats, thick cloaks covering the neck, 
 reaching up just under the hat, with large hanging 
 sleeves falling over the knees ; 2 no matter, the snow or 
 the rain, the floods, or the frost, had been strongest. 
 While battling each one against the weather which 
 hampered his journey, prelates, barons, or knights, must 
 have been obliged to stop their animals in some isolated 
 inn, and as they listened to the sound of the sleet on 
 the wooden panels which closed the window, feet 
 at the fire in the smoky room while waiting the 
 retreat of the waters, they thought on the royal dis¬ 
 pleasure which soon, no doubt, would show itself in 
 
 1 “ Rolls of Parliament,” ii. p. 107. 
 
 2 See the engraving as frontispiece, p. +. 
 
THE PARLIAMENT SITTING AT WESTMINSTER, OCT., 1399. 
 (From the Harl. MS. 1319, painted circa A.n. 1400.) 
 
ROADS AND BRIDGES. 
 
 8 y 
 
 •the painted chamber” at Westminster. In short, 
 though there were roads, though property was burdened 
 with obligatory services for their support, though laws 
 from time to time recalled their obligations to the 
 possessors of the soil, though the private interest of 
 lords and of monks, in addition to the interest of the 
 public, gave occasion to reparation now and then,—the 
 fate of the traveller in a fall of snow or in a thaw was 
 very precarious. The Church might well have pity on 
 him, and might specify him, together with the sick and 
 the captive, among the unfortunates whom she recom¬ 
 mended to the daily prayers of pious souls. 
 
 THE THREE-BRANCHED BRIDGE AT CROWLAND. 
 
A COMMON CART. 
 
 (From the MS. ic E. IV. in the British Museum. English ; Fourteenth 
 
 Century.) 
 
 CHAPTER Ii. 
 
 THE ORDINARY TRAVELLER AND THE CASUAL 
 PASSER-BY. 
 
 T HUS kept up, the roads stretched away from the 
 towns and plunged into the country, interrupted 
 by the brooks in winter and scattered with holes ; 
 the heavy carts slowly followed their devious course, 
 and the sound of giating wood accompanied the vehicle. 
 These carts were very common and numerous. Some 
 had the form of a square dung-cart, simple massive 
 boxes made of planks borne on two wheels ; others, 
 a little lighter, were formed of slatts latticed with a 
 willow trellis: the wheels were protected by great 
 nails with prominent heads. 1 Both were used for labour 
 
 1 See representations of these carts in the manuscripts of the 
 fourteenth century, and especially in MS. Roy., to E. IV., at the 
 
THE ORDINARY TRA VELLER. 
 
 9 3 
 
 in the country ; they were to be found everywhere, and 
 were hired very cheaply. Twopence for carrying a 
 ton weight a distance of one mile, was the average 
 price; for carrying corn, it was about a penny a mile 
 per ton. 1 All this does not prove that the roads were 
 excellent, but rather that these carts, indispensable to 
 agriculture, were numerous. They did not represent a 
 large sum to the villagers, who themselves fabricated 
 them ; they were made solid and massive because they 
 were easier to set up thus and resisted better the jolts of 
 the roads ; a very slight remuneration would suffice for 
 the owners of carts. The king always needed their 
 services ; when he moved from one manor to another, 
 the brilliant cortege of the lords was followed by an 
 army of borrowed carts. 
 
 The official purveyors found the carts on the spot 
 and freely appropriated them ; they exercised their 
 requisitions ten leagues on each side of the road 
 followed by the royal convoy. They even took with¬ 
 out scruple the carts of travellers coming thirty or forty 
 leagues, whose journey was thus abruptly interrupted. 
 There were indeed statutes against forced loans, which 
 especially provided that suitable payment should be 
 made, that is to say, “ ten pence a day for a cart with 
 two horses, and fourteen pence for a cart with three 
 horses.” But often no payment came. The “ poor 
 Commons ” re-commenced their protestations, the par- 
 
 British Museum, fol. 63, 94, 110, &c., and in the Louterell psalter 
 We give above a fac-simile of one of them, and below a representa¬ 
 tion of a reaper’s cart from the Louterell psalter. See also Bodl. 
 MS. 264, fos. 42, 84, 103, no. 
 
 1 T. Rogers, “ History of Agriculture and Prices,” i. pp. 650-661. 
 
92 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 liament their statutes, and the purveyors their exac¬ 
 tions. Beside the carts they demanded corn, hay, oats, 
 beer, meat; it was quite a little army that had to be 
 fed, and the requisitions cast the villages into terror. 
 People did what they could to be exempted; the 
 simplest way was to bribe the purveyor, but the poor 
 could not. Yet numberless regulations had successively 
 promised that there should never be any further abuse. 
 The king was powerless; under an imperfect govern¬ 
 ment the laws created to last for ever rapidly lose their 
 vitality, and those made at that time died in a day. 
 Purveyors swarmed; many gave themselves out as 
 king’s officers who were not so, and these were not 
 the least greedy. All bought at absurd prices and 
 limited themselves to promising payment. The statute 
 of 1330 shows how these payments never arrived ; 
 how also when twenty-five quarters of corn were taken 
 only twenty were reckoned because they were mea¬ 
 sured by “ the heaped bushel.” 1 In the same way, foi 
 hay, straw, &c., the purveyors found means to reckon 
 at a halfpenny for their own account what was worth 
 two or three pence; they ordered that provision of 
 wine should be brought, kept the best in order to sell 
 it again on their own behalf, and got paid for returning 
 a portion of it to those from whom they had taken it, 
 which singularly reversed matters. The king perceived 
 all this and reformed accordingly. A little time after 
 
 1 “ Statutes of the Realm,” 4 Edward III. ch. 3. Eight bushels 
 make a quarter. [The Act 25 Edward III. stat. 5, ch. 10 (a.d. 
 1351) provided that every measure of corn should be strikcn with¬ 
 out heap, and that the royal purveyors should use this measure 
 (Hence the name strike for a bushel.) L. T. S.] 
 
A REAPER'S CART GOING UP-HILL. I! A 93 
 
 (From the T.outerel! Psalter; Fourteenth Century; “ Vetusta Monumentavol. vi.) 
 

 
 
 
THE ORDINARY TRAVELLER. 
 
 95 
 
 he reformed again, and with the same result. In 1362 
 he declared that henceforth the purveyors should pay 
 ready money at the price current of the market ; and 
 he added the amusing proviso that the purveyors should 
 lose their detested name and should be called buyers : 
 “ that the heinous name of purveyor \i.e. providor] be 
 changed, and named achatour [buyer].” 1 The two 
 words conveyed, it appears, very different ideas. 2 
 
 The same abuses existed in France, and numerous 
 ordinances may be read in the pages of Isambert which 
 are conceived in exactly the same spirit and which 
 respond to the same complaints; ordinances of Philip 
 the Fair in 1308, of Louis X. in 1342, of Philip VI., 
 who wills that the “ preneurs pour nous ” (“ takers for 
 us”), should not take unless they had “ new letters from 
 us,” which shows the existence of false providors as 
 in England. John of France renews all the restrictions 
 of his predecessors, December 25, 1355, &c. 
 
 The king and his lords journeyed on horseback for 
 the most part, but they had also carriages. Nothing 
 gives a better idea of the encumbering, awkward luxury 
 which formed the splendour of civil life during this 
 century than the structure of these heavy machines. 
 The best had four wheels ; three or four horses drew 
 them, harnessed in a row, the postilion being mounted 
 upon one, armed with a short-handled whip of many 
 thongs; solid beams rested on the axles, and above 
 this framework rose an archway rounded like a tunnel; 
 as a whole, ungraceful enough. But the details were 
 extremely elegant, the wheels were carved and their 
 
 1 Statute 36 Edward III. stat. I, ch. z. 
 
 * See several extracts in Appendix V 
 
96 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 spokes expanded near the hoop into ribs forming 
 pointed arches ; the beams were painted and gilt, the 
 inside was hung with those dazzling tapestries, the 
 glory of the age ; the seats were furnished with em¬ 
 broidered cushions; a lady might stretch out there, half 
 sitting, half lying ; pillows were disposed in the corners 
 as if to invite sleep, square windows pierced the sides 
 and were hung with silk curtains . 1 Thus travelled 
 the noble lady, slim in form, tightly clad in a dress 
 which outlined every curve of the body, her long 
 slender hands caressing the favourite dog or bird. 
 The knight, equally tightened in his cote-hardie , re¬ 
 garded her with a complacent eye, and, if he knew good 
 manners, opened his heart to his dreamy companion in 
 long phrases like those in the romances. The broad 
 forehead of the lady, who has perhaps coquettishly 
 plucked off her eyebrows and stray hairs, a process 
 about which satirists were indignant , 2 brightens up a: 
 
 1 Representations of carriages of this kind are frequent in 
 manuscripts. Many are to be found, with two wheels and much 
 ornamented, in the romance of the King Meliadus (MS. of the 
 fourteenth century in the British Museum, Add. 12,228, fos. 198 V 0 , 
 243). The celebrated carriage with four wheels of the Louterell 
 psalter (also of fourteenth century) is here reproduced. It is 
 drawn by five horses harnessed in a row. On the second sits a 
 postilion with a short whip of several thongs; on the fifth, that is, 
 the nearest to the carriage, sits another postilion with a long whip 
 of the shape in use at the present day. 
 
 2 La Tour-Landry relates a story of a holy hermit who saw in a 
 dream his nephew’s wife in purgatory. The demons were pushing 
 burning needles into her eyebrows. An angel told him that it was 
 because she had trimmed her eyebrows and temples, and increased 
 her forehead, and plucked out her hair, thinking to beautify herself 
 and to please the world. (“ Le livre du Chevalier de La Tour- 
 Landry,” ed. Montaiglon, Paris, 1854. An English translation of 
 
{From the Louterell Psalter.) 
 
THE ORDINARY TRAVELLER. 
 
 99 
 
 moments, and her smile is like a ray of sunshine. 
 Meanwhile the axles groan, the horse-shoes crunch the 
 ground, the machine advances by fits and starts, 
 descends into the hollows, bounds altogether at the 
 ditches, and falls violently back with a dull noise. 
 The knight must speak pretty loud to make his dainty 
 discourse, maybe inspired by the recollections of the 
 Round Table, heard by his companion. So trivial a 
 necessity has always sufficed to break the charm of the 
 most delicate thought ; too many shocks agitate the 
 flower, and when the knight presents it, it has already 
 lost its perfumed pollen. 
 
 The possession of such a carriage as this was a 
 princely luxury. They were bequeathed by will from 
 one to another, and the gift was valuable. On 
 September 25, 1355, Elizabeth de Burgh, Lady Clare, 
 wrote her last will and endowed her eldest daughter 
 with “ her great carriage with the covertures, carpets, 
 and cushions.” In the twentieth year of Richard II. 
 Roger Rouland received ^400 sterling for a carriage 
 destined for Queen Isabella; and John le Charer, in 
 sixth of Edward III., received ^1,000 for the carriage 
 of Lady Eleanor. 1 They were enormous sums. In the 
 
 the fifteenth century was published by the Early English Text 
 Society in 1868.) 
 
 1 The king’s sister. Devon’s “ Issues of the Exchequer,” 1837, 
 p. 142. As Englished by Devon, the Latin text referred to would 
 mean that the receiver of the money and maker of the carriage 
 tvas Master la Zousche, but La Zousche was the clerk of the ward- 
 lobe, who had the money from the Exchequer to give it to John le 
 Charer, “per manus John le Charer.” Per has here the meaning 
 of fro, a use of the word of which several instances may be 
 tound in Du Cange. (This indication of Devon’s mistake is due 
 IP the late Mr. Bradshaw, of Cambridge.) 
 
IOO 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 fourteenth century the average price of an ox was 
 thirteen shillings, one penny farthing; of a sheep, one 
 shilling and five pence ; of a cow, nine shillings and 
 five pence ; and a penny for a fowl. 1 Lady Eleanor’s 
 carriage then represented the value of a herd of sixteen 
 hundred oxen. 
 
 Scarcely less ornamented were the horse-litters some¬ 
 times used by people of rank, especially by ladies. 
 They were of the same shape as the carriages, being 
 covered with a sort of round vault, in which were cut 
 more or less large openings. Two horses carried them, 
 one before, the other behind, each being placed between 
 the shafts with which the machine was provided at both 
 ends. 2 
 
 Between these luxurious carriages and the peasants’ ' 
 carts there was nothing which answered to the multi¬ 
 tude of middle-class conveyances to which we are now 
 accustomed. True, there were some not so expensive 
 as those belonging to the princesses of Edward’s Court, 
 but they were not many. Every one at this time knew 
 how to ride on horseback, and it was much more 
 customary to employ the animals than the heavy 
 vehicles of the period (see frontispiece). They went 
 much faster, and their masters were more certain to 
 arrive. “ The Paston Letters ” show that matters had | 
 
 1 Thorold Rogers, “History of Agriculture and Prices,” i. 
 pp. 361-363. 
 
 2 Curious representations of such litters are to be found in 
 mediaeval manuscripts ; for instance, in the MS. 118 Franqais, in 
 the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, fol. 285, where two persons arc 
 to be seen in the litter, a lady and a wounded knight (Romance 
 of Lancelot, fourteenth century) ; or in the MS. Roy. 18 E. II. in 
 the British Museum, fol. 7. (Chronicles of Froissart.) 
 
 
•4 tyticil 
 
 matt m CmgimuJdjetiMlktr mint tegmt 
 tfmm piaxcB quit aumt on ct eu lateCte 
 
 .team tv ialuuctt dymaudp tCmms 
 
 ewe dmt£pmt*ef flmr daui&e~2x A), jnnini 
 
 ■■wimuitgmni 
 timl pm it pcumttm* mit cut cC 
 s ^ m ^ u w mourn cat* ccCtowia 
 
 vum m nwnft quells ptua amm 
 %c&w0e jmwww la mtuMUUt ft 
 oOranttwcutnur ^ 
 
 itCUXtilXtttlifrM-p 
 
 TRAVELLING IN A HORSE LITTER. [A 101. 
 
 F\m the MS. 118 Franqais in the Bibliothcque Nationale , late Fourteenth Century.) 
 
THE ORDINARY TRAVELLER. 
 
 1 °3 
 
 changed little in the fifteenth century. John Paston 
 was ill in London, his wife wrote to him to beg him to 
 return as soon as he could bear the horse-ride ; the idea 
 of returning in a carriage did not even occur to them. 
 Yet it was an affair of a severe illness, “ a grete dysese.” 
 
 Margaret Paston writes on September 28, 1443, “ If 
 
 A YOUNG SQUIRE (CHAUCER’S SQUIRE) TRAVELLING ON HORSEBACK. 
 {From the Ellesmere MS.) 
 
 I might have had my will, I should have seen you ere 
 this time ; I would ve were at home, if it were your 
 ease, and your sore might be as well looked to here as 
 it is where ye be, now liefer than a gown though it 
 were of scarlet. I pray you if your sore be whole, and 
 so that ye may endure to ride, when my father comes 
 
ENGLISH IVA YEAR ING LIRE. 
 
 104 
 
 to London, that ye will ask leave, and come home, 
 when the horse shall be sent home again, for I hope ye 
 should be kept as tenderly here as ye be at London.” 1 
 
 Women were accustomed to riding almost as much 
 as men, and when they had to travel they usually did 
 it on horseback. A peculiarity of their horsemanship 
 was that they habitually rode astride. The custom of 
 riding sidewise did not spread in England before the 
 latter part of the fourteenth century, and even then it 
 was not general. In the invaluable manuscript of the 
 Decretals (Roy. 10 E. IV.) in the British Museum, ladies 
 on horseback are constantly represented ; they always 
 ride astride. At one place (fol. 310) horses are shown 
 being bought for a knight and a lady ; both saddles 
 are exactly the same ; they are very tall behind, so as 
 to form a sort of comfortable chair. The numerous 
 ivories of the fourteenth century in the South Kensington 
 Museum and in the British Museum often represent a 
 lady and her lover, both on horseback, and hawking. 
 In almost all cases the lady unmistakably rides astride. 
 Both ways of riding are shown in the illuminations of 
 the Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer’s “ Canterbury 
 Tales,” which illuminations belong to the fifteenth 
 century. The wife of Bath rides astride, and carries 
 large spurs, and the prioress sits sideways. 
 
 There were few places in England where the sight of 
 the royal cortege was not well known. The journeys 
 of the Court were incessant. We have seen the 
 motives for this above. The royal itineraries that 
 
 1 “Paston Letters” (1422-1509), edited by Jas. Gairdner, 
 1872, vol. i. p. 49. [The spelling in this quotation is modernized 
 -L. T. S.] 
 

 A WOMAN RIDING ASTRIDE (CHAUCER’S WIFE OF BAlrt;. 
 
 (From the Ellesmere MS.) 
 
 
 
 
 » LADY RIDING SIDEWAYS (CHAUCERS PRIORESS). 
 
 [From the Ellesmere MS.) 
 
 IP >°5 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
THE ORDINARY TRA VELLER. 
 
 107 
 
 have been published throw a flood of light upon this 
 continual need of movement. The itinerary of John 
 Lackland shows that he rarely passed a month in the 
 same place, most frequently he did not even remain 
 there a week. Within a fortnight he is often found at 
 five or six different towns or castles. 1 The same in the 
 time of Edward I.; in the twenty-eighth year of his 
 reign (1299-1300) that prince changed his abode 
 seventy-five times without leaving the kingdom, that is 
 on an average three times a fortnight. 2 
 
 And when the king moved, not only was he pre¬ 
 ceded by twenty-four archers in his pay, receiving three¬ 
 pence a day ,3 but he was accompanied by all those 
 officers whom the author of “ Fleta ” enumerates with 
 so much complaisance. The sovereign took with him 
 his two marshals, his outer or foreign marshal 
 ( forinsecus ) who in time of war disposed the armies 
 for battle, fixed the halting-places on his journeys, and 
 at all times arrested malefactors found in the virgata 
 regia , that is to say, within twelve leagues around his 
 dwelling ; 4 and his inner marshal ( intrinsecus ), who 
 
 1 “Patent Rolls and Itinerary of King John.” Edited by T 
 Duffus Hardy, 1835. 
 
 2 “ Liber quotidianus garderobae ” (Society of Antiquaries), Lon¬ 
 don, 1787, p. 67. 
 
 3 “Archers. And xxiiij archers on foote for garde of the 
 kinge’s body, who shall goe before the kinge as he travaleth 
 thorough the cuntry” (“King Edward II.’s . . . Ordinances,” 
 1323, ed. Furnivall, p. 46). 
 
 4 “Fleta, seu commcntarius juris Anglicani,” editio secunda, 
 London, 1685, lib. ii. cap. 2, 4. This treatise is said to have been 
 composed in the prison of the Fleet by a lawyer in the time of 
 Edward I. It is posterior to 1292, for mention is made in it of 
 the submission of Scotland. 
 
io8 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 guarded the palace and castles, and cleared them as 
 much as possible from courtesans. He received from 
 every common harlot ( merelrice communi') four pence 
 by way of fine, the first time that he arrested her ; 
 if she returned she was brought before the steward, 
 who solemnly forbid her ever to present herself at the 
 dwelling of the king, queen, or their children; the third 
 time she was imprisoned and the tresses of her hair 
 were shorn off; the fourth time one of those hideous 
 punishments was resorted to which the Middle Ages in 
 their barbarity tolerated ; the upper lip of these women 
 was cut off, “ ne de castero concupiscantur ad libidinem.” 1 
 There was also the chamberlain, who took care that the 
 interior of the house was comfortable : “ he has to 
 arrange decently for the king’s bed, and to see that the 
 rooms be furnished with carpets and benches ; ” the 
 treasurer of the wardrobe, who kept the accounts ; the 
 marshal of the hall, whose mission it was to eject 
 unworthy intruders and dogs,— a non enim permittat 
 canes aulam ingredi,”—and a crowd of other officers. 2 
 
 Over all must be placed the king’s seneschal or 
 steward, the first officer of his household, and his great 
 justiciar. Wherever the king went the apparatus of 
 justice was transported with him : when he was about 
 to start the steward gave notice to the sheriff 3 of the 
 
 1 Lib. ii. cap. 5. An ordinance of Edward II. speaks only of 
 the brand by a hot iron on the forehead. (“ King Edward II.’s 
 Household and Wardrobe Ordinances,” a.d. 1323, Chaucer 
 Society, ed. Furnivall, 1876.) 
 
 2 Lib. ii. cap. 14, 15. 
 
 3 He sent a mandatum to this effect, which he withdrew when 
 the king changed his mind as to the place where he wished to go, 
 which happened often enough. “ Debet autem senescallus nomine 
 
FAMILY DINNER, WITH DOGS, MUSICIANS, CARVER, CUPBEARER, MARSHAL OF THE HALL (EXPELLING A LAZAR). 
 
 (From the MS. Addit. 28162 in the British Museum. Fourteenth Cent my.) C P- I0 9 - 
 

THE ORDINARY TRA VELLER. 111 
 
 place where the court would stop, in order that he might 
 bring all his prisoners to the town where the prince 
 was to be stationed. All the cases amenable to the 
 jurisdiction of the justices in eyre were then determined 
 by the steward, as the king’s justiciary, who prescribed, 
 if necessary, the judicial duel, pronounced sentences of 
 outlawry, and judged in criminal and civil cases. 1 This 
 right of criminal justice even accompanied the king 
 abroad, but he only exercised it when the criminal had 
 been arrested in his own house. This occurred in the 
 fourteenth year of Edward I. This sovereign being at 
 Paris, Ingelram de Nogent came into his house to rob, 
 and was taken in the act. After discussion it was 
 decided that Edward, by his royal privilege, should 
 remain judge in the matter ; he delivered the robber 
 over to Robert Fitz-John, his steward, who caused 
 Ingelram to be hung from the gibbet of St. Germain- 
 des-Pres. 2 
 
 For a long time the chancellor himself, and the 
 clerks who made out the writs, followed the king on 
 his journeys, and Palgrave notes that frequently a 
 strong horse was required from the nearest convent to 
 carry the rolls; 3 but this custom came to a close in the 
 
 capitalis justitiarii cujus vices gerit mandare vicecomiti loci ubi 
 dominus rex fuerit declinaturus, quod venire faciat ad certum 
 diem, ubicumque tunc rex fuerit in ballivia sua, omnes assisas 
 comitatus sui et omnes prisones cum suis atachiamentis ” (“ Fleta,” 
 lib. ii. cap. 3, § 4). 
 
 1 “ Habet etiam ex virtute officii sui potestatem procedendi ad 
 utlagationes et duella jungendi et singula faciendi quae ad justi- 
 tiarios itinerantes, prout supra dictum est pertinent faciendi” 
 (“Fleta,” lib. ii. cap. 3, §11). 2 “Fleta,” lib. ii. cap. 3, § 9. 
 
 3 “Original authority of the King’s Council,” p. 113. 
 
ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 fourth year of Edward III., when the Chancery wai 
 permanently installed at Westminster. The tribunal 
 moving on, a crowd of suitors moved with it. No 
 matter though they were not inscribed on the rolls, 
 they followed without losing patience, as the shark 
 follows the ship, hoping to light on some prey. Parties 
 with a lawsuit, various petitioners, women “of ill 
 life” {de foie vie), quite a herd of individuals without 
 a character, persisted in escorting the prince and his 
 courtiers. They quarrelled among each other, robbed 
 by the way, sometimes committed murders, and did not 
 contribute, as may be imagined, to render the news of 
 the king’s arrival welcome. 
 
 In the ordinances of his household, Edward II. 
 declares and deplores all these grave abuses; he orders 
 that men without a character who follow the Court 
 shall be put in irons for forty days on bread and water, 
 and that the women of ill life shall be likewise im¬ 
 prisoned and branded with a hot iron; he forbids his 
 knights, clerks, squires, valets, grooms, in short, all 
 who accompany him, to bring their wives with them, 
 unless they have any post or employment at Court, this 
 host of womenkind not possibly being other than a 
 cause of disorder. He also limits the number of 
 those who should accompany the marshal, which had 
 increased little by little beyond all bounds. His 
 ordinances are very wise and very minute, but it is 
 well know'll how quickly such orders in the Middle 
 Ages fell into desuetude. 
 
 Justice travelled not only in the king’s suite. She 
 was peripatetic in England, and the magistrates from 
 London who had to bring her into the shires, as the 
 
THE ORDINARY TRA VELLER. 113 
 
 sheriffs and bailiffs into the boroughs within their 
 counties, periodically went round the country redress¬ 
 ing wrongs. But grave abuses also slipped into these 
 institutions; and, in spite of the precautions which had 
 made the men under the jurisdiction of the sheriffs and 
 bailiffs themselves the judges of these officials, numerous 
 statutes one after the other had to declare some practices 
 culpable and to stop them, for a time. The view of 
 frankpledge was held before the sheriffs and bailiffs in 
 hundreds and manors. 1 This was a minute inquiry, 
 article by article, of the manner in which the laws of 
 police and of safety, the rules as to property, were 
 executed; the juries summoned were questioned as to 
 this or that case of robbery, murder, fire, rape, sorcery, 
 apostasy, destruction of bridges and of roads {de pon- 
 tibus et calcetis fractis), of vagabondage, &c., which 
 they might know. The turns or tourns of the sheriffs 
 and bailiffs might, according to the Great Charter, only 
 take place twice a year, notoftener, because their coming 
 occasioned loss of time and money to the sworn men 
 who had to leave home, and to the king’s subjects 
 at whose houses these officers had to lodge. 2 The 
 
 1 This seignorial right was attached to many manors, and was 
 conveyed with them. See the petition of an abbess who claims 
 (on account of the fines by which she ought to profit) the view of 
 frankpledge, attached to the manor of Shorwalle, in the Isle of 
 Wight, which has been given to her. Isabella de Forte, the lady 
 of the isle, disputes this right with her. (“ Rolls of Parliament,” 
 ii. p. 182, year 1 347.) 
 
 2 Magna Carta, cap. 42, of the second confirmation by Henry 
 
 III. (1217), Stubbs’ “Select Charters,” p. 337. “ Ncc liceat 
 
 alicui vicccomiti vel ballivo tenere turnum suum per hundreduru 
 nisi bis per annum.” (“ Fleta,” lib. ii. cap. e;2.) 
 
 8 
 
i 14 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 people greatly feared the abuses which might arise on 
 this head, and the Commons often petitioned the king 
 on that account. 1 
 
 The itinerant judges also held regular inquest, accord¬ 
 ing to the Articles of the Crown , in the same fashion. 
 The frequency of their arrivals varied with the period ; 
 the Great Charter (art. 18), fixed the number at four 
 each year. They sat in full court of the county, they 
 presided over it, and they thus served as a link between 
 the royal justice and the justice of those ancient popular 
 courts. In proportion as the importance of the magis¬ 
 trates increased, that of the sheriff as judge diminished. 
 They demanded of the juries what crimes, what mis¬ 
 demeanours, what infractions on the statutes had come 
 to their knowledge. And in these minute interroga¬ 
 tories at every moment came up the names of the 
 sheriff, the coroner, the bailiff, the constable, of all the 
 royal functionaries, whose conduct was thus placed 
 under popular control. Has any of these officers, says 
 the judge, released some robber, or a false moneyer, 
 or a clipper of coin ? Has he for any consideration 
 neglected the pursuit against a vagabond or an assassin? 
 Has he unjustly received fines? Has he been paid 
 by men who wished to avoid a public charge (for 
 example, of being sworn as member of a jury)? Has 
 the sheriff claimed more than reasonable hospitalit) 
 from those in his jurisdiction in tourns held too oft? 
 Has he presented himself with more than five or six 
 horses? And the juror ought in the same way to 
 denounce, under the faith of his oath, great lords who 
 have arbitrarily imprisoned travellers passing through 
 * See Appendix VI. 
 
THE ORDINARY 1RAVELLER. 
 
 US 
 
 their land, and all those who neglect to assist in 
 arresting a robber and in running with the “ hue and 
 cry ; ” for in this society each man is by turns peace 
 officer, soldier, and judge, and even the humble peasant, 
 menaced by so many exactions, has, too, his share in the 
 administration of justice and the maintenance of public 
 order. It will be seen how important from a social 
 point of view were these judicial tourns, which regu¬ 
 larly reminded the poor man that he was a citizen, 
 and that the affairs of the State were also his affairs. 1 
 
 When the monks came out of the cloister and 
 travelled, they wilfully modified their costume, and 
 it became difficult to distinguish them from the lords. 
 Chaucer gives us an amusing description of the dress 
 of the mundane monk : 
 
 “I saugh his sieves purfiled atte hond 
 With grys, and that the fynest of a lond. 
 
 And for to festne his hood undur his chyn 
 He hadde of gold y-wrought a curious pyn, 
 
 A love-knotte in the gretter end ther was.” 2 
 
 But the councils are still more explicit, and do more 
 than justify the satire of the poet. Thus the Council of 
 London in 1342, reproaches the religious with wearing 
 clothing “ fit rather for knights than for clerks, that is 
 to say short, very tight, with excessively wide sleeves, 
 not reaching the elbows, but hanging down very low, 
 lined with fur or with silk.” They wore the beard long, 
 
 1 “ Fleta,” lib. i. cap. 19, 20. See also “ Local Self-Government 
 and Centralization,” by Toulmin Smith, 1848, pp. 220-232, 298. 
 
 2 Prologue to the “Canterbury Tales” ; The Monk (ed. Rich. 
 Morris, vol. ii. p. 7). 
 
ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE. 
 
 i 16 
 
 rings on their fingers, costly girdles, purses or bags 
 whereon figures and arabesques were embroidered in 
 gold, knives which resembled swords, boots red or 
 chequered in colour, shoes ending in long points and 
 ornamented with slashes ; in a word, all the luxury 
 of the great ones of the earth. Later, in 1367, the 
 Council of York made the same remarks ; the religious 
 have “ ridiculously short ” clothing ; they dare publicly 
 to wear those coats “ which do not come down to the 
 middle of the legs, and do not even cover the knees.” 
 Very severe prohibitions were made for the future, 
 though on a journey tunics shorter than the regulation 
 gown were tolerated. 1 
 
 A bishop did not start on a journey without a 
 great train; and the bishops, not to speak of their 
 episcopal visitations, had to travel like the nobility to 
 visit their lands and to live on them. On all these 
 occasions they took with them their servants of different 
 classes and their companions, like the king with his 
 court. The accounts of the expenses of Richard de 
 Swinfield, Bishop of Hereford, give an idea of the 
 broad life led by the prelates. He was a bishop of 
 some importance, very rich in consequence ; many 
 manors belonged to his bishopric ; he could hold his 
 rank as prelate and as lord, be hospitable, charitable to 
 the poor, and spend much on requests and suits at the 
 court of Rome and elsewhere. He had constantly in 
 his pay about forty persons of different ranks, the greater 
 part of whom accompanied the master in his numerous 
 changes of residence. His squires ( armigeri ) had from 
 a mark (13s. qd.) to a pound a year ; his valleti, that 
 1 See Appendix VII 
 
THE ORDINARY TRAVELLER. 
 
 n 
 
 is, the clerks of his chapel and others, his carters, por¬ 
 ters, falconers, grooms, messengers, &c., had from a 
 crov/n to eight shillings and eightpence. In the third 
 degree came the kitchen servants, the baker, with two 
 or four shillings a year ; in the fourth degree, the boys 
 or pages who helped the other servants and received from 
 one to six shillings a year. One of the most curious 
 
 A COOK ON A JOURNEY (CHAUCER’S COOK). 
 (Front the Ellesmere MS.) 
 
 retainers of the bishop was Thomas de Bruges, his 
 champion, who received an annual salary that he might 
 fight in the prelate’s name on occasion of any lawsuit 
 which might be terminated by judicial duel. 1 
 
 1 “ Household Expenses of Richard Swinfield,” ed. J. Webb, 1854 
 (Camden Society), vols. i. p. 125, ii. pp. xxx-xxxvi. The duels 
 of Thomas de Bruges were not those of the cases of felony and 
 
ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 i 18 
 
 At eventide, monks, great men, and travellers of all 
 kinds sought shelter for the night. When the king, 
 preceded by his twenty-four archers, and escorted by his 
 lords and the officers of his household, arrived in a 
 town, the marshal indicated a certain number of the 
 best houses, which were marked with chalk. The 
 chamberlain presented himself, asked the inhabitants 
 to make room, and the Court installed itself as well as 
 it could in the lodgings. Even the capital was not 
 exempt from this vexatious charge, but the marshal 
 had to come to an understanding with the mayor, 
 sheriffs, and city officers for the indication of the habita¬ 
 tions. Sometimes the royal agent took no notice of 
 this wise proviso, and a great commotion followed. 
 In the nineteenth year of Edward II., that prince 
 having come to the Tower, the people of his household 
 quartered themselves on the citizens without the mayor 
 and aldermen having been consulted ; even the sheriff’s 
 house was marked with chalk. Great was the wrath 
 of this officer when he found Richard de Ayremynne, 
 the king’s own secretary, established in his house, the 
 stranger’s horses in his stable, his servants in the 
 
 crime which resulted in the death of the vanquished; it was merely 
 the duel with staff and shield (cum fuite et scuto) which required, 
 as may be imagined, the replacement of the champion much less 
 frequently. In the twenty-ninth year of Edward III., a duel took 
 place by means of champions between the Bishop of Salisbury and 
 the Earl of Salisbury. When the judges, conformably to the laws, 
 came to examine the dress of the combatants, they found that the 
 bishop’s champion had several sheets of prayers and incantations 
 sown in his clothes (“Year Books of Edward I.,” Rolls Series, 32—33 
 year. Preface, p. xvi note). The examination of the dress was 
 always made, of course with the intention of discovering these 
 frauds, which were considered as most dangerous and disloyal. 
 
THE ORDINARY TRA VELLER. 
 
 119 
 
 bitchen. Without in the least being stopped by his 
 respect for the majesty of the king, the sheriff, counting 
 upon the privilege of the city, immediately drove out 
 the secretary and his suite by force, rubbed off the 
 marks of the chalk, and became once more master of 
 his own house. Cited to appear before the Court 
 steward, and accused of having despised the king’s 
 orders to the extent of at least _£iooo, he energetically 
 defended himself, and appealed in defence to the mayor 
 and citizens, who produced the chatters of the city 
 privileges. The charters were formal, they must be 
 admitted ; the sheriff’s ardour was excused ; Ayre- 
 mynne consoled himself as best he could, and did not 
 receive any indemnity. 1 
 
 In the country, if the king did not find himself in 
 proximity to one of his own or his liege’s castles, he 
 often went to lodge at the neighbouring monastery, 
 sure of being received there as master. The great 
 lords on their journeys did their best to imitate the 
 prince in this respect. 2 In the convents hospitality 
 was a religious duty ; for the order of St. John of 
 Jerusalem the first of duties. This order had establish- 
 
 1 See Riley’s “Liber Albus,” p. 303, where the case is entered 
 in full. 
 
 2 It is enough to turn over Froissart to notice the extreme 
 frequency of this custom; Jean de Hainaut arrives at Denain : 
 “There he lodged in the abbey that night” (lib. i. part i. ch. 14.); 
 the queen disembarks in England with the same Jean de Hainaut, 
 “ and then they found a great abbey of black monks which is 
 called St. Aymon, and they were harboured there and refreshed 
 lor three days” (ch. 1S) ; “there the king stopped and lodged in 
 an abbey” (ch. 292) ; “ the King Philippe came to the good town 
 of Amiens, and there lodged in the abbey of Gard” (ch. 296), See. 
 
1 20 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LITE. 
 
 merits all over England, and it was good fortune for 
 the pcor traveller to come to one of them. No doubt 
 he was treated there according to h's rank, but it was 
 much not to find the door closed. The accounts of 
 the year 1338, 1 show that these knight-monks did not 
 seek to avoid the heavy burden of hcspitality ; in their 
 lists of expenditure are always to be found charges 
 occasioned by supervenientibus (sti angers). When it 
 was an affair of kings or princes, they exceeded them¬ 
 selves; thus the Prior of Clerkenwell mentions “much 
 expenditure which cannot be given in detail, caused 
 by the hospitality offered to strangeis, members of the 
 royal family, and to other grandees of the realm who 
 stay at Clerkenwell and remain there at the cost of the 
 house.” In consequence, the account closes with this 
 resume: “Thus the expenditure exceeds the receipts 
 by twenty-one pounds, eleven shillings and fourpence.” 
 Even the neighbourhood of a great man was a source 
 of expense ; he was glad to send his suite to profit by 
 the hospitality of the convent. Thus in the accounts 
 for Hampton, the list of people to whom beer and bread 
 have been furnished ends by these words : “ because the 
 Duke of Cornwall lives near.” 2 
 
 It should be noted that most of these houses had been 
 endowed by the nobles, and each one recognizing his 
 own land or that of a relation, a friend, or an ancestor, 
 felt himself at home in the monastery. But these 
 
 1 “ The Knights Hospitallers in England,” edited by Larking 
 and Kemble, Camden Society, 1 857. It is the text of a manuscript 
 found at Malta entitled, “ Extenta terrarum et tencmenturum 
 Hospitals Sancti Johannis Jerusalem in Anglia, a.d. 133S.” 
 
 2 “Knights Hospitallers, ’ pp. 09, 101, 127. 
 
THE ORDINARY TRA VELLER. 
 
 121 
 
 turbulent lords, friends of good cheer, abused the grati- 
 cude of the monks, and their excesses caused complaints 
 which came to the ear of the king. 1 Edward I. for¬ 
 bade any one to venture to eat or lodge in a religious 
 house, unless the superior had formally invited him, 
 or that he were the founder of the establishment, and 
 even then his consumption should be moderate. The 
 poor only, who more than any lost by the excesses of 
 the great, might continue to be lodged gratuitously : 
 “ the king intendeth not that the grace of hospitality 
 should be withdrawn from the destitute.” 2 Edward 
 II., in 1309, confirmed these rules, which it appears fell 
 into abeyance, and promised again, six years later, that 
 neither he nor his family would make use of the hospitality 
 of the monks with excess .3 It was trouble lost ; these 
 abuses were already comprised among those which it was 
 the object of the Articles of the Crown to discover, but 
 were powerless to get rid of. Periodically the magis¬ 
 trate came to question the country folk on the subject. 
 He asked them “ if any lords or others had gone to 
 lodge in religious houses without being invited by the 
 superiors ; or had gone at their own expense, against the 
 will of the said religious;” whether any bold persons 
 “had sent into the houses or mansions belonging to the 
 monks or others, men, horsey or dogs to sojourn there 
 at an expence not their own ? ” It appears that it was 
 difficult or even dangerous to apply these rules, for the 
 magistrate aoain questioned the jury about “ any who 
 may have taken revenge for refusal of food or lodging .”4 
 
 1 See Appendix VIII. * Statute 3 Edward I. cap. 1. 
 
 3 Statute 9 Edward II. cap. 11, Articuli cleri , a.d. 1315-1316. 
 
 4 “ Fleta,” lib. i. cap. 20, § 68, 72. 
 
122 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 The Commons in parliament, mindful as they 
 were in such matters of the fate of the poorest, were 
 not less jealous than the wealthy of the benefits of 
 monkish hospitality, and watched lest the custom should 
 fall into desuetude. The non-residence of the clergy, 
 which was to be one of the causes of the Reformation 
 two hundred years later, occasioned violent protestations 
 during the fourteenth century. The Commons object 
 especially because from this abuse there results a 
 decay of the duties of hospitality. “ And that all other 
 persons advanced to the benefices of Holy Church,” 
 they demand of the king, “ should remain on their said 
 benefices in order to keep hospitality there, on the same 
 penalty, except the king’s clerks and clerks of the great 
 lords of the realm.” 1 The parliament again protests 
 against the appropriation by the pope of rich priories 
 to foreigners who remain on the continent. These 
 foreigners “ suffer the noble edifices built of old time 
 when they were occupied by the English to fall quite 
 to ruin,” and neglect “ to keep hospitality.” 2 
 
 Only people of high rank were admitted in the 
 monastery itself. The mass of travellers, pilgrims and 
 others, were housed and fed in the guest-house. This 
 was a building made on purpose to receive passersby ; 
 it usually stood by itself, and was even, sometimes, 
 erected outside the precincts of the monastery. Such, 
 for instance, was the case in Battle Abbey, where the 
 
 1 “ Rolls of Parliament,” iii. p. 501, a.d. 1402. 
 
 2 Ibid., iii. p. 82, a.d. 1379-80. The clergy, on the other hand, 
 complain that the sheriffs sometimes come “ with their wives and 
 other excessive number of people,” to install themselves into monas* 
 teries, under pretext of collecting monies for the king. Ibid., p. 
 20, a . d . 1377. 
 
THE ORDINARY TRAVELLER. 
 
 12 3 
 
 guest-house is still to be seen outside the large entrance 
 gate. These edifices commonly consisted of a hall with 
 doors opening on each side into sleeping rooms. People 
 slept also in the hall of the guest-house; old inventories, 
 for instance the one concerning the Dover Maison-Dieu 
 or hospital, show that beds were set up there, and there 
 it seems, remained permanently. 1 
 
 It is hardly necessary to recall that hospitality was 
 also exercised in castles ; barons who were not at feud 
 willingly received one another ; there were much stricter 
 ties of brotherhood among them than now exist among 
 people of the same class. We do not often now give 
 lodging to unknown persons who knock at the door ; at 
 the most, and that rarely, we permit a poor man passing 
 along in the country to sleep the night in our hay-loft. 
 In the Middle Ages, men received their equals, not by 
 way of simple charity, but as a habit of courtesy and also 
 for pleasure. Known or unknown, the travelling knight 
 rarely found himself refused the entry to a country 
 house. His coming in time of peace was a happy 
 diversion from the monotony of the days. There was 
 in every house the hall, the large room where the 
 repasts were taken in common ; the new-comer ate 
 with the lord at the table placed at one end on the 
 spot called the dais; his followers were at the lower 
 tables disposed the other way, along the walls of the 
 house. Supper finished, all soon retired to rest, people 
 went to bed and rose early in those days. The traveller 
 withdrew sometimes into a special room for guests, if 
 the house were large ; sometimes into that of the master 
 
 1 “Inventories of St. Mary's Hospital, or Maison Dieu,” Dover, 
 by M. E. C. Walcott, “ Archaeologia Cantiana,” London, 1869. 
 
1-4 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 himself, the solar (room on the first storey), and spent 
 the night there with him. Meanwhile, the lower tables 
 were tnken out ol the hall, for in general these were not 
 standing, but movable ; 1 mattresses were placed on the 
 ground over the litter of rushes which day and night 
 covered the pavement, and the people of the household, 
 and of the traveller, the strangers of less importance, 
 stretched themselves out there till mornings Such a 
 
 O 
 
 litter of herbs or rushes was in constant use, and was to 
 be found in the king’s palace as well as in the houses 
 of mere merchants in the city : it was spread in lieu of 
 a carpet, to keep the room warm and to give an appear¬ 
 ance of comfort. It is still to be met with, and this 
 is, I believe, the last place where it has found refuge, 
 in old-fashioned French provincial diligences ; the straw 
 in English country omnibuses is also its lineal descendant. 
 Prices paid for the purchase of rushes constantly recur 
 in the accounts of the royal expenses. 2 They were so 
 largely used in towns as well as in the country, that 
 people in cities did not know what to do with the soiled 
 ones, and the local authorities had to interfere over and 
 
 1 “Mensae de medio remouentur ” (or, in the English version by 
 S. Bateman of 1582, fol. 81, “ when they have eaten, boord, clothes, 
 and reliefe bee borne awaye ”). Description of a dinner in Eng¬ 
 land, by Bartholomew the Englishman (de Glanville), 13th century. 
 “ Bartholomi Anglici de proprietatibus rerum,” Frankfort, 1609, 
 lib. vi. cap. 32. Smollett, in the eighteenth century, notes the 
 existence of similar customs in Scotland ; people dine, then sleep 
 in the hall, where mattresses are stretched in place of tables 
 (“ Humphrey Clinker ”). 
 
 * “ Hall and chamber, for litter, 2od.; hall and chamber, for 
 rushes, 16d. ; hall, &c., for litter, id., &c.” (Extracts from the 
 Rotulus familite, 18 Ed. I., “ Archaeologia,” vol. xv. p. 350). The 
 king was then at Langlev Castle, Buckinghamshire. 
 
THE ORDINARY TRAVELLER. 
 
 12 5 
 
 over again, in London especially, where the inhabitants 
 were apt to throw them into the Thames, with the result 
 of greatly damaging and polluting the water. 
 
 Through a window pierced in the wall of separation 
 between his room and the hall, on the side of the dais, 
 the lord could see and even hear all that was done or said 
 in the hall. The hall was used for sleeping even in the 
 king’s house ; the ordinances of Edward IV. show it; 1 
 at a period much nearer our day (1514), Barclay still 
 complains that at Court the same couch serves for two, 
 and that the noise from the comers and goers, from 
 brawlers, coughing, and chattering perpetually hinders 
 sleep. 2 At the first streaks of dawn, sending through 
 the white or coloured panes of the high windows spots 
 of light upon the dark carved timber-work, which, high 
 above the pavement, supported the roof itself of the 
 house, all stirred on their couches ; soon they were out 
 of doors, horses were saddled, and the clatter of hoofs 
 sounded anew on the highway. 
 
 Towards the latter part of the fourteenth century a 
 change was perceptible in the use of the hall. It was 
 first noted by that acute observer of manners, William 
 Langland, the author of the “ Visions.” Life was be¬ 
 coming, by slow degrees, less patriarchal and more 
 private ; people were less fond of dining almost publicly 
 in their halls. Rich men began to prefer having their 
 
 1 Turner and Parker, “Domestic Architecture in England, 
 from Edward I. to Richard II,” Oxford, 1853, p. 75. See also in 
 “ Archasologia,” vi. p. 366, the description, with drawings, of the 
 Royal Hall at Eltham. 
 
 2 Eclogue III. in the edition of the “Cytezen and Vplondysh- 
 man,” published by the Percy Society, 183.7, p. 1 i. 
 
126 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 meals by themselves in rooms with chimneys, which last 
 particular Langland is careful to notice as being a sign 
 of the growing luxuriousness of the times. 1 Less and 
 less inhabited, the hall gradually became little more than 
 a sort of thoroughfare leading to the rooms where 
 people were living a life more private than before. It 
 decreased in size as well as in importance, until it was 
 nothing in ordinary houses but the vestibule which we 
 now see. 
 
 It must have been only the very poor, or the very rich 
 or powerful for whom the monastery served as a hostelry. 
 Monks received the first in charity, and the second by 
 necessity, the common inns being at once too dear for 
 the one and too miserable for the other. These were 
 intended for the middle class : merchants, small land- 
 owners, packmen, &c. A certain number of beds were 
 placed in one room, and each man bought separately 
 what he wished to eat, chiefly bread, a little meat, and 
 some beer. Complaints as to the excessive prices were 
 not much less frequent then than now ; the people 
 petitioned parliament and the king interfered accordingly 
 with his accustomed useless good will. Edward III. 
 promulgated, in the 23rd year of his reign, a statute 
 to constrain “ hostelers et herbergers ” to sell food at 
 reasonable prices ; and again, four years later, tried to 
 put an end to the “great and outrageous cost of victuals 
 kept up in all the realm by inn-keepers and other 
 retailers of victuals, to the great detriment of the people 
 travelling across the realm.” 2 
 
 1 “ The Vision concerning Piers the Plowman” (Skeat), Text 
 B, passus x. line 96. 
 
 1 Statutes 23 Ed. III. ch. 6 and 27 Ed. JIT. st. r, ch. 3. As to 
 
THE NEW HABITS OF LUXURY. A GENTLEMAN DRESSING BEFORE THE FIRE. IP- I2 7 - 
 

 
THE ORDINARY TRAVELLER. 
 
 To have an instance of ordinary travelling, we may 
 follow the warden and two fellows of Merton College, 
 who went with four servants from Oxford to Durham 
 and Newcastle in 1331. 1 They travelled on horseback; 
 it was in the dead of winter. Their food was very 
 simple and their lodging inexpensive, the same items 
 recur almost always ; they comprise, on account of the 
 season, candles and fire, sometimes a coal fire. One 
 of their days may give an idea of the rest: for a certain 
 Sunday they write down 
 
 Bread 
 
 ... 4 d. 
 
 Candles 
 
 ... id. 
 
 Beer 
 
 2d. 
 
 Fuel ... 
 
 2d. 
 
 Wine 
 
 ... 1 id. 
 
 Beds ... 
 
 2d. 
 
 Meat 
 
 ... 5 id. 
 
 Fodder for Horses ... iod. 
 
 Potage 
 
 ... id. 
 
 
 
 Beds, we see, 
 
 were not dear , on another 
 
 occasion tb 
 
 servants alone are at the inn, and their sleeping comes 
 to a penny for two nights. Generally, when the party 
 is complete, the whole of their beds cost twopence ; at 
 London the price was a little higher, that is a penny a 
 head. 2 Sometimes they have eggs or vegetables for a 
 farthing, a chicken or a capon. When they had con¬ 
 diments, they put them down separately, for example : 
 fat, ^d.; gravy, id.; pickle for the same price; sugar, 4d ; 
 
 the inns of the Middle Ages, see Francisque Michel and Ed. 
 Fournier, “ La Grande Boheme, histoire des classes reprouvees,” 
 vol. i., “ Hotelleries et cabarets,” Paris, 1851; and in the “ Ve- 
 tusta monumenta,” vol. iv., 1815, pi. xxxv., a fine view of the 
 George Inn at Glastonbury (fifteenth century). 
 
 1 The Latin text of their account of expenses is published by 
 Thorold Rogers in his “ History of Agriculture and Prices,” ii. p. 
 
 2 “ Liber Albus,” ed. Riley, Introduction, p. lviii. 
 
 9 
 
1 3 ° 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING L1IE. 
 
 pepper, saffron, mustard. Fish recurs regularly even 
 Friday. Evening comes, the roads are dark; the way 
 is lost, they take a guide, to whom they give a penny. 
 On passing the Flumber they pay eightpence, which 
 may appear much, after the other prices. But we must 
 remember that the river was wide and difficult to cross, 
 especially in winter. The annals cf the Abbey of Meaux 
 constantly mention the ravages caused by th-* overflow 
 of the river, telling of farms and mills destroyed, of 
 entire properties submerged, and of cultivation swept 
 
 AN ENGLISH INN OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 
 {From the Louterell Psalter .) 
 
 away. The owners of the ferry profited by these acci¬ 
 dents, in continually augmenting their prices, and at last 
 the king himself was obliged to intervene in order to 
 re-establish the normal rate, which was a penny for a 
 horseman ; this is what the warden and fellows with 
 their company paid. 1 Sometimes our travellers fur¬ 
 nished themselves beforehand with provisions to carry 
 with them ; a salmon was bought, “ for the journey,” 
 
 1 See Appendix IX. 
 
LAWS AND ALEHOUSES. 
 
 eighteenpence, and for having it cooked, doubtless 
 with some complicated sauce, they pay eightpence. 
 
 Amusing specimens ot dialogue on arrival between 
 traveller and innkeeper, and discussion as to the p>rice 
 of victuals, may be read in the Manual of French 
 Conversation, composed at the end of the fourteenth 
 century by an Englishman, under the title of “ La 
 Maniere de Language que t’ enseignera bien a droit 
 parler et escrire doulz Francois.” 1 Chapter iii. is par¬ 
 ticularly interesting. It shows “ how a man who is going 
 far out of his own country, riding or walking, should 
 behave himself and talk upon the way.*’ The servant 
 sent forward to engage the loom utters the warm wish 
 “ ‘ that there are no fleas, nor bugs, nor other vermin.’ 
 ‘ No, sir, please God,’ replies the host, ‘ for I make 
 bold that you shall be well and comfortably lodged 
 here—save that there is a great peck of rats and mice.’ ” 
 The provisions are passed in review, the fire lighted, 
 supper prepared: the traveller arrives, and it is curious 
 to note with what a gallant want of ceremony he 
 assures himself before dismounting that he will find 
 “ good supper, good lodging, and the rest,” 2 at the inn. 
 Further on (chap, xiii.) there is question of another 
 hostelry, and the conversation between two travellers 
 who have just slept in the same bed shows what a 
 trouble the fleas were : “ William, undress and wash 
 your legs, and then dry them with a cloth, and rub 
 them well for love of the fleas, that they may not leap 
 
 1 Published by Prof. Paul Meyer in the Revue Critique (1870), 
 »!• x - P- 373 - 
 
 * “ Bon souper, bon gite, et le reste ’’ (La Fontaine). 
 
1 3 2 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 on your legs, for there is a peck of them lying in the 
 dust under the rushes. . . . Hi ! the fleas bite me so ! 
 and do me great harm, for I have scratched my 
 shoulders till the blood flows.” 
 
 Beer was drunk along the road, and it was found in 
 other places besides the inn where travellers slept at night. 
 At the cross-roads of frequented highways there were 
 houses where drink could be had. A long projecting 
 pole above the door, which displayed afar off its bunch 
 of branches, announced the presence of the alehouse to 
 travellers. Chaucer’s pilgrims, riding on the wav to 
 Canterbury, dismounted at a house of this kind. The 
 
 ON THE KOADS 1 DE. THE ALEHOUSE. 
 
 (From the MS. io E. IV. ; English ; Fourteenth Century.) 
 
 pardoner, according to his habit, would not begin his 
 tale without a little comfort: 
 
 “ But first quod he her at this ale-stake 
 I wil bothe drynke and byten on a cake." 
 
 A miniature of the fourteenth century, of which we 
 give a reproduction, represents the alehouse with its 
 long horizontal pole holding its tuft of foliage well out 
 in front above the road. The house consists but of one 
 storey, a woman stands before the door with a large 
 beer-jug, and a hermit is drinking from a large cup. It 
 was the fashion to have extremely long poles, which 
 
JNNS AND ALEHOUSES. 
 
 1 33 
 
 offered no inconvenience in the country, but in town 
 they had to be under regulations, and a maximum of 
 length fixed. In truth, according to the wording of the 
 Act, poles so long were used, that they “ did tend to the 
 great deterioration of the houses in which they were 
 placed,” and further, they were so long and had signs 
 so low, that they were in the way of the riders’ heads. 
 The Act of 1375 which relates these grievances orders 
 that in future the poles shall not extend more than 
 seven feet over the public wav. 1 This left enough to 
 give a picturesque character to streets not so wide as 
 ours. 
 
 There were taverns of ill-fame, especially in the 
 towns. In London it was forbidden by the king to 
 keep open house after curfew, and for very good 
 reasons, “ because such offenders as aforesaid, going 
 about by night, do commonly resort and have their 
 meetings and hold their evil talk in taverns more than 
 elsewhere, and there do seek for shelter, lying in wait 
 and watching their time to do mischief.” 2 3 
 
 It was for fear of such dangers that the sheriffs and 
 bailiffs were obliged, in their Views of Frankpledge, to 
 require the men in their bailliwicks to say upon oath 
 what they knew “ of such as continually haunt taverns, 
 and no man knoweth whence they come ; of such as 
 sleep by day and watch by night, eat well and drink 
 well, and have nothing.” 1 
 
 1 Riley’s “Memorials of London,” p. 386. 
 
 2 Statutes for the City of London, 13 Ed. L, “Statutes of the 
 Realm,” vol. i. p. 102, a.d. 1285. 
 
 3 Articles of the View of Frankpledge, attributed to 18 Ed. II.. 
 “Statutes,” vol. i. p. 246 (French version). 
 
‘54 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 We know the fine picture of a tavern in the four¬ 
 teenth century which Langland has left us. With as 
 much spirit as Rabelais he brings us into the presence 
 of the tumultuous scenes which pass at the alehouse, 
 to t! e discussions, the quarrels, the big bumpers, the 
 intoxication which ensues : we see every face, we dis¬ 
 tinguish the sound of the voices, we remark the coarse 
 behaviour; and one might almost take part in that 
 strange assembly, where the hermit meets the cobbler 
 and “ the clerk of the churche,” a band of cut-purses 
 and bald-headed tooth-drawers. 
 
 “ Tliomme the tynkere, and tweye of hus knaues, 
 
 Hicke die hakeneyman, and Houwe the neldere,* 
 
 Claryce of Cockeslane, the clerk of the churche. 
 
 An haywarde and an heremyte, the hangeman of Tyborne, 
 Dauwe the dykere, with a dosen harlotes, 
 
 Of portours and of pyke-porses, and pylede toth-drawers. 
 
 * * * * * * 
 
 Ther was lauhvng and lakeryng, and ‘let go the coppc, 
 Bargeynes and beuereges by-gunne to aryse, 
 
 And seten so til evesong rang.” 2 
 
 At these taverns peasants are also found. Christine 
 de Pisan, that woman whose writings and character so 
 often recall Gower, shows them to us drinking, fighting, 
 and losing in the evening more than they have gained 
 all the day; they have to appear before the provost, 
 and fines accrue to augment their losses : 
 
 “ At these taverns every day you will find they 
 remain, drinking there all day as soon as their work is 
 
 1 Hugh the needle-seller. 
 
 2 “Piers the Plowman,’’ Skeat’s edition. Text C, passus vii. 
 11. 364-370, 394. 
 
JHNS AND ALEHOUSES. 
 
 1 3 5 
 
 done. Many find it the thing to come there in order to 
 drink ; they spend there, ’tis perfectly true, more than 
 they have gained all day. Do not ask if they fight 
 when they are tipsy, the provost has several pounds in 
 fines for it during the year. And there are seen those 
 idie gallants who haunt taverns, gay and handsome.” 1 
 At the time of the Renaissance in England, the poet 
 Skelton, tutor of Henry VIII., amuses himself by de¬ 
 scribing in one of his most popular ballads an alehouse 
 on the highroad ; the house is just like those which 
 Langland knew a century and a half sooner. The ale- 
 wife, who brews, God knows how, her beer herself, 
 is a detestable old creature, with a hooked nose, humped 
 back, grev hairs, and wrinkled face, very much like the 
 “ magots ” painted since by Teniers. She keeps her 
 tavern near Leatherhead, in Surrey, on a declivity near 
 
 * “ Par ces tavernes chacun jour, 
 
 Vous en trouveriez a sejour, 
 
 Beuvansla toute la journee 
 Aussi tost que ont fait leur journc'c. 
 
 Maint y aconvient aler boire : 
 
 La despendent, c’cst chose voire. 
 
 Plus que toute jour n’ont gaigne. 
 
 » * * * 
 
 Lk ne convient il demander 
 
 S’ilz s’entrebatent quand sont yvres ; 
 
 Le prevost en a plusieurs livres 
 D’amande tout au long de Pan. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 Et y verries de ces gallans 
 Oyseux qui tavernes poursuivent 
 Gays et jobs.” 
 
 (“ Le Livre de la mutacion de fortune,” liv. iii., MS. 603 Fr. ( 
 Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.) 
 
! 3 6 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 ihe highroad, and she sells her wares “ to travellers, to 
 -ynkers,” and others : 
 
 “ Her nose somdele hoked. 
 
 And camously croked, 
 
 * * * * 
 
 Her skynne lose and slacke, 
 
 Grained like a sacke. 
 
 With a croked backe. 
 
 * * * • 
 
 She breweth noppy ale, 
 
 And maketh therof port sale 
 To travellars, to tynkers, 
 
 To sweters, to swynkers, 
 
 And all good ale drinkers.” 
 
 Passers-by and dwellers in the neighbourhood crowd 
 to her house : 
 
 “ Some go streyght thyder, 
 
 Be it slaty or slyder ; 
 
 They holde the hye waye, 
 They care not what men say, 
 Be that as be may ; 
 
 Some, lothe to be espyde, 
 Start in at the backe syde, 
 Over the hedge and pale, 
 
 And all for the good ale.” 
 
 The reputation of the houses with long bunches oi 
 branches does not seem to have improved, and many 
 of those who frequented them had little wish to boast 
 of it. As for paying the score that was the difficulty ! 
 The worshippers of drink who had no money got out 
 of it the best way they could ; they paid in kind : 
 
ROADSIDE HERMITS. 
 
 137 
 
 “ Instede of coyne and monny, 
 
 Some brynge her a conny, 
 
 And some a pot with honny, 
 
 Some a salt, and some a spone, 
 
 Some their hose, some theyr shone.” 
 
 As to the women, one brings: 
 
 “ her weddynge-rynge 
 To pay for her scot, 
 
 As cometh to her lot. 
 
 Som bryngeth her husbandes hood, 
 
 Because the ale is good.” 1 
 
 Other isolated houses that were found along the road 
 had also constant relations with travellers, those of the 
 hermits. 2 In the fourteenth century hermits for the 
 most part seldom sought the solitude of deserts or the 
 depth of the woods. Such as Robert Rolle of Ham- 
 pole, fasting, falling into ecstasies, consumed with the 
 divine love, were rare exceptions; they lived by pre¬ 
 ference in cottages, built at the most frequented parts of 
 
 * “ Elynour Rummynge. The Poetical Works of John 
 Skelton,” ed. Dyce, 1843, vol. i. p. 95. 
 
 2 A few hermitages are still in existence; one is to be seen at 
 Knaresborough, Yorkshire, and is said to have been first inhabited 
 by St. Robert in the thirteenth century ; it is entirely hollowed out 
 of the rock, and has a perpendicular window which seems to have 
 been carved in the fourteenth century. Another, partly of masonry 
 and partly scooped out of the rock, is in existence at Warkworth, 
 Northumberland. One of the most famous ballads in Bishop 
 Percy’s “ Reliques ” is about the hermit of Warkworth. This 
 hermitage seems to have been gradually enlarged by its successive 
 inhabitants ; but it appears from the style of the windows and 
 carvings to belong mostly to the fourteenth century. 
 
ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 138 
 
 the great roads, or at the corners of bridges. 1 They 
 lived there, like Godfrey Pratt, 2 3 on the charity of the 
 passers-by ; the bridge with its chapel was already almost 
 a sacred building ; the neighbourhood of the hermit 
 sanctified it still further. He attended to the repairing of 
 the edifice, or was supposed to do so, and was willingly 
 given a farthing .3 It was a strange race of men, 
 which in this century of disorganization and reform, 
 in which everything seemed either to die or to undergo 
 a new birth, increased and multiplied in spite of rules 
 and regulations. They swelled the number of parasites 
 of the religious edifice, sheltering under the religious 
 habit a life that was not so. These importunate and 
 evil growths attached themselves, like moss in the damp 
 of the cathedral to the fissures of the stones, and by the 
 slow work of centuries menaced the noble edifice with 
 ruin. What might remedy this P It was useless 
 mowing down the ever-growing weeds ; it needed a 
 patient hand, guided by a vigilant eye, to pluck them 
 out one by one, and to fill up the interstices by de¬ 
 grees : it was a saint’s business, and saints are rare. 
 The episcopal statutes might often apparently do a 
 
 1 See, for an example of a hermit installed at the corner of a 
 bridge, an Act of resumption which formally excepts a grant of 14s. 
 yearly to the “ Heremyte of the Brigge of Loyne and his succes- 
 sours,” 4 Ed. IV., “ Rolls of Parliament,” v. p. 546. Another 
 example is to be found in J. Britton, “ On Ancient Gate-houses ” 
 (Memoirs illustrative of the History of Norfolk, London, Archeo¬ 
 logical Institute, 1851), p. 137, where we find a hermit living on 
 Bishop’s Bridge, Norwich, in the thirteenth century and after. 
 
 2 See before, pp. 45 et seq. 
 
 3 See before as to the part taken by the clergy in the collection 
 of offerings, the care and maintenance of bridges (chap. i.). 
 
ROADSIDE HERMITS. 
 
 139 
 
 tiaii(utpim*nrATOtr.m3 
 
 mwfttnnpr.teu 
 
 hxt w. trnmam cn 
 
 ^miuun ; ‘vnai<cri»itin6 
 
 great work, but it was superficial merely. Though the 
 heads were beaten down, the roots remained, and the 
 lively parasite struck yet deeper into the heart of the 
 wall. 
 
 Solemn interdictions and rigorous prescriptions were 
 not wanting; these cast down heads which ever rose 
 again. To become a hermit a man must be resolved 
 on an exemplary life of miseries and privations, and, 
 that imposture might be impossible, he must have epis- 
 
 A HERMIT TEMPTED BY THE DEVIL. 
 
 (From the A/S. 10 F. IV. ; English ; Fourteenth Century.) 
 
 copal sanction, that is, possess “ testimonial letters from 
 the ordinary.” These rules were broken without 
 scruple. Inside his dw'elling the not very devout 
 creature in hermit’s garb might lead a pretty pleasant 
 life, and it was so hard elsewhere 1 The charity of 
 passers-bv was enough to live upon, especially if he had 
 few scruples and knew how to beg ; no other labour, no 
 pressing obligation, the bishop was distant and the 
 
ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 140 
 
 tavern close by. All these reasons caused a never-end 
 ing growth of the mischievous species of false hermits 
 who only took the habit to live by it, without asking 
 permission of any one. In the statutes they were 
 bracketed with beggars, wandering labourers, and 
 vagabonds of all kinds, who were to be imprisoned 
 without distinction while awaiting judgment. There 
 was only exception for “ approved ” hermits : “ except 
 men of religion and approved hermits having letters 
 testimonial from the ordinary.” 1 A statute like this 
 proves sufficiently that Langland did not exaggerate in 
 his eloquent description of the life of hermits ; his verse 
 is but the commentary on the law. The author of the 
 “ Vision ” is impartial and does justice to sincere 
 anchorites : true Christians resemble them. 2 But who 
 are these false saints who have pitched their tent at 
 the edge of the highroads or even in the towns, at 
 the doors of the alehouses, who beg under the church 
 porches, who eat and drink plentifully, and pass the 
 evenings in warming themselves ? 
 
 “Ac eremites that en-habiten by the heyeweyes, 
 
 And in borwes a-mong brewesters and beggen in churches.” 3 
 
 Who is that man who rests and roasts himself by the 
 hot coals, and when he has well drunk, has only to go to 
 bed ? 
 
 1 12 Rich. II., ch. 7, “Statutes of the Realm.” 
 
 3 “ Piers Plowman,” Skeat’s edition, Text C, passus i. 1 . 30 ; passus 
 x. 1. 195. 
 
 3 Ibid., passus x. 1 . 188. 
 
ROADSIDE HERMITS. 
 
 141 
 
 “ lewede eremytes. 
 
 That loken ful louheliche to lacchen 1 mennes almcsse. 
 
 In hope to sitten at euen by the hote coles, 
 
 Vnlouke hus legges abrod, other lygge at hus ese, 
 
 Reste hyra and roste hyra and his ryg (back) turne, 
 
 Drynke drue and deepe and drawe hym thanne to beddi ; 
 
 And when hym lyketh and lust hus leue ys to aryse ; 
 
 When he ys rysen, rometh out and ryght wel aspieth 
 Whar he may rathest haue a repast other a rounde of bacon, 
 Suluer other sode mete, and som tyme bothe, 
 
 A loof other half a loof, other a lompe of chese; 
 
 And carieth it horn to hus cote and cast hym to lyue 
 In ydelnesse and in ese.”* 
 
 All these are unworthy of pity, and, adds Langlana 
 with that aristocratic sentiment which has not been 
 sufficiently remarked in him, all these hermits meanwhile 
 are common artisans, “ workmen, webbes and taillours, 
 and carters knaves ; ” formerly they had “ long labour 
 and lyte wynnynge,” but they remarked one day that 
 these deceitful friars who were seen on every side 
 “ hadde fatte chekus,” they immediately abandoned 
 their labour and took lying garments, as though they 
 were clerks : 
 
 “ Other of som ordre, other elles a prophete.” 
 
 They are seldom seen at church, these false hermits, 
 but they are found seated at great men’s tables because 
 their clothes are respectable ; look at them eating and 
 drinking of the best ! they who formerly were of the 
 lowest rank, at the side tables, never drinking wine, never 
 eating white bread, without a blanket for their beds. 
 
 * Look humbly to gain alms. 
 
 2 “ Piers Plowman,” Skeat’s edition,Text C, passus x. 11 . 140-1152. 
 
142 
 
 ENGLISH WA YEA LING LIFE. 
 
