The Customs of Old England

ECCLESIASTICAL

CHAPTER IV

CHILDREN OF THE CHAPEL

The fact may not have escaped notice that Domina Alicia Seynt Johan de Baggenet "took the vow of widowhood in the chapel of the Lord of Amberley." Possession of a private chapel was, as it still is, a mark of social distinction. "It was once the constitution of the English," runs a law of King Athelstan, "that the people and their legal condition went according to their merits; and then were the councillors of the nation honoured each one according to his quality, the earl and the ceorl, the thane and the underthane. If a ceorl throve so as to have five hides booked to him, a church, bell-tower, a seat in the borough, and an office in the King's court, from that time forward he was esteemed equal in honour to a thane." Again, the laws of King Edgar relating to tithe ordain "that God's church be entitled to every right, and that every tithe be rendered to the old minster to which the district belongs, and be then so paid, both from the thane's inland and from geneat land, as the plough traverses it. But if there be any thane who on his boc-land has a church at which there is a burial-place, let him give the third part of his own tithe to his church. If anyone hath a church at which there is not a burial-place, then of the same nine parts let him then give to his priest what he will."

Domestic chapels were extremely common all through the Middle Ages. In the parish of Tiverton, Devon, there were at least seventeen, some of them within less than a mile of each other. Allusions to these oratories are found in the registers of the Bishops of Exeter, by whom they were severally licensed for the convenience of the owner, his family, and his tenants. As a rule, they were in rooms of the house or castle, not separate buildings. Andrew Boorde, in his directions for the construction of a sixteenth-century mansion, remarks: "Let the privy chamber be annexed to the great chamber of estate, with other chambers necessary for the building, so that many of the chambers may have a prospect into the chapel."

Great nobles of the post-Conquest period were not content with the services of a priest only. They maintained an establishment of singing men and boys analogous to the vicars-choral and choristers of the present time, who were described as "the gentlemen and children of the chapel." From the household books of the Earl of Northumberland (a.d. 1510-11) we learn that he had "daily abidynge in his household—Gentillmen of the Chapel, ix; viz., the maistre of the Childre, j; Tenors, ij; Counter-tenors, iiij; the Pistoler, j; and oone for the Orgayns; Childer of the Chapell, vj."

Particulars are recorded of the daily allowances of bread, beer, and fish during Lent. On Scambling Days it was usual not to provide regular meals, each having to scramble or shift for himself, but things were otherwise ordered in the mansion of the Percy, where the service of meat and drink "upon Scambling Days in Lent yerely" was properly seen to. Not only are we furnished with the "Ordre of all suche Braikfasts that shall be lowable daily in my Lordes hous thorowte the yere as well on Flesche days as Fysch days in Lent, and out of Lent," but accounts are supplied of the liveries of wine, white wine, and wax, and also of wood and coal, of which the Master and the Children of the Chapel were entitled to one peck per diem. The cost of the washing of surplices, etc., was not to exceed a stated sum. "Then shal be paid for the Holl weshing of all manner of Lynnon belonging to the Lordes Chappell for a Holl yere but xvijs. iiijd. And to be weshed for every Penny iij Surplesses or iij Albes. And the said Surplesses to be weshed in the yere xvj tymes against these Feasts following," &c.

The salaries of the choir were paid at definite intervals, and formed a charge on his lordship's property in Yorkshire. The scale of remuneration was as follows:

"Gentillmen of the Chappell x (as to saye, Two at x marks a pece, iij at iiijl. a pece, Two at v marks a pece, Oon at iiij marks, Oon at xxs., and Oon at xxs.; viz., ij Bassis, ij Tenors and vj Counter-tenors). Childeryn of the Chappell vj, after xxvs. a pece. And so the whole somme for full contentacion of the said Chappell wagies for oone hole yere ys—xxxvl. xvs."

The gentlemen slept two in a bed, as seems to have been the custom for priests also; the children, three in a bed. ("There shall be for vj Prests iij Beddes after ij to a Bedde; for x Gentillmen of the Chapell v Beddes, after ij to a Bedde; for vj Children ij Beddes after iij to a Bedde.")

Not only noblemen, but the Princes of the Church had their private chapels, for which the services of children were retained. George Cavendish, in his "Life of Wolsey," gives a glowing account of the Cardinal's palatial appointments, in the course of which he observes: "Now I will declare unto you the officers of his chapel and singing men of the same. First he had there a dean, a great divine, and a man of excellent learning; and a sub-dean, a repeater of the choir, a gospeller and epistler of the singing-priests, and a master of the children [therefore, of course, children]; in the vestry a yeoman and two grooms, besides other retainers that came thither at principal feasts.... And as for the furniture of the chapel it passeth my weak capacity to declare the number of the costly ornaments and rich jewels that were occupied in the same, for I have seen in procession about the hall forty-four rich copes of one settle worn, besides the candlesticks and other necessary ornaments to the furniture of the same." Such were the sumptuous surroundings in which "children of the chapel" were wont sometimes to perform their office.

An element of distinction enjoyed by peer and prelate was not likely to be absent from the first estate of the realm; and, in point of fact, the phrase "children of the chapel," so far as it is known, is more commonly associated with the King's court than any of the castles or episcopal palaces of the land. Certain of the King's "Gentlemen of the Chapel" seem to have received payment in money, including extraordinary fees, and provided for themselves, whilst others had board and lodging. The following table, though less complete than the Northumberland accounts, throws light on the rate of requital:

Another ordinance states that "The Gentlemen of the Chapell, Gospeller, Episteller, and Sergeant of the Vestry shall have from the last day of March forward for their board wages, everie of them, 10d. per diem; and the Yeomen and Groomes of the Vestry, everie of them, 2s. by the weeke." When not on board wages, they had "Bouche of Court," like the physicians. "Bouche of Court" signified the daily livery or allowance of food, drink, and fuel, and this, in the case of the Master of the Children, exceeded that of the surgeons to the value of about £1 1s. per annum. Thus it will be seen that the style "Gentlemen," as applied to the grown-up members of the choir, was not merely complimentary, but indicative of their actual status.

Meals were served at regular hours. "It is ordeyned that the household, when the hall is kept, shall observe certyne times for dinner and souper as followeth: that is to say, the first dynner in eating dayes to begin at tenn of the clock, or somewhat before; and the first souper at foure of the clock on worke dayes."

The duties of the choir also are plainly laid down: "Forasmuch as it is goodly and honourable that there should be alwayes some divine service in the court ... when his grace keepeth court and specially in riding journeys: it is ordeyned that the master of the children and six men ... shall give their continual attendance in the King's court, and dayly in the absence of the residue of the chappell, to have a masse of our Lady before noone, and on Sundayes and holy dayes masse of the day besides our Lady masse, and an anthem in the afternoone."

