Part 1 (1/2)

The Customs of Old England.

by F. J. Snell.

PREFACE

The aim of the present volume is to deal with Old English Customs, not so much in their picturesque aspect--though that element is not wholly wanting--as in their fundamental relations to the organized life of the Middle Ages. Partly for that reason and partly because the work is comparatively small, it embraces only such usages as are of national (and, in some cases, international) significance. The writer is much too modest to put it forth as a scientific exposition of the basic principles of mediaeval civilization. He is well aware that a book designed on this una.s.suming scale must be more or less eclectic. He is conscious of manifold gaps--_valde deflenda_. And yet, despite omissions, it is hoped that the reader may rise from its perusal with somewhat clearer conceptions of the world as it appeared to the average educated Englishman of the Middle Ages. This suggests the remark that the reader specially in view is the average educated Englishman of the twentieth century, who has not perhaps forgotten his Latin, for Latin has a way of sticking, while Greek, unless cherished, drops away from a man.

The materials of which the work is composed have been culled from a great variety of sources, and the writer almost despairs of making adequate acknowledgments. For years past admirable articles cognate to the study of mediaeval relations.h.i.+ps have been published from time to time in learned periodicals like ”Archaeologia,” the ”Archaeological Journal,” the ”Antiquary,” etc., where, being sandwiched between others of another character, they have been lost to all but antiquarian experts of omnivorous appet.i.te. a.s.suredly, the average educated Englishman will not go in quest of them, but it may be thought he will esteem the opportunity, here offered, of gaining enlightenment, if not in the full and perfect sense which might have been possible, had life been less brief and art not quite so long. The same observation applies to books, with this difference that, whereas in articles information is usually compacted, in some books at least it has to be picked out from amidst a ma.s.s of irrelevant particulars without any help from indices. If the writer has at all succeeded in performing his office--which is to do for the reader what, under other circ.u.mstances, he might have done for himself--many weary hours will not have been spent in vain, and the weariest are probably those devoted to the construction of an index, with which this book, whatever its merits or defects, does not go unprovided.

Mere general statements, however, will not suffice; there is the personal side to be thought of. The great ”Chronicles and Memorials”

series has been served by many competent editors, but by none more competent than Messrs. Riley, Horwood, and Anstey, to whose introductions and texts the writer is deeply indebted. Reeves' ”History of English Law” is not yet out of date; and Mr. E. F. Henderson's ”Select Doc.u.ments of the Middle Ages” and the late Mr. Serjeant Pulling's ”Order of the Coif,” though widely differing in scope, are both extremely useful publications. Mr. Pollard's introduction to the Clarendon Press selection of miracle plays contains the pith of that interesting subject, and Miss Toulmin Smith's ”York Plays” and Miss Katherine Bates's ”English Religious Drama” will be found valuable guides. Perhaps the most realistic description of a miracle play is that presented in a few pages of Morley's ”English Writers,” where the scene lives before one. For supplementary details in this and other contexts, the writer owes something to the industry of the late Dr. Brushfield, who brought to bear on local doc.u.ments the illumination of sound and wide learning. A like tribute must be paid to the Rev. Dr. c.o.x, but having regard to his long and growing list of important works, the statement is a trifle ludicrous.

One of the best essays on mortuary rolls is that of the late Canon Raine in an early Surtees Society volume, but the writer is specially indebted to a contribution of the Rev. J. Hirst to the ”Archaeological Journal.”

The late Mr. Andre's article on vowesses, and Mr. Evelyn-White's exhaustive account of the Boy-Bishop must be mentioned, and--lest I forget--Dr. Cunningham's ”History of English Commerce.” The late Mr. F.

T. Elworthy's paper on Hugh Rhodes directed attention to the Children of the Chapel, and Dom. H. F. Feasey led the way to the Lady Fast. Here and often the writer has supplemented his authorities out of his own knowledge and research. It may be added that, in numerous instances, indebtedness to able students (e.g., Sir George L. Gomme) has been expressed in the text, and need not be repeated. Finally, it would be ungrateful, as well as ungallant, not to acknowledge some debt to the writings of the Hon. Mrs. Brownlow, Miss Ethel Lega-Weekes, and Miss Giberne Sieveking. Ladies are now invading every domain of intellect, but the details as to University costume happened to be furnished by the severe and really intricate studies of Professor E. G. Clark.

F. J. S.

TIVERTON, N. DEVON, _January 22, 1911._

ECCLESIASTICAL

CHAPTER I

LEAGUES OF PRAYER

A work purporting to deal with old English customs on the broad representative lines of the present volume naturally sets out with a choice of those pertaining to the most ancient and venerable inst.i.tution of the land--the Church; and, almost as naturally it culls its first flower from a life with which our ancestors were in intimate touch, and which was known to them, in a special and excellent sense, as religious.