 “Ac while he wrought in thys worlde and wan hus mete with 
 treuthe, 
 
 He sat atte sydbenche and secounde table ; 
 
 Cam no wyn in hus wombe thorw the weke longe, 
 
 Nother blankett in hus bed ne white bred by-fore hym. 
 
 The cause of al thys caitifte cometh of meny bisshopes 
 That suffren suche sottes.” 1 II 
 
 These rascals escaped the bishops, who ought to have 
 had their eyes better open. “Alas!” said a poet of 
 the thirteenth century, Rutebeuf, in charming language, 
 “ The coat does not make the hermit; if a man dwell 
 in a hermitage and be clothed in hermit’s dress, I don’t 
 care two straws for his habit nor his vesture if he does 
 not lead a life as pure as his coat pretends. But many 
 folk make a fine show and marvellous seeming what 
 they are worth; they resemble the trees which 
 blossomed too brightly and which fail to bring forth 
 fruit.” 2 
 
 Under the eyes of the placid hermit, comfortably 
 
 1 “Piers Plowman,” Skeat’s edition, passus x. 11 . 251-256. 
 a “Li abis ne fet pas l’ermite ; 
 
 S’uns hom en hermitage abite 
 Et s’il en a les dras vestus, 
 
 Je ne pris mie deus festus 
 Son abit ne sa vesteure, 
 
 S’il ne maine vie aussi pure 
 Comme son abit nous demonstre ; 
 
 Mes maintes genz font bele monstre 
 Et merveilleux sanblant qu’il vaillent: 
 
 II sanblent les arbres qui faillent 
 Oui furent trop bel au florir.” 
 
 (Le Dit de frere Denise. “ CEuvrcs completes de Rutebeuf,” 
 edition Jubinal, Paris, 1874, vol. ii. p. 6}.) 
 
ROADSIDE HERMITS. 
 
 M3 
 
 established at the edge of the road, under the glance of 
 this man, who calmly prepared himself by an untroubled 
 life without care nor suffering for a blissful eternity, 
 flowed the changefully coloured current of travellers, 
 vagabonds, wayfarers, and wanderers. His benediction 
 rewarded the generous passer ; the hard look of the 
 austere man did not suffice to disturb his blessed in¬ 
 difference. The life of others might rapidly consume, 
 burnt by the sun, gnawed by care ; his own endured in 
 the shade of the trees, and continued without hurt, 
 lulled by the rustle of human passions. 
 

 AN ESCAPED PRISONER FLYING TO SANCTUARY. 
 
 (F. om the MS. io E. IV.) 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 SECURITY OF THE ROADS. 
 
 T HESE roads thus traversed in all directions by 
 the king and the lords going from one manor to 
 another, by the merchants going to the fair, the 
 market, or the staple, these roads, where at intervals the 
 crunching of the peasants’ carts was heard, were they 
 safe ? The theoretic study of the legal ordinances, and 
 of the manner in which the county police and the town 
 watch and ward were organized, might lead to the con¬ 
 clusion that precautions were well taken for the pre¬ 
 vention of misdeeds, and that travelling did not present 
 more danger than it does at present. If we add, as 
 Mr. Thorold Rogers has shown, that there was a regular 
 service of carriages between Oxford and London, Win¬ 
 chester, Newcastle, &c., and that the price of transport 
 was not dear we might be persuaded that the roads 
 
SECURITY OT THE ROADS. 
 
 J 45 
 
 were absolutely safe. Yet we should be wrong. On 
 the other hand, we must not consider, on the faith of 
 the romances, as some do, that there were brigands in 
 every thicket, a hanged man at every branch, and robber 
 lords settled along every stream. But we must take 
 accident , or the unexpected, into account. 
 
 Accident plays a greater part in the fourteenth 
 century than perhaps at any other epoch. It was the 
 moment when modern life began, when the superficial 
 brilliancy of a novel civilization had recently modified 
 society from top to bottom. Confidence was greater, 
 homes less fortified, the crenelated castle changed into a 
 villa or a mansion, while the hut grew into a house. 
 More means were taken than formerly to hinder ill- 
 doing ; but numerous occurrences happened to destroy 
 this commencement of security. At bottom society 
 was neither quite calm nor quite settled, and many of its 
 members were still half savage. The term “ half” may 
 be literally taken. If we made a list of the qualities of 
 such or such an individual, we should find that the first 
 part belonged to a much civilized, and the second to a 
 very barbarous world. Thence these contrasts ; on one 
 side order, which it would perhaps be injustice not to 
 consider the normal condition ; and on the other, the 
 frequent ebullitions of the untamed nature. Let us 
 take an example of such occurrences : here are a knight 
 and his men at the corner of a road, who are waiting for 
 a caravan of merchants. The text itself of the victims’ 
 petition gives all the details of the encounter. 1 
 
 The incident took place in 1342. Some Lichfield 
 merchants state to their lord, the Earl of Arundel, 
 
 1 Printed in the “Archaeological Journal,” vol. iv. p. 69. 
 
 10 
 
[46 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE . 
 
 that on a certain Friday they sent two servants and two 
 dorses laden “ with spicery and mercery,” worth fortv 
 pounds, to Stafford for the next market day. When 
 their men “came beneath Cannock Wood” they met 
 Sir Robert de Rideware, Knight, who was waiting for 
 them, together with two of his squires, who seized 
 on the domestics, horses, and booty, and took them 
 to the priory of Lappeley. Unfortunately for him, 
 during the journey one of the servants escaped. At 
 the priory the band found “ Sir John de Oddyngesles, 
 Esmon de Oddyngesles, and several others, knights as 
 well as others.” It was evidently an arranged affair, 
 carefully organized ; everything was done according to 
 rule ; they shared “ among them all the aforesaid 
 mercery and spicery, each one a portion according to 
 his degree.” That done, the company left Lappeley 
 and rode to the priory of Blythebury, occupied by 
 nuns. Sir Robert declared at the abbey that they were 
 the king’s men, “ having travelled far,” and begged for 
 hospitality as it was usually given. But it seems the 
 company had a bad appearance ; the abbess refused. 
 The knights, seeing this inopportune reception, burst 
 the gates of the barns, gave hay and oats to their 
 horses, and so passed the night. 
 
 But they were not the only persons well occupying 
 their time. The escaped servant had followed them at 
 a distance, and when he saw them installed at the priory 
 he returned in all haste to Lichfield to warn the bailiff 
 who hastened to collect his men for the pursuit of the 
 robbers. The latter, who were men of the sword, as 
 soon as they were met, turned on their defence, and a 
 real combat took place, in which at first they had the 
 
SECURITY OF THE ROADS. 147 
 
 upper hand, and wounded several of their enemies. At 
 length, however, they lost ground and fled ; all the 
 spices were recovered, and four of their company 
 taken, who were immediately beheaded on the spot. 
 
 Robert de Rideware was not among the victims, and 
 did not lose heart. He met his relative Walter de 
 Rideware, lord of Hamstall Rideware, with some of his 
 following, while the bailiff" was on his road back to 
 Lichfield ; all together turned their horses’ heads in 
 pursuit of the bailiff. A fresh fight ; this time the 
 king’s officer was worsted and fled, while the lords 
 finally took from him the spices once more. 
 
 What resource remained for the unhappy William 
 and Richard, authors of the petition ? Resort to 
 justice ? This they wished to do. But as they were 
 going for this purpose to Stafford, chief town of the 
 county, they found at the gates of the city some of the 
 retainers of their persecutors, who barred their passage 
 and even attacked them so warmly that they hardly 
 escaped without grievous hurt. They returned to 
 Lichfield, watched bv their enemies, and led a pitiable 
 existence. “ And, sire, the aforesaid William and 
 Richard, and many people of the town of Lichfield, are 
 menaced by the said robbers and their maintainers, so 
 that they dare not go out of the said town at all.” 
 
 This legal document, the original of which still exists, 
 is tolerably characteristic, and from this it appears 
 that these lords and their assistants were not without 
 resemblance to those of the Promessi Spusi and their 
 terrible bravi. Here, especially, may be remarked the 
 coolness and determination of the knights, who were 
 not disconcerted by the death of four of their number; 
 
148 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 the attack under cover of a wood ; the selection of the 
 victims ; “ garsuns ” belonging to rich merchants ; the 
 demand for hospitality in a priory under pretext of 
 journeying in the king’s service ; the expeditious justice 
 of the bailiff, and the persistent surveillance to which 
 the steps of the victims were subjected by their tyrants. 
 
 These are not quite exceptional facts, and Robert of 
 Rideware was not the only one who was on the look out 
 m the copses along the side of the roads. Many other 
 lords were, like him, surrounded by devoted men, ready 
 for all enterprises. Capes and liveries of their masters’ 
 colours were given to them, which permitted them easily 
 to be recognized ; a lord well surrounded with his 
 partizans considered himself as above the common law, 
 and justice had no easy matter to make herself respected 
 by him. The custom of having, each one, a number 
 of determined servitors bearing his colours became 
 universal at the end of Edward III.’s reign and under 
 Richard II., it subsisted in spite of statutes 1 during 
 the whole of the fifteenth century, and contributed 
 largely to render the barons’ wars of this period em¬ 
 bittered and bloody. 
 
 1 Richard II. had several times to renew and confirm them, but 
 without effect. In his first statute upon this subject, he states the 
 luxury of partizans which many men, though of indifferent means, 
 delight in; declaring “ that divers people of small revenue of land, 
 rent, or other possessions, do make great retinue of people, as well 
 tf esquires as of other, in many parts of the realm” (1 Richard 
 II., cap. 7 , a.d. 1377 ). The third statute of 13 Richard II., that 
 of 1 6th year (cap. 4), that of 20th year (cap. 1 and 2), are likewise 
 directed against the abuse of liveries and the number of partizans 
 of the “lords spiritual and temporal.” Henry VI. renewed these 
 statutes, without effect. 
 
SECURITY OF THE ROADS. 
 
 '49 
 
 But even independently of the periods of civil war. 
 the misdeeds committed by certain barons and their 
 faithful followers, or even simply by followers acting on 
 their own account under cover of their lord’s colours, 
 were everywhere so frequent and so serious that in many 
 counties it might have been thought there was war. 
 The preamble of a statute of the second year of Richard 
 II . 1 makes perhaps rather an exaggerated picture of these 
 disorders on purpose better to justify rigorous measures, 
 but the description must have been in a large measure 
 true. We there see (the king learnt it at the time from 
 the formal petitions addressed to parliament and by 
 public rumour) that certain people in several parts of the 
 kingdom claimed “ to have right to divers lands, tene¬ 
 ments and other possessions, and some espying women 
 and damsels unmarried, and some desiring to make 
 maintenance in their marches, do gather them together 
 to a great number of men of arms and archers, to the 
 manner of war, and confederate themselves by oath and 
 other confederacy.” These people, having no “ con¬ 
 sideration to God, nor to the laws of holy church, nor 
 of the land, nor to right, nor justice, but refusing and 
 setting apart all process of the law, do ride in great 
 routs in divers parts of England, and take possession 
 and set them in divers manors, lands, and other posses¬ 
 sions of their own authority, and hold the same long 
 with such force, doing many manner apparelments of 
 war; and in some places do ravish women and damsels, 
 and bring them into strange countries, where please 
 them ; and in some places lying in await with such 
 routs do beat and maim, murder and slay the people, 
 1 Statute 2 Richard II., stat. i. cap. 6, a.d. 1378. 
 
ENGLISH WAYFARING LIRE. 
 
 *5° 
 
 for to have their wives and their goods, and the same 
 women and goods retain to their own use ; and some¬ 
 times take the king’s liege people in their houses, and 
 bring and hold them as prisoners, and at the last put 
 them to line and ransom as it were in a land of war ; 
 and sometime come before the justices in their sessions 
 in such guise with great force, whereby the justices be 
 afraid and not hardy to do the law ; and do many other 
 riots and horrible offences, whereby the realm in divers 
 parts is put in great trouble, to the great mischief and 
 grievance of the people.” 1 In the Good Parliament in 
 1376, the Commons had already made similar com¬ 
 plaints : “ Now great riot begins anew by many people 
 in different parts of England who ride with a great 
 number of armed men,” &c. 2 
 
 1 The picture which this statute presents is so complete that it 
 is not necessary to quote other texts. In the petitions addressed 
 to parliament are found very numerous complaints by private 
 persons for acts of violence of which they had been victims, for 
 imprisonment by the action of their enemies, robberies, cases of in¬ 
 cendiarism, of destruction of game or fish in the parks. Examples: 
 petition of Agnes of Aldenby, beaten by malefactors (“ Rolls 
 of Parliament,” i. p. 375) ; of Agnes Atte Wode, she and her son 
 beaten and robbed (ibid., i. p. 372); of the inhabitants of several 
 towns of the county of Hertford, who have been imprisoned and 
 forced to pay ransom by the knight John of Patmer (i. p. 389); 
 of John of Grey, who was attacked by fifteen malefactors so deter¬ 
 mined as to set fire to a town and assault a castle (i. p. 397) ; of 
 Robert Power, who is robbed and his mansion sacked, his people 
 beaten, by “ men all armed as men of war” (i. p. 410); of Ralph 
 le Botiller, who has seen his mansion pillaged and burnt by eighty 
 men, who came with arms and baggage, bringing ropes and hatchets 
 on carts (ii. p. 88), &c. In France, it is well known, the misdeeds 
 of this kind were still more numerous, but there was then a con¬ 
 tinual state of war there. 2 “ Rolls of Parliament,” ii. p. 351. 
 
SECURITY OF THE ROADS. 
 
 1 5 1 
 
 Besides these organized and qoasi-seignorial bands, 
 there were ordinary robbers, against whom Edward I. 
 had taken, in 1285, special measures in the Statute of 
 Winchester. It is declared in this Act that malefactors 
 are accustomed to crouch down in the ditches, coppice, 
 or brushwoods near upon the roads, especially near 
 those which link two market towns. This was, of 
 course, the passage-way of many easy victims, richly 
 laden. Thus the king orders that the edge of the high¬ 
 ways shall be cleared for a distance of two hundred feet 
 on each side, in such a manner that there remain neither 
 coppice nor brushwood, nor hollow nor ditch which 
 might serve as shelter for malefactors. Only large trees 
 such as oaks might be left. The proprietor of the soil 
 had to do this ; if he neglected it, he would be respon¬ 
 sible for robberies and murders, and must pay a fine to 
 the king. If the road crossed a park, the same obliga¬ 
 tion lay on the lord, unless he consented to close it by 
 a wall or a hedge so thick, or by a ditch so wide and 
 deep, that robbers could not cross it or find therein a 
 shelter before or after their attacks. 
 
 But in proportion as we advance in the fourteenth 
 century, we find that these common thieves discovered 
 a better employment for their energies without quite 
 changing their condition. They allied themselves, 
 sometimes secretly, sometimes openly, to the seignorial 
 bands, and were not henceforward unticketed men for 
 whom no one was responsible. The Commons are 
 aware of the fact, and complain accordingly : “ Whereas 
 it is notoriously known throughout all the shires of 
 England that robbers, thieves, and other malefactors 
 on foot and on horseback, go and ride on the high- 
 
52 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 way through all the land in divers places, committing 
 larcenies and robberies : may it please our lord the king 
 to charge the nobility of the land that none such be 
 maintained by them, privately nor openly ; but that 
 thev help to arrest and take such bad fellows.” 1 In 
 the preceding parliament the same complaints had been 
 made, and the king had already promised that he would 
 order “such remedy as should be pleasing to God and 
 man. 2 
 
 All these ill-doers, without reckoning the support of 
 the great, had fine privileges. Some of them were met 
 along the roads with a cross in hand ; both king and 
 holy church forbade the touching of these, they were 
 men who had forsworn the kingdom. When a robber, 
 a murderer, or any felon found himself too hard 
 pressed, he fled into a church and found safety. In 
 almost all societies having reached a certain state of 
 civilization the same privilege has existed or still exists. 
 It continues in constant use in many parts of the 
 East. A church in the Middle Ages was a sacred 
 place ; whoever had crossed its threshold was under the 
 protection of God, and many fine miracles, the history 
 of which was familiar to everybody, attested with what 
 particular favour the right of sanctuary was regarded by 
 the Holy Virgin. At Walsingham, whither there was 
 a celebrated pilgrimage, people never failed to go and 
 see the “ Gate of the Knight,” a gate which had 
 stretched itself so as to give miraculous shelter to a 
 man on horseback, hard pursued by his enemies, and 
 
 s “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 201 (22 E. III., 1348). 
 
 * Ibid., vol. ii. p. 165. 
 
RIGHT OF SANCTUARY. 
 
 153 
 
 who found himself thus opportunely placed beyond the 
 reach of men as well as beyond the reach of law. 
 
 Several curious relics of old English sanctuaries are 
 still in existence. There is at Durham a beautiful 
 bronze knocker, cast and chiselled in Norman times, 
 still affixed to the cathedral door through which male¬ 
 factors were admitted to the sanctuary. 1 As soon as 
 they had knocked, the door was opened, the bell in the 
 Galilee tower was rung, and after having confessed 
 
 THE KNOCKER OF THE DURHAM SANCTUARY (NORMAN). 
 
 before witnesses their crime, which was at once put into 
 writing, the culprits were allowed to enjoy the peace 
 of St. Cuthbert. In several churches there was a chair 
 or stool called the fridstool, or peace chair, upon which 
 the criminal sat, and was then absolutely safe. At 
 Beverley, for instance, there was one, the Latin inscrip¬ 
 tion of which has been preserved : “ This stone seat is 
 
 1 R. W. Billings, “Architectural illustrations ... of the church 
 at Durham,” London, 1843, p. 20. 
 
'54 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 called freedstoll, that is, chair of peace, on reaching 
 which a fugitive criminal enjoys complete safety.” 1 
 The Beverley and the Durham sanctuaries were among 
 the most celebrated in England. The privilege extended 
 not only to the church, but to one mile round it, the 
 space being divided into six circles, and it was more 
 and more sinful to drag fugitives violently from the 
 sanctuary the nearer they were when seized to the inner 
 
 THE FRIDSTOOL AT HEXHAM ABBEY, NORTHUMBERLAND (NORMAN). 
 
 circle. If they had reached the altar or the fridstool 
 no money atonement was accepted. One such stool is 
 still preserved at Hexham Abbey, Northumberland ; it 
 
 1 “ Erant hujusmodi cathedrarum multa; in Anglia . . . Bever- 
 laci autem celeberrima, qua; priscorum regum benignitate (puta 
 Aithelstani vel alterius cujuspiam) asyli nacta privilegium, tali 
 honestabatur inscriptione : ‘ Htec sedes lapidea Freedstoll dicitur, 
 i.[e.] pads cathedra, ad auam reus fugiendo perveniens, omnimodair. 
 habet securitatem (H. Spelman, “ Glossarium Archaiologicum,” 
 3rd ed., London, 1687, p. 24.8). 
 
RIGHT OF SANCTUARY. 
 
 *ss 
 
 is of Norman style, and seems to belong to the twelfth 
 century. 
 
 But the most curious remembrances of the English 
 sanctuaries are the registers still preserved in some few 
 cases, in which were entered the confessions of the 
 criminals at the moment they asked for admittance. 
 The Beverley and the Durham registers have been 
 printed ; both date from the fifteenth century; that 
 of Durham covers the years 1464 to 1524; it includes, 
 besides other crimes, 195 murders and homicides, in 
 which 283 persons are concerned, and which are dividei 
 as follows, according to the trades and avocations of the 
 perpetrators : 
 
 “ Husbandmen 
 
 ... 8 
 
 Tanner 
 
 Labourers ... 
 
 ... 4 
 
 Baxster 
 
 Yeomen 
 
 ... 4 
 
 Glover 
 
 Gentlemen... 
 
 ... 4 
 
 Sailor 
 
 Ecclesiastics 
 
 3 
 
 Apprentice... 
 
 Merchants ... 
 
 ... 2 
 
 Under-Bailiff 
 
 Tailor 
 
 1 
 
 Servant 
 
 Plumber 
 Carpenter ... 
 
 1 
 
 ... 1 
 
 Knight (an accessory) 
 
 “ The occupations 
 
 of the remainder are not mentioned. 
 
 The entries in the register resemble each other very 
 much ; the formalities are the same ; the Galilee bell is 
 tolled, the culprit makes a full confession ; witnesses 
 are called to hear it, and the names of all concerned are 
 given in full. Here is an example translated from the 
 Latin original : “ To be remembered that on the 6th day 
 of October, 1477, William Rome and William Nichol- 
 
 1 J. Raine, “ Sanctuarium Dunelmense et Sanctuarium Bever- 
 laccnsc,” London, Surtees Society, 1827, p. xxv. 
 
/56 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIIE. 
 
 son, of the parish of Forsate, fled to the cathedral 
 church of St. Cuthbert in Durham, where on account 
 among other things of a felony committed and publicly 
 confessed by them, consisting of the murder by them of 
 William Aliand; they asked from the venerable and 
 religious men, Sir Thomas Haughton, sacristan of the 
 said church, and William Cuthbert, master of the Galilee 
 there, both brothers and monks of the same church, to 
 be admitted to the benefit of the immunity of the 
 church, according to the liberties and privileges conceded 
 in old time to the most glorious confessor Cuthbert. 
 And by the ringing of one bell according to custom, 
 they obtained this benefit. There were present there, 
 seeing and hearing, the discreet men William Highyng- 
 ton, Thomas Hudson, John Wrangham, and Thomas 
 Strynger, witnesses called in especially for the occasion.” 1 
 
 At Beverley there were no witnesses : the culprit 
 swore with his hand on the Book. Besides stating the 
 cause of his flying to sanctuary he took his oath to 
 remain peaceful, to help in case of fire, to be present at 
 mass on the commemoration day of King Athelstan, 
 benefactor of the church, &c. : 
 
 “ Also ye shall bere no poynted wepen, dagger, knvfe, 
 ne none other wapen, ayenst the kynges pece. 
 
 “ Also ye shalbe redy at all your power, if ther be 
 any debate or stryf, or oder sodan case of fyre within 
 the towne, to help to surcess it. 
 
 “ Also ye shalbe redy at the obite of Kyng Adelstan, 
 at the dirige and the messe, at such tyme as it is done, 
 at the warnyng of the belman of the towne, and doe 
 
 1 See Appendix X. 
 
RIGHT OF SANCTUARY. 
 
 157 
 
 vour dewte in ryngyng, and for to offer at the mcsse on 
 the morne,” 1 &c. 
 
 To drag men out of sanctuary was a sacrilege which 
 brought down excommunication. Nicholas the Porter 
 had helped to snatch from the church of the Carmelites 
 of Newcastle some laymen who had taken refuge there 
 “for the safety of their lives,” and who, once delivered 
 to civil authority, had been executed. He was obliged 
 to employ the intervention of the Pope’s nuncio to 
 gain pardon, and to submit to a public penance much 
 opposed to our present customs : 
 
 “ We order,” wrote Bishop Richard to the curate of 
 St. Nicholas of Durham, “ that on Monday, Tuesday, 
 and Wednesday of the Whitsun-week just coming, he 
 shall receive the whip from your hands publicly, before 
 the chief door of your church, in his shirt, bare-headed, 
 and barefoot 2 He shall there proclaim in English the 
 reason for his penance and shall admit his fault; and 
 
 1 “Sanctuarium Dunelmense et Sanctuarium Bevcrlacense, 1 ' 
 
 p. HI. 
 
 2 Penance of this kind was not only applied to men. Women 
 of all ranks were obliged to submit to it. In the same Register 
 Palatine of Durham may be seen the case of Isabella of Murley, 
 condemned for adultery with her sister’s husband, John d’Amunde- 
 ville, to receive publicly “ six whippings around the market of 
 Durham ” (vol. ii. p. 695). What makes it the more strange is 
 that the case was not one of people of the lower sort. This 
 Amundcville family was powerful and old-established in the 
 county. There are particulars about them from the thirteenth 
 century in Surtees, “ History and Antiquities of the County Palatine 
 ot Durham,” London, 1823, vol. iii. p. 270. Another example is 
 to be found in the “ Constitutiones . . . Waltcri de Cantilupo” 
 (Bishop of Worcester), a . d . 1240; Wilkins’ “Concilia Magna: 
 Britannia: ct Hibernia:,” London, 1757, vol. i. p. 668. 
 
'58 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 when he has thus been whipped the said Nicholas will 
 go to the cathedral church of Durham, bareheaded, bare¬ 
 foot, and dressed as above, he will walk in front, you 
 will follow him ; and you will whip him in the same 
 manner before the door of the cathedral these three days, 
 and he will repeat there the expression of his fault.” 1 
 
 The king himself did not dare to infringe upon the 
 privileges of sanctuaries, and, though unwilling, had to 
 let traitors escape by this means his revenge or justice. 
 In a case of this kind, one of the Henries wrote to the 
 Prior of Durham, and careful as he was to state that 
 he bound himself only “ for that occasion,” there is 
 no doubt that there was nothing exceptional in this 
 acknowledgment of the full immunities enjoyed by St. 
 Cuthbert’s Church : “ Trusty and welbeloved in God,” 
 says the king, 2 “we grete you well. And wheras we 
 undirstand that Robert Marshall late comitted to prison 
 for treason is now escapid and broken from the same 
 into youre church of Duresme, we hauyng tender zele 
 and devocion to ye honour of God and St. Cuthbert, and 
 for the tendir favour and affection that the right reverend 
 fader in God our right trusty and welbeloved the 
 Bisshop of Duresme our chauncellor of England we 
 have for his merits wol that for that occasion nothyng 
 be attempted that shud be contrarie to the liberties and 
 immunitie of our church. We therefor wol and charge 
 you that he be surely kept there as ye wol answere unto 
 us for him.” As there could be very little need for the 
 
 1 “Registrum Palatinum Donelmense,” ed. Sir T. D. Hardy, 
 London, 1875, vol i. p. 315, A.n. 1313. See Appendix X. 
 
 2 Henry IV or Henry V. Raine, “ Sanctuarium Dunelmense,” 
 p. xvii. 
 
RIGHT OF SANCTUARY. 
 
 i59 
 
 king to declare such an obvious feeling as his respect 
 for St. Cuthbert, the earnest recommendation by which 
 he ends his epistle is most likely to have been the only 
 real cause of his writing to his welbeloved the Prior 
 of Durham. Another characteristic instance is the 
 rebellion of Jack Cade, 1450, when one of his accom¬ 
 plices fled to St. Martin-le-Grand, the most famous of 
 the London sanctuaries. The king in this case wrote 
 to the Dean of St. Martin’s ordering him to produce 
 the traitor. This the Dean refused to do, and he 
 exhibited his charters, which being found quite cor¬ 
 rect and explicit, the fugitive was allowed to remain in 
 safety where he was. 1 
 
 This right of sanctuary was most valuable, not only 
 for political offenders, but also, and much more, for 
 robbers. They escaped from prison, fled to the church, 
 and saved their lives. “ In this year” (18 E. II., 
 1324), say the “ Croniques de London,” 2 3 “ ten persons 
 escaped out of Newgate, of whom five were retaken, and 
 four escaped to the church of St. Sepulchre, and one to 
 the church of St. Bride, and afterwards all for-swore 
 England.” But when the poor wretches were watched 
 in the church by their personal enemies, their situation 
 became dangerous. This is what the statutes of 1315- 
 1316 show. The authors of a petition 3 to the king 
 set forth that armed men established themselves in the 
 
 1 “Historical Notices of the Collegiate Church or Royal free 
 Chapel and Sanctuary of St. Martin le Grand, London,” by A. 
 J. Kempe, London, 1825, p. 136. 
 
 2 “ Croniques de London,” edited by G. J. Aungier, Camden 
 Society, 1844, p. 48 (written by a contemporary of the events). 
 
 3 “Articuli cleri,” statute 9 E. II. cap 10. 
 
ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 i Go 
 
 cemetery, and even in the sanctuary, to watch the 
 fugitive, and guarded him so strictly that he could not 
 even go out to satisfy his natural wants. They hin¬ 
 dered food from reaching him; if the felon decided to 
 swear that he would quit the kingdom his enemies 
 followed him on the road, and in spite of the law’s pro¬ 
 tection dragged him away and beheaded him without 
 judgment. The king reforms all these abuses, 1 and 
 orders that the old regulations as to abjuration should 
 be put in force, that is to say the following : “ When a 
 robber, murderer, or other evil-doer shall fly unto any 
 church upon his confession of felony, the coroner shall 
 cause the abjuration to be made thus : Let the felon be 
 brought to the church door, and there be assigned unto 
 him a port, near or far off, and a time appointed to him 
 to go out of the realm, so that in going towards that 
 pore he carry a cross in his hand, and that he go not 
 out ot the king’s highway, neither on the right hand, 
 nor on the left, but that he keep it always until he shall 
 be gone out of the land ; and that he shall not return 
 without special grace of our lord the king.” 
 
 The felon took oath in the following terms : “ This 
 hear thou, sir coroner, that I, N., am a robber of 
 sheep, or of any other beast, or a murderer of one or 
 of more, and a felon of our lord the King of England, 
 and because I have done many such evils or robberies 
 in this land, I do abjure the land of our lord Edward 
 King of England, and 1 shall haste me towards the port 
 of such a place which thou hast given me, and that I 
 
 1 He forbids those on guard to stay in the cemetery, unless there 
 is imminent danger of flight. The felon may have the “ neces¬ 
 saries of life ” in the sanctuary, &c. 
 
RIGHT OF SANCTUAR Y. 
 
 j 61 
 
 shall not go out of the highway, and if I do I will that 
 I be taken as a robber and felon of our lord the king ; 
 and that at such a place I will diligently seek for 
 passage, and that I will tarry there but one flood and 
 ebb, if I can have passage ; and unless I can have it in 
 such a place I will go every day into the sea up to my 
 knees assaying to pass over ; and unless I can do this 
 within forty days, 1 will put myself again into the 
 church as a robber and a felon of our lord the king. 
 So God me help and his holy judgment.” 1 
 
 In the church the robbers found themselves in com¬ 
 pany with insolvent debtors. These before coming 
 there made a general donation of all their property, 
 and the creditors who cited them to justice found 
 that they had no hold over them. In 1379,“ Richard 
 
 * “Statutes of the Realm,”!, p. 250, text of uncertain date, 
 but probably belongs to the reign of Edward II. According to 
 “Fleta” (lib. i. cap. xxix.), at the end of forty days of asylum, if 
 the malefactors have not abjured the kingdom, food must be 
 refused to them, and they would no longer be allowed to emigrate. 
 On the road to the port, according to the same authority, the felon 
 wore a costume which would,cause him to be recognized. He was 
 to be “ un-girt, un-shod, bare-headed, in his bare shirt, as if he 
 were to be hanged on the gallows, having received a cross in his 
 hands.” 
 
 2 Statute 2 Rich. II., stat. 2, chap. 3. These frauds had been 
 already complained of under Edward III. A petition of the 
 Commons in the parliament of 1 376-77 (“ Rolls of Parliament,” ii. 
 p. 369), declares that certain people, after having received money 
 or merchandise on loan, and having made a pretended gift of all 
 their property to friends, “flee to Westminster, St. Martin’s, or other 
 such privileged places, and live there a long time, ... so long that 
 the said creditors are only too pleased to take a small part of their 
 debt and release the rest.” Then the debtors return home, and 
 their friends give them back all their property. 
 
ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 162 
 
 II. remedied this inconvenience. During five weeks 
 once a week, the debtor is to be summoned, by proela 
 mation made at the door of the sanctuary, to appear in 
 person or by attorney before the king’s judges. If he 
 does not choose to appear justice will have her course ; 
 sentence will be passed, and the property that he had 
 given will be shared among the creditors. 
 
 This was, however, only a temporary remedy. In 
 the first years of the following reign, we find the Com¬ 
 mons presenting to the king their laments over the same 
 abuses. Apprentices leave their masters with their 
 goods, tradesmen in debt, robbers, flee to St. Martin- 
 le-Grand and calmly live there on the money they have 
 stolen. They employ the leisure which this peaceful 
 existence leaves them in patiently fabricating charters, 
 obligations, and false quittances, imitating the signatures 
 and seals of honest city merchants. As to the brigands 
 and murderers, they are comfortably off for preparing 
 new crimes; they go out at night to execute them, and 
 return in the morning in perfect safety to their inviolate 
 retreat. The king limits himself to vaguely promising 
 that “ reasonable remedy shall be had.” 1 
 
 Some years later (a.d. 1447) there was a great com¬ 
 motion among the Goldsmiths’ Company of London, 
 for they had found out that a quantity of sham gold 
 and silver plate and jewellery had been issued from the 
 privileged precincts of St. Martin’s sanctuary, to the 
 great detriment of their own worshipful company. 
 They brought the facts under the notice of the king, 
 who wrote to the Dean recommending him to check 
 this abuse if possible : “ Trustie and welbeloved, we 
 * Sec Appendix X. 
 
RIGHT OF SANCTUAR Y. 
 
 16.-5 
 
 grete you wel, and let you to wete that we be informed 
 that there be divers persons dwellinge within our 
 seinctuarie of St. Martin’s that forge and sell laton and 
 coper, some gilt and some sylved for gold and silver, 
 unto the great deceipt of our lege people. . . 1 The 
 
 tone of the king’s letter is very moderate ; he seems to 
 write only to please the Goldsmiths' Company, while 
 pretty well realizing that he is powerless in the matter, 
 and that his recommendations will come to nothing. 
 
 A priest who took refuge in a church was not 
 obliged to quit England ; he swore that he was a priest, 
 and “enjoyed ecclesiastic privilege, according to the 
 praiseworthy custom of the kingdom.” 2 3 But the j 
 church, who accorded to all comers the benefit of 
 sanctuary, reserved to herself the power of removal 
 from it. “In this year (1320), a woman who was 
 named Isabel of Bury, killed the priest of the church 
 of All Saints, near London Wall, and she remained in 
 the same church five days, so that the Bishop of Lon¬ 
 don issued his letter that the church would not save 
 her, wherefore she was brought out of the church to 
 Newgate and was hanged on the third day afterwards.” 3 j 
 
 In those days, when agitations and revolts were not 
 uncommon, the right of sanctuary might be useful for 
 anyone; it was therefore quite in vain that Wyclif pro¬ 
 tested and demanded its suppression. A bishop even, 
 however sacred his person, might himself be liable to 
 have to spur his horse and to fly towards a church 
 
 1 A. J. ICempe, “ Historical Notices of . . . St. Martin lc 
 Grand,” London, 1825, p. 135. 
 
 2 Statute 9 E. II. cap. 15. 
 
 3 “Croniques dc London,” Camden Society, 184-)., p \z. 
 
ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 164 
 
 to save his head. The Bishop of Exeter was in this 
 case when Isabella and her son came to overthrow 
 Edward II. 1 “The same day came one Sir Walter de 
 Stapleton, who was Bishop of Exeter, and the king’s 
 treasurer the previous year, riding to his house in 
 Elde Deanes lane to his dinner, and there he was 
 proclaimed traitor; and he seeing that fled on his 
 horse towards the church of St. Paul’s, and was there 
 met and quickly unhorsed, and brought to Cheap, 
 and there he was stripped and his head cut off.” 
 
 Under Richard III. might be seen a queen and a 
 king’s son refuse to quit the sacred enclosure of West¬ 
 minster, in which their life was safe, thanks to the 
 sanctity of the place. Sir Thomas More has left in 
 his history of the usurper, the first real history in the 
 national language which English literature can count, 
 a moving picture of the courage of Edward IV s. widow 
 and of the great quarrel raised by Richard in order to 
 snatch the second child of the late king from the abbey. 
 To the reiterated demands that were made to her the 
 queen replied : “ In what place cculde I recken him 
 sure, if he be not sure in this the sentuarye whereof was 
 there neuer tiraunt yet so deuelish, that durst presume 
 to breake. . . . Forsothhe hath founden a goodly glose, 
 by whiche that place that may defend a thefe, may not 
 saue an innocent.” 2 The subterfuge of Richard III. 
 consisted simply in having the right of sanctuary 
 
 * “ Croniques de London,” Camden Society, 1844, p. 52. 
 
 3 “The History of King Richard the Thirde ” (unfinished), 
 .vriten by Master Thomas More, than one of the Under Sherriffs 
 of London : about the yeare of our Lorde, 1513. London 1557. 
 Reprinted by S. W. Singer, Chiswick, 1821, p. 55. 
 
RIGHT OF SANCTUAR Y. 
 
 i &5 
 
 abolished. In his speech in favour of the measure, 
 which had particularly in view the asylums of St. Paul’s 
 and Westminster, the Duke of Buckingham drew a very 
 lively as well as an exact picture of the disorders to 
 which this right of refuge led : “ What a rabble of 
 theues, murtherers, and malicious heyghnous traitors, and 
 that in twoo places specyallye. . . . Men’s wyues runne 
 thither with theyr housbandes plate, and saye, thei dare 
 notabyde with theyr housebandes for beatinge. Theues 
 bryng thyther theyr stolen goodes, and there lyue 
 thereon. There deuise thei newe roberies; nightlye 
 they steale out, they robbe and reue, and kyll, and 
 come in again as though those places gaue them not 
 onely a safe garde tor the harme they haue done, but a 
 license also to doo more.” 1 
 
 This privilege endured, however, and even survived 
 the introduction of the Reformation into England ; but 
 from that hour it was less respected. Lord Chancellor 
 Bacon cites the sanctuary of Colnham, near Abingdon, 
 which being considered “ insufficient” for traitors, under 
 Henry VII. several political criminals who had taken 
 refuge there, were unceremoniously seized, and one of 
 them was executed. 2 Sanctuaries were suppressed, 
 theoretically at least, in the twenty-first year of the 
 reign of James I. : “And be it alsoe enacted by the 
 authoritie of this present parliament that no sanctuarie 
 or priviledge of sanctuary shal be hereafter admitted or 
 
 1 “The History of King Richard the Thirde,” pp. 44, 45. 
 
 2 “History of the reign of King Henry VII.,” Ellis and Sped- 
 ding’s edition of Bacon’s Works, vol. vi. p. 43. Bacon says that 
 Henry “was tender in the privilege of sanctuaries, though they 
 wrought him much mischief” (p. 238). 
 
ENGLISH IVA YFARING LIFE. 
 
 166 
 
 allowed in any case.” 1 But, nevertheless, sanctuaries 
 lingered on in England as well as on the continent. 
 Cromwell complains in one of his most fimous speeches 
 of the difficulties his Government experience on that 
 account when they have to ask from fore'gn potentates 
 that justice be done in certain cases. He alludes to the 
 recent assassination of an English messenger, and says : 
 “ It is the pleasure of the Pope at any time to tell you that 
 though the man is murdered, yet his murderer has got 
 into the sanctuary.” In England, after the statute of 
 James I., the right of sanctuary did not fall entirely 
 into disuse, for the suppression of this privilege had to 
 be renewed. It was again enacted in 1697, and sanc¬ 
 tuaries are to be found even so late as the reign of 
 George I., when the asylum of St. Peter’s at West¬ 
 minster was demolished. 
 
 With all their penal severity, law and custom still gave 
 other encouragements to malefactors. They frequently 
 received charters of pardon ; the royal chancery will¬ 
 ingly granted these because they must be paid for, 
 and the Commons unweariedly renewed their com¬ 
 plaints against these crying abuses. The priest, John 
 Crochille, states to the king in parliament that while 
 he was at the Court of Rome he has been outlawed, 
 and was imprisoned on his return. The chancellor 
 has granted him a charter of pardon, but he is “so im¬ 
 poverished that he has not the wherewith to pay for 
 the said charter.” 2 
 
 Charters were thus given to the innocent for money, 
 
 1 2 1 James I. cap. 28, § 7 ; “ Statutes,” vol. iv. part ii. p. 1237. 
 
 2 “ Rolls of Parliament,” 21 Ed. III. vol. ii. p. 178. See also the 
 petition of the Commons in 135C-51, 25 Ed. III. vol. ii. p. 229. 
 
CHARTERS OF PARDON. 
 
 167 
 
 and to “common felons and murderers” also, which 
 had two results : first, the number of brigands increased 
 by reason of their impunity; next, men dared not 
 bring the most formidable criminals to justice for fear 
 of seeing them return pardoned and ready to revenge 
 themselves terribly. Unhappily, besides the profit of 
 the tax paid, the interest that the lords had in the con¬ 
 tinuance of this abuse tended to its maintenance. In¬ 
 separable fiom their men, they could defend them from 
 justice as they themselves were defended by them in 
 the street or on the road ; and the best means of saving 
 these bravi from the consequences of some assassination 
 was to obtain or to buy for them a charter of pardon. 
 The Commons were not ignorant of this, and recalled 
 to the king that often the lords, protectors of criminals, 
 obtained charters for them on the representation that 
 these men were abroad, occupied in fighting for the 
 prince. The charter onee obtained, the brigands 
 returned and recommenced their ill-deeds, without 
 fear of being troubled by any one. 1 
 
 For all these reasons the traveller would not have 
 been prudent if he had not foreseen at departure the 
 
 1 “ Ourlordthe kingby untrue recommendations has several times 
 granted his charter of pardon to notorious robbers and to common 
 murderers, when it is given him to understand that they are staying 
 for his wars beyond the sea, whence they suddenly return into their 
 country to persevere in their misdeeds.” The king orders that on 
 the charter shall be written “ the name of him who made the 
 recommendation to the king.” And the judges before whom this 
 charter shall be presented by the felon to have his liberty shall 
 have the power to make inquiry, and if they find that the recom¬ 
 mendation is not well founded, they shall hold the charter of non 
 effect (“ Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 253, a.d 1353)- 
 
i68 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 chance of some ill meeting, and if he had not in con¬ 
 sequence armed himself This was a recognized neces¬ 
 sity, and it was therefore that the Chancellor of the 
 University of Oxford on occasion of a journey allowed 
 ^the students to carry arms, otherwise strictly forbidden. 1 
 
 There was, then, little safety against robbers, and 
 there was not always much even against the sherifps 
 officers. At this insecure period, when prowlers were 
 so numerous, it was enough to be a stranger in the 
 jdistrict, especially if it were night, to be sent to gaol on 
 suspicion, as shown by a statute of Edward III. 2 
 Nothing is more general than the terms of this law ; 
 the power to arrest is almost without limit : “ Whereas, 
 in the statute made at Winchester in the time of King 
 Edward, grandfather to the king that now is, it is con¬ 
 tained, That if any stranger pass by the country in the 
 night, of whom any have suspicion, he shall presently 
 be arrested and delivered to the sheriff, and remain in 
 ward till he be duly delivered ; and because there have 
 been divers manslaughters, felonies, and robberies done 
 in times past, by people that be called roberdesmen, 
 wastors, and draw-latches . . .” whoever suspects a passer¬ 
 by to belong to one of these bands, “be it by day or by 
 night,” shall cause him immediately to be arrested by 
 the constables of the towns ; the man shall be kept in 
 prison till the justices of gaol delivery come down, and 
 meanwhile inquiry shall be made. Now, supposing that 
 
 * Regulations of 1313. “Munimenta Academica ; or documents 
 illustrative of academical life and studies at Oxford,” edited by H. 
 Anstey, London, 1868 (Rolls Series), vol. i. p. 91. The penalty 
 was prison and the loss of the weapons, 
 
 * 5 Edward III. cap 1 
 
HUE AND CRY. 
 
 169 
 
 a stranger pass through the town by night; the constable 
 arrests him, he imagines himself already in prison “ til 
 the justices come down,” and he runs away instead 01 
 allowing himself to be taken. The statute has provided 
 for this case. 1 “ If they will not obey the arrest, hue 
 and cry shall be levied upon them, and such as keep 
 the watch shall follow with hue and cry with all 
 the town, and the towns near, and so hue and cry shall 
 be made from town to town until that they be taken 
 and delivered to the sheriff.” Singular picture! It is 
 the middle of the night, the stranger is perhaps a robber, 
 perhaps an honest man, who has lost his way, not 
 knowing the town ; his fault is that he was not within 
 doors by the curfew ; he gropes his way in the dark 
 lanes ; the watch perceives him and questions him, he 
 reflects as we have imagined, and behold ! the hue and 
 cry begins, the watch runs, the town wakes up, lights 
 appear, and one after the other the more zealous join in 
 the pursuit. If the town is fortified, the postern gates have 
 long been closed, and he will be surely taken. Scarcely 
 can he hope to cast himself into some half-closed door¬ 
 way at a turning of the street, behind which he may 
 cower, listening with trembling hand and beating heart 
 to the watch who pass heavily along at a charging pace, 
 surrounded by a cloud of furious shouters. The number 
 of steps lessen, and the shouts are less heard, then they 
 die away, lost in the depths of the city. 
 
 But if the town is merely a market town or large 
 straggling village, not enclosed by walls, the first 
 thought of the fugitive will be to gain the open, and 
 then he must not tear marshes, ditches, hedges ; he must 
 1 Statute of Winchester, 13 Ed. I. cap. 4. 
 
170 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 know how, at a bend of the ground, to leave the high¬ 
 road and to profit by any place where the Statute of 
 Winchester may be negligently applied. Without 
 that he is lost, the constables follow him, the town 
 follows him, the “ cry ” continues, and at the next 
 village the scene of the starting will begin over again. 
 The inhabitants, warned by the clamour, light their 
 lanterns, and see, they are already in chase. Before he 
 reaches the end of the high-street some peasant will be 
 found on the alert ready to bar him the passage of the 
 road. All have an interest in it, all have been robbed, 
 or their friends or relations ; some one belonging to 
 them may have been wounded, assassinated on the road 
 as he returned from market. Every one has heard 
 such misadventures spoken of, and feels himself per¬ 
 sonally menaced. Hence this zeal in joining the chase 
 with the noise of the hue and cry, and the conviction 
 that, running so hard and making so many folks run, 
 the fugitive must be a famous brigand ready for the 
 gibbet. 1 
 
 1 This power of running down the first comer was, like number¬ 
 less laws of the time, at once a guarantee for the public safety and 
 a dangerous arm in the hands of felons. Robbers used it, and it 
 happened sometimes that they by this means imprisoned their own 
 victim. Alisot, wife of Henry of Upatherle, sets forth to the king 
 that her husband was made prisoner by the Scotch at the battle of 
 Stirling, remained their captive more than a year, then returned 
 after having paid forty pounds ransom. In his absence, Thomas of 
 Upatherle and Robert of Prestbury seized on the fields which he 
 possessed at Upatherle, divided them, pulled down the houses and 
 acted as the owners, taking to their own houses all the property 
 they could. The prisoner’s return surprised them ; as soon as they 
 knew that he had re-appeared on his lands, “the said Thomas, by 
 false agreement between him and the said Robert, raised hue and 
 
HUE AND CRY. 
 
 171 
 
 cry on the said Henry and put upon him that he had robbed him 
 [Thomas] of his chattels to the value of £100.” They were be¬ 
 lieved ; “ the said Henry was taken and imprisoned in Gloucester 
 castle for a long time,” waiting for the coming of the justices, 
 exactly as the statute said. Henry recovered his liberty in the 
 end, and obtained a writ against his enemies; but they brought 
 force and came to meet their victim, “and beat the said Henry 
 in the town of Gloucester, that is they bruised his two arms, both 
 his thighs, and both his legs, and his head on both sides, and quite 
 wrecked and vilely treated his body, so that he barely escaped 
 death.” The king’s reply is not satisfactory : “ If the husband be 
 alive, the plaint is his, if he be dead the wife’s plaint is nothing.” 
 (“Rolls of Parliament.’ vol. ii. p. 35. a.d. irto.) 
 
PART II. 
 
 LAY WAYFARERS. 
 

AN ADVENTURE SEEKER 
 
 i From the MS. 2 B. vii. ; English ; early Fourteenth Century. 
 
 ) 
 
 
 INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 “ Qui ne s' adventure n'a cheval ni nude 
 cedist Salomon.—Qui trop s'advent use perd 
 cheval et mule, respondit Malcon." 
 
 Vie de Gargantua. 
 
 W E have seen the aspect and usual condition of 
 English roads ; we must take separately the 
 principal types of the wandering class and see 
 what sort of a life the wayfarer led, and what was his 
 importance in society or in the State. 
 
 The wayfarers appertaining to civil life were, in the 
 first place,drug-sellers, buffoons,glee-men, perambulating 
 minstrels, and singers ; then messengers, pedlars, and 
 itinerant chapmen ; lastly, the outlaws, thieves of all 
 kinds, peasants out of bond, or jobbing workmen. To 
 
ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 r 76 
 
 ecclesiastic life belonged preachers, mendicant friars, 
 and those strange dealers in indulgences who were 
 called pardoners. Lastly there were pilgrims, whose 
 object was religious, but in whose ranks, as in Chaucer’s 
 book, clerk and lay were mingled. 
 
 Many of these individuals, for instance the friars, had, 
 it is true, a resting-place, but their existence was passed, 
 for the greater part, on the roads; when they left their 
 house their purpose was not to reach this or that place; 
 they had no fixed itinerary, but spent their time in long 
 rambles about the country, begging as they went. 
 They had, in the long run, caught the manners and the 
 language of true nomadic wayfarers, and in common 
 opinion were generally confounded with them ; they 
 belonged to that caste or family of beings. 
 
 As for the strange race which we still see at the 
 present day wandering from country to country, and 
 which, later than any, will represent among us the caste of 
 wanderers, it had not yet made its appearance in the 
 British world, and we have nothing to do with it here. 
 The Bohemians or Gipsies remained entirely unknown 
 in England till the fifteenth century. 
 
‘‘TUEK WAS ALSO A DOCTOUR OF PHISIIC” (CIIAUCr.R’S doctor). 
 (From the Ellesmere A/S.) 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 HERBALISTS, CHARLATANS, MINSTRELS, JUGGLERS, ANE 
 TUMBLERS. 
 
 T HE most popular of all the wanderers were 
 naturally the cheerfullest, or those who appeared 
 to be the most beneficent. These latter were the 
 folks with a universal panacea, very numerous in the 
 Middle Ages ; they went about the world selling health. 
 On days of off-work they established themselves in 
 the village green, or the market place, spreading a 
 carpet or a piece of cloth on the ground ; they displayed 
 their drugs, and began to harangue the people. We 
 
 12 
 
178 
 
 ENGLISH WA YEA RING LIFE. 
 
 may hear at the present day the same kind of discourses 
 as those they spoke in the fourteenth century in England 
 France, or Italy ; their profession is one that has changed 
 less than any. In the thirteenth century the herbalist of 
 Rutebcuf spoke like Ben Jonson’s mountebank of the 
 seventeenth century, like the charlatan who yesterday a 
 hundred steps from our gates attracted the crowd to his 
 platform. Big words, marvellous tales, praise of their 
 noble and distant origin, enumeration of the extra¬ 
 ordinary cures they have made, ostentatious display of 
 an unbounded devotion to the public good, and of 
 entire pecuniary disinterestedness : all this is found, and 
 always will be found, in the talk of all these insinuating 
 itinerants. 
 
 “ My good friends,” said Rutebeuf’s medicinal herb- 
 seller six hundred vears ago, “ I am not one of those 
 poor preachers, nor one of those poor herbalists who 
 stand in front of the churches with their miserable ill- 
 sown cloak, who carry bags and boxes and spread out a 
 carpet. Know that 1 am not one of these ; but I be¬ 
 long to a lady who is named Madame Trote of Salerno, 
 who makes a kerchief of her ears, and whose eyebrows 
 hang down as silver chains behind her shoulders : know 
 that she is the wisest lady in all the four quarters of the 
 world. My lady sends us into different lands and 
 countries, into Apulia, into Calabria . . . into Burgundy, 
 into the forest of Ardennes to kill wild beasts in order 
 to extract good ointments from them, to give medicine 
 to those who are ill in body. . . . And because she 
 made me swear by the saints when I parted from her I 
 will teach you the proper cure lor worms, if yc” will 
 listen. Will you listen ? 
 
HERBALISTS. 
 
 1 79 
 
 “ . . . Take off your caps, give ear, look at my 
 herbs which my lady sends into this land and country ; 
 and because she wishes as well to the poor as to the 
 rich, she told me that I should make pennyworths of 
 them, for a man may have a penny in his purse who 
 has not five pounds ; and she told and commanded that 
 I might take pence of the current coin in the country 
 wherever I should come. . . . 
 
 “ These herbs, you will not eat them ; for there is no ox 
 in this country, no charger, be he never so strong, which 
 if he had a bit the size of a pea upon his tongue would 
 not die a hard death, they are so strong and bitter. . . . 
 You will put them three days to steep in good white 
 wine. ; if you have no white take red, if you have no 
 red wine take fine clear water, for many a man has a 
 well before his door who has not a cask of wine in his 
 cellar. If you breakfast from it for thirteen mornings 
 you will be cured of your various maladies. ... If my 
 father and mother were in danger of death and they 
 were to ask of me the best herb I could give them, I 
 should give them this. This is how I sell my herbs 
 and my ointments ; if you want any, come and take 
 them ; if you don’t want any, let them alone.” 1 
 
 This herbalist was one of those who were pursued in 
 France and England by royal ordinances for the illegal 
 practice of medicine. Phillippe the Fair in 1311, 
 John the Good in 1352, had made severe decrees against 
 them. They reproached them with being “ ignorant of 
 men’s temperament, of the time and mode of administer¬ 
 ing, of the virtues of medicines, above all, of laxatives 
 
 1 “ Diz de l’erberie.” “ CEuvres completes de Rutebeuf,” Jubinal’s 
 edition, 1874, vol. ii. p. 58. 
 
i8o 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 in which lies danger of death.” These people “often 
 come from abroad,” go through the town and the 
 suburbs, and venture to administer to the too confiding 
 sick, “ clisteria multum laxativa et alia eis illicita,” 1 
 with which the royal authority was justly indignant. 
 
 In England the itinerant drug-seller had no better 
 reputation ; the popular songs and satires always show 
 them to us in the taverns on good terms with the worst 
 society. To have an idea of what their recipes might 
 be, we must recall what the medicine protected by the 
 statutes of the kingdom was. We must remember 
 that John of Gaddesden, court doctor under Edward 
 II., got rid of the tiaces of the small-pox by wrapping 
 the sick man in red cloths ; he treated thus the heir to 
 the throne himself. 2 He had for a long time been 
 troubled how to cure stone : “ at last,” says he, in his 
 “ Rosa Anglica,” “ I thought of collecting a good 
 quantity of those beetles which in summer are found in 
 the dung of oxen, also of the crickets which sing in the 
 fields. I cut off the heads and the wings of the crickets 
 and put them with the beetles and common oil into a 
 pot ; I covered it and left it afterwards for a day and 
 night in a bread oven. I drew out the pot and heated 
 it at a moderate fire, I pounded the whole and rubbed 
 
 1 Isambert, “ Rccueil General des anciennes lois Francises,” 
 vol. iii. p. 16, and iv. p. 676. 
 
 2 “ Let scarlet red be taken, and let him who is suffering small¬ 
 pox be entirely wrapped in it or in some other red cloth ; I did 
 thus when the son of the illustrious King of England suffered from 
 small-pox ; I took care that all about his bed should be red, and 
 that cure succeeded very well.’’ (John of Gaddesden, otherwise 
 “ Joannis Anglici, praxis medica rosa anglica dicta.” Augsburg, 
 1595, lib. ii. p. 1050.) 
 
ITINERANT QUACKS. 
 
 iSt 
 
 the sick parts ; in three days the pain had disappeared;” 
 under the influence of the beetles and the crickets the 
 stone was broken into bits. 1 It was almost always thus, 
 by a sudden illumination, that this doctor discovered 
 his most efficacious remedies : Madame Trote of Salerno 
 never confided to her agents in various parts of the 
 world the secret of more marvellous and unexpected 
 recipes. 
 
 However, the law distinguished very clearly between 
 a court physician and a cheapjack of the cross-ways. A 
 Gaddesden had the support of an established reputation 
 to apply his strange medicaments to his patients, and he 
 offered the warranty of his high position. He had 
 studied at Oxford, and he was an authority ; a serious 
 physician like Chaucer’s doctor, who had grown so rich 
 during the plague, did not neglect reading and medi¬ 
 tating his writings. Not having less knowledge, nor 
 certainly less ingenuity, the wandering herbalist was less 
 advantageously known : he could not, like the royal 
 physician, rely on his good reputation to make his 
 patients swallow glow-worms, rub them with beetles 
 and crickets, or give them “ seven heads of fat bats” 2 as 
 a remedy; the legislator, therefore, took care to look after 
 him. In the country, like most of the other wayfarers, 
 the quack curer found means almost always to escape 
 the rigour of the laws ; but woe to him if he attempted 
 to try his cures publicly in the town. The unhappy 
 Roger Clerk in 1381 found himself sued for the illegal 
 practice of medicine in London, because he had wished 
 to cure a woman by making her wear a certain parch- 
 
 1 “ Rosa Anglica,” vol. i. p. 496. 
 
 2 A remedy for diseases of the spleen (“Rosa Anglica ”). 
 
182 
 
 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE. 
 
 ment on her bosom. He was brought to the pillory 
 “through the middle of the city, with trumpets and 
 pipes,” on a horse without a saddle, his parchment ana 
 a whetstone round his neck, other disgraceful signs were 
 also hung round his neck and down his back, in token 
 that he had lied. 1 
 
 Uneasy at the increase of these abuses, Henry V. 
 passed in 1421 an Ordinance against the meddlers with 
 physic and surgery, “ to get rid of the mischiefs and 
 dangers which have long continued within the kingdom 
 among the people by means of those who have used the 
 arts and practice of physic and surgery, pretending to 
 be well and sufficiently taught in the same arts, when of 
 truth they are not so.” Henceforth there would be 
 severe punishments for all doctors who have not been 
 approved in their arts, “ that is to say, those of physic 
 by the universities, and the surgeons by the masters of 
 that art.” 2 3 The irregularities were renewed, as bad as 
 ever or little short of it. To give therefore more 
 authority to medicine recognized by the State, Edward 
 IV., in the first year of his reign, erected the Company of 
 Barbers of London using the faculty of surgery into a 
 corporation .3 
 
 The Renaissance came and found barbers, cheap- 
 jacks, empirics, and sorcerers continuing to prosper on 
 British soil. Henrv VIII. declared it with regret, and 
 
 1 “ Memorials of London,” documents relating to the thirteenth, 
 fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, edited by H. Riley, London, 
 1868, p. 466. 
 
 2 “ Rolls of Parliament,” 9 Hen. V., vol. iv. p. 130. 
 
 3 Their charter of 1461 is given in Report and Appendix of the 
 City Liveries’ Commission, 1884, vol. iii. p. 74. [L. T. S.] 
 
QUACKS AND DOCTORS. 
 
 1S3 
 
 promulgated new rules. “ The science and connyng 
 of physyke and surgerie,” said the king in his statute, 
 “ to the perfecte knowlege wherof bee requisite bothe 
 grete lernyng and ripe experience, ys daily within this 
 Royalme exercised by a grete multitude of ignoraunt 
 persones, of whom the grete partie have no maner of 
 insight in the same nor in any other kynde of lernyng ; 
 some also can no lettres on the boke, soofarfurth that 
 common artificers, as smythes, wevers, and women 
 boldely and custumably take upon theim grete curis 
 and thyngys of great difficultie, in the which they 
 partely use sorcery and which-crafte, partely applie such 
 medicine unto the disease as be verey noyous and 
 nothyng metely therfore, to the high displeasoure of 
 God.” 1 
 
 Consequently, every one who may wish to practice in 
 London or seven miles round, must previously submit 
 to an examination before the bishop of the capital, or 
 before the Dean of St. Paul’s, assisted by four “ doctors 
 of phisyk.” In the country the examination will take 
 place before the bishop of the diocese or his vicar- 
 general. In 1540, the same prince united the corpora¬ 
 tion of the barbers and the college of surgeons, and 
 granted each year to the new association the bodies of 
 lour condemned criminals for the study of anatomy. 
 
 Hardly were all these privileges conceded than a 
 complete revulsion took place in the mind of the 
 legislators, and who, it may be wondered, did they 
 regret ? precisely those old unregistered quacks, those 
 possessors of infallible secrets, those village empirics so 
 hardly treated in the statute of 1511. A new law was 
 * Statute 3 Hen. VIII. cap. 11. 
 
184 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 passed, which is bur one long accusation against the 
 authorized doctors ; these certified doctors poison their 
 clients as well as the old quacks, only they take more 
 for it. “ Mynding oonlie theyre owne lucres, and 
 nothing the profite or ease of the diseased or patient, 
 [they] have sued, troubled and vexed divers honest 
 persones as well men as woomen, whome God hathe 
 endued with the knowledge of the nature, kinde, and 
 operacion of certeyne herbes, rotes, and waters, . . . 
 and yet the saide persones have not taken anything for 
 theyre peynes and cooning, but have mynistred the 
 same to the poore people oonelie for neighbourhode and 
 Goddes sake, and of pite and charytie ; and it is nowe 
 well knowen that the surgeons admytted wooll doo no 
 cure to any persone, but where they shall knowe to be 
 rewarded with a greater soome or rewarde than the 
 cure extendeth unto, for in cace they wolde mynistre 
 theyre coonning to sore people unrewarded, there 
 shoulde not so manye rotte and perishe to deathe for 
 lacke of helpe of surgerye as dailie doo.” Besides, in 
 spite of the examinations by the Bishop of London, 
 “ the most parte of the persones of the saide crafte of 
 surgeons have small coonning ; ” this is why all the 
 king’s subjects who have “ by speculacion or practyse ” 
 knowledge of the virtues of plants, roots, and waters, 
 may as before, notwithstanding enactments to the con¬ 
 trary, cure all maladies apparent on the surface of the 
 body, by means of plasters, poultices, and ointments 
 “within any parte of the realme of Englande, or within 
 any other the kinges dominions.” 1 
 
 The change, as we see, was radical ; the secrets of the 
 • Statutes 32 Hen. VIII. cap. 42 ; 34 and 35 Hen. VIII. cap. 8. 
 
CHARLATANS. 
 
 185 
 
 villagers were no longer the secrets of sorcerers, they 
 were precious recipes which they had received from 
 God by intuition ; the poor, exposed to die without a 
 doctor, rejoiced, the quacks breathed. Ben Jonsoti, 
 that bold pedestrian who set out from London, stick 
 in hand, and walked to Scotland for pleasure, who 
 knew so well the usual attendants at English festivals, 
 has left us the living portrait of a quack doctor, a 
 portrait which is specifically that of a Venetian of the 
 seventeenth century, but which still remains true to-day, 
 and will be so for all countries in all time. Characters 
 of this kind are almost immovable ; Jonson’s hero is 
 the same individual as he whose discourse Rutebeuf 
 had picked up three centuries and a half earlier. With¬ 
 out a doubt, in his visits to Smithfield fair, the dramatist 
 had heard many a cheap-jack call out with thrilling 
 voice, his eyes turned to heaven, “ O, health, health ! 
 the blessing of the rich ! the riches of the poor ! 
 who can buy thee at too dear a rate, since there is 
 no enjoying this world without thee.” Upon which, 
 Jonson’s orator makes game of his colleagues, boasts 
 of his incomparable panacea, into which enters a little 
 human fat, which is worth a thousand crowns, but 
 which he will part with for eight crowns, no, for six, 
 finally for sixpence. A thousand crowns is what the 
 cardinals Montalto and Farnese and his friend the 
 Grand Duke of Tuscany have paid him, but he despises 
 money and he makes sacrifices for the people. Like¬ 
 wise he has a little of the powder which gave beauty 
 to Venus and to Helen ; one of his friends, a great 
 traveller, found it in the ruins of Troy and sent it him. 
 This friend also sent a little of it to the French Court, 
 
i 6 t> 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 but that portion had become “ sophisticated,” and the 
 ladies who use it do not obtain from it such good 
 results. 1 
 
 Three years later, an Englishman who did not know 
 Jonson’s comedy, finding himself at Venice, was filled 
 with wonder at the .talk of the Italian mountebanks, 
 and thinking to give his countrymen fresh details on 
 a race which flourishes more in that peninsula than in 
 any country of Europe, drew from nature a portrait 
 just like that which Shakespeare’s friend had drawn. 
 “ Truely,” wrote Coryat, “ I often wondred at many 
 of these natural orators. For they would tell their 
 tales with such admirable volubility and plausible grace, 
 even extempore, and seasoned with that singular variety 
 of elegant jests and witty conceits, that they did often 
 strike great admiration into strangers that never heard 
 them before.” They sell “ oyles, soueraigne waters, 
 amorous songs printed, apothecary drugs, and a com- 
 mon-weale of other trifles. ... I saw one of them 
 holde a viper in his hand, and play with his sting a 
 quarter of an houre together, and yet receive no hurt. 
 . . . He made us all beleeve that the same viper was 
 lineally descended from the generation of that viper 
 that lept out of the fire upon St. Paul’s hand, in the 
 island of Melita, now called Malta.” 2 
 
 No doubt the loquacity, the volubility, the instant 
 conviction, the grace, the insinuating tone, the light, 
 winged gaiety of the southern charlatan were not found 
 
 1 “The Fox,” Act II. sc. i (1605). 
 
 2 “Coryat’s Crudities,” reprinted from the edition of 1611, 
 London, 1776, vol. ii. pp. 5c, 53. Coryat set out from Dover, 14 
 May, 1608. 
 
MO UNTEBANKS. 
 
 i*1 
 
 so fully or so charmingly at the festivals of old Eng¬ 
 land. These festivals were, however, joyous ; they 
 were much attended, and you met there many an artful 
 character, jesting and as entertaining as Autolycus, that 
 type of the pedlar and frequenter of all the country 
 feasts, to whom Shakespeare has given a place in his 
 gallery of immortals. The country labourers went in 
 crowds to these meetings to suffer jests that were an 
 amusement even to themselves, and to buy ointments 
 which did them good : they are to be seen there still. 
 At the present day in France, and in England also, the 
 crowd still collects before the vendors of the remedies 
 which infallibly cure toothache, and do away with other 
 pains of lesser importance. Cercificates abound all round 
 the shop ; it seems as though all the illustrious people in 
 the world must have been benefited by the discovery ; the 
 tradesman now addresses himself to the rest of humanity. 
 Ele speaks up, he gesticulates, he gets animated, leans 
 over with a grave tone and a deep voice. The peasants 
 press round, gaping with inquisitive eye, uncertain if they 
 ought to laugh or to be afraid, and they finish by taking 
 confidence. The purse is drawn out with an awkward 
 air, the large hand fumbles in the new coat, the piece of 
 money is held out and the medicine received, while the 
 shining eye and undecided physiognomy say plainly 
 enough that the cunning and the habitual practical sense 
 are here at fault; that these good souls, clever and in¬ 
 vincible in their own domain, are the victims of every 
 one in an unknown land. The vendor bestirs himself, 
 and now, as formerly, triumphs over indecision by means 
 of direct appeals. 
 
 In England we should choose the incomparable Goose 
 
ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 188 
 
 X Fair at Nottingham as the place to see these spectacles ; 
 they shine there in all their infinite variety ; we may 
 there ascertain that the quacks of to-day have lost no 
 great amount of their hereditary raciness ; there, of all 
 places and occasions, the fact may be recognized that 
 English people are not invariably lost in their thoughts, 
 as they have been constantly described from the time of 
 St. Evremond downwards; for on that day of folly and 
 inconceivable liberty may be seen in action Rubens’ 
 great “ Kermesse ” at the Louvre, albeit illuminated by 
 a very different light. 
 
 Greater still was the popularity, in the Middle Ages, 
 of the wayfarers who came not to cure, but simply to 
 amuse the crowd, who, if they did not bring remedies 
 for diseases, at least brought forgetfulness of troubles ; 
 these were the minstrels, the performers of feats, 
 jugglers, and singers. Minstrels and jongleurs , 1 under 
 different names, exercised the same profession, that is, 
 they chanted out songs and romances to the accompani¬ 
 ment of their instruments. At a time when books 
 were rare, and when the theatre, properly so called, did 
 not exist, poetry and music travelled with the minstrels 
 and gleemen along the highway ; such guests were 
 always welcome. We find these wayfarers at every 
 feast ; in all festivities, wherever there was to be 
 rejoicing; it was expected from them as from wine or 
 beer, that care would be lulled to sleep, that they 
 would bring joy and forgetfulness. They set about 
 it in several ways ; the most respected consisted in 
 
 1 I translate this word by glee-man, which is perhaps the best 
 English equivalent of the early jongleur before he degenerated into 
 the juggler. [L. T. S.] 
 