It was part of the business of the Master of the Children to instruct his young charges in "grammar, songes, organes, and other vertuous things"; and, on the whole, the lot of the choristers might have been deemed enviable. It is evident, however, that it was not always regarded in that light, for a custom existed of impressing children. This practice was authorized by a precept of Henry VI. in 1454, and one of its victims was Thomas Tusser, afterwards author of "Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry," who thus alludes to the matter:

There for my voice I must (no choice)
Away of force, like posting horse;
For sundry men had placards then
Such child to take.

Moreover, it has been shrewdly suspected that the whipping-boy, who vicariously atoned for the sins of a prince of the blood—in other words, was thrashed, when he did wrong—was picked from the Children of the Chapel. Certainly Charles I. had such a whipping-boy named Murray; and judging from this instance the expedient was not commended by its results.

Members of the choir were expected to be persons of exemplary life and conversation, to ensure which state of things there was a weekly visitation by the Dean. Every Friday he sought out and avoided from office "all rascals and hangers upon thys courte." The tone of discipline, to conclude from the poems of Hugh Rhodes, was undoubtedly high; and, whatever difficulties he may have encountered in training the boys to his own high standards, his "Book of Nurture" must always possess considerable value as a reflex of the moral and social ideals of a Master of the Children in the sixteenth century.

Rhodes's successor in the days of Elizabeth was Richard Edwards, a man of literary taste and the compiler of a "Paradise of Dainty Devices." The Master had now a salary of forty pounds a year; the Gentlemen nineteen pence a day, in addition to board and clothing; and the Children received largesse at high feasts and on occasions when their services were used for purposes apart from their ordinary duties. In this way the Chapel Royal is closely connected with the rise of the English drama. Edwards wrote light pieces for the children to act before Her Majesty, and, encouraged by success, fell to composing set comedies, which were also performed by the boys, under his instructions, in the presence of the Court.

We have limited our retrospect mainly to the Tudor period. As an extension of the subject would call for more space than we have at our disposal, those who desire more information concerning the "Children of the Chapel" will do well to consult a recent work entitled "The King's Musick" (edited by H. C. de Lafontaine: Novello & Co.), which carries on the record into the age of the Stuarts. Entries cited in this excellent compilation relate to eminent English composers. In December, 1673, for example, there was a "warrant to pay Henry Purcell, late one of the children of his Majesty's Chappell Royall, whose voyce is changed and gone from the Chappell, the sum of £30 by the year, to commence Michaelmas, 1673." This was in consequence of the sensible custom of retaining as supernumeraries boys who had given evidence of musical ability. Such is certainly true of Purcell, who, at the early age of eleven, had shown promise of his future career by an ode called "The Address of the Children of the Chapel Royal to the King and their Master, Captain Cooke, on His Majestie's Birthday, A.D. 1670, composed by Master Purcell, one of the Children of the said Chapel."

ECCLESIASTICAL

CHAPTER V

THE BOY-BISHOP

Mention has been made of Hugh Rhodes and his "Book of Nurture." It is pretty evident that this master of music was attached to the older form of faith, since he published in Queen Mary's reign a poem bearing the extravagant title: "The Song of the Chyld-Bysshop, as it was songe before the Queen's Maiestie in her priuie chamber at her mannour of Saint James in the feeldes on Saynt Nicholas' Day and Innocents' Day this yeare now present by the chylde bisshop of Poules church with his company. Londini in ædibus Johannis Cawood typographi reginæ, 1555." This effusion Warton derides as a "fulsome panegyric" on the Queen's devotion; and the censure is not wholly unjust, since the author, without much regard for accuracy, likens that least lovable of our sovereigns to Judith, Esther, and the Blessed Virgin. Meanwhile, who or what was the "Chyld-Bysshop," or, as he is usually styled, the Boy-Bishop?

In the first place it may be noted that the Latin equivalent of the phrase was not, as might be expected, Episcopus puerilis, but Episcopus puerorum, suggesting that the boy, if boy he was, was elevated above his compeers and possessed perhaps some jurisdiction over them. There is no question of the access of dignity, but the amount of authority enjoyed by him would have depended on the humour of his fellows, and boys are not always docile subjects even of rulers of their own election. This, however, is a minor consideration, since the Boy-Bishop, when we first make his acquaintance, has already emerged from the obscurity of school and playground, and made good his claim to the homage of superiors in age and station. Hence the term "Boy-Bishop" appears to define more accurately than its Latin analogue the rank and privileges of the immature prelate.

It seems to lie in the nature of things that the Boy-Bishop was originally an institution of the boys themselves, the chief figure in a game in which they aped, as children so commonly do, the procedure of their elders, and that, in course of time, those elders, for reasons deemed good and sufficient, extended their patronage to the innocent parade, and made it a constituent of their own festal round.

In tracing the migration of the custom from the precincts to the interior of the church we must not forget the tradition of the Roman Saturnalia, with the season and spirit of which it accorded, and to which the Christian festival, with its greater purity and decorum, may have been prescribed as an antidote. The pagan holiday was held on December 17th, and as the Sigillaria formed a continuation of it, the joyous celebration endured a whole week. The Boy-Bishop's term of office was yet longer, extending from St. Nicholas' Day (December 6th) to Holy Innocents' Day (December 28th).

The distinctive feature of the Saturnalia was the inversion of ordinary relationships; the world was turned upside down, and the licence that prevailed, by dint of long usage and inviolable sentiment, imparted to the merry-making a rough and even immoral character. Slaves assumed the position of masters, and masters of slaves; and the general nature of the observance is aptly described by the patron deity in Lucian's play on the subject: "During my reign of a week no one may attend to his business, but only to drinking, singing, playing, making imaginary kings, playing servants at table with their masters."