The custom to which has been a.s.signed the post of honour is of remarkable and various interest. It takes us back to a remote past, when the English, actuated by new-born fervour, sent the torch of faith to their German kinsmen, still plunged in the gloom of traditional paganism; and it was fated to end when the example of those same German kinsmen stimulated our countrymen to throw off a yoke which had long been irksome, and was then in sharp conflict with their patriotic ideals. It is foreign to the aim of these antiquarian studies to sound any note of controversy, but it will be rather surprising if the beauty and pathos of the custom, which is to engage our attention, does not appeal to many who would not have desired its revival in our age and country.[1] Typical of the thoughts and habits of our ancestors, it is no less typical of their place and share of the general system of Western Christendom, and in the heritage of human sentiment, since reverence for the dead is common to all but the most degraded races of mankind. That mutual commemoration of departed, and also of living, worth was not exclusive to this country is brought home to us by the fact that the most learned and comprehensive work on the subject, in its Christian and mediaeval aspects, is Ebner's ”Die Klosterlichen Gebets-Verbruderungen” (Regensburg and New York, 1890). This circ.u.mstance, however, by no means diminishes--it rather heightens-the interest of a custom for centuries embedded in the consciousness and culture of the English people.

First, it may be well to devote a paragraph to the phrases applied to the inst.i.tution. The t.i.tle of the chapter is ”Leagues of Prayer,” but it would have been simple to subst.i.tute for it any one of half a dozen others--less definite, it is true--sanctioned by the precedents of ecclesiastical writers. One term is ”friends.h.i.+p”; and St. Boniface, in his letters referring to the topic, employs indifferently the cognate expressions ”familiarity,” ”charity” (or ”love”). Sometimes he speaks of the ”bond of brotherhood” and ”fellows.h.i.+p.” Venerable Bede favours the word ”communion.” Alcuin, in his epistles, alternates between the more precise description ”pacts of charity” and the vaguer expressions ”brotherhood” and ”familiarity.” The last he employs very commonly. The fame of Cluny as a spiritual centre led to the term ”brotherhood” being preferred, and from the eleventh century onwards it became general.

The privilege of fraternal alliance with other religious communities was greatly valued, and admission was craved in language at once humble, eloquent, and touchingly sincere. Venerable Bede implores the monks of Lindisfarne to receive him as their ”little household slave”--he desires that ”my name also” may be inscribed in the register of the holy flock.

Many a time does Alcuin avow his longing to ”merit” being one of some congregation in communion of love; and, in writing to the Abbeys of Girwy and Wearmouth, he fails not to remind them of the ”brotherhood”

they have granted him.

The term ”brother,” in some contexts, bore the distinctive meaning of one to whom had been vouchsafed the prayers and spiritual boons of a convent other than that of which he was a member, if, as was not always or necessarily the case, he was incorporated in a religious order. The definition furnished by Ducange, who quotes from the diptych of the Abbey of Bath, proves how wide a field the term covers, even when restricted to confederated prayer:

”Fratres interdum inde vocantur qui in ejusmodi Fraternitatem sive partic.i.p.ationem orationum aliorumque bonorum spiritualium sive monachorum sive aliarum Ecclesiarum et jam Cathedralium admissi errant, sive laici sive ecclesiastici.”

Thus the secular clergy and the laity were recognized as fully eligible for all the benefits of this high privilege, but it is identified for the most part with the functions of the regular clergy, whose leisured and tranquil existence was more consonant with the punctual observance of the custom, and by whom it was handed down to successive generations as a laudable and edifying practice importing much comfort for the living, and, it might be hoped, true succour for the pious dead.

In so far as the custom was founded on any particular text of Scripture, it may be considered to rest on the exhortation of St. James, which is cited by St. Boniface: ”Pray for one another that ye may be saved, for the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” St.

Boniface is remembered as the Apostle of Germany, and when, early in the eighth century, he embarked on his perilous mission, he and his company made a compact with the King of the East Angles, whereby the monarch engaged that prayers should be offered on their behalf in all the monasteries in his dominion. On the death of members of the brotherhood, the tidings were to be conveyed to their fellows in England, as opportunity occurred. Not only did Boniface enter into leagues of prayer with Archbishops of Canterbury and the chapters and monks of Winchester, Worcester, York, etc., but he formed similar ties with the Church of Rome and the Abbey of Monte Ca.s.sino, binding himself to transmit the names of his defunct brethren for their remembrance and suffrage, and promising prayers and ma.s.ses for _their_ brethren on receiving notice of their decease. Lullus, who followed St. Boniface as Archbishop of Mayence, and other Anglo-Saxon missionaries extended the scope of the confederacy, linking themselves with English and Continental monasteries--for instance, Salzburg. Wunibald, a nephew of St. Boniface, imitating his uncle's example, allied himself with Monte Ca.s.sino. We may add that in Alcuin's time York was in league with Ferrieres; and in 849 the relations between the Abbey and Cathedral of the former city and their friends on the Continent were solemnly confirmed.

Having given some account of the infancy or adolescence of the custom, we may now turn to what may be termed, without disrespect, the machinery of the inst.i.tution. The death of a dignitary, or of a clerk distinguished for virtue and learning, or of a simple monk has occurred.