MINSTRELS. 
 
 iSg 
 
 singing and reciting, some in French, others in English, 
 the exploits of ancient heroes. 
 
 This was a grand part to play, one held in much 
 reverence; the glee-men or minstrels who presented 
 themselves at the castle with their heads full of warlike 
 stories, or tales of love, or lively songs made but for 
 laughter, were received with the highest favour. On 
 their arrival they announced themselves without by 
 cheerful airs which were heard at the end of the hall ; 
 soon came the order to bring them in ; they were 
 ranged at the bottom of the hall, and all gave ear to 
 them. 1 They gave a prelude on their instruments, and 
 then began to sing. Like Taillefer at the battle of 
 Hastings, they related the prowess of Charlemagne and 
 of Roland, or they spoke of Arthur or of the heroes 
 of the wars of Troy, uncontested ancestors of the 
 Britons of England : 
 
 1 Horn and his companions, in the romance of “ King Horn,” 
 disguise themselves as minstrels, and present themselves at the gate 
 of Rymenhild’s castle : 
 
 “ Hi yeden bi the grauel 
 Toward the castel, 
 
 Hi gunne murie singe 
 And makede here gleowinge. 
 
 Rymcnhild hit gan ihere 
 And axede what hi were : 
 
 Hi sede, hi weren harpurs, 
 
 And sume were gigours. 
 
 He dude Horn inn late 
 Right at halle gate, 
 
 He sette him on a benche 
 His harpe for to clenchc.” 
 
 (“King Horn,” ed. J. R. Lumby, Early English Text Society, 
 1866, 1. 1+65.) 
 
ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 “ Men lykyn jestis for to here, 
 
 And romans rede in diuers manere 
 Of Alexandre the conqueroure, 
 
 Of Julius Cesar the emperoure, 
 
 Of Grece and Troy the strong stryf. 
 There many a man lost his lyf, 
 
 Of Brute that baron bold of hond 
 The first conqueroure of Englond, 
 
 Of kyng Artour that was so riche, 
 
 Was non in his tyme him liche. 
 
 s * # * * 
 
 How kyngCharlis and Rowlond favvght 
 With sarzyns nold they be cawght, 
 
 Of Tristrem and of Ysoude the swete 
 How they with love first gan mete. 
 
 Of kyng John and of Isombras, 
 
 Of Ydoyne and of Amadas, 
 
 Stories of diuerce thynggis 
 Of pryncis, prelatis, and of kynggis, 
 Many songgis of diuers ryme, 
 
 As english, frensh, and latyne.” 1 
 
 In the fourteenth century most of these old romances, 
 heroic, rude, powerful, or touching, had been re-cast 
 and put into new language; florid descriptions, compli¬ 
 cated adventures, extraordinary marvels had been added 
 to them ; many had been put into prose, and instead 
 of being sung they were read. 2 The lord listened with 
 pleasure, and his taste, which had become more and 
 more palled, permitted him to find a charm in the 
 
 1 “Cursor Mundi,” a Northumbrian poem of the fourteenth 
 century, edited by R. Morris for the Early English Text Society, 
 vol. v. p. 1651 and vol. i. p. 8. See Appendix XI. 
 
 * It began to be customary to read aloud the verses also, instead 
 of singing them. Chaucer foresees that his poem of “Troilus” 
 
MINSTRELS 
 
 *9 
 
 strange entanglements with which each event was hence¬ 
 forth enveloped. He now lived in a more complex 
 life than formerly; being more civilized he had more 
 wants, and simple and monotonous pictures in poems 
 like the Song of Roland, were no longer made to caress 
 his imagination. The heroes of romance found harder 
 and harder tasks imposed upon them, and were obliged 
 to triumph over the most marvellous enchantments. 
 Beyond this, as the hand became lighter the painting 
 had more refinement ; pleasure was taken in their 
 amorous adventures, and, as far as might be, that 
 charm, at once mystic and sensual, was given to them 
 of which the sculptured figures of the fourteenth century 
 have preserved so deep a mark. The author of “ Sir 
 Gawayne ” finds extreme pleasure in describing the visits 
 which his knight receives, 1 in painting his lady, so 
 gentle, so pretty, with easy motions and gay smile; he 
 gives all his care to it, all his soul ; he finds words 
 which seem caresses, and verses which shine with a 
 golden gleam. 
 
 These already frequent pictures of the thirteenth 
 century multiplied still more in the fourteenth, but 
 at the end of this last century they were displaced and 
 
 may be indifferently read or sung, and he writes, addressing his 
 book : 
 
 “ So preye I to God, that non myswrite the, 
 
 Nc the mys-metere, for defaute of tonge ! 
 
 And red wher so thow be, or elles songe, 
 
 That thow be understonde, God I beseche ! ” 
 
 (“Troilus,” book v. 1, 1809.) 
 
 1 “ Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight,” ed. R. Morris, Early 
 English Text Society, 1864, pp. 38, et seq. 
 
192 
 
 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE. 
 
 passed from the romance into the tale, or into poems, 
 half tale, half romance, such as the “ Troilus ” of 
 Chaucer. After many transformations the romance 
 was on the way to be lost among the new styles which 
 better suited the genius of the hour. A hundred years 
 earlier such a man as Chaucer would no doubt have 
 taken up the Arthur legends in his turn, and would 
 have written some magnificent romance for the min¬ 
 strels ; but he left us tales and lyric poems because he 
 comprehended that taste had changed, that people were 
 still curious but not enthusiastic about old heroic stories, 
 that few any longer followed them passionately to the 
 end, and that they were made more the ornament of 
 libraries than the subject of daily thought. 1 Thence¬ 
 forward men liked to find separately in ballads and 
 tales the lyric breath and the spirit of observation which 
 formerly was contained in the romances ; these, aban¬ 
 doned to the less expert rhymers of the highways, 
 became such wretched copies of the old originals that 
 they were the laughing-stock of people of sense and 
 taste. 
 
 1 Brilliantly illuminated manuscripts multiplied, they were 
 sought and very well paid for. Edward III. bought, in I 33 I, of 
 Isabella of Lancaster, nun of Aumbresbury, a book of romance 
 for which he paid her £66 13s. 46., which was an enormous sum. 
 When the king had this book he kept it in his own room (Devon’s 
 “ Issues of the Exchequer,” 1837, p. 144). Richard II. (ibid. 213) 
 bought a bible in French, a “ Roman de la Rose,” and a “ Roman de 
 Perceval ” for £28. To give an idea of these prices we must recall, 
 for example, that a few years (1328) before Edward bought his 
 book of romance, the inhabitants of London entered in the City 
 accounts £7 10s. for ten oxen, £4 for twenty pigs, and £6 for 
 twenty-four swans, which they had given to the king (Ps-iley’s 
 “Memorials of London,” 1868, p. 170). 
 
MINSTRELS. 
 
 i 93 
 
 Thus many of the grand French epics were abridged and 
 put into skipping or barren English verse. For them the 
 fine age was passed; when Chaucer, in company with his 
 pilgrims came, in his turn, to relate, with a sly look, the 
 deeds of Sir Thopas, popular good sense represented by 
 the host revolted, and the recital was rudely interrupted. 
 Yet from Sir Thopas to many of the romances which ran 
 the streets or were repeated by the singers from place to 
 place the distance is small, and the parody which amuses 
 us was hardly anything but a close imitation. Robert 
 Thornton, in the first half of the fifteenth century, 
 copied a good number of these romances from older 
 texts. In turning them over we are struck by the 
 excellence of Chaucer's jesting and by the closeness of 
 his parody. These poems all unfold after one and the 
 same pattern, smart and sprightly without much thought 
 or much sentiment; the cadenced stanzas march on, 
 clear, easy, and empty ; no constraint, no effort; you 
 may open and close the book without a sigh, without 
 regret, without exactly being wearied, but yet without 
 much caring about anything in it. And passing chance- 
 wise from one romance to another, it seems much the 
 same. Take no matter which, “Sir Isumbras” for 
 example ; after a prayer recited for form’s sake, the 
 rhymer cries up the valour of the hero, then praises a 
 valuable virtue which he possessed, his love for the 
 minstrels and his generosity towards them : 
 
 “ He luffede glewmene well in haulle 
 He gate thame robis riche of pallc 
 Bothe of golde and also fee ; 
 
 Of curtasye was he kynge, 
 
 Of mete and drynke no nythynge, 
 
 On lyfe was none so fre.” 
 
 J 3 
 
'94 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 Isumbras, his wife, and his son, have unique qualities ; 
 he is the most valiant of knights, his wife the most 
 lovely of women : 
 
 “I wille yow telle of a knyghte 
 That bothe was stalworthe and wyghte. 
 
 And worthily undir wede ; 
 
 His name was hattene syr Ysambracc.” 
 
 So is also Sir Eglamour : 
 
 “ Y shalle telle yow of a knyght 
 That was bothe hardy and wyght, 
 
 And stronge in eche a stowre.” 
 
 Exactly the same, Sir Degrevant: 
 
 “And y schalle karppe off a knyght 
 That was both hardy and wyght, 
 
 Sire Degrevaunt that hend hyght, 
 
 That dowghty was of dede.” 1 
 
 Not inferior to any of them is Chaucer’s Sir Thopas : 
 
 . . I wol telle verrayment 
 Of myrthe and of solas, 
 
 A1 of a knyght was fair and gent 
 In batail and in tornament, 
 
 His name was Sir Thopas.” 
 
 * The “Thornton Romances,” edited by J. O. Halliwell 
 for the Camden Society, pp. 88, izi, 177. The romances 
 published in this volume are, “ Perceval,” “Isumbras,” “Eglamour,” 
 and “Degrevant”; the longest scarcely occupies 3,000 lines, “Isum¬ 
 bras ” not 1,000. The manuscript, which is at Lincoln Cathedral, 
 is a collection containing many other romances, especially a “Life 
 of Alexander,” a “ Mort d’Arthur,” an “ Octavian,” and a “ Diocle¬ 
 tian,” to say nothing of numerous prayers in verse, recipes to cure 
 toothache, prophecies of weather, &c. 
 
MINSTRELS. 
 
 195 
 
 Thus, when not stopped short by mine host of the 
 “Tabard,” the minstrel slightly varies the airs for us on 
 his viol, but it is always the same instrument, and the 
 feeble sound which issues from it gives a monotonous 
 family character to all his songs. 
 
 But the noble had few better distractions ; the 
 theatre did not yet exist ; at long intervals only, when 
 the great yearly feasts came round, the knight might 
 go, in company with the crowd, to see Pilate and Jesus 
 on the boards. There he found not only the crowd 
 but sometimes the king also. Richard II., for example, 
 was present at a religious play or mystery in the four¬ 
 teenth year of his reign, and had ten pounds distributed 
 among several clerks of London who had played before 
 him at Skinnerwell “ the play of the Passion and of the 
 creation of the world.” 1 A few years later he was 
 present at the famous York plays, at the feast of Corpus 
 Christi, which were played in the streets of that city. 2 
 The rest of his time the knight was only too happy to 
 receive at home men who had such vast memory, who 
 knew more verse and more music than could be heard 
 in one day. 
 
 The king also greatly liked their coming. We find 
 that he had them sometimes brought up to him in his 
 very chamber, where he was pleased to sit and hear 
 their music. Edward II. received four minstrels in his 
 chamber at Westminster and heard their songs, and 
 when they went he ordered twenty ells of cloth to be 
 
 1 “ Issues of the Exchequer,’’ p. 244. 
 
 2 “ Extracts from the Municipal Records of the City of York,” 
 ov Rob. Davies, London, 1843, p. 230. 
 
196 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 given them for their reward. 1 In those days no one 
 thought of rejoicing without minstrels; there were four 
 hundred and twenty-six musicians or singers at the 
 marriage of the Princess Margaret, daughter of Edward 
 I . 2 Edward III. gave a hundred pounds to those who 
 were present at the marriage of his daughter Isabella, 3 4 5 
 some of them figured also at his tournaments.4 When 
 a bishop went on his pastoral rounds he was sometimes 
 greeted by minstrels, hired on purpose to cheer him; 
 they were of necessity chosen among local artists, who 
 were apt at fiddling cheap music to his lordship. Bishop 
 Swinfield, in one of his rounds, gave a penny a piece to 
 two minstrels who had just played before him ; but on 
 another occasion he distributed twelve pence a piece.5 
 
 When gentlemen of importance were travelling they 
 had sometimes the pleasure of hearing minstrels when 
 they reached the inn, and in that manner whiled away 
 the long empty evenings. In the curious manual 
 already quoted, called “ La maniere de langage,” com¬ 
 posed in French by an Englishman of the fourteenth 
 century, we see that the traveller of distinction listens 
 to the musicians at the inn, and mingles his voice if 
 need be with their music : “ Then,” says our author, 
 “ come forward into the lord’s presence the trumpeters 
 
 1 Wardrobe Accounts—“ Archaeologia,” vol. xxvi. p. 342. 
 
 2 Thomas Wright, “Domestic Manners and Sentiments,” 1862, 
 p. 181. 
 
 3 40 Ed. III., Devon’s “Issue Rolls of the Exchequer,” p. 188. 
 
 4 See two examples of like cases in the introduction to the 
 “ Issue Roll of Thomas de Brantingham,” p. xxxix. 
 
 5 “ Roll of Household Expenses of Richard de Swinfield, Bishop 
 of Hereford,’ ed. J. Webb, Camden Society, 1854-55, vol. i. pp. 
 IS 2 . 155- 
 
MINSTRELS. 
 
 197 
 
 and horn-blowers with their frestels (pipes) and clarions, 
 and begin to play and blow very loud, and then the 
 lord with his squires begin to move, to sway, to dance, to 
 utter and sing fine carols till midnight without ceasing.” 1 
 
 In great houses minstrels’ music was the usual 
 seasoning of meals. At table there are only two 
 amusements, says Langland, in his great satire: to 
 listen to the minstrels, and, when they are silent, to 
 talk religion and to scoff at its mysteries. 2 3 The repasts 
 which Sir Gawain takes at the house of his host the 
 Green Knight are seasoned with songs and music. 
 On the second day which Gawain spends with the 
 Green Knight the amusement extends till after supper; 
 they listen during the meal and after it to many noble 
 songs, such as Christmas carols and new songs, with all 
 possible mirth : 
 
 “ Mony athel songez, 
 
 As coundutes of kryst-masse, and carolcz newe, 
 
 With all the mancrly merthe that mon may of telle.” 
 
 On the third day, 
 
 “ With merthe and mynstralsye, with metez at horwylle, 
 Thay maden as mery as any men moghten.” 3 
 
 In Chaucer’s “ Squire’s Tale” the King Cambynskan 
 gives a 
 
 “ Feste so solempne and so riche 
 That in this worlde ne was ther noon it lichc.” 
 
 1 Ed. P. Meyer, in “ Revue Critique,” vol. x. (1870), p. 373. 
 
 2 “ Piers Plowman,” Text C, pass. xii. 11 . 35-39. 
 
 3 “Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight,” ed. R. Morris, Early 
 English Text Society, 1864, 11 . 484, 1652-1656, and 1952. In 
 the same manner Arthur, after an exploit by Gawain, sits down 
 to table “Wythe alle maner of mete and mynstralcie bothe ” 
 
198 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 and we see this prince sitting after the third course 
 among his nobles listening to the music, 
 
 “ That so bifelle after the thridde cours, 
 
 Whil that the kyng sit thus in his nobleye, 
 
 Herkyng his mynstrales her thinges pleye 
 Byforn him atte boord deliciously. . . 
 
 During all these meals it is true the sound of the viol, 
 the voice of the singers, the “delicious things” of the 
 minstrels, were interrupted by the crunching of the 
 bones which the dogs were gnawing under the tables, 
 or by the sharp cry of some ill-bred falcon ; for many 
 lords during dinner kept these favourite birds on a 
 perch behind them. Their masters, enjoying their 
 presence, were indulgent with the liberties they took. 
 
 The minstrels of Cambynskan are represented as 
 attached to his person ; those belonging to the King of 
 England had the same permanent functions. The 
 sovereign was seldom without them, and even when he 
 went abroad was accompanied by them. Henry V. 
 engaged eighteen, who were to follow him to Guyenne 
 and elsewhere . 1 Their chief is sometimes called king 
 or marshal of the minstrels . 2 On May 2 , 1387 , 
 
 1 “ This indenture, made 5 June in the 3rd year of our 
 sovereign lord King Henry the fifth since the Conquest, witnesseth 
 that John ClyfF, minstrel, and 17 other minstrels, have received 
 from our said lord the king, through Thomas, Earl of Arundel and 
 Surrey, treasurer of England, forty pounds as their wages, to each 
 of them 12d. a day for a quarter of a year, for serving our said 
 lord in the parts of Guyenne or elsewhere” (Rymer’s “Fcedera,” 
 ed. 1704-32, year 1415, vol. ix. p. 260). 
 
 2 The chief of the minstrels of Beverley was called alderman 
 [L. T. S.] 
 
MINSTRELS. 
 
 199 
 
 Richard II. gave a passport to John Caumz (? Camuz), 
 “ rex ministrallorum nostrorum,” who was setting out 
 for a journey beyond the sea. 1 On January 19, 1464, 
 Edward IV. grants a pension of ten marks “ to our 
 beloved Walter Haliday, marshall of our minstrels.” 2 3 
 The Roll of Thomas Brantingham, treasurer to Edward 
 III., bears frequent mention of royal minstrels, to 
 whom a fixed salary of sevenpence-halfpenny a day is 
 paid .3 King Richard II. had in the same manner 
 minstrels in his pay, and enjoyed their music when 
 travelling. When he went for the last time to Ireland 
 he had to wait for ten days at Milford on account of 
 contrary winds. A French gentleman named Creton, 
 who was with him, and who wrote afterwards a most 
 interesting account of what befell the unfortunate king 
 during the last year of his reign, states in his chronicle 
 that the time was merrily passed at Milford while the 
 contrary winds lasted, and that day and night they had 
 music and songs of minstrels .4 
 
 The richest nobles naturally imitated the king, and 
 
 1 “ Fcedera,” year 1387, vol. vii. p. 555. In Sir John Hawkins’ 
 “ History of Music,” London, 1853, vol. i. p. 193, John of Gaunt’s 
 charter to the king of his minstrels inTutbury, dated 4 Richard II., 
 is given at length. [L. T. S.] 
 
 2 “Fcedera,” year 1464, vol. xi. p. 512. 
 
 3 “Issue Roll of Thos. de Brantingham,” ed. Devon, pp. 54-57 
 and 296-298. These pensions were granted for life. 
 
 * “ La feumes nous en joie et en depport 
 Dix jours entiers, atendant le vent nort 
 Pour nous partir. 
 
 Mainte trompette y povoit on oir 
 De jour, de nuit, menestrelz retentir ” 
 
 M.S. Ilarl. 1319, in the British Museum, printed in “Archato- 
 logia,” vol xx. p. 297.) 
 
2 GO 
 
 ENGLISH WA YFARIAG LIFE. 
 
 had their own companies, 1 who went away to play when 
 occasion presented itself. The accounts of Winchester 
 College under Edward IV. show that this college 
 recompensed the services of minstrels belonging to the 
 king, the Earl of Arundel, Lord de la Ware, the Duke 
 of Gloucester, the [Earl] of Northumberland, and the 
 Bishop of Winchester ; these last often recur. In the 
 same accounts in the time of Henry IV. we find men¬ 
 tion of the expenses occasioned by the visit of the 
 Countess of Westmoreland, accompanied by her suite. 
 Her minstrels formed part of it, and a sum of monev 
 was bestowed on them. 2 
 
 Their services were great, and they were well paid ; 
 for their touched-up, mutilated, unrecognizable poems 
 might certainly shock persons of taste, but not the mass 
 of enriched fighters, who could pay the passing minstrel 
 and grant him profitable favours. Wandering singers 
 seldom came to a castle where they did not get gifts of 
 cloaks, furred robes, good meals, and money. Langland 
 often returns to these largesses, which proves that they 
 were considerable, and he regrets that all this gold was 
 not distributed to the poor who go from door to door 
 like these itinerants, and are the minstrels of God : 
 
 1 So also the mayors of many towns had their minstrels or 
 waits, and money allowed for them. For instance, Bristol and 
 Norwich (fifteenth century), “English Gilds,” pp. 423, 447 ; York, 
 R. Davies’ “Extracts from York Records,” 1843, p. 14, note. 
 [L. T. S.] 
 
 2 Warton’s “ History of English Poetry,” Hazlitt’s edition, 1871, 
 ii. p. 98. Langland also notices the good reception which was 
 given to the king’s minstrels when they were travelling, in order 
 to please their master, who was known to be sensible of these 
 marks of good will. 
 
MINSTRELS. 
 
 201 
 
 “ Clerkus and knyghtes welcometh kynges mynstrales 
 And for loue of here lordes lithen hem at festes : 
 
 Much more, me thenketh, riche men auhte 
 
 Haue beggers by-fore hem, whiche beth godes mynstrales.” ' 
 
 But his good advice was not heeded. As long as there 
 was the old hall in the castles, the great room where all 
 the meals were taken in common, the minstrels were 
 admitted to it. In building these halls the architect 
 reckoned on the necessity for their presence, and 
 arranged a gallery in which the musicians were estab¬ 
 lished to play on their instruments, above the door of 
 entrance, opposite to the dais, the place where the 
 master’s table was set. 2 The custom of building 
 such a gallery long survived the Middle Ages. 
 At Hatfield a minstrels’ gallery of the seventeenth 
 century adorns the hall of that splendid place, and is 
 still put to the use it was originally intended for. 
 
 The classic instrument of the minstrel was the vielle 
 a kind of violin or fiddle with a bow, something like 
 ours, a drawing of which, such as it was used in the 
 thirteenth century, is to be found in the album of 
 Villard de Honnecourt. 3 It was delicate of handling, 
 and required much skill; thus, in proportion as the 
 profession lowered, the good performer on the vielle 
 became rarer ; the common tambourine, which any one 
 
 1 “Piers Plowman,” Text C, pass. viii. 1 . 97. 
 
 2 See a drawing of such a gallery in a miniature reproduced 
 by Eccleston, “ Introduction to English Antiquities ; ” London, 
 1847, p. 221. To the sound of the minstrels’ music four wild 
 men or mummers are dancing with contortions ; sticks lie on 
 the ground, no doubt for their exercises ; a barking dog is jump¬ 
 ing between them. 
 
 3 “Album de Villard de Honnecourt,’’ edited by Lassus and 
 Darcel, 18 c8, plate I 
 
202 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 might learn to use in a little time, replaced the vielle, 
 and true artists complained of the music and the taste 
 of the day. Jt was a tambourine that the glee-man of 
 Ely wore at his neck when he had that 
 dialogue with the King of England, 
 which proved so unsatisfactory for the 
 monarch : “ He came thence to London ; 
 in a meadow he met the king and his 
 suite; around his neck hung his tabor, 
 painted with gold and rich azure.” 1 
 The minstrels played yet other instru¬ 
 ments, the harp, the lute, the guitar, the 
 bag-pipes, the rota (a kind of small harp, 
 the ancient instrument of the Celtic 
 people), and others. 2 
 
 The presents, the favour of the great, 
 rendered the lot of the minstrels very 
 enviable ; they therefore multiplied ex¬ 
 ceedingly, and the competition was great, 
 tn the fifteenth century, the king’s 
 minstrels, clever and able men, protested 
 to their master against the increasing au¬ 
 dacity of the false minstrels, who deprived 
 them of the greater part of their revenues. 
 “ Uncultured peasants,” said the king, 
 who adopted the cause of his own men, “ and workmen 
 
 2 
 
 PLAYING UPON 
 THE VIELLE. 
 (From the MS. io 
 E. IV. ; English ; 
 early Fourteenth 
 Century .) 
 
 1 “ Si vint de sa Loundres ; en un pree 
 Encontra le roy e sa meisnee ; 
 
 Entour son col porta soun tabour, 
 
 Depeynt de or e riche azour.” 
 
 (“ Le roi d’Angleterre et le jongleur d’Ely,” edited with “La 
 riote du monde,” by Francisque Michel, Paris, 1834, p. 28.) 
 
 2 At Exeter Cathedra! may be seen many of the musical instru- 
 
[Fourteenth Century.) 
 
MINSTRELS. 
 
 205 
 
 of different trades in our kingdom of England have 
 passed themselves off as minstrels; some have worn 
 our livery, which we did not grant to them, and have 
 even given themselves out to be our own minstrels.” 
 Thanks to these guilty practices they extorted much 
 money from the subjects of His Majesty, and although 
 they had no understanding nor experience of the science, 
 they went from place to place on festival days and 
 gathered all the profits which should have enriched the 
 true artists, those who had devoted themselves entirely 
 to their profession, and did not exercise any low trade. 
 
 The king, to raise his servitors above all others, 
 authorized them to reconstitute and consolidate the old 
 gild of minstrels, and no one could henceforth exercise 
 this profession, whatever were his talent, if he had not 
 been admitted into the gild. Lastly, a power of inquiry 
 was granted to the members of the society, and they 
 were to have the right of putting all false minstrels 
 under a fine. 1 
 
 merits which were used in the fourteenth century, sculptured in 
 the “ Minstrels’ Gallery,” where a series of angels are performing, 
 reproduced above. The instruments they use have been identified 
 by M. Carl Engel as being : the cittern, the bagpipe, the clarion, 
 the rebec, the psaltery, the syrinx, the sackbut, the regals, the 
 gittern, the shalm, the timbrel, the cymbals. (Carl Engel, “Musical 
 Instruments,” South Kensington Museum Art Handbook, p. 113), 
 [The duties of the court minstrels of Edward IV. are declared 
 in the Black Book of the Orders of that king’s household 
 (Harl. MS. 610, fol. 23), and their instruments are enumerated ; 
 “some vse trumpetts, some shalmes, some small pipes, some are 
 stringe-men.” L. T. S.] 
 
 1 The Charter (taken from Patent Roll of Ed. IV. pt. 1, m. 17) 
 is given in Rymer, April 24, 14.69. It has many of the pro- 
 
2 o6 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 We recognize in this patent one of those radical 
 decisions by which sovereign authority in the Middle 
 Ages believed it could arrest all the currents contrary to 
 its own tendencies, and destroy all abuses. In the same 
 manner, and without any better success, the price of 
 bread and the wage for a day’s labour were lowered by 
 statute. 
 
 The authorities had, besides, other reasons for watch¬ 
 ing over the singers and itinerant musicians; while they 
 showed indulgence to the bands attached to the persons 
 of the great, they feared the rounds made by the others, 
 and sometimes took heed to the doctrines which they 
 went about sowing under colour of songs. These 
 doctrines were very liberal, and even at times went so 
 far as to recommend revolt. There was an example of 
 this at the beginning of the fifteenth century when, in 
 full war against the Welsh, the Commons in Parlia¬ 
 ment denounced the minstrels of that race, as fomen- 
 tors of trouble and even as causes of rebellion. 
 Evidently their political songs encouraged the insurgents 
 to resistance ; and parliament, who bracketed them with 
 
 visions of the usual gild character, setting the members under 
 the government of a marshal and two wardens, and was attached 
 to St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, by its religious side. The 
 society was restored again in the seventeenth century, and 
 expired in 1679. (Hawkins, “History of Music,” vol. ii. p. 698.) 
 There was also a famous gild of minstrels at Beverley of very 
 ancient date, ruling the minstrels between the rivers Trent 
 and Tweed. (See Pou son’s “ Beverlac,” London, 1829, p. 302.) 
 The minstrels of Chester had special privileges. (Hawkins i. 
 p. 191.) The ordinances of a gild of minstrels at York officially 
 recorded in 1561 still exist (“ York Plays,” Oxford, 1885, pp. xxxviii 
 note, 125 note) ; and of another at Canterbury in 1526. (W. Welfitt’s 
 “ Extracts from Canterbury Records,” No, xxi.) [L. T. S.] 
 
MINSTRELS. 
 
 20 } 
 
 ordinary vagabonds, knew well that in having them 
 arrested on the roads, it was not simple cut-purses 
 whom it sent to prison. “ Item: That no westours 
 and rimers, minstrels or vagabonds, be maintained in 
 Wales to make kymorthas or quyllages on the common 
 people, who by their divinations, lies, and exhortations 
 are partly cause of the insurrection and rebellion now 
 in Wales. Reply : Le roy le veut.” 1 
 
 Great popular movements were the occasion for 
 satirical songs against the lords, songs composed by the 
 minstrels and soon known by heart among the crowd. 
 It was a popular song, doubtless very often repeated in 
 the villages, which furnished to John Ball the text for 
 his great speech at Blackheath in the revolt of 1381 : 
 
 “ When Adam delved and Eve span 
 Who was then the gentleman ?” 
 
 Again, under Henry VI., when the peasants of Kent 
 rose, and their allies the sailors took and beheaded the 
 Duke of Suffolk at sea, a satirical song then made was 
 very popular and has come down to us. As before 
 killing him they gave a mock trial to the king’s 
 favourite, so in this song they play the comedy of his 
 funeral; nobles and prelates are invited to it to sing 
 their responses, and in this pretended funeral service, 
 which is a hymn of joy and triumph, the singer calls 
 down heavenly blessings on the murderers. At the end 
 the Commons are represented coming in their turn to 
 sing a Requeiscat in pace over all Eng'ish traitors. 2 
 The renown of the popular insurgent of the 
 
 1 “Rolls of Parliament,” iii. p. 508, a.d. 1402. 
 
 * See Appendix XII. 
 
208 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE 
 
 twelfth century, the outlaw Robin Hood, continually 
 increased. His virtues were sung; it was told how 
 this pious man, who, even in the greatest danger, waited 
 till mass was over before getting into a place of safety, 
 boldly robbed great lords and high prelates, but was 
 merciful to the poor ; 1 which was an indirect notice to 
 the brigands of the time of the need to discern in their 
 rounds between the tares and the wheat. 
 
 The sympathy of the minstrels for ideas of emancipa¬ 
 tion, which had made such great progress in the four¬ 
 teenth century, was not only evinced in songs; these 
 ideas were even found in the altered romances which 
 they recited in presence of the lords, and which hence¬ 
 forth were full of pompous declarations on the equality 
 of men. But on this point the hearer took little offence; 
 the poets of a higher order, the favourites of the upper 
 classes, the king himself in his official acts liking to 
 proclaim liberal truths which it was hardly expected 
 would be required to be put in practice ; and they had 
 accustomed society at large to this. Thus Chaucer cele¬ 
 brates in his most eloquent verse the only true nobility in 
 his eyes, that which comes from the heart. 2 Thus also 
 King Edward I., on summoning the first true English 
 
 1 The ballads couching Robin Hood were collected byJ.Ritson ; 
 “ Robin Hood Ballads,” London, second edition, 1832. The great 
 majority of the songs that have come down to us on this hero are 
 unfortunately only of the sixteenth century, but there are a few of 
 earlier date ; his popularity in the fourteenth century was very 
 great. See “ Piers Plowman,” Skeat’s edition, Text B, p. v. 1 . 79. 
 
 2 “ The Wyf of Bathes Tale ” (sixty-eight lines on the equality 
 of men and on nobility); again, in the “Parson’s Tale,” “ Eek 
 for to pride him of his gentrie is ful gret folye ... we ben alle 
 of oon fader and of oon moder ; and alle we ben of oon nature 
 
MINSTRELS. 
 
 209 
 
 parliament in 1295, declared that he did so inspired by 
 the old maxim which prescribes that what concerns all 
 should be approved by all, and proclaimed a principle 
 whence have since issued the most radical reforms of 
 society. 1 
 
 Such direct appeals from the king to his people con¬ 
 tributed early to develop among the English the sense 
 of duty, of political rights and responsibilities. In one 
 of his necessities, at a time when parliament scarcely yet 
 existed, this led him to explain his conduct to the people 
 and to justify himself: “ The king about this, and 
 about his estate and as to his kingdom, and how the 
 business of the kingdom has come to nothing, makes 
 known and wishes that all should know the truth of it ; 
 which ensues,” &c. 2 
 
 In France the proclamations of very liberal principles 
 are frequent in royal edicts, but these fine words are but 
 a decoy, and the trouble to dissimulate is hardly taken. 
 Louis X. in his ordinance of July 2, 1315, declares that 
 “ as according to the law of nature every one is born 
 
 roten and corrupt, bothe riche and pore ” (R. Morris’ edition of 
 “ Canterbury Tales,” vol. ii. pp. 240, 241 ; vol. iii. p. 301). 
 Compare also these lines of a French piece of the same century 
 (quoted in the discourse upon the state of letters in the fourteenth 
 century, “ Histoire Littcraire de la France,” vol. xxiv. p. 236): 
 
 “ Nus qui bien face n’est vilains, 
 
 M es de vilonie est toz plains 
 Hauz hom qui laide vie maine : 
 
 Nus n’est vilains s'il ne vilaine.” 
 
 1 “Sicut lex justissima, provida circumspectione sacrorum princi- 
 pum stabilita hortatur et statuit ut quod omnes tangit ab omnibus 
 approbetur, sic,” &c. (Rymer’s “ Fcedera,” year i 295, vol. ii. p. 689). 
 
 2 “ Fcedera,” year 1297, vol. ii. p. 783. 
 
 14 
 
210 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 free,” he has resolved to enfranchise the serfs on his own 
 estates, but he adds that he will do it for money ; and 
 three days afterwards, fearing that his benefit is not 
 sufficiently prized, he adds practical considerations with 
 which philosophy is mingled in a strange manner. “ It 
 may be that some, ill-advised and in default of good 
 counsel, may tend in ignorance of such great benefit 
 and favour to wish rather to remain in the baseness of 
 servitude than to come to free estate : wherefore we order 
 and commit to you that for the aid of our present war 
 you levy on certain persons according to the amount of 
 their property, and the conditions of servitude of each 
 one, as much and sufficiently as the condition and riches 
 of those persons may bear and as the necessity of our 
 war may require.” 1 
 
 Well then might the minstrels follow the king himself 
 in repeating axioms so well known, and which according 
 to appearance there was so little chance of seeing carried 
 out. Only, ideas, like seeds of trees falling on the soil, are 
 not lost, and the noble who had fallen asleep to the mur¬ 
 mur of verses chanted by the glee-man waked up one dav 
 to the tumult of the crowd collected before London, 
 to the refrain of the priest John Ball ; and then he 
 had to draw his sword and show by a massacre that 
 the time was not yet come to apply these axioms, and 
 that there was nothing in them but songs. 
 
 Poets and popular singers had thus an influence over 
 the social movement, less through the maxims scattered 
 over their great works than by those little wild pieces, 
 struck off on the moment, which the least of them 
 composed and sung for the people, on the cross-roads 
 1 Tsambert’s “Recueil,” vol. iii. pp. 102, 104. 
 
MINSTRELS. 
 
 2 I I 
 
 in time of rebellion, in the cottages in ordinary times, 
 as a reward for hospitality. 
 
 ' Minstrels, however, were to disappear. In the first 
 place, an age was beginning when books and the art of 
 reading spreading among the people in general, every one 
 might search them for hin self and would cease to have 
 them recited ; in the second place, the public theatres 
 were about to offer a spectacle much superior to that of 
 the little troops of musicians and wandering singers, 
 and would compete with them more strongly than the 
 “ rude husbandmen and artificers of various crafts,” 
 against whose impertinence Edward IV. was indignant. 
 Lastly, public contempt, which was increasing, would leave 
 the minstrels abounding indeed, but beneath the notice 
 of the higher classes, then to be lost in the lowest ranks 
 of caterers to public amusement, and finally to disappear. 
 
 In fact, the period of the Taillefers who would go 
 to death in the fight while singing of Charlemagne was a 
 short one; the lustre which the jongleurs or trouveres 
 of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, who confined 
 themselves to the recitation of poems, had shed on their 
 profession, was effaced in proportion as they associated 
 themselves more closely with the unrestrained bands of 
 tumblers, jugglers, leaders of performing bears, con¬ 
 jurors, and ribalds of all kinds. 1 
 
 These bands had always existed, but the singers 
 
 “ “ There saugh I pieyen jugelouis, 
 
 Magicicns and tregetours, 
 
 And phitonisses, charnieressea, 
 
 Olde wiches, sorceresses 
 That use exorsisaciouns 
 And eke thes fumygaciouns.” 
 
 (Chaucer’s “ House of Fame,” 1 169.) 
 
212 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 of romances had not always joined them. At all 
 times, in castles and at the fairs, there were to be 
 found buffoons, whose coarseness 
 astonished and enchanted the spec¬ 
 tators. The precise details which 
 the contemporaries unanimously give 
 upon their amusements show that 
 not only their witticisms would not 
 De tolerated among the rich of to¬ 
 day, but that there are even few 
 retired villages where the peasants 
 on a festival would accept them 
 without disgust. However repug¬ 
 nant may be this thought, it must 
 be noted that these pastimes were 
 customary, that the great found 
 pleasure in them, that in the troup 
 of mummers and tumblers who went 
 about wherever mirth was wanted, 
 there were some who excited 
 laughter by the ignoble means 
 which John of Salisbury describes. 1 
 Two hundred years later, two sacri¬ 
 legious clerks, out of hate to the 
 Archbishop of York, gave them- 
 selves up to the same monstrous 
 a fourteenth cEN- buffooneries in his cathedral, and the 
 [From the ° t/s^io e pi SC0 P a l letter which relates these 
 E. iv.) facts with the precision of an official 
 
 report adds that they were committed more ribaldorum? 
 
 1 See “ Polycraricus,” lib. i. chap. viii. 
 
 ' Historical Papers from the Northern Registers.” ed. Raine. 
 Rolls Series, p. 398. Cf. Bodl. MS. t6x. fos 21. <;6. 91, &c. 
 
JUGGLERS. 
 
 2!3 
 
 The usage of them was perpetuated owing to their 
 success, and had remained popular. Langland, at the 
 same epoch, shows that one of his personages is not a 
 true minstrel, not only because he is not a musician, but 
 also because he is not clever at any of these exercises 
 of such strange coarseness. 1 
 
 The greater was the feast, the coarser seem to have 
 been sometimes the attitude and the songs of the 
 minstrels. The time of Christmas was especially noted 
 for the liberties they took. Thomas Gascoigne, in the 
 sort of theological dictionary which he has left, warmly 
 recommends to his readers to abstain from hearing such 
 Christmas songs, for they leave on the mind images and 
 ideas which it is almost impossible afterwards to wash 
 out. He adds as a warning the story of a man he knew. 
 ‘ I have known,” says he, “ I, Gascoigne, Doctor in, 
 Divinity, who am writing this book, a man who had 
 heard at Christmas some of those shameful songs. It 
 so happened that the shameful things he had heard had 
 made such a deep impression on his mind that he could 
 never in after time get rid of those remembrances nor 
 wipe away those images. So he fell into such a deep 
 melancholy that at length it proved deadly to him.” 2 3 
 We may see also by the representations of the dance 
 of Salome which are found in the stained glass or the 
 
 1 “ Ich can nat tabre ne trompc nc telle faire gestes, 
 
 Farten ne fithclen at festes, ne harpcn, 
 
 Japcn ne jogelen ne gentelliche pipe, 
 
 Nothcr sailen ne sautrien ne singe with the giternc ” 
 (“Piers Plowman,” ed. Skeat, Text C, passus xvi. 1. 205.) 
 
 3 “ Loci e libro verita'.mn ; Passages selected from Gascoigne’s 
 Theological Dictionary ”(1403-48), ed. Thorold Rogers, Oxford, 
 1881, p. 144. 
 
ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 214 
 
 manuscripts of the Middle Ages what sort of games 
 might amuse persons at table, in the opinion of the 
 artists. It is by dancing on her hands, her head down¬ 
 wards, that the young woman gains the suffrages of 
 Herod. Now, as the idea of such a dance could not 
 be drawn from the Bible, we must believe that it arose 
 from the customs of the time. At Clermont-Ferrand, in 
 the stained glass of the cathedral (thirteenth century), 
 
 FAVOURITE DANCES IN MEDIAEVAL ENGLAND. 
 
 (From the MS. 10 E. IV.) 
 
 Salome dances on knives which she holds with each 
 hand, she also having her head downwards. At Verona, 
 she is represented on the most ancient of the bronze gates 
 of St. Zeno (ninth century) bending backwards and 
 touching her feet with her head. Those standing bv 
 seem filled with surprise and admiration, one puts his 
 hand to his mouth, the other to his cheek, in an in¬ 
 voluntary gesture of amazement. She may be seen in 
 the same posture in several manuscripts in the British 
 
TUMBLERS. 
 
 215 
 
 Museum; Herod is sitting at his table with his lords, 
 while the young woman dances head downwards. 1 In 
 another manuscript, also of the fourteenth century, 
 minstrels are shown playing on their instruments, while 
 a professional dancing girl belonging to their troop 
 performs as usual, head downwards, but this time, as 
 at Clermont, her hands rest on two swords. The 
 accounts of the royal exchequer of England sometimes 
 mention sums paid to passing dancers, who, no doubt, 
 must also have performed surprising feats, for the pay- 
 
 FAVOURITE DANCES IN PERSIA. 
 (Ftom a modern pencil-case.) 
 
 ments are considerable. Thus, in the third year of his 
 reign, Richard II. pays to John Katerine, a dancer of 
 Venice, six pounds thirteen shillings and fourpence for 
 having played and danced before him. 2 
 
 In the East, where, in our travels, we have some¬ 
 times the surprise of finding ancient customs still 
 living which we can at home only study in books, the 
 
 1 For instance, MS. Add. 29704, fol. 11. This particular 
 illumination seems to belong to the fourteenth century. 
 
 2 Devon’s “Issues of the Exchequer,” p. 212 
 
2 16 
 
 ENGLISH WAY EARING LIFE. 
 
 fashion for buffoons and mimics survives, and even 
 remains the great distraction of some princes. The late 
 Bey of Tunis had fools to amuse him in the evening 
 who insulted and diverted him by the contrast of their 
 permitted insolences with his real power. Among the 
 rich women of the Mussulmans of Tunis, few of whom 
 can read, the monotony of the days which during their 
 whole life are passed under the shadow of the same 
 walls, under the shelter of the same gratings, is broken 
 by the recitals of the female fool, whose sole duty is to 
 enliven the harem by sallies of the strangest liberty. 
 As for the dances, they frequently consist, in the East, 
 in performances exactly similar to that of Herodias, 
 such as it is shown in manuscripts. Women dancing 
 head downwards are constantly represented on Persian 
 pictures ; several examples of such paintings may be 
 seen in the South Kensington Museum, and the same 
 subject is often found on the valuable pencil-cases which 
 were formerly made with much taste and art in Persia. 
 
 If the Europeans of the fourteenth century were 
 capable of tasting such pleasures, it was not surprising 
 that, following on the moralists, public opinion should 
 at length condemn in one breath minstrels and mimics, 
 and should set them down with those vagabond roamers 
 of the highways, who appeared so dangerous to parlia¬ 
 ment. In proportion as we advance the minstrel’s role 
 grows viler. In the sixteenth century Phillip Stubbes 
 saw in them the personification of all vices, and he 
 justifies in violent terms his contempt for “ suche 
 drunken sockets and bawdye parasits as range the 
 cuntreyes, rymingand singing of vncleane, corrupt and 
 filthie songes in tauernes, ale-houses, innes, and other 
 
BUFFOONS. 
 
 217 
 
 publique assemblies.” Their life is like the shameful 
 songs of which their heads are full, and they are the 
 origin of all abominations. They are, besides, innumer¬ 
 able : 
 
 “ Every towne, citie, and countrey is full of these 
 minstrelles to pype up a dance to the deuill : but 
 of dyuines, so few there be as they maye hardly be 
 seene. 
 
 “But some of them will reply, and say, What, sir! 
 we haue lycences from iustices of peace to pype and 
 vse our minstralsie to our best commoditie. Cursed 
 be those licences which lycense any man to get his 
 lyuing with the destruction of many thousands ! 
 
 “ But haue you a lycence from the archiustice ot 
 peace, Christe Jesus ? If you have not . . . than may 
 you, as rogues, extrauagantes, and straglers from the 
 heauenlye country, be arrested of the high iustice of 
 peace, Christ Jesus, and be punished with eternall death, 
 notwithstanding your pretensed licences of earthly 
 men.” 1 
 
 We see to what a state of degradation the noble 
 profession of the old singers was fallen, and how little 
 the necessity either of obtaining an authorized licence 
 or of entering into a gild, as Edward IV. desired, 
 checked their extravagances. With new manners and 
 inventions the object of their existence disappeared, and 
 the truly high part of their art vanished; the ancient 
 reciters of poems, after having mingled with the some- 
 
 1 Phillip Stubbes’ “Anatomy of Abuses,” ed. F. J. Furnivall, 
 New Shakspere Society, 1877-79, PP- 172- Stubbes’ opinion 
 was shared by all the writers in the sixteenth century who piqued 
 themst'Wes on religion or austerity of manners. 
 
218 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 what disreputable troops of caterers to public amuse¬ 
 ment, saw these troops survive them, and there only 
 henceforth remained upon the roads those coarse 
 buffoons and vulgar musicians whom reflective persons 
 held as reprobates. 
 
 A PERFORMING BEAR. 
 
 (Front MS. io E. IV.) 
 
A SIIAM MESSENGER. 
 
 {From the MS, io E. IV,) 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 MESSENGERS, ITINERANT MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS. 
 
 A LL his life long, kind, loving, merry Chaucer was 
 fond of travels and travellers, of roamers and 
 tale-tellers, of people who came from afar, bring¬ 
 ing home with them many stories if little money, stories 
 in which much falsehood no doubt was mingled with 
 very little truth. But what is the good of raising a 
 protest against harmless falsehoods, is not sometimes 
 their mixture with “ sooth ” a pleasant one ? Thus, he 
 said, 
 
 “Thussaugh I fals and sothe compouned 
 Togeder flc for oo (one) tydynge.” 
 
 He looked for seekers of adventure, and was never tired 
 of hearing their tales. 
 
220 
 
 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE. 
 
 “ Aventure, 
 
 That is the moder of tydynges, 
 
 As the see is of welles and of spryngcs;” 
 
 and no greater pleasure for him than to see 
 
 “Winged wondres faste fleen, 
 
 Twenty thousand in a route, 
 
 As Eolus hem blew aboute.’’ 
 
 He was in this a real connoisseur, fully appreciating 
 the merit of a well-told lie, and knowing how useful 
 and pleasant some such may be found to beguile slow¬ 
 winged time. Long before he started from the Tabard, 
 “ faste by the Belle,” for a journey which millions of 
 Englishmen have since performed at his heels, allured 
 by the music or merriment of his song, he had this same 
 taste for “ unkouthe syghtes and tydynges.” Finding 
 himself once in great “ distresse ” of mind, with a 
 heavy heart “ disesperat of all blys,” what did he dream 
 of to “solace” himself but of meeting and hearing the 
 whole innumerable tribe of tale-tellers, wayfarers, and 
 adventure seekers, by fancy assembled in an immense 
 house “ made of twigges, salwe, rede and green eke ? ” 
 This happened when he wrote of the “House of Fame,” 1 
 where after having met the bard “ that bare of Thebes 
 up the fame,” and “ gret Omere,” and “ Venus clerke 
 Ovide,” he imagined that there was no room for him, 
 and feeling his grief as keen as ever, dreamed of some¬ 
 thing else, willing 
 
 “ Somme newe tydyngis for to lere, 
 
 Somme newe thinge, Y not what, 
 
 Tydyngs other this or that. 
 
 Of love, or suche thinges glad.” 
 
 1 All the extracts here given are taken out of the “ House ol 
 Fame,” book iii., “Poetical Works of Chaucer,” ed. R. Morris. 
 
MESSENGERS, AtER CM A NTS AND RE DEARS. 221 
 
 In this he had full satisfaction ; his dream took 
 another turn and he was led towards the place he 
 wanted where things glad were to be found, a temple 
 not of fame, but of tales and tidings, of noise and 
 merriment : 
 
 “And theroute come so grete a noyse. 
 
 That had hyt stonde upon Oysc, 
 
 Men myght hyt have herd esely 
 To Rome, Y trowe sikerly.” 
 
 The noise went up to the sky from innumerable aper¬ 
 tures, for 
 
 “This hous hath of entrees 
 As feele (many) as of leves ben on trees, 
 
 In somer whan they grene ben.” 
 
 Never for one instant is the place quiet nor silent ; it is 
 always 
 
 “ Fildc ful of tydynges 
 Other loude or of whisprynges ; 
 
 And over alle the houses angles, 
 
 Ys ful of rounynges and of jangles. 
 
 Of werres, of pes, of mariages. 
 
 Of rcstes, of labour and of viages.” 
 
 War and peace, and love and travels ; all this he was to 
 make in after-time the subject of his song in the “ Can¬ 
 terbury Tales,” and he represents himself in this earlier 
 poem as if coming to the well and spring of all tales, 
 placed somewhere in the land of dreams and fancy but 
 surrounded by people who were neither fanciful nor 
 dreamy things, bony beings, on the contrary, with strong 
 muscles and alert tongues, and the dust of the road to 
 Rome or the East on their feet ; surrounded, in fact, by 
 these very roamers we are now trying to call up one 
 by one from the past, and who stand there in such an 
 
222 
 
 ENGLISH WAY FA BING LIFE. 
 
 apotheosis as is convenient for thtir quaint but ra'her 
 questionable assembly. Good Chaucer lends a willing 
 ear, and the ways of speech of these people are carefully 
 preserved in his verse for those who may after him 
 find interest in them. In this manner they spoke : 
 every person, says the poet, 
 
 “ Every wight that I saugh there 
 Rouned (muttered) in eche others ere, 
 
 A newe tydynge prevely. 
 
 Or elles tolde alle oppenlv 
 
 Ryght thus, and seyde ; ‘Nost not thou 
 
 That ys betyd, late or now ? ’ 
 
 —‘ No,’ quod he, ‘Telle me what.’ 
 
 And than he tolde hym this and that, 
 
 And swore thcrto that hit was sothe ; 
 
 ‘Thus hath he sayde ’ and ‘Thus he dothe,’ 
 
 And ‘ Thus shal hit be ’ and ‘ Thus herde Y seyc.’” 
 
 And the delight is that the tale repeated by many is 
 always new, for it is never exactly the same ; the lie 
 fattens as it grows old, so that it may serve your pleasure 
 many a time and oft : 
 
 “ Whan oon had herde a thinge ywis, 
 
 He come forthright to another wight, 
 
 And gan him tellen anon ryght. 
 
 The same thynge that him was tolde, 
 
 Or hyt a forlonge way was olde, 
 
 But gan sommewhat for to eche (increase) 
 
 To this tydynge in this spechc 
 More than hit ever was . . . 
 
 As fire ys wont to quyk and goo 
 From a sparke sprongen amys, 
 
 Tille alle a citee brent up ys.” 
 
 That there may be no mistake about the sort of 
 people to whom the pleasant art of stretching a lie is so 
 
MESSENGERS, MERCHANTS AND RED LARS. 
 
 223 
 
 familiar, Chaucer is careful to name them, and there we 
 find almost every one of our friends already mentioned 
 or hereafter described, the English sea or land way¬ 
 farers : 
 
 “And lord ! this hous in alle tvmes 
 Was ful of shipmcn and pilgrimcs, 
 
 With scrippcs (bags) bret-ful ot lcseyngs (lies) 
 Entremedled with tydynges, 
 
 And eke allone be hemselvc ; 
 
 O many a thousand tymes twelve 
 Saugh I eke of these pardoners, 
 
 Currours, and eke of messangers 
 With boystes crammed ful of lyes.” 
 
 What Chaucer gathered from these shipmen, pardoners, 
 couriers, and messengers, he assures us it was not his 
 intention to tell the world, 
 
 “ For hit no nede is redely ; 
 
 Folke kan hit syngc bet than J.” 
 
 Whether or not some doubt may have afterwards 
 entered his mind about the great poetical faculty of 
 “ folke,” certain it is that for the delight of future ages 
 he did not stick to his word, as every reader of the 
 “ Canterbury Tales ” well knows. 
 
 These “ boystes ” which Chaucer represents, carried 
 by messengers and couriers, were filled in the way he 
 describes only in a metaphorical sense, and this left 
 room for more solid ware, for letters and parcels too, 
 for in those old simple days, the messengers were 
 the only equivalent for mail and for parcels post. 
 They were to be found in the service of abbots, 
 bishops, nobles, sheriffs, and of the king. Such a 
 
224 
 
 ENGLISH WA VFARING LIFE. 
 
 costly forerunner of the post was not, of course, 
 accessible to everybody ; people did as they best could. 
 The poor man waited till some friend was going 3 
 journey; the rich only had express messengers, charged 
 with doing their commissions at a distance, and with 
 carrying their letters, letters which were generally written 
 at dictation by a scribe on a sheet of parchment, and then 
 sealed in wax with the master’s signet . 1 The king kept 
 twelve messengers with a fixed salary ; they followed 
 him everywhere, in constant readiness to start ; they 
 
 A PROFESSIONAL MESSENGER. 
 
 (From the A/S. io E. IV.) 
 
 received threepence a day when they wete on the road, 
 and four shillings and eightpence a year to buy shoes . 2 
 
 1 See the representation of lords and ladies dictating their letters 
 to scribes, and of messengers carrying them to their destinations in 
 the MSS. at the British Museum, Royal 10 Ed. IV. fol. 305, 306, 
 See., and Add. 1222S fol. 238. 
 
 2 “ King Edward II ’s Household and Wardrobe Ordinances,” 
 1523, ed. Furnivall, 1876, p. 46. 
 
MESSENGERS, MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS. 
 
 225 
 
 The prince charged them with letters for the kings of 
 France and Scotland ; sent them to call together the 
 representatives of the nation for Parliament ; to order 
 the publication of the papal sentence against Guv de 
 Montfort; to call to Windsor the knights of St. George ; 
 to summon the “ archbishops, earls, barons, and other 
 lords and ladies of England and Wales” to London to be 
 present at the funeral of the late queen (Philippa); to 
 prescribe the proclamation in the counties of the statutes 
 made in Parliament ; to command the “ archbishops, 
 bishops, abbots, priors, deans, and chapters of the 
 cathedral churches of all the shires to pray for the soul 
 of Anne, late Queen of England, deceased.” 1 We 
 find him in another case sending messengers or heralds 
 to foreign parts, viz., France, Germany, Brabant 
 Flanders, Scotland, to call the nobility of these coun¬ 
 tries to a great tournament, a sort of international 
 match to be held on St. George’s Day. The amount ot 
 the expense so incurred, which is not less than thirty- 
 two pounds, shows that the messengers must have had 
 long protracted journeys and must have had to visit 
 in detail the countries allotted to each of them. 2 
 
 Sometimes the king got into trouble with his Com-, 
 mons on account of the expenses of messengers, which 
 he did not always feel inclined to pay from his own 
 purse. Such a case happened in 1378, and the Com- 
 
 1 “ Issue roll of Thomas de Brantingham,” ed. F. Devon, 
 London, 1835, pp. xxxii, xxxvii, xliv, 408; “Issues of the 
 Exchequer,” 1837, pp. 220, 235. Whole pages of Thomas de 
 Brantingham’s roll ( e.g pp. 154-155) are filled with payments 
 received by messengers, which show the frequent use that must 
 have been made of their services. 
 
 3 32 Ed. III. “Issues of the Exchcauer,” p. 165 
 
 15 
 
226 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 mons took this opportunity of again asserting their 
 views about the French and other foreign possessions 
 of their sovereign : Ireland being included among 
 these. They plainly state, as they had done before, that 
 those countries and the expenses concerning them are a 
 matter for the king, not for them ; it is a sort of kingly 
 luxury with which they will have nothing to do. 
 They remonstrate, therefore, that about forty-six 
 thousand pounds sterling have been spent and entered 
 as an item of national expense “ for the safeguard 
 of certain countries, places, and fortresses, for which 
 the Commons ought in no way to be charged. These 
 are partly in the march of Calais and partly at Brest, 
 Cherbourg, in Gascony, and in Ireland ; and also ex¬ 
 penses over certain messengers to Flanders, Lombardy, 
 Navarre, and Scotland.” The Government peremptorily 
 refuses to accept this kind of reasoning, and returns 
 a spirited answer : “To which it was answered that 
 Gascony and the other forts which our lord the king 
 has in the parts beyond, are and must be as barbicans 
 for the kingdom of England, and if the barbicans are 
 well kept, with the safeguard formed by the sea, the 
 kingdom will be secure of peace. Otherwise we shall 
 never find rest nor peace with our enemies ; for then 
 they would push hot war to the thresholds of our 
 houses, which God forbid. Besides, through these 
 barbicans our said lord the king has convenient gates 
 and entrances towards his enemies to grieve them when 
 he is ready and can act.” Good reasons also are given for 
 retaining among public expenses the costs of the journeys 
 of messengers north and south. 1 None the less did the 
 
 O 
 
 1 2 Rich. II., a.d. 1378. “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. iii. p. 36. 
 
MESSENGERS, MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS. 227 
 
 good Commons of England long continue to consider 
 the French wars, glorious perhaps, but undoubtedly 
 expensive, as a personal quarrel of their sovereign, and 
 as, in fact, little more than a rivalry between two 
 French sovereigns. 
 
 Many strange parcels besides letters had couriers and 
 messengers to carry from one place in the country to 
 another: presents to fair ladies, commodities of all sorts 
 for their own masters. Thus, in the year 1396, we find 
 a servant of the Due de Berri sent as a messenger to 
 Scotland, and travelling all the way thither from France 
 across England to fetch certain greyhounds of whom his 
 master appears to have been fond. He is accompanied 
 by three men on horseback, who will have to help him 
 in taking care of the hounds, and he carries a safe- 
 conduct from Richard II., to travel without hindrance 
 through the English dominions with his followers and 
 all that belongs to them. 1 
 
 Among the missions given by the king to his servants, 
 some are found which at the present day would seem 
 singularly repugnant. For instance, he might charge 
 one of his faithful servants to carry the quarters of a 
 criminal’s body condemned for treason to the great 
 towns of England. In this case he did not employ 
 simple messengers; they were personages of confidence, 
 who were followed by an escort to convey the sad 
 remains. Thus Edward III., in the fifty-first year of his 
 reign, paid not less than twenty pounds to “Sir William 
 de Faryngton, knight, for the costs and expenses he had 
 incurred for transporting the four quarters of the body 
 
 1 Rymer’s “Foedera,” April 3, 1396 (iQ Rich. II.). 
 
228 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 of Sir John of MFtreworth, knight, to different parts 
 of England.” 1 
 
 Ot all travellers, the messenger was the swiftest; 
 first, because travelling was his business ; he was a good 
 horseman, an experienced person, clever in getting out 
 of trouble on the road and at the inns. Woe to who¬ 
 ever thought to stop him ; there were immense fines 
 if the mas'er were powerful, still more if the man were 
 the king's messenger. A messenger from the queen who 
 had been imprisoned by the constable of Roxburgh Castle 
 did not hesitate to claim £ 10,000 sterling for contempt 
 of his sovereign, and ^2,000 as indemnity for himself. 2 3 
 
 When, on August 7, 1316, Jacques d’Euse, cardinal- 
 bishop of Porto, was chosen pope at Lyons, and assumed 
 the name of John XXII., Edward II. being at York 
 learnt the news ten days afterwards through Laurence 
 of Ireland, messenger of the house of the Bardi. And 
 indeed we find by the accounts of the king’s household 
 that this prince paid Laurence twenty shillings on the 
 17th of August to reward him for his trouble. It was 
 only on the 27th of September that, being still at York, 
 the king received by Durand Budet, the cardinal of 
 Pelagrua’s messenger, the official letters announcing the 
 election ; he gave five pounds to the messenger. 
 Finally, the pope’s nuncio having arrived in person 
 shortly afterwards, bearing the same news which was 
 now not at all fresh, the king made him a present of 
 a hundred pounds .3 
 
 1 “ Issues of the Exchequer,” p. 202. 
 
 3 “ Rolls of Parliament,” i. p. 4S (18 Ed. I.). 
 
 3 “Wardrobe Accounts of Edward II.,” Archteologia, xxvi, 
 PP- 32 1 , 336. 
 
MESSENGERS, MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS. 229 
 
 Such was the custom, presents were made to the 
 bringers of good news ; the royal messengers had thus 
 a chance of casually increasing their meagre pay of 
 threepence a day. Most fortunate were those who 
 brought word to the king himself of happy events. 
 Edward III. gave forty marks of rent for life to the 
 queen’s messenger who came announcing the birth ot 
 the Prince of Wales, the future Black Prince ; he gave 
 thirteen pounds, three shillings and fourpence to John 
 Cok of Cherbourg, who told him of the capture 
 of King John at Poictiers ; he settled a hundred 
 shillings of rent upon Thomas de Brynchesley who 
 brought him the good news of the capture of Charles 
 of Blois. 
 
 Sometimes messengers were liable to find themselves 
 in a very difficult plight. In time of war they had to 
 conceal their real quality, and were in constant danger 
 of being stopped and having their bag searched and 
 their letters opened. People felt very strongly about 
 foreigners living in England, many of them being friars, 
 who might disclose the secrets of the realm in their 
 private correspondence. The Commons therefore asked 
 for very strict rules to be passed in order to remedy 
 this possible evil, and we find them, in the year 1346, 
 when England was at war with France, recommending 
 the creation of something like the cabinets noirs of a 
 \ater date. 1 
 
 1 “Item, be it prohibited everywhere that any alien send letters 
 beyond the sea, or receive letters which come thence; unless he 
 shew them to the chancellor or to some other lord of the Privy 
 Council, or at least to the chief wardens of the ports or their 
 lieutenants, who shall further show them to the said Council ’ 
 (“ Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 163, zo Ed. III.). 
 
230 
 
 ENGLISH WA YEA RING LIFE. 
 
 Langland in his “ Visions” graphically compares the 
 different modes of travelling of messengers and such 
 other wayfarers as merchants going with their goods 
 from one place to another. The one is the swiftest 
 of all, no one would have dared to stop him ; the other 
 was retarded by his pack, his debts, his fear of robbers, 
 his necessity of abstaining from short cuts across the 
 fields, which short cuts, strange as it may seem, were 
 freely allowed to messengers : no hay ward would 
 disturb them ; no man in his senses, no “ wys man ” 
 would “wroth be” on account of his crops being 
 spoiled by a messenger : 
 
 “ . . . Yf a marchaunt and a mcssager mctten to-gcdcres 
 And scholde vvende o way where both raosten reste, . . . 
 
 The marchante mote nede be lettc(kcpt)lengere then the messagere: 
 The messagere doth na more bote with hus mouthe telleth 
 Hus erande and hus lettere sheweth and is a-non delyuered. 
 
 And thauh thei wende by the wey tho two to-gederes, 
 
 Thauh the messager make hus wey a-mydde the whetc, 
 
 Wole no wys man wroth be, ne hus wed take; 
 
 Ys no haiwarde yhote (bidden) hus wed for to take : 
 
 Necesitas r.on habet legem. 
 
 Ac yf the merchaunt make hus way ouere menne corne, 
 
 And the haywarde happe with hym for to mete, 
 
 Other hus hatt, other hus hode, othere elles hus gloues 
 The marchaunt mot for-go, other moneye of hus porse . . . 
 
 Yut thauh thei wenden on way as to wynchestre fayre, 
 
 The marchaunt with hus marchaundise may nat go so swithe 
 As the messager may ne with so mochel ese. 
 
 For that on (one) bereth bote a boxe, a breuet (letter) ther-ynne, 
 Thar the marchaunt ledeth a male(trunk)with meny kynne thynges 
 And dredeth to be ded there-fore and (if) he in derke mete 
 With robbours and reuers (thieves) that riche men dispoilen ; 
 
 Ther the messager is ay murye hus mouthe ful of songes.” 1 
 
 Text C, pas. xiv., 11 . 33-59. 
 
MESSENGERS, MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS. 231 
 
 Wayfarers there were in whom both characteristics 
 were united, the slowness of pace of the merchant and 
 the lightness of heart of the messenger. These were 
 the pedlars, a very numerous race in the Middle Ages, 
 one of the few sorts of wanderers that have not yet dis¬ 
 appeared. A jovial race they seem to have been ; they 
 are so now, most of them, for their way to success is 
 through fair speech and enticing words ; and how could 
 they be enticing if they did not show good humour and 
 entrain ? “ Gaiety ” mends their broken wares and 
 
 colours the faded ones, and blinds customers to other¬ 
 wise obvious defects. They have always been described 
 so ; they were merry and sharp-tongued, such was 
 Shakespeare’s Autolycus; such is, in a novel of out- 
 time, the jovial owner of the dog Mumps, Bob Jakin 
 of “ The Mill on the Floss.” “ ‘ Get out wi’ you. 
 Mumps,’ said Bob, with a kick; ‘he is as quiet as a 
 lamb, sir ’—an observation which Mumps corroborated 
 by a low growl, as he retreated behind his master’s 
 legs.” About the exact scrupulousness prevailing among 
 the tribe the opinion has perhaps not been quite so con¬ 
 sistent, which is the best that can be said for it. 
 
 One good point about them, however, is that in 
 mediaeval England, whatever may have been their repu¬ 
 tation, they entirely escaped legislation. Very possibly 
 they were impliedly included in statutes against 
 vagrants and rovers ; but they may at least argue that 
 as a matter of fact they are not named in any Act of 
 Parliament, and pass unobserved or nearly so by the 
 Westminster legislator down to a comparatively recent 
 date. They are for the first time named in a statute 
 during the reign of Edward VI., in which, it is true, 
 
2.^2 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 they are treated in a very contemptuous manner, being 
 described as more “ hurtful than necessary to the common 
 wealth.” This is called “ an acte for tynckers and 
 pedlers,” and is to the following effect: “For as muche 
 as it is evident that tynkers, pedlers and suche like 
 vagrant persons are more hurtful 1 than necessarie to the 
 Common Wealth of this realm, Be it therefore ordeyned 
 . . . that ... no person or persons commonly called 
 pedler, tynker or pety chapman shall wander or go from 
 one towne to another or from place to place out of the 
 towne, parishe or village where such person shall dwell, 
 and sell pynnes, poyntes, laces, gloves, knyves, glasses, 
 tapes or any suche kynde of wares v hatsoever, or gather 
 connye skynnes or suche like things or use or exercise 
 the trade or occupation of a tynker ; ” except those that 
 shall have a licence from two justices of the peace ; 
 and then they will be allowed to travel only in the 
 “circuyte” assigned to them. 1 Queen Elizabeth, too, 
 had a word for pedlars, and it was not more compli¬ 
 mentary than what her brother had to say about them. 
 Their name appears in her “ Acte for the punishment 
 of vacabondes ; ” and a very curious list of wanderers 
 is found in it : “ It ys nowe publyshed,” says the queen, 
 “ that ... all ydle persones goinge aboute in any 
 countrey of the said Realme, vsing subtyll craftye and 
 unlawfull games or playes, and some of them fayninge 
 themselves to have knowledge in phisnomye, palmestrye, 
 . . . and all fencers, bearwardes, comon players in inter¬ 
 ludes and minstrels not belonging to any baron of this 
 realme ... all juglers, pedlars, tynkers, and petye 
 chapmen . . . and all scollers of the Universityes of 
 1 5 and 6 Ed. VI., ch. zt. Statutes, vol. iv. part i. p. Ijj. 
 
MESSENGERS, MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS. 
 
 2 33 
 
 Oxford or Cambridge y l goe about begginge . . . and 
 all shipmen pretendinge losses by sea . . . shalbee 
 deemed roges vacabounds and sturdy beggers intended 
 of by this present act.” 1 But the case of pedlars 
 was not seriously taken in hand before the reign of 
 William III. who put a tax upon them and, ominously 
 enough, bound them to certify commissioners for trans¬ 
 portation how they travelled and traded. 2 
 
 The late date of this statute of pedlars, if it may be 
 called so, is the more remarkable as they swarmed along 
 the roads in the Middle Ages. There were not then 
 as now large shops in every village with all the neces¬ 
 saries of life ready provided for the inhabitants. The 
 shop itself was itinerant, being nothing else than the 
 pack of travelling chapmen. In the same way as 
 the literature minstrels would propagate, as news, 
 tales, and letters, pardons from Rome and many other 
 things, so household wares were carried about the 
 country by indefatigable wayfarers. A host of small 
 useful things were concealed in their unfathomable 
 boxes. The contents of them are pretty well shown by 
 a series of illuminations in a fourteenth-century manu¬ 
 script, where a pedlar is represented asleep at the foot 
 of a tree, while monkeys have got hold of his box and 
 help themselves to the contents. They find in it vests, 
 caps, gloves, musical instruments, purses, girdles, hats, 
 cutlasses, pewter pots, and a number of other articles. 
 