The advent of Christianity was impotent to arrest the annual scenes of disorder; and, in some form or another—sometimes tolerated, sometimes the object of the Church's anathema—the tradition held its own down through the Dark Ages, and we meet with the substance of the Saturnalia, during the centuries immediately preceding the Reformation, in the burlesque festivals with which the rule of the Boy-Bishop has been often identified. We shall see presently how far this judgment is correct. An example will, no doubt, readily recur to the reader from a source to which we owe so many impressions of the Middle Ages, some true, others false or at least exaggerated—we mean the historical romances of Sir Walter Scott. That writer has introduced into "The Abbot" an Abbot of Unreason, and he explains in a note that "The Roman Catholic Church connived at the frolics of the rude vulgar, who, in almost all Catholic countries, enjoyed, or at least assumed, the privilege of making some Lord of the Revels, who, under the name of the Abbot of Unreason, the Boy-Bishop, or the President of Fools, occupied the churches, profaned the holy places by a mock imitation of the sacred rites, and sang indecent parodies of the hymns of the church." The last touch, at any rate, may be safely challenged as untrue, and the whole picture has the appearance of being largely overdrawn. This is certainly the case as regards England, though there is evidence that on the Continent the Boy-Bishop celebration was, at certain times and in certain places, not free from objectionable features. In 1274 the Council of Salzburg was moved to prohibit the "noxii ludi quos vulgaris eloquentia Episcopus puerorum appellat" on the ground that they had produced great enormities. Probably this sentence referred to the accessories, such as immoral plays, but it is quite possible that the Boy-Bishop ceremonies themselves had degenerated into a farce. As the Rex Stultorum festival was prohibited at Beverly Minster in 1371, we must conclude that similar extravagance and profanity had crept into Yuletide observances in this country. The festival of the Boy-Bishop, however, was conducted with a decency hardly to be expected in view of its apparent associations. It would seem, indeed, to have been an impressive and edifying function, and that reasonable exception can be taken to it only on the score of childishness, and the absence of any warrant from Scripture, apart from the rather doubtful sanction of St. Paul's words, "The elder shall serve the younger."

There are weighty considerations on the other side. The mediæval Church derived stores of strength from its sympathetic attitude towards women and children and the illiterate; and there was a sensible loss of vitality and interest when the ministry of the Church was curtailed to suit the common sense of a handful of statesmen, scholars, and philosophers. At the time the festival was abolished, opinion was divided even among the leaders of reform. Thus Archbishop Strype openly favoured the custom, holding that it "gave a spirit to the children," and was an encouragement to them to study in the hope of attaining some day the real mitre. Broadly speaking, then, the Boy-Bishop festival is evidence of the tender condescension of Holy Mother Church to little children, and it does not stand alone. At Eyton, Rutlandshire, and elsewhere, children were allowed to play in church on Holy Innocents' Day, possibly in the same way as at the "Burial of the Alleluia" in a church at Paris, where a chorister whipped a top, on which the word "Alleluia" was inscribed, from one end of the choir to the other. As Mr. Evelyn White points out, this "quickening of golden praise," by its union of religious service and child's play, exactly reproduces the conditions of the Boy-Bishop festival. Certain it is that the festival was extraordinarily popular. There was hardly a church or school throughout the country in which it was not observed, and if we turn to the Northumberland Book cited in the foregoing chapter we shall find that provision was made for its celebration in the chapels of the nobility as well. The inventory is as follows:

There is an entry in the book showing upon what terms the custom was observed in the house of a great noble. When chapel was kept for St. Nicholas—St. Nicholas was, of course, the patron saint of boys—6s. 8d. was assigned to the Master of the Children for one of the latter. When, on the contrary, St. Nicholas "com out of the towne where my lord lyeth and my lord kepe no chapel," the amount is reduced to 3s. 4d.

Abbeys, cathedrals, and parish churches were equally forward in their recognition of the custom, and strove to celebrate it on a scale of the utmost splendour and magnificence. A list of ornaments for St. Nicholas contained in a Westminster inventory of the year 1388 comprises a mitre, gloves, surplice, and rochet for the Boy-Bishop, together with two albs, a cope embroidered with griffins and other beasts and playing fountains, a velvet cope with the new arms of England, a second mitre and a ring. In 1540 mention occurs of the "vj^th mytre for St. Nicholas bisshope," and "a great blewe cloth with kyngs on horsse back for the St. Nicholas cheyre." At St. Paul's Cathedral twenty-eight copes were employed not only for the Boy-Bishop and his company, but for the Feast of Fools. The earliest inventory of the church—that of 1245—speaks of a mitre, the gift of John de Belemains, Prebendary of Chiswick, and a rich pastoral staff for the use of the Boy-Bishop. At York Minster were kept a "cope of tissue" for the Boy-Bishop, and ten for his attendants, while an inventory made in 1536 at Lincoln refers to "a coope of rede velvett with rolles and clowdes ordeyned for the barne bisshop with this scripture The hye way is best." Typical of many other places, the custom was observed at Winchester, Durham, Salisbury, and Exeter Cathedrals; at the Temple Church, London (1307); St. Benet-Fynck; St. Mary Woolnoth; St. Catherine, near the Tower of London; St. Peter Cheap; St. Mary-at-Hill, Billingsgate; Rotherham; Sandwich, St. Mary; Norwich, St. Andrew's and St. Peter Mancroft; Elsing College, Winchester; Eton and Winchester Colleges; Magdalen College, Oxford, and King's College, Cambridge; Witchingham, Norfolk (1547); Great St. Mary, Cambridge (1503); Hadleigh, Suffolk; North Elmham, Norfolk (1547). When the goods of Great St. Mary, Cambridge, were sold, in May 1560, among the rest were the following: "It. ye rede cote and qwood yt St. Nicholas dyd wer the color red. It. the vestement and cope yt Seynt Nicholas dyd wer. Also albs for the children."

Recapitulating, the vestments and ornaments of the Boy-Bishop and his attendants, as gleaned from these and similar sources, were: (i) Mitre; (ii) Crosier or Pastoral Staff; (iii) Ring; (iv) Gloves; (v) Sandals; (vi) Cope; (vii) Pontifical; (viii) Banner; (ix) Tabard; (x) Hood; (xi) Cloth for St. Nicholas' Chair; (xii) Alb; (xiii) Chasuble; (xiv) Rochet; (xv) Surplice; (xvi) Tunicle; (xvii) Worsted Robe.

Usually the Boy-Bishop was chosen from the choristers of the cathedral, collegiate or other church by the choristers themselves; but at York, after 1366, and possibly elsewhere, the position fell, as of right, to the senior chorister. The date of the election was the Eve of St. Nicholas, when the boys assembled for an entertainment, and gloves were presented to the Boy-Bishop. On St. Nicholas' Day the boys accompanied the youthful prelate to the church; and we learn from the Sarum Use that the order in which the procession entered the choir was as follows: First the Dean and Canons, then the Chaplain, and lastly the Boy-Bishop and his Prebendaries, who thus took the place of honour. The Bishop being seated, the other children ranged themselves on opposite sides of the choir, where they occupied the uppermost ascent, whilst the Canons bore the incense and the Petit Canons the tapers. The first vespers of their patron saint having been sung by the boys, they marched the same evening through the precincts, or parish, the Bishop bestowing his fatherly blessings and such other favours as were becoming his dignity.

The statutes of St. Paul's Cathedral show that, as early as 1262, the rules underwent some modification. It was thought that the celebration tended to lower the reputation of the church; so it was ordained that the Boy-Bishop should select his own ministers, who were to carry the censer and the tapers, and they were to be no longer the Canons, but "Clerks of the Third Form," i.e., his fellow-choristers. But the practice remained for the Boy-Bishop to be entertained on the Eve of St. John the Evangelist either at the Deanery or at the house of the Canon-in-residence. Should the Dean be the host, fifteen of the Boy-Bishop's companions were included in the invitation. The Dean, too, found a horse for the Boy-Bishop, and each of the Canons a horse for one of his attendants, to enable them to go in procession—a show formally abolished by proclamation on July 25, 1542, but, nevertheless, retained for some years owing to the attachment of the citizens to the ancient custom.

The question has been raised—Did the Boy-Bishop say mass? The proclamation of Henry VIII. distinctly affirms that he did, but there is reason to suspect the truth of the statement. In the York Missal, published by the Surtees Society, there is a rubric directing the Boy-Bishop to occupy the episcopal throne during mass—a proof that he cannot have been the celebrant. But the Boy-Bishop, if he did not officiate at the altar, unquestionably preached the sermon. The statutes of Dean Colet for the government of his school enjoin that "all the children shall every Childermas Day come to Paule's Churche, and heare the chylde bishop sermon, and after be at hygh masse and each of them offer 1d. to the chylde bysshop." Specimens of the sermons preached on Holy Innocents' Day have come down to us from the reigns of Henry VIII. and Mary, and are of extreme interest. They, indeed, go far to justify the custom as a mode of inculcating virtue and, particularly, reverence in the minds of the auditors. The earlier discourse appears to have been prepared by one of the Almoners of St. Paul's, and the "bidding prayer" contains a quaint allusion to "the ryghte reverende fader and worshypfull lorde my broder Bysshop of London, your dyocesan, also my worshypfull broder, the Deane of this Cathedral Churche." The later discourse was pronounced by "John Stubs, Querester, on Childermas-Day at Gloceter, 1558," and, most appropriately, based on the text, "Except you be convertyd and made lyke unto lytill children," etc. Referring to the "queresters" and children of the song school, the preacher remarks, with a touch of delightful humour, "Yt is not so long sens I was one of them myself"; and, in explaining the significance of Childermas, adverts to the Protestant martyrs, who, alas! are without "the commendacion of innocency." It may be added that, according to the testimony of the Exeter Ordinale, the Boy-Bishop, on St. Nicholas' Day, censed the altar of the Holy Innocents, recited prayers, read the Little Chapter at Lauds "in a modest voice," and gave the Benediction.

We have seen that Dean Colet required his scholars to contribute, each one, a penny to the Boy-Bishop. At Norwich annual payments were made by all the officials of the cathedral church to the Boy-Bishop and his clerks on St. Nicholas' Day, and the expenses of the feast were defrayed by the Almoner out of the revenues of the chapter. An account of Nicholas of Newark, Boy-Bishop of York in 1396, shows that, besides gifts in the church, donations were received from the Canons, the monasteries, noblemen, and other benefactors. On the Octave he repaired, accompanied by his train, to the house of Sir Thomas Utrecht, from whom he obtained "iijs. iiijd."; on the second Sunday he went still farther afield, including in his perambulation the Priories of Kirkham, Malton, Bridlington, Walton, Baynton, and Meaux. En route, he waited on the Countess of Northumberland at Leconfield, and was graciously rewarded with a gold ring and twenty shillings.

These "visitations" seem to have been characterized by feasting and merriment and some undesirable mummery. Puttenham, in his "Arte of Poesie" (1589), observes: "On St. Nicholas' night, commonly, the scholars of the country make them a Bishop, who, like a foolish boy, goeth about blessing and preaching with such childish terms as make the people laugh at his foolish counterfeit." In some quarters regulations were in force to preclude such levity. At Exeter, for example, one of the Canons was appointed to look after the Boy-Bishop, who was to have for his supper a penny roll, a small cup of mild cider, two or three pennyworths of meat, and a pennyworth of cheese or butter. He might ask not more than six of his friends to dine with him at the Canon's room, and their dinner was to cost not more than fourpence a head. He was not to run about the streets in his episcopal gloves, and he was obliged to attend choir and school the next day like the other choristers.

It may be remarked that the Boy-Bishop proceedings had their counterpart in the girls' observance of St. Catherine's Day; and the phrase "going a-Kathering" expressed the same sort of alms-seeking as attended the ceremonies in honour of St. Nicholas.

In its palmy days the festival of the Boy-Bishop was favoured not only by the people, but by the monarch. Edward I. and Henry VI. gave their patronage to the custom, and the latter is said to have followed the example of his progenitors in so doing.

However, in 1542, Henry VIII. "by the advys of his Highness' counsel," saw fit to order its abolition, which he did in the following terms:

"Whereas heretofore dyuers and many superstitions and chyldysh obseruances haue been used, and yet to this day are obserued and kept, in many and sundry partes of this realm, as vpon St. Nicholas, Saint Catherine, Saint Clement, the holie Innocents, and such-like holie daies, children be strangelie decked and apparayled to counterfeit Priests, Bishopes, and Women, and so be ledde with Songes and dances from house to house, blessing the people and gathering of money; and boyes do singe masse and preache in the pulpitt, with other such onfittinge and inconuenient vsages which tend rather to derysyon than enie true glorie of God, or honour of his Sayntes: the Kynges maiestie, therefore, myndynge nothinge so muche as to aduance the true glory of God without vain superstition, wylleth and commandeth that from henceforth all such superstitious obseruations be left and clerely extinguished throu'out all his realme and dominions for as moche as the same doth resemble rather the vnlawfull superstition of gentilitie than the pure and sincere religion of Christ."

The allegation that boys dressed up as women is confirmed by a Compotus roll of St. Swithin's Priory at Winchester (1441), from which it appears that the boys of the monastery, along with the choristers of St. Elizabeth's Collegiate Chapel, near the city, played before the Abbess and Nuns of St. Mary's Abbey—attired "like girls."

The custom was restored by an edict of Bishop Bonner on November 13, 1554, much to the satisfaction of the populace; and the spectacle of the Boy-Bishop riding in pontificalibus—this was in 1556—all about the Metropolis gave currency to the saying—"St. Nicholas yet goeth about the city." Foxe tells us that at Ipswich the Master of the Grammar School led the Boy-Bishop through the streets for "apples and belly-cheer; and whoso would not receive him he made heretics, and such also as would not give his faggot for Queen Mary's child." (By this expression, which was common during this reign, was intended the Boy-Bishop; the Queen had, of course, no child of her own.) Amidst the sundry and manifold changes that marked the accession of Elizabeth the Boy-Bishop again went down; and the memory of the festival lingered only in certain usages like that at Durham, where the boys paraded the town on May-day, arrayed in ancient copes borrowed from the Cathedral.