 As to the means by which pedlars came by their goods, 
 several were familiar to them, and purchase seems to 
 have been only one among many. A proverbial saying 
 
 1 14 Eliz. ch. v. Statutes, vol. iv. part i. pp. 590. et se<f. 
 
 i S and Q Will. 11 f., ch, % 5. 
 
234 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 preserved for us by Lang]and shows how they secured 
 furs for their country customers. The author of the 
 “ Visions r ’ states how Repentance came once to Avarice, 
 and examined him as to his doings in usury : 
 
 ‘“Hastow pite on pore men that mote nedes borwe ?' 
 
 ‘ I have as moche pite of pore men as pedlere hath of cattes 
 That wolde kille hem, yf he cacche hem myghte, for coueitise of 
 
 here skynnes.’ ’’ 1 
 
 A PEDLAR ROBBED BY MONKEYS. 
 
 (From the MS. io E. IV.) 
 
 a practice which cannot fail to be deeply resented by 
 all lovers of cats. 
 
 T he regular merchants whom Langland and Chaucer 
 describe, with business enough to be in debt, adorned 
 with Flaundrisch hats and forked beards, were a 
 very different sort of people ; but though no mere 
 wanderers, they were, too, great wayfarers. Many of 
 them had had to visit the continent to find market for 
 their goods, and for their purchases. Through them 
 1 Text B, pas v. 1 . 246. 
 
MESSENGERS, MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS. 235 
 
 tco, and it was in fact, perhaps, the safest and most 
 reliable among many such channels of information, ideas 
 of what was going on in the outer world and how 
 things were managed in France and elsewhere, points 
 of similitude and comparison, were introduced to 
 England and made the subject of thought and discus¬ 
 sion. During this century the foreign trade of Eng¬ 
 land had greatly increased ; there was a constant 
 intercourse with Flanders, with Bruges above all other 
 towns, for the sale of home produce : wools especially, 
 and woolfels, cheese, butter, tin, coals, 1 &c., with the 
 Rhine country, with Gascony, with Spain, for the pur¬ 
 chase of wines; 2 with the Hanse towns, Lombardy, 
 Venice, and the East. Unintelligent regulations con¬ 
 stantly interfered, it is true, with this development, but 
 
 1 The English coaling trade had greatly increased in the four¬ 
 teenth century; large quantities were brought by water from 
 Newcastle and other places to London and partly consumed on 
 the spot, partly exported. The importance of the coal mines 
 did not escape the notice of the Commons, who stated in the year 
 1376-7 that “en diverses parties deinz le Roialmc d’Englcterre 
 sont diverses miners de carbons, dont les communes da dit partie 
 ont lour suster:antz en grande partie” (51 E. III. “Rolls of Parlia¬ 
 ment,” vol. ii. p. 370). 
 
 2 The trade in wines was enormous, especially with Gascony, and 
 subjected to the most minute regulations. Not only the impor¬ 
 tation of it was the occasion of constant regulations, but the retail 
 sale in towns was perpetually touched upon by local ordinances 
 Woe to the vintner who was detected meddling in any unfair way 
 with his liquor ; he might experience the chastisement inflicted 
 upon John Penrose, who for such an offence was sent to the 
 pillory in 1364, had to drink publicly there his own stuff, to have 
 what he could not drink poured over his head, and was besides 
 sentenced to renounce his trade for ever. (Riley, “ Memorials of 
 London,” 1868, p. 318.) 
 
ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE. 
 
 ■ZT, 6 
 
 so strong was the impulse that it went on steadily. 
 One of the most persistent and most noxious of these 
 regulations was the prohibition to export money or 
 bullion, which governments were never tired of renew¬ 
 ing. 1 English merchants were prohibited when pur¬ 
 chasing goods in foreign countries to pay for them with 
 money ; they had to pay in kind, with wools, cheese 
 and other home produce, which of course might or 
 might not, be found acceptable by the vendor. It 
 was, in other words, forbidden to use money as a 
 means of facilitating exchange, which is its very raison 
 d'etre , and people had to return to the primitive 
 practice of troc , or exchange in kind. It had some¬ 
 times worse effects than that of impeding transactions ; 
 foreign merchants might, as once did the Flemings, 
 show their appreciation of the rules imposed on their 
 English purchasers by answering their proffer of wools 
 and cheese with a beating and imprisonment until they 
 would alter their laws or their minds. For which 
 treatment, English merchants sent doleful complaints 
 to Parliament. In such cases retaliation upon Flemings 
 in England might be demanded, but no thought was 
 entertained, even by the injured party, of repealing 
 laws considered as an indispensable safeguard for the 
 kingdom.- 
 
 1 Same rules in France: “ Que nul billon, vaissellemente, 
 joyaux d’or et d’argent ne soint traits hors dudit royaume par 
 personne quelle que ce soit, si ce n’estoit vaissellemente de 
 prelats ou de nobles ou d’autres gens d’eglise pour lour service ” 
 (Ordinance of Jean le Bon, dated from London, 1358 ; Isambert, 
 vol. v. p. 39). 
 
 - “Rolls of Parliament,” 45 F.d., III. a.d. 1371, vol. ii. p. 306. 
 While this legislation was strictly enforced in England, the royal 
 
MESSENGERS , MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS. ?y 
 
 Not much wiser were the rules applied to merchant 
 shipping. What made them worse was that they were 
 constantly changed, a defect which was also noticeable 
 in all trade regulations of that time. Some are curious 
 as being an attempt to establish the strict rules which 
 Cromwell so successfully worked on after 1651 : “Item 
 to increase the navy of England which is now greatly 
 diminished, it is assented and accorded, that none of the 
 king’s liege people do from henceforth ship any mer¬ 
 chandize in going out or coming within the realm ol 
 England in any port, but only in ships of the king’s 
 liegeance.” But the very next year this statute was 
 altered so as to practically annul it: “ It is ordained and 
 granted that the said ordinance only have place as long 
 as ships of the said ligeance in the parts where the said 
 merchants happen to dwell be found able and suffi¬ 
 cient.” 1 The same unsteadiness of purpose was shown 
 in almost every branch of the yet unbaptized science 
 of political economy. 
 
 Not less worthy of notice than this attempt at a 
 Navigation Act is the claim made, even at this time, 
 by the Commons of England to a traditional supremacy 
 over the seas. In one of their innumerable petitions 
 concerning the decay of the navy, which seems to have 
 been a favourite complaint from the remotest period 
 down to our own time, they state that the rash and 
 often useless pressing of ships for the king’s service had 
 
 government, according to petitions of the Commons and with 
 remarkable naivete, often wrote to princes on the continent, recom¬ 
 mending them to allow their own subjects to bring to England 
 money, bullion, and plate. 
 
 ‘ Statute 5 Rich. ll. st. i. ch. 3, and 6 Rich. If., a n. 1 '81-2. 
 
238 
 
 ENGLISH JVA YFARING LIFE. 
 
 brought about a most dangerous decrease of the navy ; 
 many mariners addicting themselves to other trades, 
 while only “ twenty years ago, and always before , the 
 shipping of the Realm was in all the ports and good 
 towns upon the sea or rivers, so noble and plenteous 
 that all the countries held and called our said sovereign : 
 the King of the Sea ( le Roi de la Mier ).” 1 As these 
 were trading ships, only occasionally used for war 
 purposes, this gives an idea of the importance to which 
 British merchant shipping had attained in the four¬ 
 teenth century and which it wanted to recover. 
 
 The rules concerning foreign merchants coming to 
 England were in the same manner constantly changed ; 
 sometimes the hardest restrictions were put upon them, 
 and sometimes everything was done to allure them to 
 England. The result was the same ; trade was im¬ 
 peded doubtless, but it went on, and in spite of the 
 unsteadiness of legislation, of unexpected retaliatory 
 measures (as when, for instance, Hanse merchants were 
 imprisoned on account of misdeeds committed in Prussia 
 by inhabitants of this country, no reason of complicity 
 being alleged, but only it seems one of geographical 
 vicinity 2 ), in spite of restrictions innumerable, the 
 intercourse steadily increased, to the great benefit of the 
 community and the wider diffusion of ideas. In the 
 ninth, the twenty-fifth, the twenty-seventh, and other 
 years of his reign, King Edward III., again and again 
 stated that he took foreign merchants under his special 
 protection : “ To replenish the said realm and lands,” he 
 said on one of these occasions, “ with money and plate, 
 
 “Rolls of Parliament,” 46 Ed. III., a.d. 1372, vol. ii. p.311. 
 
 • Ibid., 11 Rich. II., a.d. 1387, vol. ii : . p. 253. 
 
MESSENGERS , MERCHANTS AND TED LARS. 235 
 
 gold and silver and merchandises of other lands, and to 
 give courage to merchants strangers to come with their 
 wares and merchandises into the Realm and lands 
 aforesaid, we have ordained and established that all 
 merchants strangers which be not of our enmity, of 
 what land or nation that they be, may safely and surely, 
 under our protection and safe conduct, come and dwell 
 in our said realm and lands, where they will, and from 
 thence [freely] return,” 1 selling their goods to whom 
 they please, being exempted from purveyance and only 
 paying the ordinary customs. If war is declared 
 between England and their country, they will have 
 forty days to clear the realm, during which time they 
 will be allowed to continue their sales, and even more 
 delay will be allowed them in case they are ill, or 
 are detained bv bad weather. This last was, as we 
 have seen, a very necessary proviso, for a merchant 
 coming with his goods in the depth of winter to a 
 broken bridge might be stopped a pretty long time ; 
 the same also if, reaching the sea-coast, he found 
 contrary winds. The statute of the twenty-fifth year 
 provided that the liberal intentions of the king 
 towards foreign merchants should be brought by way 
 of proclamation to the notice of the officers and inhabi¬ 
 tants of all the English counties, trading cities, sea¬ 
 ports, &c. 2 
 
 Thus protected and impeded by turns, foreign trade 
 jogged on, and as common interest was, after all, stronger 
 than popular prejudice and royal ordinances, it managed 
 to thrive in England. Foreign gilds were established 
 
 * Statute 27 Ed. III. st. ii. ch. 2. 
 
 * 2£ Ed. III. stat. iii, ch. 2. 
 
J 40 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 in London ; foreign settlements took place in several 
 trading towns, 1 foreign fleets visited the English shores 
 at regular intervals, none with more important results 
 than the fleet of the Venetian Republic. It began to 
 visit regularly the ports of Flanders, England, and the 
 north in the year 1317 ; each ship had on board 
 thirty archers for its defence, commanded by young 
 Venetian noblemen. There was in the fourteenth 
 century a Venetian consul at Bruges, and the com¬ 
 mander of the galleys did not fail to put himself into 
 communication with him. The fleet, or “galleys of 
 Flanders,” as it was called, brought to England cotton 
 from Egypt, cloth of silk from Venice, cinnamon, 
 pepper, cloves, saffron, camphor, musk, and other 
 drugs or spices from the East, sugar from Egypt and 
 Sicily, &c. The trade of Venice in the eastern Mediter¬ 
 ranean was very extensive ; it was carried on freely, 
 except during occasional wars with the Saracen, and 
 the commercial interests of the Italian Republics in the 
 continuation of a good understanding with the infidel 
 was one of the principal causes of the cessation of 
 crusades. From England the Venetian galleys took 
 back wools and woollen cloths, leather, tin, lead, sea- 
 coal, cheese, 2 &c. 
 
 ’ See particulars about the Gildhalda Teutonicorum in Dow- 
 gate Ward, Thames Street, and afterwards in the Steel house, in 
 W. Herbert’s “ Livery Companies,” London 1837, vol. i. pp. 10-16. 
 The importance of Italian settlements of money-changers and 
 money-lenders (whence the “Lombard streets” or “rues des 
 Lombards” surviving in many towns) are well known. See also 
 I lertzberg's “ Libell of englishe policye,” Leipzig, 1878. 
 
 2 These and many other particulars about English trade with 
 Venice are to be found in Rawdon Brown’s “Calendars of State 
 
AfESSENGERS, MERCHANTS AND RE DEARS. 241 
 
 The importance of this intercourse with the con¬ 
 tinent, which fortunately the variations in the law of 
 the land were unable to check, gave prominence to the 
 English merchant in the community. He is already in 
 the fourteenth century, and has been ever since, one of 
 the main supports of the State. While the numerous 
 applications of Edward III. to Lombard bankers for 
 ready money are well known, it is sometimes over¬ 
 looked how often he had recourse to English merchants, 
 who supplied him with that without which his archers’ 
 bows would have remained unstrung. The advice and 
 goodwill of the whole class of merchants could not be 
 safely ignored ; therefore their attendance was constantly 
 requested at Westminster to discuss money and other 
 State matters. Some families among them rose into 
 eminence, such as the De la Poles of Hull, who became 
 earls of Suffolk with descendants to be killed at Azin- 
 court, to be checked by Joan of Arc at Orleans, to be 
 made dukes, and to be impeached for high treason. It 
 was, too, the time of “ thrice Lord Mayor of London” 1 
 Dick, afterwards Sir Richard Whittington, who does 
 not seem to have entertained the same feeling as the 
 pedlars before-mentioned for cats. Another man of the 
 same sort a little later was the famous William Canynge, 
 of Bristol, who made there a large fortune in trading with 
 foreign countries. One of the boats of this Canynge 
 was called the Mary Redcliffe , a name as well as his 
 
 Papers . . . in the Archives of Venice,” London, 1864 (Rolls) ; see 
 also J. Dclaville le Roulx, “La France en Orient au XIV e . siecle.” 
 Paris, 18S6, vol. i. p. 199. See also “The libell of Englishe 
 policye,” 1436, ed. Hertzberg and Pauli, Leipzig, 1878, p. 37. 
 
 1 For the first time in 1398. He was a liberal lender of money 
 to Kings Henry IV. and Henry V. 
 
 16 
 
?4 2 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 own since associated with the memory of the Bristol 
 boy-poet, Thomas Chatterton. 
 
 Below men in such an exalted situation the bulk of 
 the merchant community throve as best they could. 
 One of the necessities of their avocation was constant 
 travelling. They were to be met about the roads 
 almost as much as their poorer brothers the pedlars. 
 
 A RICH MERCHANT TRAVELLING (CHAUCER’S MERCHANT). 
 
 (Ftom the Ellesmere MS.) 
 
 They also made great use of the water-courses, and, 
 carried their goods by boat whenever there was any 
 possibility. Hence the constant interference of the 
 Commons with the erection of new mills, weirs, 
 and other hindrances on rivers by lords of the 
 adjoining lands. The “Rolls of Parliament” are full 
 of petitions asking for the complete suppression of all 
 new works of this sort as being detrimental to the 
 
MESSENGERS, MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS. 24.1 
 
 “ common passage of ships and boats on the great 
 rivers of England,” or stating that “ the merchants who 
 frequent the water between London and Oxford used 
 to have free passage on the Thames from London to 
 Oxford, with their ships to carry their goods and to 
 serve the commonalty and the people, but now they are 
 disturbed by weirs, locks, mills, and many other hin¬ 
 drances.” 1 The reasons that merchants preferred 
 such a conveyance were that the cost of carriage was 
 less ; except for the occasional meeting of unexpected 
 locks and weirs, they were more certain than on 
 ordinary roads to find before them a clear course ; and 
 they were better able to protect themselves against 
 robbers. 
 
 They could not, however, go everywhere by water, 
 and willingly or not they had then to betake themselves 
 to the roads, and incur all the mischances that might 
 turn up on the way, or at the inn. In one of his 
 “ Visions,” Langland describes how once one of the 
 mischievous characters in his poem rifled at the inn 
 the boxes of some travelling chapmen. 
 
 “‘Thus, ones I was herberwed,’ quod he, ‘with an hep of 
 chapmen, 
 
 I roos whan thei were arest and yrifled here males ’ ” (their 
 trunks). 
 
 Repentance, who had just been asking if his inter¬ 
 locutor had never made “ restitucioun,” wonders at this 
 strange statement as to how things went on at the inn : 
 
 “ That was no restitucioun . . . but a robberes thefte.” 
 
 1 “Rolls of Parliament,’’ 25 Ed. III. a.d. 1350, and Ed. I. or II 
 anno incerto, vol. ii. p. 232 and vol. i. p. 475. 
 
2 44 EXGLISH IVA YEARIXG LIFE. 
 
 To which the careless being retorts in a way which 
 reminds one of Chaucer’s French of Stratford-atte-Bow : 
 
 “ ‘ I wende (believed) ryflyngc were restitucioun,’ quod he, ‘for 
 I lerned neuere rede on boke, 
 
 And I can no frenche in feith but of the ferthest ende of nor- 
 folke.’ ” * 
 
 Between the “ male ” of these chapmen and the mere 
 pack of the pedlar the difference is not very consider¬ 
 able ; it is not very great either if compared to the 
 “ male ” of the merchant we have met before, who 
 travels slowly on account of it, and who is represented 
 by the poet as the emblem of “ men that ben ryche.” 
 So that these three links kept pretty close together the 
 chain of the itinerant trading community. They all 
 had to go about and to experience the gaieties or 
 dangers of the road, the latter being of course better 
 known to the richer sort than to the poor Bob Jakinof 
 the day. The reasons for this constant travelling w'ere 
 numerous ; the same remark applies to merchants of 
 the fourteenth century as to almost all other classes : 
 there w-as much less journeying than to-day for mere 
 pleasure’s sake, but very much more, comparatively, out 
 of necessity. We cannot underrate the causes of per¬ 
 sonal journeys which the post and telegraph, with the 
 money facilities they have introduced, have suppressed. 
 But besides this consideration, in the fourteenth century 
 the staple and fairs w^ere among the causes impelling 
 merchants to move about. 
 
 The staple was the subject of constant regulations, 
 
 * Text B, pas. v. 1 . 232. 
 
MESSENGERS, MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS 245 
 
 complaints, and endless alterations. The fundamental 
 iaw concerning it is the well-known statute of 1353, 
 the mechanism of which the following extracts will 
 show : “ We (/.<?., the king and Parliament) have 
 ordained . . . first, that the staple of wools, leather, 
 woolfels, and lead, growing or coming forth within our 
 said realm and lands, shall be perpetually holden at the 
 places underwritten, that is to say, for England at 
 Newcastle-upon-Tyne, York, Lincoln, Norwich, West¬ 
 minster, Canterbury, Chichester, Winchester, Exeter, 
 and Bristow; for Wales at Kaermerdyn ; and for Ire¬ 
 land at Dublin, Waterford, Cork, and Drogheda, and 
 not elsewhere ; and that all the said wools, as well old 
 as new, woolfels, leather, and lead, which shall be 
 carried out of the said realm and lands shall be first 
 brought to the said staples, and there the said wool and 
 lead, betwixt merchant and merchant or merchant and 
 others, shall be lawfully weighed by the standard ; and 
 that every sack andsarplerof the same wools so weighed 
 be sealed under the seal of the mayor of the staple.” 
 Any English may bring and sell wool at the staple ; but 
 only foreign merchants are allowed to take it out 0/ 
 the realm. It is prohibited to stop carriages and goods 
 going to the staple. It is ordained also “ that in every 
 town where the staple shall be holden, shall be ordained 
 certain [streets] and places where the wools and other 
 merchandises shall be put ; and because that the lords 
 or guardians of the houses and places, seeing the 
 necessity of merchants do set percase their houses at 
 too high ferm, we have ordained that the houses which 
 be to be leased in such manner, shall be set at a reason¬ 
 able ferm,” after the estimation of the local authority, 
 
246 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 assisted by four discreet men of the place . 1 It need 
 scarcely be said that the staple was often removed from 
 one town to another, from England to Calais and from 
 Calais to England, &c., according to inscrutable whims 
 and fancies, and with very detrimental results for all 
 traders. 
 
 The fairs, the very name of which can scarcely fail to 
 awaken ideas of merry bustle, gay clamour, and joyous 
 agitation, were subjected too to very stringent regula¬ 
 tions, so that the word reminded many people not only 
 of pleasure but also of fines, confiscations, and perhaps 
 worse. When the time came for a fair, it was prohibited 
 to sell anything in the town except at the fair, under 
 pain of the goods exhibited being seized. All the 
 ordinary shops were to be closed. Such regulations 
 were meant not only to insure the largest possible atten¬ 
 dance at the fair, but also to secure for the lord of it 
 the entirety of the tolls he had a right to. An inquest 
 holden at Winchester, where there was a famous St. 
 Giles’ fair, gives an idea of the manner in which these 
 commercial festivities were solemnized. The fair be¬ 
 longed to the Bishop of Winchester. On the eve of 
 St. Giles’s Day, at early dawn, the officers of the bishop 
 went about the town proclaiming the conditions of the 
 fair, which were these : no merchant was to sell or 
 exhibit for sale any goods in the town, or at a distance 
 of seven leagues round it, except inside the gates of the 
 
 1 Statute 2 of 27 Ed. III. a . d . 13^3. Canterbury was made a staple 
 town “ en l’onur de Saint Thomas,” “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. 
 p. 253, same year. As an example ot the changes affecting the 
 staple system, see the statute 2 Ed. III. chap. 9 (a.d. 132S), by 
 which all staides were, for a time, abolished. 
 
MESSENGERS, MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS. 247 
 
 fair. The same ministers proclaimed the assise of bread, 
 wine, and ale ; tasted the wine, broke the casks where 
 they detected “ insufficient ” wine. They proved all 
 weights and measures ; they burned the false ones and 
 fined the owners. All merchants were to reach the fair 
 not later than a certain time (the feast of the Nativity of 
 the Virgin Mary) ; if they came later they were not ad¬ 
 mitted except with a special licence from the bishop. 
 The usual allowance is made in case they may have been 
 kept back by a storm at sea, or by some mischance on 
 land, “ infortunium in terra,” which in this time of bad 
 roads, and of such determined robbers as Sir Robert of 
 Rideware might not have been infrequent. A court of 
 “ pie powder,” that is, “ of the dusty feet,” 1 was held in 
 the fair itself, and all suits arising from transactions 
 there were determined by this tribunal at once, and 
 without an appeal. Similar rules were in existence at 
 the Westminster fair, and at many others . 2 The im- 
 
 1 “ Pedis pulverisati curia. Ea est qua: in nundinis constituitur, 
 ad nundinalium rixas litesque celerrime componendas. . . . Dictum 
 prascipue de mercatoribus vagabundis, qui nundinas pagatim 
 insectantes ornnes discurrunt provincias, nec sistendi locum 
 agnoscunt, sed de his etiam qui ex omni parte ad nundinas con- 
 fluunt” (H. Spclman, “ Glossarium archaiologicum,” ed. tertia, 
 Londini, 1687, p. 455). 
 
 2 These and other particulars about the way in which fairs were 
 managed at Westminster and Winchester are to be found in a 
 petition with an inquest of the year 1302, 30 Ed. I., in the 
 “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. i. p.150. The Winchester Fair on 
 St. Giles’ hill, “Montem sancti Egidii,” was one of the most famous 
 English fairs. Langland mentions it, together with the Wayhill 
 fair, Hampshire (still in existence), and gives a graphic account ot 
 the cheating that v/ent on there, among unscrupulous merchants. 
 (“ Visions,” Text C, pas. vii., 1 . 211.) Cf. Elton’s “Market Righti 
 and Tolls,” 1S89 (a blue book). 
 
-’48 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 portance of these meetings is shown by the constant 
 recurrence in the “Rolls ot Parliament” of petitions con¬ 
 cerning them, beseeching the king to grant a fair to a 
 certain lord or to a certain town, or to suppress a 
 neighbouring town’s fair, for fear it may hurt our own. 
 
 People from the counties and from the continent 
 flocked to the fairs. The largest and the more widely 
 known were those of Winchester, 1 Abingdon, Bar¬ 
 tholomew fair 2 in Smithfield (London), Stourbridge 
 fair, &c.3 In the time of Elizabeth, Harrison, while 
 describing England, could not help expressing his pride 
 in the importance and renown of English fairs, about 
 which he writes thus : “ As there are no great towns 
 without one weekelie market at the least, so there are 
 verie few of them that haue not one or two faires or 
 more within the compasse of the yeare, assigned vnto 
 them by the prince. And albeit that some of them 
 are not much better than Lowse faire or the common 
 Kirkemesses beyond the sea, yet there are diuerse not 
 inferiour to the greatest marts in Europe, as Sturbridge 
 faire neere to Cambridge, Bristow faire, Bartholomew 
 faire at London, Lin mart, Cold faire at Newport pond 
 
 * See “Charter of Edward III. [as to] St. Giles’ Fair, Winchester,’' 
 ed. G. W. Kitchin, London, 1886. 
 
 i This fair,immortalized by Ben Jonson, disappeared only in 1855. 
 See H. Morley’s “ Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair” (2nd ed. 1874). 
 
 3 See list in Mr. Elton’s Report, Market Rights Commission, 1889, 
 vol. i. p. 5. There were fairs established especially for herrings and 
 other fishing produce at Yarmouth, Scarborough, and many other 
 towns on the sea-coast. The rigours of Lent and the number of 
 fasting days throughout the year gave particular importance to these 
 articles of consumption. Hence, too, the attention paid to fisheries 
 and the regulations to prevent the catching of small fish, the 
 destruction of spawn and bait, &c. Great complaints are made 
 
MESSENGERS, MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS. 
 
 249 
 
 'for cattell, and diuerse other.” 1 Stourbridge fair be¬ 
 longed to the city and corporation of Cambridge, and 
 took place in September, lasting three weeks. Tents and 
 wooden booths were erected at that time on the open 
 fields, so as to form streets ; each trade, as was usual, had 
 its own street, in the same manner as may be seen now in 
 the bazaars of the East. Among the principal articles 
 sold at this fair were: “ironmongery, cloth, wool, leather, 
 books.” This last article became a very important one 
 when the art of printing spread; there was in the 
 North Hundred of Oxford, in the sixteenth century, a 
 fair in which an extensive sale of books took place, and 
 this, as Professor Thorold Rogers has justly observed, is 
 the only way to account for the rapid diffusion of books 
 and pamphlets at a time when newspapers and adver¬ 
 tisements were practically unknown. “ I have, more 
 than once,” adds the same authority, “ found entries of 
 purchases for college libraries, with a statement that the 
 book was bought at St. Giles’ fair.” 2 No reader of 
 Boswell needs to be reminded how the father of Dr. 
 Johnson had a booth for book selling on market days 
 
 agains: the use of the net called “ wondyrchoun,” which drags 
 from the bottom of the sea all the bait “that used to be the food of 
 great fish.” Through means of this instrument fishermen catch 
 “such great plenty of small fish that they do not know what to do 
 with them, but fatten their pigs with them” (“ Rolls of Parlia¬ 
 ment,” 1376-7, vol. ii. p 369). As to salmon fishing in the 
 Thames, see ibid., vol. ii. p. 331, a.d. 1376. 
 
 1 Harrison’s “Description of England,” ed. Furnivall, 1877, 
 part i. book ii. chap, xviii. (first published in 1577). 
 
 2 “ History of Agriculture and Prices in England,” vol. iv. 
 chap. iv. p. 155. As to Stourbridge fair, ibid. vol. i. chap. vii. p. 
 
250 
 
 ENGLISH WA FEARING LIFE. 
 
 at Uttoxeter, in doing which he was merely keeping up, 
 as we see, a mediaeval tradition of long standing. How 
 young Samuel refused once to accompany his fa-ther to 
 the market, and how, in after-time, when he became 
 king of the London literary world, he repaired on a 
 rainy day to the spot where the booth used to be, and 
 there did penance, is too well known to be more than 
 alluded to here. Even at the present day books con¬ 
 tinue to be an article of sale at the fairs in many French 
 country places, and sheets of printed matter are taken 
 from thence to cottages, where, under the smoky 
 light burning in winter by the fireside, people, not 
 very dissimilar to their forefathers of five hundred years 
 ago, read of mediaeval heroes and of the worthies of 
 the world. 
 
 To the fairs, along with mummers, jugglers, tumblers, 
 beggars, and the whole of the catchpenny tribe, the 
 pedlar was sure to resort, in the approved Autolycus 
 fashion. “ He haunts,” says the clown in “ Winter’s 
 Tale,” “ wakes, fairs, and bear-baiting.” There he 
 might exhibit “ ribands of all the colours i’ the rainbow; 
 points, more than all the lawyers in Bohemia can learn¬ 
 edly handle, though they come to him by the gross; 
 inkles, caddisses, cambricks, lawns. Why, he sings 
 them over, as they were gods or goddesses; you would 
 think a smock were a she-angel, he so chants to the 
 sleeve hand, and the work about the square on’t.” 1 So 
 that everybody might remark as does the honest clown 
 to fair Perdita, “You have of these pedlars that have 
 
 1 “Winter’s Tale,” iv. 3. Cf. “The foure Ps,” by John Hey- 
 wood, London, 1545, one of the “ Ps ” is a pedlar, whose wares 
 are enumerated in full. 
 
MESSENGERS , MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS. 
 
 251 
 
 'more in them than you’d think, sister.” And not un¬ 
 satisfied with their lot, careless of robbers, having few 
 wants, they might plod the miry roads of Plantagenet 
 England, as they did at the time of Shakespeare, merrily 
 singing some “ Winter’s Tale ” ditty : 
 
 “ Jog on, jog on, the foot-path way. 
 
 And merrily hent the stile-a ; 
 
 A merry heart goes all the day. 
 
 Your sad tires in a mile-a.” 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 OUTLAWS, WANDERING WORKMEN, AND PEASANTS 
 OUT OF BOND. 
 
 T HE mountebanks, the musicians, and their fellows 
 have arrested us at the street corners and in castle 
 courtyards ; the pedlars have led us to the fairs 
 and markets. With the outlaws, the unfortunates put 
 outside of the law, we must leave the highroad for the 
 scarcely-tracked pathway, and penetrate into the woods. 
 
 England at that time was not the immense meadow 
 which is ploughed by the railways of the present day ; 
 there still remained much of that forest of which 
 Caesar speaks in his Commentaries, and in which the 
 ancestors of the Plantagenet kings had so jealously 
 maintained their rights of the chase. The woods 
 were not so strictly guarded as they are at the present 
 
OUTLA IVS AND PEASANTS OUT OF BOND. 253 
 
 day ; they offered an extensive asylum to bandits and 
 to those fleeing from justice. In the popular mind the 
 idea of the grand rustling forest, and the idea of the 
 free life which the proscribed led there, were mingled 
 in one and the same sentiment of sympathy. This is 
 why, alongside of the Arthurian epic, we find that of 
 the trees and bushes, that of the brave men who, 
 dwelling in the underwood, were imagined to have 
 struggled for the public liberties, those of Hereward, 
 of Fulk Fitz-Warin, of Robin Hood. Let a man be 
 pursued, he was immediately on the way to the forest ; 
 it was easier to get there, he remained nearer to his 
 relations, and he was quite as safe as if he had crossed 
 over to the continent. 
 
 Robbers, bandits, poachers, and knights might thus 
 meet as comrades in the depths of the wood. The 
 forest is the first thought of the proscribed squire in the 
 ballad of the “ Nut Brown Maid,” the masterpiece of 
 English poetry in the fifteenth century, a musical duet 
 of love, full of the wild charm of the great forest, with 
 a well-accented cadence and frequent rhymes which 
 sound on the ear. On the point of being taken, the 
 poor squire is fain to choose between a shameful death 
 and retreat into “ the grene wode.” His betrothed, 
 who is nothing less than a baron’s daughter, wishes to 
 follow him ; and then in every couplet, her lover, in 
 order to try her, represents to her the terrors and 
 dangers of the fugitive’s life ; she may perhaps see him 
 taken and die a robber’s death : 
 
 “ For an outlawe this is the lawe, that men hvm take and binde 
 Wythout pytee, hanged to bee, and waucr with the wyndc.’’ 
 
2 54 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 With this is a thrilling picture of the life in the wood, 
 ot the brambles, snow, hail, rain ; no soft bed, for roof 
 the leaves alone : 
 
 “ Yet take good hede, for euer I drcde, that ye coude not sustein 
 The thorney wayes, the depe valeis, the snowe, the frost, the 
 reyn, 
 
 The cold, the hete ; for drye or wete we must lodge on the 
 playn ; 
 
 And, vs aboue, noon other roue (roof), but a brake, bussh or 
 twayne.” 
 
 No delicate food, but only such as the wood affords : 
 
 “ For ye must there in your hande bere a bowe redy to drawe, 
 And as a theef thus must ye lyue, euer in drede and awe.” 
 
 Still further, and the trial becomes harder; the young 
 girl must cut off her lovely hair; life in the forest does 
 not allow of keeping that ornament. Lastly, to crown 
 all : I have already in the forest another sweetheart, 
 whom I love better, and who is more beautiful. But, 
 as resigned as Griselda, the betrothed replies : I shall go 
 none the less into the forest; I will be kind to your 
 sweetheart, I will obey her, “ for in my mynde, of all 
 mankynde, I love but you alone.” Then the lover’s joy 
 breaks out : “ I wyl not too the grene wod goo, I am 
 noo banysshyd man,” 1 am not an obscure squire, I am 
 the son of the Earl of Westmoreland, and the hour of 
 our wedding is now corned 
 
 All the fugitives whom the forest received into its 
 depths were not romantic knights, followed by women 
 
 1 “The Nut Brown Maid,” in Skeat’s “Specimens of English 
 Literature,” Clarendon Press, 4th edition, 1887, p. 96. 
 
OUTLA WS AND PEASANTS OUT OF BOND. 255 
 
 patient as Griselda and brave as Bradamante. To pass 
 from poetry to reality, they were for the greater part 
 formidable rovers, the same against whom Edward I. 
 and Edward III. had passed the rigorous law for sus¬ 
 pected persons, 1 mentioned above. This class was 
 composed, first of organized bands of brigands whom 
 the statute calls Wastours, Roberdesmen, and Draw- 
 latches, then of occasional thieves, sharpers, and male¬ 
 factors of all kinds, and of different outlaws who were 
 all of them struck with that civil death to which the 
 lover in the “ Nut Brown Maid” made allusion. The 
 sentence of outlawry was usually the turning-point for 
 a wandering life, which was then forced to become a life 
 of brigandage. To be declared an outlaw, a crime or a 
 misdemeanor must have been committed ; a demand for 
 justice by the plaintiff' of a purely civil character was 
 not enough; 2 3 but to be in a position to merit the 
 gallows, no very great guilt was necessary, thence the 
 large number of outlaws. In a criminal lawsuit of the 
 time of Edward 1.3 the judge in his place explains that 
 the law is this : if the thief has taken anything which is 
 worth more than twelve pence, or if he has been con¬ 
 demned several times for little thefts, and the total may 
 be worth twelve pence or more, he ought to be hanged. 
 “ The law wills that he shall be hanged by the neck.” 
 Still, as the judge observes in the case of a woman 
 
 1 Statute of Winchester, 13 Edward I. chap, iv., confirmed by 
 Edward III. See before p. 151. 
 
 2 “ Item videtur nulla esse utlagaria si factum, pro quo, inter- 
 rogatus est, civile sit et non criminale ” (Bracton, Rolls Series, 
 vol. ii. p. 330). 
 
 3 “Year Books of Edward I.” (Rolls Series), years 30—3 1, p. 533. 
 
ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 2 5 6 
 
 who had stolen to the amount of eightpence, the law is 
 milder than in the days of Henry III., for then a theft 
 of the value of fourpence would hang a man. 1 
 
 The man became an outlaw, and the woman a weyve , 
 that is, abandoned to the mercy of every one and unable 
 to claim the protection of the law. The author of 
 “ Fleta ” expresses with terrible force the condition of 
 persons so punished; they have wolves heads which 
 may be cut off with impunity: “For she is a weyve whom 
 no one will own, and it is equivalent to outlawry so far 
 as penal consequences go. An outlaw and a weyve bear 
 
 FOREST LIFE—A SHOOTING CASUALTY. 
 (From the MS. io E. IV.) 
 
 wolves heads, which may be cut off by any one with 
 impunity, for deservedly ought they to perish without 
 law who would refuse to live according to law.” 2 The 
 outlaw lost all his property and all his rights ; all the 
 contracts to which he was a part) fell void ; he was no 
 longer bound to any one nor anybody bound to him. 
 
 1 “Year Books of Edward I.” (Rolls Series), years 30-31, pp* 
 537-538. In the case of this woman, as she had no goods of her 
 own and her husband was in Paris, she was let off without loss 
 of chattels, for, “ note this,” adds the record, “ it is better to leave 
 the wrong-doer unpunished, than to punish the innocent.” Mild 
 judgments of this kind at times modified the harshness of the 
 law. [L. T. S.] 2 “Fleta,” lib. i. chap, xxvii. 
 
OUTLA WS AND PEASANTS OUT OF BOND. 25; 
 
 His goods were forfeit : “ the chattels of an outlaw 
 shall belong to our lord the king ; ” if he had lands the 
 king kept the usufruct for a year and a day, at the end 
 of which he restored them to the chief lord (capitalis 
 dominus). 1 There were also very hard legal maxims 
 on this subject; a man accused of murder and acquitted 
 suffered confiscation nevertheless, if he had fled, fearing 
 justice. Listen to the magistrate : “ If a man be 
 acquitted of manslaughter and of assent and help, 
 the justices shall thereupon ask the jury if the prisoner 
 took to flight; if they say No, let him go quits, if Yes, 
 the king shall have his chattels.” 2 It may be conceived 
 that the draconian severity of such regulations was not 
 calculated to lessen the audacity of those whom they 
 concerned, and that the excessive rigour of these penal¬ 
 ties would often transform the fugitive of a day, who 
 had feared the clear-sightedness of the judge, into a 
 brigand by profession and a robber on the highway. 
 
 Besides persons of this kind there were all the 
 vagabonds who, without meriting sentence of outlawry, 
 had fled the village or the farm to which they were 
 attached. The villein who, without special licence, left 
 his master’s domain, only entered the common liie again 
 
 1 “Bracton,” vol. ii. pp. 340-342. 
 
 * “ Year Books of Edward I.,” year 30-31^.515. Sometimes a 
 man would profit by the absence of an enemy on the continent and 
 affirm to a magistrate that he was in flight, and cause him to be 
 declared an outlaw ; thus the priest, John Crochille, complains to 
 parliament for having been unjustly outlawed during a journey 
 which he had made to the Court of Rome, in 1347 (“ Rolls of Par¬ 
 liament,” vol. ii. p. 178); the priest, Robert of Thresk, is also 
 declared outlaw during his absence from the kingdom, “by the 
 malice of his accusers” (ibid., 1347, vol. ii. p. 183). 
 
 W 
 
ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 258 
 
 after putting himself at his mercy, or, which was less 
 hard, after having passed a year and a day in a free 
 town without leaving it and without the lord having 
 thought of interrupting the prescription. In this latter 
 case he became a free man, and the ties which bound 
 him to the soil were broken. But if he confined him¬ 
 self to wandering from place to place he might be 
 re-taken any day that he reappeared at his own door. 
 An example of this may be seen in a curious lawsuit of the 
 time of Edward I., the abstract of which has come down 
 to us :— A. presents a writ of imprisonment against B. 
 Heiham, counsel for B. says: It is not for us to defend 
 ourselves, A. is our villein, his writ cannot take effect 
 against us. This is verified, it is found that A. is the 
 son of a villein of B., that he ran away, and several years 
 afterwards returned home “ to his nest,” where he was 
 taken as a villein. The judge declares that this seizure 
 was legal ; that a villein might wander about during 
 six, seven years or more, but if at the end he were found 
 “ in his own nest and at his hearth,” he might be seized 
 as continuing to be his lord’s lawful property ; the fact 
 of his return put him into the condition he was in 
 before his departure. On hearing this decision the 
 delighted counsel appropriately cites the scripture, “He 
 fell into the pit which he hath digged.” 1 
 
 Escaped peasants brought the most numerous 
 recruits to the wandering class. In England, a multi¬ 
 tude of causes, among which the great Plague of 1349 2 
 
 ' “ Cecidit in foveam quam fecit.” (See “Vulgate,” Psalm vii. 
 16 : cecidit should be incidit.) (“Year Books,” Edward I., year 
 21-22, p. 447.) 
 
 2 According to Sccbohm (“The Black Death and its place in 
 
0 ( 7 TLA VVS AND PEASANTS OUT OF BOND. 259 
 
 ranks as the chief, had in the fourteenth century over¬ 
 turned the relations of the working classes with the 
 rich, and the proportions between the value of wages 
 and that of the objects necessary to life. In face of a 
 need of emancipation which arose on all sides, parliament 
 —the House of Commons as willingly as the king- 
 passed hard laws which prescribed the maintenance of the 
 statu quo ante pestem. Thence came among the peasants 
 an immense desire to change place and to see other parts. 
 In their own village, they might observe, nothing was 
 to be got but the same wages as before the plague ; 
 but in such another county, they thought or fancied 
 there is better pay ; besides, why not mingle with the 
 class of free labourers ? It was numerous and increased 
 unceasingly, in spite of statutes. All of them did not 
 succeed in concealing their past ; and when the danger 
 of being “ put into stocks ” and sent back to their 
 masters became great, they fled again, changed their 
 county and became roamers. Others, discontented with 
 or without cause, only quitted their hamlet to become 
 
 English History,” two articles in the Fortnightly Review in 1865) 
 more than half of the population died during the year 1348-49. 
 Knyghton, a contemporary, gives a striking picture of the plague 
 at Leicester. “ There were scarcely any who took heed of riches 
 or cared for anything . . . And sheep and oxen wandered through 
 the fields and among the crops ; there was no one to go after and 
 collect them ; but there perished an untold number in out of the 
 way ditches and under hedges.” In the autumn labour was out of 
 all price, and part of the crops were left on the ground (Twysden’s 
 “ Decern Scriptorcs,” col. 2599). “Through this pestilence,” say 
 the Commons in Parliament, “ cities, boroughs, and other towns 
 and hamlets throughout the land have decayed, and from day to 
 day are decaying, and several are entirely depopulated” (25 E. III., 
 a.d. 1350-1, “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 227). 
 
26 o 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 immediately vagabonds of the most dangerous kind, 
 without house or home. Thus in the precincts of 
 Westminster, the chapter house of the Abbey where 
 the Commons sat resounded with ever new complaints 
 against the increasing want of discipline among the 
 peasantry. The Commons, who, generally speaking, 
 represented the proprietors of the soil in the coun'ry, 
 and a bourgeoisie with somewhat aristocratic tendencies 
 in the towns, rose with force against the wishes for 
 freedom among a class of workers whom they in no way 
 represented. They wanted the re-establishment of all 
 the old laws and customs, and the energetic repression 
 of new disorders. But the current was too strong, and 
 it swept by the laws; they were constantly renewed, 
 but uselessly. 
 
 In 1350, immediately after the plague, a first ordin¬ 
 ance is directed against the “ malice of servants,” who 
 already had great independence and wished to have 
 still greater. They wanted more wages than formerly, 
 and also other terms of engagement ; they would not 
 work “ without taking hire that was too outrageous.” 1 
 Formerly they hired themselves out for a year, now 
 they desired to remain their own masters, and to hire 
 themselves by the day; the statute forbids them to 
 
 1 “ Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 233. Compare the French 
 ordinances; that of John, of this same year (“ Recueil d’Isambert,” 
 iv. p. 576), orders the idle people of Paris to work or to go away, 
 which was less radical and still less useful than the English 
 ordinances. Another order of John (Nov., 1354) was directed 
 against the workmen who go from town to town, seeking great 
 wages in other places where the ordinances are not strictly kept 
 (ibid. p. 700). They are menaced with imprisonment, the pillor«\ 
 and branding by the hot iron. 
 
O UTLA WS A A/D PEA SA NTS OUT OP B ONE. 2 61 
 
 work under these conditions. Four years later there 
 are new complaints; 1 corn is very low and the labourers 
 refuse to receive it in lieu of payment ; they persist 
 also in desiring day hire ; all these doings are con¬ 
 demned anew. The quarrel continues and grows 
 embittered. In the thircy-fourth year of h : s reign 
 Edward III. threatens to have the guilty branded on 
 the forehead with an F, as a sign of “ fauxine ” (false¬ 
 hood). 2 In 1372 the Parliament declares that “labourers 
 and servants flee from one county to another, some go 
 to the great towns and become artificers, some into 
 strange districts to work, on account of the excessive 
 wages, none remaining for certain in any place, whereby 
 the statute cannot be put in execution against them.” 3 
 The Commons of the Good Parliament of 1376 
 obtained the confirmation of all the previous statutes. 
 Prohibitions were renewed against going out of a 
 man’s “own district” {pays propre). The peasant must 
 stop there and serve whoever wants him, not merely if 
 he were serf or bondman but even if he belonged to 
 the class of “labourers and artificers and other servants.” 
 But the economic changes that had taken place had 
 rendered possible what was not so formerly; labourers 
 were wanted, and it was not rare to find landowners 
 who gave occupation to the workmen in spite of the laws, 
 even by the day and at other wages than those of the 
 tariff The parliamentary petitions declare that “ they 
 are so warmly received in strange places suddenly into 
 service, that this reception gives example and comfort to 
 
 1 “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 261, parliament of 1354, 
 
 2 Statute 34 Ed. 111 . chap. 10, a . d . 1360-1. 
 
 3 “ Rolls of Parliament,” ii. p. 312. 
 
262 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 all servants as soon as they are displeased with anything 
 to run from master to master into strange places, as is 
 aforesaid.” And this would not go on, justly observe 
 the Commons, if when they offered their services in this 
 fashion they were “ taken and put in the stocks.” 
 That was true ; but the farmers who were wanting good 
 limbs, and whose crops were waiting on the ground, 
 were too happy to meet with “ servants and labourers,” 
 whoever they might be ; and instead of taking them 
 to the nearest gaol, they paid and gave them work. 
 The labourers were not ignorant of this, and their 
 traditional masters were forced to reckon according to 
 circumstances and to show themselves less severe. For 
 on some unreasonable demand or some over-strong 
 reprimand, instead of submitting as formerly, or even 
 protesting, the workman said nothing but went away : 
 “as soon as their masters challenge them with bad 
 service or offer to pay them for their service according 
 to the form of the said statutes, they flee and run away 
 suddenly out of their service and out of their own 
 district, from county to county, from hundred to hun¬ 
 dred, from town to town, in strange places unknown to 
 their said masters.” 1 
 
 What was much worse, and would inevitably happen, 
 was that many among them not being able or not will¬ 
 ing to work took up begging or robbing by profession. 
 These “ wandering labourers become mere beggars in 
 order to lead an idle life, and betake themselves out of 
 their district commonly to the cities, boroughs, and 
 other good towns to beg, and they are able-bodied and 
 might well ease the community if they would serve ” 
 
 1 “ Rolls of Parliament,” ii. p. 340, a.d. 1376. 
 

 
 
OUTLAWS AND PEASANTS OUT OF BOND. 265 
 
 So much for the beggars ; 1 * now for the robbers : “And 
 the greater part of the said wandering servants com¬ 
 monly become strong robbers, and their robberies and 
 felonies increase from one day to another on all sides.” 
 Energetic measures must be taken ; let it be prohibited to 
 give alms to this sort of person, and “ let their bodies 
 be put in the stocks or taken to the next gaol,” to be 
 sent afterwards to their own neighbourhood. Edward 
 III. in 1349 2 had already condemned to prison those 
 persons who, under pretext of charity, came to the aid 
 of beggars; these vagabonds went through the country 
 “ giving themselves to idleness and vice, and sometimes 
 to theft and other abominations.” The same com¬ 
 plaints recur in the time of Richard II. Hardly is he 
 on the throne than they are repeated from year to year ; 
 we find them in 1377, 1378, 1379. 3 
 
 Statutes multiplied in vain ; the king was obliged to 
 recognize in his ordinance of 1383 that the “ feitors 
 (idlers) and vagrants ” overran the country “ more 
 abundantly than they were formerly accustomed.” 4 In 
 1388 he renewed all the orders of his predecessors and 
 reminded the mayors, bailiffs, stewards, and constables 
 
 1 Langland shows, in the same way, the shameless beggar who 
 goes, bag on shoulder asking from door to door, who may very well 
 if he pleases gain his bread and beer by work ; he knows a trade 
 but he prefers not to exercise it. 
 
 “ And can som manere craft in cas he wolde hit vse, 
 
 Thorgh whiche crafte he couthe come to bred and to ale.” 
 (“Piers Plowman,” Text C, pass. x. 1. 155 ; see also ibid., pass i. 
 
 1. 40.) 
 
 3 Statute 23 Ed. III. cap. 7. 
 
 3 “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. iii. pp. 17, 46, 65. 
 
 ♦ Statute 7 Rich. II. cap. 5. 
 
ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 266 
 
 of their duties, especially to repair their stocks and to 
 keep them always ready for putting in persons of the 
 wandering class. 1 
 
 These were not vain threats, and they did not deal 
 with light penalties. The prisons of those days had very 
 little resemblance to those light and well-washed build¬ 
 ings which are now to be seen in many towns of Eng¬ 
 land ; for instance, at York, where the average of the 
 condemned certainly find more cleanliness and comfort 
 than they ever enjoyed. They were often fetid dungeons, 
 where the damp of the walls and the stationary position 
 compelled by the irons corrupted the blood and engen¬ 
 dered hideous maladies. 
 
 Many a wandering workman accustomed to an active 
 life and the open air came thus, thanks to the incessant 
 ordinances of king and Parliament, to repent at leisure 
 in the dark for his boldness, and during days and nights 
 all alike to regret his liberty, his family, and his “ nest.” 
 The effect of such a treatment on the physical con¬ 
 stitution of the victims may be guessed ; the reports of 
 justice besides show it very clearly ; we read, for 
 example, in Rolls of the time of Henry III. as 
 follows : 
 
 “ Assizes held at Ludinglond. The jury present 
 that William le Sauvage took two men, aliens, and 
 one woman, and imprisoned them at Thorlestan, and 
 detained them in prison until one of them died in 
 prison, and the other lost one foot, and the woman lost 
 either foot by putrefaction. Afterwards he took them 
 to the Court of the lord the king at Ludinglond to try 
 them by the same Court. And when the Court saw 
 1 Statute 12 Rich. II. cap. 3 
 
OUTLAWS AND PEASANTS OUT OF BOND. 267 
 
 them, it was loth to try them, because they were not 
 attached for any robbery or misdeed for which they 
 could suffer judgment. And so they were permitted 
 to depart.” 1 
 
 How in such a condition the poor creatures could 
 “ depart,” and what became of them the Assize Rolls 
 do not say. What is certain is that no sort of indem¬ 
 nity was given them to help them to get out of trouble 
 in their horrible condition. The justice of our fathers 
 did not stand upon trifles. 
 
 The stocks, which according to the laws of Richard 
 II. were always to be kept in good condition ready for 
 use, consisted of two beams one placed on the other. 
 At the right distances round holes were pierced at the 
 line of junction ; the upper beam was raised, and the 
 legs of the prisoners were passed through the holes ; 
 sometimes there was a third beam in the openings of 
 which the wrists of the poor wretches were also caught; 
 the body sometimes rested on a stool, sometimes on the 
 
 1 “Gleanings from the Public Records,” by Mr. H. Hewlett, in 
 the “Antiquary,” March, 1882 (vol. v. p. 99). Concerning ill- 
 treatment inflicted upon prisoners, see a petition of the Commons, 
 I Ed. III., a.d. 1326-7, “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. pp. 9, 12. 
 
268 
 
 ENGLISH WA YEA RING LIFE. 
 
 ground. In certain places the stocks were pretty high ; 
 they only placed the sufferer’s legs in it and he remained 
 thus, his body stretched on the ground in the damp, his 
 head lower than his feet; but this refinement of cruelty 
 was not habitual. 1 
 
 Stocks are still to be seen in many places in England ; 
 
 THE STOCKS AT SHALFORD, NEAR GUILDFORD. 
 
 {Present state.) 
 
 for instance, in the picturesque village of Abinger, where 
 they stand on the green, near the churchyard. Others 
 in a very good state of preservation are in existence at 
 Shalford, near Guildford. It is not very long since 
 stocks ceased to be used in England ; vagabonds and 
 
 1 See, besides the above engravings, representations of these 
 instruments of punishment in Foxe, “ Actes and Monuments,” 
 London, 1563, fol. od. 390, 1272, &c. 
 
OUTLA IVS AND PEASANTS OUT OF BOND. 269 
 
 drunkards were seen in them within the memory of men 
 who are not old at the present day. According to their 
 remembrance people when released felt so benumbed 
 that they were scarcely able to stand, and experienced 
 great difficulty in getting away. 
 
 But the threat of prisons so unhealthy and of stocks 
 so unpleasant did not deter or hold back the workers, 
 weary of being attached to the soil. Every pretext for 
 leaving their neighbourhood was welcome to them ; 
 they even dared employ that of a journey for devotion. 
 They set out, staff in hand, “ under colour of going far 
 on a pilgrimage,” and never returned. But a new 
 restraint was to be employed to tame this turbulent 
 spirit, the obligation that everyone furnish himself with 
 true letters of travel or passports, in order to move from 
 one county to another. No one might leave his village 
 if he did not bring a “ letter patent containing the cause 
 of his going and the date of his return, if he were to 
 return.” In other words, even when there was the right 
 to go and settle definitively elsewhere, it was necessary 
 to have a permit for moving in order to go away. 
 These letters would be sealed by a “good man” ( prod 
 homme ), assigned in each hundred, city, or borough, by 
 the justices of the peace, and special seals were to be 
 expressly made, said the statute, bearing in the middle 
 the king’s arms, the name of the county around, and 
 that of the hundred, city, or borough across. The case 
 even of fabricating false letters was foreseen, which 
 shows what a burning u'ish to quit their neighbour¬ 
 hoods was felt to be in persons of this class. Every 
 individual surprised without regular papers was put into 
 prison provisionally. 
 
2-JO 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 The beggars were treated as “ servants ” who had no 
 “ testimonial letters.” 1 What was insisted on was to 
 retain as many people as possible permanent, and thus 
 to hinder the disquieting peregrinations of these rovers. 
 As to the beggars incapable of working, they must 
 also cease frequenting the highroads ; they shall end 
 their life in the city where they may be found at the 
 time of the proclamation, or at most in some town near 
 to that in which they were born ; they will be taken 
 
 iTu urea rp: rctqamic.;u<W‘CI 
 
 
 
 A CRIPPLE AND OTHER BEGGARS. 
 
 {From the A/S. io E. IV.) 
 
 there within forty days, and will remain there “ for the 
 rest of their lives.” 
 
 What is stranger, and what in default of other proofs 
 would show to which class students then belonged, is 
 that they are comprised in the same category; they 
 were accustomed on returning to their neighbourhood, 
 or on making pilgrimages or going to the university, to 
 hold out the hand to passers-by and to knock at the 
 doors as they went along. They were likened to the 
 1 I 2 Rich. II. cap. 7. 
 
OUTLA IVS AND PEASANTS OUT OF BOND. 271 
 
 beggars, and were put into irons if they had not the 
 regulation letter ; this document was to be given to 
 them by the Chancellor, that is the only difference 
 “ And that the scholars of the universities that go so 
 begging have letters testimonial of their Chancellor 
 upon the same pain.” 1 
 
 Again, in the following year (1389), a new statute 
 reproves the custom of c ‘ artificers, labourers, servants,” 
 &c., who keep for their own use harriers and other 
 dogs, and on “ feast days, when good Christians are at 
 church hearing Divine service,” get into the parks and 
 warrens of the lords, and destroy all the game. Much 
 more, they profit by these occasions when they meet to¬ 
 gether armed, without fear of being disturbed, to “ hold 
 their assemblies, conversations, and conspiracies, to rise 
 against and disobey their allegiance.” Certainly the 
 close thickets of the seignorial forests must have 
 sheltered meetings of this kind more than once during 
 church service time before the great revolt of 1381 ; 
 in such retreats no doubt were brought forth some of 
 the stirring and active ideas which were transported 
 from place to place, by the wanderers, and which made 
 the people of different counties understand the common 
 ties which united them together. 
 
 In such a revolt as this, the part taken by the 
 wandering class is considerable, and there is every 
 reason why the historian should not neglect it. If we 
 do not take count of this element, it is impossible to 
 explain the importance and the extent of a movement 
 which nearly had consequences parallel to those of the 
 French Revolution. “ I had lost my heritage and the 
 1 12 Rich. TI. cap. 7. Cf. above, p. 232. 
 
272 
 
 ENGLISH WA YEAR IN G LIFE. 
 
 kingdom of England,” said Richard II. on the evening 
 of the day when his presence of mind saved him ; and 
 he was right. Why was the Jacquerie in France a 
 common and powerless rising compared to the English 
 revolt ? The reasons are manifold, hut one of the chief 
 was the absence of a class of wayfarers as strong and 
 numerous as that of England. This class served to 
 unite all the people : by its means those of the South 
 told their ideas to those of the North, what each suffered 
 and desired ; the sufferings and wishes were not iden¬ 
 tical, but it sufficed to understand that all had reforms 
 to demand. Thus, when it was known that the revolt 
 had begun, the people rose on all sides, and it was clear 
 then that each desired a different good and that the 
 associated bands pursued different objects; but the 
 basis of the contention being the same, and all wishing 
 for more independence, they marched in concert without 
 being otherwise acquainted than by the intermediary 
 of the wayfarers. The kings of England, indeed, had 
 perceived the danger, and on different occasions they 
 had promulgated statutes bearing especially on the talk 
 indulged in by the wanderers on their travels about the 
 nobles, prelates, judges, and all the depositaries of public 
 strength. Edward I. had said in one of his laws : 
 
 “ Forasmuch as there have been oftentimes found in 
 the country devisors of tales, whereby discord, or occasion 
 of discord, hath many times arisen between the king and 
 his people, or great men of this realm ; for the damage 
 that hath and may thereof ensue, it is commanded, that 
 from henceforth none be so hardv to tell or publish any 
 false news or tales, whereby discord, or occasion of dis¬ 
 cord, or slander may grow between the king and his 
 
OUTLA IVS AND PEASANTS OUT OF BOND. 273 
 
 people, or the great men of the realm ; and he that 
 doth so, shall be taken and kept in prison, until he hath 
 brought him into the court who was the first author 
 of the tale.” 1 
 
 The danger of such speeches, which touched the acts 
 and even the thoughts of the great men of the kingdom, 
 became menacing anew under Richard II., and in the 
 first years of his reign the following statute was pro¬ 
 mulgated, reinforcing that of 1275 : 
 
 “ Item, Of devisors of false news and reporters of 
 horrible and false lyes, concerning prelates, dukes, earls, 
 barons, and other nobles and great men of the realm, 
 and also concerning the chancellor, treasurer, clerk of 
 the privy seal, steward of the king’s house, justices of 
 the one bench or of the other, and of other great 
 officers of the realm about things which by the said 
 prelates, lords, nobles, and officers aforesaid were never 
 spuken, done, nor thought , . . . whereby debates and 
 discords might arise betwixt the said lords or between 
 the Lords and the Commons, which God forbid, and 
 whereof great peril and mischief might come to all the 
 realm, and quick subversion and destruction of the 
 said realm, if due remedy be not provided : it is straitly 
 defended upon grievous pain, for to eschew the said 
 damages and perils, that from henceforth none be so 
 hardy to devise, speak, or to tell any false news, lyes, 
 or other such false things, of prelates, lords, and of 
 other aforesaid, whereof discord or any slander might 
 rise within the same realm ; and he that doth the same 
 shall incur and have the pain another time ordained 
 
 1 Statute 3 Ed. I. stat. 1. cap. 34, a.d. 1275. 
 
 18 
 
 
274 
 
 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE. 
 
 thereof by the statute of Westminster the fir^t.” 1 But 
 this statute was passed in vain ; two years later broke 
 out the revolt of the peasants. 
 
 In mediaeval France during and after the wars the 
 roads belonged solely to pillaging brigands who were 
 born workmen or knights. Soldiers who represented 
 the dregs of the highest and the lowest classes were intent 
 upon robbing the rest of society ; the road resounded 
 with the noise of arms, the peasant hid himself; troops 
 equipped for the defence of the land attacked everything 
 without scruple that was less strong than themselves and 
 worth robbing ; such people “ turn French,” as Froissart 
 puts it, and turn English according to the interest of the 
 moment. The vagrants threatened by the English law 
 were of another kind, and whatever the number of 
 brigands among them these were not in the majority • 
 the remainder of the peasants sympathized with instead 
 of fearing them. Thus the English revolt was not a 
 desperate enterprise; it was conducted with extraordi¬ 
 nary coolness and good sense. The insurgents showed 
 a calm feeling of their strength which strikes us, and 
 which struck much more the knights in London ; they 
 were men who marched with their eyes open, who, 
 if they destroyed much, wished also to reform. It 
 was possible to treat and to come to an understanding 
 with them ; in truth, the word and pledge given them 
 will be broken, and the revolt will be smothered in 
 blood ; but whatever the Lords and Commons sitting 
 at Westminster may say of it, the new bonds will not 
 have the tenacity of the old ones, and a really great step 
 towards freedom will have been made. In France, the 
 1 Statute 2 Rich. II. cap. 5. 
 
OUTLAWS AND PEASANTS OUT OF BOND. 275 
 
 beast of burden, ill-nourished, ill-treated, fretted by the 
 harness, went along shaking his head with a wan eye 
 and a languishing step ; his furious kicks onlv caused 
 new weights to be added to the load which crushed 
 him, that was all ; centuries were to pass before he 
 would obtain anything else. 
 
PART III. 
 
 RELIGIOUS WAYFARERS 
 
A FRIAR ON A JOURNEY (CHAUCER’S “ FRERE ”). 
 
 (From the Ellesmere MS .) 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 WANDERING PREACHERS AND FRIARS. 
 
 W HILE the sentiment of wants and of c mimon 
 desires spread everywhere, by means of that 
 crowd of workpeople whom we find in England 
 ceaselessly moving in spite of the statutes, the guiding 
 ideas were spread and made common by another kind 
 of roamer, the preachers. Sprung also from the people, 
 they had studied ; as we have seen it was not necessary 
 to be rich in order to go through the course at Oxford ; 
 the villeins even sent their children there, and the Com¬ 
 mons, not very liberal in spirit as we know, protested 
 against this emancipation of another kind, this advance¬ 
 ment by means of learning, “avancement par clergie." 
 They protested in vain, and the king replied to their 
 request, that he would think of it, “ le roi s’avisera ” 
 

 28o ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 (1391). This was then, and is to-day, the form of royal 
 refusal. 1 These clerks knew what was the condition of 
 the people ; they knew the miseries of the poor, which 
 were those of their father and mother and of themselves, 
 and the intellectual culture they had received enabled 
 them to transform into precise conceptions the vague 
 aspirations of the labourers of the soil. The first are 
 not less necessary than the second to every important 
 social movement; both may be indispensable to the 
 formation of the tool, but it is these precise conceptions 
 which form the blade. 
 
 The roaming preachers knew how to sharpen it, and 
 they were numerous. Those whom Wyclif sent to 
 popularize his doctrines, his “ simple priests ” did just 
 what others had done before them ; they imitated their 
 forerunners, and no more limited themselves to expound¬ 
 ing the rather undemocratic theories of their master 
 than the mendicant friars, friends of revolution, kept 
 to the precepts of the gospel. Their sympathies were 
 with the people, and they showed it in their discourses. 
 Wyclif contributed to increase the body of these wan¬ 
 derers ; his people were not greatly to be distinguished 
 from the others; and if it was easy to find clerks who 
 would fulfil the duties he desired, it was because many 
 in the kingdom were already prepared for such a 
 mission, and only waited their opportunity. 
 
 All, in fact, did the same kind of work ; they scoured 
 the country, drawing together the poor and attracting 
 them by harangues filled with what unfortunates always 
 like to hear. This was clearly visible when revolt broke 
 out, and the ordinances then passed show clearly how 
 1 “ Rolls of Parliament,” vol. iii. p. 294. 
 
WANDERING PREACHERS AND FRIARS. 281 
 
 much the influence of the wandering preachers was 
 feared. Their habits and speech even are there re¬ 
 ported ; these malcontents have an austere aspect, they 
 go “ from county to county, and from town to town 
 in certain habits under dissimulation of great holiness.” 
 Naturally they dispense with the ecclesiastical papers 
 with which the regular preachers ought to be furnished; 
 they are “ without the licence of our Holy Father the 
 Pope, or of the Ordinaries of the places, or other suffi¬ 
 cient authority.” They preach not only in churches ; 
 they seek public places, markets, street corners where 
 the crowd assembles “ not only in churches and church¬ 
 yards, but also in markets, fairs, and other open places 
 where a great congregation of people is.” And it is 
 not of theology that they are willing to speak, it is 
 truly the social question which at bottom preoccupies 
 them ; on their lips the religious sermon becomes a 
 political harangue; “ which persons,” continues the 
 ordinance, “do also preach divers matters of slander, 
 to engender discord and dissension betwixt divers 
 estates of the said realm as well spiritual as temporal, 
 in exciting of the people, to the great peril of all the 
 realm.” They are cited to appear before the eccle¬ 
 siastic authority, the ordinaries, but they take care not 
 to make submission, and refuse to “ obey to their 
 summons and commandments.” Let the sheriffs and 
 other king’s officers henceforth watch with care these 
 wandering preachers and send to prison those who are 
 not in due order. 1 
 
 We may gain an idea of their speeches by recalling 
 
 1 Statute 5 Rich. II., 2, cap 5. 
 
282 
 
 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE. 
 
 the celebrated harangue of the priest John Ball ; 1 the 
 type of these travelling orators. Certainly, in the Latin 
 phrase of the “ Chronicle of England,” his thoughts take 
 too solemn and too correct a form, but all that we 
 know of the sentiments of the multitude confirms the 
 substance of it so well that the basis of the discourse 
 cannot have differed from what the chronicler has trans¬ 
 mitted to us. The popular saying quoted before serves 
 as John Ball’s text, and he developes it in this manner : 
 
 “ At the beginning we were all created equal; it is 
 the tyranny of perverse men which has caused slavery 
 to arise, in spite of God’s law ; if God had willed 
 that there should be slaves He would have said at the 
 beginning of the world who should be slave and who 
 should be lord,” 2 
 
 What rendered him strong was that he found his best 
 weapons in the Bible ; he appealed from it to the good 
 feelings of the men of the people, to their virtue, their 
 reason ; he showed that the Divine Word accorded 
 with their interest ; they would be “like the good 
 father of a family who cultivates his field and plucks 
 up the weeds.” The same ideas are attributed to him 
 by almost all the chroniclers. Froissart describes his 
 doings in almost the same words as the statute already 
 quoted, as preaching in the open air when he found a 
 congregation of people, especially on Sundays, when 
 the peasants stood in the churchyard after mass. The 
 
 1 He has often been considered a Wyclifite ; but while in many 
 things alike, he did not share all the master’s notions, and, on the 
 other hand, had some proper to himself; thus, according to him, 
 natural children could not go to heaven. 
 
 2 “ Chronicon Anglis,” 1328-1388, ed. E. Maunde Thompson, 
 1874 (Rolls Series), p. 321. 
 

 uourteenth Century.) 
 