On one or two points connected with the subject there prevails some degree of misapprehension, and thus it will be well—very briefly—to touch upon them. It is not now believed that the effigy in Salisbury Cathedral—"the child so great in clothes"—which led to the publication, in 1646, of Gregorie's famous treatise, is that of a Boy-Bishop, who died during his term of office and was buried with episcopal honours. There are similar small effigies of knights and courtiers. Nor, again, does it seem correct to state that the Boy-Bishop might present to any prebend that became vacant between St. Nicholas' and Holy Innocents' day. This usage, if it existed at all, was apparently confined to the Church of Cambray.

On the other hand, the Eton Ad Montem ceremony has the look of genuine descent from the older festival, with which it has numerous features in common. The Boy-Bishop custom, it will be remembered, was observed at the College.

Finally, reference may be made to the coinage of tokens, some of them grotesque, which bore the inscription Moneta Epi Innocentium, or the like, together with representations of the slaughter of the innocents, the bishop in the act of giving his blessing, and similar scenes. Opinions differ as to the purpose for which these tokens, which date from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, were struck, but it is extremely probable that they were designed to commemorate the Boy-Bishop solemnity. Barnabe Googe's Popish Kingdom tells of

"St. Nicholas money made to give to maidens secretlie,"

and in the imperfect state of human society this may have been, at times, their incongruous destiny.

ECCLESIASTICAL

CHAPTER VI

MIRACLE PLAYS

There is a palpable resemblance between the subject just quitted and that most characteristic product of the Middle Ages—the miracle play. It may be observed at the outset that instruction in those days, when reading was the privilege of the few, was apt to take the form of an appeal to the imagination rather than the reasoning faculty, and of all the aids of imagination none has ever been so effective as the drama. The Boy-Bishop celebration was not only the occasion of plays which sometimes necessitated the strong hand of authority for their suppression—it was distinctly dramatic in itself. Miracle plays represent a further stage of development, in which a rude and popular art shook itself free from the trammels of ritual, outgrew the austere restrictions of sacred surroundings, and yet kept fast hold on the religious tradition on which it had been nourished, and which remained to the last its supreme attraction.

The liturgical origin of the miracle play may almost be taken for granted, and the single question that is likely to arise is whether the custom evolved itself from observances connected with Easter, or Christmas, or both festivals in equal or varying measure. Circumstances rather point to Paschal rites as the matrix of the custom. The Waking of the Sepulchre anticipates some of the features of the miracle play, while the dialogue may have been suggested by the antiphonal elements in the church services, and specifically by the colloquy interpolated between the Third Lesson and the Te Deum at Matins, and repeated as part of the sequence "Victimæ paschalis laudes," in which two of the choir took the parts of St. Peter and St. John, and three others in albs those of the Three Maries. In the York Missal, in which this colloquy appears at length, its use is prescribed for the Tuesday of Easter Week.

Springing apparently from these germs, the religious drama gradually enlarged its bounds until it not only broke away from the few Latin verses of its first lisping, but came to embrace a whole range of Biblical history in vernacular rhyme. The process is so natural that we need scarcely look for contributory factors, and the influence of such experiments as the Terentian plays of the Saxon nun Hroswitha in the tenth century may be safely dismissed as negligible, or, at most, advanced as proof of a broad tendency, evidence of which may be traced in the "infernal pageants" to which Godwin alludes in his "Life of Chaucer," and which, as regards Italy, are for ever memorable in connexion with the Bridge of Carrara—a story familiar to all students of Dante. These "infernal pageants" were concerned with the destiny of souls after death, and their scope being different from that of the miracle plays, they are adduced simply as marking affection for theatrical display in conjunction with religious sentiment.

As far as can be ascertained, the earliest miracle play ever exhibited in England—and here it may be observed that such performances probably owed their existence or at least considerable encouragement to the system of religious brotherhood detailed in our opening chapter—was enacted in the year 1110 at Dunstable. Matthew Paris informs us that one Geoffrey, afterwards Abbot of St. Albans, produced at the town aforesaid the Play of St. Catherine, and that he borrowed from St. Albans copes in which to attire the actors. This mention of copes reminds us of the Boy-Bishop, and is one of the symptoms indicating community of origin. To this may be added that miracle plays were at first performed in churches, and, as we shall hereafter see, in some localities were never removed from their original sphere. The clergy also took an active share in the performances, as long as they were confined to churches; but on their emergence into the streets, Pope Gregory forbade the participation of the priests in what had ceased to be an act of public worship. This was about A.D. 1210. From that time miracle plays were regarded by the straiter sort with disfavour, and Robert Manning in his "Handlyng Sinne" (a translation of a Norman-French "Manuel de Péché") goes so far as to denounce them, if performed in "ways or greens," as "a sight of sin," though allowing that the resurrection may be played for the confirmation of men's faith in that greatest of mysteries. Such prejudice was by no means universal; in 1328—more than a hundred years later—we find the Bishop of Chester counselling his spiritual children to resort "in peaceable manner, with good devotion, to hear and see" the miracle plays.

We saw that the earliest religious drama known to have been performed in this country was one on St. Catherine. William Fitzstephen, in his "Life of St. Thomas à Becket," written in 1182, brings into contrast with the pagan shows of old Rome the "holier plays" of London, which he terms "representations of the miracles wrought by the holy confessors or of the sufferings whereby the constancy of the martyrs became gloriously manifest." Thus we perceive how the term "miracle" attached itself to this species of theatrical exhibitions. Probably, towards the commencement of the twelfth century, French playwrights fastened on the miracles of the saints as their special themes, and, by force of habit, the English public in ensuing generations retained the description, though subjects had come to be chosen other than the marvels of the martyrology. Dr. Ward would limit the term "miracle play" to those dramas based on the legends of the saints, and would describe those drawn from the Old and New Testaments as "mysteries" in conformity with Continental usage. The distinction is logical, but its acceptance would practically involve the sacrifice of the former term, since the Dunstable play of St. Catherine, the plays founded on the lives of St. Fabyan, St. Sebastian, and St. Botolph, which were performed in London, and those on St. George, acted at Windsor and Bassingbourn—no others are recorded—have all perished.

According to the "Banes," or Proclamation, of the Chester Plays, at the end of the sixteenth century, the cycle of plays acted in that city dates from the mayoralty of John Arneway (1268-76), and the author was Randall Higgenet, a monk of Chester Abbey. These statements are, for various reasons, open to impeachment. For one thing, Arneway's term is incorrectly assigned to the years 1327-8—a far more probable date for the plays, though there is no sort of certainty on the subject, and, in the nature of things, a cycle of plays is more likely to have grown up than to have been the work of a single hand. The later date is more probable, because the re-institution of the Corpus Christi festival by the Council of Vienne in 1311 has an important bearing on the annexation of the miracle play by the trade-gilds, and it was only on their assumption of responsibility that performances on the scale of a cycle of plays could have been contemplated, or possible.

There are four great English cycles—those of Chester, York, Wakefield, and Coventry. By a cycle is meant a series of plays forming together what may be termed an encyclopædia of history; it was attempted to crowd into one short day "mater from the beginning of the world." This ambitious programme bespoke the interested co-operation of many persons, and the gilds, embracing it with enthusiasm, transformed the Corpus Christi festival into an annual celebration marked by gorgeous pageants. The word "pageant," which appears to be etymologically related to the Greek πἡγμα, is technical in respect of miracle plays, and, in this connexion, is thus defined, by Archdeacon Rogers:

"A high scafolde with two rowmes, a higher and a lower, upon four wheeles. In the lower they apparelled them selves, and in the higher rowme they played, beinge all open on the tope, that all behoulders might heare and see them."

The pageants were constructed of wood and iron, and so thoroughly that it was seldom that they needed to be renewed. In the floor of the stage were trap-doors covered with rushes. The whole was supported on four or six wheels so as to facilitate movement from point to point; and as the miracle plays were essentially peripatetic—within, at least, the bounds of a particular town, and sometimes beyond—this was a very necessary provision.

Each pageant had its company. The word "company" here is not exactly synonymous with "gild," for several gilds might combine for the object of maintaining a pageant and training and entertaining actors, and the composition of the company varied according to the wealth or poverty, zeal or indifference, of different gilds. Thus it came to pass that the number of pageants, in the same city, was subject to change, companies being sometimes subdivided, and at other times amalgamated; and in the latter event the actors undertook the performance of more scenes than would otherwise have fallen to their share. Commonly speaking, there was probably no lack, whether of funds or players, at any rate as regards the principal centres. The cycles were the pride of the city, and it would have been a point of honour with the members of the several companies not to allow themselves to be outclassed by their competitors.

To enumerate the gilds taking part in the miracle plays is tantamount to making an inventory of industrial crafts at the close of the Middle Ages. The "Order of the Pageants of the Play of Corpus Christi at York," compiled by Roger Burton, the town clerk, and comprising a list of the companies with their respective parts, yields the following analysis: Tanners, plasterers, card-makers, fullers, coopers, armourers, gaunters (glovers), shipwrights, pessoners (fishmongers), mariners, parchment-makers, book-binders, hosiers, spicers, pewterers, founders, tylers, chandlers, orfevers (goldsmiths), marshals (shoeing-smiths), girdlers, nailers, sawyers, spurriers, lorimers (bridle-makers), barbers, vintners, fevers (smiths), curriers, ironmongers, pattern-makers, pouchmakers, bottlers, cap-makers, skinners, cutlers, bladesmiths, sheathers, sealers, buckle-makers, horners, bakers cordwainers, bowyers, fletchers (arrow-featherers); tapisers, couchers, littesters (dyers), cooks, water-leaders, tilemakers, millers, twiners, turners, tunners, plumbers, pinners, latteners, painters, butchers, poulterers, sellers (saddlers), verrours (glaziers), fuystours (makers of saddle-trees), carpenters, wine-drawers, brokers, wool-packers, scriveners, luminers (illuminators), questors (pardoners), dubbers, tallianders (tailors), potters, drapers, weavers, hostlers, and mercers.

The subjects of the plays were the story of the Creation, the Fall, the Deluge, the Sacrifice of Isaac, the incidents preceding the Birth of Christ, the Nativity, and in pretty regular sequence the chief events of our Lord's life to the Ascension; and, finally, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. As a rule it is hard to discern any connexion between the nature of a scene and the craft or crafts representing it, but the assignment of the pageant in which God warns Noah to make an ark to the shipwrights, and of its successor, in which the patriarch appears in the Ark, to the "pessoners" and mariners has an obvious propriety, and must have conduced to the—not historical, but conventional—realism which was the aim of the miracle artists.

The whole town was made to serve as a huge theatre, and the many pageants proceeded in due order from station to station. "The place," says Archdeacon Rogers—he is speaking of Chester—"the place where they played was in every streete. They begane first at the abay gates and when the first pagiant was played, it was wheeled to the highe crosse before the mayor, and so to every streete; and so every streete had a pagiant playinge before them at one time, till all the pagiantes for the daye appoynted weare played; and when one pagiant was neere ended word was broughte from streete to streete, that soe they might come in place thereof excedinge orderlye, and all the streetes have their pagiantes afore them all at one time playeing togeather, to se which playe was greate resorte, and also scafoldes and stages made in the streetes in those places where they determined to playe their pagiantes."

Should the supply of pageants be limited, different scenes were acted in different parts of the same stage; and actors who were awaiting or had ended their parts stood on the stage unconcealed by a curtain. In more elaborate performances a scene like the "Trial of Jesus" involved the employment of two scaffolds, displaying the judgment-halls of Pilate and Herod respectively; and between them passed messengers on horseback. The plays contain occasional stage directions—e.g., "Here Herod shall rage on the pagond." We find also rude attempts at scene-shifting, of which an illustration occurs in the Coventry Play of "The Last Supper:"

"Here Cryst enteryth into the hous with his disciplis, and ete the Paschal lomb; and in the mene tyme the cownsel hous beforn seyd xal sodeynly onclose, shewynge the buschopys, prestys, and jewgys sytting in here astat, lyche as it were a convocacyon."

And again:

"Here the Buschopys partyn in the place, and eche of hem here leve be contenawns resortyng eche man to his place with here meny to take Cryst; and than xal the place that Cryst is in sodeynly unclose round abowt, shewynge Cryst syttyng at the table, and hise dyscypulis eche in ere degré. Cryst thus seyng."

The outlay on these plays was necessarily large, and the accounts of gilds and corporations prove that not only were considerable sums expended on the dresses of the actors, but the latter received fees for their services. The fund needed to meet these charges was raised by an annual rate levied on each craftsman—called "pageant money"—and varying from one penny to fourpence. The cost of housing and repairing the pageant, as well as the refreshment of the performers at rehearsals, would also come out of this fund. As the actors were paid, they were expected to be efficient, and the duty of testing their qualifications was delegated either to a pageant-master or to a committee of experienced actors. A York ordinance dated April 3, 1476, shows that four of "the most cunning, discreet, and able players" were summoned before the mayor during Lent for the purpose of making a thorough examination of plays, players, and pageants, and "insufficient persons," in whatever requirement—skill, voice, or personal appearance—their defect lay, were mercilessly "avoided." No single player was allowed to undertake more than two parts on pain of a fine of forty shillings.