 
 
WANDERING PREACHERS AND FRIARS. 285 
 
 words he puts in his mouth are nearly the same as 
 those attributed to him by the “ Chronicon Angliae” : 
 “This preest,” says Froissart, “vsed often tymes on the 
 sondayes after masse, whanne the people were goynge 
 out ot the mynster, to go into the cloyster and preche, 
 and made the people to assemble about hym, and wolde 
 say thus : A ye good people, the maters gothe nat 
 well to passe in Englande, nor shall nat do tyll euery 
 thyng be common, and that there be no villayns nor 
 gentylmen. . . . What haue we deserued or why shulde 
 we be kept thus in seruage ? we be all come fro one 
 father and one mother, Adam and Eve : wherby can 
 they say or shewe that they be gretter lordes than we 
 be, sauynge by that they cause vs to wyn and labour, 
 for that they dispende . . . they dwell in fayre houses, 
 and we haue the payne and traueyle, rayne and wynde 
 in the feldes ; and by that that cometh of our labours 
 they kepe and maynteyne their estates. . . . Lette vs 
 go to the kyng, he is yonge, and shewe hym what 
 seruage we be in. . . . Thus Johan [Ball] sayd on 
 sondayes whan the people issued out of the churches 
 in the vyllages ; . . . and so they wolde murmure one 
 with another in the feldes and in the wayes as they 
 want togyder, affernv, ng howe Johan Ball sayd trouthe.” 1 
 
 So the enthusiastic multitude promised to make this 
 apostle archbishop and chancellor of that kingdom in 
 which he dreamed he should see “ equal liberty, equal 
 greatness, equal power ” 2 for all ; but he was taken, 
 drawn, hanged, beheaded, and quartered, 2 and his dream 
 remained a dream. 
 
 1 Lord Berners’ “Froissart,” cap. ccclxxxi. ed. 1812, p. 641. 
 
 2 “Chronicon Angliae,” 1328—1388, Thompson’s edition, 1874, 
 
 p. 322. 
 
286 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 Meanwhile, politics aside, there might yet be found 
 in the fourteenth century some of God’s chosen ones 
 who, alarmed by the crimes of the world and the state 
 of sin in which men lived, left their cells or the paternal 
 roof to go round among villages and towns and preach 
 conversion. There remained some of them, but they 
 were rare. Contrary to others, these did not speak 
 of public affairs, but of eternal interests; they had not 
 always received sacred orders ; they presented themselves 
 as volunteers to the celestial army. Such a man in 
 England was Richard Rolle of Hampole, whose life was 
 partly that of a hermit, partly of a wandering preacher. 
 He was neither monk, nor doctor, nor priest ; when 
 young, he had abandoned his father’s house to go and 
 lead a contemplative life in the solitude of the country. 
 There he meditated, prayed, and mortified himself; 
 crowds came to his cell to listen to his exhortations; 
 he had ecstatic trances ; his friends took off his ragged 
 cloak, mended it, and put it back on his shoulders 
 without his perceiving it. To add to his troubles the 
 devil tempted him “ under the form,” says the anchorite 
 himself, “ of a very beautiful young woman whom he 
 had seen before, who had had a very great love for 
 him.” With great difficulty he escaped the temptation. 
 He afterwards left his retreat, and during a long time 
 he travelled over the north of England, “ changing 
 place continually,” preaching to lead men to salvation. 
 Finally he settled at Hampole, where he ended his life 
 in retreat, writing incessantly, and edifying all the 
 neighbourhood by his devotion (1349). Scarcely was 
 he dead when his tomb became an object of pilgrimage, 
 pious people brought offerings there, miracles were 
 
WANDERING PREACHERS AND FRIARS. 287 
 
 accomplished. In the convent of nuns at Hampole. 
 which drew great honour from the vicinity of his tomb, 
 there was immediately composed an “ Office of St. 
 Richard, the hermit,” destined to be sung when he 
 should be canonized. But the Office of the oid hermit 
 and wandering preacher has never been sung down to 
 the present day. 1 
 
 The wandering preachers who were met with in the 
 villages were not always Lollards sent by Wyclif, nor 
 inspired men who, like Rolle of Hampole, held their 
 mission from God; they were often members of an 
 immense and powerful caste sub-divided into several 
 orders, that of the mendicant friars. The two principal 
 orders were the Dominicans, preachers or black friars, 
 and the Franciscans, friars minor or grey friars, both 
 established in England in the thirteenth century, 2 3 “ men 
 of this [world] that most wide walken,” said Langland .3 
 We must not allow the amusing satires of Chaucer to 
 blind our eyes to the initial merit of these orders, nor 
 to show us in the mendicant orders nothing, from the 
 beginning, but impudent and idle vagabonds, at once 
 impious, superstitious, and rapacious. The following 
 portrait is well-known : 
 
 “A Frere ther was, a wantoun and a merye 
 ***** 
 
 1 “ English Prose Treatises of Richard Rolle of Hampole,’ 
 edited by Rev. George Perry, 1866 (Early English Text Society! 
 Preface, pp. ix, xv-xix. See before, p. 137. 
 
 2 The Dominicans in 1221 ; the Franciscans in 1224. See Dr 
 Jessopp, “The Coming of the Friars,” London, 1888, pp. 32-34. 
 
 3 “ Vision,” Text C, pas. xi. 1. 14. 
 
ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 iSi> 
 
 Ful wel biloved, and famulier was he 
 With frankeleyns overal in his cuntre, 
 
 And eek with worthi wommen of the toun : 
 ***** 
 
 Ful sweetly herde he confessioan, 
 
 And plesaunt was his absolucioun. 
 
 He was an esy man to yeve penance, 
 
 Ther as he wiste to han a good pitance ; 
 
 For unto a povre ordre for to geve 
 Is signe that a man is wel i-shreve. 
 ***** 
 
 He knew wel the tavernes in every toun. 
 And every ostiller or gay capstere.”' 
 
 millVIiOMI cuugarcount tfi 
 
 nthwebuvotinicuii-tinum 
 ! P-’O fuo aUfTTfOKOlUtSlU 11 
 mtpjccrmmiitDtrtumen- 
 foutcio'amu i tnmnu ou 
 
 11 (lOJlUVlTtMitliif CP fif. c-U* 
 
 W. . A < 
 
 
 miiinuHiii'iitiiiiviiijiiiviiiiivi 
 
 cmeufiuitiftinln no’ licet mu : 
 pauC’tcolunu idnitpiHicoiow; t 
 $un;ic.uU.i n^mfiaatrfnmn tj?r tv 
 mu r. fa? ft pad 11 1 o.’ c on: rvnuodc 
 i iuM&nofi*^f<pjcaiKufphtnnnJ 
 
 A WORLDLY ECCLESIASTIC. 
 
 (From the MS. io £. IV.) 
 
 In Chaucer’s days, there were many such friars, but 
 there we re also exceptions. I do not speak merely of 
 those, rather rare in the fourteenth century, who, 
 1 Prologue to “Canterbury Tales,” ed. Morris, vol. ii. p. 7, 8. 
 
WANDERING PREACHERS AND FRIARS. 289 
 
 living among the poor, continued the traditions of their 
 order, poor as they and being besides experienced, 
 devout, and compassionate : Chaucer’s friar was not of 
 those, and was afraid of acquaintance with “ a lazer 
 or a beggere” and of dealing “with such poraile.” 
 But even among those who lived outside of the rule, 
 there were men whose thoughts were less base, how¬ 
 ever dangerous they might be. I speak of the friars 
 who may be confounded with the simple priests of their 
 enemy Wyclif, and who were certainly comprised along 
 with them in the statute of 1382. It is certain that 
 many friars, in their roaming career, like the priest 
 John Ball preached the new doctrines of emancipation 
 in the open spaces and markets. Hence alone among 
 all the clergy at the moment of revolt they still pre¬ 
 served a certain popularity ; and the monastic chroniclers, 
 their natural enemies, in their narrations, complacently 
 parade this new grievance against the detested orders. 1 
 Langland, who cursed the revolt, cursed also the friars 
 for having a part of responsibility in it. Envy has 
 spoken into their ears and said : study logic, law, and 
 the hollow dreams of philosophers, and go from village 
 to village proving that all property ought to be in 
 common, 
 
 “and prouen hit by Seneca 
 
 That alle thyng vnder heuene ouhte to beo in comune.” 2 
 
 1 Jack Straw, according to the confession which his contemporary 
 the monk Thomas Walsingham relates of him, would have liked 
 to keep no other ecclesiastics on the earth but the mendicant 
 friars; “Soli mendicantes vixissent super terram qui suffecissent 
 pro sacris celebrandis aut conferendis universas terras” (“ Historia 
 Anglicana,” vol. ii. p. 10, Rolls Series, 1867-69). 
 
 2 “ Piers Plowman,” Skeat’s edition, Text C, pass, xxiii. 1 . 174. 
 
 19 
 
296 
 
 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE. 
 
 Always armed with good sense, Langland plainly 
 declares that the author of these subversive theories lies ; 
 the Bible says, “ Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s 
 goods.” Formerly the life of the friars was exemplary, 
 Charity dwelt among them ; this was in the days of St. 
 Francis. 1 
 
 And indeed, what a holy mission their founder had 
 given them ! Coarsely dressed, barefoot, and ill-fed, 
 they were to go into the towns and visit the poorest and 
 more closely populated suburbs, to seek out the lost. 
 
 “ And all the brothers,” said Francis, in his rule, 
 “ are to be clad in mean habits, and may blessedly mend 
 them with sacks and other pieces ; whom I admonish 
 and exhort, that they do not despise or censure such 
 men as they see clad in curious and gay garments and 
 using delicate meats and drinks, but rather let every 
 one judge and despise himself.” They must never 
 quarrel, but be “ meek, peacable, modest, mild and 
 humble. . . . And they are not to ride unless some 
 manifest necessity or infirmity oblige them. Whatso¬ 
 ever house they go into, they shall first say, ‘ Peace be 
 unto this house,' and, according to the Gospel, it shall 
 be lawful for them to eat of all meats that are set before 
 them.” They must beg in order to get the necessaries 
 of life, but they must receive them in kind, never in 
 money. “ The brothers shall not make anything their 
 own, neither house nor place, nor any other thing; and 
 they shall go confidently to beg alms like pilgrims and 
 strangers in this world, serving our Lord in poverty 
 and humility.” 2 
 
 1 “Piers Plowman,” Skeat’s edition, Text C, pass. xvii. 1 . 352. 
 
 2 “ The Rule and Life of the Friars Minors,” in Dugdale’s 
 “ Monasticon Anglicanum,” London, 1817, vol. vi. p. 1504. 
 
WANDERING PREACHERS AND FRIARS. 29 
 
 All the miseries, all the hideous uglinesses of humanity, 
 were to appeal to their sympathy ; and the lower classes 
 in return would love and venerate them like saints. 
 Eccleston relates that a friar minor once, without per¬ 
 mission, put on his sandals to go to matins. He 
 dreamt afterwards that he was arrested by robbers, who 
 cried out, “Kill him ! Kill him !” “But I am a friar 
 minor,” said he, sure of being respected. “ Thou liest, 
 for thou art not barefoot ! ” 1 The first of their duties 
 was to remain poor, in order to be able, having nothing 
 to lose, fearlessly to use firm language to the rich and 
 powerful of the world. They were reminded of this 
 by the wise and courageous Robert Grossetete, Bishop 
 of Lincoln, on his death-bed, in 1253, and he cited to 
 them appropriately this line of Juvenal : “ Cantabit 
 vacuus coram latrone viator.” The friars were to be 
 like the traveller without money, whose peace of mind 
 is never disturbed by meeting robbers. 2 
 
 St. Francis would not have wished his friars to be 
 lettered men ; he has been unjustly reproached with, it. 
 With wisdom he forbade those subtle theological and 
 metaphysical researches which uselessly absorbed the 
 life of the great clerics. There were enough of others 
 who would give themselves up continually to this. 
 What he desired was to send through the world a race 
 
 1 Thomas of Ecclcston, author of the “Liber de advemu 
 minorum in Angliam ” (published by Brewer in his “Monumentu 
 Franciscana ”), saw the most flourishing period of the lesser 
 orders. His book is of extreme naivete and abounds in narratives 
 of visions and of marvellous deeds. The vision here in question 
 will be found at page 28 of the “Monumenta,” 1858 (Rolls Series). 
 
 2 Matthew Paris, “ Historia Anglorum,” London, 1866, vol. iii. 
 
 145 (Rolls Series). 
 
ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 292 
 
 of missionaries who would devote themselves materially 
 and physically to the welfare, body and soul, of all the 
 weary. Thus understood, the disinterestedness was 
 much more absolute, the servitude more voluntary, and 
 the effect on the masses greater. The subtlety of 
 teachers was not necessary for them; and the striking 
 example of the poverty of the consoler, heedless of 
 his own pain, was the best of consolations. Above all, 
 the pride of the apostle must be killed, the greatness of 
 his merit must be apparent to God only. When the 
 heart is purified to this point it has a sufficient com¬ 
 prehension of life and of its highest motives to be 
 naturally eloquent ; the study of the “ Summas,” in 
 . repute, is useless. But too many dangers surrounded 
 this sublime foundation, and the first was knowledge 
 itself. “ The Emperor Charles,” once said the Saint, 
 “ Roland and Oliver, and all the paladins and all strong 
 men, have pursued the infidel in battle till death, and 
 with great trouble and labour have won their memorable 
 victories. The holy martyrs died struggling for the 
 with of Christ. But in our days there are persons who 
 seek glory and honour among men by the narration 
 simply of the exploits of heroes. In like manner there 
 are some among you who take more pleasure in writing 
 and preaching on the merits of the saints than in 
 imitating their works.” This reply St. Francis made to 
 a novice who wished to have a psalter. He added in a 
 rather sarcastic vein, “ When you have a psalter you will 
 wish to have a breviary, and when you have a breviary 
 you will sit in a chair like a great prelate, and will say 
 to your brother, ‘ Bi other, fetch me my breviary ! ’ ” 1 
 
 1 ‘Speculum Vitae B. Francisci et sociorum eius”; opera fratris 
 Guil. Spoelbcrch, Antwerp, 1620, part 1. cap. 
 
WANDERING PREACHERS AND FRIARS. 293 
 
 The popularity of the friars was immense, and it was 
 soon found that they had monopolized in England 1 
 everything that concerned religion. 2 3 By a curious con¬ 
 tradiction, their poverty had attracted riches to them, 
 and their self-denial power ; the hovels where they 
 lodged at first had become sumptuous monasteries with 
 chapels as large as cathedrals ; the rich had themselves 
 buried there, in tombs chiselled with the latest refines 
 ments of the florid Gothic. Their apologists of the 
 fifteenth century relate with admiration that in their fine 
 library at London there was a tomb ornamented with 
 four archangels; 3 that their church, begun in 1306, 
 was three hundred feet long, ninety-five wide, and sixtv- 
 four feet high, with the columns all of marble as well 
 as the pavement. Kings and princes had enriched this 
 building; some had given the altars, others the stalls ; 
 Edward III., “for the repose of the soul of the most 
 illustrious Queen Isabella, buried in the choir,” repaired 
 the great middle window, which had been blown down 
 
 1 Thirty-two years after the friars had appeared in England, 
 they already possessed forty-nine convents (“ Monumenta Francis- 
 cana,” ed. Brewer, 1858, p. 10, Rolls Series). In Matthew Paris 
 will be found a very good description of the action of the friars 
 minor in England on their arrival here, of the poor, humble, and 
 useful life that they led at first (“ Historia Anglorum,” ed. 
 Madden, 1866, vol. ii. p. 109). 
 
 2 See the “Defensionem curatorum contra eos qui privilegiatos 
 se dicunt ” (q-to, undated), a speech made in 1357, by Richard 
 Fitz-Ralph, Archbishop of Armagh, in which are denounced the 
 successive encroachments ol the mendicant friars in detriment of 
 curates and other ecclesiastics. 
 
 3 “Monumenta Franciscana,” ut supra , pp. 514, &c. This 
 library had been founded by the celebrated Richard Wh'*tington, 
 Mayor of London in 1397, 1406, and 1419. 
 
294 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 by the wind. There was in the same church the heart 
 of the Queen Eleanor, mother of Edward I. Relating 
 that it was placed there, the monk Rishanger, a con¬ 
 temporary, makes the following cruel remark, which 
 Walsingham does not fail to reproduce in his “ Historia 
 Anglicana.” 1 “ Her body was buried in the monas¬ 
 
 tery of Ambreshury, but her heart in London, in the 
 church of the Minorites, who, like all friars of other 
 orders, claim for themselves something of the bodies of 
 any powerful persons dying ; after the manner of the 
 dogs assembling at the dead bodies, where each one 
 greedilv awaits his portion to devour.” Gilbert de 
 Clare, Earl of Gloucester, had given for the same 
 building twenty trunks of trees from his forest of 
 Tunbridge. Rich merchants, the mayor, the aldermen, 
 f dlo.ved the example. The names of the donors were 
 inscribed on the windows, and Langland was indignant, 
 and recalled the gospel precept, “ Let not thy left hand 
 know ''.hat thy right hand doeth.” We learn thus that 
 the third window on the west had been given by Walter 
 Mordon, merchant of salted cod, Stokefyschmonger, and 
 Mayor of London. The second window on the south 
 is due to John of Charlton, knight, and his wife, their 
 arms figure in it ; the fourth to Walter de Gorst, fell- 
 monaer of London ; the fifth to the Earl of Lancaster ; 
 the fourth on the west arises from “ the product ol 
 various collections, and thus it does not bear a name.” 
 One of the donors is styled the special father and friend 
 of the friar minors. It must have been a triumph for 
 the Wvclifites to reproach the friars with all these mun¬ 
 dane sp endours ; Wyclif returns to it again and again : 
 
 1 Year 1291-92. 
 
PSALM SINGING. THE INTERIOR OF A FKIAR’S CHURCH. 
 (From the MS. Domit. A. xvii., in the British Museum.) IP- 295- 
 
WANDERING FREACHERS AND FRIARS. 297 
 
 “ Freris bylden mony grete chirchis and costily waste 
 housis, and cloystris as hit were castels, and that with- 
 oute nede. . . . Grete housis make not men holy, and 
 onely by holynesse is God wel served.” 1 
 
 Interminable lists, too, of cardinals, bishops, and 
 kings who have belonged to the order are drawn up, 
 not forgetting even “ certain persons of importance in 
 the world,” which is quite a mundane vanity. Finally, 
 they point out the dead who at the last moment assumed 
 the habit of the friars : “ Brother Sir Roger Bourne, 
 knight, buried at Norwich in the friar’s habit, 1334.” 2 3 
 The pride and riches of the Dominicans are quite as 
 great. The author of “ Pierce the Ploughman’s Crede,” 
 towards the end of the fourteenth century, desciibes 
 minutely, but without exaggeration, one of their 
 convents, the splendid columns to be seen there, the 
 sculptures, paintings, and gildings that adorn the 
 chapel, the magnificent coloured windows ornamented 
 with the arms of the nobles or the mark of the 
 merchants who have given them, the imposing tombs 
 of knights and ladies stretched out in brilliant dress 
 heightened with gold.3 
 
 1 Wyclif’s “ Select English Works,” ed. Thos. Arnold, 1869, vol. 
 iii. p. 380. 
 
 2 “ Monumenta Franciscana,” p. 541. Thence the reproaches 
 of the satirists : 
 
 “ Of these frer mynours me thenkes moch wonder, 
 
 That waxen are thus hauteyn, that som tyme weren under.” 
 Thomas Wright’s “Political Poems and Songs,” 1859, v °l- *• P- 
 268 (Rolls Series). 
 
 3 “ Pierce the Ploughman’s Crede,” edited by Rev. W. W. 
 Skeat, 1867, Early English Text Society, pp. 7-9. The author of 
 this poem is unknown. Professor Skeat, with every probability, 
 
298 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 We see that the proportions are reversed; as great as 
 the modesty required by the holy founder now was the 
 pride. The faults with which Chaucer reproaches them 
 creep in among them ; they become interested, greedy, 
 rapacious; mendicity is their trade, which some practice 
 well, others better; miracles of self-denial are demanded 
 ot them, and behold, on the contrary, prodigies of 
 selfishness. It is no longer religion, it is their order 
 which must be protected. We have seen that many 
 meddle with social questions, others preach no longer 
 on behalf of Christ, but on behalf of the order; the 
 transfer is complete. All borrow largely from the 
 treasure of good works amassed by their first apostles 
 and spend it madly. The respect of the multitude 
 lessens, their renown for holiness is weakened, they 
 cast into the other scale of the balance so many faults 
 and disorders that it overweighs. And what remains 
 henceforth ? Superstition replaces holy customs ; they 
 have learned metaphysics, but it is a gross materialism 
 which at last masks the superhuman ideal of Francis of 
 Assisi. Contact with their habit represents a good 
 action ; if the dress is assumed on the death-bed the 
 demons will take flight. It is a cuirass without defect. 
 They have had numberless visions which have revealed 
 to them all these articles of a new faith : “ Thei techen 
 lordis and namely ladies,” says Wyclif, “that if they 
 dyen in Fraunceys habite, thei schul nevere cum in 
 helle for vertu therof.” 1 
 
 believes him to have been the same who wrote the “ Complaint o! 
 the Ploughman,” printed in Wright’s “ Political Poems,” vol. i. 
 pp. 304-346. [L. T. S.] 
 
 “ Select English Works,” vol. iii. p. .582. A satire of the 
 
WAND EKING PREACHERS AND FRIARS. 29c 
 
 And so it came to pass that, not only the poets like 
 Chaucer and Langland, not only the reformers like 
 Wyclif, but the monks also of old-established orders, 
 waged open war against the friars. To which they were 
 moved partly, it is true, by jealousy, when they saw 
 these newly created brotherhoods rising in importance, 
 in number and in wealth, but partly, also, by the 
 sight of undeniable abuses and worldliness. It seems 
 to day almost incredible that in those ages, vaguely 
 spoken of as ages of faith, a monk writing the chronicle 
 of his convent may have inserted in the pages of his 
 grave work, composed, if I may say so, by authority, 
 such descriptions of the behaviour of the friars as 
 Chaucer’s contemporary, the monk Thomas Walsing- 
 ham did, when, in St. Alban’s abbey, he wrote his 
 History of England. “ The friars,” says he, “ unmind¬ 
 ful of their profession, have even forgotten to what end 
 their orders were instituted ; for the holy men their 
 law-givers desired them to be poor and free of all kind 
 of temporal possessions, that they should not have 
 anything which they might fear to lose on account of 
 saying the truth. But now they are envious of 
 
 fourteenth century contains the following lines to the same 
 effect : 
 
 “ Isti fratres praedicant per villas et forum 
 Quod si mortem gustet quis in habitu minorum 
 Non intrabit postea locum tormentorum, 
 
 Sed statim perducitur ad regna ccelorum.” 
 
 but if a poor person asks burial in one of their privileged 
 churches, 
 
 “Gardianus absens est, statim respondetur 
 Et sic satis brevitcr pauper excludetur.” 
 
 (Wright’s “Political Poems,” Rolls Series, vol. i. pp. 256-57.) 
 
3 °° 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 possessors, approve the crimes of the great, induce the 
 commonalty into error, and praise the sins of both ; and 
 with the intent of acquiring possessions, they who had 
 renounced possessions, with the intent of gathering 
 money, they who had sworn to persevere in poverty, 
 call good evil and evil good, leading astray princes by 
 adulation, the people by lies, and drawing both with 
 
 u#Va: cyftp.i$nm ipni- no rcm p.vwn v hiu» < 
 
 tnftuuiitvnuncit <xr;tricicmutu* <nuftmnii 
 
 Sl'RINKLINO DINERS WITH IIOlV WaTEK. 
 
 (From the A/S. io E. IV.) 
 
 themselves out of the straight path.” Walsingham 
 adds that a familiar proverb in his time was, “ He is a 
 friar, therefore 2 liar” (“Hie est frater, ergo mendax”). 1 
 
 The sanctity of the institution and the unworthiness 
 of a great many of its representatives, caused it to be at 
 once venerated and detested ; however contemptible be 
 
 1 “ Historia Anglicana,’’ 1867-69, vol. ii. p. 13 (Rolls Series). 
 
WANDERING PREACHERS AND FRIARS. 361 
 
 the man, you could not be certain that he had not the 
 keys of heaven, and respect mingled with fear in the 
 sentiment felt towards him. Thus poets laughed at 
 the friars, popular story-tellers scouted them ; distrust, 
 doubt, contempt spread, rising from the mere friar to 
 the bishop himself; clerics were caricatured on the very 
 stalls upon which they sat; Master Reynard was repre¬ 
 sented delivering a sermon while wearing episcopalian 
 insignia, and the miniaturist, charged with illuminating 
 an imposing volume of Decretals, was not afraid to 
 satirize people belonging to the church, whether bishops, 
 monks, or mere clerks. One of these last is shown 
 forgetting in the kitchen his sprinkler and bucket of 
 holy water; then remembering what he has come for 
 and going to sprinkle the masters at table, he returns 
 afterwards to the cook-girl. 1 In the same spirit the 
 author of a popular song of the fourteenth century says : 
 
 “ Preste ne monke ne yit chanoun 
 Ne no man of religioun 
 Gyfen hem so to devocioun 
 As done thes holy frers. 
 
 For sumrae gyven ham to chyvalry, 
 
 Somme to riote and ribaudery ; 
 
 Bot ffrers gyven ham to grete study. 
 
 And to grete prayers.” 
 
 Then follow several stanzas containing precise accusa¬ 
 tions, the details of which cannot be quoted. 2 
 
 The people, nevertheless, saw in the friars their pro- 
 
 1 Brit. Mus. MS. Roy. 10 E. IV., fol. 100 and following folios. 
 See also in MS. 17 Cxv. in the British Museum a satirical picturt 
 of a “ ffryer.” 
 
 2 Wright’s “ Political Poems,” vol. i. p. 263. 
 
302 
 
 ENGLISH WA YEARING LIFE. 
 
 tectors and allies in case of revolt, though at other 
 times they pursued them in the streets wi'h stones. 
 Irritated by the “ proud behaviour ” of the preaching 
 friars, they hunted them down, maltreated them, and 
 demanded their extermination. They dealt no better 
 with the minorites : they pulled off their coats and 
 sacked their houses, “ by the instigation of the evil 
 spirit,” and did this in different places in the kingdom; 
 in 1385 it was necessary to have a royal proclamation 
 to protect them. 1 
 
 The Commons were indignant at the number of 
 foreigners among the friars, who were a permanent 
 danger to the State. They demanded “ that all the 
 alien friars, of whatever habit they might be, should 
 void the realm before the Feast of St. Michael, and if 
 they remained beyond the said feast they should be held 
 as out of the common law ” [/.*., outlawed]. 2 
 
 The friars kept their assurance, they were blessed in 
 the days of their good actions ; now they speak much 
 and make themselves feared ; it is to the Pope alone 
 
 * “At the same time (20 E. II.) the preaching friars took to 
 flight because they feared to be maltreated and ruined, because the 
 commonalty bore with them very reluctantly, on account of their 
 proud behaviour, for they did not behave as friars ought ” 
 (“ Croniques de London,” ed. Aungier, Camden Society, p. 54). 
 
 “Know ye, that we have understood, that some persons of our 
 kingdom of England, by the instigation of the evil spirit, . . . 
 do and daily strive to do harm and scandal to our beloved in Christ, 
 the religious men, friars of the order of minors, . . . openly and 
 secretly stirring up our people against them to destroy the houses 
 of the said friars, tearing their habits from them, striking some, and 
 ill-treating them, against our peace” (Proclamation of Richard 11 . 
 in 1385. Rymer’s “ Fccdera,” ed. 1704, vol. vii. p. 458). 
 
 » “ Rolls of Parliament,” 20 E. 111 ., vol. ii. p. 1C2, a.d. 1346, 
 
WANDERING PREACHERS AND ERIARS. 303 
 
 they are amenable ; they may go on without bowing to 
 any one, their power is independent, they have become a 
 church within the Church. Along with the priest who 
 preaches and confesses in his parish is found the 
 wandering friar, who preaches and confesses every¬ 
 where ; his universal presence is a source of conflicts ; 
 the parish priest finds himself abandoned ; the religious 
 wayfarer brings the unknown, the extraordinary, and 
 everybody runs to him. He lays down his staff and 
 wallet and begins to talk; his language is that of the 
 people, the whole pnrish is present, he occupies himself 
 with their eternal welfare, and also with their earthly 
 matters; for lay life is familiar to him, and he can give 
 appropriate advice. But his teaching is sometimes 
 suspicious. “These false prophets,” says (not Wyclif, 
 but) the Council of Saltzburg of 1386, “by their 
 sermons full of fables often lead astray the souls of 
 their hearers,” they make game of the authority of the 
 parish priests. 1 What power could resist ? The tide 
 rose and swept away the embankments ; the excellent 
 became the worst, corruptio optimi pessima , and the old 
 adage was verified to the letter. Every class of society 
 had grievances against them, lords, bishops, monks, 
 Wyclifs followers, and the men of the people; still 
 they kept their place ; men found them everywhere at 
 the same time, in the cabin and in the castle, begging 
 from the rich and knocking also at the door of the poor. 
 They sat down at the table of the lord, who treated them 
 with consideration ; with him they played the part of 
 the fashionable religious man ; they interested, they 
 pleased. Wyclif shows them creeping into familiarity 
 1 Labbe, “ Sacrosancta Concilia,” Florence, vol. xxvi. col. 729. 
 
ENGLISH WA YEA RING LIFE. 
 
 3°4 
 
 with the great, liking “to speke bifore lordis and sitte 
 at tho mete with hom, . . . also to be confessoures of 
 lordis and ladyes.” 1 Langland, in “ Piers Plowman,” 
 reproaches them in the same way. In a Wyclifite 
 treatise of the same period we read, “ Thei geten hem 
 worldly offis in lordis courtis, and sumnie to ben con- 
 seilours and reuleris of werris, and also to ben chamber- 
 leyns to lordes and ladies.” 2 3 
 
 On the other hand, they were seen to exercise the 
 most varied callings in the villages where they made 
 their rounds, to their wallet they added store of thread, 
 needles, ointments, with which they traded : 
 
 “ Thei becomen pedleris, berynge knyues, pursis, 
 pynnys and girdlis and spices and sylk and precious 
 pellure and forrouris for wymmen, and therto smale 
 gentil hondis [dogs], to gete love of hem.” 3 
 
 People sung of them, but they continued, and every 
 one laughed : 
 
 “ Thai wandren here and there, 
 
 And dele with dyvers marcerye, 
 
 Right as thai pedlers were. 
 
 Thai dele with purses, pynnes, and knyves, 
 
 With gyrdles, gloves, for wenches and wyves.” * 
 
 1 “ Select English Works,” vol. iii. p. 396. 
 
 2 “The English Works of Wvclif, hitherto unprinted,” edited 
 by F. D. Matthew. Early English Text Society, 1880, p. 13. Most 
 of the pieces composing this collection are merely attributed to 
 Wyclif, this one among them. See also Gower’s “ Vox Clamantis,” 
 Roxburghe Club, 1850, p. 228. 
 
 3 “ English Works of Wyclif hitherto unprinted,” edited by 
 F. D. Matthew, 1880, p. 12. 
 
 « So also in Chaucer’s “ Prologue” . 
 
 “ His typet was ay farsud ful of knyfes 
 And pynnes, for to yive faire wyfes.” 
 
WANDERING PREACHERS AND FRIARS. 305 
 
 The author of this piece, a contemporary of Chaucer, 
 adds : 
 
 “ I was a frere ful many a day 
 Therefor the sothe I wate. 
 
 But when I sawe that thair lyvyng 
 Acordyd not to thair preching, 
 
 Of I cast my frer clothing, 
 
 And wyghtly went my gate” (my way). 1 
 
 Between the scepticism of the century and blind 
 credulity, superstition flourished. The friars thought 
 they could sell the merits of their order by retail. They 
 were so numerous and prayed so devoutly, that they had 
 a surplus of prayers, and thought they should do well 
 by distributing this superfluous wealth. The friars 
 went about the villages, discounting these invisible 
 riches, and selling to pious souls, under the name of 
 letters of fraternity , drafts upon heaven. What is the 
 use of these parchments ? the friars were asked. Thev 
 give a share in the merits of the whole order of St. 
 Francis. What are they good for ? Wyclif was asked. 
 “ Bi siche resouns thinken many men that thes lettris 
 mai do good for to covere mostard pottis.” 2 
 
 However depreciated they were at the end of the 
 century, the friars did not lose all hold over the people. 
 Henry IV., of the House of Lancaster, usurped the 
 throne, and soon found that he must reckon with the 
 friars minors. A good many among them were indig¬ 
 nant with his enterprise, and preached in the country, 
 
 1 Wright’s “Political Poems and Songs,” 1859, vol. i. pp. 264 
 and 268. 
 
 2 “Select English Works,” vol. i. p. 381. See also Wright’s 
 “Political Poems and Songs,” 1859, vol. i. p. 257. 
 
3°6 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 during the first years of his reign, that Richard II. 
 was still living and was the true king. Henry IV. had 
 them imprisoned; one who was brought into his 
 presence reproached him violently for the deposition of 
 Richard : “ But I have not usurped the crown, I have 
 been elected,” said the king. “ The election is null if 
 the legitimate king is living ; if he is dead he is dead 
 by your means; if he was killed by you, you can have 
 no tide to the throne.” “ By my head,” cried the 
 prince, “I will have thine cut off!” The accused 
 were advised to put themselves at the king’s mercy ; 
 they refused, and demanded to be regularly tried by a 
 jury. Neither in the city nor in Holborn could any one 
 be found to sit on the jury ; inhabitants of Highgate 
 and Islington were obliged to be fetched for the pur¬ 
 pose. These men declared the friars to be guilty ; the 
 poor wretches were drawn to Tyburn, hung, then 
 beheaded, and their heads were placed on London 
 Bridge (1402). The convent received permission to 
 gather the remains of the condemned and to bury 
 them in a holy spot. I he Islington and Highgate 
 jurors came weeping to the Franciscans to implore their 
 pardon for a verdict of which they repented. During 
 several years, in spite of these punishments, friars con¬ 
 tinued to preach in the country in favour of Richard 
 II., maintaining that he still lived, although Henry IV. 
 had taken care to have a public exhibition of the corpse 
 of that prince in London. 1 
 
 In the fifteenth century, however, the reputation of 
 the friars only grew worse. The abuses of which they 
 
 1 “ Eulogium historiarum,” ed. Haydon, Rolls Series, London, 
 1858, vol. iii. p. 392. 
 
WANDERING PREACHERS AND FRIARS. 307 
 
 were the ’living personification, reckon among the 
 gravest of those which were to give so many adherents 
 to Luther. If there remained in their ranks men who 
 knew how to die, like that unfortunate friar Forest, 
 who was hung living by chains above a wood fire and 
 slowly roasted, while the reformer, Bishop Latimer, 
 addressed him “ with pious exhortations ’’ to force him 
 to repent (1538), 1 the mass of the representatives of 
 their order remained the object of universal contempt. 
 This is one of the few points on which it sometimes 
 happened that Catholics and Protestants agreed. Sir 
 Thomas More, beheaded for the Catholic faith, spoke 
 of the friars in the same tone as his adversary Tyndal, 
 who was strangled for the Protestant faith. In his eyes 
 they are but dangerous vagabonds. He relates, in his 
 “ Utopia,” the dispute between a friar and a fool, on the 
 question of pauperism. “‘You will never,’ said the 
 friar, ‘ get rid of beggars, unless you also make an edict 
 against us friars.’ ‘Well,’ said the fool, ‘it is already 
 made, the cardinal passed a very good law against you 
 when he decreed that all vagabonds should be seized 
 and made to work, for you are the greatest vagabonds 
 that can be.’ When this was said, and all eyes being 
 turned on the cardinal, they saw he did not disown it; 
 every one, not unwillingly, began to smile, except the 
 friar.” 2 The jest is rather heavy ; Sir Thomas More, 
 notwithstanding his reputation for wit, often could not 
 
 1 Holinshed, “Chronicles,” London, 1587, vol. iii. p. 945. This 
 friar had refused the oath of supremacy. 
 
 2 “Libellus vere aureus . . . de optimo reipublicas statu deque 
 noua Insula Vtopia . . .” cura P. ^Egidii . . . nunc primum . . . 
 editus, Louvain, 1516, lib. i. 
 
?o8 ENGLISH WA YE A RING LIFE. 
 
 do better. The point to be noted is that the friars’ 
 name was becoming worse and worse, thanks to the 
 rounds in their own interest made continually among 
 the farms and villages, not now to help the poor people, 
 but, on the contrary, to demand a part of what they 
 had ; we should remark also the close resemblance that 
 the chancellor finds between the mendicant friar and the 
 common hearthless and homeless vagabond. 
 
A GAME OF FOX AND GEESE. 
 
 (From the MS. I o E. IV.) 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE PARDONERS 
 
 « t NDULGENCE” was at first simply a commu- 
 X tation for penance. The punishments inflicted 
 for sins committed were long ; fasting and 
 mortification had to be carried on for months and years. 
 The faithful were permitted to transform these inter¬ 
 minable chastisements into shorter expiation. Thus a 
 clerk might exchange a year of penance against three 
 thousand lashes, reciting a psalm at each hundred. 1 
 Tables of such exchanges were drawn up by competent 
 prelates ; thus, Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 in the ninth century had published a tariff allowing 
 people to be excused of a month’s penance on bread 
 and water if they sung instead twelve hundred psalms 
 
 1 According to Hardy, “ Registrum palatinum Dunclmcnse,” 
 preface, vol. iii. p. cxxxiv. 
 
3io 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 with bended knees ; for a year’s penance the singing 
 was increased, and each course of psalter singing was 
 accompanied with three hundred strokes in the palm 
 of the hand (jpalmat#). But it was possible to excuse 
 a year’s penance and escape at the same time all the 
 psalms, fasts, and strokes on the hand by pa\ ing a 
 hundred shillings in alms. 1 In another such table, 
 drawn up by Halitgarius in the same century, we find 
 this additional facility, that if the sinner, sentenced to 
 a month’s penance on bread and water, chooses rather 
 the singing of psalms he may be allowed not to kneel, 
 but then instead of twelve hundred he will have to sing 
 fifteen hundred and eighty psalms. He may in the 
 same manner be excused of more than one month, up to 
 twelve, 2 in which last case, if he chooses not to kneel, 
 he will have to sing no less than twenty thousand one 
 hundred and sixty psalms. 
 
 Laymen, who had their choice, frequently preferred a 
 payment in money, and the sums thus obtained were 
 usually well employed. We have seen them serve for 
 the support of roads and bridges ; they were also 
 applied in re-constructing churches, in helping the sick 
 of a hospital, and in assisting the expenses of numerous 
 public enterprises. The entirety of punishments was 
 taken off - by a plenary indulgence; thus Urban II., at 
 the Council of Clermont, granted one to all those who, 
 through pure devotion and not to acquire booty or 
 glory, should go to Jerusalem to fight the infidel. 
 
 1 “Theodori archiepiscopi Cantuariensis pcenitentiale,’’ in 
 Migne’s “ Patrologia,” vol. xcix. col. 938 and 940. 
 
 2 “ Halitgarii episcopi Cameracensis liber pcenitentialis,” ip 
 Migne’s “ Patrologia,” vol. cv. col. 706. 
 
THE PARDONERS 
 
 3 ” 
 
 Little by little the idea of a commutation vanished, 
 and was replaced by quite a different system, known as 
 the theory of the “ treasury.” It had indeed become 
 obvious as the use of indulgences spread that they could 
 no longer be justified as offering to the sinner nothing 
 more than his choice between several sorts of penance. 
 They were something else. A short prayer, a small 
 gift in money, would exempt devout people from the 
 greatest penalties and from numberless years of a possible 
 purgatory ; the one could scarcely be considered as being 
 the equivalent of the other ; how was the equilibrium 
 established between the two scales ? The answer was 
 that the deficiency was made up by the application to 
 the sinner of merits, not indeed his own, but merits of 
 Christ, the Virgin, and the saints, of which there was 
 an inexhaustible “ treasury,” the dispensation of which 
 rested with the Pope and the clergy. This theory was 
 acted upon long before it was put forth in express 
 words ; it does not appear to have been more than 
 vaguely alluded to before the fourteenth century, when 
 Pope Clement VI., “ Doctor Doctorum,” gave a perfectly 
 clear definition and exposition of the “ treasury ” system. 
 In a bull of the year 1350, Clement explains that the 
 merits of Christ are infinite, and the merits of the 
 Virgin and the saints are superabunding. This excess 
 of unemployed merit has been constituted into a treasury, 
 “ not one that is deposited in a strong room, or con¬ 
 cealed in a field, but which is to be u'-efully distributed 
 to the faithful, through the blessed Perer, keeper of 
 heaven’s gate, and his successors.” However largely 
 employed, there ought to be “ no fear of an absorption 
 or a diminution of this treasury, first on account of the 
 
3 J 2 
 
 ENGLISH IVA YEA RING LIFE. 
 
 infinite merits of Christ, as has been said before, then 
 because the more numerous are the people reclaimed 
 through the use of its contents, the more it is augmented 
 by the addition of their merits.” 1 It must be admitted 
 that such being the case no doubt the treasury would 
 never be found empty, since the more was drawn 
 from it, the more it grew. Such is in all its simplicity 
 the theory of the “ treasury,” which has ever since, and 
 with no change whatever, been acted upon. 
 
 Having so much wealth to distribute among the 
 faithful, the Church used to insure its repartition through 
 means of certain people who went about, authorized by 
 official letters, offering to good Christians some particle 
 of the heavenly wealth placed at the disposal of the 
 successors of St. Peter. They expected in return some 
 part of the much more worldly riches their hearers 
 might be possessed of, and which could be applied to 
 more tangible uses than the “ treasury.” The men 
 entrusted with this mission were called sometimes 
 quaestors, on account of what they asked, and some¬ 
 times 'pardoners , on account of what they gave. 
 
 Does not the name of these strange beings, whose 
 character is peculiar to the Middle Ages much more 
 than that of the friars, or any of those whom we have 
 just studied, recall the sparkling laugh of Chaucer, and 
 bring back his amusing portrait to the memory ? His 
 pardoner describes himself: 
 
 “ Lordyngs, quod he, in chirches whan I preche, 
 
 I peyne me to have an hauteyn speche, 
 
 See Appendix XIII. 
 
THE PARDONERS. 
 
 3 1 3 
 
 And ryng it out, as lowd as doth a belle, 
 For I can al by rote which that I telle. 
 My teeme is alvvay oon, and ever was; 
 Radix omnium malorum at cupidita< 
 
 In the pulpit he leans to the right, to the left, he 
 gesticulates, he babbles; his arms move as much as his 
 tongue; it is a wonder to see and hear him. 
 
 “ I stonde lik a clerk in my puipit, 
 
 And whan the lewed people is doun i-sct, 
 
 I preche so as ye have herd before, 
 
 And telle hem an hondred japes more. 
 
 Than peyne I me to strecche forth my necke 
 And est and west upon the poeple I bekkc, 
 
 As doth a dowfe, syttyng on a berne ; 
 
 Myn hondes and my tonge goon so yerne. 
 
 That it is joye to se my businesse. 
 
 ***** 
 
 I prcche no thyng but of coveityse. 
 
 Therfor my teem is yit, and ever was, 
 
 Radix omnium malorum est cupiditas .” 
 
 This description seems to-day so extraordinary 
 that it is well worth inquiring whether or not it 
 is consistent with facts, and can be verified from 
 authentic sources. The search for documents on the 
 subject will show once more the marvellous exact¬ 
 ness of Chaucer’s pictures; however malicious they 
 may be when they concern the pardoner, they do not 
 contain a trait that may not be justified by letters 
 emanating from papal or episcopal chancery. 
 
 These qu<estores, or queestiarii as they were officially 
 called, were, so says Boniface IX., speaking at the very 
 
3H 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 time that the poet wrote his tales, sometimes secular 
 priests and sometimes friars, but extremely impudent. 
 They dispensed with all ecclesiastic licence, and went 
 from hamlet to hamlet delivering speeches, showing 
 their relics and selling their pardons. It was a lucrative 
 trade, and the competition was great; the success of the 
 authorized pardoners had caused a crowd of interested 
 pardoners to issue from the schools or the priory, or 
 from mere nothingness, greedy, with glittering eyes, as 
 in the “Canterbury Tales”: “ suche glaryng eyghen 
 hadde he as an hare ; ” true vagabonds, infesters of the 
 highroads, who having nothing to care for, boldly 
 carried on their impostor’s traffic. They imposed it, 
 spoke loud, and without scruple unbound upon earth 
 all that might be bound in heaven. Much profit 
 arose from this ; Chaucer’s pardoner gained a hundred 
 marks a year, which might easily be, since, having 
 asked no authority from any one he gave no one any 
 accounts, and kept all the gains to himself. In his 
 measured language the Pope tells us as much as the 
 poet, and it seems as though he would recommence, 
 feature for feature, the portrait drawn by the old story¬ 
 teller. First, says the pontifical letter, these pardoners 
 swear that they were sent by the Court of Rome : 
 “ Certain religious, who even belong to different 
 mendicant orders, and some secular clerks, occasionally 
 advanced in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, affirm that they 
 are sent by us or by the legates or the nuncios of the 
 apostolic see, and that they have received the mission to 
 treat of certain affairs, ... to receive money for us 
 and the Roman Church, and they go about the country 
 under these pretexts.” We find in the same manner 
 
THE PARDONERS. 
 
 315 
 
 that it is Rome whence Chaucer’s personage comes, and 
 he is always speaking against avarice : 
 
 “ a gentil pardoner 
 * * * * * 
 
 That streyt was comen from the court of Rome 
 * # * * # 
 
 Ilis walet lay byforn him in his lappe, 
 
 Brct-ful of pardoun come from Rome al hoot.” 
 
 # # * * # 
 
 “What ! trowe ye, whiles that I may preche 
 And wynne gold and silver for I teche, 
 
 That I wil lyve in povert wilfully ? 
 
 # * * * * 
 
 For I wol preche and begge in sondrv londes, 
 
 I wil not do no labour with myn hondes, 
 
 * # * # * 
 
 I wol noon of thapostles counterfete 
 I wol have money, wolle, chese, and whete.” 
 
 “ Thus,” continues the Pope, “ they proclaim to the 
 faithful and simple people the real or pretended authori¬ 
 zations which they have received ; and irreverently 
 abusing those which are real, in pursuit of infamous 
 and hateful gain, consummate their impudence by attri- 
 buting to themselves false and pretended authorizations 
 of this kind.” 
 
 What says the poet ? That the charlatan has always 
 fine things to show, that he knows how to dazzle the 
 simple that he has his bag full of parchments with 
 respect-worthy seals, true or false no doubt; that the 
 people look on and admire, that the curate gets angry 
 but holds his tongue : 
 
 “First I pronounce whennes that I come. 
 
 And thanne my bullcs schewe I alle and some : 
 
316 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 Oure liege lordes seal upon my patent 
 That schewe I first, my body to warent, 
 
 That no man be so hardy, prest ne clerk. 
 
 Me to destourbe of Cristes holy werk. 
 
 And after that than tel I forth my talcs. 
 
 Bulks of popes and of cardynales, 
 
 Of patriarkes, and of bisshops, I schewc. 
 
 And in Latyn speke I wordes fewe 
 To savore with my predicacioun, 
 
 And for to stere men to devocioun.” 
 
 And that “ turpem et infamem quasstum ” of which 
 the pontiff makes mention is not forgotten : 
 
 “ Now good men, God foryeve yow your trespas, 
 4 nd ware yow fro the synne of avarice. 
 
 Myn holy pardoun may you alle warice, 
 
 So that ye offren noblis or starlinges, 
 
 Or elles silver spones, broches, or rynges. 
 Bowith your hedes under this holy bulled' 
 
 The effect of large parchments and large seals dis¬ 
 played from the pulpit scarcely ever failed upon the 
 simple people assembled, and in many circumstances 
 of more importance than retail selling of the merits 
 of saints in heaven, recourse was had to such per¬ 
 formances. Thus when Henry of Lancaster came to 
 turn his cousin Richard II. out of the English throne, 
 the first thing he did, according to Creton, was to have 
 a papal bull carried up the pulpit of Canterbury 
 Cathedral by the Archbishop himself, the text being 
 read and commented upon by the prelate. As Creton 
 was not present when this scene, which he describes 
 only on hearsay, took place, the speech he gives is the 
 more interesting for our purpose for it may be con- 
 
EAniXG IN CANTERBURY CATHLDRAL OK A FABRICATED PAPAL BULL, A.D. 1399. [/>. 317 
 
 (From the A/S. Ilarl. 1319.) 
 
THE PARDONERS. 
 
 3 ! 9 
 
 sidered an, average speech, such a one as was usual and 
 likely to have been pronounced on the occasion. It is 
 to the following effect: 
 
 “My good people, hearken all of you here : you 
 well know how the king most wrongfully and without 
 reason has banished your lord Henry ; I have therefore 
 obtained of the holy father who is our patron, that 
 those who shall forthwith bring aid this day, shall 
 every one of them have remission of all sins whereby 
 from the hour of their baptism they have been defiled. 
 Behold the sealed bull that the Pope of renowned Rome 
 hath sent me, my good friends, in behalf of you all. 
 Agree then to help him to subdue his enemies, and 
 you shall for this be placed after death with those who 
 are in Paradise.” 
 
 “ Then,” continues the narrator, describing the effect 
 of the speech, “ might you have beheld young and old, 
 the feeble and the strong, make a clamour, and regard¬ 
 ing neither right or wrong, stir themselves up with 
 one accord ; thinking that what was told them was 
 true, for such as they have little sense or knowledge. 
 The archbishop invented this device . . .” 1 
 
 Supposed or real, this speech is given by Creton as 
 having been delivered in good earnest, and is fit to be 
 compared to the pardoner’s in Chaucer's tale. The 
 Canterbury pilgrim’s burst of eloquence may be taken 
 as a caricature, but not an unrecognizable one of the 
 grave discourses such as the one we have just heard. 
 
 The parallel may be continued farther. The apos¬ 
 tolic letter before alluded to goes on: “ For some 
 
 * “ Archceologia,” vol. xx. p. 53, John Webb’s translation. See 
 Appendix XIV, 
 
320 
 
 ENGLISH IVA YFARING LIFE. 
 
 insignificant sum of money, they extend the veil of a 
 lying absolution not over penitents, but over men of 
 a hardened conscience who persist in their iniquity, 
 remitting, to use their own words, horrible crimes 
 without there having been any contrition nor fulfilment 
 of any of the prescribed forms.” Chaucer’s pardoner 
 acts in the very same manner, and says : 
 
 “ I yow assoile by myn heyh power, 
 
 If ye woln offre, as clene and eek as cler 
 As ye were born. 
 
 I rede that oure hoste schal bygynne, 
 
 For he is most envoliped in synne. 
 
 Come forth, sire ost, and offer first anoon, 
 
 And thou schalt kisse the reliquis everichoon, 
 
 Ye for a grote ; unbocle anone thi purse.” 1 
 
 Boccaccio in one of the novels which he is supposed 
 to tell himself, under the name of Dioneo, produces 
 an ecclesiastic who has the greatest resemblance, moral 
 and physical, to Chaucer’s man. He is called Fra 
 Cipolla, and was accustomed to visit Certaldo, Boc¬ 
 caccio’s village. “ This Fra Cipolla was little of person, 
 red-haired and merry of countenance, the jolliest rascal 
 in the world, and to boot, for all he was no scholar, he 
 was so fine a talker and so ready of wit that those who 
 knew him not would not only have esteemed him a great 
 rhetorician, but had avouched him to be Tully himself, 
 or maybe, Quintilian ; and he was gossip, or friend, or 
 well-wisher, to well-nigh every one in the country.” If 
 
 1 “ The Poetical Works of Chaucer,” ed. Richard Morris, Pro¬ 
 logue to “Canterbury Tales,” vol. ii. p. 21, and Prologue to 
 “Pardoner’s Tale,” vol. iii. pp. 86-90. 
 
THE PARDONERS. 
 
 321 
 
 his hearers give him a little money or corn or anything, 
 he will show them the most wonderful relics ; and besides 
 they will enjoy the special protection of the patron saint 
 of his order, St. Anthony : “ Gentlemen and ladies, it 
 is, as you know, your usance to send every year to the 
 poor of our lord Baron St. Anthony of your corn and 
 of your oats, this little and that much, according to his 
 means and his devoutness, to the intent that the blessed 
 St. Anthony may keep watch over your beeves and asses 
 and swine and sheep ; and, beside this, you use to pay, 
 especially such of you as are inscribed into our company, 
 that small due which is payable once a year.” 1 
 
 One may conceive that such people had few scruples 
 and knew how to profit by those of others. They 
 released their clients from all possible vows, remitted 
 all penances, for money. The more prohibitions, 
 obstacles, or penances were imposed, the more their 
 affairs prospered ; they passed their lives in undoing 
 what the real clergy did, and that without profit to 
 any one but themselves. The Pope again tells us : 
 “ For a small compensation they release you from vows 
 of chastity, of abstinence, of pilgrimage beyond the 
 sea to Sts. Peter and Paul of Rome, or to St. Janies 
 of Compostella, and any other vows.” They allow 
 heretics to re-enter the bosom of the Church, illegiti¬ 
 mate children to receive sacred orders, they take off 
 excommunications, interdicts ; in short, as their power 
 comes from themselves alone, nothing forces them to 
 restrain it and they take it fully and without stint ; 
 
 1 “ The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio” . . . done into 
 English ... by John Payne, London, 18S6, vol. ii. p. 278, tenth 
 Tale, sixth Day. 2i 
 
322 
 
 ENGLISH IVA YFARING LIFE. 
 
 they recognize no superiors and thus remit little and 
 great penances. Lastly, they affirm that “ it is in the 
 name of the apostolic chamber that they take all this 
 money, and yet they are never seen to give an account 
 of it to any one : c Horret et merito indignatur animus 
 talia reminisci.’ ” 1 
 
 They went yet further, they had formed regular 
 associations for systematically speculating in the public 
 confidence ; thus Boniface IX. orders in the year 1390, 
 that the Bishops should make an inquiry into every¬ 
 thing that concerns these “ religious or secular priests, 
 their people, their accomplices, and their associations ” ; 
 that they should imprison them “ without other form 
 of law ; de piano ac sine strepitu et figura judicii; ” 
 should make them render accounts, confiscate their 
 leceipts, and if their papers be not in order hold them 
 under good keeping, and refer the matter to the 
 sovereign pontiff. 
 
 There were indeed authorized pardoners who paid 
 the produce of their receipts into the treasury of the 
 Roman Court. The learned Richard d’Angerville (or 
 de Bury), Bishop of Durham, in a circular of December 
 8, 1340, speaks of apostolic or diocesan letters subject 
 to a rigorous visa, with which the regular pardoners 
 were furnished. 2 But many did without them, and the 
 Bishop notices one by one the same abuses as the Pope 
 and as Chaucer. “ Strong complaints have come to 
 our ears that the questors of this kind, not without 
 great and rash boldness, of their own authority, and to 
 the great danger of the souls who are confided to us, 
 openly making game of our power, distribute indul- 
 1 See Appendix XV. 2 See same Appendix. 
 
THE PARDONERS. 
 
 3 4 4 
 
 gences to the people, dispense with the execution of 
 vows, absolve the perjured, homicides, usurers, and 
 other sinners who confess to them ; and, for a little 
 money paid, grant remission for crimes ill-atoned for, 
 and are given to a multitude of other abuses.” Hence¬ 
 forward all curates and vicars must refuse to admit 
 these pardoners to preach or to give indulgences, 
 whether in the Churches or anywhere else, if they be 
 not provided with letters or a special licence from the 
 Bishop himself. And this was a most proper injunction, 
 for with these bulls brought from far-off lands, furnished 
 with unknown seals “ of popes and of cardynales, of 
 patriarkes and of bisshops,” 1 it was too easy to make 
 people believe that all was in order. Meanwhile let 
 all those who are now wandering round the country be 
 stripped of what they have taken, and let “ the money 
 and any other articles collected by them or on theii 
 behalf” be seized. The common people not always 
 having pieces of money, Chaucer’s pardoner contented 
 himself with “ silver spones, broches, or rynges; ” 
 besides, we find here a new allusion to those associa¬ 
 tions of pardoners which must have been so harmful. 
 They employed inferior agents ; the general credulity 
 and the widespread wish to get rid of religious trammels 
 which men had imposed on themselves, or which had 
 been imposed on them on account of their sins, were 
 a mine for the perverse band, the veins of which they 
 carefully worked. By means of these subordinate re¬ 
 presentatives of their imaginary power, they easily 
 extended the field of their operations ; and the com¬ 
 plicated threads of their webs traversed the whole 
 1 Pardoner’s Prologue. 
 
324 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 kingdom, sometimes too strong to be broken, some¬ 
 times too subtle to be perceived. 
 
 Occasionally, too, the bad example came from very- 
 high quarters ; all had not the Bishop of Durham’s 
 virtue. Walsingham relates with indignation the con¬ 
 duct of a cardinal who made a stay in England in order 
 to negoeiate a marriage between Richard II. and the 
 emperor’s sister. For money this prelate, like the 
 pardoners, took off excommunications, dispensed with 
 pilgrimages to St. Peter, St. James, or Jerusalem, and 
 had the sum that would have been spent on the journey 
 given to him, according to an estimate ; 1 and it is 
 much to be regretted from every point of view that 
 the curious tariff of the expenses of a journey thus 
 estimated has not come down to us. 
 
 The list of the misdeeds cf pardoners was in truth 
 enormous, and it is found even larger on exploring 
 the authentic ecclesiastical documents than in the poems 
 of Chaucer himself. Thus in a bull of Pope Urban V., 
 dated 1369, we find the description of practices which 
 seem to have been unknown to the otherwise experienced 
 “gentil pardoner of Rouncival.” These doings were 
 familiar to the pardoners employed by the hospital of 
 St. John of Jerusalem in England. They pretended to 
 have received certain immunities by which they could 
 dispence with apostolic letters, and were not bound to 
 
 1 “ Excommunicatis gratiam absolutionis impendit. Vota pere- 
 grinationis ad apostolorum limina, ad Terrain Sanctam, ad Sanctum 
 Jacobum non prius remisit quam tantam pecuniam recepisset, 
 quantam, juxta veram mstimationem, in eisdem peregrinationibus 
 expendere debuissent, et ut cuncta concludam brevibus, nihil 
 omnino petendum erat, quod non censuit, intercedente pecunia, 
 concedendum ” (“Historia Anglicana Rolls Series, vol. i. p. 452) 
 
THE PARDONERS. 
 
 3 2 5 
 
 show any in order to be allowed to make their preach¬ 
 ings and to offer to the people their “ negotia quass- 
 tuaria.” The parish rectors and curates naturally 
 objected to such pretensions, but their complaints were 
 badly received, and to get rid of such tenacious adver¬ 
 saries, the pardoners sued them before some distant judge 
 for contempt of their cloth and privileges. While the 
 suit was being determined they remained free to act 
 pretty much as they liked. Sometimes they were so 
 happy as to obtain a condemnation against the priest 
 who had tried to do his duty by them, and even suc¬ 
 ceeded in having him excommunicated : which could 
 of course but be a cause of great merriment among the 
 unholy tribe. “ Very often, also,” adds Pope Urban, 
 “ when they mean to hurt a rector or his curate, they go 
 to his church on some feast-day, especially at such time 
 as the people are accustomed to come and make their 
 offerings. They begin then to make their collections 
 or to read the name of their brotherhood or fraternity, 
 and continue until such an hour as it is not possible to 
 celebrate mass conveniently that day. Thus they 
 manage perversely to deprive these rectors and vicars of 
 the offerings which accrue to them at such masses.” 
 They have, on the other hand, Divine service per¬ 
 formed “ in polluted or interdicted places, and there 
 also bury the dead ; they use, as helps to their trade, 
 almost illiterate subordinates, who spread errors and 
 fables among the people.” 1 
 
 Such abuses and many others, constantly pointed out 
 by councils, popes, and bishops, moved the University 
 of Oxford to recommend, in the year 1414, the entire 
 1 Sec Appendix XV. 
 
326 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 suppression of pardoners, as being men of loose life and 
 lying speeches, spending their profits “ with the prodigal 
 son,” remitting to sinners their sins as well as their 
 penances, encouraging sin by the ease of their abso¬ 
 lutions, and drawing the souls of simple people “to 
 Tartarus.” But this request was not listened to, and 
 pardoners continued to prosper for the moment. 1 
 
 At the same time that they sold indulgences, the 
 pardoners showed relics. They had been on pilgrim¬ 
 age and had brought back little bones and fragments 
 of all kinds, of holy origin, they said. But although 
 there were credulous persons among the multitude, 
 among the educated class the disabused were not want¬ 
 ing who scoffed at the impertinence of the impostors 
 without mercy. The pardoners of Chaucer and Boc¬ 
 caccio, and in the sixteenth century of Heywood and 
 Lyndsay, 2 had the pleasantest relics. The Chaucerian 
 who possessed a piece of the sail of St. Peter’s boat, is 
 beaten by Frate Cipolla, who had received extraordi¬ 
 nary relics at Jerusalem. “ I will, as an especial favour, 
 show you,” said he, “a very holy and goodly relic, 
 which I myself brought aforetime from the Holy Lands 
 beyond seas, and that is one of the Angel Gabriel’s 
 feathers, which remained in the Virgin Mary’s chamber, 
 whenas he came to announce to her in Nazareth! ”3 
 The feather, which was a feather from the tail of a 
 parrot, through some joke played upon him was 
 
 1 See Appendix XV. 
 
 2 Lyndsay, “A Satire of the Thrie Estates ” (performed 1535). 
 
 Early English Text Society; John Heywood, “The Pardoner and 
 the Frere, the Curate and Neybour Pratte,” 1533 ; “The foure Ps,” 
 1545. 3 Payne's “Boccaccio,” vol ii. pp, 280, 287. 
 
THE PARDONERS. 
 
 327 
 
 replaced in the casket of the holy man by a few coals ; 
 when he perceived the metamorphosis he did not show 
 any surprise, but began the narrative of his long 
 voyages, and explained how, instead of the feather, 
 the coals on which St. Lawrence was grilled would be 
 seen in his coffer. He received them from “ My lord 
 Blamemenot Anitpleaseyou,” the worthy patriarch of 
 Jerusalem, who also showed him “a finger of the Holy 
 Ghost as whole and sound as ever it was, . . . and one 
 of the nails of the cherubim, . . . divers rays of the 
 star that appeared to the three Wise Men in the East, 
 and a vial of the sweat of St. Michael when as he fought 
 with the devil ; ” he possessed also “ somewhat of the 
 sound of the bells of Solomon’s Temple in a vial.” 
 
 These are poets’ jests, but they are less exaggerated 
 than might be thought. Was there not shown to the 
 pilgrims at Exeter a bit “ of the candle which the 
 angel of the Lord lit in Christ’s tomb ” ? This was 
 one of the relics brought together in the venerable 
 cathedral by Athelstan, “ the most glorious and vic¬ 
 torious king,” who had sent emissaries at great expense 
 on to the Continent to gather these precious spoils. 
 The list of their discoveries, which has been preserved 
 in a missal of the eleventh century, comprises also a 
 little of “ the bush in which the Lord spoke to Moses,” 
 and a lot of other curiosities. 1 
 
 Matthew Paris relates that in his time the friar 
 preachers gave to Henry III. a piece of white marble 
 on which there was the trace of a human foot. Accord¬ 
 ing to the testimony of the inhabitants of the Holy 
 
 1 “The Leofric Missal” (1050-1072) edited by F. E. Warren. 
 
 883 (Clarendon Press), pp. lxi, 3, 4. 
 
3 28 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 Land this was nothing less than the mark of one of 
 the Saviour’s feet, a mark which He left as a souvenir 
 to His apostles after His Ascension. “ Our lord the 
 king had this marble placed in the church of West¬ 
 minster, to which he had already lately offered some 
 of the blood of Christ.” 1 
 
 In the fourteenth century kings continued to give 
 example to the common people, and to collect relics of 
 doubtful authenticity. In the accounts of the expenses 
 of Edward III., in the thirty-sixth year of his reign, 
 we find that he paid a messenger a hundred shillings 
 for bringing a gift of a vest which had belonged to 
 St. Peter. 2 In France, at the same period, the wise 
 King Charles V. had one day the curiosity to visit the 
 cupboard of the Sainte Chapelle, where the relics of 
 the passion were kept. He found there a phial with a 
 Latin and Greek inscription indicating that it contained 
 a portion of the blood of Jesus Christ. “Then,” 
 relates Christine de Pisan, “ that wise king, because 
 some doctors have said that, on the day that our Lord 
 rose, nothing was left on earth of His worthy body 
 that was not all returned into Him, would hereupon 
 know and inquire by learned men, natural philosophers, 
 and theologians, whether it could be true that upon 
 earth there were some of the real pure blood of Jesus 
 Christ. Examination was made by the said learned 
 men assembled about this matter ; the said phial was 
 seen and visited with great reverence and solemnity of 
 lights, in which when it was hung or lowered could be 
 
 1 “ Historia Anglorum ” (Historia minor), ed., Sir F. Madden, 
 London, 1866; vol. iii. p. 60 (Rolls Series). 
 
 2 Devon’s “Issues of the Exchequer,” 1837, p. 176. 
 
THE PARDONERS. 
 
 3 2 9 
 
 clearly seen the fluid of the red blood flow as freshly 
 as though it had been shed but three or four days since : 
 which thing is not small marvel, considering the passion 
 was so Icr.g ago. And these things I know for certain 
 by the relation of my father who was present at that 
 examination, as philosophic officer and counsellor of 
 the said prince.” 
 
 After this examination made by great “ solemnity of 
 lights,” the doctors declared themselves for the authen¬ 
 ticity of the miracle ; 1 which was not in reality more 
 surprising than that at Naples Cathedral, where even 
 now, the blood of the patron saint of the town may 
 be seen to liquify several times a year, and for several 
 days each time. 
 
 In every country of Europe the pardoners enjoyed 
 exactly the same reputation and acted in the same man¬ 
 ner. We may turn to France, to Germany, to Italy, to 
 Spain, and we find them living, so long as there re¬ 
 mained any, as Chaucer’s pardoner did. In France we 
 see them treated with little ceremony by Rabelais, who 
 has them cheated by his favourite Panurge. The clever 
 vaurien used to place his penny in their basin so skil¬ 
 fully that it seemed to be a silver piece : for which he 
 made bold to take change up to the last farthing. “ ‘And 
 I did the same,’ said he, ‘ in all the churches where we 
 have been.’—‘Yea, but,’ said I, ‘you ... are a thief, 
 and commit sacrilege.’—‘ True,’ said he, ‘ as it seems 
 to you ; but it does not seem so to me. For the 
 pardoners give it me as a gift when they say, in offering 
 
 1 “Le livre dcs fais et bonnes mceurs du sage roy Charles,” by 
 Christine de Pisan, chap, xxxiii. vol. i. p. 633 ; “Nouvelle Collec¬ 
 tion de Memoires,” ed. Michaud et Pcujoulat, Paris, 1836. 
 
33° 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 me the relics to kiss : Centuplum accipies —that is, that 
 for one penny I take a hundred ; for accipies is spoken by 
 them according to the manner of the Hebrews, who use 
 the future tense instead of the imperative, as you have 
 in the book, ‘ Diliges Dominum, id est, dilige.’ ” 1 
 
 Ridiculous parts are in the same way allotted to 
 pardoners in the farces of the old French theatre ; here 
 is an example : 
 
 “ Pardoner: I mean to show you the comb of the 
 cock that sung at Pilate’s, and half a plank of Noah’s 
 great ark. . . . Look, gentlemen, here is a feather of 
 one of the seraphs near God. Don’t think it is a joke ; 
 here it is for you to see. 
 
 “ Priacleur: Gogsblood ! ’tis the quill from a goose 
 he has eaten at his dinner ! ” 2 and so on. 
 
 The same in Spain. Lazarillo de Tormes, the page 
 of many masters, happens, at one time, to be in the 
 service of a pardoner. This is the same individual as 
 Chaucer had described two hundred years before ; he, too, 
 knows how to use Latin when he finds an opportunity : 
 “ Idee woulde alwayes bee informed before he came, 
 which were learned and which not. When he came to 
 those which he understood were learned, he woulde be 
 sure never to speake worde of Latin, for feare of stumb¬ 
 ling : but used in suche places a gentle kinde of Castilian 
 Spanish, his tong alwayes at libertie. And contrariwise 
 whensoever hee was informed of the reverend Homines (I 
 meane such as are made priestes more for money than for 
 
 1 “ Pantagruel,” book ii. chap, xvii., “ Comment Panurge 
 gagnoit les pardons.” 
 
 2 “Farce d’un pardonneur, d’un triacleur et d’une tav'erniere ” 
 (Viollet le Due, “ Ancien theatre frantpais,” Paris, 1854-57, vol. ii. 
 p. 50). 
 
THE PARDONERS. 
 
 33i 
 
 learning and good behaviour) to hear him speake amongs 
 suche men you would saye it were St. Thomas : for hee 
 woulde then two houres together talke Latin, at lest 
 which seemed to bee, though it was not.” 1 A trick 
 which, as is well known, Sganarelle, many years after, 
 did not disdain to use when put upon his last shifts as 
 “ Medecin malgre lui.” 
 
 The pardoners lived merrily ; certainly after a well 
 occupied day they must have been cheerful companions 
 at the inn. The thought of the multitude of sins 
 which they had remitted, of excommunications which 
 they had taken off, of penalties which they had com¬ 
 muted—themselves simple vagabonds menaced with the 
 gallows—the knowledge of their impunity, the singu¬ 
 larity of their existence, the triumphant success of 
 those mad harangues which gave them the keys of 
 heaven, must have made their hearts swell inconceivably 
 with coarse brutal merriment. Their heads were filled 
 with anecdotes which furnished them with matter for 
 interminable babble, either sacred or profane ; native 
 coarseness and borrowed devotion, the real and the 
 artificial man, met together roughly to the sound of 
 jugs and basins which clattered on the table. Look in 
 the margin of an old psalter at the spare figure of 
 Master Reynard 2 ; a cross between his paws, a mitre on 
 his head, he is preaching a sermon to the amazed crowd 
 
 * “The Pleasaunt Historic of Lazarillo de Tormes, . . . dravven 
 out of Spanish by David Rouland, of Anglesey.” London, 1586, 
 Sig. G. iii. 
 
 2 This allegory was a favourite subject among the miniaturists, 
 and it is found in several manuscripts (2 B. vii.; 10 E. IV.), in the 
 British Museum. See the head-piece of the present chapter. 
 
33 2 
 
 ENGLISH WA YFAR1NG LIFE. 
 
 of ducks and geese of the poultry yard. The gesture 
 is full of unction, but the eye shaded by the tawny 
 hair has a cruel glitter, which ought to give warning of 
 the peroration. But no, the poultry-yard clucks 
 devoutly and fears nothing ; woe to the ducks when 
 the mitre has fallen: “and Thou, Lord, shalt laugh at 
 them,” says the psalmist, exactly at this place. 
 
 What a singular knowledge of the human heart 
 must such individuals have had, and what curious ex¬ 
 periences they must have gone through each day ! Never 
 were more unworthy beings clothed with greater super¬ 
 natural powers. The deformed monster squat on the 
 apse of the cathedral, laughs and grimaces hideously on 
 his airy pedestal. And into space, up into the clouds 
 rise the fretted spires; the chiselled needles detach them¬ 
 selves like lace upon the sky; the saints make their eternal 
 prayers under the porch, the bells send forth their peals 
 into the air, and souls are seized as with a shiver, with that 
 mysterious trembling which the sublime causes men to 
 experience. He laughs; hearts believe themselves to 
 be purified, but he has seen their hideous sores, a 
 powerful hand—the Tempter’s hand—will touch them 
 and prevent their cure; the edge of the root 
 reaches the clouds; but his look goes through the 
 garret window, he sees a beam which gives way; the 
 worm-eaten planks which are cracking, and a whole 
 people of obscure creatures which are slowly pursuing 
 under the wooden shafts their secular labour of demoli¬ 
 tion : he laughs and grimaces hideously. 
 
 On the further bench of the tavern the pardoner 
 remains still seated. There enter Chaucer, the knight, 
 the squire, the friar, the host—old acquaintances. We 
 
THE PARDONERS. 
 
 333 
 
 are by ourselves, no one need be afraid of speaking, the 
 foaming ale renders hearts expansive ; here the secret 
 coils of that tortuous soul unfold to view ; he gives us 
 the summary of a whole life, the theory of his existence, 
 the key to all his secrets. What matters his frankness? 
 he knows that it cannot hurt him ; the bishop has 
 twenty times brought his practices to light, but the 
 crowd always troops round him. And who knows if 
 his companions—who knows if his more enlightened 
 companions, to whom he shows the concealed springs 
 of the automaton—will, to-morrow, believe it lifeless? 
 their memory, their reason will tell them so, yet still 
 their heart will doubt. If custom is the half of belief, 
 theirs is well-rooted ; how much more is that of the 
 multitude. And the pardoner also, do you suppose 
 that he always sees clearly what he is, do you think 
 that his scepticism is absolute? he for whom nothing 
 is holy, whose very existence is a perpetual mockery of 
 sacred things, he also has his hours of fear and terror, 
 he trembles before that formidable power which he 
 said he held in his hands, and of which he has made a 
 toy ; he does not possess it, but he thinks that others 
 do ; and he hesitates ; the monster looks upon himself 
 and is afraid. 
 
 Very easy it was to lead the popular belief into the 
 channel of the marvellous. There are decrees that 
 forbid the making spectres or ghosts appear in those long 
 watches which were passed around corpses ; disobedience 
 was attempted, people believed they succeeded in 
 raising them. In presence of the horrible a strange re¬ 
 action in the heart took place, there was felt as it were 
 a wind of madness pass which predisposed men to see 
 
334 
 
 ENGLISH IVA YEAR1NG LIFE. 
 
 and to believe anything, a nervous and demoniacal 
 merriment seized upon all, and dances and lascivious 
 games were organized. Dancing was practised in the 
 cemeteries during the nights of mourning which pre¬ 
 ceded the feasts, there was dancing also during the 
 watch for the dead. The Council of London, in 1342, 
 prohibited “ the superstitious customs which cause 
 prayer to be neglected, and unlawful and indecent 
 meetings” which were held in similar places. 1 The 
 Council of York, in 1367, also forbid “those guilty 
 games and follies, and all those perverse customs . . . 
 which transform a house of tears and prayers, into a 
 house of laughing and of excess.” The Gild of palmers, 
 of Ludlow, allowed its members to go to night-watches 
 of the dead, provided that they abstained from raising 
 apparitions and from indecent games. 2 As to profes¬ 
 sional sorcerers, they went to the stake at this period, as 
 happened to Petronilla of Meath, who was convicted of 
 having manufactured powders with “ spiders and black 
 worms like scorpions, mingling with them a certain 
 herb called milfoil, and other detestable herbs and 
 worms.” 3 She had also made such incantations that 
 
 1 Labbe, “Sacrosancta concilia,” Florence edition, vol. xxv. 
 col. 1177, and vol. xxvi. col. 462. In 1419, Henry Chichelev, 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, ordered public prayers, litanies, and 
 processions, to protect the King of England and his army against 
 the wicked operations of magicians. (Wilkins’ “Concilia Magna; 
 Britannia;,” vol. iii. p. 392.) 
 
 2 “Si veto masculus quisquam voluerit, ut est moris, ejusdem 
 defuncti vel defuncte nocturnis vigiliis interesse, hoc fieri pcrmit- 
 tatur, dumtamen nec monstra larvarum inducere, nec corporis ve' 
 fame sue ludibria, nec ludos alios inhonestos, presumat aliqualiter 
 attemptare ” (Toulmin Smith, “English Gilds,” p. 194). 
 
 3 “ Araneis et aliis vermibus nigris ad modum scorpionum, cum 
 
THE PARDONERS. 
 
 335 
 
 “ the faces' of certain women seemed horned like the 
 heads of goats ; ” therefore she had her just punishment, 
 “ she was burnt before an immense multitude of people 
 with all the accustomed ceremonial.” Such facts as 
 these alone can explain the existence of the pardoner. 
 
 Let us add that the search for the philosopher’s stone 
 was the constant occupation of many redoubted doctors; 
 every one had not that clear good sense, that easy 
 fancy, that sovereign good humour and that penetrating 
 spirit which permitted Chaucer to unveil before us 
 smilingly the mysteries of the alchemist. He shakes 
 all the alembics and all the retorts, and in the odd shapes 
 of the apparatus which frighten the imagination he lets 
 us see, not the newly created ingot of pure metal, but 
 the mixture prepared beforehand by the impostor. 1 
 Supernatural virtues were attributed to plants and 
 stones; contemporaries in reviving them went beyond 
 ancient inventions. Gower thinks he does well by in¬ 
 serting in a love poem all that he knows on the consti¬ 
 tution of the world and the virtues of things ; 2 even 
 with really learned men a mass of fabulous indications 
 fills volumes. Bartholomew the Englishman, whose 
 work is an encyclopaedia of scientific knowledge in the 
 thirteenth century, says that the diamond destroys the 
 
 quadam herba quas dicitur millefolium et aliis herbis et vermibus 
 detestabilibus ” (“ Proceedings against Dame Alice Kyteler, 1324,” 
 edited by Thos. Wright, 1843, Camden Society, p. 32). 
 
 1 “The Canons Yeomans Tale.” 
 
 2 The whole of book vii. of his “ Confessio Amantis ” is con¬ 
 secrated to the exposition of a system of the world and to the 
 description of the inner nature of beings and substances. The 
 “Roman de la Rose ” is not less explicit on these matters (con¬ 
 fession of Nature to Genius). 
 
ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 33 b 
 
 effect of venom and of magic incantations, showing 
 openly fear in whoever wears it; that the topaz hinders 
 sudden death, &C. 1 
 
 When one thinks on the number of vain beliefs 
 which troubled the brains of those days, it is difficult 
 not to remember, with a feeling of pleasure, that in an 
 age which was no way exempt from these weaknesses 
 no one condemned them with more eloquence than 
 Moliere : “ Without speaking of other things,” says 
 he, “ I have never been able to conceive how even 
 the smallest peculiarities of the fortune of the least man 
 could be found written in the skies. What relation, 
 what intercourse, what correspondence can there be 
 between us and worlds separated from our earth by so 
 frightful a distance ? and whence can this fine science 
 have come to men ? What God has revealed it ? or what 
 experience can have shaped it from the observation of 
 that great number of stars which have not been seen 
 twice in the same arrangement ? ” 
 
 Trouble and eloquence lost ; there will always be a 
 Timocles to observe with a wise air : “ I am incredulous 
 enough as to a great many things, but for astrology, 
 there is nothing more certain and more constant than 
 the success of the horoscopes which it draws.” 2 
 
 So vanished into smoke the tempests which Chaucer, 
 Langland, and Wyclif raised against the hypocritical par¬ 
 doners of their day. They lingered on till the sixteenth 
 century, and then were entirely suppressed in the twenty- 
 first session of the oecumenical council of Trent, July 
 16, 1562, Pius IV. being Pope. It is stated in the ninth 
 
 1 “De proprietatibus rerum,” lib. xvi. 
 
 2 “ Les amants magnifiques.” 
 
The pardoners. 
 
 33? 
 
 chapter of the “ Decree of Reform,” published in that 
 session, that “ no further hope can be entertained of 
 amending ” such pardoners (eleemosynarum qu<estores), 
 therefore “ the use of them and their name are entirely 
 abolished henceforth in all Christendom.” 1 
 
 '“Conciliorum generalium ecclesiae catholic®,” tomus iv. p. 261, 
 Pauli V. Pont. max. auctoritate editus, Rome, 1623. See Appen¬ 
 dix XV. 
 
 A PARDONER (CHAUCER’S PARDONER). 
 (Front the Ellesmere MS.) 
 
 22 
 
A PILGRIMAGE TOWN, ROCAMADOUR, IN GUYENNE. 
 
 (.Present state.) 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 
 
 I N spite of the talent of the physicians, soothsayers, 
 and sorcerers, there were maladies which resisted 
 the best remedies, and in this case a man promised 
 to go on pilgrimage, or to have himself carried there, to 
 b eg fo r his cure. He went to our Lady of Walsing- 
 ham or to~StTThomas of Canterbury, whose medical 
 powers were considered, beyond comparison, the best of 
 all: “ Optimus egrorum medicus fit Thomas bonorum,” 
 was the motto stamped on the pewter ampullas, or little 
 flasks which pilgrims brought back as a souvenir from 
 Canterbury ; “ for good people that are sick, Thomas 
 is the best of physicians.” And surelv praying at his 
 
pilgrims and pilgrimages. 
 
 339 
 
 shrine or Sending gifts there was a better way of pre¬ 
 serving one’s health than swallowing the black beetles 
 and fat bats of John of Gaddesden, Court physician. 
 
 Pilgrimages were incessant ; they were made to 
 satisfy a vow as in case of illness, or in expiation of 
 sins. Confessors frequently gave the making of a 
 pilgrimage as penance, and sometimes ordered that the 
 traveller should go barefoot or in his shirt. “ Com¬ 
 mune penaunce,” says Chaucer’s parson in his great 
 sermor, “ is that prestes enjoynen men comunly in 
 certe r n caas, as for to goon, peradventure, naked in 
 pilgrimage or barfot.” 1 
 
 Another motive for pilgrimages, and, more than any 
 ■ other, a characteristic one of the times, was to annoy 
 the king. Thus in the fourteenth century English 
 people flocked to the tomb of the selfish Earl of Lan¬ 
 caster, 2 whom popular prejudice had made a saint. 
 The crowd hastened through a spirit of contradiction 
 to Pontefract, where the rebel had been decapitated, 
 and the pilgrims became every year more numerous, to 
 the great scandal of the sovereign and of the Arch¬ 
 bishop of York. A letter of this prelate shows the 
 
 1 “ Works,” ed. R. Morris, vol. iii. p. 266. 
 
 2 Cousin of Edward II., executed in 1322. Froissart has no 
 doubt as to the authenticity of these miracles. “ Thomas erle of 
 Lancastre, who was a noble and a wyse holy knyght, and hath 
 done syth many fayre myraclcs in Pomfret, where he was be- 
 heeded ” (vol. i. chap. vi. in Lord Berners’ translation). The 
 body o! Charles de Blois also worked miracles, and Froissart 
 imagined that Urban V. canonized him ; “ his body [was] after 
 sanctifyed by the grace of God and called Saynt Charles, and 
 canonised by Pope Urban the V.; for he dyde, and yet dothe 
 many fayre miracles dayly” (vol. i. cap. 226 of Lord Berners’ 
 translation). 
 
34° 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 uselessness of prohibitions ; the idea of the semblance 
 of a persecution of believers organized by an arch¬ 
 bishop only excited zeal and devotion ; men fancied the 
 martyr would be pleased by allowing themselves to be a 
 little martyred. Thus while awaiting the canonization, 
 assemblies collect near the tomb so numerous and 
 tumultuous that there happen “ homicides and mortal 
 wounds, . . . and that greater dangers yet and doubt¬ 
 less most imminent are to be feared.” 1 
 
 This took place the very year after the execution or 
 the saint. The official was enjoined to hinder these 
 meetings any how, and to disperse them until the Pope 
 should pronounce. Nevertheless the assemblies con¬ 
 tinued, and Henry of Lancaster wrote in 1327 to the 
 Archbishop of York to beg him to refer to the Sove¬ 
 reign Pontiff about it, and “ to bear witness to the 
 fame of the miracles which God works by our very 
 dear lord and brother. ’ 2 3 The same year the Commons 
 demanded the canonization of this same Thomas, which 
 was scarcely parliamentary business .3 In 1338, a grocer 
 of London sold a wooden tankard (a mazer) orna¬ 
 mented with an “image of St. Thomas of Lancaster .”4 
 
 1 “ Non absque homicidiis et aliisque laetalibus verberibus . . . 
 et de majoribus periculis verisimiliter imminentibus multiplicitcr 
 formidatur . . .” (a.d. 1323, “Historical Papers from the Northern 
 Registers,” edited by Canon Raine, 1873, p. 324, Rolls Series). 
 
 2 The archbishop did write to this effect to the Pope (John 
 XXII.) on February 24, 1327, asking him to make inquiry with a 
 view to canonization. (“Historical Papers from the Northern 
 Registers,” p. 340.) 
 
 3 Petition to Parliament, 1 E. III. 1326-7. (“ Rolls of Parlia¬ 
 
 ment,” vol. ii. p. 7.) 
 
 ♦ “Memorials of London,” Riley, 1868, p. 203. The miracu- 
 
PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 
 
 34 ' 
 
 Humphry’ de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and E sex, who 
 died in 1361, bequeathed money to some pious persons 
 who should make several pilgrimages on his account, 
 and he specially recommended that “ a good man and 
 true ” should be hired and charged to go to “ Pount- 
 freyt and to offer there at the tomb of Thomas, late 
 earl of Lancaster, 40s.” 1 To make a saint of a rebel 
 was the most energetic means of protesting against the 
 king, and the people were not lacking this opportunity 
 under certain of their sovereigns. Henry III. in 
 1266 was obliged to forbid Simon de Montfort being 
 considered as a saint. Now Simon had died under 
 excommunication, as was represented to the king by 
 the bishops and barons, authors of the petitions com¬ 
 prised in the “ Dictum de Kenilworth ” ; 2 he therefore 
 had little chance of being canonized. But still that 
 
 lous influence of the same Thomas of Lancaster is also declared 
 by the contemporary author of the “Croniques de London” 
 (Camden Society, ed. G. J. Aungier), p. 46, and many others. 
 
 1 J. Nichol’s “ Wills of the Kings and Oueens of England,” See., 
 1780, p. 54. A chapel had been built on the “ mountain” where 
 the earl had been beheaded. The offerings which the pilgrims 
 brought there were, in 1334, t * ie subject of a curious strife 
 between the prior and the convent of Pontefract on one hand, 
 and the Lord of Wake on the other hand ; this lord had “taken 
 possession of the said chapel and the offerings coming there, and 
 had taken the keys with him.” The prior and the convent in a 
 petition to Parliament requested to have the “ administration of 
 these offerings” as “spiritual things within their parish and 
 belonging to their church” (“Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 84). 
 
 2 “ Ne . . . pro sancto vcl justo reputetur, cum in excommu- 
 nicatione sit defunctus, sicut sancta tenet ecclesia ” (“ Dictum d: 
 Kenilworth,” § viii., in “Select Charters,” edited by Stubbs, 1870, 
 p. 410.) 
 
342 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 did not prevent Latin hymns being composed in his 
 honour, as for a saint. 1 
 
 The rebel was hardly dead when the popular feeling, 
 often unfavourable to him during his life, forthwith 
 recognized in him only a hero who had fought against 
 the common enemy, and through sympathy assigned to 
 him a place in heaven. The active revolt, rudely 
 interrupted by punishment, continued thus in the latent 
 state, and every one came to see God Himself take the 
 part of the oppressed, and proclaim the injustice of the 
 king by working miracles at the tomb of the con¬ 
 demned. The sovereign defended himself as he could ; 
 he dispersed the rabble and prohibited the miracles. 
 Thus Edward II., on October 2, 1323, wrote “to his 
 faithful John of Stonore and John of Bousser,” order¬ 
 ing an inquiry which would be followed by graver 
 measures. He recalled to them that “ a little time ago 
 Henry of Montfort and Henry of Wylynton, enemies 
 of the king and rebels, on the advice of the royal 
 Court, were drawn and hanged at Bristol, and it had 
 been decided that their bodies should remain attached 
 to the gibbet, so that others might abstain from similar 
 crimes and misdeeds against the king.” The people 
 made relics of these bloody and mutilated remains, 
 
 1 “ Salve Symon Montis Fortis 
 tocius flos militie, 
 
 Duras penas passus mortis, 
 protector gentis Anglias. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 “Ora pro nobis, beate Symon, ut digni efficiamur promissionibus 
 Christi ” (Hymn composed a little after the death of Simon, cited 
 in Warton’s “History of English Poetry,” edited by Hazlitt, 1871, 
 vol. ii. p. 48). 
 
PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 
 
 343 
 
 and surrounded them with respect, in violent protest. 
 Reginald of Montfort, William of Clyf, William 
 Courtois, and John his brother, and some others, in 
 order to render the king odious to the people, had 
 organized false miracles on the spot where the bodies 
 of these enemies and rebels were still hanging. 1 
 
 Severe measures were needed in several places at the 
 same time ; while the corpses of these condemned were 
 being venerated at Bristol, the mere image of Thomas 
 of Lancaster, in the Cathedral of London, was attract¬ 
 ing a crowd of pilgrims and working miracles. In this 
 same year, 1323, on June 28th, Edward II. is found 
 writing with great irritation to the Bishop of 
 London : 
 
 “ It has come to our ears—and it is very displeasing 
 to us—that many persons belonging to the people of 
 God, confided to your charge, victims of an infernal 
 trickery, crowd round a pannel placed in your church 
 of St. Paul’s, where are to be seen some statues or 
 painted images, especially that of Thomas, late Earl of 
 Lancaster, a rebel, our enemy. Without any authori¬ 
 zation from the Roman Church, these people venerate 
 and worship this image, and affirm that it there works 
 miracles: this is an opprobrium for the whole church, a 
 shame for us and for you, a manifest danger for the 
 souls of the aforesaid people, and a dangerous example.” 
 
 The bishop knows it, continues the king, and secretly 
 encourages these practices without any other motive 
 than that of profiting by the o.Terings. “ By which,” 
 adds Edward II., “ we are deeply afflicted.” The usual 
 prohibitions follow. 2 
 
 1 Rymer’s “ Feeders,” edit. 1704, &c., vol. iv. p. 20. 
 
 * Ibid, vol. iii. p. 1033. 
 
344 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 These were pilgrimages for the occasion. Others 
 were in favour for a much longer time owing to the 
 reputation of the departed for sanctity, not for his 
 former political influence. For many years, not waiting 
 for the solitary to be canonized, which never happened, 
 men came in crowds, as we have seen, to visit the tomb 
 of Richard Rolle, the hermit of Hampole. Even in 
 this, fashion ruled as mistress ; some relics or tombs 
 of hermits or of saints enjoyed for a period universal 
 favour ; then all of a sudden, through some great 
 miracle, another saint rose to pre-eminence, and his 
 rivals, by degrees, dwindled into obscurity. 
 
 Sometimes the convents, which had neither relics nor 
 bodies of illustrious saints to attract pilgrims, nor a 
 marvellous thorn-tree like that of Glastonbury, would 
 have a pious artist to fabricate an image worthy of 
 attention ; it would be inaugurated with solemnity, 
 and afterwards its fame would be sounded by all 
 permissible means. Thomas of Burton, Abbot of 
 Meaux, near Beverley, relates in the chronicle of the 
 events concerning his rich monastery, which he him¬ 
 self wrote at the end of the fourteenth century, one 
 of the most remarkable facts of this kind. Abbot 
 Hugh of Leven, one of his predecessors, had in the 
 first half of the century ordered a new crucifix for the 
 choir of the chapel : “ And the artist never worked at 
 any fine and important part of his work, except on 
 Fridays, fasting on bread and water. And he had all 
 the time a naked man under his eyes, and he laboured 
 to give to his crucifix the beauty of the model. By 
 the means of this crucifix, the Almighty worked open 
 miracles continually. It was then thought that if 
 
PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 
 
 345 
 
 access to 'this crucifix were allowed to women, the 
 common devotion would be increased and great ad¬ 
 vantages would result from it for our monastery. 
 Upon which the Abbot of Citeaux, by our request, 
 granted us leave to let honest men and women approach 
 the said crucifix ; provided, however, that the women 
 did not enter the cloister, the dormitory, and other 
 parts of the monastery. . . . But profiting by this 
 license, to our misfortune, women began to come in 
 numbers to the crucifix, although in them devotion was 
 cool, and they presented themselves only to look at the 
 church. They only serve to increase our expenses by 
 the obligation we are under to receive them.” 1 
 
 This naive complaint is interesting from many points 
 of view ; it shows without concealment what was done 
 to bring such or such a sanctuary into favour with the 
 pilgrims ; in the present case the effort made did not 
 succeed, the prodigies do not seem to have responded 
 to the expectation, and people came only from curiosity 
 to visit the church and the fine crucifix of the monas¬ 
 tery. From the artistic point of view the fact is still 
 more important, for this is the most ancient example 
 of sculpture from the nude living model to be found 
 in mediaeval England ; and this anonymous sculptor 
 ought to be remembered, which he is not, as one of the 
 precursors of the Renaissance in this country. 
 
 Another attempt of the same kind to make a chapel 
 popular had been tried in the parochial church of 
 Foston (1313); but the Archbishop of York, William 
 Grenefeld, was scandalized by such an abuse, and by a 
 letter full of good sense he put an end to the “ great 
 1 See Appendix XVI. 
 
346 
 
 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE. 
 
 concourse of simple people who came to visit a certain 
 image of the Holy Virgin recently placed in the church, 
 as if this image had something more divine than any 
 other images of the sort.” 1 
 
 The fact was, as may be noticed even in our days, 
 that, with or without the co-operation of the clergy, 
 some statues had a far better reputation than others ; 
 wonders were expected of them, and they were wor¬ 
 shipped accordingly ; the same vicissitudes were observ¬ 
 able for images as for relics and tombs of saints. This 
 statue had healed sick people without number, and that 
 one was known to have moved, to have made a s ; gn, 
 to have spoken a word. Representations of miracles 
 worked by statues constantly recur in manuscripts; 
 one, for instance, is to be found in several English 
 manuscripts of the fourteenth century . 2 It shows how 
 a poor painter, being busy with colouring and gilding a 
 statue of the Virgin, with a most ugly devil under 
 her feet, the Evil One, angry at such an unpleasant 
 likeness, came and broke the ladder on which the 
 artist was standing ; but as he was falling and about 
 to be killed, the stone Virgin bent towards him, and 
 
 1 “ Sane nuper ad aures nostras pervenit quod ad quandam 
 imaginem beatae Virginis in ecclesia parochial! de Foston noviter 
 collocatam magnus simplicium est concursus, acsi in eadem plus 
 quam in aliis similibus imaginibus aliquid, numinis appareret ” 
 (a.d. 1313, Wilkins’ “ Concilia,” vol. ii. p. 423). 
 
 2 For example in the MS., 2 B. vii. in the British Museum, fol. 
 211, and in 10 E. IV., fol. 209. The story of this miracle has 
 been told by numberless authors in the Middle Ages; the text 
 of one version of the tale, with references to the others, will 
 be found in G. F. Warner, “Miracles de Nostre Dame,” Rox- 
 burghe Club, 1883, pp. xxxiv and 63. 
 
 i 
 
PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 
 
 347 
 
 extending her arm held him safe until help came. 
 Other deeds of statues were of a less graceful turn • 
 one was performed in the church of St. Paul-extra- 
 muros in Rome, as the Englishman Thomas Gascoigne 
 testifies. Some one had insulted the image of the saint, 
 saying : “ ‘ Why hast thou got a sword, I mean to have 
 thy sword,’ and he was trying to take it out of the 
 hands of the statue. But through God’s doing, the 
 statue raised its sword on the impious man, and clove 
 his head to the chin ; and then death followed. This 
 happened at the time when Eugene IV. was Pope of 
 Rome, and a witness of the scene reported it to me ; this 
 witness was a beadel of the sa ; d Pope, called Master 
 Erasmus Fullar, a priest of the kingdom of Hungary.” 1 
 
 Incidental pilgrimages apart, in ordinary times among 
 the English, people went to Durham to visit the tomb 
 of the holy Confessor Cuthbert, and the place where 
 was kept his ever-victorious banner ; to the shrine of 
 King Edward the Confessor in Westminster ; to St. 
 Albans, St. Edmund’s Bury, St. David’s, on account of 
 the saints after whom these towns are named; to 
 Chichester, to worship the body of St. Richard the 
 Bishop ; to Glastonbury, where was the holy t horn-tree , 
 and where the church had been founded byStTjoseph 
 of Arimathea; to Waltham, where a cross of black 
 marble had been miraculously found in the time ot 
 King Knut. Lincoln, York, Peterborough, Win- 
 
 1 “ Loci e libro veritatum , passages selected from Gascoigne's 
 Theological Dictionary ” (1403-1458), edit. Thorold Rogers, 
 Oxford, 1881, p. 206. This Fullar is known to have come to 
 England, where he saw Gascoigne. Eugene IV. was Pope during 
 the second cjuarter of the fifteenth century. 
 
34§ 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 Chester, Holywell, Beverley, and other places had 
 also attractions for the pilgrim ; but none could stand 
 comparison with Walsingham and Canterbury. At 
 Walsingha m there was a church and a chapel ; in 
 theTThurch, now levelled to the ground, was kept a 
 miraculous statue of the Virgin, an.i the building was 
 exactly similar to the Santa Casa of Loretto, which 
 may have been considered as a wonder in itself, for this 
 chapel had been built in the eleventh century, long 
 before the Casa was spoken of. TrTTKe - church there 
 was a phial with milk of the Virgin in it. People 
 came there in numbers ; the road which led to Wal¬ 
 si ngham wa s called the palmers’ way, and numerous 
 chapels were built along its line. The town itself was 
 full of inns and hospitals ; it was, in fact, a town of inns 
 and churches, as pilgrimage towns have geneially been. 
 
 Or else people hired horses at Southwark, with relays 
 at Rochester, and set out for St. Thomas of Canterbury. 
 This was the highroad to the continent; a regular 
 service of hired horses had been established along it. 
 Twelvepence was paid from Southwark to Rochester, 
 twelvepence from Rochester to Canterbury, sixpence 
 from Canterbury to Dover. The horses were marked 
 wdth a hot iron in a prominent manner, so that un¬ 
 scrupulous travellers should not be tempted to quit the 
 road and appropriate their steeds . 1 The sanctuary of 
 our Lady of Walsingham and that of St. Thomas had 
 a European reputation. Foreigners as well as the 
 English had a great reverence for St. Thomas of Canter- 
 
 1 Patent of 19 Richard II. in the appendix to Mr. Karkeek’s 
 essay, “Chaucer’s Schipman and his Barge, ‘ The Maudelayne,’ ’’ 
 Chaucer Society “Essays,” 1884.. 
 
PILGRIMS AND PILGRIM A GPS. 
 
 349 
 
 bury, and. went to make offerings at his shrine when 
 they could. Thus we find on August 3, 1402, a decree 
 of the Venetian Senate authorizing Lorenzo Contarini, 
 Captain of the Venetian galleys, setting out for Flanders, 
 to visit this shrine conformably to his vow. He was to 
 do it when the galleys were at Sandwich, and to go and 
 return in one day, not being permitted to sleep out of 
 his vessel. 1 
 
 Rich and poor betook themselves there in numbers ; 
 Chaucer, who shows us all ranks of society mingled 
 together^ during the course of a holy journey, must not 
 be charged with exaggeration. The majority of these 
 pilgrims were sincere and in good faith ; they had 
 made a vow and came to fulfil it. With such 
 dispositions, the knight who found a pilgrim like 
 himself upon his road must have been less inclined 
 than ever to treat him with scorn ; besides, if the 
 distances were great between class and class at this 
 period, familiarities were still greater. The distance 
 has indeed diminished at the present day, and fami¬ 
 liarity also, as though in compensation. The noble 
 felt himself sufficiently raised above the common people 
 not to be afraid of using a kind of jovial intimacy with 
 them on occasion ; at the present time, when supe¬ 
 riority of rank is of less importance, every one is more 
 attentive and takes care not to outstep a limit which is 
 not now so patent as before. 
 
 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 
 
 1 “ Calendar of Venetian State Papers relating to English 
 Adairs,'’ edited by Rawdon Brown, 1864, vol. i. p. 42 (Rolls Series). 
 
ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 35° 
 
 of the majestic alley formed by the great pillars of the 
 church, through 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 fatigue. Though the 
 practical man galloping 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. Pil¬ 
 grims, however, were undoubtedly a very mingled race ; 
 no reader of Chaucer needs to be reminded that the talk 
 on the road was not always limited to edifying subjects, 
 and that pilgrims themselves, even allowing the greater 
 number to have been sincere and devout people, were not 
 all of them vessels of election. Some went like gypsies 
 to a fair, to gather money; some went for the pleasures 
 of the journey and the merriments of the road ; so that 
 reformers and satirists, seeing only the abuse and not 
 the good that might come along with it, began to raise 
 a cry which became louder and louder until it was 
 something like a storm at the time of the Reformation. 
 Whom did Langland see on Palmers’ way, near Wal- 
 singham ? Those same false hermits we have already 
 met by the highroads and at the corner of bridges, and 
 in what objectionable company did he find them ! 
 
 “ Eremytes on an hep with hokede staues, 
 
 Wenten to Walsyngham and hure (their) wenches after ; 
 
PiLGklMS AND PlLGklMAGPS. 
 
 35 1 
 
 Crete lobies and longe that loth were to swynke, 
 
 Clothede hem in copis to be knowe fro othere, 
 
 And made hem-selue Eremytes hure eise to hauc.” 1 
 
 Wyclif denounced pilgrimages most persistently, so 
 much so that when one of his followers had to renounce 
 his heresies, belief in the usefulness and sanctity of 
 pilgrimages was one of the articles he had to subscribe. 
 Thus, in his vow of abjuration, the Lollard William 
 Dynet of Nottingham, on December I, 1395, swears 
 in these words : “ Fro this day forthwarde I shall 
 worshipe ymages, with praying and offering vnto 
 hem, in the worschepe of the seintes that they be made 
 after ; and also I shal neuermore despyse pylgremage.” 2 
 Poets of a reforming mind objected to pilgrimages, not 
 so much on account of the worship of images, but 
 because they thought these travels an encouragement to 
 laziness and idle living. We know the opinion of 
 Langland. It is curious to find the same views ex¬ 
 pressed by an author of a quite different turn of mind, 
 the author of the “ Roman du Renart.” He has a 
 special chapter to inform us “of the pilgrimage of 
 Reynard and how he went to Rome.” Reynard cannot 
 but consider that he has greatly and many a time sinned, 
 and feeling some anxiety about his misdeeds, goes to 
 a hermit and confesses himself. But such are the 
 faults he has to declare that the holy man does not take 
 upon himself to absolve him, but advises him to go to 
 Rome and ask the absolution of the Pope. Reynard 
 accordingly “ takes his scri p and burdon [that is, his 
 
 1 “ Piers Plowman,” Skeat’s edition, Text C, pass. i. 1 . 51. 
 
 2 Printed in The Academy, November 17, 1883, p. 331. 
 
35* 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 wallet and staff, as did all pilgrims], and begins to move 
 on, and takes to his road ; he looks quite like a pilgrim, 
 his scrip fits his neck beautifully.” But travelling alone 
 is not pleasant; he meets Belin the Sheep, and persuades 
 him to come with him, and a little farther a donkey, 
 “ Bernart the arch-priest,” who was eating thistles in a 
 ditch ; he also secures this new companion. As night 
 is coming, the three, finding themselves near the 
 house of Primaut the Wolf, enter without ceremony 
 and make themselves at home, while the owners of 
 the place are away. They find there “ salted meat, 
 cheese, and eggs . . . and good ale. Belin drinks so 
 much that he loses his head, and then begins to sing, and 
 the arch-priest to organ-bray, and Master Reynard sings 
 in falsetto.” But their merriment is soon at an end. The 
 alarm has been given; Ysengrin, Hersent, and a num¬ 
 ber of other wolves, relations, friends, compeers of 
 Primaut, who all of them owe grudges to Reynard, 
 come round and besiege the pilgrims. They escape 
 with great difficulty. Ill-pleased with these grievous 
 adventures, they agree not to go to Rome at all, 
 and Reynard, to whom, rather against likeliness, the 
 author here lends his own thoughts, winds up the 
 enterprise with a speech : ‘ My lords,’ says he, ‘ by 
 my head, this wandering is loathsome and tiring. 
 There is in the world many a good man that has 
 never been to Rome ; such an one has come back 
 from the seven saints who is worse than he ever 
 was. I mean to take my way home, and I shall live 
 by my labour and seek honest earnings ; I shall be 
 charitable to poor people.’ Then they cried, ‘ Be it 
 so, be it so,’ and they betook themselves homewards.” 1 
 1 See Appendix XVII. 
 
PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 
 
 353 
 
 The same mode of reasoning was used later on at the 
 time of the Renaissance by no less a man than Erasmus, 
 who has described in his most satirical vein the vanities 
 of pilgrims and pilgrimages. He supposes a meeting 
 of two friends, Menedemus and Ogygyus, this last one 
 being just come back from Compostella, and, what is 
 more interesting for us, from Walsingham, “the most 
 holy name in all England. . . . The towne is almost 
 susteynyd by the resort of pylgrymes.” The faithful 
 believer Ogygyus goes on describing the wonders 
 of the place, the gold and silver and precious stones 
 offered to the miraculous statue of our Lady, the 
 marvels worked at the holy wells, the miracle of the 
 knight towards whom the portal of the church stretched 
 itself, the beautiful relics, and especially the crystal 
 phial containing some milk of the Virgin. “ Whan ye 
 s;xten sawe vs, he dyd runne to the aultre, and put 
 apon hym his surplese and his stole about his nekke, 
 knelyd downe relygyously and worshipyd it, and 
 s^reghtforthe dyd offre the mylke to vs to kysse.” The 
 same ceremony with surplice and kneeling, though it 
 has vanished into oblivion at Walsingham, may still be 
 seen any day in numerous churches in the south of 
 Europe. 1 
 
 Ogygyus and his friends make their offerings, not 
 without remarking that there are some unscrupulous 
 visitors who, by a clever trick, pick money out of the 
 plate instead of leaving in it any of their own : a trick 
 which, as we have seen, was used by Panurge on a cer¬ 
 tain day when he was somewhat “ escorne et taciturne ” 
 for want of pence. 
 
 1 For example at Milan, at the tomo or’San Carlo Borromco. 
 
 2 3 
 
354 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 Erasmus ends his dialogue in the same strain as the 
 author of “ Reynard ” : 
 
 “ ‘ I have enough to do,’ says the sceptical Mene- 
 demus, “‘with my statyons of Rome.’ 
 
 “ Ogygyus. Of Rome, that dyd neuer see Rome ? 
 
 “ Menedemus. I wyll tell you, thus 1 go my 
 statyons at home. I go in to the parler, and I se vnto 
 the chast lyuynge of my doughters; agayne frome 
 thense I go in to my shope, I beholde what my 
 servauntes, bothe men and women, be doynge. From 
 thense into the kytchyn, lokynge abowt, if ther nede 
 any of my cownsell ; frome thense hyther and thyther, 
 obseruynge howe my chylderne be occupyed, what my 
 wyffe dothe, beynge carefull that euery thynge be in 
 ordre : these be statyons of Rome. 
 
 “ Ogygyus. But these thynges saynt James wold dow 
 for yow, 
 
 “ Meuedemus. That I shuld se vnto these thynges 
 holy Scripture commaundethe ; that I shuld commyt 
 the charge to sayntes I dyd rede yt neuer com- 
 maunded.” 1 
 
 The friend of Erasmus, Sir Thomas More, took the 
 opposite view, and wrote a dialogue in defence of 
 images, relics, and pilgrimages, but in vain. 2 The 
 
 
 
 1 “A Dialoge or communication of two persons, deuysyd and set 
 forthe in the laten tonge, by the noble and famose clarke, 
 Dcsiderius Erasmus, intituled ye pylgremage of pure deuotyon. 
 Newly translatyd into Englishe.” London (1540?), 16 0 . 
 
 2 “A Dyaloge of syr Thomas More knyghte . . . wherin be 
 treatyd dyuers maters, as of the veneration and worshyp of ymagys 
 and relyques, praying to sayntys, and goyng on pylgrymage, wyth 
 many othere thyngys touchyng the pestylent sect of Luther and 
 Tyndale.” London, 1529,4°, 
 
 
PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 
 
 355 
 
 time of the Reformation had come ; doubt was 
 becoming general, and from peasant to baron all the 
 people assimilated arguments like those of Latimer: 
 
 “ What thinke ye of these images that are had more 
 then their felowes in reputation ? that are gone vnto 
 with such labour and werines of the body, frequented 
 with such our cost, sought out and visited with such 
 confidence ? what say ye by these images, that are so 
 famous, so noble, so noted, beying of them so many 
 and so diuers in England. Do you thinke that this 
 preferryng of picture to picture, image to image, is the 
 right vse, and not rather the abuse of images ? ” 1 
 
 These times were yet to come. In the Middle Ages 
 pilgrims came in numbers to offer their prayers, and 
 also money, each one in proportion to his means. 
 When the kingp in his perpetual goings and comings, 
 turned aside to visit a revered shrine, it was the custom 
 that he shoul d give seven shillings. The ordinances of ^ 
 Edward II. Tor his household make express mention of 
 the sum. 2 3 
 
 Before going away the pilgrims bought, then as 
 jnow, medals or signs as recollections of their journey .3 
 
 1 The sermon . . . made ... to the conuocation of the clergy 
 (28 Henry VIII.), in “ Frutefvll sermons preached by the right 
 reverend father and constant martyr of Jesus Christ, M. Hugh 
 
 Latymer.” London, 1571, p. 10. 
 
 3 Ordinance for the state of the wardrobe and the account of the 
 household, June, 1323. “King Edward II.’s Household and 
 Wardrobe Ordinances,” ed. Furnivall, Chaucer Society, 1876, 
 p 62. 
 
 3 C. Roach Smith has described a number of them in his 
 “Collectanea Antiqua,” London, 1848, vol. i. p. 81, and vol. ii. 
 p. 43. He has given drawings of many which had bcen“dis- 
 
35 6 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 The author of the supplement to the “ Canterbury 
 Tales” at the beginning of the fifteenth century shows 
 the pilgrims purchasing in the town various sorts ol 
 sygny s or brochis. They were merely of pewter or lead, 
 and were perforated to be more easily sewn on the 
 breast or cap, rather like those which are sold at the 
 present day at St. Anne d’Auray in Brittany, but 
 larger. At Canterbury they represented St. Thomas, 
 and were usually in the shape of an ampulla or a little 
 flask ; at St. James’ they represented shells ; at Amiens 
 the head of St. John the Baptist : “ Ecce signum faciei 
 beati Johannis Baptiste”; at Rome the holy sudary, which 
 was called the vernicle ; 1 at Rocamadour the Holy 
 Virgin. The right of selling these signs was a source 
 of profit, and it sometimes belonged exclusively to a 
 convent or to a private family. At Rocamadour this 
 right had been conceded in return, it seems, for military 
 services to the family of the De Valon, lords of 
 
 covered chiefly in the bed of the Thames, and in making the 
 approaches to new London Bridge.” 
 
 1 Among the ornaments worn by Chaucer’s pardoner was a 
 “vernicle ” on his cap, as may be seen in the drawing, p. 337. Sir 
 Thomas More, in his “ Dialogue ” [supra, p. 354) describes as follows 
 the vernicle represented on pilgrims’ medals : How, says he, can 
 it be maintained that Christ blames images, “where he lykyd to 
 leue the holy vernacle, thexpresse ymage also of hys blessid 
 vysage, as a token to remain inhonour among such as lo 1yd hym 
 from ye tyme of hys bytter passyon hytherto, whych as it was by 
 the myracle of hys blessid holy hand expressed and lefte in ye 
 sudari : so hath yt bene by lyke myracle in that thyn corruptyble 
 cloth kepte and preseruyd vneorrupted thys xv. C. yere freshe and 
 well pcrceyued, to ye inwarde cumforte, spyrytuall reioysyng and 
 grete encreace of feruoure and deuocyon in the harts of good 
 crysten people ” (Sig. B. iii.). 
 
Pilgrims and pilgrimages. 
 
 357 
 
 Thegra. 1 They and the Bishop of Tulle appointed a 
 deputy to superintend the sale, and the produce was 
 divided by halves between them and the bishop. Such 
 were the benefits derived from these sales that clandes¬ 
 tine manufactories of pewter medals were established 
 by the inhabitants, who sold numbers of them, to the 
 great detriment of the authorized shop and in defiance 
 of ever-recurring prohibitions. Once, however, free 
 selling was allowed to all the people of the place; it 
 was in the year 1425, when the country had been 
 reduced to such poverty that the bishop renounced his 
 privilege for two years, out of charity and tor the 
 benefit of his flock. 
 
 Pilgrims when going home were careful to wear 
 prominently sewn on their garments these testimonials 
 of their holy travels. In the above-quoted dialogue oi 
 Erasmus, the sceptical Menedemus wonders at the 
 appearance of his friend : “ I pray you, what araye is 
 this that you be in ; me thynke that you be clothyd 
 with cockle schelles, and be laden on euery side with 
 bruches of lead and tynne. And you be pretely 
 garnyshed with wrethes of strawe, and your arme is full 
 of snakes egges.” The French king Louis XI., of grim 
 memory, was usually dressed about in the same manner, 
 and always wore, at least on his hat, some such pewter 
 medals and brooches. “ And truly,” writes his con¬ 
 temporary, Claude de Seyssel, “ his devotion seemed 
 more superstitious than religious. For to whatever 
 image or church of God and the saints or of Our 
 Lady that he heard the people were devoted, or where 
 
 1 “Guide du pelcrin a Rocamadour,” by M. lc Chanoine 
 Laporte, Rocamadour, 1862, chap. viii. 
 
358 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 miracles were worked, he went there to make offerings, 
 or sent a man there expressly. He had, besides, his 
 hat quite full of images, mostly of lead or pewter, 
 which he kissed on all occasions when any good or 
 bad news arrived, or that his fancy prompted him ; 
 casting himself upon his knees so suddenly at times, in 
 whatever place he might be, that he seemed more like 
 one wounded in his understanding than a rational 
 man. 1 
 
 Like the king, Louis XI., the professional pilgrims 
 wore a great number of images and medals on their 
 coats. For, beside the occasional pilgrim who came to 
 make an offering to such or such a shrine in accom¬ 
 plishment of a vow and afterwards returned to take up 
 the course of his ordinary life again, there was the 
 pilgrim by calling, whose whole existence was passed in 
 travelling from one sanctuary to another, always on the 
 road, and always begging. The professional pardoner 
 and the professional palmer, who, among other places 
 had seen Jerusalem and carried on his shoulder the 
 palm of the Holy Land, are the two most curious 
 types of the religious wayfaring race, and have hardly 
 any equivalent in our days. Like the pardoner and the 
 friar, the pilgrim had by calling a great experience of 
 men and things ; he had seen much, but with what he 
 retained he mingled a world of imaginations born of 
 his own brain. He too had to edify the multitude to 
 whom he held out his hand for alms, and the grand 
 stories of which he was the hero might not fail him 
 
 1 “ Les loucnges du roy Louys xij e . de ce nom,” nouvellement 
 composees par maistre Claude de Seyssel, docteur en cous droits. 
 Paris, I 508, sign. f. iii. 
 
PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 
 
 35 ? 
 
 under pain of dying of hunger, they formed his liveli¬ 
 hood. By virtue of repeating his tales, he finished bv 
 first half believing them, then entirely ; and his voice 
 thence took that accent of truth which alone can produce 
 conviction in the audience. Besides, he came from such 
 a distance that he might indeed have seen marvels • 
 around us, thought they, life flows on without prodigies 
 almost without events in its flat monotony ; but 
 every one knows that in distant countries things are 
 quite different. And the best proof is that none of 
 those who have undertaken the journey comes back 
 disappointed ; quite the contrary ; besides, the pleasure 
 of believing them is innocent enough, and we shall do 
 wrong to deprive ourselves of it. 
 
 Clever people, poets, men of the world, of course 
 deprived themselves of this pleasure; they made up 
 this deficiency as best they could another way, by 
 laughing at pilgrims and all story-telling travellers. In 
 this way Chaucer put together for public merriment, 
 sailors, messengers, and pilgrims, as we have already 
 seen. To the same effect but in a graver mood, 
 Langland wrote in his “ Visions” : 
 
 “ Pylgrimis and palmers plyghten hem to-gcderes, 
 
 To seche saint lame and seyntys of rome, 
 
 Wenten forth in hure (their) way with meny vn-wyse tales. 
 And hauen leue to lye a! hure lyf-tyme.” 1 
 
 The crow'd reasoned in a different way ; they listened, 
 laughed perhaps sometimes, but more often collected 
 themselves and remained attentive. The pilgrim was 
 enough respected to find his living ; and he took care 
 
 1 Skcat’s edition. Text C, pass. i. 1 . 47. 
 
3<3° 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 by the recital of his miseries to make himself the 
 more revered ; the numerous leaden medals sewn 
 to his clothes spoke highly in his favour, and a man 
 was well received who had passed through Rome and 
 through Jerusalem, and could give news of the 
 “worshippers” of Mahomet. He had a bag h ung at 
 his side tor provisions, an ^ a staff in Jjis_hand ; at the 
 top ofthe" stafFwas a knob and sometimes a piece of 
 metal with an appropriate inscription, as, for example, 
 the device of a bronze ring found at Hitchin, a cross 
 with these words, “ Haec in tute dirigat iter” (“ May this 
 direct thee in safety on the way ”). 1 The staff at the 
 other end had an iron point, like an alpenstock of the 
 present day ; it may be seen in numerous drawings in 
 manuscripts. 
 
 But, as we have remarked, the whole race of 
 wanderers was looked at askance by the king’s officers; 
 these goings and comings disquieted the sheriff. We 
 know that the workmen who were weary of their 
 master left him under pretext of distant pilgrimages, 
 and without scruple laid down the pilgrim’s staff at the 
 door of a new master who would pay them better. 
 
 1 See the drawing of this ring in vol. viii. of the “Archaeological 
 Journal,” p. 360. The stick or pilgrim’s staff and the bag or 
 “ scrip ” were notoriously the signs of pilgrims. In the romance 
 of King Horn, the hero meets on his road a palmer, and to dis¬ 
 guise himself changes clothes with him ; in this transformation 
 the author only points out the characteristic particulars, that is to say, 
 the staff and the bag. “Horn took burdon and scrippe.” (“King 
 Horn, with fragments of Floris and Blauncheflur,” ed. by J. H. 
 Lumby, Early English Text Society, 1866.) We have seen above, 
 p. 332, that Reynard on his way to Rome took exactly the same 
 implements. 
 
PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 361 
 
 False pilgrims were not less numerous than false par¬ 
 doners and false hermits; they were condemned to repose, 
 under pain of imprisonment, by the same statutes 
 as the beggars and the wandering workmen. Hence¬ 
 forward, orders Richard II. in 1388, they also must 
 have, like these, letters of passage with a special sea! 
 entrusted to certain law-worth men. Without that 
 let them be arrested, unless they are infirm and in- 
 
 AN ENGLISH PILGRIM. 
 
 (From the MS. 17 C. xxxviii.) 
 
 capable of work ; it is evident that in this latter case they 
 do not go to Walsingham for the love of vagabondage, 
 and that their journey has a serious object. 1 The same 
 severity was shown when it was a matter of crossing 
 the sea ; they must be furnished with passports in 
 order; and the law comprises “all manner of people, as 
 well clerks as other,” under pain of confiscation of all 
 1 Statute 12 Rich. II. cap 7. 
 
362 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 their goods. The reservations made by the king show 
 that it is the wanderers alone whom he has in view, 
 for there is a dispensation for the “ lords and other 
 great persons of the realm,” for the “ true and notable 
 merchants,” and lastly, for the “ king’s soldiers.” 1 
 
 This passport or “ licence,” this “ special leave of 
 the king,” could only be available at certain fixed ports, 
 namely, London, Sandwich, Dover, Southampton, 
 Plymouth, Dartmouth, Bristol, Yarmouth, Boston, 
 Kingston-upon-Hull, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and the 
 ports of the coast opposite to Ireland. Very heavy 
 penalties were laid on all wardens of ports, inspectors, 
 captains of ships, &c., who were neglectful, or so bold 
 as to be favourable to the roamers. In the year 1389, 
 the king restrained pilgrims who were going on the Con¬ 
 tinent from embarking anywhere else than from Dover 
 or Plymouth. To take sea elsewhere it w r ould be 
 necessary to have an “ especial licence from the king 
 himself.” 2 3 A number of such licences, as will be seen 
 further on, are still in existence. 
 
 But the attraction to distant pilgrimages was great ; 3 
 with or without letters men crossed the Channel, for 
 
 1 Statute 5 Rich. II. st. 1, c. 2. Restrictions on pilgrimage-making 
 existed also in France. See an ordinance of Charles VI., February 
 27, 1399, prohibiting pilgrimage to Rome. “ Recueil d’Isambert,” 
 vol. vi. p. 843. 
 
 * “ Rolls of Parliament,” 1 3 Rich. II. vol. iii. p. 275, and Statute 
 I, cap. 20 of 13 Rich. II. 
 
 3 As to the number of pilgrimages, their origin, and history, see 
 the “Dictionnaire,geographique,historique,descriptif,archcologique 
 des pelerinages anciens et modernes,” by L. de Sivry et M. de Cham- 
 pagnac, Paris, 1850, 2 vols. 8vo, forming vols. xliii. and xliv. of 
 Migne’s “ Encyclopedic theologique.” 
 
PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 
 
 363 
 
 which they paid sixpence, or if they had a horse, two 
 shillings. 1 They arrived at Calais, stopping there some 
 time in a “ Maison-Dieu,” or hospital, which had been 
 built and endowed by pious souls with revenues “ for 
 the sustenance of the pilgrims and other poor folks 
 repairing to the said town to rest and refresh them.” 2 3 
 Setting out again, they went to Boulogne to pray to a 
 miraculous virgin, whose hand still exists enclosed in a 
 reliquary. The statue itself was thrown into a well by 
 the Protestants in 1567 ; replaced on the altar in 1630, 
 it was pulled down again at the Revolution and burnt ; 
 but one of the faithful saved the hand, which the church 
 of Notre Dame preserves to this day. Chaucer’s 
 travelled gossip, the Wife of Bath, had among other pil¬ 
 grimages, made this to Boulogne .3 People also went 
 to Amiens to worship the head, or rather one of 
 the heads, of St. John the Baptist. Great was their 
 wonder, as we can readily believe, when, continuing 
 their journey, they fell in with another head of the same 
 saint at Constantinople. Perhaps, let us hope, they were 
 content with remarking as “ Mandeville ” does : Which 
 is the true one ? “1 wot nere, but God knowethe; but 
 
 1 Statute 4 Ed. III. c. 8. 
 
 2 Petition of the Calais burgesses, “Rolls of Parliament, ’ vol. iii. 
 p. 500, 4 Henry IV., a.d. 1402. In Dover too, on the opposite shore, 
 there was such a house, the inventory of which has been printed. 
 Walcott, “Inventories of St. Marys Hospital or Maison-Dieu, 
 Dover,”’London, 1869. In the diary of his travels, during the six- 
 teenth’century, the Greek NicanderNucius observes that the town of 
 Dover seemed to be made almost entirely of inns and hotels. (“The 
 Travels of Nicander Nucius of Corcyra,” Camden Society, 1841.) 
 
 3 See Prof. J. W. Hales’ letter to The Acaaerny of April 22, 1882, 
 (p. 287). 
 
3 6 4 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 in what wyse than men worschipen it, the blessed seym 
 John holt him a-payd.” 1 Then also people went to the 
 y shrine of the three kings at Cologne, to Paris where 
 innumerable relics were kept, and to many places in 
 France, among which one of the most celebrated and to 
 the present day most curious was our Lady of Rocama- 
 dour in Guyenne. The fame of this pilgrimage among 
 Englishmen is attested by Langland, when he advises 
 people belonging to the religious orders to cease pil¬ 
 grimage-making, and rather practice virtue at home : 
 
 “ Right so, if thow be Religious renne thou neuer fcrther 
 To Rome ne to Rochemadore.” 2 3 
 
 It was a place of great renown. Roland, according 
 to a legend, went there before starring for the ill-fated 
 expedition where he met his death, and a large piece of 
 rusted iron is still shown in the old church as being part 
 of the famous Durandal. Henry II. of England came 
 there, too, as a pilgrim ; as did many other illustrious 
 travellers, Simon de Montfort among them .3 The 
 place was fortified and had a part to play in the Hundred 
 Years’ War. It may be seen in Lord Berners’s Froissart, 
 “ howe Sir Robert Carrol and Sir John Chandos . . . 
 toke Guaches, Rochemador, and diuers other townes, 
 
 ; he which wer newly turned frenche.” 4 
 
 Then there were Spanish pilgrimages, and especially 
 
 1 Halliwell’s edition, 1866, p. 108. 
 
 2 Text B, p. xii. 1 . 37. Skeat’s edition. 
 
 3 A. B. Caillau, “ Histoire de Notre Dame de Rocamadour,” 
 Paris, 1834, pp. 73, et seq. 
 
 * Vol. i. ch. cclviii. 
 
FORTIFIED ENTRANCE TO THE SANCTUARIES OF KOCAMADOUk. 
 
 [Recently restored.) 
 
 p- 305. 
 
PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 
 
 367 
 
 the world-famous one at Compostella, where English 
 travellers went usually direct by sea. Licences autho¬ 
 rizing the owners and captain of such or such a ship to 
 carry to St. James’ a fixed number of pilgrims are still 
 in existence, and fill page after page in Rymer’s 
 “ Foedera.” They were granted pursuant to the 
 statute of Richard above mentioned, and are all drawn 
 after one or two models, varying very little one from 
 the other. They are in Latin, with the name of the 
 ship in French. Here is an example of the year 1394 : 
 
 “ The king, to all and each of his Admirals, &c., 
 greeting. 
 
 “Know you that we have given licence to Oto Chamber- 
 noun, William Gilbert, and Richard Gilbert, to receive 
 and embark in the harbour of Dartmouth a hundred pil¬ 
 grims in a certain ship belonging to the same Oto, 
 William, and Richard, called la Charite de Paynton, of 
 which Peter Cok is captain ; and to take them to 
 Saint James, there to fulfil their vows, and from thence 
 to bring them back to England, freely and without hin¬ 
 drance, notwithstanding any ordinances to the contrary.” 1 
 
 A few provisos are added, the keeping of which the 
 pilgrims must swear before leaving England ; they must 
 upon their oath bind themselves to do nothing contrary 
 to the obedience and fealty they owe the king ; they 
 must not take out of the realm gold or silver in money or 
 bullion beyond what is necessary to their journey, and 
 sometimes it is added that they must not reveal the 
 secrets of the kingdom. 
 
 During the following century these licences became 
 innumerable, or rather they have been preserved in much 
 ‘“Foedera,” ed. 1704., &c., vol. vii. p. 468, 17 Rich. II. 1394. 
 
368 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 larger nurrbers. They show that, in fact, fleets loaded 
 with English pilgrims plied towards St. James’. We find 
 that “ Le Petre de Darthmouth ” is allowed to carrry 
 sixty pilgrims ; “ La Marie de Southampton,” a hun¬ 
 dred ; “ La Sainte Marie de Blakney,” sixty ; “ Le 
 Garlond de Crowemere,” sixty; “La Trinite de Wells,” 
 forty; “ Le Thomas de Saltash,” sixty ; and so on. 
 Numbers usually vary from thirty to one hundred. 1 
 
 It must not be thought that these ships, carrying a 
 hundred passengers besides their crew on this rather 
 long journey, were large, well-appointed vessels. 
 They very much resembled the pilgrim-ships of the 
 present day, who carry every year to Jeddah, on the 
 Red Sea. crowds of Arabs on their way to Mecca. The 
 pilgrims were huddled together in the most uncomfortable 
 fashion, and had opportunities in plenty to do penance 
 and offer their sufferings to the saint. This may be 
 determined by more than probabilities, for one of those 
 English pilgrims, thus allowed by roval licence to 
 go to Galicia provided that they did not reveal the 
 secrets of the realm, has left a complaint about his 
 experience on such a journey, that has survived. 
 You must not think of laughing, says he, when you go 
 by sea to St. James’ ; there is sea-sickness ; you are 
 pushed about by sailors under pretext of hindering the 
 working of the ship ; the smell is most unpleasant: 
 
 “Men may leue alle gamys 
 That saylen to Seynt Jamys ! 
 
 Ffor many a man hit gramys (vexes) 
 
 When they begin to saylc. 
 
 * “ Foedera,” 12 Hen. VI. 1 + 34, vol. x. pp. 567-569. 
 
TRAVELLING BY SEA IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. [ p. yvy 
 
 {From the MS. Hart. 1319.) 
 
PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 
 
 37 * 
 
 Ffor when they haue take the see 
 At Sandwych or at Wynchylsee, 
 At Bristow, or where that hit bee, 
 Theyr hertes begyn to fayle.” 
 
 The mocking remarks of the seamen are very painful 
 to bear. Says the captain : 
 
 “ Some ar lyke to cowgh and grone 
 Or hit be full mydnyght; ” 
 
 and then turning to his men : 
 
 “ ‘ Hale the bowelyne ! now, vere the shete ! 
 Cooke, make redy anoon our mete, 
 
 Our pylgryms haue no lust to ete, 
 
 I pray God yeue hem rest! ’ 
 
 ‘ Go to the helm ! what, howe ! no nere ? 
 Steward, felow ! A pot of bere ! ’— 
 
 —‘ Ye shalle have sir, with good chere, 
 Anon alle of the best.’ ” 
 
 Pilgrims were sea-sick; they could not eat, they weie 
 laughed at, they found the time very long ; some tried 
 to read with a book on their knees, but then they felt 
 as if their head would burst: 
 
 “ Som layde theyr bookys on theyr kne, 
 
 And rad so long they myght nat se ;— 
 
 ‘Allas ! myne hede wolle cleue on thre ! 
 
 When they are at their worst, then comes a facetious 
 sailor to bawl out in their ears : Cheer up, in a moment 
 we shall be in a storm ! 
 
372 
 
 ENGLISH WAY LA RING LIL'E. 
 
 “ Then cometh oone and seyth : ‘ Be mery ; 
 
 Ye shall haue a storme or a pery ’ (a squall) 
 
 * * * * 
 
 Thys mene whyle the pylgryms ly 
 
 And haue theyr bowlys fast theym by.* 
 
 In short, they were very unhappy, and as the narrator 
 said at first, they were little inclined to games and 
 laughter . 1 
 
 Everywhere votive offerings were hung in venerated 
 sanctuaries ; if, on one hand, by striking a wax statuette 
 together with appropriate incantations some one mighf 
 do you great harm, on the other, by placing your image 
 in the chapel of a saint, great favours might be won fof 
 you, especially cures in cases of sickness . 2 There were 
 prisoners’ irons, swords of warriors, crutches of 
 cripples, jewels and precious stones, tablets and offerings 
 of all sorts. At Rocamadour tresses of women’s hair 
 were to be seen ; they hung there as a threat as well as 
 an admonition. “ They were, relates the knight of La 
 Tour Landry, those of “ ladies and gentille women 
 that had be wasshe in wyne, and in other thinges for 
 to make the here of colour otherwise thanne God made 
 it, the whiche ladies and gentille women that aught 
 (owned) the tresses were comynge thedirward on 
 pilgrimage, but they may neuer haue powere to come 
 withinne the chirche dore vnto the tyme that thei hadde 
 
 1 “ The Stacions or Rome and the Pilgrim’s Sea Voyage,” ed. 
 Furnivall, Early English Text Society, 1867^.47. This complaint 
 on the Compostella pilgrimage is of the fifteenth century. 
 
 2 “The Paston Letters,” ed. Jas. Gairdner, vol. i. p. 48. Letter 
 of Margaret Paston of September 28, 1443. 
 
PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 
 
 373 
 
 cutte of the'tresses of her here ,” 1 which, says he, still 
 continue to be there. 
 
 Anot her fine story t o the same effect and concerning 
 the same sanctuary is told by Mielot, who reports how 
 a very fair lady, who had led an ill life, lost her sight 
 as a punishment, through the will of Heaven. She went 
 in pilgrimage to Rocamadour, prayed to the Virgin, and 
 was healed, but could not, however, enter the sanctu¬ 
 aries. She then confessed on the spot to a priest, who, 
 “ looking at her fair face,” said : “ Dear friend, I well 
 know that with these fair tresses of your hair you have 
 done great hurt to those to whom you have shown them. 
 I decide that they must be cut off" in honour of God 
 and of our Lady.” This was done ; “ the tresses were 
 cut, and the priest had them carried inside the church 
 on a pole, on which were placed the tresses of women 
 who would be saved.” Then the lady was able to enter 
 the church, and she praised the Virgin. But as she 
 was going away she could not help thinking “ of her 
 fair hair that she had left,” and she exclaimed: “Holy 
 Mary, my heart is sorrowful for my hair that I leave 
 you, and I cannot well make up my mind to it.” She 
 had scarcely spoken when the tresses were at once 
 restored to her “ as fair as they were before ; ” but the 
 blindness came back too, and blind she remained for 
 ever, which is a good example, “ ung bel exemplaire,” 
 for ladies that “ seek false pleasures in their fine waists 
 and faces.” 2 
 
 * “ The Book of the Knight of La Tour Landry,’’translated from 
 the French temp. Henry VI., edited by Thomas Wright (Early 
 English Text Society), 1868, p. 70. The original French work is 
 of the fourteenth century. 
 
 1 “ Miracles de Nostre Dame,” collected by Jean Mielot, edited 
 
374 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 But what attracted many besides were the indulgences. 
 They were considerable, and the popular imagination 
 still further augmented their extent. The pilgrim who, 
 returning from Rome, came to his home, exaggerated 
 their number as willingly as that of the marvels which 
 he had seen, or thought he had seen. A pilgrim of 
 this kind has left his impressions of his journey in a 
 short poem ; he was an Englishman of the fourteenth 
 century, who came back from Italy dazzled by his re¬ 
 collections. His fancy is not very poetic, but we must 
 take into account his intention, which was merely to 
 collect exact figures ; thus without delaying for 
 picturesque descriptions, he only gives us precise infor¬ 
 mation. His strong narrow devotion allowed him to 
 see nothing else than thousands of the bodies of 
 martyrs, and he enumerated them with perseverance. 
 By thousands also are reckoned the years of indulgence 
 which he flashes as a lure in the eyes of his fellow 
 coun trymen. 
 
 “ Gif men wuste (knew), grete and smale, 
 
 The pardoun that is at grete Rome, 
 
 Thei wolde tellen in heore dome (in their opinion), 
 
 Hit were no neod to mon in cristiante 
 To passe in to the holy lond ouer the see 
 To Jerusalem, ne to Kateryne.” 1 
 
 But to begin with, he must give an abridgment of the 
 history of Rome ; it is a city to which first came the 
 Duchess of Troy with her two sons, Romulus and Ro¬ 
 by G. F. Warner, Roxburghe Club, 1885, p. 58. This version of 
 the tale is of the fifteenth century, but the story itself is much 
 older. 
 
 1 I.e., St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. 
 
PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 
 
 375 
 
 mulon, who 'afterwards founded the town. The duchess 
 thus seems to have chosen to establish herself in a city 
 which did not yet exist, an inadvertence in the narrator 
 which we must pardon. Rome was pagan at first, but 
 Peter and Paul 
 
 “ Hit hedde i-bought, 
 With gold ne seluer, ne with no goode, 
 
 Bot with heore flesch and with heore blode.” 
 
 The enumeration of the churches soon begins, and 
 for each of them we invariably learn the quantity of 
 relics kept in it, and of indulgences attached to it. The 
 benefits are proportioned to the merits; thus when a 
 man sees the vernicle, that is, the holy sudary or hand¬ 
 kerchief which received the image of the Saviour, he 
 wins three thousand years of indulgence if he dwells 
 in Rome, nine thousand if he comes from a neighbouring 
 country, 
 
 “And thou that passest over the see 
 Twelve thousend yer is graunted to the.” 
 
 When you enter Sts. Vitus and Modestus, the third 
 of your sins are remitted. Then, you descend into the 
 catacombs : 
 
 “But thou most take candel liht, 
 
 Elies thou gost merk (dark) as niht, 
 
 For vnder the eorthe most thou wende 
 Thou maight not see bifore ne bihynde 
 For thider fledde mony men 
 For drede of deth to sauen hem 
 And suffrede peynes harde and sore 
 In heuene to dwelle for euer more.” 
 
376 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIRE. 
 
 The bodies of martyrs are innumerable ; 1 there are 
 four thousand of them at Saint Prudence, thirteen 
 hundred at Saint Praxede, seven thousand at Sts. Vitus 
 and Modestus. From time to time a famous name 
 brings up an historic glimpse, such as the recital of the 
 foundation of Rome, or the abridged life of Constan¬ 
 tine: 
 
 “ In Mahoun was al his thouht.” 
 