From the York proclamation of 1415 we learn that the players were expected to be in their places between 3 and 4 a.m., while the prologue of the Coventry plays contains the lines:

At Sunday next yf that we may
At six of the belle, we gynne our play
In N—— towne.

This is interesting, as proving that pageants were sometimes acted in a number of places, somewhat in the style of strolling players. It is known for a fact that the Grey Friars of Coventry had a cycle of Corpus Christi plays; and it has been conjectured that they were forced by the competition of the Trade Gilds to exhibit them outside the town. Whatever may have been the case with the players, it is certain that such plays were not confined to the centres of which we have spoken. We read of a lost Beverly cycle, and of another at Newcastle, of which one play—"The Building of the Ark"—has fortunately been preserved. Like performances took place at Witney and Preston, at Lancaster, Kendall, and Dublin. The relative perfection of Chester and Coventry, and probably of York, were bound to influence those and other towns, which looked to them as the capitals of the dramatic art. Evidence of the popularity of miracle plays in places near and remote is forthcoming in the shape of literary remains or parochial records. Cornwall is famous for its religious drama, to which are due the best monuments of its dead tongue; but other counties were not backward in zealous attachment to the Miracle Play. A few excerpts from Church-wardens' and other accounts may be given by way of showing the extent of the custom:

Ashburton, Devon

1528-9. "ix^s ix^d for painting cloth for the players and making their tunics, and for 'chequery' for making tunics for the aforesaid players, and for making staves for them, and crests upon their heads for the festival of Corpus Christi."

1533-4. "ij^d rewardyd and alowyd to the pleers of Cryssmas game, that pleyd in the said churche."

1537-8. "j^d for a pair of silk garments (seroticarum) for King Herod on Corpus Christi day."

1542-3. "ij^s i^d ij devils' heads (capit. diabol.) and necessary things in the clothes for the players."

1547-8. "ij^s to the players on Corpus Christi day." (During the reign of Edward VI. the plays were discontinued, to be revived in that of his successor.)

1555-6. "ij^d payd for a payr of glouys for hym that played God Almighty at Corpus X^pi daye." "vj^d payd for wyne for hym that played Saynt Resinent."

1558-9. "ij^d for a payr of glouys to him that played Christ on Corpus X^pi daye."

St. Martin's, Leicester

1546-7. "Item p^d for makynge of a sworde & payntynge of the same for Harroode viij^d"

In the Corporation MSS. of Rye, Sussex, are the following entries:

1474.    "Payed to the players of Romeney, the which pleyed in the churche 16^d"

1476.  "Payed to the pleyers of Winchilse, the whiche pleyed in the churche yerde, vppone the day of the Purification of our Laday 16^d"

The performance of the York miracle plays went on until 1579. The Newcastle celebration outlasted them by about ten years. The Chester plays were acted till the end of the sixteenth century, and those of Beverley till 1604. What killed the Miracle Play? This is a deeply interesting speculation, but one with regard to which it is difficult to form a conclusion owing to the co-existence of rival influences, the relative strength of which cannot well be estimated. We have seen that Puritan opinion suspended the miracle play at Ashburton during the reign of Edward VI., and it would be natural to look for the same result from the accession of Elizabeth, whereas, at Beverley it was maintained all through the period of her rule. It is quite possible, however, that all this time efforts were being made by extreme Reformers to bring about its abolition, and that ultimately they were successful. Meanwhile the growth of the secular drama, which was hardly more to the liking of the Puritans, must have proved a powerful counter-attraction, and possibly it is to this rather than religious opposition that the extinction of the Miracle Play was actually due. At any rate, we need feel no surprise that with two such antagonistic forces at work the ancient and pious custom vanished from the land.

ACADEMIC

CHAPTER VII

ALMS AND LOANS

We wound up our first part with a draft on parochial records; and we enter on our second part with a further taxation of the same fruitful and unimpeachable source. Those familiar with the life of our ancient universities only in its more modern and luxurious aspects may prepare for revelations of the most startling character, for Oxford and Cambridge were nurtured not only in poverty, but in authorized mendicancy and—a learned phrase may be excused—regulated hypothecation. That clerks in those early days were not ashamed to beg is susceptible of various sorts of proof, one of which consists in the help so frequently afforded them by generous churchwardens. Let us glance at some sixteenth-century books of accounts:

Ashburton, Devon

Tavistock

Woodbury, Devon

(According to the "Alumni Oxon." Edward Carrow was elected Student of Christ Church, 1575, from Westminster School; and Richard Crocker, B.A., from Exeter College, 1594.)

Plymouth

Barnstaple

It is worthy of note that the amounts bestowed on this deserving class were in excess of the sums meted out to ordinary "travellers." It is also a fact that, while mention is often made of Oxford scholars, the reverse is the case with Cambridge men. On referring to Willis and Clark's "History of the University of Cambridge" we find that although notices occur of scholars in menial employment there is no indication that begging licences were granted them. Still, the following entries prove that occasionally incipient Cambridge men received public assistance.

Sheffield

Cawthorne, Yorkshire

From the beginning of the reign of James I. there are few entries relating to scholars "of Oxford." Those of other places, however, are named to the time of Charles II., and some of them must have belonged to Oxford, their native place being recorded in lieu of the university.

Youlgreave, Derbyshire

Heavitree, Devon

(This was one Nicholas Laskey, who was a son of Henry Laskey, of Heavitree, and was entered in the books of Wadham College as "filius pauperis." He matriculated May 23, 1667, at the age of seventeen; and was rector of Eggesford in 1674, and of Worthington in 1687.)

These examples are all comparatively late, but we may be certain that the practice to which they bear testimony had existed at a much earlier period, when contributions had been sought, not only from custodians of church funds, but from private persons, to whose charitable instincts or devout inclinations necessitous clerks successfully appealed. Chaucer says of his clerk of Oxenford:

Yet hadde he but litel gold in cofre:
But al that he myghte of his frendes hente,
On bokes and on lerning he it spente,
And bisily gan for the soules preye
Of hem that gaf him wher-with to scolaye.

This diligent and conscientious student "loked holwe," and his "courtefy" was threadbare.

In MS. Lansdowne 762 is a poem wherein a husbandman is represented as complaining of the many charges of which he is the subject—taxes to the court, payments to the church, and exactions in the name of charity. Included in the last of these categories is alms to scholars:

Than cometh clerkys of Oxford and make their mone;
To her schole-hire they must have money.

It is hardly likely, perhaps, that such "scholar-gypsies" always procured licences, but such were issued, and, when obtained, were doubtless efficacious in promoting the object which the applicant had in view. The following is a specimen in English dress, the original being in Latin, and dated July 15, 1467:

"To the whole of the sons of Holy Mother Church, to whom the present letter may come, Thomas Chaundler, Professor of Sacred Theology, and Chancellor of the University of Oxford, greeting in the Saviour of all.

"Know the whole of you that we, with full affection, recommend to your worships by reason of his deserts N., a scholar of this University, a peaceable, and honest, and praiseworthy student, strongly beseeching you that when he shall chance to traverse your places, lands, castles, towns, fortresses, lordships, jurisdictions, and passages, ye freely suffer him to cross them without let, trouble, arrest, or injury, with his goods and chattels, or to make halt in his expeditions; and if at any time it shall befall that wrong be done him in person, chattels, or goods, ye deign to remedy the same as may behove in remembrance of the aforesaid University. Further, deign to assist him, when need press, with your charitable favours, receive him whom we recommend, and succour him with the protection of charity, devoutly considering that him who pitieth shall God also pity in meet and acceptable time.

"Given at Oxford, under the Seal of the Office of the Chancellery of the aforesaid University on the fifth day of the month of July in the fourteenth hundred and sixtieth year of our Lord."

From the wording of this letter-testimonial it would be a reasonable inference that it was granted to enable the recipient to travel to his home or some other place, but in certain cases the object may have been to replenish an exhausted purse and aid the distressed scholar to complete his academic course.

"Many," remarks Mr. A. Clark, "were in a condition of extreme poverty, which it is now difficult to recognize or even to imagine.... [They] were exempted from University and College dues, and lived from what they received from colleges or individual graduates in payment of the different menial services which they rendered." He gives a list of fifteen Oxford scholars to whom licences were accorded between 1551 and 1572, their duration varying from seven weeks to eight months. In the sixteenth century such passports had become necessary, or, at least, the absence of them, where scholars resorted to begging for a livelihood, was attended with serious risk. By the 4th section of the Act of 22 Henry VIII. c. 12: "Scolers of the Universities of Oxford & Cambrydge that goo about beggyng, not being aucthorysed under the Seale of the sayde Universities," were to be punished as idle rogues, and that punishment was far from light. This section was included in the Act of Elizabeth of 1571-2, but omitted from that of 1596-7.

Scholars were often reduced not only to beg, but to borrow; and as this method of raising money might not always have been easy, even where security was offered, a system of pledging was devised by the authorities for the benefit of impecunious members of the University, both high and low. In all essentials this department is hardly distinguishable from a pawnbroking establishment conducted under respectable auspices, but we should go sadly astray if we suffered our views of the institution to be tinged by the associations of a dingy shop in some back street in which hopeless penury plays its last shift. We should rather turn our eyes to the beatific vision of the Mons Pietatis as pictured by Botticelli—a hillock of florins, with the kneeling forms of worthy suppliants and the cloud-borne founder crowned by angelic hands. The poor scholar did not part definitely with his cherished possession; he might hope to recover it in sunnier days, and meanwhile he was enabled to tide himself over an awkward emergency. At the same time the brokers took care to make the transaction a source of profit to the University.

The earliest benefaction for the support of scholars at Oxford consisted in the annual payment of forty shillings by the townsmen in atonement for the execution of certain clerks. In the year 1219 this charge was undertaken by the Abbey of Eynsham, by which the fine was punctually disbursed to the period of its dissolution. A similar but smaller contribution was made by the Abbey of Oseney, but nothing is known as to its origin. Irregularities in the application of these funds induced the Chancellor, Robert Grosseteste, in 1240, to frame an ordinance which resulted in the creation of the "Frideswyde Chest." This treasury was the parent of many others—at the close of the fifteenth century there were as many as twenty-four—and it long remained the typical, as it was the earliest, form of scholastic benefaction, existing side by side with the foundation of colleges, to which it gave an important impetus. The management of these chests was, in all cases, practically identical. The preamble of the ordinance, by which the administration of the funds was regulated, first stated the name of the donor, and then proceeded to announce the desire of the University to requite his liberality by annual masses and celebrations. The beneficiaries also were enjoined to repeat so many "Pater Nosters" and "Aves" for the repose of his soul.

Next followed particulars of the sums that might be borrowed and those to whom they might be advanced, always on condition that a pledge of equal or greater value was first deposited by the borrower. The term within which the pledge might be redeemed was specified, as also the time at which an unredeemed pledge was to be sold after due notice had been given by public proclamation. It was usual to appoint as guardians a North and a South countryman, so as to obviate any complaints as to the allocation of the funds, and provision was made for the registration of loans and the audit of the accounts. The last chest to be founded—this was in the latter half of the sixteenth century—placed at the disposal of the University a sum raising the total amount to not less than two thousand marks; and the capital, not merely the interest, was available for the relief of embarrassed scholars. The pledges were valued by the sworn stationer of the University, and that they were expected to exceed in value the amount of the loan is shown by the terms of ordinances, in some of which the guardians are required to submit to the auditors an account of the capital and increase. In spite of precaution, however, cases of peculation were not unknown, for, on more than one occasion, guardians were accused of embezzlement, and there are statutes complaining of the "marvellous disappearance" of funds, the property of the University, and safeguarding their future administration.

The chests were divided into two categories—the "Summer" and the "Winter." This distinction seems to have been due to the date of the election of the guardians. In this matter, however, there was considerable variation, and in later ages the stipulations of the ordinances, in which the bequests were embodied, ceased to be observed. Another circumstance which deserves notice is that in the reforms instituted in the time of Archbishop Laud nearly all traces of this benevolent system were obliterated, and the names of founders—John Pontysera, Bishop of Winchester, Gilbert Routhbury, Philip Turville, John Langton, W. de Seltone, Dame Joan Danvers, etc.—consigned to the shades of academic oblivion. During the period when the funds were employed in conformity with the testator's design, the authorities, in their wisdom, ignored limitations of age, birth, and neighbourhood, and thus any member of the University, sophist or questionist, bachelor or master, was entitled to a share of the benefit. This wide charity cannot have met with unanimous approval. Large as the fund was, it would hardly have sufficed for the needs of every ill-clothed and ill-fed scholar; and, in the distribution of the money, it would be only in accord with common experience of human nature if an enterprising official, whose eagerness had outstripped his resources, should be preferred to some pinched, obscure stripling, and receive a wholly disproportionate share of the eleemosynary grant.