 He was at first a pagan and a leper, but according to our 
 author’s information, he was converted and cured by 
 Pope Silvester. The church of St. Mary the Round, 
 formerly bore another name: 
 
 “Agrippa dude hit make 
 For Sibyl and Neptanes sake 
 
 * * * * 
 
 He gaf hit name Panteon.” 
 
 He placed there a magnificent golden idol sitting, of 
 a particular shape : 
 
 “ Hit looked forth as a cat, 
 He called it Neptan.” 
 
 1 William Wey, in the fifteenth century, thus mentions the cata¬ 
 combs : “ Item ibi est una spelunca nuncupata Sancti Kalixti cimi- 
 terium, et qui earn pertransit cum devocione, illi indulgentur omnia 
 sua peccata. Et ibi multa corpora sanctorum sunt, que nullus homi- 
 num numerare nequit nisi solus Deus ’’ (‘‘The Itineraries of William 
 Wey,” Roxburghe Club, 1857, p. 146). Wey, like the author of the 
 poem, sometimes mentions prodigious numbers of bodies of 
 martyrs ; at the church called Scala Celi, “ sunt ossa sanctorum 
 decern millia militum;” in one single part of St. Peter’s at Rome, 
 there are “ Petronella et xiii. millia sanctorum martyrum.” 
 
PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 
 
 2,11 
 
 This idol had a cap or cover of brass which was 
 blown off by the wind, and carried to the church of St. 
 Peter. But Pope Boniface prayed the Emperor Julian 
 to give him the Pantheon, to which that prince con¬ 
 sented ; and one year, on November 1st, the sovereign 
 pontiff consecrated the building, and baptized it St. 
 Mary the Round. 
 
 As for relics, there is not an object mentioned by the 
 Gospel which has not been found , and which may not 
 be venerated at Rome. 1 The table of the Last Supper 
 may be seen there, Aaron’s rod, fragments of the 
 multiplied loaves and fishes, hay from the stall at 
 Bethlehem, a swaddling-cloth of the infant Jesus, and 
 several other things, some of which are strange 
 enough. Some of these relics are still in the same 
 churches ; for instance, the portrait of the Virgin by St. 
 Luke at Santa Marie Maggiore, 2 “ Seinte Marie the 
 Maiour.” This is not, according to the pilgrim, a 
 picture really made by St. Luke ; he was going to do it, 
 and had prepared all his colours, when he suddenly 
 found the portrait before him, finished by the hands of 
 angels : 
 
 1 William Wey (fifteenth century) said of the church of the 
 Holy Cross : “ Item, ibi sunt duo ciphi, unus plenus sanguine Ihesu 
 Cristi, and alter plenus lacte beate Marie Virginis ” (“Itineraries,” 
 p. 146). Those who drink at the three fountains which gushed 
 out at the death of St. Paul are cured of all maladies ; those who 
 visit the church of St. Mary of the Annunciation will never be 
 struck by lightning ; at the church of St. Vivian there is “ herba 
 crescens quam ipsa plantavit et valet contra caducum morbum.” 
 At the church of St. Sebastian is shown a foot-print of Jesus; and 
 there it is, in fact, still to be seen at the present day. (Ibid. pp. 
 143 — 148.) 2 In the Borghese chapel. 
 
378 
 
 ENGLISH WA YEA RING LIFE. 
 
 “ Seint Luik while he liued in londe, 
 
 Wolde haue peynted hit with his honde. 
 
 And whon he hedde ordeyned so 
 Alle colours that schulde ther to, 
 
 He fond an ymage al a-pert, 
 
 Non such ther was middelert, 
 
 Mad with angel hond and not with his 
 As men in Rome witnesseth this.” 1 
 
 Other towns in Italy couJd almost rival Rome 
 with the precious relics in their churches; Venice 
 especially was full of wonders of all sorts, and was 
 admired and visited accordingly, as may be seen from the 
 travelling notes of a troop of French pilgrims in the 
 year 1395. In this “most excellent, noble, great and 
 fine town all seated in the sea ” may be seen the arm of 
 “ our Lord St. George,” the burdon of St. Nicholas, one 
 of the water-pots of Cana, one ear of St. Paul, some of 
 the “ roasted flesh of St. Lawrence turned to powder,” 
 three of the stones thrown at St. Stephen, the body of 
 St. Mark, “which is a very fine and noble thing” 
 Besides, there is “ in the Maison-Lieu of Venice one cf 
 the molar teeth of a giant that was called Goliath, which 
 
 '“The Stacions of Rome” (fourteenth century), edited by 
 F. J. Furnivall, Early En c lish Text Society, 1867. Another ver¬ 
 sion of the same poem, with various readings, was printed in 
 “ Political, Religious, and Love Poems,” by the same editor 
 (Early English Text Society), in 1866, p. 113. See in this last 
 volume notes by Mr. W. M. Rossetti on the “ Stacions,” pp. 
 xxi-xlviii. He compares the information furnished by the author 
 of the poem to that given by the Italian Francino in the book com¬ 
 posed by him in 1600, on the same subject. Mr. Rossetti 
 indicates also what is still shown at Rome of the relics named in 
 the “ Stacions.” 
 
PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 
 
 379 
 
 giant David killed, and know you that this tooth is more 
 than half a foot long and weighs twelve pounds.” 1 
 
 It was after this fashion that the traveller related his 
 recollections, and these are epitomes of the discourses 
 which he held forth to his countrymen. The wish to 
 set out in their turn was awakened, and those who re¬ 
 mained in the village joined from their soul in the 
 pilgrim’s work, and indeed in giving him help. On his 
 road he was treated in the same wav by pious persons, 
 and it was thanks to these customs that poor persons 
 could accomplish distant pilgrimages. The rules of 
 several gilds provided for the case of a member who 
 might set out thus to fulfil a vow. In order to take 
 part in his merits, all the “ bretheren and sisteren” accom¬ 
 panied him out of the town, and on bidding him farewell 
 gave him some money. They watched their friend go 
 off with his measured step, beginning a journey across 
 many countries, which must last during months, some¬ 
 times during years. They returned to the town, and 
 the elders who knew the world no doubt told what 
 strange things their companion would see in those dis¬ 
 tant lands, and what subjects for continual edification he 
 would meet with on his road. 
 
 The Gild of the Resurrection at Lincoln, founded in 
 1374, has among its rules, “If any brother or sister 
 wishes to make pilgrimage to Rome, St. James of Galicia, 
 or the Holy Land, he shall forewarn the gild ; and all 
 the bretheren and sisteren shall go with him to the city 
 gate, and each shall give him a half-penny at least.” 
 
 1 “Le Saint Voyage de Jherusalem du Seigneur d’Anglure,” ed. / 
 Bonnardot and Longnon, Societedes Anciens Textes Fran^ais, 1878, 
 PP- 3 , 4 - 
 
3§o 
 
 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE. 
 
 The same rule is found in the Gild of Fullers of Lincoln, 
 founded in 1297 ; the pilgrim going to Rome was accom¬ 
 panied as far as the Oueen’s Cross outside the town if he 
 left on a Sunday or a feast-day ; and if he could let them 
 know of his return and it were not a working day, all 
 went to meet him at the same place and accompanied 
 him to the monastery. Again, the tailors also give a 
 half-penny to him among them who is going to Rome 
 or St. James, and a penny to him who goes to the Holy 
 Land. The ordinances of the Gild of the Virgin, 
 founded at Hull in 1357, had : “ If any brother or sister 
 of the gild wishes at any time to make a pilgrimage to 
 the Holy Land, then, in order that all the gild may 
 share in his pilgrimage, he shall be fully released from 
 his yearly payment until his return.” 
 
 There were also gilds which kept open house to 
 receive the pilgrims, always with the same object of 
 joining themselves by some good work to that of the 
 traveller. Thus the gild-merchant of Coventry, founded 
 in 1340, maintained “a common lodging-house of thir¬ 
 teen beds,” to receive poor travellers who cross the 
 country going on pilgrimage or from any other pious 
 motive. This hostelry was directed by a governor, aided 
 by a woman who washed the feet of the travellers and 
 took care of them. The annual expenditure on this 
 foundation was ten pounds sterling. 1 
 
 When one of the king’s servants had a pilgrimage to 
 make, the prince, understanding his motive, willingly 
 authorized him to depart, and even helped him with 
 money. Edward III. gave to William Clerk, one of his 
 messengers, one pound six shillings and eightpence, to 
 1 Toulmin Smith, “English Gilds,” pp. 157, 177, 180, 182, 231. 
 
PIL GRIMS AND PIL GRIM A GES. 381 
 
 help him in his charges during the pilgrimage undertaken 
 by him to Jerusalem and Mount Sinai. 1 
 
 Yet, as we have seen, the fourteenth century was not 
 an age of serious and true devotion. The Popes lived 
 at Avignon, their prestige was declining, and particulaj^y 
 in England ; even the prelates showed at times very little 
 respect for the Roman Court. Nowhere can be found, 
 not even in Wyclif, more violent accusations nor more 
 scandalous anecdotes concerning the Pope than in the 
 chronicle composed by Thomas of Burton, Abbot of 
 Meaux. The way he speaks of indulgences is also very 
 free. As a special favour to the faithful who died during 
 a pilgrimage to Rome, Clement VI. “ordered the angels 
 of Paradise,” writes the abbot, “ to lead their souls straight 
 to the gates of heaven without making them pass through 
 purgatory.” 2 The same Pope granted what the pilgrim 
 above quoted seems to have ignored, that those who 
 should see the holy sudary should return to the state 
 they were in before baptism. Lastly, “he confirmed all 
 the indulgences granted by two hundred sovereign 
 pontiffs his predecessors, which are innumerable.” 
 
 At the period when the monastic chroniclers without 
 scruple wrote down in their books anecdotes on the 
 Roman Court like those of Thomas of Burton, the 
 general devotion was not merely lessened, it was dis¬ 
 organized, gone mad. The chroniclers show, indeed, 
 
 ' Devon’s “Issues of the Exchequer,” 1837, p. 159. 
 
 2 “ Chronica monasterii de Melsa,” ed. E. A. Bond, 1868, vol. 
 iii. p. 88 (Rolls Scries). The Abbot of Meaux declares that 
 Clement VI. replied to the reproaches of his confessor as to hii 
 bad life : “ Quod facimus modo facimus consilio medicorum.’’ 
 About his theory of the “treasury,” see supra , p. 311, 
 
382 
 
 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE. 
 
 that the excesses of impiety clashed with the excesses 
 of fervour, and it was thus that, for example, the false 
 pardoner, a retail merchant of the merits of saints, met 
 the bleeding flagellant upon the highway. 1 The papacy 
 might show great good sense by the condemnations which 
 it hurled against both ; 2 its decrees did not suffice to 
 restore the equilibrium of men’s minds, and the bounds 
 of reason were continually being passed ; in ardent piety 
 as in impious revolt men went to the verge of madness. 
 It is painful to read the recital of the obscene sacrileges 
 committed in York Cathedral by the partizans of the 
 Bishop of Durham, and yet the facts cannot be 
 doubted, we have the archbishop himself reporting 
 them .3 Faith disappeared, or was transformed ; men 
 became at once sceptical and intolerant. It is not at all 
 the modern serenely cold and imperturbable scepticism, 
 it is a violent movement of the whole nature which 
 
 * “In which year (1350) there came into England certain 
 penitents, noblemen and foreigners, who beat their bare bodies 
 very sharply, to the effusion of blood, now weeping, now singing ; 
 yet, as was said, they did this too unadvisedly, being without licence 
 from the apostolic see” (Walsingham, “Historia Anglicana,” Rolls 
 Series, vol. i. p. 275). Compare Robert de Avesbury, “ Hist. 
 Edwardi Tertii,”ed. Hearne, Oxoni, 1720, p. 179. The flagellants 
 whipped themselves with knotted cords furnished with nails, they 
 prostrated themselves to the ground with their arms crossed, 
 singing. 
 
 2 The flagellants were condemned by Clement VI. in 1349 > 
 ordered the archbishops, bishops, &c., to have them imprisoned 
 (Labbe, “ Sacrosancta Concilia,” Florence ed., vol. xxv. col. 1153). 
 
 3 Letter of the Archbishop of York to his official, “ Historical 
 Papers from the Northern Registers,” ed. Raine, pp. 397—399. 
 The guilty were not unimportant vagabonds ; one has the title of 
 magister , another is professor of civil law. 
 
PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 
 
 3«3 
 
 feels itself impelled to burn what it adores; but the 
 man is uncertain in his doubt, and his burst of laughter 
 stuns him ; he has passed as it were through an orgie, 
 and when the white light of the morning comes he will 
 have an attack of despair, profound anguish with tears, 
 and perhaps a vow of pilgrimage and a conspicuous 
 conversion. Walsingham sees one of the causes of the 
 peasants’ revolt in the incredulity of the barons : 
 “Some among them believe, it is said, that there is no 
 God, they deny the sacrament of the altar and resurrec¬ 
 tion after death, and consider that as is the end of the 
 beast of burden, so is the end of man himself.” 1 
 
 But this incredulity was not definitive, and did not 
 hinder superstitious practices. Men did not under¬ 
 stand how to go straight forward ; instead of opening 
 the gates of heaven with their own hands, they imagined 
 they could get it done by those of others ; they had 
 Paradise gained for them by the neighbouring monastery 
 as thev had their lands worked for them by their tenants ; 
 eternal welfare had become matter of commerce with 
 the letters of fraternity of the mendicant friars and the 
 lying indulgences of pardoners. Men lived at their 
 ease, and quieted themselves by writing pious donations 
 in their wills, as if they could, according to the words 
 of a French writer of a later date, “ corrupt and 
 
 * “Nam quidam illorum credebant, ut asseritur, nullum Deum 
 esse, nihil esse sacramentum altaris, nullam post mortem resurrec- 
 tionem, sed ut jumentum moritur, ita est hominem finire ” 
 (“ Historia Anglicana,” vol. ii. p. 12). Langland also complains of 
 the scepticism of the nobles, who question the mysteries, and make 
 these grave matters the subject of light conversation after meals. 
 (“ Piers Plowman,” Text C, pass. xii. 1 . 35). 
 
3^4 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 win over by gifts God and the saints, whom we ought 
 to appease by good works and by the amendment of our 
 sins.” 1 Very instructive reading is that of the last acts 
 and wills of the rich lords of the fourteenth century. 
 Pages are filled with bequests made from motives of 
 devotion ; gifts are left to all the shrines, convents, 
 chapels, and hermits, and testators go so far as to make 
 pilgrimages after death by proxy, paying for them. 
 The same Humphrey Bohun who sent “ a good man 
 and true ” to the tomb of Thomas of Lancaster, also 
 ordered that after his death a priest should be sent to 
 Jerusalem, “chiefly,” said he, “for my lady mother, 
 and for my lord father, and for ourselves,” with the 
 obligation to say masses at all the chapels where he 
 could along the journey. 2 3 
 
 As to the Crusades, men were always talking of them, 
 perhaps more than ever, only they did not make them. 
 In the midst of their wars kings reproached one another 
 with being the only hindrance to the departure of the 
 Christians; there was always some useful incident 
 which detained them. Philip of Valois and Edward 
 III. protest that if it were not for their enemy they 
 would go to fight the Saracen. “ It is the fault of the 
 English,” writes Philip, that “ the holy journey beyond 
 sea has been hindered ” ; 3 it is the doing of the King 
 
 1 “ Les louenges du roy Louys xij.,” par Claude de Scyssei, 
 Paris, 1508. 
 
 * “A Collection of the Wills of the Kings and Queens of Eng¬ 
 land,” &c., printed by J. Nichols, London, 1780. Will of Humphrey 
 Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex, who died 1361, p. 54. 
 
 3 Robert of Avesbury, “ Historia Edwardi Tertii,” ed. Hearne 
 Oxford, 1720, p. 63. 
 
Pilgrims and pilgrimages. 
 
 3S5 
 
 of France, declares Edward III. on his side, in a 
 solemn manifesto, which has turned him from the 
 “ sancto passagio transmarino.” 1 No doubt the days 
 of St. Louis had not so far gone by that the sense of 
 this great duty, the war against the infidel, should be 
 already lost, and men still thought that if it were some¬ 
 thing to set out for St. James or Notre Dame, yet the 
 true road to heaven was that to Jerusalem. Meanwhile 
 on this subject we see break forth some of those ideas 
 which seem to be inspired by the practical views of 
 modern times, and which began to spread in the four¬ 
 teenth century. We crush the infidel, why not convert 
 him ? Is it not wiser, more reasonable, and even more 
 conformable to the religion of Christ ? Were the 
 apostles whom He sent to us Gentiles covered with 
 armour and provided with swords ? Reflections like 
 these were made, not merely by reformers such as 
 Wyclif and Langland, 2 but by men of an habitually 
 calm mind and great piety, such as Gower: 
 
 “To sleen and fighten they us bidde 
 
 Hem whom they shuld, as the boke saith, 
 
 Converten unto Cristes feith. 
 
 But herof have I great merveile 
 How they wol bidde me traveile. 
 
 1 Robert of Avesbury, “ Historia Edwardi Tertii,” ed. Hearne, 
 Oxford, 1720, p. 11 5. 
 
 2 Langland speaks of the Saracens without cursing them ; they 
 
 might be saved, it was Mahomet who deceived them in anger at 
 not being made pope; men ought to convert them ; the pope makes 
 indeed bishops of Nazareth, Nineveh, &c., but they take care never 
 to visit their undocile flocks (“ Piers Plowman,” Text C, ed. Skeat, 
 pass, xviii. pp. 314-318). 25 
 
386 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 A Sarazin if I slee shall, 
 
 I slee the soule forth withall, 
 
 And that was never Cristes lore.” * 
 
 It was found convenient, however, to talk of Crusades, 
 and some still believed that they would be made. For this 
 Elizabeth de Burgh, Lady Clare, desired that five men-at- 
 arms should fight in her name in case there should 
 be a “ common voyage ” within seven years following 
 her death. 1 2 3 4 The merit of their works would be 
 attributed to her, and they would receive a money com¬ 
 pensation amounting to ioo marks each. But the com¬ 
 mon voyage remained a project for ever, and the only 
 expeditions set on foot were private enterprises .3 
 
 In this case religious enthusiasm was not the only 
 lever; the chivalric and stirring instincts which filled this 
 age of combats caused half the devotion which urged 
 these little troops to start. A good number of them 
 came from England ; the English were already, and 
 even before that time, great travellers, as they are now. 
 They were to be met with everywhere, and also, as 
 now, their knowledge of French served them in some 
 degree in every country on the Continent. It was the 
 language of the upper classes, as “ Mandeville” reminds 
 us, 4 it was also that which was spoken in the East by 
 
 1 “ Confessio Amantis,” Pauli’s edition, vol. ii. p. 58. 
 
 2 She died November 4, 1360, Nichols’ “Wills of Kings and 
 Queens,” &c., 1780, p. 29. 
 
 3 The last effective Crusade ended in 1272, with the return of 
 Prince Edward (Edward I.) to take the crown on his father’s death. 
 These holy wars had covered a period of nearly two hundred 
 years. [L. T. S.] 
 
 4 He says (in French) : “And know that I would have put this 
 little book into Latin for brevity, but because many understand 
 
PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 
 
 087 
 
 the European, the Frank. Trevisa, declaring that the 
 English were forgetting that language, deplores it; how 
 will they do if they go abroad ? “ That is harme for 
 
 hem and they schulle passe the see and trauaille in 
 straunge landes and in many other places.” 1 However, 
 if the English no longer knew French fluently, they 
 took heed of the utility of the language, and they tried 
 to acquire some notions of it before setting out on their 
 travels. They employed competent persons to compose 
 manuals of conversation to teach them how “ to speak, 
 to pronounce well, and to write correctly sweet French, 
 which is the finest and most graceful language, the 
 noblest to speak of any in the world after Latin of the 
 schools, and is better prized and loved than any other 
 by all men ; for God made it so sweet and lovable 
 chiefly to His own praise and honour. And therefore 
 it may well compare with the language of the angels in 
 heaven, on account of its great sweetness and beauty.” 
 So wrote an Englishman in the fourteenth century. 2 
 
 The English went much abroad ; every author who 
 draws their portrait describes their taste for moving 
 about at home, and their love of distant travel ; the 
 
 Romance better than Latin, I have put it into Romance that it be 
 understood, and that the lords and knights and other noblemen 
 who do not know Latin, or but little, and who have been beyond 
 seas, may know and understand whether I speak truth or not.’’ 
 Sloane MS. 1464, fol. 3, at the British Museum (French MS. of 
 the beginning of fifteenth century). 
 
 1 In his translation of Ralph Higden’s “ Polychronicon,” ed. C 
 Babington, vol. ii. p. 161 (Rolls Series). 
 
 2 “La Maniere de Langage,” See., a text published by Prof. 
 Paul Meyer in the “Revue Critique,” vol x. (1870) pp. 37"*, 382. 
 The dedication is dated May 29, 1396. 
 
388 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 moon is the planet assigned them on this account. 
 According to Gower, it is owing to her that they visit 
 so many countries afar off: 
 
 “ What man under his [/>., the moon’s] powere 
 Is bore, he shall his place chaunge 
 And seche many londes straunge; 
 
 And as of this condicion 
 The mones disposicion 
 Upon the londe of Alemaigne 
 Is set, and eke upon Britaigne, 
 
 Which now is cleped Engelonde, 
 
 For they travaile in every londe.” 1 
 
 Wyclif places them under the patronage of the same 
 planet, but draws different consequences from it ; 2 and 
 Ralph Higden the chronicler expresses himself in these 
 terms, which seem prophetic, they have proved so exact : 
 “ That people are curious enough that they may know 
 and tell the wonders that they have seen ; they cultivate 
 other regions, and succeed still better in distant coun¬ 
 tries than in their own, . . . wherefore it is that they 
 are spread so wide through the earth, considering every 
 other land that they inhabit as their own country. 
 
 1 “ Confessio Amantis,” vol iii. p. 109 (Pauli’s edition). 
 
 2 He says the English are wanting in perseverance, “Et hinc 
 secundum astronomos lunam habent planetam propriam, quae in 
 motu et lumine est magis instabilis ” (“Fasciculi Zizaniorum,” 
 edited by Dr. Shirley, p. 270, Rolls Series). Caxton at the point 
 of the Renaissance also considers the moon as par excellence the 
 planet of the English : “ For we englysshe men ben borne vnder 
 the domynacyon of the mone, whiche is neuer stedfaste but euer 
 wauerynge ” (Prologue to his “ Boke of Eneydos compyled by 
 Vyrgyle,” 1490). 
 
PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 
 
 3S9 
 
 They are a race able for every industry.” He says also 
 that the English of his time love the pleasures of the 
 table more than any other people, and spend much on 
 food and on clothing. 1 But the important point here is 
 this taste for travelling which was so marked. A 
 number of them were established in Italy, where they 
 had become condottiere, and they went up and down 
 the peninsula according to the will of whomsoever 
 paid them. Such were John Hawkwood, whose tomb 
 still adorns the cathedral at Florence, William Gold, 
 and several others. Fierce people they were, with 
 ardent passions, ready sometimes, in the good old 
 manner, to do and sacrifice as much to recover a fugitive 
 girl as to take a town. One letter of William Gold 
 will be enough to give an idea of the sort of men the) 
 were, and of the life led by these bellicose wanderers. 
 It is sent to Louis of Gonzaga, lord of Mantua, on 
 August 9, 1378, and concerns the girl Jeannette, of 
 France: 
 
 “ . . . Let her be detained at my suit,” says Gold, 
 “ for if you should have a thousand golden florins spent 
 for her, I will pay them without delay ; for if I should 
 have to follow her to Avignon I will obtain this woman. 
 Now, my lord, should I be asking a trifle contrary to 
 law, yet ought you not to cross me in this, for some 
 day I shall do more for you than a thousand united 
 French women could effect ; and if there be need of 
 me in a matter of greater import, you shall have for the 
 asking a thousand spears at my back. Therefore, in 
 conclusion, again and again I entreat that this Janet 
 
 1 “ Polychronicon Ranulphi Higdcn,” edited by C. Babington, 
 1869, vol. ii. pp. 166, 168, Rolls Series, 
 
ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE. 
 
 3<5° 
 
 may be put in a safe place unknown to anybody, and 
 there kept until 1 send some servant of mine for her 
 with a letter from myself, for I would do more for you 
 in greater matters. And I pray you, thwart me not 
 about putting her in a safe place, for you alone, and no 
 one else are lord in Mantua. 
 
 “ The Camp under Verona , August 9, 1378. 
 
 “ P.S.—I beseech by all means that [the] said Janet 
 may not quit Mantua, but be in safe custody, and so 
 you will have obliged me for ever.” 
 
 No less determined as a warrior than as a lover, and 
 accustomed, as it seems, in both cases, to put people 
 to flight, William Gold was made a citizen of Venice 
 in recognition for his services on April 27, 1380, and in 
 July of the same year received from the Doge Andrea 
 Contarini a pension of 500 gold ducats for life. 1 
 
 With a rather different bent of mind, though not averse 
 either to adventures, other little troops left England, 
 beginning their long journey owards the Holy Land. 
 They did not usually start on so distant an expedition 
 without being furnished with letters from their sove¬ 
 reign, which might serve both as passport and as 
 recommendation in case of need. The tenor of these 
 documents was nearly alike and similar to that of the 
 following letter granted by Edward III. in 1354 : 
 “Know all men that the noble Jean le Meingre, 2 knight, 
 
 1 Rawdon Brown, “Calendar of State Papers relating to English 
 Affairs ... at Venice,” London, 1864, vol. i. pp. 24, 29 ; original 
 in Latin. 
 
 2 Marshal of France. Rymer calls him “Johannes Meyngre, 
 dictus Bussigand.” As to Boucicaut and his son, also a marshal of 
 France, see Delaville le Roulx, “La France en Orient, au XIV* 
 Siecle,” Paris, 1886, vol. i. pp. 160-16?, 
 
PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 
 
 39i 
 
 called Boucicaut, our prisoner, is about to set forth, 
 with our permission, with twelve knights to St. James, 
 and thence to march against the enemies of Christ in 
 the Holy Land ; and that we have taken him and his 
 twelve companions, their servants and horses, &c., 
 under our protection and safe conduct in their going 
 and coming through our dominions.” 1 
 
 Such travellers were well received by the King of 
 Cyprus, and assisted him in his numerous difficulties. 
 The king showed himself pleased with these visits, and 
 sometimes expressed his gladness in letters through 
 which a lively satisfaction appears. Thus, 011393, he 
 writes from Nicosia to Richard II., and tells him that a 
 knight has no need of a personal recommendation to 
 him to be welcome in the island ; all the subjects of 
 the King of England are his friends ; he is happy to 
 have Henry Percy, who will be very useful to him. 2 In 
 the same manner the troop of French pilgrims, to which 
 belonged the lord of Anglure, was welcomed in Cyprus, 
 
 1 Rymer’s “ Fcedera,” vol. v. p. 777. These letters must have 
 been given pretty frequently, for we find that they were drawn 
 up after a common form like our passports. (See that given by 
 Rymer in vol. vii. p. 337, a.d. 1381.) In November, 1392, the 
 Earl of Derby (the future Henry IV.) was at Venice, and set out 
 thence to go to the Holy Land. He had letters for the Republic 
 from Albert IV., Duke of Austria, and the Great Council lent him 
 a galley for his voyage. Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, also 
 set out from Venice for Palestine, in February, 1398-99. He had 
 presented himself to the Venetian Senate, furnished with a letter 
 from Richard II. (“ Calendar of State Papers relating to English 
 Affairs ... at Venice,” See., ed. Rawdon Brown, 1864, p. lxxxi, 
 Rolls Series). 
 
 2 “Historical Papers from the Northern Registers,” ed. Raine, 
 
 p. 425. 
 
59 2 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 in 1396. They reached Cyprus on their way home, 
 after a fearful storm, in which their lives were greatly 
 imperilled. As soon as the king heard of their having 
 landed he sent to them provisions in plenty : a hundred 
 poultry, twenty sheep, two oxen, much good wine and 
 good white bread. Then he asked them to his Court, 
 and when they came called the queen and his children 
 to help him in receiving them, and being himself a 
 great huntsman, he begged them to go to the hunt 
 with him, a pleasant offer after so many trials, and not 
 one to be refused. 
 
 With the notion of the pilgrimage was largely 
 associated that of the adventures which were to be had 
 at the various places and along the road ; they were 
 even sought, if necessary, and then the religious object 
 disappeared in the crowd of profane incidents. Thus, 
 in 1402, De Werchin, Seneschal of Hainault, announced 
 his project of a pilgrimage to St. James of Spain, and 
 his intention to accept the friendly combat of arms with 
 any knight for whom he should not have to turn from 
 his road more than 20 leagues. He announced his 
 itinerary beforehand, so that any one might make ready. 1 
 
 The strange man, Jean de Bourgogne by name, who 
 chose to sign his book of travels “ Jean de Mandeville,” 2 
 
 1 “Chronique de Monstrelet,” lib. i. chap. viii. 
 
 2 The voyages called “ Mandeville’s Voiage and Travaile” 
 were assuredly written in the fourteenth century in French, then 
 were translated into Latin and English. Only the portion relating 
 to Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, may have been founded on a real 
 journey. The article “Mandeville,” by Mr. E. B. Nicholson and 
 Colonel Yule in “The Encyclopaedia Britannica” (9th edition); 
 a paper, “ Untersuchungen liber Johann von Mandeville und die 
 Quelle seiner Reiseschreibung,” Berlin, 1888 (printed in “Zeit- 
 
PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 
 
 393 
 
 gives somewhat similar reasons to explain why he under¬ 
 took his journey to the East in 1322 through perilous 
 seas and countries—or rather, according to modern 
 discoveries—through the books of his library. He 
 started (or, anyhow, he studied and wrote) partly, says 
 he, to sanctify himself, partly to know the world and 
 its wonders, and to be able to speak of them ; for many 
 persons, he observes, are much pleased with hearing the 
 marvels of different countries described. The reason 
 he publishes his impressions is, first, because numbers 
 of people like stories of the Holy Land, and find great 
 consolation and comfort in them ; and, secondly, to 
 make a guide, in order that the small companies or 
 caravans like that of Boucicaut may profit by his know¬ 
 ledge. His ideas as to the road to be followed are 
 not unreasonable. Thus, “ to go the direct way ” from 
 England to Palestine, he advises the following itinerary : 
 France, Burgundy, Lombardy, Venice, Famagusta in 
 Cyprus, Jaffa, Jerusalem. Very often people went to 
 Jerusalem by way of Egypt. It was a tradition of 
 long standing that the greater part of the difficulties 
 concerning the Holy Land had their root in Egypt; 
 many tombs of saints also attracted the pilgrims there, 
 so that crusaders, or mere pilgrims, often took that 
 road to Jerusalem. “ Mandeville ” says he himself 
 followed this itinerary. In 1422 Gilbert of Lannoy 
 wrote, “ at the behest of King Henry of England, heir 
 and Regent of France ” (that is, Henry V.), a descrip- 
 
 schrift der Gesellschaft fur Erdkunde,” bd. xxiii. p. 177), and Mr. 
 Warner’s “ Buke of John Maundevill,” Roxb. Club, 1889, fob, 
 represent the actual state of the question. The identification of 
 Mandeville with Jean de Bourgogne, who died at Liege in 1372, 
 can no longer be doubted now. 
 
394 
 
 ENGLISH IVA YFARING LIFE. 
 
 cion of the places through which a crusade might be 
 led against the infidels, for this prince, like his pre¬ 
 decessors, continued dreaming of a crusade. Lannoy 
 gives a detailed account of each town, stating what 
 sorts of provisions in wood, water, &c., may be found 
 in each country, in what plains an army can be easily 
 arrayed, in what ports a fleet shall be safe. He gives 
 the greatest attention to Egypt, and describes its several 
 towns : “ Item. There is Cairo, the chief town of 
 Egypt, on the river Nile which comes from Paradise.” 1 
 But the Crusade, in anticipation of which he wrote, 
 never took place, and the next military expedition which 
 should reach Syria through Egypt was destined to be 
 that of Bonaparte in 1798. 
 
 Besides the history of a journey to Egypt, Palestine, 
 Syria, Central Asia, and China, “ Mandeville ” gives 
 the description of a number of countries peopled by 
 imaginary monsters. This fantastic part of his work 
 did not diminish its success, quite the contrary ; it was 
 translated into most European languages, and above 
 300 MSS. of it now remain. But we, less confiding 
 than our fathers, do not willingly accept the excuse 
 which he gives us as a guarantee of (at least) his good 
 faith : “ Things that are long past away from sight fall 
 into oblivion, and the memory of man cannot retain 
 and comprehend everything.” 2 
 
 Many books came after his, much more detailed and 
 practical. While the renewal of the Crusades ap¬ 
 peared less and less probable, the number of individual 
 
 1 “A Survey of Egypt and Syria . . . from a MS. in the 
 Bodleian Library,” Archasologia, vol. xxi. pp. 281, 319. 
 
 * Sloane MS. 1464, fo. 3, British Museum. 
 
PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 
 
 395 
 
 pilgrimages was on the increase. The word of the 
 priest which could no longer pluck up entire nations 
 from the soil, only detached here and there little 
 groups of pious men or seekers after adventure, who 
 went to visit the holy places under favour of the 
 tolerant spirit of the Saracen. The greater number, 
 indeed, no longer set out to fight the infidel, but to 
 ask his permission to see Jerusalem, which was readily 
 granted. We find, from the fourteenth century 
 onwards, quite a service of transports at Venice, 
 organized for the use of the pilgrims: “ It is the rule,” 
 says a traveller of the fourteenth century, “ that the 
 Venetians send every year five galleys to the Holy 
 Land. They all reach Beyruth, wfncFf is the port for 
 Damascus in Syria ; thence two of them bring the 
 pilgrims to Jaffa, which is the port for Jerusalem.” 1 
 Many particulars about this service of transports, and 
 the purchases to make before starting, and the pro¬ 
 visions to take, are to be found in a book written in 
 the following century by William Wey, Fellow of Eton 
 College. He recommended that the price of the passage 
 be carefully settled before starting, and that a bed with 
 its pillows, sheets, &c., be provided. This was bought 
 near the church of St. Mark, and the whole cost three 
 ducats, including the sheets and blankets. After the 
 journey the vendor took back these things for a ducat 
 and a half; “ Also when ye com to Venyse ye schal by 
 a bedde by seynt Markys cherche ; ye schal have a 
 fedyr bedde, a matres, too pylwys, too peyre schetis 
 
 1 “ Le Saint Voyage de Jhcrusalem du Seigneur d’Anglure,” ed. 
 Bonnardot and Longnon, Societe des Anciens Textes Fran^ais, 
 Paris, 1878, p. 99. 
 
396 
 
 ENGLISH IVA YLARING LIFE. 
 
 and a qwylt, and ye schal pay iij dokettis ; and when 
 ye com ayen, bryng the same bedde to the man that ye 
 bowt hit of and ye schal have a doket and halfe ayen, 
 thow hyt be broke and worne.” 1 Such settled customs 
 and fixed prices show better than anything else the 
 frequency of the intercourse. 
 
 William Wey has all the conveniences for the 
 traveller to which we are accustomed in the present 
 day ; he composes mnemonics of names to learn, a 
 vocabulary of Greek words which it is important to 
 know, and he gives for learning by heart the same 
 ready-made questions which our manuals still repeat in 
 a less mixed language : 
 
 “ Good morrow. 
 
 Welcome. 
 
 Tel me the way. 
 
 Gyff me that. 
 
 Woman haue ye goyd wyne? 
 Howe moche ? 
 
 Calomare. 
 
 Calosertys. 
 
 Dixiximo strata. 
 
 Doys me tutt. 
 
 Geneca esse calocrasse ? 
 Posso ? ” 
 
 He also sets down a table of the exchange of the 
 different moneys from England to Greece and Syria ; 
 and a programme for the employment of time, as now 
 very parsimoniously dealt with ; he only allows 
 thirteen days to see everything and start back again. 
 Lastly, he gives a complete list of the towns to be 
 passed through, with the distance from one to the 
 
 1 “The Itineraries of William Wey, Fellow of Eton College, 
 to Jerusalem, a.d. 1458 and a.d. 1462, and to Saint James of 
 Compostella, a.d. 1456.” London 1857, Roxburghe Club, pp. 
 5, 6. In his first journey Wey started from Venice with a band 
 of 197 pilgrims who were embarked on two galleys. 
 
PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 
 
 39 ? 
 
 other, a map of the Holy Land with an indication of 
 all the remarkable places , 1 and a considerable catalogue 
 of the indulgences to be gained. 
 
 Wey foresaw all the disagreeables to which the ill 
 will of the captain of the galley might subject you ; 
 he recommends engaging a place in the highest part of 
 the boat, “ for in the lawyst [stage] vnder hyt is ryght 
 smolderyng hote and stynkynge ; ” 2 you must not pay 
 more than fo rty duca ts from Venice to Jaffa, food ^ 
 included ; It is necessary to stipulate that the captain 
 stops at certain ports to take in fresh provisions. He 
 is bound to give you hot meat at dinner and supper, 
 good wine, pure water, and biscuit ; but it is well 
 besides to take provisions for private use, for even at 
 the captain’s table there is great risk of having bad 
 bread and wine. “ For thow ye schal be at the tabyl 
 wyth yowre patrone, notwythstondynge, ye schal ofi 
 tyme haue nede to yowre vytelys, bred, chese, eggys, 
 frute, and bakyn, wyne, and other, to make yowre 
 collasyvn; for svm tyme ye schal haue febyl bred, 
 wyne and stynkyng water, meny tymes ye schal be ful 
 
 * Pages 102-116. Such a map is exhibited in the glass cases 
 of the Bodleian Library at Oxford. It is probable, but not quite 
 sure, that this is really the map of William Wey, the one he calls 
 “mappa mea ” in his book. It has been reproduced in facsimile : 
 
 “ Map of the Holy Land, illustrating the Itineraries of W. Wey, 
 Roxburghe Club, 1867.” It is seven feet in length and sixteen 
 and a half inches in breadth. See also : “Dc passagiis in Terram 
 Sanctam.” edit. G. M. Thomas, Venice, 1879, f°h°- (Societe dc 
 I’Orient Latin). This work contains extracts from a “Chronologia 
 magna,” compiled in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, with 
 maps and plans, one especially of Jerusalem and adjoining places. 
 
 2 “A good preuysyoun,” “Itineraries,” p. 4. 
 
398 
 
 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE. 
 
 fayne to ete of yowre owne.” It would even be 
 prudent to take some poultry : “ Also by yow a cage 
 for half a dozen of hennys or chekyn to have with 
 yow in the galey ; ” half a bushel of seed to feed them 
 must not be forgotten . 1 You must also have remedies, 
 “ confortatyuys, laxatyuys, restoratyuys,” saffron, 
 pepper, spices. On arrival at a port it is well to leap 
 ashore one of the first, in order to get served before 
 others, and not to have the leavings ; this counsel 
 of practical selfishness often recurs. On land heed 
 must be taken as to the fruits : “ beware of dyuerse 
 frutys, for they be not acordyng to youre complexioun, 
 and they gender a blody fluxe, and yf an Englyschman 
 haue that sykenes hyt ys a maruel and scape hyt but he 
 dye thereof.” Once in Palestine, attention must be 
 given to the robbers ; if you don’t think of it the 
 Saracens will come and talk familiarly with you, and, 
 under favour of conversation, will rob you; “ Also 
 take goyd hede of yowre knyves and other smal 
 thynges that ye her apon yow, for the Sarsenes wyl go 
 talkyng wyth yow and make goyd chere, but they wyl 
 stele fro yow that ye haue and they may.” At Jaffa 
 you must not forget to get firs*-, in order to have the 
 best donkey, “ Also when ye schal take yowre asse at 
 port Jaffe, be not to longe behynde yowre felowys ; for 
 and ye com by tyme ye may chese the beste mule, other 
 asse, for ye schal pay no more fore the best then for 
 the worst. And ye must yeve youre asman curtesy a 
 grot .” 2 This last recommendation shows the high 
 
 1 “A good preuysyoun,” “Itineraries,” pp. 5, 6. 
 
 * Ibid. The same scramble for asses is going on even now in 
 Palestine and Egypt. 
 
pilgrims and pilgrimages. 
 
 399 
 
 antiquity of, “ pourboires,” one of the best preserved 
 of mediasval traditions. At last the caravan leaves the 
 seaside and proceeds towards the Holy City; and then 
 it is prudent not to straggle too far from your com¬ 
 panions for fear of evildoers. 
 
 Well worthy of notice is the fact that these visits 
 to the Holy Land were in great part performed on 
 donkeys; knights themselves did not disdain mounting 
 these modest animals: “At this said inn did we dis¬ 
 mount our asses,” says the narrator of the travels of 
 the lord of Anglure, who visited Jerusalem at the end 
 of the fourteenth century. This is enough to show that 
 if there was, as there still is, some danger of robbers, 
 it was not very serious. If there had been any chance 
 of real fight the knights would hardly have ventured 
 getting into it on donkey-back. In fact, many of 
 those reports of travels in the Holy Land give the 
 impression of mere tourists’ excursions, and what comes 
 out most clearly from them is the spirit of tolerance 
 displayed by the Saracen. He did not forbid the entrv 
 into Palestine of all these pilgrims, who often came as 
 spies and enemies, and he let their troops do very much 
 as they liked. We see that the companions of the 
 lord of Anglure, and half a century later of William 
 Wey, go where they will ; returning when it is con¬ 
 venient, and making plans of excursions beforehand as 
 they would do at present. They admire the beauty of 
 the “ muscas” or mosques, the quaint appearance of the 
 vaulted streets with light coming from apertures at the 
 top of the vault, and with shops for Saracen merchants 
 on both sides, in other words, the bazaar; they are led 
 by and receive explanations from their “ drugemens ”; 
 
466 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 at certain places they meet officers entrusted with the 
 permit of the “ Soudan,” as to all affairs concerning 
 foreigners. These officers are called “ consulles.” They 
 find European merchants established and doing much 
 trade in the port of the infidel ; they have, in fact, 
 nothing to fear seriously but the local wars, about 
 which they were pretty sure to get timely information, 
 and calamitous encounters at sea. William Wey and his 
 companions learn with much uneasiness on their return 
 that a Turkish fleet with dubious purpose is ready to 
 quit Constantinople, but happily they do not meet it. 
 
 It is interesting to compare the experiences of both 
 troops of pilgrims, the French and the English ; very 
 often they are similar. The lord of Anglure got into 
 Jerusalem very easily, and with the proper authorization: 
 “ Shortly after, we started thence on foot, and with the 
 license of the lieutenant of the Sultan we entered the 
 holy city of Jerusalem at the hour of vespers, and 
 were all received and lodged in the hospital where it is 
 customary now for pilgrims to stay.” They travel by 
 land without much difficulty from Palestine to Egypt, 
 and go down the Nile, a large river, where “ live several 
 serpents called cokatrices,” otherwise crocodiles ; which 
 river “ comes from Paradise.” There only they have a 
 rather narrow escape, being attacked in their boat by 
 “Arab robbers,” and some of their troop are wounded 
 with arrows, but none is killed. They were at that 
 time returning from a visit to the hermitage where “ St. 
 Anthony and his little pig ” had lived. 
 
 It is needless to say that, if Rome was full of relics, 
 
 / there was no want of them in Jerusalem. All the 
 places named in the Gospel seem to have been identified 
 
PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 407 
 
 with precision, and a few others too : “ Item, continuing 
 to go up towards this mountain on the right hand side, 
 there is a house where the sweet Virgin Mary learnt at 
 school.” You may see, too, the place where was 
 roasted the paschal lamb ; “ even here was warmed the 
 water with which our Lord washed the feet of His 
 apostles.” There is also a cave or well “ where King 
 Herod had the Innocents thrown, out of spite.” At 
 Bethlehem there is a church of St. Nicholas, “ in which 
 place the sweet Virgin Mary hid herself to draw her 
 milk from her worthy breasts when she would fly to 
 Egypt. In this same church there is a marble column 
 against which she leaned when she drew her worthy 
 milk, and this pillar continues moist since the time she 
 leaned against it, and when it is wiped, at once it sweats 
 again; and in all places where her worthy milk fell, 
 the earth is still soft and white and has the appearance 
 of curded milk, and whoever likes takes of it, out of 
 devotion.” 
 
 In Egypt, too, the wonders are numerous, but many 
 are of a different order. Besides the churches and 
 hermitages there are the ‘‘granaries of Pharaoh,” that 
 is the pyramids, which seem to the lord of Anglure 
 and his companions “the most marvellous thing they 
 had yet seen in all their travels.” They are cut “ in 
 the shape of a fine diamond,” but inside they are full of 
 animals, who stink horribly. Mandeville, who had 
 seen them some years before, gives them the same 
 origin, and utterly discards the belief that they might 
 have been tombs of high personages. He mentions the 
 hieroglyphics, which is about the only thing in all his 
 book he does not try to explain ; he has also a word 
 
 • 26 
 
402 
 
 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE. 
 
 for the grim inhabitants of the pyramids : “ Thei ben 
 alle fulle of serpentes. And aboven the gernerers with 
 outen ben many scriptures of dyuerse languages. And 
 sum men seyn that they ben sepultures of grete Lordes, 
 that weren somtyme; but that is not trewe ; for all the 
 cornoun rymour and speche is of alle the peple there, 
 bothe far and nere, that thei ben the garneres of Joseph. 
 And so fynden thei in here scriptures and in here 
 cronycles. On that other partie, yif thei werein sepul¬ 
 tures, thei scholden not ben voyd with inne. For yee 
 may well knowe that tombes and sepultures ne ben not 
 made of suche gretnesse ne of suche highnesse. Wher- 
 fore it is not to beleve that thei ben tombes or sepul¬ 
 tures.” 1 Strange it is but yet a fact, that this powerful 
 mode of reasoning has not convinced such sceptics as 
 Mariette and Maspero. 
 
 Besides the pyramids, the companions of the Lord of 
 Anglure notice and greatly praise the houses with their 
 terraces, the mosques and their “ fine lamps,” and it is 
 curious to observe that these same fine lamps, admired 
 in 1396 when they were fresh and new by our pil¬ 
 grims, can be seen now without going so far, for they 
 are in the South Kensington Museum. The Egyptian 
 animals, too, are noted by our travellers as being very 
 striking ; besides the crocodiles there are the tall-necked 
 giraffes, and then the elephants. A very strange beast 
 an elephant: “ It could never bend to the ground to get 
 its food on account of its great height, but it has in its 
 snout something like a bowel, put at the further end 
 
 1 “Voiage and Travaile of Sir John Maundeville,” ed. Halli- 
 well, 1866, p. 52. 
 
PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES. 
 
 4°3 
 
 of its snout,” and this bowel “hangs down almost to 
 the ground,” and with it the beast “ takes its food and 
 carries it to its mouth.” 
 
 At last the time came when our pilgrims had seen 
 everything, and they had to bend their way homewards. 
 Twice did William Wey undertake the great journey, 
 happy to have seen, fain to see again. When he came 
 back to England for the last time he bequeathed to a 
 chapel, built on the model of the Holy Sepulchre, the 
 souvenirs which he had brought back, that is to say, a 
 stone from Calvary, another from the Sepulchre itself, 
 one from Mount Tabor, one from the place where the 
 cross stood, and other relics. As for the French troop 
 of pilgrims who had left Anglure-sur-Aube on July 16, 
 1 395, they came back in the following year, complete 
 in their numbers but for Simon de Sarrebruck, who had 
 died of fever in Cyprus during the journey home, and 
 lies interred in a church there. “ And on Thursday 
 the twenty-second day of June, and the day before the 
 eve of the feast of St. John the Baptist, in the year 
 of grace of our Lord, 1396, we found ourselves again 
 dining in Anglure.” 
 

A BLIND BEGGAR CHEATED OF HIS DRIN'IC BY HIS BOY. 
 
 (From the MS. io E. He.) 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 W E have followed the race of roamers in 
 many places : on the road, at the hostelry, in 
 taverns, in churches ; we have seen them 
 exercising a host of different trades, and we have 
 distinguished among them very different specimens : 
 singers, buffoons, cheap-jacks, messengers, pedlars, 
 pilgrims, wandering preachers, beggars, friars, vagabonds 
 of several kinds, labourers detached from the soil, 
 pardoners, knights loving distant expeditions. We 
 have accompanied them here and there over the high¬ 
 roads of England, and we have followed them to Rome 
 itself, and to the Holy Land; there we shall leave them. 
 To the wandering class also belong the representatives 
 of many other professions, such as scribes, tinkers, 
 cobblers, masons, exhibitors of animals or bearwards, 
 such as those whom Villard de Honnecourt visited one 
 day in order to draw a lion " al vif,” from the life. 
 
406 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 But the only important members are those which have 
 just been studied. 
 
 The current of life represented by the existence of 
 all these roamers is powerful ; we have seen what a 
 great though not very apparent part they played in 
 the State. The labourer breaks the bonds which for 
 centuries have attached him to the manor, and hence¬ 
 forward desires to be master ol his own person and of 
 his service, to hire himself by the day if it seems good 
 to him, and for a price which corresponds to the 
 demand there is for him. It is a necessary reform 
 which he seeks, and it will be made by degrees, in 
 spite of laws, independently of the authorities. There 
 is none more important, and it is upon the roads rather 
 than at the castle that it behoves us to study it. We 
 must seek the origin of it among the brushwood, where 
 armed bands meet together during church service, and 
 on those straggling roads where the false pilgrim throws 
 his pretended staff aside to take up his tools and look 
 for work far from his old master. These people recom¬ 
 mend by their example the emancipation which the 
 wandering preachers explain in their discourses, making 
 it an immediate and popular need. 
 
 The great questions of the age, the social and the 
 religious questions, march towards their solution, partly 
 on the highroad, partly by the influence of the 
 wanderers. The begging friars go from door to door, 
 the pardoners grow rich, the pilgrims live by alms and 
 Dy the recital of their adventures, always on the road, 
 always at work. What is this work ? By constantly 
 addressing the crowd, they end by making themselves 
 known for what they are ; by making the crowd of its 
 
CONCL USION. 
 
 407 
 
 own accord pass sentence upon them, by disabusing it, 
 they render reform inevitable. Thus on this side also 
 the rust of the Middle Ages will drop away, and another 
 step be made towards modern civilization. 
 
 Besides, each of these strange types deserves to be 
 taken apart and considered not only in relation to the 
 masses, but in itself too; for each shows very apparently 
 in his own person a characteristic side of the tastes, the 
 beliefs, and the aspirations of the times. Each of their 
 classes corresponds to a need, an eccentricity, or a vice 
 of the times ; through them we may examine, as it 
 were, one by one the souls of the people and reconstitute 
 them entirely ; just as the nature of the soil may be 
 guessed from the flora of a country. 
 
 The general impression is that the English people 
 then underwent one of those considerable transforma¬ 
 tions which present themselves to the view of the 
 historian like the turning of a highroad. Coming out 
 from gorges and mountains the road suddenly changes 
 its direction, and the rich, sunny, fertile plain is per¬ 
 ceived in the distance. We have not yet reached it, 
 many troubles are still reserved for us ; it will disappear 
 again from our sight at times, but we have seen it, and 
 the result of our efforts is that we know at least in 
 what direction to march in order to attain it. During 
 the age which is opening the emancipated peasant will 
 enrich himself in spite of the wars made by the barons ; 
 and the Commons will have an instrument of control 
 over the royal power in their hands, which they may 
 use, according to the period, more or less well, but 
 which is the best invented up till our time. The Par¬ 
 liament which sits at Westminster, at the present day is 
 
ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 408 
 
 in its essential elements identical with the Parliament 
 which prepared the statutes of the kingdom under the 
 last Plantagenet princes. In the fourteenth century, 
 whatever some thinkers, too much affected by the glory 
 of Simon de Montfort and of St. Louis, may have said, 
 humanity was not stopped on its way. There needs no 
 other proof of this than the host of truly modern ideas 
 which were spread throughout society ; among the 
 upper class under the influence of a higher education 
 and larger intercourse with foreign countries ; among 
 the lower class through the effects of long experience 
 of common abuses ; ideas made popular and rendered 
 practical by the nomades—ignorant workmen, single- 
 hearted preachers. All those unreasonable freaks, all 
 the madnesses of the religious spirit, those incessant 
 revolts and follies which have been remarked, would 
 make men discontented with false and dangerous thoughts 
 and sentiments, which it was necessary to push to an 
 extreme in order to become unbearable and be rejected. 
 
 On a number of similar points, whether he were the 
 partizan or the object of reform, as working man or as 
 pardoner, whether he were an unconscious instrument 
 or not, the wanderer will always have much to teach 
 whoever will question him. For good or evil it may 
 be said that the wanderers acted as “ microbes ” in 
 mediaeval history, a numerous, scarcely visible, power¬ 
 ful host. They will perhaps tell the secret of almost 
 incomprehensible transformations, which might have 
 seemed to necessitate a total overturn, like that which 
 took place in France at the end of the last century, a 
 new or rather a first contrat social. England, for many 
 reasons, has not required this ; one among those reasons 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 409 
 
 is the influence of the roamers which united the people 
 and allowed it, thanks to that union which rendered it 
 strong, to snatch the necessary concessions at a fitting 
 season. And notwithstanding, as the calmest changes 
 do not take place without some trouble, as also among 
 the English there have been, in the course of centuries, 
 more than one bloody fray, the nomad may perhaps end 
 by answering his interlocutor in the words of a common 
 proverb of some unhackneyed wisdom, which should 
 hinder discouragement: “ Le bois tortu fait le leu droit 
 —Crooked log maketh straight fire. 
 

APPENDIX 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 i. ( P . 5 o). 
 
 Patent of King John entrusting a Frenchman 
 
 WITH THE COMPLETION OF LONDON BRIDGE 
 (1201 ). 
 
 “Literae patentes etc. de edificatione et sustentatione pontis 
 London. Patent Roll 3 0 Iohannis, m. 2, no. 9. 
 
 “ lohannes Dei gratia rex Angliae etc. dilectis et fidelibus 
 suis majori et civibus London’ salutem. Attendentes qualiter 
 circa pontem Xanton’ et pontem de Rupella Deus a modico 
 tempore sit operatus per sollicitudinem fide!is clerici nostri Isen- 
 berti, magistri scolarum Xanton’, viri utique literati et honesti, 
 ipsum de consilio venerabilis patris in Christo H. Archiepiscopi 
 Oantuar’ et aliorum, rogavimus et monuimuset etiam coegimus 
 ut pro vestra et multorum utilitate, de ponte vestro faciendo 
 curam habeat diligentem. Confidimus enim in Domino, quod 
 idem pons tarn necessarius vobis et omnibus transeuntibus, ut 
 scitis, per ejus industriam, faciente Domino, poterit in proximo 
 consummari. Et ideo volumus et concedimus quod salvo jure 
 nostro et conservata indempnitate civitatis London’, census 
 tdificiorum quae super pontem praedictum idem magister sco¬ 
 larum faciet fieri sint imperpetuum ad eundem pontem reficien- 
 dum et operiendum et sustentandum. Quia igitur idem pons 
 tarn necessarius sine vestro et aliorum auxilio perfici non 
 poterit, mandamus vobis, exhortantes quatinus memoratum 
 
414 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 Isenbertum et suos pro vestra utilitate pariter et honore sicut 
 decreverit benigne recipiatis et honoretis in hiis quse dicta 
 sunt, consilium et auxilium vestrum eidem unanimiter impen- 
 dentes. Quicquid enim boni et honoris eidem Isenberto 
 feceritis, nobis factum reputare debetis. Si quis vero eidem 
 Isenberto vel suis in aliquo foris faciat, quod non credimus, vos 
 illud eisdem faciat is, quam citius ad vos pertinet emendari. 
 Teste meipso, apud Molinell, xviii. die April is.’* 
 
 Hearne, at the end of w Liber niger scaccarii,” London, 
 1771, vol. i. p. 470. 
 
 n. (p. 5 7 )- 
 
 Petition relative to an old bridge, whose 
 
 ARCHES WERE TOO LOW AND TOO NARROW TO 
 PERMIT BOATS TO PASS. 
 
 “ Unto the ryght wise and discrete comons of this present 
 Parlement; besecheth mekely the comons off the countees 
 of York, Lincoln, Notyngham, and Derby; That whereas 
 ther is, and of longe tyme hath been, an usuall and a commune 
 passage fro dyvers and many parties of the seid countees unto 
 the citees of York, Hull, Hedon, Holdernes, Beverley, Barton, 
 and Grymesby, and so forth, by the hie see, by the costes, unto 
 London and elles where, with all maner of shippes charged 
 with wolle, leed, stone, tymbre, vitaille, fewaille, and many 
 other marchandises, by a streme called the Dike, in the counte 
 of York, that daiely ebbith and floweth : over whiche streem 
 ys made a brigge of tymbre called Turnbrigg, in the parisshe 
 of Snayth in the same counte, so lowe, so ner the streem, so 
 narrowe and so strayte in the archees, that ther is, and of long 
 tyme hath been a light perilous passage, and ofte tymes 
 penshinge of dyvers shippes; and atte every tyme of creteyne 1 
 and abundaunce of water, ther may no shippes passe under the 
 
 1 Creteyne , increase, rising flood; in French, true. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 4 i 5 
 
 seid brigge, by the space of half a yere or more, and also a grete 
 partie of the countees to the seid ryver ajonyng, is yerely by 
 the space of xx tt myles and more surrownded, by cause of 
 the lowenes and straitenes of the said brigge, to the grete hurt 
 and damage as well to the kyng in his customes and subsidys, 
 that shuld growe to him of the seid marchaundises, chargeable 
 with suche diverse, as to the seid shires, countres, cites and 
 burghes, and the inhabitants of theim. . . . 
 
 “ Please hit unto your right wise discretions, consideryng 
 the premisses, to pray and beseche the kyng our soverayn lord 
 to graunte . . . that hit shall be lefulle to what sum ever per¬ 
 son or persons of the seid shires, that will atte theire owne 
 costages take away the seid brigge, and ther with and profites 
 therof, and in othir wise, newe edifie and bilde anothir brigge 
 there, lengere in lengthe by the quantite of v. yerdes called the 
 kynges standard, and in hieght a yerd and a half by the same yerd 
 hiegher then the seid brigge that stondes ther nowe, as well for 
 passage of all maner shippes comyng therto, and voidaunce of 
 water under the seid brigg as for passage of man, best and carriage 
 over the seid newe brigge so to be made, with a draght lef 
 contenyng the space of iiij fete called Paules fete in brede, for 
 the voidymg thorugh of the mastes of the shippes passinge 
 under the seid new brigg ; and that every shipmen that wol 
 passe under the seid brigge with their shippes, may laufully 
 lifte up and close the seid lef att their pleser ; and that the 
 mayster of every shippe paie for every liftyng of the seid lef 
 id. to the lord of the soille for the tyme beyng ... for the 
 lofe of Godd and in waye of charite. . . . 
 
 “ Responsio. Le roy de l’advys et assent de lez seignurs 
 espirituelx et temporalx et lez communes esteantz en cest pre¬ 
 sent parlement, ad graunte tout le contenue en icell petition en 
 toutz pointz.” 
 
 “ Rolls of Parliament,” vol. v. p. 43; 20 Henry VI., a.d. 
 1442. 
 
ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 416 
 
 III. (p. 64). 
 
 London Bridge and its maintenance. 
 
 At the end of his edition of the “ Liber niger scaccarii,” 
 London, 1771, vol. i. pp. 470-478, the antiquary Hearne 
 printed a series of curious Letters Patent relating to London 
 Bridge. That of John, commending Isembert to the city, is 
 given before (Appendix L). There follow, an order of John 
 devoting the tax paid by foreign merchants established in Lon¬ 
 don to the support of the bridge (Close Roll, 15 John m. 3) ; 
 a patent of Henry III. addressed “ to the brothers and chap¬ 
 lains of the chapel of St. Thomas on London Bridge, and to 
 the other persons living on the same bridge,” to inform them 
 that the convent of St. Catherine’s Hospital, near the Tower, 
 would receive the revenues and would take charge of the repairs 
 of the bridge for five years (Patent 50 Hen. III. m. 43, No. 
 129); grant of the same revenues and charge to the queen for 
 six years (54 Hen. III. m. 4, No. 11); patent of Edward I. 
 (January, 1281), ordering a general collection throughout the 
 kingdom to ward off the bad condition of the edifice (9 Ed. 
 I. m. 27) ; patent of the same king ordering the levy of an 
 extraordinary tax on account of the catastrophe which has 
 happened. 
 
 “ Rex majori suo London’ salutem. Propter subitam 
 ruinam pontis London’ vobis mandamus quod associatis vobis 
 duobus vel tribus de discretioribus et legalioribus civibus civi- 
 tatis prasdictae, capiatis usque ad parliamentum nostrum post 
 Pasch’ prox’ futur’, in subsidium reparationis pontis predicti, 
 consuetudinem subscriptam, videlicet, de quolibet homine 
 transeunte aquam Thamisiae ex transverso ex utraque parte 
 pontis London’ de London’ usque Suthwerk et de Suthwerk 
 usque London’ occasione defectus reparationis pontis predicti 
 unum quadrantem, de quolibet equo sic transeunte ibidem 
 unum denarium, et de quolibet summagio sic ibidem transeunte 
 unum obolum. Set volumus quod aliquid ibidem hac occa- 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 417 
 
 sfone interim capiatur nisi in subsidium reparationis pontis 
 supra dicti. In cujus, etc. Teste rege apud Cirencestr’, 
 iiij° die February” (10 E. I. m. 18). 
 
 The same year, on 6th July, the king prolonged the term 
 during which this exceptional tax should be levied to three yeais 
 (tb. m. 9) •, he also granted a license (for “non est ad dampnum 
 nostrum”) to the mayor and commonalty of London to devote 
 three pieces of ground in the city to building and renting out, 
 for the benefit of the bridge (10 Ed. I. m. 11). Then, in the 
 thirty-fourth year of his reign, Edward I. established a detailed 
 tariff- of the tolls which all merchandise passing under or over 
 the bridge should pay during the next three years (34 Ed. I. m. 
 25). Even this was not enough, as we find Edward II. 
 addressing the authorities of the Church throughout the king 
 dom, enjoining them to permit messengers to collect funds 
 towards repairing the bridge within their jurisdictions (14 Ed. 
 II. pt. i. m. 19). 
 
 IV. (p. 67). 
 
 Inquiries relating to the maintenance of 
 BRIDGES. 
 
 A great many examples of these inquests may be found in 
 the collection published by the Record Commission, “ Piaci- 
 torurn in domo capitulari Westmonasteriensi asservatorum 
 abbreviatio ” (London, 1811, fol.). Here are a few of 
 them : 
 
 Case where an abbot is obliged explicitly, as one of the 
 conditions of his tenure, to repair a bridge, p. 2oq (11 and 12 
 Ed. I.). 
 
 Agreement between the abbot of Croyland and the prior 
 of Spalding for the construction of several bridges, p 2CK f 1 2 
 
 Ed. L). 
 
 Discussion as to the building of a bridge at Chester, p. 209 
 
 (13 I-)- 27 
 
418 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 Refusal by the abbot of Coggeshall to repair a bridge : 
 “ Per juratores, Abbas de Coggeshale non tenetur reparare 
 pontem de Stratford inter Branketre et Coggeshale, eo quod 
 de tempore memorie non fuit ibidem alius pons quam quedam 
 plar.chea de borde super quam omnes transeuntes salvo et 
 secure transire potuerunt,” p. 303 (1 Ed. II.). 
 
 Measures taken to constrain the inhabitants of two towns to 
 repair the bridges of a highway in their neighbourhood : “ Dis- 
 tringantur villate de Aswardeby et Skredington ad reparandum 
 pontes in pupplica strata inter Lafford et ecclesiam de Stowe 
 juxta inquisicionem inde captam anno lvi. Henrici iij. coram 
 Gilberto de Preston et sociis suis in comitatu Lincolniensi 
 itinerantibus, per breve ejusdem regis,” p. 305 (2 Ed. II.). 
 
 Finding out of the person who is to repair Chesford bridge, 
 P- 3>4 (6 Ed. II.). 
 
 Refusal of the abbot of Fountains Abbey to repair Bradeley 
 bridge, p. 318 (7 Ed. II.). 
 
 Hamo de Morston’s case, p. 328 (11 Ed. II.), referred to 
 above, p. 67. 
 
 Repair of the bridges of Exhorne, Hedecrone, and Hekinby, 
 in the county of Kent, p. 339 (15 Ed. II.). 
 
 Inquest as to Claypole bridge. It is found that the inhabi¬ 
 tants of Claypole are bound to repair it : “ Ideo preceptum 
 est vicecomiti Lincolniensi quod distringat homines predicte 
 ville de Claypole ad reparandum et sustentandum pontem pre¬ 
 dictum in forma predicta,” p. 350 (18 Ed. II.), See. 
 
 V. (p. 95). 
 
 The King’s journeys.—Petitions and statutes 
 
 CONCERNING THE ROYAL PURVEYORS. 
 
 “ Nullus vicecomes vel ballivus noster vel aliquis alius 
 capiat equos vel carettas alicujus pro cariagio faciendo, nisi 
 reddat liherationem antiquitus statutam ; scilicet pro caretta 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 419 
 
 ad duos equos deccm denarios per diem, et pro caretta ad tres 
 cquos quatuordecim denarios per diem.” Magna Charta, 
 first confirmation by Henry III., art. 23 (a.d. 1216). 
 “Statutes of the Realm,” Record edition, 1810, vol. i. p. 15. 
 This article is found in successive confirmations of the great 
 charter; the germ of it was contained in John’s charter, a.d. 
 1215, art. 30. 
 
 “ Item pur ceo qe le poeple ad este moult greve de ceo qe 
 les bledz, feyns, bestaill, et autre manere de vitailles et biens 
 des gentz de mesme le poeple, ont este pris, einz ces houres 
 . . . dont nul paiement ad este fait, . . See. Preamble 
 to the statute 4 Ed. III., ch. iii. “Statutes of the Realm,” 
 a.d. 1330. See also statute 36 Ed. III., ch. ii. 
 
 Petition of the Commons, 25 Ed. III., 1351-52 (“ Rolls of 
 Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 242): “ Item prie la commune qe la ou 
 avant ces heures les botiilers nostre seigneur le roi et lour 
 deputez soleient prendre moult plus de vyns a l’oeps le roi qe 
 mestier ne fust; desqueux ils metcont les plus febles a l’oeps 
 le roi et les meliours a lour celers demesnes a vendre, et le 
 remenant relessont a eux desqueux ils les pristerent, pur grantz 
 fyns a eux faire pur chescun tonel, a grant damage et em- 
 poverissement des marchantz. . . .” 
 
 The inhabitants of the counties of Dorset and Somerset 
 complain in the same way that the sheriff of these counties 
 had taken of them “ cynic centz quarters de furment et trois 
 centz bacouns, a l’oeps le roi, come il dist, et il ne voillast pur 
 sa graunt meistrie et seigneurie allower pur vintz quarteres tors 
 qe pur sesse quarters, et e’est assaver bussell de dit blee fors 
 que dis deniers, la ou il vendist apres pur xv deniers. Par quey 
 vos liges gentz sount grauntement endamage et vous, chier 
 seigneur, 11’estes servy des blees et des bacounes avauntditz 
 . . .” (4 Ed. III., 1331, “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. 
 P- 40 ). 
 
 Petition of the Commons to the Good Parliament of 1376 : 
 “ Item prie la commune qe come le roi de temps passe et ses 
 progenitours, nobles princes, soleient avoir lour callage, e’est 
 
420 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 assaver chivalx, charietz et charettes pur servir leur hostiel: 
 et ore les purveours de l’hostel nostre dit seigneur le roi 
 pur defaut de sa propre cariage et de bone governance pre- 
 nont chivalx, charietz et charettes des povres communes, la 
 environ par x leukes ou le roi tient son hostel, si bien des 
 gentz de loigne pays par xxiiii leukes ou lx passantz par la 
 chymyne come des gentz demurrantz en mesme le pays, en 
 grande arrerissement et poverisement des dites communes 
 . . (“Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 351). 
 
 Complaint of the clergy at being subjected to the exactions 
 of the purveyors (1376): “Item provisores et ministri regis 
 pro provisionibus regiis faciendis feodum et loca ecclesiastica, 
 invitis viris ecclesiasticis seu eorum custodibus non intrent, 
 nec animalia aliaque res et bona inde auferant, prout fecerint 
 et faciunt nunc indies, contra ecclesiasticam libertatem et con- 
 stitutiones sanctorum patrum et statuta regni editain hac parte. 
 Nec in via extra feoda et loca predicta predictorum virorum 
 cariagium carectasve capiant vel arrestent.” 
 
 “ Rap. Le roi le voet.” (“ Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. 
 P- 358 .) 
 
 VI. (p. 114). 
 
 The recurrence of Leet-days and visits of 
 Justices. 
 
 The Commans petition as follows the Good Parliament of 
 1376 : “ Item ou de ancien temps ad este custume qe les pre- 
 sentours dussent presenter les articles du lete et de vewe de frank 
 plegg tan soulement deux foitz par an, . . . les baillifs avaunt 
 ditz fount les povres gentz et les husbandes de pais, qeux dus¬ 
 sent travailer en leur labours et husbandriez et pur le commune 
 profit, vemr de trois semaignes en trois a lour wapentachez 
 et hundredez, par colour de presentement avoir, et rettent 
 leur labours et leur husbanderiez au terie, sinoun q’ils leur 
 veullent doner tiels ransons et fyns q’ils ne purront sustener 
 ne endurer. . . 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 421 
 
 “ Resp. II y ad estatutz suffisamment.” 
 
 “ Rolls of Parliament,” 50 Ed. 111 ., vol. ii. p. 357. 
 
 Again, the Commons having pointed out that the visits of 
 the justices in eyre are a very great cause of trouble and 
 expense to the people in time of war, the king suppresses 
 the visits of those magistrates while the war lasts, except when 
 any “horrible” case may fall out. 
 
 “ Item priont les communes au roi leur seigneur q’il ne grante 
 en nulle partie du roialme eire ne trailbaston durante la guerre, 
 par queux les communes purront estre troblez ne empoveres, 
 fors qe en horible cas. 
 
 “ Resp. Le roi le voet.” 
 
 “ Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 305, 45 Ed. III., 1371. 
 
 VII. (p. 116). 
 
 The dress of the worldly monk. 
 
 According to the Council of London (1342) : “. . . Militari 
 potius quam clericali habitu induti superiori, scilicet brevi 
 seu stricto, notabiliter tamen et excessive latis, vel longis 
 manicis, cubitos non tegentibus [tangentibus in Labbe] sed 
 pendulis, crinibus cum [two words not in Labbe] furrura vel 
 sandalo revolutis, et ut vulgariter dicitur, reversatis, et caputiis 
 cum tipettis mirae longitudinis, barbisque prolixis incedere, et 
 suis digitis annulos indift'erenter portare publice, ac zonis stipatis 
 pretiosis mirae magnitudinis supercingi, et bursis cum imagini- 
 bus variis sculptis, amellatis [annellatis, L.J et deauratis, ad 
 ipsas patenter cum cultellis, ad modum gladiorum pendentibus, 
 caligis etiam rubeis, scaccatis et viridibus, sotularibusque 
 rostratis et incisis multimode, ac croperiis [propriis, L.] ad 
 sellas, et cornibus ad colla pendentibus, epitogiis aut clods [this 
 word not in L.] furratis, uti patenter ad oram, contra sanc- 
 tiones canonicas temere non verentur, adeo quod a laicis vix 
 aut nulla patet distinctio clericorum.” Wilkins’ “ Concilia 
 
422 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 Magnas Britannia,” London, 1737, vol. ii. p. 703 ; also in 
 Labbe, “ Sacrosancta Concilia,” year 1342, vol. xxv. col. 1170. 
 
 According to the Council of York (1367) : “ Nonnulli , . . 
 vestes publice deferre praesumpserunt deformiter decurtatas, 
 medium tibiarum suarum, seu genua nullatenus attingentes 
 . . . ad jactantiam et suorum corporum ostentationem.” Labbe, 
 Ibid. vol. xxvi. col. 467-8. 
 
 VIII. (p. I2l). 
 
 Exactions of certain noblemen when travelling. 
 
 Petitions of the Commons, “ Rolls of Parliament,” vol. i. 
 p. 290, (8 Ed. II.), a.d. 1314 : “ Item par la ou asquns grantz 
 seignurs de la terre passent parmi le pays, ils entrent en 
 maners et lieus de Seint Eglise et des autres, et pernent saunz 
 conge le seignur et les baillifs gardeyns de meisme les leus, 
 et encontre lour volunte, ceo q'il voillent saunz rien paer en- 
 contre la lei et les ordenaunces, non pas eaunz regard a 
 I’escomenge (excommunication) done encontre tutz tels. Et 
 si homme les devi rien, debrisent les eus par force, et pernent 
 et emportent ceo qe beal lour est, et batent les ministres et 
 destruent les biens, plus qe il ne covendreit, et autres grevouses 
 depiz ultrages fount. 
 
 “ Item il prenent charettes et chivaux de fair lour cariages 
 a lour voluntez saunz rien paer et des queux nientefoitz james 
 n’est faite restoraunce a ceux qi les devient ; ne il n’osent 
 suire ne pleindre pur le poair de diz seignur qar s’il le facent 
 ils sont honiz ou en corps ou en chateux ; par quoi ladite 
 comuneaute prie qe remedie soit fait en tels ultrages.” 
 
 IX. (p. 130). 
 
 Passage of the Humber in a ferry. 
 
 “ Ad peticionem hominum de Estriding petenc’ reme- 
 dium super nimia solucione exacta ad passagium de Humbr’ 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 423 
 
 ultra solitum modum.” The king directs the opening of an 
 inquest, with power to the commissioners to re-establish things 
 in their pristine condition. “ Rolls of Parliament,” i. p. 202 
 (35 Ed - > 3 ° 6 )- 
 
 Another petition under Edward II. : “ A nostre seigneur le 
 [roi] et a son consail se pleint la comunautd de sa terre qe par Id 
 ou homme soleit passer Humbre entre Hesel et Barton, homme 
 a. chival pour dener, homme a pde pur une maele, qe ore sunt il, 
 par extorsion, mis a duble ; et de ceo priunt remedi pur Dieu.” 
 The king, in reply, orders that the masters of the ferry shall not 
 take more than formerly : “ vel quod significent causam quare 
 id facere noluerint.” Ibid., p.291 (8 Ed. II., 1314-5). 
 
 X. (pp. 156, 158, 162.) 
 
 Th E RIGHT OF SANCTUAk/. 
 
 Example of entries in the Durham sanctuary register: 
 “ Memorandum quod vj die mensis octobris, A 0 D“ M. cccc 
 lxx vii° Wilhelmus Rome et Willielmus Nicholson parochiae 
 de Forsate, convolarunt ad ecclesiam cath. Sancti Cuthberti 
 Dunelm., ubi inter caetera pro felonia per eosdem commissa et 
 publice confessata, in, de, et pro occisione Willielmi Aliand, 
 per eosdem antea occisi, pecierunt a venerabihbus et religiosis 
 viris dominis Thoma Haughton sacrista ipsius ecclesiae et 
 Willielmo Cut'nbert magistro Galileae ibidem, fratribus et 
 commonachis ejusdem ecclesiae, immunitatem ecclesiae, juxta 
 libertates et privilegia gloriosissimo confessori Sancto 
 Cuthberto antiquitus concessa, favorabiliter eis concedi, et per 
 pulsacionem unius campanae, ut est moris, favorabiliter 
 obtinuerunt. Ibidem praesentibus, videntibus et audientibus, 
 discretis viris Willielmo Heghyngton, Thoma Hudson, 
 Johanne Wrangham, et Thoma Strynger, testibus ad praemissa 
 vocatis specialiter et requisitis.” “ Sanctuarium Dunelmense,” 
 ed. J. Raine, Surtees Society} London, 1827, No. v. 
 
424 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 
 On the question of sanctuaries the councils are explicit: 
 “ Firmiter prohibemus ne quis fugientes ad ecclesiam, quos 
 ecclesia debet tueri, inde violentes abstrahat, aut ipsos circa 
 ecclesiam obsideat, vel eisdem substrahat victualia.” Concilium 
 provinciale Scoticanum, a.d. 1225, in Wilkins’ “ Concilia 
 Magnae Britanniae,” London, 1737, vol. i. p. 616. 
 
 It was needful to take good care that the refuge was in a 
 true church, duly consecrated. This is shown by the reports 
 of cases in the Year Books. Here is a case of the time of 
 Edward I. :— 
 
 “ Quidem captus fuit pro iatrocinio, et ductus coram 
 justiciariis et inculpatus, dixit: Domine, ego fui in ecclesia de 
 N. et dehinc vi abstractus, unde imprimis peto juris beneficium 
 quod mittar retro unde ibi fui vi abstractus.— Justiciarius. Nos 
 dicimusquod ecclesia illanunquam fuit dedicata per episcopum. 
 — Priso. Sic, domine.— ‘Justiciarius . Inqhratur per duodecim : 
 —Oui dixerunt quod ilia ecclesia nunquam fuit dedicata per 
 episcopum.— Justiciarius. Mode oportet te respnndere.— 
 Priso. Sum bonus et fidelis: ideo de bono et malo pono, etc. 
 (formula of submission to the decision of a jury, patriam ).— 
 Duodecim nominati exiverunt ad deliberandos (sic).” “Year 
 Books,” edited by A. Horwood, 1863, vol. i. p. 541 (Rolls 
 Series). Here the final result is not given. The Year Books 
 nor infrequently make mention of cases where the right of 
 sanctuary is invoked, which shows that thieves did not neglect 
 this advantage. 
 
 The abuses resulting from the right of sanctuary, especially 
 with reference to St. Martin’s le Grand in London, are 
 described as follows in one of the Commons’ petitions : “ Item 
 prient les communes, coment diverses persones des diverses 
 estatz, et auxi apprentices et servantz des plusours gentz, si 
 bien demurrantz en la citee de Loundres et en les suburbes 
 d’icell, come autres gentz du roialme al dite citee repairantz, 
 ascuns en absence de lour meistres, de jour en autre s’enfuyent 
 ove les biens et chatelx de lour ditz mestres a le college de 
 Seint Martyn le Grant en Loundres, a l’entent de et sur 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 425 
 
 mesmes les biens et chateux illeoqes vivre a lour voluntee 
 saunz duresse ou execution du ley temporale sur eux illeoqes 
 ent estre faite, et la sont ils resceux et herbergeez, et mesmes 
 les biens et chateux par les ministres du dit college al foitz 
 seiseez et pris come forffaitz a le dit college Et atixi diverses 
 dettours as plusours marchantz, si bien du dite citee, come 
 d’autres vaillantz du roialme, s’enfuyent de jour en autre al dit 
 college ove lour avoir a y demurrer a l’entent avaunt dit. Et 
 ensement plusours persones au dit college fueez et la demur- 
 rantz, pur lour faux lucre, forgent, fount et escrivent obliga¬ 
 tions, endentures, acquitances, et autres munimentz fauxes, et 
 illeoqes les enseallent es^nounssi bien de plusours marchantz 
 et gentz en en la dite citee demurantz, come d’autres du dit 
 roialme a lour disheriteson et final destruction . . . Et en 
 quelle college de temps en temps sount receptz murdres, 
 traitours, come tonsours du monoye del coigne le Roy, larons, 
 robbours et autres diverses felouns, malfaisours et destourbours 
 de la pees nostre seignur le roy, par jour tapisantz et de noet 
 issantz pur faire lour murdres, tresons, larcines, robbories et 
 felonies. . . . Et apres tieux murdres, tresons, &c., faitz, al 
 dit college repairent.” u Rolls of Parliament,” vol. iii. p. 503, 
 A.D. I402. 
 
 XI. (p. 190). 
 
 Medieval romances in England 
 
 The first romances recited in England were necessarily 
 French ; then men began to translate them. The bulk of 
 the English romances are translated or imitated from the 
 French. Very few were originally written in English. The 
 French originals were in great repute, as numberless instances 
 testify. Among many others, the translator of the romance of 
 “William of Palerne,” in spite of the liberties he takes, 
 affirms that he follows the French text exactly, and glories in 
 
426 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 “ In this wise hath William al his werke ended, 
 
 As fully as the frensche fully wold aske, 
 
 And as his witte him wold serve, though it were febul.” 
 
 (“William of Palerne,” translated about 1350 ; ed. Skeat, 
 Early English Text Society, 1867, 1 . 5521). The translator 
 adds that he did this work by request of Humphrey de 
 Bohun, Earl of Hereford. The Earl ordered this poem on 
 account of those persons who were ignorant of French, who 
 at this time were, as we see, among those who might be 
 interested by such literature. 
 
 “He let make this mater in this maner speche 
 For hem that knowe no frensche, ne neuer vnderston ” 
 
 Ibid. 1 . 5532. 
 
 Layamon, who wrote at the beginning of the thirteenth 
 century, inserted in his great poem, “ i.rut,’* the legends 
 which make the race of the sovereigns of Britain descend 
 from Eneas. Until that time this fabulous origin had only been 
 set forth in Latin and in French. Layamon’s “ Brut ” is 
 largely borrowed from Wace, but the native poet added much 
 to his original. 1 Numerous posterior English romances refer 
 to this origin, which ceased to be disputed. Thus the author 
 of “ Sir Gawayne ” opens by recalling that after the siege of 
 Troy, Romulus founded Rome, “Ticius” peopled the 
 Tuscan country, “ Langaberde ” Lombardy, and Brutus 
 established himself in Great Britain. At the end he assures 
 his readers that all his narratives are drawn from the “ Brutus 
 
 1 Layamon’s “ Brut,” edited by Sir F. Madden, Roxburghe 
 Club, 1847. For much information on the French versions of the 
 legend, including Geoffrey of Monmouth, see “ Bulletin de la 
 Societe des anciens textes Fran9ais,” 1878, p. 104, and “La 
 Litterature Fran9aise du Moyen age,” par G. Paris, 1888, secs. 
 54, 93 ; also on the whole subject, Mr. H. L. D. Ward’s Catalogue 
 of MS. Romances in the British Museum, i. pp. 198-277. [L. T. S.] 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 427 
 
 bokees,” which was a sufficient guarantee of authenticity. 1 
 We know that the chroniclers were not less credulous on this 
 point than the romanciers : the protests of Gerald the Cam¬ 
 brian and of William of Newbury (in the proemium of his 
 history) were thrown away, and Robert of Gloucester, Ralph 
 Higden (“ a Bruto earn acquirente dicta est Britannia,” “ Poly- 
 chronicon,” ed. Babington, vol. ii. p. 4), the anonymous author 
 of the “ Eulogium Historiarum,” and a host of other respect¬ 
 able chroniclers accepted these vain legends in their writings. 
 
 XII. (p. 207). 
 
 Popular English songs of the Middle Ages. 
 
 The following collections may be consulted : 
 
 “ Ancient Songs and Ballads from the reign of Henry II. to 
 the Revolution,” collected by John Ritson, revised edition by 
 W. C. Hazlitt, London, 1877. 
 
 “ Political Songs of England from the reign of John to that 
 of Edward II.,” edited by Thomas Wright; Camden Society, 
 London, 1839. 
 
 “ Songs and Carols now first printed from a MS. of the 
 xvth Century,” edited by Thomas Wright ; Percy Society, 
 London, 1847. 
 
 “Political Poems and Songs,” from Edward III. to Richard 
 III., edited by Thomas Wright ; Rolls Series, London, 1859, 
 
 1861. 
 
 “ Political, Religious, and Love Poems,” edited by E. J. 
 Furnivall ; Early English Text Society, London, 1866. 
 
 “ Catalogue of MS. Romances in the British Museum,” by 
 Henry L. D. Ward, vol. i., London, 1887. See as to Robin 
 Hood ballads, pp. 516-523. 
 
 “ Bishop Percy’s folio MS.—Ballads and Romances,” 
 edited by J. W. Hales and F. J. Furnivall, Ballad Society, 
 London, 1867. 
 
 1 “Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight,” ed. R. Morris, 1864. 
 
428 
 
 ENGLISH WA YFARING LIFE. 
 
 “ The English and Scottish popular Ballads,” now being 
 edited by Prof. F. J. Child, Boston, U.S.A., 1882, See. 
 
 We find in these collections many satirical songs on the 
 vices of the times, on the exaggerations of fashion, the ill 
 government of the king, on the Lollards, on the friars ; 
 pleasantries about women, with some songs of a higher 
 character urging the king to defend the national honour and to 
 make war. See <or example Dr. FurnivalPs book, p. 4. In 
 this work is printed the song referred to in our text on the 
 death of the Duke of Suffolk (pp. 6-11) : 
 
 Here folowythe a Dyrge made by the comons of Kent in tht 
 tyreie of tber rysynge , when fake Cade was theyr cappitayn : 
 
 ****** 
 
 Who shall execute y e fest of solempnite ? 
 
 Bysshoppis and lords, as gret reson is. 
 
 Monkes, chanons, and prestis, withall y e clergy, 
 
 Prayeth for hym that he may com to blys. 
 
 And that nevar such anothar come aftar this 
 
 His interscctures, blessid mot they be, 
 
 And graunt them to reygne with aungellis 1 
 
 For Jake Napys sowle, placebo and dirige. 
 
 “ Placebo,’’ begyneth the bisshop of Hereforthe ; 
 
 “ Dilexi,” quod y e bisshop of Chester. 
 
 XIII. (p. 312). 
 
 Induigences and the theory of the “Treasury” 
 according to Pope Clement VI. 
 
 u Ouantum ergo exinde ut nec supervacua, inanis aut super- 
 flua tantte efFusionis miseratio redderetur, thesaurum militanti 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 429 
 
 Ecclesi® acquisivit, volens suis thesaurrzare hhis puis pater, ut 
 sic sit mfinitus thesaurus hominibus, quo qui usi sunt, Dei 
 amiciti® participes sunt effect!. C^uem quidem thesauruni 
 non in aerario repositum, non in agro absconditum, sed per 
 beatum Petrum coeh clavigerum, ejusque successores, suos in 
 terris vicanos commisit fidelibus salubriter dispensandum, et 
 propriis et rationabilibus causis, nunc pro totali, nunc pro 
 partiali remissione poen® temporalis pro pcccatis debit® tarn 
 generaliter quam specialiter (prout cum Deo expedire cognos- 
 cerent) vere pcenitentibus et confessis misericorditer applican- 
 dum. Ad cujus quidem thesauri cumulum, beat® Dei 
 o'enetricis, omnium electorum a pnmo justo usque ad ulti- 
 mum merita adminiculum pr®stare noscuntur, de cujus con- 
 sumptione, seu minutione non est aliquatenus formidandum, 
 tarn propter infinita Christi (ut pr®dictum est) merita, quam 
 pro eo quod quanto plures ex ejus applicatione trahuntur ad 
 justitiam, tanto magis accrescit ipsorum cumulus meritorum.’ 
 
 u Dictionnaire dogmatique, historique ascetique et pratique 
 des indulgences,” by Abbe P. Jouhanneaud, Paris, 1852, p. 
 123—4 (being vol. xxvn. of Migne s 44 Nouvelle encyclopedic 
 theologique ”). 
 
 XIV. (p. 319). 
 
 SERMON ACCOMPANYING THE DISPLAY OF A PAPAL 
 
 Bull (on the occasion of the coming of 
 Henry of Lancaster). 
 
 “ ‘ Mes bonnes gens, entendez tous ici. 
 
 Vous savez bien coment le roy banny 
 A, a grant tort, vostre seigneur henry, 
 
 Et sans raison ; 
 
 Et pource jay fait impetracion 
 Au saint pere, qui est nostre patron, 
 
 Que trestous ceulx auront remission 
 De leurs pechiez 
 
+3o ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 De quoy oncques ilz furent entachiez, 
 
 Dc puis leure quilz furent baptisiez, 
 
 Qui leur aideront tons certains en suez 
 Celle journee; 
 
 Et vesenci la bulk seellee, 
 
 Que le pappe de romme la lcuee 
 Ma envoie, et pour vous tous donnee, 
 
 Mes bons amis. 
 
 Vueilliez lui dont aidier ses ennemis 
 A conquerre, et vous en serez mis 
 Avecques ceux qui sont en paradis 
 Apres la mort.’ 
 
 Lors veissiez jeune, viel, feble, et fort 
 Murmure faire, et par commun accort, 
 
 Sans regarder ni le droit ni le tort, 
 
 Eulx emouvoir, 
 
 Cuidant que ce con leur fist assavoir 
 Feust verite, tous le courent de voir; 
 
 Car de sens nont gueres ne de savoir, 
 
 De telz ya. 
 
 Larcevesque ce conseil cy trouva.” 
 
 “P'rench metrical history of the deposition of King 
 Richard II.” (by Crdton), edited and translated into English by 
 Rev. J. Webb. “ Archaeologia,” t. xx. p. 310. 
 
 This speech is attributed by the chronicler to Thomas of 
 Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1413-14), and is sup¬ 
 posed to have been delivered at the time of the landing of 
 Henry of Lancaster in 1399 (Henry IV.) 
 
 XV. (pp. 314, 322, 325, 326, 337). 
 
 Ecclesiastical documents chiefly concerning 
 English pardoners. 
 
 Richard de Bury on the Pardoners, a.d. 1340: 
 “Cumsitstatutum in canone ne qui eleemosynarum quxstores 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 43 i 
 
 ad praedicandum aut indulgentias clero et populo insinuandum 
 sine literis dioecesanis auc apostolicis admittantur,literaeque apos- 
 tolicae quaestoribus hujusmodi concessae ante admissionem eoruni 
 per dioecesanos examinari debeant diligenter : ex gravi tamen 
 multorum querela ad nostrum pervenit auditum, quod nonnulli 
 ex hujusmodi quaestoribus, non sine multa temeritatis audacia, 
 motu suo proprio, in animarum subditorum nostrorum peiiculum 
 et jurisdictionis nostrae elusionem manifestam, indulgentias 
 populo concedunt, super votis dispensant, et perjuriis, homicidiis, 
 usuris et peccatis aliis, sibi confitentes absolvunt, et male ablata, 
 data sibi aliqua pecuniae quantitate, remittunt, ac alias abusiones 
 quamplurimas faciunt et exponunt.” 
 
 “ Registrum Palatinum Dunelmense,” edited by T. D. 
 Hardy, vol. iii. p. 325, 
 
 Provincial Synod of Dublin, 1348 : 
 
 “Cap.xxii. Dequcestoribus. Item, quia eleemosynarum qus- 
 stores nonnullas abusiones in suis praedicationibus proponunt, 
 ut decipiant simplices tantum, et nonnulla alia bona subtili vel 
 fallaci potius ingenio extorqueant, nonnulla etiam mala in 
 deceptionem animarum multiplicem perpetrentur; statuimus 
 et ordinamus, quod nullus amodo quaestor sine literis archi- 
 episcopi vel dioec. admittatur quovismodo. . . . Sacerdotes vero 
 qui alio modo quam supra dicto, quaestores ad praedicandum 
 voluntarie et scienter admittunt, per annum a celebratione 
 divinorum ipso facto sint suspensi ; et ipsi quaestores, si contra 
 praemissa aliquid attentaverint, ipso facto suit excommunicati. 
 Et si per quadraginta dies perseveraverint, ad significationem 
 episcoporum capiantur et incarcerentur, quousque de talibus 
 aliud fuerit per loci dioecesanum dispositum. Ouascunque 
 literas hujusmodi qua;storibus hactenus concessas revocamus, 
 praemissarum sententiarum relaxatione sine absolutione loci 
 dioecesani reservata. Et capellani pecuniam ea occasione 
 receptam ecclesiis cathedralibus restituant triplicatam.” 
 
 Wilkins, “Concilia,” 1737, vol. ii. p. 750. 
 
* 3 2 
 
 ENGLISH WAY EARING LIFE. 
 
 Bull of Pope Urban V. “contra quaestores hospitalis 
 Jerusalem in Anglia,” 1369: 
 
 “Urbanus . . . archiepiscopo Cant, ejusque suffraganeis, salu- 
 tem. . . . Nuper dilectis filiis Johanne Sancti Dunstani West., 
 Ricardo B. Mariae Wolnoth, rectoribus, et Philippo de Braunton, 
 ac Willelmo de Eya, perpetuis vicariis parochialibus ecclesiarum 
 London. Exon, et Norwicen. dioec. acnonnullis aliis rectoribus 
 . . . nobis referentibus percepimus, quod quaestores priorum, 
 praeceptorum et confratrum domorum hospitalis S. Johannis 
 Jerusalemitani in Anglia, de voluntate, conniventia, ratihabi- 
 tione, seu mandato dictorum priorum ... in pluribus contra 
 juris et rationis metas impudenter excedunt. . . . nonnulli 
 tamen quaestores priorum et confratrum praedictorum, gratia 
 quaestus hujusmodi ... ad rectorum et vicariorum hujus- 
 modi ecclesias accedentes, et se ad praedicandum seu ex- 
 ponendum populo hujusmodi negotia quaestuaria offerentes, licet 
 congrue et legitime requisiti, literas sedis apostolica? vel 
 dioecesani loci eisdem rectoribus seu vicariis sic requirentibus, 
 ostendere seu exhibere penitus non curarunt neque curant; 
 quin verius de voluntate, conniventia seu mandato de quibus 
 praedicitur, denegarunt expresse contra constitutiones canonicas 
 . . . praetendenles ipsos priores et fratres pro se et eorum 
 quaestoribus in ea parte fore notorie privilegiatos, licet hoc neque 
 notorium fuerit neque verum ; et ut quadam astutia colorata 
 ipsos rectoies, et vicarios exhibitionem literarum hujusmodi sic 
 petentes, acrius fatigent laboribus et expensis, ipsos eo quod 
 exhibitionem literarum hujusmodi sic deposcebant et de- 
 poscunt, tanquam injuriatores contra eorum privilegia mani¬ 
 festos, et qutestuum suorum impeditores proclamarunt et pro- 
 clamant, ipsosque ea occasione coram eorum conservatoii- 
 bus seu subconservatoribus ad loca diversa et quandoque 
 valde remota fecerunt et faciunt ad judicium evocari, et per 
 conservatores sive subconservatores hujusmodi contra eosdein 
 processus indebitos fieri, eosque nonnunquam excommunicari, 
 aggravari et denunciari licet de facto, ac alia eis gravamina 
 quamplura inferri procurarunt et procurant, in ipsoium 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 433 
 
 rectorum et vicariorum grave praejudicium et scandalum 
 plurimorum : et insuper quaestores praedicti frequenter et 
 potissime, quando satagunt alicui rectori seu vicario nocere, 
 ad ipsius rectoris seu vicarii ecclesiam in aliquo die festo, prae- 
 cipue quando populus solitus est offerre, accedunt, et ibidem 
 quaestuare, seu nomina fratriae seu fraternitatis suae legere 
 incipiunt et continuant usque ad talem illius dici festi lioram, 
 qua missa ibidem pro illo die convenienter non potest celebrari ; 
 sicque rectores et vicarios hujusmodi suis faciunt oblationibus, 
 quae eis in missis hujusmodi obveniunt, nequiter defraudari. 
 Insuper in ecclesiis et locis ad eos seu dictum hospitale 
 nullatenus pertinentibus, licet publice interdictis seu pollutis 
 divina faciant etiam publice celebrari, et in eis pro eorum 
 libito per se et alios sepeliunt corpora defunctorum ; officium 
 quoque seu negotium quaestuandi personis simplicibus et quasi 
 illiteratis committunt,qui simplices aliis simplicibus erroneum 
 praestantes ducatum, generaliter, ut de spiritualibus taceamus, 
 in populo diffundunt errores.” 
 
 Wilkins, “ Concilia,” London, 1737, vol. iii. p. 83. 
 
 Letter of Simon Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury, a.d. 
 
 *378 : 
 
 “ Simon, etc., dilecto filio commissario nostro Cantuar. 
 generali, salutem, etc. Ad nostrum audientiam est perlatum, 
 quod licet eleemosynarum quaestores, nisi apostolicas vel dioe- 
 cesani episcopi literas exhibuerint, admitti non debeant, vel 
 permitti indulgentias sibi concessas insinuare, et populo 
 praedicare ; nonnulli tamen quaestores, qui non sine multa 
 temeritatis audacia, et deceptione multiplici animarum, ac 
 elusione populi christiani, indulgentias remissionesque falsas 
 et frivolas, et alia erronea . . . praedicant abusive tarn per vos, 
 quam per official, archidiaconi nostri Cantuar. de diebus in 
 dies indifferenter illicite admittuntur.” 
 
 Wilkins, “Concilia,” vol. iii. p. 131. 
 
 Bull of Pope Boniface IX., a.d. 1390: 
 
 “ Ad audientiam nostram, non sine magna mentis displi- 
 
 28 
 
434 
 
 ENGLISH W.AYE.ARING LIFE. 
 
 ceutia fidcdignorum quamplurimum relatio perduxit quod 
 quidam religiosi diversorum etiam mendicantium ordinum et 
 nonnulli clerici saeculares etiam in dignitatibus constituti, 
 asseientes se a nobis aut a diversis legatis seu nuntiis sedis 
 apostolicae missos, et ad plura peragenda negotia diversas 
 facultates habere per partes, in quibus es pro nobis et Ecclesia 
 Romana thesaurarius deputatus, discurrunt, et veras vel 
 praetensas, quas se habere dicunt, facultates fideli et simplici 
 populo nunciant et irreverenter veris hujusmodi facultatibus 
 abutentes, suas fimbrias, ut vel sic turpem et infamem quaes- 
 tum faciant, impudenter dilatant, et non veras et praetensas 
 facultates hujusmodi mendaciter simulant, cum etiam pro 
 qualibet parva pecuniarum summula, non pcenitentes, $ed 
 mala conscientia satagentes iniquitati suae, quoddam mentitae 
 absolutions velamen praetendere, ab atrocibus delictis, nulla 
 vera contritione, nullaque debita praecedenti forma (ut verbis 
 illorum utamur) absolvant; male ablata, certa et incerta, nulla 
 satisfactione praevia (quod omnibus saeculis absurdissimum est) 
 remittant ; castitatis, abstinentiae, peregrinationis ultramarinae, 
 seu beatorum Petri et Pauli de urbe aut Jacobi in Compos- 
 tella apostolorum, et alia quaevis vota, levi compensatione 
 commutent; de haeresi vel schismate nominatim aut incidenter 
 condemnatos, absque eo quod in debita forma abjurent et 
 quantum possunt debite satisfaciant, non tantum absolvant, 
 sed in integrum restituant; cum illegitime genitis, ut ad 
 ordines et beneficia promoveri possint, et intra gradus pro- 
 hibitos copulatis aut copulandis dispensent, et eis qui ad partes 
 infidelium absque sedis praedictae licentia transfretarunt, vel 
 merces prohibitas detulerunt, et etiam qui Romanae aut aliarum 
 ecclesiarum possessiones, jura, et bona occuparunt, excorc- 
 municationis et alias sententias et poenas, et quaevis interdicta 
 relaxent, et indulgentiam quam felicis recordationis Urbanus 
 Papa VI. praedecessor noster, christifidelibus certas basilicas 
 et ecclesias dictae urbis instanti anno visitantibus concessit, et 
 quae in subsidium Terrae Sanctae accedentibus conceduntur, 
 quibusvis elargiri pro nihilo ducant, . . . et quaestum, quern 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 435 
 
 cxinde percipiunt, nomine camerae apostolicae se percipere as- 
 serant, et nullam de illo nihilominus rationem velle reddere vide- 
 antur : Horret et merito indignatur animus, talia reminisci. . . . 
 
 “ Attendentes igitur quod nostra interest super tot tantisque 
 malis de opportunis remediis salubriter providere, fraternitati 
 tuae de qua in iis et aliis specialem in domino fiduciam obtine- 
 mus, per apostolica scripta committimus et mandamus, quatenus 
 religicsis et clericis saecularibus hujusmodi, ac eorum familiari- 
 bus, complicibus, et collegiis, et aliis, vocatis qui fuerint 
 evocandi, summarie, simpliciter, et de piano, ac sine strepitu 
 et figura judicii, etiam ex officio super praemissis, auctoritate 
 nostra, inquiras diligentius veritatem, et eos ad reddendum 
 tibi computum de receptis et reliqua consignandum, remota 
 appellatione, compellas, et quos per inquisitionem hujusmodi 
 excessisse, vel non verum aut non sufficiens seu ad id non 
 habuisse mandatum inveneris, capias et tandiu sub fida custodia 
 teneas carceribus mancipatos, donee id nobis intimaveris.” 
 
 Baronius’ “Annales ecclesiastici,” continuation by Raynaldus, 
 ed. 1752, vol. vii. p. 525. 
 
 Opinion of the University of Oxford on Pardoners, a.d. 
 
 1414: 
 
 “ Articulus tricesimus nonus; contra falsas prcedicationei 
 qwzstorum. —Quia inverecundi quaestores turpissimos suos 
 quasstus ad firmam emunt cum Simone, indulgentias vendunt 
 cum Gyesi, et adquisita consumunt cum filio prodigo inhoneste, 
 sed quod magis est detestabile, cum non sint in sacris ordini- 
 bus constituti, publice praedicant, ac false prstendunt quod 
 absolvendi a pcena et a culpa tarn superstites quam defunctos 
 plenam habeant potestatem, cum aliis blasphemiis, quibus 
 populum spoliant ac seducunt, et verisimiliter ad tartara secum 
 trahunt, praestantes spem frivolam et audaciam ad peccandum. 
 Abusus igitur hujusmodi sectae pestiferae ab ecclesiae limitibus 
 deleantur.” 
 
 Articuli concernentes reformat!onem universalis ecclesice , editi 
 per universitatem Oxon. Wilkins, “ Concilia,” vol. iii. p. 365. 
 
436 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE. 
 
 Suppression of pardoners, a.d. 1562 : 
 
 “ Cum multa a diversis antea conciliis, tam Lateranensi ac 
 Lugdunensi, quam Viennensi, adversus pravos eleemosynarum 
 quaestorum abusus remedia tunc adhibita, posterioribus tempo- 
 ribus reddita fuerint inutilia, potiusque eorum malitia ita 
 quotidie magno fidelium omnium scandalo et querela ex- 
 crescere deprehendatur, ut de eorum emendatione nulla 
 spes amplius relicta videatur, statuit ut posthac in quibus- 
 cumque Christianas reiigionis locis eorum nomen atque usus 
 penitus aboleatur, nec ad officium hujusmodi exercendum 
 ullatenus admittantur; non obstantibus privilegiis, ecclesiis, 
 monasteriis, hospitalibus, piis locis et quibusvis cujuscumque 
 gradus, status et dignitatis personis, concessis, aut consuetu- 
 dinibus etiam immemorabilibus. Indulgentias vero aut alias 
 spirituals gratias, quibus non idto christifideles decet privari, 
 deinceps per ordinarios locorum, adhibitis duobus de capitulo, 
 debitis temporibus populo publicandas esse decernit. Quibus 
 etiam eleemosynas, atque oblata sibi charitatis subsidia, nulla 
 prorsus mercede accepta, fideliter colligendi facultas datur, 
 ut tamdem coelestes hos Ecclesite thesauros, non ad quaestum 
 sed ad pictatem exerceri, omnes vere intelligant.” 
 
 “ Conciliorum generalium Ecclesiae catholicas, Pauli V. 
 Pont. Max. auctoritate editus.” Tomus iv., Rcmas, 1628, 
 second paging, p. 261. 
 
 XVI. ( P . 345). 
 
 The first recorded crucifix sculptured from 
 
 THE LIFE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Narrative of Thomas of Burton, Abbot of Meaux, near 
 Beverley : “ Dictus autem Hugo abbas xv"‘ crucifixum 
 novum in choro conversorum fecit fabricari. Cujus quidem 
 operarius nullam ejus formosam et notabilem proprietatem 
 sculpebat nisi in feria sexta, in qua pane et aqua tantum 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 437 
 
 jejunavit. Et hominem nudum coram se stantem prospexit, 
 secundum cujus formosam imaginem crucifixum ipsum aptius 
 decoraret. Per quern etiam crucifixum Omnipotens manifesta 
 miracula fecerat incessanter. Unde tunc etiam putabatur quod, 
 si mulieres ad dictum crucifixum accessum haberent, augmen- 
 taretur communis devotio, et in quam plurimum commodum 
 nostri monasterii, redundaret. Super quo abbas Cistercii a 
 nobis requisitus, suam licentiam nobis impertivit ut homines 
 et mulieres honestae accedere possent ad dictum crucifixum, 
 dum tamen mulieres per claustrum et dormitorium seu alia 
 officina intrare non permittantur. . . . Cujus quidem licentiae 
 praetextu, malo nostro, feminae saepius aggrediuntur dictum 
 crucifixum, praecipue cum in eis frigescat devotio, dum illuc 
 ut ecclesiarn tantum introspiciant accesserint, et sumptus 
 nostros augeant in hospitatiorie earundem.” “ Chronica 
 monasterii de Melsa,” edited by E. A. Bond, 1866-68, vol. 
 iii. p. 35 (Rolls Series). 
 
 XVII. (p. 351). 
 
 The pilgrimage of Reynard. 
 
 “ Ci commence le pelerinage Renart, si con il ala a Rome 
 # * * * 
 
 Escrepe et bordon prent, si muet, 
 
 Si est entrez en son chemin, 
 
 Moult resemble bien pelerin, 
 
 Et bien li sist l’escrepe au col.” 
 
 The travellers find in the “ ostel Primaut,” that is the house 
 of Primaut, the wolf: 
 
 “ Char salee, formache et o£s 
 * * * * 
 
 Et si trovent bonne cervoise, 
 
438 
 
 ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE 
 
 Tant but Belins que il s’envoise ; 
 Si a commencie a chanter 
 Et l’arche-prestre a orguener, 
 
 Et Dant Renart chante en fauset.” 
 
 The speech of Reynard : 
 
 “ Seignor, dist Renart, par mon chief, 
 
 Cest errer est pesant et grief; 
 
 II a el siecle meint prodome 
 Qui onques ne furent a Rome : 
 
 Tiex est revenuz des sept sainz 
 Qui est pires qu’il ne fu ainz. 
 
 Je me voil metre en mon retor, 
 
 Et si vivrai de mon labor 
 Et gaaignerai lcclment, 
 
 Si ferai bien a povre gent. 
 
 Lors ont crie : outree, outree ! 
 
 Si ont fete la retornee.” 
 
 “ Le roman du Renart,” publie d’apres les MSS. de la 
 bibliotheque du Roi des xiii®., xiv®., et x’'°. siecles, par M. D. 
 M. Meon, Paris, 1826, vol. ii. pp. 127, 133 et seq. 
 
 THE END. 
 
INDEX. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abingdon fair, 248 ; sanctuary, 
 see Colnham 
 Abinger, stocks at, 268 
 Abjuration, felon’s oath of, 160 
 Alehouses with poles, 13s; 
 society to be found in, 134- 
 137 
 
 Aliens, resistance to, by Parlia¬ 
 ment, 229, 302 
 
 Ambush laid by knights upon 
 merchants, 145-47 
 Amiens, a resort for pilgrims, 363 
 Anglure, lord of, see French 
 Pilgrims 
 
 Asses, travelling on, 399 
 Autolycus, 231 
 Avancement par clergie, 279 
 Avignon, bridge at, 39, 41 
 Ayremynne, Richard de, secre¬ 
 tary to Edward II., 118 
 
 Ball, John, 24, 25, 207, 281, 
 282 
 
 Baptist, St. John, relics of, 363 
 Bartholomew fair, 248 
 Bartholomew the Englishman, 
 124 
 
 Battle Abbey, guest house at, 122 
 Bear, performing, 218 
 Beds, price of, 129 
 Beggars and begging, 262, 265 
 note, 270, 275, 307 
 Berwick-on-Tweed bridge and 
 ferry, 68 
 
 Beverley sanctuary, 154, 155 
 
 Billingham, 42 
 
 Birmingham gild, 42 
 
 Bishop, his state and retinue, 116, 
 
 ii7 
 
 “ Black Death ” of 1349,258 
 Blind beggar and boy, 27, 405 
 Books sold at fairs, 249 
 Botyton bridge, 42 
 Boucicaut, Marshal, 390 
 Boulogne, 363 
 
 Bourgogne (Jean de), 392, 393 
 Bow bridge, 45, 46 
 Bradelev bridge, 418 
 Bridges, maintenance of, 36, 59- 
 64 ; pious character of this, 
 38, 43-48 ; indenture for 
 building one, 58 ; chapels 
 on, 48, 50, 61, 73 ; abuse 
 of their revenues, 61, 63 ; 
 
442 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Bridges continued — 
 
 neglect and decay, 64-69 ; 
 movable, of timber, 414 ; 
 towers on, 53, 74 ; houses 
 on, 50, 54, 77 
 
 Brigandage in England, 149-50, 
 
 l 6 7 , 2 55 
 
 Brotherton, 42 
 Bruit holt .59 
 Brut, legend of, 426 
 Buffoons, 212-18 
 Bull, papal, reading a fabricated, 
 26, 429 
 
 Bullion not to be exported, 236 
 Burdon or pilgrim’s staff, 360 
 Burton, Thomas of (Abbot of 
 Meaux), 381 
 
 Bury, Richard de, 322, 430 
 Bushel measure, 92 
 
 Cade’s rebellion, “ dirge ” of 
 that time, 428 
 
 Cahors, bridge at, 41, 43, 72 
 Calais Maison-Dieu for pilgrims, 
 3 6 3 
 
 Canterbury, pilgrimages to, 348 
 Carriages, 17, 95-100 
 Carts, 90-92, 93 
 
 Carving at table, mode of, 18, 
 
 1 ?, 11 5 . 
 
 Catterick bridge, 58, 79 
 Cats killed for their skins by 
 pedlars, 234 
 
 Charlatans, 178, 185, 187 
 Charters of pardon, 166, 167 
 Chaucer’s “ House of Fame,” 21 i, 
 220-223 ; Cook, 117 ; 
 Friar, 279, 287-S8 ; Par¬ 
 doner, 312-16, 320, 337; 
 
 Physician, 177; Merchant, 
 242; Monk, 115; “Sir 
 Thopas,” 193; Squire, 197; 
 pilgrims, 349, 359; opinions 
 on the equality of men, 208 
 note 
 
 Cheap-jacks, 181, 185 
 Chesford bridge, 418 
 Chester bridge, 69, 77, 417 
 Chimneys, 20, 126 
 Christine de Pisan on taverns, 
 135 ; on the miraculous 
 blood of Christ, 328 
 Churches, fugitives watched in, 
 159 
 
 Church, her “ treasury ” of 
 heavenly wealth, 311-12 
 Claypole bridge, 418 
 Clergy resist exactions of pur¬ 
 veyors, 420 ; “ advance¬ 
 
 ment by” 279; tee Eccle¬ 
 siastics 
 
 Clerkenwell Priory, 120 
 Clermont-Ferrand, Herodias in 
 stained window at, 214 
 Clopton, Hugh, 57 
 Coal trade, 235 
 
 Coggeshall, Abbot of, has to re¬ 
 pair a bridge, 67, 418 
 Colechurch, Peter, 49 
 Colnham near Abingdon, sanc¬ 
 tuary there, 165 
 
 Compostella, St. James of, pil¬ 
 grimages to, 367, 368-372, 
 
 3 _ 79 . 39 2 > 39 5 note 
 Conspiracy against justice, case 
 of, 170 note 
 
 Cook with his pot-hook, 19, 115 
 Coryat’s charlatan, 186 
 Court, officers of royal, 107; 
 
INDEX. 
 
 443 
 
 lodgings in town and coun¬ 
 try, 118-120 
 
 Credulity, effects of, 333-37, 
 383-84 
 
 Creton’s account of Richard II., 
 
 15. * 99 . 3*9 
 
 Criminals in sanctuary at Bever¬ 
 ley, 155; see Durham 
 Cross in hand borne by outlaw, 
 152, 160, 161 note 
 Crowland bridge, 77, 89 
 Croyland, Abbot of, agreement 
 as to a bridge, 417 
 Ctusades, causes of their cessa¬ 
 tion, 240, 384-386; Lan- 
 noy’s survey for a crusade, 
 393-4 
 
 “Cursor Mundi,” 190 
 Cyprus, pilgrims at, 391, 403 
 
 Danby Castle, bridge near, 77, 
 
 78 
 
 Dances, coarseness of, 22, 214- 
 216; in cemeteries, 334 
 Dead, superstitious observances at 
 
 burial of, 333—3+ 
 
 Decretals, fourteenth - century 
 MS. of, containing valuable 
 drawings, 21, 25 
 
 Devotion in fourteenth century 
 disorganized, 381-384 
 Dinner in hall, 18, 109, 124; 
 sprinkling diners with holy 
 water, 300 
 
 Dover Maison-Dieu, 123, 363 
 note 
 
 Dressing in the morning, 20, 127 
 Duels, between Lindesay and 
 Welles, 50 ; of Thomas de 
 
 Bruges, 117 note ; between 
 the Bishop and Earl of Salis¬ 
 bury, 118 
 
 Dumfries, bridge at, 79 
 
 Durham, bridges at, 78 ; pilgrim¬ 
 age to, 347; sanctuary, 22, 
 *53, 1 5 5-59; registry, 43, 
 44 » 155 
 
 Dyke (Yorkshire), bridge over, 
 
 54 . 4 H 
 
 Ecclesiastics, worldly, clothing 
 of, 115, 421 ; state of a 
 bishop, 116; see Clergy, 
 Religious Houses, Friars, 
 and Pardoners 
 
 Eccleston, Thomas, 291 
 
 Egypt. 394 . 4 °°. 4° 1-2 
 
 Elephant queerly described, 402 
 
 Ely, the glee-man of, 202 
 
 Englishmen great travellers, 386— 
 390; the restless moon their 
 planet, 388 ; soldiers of 
 adventure, 389 
 
 Erasmus on pilgrimages, 353, 
 
 354 
 
 Exeter Cathedral, minstrels’ gal¬ 
 lery, 202-5 
 
 “ Fabliaux ” illustrated in a 
 manuscript of Decretals, 21, 
 
 2 5 
 
 Fairs, regulations and frequenters 
 at, 246-251 
 
 False tales against the great, 272, 
 
 273 
 
 Farce (French) of a pardoner. 
 See., 330 
 
444 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 “ Fauxine,” brand of, 261 
 Felon’s oath of abjuration, 160 ; 
 
 charter of pardon, 167 
 Ferry over the Tweed, 68; 
 
 Humber, 130, 422 
 Ferrybridge, 42 
 
 Fire in bedroom a luxury, 20, 
 
 1 27 
 
 Fish, fairs for sale of, 248 ; com¬ 
 plaints as to net called 
 “ wondyrchoun,” 249 note 
 Flagellants, 382 
 Flemings, 236 
 
 “ Fleta,” 107 note, 111, 115, 161 
 Foreign affairs, expenses over, 
 disallowed, 226 
 Foreign trade, 235, 238-240 
 Forest in England, 252, 254, 
 256 
 
 Fourteenth century, incredulity 
 of 381-83 ; modern views 
 then held, 385 
 
 Fox and geese, 309, 331 ; see 
 Reynard 
 
 France, purveyors in, 95 ; herba¬ 
 list there 600 years ago, 178 ; 
 ordinances as to workpeople 
 there, 260; pardoners in, 
 3 2 9 > 33 ° 
 
 Francis, St., 290, 292 
 Franciscan friars, 290-97 
 Frankpledge, 113, 133 
 French, manual of language, 131, 
 * 9 6 , .387 
 
 French pilgrims to Holy Land, 
 narrative of, 378, 395, 400- 
 4°3 
 
 French Revolution, comparison 
 between and revolt of 1381, 
 271, 274 
 
 Friars, Franciscan, 25, 279, 290- 
 297 ; Dominican, 297 ; their 
 pride and corruption, 298, 
 303-4; enmity against, 299, 
 301-307; their hold over 
 the people, 305-6; repre¬ 
 sentation of a church, 26, 
 295 
 
 Frid-stool at Beverley, 153; at 
 Hexham, 1 54 
 
 Froissart, 82, 285, 339, 364 
 
 Gaddesden, John of, 180, 181 
 Gascoigne, Thomas, 213, 347 
 “ Gawayne and the Green 
 Knight,” romance, 191, 197 
 Gilds, of minstrels, 205 ; of Holy 
 Cross, Birmingham, 42; oi 
 foreign merchants in London, 
 239; of palmers, Ludlow, 
 334; of Lincoln, Hull, and 
 Coventry, helping pilgrims, 
 379 » 3 8 ° 
 
 Gloucester, assault in the town, 
 
 171 note 
 
 Gold, William, letter of, 389-90 
 Grossetete, Bishop of Lincoln, 
 291 
 
 Guest-house, 122 
 
 Hairs plucked out, 96 note ; 
 
 ladies’ tresses, 372, 373 
 Hall of the house, 123-25 
 Hampole, ;ee Rolle 
 Hanse merchants, 235, 238 
 Hatfield, musicians’ gallery at, 
 201 
 
 Hayward over reapers, 24 
 Henry IV., friars minors inimical 
 
INDEX. 
 
 445 
 
 to, 305 ; false indulgence 
 read on his behalf, 319, 429 
 Herbalists, 178, 181 
 Hereford bridge, 78 
 Hermits and hermitages, 137, 138; 
 story of hermit whe got 
 drunk, 21 ; false hermits, 
 140-143 
 Herodias, 214 
 
 Hexham, Frid-stool at, 22, 154 
 Highgate and Islington jurors, 
 their verdict against Fran¬ 
 ciscans, 306 
 
 “Horn, King,” romance of, 189, 
 360 
 
 Horseback, customary convey¬ 
 ance, 100 ; mode of riding 
 on, 104, 105 
 Horse-litters, 17, 102 
 Hospitality, by ecclesiastics, I 19, 
 122 ; this abused, 121 ; in 
 castles, 123 
 
 House of the king, interior of, 108 
 Hue and cry, 168-170 ; abuse of, 
 170 note 
 
 Humber, price of ferry, 130, 423 
 Huntingdon bridge, 79 ; chapel 
 on, 61 
 
 Ill-life, persons of, how treated, 
 108, 112 
 
 Illuminated manuscripts, prices 
 of, 192 note 
 Incantations, 334, 372 
 Incredulity, widespread, 381-83 
 Indulgences, system of, 309, 310; 
 political use of, against 
 Richard II., 316-19, 429; 
 enumeration of, gained by 
 
 pilgrimages, 375, 377 note , 
 381; scoffed at by Burton, 
 3 81 
 
 Inns and innkeepers, 126; dia 
 logue on arrival, 13 1 ; figure 
 of an inn, 130 
 
 Inquiries, periodical, legal, 66, 
 121 ; relating to bridges, 66, 
 4 X 7 
 
 Insecurity of roads and intimida¬ 
 tion, 145-150 
 Ireland, 226 
 
 Isembert, French builder of 
 London Bridge, 49, 413 
 Islington, see FIighgate 
 Ives, St., bridge at, 79 
 Italy, English soldiers in, 389-90 
 
 James, St., of Compostella, pil¬ 
 grimages to, 367-372, 379, 
 39 2 
 
 Jerusalem, maps of, 397 note , see 
 Knights and Palestine 
 Jongleurs , decay of, 211 
 jonson, Ben, describes a quack 
 doctor, 185 
 Jugglers, 212, 213 
 Justice, accompanies the king’s 
 court, in, 112; brought 
 periodically to the people, 
 II3-I5 
 
 Justices, itinerant, 114, 421 
 
 Kellawe, Richard de, 41 
 
 Kentish bridges, 418 
 
 King, frequent journeys of, 82. 
 
 107 ; notice of these given 
 
 108 ; lodged in religu-u* 
 
INDEX. 
 
 446 
 
 King continued — 
 
 houses, 119; minstrels 
 attached to, 198, 199 ; 
 
 offerings at shrines by, 355 
 
 Knaresborough hermitage, 137 
 note 
 
 Knights of St, John of Jerusalem, 
 120 
 
 Lancaster, Thomas, Earl of, his 
 popular canonization, 339- 
 
 3+1 
 
 Lands in England, their owner¬ 
 ship scattered, 82 
 
 Langland quoted, 48, 
 
 126, 
 
 • 34 , 
 
 140-142, 197, 
 
 200, 
 
 230, 
 
 234, 243, 265, 
 
 290, 
 
 3 °+> 
 
 359 
 
 
 
 Lannoy, Gilbert of, his survey 
 
 preparatory to a crusade, 
 393 -+ 
 
 Latimer on pilgrimages, 355 
 “ Lazarillo de Tormes” and its 
 original, 27, 28, 330 
 Leet days, 420 
 
 Letters carried by messengers, 
 224, 227 ; of aliens, 229 
 Letters of travel, 269, 362 ; of 
 fraternity, 305 
 
 Liberal principles spoken, but not 
 meant, 208-210 
 
 Lichfield, merchants of, robbed, 
 H 5-+7 
 
 Lily’s “Euphues,” 54 
 Lindesay, Earl of Crawfurd, his 
 duel with Lord Welles, 50 
 Litter of rushes, &c., 124 
 Liveried retainers, 148 
 Llangollen bridge, 78 
 
 London, reparation of roads near, 
 84 ; quartering of royal 
 household in, 118; tavernsin, 
 133; sanctuaries of, St. Mar¬ 
 tin le Grand, 159, 162, 424, 
 All Saints, London Wall, 
 163, St. Paul’s and West¬ 
 minster, 164, 165, 166 ; 
 
 punishment for illegal 
 practice of medicine in, 181 ; 
 gild of barber surgeons, 182 ; 
 examinations of doctors in, 
 183 ; religious play at 
 Skinner well, 195 
 London Bridge, 13, 14, 48-54, 
 63-4 ; patents relating to, 
 60 note , 413, 416-17 
 Louis XI. of France, his super¬ 
 stitious devotion, 357 
 Louterell Psalter, 17, 91 
 Loyne, hermit on the bridge of, 
 138 note 
 
 Ludinglond, case in the court at, 
 266 
 
 Luttrell Psalter, see Louterell 
 
 “Maintenance” of followers, 
 148, 149 
 
 Mandeville the traveller, 363, 
 386, 392-94 
 
 Manual of French, 131, 196, 387 
 Meaux Abbey, 83 ; crucifix at, 
 sculptured from life, 345, 
 + 3 6 
 
 Medicine, practice of, authorized 
 and unauthorized, 180-85 > 
 Mendicant friars, 287 
 Merchants, foreign, 238, 240; 
 English, importance of, 242- 
 
INDEX. 
 
 447 
 
 244; their difficulties in 
 travelling, 230 
 
 Merits, of Christ and the saints, 
 “treasury” of, 311, 312, 
 
 428 ; of the friars’ order, to 
 be sold, 305 
 
 Messengers, royal and other, 224- 
 230 ; their rewards, 228, 
 229 ; swiftness, 230 ; sham 
 messenger, 219; a pro¬ 
 fessional, 224; contempt of 
 queen’s, 228 
 
 Minorites, church of, in London, 
 293-4; see Franciscans 
 
 Minstrels, 188, 189, 195-211; 
 gilds of, 205, 206 note ; 
 drawings of, 7, 203; “ king ” 
 of, 198, 199; decay of, 21 1, 
 217 
 
 Miracles worked by rebels made 
 saints by the people, 340, 
 342, 343 ; worked by 
 
 statues, 346 
 
 Moliere on astrology, 336 
 
 Moneford bridge, 65 
 
 Monks’worldly clothing reproved, 
 11 5, 421 
 
 Montfort, Simon and Henry of, 
 popular saints, 341, 343 
 
 Moon, the planet of the English, 
 388 
 
 More, Sir Thomas, his “History 
 of Richard III.,” 164; 
 “ Utopia,” 307 ; on pilgrim¬ 
 ages, 354 
 
 Morston, Hamo de, 67, 418 
 
 Musical instruments, 201, 202, 
 205 note 
 
 Musician’s gallery, 201 
 
 Mustard pots, 305 
 
 Navy of England, 237 
 Neots, St., inquiry as to bridge 
 at, 66 
 
 Newton Abbot, bridge near, 69 
 Night-watches of the dead, 334 
 “None-such House,” 14, 53 
 Norwich, bridges there, 77, 79 , 
 hermit on Bishop’s bridge, 
 138 note 
 
 Nottingham, bridge near, 65 
 “ Nut Brown Maid,” ballad of, 
 253-55 
 
 Oxford University, students of, 
 might carry arms on a 
 journey, 168, 279 ; travellers 
 from, to the north, 129; 
 recommended abolition of 
 pardoners, 325, 435 
 Outlawry, what it is, 255-57; 
 oath of abjuration, 160 ; 
 malicious declaration of, 257 
 note 
 
 “ Palerne, William of,” romance, 
 42 5 
 
 Palestine, pilgrimages to, 390, 
 394 . 395-493 
 
 Palmer, or professional pilgrim, 
 see Pilgrims 
 
 Parcels, carried by'messengers, 227 
 
 Pardon, charters of, to criminals, 
 166, 167 
 
 Pardoners, 312; comparison of the 
 portraits drawn by Chaucer 
 and the Pope, 3 1 3—320; Boc¬ 
 caccio’s portrait, 320, 326-7 ; 
 the authorized pardoner, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 448 
 
 Pardoners continued — 
 
 322-23 : mischiefs caused 
 by, 321-25 ; life of, and 
 credulity round them, 331 — 
 337 ; on the continent, 329; 
 suppression of, 336, 436 ; 
 ecclesiastical documents as 
 to, 430-36 
 
 Paris, repair of roads in the 
 suburbs of, 85 ; English 
 king robbed at, 111 
 Parliament, sitting of, in 1399, 
 
 15 , ,6 > 8 7 
 Partizans, 148—50 
 Passports, 269 ; for pilgrims, 362 
 Paston, John and Margaret, 103, 
 37 2 
 
 Peasants and servants, movement 
 and agitation among, 258- 
 262, 271 
 
 Pedlars, 231-34; pedlar robbed 
 by monkeys, 234 ; friars 
 become, 304 
 Penance in public, 157 
 Persian dances, 215, 216 
 Pilgrims, attempts to attract, 344, 
 345 ; character of, 349, 350 ; 
 offerings by, 355 ; signs pur¬ 
 chased and worn by, 356, 
 357; character of the pro¬ 
 fessional pilgrim, 358-360; 
 his dress, 360, 361 ; pass¬ 
 ports, 361, 362 ; routes taken 
 by, 363; ships’ licenses to 
 carry, 367 ; at sea, 368-372; 
 relics seen, indulgences 
 gained by, 374-78 ; help to 
 by gilds, 381, 382 ; help to 
 by the king, 380 
 
 Pilgrimages, motives for, 338-39; 
 
 to tombs of rebels, 339-343; 
 to places in England, 347 ; 
 opposed by Wyclif, 351 ; 
 to places abroad, 362-378, 
 390-403; Boulogne, 363 ; 
 Amiens, 363 ; Rocamadour, 
 364, 372 ; St. James of 
 
 Compostella, 367-372, 379 ; 
 Rome, 374-78 ; Venice, 
 378 ; Palestine, 390-403 
 Plague, effects of, in England, 
 258-59 
 
 Political songs sung by minstrels, 
 206-208 
 Pontage, 59-60 
 Pont ife brothers, 38, 41 note 
 Pope, John, XXII., conveyance 
 of the news of his election 
 to the English king, 228 
 Potter Heigham, bridge at, 79 
 Prayers, written, sewn into clothes, 
 118 
 
 Pratt, Godfrey, 45, 46 
 Preachers, wandering, their in¬ 
 fluence and character, 280- 
 Si, see Friars 
 
 Prices, excessive at inns, 126; of 
 food, Sec., on ordinary 
 journey, 129 
 
 Prisoners, cruelties to, 266 
 Proprietors in England, their 
 lands scattered, 82 
 Purveyors and their exactions, 91, 
 95 ; petitions and laws as to, 
 418-20 
 
 Ouacks, or cheap-jacks, 181-85 
 Ouarters of a criminal, transport 
 of, 227 
 
INDEX. 
 
 449 
 
 Ouestors, 312, 313 ; ecclesiastical 
 documents as to, 430-36, 
 see Pardoners 
 
 Rabelais on gaining pardons, 329 
 Reaping-time represented, 24, 
 
 263 
 
 Relics, 327-29 ; sold by pardoners, 
 326 
 
 Religious plays, 195 
 Religious houses, lodgings at, 
 119, 12 1 
 
 Revolt of 1381, its causes and 
 character, 271, 274, 383 
 Rewards to messengers, 228-29 
 Reynaid the Fox, 301, 331 ; his 
 pilgrimage, 351,437 
 Richard III. and sanctuary, 
 164-65 
 
 Rideware family, their misdeeds, 
 146 
 
 Riot and robbery caused by 
 maintenance, 150-52 
 Roads, Roman in England, main¬ 
 tenance of, 35 ; pious charac¬ 
 ter of this, 38 ; taxes or 
 dues, for the reparation of, 
 79, 80, 84 ; interest of landed 
 owners in their maintenance, 
 82 ; to be clear on each side, 
 
 1 5 1 
 
 Robbers, 167, 265 
 Robin Hood, 208, 253 
 Rocamadour in Guyenne, 25, 
 338, 364 ; pilgrims’ tokens 
 sold at, 356, 357; famous 
 resort for pilgrims, 364 ; 
 story of ladies’ hair at, 372, 
 
 Rolle, of Harnpole, Richard, 137, 
 286 
 
 Romances of fourteenth century, 
 190-94, 425 
 
 Rome, pilgrimage to, 374-78 
 Roxburgh Castle, 228 
 Rushes on floors, 124 
 Rutebeuf, 142, 178 
 
 Saracens, toleration for, and 
 exercised by, 385, 393, 399 
 Sanctuaries, English, 152-56; 
 admission to Durham and 
 Beverley, 156, 423 
 Sanctuary, right of, 152, 158; in¬ 
 fringement of, 158, 159, if4, 
 424 ; penance for this, 157 ; 
 abuse of, 161-63, 165, 424 ; 
 must be in a duly consecrated 
 church, 424 ; suppression of, 
 165 
 
 Sculpture from the life, first 
 instance of, in England, 345, 
 436 
 
 Sea, English supremacy over, 
 238 ; travelling by, 27, 368- 
 37 * 
 
 Servants, see Peasants 
 Severn, rising of, messenger 
 drowned by, 65 
 Shalford, stocks at, 265 
 Ships for pilgrims, 367-372 
 Shoreham bridge, 67 
 Singers, wandering, 197, 198, 200 
 Skelton’s alehouse, 135-37 
 Slander, statutes against, 272, 273 
 Smallpox, John of Gaddesden’s 
 cure for, 180 
 Smithfield fair, 248 
 
45° 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Songs, collections of popular, 427 
 Society only half civilized, 145 
 Spalding, prior of, agreement as 
 to a bridge, 417 
 Squire, a young, 18, 103 
 Staple, statute of, its provisions, 
 2.45 
 
 “ Stations of Rome,” 374-78 
 Statues, miracles by, 346, 347 
 Stocks, 25, 259, 265, 267 
 Stourbridge fair, 248, 249 
 Stubbes, “ Anatomy of Abuses,” 
 217 
 
 Stratford-at-Bo\v, bridge at, 46 
 Stratford-on-Avon, bridge at, 55, 
 57 
 
 Straw, Jack, 289 note 
 Swinfield, Bishop, 116, 117, 196 
 
 Talk, rebellious, spread by wan¬ 
 dering people, 274 
 Tambourine, 202 
 Taverns, see Inns and Alehouses 
 Teign, bridge over, near Newton 
 Abbot, 69 
 
 “Testimonial letters,” 270 
 Thames water, pollution of, with 
 litter, 125 
 
 Thieves and robbers, 148-151, 
 265 
 
 Tolls on bridges, 59-61, 64, 417 
 Travelling, modes of, 83,95, 230, 
 399; expenses of, 129; by 
 sea, 368-372 ; exactions by 
 great men on a journey, 422 ; 
 see Purveyors 
 
 “Treasury” of heavenly merits, 
 3”, 3 12 , +28 
 
 Trinoda necessitas , 36, 37, 59 
 
 Universities, begging students of, 
 270; see Oxford 
 
 Vagabonds, 257, 265 
 Venice, mountebanks at, 186; 
 dancer from, 215; commerce 
 with, 235, 240; relics and 
 maison-dieu at, 378; trans¬ 
 port service from, to Holy 
 Land, 395 
 Vermin at inns, I 31 
 Vernicle, 27, 356, 375 
 Vielle or viol, 201, 202 
 Villeins, breaking bond, 30, 
 257-58 
 
 Virgata regia , 107 
 
 Votive offerings by pilgrirr 3, 372 
 
 Wages, increase of, after the 
 Great Plague, 259, 261 
 Wakefield bridge chapel, 71, 73 
 Wales, bridges in, 77, 78 ; min¬ 
 strels in, 206 
 
 Walsingham, sanctuary there, 
 152 ; pilgrimages to, 348 
 Wanderers, their influence on 
 society, 30, 31 
 
 Warkworth bridge, 74, 75 ; her¬ 
 mitage, 137 note 
 
 Water-ways, obstruction of, re¬ 
 sisted, 242, 243 
 Wayhill, fair 247 
 Weather, bad, a serious hindrance 
 to travellers, 85-89, 239 
 Westminster fair, 247 
 Wey, William, his itineraries, 
 
 376 , 3 77 , 395-99 
 Weyve, a woman outlaw, 256 
 Whitby, bridge built by the 
 Abbot of, 47 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Wight, Isle of, 113 note 
 Winchester Fair, 246, 248 
 Wine trade, 235 
 
 Wolves heads borne by outlaws, 
 Fleta’s saying, 30, 256 
 Women tumblers, 214-16 
 Worldly costume of monks, 115, 
 421 
 
 Workmen, see Peasants 
 Wyclifite preachers, 280-85 
 
 45 1 
 
 Wyclif reproaches the friars, 297, 
 298, 304, 305; his simple 
 priests, 280, 289; opposed 
 pilgrimages, 351 
 
 Yarm on the Tees, bridge at 
 60 
 
 York Cathedral, desecration of, 
 by ribalds, 212, 382 
 
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 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
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 LIVES OF GREAT ITALIANS 
 
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T. FISHER UNWIN, Publisher, 
 
 WORKS BY MARTIN A. S. HUME 
 
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 THE YEAR AFTER THE 
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 AND OTHER HISTORICAL STUDIES 
 
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 SIR WALTER RALEGH 
 
 Being Vol. I. of the series entitled “ Builders of Greatei 
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T. FISHER UNWIN, Publisher, 
 
 MASTERS OF MEDICINE 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 ERNEST HART, D.C.L., 
 
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 Large crown 8»o., cloth, 3s 8d. each. 
 
 Medical discoveries more directly concern the well-being and happiness of the human 
 race than any victories of science. They appeal to one of the primary instincts of human 
 oature, that of self-preservation. The importance of health as the most valuable of 
 our national assets is coming to be more and more recognised, and the place of the doctor 
 in Society and in the State is becoming one of steadily increasing prominence ; indeed, 
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 development of medicine from an empiric art to an exact science is one of the mos 
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 the scope and gist of his work, as well as the steps by which he reached his results, shall 
 W set forth in a clear, readable style. 
 
 The following is a coDCkuscd list of some of the earlier volumes . 
 
 AUTHOR. 
 
 TITLE. 
 
 Stephen Paget 
 
 . John Hunter 
 
 D’Akcy Power 
 
 . William Harvey 
 
 H Laing Gordon . 
 
 . Sir James Simpson 
 
 John G. McKendrick 
 
 . Hermann von HeltnholU 
 
 Sir William Stokes 
 
 . William Stokes 
 
 Michael Foster 
 
 Claude Bernard 
 
 Timothy Holmes . 
 
 , Sir Benjamin Brodie 
 
 J. F. Payne 
 
 . Thomas Sydenham 
 
 C. L. Taylor . 
 
 , Vesalius 
 
 11, Paternoster Buildings, London, E.G. 
 
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